upon the Desires of many now published by it self is but a Part of our remaining Exercitations on that Epistle Nor am I without all hopes but that what shall be declared and proved on this subject may be blessed to an Usefulness unto them who would willingly learn or be established in the Truth An Attempt also will be made herein for the conviction of others who have been seduced into Paths inconsistent with the Communion of Saints the Peace of the Churches of Christ or Opinions hurtful to the Practice of Godliness and left unto the Blessing of him who when he hath supplyed seed to the Sower doth himself also give the encrease And these Considerations have prevailed with me to cast my Mite into this Sanctuary and to endeavour the right stating and confirmation of that Doctrine whereon so important a part of our Duty towards God doth depend as is generally confessed and will be found by Experience that there doth on this concerning a Day of Sacred Rest. § 4 The Controversies about the Sabbath as we call it at present for Distinction sake and to determine a subject of our Discourse which have been publickly agitated are Universal as unto all its concerns Neither Name nor Thing is by all agreed on For whereas most Christians acknowledge we may say all for those by whom it is denyed are of no weight nor scarce of any number that a day on one account or other in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Time is to be set apart to the publick Worship of God yet how that Day is to be called is not agreed amongst them Neither is it granted that it hath any Name affixed unto it by any such means that should cause it justly to be preferred unto any other that men should arbitrarily consent to call it by The Names which have been and amongst some are still in use for its Denotation and Distinction are the seventh Day the Sabbath the Lords Day the first Day of the Week Sunday So was the Day now commonly observed called of Old by the Graecians and Romans before the Introduction of Religion into its Observation And this Name some still retain as a thing indifferent others suppose it were better left unto utter disuse § 5 Those about the Thing it self are various and respect all the concerns of the Day enquired after Nothing that relates unto it no part of its respect to the Worship of God is admitted by all uncontended about For it is debated amongst all sorts of persons 1. Whether any part of Time be naturally and morally to be separated and set apart to the solemn Worship of God or which is the same whether it be a natural and moral Duty to separate any part of time in any Revolution of it unto Divine Service I mean so as it should be stated and fixed in a periodical Revolution otherwise to say that God is solemnly to be worshipped and yet that no time is required thereunto is an open contradiction 2. Whether such a Time supposed be absolutely and originally moral or made so by Positive Command suited unto General Principles and Intimations of Nature And under this consideration also a part of Time is called Moral Metonymically from the Duty of its Observance 3 Whether on supposition of some part of Time so designed the Space or Quantity of it have its Determination or Limitation morally or meerly by Law Positive or Arbitrary For the Observation of some part of Time may be Moral and the quota pars arbitrary 4 Whether every Law Positive of the Old Testament were absolutely Ceremonial or whether there may not be a Law Moral Positive as given to and obligatory of all mankind though not absolutely written in the Heart of man by Nature that is whether there be no morality in any Law but what is a part of the Law of Creation 5 Whether the Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was from the Beginning of the World and before the Fall of man or whether it were first appointed when the Israelites came into the Wilderness This in itself is only a matter of Fact yet such as whereon the Determination of the Point of Right as to the Universal Obligation unto the Observation of such a Day doth much depend and therefore hath the Investigation and true stating of it been much laboured in and after by Learned men 6 Upon a supposition of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning Whether the Additions made and Observances annexed unto it at the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai with the Ends whereunto it was then designed and the Uses whereunto it was employed gave unto the seventh Day a new State distinct from what it had before although naturally the same day was continued as before For if they did so that new State of the Day seems only to be taken away under the New Testament if not the Day it self seemes to be abolished for that some change is made therein from what was fixed under the Judaical Oeconomy cannot modestly be denyed 7 Whether in the fourth Commandment there be a Foundation of a Distinction between a seventh Day in General or one Day in seven and that seventh Day which was the same numerically and precisely from the Foundation of the World For whereas an Obligation unto the strict Observation of that Day precisely is as we shall prove plainly taken away in the Gospel if the Distinction intimated be not allowed there can be nothing remaining obligatory unto us in that command whilst it is supposed that that Day is at all required therein Hence 8 It is especially enquired whether a seventh Day or one Day in seven or in the Hebdomadal Cycle be to be observed Holy unto the Lord on the Account of the fourth Commandment 9 Whether under the New Testament all Religious Observation of Dayes be so taken away as that there is no Divine Obligation remaining for the Observance of any one Day at all but that as all Dayes are alike in themselves so are they equally free to be disposed of and used by us as Occasion shall require For if the Observation of one Day in seven be not founded in the Law of Nature expressed in the Original Positive Command concerning it and if it be not seated Morally in the fourth Commandment it is certain that the necessary Observance of it is now taken away 10 On the other extream whether the seventh Day from the Creation of the world or the last Day of the Week be to be observed precisely under the New Testament by vertue of the Fourth Commandment and no other The Assertion hereof supposeth that our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of the Sabbath hath neither changed nor reformed any thing in or about the Religious Observation of an Holy Day of Rest unto the Lord whence it follows that such an Observation can be no Part or Act of Evangelical Worship properly so called but only a Moral Duty of the Law 11 Whether on the
supposition of a Non-obligation in the Law unto the Observance of the seventh Day precisely and of a New Day to be observed Weekly under the New Testament as the Sabbath of the Lord on what Ground it is so to be observed 12 Whether of the Fourth Commandment as unto one Day in seven or only as unto some part or portion of Time or whether without any respect unto that Command as purely Ceremonial For granting as most do the necessity of the Observation of such a Day yet some say that it hath no respect at all to the Fourth Decalogical Precept which is totally and absolutely abolished with the residue of Mosaical Institutions others that there is yet remaining in it an Obligation unto the Sacred Separation of some portion of our Time unto the solemn Service of God but indetermined and some that it yet precisely requires the Sanctification of one Day in seven 13 If a Day be so to be observed it is enquired on what Ground or by what Authority there is an Alteration made from the Day observed under the Old Testament unto that now in use that is from the last to the first Day of the Week Whether was this Translation of the solemn Worship of God made by Christ and his Apostles or by the Primitive Church For the same Day might have been still continued though the Duty of its Observation might have been fixed on a new Reason and Foundation For although our Lord Jesus Christ totally abolished the old solemn Worship required by the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances and by his own Authority introduced a new Law of Worship according unto Institutions of his own yet might Obedience unto it in a solemn manner have been fixed unto the former Day 14 If this were done by the Authority of Christ and his Apostles or be supposed so to be then it is enquired Whether it were done by the express Institution of a New Day or a directive Example sufficient to design a particular Day no Institution of a new Day being needful For if we shall suppose that there is no Obligation unto the Observance of one Day in seven indispensibly abiding on us from the Morality of the Fourth Command we must have an express Institution of a new Day or the Authority of it is not Divine and on the supposition that that is so no such Institution is necessary or can be properly made as to the whole nature of it 15 If this Alteration of the Day were introduced by the Primitive Church then whether the continuance of the Observation of one Day in seven be necessary or no. For what was appointed thereby seems to be no farther Obligatory unto the Churches of succeeding Ages than their concernment lyes in the Occasions and Reasons of their Determinations 16 If the continuance of one Day in seven for the solemn Worship of God be esteemed necessary in the present State of the Church then Whether the continuance of that now in general Use namely the First Day of the Week be necessary or no or whether it may not be lawfully changed to some other Day And sundry other the like Enquiries are made about the Original Institution Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest unto the Lord. § 6 Moreover amongst those who do grant that it is necessary and that indispensibly so as to the present Church State which is under an Obligation from whence ever it arise neither to alter nor omit the Observation of a Day weekly for the publick Worship of God wherein a Cessation from labour and a joint Attendance unto the most solemn Duties of Religion are required of us It is not agreed whether the Day it self or the separation of it to its proper Use and End be any Part in it self of Divine Worship or be so meerly relatively with respect unto the Duties to be performed therein And as to those Duties themselves they are not only variously represented but great Contention hath been about them and the manner of their Performances as likewise concerning the Causes and Occasions which may dispense with our Attendance unto them Indeed herein lyes secretly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and principal Cause of all the strife that hath been and is in the World about this matter Men may teach the Doctrine of a Sabbatical Rest on what Principles they please deduce it from what Original they think good if they plead not for an exactness of Duty in its Observance if they bind not a Religious carefull Attendance on the Worship of God in Publick and private on the Consciences of other men if they require not a Watchfulness against all Diversions and Avocations from the Duties of the Day they may do it without much fear of Opposition For all the concernments of Doctrines and Opinions which tend unto Practice are regulated thereby and embraced or rejected as the Practice pleaseth or displeaseth that they lead unto Lastly On a precise supposition that the Observation of such a Day is necessary upon Divine Precept or Institution yet there is a Controversie remaining about fixing its proper bounds as to its Beginning and Ending For some would have this Day of Rest measured by the first Constitution and limitation of Time unto a Day from the Creation namely from the Evening of the Day preceding unto its own as the Evening and the Morning were said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Day Gen. 1. 5. Others admit only of that proportion of Time which is ordinarily designed to our labour on the six Dayes of the Week that is from its own Morning to its own Evening with the Interposition of such Diversions as our labour on other Dayes doth admit and require § 7 And thus is it come to pass that although God made man Upright and gave him the Sabbath or Day of Rest as a token of that Condition and Pledge of a future Eternal Rest with himself yet through his finding out many Inventions that very Day is become amongst us an Occasion and Means of much Disquietment and many Contentions And that which is the worst Consequent in things of this nature that belong unto Religion and the Worship of God these Differences and the Way of their Agitation whilst the several Parties htigant have sought to weaken and invalidate their Adversaries Principles have apparently influenced the minds of all sorts of men unto a neglect in the Practice of those Duties which they severally acknowledge to be incumbent on them upon those Principles and Reasons for the Observation of such a Day which themselves allow For whilst some have hotly disputed that there is now no especial Day of Rest to be observed to the Lord by vertue of any Divine Precept or Institution and others have granted that if it be to be observed only by vertue of Ecclesiastical Constitution men may have various pretences for Dispensations from the Duties of it the whole due Observation of it is much lost
been of no use nor Advantage As they are now riveted into custom and usage claiming their station on such a Prescription as in some measure takes away the corruption of their use I judge that they are not to be contended about For as they are vulgarly used their Names are meer notes of Ditinction of no more signification than first second and third the original and occasional Imposition of them being utterly amongst the many unknown Only I must add that the severe Reflections and contemptuous Reproaches which I have heard made upon and poured out against them who it may be out of weakness it may be out of a better Judgement than our own do abstain from the using of them argue a want of due Charity and that Condescension in love which become those who judge themselves strong For the truth is they have a Plea sufficient at least to vindicate them from the contempt of any For there are some places of Scripture which seem so far to give countenance unto them that if they mistake in their Application it is a mistake of no other nature but what others are liable unto in things of greater importance For it is given as the Will of God Exod. 23. 13. In all things saith he that I have said be circumspect and make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let them be heard out of thy mouth And it cannot be denyed but that the Names of the Dayes of the Week were the Names of Gods among the Heathen The Prohibition is renewed Josh. 2. 7. Thou shalt not make mention of the names of their Gods which is yet extended farther Deut. 12. 3. to a command to destroy and blot out the names of the Gods of the people which by this means are retained Accordingly the Children of Ruben building the Cities formerly called Nebo and Baal Meon changed their names because they were the Names of Heathen Idols Numb 32. 38. And David mentioneth it as a part of his Integrity that he would not take up the names of Idols in his lips Psal. 16. 4. And some of the Antients as hath been observed confirme what by some at present is concluded from these places Saith Hierome Absit ab ore Christiano dicere Jupiter Omnipotens Mehercule Mecastor coetera magis Portenta quam nomina Epist. ad Damas. Now be it granted that the Objections against the Use of the Planetary Names of the Dayes of the Week from these places may be answered from consideration of the change of Times and the circumstances of things yet certainly there is an appearance of Warranty in them sufficient to secure them from contempt and reproach who are prevailed on by them to another use § 15 But of a Day of Rest there is a peculiar Reason If there be a Name given in the Scripture unto such a Day by that Name it is to be called and not otherwise So it was unquestionably under the Old Testament God himself had assigned a Name unto the Day of Sacred Rest then enjoyned the Church unto Observation and it was not lawful for the Jews to call it by any other Name given unto it or in use among the Heathen It was and was to be called the Sabbath Day the Sabbath of the Lord. In the New Testament there is as we shall see afterwards a signal Note put on the first Day of the Week So thence do some call their Day of Rest or solemn Worship and contend that so it ought to be called But this only respects the Order and Relation of such a Day to the other Dayes of the Week which is natural and hath no respect unto any thing that is Sacred It may be allowed then for the indigitation of such a Day and the Discrimination of it from the other Dayes of the Week but is no proper Name for a Day of Sacred Rest. And the first use of it upon the Resurrection of our Lord was only peculiarly to denote the Time There is a Day mentioned by John in the Revelation which we shall afterwards consider that he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diem dominicam the Lords Day This Appellation what Day soever is designed is neither Natural nor Civil nor doth it relate unto any thing in Nature or in the common usage of men It must therefore be Sacred and it is or may be very comprehensive of various Respects It is the Lords Day the Day that he hath taken to be his Lot or especial Portion among the Dayes of the Week as he took as it were possession of it in his Resurrection So his people are his Lot and Portion in the world therefore called his people It is also or may be his Day subjectively or the Day whereon his businesses and Affairs are principally transacted So the Poet Tydeos illa Dies that was Tydeus his Day because he was principally concerned in the Affairs of it This is the Day wherein the Affairs of the Lord Christ are transacted his Person and Mediation being the Principal Subjects and Objects of its Work and Worship And it is or may be called his the Lords Day because enjoyned and appointed to be observed by him or his Authority over the Church So the Ordinance of the Supper is called the Supper of the Lord on the same Account On supposition therefore that such a Day of Rest there is to be observed under the New Testament the Name whereby it ought to be called is the Lords Day which is peculiarly expressive of its Relation unto our Lord Jesus Christ the sole Author and immediate Object of all Gospel Worship But whereas the general Notion of a Sabbatical Rest is still included in such a Day a superaddition of its Relation to the Lord Christ will intitle it unto the Appellation of the Lords Day Sabbath that is the Day of Sacred Rest appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus most probably in the continuation of the Old Testament Phraseologie it is called the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. and in our Apostle comes under the general notion of a Sabbatism Chap. 4. 9. Exercitatio Secunda 1 Of the Original of the Sabbath the importance of this Disquisition 2 Opinion of some of the Jewish Masters about the Original of the Sabbath that it began in Mara 3 The Station in Mara and the Occurrences thereof Tacitus noted Exod. 15. 25 26. Jews Exposition of it 4 This Opinion refuted by Testimonies and Reasons 5 Another Opinion of the Antient Jews about the Original of the Sabbath and of the Mahumetans 6 Opinions of Christians about the Original of the Sabbath proposed 7 That of its Original from the Foundation of the World asserted The first Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2. Vindicated Exceptions of Heddigerus answered 8. What intended by sanctifying and blessing the seventh Day 9 Other Exceptions removed Series and Dependance of the Discourse in Moses cleared The whole Testimony vindicated 10 Heb. 4 3 4. Vindicated 11 Observation
of the Law there These therefore make it a meer Typical Institution given and that without the solemnity of the giving other solemn Institutions to the Church of the Hebrews only And those of this Judgement some of them contend that in those words of Moses Gen. 2. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works a Prolepsis is to be admitted that is that what is there occasionally inserted in the Narrative and to be read in a Parenthesis came not to pass indeed until above two thousand years after namely in the Wilderness of Sin where and when God first blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it And the Reason given for the supposed intersertion of the Words in the Story of Moses is because when it came to pass indeed that God so blessed the seventh Day he did it on the account of what he was then relating of the Works that he made and the Rest that ensued thereon Others give such an Interpretation of the Words as that they should contain no Appointment of a Day of Rest as we shall see Those who assert the former Opinion deny that the Precept or rather Directions about the Observation of the Sabbath given unto the people of Israel in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. was its first Original Institution but affirm that it was either a new Declaration of the Law and usage of it unto them who in their long Bondage had lost both its Doctrine and Practice with a renewed reinforcement of it by an especial circumstance of the Manna not falling on that Day or rather a particular Application of a Catholick Moral Command unto the Oeconomy of that Church unto whose state the people were then under a Praeludium in the Occasional Institution of sundry particular Ordinances as hath been declared in our former Exercitations This is the plain state of the present Controversie about the Original of the Sabbath as to Time and Place wherein what is according unto Truth is now to be enquired after § 7 The Opinion of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning of the world is founded principally on a double Testimony one in the Old Testament and the other in the New And both of them seem to me of so uncontrollable an Evidence that I have often wondred how ever any sober and Learned Persons undertook to evade their â—â—rce or Efficacy in this Cause The first is that of Gen. 2. 1 2 3. That the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them and on the seventh Day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh Day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made There is indeed somewhat in this Text which hath given Difficulty unto the Jews and somewhat that the Heathen took offence at That which troubles the Jews is that God is said to have finished his work on the seventh Day For they feared that somewhat might be hence drawn to the prejudice of their absolute Rest on the seventh Day whereon it seems God himself wrought in the finishing of his Work And Hierome judged that they might be justly charged with this Consideration Arctabimus saith he Judaeos qui de otio Sabbati gloriantur quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipsi diei quia in illo universa complevit We will urge the Jews with this who glory of their Sabbatical Rest in that the Sabbath was broken or dissolved from the Beginning whilst God wrought in it finishing his work and blessed the Day because in it he finished all things Hence the LXX read the words by an open corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the sixth Day wherein they are followed by the Syriack and Samaritan Versions And the Rabbins grant that this was done on purpose that it might not be thought that God made any thing on the seventh Day But this scruple was every way needless For do but suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which expresseth the Time past doth intend the Praeterpluperfect Tense as the Praeterperfect in the Hebrew must do where occasion requires seeing they have no other to express that which at any time is past by and it is plain that God had perfected his Work before the Beginning of the seventh Dayes Rest. And so are the Words well rendred by Junius Quum autem perfecisset Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat Or we may say Compleverat Die septimo That which the Heathen took offence at was the Rest here ascribed unto God as though he had been wearied with his work Hence was that of Rutilius in his Itinerary Septima quaeque Dies turpi damnata veterno Ut delassati mollis imago Dei The sense of this Expression we shall afterwards explain In the mean time it is certain that the Word here used doth often signifie only to cease or give over without respect either to weariness or Rest as Job 32. 1. 1 Sam. 25. 9. So that no cause of offence was given in the Application of it to God himself However Philo lib. de Opific Mund. refers this of Gods Rest to his contemplation of the works of his hands and that not unmeetly as we shall see But set aside Prejudices and preconceived Opinions and any man would think that the Institution of the Sabbath is here as plainly expressed as in the Fourth Commandment The Words are the continuation of a plain Historical Narration Having finished the Account of the Creation of the World in the first Chapter and given a Recapitulation of it in the first Verse of this Moses declares what immediately ensued thereon namely the Rest of God on the seventh Day and his Blessing and sanctifying that Day whereon he so rested That Day which he rested he blessed and sanctified even that individual Day in the first place and a Day in the Revolution of the same space of Time for succeeding Generations This is plain in the Words or nothing can be thought to be plainly expressed And if there be any Appearance of Difficulty in those words he blessed and sanctified it it is wholly taken away in the explication given of them by himself afterwards in the Fourth Commandment where they are plainly declared to intend its setting apart and Consecration to be a Day of Sacred Rest. But yet Exceptions all put in to this plain open sense of the words Thus it is lately pleaded by Heddigerus Theol. Patriarch Exercitat 3. sect 58. Deus Die septimo cessaverat facere opus novum quia sex diebus omnia consummata erant Ei diei benedixit eo ipso quod cessans ab opere suo ostendit quod homo in cujus creatione quievit
exegetical of the other He blessed it by sanctifying of it as Numb 7. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he annointed them and sanctified them that is he sanctified them by annointing them or by their Unction set them apart unto an Holy Use which is the Instance of Abarbinel on this place This then is that which is affirmed by Moses On the seventh Day after he had finished his work God rested or ceased from working and thereon blessed and sanctified the seventh Day or set it apart unto holy uses for their Observance by whom he was to be worshipped in this world and whom he had newly made for that Purpose God then sanctified this Day Not that he kept it holy himself which in no sense the Divine Nature is capable of nor that he purified it and made it inherently holy which the nature of the Day is incapable of nor that he celebrated that which in it self was holy as we sanctifie his name which is the act of an inferior towards a superior but that he set it apart to sacred use authoritatively requiring us to sanctifie it in that use obedientially And if you allow not this original sanctification of the seventh Day the first Instance of its solemn joint National Observation is introduced with a strange abruptness It is said Exod. 16. where this Instance is given that on the sixth day the people gathered twice as much bread as on any other day namely two Omers for one man which the Rulers taking notice of acquainted Moses with it v. 22. And Moses in answer to the Rulers of the Congregation who had made the Information gives the Reason of it To morrow saith he is the Rest of the holy Sabbath to the Lord. v. 23. Many of the Jews can give some colour to this manner of Expression for they assign as we have shewed the Revelation and Institution of the Sabbath unto the Station in Mara Exod. 15. which was almost a Month before So they think that no more is here intended but a direction for the solemn Observance of that Day which was before instituted with particular respect unto the gathering of Manna which the people being commanded in General before to gather every day according to their eating and not to keep any of it until the next day the Rulers might well doubt whether they ought not to have gathered it on the Sabbath also not being able to reconcile a seeming contradiction between those two commands of gathering Manna every day and of resting on the seventh But those by whom the Fancy about the Station in Mara is rejected as it is rejected by most Christians and who will not admit of its Original Institution from the Beginning can scarce give a tolerable Account of this manner of Expression Without the least intimation of Institution and Command it is only said to morrow is the Sabbath holy to the Lord that is for you to keep holy But on the supposition contended for the discourse in that place with the Reason of it is plain and evident For there being a previous Institution of the seventh Dayes Rest the Observation whereof was partly gone into disuse and the Day it self being then to receive a new peculiar Application to the Church State of that people the Reason both of the peoples fact and the Rulers doubt and Moses's Resolution is plain and obvious § 9 Wherefore granting the sense of the Words contended for there is yet another Exception put in to invalidate this Testimony as to the original of a seventh Dayes Sabbatical Rest from the Foundation of the World And this is taken not from the signification of the words but the connexion and disposition of them in the Discourse of Moses For suppose that by Gods Blessing and sanctifying the seventh Day the separation of it unto sacred Uses is intended yet this doth not prove that it was so sanctified immediately upon the finishing of the Work of Creation For say some Learned men those words of v. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made are inserted occasionally into the Discourse of Moses from what afterwards came to pass They are not therefore as they suppose a continued part of the Historical Narration there insisted on but are inserted into it by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation and are to be read as it were in a Parenthesis For supposing that Moses wrote not the Book of Genesis until after the giving of the Law which I will not contend about though it be assumed gratis in this Discourse there being a Respect had unto the Rest of God when his Works were finished in the Institution of the Sabbath upon the Historical Relation of that Rest Mises interserts what so long after was done and appointed on the Account thereof And so the sense of the Words must be that God rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had made that is the next Day after the finishing of the Works of Creation wherefore two thousand four hundred years after God blessed and sanctified the seventh day not that seventh Day whereon he rested with them that succeeded in the like Revolution of Time but a seventh Day that fell out so long after which was not blessed nor sanctified before I know not well how men Learned and Sober can offer more hardship unto a Text then is put upon this before us by this Interpretation The connexion of the Words is plain and equal And the Heavens and the Earth and all the Host of them were finished And God had finished on the seventh day all his work that he had made and he rested the seventh day from all his work that he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it God rested from all his work which he had created and made You may as well break off the order and continuation of the Words and Discourse in any other place as in that pretended And it may be as well faigned that God finished his work on the seventh day and afterwards rested another seventh day as that he rested the seventh day and afterwards blessed and sanctified another It is true there may be sundry Instances given out of the Scripture of sundry things inserted in Historical Narrations by way of Anticipation which fell not out until after the time wherein mention is made of them But they are mostly such as fell out in the same Age or Generation the matter of the whole Narration being entire within the memory of men But of so monstrous and uncouth a Prolepsis as this would be which is supposed no Instance can be given in the Scripture or any sober Author especially without the least notice given that such it is And such Schemes of Writing are not to be imagined unless necessity from the things themselves spoken of compell us to admit them much less where the matter treated
between the upper and inferior sort of creatures so he was divided in his Work and Operations suitably unto the Principles of his Nature and peculiar Constitution For they were partly to be divine and spiritual partly terrene and earthly though under the Government of the Soveraign Divine Principle in him Hence it was required that in this condition being not absolutely fitted as the Angels for constant contemplation that he should work and labour in the earth whilst he continued in it and his Terrene part not refined or made Spiritual and Heavenly This made a certain Time of Rest necessary unto him and that upon a double Account flowing from the Principles of his own Nature For his Earthly Constitution could not alwayes hold out to labour with its own satisfaction and his Intellectual and divine part was not to be alwayes diverted but to be furthered in and unto its own peculiar Operations This made a Sacred Rest necessary to him And in that Addition of sweat and travail which befell him in his labour afterwards That was not a new course of life enjoyned him but a Curse was mixed with that course and labour which was originally allotted unto him So then although there is a different manner of working more necessary and supposed in the giving of the Law then was at the first Institution of a Sabbatical Rest yet the change is not in the Law or Command for labour but in the state or condition of man himself The same may be spoken concerning the Addition about Servants and Handmaids For in the State of Innocency there would have been a superiority of some over others in that Government which is Oeconomical or Paternal Hence all Duties of persons in subordination are built on the Law of Nature and what is not resolved thereinto is Force and Violence And herein lyes the Foundation of what is ordained with Reference unto Servants and Strangers which is expressed in the fourth Commandment with an especial Application to the State of the Judaical Church and People Wherefore although there should have been no such Servants or Strangers as are intended in the Decalogue in the state of Innocency when we plead that the Law of the Sabbath was first given yet this proves no more but that this Precept in the Renovation and Repetition of it unto the Jews was accommodated to the present state of things amongst them that state being such as had its Foundation in the Law of Creation it self The places adjoyned of Exod. 16. 29. Chap. 31. 17. Ezek. 20. 12. do prove sufficiently and undeniably that in the Mosaical Paedagogie the Observation of the seventh day being precisely injoyned there were Additions of signification given unto it that is to the seventh day precisely by Divine Institution as amongst them it was to be observed And therefore unto the utmost extent of the Determination of the Day of Rest unto the seventh day precisely and all the significancy annexed unto it to that people we acknowledge that the Sabbath was absolutely commensurate to the Church State of the Jews beginning and ending with it But the Argument hence educed namely that God gave the Sabbath that is the Law of it in a peculiar manner unto the Jews therefore he had not given the same Law for the substance of it before unto all mankind is infirm For God gave the whole Law to the Jews in an especial manner and enforced the Observation of it with a Reason or Motive peculiar to them namely I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage and yet this Law was before given unto them who never were in Aegypt nor never thence delivered And upon the account of this peculiar Appropriation of the Law unto the Jews it is spoken of in the Scripture in places innumerable as if it had been given unto them only and to no others at all So speaks the Psalmist Psal. 141. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declaring his Words unto Jacob his Statutes and Judgements unto Israel Where only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws are intended so by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Words and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ten Words as Moses calls the Decalogue And of them all the Psalmist adds v. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath not done so unto any Nation namely not in the same manner for none will deny but that nine Precepts at least were given unto all mankind in Adam § 19 It is added by the same Learned Author Praeterea p. 51. si quies scptimi diei omnibus ab origine mundi hominibus injuncta fuisset non autem solis Israelitis à Tempore Mosis deus non solum Israelitas ob neglectum illius praecepti sed Gentiles semel saltem eadem de causa reprehendisset Cum vero Israelitas ea de causa reprehendat saepissime Gentiles tamen nuspiam reprehendere hoc nomine legitur qui propter peccata in legem naturalem commissa toties tam acriter à Deo reprehenduntur Luculentum ejus rei exemplum est Nehem. 13. Tyrii asserunt Hierosolymas omnes res venales quas vendebant ipso Sabbato Judaeis quidem Hierosolymis v. 16. Non tamen Nehemias peccati violati Sabbati reos arguit Tyrios sed Judaeos v. 17. Tyrios autem clausis portis pridie Sabbati à vespera usque urbem excludit ita compeseit tandem à muris urbis abigit v. 19 20 21. Si vero Tyrii hi una cum Judaeis lege Sabbati Communi praecepto fuissent obstricti nunne à viro sanctissimo ejus peccati nomine quoque reprehensi fuissent quod tamen factum non apparet Quum praeterea Scriptura impia Gentilium festa graviter reprehendat an sancti Sabbati neglectum si id quoque ipsis observandum fuisset tam constanti silentio dissimulasset The force of this Argument consists in this Assertion that whatever we find God did not reprove in the Gentiles therein they did not sin nor had they any Law given unto them concerning it 〈◊〉 not in Adam which will by no means be granted For 1. The Times are spoken of wherein God suffered them to walk in their own wayes and wincked at their Ignorance Hence as he gave them no Reproofs for their sins by his revealed Word so those which he gave them by his Providence are not recorded We may not therefore say they sinned in nothing but what we find them reproved for in particular 2. Other Instances may be given of sins against the Light of Nature among the Gentiles and that in things belonging to the second Table wherein that Light hath a greater Evidence accompanying it than in that of the first the first Precept only excepted which yet we find them not rebuked for Such were the sins of Concubinacy and Fornication 3. After the Renovation or giving of this
their Idolatrous Feasts But when the true God had no other acknowledgements amongst them but what answered the Title of the Unknown God is it any wonder that his Wayes and Worship might be unknown amongst them also And it is but pretended that they had no Indication of a Sabbatical Rest nor any means to free them from their Ignorance Mans duty is both to be learned and observed in Order It is in vain to expect that any should have Indications of an holy Rest unto God before they are brought to the knowledge of God himself When this is obtained when the true God upon just Grounds is owned and acknowledged than that some time be set apart for his solemn Worship is of Moral and Natural Right That this is included in the very first notion of the true God and our dependance upon him all men do confess And this principle was abused among the Heathen to be the foundation of all their stated Annual or Monthly Sacred Solemnities after they had nefariously lost the only Object of all Religious Worship Where this Progress is made as it might have been by attending to the directive Light of Nature and the impressions of the Law of it left upon the souls of men there will not be wanting sufficient Indicatives of the meetest season for that Worship However these things were and are to be considered and admitted in their Order and with respect unto that Order is their Obligation The Heathen were bound first to know and own the true God and him alone then to worship him solemnly and after that in order of Nature to have some solemn time separated unto the Observance of that Worship Without an Admission of these all which were neglected and rejected by them there is no place to enquire after the Obligation of an Hebdomadal Rest. And their Non-observance of it was their sin not firstly directly and immediately but consequentially as all others are that arise from an Ignorance or Rejection of those greater Principles whereon they do depend § 26 The trivial Exception from the difference of the Meridians is yet pleaded also For hence it is pretended to be impossible that all men should precisely observe the same day For if a man should sail round the world by the East he will at his return home have gotten a day by his continual approach towards the rising Sun And if he steer his course Westward he will lose a day in the annual Revolution as it is gotten the other way so did the Hollanders An. 1615. And hence the posterity of Noah gradually spreading themselves over the world must have gradually come to the Observation of different seasons if we shall suppose a Day of Sacred Rest required of them or appointed to them Apage Nugas If men might sail Eastward or Westward and not continually have seven dayes succeeding one another there would be some force in this Trifle On our Hypothesis where ever men are a seventh part of their Time or a seventh day is to be separated to the Remembrance of the Rest of God and the other Ends of the Sabbath That the Observance of this portion of time shall in all places begin and end at the same Instants the Law and Order of Gods Creation will not permit It is enough that amongst all who can assemble for the Worship of God there is no difference in general but that they all observe the same Proportion of Time And he who by circumnavigation of the world such rare and extraordinary Instances being not to be provided for in a general Law getteth or loseth a day he may at his return with a good conscience give up again what he hath got or retrive what he hath lost with those with whom he fixeth For all such occasional Accidents are to be reduced unto the common Standard All the Difficulty therefore in this Objection relates to the precise Observation of the seventh Day from the Creation and not in the least unto one day in seven And although the seventh day was appointed principally for the Land of Pakstine the seat of the Church of old wherein there was no such Alteration of Meridians yet I doubt not but that a wandring Jew might have observed the foregoing Rule and reduced his Time to order upon his return home What other exceptions of the like nature occur in this cause they shall be removed and satisfied in our next enquiry which is after the Causes of the Sabbath and the Morality of the Observation of one day in seven Exercitatio Tertia 1 Of the Causes of the Sabbath 2 God the Absolute Original Cause of it Distinction of Divine Laws into Moral and Positive 3 Divine Laws of a mixt nature partly Moral partly Positive 4 Opinion of some that the Law of the Sabbath was purely Positive Difficulties of that Opinion 5 Opinion of them who maintain the Observation of one Day in seven to be Moral 6 Opinion of them who make the Observation of the seventh Day precisely to be a Moral Duty 7 The second Opinion asserted 8 The common Notion of the Sabbath explained 9 The true Notion of it farther enquired into 10 Continuation of the same Disquisition 11 The Law of Nature wherein it consists Opinion of the Philosophers 12 Not comprized in the Dictates of Reason No obliging Authority in them formally considered 13 Uncertainty and disagreement about the Dictates of Reason Opinions of the Magi Zeno Chrysippus Plato Archelaus Aristippus Carneades Brennus c. 14 Things may belong to the Law of Nature not discoverable to the common Reason of the most 15 The Law of Nature wherein it doth really consist 16 Light given unto a septenary Sacred Rest in the Law of Nature 17 Farther Instances thereof 18 The Observation of the Sabbath on the same foundation with Monogamy 19 The seventh Day an appendix of the Covenant of Works 20 How far the whole Notion of a Weekly Sacred Rest was of the Law of Nature 21 Natural Light obscured by the Entrance of Sin 22 The summ of what is proposed 23 The enquiry about the Causes of the Sabbath renewed 24 The Command of it in what sense a Law Moral and how evidenced so to be 25 To Worship God in Associations and Assemblies a Moral Duty 26 One Day in seven required unto solemn Worship by the Law of our Creation 27 What is necessary to warrant the Ascription of any Duty to the Law of Creation 28 1. That is be congruous to the known Principles of it 29 2. That it have a general Principle in the Light of Nature 30 3. That it be taught by the Works of Creation 31 4. Direction for its Observance by superadded Revelation no impeachment of it 32 How far the same Duty may be required by a Law Moral and by a Law Positive 33 Vindication of the Truths laid down from an Objection 34 Other Evidences of the Morality of this Duty 35 Required in all states of the Church 36 These
of one Day in seven to be injoyned unto all that fear him by a Law perpetual and indispensible upon the account of what is Moral therein The Reason I say of the Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath is natural and thence the Obligation it self universal however the Declaration and and Determination of the Day it self depend on arbitrary Revelation and a Law meerly positive These things being explained and confirmed the other Opinions proposed will fall under our consideration To obtain a distinct Light into the Truth in this matter we must consider both the true Notion of the Sacred Rest as also of the Law of our Creation whereby we affirm that fundamentally and virtually it is required § 8 The general Notion of the Sabbath is a Portion of Time set apart by Divine Appointment for the Observance and Performance of the solemn Worship of God The Worship of God is that which we are made for as to our station in this world and is the means and condition of our Enjoyment of him in Glory wherein consists the ultimate End as unto us of our Creation This Worship therefore is required of us by the Law of our Creation and it is upon the matter all that is required of us thereby seeing we are obliged by it to do all things to the Glory of God And therefore is the solemn Expression of that Worship required of us in the same manner For the End of it being our glorifying him as God and the Nature of it consisting in the Profession of our universal subjection unto him and dependance upon him the solemn Expression of it is as necessary as the Worship it self which we are to perform No man therefore ever doubted but that by the Law of Nature we were bound to Worship God and solemnly to express that Worship for else wherefore were we brought forth in this world These things are inseparable from our Natures and where this Order is disturbed by sin we fall into another which the Properties of God on the supposition of transgressing our first natural Order do render no less necessary unto his Glory than the other namely that of Punishment Moreover in this Worship it is required by the same Law of our Beings that we should serve God with All that we do receive from him No man can think otherwise For is there any thing that we have received from God that shall yield him no Revenue of Glory whereof we ought to make no acknowledgement unto him Who dare once so to imagine Among the things thus given us of God is our Time And this falls under a double consideration in this matter First as it is an inseparable Moral Circumstance of the Worship required of us so it is necessarily included in the Command of Worship it self not directly but consequentially Secondly It is in it self a part of our vouchsafements from God for our own use and purposes in this world So upon its own account firstly and directly a separation of a part of it unto God and his Solemn Worship is required of us It remains only to inquire what part of Time it is that is and will be accepted with God This is declared and determined in the fourth Commandment to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven And this is that which is Positive in the Command which yet as to the foundation formal Reason and main substance of it is Moral And these things are true but yet do not express the whole Nature of the Sabbath which we must farther enquire into § 9 And first it must be observed that whereever there is mention of a Sabbatical Rest as enjoyned unto men for their Observation there is still respect unto a Rest of God that preceded it and was the cause and foundation of it In its first mention Gods Rest is given as the Reason of his sanctifying and blessing a Day of Rest for us whence also it hath its Name Gen. 2. 2 3. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he sabbatized thereon himself And so it is expressed and the same Reason is given of it in the fourth Commandment God wrought six dayes and rested the seventh therefore must we rest Exod. 20. 11. The same is observed in the New Creation as we shall see afterwards and more fully in our Exposition of Heb. 4. Now that God may be said to Rest it is necessary that some signal Work of his do go before For Rest in the first notion of it includes a respect to an antecedent Work or Labour And so it is every where declared God wrought his works and finished them and then rested He made all things in six dayes and rested on the seventh And he that is entred into Rest ceaseth from his work And both these the work of God and the Rest of God must in this matter be considered For the work of God it is that of the old and whole Creation as is directly expressed Gen. 2. Exod. 20. which I desire may be born in mind And this work of God may be considered two wayes First Naturally or Physically as it consisted in the meer production of the Effects of his Power Wisdom and Goodness So all things are the work of God Secondly Morally as God ordered and designed all his works to be a means of glorifying himself in and by the Obedience of his rational Creatures This consideration both the nature of it with the Order and End of the whole Creation do make necessary For God first made all the inanimate then animate and sensitive creatures in their Glory Order and Beauty In and on all these he implanted a teaching and instructive Power for the Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work Psal. 19. 1 2. and all creatures are frequently called on to give praise and glory to him And this expresseth that in their Nature and Order which revealeth and manifesteth him and the glorious Excellencies of his nature which man is to contemplate in their Effects in them and give glory unto him For after them all was man made to consider and use them all for the End for which they were made and was a kind of Mediator between God and the rest of the creatures by and through whom he would receive all his glory from them This is that which our Apostle discourseth about Rom. 1. 19 20. The design of God as he declares was to manifest and shew himself in his works to man Man learning from them the Invisible things of God was to glorifie him as God as he disputes The ordering and disposal of things to this purpose is principally to be considered in the works of God as his Rest did ensue upon them Secondly The Rest of God is to be considered as that which compleats the Foundation of the Sabbatical Rest enquired after For it is built on Gods working and entring into his Rest. Now this is not a
Worship of God as he was a rational creature made to give glory unto him so the Instruction he received by the Works and Rest of God as made under a Covenant taught him that one day in seven was required unto that purpose as also to be a pledge of his resting with God It may be it will be said that man could not know that the world was made in six dayes and that the Rest of God ensued on the seventh without some especial Revelation I answer 1. That I know not He that knew the nature of all the creatures and could give them names suited thereunto upon his first sight and view of them might know more of the Order of their creation than we can well imagine For we know no more in our lapsed condition what the Light of Nature directed man unto as walking before God in a Covenant than men meerly natural do know of the Guidance and Conduct of the Light and Law of Grace in them who are taken into a New Covenant 2. However what God instructed him in even by Revelation as to the due Consideration and improvement of the things that belonged unto the Law of his Creation that is to be esteemed as a part thereof Institutions of things by especial Revelation that had no Foundatiin the Law or Light of Nature were meerly positive such were the Commands concerning the Trees of Life and of the knowledge of Good and Evil. But such as were directive of Natural Light and of the Order of the Creation were Moral and belonged unto the general Law of Obedience Such was the especial Command given unto man to till and keep the Garden Gen. 2. 15. or to dress and improve the place of his Habitation For this in General the Law of his Creation required Now this God did both as to his Works and his Rest. Neither do I know any one as yet that questioneth whither Adam and the Patriarchs that ensued before the giving of the Law knew that the world was created in six dayes Though some seem to speak doubtfully hereof and some by direct consequent deny it yet I suppose that hitherto it passeth as granted Nor have they who dispute that the Sabbath was neither instituted known nor observed before the people of Israel were in the Wilderness once attempted to confirm their Opinion with this supposition that the Patriarchs from the Foundation of the world knew not that the world was made in six dayes which yet alone would be effectual unto their purpose Nor on the other side can it be once rationally imagined that if they had knowledge hereof and therewithal of the Rest which ensued thereon that they had no regard unto it in the Worship of God § 18 And thus was the Sabbath or the Observation of one day in seven as a Sacred Rest fixed on the same Moral grounds with Monogamy or the marriage of one man to one only Woman at the same time which from the very fact and Order of the Creation our Saviour proves to have been an unchangeable part of the Law of it For because God made them two single Persons Male and Female fit for individual conjunction he concludes that this course of life they were everlastingly obliged not to alter nor transgress As therefore men may dispute that Polygamy is not against the Law of Nature because it was allowed and practised by many by most of those who of old observed and improved the Light and Rule thereof to the uttermost when yet the very factum and Order of the Creation is sufficient to evince the contrary so although men should dispute that the Observation of one Dayes Sacred Rest in seven is not of the Light nor Law of Nature all whose Rules and Dictates they say are of an easie discovery and prone to the Observation of all men which this is not yet the Order of the Creation and the Rest of God that ensued thereon is sufficient to evince the contrary And in the renewing of the Law upon Mount Sinai God taught the people not only by the words that he spake but also by the Works that he wrought Yea he instructed them in a Moral Duty not only by what he did but by what he did not For he declares that they ought to make no Images of or unto him because he made no Representation of himself unto them they saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto them in Horeb out of the midst of the fire Deut. 4. 15 16. § 19 But now to shut up this Discourse whereas the Covenant which man Originally was taken into was a Covenant of Works wherein his obtaining Rest with God depended absolutely on his doing all the Work he had to do in a way of Legal Obedience he was during the Dispensation of that Covenant tyed up precisely to the Observation of the seventh Day or that which followed the whole Work of Creation And the seventh Day as such is a Pledge and Token of the Rest promised in the Covenant of Works and no other And those who would advance that Day again into a necessary Observation do consequentially introduce the whole Covenant of Works and are become Debtors unto the whole Law For the works of God which preceded the seventh Day precisely were those whereby man was initiated into and instructed in the Covenant of Works and the Day it self was a token and pledge of the Righteousness thereof or a Moral and Natural Sign of it and of the Rest of God therein and the Rest of man with God thereby And it is no service to the Church of God nor hath any tendency unto the Honor of Christ in the Gospel to endeavour a Reduction of us unto the Covenant of Nature § 20 Thus was Man instructed in the whole Notion of a Weekly Sacred Rest by all the Wayes and Means which God was pleased to use in giving him an acquaintance with his Will and that Obedience unto his Glory which he expected from him For this knowledge he had partly by the Law of his Creation as innate unto him or concreated with the Principles of his nature being the necessary exurgency of his Rational Constitution and partly by the Works and Rest of God thereon proposed unto his consideration both firmed by Gods Declaration of his Sanctification of the seventh Day Hence did he know that it was his Duty to express and celebrate the Rest of God or the complacency that he had in the Works of his Hands in reference unto their great and proper End or his Glory in the Honour Praise and Obedience of them unto whose contemplation they were proposed for those Ends. This followed immediately from the Time spent in the Creation and the Rest that ensued thereon which were so ordered for his Instruction and not from any other Cause or Reason taken either from the Nature of God or of the things themselves which required neither six dayes to make the world in
nor any Rest to follow thereon For that Rest was not a cessation from working absolutely much less meerly so Hence did he learn the Nature of the Covenant that he was taken into namely how he was first to work in Obedience and then to enter into Gods Rest in Blessedness For so had God appointed and so did he understand his Will from his own present State and Condition Hence was he instructed to dedicate to God and his own more immediate communion with him one day in a Weekly Revolution wherein the whole Law of his Creation was consummate as a Pledge and Means of entring eternally into Gods Rest which from hence he understood to be his End and Happiness And for the sanctification of the seventh Day of the Week precisely he had it by Revelation or Gods sanctification of it which had unto him the nature of a Positive Law being a Determination of the day suited unto the Nature and Tenour of that Covenant wherein he walked with God § 21 And by this superadded Command or Institution the mind of man was confirmed in the meaning and intention of his innate Principles and other Instructions to the same purpose in general All these things I say the last only excepted was he directed unto in and by the innate Principles of Light and Obedience wherewith the Faculties of his soul were furnished every way suited to guide him in the whole of the Duty required of him and by the farther Instruction he had from the other Works of God and his Rest upon the whole And although it may be we cannot now discern how in particular his Natural Light might conduct and guide him to the Observance of all these things yet ought we not therefore to deny that so it did seeing there is evidence in the things themselves and we know not well what that Light was which was in him For although we may have some due Apprehensions of the substance of it from its remaining Ruines and Materials in our lapsed condition yet we have no acquaintance with that Light and glorious Lustre that extent of its directive beams which it was accompanied withal when it was in him as he came immediately from the hand of God created in his Image We have lost more by the Fall than the best and wisest in the world can apprehend whilst they are in it much more than most will acknowledge whose principal design seems to be to extenuate the sin and misery of man which issueth necessarily in an undervaluation of the Love and Grace of Jesus Christ. But if a natural or carnal man cannot discern how the Spirit or Grace of the New Covenant which succeeds into the room of our first innate Light as unto the Ends of our living unto Gods glory in a new way directs and guides those in whom it is unto the Observance of all the Duties of it let us not wonder if we cannot easily and readily comprehend the Brightness and Extent and Conduct of that Light which was suited unto an estate of things that never was in the world since the Fall but only in the Man Christ Jesus whose Wisdom and Knowledge in the Mind and Will of God even thereby without his superadded peculiar Assistances we may rather admire than think to understand § 22 Thus then were the Foundations of the Old World laid and the Covenant of mans Obedience established when all the Sons of God sang for joy even in the first Rest of God and in the expression of it by the sanctification of a Sacred Rest to return unto him a Revenue of Glory in mans Observance of it And on these grounds I do affirm that the Weekly Observation of a Day to God for Sabbath Ends is a Duty Natural and Moral which we are under a perpetual indispensible Obligation unto namely from that Command of God which being a part of the Law of our Creation is Moral indispensible perpetual And these things with the different Apprehensions of others about them and Oppositions unto them must now be farther explained and considered For that we now enter upon namely the consideration of the Judgement and Opinions of others about these things with the Confirmation of our own § 23 In the Enquiry after the Causes of the Sabbath the first Question usually insisted on is concerning the Nature of the Law whereby its Observation is commanded This some affirm to be Moral some only Positive as we have shewed before And many Disputes there have been about the true Notion and Distinction of Laws Moral and Positive But whereas these Terms are invented to express the conceptions of mens minds and that of Moral at least includes not any absolute determinate sense in the meaning of the Word those at variance about them cannot impose their sense and understanding of them upon one another For seeing this Denomination of Moral applyed unto a Law is taken from the subject matter of it which is the Manners or Duties of them to whom the Law is given if any one will assert that every command of God which respects the manners of men that is of all men absolutely as men is Moral I know not how any one can compel him to speak or think otherwise for he hath his liberty to use the Word in that sense which he judgeth most proper And if it can be proved that there is a Law and ever was binding all men universally to the Observation of an Hebdomadal Sacred Rest I shall not contend with any how that Law ought to be called whether Moral or Positive This contest therefore I shall not engage into though I have used and shall yet further use those terms in their common sense and acceptation My way shall be plainly to enquire what force there is in the Law of our Creation unto the Observation of a Weekly Sabbath and what is superadded thereunto by the Vocal Declararion of the Will of God concerning it § 24 And here in the first place it is generally agreed so that the Opposition unto it is not considerable nor any way deserving our notice that in and by the Light of Nature or the Law of our Creation some Time ought to be separated unto the Obserservance of the solemn Worship of God For be that Worship what it will meerly Natural or any thing superadded by voluntary and arbitrary Institutions the Law for its Observance is natural and requires that Time be set apart for its Celebration seeing in time it is to be performed When there was but one Man and Woman this was their Duty and so it continued to be the Duty of their whole Race and Posterity in all the Societies Associations and Assemblies whereof they were capable But the first Object of this Law or Command is the Worship of God it self Time falls under it only consequentially and reductively Wherefore the Law of Nature doth also distinctly respect Time it self For we are bound thereby to serve God with all that
is ours and with the first fruits of our substance in every kind Somewhat of whatever God hath given unto us is to be set apart from our own use and given up absolutely to him as an Homage due unto him and a necessary acknowledgement of him To deny this is to contradict one of the principal Dictates of the Law of Nature For God hath given us nothing ultimately for our selves seeing we and all that we have are wholly his And to have any thing whereof no part as such is to be spent in his service is to have it with his displeasure Let any one endeavour to assert and prove this Position No part of our Time is to be set apart to the Worship of God and his Service in an holy and peculiar manner and he will quickly find himself setting up in a full contradiction to the Law of Nature and the whole Light of the knowledge of God in his mind and conscience Those who have attempted any such thing have done it under this deceitful pretence that all our Time is to be spent unto God and every day is to be a Sabbath For whereas notwithstanding this pretence they spend most of their time directly and immediately to themselves and their own Occasions it is evident that they do but make use of it to rob God of that which is his due directly and immediately For unto the holy separation of any thing unto God it is required as well that it be taken from our selves as that it be given unto him This therefore the Law of our Creation requires as unto the separation of some part of our Time unto God And if this doth not at first consideration discover it self in its Directive Power it will quickly do so in its condemning Power upon a contradiction of it Thus far then we have attained § 25 Moreover men are to worship God in Assemblies and Societies such as he appoints or such as by his Providence they are cast into This will not be denyed seeing it stands upon as good yea better Evidence than the Associations of mankind for Ends Political unto their own Good by Government and Order which all men confess to be a Direction of the Law of Nature For what concerns our living to God naturally is as clear in that Light and Conduct as what concerns our living among our selves Now a part of this Worship it is that we honour him with what by his Gift is made ours Such is our Time in this world Nor can the Worship it self be performed and celebrated in a due manner without the Designation and Separation of some Time unto that purpose and thereby secondly this Separation of Time becomes a branch of the Law of Nature by an immediate natural and unavoidable consequence And what is so is no less to be reckoned among the Rules of it than the very first notions or impressions that it gives us concerning the nature of any thing Good or Evil. For whatever Reason can educe from the Principles of Reason is no less Reason than those Principles themselves from whence it is educed And we aim no more from this discourse but that the separation of some Time to the Worship of God according to the Ends before insisted on is Reasonable so that the contrary in its first conception is unreasonable and foolish And this I suppose is evident to all I am sure by most it is granted Could men hereupon acquiesce in the Authority and Wisdom of God indigitating and measuring out that Portion of Time in all seasons and Ages of the Church there might be a Natural Rest from these contentions about a Rest Sacred and Holy However I cannot but admire at the Liberty which some men take positively to affirm and contend that the Command for the Observation of the Sabbath when or however it were given was wholly umbratile and Ceremonial For there is that in it confessedly as its Foundation and that which all its concernments are educed from which is as direct an Impression on the mind of man from the Law of Creation as any other Instance that can be given thereof § 26 Upon this Foundation therefore we may proceed And I say in the next place that the stated Time directed unto for the Ends of a Sacred Rest unto God by the Light and Law of Nature that is Gods Command impressed on the mind of man in and by his own Creation and that of the rest of the Works of God intended for his Direction in Obedience is that it be one day in seven For the confirmation hereof what we have discoursed concerning the Law of Creation and the Covenant ratified with man therein is to be remembred On the supposition thereof the Advancement or Constitution of any other Portion of Time in the stead and to the Exclusion thereof as a Determination and Limitation of the Time required in general in the first Instance of that Law is and would appear a contradiction unto it God haveing finished his Works in six Dayes and rested on the seventh giving man thereby and therein the Rule and Law of his Obedience and Rewards for him to assign any other measure or portion of Time for his Rest unto God in his Solemn Worship is to decline the Authority of God for the sake of his own inventions and to assign no portion at all unto that End is openly to transgress a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature as hath been proved Neither this Direction nor Transgression I confess will evidently manifest themselves in the meer Light of Nature as now depraved and corrupted No more will sundry Instances of its Authority unless its voice be diligently attended unto and its Light cultivated and improved in the minds of men by the Advantage of Consequential Revelations given unto us for that purpose For that by the Assistance of Scripture Light and Rational Considerations thence arising we may discover many things to be dictates of and to be directed unto by the Law of Nature which those who are left unto the meer Guidance and Conduct of it could not discover so to be may be easily proved from the open Transgression of it in sundry Instances which they lived and approved themselves in who seemed most to have lived according unto it and professed themselves to be wise in following the Light and Conduct of Reason in all things as was before at large discoursed The Polutheisme that prevailed amongst the best of the Heathens their open profession of living unto themselves and seeking after their Happiness in themselves with many other Instances make this evident And if Revelation or Scripture Light contributed no more to the Discovery of the Postulata of the Law of Nature but by a removal of those Prejudices which the manner and fashion of the world amongst men and a corrupt conversation received by Tradition from one Generation to another had fixed on and possessed their minds withal yet were the Advantages we have
Rest of a seventh Day was known and observed from the foundation of the World as hath been proved And therefore if from the Praefixe we are to conclude a Limitation or Determination to be intended in the Words Remember the Sabbath Day yet it respects only the Original Sabbath or the Sabbath in respect of its Original and not any new Institution of it For supposing the Observation of the Sabbath to have been before in use whether that use were only of late or a few dayes before or of more antient Times even from the beginning of the World the Command concerning it may be well expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the Sabbath Day 3. Suppose that the Sabbath had received a limitation to the seventh Day precisely in the Ordinance given unto that people in the first raining of Manna then doth the Observation of that Day precisely by vertue of this Command necessarily take place And yet the Command which is but the revival of what was required from the foundation of the world cannot be said to intend that Day precisely in the first place For the Reason of and in the Original Command for a Sabbatical Rest was Gods making the World in six dayes and resting on the seventh which requires no more but that in the continual Revolution of seven dayes six being allowed unto Work one should be observed a Sacred Rest to God These words therefore Remember the Sabbath Day referring unto the Primitive Command and Reason of it as is afterwards declared in the Body of the Law requires no more but a Weekly Day of Rest whereunto the seventh Day is reduced as added by an especial Ordinance And the Reason of this Commandment from the Works of God and the Order of them is repeated in the Decalogue because the Instruction given us by them being a part of the Law of our Creation more subject unto a neglect disregard and forgetfulness than those other Parts of it which were wholly innate to the Principles of our own Nature it was necessary that the Remembrance of it should be so expresly revived when in the other Precepts there is only a tacit excitation of our own inbred Light and Principles 4. The Emphatical Expression insisted on Remember the Sabbath Day hath respect unto the singular Necessity Use and Benefit of this holy Observance as also to that neglect and decay in its Observation which partly through their own sin partly through the Hardships that it met withal in the world the Church of former Ages had fallen into And what it had lately received of a new Institution with reference unto the Israelites falls also under this Command or is reduced unto it as a Ceremonial Branch under its proper Moral Head whereunto it is annexed And whereas it is greatly urged that the Command of the seventh Day precisely is not the Command of one day in seven and that what God hath determined as in this matter the Day is ought not to be indefinitely by us considered it may be all granted without the least Prejudice unto the Cause wherein we are ingaged For although the Institution of the seventh Day precisely be somewhat distinct from one Day in seven as containing a determinate limitation of that which in the other notion is left indefinite yet this hinders not but that God may appoint the one and the other the one in the Moral Reason of the Law the other by an especial determination and Institution And this especial Institution is to continue unless it be abrogated or changed by his own Authority which it may be without the least impeachment of the Moral Reason of the whole Law and a new day be limited by the same Authority which hath been done accordingly as we shall afterwards declare § 52 It is yet farther pleaded Disquisit p. 9 10 11 12. That no Distinction can be made between a Weekly Sabbath and the seventh Day precisely And if any such difference be asserted then if one of them be appointed in the fourth Commandment the other is not For there are not two Sabbaths enjoyned in it but one And it is evident that there never was of old but one Sabbath The Sabbath observed under the Old Testament was that required and prescribed in the fourth Commandment and so on the other side the Sabbath required in the Decalogue was that which was observed under the Old Testament and that only Two Sabbaths one of one Day in seven and the other of the seventh Day precisely are not to be fancied The seventh Day and that only was the Sabbath of the Old Testament and of the Decalogue These things I say are at large pleaded by the forementioned Author An. 1. These Objections are framed against a Distinction used by another Learned Person about the Sabbath as absolutely commanded in the Decacalogue and as injoyned to practise under the Old Testament But neither he nor any other sober Person ever fancied that there were two Sabbaths of old one injoyned unto the Church of the Israelites the other required in the Decalogue But any man may nay every prudent man ought to distinguish between the Sabbath as injoyned absolutely in words expressive of the Law of our Creation and Rule of our Moral Dependance on God in the fourth Command and the same Sabbath as it had a temporary occasional Determination to the seventh Day in the Church of the Jews by vertue of an especial Intimation of the Will of God suited unto that Administration of the Covenant which that Church and People were then admitted into I see therefore no Difficulty in these things The fourth Commandment doth not contain only the moral Equity that some Time should alwayes be set apart unto the Celebration of the Worship of God nor only the Original Instruction given us by the Law of Creation and the Covenant Obedience required of us thereon wherein the substance of the Command doth consist but it expresseth moreover the peculiar Application of this Command by the Will of God to the State of the Church then erected by him with respect unto the seventh Day precisely as before instituted and commanded Exod. 16. Nor is here the least appearance of two Sabbaths but one only is absolutely commanded unto all and determined unto a certain Day for the use of some for a season § 53 2. That one Day in seven only and not the seventh Day precisely is directly and immediately injoyned in the Decalogue and the seventh only with respect unto an antecedent Mosaical Institution with the Nature of that Administration of the Covenant which the people of Israel were then taken into hath been evinced in our investigation of the Causes and Ends of the Sabbath preceding and been cleared by many And it seems evident to an impartial consideration For the Observation of one Day in seven belongs unto every Covenant of God with man And the Decalogue is the unvariable Rule of mans walking before God and living unto him of what
Creation is answered by the Rest of the Son of God upon his laying the Foundation of the New Heavens and New Earth in his Resurrection But that the Sabbath Originally and in its whole nature should be a free Institution to prefigure and as in a shadow to represent any thing Spiritual or Mystical after wards to be introduced is not nor can be proved It was indeed originally a Moral Pledge of Gods Rest and of our Interest therein according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works which things belong unto our Relation unto God by vertue of the Law of our Creation It continueth to retain the same nature with respect unto the Covenant of Grace What it had annexed unto it what Applications it received unto the state of the Mosaical Paedagogie which were temporary and umbratile shall be declared afterwards § 57 But it is yet pleaded from an Enumeration of the Parts of the fourth Commandment that there can be nothing Moral as to our purpose in it And these are said to be three First The Determination of the seventh Day to be a Day of Rest. Secondly The Rest it self commanded on that Day Thirdly The sanctification of that Rest unto holy Worship Now neither of these can be said to be Moral Not the first for it is confessedly Ceremonial The second is a thing in its own nature indifferent having nothing of Morality in it antecedent unto a Positive Command Neither is the third Moral being only the means or manner of performing that Worship which is Moral An. It will not be granted that this is a sufficient Analysis or Distribution of the parts of this Command The principal subject matter of it is omitted namely the Observation of one Day in seven unto the Ends of a Sacred Rest. For we are required in it to sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord our God which was a seventh Day in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Dayes Supply this in the first place in the room of the Determination of the seventh Day to be that day which evidently follows it in the Order of Nature and this Argument vanisheth Now it is here only tacitly supposed not at all proved that one Day in seven is not required 2. Rest in it self absolutely considered is no part of Divine Worship antecedently unto a Divine Positive Command But a Rest from our own works which might be of use and advantage unto us which by the Law of our Creation we are to attend unto in this world that we may intend and apply our selves to the Worship of God and solemnly express our universal Dependance upon him in all things a Rest representing the Rest of God in his Covenant with us and observed as a pledge of our entring into his Rest by vertue of that Covenant and according to the Law of it such as is the Rest here injoyned is a part of the Worship of God This is the Rest which we are directed unto by the Law of our Creation and which by the Moral Reason of this Command is injoyned unto us on one Day in seven and in these things consists the Morality of this Precept on whose account it hath a place in the Decalogue which on all the Considerations before mentioned could not admit of an Association with one that was purely Ceremonial 3. Granting the Dedication of some Time or part of Time unto the Solemn Worship of God to be required in this Command as is by all generally acknowledged and let a Position be practically advanced against this we insist on namely that one Day in seven is the Time determined and limited for that purpose and we shall quickly perceive the mischievous consequents of it For when men have taken out of the hand of God the division between the Time that is allowed unto us for our own occasions and what is to be spent in his service and have cast off all influencing Direction from his Example of working six dayes and resting the seventh and all guidance from that seemingly perpetual Direction that is given us of imploying ordinarily six Days in the necessary affairs of this life they will find themselves at no small loss what to fix upon or wherein to acquiesce in this matter It must either be left to every individual man to do herein as seems good unto him or there must an Umpirage of it be committed unto others either the Church or the Magistrate And hence we may expect as many different Determinations and Limitations of Time as there are distinct Ecclesiastical or Political Powers amongst Christians What variety Changeableness would hence ensue what Confusion this would cast all the Disciples of Christ into according to the prevalency of Superstition or Profaneness in the minds of those who claim this power of determining and limiting the time of Publick Worship is evident unto all The Instance of Holy Dayes as they are commonly called will farther manifest what of it self lyes naked under every rational Eye The Institution and Observation of them was ever resolved into the Moral Part of this Command for the dedicating of some part of our Time unto God but the Determination hereof being not of God but left un-the Church as it is said one Church multiplyes them without End until they grew an unsupportable yoke unto the people another reduceth this number into a narrower compass a third rejects them all and no two Churches that are Independent Ecclesiastically and Politically one on the other do agree about them And so will and must the matter fall out as to the especial Day whereof we discourse when once the Determination of it by Divine Authority is practically rejected As yet men deceive themselves in this matter and pretend that they believe otherwise then indeed they do Let them come once soberly to joyn their Opinion of their Liberty and their Practice together actually rejecting the Divine limitation of one day in seven and they will find their own consciences under more disorder then yet they are aware of Again if there be no day determined in the fourth Command but only the seventh precisely which is Ceremonial with a general Rule that some time is to be dedicated to the service of God there is no more of Morality in this Command then in any of those for the Observation of New Moons and annual Feasts with Jubilees and the like in all which the same general Equity is supposed and a Ceremonial Day limited and determined And if it be so as far as I can understand we may as lawfully observe New Moons and Jubilees as a Weekly Day of Rest according to the custome of all Churches § 58 The words of the Apostle Paul Col. 2. 16 17. are at large insisted on to prove that the Sabbath was only Typical and a shadow of things future Let no man therefore judge you in Ment or in Drink or in respect of an Holy Day or of the New Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Sabbaths or
Sabbath Dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ. For hence they say it will follow that there is nothing Moral in the Observation of the Sabbath seeing it was a meer Type and Shadow as were other Mosaical Institutions as also that it is absolutely abolished and taken away in Christ. An. This place must be afterwards considered I shall here only briefly speak unto it And 1. It is known and confessed that at that time all Judaical Observations of Dayes or the Dayes which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all others called their Sabbaths as we have before evinced And that kind of Speech which was then in common use is here observed by our Apostle It must therefore necessarily be allowed that there were two sorts of Sabbaths amongst them The first and principal was the Weekly Sabbath so called from the Rest of God upon the finishing of his works This being designed for Sacred and Religious Uses other Dayes separated unto the same Ends in general became from their Analogie thereunto to be called Sabbaths also yea were so called by God himself as hath been declared But the Distinction and Difference between these Sabbaths was great The one of them was ordained from the foundation of the world before the Entrance of sin or giving of the Promises and so belonged unto all mankind in general the other were appointed in the Wilderness as a part of the peculiar Church Worship of the Israelites and so belonged unto them only The one of them was directly commanded in the Decalogue wherein the Law of our Creation was revived and expressed the other have their Institution expresly among the residue of Ceremonial Temporary Ordinances Hence they cannot be both comprized under the same Denomination unless upon some Reason that is common to both sorts alike So when God saith of them all You shall observe my Sabbaths it is upon a Reason common to them all namely that they were all commanded of God which is the formal Reason of our Obedience of what nature soever his Commands are whether Moral or Positive Nor can both these sorts be here understood under the same name unless it be with respect unto something that is common unto both Allow therefore the Distinctions between them before mentioned which cannot soberly be denyed and as to what they agree in namely what is or was in the Weekly primary Sabbath of the same Nature with those Dayes of Rest which were so called in allusion thereunto and they may be allowed to have the same sentence given concerning them That is so far the Weekly Sabbath may be said to be a shadow and to be abolished 2. It is evident that the Apostle in this place dealeth with them who endeavoured to introduce Judaisme absolutely or the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ceremonies into the Observation of the Christian Church Circumcision their Feasts and New Moons their distinctions of Meats and Dâ—nâ—s he mentioneth directly in this place And therefore he deals about these things so far as they were Judaical or belonged unto the Oeconomy of Moses and no otherwise If any of them fell under any other Consideration so far as they did so he designeth not to speak of them Now those things only were Mosaical which being instituted by Moses and figurative of good things to come or the things which being of the same nature with the residue of his Ceremonies were before appointed but accommodated by him to the use of the Church which he built 〈◊〉 such as Sacrifices and Circumcision For they were all of them nothing else but an obscure Adumbration of the things whereof Christ was the Body So far then as the Weekly Sabbath had any Additions made unto it or limitation given of it or directions for the manner of its Observance or respected the services then to be performed in it and by all accommodated unto that Dispensation of the Covenant which the Posterity of Abraham was then brought into it was a shadow and it taken away by Christ. Therewith falls its limitation to the seventh Day its rigorous Observation its penal Sanction its being a sign between God and that people in a word every thing in it and about it that belonged unto the then present Administration of the Covenant or was accommodated to the Judaical Church or State But now if it be proved that a septenary Sacred Rest was appointed in Paradise that it hath its foundation in the Law of Creation that thereon it was observed antecedently unto the Institution of Mosaical Ceremonies and that God renewed the Command concerning it in his Systeme of Moral Precepts manifoldly distinguished from all Ceremonial Ordinances so far and in these Respects it hath no concern in these words of the Apostle 3. It cannot be said that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven as an holy Rest unto God is abolished by Christ without casting a great Reflection of Presumption on all the Churches of Christ in the World I mean that now are or ever were so for they all have observed and do so observe such a day I shall not now dispute about the Authority of the Church to appoint dayes unto Holy or Religious uses to make holy Dayes Let it be granted to be whatever any yet hath pretended or pleaded that it is But this I say that where God by his Authority had commanded the Observation of a day to himself and the Lord Christ by the same Authority hath taken off that Command and abolished that Institution it is not in the power of all the Churches in the world to take up the Religious Observance of that Day to the same Ends and Purposes It is certain that God did appoint that a Sabbath of Rest should be observed unto him and for the celebration of his solemn Worship on one Day in seven The whole Command of God hereof is now pleaded to be dissolved and all obligation from thence unto its Observation to be abolished in and by Christ. Then say I it is unlawfull for any Church or Churches in the World to reassume this Practice and to impose the Observance of it on the Disciples of Christ. Be it that the Church may appoint Holy Dayes of its own that have no foundation in nor Relation and to the Law of Moses yet doubtless it ought not to digg any of his Ceremonies out of their Grave and impose them on the Necks of the Disciples of Christ yet so must it be thought to do on this Hypothesis that the Religious Observance of one Day in seven is absolutely abolished by Christ as a meer part of the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances which was nailed to his Cross and buried with him by the constant Practice and Injunctions thereof 4. Herewith fall the Arguments taken from the Apostles calling the Sabbath in this place a shadow For it is said that nothing which is Moral can be
a shadow It is true that which is Moral so far as it is Moral cannot be a shadow We therefore say that the Weekly Observation of a Day of Rest from the foundation of the world whereunto a general Obligation was laid on all men unto its Observation the Command whereof was a part of the Moral Law of God was no shadow nor is so called by the Apostle nor did Typifie good things to come But that which is in its own Nature Moral may in respect of some peculiar manner of its Observance in such a Time or season and some Adjuncts annexed unto it in respect whereof it becomes a part of Ceremonial Worship be so far and in those respects esteemed a shadow and as such pass away In brief The Command it self of observing one Day in seven as an holy Rest unto God hath nothing Aaronical or Typical in it but hath its foundation in the Light of Nature as directed by the Works of God and his Rest thereon For its limitation precisely to the last Day of the Week with other Directions and Injunctions for and in the manner of its Observance they were Mosaical and as a shadow are departed as we shall manifest in our ensuing Exercitations § 59 But yet neither can it be absolutely proved if we would insist thereon that the Weekly Sabbath is in any sense intended in these words of the Apostle For he may design the Sabbatical Years which were instituted among that people and probably now pressed by the Judaizing Teachers on the Gentile Proselytes Nor will the exception put in from some of the Rabbins that the Sabbatical Years were not to be observed out of the Land of Canaan from which Colosse was far enough distant reinforce the Argument to this purpose For as men in one place may have their Consciences exercised and bound with the Opinion of what is to be done in another though they cannot engage in the practice of it whilst they are absent so our Apostle chargeth the Galatians as far distant from Canaan as the Colossians that when they began to Judaize they observed years as well as Dayes and Months and Times which could respect only the Sabbatical years that were instituted by the Law of Moses Exercitatio Quarta Of the Judaical Sabbath 1 The Sabbath how required by the Law of Nature as a Covenant 2 Explanations of the Law of the Sabbath in the fourth Precept of the Decalogue 3 The Law of Creation and Covenant of Works renewed in the Church of Israel with what Alterations 4 The Sabbath why said to be given peculiarly to the Israelites 5 Change in the Covenant introduceth a change in the Sabbath 6 The whole Nature of the Judaical Sabbath and how it is abolished 7 Jews sense of the Original of the Sabbath rejected 8 The first appropriation of the Law of the Sabbath to that people Exod. 16. 9 Their mistakes about its Observation 10 The giving of the Law on Mount Sinai with the Ends of it 11 Nature of the fourth Commandment thereon what Ceremonial in it 12 Renovation of the Command of the Sabbath Exod. 31. 12 13. 13 Occasion hereof 14 Appropriations made of the Sabbath to the Church of Israel in this Renovation 15 The Commandment renewed again Exod. 34. 21. New additions made to it 16 So also Exod. 35. 2 3. 17 The whole matter stated Deut. 5. 15. 18 The Conclusion The Fourth Exercitation § 1 WE have declared how the Observation of a Septenary Sacred Rest is required by the Moral Law or the Law of our Creation Now this is not absolutely and meerly as it is a Law but as it contained a Covenant between God and man A Law it might have been and not have had the nature of a Covenant which doth not necessarily follow upon either its instructive or preceptive Power Yet it was originally given in the Counsel of God to that End and accompanied with Promises and Threatnings whence it had the Nature of a Covenant By vertue of this Law as a Covenant was the Observation of a Sabbath prescribed and required as a Token and Pledge of Gods Rest in that Covenant in the performance of the Works whereon it was constituted and of the Interest of man in that Rest as also a Means of Entrance into it On this ground it should have been observed in the State of Innocency wherein the Law of it was given and declared For it was no less necessary unto that state and condition than unto any other wherein God requireth Covenant Obedience of men nor considering the Nature and Ends of an holy Rest or Sabbath can any Reason be given why it should be thought accommodated only to the Administration of the Covenant under the Old Testament after the giveing of the Law whereunto by some it is appropriated § 2 It is true indeed that in the Fourth Commandment there is an explanation of the Rest of the Sabbath so far as it consisteth in a Cessation from our own works that are of use and advantage to the outward man in this life suited as unto the state and condition of mankind in general since the Fall so unto the especial state of the Jews at that time when the Law was given as there was also in the Additional Appendix of the first Commandment But for the substance of it the same kind of Rest was to be observed in the State of Innocency and was necessary thereunto on the grounds before insisted or Servile Labour with Trouble Sweat and Vexation was occasioned by the Curse Gen. 3. 17 18 19. The State also of Servants and Handmaids such as was then and is still in use followed on the entrance of sin though meerly to serve be no part of the Curse 1 Cor. 7. 20 21. as having its foundation in that subordination which is natural And the Government of Servants ought not to be Despotical but Paternal Gen. 18. 19. In these things there was some Variation supposed in the giving of the Decalogue as to their outward manner from the original state of things amongst mankind But there was also Work required of man or labour in the Earth with reference unto his natural life and subsistence in this world in the state of Innocency For it is said expresly that God put man into the Garden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 15. to labour in it and to preserve it by labour for his Use. A Cessation therefore from bodily labour was consistent with and useful unto that condition that men thereby might be enabled to give themselves in the season they were directed unto by the Works and Example of God wholly unto the especial Ends of living unto him according to the Covenant made with them There is nothing therefore in the fourth Commandment directing unto six dayes of labour and requiring a seventh unto Rest that is inconsistent or not compliant with the Law of our Creation and the state of living unto God constituted thereby although the
absolutely changed or abolished but a afresh represented unto the people only with a relief provided for the Covenanters against its Curse and Severity with a direction how to use it to another End than was first given unto it it follows that the Day of the Sabbatical Rest could not be changed And therefore was the Observation of the seventh Day precisely continued because it was a Moral Pledge of the Rest of God in the first Covenant For this the instructive part of the Law of our Creation from Gods making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh did require The Observation of this day therefore was still continued among the Israelites because the first Covenant was again represented unto them But when that Covenant was absolutely and in all Respects as a Covenant taken away and disannulled and that not only as to its formal Efficacy but also as to the manner of the Administration of Gods Covenant with men as it is under the Gospel there was a necessity that the Day of Rest should also be changed as I have more fully shewed elsewhere I say then that the precise Observation of the seventh Day enjoyned unto the Israelites had respect unto the Covenant of Works wherein the foundation of it was laid as hath been demonstrated And the whole Controversie about what day is to be observed now as a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord is resolved fully into this enquiry namely what Covenant we do walk before God in § 6 And that we may understand the whole Nature of the Judaical Sabbath it must moreover be considered that the Law in general and all the Precepts of it was the Instrument of the Politie of the people under the Government of God as we before observed For all the Judgements relating unto Civil things were but an Application of the Moral Law to their State and Condition Hence was the sanction of the transgressions of it to be punished with Death So was it in particular with respect unto the Sabbath Numb 15. 35 partly that it might represent unto them the Original Sanction of the whole Law as a Covenant of Works and partly to keep that stubborn people by this severity within due bounds of Government Nor was any thing punished by Death Judicially in the Law but the transgression of some Moral Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hand of Heaven is threatned against their Presumptuous Transgressions of the Ceremonial Law where no Sacrifice was allowed I the Lord will set my Face against that man and cut him off This also made the Sabbath a yoke and a burden that wherein their Consciences could never find perfect Rest. And in this sense also it is abolished and taken away Again it was made a part of their Law for Religious Worship in their Typical Church State in which and whereby the whole Dispensation of the Covenant which they were under was directed unto other Ends. And so it had the Nature of a shadow representing the good things to come whereby the people were to be relieved from the Rigor and Curse of the whole Law as a Covenant And on these Reasons new Commands were given for the Observation of the Sabbath new Motives Ends and Uses were added thereunto every way to accommodate it to the Dispensation of the Covenant then in force which was afterwards to be removed and taken away and therewithall the Sabbath it self so far as it had Relation thereunto For the continuation of the seventh Day precisely belonged unto the new Representation that was made of the Covenant of Works The Representation of that Covenant with the sanction given unto it amongst the Judgements of Righteousness in the Government of the people in the Land of Canaan which was the Lords and not theirs made it a yoke and burden and the use it was put unto amongst Ceremonial Observances made it a shadow in all which respects it is abolished by Christ. To say that the Sabbath as given unto the Jews is not abolished is to introduce the whole Systeme of Mosaical Ordinances which stand on the same bottom with it And particularly the Observation of the seventh Day precisely lyeth as it were in the Heart of that Oeconomy And these things will the more clearly appear if we consider the dealing of God with that people about the Sabbath from first to last § 7 The Jews some of them at least as was before discoursed would have not only the first Revelation of the Sabbath unto them or the Renovation of its Command but its first Institution absolutely to have been in their station at Mara Exod. 15. The vanity of this pretence we have before sufficiently discovered And whereas this was the Opinion of the Talmudical Masters of the Middle Ages since Christ they seem to have embraced it on the same Account whereon they have invented many other Fancies For observing that a Sabbath was in esteem amongst the Christians in Opposition unto them they began to contend that the Sabbath was as they called it the Bride of the Synagogue and belonged to themselves alone being given secretly to them only The vanity of this pretence we have before laid open and so shall not again insist upon it § 8 The first peculiar dealing of God with them about the Sabbath was evidently in their first Station at Alush Exod. 16. The occasion of the whole is laid down v. 4 5. Then said the Lord unto Moses Behold I will rain Bread from Heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Laws or no And it shall come to pass that in the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather dayly Here is no mention of the Sabbath nor any Reason given why they should gather a double portion on the sixth Day This Command therefore must needs have seemed somewhat strange unto them if they had before no notion at all of a seventh Dayes Sacred Rest. They must else otherwise have been at a great loss in themselves why they must double their measure on the sixth Day However it is apparent that either they had lost the true Day they were to observe through that long Bondage in Aegypt or knew not what belonged to the due Observation and Sanctification of it For when the people had observed this Command and gathered a double portion of Manna to keep one part of it for the next day although they had Experience that if at another season it were kept above one Day it would putrifie and stink v. 20. The Rulers of the Congregation fearing some mistake in the matter go and acquaint Moses with what was done amongst them v. 22. Hereon Moses replyeth unto them v. 23. This is that which the Lord hath said to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake This
is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
The Church under the Gospel and its Rest. 19 The foundation of it 20 Christ his Works and his Rest intended Heb. 4. 10 21 This farther proved by sundry Arguments 22 What were his Works whereby the Church was founded 23 His entrance into his Rest not in his Death but in his Resurrection 24 The Day of Rest limited and determined hereby 25 The Sabbatism that remains for the people of God 26 The sending of the Holy Ghost 27 Church Assemblies on the first day of the Week 28 The Lords-day Rev. 1. 10. 29 The sum of the preceding Discourse 30 Necessity of the Religious Observation of one day in seven 31 Blessing of God on the Church-worship on the first day 32 Of the seventh day Sabbath Judaism restored in it Of the Ebionites 33 Schisms perpetuated by the opinion of the seventh day Sabbath 34 Penalty of the Law reinforced with it 35 The Whole legal § 1 HOw the Creation of all things was finished and the Rest of God and Man that ensued thereon hath been declared It hath also in part and sufficiently as unto our present purpose been evidenced how the great Ends of the Creation of All in the Glory of God and the Blessedness of Man in him with the pledge thereof in a Sabbatical Rest were for a season as it were defeated and disappointed by the entrance of Sin which brake the Covenant that was founded in the Law of Creation and rendred it useless unto those ends For the Law became Weak through sin and the flesh or the corruption of our Nature that ensued thereon Rom. 8. 5. Hence it could no more bring Man to Rest in God But yet a continuation of the Obligatory force of that Law and Covenant with the direction of it unto other ends and purposes than at first given unto them was under the Old Testament designed of God and hath been declared also Hence was the continuation of the original Sabbatical Rest in the Church of Israel with the especial application of its command unto that people insisted on in the preceding Discourse In this state of things God had of old determined the Renovation of All by a new Creation a new Law of that Creation a new Covenant and a new Sabbatical Rest unto his own Glory by Jesus Christ and these things are now to be discussed § 2 The Renovation of all things by Jesus Christ is prophesied of end foretold as a new Creation of All even of the Heavens and the Earth and all things contained in them Psal. 65. 17 18. chap. 66. 22. 2 Pet. 3 13 Hence the state of things to be introduced thereby was under the Old Testament called the World to come Heb. 2. 5. So it is still called by the Jewish Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Kimchi amongst other Expositions of the Title of Psal. 92. a Psalm or Song for the Sabbath day addes this as that which the most antient Rabbins fixed on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They interpreted it of the World to come which shall be wholly Sabbath and Rest and these are the dayes of the Messiah A spiritual Rest it is they intend and not a cessation of a Sabbath-day in particular seeing in the prophesie of the new Temple or Church-state in those dayes there is especial direction given for the service of the Sabbath-day Ezek. 46. 4. And this Renovation of all things is said accordingly to be accomplished in Christ 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. Old things are past away behold all things are become New the Old Law Old Covenant Old Worship Old Sabbath all that was peculiar unto the Covenant of Works as such in the first Institution of it and its renewed declaration on Mount Sinai all are gone and antiquated What now remains of them as to any usesulness in our living to God doth not abide on the Old foundation but on a New disposition of them by the Renovation of all things in Christ. For in the dispensation of the fulness of times God gathered unto an Head all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth even in him Ephes. 1. 10. The whole old Creation as far as it had any thing in its self or its order that belonged unto or communicated any thing towards our living unto God and his Glory is disposed anew in Christ Jesus unto that End But this Renovation of all which is the foundation of all our acceptable Obedience unto God and of his present Worship consists principally in the Regeneration of the Elect making them new Creatures and the erection of a new Church-state thereby to the Glory of God Now this new Creation of all must answer unto all the Ends of the Old in reference unto the Glory of God and the Good of them who are partakers of it otherwise it would not be so rightly called nor answer the declared Ends of it which was to gather all things to an Head in Christ Jesus For what was lost by sin as to the Glory of God in the old Creation in this was to be repaired and recovered § 3 We may then as the foundation of our present Discourse consider how these things answer unto one another First the old Creation comprized in it the Law of the Obedience of all Creatures unto God This was therein and thereby implanted on their Natures with inclinations Natural or Moral unto the Observation of it And thus must it be also in the new Creation as unto the subject of it which is the Church This Law of the old Creation unto Man consisted principally in the Image of God in him and con-created with him For hereby did he both know his duty and was enabled to perform it and was acquainted with his Relation unto God and dependance upon him which rendred it necessary and indispensible But this Law in the state of Creation fell under a double consideration or had a double use first of Rule and then as a Principle As a Rule the light that was in the mind of man which was a principal part of the Image of God in him acquainted him with his whole duty and directed him in the right performance of it As a Principle it respected the Ability that the whole man was endowed withall to live to God according to his duty This Law as to its first use being much impaired weakned and in a great measure made useless by sin God was pleased to restore it in the vocal Revelation of his Will especially in the Decalogue which with his own finger he wrote in Tables of Stone In answer hereunto a new Law of Obedience is introduced by the new Creation in Christ Jesus And this principally consisted in the Renovation of the Image of God in the new Creatures which was lost by sin For they are renewed in the spirit of their minds and do put on that new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes. 4. 23 24. And
those Works and Rest of God or it could not be proposed as the reason of their suitable practice and for this end did God so Work and Rest. The Law therefore of this holy Rest he reneweth in the Decalogue amongst those other Laws which being of the same nature and original namely branches of the Law of our Creation were to be unto us moral and eternal For God would no longer entrust his mind and will in that Law unto the depraved nature of man wherein if he had not in the best often guided and directed it by fresh extraordinary revelations it would have been of little use to his glory but committed it by vocal revelation to the minds of the people as the doctrinal object of their consideration and recorded it in tables of stone Moreover the nature of the first Covenant and the way of Gods instructing man in the condition of it by his Works and Rest had limited this holy Day unto the seventh Day the observation whereof was to be commensurate unto that Covenant and its administration however the outward forms thereof might be varied § 7 On these suppositions we lay and ought to lay the observation of the Lords Day under the New Testament according to the institution of it or declaration of the mind of Christ who is our Lord and Law-giver concerning it 1. A new work of Creation or a work of a new Creation is undertaken and compleated Isa. 65. 17. Chap. 66. 22 23. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. Rom. 8. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. 2. This new Creation is accompanied with a new Law and a new Covenant or the Law of faith and the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3. 27. Chap. 8. 2 3 4. Jer. 31. 32 33 34. Heb. 8. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 3. Unto this Law and Covenant a Day of holy Rest unto the Lord doth belong which cannot be the same Day with the former no more than it is the same Law or the same Covenant which were originally given unto us Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 1. 10. 4. That this Day was limited and determined to the first Day of the Week by our Lord Jesus Christ is that which shall now further be confirmed only I must desire the Reader to consider that whereas the Topical Arguments whereby this Truth is confirmed have been pleaded improved and vindicated by many of late I shall but briefly mention them and insist principally on the declaration of the proper grounds and foundations of it § 8 As our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Son and Wisdom of the Father was the immediate cause and Author of the old Creation Joh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 2 10. so as Mediatour he was the Author of this new Creation Heb. 3. 3 4. He built the House of God he built all these things and is God Herein he wrought and in the accomplishment of it saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied Isa. 53. 11. that is he rested and was refreshed Herein he gave a new Law of life faith and obedience unto God Isa. 42. 4. not by an addition of new Preceps to the moral Law of God not virtually comprized therein and distinct from his own positive institutions of worship but in his revelation of that new way of obedience unto God in and by himself with the especial causes means and ends of it which supplyes the use and end whereunto the Moral Law was at first designed Rom. 8. 2 3. Chap 10. 3 4. whereby he becomes the Author of eternal salvation unto all that do obey him Heb. 5. 9. This Law of life and obedience he writes by his Spirit in the hearts of his people that they may be willing in the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3 6. Heb. 8 10. not at once and in the foundation of his work actually but only in the causes of it For as the Law of nature should have been implanted in the hearts of men in their conception and natural nativity had that dispensation of righteousness continued so in the new birth of them that believe in him is this Law written in their hearts in all generations Joh. 3. 6. Hereon was the Covenant established and all the promises thereof of which he was the Mediatour Heb. 8. 6. And for an holy Day of Rest for the ends before declared and on the suppositions before laid down evincing the necessity of such a Day he determined the observation of the first Day of the Week For § 9 First On this Day he rested from his works in and by his Resurrection for then had he laid the foundation of the new Heavens and new Earth and finished the works of the new Creation when all the Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy On this Day he rested from his works and was refreshed as God did and was from his For although he worketh hitherto in the communication of his Spirit and Graces as the Father continued to do in his works of providence after the finishing of the works of the old Creation though these works belonged thereunto yet he ceaseth absolutely from that kind of work whereby he laid the foundation of the new Creation henceforth he dieth no more And on this Day was he refreshed in the view of his works for he saw that it was exceeding good Now as Gods Rest and his being refreshed in his work on the seventh Day of old was a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest which he would have observed under the administration of that original Law and Covenant so the Rest of our Lord Jesus Christ and his being refreshed in and from his works on the first Day is a sufficient indication of the precise Day of Rest to be observed under the dispensation of the new Covenant now confirmed and established And the Church of Christ could not pass one Week under the New Testament or in a Gospel-state of worship without this indication For the Judaical Sabbath as sure as it was so and as sure as it was annexed unto the Mosaical administration of the Covenant was so far abolished as not to oblige really the Disciples of Christ in conscience unto the observation of it whatever any of them might for a season apprehend And if a new Day was not now determined there was no Day or season appointed for an observance of an holy Rest unto the Lord nor any pledge given us of our entring into the Rest of Christ. And those who say that it is required that some time be set apart unto the ends of a Sabbatical Rest but that there is no divine indication of that time when not what it is or shall be if we consider what are the ends of such a Rest as before declared must allow us to expect firmer proofs of their uncouth Assertion than any as yet we have met withall § 10 Accordingly this Indication of the Gospel Day of Rest
eminent and answered Gods Rest from his own 2 Satisfaction in his works and the glorious product of them as those which had an impression on them of his Love and Grace Psal. 16. 7. § 23 It remains only that we enquire into his Entrance into his Rest both how and when he did so even as God entred into his on the seventh day for this must limit and determine a Day of Rest to the Gospel-Church Now this was not his lying down in the Grave His Body indeed there rested for a while but that was no part of his mediatory Rest as be was the founder and builder of the Church For 1 It was a part of his Humiliation Not only his Death but his abode and continuance in the state of Death was so and that a principal part of it For after the whole Humane Nature was personally united unto the Son of God to have it brought into a state of Dissolution to have the Body and Soul separated from each other was a great Humiliation And every thing of this nature belonged unto his Works and not his Rest. 2 This separation of Body and Soul under the power of Death was poenal a part of the sentence of the Law which he underwent And therefore Peter declares that the pains of Death were not loosed but in his Resurrection Act. 2. 24. Whom God saith he hath raised up loosing the pains of Death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it Whilst he was held of it he was under it penally This therefore could not be his Rest nor any part of it Nor did he in it enter into his Rest but continued in his Work Nor 2dly did he first enter into his Rest at his Ascension Then indeed he took actual possession of his Glory as to the full publick manifestation of it But to enter into Rest is one thing and to take possession of Glory another And it is placed by our Apostle as a consequent of his being justified in the Spirit when he entred into Rest 1 Tim. 3. 16. But this his entrance into Rest was in by and at his Resurrection from the dead For 1 Then and therein was he freed from the sentence power and stroke of the Law being discharged of all the Debts of our sins which he had undertaken to make satisfaction for Acts 2. 24. 2 Then and therein were all Types all Predictions and Prophesies fulfilled which concern the work of our Redemption 3 Then therefore his work was done I mean that which answereth Gods creating work though he still continue that which answers his work of preservation Then was the Law fulfilled and satisfied Sathan subdued Peace with God made the Price of our Redemption paid the Promise of the Spirit received and the whole Foundation of the Church of God gloriously laid on his Person in his Works and Rest. 4 Then and therein was he declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1. 4. God manifesting unto all that this was he concerning and unto whom he said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Acts 13. 33. § 24 Thus did the Author of the New Creation the Son of God the Builder of the Church having finished his works enter into his Rest. And this was as all know on the morning of the first day of the week And hereby did he limit and determine the Day for a sacred Sabbatical Rest under the New Testament For now was the Old Covenant utterly abolished and therefore the Day which was the pledge of Gods and Mans Rest therein was to be taken away and was so accordingly as we have shewed As the Rest from the beginning of the World had its foundation from the works of God and his Rest which ensued thereon which was determined unto the seventh Day because that was the Day wherein God ceased from those works which Day was continued under the legal administration of the Covenant by Moses so the Rest of the Lord Christ the Son of God is the foundation of our Rest which changing the old Covenant and the day annexed unto it he hath limited unto the first Day of the Week whereon he ceased from his works and entred into his Rest. And hereby the Apostle compleats the due Analogy that is between the several Rests of God and his people which he hath discoursed of in this Chapter For as in the beginning of the World there was first the work of God and his Rest thereon which made way unto a Rest for his people in himself and in his worship by the contemplation of his works that he had made on whose finishing he rested and a Day designed determined blessed and sanctified to express that Rest of God whence mention is made of those works in the command for the observation of that Day seeing the workship of God in and on it consisted principally in the glorifying of him by and for those works of his as also to be a means to further men in their entrance into eternal Rest whereunto all these things do tend and as at the giving of the Law there was a great Work of God and his Rest thereon in his establishing his Worship in the Land of Canaan which made way for the peoples entring into his Rest in that Worship and Countrey and had a Day of Rest enjoyned unto them to express the one and the other as also to help them to enter finally into the Rest of God so now under the Gospel there is a Rest answering all these in and by the instances which we have given § 25 And this is that which the Apostle affirms as the substance of all which he hath evinced Namely that there is a Sabbatism for the people of God v. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is framed by our Apostle from an Hebrew original with a Greek Termination And he useth it as that which is comprehensive of his whole sense which no other word would be For he would shew that there is a Sabbatical Rest founded in the Rest of God remaining for the Church and therefore makes use of that word whereby God expressed his own Rest when he sanctified the seventh Day for a Day of Rest thereon That Day of Rest being removed and another on a new foundation namely the Rest of Christ upon his works introduced he calls it a Sabbatism or a Sabbath-keeping He doth not do this only and separately averring the necessity of a sabbath-Sabbath-observation in the first place distinctly from a Spiritual Rest in Christ with an Eternal Rest ensuing thereon but in the manner and Order before laid down wherein the necessity of such a Day is included And besides the evidence that ariseth from the consideration of the whole Context there are two things which make it undeniably evident that our Apostle asserts an Evangelical Sabbath or Day of Rest to be constantly observed in and for the Worship of God under the Gospel For first without this design
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon the first Day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day
applying the duties and services of a Sabbath unto it hath also been demonstrated And that this was owned from the Authority of the Lord is declared by John in the Revelation who calls it the Lords Day Rev. 1. 10. whereby he did not surprize the Churches with a new name but denoted to them the Time of his Visions by the name of the Day which was well known unto them And there is no solid Reason why it should be so called but that it owes its pre-eminence and observation unto his Institution and Authority And no man who shall deny these things can give any tolerable account how when or from whence this Day came to be so observed and so called It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Day the Day of the Lord as the Holy Supper is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 20. the Lords Supper by reason of his Institution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament which the LXX render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies indeed some illustrious Appearance of God in a way of judgement or mercy And so also in the Person of Christ this was the Day of his Appearance Mark 16. 9. So was it still called by the ancient Writers of the Church Ignatius in Epist. ad Trall ad magnes ect Dionysius of Corinth Epist. ad Rom. in Euseb. Hist. lib. 4. cap. 21. Theophilus Antioch lib. 1. in 4. Evangel Clemens Alex. stromat lib. 7. cap. 7. Origen lib. 8. con Cels. Tertul. de Coron milit cap. 3. As for those who assign the Institution of this Day to the Apostles although the supposition be false yet it weakens not the divine original of it For an Obligation lying on all Believers to observe a Sabbath unto the Lord and the Day observed under the Law of Moses being removed it is not to be imagined that the Apostles fixed on another Day without immediate direction from the Lord Christ. For indeed they delivered nothing to be constantly observed in the worship of God but what they had his Authority for 1 Cor. 11. 23. In all things of this nature as they had the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost so they acted immediately in the Name and Authority of Christ where what they ordained was no less of divine Institution than if it had been appointed by Christ in his own person It is true they themselves did for a season whilest their Ministery was to have a peculiar regard to the Jews for the calling and conversion of the remnant that was amongst them according to the election of grace go frequently into their Synagogues on the seventh Day to preach the Gospel Act. 13. 14. Chap. 16. 13. Chap. 17. 2. Chap. 18. 4. But it is evident that they did so only to take the opportunity of their Assemblies that they might preach unto the greater numbers of them and that at such a season wherein they were prepared to attend unto sacred things Upon the same ground Paul laboured if it were possible to be at Hierusalem at the Feast of Pentecost Act. 20. 16. But that they at any time assembled the Disciples of Christ on that day for the worship of God that we read not § 29 We may now look back and take a view of what we have passed through That one Day in seven is by virtue of a divine Law to be observed Holy unto the Lord the original of such an observation Gen. 2. 2. the Letter of the fourth Commandement with the nature of the Covenant between God and man do prove and evince And hereunto is there a considerable suffrage given by learned men of all parties The Doctrine of the Reformed Divines hereabouts hath been largely represented by others They also of the Church of Rome that is many of them agree herein It is asserted in the Canon Law it self Tit. de Feriis cap. licet where the words of Alexander the third are Tam veteris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimum Diem ad humanam quietem specialiter deputavit where by septimus Dies he understands one Day in seven as Suarez sheweth De Relig. lib. 2. cap. 2. And it is so by sundry Canonists reckoned up by Covarruvias The Schoolmen also give in their consent as Bannes in 2a 2a g. 44. a. 1. Bellarmine contends expresly decultsanct lib. 3. cap. 11. that Jus divinum requirebat ut unus Dies Hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino So doth Suarez de dieb sac cap. 1. and others might be added We have the like common consent that whatever in the institution and observation of the Sabbath under the Old Testament was peculiar unto that state of the Church either in its own nature or in its use and signification or in its manner of observance is taken away by virtue of those Rules Rom. 14. 5. Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16 17. Nor can it be denied but that sundry things annexed unto the Sabbatical Rest peculiar to that Church-state which was to be removed were wholly inconsistent with the spirit grace and liberty of the Gospel I have also proved that the observation of the seventh Day precisely was a pledge of Gods Rest in the Covenant of works and of our Rest in him and with him thereby so that it cannot be retained without a re-introduction of that Covenant and the Righteousness thereof And therefore although the command for the observation of a Sabbath to the Lord so far as it is moral is put over into the Rule of the new Covenant wherein Grace is administred for the duty it requires yet take the seventh Day preeisely as the seventh Day and it is an Old Testament arbitrary institution which falls under no promise of spiritual assistance in or unto the observation of it Under the New Testament we have found a new Creation a new Law of Creation a new Covenant the Rest of Christ in that Work Law and Covenant the limiting of a Day of Rest unto us on the Day wherein he entred into his Rest a new Name given unto this Day with respect unto his Authority by whom it was appointed and an observation of it by all the Churches so that we may say of it This is the Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it as Psal. 118. 24. § 30 These foundations being laid I shall yet by some important considerations if I mistake not give some farther evidence unto the necessity of the Religious observation of the first Day of the Week in opposition unto the Day of the Law by some contended for It is therefore first acknowledged that the observation of some certain Day in and for the solemn publick Worship of God is of indispensible necessity They are beneath our consideration by whom this is denyed Most acknowledge it to be a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the Nature of these things doth require it We have proved also that there
this matter with the Blessing that attended it was that which multitudes now at Rest do bless God for and many that are yet alive do greatly rejoyce in Let these things be despised by those who are otherwise minded to me they are of great weight and importance § 32 Let us now a sittle consider the Day that by some is set up not only in competition with this but to its utter exclusion This is the seventh Day of the week or the old Judaical Sabbath which some contend that we are perpetually obliged to the observation of by vertue of the Fourth Commandment The Grounds whereon they proceed in their Affertion have been already disproved so far as the Nature of our present undertaking will admit and such evidences given unto the change of the Day as will not easily be everted nor removed The consequences of the observation of the seventh Day should the practice of it be re-assumed amongst Christians is that which at present I shall a little enquire into when we have summed up somewhat of what hath been spoken 1 It was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of Appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The command is to observe the sabbath-Sabbath-day and the blessing is upon the sabbath-Sabbath-day God blessed the sabbath-Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh day in the Body of the command fixeth the number of the Dayes in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting Order in them seeing the Order relating to the Old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the New And if the seventh day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the command in the enforcing part of it is but the seventh day is the seventh day of the Lord thy God which is none at all 2 The state of the Church and the Administration of the Covenant whereunto the observation of this day was annexed are removed so that it cannot continue no more than an House can stand without a Foundation 3 The Lord Christ who was the Lord of the Sabbath and by assuming that Iitle to himself manifested his Authority as to the disposal of the Day whereon a Sabbatical Rest was to be observed hath in his own Rest from his works limited unto us another day of Sacred Rest called from his appointment of it the Lords-day his Day who is the Lord of the Sabbath 4 The Day so introduced by his Authority hath from the Day of his Rest been observed without interruption or any such difference about it as fell out among the Churches of God about other Feast dayes whose observation was introduced among them they knew not well how as of the Pascha and the like And whereas the due observation of it hath been enjoyned by Councils Edicts of Emperors Kings and Princes Laws of all sorts advised and pressed by the antient Writers amongst Christians and the practice of its observance taken notice of by all who from the beginning have committed the Affairs of Christianity unto posterity yet none of any sort pretend to give it any original but all mediately or immediately referr it unto Christ himself The observation then of this Day First is an evident Judaizing and a returnal unto those Rudiments of the World which the Apostle so severely cautioneth us against I know not how it is come to pass but so it is faln out that the nearer Judaism is unto an absolute Abolition and Disappearance the more some seem inclinable to its revival and continuance or at least to fall back themselves into its antiquated observances An end it had put to it morally and legally long ago in the coming Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we may say of it what the Apostle said of Idols when the World was full of Idolatry we know that Judaism is nothing in the world no such thing as by some it is esteemed The actual Abolition of it in the profession of the present Jews by the removing of the Veyle from their Hearts and Eyes and their turning unto God we hope is in its approach And yet as was said there seems in many an inclination unto their Rites and servile observances It is apparent in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles especially that to the Hebrews that at the first preaching of the Gospel there were very many Jews who came over to the faith and profession of it Many of these continued zealous of the Law and would bring along with them all their Mosaical Institutions which they thought were to abide in force for ever In this weakness and mis-apprehension they were forborn in the patience of God and wisdome of the Holy Ghost guiding the Apostles and Disciples of Jesus Christ. In this state things continued unto the destruction of Hierusalem and the Temple when the chiefest cause of their contests was taken away In the mean time they carried themselves very variously according to the various tempers of their minds For it is apparent that some of them were not content themselves to be indulged in their opinions and practices but they endeavoured by all means to impose the observance of the whole Mosaical Law on the Churches of the Gentiles Their Circumcision their Sabbaths their Feasts and Fasts their Abstinences from this or that kind of meats they were contending about and thereby perverting the minds of the Disciples Some stop was put to the evil consequences hereof in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. which yet determined nothing concerning the Jews own practice but only concerning the liberty of the Gentile-Believers After the destruction of Hierusalem City and Temple these professing Jews fell into several distinct wayes Some of them who as is probable had despised the heavenly warning of leaving the place took up their lot amongst their unbelieving Brethren relinquishing the profession of the Gospel which they had made not it may be with any express renuntiation of Christ but with a dis-regard of the Gospel which brought them not those good things they looked for of which mind Josephus the Historian seems to be one These in time became a part of that Apostate brood which have since continued in their enmity to the Gospel and into whose new and old superstitions they introduced sundry customes which they had learned among the Christians Some absolutely relinquished their old Judaism and compleatly incorporated with the new Gentile Churches unto whom the promise and Covenant of Abraham was transferred and made over These were the genuine Disciples of our great Apostle Others continued their profession of the Gospel but yet still thought themselves obliged unto the observation of the Law of Moses and all its institutions Hereupon they continued in a distinct and separate state from the Believers and Churches of the Gentiles and that for some Ages as some say to the dayes of Adrian These it may be were they whom Eusebius out
And hereby are we delivered from that anxious solicitude about particular instances in outward duties which was a great part of the yoke of the People of old For 1 Hence we may in all our duties look on God as a Father By the Spirit of his Son we may in them all cry Abba Father For through Christ we have an access in one Spirit unto tho Father Ephes. 2. 18. To God as a Father as one that will not alwayes chide that doth not watch our steps for our hurt but remembreth that we are but dust One who tyeth us not up to rigid exactness in outward things whilest we act in an holy spirit of filial obedience as his sons or children And there is great difference between the duties of servants and children neither hath a Father the same measure of them The consideration hereof regulated by the general Rules of the Scripture will resolve a thousand of such scruples as the Jews of old while servants were perplexed withall 2 Hence we come to know that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Therefore he more minds the inward frame of our hearts wherewith we serve him than the meer performance of outward duties which are alone so far accepted with him as they are expressions and demonstrations thereof If then in the observation of this Day our hearts are single and sincere in our aims at his Glory with delight it is of more price with him than the most rigid observation of outward duties by number and measure 3 Therefore the minds of Believers are no more influenced unto this duty by the curse of the Law and the terror thereof as represented in the threatned penalty of death The Authority and Love of Jesus Christ are the principal causes of our Obedience Hence our main duty lyeth in an endeavour to get spiritual joy and delight in the services of this Day which are the especial effects of spiritual liberty So the Prophet requires that we should call the Sabbath our delight holy and honourable of the Lord Isa. 58. 13. As also that on the other side we should not do our own pleasure nor do our own wayes nor find our own pleasure nor speak our own words And these Cautions seem to regard the Sabbath absolutely and not as Judaical But I much question whether they have not in the interpretation of some been extended beyond their original intention For the true meaning of them is no more but this that we should so delight our selves in the Lord on his holy Day as that being expresly forbidden our usual labour we should not need for want of satisfaction in our duties to turn aside unto our own pleasures and vain wayes which are only our own to spend our time and pass over the Sabbath a thing complained of by many whence sin and Satan have been more served on this Day than on all the Dayes of the Week beside But I no way think that here is a restraint laid on us from such Words Wayes and Works as neither hinder the performance of any religious duties belonging to the due celebration of the worship of God on the Day nor are apt in themselves to unframe our spirits or divert our affections from them And those whose minds are fixed in a spirit of liberty to glorifie God in and by this Day of Rest seeking after Communion with him in the wayes of his worship will be unto themselves a better Rule for their Words and Actions than those who may aim to reckon over all they do or say which may be done in such a manner as to become the Judaical Sabbath much more then the Lords-Day § 10 Thirdly Be sure to bring good and right Principles unto the performance of the duty of keeping a Day of Rest holy unto the Lord. Some of these I shall name as confirmed expresly in or drawn evidently from the preceding Discourses 1. Remember that there is a Weekly Rest or an holy Rest of one Day in the week due to the solemn work of glorifying God as God Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy We have had a Week unto our own occasions or we have a prospect of a Week in the patience of God for them Let us Remember that God puts in for some Time with us All is not our own We are not our own Lords Some time God will have to himself from all that own him in the World And this is that Time season or Day He esteems not himself acknowledged nor his Soveraignty owned in the World without it And therefore this Day of Rest he required the first Day as it were that the World stood upon its legs hath done so all along and will do so to the last Day of its duration When he had made all things and saw that they were good and was refreshed in them he required that we should own and acknowledge his Goodness and Power therein This duty we owe to God as God 2 That God appointed this Day to teach us that as he rested therein so we should seek after Rest in him here and look on this Day as a pledge of eternal Rest with him hereafter So was it from the beginning This was the End of the appointment of this Day Now our Rest in God in general consists in two things 1 In our Approbation of the Works of God and the Law of our Obedience with the Covenant of God thereon These things are expressive of and do represent unto us the Goodness Righteousness Holiness Faithfulness and Power of God For these and with respect unto them are we to give Glory to him What God rests in he requires that through it we should seek for our Rest in him As this was the duty of man in Innocency and under the Law so it is ours now much more For God hath now more eminently and gloriously unveiled and displayed the Excellencies of his Nature and the Counsels of his Wisdome in and by Jesus Christ than he had done under the first Covenant And this should work us to a greater and more holy admiration of them For if we are to acknowledge that the Law is holy just and good as our Apostle speaks although it is now useless as to the bringing of us to Rest in God how much more ought we to own and subscribe to the Gospel and the declaration that God hath made of himself therein that so it is 2 In an actual solemn compliance with his Will expressed in his Works Law and Covenant This brings us unto present satisfaction in him and leads us to the full enjoyment of him This is a Day of Rest but we cannot Rest in a Day nor any thing that a Day can afford only it is an help and means of bringing us to Rest in God Without this design all our Observation of a Sabbath is of no use nor advantage Nothing will thence redound to the Glory of God nor the benefit of our own souls And this they
John Owen D.D. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a DAY OF Sacred Rest. Wherein The Original of the SABBATH from the Foundation of the World the Morality of the Fourth Commandment with the Change of the Seventh Day are enquired into Together with an Assertion of the Divine Institution of the LORD'S DAY and Practical Directions for its due Observation By John Owen D D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6. 8. John 5. 39. Search the Scripture LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in Chancery Lane near Fleetstreet 1671. TO THE READER Christian Reader THERE are Two great Concerns of that Religion whose Name thou bearest the Profession of its Truth and the Practice or Exercise of its Power And these are mutually assistant unto each other Without the Profession of Faith in its Truth no man can express its Power in Obedience And without Obedience Profession is little worth Whatever therefore doth contribute Help and Assistance unto us in either of these according to the mind of God is highly to be prized and valued Especially it is so in such a season wherein the Former of them is greatly questioned and the Later greatly neglected if not despised But if there be any thing which doth equally confirm and strengthen them both it is certainly of great Necessity in and unto Religion and will be so esteemed by 〈◊〉 who place their principal concerns in these things Now such is the Solenm Observation of a Sacred Weekly Day of Rest unto God For amongst all the outward Means of conveying to the present Generation that Religion which was at first taught and delivered unto men by Jesus Christ and his Apostles there hath been none more effectual than the Catholick uninterrupted Observation of such a Day for the Celebration of the Religious Worship appointed in the Gospel And many material parts of it were unquestionably preserved by the successively continued Agreement of Christians in this Practice So far then the Profession of our Christian Religion in the World at this Day doth depend upon it How much it tends to the Exercise and Expression of the Power of Religion cannot but be evident unto all unless they be such as hate it who are not a few With others it will quickly appear unto a sober and unprejudicated Consideration For no small part hereof doth consist in the constant payment of that Homage of Spiritual Worship which we owe unto God in Jesus Christ. And the Duties designed thereunto are the Means which he hath appointed for the Communication of Grace and Spiritual Strength unto the due performance of the Remainders of our Obedience In these things consist the Services of this Day and the End of its Observation is their due performance unto the Glory of God and the Advantage of our own souls Whereas therefore Christian Religion may be considered two wayes First As it is Publickly and Solemnly professed in the World whereon the Glory of God and the Honor of Jesus Christ do greatly depend And Secondly As it prevails and rules in the Minds and Lives of Private Men neither of them can be maintained without a due Observance of a Stated Day of Sacred Rest. Take this away Neglect and Confusion will quickly cast out all Regard unto Solemn Worship Neither did it ever thrive or flourish in the World from the Foundation of it nor will do so unto its End without a due Religious Attendance unto such a Day Any man may easily foresee the Disorder and Prophaness which would ensue upon the taking away of that whereby our Solemn Assemblies are guided and preserved Wherefore by Gods own Appointment it had its Beginning and will have its End with his Publick Worship in this World And take this off from the Basis whereon God hath fixed it and all Humane Substitutions of any thing in the like kind to the same purposes will quickly discover their own Vanity Nor without advantage which it affords as it is the Sacred Repository of all sanctifying Ordinances will Religion long prevail in the Minds and Lives of private Men. For it would be just with God to leave them to their own Weaknesse and Decayes which are sufficient to ruine them who despise the Assistance which he hath provided for them and which he tenders unto them Thus also we have known it to have fallen out with many in our Dayes whose Apostasies from God have hence taken their Rise and Occasion This being the case of a Weekly Sacred Day of Rest unto the Lord it must needs be our Duty to enquire and discern aright both what Warrant we have for the Religious Observance of such a Day as also what Day it is in the Hebdomadal Revolution that ought so to be observed About these things there is an Enquiry made in the ensuing Discourses and some Determinations on that Enquiry My Design in them was to discover the Fundamental Principles of this Duty and what Ground Conscience hath to stand upon in its Attendance thereunto For what is from God in these things is assuredly accepted with him The Discovery hereof I have endeavoured to make and therewithall a safe Rule for Christians to walk by in this matter so that for want thereof they may not lose the Things which they have wrought What I have attained unto of Light and Truth herein is submitted to the Judgement of Men Learned and Judicious The Censures of Persons heady ignorant and proud who speak evil of those things which they know not and in what they naturally know corrupt themselves I neither fear nor value If any Discourses seem somewhat dark or obscure unto Ordinary Readers I desire they would consider that the Foundations of the things discoursed of lye deep and no Expression will render them more familiar and obvious unto all Understandings than their Nature will allow Nor must we in any Case quit the Strengths of Truth because the Minds of some cannot easily possess themselves of them However I hope nothing will occurr but what an Attentive Redder though otherwise but of an Ordinary Capacity may receive and digest And they to whom the Argument seems hard may find those Directions which will make the Practice of the Duty insisted on easie and beneficial The especial Occasion of my present handling this Subject is declared afterwards I shall only add that here is no Design of contending with Any of opposing or contradicting any of censuring or reflecting on those whose Thoughts and Judgements in these things differ from ours begun or carried on Even those by whom an Holy Day of Rest under the Gospel and its Services are laughed to scorn are by me left unto God and themselves My whole endeavour is to find out what is agreeable unto Truth about the Observance of such a Day unto the Lord what is the Mind and Will of God concerning it on what Foundation we may attend unto the Services of it as that God may be
glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
pretence of certainty above Evidence produced have had any influence into those enquiries after the Truth in this matter which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we now address our selves unto § 9 In the first place it will be necessary to premise something about the Name whereby this Day may be called For that also among some hath been controverted Under the Old Testament it had a double Appellation the One taken from the Natural Order of the Day then separated with respect unto other Dayes the Other from its Nature and Use. On the first Account it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it So also Exod. 20. 11. Upon its first Institution and on the Re-introduction of its Observation it is so called But it is a meer Description of the Day from its Relation to the six precedent dayes of the Creation that is herein intended absolutely it is not so called any where Yet hence by the Hellenists it was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred seventh Day So is mention made of it by Philo Josephus and others And our Apostle maketh use of this Name as that which was commonly in use to denote the Sabbath of the Jews Chap. 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he speaketh or it is spoken somewhere concerning the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used technically to denote that Day And he educeth the Reason of this Denomination from Gen. 2. 3. Being as was said the Day that ensued immediately after the six distinct Dayes wherein the World was created and putting a Period unto a measure of Time by a Numeration of Dayes alwayes to return in its Cycle it was called the seventh Day And from that course of Time compleated in seven Dayes thence recurring to its Beginning is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomas a Week which the Hebrews call only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seven And the same word sometimes signifieth the seventh Day or one Day in seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is septimum Diem celebrare to celebrate the or a seventh Day And the Latines use the Word in the same manner for seven Dayes or One Day in seven But this Appellation as we shall see the Apostle casts out of Consideration and Use as to the Day to be observed under the New Testament For that which was first so is passed away and another instituted in the Room thereof which although it be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seventh Day absolutely or one in the Revolution of seven yet not being the seventh in their Natural Order that Name is now of no use but antiquated § 10 From its Occasion Sanctification and Use it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath and the Sabbath Day The Occasion of this Name is expressed Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he rested shabath that Day It is called Rest the Rest because on that Day God rested And in the Decalogue it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sabbath or of Gods Rest and ours And absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. where also God from his Institution of it calls it my Sabbath v. 4. This being a thing so plain and evident it were meer loss of Time to insist upon the feigned Etymologies of this Name after it came to be taken notice of in the world I shall only name them Appion the Alexandrian would have it derived from the Aegyptian word Sabbo as Josephus informs us Cont. App. lib. 2. and what the signification of that Word is the Reader may see in the same place Plutarch derives it from Sabboi a Word that was used to be howled in the furious Services of Bacchus for his Priests and Devotoes used in their Bacchanals to cry out Evoi Sabboi Sympos lib. 4. c. 15. which things are ridiculous Lactantius with sundry others of the Antients fell into no less though a less offensive mistake Hic saith he est dies Sabbati qui lingua Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Institut lib. 7. cap. 14. Procopius Gazaeus on the Pentateuch hath a singular conceit Speaking of the Tenth of the Month Tizri termed Sabbaton Sabbat he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have it the Day of the Conception of John Baptist the fore-runner of Christ when the Remission and Repentance that he Preached began and thence conjectures the Etymologie of the Sabbath to be from Sabachta that is the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Remission that Day being remitted holy unto the Lord being the seventh Day which is Sabaa that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vanity of which conjectures is apparent to all The Reason and Rise of this Appellation is manifest Hence this was the proper and usual Name of this Day under the Old Testament being expressive of its Occasion Nature and End The Word also hath other Formes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Sabbaton and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1. 7. Mishbat the signification of the Word being still retained Neither yet is this Word peculiarly Sacred as to what it denotes but is used to express things common or Prophane even any Cessation resting or giving over The first time it occurs Gen. 2. 3. it is rendred in Targum by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Word to rest See Isa. 14. 4. Chap. 24. 8. and many other places It is also applyed to signifie a Week because every Week or seven of Dayes had a Sabbath or Day of Rest necessarily included in it Levit. 23. 15. You shall count to your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven compleat Sabbaths that is Weeks each having a Sabbath in it for its close for the reckoning was to expire on the End of the seventh Sabbath v. 16. And this place being expounded by Onkelos in his Targum of a Week Nachmanides sayes upon it that if it be so which he also grants and pleads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there will be two Tongues in one Verse or the same Word used twice in the same Verse with different significations namely that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should denote both the Holy Day of Rest and also a Week of Dayes And he gives another Instance to the same purpose in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 10. 4. Jair the Gileadite had thirty sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the first place Colts of Asses and in the latter Cities And the common number of seven is expressed by it Levit. 25. 8. Thou shalt number unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Sabbaths of years that is as it is
expounded in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven times seven years seven years being called a Sabbath of years because of the Lands resting every seventh year in answer to the Rest of the Church every seventh Day see the Targum on Isa. 58. 13. Esth. 2. 9. Moreover because of the Rest that was common to the Weekly Sabbath with all other Sacred Feasts of Moses's Institution in their stated Monthly or Annual Revolution they were also called Sabbaths as shall be proved afterwards And as the Greeks and Latines made use of this Word borrowed from the Hebrew so the Jews observing that their Sabbath Day had amongst them its Name from Saturne Dies Saturni as amongst us it is still thence called Satterday they called him or the Planet of that Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbetai And even from hence some of the Jews take advantage to please themselves with vain Imaginations So R. Isaac Caro commending the Excellency of the seventh Day sayes That Saturne is the Planet of that Day the whole being denominated from the first hour whereof afterwards He therefore saith he hath power on that Day to renew the strength of our Bodies as also to influence our minds to understand the Mysteries of God He is the Planet of Israel as the Astrologers acknowledge doubtless and in his portion is the rational soul and in the parts of the earth the house of the Sanctuary and among Tongues the Hebrew Tongue and among Laws the Law of Israel So far he who whether he can make good his claim to the Relation of the Jews unto Saturne or their pretended advantage on supposition thereof I leave to our Astrologers to determine seeing I know nothing of these things And on the same Account of their Rest falling on the Day under that Planetary Denomination many of the Heathen thought they dedicated the Day and the Religion of it unto Saturne So Tacitus Histor. lib. 5. Alii Honorem eum Saturno haberi Seu Principia Religionis tradentibus Idaeis quos cum Saturno Pulsos conditores Gentis accepimus seu quod c septem syderibus queis mortales reguntur altissimo orbe praecipua Potentia stella Saturni feratur ac pleraque coelestium vim suam cursiem septimos per numeros conficiant Such Fables did the most diligent of the Heathen suffer themselves to be deluded withal whereby a prejudice was kept up in their minds against the only true God and his Worship The Word sometimes is also redoubled by a pure Hebraisme 1 Chron. 9. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbath Shabbath that is every Sabbath and somewhat variously used in the conjunction of another form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 31. 15. Levit. 25. 4. We render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Rest the Rest of the Sabbath and a Sabbath of Rest. Where sabbaton is preposed at least it seems to be as much as Sabbatulum and to denote the entrance into the Sabbath or the Preparation for it such as was more solemn when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Sabbath an High Day ensued Such was the Sabbath before the Passeover for the Miracle as the Jews say which befell their fore-fathers that day in Aegypt The time between the two Evenings was the Sabbatulum This then was the Name of the Day of Rest under the Old Testament yet was not the Word appropriated to the denotation of that Day only but is used sometimes naturally to express any Rest or Cessation sometimes as it were Artificially in numeration for a Week or any other season whose Composition was by and Resolution into seven though this was meerly occasional from the first limitation of a periodical Revolution of Time by a Sabbath of Rest of which before § 11 And this various Use of the Word was taken up among the Grecians and Latines also As they borrowed the Word from the Jews so they did its Use. The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meerly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perhaps formed by the Addition of their usual Termination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence also our Apostle frames his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Sabbatum is the same And they use this Word though rarely to express the last day of the Week So Suetonius in Tiber. Diogenes Grammaticus Sabbatis disputare Rhodi solitus And the LXX alwayes so express the seventh Day Sabbath and frequently they use it for a Week also And so in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18. 12. I fast twice on the Sabbath that is two dayes in the Week And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. 14. the Day of the Sabbath is that day of the Week which was set apart for a Sabbatical Rest. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One day of the Sabbaths which frequently occurs is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being often put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Numeral for the Cardinal § 12 About the time of the Writing of the Books of the New Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and Solemn Assemblies their Sabbaths because they did no servile work in them They had the general nature of the Weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour So the first day of the Feast of Trumpets which was to be on the first day of the second Month what day soever of the Week it happened to be on was called a Sabbath Levit. 23. 24. This Scaliger well observes and well proves Emendat Tempor lib. 3. Canon Isagog lib. 3. p. 213. Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Judaei quidem cum dicunt Tisri nunquam incipere à feria prima quarta sexta ne duo Sabbata continuentur Gentiles autem non alio nomine omnes eorum solennitates vocabant And this is evident from the frequent mention of the Sabbatical Fasts of the Jews when they did not nor was it lawful for them to fast on the Weekly Sabbath So speaks Augustus to Tiberius in Suetonius Ne Judaeus quidem mi Tiberi tam libenter Sabbatis jejunium servat quam ego hodie servavi And Juvenals Observant ubi Festa mero pede Sabbata Reges And Martial Et non jejuna Sabbata lege premet speaking in contradiction as he thought unto them And so Horace mentions their tricesima Sabbata which were no other but their New Moons And to this usual manner of speaking in those dayes doth our Apostle accommodate his Expressions Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in part of an Holy day any part of it or respect unto it or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths that is any of the Judaical Feasts whatever then
commonly called Sabbaths So Maimonides Tract de Sabb. cap. 29. speaking of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good Dayes or Feasts sayes expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are all Sabbaths to the Lord. And from this usage some think to expound that vexed Expression of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 6. 1. which we render the second Sabbath after the first So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the second day of the Passeover and the first of unleavened bread And wonder not that it is called a Sabbath for they called every Feast Day a Sabbath Theophylact gives us another Day but on the same Reason Saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews call every Feast a Sabbath For Sabbath is as much as Rest. Oft-times therefore there fell out a Feast on the day before the Weekly Sabbath and they called it a Sabbath because it was a Feast And therefore that which was the proper Sabbath at that Time was called the second Sabbath after the first being the second from that which went before Chrysostome allows of the same Reason Hom. in Matth. 39. Isidore Pelusiota fixeth on another Day but still for the same reason Epist. 110. lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is called the Deuteroproton because it was the second day from the sacrificing of the Passeover and the first day of unleavened bread which he shews was called a Sabbath upon the general account of all the Jewish Feasts being so called For so he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the way this is expresly contrary to the Scripture which makes the Day spoken of to be the proper Weekly Sabbath as it is called without any Addition Matth. 12. 11. whereon depended the Questions that ensued about its Observation But we are beholding to Scaliger for the true meaning of this Expression which so puzled the Antients and concerning which Gregory Nazianzen turned of Hierome with a scoff scarce becoming his Gravity when he enquired of him what might be the meaning of it Scaliger therefore conjectures that it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was the first Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second Day of unleavened bread For on that Day they offered the handful or sheaf of new fruits and from that day they counted seven Weeks unto Pentecost And the Sabbaths of those Weeks were reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the first that followed was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So he both in his Emendat Tempor lib. 6. and Isagog Canon p. 218. And this is subscribed unto by his Mortal Adversary Dyonisius Petavius Animad in Epiphar N. 31. p. 64. who will not allow him ever to have spoken tightly but in what the Wit of man can find no tolerable Objection against But this calling of their Feasts Sabbaths with the Reason of it is given us by all their principal Authors So Lib. Tzeror Hammor on Levit. p. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because all solemn Dayes are called holy Convocations they are all called so from the Sabbath which is called holy wherefore the Sabbath is the Head of all solemn Feasts and they are all of them called by the Name thereof Sabbaths of Rest whereof he gives Instances § 13 Some of the Antient Christians dealing with the Heathens called that Day which the Christians then observed in the Room of the Jewish seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or diem folis Sunday As those who treat and deal with others must express things by the Names that are currant amongst them unless they intend to be Barbarians unto them So speaks Justine Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We meet for the Worship of God in common on Sunday Had he said on the Sabbath the Gentiles would have concluded it to have been the Judaical Sabbath To have called it to them the Lords Day had been to design no determinate Day they would not have known what day he meant And the Name of the first Day of the Week taken up signally by Christians upon the Resurrection of Christ was not in use amongst them Wherefore he called the Day he intended to determine as was necessary for him by the Name in use amongst them to whom he spake Sunday In like manner Tertullian treating with the same sort of men calls it Diem solis Apol. cap. 16. And Eusebius reporting the Edicts of Constantine for the Observation of the Lords Day as it is termed in them adds that it is the Day which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sunday But yet among Christians themselves this Name was not in common use but by some was rejected as were also all the rest of the Names of the Dayes used among the Pagans So speaks August in Psal. 93. Quarta Sabbatorum quarta feria que Mercurii dies dicitur à Paganis à multis Christianis Sed noluimus ut dicant utinam corrigantur ut non dicant And Hicrome Epist. ad Algas Vna Sabbati dies dominica intelligenda est quia Hebdomada in Sabbatum ut in primam secundam tertiam quartam quintam sextam Sabbati dividitur guam Ethnici Idolorum Planetarum nominibus appellant He rejects the use of the ordinary Names unto the Heathens And Philastrius makes the usage of them amongst Christians almost Heretical Num. 3. All the Eastern Nations also amongst whom the Planetary Denomination of the Dayes of the Week first began have since their casting off that kind of Idolatry rejected the use of those Names being therein more Religious or more Superstitious than the most of Christians So is it done by the. Arabians and Persians and those that are joyned unto them in Religious Observances The Day of their Worship which is our Friday the Arabians call Giuma the Persians Adina The Rest of the Dayes of the Week they discriminate by their natural Order within their Hebdomadal Revolution the first the second the third only some of them in some places have some special Name occasionally imposed on them The Church of Rome from a Decree as they suppose or pretend of Pope Sylvester reckons all the Dayes of the Week by Feria prima secunda and so onwards only their Writers for the most part retain the Name of Sabbatum and use Dies Dominica for the first Day And the Rhemists on Revel 1. 10. condemn the name of Sunday as Heathenish And Polydore Virgil before them sayes Profccio pudendum est simulque dolendum quod non antebac data sunt istis diebus Christiana nomina ne dii Gentium tam memorabile inter nos monumentum haberent de Invent. Rer. lib. 6. c. 5. And indeed among sundry of the Antients there do many severe Expressions occurr against the use of the common Planetary Names And at the first Relinquishment of Gentilisme it had no doubt been well if those Names of Baalim had been taken away out of the mouths of men especially considering that the retaining of them hath
various states 37 Command for the Sabbath before the Fall 38 Before and at the giving of the Law and under the Gospel 39 Whether appointed by the Church 40 Of the fourth Commandment in the Decalogue 41 The proper subject of it 42 The seventh Day precisely not primarily required therein 43 Somewhat moral in it granted by all 44 The matter of this Command a Moral Duty by the Law of Creation 45 The Morality of the Precept it self proved from its interest in the Decalogue by various Instances 46 The Law of the Sabbath only preferred above all Ceremonial and Judicial Laws 47 The Words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. considered 48 The whole Law of the Decalogue established by Christ. 49 Objections proposed 50 The first answered 51 The second answered 52 The third answered 53 One Day in seven not the seventh Day precisely required in the Decalogue 54 An Objection from the sense of the Law 55 Answered 56 57 Other Objections answered 58 Col. 2. 16 17. considered The Third Exercitation Causes of the Sabbath § 1 WE have fixed the Original of the Sabbatical Rest according to the best light we have received into these things and confirmed the Reasons of it with the consent of mankind The next step in our progress must be an Enquiry into its Causes And here also we fall immediately into those Difficulties and Entanglements which the various Apprehensions of Learned Men promoted and defended with much Diligence have occasioned I have no Design to oppose or contend with any although a modest Examination of the Reasons of some will be indispensibly necessary unto me All that I crave is the liberty of proposing my own Thoughts and Judgement in this matter with the Reasons and Grounds of them When that is done I shall humbly submit the whole to the Examination and Judgement of all that call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours § 2 First It is agreed by all that God alone is the Supream Original and Absolute Cause of the Sabbath When ever it began when ever it ends be it expired or still in force of what kind soever were its Institution the Law of it was from God It was from Heaven and not of men and the Will of God is the sole Rule and measure of our Observation of it and Obedience to him therein What may or may not be done in reference unto the Observation of a Day of holy Rest by any inferior Authority comes not here under consideration But whereas there are two sorts of Laws whereby God requires the Obedience of his Rational Creatures which are commonly called Moral and Positive it is greatly questioned and disputed to whether of these sorts doth belong the Command of a Sabbatical Rest. Positive Laws are taken to be such as have no Reason for them in themselves nothing of the matter of them is taken from the things themselves commanded but do depend meerly and solely on the Soveraign Will and Pleasure of God Such were the Laws and Institutions of the Sacrifices of old and such are those which concern the Sacraments and other things of the like nature under the New Testament Moral Laws are such as have the Reasons of them taken from the Nature of the things themselves required in them For they are Good from their respect to the nature of God himself and from that nature and order of all things which he hath placed in the creation So that this sort of Laws is but Declarative of the absolute goodness of what they do require the other is Constitutive of it as unto some certain Ends. Laws Positive as they are occasionally given so they are esteemed alterable at pleasure Being fixed by meer Will and Prerogative without respect to any thing that should make them necessary antecedent to their giving they may by the same Authority at any time be taken away and abolished Such I say are they in their own nature and as to any firmitude that they have from their own subject matter But with respect unto Gods Determination Positive Divine Laws may become eventually unalterable And this Difference is there between Legal and Evangelical Institutions The Laws of both are Positive only equally proceeding from Soveraign Will and Pleasure and in their own Natures equally alterable But to the former God had in his purpose fixed a determinate time and season wherein they should expire or be altered by his Authority the latter he hath fixed a perpetuity and unchangeableness unto during the state and condition of his Church in this world The other sort of Laws are perpetual and unalterable in themselves so far as they are of that sort that is Moral For although a Law of that kind may have an especial Injunction with such circumstances as may be changed and varied as had the whole Decalogue in the Common-wealth of Israel yet so far as it is Moral that is that its Commands or Prohibitions are necessary emergencies or expressions of the Good or Evil of the things it commands or forbids it is invariable And in these things there is an Agreement unless sometimes through mutual Oppositions men are chased into some Exceptions or Distinctions § 3 Unto these two sorts do all Divine Laws belong and unto these Heads they may be all reduced And it is pleaded by some that these kinds of Laws are contradistinct so that a Law of one kind can in no sense be a Law in the other And this doubtless is true reduplicatively because they have especial formal Reasons As far and wherein any Laws are Positive they are not Moral and as far as they are purely Moral they are not formally Positive though given after the manner of positive Commands Howbeit this hinders not but that some do judge that there may be and are Divine Laws of a mixt nature For there may be in a Divine Law a foundation in and respect unto somewhat that is Moral which yet may stand in need of the superaddition of a Positive Command for its due Observation unto its proper End Yea the Moral Reason of things commanded which ariseth out of a due natural Respect unto God and the order of the Universe may be so deep and hidden as that God who would make the Way of his Creatures plain and easie gives out express positive Commands for the Observance of what is antecedently necessary by the Law of our Creation Hence a Law may partake of both these Considerations and both of them have an equal influence into its Obligatory Power And by this means sundry Duties some Moral some Positive are as it were compounded in one Observance as may be instanced in the great Duty of Prayer Hence the whole Law of that Observance becomes of a mixt nature which yet God can separate at his pleasure and taking away that which is Positive leave only that which is absolutely Moral in force And this kind of Laws which have their Foundation in the nature of things
themselves which yet stand in need of farther Direction for their due Observation which is added unto them by Positive Institution some call Moral Positive § 4 According to these Distinctions of the Nature of the Laws which God expresseth his Will in and by are mens Apprehensions different about the immediate and instrumental Cause of the Sabbatical Rest. That God was the Author of it is as was said by all agreed But say some the Law whereby he appointed it was purely Positive the matter of it being arbitrary stated and determined only in the Command it self and so the whole Nature of the Law and that commanded in it changeable And because Positive Laws did and alwayes do respect some other things besides and beyond themselves it is pleaded that this Law was Ceremonial and Typical that is it was an Institution of an outward present Religious Observation to signifie and represent some thing not present nor yet come such were all the particulars of the whole systeme of Mosaical Worship whereof this Law of the Sabbath was a part and an Instance In brief some say that the whole Law of the Sabbath was as to its general Nature positive and arbitrary and so changeable and in particular Ceremonial and Typical and so actually changed and abolished But yet it is so fallen out that those who are most positive in these Assertions cannot but acknowledge that this Law is so ingrafted into and so closed up with somewhat that is Moral and unalterable that it is no easie thing to hit the joint aright and make a separation of the one from the other But concerning any other Law expresly and confessedly Ceremonial no such thing can be observed They were all evidently and entirely arbitrary Institutions without any such neer Relation to what is Moral as might trouble any one to make a distinction between them For Instance the Law of Sacrifices hath indeed an answerableness in it to a great Principle of the Law of Nature namely that we must honour God with our substance and the best of our Increase yet that this might be done many other wayes and not by Sacrifice if God had pleased so to ordain every one is able to apprehend It is otherwise in this matter for none will deny but that it is required of us in and by the Law of Nature that some Time be set apart and dedicated unto God for the Observation of his solemn Worship in the world And it is plain to every one that this natural dictate is inseparably included in the Law of the Sabbath It will therefore surely be difficult to make it absolutely and universally positive I know some begin to whisper things inconsistent with this concession But we have as yet the Universal consent of all Divines Antient and Modern Fathers Schoolmen and Casuists concurring in this matter For they all unanimously affirm that the separation of some part of our Time to sacred uses and the solemn honouring of God is required of us in the Light and by the Law of Nature And herein lyes the fundamental notion of the Law now enquired after This also may be farther added that whereas this Natural dictate for the observation of some time in the solemn worship of God hath been accompanied with a Declaration of his will from the foundation of the world that this Time should be one day in seven it will be a matter of no small Difficulty to find out what is purely positive therein § 5 Others building on this Foundation that the Dedication of some part of our Time to the Worship of God is a duty Natural or Moral as required by the Law of our Creation not that Time in it self which is but a circumstance of other things can be esteemed Moral but that our observation of Time may be a Moral Duty do add that the Determination of one Day in seven to be that portion of Time so to be dedicated is inseparable from the same foundation and is of the same Nature with it That is that the Sabbatical Observation of one Dayes Holy Rest in seven hath a Moral Precept for its Warranty or that which hath the nature of a Moral Precept in it so that although the Revolution of Time in seven Dayes and the confining of the Day to that determined season do depend on Revelation and a Fositive Command of God for its Observance yet on fupposition thereof the Moral Precept prevails in the whole and is everlastingly Obligatory And there are some Divines of great Piety and Learning who do judge that a Command of God given unto all men and equally Obligatory unto all respecting their manner of living unto God is to be esteemed a Moral Command and that indispensible and unchangeable although we should not be able to discover the Reason of it in the Light and Law of Nature Nor can such a Command be reckoned amongst them that are meerly positive arbitrary and changeable all which depend on sundry other things and do not firstly affect men as men in general And it is probable that God would not give out any such Catholick Command which comprized not somewhat naturally Good and Right in it And this is the best measure and Determination of what is Moral and not our Ability of discovering by Reason what is so and what is not as we shall see afterwards § 6 Moreover there are some who stay not here but contend that the precise Observation of the seventh Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution lyeth under a Command Moral and indispensible For God they say who is the Soveraign Lord of us and our Times hath taken by an Everlasting Law this Day unto himself for his honour and service And he hath therein obliged all men to an holy Rest not on some certain fixed and stated time not on one Day in seven originally as the first Intention of his Command but on the seventh Day precisely whereunto those other considerations of some stated and fixed time and of one Day in seven are Consequential and far from previous foundations of it The seventh Day as the seventh Day is they say the first proper Object of the Command the other things mentioned of a stated Time and of one Day in seven do only follow thereon and by vertue thereof belong to the Command of the Sabbath and no otherwise Herein great Honour indeed is done unto the seventh Day above all other Ordinances of Worship whatever even of the Gospel it self but whether with sufficient Warranty we must afterwards enquire At present I shall only observe that this Observation of the seventh Day precisely is resolved into the Soveraignty of God over us and our Times and into an Occasion respecting purely the Covenant of Works on which bottoms it is hard to fix it in an absolute unvariable station § 7 It is the second Opinion for the substance of it which I shall indeavour to explain and confirm and therein prove a Sacred Sabbatical Rest unto God
meer cessation from working It is not absolutely so for God worketh hitherto And the Expression of Gods Rest is of a Moral and not a Natural signification For it consists in the Satisfaction and Complacency that he took in his Works as effects of his Goodness Power and Wisdom disposed in the Order and unto the Ends mentioned Hence as it is said that upon the finishing of them he looked on every thing that he had made and behold it was very good Gen. 1. 31. that is he was satisfied in his works and their disposal and pronounced concerning them that they became his infinite Wisdom and Power so it is added that he not only rested on the seventh Day but also that he was refreshed Exod. 31. 17. that is he took great complacency in what he had done as that which was suited unto the End aimed at namely the expression of his Greatness Goodness and Wisdom unto his Rational Creatures and his Glory through their Obedience thereon as on the like Occasion he is said to rest in his Love and to rejoyce with singing Zeph. 3. 17. Now in the Work and Rest of God thus stated did the whole Rule of the Obedience of man originally consist and therein was he to seek also his own Rest as his Happiness and Blessedness For God had not declared any other way for his Instruction in the End of his Creation that is his Obedience unto him and Blessedness in him but in and by his own Works and Rest. This then is the first End of this Holy Rest. And it must alwayes be born in mind as that without which we can give no glory to God as rational creatures made under a Moral Law in a dependance on Him For this he indispensibly requireth of us and this is the summ of what he requireth of us namely that we glorifie him according to the Revelation that he makes of himself unto us whether by his Works of Nature or of Grace To the solemnity hereof the Day enquired after is necessary To express these things is the General End of the Sabbatical Rest prescribed unto us and our observation For so it is said God wrought and rested and then requires us so to do And it hath sundry particular Ends or Reasons First That we might learn the satisfaction and complacency that God hath in his own works Gen. 2. 2 3. That is to consider the impressions of his Excellencies upon them and to glorifie him as God on that Account Rom. 1. 19 20 21. For hence was man originally taught to Fear Love Trust Obey and Honour him absolutely even from the manifestation that he had made of himself in his works wherein he rested And had not God thus rested in them and been refreshed upon their compleating and finishing they would not have been a sufficient means to instruct man in those Duties And our Observation of the Evangelical Sabbath hath the same respect unto the works of Christ and his Rest thereon when he saw of the Travel of his soul and was satisfied as shall afterwards be declared Secondly Another End of the Original Sabbatical Rest was that it might be a pledge unto man of his Rest in and with God For in and by the Law of his Creation man had an End of Rest proposed unto him and that in God This he was to be directed unto and incouraged to look after Herein God by his Works and Rest had instructed him And by giving him the Sabbath as he gave him a Pledge thereof so he required of him his Approbation of the Covenant Way of attaining it whereof afterwards Hence Psal. 92. whose Title is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Psalm a Song for the Sabbath Day which some of the Jews ascribe unto Adam as it principally consists in contemplations of the Works of God with holy Admirations of his Greatness and Power manifested in them with praises unto him on their Account so it expresseth the Destruction of ungodly sinners and the salvation of the Righteous whereof in that dayes Rest they had a pledge And this belonged unto that state of man wherein he was created namely that he should have a pledge of Eternal Rest. Neither could his Duty and capacity be otherwise answered or esteemed reasonable His Duty which was working in Moral Obedience had a natural Relation unto a Reward And his Capacity was such as could not be satisfied nor himself attain absolute Rest but in the Enjoyment of God A pledge hereof therefore belonged unto his condition Thirdly Consideration was had of the Way and Means whereby man might enter into the Rest of God proposed unto him And this was by that Obedience and Worship of God which the Covenant wherein he was created required of him The solemn Expression of this Obedience and Exercise of this Worship was indispensibly required of him and his posterity in all their Societies and Communion with one another This cannot be denyed unless we shall say that God making man to be a sociable creature and capable of sundry Relations did not require of him to honour him in the Societies and Relations whereof he was capable which would certainly overthrow the whole Law of his Creation with respect unto the End for which he was made and render all societies sinful and rebellious against God Hereunto the Sabbatical Rest was absolutely necessary For without some such Rest fixed or variable those things could not be This is a Time or season for man to express and solemnly pay that homage which he owes to his Creator And this is by the most esteemed the great if not the only End of the Sabbath But it is evident that it falls under sundry precedent Considerations § 10 These being the proper Ends and Reasons of the Original Sabbatical Rest which contain the true Notion of it we may nextly enquire after the Law whereby it was prescribed and commanded To this purpose we must first consider the state wherein man was created and then the Law of his Creation And for the state and condition wherein man was created it falls under a threefold consideration For man may be considered either 1. Absolutely as a Rational Creature or 2. As made under a Covenant of Rewards and Punishments or 3. With respect unto the especial nature of that Covenant First He was made a Rational Creature and thereby necessarily in a Moral Dependance on God For being endowed with Intellectual Faculties in an immortal soul capable of eternal Blessedness or Misery able to know God and to regard him as the first Cause and last End of all as the Author of his Being and Object of his Blessedness it was naturally and necessarily incumbent on him without any farther considerations to Love Fear and Obey him to trust in him as a Preserver and Rewarder and this the order of his nature called the Image of God enclined and inabled him unto For it was not possible that such a creature should be produced and not lye
they are not constituted of God to be the Rule or Measure of other mens Faith Perswasions Apprehensions and Conversations And others whom for some defects at least so supposed by us we may be apt to despise may be yet taught the Truth of God in things wherein we may be out of the way That then which we have to do in these cases is first to endeavour after a full Perswasion in our own minds then to communicate the Principles of Reason and Scripture Testimony which we ground our Perswasion upon unto others labouring with meekness and gentleness to instruct them whom we apprehend to be out of the way so submitting the whole to the Judgement of all that fear the Lord and shall take notice of such things And these Rules have I and shall I attend unto as abhorring nothing more than a proud Magisterial imposing of our Apprehensions and Inclinations on the minds and practices of other men which I judge far more intolerable in particular persons than in Churches and Societies in both contrary to that Royal Law of Love and Liberty which all Believers ought to walk by And therefore as we said what hath been spoken on this subject or shall yet farther be added I humbly submit to the Judgement of the sober and indifferent Readers only assuring them that I teach as I have learned speak because I believe and declare nothing but whereof I am fully perswaded in my own mind § 45 The Nature of the Decalogue and the Distinction of its Precepts from all Commands Ceremonial or Political comes now under consideration The whole Decalogue I acknowledge as given on Mount Sinai to the Israelites had a Political Use as being made the Principal Instrument or Rule of the Polity and Government of their Nation as peculiarly under the Rule of God It had a Place also in that Oeconomy or Dispensation of the Covenant which that Church was then brought under wherein by Gods dealing with them and Instructing of them they were taught to look out after a farther and greater good in the Promise than they were yet come to the Enjoyment of Hence the Decalogue it self in that Dispensation of it was a Schoolmaster unto Christ. But in it self and materially considered it was wholly and in all the Preceptive parts of it absolutely Moral Some indeed of the Precepts of it as the first fourth and fifth have either Prefaces Enlargements or Additions which belonged peculiarly to the then present and future State of that Church in the Land of Canaan but these especial Applications of it unto them change not the Nature of its Commands or Precepts which are all Moral and as far as they are esteemed to belong to the Decalogue are unquestionably acknowledged so to be Let us therefore consider the Pleas for Morality in the fourth Command upon the account of its Interest in the Decalogue and the manifest Evidences of that Interest As therefore the Giving Writing Use and Disposal of the Decalogue were peculiar and distinct from the whole Systeme of the Rest of the Laws and Statutes which being with it given to the Church of Israel were either Ceremonial or Judicial so the Precept concerning the Sabbath or the Sacred Observance of one Day in seven hath an equal share with the other Nine in all the Priviledges of the whole As 1. It was spoken immediately by the Voice of God in the hearing of all the people Exod. 19. Whereas all the other Laws whether Ceremonial or Judicial were given peculiarly to Moses and by him declared unto the rest of the people What weight is laid hereon see Exod. 19. v. 10 11 17 18. Deut. 4. 34. Chap. 33. 2. In the first whereof the work it self is declared in the latter a distinguishing Greatness and Glory above all other Legislations is ascribed unto it And it is worth the Enquiry what might be the cause of this Difference No other appears to me but that God thereby declared that the Law of the Decalogne belonged immediately and personally unto them all and every one upon the Original Right of the Law of Nature which it did represent and express whereas all the other Laws and Statutes given unto them by the Mediation of Moses belonged unto that peculiar Church State and Oeconomy of the Covenant which they were then initiated into and which was to abide unto the Time of the Reformation of all things by Jesus Christ. And here it may be remembred and so in all the ensuing Instances that we have proved the matter of this Command to be first the separation of some time indefinitely to the Worship of God and then the limitation of that time unto one day in seven For this it requires or nothing at all which should be peculiar unto a distinct Precept is required in it as we have before manifested And this one consideration alone is sufficient to evince its Morality 2. This Command as all the Rest of the Decalogue was written twice by the finger of God in Tables of Stone And hereof there was a double Reason First That it was a stable Revocation and Objective Representation of that Law which being implanted on the heart of man and communicated unto him in his Creation was variously defaced partly by the corruption and loss of that Light through the entrance of sin which should have guided us in the Right Apprehension and Understanding of its Dictates and the Obedience that it required partly through a long course of a corrupt conversation which the world had in the pursuit of the first Apostasie and according to the Principles of it plunged it self into God now again fixed that Law Objectively in a way of durable Preservation which in its primitive seat and subject was so impaired and defaced And hereof the Additions mentioned with peculiar Respect unto the Application of the whole or any part of it unto that people were no impeachment as is acknowledged in the Preface given unto them all containing a Motive unto their dutiful Observance of the whole And hence this Law must necessarily be esteemed a part of the Antecedent Law of Nature neither can any other Reason be given why God wrote it himself with those and only those that are so in Tables of Stone Secondly This was done as an Embleme that the whole Decalogue was a Representation of that Law which by his Spirit he would write in the fleshly Tables of the Hearts of his Elect. And this is well observed by the Church of England which after the Reading of the whole Decalogue the fourth Command amongst the rest directs the people to pray That God would write all these Laws in their Hearts Now this concerneth only the Moral Law For although Obedience unto all Gods Ceremonial and Typical Institutions whilst they were in force was Moral and a part of the Law written in the Heart or required in general in the Precepts of the first Table of the Decalogue yet those Lawes themselves had no
nature soever on other Reasons the Covenant be between them whether that of Works or that of Grace by Jesus Christ. The seventh Day precisely belonging unto the Covenant of Works cannot therefore be firstly but only occasionally intended in the Decalogue Nor doth it nor can it invariably belong unto our absolute Obedience unto God because it is not of the substance of it but is only an occasional determination of a duty such as all other Positive Laws do give us And hence there is in the Command it self a difference put between a Sabbath Day and the arbitrary limitation of the seventh Day to be that day For we are commanded to remember the Sabbath Day not the seventh Day and the Reason given as is elsewhere observed is because God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath Day in the close of the Command where the formal Reason of our Obedience is expressed not the seventh Day Nor is indeed the joint Observation of the seventh Day precisely unto all to whom this Command is given that is to all who take the Lord to be their God possible though it were to the Jews in the Land of Palestina who were obliged to keep that Day For the difference of the Climate in the world will not allow it Nor did the Jews ever know whether the Day they observed was the seventh from the Creation only they knew it was so from the day whereon Manna was first given unto them And the whole Revolution and Computation of Time by Dayes was sufficiently interrupted in the dayes of Joshua and Hezekiah from allowing us to think the Observation of the seventh Day to be Moral And it is a Rule to judge of the intention of all Laws Divine and Humane that the meaning of the preceptive part of them is to be collected from the Reasons annexed to them or inserted in them Now the Reasons for a Sacred Rest that are intimated and stated in this Command do no more respect the seventh Day than any other in seven Six dayes are granted to labour that is in number and not more in a septenary Revolution Nor doth the Command say any thing whether these six dayes shall be the first or the last in the order of them And any day is as meet for the performance of the Duties of the Sabbath as the seventh if in an alike manner designed thereunto which things are at large pleaded by others § 54 It hath hitherto been allowed generally that the fourth Commandment doth at least include something in it that is Moral or else indeed no colour can be given unto its Association with them that are absolutely so in the Decalogue This is commonly said to be that some part of our Time be Dedicated to the Publick Worship of God But as this would overthrow the Pretension before mentioned that there can be no Moral Command about Time which is but a Circumstance of Moral Duties so the Limitation of that Time unto one Day in seven is so evidently a perpetually binding Law that it will not be hard to prove the unchangeable Obligation that is upon all men unto the Observance of it which is all for the substance that is contended for To avoid this it is now affirmed Disquisit p. 14. That Moralc Quarti Praecepti est non unum Diem sed totum tempus vitae nostrae quantum id fieri potest impendendum esse cultui Dei quaerendo regnum Dei Justitiam ejus atque inserviendo aedificationi proximi quo pertinet ut Deo serviamus ejus beneficia agnoscamus celeberemus cum invocemus Spiritu fidem nostram testemur confessione oris c. This is that which is Moral in the fourth Commandment namely that not one Day but as much as may be our whole lives be spent in the Worship of God seeking his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and furthering the edification of our neighbour Hereunto it belongeth that we should serve God acknowledge and celebrate his Benefits pray unto him in Spirit and testifie our faith by our Confession § 55 An. It is hard to discover how any of these things have the least respect to the fourth Commandment much more how the Morality of it should consist in them For all the Instances mentioned are indeed required in the first Precept of the Decalogue that only excepted of taking care to promote the edification of our Neighbour which is the summ and substance of the second Table expressed by our Saviour by loving our Neighbour as our selves To live unto God to believe and trust in him to acknowledge his Benefits to make Confession of him in the world are all especial Moral Duties of the first Commandment It cannot therefore be apprehended how the Morality of the fourth Commandment should consist in them And if there be nothing else Moral in it there is certainly nothing Moral in it at all For these things and the like are claimed from it and taken out of its possession by the first Precept And thereunto doth the General Consideration of Time with respect unto these Duties belong namely that we should live unto God whilst we live in this World For we live in Time and that is the measure of our duration and continuance Something else therefore must be found out to be Moral in the fourth Commandment or it must be denyed plainly to have any thing Moral in it § 56 It is farther yet pleaded that the Sabbath was a Type of our Spiritual Rest in Christ both that which we have in him at present by Grace and that which remains for us in Heaven Hence it was a shaddow of good things to come as were all other Ceremonial Institutions But that the same thing should be Moral and a shadow is a contradiction That which is a shadow can in no sense be said to be Moral nor on the contrary The Sabboth therefore was meerly Ceremonial An. It doth not appear it cannot be proved that the Sabbath either as to its first Original or as to the substance of the Command of it in the Decalogue was Typical or instituted to prefigure any thing that was future Yea the contrary is evident For the Law of it was given before the first Promise of Christ as we have proved and that in the state of Innocency and under the Covenant of Works in perfect force wherein there was no respect unto the Mediation of Christ. I do acknowledge that God did so order all his Works in the first Creation and under the Law of Nature as that they might be suitable Morally to represent his Works under the New Creation which from the Analogie of our Redemption to the Creation of all things is so called And hence according to the Eternal Counsel of God were all things meet to be gathered into an Head in Christ Jesus On this account there is an Instructive Resemblance between the Works of one sort and of the other So the Rest of God after the Works of the old
but the Renovation of the Command when given unto them in the way of an especial Ordinance Exod. 16. and belongs not to the substance of the Command it self Yea take the Command it self without respect unto its explications elsewhere and it expresseth no such limitation though vertually because of the precedent Institution Exod. 16. it be contained in it Hence Thirdly There is a Prescription for the manner of its Observance accommodated unto the state and condition of that people and that two wayes 1. In comprehending things Spiritual under things Carnal when yet the carnal are of no consideration in the Worship of God but as they necessarily attend upon things spiritual Hence that part of the Command which concerns the manner of the Observation of the Sabbath to be kept holy is given out in a Prohibition of bodily Labour and Work or a Command of bodily Rest. But it is the Expression of the Rest of God and his complacency in his Works and Covenant with the Sanctification of the Day in Obedience to his Commands in and by the holy Duties of his Worship that are principally intended in it And this he farther intimates afterwards unto them by his Institution of a double Sacrifice to be offered Morning and Evening on that Day 2. In the Distribution of the people into the Capital Persons with their Relations Servants and Strangers that God would have to live amongst them and joyn themselves unto them In the whole it appears that the Sabbath is not now commanded to be observed because it is the seventh Day as though the seventh Day were firstly and principally intended in the Command which as we have shewed that neither the substance of the Command nor the Reason of it with which the whole of the Precept is begun and ended will admit of but the seventh Day is commanded to be observed because by an antecedent Institution it was made to be the Sabbath unto that people Exod. 16. Whence it came to fall under the Command not primarily but reductively as it had been on another account from the foundation of the World The Sabbath therefore is Originally commanded as one day in seven to be dedirated unto an Holy Rest. And the seventh Day if we respect the order of the dayes is added as that especial Day which God had declared that he would have at that Time his Sabbath to be observed on Now all these things in the Law of the Sabbath are Mosaical namely the Obligation that arose unto its Observation from the Promulgation of the Law unto that people on Sinai the limitation of the Day unto the seventh or last of the Week which was necessary unto that Administration of the Covenant which God then made use of and had a respect unto a previous Institution the Manner of its Observance suited unto that servile and bondage frame of mind which the giving the Law on Mount Sinai did ingenerate in them as being designed of God so to do the ingrafting it into the systeme and series of Religious Worship then in force by the double Sacrifice annexed unto it with the various uses in and accommodations it had unto the Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel in all which respects it is abolished and taken away § 12 God having disposed and setled the Sabbath as to the seventh Day and the manner of its Observation as a part of the Covenant then made with that people he thereon makes use of it in the same manner and unto the same Ends with the residue of the Institutions and Ordinances which he had then prescribed unto them This he doth Exod. 31. 13 14 14 15 16 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak thou unto the Children of Israel saying Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from amongst his people Six Dayes may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of Rest holy to the Lord whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath Day shall surely be put to death Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever For in six Dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh Day he rested and was refreshed This is the next mention of the Sabbath amongst that people wherein all that we have before laid down is fully confirmed God had now by Moses appointed other Sabbaths that is Monthly and Annual Sacred Rests to be observed unto himself With these he now joyns the Weekly Sabbath in Allusion whereunto they have that Name also given unto them He had sufficiently manifested a Difference between them before For the one he pronounced himself on Mount Sinai as part of his universal and eternal Law The other he Instituted by Revelation unto Moses as that which peculiarly belonged unto them The one was grounded on a Reason wherein they had no more concern or interest than all the rest of mankind namely Gods Rest on his Works and being refreshed thereon upon the Creation of the World and the establishment of his Covenant with man the other all built on Reasons peculiar unto themselves and that Church State whereinto they were admitted But here the Sabbaths of both these kinds are brought under the same Command and designed unto the same Ends and Purposes Now the sole Reason hereof lies in those temporary and Ceremonial Additions which we have manifested to have been made unto the Original Law of the Sabbath in its Accommodation to their Church State with the Place which it held therein as we shall see yet farther in particular § 13 The Occasion of this Renovation of the Command was the Building of the Tabernacle which was now designed and forthwith to be undertaken And with Respect hereunto there was a double Reason for the Repetition of this Command First Because that Work was for an holy End and so upon the matter an holy Work and whereon the people were very intent hence they might have supposed that it would have been lawfull for them to have attended unto it on the Sabbath Dayes This therefore God expresly forbids that they might have no pretence for the Transgression of his Command And therefore is the Penalty annexed unto it so expresly here appointed and mentioned Secondly As the Tabernacle now to be built was the only seat of that solemn instituted Worship which God was now setting up amongst them so the Sabbath being the great Means of its continuance and performance this they were now to be severely minded of lest by their neglect and forgetfulness thereof they might
come to a neglect and contempt of all that Worship which was as it were built upon it And as we observed before more than once the Weekly Sabbath being inserted into the Oeconomy of their Laws as to the matter of Works and Rest it is comprized in the General with other Feasts called Sabbaths also Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And in this regard they are all cast together by our Apostle Col. 2. 16. and the Sabbath Dayes And they who by vertue of this and the like Commands would bind us up to the Judaical Sabbath do certainly lose both that and all other ground for the Observance of any Sabbath at all For look in what respects it is joyned with the other Sabbaths by Moses in the same it is taken away with them by the Apostle § 14 There is a treble Appropriation of the Weekly Sabbaths in this place made unto the Church of the Israelites 1. In that the Observation of it is required of them in their Generations that is during the continuance of that Church State which was to abide to the coming of Christ. For what was required of them in their Generations as it was required was then to expire and be abolished 2. That they were to observe it as a perpetual Covenant or as a part of that Covenant which God then made with them which is called everlasting because it was to be so unto them seeing God would never make any other peculiar Covenant with them And whereas all the Statutes and Ordinances that God then gave them belonged unto and altogether entirely made up that Covenant some of this as this especial Command for the Sabbath and that of Circumcision are distinctly called the Covenant and ceased with it 3. It was given unto them as an especial Pledge of the Covenant that God then made with them wherein he rested in his Worship and brought them to rest therein in the Land of Canaan whereby they entred into Gods Rest. Hence it is called a sign between them v. 13 14 which is repeated and explained Ezek. 20. 12. A sign it was or an evident Expression of the present Covenant of God between them and him not a Sacramental or Typical sign of future Grace in particular any otherwise than as their whole Church Constitution and their Worship in general whereof by these means it was made a part were so that is not in it self or its own nature but as prescribed unto them And a present sign between God and them it was upon a double account 1. On the part of the people Their assembling on that Day for the Celebration of the Worship of God and the avowing him alone therein to be their God was a sign or an evident express Acknowledgement that they were the people of the Lord. And this doth not in the least impeach its Original Morality seeing there is no Moral Duty but in its Exercise or actual Performance may be so made a sign 2. On the part of God namely that it was he who sanctified them For by this Observance they had a visible pledge that God had separated them unto and for himself and therefore had given them his Word and Ordinances as the outward means of their further sanctification to be peculiarly attended unto on that Day And on these Grounds it is that God is elsewhere said to give them his Sabbaths to reveal them unto them as their peculiar Priviledge and Advantage And their Priviledge it was For although in comparison of the substance and Glory of things to be brought in by Christ with the Liberty and Spirituality of Gospel Worship all their Ordinances and Institutions were a yoke of Bondage yet considering their Use with their End and Tendency compared with the Rest of the World at that time they were an unspeakable Priviledge Psal. 147. v. 19 20. However therefore the Sabbath was originally given before unto all mankind yet God now by the Addition of his Institutions to be observed on that Day whereby he sanctified the people made an enclosure of it so far unto them alone Lastly Here is added a peculiar sanction under the Penalty of Death He that transgresseth it shall surely be put to Death v. 14. God sometimes threatneth cutting off and extermination unto Persons concerning whom yet the people had no warranty to proceed Capitally against them only he took it upon himself as the Supream Legislator and Rector of that people to destroy them and cut them off as they speak by the hand of Heaven But where ever this expression is used he shall surely be put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dying he shall dye there the people or the Judges among them are not only warranted but commanded to proceed Judicially against such an Offendor And in this respect it belonged unto that severe Government which that people stood in need of as also to mind them of the sanction of the whole Law of Creation as a Covenant of Works with the same Commination of Death unto all Transgressors In all these regards the Sabbath was Judaical and is absolutely abolished and taken away § 15 The Command is renewed again Exod. 34. 21. Six Dayes thou shalt work but on the seventh Day thou shalt Rest in Earing time and in Harvest thou shalt rest Earing time and Harvest are the seasons wherein those who till the Ground are most intent upon their Occasions and do most hardly bear with Intermissions because they may be greatly to their Dammage Wherefore they are insisted on or specified to manifest that no Avocation nor pretence can justifie men in working or labour on that Day For by expressing Earing and Harvest all those Intervenings also are intended in those seasons whereon damage and loss might redound unto men by omitting the gathering in of their Corn. And it should seem on this Ground that on that day they might not labour neither to take it away before a flood nor remove it from an approaching fire So some of the Masters think although our Saviour convince them from their own Practice in relieving Cattel fallen into Pits on that day Luke 14. 5. and by loosing them that were tyed to lead them to watering Chap. 13. 15. that they did not conceive this universally to be the intendment of that Law that in no case any work was to be done And it seems they were wiser for their Asses in those Dayes than the poor wretch was for himself in latter Ages who falling into the Jakes at Tewkesbury on that Day would not suffer himself to be drawn out if the Story be truely reported in our Chronicles In general I doubt not but that this Additional Explanation in a way of severity is in its proper sense purely Judaical and contains something more of Rigidness that is required by the Law of the Sabbath as purely Moral § 16 Mentioned it is again with a new Addition Exod. 35. 2 3. Six Dayes shall work be done but on the seventh Day there
shall be to you an holy Day a Sabbath of Rest unto the Lord whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath Day Here again the Penalties and the Prohibition of kindling fire are Mosaical and so is on their account the whole Command as here renewed though there be that in it which for the substance of it is Moral And here the seventh Day precisely is made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holiness unto them or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Convocation of holiness an holy Convocation as it is expressed Levit. 23. 2. where these words are again repeated whose Profanation was to be avenged with Death The Prohibition also added about kindling of fire in their habitations hath been the occasion of many anxious Observances among the Jews They all agree that the kindling of fire for Profit and Advantage in Kilns and Oasts for the making of Brick or drying of Corn or for founding or melting Mettals is here forbidden But what need was there that so it should be seeing all these things are expresly forbidden in the Command in general Thou shalt do no manner of work somewhat more is intended They say therefore that it is the kindling of fire for the dressing of Victuals And this indeed seems to be the intendment of this especial Law as the Manna that was to be eaten on the Sabbath was to be prepared on the Parasecue But withal I say this is a new additional Law and purely Mosaical the Original Law of the Sabbath making no entrenchment on the ordinary duties of humane life as we shall see afterwards Whether it forbad the kindling of fire for Light and Heat I much question The present Jews in most places employ Christian Servants about such works For the poor wretches care not what is done to their Advantage so they do it not themselves But these and the like Precepts belonged unquestionably unto their Paedagogie and were separable from the Original Law of the Sabbath § 17 Lastly The whole matter is stated Deut. 5. 15. where after the Repetition of the Commandment it is added and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day The Mercy and Benefit they had received in their Deliverance from Aegypt is given as the Reason not why they should keep the Sabbath as it was proposed as a Motive unto the Observation of the whole Law in the Preface of the Decalogue but wherefore God gave them the Law of it to keep and observe Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Now the Reason of the Command of a Sabbatical Rost absolutely God had every where declared to be his making the world in six dayes and resting on the seventh The mention whereof in this place is wholly omitted because an especial Application of the Law unto that people is intended So that it is evident that the Mosaical Sabbath was on many Accounts and in many things distinguished from that of the Decalogue which is a Moral Duty For the Deliverance of the people out of Aegypt which was a benefit peculiar unto themselves and Typical of Spiritual Mercies unto others was the Reason of the Institution of the Sabbath as it was Mosaical which it was not nor could be of the Sabbath absolutely although it might be pressed on that people as a considerable Motive why they ought to endeavour the keeping of the whole Law § 18 From all that hath been discoursed it appears That the Observation of the seventh Day precisely from the Beginning of the world belonged unto the Covenant of Works not as a Covenant but as a Covenant of Works founded in the Law of Creation And that in the Administration of that Covenant which was revived and unto certain Ends reinforced unto the Church of Israel in the Wilderness it was bound on them by an especial Ordinance to be observed throughout their Generations or during the continuance of their Church State Moreover that as to the manner of the Observance required by the Law as delivered on Mount Sinai it was a yoke and burden to the people because that dispensation of the Law gendred unto Bondage Gal. 4. 24. For it begot a Spirit of fear and Bondage in all that were its Children and subject unto its Power In this condition of things it was applyed unto sundry Ends in their Typical State in which regard it was a shadow of good things to come And so also was it in respect of those other Additional Institutions and Prohibitions which were inseparable from its Observation amongst them whereof we have spoken On all these Accounts I doubt not but that the Mosaical Sabbath and the manner of its Observation is under the Gospel utterly taken away But as for the Weekly Sabbath as required by the Law of our Creation reinforced in the Decalogue the summary Representation of that great Original Law the Observation of it is a Moral Duty which by Divine Authority is translated unto another Day § 19 The ancient Jews have a saying which by the later Masters is abused but a Truth is contained in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath gives firmitude and strength to all the Affairs of this World For it may be understood of the Blessing of God on the due Observation of his Worship on that Day Hence it was they say that any young clean Beast that was to be offered in Sacrifice must continue seven dayes with the Damm and not be offered until the eighth Levit. 22. 27. That a Child was not to be circumcised until the eighth Day that there might be an Interposition of a Sabbath for their Benediction And it is not unlikely that the eighth Day was also signalized hereby as that which was to succeed in the Room of the seventh as shall be manifested in our next Discourse The Fifth Exercitation OF THE Lords-Day 1 A Summary of what hath been proved a progress to the Lords-day 2 The new Creation of all things in Christ the foundation of Gospel-Obedience and Worship 3 The old and new Creation compared 4 The old and new Covenant 5 Distinct Ends of these Covenants 6 Supposition of the Heads of things before confirmed 7 Foundation of the Lords-day on those Suppositions 8 Christ the â—uthor of the new Creation his Works therein 9 His Rest from his Works the Indication of a new Day of Rest. 10 Observed by the Apostles 11 Proof of the Lords-day from Heb. 4. proposed 12 The words of the Text. 13 esign of the Apostle in general 14 His answer unto an Objection with his general Argument 15 The nature of the Rests treated on by him 16 The Church under the Law of Nature and its Rest. 17 The Church under the Law of Institution and its Rest. 18
the nature of the several Rests here discoursed of by the Apostle which will give light and confirmation unto what we have before discoursed To this purpose will the ensuing Propositions taken from the words conduce As 1. The Rest of God is the foundation and principal cause of our Rest. Hence in general it is still called Gods Rest if they shall enter into my Rest It is on some account or other Gods Rest before it is ours not the Rest only which he hath appointed commanded and promised unto us but the Rest wherewith himself rested as is plainly declared on every head of the Rests here treated of And this confirms that foundation and reason of a Sabbatical Rest which we have laid down in our third Exercitation Gods Rest is not spoken of absolutely with respect unto himself only but with reference unto an appointed Rest that ensued thereon for the Church to rest with him in Hence it follows that the Rests here mentioned are as it were double namely the Rest of God himself and the Rest that ensued thereon for us to enter into For instance at the finishing of the works of Creation which is first proposed God ceased from his works and rested This was his own Rest the nature whereof hath been before declared He rested on the seventh day But this was not all he blessed it for the Rest of man a Rest for us ensuing on his Rest an expressive representation of it and a pledge of our entring into or being taken into a participation of the Rest of God 3. The Apostle proposeth the three-fold state of the Church unto consideration 1 The state of it under the Law of Nature or Creation 2 The state of it under the Law of Institutions and carnal Ordinances 3 That then introducing under the Gospel Accordingly have we distinguished our Discourses concerning a Sabbatical Rest in our third and fourth and this present Exercitation To each of these he assigns a distinct Rest of God a Rest of the Church entring into Gods Rest and a Day of Rest as the means and pledge thereof And withall he manifests that the two former were ordered to be previous Representations of the latter though not equally nor on the same account First He considers the Church and the state of it under the Law of nature before the entrance of sin and herein he shews first that there was a Rest of God in it for saith he the works were finished from the foundation of the world and God did rest from all his works verse 3 4. As the foundation of all he layeth down first the works of God For the Church and every peculiar state of the Church is founded in the work some especial work of God and not meerly in a Law or Command The works saith he were finished from the foundation of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work that is of God the effect of his creating power was finished or compleated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the foundation of the world a Periphrasis of the six original Dayes wherein time and all things measured by it and existent with it had their beginning This work of God as hath been proved Exercit. 3. was the foundation of the Church in the state of Nature and gave unto it the entire Law of its obedience On this work and the compleating of it ensued the Rest of God himself verse 4. God rested the seventh day from all his works This Rest of God and his Refreshment he took in his works as comprizing the Law and Covenant of our obedience have been explained already But this alone doth not confirm nor indeed come near the purpose or Argument of the Apostle For he is to speak of such a Rest of God as men might enter into as was a foundation of Rest unto them or otherwise his Discourse was not concerned in it whereupon by â—â—citation of the words of Moses from Gen. 2. 2. he tells us that this Rest of God was on the seventh day which God accordingly blessed and sanâ—tified to be a Day of Rest unto man So that in this state of the Church there were three things considerable 1 The Rest of God himself on his works wherein the foundation of the Church was laid 2 A Rest proposed unto man to enter into with God wherein lay the Duty of the Church And 3 a Day of Rest the seventh day as a remembrance of the one and a means and pledge of the other And herewith we principally confirm our judgement in the Sabbaths beginning with the World For without this supposition the mentioning of Gods work and his Rest no way belonged to the purpose of our Apostle For he discourseth only of such Rests as men might enter into and have a pledge of And there was no such thing from the foundation of the world unless the Sabbath were then revealed Nor is it absolutely the Work and Rest of God but the Obedience of men and their duty with respect unto them which he considers And this could not be unless the Rest of God was proposed unto men to enter into from the foundation of the world § 17 Secondly the Apostle considers the Church under the Law of Institutions and herein he representeth the Rest of the Land of Canaan wherein also the three distinct Rests before-mentioned do occurre 1. There was in it a Rest of God This gives denomination to the whole He still calls it his Rest if they shall enter into my Rest. And the prayer about it was Arise O Lord into thy Rest thou and the Ark of thy strength or the pledge of his presence and Rest. And this Rest also ensued upon his work for God wrought about it works great and mighty and ceased from them when they were finished And this work of his answered in its greatness unto the work of Creation whereunto it is compared by himself Isa. 51. 15 16. I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea whose waves roared the Lord of Hosts is his Name and have put my words in thy mouth and have covered thee in the shadow of my hand that I may plant the Heavens and lay the foundation of the Earth and say unto Zion thou art my people The dividing of the Sea whose waves roared is put by a Synecdoche for the whole work of God preparing a way for the Church-state of that people in the Land of Canaan And this he compares to the work of Creation in planting the Heavens and laying the foundation of the Earth For although those words are but a Metaphorical expression of the Political and Church-state of that people yet there is an evident Allusion in them unto the original Creation of all things This was the work of God upon the finishing whereof he entred into his Rest in the satisfaction and complacency that he had therein For after the Erection of his Worship in the Land of Canaan he sayes of
it this is my Rest aná here will I dwell 2. God being thus entred into his Rest. in like manner as formerly two things ensue thereon 1 That the people are invited and encouraged to enter into the Rest of God This the Apostle treats concerning in this and the foregoing Chapter And this their entrance into Rest was their coming by Faith and Obedience into a participation of the Worship of God wherein he Rested as a means and pledge of their everlasting Rest in him And although some of them came short hereof by reason of their unbelief yet others entred into it under the conduct of Joshua 2 Both these his own Rest and Rest of the people God expressed by appointing a Day of Rest. This he did that it might be a token sign and pledge not now as given to this people absolutely of his first Rest at the Creation but of his present Rest in his instituted Worship and to be a means in the solemn observation of that Worship to farther their entrance into his Rest eternally Hence had the seventh Day a peculiar Institution among that people whereby it was made to them a sign and token that he was their God and they were his people And here lies the foundation of all that we have before discoursed concerning the Judaical Sabbath in our fourth Exercitation It is true this Day was the same in order of the Dayes with that before observed namely the seventh Day of the Week But it was now re-established upon new considerations and unto new ends and purposes The time of the change of the Day was not yet come for this Work was but preparatory for a greater And the Covenant whereunto the seventh Day was originally annexed being not yet to be abolished that day was not to be yet changed nor another to be substituted in the room of it Hence this Day became now to fall under a double consideration First as it was such a proportion of time as was requisite unto the Worship of God and appointed as a pledge of his Rest in his Covenant Secondly as it received a new Institution with superadded ends and significations as a token and pledge of Gods Rest in the Law of Institutions and the Worship erected therein So both these states of the Church had these three things distinctly a Rest of God on his Works for their foundation a Rest in Obedience and Worship for man to enter into and a Day of Rest as a pledge and token of both the other § 18 Thirdly The Apostle proves from the words of the Psalmist that there was yet to be a Third state of the Church an especial state under the Messia which he now proposed unto the Hebrews and exhorted them to enter into And in this Church-state there is to be also a peculiar state of Rest distinct from them which went before To the constitution hereof there are Three things required First that there be some signal work of God compleated and finished whereon he enters into his Rest. This was to be the foundation of the whole new Church-state and of the west to be obtained therein Secondly that there be a spiritual Rest ensuing thereon and arising thence for them that believe to enter into Thirdly that there be a new or renewed Day of Rest to express that Rest of God and to be a pledge of our eâ—tring into it If any of these or either of them be wanting the whole structure of the Apostles discourse will be dissolved neither will there be any colour remaining for his mentioning the seventh day and the Rest thereof These things therefore we must farther enquire into § 19 First the Apostle sheweth that there was a great work of God and that finished for the foundation of the whole This he had made way for chap. 3. vers 4 5. where he both expresly asserts the Son to be God and shews the Analogie that is between the Creation of all things and the building of the Church that is the works of the Old and New Creation As then God wrought in the Creation of all so Christ who is God wrought in the setting up of this new Church-state And upon his finishing of it he entred into his Rest as God did into his whereby he limited a certain Day of Rest unto his people So he speaks There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism for the people of God For he that is entred into Rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his own A new Day of Rest accommodated unto this new Church-state ariseth from the Rest that the Lord Christ entred into upon his ceasing from his works And as to this Day we may observe 1 That it hath this in common with the former Dayes that it is a Sabbatism or one day in seven which that name in the whole Scripture use is limited unto For this portion of time to be dedicated unto Sacred Rest having its foundation in the light and Law of Nature was equally to be observed in every state of the Church 2 That although both the former states of the Church had one and the same Day though varied in some Ends of it now the Day it self is changed as belonging to another Covenant and having its foundation in a work of another Nature than what They had respect unto 3 That the observation of it is suited unto the spiritual state of the Church under the Gospel delivered from the bondage frame of spirit wherewith it was observed under the Law And these things must be farther confirmed from the Context § 20 The foundation of the whole is laid down v. 10. For he that is entred into his Rest is ceased from his works as God from his own Expositors generally apply these words unto Believers and their entring into the Rest of God whether satisfactorily to themselves and others as to their design coherence scope or signification of particular expressions I know not The contrary appears with good evidence to me For what are the works that Believers should be said here to Rest from Their sins say some their labours sorrows and sufferings say others But how can they be said to Rest from these works as God rested from his own For God so rested from his as to take the greatest delight and satisfaction in them to be refreshed by them In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed Exod. 31. 17. He so rested from them as that he rested in them and blessed them and blessed and sanctified the Time wherein they were finished We have shewed before that the Rest of God was not only a cessation from working nor principally but the satisfaction and complacency that he had in his works But now if those mentioned be the works here intended men cannot so Rest from them as God did from his But they cease from them with a detestation of them so far as they are sinfull and joy for their deliverance
from them so far as they are sorrowfull This is not to Rest as God rested Again when are Believers supposed to Rest from these works it cannot be in this World For here we Rest not at all from Temptations sufferings and sorrows and in that mortification of sin which we attain unto yet the conflict is still continued and that with severity unto death Rom 7. 24. It must therefore be in Heaven that they thus Rest and so it is affirmed accordingly But this excludes the Rest in and of the Gospel from the Apostles discourse which renders it altogether unsuitable to his purpose This I have so fully demonstrated in the Exposition of the Chapter as that I hope it will not be gainsayed Thirdly there is no comparison in the whole discourse between the works of God and the works of Men but between the works of God in the Creation and under the Law on the one side and those in and under the Gospel on the other And the whole comparison is summed up and closed in this Verse § 21 It appears therefore that the subject of the Apostles Proposition in this place hath been mistaken It is another who is intended even Christ himself the Son of God and his Rest from his works which is here compared with the Rest of God from his at the foundation of the world to which end alone the mention of them was introduced verse 3 4. For First The Conjunction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereby he brings in his Assertion manifests that the Apostle in these words gives an account whence it is that there is a new Sabbatism remaining for the people of God There remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God for he that is entred into his Rest is ceased from his works Had there not been a work laying the foundation of the Gospel-Church-state and a Rest of God in it and ensuing thereon there could have been no such Sabbatism for Believers for those things are required unto a Sabbath He had proved before that there could be no such Rest but what was founded in the works of God and his Rest that ensued thereon such a foundation therefore he saith this new Rest must have and it hath it This must be and is in the Works and Rest of him by whom the Church was built that is Christ who is God as it is expresly argued Chap. 3. vers 3 4. For as that Rest which all the world was to observe was founded in his Works and Rest who made the world and all things in it so the Rest of the Church under the Gospel is to be founded in his works and Rest by whom the Church was built that is Jesus Christ For he on the account of his works and Rest is also Lord of the Sabbath to abrogate one Day of Rest and to institute another Secondly The Apostle here changeth the manner of his expression from the plural absolutely We who believe or virtually in the name of a multitude the people of God into that which is absolutely singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is entred A single person is here expressed with respect unto whom the things mentioned are asserted and of this change of phrase there can be no other reason given Thirdly The Rest which this person is said to enter into is called His Rest absolutely As God speaking of the former Rest calls it My Rest so this is the My Rest of another namely the Rest of Christ whereas when the entring of Believers into Rest is spoken of it is called either Gods Rest They shall enter into my Rest or Rest absolutely We that believe do enter into Rest but not their Rest or our Rest for it is not our own absolutely but Gods Rest whereinto we enter and wherein we rest But the Rest here is the Rest of him whose it is and who is the Author of ours Fourthly There is a direct parallel in the words between the works of the old Creation and those of the new which are compared by the Apostle For 1. There are the Authors of them which on the one side is said to be God as God did from his own that is God the Creator or God as Creator on the other He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 3. vers 3. that is He of whom we speak as the Apostle declares himself vers 13. for in these words a transition is made unto his treating of the Person of Christ. 2. The works of the one and the other are expressed The works of the Creator are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his proper works his own works the works of the old Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there are the works of him of whom he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his works those which he wrought in like manner as God did his own at the beginning that is the work of building the Church For these works must answer each other and have the same respect unto their Authors they must be good and compleat in their kind and such as Rest and Refreshment may be taken in and on them To compare the sins and sufferings of men with the works of God our Apostle did not intend 3. There is the Rest of the one and the other and these also have their mutual proportion Now God rested from his own works of Creation 1 By ceasing from creating only continuing all things by his Power in their order and propagating them unto his Glory 2 By his respect unto them and refreshment in them as those which expressed his Excellencies and set forth his praise and so satisfied his glorious design So also must he rest who is spoken of 1 He must cease from working in the like kind of works he must suffer no more die no more but only continue the work of his grace and power in the preservation of the new creature and the orderly increase and propagation of it by his Spirit 2 He takes delight and satisfaction in the works that he hath wrought for he sees of the travel of his soul and is satisfied and is in the possession of that Glory which was set before him whilest he was engaged in this work And these things sufficiently clear the Subject here spoken of namely that it is Jesus Christ the Mediator § 22 The Works that the Rest mentioned respects have been sufficiently intimated and I have so fully insisted on them in the Exposition of the third and fourth Verses of the third Chapter of this Epistle that I shall not here again repeat them In brief all that he did and suffered in and from his Incarnation to his Resurrection as the Mediator of the Covenant with all the fruits effects and consequences of what he so did and suffered whereby the Church was built and the new Creation finished belongs unto these works His Rest that ensued on these works hath two parts 1 A Cessation from his works which was
is such a Determination of this Time unto one Day in seven as it must needs be the highest Impudence in any Person Persons or Churches to attempt any alteration herein And notwithstanding the pretences of some about their liberty none yet have been so hardy from the foundation of the World as practically to determine a Day for the Worship of God in any other Revolution of Dayes or Times to the neglect and exclusion of one Day in seven Yea the Light hereof is such and the use of it so great that those who have taken up with the worst of Superstitions instead of Religion as the Mahumetans yet complying in general with the performance of a solemn Worship to God have found it necessary to fix on one certain Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution for that purpose And indeed partly from the Appointment of God partly from the Nature of the Thing it self the Religious observation of such a Day is the great preservative of all solemn Profession of Religion in the World This the Law of Nature this the written Word directs unto and this Experience makes manifest unto all Take away from amongst men a conscience of observing a fixed stated Day of Sacred Rest to God and for the celebration of his Worship in Assemblies and all Religion will quickly decay if not come to nothing in this World And it may be observed though it be not evident whether be the Cause or the Effect that where and amongst whom Religion flourisheth in its power there and amongst them is conscience the most exercised and the most diligence used in the observation of such a Day I will not say absolutely that it is Religion or other Principles that teacheth men exactness in the observation of this Day nor on the other hand that a conscience made of this observation doth procure an universal strictness in other Duties of Religion But this is evident that they are mutually helpfull unto one another And therefore though some have laboured to divest this Observation of any immediate Divine Authority yet they are forced to supply such a Constitution for the Observation of one Day in seven as that they affirm that none can omit its Observation without Sin in ordinary cases whether they have done well to remove from it the command of God and to substitute their own in the room of it they may do well to consider § 31 Let then the state of things in reference unto the first day of the week with the presence of God in and his blessing upon the Worship of the Church therein be considered And this is a consideration as I think by no means to be despised It is manifest to all unprejudiced persons that the Apostles and Apostolical Churches did religiously observe this Day And no man can with any modesty question the celebration of the Worship of God therein in the next succeeding Generations In the possession of this practise are all the Disciples of Christ at this day in the World some very few only excepted who Sabbatize with the Jews or please themselves with a vain pretence that every Day is unto them a Sabbath Nor is it simply the Catholicism of this practise which I insist upon though that be such and hath such weight in things of this nature as that for my part I shall not dissent from any practise that is so attested But it is the blessing of God upon it and the Worship on this Day performed which is pleaded as that which ought to be of an high esteem with all humble Christians On this Day throughout all Ages hath the Edification of the Churches been carried on and that publick revenue of Glory been rendred unto God which is his due On this Day hath God given his presence unto all his solemn Ordinances for all the Ends for which he hath appointed them Nor hath he by any means given the least intimation of his displeasure against his Churches for their continuance in the observation of it On the other side not only have the wisest and holiest men who have complained of the Sins of their several times and Ages wherein they lived which procured the pouring out of the Judgements of God upon them constantly reckoned the neglect and prophanation of the Lords-day among them but such instances have been given of particular severities against them who have openly prophaned this Day and that upon unquestionable Testimonies as may well affect the minds and consciences of those who profess a Reverence of God in the holy dispensations of his Providence Nor can any of these things be pleaded to give countenance unto any other Day that should be set up in competition with the Lords-day or the first day of the week What of this nature can be spoken concerning the seventh Day now by some contended for and that which is grievous by some persons Holy and Learned Of what use hath it ever been to the Church of God setting aside the occasional Advantages taken from it by the Apostles of preaching the Gospel in the Synagogues of the Jews What Testimonies have we of the presence of God with any Churches in the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances and Worship on that Day And if any lesser Assemblies do at present pretend to give such a Testimony wherein is it to be compared with that of all the holy Churches of Christ throughout the World in all Ages especially in those last past Let men in whose hearts are the wayes of God seriously consider the use that hath been made under the blessing of God of the conscientious observation of the Lords-day in the past and present age unto the promotion of Holiness Righteousness and Religion universally in the power of it and if they are not under invincible prejudices it will be very difficult for them to judge that it is a Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted For my part I must not only say but plead whilst I live in this World and leave this Testimony to the present and future ages if these Papers see the light and do survive that if I have ever seen any thing in the wayes and worship of God wherein the power of Religion or Godliness hath been expressed any thing that hath represented the Holiness of the Gospel and the Author of it any thing that hath looked like a Proeludium unto the everlasting Sabbath and Rest with God which we aim through Grace to come unto it hath been there and with them where and amongst whom the Lords-day hath been had in highest esteem and a strict observation of it attended unto as an Ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Remembrance of their Ministry their Walking and Conversation their Faith and Love who in this Nation have most zealously pleaded for and have been in their persons Families and Churches or Parishes the most strict observers of this Day will be precious with them that fear the Lord whilst the Sun and Moon endure Their Doctrine also in
Holy Rest which either for the matter of them or the manner prescribed have had no sufficient warrant or foundation in the Scripture For whereas some have made no distinction between the Sabbath as Moral and as Mosaical unless it be meerly in the change of the Day they have endeavoured to introduce the whole practice required on the latter into the Lords Day But we have already shewed that there were sundry additions made unto the command as to the manner of its observance in its accommodation unto the Mosaical Pedagogie besides that the whole required a frame of spirit suited thereunto Others again have collected whatever they could think of that is good pious and usefull in the practice of Religion and prescribed it all in a multitude of instances as necessary to the sanctification of this Day so that a man can scarcely in six Dayes read over all the duties that are proposed to be observed on the seventh And it hath been also no small mistake that men have laboured more to multiply Directions about external duties giving them out as it were by number or tale than to direct the mind or inward man in and unto a due performance of the whole duty of the sanctification of the Day according to the spirit and genius of Gospel Obedience And lastly it cannot be denied but that some it may be measuring others by themselves and their own abilities have been apt to tye them up unto such long tiresome duties and rigid abstinences from refreshments as have clogged their minds and turned the whole service of the Day into a wearisome bodily exercise that profiteth little § 7 It is not in my design to insist upon any thing that is in controversie amongst Persons learned and sober Nor will I now extend this Discourse unto a particular consideration of the especial duties required in the sanctification or services of this Day But whereas all sorts of men who wish well to the furtherance and promotion of Piety and Religion in the World on what Reasons or foundations soever they judge that this Day ought to be observed an holy Rest to the Lord do agree that there is a great sinfull neglect of the due observation of it as may be seen in the Writings of some of the principal of those who cannot grant unto it an immediate divine Institution I shall give such Rules and general Directions about it as a due application whereof will give sufficient guidance in the whole of our duty therein § 8 It may seem to some necessary that something should be premised concerning the measure or continuance of the Day to be set apart unto an Holy Rest unto the Lord. But it being a matter of controversie and to me on the Reasons to be mentioned afterwards of no great importance I shall not insist upon the examination of it but only give my judgement in a word concerning it Some contend that it is a natural Day consisting of 24 hours beginning with the evening of the preceding Day and ending with the same of its own And accordingly so was the Church of Israel directed Lev. 23. 32. From even unto even shall you celebrate your Sabbath although that doth not seem to be a general Direction for the observation of the Weekly Sabbath but to regard only that particular extraordinary Sabbath which was thus instituted namely the Day of Atonement on the tenth Day of the seventh moneth vers 27. However suppose it to belong also unto the weekly Sabbath it is evidently an addition unto the command particularly suited unto the Mosaical Pedagogie that the Day might comprize the Sacrifice of the preceding evening in the services of it from an obedience whereunto we are freed by the Gospel Neither can I subscribe unto this opinion and that because 1 In the description and limitation of the first original seven Dayes it is said of each of the six that it was constituted of an evening and a morning but of the Day of Rest there is no such description it is only called the seventh Day without any assignation of the preceding evening unto it 2 A Day of Rest according to Rules of natural equity ought to be proportioned unto a Day of work or labour which God hath granted unto us for our own use Now this is to be reckoned from morning to evening Psal. 104. 20 21 22 23. Thou makest darkness and it is night wherein all the Beasts of the forest do creep from whose yelling the Night hath its name in the Hebrew Tongue The young Lions rear after their prey and seek their meat from God The Sun riseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Man goeth forth to his work and his labour untill the evening The Day of labour is from the removeal of darkness and the night by the light of the Sun untill the return of them again which allowing for the alterations of the Day in the several seasons of the year seems to be the just measure of our Day of Rest. 3 Our Lord Jesus Christ who in his Resurrection gave beginning and being to the especial Day of Holy Rest under the Gospel rose not untill the morning of the first Day of the Week when the beamings of the light of the Sun began to dispel the darkness of the night or when it dawned towards day as it is variously expressed by the Evangelists This with me determines this whole matter 4 Meer Cessation from labour in the night seems to have no place in the spiritual Rest of the Gospel to be expressed on this Day nor to be by any thing distinguished from the night of other Dayes of the Week 5 Supposing Christians under the obligation of the Direction given by Moses before-mentioned and it may entangle them in the anxious scrupulous intrigues which the Jews are subject unto about the beginning of the evening it self about which their greatest Masters are at variance which things belong not to the Oeconomy of the Gospel Upon the whole matter I am inclinable to judge and do so that the observation of the Day is to be commensurate unto the use of our natural strength on any other Day from morning to night And nothing is hereby lost that is needfull unto the due sanctification of it For what is by some required as a part of its sanctification is necessary and required as a due preparation thereunto This therefore is our first Rule or Direction The first Day of the Week or the Lords-Day is to be set apart unto the ends of an Holy Rest unto God by every one according as his natural strength will enable him to employ himself in his lawfull occasions any other Day of the Week There is no such certain standard or measure for the observance of the duties of this Day as that every one who exceeds it should by it be cut short or that those who on important Reasons come short of it should be stretched out thereunto As
may do well to consider who plead for the observation of the seventh Day precisely For they do profess thereby that they seek for Rest in God according to the tenor of the first Covenant That they approve of and that they look by that profession to be brought to Rest by though really and on other Principles they do otherwise Whatever then be the Covenant wherein we walk with God the great Principle which is to guide us in the holy observation of this Day is that we celebrate the Rest of God in that Covenant approve of it rejoyce in it and labour to be partakers of it whereof the Day it self is given us as a pledge We must therefore 3 Remember that we have lost our original Rest in God by sin God made us upright in his own Image meet to take our Rest satisfaction and reward in himself according to the tenor of the Law of our Creation and the Covenant of Works established thereon Hereof the seventh Day was a Token and Pledge All this we must consider that we have lost by sin God might justly have left us in a wandring condition without either Rest or any pledge of it Our Reparation indeed is excellent and glorious yet so as that on our part the loss of our former estate was shamefull and in the Remembrance whereof we ought to be humbled And hence we may know that it is in vain for us to lay hold of the seventh Day again which is but an Attempt to return into the Garden after we are shut out and kept out by a Flaming Sword For although it was made use of as a Type and shadow under the Law yet to us who must live on the substance of things or not at all it cannot be possessed with robbery and is of no use when attained For we are to remember 4 That the Rest in God and with God which we now seek after enter into and celebrate the pledge of using the means for the farther enjoyment of it in the observation of this Day is a Rest by a Recovery by a Reparation in Jesus Christ. There is now a new Rest of God and a new Rest for us in God God now Rests and is refreshed in Christ in his Person in his Works in his Law in the Covenant of Grace in him in all these things is his soul well pleased He is the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person making a far more glorious Representation of him than did the works of Creation of old which yet he had left such impressions of his Goodness Power and Wisdom upon as that he Rested in them was refreshed on them and appointed a Day for man to Rest in his Approbation of them and giving Glory to him for them How much more is it so with him with respect unto this glorious Image of the invisible God This he now dealeth with us in For as of old he commanded light to shine out of darkness whereby we might see and behold his Glory which he had implanted and was implanting on the work of his hands so now he shines into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. That is enableth us to behold all the excellencies of his nature made manifest in the person and works of Jesus Christ. The way also of bringing them unto him through Christ who had by sin come short of his Glory is that which he approveth of is delighted with and resteth in giving us a pledge thereof in this Day of Rest. Herein lyes the principal duty of this Dayes observances namely to admire this Retriveal of a Rest with God and of a Rest for God in us This is the fruit of eternal Wisdom Grace and Goodness Love and Bounty This I say belongs unto the sanctification of this Day and this ought to be our principal Design therein namely in it to give Glory unto God for the wonderfull Recovery of a Rest for us with himself and an endeavour to enter by Faith and Obedience into that Rest. And for those ends and purposes are we to make use of all the sacred Ordinances of Worship wherein and whereby this Day is sanctified unto the Lord. 5 That in the Observation of the Lords-day which is the first day of the week we subject our consciences immediately to the Authority of Jesus Christ the Mediator whose Day of Rest originally it was and which thereby and for that Reason is made ours And hereby in the observation of this Day have we fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Of old there was nothing appeared in the Day whilst the seventh Day was in force but the Rest of God the Creator and his Soveraign Authority intimated unto us thereby for the observing of an Holy Rest unto him according to the Tenor of the first Covenant But now the immediate Foundation of our Rest on the Lords-day is the Lords Rest the Rest of Christ when upon his Resurrection he ceased from his works as God did from his own This gives great direction and encouragement in the duty of observing this Day aright Faith truely exercised in bringing the Soul into an actual subjection unto the Authority of Christ in the observance of this Day and directing the thoughts unto a contemplation of the Rest that he entred into after his works with the Rest that he hath procured for us to enter into with him doth more thereby towards the true Sanctification of this Day than all outward Duties can do performed with a legal Spirit when men are in bondage unto the Command as taught to them and dare not do otherwise God in several places instructs the Israelites what account they shall give unto their Children concerning their observation of sundry Rites and Ceremonies that he had instituted in his Worship Exod. 13. 14. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come saying What is this that thou shalt say unto him By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of the Land of Egypt c. It was in remembrance of such works of God amongst them whereof those Rites were a Token and Representation And we have here a special observance in the Worship of God what account can we give unto our selves and our Children concerning our observation of this Day Holy unto the Lord Must we not say nay may we not do so with joy and rejoycing That whereas we were lost and undone by sin excluded out of the Rest of God so far as that the Law of the observation of the outward pledge of it being attended with the Curse was a burden and no relief unto us our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God undertook a great work to make peace for us to redeem and save us and when he had so done and finished his work even the erecting of the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness he entred into
his Rest and thereby made known unto us that we should keep this Day as a day of an Holy Rest unto him and as a pledge that we have again given unto us an entrance into Rest with God 6 We are then to Remember that this Day is a pledge of our eternal Rest with God This is that whereunto these things do tend For therein will God glorifie himself in the full accomplishment of his great design in all his Works of Power and Grace And this is that which ultimately we aim at We do at best in this World but enter into the Rest of God the full enjoyment of it is reserved for Eternity Hence that is usually called our everlasting Sabbath as that state wherein we shall alwayes Rest with God and alwayes give Glory unto him And this Day is a pledge hereof on sundry accounts 1 Because thereon God as it were calleth us aside out of the World unto an immediate converse with himself Israel never had a more dreadfull Day than when they were called out of their Tents from their occasions and all worldly concerns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in occursum Jehovae to a meeting with the Lord Exod. 19. God called them aside to meet and converse with him But it was unto Mount Sinai that he called them which was altogether on a smoak because the Lord descended in fire vers 18. Hence although they had been preparing themselves for it sundry Dayes they were not able to bear the terror of Gods approach unto them But under the Gospel we are this Day called out of the World and off from our occasions to converse with God to meet him at Mount Sion Heb. 12. Here he doth not give us a fiery Law but a gracious Gospel doth not converse us with Thunder and Lightning but with the sweet still voice of mercy in Jesus Christ. And as this requireth due thoughts of heart in us to prepare us for it so it is in it self a great and unspeakable Priviledge purchased for us by Christ. And herein have we a pledge of Rest with God above when he shall call us off from all Relations all occasions of life all our Interests and Concerns in this World and eternally set us apart unto himself And undoubtedly that it may be such a pledge unto us it is our duty to take off our minds and souls as far as we are able from all occasions of life and businesses of this World that we may walk with God alone on this Day Some indeed do think this a great bondage But so far as they do so and so far as they find it so they have no interest in this matter We do acknowledge that there are weaknesses attending the outward man through the frailty and imbecillity of our natures and therefore have before rejected all rigid tiresome services And I do acknowledge that there will be repisning and rebelling in the flesh against this duty But he who really judgeth in his mind and whose practice is influenced and regulated by that judgement that the segregation of a Day from the World and the occasions of it and a secession unto communion with God thereon is grievous and burdensome and that which God doth not require nor is usefull to us must be looked on as a stranger unto these things He to whom the worship of God in Christ is a burden or a bondage who sayes behold what a weariness it is that thinks a Day in a Week to be too much and too long to be with God in his especial service is much to seek I think of his duty Alas what would such Persons do if they should ever come to Heaven to be taken aside to all eternity to be with God alone who think it a great bondage to be here deiverted unto him for a Day They will say it may be Heaven is one thing and the observation of the Lords-Day is another were they in Heaven they doubt not but they should do well enough But for this observation of the Lords-Day they know not what to say to it I confess they are so they are distinct things or else one could not be the pledge of the other But yet they both agree in this that they are a separation and secession from all other things unto God And if men have not a principle to like that in the Lords-Day neither would they like it in Heaven should they ever come there Let us then be ready to attend in this matter to the Call of God and go out to meet him For where he placeth his Name as he doth on all his solemn Ordinances there he hath promised to meet us And so is this Day unto us a pledge of Heaven 2 It is so in respect of the duties of the Day wherein the sanctification of the Name of God in it doth consist All duties proper and peculiar to this Day are duties of communion with God Everlasting uninterrupted immediate communion with God is Heaven Carnal Persons had rather have Mahomets Paradise than Christs Heaven But this is that which Believers aim at eternal communion with God Hereof are the duties of this Day in a right holy performance an assured pledge For this is that which in them all we aim at and express according to the measure of our light and Grace Hereon we hear him speak unto us in his Word and we speak unto him in Prayers Supplications Praises Thanksgivings in and by Jesus Christ. In all our aim is to give Glory to him which is the End of Heaven and to be brought nearer to him which is its enjoyment In what God is pleased hereby to communicate unto our souls and in what by the secret and invisible supplyes of his Grace and Spirit he carryes out our hearts unto lye and consist those first fruits of Glory which we may be made partakers of in this World And the first fruits are a pledge of a full harvest God gives them unto us for that End that they may be so This then are we principally to seek after in the celebration of the Ordinances of God whereby we sauctifie his Name on this Day Without this bodily labour in the outward performance of a multitude of duties will profit little Men may rise early and go to bed late and eat the bread of care and diligence all the Day long yet if they are not thus in the Spirit and carried out unto spiritual communion with God in the services of the Day it will not avail them Whatever there be either in the service it self performed or in the manner of its performance or the duration of it which is apt to divert or take off the mind from being intent hereon it tends to the prophanation rather than the sanctification of this Day 3 The Rest of the Day is also a pledge of our Rest with God But then this Rest is not to be taken for a meer bodily cessation from labour but in that extent wherein it
hath before been at large described These are some of the Rules which we are to have a respect unto in our observation of this Day A due application of them unto particular occasions and emergencies will guide us through the difficulties of them Therefore did I choose rather to lay them thus down in general than to insist on the determination of particular Cases which when we have done all must be resolved into them according to the light and understanding of them who are particularly concerned § 11 It remains that we offer some Directions as to the duties themselves wherein the sanctification of this Day doth consist And this I shall do briefly It hath been done already at large by others so as that from thence they have taken occasion to handle the nature of all the Religious duties with the whole manner of their performance which belong to the service of this Day which doth not properly appertain unto this place I shall therefore only name the duties themselves which have a respect unto the sanctification of the Day supposing the nature of them and the due manner of their performance to be otherwise known Now these duties are of two sorts 1 Preparatory for the Day and 2 Such as are actually to be attended unto in it § 12 1 There are duties preparatory for it For although as I have declared I do not judge that the preceding Evening is to be reckoned unto this Holy Rest as a part of it yet doubtless it ought to be improved unto a due preparation for the Day ensuing And hereby the opinion of the beginning of the Sabbatical Rest with the Morning is put into as good a condition for the furtherance of the duties of Piety and Religion as the other about its beginning in the Evening preceding Now Preparation in general is necessary 1 On the account of the Greatness and Holiness of God with whom in an especial manner we have to do The Day is his The duties of the Day are his prescriptions The Priviledges of the Day are his gracious concessions he is the beginning and ending of it And we observed before on this Day he calleth us aside unto a converse with himself And certainly some special preparation of our hearts and minds is necessary hereunto This belongs to the keeping of our foot when we go to the House of God Eccl. 5. 1. namely to consider what we are to do whither we are going to whom we make our approaches in the solemn worship of God The Rule which he gives Lev. 10. 3. is moral perpetual or everlasting I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified He loves not a rude careless rushing of poor sinners upon him without a sense of his Greatness and a due reverence of his Holiness Hence is that advice of our Apostle Heb. 12. 28 2. 9. Let us have Grace be graciously prepared in our hearts and minds whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And this will not be answered by meer bodily postures of veneration Hence there is a due preparation necessary 2 It is so from our own distractions and intanglements in the businesses and occasions of life I speak not of such who spend the whole Week in the pursuit of their lusts and pleasures whose Sabbath-Rest hath an equal share in prophaneness with all other parts of their lives But we treat of those who in general make it their design to live unto God The greatest part of these I do suppose to be engaged industriously in some Calling or course of life And these things are apt to fill their minds as well as to take up their time and much to conform them to their own likeness Much converse with the world is apt to beget a worldly frame in men and earthly things will taint the mind with earthlyness And although it be our duty in all our secular occasions also to live to God and whether we eat or drink to do all things unto his Glory yet they are apt to unframe the mind so as to make it unready unto Spiritual things and Heavenly contemplations There is a Command indeed that we should pray alwayes which at least requires of us a readiness of mind to lay hold of all occasions and opportunities for prayer yet none will deny but that there is great advantage in a due preparation for that and all other Duties of Religion To empty therefore and purge our minds of secular earthly businesses designs projections accounts dependencies of things one on another with reasonings about them as far as in us lyeth is a Duty required of us in all our solemn approaches unto God And if this be not done but men go full of their occasions into Religious services they will by one means or other return upon them and prevail upon them to their disturbance Great care is to be taken in this matter and those who constantly exercise themselves unto a good conscience herein will find themselves fitted for the Duties of the Day to a good success § 13 For these preparatory Duties themselves I should referr them to three Heads if the Reader will take along with him these Advertisements 1. That I am not binding burdens on men or their consciences nor tying them up unto strict observances under the consideration of sin if not precisely attended unto Only I desire to give direction such as may be helpfull unto the Faith and Obedience of those who in all things desire to please God And if they apply themselves to those wayes in other instances which they find more to their own edification all is done that I aim at 2. That I propose not these Duties as those which fall under an especial command with reference unto this season but only as such which being commanded in themselves may with good spiritual advantage be applyed unto this season Whence it follows 3. That if we are by necessary occasions at any time diverted from attending unto them we may conclude that we have lost an opportunity or advantage not that we have contracted the guilt of sin unless it be from the occasion it self or some of its circumstances § 14 These things premised I shall recommend to the Godly Reader a threefold preparatory Duty to the right observation of a Day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. 1 Of Meditation 2 Of Supplication 3 Of Instruction unto such as have others depending on them 1 Of Meditation and this answers particularly the Reasons we have given for the necessity of these preparatory Duties For herein are the minds of Believers to exercise themselves unto such Thoughts of the Majesty Holiness and Greatness of God as may prepare them to serve him with reverence and Godly fear The nature of the Duty requires that this Meditation should first respect God himself and then the Day and its Services in its Causes and Ends. God
we should have set up the Calves of our own imaginations to his greater provocation But he hath relieved us herein himself appointing the worship which he will accept Would we therefore give full Direction in particular for the right sanctifying of the Name of God on this Day we ought to go over all the Ordinances of worship which the Church is bound to attend unto in its Assemblies But this is not my present purpose Besides somewhat of that kind hath been formerly done in another way I shall therefore here content my self to give some general Rules for the guidance of men in the whole As 1 That the publick and solemn worship of God is to be preferred above that which is private They may be so prudently managed as not to interfer nor ordinarily to entrench on one another But where-ever on any occasion they seem so to do the private are to give place to the publick For one chief End of the sacred setting apart of this Day is the solemn acknowledgement of God and the performance of his worship in Assemblies It is therefore a marvellous undue custome on the pretence of private duties whether Personal or Domestical to abate any part of the Duties of solemn Assemblies For there is in it a setting up of our own choice and inclinations against the Wisdome and Authority of God The End of the Day is the solemn worship of God and the End is not to give way to the most specious helps and means 2 Choice is to be made of those Assemblies for the celebration of publick worship where we may be most advantaged as unto the Ends of them in the sanctification of this Day so far as it may be done without breach of any Order appointed of God For in our joyning in any concurrent acts of Religious worship we are to have regard unto Helps suited unto the furtherance of our own Faith and Obedience And also because God hath appointed some parts of his Worship as in their own nature and by virtue of his appointment are means of conveying light knowledge Grace in spiritual supplyes unto our souls it is certainly our duty to make choice and use of them which are most meet so to do 3 For the manner of our Attendance on the publick worship of God with Reverence Gravity Order Diligence Attention though it be a matter of great use and moment yet not of this place to handle nor doth it here belong unto us to insist on those wayes whereby we may excite particular Graces unto due actings of themselves as the nature of the Duties wherein we are engaged doth require § 19 4 Although the Day be wholly to be dedicated unto the Ends of a Sacred Rest before insisted on yet 1. Duties in their performance drawn out unto such a length as to beget wearisomness and satiety tend not unto edification nor do any way promote the Sanctification of the Name of God in the Worship it self Regard therefore in all such performances is to be had 1 Unto the weakness of the natural constitution of some the Infirmities and Indispositions of others who are not able to abide in the outward part of Duties as others can And there is no wise Shepherd but will rather suffer the stronger sheep of his flock to lose somewhat of what they might reach unto in his guidance of them than to compell the weaker to keep pace with them to their hurt and it may be their ruine Better a great number should complain of the shortness of some Duties who have strength and desires for a longer continuance in them than that a few who are sincere should be really discouraged by being overburdened and have the service thereby made useless unto them I alwayes loved in sacred Duties that of Seneca concerning the Orations of Cassius Severus when they heard him Timebamus ne desineret we were afraid that he would end 2 To the spiritual edge of the affections of men which ought to be whetted and not through tediousness in Duties abated and taken off Other things of a like nature might be added which for some considerations I shall forbear 2. Refreshments helpfull to nature so far as to refresh it that it may have a supply of spirits to go on chearfully in the Duties of Holy Worship are lawfull and usefull To macerate the Body with Abstinences on this Day is required of none and to turn it into a Fast or to Fast upon it is generally condemned by the Antients Wherefore to forbear provision of necessary food for Families on this Day is Mosaical and the enforcement of the particular precepts about not kindling fire in our Houses on this Day baking and preparing the Food of it the Day before cannot be insisted on without a Re-introduction of the seventh Day precisely to whose observation they were annexed and thereby of the Law and Spirit of the old Covenant Provided alwayes that these Refreshments be 1 Seasonable for the time of them and not when publick Duties require our Attendance on them 2 Accompanied with a singular regard unto the Rules of Temperance as 1 That there be no appearance of evil 2 That Nature be not charged with any kind of Excess so far as to be hindred rather than assisted in the Duties of the Day 3 That they be accompanied with Gravity and Sobriety and purity of conversation Now whereas these things are in the substance of them required of us in the whole course of our lives as we intend to please God and to come to the enjoyment of him none ought to think an especial Regard unto them on this Day to be a bondage or troublesome unto them 3. Labour or pains for the enjoyment of the benefit and advantage of the solemn Assemblies of the Church and in them of the appointed Worship of God is so far from entrenching on the Rest of this Day that it belongs unto its due observation A mere Bodily Rest is no part of Religious Worship in it self nor doth it belong unto the Sanctification of this Day any farther then as it is a means for the due performance of the other Duties belonging unto it We have no bounds under the Gospel for a Sabbath-dayes journey provided it be for Sabbath ends In brief all pains or labour that our station and condition in this world that our troubles which may befall us or any thing else make necessary as that without which we cannot enjoy the solemn Ends and Uses of this Holy Day of Rest are no way inconsistent with the due observation of it It may be the lot of one man to take so much pains and to travel so far for and in the due celebration of the Lords day as if another should do the like without his occasions and circumstances it would be a prophanation of it 4. Labour in works of charity and necessity such as are to visit the sick to relieve the poor to help the distressed to relieve or assist Creatures
of our Reason required of us To understand aright the sense and importance of the Words in Scripture Testimonies the nature of the Propositions and Assertions contained in them the lawful deduction of Inferences from them to judge and determine aright of what is proposed or deduced by just consequence from direct Propositions to compare what in one place seems to be affirmed with what in others seems to be asserted to the same purpose or denyed with other Instances innumerable of the exercise of our minds about the Interpretation of Scripture are all of them Acts of our Reason and as such are managed by us But I must not here farther divert unto the consideration of these things Only I fear that some men write Books about them because they read none This I know that they miserably mistake what is in Controversie and set up to themselves Men of Straw as their Adversaries and then cast Stones at them 3. The Dictates of General and incorrupted Reason suitable unto and explained by Scripture Light is another Principle that we shall in our progress have a due regard unto For whereas it is confessed that the separation of some portion of Time to the Worship of God is a part of the Law of our Creation the Light of Nature doth and must still on that supposition continue to give Testimony unto our Duty therein And although this Light is exceedingly weakned and impaired by sin in the things of the greatest importance and as to many things truly belonging unto it in our original Constitution so overwhelmed with Prejudices and contrary usages that of it self it owns them not at all yet let it be excited quickned rectified by Scripture Light it will return to perform its Office of testifying unto that Dutie a sense whereof and a Direction whereunto were concreated with it We shall therefore enquire what Intimations the Light of Nature hath continued to give concerning a Day of Sacred Rest to be observed unto God and what uncontrollable Testimonies we have of those Intimations in the knowledge confessions and expressions of them in and by those who had no other Way to come to an Acquaintance with them And where there is a common or prevailing Suffrage given amongst mankind unto any Truth and that to free us from entanglements about it declared to be such in the Scripture it must be acknowledged to proceed from that Light of Nature which is common unto all though the actings of it be stifled in many 4. The Custom and Practice of the Church of God in all Ages is to be enquired into I intend not meerly the Church of Christ under the Gospel but the whole Church from the Beginning of the World in the various Dispensations of the Will and Grace of God unto it before the giving of the Law under the Toke of it and since the Promulgation of the Gospel And great weight may certainly be laid upon its Harmonious consent in any practice relating to the Worship of God Nay what may be so confirmed will thence appear not to be an Institution peculiar to any especial Mode of Worship that may belong unto one season and not unto another but to have an everlasting Obligation in it on all that worship God as such never to be altered or dispensed withal And if every particular Church be the Ground and Pillar of Truth whose Testimony thereunto is much to be esteemed how much more is the Universal Church of all Ages so to be accounted And it is a brutish Apprehension to suppose that God would permit a Perswasion to befall the Church in all Ages with respect unto his Worship which was not from himself and the Expression of its Practice accepted with him This therefore is diligently to be enquired into as far as we may have certain light into things involved in so much Darkness as are all things of so great Antiquity 5. A due consideration of the Spirit and Liberty of the Gospel with the Nature of its Worship the Reasons of it and manner of its performance is to be had in this matter No particular Instance of Worship is to be introduced or admitted contrary to the Nature Genius and Reason of the whole If therefore such a Sabbatical Rest or such an Observation of it be urged as is inconsistent with the Principles and Reasons of Evangelical Worship as is built upon Motives not taken from the Gospel and in the manner of its Observance enterferes with the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free it discovers it self not to belong unto the present state of the Worshippers of God in Christ. Nor is any thing to commend it self unto us under the meer Notion of strictness or preciseness or the Appearance of more than ordinary severity in Religion It is only walking according unto Rule that will please God justifie us unto others and give us peace in our selves Other seeming Duties that may be recommended because they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pretence of Wisdom in doing even more than is required of us through Humility and Mortification are of no price with God nor useful unto men And commonly those who are most ready to overdo in one thing are prone also to underdo in others And this Rule we shall find plainly rejecting the rigid Observation of the Seventh Day as a Sabbath out of the Verge of Gospel Order and Worship 6. The Tendency of Principles Doctrines and Practices to the Promotion or Hinderance of Piety Godliness and Universal Holy Obedience unto God is to be enquired into This is the End of all Religious Worship and of all the Institutions thereof And a due Observation of the regular Tendency of things unto this End will give a great discovery of their Nature and Acceptance with God Let things be urged under never so specious pretences if they be found by Experience not to promote Gospel Holiness in the Hearts and Lives of men they discover themselves not to be of God Much more when Principles and Practices conformable unto them shall be evidenced to obstruct and hinder it to introduce Profaness and countenance Licentiousness of life to prejudice the due Reverence of God and his Worship do they manifest themselves to be of the Tares sowed by the Evil One. And by this Rule we may try the Opinion which denies all Divine Institution unto a Day of holy Rest under the New Testament These are the Principal Rules which in this Disquisition after a Sabbatical Rest we shall attend unto And they are such as will not fail to direct us aright in our course if through Negligence or Prejudice we miss not of a due regard unto them These the Reader is desired to have respect unto in his perusal of the ensuing Discourses and if what is proposed or concluded be not found suitable unto them let it be rejected For I can assure him that no self-assuming no contempt of others no prejudicing Adherence to any Way or Party no
the Red Heifer with whose ashes the water of sprinkling was to be mingled for which conjecture they want not such Reasons as are usual amongst them The two first they confirm from the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. 14 15. For there those Words as the Lord thy God commanded thee are distinctly added to those two Precepts the Fourth and Fifth and to no other And this could arise from no other cause but because God had before given them unto the people in Mara where he said he had given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Ordinance and Law of the Sabbath and the Judgement of Obedience to Parents and Superiors This is one of the principal wayes whereby they confirm their Imaginations And fully to establish the Truth hereof Baal Hatturim or the small Gematrical Annotations on the Masoretical Bibles adds that in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the final numeral Letters make up the same number with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Place where these Laws were given And this is the summ of what is pleaded in this case § 4 But every one may easily see the Vanity of these Pretences and how easie it is for any one to frame a thousand of them who knows not how better to spend his time Aben Ezra and Abarbinel both confess that the words used in the Repetition of the Law Deut. 5. do refer to the giving of it on Mount Sinai And if we must seek for especial Reasons of the inserting of those words besides the Soveraign Pleasure of God they are not wanting which are far more probable than these of the Masters 1 The one of these Commandments closing up the first Table concerning the Worship of God and the other heading the second Table concerning our Duties amongst our selves and towards others this Memorial as the Lord thy God commanded thee is on that account expresly annexed unto them being to be distinctly applyed unto all the Rest. 2 The Fourth Command is as it were Custos primae Tabulae the Keeper of the whole first Table seeing our owning of God to be our God and our Worship of him according to his mind were solemnly to be expressed on the Day of Rest commanded to be observed for that purpose and in the neglect whereof they will be sure enough neglected whence also a Remembrance to observe this Day is so strictly injoyned And the Fifth Commandment is apparently Custos secundae Tabulae as appointed of God to contain the means of exacting the observation of all the Duties of the second Table or of punishing the neglect of them and disobedience unto them And therefore it may be the Memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own distinct Account but equally upon that of the other Commandments whereunto they do refer 3 There is yet an especial Reason for the peculiar Appropriation of these two Precepts by that Memorial unto this people For they had now given unto them an especial Typical Concern in them which did not at all belong unto the rest of mankind who were otherwise equally concerned in the Decalogue with themselves For in the Fourth Commandment whereas no more was before required but that one Day in seven should be observed as a Sacred Rest they were now precisely confined to the seventh Day in order from the finishing of the Creation or the establishing of the Law and Covenant of Works or a day answering thereunto For the Determination of the Day in the Hebdomadal Revolution was added in the Law Decalogical to the Law of Nature And this was with respect unto and in the confirmation of that Ordinance which gave them the seventh Day Sabbath in a peculiar manner that is the seventh Day after six dayes raining of Manna Exod. 16. And in the other the Promise annexed unto it of prolonging their Dayes had peculiar respect unto the Land of Canaan There is neither of these but is a far more probable Reason of the annexing those words as the Lord thy God commanded thee unto those two Commandments than that fixed on by the Talmudical Masters Herein only I agree with them that both these Commands were given alike in Mara and one of them I suppose none will deny to be a principal Dictate of the Law of Nature For the words mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Ordinance and a Statute the meaning of them is plainly expounded v. 26. God then declared this unto them as his unchangeable Ordinance and Institution that he would bless them on their Obedience and punish them upon their Unbelief and Rebellion wherein they had Experience of his Faithfulness to their cost The Reader may see this Fiction farther disproved in Tostatus on the place though I confess some of his Reasons are inconstringent and frivolous Moreover this Station of Mara was on or about the twenty fourth Day of Nisan or April And the first solemn Observation of the Sabbath in the Wilderness was upon the twenty second of Jiar the Month following as may easily be evinced from Moses Journal There were therefore twenty seven dayes between this Fictitious Institution of the Sabbath and the first solemn Observation of it which was at their Station in Alush as is generally supposed certainly in the Wilderness of Sin after they had left Mara and Elim and the Coast of the Red Sea whereunto they returned from Elim Exod. 16. 1. Numb 33. 8 9 10 11. For they first began their journey out of Aegypt on the fifteenth Day of Nisan or the first Month Exod. 12. 37. Numb 33. 3. And they passed through the Sea into the Wilderness about the nineteenth Day of that Month as is evident from their journyings Numb 33. 5 6 7 8 9. On the twentifourth of that Month they pitched in Mara and it was the fifteenth day of Jiar or the second Month before they entred the Wilderness of Sin where is the first mention of their solemn Observation of the Sabbath upon the occasion of the gathering of Manna Between these two seasons three Sabbaths must needs intervene and those immediately upon its first Institution if this Fancy may be admitted And yet the Rulers of the Congregation looked upon the peoples Preparation for its Observation as an unusual thing Exod. 16. 22. Which could not have fallen out had it received so fresh an Institution Besides these Masters themselves and Raski in particular who in his Comment on the place promotes this Fancy grants that Abraham observed the Sabbath But the Law and Ordinances hereof they say he received on peculiar Favour and by especial Revelation But be it so it was the great Commendation of Abraham and that given him by God himself that he would command his Children and Houshold after him to keep the Way of the Lord Gen. 18. 19. What ever Ordinance therefore he received from God of any thing to be observed in his Worship it was a part of his Fidelity to communicate the knowledge of
it unto his Posterity and to teach them its Observance They must therefore of necessity on those mens Principles be instructed in the Doctrine and Observation of the Sabbath before this pretended Institution of it Should we then allow that the Generality of the Jewish Masters and Talmudical Rabbies do assert that the Law of the Sabbath was first given in Mara yet the whole of what they assert being a meer curious groundless conjecture it may and ought to be rejected Not what these men say but what they prove is to be admitted And he who with much diligence hath collected Testimonies out of them unto this purpose hath only proved what they thought but not what is the Truth And upon this fond Imagination is built their General Opinion that the Sabbath was given only unto Israel is the Spouse of the Synagogue and that it belongs not to the rest of mankind Such Dreams they may be permitted to please themselves withal But that these things should be pleaded by Christians against the true Original and Use of the Sabbath is somewhat strange If any think their Assertions in this matter to be of any weight they ought to admit what they add thereunto namely that all the Gentiles shall once a Week keep a Sabbath in Hell § 5 Neither is this Opinion amongst them Universal Some of their most famous Masters are otherwise minded For they both judge that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise and that the Law of it was equally obligatory unto all Nations in the World Of this mind are Maimonides Aben-Ezra Abarbinel and others For they expresly refer the Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Sanctification and Benediction of the first seventh Day Gen. 2. 2. The Targum on the Title of Psal. 92. ascribes that Psalm to Adam as spoken by him on the Sabbath Day Whence Austin esteemed this rather the general Opinion of the Jews Tractat. 20. in Johan And Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. proves out of sundry of their own Authors that the Sabbath was given unto and observed by the Patriarchs before the coming of the people into the Wilderness In particular that it was so by Abraham Jacob and Joseph he confirms by Testimonies out of the Scripture not to be despised Philo Judaeus and Josephus both of them more antient and more learned than any of the Talmudical Doctors expresly assign the Original of the Sabbath unto that of the World Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of the Worlds Nativity And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Feast not of One City or Country but of the whole World De Opificio Mundi de Vita Mos. lib. 2. To the same purpose speaks Josephus lib. 2. cont Appion And the words of Abarbinel are sufficiently express in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sanctified and separated the seventh Day unto Glory and Honour because on its approach the work of Heaven and Earth was perfected and finished Even as a man when he hath performed an honourable Work and perfected it maketh a Banquet and a day of feasting And yet more evident is that of Maimon Tract Ridush Hachodesch cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vision or sight of the Moon is not delivered to all men as was the Sabbath Bereschith or in the Beginning For every man can number six Dayes and rest on the seventh But it is committed to the House of Judgement the Sanedrims that is to observe the Appearances of the Moon and when the Sanedrym declareth and pronounceth that it is the New Moon or the beginning of the Month then it is to be taken so to be He distinguisheth their Sacred Feasts into the Weekly Sabbath and the New Moons or those that depended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Appearing of the New Moon The first he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbath Bereschith the Sabbath instituted at the Creation for so from the first of Genesis they often express tecnically the work of the Creation This he sayes was given to every man for there is no more required to the due Observation of it in point of Time but that a man be able to reckon six Dayes and so rest on the seventh But now for the Observation of the New Moons all Feasts that depended on the variations of her Appearances this was peculiar to themselves and the Determination of it left unto the Sanedrym For they trusted not unto Astrological Computations meerly as to the Changes of the Moon but sent Persons unto sundry high places to watch and observe her first Appearances which if they answered the general established Rules then they proclaimed the Beginning of the Feast to be So Maimon Ridush Hackodesh cap. 2. And Philippus Guadagnolus Apol. pro Christiana Relig. Part. 1. cap. 8. shews that Ahmed Ben Zin a Persian Mahumetan whom he confutes affirmed that the Institution of the Sabbath was from the Creation of the world This indeed he reflects upon in his Adversary with a saying out of the Alcoran Azoar 3. where those that Sabbatize are cursed which yet will not serve his purpose For in the Alcoran respect is had to the Jewish Sabbath or the seventh Day of the Week precisely when one day of seven only is pleaded by Ahmed to have been appointed from the foundation of the world I know some Learned men have endeavoured to elude most of the Testimonies which are produced to manifest the Opinion of the most antient Jews in this matter But I know also that their Exceptions might be easily removed would the nature of our present Design admit of a Contest to that purpose § 6 We come now to the consideration of those different Opinions concerning the Original of the Sabbath which are embraced and contended about amongst Learned men yea and unlearned of the present Age and Church And rejecting the conceit of the Jews about the Station in Mara which very few think to have any probability attending it there are two Opinions in this matter that are yet pleaded for The first is that the Sabbath had its Institution Precept or Warranty for its Observation in Paradise before the Fall of man immediately upon the finishing of the Works of Creation This is thought by many to be plainly and positively asserted Gen. 2. 2. and our Apostle seems directly to confirm it by placing the Blessing of the seventh Day as the immediate consequent of the finishing of the Works of God from the Foundation of the World Hebrews Chap. 4 5 6. Others refer the Institution of the Sabbath to the Precept given about its Observation in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. 22 23 24 25 26. For those who deny its Original from the Beginning or a Morality in its Law cannot admit that it was first given on Sinai or had its Spring in the Decalogue nor can give any peculiar Reason why it should be inserted therein seeing express mention is made of its Observation some while before the giving
factus sit propter nominis sui glorificationem quod cum majus fuerit caeteris quae hactenus creata sunt vocatur benedictio eundem diem cui sic benedixit sanctificavit quia illo die reliquo toto tempore constituerat se in homine sanctificare tanquam in corona gloria sui operis Sanctificare enim est eum qui sanctus est sanctum dicere testari Dies igitur tempus sanctum erat agnoseebatur non per se sed per sanctitatem hominis qui in tempore se sanctificat cogitationes studia actiones suas Deo qui sanctus est vindicat consecrat I understand not how God can be said to bless the seventh Day because man who was created the sixth Day was made for the Glory of his Name For all things as well as man were made for the Glory of God He made all things for himself Prov. 16. 4. And they all declare his glory Psal. 19. Nor is it said that God rested on the seventh Day from makeing of man but from all the works that he had made Grant man who was last made to have been the most eminent part of the visible Creation and most capable of immediate giving glory to God yet it is plainly said that the Rest of God respected all the works that he had made which is twice repeated besides that the works themselves are summed up into the making of the Heavens and Earth and all the Host of them And wherein doth this include the blessing of the seventh Day it may be better applyed to the first wherein man was made for on the seventh God did no more make man than he did the Sun and Moon which were made on the fourth Nor is there here any Distinction supposed between Gods resting on the seventh Day and his blessing of it which yet are plainly distinguished in the Text. To say he blessed and sanctified it meerly by resting on it is evidently to confound the things that are not only distinctly proposed in the Text but so as that one is laid down as the cause of the other For because God rested on the seventh Day therefore he blessed it Nor is the Sanctification of the Day any better expressed God saith he had appointed on that day and alwayes to sanctifie himself in man as the Crown and Glory of his work I wish this Learned Man had more clearly expressed himself What Act of God is it that can be here intended It must be the Purpose of his Will This therefore is given us as the sense of this place God sanctified the seventh Day that is God purposed from Eternity to sanctifie himself alwayes in man whom on the sixth Day he would create for his Glory These things are so forced as that they scarcely afford a tolerable sense § 8 Neither is the sense given by this Author and some others of that expression to sanctifie that is to declare or testifie any Person or thing to be Holy being spoken by God and not of him objectively usual or to be justified In reference unto God our sanctifying him or his Name is indeed to testifie or declare his Holiness by our giving Honour and Glory to him in our Holy Obedience But as to men and things to sanctifie them is either really to sanctifie them by making them internally holy or to separate and dedicate them unto Holy Uses the former peculiar to Persons the latter common to them with other things made sacred by an authoritative separation from prophane or common Uses unto a peculiar sacred or holy Use in the Worship of God And the following words in our Author that the Day is sanctified and made holy not in it self but by the Holiness of man any more to the purpose For as man was no more created on that Day than the Beasts of the Field so that from his Holiness no colour can be taken to ascribe Holiness unto the Day so it is not consistent with what was before asserted that the sanctification intended is the Holiness of God himself as declared in his works for now it is made the Holiness of Man The sense of the words is plain and are but darkned by these circumlocutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jews do well express the general sense of the words when they say of the Day that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was divided or distinguished from the common nature of things in the world namely by having a new Sacred Relation added unto it For that the Day it self is the subject spoken of as the object of Gods blessing and sanctification nothing but unallowable Prejudice will deny And this to be the sense of the Expressions both the words used to declare the Acts of God about it do declare 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he blessed it Gods Blessing as the Jews say and they say well therein is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Addition of Good It relates to some thing that hath a real present Existence to which it makes an Addition of some farther Good than it was before partaker of Hereof as we said the Day in this place was the Direct and immediate Object God blessed it Some peculiar Good was added unto it Let this be inquired into what it was and wherein it did consist and the meaning of the words will be evident It must be somewhat whereby it was preferred unto or exalted above other dayes When any thing of that nature is assigned besides a Relation given unto it to the Worship of God it shall be considered That this was it is plain from the Nature of the thing it self and from the actual separation and use of it to that purpose which did ensue The other Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sanctified it is farther instructive in the intention of God and is also exegetical of the former Suppose still as the Text will not allow us to do otherwise that the Day is the Object of this Sanctification and it is not possible to assign any other sense of the Words but that God â—â—t apart by his Institution that Day to be the Day of his Worship to be spent in a Sacred Rest unto himself And this is declared to be the intendment of the Word in the Decalogue where it is used again to the same purpose For none ever doubted but that the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he sanctified it therein is any other but that by his Institution and command he set it apart for a Day of holy Rest And this signification of that Word is not only most common but solely to be admitted in the Old Testament if Cogent Reason be not given to the contrary as where it denotes a Dedication and separation to Civil uses and not to Sacred as it sometimes doth still retaining its general nature of separation And therefore I will not deny but that these two words may signifie the same thing the one being meerly
of and the coherence of the words do necessarily exclude such an Imagination as it is in this place For without the Introduction of the words mentioned neither is the Discourse compleat nor the matter of Fact absolved And what lyeth against our Construction and Interpretation of these words from the Arguments insisted on to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in the Wilderness shall be afterwards considered § 10 The Testimony to the same purpose with the former taken out of the New Testament is that of our Apostle Heb. 4. 3 4. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said as I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the Foundation of the world For he speaketh somewhere concerning the seventh day in this wise And God rested on the seventh day from all his works Having insisted at large on this place with the whole ensuing Discourse in our Exposition of the Chapter it self I shall here but briefly reflect upon it referring the Reader for its full Vindication unto its proper place The present Design is to convince the Hebrews of their concernment in the Promise of entring into the Rest of God namely that Promise and Rest which yet remained and were prophesied of Psal. 91. To this purpose he manifests that notwithstanding any other Rest of God that was mentioned in the Scripture there yet remained another Rest for them that did or would believe in Christ through the Gospel In the proof and confirmation hereof he takes into consideration the several Rests of God under the several States of the Church which were now passed and gone And first he fixeth upon the Sabbatical Rest of the seventh day as that which was the first in Order first instituted first enjoyed or observed And this he sayes ensued upon the finishing of the works of Creation This the order of the words and coherence of them require Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he speaketh concerning the seventh Day on this wise The works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostles Discourse or Purpose but only as they denoted the Beginning of the seventh days Sabbatical Rest. For it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after The first Rest mentioned saith he cannot be that intended in the Psalm because that Rest began from the foundation of the world but this mentioned by David is promised as he speaketh so long a time after And what was this Rest Was it meerly Gods ceasing from his own works This the Apostle had no concernment in For he treateth of no Rest of God absolutely but of such a Rest as men by Faith and Obedience might enter into Such as was that afterwards in the Land of Canaan and that also which he now proposed to them in the Promise of the Gospel both which God calleth his Rests and inviteth others unto an entrance into them Such therefore must be the Rest of God here intended for concerning his Rest absolutely or his mere Cessation from working he had no Reason to treat For his Design was only to shew that notwithstanding the other Rests that were proposed unto men for to obtain an Entrance into them there yet remained another Rest to be entred into and enjoyed under the Gospel Such a Rest therefore there was instituted and appointed of God from the Foundation of the world immediately upon the finishing of the works of Creation which sixeth immoveably the Beginning of the Sabbatical Rest. The full Vindication of this Testimony the Reader may find in the Exposition it self whither he is referred And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable Testimonies The Observation and Tradition of this Institution whereby it will be farther confirmed are next to be enquired after § 11 That this Divine Original Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was piously observed by the Patriarchs who retained a due Remembrance of Divine Revelations is out of Controversie amongst all that acknowledge the Institution it self by others it is denyed that they may not be forced to acknowledge such an Institution And indeed it is so fallen out with the two great Ordinances of Divine Worship before the giving of the Law the one instituted before the Fall the other immediately upon it that they should have contrary Lots in this matter namely Sacrifices and the Sabbath Sacrifices we find constantly observed by Holy men of old although we read not of their Express Institution But from their Observation we do and may conclude that they were Instituted although that Institution be not expresly recorded The Sabbath we find expresly instituted and therefore do and may justly conclude that it was constantly observed although that Observation be not directly and in terms remembred But yet as there is such light into the Institution of Sacrifices as may enable us to justifie them by whom they were used that they acted therein according to the mind of God and in Obedience unto his Will as we have elsewhere demonstrated so there want not such Instances of the Observation of the Sabbath as may confirm the Original Divine Institution of it pleaded for This therefore I shall a little enquire into Many of the Jewish Masters as we observed before ascribe the Original of the Sabbath unto the Statute given them in Mara Exod. 15. And yet the same persons grant that it was observed by the Religious Patriarchs before especially by Abraham unto whom the knowledge of it was granted by peculiar Priviledge But these things are mutually destructive of each other For they have nothing to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in Mara but those words of v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he gave him a Statute and a Judgement And it is said of Abraham that he taught his Houshold and Children after him to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement Gen. 18. 19. If then the Observation of the Sabbath be a Statute or Ordinance and was made known to Abraham it is certain that he instructed his household and children all his Posterity in their Duty with respect thereunto And if so it could not be first revealed unto them at Mara Others therefore of their Masters do grant as we observed also the Original of the Sabbath from the Creation and do assert the Patriarchal Observation of it upon that Foundation The Instances I confess which they make use of are not absolutely cogent but yet considered with other circumstances wherewith they are strengthned they may be allowed to conclude unto an high probability Some of them are collected by Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. saith he Dico quemadmodum traditio creationis Mundipenes Abrahamum ejus posteros tantum fuit it a etiam ex dictamine Legis naturalis Sabbatum ab iis solis cultum fuisse De Abrahamo dicit sacra Scriptura
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sacredly is saith Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of seven It is hard to give any other Account whence all these conceptions should arise besides that insisted on From the Original Impression made on the minds of men by the Instruction of the Law of Creation which they were made under and the Tradition of the Creation of the world in six dayes closed with an additional Day of Sacred Rest did these Notions and obscure Remembrances of the specialty of that Number arise And although we have not yet enquired what Influence into the Law of Creation as instructive and directive of our Actions the six dayes work had with its consequential Day of Rest yet all will grant that whatever it were it was far more clear and cogent unto man in Innocency directly obliged by that Law and able to understand its voice in all things than it could be to them who by the Effects of it made some dark enquiries after it who were yet able to conclude that there was somewhat sacred in the number of seven though they knew not well what § 13 Neither was the Number of seven only in General Sacred amongst them but there are Testimonies produced out of the most antient Writers amongst the Heathens expressing a Notion of a seventh Dayes Sacred Feast and Rest. Many of these were of old collected by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Eusebius out of Aristobulus a Learned Jew They have by many been insisted on and yet I think it not amiss here once more to report them The words of Aristobulus wherewith he prefaceth his Allegation of them are in Eusebius Praepar Evangel lib. 13. cap. 12. speaking of the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer and Hesiod taking it out of our Books do openly affirm that it is sacred That what they affirm herein was taken from the Jewish Books I much question nor do I think that in their time when the Law only was written that the Nations of the world had any the least acquaintance with their Writings nor much until after the Babylonish Captivity when they began to be taken notice of which was principally diffused under the Persian Empire by their commerce with the Graecians who enquired into all things of that nature and that had an appearance of secret Wisdom But these Apprehensions what ever they were they seem rather to have taken up from the secret insinuations of the Law of Creation and the Tradition that was in the world of the Matter of Fact Out of Hefiod therefore he cites the following Testimonies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first the fourth and the seventh Day is sacred Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh again the sacred or illustrious Light of the Sun And out of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then came the seventh Day that is sacred Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was the seventh Day wherein all things were finished or perfected Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We left the flood of Acheron on the seventh Day Whereunto he subjoyns an ingenious Exposition about the Relinquishment of the Oblivion of Error by vertue of the sacredness of the Number seven He adds also out of Linus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh Day wherein all things were finished Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seventh Day among the best things the seventh is the Nativity of all things The seventh is amongst the chiefest and is the perfect Day Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which before The same Testimonies he repeats again in his next Chapter out of Clemens with an Alteration of some few words not of any importance And the Verses ascribed to Linus in Aristobulus are said to be the work of Callimachus in Clemens which is not of our concernment Testimonies to the same purpose may be taken out of some of the Roman Writers so Tibullus giving an Account of the excuses he made for his unwillingness to leave Rome Aut ego sum causatus aves aut omina dira Saturni sacra me tenuisse Die Either I laid it on the Birds he had no incouraging Augury or that bad Omens detained me on the sacred Day of Saturn Lib. 1. Eleg. 3. § 14 I shall not from these and the like Testimonies contend that the Heathens did generally allow and observe themselves one Day sacred in the Week Nor can I grant on the other hand that those antient Assertions of Linus Homer and Hesiod are to be measured by the late Roman Writers Poets or others who ascribe the seventh Dayes sacred Feast to the Jews in way of Reproach as Ovid nec te peregrina morentur Sabbata Stay not thy journey for forraign Sabbaths And Culta Palaestino septima festa viro The seventh Day Feast observed by the Jew Nor shall I plead the Testimony of Lampridius concerning the Emperour Alexander Severus going unto the Capitol and the Temples on the seventh Day seeing in those times he might learn that Observance from the Jews whose customs he had occasion to be acquainted with For all antient Traditions were before this time utterly worn out or inextricably corrupted And when the Jews by their conversation with the Romans after the Wars of Pompey began to represent them unto them again the generality despised them all out of their hatred and contempt of that people And I do know that sundry Learned men especially two of late Gomarus and Selden have endeavoured to shew that the Testimonies usually produced in this case do not prove what they are urged for Great pains they have taken to refer them all to the sacredness of the septenary number before mentioned or the seventh day of the Month sacred as is pretended on the Account of the Birth of Apollo whereunto indeed it is evident that Hesiod hath respect in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Authority of Aristobulus and Clemens is not to be despised Something they knew undoubtedly of the state of things in the world in their own Dayes and those that went before And they do not only instance in the Testimonies before rehearsed but also assert that the sacredness of one of the seven dayes was generally admitted by all And the Testimonies of Philo and Josephus are so express to that purpose as that their force cannot be waved without offering violence unto their words The words of Philo we expressed before And Josephus in his second Book against Appion sayes positively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is neither any City of the Greeks nor Barbarians nor any Nation whatever to whom our custom of Resting on the seventh day is not come And this in the words foregoing he affirmeth to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a long time before as not taken up by an occasional acquaintance with them And Lucian in his Pseudologista tells us that Children at School were exempted from studying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the seventh Days And Tertullian
in his Apologie cap. 16. tells the Gentiles of their Sabbaths or Feasts on Saturday But yet as was intimated I shall grant that the Observation of a Weekly Sacred Feast is not proved by the Testimonies produced which is all that those who oppose them do labour to disprove But I desire to know from what Original these Traditions were derived and whether any can be assigned unto them but that of the Original Institution of the Sabbatical Rest. It is known that this was common amongst them that when they had a general Notion or Tradition of any thing whose true Cause Reason and Beginning they knew not they would faign a Reason or occasion of it accommodate to their present Apprehensions and Practices as I have elsewhere evinced and cleared Having therefore amongst them the Tradition of a seventh Days Sacred Rest which was originally Catholick and having long lost the Practice and Observance of it as well as its Cause and Reason they laid hold on any thing to affix it unto which might have any Resemblance unto what was vulgarly received amongst them or what they could divine in their more curious speculations § 15 The Hebdomadal Revolution of Time generally admitted in the world is also a great Testimony unto the Original Institution of the Sabbath Of old it was Catholick and is at present received among those Nations whose converse was not begun until of late with any of those parts of the world where there is a light gone forth in these things from the Scripture All Nations I say in all Ages have from Time immemorial made the Revolution of seven Dayes to be the first stated Period of Time And this Observation is still continued throughout the world unless amongst them who in other things are openly degenerated from the Law of Nature as those barbarous Indians who have no computation of times but by Sleeps Moons and Winters The measure of time by a Day and Night is directed unto sense by the diurnal course of the Sun Lunar Months and Solar years are of an unavoidable Observation unto all Rational Creatures Whence therefore all men have reckoned Time by Dayes Months and Years is obvious unto all But whence the Hebdomadal Revolution or Weekly Period of Time should make its Entrance and obtain a Catholick Admittance no man can give an Account but with respect to some Impressions on the minds of men from the Constitution and Law of our Natures with the Tradition of a Sabbatical Rest instituted from the Foundation of the world Other Original whether Artificial and Arbitrary or Occasional it could not have Nothing of any such thing hath left the least footsteps of its ever being in any of the Memorials of Times past Neither could any thing of so low an Original or Spring be elevated to such an Height as to diffuse it self through the whole world A derivation of this Observation from the Chaldaeans and Aegyptians who retained the deepest tincture of Original Traditions hath been manifested by others And so fixed was this computation of time on their minds who knew not the Reason of it that when they made a disposition of the Dayes of the year into any other Period on accounts Civil or Sacred yet they still retained this also So the Romans as appears by the Fragments of their old Kalendars had their Nundinae which were dayes of Vacation from Labour on the eighth or as some think the ninth Dayes recurring but yet still made use of the stated Weekly period It is of some consideration in this cause and is usually urged to this purpose that Noah observed the septenary Revolution of Dayes in sending forth the Dove out of the Ark Gen. 8. 10 12. That this was done casually is not to be imagined Nor can any Reason be given why notwithstanding the disappointment he met with the first and second time he should still abide seven dayes before he sent again if you consider only the natural condition of the Flood or the Waters in their abatement A Revolution of Dayes and that upon a sacred account was doubtless attended unto by him And I should suppose that he still sent out the Dove the next day after the Sabbath to see as it were whether God had returned again to Rest in the works of his hands And Gen. 29. 27. a Week is spoken of as a known account of Dayes or Time Fulfill her Week that is not a Week of years as he had done for Rachel but fulfill a Week of Dayes in the Festivals of his marriage with Leah For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can have no other sense seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Feminine Gender relates unto Leah whose Nuptials were to be celebrated and not to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Week which is of the Masculine And it was the custom in those antient times of the world to continue the celebration of a Marriage Feast for seven Dayes or a Week as Judg. 14. 12 15 17. The seven dayes of the Feast is spoken of as a thing commonly known and in vulgar use § 16 Let us therefore consider what is offered to weaken the Force of this Observation It is pretended that the Antient Heathen or the contemplative Persons amongst them observing the unfixed various Motions of the seven Planetary Luminaries as they used and abused it to other Ends so they applyed their Number and Names unto so many dayes which were thereby as it were dedicated unto them which shut them up in that septenary Number But that the Observation of the Weekly Revolution of Time was from the Philosophers and not the common consent of the people doth not appear For those observed also the twelve Signs of the Zodiack and yet made that no Rule to reckon Time or Dayes by Besides the Observation of the Site and Positure of the seven Planets as to their Height or Elevation with Respect unto one another is as antient as the Observation of their peculiar and various motions And upon the first discovery thereof all granted this to be their Order Saturne Jupiter Mars Sol Venus Mercury Luna What Alteration is made herein by the late Hypothesis fixing the Sun as in the Center of the World built on fallible Phaenomena and advanced by many arbitrary Presumptions against evident Testimonies of Scripture and Reasons as probable as any are produced in its confirmation is here of no consideration For it is certain that all the world in former Ages was otherwise minded And our Argument is not taken in this matter from what really was true but from what was universally apprehended so to be Now whence should it be that if this limiting the first Revolution of Time unto seven Dayes proceeded from the Planetary Denominations fixed to the Dayes of the year arbitrarily the Order among the Planets should be so changed as every one sees it to be For in the Assignation of the Names of the Planets to the Dayes of the Week the midst is taken out first
and so the fourth in order inclusive falls to be next until the whole Cycle be finished Some would take the Reason hereof from the proportion of Harmony some from the Diurnal Ascension of the Planets which is ridiculous So Dio Cassius in the thirty seventh Book of his Histories the third of them that remain treating of the taking of Jerusalem by Pompey on the seventh Day of the Week when the people out of their superstition made not their wonted Resistance enquires on that occasion of the Reason of the Assignation of the Planetary Names to the Dayes of the Week which he affirms to have had its Original from the Aegyptians And two Reasons he tells us that he had heard of the especial Assignation of their several Names unto the several Dayes in the order wherein they are commonly used The first is that it was taken from the Harmony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Musical Note of Diatessaron For beginning saith he with Saturne in the highest Sphere and so passing unto the fourth in order it is the Sun and so throughout in the whole Revolution His other Reason is that taking the day and night beginning with the first hour and assigning the Name of a Planet to each hour beginning with Saturn for the Reason before mentioned and the succeeding hours to the other Planets in their Order so renewing the numerations to the end of the four and twenty hours the first hour of the next day falls to the Sun and so of the day following to the Moon and the remainder to the other Planets in the order commonly ascribed unto them What there is in these conjectures I know not But both of them give the precedency of the first dayes as they are fixed unto that which in the true and natural order of the Dayes is the last There is a good account given us of this matter by Johannes Philoponus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or de Creation Mund. lib. 7. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This saith he is consented unto amongst all men that there are only seven dayes which by a Revolution into themselves compose the whole of Time whereof we can assign no other Reason but that only which is given by Moses the Grecians indeed ascribe the seven dayes to the seven Planets the first to the Sun the second to the Moon the third to Mars the fourth to Mercury the fifth to Jupiter the sixth to Venus the seventh to Saturne and hereby they first acknowledge that there are but seven dayes whereof all time consisteth but farther they can give no Reason why the Dayes are so disposed of unto the Planets For why did they not rather constitute twelve dayes from the twelve parts of the Zodiack through which the Sun passing perfecteth the year Nor can any Reason be assigned from the Motions of the Planets why any one of the Dayes is inscribed to any of them It is most likely therefore that the Gentiles as they without just Reason or Cause dedicate the Planets by the Names of Daemons and Heroe's so when they observed that there were seven dayes acknowledged by all and that the Planets were so many in number they did according to their pleasure in the two equal Numbers assign one day to one Planet another to another to which he adds truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only the great Moses being divinely inspired hath delivered unto men the true Reason of the septenary Number of the dayes So far he There seems to be some Reason for assigning the conduct of time to the Sun or calling the first day by his name as also of adjoyning the Moon unto him in the next place For the succession of the Sun though created the fourth day in point of Use unto that diffused Light which was created the first Day with its being the Instrumental Cause and Measure of every day with the Tradition of the Appointment of Sun and Moon to rule and distinguish times and seasons with the sensible Effects and Operations of them might easily give them the Preheminence by common consent in giving Names unto the Dayes of the Week The other Names were added and applyed according to some prevailing Fictions concerning the Planets and their Respect unto Men and their Actions But the Hebdomadal Period of Time was fixed long before the imposition of those Names prevailed among the Grecians and the Romans which perhaps is not very antiently as Dio thinks though they derived them from the Chaldaeans and Aegyptians And that the acknowledgement of seven Dayes gave occasion to fix unto them the Names of the seven Planets and not that the Observation of the seven Planets gave occasion to compute the Dayes of the World by sevens is manifest from hence in that many Nations admitting of the Hebdomadal Revolution of Time gave the dayes in it quite other Names as various Reasons or Occasions did suggest them unto them In the antient Celtick or German Tongue and all Languages thence deriving the Sun and Moon only on the Reasons before mentioned giving name to the leading Dayes of the Week the rest of the dayes are distinguished and signalized with the Names of the Conductors of their first great Colonies in the North-Western Parts of the World For to fancy that Tuisco is the same with Mars Wooden with Mercury Thor with Jupiter and Frea with Venus is to fancy what we please without the least ground of probability Nor did the Celtae ever call the Planets by those Names so that if there be any Allusion in those Names unto those of the Grecians and Romans it was not taken from their natural speculation about the Planets but from the pleasing Fictions about Deified Heroes wherein they were imitated by most Nations of the world The English and Dutch have taken in Saturday from Saturn other Nations of the same extract retain their own occasional Names The observation therefore of the seven Planets gave neither Rise Reason Cause nor Occasion to this Original Period of Time in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Dayes And hence Theophilus Antiochenus lib. 2. ad Antolychum affirms that all mortal men agreed in the Appellation of the seventh Day whose Testimony is of good force though himself mistake the Original of that Appellation For he tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an Error common to many of the Antients who could not distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is also to this purpose observed by Rivet and Selden from Salmasius out of Georgius Syncallus in his Chronologie that the Patriarchs reckoned the times or distinguished them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Weeks only This therefore is to me no small Evidence of the Institution and Observation of the Sabbath from the Foundation of the world For hence did this Periodical Revolution of Time prevail amongst the Nations even those who had not the least converse with or knowledge of the Jews or their customs after the Command and
Observation of it was renewed amongst them Not that this Evidence is of it self a sufficient Testimony unto its Original Institution nor that going before but that the Piety of the Patriarchs and Traditions of the Apostate Gentiles do confirm the Time of that Institution which is so expresly recorded § 17 It remaineth that we take a view of the Opinion advanced by many Learned men in Opposition unto what we have been pleading for And this is that the Command concerning the Sabbath was peculiar to the Jews alone and that it was given unto them in the Wilderness and not at all before Many of the Jews as was declared are of this Judgement and thence call the Sabbath the Bride of their Nation that which God gave to them as he did Eve to Adam and to no other Abulensis contends for this Opinion in his Comment on Exod. 16. who is followed by some Expositors of the Roman Church and opposed by others as Cornelius à Lapide c. The same Difference in Judgement is found amongst the Protestant Divines The Dissertations of Rivet and Gomarus on this subject are well known The Controversie being of late renewed especially among some of the Belgick Divines I shall take under consideration the Arguments of one of them who hath last of all defended this cause and weigh of what importance they are separating as much as we can between the matter of our present Dispute which is the Original of the Sabbath and that of the Causes of it which we shall nextly enquire into § 18 The Design is to prove that the Sabbath was first given to the Jews and that in the Wilderness And to this purpose first having repeated the words of the fourth Commandment he adds Quis vero dicere audebit verba haec convenire in hominem ab initio Creationis sicut hic statuitur that is by his Adversary an illi incumbebat opus quidem servile idque per sex dies an ipsi erant servi ancillae an jumenta requietis indigentia an peregrini inter portas ejus quis non videt ad solum Israelitarum statum in toto illo praecepto respici Ita Calvinus in Gen. 2. Postea in lege novum de Sabbato praeceptum datum est quod Judaeis quidem ad tempus peculiare foret fuit enim legalis ceremonia spiritualem quietem adumbrans cujus in Christo apparuit veritas Quo nihil efficacius dici poterat Hanc vero praecepti mentem esse patet ex aliis Testimoniis Scripturae apertissime in quibus Judaeis tantum datum esse Sabbatum constanter docetur Exod. 16. 29. Videte quod Jehovah dedit vobis illud Sabbatum idcirco dat vobis cibum bidui Et Ezek. 20. 12. Sabbata dedi eis ut essent signum inter me ipsos ad sciendum me Jehovam sanctificare ipsos Denique Neh. 9. 14. Sabbatum quoque sanctum notum fecisti eis quum praecepta statutaque leges praeciperes eis per Mosem servum tuum In quibus locis uniformiter docetur tanta cum emphasi per Mosem deum dedisse Judaeis Sabbatum non ergo aliis gentibus datum fuit aut ipsis etiam per Majores ipsorum ante illud tempus ab origine Mundi Disquisit cap. 2. p. 50. An. It is by all confessed that the Command of the Sabbath in the Renewal of it in the Wilderness was accommodated unto the Paedagogical State of the Church of the Israelites There were also such Additions made unto it in the manner of its Observance and the sanction of it as might adapt its Observation unto their Civil and Political Estate or that Theocratical Government which was then erected amongst them So was it to bear a part in that Ceremonial Instruction which God in all his dealings with them intended To this End also the manner of the Delivery of the whole Law and the Reservation of its Tables in the Ark were designed And divers Expressions in the Explicatory part of the Decalogue have the same Reason and Foundation For there is mention of Fathers and Children to the third and fourth Generation and of their sins of the Land given to the people of God in the fifth of Servants and Handmaids in the tenth Shall we therefore say that the Moral Law was not before given unto mankind because it had a peculiar Delivery for special Ends and Purposes unto the Jews It is no Argument therefore that this Command was not for the substance of it given before to mankind in general because it hath some Modifications added in the Decalogue to accommodate it to the present Church and Civil State of the Hebrews as likewise had the fift command in particular 2. For those Expressions infisted on of Work servile work work for six Dayes of servants and handmaids of the stranger within the Gates they were necessary Explications of the Command in its Application unto that people and yet such as had a just proportion unto what was enjoyned at the first giving of this command occasioned from the outward change of the state of things amongst men from what it was in Innocency For in that state God designed man to work and that in the tilling of the Ground whilst he abode in it Gen. 2. 15. He put the Man in the Garden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work in it the same word whereby Work is enjoyned in the Decalogue And whereas God had sanctified the seventh Day to be a Day of Rest and thereon put man into the Garden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to till it by work and labour He did virtually say unto him as in the Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work Neither was this in the least inconsistent with the condition wherein he was created For man being constituted and composed partly of an Immortal soul of a Divine Extract and Heavenly Original and partly of a Body made out of the Earth he was a middle creature between those which were purely Spiritual as the Angels and those which were purely Terrestrial as the Beasts of the Field Hence when God had made man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of dust from out of the Earth as all the Beasts of the Field were made and had given him distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a breath of life in a distinct substance answerable to that of the Angels above whose creation was not out of any pre-existing matter but they were the product of an immediate Emanation of Divine Power as was the soul of man there was no meet help to be associated unto him in the whole Creation of God For the Angels were not meet for his help and individual converse on the account of what was terrene and mortal in him And the Beasts were much more unsuited unto him as having nothing in them to answer his Divine and more noble part And as his Nature was thus constituted that he should converse as it were amphibiously
Gentiles shall keep the Sabbath one day in seven in Hell 6. For the Distinction which they have invented that a Proselyte of the Gate might work for himself but not for his Master it is one of the many whereby they make void the Law of God through their Traditions Those who of old amongst them feared God knowing their Duty to instruct their Housholds or Families that is their Children and Servants in the Wayes and Worship of God walked by another Rule § 21 It is farther pleaded by the same Author p. 53. That the Gentiles knew nothing of this Sabbatical Feast but that when it came to their knowledge they derided and exploded it as a particular Superstition of the Jews To this purpose many Instances out of the Historians and Poets who wrote in the time of the first Roman Emperors are collected by Selden which we are again directed unto Now it could not be but that if it had been originally appointed unto all mankind that they should have been such strangers unto it But this matter hath been discoursed before And we have shewed that sundry of the first Writers of the Christian Church were otherwise minded for they judged and proved that there was a Notion at least of the seventh Dayes Sacred Rest diffused throughout the world And they lived nearer the times of the Gentiles Practice than those by whom their Judgement and Testimony are so peremptorily rejected It is not unlikely but that they might be mistaken in some of the Testimonies whereby they confirm their Observation yet this hinders not but that the Observation it self may be true and sufficiently confirmed by other Instances which they make use of For my part as I have said I will not nor for the security of the Principle laid down need I to contend that the seventh Day was observed as a sacred feast amongst them It is enough that there were such Notices of it in the World as could proceed from no other Original but that pleaded for which was common unto all The Roman Writers Poets and others do speak of and contemn the Judaical Sabbaths under which Name they comprehended all their Sacred Feasts and Solemn Abstinencies Hence they reproached them with their Sabbatical Fasts of which number the seventh day Hebdomadal Sabbath was not But they never endeavoured to come to any real Acquaintance with their Religious Rites but took up vulgar Reports concerning them as did their Historians also who in the Affairs of other Natitions are supposed to have been curious and diligent § 22 Indeed after the Conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey when the People of the Jews began to be known among the Romans and to disperse themselves throughout their Provinces they began every day more and more to hate them and to cast all manner of reproaches on them without regard to Truth or Honesty And it may not be amiss here a little by the way to enquire into the Reasons of it The principal cause hereof no doubt was from the God they worshipped and the manner of his Worship observed amongst them For finding them to acknowledge and adore one only the true God and that without the use of any kind of Images they perceived their own Idolatry and Superstition to be condemned thereby And this had been the condition of that people under the former Empires of the Chaldaeáns Persians and Grecians God had appointed them to be his Witnesses in the world that he was God and that there was none other Isa. 44. 8 9 10. Ye are my Witnesses is there a God besides me there is no God I know not any As also Chap. 43. 10 11 12. Ye are my Witnesses that before me there was no God formed neither shall there be any after me I even I am the Lord and besides me there is no Saviour therefore ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord that I am God This greatly provoked as other Nations of old so at length the Romans as bidding defiance to all their Gods and their Worship of them wherein they greatly boasted For they thought that it was meerly by the Help of their Gods and on the account of their Religion that they conquered all other Nations So Ciccro Orat. de Respon Harusp Quam volumus ipsi nos amemus tamen nec numero Hispanos nec robore Gallos nec calliditate Poenos nec artibus Graecos sed pietate religione atque hac una sapientia quod deorum immortalium numine omnia regi gubernarique prospeximus omnes gentes nationesque superavimus Let us love and please ourselves as we think meet yet we outgo neither the Spaniards in number nor the Gaules in strength nor the Africans in craft nor the Grecians in Arts but it is by our Piety and Religion and this only Wisdom that we refer all to the Government of the immortal Gods that we have overcome all Countreys and Nations And Dionysius Halicarnassaeus Antiquit. Rom. lib. 2. having given an account of their Sacred Rites and Worship adds that he did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That those who knew not before the Piety or Religion of the Romans might not now think it strange that they should have such success in all their Wars To be judged and condemned in those things by the contrary witness of the Jews they could not bear This made them reflect on God himself as the God which they worshipped They called him incertum and ignotum affirming the Rites of his Worship to be absurd and contrary to the common consent of mankind as Tacitus expresly Hist. lib. 5. The best they could afford when they spake of him was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who ever he be And Tully will not allow that it was any respect to their God or their Religion which caused Pompey to forbear spoiling the Temple when he took it by force Non credo saith he religionem impedimento praestantissimo Imperatori fuisse quod victor ex illo fano nihil attigerit Orat. pro Flacc. whereunto he adds as high a Reproach of them and their Religion as he could devise Stantibus Hierosolymis pacatisque Judaeis tamen istorum religio sacrorum à splendore hujus imperii gravitate nominis nostri majorum institutis abhorrebat nunc vero hoc magis quod illa gens quid de nostro imperio sentiret ostendit armis quam cara diis immortalibus esset docuit quod victa est quod clocata quod servata Whilst Jerusalem stood that is in its own Power and the Jews were peaceable yet their Religion was unworthy the splendor of this Empire the gravity of our Name and abhorrent from the Ordinances of our Ancestors how much more now when that Nation hath shewed what esteem it hath of our Empire by its Arms and how dear it is to the immortal Gods that it is conquered and set out under Tribute The like Reflections yea worse may be seen in Trogus Tacitus Plutarcb Strabo and Democritus in Suidas with others §
what doth or doth not belong to the Principles and Condition of our Nature so far is it from being comprehensive of the whole Law thereof § 14 When therefore we plead any thing to belong unto or to proceed from the Law of Nature it is no impeachment of our Assertion to say that it doth not appear so to the common Reason of mankind or that right Reason hath not found it out or discovered it provided it contain nothing repugnant thereunto For it will never be universally agreed what doth so appear to the common Reason of all nor what is hath been or may be discovered thereby And although it should be true which some say that Moral and Natural Duties depend on and have their formal Reason from the Nature of God and Man yet it doth not thence follow that we do or may by the sole Light of Nature know what doth so arise with the due bounds and just consequences of it But there is as we shall see something yet farther required in and unto the Law of Nature which is the adequate Rule of all such Duties I shall not therefore endeavour to prove that the meer Dictates of Reason do evince a Sacred Hebdomadal Rest as knowing that the Law of Nature unto which we say it doth belong doth not absolutely consist in them nor did they ever since the Fall steadily and universally as acted in men possessed of Reason either comprehend or express all that belongs thereunto § 15 By the Law of Nature then I intend not a Law which our Nature gives unto all our Actions but a Law given unto our Nature as a Rule and Measure unto our Moral Actions It is Lex naturae Naturantis and not naturae naturatae It respects the Efficient Cause of Nature and not the Effects of it And this respect alone can give it the Nature of a Law that is an obliging Force and Power For this must be alwayes from the Act of a Superior seeing Par in Parem jus non habet equals have no Right one over another This Law therefore is that Rule which God hath given unto humane Nature in all the individual partakers of it for all its Moral Actions in the state and condition wherein it was by him created and placed with Respect unto his own Government of it and Judgement concerning it which Rule is made known in them and to them by their inward constitution and outward condition wherein they were placed of God And the very Heathens acknowledged that the common Law of Mankind was Gods Prescription unto them So Tully 2. de Legib. Hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam Legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam neque scitum aliquod fuisse populorum sed aeternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret imperandi prohibendique sapientia Ita principem legem illam ultimam mentem dicebant omnia ratione cogentis aut vetantis Dei Take this Law therefore actively and it is the will of God commanding take it passively and it is the conscience of man complying with it take it instrumentally and it is the inbred notions of our minds with other Documents from the works of God proposed unto us The Supreme Original of it as of all Authority Law and Obligation is the Will of God constituting appointing and ordering the nature of things The means of its Revelation is the Effect of the Will Wisdom and Power of God creating man and all other things wherein he is concerned in their Order Place and Condition And the Observation of it as far as individual Persons are therein concerned is committed to the care of the Conscience of every man which natarally is the minds acting it self towards Gods as the Author of this Law § 16 These things being premised we shall consider what Light is given unto this Sacred Duty from the Law of our Creation The first End of any Law is to instruct direct and guide them in their duty unto whom it is given A Law which is not in its own Nature instructive and directive is no way meet to be prescribed unto Rational Creatures What hath an Influence upon any creature of any other kind if it be internal is Instinct and not properly a Law if it be external it is Force and Compulsion The Law therefore of Creation comprized every thing whereby God instructed man in the creation of himself and of the Universe unto his Works or Obedience and his Rest or Reward And whatever tended unto that End belonged unto that Law It is then as hath been proved unduly confined unto the ingrafted Notions of his mind concerning God and his Duty towards him though they are a principal part thereof Whatever was designed to give improvement unto those Notions and his natural Light to excite or direct them I mean in the Works of Nature not superadded positive Institutions doth also belong thereunto Wherefore the whole Instruction that God intended to give unto man by the Works of Creation with their Order and End is as was said included herein What he might learn from them or what God taught him by them was no less his Duty than what his own inbred Light directed him unto Rom. 1. 18 19 20. Thus the framing of the world in six Dayes in six Dayes of Work was intended to be instructive unto man as well as the consideration of the things materially that were made God could have immediately produced All out of Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the shortest measure of Time conceivable But he not only made all things for himself or his glory but disposed also the Order of their Production unto the same End And herein consisted part of that Covenant Instruction which he gave unto man in that condition wherein he was made that through him he might have glory ascribed unto him on the Account of his Works themselves as also of the Order and Manner of their Creation For it is vain to imagine that the world was made in six Dayes and those closed with a Day of Rest without an especial respect unto the Obedience of Rational Creatures seeing absolutely with respect unto God himself neither of them was necessary And what he intended to teach them thereby it was their duty to enquire and know Hereby then man in general was taught Obedience and Working before he entred into Rest. For being created in the Image of God he was to conform himself unto God As God wrought before he rested so was he to work before his Rest his condition rendring that working in him Obedience as it was in God an Effect of Soveraignty And by the Rest of God or his Satisfaction and Complacency in what he had made and done he was instructed to feek Rest with God or to enter into that Rest of God by his complyance with the Ends intended § 17 And whereas the innate Light and Principles of his own mind informed him that some time was to be set apart to the solemn
by it unto this end unspeakable Let then this help be supposed and let a Judgement be made of the Injunctions of the Law of Nature rather by its condemning Right and Power than by its Directive Light for that in our lapsed estate is a better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of its Commands than the other and we shall find it manifesting it self in this matter For on this supposition let those who will not acknowledge that the Observation of one Day in seven is to be separated unto God for the Ends declared allowing the Assertion before laid down of the necessity of the separation of some stated Time to that purpose fixe to themselves any other Time in a certain Revolution of Dayes and they will undoubtedly find themselves pressed with so many Considerations from the Law of their Creation to the contrary as will give them little Rest or satisfaction in their minds in what they do § 27 Farther to manifest this we may enquire what is necessary unto any Duty of Obedience towards God to evince it to be a Requisite of the Law of our Creation And here our Diligence is required For it must be said again expresly what was before intimated that it is a childish mistake to imagine that whatever is required by the Law of Nature is easily discernible and alwayes known to all Some of its Directions it may be are so especially such as are inculcated on the minds of men by their Common Interest and Advantage Such are neminem laedere and jus suum cuique tribuere But it is far from being true that all the Dictates of the Law of Nature and Requisites of Right Reason are evident and incapable of Controversie as they would have been unto man had he continued in his Integrity Many things there are between men themselves concerning which after all helps and advantages and a continued Observation of the course of the world unto this day it is still disputed what is the sense of the Law of Nature about them and wherein or how far they belong unto it The Law of Nations among themselves with respect unto one another on which is founded the Peace and Order of mankind is nothing but the Law of Nature as it hath been expressed in Instances by the Customs and Usages of them who are supposed to have most diligently attended unto its Directions And how many Differences never to be determined by common consent there are in and about these things is known For there are degrees of Evidence in the things that are of Natural Light And many things that are so are yet in Practice accompanied with the consideration of Positive Laws as also of Civil Usages and Customs amongst men And it is not easie to distinguish in many Observances what is of the Law of Nature and what of Law Positive or of useful Custom But of these things we have discoursed before in general We are now to enquire what is requisite to warrant the Ascription of any thing unto this Law § 28 And 1. It is required that it be congruous unto the Law of Nature and all the other known principles of it Unto us it may be enjoyned by Law Positive or otherwise made necessary for us to observe But it must in it self or materially hold a good correspondency with all the known Instances of the Law of our Creation and this manifested with satisfying Evidence before its Assignation thereunto It is of Natural Right that we should obey God in all his Commands but this doth not cause every command of God to belong to the Law of Nature It is as was said moreover required thereunto that it be in it self and the subject matter of it congruous unto the Principles of that Law whereof there is nothing in things meerly arbitrary and positive setting aside that general notion that God is to be obeyed in all his Laws which belongs not to this Question Now when this Congruity unto the Law of Nature or Right Reason in the matter of any Law or Command is discovered and made evident it will greatly direct the mind in its Enquiry after its whole Nature and manifest what is superadded unto it by Positive Command And this will not be denyed unto the Sabbath its Command and Observation Let the Ends of it before laid down be considered and let them be compared with any other Guidances or Directions which we have by Natural Light concerning our living to God and there will not only an Harmony appear amongst them but also that they contribute Help and Assistance to one another towards the same Ultimate End § 29 2. It is required that it have a general Principle in the Light of Nature and Dictates of Right Reason from whence it may be educed or which it will necessarily follow upon supposing that Principle rightly and duly improved It is not enough that it be at Agreement that it no way interfere with other Principles it must also have one of its own from whence it doth naturally arise So doth the second Commandment of the Decalogue belong to the Law of Nature It s Principle lyeth in that Acknowledgement of the Being of God which is required in the first For therein is God manifested to be of that Nature to be such a Being that it is and must be an absurd unreasonable foolish and impious thing in it self implying a renunciation of the former Acknowledgements to make any Images or limited Representations of his Being or to adore him any way otherwise than himself hath declared So is it here also The separation of a stated Time unto the Solemn Worship of God is so fixed on the mind of man by its own inbred Light as that it cannot be omitted without open sin against it in those who have not utterly sinned away all the Efficacy of that Light it self However that this is required of us by the Law of our Creation may be proved against all contradiction Hence whatever guiding directing determining Positive Law may ensue or be superadded about the Limitation of this time so to be separated it being only the Application of this Natural and Moral Principle as to some circumstances of it it hinders not but that the Law if self concerning it is of the Law of Nature and Moral For the Original Power unto Obligation of such a superadded Law lyes in the Natural Principle before mentioned § 30 3. What all men are taught by the Works of Creation themselves their Order Harmony and mutual Respect to each other with reference unto their Duty towards God and among themselves is of the Law of Nature although there be not an absolute distinct notion of it inbred in the mind discoverable It is enough that the mind of man is so disposed as to be ready and fit to receive the Discovery Revelation of it For the very Creation it self is a Law unto us and speaks out that Duty that God requireth of us towards himself For he hath not
only so ordered all the works of it that they should be meet to instruct us or contain an Instructive Power towards Rational Creatures made in that state and condition wherein man was created which was before described which hath in it the first notion of a Law but it was the Will of God that we should learn our Duty thereby which gives it its complement as a Law obliging unto Obedience And it is not only thus in general with respect unto the whole work of Creation in it self but the ordering and disposal of the Parts of it is alike directive and Instructive to the Nature of man and hath the force of a Law Morally and everlastingly obligatory Thus the preeminence of the Man above the Woman which is Moral ensues upon the Order of the Creation in that the Man was first made and the Woman for the Man as the Apostle argues 1 Tim. 2. 12 13. And all Nations ought to be obliged hereby though many of them through their Apostasie from Natural Light knew not that either Man or Woman was created but it may be supposed them to have grown out of the Earth like Mushromes and yet an Effect of the secret Original impression hereof influenced their minds and practices So the Creation of one Man and one Woman gave the Natural Law of Marriage whence Polygamy and Fornication became transgressions of the Law of Nature It will be hard to prove that about these and the like things there is a clear and undoubted Principle of Directive Light in the mind of man separate from the consideration of the Order of Creation But therein a Law and that Moral is given unto us not to be referred unto any other Head of Laws but that of Nature And here as was before pleaded the Creation of the world in six dayes with the Rest of God on the seventh and that declared gives unto all men an everlasting Law of separating one day in seven unto a Sacred Rest. For he that was made in the Image of God was made to imitate him and conform himself unto him God in this Order of things saying as it were unto him what I have done in your station do ye likewise Especially was this made effectual by his innate Apprehension that his Happiness consisted in entring into the Rest of God the pledge whereof it was his unquestionable Duty to embrace § 31 4. In this state of things a Direction by a Revelation in the way of a Precept for the due and just exercise of the Principles Rules and Documents before mentioned is so far from impeaching the Morality of any Command or Duty as that it compleats the Law of it with the addition of a formal obligatory Power and Efficacy The Light and Law of Creation so far as it was innate or concreated with the faculties of our souls and compleating our state of Dependance on God hath only the general nature of a Principle inclineing unto actions suitable unto it and directing us therein The Documents also that were originally given unto that Light from without by the other Works and Order of the Creation had only in their own Nature the force of an Instruction The Will of God and an Act of Soveraignty therein formally constituted them a Law But now man being made to live unto God and under his Conduct and Guidance in all things that he might come to the Enjoyment of him no Prejudice ariseth unto nor Alteration is made in the Dictates of the Law of Creation by the superadding any Positive Commands for the Performance of the Duties that it doth require and regulating of them as to the especial Manner and Ends of their Performance And where such a Positive Law is interposed or superadded it is the highest folly to imagine that the whole Obligation unto the Duty depends on that Command as though the Authority of the Law of Nature were superseded thereby or that the whole Command about it were now grown Positive and Arbitrary For although the same Law cannot be Moral and Positive in the same respect yet the same Duty may be required by a Law Moral and a Law Positive It is thus with many Observances of the Gospel We may for Example instance in Excommunication according to the common received notion of it There is a Positive Command in the Gospel for the exercise of the sentence of it in the Churches of Christ. But this hinders not but that it is natural for all Societies of men to exclude from their Societies those that refractorily refuse to observe the Laws and Orders of the Society that it may be preserved unto its proper End And according to the Rule of this Natural Equity that it should be so have all Rational Societies amongst men that knew nothing of the Gospel proceeded for their own good and preservation Neither doth the superadded Institution in the Gospel derogate from the general Reason hereof or change the nature of the Duty but only direct its practice and make Application of it to the uses and ends of the Gospel itself § 32 I do not plead that every Law that God prescribes unto me is Moral because my Obedience unto it is a Moral Duty For the Morality of this Obedience doth not arise from nor depend upon the especial Command of it which it may be is Positive and Arbitrary but from the respect that it hath unto our Dependance in all things which we have to do absolutely and universally on God To obey God in all things is unquestionably our Moral Duty But when the substance of the Command it self that is the Duty required is Moral the addition of a Positive Command doth no way impeach its Morality nor suspend the Influence of that Law whereon its Morality doth depend It is therefore unduly pretended by some that because there is a Positive Command for the Observation of the Sabbath supposing there should be such a Command for the whole of it which is nothing else but an Explanation and Enforcement of the Original Moral Precept of it as in every State of the Church something relating unto it namely the precise Determination of the Day it self in the Hebdomadal Revolution depended on a Law Positive that therefore the Law of it is not Moral It is not so indeed so far and in that respect wherein it is Positive but it is so from it self for the substance of it and Antecedently unto that Positive Command The whole Law therefore of the Sabbath and its Observation may be said to be Moral Positive which Expression hath been used by some Learned Divines in this case and that not unduly For a Law may be said to be so on a double Account First When the Positive Part of the Law is Declarative and accumulative with respect unto a Precedent Law of Nature as when some Additions are made to the Duties therein required as to the manner of their Performance Secondly When the Foundation of a Duty only is laid
in the Law of Nature but its entire Practice is regulated by a Positive Law From all the Instances insisted on it is manifest that the Law of the Sabbatical Observation is Moral a branch of the Law of Nature however it be enforced directed and the especial Day in seven be limited and determined by Positive Commands § 33 These things by many are denyed They will not grant that there is any Rule or Direction in the Law of Creation for a Sacred Rest unto God on one day in seven For they say that no such can be made to appear with that Evidence which the common Anticipations of the minds of men are accompanied withal But this Objection hath been sufficiently obviated by a due stating of the Law of Nature which is not to be confined unto inbred natural Anticipations only And it is certain also that some say the very same concerning the Being of God himself of the Difference between Good and Evil namely that there are no manifest and stedfast Presumptions of them in the mind of man which yet hinders not but that the Acknowledgement of a Divine Being as also the Difference that is between Good and Evil is natural and inseparable from the faculties of our souls Hence Julian in Cyril lib. 5. con Jul. joyns the first and fourth Precept together saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sayes and swears that all Nations judged that the Commandments of the Decalogue ought to be kept excepting the first forbidding other Gods and the other of remembring the Sabbath to keep it the One may be rejected as well as the other Besides the Law of Nature as to an Obligatory Indication of our Duty is not no not in the Extent insisted on as comprizing the Objective Documents that are in the Works and Order of the Creation to be considered alone by it self in this matter but in conjunction with the Covenant that it was the Rule of For whatever was required of man by vertue of that Covenant was part of the Moral Law of God or belonged unto the Law of his Creation From all which the Rest pleaded for to be Moral doth arise And considering the Nature of this Duty with the Divine Positive Direction whereby its first practice was regulated and stood in need so to be when God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it And it is marvellous that the remaining Light of Nature about it should put forth it self by so many Intimations as it doth and in so many Instances to express the first impressions that it had from God in this matter For I think we have manifested that they are many and those pleadable against any probability of contradiction In a word we may in all Ages find the generality of mankind feeling and as it were groping in the Dark after a stated Sacred Rest to be observed unto God And however the most of men destitute of Divine Revelation missed the Season the Ends and the Object of this Rest yet they were plainly influenced unto all their stated Sacred or Religious Solemnities both Feasts and Abstinences by the remainders of an innate Perswasion that such a Rest was to be observed Besides we know that the present Indications of Nature as corrupt are no just Rule and Measure of its Original Abilities with respect unto living to God And they do but wofully bewray their Ignorance and Impudence who begin to plead that our Minds or Understandings were no way impaired or worsted by the Fall but that the Principles or Abilities in them in reference unto God and our selves are the same as originally and that unimpaired Either such men design to overthrow the Gospel and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ or they know not what they say nor whereof they do affirm But hereof we shall treat elsewhere by Gods Assistance At present we know that the Light of Nature is so defective or so impotent in giving Indications of it self that many Nations left destitute of Divine Revelation or wilfully rejecting it have lived and approved themselves in open Transgressions of the Law of it as hath been shewed The Apostle gives sundry Instances of that kind amongst them who most boasted themselves to attend to the Dictates of Right Reason Rom. 1. All Idolaters Polygamists Fornicators and those who constantly lived on Spoil and Rapine approving themselves or not condemning themselves in what they did are Testimonies hereof That alone then is not to be pretended to be of the Law of Nature which all men acknowledge to be a part of it nor is every thing to be rejected from having a place therein which some have lived in a secure transgression of and others say that it gives no Indications of it self but that is to be understood to belong thereunto which by the diligent consideration of all means and advantages of knowledge may be found to be congruous to all the other knwon and allowed Principles and Maximes of it and to have its Foundation in it being what Originally God by any means instructed our Nature in as that which belonged unto our living unto him And it may be a man may sooner learn what is Natural Duty to God in and from corrupted Nature by the Opposition that it will make unto its Practice as it is corrupted than by the Light and Guidance it will give unto it as Nature It is also as we have observed more discernible in its judging and condemning what is done contrary unto it than in directing unto what it did originally require § 34 Having given Evidence unto the Morality of the Sabbath from the Indications of it and Directions unto it in the Light and Law of Nature which will be found to be such as not to be by any modest or sober man contemned we proceed to add those other consequential confirmations of the same Truth which God hath given us in the following Revelations of his Will about it And First this gives no small countenance unto an Apprehension of an unchangeable Morality in the Law of the Sabbath that in all Estates of the Church from the foundation of the world under the several Covenants wherein it hath walked with God and the various Dispensations of them there is a fall Evidence that in them all God hath still required of his people the Observation of a Sacred Rest unto himself in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Time or Dayes A full confirmation hereof with its proofs and illustrations the Reader will find at large in our Exposition of the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews so soon as God shall give an Opportunity to have it communicated unto him At present I shall touch only on the Heads of things § 35 That any Religious Observance hath been required through all Estates of the Church having no foundation but only in Arbitrary Institution cannot be proved by any one single Instance The Institutions of the State of Innocency in the matters of the Garden with the Trees of Life
Apprehension if besides sundry other invincible Reasons that lye against it I did not find that God had alwayes before in all States of the Church from the foundation of the world invariably required the Observation of one Day in seven and I know no Reason why what had been observed all along so far upon his own Authority he would have observed still but no longer on his Command but on the Invention and Consent of men Had the Religious Observance of one Day in seven been utterly laid aside and abolished it would and ought to to have been concluded that the Law of it was expired in the Cross of Christ as were those of Circumcision the Sacrifices and the whole Temple-Worship But to have this Observance continued by the whole Church in and under the Approbation of God whereof none ever doubted by a Reassumption of it through the Authority of the Church after God had taken off his own from it is a most vain Imagination § 39 I dispute not of what the Church may appoint for good Orders sake to be observed in Religious Assemblies But this I dare say confidently that no Church nor Churches not all the Churches in the World have Power by common Consent to ordain any thing in the Worship of God as a Part of it which God had once ordained commanded and required but now under the Gospel ceaseth so to do as Circumcision and Saorifices But this is the State of the Religious Observance of one Day in seven None can deny but that formerly it was ordained and appointed of God And it should seem according to this Opinion that he took off the Authority of his own Command that the same Observance might be continued upon the Authority of the Church Credat Apella Neither do the Footsteps of the Occasion of any such Ecclesiastical Institution appear any where on Record in the Scripture where all things of an absolute new and Arbitrary Institution whether occasional or durable are taken notice of There is indeed mention made and that frequently of the first day of the Week to be set apart for the Assembling of Believers for the Worship of God and a solid Reason is insinuated why that especial day in particular ought so to be But why one Day in seven should be constantly observed to the purpose mentioned no Reason no Account is given in the New Testament other than why men should not lie or stea ' Nor hath any man a Ground to imagine that there was an Intercision of a Sabbatical Observance by the interposition of any time between the Observation of the seventh Day and of the first of the Week for the same Ends and Purposes though not absolutely in the same manner If there be any Indications Proofs Evidences that the first Churches continued without the Observation of one Day in seven after they desisted from having a Religious Respect unto the seventh Day before they had the same regard to the first of the Week unto this purpose I wish they might be produced for they would be of good weight in this matter but as yet no such thing is made to appear For if the Obligation of the Precept for Observing one Day in seven as a Sacred Rest to God may be suspended in any change of the outward State and Condition of the Church it cannot be esteemed to be Moral I speak not of the actual Observance of the thing commanded which for many causes may occasionally and temporarily be superseded but of the obliging force and power in the Command it self which if it be Moral is perpetual and not capable of Interruption Now Testimonies we have that sundry persons not sufficiently instructed in the Liberty of the Gospel and the Law of its Obedience observed both the Dayes the seventh and the first yea it may be that for a while some observed the one day and some the other but that any Christians of old thought themselves de facto set at liberty from the Religious Observation of one day in seven this neither is nor can be proved This Practice then was Universal and that approved of God as we shall see afterwards and farther in another Discourse now more than once directed unto Now what can any man conceive to be the ground of this unvariableness in the commanded and approved Observation of one day in seven in all states conditions and alterations in and of the Church but that the Command for it is part of the Moral unchangeable Law Hereby therefore it is confirmed unto us so to be And indeed if every State of the Church be founded in an especial Work of God and his Rest thereon and complacency therein as a Pledge or Testimony of giving his Church Rest in himself as elsewhere shall be fully confirmed a Sabbatical Rest must be necessary unto the Church in every state and condition And although absolutely another Day might have been fixed on under the New Testament and not one in an Hebdomadal Revolution because its peculiar works were not precisely finished in six Dayes yet that season being before fixed and determined by the Law of Creation no Innovation nor Alteration would be allowed therein § 40 There is yet remaining that which is principally to be pleaded in this cause and which of it self is sufficient to bear the weight of the whole Now this is the Place which the command for the Observation of a Sabbath unto God holds in the Decalogue Concerning this we have no more to enquire but whether it have obtained a station therein in its own Right or were on some other occasion advanced to that Priviledge For if it be free of that Society in its own Right or on the Account of its Origine and Birth the Morality of it can never be impeached if it had only an Occasional Interest therein and held it by a lease of time it may ere this be long since disseized of it Now we do not yet dispute whether the seventh Day precisely be ordained in the fourth Commandment and do take up the whole nature of it as the only subject of it and alone required in it Only I take it for granted that the Observation of one Day in seven is required in the Command which is so because the seventh Day or a seventh Day in a septenary Revolution is expresly commanded § 41 It is indeed by many pretended that the Command firstly and directly respecteth the seventh Day precisely and one Day in seven no otherwise than as it necessarily follows thereon For where the seventh Day is required one in seven is so consequentially And they who thus pretend have a double Design the one absolutely contradictory to the other For those do so who from thence conclude that the seventh Day precisely comprizing the whole Nature of the Sabbath that day is indispensibly and everlastingly to be observed And those do so who with equal confidence draw their conclusion to the utter Abolition of the whole Sabbath and
the Law of it in the taking away of the seventh Day it self Such different Apprehensions have men of the use and improvement that may be made of the same Principles and Concessions For those of the later sort hope that if they can prove the Observation of the seventh Day precisely and not one of seven but only consequentially to be the whole of what is intended in the fourth Commandment that by vertue of the Apostles Rule Col. 2. 16. to which purpose he often elsewhere expresseth himself they shall be able to prove that it is utterly abolished Those of the other sort suppose that if they can make this to be the sense of the Commandment they shall prevail to fix a perpetual Obligation on all men from thence unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely although the words of the Apostle seem to lye expresly against it § 42 But the supposition it self that both parties proceed upon is not only uncertain but certainly false For the very Order of Nature it self disposeth these things unto that series and mutual Respect which can never be interrupted The Command is about the separation of time unto the service of God This he tacitely grants nor will deny if he be pressed who contends for the seventh Day Here therefore it is natural and necessary that Time be indefinitely considered and required antecedently unto the Designation and Limitation of the portion of Time that is required This the Order of Nature requireth For if it be Time indefinitely that is limited in the Command unto the seventh Day Time indefinitely is the first Object of that Limitation And the case is the same with Reference unto one Day in seven This also hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh Day for the seventh Day is one Day of the seven And these things are separable Some Part of Time may be separated unto Religious Worship and yet not one day in seven but any other portion in a certain Revolution of Dayes Weeks Months or Years if there be not a distinct Reason for it And one Day in seven may be so separated wherein the seventh Day precisely may have no Interest And these things the very Nature of them doth assert distinguish and determine Whatever Morality therefore or Obligation unto a perpetual Observance can be fancied by any to be in the Command as to the seventh Day it is but consequential unto dependant upon and separable from the command and duty for the Observance of One Day in seven And this sussiceth as to our present purpose For I do not yet treat with them who contend for the precise Observation of the seventh Day now under the Gospel It is enough that here we prove that the fourth Commandment requireth the Sacred Observation of one Day in seven and that so far as it doth so it is Moral and unchangeable § 43 All men as we have often observed do allow that there is something Moral in the fourth Commandment namely that either some part of it or the general Nature of it is so I do not therefore well understand them and Him of late who hath pleaded that the seventh Day only is required in that Command and yet that this seventh Day was absolutely Ceremonial and Typical being accordingly abolished The consistency of these Assertions doth not yet appear unto me For if the whole matter of the Command be Ceremonial the Command it self must needs be so also For a relief against this contradiction it is said that the Morality of this Command consists in this that we should look after and take up our Spiritual Rest in God But this will not allow that it should be a distinct Commandment of it self distinguished from all the Rest of the Decalogue nor indeed scarcely from any one of them For the Primitive End of all the Commandments was to direct us and bring us unto Rest with God of the first Table immediately and of the second in and by the Performance of the Duties of it among our selves And of the first Precept this is the sum so that it is unduely assigned to be the peculiar Morality of the fourth instead of the solemn Expression of that Rest as our End and Happiness Neither is there any way possible to manifest an especial Intention in and of any Law that is not found in this The Words and Letter of it in their proper and only sense require a Day or an especial season to be appointed for a Sacred Rest. And so doth the Nature of Religious Worship which undoubtedly is directed therein The Rest of God proposed in the Command as the Reason of it which was on the seventh day after six of working requireth the same Intention in the words So doth also the exact limitation of Time mentioned in it all in complyance with the Order and Place that it holds in the Decalogue wherein nothing in general is left unrequired in the Natural and Instituted Worship of God but only the setting apart with the Determination and Limitation of some time unto the solemn Observation of it Few therefore have ever denyed but that the Morality of this Command if it be Moral doth extend it self unto the separation of some part of our Time to the solemn recognizing of God and our subjection unto him and this in the Letter of the Law is limited on the Reasons before insisted on unto one day in seven in their perpetual Revolution The sole Enquiry therefore remaining is whether this Precept be Moral or no and so continue to be possessed of a Power perpetually obligatory to all the sons of men And this is that which we are now enquiring into § 44 Here therefore we must have respect unto what hath been discoursed concerning the subject matter of the Precept it self For if that be not only congruous to the Law of Nature but that also which by the Creation of our selves and all other things we are taught and obliged unto the Observation of the Law whereby it is required must be Moral For the Descriptive or Distinctive Term Moral doth first belong unto the things themselves required by any Law and thence to the Law whereby they are commanded If then we have proved that the thing it self required in the fourth Commandment or the Religious Observation of a Sacred Rest unto God for the Ends mentioned in the Periodical Revolution of seven dayes is Natural and Moral from the Relation that it hath unto the Law of Creation then there can be no Question of the Morality of that Command What hath been performed therein is left unto the Judgement of the Sober and Judicious Reader For no man can be more remote from a pertinacious adherence to his own sentiments or a Magisterial imposition of his Judgement and Apprehensions upon the minds thoughts or practice of other men than I desire to be For however we may please our selves in our light knowledge learning and sincerity yet when we have done all
or teach men to break any one of them And men make bold with him when they so confidently assert that they may break one of them and teach others so to do without offence That this reacheth not to the confirmation of the seventh Day precisely we shall afterwards abundantly demonstrate In like manner St. James treats concerning the whole Law and all the Commands of it Chap. 2. 10 11. And the Argument he insists on for the Observance of the whole namely the giving of it by the same Authority is confined to the Decalogue and the way of Gods giving the Law thereof or else it may be extended to all Mosaical Institutions expresly contrary to his Intention § 49 It is known that many things are usually objected against the Truth we have been pleading for namely the Morality of a Sacred Rest to God on one Day in seven from its Relation to the Law of Creation and the Command for it in the Decalogue And it is known also that what is so objected hath been by others solidly answered and removed But because those Objections or Arguments have been lately renewed and pressed by a Person of Good Learning and Reputation and a new Reinforcement indeavoured to be given unto them I shall give them a new Examination and remove them out of our way § 50 It is then objected in the first place Disquisit de Moralitate Sabbati p 7. That the Command for the Observation of the Sabbath is a Command of Time or concerning Time only namely that some Certain and Determinate Time be assigned to the Worship of God and this may be granted to be Moral But Time is no part of Moral Worship but only a Circumstance of it even as Place is also Therefore the Command that requires them in particular cannot be Moral For these and the like Circumstances must necessarily be of a Positive Determination § 50 An. 1. The whole force of this Argument consists in this that Time is but an Help Instrument or Circumstance of Worship and therefore is not Moral Worship it self nor a part of Moral Worship nor can so be But this Argument is not valid For whatever God requires by his Command to be religiously observed with immediate respect unto himself is a Part of his Worship And this Worship as to the kind of it follows the Nature of the Law whereby it is commanded If that Law be meerly Positive so is the Worship commanded however it be a Duty required by the Law of Nature that we duly observe it when it is commanded for by the Law of Nature God is to be obeyed in all his Commands of what sort soever they are If that Law be Moral so is the Duty required by it and so is our Obedience unto it The only way then to prove that the Observation of Time is no part of Moral Worship is this namely to manifest that the Law whereby it is required is Positive and not Moral for that it is required by Divine Command of the one sort or the other is now supposed And on the other side from the Consideration of the thing it self naturally as that it is an Adjunct or Circumstance of other things no consequence ariseth to the determination of the Nature of the Law whereby it is required 2. Time abstractedly or one Day in seven absolutely is not the adequate Object of the Precept or the fourth Commandment But it is an Holy Rest to be observed unto God in his Worship on such a Day And this not an Holy Rest unto God in general as the Tendency and End of all our Obedience and living unto him but as an especial Remembrance and Representation of the Rest of God himself with his Complacency and Satisfaction in his Works as establishing a Covenant between himself and us This is the Principal subject of the Command or a stated Day of an Holy Rest unto God in such a Revolution of Dayes or Time This we have proved to be Moral from the Foundation and Reason of it laid and given in the Law of Nature revived and represented in the fourth Command of the Decalogue Now though Place be an inseparable circumstance of all Actions and so capable of being made a circumstance of Divine Worship by Divine Positive Command as it was of old in the Instance of the Temple yet no especial or particular Place had the least Guidance or Direction unto it in the Law of Nature by any Works or Acts of God whose Instructive Vertue belonged thereunto and therefore all Places were alike free by Nature and every Place wherein the Worship of God was celebrated was a natural Circumstance of the Actions performed and not a Religious Circumstance of Worship until a particular Place was assigned and determined by Positive Command for that purpose It is otherwise with Time as hath been shewed at large And therefore although any place notwithstanding any thing in the Law of Nature might have been separated by Positive Institution unto the Solemn Worship of God it doth not thence follow as is pretended that any Time a Day in a Monthly or annual Revolution might have been separated unto the like purpose seeing God had given us Indication of another Limitation of it in the Law of Creation § 51 It is farther objected Disquisit p. 8. That in the fourth Commandment not one Day in seven but the seventh Day precisely is enjoyned The Day was before made known unto the Israelites in the Station at Mara or afterwards at Alesh namely the seventh Day from the foundation of the world This in the Command they are required to observe Hence the words of it are that they should Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same Sabbath Day or that Day of the Sabbath which was newly revealed unto them This Command therefore cannot be Moral as to the Limitation of Time specified therein seeing it only confirms the Observation of the seventh Day Sabbath which was before given unto the Hebrews in a Temporary Institution And this is insisted on as the principal strength against the Morality of the Command I shall first give you in my Answer in general and then consider the especial improvements that are made of it 1. Instances may be given and have been given by all Writers concerning the Hebrew Tongue wherein the prefixed Letters sometimes answering the Greek Praepositive Articles are redundant and if at all emphatical yet they do not at all limit specifie or determine See Psal. 1. 4. Eccl. 2. 14. Lev. 18. 5. The Observation therefore of prefixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may possibly denote an Excellency in the thing it self but tends nothing to the Determination of a certain Day but as it is afterwards declared to be one of seven is too weak to bear the weight of the Inference intended Nor will this be denyed by any whoever aright considered the various use and frequent redundancy of that Praefixe 2. The Sabbath or
manner of that work and labour be varied from what originally it was Likewise in that state of mankind there was to be a superiority of some over others This the natural Relation of Parents and Children makes manifest And these latter were in the Worship of God to be under the Government and Direction of the other And unto this Natural Equity is all subjection to Magistrates in Subjects and Masters in Servants reduced in the fifth Commandment So then the outward variations which are in these things supposed in the fourth Commandment do not in the least impeach its Morality or hinder but that for the substance of it it may be judged a Law Natural and Moral and a true Representation of a part of the Law of our Creation § 3 Seeing therefore that the Moral Law as a Covenant between God and man required this Sacred Rest as we have proved we must enquire what place as such it had in the Mosaical Oeconomy whereon the true Reason and Notion of the Sabbath as peculiarly Judaical doth depend For the Sabbath being originally annexed to the Covenant between God and man the Renovation of the Covenant doth necessarily require an especial Renovation of the Sabbath and the Change of the Covenant as to the nature of it must in like manner introduce a change of the Sabbath And we shall find that the Covenant of the Law or of Works had a twofold Renovation in the Church of Israel in the framing and constitution of it These rendred it their especial Covenant although it was not absolutely a New Covenant nor is it so called but is every where called the Old and hence the Sabbath became peculiarly theirs 1. It was renewed unto them materially It was originally written in the heart of man or concreated with the Faculties of his soul where its Light and Principles being excited guided and variously affected with the consideration of the Works of God proposed unto him with an instructive Ability for that End whose Directions concurred to the making up of the entire Law of Creation was evidently directive unto all the Duties which God in the first Covenant required at our hands By the Entrance of Sin with the corruption and debasing of the Faculties of our souls which ensued thereon whereby the Alteration in our Natures the principal seat and subject of this Law was so great as that we lost the Image of God or that Light and knowledge into our Duty with respect unto him which was necessary for us in that Covenant the Law it self became insufficient a lame and imperfect Guide unto the Ends of the Covenant Besides the Aspectable Creation the outward Medium of instructing man in the knowledge of the Goodness Power and Wisdom of God being for our sin brought under the curse and the creature into bondage the contemplation of it would not so clearly distinctly and perfectly represent him unto us as formerly Let men fancy what they please and please themselves whilst they will with their fancies all things both within and without in the whole Creation were brought into such Disorder and Confusion by the Entrance of sin as that the Law of Nature was utterly insufficient to enable us unto or to guide us in our liveing unto God according to the Tenor of the first Covenant There were and are indeed general Notions of Good and Evil indelibly planted on the faculties of our souls with a power of judging concerning our Actions and Moral Practices whether they are conformable unto those Notions with respect unto the superiour Judgement of God But besides the impairing of the Principles of these Notions before mentioned they were of old variously obscured perverted and stifled by Customs Prejudices and the Power of sin in the world so as that they were of little use as unto a due performance of Covenant Duties indeed of none at all in reference unto any Acceptation with God Wherefore God erecting his Church and renewing the knowledge of himself and mans duty towards him in the Posterity of Abraham he gave unto them afresh in the first place the Precepts of the Law and Covenant of Nature for the Guide and Rule of their Obedience And that this might now be permanent he reduced the substance of the whole Law unto ten Words or Commands writing them in Tables of Stone which he appointed to be sacredly kept amongst them The Law thus declared and written by him was the same I say materially and for the substance of it with the Law of our Creation or the Original Rule of our Covenant Obedience unto God Yet in it as thus transcribed there was an Innovation both in its Form and Principle of Obligation For as to its form or directive power it was now made external and objective unto the mind of man which before was principally internal and subjective And the immediate Obligation unto its Observation among that people was now from the promulgation of it on Mount Sinai and the delivery of it unto them thereon Hence it was prefaced with Motives peculiar to their state and condition and its Observation continually pressed on them afterwards with Arguments taken from their peculiar Relation unto God with his Love and Benefits unto them This gave it a new Respect because there was nothing originally in it nor belonging unto it but what was equally common unto all mankind Now this Alteration in the Law and Covenant of Creation as applyed unto the Church of the Israelites did also affect the Law of the Sabbath which was a part of it It was now no more to them a meer Moral Command only equally regarding all mankind but had a Temporary Respect given unto it which was afterwards to be abolished and taken away So was it with the whole Law and so was it with the Sabbath in particular To take up therefore the Observation of it as appointed in the Decalogue not as a material Transcript of the Law of Nature meerly but as under its Renovation to the Church of Israel is a groundless and unwarrantable going over into a part of abolished Judaisme For § 4 Secondly The Law was renewed as an ingredient into that Oeconomy under which God was pleased to bring his Church at that time before the Exhibition of the Promise or the Accomplishment of it And sundry things are to be observed herein 1. That God did not absolutely bring that people under the Covenant of Works in all the Rigor of it according unto its whole Law and Tenor to stand or fall absolutely by its Promises or Threatnings For although the Law contained the whole Rule of the Covenant and on the considerations to be afterwards mentioned it is often called the Covenant of God with that people yet were they not absolutely tyed up unto it and concluded by it as to the eternal issue of living unto God This arose from the Interposition of the Promise For the Promise of Grace in Christ being given upon the first Entrance of sin
this fully answers the first Law as it was a Principle of Light and Power unto Obedience And in a great measure it supplys the loss of it as it was a Rule also For there is a great Renovation thereof in God's writing his Law in our hearts not here to be insisted on But in this new Creation God designed to gather up all that was past in the Old and in the Law thereof and in the continuation of it by writing under the Old Testament unto one head in Christ. Wherefore he brings over in this state the use of the first Law as renewed and represented in Tables of Stone for a directive Rule of Obedience unto the new Creature whereby the first original Law is wholly supplyed Hereunto he makes an Addition of what positive Laws he thinks meet as he did also under the Old Law of Creation for the tryal of our Obedience and our furtherance in it So the Moral Law of our Obedience is in each condition the old and the new materially the same nor is it possible that it should be otherwise But yet this old Law as brought over into this new estate is new also For all things are become new And it is now the Rule of our Obedience not meerly and absolutely unto God as the Creator the first cause and last end of all but as unto God in Christ bringing of us into a new Relation unto himself In the Renovation then of the Image of God in our souls and the transferring our of the Moral Law as a Rule accompanied with new distinct Principles Motives and Ends doth the Law of the new Creation consist and fully answer the Law of the first as it was a Principle and a Rule each of them having their peculiar positive Laws annexed unto them § 4 Secondly The Law of Creation had a Covenant included in it or inseparably annexed unto it This also we have before declared and what belonged thereunto or ensued necessarily thereon Thus therefore must it be also in the new Creation and the Law thereof Yea because the Covenant is that which as it were gathereth all things together both in the Works and Law of God and our Obedience disposing them into that order which tendeth to the Glory of God and the Blessedness of the Creatures in him this is that which in both Creations is principally to be considered For without this no End of God in his Works or Law could be attained nor man be made Blessed in a way of Righteousness and Goodness unto his Glory And the Law of Creation no otherwise failed nor became useless as to its first End by sin but that the Covenant of it was thereby broken and rendred useless as to the bringing of man unto the enjoyment of God This therefore was principally regarded in the new Creation namely the making confirming and ratifying of a new Covenant And the doing hereof was the great promise under the Old Testament Jerem. 31. 32. whereby the Believers who then lived were made partakers of the benefits of it And the confirming of this Covenant in and by Christ is expressed as a part of the new Creation Heb. 8. 9. and it is indeed comprehensive of the whole Work of it § 5 Thirdly The immediate End of the old Covenant was to bring man by due Obedience unto the Rest of God This God declared in and unto his inbred native light by his Works and his Rest that ensued thereon and the Day of Rest which he instituted as a pledge thereof and as a means of attaining it by that Obedience which was required in the Covenant This we have before declared and this was the true original and End of the first Sabbatical Rest. All these things therefore must have place also in the new Covenant belonging unto the new Creation The immediate End of it is our entring into the Rest of God as the Apostle proves at large Heb. 4. But herein we are not absolutely to enter into Gods Rest as a Creator and Rewarder but into the Rest of God in Christ the Nature whereof will be fully explained in our Exposition of that Chapter For Obedience is now to be yielded unto God not absolutely but to God in Christ and with that respect therefore are we to enter into Rest. The foundation hereof must lye in the Works of God in the new Creation and the complacency with Rest which he took therein For all our Rest in God is founded in his own Rest in his Works For a pledge hereof a Day of Rest must be given and observed the reasons and necessity whereof we have explained and confirmed in our preceding Discourses This as hath been shewed originally was the Seventh day of the week But as the Apostle tells us in another case the Priesthood being changed there must also of necessity a change of the Law ensue so the Covenant being changed and the Rest which was the End of it being changed and the way of entring into the Rest of God being changed a change of the Day of Rest must of necessity thereon ensue And no Man can assert the same Day of Rest precisely to abide as of old but he must likewise assert the same Law the same Covenant the same Rest of God the same way of entring into it which yet as all acknowledge are changed The Day first annexed unto the Covenant of works that is the seventh Day was continued under the Old Testament because the outward administration of that Covenant was continued A relief indeed was provided against the curse and penalty of it but in the administration of it the nature promises and threatnings of that Covenant though with other ends and purposes were represented unto the people But now that Covenant being absolutely abolished both as to its nature use efficacy and power no more to be represented nor proposed unto Believers the whole of it and its renewed administration under the Old Testament being removed taken away and disappearing Heb. 8 13. the precise Day of Rest belonging unto it was to be changed also and so it is come to pass § 6 We must here suppose what hath been before proved and confirmed There was a Day of holy Rest unto God necessary to be observed by the Law and Covenant of Nature or Works neither was or could either of them be compleat without it looking on them as the rule and means of mans living unto God and of his coming to the enjoyment of him That this Day was in the innate right of Nature as directed by the Works of God designed and proposed unto it for that purpose to be one Day in seven This was it to learn and this it did learn from Gods creating the World in six dayes and resting on the seventh for God affirms every where that because he did so therefore it was the duty of man to labour on six dayes as his occasions do require and to rest on the seventh This therefore they were taught by
and Worship was embraced by the Apostles who were to be as the chief corner-stones the foundation of the Christian Church For immediately hereon they assembled themselves on that Day and were confirmed in their Obedience by the Grace of our Lord in meeting with them thereon Joh. 20. 19 26. And it seems that on this Day only he appeared unto them when they were assembled together although occasionally he shewed himself to sundry of them at other seasons Hence he left Thomas under his doubts an whole Week before he gave him his gracious conviction that he might do it in the Assembly of his Disciples on the first day of the week From which time forward this Day was never without its solemn Assemblies as shall further be cleared afterwards § 11 Now because I am perswaded that the substance of all that we have laid down and pleaded for in all the preceding Discourses especially in what we have proposed concerning the foundation and causes of the Lords-day is taught by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews chap. 4. I shall present unto the Reader the sum of his design and scope in that place from vers 3. to vers 11. with an Application of it unto our present purpose referring him yet for farther satisfaction unto our full Exposition of the Chapter it self For this place is touched on by all who have contended about the original and duration of the Sabbatical Rest but not yet that I know of diligently examined by any I shall not fear to lay much of the weight of the cause wherein I am engaged upon it and therefore shall take a view of the whole Context and the Design of the Apostle therein § 12 The words of the Apostle are For we which have believed do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the foundation of the world For he spake in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did Rest the seventh Day from all his works And in this place again If they shall enter into my Rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth taht some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of unbelief Again he limiteth a certain Day saying in David To day after so long a time as it is said To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts For if Jesus had given them Rest then wonld he not afterwards have spoken of another Day There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God For he that is entred into his Rest he hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his Heb. 4. v. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. § 13 The design of the Apostle in this Discourse is to confirm what he had laid down and positively asserted in the beginning of the Chapter Now this is That there is yet under the Gospel a promise of entring into the Rest of God left or remaining unto Believers and that they do enter into that Rest by mixing the promise of it with Faith This he declares and the declaration of it was usefull unto and necessary for the Hebrews For he lets them know that notwithstanding their present and antient enjoyment of the Land of Canaan with the Worship and Rest of God therein which their Forefathers fell short of by their unbelief they were under a new Tryal a new Rest being proposed unto them in the promise This he proves by a Testimony out of the 95th Psalm the words whereof he had insisted on at large Chap. 3. and doth so again in this But the Application of that Testimony unto his purpose is obnoxious to a great Objection For the Rest mentioned in that Psalm seems to be a Rest long since past and enjoyed either by themselves or others They therefore could have no new or fresh concernment in it nor be in danger of coming short of it And if this were so all the Arguments and Exhortations of the Apostle in this place must needs be weak and incogent as drawn from a mistaken and misapplyed Testimony § 14 To remove this Objection and thereby confirm his former Assertions and Exhortations thereon is the Design of the Apostle in this Discourse To this End he proceeds unto the Exposition and Vindication of the Testimony it self which he had cited out of the Psalms And herein he shews from the proper signification of the words from the Time when they were spoken and the Persons to whom that no other Rest was intended in them but what was now by him proposed unto them as the Rest of God and his people in the Gospel The general Argument which to this purpose he insists upon consists in an enumeration of all the several Rests of God and his people which are mentioned in the Scriptures For from the consideration of them all he proves that no other Rest could be intended in the words of David but only the Rest of the Gospel whereinto they enter who do believe Moreover from that Respect which the â—â—â—ds of the Psalmist have unto the other foregoing Rests of God and his people he manifests that they 〈◊〉 were appointed of God to be Representations of that spiritual Rest which was now brought in and established This is the general Design of this Discourse In pursuit hereof he declares in particular 1 That the Rest mentioned in the Psalm is not that which ensued immediately on the Creation of all things This he evinceth because it was spoken of afterwards a long time after and that to another purpose v. 4 5. 2 That it was not the Rest of the Land of Canaan because that was not entred into by them unto whom it was first proposed and promised for they came short of it by their unbelief and perished in the Wilderness but this Rest which is now afresh proposed is such as the people of God must and will enter into v. 6 7. 3 Whereas it may be objected that although the Wilderness Generation entred not in yet their posterity did so under the conduct of Joshua v. 8. he answers that this Rest in the Psalm being proposed and promised in David so long a time above 400 years after the people had quietly possessed the Land whereinto they were conducted by Joshua it must needs be that another Rest then yet to come was intended in those words of the Psalmist v. 9. And 4 to conclude his Argument he declareth that this new Rest had a new peculiar foundation which the other had no interest or concernment in namely his ceasing from his works and entring into his Rest who is the Author of it verse 10. This is his way and manner of arguing for the proof of what he had before laid down and which he issueth in that Conclusion verse 9. There remaineth therefore a Rest for the people of God § 15 But we must yet further consider
yet surely there is nothing for it In the things that are so we have ground to expect the Assistance of the Spirit of Christ to enable us for their right observation to the Glory of God and our own edification or increase in Grace But it is a meer Precept of the Old Law as such And what the Law speaks it speaks unto them that are under the Law In all its Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it exerciseth a severe Dominion over the souls and consciences of them that are under it And we have no way to extricate our selves from under that Dominion but by our being dead unto its power and Authority as such through the Death of Christ or an interest by Faith in the Benefits that through his fulfilling and satisfying the Law do redound to the Church But what is required of any one under the notion of the formal and absolute power of the Law is to be performed in and by that spirit which is administred by the Law and the strength which the Law affords and this indeed is great as to conviction of Sin nothing at all as unto Obedience and Righteousness Do men in these things appeal unto the Law unto the Law they must go For I know not any thing that we can expect Assistance of Gospel-Grace in or about but only those things which are originally moral or superadded unto them in the Gospel it self to neither of which Heads this observation of the seventh Day as such can be referred It is therefore a meer legal Duty properly so called and in a bondage frame of Spirit without any especial assistance of Grace it must be performed And how little we are beholding unto those who would in any one instance reduce us from the liberty of the Gospel unto bondage under the Law our Apostle hath so fully declared that it is altogether needless farther to attempt the manifestation of it Of the Lords-Day The Sixth Exercitation 1 Practice the end of Instruction and Learning 2 Practical observation of the Sabbath handled by many 3 Pleas concerning too much rigour and strictness in directions for the observation of the Sabbath 4 Extreams to be avoided in directions of sacred duties Extream of the Pharisees 5 The worse extream of others in giving liberty to sin 6 Mistakes in directions about the observation of the Lords Day 7 General directions unto that purpose proposed 8 Of the beginning and ending of the Sabbath The first Rule about Time 9 The frame of spirit required under the Gospel in the observation of the Lords Day 10 Rules and Principles for its due observation 11 Duties required thereunto of two sorts 12 Preparatory duties their necessity and nature 13 14 Particular account of them Meditation 15 Supplication 16 Instruction 17 18 Publick duties of the Day it self 19 What refreshments and labour consistent with them 20 Of private duties § 1 IT remains that something be briefly offered which may direct a practice suitable unto the principles laid down and pleaded For this is the End of all sacred Truth and all instruction therein This that great Rule of our blessed Saviour both teacheth us and obligeth us to an answerable duty If you know these things happy are ye if you do them Joh. 13. 17. words so filled with his wisdome that happy are they in whose hearts they are alwayes abiding The End then of our learning Scripture-Truths is to obtain such an Idea of them in our minds as may direct us unto a suitable practice Without this they are to us of no use or of none that is good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge without practice puffeth not buildeth up For as Austin speaks with reference unto those words Con. Faust. Man lib. 15. cap. 8. Multa quibusdam sunt noxia quamvis non sint mala Things not evil yea good in themselves may be hurtfull unto others And nothing is usefull but as it is directed to its proper End This practice is unto sacred Truth § 2 I confess our endeavours herein may seem less necessary than in the foregoing Discourses For there are many Treatises on this part of our present Subject extant in our own language and in the hands of those who esteem themselves concerned in these things With some they meet indeed with no other entertainment than the Posts did that were sent by Hezekiah through Ephraim Manasseh and Zebulun to invite them unto the Passeover they are laughed to scorn and mocked at 2 Chron. 30. 10. But wisdome is justified of her children Unto some they are of great use and in great esteem And for the most part in the main of their design they do agree So that the Truth in them is established in the mouthes of many witnesses without danger of dividing the minds of men about it But yet I cannot take my self to be discharged hereby from the consideration of this concern also of a sacred Rest under the Gospel the nature of our design requiring it And there are yet important Directions for the right sanctifying of the Name of God in and by the due observance of a Day of sacred Rest which I have not taken notice to have been insisted on by others and whereas a due improvement may be expected of the peculiar principles before discussed I shall go through this part of the Work also § 3 Besides there are not a few complaints and those managed at least some of them by Persons of sobriety and learning pretending also a real care for the preservation and due observance of all duties of Piety and Religion that there hath been some excess in the Directions of many given about the due sanctification of the Lords Day And there is no small danger of mistakes on this hand whilest therein is a pretence of zeal and devotion to give them countenance Of this nature some men do judge some rigorous prescriptions to be which have been given in this matter And they say that a great disadvantage unto Religion hath ensued hereon For it is pretended that they are such as are beyond the constitution of humane nature to comply withall of which kind God certainly requires nothing at our hands Hence it is pleaded that men finding themselves no way able to come unto a satisfaction in answer unto the severe Directions for duties and the manner of their performance which by some are rigorously prescribed have taken occasion to seek for relief by rejecting the whole command which is duely interpreted in such a condescension as they were capable of a compliance withall they would have adhered unto On this account men have found out various inventions to colour their weariness of that strict course of duty which they were bound unto Hence have some taken up a plea that every Day is to them a Sabbath that so they might not keep any Some that there is no such thing as a sacred Rest on any Day required of us by the Authority of Christ and therefore that all
Directions for the manner of the observance of such a Day are to no purpose And many by degrees have declined from that strictness which they could not come up unto a delight in untill they have utterly lost all sense of duty towards God in this matter And these things are true only the Reasons of them are not agreed on § 4 And in things of this nature those who are called to the instruction of others are carefully to avoid Extreams For he that condemns the righteous and he that justifieth the wicked are both of them an abomination to the Lord. And several Instances there are of the miscarriages of men on the one hand and the other On the one lay the sin of the Pharisees of old When they had gotten the pretence of a command they would burden it with so many rigid observances in the manner of its performance as should make it a yoke intolerable to their Disciples getting themselves the reputation of strict observers of the Law But in truth they were not so wanting unto their own ease and interest as not to provide a secret dispensation for themselves They would scarce put a finger to the burdens which they bound and laid on the shoulders of others And this is the condition of all almost that hath an appearance of Religion or Devotion in the Papacy And a fault of the same nature though not of so signal a provocation others may fall into unadvisedly who are free from their hypocrisie They may charge and press both their own consciences and other mens above and beyond what God hath appointed And this they may do with a sincere intention to promote Religion and Holiness amongst men by engaging them into the strictest wayes of the profession of it Now in the Directions of the consciences of men about their duties to God this is carefully to be avoided For Peace is only to be obtained in keeping steady and even to the Rule To transgress on the right hand whatever the pretencebe is to lye for God which will not be accepted with him § 5 On the other hand there lyeth a rock of far greater danger And this consists in the accommodation of the Laws Precepts and Institutions of God unto the lusts with the present courses and practices of men This evil we have had exemplified in some of late no less conspicuously than the fore-mentioned was in them of old A mystery of iniquity unto this purpose hath been discovered not long since and brought forth to light tending to the utter debanchery of the consciences and lives of men And in it lyes the great contrivance whereby the famous sect of the Jesuits have prevailed on the minds of many especially of Potentates and great men in the earth so as to get into their hands the conduct of the most important affairs of Europe And this abomination as it is known hath lately been laid open by the diligence of some in whom at once concurred a commendable care of Christian Morality and an high provocation in other things by them who endeavoured to corrupt it A search hath been made into the Writings which that sort of men have published for the Direction of the consciences of men in the practice of moral duties or unto their Disciples for their guidance upon confessions And a man may say of the discovery what the Poet said upon the opening of the House of Cacus Panditur extemplo foribus domus atra revulsis Abstructaeque boves abjurataeque rapinae Caelo ostenduntur Non secus ac si qua penitus viterra dehiscens Infernas reseret sedes regna recludet Pallida Such a loathsome appearance of vizards and pretences for the extenuating of sin and countenancing of men in the practice of it was never before represented unto the eyes of men The main of their design as is now manifest hath been so to interpret Scripture-Laws Rules and Precepts as to accommodate them all to that course of corrupt conversation which prevaileth generally in the world even among them who are called Christians Gratum opus Agricolis A Work exceeding acceptable and obliging to all sorts of men who if not given up to open Atheisme would rejoyce in nothing more than in a reconciliation between the Rule of their consciences and their lusts that they might sin freely without trouble or remorse To this end having learned the inclinations and temptations of men from their private confessions and â—nding it a thing neither possible in it self nor at all conducing to their own interest to endeavour their Reformation by and recovery unto the fixed stable Rule of Truth and Duty they have by their false glosses subtle distinctions and resined imaginations made it to justifie and countenance them in the highest abominations and in wayes leading constantly to the practice of them And there is nothing in their whole course which faithfull interpreters of the mind of God ought more carefully to avoid than a falling in any instances into that evil which these men have made it their design to promote and pursue The World indeed seems to be weary of the just righteous holy wayes of God and of that exactness in walking according to his institutions and commands which it will be one day known that he doth require But the way to put a stop to this declension is not by accommodating the commands of God to the corrupt courses and wayes of men The Truths of God and the Holiness of his Precepts must be pleaded and defended though the World dislike them here and perish hereafter His Law must not be made to lacquey after the wills of men nor be dissolved by vain interpretations because they complain they cannot indeed because they will not comply with it Our Lord Jesus Christ came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them and to supply men with spiritual strength to fulfill them also It is evil to break the least Commandement but there is a great aggravation of that evil in them that shall teach men so to do And this cannot be done but by giving such Expositions of them as by virtue whereof men may think themselves freed from an obligation unto that obedience which indeed they do require Wherefore though some should say now as they did of old concerning any command of God Behold what a weariness it is and what profit is it to keep his Ordinances yet the Law of God is not to be changed to give them relief We are therefore in this matter to have no consideration of the present course of the world nor of the weariness of professors in the wayes of strict obedience The sacred Truth and Will of God in all his commands is singly and sincerely to be enquired after § 6 And yet I will not deny but that there have been and are mistakes in this matter leaning towards the other extream Directions have been given and that not by a few for the observation of a Day of