from one particular Work viz. from making any new species or kinds of Creatures Secondly It is confessed that this Rest of God may consist together with his working for indeed the working or operation of God is as vigorous and stirring now and ever since the Creation as it was then God did never intermit or lay aside his working St. Austin saith of himself a Aug Epist 110. Meum ocium magnum habet negotium It is most true of God whose Rest here meant is not without great working Christ saith My Fatheâ— Ioh. 5. 1 â—oh 15 worketh hitherto and I work And again Mâ— Father is the Husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so his Work is without any intermission as the georgick-Georgick-works are circular as one saith Redit Agricolis labor actus in orbem Virg. Georg. lib. 2. God doth work unto this day as he did also on that first 7th day wherein he is said to rest so he hath done on every 7th day ever since so he will do till the end of the World And moreover although it should please God still to make new Creatures of new kinds such as were not created at first yet such a new Creation would not in the least hinder or disturb this blessed Rest Therefore this Answer will in no wise satisfie us Besides all this Those Writers that tell us Gods Resting signifieth only his finishing or ending the Creation yet themselves affirm that God doth yet daily create new Souls and this because they do not believe that our Souls are propagated from our Progenitors as our Bodies are so that even by their own confession the Creation did not end on the first sixth or seventh day Now although I do not assent to their opinion of the daily creation of humane Souls because I do not understand how that doctrine can consist with the doctrine of Redemption if our Souls and Christs Soul be not derived from Adam yet it is evident that their opinion maketh against them whether it be true or false for by saying that our Souls are daily created they must confess that the Creation is not yet ended To that which they say That God doth not create any new kinds of Creatures such as in Schools are called Genera and Species and Universals although he doth still make particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Fowles and Plants We answer That God doth make Creatures now so as he did before and not otherwise except only the manner of making immediately by himself and by way of creation As he then made particulars only Adam and Eve so now he makes Man and Woman God did not otherwise make Universals or Species then than he doth now for then he made only particular Creaâ—ures and not universals but only by creating particulars The universal is but the common nature of each particular and these universals are no where to be found but only in particulars though we should seek them in Plato's Region of Idea's or in that a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Diog. Laert. in Epic. Intermundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Epicurus dreamed of for who can shew me Man except he shew me some particular person For although it be granted that these universals are realities having an essence or being yet they have no existence or subsistence nor are any where to be found but only in particulars and we know that our Acutest Schoolmen have much contended about these universals some said they are realities others that they are but words and others that they are but meer notions and conceptions of mans brain and therefore those dissenting Sects are severally called Reales Nominales Conceptuales In a word as God made Man and Woman at first so he doth still his Resting is not to be understood of ceasing from making his Creatures for he doth it to this day and thereby declareth his Omnipotencie now as much as at the first The Psalmist saith It is God that Ps 100. 3. made us and not we our selves And again I am fearfully and wonderfully made in the Psal 139. 14. lowest parts of the earth that is in the Womb In our vulgar Catechisms the first Question is Who made you 'T is answered God and the Answer is true It is all one with God to make Man of Earth or in the VVomb or of a Rib or of Nothing for all these wayes of making are Acts of his Almightinesse Finally If it may appear unto us That God hath indeed made new Creatures and such as were not created in the six or seven first dayes of the World but since then I trust the Reader will perceive that this Mysterious Rest of the Godhead implieth a farre greater matter then only a cessation from making new sorts or kinds of Creatures For manifestation whereof I offer these considerations following to the learned Reader 1. That after the fall of Man God inflicted sorrow upon Eve and all other Women in Child-bearing Gen. 3. 16. which Sorrow was not at first made yet that sorrow is something as our good Matrons know it is not nothing 2. The Earth was cursed for Mans sin Thorns and Thistles are ordained Adam is condemned to sorrow and sweating labour vers 16 17 18. All which are Realties yet not made at first 3. We are assured by our Divines That b Buc. p. 56. 58. Mors Morbi ordinata sunt a Deo i. e. Mortality and Sicknesses were ordained by God and also that hurtful Creatures such as Vipers Toads Spiders Hornets Waspes Caterpillers Gnats such like Non pertinent ad opera primae Creationis i. e. that these were no part of the first Creation therefore they must be ordained since If it be said that these and other hurtful Creatures such as Lions Beares Wolves were at first but yet without their noxious malignity and hurtful qualities this Answer will not satisfie us because even those qualities are realties So Earthquakes Famines Pestilences were not at first created nor any Sicknesses or Diseases which came into the World later as the Heathens acknowledged Post ignem Aetheriâ domo Subductum Macies Nova febrium Hor. Cor. 1. Od. 3. Terris incubuit cohors 4. What can be said against the newness of the Egyptian Plagues The burning of Sodom The last Destruction of Jerusalem and the tribulation brought upon that People of which Christ said That it should be such as was not from the beginning of the world to Matth. 24 21. that time Now that God is the Author of such kinds of evils viz. evils of punishment the Prophet hath taught us Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it And Moses declareth that all those evils which are threatened Deut. 28. and are now come to passe to be from the Lord which yet are but new in respect of the Creation 5. What can be said against the newness of those Wonders or Miracles wrought by
this Law is meant of Christ I have shewed before a Chap. 7. And that Christ only is this everlasting Covenant the Gospel often declareth Christ saith This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26. 28. Or as St. Luke reads it This is the new Testament in my blood Luke 22. 20. Testament and Covenant signifie the same thing but only that a Covenant is a Promise Conditional And a Testament there is the same Promise or Covenant given and bequeathed So Hebr. 13. 20. The blood of Christ is called The blood of the everlasting Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Aeterâ— foederis i. e. Eternal Covenant So these words Testament and Covenant both to our own and also to forrain Translators seem all one so Christ must be this everlasting covenanted Sabbath But then if this everlasting Sabbath be really Christ how is it called a sign as the Typical Sabbath is for so we read Exod. 31. 17. It is a sign for ever To this we answer That this Sabbath is no otherwise called a sign than Christ himself is so called Luke 2. 34. This Child is set for a sign that shall be spoken against And Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven This sign signifieth the very Person of Christ as both Origen and Chrysostome expound it Only the Covenant of Christ's Sabbathship is an everlasting sign but so is not the sign of the Ceremonial Sabbath as hath been proved In this sense only the Sabbath is everlasting as it signifieth Christ of which there is no doubt to be made In a like case when question was made by Act. 13. 22. Dâ—lciâ—â—us how Dâ—vâ—d being a great sinner could be styled A man after Gods own heart St. Austin answered a De 8. Quaest. Dulc. To. 3. De Christo intellige nullus nodus est So we say if we understand that this Sabbath Moral signifieth Christ as certainly it doth then there will be no question of the everlastingness and eternity thereof The Ceremonial or Day-Sabbath was taken away that so the true substantial Sabbath might the better take place in mens minds Just as Typical Sacrifices were rejected by God that so the grand Sacrifice of Christ might be by faith apprehended of which the Apostle expresly thus writeth He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Heb. 10. 9. This is also to be observed for a sign of the depreciating or undervaluing of this Typical or Day-Sabbath that Christ said The Sabbath Mar. 2. 26 was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath This he meant no doubt of the Câ—remonial Sabbath in that it was ordained only to be ministerial and subservient to Man as a Conducter and Guide to the true everlasting Sabbath for if he had spoken of the Moral and Mystical Sabbath he might truly have said That Men was made for the Sabbath because the true Sabbath is God the Son by whom and for whose glory all Men and the World it self were made And he was before all Creatures and not made at all nor created but begotten from Eâ—ernity But yet this Son of God may truly be said to be made the Sabbath for Man yet not as he is meerly the Son of God but as he is also the Son of Man He was made Man for us and by that he became the Mystical Sabbath For the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity cannot be the Sabbath neither can the Son of Man be so if considered without his Divinity but joyntly with both Natures So that in consideration of his assumed humane Nature and therewith his Sabbathship he was made for Man and came to help and minister to Man as himself most graciously acknowledged The Son of Man came not to be ministred Matth. 20. 28. unto but to minister 7. Finally The most notorious slurre of all was That this Seventh day which God appointed to be hallowed could not possibly be so kept on that day in all places of the Earth as any Man that hath but mean knowledge in Geographie may easily apprehend for when in one part of the Earth it is Miâ—-day in another part it is Mid-night and when Day begins in one part Night begins in another so that the Jews themselves in their remote dispersions cannot possibly Sabbatize at the same time By this it may clearly appear that the seventh-day Sabbath was only a national Constitution during the standing of the Judaical Common-wealth and that the Seventh day was not that Moral Sabbath which God required in this fourth Commandement because a Law Moral bindeth all Nations in every part of the Earth but some other Sabbath was intended which possibly might be kept by all Nations that Sabbath is Christ Who therefore sent his Apostles Mar. 16. 15. with an universal Commission Go ye into all the world and preach And not only to the Jews but Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28 19. These and such like incumbrances impossibilities and inconveniences did the Godhead pâ—t upon this Ceremonial Sabbath as no fire-kindling no burden-bearing no meatdressing no stirring out of their places and thereby made that People ridiculous to other Nations as the Prophet saith The adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths And the Manichee Lam 1. 7. called their Saturday Sabbaths * Aug. Cont. Faâ—st l. 18 c. 5. Catcâ—as Saturnâ—acas i. e. the fetters of Saturn Logicians use to say Uno absur do dato mille sequuntur The mis-understanding of this one Sabbath Law led the Jews into strange and ridiculous Superstitions and also to the ruine of their Persons and City and Temple A Jew in a boysterous Sea refused to tug at the stern because it was his Sabbath day and so he perished Another would not be drawn out of a loathsome draught upon the same reason but rather miserably perished as our own Histories record The Jews could not be ignorant that God himself did work on every Sabbath-day and that he did also occasionally command others so to do as the Preists and sometimes the Souldiers therefore they might easily have perceived that both the Sabbath or Rest of God and also of his people consisted in something else and not in a meer cessation from worldly works Some Sabbatarian Writers tell us That Man should work when God worketh and rest when God rested But God worketh alwayes so cannot Man If they had said that Man should rest in that thing which God rested in they had spoken home to the true Sabbath indeed For God rested only in Christ and so should we otherwise all Seventh-day Sabbatizing is utterly vain and superstitious By these Reasons a pious and judicious Reader will clearly perceive that these slurrs were put upon the Day Sabbath by our Wise God on purpose and design to withdraw his people from the shadow to the substance and from the Ceremonial to the Moral and substantial Sabbath which is Christ for just such a design God had in his Dispensation even of the Moral Law which was first written in Man's heart Then afterwards when it was to our lapsed and depraved nature impossible yet it was again imposed on us and engraven in stone And this he did that thereby he might direct us both to perform so much of it as we can and also to seek help and mercy of him for what we cannot do There had been no need of writing this Law in Tables of stone which was written defore in Man's heart but only because as St. Austin saith a Aug. in Psal 57. Tu fugitivus eras cordis tui i. â— Man was a run-away from his own heart and principles for we find that Man now perpetrateth wickedness which his own conscience judgeth to be so and also condemneth as an Heathen confessed b Juvenal Sat. 13. Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur The reason why God did impose this Law on Man then when it was impossible is singularly rendred by the Apostle thus The Scripture Gal. 3. 2â— hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Now although the impossible Law is by faith and union with Christ made possible to Man yet it was imposed on us with all its literall impossibilities on purpose to be as the same Apostle saith Our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ or indeed to Ibid. v 24. drive force and necessitate us to seek some other means and way for our justification and salvation besides the Law which way is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom only our peace with God and our everlasting Sabbath consisteth To Him therefore with the Father and the holy Spirit be rendred blessing honour praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Laus Deo FINIS
from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2◠34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
they are not fit to be imposed on Christians CHAP. III. Of Ceremonial Laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated Of the dissolving of them and particularly of the Sabbath by Christ Why Christ dissolved the Sabbath The judgment of the Fathers therein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jews did and yet do That Christ appointed no new Sabbath-day instead of the old CHAP. IV. Of Laws Moral and why they are so called More of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and of his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-Lessons and a Fasting-day long after Origen's time That Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jews did that Sabbath That Sunday is not to be called Sabbath Why Easter-day was altered from the Jewish Paschal-day The Author 's reverent esteem of the Christian-Sunday CHAP. V. Of the fourth Commandment what part of it is Morall and what is Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The excellent benefit of this Sabbath-Law Why it is placed in the midst of the Commandments How the whole Law by it is performable by men CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Morall Sabbath Why he is concealed under the word Sabbath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference of the Lord of Sabbâ—oth and the Lord of the Sabbath Of that Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah and another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbathship That Sabbath-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament CHAP. VII The doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Father How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the daies of Moses The doctrine of the Church herein The meaning of the Prayers at the rehear sing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is so performable CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the world is described without mention of evening and morning The Sabbath described by Philo the Jew That the Sabbath and Melchisedech were parallel types of Christ CHAP. IX The sanctifying of the Sabbath How thâ— Godhead is said to be sanctified How the human nature of Christ is sanctified Of the name of God That it signifies God himself That the name Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctifie God How Christ being the Sabbath is to be sanctified or kept holy CHAP. X. Of God's Resting That it is not acessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor of layiâ—â— aside his care and providence in Government That his Rest and Working do consist together Something concerning the Originall of human Souls Of Universalls what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God created any new kinds of Creatures since the first seventh day Two Queries propounded CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the seventh day onely although he did intermit Creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the seventh day and what that was Jewish Fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned untill the seventh day Why it is fixed on the Creation of mankind rather than of any other of the Creatures Answers to certain Enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the onely cause of this expression of the Rest of God CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ is proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the union of Christ with Mankind That this union was shewed by Christ in the Sacramentall Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived or propagated from the first man Something concerning Universall Redemption CHAP. XIV Of Adam's solitude and something concerning Monastick life with the reasons thereof That the help by the Woman consisted not in respect of Society nor of Child-bearing simply considered but onely in respect of the propagation of Christ Of Child-bearing and that it is not salvificall without faith in Christ Of Good and Evill occasioned by the Woman Why she was called Vita or Life Why God permitted the Woman to occasion the Fall CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is onely in Christ and Why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the union of God and Man in Christ was ordained onely in order to man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusion concerning this Rest of God CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called God's Rest is shewed by other like passages of Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God Onely because he is the Rest of Mankind An Answer to the second Querie above mentioned viz. Why God is said to Rest onely on the first seventh day and not before The Conclusion of the Doctrine of God's Rest and St. Austin's judgement therein CHAP. XVII An exposition of the Ceremoniall part of the fourth Commandement begun That the six dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the seventh day is called a Sabbath onely because it was a figure of the true Sabbath That the seventh-day-Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the eighth day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the daies of Moses St. Jerom's translation and our English examined The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of works on the Jewish Sabbath That their corporall Rest was but a figure of our spirituall Rest in Christ CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why Cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these circumstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial and Judaical CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six daies and yet that he ended not his work untill the seventh day Why the Creation was prolonged six daies Of the order of Creatures
these thy Lawes in ouâ— hearts we beseech thee This prayer is grounded on the promise of God recorded both in the Prophets and also in the Gospel Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 18. 10. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts If we enquire what that Law is and how God doth write it in our hearts and to what intent it is done The Answer is That this Law is Christ The putting or writing of it in our hearts is the mission of the Spirit of Jesus into us The intent or purpose thereof is that by a spiritual union of Christ with us we may fulfill the Law For because Christ and his Members are united by this Spirit and so become one mystical body therefore what Christ hath done in obedience to the Law must be accounted as our obedience and so imputed to us that because he hath performed the Law we also in him have performed it The Apostle tels us a 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you and b Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and c Eph. 3. 17. Christ may dwell in our hearts And Christ himself saith d Matth. 28 20. I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And the Apostle again e Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus And that we may know that when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us then we have also the Lord Jesus himself in us Another Apostle tels us f 1 John 4. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But how shall it appear That the putting of Christ into us is the putting of the Law of God into our hearts The Answer is That Christ is the Law there meant and he is called the Law and is really the Law * Moses is called by Phâ—lo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more is Christ so and not only so but he is moreover The Law with all advantages to us for he is the Law fulfilled That Christ is called the Law the Psalmist tels us a Psal 2. 7. Rom. 8. 2. I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art mâ— Son Here the Son is called the Law or Precept of the Lord. Then that Christ is the Law fulfilled or the fufilling of the Law Of him it is said in another Psalm b Psal 40 10. Heb. 10. 7 In the volume of thy Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart And this Christ himself professed c Mat. 5. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law This also was signified by his Type the Ark wherein d Heb 9. 4 the Law was put for the Ark represented Christ and the Law in it signified that Christ should keep that Law and this he did perform only to our behoof that his obedience might be accounted ours Upon this reason only it is that the Apostle so confidently saith e Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me If he can do all things then he can do all the works of the Law But we are well assured that he could not in his own proper person alone considered perform the Law but it must needs be thus only performed by him in and through Christ And in this consideration only Christ is our Rest and Sabbath For this reason our Church prayeth that God would incline our hearts to keep this Sabbath-law which is Christ That by keeping him the whole Law of God may be kept by us through and in him so as is here expressed by having the Law thus written in our hearts Thus this Moral Law which as Divines acknowledge is altogether impossible to the Natural man especially as it is exegetically aggravated and heightened in the Gospel is by this Sabbath made possible and easie to the Matth. 5. Spiritual man so the Apostle tels us a Rom. 10 4. Christ is the end or perfect on of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth that is He that believeth in Christ hath the benefit of performance of the Law brought home to him So St. Ambrose tels us b Ambr. in loc Perfectionem leg is habet qui credit in Christum CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first Institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the World is described without Evening and Morning The Sabbath described by Philo Parallel'd with Melchisedech and both Types of Christ IF Jesus Christ be the only Sabbath which is mysteriously covered and spiritually meant and really and ultimately intended in the Moral part of this fourth Commandement as certainly he is because he only is our Redeemer our Mediator and the Peace-maker of God with man We must next enquire how this Sabbath if it be so understood can be called a Day as here it is Remember the Sabbath day for by this word Day a man may reasonably-imagine that the principal intendment of this Precept was only for the Celebration or Sanctifying of a day as the Jewes do yet think and many good Christians among us do still though erroneously believe although they agree not in the self same day with the Jews Their reason is because not only in this former part of the fourth Commandement which I have shewed to be a Morall Natural and an everlasting Law but also in the latter words annexed which are a part of the Law ceremonial and therefore but temporal and transient it is also said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God by which words a man at first hearing would think that the Sabbath in both parts of this Law is nothing else but a day for if the seventh day be a Sabbath why may not the Sabbath be thought to be a Seventh day 1. Our Answer is That the seventh day is called a Sabbath because it was a type and figure of our true Sabbath and Rest which is Christ as the Jews corporal rest was but a figure of our spiritual rest in Christ And because it was so appointed for a figure or sign therefore it hath the name of the thing figured or signified thereby as other signs and types have for so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover yet we know Christ only is the true Passover as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 5. 7. So the Rock is called Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. So of the Eucharistical bread it is said This is my body though it was but a Sacrament or holy sign of the body of Christ And the seven Eares are seven Yeares Gen. 41. 26. Just so the seventh day is the Sabbath that is the sign type and figure of the mysterious Sabbath which is Christ 2. As the sign hath
therefore most worthily account and call our Sabbath Yet this is not all for we shall find that Christ is not only the Rest of men but that he is also the Rest of God which is next to be considered CHAP. X. Of Gods Resting That it is not a cessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor his laying aside his care and Providence in Government This Rest and Working doe consist together Something concerning the Creation of Humane Souls Of Vniversals what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God hath created any new kinds of Creatures since the first Seventh day CHrist is our Christian Sabbath we know none other Sabbath besides him for none but he can give sure and lasting Rest to our Souls he only hath wrought our peace with God and appeased the just displeasure of the Godhead he hath effected our Reconciliation and he is that Atonement by which God and man are reunited or set at one By his mediation it is that a Quietus est or Acquittance of our debts is signed by God so that if we can keep this Sabbath holy and persevere therein we may with true comfort and cheerfulness say with the great Apostle Who shall Rom. 8. 33. lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth it is Christ that died Those that teach others or that do imagine That the only duty required by this Sabbath-precept is the sanctifying of a day whether the last day of the week as the Jews do or the first day as some Christians think and therefore presume to call it not only the Lords day which is but a novelty with us in England as is said before but also the Sabbath day They are farre short and beneath the great purpose and intendment of this fourth Commandement and conceive too meanly and lowly of that most high and mysterious Sabbath which signifieth not only the Rest of man from bodily labours but also our rest from labours and terrors of our Conscience and moreover it representeth to us the Rest of God as it is said both in this Commandement and before also Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the Seventh day For to say that God laboured in these six dayes of Creation is a weak and heathenish conceit such as we read in that Epicurean Dispute in Tully a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Si in mundo Deus inest aliquis qui regat qui gubernet qui cursus astrorum muta ionesque temporum rerum vicissitudines or dinesque conservet terrasque maria contemplans hominum commoda vitasque tâ—eatur nae ille est implicatus molestis negotiis operosis If there be a God in this World ruling and ordering it and continuing the motions of the starres and seasons of the years and the various order and changes of times and taking cognisance of the Land and Sea for support of mans life and welfare surely he is a God incumbred with many troublesome and stirring businesses As if the Almighty Demiurgus could not both create and govern this World except he took great pains and labour therein And yet those Christians which say that Gods resting on the Seventh day signifieth only his cessation from that great Work do in a manner affirm the same But the resting of God hath a more high and more noble signification than so as I trust we shall anon make evident In order whereunto these two Queries are to be discoursed 1. What is here meant by Gods resting 2. Why he is said to rest on the Seventh day and not on any of the former six dayes To the first Querie VVhat is meant by 1. Querie Gods resting We say this resting doth not at all signifie or intend any cessation of the Godhead or any suspension or intermission of his operation or working for although it be said He ended his work which he had made and also That he rested from all his works which God had created Gen. 2. 2. yet it is not said that he ceased resting and ceasing are not all one Nor can this Rest be meant of any ease or refreshment of God as after some motion or stirring work or labour for such a rest was needless to him who never laboured at all Nor can it be meant of any weariness of God that were impossible St. Austin saith truly b Aug. de Civit. lib. 12. c. â—â—â— In opere Dei non est labor nec in quiete desidia quiescens agit agens quiescit And again Deus nec creando defessus nec cessando refectus i. e. In Gods working there is no labour nor in his resting any cessation he resteth working and working resteth he was neither weary in creating nor refreshed by ending it Nor can this Rest of God be so understood as if he then laid aside and cast off all care and providence for his Creatures which he had newly made This cannot be imagined by us for all Christians and Heathens also do acknowledge Gods perpetual management and government of the World for he did even that very Seventh day and all other dayes since co-operate with his Creatures by his assistance it is that these great wheels of Heaven are continually turning Nazianzen saith God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his perpetual operation Both Divines and Philosophers call God Actum Purum and the Schoolmen call him Natur am natur antem i. e. God is purely Active and he that continually supplieth his Creatures with the ability of Operation which we call Nature for in him we live and move and have our being Of him Act. 17. 28. it is said in St. Austin c De Civ l. 4. c. 12. Deus est anima mundi Mundus est corpus Dei e. i. God is operative in the World so as our souls are in our bodies And the Poet saith of the divine Spirit Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Virg. Aeâ— 6. Mens agitat molem magno se corpare miscet All which is signed for a Scriptural-truth by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 6. God worketh all in all So then this Rest cannot signifie Gods cessation from working nor the withdrawing his Providence from his Creatures But our Neoterick Theologs have found out another Answer and do generally expound this Rest of God to signifie only a cessation from the work of Creation for they say that although God doth continually work or operate or co-operate with his Creatures which are already made yet he doth not create or produce any new Creatures indeed he daily maketh individual or particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Plants and Hearbs hut all these new productions are of the same Species i. e. sort and kind that God made at the first 1. In this Answer we observe two things First It is confessed that this Rest of God is not an absolute cessation from Work but only a cessation
the finger of God by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles were they at first created I suppose No. The blind man when he received sight told the Pharisees to their face which they could not deny John 9. 32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind 6. What can be said against the newness of Monsters or of mixt Creatures such as Leopards and Mules c. which now are extant but were not so at first created 7. It is said Jer. 31. 22. The Lord Movi coeli terra extractio Movi Adami generatio miracula morbi novi non sunt opera primae extractionis Mart. Borrhai in Gen. 2. in verbum Requievit hath created a new thing on the Earth a VVoman shall compasse a Man Which is meant of Christ to be conceived in the Womb of the Virgin-Mother which was a new thing indeed and a peculiar Signal mark to know the Messiah by 8. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth If you say it is meant but of a new State or condition of the Church under the Gospel I say so too But this new State or condition is not nothing it is not such as it was before and is new So is the creating of a clean or new heart Psalm 51. 10. it is a work of Regeneration or re-Creation and better to us than the Creation thereof 9. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips therefore the holy Apostolical Eloquence with all the excellencies of Rhetorick and Languages and Arts are the Works of God which are not reckoned among the Works of the first Creation and this is confirmed by Christ himself when he said Matth. 10. 19. Dabitur in illa hora And by that which others said of him John 7. 46. Never man spake like this man And all those new Languages at Babel were of Gods creating Gen. 11. Our Answer to this first Querie for present shall be but only Negative because our Discourse is not yet ripe for a full positive Answer viz. That this Rest of God doth not signifie only his cessation from creating the World And moreover we affirm That although God had made more such Worlds as a Diog. Laert. in Epicuro Epicurus thought or if he had made innumerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worlds of meer Creatures as b Plut. de Placitiâ— Philos l. 2. c. 1. Democritus in Plutarch said yet all such Worlds would not be of value and worth sufficient to procure this Mysterious Rest and complacency of the Almighty Creator But I proceed to the second Querie CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the Seventh day only although he intermitted creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer Creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the Seventh day and what that was Jewish fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve A short Answer to the second Querie OUr second Querie is Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day and not on any of 2 Querie the former six dayes There is surely something more then ordinary implied in this Rest of the Godhead more then the bare Letter expresseth and more then a meer cessation from the work of Creation because this Rest is fixed and appropriated to the Seventh day only and not said at all of any of the former six dayes wherein God did both create and also cease by some pause or respite from creation which interval is by us Mortals called a Rest as the labouring-man at Mid-day is permitted to take some small time for sleep or rest and therein intermitteth his work Doubtless God did not bestow the whole compass of each several day with its evening and morning in a continual creation or forming of his several Creatures for each of them were created by the Will or Word of God which might be in a moment The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens Ps 39. 6 9 made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done It is not likely that this word or breath of God was produced to the length of each whole day but that there was some respite and some time of cessation between the Acts of creating the several Creatures each several day yet this respite of God is never called his Rest until the Seventh day That there was a respite we read that Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2. 13. then Eve It is also very considerable That although it is said Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Whereby it appeareth that all the Creatures were made as the Angels of Heaven the Fowls of the Air and Man Beasts Plants Fishes of the Earth and Sea Notwithstanding God is not yet said to Rest on this sixth day Surely this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides these it seems he rested not in any or all these meer Creatures but in something that was more noble and worthy of this great honour of being the Acquiescence or Rest of the Godhead But what shall we say of the pre-existence of God before the Creation and the infiniteness and eternity thereof before all times when nothing was in being but only the pure Godhead in the three eternal Persons when neither Heaven nor Earth nor Man nor Angels were created We cannot say or imagine that God was then without Rest for besides that He with-held himself from creating and from all external working we know that he was at Rest in himself in his own blessed contentment and all-sufficiencie needing nothing which Rest of God could not then be interrupted by any business or outward operation What the immanent or internal Actions of the Godhead were then we know but little and that only which the holy Apostles have taught us in whom we read of the eternal purpose of God to oâ—dain Christ before the foundation of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. the world and of chusing us in him But we find no mention of any transient or external Works of the Godhead such as Divines call Operationes Dei ad extra and such as Creation is Yet in all that infinite and incomprehensible duration from Eternity it is never said that God Rested nor until this Seventh day Therefore this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides a cessation or suspension of working and also besides that blessed quiet and tranquillity which for ever was and is in the Godhead of which the heathen Philosophers rule is true h Nisi Quietum nihil Beaâ—um est i. e. God could not be happy if â— Tull de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. he were
Epitaph Bononiens p. 173. Hermaphroditus The truth is that the woman was then in Adam though but rough-cast as we use to say and not taken out of the mould not finished or polished For it is as easie to apprehend Eve to be then in the side of Adam as it is for us to believe and acknowledg that all we which now live were even then in the loines of Adam for which we have a strong Apostolical evidence Heb. 7. 10. Where it is said of Levi before he was born that he was in the loins of Abraham And so upon the same reason we were certainly with Levi and Ahraham in the loines of Adam So our Answer to this second Querie for present shall be only this That therefore God is not said to Rest until the seventh-day Because that until then the principal work was not finished in which alone the Rest of God consisted And what that is will now soon appear In the mean time I will lay this for my conclusion and for a Truth which I firmly beleive that the seventh-day or Ceremonial-Sabbath was not ordained by God for a memorial of the Creation of the world and all the meer Creatures thereof or for his ceasing from the work of Creation But for an Evangelical memorial of the Rest of God Of which we are next to enquire CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned until the seventh-day Why it is fixed on the Creation of Mankind rather than of any other of the creatures Answers to certain enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the only cause of this Rest of God IT may justly seem strange and wonderful that the most blessed most glorious and Almighty God who is Blessedness and Happiness it self and that so infinitely and incomprehensibly that it is impossible that any addition of happiness or rest can be added to him so as to make him more happy or more at Rest than he was from Eternity And yet so it is that God is here and now said to Rest and also to Rest so now as not before this seventh day Certainly this Rest must be occasioned by something that is External and Extra-essential to God And therefore it must be such a Rest or complacencie or acquiescence as the Godhead assumed and took in some special creature and yet not only in that creature considered singly and meerly in it self for it must be derived from some work of God unto which God intended some excellent beneficial addition of worth goodness by which consideration the Godhead was inclined to express a delight and chearfullness contentedness in it and for it in all the other creatures This as to me seemeth Moses darkly implyeth for he is yet vailed in these words Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the seventh day from al his work which he had made This Rest then seemeth to be occasioned from his work for it is not said that he rested in his work but occasionally from his work It followeth vers 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created to make This sudden repetition of the Rest of God doth intimate something of greater moment and consideration than ordinary Good reader observe with me that in this later expression of God's resting there is much more implied than in the former for in the first it is said He rested from all his work which he had made But in the later it is said He rested from all his work which God created to make These words created to make signifie more than only a creation Our last English Translation reades this text created and made yet in the margin it is there confessed that according to the Hebrew it is to be read created to make which is indeed the true and farr better reading so both St. Hierome and our other masters in the holy tongue read it so doth the Latine of Sixtus and Clemens Quod creavit ut faceret i. e. which he created to make By which expression I humbly conceive that the holy Spirit doth secretly and mysteriously imply that this Rest of God consisteth in some creature newly made upon which the Godhead purposed to conferr some preferment and honour greater than the bare creation of it because it is said he created it to make so saith the Expositor upon those words creavit ut faceret a Martin Borrhaius in loc Ut ad certum usum pararet ac destinaret i. e. God rested from that work which he created that he might prepare and appoint it to a certain use So that To make must signifie that God intended to make some further and greater and more excellent use of that creature than it had of it self in it's own single and created nature and that he would effect some more glorious and gracious work by it which that creature of it self and by it's own power would never be able to perform Now what creaturâ— this is And what further use God intended to make of it And what prerogative of honour he would add to it we are diligently to enquire 1. We can not with reason and judgment fasten the occasion of this Rest of God upon any one particular creature but only upon the creation of Man for from the creation of Adam God did first take occasion to express a complacency and acquiescence or Rest 2. We may not think that this Rest of Goâ— was occasioned only by the creation of the first Adam considered singly by himself and as a 〈◊〉 creature without any further reach or consideration But it was indeed occasioned by a pre-consideration of the second Adam which is Christ who is stiled by St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam because whâ—â— Adam was made Christ also was made Christ as a creature in respect of his humane nature for as Eve was then Originally and Substantially in Adam's side as is before said So was Christ seminally in his Loines so that the consideration of Christ now wrapped up in this Root of Adam was that which occasioned the first hint of an expression of complacencie in the Godhead upon the Creation of the Man for thereupon that was said by God which was not said before upon the Creation of any one or of all his other Creatures and it is said with a note of Remarkableness Gen. 1. 31. Behold it was very good Indeed his other Creatures are said to be good but not any nor all said to be very good till now 3. Though Adam was now made and in him Christ was seminally couched yet it is not presently said that God Rested nor untill some other Act was performed by the Godhead For God is not said to Rest until Eve was taken and formed and finished out of Adam's side and this was not done until the Seventh day as is before shewed This was because Christ the Saviour of
Mankind was not otherwise to come into the open World that there he might perform the grand Work of a Redeemer and Saviour but only through the Woman Our merciful God doth then and not till then declare his Rest when he had laid and compleated the foundation of the Rest of us his otherwise wretched Creatures For neither Adam himself could be saved supposing his fall but through the fertility of the Woman nor could Eve or any of their posterity obtain Redemption and salvation otherwise than so as the Apostle teacheth us 1 Tim. 2. 15 She shall be saved in child-bearing that is by Christ who should descend from Eve and be born of a Woman for God confined our Redemption and our Redeemer so when he said The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Gen 3 15 Serpents head And in the Gospel God sent forth his Son made of a Woman So early Gal 4 4 and late the Godhead was pleased to signifie the conception of Christ by a Woman signally without mention of the Seed of Man promised to David in these words Psalm 132. 11. Ex fructu ventris the fruit of the belly which St. Austin a Aug in loc observes to be meant of Christ because he was only from the Belly or Womb and not from the Thigh And prophesied by Isaiah chap. 7. 14. to be conceived by a Virgin And performed in the person of the ever blessed Virgin Mary Now we may easily return an Answer to the above mentioned Enquiries concerning the Rest of God 1. In which of the Creatures God is said to Rest To this we say That his Rest was only in Mankind not in the man alone but for the honour and everlasting comfort of all holy Women he expressed not his Rest until he had formed the Woman out of the Man although the manner thereof is declared after the expression of God's Rest 2. What further use besides their Creat on God intended to make of the Man and the Woman To this we say That God purposed out of the Man and Woman to raise and produce Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind from eternal and deserved misery and also through the same Christ to crown Mankind with everlasting glory and for this most gracious use only did the Godhead declare it self to Rest so that in Christ alone is the true reall and final Rest and Sabbath comprised both of God and of us Men. 3. What prerogative or peculiar honour added God to this Creature Man more then to any other Creature To this we answer 1. He made Man in his own Image so as not any other Creature was made 2. From the Seed of Man he ordained that the Redeemer should proceed and not from any other Creature although some others were more high excellent than Man as the holy Angels are as the Psalmist saith Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Yet the Apostle tels Psal 8 5 us Heb. 2. 16. That Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 3. God purposed which he also performed to unite himself so with Man as not with any other Creature to be one person with Man even this very Creator at this very time of Mans creation intimated that himself would one day become Man that he would be incarnate and so Emmanuel which is obscurely signified by those words In the Image of God created he him And Gen 1. 27 this Incarnation was most needful for Man because in it only the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of Man consisteth and in nothing else From these Premises my Conclusion is That the principal and indeed the only cause of this Rest of God consisted in the consideration and gracious purpose of the Godhead to produce the Messiah out of the Man and the Woman to be united with our humane nature and therein to fulfill the whole Will of God in our behalf and so to become the Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind Which conclusion being a Doctrine of our greatest concernment we will in the next place endeavour by God's assistance to make plain and evident even to the capacity of ordinary understandings CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the Union of Christ with Mankind Why Redemption is only of Mankind The meaning of the Sacramental Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived and propagated from the first Man Something concerning Universal Redemption THat the Divine purpose of the Incarnation of the second Person in the Trinity was the sole motive that the Rest of God was now and not before declared may appear by many overtures or expressions in and about the Creation and other affairs concerning the first Man and Woman 1. It is said by the Godhead Let us make Gen. 1. 26 Man Whereby the concurrence of all the Divine Persons in the Creation of Man is signified As if the Godhead would express a special care and deliberation and also a consultation about the Creation of Man more than in the Creation of the whole invisible World of Angels or this visible World of all the other Creatures for it was never said before Let us make but God created and Let there be Light and Let there be a Firmament and Let the Earth bring forth c. Now although we know that all the Three Divine Persons did co-operate in the creation of every Creature as the sure Rule of Divines is Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa Yet their concurrence is not so declared until the Creation of Man Therefore surely a greater matter was intended than the making of a meer Creature and that certainly was Christ even He that is better than all Creatures and of whom it is said Let all the Angels of God worship Heb. 1. 6. him 2. Not only the making of Man is decreed but it is added In our Image and likenesse and In the Image of God created he him Here is Our Image Plurally and The Image of God Singly Our Image signifies the Image of the Three Divine Persons stamped on Man Power Wisdom Holinesse which are the Characters of the Father Son and Spirit as Divines say But this is not all for so much of this Image was soon desaced Nor was this Image proper to Mankind but is found also in the holy Angels and also more eminently in them than in Mankind But because these words are said of Man not said of any other Creature therefore we must find out some other Image or likenesse of God which is so peculiar to Man as that it is not to be found in any other Creature as a Theod. in Gen. quaest 20. Theodoret most judiciously observeth This being granted the Image there mentioned must needs relate and point to Christ who is
WE are now come to the last but the greatest difficulty of this Sabbaticall Doctrine touching the Rest of God and to give some Answer to those two Queries mentioned before in the 10th Chapter First How God can be said to Rest who never laboured or was at unrest Secondly Why his Rest is fixed first on the seventh day of the world and not mentioned before or declared to have been from Eternity as certainly it was seeing this Rest was onely in consideration of the Messiah now secretly laid and couched in our first parents We may not think that this expression of the Rest Contentment or Complacency of God was occasioned onely by the newnesse of that work as man pleaseth himself in new apparell new fashions or new buildings This could not be the cause of God's Rest unto Whom all his intentions and works were known from Eternity and were all present to his Divine Providence with whom there is no futurity because whatsoever is future in respect of our human apprehension is ideally present to God In which respect the words of Solomon may be rightly understood There Eccles 1. 9 is no new thing under the Sun for nothing is new to the Godhead And the Apostles have declared that this very mystery in which as we have shewed the Rest of God consisteth is The eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And That our Redemption Eph. 3. 11 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. with the pretious blood of Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world And moreover That God hath also chosen us in him before the foundation of the Ephes 1 4. world This being undeniable we may wonder that this Rest of God is confined or limited to this one time and not mentioned before although it had been from everlasting To the first of those Queries our Answer is That the onely Rest or Sabbath of God is 1 Querie answered the Messiah because in the Obedience of Christ both active and passive the Godhead doth rest satisfied contented and well-pleased not onely with the proper and individuall person of Christ but also for and in him with all the holy Members of his Body mysticall being by faith united and One with him For therefore doth God rest in him because by him the whole Law was to be and now actually is performed so that all the duties debts and penalties which in justice are requirable of his servants are fully paid by Christ and thereby the just Godhead is satisfied to the uttermost farthing So that the Rest of God is in no wise to be ascribed to him in respect of any cessation from the work of Creation but onely in consideration of the acquiescence of God in Christ's satisfaction and thereby man's acquiescence or acquittance from the wrath of God That the Rest of the Godhead consisteth in Christ onely may appear by many passages in the Old Testament something obscurely and in the New more clearly for so we read in King Solomon's Prayer Arise O 2 Chron. 6. 41. Lord God into thy Resting-place thou and the Ark of thy strength This he said of the Temple at Jerusalem The like was said before by his father David of the Tabernacle Arise O Lord into thy Rest thou and the Ark of thy strength And the like was said Psal 132. 8 Numb 10. 35. before both by Moses Numb 10. 35. And it came to passe when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up Lord and let them that hate thee flee before thee * God is gon up with a shout Ps 42. 5. was said of the Tabernacle and Ark Lyranus in loc Observe here good Reader that Moses calls the Ark Lord and that David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest and Resting-place These speeches must needs point at and signify Christ for therefore onely did Moses give the title of Lord to the Ark because it was the type and signall of his presence with his people And therefore onely did David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest because they were the figures and types of Christ's Body wherein the Godhead was to rest but the very substantiall Body of Christ was the reall and true Temple of God indeed so Christ said Destroy this Temple Joh. 2. 19. 21. But he spake of the Temple of his Body That the Ark was the figure or representative of Christ's Body we are taught by St. Jerom upon those words Thou and the Ark of thy strength a Hier. iâ— Psal 132. Tu corpus assumptum quo diviniâ—as tegebaâ—ur So doth St. Austin expound those words b Aug. in loc Corpus Christi quod ex Maria natum est i. e. The Ark signified that body which God the Son assumed of the Virgin Mary in which his Godhead was covered But the Resting place of God cannot be meant principally or ultimately of the typicall Temple for that is destroyed long ago nor of the Ark for that is also lost nor is the Godhead now hid in a Chest The true Resting-place of the Godhead is onely the human Nature of Christ in which it resteth and abideth for ever so as not to be separated from it all Of this residence of the Godhead John Baptist thus spake I knew him not but he Joh. 1. 33. that sent me the same said unto me Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he c. For Christ is he on whom the Divine Spirit or Godhead not onely descended but resteth and remaineth for ever The holy Psalmist in the place before mentioned saith For the Lord hath chosen Sion Psal 132. 13 14. he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell What was Sion literally but an Hill or Rock and how doth God dwell there Verily no otherwise than in any other common part of the world Nor can it truly be said to be his Rest for ever if literally understood because we are sure Sion is long since forsaken as was prophesyed by Isaiah Jeremy and Micah and that this Sion should be plowed as a field Which prophecy Jer. 26. 18 a Euseb de Demon. lib. 6. cap. 13. Eusebius saith he saw performed with his own eyes Which dereliction is thought to have been intimated by that strange voice which was heard in the Temple a little before the finall destruction thereof b Joseph n. 24. Heges n. 34 Euseb Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. Hieron n. 4 Let us depart hence of which speciall notice was taken by many Writers as Josephus Hegesippus Eusebiu and Jerom. But in Sion was the house of David and the Tabernacle and the Ark and the Temple also stood on a part of that great hill of Sion all being figures of Christ for this reason onely it was said of Sion This is my rest for ever because the everlasting Rest of the Godhead
firm estate upon his Children he will say that now he is at rest and quiet although he neither intermit his work nor personally enjoy that estate yet calleth his Childrens good his own even as God doth here call the rest of his Creatures his own Rest Of which more in the next Chapter CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called Gods Rest shewed by other like passages in Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God only because he is the Rest of Mankind An answer to the second Query above mentioned shewing Why God is said to Rest on the first Seventh day only and not before The Conclusion and St. Austin 's Judgment in this Doctrine of Gods Rest THere are many passages in Scripture concerning God which can in no wise be verified except we acknowledge this Doctrine That the properties of Man are there transferred and assumed by God and called his actions passions or dispositions as may thus appear Gen. 22. 12. It is said by God in the person of his Angel Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not with-held thy Son from me This God did know before but because by this grand trial God made both Abraham and others know it therefore it is said Now I know a Aug. de Gen. l. 4 c. 9 Quia nos cognoscere facit saith the Expositor i. e. God is said to know only because he now made man to know It is said of one Sabinus in Seneca b Sen. Ep. 27 Putabat se scire quod quisquam in domo suâ sciret so God accounteth the apprehension of his People to be his own knowledge Deut. 13. 3. The Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God Not as if God did not know before and without trial but because hereby Man might perceive whether he doth really love God Gen. 18. 21. God saith of Sodome I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it if not I will know What need was there of this going down to see and know when God knew what was before and what would be after But only to convince the Sodomites by making them see and know their own wickedness in attempting that Sodomitical sin In the like sense also even Nescience or Ignorance is transferred on the Son of God as Mark 13. 32. But of that day knoweth no Mat. 24 36 man no not the Angels neither the Son but the Father only It were blasphemy to say absolutely that God the Son did not know it who is the same only God with the Father and is also called by the great Prophet The mighty God and The everlasting Father for every Person is the Father in respect of Isai 9. 6 all Creatures although only the first Person is the Father of the Son But when it is said Neither the Son the meaning is as St. Austin and other Expositors with him generally agree a Lib. 83 quaest quaest 60 Nescire filii est cum non prodit hominibus quod inutilitèr scirent And b De Gen. Cont. Manichae'os l. 1. c. 22 Quia discipulos nescientes reliquit Because Christ would not reveal the day of Judgment to his Disciples therefore he is said not to know it In this sense only it is that St. Hilary saith c Hil. de Trin. lib. 9. Luke 13 27 Mat 7. 23 Habemus nescientem Deum our God professeth to some I know you not For otherwise we say with Austin d Aug. Psal 10 1 Cor. 1. 24 Domine quid ignorabas Lord how is it possible that the Wisdome of God should not know all things so that God the Son is said not to know that day only because Men do not know it Isai 1. 24. God is represented by this Prophet as being disturbed of his Rest and Ease and saying Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries So the Psalmist speaketh Psalm 2. 4. and 37. 13. The Lord shall have them in derision The Lord shall laugh at him So Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings And Ephes 4. 30. Greive not the holy Spirit of God And 1 Thes 5. 19. Quench not the Spirit These sayings must needs be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as relating only to Man for God cannot In himself be eased Nor can the holy Spirit make intercession or be Mediator nor groan nor be greived nor quenched nor doth God deride or laugh Men to scorn But because holy Men in whom the Spirit of God dwelleth are disturbed and persecuted and greived and quenched therefore Gods Spirit is said to be so The groanings of the Spirit are the doleful Ejaculations of holy Men. The easing of God is the removing of Adversaries Oppressors and Persecutors of his People Gods laughing is the exposing of proud Tyrants to the scorn and derision of them over whom they have domineer'd just as the hunger and thirst and nakedness and imprisonment and persecution of the Members of Christ are said to be of Christ himself Mat 25. Acts 9. So the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead must be meant only of that everlasting Sabbath which God in Christ hath ordained for his Servants The Psalmist saith The Lords Psal 147. 17 delight is in them that fear him Now because no delights or pleasures can possibly be added or new to the unspeakable blessedness of God therefore this delight must be understood of Men That Mans delight in God and his well-being in a course of godliness leading to the everlasting delights and joyes of Heaven is here called God's delight just so as mans Rest is called the Rest of God For we may not think that the Rest of God is confined limited or circumscribed in the single person of Christ for indeed Christ is not otherwise the Rest of God but only in consideration of us Men and in regard that in Christ the Sabbath or Rest of Men is included so that Christ cannot be the Rest of the Godhead but as he is looked on and considered as a Jesus or Saviour of Mankind and in this respect only it was said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The Reader may observe that it is not said With Whom as if the complacencie or acquiescence of God were only with the particular person of Christ but it is said In Whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To signifie that in by and through him God would be at peace and well pleased with others even with all the Members of the most holy Jesus And indeed the whole Oeconomy and design of the Godhead in preparing the Messiah was only in the behalf of Mankind so the Prophet hath taught us Unto us a Child is born and unto us a Son is given Here is both Isai 9. 6 the Nativity and the Death of the Messiah given to us Then he is called The Prince of Peace This signifies that he was to be
the maker of Peace or Atonement or Reconciliation of Man with God He is called Messiah or Christ that is anointed fitted and prepared for the great Work of Mans Redemption Then he is properly named Jesus and this in order to the benefit of Man for so the holy Angel said Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Mat. 1. 21 And that it may appear that this Person Jesus is qualified and endowed with sufficient power to effect that great and merciful purpose of the Godhead toward Mankind the same Prophet cals him Wonderful Counseller The Mighty God The Everlasting Father This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of Gods Rest Now to the second Querie above mentioned 2. Querie Answered viz. Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day precisely and not before Our Answer is 1. Because on the Seventh day and not before the Creation of Mankind was completed for on that day was the Woman taken and built out of the Man and not before as is above shewed 2. God is not said to Rest until he had actually begun the Work of Mans Rest which was not done untill the Man and the Woman were both of them finished for then and not before was the Saviour of Mankind really and actually laid as the foundation of Mans Rest in which Rest or Sabbath of Man the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead consisteth and in nothing else What God in his Divine and Secret Counsel had determined before all times to be done that did he now on this Seventh day begin which was the building of his Church for now the first stone was laid even Christ who only is the foundaâ—ion and the Rock and the chief corner-stone thereof The house built upon a Rock Matth. 7. 24. signifieth the Church when Peter had said Thou art Mat. 16 16 Christ the Son of the living God Christ presently replied Upon this Rock will I build my Church The Apostle tels us Christ was 1 Cor. 10 4. the spiritual Rock And Other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus 1 Cor. 3 11 Christ Now this foundation of Rest must needs be made known unto the Man for otherwise it could not be his Rest and consequently it could not be the Rest of God until Man did so know it that he might relie and trust and set up his Rest upon it that is upon Christ Therefore the holy Scripture doth by divers intimations signifie that this great Mystery was then revealed to Adam for he was illuminated with prophetical Wisdom He knew as well as Moses that he was made in the 〈◊〉 of God that is in the same shape which God his Redeemer would one day assume as is before shewed He knew the Woman was taken and built out of him on purpose to produce a Redeemer in that only way which might fitly serve for that Work when no other way could for upon the forming of her he said This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh This speech doth shew that the Man was not ignorant in the great Mystery of the Union of Himself and the Woman and their future progenie with Christ also in one lump which union was contrived by the Godhead only in order and necessity to the Redemption of Adam and his off-spring and nothing else And it is the same which by the great Apostle is applied to the mysterious union of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh This Eph. 5. 31 32 is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church After the Fall of Man it pleased the merciful Godhead to give a more open and evident notice by an express promise of this Rest than was before when it was said The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head for after this the Man named the Woman Vita i. e. Life as is before shewed whereby he declared his Faith and expectation of a new and better life to come by the fruitfulness of the Woman than that Life which he forfeited by his fall as may reasonably be thought All these intimations and overtures being but descriptions of the great Saviour to proceed from the Man and the Woman in whom they might set up their Rest as surely they did And God having now actually begun that great Work of Redemption and laid the foundation thereof in the Earth of ouâ— first Parents and made it known unto them Therefore he doth now and not before call this blessed Rest of Man His own Best For the Church of God which consisteth of Christ and his Members united not only in the nature of our first Parents but also cemented by one and the same Spirit of God residing both in Christ the Head and also in all holy Men as inferiour Members under that Head This Church I say is very often in Scripture represented as a building even from the beginning of the World and so continued in the Gospel The Woman is said to be builded of the Rib aedificavit costam in Gen. 2. 22 Multierem Rachel and Leah are said to build the house of Israel The natural Body of Ruth 4 11 Christ is called a building by King Solomon Wisdome hath built her an house So is his mystical Body also Ye are Gods building Prov. 9. 1 1 Cor. 3. 9 And Acts 9. 31. The Churches had rest and were edified The Word of God and preaching and brotherly exhortation are resembled to buildings The Word is able to Act. 20. 32 build you up St. Paul calleth preaching there where Christ was named before building on another mans foundation and Rom. 15 20 exhorteth the Thessalonians to edifie one another 1 Thes 5 11 The prime foundation of this building is Christ upon Him the Prophets and Apostles are laid as Super-structures or second Foundations Of Christ the Prophet saith Behold Isa 28. 16 I lay in Sion for a foundation a Stone a tried Stone a precious corner-Stone a sure foundation And this is so applied to Christ by St. Peter who also calleth the Members of Christ Lively stones built up a spiritual 1 Pet. 2 5 6 house And Sion is mentioned because as the same Prophet foretold Out of Sion shall Isai 2. 3 go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem For so indeed the Law of Christ and the preaching thereof began there as Christ appointed Lukâ— 24. 7. And of Apostles and Prophets and Christ St. Paul telleth the Ephesians That they are built upon Eph. 2. 20 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone It hath been an ancient Custome amongst Men to express a joy and delight both at the laying of the foundation and also at the raising and dedication of magnificent or holy Edifices So did the Jews at the laying of the foundation of the second Temple praising the
not the Law of God so may the people of God keep and sanctifie the true substantiall Sabbath though with the breach or as Christ said profanation of the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath If it be here demanded why God so strictly required a cessation from work and a corporeall Rest on the seventh day seeing he did not expect so exact an obedience thereunto To this we answer That as the seventh day was but the type of the true Sabbath which is Christ so the corporall rest therein was but the figure or signe of our spirituall and eternall rest in Him Therefore as the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath in some cases might be transgressed yet without any breach or neglect of the true Sabbath which is Christ so our corporall rest might be disturbed many waies in this life by labours sorrows sufferings and persecutions yet without any disturbance of our spirituall rest comfort settlement joy and peace in the God of all consolation for so Christ hath said These things have I said unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall Joh. 16. 33 have tribulation For the tribulations of the world do not extinguish or null the peace of God in his servants So he saith again concerning the agonies of this present life Come unto me all ye that labour Mat. 11. 28 and are heavy laden Take my yoke and ye shall find rest unto your souls By which it appeareth that the spirituall Rest or Sabbath in Christ possibly may consist with labours burdens heavinesse and even with bearing the crosse of Christ There is moreover a further reach and reason why God imposed this inconvenient and almost impossible cessation on the seventh-day-Sabbath which we will declare hereafter in its due place CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath-daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish Pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these Circumstanstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial Judaical Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter THey that ask why the wife was not here named may as well ask why the man or husband was not for neither are particularly mentioned because both are alike obliged and both included in this word Thou A woman may have a son and daughter and servantâ— and cattle and a stranger within her gaâ—es especially in her widowhood as well as a man But if they be joyned in matrimony then no need of particular mention of either because both are one The woman was included in the man at the creation of both Male and female created he them And both the Old the New Testament account them as one They Gen. 2. 24 Eph 5. 31. shall be one flesh In Grammar there is Hic haec homo and in Theology the wife is esteemed as haec vir or as St. Jerom translates the originall word Virago and Lyranus yet nearer calls the woman Virâ— Both are invested with superiority over their children and servants and both interested in the fruition of their goods At Heathen marrriages the woman said * Plut. Quaest Rom Ubi tu Câ—ius ego Caia And at our Christian matrimony the man saith With all my worldly goods I thee endow Nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant c. This is added because otherwise the Jews might have thought it no transgression in themselves to have caused their children or servants to work if the parents or masters wrought not But by these words the contrary will appear that if their children or servants were by them compelled to work on their Sabbath day the sin was not to be imputed to the son or servant but to the parents or masters that so commanded For if it had been sin or a transgression of this Law in sons or servants to work upon command and compulsion then it must follow that cattle also even the Ox and the Asse must have been under the obligation of this Commandment and they also must have sinned as †Against Mr. N. Byfield Mr. Brerewood hath observed which to affirm is most ridiculous But if the Jewish sons or servants or subjects had wrought on their Sabbath at their own choice without command or compulsion of their Rulers then the transgression or Sabbath-breach must have been their own and the punishment thereof inflicted on themselves onely and not otherwise Thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant The condition of servants was lamentable their masters power over them was great and so was their cruelty God therefore provided some ease for them otherwise the unmercifull and covetous Jews would have afforded no rest to them at all Neither did the Judaicall Laws of the Jews wholly provide against the cruelty of masters for if a Jew by cruell Ex. 21. 20. stripes had killed his servant the master was not punishable by the Law Judaicall if the abused servant continued alive a day or two after nor except he died under his hand Although no doubt the master sinned against the morall Law Thou shalt not kiil and was therefore answerable to God for murder But their condition under the Gentiles was far worse who had legall power of life and death over them They were not onely bought and sold like cattle but also esteemed as vile or worse than their beasts One makes it a question a Tul. Offic. l. 3. Utrum equi aâ— servi jactura eligenda Another saith b Aâ—g Ps 143. Cariùs equum quà m servum emunt and another c Ambros n Ser. 41. To. 5. Quidam canum magis quam servorum curam habent Their labours were such as cattle are used for they called them d Laert. in Diogen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they were nothing but feet They ground in the Mill and carried their Masters in Litters great journeys as horses now do And when they were old and past work they were cast out of doors to perish by famin which was the practise of their wise Cato the Elder as e in Cato Major Plutarch saith Besides great were the cruelties and tortures inflicted on poor servants for light or no causes f Juvenal Sat. 6. Pone crucem servo Nil fecerit esto Hoc volo sic jubeo Seneca saith of them g Sen. Epist 47. Tussis sternutamentum magno malo luitur One Vedius Pollio a Roman h Dion in Aug. c. 15. commanded one of his servants to be cast into his pond of Lampries onely for breaking a drinking-glasse And when Pedanius a Roman was secretly slain in his own house the murderers being not known 400 of his houshold-servants were all put to death as i Tacit. Annal lib. 14.
prolonged six dayes The order of Creatures first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made and that it was intended principally for Mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned though it was prepared within the first six dayes Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandement and not in any of the other Nine That the Moral Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son who is called The Beginning the Word and the Wisdome of God and is therefore commanded to be sanctified For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in in them is and rested the Sevenâ—h day IT is here said That the World was made in six dayes and before Gen. 2. 1. that the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the host of them And yet it follows immediatly That on the seventh â—â—y God ended his work which he had made How both these Propositions are true we have shewed before namely That although the Woman was not extracted and separated nor builded or formed out of the Man until the seventh day yet it is truly said that the Creation was finished in six dayes because the Woman was included in the Man Materially Substantially and Originally although as yet Informiter as the Glosse saith that is not formed fashioned or compleated which work was respited until the seventh day and thereupon it is said that on it he ended his Work and not before In six dayes Although God could have made the World in one minute yet he prolonged the work for six dayes whereof St. Austin and other Writers attempt to render some account as 1. To intimate that after the toylings and labours of the six dayes or Ages of this World his Servants should have rest with Him 2. To teach us that we should not expect that God will do all that he can do for us on a sudden either in conferring Mercies temporal or Graces spiritual but orderly and by degrees as calling justifying glorifying and in his good time The promised Seed of Abraham was not born till the old age of his Parents nor the Egyptian deliverance performed nor the Land of Canaan possessed till four hundred yeares after the Promise Heaven and Earth The order of these Creatures is observable First Heaven then Earth The blessing of Jacob was The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth But Esau's was The fatness of earth and the dew of heaven A true Character of Worldlings and Epicures who preferre earthly things before heavenly as one in the a Claud. de Rapt Pros lib. 1. Poet saith Salve gratissima tellus Quam nos praetulimus coelo So the Epicure in Nazianzen professed Da mihâ— praesens i. e. give me my portion in this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let God reserve the future to himself Which is but the same that some among us profess even by their own words and others farre more wickedly practise by bloody deeds prosecuting earthly profits pleasures and honours with the manifest neglect and disclaiming of heaven and trafficking for hell as Witches do and all this at a much lower rate than Satan offered Mat. 4 8. to Christ Heaven Gen. 1. 1. It is said In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth The Heaven there meant I take to be that which St. Paul cals The third Heaven which to us is invisible 2 Cor. 12. 2. that it might be the Paradise or habitation of Angels as both a Aug. de Civit. lib. 11. Austin and other Divines have thought because as God ordained the earthly Paradise for Man at or before his creation so he prepared the Paradise of Heaven at or before their creation and this because it is said Gen. 2. 1. The Heavens and the Earth were finiâ—hed and all the host of them The word Heaven alone implieth the creation of Angels as Austin saith in the place before cited or if not these words all the host of heaven will include them And here it is said The Lord made heaven and earth and all that therein is By which words we conceive that not only the house of Heaven but also the Inhabitants thereof were finished So the Heaven which is said to have been created in the beginning must signifie the Empyreal or highest Heaven because the Creation of this lower heaven which is visible is said to have been done in the second day's work and it is called The Firmament Gen. 1. 7. And this Firmament is also called Heaven vers 8. To pâ—t a difference or distinction between the former and later or the highest and lower Heavens and this to me seemeth to be confirmed by the words of Christ Come ye blessed Mat. 25. 38. inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World By which words surely he meant that Heaven which was created in the beginning for blessed Angels and Men. Now although this highest Heaven was made and also inhabited by Angels yet God is not said to rest in that Work nor untill he had finished the Man and the Woman and in them had laid their Saviour to conduct them to that Heaven which was not intended only for Angels but principally for Mankind as Christ said prepared for You. In order whereunto the Angels were to be instrumental as we are taught by the Apostle Are Heb. 1. 14 they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of salvation By which most gracious provision our God hath declared himself to be a true Philanthropus And also a lover of Mankind rather more than a lover of Angels For out of this heavenly Paradise the apostate-Angels were soon cast and so left without a Redeemer or any hope of return One of them it was that deceived Eve therefore the fall of Angels was before the fall of Man Indeed Man also was sent out of the earthly Paradise for sin but yet he was not left without a possibility of Reconciliation and return to a better Paradise which was to be effected by the Seed of the Woman even the Messiah who is therefore the true and reall Sabbath of Man And herein also is the love of God to Man highly expressed in that he rested only in consideration of Mankind and the Saviour of us and not in the creation either of Heaven or of Angels Heaven and Earth See how our merciful Creator in the very beginning joyneth Earth with Heaven although the Earth was then invisible clouded in darkness and in an abysse of waters between it and Heaven yet they are here joyned as to intimate so early that notwithstanding the powers of darkness and the worldly insultations of proud Oppressors God would in time bring together and unite Earth with Heaven which he performed by and in Christ Even the first Adam was composed of an heavenly Soul and an earthly Body as a resemblance of the second Adam who
In a word he that understands in what particular thing the Rest of God consisteth may by the same easily apprehend why it is fixed on this seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed c. That which our English readeth Wherefore St. Jerom and the Latines generally read Therefore idcircò From which word we observe that the Judaicall or Ceremoniall Sabbath was not appointed in consideration of the work of Creation or that men should on that day contemplate and meditate onely on the creatures of the world although those wonderfull works are also right worthy of our serious consideration and should be a great motive to incite us to glorisie the Almighty Creator but it was principally ordained to put both the Jews and us Christians also in mind of the Rest of God and to move us all to consider in what this Rest consisteth which doth far more concern us and our happinesse than all the world without it because otherwise neither the world nor any creatures therein nor the perfect knowledge by our Studies and Arts of all the excellencies and secrets thereof can bring us to that everlasting Rest which was but typically figured by this Ceremoniall Sabbath For What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. Now that this Wherefore or Therefore relateth to the Rest of God and not to his creating of the world we are expresly taught by Moses who tells us That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works So that the Gen. 2. 3. Rest of man on that day was afterwards enacted by a Law for a memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God Concerning the blessing and sanctifying whereof we are next to enquire CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures and of the differences of Holiness When the Seventh day was first hallowed and how it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacrilege How the Prophets spake truly of things to come as if they had been past Of the Prophetical figure called Anticipation with Rules and Examples thereof applied to this Sabbath The Lord blessed the Sabbath day or Seventh day THe Leiturgie of the Church of England readeth the Seventh day but the Original hath the Sabbath day Both are read indifferently as Gen. 2. 3. hath the Seventh day and so have some of the other languages in this Commandement as appeareth in the late incomparable and renowned work of our new Great Bible Indeed both are one in this place For the Sabbath Ceremonial is but the Seventh day and the Seventh day only is that Sabbath which is here meant it being but a Sabbath Typical Blessed the Sabbath day To blesse Benedicere is to speak some good of it as in the Leiturgie of St Basil this Prayer is found a Basil n. 2 Domine loquere bonum in cor Regis pro Ecclesia tua When God blesseth he conferreth some favour or special priviledge as here on the Sabbath day such as it was capable of and in order to that purpose for which it was blessed which was to signifie Man's Rest in Christ The blessing of a Day is not like his blessing of a Man on whom by blessing he doth effectually conferre something that is beneficial to him as spirituall Graces or temporal Favours as in Children Lands Cattel Basket and Store mentioned Deut. 28. and as Isaac blessed his Sons with the dew of Heaven and fatnesse of the Earth But the Sabbath being uncapable of such benedictions the blessing of it must consist in such respects as these 1. God chose that day for his own Mysterious Rest 2. He appointed that day only and not any of the other six to be for a memorial to his people of the grand blessing of their Rest in Christ 3. He ordained it for a corporal rest both for Men and Cattel 4. He gave most strict command upon pain of capital punishment for the keeping thereof 5. He appointed larger Sacrifices on that day than on the former dayes 6. He appointed a larger portion of Manna on the Parasceue as a provision for the Sabbath 7. He appointed this holy day to be weekly that is two and fifty times in the year whereas other Festivals except new-Moons were but once These or such like are the blessings thereof And hallowed it Hallowed is holied or sanctified The meaning is that God designed it to be an holy or hallowed day To be an hallowed or sanctified day is to be divided separated or distinguished from other common dayes by way of preferment honour and preheminence and to be set apart so as that work which might lawfully have been done on that day before it was hallowed might not be done on it after the hallowing thereof We read of hallowed or holy oyl holy vessels holy vestments and holy places which might not be used or applied to any other service but that only for which they were hallowed and destinated So this hallowed day was not to be imployed in common works as other unhallowed dayes were for that would have been a profanation thereof but it was wholly to be bestowed and spent in the service of God the Sanctifier by the serious and thankful consideration of that blessed Rest which he had procured and designed for Man And this hallowed use was to continue from the first institution thereof untill the period and repealing of it by the same God who hallowed it Which was performed evidently by Jesus Christ who is the same God which did sanctifie it and this he did not untill God had actually and visibly exhibited in the â—lesh the reall and substantial accomplishment of that Typical Ceremonial and Temporary Sabbath in the Person of the said Lord Jesus But yet during the vigour and continuance of this hallowing the Sabbath day was not altogether and absolutely quitted from all manner of working We know the Priests did then work hard and Souldiers marched and other works were lawfully done the reason was because this Sabbatical Hallowing was but meerly figurative and ceremonial and therefore dispensable in case of pressing necessity and charitable accommodation toward our brethren and in duty to God and also because such workings are commanded by a Superiour Law even the Moral Law of God whereby we are required To love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbour as our self This Law hath been in force ever since the Creation was finished and so shall continue until the end of the World but the hallowing of the Seventh day was neither from the beginning nor was it to last to the end of the World being but Ceremonial and Temporary and therefore ought to give place to the Law Moral We find Hallowing or Holiness applied diversly to several things and for divers considerations First There is an Holiness Essential which is only