serve God with all our Hearts and with all our Minds let all men stand in awe and fear to prophane his Holy day Nen. 13.17 18. Ezek. 20.13 Isa 56.2 6 7. lest they bring the Wrath of the Lord upon us as it fell on Judah and Israel for that Transgression of the Law And let us labour more in Love and Respect to his Commandments for the Blessing intailed on the due observers of it for it s said Blessed is the Man that doeth this and the Son of Man that layeth hold on it that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it Also the Sons of the Stranger that join themselves to the Lord to Serve him and to Love the Name of the Lord to be his Servants every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of my Covenant Even them will I bring to my Holy Mountain and make them joyful in my House of Prayer And if thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath 〈◊〉 â—8 1 from doing thy Pleasure on my Holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the Holy of the Lord honourable and shalt Honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own Pleasure nor speaking thine own Words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the High Places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of Jacob thy Father for the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it And he will surely fulfil his Promises Heb. 4. â— Rom. 8 1â— to 2â— and in his Time will give his chosen the great Rest that remaineth for them which is typed forth by the Legal and Gospel seventh-days Sabbaths When the whole Creation that groaneth and travelleth in Pain shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God When the whole Earth shall be at Rost and Quiet Isa 14.7 and shall break forth into Singing for the Meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of Peace O house of Israel Psal 37 1â— Isa 2.5 Heb. 4.1 Cha 3.18 1 Ephâ—l 4.1 Isa 3.14 come ye and let us walk in the Light of the Lord And fear least a Promise being lest us of entring into his Rest any of us should seem to come short of it through â—â—helief And let us labour to walk more worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called That so when the Sinners in Sum shall be asraid seat fulness shall surprize the Hypocrite And Mens Hearts shall fail them for fear and for looking after those Thiâ—gs which are coming upon the Earth 〈…〉 Mâ—th 2◠〈◊〉 we may enter into the Chambers of God and shat the Door about us until the Indignation be over-past and be accounted worthy to escape all those things and to enter into the Joy of our Lord. FINIS ADVERTISEMENT There is now Printed a Book Intituled A Treatise of the Holy Tria unity in two Parts The First 〈◊〉 the Deity of 〈◊〉 Châ—â—st and â—â—e Holy Spirit in the Vnity of â—â—sence with God the 〈…〉 The See 〈◊〉 Defence of the 〈◊〉 answereth the â—â—â—efest Objections made against this Doctriâ—â— By I. M. Chap. I. THe Case is brielly stated Chap. II. Sheweth that there is but one God the Câ—â—â— for and Former of all things Chap. III. Afferteth a Plurality of Divine Subsâ—â—â—ences Chap. IV. Of the Father Chap. V. Proveth the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1. By his Names 2. That God in the Old Testament in divers Places is Christ in the New 3. By seven particular Texts of Holy Scriptures 4. That Christ pre-existed his Incarnation in his Divine Nature and is no Angel incarnate but is Coeternal with the Father 5. His Deity is proved by his Works And 6. By Divine Worship given to him Chap. VI. Proveth the Deity of the Holy Ghost 1. That he is a Divine Person 2. His Deity is asserted from several Texts of Scripture 3. By his Works 4. By Divine Worship given to him Chap. VII Proveth the Unity of the Holy Trinity Chap. VIII Containeth some Explications of the Holy Trinunity 1. Of the Essential Being of God 2. Oâ— the Divine Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit 3. Of the Distinctions of the Divine Nature and the Persons and some Shadows by way of Comparison of the incomparable and inconceivable Being of God and of the Union of Christ's two Natures PART II. Chap. I. Answereth Objections against the Scriptural Proofs of Christ's Deity Chap. II. Answers to Objections drawn from several Texts of Scriptures Chap. III. Answers to several Arguments against the Deity of Christ Chap. IV. Answers to several Objections against the Scriptures that prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost Chap. V. Answers to some Objections drawn from divers Scriptures to disprove the Deity of the Holy Spirit Chap. VI. Answers to some Scriptures from whence our Adversaries assert that the Father only is the true God With a general Answer and Conclusion Price bound one â—â—â—ling
that thô the Israelites were under a special Obligation of persect Obedience to Sinai's Covenant of Works yet there was another Covenant before confirmed of God in Christ ministred with it and by it that the Elect by Faith beholding Christ as their perfect High Priest and compleat Propitiation through the Veil and Shadowy Dispensation of the Law might be relieved from its Curse by Reason of its weakness through the Flesh that could not keep it Rom. 8.3 3. The Decalogue or Ten Commandments being declared with a particular Direction unto Israel â—â—â—de thâ— Oâ—â—igation of Obedience to them as so promâ—lgated on Mount Stuâ—i to belong unto them as general Heads not only oâ—tâ—â—e Moâ—d Bâ—anches of the Law in other Precepts given by Moses bâ—t also of the Typical and Ceremonial Bâ—anches thereof which being appropriated and suited only to that prelent State of the Jewish Church did Intitle the Moral Law particularly unto them as a Covenant of Works which to us is only an Everâ—asting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the substance of the Law of our Creation And therefore is any mean that the Decalogue as given on Mount Sinai is not binding to us as it was as I hinted before directed peculiarly to Israel as a Covenant connexed and related to the Ceremonial Law or as the Foundation of their Obedience to the Typical and Shadowy as well as other Moral Precepts and Commandments tied to it under that Temporary Dispensation then we do agree that it is not so binding to us under the Gospel But as the Law given to Israel on Mount Sinai was the Substance of the Law of Nature in our first Parents or of Creation again renewed in Tables of Stone and committed to Israel as the declarative Will of God so it was for the use of the Gentiles also For seeing our Sin and depravity of Nature through the fall does not weaken the Authority of Gods Law over us Ephes 2.3 Rom. 2.14 15 16. chap. 3.19 and that the Gentiles as well as the Jews before the Law was given to Israel were under its Obligations as written in their Hearts by Nature Gods delivering a fairer Copy of it by Moses than what remained in us since the fall could no ways weaken but strengthen the Obligation of it unto us all as being alike under it by Nature Moreover as the Moral Law written in Tables of Stone was the declarative Will of God strengthning the Obligation of the same Law written in the Heart of Man by Nature so Christ in the Gospel does not any ways dissolve but much strengthneth this Obligation to us all And to this agreeth the Assemblies the Congregational Churches and also the Baptists Confession of Faith recommended by the Messengers of and concerned for upwards of one hundred Baptized Congregations denying Arminianism wherein Chap. 19. are the following Words Rom. 2.14 15. Deut. 10.4 Rom. 13.8 9 10. James 2.8 10 11 12. Matth. 5.17 18 19. Rom. 3.31 Heb. 2.1 1 Cor. 9.8 9 10. The same Law that was first written in the Heart of Man continued to be a perfect Rule of Righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments and written in two Tables the Moral Law doth for ever bind all as well justified Persons as others to the Obedience thereos neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve but much strengthen this Obligation Besides this Law commonly called Moral God was pleased to give to the People of Israel Ceremonial Laws to them also he gave sundry Judicial Laws which expired together with the State of that People not obliging any Now by Virtue of that Institution their general Equity only being of Moral Use So that here is the concurring Testimony of the three aforesaid Confessions of Faith that the Moral Law or Ten Commandments doth for ever bind all Persons to the Obedience thereof 4. Rom. 5.20 Chap. 7.23 Psal 19.7 8. Prov. 6.23 Gal. 3.23 24 25. It appears from the Holy Scripture that one chief end of Gods giving the Law and recording of it by Moses was That the Offence might abound and that Sin by the Commandment might become exceeding Sinful That is the Law being a clearer Light than what remains in our Natures since the fall it worketh the clearer and fuller Conviction of Sin upon our Minds and so it was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ by sheâ—ing us an absolute necessity of laying hold on the Relief provided for us in him That we might be justisied by Eaith And this being declared in the New Testament as one universal end of Gods giving the Law it was then designed for the use of both Jews and Gentiles And 5. The Decalogue's peculiar Direction to Israel was no more an Exclusion of the Gentiles from its Moral Use and Instruction than the Promise of the Messias and Gods command that Israel should hearken unto him in all things had no respect unto the Gentiles And therefore as the Gentiles came by the certain Knowledge of the Promises and Prophecies of the Messias Gen. 3.15 Chap. 49.10 Chap. 22.18 Gal. 3.8 14 16. Rom. 4.9 10 11. Deut. 18.15 19. by the House of Abraham and the sacred Record of Moses of the Promise made to our first Parerts of Jacobs Prophecy That unto Shiloh should the gathering of the People be Of the Blessing of the Gentiles through Faith in Christ Abrahams Seed and of the command of God that Israâ—â— should hearken unto him and his threatnings to those that â—â—use to hear him So by the same means viz. by the Books of Moses whereby the Gentiles had the certain Knowledge of the Messias that was to come they had also the Knowledge of the Law And seeing there is no Reason to think that God designed his discovery of the Messias and the Record made of him in the Books of Moses should be only for the Use and Benefit of the House of Israel and that after Noah and the following Ancient Fathers who lived so many uundred Years to hand down the Knowledge they had received were Dead and the World as well as the Church was more increased that the Gentiles should be still left without any other ground of Faith than at best the uncertain Traditions of their short-lived and Idolatrous Fathers but that these also who had an Interest in the Messias respecting the call of the Elect that were among them should also have an Interest in and to the Use and Benefit of all the general Promises and Prophecies of him that were delivered to the Jews So consequently the Law and Matter of Instruction contained in the Legal Covenant relating to the clearer Convictons of Sins against the Moral Law and to the discovery of Christ for their Relief and Salvation from the Penalty of the Curse thereof being recorded together with those Promises and Prophecies of Christ was then for the Use and Benefit of the Gentiles also they being by Nature
XIII Sheweth the ancient Observation of the first day of the Week called Sunday by the Heathens And that there is greater Reason to believe it is rather than the Jewish Sabbath the Old seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation tho' neither the one nor the other can be assured of the same Page 47. Sect. XIV Containeth a brief Discourse shewing wherein our first day Sabbath answers the Pattern of Adams Sabbath better than the Jewish Sabbath doth Page 50. And also sheweth the time of Day when our Christian Sabbath should begin and the Reasons why we had no Positive Command left us in the New Testament to observe the first day of the Week a Sabbath Page 52 c. With a Discourse of the Morality of Adams Pattern Page 56. And of Gods accepting the first of Time Page 58. Lastly Answers to the Chiefest Objections made against our keeping the first day Sabbath A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day WHEREIN The keeping of the First Day of the Week a Sabbath is justified by an Institution of God and a double Example contained in the Old and New Testament THAT we have both a Precept and a double Example to justifie the keeping of the first day of the week a Sabbath I have here to produce from the Holy Scriptures The Precept is in the Fourth Commandment founded on God's first sanctifying the Sabbath-day and we have the Example of Christs Disciples with the primitive Gospel Churches in the New Testament and of Adam to his Posterity all which I shall prove and explain as followeth SECT I. First That the Reader may not be under any mistake about the use I make of the word Moral throughout this Treatise I shall here acquaint him that in its self it belongeth to Manners Civility or Behaviour properly to the Actions of Man only as he is Man And so by some the Moral Law is taken for the Law Light or Instinct of Nature which Adam had in the State of Innocency which altho this be true yet I also make a larger use of the word For as no Man knoweth by Nature the extent of Adams light in all particulars for his Obedience when he was in Innocency and therefore cannot describe the whole of that Law of Nature And as I suppose the prohibition to him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not be deny'd by any to have been binding for all his posterity as Men so we must have recourse to Divine Revelation for the better understanding our Moral and universal Duty to God since the Law of Nature is so much obliterated in us through the fall And therefore because of the darkness and depravity of our Minds we have the substance of the Law of Nature given to us in written Precents which may be called Moral as they are not Ceremonial but perpetually and universally binding to all Men for their Obedience unto God and also Institutions by Divine Revelation as being now a more full discovery to us of the Mind of God first implanted in our innocent Parents than we retain in our Natures or can recover in our fall So that when I speak of the Moral Law or of Morality it must be taken as the Adjunct Matter governs it in either sence of the Law or Light of Nature alone in the State of Innocency or contained in those transcribed Precepts of the Ten Commandments as the substance thereof in general Heads and in those other Precepts that morally do explain them which I shall only take notice of wherein I am concerned and not collect and reserr them all to their proper Heads In brief I use the word Moral in common to those things that are of universal and perpetual Concern to all Mankind for their Obedience to God as their Creator For as to the case before us seeing it s said that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it We cannot say that Adam by his pure Light of Nature alone knew that it was meetest to have but six working days and no less as 5 7 or 8 together to one Sabbath but that from God's Example revealed to him the light of Adams Nature told him that it was most meet for him to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working or common days to one Sabbath SECT II. TO proceed on the Subject Matter of this Treatise I shall here recite the first Foundation Scripture for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to six working days and briefly Note something of the Nature and Quality of the Text Gen. 2.2 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made It is here said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is he made it a happy and holy day by setting it apart from common use for Man to worship him and he appointed it to be a rest for Adam by Revelation as he did that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for otherwise Adam could not by his Light of Nature alone know the time which had passed before he was Created nor could he understand the Mind of God as it was in God himself and therefore the knowledge Adam had of God's sanctifying the seventh day Sabbath was by Supernatural Revelation to him And this I presume none will deny for a time for Man to abstain or rest from his own business to exert his solemn Worship to God is morally implanted in the Heart of Man by Nature and surely God did not conceal from Adam the meetest time when he sanctified the first seventh day of the World for that end Besides before that God had formed Eve Gen. 2.7.8 15. he put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and therefore Adam being appointed to do this business he might have applyed himself thereto immediately after Eve was formed and brought to him if he had not received the knowledge of God's sanctifying the seventh Day yea then it had been lawful for him to have worked on God's Sabbath if it had not been revealed to him Moreover Our Saviour puts this matter clearly out of doubt because he referrs the making of the Sabbath not to the first Institution of it at the gathering of Manna in the Wilderness but to the time of God's creating Man Mark 2.27 saying The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath that is the Sabbath was not first made and then Man for the sake of the Sabbath but Man was first Created and then the Sabbath was sanctified for his Happiness as the blessing of it signifieth God's bare ceasing from Work did not make it for Man but
brought under the Obligation of Obedience to the Moral Law tho they were at Liberty from most of the Ceremonial Service of it that was teaching and instructive to them SECT IV. HEre I shall speak to a Proposition which is that the Law of Nature and the same in the written Moral Law of Moses obligeth all men to worship God tho' after what manner he is pleased to be worshipped is not perfectly known but by the Revelation of it to them and then it followeth that either the Gentiles in the time of the Law were bound to worship God according to the Ceremonial Precepts of Moses or had some other ways the Will of God revealed to them 1. To the first we have Reason to believe that the Gentiles were lest to their own Liberty and were not absolutely required to observe the whole Ceremonial Law of Moses For as I cannot sind a command for it Deut. 16.16 Exod. 34.23 so many Nations were at too great a distance for all their Males according to the Commandment to go up three times a Year to appear before the Lord at Jerusalem 1 Kings 11.36 Dent. 12.5 6 c. the City which he had chosen to put his Name there Nor could some Northern People observe their Sabbaths according to the Precepts from Evening to Evening of which more hereafter and whatever may be said for the Proselites that dwelt in Canaan yet those Gemtles that inhabited other Countreys could not properly make the acknowledgement required in the Law Deut. 2â— 3 9. viz. That they were come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto their Fathers for to give them and it was impossible for all the World to inhabit in so small a Country as the Land of Canaan for it could not bear them And therefore our present business is to consider what the Gentiles were obliged to in Point of Worship before and under the Dispensation of the Law of Moses Which 2. Seeing the Gentiles were not absolutely required to renew the Law of Nature delivered on Mount Sinai as a Visible and External Covenant intailing the Ceremonial Worship of God delivered to the Jews but were to receive the Moral Law on the Obligation of Nature as a Rule of Holy Life whereby they were under an Obligation of some Divine Worship which forasmuch as it could not be of the whole Ceremonial Law of Moses and that the Light of humane Nature alone could not discover the Will of God for their perfect Obedience therein We have then Reason to believe that the Gentiles before the Law had some Precepts of God or Divine Revelation given to them how they should worship him and that these were handed down unto Posterity I deny not but the Light of Nature might shew them it was their Duty to Pray and Praise God and to Teach or Declare to one another what they knew of him but yet through the Corruption and Depravity of our Nature by the fall we find by Experience that notwithstanding we have the Additional Light of the Holy Scriptures there are different Apprehensions amongst Men about the manner of performing these Moral Duties and then we have much more Reason to conclude that the Light of Nature it self is an uncertain Guide and therefore it is rational to believe that the Gentiles before and under the Law had some Information of the Will of God concerning their Worship of him which was handed down from Adam and then from Noah after the Flood who were both publick Fathers of all Nations Jews and Gentiles Gen. 6.2 c. Levit. 18.24 For the Scriptures shew that the Sons of God were reproved for taking Wives of all which they chose and that God charged the old Inhabitants of Canaan before the Law with Sin for those unjust Copulations forbidden in the Law for which the Lord cast them out of the Land before the Children of Israel for though he might wink at it in the Patriarks Gen. 26.34 3â— Chap. 28.1 2 8. who to escape the wicked Idolaters of their Day it is likely were under some necessity of Marrying within the bounds of Consanguinity yet had he not revealed his Will against such Incestuous Marriages they could not have been charged as Sin upon them For where there is no Law Rom. 5 1â— there is no Transgression And therefore we have from hence some ground to believe that God did not leave the old Gentiles without some discovery how he would be also worshipped Especially considering that Enoch was a Holy Prophet of whom it s testified That he pleased God Heb. 11.5 and that Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness to the old World that Shem the Son of Noah of whom it 's witnessed that the Lord God Gen. 9.26 compare Gen. 11. with chap. 24.67 chap. 25.7 20. See Ainsw on Gen. 24.62 and on chap. 14.18 2 Pet. 2.5 7 8 9. was Shems God was a live in Isaacs time and is thought to be that Melchizedeck King of Salem and Priest of the most high God who blessed Abraham and that Lot who was not concerned with Abraham in the Covenant of Circumcision was a Godly Righteous Man for no doubt they were true Worshippers of God in their Families and taught others to do the like being great Lights and Witnesses of the Ways and Will of God in their Generations Moreover As the Law of Nature obliged the old Gentiles to Worship God so we find they were taught how to Exert their Obedience to it in Offering Sacrifices unto him which had a Tipical respect to the Sacrifice of Christ For it is believed from the Coats of Skin which God made to cloath Adam and Eve that they were of the Beasts that God taught Adam to Sacrifice which agreeth with what Mr. Ainsworth saith on Gen. 4.3 That the Hebrew Doctors say it is a Tradition by the hand of all 1 Chron. 21.22 26. and 22.1 2 Chron. 3.1 Gen. 22.9 Gen. 8.20 that the place wherein David and Solomon built an Altar was the place where Abraham builded an Altar and bound Isaac upon it and where Noah builded after he came out of the Ark and that was the Altar upon which Cain and Abel offered And on it Adam the first Man offered an Offering after he was Created See Dutch Annot on Job 1.1.3 and chap. 2.11 See Mr. Caryl on Job 1. and chap. 2. And we find that Jobs three Friends as it seemeth by the hand of Job as their Priest who were all four Gentiles or separated from Abrabams Seed in the Line of Isaac and Jacob and were not with their Seed taken into Gods peculiar Covenant with them were commanded of God to offer Sacrisices See Ainsw on Gen. 4.3 Job 42.8 9. 1 Sam. 13.12 Gen. 8.20 21. Exod 18.1 9. to 13. Num. 23.1 to 6 Judg. 13.17 19 1 Chron. 16.1 2 7. Jude 14.15 2 Pet. 2.5 1 Pet. 3.18 19 20. Heb. 7.1 6 7. 2 Pet. 1.21 So that sacrificing of Beasts were
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
and its time spent by the long duration of that Day God was pleased in an instant either to pass the Sun thrô their Antipode Hemisphere or suddenly to turn it backward and make it Sun-rising to the Israelites in the Land of Canaan I Answer That if thus it was that in an instant the Sun was passed through their Horizon and the Antipode Hemisphere then they reckoned the first twelve hours of that long Day-light of twenty four hours for one Artificial Day or Day-light and the last twelve hours Day instead of Night adding one to its preceding Night and the other instead of a Night to the following Day-light and so did bring their days into their former course again But as this would have been a greater Miracle than the former which was only a stop to the Course of Nature for a time so there is reason to believe that if it had been so the Holy Ghost would have recorded it in the Scripture and Josephus would not have omitted the Notice of it in his History where he speaks of this larger Day than ordinary And as to the last if the Sun had been suddenly turned backward to make it Sun-rising in the Land of Canaan then it could not have been so properly said that the Sun hasted not to go down about a whole day For if the Sun had been suddenly put backward from its place of setting to its place of rising then the Sun had only hasted from its standing still to the place of its going down and went not down till a day-light and a halfs-time after it stood still in the midst of Heaven contrary to the plain meaning of the Text. And if we say the Sun was turned backwards from the place it stood still or from thence was passed in an instant through their Antipode Hemisphere to its place of rising or which ever way we reckon from that time the Account of the natural course of the Day and Night to settle the Jews could not possibly fall into their due Order of Time again as successively from their former Custom to begin their Sabbaths at Even according to the Law unless it were settled by a greater Miracle than the standing still of the Sun But if we reckon as there is the greatest Reason for it and it is most natural and fairly implyed in the Text that after the Sun had stood still about a whole day or twelve hours it then continued its natural course to go down and add to it the ten hours of the Suns going backward and returning in the Dial of Ahaz which twenty two hours together being computed after the Jewish Custom of some of their Days-light or Artificial-days may make a full day and nights time and then the Jewish Sabbath fell later than its former precise Order of Saccession by near or full a whole days time So that their weekly seventh-day Sabbath after these Afterations of days had but about two hours possibly no time at all in the time which by an orderly Succession should have been their Sabbath and the other twenty two hours and possibly their whole Sabbath-day was in the Time if it had not been so interrupted of the first day of their Week by an orderly Succession from their first Sabbath in the Wilderness And therefore it is apparent that neither the Moral Law nor the Ceremonial Precept for their Sabbath was designed to bind us to the Observation of the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation for if it had God would never have so interrupted the course of Nature and his own Design and Institution unto Men. 5. Having premised these things I proceed to shew that the course of Nature maketh it impossible for all Nations to observe the seventh-day Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern 1. Sir Jonus Moor saith See his Sâ—sem of the Maâ—â—maticks Paâ—â— 48. that the Government of Wardhus is in seventy and seventy one Degrees And there they have the continual Presence of the Sun for many days together in the Summer and in the Winter they are as long without the Sun in their Horison or Hemisphere 2. See his Pilgrimage Page 431 432 433. Parchas gives us a large account of the Northern Parts of the World and tells us that the Samoyeds about the Banks of Pechore are in Subjection to the Moscovites and that in the Year 1611. Josias Logan wintered at the Town of Postozera and there observed that on December eleventh he could see but the way of the Sun Beams on the thirteenth the Beams but not the Sun Which it's there said on Christmas day he saw rising at South and by West and setting at South West and by South not wholly elevated from the Horison but all the way the nether part of the Sun seeming just and even with it Now this Town of Postozera I find in Speeds Maps and Description of the World to be but just over the Artick Circle which is in about sixty six Degrees and half So that Wardbus before mentioned being about four Degrees nearer the Pole has more of the continual Presence of the Sun in Summer and is a longer time without it in the Winter But to return to Purchas History he farther tells us that the Hollanders in the Year 1594. sent to discover a way to Cathay and China by the North-East that William Barentz was the Chief Pilot for this Discovery The next Year the last of August they had Speech with the Samoyeds who know no God The Sun whose Presence they are long deprived of in the Winter which is recompensed in their Nightless Summer is worshipped amongst them and when the Sun is declining out of their sight the Moon or North-Star is his Receiver or Successor if you will in that Tribute of their Devotions Moreover the aforesaid Author saith that they viz. the Hollanders learned of certain Muscovites that the Inhabitants of Nova Zemla had neither Religion â—or Civility prescribed them by any Law but worshipped the Sun Moon and North-Star And that in the Year 1596 there were sent other two Ships to prosecute this Discovery and after many dreadful Combates with the Ice and one of the Ships departing from the other they were forced to Winter in Nova Zemla where they indured a continual Night of many Weeks wherein neither the Sun nor any of his Courtly Train the least Rays to be the Harbingers of his desired Presence did present themselves to their Eyes from the fourth of November till the seven and twentieth of January they saw no Sun Our Author farther addeth in Page 740 741. That Henry Hudson 1607. discovered farther North towards the Pole he found himself in eighty Degrees where they felt it hot and drank Water to Cool their thirst they saw Land to eighty two Degrees and farther It is saith he colder in sixty two Degrees than in nine or ten Degrees more northerly towards the North Eest hence it is that those parts hear and perhaps under the Pole are
for the Observation of the Sabbath on the seventh-day does destroy its Moral Limitation to the seventh-day appointed to Israel next after the sixth day on which they gathered Manna as a Pattern sixing their six working days before their Sabbath because we are referred by it to the Pattern in the beginning when Gods seventh-day Sabbath was Mans first-day Sabbath and not to the time of gathering Manna nor of Israels coming out of Egypt which last appeareth from other places of Scripture to be the Reason of the Ceremonial beginning and ending of their Sabbath from Evening to Evening It 's true that seventh-day appointed in the Wilderness did answer the Moral Precept of the fourth Commandment but yet mistake me not It is not found to Answer it simply because it was that very seventh-day then appointed or simply for that very days-sake without regard to their Deliverance out of Egypt and that new Appointment for if another seventh-day had been sixed for their Sabbath it had answered the command as well as that but because that same seventh-day was appointed to them a boundary successively before and after their six working days nor did this command Morally-limit them to keep the same precise seventh-day successively from the Creation for such a Limitation is not in this Precept nor in any other place in the Holy Scriptures but it tyeth the Sabbath to the seventh-day as a boundary to their or our or any Nations six working days or to the first-day before and after them which answereth the same Law SECT IX I Shall here Instance some particular Cases in the New Testament in which we are referred to the Pattern in our first Parents which may serve as Examples to juslifie our doing the like for the Observation of the Sabbath-day as 1. It is said in 1 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Let the Woman learn in Silence with all Subjection But I suffer not a Woman to 〈◊〉 nor to usurp Authority over the Man but to be in Silence For Adam was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Transgression And 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your Women keep Silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law In these two Scriptures there are two Moral Reasons given and one Command mentioned for Womens Subjection unto the Men. 1. Because Adam had the Priority of being formed before Eve and he having her Original Humane Substance first in himself had thereby a natural Precedency to her Free and Voluntary Subjection But 〈◊〉 The Woman being first deceived and in the Transgression she fell thereby under a more absolute Law of Obedience to her Husband Gen. 3.16 Vnto the Woman he said thy desire shall be to thy or as it is in our Margin Subject to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee Now from hence we may clearly see how the Apostle confirms his Doctrine from the Order of Nature in our first Parents and the Institution of God to them and if these are of Moral Use and Perpetually binding for our Obedience then we have Reason to believe that Gods sanctifying the first seventh-day-Sabbath and the Order of Adam and Eve keeping of it before their six working days is also of Moral use unto us 2. I shall shew that an express Law of Moses is not only Abrogated by the Authority of Jesus Christ but he justifies the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents as may be seen in Mark 10.2 3 4. And the Pharisees came to him and asked him Is it lawful for a Man to put away his Wife tempting him And he answered and said unto them What did Moses command you And they said Moses suffered to write a Bill of Divorcement and to put her away And Jesus answered and said unto them For the hardness of your Heart he wrote you this Precept But from the beginning of the Creation God made them Male and Female For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh what therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder And he saith unto them whosoever shall put away his Wife Matthew saith except it be for Fornication and Marry another committeth Adultery against her 1. To prevent any mistake about this Precept of Divorcement and to confirm what I may conclude from our Saviours Words before recited I shall consider the Original Transcript of it in Deut. 24.1 When a Man hath taken a Wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in our Margin it is matter of Nakedness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And here I shall note that this matter of Uncleanness or Nakedness is not to be understood of Adultery or Whoredom For the Dutch Annotations say that the Hebrew Word signifieth Nakedness or Scandalousness of any thing wherein the Husband taketh dislike to her except Whoredom or Fornication And Mr. Ainsworth saith It is any thing of Shame or Ignominy as the Greek translateth a Shameful or Vncomely thing and he also saith that this is thought of some not to be meant of Adultery for which she was to dye if it were proved but of some evil thing in her Conditions or Actions which displeased her Husband Deut. 22.22 So the Phrase was used in Deut. 23.14 for that which was uncleanly and unseemly 2. The Sence of our Saviours Words clearly sheweth that this Law of Divorcement was designed for other Matters than for Whoredom or Fornication for our Lord owning Moses Precept of Sufferance to put away their Wives excepts against it unless it be in the Case of Fornication which if it were so limited under the Law then Moses Sufferance was nothing but what our Saviour still alloweth and Christs Prohibition was nothing at all This being Premised it now follows that our Lord maketh that Adultery under the Gospel that was not accounted so under the Law And from the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve he Abrogateth the Use and Authority of Moses Precept for suffering Men to put away their Wives for smaller Causes than Fornication and if the Pattern in our first Parents was of such Moral use as to justifie our Saviours abolishing of a written Precept of Moses we have then Reason also to believe that their Example or the Order of time of their first observing the Sabbath-day that was sanctified for them is of Moral use to us we also having the Jewish Sabbath Abrogated by Christs Authority in the New Testament SECT X. HAving opened and explained the two Foundation Scriptures for our keeping the Sabbath-day and proved the fourth Commandment to be Morally binding to all Nations and that the Jewish Pattern for the Sabbath is
therein Six years thou shalt sow thy Field and prane thy Vineyard But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the Land and thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto the forty and nine years then shalt thou cause the Trumpet of the Jubilee to sound and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ye shall not sow neither reap it shall be holy unto you That some of these days were appointed as Memorials of Israels coming out of Egypt is plainly shewed in the Scriptures and of the Jubilee besides what is expressed of it Some have thought that it was a Memorial of their rest and first settlement in the Land of Canaan but yet I conceive there was a farther meaning in them viz. as Types and Shadows of Gospel things For the seventh day Sabbath thô it was first appointed for a Moral End and to preserve the Memorial of God's making the World in six days and resting on the seventh Exod. 31.15 16 17. Heb. 4.9 Rev. 20.4 5 7. and was also afterwards a sign of Israels deliverance out of Egypt yet we find the Apostle makes a farther use of it as the Foundation Type from whence he proveth there remaineth a Rest to the People of God which to answer the Types and the Apostles reasoning in this Scripture is taken for the seventh thousand years of the World So then to follow this instance we may thus argue that those solemn Convocations on the legal first and eighth day and their fiftieth day which if you mind the Text was a first day Sabbath next ensuing one of their legal Sabbaths a plain and clear Type of our Gospel first-day Sabbath that should commence next after one of their Jewish Sabbaths And so their fiftieth Year of Jubilee which followed a seventh Year Sabbath may figure to us that as after seven Sabbaths of Weeks they had a first days Sabbath and as after the seven Sabbaths of seven years and all those legal and external Bondages of Persons and Things there should come a time of release by sound of Trumpet with a first Year Jubilee Sabbath so after all the bondage of the legal Administration there should come a time of Gospel liberty Rom. 10.18 proclaimed by the Gospel with a first days Gospel Sabbath Thus you see how these Types and Shadows under the Law does figure out our Gospel first days Sabbath as far if not farther than many Types does usually suit with Antitypes but as they have often exceptions in their parallels so they are not of themselves positive Proofs but illustrations of Gospel things which seeing we have the Examples of the Primitive Christian Churches keeping their Sabbath on the First day following the Jews Seventh-day Sabbath or on the first day of their Week which does fairly and fully answer those Typical Sabbaths under the Law that are not applicable to any other Scripture observed Times under the Gospel nor to our Eternal Rest for that is not doubted to be a Rest from Labour and a time of Liberty nor can it be typed to us by Time because it is Eternal or by an Eighth day Seeing there is a Time or Day of General Judgment of Wicked Men between the seventh thousand years of the World as some believe and Eternal Rest then surely the Typical first Days and Years Sabbaths under the Law does bare the greater Evidence to our first day Sabbath under the Gospel However I have no dependance on these Shadows for the Justification of our First days Sabbath but on the substantial Law of God and Adams Pattern answering the first Sanctification of it to which I shall here add the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament SECT XII HEre I come to demonstrate the ground we have in the New Testament for our keeping the First day of the Week a Sabbath And 1. I shall premise That Christ arose from the Dead on the First day of the Jewish Week which is frequently called in the Greek Tongue The one of the Sabbaths after their mode of Speech agreeing to the custom of the Hebrews See Dutch Annot on Mat. 28.1 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 See Dutch Annot on Gen. 1 5. and on 1 Cor. 16.2 who sometimes set one for first as may be seen in Gen. 1.5 Chap. 8.5 Numb 29.1 Dan. 9.1 So that we must read the Greek The one of the Sabbaths for the First day of the Week as it is translated in our English Bibles agreeing to the Greek in Mark 16.9 Now when Jesus was risen early 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the first of the Sabbath or as it is in our English on the first day of the week As Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the Week And the Truth of our Translation is farther confirmed because it 's said In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week Luke 23 53 54. to the end Chap. 14.1 c. Mark 15.42 John 19.31 Luke 24.13 15 21. 1 Cor. 15.4 See Mr. John Weemse his Christian Synagogue Page 75 81. John 19.14 Christ arose from the dead For he was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath and on the Sabbath it s said the Women which followed Jesus from Galilee rested according to the Commandment and very early on the First day of the Week they came to Christs Sepulchre and he was risen which was on the third day after he was Crucified according to the Scriptures Now it was the Custom and corrupt Tradition of the Jews when the Passeover Sabbath fell on the day before their weekly seventh day Sabbath they made but one Sabbath and kept their Passeover on their seventh day Sabbath as we find they did when Christ was laid in the Grave and therefore that Sabbath day being a double Sabbath was called an High Day And the first day after on which Christ arose from the dead was no Jewish Sabbath but only the First day of their Week for there are two things that do evidently and clearly shew that the one of the Sabbaths in the Greek cannot be taken for any one of the Jewish Sabbath-days but for the first day of their Week First Because that seeing Christ arose from the Dead on the next day after the Passeover Sabbath as it was then corruptly observed by the Jews and that the Passeover Feast had but two Sabbaths viz. Exod. 12.14 to 19. on the first and seventh day of unleavened Bread then forasmuch as Christ lay in the Grave their Passeover Sabbath the Day following on which he arose could not be one of their Passeover Sabbaths Secondly It cannot be denyed but that Christ did eat the Passeover with his Disciples on the right day according to the Commandment which after our vulgar speech was on Thursday Night or in the former part of the Jews sixth day and on
Fryday or their sixth day which was according to the Law the first day of their Passeover Sabbath he was crucified and there being no other Passeover Sabbath wherein the Jews were forbidden to work till the seventh day of the Passeover Feast it must then follow that the Sabbath on which the Women rested as it 's said according to the Commandment being the next day after the first true Passeover Sabbath was undeniably the Jews weekly seventh day Sabbath and the day next ensuing called The one of the Sabbaths and the first of the Sabbath on which Christ arose from the dead must of necessity be understood of the First day of the Jewish Week after their seventh-day Sabbath and from thence the Christians observe their First day Sabbath wherein they solemnly worship God And to this I shall cite the Confession and Testimony of Mr. Theophilus Brabourn in his Discourse upon the Sabbath day See his Book Pag 68. wherein he labours to justifie the keeping of the seventh day Saturday Sabbath saith he Remember Saturday to keep it holy c. Now that Sabbath day was a proper Name of one of their Week days is apparent to all since they counted all the other six days of the Week by the Sabbath day thus the seventh and last day of the Week they viz. the Jews called Sabbath-day the first-day of the Week our Sunday they called the first of the Sabbath the second day of the Week our Monday they called the second of the Sabbath our Tuesday the third of the Sabbath c. So that the clear Confession of the Saturday Sabbatharians themselves does confirm that which is undeniably manifest in the Holy Scriptures that the first of the Sabbath which is so called Marâ— 16.9 and is the same as one of the Sabbaths in the other Evangelists as hath been shewed is the Name of the First day of the Jewish Week See his Reply â—age 28. as it is also owned by Mr. Bampfield 2. This First day Sabbath at its first founding by the Resurrection of Christ thó it broke the Order of the Jewish working days among the Christians by taking their first day for our Sabbath and their Sabbath into the Christians six working or common days yet there was no breach of the Moral Law respecting the Order of the six working days considered as being bounded before and after with a Sabbath for the Jewish Sabbath after their six working days being followed with a New Sabbath made two Sabbaths together but this neither broke the Order of the six working days before the Jewish Sabbath nor of the six working days after the Christian Sabbath Luke 23.56 nay nor before it because we must suppose that the Christians at that time kept both the Sabbaths and did not reckon the Jewish Sabbath as a common day before the Resurrection of the Lord. So that at the first sounding of our Christian Sabbath it was bounded with six Jewish working days and their Sabbath before and six working days with the seventh-day of Christian Sabbath after iâ— and is as much our seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days as Adams seventh day Sabbath was after his six working days which Sabbath when it was first sounded on Gods seventh-day of Rest was also Adams first-day Sabbath From whence I observe that the Christians Sabbath considered as both their first and seventh-day Sabbath is like as it was in the beginning to which Christ refers us in other things for a Pattern to answer the Moral Law and to make void the Ceremonial Addition to it as hath been shewed And now since the abolishing of all Ceremonial Things in the Law of Moses that we have a Pattern for the Sabbath given to us by the Practice of the Holy Apostles and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament appears as followeth 1. After Christ arose from the Dead Luke 14.1.9 10 13 33 36. on the first day of the Week he appeared unto his Disciples and the eleven Apostles who were gathered together on the same day John 10.1.19.26 And after eight days Jesus appeared again to his Disciples that were Assembled which was on the next first-day being the eighth day for it was the custom of the Hebrews after this manner to express this day-week or this day seven-night as we have an Instance in 2 Chron. 10.5 12. And he said unto them come again unto me after three days and the People departed So Jeroboam and all the People came to Rehoboam on the third day Which Example plainly shews that after three days was on the third day and so here in the Evangelist after eight days was on the eighth day or after eight days were come and not after they were past on the ninth day as it is also clearly explained in Mark 8.31 The Son of Man must suffer and be killed and after three days rise again For Christ arose from the Dead not after but on the third day after he was Crucified And to this present day the Hollanders in their Vulgar Discourse express this day Week after the same manner saying Over eight days so that the Disciples were assembled also on the second first day of the Week after the Resurrection of our Lord who appeared to them on that day also 3. The Apostle ordered and appointed the Churches of the Galatians and Corinthians to make their Collections for the Saints on the first day of the Week 1 Cor. 16.12 which business had no temporary Reason in it to limit the doing of it to that day and therefore it is a clear Demonstration that it was the accustomed day of their Assembling together to worship God and for such Church Affairs otherwise it 's rational to believe the Apostle would have rather left them at Liberty to do it on any day which Example of this Nature having something of an Institution in it some have thought it is a sufficient warrant of its self to justifie our keeping of the first day of the Week a Sabbath 4. In Acts 20.6 7 11. It is said that Paul abode at Troas seven days And upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continued his Speech until Mid-night When he therefore was come up again and had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed First I observe from this Scripture that Paul abode there seven days in which time we hear nothing of his Preaching or of the Disciples coming together till on the first day of the Week which was the last of the seven days so that Paul came thither on the second day of the Week and tarried till the usual day of their Assembling together otherwise he need not have straitned himself for time so as to preach till Midnight when he was to depart at break of day but that it may rationally be concluded that he
alike Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Whatever some may imagine from this Scripture yet seeing Adam in Paradice had his Sabbath for the solemn worship of God Levit. 23.3 and Israel had their Sabbath for the same end and to rest from their work and labour there being still the same Moral Use and Necessity of Nature for a Sabbath there is Reason to believe that such a day is to be observed as well now and in after Ages as it was before And considering the undeniable Evidence that hath been given to prove the Decalogue to be Morally binding to us under the Gospel there is a necessity for the Preservation of the Concord of Holy Writ to give such an Exposition of this Text of Scripture as will both suit and agree with the Letter of it and the binding quality of other Scriptures to keep a Sabbath-day To proceed therefore the Apostle surely would not have singled forth the first-day of the Week on which the Churches were wont to have their Assemblies as the properest time to make their Collection for the Saints Nor would the Apostle John have called it the Lords day as hath been shewed from History if it had not been a sanctified day for Holy Use neither would the Holy Ghost have Recorded the Disciples gathering together on the two first-days after the Resurrection of Christ nor that the Church of Troas came together on the first day of the Week to solemnize the Gospel Ordinances of Divine Worship as the only Examples to answer the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment If the same Spirit of Truth in the Apostle had here designed to make every day alike Common 2. If the Apostle in this Scripture had so designed he would not have cited so many Precepts of the Ten Commandments in Chap. 13.9 of the same Epistle and have said of the rest of them as binding to the Romans to confirm his Moral Doctrine That if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And therefore seeing he doth so plainly discover the binding quality of the Ten Commandments to the Gentile Christians there is no Reason to conceive he should dissolve the Obligation of any one of them in the following Chapter considering that the Liberty there mentioned of esteeming or not esteeming of Days is not there reserred or applyed as having Retation to the Moral Observation of the sourth Command 3. The Apostle would not have abolished as hath been shewed the Jewish Feasts Holy days and Sabbaths Colos 2.16 17. nor have said to the Galatians Ye observe Days Gal. 4.10 and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain If he or any other by Christs Authority had given absolute Liberty for Christians to observe the Jewish Holy days And therefore the sence of this Text which is freest from all Exceptions is That the Apostle neither giveth us Liberty to sleight the Observation of the seventh-day required of us in the fourth Commandment as the Bond of the Gospel Pattern nor yet doth give us absolute Liberty to observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath and their other Holy-days but he is teaching us how we should bear with one another in indifferent Matters as the eating of Herbs and esteeming of Jewish days That in Case a Brother should be so weak as that after he is converted from the Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith he should still retain some esteem of their Holy days yet being sound in all the Essential Principles to Salvation and in the constituted Order of a Regular Gospel Church his Communion is not to be refused Ver. 1. but here let the Reader well observe that my meaning is not that any Church should receive such a Christian into full Communion with them at the Lords Table that holdeth and maketh our first-day Sabbath only as a common day to him for this in the Judgment of a Church according to Scripture Rule bringeth him under the guilt of Sin and the Church should not partake of it by their holding such full Communion with him But the Apostle means that in Case a Converted Jew as he is there treating of such a one as maketh a difference between Meats to be Clean and Unclean Ver. 14 1â— if he should still esteem some of their Holy days yet if he also keepeth the first-day Sabbath Holy unto the Lord the Church in such a Case should be tender of grieving his weak Conscience by Continual and Uncharitable Disputations with him about the Matter wherein he is not clearly enlightned so as to give him an occasion to stumble and sall at the Offence For seeing he Conscientiously keepeth Holy the first-day Sabbath Gal. 4.13 15 20 21 23. for his retaining an esteem for some Jewish Holy days so they be kept to the Lord in Christian Worship and not for Jewish Sacrifices or such things which betoken Christs not being yet come and fully exhibited in the Flesh we are not to deny Communion at the Lords Table with such a Brother seeing he neither observeth the Jewish days to uphold their worship contrary to the Prohibition of Legal Ceremonies under the Gospel Dispensation nor can any ways be charged with disorders in Ordinances or in Matters Essentially pertaining to the Regular Constitution of a Gospel Church And that this is the Mind of Christ in the Text appeareth in two things 1. Because the Apostle joineth this Liberty of Regarding or not Regarding of days with Eating or not Eating of Meats as things of a like indifferent Nature but the Keeping or not Keeping of the Weekly Sabbath hath been fully proved to be no indisserent thing but an absolute Duty and therefore it is none of the Subject Matter included in the Apostles Words 2. He intended to give no Liberty to observe the Jewish days for Legal Ceremonial Worship for this under the Gospel would not be counted a keeping of a day to the Lord but not a keeping of it to him and so as the Apostle argueth it is not a keeping of a day at all And thus having opened this Scripture and given the sence of the Apostles Words in Reconciliation to the Authority of other Places that are binding to us for the Observation of the Sabbath day I shall leave it to the serious Consideration of the Impartial Reader Answer 2. To the Objection from 2 Cor. 3.7 where the Apostle saith But if the Ministration of Death written and ongraven in Stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious In Answer to this Scripture I shall Note that in the preceding and following Verses the Apostle is signifying the different and exceeding Glory of the Ministration of the quickening Spirit
he cometh home the first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-day or have his seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
they murmured for Bread and also count unto the day of their gathering Manna we cannot rationally allow so little as seven days time and yet it was the seventh-day after all this which was their first Sabbath in the Wilderness in which time from their coming from the Red Sea they might have had at least two seventh-day Sabbaths and therefore I see no Reason to believe that their gathering Manna six days before their Sabbath was designed of God as a sixing six working days before their first Sabbath seeing neither the Scripture does so assign it nor that the Lord did appoint either the first seventh-day after their first Passover or after their Deliverance from the Red Sea to be their Sabbath but suffered them to break such an Order by having more than six working days unto their first Sabbath after their Deliverance 2. If the Lord had designed to make the Sabbath next after the first six days of Israels gathering Manna a Pattern for all Nations to have answered the Moral Law in keeping the same seventh-day Sabbath precisely and successively from that Original Point of Time he would not have absolutely limited the beginning and ending of it to be observed from Evening to Evening but would have lest the beginning and ending thereof to other Times of the Day and Night as would suit with every Nation and render them capable to answer the Moral End and Equity of the Law Object 6. The Lord on Mount Sinai made known unto Isratl his Holy Sabbath Nehem. 9.13 14. and therefore his Sabbath was not altered Answer The Word his Holy Sabbath no more consirmeth the Sabbath made known to Israel to be the precise successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation than Gods giving those people at the same Place as it is there expressed right Judgments and good Statutes c. called in Psalm 147.19 a shewing his Word unto Jacob his Statutis and his Judgments unto Israel Must be taken in a limited Sence of the Will of God implanted in our first Parents Nature or delivered to them or â—o Noah or Abraham by Revelation in Distinction to and Exclusion of the Ceremonial Precepts of the Law And therefore as we have no Reason so to limit his Statutes and his Judgments so there is no Reason to understand his Sabbaths in a limited sence of the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation but of his Sabbath instituted in the Wilderness as well as his Word Statutes and Judgments or whole Will there appointed which was not so made known before to any Nation Object 7. The Sabbath was instituted and sixed to Israel in the Wilderness before the Law was given on Mount Sinai and therefore it did not pertain unto it as a Molaical new day but as it was sanctified from the Creation it was then restored and soon after repeated and consirmed again in the fourth Commandment Answer 1. I have already shewed that Adams Sabbath and the days afterwards began with the Morning day-light And that after Israels departure out of Egypt the account of their days for their Sabbaths and Holy things were changed from what they were reckoned before in Adams Lots Jacobs and Labans time So that by that account of the beginning and ending of their days the Jewish Sabbath could not be the precise successive seventh-day rest from the Creation And considering it was never assigned in Scripture to be the same but rather another day to draw the Israelites from the Idolatry of the Heathens who worshipped the Sun on our first-day called therefore Sunday which is believed to be most likely the old seventh-day from the Creation And also seeing the Lord himself interrupted the orderly Course of Nature and consequently the precise Succession of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath There is therefore no Reason to think that the Sabbath fixed to Israel in the Wilderness was the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation 2. Thô the Sabbath was given to Israel before the Law was promulgated on Mount Sinai yet it follows not that therefore it was that old precise seventh-day for if this should pass for sufficient proof thereof then we may say the Month of Abib Exod. 12.2 14 c. Ver. 49. Chap. 13.2 4. c. which was commanded to be the first Month of the Year to Israel was counted the first Month of the Year before And that the Institutions for the Passover and the Feast of unleavened Bread That one Law should be to him that is home-born and to the Stranger that sojourned among them That Israel should sanctifie all their first-born of Man and unclean Beasts as well as of clean Beasts that these as well as their Sabbath-day by the same rule were all of an ancienter date than their Deliverance out of Egypt because they were commanded before the Law was given on Mount Sinai 3. From those Words Exod. 16.27 28. which were spoken upon the going out of some of the People to gather Manna on their first Sabbath Saying How long resuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws We have no Reason to believe that the same duy was known to them for the Sabbath-day before that present time of their gathering 〈◊〉 for the Laws and Comuâ—â—ments of God are there expressed in the Plural Number and therefore the Lords compâ—â—â—â—ing of Israâ—â— former disobedience must have respect to some other Laws and Commandments made before Chap. 15.25 26. and 18.15 16. or to their Murmurings Chap. 14.11 12. Chap. 15.24 and 16.3 8 and to the breach of his Law in leaving some of the Maunâ— till the Morning vo 19 20. all which were before the Lord compleined in the Text of the â—â—ople for going forth on the first Sabbâ—th And therefore this Scripture hath nothing in it to prove that Israâ—ls Sabbath in the Wilderness was the old preâ—ise successive Sabbath known to them and broken by them before Nor doth the Cantion given in the fourth Commandment to Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy shew the same for so it s said Exod. 13.3 Remâ—mber this day in which ye came out from Egypt Besides 't is said Exod. 16.29 See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath called a Sabbath ver 25. therefore he giveth you on the sixth-day the Bread of two days Exod. 13.22 So that by the Rulers coming before to tell Moses of the Peoples gathering the Bread of two days as if they knew not of the Sabbath to be the Reason of it till Moses told them of it in his Answer to them wherein he first made mention of their Sabbath and also because 't is there said to be given to them as a day they had not known for a day of Rest before it appears therefore to be a new day but newly given and not the old preeise successive seventh-day from the Creation Object 8. The Reason for the Sabbath in the fourth Command sheweth us and also because 't is there called The Sabbath of the Lord thy