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A51998
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A tract on the Sabbath-Day wherein the keeping of the first-day of the week a Sabbath is justified by a divine command and a double example contained in the Old and New Testament : with answers to the chiefest objections made by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbatharians and others / by Isaac Marlow.
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Marlow, Isaac.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing M695; ESTC R32053
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84,294
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98
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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-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-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
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-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-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