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
required of the Gentiles and as Ainsworth saith was used of Israel and all Nations till the coming of Christ And it is evident that the publick and solemn manner of making Prayers and Supplications to God both by the Jews and Gentiles was with sacrifices of Beasts and after this manner they also offered their praises and thanksgivings And as for preaching it is recorded that Enoch prophesied and Noah was a Preacher of Righteousness and the Spirit of God in him preached to the old World and in Melchisedeck blessed Abraham From all which it is plainly manifest that there was a Revelation of the Will of God for his Worship and Service and also for the sanctifying of the seventh day Sabbath before the Ministration of Moses Law whereby the Gentiles were directed how to exert their particular Obedience in answer to the general Obligation of the Light of Nature which being more fairly transcribed by Moses was still the Rule of the Gentiles obliging them to Worship God according to the Revelation of his Will they had received before the Law confirmed in the Law and to the new discovery of it afterwards by the Gospel SECT V. HEre I proceed to prove Exod. 21.12 16 18 19 22 23. Chap. 22.1.5.18 19. ch 23.8 Levit. 20.15.16 Deut. 19.18 19 Chap. 20.10 to 16. That the Ten Commandments as such are of themselves binding to all Men under the Gospel as a Rule of Holy Life And first Because the Moral Expositions of them with sundry penalties that were not only Judaical but are perpetual Appendixes to the Moral Law given and commanded in the Books of Moses are still to be observed thô they are not all repeated again in the New Testament for else neither by the Institution of God to Noah that whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed can a Mans life be spared for killing his Neighbour unawares Nor in the sixth Command Thou shalt not kill have we any liberty to kill in lawful War or Battel Nor have we any bodily penalty prescribed for wilful murder nor for a Witch nor for stealing either in the Ten Commandments or in the New Testament so that we must either in these and other cases have respect to the Moral Expositions and those penal Appendixes of the Ten Commandments recorded in other places of Scripture in the Old Testament and consequently to the Commandments themse lves as binding to us or else we are left to the uncertain dictates of Nature 2. The Ten Commandments of themselves are binding to all Men as a Rule of Holy life because the Explicatory precepts of the seventh Command Thou shalt not commit Adultery do in Levit. 18. chap. 19.29 Deut. 23.17 particularly explain and prohibit Whoredom Fornication and Incestnous Marriages as Moral branches of this Law For the Gentiles which had not the written Law were charged with them as immoral Evils for which things God cast them out of the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing that the substance of those Explicatory Precepts were morally binding to those Gentiles before the Law See the asoresaid Baptâ—sts and the other two Confes of Faith where incestous Marriages are asserted to be unlawful and forbidden in Levit. 18. thô we find in the N. Testament only two of those incestous Marriages in Levit. 18. to be forbidden Matth. 14.3 4. and 1 Cor. 5.1 and that they are generally acknowledged to be in force thô they are not all of them expresly repeated distinctly forbidden nor explained in the Ten Commandments to be sin neither by Jesus Christ nor his Holy Apostles except two of them in the New Testament any otherwise than their forbidding of those Evils in general terms must have a natural reference to the particulars that are found in the Old Testamant and included as branches of the moral law We may then as fairly conclude that the seventh Commandment and consequently the other nine are of themselves binding to us as well as that those explicatory precepts or moral branches deduced from them should be still in force without their particular Confirmation in the New Testament 3. The ten Commandments are of themselves binding to us For the Apostle faith Rom. 3.9 We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin viz. that the Gentiles that are not under the Law of Circumcision are notwithstanding under the Works of the Moral Law written in their Hearts by Nature and the Jews are under the same Obligation transcribed on Tables of Stone and in other appendant Moral Precepts given to them by Moses And the Apostle having proved that the Gentiles that were without the Law in Tables of stone were under sin by the Law of Nature Chap. 2.14 15 16. and the Jews by the law of Circumcision ver 25. does then from Chap. 3.9 to ver 20. treat of all in general and concludes that both Jews and Gentiles are all under the Law viz. one and the same moral Obligation that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God And the Apostle farther arguing both of the Jews and Gentiles concludeth with these words Do we then make void the Law through faith Chap. 3.29 30 31. God forbid yea we establish tie Law And so doth the Apostle James who wrote to his Brethren the Jews that had the Faith of Jesus Christ saying If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture James 2.8 9. Chap. 2.1 Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self ye do well But if ye have respect to persons ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offends in one point he is guilty of all From whence I observe that the believing Jews were still under the Obligation of the Moral Law as a Rule of Holy Life which of its self or by its own Authority is binding under the Gospel for else if it had been abrogated by the New Testament Ministration the Apostle would not have cited the Law of Moses out of the Old Testament as the Obligation of their Obedience as the Apostle farther argueth in Ver. 11 12. and exhorteth them so to speak and do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty that is as much as to say that they should be judged by the Law under the relief and benefit of the Grace of Christ in the Gospel So then if the believing Jews under the Gospel are made Transgressors by the Law of Moses as the Apostle sheweth it is a clear Demonstration that the Law is still of its self binding to them and it being the same in substance as the Law written in the Heart of Man by Nature but in a fairer Copy delivered by the Jews to the Gentile Nations now with the Gospel of Christ in the New Testament it is also equally binding to us as to the Jews For if the Jews by Faith in Christ are not brought from under the Obligation
of the Moral Law why then should the same Faith in the Gentiles excuse them from it as a Rule 4. Moreover I shall farther add that while the holy Apostles are throwing down the Types and Shadowy Worship under that legal Dispensation 1 Tim. 1.8 yet they assert that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully viz. as a Foundation of our Worship and Obedience to God and just behaviour towards Man which thrô Gospel Grace after the measure we have received is or ought to be put forth according to the several Moral branches of the Law and the Divine Precepts and Patterns given to us in the New Testament And therefore we find the Holy Apostles and Gospel Writers often proving and confirming the Moral part of their Doctrine by the Law as appears in Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth Here the Apostle confirms his Moral Doctrine to the Gentiles by the Authority of the fifth Commandment or first with promise which plainly shews that it is of its self binding to us all under the Gospel and he Moralizeth the Promise by saying Earth instead of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that the Promise was not only to pertain to the Jews in the Land of Canaan but was perpetually to continue to all the Gentiles and so we may say in the aforesaid case of every one that killed a Man unawares who was to flee into the City of Refuge and continue there until the Death of the High-priest Numb 35.25 that thô we have no such High-priest in Gospel days yet the equity of that Law is still in force But to return to our present business we may farther find the Apostle proveth the moral part of his Doctrine from the Commendments Exod. 20. For in Rom. 13.8 9 10. we are exhorted to love one another for saith he Love is the fulfilling of the law and he briefly citeth five of the Ten Commandments to confirm the Duty of Love which comprehendeth them all And in Chap. 7.7 12. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good Therefore surely this Moral Precept in particular and others in general mentioned by the Apostle are of themselves binding to us as a Rule of Holy life for whatsoever Law is morally holy just and good as this particular precept is by which the Apostle came to the knowledge of Sin it is perpetually and universally binding to all Men Rom. 2.14 15. who have the substance of it written in their Hearts by Nature So that from the Apostles making use of the Anthority of the Moral Law of Moses to confirm his Doctrine Matth. 5.19 James 2.8 Chap. 4.11 1 Joh. 3.4 and from the Commendations of it in the New Testament it clearly appears to be in force unto all Men now under the Gospel And seeing the fourth Commandment in particular is delivered in such moral Terms as doth not of its self bind us to the observation of the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening any more than after our Christian pattern from Morning to Morning which does answer that Very Precept as well as theirs did from that single Law we have then no reason to exclude the fourth Commandment from the rest of the Decalogue but to believe it is equally Moral with the other nine as will appear more patticularly in the next ensuing Section SECT VI. TO proceed therefore on the fourth Commandment I shall here recite Exod. 20.9 10 11. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it 1. That this Commandment is morally binding to both Jews and Gentiles is evident because it is in substance the same with God's sanctifying the seventh day for Man Gen. 2. And if the Sabbath be not from thence perpetually binding to all Nations but restrained to the posterity of the Jews then by the same Rule the Gentiles had no interest in the promise of the Womans Seed Gen. 3.15 or the Messias that should bruise the Serpents Head as then made to our first Parents and therefore as I believe it will be granted by all Christians that the Gentiles as well as the Jews had an interest in the first promise as then made viz. in the Original discovery of the Messias as well as in those after promises that are the fruits and effects of it So in like manner we have also ground to believe that the first sanctifying of the Sabbath-day was from thence and is also from the fourth Commandment morally binding of its self to both Jews and Gentiles for if we question the one we may also doubt of the other 2. The End of the fourth Commandment sheweth it to be a Moral Precept for a time of rest is naturally moral and by the example of God and his sanctifying the seventh day to every six working days it is also become morally and perpetually binding for all Men to keep the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to neither more nor less than six working days together and therefore for any to deny the same in the fourth Commandment is in effect to deny the World their sixed Sabbath for thô the Gospel first-day Sabbath hath a new Sanctity yet it is founded on the old Law and Gods sanctifying of the seventh day for Man from the beginning or else it is left very dubious whether we are bound to keep any fixed day of Rest at all but as there is the same Moral reason for a Sabbath as was before so we have reason to conclude that the same Law in the fourth Commandment is morally binding to us all 3. I shall offer some Reasons for satisfaction wherefore I believe the Lord was pleased to sanctifie the Sabbath and to deliver the fourth Command to observe it under the name of the seventh day rather than of the first day Sabbath And 1. Because althô Man abstained from work on the first day after he was compleatly formed yet seeing God gave the Sanctity to the Day for a Memorial of his Creation and for Man to worship him there was reason that the day should answer the memorial of his finishing of and ceasing from the work of Creation rather than of Adams solemn entring upon his subordinate Dominion under God viz. in Honour to the Creator rather than to the Creature
Evange list according to their Civil days not to begin till the dawning of the Day or Sun-rising and agreeable to Mr. Bampfields Discourse against the first-days beginning at Midnight after the Roman account it must necessarily follow that the first-day Acts 20.7 11. must be reckoned to begin with the Morning day-light For it s said Vpon 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 continaâ—d his Speech until Midnight When he therefore had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed And here I observe that the Morning in which Paul departed was the Morrow which betokens another day and therefore it was no part of the first day of the Week So that it is not only undeâ—iably clear from the Text it self that the Night in which Paul preached was part of the first-day belonging to the preceeding day-light joining to it but it s also evident that the first day of the Week began in the Morning before and not on that Evening in which the Apostle preached and so it appears that the Morrow on which Paul travelled was the second day of the Week and the Text clearly proves that on the day before being the first day of the Week Paul with the Church of Troas Assembled to solemnize the Ordinances of the Gospel as on the Sabbath day Object 15. It s said Math. 12.40 As â—onas was three days and three Nights in the Whales belly So shall the Sun of man be three days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And this seemeth to disagree with other places of Scripture concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Answer 1. It cannot be thought St. Matthew or the other Evangelists faw any Discord in the Testimony they bore of Christ or that the three Days and three Nights expressed by our Saviour should be repugnant to the other Evangelsts undeniable Evidence that Christ was not in the Grave three Nights Now to reconcile this Difficulty I shall cite Dr. Hammond on the Text saith he The way of Interpreting this place mast be taken from a Figure which expresseth one whole thing by two parts of it Thus the Heavens and the Earth in St. Peter 2 Pet. 3.7 signifie the World and so Christ is said to be three Days and three Nights in the Earth thô the first natural Day he was not in the Grave any part of the Night but the latter part of the Fryday all Saturday and so much of Sunday as until the Sun approached their Horizon And as it is practised in the business of Circumcision This of Circuâ—â—ision is alâ—â— affirmed by Mr. Wâ—â—mâ—â— in his Christ Sâ—nag Page 114. which was precifely observed the eighth day if the Child were born in one day thô but half an hour before the end of it that is before the beginning or Evening of the next that half hour was counted for one of the eight days because say they legal days are not accounted from Time to Time or from Hour to Hour Thus when Luke 9.28 'T is said about eight days after Math. 17.1 and Mark 9.2 'T is after six Days that is after six Days compleat the first and the last being not compleat and so thô numbred by one yet omitted by two Evangelists And accordingly the space of those very three days of Christs lying in the Grave until his Resurrection are when it is Prophetically mentioned in Hosea 6 â— said to be after two days 2. The Dutch Annotations also say of those three Days and three Nights For a part of the Days is here taken whole days and nights like that is Customary with the Hebrews see Esth 4.16 compared with Chap. 5.1 And so they take it after the Romanists reckoning that the days began and ended on the Midnight and so it falleth yet clearer To which I shall add this brief Note That seeing 't is said As Jonas was three Days and three Nights c. so Christ should be three days and three Nights c. 'T is thought from our Saviours Words that sonas was not compleatly three Nights in the Whales Belly but as Christ was in the Grave Object 16. Christs Body rested in the Grave on the Jews Sabbath and his Soul in Paraaice and therefore he never intended by his Death to make it a common work-day Answer Luke 2.21 Gal. 4.4 Math. 5.17 18. As Christ was born a Jew and was Circumcised and came to fulfil the whole Law so every Jot and Little of it was rulsilled by him and therefore he always observed the Jewish Sabbath and if his Body being in the Grave and his Soul in Paradice should in some Sence be taken for a rest in Comparison of what he laboured under before for our Redemption yet then it must be only so considered with respect to the Law tâ—â— our Justification was compleatly Purchased by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead Rom. 4.25 â— Cor. 15.17 18. who was delivered that is to be Crucisied for our Offences and was raised again for our Justification And the Apostle also saith That if Christ be not raised your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished So that thô the Vail of the Temple was Rent at his Passion as a Sign that there was thereby a Rent made in the Types and Shadows of Heavenly Things which was then making void yet the Heavenly Things themselves were not compleatly purchased for us until the Body of Christ was raised for our Justification Heb. 9.12 And then as the Apostle saith By his own Blood he entred in once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us Now therefore thô Christs being in the Grave should be called a Comparative Rest to what he suffered on the Cross yet it cannot be understood of his Ceasing from the Work of purchasing our Redemption until the Omnipotency of his Divine Nature was put forth in loosing him from the Pains of Death Heb. 2.10 Chap. 5.9 and Chap. 11.40 Acts 2.24 or part of the Sentence of the Law and raising his Body to Life again for till then the New Creation was not perfected in the second Adam And then on the first day of the Week having ceased from this Work and so rested it was thereby sanctified in stead of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath which was then to be abolished as all other Legal Ceremonial Things were And the Gospel first and seventh day Sabbath taking its place was to answer the Moral Law and to bear the Type of the Rest that remaineth to the People of God as also principally the Memorial of Christs Resurrection and to continue our Sabbath unto his second Personal Coming To close this Treatise seeing we are obliged to keep the first day of the Week a Sabbath or Day of Rest from our worldly Business to worship and