ground and evidence enough in the things themselves thus made and Light and Reason enough in the Humane Intellect of Rational Beings to discern and to improve this to the very same ends Both these had Primitive concreated self-evidence however sin now have darkned and defaced things The indication of these Duties were at the first true real sufficient Some worn Letters of which original Ingraving are yet still remaining to be read These Laws resulting from the Humane Nature and from that Relation which created Man doth stand in to his creating Maker The Obligation which doth arise from hence must continue as long as the Humane Nature doth continue For it is Essential to our Formation and constitution as we are reasonable men and women and so is unchangeably binding And he that would make any one Law of pure primitive Nature alterable doth thereby though it may be not designedly yet eventually heave at the overturning of all the Laws of Nature This Primigenial Holiness and Righteousness in created Man bearing exact conformity to the holy Righteous Nature of creating Aelobim And Christ's coming was not to dissolve any one Law of the Decalogue or any thing of the Obligation to any Law therein but to maintain these Laws and their obliging All mankind brought under convincing demonstrations from distinguishing taste of the difference of good and of evil should acknowledge all and every of those holy just and good Laws to have a clear congruity to their Natures Who of all mankind that has the due exercise of rational abilities but must acknowledge that we ought to love the LORD our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbour as our selves On which two Commandments hang all the Laws and the Prophets For which we have the Authority of the LORD Jesus Christ himself He being the Law-giver and Law-Interpreter too Further yet People in some Scriptures are the Elect and Believers Whether of Jews or of Gentiles Who are also absolutely called People The Nations which shall be converted to the Faith of the Gospel renouncing Antichrist and his corrupt principles and practices are some of this people These both under the Old and New Testament Administration had this Law of the ten Words written not only in the Scripture Revelation but also on the two Tables of the Mind and Heart by the holy Spirit Thus is the Law of the ten Words specially and distinguishingly given to new Creatures and thus it will be renewed in the purer Churches in the later Days In this sense the Rule and Direction for renewed Holiness and for the Works and Duties of Grace and of Sanctification is called The new Law or Commandment the same with the Old only renewed Next of Ceremonials These are sometimes called The Law of Degrees placed in external Rites and by some such other Expressions These Rites were used about outward fleshie things such as Meats Drinks Washings and the like These so far as they were Typical Figuring and Representative of a Christ who was then to come to be born of a Virgin and to shed his blood were perfected and accomplished in Christ when he was so born and had so suffered was risen and had ascended And they did peculiarly belong to the People under the former dispensation Of this nature were some Ceremonies annexed to the Weekly-seventh-day Sabbath By these holy rites the Church and People of God under that administration were differenced and discerned as a People holy to God distinct from other prophane Nations An Old Testament Ceremonie is set out in Scripture by Flesh a carnal Ordinance an hand-writing of death an Element of the World weak and egene an Exemplar of Heavenly things unstable An Intolerable Yoak A shadow and such like Which are not properly applicable to the Seventh-day-Sabbath as such If any say it is an Exemplar of the Sabbatism in Heaven and so a Ceremonious Type Let then the Type stand as I have said till we can come at the Antitype Ceremonies sometimes do set out the inward spiritual things Graces Duties Priviledges which they did signify and teach A Ceremonie has been and is a Sign of somewhat that is natural and so they have been annexed to natural Spiritual Duties As Evening and Morning worshipping of God had divers Ceremonial Observances So the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath Thus for Parents to give up themselves their Sons and Daughters to God is a natural dutie Yet this duty has Baptism even now under the new Testament-Ministration annexed to it Those things which are still of a concreated Spiritual Nature Were are and will be a duty The Epistle to the Hebrews is a Gospel-Exposition hereupon Though Multitudes of these Ceremonies were superadded to the Law of the ten Words as an Evangelical Explanation and Interpretation of them yet this doth not alter the true real nature of any of these ten words which are always a standing unalterable Rule of holy Righteous living As for the giving of this Law of the Ten words If this Law be considered As promulgated and proclaimed at Mount Sinai by Jehovah Aelohim thus there was somewhat in it which was a peculiar gift to the Israelitish Church and those who were proselyted to it beyond any other People As for the time when he brought them out of Egyptian bondage so for the place the Desert Jehovah gave them this in their Wildernesses condition At Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai in an Enemies Land that of the Amorites and of the Moabites Thus also For the persons They were those of that age who were then alive at that place who understood the Hebrew to whom He gave this Law So for the subservient Administrator by whose hand Jehovah Christ gave this Law to them Who was Moses there was Moses's a Ministery used in it Hence it is called the Law of Moses Moses wrote this Law in a Book Also for the manner of proclaiming With Trumpet Thunder Fire Audible Immediate voice of Aebolim himself and such like And thus too for the solemn imbodying of an whole nation into a Church-state These and some such other like were the peculiar Circumstances of that Promulgation in that day Yet is the Law still the same now The LORD Jesus Christ doth speak unto us even now in this Law of the ten Words What God did speak unto Moses He spake unto others in the days of Christs flesh when born of the Virgin Mary which was hundreds of Years after And these ten Words were written unto us If this Law be considered as the Law of nature so it was given to all mankind in Representative Adam As I have declared If it be looked on as Inwritten in the mind and Heart of the Regenerate by the Holy Spirit Thus it is peculiarly given to new Creatures As also I have manifested Thus I have laboured to clear and to
away those Idolatrous Names of daies As Sunday c. of which Jebovah has prophesied that He will cut them off Having thus far attended the Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath in its strait-footed walk in a plain path through the whole Scripture there thwarts the Reader now a straying company that would perswade him to get into another way along with them the way of the first day as the weekly-Sabbath as if this were now the New-Testament-Dispensation And for this they would have him to consider these Scriptures in the Margin as Translated out of the Greek into English Before I return an express direct Answer to the several particular Scriptures themselves I advise the Reader to ask these Transferrers of the Weekly-Sabbath-day from the seventh to the first day of the week when they judg it was that the first day of the week began to be the weekly Sabbath-day Most will say that it began on the particular day of Christ's Resurrection by Christ himself Some few will assert that it was a little after that Resurrection by the Apostles of Christ but all of them will acknowledge that it was before any part of the New-Testament was written It being so then let the Reader improve this last Concession and further demand of these men if one of the Apostles as Peter by name for Supposition had preached up this Doctrine that the Weekly Sabbath-day under the New-Testament-Administration of Grace was translated and changed from the Seventh which is the last day of Week to the first day of the week and that one of the Hearers had asked Peter upon what Scripture do you bottom this Doctrine How are whatsoever words of God were heretofore written Profitable and written for such a Doctrine What Answer do these Men imagine that Peter could have returned The New Testament was not then written and all the Scriptures which they then had were the Writings of the Old Testament Those of Moses and of the Prophets This Hearer searcheth these and can meet with no such thing in the Preceptive or Prophetical or Promissary part of that Word neither could any other refer him to clear-convincing-proofs of this How then could this Man be well satisfied that this was True Doctrine when he could not find it in his Bible but the quite contrary all the Old Testament through another day the Seventh in order of Created Time all along Commanded and commended And if this Hearer should further have asked Peter If I should work upon the seventh-day contrary to the Precept in the Law what Scriptures would bear me out in so doing when I appear before the righteous Judg who has in so many Words forbid this and so often in all the Scriptures that I have which speak of this thing and if I do not observe the first day as the Weekly-Sabbath-day but do work on that day having Aelohim's Command and Example for it what Scriptures have you by which to reprove me After this Arguing what could Peter have replyed to this from Old-Testament-Scripture I leave the Reader further to improve this in his Study and Meditation For the Christianized believers did search the Scriptures whether those things which the Apostles of Christ taught them were so or not even in the Case of Paul himself who was one of the most Eminent and most used of them all I shall now in the supplies of the Spirit of Holiness according to the word of Truth discover the deceitful colours of these Mens wrestings of some Scriptures and then shew the Reader the convincing reprehension of those Colours Which colours how fair soever to outward appearance for a while yet are a false Disguise a Paint that will melt away before the fire of the Word The Fallacies are soon detected and confuted before a discerning and judicious an unprejudiced and Impartial Reader There are some Scriptures in our English Bibles of the New-Testament say these Objectors which do speak of the first day of the week as the day of Christ's Resurrection when he rested from his work of Redemption which is now appointed and determined as the Weekly-Sabbath-day unto the Church in memory of Christ's Resurrection One of the Sabbaths doth frequently occur and is the same with the first day of the week One being often put for First the Numeral for the Cardinal The generality of the Antients both Greek and Latin agree whose Testimony about the sense of aWord is the best Dictionary and Evidence we can expect and this same phrase used of the day of Christ's Resurrection by the Evangelists proveth it Thus they say The Resurrection of Our LORD Jesus Christ from the Dead on the third day according to the Scriptures I thankfully acknowledg together with the many exceeding great and precious priviledges and benefits thereof and through Mercy and Grace I do firmly believe and particularly apply This true Doctrine is one main part of that solid Foundation on which we are to bottom our Hope and O how gladly could I here lay aside this Controversie and be taken up with sweet Delight and with Rapturing joy into an Heavenly Meditation on an arisen Saviour Here could I leave this unkind World and wrangling-generation and get up above that I might rise with Christ to be where he is to behold his Glory O how willingly could I here breath and long desire and pant that this arisen Redeemer whom my Soul loves would be with my Spirit that my spirit might be more with him O that I might more Experimentally sensibly satisfyingly Know and acknowledge that Power that Vertue of his Resurrection That I might more and better Evidence my being planted into it by walking in Newness of life Here could I bid this Fallacious Sophistry of Quarrellers with Christ's weekly seventh-day-Sabbath to stay behind whilst I find my heart with much Complacencie safely lodged in a full Christ and in his sull Word O the Savourie-nourishing-Meditations that this Subject-Matter would afford Here the admiring Soul may pass into a spiritual-Rest by silent-Thinkings secret Adorings Marvelling-loves Exalting-Praises and Filling-enjoyments But the Reader expects an Answer In all the places of the New Testament relating to the matter in hand where the last English Translation doth render it the first day of the week the Words do properly signify one of the Sabbaths except only in one place where it is the first day of the Sabbath The meaning whereof may be afterwards opened All the other places you may find cited in the Margin and the words in the Greek rightly done into English in every one of these are one of the Sabbaths not the first day of the week nor the first of Sabbaths nor the alone Day or only day or Sabbaths Not at all concluding the first day of the week to be now the Weekly Sabbath-day in the room of the seventh which the words do not mean either in their proper Significancie or intended sense as they stand in Syntax or Coherence
Fruit of Christs Mediating for them with his Father He their Saviour and their God and the God of their Past-Present-and After-Salvarions who would make of their Posterity a Glorious new Christian Church in the latter daies As for Redemption-work it doth confirm the Law of the Ten words in the Type And the antitype must answer to the Type The Israel of God were to do the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath and to keep it Holy to Jehovah their Saviour and Redeemer and so are believers under the New-Testament-Dispensation the Saviour himself this Redeemer having so observed it all his life through in the daies of his Flesh here on Earth when Born of the Virgin Mary The Ark which was one of the principal of all the Holy things of God and for which the Tabernacle mainly was set up which did Sanctifie the place where it did Rest this Ark had nothing in it but the two Tables of the Covenant And this Ark was a Type of Christ who had this Law in his Heart And did in his own Person Confirm it to every Letter and part of it by his Doctrine and Practice when more Familiarly Conversant here amongst men It was Christ as Mediator who appeared as man unto Abraham Moses Zechariah and others under that former Administration These works of Redemption were in the Types then and as for the Actual Perfecting and Accomplishing of these in the Person of the Mediator himself when he took to his Godhead the seed of Abraham and was made of the seed of David according to the Flesh and was made of a Woman these works may be said to take their beginning as to this of perfecting and accomplishing them in the antitype upon Christs First thus manifesting of himself in the Flesh And they were further carried on by him in his Life so declared by his Father and attested by his Spirit His Life was a Continued fulfilling of Redeeming-types And as for his Death upon the Cross there just before his giving up the Spirit and commending it into the hands of his Father he himself said it is Finished or accomplished or perfected namely for so much and for fo far he having but a little before on the same day of his Death in his Prayer to his Father declared that he had finished the work which the Father gave him to do This work of Reconciliation and Redemption Thus accomplishing it and perfecting the Types by steps and degrees Some Remainders whereof are further Fulfilled at his 〈◊〉 Resurrection Which also it self was a great work Yet was not this all For these works of Reconciliation and of Redemption had yet a further filling up and a more through perfecting when Forty daies from his rising again he ascended up into Heaven Where he appeared as the great High-Priest of his Peoples Holy profession as the Antitype with Blood and with Incense in that Holy of Holies having his satisfaction and intercession Further in his Glorious Person Actually accepted by his Father which was Typified of Old by the High-Priests entering into the Holy of Holies once every year upon the Atonement day or day of Expiation of which the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives an account of its being perfected and fulfilled in Christ To this Ascension of His into the Highest Heavens and his sitting there at the Right Hand of his Father where he appears for his People and intercedes on their behalf in a way suted to his Glorious Majesty in so raised an Exaltation to this doth belong his putting down of the Levitical Priesthood which was a shadow and Type and Figure of the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ and must now upon Christs Ascending and session give way and place to the Truth to the true antitype the High Priest being got into Heaven For whilst Christ was upon Earth the Levitical Priesthood continued at least as to some parts of their Office When the Reader puts all this together and sees how the Redemption-work was for so many years together before Christs Resurrection perfecting and accomplishing and finds Christ Travelling upon the day of his Rising with Two Disciples to Emmaus which was from Jerusalem about Sixty Furlongs which in Common Computation is about seven Miles and a half at least seven Miles too long a Journey for the weekly Sabbath day especially when it was a going off from a greater assembling at Jerusalem the Publick appointed place of worship and this about a private business to a little Village an Example not to be followed upon a pretended new Instituted weekly-Sabbath-day And withal the Reader observes that some part of Redeeming-work was actually compleated by Christ in a way of fulfilling of a Redeeming-Type which work was not done by him before either in his Birth or Life in his Death or Resurrection it will be time for him ponderingly to think on his waies and to turn his feet unto Jehovahs Testimonies to make hast and not to slacken to entertain his Commandments particularly this of the weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath To set this right precept before him and no longer to put away this Institution of Aelohim from him Which is so full and plain and clear through the whole Scripture and no further to wander on misled by mens darkning-conjectures who would still keep up a day of their own setting up up the First day of the week which as to this of a weekly Sabbath-day is a Creationless and Scriptureless Restingless Blessingless and Sanctifyingless Nameless Thingless Commandless Promiseless and Threatless-day none of those being for it but all for the Seventh day The adversary being driven out of this hold seeks refuge for his First day Sabbath in some other Scriptures cited in the Margin which yet will not allow him Countenance and Warrant For say they the good Apostles met on the First day the day of Christs Resurrection which they then observed as the weekly-Sabbath-day in memory of his Resurrection and of his compleating the works of Redemption on that day Christ taught the two Disciples on that day of his Rising on the same day he appeared to the Disciples and instructed them and did eat with them thus assembled and Blessed them The next First day of the week he chose to appear to them again And those Apostles Christ did Commission as his principal Church Ministers to teach the Churches all his Doctrine and to deliver them all his Commands and orders and so to settle and guide the first Churches Which Apostles did actually separate and appoint the First day of the week for Holy Worship especially in Church-assemblies They themselves frequently meeting upon that day for that end and enjoyning the Churches of their Plantation so to do who obeyed them in this The First day is mentioned as the day of the Disciples assembling to break Bread which though they did it oft on other daies yet no day else was peculiarly appointed for
Believers are said to Rest from What the force of the Conjunction is in this place What the change of the Number from the Plural to the Singular may import As for the meaning and scope of this Scripture in this Epistle The Considerate Reader is desired after his serious seeking of the LORD by the prayer of Faith to be taught of Him and to be led into the Truth diligently to observe how the Aim and Design of this Epistle in this part of it is to confirm and establish the professing Hebrews in the Faith and Doctrine of the LORD Jesus Christ which would be the better done if they hearkened unto what Christ had said in a both Historical and Prophetical Psalm to this purpose and to caution and charge them against an evil heart of Unbelief that would fall off from the Living God and harden them through the seducingness of that sin that he might the more speedily and thorowly awaken and quicken them up to attend unto and to follow his spiritual and wholsome Counsel which was so seasonable in such a time when they were so persecuted for their Discipleship to Christ He sheweth what dangerous Evils were near and what great Mischiefs would follow if they did give way to their unbelief distrust and carnal fear they would then backslide from their Heavenly Calling and from their Holy Profession And if they did live and did in such a state of unbelief and of unperswadedness of unrepentingness and of disobedience they would be shut out of that Spiritual Heavenly Eternal Rest of God in Christ And that his manner of Arguing might be the more convincing and prevailing he brings a strong evident proof of it out of one of the Psalms it being that Scripture which the Author of this Epistle doth Comment upon and expound here Where the Holy Spirit by the Prophet David who penned that Psalm for him having exhorted the Israel of God to laud Jehovah the Messiah The Rock of His people's Salvation and to obey His Voice whilst the Day of His Grace and of their life did last Earnestly dehorting those of his Time and Age from that unbelief which would have an hardening effect upon their heart and exclude them out of Aelohim's Heavenly Rest As the like prevailing unbelief and hardness and disobedience and unperswadableness had shut out many of their Fore fathers out of that Canaan-Rest which was a Type of the Heavenly Rest the Figure of a Better Rest in a Better Country For the preventing of which Exclusion that his speech might come with the more weight upon their spirits David doth bring in Aelohim himself exhorting the people that they would not follow the bad Example of their Fore-fathers who were not of a Teachable Mind nor of a Practical Understanding nor of an Inclinable Will nor of an Obedient Carriage and so die away in their Wilderness-state This dreadful Example he makes use of to awe the Christian Hebrews in his Day unto an abiding stâ—dfast in the Christian Religion lest otherwise they also did fall after the same Example of unbelief and of disobedience and so loytered behind and came not safe-full-home to the Heavenly Rest That the forcibleness of his right Arguing words might not be abated by any who would be Replying that there were other Rests besides the Heavenly Rest which also were spoken of in the Word of God as if it may be the Psalmist spake of one or other of those Rests and not of that Spiritual Eternal Heavenly Rest therefore he reckons up several kinds of Rests There was the Rest of the Seventh-day Sabbath This the Prophet David did not particularly mean in that Psalm because this Rest of the Seventh-day Sabbath was from the foundation of the World the last day of the first created Week Which therefore being from the beginning thus honoured both by Aelohim's Word and in its own Created Nature must remain the Weekly Sabbath-Day to the end of the World And this Rest as to the outward part at least of keeping the Seventh day as the only Weekly Sabbath-day they in David's time had already actually entred upon in the Weekly returns of it Further There was the Rest of and in Canaâ—n which is called the Rest of Jehovah and expresly the Rest where after their Travels and Journcyings their Warrings and Conquests Jehovah Christ gave Rest unto his people Jerusalem in Canaan has more particularly and specially the Name of the Rest he doth declare that neither was this the Râ—ll which David threatned the unbelieving and disobedient in his time to be shut out of For David and they had been and then actually were in Canaan that promised Land of outward Rest Jehovah Christ by his servant Joshua had led their Fore-fathers into that Rest long before some hundreds of years ago before David's Day David therefore speaketh of another Day after those things in a prophetical manner and of another Rest than either of the two forementioned the Seventh-day Sabbath Rest or the Canaan Rest neither could it be meant of any other Rest by any Enumeration of any other particular but only of the Spiritual Eternal Heavenly Rest of and with a God in Christ If any thought that that passage in the Psalm might be understood of any other Rest but this Heavenly one the Author of this Epistle would readily have demonstrated the mistake The Rest that David spake of out of which Jehovah Christ from his Father by his Spirit in his Word threatned confirmingly by an Oath to shut the unbelieving and unrepenting the disobedient and the unperswadable they living and dying such was such a Rest as those who were in a state of unbelief were not actually possessed of A Rest in a Promise a Rest yet further to come offered and tendered unto them set plainly and openly in a Wor. Revelation before them if they did not by their own affected ignorance and wilful transgression exclude themselves out of it A Rest into which sound Believers had entred did and should enter and so cease from their own works Seeing therefore that there yet further remaineth such a Rest so glorious a Sabbatism for the people of God he presseth the professing Hebrews to study and endeavour how to enter into this promised Rest by yielding the due Obedience of Faith in and unto Christ Having thus opened and applyed the Scriptures that we might look the deeper and see the clearer into the sense and scope of it I am next to shew that the Day to Day or this Day expressed in the Psalm and referred unto in the Epistle is not to be understood of the First Day of the Week in the weekly returns of it so as to shut out all and every of the other Days of the Week and particularly as to this of Rest excluding the Seventh day from being the weekly Sabbath for Christians to observe under
the New Testament Administration of Grace Of this I give these Reasons grounded upon Scripture because that Day which is spoken of in that Psalm and made use of in this Epistle is such a Day as doth take in every Day in the Week as the Author himself doth interpret in the same Epistle speaking of the same Day in this very ease and instance now under debate where he puts the Christian Hebrews upon the faithful discharge of that Gospel-fellowship-duty of mutually exhorting one another daily or according to every Day as the Duty of every Day was when they had occasion and opportunity so to do whilst it is called to Day this Day and the next and still the next after that every Day whilst Grace is offered and whilst your time doth last whilst Christ's Voice from his Father doth speak unto you and whilst the Spirit of Christ in the Word and Ministry thereof doth call upon you That Hodiernal Day of which the Holy Spirit doth make mention in this Exhortation has its duration full home to this our Day and it appertaineth no less unto us than it did unto in David's time For the Illative Conjunction Therefore in the beginning of the seventh Verse of the third Chapter doth properly belong to Take heed in the beginning of the twelfth Verse as went before and so must be here understood Therefore as the holy Spirit exhorted your Fathers to obedience under pain of exclusion from the Rest of God so see ye well unto it that you yield obedience lest otherwise you also be shut out of the same Holy Heavenly Rest The Seventh-day is in this place mentioned with a double mark of Honour put upon it that Day that Seventh The Law concerning the Seventh-day Rest or Sabbath was given to Adam from the beginning and put into Created Being in the first Week of the Created World and is therefore unchangeable still standing in its due Force and in its full Authority Whereas in all this passage of this Epistle there is no mention made of the First Day either in express words or by any necessary consequence So that I may use the force of Christ's Reason and the strength of his Argument here which he did in another case bearing yet a very clear like date from the founding of the World from the beginning the First Day of the Week was not the Sabbath whereas the Seventh day was made Instituted and appointed for the Day of weekly Rest the same Week of the Creation when the foundations of the World were laid and when the Glorious Creator did set up his great Works The Day thereof prefixed by David must in this case be some other kind of Day even the determinate day of Grace and of Life and of Christ's speaking Voice during this Day and of the present time That expression in the Psalm to day or this day was spoken and written by David to the Priests and People in History if it refer to that special occasion of the transferring of the Ark when David called upon them to come unto that place of solemn convention for Publick Worship to the Faces of Aelohim the Ark being a sign of this he threatens those of that Day and Age to be shut out of God's Rest of Eternal Life as their Forefathers were shut out of Canaan in case that they did harden their hearts through unbelief as those had done before them which therefore cannot be understood of the First Day oi the Week as a New Sabbath-day take it as in part Historical though it be further Prophetical also which the Objectors would set up in the room of the Seventh day Sabbath For then according to this arguing the people in David's time were bound to alter the weekly Sabbath-day from the Seventh to the First Day of the Week It is evident by divers particular passages as well as by the whole drift of that Psalm that is was somewhat fitted for David's Day and time and for the people of his age although withal there is a Spirit of Prophesie in it For those Hebrews in the days of the Author of that Epistle to them and we in the present Generation are concerned in that Scripture as others also will be in the Ages after us Whatsoever is written in the Holy Scriptures is written unto all of us calling us unto Faith in and Obedience to the LORD Jesus Christ What God spake unto Moses in his time was spoken by God unto them in Christ's time when he conversed for some years visibly openly here on Earth in the Flesh and it is still spoken unto us and in this place to the Hebrews that Day did reach to the time of this Epistle and continueth to this Day and will preach to after times That expression in that Psalm to day or this day is that Day wherein the Voice of Christ by his Spirit from his Father in his Word and the Ministery thereof may and ought to be harkned unto believed and obeyed that is as long as this Call of Grace doth continue and the time of ones life doth last the whole season of Grace is this Day It is a Day taken largely For so a Day is sometimes taken for the whole time of conversation here on Earth For Time consisting of Days Months and Years For the Time of Life The Day of the Israelites was a long Day A Day of about forty Years with some of them in the Wilderness wherein they tempted and provoked God as is declared in that Psalm and elsewhere The Gospel the glad-tidings of Salvation by Faith in the Messiah was preached and the Doctrine of Redemption work revealed to the Israelites in Moses's time and long before that in Abraham's time and further back also and in David's time afterwards though unbelievers did not savingly profit by it To day or this day is every present Day whatever Day of the Week that Day be as it passeth along in order several Scriptures do lead to this sense and for every present Day of the time of the New Testament ministration of Grace There needs no further evidence of this than the diligent comparing of the Scriptures in hand That limited determinate Day is that Time which the Sovereign LORD over all hath set unto his speaking to particular persons and to their Life-time of hearing and it doth much refer unto that term of Years which he did set and fix in Moses his time to the unbelieving murmuring rebellious Israelites and is referred unto in another Psalm If To Day were meant of the First Day as the Weekly Resting Day then the Israelites had not been the same Example not so proper so resembling an Example of Admonition for the Prosessing Hebrews to take warning by lest running into their Sin they fell into their Judgments For the Israelites Sin and Judgments for the which they
Apostle saith he here changeth the manner of his Expression from the Plural absolutely We who believe or virtually in the name of a Multitude The people of God into that which is absolutely singular He that is entred A single person is here expressed One on whose Account the things mentioned are asserted And of this Change of phrase there can no reason be given but only to signifie the Introduction of a singular person Thus he To this I reply that other Reasons may be clearly assigned from the Context for that Change of Phrase and yet the same kind of persons be expresly meant with respect unto whom the things mentioned are asserted as I have already shewn to be the meaning of this place and other Scriptures compared do well agree in the like use of such a Phrase where the same persons or things spoken of are sometimes expressed in the Plural Number and sometimes in the Singular Take some few Instances That which in the fourth Chapter of this Epistle and fourth Verse is And He Rested This God in that Day that Seventh so significantly by a double Article is that Seventh-Day-Sabbath pointed out as I have observed to be that particular day the last day of the Week from the Creation to be the Weekly Sabbath Day It is not One day in Seven not a Seventh part of Time but That Seventh From All those Works of Him or of His. See here It is Works in the Plural This in another place to which it doth manifestly refer is thus expressed And He did perfect or finish Aelohim a word also Plural in the Hebrew whereas God in the Greek is Singular in a day This Seventh His Work Work in the Singular Number and He did Sabbatize in a day That Seventh from all His Work Work again in the Singular Number though with a Collective Particle which He had made Jebusites Plurally in one place is Jebusite Singularly in another place Enemies Plurally in one Scripture is Enemy singularly in another Scripture If the Reader have a Will to be further satisfied by more particulars about this let him examine and compare what places I have referred him unto in the Margin where the two last cited Scriptures do shew that Israel a Word Singular may have with it a Word Singular or Plural Where Thou is All and every one of such there spoken to as to one Man because every man particularly was concerned in what all of them did there We have more Instances in this Epistle and that particularly in this passage of it which doth relate to the matter in hand What in the eighth Verse of the third Chapter is Hearts in the Plural Number is in the eighth Verse of the ninety fifth Psalm out of which it is taken Heart in the Singular Number So what in the ninth Verse of the third Chapter of this Epistle is Works in the Plural Number is Work in the Singular Number in the ninth Verse of that Psalm Elsewhere the Singular Number doth in the same Verse follow presently upon the Plural Number Jehovah the Aelohim of his people repayeth them that hate him unto his faces to destroy him He will not delay to him that hateth him unto his faces he will repay him Him that is every one of such who hating him The Singular Number where it has a comprehensive significancy doth in divers Scriptures take in more Plurally As Soul Singularly which doth comprehend more Souls Plurally Thus Tree singularly doth take in Trees plurally So doth leaf in the singular number comprehend leafs in the plural number Where all the rest are of the same kind and Nature one is mentioned when more are included It doth take in every such one And thus it is in this tenth Verse of the fourth Chapter which is now under examination He who entring into Rest is such an one as is a Believer in the third Verse he whoever he be that believingly-perswadedly-obediently hearkeneth unto Christ's Voice All and every of such as are the people of God in the special sense spoken of immediately before in the ninth Verse there is yet remaining or left-put-off for a time a Sabbatism to the people of God The Word in the Greek is singular yet of plural signification as it is also in our English Tongue and then follows the Article he in the singular number whoever he be of that number of the people of God in the special sense The same there is in another Scripture the people the same Word singular in the Greek and in the English yet of plural signification who sitting in darkness who sitting is singular number yet also of plural comprehensiveness and the He in this place to the Hebrews doth emphatically note and point out those excelling ones that excelling one and every such excelling one as are of such another singular Spirit as Joshuah and Calob were who entred into the Type of Rest and after death into the Typified Spiritual Eternal Heavenly Rest having finished after Jehovah Christ in their life time All and every such as are Believing ones and of this people of God who alone they and all they every one of them they only and none else but they shall enter into this promised Rest As for others such as are unbelieving disobedient and unperswadable they living and dying away such will come short of that Rest He that doth desire more Scriptures about this may consult those in the Margin where what is spoken plurally is applyed singularly and what is expressed singularly doth refer to all and to every such one plurally Thus he that believeth on Christ in one Scripture is whosoever believeth on him in another Scripture This universal whosoever doth expound the indefinite He that is every One every such One he of such whosoever he be As also He in some Scriptures is interpreted and expounded by whosoever in other Scriptures As for what this Objector doth say that the Rest which this person is said to enter into is called his Rest absolutely Whereas the Rest which Believers are said to enter into is either called God's Rest or Rest absolutely but not their Rest or our Rest If this be admitted that the Rest here be the Rest of him who is the Author of it the He who is entring into it is not meant of the Believer For the same Rest which is the Authors Rest is also the Rest of the Believer of every Believer This Sabbatism is to the people of God it belongs to them there are the Subjects or the persons to whom this Rest is promised Jehovah Christ hath pursued this Rest for such and promised this Rest to such and when they enter into it it is theirs in more actual fulness They possess it they injoy it as their own As the Land of Canaan which was the Type of this Rest was Jehovah Aelohims to promise it and to give it to his Israel yet withal it
so a rule unto us under the New And then let me be discharged from this Scholastick War Let this be one premise which is several times in short expressions here and there in this Treatise That it is a choice priviledge and a special liberty which Believers do enjoy under the New Testament Administration of Grace Christ profiteth them nothing by his coming in the Flesh born of the Virgin Mary to accomplish and to perfect the Types of old which did so set out his thus coming who keep themselves still under the former dispensation of Types Shadows and Figures We thankfully acknowledge to the Honour of our LORD that gracious administration especially now towards the latter-day glory of it that we are brought under which if compared with the former under the Old Testament as to the different manner of dispensing For otherwise we are to discover in it's place that the Christian Religion is one and the same for Doctrines Duties Gifts Graces Priviledges under both has excelling advantages such as these for the measures and for the degrees of them It has more lively efficaciousness more quick sensible Fellowship It has more clear convincing Light and more abounding spreading knowledge And blessed be Jehovah who is in this providential day clearing up and reviving some too long neglected Truths and Duties amongst some others this about the weekly Seventh day Sabbath It has more manifested Grace It has a more spiritual way of Worship It has a more excelling Holiness refined purity and shining Glory having through the Spirit who is the LORD more power to transform into this those who with unveiled Face do look into this Glass It has more enlarged liberty of heart in the way and service of the LORD It has more of self evidencingly revealed mysteries It has more Royal privileges set out therefore by a Kingdom of God and of Heaven And the things of it are called Heavenly things This is meant of a Church State here on Earth For above in the Heavenly glory there are no unfruitful ones no Tares no Scandals no Doers of Iniquity no bad Fish no foolish ones This New Testament Church State has the name of a Kingdom of Heaven as it doth much resemble that glorious Kingdom which is above in Heaven in its way of Government In its order of subjection in its sights of Faith in its enjoyments of Communion in its service of Delight and in its conformity of Holiness Here these are in growingness of measure There they are in fulness of Perfection This new Church State has much brought down from Heaven to it Such as are gracious visits from Jehovah-Aelohim in Father Son and Holy Spirit Angelical Ministry like-affectionedness of the perfectly sanctified spirits of just Men and Heavenly Messengers with the Everlasting Gospel This new Church State is drawn up to be much in the Spirit in Heaven above by joynt unions By mutual Fellowships and it doth believe and expect a new Heaven and a new Earth and a new City where they shall be all the Saints and Believers both of Old and New Testament together with one another and with the elect Angels and with their LORD to hidden Age ever as yet Thus it grows up into a Spiritual Kingdom How large and delightful a Field is here for Heavenly Meditation The manner of administring is not now by obscure Types and by darkish shadows as of old but without a veil and open faced yet Christ is the substance of both the Old and the New Testament the same promises and rewards of Life everlasting were in this Christ and purchased by him and there was one way and the same mean of receiving of this under both which was Faith in the Messiah The difference that is between the Old and the New doth discover it self in the Form of dispensation which had a diversity for the manner of it in the Old from the New But this made no real specifick difference or change in the essentials of the Christian Religion Under the Old Believers had an eye towards a Messiah who was then to come in the Flesh to be born of a Virgin and so they eyed the Pattern and Propheties and Promises looking for the coming Christ What were all the Figures and Types the Rites and Shadows but confirmers of their Faith in and encouragers of their hope of Christ's coming In the New we have it revealed that Christ is now actually already come to accomplish those Types and to perfect Salvation by his personal Sacrifice The Reader may therefore be well satisfied in this that our pleading of the cause of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath as it hath no tendency in it self so no design in me To cast any back or to hold any under the Old Testament Administration as to the Types Shadows and Figures of it much less to draw off or to thrust back any from coming into and enjoying of New Testament priviledges I shall not say that it was the Objectors intended aim but it is evidently consequential from his manner of discourse that his Lines about this would secretly insinuate into the Reader of them as if the Assertors and Observers of the weekly Seventh day Sabbath did Apostatize into Judaic ceremonies I have here another opportunity to wipe off a slanderous charge which some have brought in against us as if we stood guilty according to those two Scriptures in the Margin of catching at the shadow and letting go the body Let it be granted that the Elements Rudiments or first beginnings mentioned in that place of the Epistle to the Galatians are the Mosaical Rites ceremonial Laws and shadows of a Christ who under that dispensation was then to come to be born of a Virgin but is now already come so born This then doth shew that the Apostle condemneth their superstitions observing or their keeping besides Right and Equity as that word which they tranflate ye observe doth signifie when taken in an ill sense Especially when it was with an opinion of acceptance and justification in the sight of God thereby such either un-Scriptural days as were never instituted by Jehovah Christ or Scriptural days in an un-Scriptural manner This were a foul matter of sinful Fact sharply to be reprehended As when either the right object a God in Christ is not worshipped or when for the matter of observing it is not New Testament Worship Or when for the Form of observing of Times and of Worship there was not an orderly address unto Jehovah Aelohim To the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit in a word way not in a spiritual manner not from inward principles of new Nature of Faith of Love and of Obedience or when the ends of observing of Days and Times were not right ends when the Gospel designs of humbling emptying and abasing of Man and of exalting and glorifying of a God in Christ were not promoted thereby when there was a
may be seen in the next Scripture cited in the Margin which is a part of this same Prophesie For observe here the Jews shall then be restored when this will be performed Their Foes will be terrified upon the report of the Jews repair home which is not fully verified The Nations will do homage to the Jews upon their Conversion whereas hitherto they have been dispersed among and subdued by the Nations are objects either of scorn or pitty to all Mankind where ever they are a great overthrow will be given to their open Enemies which is yet to come The converted Jews will turn to Jehovah Christ and will constantly and continuedly serve him according to Gospel Institution particularly by observing the Seventh-day Sabbath in his Sabbath which expression is used elsewhere referring to the Seventh-day Sabbath When these things shall come to pass the LORD will make crooked things to be streightness before his people when that Law of his to which the Isles do expect shall be magnified and made honourable as the Giver of it also will be So great and so glorious things being to come so long after Isaiah's Prophesyings Such as whereof all the World could not have foretold these are confirmed and verified by the Testimony of the Father in his Son by his Spirit in his Word As for what is Prophesied of by Ezekiel concerning the new Temple or Church state where especial direction is given for the service of the Sabbath-day this doth confirm and establish the Seventh-day Sabbath to continue under New Testament times For it speaks of such a Day of Sabbath in the same Week as has six working Days going before it which is expresly according to the same Law proclaimed Mount Sinai as one of the ten Words That which is alledged out of Peter was a Prophesie long after Christ's Resurrection and Ascension a little before Peter's death and not long before the destruction of the Temple and of the Jews which had a quite contrary Face and Nature from the glorious Renovation foretold Those new Heavens and new Earth that were prophesied were at that time of Peter's writing the Epistle in the Promise unfulfilled such as were yet expected and look'd out after and the whole Discourse doth manifest that it was not then accomplished That day of the LORD the same LORDLY Day spoken of in the Revelvtion the great providential Day of his LORDLY Appearance was not then come it Peter's time The Heavens were not then passed away with a noise they were not then perished in flames by fire the Elements were not then burnt and loosed or dissolved and melted the Earth and the works that were therein were not then burnt up The Heavens which are now saith he speaking of those that were in his Day and Time and the Earth are by the same Word laid up as a Treasure and are kept unto fire against the day of Judgment and of the Destruction of ungodly men or of corrupt Worshippers These things saith he shall perish They had not then perished The day of the LORD shall come It was not then come but they were to look for and to hasten unto the coming of it We according to his promise expect new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness We look for these things They were as yet but in the Promise They were under the Expectation of Believers They looked for them but they did not then see and enjoy them actually in their real Coming for they were not as yet come Thus also that Prophety by John in the Revelation when he had a Visional sight of a new Heaven and a new Earth upon the passing away of the first Heaven and the first Earth and when he saw the Holy City and the New Jerusalem and when a great Voice out of Heaven had told him that God would wipe off all tears from the eyes of his Covenant-people and that Death should be no more neither mourning nor crying nor any more trouble for the former things should pass away He that sat upon the Throne said Behold I make all things new Write for these things are true and faithful Is it not evident here that this Prophetie was many years after the Day of Christ's Resurrection And must not the Fulfilling be after the Prophetie Is there not enough in this very place to confute the Objector's Arguing Is the first Heaven and the first Earth yet passed away When ever was this fulfilled Is the new Heaven and the new Earth yet come Is the Holy City the New Jerusalem as yet come down from God out of Heaven Are there not tears found in the eyes of the LORD'S people to be wiped away Is there not death still Are these former things yet passed away Is not the LORD He who then foretold that he would make all things new John saw in a Vision and heard in a voice they would be so made but they were not actually so excellent on earth in John's Day and Time For there will be this new face of things in the Churches of Christ on earth This New Holy City Jerusalem is not said to go up to God into Heaven but it doth come down from God out of Heaven God will renew his Covenant with his people and he will Tabernacle with them God will put away Humane Ordinances Inventions Impositions and Traditions to set up his own Institutions all the Laws and Orders of his New House in their Purity and Power The Nations shall receive Light from this New Church so shiningly enlightned so clearly taught of him Church-Discipline shall be revived set up and exercised Distempers Diseases and Ulcers of Spirit of Soul and Body shall be healed and cured and removed by the Medicinal leaves of the Tree of Life All which do belong to a Church-State here on earth If other passages in this Book of the Revelation be collated it will appear that many things foretold to go before this are not yet fulfilled For there must be another manner of Conversion of the Tribes yet of all the Tribes which do include the Ten of Israel as well as the Two of Judah and Benjamin The twelve thousands of the several Tribes The New Church was to be erected after that the See of the Beast was overthrown The Returning Jews are called the Kings of the East There will be a laying dry the Waters of Euphrates as those of the Red Sea were of Old for Jehova's Redeemed ones to pass thorow The Turkish oppressing Tyrant will yet further destroy many of the Jews which grand Enemy shall at length be quite destroyed utterly ruined and his Power shall be broken to pieces The very place of this Conflicting Battel is particularly mentioned where his Overthrow shall be And there will yet be a glorious Christian Church of returning believing Jews erected
great Church Assembly did he not teach in that Sermon of his at the Mount the same true Christian Doctrine which was delivered of old to his faithful Messengers from him the which to bring to his people And did he not vindicate the verity and purity of it from those corrupt wrong Interpretations that false Teachers had given of it Did not Christ who lay in the bosom of his Father declare and reveal the whole of the Will of his Father under that former dispensation of Grace so far as concerned that Dispensation And is it not one and the same Will still the difference in the manner of dispensing only well observed Were not they then taught all things and all Truths whatsoever that were necessary to Salvation Were not they fully and perfectly directed the true right way to Eternal Life Were not they strictly charged from Christ by his Servant Moses not to add to the words that he gave them in commandment nor to take from them And must not that Word then be a complete Directory and comprehensive sum of all Doctrinals as well as of other matters O who will give that this Word of Christ may ind wel in us copiously abundantly in all Wisdom O let it not stand as a stranger without doors but let us receive it in and find a place for it in our inmost parts That it may be as well known and familiar to us as the most dear delightful companions and the most near beloved Relations with whom we dwell and converse Let us be well acquainted with the whole of it and diligently compare it in the several parts of it Be we much and mighty in the Scriptures of both the Prophets and also of the Apostles receiving the whole as a Doctrine revealed from Heaven by Christ O that this were more found in our Hearts and Minds In our Memory and Conscience in our Wills and Affections That all the good Fruits thereof may abound and be more visible in the whole of our Life There we may learn all saving Wisdom There is the perfect Knowledge to be had of all things to be both believed and done that Eternal Life may be obtained There are Universal Principles of this Law of the ten Words which do pertain to Faith and Manners and these Practical Dictates which every one of these Laws doth include is a Fundamental Truth and Doctrine necessary to be believed as that we must have Jehovah Aelohim for our God and him alone that we must worship him according to his Institutions in his Word and not in any other way of Humane Inventing and imposing that we ought to have an holy reverent use of his Name That the Seventh day is his Sabbath in which we may not do the servile works of our particular calling that the Father and Mother are to be honoured and so of the rest Whoever doth believe the contrary to these is guilty of erring in Decalogical Fundamentals Have I not already demonstrated and proved by the whole Scriptures those great Doctrines concerning the Jehovahship the Christship the Mediatorship the Lordship the Lawgivership the Creatorship of the LORD Jesus Christ Would the Reader have more Doctrines thus manifested The Doctrine of Regeneration was preached of old The first Creation of Man was an exact Patten and a lively Samplar of this when man was made in the Image according to the likeness of his Makers he having a concreated resemblance unto his Creators in Knowledge in Righteousness in Holiness in Dominion in Glory this was defaced by the Fall of Man and is again restored to Sons and Daughters of God in Spiritual Recreation which is a new man renewed unto acknowledgement according to the Image of him who created him in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth As Paul doth speak David acknowledgeth in the Book of Psalms that a new heart is Creation-work So glorious and excelling a piece as that it is the making of a new World of Men and of Women A Work that none but the Almighty-creating power can do and therefore all the Honour and Glory of it must be given to him alone This is the humble confession called for Know ye that Jehovah he God he made us and not we his people and sheep of his pasture This is variously expressed in the Old Testament in very significant Words Moses sets it out by the circumcision of the heart So doth Jeremiah David by Creation and Renovation Isaiah by Jahovah's creating a people for his Glory for his Forming of them or Framing them anew by the Spirit of Regeneration Ezekiel by a Resurrection a Life from the Dead he calleth it a new Heart a new Spirit an Heart of flesh Jehova's giving of his Spirit in the innermost of the Covenant-people The Prophets often by conversion or turning from sin to Jehovah Aelohim What Spiritual Discerner doth not here see the same Doctrine which Christ preached to Nicodemus when he discovered to him the necessity of being born again from above otherwise there could be no seeing no entring into the Kingdom of God Affirming once and again and the third time that this must be Which when this great Doctor understood not what this Spiritual Regeneration was what that was which was born of the Spirit The LORD Christ reproves him for and convinceth him of his Ignorance Art thou a Teacher in Israel and knowest thou not these things Whereby he evidently shews that this was no such new unheard of Doctrine before but the same that was taught in Moses's Book and by the Prophets Wouldst thou be led to some other great Truth Consider that Doctrine about Justification Hath not Habakkuk declared that The Righteous by faith he shall live And is not this three if not four several times mentioned in the New Testament Hath not Paul confirmed the same shewing that The Righteousness without the Law only by faith in Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe hath testimony from the Law and the Prophets Doth not Jeremiah call Christ by this name Jehovah-tzidkenu Our Righteousness Did not Noah preach the same true sound Doctrine Was not that which was said of Abraham that He believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Was not this written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for our sakes also to whom it shall be imputed even to them that believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered over for our sins and was raised up for our Justification Were not Believers of old well instructed in the Doctrine of free Remission of sins O how kindly was David's heart affected herewith when he tasted the sweetness and enjoyed the good of this Truth O the blessedness the happy goings on of him whose trespass is forgiven whose sin is covered O how Blessed the man to whom Jehovah imputeth no iniquity and in whose spirit no deceit Thou O
Jehovah forgivest the iniquity of my sin To this agreeth that of Isaiah who brings in Jehovah himself thus speaking I I for my self blot out thy transgressions and remember not thy sin And the same Prophet doth record it of Hezekiah that he thankfully acknowledged this Thou O Jehovah hast cast behind thy back all my sins And that was the same which Isaiah had experienced in his own case Thus speaks the Prophet Micah in an holy triumphing manner Who is a mighty God like unto thee Forgiving iniquity and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his Inberitance Thou wilt cast all their sins into the bottom of the Sea And long before him this was revealed to Moses when Jehovah proclaimed this to be part of his Name He who forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin How often was this Truth preached over in the Sacrifices for Sin offerings and in their Typical Washings and Purifications and such like which held forth this in the spiritual meaning of them And Christ appointed some who in their Function by Office were to teach Jacob his Judgments and Israel his Law to shew them what those Truths and Things were that were so shadowed out by those Figures Thus also was not the Sanctification or Holiness of a Covenant-people The Declared Will of Jehovah Aelohim Is not the Command express in Moses's Book Ye shall sanctifie your selves and be holy for I Jehovah your God And ye shall keep my statutes and do them I Jehovah who sanctifie Ye shall set to it to be holy and ye shall be holy for I holy Has he not put that honour upon them by calling them Saints His Saints An holy People in Covenant with him How many ways did he preach this Doctrine to them The Priests must be Holy the Levites Holy the Prophets Holy the People Holy the Convocation Holy the Sabbath Holy the Place of Worship Holy the City Jerusalem is named Holy the House Holy the Mount Holy the Land Holy the Garments Holy the Tabernacle Holy the Temple Holy the Scriptures Holy the Law Holy the Covenant Holy Did not their whole Burnt-Offerings call upon them to be sanctified throughout their whole intire Spirit and Soul and Body to be kept unblamable Did not the Precepts to abstain from prohibited Pollutions and to use prescribed cleansings in case of contracted uncleanness speak the same Truth Was not the Law of the ten Words a comprehensive perfect Doctrine of all Holiness and Righteousness And are not the Sermons of the faithful Prophets full of Dehortations from sin and of Exhortations to Holiness If thou wouldest be instructed in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Did not the LORD Christ himself prove and teach this out of the saying of Jehovah Aelohim unto Moses in the Bush I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but the God of living From whence he doth infer that though Abraham Isaac and Jacob were dead as to their body yet they were still alive in their Spirit and Soul which bodies were parts of them and therefore their bodies should in time rise again For hereby it was evident that there is another life after this is ended which those departed Saints that were dead as to this life had their shares and parts in So that God not only was heretofore but still now is and will be their God after their death The Bodies of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob shall rise and therefore the bodies of the dead shall rise they shall live again whereas now they are dead and therefore they shall arise For he is their God now they are dead and therefore they shall live again though now they be dead For God is not the God of the dead who are so dead that they shall never live again So that he declaring himself to be their God ever since they were dead it must unanswerably follow as convincingly concluding that their bodies shall live again With what a clear judgement and holy confidence doth Job speak the same truth I know said he that my Redeemer living and that the latter one shall rise upon the dust Therefore after I shall awake and that the worms have digged through this yet in my fiesh I shall see God Whom I shall behold to me and mine eyes have seen and not a stranger My reins are consumed within my bosom Was not Christ's Resurrection plaintly taught in the sixteenth Psalm Where Christ himself doth thus express his sure hope of rising again from death the third day My flesh shall dwell in considence for thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol Thou wilt not give thy gracious Saint to see corruption doth not Peter so interpret this And did not Paul so explain and apply this And if the head be raised must not the members of that body to which the head is so nearly related in union and in fellowship be raised also Hath not David left behind him a lively Testimony of his firm belief of this in his day and time When he set out the different apprehensions that he had concerning his expressed happiness in another better hâ—â— and world from what the unbelieving men of this World had They those mortal men of this transitory World they counted their good things to be their part and portion here in this life I saith he as if he all past into this this was his Belief this was Hope this his Portion this his Happiness I in justice shall view thy faces shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy image There would be a day when he should awake out of the dust of the Earth from the sleep of death when he should see and know plainly and perfectly and bear the Image of the Heavenly The Psalmist speaks of a Morning when those that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake and rise He believed that Aelohim would redeem his soul from the hands of Sheol because he would receive him A glorious Testimony of his belief of a Resurrection Daniel in his Prophetick Spirit speaks of a time when many of them that sleep in the dusty Earth shall awake some unto everlasting life and some unto reproach and shame everlasting Which doth also point to a Day of Judgement following of this Resurrection Though Daniel in this place doth not seem to speak of the last general Resurrection yet hereby insinuating the Doctrine thereof According as Enoch also the seventh from Adam is recorded by Jude to have Prophetyed Behold the LORD hath come with his holy ten thousands to do judgement against all and convincingly to reprove all those corrupt Worshippers of them concerning all those their works of corrupt worship which they have impiously done and of all their hards which they have spoken against the LORD who sinners worshiping corruptly The wicked shall not stand up in judgement as is
there it were to be cut off and so cease to be a Sign For it takes in all the parts of Time all the spaces of Duration it has been a Sign it is now a Sign and it will be a Sign And in the other place the latter Verse doth take in the past Time which they render â—uturely In the former Verse it is Infinitive and Indefinite Thus the Seventh-day-Sabbath is a Sign between Jehovah and his Covenant-people that they are a separate sanctified people a special token of his distinguishing kindness unto such as are inwardly in Covenant with him and some ways a Priviledge even to those who are as yet but outwardly in Covenant with him as it brings them under the Instituted Ordinances of that Day The Seventh-day-Sabbath in a Documental Sign giving Institution in this Pledge of Christ's Love who having been the Creator is the Redeemer too and will be sanctification to his Covenant-people who are in a special manner his new created peculiarly redeemed and separatedly sanctified Ones As this Seventh-day-Sabbath has its Nature Institution Use and End put into Scripture-Revelation so it is a peculiar Sign to those unto whom this Word-discovery is made especially when to their inner man and will be such to the Worlds end to all and every of those who are so choicely favoured It is a witnessing evidencing Sign to know this where Spiritual-Worshippers are Right Sabbath-keepers Were there a more Universal-holy-through growing-Conformity in Knowledge and in Obedience to this and to every other just holy and good Law of Jehovah Aelohim experience would prove to spiritual senses what Faith is to believe from Word-Revelation that the Weekly Seventh day-Sabbath would be such a Sign as would the holy Spirit of the LORD witnessing together with a renewed Spirit in the Saints point out unto them and declare in them that such are some of Jehovah's peculiar people in special Covenant with them like as the holy Fruits of the regenerating Spirit are such a notifying-testifying certifying Sign of translation from death to life This is a Sign which doth still continue O who will give that there were more of this evidencing Sign as to the natural Seed of such of Israel of old as were spiritualized and new born so to the Spiritual Seed of Israel now that there is a mutual convenanting and communion between Jehovah Aelohim and such a people of his that they might know him to be theirs and themselves to be his This is a Sign that is still put into a Promise and will even now and in after days be made good to right Spiritual Observers of Jehovah's weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath A Sign to know here is one great End and special Use of this Sign which is also a lasting-standing continued one that Jehovah doth sanctifie such and is their God Whoever he be that can well evidence an Universal Obedience and Conformity to an whole Christ and his whole Word particularly as to his due sanctifying of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath of Jehovah his God which would much influence and operate upon all other Religion would have Aelohim's Covenanted-Love more manifested to him by the incouraging Sign it would be a token to him for this and for much other good It is promised and it would be injoyed actually injoyed for the present even now and this Spiritual Rest with Christ in God here would by improving of Mystical-membership in relation to the Glorified Ones above be some beginning of that eternal Sabbatism in Heaven Thus a Natural Duty is sometimes made a Sign of a Spiritual Priviledge Against this it hath been further objected that Circumcision is called a Sign of the Covenant between Jehovah Aelohim and his Covenant people in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto them And so is the Seventh-day-Sabbath called a Sign between Jehovah and his people throughout their Generations which they were to observe throughout their generations for an everlasting Covenant between him and the Sons of Israel it a Sign for ever And therefore they were to cease together For Answer to this in the General Here is a Fallacy of Composition and Division by taking some things severally and apart which are to be taken conjoynedly and by taking other things conjoynedly which are to be taken apart Some things here would be well divided and severed which are ill joyned and other things would be well joyned which are ill divided Here the divided sense must be separated from the compounded and the compounded sense from the divided There is another Fallacy in the comparing of these two Circumcision and the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath Because it is not of the same thing in the same manner according to the same part to the same person and thing in the same time And there is a translation from one kind to another Though in some thing these two do more generally agree yet in other things they do specially differ which doth discover both a deceit and a defect a confusedness and a captiousness in the Objector This will further open it self by a more particular distinct considering of what doth follow All Signs are not mutable or changeable Signs to end with the Old Testament Dispensation Sun Moon and Staâ— have been are and will be to the end of this World natural and instituted Signs These Luminaries are Witnesses of God's faithfulness in his Covenant to Generation of Generations Thus also are Day and Night such a Sign The Rain-bow whenever it doth appear is to be a Sign to the Worlds end a Sign or Token of God's Covenant with mankind that he will no more drown this whole Earth with Water Jehovah's weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath has been already manifested to be both a Natural Instituted and notifying Sign Such an immutable unchangeable Sign as that Jehovah Aelohim will in no Generation not even under this New Testament Administration put an end to his sanctifying of his people Whereas Circumcision was a Typical Mutable Changeable Sign which passed into it more spiritual and heavenly Antitype when the Old Testament Dispensation was brought to its accomplish perfected End All Signs are not laid aside under the new Dispensation The Signs mentioned before even the Luminaries Day and Night the Rain bow So also the Seventh-day Sabbath were Signs under the Old and do still continue to be Signs under the New Testament admiâ—â—â—â—ration Such a Sign Circumcision is not as to that of the Foreskin of the Flesh for this doth cease So that Circumcision was another kind of Law than the Natural Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath The Type and Figure of fleshy Circumcision was Temporary and Changeable This Sign which was the Seal of the Covenant of Grace did belong to other sorts of Laws to the Ceremonial Law as it was Typical Figuring and Shadowing and so doth widely differ in the whole kind from the Natural Law of the ten Words whereof this of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath is one
make a full end of all those Old Testament Types and Figures becoming now the glorious Mediator of the New Testament which is established or legitimated in better Promises The holy Spirit hereby signifying this that the way of this Heavenly Sanctuary the Holy of Holies was not yet made manifest to be perfectly accomplished till Christ ascended there whereby there is evident proof made that the Aaronical Levitical Priesthood being a Type Figure Pattern and Shadow of this Coelestial super-Coelestial Priesthood of Christ did stil stand till then and was not to give way and place as a Type and Figure unto the Antype and Truth until this great High Priest Christ went into Heaven The Birth the Life the Passion the Death the Resurrection the Ascension of Christ have every one of them somewhat peculiar in them as to the Redeeming-work and must all of them be put together for the thorough completing of so good and so gracious so great and so glorious a Work But those who would make the Resurrection-day of Christ to speak that about a pretended change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh day to the first should consider that the perfect consummation of this Work in the Antitype was at Christ's ascending up into Glory Then did he Captive Captives unto himself which was done when he thus went up on high which was a part of Redeeming Work The effusion of his holy Spirit was one Fruit of Christ's Ascension thither Into Heaven he went in the name of his people for their good to take possession for them Now hereby was the Heavenly Holy of Holies opened Here did this high Priest intercede for those whom the Father gave unto him The Priests entring into the Holiest was a Type of this yet in some things there was a difference The Typical high Priest of old was to enter in there once every year But Christ entred into Anti-typical Heaven once for all The High Priest of old entred into the Type with the blood of Bulls and of Goats Christ entred into Heaven with his own blood The High Priest appeared of old before the Ark for the people a little while and then came away quickly agen But Christ for ever doth appear before God his Father having hereby obtained Eternal Redemption for those who are his What shall I more say about this To expound the whole of the Old Testament pattern as to the matters of worship and in all the other parts of that Administration and then to apply it in the new how exactly one doth correspond to the other were task enough for a long Life That the shadowy ceremonies and figuring Types of the Old Testament as such that is to say as shadowy ceremonies and figuring Types are done away and leave no obligation of duty upon Believers under this New Testament ministration to observe and perform the outward part of them I would thus demonstrate by Arguments drawn from those Propheties in the Old Testament which do foretel this The LORD Jesus Christ upon his coming in the flesh born of a Virgin was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and thus he bespeaks his Father Sacrifice and Oblation thou wouldest not mine ears hast thou digged open burnt-offering and sin-offering thou askedst not Then said I lo I come in the Roll of the Book it is written of me My God I delight to do thy acceptable will and thy Law is within my Bowels Christ's Ear was digged open it was pierced and became listning to his Father's call and obedient to his Father's voice his Ears were bored by the Father whose servant for ever Christ was the Father fitted a Body to this beloved Son of his preparing and ordaining it to be an ordinary and expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the World it being impossible that ceremonial sacrifices should purge away sins which therefore were now refused as unprofitable and they received their perfection and accomplishment in Christ I argue further from those Scripture Names which are given unto those Rites and Ceremonies whereby their Nature is aptly expressed and significantly described sometimee they are set out by Types as they were under the old to which the Anti-types do directly answer in the New so that the old Types do give place and the new Anti-types do stand in their Room those Types being representing signs as of some spiritual thing signified then so also of some future thing come to pass now which being come to pass as it had a correspondency to the former so also did it do away the external part of that which had before adumbrated it They are in other places called shadows which are obscure representations of somewhat else that was the express form they were a picturing delineation and a well drawn Image of Heavenly things of future good things They were exemplars as so many Images representing of Christ and of his benefits They were a parable or collation an artificial prefiguring narration of somewhat else signified thereby a form of Ritual Worship which served for that time under that administration putting somewhat that was visible before the eyes which yet had a more inward mysterious meaning in it They were fleshy and flesh those external ceremonies and outward works were exercised about outward earthy crass infirm and fading things hence the Laws and commands about them are said to be fleshy precepts injoyning the offering up the flesh of bulls rams and goats they were fleshy rites and one of their signs that of Circumcision was a mark in the flesh The Reader should not here mistake me as if I were in this against all the outward part of Worship now under the New Testament whilst I declare the abolishing of those external sacrifices and outward Rites which were Typical and figuring of old A just respect of outward reverence is due unto Jehovah Aelohim where he doth manifest his gracious presence Here is a duty of veneration to be expressed by outward gesture Although the inward Worship be principally in several respects intended and required yet the outward and bodily part is not excluded but enjoyned also such as elevation of the Eye and palms of the Hands bowing kneeling and the like where meet circumstances of time and place and other parts of the case are fitted for it The LORD made the body of Man to be worshipped and glorified by as well as the Spirit and Soul and Believers have a promise and so are under expectation of having their bodies glorified as well as their spirits and souls in the World and Life to come and if they look for a glorifying reward they should perform a worshiping work though the inward worship be the life of the outward worship yet the outward must be expressive of the inward the one is not complete without the other Where there is only the outward worship without the inward there the worship doth
Disciple from an Antichristian Synagogue and a Worshipper of the Beast are the keeping of the Commandments of God and the having the Testimony of Jesus Christ Much peace to them that love Jehovah's Law and to them no stumbling block This will be the everlasting Rule of the Holiness and Righteousness of glorified Ones in Heaven If some one will do he shall know of this Doctrine whether it be of God or not O the happy straight goings on of that man who fearing Jehovah who delighting greatly in his Commandments Christ is the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him and the Father gives his Spirit unto such How freely and delightfully could I here inlarge in the commendation of this excellent perfect Law How good how holy how just is this Law for the matter intrinsecally externally good and holy and just consonant to the eternal Justice and Holiness and Goodness which is in the LORD himself whose Authority is stamped upon this and as such is given forth from him unto us to be a Rule How can this be abrogated or changed which is so full and comprehensive of that Righteousness and Holiness which is the perfect Image of the pure unchangeable Jehovah Aelohim were we more throughly conformed to it in our natures and actions we should be tied to it and to the Commander of it with an everlasting love love beyond expression How can the obligation of its mandatory power be other than eternal and immutable O how good is it in its kindly effects inlightning converting restoring quickning comforting and many other ways operating upon the heart when the holy Spirit doth put life and power into mens hearts for these productions This way of obedience to the ten Words is the way of lasting of hidden age and of everlastingness that way which alone of all ways will continue and hold out to the utmost duration when all the ways of Anomous of lawless ones shall perish Christ's Disciples should evidence and manifest their love to him by their friendliness to his Law The Doctrines and the Precepts of this Rule the promises and the threatning of it do some way or other lead to Christ and have him for their scope and this under the old as well as new Administration were not the believing Israelites to look unto the covenanted Messiah and to act Faith upon him Were they not by all the Types and Figures and Shadows of him to make application of him to themselves and of themselves to him and and to confirm their expectation of his coming Was not this that which made all their prayers and other services acceptable their spiritual relation which they had unto him How could mercy be done unto thousands as the Letter of this Law doth include if we exclude this Messiah or Christ out of his own Laws as if he were not intended there The Administration of this Law was Evangelical in its great design and main intention Can a believer but highly prize Christ and esteem him precious when he doth so look into the glass of this Law as to view and loath the spots on the face of his nature and life the least of which this Law doth discover and will not hide any of his deformities nor cover his wrinckles nor paint his ugliness In this case how great are the benefits by Christ to the Believer who is made of God to the Believer Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption The more that a Beliver doth honour Christ the more will he be carried out in a Spirit of Love to delight in the Commands of Christ When Adam was most holy he was most obedient and when he was most obedient he was most acted by a principle of Love Thus the holy blessed Angels do all in obedience and love to Christ for they also are under this Law and at command Even the LORD Jesus Christ himself kept these Commandments of his Father and did abide in his Love his ready chearful obedience to his Father must have an eye to a commanding Law The Law of the ten Words though it include a perfect holiness in its requirements yet doth it not exclude an Advocating Mediator in its intendments O how will mens faces be covered with shame at the last when they shall be judged by that Law which now they so much contend against When the LORD had given forth the Law of the ten Words it is said Not hath he added He added no more commands of this Nature This was almost forty years after the promulgation of the Decalogue at Mount Sinai He hath not added he doth not add he will not add will still be a true saying relating to this no more commands of this kind and sort for they are but ten Words a perfect Law to which nothing is to be added and from which nothing is to be substracted In this Book of Deuteronomy Moses repeated the ten Words or Commandments and presseth to the observation of this Law confirming the whole of it with promises to the believing and obedient and with threatnings against the unperswadeable and transgressing And Christ himself a little before his death foretold of the continuance of the Seventh-day Sabbath calling it by the name of Sabbath well towards forty years after his death though for the advancement of Sabbath-learning I propound to the Vertuoso and the Ingenuoso of the times to consider Q. Whether that expression Mat. 24. 20. Pray ye that your flight be not in the Sabbath do not relate to all and every of those great periods of time the destruction of Jerusalem the down-fall of Antichrist and the Tribulation of that time which shall make way for the later-day-Glory this Seventh-day Sabbath will last as long as this world lasteth to the utmost end of it Thus Reader have I through Mercy and Grace somewhat traded according to my Talent received for the Honour of my LORD and of his Works Words and Law and for the promoting of Scripture-sciences and Arts. It is with him what entertainment he will give it in thy heart and what blessing he will there put upon it O the Excellency of this Word Knowledge The Wise of heart will receive Commands They will treasure up Knowledge to draw it out in season Wisdom is found in their lips To the mouth of their Vnderstanding shall they be praised The Well-advised will hearken unto Counsel and those that fear the Command shall prosper Whereas the proud will be always wrangling and contending Contemners of the Word will quickly be corrupted The Law the Doctrine the Institution of a wise man is a clear Vein and Fountain of Lifes and a good Understanding will give Grace A Scorner seeks Wisdom and finds it not but Knowledge is easie unto him that understands it It is facile it is obvious it freely presents it self it is soon learnt it is easily gettable quickly attained A Fool has