day and for ever 1 Cor. 13.10 12. Heb. 13.8 And that secondly This doth not destroy but confirm the external solemnization of the Lords day or first day in the week both in a cessation from all such works as may be either a vocamenta or impedementa and a diligent and special waiting upon God in the publick dispensing of such administrations as he hath instituted the thus exercising and stirring up the gifts and talents which God hath given to some for the benefit of others upon a special day being a powerful means as Mr. Shepherd well saith to sabbatize every day The fourth Querie 4. Whether to a Christian the Sabbath be to cease from working according to a form or letter If by working according to a form or letter be meant either a labouring in the flesh or power of the old man according to the tenor of the legal literal commands or a meere outside formall working in our owne tyme which is always ready John 7.6 according to any prescribed forme or penned rule whatsoever then doth the spirituall Sabbath imply a cessation from working according to a form or letter For first These are our own works both in respect of the principle and the end done either first in the time of darknesse to kindle a fire and warm our selves with the sparks thereof Isa. 50.11 Or secondly to get praise of men Luke 16.15 Or thirdly out of custom and conformity which is to be if not Hypocrites yet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Hypocrites Mat. 6.5 Or fourthly to quiet conscience and bribe the Bayliffe for serving the Writ according to the Law though it may be intended as well as pretended to pacifie the angry Creditor and get the debt book crossed Secondly this is a serving in the oldnesse of the letter and not in the newnesse of the Spirit as the Gospel-commands require or a worshipping without the Spirit and truth which sort of worshippers though Satan-like they will needs present themselves amongst the Sonnes of God Iob 1.6 yet doth not the Father seek for any such to worship him Iohn 4.23.24 Thirdly This argues a man to have only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Tim. 3.5 a legal form of godliness according to the directions whereof though with a heart unpurified he endeavours to act in the mean while denying and mocking at the power of godliness Scilicet The free Gospel-working Spirit by which Christians are acted The Sons of God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} aguntur as the vulgar are acted by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 But if by working according to a form or letter be meant no more than working such works as are agreeable to a form or letter which differs if we speak strictly from working according c. or be it working according to a form or letter suppose that form or letter to be the Evangelical {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 6.17 2 Tim. 1.13 not the legal {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.5 and the works wrought accordingly as is there required then doth the spiritual Sabbath not exclude but imply a working according to a form or letter For first The Spirit as hath been said works no other works but such as are agreeable to this form The works of the Spirit when wrought being alwayes agreeable thereunto though I dare not say that the Spirit in working is at any time guided therby Secondly This form or letter requireth all our works to be wrought in God Iohn 3.21 or in the Spirit and not in the power or life but in the weakness and death of selfish flesh Thirdly The rule or form may be observed by Christians in acting and yet Christians not alwayes observe a form or rule when and while they act Artificers that have any acquired habit may work agreeable to the rules of art and yet not always by their artificial rules The rule is alway Regula operis a rule of the work and it is wrong if not agreeable thereunto but not alwayes Regula operantis the rule of the worker Scilicet in working for it is not contrary to the rule though he sometime work without looking at it So the work be wrought accordingly and when wrought be according as is required in it And he when all is done submit his skill and work to be tryed by the standing rule Fourthly As the Spirit is the Pylate So this form is the compasse not by which he steereth yet according to which we are steered As the Spirit is the guide So this form is the rule not by which he guideth yet according to which we are guided As Christ in Spirit is the King or Ruler so is this form the Magna Charta according to which he though an absolute Prince is pleased to declare we shall be ruled by Fifthly As the Spirit ruleth and governeth according to these sciptural laws enacted in heaven and proclaimed by the Apostles on earth So these Scriptural lawes require us to be ruled and governed by the Spirit of Christ and make it death either to resist the commands of this governour who alwayes commands agreeable to these lawes or yeeld obedience to any other whether flesh world or devil who would rule according to their or our wicked lusts Sixthly the Negative commands do obligare semper ad semper always and unto all times so that it is a transgression of the Sabbath ever to obey either flesh world or devil suppose that the Spirit did suspend his Actings for a time The affirmative Semper but not ad semper alwayes but not unto all times except that of walking after the Spirit because that virtually containeth all the rest And the Spirit is continually moving enclining or powerfully working a Christian to some or other of the duties there required if not to those which commonly past under the name of works and duties yet to that which is the work of works Scilicet Believing waiting and resting in and upon God by Iesus Christ Exod. 14.13 14. Isa. 50.10.30.7 Psal. 27.14 Ioh. 6.29 And hence it is that prayer is alwayes a duty because in Specie alwayes commands Christians and yet are not Christians bound to be of the Sect of the Euchitae alwayes praying The determining in individuo when and which of these works is to be done by each particular Christian is left to the holy Spirit whom Christ hath sent to govern and guide his Church by the law of light life and love unto the end of the world For otherwise first Christ could not discharge those relations of Head Husband Bishop King Lord and Captain all which keeping within the bounds of the General Law Determine for those under them Qua tales when and which particular duties each shall do I say to this man go
had gotten of them called an Approbation One of the Commissioners who appeared as to me more respective and ingenuous than any of the rest was pleased at after this to offer 1. A reference into the countrey for examination of things before witnesses as to the matter of fact if I conceived my self wronged and did desire it 2. A liberty as I apprehended to answer those passages in writing and present it to the Commissioners unto the latter I said nothing In order to the first I answered that for ought I knew the men in our countrey that were best known to them and to whom I should be referred were my professed adversaries to which the Gentleman replied that I might leave the choice of persons for the discharging of that duty wholly unto them Whereupon I desired a copy of the passages and time to consider both which were granted And upon consideration I did not think it meet to accept of the first offer Because 1. The letters of Reference since granted to neighbouring Ministers were commonly directed to those I took to be the Informers themselves assisted with some of their own brethren and collected from that compared with the entertainment I had already found That this sort of men had such an influence upon and were of that repute with the Commissioners that it was not possible for them to account me any other than an evil Doer They answered and said unto him if he had not been an evil doer we would not have delivered him up unto thee Ioh. 18.30.2 I am willing to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake yet it suited not with that Christian wisdom and frame of Spirit the Lord hath given me to desire and petition for orders of this nature or voluntarily to put such a cause as this upon trial before the Judges qualified in such manner as I conceive them to be 3. If it be possible as much as lieth in me I desire to live peaceably with all men and therefore seeing they have smitten me on the one cheek and taken away my cloak which they knew to be the Summum jus or utmost that could be done by vertue of any Law or Ordinance yet in force it was upon my heart to follow Christs counsel even offer them the other and not forbid them to take away my coat also If the quiet enjoying of the unrighteous Mammon will make them my friends I love them so well as not to suffer them to incurre any further guilt by continuing my enemies And not the latter for 1. I freely and publickly delivered my judgement upon some of the passages instead of returning my yea or nay which was so stumbled at by the Commissioners that I thought my Writing would give no satisfaction at al but more offend 2. Though when called I was willing to submit my parts gifts and my life and conversation or any thing I can call mine to the credit of Commissioners impowred by the State yet the doctrine I preach being such as I cannot call mine own I dare not submit it to the vote of any man on earth unlesse they could make it out that they have their Commission immediately from Jesus Christ 3. I knew my self unable to answer De facto to all or any of these passages which I conceived would be chiefly if not solely expected For first I took no notes in writing of any Sermon preached by me for this eight years last past and if I had yet these being as the Informers well call them meerly passages not positions or conclusions it is not likely that I should have booked any of them 2. It is so far as I can learn from others or collect by circumstances three years and a halfe at the least since the Sermon was preached in which it is pretended that these passages were delivered and I have not so well studied the Art of memory as to recollect passages of so old a date Nor can I hear that any of those hundreds that were present at that publick meeting except only these Informers remember that I delivered any such or can punctually call to mind any form of words then used save the text it self Rom. 10 6 7.3 Though the passages as here presented without any thing consequent or antecedent sound somewhat harsh And those that know me best can scarce think that I should be so spermalogical or egregiously act the part of a babler as ipsis terminis to deliver any such Yet do I so clearly discern several precious truths latent in obscured by and struck at through this mist of words that though I cannot own the words themselves simply considered yet can I not disown the things hinted at by them without making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience And hereupon I did resolve to write an explanation of these passages that so I might according to the measure of light and grace received 1. Vindicate clear and free those truths of Christ which I looked upon as contemned darkened and here imprisoned through the unrighteousness of men 2. That such scruples and Queres might be removed as may hereby have been cast into your minds and disquieted the peace of your spirits 3. That I might discharge mine own conscience and leave with you a reason of the hope that is in me for the conviction if not satisfaction of all such as shall ask for or expect it And now my brethren I hope I need not in the close of all to put in one caveat more against my self and tell you what so many say and you your selves already know Scil. that I am a man not only subject to the like but more passions and infirmities than other men Yet however let me minde you that though I professe I neither speak nor writ any thing but what I believe to be a truth yet dare I not believe that all is true that I do speak and write nor do I think it safe either for you or me to adhere to any expressions or form of words whatsoever but such as the holy men of God have left upon record who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Sine verbo Dei temerarium est asserere quod videtur nobis bona consequentia trahi saith Luther It is a rashnesse to assert without the word of God that which seemeth to us to be drawn from it by good consequence And hence I much admire the greatnesse of the Beam that is in some mens eyes Daring to condemn others for asserting a perfection practical when they themselves practise towards others as if they were infallible in their judgements I confesse saith Baxter I was well acquainted with the Genius of many of my reverend and newly honoured brethren I thought that no godly man would have taken himself wronged if a man told him he had error no more than to tell him he had sin I took it for granted that Humanum est errare and that we know but in
to doe it for that is the work of the Spirit by the Gospell use of the law page 388. If any thinke that Christians are hereby set at liberty from all liberal commands shal never work but when as and what the Spirit moves them let him consider first That there is a difference betwixt the commands of the Law or letter strictly so called which requires obedience though Spiritual to be done in the power of the Old man which is carnall And the cōmands of Christ or given by the Apostles in the Name of Christ which calls for an obedience Spiritual but to be done in the power of the New man which daily fights against and mortifies the old Christians may be set at liberty from these Act 15.20 And yet not set at libertie from but in a liberty to walk accordingly as is required by these 2 Cor. 3.17.1 Ioh. 5 3 Mat. 11.30 Secondly It were well if Christians did but alas they doe not work either so often or in that manner and measure nor alwaies what the Spirit moves them to for first The Spirit or inward man where the Spirit dwels is willing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as some read Rom. 12.11 to doe or suffer upon all occasions It s the flesh that 's weake Mat. 26.41 Paul found the Law of his mind warring against the law of his members Rom. 7.23 25. And the Spirit against the flesh as wel as the flesh against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 To wil was present with him though how to doe that which was good he found not Rom. 7 18. Secondly One of our great sins reproved complained against is quenching of the Spirit 1. Thes. 5.19 Grieving and resisting the Spirit Ephes 4.30 Acts. 7.51 Gen. 7.3 Nay Christians as they live in the Spirit are exhorted to walke in the Spirit and assured thereupon that they shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Thirdly The most liberall legall men confesse that they often resist the good motions of the Holy Spirit that Acti agunt they act when acted That by the power of their Habituall grace they cannot stirre without the Antevening of some new exciting grace that they attempt often to work in their owne time which is the night having neglected Gods time which is the day Fourthly Did Christians deny as alwaies they should and the Grace of God teacheth them Tit 2.12 to walk after the flesh they needed not labour or worke before the spirit it were sufficient for them to walke after it Rom 8.1 with the rest of the Sonnes of God to be bid by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 to deny themselves take up their present crosses and at his call follow him not heeding the voice of strangers Iohn 10.4 5 Thirdly I doe not hold that the Spirit of Christ doth worke in Christians or carry them out to worke any thing but what is agreable to the directory Mandatorie part of the Scriptures nor that it doth teach them to beleeve any thing but what is agreable to the doctrine of the Gospel as recorded by the Prophets and Apostles and doe therefore for the discoverie and prevention of false delusive spirits often inculcate those sayings If any man think himselfe to be a Prophet or spirituall let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14.37 To the Law and to the Testimonie if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa. 8.20 Fourthly Though I dare not limit the Spirit that blowes where it listeth unto means as if it could not or often did not worke without them yet doe I not despise prophecying praying reading conference c. but looke for the Spirit to worke in and by all such meanes as Christ hath appointed and the Apostles who received immediately from him have delivered unto us For albeit Fifthly The Anointing which the Saints have received of him abideth in them and they need not that any man teach them other things than what that Spirit by which they were at first begotten through the Gospel dayly teacheth them yet is there need of speaking and writing to and Harkening and adhering unto what is written and spoken both by fathers young men and little children 1 Iohn 2.13 2 Thes. 2 15. Iude. 3. First That Christians may be put in remembrance of these things though they know them and are already established in the present truth 2 Pet. 1.12 or once knew them Iude. 5. Secondly That they may be stirred up by being put in remembrance 2 Pet 1 13 Thirdly To diswade them from the love of the world by representing the vanity thereof 1 Iohn 2 15 16.17 Fourthly For the mutuall comforting and confirming one another in the saith by manifestation of the same truth Rom 1 22 1 Iohn 2 21 Fifthly ly For the discovery and prevention of the Spirit of Ante-christ which under a pretence of glorifying immediately communicating with the Father denies Iesus Christ to have come in the flesh to take away sinnes and our fellowship with the Father and his Son Iesus Christ contrarie to 1 Iohn 1.2.3 and 2 23 4 3 Sixthly That Christians may not be shaken in mind or troubled either by Spirit by word by letter or by signes and wonders telling or foretelling such things as are not recorded by the Apostles for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come 2 Thes 2 2 3 15. The second passage The Law was not given to an unconverted people but to a converted 1. BY the Law may be understood either that covenant of works as made with Adam in Paradise or that Legal Subservient Covenant added to the promise because of transgressions and ordained by Angells in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3.19 Secondly By a converted people may be understood either only those that are such Judicio certitudinis in a judgement of certaintie which only can be passed by the Lord himselfe He alone knowes who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Or all those that are such Judicio charitatis in a Iudgement of charitie soe farr as is meet for us to judge Phi. 2.7 The Law taken in the first sense in its primative Institution cannot properly be said to have been given either to a people converted or unconverted those very termes presupposing the fall of man but to Adam in the state of Innocencie as the head root and representative of all mankind as is evident from the event Death having passed upon all men for that or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5.12 The Law taken in the latter sence was not given to the Gentiles but to the Iewes a circumcised people a people that renounced the gods of the Heathens visibly worshipped and called upon the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and by consequence so farr as it is meet for us to judge a converted people And the truth of this appeares
praevenitur quisquis fide danatur in Christo ad solum verbi auditum caetera omnem nostram aliam operam and witnesse to the truth of Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought me not I was made manifest to them that asked not after me Priùs oportet nos à Deo inveniri quà m ipsum quaeramus Beza in Heb. 11.6 Antevertens venit ad vos regnum Dei {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propriae significat antevertere seu praevenire sane regnum Dei ita ad nos pervenit ut praeveniat hoc est veniat antequà m nos ipsum quaeramus Piscat. in Mat. 12.28 Abraham the father of the faithful was called when he served other gods and Paul a patttern to them that come after when he breathed out threatnings against the Church and Matthew when he sate at the receit of custom See Ball covent pag. 324. Fourthly It is Bonum in se bonum sibi Good in it self and good for a man in the state of Grace to do all that he can in Gods own way of obedience to the commandments which are given and as they are given by Christ for such reasons and in such respects as are shewen in the explanation of the eighth passage The second Querie 2. Whether that of the Sabbath be the summe of all the Commandements The Commandement of the Sabbath may be taken either literally or mystically when taken literally if we attend only to the outward form and draught thereof forbidding for divers reasons all servile works on the 7th day enjoyning it to be kept holy It is true that then it is no more than one amongst the ten But if we attend to the consequents that depend upon the due keeping and neglecting thereof It is frequently in Scriptures put for all the rest and the keeping of it calls for as if it implied vertually and consequentially all other duties and the polluting of it declares against as containing or making way for all other sins Isa. 56.2 Ier. 17.22 when taken mystically as relating to the spiritual internal Sabbath figured thereby which Calvin conceives Primarium in Sabbato locum tennisse that of the Sabbath is the summe of all the Commandments For first All the commandements except the fifth though implicitly they may be called affirmative and said to require those duties the contrary whereof they forbid Yet explicitly and according to the letter of them they are Negative enjoyning a cessation from our own works or forbidding man to sin which is in effect a bidding man be quiet for he can do nothing but sin And the commandment of the Sabbath requires this very thing Scilicet Feriationem â propriis operibus ut Deum in nobis operari sinamus A ceasing from our own works that we may suffer God to work in us Secondly the Apostle Paul reduceth all the commandements to two Rom. 8.4 Walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and this of the Sabbath compriseth both these for though it be not lawful to do evil or walk after the flesh any day yet are Christians required to do good or walk after the Spirit even on the Sabbath day and as the Priests prophaned the Sabbath by killing Sacrifices and were blamelesse So may Christians crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts and do nothing but what is acceptable to God and their reasonable service Thirdly In the state of glory when faith and hope shall cease 1 Cor. 13.13 what other things shall the Saints do but keep this everlasting Sabbath and thereby be compleatly conformable to the will of God which could not be unlesse the Sabbath were the summe of that eternal rule of Righteousnesse and law of love The third Querie 3. Whether to a Christian the Sabbath is to cease from his own works The Spiritual Sabbath or rather the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signified by the Iewes though it be not simply a ceasing from works yet it is a ceasing from our own works that is works done by our own strength according to the counsel of our own wills and for our own ends as is evident because the Apostle expressely so describeth it Heb. 4.10 He that is entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God from his There remaineth another Sabbatisme another I say besides that Sabbath of Canaan which Sabbatisme he defineth in the following verse Pareus in loc. Secondly the Prophets call for this cessation or abnegation of self as the main thing intended in the commandment Is 58.13 Upon which saith Calvin the Prophet reckons the several kinds by which he might make it evident that the true observation of the Sabbath doth consist in a denial of self and entire conversion Hence do we clearly see wherefore God doth so highly commend in Scriptures the observation of the Sabbath for he looked higher than the external ceremony that is the rest and quiet in which the Iewes did think their holinesse to be But rather would have the Iewes bid adieu to the affections and lusts of the flesh and yield up themselves in obedience to him Because no man can live the life of the heavenly Kingdome unlesse he be dead to the world and to himself Now when that ceremony is abrogated neverthelesse the truth doth remain because Christ is dead and is risen again that we may have a perpetual Sabbath that is may keep holy-day or cease from our own works that the Spirit of God may act powerfully in us Thirdly the example of Gods resting from his works proposed for our imitation both in the commandement it self and Heb. 4. as likewise the injunction to the Iewes for a total cessation from all servile works teach and confirm the same thing Whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations Exod. 35.2 3. quod nisi eximiuâ—n aliquid c. But unlesse there had been some excellent and singular thing in the Sabbath it might seem more cruel than was meet to command a man to be slain only because he had cut down a piece of wood Tantum quoniam ligna exciderat Calvin Fourthly though this Sabbath doth not imply a ceasing from but a spiritual acting of good works yet it implies a ceasing to account the good works acted to be ours or our own according to that Not I but the Grace of God that is within me 1 Cor. 15.10 I am crucified with Christ nevrthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 And hence love joy peace faith long-suffering c. are called by the Apostle Not our works but the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Vsque eo patet haec hominis exinanitio ut in bonis quoque operibus violetur Sabbatum quamdiu ea deducimus nostra esse rectè enim Augustinus ultimo capite libri vigesimi secundi de civitate Dei Nam ipsa bona opera nostra