for that people being under that command but we have not any such command nor warrant now to expect such miraculous provisions 2. If the Jubilean Sabbath law of repossessing estates by the Ancient and rightfull owners should now take place with us as was commanded Levit. 25. 13. This would bring much sorrow to our late purchasers or intruders into other mens estates would reduce many of our new Gentry to their former trades and much disappoint their Gentle-homified posterity 3. If all those which by ordinary works transgresse the law of the Jewish Sabbath which is our Saturday should be put to death as was commanded Ex. 31. 14. What would become of traders manufactors market-keepers husbandmen and of the greatest part of the Christian World 4. If all false Prophets should be put to death that speak to turne us out of the way which the Lord our God hath commanded us to walk in as is commanded Deut. 13. 5. it would be ill with many of our new Time-serving Preachers for Preaching in the New Testament is often called Prophesying as Mat. 7 22. and 1 Cor. 14. 1. 5. If those that Curse their Parents though but a Domestick Fathâ—r only of a family should be put to death as is commanded Ex. 21. 17. Levit. 20. 9. what should become of those Sonnes of Beâ—â—al which have cursed and blasphemed their Publick Father Patrem Patriae 6. If Sacriledg should now be punished with death as it was Joâ—h 7. 25 Or false wittnesses Such as our Bithynian and b Iuvenal Sat. 8. Cappadocian knights of the post are Or if all young married woemen which are discovered after mariage to have bin deflowred before marriage as Deut. 22. 21 Or if no usury must be taken of our brethren as Deut. 23. 19 Or if all debts must be released freely to our neighbour or brother every seventh year as it is commanded Deut. 15. 2 Such Judicials would much displease a great number of people of this kingdom He that imagineth that he can compose one frame of lawes Politick or Ecclesiastick that may fitly serve and accommodate all christian Commonwealths and Churches may as easily phansy as it is in the fable that he can make a coat for the Moon Let him first perswadeour Nobles and Gentry to keep them to one fashion of apparrel our Legislative Statesmen never to make new or abrogate old Lawes either of the Commonwealth or of the Church But wee have seen both Politick and especially ecclesiastick lawes changeable as the Moon To Solomon the Church appeared fair as the Moon Cant. 6 10. Upon which words the Gloss saith Variatur status ejus nunc clara nunc dehonestata vitiis pravorum i. e. The Church is somtimes cleer somtimes denigrated by the vices of men her state is variable Doctor Donn was a profound Divine and a rare Poet Poets are called Divine and the Scripture calles them Prophets Tit. 1. 12. Luna est Ecclesia quia à filio illuminatur qui est Sol. Aug. in Psal 10. This learned Doctor as a propheticall Divine intituled one of his books Ecclesia Lunatica i. e. The Church Lunatick as St. Austine calls this life a Aug in Solilo c. 11. Tom. Vitam Lunaticam This I trust is enough to shew that the keeping holy of the Jewish Sabbath or Saturday or a weekly Seaventh day cannot be inforced by any authority or vertue of the Judicial law of Moses CHAP. III. Of the Ceremoniall laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated The Dissolving of them and particularly the Sabbath by Christ And why Christ did dissolve it The judgment of the Fathers herein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jewes did and doe yet That Christ appointed no new Sabbathday in-stead of the old 2 The Ceremonial Lawes THere is another sort of lawes imposed on the Ancient people of God which are called the Ceremoniall Lawes such as concerned the Covenant and the worship of God consisting of Ceremonies and Rites to be used by the Abrahamicall or Mosaicall or Jsraeliticall people untill the ending of the Leviticall Preisthood and no longer as Circumcision far more ancient then the seventh day Sabbath having bin imposed on the Abrahamits long before Levi or Moses were born and afterwards it was also inacted as a law by Moses Ex. 12. 49. Levit. 12. 3. So the Pascall feast and Sacrifices of certain beasts and birds to be offered only at the Tabernacle or Temple So Feastivalls are appointed of new Moons of At-onements or Expiation and other Festivalls besides the 7th day sabbath which are recorded Levit. 23. and are also called Sabbaths as the At-onement Levit. 16. 31. And the 7th year Lev. 25. 4. And the feast of Trumpets Lev. 23. 24 and of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 39. All which were but Types Shadows and Figures Which are now expired because the Substance and Antitype of them is come which is Christ who was but onely prefigured and represented by those Ceremonies Now because those Ceremonialls were of none other use but onely to prefigure Christ with his benefits And because the Jewes did not rightly use them to that purpose and intent for which they were appointed God himselfe who Ordained them did neverthelesse reject them even whilest they were in force and to be performed by Command of the Ceremoniall law And this was because the Jews did not rightly understand their Significations and therefore did misuse them Hence it is that God expostulateth with the Jewes Isa 1. 12 13 14. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices bring no more vain oblations-the Newmoons and Sabbaths I cannot away with them-your appointed feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to beare them The same rejection of these Ceremonies we find againe Jâ—r 6. 20. And particularly of their feasts he saith Amoâ— 5. 21 I hate and despise your feast-dayes And before these prophets the holy Psalmist had said Psal 40. 6 Sacrifices and offerings thou diddest not desire All these reprehensions were only because the Israelites of those times did erre from the true meaning and intent for which those Sabbaths and Sacrifices were set up for they supposed that the Opus Operatum or bare outward work and literall performance without any faith or consideration of the Messiah thereby signified was all that God required of them But afterward when Messiah was come and by preaching published those Ceremonies ended so that not only the abuse of them but the very use of them was utterly rejected and became sinfull For St. Paul tels us of the grand ceremony Circumcision Gal. 5. 2. If ye be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing And of Sabbaths and other ceremonies he saith Col. 2. 16. Let no man judg you in meat or drink or in respect of an Holy-day or New-moon or of Sabbath dayes which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is Christ By which we are fully
17. Christ The Reader may further observe that it is not here said The seventh day was the Sabbath but Is in the present tense and this because God never declared that the seventh day should be observed untill the daies of Moses although the Godhead did ever from the first seventh day acquiesce in Christ and not onely upon the seventh day but every day and every minute and so will do to eternity when no distinction of daies shall be any more but one everlasting day Therefore they are mistaken that think the seventh day to have been appointed to be observed on the first seventh day of the world as a Sabbath for in all the Histories of the Patriarks before the Flood and also after the Flood in the Mosaicall History of Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Reader will never find the word Sabbath so much as once mentioned untill Moses wrote the History of his own time which was about 24 hundred years after the creation of the world We observe also that in St. Jerom according to the Originall and generally in all the Latin Writers Calvin and all these words are otherwise read than our English Translation hath rendred them for we read them thus The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God but they Septimo die Sabbatum Domini Dei tui est i. e. On the seventh day the Sabboth of the Lord thy God is By these words it may appear that the seventh day was not the true and reall Sabbath here meant but that the celebration and memoriall of the Morall Sabbath was to be performed on the seventh day so that the Sabbath and the seventh day are two distinct things and differ as much as substance and shadow For the Rest of God in Christ is the true Sabbath both of God and men and the corporall rest of men was no more but onely the memoriall and celebration thereof Just so the Fathers spake concerning the great Christian Festivall of the Nativity of Christ on the 8th of the Kalends of January or 25th of December a Cyp. n. 99 Adest Christi Nativitas And b Orig. n. 46. Hieron n. 41. Hodie verus Sol mundo ortus est And c Chrys n. 61. Deus hodie factus est homo And d Aug. de Temp. Ser. 16. Hodie natus est Christus i. e. Now is the Nativity of Christ come This day the true Sun is risen This day was God made Man To day was Christ born In all which passages every one knows that these Fathers meant not that Christ was really born on that very particular day wherein they spake or wrote these words but onely that the celebration of his Nativity was performed on that day So it is here the seventh day was not the true reall and morall Sabbath but onely the day appointed for the memoriall and celebration of that Sabbath for the true Sabbath was the rest of God and men in Christ and the seventh day was the time appointed for the celebration thereof Nazianzen saith of Christian Festivalls e Naz. O. rat 39. Festi celebratio est memoria Dei i. e. Christian Festivals are but memorials of God So God himself said of the Sabbath-Feast Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a signe between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord JEHOVA that doth sanctifie you In it thou shalt not do any work First this branch doubtlesse belongeth onely to the Ceremoniall Jewish or seventh-seventh-day Sabbath but not at all to the true substantiall Sabbath and therefore it doth not in the least concern us Christians by vertue of this Law because the seventh day or saturday-Saturday-Sabbath is antiquated and quite gon 2. If this branch did belong to the Morall Sabbath or if the sanctifying of the seventh day were the onely Sabbath meant in this Commandment surely it would be a great sin to do any of the prohibited works on that day in any case of necessity or inconvenience because the Morall Law of God is indispensable and so may not be transgressed upon any pretence whatsoever as is before shewed 3. If this branch were Morall it must needs be in force at this day and then No fire must be kindled Exod. 35. 3. No sticks gathered Numb 15. 32. Nor Manna Exod. 16. 26. No burden carried Neh. 13. 19. Jer. 17. 21. No journeying or going out of our place Exod. 16. 29. No harvest-work Exod. 34. 21. In a word we might not feed our Cattle or milk our Kine or draw a Beast out of a pit nor perform the works of Surgery of Midwifery or quench a burning house But if we can shew that such works were done on the seventh day and also that they are sufficiently warranted to be inoffensive to God then I trust the Reader will perceive that this prohibition of works doth not at all belong to the keeping of the true morall and everlasting Sabbath but onely to the Jewish sanctifying of their ceremoniall and temporall Sabbath And therefore this Law was dispensable in case of necessity or of charitable convenience as may thus appear 1. The Israelites performed the works of Journeying and War in their marching about â—ericho seven daies together one of them must be the Sabbath day This was done by God's expresse command in the Old Testament And in the New Testament there is also expresse mention of a Sabbath day's journey Act. 1. 12. 2. The Priests in the Temple carried fuell and kindled fires offered Sacrifices and baked bread and so as Christ said they profaned Mat. 12. 5. the Sabbath that is the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath and yet were blamelesse And this because there was a necessity laid on them even the commandment of God who yet would not have so commanded against his own morall Law 3. As for carrying burdens we know Christ commanded the impotent man to take Joh. 5. 8. take up his bed And for Cures himself performed many on the Sabbath day on set purpose to undeceive the Jews in their Sabbaticall and Pharisaicall superstitions And also excused his own Disciples for gathering corn on the Sabbath 4 As for the works of mercy and charity towards our brethren and even to our poor cattle how many generall precepts have we A righteous man regardeth the life of his Prov. 12. 10. Mat. 12. 11 beast It is Christ's own orgument If a sheep may be lifted out of a pit on the Sabbath day much more may a man in danger be holpen This he grounded on the Word of God by his Prophet Hos 67. I will have mercy and not sacrifice That is God will rather dispense with his own due for a while then thereby retard the works of mercy and compassion The Psalmist saith O Lord thou preservest â—sal 36. 6. man and beast Thus As Moses cast the two Tables of the Law out of his hands and brake them and yet Exod 32. 19. thereby brake
Sabbath or Rest in Christ He tels us also that Ebâ—on the Ancient Judaizing Heretick raised a report d Id Haer. 30. That Saint Paul had desired the Jewish High-preist's dâ—ughter to be given to him in mariage but being denied in revenge he wrote against their Sâ—bbath anâ— Circumcision But the true cause of the Apostle's decrying the Jewish Sabbath was this e Id. iâ—iâ— Christus est magnum Sabbatum quietos nos faciens à peccatis nostris -Ejus figura erat parvâ—m Sabbatum quod inserviebat usque ad ipsius adventum Christ is the grand Sabbath for he setteth us at rest from the troubles of our soules by reason of our sins the Jewish little weekly Sabbath was but a figure of Christ our great Sabbath and was to last but until his comming To this doctrine the learned Romanist's do assent as Bishop White hath observed out of Pet. Damianus Bishop of Ostia above 500 years since who thus writeth f Pet. Damiani lib. 2 Eph. 5. Quid per Sabbatum intelligere debemus nisi Christum in Illo siquidem Sabbato requiescâ—mus- spem ponimus i. e. What should we understand by the Sabbath but Christ for in him is our rest and hope St. Aâ—stin is most plentiful in asserting this doctrine for besides what I have observed before out of him he further saith of Circumcision and Sabbath a Aug. Cont Admantum c. 16. To. 6. Circumcisionem approbamus spiritualem- Sabbatum nam ad aeternam requiem intendimus We Christians approve of Circumcision but it is Circumcision spiritual mentioned Rom. 2. 29. Circumcision in the heart not in the letter but in the spirit and Colos 2. 11. Circumcision made without hands we approve of that Sabbath by which we intend and trust to obtain everlasting Rest Of this Sabbath he saith again b Id. Cont Adiman c 2. To. 6. Sabbatum non est repudiatum a nobis Christianis sed intellectum We Christians do not utterly reject the Sabbath but we understand it more truly than the Jews do Of the same mysterious Sabbath he saith again c Id de Gen. ad lit lib. 4 c 13. A fidel bus perpetuum Sabbatum observatur They that believe in Christ do keep a Sabbath perpetual What he meanes by this Sabbath is declared by these words d Id. Cont Faâ—stum lib. 19. c. 9. In Christo Sabbatum habemus nam ait Ego faciam ut requiescatis Our Sabbath is in Christ for he it is that saith I will give you rest Mat. 11. 28. And to shew the difference between the Typical and the Substantial Sabbaths and to what Purpose that Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was ordained He saith The Jews were offended because Christ commanded the infirm man to carry his bed on their Sabbath day Jo. 5. 10. But Christ might have answered them e Aug. in Joan. Tract 17. SacramentuÌ„ Sabbati signum observandi unius diei ad tempus datum Judaeis impletionem verò Sacramenti illius in illo venisse Sabbatum ad significationem meam vobis praeceptum est The Sacramental Sabbath or sign of keeping that day was imposed on the Jews but for a time because the fullfilling of it was performed by the comming of Christ for that Sabbath was given onely to signify Christ To this of Austin Calvin seemeth to me to subscribe where he saith f Calv. instit 2. 8. 31. Christus est verum Sabbati Complementum The keeping of a seaventh-day-Sabbath is but a vain and empty shadow except it be filled with the apprehension of Christ So that as all Typical and Ceremonial shadows were to cease when the thing was come which they signified the Sabbath being but such a sign must also so cease as Justin Martyr long ago taught g Just Dialog cum Triph. Sabbata finem habuêre nato Christo When Christ came Sabbaths went away Lastly it would be inquired what the Church of Englands doctrine is concerning that Sabbath in the fourth Commandment which Church I firmly believe to be in her doctrine and discipline the most truly Catholick Church in the world This we may discover by considering that prayer or suffrage which this Church hath required to be by us said at the rehearsing of this Sabbath-Commandment as at each other of them in these words Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law This prayer hath much troubled the minds of some of our Religious and well-meaning Countrymen because their teachers did not aright inform them in the true meaning of that Sabbath for both in their pulpits and also in their pâ—inted Catechisms they expound it to be meant only of sanctifying a day as the Jews did But if they so mean this prayer would be not only vain but also an impious mocking of God seeing the Commandment mentions onely the seaventh day and that precisely and none other and that is our Saturday which both we and all other Christian-Churches have utterly rejected but if they thereby understand our Sunday that is not so much as mentioned much less intended there nor may it be called a Sabbath day nor is the celebration of our Sunday to be enforced by vertue of that Commandment but otherwise as is before shewed But those Judicious Leanred and Godly men and also heroical Martyrs who were the compilers of our English Liturgy as Cranmer Ridley and others did rightly understand that Sabbath to signify Christ who onely is our Christian Sabbath and in this sence only we ought to understand it and then this Prayer must needs be confessed to be pious and necessary and not otherwise for the keeping of Christ by faith in him and sanctifying him that is considering his worth and benefits and demeaning our selves towards him so reverendly as becometh us and belongeth to his super-eminent hollness is the only way to procure an everlasting tranquillity Rest and Sabbath to our Consciences For without this Sabbath all our care will prove vain and the very Godhead will be but a terrour to us But if by God's merciful assistance we keep our selves fast in faith and so in Union with this blessed Sabbath we may then with comfort apply Ps 42. 5. that expostulation of the Psalmist to our own souls Why art thou cast down O my soul And why art thou disquieted in me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Now because the prayer above mentioned though it were granted to us is not full enough to supply and satisfy our defects and necessities for neither a good inclination readiness or willingness nor yet our earnest desires no nor our laborious endeavours to perform the Law do amount to the real and perfect keeping thereof without which we cannot enter into life as Christ hath said Mat. 19 17. Therefore the Church hath added another prayer at the end of these Commandements which is full and perfect In these words Write all
use this word God we should do it with great awefull reverence which yet we ought to do but the name of God doth herâ— signifie God himself as we are well taught by St. Austin a Aug. in Joh. Tract 29. Non est Deus duae syllabae duas syllabas colimus manet aliquod magnum quod est Deus sono non manente i. e. When we mention God or Godhead think not that we mean a word a sound a syllable or two as if we worshipped sounds words or syllables for that great thing which is God remaineth when no sound or syllable is heard Just so he saith of Christ upon those words Joh. 14. 13. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name b Id. lib. Tract 102. Non est intelligendus Dominus de sono syllabis qui hoc sentit de Filio non petit in ejus nomine etiamsi non taceat literis syllabis Christum i. e. When we ask in the name of the Lord Name doth not signifie only that word Christ as if it were a Charme he that thinks so doth not pray in the name of the Son of God though the word Christ be in his mouth Thus he The Son of God is by St. John called â—oh 1. 1. The word yet he that shall think that The Word in that place signifieth only a Grammatical or vocal word and sound doth err dangerously for it followeth The word was God so it signifieth the real and substantial Son of God It is therefore a very slander that someof late have put upon this Church for requiring an adoration of our Lord Jesus when that name is mentioned They say we worship only a name But we worship only the Lord Jesus himself as the Apostle meaneth in whom the name Jesus signifieth the Person Jesus as the name of God signifieth God himself Those phrases of Blessing and Magnifying and Glorifying and Justifying and Sanctifying God and The name of God which we find in the Scripture are all to be understood in the same sense For when it is said Job 1. 21. Blessed be the name of the Lord it is all one with that of Luk. 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel so Mal. 2. 2. Give glory to my name is all one with that of Josh 7. 19. My Son give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel That of Ezech. 36. 23. I will sanctifie my great name is all one with that of 1 Pet. 3. 15. Sanctifie the Lord God Where for those words Lord God both the Syriac and old Latine read The Lord Christ as a Beza in Loc. Beza notes There is also mention of Justifying God Ps 51. 4. yet neither Justifying Blessing Gloryfying or Sanctifying can make any addition by any of these Attributes to the plenitude of God These are but the expressions of man not to make God holy but to declare him to be so and to shew that he is so accounted and esteemed by us indeed God doth sanctify us Really Effectually and Actually by induing us with sanctifying Graces but we cannot sanctifie God otherwise than affectionately declaratively and verbally and also by conforming our selves to his Commandments And so Christ our Sabbath is to be sanctified by us by an holy imitation of his Vertues as the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1. 16. Be ye holy as I am holy and to keep this Sabbath is to be wary and mindful alwayes to keep Christ by a firm faith to be fixed to him never to deny or reject him And to keep him holy is to purifie ouâ— hearts so as to be clean and prepared Mansions fit for so holy a Guest and to walk worthy of so holy and so merciful a Saviour in our private demeanour and outward conversation As the Godhead did really magnifie the Lord Jesus by uniting it self in a Personal union with that man and thereby made him the Christ or the Anointed One in which consideration only he is our Sabbath and being so anointed he was thereby really sanctified by the Godhead and also as that word signifies he was seperated distinguished differenced and preferred above all others as it is said of him Psalm 45. 7. God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows that is above all other Kings Priests and Prophets And Philip. 2. 9. That God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name So we ought to sanctifie the same Lord Jesus our Sabbath in a way of preheminence distinguishing him by the reverence and honour which we perform to him from all other persons and honours in a word we must sanctifie honour and worship him farre more then any one or then all the Creatures of Heaven and Earth God hath many holy Ones but none so holy as our Lord Jesus He is said to be sanctified by the Father John 10. 36. so are others but Christ super-eminently and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel cals him The most Holy Dan. 9. 24. And the same Angel again cals him That holy Thing Luke 1. 35. And even Satan confessed him to be The holy One of God Mar. 1. 24. Therefore Christ our Sabbath being thus by way of excellency declared to be the holy One and the most Holy of all Holies surely he ought to be so esteemed and also to be so declaratively sanctified by us in the most humble and reverential manner that possibly we can according to his infinite holiness This I firmly believe to be the Spirit and meaning of this Moral Sabbath and the sanctifying thereof We find many sanctifyings of Creatures as of Prophets and Priests and of Places as the Tabernacle Temple and Vessels of Dayes and Times as Sabbaths Festivals but none to be so highly sanctified as Christ our Sabbath for the Sanctifying of him is a Separating of him in a preferment above all other hallowings or sanctifyings which are performed to Creatures forasmuch as we find that his very humane Nature was by the Godhead produced in an extraordinary way distinct and separate from other men as it is said Heb 7. 25. Our High-Priest is holy seperate from sinners for he was born of a Virgin and this to seperate him from the common contagron of Original pollution It is also declared Heb. 10. 29. to be an heinous sin worthy of sore punishment to count the blood of the Covenant which is the blood of Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. common which is to esteem his blood no better then the blood of another man or indeed of all men in the world and so not to seperate or preferre or sanctifie it above all others This is the grand Sin there intended because neither all men in the world nor all the Angels of Heaven if they could and would suffer in mans stead yet they would not be sound of sufficient value to Redeem us and to procure our everlasting Rest as Christ hath done whom we
God or grounded thereon by a moral equity as some have untruly affirmed then neither private necessities nor publick reason of State can quit us from the guilt of Transgression thereof The Rule of Divines is which I firmly beleeve to be true Non licet in quavis necessitate leges Dei morales seu naturales violare i. e. It is not lawfull in any case of necessity to violate the moral or naturall lawes of God For example In the times of Persecution the ordinary commands of Persecutors were a Optat. lib. 3. Nega Deum Incende Testamentum Thus pone i. e. Deny thy God Burn the Book of God Worship the idol And these were injoyned upon pain of present torment and death And what greater necessity can be imagined then these and yet the Martyrs refused life upon such unlawfull conditions Joseph would not yield to adultry with his lady though he knew the consequence of imprisonment nor the 3 Hebrews Gen. 39. Dan. 3. worship the golden imâ—ge though they were assured of the fiery furnace All inconveniences dangers and necessities must submit to the moral law of God better it is to buâ—n or die then to deny Christ or blaspheme God and bear false witnesse There is a necessity to obey God but no necessity of continuing our naturall life by ungodly means In times of Persecution the Martyrs might have escaped torment if Necessity might have excused them But it is far otherwise in lawes meerly Ceremonial whether Jewish or Christian the transgression of this sort of lawes is excusable by necessity if it be a true real and pressing necessity in this case the Proverb will take place Aug. in Soliloq c. 2. To. 9. Necessitas non habet legem i. e. Necessity hath no law and Inter arma silent leges Lawes humane are dumb in time of Warr. Therefore because the Seaventh day Sabbath of the Jewes was meerly a law Ceremonial it might without sin upon necessity be slighted Upon this reason it was that Mattathias the wise and zealous Macchabean priest with his associates decreed and first taught the Jewes that they might upon necessity fight and repell their enemies on the Sabbath day as we read both in b Ios Antiq l. 12. cap. 9. 1 Mac. 2. 41. Josephus 1 Maccab. 2. 41. So likewise the Jewes of Antioch when they were by force of necessity compelled refused not to Work on their Sabbath day as the same Josephus reporteth And our Saviour excuseth his disciples for plucking eares of corne and causeth c Jos de Bello lib. 7 Mat. 12. Iohn 5. the impotent man to cary his bed and declareth that the priests who by their great labours about sacrifices in the Temple do profane the Sabbath yet are blamelesse Thus David did in necessity of hunger eat the holy Shewbread and the people of Israell for 40 yeares together in the wildernesse abstained from Circumcision as being very dangerous in their marches although it was imposed on them with great 2. Chron. 30. 2. Ex. 12. charge And in the dayes of Good Hezekiah the Passeover was celebrated in the second month which was otherwise then the law prescribed Ex. 12. All these things were done upon necessity or some usefull convenience without any offence to God * because the Sabbath day and Circumcision and Shewbread Num. 9. 11. and Passeover were but Ceremonialls and not morall lawes I doubt not but aged Eleazar the 7 brethren mentioned both by h Josephus d Iosep de Maccab. 2 Mac. c. 6. 7. and in 2 Macchab. cap. 6. 7. who were put to cruel tortures and death for refusing to eat Swines-flesh offered to Idols might have eaten thereof in that necessity and have saved their lives without offence to God because that law was but Ceremonial Only they knew their eating might have given Scandal or offence to their brethren the Jewes and therefore they abstained just as St. Paul saith in the like case 1 Cor. 10. 27. 28. Whatsoever is seâ— before you eaâ—e asking no question for conscience sake But 1 Cor. 10. 27. if any say unto you This is offered in sacrifice unto Idols eat not for his sake that shewed it Just so it is with our Christian Ceremonies whereof Sundâ—y is one and therefore the Solemnity and celebration therof in case of pressing dangers and necessities may be omitted But let us be sure that the said necessities be so indeed and not sinfull or contracted by our own faults or only pretended and then God will excuse us though some men will not Thus some Christians in time of Persecutions were condemned to the mines and listed under the title Metallicae Condemnationis and were forced there to sore work every day Sunday all as we read in Eusibius Hilarie Chrysostome â— Eus Hist l. 8. c. 13. Hil. cont Constant lib. â— Chrys de laudibus Martyrum hom 70. So at this day those Christians who are in Slavish captivity under the Turks are compelled to undergo hard labours even on Sundays and yet thereby neither the former Christian Confessors nor these do offend God which yet they would if our Sunday were a branch of the moral law of God There is not I think any good and prudent christian that doth not approve of most willingly submit to an holy celebration of our Christian Sunday although they do not think it to be enforced by virtue of the 4th CoÌ„mandment of the moral law or any equity thereof but upon another reason and ground because the equity pretended must be derived not from the Moral Sabbath but from the Jewish Ceremoniall Seaventh-day-Sabbath the equity whereof is only this That as God under the law required one day in seaven to be Sanctified as a figure and shadow of his people's rest in their Messiah to come So the Christian Church hath ordained one day in Seaven to be a memoriall of our rest in the same Messiah our Saviour who is come and our Sunday may also be called a kind of shadow as the Jewish Seaventh day was only their shadow went before the body as shadows somtimes do and our shadow followeth after the body for the body of both is Christ The Sabbath which is truly Moral and perpetual and which is intended meant and injoyn'd in the 4th Commandment is another manner of Sabbath much differing from the Jewish seventh day Sabbath or the Christians Sunday and is not such a sabbath as is by many now adayes supposed neither is the vigor and force of that Sabbath-Commandment as yet antiquated or expired but standeth in as full strength and in an obliging power as much or rather more then it had during the Jewish Synagogue or before the incarnation of our Lord. And I trust I shall make it appear that this Sabbath-law is written in our hearts evidently and convincingly as much or rather more than any other of those Moral Lawes and that this Sabbath was to be kept