pretence of certainty above Evidence produced have had any influence into those enquiries after the Truth in this matter which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we now address our selves unto § 9 In the first place it will be necessary to premise something about the Name whereby this Day may be called For that also among some hath been controverted Under the Old Testament it had a double Appellation the One taken from the Natural Order of the Day then separated with respect unto other Dayes the Other from its Nature and Use. On the first Account it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it So also Exod. 20. 11. Upon its first Institution and on the Re-introduction of its Observation it is so called But it is a meer Description of the Day from its Relation to the six precedent dayes of the Creation that is herein intended absolutely it is not so called any where Yet hence by the Hellenists it was termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seventh and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred seventh Day So is mention made of it by Philo Josephus and others And our Apostle maketh use of this Name as that which was commonly in use to denote the Sabbath of the Jews Chap. 4. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he speaketh or it is spoken somewhere concerning the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used technically to denote that Day And he educeth the Reason of this Denomination from Gen. 2. 3. Being as was said the Day that ensued immediately after the six distinct Dayes wherein the World was created and putting a Period unto a measure of Time by a Numeration of Dayes alwayes to return in its Cycle it was called the seventh Day And from that course of Time compleated in seven Dayes thence recurring to its Beginning is the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebdomas a Week which the Hebrews call only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seven And the same word sometimes signifieth the seventh Day or one Day in seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is septimum Diem celebrare to celebrate the or a seventh Day And the Latines use the Word in the same manner for seven Dayes or One Day in seven But this Appellation as we shall see the Apostle casts out of Consideration and Use as to the Day to be observed under the New Testament For that which was first so is passed away and another instituted in the Room thereof which although it be also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a seventh Day absolutely or one in the Revolution of seven yet not being the seventh in their Natural Order that Name is now of no use but antiquated § 10 From its Occasion Sanctification and Use it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath and the Sabbath Day The Occasion of this Name is expressed Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he rested shabath that Day It is called Rest the Rest because on that Day God rested And in the Decalogue it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sabbath or of Gods Rest and ours And absolutely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sabbath Isa. 56. 2. where also God from his Institution of it calls it my Sabbath v. 4. This being a thing so plain and evident it were meer loss of Time to insist upon the feigned Etymologies of this Name after it came to be taken notice of in the world I shall only name them Appion the Alexandrian would have it derived from the Aegyptian word Sabbo as Josephus informs us Cont. App. lib. 2. and what the signification of that Word is the Reader may see in the same place Plutarch derives it from Sabboi a Word that was used to be howled in the furious Services of Bacchus for his Priests and Devotoes used in their Bacchanals to cry out Evoi Sabboi Sympos lib. 4. c. 15. which things are ridiculous Lactantius with sundry others of the Antients fell into no less though a less offensive mistake Hic saith he est dies Sabbati qui lingua Hebraeorum à numero nomen accepit unde septenarius numerus legitimus plenus est Institut lib. 7. cap. 14. Procopius Gazaeus on the Pentateuch hath a singular conceit Speaking of the Tenth of the Month Tizri termed Sabbaton Sabbat he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have it the Day of the Conception of John Baptist the fore-runner of Christ when the Remission and Repentance that he Preached began and thence conjectures the Etymologie of the Sabbath to be from Sabachta that is the Syriack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Remission that Day being remitted holy unto the Lord being the seventh Day which is Sabaa that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vanity of which conjectures is apparent to all The Reason and Rise of this Appellation is manifest Hence this was the proper and usual Name of this Day under the Old Testament being expressive of its Occasion Nature and End The Word also hath other Formes as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Sabbaton and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam. 1. 7. Mishbat the signification of the Word being still retained Neither yet is this Word peculiarly Sacred as to what it denotes but is used to express things common or Prophane even any Cessation resting or giving over The first time it occurs Gen. 2. 3. it is rendred in Targum by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a common Word to rest See Isa. 14. 4. Chap. 24. 8. and many other places It is also applyed to signifie a Week because every Week or seven of Dayes had a Sabbath or Day of Rest necessarily included in it Levit. 23. 15. You shall count to your selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven compleat Sabbaths that is Weeks each having a Sabbath in it for its close for the reckoning was to expire on the End of the seventh Sabbath v. 16. And this place being expounded by Onkelos in his Targum of a Week Nachmanides sayes upon it that if it be so which he also grants and pleads then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there will be two Tongues in one Verse or the same Word used twice in the same Verse with different significations namely that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should denote both the Holy Day of Rest and also a Week of Dayes And he gives another Instance to the same purpose in the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judg. 10. 4. Jair the Gileadite had thirty sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in the first place Colts of Asses and in the latter Cities And the common number of seven is expressed by it Levit. 25. 8. Thou shalt number unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven Sabbaths of years that is as it is
expounded in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven times seven years seven years being called a Sabbath of years because of the Lands resting every seventh year in answer to the Rest of the Church every seventh Day see the Targum on Isa. 58. 13. Esth. 2. 9. Moreover because of the Rest that was common to the Weekly Sabbath with all other Sacred Feasts of Moses's Institution in their stated Monthly or Annual Revolution they were also called Sabbaths as shall be proved afterwards And as the Greeks and Latines made use of this Word borrowed from the Hebrew so the Jews observing that their Sabbath Day had amongst them its Name from Saturne Dies Saturni as amongst us it is still thence called Satterday they called him or the Planet of that Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbetai And even from hence some of the Jews take advantage to please themselves with vain Imaginations So R. Isaac Caro commending the Excellency of the seventh Day sayes That Saturne is the Planet of that Day the whole being denominated from the first hour whereof afterwards He therefore saith he hath power on that Day to renew the strength of our Bodies as also to influence our minds to understand the Mysteries of God He is the Planet of Israel as the Astrologers acknowledge doubtless and in his portion is the rational soul and in the parts of the earth the house of the Sanctuary and among Tongues the Hebrew Tongue and among Laws the Law of Israel So far he who whether he can make good his claim to the Relation of the Jews unto Saturne or their pretended advantage on supposition thereof I leave to our Astrologers to determine seeing I know nothing of these things And on the same Account of their Rest falling on the Day under that Planetary Denomination many of the Heathen thought they dedicated the Day and the Religion of it unto Saturne So Tacitus Histor. lib. 5. Alii Honorem eum Saturno haberi Seu Principia Religionis tradentibus Idaeis quos cum Saturno Pulsos conditores Gentis accepimus seu quod c septem syderibus queis mortales reguntur altissimo orbe praecipua Potentia stella Saturni feratur ac pleraque coelestium vim suam cursiem septimos per numeros conficiant Such Fables did the most diligent of the Heathen suffer themselves to be deluded withal whereby a prejudice was kept up in their minds against the only true God and his Worship The Word sometimes is also redoubled by a pure Hebraisme 1 Chron. 9. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shabbath Shabbath that is every Sabbath and somewhat variously used in the conjunction of another form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 31. 15. Levit. 25. 4. We render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Rest the Rest of the Sabbath and a Sabbath of Rest. Where sabbaton is preposed at least it seems to be as much as Sabbatulum and to denote the entrance into the Sabbath or the Preparation for it such as was more solemn when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Sabbath an High Day ensued Such was the Sabbath before the Passeover for the Miracle as the Jews say which befell their fore-fathers that day in Aegypt The time between the two Evenings was the Sabbatulum This then was the Name of the Day of Rest under the Old Testament yet was not the Word appropriated to the denotation of that Day only but is used sometimes naturally to express any Rest or Cessation sometimes as it were Artificially in numeration for a Week or any other season whose Composition was by and Resolution into seven though this was meerly occasional from the first limitation of a periodical Revolution of Time by a Sabbath of Rest of which before § 11 And this various Use of the Word was taken up among the Grecians and Latines also As they borrowed the Word from the Jews so they did its Use. The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meerly the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perhaps formed by the Addition of their usual Termination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence also our Apostle frames his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latine Sabbatum is the same And they use this Word though rarely to express the last day of the Week So Suetonius in Tiber. Diogenes Grammaticus Sabbatis disputare Rhodi solitus And the LXX alwayes so express the seventh Day Sabbath and frequently they use it for a Week also And so in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18. 12. I fast twice on the Sabbath that is two dayes in the Week And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13. 14. the Day of the Sabbath is that day of the Week which was set apart for a Sabbatical Rest. Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One day of the Sabbaths which frequently occurs is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first day of the Week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being often put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Numeral for the Cardinal § 12 About the time of the Writing of the Books of the New Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and Solemn Assemblies their Sabbaths because they did no servile work in them They had the general nature of the Weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour So the first day of the Feast of Trumpets which was to be on the first day of the second Month what day soever of the Week it happened to be on was called a Sabbath Levit. 23. 24. This Scaliger well observes and well proves Emendat Tempor lib. 3. Canon Isagog lib. 3. p. 213. Omnem Festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaei sed Gentiles Sabbatum vocant Judaei quidem cum dicunt Tisri nunquam incipere à feria prima quarta sexta ne duo Sabbata continuentur Gentiles autem non alio nomine omnes eorum solennitates vocabant And this is evident from the frequent mention of the Sabbatical Fasts of the Jews when they did not nor was it lawful for them to fast on the Weekly Sabbath So speaks Augustus to Tiberius in Suetonius Ne Judaeus quidem mi Tiberi tam libenter Sabbatis jejunium servat quam ego hodie servavi And Juvenals Observant ubi Festa mero pede Sabbata Reges And Martial Et non jejuna Sabbata lege premet speaking in contradiction as he thought unto them And so Horace mentions their tricesima Sabbata which were no other but their New Moons And to this usual manner of speaking in those dayes doth our Apostle accommodate his Expressions Col. 2. 16. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in part of an Holy day any part of it or respect unto it or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths that is any of the Judaical Feasts whatever then
And hereby are we delivered from that anxious solicitude about particular instances in outward duties which was a great part of the yoke of the People of old For 1 Hence we may in all our duties look on God as a Father By the Spirit of his Son we may in them all cry Abba Father For through Christ we have an access in one Spirit unto tho Father Ephes. 2. 18. To God as a Father as one that will not alwayes chide that doth not watch our steps for our hurt but remembreth that we are but dust One who tyeth us not up to rigid exactness in outward things whilest we act in an holy spirit of filial obedience as his sons or children And there is great difference between the duties of servants and children neither hath a Father the same measure of them The consideration hereof regulated by the general Rules of the Scripture will resolve a thousand of such scruples as the Jews of old while servants were perplexed withall 2 Hence we come to know that he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth Therefore he more minds the inward frame of our hearts wherewith we serve him than the meer performance of outward duties which are alone so far accepted with him as they are expressions and demonstrations thereof If then in the observation of this Day our hearts are single and sincere in our aims at his Glory with delight it is of more price with him than the most rigid observation of outward duties by number and measure 3 Therefore the minds of Believers are no more influenced unto this duty by the curse of the Law and the terror thereof as represented in the threatned penalty of death The Authority and Love of Jesus Christ are the principal causes of our Obedience Hence our main duty lyeth in an endeavour to get spiritual joy and delight in the services of this Day which are the especial effects of spiritual liberty So the Prophet requires that we should call the Sabbath our delight holy and honourable of the Lord Isa. 58. 13. As also that on the other side we should not do our own pleasure nor do our own wayes nor find our own pleasure nor speak our own words And these Cautions seem to regard the Sabbath absolutely and not as Judaical But I much question whether they have not in the interpretation of some been extended beyond their original intention For the true meaning of them is no more but this that we should so delight our selves in the Lord on his holy Day as that being expresly forbidden our usual labour we should not need for want of satisfaction in our duties to turn aside unto our own pleasures and vain wayes which are only our own to spend our time and pass over the Sabbath a thing complained of by many whence sin and Satan have been more served on this Day than on all the Dayes of the Week beside But I no way think that here is a restraint laid on us from such Words Wayes and Works as neither hinder the performance of any religious duties belonging to the due celebration of the worship of God on the Day nor are apt in themselves to unframe our spirits or divert our affections from them And those whose minds are fixed in a spirit of liberty to glorifie God in and by this Day of Rest seeking after Communion with him in the wayes of his worship will be unto themselves a better Rule for their Words and Actions than those who may aim to reckon over all they do or say which may be done in such a manner as to become the Judaical Sabbath much more then the Lords-Day § 10 Thirdly Be sure to bring good and right Principles unto the performance of the duty of keeping a Day of Rest holy unto the Lord. Some of these I shall name as confirmed expresly in or drawn evidently from the preceding Discourses 1. Remember that there is a Weekly Rest or an holy Rest of one Day in the week due to the solemn work of glorifying God as God Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy We have had a Week unto our own occasions or we have a prospect of a Week in the patience of God for them Let us Remember that God puts in for some Time with us All is not our own We are not our own Lords Some time God will have to himself from all that own him in the World And this is that Time season or Day He esteems not himself acknowledged nor his Soveraignty owned in the World without it And therefore this Day of Rest he required the first Day as it were that the World stood upon its legs hath done so all along and will do so to the last Day of its duration When he had made all things and saw that they were good and was refreshed in them he required that we should own and acknowledge his Goodness and Power therein This duty we owe to God as God 2 That God appointed this Day to teach us that as he rested therein so we should seek after Rest in him here and look on this Day as a pledge of eternal Rest with him hereafter So was it from the beginning This was the End of the appointment of this Day Now our Rest in God in general consists in two things 1 In our Approbation of the Works of God and the Law of our Obedience with the Covenant of God thereon These things are expressive of and do represent unto us the Goodness Righteousness Holiness Faithfulness and Power of God For these and with respect unto them are we to give Glory to him What God rests in he requires that through it we should seek for our Rest in him As this was the duty of man in Innocency and under the Law so it is ours now much more For God hath now more eminently and gloriously unveiled and displayed the Excellencies of his Nature and the Counsels of his Wisdome in and by Jesus Christ than he had done under the first Covenant And this should work us to a greater and more holy admiration of them For if we are to acknowledge that the Law is holy just and good as our Apostle speaks although it is now useless as to the bringing of us to Rest in God how much more ought we to own and subscribe to the Gospel and the declaration that God hath made of himself therein that so it is 2 In an actual solemn compliance with his Will expressed in his Works Law and Covenant This brings us unto present satisfaction in him and leads us to the full enjoyment of him This is a Day of Rest but we cannot Rest in a Day nor any thing that a Day can afford only it is an help and means of bringing us to Rest in God Without this design all our Observation of a Sabbath is of no use nor advantage Nothing will thence redound to the Glory of God nor the benefit of our own souls And this they
it unto his Posterity and to teach them its Observance They must therefore of necessity on those mens Principles be instructed in the Doctrine and Observation of the Sabbath before this pretended Institution of it Should we then allow that the Generality of the Jewish Masters and Talmudical Rabbies do assert that the Law of the Sabbath was first given in Mara yet the whole of what they assert being a meer curious groundless conjecture it may and ought to be rejected Not what these men say but what they prove is to be admitted And he who with much diligence hath collected Testimonies out of them unto this purpose hath only proved what they thought but not what is the Truth And upon this fond Imagination is built their General Opinion that the Sabbath was given only unto Israel is the Spouse of the Synagogue and that it belongs not to the rest of mankind Such Dreams they may be permitted to please themselves withal But that these things should be pleaded by Christians against the true Original and Use of the Sabbath is somewhat strange If any think their Assertions in this matter to be of any weight they ought to admit what they add thereunto namely that all the Gentiles shall once a Week keep a Sabbath in Hell § 5 Neither is this Opinion amongst them Universal Some of their most famous Masters are otherwise minded For they both judge that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise and that the Law of it was equally obligatory unto all Nations in the World Of this mind are Maimonides Aben-Ezra Abarbinel and others For they expresly refer the Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Sanctification and Benediction of the first seventh Day Gen. 2. 2. The Targum on the Title of Psal. 92. ascribes that Psalm to Adam as spoken by him on the Sabbath Day Whence Austin esteemed this rather the general Opinion of the Jews Tractat. 20. in Johan And Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. proves out of sundry of their own Authors that the Sabbath was given unto and observed by the Patriarchs before the coming of the people into the Wilderness In particular that it was so by Abraham Jacob and Joseph he confirms by Testimonies out of the Scripture not to be despised Philo Judaeus and Josephus both of them more antient and more learned than any of the Talmudical Doctors expresly assign the Original of the Sabbath unto that of the World Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Day of the Worlds Nativity And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Feast not of One City or Country but of the whole World De Opificio Mundi de Vita Mos. lib. 2. To the same purpose speaks Josephus lib. 2. cont Appion And the words of Abarbinel are sufficiently express in this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He sanctified and separated the seventh Day unto Glory and Honour because on its approach the work of Heaven and Earth was perfected and finished Even as a man when he hath performed an honourable Work and perfected it maketh a Banquet and a day of feasting And yet more evident is that of Maimon Tract Ridush Hachodesch cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vision or sight of the Moon is not delivered to all men as was the Sabbath Bereschith or in the Beginning For every man can number six Dayes and rest on the seventh But it is committed to the House of Judgement the Sanedrims that is to observe the Appearances of the Moon and when the Sanedrym declareth and pronounceth that it is the New Moon or the beginning of the Month then it is to be taken so to be He distinguisheth their Sacred Feasts into the Weekly Sabbath and the New Moons or those that depended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Appearing of the New Moon The first he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sabbath Bereschith the Sabbath instituted at the Creation for so from the first of Genesis they often express tecnically the work of the Creation This he sayes was given to every man for there is no more required to the due Observation of it in point of Time but that a man be able to reckon six Dayes and so rest on the seventh But now for the Observation of the New Moons all Feasts that depended on the variations of her Appearances this was peculiar to themselves and the Determination of it left unto the Sanedrym For they trusted not unto Astrological Computations meerly as to the Changes of the Moon but sent Persons unto sundry high places to watch and observe her first Appearances which if they answered the general established Rules then they proclaimed the Beginning of the Feast to be So Maimon Ridush Hackodesh cap. 2. And Philippus Guadagnolus Apol. pro Christiana Relig. Part. 1. cap. 8. shews that Ahmed Ben Zin a Persian Mahumetan whom he confutes affirmed that the Institution of the Sabbath was from the Creation of the world This indeed he reflects upon in his Adversary with a saying out of the Alcoran Azoar 3. where those that Sabbatize are cursed which yet will not serve his purpose For in the Alcoran respect is had to the Jewish Sabbath or the seventh Day of the Week precisely when one day of seven only is pleaded by Ahmed to have been appointed from the foundation of the world I know some Learned men have endeavoured to elude most of the Testimonies which are produced to manifest the Opinion of the most antient Jews in this matter But I know also that their Exceptions might be easily removed would the nature of our present Design admit of a Contest to that purpose § 6 We come now to the consideration of those different Opinions concerning the Original of the Sabbath which are embraced and contended about amongst Learned men yea and unlearned of the present Age and Church And rejecting the conceit of the Jews about the Station in Mara which very few think to have any probability attending it there are two Opinions in this matter that are yet pleaded for The first is that the Sabbath had its Institution Precept or Warranty for its Observation in Paradise before the Fall of man immediately upon the finishing of the Works of Creation This is thought by many to be plainly and positively asserted Gen. 2. 2. and our Apostle seems directly to confirm it by placing the Blessing of the seventh Day as the immediate consequent of the finishing of the Works of God from the Foundation of the World Hebrews Chap. 4 5 6. Others refer the Institution of the Sabbath to the Precept given about its Observation in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. 22 23 24 25 26. For those who deny its Original from the Beginning or a Morality in its Law cannot admit that it was first given on Sinai or had its Spring in the Decalogue nor can give any peculiar Reason why it should be inserted therein seeing express mention is made of its Observation some while before the giving
of the Law there These therefore make it a meer Typical Institution given and that without the solemnity of the giving other solemn Institutions to the Church of the Hebrews only And those of this Judgement some of them contend that in those words of Moses Gen. 2. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works a Prolepsis is to be admitted that is that what is there occasionally inserted in the Narrative and to be read in a Parenthesis came not to pass indeed until above two thousand years after namely in the Wilderness of Sin where and when God first blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it And the Reason given for the supposed intersertion of the Words in the Story of Moses is because when it came to pass indeed that God so blessed the seventh Day he did it on the account of what he was then relating of the Works that he made and the Rest that ensued thereon Others give such an Interpretation of the Words as that they should contain no Appointment of a Day of Rest as we shall see Those who assert the former Opinion deny that the Precept or rather Directions about the Observation of the Sabbath given unto the people of Israel in the Wilderness of Sin Exod. 16. was its first Original Institution but affirm that it was either a new Declaration of the Law and usage of it unto them who in their long Bondage had lost both its Doctrine and Practice with a renewed reinforcement of it by an especial circumstance of the Manna not falling on that Day or rather a particular Application of a Catholick Moral Command unto the Oeconomy of that Church unto whose state the people were then under a Praeludium in the Occasional Institution of sundry particular Ordinances as hath been declared in our former Exercitations This is the plain state of the present Controversie about the Original of the Sabbath as to Time and Place wherein what is according unto Truth is now to be enquired after § 7 The Opinion of the Institution of the Sabbath from the Beginning of the world is founded principally on a double Testimony one in the Old Testament and the other in the New And both of them seem to me of so uncontrollable an Evidence that I have often wondred how ever any sober and Learned Persons undertook to evade their â—â—rce or Efficacy in this Cause The first is that of Gen. 2. 1 2 3. That the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Host of them and on the seventh Day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh Day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which God created and made There is indeed somewhat in this Text which hath given Difficulty unto the Jews and somewhat that the Heathen took offence at That which troubles the Jews is that God is said to have finished his work on the seventh Day For they feared that somewhat might be hence drawn to the prejudice of their absolute Rest on the seventh Day whereon it seems God himself wrought in the finishing of his Work And Hierome judged that they might be justly charged with this Consideration Arctabimus saith he Judaeos qui de otio Sabbati gloriantur quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipsi diei quia in illo universa complevit We will urge the Jews with this who glory of their Sabbatical Rest in that the Sabbath was broken or dissolved from the Beginning whilst God wrought in it finishing his work and blessed the Day because in it he finished all things Hence the LXX read the words by an open corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the sixth Day wherein they are followed by the Syriack and Samaritan Versions And the Rabbins grant that this was done on purpose that it might not be thought that God made any thing on the seventh Day But this scruple was every way needless For do but suppose that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which expresseth the Time past doth intend the Praeterpluperfect Tense as the Praeterperfect in the Hebrew must do where occasion requires seeing they have no other to express that which at any time is past by and it is plain that God had perfected his Work before the Beginning of the seventh Dayes Rest. And so are the Words well rendred by Junius Quum autem perfecisset Deus die septimo opus suum quod fecerat Or we may say Compleverat Die septimo That which the Heathen took offence at was the Rest here ascribed unto God as though he had been wearied with his work Hence was that of Rutilius in his Itinerary Septima quaeque Dies turpi damnata veterno Ut delassati mollis imago Dei The sense of this Expression we shall afterwards explain In the mean time it is certain that the Word here used doth often signifie only to cease or give over without respect either to weariness or Rest as Job 32. 1. 1 Sam. 25. 9. So that no cause of offence was given in the Application of it to God himself However Philo lib. de Opific Mund. refers this of Gods Rest to his contemplation of the works of his hands and that not unmeetly as we shall see But set aside Prejudices and preconceived Opinions and any man would think that the Institution of the Sabbath is here as plainly expressed as in the Fourth Commandment The Words are the continuation of a plain Historical Narration Having finished the Account of the Creation of the World in the first Chapter and given a Recapitulation of it in the first Verse of this Moses declares what immediately ensued thereon namely the Rest of God on the seventh Day and his Blessing and sanctifying that Day whereon he so rested That Day which he rested he blessed and sanctified even that individual Day in the first place and a Day in the Revolution of the same space of Time for succeeding Generations This is plain in the Words or nothing can be thought to be plainly expressed And if there be any Appearance of Difficulty in those words he blessed and sanctified it it is wholly taken away in the explication given of them by himself afterwards in the Fourth Commandment where they are plainly declared to intend its setting apart and Consecration to be a Day of Sacred Rest. But yet Exceptions all put in to this plain open sense of the words Thus it is lately pleaded by Heddigerus Theol. Patriarch Exercitat 3. sect 58. Deus Die septimo cessaverat facere opus novum quia sex diebus omnia consummata erant Ei diei benedixit eo ipso quod cessans ab opere suo ostendit quod homo in cujus creatione quievit
place in the Promise of the Covenant that they should be written in our Hearts for if it should be so especial Grace would be yet administred for the Observation of those Laws now they are abolished which would not only be vain and useless but contradictory to the whole Design of the Grace bestowed upon us which is to be improved in a due and genuine Exercise of it Neither doth God bestow any Grace upon men but withal he requires the Exercise of it at their hands If then this Law was written in Tables of Stone together with the other Nine that we might pray and endeavour to have it written in our Hearts according to the Promise of the Covenant it is and must be of the nature of the rest that is Moral and everlastingly obligatory 3. As all the rest of the Moral Precepts it was reserved in the Ark whereas the Law of Ceremonial Ordinances was placed in a Book written by Moses on the side of the Ark separable from it or whence it might be removed The Ark on many accounts was called the Ark of the Covenant whereof God assisting I shall treat elsewhere One of them was that it contained in it nothing but that Moral Law which was the Rule of the Covenant And this was placed therein to manifest that it was to have its accomplishment in him who was the End of the Law Rom. 10. 3 4. For the Ark with the Propitiatory was a Type of Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And the Reason of the different disposal of the Moral Law in the Ark and of the Ceremonial in a Book on the side of it was to manifest as the inseparableness of the Law from the Covenant so the establishing accomplishment and answering of the one Law in Christ with the Removal and abolishing of the other by him For the Law kept in the Ark the Type of him he was to fulfil it in Obedidience to answer its Curse and to restore it unto its proper use in the New Covenant not that which it had originally when it was it self the whole of the Covenant but that which the nature of it requires in the Moral Obedience of Rational Creatures whereof it is a compleat and adequate Rule when the other Law was utterly removed and taken away And if that had been the End whereunto the Law of the Sabbath had been designed had it been absolutely capable of Abolition in this world it had not been safeguarded in the Ark with the other Nine which are inseparable from mans Covenant Obedience unto God but had been left with other Ceremonial Ordinances at the side of the Ark in a Readiness to be removed when the appointed time should come 4. God himself separates this Command from them which were Ceremonial in their Principal Intention and whole subject matter when he calls the whole Systeme of Precepts in the Two Tables by the name of the Ten Words or Commandments Deut. 10. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those ten Words which the Lord spake unto you in the Mount out of the midst of the fire in the Day of the Assembly No considering Person can read these words but he will find a most signal Emphasis in the several parts of them The Day of the Assembly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which the Jews so celebrate under the Name of the Station in Sinai the Day that was the foundation of their Church State when they solemnly covenanted with God about the Observation of the Law Deut. 5. 24 25 26 27. And the Lord himself spake these words that is in an immediate and especial manner which is still observed where any mention is made of them as Exod. 20. Deut. 5. 10. and saith Moses he spake them unto you that is immediately unto all the Assembly Deut. 5. 22. where it is added that he spake them out of the midst of the Fire of the Cloud and of the thick Darkness with a great Voice that every individual Person might hear it and he added no more He spake not one Word more gave not one Precept more immediately unto the whole people but the whole solemnity of Fire Thunder Lightning Earthquake and sound of Trumpet immediately ceased and disappeared whereon God entred his Treaty with Moses wherein he revealed unto him and instructed him in the Ceremonial and Judicial Law for the use of the people who had now taken upon themselves the Religious Observance of what he should so reveal and appoint Now as the whole Decalogue was hereby signalized and sufficiently distinguished from the other Laws and Institutions which were of another Nature so in particular this Precept concerning the Sabbath is distinguished from all those which were of the Mosaical Paedagogie in whose Declaration Moses was the Mediator between God and the people And this was only upon the Account of its Participation in the same Nature with the rest of the Commands however it may and do contain something in it that was peculiar to that people as shall be shewed afterwards 5. Whereas there is a frequent Opposition made in the Old Testament between Moral Obedience and the outward observance of Ordinances of a meer arbitrary Institution there is no mention made of the Weekly Sabbath in that case though all Ceremonial Institutions are in one place or other enumerated It is true Isa. 1. 13. the Sabbath is joyned with the New Moons and its Observation rejected in comparison of Holiness and Righteousness But as this is expounded in the next Verse to be intended principally of the appointed annual Feasts or Sabbaths so we do grant that the Sabbath as relating unto Temple Worship there intended and described had that accompanying it which was peculiar to the Jews and Ceremonial as we shall shew hereafter But absolutely the Observation of the Sabbath is not opposed unto nor rejected in comparison of other or any Moral Duties 6. The Observation of the Sabbath is pressed on the Church on the same Grounds and with the same Promises as the greatest and most indispensible Moral Duties and together with them opposed unto those Fasts which belonged unto Ceremonial Institutions To this purpose is the Nature and Use of it at large discoursed Isa. 58. v. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. § 46 Now it is assuredly worth our Enquiry what are the just Reasons of the Preference of the Sabbath above all Positive Institutions both by the place given unto it in the Decalogue as also on the account of the other especial Instances insisted on Suppose the Command of it to be Ceremonial and one of these two Reasons or both of them must be alledged as the cause hereof For this Exaltation of it must arise either from the Excelency of it in it self and service or the Excellency of its signification or from both of them jointly But these things cannot be pleaded or made use of unto the purpose intended For the service of it as it was observed among the Jews it
is now earnestly pleaded that it consisted in meer Bodily Rest which is scarcely to be reckoned as any part of Divine Service at all What is farther in it is said to be only a meer Circumstance of Time not in any thing better than that of Place which had an Arbitrary Determination also for a season It cannot therefore be thus exalted and preferred above all other Ordinances of Worship upon the account of its service seeing it is apprehended to be only a meer Adjunct of other services which were therefore more worthy than it as every thing which is for it self is more worthy than that which is only for another And take it absolutely Place is a more Noble Circumstance than Time in this Case considering that Place being determined by an Arbitrary Institution in the building of the Temple became the most glorious and significant part of Divine Worship yet had it no place in the Decalogue but only in the Samaritan Corruption added unto it It must therefore be upon the account of its signification that it was thus peculiarly exalted and honoured For the Dignity Worth and Use of all Ceremonial Institutions depended on their significancy or their fitness and aptness to represent the things whereof they were Types with the especial worth of what they did peculiarly Typifie And herein the Sabbath even with the Applications it had unto the Judaical Church State came short of many other Divine Services especially the Solemn Sacrifices wherein the Lord Christ with all the Benefits of his Death was as it were evidently set forth crucified before their eyes Neither therefore of these Reasons nor both of them in conjunction can be pleaded as the cause of the manifold preference of the Sabbath above all Ceremonial Institutions It remaineth therefore that it is solely upon the Account of its Morality and the invariable Obligation thence arising unto its Observation that it is so joyned with the Precepts of the same Nature and such we have now as I suppose sufficiently confirmed it to be § 47 I cannot but judge yet farther that in the Caution given by our Saviour unto his Disciples about praying that their flight should not be on the Sabbath Day Matth. 24. 20. He doth declare the continued Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath as a Moral Precept upon all It is answered by some that it is the Judaical Sabbath alone that is intended which he knew that some of his own Disciples would be kept for a season in bondage unto For the Ease therefore of their Consciences in that matter he gives them this Direction But many things on the other side are certain and indubitable which render this conjecture altogether improbable For 1. All real Obligation unto Judaical Institutions was then absolutely taken away and it is not to be supposed that our Lord Jesus Christ would before hand lay in provision for the edification of any of his Disciples in Error 2. Before that time came they were sufficiently instructed doctrinally in the dissolution of all Obligation in Ceremonial Institutions This was done principally by St. Paul in all his Epistles especially in that unto the Hebrews themselves at Jerusalem 3. Those who may be supposed to have continued a conscientious respect unto the Judaical Sabbath could be no otherwise perswaded of it than were the Jews themselves in those Dayes But they all accounted themselves absolved in conscience from the Law of the Sabbath upon eminent danger in time of War so that they might lawfully either fight or fly as their safety did require This is evident from the Decree made by them under the Hasmonaeans And such imminent danger is now supposed by our Saviour for he instructs them to forego all consideration of their Enjoyments and to shift meerly for their lives There was not therefore any danger in point of conscience with respect unto the Judaical Sabbath to be then feared or prevented But in general those in whose hearts are the wayes of God do know what an addition it is to the greatest of their earthly troubles if they befall them in such seasons as to deprive them of the Opportunity of the Sacred Ordinances of Gods Worship and indispensibly engage them in Wayes and Works quite of another Nature than when they stand in most need of them There is therefore another Answer invented namely that our Lord Jesus in these words respected not the Consciences of his Disciples but their trouble and therefore joyns the Sabbath Day and the Winter together in directing them to pray for an Ease and Accommodation of that Flight which was inevitable For as the Winter is unseasonable for such an occasion so the Law concerning the Sabbath was such as that if any one travelled on that Day above a commonly allowed Sabbath dayes journey he was to be put to death But neither is there any more appearance of Truth in this pretence For 1. The Power of Capital Punishments was before this time utterly taken away from the Jews and all their remaining Courts interdicted from proceeding in any Cause wherein the lives of men were concerned 2. The times intended were such as wherein there was no Course of Law Justice or Equity amongst them but all things were filled with Rapine Confusion and Hostility so that it is a vain imagination that any Cognizance was taken about such Cases as journying on the Sabbath 3. The Dangers they were in had made it free to them as to Legal Punishments upon their own Principles as was declared so that these cannot be the Reasons of the Caution here given It is at least therefore most probable that our Saviour speaks to his Disciples upon a supposition of the perpetual Obligation of the Law of the Sabbath that they should pray to be delivered from the necessity of a flight on the Day whereon the Duties of it were to be observed lest it falling out otherwise should prove a great aggravation of their distress § 48 From these particular Instances we may return to the consideration of the Law of the Decalogue in general and the perpetual Power of exacting Obedience wherewith it is accompanied That in the Old Testament it is frequently declared to be universally obligatory and hath the same Efficacy ascribed unto it without putting in any exceptions to any of its Commands or limitations of its number I suppose will be granted The Authority of it is no less fully asserted in the New Testament and that also absolutely without distinction or the least intimation of excepting the fourth Command from what is affirmed concerning the whole It is of the Law of the Decalogue that our Saviour treats Matth. 5. 17 18 19. This he affirms that he came not to dissolve as he did the Ceremonial Law but to fulfill it and then affirms that not one Jot or Tittle of it shall pass away And making thereon a Distribution of the whole into its several Commands he declares his disapprobation of them who shall break
or teach men to break any one of them And men make bold with him when they so confidently assert that they may break one of them and teach others so to do without offence That this reacheth not to the confirmation of the seventh Day precisely we shall afterwards abundantly demonstrate In like manner St. James treats concerning the whole Law and all the Commands of it Chap. 2. 10 11. And the Argument he insists on for the Observance of the whole namely the giving of it by the same Authority is confined to the Decalogue and the way of Gods giving the Law thereof or else it may be extended to all Mosaical Institutions expresly contrary to his Intention § 49 It is known that many things are usually objected against the Truth we have been pleading for namely the Morality of a Sacred Rest to God on one Day in seven from its Relation to the Law of Creation and the Command for it in the Decalogue And it is known also that what is so objected hath been by others solidly answered and removed But because those Objections or Arguments have been lately renewed and pressed by a Person of Good Learning and Reputation and a new Reinforcement indeavoured to be given unto them I shall give them a new Examination and remove them out of our way § 50 It is then objected in the first place Disquisit de Moralitate Sabbati p 7. That the Command for the Observation of the Sabbath is a Command of Time or concerning Time only namely that some Certain and Determinate Time be assigned to the Worship of God and this may be granted to be Moral But Time is no part of Moral Worship but only a Circumstance of it even as Place is also Therefore the Command that requires them in particular cannot be Moral For these and the like Circumstances must necessarily be of a Positive Determination § 50 An. 1. The whole force of this Argument consists in this that Time is but an Help Instrument or Circumstance of Worship and therefore is not Moral Worship it self nor a part of Moral Worship nor can so be But this Argument is not valid For whatever God requires by his Command to be religiously observed with immediate respect unto himself is a Part of his Worship And this Worship as to the kind of it follows the Nature of the Law whereby it is commanded If that Law be meerly Positive so is the Worship commanded however it be a Duty required by the Law of Nature that we duly observe it when it is commanded for by the Law of Nature God is to be obeyed in all his Commands of what sort soever they are If that Law be Moral so is the Duty required by it and so is our Obedience unto it The only way then to prove that the Observation of Time is no part of Moral Worship is this namely to manifest that the Law whereby it is required is Positive and not Moral for that it is required by Divine Command of the one sort or the other is now supposed And on the other side from the Consideration of the thing it self naturally as that it is an Adjunct or Circumstance of other things no consequence ariseth to the determination of the Nature of the Law whereby it is required 2. Time abstractedly or one Day in seven absolutely is not the adequate Object of the Precept or the fourth Commandment But it is an Holy Rest to be observed unto God in his Worship on such a Day And this not an Holy Rest unto God in general as the Tendency and End of all our Obedience and living unto him but as an especial Remembrance and Representation of the Rest of God himself with his Complacency and Satisfaction in his Works as establishing a Covenant between himself and us This is the Principal subject of the Command or a stated Day of an Holy Rest unto God in such a Revolution of Dayes or Time This we have proved to be Moral from the Foundation and Reason of it laid and given in the Law of Nature revived and represented in the fourth Command of the Decalogue Now though Place be an inseparable circumstance of all Actions and so capable of being made a circumstance of Divine Worship by Divine Positive Command as it was of old in the Instance of the Temple yet no especial or particular Place had the least Guidance or Direction unto it in the Law of Nature by any Works or Acts of God whose Instructive Vertue belonged thereunto and therefore all Places were alike free by Nature and every Place wherein the Worship of God was celebrated was a natural Circumstance of the Actions performed and not a Religious Circumstance of Worship until a particular Place was assigned and determined by Positive Command for that purpose It is otherwise with Time as hath been shewed at large And therefore although any place notwithstanding any thing in the Law of Nature might have been separated by Positive Institution unto the Solemn Worship of God it doth not thence follow as is pretended that any Time a Day in a Monthly or annual Revolution might have been separated unto the like purpose seeing God had given us Indication of another Limitation of it in the Law of Creation § 51 It is farther objected Disquisit p. 8. That in the fourth Commandment not one Day in seven but the seventh Day precisely is enjoyned The Day was before made known unto the Israelites in the Station at Mara or afterwards at Alesh namely the seventh Day from the foundation of the world This in the Command they are required to observe Hence the words of it are that they should Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that same Sabbath Day or that Day of the Sabbath which was newly revealed unto them This Command therefore cannot be Moral as to the Limitation of Time specified therein seeing it only confirms the Observation of the seventh Day Sabbath which was before given unto the Hebrews in a Temporary Institution And this is insisted on as the principal strength against the Morality of the Command I shall first give you in my Answer in general and then consider the especial improvements that are made of it 1. Instances may be given and have been given by all Writers concerning the Hebrew Tongue wherein the prefixed Letters sometimes answering the Greek Praepositive Articles are redundant and if at all emphatical yet they do not at all limit specifie or determine See Psal. 1. 4. Eccl. 2. 14. Lev. 18. 5. The Observation therefore of prefixing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may possibly denote an Excellency in the thing it self but tends nothing to the Determination of a certain Day but as it is afterwards declared to be one of seven is too weak to bear the weight of the Inference intended Nor will this be denyed by any whoever aright considered the various use and frequent redundancy of that Praefixe 2. The Sabbath or
Rest of a seventh Day was known and observed from the foundation of the World as hath been proved And therefore if from the Praefixe we are to conclude a Limitation or Determination to be intended in the Words Remember the Sabbath Day yet it respects only the Original Sabbath or the Sabbath in respect of its Original and not any new Institution of it For supposing the Observation of the Sabbath to have been before in use whether that use were only of late or a few dayes before or of more antient Times even from the beginning of the World the Command concerning it may be well expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the Sabbath Day 3. Suppose that the Sabbath had received a limitation to the seventh Day precisely in the Ordinance given unto that people in the first raining of Manna then doth the Observation of that Day precisely by vertue of this Command necessarily take place And yet the Command which is but the revival of what was required from the foundation of the world cannot be said to intend that Day precisely in the first place For the Reason of and in the Original Command for a Sabbatical Rest was Gods making the World in six dayes and resting on the seventh which requires no more but that in the continual Revolution of seven dayes six being allowed unto Work one should be observed a Sacred Rest to God These words therefore Remember the Sabbath Day referring unto the Primitive Command and Reason of it as is afterwards declared in the Body of the Law requires no more but a Weekly Day of Rest whereunto the seventh Day is reduced as added by an especial Ordinance And the Reason of this Commandment from the Works of God and the Order of them is repeated in the Decalogue because the Instruction given us by them being a part of the Law of our Creation more subject unto a neglect disregard and forgetfulness than those other Parts of it which were wholly innate to the Principles of our own Nature it was necessary that the Remembrance of it should be so expresly revived when in the other Precepts there is only a tacit excitation of our own inbred Light and Principles 4. The Emphatical Expression insisted on Remember the Sabbath Day hath respect unto the singular Necessity Use and Benefit of this holy Observance as also to that neglect and decay in its Observation which partly through their own sin partly through the Hardships that it met withal in the world the Church of former Ages had fallen into And what it had lately received of a new Institution with reference unto the Israelites falls also under this Command or is reduced unto it as a Ceremonial Branch under its proper Moral Head whereunto it is annexed And whereas it is greatly urged that the Command of the seventh Day precisely is not the Command of one day in seven and that what God hath determined as in this matter the Day is ought not to be indefinitely by us considered it may be all granted without the least Prejudice unto the Cause wherein we are ingaged For although the Institution of the seventh Day precisely be somewhat distinct from one Day in seven as containing a determinate limitation of that which in the other notion is left indefinite yet this hinders not but that God may appoint the one and the other the one in the Moral Reason of the Law the other by an especial determination and Institution And this especial Institution is to continue unless it be abrogated or changed by his own Authority which it may be without the least impeachment of the Moral Reason of the whole Law and a new day be limited by the same Authority which hath been done accordingly as we shall afterwards declare § 52 It is yet farther pleaded Disquisit p. 9 10 11 12. That no Distinction can be made between a Weekly Sabbath and the seventh Day precisely And if any such difference be asserted then if one of them be appointed in the fourth Commandment the other is not For there are not two Sabbaths enjoyned in it but one And it is evident that there never was of old but one Sabbath The Sabbath observed under the Old Testament was that required and prescribed in the fourth Commandment and so on the other side the Sabbath required in the Decalogue was that which was observed under the Old Testament and that only Two Sabbaths one of one Day in seven and the other of the seventh Day precisely are not to be fancied The seventh Day and that only was the Sabbath of the Old Testament and of the Decalogue These things I say are at large pleaded by the forementioned Author An. 1. These Objections are framed against a Distinction used by another Learned Person about the Sabbath as absolutely commanded in the Decacalogue and as injoyned to practise under the Old Testament But neither he nor any other sober Person ever fancied that there were two Sabbaths of old one injoyned unto the Church of the Israelites the other required in the Decalogue But any man may nay every prudent man ought to distinguish between the Sabbath as injoyned absolutely in words expressive of the Law of our Creation and Rule of our Moral Dependance on God in the fourth Command and the same Sabbath as it had a temporary occasional Determination to the seventh Day in the Church of the Jews by vertue of an especial Intimation of the Will of God suited unto that Administration of the Covenant which that Church and People were then admitted into I see therefore no Difficulty in these things The fourth Commandment doth not contain only the moral Equity that some Time should alwayes be set apart unto the Celebration of the Worship of God nor only the Original Instruction given us by the Law of Creation and the Covenant Obedience required of us thereon wherein the substance of the Command doth consist but it expresseth moreover the peculiar Application of this Command by the Will of God to the State of the Church then erected by him with respect unto the seventh Day precisely as before instituted and commanded Exod. 16. Nor is here the least appearance of two Sabbaths but one only is absolutely commanded unto all and determined unto a certain Day for the use of some for a season § 53 2. That one Day in seven only and not the seventh Day precisely is directly and immediately injoyned in the Decalogue and the seventh only with respect unto an antecedent Mosaical Institution with the Nature of that Administration of the Covenant which the people of Israel were then taken into hath been evinced in our investigation of the Causes and Ends of the Sabbath preceding and been cleared by many And it seems evident to an impartial consideration For the Observation of one Day in seven belongs unto every Covenant of God with man And the Decalogue is the unvariable Rule of mans walking before God and living unto him of what
Creation is answered by the Rest of the Son of God upon his laying the Foundation of the New Heavens and New Earth in his Resurrection But that the Sabbath Originally and in its whole nature should be a free Institution to prefigure and as in a shadow to represent any thing Spiritual or Mystical after wards to be introduced is not nor can be proved It was indeed originally a Moral Pledge of Gods Rest and of our Interest therein according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Works which things belong unto our Relation unto God by vertue of the Law of our Creation It continueth to retain the same nature with respect unto the Covenant of Grace What it had annexed unto it what Applications it received unto the state of the Mosaical Paedagogie which were temporary and umbratile shall be declared afterwards § 57 But it is yet pleaded from an Enumeration of the Parts of the fourth Commandment that there can be nothing Moral as to our purpose in it And these are said to be three First The Determination of the seventh Day to be a Day of Rest. Secondly The Rest it self commanded on that Day Thirdly The sanctification of that Rest unto holy Worship Now neither of these can be said to be Moral Not the first for it is confessedly Ceremonial The second is a thing in its own nature indifferent having nothing of Morality in it antecedent unto a Positive Command Neither is the third Moral being only the means or manner of performing that Worship which is Moral An. It will not be granted that this is a sufficient Analysis or Distribution of the parts of this Command The principal subject matter of it is omitted namely the Observation of one Day in seven unto the Ends of a Sacred Rest. For we are required in it to sanctifie the Sabbath of the Lord our God which was a seventh Day in an Hebdomadal Revolution of Dayes Supply this in the first place in the room of the Determination of the seventh Day to be that day which evidently follows it in the Order of Nature and this Argument vanisheth Now it is here only tacitly supposed not at all proved that one Day in seven is not required 2. Rest in it self absolutely considered is no part of Divine Worship antecedently unto a Divine Positive Command But a Rest from our own works which might be of use and advantage unto us which by the Law of our Creation we are to attend unto in this world that we may intend and apply our selves to the Worship of God and solemnly express our universal Dependance upon him in all things a Rest representing the Rest of God in his Covenant with us and observed as a pledge of our entring into his Rest by vertue of that Covenant and according to the Law of it such as is the Rest here injoyned is a part of the Worship of God This is the Rest which we are directed unto by the Law of our Creation and which by the Moral Reason of this Command is injoyned unto us on one Day in seven and in these things consists the Morality of this Precept on whose account it hath a place in the Decalogue which on all the Considerations before mentioned could not admit of an Association with one that was purely Ceremonial 3. Granting the Dedication of some Time or part of Time unto the Solemn Worship of God to be required in this Command as is by all generally acknowledged and let a Position be practically advanced against this we insist on namely that one Day in seven is the Time determined and limited for that purpose and we shall quickly perceive the mischievous consequents of it For when men have taken out of the hand of God the division between the Time that is allowed unto us for our own occasions and what is to be spent in his service and have cast off all influencing Direction from his Example of working six dayes and resting the seventh and all guidance from that seemingly perpetual Direction that is given us of imploying ordinarily six Days in the necessary affairs of this life they will find themselves at no small loss what to fix upon or wherein to acquiesce in this matter It must either be left to every individual man to do herein as seems good unto him or there must an Umpirage of it be committed unto others either the Church or the Magistrate And hence we may expect as many different Determinations and Limitations of Time as there are distinct Ecclesiastical or Political Powers amongst Christians What variety Changeableness would hence ensue what Confusion this would cast all the Disciples of Christ into according to the prevalency of Superstition or Profaneness in the minds of those who claim this power of determining and limiting the time of Publick Worship is evident unto all The Instance of Holy Dayes as they are commonly called will farther manifest what of it self lyes naked under every rational Eye The Institution and Observation of them was ever resolved into the Moral Part of this Command for the dedicating of some part of our Time unto God but the Determination hereof being not of God but left un-the Church as it is said one Church multiplyes them without End until they grew an unsupportable yoke unto the people another reduceth this number into a narrower compass a third rejects them all and no two Churches that are Independent Ecclesiastically and Politically one on the other do agree about them And so will and must the matter fall out as to the especial Day whereof we discourse when once the Determination of it by Divine Authority is practically rejected As yet men deceive themselves in this matter and pretend that they believe otherwise then indeed they do Let them come once soberly to joyn their Opinion of their Liberty and their Practice together actually rejecting the Divine limitation of one day in seven and they will find their own consciences under more disorder then yet they are aware of Again if there be no day determined in the fourth Command but only the seventh precisely which is Ceremonial with a general Rule that some time is to be dedicated to the service of God there is no more of Morality in this Command then in any of those for the Observation of New Moons and annual Feasts with Jubilees and the like in all which the same general Equity is supposed and a Ceremonial Day limited and determined And if it be so as far as I can understand we may as lawfully observe New Moons and Jubilees as a Weekly Day of Rest according to the custome of all Churches § 58 The words of the Apostle Paul Col. 2. 16 17. are at large insisted on to prove that the Sabbath was only Typical and a shadow of things future Let no man therefore judge you in Ment or in Drink or in respect of an Holy Day or of the New Moon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Sabbaths or
is the first express mention of the Sabbath unto and amongst that people And it sufficiently declares that this was not the absolute Original of a Sabbatical Rest. It is only an Appropriation and Application of the Old Command unto them For the words are not preceptive but directive They do not Institute any thing anew but direct in the Practice of what was before Hence it is affirmed v. 29. that God gave them the Sabbath namely in this new Confirmation of it and Accommodation of it to their present Condition For this new Confirmation of it by withholding of Manna on that day belonged meerly and solely unto them and was the especial limitation of the seventh Day precisely wherein we are not concerned who do live on the the true Bread that came down from Heaven In those words therefore to morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord there is a certain limitation of the Day a Direction for its Sanctification as confirmed by the New sign of withholding Manna all which belonged to them peculiarly For this was the first Time that as a People they observed the Sabbath which in Aegypt they could not do And into this Institution and the Authority of it must they resolve their Practice who adhere unto the Observation of the seventh Day precisely For that day is no otherwise confirmed in the Decalogue but as it had Relation hereunto § 9 The Jews in this place fall into a double mistake about the Practical Observation of their Sabbath For from those words Bake that which you will bake and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth lay up for you to be kept untill the morning v. 23. They conclude it to be unlawful to bake or seethe any thing on the Sabbath Day whereas the words have respect only to the Manna that was to be preserved And from the words of v. 29. See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the Bread of two Dayes abide you every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day they have made a Rule yea many Rules about what Motions or removals are lawful on the Sabbath Day and what not And hence they have bound themselves with many anxious and scrupulous Observances though the Injunction it self do purely and solely respect the people in the Wilderness that they should not go out into the Fields to look for Manna on that day which some of them having done v. 27. an occasion was taken from thence for this Injunction And hereunto do some of the Heathen Writers ascribe the Original of the Sabbatical Rest among the Jews supposing that the seventh day after their departure out of Aegypt they came to a place of Rest in Remembrance whereof they consecrated one day in seven to Rest and idleness ever after whereunto they add other fictions of an alike nature See Tacit Hist. lib. 5. § 10 Not long after ensued the giving of the Law on Sinai Exod. 20. That the Decalogue is a summary of the Law of Nature or the Moral Law is by all Christians acknowledged nor could the Heathens of old deny it And it is so perfectly Nothing belongs unto that Law which is not comprized therein Nor can any one Instance be given to the contrary Nor is there any thing directly and immediately in it but what belongs unto that Law Only God now made in it an especial Accommodation of the Law of their Creation unto that people whom he he was in a second Work now forming for himself Isa. 43. 19 20 21. Chap. 51. 15 16. And this he did as every part of it was capable of being so accommodated To this purpose he prefaceth the whole with an Intimation of his particular Covenant with them I am the Lord thy God and addeth thereunto the Remembrance of an especial Benefit that they and they alone were made partakers of That brought thee out of the Land of Aegypt out of the house of Bondage which he did in the pursuit of his especial Covenant with Abraham and his seed This made the Obligation to Obedience unto the Law as promulgated on Mount Sinai to belong unto them peculiarly to us it is only an everlasting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the Law of our Creation The Obligation I say that arose unto Obedience from the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was peculiar unto the Israelites and sundry things were then and there mixed with it that belonged unto them alone And whereas the Mercy the consideration whereof he proposeth as the great Motive unto Obedience which was his bringing them out of Aegypt with Reference unto his setling of them in the Land of Canaan was a Typical Mercy it gave the whole Law a station in the Typical Church State which they were now bringing into It altered not the nature of the things commanded which for the substance of them were all Moral but it gave their Obedience unto it a new and Typical Respect even as it was the Tenor of the Covenant made with them in Sinai with Respect unto the promised Land of Canaan and their Typical State therein § 51 This in an especial manner was the condition of the fourth Commandment Three things are distinctly proposed in it 1. The Command for an Observance of a Sabbath Day v. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy This contains the whole substance of the Command The formal Reason whereof is contained in the last clause of it Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it And upon the neglect of the Observance of the Sabbath in former Generations with a Prospect on the many Difficulties that would arise among the people in the Observation of it for the future as also because the Foundation and Reason of it in the Law of Creation being principally external in the Works and Rest of God that ensued thereon were not so absolutely ingrafted in the minds of men as continually to evidence and manifest themselves as do those of the other Precepts there is an especial note put upon it for Remembrance And whereas it is a positive Precept as is that which follows it all the rest being Negatives it stood more in need than they of a particular charge and special Motives of which Nature one is added also to the next Command being in like manner a Positive Enunciation 2. Secondly There is an express Determination of this Sabbath to be one Day in seven without which it was only included in the Original Reason of it v. 9 10. Six dayes shalt thou-labour and do all thy Work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God And herein the Day originally fixed in the Covenant of Works is again limited unto this people to continue unto the Time of the full Introduction and Establishment of the New Covenant And this limitation of the seventh Day was
come to a neglect and contempt of all that Worship which was as it were built upon it And as we observed before more than once the Weekly Sabbath being inserted into the Oeconomy of their Laws as to the matter of Works and Rest it is comprized in the General with other Feasts called Sabbaths also Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep And in this regard they are all cast together by our Apostle Col. 2. 16. and the Sabbath Dayes And they who by vertue of this and the like Commands would bind us up to the Judaical Sabbath do certainly lose both that and all other ground for the Observance of any Sabbath at all For look in what respects it is joyned with the other Sabbaths by Moses in the same it is taken away with them by the Apostle § 14 There is a treble Appropriation of the Weekly Sabbaths in this place made unto the Church of the Israelites 1. In that the Observation of it is required of them in their Generations that is during the continuance of that Church State which was to abide to the coming of Christ. For what was required of them in their Generations as it was required was then to expire and be abolished 2. That they were to observe it as a perpetual Covenant or as a part of that Covenant which God then made with them which is called everlasting because it was to be so unto them seeing God would never make any other peculiar Covenant with them And whereas all the Statutes and Ordinances that God then gave them belonged unto and altogether entirely made up that Covenant some of this as this especial Command for the Sabbath and that of Circumcision are distinctly called the Covenant and ceased with it 3. It was given unto them as an especial Pledge of the Covenant that God then made with them wherein he rested in his Worship and brought them to rest therein in the Land of Canaan whereby they entred into Gods Rest. Hence it is called a sign between them v. 13 14 which is repeated and explained Ezek. 20. 12. A sign it was or an evident Expression of the present Covenant of God between them and him not a Sacramental or Typical sign of future Grace in particular any otherwise than as their whole Church Constitution and their Worship in general whereof by these means it was made a part were so that is not in it self or its own nature but as prescribed unto them And a present sign between God and them it was upon a double account 1. On the part of the people Their assembling on that Day for the Celebration of the Worship of God and the avowing him alone therein to be their God was a sign or an evident express Acknowledgement that they were the people of the Lord. And this doth not in the least impeach its Original Morality seeing there is no Moral Duty but in its Exercise or actual Performance may be so made a sign 2. On the part of God namely that it was he who sanctified them For by this Observance they had a visible pledge that God had separated them unto and for himself and therefore had given them his Word and Ordinances as the outward means of their further sanctification to be peculiarly attended unto on that Day And on these Grounds it is that God is elsewhere said to give them his Sabbaths to reveal them unto them as their peculiar Priviledge and Advantage And their Priviledge it was For although in comparison of the substance and Glory of things to be brought in by Christ with the Liberty and Spirituality of Gospel Worship all their Ordinances and Institutions were a yoke of Bondage yet considering their Use with their End and Tendency compared with the Rest of the World at that time they were an unspeakable Priviledge Psal. 147. v. 19 20. However therefore the Sabbath was originally given before unto all mankind yet God now by the Addition of his Institutions to be observed on that Day whereby he sanctified the people made an enclosure of it so far unto them alone Lastly Here is added a peculiar sanction under the Penalty of Death He that transgresseth it shall surely be put to Death v. 14. God sometimes threatneth cutting off and extermination unto Persons concerning whom yet the people had no warranty to proceed Capitally against them only he took it upon himself as the Supream Legislator and Rector of that people to destroy them and cut them off as they speak by the hand of Heaven But where ever this expression is used he shall surely be put to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dying he shall dye there the people or the Judges among them are not only warranted but commanded to proceed Judicially against such an Offendor And in this respect it belonged unto that severe Government which that people stood in need of as also to mind them of the sanction of the whole Law of Creation as a Covenant of Works with the same Commination of Death unto all Transgressors In all these regards the Sabbath was Judaical and is absolutely abolished and taken away § 15 The Command is renewed again Exod. 34. 21. Six Dayes thou shalt work but on the seventh Day thou shalt Rest in Earing time and in Harvest thou shalt rest Earing time and Harvest are the seasons wherein those who till the Ground are most intent upon their Occasions and do most hardly bear with Intermissions because they may be greatly to their Dammage Wherefore they are insisted on or specified to manifest that no Avocation nor pretence can justifie men in working or labour on that Day For by expressing Earing and Harvest all those Intervenings also are intended in those seasons whereon damage and loss might redound unto men by omitting the gathering in of their Corn. And it should seem on this Ground that on that day they might not labour neither to take it away before a flood nor remove it from an approaching fire So some of the Masters think although our Saviour convince them from their own Practice in relieving Cattel fallen into Pits on that day Luke 14. 5. and by loosing them that were tyed to lead them to watering Chap. 13. 15. that they did not conceive this universally to be the intendment of that Law that in no case any work was to be done And it seems they were wiser for their Asses in those Dayes than the poor wretch was for himself in latter Ages who falling into the Jakes at Tewkesbury on that Day would not suffer himself to be drawn out if the Story be truely reported in our Chronicles In general I doubt not but that this Additional Explanation in a way of severity is in its proper sense purely Judaical and contains something more of Rigidness that is required by the Law of the Sabbath as purely Moral § 16 Mentioned it is again with a new Addition Exod. 35. 2 3. Six Dayes shall work be done but on the seventh Day there
glorified in us and by us and the Interest of Religion in Purity Holiness and Righteousness be promoted amongst Men. J. O. Jan. 11. 1670. Exercitations Concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Exercitatio Prima HEBR. Chap. IV. Ver. IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Trouble and Confusion from mens Inventions 2 Instanced in Doctrines and Practices of a Sabbatical Rest. 3 Reason of their present Consideration 4 Extent of the Controversies about such a Rest. 5 A particular Enumeration of them 6 Special Instances of Particular Differences upon an Agreement in more general Principles 7 Evil Consequences of these Controversies in Christian Practice 8 Principles and Rules proposed for the right Investigation of the Truth in this matter 9 Names of a Sacred Day of Rest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Heb. 4. 4. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 3. Exodus 16. 23. Chap. 35. 2. Lam. 1. 7. Saturn called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Jews and why The Word doubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason of it 11 Translation of this Word into the Greek and Latin Languages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12 All Judaical Feasts called Sabbata by the Heathen Suetonius Horace Juvenal cited to that purpose 13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sunday Used by Justine Martyr Tertullian Eusebius Blamed by Austin Hierom and Philastrius 14 Use of the Names of the Dayes of the Week derived from the Heathen of old Custom of the Roman Church 15 First day of the Week Lords Day Lords Day Sabbath The First Exercitation § 1 SOLOMON tells us that in his Disquisition after the Nature and State of things in the world this alone he had found out that is absolutely and unto his satisfaction namely that God made man upright but they have sought out many Inventions Eccles. 7. 29. And the Truth hereof we also find by woful experience not only in sundry particular Instances but in the whole course of men in this world and in all their concerns with respect unto God and themselves There is not any thing wherein and whereabout they have not found out many Inventions to the Disturbance and perverting of that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God Yea with the fruits and effects of this perverse Apostasie and Relinquishment of that universally Harmonious state of things wherein we were created not only is the whole world as it lyes in evil filled and as it were overwhelmed but we have the Reliques of it to conflict withal in that Reparation of our condition which in this life by Grace we are made partakers of In all our Wayes Actions and Duties some of these Inventions are ready to immix themselves unto our own disturbance and the perverting of the right wayes of God § 2 An evident Instance we have hereof in the business of a Day of Sacred Rest and the Worship of God therein required God originally out of his Infinite Goodness when suitably thereunto by his own Eternal Wisdom and Power he had made all things Good gave unto men a day of Rest as to express unto them his own Rest Satisfaction and Complacency in the Works of his Hands so to be a day of Rest and composure to themselves and a Means of their Entrance into and Enjoyment of that Rest with himself here and for ever which he had ordained for them Hence it became unto them a Principle and Pledge a Cause and Means of Quietness and Rest and that in and with God himself So might it be still unto the Sons of men but that they are in all things continually finding out new Inventions or immixing themselves in various Questions and Accounts for so saith the Wise man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 themselves have sought out many Computations And hence it is that whereas there are two general concernments of such a Day the Doctrine and the Practice of it or the Duties to be performed unto God thereon they are both of them solicited by such various Questions through the many Inventions which men have found out as have rendred this Day of Rest a matter of endless strife disquietment and contention And whereas all Doctrines of Truth do tend unto practice as their immediate Use and End the whole Scripture being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 1. the Truth which is according unto Godliness the contentions which have been raised about the Doctrine of the Holy Day of Rest have greatly influenced the minds of men and weakned them in that practice of Godliness which all men confess to be necessary in the Observation of such a Day of Rest unto the Lord if such a Day of Rest there be on what foundation soever it is to be observed For Christians in general under one notion or other do agree that a Day of Rest should be observed in and for the Celebration of the Worship of God But whereas many Controversies have been raised about the grounds of this Observance and the Nature of the Obligation thereunto advantage hath been taken thereby to introduce a great neglect of the Duties themselves for whose sakes the Day is to be observed whilst one questions the Reasons and Grounds of another for its Observation and finds his own by others despised And this hath been no small nor ineffectual means of promoting that general Prophaneness and Apostasie from strict and holy walking before God which at this day are every where so justly complained of § 3 It is far from my thoughts and hopes that I should be able to contribute much unto the composing of these Differences and Controversies as agitated amongst men of all sorts The known pertinacy of inveterate Opinions the many prejudices that the minds of most in this matter are already possessed withal and the particular Engagements that not a few are under to defend the Pretensions and Perswasions which they have published and contended for will not allow any great Expectation of a change in the minds of many from what I have to offer Besides there are almost innumerable eristical Discourses on this subject in the hands of many to whom perhaps the Report of our Endeavours will not arrive But yet these and the like considerations of the Darkness Prejudices and Interests of many ought not to discourage any man from the discharge of that Duty which he owes to the Truths of God nor cause him to cry with the Sluggard There is a Lyon in the Streets I shall be slain in the Way Should they do so no Truth should ever more be taught or contended for for the Declaration of them all is attended with the same Difficulties and lyable to the same kind of Opposition Wherefore an Enquiry into this matter being unavoidably cast upon me from the Work wherein I am engaged in the Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews I could not on any such accounts wave the pursuit of it For this Discourse though
of the Sabbath by the Patriarchs before the giving of the Law Instances hereof collected by Manasse Ben Israel Farther confirmation of it 12 Tradition among the Gentiles concerning it Sacredness of the septenary Number 13 Testimonies of the Heathen collected by Aristobulus Clemens Eusebius 14 Importance of these Testimonies examined and vindicated 15 Ground of the Hebdomadal Revolution of time It s Observation Catholick 16 Planetary Denominations of the Dayes of the Week whence 17 The contrary Opinion of the Original of the Sabbath in the Wilderness proposed and examined 18 First Argument against the Original of the Sabbath Answered c. The Second Exercitation Of the Original of the Sabbath § 1 HAving fixed the Name the Thing it self falls nextly under Consideration And the Order of our Investigation shall be to enquire first into its Original and then into its Causes And the true stating of the former will give great light into the latter as also into its Duration For if it began with the World probably it had a cause cognate to the Existence of the World and the Ends of it and so must in Duration be commensurate unto it If it ows its Rise to succeeding Generations amongst some peculiar sort of men its Cause was arbitrary and occasional and its continuance uncertain For every thing which had such a Beginning in the Worship of God was limited to some seasons only and had a Time determined for its Expiration This therefore is first to be stated And indeed no Concern of this Day hath fallen under more diligent severe and Learned Dissertations Very Learned men have here engaged into contrary Opinions and defended them with much Learning and Variety of Reading Summa sequar Vestigia rerum and shall briefly call the different Apprehensions both of Jews and Christians in this matter unto a just Examination Neither shall I omit the consideration of any Opinion whose Antiquity or the Authority of its Defenders did ever give it Reputation though now generally exploded as not knowing in that Revolution of Opinions which we are under how soon it may have a Revival § 2 The Jews that we may begin with them with whom some think the Sabbath began are divided among themselves about the Original of the Sabbath no less than Christians yea to speak the Truth their Divisions and different Apprehensions about this matter of Fact have been the occasion of ours and their Authority is pleaded to countenance the mistakes of others Many therefore of them assign the Original or first Revelation of the Sabbath unto the Wilderness Station of the people in Mara others of them make it Coaeval with the World The first Opinion hath countenance given unto it in the Talmud Gemar Babylon Tit. Sab. cap. 9. and Tit. Sanedr cap. 7. And the Tradition of it is embraced by so many of their Masters and Commentators that our Learned Selden de Jur. Gen. apud Heb. lib. 3. cap. 12 13 14. contends for it as the common and prevailing Opinion amongst them and indeavours an Answer unto all Instances or Testimonies that are or may be urged to the contrary And indeed there is searce any thing of moment to be observed in all Antiquity as to matter of Fact about the Sabbath whether it be Jewish Christian or Heathen but what he hath heaped together or rather treasured up in the Learned Discourses of that third Book of his Jus Gentium apud Hebraeos Whether the Questions of Right belonging thereunto have been duly determined by him is yet left unto further enquiry That which at present we are in the consideration of is the Opinion of the Jews about the Original of the Sabbath at the Station of Marah which he so largely confirms with Testimonies out of all sorts of their Authors and those duly alledged according to their own Sense and Conceptions § 3 Mara was the first Station that the Children of Israel fixed in in the Wilderness of Shur five Dayes after their coming up out of the Red Sea Before their coming hither they had wandred three dayes in the Wilderness without finding any Water until they were ready to faint The Report of this their thirst and wandring was famous amongst the Heathen and mixed by them with vain and monstrous Fables One of the Wisest amongst them puts as many Lies together about it as so few words can well contain Effigiem saith he Animalis quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant penetrali sacravere Tacit. Histor. lib. 5. He feigns that by following some Wild Asses they were led to Waters and so made an End of their Thirst and wandring on the Account whereof they afterwards consecrated in their Temple the Image of an Ass. Others of them besides him say that they wandred six dayes and finding Water on the seventh that was the Occasion and Reason of their perpetual Observation of the seventh Dayes Rest. In their Journey from the Red Sea to Mara they were particularly pressed with Wandring and Thirst Exod. 15. 22. But this was only for three dayes not seven They went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water The Story of the Asses Image or Head consecrated amongst them was taken from what fell out afterwards about the Golden Calf This made them vile among the Nations and exposed them to their Obloquy and Reproaches Upon the third Day therefore after their coming from the Red Sea they came to Mara that is the place so called afterwards from what there befell them For the Waters which there they found being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bitter they called the Name of the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bitterness Hither they came on the third Day For although it is said that they went three Dayes in the Wilderness and found no Water Exod. 15. 22. after which mention is made of their coming to Mara v. 23. Yet it was in the Evening of the third Day for they pitched that night in Mara Numb 33. 8. Here after their murmuring for the bitterness of the Waters and the Miraculous Cure of them it is added in the Story There the Lord made for them a Statute and an Ordinance and there he proved them And said If thou wilt diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear to all his Commandments and keep all his Statutes I will put none of those diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Aegyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee v. 26. It is said that he gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Words whereby Sacred Ordinances and Institutions are expressed What this Statute and Judgement were in particular is not declared These therefore are suggested by the Talmudical Masters One of them they say was the Ordinance concerning the Sabbath About the other they are not so well agreed Some refer it to the fifth Commandment of honouring Father and Mother others to the Ceremonies of
of and the coherence of the words do necessarily exclude such an Imagination as it is in this place For without the Introduction of the words mentioned neither is the Discourse compleat nor the matter of Fact absolved And what lyeth against our Construction and Interpretation of these words from the Arguments insisted on to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in the Wilderness shall be afterwards considered § 10 The Testimony to the same purpose with the former taken out of the New Testament is that of our Apostle Heb. 4. 3 4. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said as I sware in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the works were finished from the Foundation of the world For he speaketh somewhere concerning the seventh day in this wise And God rested on the seventh day from all his works Having insisted at large on this place with the whole ensuing Discourse in our Exposition of the Chapter it self I shall here but briefly reflect upon it referring the Reader for its full Vindication unto its proper place The present Design is to convince the Hebrews of their concernment in the Promise of entring into the Rest of God namely that Promise and Rest which yet remained and were prophesied of Psal. 91. To this purpose he manifests that notwithstanding any other Rest of God that was mentioned in the Scripture there yet remained another Rest for them that did or would believe in Christ through the Gospel In the proof and confirmation hereof he takes into consideration the several Rests of God under the several States of the Church which were now passed and gone And first he fixeth upon the Sabbatical Rest of the seventh day as that which was the first in Order first instituted first enjoyed or observed And this he sayes ensued upon the finishing of the works of Creation This the order of the words and coherence of them require Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world for he speaketh concerning the seventh Day on this wise The works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostles Discourse or Purpose but only as they denoted the Beginning of the seventh days Sabbatical Rest. For it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after The first Rest mentioned saith he cannot be that intended in the Psalm because that Rest began from the foundation of the world but this mentioned by David is promised as he speaketh so long a time after And what was this Rest Was it meerly Gods ceasing from his own works This the Apostle had no concernment in For he treateth of no Rest of God absolutely but of such a Rest as men by Faith and Obedience might enter into Such as was that afterwards in the Land of Canaan and that also which he now proposed to them in the Promise of the Gospel both which God calleth his Rests and inviteth others unto an entrance into them Such therefore must be the Rest of God here intended for concerning his Rest absolutely or his mere Cessation from working he had no Reason to treat For his Design was only to shew that notwithstanding the other Rests that were proposed unto men for to obtain an Entrance into them there yet remained another Rest to be entred into and enjoyed under the Gospel Such a Rest therefore there was instituted and appointed of God from the Foundation of the world immediately upon the finishing of the works of Creation which sixeth immoveably the Beginning of the Sabbatical Rest. The full Vindication of this Testimony the Reader may find in the Exposition it self whither he is referred And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable Testimonies The Observation and Tradition of this Institution whereby it will be farther confirmed are next to be enquired after § 11 That this Divine Original Institution of the seventh Day Sabbath was piously observed by the Patriarchs who retained a due Remembrance of Divine Revelations is out of Controversie amongst all that acknowledge the Institution it self by others it is denyed that they may not be forced to acknowledge such an Institution And indeed it is so fallen out with the two great Ordinances of Divine Worship before the giving of the Law the one instituted before the Fall the other immediately upon it that they should have contrary Lots in this matter namely Sacrifices and the Sabbath Sacrifices we find constantly observed by Holy men of old although we read not of their Express Institution But from their Observation we do and may conclude that they were Instituted although that Institution be not expresly recorded The Sabbath we find expresly instituted and therefore do and may justly conclude that it was constantly observed although that Observation be not directly and in terms remembred But yet as there is such light into the Institution of Sacrifices as may enable us to justifie them by whom they were used that they acted therein according to the mind of God and in Obedience unto his Will as we have elsewhere demonstrated so there want not such Instances of the Observation of the Sabbath as may confirm the Original Divine Institution of it pleaded for This therefore I shall a little enquire into Many of the Jewish Masters as we observed before ascribe the Original of the Sabbath unto the Statute given them in Mara Exod. 15. And yet the same persons grant that it was observed by the Religious Patriarchs before especially by Abraham unto whom the knowledge of it was granted by peculiar Priviledge But these things are mutually destructive of each other For they have nothing to prove the Institution of the Sabbath in Mara but those words of v. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he gave him a Statute and a Judgement And it is said of Abraham that he taught his Houshold and Children after him to keep the way of the Lord to do Justice and Judgement Gen. 18. 19. If then the Observation of the Sabbath be a Statute or Ordinance and was made known to Abraham it is certain that he instructed his household and children all his Posterity in their Duty with respect thereunto And if so it could not be first revealed unto them at Mara Others therefore of their Masters do grant as we observed also the Original of the Sabbath from the Creation and do assert the Patriarchal Observation of it upon that Foundation The Instances I confess which they make use of are not absolutely cogent but yet considered with other circumstances wherewith they are strengthned they may be allowed to conclude unto an high probability Some of them are collected by Manasse Ben Israel Lib. de Creat Problem 8. saith he Dico quemadmodum traditio creationis Mundipenes Abrahamum ejus posteros tantum fuit it a etiam ex dictamine Legis naturalis Sabbatum ab iis solis cultum fuisse De Abrahamo dicit sacra Scriptura
Command unto the Jews it was the Duty of the Nations to whom the knowledge thereof did come to take up the Observation of it For it was doubtless their Duty to joyn themselves to God and his people and with them to observe his Statutes and Judgements and their not so doing was their sin which as is pretended they were not reproved for or God was not displeased with them on that account 4. The Publication of Gods Commands is to be stated from his giving of them and not from the Instances of mens transgressing of them Nor is it any Rule that a Law is then first given when mens sins against it are first reproved For the Instance insisted on of Nehemiah and the Tyrians with his different dealing with them and the Jews about the breach of the Law of the Sabbath Chap. 13. it is of no force in this matter For when the Tyrians knew the Command of the Sabbath among the Jews which was a sufficient Revelation of the Will of God concerning his Worship it was their Duty to observe it I do not say that it was their Duty immediately and abiding in their Gentilisme to observe the Sabbath according to the Institution it had among the Jews but it was their Duty to know own and obey the true God and to joyn themselves to his people to do and observe all his commands If this was not their Duty upon that Discovery and Revelation which those had of the Will of God who came up to Jerusalem as they did concerning whom we speak then was it not their sin to abide in their Gentilisme which I suppose will not be asserted It was therefore on one Account or other a sin in the Tyrians to prophane the Sabbath It will be said why then did not Nehemiah reprove them as well as he did the Jews The Answer is easie He was the Head and Governour of the State and Polity of the Jews unto whom it belonged to see that things amongst them were observed and done according to Gods Law and Appointment And this he was to do with Authority having the warrant of God for it With the Tyrians he had nothing to do no care of them no Jurisdiction over them no entercourse with them but according to the Law of Nations On these accounts he charged not them with sin or a Moral Evil which they would not have regarded having no regard to the true God much less to his Worship but he threatned them with War and Punishment for disturbing his Government of the people according to the Law of God It is well observed that God reproved the Profane Feasts of the Heathens and therein unquestionably the neglect of them that were of his own Appointment For this is the Nature and Method of Negative Precepts and condemnatory sentences in Divine things that they assert what is contrary to that which is forbidden and recommend that which is opposite unto what is condemned Thus the Worship of God according to his own Institution is commanded in the prohibition of making to our selves or finding out wayes of Religious Worship and Honour of our own For whereas it is a prime Dictate of the Law of Nature that God is to be worshipped according to his own Appointment which was from the Light of it acknowledged among the Heathen themselves it is not any where asserted or intimated in the Decalogical Compendium of it unless it be in that prohibition It sufficeth then that even among the Gentiles God vindicated the Authority of his own Sabbaths by condemning their impious Feasts and abominable Practices in them § 20 By the same Learned Writer p. 52. The Testimony of the Jews in this case is pleaded They generally assirm that the Sabbath was given unto them only and not to the rest of the Nations Hence it is by them called the Bride of the Synagogue Nor do they reckon the command of it amongst the Noachical Precepts which they esteem all men obliged unto and whose Observation they imposed on the Proselytes of the Gate or the uncircumcised strangers that lived amongst them Nay they say that others were liable to punishment if they did observe it For that part of the command nor the stranger that is within thy Gate they say intends no more but that no Israelite should compell him to work or make any advantage of his Labour but for himself he was not bound to abstain from labour but might exercise himself therein at his own discretion for his advantage These things are pleaded at large and confirmed with many Testimonies and Instances by the Learned Selden and from him are they again by others insisted on But the Truth is there is not any thing of force in the conceits of these Talmudical Jews in the least to weaken the principle we have laid down and established For 1. As hath been shewed this Opinion is not indeed Catholick amongst them but many and those of the most Learned of the Masters do oppose it as we have proved already And others may be added to them whose Opinion although it be peculiar yet it wanteth not a fair probability of Truth For they say that the first part of the Precept Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy hath respect to the glorifying of God on the account of his Original Work and Rest. This therefore belongs unto all mankind But as for that which follows about the six dayes labour and the seventh dayes cessation or quiet it had respect unto the Bondage of the Israelites in Aegypt and their deliverance thence and was therefore peculiar unto them So R. Ephraim in Keli Jacar And hence it may be the Word Remember hath respect unto the Command of the Sabbath from the Foundation of the world And therefore when the Command is repeated again with peculiar respect to the Church of Israel as the Motive from the Aegyptian Bondage and deliverance is expressed so the Caution of Remembring is omitted Deut. 5. 12. and transferred to this other occasion Remember that thou wast a servant v. 15. 2. The sole Foundation of it is laid in a corrupt and false Tradition or conceit of the giving of the Law of the Sabbath in Mara which we have before disproved and which is despised as vain and foolish by most Learned men 3. The Assertors of this Opinion do wofully contradict themselves in that they generally acknowledge that the Sabbath was observed by Abraham and other Patriarchs as it should seem at least four hundred years before its Institution 4. It is none of the seven called Noachical Precepts for they contain not the whole Law of Nature or Precepts of the Decalogue and one of them is Ceremonial in their sense so that nothing can thence be concluded against the Original or Nature of this Law 5. That an uncircumcised stranger was liable to punishment if he observed the Sabbath is a foolish imagination not inferiour unto that of some others of them who affirm that all the
and of the knowledge of Good and Evil ceased as all men confess with that Estate And although God did not immediately upon the sin of man destroy that Garden no nor it may be untill the Flood leaving it as a Testimony against the wickedness of that Apostate Generation for whose sin the world was destroyed yet was neither it nor the Trees of it of any use or lawful to be used as to any significancy in the Worship of God And the Reason is because all Institutions are Appendixes and things annexed unto a Covenant and when that Covenant ceaseth or is broken they are of no use or signification at all § 36 There was a new state of the Church erected presently after the Fall and this also attended with sundry new Institutions especially with that concerning Sacrifices In this Church state some Alterations were made and sundry additional Institutions given unto it upon the Erection of the peculiar Church State of the Israelites in the Wilderness which yet hindred not but that it was in General the same Church State and the same Dispensation of the Covenant that the people of God before and after the giving of the Law enjoyed and lived under Hence it was that sundry Institutions of Worship were equally in force both before and after the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai as is evident in Sacrifices and some other Instances may be given But now when the State of the Church and the Dispensation of the Covenant came to be wholly altered as they were by the Gospel not any one of the old Institutions was continued or to be continued but they were all abolished and taken away Nothing at all was traduced over from the Old Church States neither from that in Innocency nor from that which ensued on the Fall in all its variations with any Obligatory Power but what was founded in the Law of Nature and had its force from thence We may then confidently assert that what God requireth equally in all Estates of the Church that is Moral and of an everlasting Obligation unto us and all men And this is the State of matters with the Sabbath and the Law thereof § 37 Of the Command of the Sabbath in the State of Innocency we have before treated and vindicated the Testimony given unto it Gen. 2. 2 3. It will God assisting be farther discoursed and confirmed in our Exposition of the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews The Observation of it by vertue of its Original Law and Command before the Promulgation of the Decalogue in Sinai or the first Wilderness Observation of the Sabbath recorded on the occasion of giving Manna hath also been before confirmed Many Exceptions I acknowledge are laid in against the Testimonies insisted on for the proof of these things but those such as I suppose are not able to invalidate them in the minds of men void of Prejudice And the Pretence of the Obscurity that is in the Command will be easily removed by the consideration of another Instance of the same Antiquity All men acknowledge that a Promise of Christ for the Object and Guide of the Faith of the ancient Patriarchs was given in those Words of God immediately spoken unto the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruize thy head and thou shalt bruize its heel The Words in themselves seem obscure unto any such End or Purpose But yet there is such light given into them and the mind of God in them from the circumstances of Time Place Persons Occasions from the Nature of the things treated of from the whole ensuing Oeconomy or dealing of God with men revealed in the Scripture as that no sober man doubts of the Promissory Nature of those Words nor of the Intention of them in General nor of the proper subject of the Promise nor of the Grace intended in it This Promise therefore was the immediate Object of the faith of the Patriarchs of old the great motive and encouragement unto and of their Obedience But yet it will be hard from the Records of Scripture to prove that any particular Patriarch did believe in trust or plead that Promise which yet we know that they did all and every one nor was there any need for our Instruction that any such practice of theirs should be recorded seeing it is a general Rule that those Holy men of God did observe and do whatever he did command them Wherefore from the record of a Command we may conclude unto a suitable Practice though it be not recorded and from a recorded approved Practice on the other side we may conclude unto the Command or Institution of the thing practised though no where plainly recorded Let unprejudiced men consider those words Gen. 2. 2 3. and they will find the Command and Institution of the Sabbath as clear and conspicuous in them as the Promise of Grace in Christ is in them before considered especially as they are attended with the Interpretation given of them in Gods following dealings with his Church And therefore although particular Instances of the Obedience of the old Patriarchs in this part of it or the Observation of the Sabbath could not be given and evinced yet we ought no more on that account to deny that they did observe it than we ought to deny their Faith in the promised Seed because it is no where expresly recorded in the Story of their lives § 38 Under the Law that is after the giving of it in the Wilderness it is granted that the portion of Time insisted on was precisely required to be dedicate unto God although it may be for some Ages it will be hard to meet with a recorded Instance of its Observation But yet none dares take any countenance from thence to question whether it were so observed or no. All therefore is secure unto the great alteration that was made in Instituted Worship under the Gospel And to proceed unto that season there is no Practice in any part of Gods Publick Worship that appears earlier in the Records of the New Testament as to what was peculiar thereunto than the Observation of one Day in seven for the Celebration of it Hereof more must be spoken afterwards Some say indeed that the Appointment of one Day in seven and that the first Day of the Week for the Worship of God was only a voluntary Agreement or a matter consented unto by the Apostolical or first Churches meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gratia or to keep good Order and decorum amongst them without respect unto any Moral Command of God to that purpose This they say directly with respect to the first Day of the Week or the Lords Day and its Religious Observation But those who appoint the first Day of every Week to be so observed do without doubt appoint that that should be the Condition of one Day in seven Now I could incline to this
there can be no tolerable Reason assigned why he should mention the works of God from the foundation of the World with his Rest that ensued thereon and referr us to the seventh Day which without respect unto another Day to be introduced doth greatly involve his whole Discourse Again his use of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which is framed and as it were coyned on purpose that it might both comprise the Spiritual Rest aimed at and also a Sabbath-keeping or Observation of a Sabbath Rest manifests his purpose When he speaks of our Rest in general he still doth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adding that there was an especial Day for its enjoyment Here he introduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbatism which his way of arguing would not have allowed had he not designed to express the Christian Sabbath Adde hereunto that he subjoynes the especial Reason of such a Days observation in the next Verse as we have declared And here do we fix the Foundation and Reason of the Lords-Day or the Holy observation of the first Day of the Week the Obligation of the fourth Commandment unto a weekly Sacred Rest being put off from the seventh Day to the first on the same Grounds and Reasons whereon the state of the Church is altered from what it was under the Law unto what it is now under the Gospel And the Covenant it self also is changed whence the seventh Day is now of no more force than the old Covenant and the old Law of Institutions contained in Ordinances because the Lord Christ hath ceased from his works and entred into his Rest on the first Day § 26 Here we have fixed the foundation of the observation of the Lords-Day on the supposition of what hath been proved concerning our Duty in the Holy observance of one Day in seven from the Law of our Creation as renewed in the Decalogue The remaining Arguments evincing the change of the Day from the seventh unto the first by Divine Authority shall be but briefly touched on by me because they have been lately copiously handled and fully vindicated by others Wherefore 1 when the Lord Christ intended conspicuously to build his Church upon the foundation of his Works and Rest by sending the Holy Ghost with his miraculous Gifts upon the Apostles he did it on this Day which was then among the Jews the Feast of Pentecost or of Weeks Then were the Disciples gathered together with one accord in the observance of the Day signalized to them by his Resurrection Acts 2. 1. And by this doth their obedience receive a blessed confirmation as well as their persons a glorious endowment with abilities for the work which they were immediately to apply themselves unto And hereon did they set out unto the whole work of building the Church on that foundation and promoting the worship of it which on that Day was especially to be celebrated § 27 The Practice of the Apostles and the Apostolical Churches owned the Authority of Christ in this change of the Day of sacred Rest. For hence forward whatever apprehensions any of them might have of the continuance of the Judaical Sabbath as some of them judged that the whole service of it was still to be continued yet they observed this Day of the Lord as the time of their Assemblies and solemn worship One or two instances hereof may be called over Acts 20. 6 7. We came to Troas in five dayes where we abode seven dayes And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill midnight I doubt not but in the seven dayes that the Apostle abode there he taught and preached as he had occasion in the houses of the Believers but it was the first Day of the Week when they used according to their duty to assemble the whole body of them for the celebration of the solemn Ordinances of the Church synecdochically expressed by breaking of Bread This they did without any extraordinary warning or calling together for in answer to their duty they were accustomed so to do Such is the account that Justin Martyr gives of the practice of all Churches in the next Age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the Day called Sunday there is an assembly of all Christians whether living in City or the Countrey and because of their constant breaking of bread on this day it was called Dies Panis August Epist 118. And Athanasius proved that he brake not a Chalice at such a time because it was not the first Day of the Week when it was to be used Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 22 And whosoever reads this passage without prejudice will grant that it is a marvellous abrupt and uncouth expression if it do not signifie that which was in common observance amongst all the Disciples of Christ which could have no other foundation but only that before laid down of the Authority of the Lord Christ requiring it of them And I doubt not but that Paul preached his farewel Sermon unto them which continued untill midnight after all the ordinary service of the Church was performed And all the Objections which I have met withall against this instance amount to no more but this that although the Scripture sayes that the Disciples met for their worship on the first Day of the Week yet indeed they did not so do 1 Cor. 16. 2. the same practice is exemplified Upon the first Day of the Week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come The constant Day of the Churches solemn Assemblies being fixed he here takes it for granted and directs them unto the observance of an especial duty on that Day What some except that here is no mention of any such Assembly but only that every one on that Day should lay by himself what he would give which every one might do at home or where they pleased is exceeding weak and unsuitable unto the mind of the Apostle For to what end should they be limited unto a Day and that the first Day of the Week for the doing of that which might be as well to as good purpose and advantage performed at any other time on any other Day of the Week whatever Besides it was to be such a laying aside such a treasuring of it in a common stock as that there should be no need of any Collection when the Apostle came But if this was done only privately it would not of its self come together at his Advent but must be collected But all exceptions against these Testimonies have been so lately removed by others that I shall not insist farther on them § 28 That from these Times downwards the first Day of the Week had a solemn observation in all the Churches of Christ whereby they owned its substitution in the room of the seventh Day