a little before the promulgation of that on Mount Sinai viz. at the first gathering of Manna or as laying an obligation upon you to observe that also so as you must keep two Sabbaths in a week for the prevention of either of which mistakes now that I am come to the mentioning of the fourth Precept I will let you know that though indeed as you are Men you are obliged to keep in memory the Rest of the Creation yet as you are Jews a Nation separated to God from all Nations God hath dispensed with you as to the precise day and expects that you should keep that day which he hath peculiarly appointed you to celebrate in commemoration of his giving you rest from Egyptian Bondage which was so severe and afflicting that in regard thereof it had been better for you that you had not been created or died as soon as you were born Note from hence that the fourth Precept when applied to the Jews ought to be interpreted as commanding one day of seven But as it stands in the Decalogue and appertains to all Nations and Ages it commands the celebration of the precise Seventh day whereon God rested So directly contrary to Moses his Exposition of this Law does the common cry of modern Expositers go who make it command A seventh day to all and The seventh day to the Jews Observe how unaccountable these Expositors make the Christian Practise of keeping Sunday if that be not the seventh day of the fourth Precept but only one of the seven seeing that Precept enjoyns the seventh on which God rested and that upon this reason because God rested thereon And how justifiable the Jewish practise was of keeping Saturday though that was not the seventh day whereon God rested for they had for their so doing a plain Divine Precept of their Ceremonial and peculiar Law dispencing in respect of the day with the Law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam and his whole Posterity from the beginning Let it be noted in the next place that all the other nine Precepts repeated here by Moses are the very same verbatim with those that were writ on the two Tables as they were spoken on the Mount but the fourth Precept as it is repeated here is not the same fourth Precept that was spoken by God's Mouth and writ by God's Finger but vastly different from that both in its form and reason and both peculiar to the Jews but neither of them applicable to other Nations Not the former for as the Jews were a part of the Patriarchal Church seeing God had for that time of their Separation from other Nations assigned them another day than that of the fourth Precept as it stands in the Decalogue it was very requisit that a Memento should be presixt before that Command to sanctifie the Patriarchal-Sabbath which was to take place again when the Partition-Wall should be broken down that they might then after so long an intermission call to mind or remembrance God's primitive Seventh-day to sanctifie it And therefore the fourth Precept in the Decalogue begins with Remember But there is no Remember prefixt before this Precept as it is here repeated by Moses and adapted to the Jewish state because as such they were to sanctify Saturday and to observe the Precept as enjoining to them the Sanctification of that Day as their peculiar Sabbath only till the time of Reformation and then they were to forget it thus Judaiz'd as well as the rest of their Ceremonial Laws At which time of Restauration this their new Saturday-Sabbath would be grown old and must come no more in remembrance Isa 65. 17. And then the Covering of the Ark where the two Tables of the everlasting Law was laid up being taken away the Jews might reade the fourth Precept as it was uttered from the Lord's Mouth vvith a Memento before it to put them in remembrance of that seventh day whereon God rested I would thank that Man who will give me any better or indeed any other Reason than this why a Memento should begin this Precept and none of the rest seeing we ought as well remember to observe them as this or why Moses should prefix Remember before the fourth Precept as it stands in the Decalogue and not as he repeats it here Or why he should assign God's resting as the ground of the fourth Precept there and the Israelites resting from Egyptian Bondage as the reason of it here Or lastly how Moses can be acquitted from self-contradiction from adding to and taking from the words of the Law when in the twentieth of Exodus he saith God spake thus Remember c. for in six days the Lord made c. wherefore the Lord blessed c. And yet in this 5th of Deut. he not only leaves out the Remember and the Reason of the fourth Precept in the Decalogue but assigns another reason and yet after all tells them These words the Lord spake unto all your Assembly in the Mount and he added no more and he wrote them in two Tables of Stone How can Moses his Fidelity in this case be vindicated but by this Salvo That the other nine do indifferently appertain to Jew and Gentile and therefore they are repeated intirely as they came from God's Mouth But the fourth Precept for that time did not appertain to the Jews either as to the Day commanded to be sanctified or the reason for its Sanctification but only in regard of its equity in respect of the proportion of time but to all Mankind save the Jews at all times and would appertain to the Jews when Christ had made of that twain Jew and Gentile one and therefore Moses to secure that entirely against that time sets it down in the Decalogue word by word as God spake it But when he applies that Precept to the peculiar state of the Jews at that present to whom God had before the promulgation of the Law on the holy Mount appointed another Day for their weekly Sabbath than that whereon God had rested it had been ridiculous to have mentioned God's finishing his Work of Creation in six Days and his resting on the seventh as the reason why the Jews should rest on that Day whereon God wrought and therefore he omits that and assigns another reason most proper and cogent and repeats no more of the Precept but what was common to them and other Nations And thus it 's true what Moses saith These words the Lord spake in the Mount unto your whole Assembly and he added no more that is that you are at present concern'd in And as to the words expressing the reason God spake them in the Preface to the whole Decalogue as the reason of your being obliged above other Nations to keep all and every one of those Laws and my applying them to the Law of the Sabbath is a faithful exposition of both the Laws concerning the Sabbath to wit the Ceremonial which concerns you alone and the
Septuagint which renders it The Seventh Day altho our last Translation of the Bible follows the Hebrew Altho the Puritans as they were called have called long and loud to our Church to rectify the Reading and conform it to the Hebrew as knowing that their opinion of the fourth Precept commandeth a Seventh not the Seventh Day is utterly overthrown by rendring it Wherefore the Lord Blessed the Seventh-day And altho our Church hath gratified their Clamours in conforming the Epistles and Gospels to our last Translation yet in the forenamed versions of the fourth Precept she adheres still to the Septuagint and persisteth in teaching her Children young and old that the Sabbath of the fourth Precept in the plain literal sense of it is the Seventh day wherein God rested and therefore sanctified and separated to be observed by us Christians in obedience to that Precept and in conformity to God's Example Or to give her sense of this Precept thus translated in her own words Homilie of the time and place of Prayer God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday And not only commandeth it but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same And a little after this Example and Command of God the Godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ It was you see in obedience to this Command urged by this Example that the Christians began to celebrate Sunday in our Churche's Judgment In Obedience I say to this Precept in the plain literal sense of it For sure the Church of England is a more indulgent Mother than to teach her Babes by Tropes and Figures and far-fetch'd Consequences what that holy Will of God is to the keeping whereof their Baptismal Vow obligeth them or to oblige them to say Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law after the pronouncing of the fourth Precept at the Lord's Table if that did not stand intirely in every tittle of it according to its plain and primitive sense in as full force now under the Gospel as any of the rest Moses was faithful in God's House and therefore at his repeating of the Decalogue and applying it to the Israelites he lets them know that they were not concerned in that Reason for sanctifying of that Sabbath which God published on the Mount to wit because God rested on the Seventh-day but urgeth the keeping of their Sabbath by another Reason peculiar to themselves to wit their resting from Egyptian Bondage Deut. 5. which very Reason is an Argument that their Saturday-Sabbath was not the day on which God rested but local and temporary And God's urging the sanctifying of the Sabbath of the fourth Precept from his own Example argues the day therein commanded to be the day whereon God rested and to concern all Ages and Nations The reason of it being common to all and therefore to be our Sunday And this speaks the faithfulness of our Church viz. her informing her Children that the whole and intire both Precept and Reason appertains to us Christians and therefore we are bound to beg pardon for the breach thereof and Grace to observe it I had never much Artificial yet have so much Natural Logick as to think this a very strange Inference God rested the Seventh-day that is Saturday wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day that is Sunday and the common Opinion to be void of Reason viz. That the day commanded in this Precept is gon but the Precept remains seeing all that 's commanded is the sanctifying of the day whereon God rested It may with every whit as much reason be said the honouring of Father and Mother is gone but the Law commanding that Honour is still in force as that the day whereon the Command bids us rest is gone but the Precept commanding that Day of Rest remains as if that day injoyned belonged to the Jews and the Precept enjoyning to us My resentment of such horrible absurdities unavoidably issuing from the common Opinion that Saturday is the Day whereon God rested and that Day which he commanded the Jews to sanctifie in the fourth Precept And yet that the Precept is still in force to us Christians obliging us to sanctifie another day Sunday in Conjunction with the reverence I bear to the sounder Doctrine of the Church of England viz. That the fourth Precept commands us to celebrate Sunday upon the Account of God's resting on that day first put me upon that enquiry whereof my Treatise of the Sabbath is the result viz. whether that Hypothesis could be proved from Scripture and Reason and if proved whether it would secure unto us our Sunday-Sabbath without any new Institution by Christ's Precept upon better grounds than can be laid by the vulgar opinion and such as free our Necks from the yoak of those carnal austerities which attend the Jewish Temporary and Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath This Design I confess affronts the whole World of private modern Writers but I have standing on my side the Church of England which carried on the Reformation of Christian Religion from Papal Innovations more pecately regularly cautiously and with a greater respect to Catholick Antiquity than any other Reformed Church did And that which inclined me the rather to follow her Conduct through my whole Tract of the Sabbath was this because I observed that the Writers upon the fourth Precept have fallen into inextricable perplexities meerly through this one mistake That the Sabbath injoyned in that Precept is Saturday and not as our Church teacheth Sunday And that if they had followed our Churches Clew they would have found the way out of those Labyrinths wherein they have lost themselves For if Sunday be the Day whereon God rested and therefore commanded in that Precept to be sanctified after God's Example and unless it be that day wereon God rested that Precept does not command the sanctification of it how naturally will these Consequences follow 1. That Adam and the Patriarchs could not be ignorant of that Example of God which was laid down in the Precept as the Reason why we are to sanctifie it for if that reason oblige us who only hear it It must much more oblige Adam who after a sort saw it 2. That the Law of the Saturday-Sabbath is not expresly commanded in that Precept but only reducible to it in regard of its equity and proportion of time viz. one of seven And therefore Saturday-Sabbath may depart and the Precept continue in full force Nay that Sabbath together with the Ceremonial Precepts concerning it must as the rest of Mosaick Ceremonies depart at the rending of the Vail and give way to the Sunday-Sabbath And thus the Christian Church is disburdened of those Austerities about which there hath been so much wrangling amongst Modern Writers 3. That there was no need of a new Gospel-Precept for the first Institution of Sunday-Sabbath and that
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish saturday-Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon
they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be
Sabbath at the beginning by God's Precept to Adam and in him to his whole Posterity to the end of the World and therefore extending to all Ages and all Mankind And this being assigned to the Jews only for that short time wherein the Law-giver was pleased to dispense with that Nation as to this Law given to all Nations and that for Reasons sufficiently palpable 5. This Hypothesis enervates the Arguments brought against the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day and furnisheth Conscience with a solid ground of bearing a due religious Respect to it without danger of Judaizing in the manner of the Celebration thereof 1. To instance in their Herculean Argument drawn from the Gloss they put upon that Text Gen. 2. 3. as being spoke by Moses by way of Anticipation If that Day that God rested on was not Saturday but Sunday his sanctifying the Day he rested on could not have respect to the after-Institution of another Day for what Consequence can be in this because God at first rested on Sunday therefore he appointed Moses above two thousand Years after the Creation to command Saturday to be sanctified comparable to what is in this because God rested on Sunday the Seventh Day in the order of the Creation he therefore blessed it and sanctified it that is separated it by his Precept to Adam to be the weekly Sabbath Indeed the dream of a Prolepsis in this Text chargeth Moses with most gross Equivocation in the use of these words and God blessed except we fancy an Anticipation in those other Places of his Text where these words occur as Gen. 1. 22. where speaking of Fish and Fowl he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and vers 28. speaking of Adam and Eve he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply 2. That this Hypothesis yields a solid Ground for the consciencious observing the Lord's-Day so as there needs not any new Constitution be made by Christ or his Apostles for the observing of it is manifest of it self For if Sunday be the Day that God separated at first to be the weekly Sabbath to the Patriarchs and was accordingly celebrated by them before the giving of the Law by Moses the standing part of the Fourth Command obliging all Mankind must necessarily refer to that and that there is a standing part of that Precept for the Breach whereof we are taught to say Lord have Mercy upon us and for the better observing whereof we are taught to pray Incline our Hearts to keep this Law is the declared Judgment of our Church And then the Temporary and Ceremonial Part both as to the Day and Mode of keeping it peculiar to the Jews being part of those carnal Ordinances that were imposed upon them until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. vanish of themselves as being antiquated by Christ's Cross and give way to the Antient Patriarchal Sabbath And here now our Saviour's Rising from the Dead his frequent Appearing to his Disciples on Sunday the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Church come in seasonably with their Auxiliary Force to strengthen my Hypothesis and to support the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day For though as to the first Consecration therof these Examples signify nothing nor are able to stand upon that old Ground against the joynt Assaults of God's express Precept and Example for sanctifying Saturday Yet upon the Ground that I have laid they are substantial and strenuous Seconds to prove the Restauration of the antient Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath by the Antiquation of the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath though they are not of Authority to appoint a new Lord's-Day yet they are safe Guides to point us to that old Patriarchal Lord's-Day whereon the Lord rested and therefore commanded the Patriarchal Church-Catholick to sanctify it as their weekly Sabbath in Conformity to and in Communion with which Church extending to all Places and Ages Our Saviour after the rending of the Vail rose upon that Day and upon that Day celebrated religious weekly Assemblies with his Apostles and taught them to do the like during those forty Days wherein he convers'd with them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension speaking to them of the things appertaining to the Kingdom of God 3. Lastly this secures us from falling into Jewish Superstition in the manner of celebrating our Christian Sabbath for with the Jewish Day the Jewish manner of keeping that Day vanisheth So that the Christian Church is not obliged to sanctify the Lord's-Day in those strict Formalities of bodily Rest and other carnal Observances imposed upon the Jews but in the more generous and man-becoming Exercises of contemplating the Glory of God in the Creation compleated by the new Creation of believing acquiescing and triumphing in God through Christ of attending on Gospel-Ordinances publick private and secret of visiting the Sick relieving the Indigent and eating our Bread with Gladness of Heart on that day above others that being the Christian weekly Festival and the Day which God hath made for us to be glad and rejoyce in neither need we macerate our selves with studying when to begin when to end the Christian Sabbath at Even Midnight or Morning For he who having set his Secular Affairs in such order as they give no Interruption to his Sunday-Devotion goes to bed with God on Saturday-Night and riseth with God on Sunday-Morning and spends the Day in such like Exercises as have been mentioned may after he has commended himself and his Family if he have one to God go to his Rest on Sunday Night without danger of prophaning the Sabbath at his usual time Briefly the usefulness of this Hypothesis is so great and apparent both as to putting an end to all Strife even amongst the most Litigious and setling inward Peace in the truly Consciencious as I was something jealous lest the prospect thereof might make the Arguments I bring for proof of the Hypothesis seem to have more weight than indeed they have till I had communicated my Papers to several Persons of more quick Understanding in the fear of the Lord with this humble Request That they would weigh their Contents in the Ballance of their impartial Judgments which I heartily thank them they did and thereby gave me occasion to rectify some Passages and Encouragement to commit this Tract as it now stands corrected to publick view If it shall please the divine Goodness to make use of so mean a Person as my self towards the setling the Consciences of Christians upon a safe Ground and the binding up of those Wounds which the Church hath received in the House of her Friends as the poor tattard Captive Democedes cured Darius after that the Egyptian Physicians had for seven Days and Nights by violent handling of his dis-joynted Foot kept him without Sleep Let God have the Praise who chooseth the weak and foolish things of this World to confound the mighty and wise And let him have your Prayers Christian Reader whose utmost
of the Apostles John 13. 27. And God might discourse with him in this Assembly of God's People without disturbing the Congregation as well as he discours'd with Moses while he stood before Pharaoh Divine Revelations may well be communicated to faithful men even in the presence of bad men Mede upon Exo. 11. 1. and why may not God as well discourse with Satan in the presence of good men Why therefore should we recede from this literal sence especially when we have the onely Text besides this appertaining to the Patriarchal Age where the same Phrase occurs intire without addition or diminution to warrant me to make that interpretation from the plain and indubitable sense of that Phrase in that parallel Text. To explain my self more particularly the only Text relating to the Patriarchal Age where this phrase the Sons of God occurs intire is that Gen. 6. 2. the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and they took them Wives of all that they Chose I know some of ours are so inamour'd of Rabbinical Whimsies as to follow the Hebrew Doctors in their interpreting Sons of God here to be as Angels But it 's strange how any man not prejudic'd and in his Right wits can put that Sense upon the Text seeing the good Angels neither marry nor are given in Marriage Mar. 12. 25. And though we have stories not altogether improbable of Incuby and Succuby yet a man may look his Eyes out before he find a text where evil Angels are called the Sons of God I therefore expect the assent of all pious and sober-minded men to the common exposition of these Words to wit That by the Sons of God were meant the Posterity of Seth the members of the Patriarchal Church And by Daughters of men the female Offspring of Cain the members of that Synagogue of Satan which he erected after his Apostacy and Departure from God's presence why then should not this text in Job be so interpreted the Sons of God that is the professors of the true Religion the members of the true Church came to present themselves before the Lord to tender their Homage and bring Presents the Presents of themselves and Devout Services into the Court of the Lord into the Lord's House seeing this is exactly after the Patriarchal style and is not attended with any absurd consequence as that Interpretation by Angels is why should we not to choose expound one Patriarchal Text by another rather then by Texts relating to after-times The Jewish Church might for Reasons then emerging give Angels the Title of the Sons of God It 's no new thing for various Ages to vary Phrases But what is that to the Patriarchal Churches style especially seeing that in the verse immediatly preceding there is mention made of Job's Sacrificing for his Sons of his sending for them after their Feasting and Sanctifying them that is saith Grotius celebrating a Fast and praying for them that the Sacrifices of attonement which he offered for them might be accepted of God So that we have here the Sons of God that is 1. The members of the Church conven'd to present themselves before the Lord with fasting prayer and oblation of Sacrifices and all represented as Job's contiutal Custome Thus was Job accustomed to do all those dayes to wit after their Feastings Also we find here stated dayes whereon they presented themselves before God for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supplies the place of a Pronoun demonstrative saith Cocceius And then immediatly followes and there was a day when the Sons of God can this day be any other than one of those dayes forementioned whereon Job conven'd his Sons by Nature who were also God's Sons by Grace before the Lord Or this Convention to any other purpose then that viz. to worship God or they that here came to present themselves before the Lord any other then they who presented themselves before the Lord on those dayes He must be obstinate that will not be convinc'd with what has already been offered to Consideration SECT V. There is indeed one Text in Job where this phrase occurs with the Addition of one word where Angels seem to be called the Sons of God Chap. 28. 4. where God thus challengeth Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth Declare if thou hast Vnderstanding who hath laid the Measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the Foundations thereof fastned Or who laid the Corner-stone thereof When the Morning-stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for Joy For the removal of this Remora which at first did very much retard my mind in coming to a positive conclusion let it be observed 1. That a twofold Ground of singing and Adoring God is here laid down 1. His laying the Foundations of the Earth his laying the Measures thereof his stretching the Line upon it 2. His laying the Corner-stone thereof whereupon its Foundations are fastned 3. That it was at the laying of the Foundations of the Earth c. that the Morning-stars sang together by which Phrase nothing else can be meant but the Angels For the Stars in these visible Heavens were not then created and though those Stars of Light are said to praise God that is meant only of their praysing him objectivè as occasioning rational and intellectual creatures to praise the Maker of such resplendent Creatures But the Angels of Light those Morning Stars being created with the Emperial Heaven though they did not assist God as the Hebrew Doctors fancied yet they stood by and looked on the production of each Creature adoring God's Workmanship therein and sounding out their own Joy and his Praises at the laying of the Foundations of the Earth 4. But the chief Corner-Stone upon which the Foundations thereof were fastned was neither its Center nor the Waters nor whatever else hath either been fancied to be its Foundation or comprehended in that notion but the Foundation of its Foundations that Stone that bears up all things which was then laid when Christ was tendered to fallen Adam in the Promise of the Womans seed which Promise our first Parents embracing by Faith were as Living-Stones built upon that sure Corner-Stone that tried Corner-Stone c. Names appropriated to Christ and him only through the whole Volume of Gods Book at the laying whereof when he was to be exhibited in the Flesh Zech. 4. 7. it was prophesied there should be Shoutings He shall lay the Head-Stone thereof with shoutings Grace Grace unto it It was at the laying of this Corner-Stone in the Promise of the seed of the Woman that the Sons of God shouted for Joy i. e. in the strict literal Sence our first Parents now made the Children of God by Adoption If you Object That here was but one Son of God I answer both our first Parents are comprehended in this Term Eve being reckoned with Adam who
his adversary and not written that discourse in a Book this had not been according to Job's wish who with the same breath requests that God would answer him and record that answer in a Book Briefly I cannot imagine how Elihu could more plainly have intimated himself to have been the Penman than he doth here And indeed who more fit to write this Book then Elihu who was present at the whole discourse an Interlocutor therein an unbiast person whose discourse God was so far from blaming as he pursues Elihu's last argument to convince Job And besides all this a person divinely inspiried It was God's Spirit the Inspiration of the Almighty that gave him understanding chap. 32. 8. and vers 17. I will answer also my part I also will shew my Opinion or rather my Wisdom or my Science as Pagnine renders it and the following words enforce for I am full of matter the Spirit within me constraineth me c. Jeremie expresseth the prophetick Spirit in like terms chap. 20. 9. I said I would not speak any more in his Name but his Word was in my heart as a burning Fire shut up in my bones And I was weary with forbearing I could not stay Now if Elihu was the Penman of this Book It cannot be imagined but that he would keep exactly to the propriety of the Patriarchal Idiome and therefore cannot mean any other by the Sons of God then are meant Gen. 6. 2. SECT VIII The reverence I bear to the memorie of those worthy persons who ininterpret hat Convention in Job a Contention of Angels hath forc't me to this expence of time and pains for the vindication of my leaving such good companie For I thought it not good manners to answer so many men of so great and deserved a Name as that Scolist did Bellarmine with a bare Bellarmin thou lyest but that I was bound to give reasons of my departure from them and such reasons as I hope will upon second thoughts satisfie sober and serious thinking Persons But the richness of the Mine will I doubt not counterballance the labour I have bestowed in baring the ground to it by removing the rubbish that lay upon it I will therefore now proceed to shew what this Text in Job contributes towards the proof of the Point in hand In order to which 1. I observe that here is mention of a Publick Church-Assembly a Convention of the Sons of God before the Lord. That being the Patriarchal Phrase whereby they exprest the professors of the true Religion Gen. 6. 2. as all Christians confess except such as are led by the Nose to follow the Jewish Rabbies whom God hath so infatuated since their shutting out the true Light as of all men living they are most ignorant of their own Law 2. That this Convention before the Lord consisted not of Job's Family and his Sons alone but of the Religious also of Neighbouring Families as Liban is said to call the men of the place to celebrate Jacob's marriage Gen. 2. 9. 22. for before the second convention Job was stript of his Sons 3. I note that in these Publick-Assemblies Job did not officiate as Priest though he did in his own Family for this second convention before the Lord falling out in the Days of his Mourning makes it very probable that he did not manage the Ministerial Work of that day yea it seems more then probable that Job was not present at that convention from chap. 2. 7. so went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job c. Had Job been there he would have smote him there But more clearly from the verse following And he took a Potsherd to scrape himself withal and sat down among the Ashes This last clause is better renderd in most other Translations as Vatablus Junius and Tremol c. by sitting among the Ashes And the plain sense of the whole verse is this Job sitting among the Ashes when Satan smote him took what was next at hand a Potsherd to scrape himself withal So that Satan found Job not in the Church-Assemblie but on the Ashes-heap the usual posture of men deeply touched with the sense of Affliction And therefore the sacred Offices in that and by consequence in other publick Assemblies were administred by Publick Persons assigned to that holy Function 4. We find here certain stated times for celebrating Religious Worship A day when the Sons of God presented themselves before the Lord and that day occurring again and how could several Families convene as I have proved there did here if they had not had Set Times for those Conventions 5. As to our third Proposition now before us let it be considered 1. That seeing in Job's Time there was no other stated Dayes for Divine publick Worship save weekly and those weekly Days instituted by God himself What Time for sacred Conventions can we imagine the Sons of God could pitch upon but that which their Heavenly Father had prescribed them by his example and precept 2. Had these Dayes of the Sons of God their appearance before the Lord not occurred in a less space of time than either a Year or a Moneth it is very improbable that Satan would have had so much patience at Jobs patience as to have deferred his making an Address to God for the enlargement of his Commission before this second Church-Assembly Could that malitious Adversary who had after the obtaining of his first commission stript Job naked in one day whose finger did so itch to be scratching Jobs Body that as soon as ever the word he is in thy hand was gone out of God's Mouth immediatly goes out of God's Presence and smites Job's bodie could he I say forbear to make suite for that Commission beyond the least division of time by Days seeing Job's Heroical patience could not but make every hour of that forbearance a greater torment to Satan than he could inflict upon Job 3. Origen from this very Text in his Homilies upon Job Chap. 1. vers 5 6. c. draws the same Inference Those things saith he that were afterwards commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath Job before the giveing of the Law did both observe himself and taught his Children to observe R. Abraham also as he is quoted by Genebrard affirmeth that Job observed the Sabbath And therefore Dr. Heylin might have spared his Exclamations against Beza for saying that Job did sanctifie every seventh day at least as if in so saying he had only vented his own humor and opposed the Antient Fathers from which latter Callumny I shall clear Beza in the next Chapter SECT 9. And now having shewed that the Patriarchs had stated Times for sacred Assemblies and that the Church in the time of Job did in all probability celebrate such Assemblies weekly I may venture with this Light in my hand to proceed without fear of stumbling or straying to that famous Text Gen. 2. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified
the Decalogue declares it to be of the same nature with the rest of the Ten for how can it stand with the Wisdom of the God of Order who forbad plowing with an Ox and an Ass who prohibited the wearing of Linsy-woolsy and was so careful that the Male and Female Sex should wear different Apparel to shuffle a Ceremonial Law amongst his Moral Laws seeing that would have been a far greater Indecorum than the yoking of an Ox and an Ass together would have rendred the Decalogue a piece of Linsie-woolsie and have been the apparalling of permanent and transient of perpetual and temporary Laws which in their own nature differ more than Male and Female that is specifically in the same garb SECT II. But that which makes the greatest difference betwixt these Sabbaths is this The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that commanded the Jews are grounded upon different Reasons The first in commemoration of the Creation which is common to all persons in all ages and places The other 1. That it might be a sign to discriminate the Jews from all other Nations Exod. 31. 13. It is a sign between me and you that I am the Lord your God that is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance Deut. 4. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Lord your God which have separated you from all other Nations Lev. 20. 24. Now if other Nations had celebrated Saturday as their weekly Sabbath and not another day of the week the Jews could not have been discriminated from them by their observing the same day this would have been no part of the Wall of Partition 2. The Jews weekly as well as their monthly Sabbaths were Shadows of good things to come the Body whereof is Christ Col. 2. 16. If therefore the Sabbath of the fourth Precept had been the Jewish Sabbath it ought to have been abolished when Christ the Substance is come as well as other Ceremonial Laws But this is contrary to the sense of the Universal Church which reckons this one of the ten Commandments And our Church hath appointed this Precept with the rest of the Decalogue to be pronounced at the Lord's Table and enjoyned her Children to beg pardon for the breach of this and Grace to encline their Hearts to keep it which would be the putting of a Cheat upon them if that Precept in the plain Letter of it were not still in force and the putting a figurative sense upon it would make it as unintelligible to vulgar capacities as if it were in Latine And so much the more hard to be understood as the Church in her Liturgies and Catechisms wherein she propounds Milk to Babes affects the greatest plainness of Speech Upon which account most serious Persons have been prejudic'd against Calvin's Interpretation of Christ's descent into Hell that being an Article of the common Faith and therefore to be interpreted in the plain literal sense Let me add that the Church no where declares her Sentiments more plainly than in publick Liturgies upon which Consideration St. Austin so often appeals from those Testimonies of Fathers which Pelagius urged to the forms of Common-Prayer And therefore tho a thousand private Doctors Opinion should thwart me yet I having the Opinion of the whole Church declared in her Liturgies for me if not in so many words yet in her general practice unavoidably inferring what I maintain to wit that the fourth Precept of the Decalogue is still in full force this is sufficient to acquit my Assertion from the imputation of Novelty or singularity as being no other but what I drew from my Mother's the Church of England's Breasts not only by good consequence as hath been shewed but in plain words for in the Homily of the time and place of Prayer she tells us that God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the celebration of the Sabbath which is our Sunday But I have greater Authority than this of the Church even Christ himself who could not endure that he should be thought to come to destroy the Law and assures us that not one jot or tittle should fall from the Law Mat. 5. 17. which all interpret to be meant of the Decalogue whose fourth Precept must therefore be concluded to have nothing in it that is ceremonial typical and upon that account to be abolished as instituting a Sabbath to be a shadow of good things to come 3. The Sabbath appropriate to the Jews was commanded them to be a Memorial of God's giving them rest from Egyptian Servitude Deut. 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day Observe here the difference betwixt the Law of the Sabbath given on Mount Sinai and this in Deuteronomy tho it be repeated in the Decalogue For this Book containing an explanation of the Law whether Moral Ceremonial or Judicial and application of it to the particular state of the Jews Moses in this Text Judaizeth the fourth Precept and therefore assigns as the reason of its institution thus applied and limited not God's resting on the Seventh Day from his Work which is common to all Mankind but his causing them to rest from their servil work under the Egyptians which was peculiar to the Jews Which is a manifest Argument that the Sabbath of the Decalogue engraven in the Tables was of larger extent than this mentioned in Deuteronomy or else why should the Reason of the one be universal of the other particular As also that the Jews were obliged to the observation of their Sabbath not from the literal and primary sense of the fourth Precept as all Mankind are and always were except the Jews to whom God appointed another Sabbath but only from the equity of it For seeing God had sanctified the precise Seventh Day whereon he had rested to be observed by all Men it was meet that the Jews should keep holy one Day of seven and that Day which God had peculiarly enjoyned them viz. Saturday tho that was not the Sabbath of the fourth Precept the Lawgiver having Right to dispense with his own Law And this is clearly the plain meaning of Moses his inserting vers 12. as the Lord hath commanded thee or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had commanded thee viz. before the publishing of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai and of his leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the first word of the fourth Precept as it was delivered on Sinai by which word mankind was called upon to call to mind the Patriarchal Sabbath or rather his transferring it to his mentioning their Egyptian bondage vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and remember that thou wast a Bondsman c. As if Moses had said perhaps you may interpret the fourth Precept repeating the Law of the Patriarchal Sabbath as either vacating that Law of the Sabbath he gave you
therefore Christ's Resurrection his Converse with his Disciples and their celebration of holy Assemblies on Sundays do warrant us to keep that day as sure and infallible Guides to the Old Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath mentioned in the fourth Precept which was to take place again on course at the expiration of the Temporary and Ceremonial Sabbath enjoyned the Jews for a time as a badge to difference them from other Nations but is too sandy a ground whereon to build the Institution of a new Sabbath-day in direct opposition to the express Precept and example of God And thus the mouth of the Saturday-Sabbatarians is stopt But tho I might without deserved blame being back'd with so great Authorities prefer the Septuagint before the Hebrew Exod. 16. 1. yet I presume not to prefer the Text of the Septuagint before the Text of the Hebrew but only compare the Text of the Septuagint which is utterly incapable of any other pointing than what I urge with the pointing of the Hebrew which referrs to the 15th day of their coming into the Wilderness And here the preference may without disparagement to the Hebrew Text be given to the Septuagint considering 1. That it is a question amongst the Learned whether the Pentateuch had any Vowels or so much as distinctions of Words but was all as one word before the Masorites 2. That it is not agreed who those Masorites were that distinguish'd the Old Testament into Sections and Verses whether the wise Men of Tiberias or those of Ezra's Synagogue c. 3. And that the Hebrew Text without distortion is capable of the same pointing that I urge but the Septuagint capable of no other And therefore to ask whether the immoveable pointing of the Septuagint should yeild to the moveable point of the Hebrew is to question whether the Mountain should come to Mahomet or Mahomet to the Mountain 4. I have the Suffrage of Learned Men to stand by me in asserting that the Quails fell and were gathered on the fifteenth day For Bochart in his Hierozoicon Cornelius a Lapide Menochius c. on Numb 11. affirm that the Quails mentioned Exod. 16. fell on the fifteenth day of the second month and it is certain from the Text that the Quails fell on that day they murmured SECT V. The next Inference I draw from this Text is this That this Assembly hath all the Characters of a Church-Assembly 1. It is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole Congregation or Church of the Children of Israel to difference it from the People or mixt multitude that murmured at Marah Chap. 15. 24. that marched in one Body with the Israelites and are implied in the first clause of verse 1. They took their Journey from Elim And in that Chapter 15. 27. and they came to Elim meaning the Israelites with the mixt multitude And as they came to Elim so here the same they are said to journy from Elim but when Moses gives an account of what fell out when they came into the Wilderness of Sin he shakes off the mixt multitude and leaves them out of his Discourse by changing the phrase he used when he speaks of their Journeying and saying The whole Congregation of the Children of Israel came into the Wilderness And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel on the fifteenth day murmured By which he intimates this Assembly to have consisted wholly and solely of Israelites and to have been of the same make with that which St. Stephen calls the Church in the Wilderness consisting of our Fathers as he stiles them he and those he spake to being Jews Act. 7. 28. Briefly this was not a murmuring in their Tents like that Psal 106. 25. and that Numb 14. 2. at the return of the Spies or that through their Families every Man at his own Tent-door Numb 11. 10 where we have the mixed multitude represented as the fomenters thereof And therefore if they had been of this Murmuring Assembly in my Text they would have been mentioned here as well as there 2. Here is the whole Church of Israel assembled on course before the Lord for Moses did not call them but finds them together Aaron indeed bids them come near before the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the face of the Lord but all he meant by that was that they should turn their faces towards the Pillar the then token of God's special Presence for that was all they did in compliance with that Injunction ver 9. And as Aaron spake unto them they looked toward the Wilderness and the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Pilar of Cloud And that is an Argument they were already before the Lord though not so as to face the cloudy Pillar as they did in their Journyings yet they were assembled before or about the Tabernacle the ancient token of God's Presence I mean that little Tabernacle which they had before the erecting of that which Moses received the Pattern of in the Mount and therefore brought with them out of Egypt to which they had used to repair for Divine Worship for the sake of publick Prayer so Mede Rivet Willet It was saith Vatablus a little portable Chappel this was it that Moses after they had worshipped the Golden Calf took and pitched far off from the Camp to which every one that sought the Lord went out Num. 33. 7. this was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation of the sacred Convention so Junius and Tremelius of the Church Pagn The Hebrew word is Mogned whence is derived Lemognedim Gen. 1. which signifies solemn stated Assemblies as hath been observed before Towards this they directed their Faces in their sacred Assemblies and therefore Aaron withdraws their Faces towards the Pillar of Cloud vers 11. where Moses stood praying while Aaron was speaking to the Congregation saith Mr. Mede upon the place 3 This Assembly hath this Character of a Religious Convention that it was instructed by an Ecclesiastical Minister Aaron the Priest for Moses commanded Aaron expresly that he should speak to them ver 9. Now if this had not been Coetus Ecclesiasticus a Church Assembly it had been more proper for Moses himself to have come with his Rod in his hand and have spoken to them for he might with Authority have silenced their murmuring as he did Numb 11. 24. when they murmured for want of Flesh And as Caleb and Joshua stilled them Numb 14. 6. after the return of the Searchers It is said indeed vers 6. that Moses and Aaron spake to them but the meaning of that is no more than thus that Moses spake mediately and Aaron immediately Moses by putting words into Aarons mouth and Aaron by conveying those words into the Peoples Ears according to the instruction given Exod. 4. 15. Thou shalt speak to Aaron the Levite and put words into his Mouth and I will be with thy Mouth and with his Mouth and he shall be thy spokesman unto the People It is also said vers 8.
could not stir from the place where they sate down upon which supposition indeed the Israelites might have had a conveniency of meeting without check But how weak their Arguments are who are of that Opinion hath been shewed already And I will now shew the Impossibility of it from the plain order of the sacred History For it is thence manifest that what passed in the whole 11th Chapter was after the end of the Darkness and before Moses went from Pharoah's presence That is as soon as Moses Chap. 10. ult had answered Pharoah Thou shalt see my face no more God tells Moses while he yet stood before Pharoah that he would bring one Plague more upon Egypt that would force Pharoah to dismiss them not only with their own Goods but with the Jewels Silver and Gold c. of the Egyptians also And Moses reports this Message to Pharoah and then and not till then Moses goes out from Pharoah in a rage Chap. 11. 8. Now it was after all this that God commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to the whole Congregation that should be assembled then on the 10th day Besides God's bidding both Moses and Aaron speak to the Congregation argues it to have been a Church-Assembly Chap. 4. 15. Thou shalt speak to Aaron the Levite and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and his mouth And he shall be thy Spokesman unto the People And Chap. 7. 1. Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet The meaning therefore of Speak ye c. Chap. 12. 1. is That Moses should speak to Aaron and Aaron speak to the People Now why must Aaron speak to the People if they had not been a Church-Assembly seeing he was not a temporary but standing Prophet nor a Prophet who received Revelations from God but publish'd to the People divine Revelations received by Moses which is the proper work of an Ecclesiastical Minister in a Church-Assembly 1 Cor. 14. 23 24. But what is reported of this Assembly Exod. 12. 27. that at its breaking up the People bowed the head and worshipped puts it beyond all doubt that it was conven'd for Religious Worship And yet let me add as a joint-confirmation of the whole premises that it is scarce conceivable whence in more likelihood than from the Patriarchal Custom of celebrating Sunday-Sabbath could flow that most ancient and universal Idolatry of worshipping the Sun as the most generally beneficient and salvifick Deity Or from whence else could proceed the change of the Name of the City On where Joseph's Father-in-law the Prince-Priest or Metropolitan of all Egypt had his residence into that of Heliopolis or the City of the Sun but from the abuse and misinterpretation of the Patriarchal Sabbath conceiving that Planet whose name that Day bore which was celebrated as the chief Day of the Week to be the chief God For that the Sun was worshipped of the Egyptians and all Nations as the general all-healing all-saving Deity is affirmed by Diodorus Macrobius Agellius and all the Ancients with unanimous consent A quovis salubris subvenit animis corporibusque mortalium Macrob. Saturnal l. 1. c. 20. And so decry the Opinion of the Heathen that the Sun was a God because the Day called by his Name was dedicated of all the Days of the Week to divine Worship it seemed good to the Christian Church to give it a new name the Lords Day as being celebrated in memory of our Lord's Resurrection who on that Day entred into his Rest and ceased from his Works as God did from his So that we have in these two Instances which fell within the space of five Weeks an account given of the Patriarches keeping two Sunday-Sabbaths whereas we hear not of two Saturday-Sabbaths kept either by the Patriarchs or the Jews in the whole Old-Testament though that contains an History of the Church for above 3500 years I mean Saturday-Sabbaths circumstanced as these Sunday-Sabbaths are with the nomination of the day and month whereon they were celebrated CHAP. V. The new Creature Man restored by faith in the promised Seed was that finishing perfection of the Creation which made all very good and from which God smelled so sweet a savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as to bless and sanctify it SECT I. FOR the proof of this in general let us consider the order of Time respecting Moses his Narrative of Man's Creation Male and Female and the immediate Consequents thereof till they were turned out of Paradise and thence we may certainly collect that Adam fell and was restored on the sixth day 1. That Eve was formed the sixth day is without all doubt And therefore the History in the whole second Chapter from the end of vers 3. in order of time immediately follows the mention of God's creating them Male and Female Chap. 1. 27. and precedes what is recorded from the beginning of Vers 28. Chap. 1. And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitsul and multiply though in the order of narration it be set after because Moses would not interpose so long a Parenthesis in his breviate of the Creation as the manner of creation and disposal of the Female makes 2. The whole third Chapter touching the Temptation Fall Promise of Christ and turning out of Eden in time precedes God's Grant to Adam and Eve made Chap. 1. vers 29. Behold I have given you every Herb upon the face of the whole Earth and every Tree c. For while they were in Eden they had leave only to eat of the Trees of the Garden and not of all them neither Chap. 2. 17. They must therefore have starv'd after they were turn'd out of Paradise if God had not enlarged their Charter And to find what that was and when granted we must recur back from the end of the third Chapter where God takes away the Table he had furnish'd for them in Eden unto the forequoted chap. 1. 29. where he spreads a larger Table for them furnish'd with every Herb and Tree upon the face of the whole Earth For it is to be noted that although Beasts and Birds and Fishes fall to 't without saying Grace and those that live by prey sustain themselves not only with Vegitables but Animals without asking other leave than their own natures give them yet Man as he had not right to feed on Animals till God granted him that power after the Flood Gen. 9. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green Herb have I given you all things So neither could he deprive Vegitables of life for the sustenance of his own till God granted him liberty 3. From this Grant therefore Chap. 1. 29. we must continue the Story if we will bring it into due order of time unto the end of vers 3. chap. 2. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested c. And thence pass over the remaining part of the second and
Latitude with the beginning Heb. 1. 10. and Heb. 4. 3. Though the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World that is in the sixth day distinguished from the seventh day vers 4. For he spake of the seventh day on this wise and God rested the seventh day from all his Works so that the time specified by from the Foundation of the World vers 3. concludes with the sixth day before the seventh whereon God rested Now Christ cannot be said to be slain then actually for so he was not slain till the fulness of Time till the Hour appointed of the Father nor in the divine Decree for so he was slain before the Foundation of the World but only in respect of the Promise then made to Adam In which Promise he was exhibited as God-man as Man in regard of the Serpent's brusing his Heel as God in regard of his breaking the Serpent's Head This leads me into a Flowry Field of Meditation wherein I must crave leave to expatiate and refresh my self after my tedious Walk through dark and controverted Texts in the pursuit of Truth I shall therefore offer here these things to Consideration 1. When things are once put into a divine Promise they are then in Scripture Language said to be for tho they attain not to actual Existence till long after yet the Promise gives them a real being or metaphysical Essence as rosa in Hieme Hence God saith to Abraham Gen. 17. 15. I have made thee a Father of many Nations when as yet Isaac through whom he was to be the Father of many Nations was not yet conceived in the Womb nor in human probability ever like to be conceived in Sarah's Womb. From which Instance the Apostle draws this Inference that God calls things that be not as to actual Existence as if they were in real Essence because he that promised was able to perform it and was then engaged to perform it upon the honour of his Veracity Rom. 4. 17. so that it was as impossible that it could miscarry or prove abortive as that God can lye From which Promise we have a thousand times greater Assurance to say the Lamb was then slain then we have to say while the Fruit is only in the Root and not brought forth this is a Pippin this a Pearmain c. For this latter is grounded on a Lie upon the immutability of God's Covenant with Day and Night c. which though we cannot yet God can break yea hath broke as when he made the Sun stand still in the days of Joshua go back at Hezekiah's Prayer and suspended its Light at our Saviour's Passion as the Fire did also its burning property in the Case of the three Children but the former is grounded on the Immutability of God's Promise by Oath and the most sacred Oath even by Himself than whom he hath not a greater to swear by In respect of this Immutability the Hebrew Doctors upon Gen. 15. 18. have this Observation He saith not I will give but I have given and yet Abraham had now begotten no Children because the Word of the holy blessed God is a Deed therefore he so speaketh Ainsworth Thus the Son of God was tendered to fallen Man as the Lamb slain he was in this Promise as manifestly held out to Adam as crucified as making an Atonement for Sinners by the Oblation of his Blood as he was after his actual Crucifixion and Ascention held out to the Galatians Chap. 3. 1. 2. The Son of God in the Virtue of this his future Oblation of himself and Mediation by Merit entred upon the Exercise of his Mediatory Office by Intercession immediately upon Adam's Fall he did not suffer the mortal Wound to fester but applied the healing Balm flowing from his bruised Heel to it while it was green as soon as ever he saw Adam naked and in his Blood he poured clean Water upon him cast his Garment over him and entred into a Covenant with him and said unto him Live No sooner had Man made a League with the Serpent and proclaimed War against God but God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself In the Cool of the day that is in the Evening of that Day whereon he fell Adam heard the Voice of the Lord God that is the Word or Son of God as both Christians and Jews expound that place Gen. 3. 8. See Dr. Owen's Exercit. 10. 2. calling him to Repentance by Arraignment to Faith by the Promise of the Woman's Seed yea to Glory by presenting himself in the Form of an human Body and that glorious Body such as he shewed himself in at the Transfiguration and hath now at the Right-hand of the Father Dr. More Append. to Mystery of Iniquity As when Job had wish't Chap. 9. 34. Let him take his Rod away from me and let not his Fear terrifie me Then would I speak and not fear him Elihu according to Job's wish makes him this Offer Behold I am in God's stead I also am formed out of the Clay Behold my Terror shall not make thee afraid neither shall my Hand be heavy upon thee If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up c. Job 33. 5 6 7. So the Lord pleaded with Adam by his Son in the Form of God manifest in the Flesh I doubt not but the Son of God in human shape was all this seventh Day busied in most holy Colloquies with Adam but that he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wish'd him to meditate upon these Works and in them to praise and acknowledg the true God his Creator and taught him that after his Example every seventh Day all Labour set aside he should spend in the Exercise of Piety Zanchy de Creatione Hom. l. 1. Fuller upon these words They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden Gen. 3. 8. hath this Observation By this Voice I understand certain Words which God spake with himself walking Christ appearing to them in human shape 3. This his mediating to reconcile Man to God argues he had upon the instant of Adam's Fall so far reconciled God to Man by becoming his Surety by giving Bond to make Satisfaction pay Man's Ransome at the day appointed at the fulness of Time as the Father upon Consideration thereof would not take the Forefeiture but delegated the Son to treat with his Rebels and offer them Pardon and a better State than that they were fallen from on the Condition of their accepting the Covenant of Grace For Christ did not take this Honour of the Melchisedochian Priest-hood upon himself but was called of God an High-Priest after this order Heb. 5. 10. and made a Priest by Oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever c. Heb. 7. 21. He was sworn to this Office of Mediation and sent to manage it by
nothing left for Forrage to himself and 's Army nothing to feed on but Dust the carnal sensual devilish part of Mankind Now and not till now every Tree brought forth Fruit in its kind when the true Vine began to flourish when the Tree of Life had thus put forth its Leaves and Fruit for the healing of Mankind Till God thus shined in Man's Heart to give the Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ he had not commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness out of that more dismal Darkness then sate upon the Face of the unformed Earth even that wherewith Adam's Sin had invelop'd the whole Creation and made it a more confused Chaos than that rude and indigested Lump out of which it had been reduced For hereby Adam defac'd the Image of God so far lost the the Dominion of the Creature as he retained not so much thereof as the Rule over himself Nay the whole Fabrick of the World was loosned and ready to fall this Keistone of the Arch being crumbled into Dust If Christ had not sustained the Weight of that ruinous Building upon his own Shoulders while it was a repairing by God's making Adam anew and building him upon a new Foundation even the Rock of Ages that precious and elect Corner-Stone at the laying whereof the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job 38. 6 7. Wast thou by when he laid the chief Corner-Stone thereof when the Morning Stars sang together c. Gen. 2. 4. These are the Generations of Heaven and Earth in the day that Jehovah made the Earth and the Heavens The name of Jehovah is here first given to God which Name the Cabalists observe to imply the Mercy of God as Elohim signifies his Justice P. Fagius in locum who observes also that the word Tholedhoth Generations is no where writ perfectly but here and Ruth 4. 18. because these Generations only to wit of the World and the Messias of whose Family the Book of Ruth treateth are perfect Now was Man twice formed as is implied vers 7. And the Lord God formed Vai-jitzer duplex hic est Jod ad significandum inquit R. S. duplicem hominis formationem hujus futuri seculi post Resurrectionem P. Fagius Here is a double Jod to signifie the two-fold Generation of Adam the first relating to this World the second to the World to come that is his Formation as Man his Reformation as a new Man And these Generations thus perfected are said vers 4. to be made in one day because the whole Creation was perfected by Man's new Creation at the entrance of the seventh day 6. Till all the Host of Heaven and Earth was thus finished by the Formation of the new Creature and Introduction of the second Adam God had not made sufficient Preparation for his resting in his Works as very good and altogether adequate to the bringing about of his own glorious and gracious ends But now this Workmanship of God created in Christ for good Works Eph. 2. 9. being made Christ's personal being exhibited in the Promise as adopted into Man's Family and Christ mystical being born of the immortal Seed of that Word of Promise and by Faith adopted into the Family of God the Pleasure of the Lord thus prospering in the Mediator's Hands and Christ's seeing and reaping the Fruit of the travel of his Soul what could the issue of this be but Satisfaction Acquiescency Rest Man renewed and restored into Communion with God through the Mediation of the Son of God was in the fore-Appointment of it the mutual Pleasure of God the Father and God the Son from all Eternity Prov. 8. 29 30 31. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth then was I by him I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. The Son's delight was among the Sons of Men in the habitable parts of the Earth before Man was created or the Foundations of the Earth laid save only in the Decree and Appointment of God And this rejoycing of the Son was the Father's delight And for this Pleasures sake Heaven and Earth and the whole Furniture of both were created Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created The whole World say the Jewish Doctors was created for the Messias and the Messias say all Christians was exhibited for the Redemption of Mankind from that state of Sin and Misery into which we fell through the Transgression of the Proto-plast This Redemption was tendred to Adam in the Promise of the Woman's Seed and accepted by Adam through Faith in that Promise and that acceptance ratified by a Covenant of Salt by a Sacrifice salted with Fire the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering which burning upon the Altar all Night unto the Morning Lev. 6. 9. And figuring the Oblation of Christ's Body and Adam's Oblation of his Body as a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God through Christ must needs come up with Acceptance before God and send forth a sweet Savour of Rest unto God at the dawning of the seventh Day The Talmudists say that God created Fire on the seventh day I suppose they mean that Fire that came down from Heaven on Adam's Sacrifice in token of God's Approbation So that God having perfected his Work on the seventh Day even all the Work that he had made Gen. 2. 2. Or all the Work that he created to make vers 3. Rested on the Seventh Day and sanctified it The Hebrews distinguish betwixt creating forming and making thus To create is the Production of any thing out of nothing to from is the bestowing of Form and Shape upon any thing created to make is to perfect finish and to adapt to its proper use that that is created and formed They are all three used to this sense in one Verse Isa 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory I have formed him yea I have made him that is every way fitted him for the attaining that end for which I created and formed him P. Fagius in Targ. Onkelos Now Adam being created to bring forth good Works in Christ Jesus was not God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Workmanship fitted for the Production of the end of his Creation while he was either in a state of Innocence or of the Lapse which alone is sufficient to prove that Adam fell and was restored by Faith in the promised Seed the day of his Creation for otherwise God could not have rested that is have taken Delight and Complacency in all the Work he created to make as very that is perfectly good and compleated for the effecting the end of Creation to wit the glorifying of God by good Works done in Christ And therefore that seventh Day 's rest on Sunday where God saw all very good as good as Heart
from his own Works as God did from his For as God rested on the seventh Day from his proper Works as Creator that being the proper Work of God the Father who made me and all the World though as to other kind of Works the Father worketh hitherto Even so he that is entred into the Rest of the People of God the Christian-Sabbath doth therein most genuinely imitate God in that he also hath ceased from his Works that is the Works of the Law of Moses that being the proper Notion of Works in St. Paul's Sence whensoever he makes Comparison betwixt the Law and the Gospel And the Works of the Law being the proper Works of the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was directed as differencing them from all other Nations He hath cast off that Yoak of Ceremonies which neither we nor our Fathers could bear and hath taken the easy Yoke of Christ upon him that he may find rest to his Soul And what an apt Introduction is this to what is immediately subjoyned vers 11. Let us therefore strive to enter into this same Rest lest any Man fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Let me therefore perswade you to imitate God in his Seventh-Day's Rest lest you imitate your fore-Fathers in Unbelief and be excluded from eternal Rest From which fearful State the best way to be secured is to attend upon Christian Lord's-Day's Assemblies and Administrations where you shall hear Moses in the Newness of his Spirit not in the Oldness of the Letter you will see that Vail that Moses put upon his Face done away if you will turn unto the Lord and will find the Word of God as a sharp two-edged Sword drawn out of the Scabbard of Types and Ceremonies wherein it could not do any Execution upon the Soul and so weilded as it shall pierce even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit which is the plain Importance of vers 12. For the Word of God is quick c. that is as it is dispenc'd in Christian-Assembles into which if an Unbeliever should come while they are prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 24. that is applying Old-Testament Prophesies unto Christ and proving thence that Jesus is the Christ he is judg'd convinc'd of all convinc'd of the Sin of Unbelief Joh. 16. 8. convinc'd and judg'd of all that is all that prophesy one by one 1 Cor. 14. 31. not only by the prophesying of such as like Apollos are mighty in the Scriptures Act. 18. 28. but is so mightily convinc'd that Jesus is the Christ even of the weakest of them that have the Gift of Prophesying that is of applying the Old-Testament for proof of the truth of the Gospel he is I say by this powerful Word so convinc'd as the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest and so falling down on his Face he glorifieth God and confesseth that God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. By the Premises it appears that the Apostle's scope in his Discourse of the Sabbath is to withdraw the Jews from the Celebration of their Fruitless Sabbath to the Observation of the Christian-Sabbath As also how well God provided for the Settlement of publick-stated Assemblies in the Church when the Jewish Sabbaths were antiquated by letting the Apostles see that though the Law for that was out of date Col. 2. 16. yet there remained a Sabbath to the People of God viz. That which was instituted from the beginning and commanded in the Decalogue Had the Apostle indeed only decried that and not establish'd this it might have been thought that the Church had been left to her choice what Day of the Week to have celebrated as Calvin and the Prolepsarians conceive But as if the holy Ghost had purposely intended to obviate that Errour the admitting whereof would unavoidably bring Confusion into the Christian World he was pleased to direct the same Apostle whose Pen had cancel'd the Jewish to write in Vindication of the Christian-Sabbath and to inform him that seeing the Partition-wall was taken down there was a plain and open way made for the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath that Sabbath in the sanctifying whereof the greatest part of those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. had received Grace to offer acceptable Sacrifices to God by Faith in the promised Seed to walk with God to be upright before him in the most general Apostacies to obey his Call unreservedly though they knew not whither To exert such Heroick Acts of Faith Patience Contempt of the World Dependance on God c. as made them the Wonders of that World which was unworthy of them and Paterns to the best of Christians That Sabbath in the Celebration whereof the Christian-Church forsook the Jewish Synagogue then became the Synagogue of Satan and betook themselves to the Communion of the General-Assembly and Church of the First-born consisting of all those who from the Publication of the Promise of Christ to Adam had been begotten again of the immortal Seed of that ever-induring Word administred to the Patriarchs and all that adhere to the Patriarchal Religion in all Nations and Ages and administred without those carnal Ordinances and unprofitable bodily Exercises wherewith the Jews Sabbath was incumbred if not wholly taken up therewith For the Jews that out-went the Ox and Ass in keeping the Mosaical Sabbath as such did not go beyond them in the Strength of the Services thereof which could not perfect them that frequented them as touching Conscience but in the strength of the Ordinances of the Patriarchal Sabbath so that it was their doing Sunday's Work on their Saturdays that sanctified the Jews as to Conscience Their own Sabbath's Rest from Work sanctifying them only by the external visible separating of them from other Nations to the end that our Saviour's Descent from Abraham might be more conspicuous And therefore as their fore-Fathers sell short through their looking no further than Canaan so those then Moderate Jews to whom he writes would also fall short of Eternal Rest if they did not look forward beyond their Sabbath-Day to Sunday or the Lord's-Day-Sabbath in the Ordinances whereof Saving Grace is so plentifully dispenc'd as the Eunuch shall have no cause to say I am a dry Tree nor the Sun of the Stranger to complain I am utterly cut off from God's People If they take hold of God's Covenant and keep his Sabbaths now under the Gospel tho they were excluded from the Congregation of the Lord under the Mosaical Sabbath Isa 56. 4 c. but their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar and he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer To this God of all Grace who deals thus bountifully with us Gentiles even to the Father Son and Holy-Ghost be given all Praises and Adoration now and for ever Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did