that thô the Israelites were under a special Obligation of persect Obedience to Sinai's Covenant of Works yet there was another Covenant before confirmed of God in Christ ministred with it and by it that the Elect by Faith beholding Christ as their perfect High Priest and compleat Propitiation through the Veil and Shadowy Dispensation of the Law might be relieved from its Curse by Reason of its weakness through the Flesh that could not keep it Rom. 8.3 3. The Decalogue or Ten Commandments being declared with a particular Direction unto Israel â—â—â—de thâ— Oâ—â—igation of Obedience to them as so promâ—lgated on Mount Stuâ—i to belong unto them as general Heads not only oâ—tâ—â—e Moâ—d Bâ—anches of the Law in other Precepts given by Moses bâ—t also of the Typical and Ceremonial Bâ—anches thereof which being appropriated and suited only to that prelent State of the Jewish Church did Intitle the Moral Law particularly unto them as a Covenant of Works which to us is only an Everâ—asting Rule as declarative of the Will of God and the substance of the Law of our Creation And therefore is any mean that the Decalogue as given on Mount Sinai is not binding to us as it was as I hinted before directed peculiarly to Israel as a Covenant connexed and related to the Ceremonial Law or as the Foundation of their Obedience to the Typical and Shadowy as well as other Moral Precepts and Commandments tied to it under that Temporary Dispensation then we do agree that it is not so binding to us under the Gospel But as the Law given to Israel on Mount Sinai was the Substance of the Law of Nature in our first Parents or of Creation again renewed in Tables of Stone and committed to Israel as the declarative Will of God so it was for the use of the Gentiles also For seeing our Sin and depravity of Nature through the fall does not weaken the Authority of Gods Law over us Ephes 2.3 Rom. 2.14 15 16. chap. 3.19 and that the Gentiles as well as the Jews before the Law was given to Israel were under its Obligations as written in their Hearts by Nature Gods delivering a fairer Copy of it by Moses than what remained in us since the fall could no ways weaken but strengthen the Obligation of it unto us all as being alike under it by Nature Moreover as the Moral Law written in Tables of Stone was the declarative Will of God strengthning the Obligation of the same Law written in the Heart of Man by Nature so Christ in the Gospel does not any ways dissolve but much strengthneth this Obligation to us all And to this agreeth the Assemblies the Congregational Churches and also the Baptists Confession of Faith recommended by the Messengers of and concerned for upwards of one hundred Baptized Congregations denying Arminianism wherein Chap. 19. are the following Words Rom. 2.14 15. Deut. 10.4 Rom. 13.8 9 10. James 2.8 10 11 12. Matth. 5.17 18 19. Rom. 3.31 Heb. 2.1 1 Cor. 9.8 9 10. The same Law that was first written in the Heart of Man continued to be a perfect Rule of Righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments and written in two Tables the Moral Law doth for ever bind all as well justified Persons as others to the Obedience thereos neither doth Christ in the Gospel any way dissolve but much strengthen this Obligation Besides this Law commonly called Moral God was pleased to give to the People of Israel Ceremonial Laws to them also he gave sundry Judicial Laws which expired together with the State of that People not obliging any Now by Virtue of that Institution their general Equity only being of Moral Use So that here is the concurring Testimony of the three aforesaid Confessions of Faith that the Moral Law or Ten Commandments doth for ever bind all Persons to the Obedience thereof 4. Rom. 5.20 Chap. 7.23 Psal 19.7 8. Prov. 6.23 Gal. 3.23 24 25. It appears from the Holy Scripture that one chief end of Gods giving the Law and recording of it by Moses was That the Offence might abound and that Sin by the Commandment might become exceeding Sinful That is the Law being a clearer Light than what remains in our Natures since the fall it worketh the clearer and fuller Conviction of Sin upon our Minds and so it was our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ by sheâ—ing us an absolute necessity of laying hold on the Relief provided for us in him That we might be justisied by Eaith And this being declared in the New Testament as one universal end of Gods giving the Law it was then designed for the use of both Jews and Gentiles And 5. The Decalogue's peculiar Direction to Israel was no more an Exclusion of the Gentiles from its Moral Use and Instruction than the Promise of the Messias and Gods command that Israel should hearken unto him in all things had no respect unto the Gentiles And therefore as the Gentiles came by the certain Knowledge of the Promises and Prophecies of the Messias Gen. 3.15 Chap. 49.10 Chap. 22.18 Gal. 3.8 14 16. Rom. 4.9 10 11. Deut. 18.15 19. by the House of Abraham and the sacred Record of Moses of the Promise made to our first Parerts of Jacobs Prophecy That unto Shiloh should the gathering of the People be Of the Blessing of the Gentiles through Faith in Christ Abrahams Seed and of the command of God that Israâ—â— should hearken unto him and his threatnings to those that â—â—use to hear him So by the same means viz. by the Books of Moses whereby the Gentiles had the certain Knowledge of the Messias that was to come they had also the Knowledge of the Law And seeing there is no Reason to think that God designed his discovery of the Messias and the Record made of him in the Books of Moses should be only for the Use and Benefit of the House of Israel and that after Noah and the following Ancient Fathers who lived so many uundred Years to hand down the Knowledge they had received were Dead and the World as well as the Church was more increased that the Gentiles should be still left without any other ground of Faith than at best the uncertain Traditions of their short-lived and Idolatrous Fathers but that these also who had an Interest in the Messias respecting the call of the Elect that were among them should also have an Interest in and to the Use and Benefit of all the general Promises and Prophecies of him that were delivered to the Jews So consequently the Law and Matter of Instruction contained in the Legal Covenant relating to the clearer Convictons of Sins against the Moral Law and to the discovery of Christ for their Relief and Salvation from the Penalty of the Curse thereof being recorded together with those Promises and Prophecies of Christ was then for the Use and Benefit of the Gentiles also they being by Nature
his Sanctifying it or setting that time apart from the common use of Man for the service and worship of his Creator and then we have reason to believe he did immediately reveal the knowledge of it to Adam that he might answer the design of God in sanctifying the seventh day for him and to make it a pattern for aster Ages But some have said That the sanctifying of the seventh-day Sabbath on which God rested from his Work of Creation was written by way of Anticipation of the Order of time in Moses Sacred History and so thô God rested the seventh day from all his Works yet the Sabbath was not sanctified for Man till after Israels coming out of Egypt Answer This is a weak and groundless Notion that some have taken up as will appear from the proper sence of the Text and the Reasons following For 1. It 's said That on the seventh day God ended his Work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his Work which he had made From whence it 's plain that God's seventh day on which he rested from his Work of Creation was that same seventh day on which he ended his Work else how could it be said he rested from his work on the seventh day if his seventh day rest was not immediately aster it was ended 2. It 's said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Now what seventh day can this be which God blessed and sanctisied but the same seventh day on which he ended his Work from which sence for any to invert the Text is a gross and paspable wrong to it for God sanctified 〈◊〉 because in 〈◊〉 he had rested from all his Work Note it well that seventh day in which God had rested before Moses wrote this History was the same he sanctified that Man should bound his six working days with a Sabbath 3. No Anticipation is to be put upon any Text of Scripture unless a just necessity compell it H. Scursby Discouise of the Sabbath Page 23. 2â— for otherwise the order of History may be inverted at Mens pleasures And therefore the reason why Anticipations are allowed in any Text of Scripture is because there is some necessity or other arising to preserve the verity or sence of Scripture but there is no such thing to be pleaded in this case Therefore no Anticipation to be intruded on the Text. 4. Anticipations are only to be allowed in any Text when either the same or some other Text discovers that so it is but we presume no such thing can be assigned relating to the thing under consideration therefore none is here to be admitted SECT III. HERE I come to open and explain the Law of God which commandeth the seventh day to be observed and because I find that some have taken up an Opinion and I conceive for the sake of nothing else but to escape the Arguments which some have drawn from the fourth Commandment for keeping the Jewish seventh day Sabbath do assert that there is nothing of the Law as given on Mount Sinai binding to us under the Gospel or that nothing of it is obliging to us but what is given forth again and confirmed to us in the New Testament To remove therefore this mistake and to demonstrate that the Ten Commandments are of themselves binding to all both Jews and Gentiles as a Rule of Holy Life thò not as a Covenant of Justification for so they are done away in Christ I shall discourse the more largely of the Law of God and the Decalogue in general and then of the fourth Commandment in particular And 1. I shall here premise Numb 15.14 15 16. Ex. d. 12.43 48 49. Deut. 5.27 Chap. 4 37 38. Chap. 7 6 7 8. Chap. 9.5 Heb. 3.1 2. that the House of Israel with the Proselytes joyned to them by Circumcision having all one Law were peculiarly concerned in Sinaâ—'s Covenant more than other Nations For God having loved their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob he therefore chose their Seed aster them and delivered them out of Egypt to intrust them with his Oracles and Counsels for all the World And to this end he renewed the Law of Nature at Mount Sinai and directed it peculiarly unto them and brought them under it as a visible Covenant of Works requiring their perfect Obedience thereunto and to his whole revealed Will in the Ceremonial precepts added to it And so the Israelites being thus separated from all Nations and under a special Obligation of Ceremonial and Typical service and having a Sacred Record of the Law of Nature with the Promises and Prophecies of the Messias that was to come â—xod 19.6 Isa 43.10 Heb. 9.9 23. ch 10.1 transcribed by Moses and delivered to them they became the Ministers of the certain knowledge of them to all Nations faâ—ther witnessing to the Messias in the Types and Shadows of the Law and by the writings of other Prophets that were among them Gen. 12.3 chap. 26.4 Galat 3.16 Zach. 10.4 Jer. 23.5 6. chap. 11.1 Micah 5.2 Gen. 49.10 Isa 53. Psal 16.10 Psal 68.18 Joel 2.28 29. That Christ should come of the Seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Judah of the House of David and should be born in Bethlehem of Judea that the Scepter â—â—ould not depart from Judah till Shiloh came of his Susserings Râ—surrection Ascension and of the Ministration of the Spirit c. to point unto all the World where and when they should look for the true Messias and how they should know him when he came So that herein the Jews were peculiarly concerned in Sinai's Covenant that under its Obligations and their trust of the Oracles of God together with it the Messias should be declared and in the Typical service of the visible Covenant of Works they should Minister as Witnesses of the Grace of God in Christ to the Gentile Nations 2. But thô the Jews with the Gentile Proselytes that put themselves under their Covenant of Works by Circumcision were under a peculiar Obligation of the whole Mosaical Lâ—w yet they were not so absolutely tyed up unto this Covenant of Works Deut. 4.13 as to be wholly concluded by it unto their Eâ—ernal State for God did not bring that People absolutely under it in all the rigor of it according to its whole Law and tenor so as to stand or fall absolutely by it Promises or Threatnings for the promise of Grace in Christ being given upon the first entrance of Sin into the World and renewed to Abraham 430 Years before the giving of the Law to his posterity Gal. 3.16 17. there was a blessed relief and Salvation provided therein for the Elect that betook themselves unto it and made use of it against the Curse and Threatnings annexed to the first Covenant broken in and by our first Parents and to our Personal Transgresâ—â—ons of the Law So
Evange list according to their Civil days not to begin till the dawning of the Day or Sun-rising and agreeable to Mr. Bampfields Discourse against the first-days beginning at Midnight after the Roman account it must necessarily follow that the first-day Acts 20.7 11. must be reckoned to begin with the Morning day-light For it s said Vpon the first-day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continaâ—d his Speech until Midnight When he therefore had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed And here I observe that the Morning in which Paul departed was the Morrow which betokens another day and therefore it was no part of the first day of the Week So that it is not only undeâ—iably clear from the Text it self that the Night in which Paul preached was part of the first-day belonging to the preceeding day-light joining to it but it s also evident that the first day of the Week began in the Morning before and not on that Evening in which the Apostle preached and so it appears that the Morrow on which Paul travelled was the second day of the Week and the Text clearly proves that on the day before being the first day of the Week Paul with the Church of Troas Assembled to solemnize the Ordinances of the Gospel as on the Sabbath day Object 15. It s said Math. 12.40 As â—onas was three days and three Nights in the Whales belly So shall the Sun of man be three days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And this seemeth to disagree with other places of Scripture concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Answer 1. It cannot be thought St. Matthew or the other Evangelists faw any Discord in the Testimony they bore of Christ or that the three Days and three Nights expressed by our Saviour should be repugnant to the other Evangelsts undeniable Evidence that Christ was not in the Grave three Nights Now to reconcile this Difficulty I shall cite Dr. Hammond on the Text saith he The way of Interpreting this place mast be taken from a Figure which expresseth one whole thing by two parts of it Thus the Heavens and the Earth in St. Peter 2 Pet. 3.7 signifie the World and so Christ is said to be three Days and three Nights in the Earth thô the first natural Day he was not in the Grave any part of the Night but the latter part of the Fryday all Saturday and so much of Sunday as until the Sun approached their Horizon And as it is practised in the business of Circumcision This of Circuâ—â—ision is alâ—â— affirmed by Mr. Wâ—â—mâ—â— in his Christ Sâ—nag Page 114. which was precifely observed the eighth day if the Child were born in one day thô but half an hour before the end of it that is before the beginning or Evening of the next that half hour was counted for one of the eight days because say they legal days are not accounted from Time to Time or from Hour to Hour Thus when Luke 9.28 'T is said about eight days after Math. 17.1 and Mark 9.2 'T is after six Days that is after six Days compleat the first and the last being not compleat and so thô numbred by one yet omitted by two Evangelists And accordingly the space of those very three days of Christs lying in the Grave until his Resurrection are when it is Prophetically mentioned in Hosea 6 â— said to be after two days 2. The Dutch Annotations also say of those three Days and three Nights For a part of the Days is here taken whole days and nights like that is Customary with the Hebrews see Esth 4.16 compared with Chap. 5.1 And so they take it after the Romanists reckoning that the days began and ended on the Midnight and so it falleth yet clearer To which I shall add this brief Note That seeing 't is said As Jonas was three Days and three Nights c. so Christ should be three days and three Nights c. 'T is thought from our Saviours Words that sonas was not compleatly three Nights in the Whales Belly but as Christ was in the Grave Object 16. Christs Body rested in the Grave on the Jews Sabbath and his Soul in Paraaice and therefore he never intended by his Death to make it a common work-day Answer Luke 2.21 Gal. 4.4 Math. 5.17 18. As Christ was born a Jew and was Circumcised and came to fulfil the whole Law so every Jot and Little of it was rulsilled by him and therefore he always observed the Jewish Sabbath and if his Body being in the Grave and his Soul in Paradice should in some Sence be taken for a rest in Comparison of what he laboured under before for our Redemption yet then it must be only so considered with respect to the Law tâ—â— our Justification was compleatly Purchased by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead Rom. 4.25 â— Cor. 15.17 18. who was delivered that is to be Crucisied for our Offences and was raised again for our Justification And the Apostle also saith That if Christ be not raised your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished So that thô the Vail of the Temple was Rent at his Passion as a Sign that there was thereby a Rent made in the Types and Shadows of Heavenly Things which was then making void yet the Heavenly Things themselves were not compleatly purchased for us until the Body of Christ was raised for our Justification Heb. 9.12 And then as the Apostle saith By his own Blood he entred in once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us Now therefore thô Christs being in the Grave should be called a Comparative Rest to what he suffered on the Cross yet it cannot be understood of his Ceasing from the Work of purchasing our Redemption until the Omnipotency of his Divine Nature was put forth in loosing him from the Pains of Death Heb. 2.10 Chap. 5.9 and Chap. 11.40 Acts 2.24 or part of the Sentence of the Law and raising his Body to Life again for till then the New Creation was not perfected in the second Adam And then on the first day of the Week having ceased from this Work and so rested it was thereby sanctified in stead of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath which was then to be abolished as all other Legal Ceremonial Things were And the Gospel first and seventh day Sabbath taking its place was to answer the Moral Law and to bear the Type of the Rest that remaineth to the People of God as also principally the Memorial of Christs Resurrection and to continue our Sabbath unto his second Personal Coming To close this Treatise seeing we are obliged to keep the first day of the Week a Sabbath or Day of Rest from our worldly Business to worship and
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
alike Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Whatever some may imagine from this Scripture yet seeing Adam in Paradice had his Sabbath for the solemn worship of God Levit. 23.3 and Israel had their Sabbath for the same end and to rest from their work and labour there being still the same Moral Use and Necessity of Nature for a Sabbath there is Reason to believe that such a day is to be observed as well now and in after Ages as it was before And considering the undeniable Evidence that hath been given to prove the Decalogue to be Morally binding to us under the Gospel there is a necessity for the Preservation of the Concord of Holy Writ to give such an Exposition of this Text of Scripture as will both suit and agree with the Letter of it and the binding quality of other Scriptures to keep a Sabbath-day To proceed therefore the Apostle surely would not have singled forth the first-day of the Week on which the Churches were wont to have their Assemblies as the properest time to make their Collection for the Saints Nor would the Apostle John have called it the Lords day as hath been shewed from History if it had not been a sanctified day for Holy Use neither would the Holy Ghost have Recorded the Disciples gathering together on the two first-days after the Resurrection of Christ nor that the Church of Troas came together on the first day of the Week to solemnize the Gospel Ordinances of Divine Worship as the only Examples to answer the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment If the same Spirit of Truth in the Apostle had here designed to make every day alike Common 2. If the Apostle in this Scripture had so designed he would not have cited so many Precepts of the Ten Commandments in Chap. 13.9 of the same Epistle and have said of the rest of them as binding to the Romans to confirm his Moral Doctrine That if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And therefore seeing he doth so plainly discover the binding quality of the Ten Commandments to the Gentile Christians there is no Reason to conceive he should dissolve the Obligation of any one of them in the following Chapter considering that the Liberty there mentioned of esteeming or not esteeming of Days is not there reserred or applyed as having Retation to the Moral Observation of the sourth Command 3. The Apostle would not have abolished as hath been shewed the Jewish Feasts Holy days and Sabbaths Colos 2.16 17. nor have said to the Galatians Ye observe Days Gal. 4.10 and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain If he or any other by Christs Authority had given absolute Liberty for Christians to observe the Jewish Holy days And therefore the sence of this Text which is freest from all Exceptions is That the Apostle neither giveth us Liberty to sleight the Observation of the seventh-day required of us in the fourth Commandment as the Bond of the Gospel Pattern nor yet doth give us absolute Liberty to observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath and their other Holy-days but he is teaching us how we should bear with one another in indifferent Matters as the eating of Herbs and esteeming of Jewish days That in Case a Brother should be so weak as that after he is converted from the Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith he should still retain some esteem of their Holy days yet being sound in all the Essential Principles to Salvation and in the constituted Order of a Regular Gospel Church his Communion is not to be refused Ver. 1. but here let the Reader well observe that my meaning is not that any Church should receive such a Christian into full Communion with them at the Lords Table that holdeth and maketh our first-day Sabbath only as a common day to him for this in the Judgment of a Church according to Scripture Rule bringeth him under the guilt of Sin and the Church should not partake of it by their holding such full Communion with him But the Apostle means that in Case a Converted Jew as he is there treating of such a one as maketh a difference between Meats to be Clean and Unclean Ver. 14 1â— if he should still esteem some of their Holy days yet if he also keepeth the first-day Sabbath Holy unto the Lord the Church in such a Case should be tender of grieving his weak Conscience by Continual and Uncharitable Disputations with him about the Matter wherein he is not clearly enlightned so as to give him an occasion to stumble and sall at the Offence For seeing he Conscientiously keepeth Holy the first-day Sabbath Gal. 4.13 15 20 21 23. for his retaining an esteem for some Jewish Holy days so they be kept to the Lord in Christian Worship and not for Jewish Sacrifices or such things which betoken Christs not being yet come and fully exhibited in the Flesh we are not to deny Communion at the Lords Table with such a Brother seeing he neither observeth the Jewish days to uphold their worship contrary to the Prohibition of Legal Ceremonies under the Gospel Dispensation nor can any ways be charged with disorders in Ordinances or in Matters Essentially pertaining to the Regular Constitution of a Gospel Church And that this is the Mind of Christ in the Text appeareth in two things 1. Because the Apostle joineth this Liberty of Regarding or not Regarding of days with Eating or not Eating of Meats as things of a like indifferent Nature but the Keeping or not Keeping of the Weekly Sabbath hath been fully proved to be no indisserent thing but an absolute Duty and therefore it is none of the Subject Matter included in the Apostles Words 2. He intended to give no Liberty to observe the Jewish days for Legal Ceremonial Worship for this under the Gospel would not be counted a keeping of a day to the Lord but not a keeping of it to him and so as the Apostle argueth it is not a keeping of a day at all And thus having opened this Scripture and given the sence of the Apostles Words in Reconciliation to the Authority of other Places that are binding to us for the Observation of the Sabbath day I shall leave it to the serious Consideration of the Impartial Reader Answer 2. To the Objection from 2 Cor. 3.7 where the Apostle saith But if the Ministration of Death written and ongraven in Stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious In Answer to this Scripture I shall Note that in the preceding and following Verses the Apostle is signifying the different and exceeding Glory of the Ministration of the quickening Spirit
he cometh home the first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-day or have his seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
none will affirm or else he was bound in Duty to keep his Sabbath before his six working days on Gods seventh-day of rest and then it was Adams Sabbath also Mark 2.27 as Christ plainly tells us That the Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath 2. There is two Moral Reasons for Man to Sabbatize or keep a Sabbath The one is to abstain from work that he may devote himself to Worship his Creator the other is to rest and refresh himself from his Toyl and Labour Now altho' many Men have not toiled themselves in any Work and so have no need of a rest to refresh their Bodies yet such are bound to keep the Sabbath as well as others in ceasing from finding their own Pleasure and speaking their own Words and to Honour God on his Holy Day Isa 58.13 So then tho' Adam and Eve had not passed one working day before they had Gods seventh-day Sabbath made for them yet it was their Moral Duty to abstain from Work and to Dedicate that very day to Attribute their Praise and Worship to him For we find by Abels Offering the Firstlings of his Flock Gen. 4.4 which was afterwards required of Israel with all the first Fruits of the Land of Canaan that the first of all our Increase is most acceptable to God and so by the same Rule was the first of Time after the Creation And when Adam was put into the Garden of Eden and had seen all the Cattel and Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air and after that had Eve brought to him which God had formed for a help Meet for him and had taken a little view of the Works of God in the Heavens and on the Earth and of his own Happy Estate and Lordship over the Creatures Then surely it was his Moral Duty before he served himself in any Work or Business of his own most solemnly to Praise and Glorifie God for Creating him after his own Image and making him Lord over all the Earth And this seemeth to have been the Work of Man and Angels from Job 38.7 When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy For thô it may be doubted what these Morning Stars are and how they sang yet the Sons of God most properly were the Angels and Man who bear the greatest Likeness and Image of their Creator of those then it s said they all shouted for Joy and I observe from the Text that as this could not be precisely at the same instant when the Foundations of the Earth were laid but rather when the Works of Creation were finished because neither the Natural Stars nor Mankind were then formed So there is no Reason to understand the Text of any Time after the fall of Man for then the Enmity of the Evil Angels against God would rather excite them to Curse than to Rejoice and Praise him for his Works It 's true the Word all is sometimes taken for a part and not the whole but not here for when God had finished his Work on the sixth-day He saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very good So that neither Man nor Angels were then fallen nor before this Solemn Acclamation of Joy for that would have been a Check unto it Besides we find nothing mentioned in the Text of Redemption-Grace but of the Works of Creation and therefore we have the greatest Reason to refer it to a Time of solemnizing the Praises of God between the finishing of the Creation and the Fall and there is Reason to believe that so it was for why should we imagine that God should Create all things very good and in Perfection and never receive their perfect Homage and Praise It is therefore rational to believe that God did not suffer sin to Marr the Perfection of his Works till all was sinished and did shew forth his Praise And then if Man had a time in Persection to solemnize the Praise of his Creator when could it best be done but in the sanctified time of Abstinence from his own business Mr. H. Soursby and Mr. M. Smith in their Book Page 67. say the Seventh day was a Paradice Institution for thô his Mind was then Pure and served God always yet why did God sanctifie the Sabbath for Man in Innocency as it is confessed by our seventh-day Sabbatharians if it was not principally for his solemn Worship for thô he had work appointed in Innocency to dress and keep the Garden of Eden yet it was not toilsome but delight some to him for Adams eating his Bread in Sorrow and with the Sweat of his Face came by the Curse that fell upon him for his Sin seeing therefore the Sabbath at its first sanctifying was not principally Hallowed for Man to rest and refresh his weary Body which became one Moral end of it through the Accident of Sin forseen by God but that it was first sanctified for Man to abstain from Work most solemnly to worship his Creator before he served in his own Affairs and considering God himself had no need of a Day of Rest for he fainteth not nor is weary and so his Declaration of it was for the Sake of Man to exert his worship to him we may then conclude that Adams first Sabbath was most properly fixed before his six working days to answer the Prime and Chief end of Hallowing of it after such manner as best became our first Parents in the State of Innocency Object 5. But some may say Thô by Adams first keeping his Sabbath we have no Example for beginning our Sabbath originally after our six working days yet the six days in which Israel first gathered Manna was to settle the keeping of their Sabbath as after their six working days and not before them Answer 1. Tho gathering Manna six days before their first Sabbath in the Wilderness is no where assigned as a sixing their first Sabbath after no more than six working days But it rather appears as to Man an Accidental thing For we find that God first gave the People Manna upon their murmuring because of hunger Besides if God had designed to six six working days before their first Sabbath it would better have suited such an end for God to have sanctified the seventh-day from their first Passover or from the Red Sea when they were delivered from Pharaohs pursuing of them but notwithstanding Israel were freed from the fear of their Enemies and had nothing as I can find to hinder their resting on the next seventh-day after yet if we reckon the day on which Moses and the Children of Israel sang and danced before the Lord for Joy of their Deliverance and the three days they were in the Wilderness of Shur and after that their coming to Morah and their Incamping after that at Elim by the twelve Wells of Water and seventy Palm Trees from whence they removed unto the Wilderness of Sin where