of Grace as well as the Creature in the way of Providence we must own God in that and depend on him for it for the Church is compared in Scripture to the Moon Psal 89.37 it shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful Witness in Heaven Cant. 6.9 Who is this that looketh forth fair as the Moon c. As the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun so the Church borrows her Light from Jesus Christ who is the Sun of Righteousness As the Church is compared to the Moon so Christ to the Sun for so he is called Mal. 4.2 but to you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings The Church borrows her Light from Christ the Sun of Righteousness as the Moon doth from the Sun in the Firmament for Christ is compared to the Sun as well as the Church to the Moon As the Moon borrows her Light and Lustre from the Sun and is renewed by the aspects and influences thereof so the Church by influences from Christ who is indeed the Sun of Righteousness renewing the state of the Church especially under the Gospel And therefore all those Duties which were to be performed on the New Moons so far as they are perpetual ought to be more plentifully and more abundantly performed under the Gospel as abstaining from servile works from sin the worst of servitudes seeking instruction and attending upon the Ordinances for that end the sounding of the silver Trumpet of the Gospel abounding in spiritual Sacrifices and agreeing in love and amity eating their Bread in singleness of heart 3. Here seemeth to be likewise some intimation of that great mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ I mean his Conception of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary For this aimed at Christ as all the other Ceremonies of the Law and holy times and seasons did And some have gone about to make it out thus That look as Christ fulfilled other great Types and Ceremonies of the Law in other things so he did in this As the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to the time of his Birth on the fifteenth day of the seventh month so if from thence we reckon thirty eight weeks backward it will carry us to the change of the Moon at which time is a great conjunction or union of those two great Luminaries the Sun the Moon Here they think may be some dark and weak shadow of the conjunction or union of the two Natures of Christ in one person when he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he did as in the whole state of his Humiliation so especially when he was conceived in the Virgins womb 4. The New Moon is put for every thing beneath Christ Rev. 12.1 the world which in respect of the changeableness of it is like the Moon the world and the glory thereof passeth away never standing at the same stay This should be frequently upon our hearts and thoughts 5. They were to observe the first day of the month not the fifth or sixth day so also their morning Sacrifice was to be offered early in the morning and the Passover celebrated the first month in the year To teach them that as ever they expected the Blessing of God upon the rest of their time they must be careful to set apart the first and best of all their days and hours unto his service 6. They were to observe the first day of every month one as well as another which checks that superstitious conceit as if there were lucky and unlucky times whereas God hath sanctified every month and every time to his people as on the contrary to the wicked the most lucky times prove disastrous as among the Papists that famous year 1588. crowned with so many Astrological Praedictions of ensuing happiness and Victory proved quite contrary to their expectations so that Fulke Pref. Rhem. Test saith it Octogesimus Octavus mirabilis annus Clade Papistarum faustus ubique piis No month to a godly man is of it self evil but let a wicked Haman cast lots from the beginning of the year to the ending he shall find no month good So much for the mystery of their New Moons the second sort of their holy times the first was their annual Feasts the second their New Moons the third is their Sabbaths 3. Sabbaths Let no man judge you in respect of the Sabbath A word to that and so we shall finish the Text at this time This is the third sort of holy times and seasons under the Law The general notion of a Sabbath is a time of Rest They had three sorts of Sabbaths their weekly Sabbath every seventh day their yearly Sabbath every seventh year and their great sabbatical year reckoning seven times seven years which was their Jubilee every fiftieth year In every one of which was something of a shadow of things to come the Apostle is express these things are a shadow of things to come Quest Wherein Answ 1. The Sabbath of the seventh day their weekly Sabbath on the seventh day of the week this was partly moral and perpetual considered as a seventh part of weekly time sanctified and set apart by God from common use for man to rest from the works of his weekly Calling in imitation of God and in remembrance of the great work of the Creation of the world But though the Sabbath be partly moral and it must needs be so seeing it is one of the Ten Commandments otherwise there would be but nine moral Commands and the original ground of a Sabbath is not a ceremonial Institution nor the sin and fall of man but a particular Calling and therefore Adam in his innocent and sinless estate needed a Sabbath and God sanctified this day before the fall of man Gen. 2.1 2 3. but yet the Jewish Sabbath was in some respects Ceremonial and therefore it is abrogated and the Christian Sabbath substituted in stead thereof and therefore the Holy Ghost here in the Text reckons the Jewish Sabbaths in the same rank with their New Moons and yearly Festivals amongst the shadows of good things to come for it had some typical respects and uses some ceremonial Rites and Observations annexed to it I shall instance in two things wherein it is typical 1. For the Commemoration of their typical Redemption and Deliverance out of Egypt Therefore though the fourth Commandment as it is recorded in Exod. chap. 20. is grounded upon the Labour of a particular Calling and upon Gods resting from the work of Creation upon the seventh day which are moral grounds yet in the fourth Commandment as it is repeated Deut. 5. one of those moral considerations is omitted viz. the work of Creation and there is a typical consideration substituted in stead thereof viz. their Deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 2. As there was in the Jewish Sabbath a Commemoration of that typical Redemption out of Egypt so secondly it was a typical
out in a new dress given forth in a new manner The Lord adorns his Truths with new Ornaments as it were that men may be excited to Inquiries and Affections suitable Hence in every Age there be in one respect or other new Discoveries or new Dispensations and Dealings of God with his People Or if men be taken with Antiquity 1 Joh. 2.7 I write no new Commandment but an old Commandment for the substance of things The good old way of Faith and Holiness remains which all the Saints of God have gone to Heaven in Heb. 11. he shews the same Race which he sets before them had been run by all the Saints from Abel cap. 12.1 being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses let us run our race that is set before us as if he should say I exhort you to nothing but what all those Saints of old have done before you and yet ver 40. he professeth God hath better things for them an higher and better Dispensation and cap. 12.18 Ye are not come to Mount Sinai but ye are come to Mount Sion ver 22. here he fetches an argument from this variety of Dispensation and from the preheminence of that which they wore under above former times Reas 2. For his own greater Glory And under this head many things come in to be considered This various and gradual Dispensation tends to his greater Glory divers ways 1. That there may be an harmony between this and the other Works of God 2. To shew the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom 4. His absolute Liberty And 5. His peculiar Goodness 1. That there might be an harmony between this and the other Works of God It is so in other works of God as well as in his speaking and revealing of his Mind As in the Creation of the World he could have made it all at once but he chose rather to make it in six days and he made various and several kinds of Creatures Therefore this variety of Administration in the Discoveries of himself and his Gospel is suitable to all the rest of his Works wherein he ever delights with Unity to mix Variety with Identity Diversity and Disagreement in some respects with Consent in other So we see in the outward Lineaments of mens Faces so in the inward abilities and dispositions of their Minds both in the common and saving in natural and spiritual endowments what a wonderful Composition there is and how great variety and so indeed in every Creature and Work of God Though in conclusion Omnia fiunt ab uno ad unum God is the Author and the End of all So in the Church 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. there are diversities of Gifts differences of Administrations diversities of Operations but from the same Author Calv. in loc Symmetria Ecclesiae multiplici ut ita loquar unitate constat the Symmetry of the Church consists as I may so say in a manifold Unity 2. To manifest the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son which appears in this in that it is attended with such a multitude of means of divers kinds for the Dispensation of it That so many ordinances Providences Persons and things in several ages of the World should all be subservient to the Exhibition of this one Mystery of Christ and Redemption by him This shews the Glory of it Col. 1.27 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variegata sapientia It is like a party coloured Garment Ephes 3.10 As in the works of Creation and Providence so it is in the Dispensations of his Grace the Wisdom of God cannot be sufficiently manifested in any one or in a few things or in one manner of working And therefore it refracts it self into many parcels and scatters its Beams every manner of way that all put together may argue unto Man the inexhaustible depth and infinite largeness thereof Hence he hath found out many ways and means to convey the same Grace and every several manner hath some peculiar Beam of Wisdom and Worth in it This great variety and change of his Dispensations was not because in process of time God found out a better way and so relinquish'd the old as in the work of Creation he did not profit by Experience though he made Man last the most perfect Creature last For the Inequalities and Degrees of things came from the Wisdom of God as well as the divers kinds of them and every thing is best in its place and kind and proportion to the whole though not simply and in it self It is best that in a body there should be a Foot as well as an Head though simply and in it self the Head be more excellent The Wisdom of God appears not only in the individual natures of things but in their references and proportions to other things and to the whole whereof they are parts so it is better and the Wisdom of God appears more in that there was both a Legal and a Gospel Dispensation of Christ and his Benefits though the Gospel Dispensation be in it self far the more excellent Therefore this is a third Beam of his Glory that shines forth herein viz. his manifold Wisdom As there is infinite Wisdom in every thing God doth so he would have us see it 4. This variety of Dispensation manifests the Lords absolute Freedom and Liberty and Soveraignty in the use of Means and Instruments that he is not tyed to any of them He can work by little or by great means by few or many He can dispense the same Grace to his Church either in a Family-way or in a Nation or in all Nations For the Church of God was first a Family then in populo Israelitico and now in populo Catholico He can reveal himself either by ordinary or extraordinary persons either in a more immediate way or in a mediate way He hath not limited himself to one way or time or manner of speaking lest we should ascribe the Glory to the Means to the Tools rather than the blessed Workman and Author Therefore he is pleased ever and anon to change the Means to break his Tools as it were and throw them away and make new ones Hence if men begin to think that a Temple at Jerusalem hath any Salvation in it he will burn it up and be worshipped in spirit and truth in every Cottage as Joh. 4. pure Incense every where Mal. 1.11 5. The fifth Beam of Divine Glory that shines forth in this variety of Administration is this the Glory of peculiar Goodness which the Lord will receive by this means from every Saint of his according to his peculiar dealing with him Some will bless him for Multitude and Excellency of Means others will admire his Power and Grace in working by small and weak means some will praise him for one kind of
of the people It would better become private persons to reflect upon themselves and upon their own sins and their own unworthiness then to work out in discontent against those that God hath set over them 3. The third Law of the Sin-Offering is concerning the blood thereof There is a threefold disposal of it appointed by the Rule in this Chapter vers 5 6 7. 1. The Priest is to dip his finger in the blood and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. 2. He is to put part of it upon the four Horns of the golden Altar of Incense 3. He is to pour out the rest of it at the bottom of the Brazen Altar of Burnt-Offering Of these three Ceremonies a few words 1. The Priest is to dip his finger in the blood and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord that is before the Vail of the Sanctuary towards the Holy of Holies Upon the great day of Expiation he was to sprinkle it within the Vail but because he was not to enter into that Holy place every day but only once a year therefore at other times he did but sprinkle it towards the holy place upon or towards the Vail see Lev. 16.14 But the signification was the same in both It teacheth us three things 1. That there is no entrance into Heaven but by the blood of Christ shed and poured forth and sprinkled and applied effectually For the place within the Vail the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven and the Priest entred there not without blood Heb. 9.11 12 24 25 26. Heaven is a Possession purchased by the blood of Christ Eph. 1.14 Heb. 10.19 20. We enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus We had never come there had not the blood of the Sin Offering been sprinkled there for us 2. There is a full and perfect cleansing in the blood of Christ for he is to sprinkle it seven times Seven is a number of perfection because in seven days the Creation of the world was finished and God rested from his works Hence seven is a mystical number often used in Mysteries throughout the Scripture both in typical and in prophetical places Vid. Aynsw in loc As seven times sprinkling the Leper and seven days for his cleansing Lev. 14.7 9. Seven days for consecrating the Priests Lev. 8.35 For purifying the unclean Lev. 12.2 Numb 19.19 Seven Priests with seven Trumpets blew seven days to the overthrowing of the Walls ef Jericho Josh 6. Every seventh day was a Sabbaoth Every seventh year a year of Rest And seven times seven years brought the Jubilee Lev. 25.3 4 8. In the Book of the Revelation the Lamb that was stain which is Jesus Christ is represented with seven Horns to signify the perfection of his Power and with seven Eyes to shew the perfection of his Wisdom and the seven Spirits of God the Holy Ghost in the perfection of all gifts and graces Rev. 5.6 There be also seven Candlesticks seven Churches And indeed the whole Book doth analyse and divide it self into three sevens seven Seals seven Trumpets and seven Vials The seven Seals holding forth the state of the Church under heathenish persecution with the issue thereof in the three first Centuries The seven Trumpets under Antichrist and other intestine troubles And then finally seven Vials of Wrath for the ruine of Anti-christ and other enemies for the Churches prosperity From all which you see that there is something of mystery in the number of seven And in this Ceremony it teacheth us the full and perfect cleansing and atonement we have in the blood of Christ and that our sins need much cleansing much purgation Heb. 9.13 14. Heb. 10.14 For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 3. We may learn further that sprinkling is significative enough of the spiritual cleansing and perfect virtue that is in the blood of Jesus Christ For the Priest was not to pour out the blood upon the Vail nor to wash the Vail in the blood but only to dip his finger and so to sprinkle the Vail with it Isai 52.15 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 12.24 2. Another part of the blood was to be put upon the Horns of the Golden Altar of Incense vers 7. And again vers 18. So in the Sin-Offering upon the great day of Expiation Lev 17.18 19. this was used only in the Sin Offering of Bullocks but in the Sin-Offering of Kids or Lambs it was only poured and sprinkled upon the Brazen-Altar vers 25 30 34. The mystery of this Ceremony was this That Christs Intercession is founded in his own blood and satisfaction For the Incense Altar was a Type of Prayer he prays in the virtue of his own blood and sufferings and by the merit thereof he prevails with God for us And it is upon the same account that our prayers also do prevail and find acceptance with the Lord it is because the Incense Altar is sprinkled with blood We pray in his Name and we desire nothing in our prayers but what he hath deserved and procured by his merits See Rev. 8.3 There was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar And 9.13 I heard a voice from the four Horns of the Golden Altar The Golden Altar is the Altar of Incense a voice is heard from thence as in answer to prayer But did ever any Christian pray for the coming in of the Turks upon the Christian world No but God answers the prayers of his people oftentimes by wonderful and terrible things in Righteousness as Psal 65.5 The most dreadful Revolutions of Providence are in answer to prayer and that which makes prayer so powerful is because the Altar of Incense is sprinkled with the blood of the Sin Offering 3. The rest of the blood was to be poured forth at the bottom of the Altar of Burnt-Offering vers 7 18 25 30 34. This instructs us that Christ was consecrated and dedicated unto God in his own blood The effusion of the blood of Christ as a Sin-Offering to the Justice of God for us for our Salvation for the purchase of the pardon of our sins and the relation of that blood to the Altar of his Deity are here taught But this was opened before when we were upon the Burnt-Offering Cap. 1.5 But consider this as in conjunction with the former the blood was sprinkled both upon the holiest of all and upon the Altar of Incense and now the rest poured forth by the Altar of Burnt-Offering It teacheth us That the blood of Christ hath an influence into all the concernments of our Salvation from first to last Exercise Faith in that blood upon all occasions and for all the concernments of your Souls Would you see your sins forgiven and atonement made See and take notice of that blood in the effusion of it as poured forth at the bottom of the Altar Would you see your prayers accepted
that end 2. The Leper must wash his Cloaths and himself and shave his Hair and then come into the Camp but not yet into his Tent. vers 8. The like Ceremony is required in other Cleansings As at the Consecration of the Levites Numb 8.7 they were to cause a Rasor to pass over all their flesh And Deut. 21.12 Of the Captive Woman it is said she shall shave her head and pare her nails Some allegorize this in a plain and a good way thus That it was a figure of casting away all remainders of malice and filthiness James 1.21 Those excrescencies and superfluities of sinful Corruption it shadows out and teacheth the work of Mortification or paring away of sinful superfluities of Lusts and Corruptions as fast as they grow which we cannot be quite rid of but must be paring and cutting them off continually This Expression is used Isai 7.20 in a metaphorical way to signifie the Lords consuming and weakning their strength for much hair argueth strength of nature Hence in age when there is a decay of strength the hair falls off and baldness comes in stead of hair Therefore in a leprous person it seems to argue strength of the Disease therefore the shaving it off is thought to signifie the cutting off and taking away the strength of the Disease and plague of the heart And as to washing this was often required therefore the Apostle speaks of divers washings Heb. 9.10 And the Holy Ghost refers them to the blood of Christ Rev. 1.5 And they respect also the Spirit of Christ often compared to water Isai 44.3 This is that Fountain set open Zach. 13.1 for the house of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness A sinner must wash and bath himself in this Fountain if ever he will be made clean We read of the washing of Regeneration Titus 3.5 which is an allusion to these Ceremonial washings rather than to Baptism And the Leper was to wash his whole body not some part only because Sanctification is a cleansing of the whole man 1 Thes 5.23 And he must wash his clothes as well as himself To teach us that we must purge our selves from all manner of filthiness and every thing that defileth hating the very garment that is spotted with the flesh Any thing of uncleanness the least degree of it Jude ver 23. hating even the garments spotted by the flesh An amplification saith the Margin taken from the forbidden things in the Old Law that did defile that is all appearances occasions any thing that hath the least touch of sin It is a worse sign of a leprous graceless heart for a man to dally with his lust and to allow himself therein than one particular fall into a grosser act of uncleanness if it be abhorred and repented of Thus the Leper must be washed He and his Clothes and his Hair shorn and yet after all this he is not to return to his Tent. The reason is Lest there should be any thing of infection in his Tent. For the very Houses and Garments sometimes were infected with Leprosie 3. The third Ceremony or his after-duty is this After seven days he must use the same Ceremony of shaving and washing over again ver 9. This plainly teacheth us that cleansing work must be renewed from time to time The mortifying and purging out of Corruption it is a gradual work and a frequent work For the Leper is not made clean at once in the first moment nay after all his former observations he is not perfectly clean though he be begun to be made clean but here are seven days must intervene and then he must wash and shave again So that it is a gradual work We should do so in Spiritual Cleansing especially upon the Sabbath day which is the seventh in this sense that is it is one of seven and it is and should be a day of Spiritual washing and cleansing Thus you have seen the first part of this purifying Sacrifice for the Leper viz The two Birds with the several Ceremonies and Ceremonial actions and performances appertaining to them both to the slain Bird and to the living Bird and to the Leper himself 2. The second part of the purifying Sacrifice appointed for him is that of three Lambs with the Ceremonies thereunto belonging and this is declared at large from ver 10. to 32. of that 14. Chapter of Leviticus The Materials of this are two He Lambs the one for a Burnt-Offering the other for a Trespass Offering and an Ew-Lamb for a Sin Offering and fine Flower for a Meat Offering and a log of Oyl These are the Materials Now what must be done with them The Ceremonies about them are chiefly these three 1. The Sacrifices must be slain and offered according to the manner and institution ver 12 13. But this having been opened formerly we shall not insist upon it 2. The Priest must put some of the blood of them upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed ver 14. and some part on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot You have the like Ceremony Exod. 29.20 injoined in the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons The sprinkling these parts did represent and was instead of sprinkling the whole body The sprinkling of a part of the body was appointed by God as significative of universal cleansing of the whole man Engl. Annot. on Exod. 29.20 Our Annotators have this Note upon it The Ear was to be sanctified for holy hearing and against the hearing of any corrupt communication And the Hand for working and the Foot for walking that his Conversation might be holy and his Person sanctified from head to foot So in Baptism there is no necessity of plunging the whole body in water but the sprinkling of it on the Forehead may suffice to signifie the mystical meaning intended by it where by a Sacramental Synechdoche though but a part be sprinkled the whole is washed and cleansed This is the second Ceremony some of the blood in these Sacrifices of the three Lambs must be put upon the Leper The 3d. is That the Priest is to take the Oyl and sprinkle part of it before the Lord and with part to anoint the Leper his Ear Thumb and Foot in the place where he had put the blood before and pour the rest upon his head ver 15 16 17 18. This mystical Oyl whereof they had such continual use under the Law we have often heard that it typifies the Holy Ghost and therefore the Son of God is said to be anointed with the Spirit Isai 61.1 And Act. 10.38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power Therefore the putting of the Oyl upon these parts signifies the saving Graces of the Spirit of Christ whereby they are cleansed and sanctified and comforted who have been justified and reconciled by his blood As to the putting it upon
Prefiguration of the Rest of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Grave that whole day which was indeed the only whole day of his resting or cessation from the actions of a bodily life For he was in the Grave only some small part of the sixth day and of the first day but he rested the whole Jewish Sabbath So then as they had other legal days and times that pointed them to other things about the Messiah so the Sabbath points to his resting in the Grave And he did not only rest in the humbling of himself under the guilt of our Sins but in his Resurrection from the dead The day of his Resurrection was the day of his entring into his state of rest from his Sufferings but on the Sabbath he rested from the actions of his bodily life therefore the seventh day Sabbath is abrogated and the Lord hath substituted the first day of the week for the Sabbath is moral And there is a ground too for the changing of the day that there should be one day in seven to attend on the Worship of God this is moral and perpetual that it should be the last day in seven this is by Gods Institution made legal and typical Christ entred into his rest of Glory into the state thereof at his Resurrection and into the place thereof when he ascended into Heaven but his resting in the grave was on the seventh day From all which you may see the morality of the Sabbath considered as in general together with the shadowy nature of the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day having these typical respects relations annexed to it and so therein you see the grounds of the abrogation of it and of the substitution of the Christian Sabbath instead therereof And so much may serve for the typical respects and use of the Jewish Sabbath Now as for the Rites and Observations thereof 1. There were more Sacrifices that day then upon other days Numb 28.9 10. The reason was because there were more Mercies given and commemorated that day as the Creation their Deliverance out of Egypt and their Sanctification by the Spirit It shall be a sign between me and them that they might know that I Jehovah do sanctifie them Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 20. Here learn that the more Blessings God gives to any people the greater thankfulness he expects again It reacheth also that special Holiness that should be upon the Sabbath more exercise of Grace and duties of Worship to be performed upon that day then ordinarily upon any other day there should be that among us on the Christian Sabbath that should answer their double Sacrifice upon their Jewish Sabbath But in Ezek. 46.45 there is appointed for the Sabbath six Lambs for one under the Law to teach us that there should be more Holiness now under the Gospel then there was under the Law 2. They might not kindle a fire on that day Exod. 35.3 as some think to put them in mind of their absolute freedom from their Egyptian Bondage and the fiery Brick-works there or from the fire of Gods Wrath in the world to come when entred into that none of these fires should ever be kindled upon them or hurt them though others think that restraint respected only kindling a fire for the building of the Tabernacle nor is it unlikely 3. They were to abstain from building the Tabernacle that day Exod. 31.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 35.2 to teach them that the six days that is the time of this life is the only time wherein God will build the Tabernacle of his Church this life is the only day of Grace and opportunity of Salvation 4. They might not gather Manna on that day Exod. 16. In this life Christ is offered but in the Sabbath of eternity no Manna no means of Grace no offers of Christ then none could have Manna upon the Sabbath but they that had stored it up upon the week day so none can have Christ in Heaven but they that have stored him up in their hearts on earth These things shew the rigor of the Law as to Sabbath-rest but the Pharisees being deeply possest with the spirit of the Law did strain it a peg or two higher that to do a miraculous work of mercy or works of necessity was unlawful 2. They had also a Sabbatical year viz. every seventh year a Sabbath of the seventh year every seventh year was a Sabbatical year as every seventh day was a Sabbatical day Exod. 23.10 Deut. 15.9 This was celebrated by letting the Land rest from its usual culture and husbandry Levit. 25.4 5. Some alledge a political and philosophical reason for this that the Land by resting one year might be the more fruitful the other six quod caret alternâ requie durabile non est This Sabbatical year was celebrated by giving rest unto the Land from tillage and manuring the hungry ground This was a shadow of things to come this signifies something of Christ and Gospel mystery in which observe four things There was a fourfold Instruction in this Sabbatical year 1. This Sabbatical year told them plainly that both they and their Land was the Lords Lev. 25.23 For the Land is mine 2. This taught them to depend upon Providence without worldly care and trusting to the Creature for supply and support For they must not now sow nor till the Land this year for the sixth year was to bring forth the Fruit of three years both for the seventh year and for the eighth and for the ninth till the Harvest time See Lev. 25.20 21 22. and ver 6. the Sabbath of the Land shall be meat for thee The Land of its own accord that year was to produce sustenance enough both for man and beast It is not enough for us to depend on the ordinary course of means God can over-rule them and over-work them as he doth here 3. The Lord hereby teacheth them and us that great Gospel-lesson and duty of mercy and bounty to the poor Exod. 23.10 11. the Land must rest that the poor may eat and Deut. 15.1 2. Creditors must release their Debtors every seventh year Lev. 25.5 6. there is an Equity a Chancery a bountiful condescension to the necessities of the poor that men exact not their own right in all things but rather remit and abate something thereof Not but that men may take their course and use means to get it especially when persons are able and wilful but in case of poverty there should be mercy shewed in such a case 4. This Sabbatical year was a special season and time of instruction in the Law of God Deut. 31.10 11 12. the Lord would have them instructed and taught to know his Mind and the true Religion and the ways of his Worship Therefore he appointed so many times and seasons for it weekly and monthly and yearly and moreover one year in seven as you see Beside the mystery of spiritual rest by Christ of which further in
323. 5. The Sin-offerings buth the Bullock and the Goat must be burnt without the Camp ver 27. This also is explained upon the Sin-offering Lev. cap. 4. pag. 321 322. that Christ suffered without the City as a Malefactor with whom we also should suffer bearing our reproach and being content to be accounted as Malefactors yea as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offscouring and sweeping of the world 6. On this great day of Atonement was the Jubile to be proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Lev. 25.9 This speaks that after the performance of the whole work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ he did cause the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound to publish and proclaim the glad tidings of our Salvation throughout the world Isai 61.1 2. so that this day of Atonement is like that famous week prophesied of by Daniel cap. 9. He shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week In the midst of the week Messiah shall be cut off This week is interpreted by some concerning that seven years the first part whereof Christ preached suffered in the middle of the week and in the other three years and an half the Apostles preached at Jerusalem after which they were dispersed by persecution and so the Gospel published to all the world It is the performance of the work of our Redemption that was the foundation and groundwork of the preaching of the Gospel the Jubile is proclaimed upon the day of Atonement 7. And lastly this day of Atonement is a day of Humiliation and afflicting their Souls by an everlasting Ordinance ver 29 to the end Days of Humiliation are days of Atonement and Reconciliation Not that our Humiliation merits or deserves any thing it is not the afflicting our Souls that doth make atonement but it fits us to receive the Atonement Humiliation prepares the Soul for Christ and makes it capable to receive the Mercy and the Pardon that Christ hath purchased and that God is willing and ready to bestow upon all that will receive it by Faith THE MANIFOLD SINFULNESS OF THE POPISH HOLY DAYS Discovered in sundry Reasons against them and the most material Objections answered AMongst the several ways wherein the Superstition of the hearts of men works out and vents it self this is one the observing of Days and Times wherein the Church of Rome hath abounded filling the Kalender with superstitious Holy days many of which are still retained and continued by the Church of England But let these Reasons against them be considered Reason 1. Nothing can be holy to the Lord which is not made holy by the Lord but God the Lord of time hath not sanctified nor set apart these times We find indeed before the Ceremonial Law was instituted yea before the Fall of Man that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.2 3. and therefore the Observation of a weekly Sabbath one day in seven is moral and perpetual But other Holy days are things which the Lord never commanded and which never came into his heart and of which he will say at the great Day who required these things at your hands The strength of which argument will appear the more if we consider what miserable poor shifts it puts the Patrons of these Holy days to when they go about to grapple with it 1. Sometimes they are so confounded in themselves as to deny that they place Holiness in these days the Church keeps them they say not as more holy and sacred then other days and parts of divine Worship but only for Order and Policy So Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. p. 5. But the rest of his Fellows have dealt more truly and more sincerely then he in this particular for not only Bellarmine tom 2. de Cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 10. prop. 2. asserteth Festa Christianorum non solum ratione Ordinis Politiae sed etiam ratione mysterii celebrantur suntque dies festi vere aliis sanctiores sacratiores pars quaedam divini cultus But Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 69. pag 375. also saith they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Downham in Praec 4. refers them to the fourth Commandment and will have them consecrated as Sabbaths to the Lord. Bishop Andrews in his Holiday Sermons on Luke 4.18 on Matth. 12.39 40. apud Gillesp Eng. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1. pag. 15. hath found out many profound mysteries in them yea in the very order of them and distances of time between them as there be fifty days between Easter and Pentecost because fifty is the number of the Jubile one day between Easter and the Resurrection because Jonas was but one day in the Whales belly with many other pretty tales which are not worth transcribing And the thing it self speaks for why do they call them Holy days if they put no holiness in them nay why do they prefer them above the Sabbaths of God 2. Sometimes they labour to escape in the mist of blind distinctions so when Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 28. saith that the Holy dayes are not consecrated to holy mystical uses but to holy political uses Wherein as Mr. Gillespy Eng. Pop. Cer. part 3. cap. 1. pag. 7. well observeth he doth but labour to plaister over his Superstition with the untempered mortar of this quidditative distinction and uncouth speculation of which I dare say the Bishop himself comprehendeth it not 3. Sometimes they say God hath sanctified them by the great works he hath done upon them Thus Bellarmine de Cult Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Christus nascens consecravit locum id est praesepe moriens consecravit Crucem resurgens consecravit Tuntulum unde exivit cur non etiam consecravit Tempus id est Dies illos quibus natus vel passus vel rediturus fuit nobis devictâ morte Which his Disciple Rich. Hooker a most Papistical Writer borrows from him and thus expresseth it Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. § 69. p. 375. No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain Places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain Times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Thus he But it is not meerly the extraordinary works of God that will sanctifie a day for then all the six days of the week should be holy for God created the World in six days so that there is not one day of the week wherein there was not some work of wonder wrought It is rather the Lords resting from his works then his working that sanctifieth Time and makes it holy as Gen. 2.2 3. Exod 20.11 Upon this ground the seventh day was sanctified in old time because on that day God rested from the work of Creation and upon the same ground the first day of the week being the rest-Rest-day of the Lord our God from the great work of Redemption his
former Rest being disturbed and spoiled by the Fall and Sin of Man is our Christian Sabbath But these Popish Holy days are not the Lords resting days nor is any such thing pretended 4. They commonly put it upon the Church and say the Church hath set apart these times but this is not enough to make them holy for all that the Church can do towards the sanctifying of any time or thing is only to present it and offer it to the Lord but if the Lord do not accept them but refuse such Presents and cast them down as dung in their faces they are not Holiness to the Lord but an abomination to him As suppose the Church of the Jews had offered Swines flesh unto God would this have made Swines Flesh holy no verily because the Lord not did not accept it So here the Church dedicates these days to the Lord but there must be some Word of God to evidence his acceptance of them or else they are not indeed holy times but superstitious times of which the Lord will say at the great day who required these things at your hands whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Isai 1.12 Rom. 14.23 Reason 2. There is not only no warrant in the Scripture for them but clear and sharp reproofs and testimonies against them It was one part of the Superstition of the Pharisees in our Saviours time to fast twice a week Luke 18.12 Those old Papists the Pharisees and our new Pharisees the Papists being men of the same Spirit and acted by the same Principle and walking in the same ways of Superstition And it was the brand set upon Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.33 that he ordained a Feast unto the Children of Israel upon the fifteenth day of the eighth month even the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned as the word signifies asher bada millibbo quem mentitus est de corde suo And though it was like unto the Feast that was in Judah v. 32. and though he pretended the Glory and Worship of that God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt as well as the ease and accommodation of the People v. 28. yet all this would not excuse him And what is Christmas and Easter and all the rest of them but days which the Jeroboam of Rome hath devised of his own heart And the Pope had them from the Jews and from the Pagans for what is Christmas but the old heathenish Bacchanalia It is kept at the same time of the year and after the same profane manner only the Pope hath varnished it with a new name But how ill it becomes a Christian to keep the Pagan Festivals hear what Tertullian de Idol cap. 14. saith Nobis saith he quibus Sabbata extranea sunt neomenia feriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januariae Brumae matronales frequentantur munera commeant strenae consonant lusus convivia constrepunt and is not this as lively a description of Christmas as if it had been purposely intended for it but thus he inveighs against them O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicat non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicâssent timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur We that do not own nor observe the New Moons and other Jewish Festivals appointed of old by God himself do we keep the Heathenish Bacchanalia and other Winter and Summer Feasts of theirs feasting and revelling and making merry as the Heathens do O how much more true are they to their Religion then we to ours For they do not observe any day that Christians observe as Pentecost or the Lords day for they would be afraid lest they should seem to bee Christians in so doing but we are not afraid lest we be pronounced to be Heathens Thus he It is true he alloweth Pentecost as a Feast observed by Christians in those times but how this can be defended and all the rest of the Jewish Feasts cashiered let the Christian Reader judge The Apostle makes no difference but condemns the observation of all the Jewish Festivals alike one as much another Col. 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come Judicare hic significat culpae reum facere vel Religionem injicere ita ut amplius liberi non simus saith Calvin in Col. 2.16 Such weak and rudimentary Instructions were fit for those darker and weaker times of the Churches nonage when under the Tutorage and Pedagogy of Moses before the coming of Christ But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye back to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 4.9 10 11. It is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath had but small success in such a place and in the hearts of such a people And whereas it is objected both by Papists and Prelates that the Apostle speaks here only against the Jewish Festivals loqui ibi Apostolorum de Judaeorum tantum festis so Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. c. 10. the Rhemists Annot. in Gal. 4.10 and Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 43. This will not take off the force of these Texts For 1. The Armory of Christians against Heresies and Errors should be quickly empty i◠the Weapons which are hung up in the Scriptures should serve only for the persons places and times wherein and against which they were used of the Prophets and Apostles and therefore your shift that the Apostle speaks only against the Jewish Feasts and Fasts is vain saith Mr. Cartwright in Col. 2.16 2. Some of the Popish Feasts are originally Jewish yea which is worse Paganish 3. These Texts do condemn the Popish Feasts as much and in some respects more then the Jewish as Hospinian observes against Bellarmine and Mr. Cartwright in Gal. 4.10 and in Rom. 14.5 gives the same answer to the Rhemists If Paul saith he condemn the Galatians for observing the Feasts which God himself instituted and that for his own Honour only and not for the Honour of any Creature the Papists are much more laid open to this Condemnation which press the Observation of Feasts of Mens devising and to the Honour of Men. For do you think it likely that God should by Christ discharge his people of the yoke of the Law of Moses to bring in another yoke of Mans Ordinances and is there any likelihood that he should abrogate the Festival days consecrated to himself and to his own Majesty to bring in those that are consecrated and set apart to