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-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
of the Moral Law why then should the same Faith in the Gentiles excuse them from it as a Rule 4. Moreover I shall farther add that while the holy Apostles are throwing down the Types and Shadowy Worship under that legal Dispensation 1 Tim. 1.8 yet they assert that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully viz. as a Foundation of our Worship and Obedience to God and just behaviour towards Man which thrô Gospel Grace after the measure we have received is or ought to be put forth according to the several Moral branches of the Law and the Divine Precepts and Patterns given to us in the New Testament And therefore we find the Holy Apostles and Gospel Writers often proving and confirming the Moral part of their Doctrine by the Law as appears in Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth Here the Apostle confirms his Moral Doctrine to the Gentiles by the Authority of the fifth Commandment or first with promise which plainly shews that it is of its self binding to us all under the Gospel and he Moralizeth the Promise by saying Earth instead of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that the Promise was not only to pertain to the Jews in the Land of Canaan but was perpetually to continue to all the Gentiles and so we may say in the aforesaid case of every one that killed a Man unawares who was to flee into the City of Refuge and continue there until the Death of the High-priest Numb 35.25 that thô we have no such High-priest in Gospel days yet the equity of that Law is still in force But to return to our present business we may farther find the Apostle proveth the moral part of his Doctrine from the Commendments Exod. 20. For in Rom. 13.8 9 10. we are exhorted to love one another for saith he Love is the fulfilling of the law and he briefly citeth five of the Ten Commandments to confirm the Duty of Love which comprehendeth them all And in Chap. 7.7 12. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good Therefore surely this Moral Precept in particular and others in general mentioned by the Apostle are of themselves binding to us as a Rule of Holy life for whatsoever Law is morally holy just and good as this particular precept is by which the Apostle came to the knowledge of Sin it is perpetually and universally binding to all Men Rom. 2.14 15. who have the substance of it written in their Hearts by Nature So that from the Apostles making use of the Anthority of the Moral Law of Moses to confirm his Doctrine Matth. 5.19 James 2.8 Chap. 4.11 1 Joh. 3.4 and from the Commendations of it in the New Testament it clearly appears to be in force unto all Men now under the Gospel And seeing the fourth Commandment in particular is delivered in such moral Terms as doth not of its self bind us to the observation of the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening any more than after our Christian pattern from Morning to Morning which does answer that Very Precept as well as theirs did from that single Law we have then no reason to exclude the fourth Commandment from the rest of the Decalogue but to believe it is equally Moral with the other nine as will appear more patticularly in the next ensuing Section SECT VI. TO proceed therefore on the fourth Commandment I shall here recite Exod. 20.9 10 11. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it 1. That this Commandment is morally binding to both Jews and Gentiles is evident because it is in substance the same with God's sanctifying the seventh day for Man Gen. 2. And if the Sabbath be not from thence perpetually binding to all Nations but restrained to the posterity of the Jews then by the same Rule the Gentiles had no interest in the promise of the Womans Seed Gen. 3.15 or the Messias that should bruise the Serpents Head as then made to our first Parents and therefore as I believe it will be granted by all Christians that the Gentiles as well as the Jews had an interest in the first promise as then made viz. in the Original discovery of the Messias as well as in those after promises that are the fruits and effects of it So in like manner we have also ground to believe that the first sanctifying of the Sabbath-day was from thence and is also from the fourth Commandment morally binding of its self to both Jews and Gentiles for if we question the one we may also doubt of the other 2. The End of the fourth Commandment sheweth it to be a Moral Precept for a time of rest is naturally moral and by the example of God and his sanctifying the seventh day to every six working days it is also become morally and perpetually binding for all Men to keep the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to neither more nor less than six working days together and therefore for any to deny the same in the fourth Commandment is in effect to deny the World their sixed Sabbath for thô the Gospel first-day Sabbath hath a new Sanctity yet it is founded on the old Law and Gods sanctifying of the seventh day for Man from the beginning or else it is left very dubious whether we are bound to keep any fixed day of Rest at all but as there is the same Moral reason for a Sabbath as was before so we have reason to conclude that the same Law in the fourth Commandment is morally binding to us all 3. I shall offer some Reasons for satisfaction wherefore I believe the Lord was pleased to sanctifie the Sabbath and to deliver the fourth Command to observe it under the name of the seventh day rather than of the first day Sabbath And 1. Because althô Man abstained from work on the first day after he was compleatly formed yet seeing God gave the Sanctity to the Day for a Memorial of his Creation and for Man to worship him there was reason that the day should answer the memorial of his finishing of and ceasing from the work of Creation rather than of Adams solemn entring upon his subordinate Dominion under God viz. in Honour to the Creator rather than to the Creature 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-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
the beginning and ending of their days to what they were before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or before their Bondage 1. For thô it 's said Gen. 1.2 3 5. That darkness was upon the face of the deep And God said Let there be-light and there was light and the evening and the morning was the first day Yet from hence there is no sufficient ground to conclude Mr. Tho. Chasie in his Tract on the Sabbath p. 4. saith The first things God made was day and night or light and darkness There was in Nature before thô not in time a mixed or confused darkness which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Arias Montanus correcting Pagnin translateth and calleth it Caligo it was neither perfect day nor perfect Night that the Night was created before the day for Mr. Chasie observes that the Hebrew word signifieth a mixed darkness neither perfect Day nor perfect Night and its rational to believe that those words In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth should be taken for God's creating the matter of the Heavens and the Earth before their form As it s said The Earth was without form and void and darkness or gloominess was upon the face of the deep And then the light and darkness was mixed and confused together and so if the order of expression of Gods perfecting any piece of the Creation does carry any precedency in order of time then the Day-light did Originally go before its Night but I conceive that neither of them was perfectly formed before the other for it s said ver 4. that God divided the light from the darkness which plainly sheweth they were mixed together and that he separated the Day from the Night that they should no more be mixed and confused together as they were before but should be distinctly placed in the two Hemispheres successively to circulate round the Heavens So that at the same time when the Light was separated into one Hemisphere or half part of the Heavens the Darkness was placed in the other and therefore neither of them were perfectly formed before the other in time It s true Isal 45.7 Moses was under a necessity to set either the Evening or the Morning or the Light or Darkness first in the account of the order of God's Creation which he wrote after the change of the account of the day And therefore least he should seem to dislike the Alteration which God had then but newly made of the beginning and euding of the account of the Natural Day for Sacred things he named the Evening before the Morning in the History of the Creation But yet we may plainly see that as the light was put tho not precreated before the darkness in the account of the first days Work of Creation and as it s said That God made two great lights Gen. 1.3.10.18 the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness So the light was counted afterwards for the former part of the Natural Day which consisteth of a Day-light and its Night or the revolution of the Sun in twenty four hours time For 2. We find that God created the Fowls of the Air on the fifth day and the Beasts and Cattel and every creeping thing of the Earth on the sixth day and made Adam and put him into the Garden of Eden and then brought them to him that he should give them Names before that God had caused a deep Sleep to fall upon him while he took out one of his Ribs and formed Eve and brought her unto him It is therefore rational to believe seeing it must necessarily take up time to name the Creatures and that Adam could not so well behold them in the Night as in the Day to distinguish every little Bird and every Fowl of the Air and all the Cattel and every Beast and creeping thing from each other to give them proper Names and to know them again by sight that he was formed in the day-light of that Hemisphere and that he spent the remaining part of it in that affair and that his sleep was in the following Night as the most proper time for it and then from this foot of account after Eve was formed at the Conclusion of the sixth days work of Creation both Adam and Eve first entred on God's seventh and their first day Sabbath at the beginning of the day-light or morning of the day to adore and worship God For as they had no need of the Night to sleep in for that they were newly made and fresh in the Strength and Perfection of their Nature Gen. 1.27 28. and as it best became our First Parents for the Lordship they received of God over the Creatures which he had made immediately to Attribute their Worship to him So it was most proper they should have first the Day-light to behold the Beauty of the Creation thereby to be excited from the Objects of their Eyes together with the Light of their Understandings to glorifie God on the first sanctified Day of his Rest from all his Works So that it is Rational to believe that Adam began his first first-First-day Sabbath with the morning or Day-light and consequently the following working days and Sabbath-days were all so to begin and successively to continue to others after him and according to this it s said a Exod. 10.13 Chap. 13.21 Lev. 8.35 Deut. 28.66 Job 26.10 Jer. 33.20 in Gen. 7.4 I will cause it to rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And so in Ver. 12. Forty days and forty nights And Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights Exod. 24.18 And in Gen. 8.6 At the end of forty days From which last place it is observable as well as from many other Scriptures b Gen. 8.10 12 Chap. 17.12 Exod. 21.21 Numb 14.34 that the Day and Night together is commonly called Day which is the most excellent part of that which is called the Natural Day of twenty four hours and therefore God might also give it the precedency in respect to its revolution with its Night originally unto Man 3. Leaving what I have already said of the beginning of the Natural Day to the serious Consideration of those that desire Information herein hoping it may be of use to them I proceed to bring in other Scripture Evidence also to prove that before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or were in bondage there the Day-light See Purchas Pilgrimage Page 118. lib 2.77 Emend Tem. lib. 1. Ainsworth on Gen. 10.10 Ezek. 23.15 Dan. 1.1 2. Ains Gen. 1.5 See Mr. G. Hughes Analytical Exposit of Genesis on Chap. 1.9 Gen. 10.8 9 10. Gen. 11.27 28 31. and not the Night was counted for the former part of the Natural Day As Purchas tells us citing Pliny and Scal. That the Babilouians began
†Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day in the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing the Sabbath cannot be begun universally both at the precise Point of Time and Time of day as it should begin in the Land of Canaan to contemporize with them there And considering that Adams Sabbath was not only designed for the Moral end of Mans abâ—inence from Work for a time of solemn Worship to God but that it had its Memorial of the Creation and that the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbath afterwards bearing that Memorial was also appointed for â—loral Ends and for a Ceremonial Memorial that rendred it uncapable of being a universal Pattern and that the Memorial of Christs Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation should be preferred before that of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt then we ought to observe our Christan Sabbath as much as can be to Answer thereunto the end of its chinge which may be done by all Nations including those Northern People keeping their first-day Sabbath in Distinction to and from the Jewish seventh day And as for its beginning early in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day the Scriptures shew that so it began in Judea Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn or as John 20.1 While it was yet dark i. e. not light day towards the first-day of the Week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre c. And in Mark 16.2 It 's said they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sun and ver 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first-day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen and said unto her John 20 1â— Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And therefore seeing the Evangelists have Recorded the Time of the dawning and Sun rising of the Day to the History and Circumstances of Christs Resurrection and that we find he was then but newly riten because he had not yet ascended unto the Father when Mary first saw him We have then greater Reason to six the beginning of our first-day Sabbath in all Nations where we can at the dawning of the day expressed in the Scripture to bare the fuller Memortal of the Resurrection of our Lord than at any other time of the day And this we may strengthen from the Example of the Jews beginning their Sabbath in the Evening here in England and in other Nations tho our Evenings here differ and in other Nations are farther from the precise Time of the Evening in the Land of Canaan and their Reason for it is taken from the Precept of Moses which bindeth them to celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 Exod. 12 18 19. And therefore seeing God was pleased under the Type of the Gospel Salvation Church and Sabbath to require the Memorial of that Deliverance by beginning their Sabbath in the Evening as the most proper time to bear its lively remembrance and that from thence they conclude it best answereth the express command of God and his End and Design in sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Evening in the Land of Canaan for them to begin it so in other Countries also rather than to begin it at the precise Point of time of its beginning in Canaan and differ in the Time of day then we have Reason from the Type and their Example to begin our first-day Sabbath rather at the dawning of the day in all the World where we can than at the precise Point of Time at a different time of day to contemporize in all places And whatever the Jewish Sabbatharians may invent to say from the Necessity of the Course of Nature in those Northern or Southern Parts against the beginning of our first-days Sabbath early in the Morning or at the dawning of the day in all other Parts of the World the same Arguments will equally serve against the beginning of their Sabbath in the Evening where it can be so observed so that they cannot gain the least Advantage by opposing us in beginning our Christian Sabbath early in the Morning unless they can first invalid and disprove the Authority we bring for our keeping the first-day it self that it does not answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment and the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches with all the ends of a Sabbath which is a task too hard for them And seeing the Scriptures sheweth by the Resurrection of our Lord that our Sabbath should begin at the dawning of the first-day of the Week it must consequently not end till the dawning of the second-day Mark 15.42 Luke 23.54 See Mr. Heemse Christ Synagogue Page 74. Who tells us the Jews had three Preparations to their Sabbaâ—h Succeeding each other And from the Custom of the Jews to make Preparations for their Sabbath the preceding Time from twelve a Clock on Saturday Night vulgarly so called till the dawning of the first-day it that time be not spent in our Nights rest it should be employed to prepare our Minds for the Worship and Service of God on the approaching Sabbath day But to proceed That I may remove any doubts that may yet arise about the usefulness of the Pattern of Adams Sabbath to us under the Gospel I shall add something to demonstrate how far it is of a Moral Nature for seeing I have forborn to call it a Moral Pattern because no one Pattern respecting the beginning and ending of the Sabbath can be wholly alike universally so to all Nations I think it 's therefore needful to explain the Moral use that is to be made of Adams Sabbath that so whatever different Apprehensions there may be about the use of the Word Mortal â—o Adams Pattern the thing it self may be understood and the Controversie may not be fomented about Words which some have made the Subject of much Discourse when they have not been able to Confute the thing that was plainly intended by them 1. Therefore as I shewed Page 2. that from Gods sanctifying the seventh-day for Man the Light of Adams Nature taught him that it was most meet to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working days to one Sabbath 2. See Page 24. I have also shewed the Reason we have from Scripture to believe that after Adams first sleep in the Night when the Hamane Nature was compleatly formed and Eve was brought to him at the end of the sixth Creation day their Sabbath began with the Morning day light of the seventh-day and the first day after the finishing of the Creation which seeing the Order of Gods Working and Rest and the Original Moral Duty of Man
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-seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-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-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
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-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
only Judaical and Ceremonial and also that from the Israelites first observing their Sabbath in the Wilderness we have no certain Pattern for having six working days Originally before our Sabbath And having given some New Testament Instances of divers Cases warranted and reformed by the Pattern in our first Parents to shew that their Example of keeping their first Sabbath is also of Moral use to us I shall here speak something farther to explain the Pattern of Adams Sabbath which I have already largely shewed See Page 24. began with the Morning Day-light as our Christian Sabbath doth And therefore I have only here to add That it cannot be supposed but that seeing God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it for Man that he also rested Gen. 2.3 15 18. Mark 2.27 and was not allowed on that same day to dress the Garden of Eden which was his appointed Work in Innocency For if Adam had liberty to dress the Garden on the Day of God's Rest and was bound to begin his Sabbath after his six working days or days wherein he might dress the Garden precisely after God's Example then he did keep his Sabbath on the sixth day after God's Sabbath and not on that seventh day successively which God had sanctified And if he kept no Sabbath till the next seventh day after God's seventh day of Rest then Adam had seven days in which he might dress the Garden before his Sabbath so that Adam must either have kept another seventh day than that precise successive seventh day which God had sanctified viz. the sixth day from God's Sabbath or have seven working days before his first Sabbath contrary to God's Example or else begin his Sabbath before his working days and then it follows that God's seventh day Sabbath after his six days of Creation was Man's First day Sabbath before his six working days and after them the same successive seventh day next following God's seventh day Sabbath was also Man's seventh day Sabbath too And so the sanctifying of the seventh day in Gen. 2. and accordingly in the Moral Law which was afterwards given forth to Israel was answered under the Name either of the first or seventh day Sabbath And farther to explain this Matter God's seventh day Rest after his six Creation days was not designed for a Pattern to Man that he should also have first six working days before he kept his Sabbath for then God would either have Created Adam with some other things in the beginning of his first days Work and have put him in a Capacity to do some business the six Creation days and then to rest the seventh day on which God rested or else some other way have ordered six working days Originally for Man before his Sabbath but seeing it was otherwise it therefore followeth that God's seventh day Sabbath was only a Pattern for Mans dividing and counting his time and for bounding his six working days that he should not have more working days until a Sabbath nor be at Liberty so often as he pleaseth to make any one day in seven his weekly Sabbath viz. to rest on the seventh day in one week and on the sixth fifth fourth third second or first day in the next week after which would have tended to confusion but that Man should have six working days together and no more bounded before and after with a Sabbath as it was in Adams Pattern And thus our Gospel first-day Sabbath answereth the design of God in sanctifying and commanding the observation of the seventh day because it is a boundary before and after to our six working days Moreover As I shewed before it could not be said that God rested a on the day or on the first day before the Creation or time was measured by a Day and therefore the necessity of the Order of Nature placed God's Sabbath after his six Creation days but there was not the like necessity that the same day of Rest which was also made Adams Sabbath should be before his six working days So that it was fixed by the Lord in the Original Order of Adam and Eves time that we should have such a Pattern that not only answereth the principal End of a Sabbath but all Ends and suiteth with the alteration of it and with God's Example too as after Adams six working days And thô Adam's First-day of Rest or abstinence from his own Business was on God's seventh day Sabbath yet seeing that Man 's Original Sabbath was not appointed to be kept after God's Example of working six days first before his Sabbath we have reason to believe that we also are not to follow it farther than we find by the Example of our first Parents that he designed it should be of use to us But that Adams Pattern was to explain the Mind of God in sanctifying the seventh day which I believe cannot rationally be denyed nor that it should be of Moral use to us to justifie our keeping of the Sabbath after the Gospel Pattern to answer the design of God in the Moral Precept and in his first sanctifying of the seventh day against this Exception that it cannot be said to be Originally introduced by only six working days after God's Example of making the World seeing our First Parents did not follow it in this particular SECT XI HAving thus far treated on the Sabbath Day I shall now proceed to shew that there is a first day to be observed holy under the Gospel from the Types and Shadows of it under the Law for all the 〈…〉 and the Law prophesied until John Heb. 9.23 Colos 2.16 17 and was a shadow of 〈◊〉 my things under the Gospel And as other things were typed out undâ—â—â—he legal Administration so also the Gospel First-day Sabbath was typed forth under the Law as it s said the Feast of Tabernacles and ingathering of the Fruits of the Land shall be for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy Convocation ye shall do no servile work therein Levit. 23.34 to 40. Seven days ye shall offer an Offering made by fire unto the Lord on the eighth day shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall offer an Offering made by fire unto the Lord it is a solemn assembly and ye shall do no servile work therein on the first day shall be a Sabbath and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath Ver. 10.15.16 21. ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering seven Sabbaths shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days and ye shall offer a new meat-offering unto the Lord and ye shall proclaim on the self-same day Levit. 25.3 4 8 9 10 11 12. c. that it may be an holy Convocation unto you ye shall do no servile work
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
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
before his six working days but as for our first-day Sabbath we are justified in keeping it by the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches and the more because as it was changed from the Jewish Sabbath it is our first-day Sabbath before our six working days and so it better agrees with Adams Pattern than the Jewish Sabbath then can do 4. If it should be said as I acknowledge it may that the Jewish Sabbath may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their first observing it in the Wilderness as a boundary before and after their six working days and so by Imitation does answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath I have this to Answer that yet the Jewith Sabbath did not imitate Adams Pattern as our Christian Sabbath doth in beginning it with the Morning Day light for the Jews began their Sabbath at Even contrary to Adams Pattern as there is Reason from Scripture to believe And if it be objected that the Pattern of Adam respecting the beginning of his Sabâ—ath in the Morning is not plainly exprest but drawn by Interence from the Scripture but the Jewish Pattern is expresly commanded and therefore there is better ground of the two to observe the Sabbath after the Pattern in the Mosaical Precept I answer 1. It is not expressy said that Adams first Sabbath was his first-days Sabbath Mark 2.27 But yet seeing Christ hath said the Sabbath was made for Man and that none can deny but that Adam was bound in Duty to God to observe Gods seventh day Sabbath wherein he rested from his Works of Creation then we may insist on the sufficiency of our Evidence for Adams beginning his Sabbath in the Morning it being so rationally inserred thô it is not in Words expressed in the Scriptures 2. It hath been shewed how our Lord made void the Mesaical Precept of Divorcement and justified the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents tho' it was not by any express Word of God nor by so clear an evidence from Adam and Eves being one Fresh that he nor his Posterity but by a special permission of God should not put away their Wives except for Fornication as there is Reason to believe that Adam began his Sabbath in the Morning day light And therefore tho' Christ might have abolished that Precept without setting a Moral Pattern against it yet his justifying the doing of it from thence 2 Tim 3.16 is an Example to be of use to us in other Cases 3. We have greater Reason to begin our Sabbath in the Morning in every Countrey where it can be so observed after the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and the Reason of its change in the New Testament tho' his beginning of it so is but inferred from the Scripture and not expressed in it rather than to begin it after the Jewish Precept at Evening for were this universally binding it could not being a Positive Command accommodate the Necessity of Nature for the different beginning and ending of the Sabbath as the Pattern in Adam and the New Testament Example doth And this I conceive to be one chief Reason that the Jewish Sabbath is abrogated and that we have only the Pattern of Adams Sabbath left us by rational Inference from the Scripture and the Reason of the change of the Sabbath in the New Testament for our beginning of it in the Morning and that we have not any command fixing of it as it was to Israel For 1. That would have either bound us to the precise Point of Time of its beginning in the Lard of Canaan and then the Memorial of Christs Resurrection early in the Morning had not been signified by its beginning in other Nations remote from their Borders for in some places it must then begin at Noon c. and so its day-light there had been divided and the Service of God distructed and our worldly Affairs too much intruding on the meetest time for solemn Worship Or 2. Such a command to six the beginning of the Sabbath would have required it univerfally to begin in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day which is inconsistent with the course of Nature for many Weeks together in some Northern Parts of the World And therefore that those People should not be obliged by any Law to keep such a Sabbath which they are not capable constantly to observe God was pleased to leave only the Moral Precept of the fourth command founded on his first sanctifying of the Sabbath to be binding to us all that those Northern People should answer it by beginning their Sabbath with the first and seventh-day or proportionable Division of a day bounding before and after their six working days and allow it the same Proportion of Time and should preserve the Memorial of the Resurrection of Christ by observing the first day of the Week from and in Distinction to the Jewish seventh-day as near as they can to Answer the Example of the Primitive Churches in the New Testament And that we and all others that have constantly our natural days with Evenings and Mornings twenty four hours long should answer the same Moral Law after the Gospel Pattern and as precisely as we can to begin our first-days Sabbaths early or at the dawning of the Morning in every Nation For if we and all other such Nations should be tyed successively to begin our Sabbath at the very precise Point of Time of the dâ—wning of the first-day in Jerusalem to contemporize with them in the Land of Canaan where our Lord afore from the Dead then they must either in other Countries Eastward to the Sun from the Land of Canaan begin their Christian Sabbath later in their Day-light or Westward from them sooner in their Night than they should in Judea and so in the Compass of the whole World Eastward or Westward there would be a beginning and ending of the Sabbath near a day and night differing in their Time of day to the dawning of the day in the Land of Canaan and by this means in some parts of the World the Christian Sabbath would begin at Noon at Evening and at all hours of the Day and Night and so except in that very spot in and about the Land of Canaan they would lose its Memorial of Christs Resurrection at the Dawning of the Day But if other Countries Eastward and Westward from Canaan begin as they ought their first-days Sabbath like them at the same time of the day then they must either begin their first day sooner or later than the first day began in Canaan and so in the Compass of the World Eastward or Westward it must begin and end in all Hours of the Jewish seventh or second day of the Week and in some place their first-day must be in the same time and contemporize with their seventh * Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day or in some place with their second-day
therein Six years thou shalt sow thy Field and prane thy Vineyard But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the Land and thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto the forty and nine years then shalt thou cause the Trumpet of the Jubilee to sound and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ye shall not sow neither reap it shall be holy unto you That some of these days were appointed as Memorials of Israels coming out of Egypt is plainly shewed in the Scriptures and of the Jubilee besides what is expressed of it Some have thought that it was a Memorial of their rest and first settlement in the Land of Canaan but yet I conceive there was a farther meaning in them viz. as Types and Shadows of Gospel things For the seventh day Sabbath thô it was first appointed for a Moral End and to preserve the Memorial of God's making the World in six days and resting on the seventh Exod. 31.15 16 17. Heb. 4.9 Rev. 20.4 5 7. and was also afterwards a sign of Israels deliverance out of Egypt yet we find the Apostle makes a farther use of it as the Foundation Type from whence he proveth there remaineth a Rest to the People of God which to answer the Types and the Apostles reasoning in this Scripture is taken for the seventh thousand years of the World So then to follow this instance we may thus argue that those solemn Convocations on the legal first and eighth day and their fiftieth day which if you mind the Text was a first day Sabbath next ensuing one of their legal Sabbaths a plain and clear Type of our Gospel first-day Sabbath that should commence next after one of their Jewish Sabbaths And so their fiftieth Year of Jubilee which followed a seventh Year Sabbath may figure to us that as after seven Sabbaths of Weeks they had a first days Sabbath and as after the seven Sabbaths of seven years and all those legal and external Bondages of Persons and Things there should come a time of release by sound of Trumpet with a first Year Jubilee Sabbath so after all the bondage of the legal Administration there should come a time of Gospel liberty Rom. 10.18 proclaimed by the Gospel with a first days Gospel Sabbath Thus you see how these Types and Shadows under the Law does figure out our Gospel first days Sabbath as far if not farther than many Types does usually suit with Antitypes but as they have often exceptions in their parallels so they are not of themselves positive Proofs but illustrations of Gospel things which seeing we have the Examples of the Primitive Christian Churches keeping their Sabbath on the First day following the Jews Seventh-day Sabbath or on the first day of their Week which does fairly and fully answer those Typical Sabbaths under the Law that are not applicable to any other Scripture observed Times under the Gospel nor to our Eternal Rest for that is not doubted to be a Rest from Labour and a time of Liberty nor can it be typed to us by Time because it is Eternal or by an Eighth day Seeing there is a Time or Day of General Judgment of Wicked Men between the seventh thousand years of the World as some believe and Eternal Rest then surely the Typical first Days and Years Sabbaths under the Law does bare the greater Evidence to our first day Sabbath under the Gospel However I have no dependance on these Shadows for the Justification of our First days Sabbath but on the substantial Law of God and Adams Pattern answering the first Sanctification of it to which I shall here add the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament SECT XII HEre I come to demonstrate the ground we have in the New Testament for our keeping the First day of the Week a Sabbath And 1. I shall premise That Christ arose from the Dead on the First day of the Jewish Week which is frequently called in the Greek Tongue The one of the Sabbaths after their mode of Speech agreeing to the custom of the Hebrews See Dutch Annot on Mat. 28.1 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 See Dutch Annot on Gen. 1 5. and on 1 Cor. 16.2 who sometimes set one for first as may be seen in Gen. 1.5 Chap. 8.5 Numb 29.1 Dan. 9.1 So that we must read the Greek The one of the Sabbaths for the First day of the Week as it is translated in our English Bibles agreeing to the Greek in Mark 16.9 Now when Jesus was risen early 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the first of the Sabbath or as it is in our English on the first day of the week As Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the Week And the Truth of our Translation is farther confirmed because it 's said In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week Luke 23 53 54. to the end Chap. 14.1 c. Mark 15.42 John 19.31 Luke 24.13 15 21. 1 Cor. 15.4 See Mr. John Weemse his Christian Synagogue Page 75 81. John 19.14 Christ arose from the dead For he was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath and on the Sabbath it s said the Women which followed Jesus from Galilee rested according to the Commandment and very early on the First day of the Week they came to Christs Sepulchre and he was risen which was on the third day after he was Crucified according to the Scriptures Now it was the Custom and corrupt Tradition of the Jews when the Passeover Sabbath fell on the day before their weekly seventh day Sabbath they made but one Sabbath and kept their Passeover on their seventh day Sabbath as we find they did when Christ was laid in the Grave and therefore that Sabbath day being a double Sabbath was called an High Day And the first day after on which Christ arose from the dead was no Jewish Sabbath but only the First day of their Week for there are two things that do evidently and clearly shew that the one of the Sabbaths in the Greek cannot be taken for any one of the Jewish Sabbath-days but for the first day of their Week First Because that seeing Christ arose from the Dead on the next day after the Passeover Sabbath as it was then corruptly observed by the Jews and that the Passeover Feast had but two Sabbaths viz. Exod. 12.14 to 19. on the first and seventh day of unleavened Bread then forasmuch as Christ lay in the Grave their Passeover Sabbath the Day following on which he arose could not be one of their Passeover Sabbaths Secondly It cannot be denyed but that Christ did eat the Passeover with his Disciples on the right day according to the Commandment which after our vulgar speech was on Thursday Night or in the former part of the Jews sixth day and on