understood but that the Signification thereof might easily be found out if Men could digest it as Platonism Latinism Graecism signifies the pure natural and genuine Imitation of Plato of the Latine or Greek Tongue so Sabbatism is nothing else but the genuine Imitation of the Sabbath and according to the Tenor of the Apostle's Discourse of that complacential Rest which God took on the seventh Day It remains therefore that the Christian or Lord's-day-Sabbath is the most natural and genuine Copy of God's Rest But it is beyond my Intention to make a just Comment I intended these short Notes as Instances only to shew how Men's disgusting the Notion of a Christian-Sabbath makes them cast up from their nauceating Stomacks the Apostle's Arguments undigested 2. The next Bugbear that frights Men out of the plain way of Truth is a Conceit that when they hear the sound of a seventh-day Sabbath they think they hear the Man-drakes Voice of the Jewish Sabbath I need not here give Instances of this for they occur every-where in all Men's Writings concerning the Sabbath And it is too too common an Opinion that the Jewish Sabbath is the seventh Day in the order of the Creation and our Christian Sabbath the First de Die autem primo Mundi constat inter omnes illum fuisse Diem Dominicum Gregor de Valentia Tom. 1. Disp 5. Quest 3. Pun. 1. Quando quidem Dies septimus ab eo fuit Dies Sabbati Concerning the First Day of the World it is agreed amongst all Men that it was the Lord's-day seeing the Seventh from that was the day of the Sabbath yea his Conceit is that it was called Sunday from the beginning because the Light created on the first Day was the Light of the Sun not yet endowed with its proper Motion North and South which it received the fourth Day but only with that of the Primum mobile from East and West But I have sufficiently proved the contrary to wit that the Jewish Sabbath was not the seventh but sixth Day in order of the Creation but only of gathering Quails and Mannah And that our lord's-Lord's-day tho according to the Jewish Idiom it be called the First Day the first Day of their Week after that God had appointed them to observe another beginning of their Work as well as Year then was in use before yet it is in reality the Seventh Day of the Week commencing that Account from the Creation and the same Day of the Week whereon God rested 3. The last thing I shall name here is as a remora to Mens arrival at the true meaning of the Apostle's Discourse is a Tincture with that Spirit which Luther's Aerij Daemones were of or with that wherein they in the Corinthian Church were immerst who would be of Christ in opposition to Paul and Apollos These Men's high-flown Minds will not stoop to the Contemplation of any Sabbath-Day to be celebrated under the Gospel in the visible Communion of Saints but hang hovering in the Clouds about a Day of Rest purely spiritual nor of any Rest but everlasting and in this humour so spiritualize the Apostle's Arguments as they leave nothing in them after their Chymical Operations but thin etherial Vehicles or flitting Elizian Shades But can a certain Day limited to the seventh be an individuum vagum or a limited Day be the eternal Sabbath What ever mean Thoughts such Men may have of the Christian or Lord's-Day-Sabbath the divinely inspired Pen-man had such an high Esteem of it as he thought it a Subject worthy to be treated on as being a very sovereign means to prevent Apostacy and to hold Christians to their Profession For that 's the mark he aimed at and concludes his Discourse of the Sabbath with the mention of that as his aim Chap. 4. 14. as he had begun that Discourse with an Exhortation of the same Tendency viz. To hold fast their Profession Yea it is the main Scope of the whole Epistle to disswade the Hebrew Christians from forsaking Church-Assemblies as some had done and drawn back to the Perdition of their Souls and to perswade them to a firm adhering to Christian-Fellowship in the Administration of Sabbath-Ordinances On which Days also he strictly chargeth the Ministers to be instant in preaching calling that a Preaching in Season and with the same Breath stiling Preaching in the Synagogues of the Jews on their Saturday-Sabbath Preaching out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. That I do not by this Exposition of them pervert the Apostle's Words will be manifest if 1. We consider that the Precept for Preaching presupposeth an Audience of Men. I think none will imagine that Timothy was bound by this Injunction to preach to Stones as they say Venerable Bede did once nor to Sheep Hogs and Birds as that goodly Saint of the Pope's making Anthony is fabled to have done frequently 2. That a publick Audience could not be had but upon stated Days of meeting either upon a civil account as in Markets c. or upon a religious account as in the Jewish Synagogues every of their Sabbath-Days and in Christian Churches on the Lord's-Day the first Day of the Week in the Jewish Reckoning 3. That the Apostles took all Occasions of such publick Assemblies to preach the Gospel besides their teaching from House to House 4. That their Attendance upon the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances to the Church would not permit them on the Lord's-Days to preach to Forreign Assembles either of Jews or Gentiles and therefore preaching to them was out of season being performed on Week-Days Days that were not then appointed of God to be Seasons for sacred Solemnities for even the Jewish Sabbath though it had been appointed to that Nation for a time to be their weekly Sabbath yet not it's grown out of Season and the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath came into season whence Preaching on that day is stiled Preaching in Season How much Light this Observation casts upon the Apostle's Discourse and what Darkness the vulgar Opinion viz. that the Apostle speaks of a spiritual and eternal Rest hath drawn-over the Hearts of Men in their reading this part even of the New Testament is apparent from this one Instance vers 10. For he that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Learned Men are puzled how to give such a Sence of this Clause as is coherent with the Context But understand the Apostle to speak here of the Christian lord's-day-Lord's-Day-Sabbath and the sence is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day and that sence admirably consonant with what precedes and follows thus It remains therefore that the Church in sanctifying the Lord's-Day doth most properly imitate God's seventh Day Rest For he that is entred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Rest of that same People of God to whom the Sabbatism appertains for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Antecedent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he also hath ceased
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did
a religious respect to the Sabbath which Moses forthwith explains vers 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath c. and vers 29. See because the Lord hath given you this Sabbath therefore he hath given you on the sixth day the Bread of two days Philo Judaeus saith that the Hebrews were taught by this which was the birth-day of the World whereof their Forefathers were ignorant a very likely thing that Abraham should not know the Patriarchal Sabbath L'Estrange will have it thus That the Elders made not strange at the Sabbath but at the strictness of the Rest now commanded But he should have called to mind that nothing was spoken of that till after the Elders were come to Moses And if we duly weigh the Story the Elders will be found to have thought it strange why the People gathered this double portion on Friday for the Elders knew that a double portion was to be gathered on the sixth day six days before And therefore would doubtless have applied themselves to Moses before now for a resolution if they had then questioned for what end they were to gather double on the sixth day and no other reason can be imagined of that delay but that their thoughts were suspended all that while upon the sixth day of the Patriarchal-week which is Saturday till they saw the People gather on the sixth day in the order of the gathering days and then and not till then they came to Moses that he might resolve them whether the Precept was to be interpreted of the sixth day in the order of the Creation which had hitherto been the preparation for the Sabbath or whether it was God's purpose to alter the Sabbath and transfer it from Sunday to Saturday and that therefore Friday now must be their preparation day or which comes all to one whether the six days were to comense at the first gathering-day or the first of the Patriarchal week And this seruple propounded by all the Elders that is all the grave men of the Congregation who had been longest acquainted with the Ancient Sabbath for Elders in the Text does not imply a name of Office but of Age Elders by Office not being constituted till Jethro had advised Moses to constitute them Exod. 18. 21. These it seems had not themselves gathered a double portion but thought the younger sort timerarious in their account of days and therefore acquaint Moses with it whom Moses thus resolves This is that the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. When did God say this but in his Precept to gather twice as much on the sixth day So that here Moses comments upon the Precept telling them that thereby God appointed to the Jews the morrow following to be thence-forward their weekly Sabbath Whereas if they had been used before to keep Saturday-Sabbath the Rulers needed not to have applied themselves to Moses for the resolution of such a question as a Child might have unriddled for it cannot be imagined but the day before the Patriarchal Sabbath was from the beginning a preparation to it whereon Reason would tell Men that they ought to set their secular Affairs in such good order as they might not be distracted by them in the sacred exercises of the Sabbath which from the first was so to be sanctified as no servile work was to be done thereon And seeing the Israelites at this time had no other servile work to do but gathering and dressing of Manna if they had not been restrained from that on the Sabbath there would have been no difference betwixt that and other days in respect of cessation from common work And therefore upon that supposition that Saturday was their ancient Sabbath the Elders must have been Children in understanding if they perceived not the reason of the Precept for gathering twice as much on Friday To sum up the whole of this Argument This is the first Saturday-Sabbath we find celebrated in the Wrold for 2453 Years at the lowest account and that the whole World should live to that age without a Sabbath is the most incredible of Incredibles In order to the vindication of the Patriarchal-Church from so black a Crime I have endeavoured to shew that Sunday-Sabbath was observed before the Institution of the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath from the first instance And I shall give more clear and unexceptionable proof thereof in the other forenamed instance drawn from Exod. 12. 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation of Israel saying On the tenth day of this mouth they shall take to them a Lamb c. SECT VIII 2d Instance If we reckon backward from the 15th day of the second month which we demonstrated to have been Sunday till we come to the tenth day of the first month we shall find that tenth day to have been Sunday and to have been celebrated by the Israelites and by consequence the Egyptians also their keeping thereon a solemn religious stated Assembly on course 1. That this tenth day fell on Sunday may be thus collected by a retrograde calculation of days from the fifteenth of the second month to the tenth of the first Second month Days 15 8 1. First month days 24 17 10 were 〈◊〉 For the proof of this Account wherein I assign 30 days to a month I have the plain testimony of Moses Gen. 7. 24. compared with Chap. 8. 4. where the beginning of the 150 days of the Waters prevailing above the Earth is said to be the 17th day of the month and the end of those days the 17th of the 7th month that is just five months if we assign to each month 30 days And Deut. 12. 13. She shall bewail her Father and Mother a month of days This would have been a Lesbian Rule if their months had not consisted of an equal number of days And if the days of every of those months wherein the Waters prevailed had not been thirty the space from the 17th of the second to the 17th of the seventh month would not have amounted to 150 days These Texs are so plain as I wonder how so many Men of great and deserved name came to be lulled except by Rabbinical Sorcery into so deep a sleep as to dream of the Jewish months having assigned to them alternatim 30 and 29 days and to forsake Moses his conduct in so plain a path An Errour which the industrious and learned Vsher gives his Testimony against in the Preface to his Annals The Year saith he there of the Patriarchs Egyptians and Hebrews consisted of twelve equal months of thirty days aepiece For that the Hebrews used Lunary months before the Babylonish Captivity is more than can be proved from this so infallible an Evidence that the Patriarchs reckoned thirty days to the month what ever Innovation after-Ages introduc'd is not here material A demonstrative proof may be drawn of the truth of the first Instance also that the 15th of the second month Exod. 16.
the whole third Chapters unto chap. 4. which from ver 3. And in process of time they brought Offerings unto the Lord shews how the Patriarchs sanctified that Day that God had sanctified It is most manifest from this plain Chronological account of the sacred History that Man fell was restored and thrust out of Paradise the sixth day Cherubims being plac'd with flaming Swords to guard the Tree of Life leaving Adam no hope of life by the first Covenant whither then could he look for Life Eternal but to the promised Seed in Faith of whose Blood and acknowledgment of his own Sin he offered by God's appointment those Beasts in Sacrifice of whose skin 's God made him and Eve Coats that they appearing before God in that which was a Type of the Robes of Righteousness and pleading the Blood of the Covenant might be found and accepted in Christ in whom alone God is well-pleased and smelleth a sweet savour of Rest Upon which account he rested the seventh day and Adam with him in Christ To Adam ' s celebrating the praises of his Redeemer on this Sabbath Day the Chaldee Paraphrase or Targum of Jonathan who was fellow-disciple to Hillel with good old Simeon fourty years before our Saviour's incarnation saith P. Fagius on Gen. 1. seems to have respect for thus that renders the title of Psalm 92. An Hymn which the first man Adam said for the Sabbath-Day as Ainsworth observes Dicunt Rabboth quod Adamus hunc psalmum protulit quando creatus erat vesper Sabbati postea peccavit erat maledictus in hora duodecima diei sexti crat expulsas ab Edene Deus benedictus venit ad judicium mortis Sabbatum super vevit Et Adam Eucharistias quia erat liberatus a judicio mortis profert Darash R. Arama Vicars decupla carticum Adami dicitur ab Hebraeis quod talia dicere potuit Adamus cum res adeo primum conditas aspexit Grot. The Rabbins say that Adam made this Psalm on the Eve of the Sabbath at twelve of the Clock of the Day wherein he was created and afterwards sinned and was accursed and driven out of Eden The blessed God came to pass the Sentence of Death upon him the Sabbath came upon him And Adam because he was set free from the Sentence of Death brought forth thanksgiving Offerings That is saith Grotius because Adam may be supposed to have said such like words when he beheld the things that God created in the beginning SECT II. But all this together may perhaps seem too great a weight to hang upon the single Pin of this one Argument drawn from the Chronology of the History I will therefore more distinctly shew the truth of each particular 1. That Adam fell on the sixth day seems evident from that Greek Proverb grounded upon the almost universal Consent of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam was formed and deformed the same day quoted by Hamond L' Estrange p. 8. Which universal Consent took its rise from Psal 49. 12. Hinc Colligunt Hebraei in Berescit Rabba gloriam primi hominis cum eo non per noctisse Cartw. Mell. Broughton most confidently affirms that Adam did not continue in his Integrity one hour and affirms that all Jews are of that opinion from the Authority of Maimonides and from that Proverb of modern Jews above-said He also saith that all the Greek Fathers are of the same opinion Vna nocte integritate non permanebat Adam saith Vicars for which he quotes the Arabick and Persic Pentateuch The Septuagint indeed renders the above-quoted Text Psa 49 12 thus Man being in honour understandeth not As if it were the same with vers 23. The Syr. Arab and Simmachus follow the Septuagint but this reading contradicts all Hebrew Copies and the best Hebrew Doctors David Kimhi Aben Ezra c. and antient Fathers as Jerom c. who render it thus Adam or Man being in honour did not lodg there a Night or Adam did not lodg one Night in Honour non pernoctavit did not stay one Night in that Estate for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jalin the Hebrew Word here used signifies properly to lodg or stay for a Night Gen. 31. 54. Laban and Jacob tarried all Night in the Mount and early in the Morning departed Gen. 32. 21. Jacob himself lodged with the Company that Night I might add that the Targum interprets Gen. 2. 15. And the Lord took the Man and placed him in the Garden of Eden by a Syriack Word Sharah which in Hiphil signifies to place in a lodging for a Night thus is this word used in the Syriack New Testament Acts 20. 15. And the next day we came to Samos and lodged at Trogillium and the next day c. Luke 9. 12. When the day begun to wear away the Disciples said Send the Multitude away that they may lodg in the Villages Luke 2. 7. There was no place for them in the Inn in the Room they had taken up to lodg in for that Night Shindler Pentaglot So early began our Saviour to have the Chastisment of our Sin laid upon him in a way parallel to Adam's Fall he with his blessed Mother being thrust out of the Inn the Hour he was born as Adam was thrust out of Paradise the day he was created Thus our Saviour gives his Suffrage to John 8. 44. where he stiles the Devil a Murderer from the beginning for this term in the beginning denotes the six days of the Creation and precisely terminates where God finished that Work as is apparent from Gen. 1. 1. In the Beginning God made Heaven and Earth that is in the space of six days wherein the whole Species of things in Heaven and Earth had their beginning Or as our Saviour explains it Mark 13. 19. In those days shall be Afflictions such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created the whole frame whereof speaking of the same thing he calls the World and the space wherein it was made the beginning of the World Mat. 24. 21. or as it is rendred John 9. 33. since the World began was it not heard that c. that is since God finished the Work of Creation Thus the beginning circumscribed the whole Work of Creation Heb. 1. 10. Thou Lord in the beginning founded the Earth c. And though sometimes it may seem to denote the Duration before when it is spoken of God Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his Works of old yet it no where extends its Signification beyound the six days Work when it is applied to the Creature It was therefore within the compass of the six days that this Murderer slew our first Parents 2. That Adam was restored through the Promise of the Woman's Seed the same day whereon he fell is apparent from our Saviour his being stiled Rev. 13. 8. the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World for this is of the very same
nothing left for Forrage to himself and 's Army nothing to feed on but Dust the carnal sensual devilish part of Mankind Now and not till now every Tree brought forth Fruit in its kind when the true Vine began to flourish when the Tree of Life had thus put forth its Leaves and Fruit for the healing of Mankind Till God thus shined in Man's Heart to give the Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ he had not commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness out of that more dismal Darkness then sate upon the Face of the unformed Earth even that wherewith Adam's Sin had invelop'd the whole Creation and made it a more confused Chaos than that rude and indigested Lump out of which it had been reduced For hereby Adam defac'd the Image of God so far lost the the Dominion of the Creature as he retained not so much thereof as the Rule over himself Nay the whole Fabrick of the World was loosned and ready to fall this Keistone of the Arch being crumbled into Dust If Christ had not sustained the Weight of that ruinous Building upon his own Shoulders while it was a repairing by God's making Adam anew and building him upon a new Foundation even the Rock of Ages that precious and elect Corner-Stone at the laying whereof the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job 38. 6 7. Wast thou by when he laid the chief Corner-Stone thereof when the Morning Stars sang together c. Gen. 2. 4. These are the Generations of Heaven and Earth in the day that Jehovah made the Earth and the Heavens The name of Jehovah is here first given to God which Name the Cabalists observe to imply the Mercy of God as Elohim signifies his Justice P. Fagius in locum who observes also that the word Tholedhoth Generations is no where writ perfectly but here and Ruth 4. 18. because these Generations only to wit of the World and the Messias of whose Family the Book of Ruth treateth are perfect Now was Man twice formed as is implied vers 7. And the Lord God formed Vai-jitzer duplex hic est Jod ad significandum inquit R. S. duplicem hominis formationem hujus futuri seculi post Resurrectionem P. Fagius Here is a double Jod to signifie the two-fold Generation of Adam the first relating to this World the second to the World to come that is his Formation as Man his Reformation as a new Man And these Generations thus perfected are said vers 4. to be made in one day because the whole Creation was perfected by Man's new Creation at the entrance of the seventh day 6. Till all the Host of Heaven and Earth was thus finished by the Formation of the new Creature and Introduction of the second Adam God had not made sufficient Preparation for his resting in his Works as very good and altogether adequate to the bringing about of his own glorious and gracious ends But now this Workmanship of God created in Christ for good Works Eph. 2. 9. being made Christ's personal being exhibited in the Promise as adopted into Man's Family and Christ mystical being born of the immortal Seed of that Word of Promise and by Faith adopted into the Family of God the Pleasure of the Lord thus prospering in the Mediator's Hands and Christ's seeing and reaping the Fruit of the travel of his Soul what could the issue of this be but Satisfaction Acquiescency Rest Man renewed and restored into Communion with God through the Mediation of the Son of God was in the fore-Appointment of it the mutual Pleasure of God the Father and God the Son from all Eternity Prov. 8. 29 30 31. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth then was I by him I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. The Son's delight was among the Sons of Men in the habitable parts of the Earth before Man was created or the Foundations of the Earth laid save only in the Decree and Appointment of God And this rejoycing of the Son was the Father's delight And for this Pleasures sake Heaven and Earth and the whole Furniture of both were created Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created The whole World say the Jewish Doctors was created for the Messias and the Messias say all Christians was exhibited for the Redemption of Mankind from that state of Sin and Misery into which we fell through the Transgression of the Proto-plast This Redemption was tendred to Adam in the Promise of the Woman's Seed and accepted by Adam through Faith in that Promise and that acceptance ratified by a Covenant of Salt by a Sacrifice salted with Fire the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering which burning upon the Altar all Night unto the Morning Lev. 6. 9. And figuring the Oblation of Christ's Body and Adam's Oblation of his Body as a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God through Christ must needs come up with Acceptance before God and send forth a sweet Savour of Rest unto God at the dawning of the seventh Day The Talmudists say that God created Fire on the seventh day I suppose they mean that Fire that came down from Heaven on Adam's Sacrifice in token of God's Approbation So that God having perfected his Work on the seventh Day even all the Work that he had made Gen. 2. 2. Or all the Work that he created to make vers 3. Rested on the Seventh Day and sanctified it The Hebrews distinguish betwixt creating forming and making thus To create is the Production of any thing out of nothing to from is the bestowing of Form and Shape upon any thing created to make is to perfect finish and to adapt to its proper use that that is created and formed They are all three used to this sense in one Verse Isa 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory I have formed him yea I have made him that is every way fitted him for the attaining that end for which I created and formed him P. Fagius in Targ. Onkelos Now Adam being created to bring forth good Works in Christ Jesus was not God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Workmanship fitted for the Production of the end of his Creation while he was either in a state of Innocence or of the Lapse which alone is sufficient to prove that Adam fell and was restored by Faith in the promised Seed the day of his Creation for otherwise God could not have rested that is have taken Delight and Complacency in all the Work he created to make as very that is perfectly good and compleated for the effecting the end of Creation to wit the glorifying of God by good Works done in Christ And therefore that seventh Day 's rest on Sunday where God saw all very good as good as Heart
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish saturday-Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon
they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the christian-Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be
the Decalogue declares it to be of the same nature with the rest of the Ten for how can it stand with the Wisdom of the God of Order who forbad plowing with an Ox and an Ass who prohibited the wearing of Linsy-woolsy and was so careful that the Male and Female Sex should wear different Apparel to shuffle a Ceremonial Law amongst his Moral Laws seeing that would have been a far greater Indecorum than the yoking of an Ox and an Ass together would have rendred the Decalogue a piece of Linsie-woolsie and have been the apparalling of permanent and transient of perpetual and temporary Laws which in their own nature differ more than Male and Female that is specifically in the same garb SECT II. But that which makes the greatest difference betwixt these Sabbaths is this The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that commanded the Jews are grounded upon different Reasons The first in commemoration of the Creation which is common to all persons in all ages and places The other 1. That it might be a sign to discriminate the Jews from all other Nations Exod. 31. 13. It is a sign between me and you that I am the Lord your God that is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance Deut. 4. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the Lord your God which have separated you from all other Nations Lev. 20. 24. Now if other Nations had celebrated Saturday as their weekly Sabbath and not another day of the week the Jews could not have been discriminated from them by their observing the same day this would have been no part of the Wall of Partition 2. The Jews weekly as well as their monthly Sabbaths were Shadows of good things to come the Body whereof is Christ Col. 2. 16. If therefore the Sabbath of the fourth Precept had been the Jewish Sabbath it ought to have been abolished when Christ the Substance is come as well as other Ceremonial Laws But this is contrary to the sense of the Universal Church which reckons this one of the ten Commandments And our Church hath appointed this Precept with the rest of the Decalogue to be pronounced at the Lord's Table and enjoyned her Children to beg pardon for the breach of this and Grace to encline their Hearts to keep it which would be the putting of a Cheat upon them if that Precept in the plain Letter of it were not still in force and the putting a figurative sense upon it would make it as unintelligible to vulgar capacities as if it were in Latine And so much the more hard to be understood as the Church in her Liturgies and Catechisms wherein she propounds Milk to Babes affects the greatest plainness of Speech Upon which account most serious Persons have been prejudic'd against Calvin's Interpretation of Christ's descent into Hell that being an Article of the common Faith and therefore to be interpreted in the plain literal sense Let me add that the Church no where declares her Sentiments more plainly than in publick Liturgies upon which Consideration St. Austin so often appeals from those Testimonies of Fathers which Pelagius urged to the forms of Common-Prayer And therefore tho a thousand private Doctors Opinion should thwart me yet I having the Opinion of the whole Church declared in her Liturgies for me if not in so many words yet in her general practice unavoidably inferring what I maintain to wit that the fourth Precept of the Decalogue is still in full force this is sufficient to acquit my Assertion from the imputation of Novelty or singularity as being no other but what I drew from my Mother's the Church of England's Breasts not only by good consequence as hath been shewed but in plain words for in the Homily of the time and place of Prayer she tells us that God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the celebration of the Sabbath which is our Sunday But I have greater Authority than this of the Church even Christ himself who could not endure that he should be thought to come to destroy the Law and assures us that not one jot or tittle should fall from the Law Mat. 5. 17. which all interpret to be meant of the Decalogue whose fourth Precept must therefore be concluded to have nothing in it that is ceremonial typical and upon that account to be abolished as instituting a Sabbath to be a shadow of good things to come 3. The Sabbath appropriate to the Jews was commanded them to be a Memorial of God's giving them rest from Egyptian Servitude Deut. 5. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath Day Observe here the difference betwixt the Law of the Sabbath given on Mount Sinai and this in Deuteronomy tho it be repeated in the Decalogue For this Book containing an explanation of the Law whether Moral Ceremonial or Judicial and application of it to the particular state of the Jews Moses in this Text Judaizeth the fourth Precept and therefore assigns as the reason of its institution thus applied and limited not God's resting on the Seventh Day from his Work which is common to all Mankind but his causing them to rest from their servil work under the Egyptians which was peculiar to the Jews Which is a manifest Argument that the Sabbath of the Decalogue engraven in the Tables was of larger extent than this mentioned in Deuteronomy or else why should the Reason of the one be universal of the other particular As also that the Jews were obliged to the observation of their Sabbath not from the literal and primary sense of the fourth Precept as all Mankind are and always were except the Jews to whom God appointed another Sabbath but only from the equity of it For seeing God had sanctified the precise Seventh Day whereon he had rested to be observed by all Men it was meet that the Jews should keep holy one Day of seven and that Day which God had peculiarly enjoyned them viz. Saturday tho that was not the Sabbath of the fourth Precept the Lawgiver having Right to dispense with his own Law And this is clearly the plain meaning of Moses his inserting vers 12. as the Lord hath commanded thee or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had commanded thee viz. before the publishing of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai and of his leaving out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remember the first word of the fourth Precept as it was delivered on Sinai by which word mankind was called upon to call to mind the Patriarchal Sabbath or rather his transferring it to his mentioning their Egyptian bondage vers 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and remember that thou wast a Bondsman c. As if Moses had said perhaps you may interpret the fourth Precept repeating the Law of the Patriarchal Sabbath as either vacating that Law of the Sabbath he gave you
from his own Works as God did from his For as God rested on the seventh Day from his proper Works as Creator that being the proper Work of God the Father who made me and all the World though as to other kind of Works the Father worketh hitherto Even so he that is entred into the Rest of the People of God the christian-Christian-Sabbath doth therein most genuinely imitate God in that he also hath ceased from his Works that is the Works of the Law of Moses that being the proper Notion of Works in St. Paul's Sence whensoever he makes Comparison betwixt the Law and the Gospel And the Works of the Law being the proper Works of the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was directed as differencing them from all other Nations He hath cast off that Yoak of Ceremonies which neither we nor our Fathers could bear and hath taken the easy Yoke of Christ upon him that he may find rest to his Soul And what an apt Introduction is this to what is immediately subjoyned vers 11. Let us therefore strive to enter into this same Rest lest any Man fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Let me therefore perswade you to imitate God in his Seventh-Day's Rest lest you imitate your fore-Fathers in Unbelief and be excluded from eternal Rest From which fearful State the best way to be secured is to attend upon Christian Lord's-Day's Assemblies and Administrations where you shall hear Moses in the Newness of his Spirit not in the Oldness of the Letter you will see that Vail that Moses put upon his Face done away if you will turn unto the Lord and will find the Word of God as a sharp two-edged Sword drawn out of the Scabbard of Types and Ceremonies wherein it could not do any Execution upon the Soul and so weilded as it shall pierce even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit which is the plain Importance of vers 12. For the Word of God is quick c. that is as it is dispenc'd in Christian-Assembles into which if an Unbeliever should come while they are prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 24. that is applying Old-Testament Prophesies unto Christ and proving thence that Jesus is the Christ he is judg'd convinc'd of all convinc'd of the Sin of Unbelief Joh. 16. 8. convinc'd and judg'd of all that is all that prophesy one by one 1 Cor. 14. 31. not only by the prophesying of such as like Apollos are mighty in the Scriptures Act. 18. 28. but is so mightily convinc'd that Jesus is the Christ even of the weakest of them that have the Gift of Prophesying that is of applying the Old-Testament for proof of the truth of the Gospel he is I say by this powerful Word so convinc'd as the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest and so falling down on his Face he glorifieth God and confesseth that God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. By the Premises it appears that the Apostle's scope in his Discourse of the Sabbath is to withdraw the Jews from the Celebration of their Fruitless Sabbath to the Observation of the Christian-Sabbath As also how well God provided for the Settlement of publick-stated Assemblies in the Church when the Jewish Sabbaths were antiquated by letting the Apostles see that though the Law for that was out of date Col. 2. 16. yet there remained a Sabbath to the People of God viz. That which was instituted from the beginning and commanded in the Decalogue Had the Apostle indeed only decried that and not establish'd this it might have been thought that the Church had been left to her choice what Day of the Week to have celebrated as Calvin and the Prolepsarians conceive But as if the holy Ghost had purposely intended to obviate that Errour the admitting whereof would unavoidably bring Confusion into the Christian World he was pleased to direct the same Apostle whose Pen had cancel'd the Jewish to write in Vindication of the Christian-Sabbath and to inform him that seeing the Partition-wall was taken down there was a plain and open way made for the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath that Sabbath in the sanctifying whereof the greatest part of those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. had received Grace to offer acceptable Sacrifices to God by Faith in the promised Seed to walk with God to be upright before him in the most general Apostacies to obey his Call unreservedly though they knew not whither To exert such Heroick Acts of Faith Patience Contempt of the World Dependance on God c. as made them the Wonders of that World which was unworthy of them and Paterns to the best of Christians That Sabbath in the Celebration whereof the Christian-Church forsook the Jewish Synagogue then became the Synagogue of Satan and betook themselves to the Communion of the General-Assembly and Church of the First-born consisting of all those who from the Publication of the Promise of Christ to Adam had been begotten again of the immortal Seed of that ever-induring Word administred to the Patriarchs and all that adhere to the Patriarchal Religion in all Nations and Ages and administred without those carnal Ordinances and unprofitable bodily Exercises wherewith the Jews Sabbath was incumbred if not wholly taken up therewith For the Jews that out-went the Ox and Ass in keeping the Mosaical Sabbath as such did not go beyond them in the Strength of the Services thereof which could not perfect them that frequented them as touching Conscience but in the strength of the Ordinances of the Patriarchal Sabbath so that it was their doing Sunday's Work on their Saturdays that sanctified the Jews as to Conscience Their own Sabbath's Rest from Work sanctifying them only by the external visible separating of them from other Nations to the end that our Saviour's Descent from Abraham might be more conspicuous And therefore as their fore-Fathers sell short through their looking no further than Canaan so those then Moderate Jews to whom he writes would also fall short of Eternal Rest if they did not look forward beyond their Sabbath-Day to Sunday or the Lord's-Day-Sabbath in the Ordinances whereof Saving Grace is so plentifully dispenc'd as the Eunuch shall have no cause to say I am a dry Tree nor the Sun of the Stranger to complain I am utterly cut off from God's People If they take hold of God's Covenant and keep his Sabbaths now under the Gospel tho they were excluded from the Congregation of the Lord under the Mosaical Sabbath Isa 56. 4 c. but their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar and he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer To this God of all Grace who deals thus bountifully with us Gentiles even to the Father Son and Holy-Ghost be given all Praises and Adoration now and for ever Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian