323. 5. The Sin-offerings buth the Bullock and the Goat must be burnt without the Camp ver 27. This also is explained upon the Sin-offering Lev. cap. 4. pag. 321 322. that Christ suffered without the City as a Malefactor with whom we also should suffer bearing our reproach and being content to be accounted as Malefactors yea as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offscouring and sweeping of the world 6. On this great day of Atonement was the Jubile to be proclaimed by sound of Trumpet Lev. 25.9 This speaks that after the performance of the whole work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ he did cause the Trumpet of the Gospel to sound to publish and proclaim the glad tidings of our Salvation throughout the world Isai 61.1 2. so that this day of Atonement is like that famous week prophesied of by Daniel cap. 9. He shall confirm the Covenant with many for one week In the midst of the week Messiah shall be cut off This week is interpreted by some concerning that seven years the first part whereof Christ preached suffered in the middle of the week and in the other three years and an half the Apostles preached at Jerusalem after which they were dispersed by persecution and so the Gospel published to all the world It is the performance of the work of our Redemption that was the foundation and groundwork of the preaching of the Gospel the Jubile is proclaimed upon the day of Atonement 7. And lastly this day of Atonement is a day of Humiliation and afflicting their Souls by an everlasting Ordinance ver 29 to the end Days of Humiliation are days of Atonement and Reconciliation Not that our Humiliation merits or deserves any thing it is not the afflicting our Souls that doth make atonement but it fits us to receive the Atonement Humiliation prepares the Soul for Christ and makes it capable to receive the Mercy and the Pardon that Christ hath purchased and that God is willing and ready to bestow upon all that will receive it by Faith THE MANIFOLD SINFULNESS OF THE POPISH HOLY DAYS Discovered in sundry Reasons against them and the most material Objections answered AMongst the several ways wherein the Superstition of the hearts of men works out and vents it self this is one the observing of Days and Times wherein the Church of Rome hath abounded filling the Kalender with superstitious Holy days many of which are still retained and continued by the Church of England But let these Reasons against them be considered Reason 1. Nothing can be holy to the Lord which is not made holy by the Lord but God the Lord of time hath not sanctified nor set apart these times We find indeed before the Ceremonial Law was instituted yea before the Fall of Man that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.2 3. and therefore the Observation of a weekly Sabbath one day in seven is moral and perpetual But other Holy days are things which the Lord never commanded and which never came into his heart and of which he will say at the great Day who required these things at your hands The strength of which argument will appear the more if we consider what miserable poor shifts it puts the Patrons of these Holy days to when they go about to grapple with it 1. Sometimes they are so confounded in themselves as to deny that they place Holiness in these days the Church keeps them they say not as more holy and sacred then other days and parts of divine Worship but only for Order and Policy So Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. p. 5. But the rest of his Fellows have dealt more truly and more sincerely then he in this particular for not only Bellarmine tom 2. de Cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 10. prop. 2. asserteth Festa Christianorum non solum ratione Ordinis Politiae sed etiam ratione mysterii celebrantur suntque dies festi vere aliis sanctiores sacratiores pars quaedam divini cultus But Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. sect 69. pag 375. also saith they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Downham in Praec 4. refers them to the fourth Commandment and will have them consecrated as Sabbaths to the Lord. Bishop Andrews in his Holiday Sermons on Luke 4.18 on Matth. 12.39 40. apud Gillesp Eng. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1. pag. 15. hath found out many profound mysteries in them yea in the very order of them and distances of time between them as there be fifty days between Easter and Pentecost because fifty is the number of the Jubile one day between Easter and the Resurrection because Jonas was but one day in the Whales belly with many other pretty tales which are not worth transcribing And the thing it self speaks for why do they call them Holy days if they put no holiness in them nay why do they prefer them above the Sabbaths of God 2. Sometimes they labour to escape in the mist of blind distinctions so when Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 28. saith that the Holy dayes are not consecrated to holy mystical uses but to holy political uses Wherein as Mr. Gillespy Eng. Pop. Cer. part 3. cap. 1. pag. 7. well observeth he doth but labour to plaister over his Superstition with the untempered mortar of this quidditative distinction and uncouth speculation of which I dare say the Bishop himself comprehendeth it not 3. Sometimes they say God hath sanctified them by the great works he hath done upon them Thus Bellarmine de Cult Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. Christus nascens consecravit locum id est praesepe moriens consecravit Crucem resurgens consecravit Tuntulum unde exivit cur non etiam consecravit Tempus id est Dies illos quibus natus vel passus vel rediturus fuit nobis devictâ morte Which his Disciple Rich. Hooker a most Papistical Writer borrows from him and thus expresseth it Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. § 69. p. 375. No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain Places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain Times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honour God more holy then other days Thus he But it is not meerly the extraordinary works of God that will sanctifie a day for then all the six days of the week should be holy for God created the World in six days so that there is not one day of the week wherein there was not some work of wonder wrought It is rather the Lords resting from his works then his working that sanctifieth Time and makes it holy as Gen. 2.2 3. Exod 20.11 Upon this ground the seventh day was sanctified in old time because on that day God rested from the work of Creation and upon the same ground the first day of the week being the rest-Rest-day of the Lord our God from the great work of Redemption his
the Honour of Saints and that the Lord should ease his people of the burthen of a few Festival days to lay upon them an heavier burthen by a greater number of them So that we see the Scripture doth abundantly and clearly condemn and testifie against these superstitious observations of days and times Reason 3. Consider further the deep dishonour that is done to God by these days every manner of way The common pretense is that they do it for the Honor of Christ but it is not good Intentions that will excuse bad Actions Jeroboam pretended very good Intentions 1 Kings 12.28 so did they in Exod. 32.5 they proclaimed an Holy day to Jehovah though they kept it in a rude manner but what saith the Lord to them even after all the Prayers of Moses for them ver 34. in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them He will not regard their vain pretenses for the truth is these days are celebrated rather in dishonour and as it were in despite of Christ then for any Glory to him For 1. They are a dishonour to his Holiness as if Christ were a God that delighted in Profaneness and Wickedness for he is dishonoured as some have well observed by letting the reins loose to all manner of Profaneness as much in the twelve days and in some respects more then in all the twelve months of the year beside Hence Mr. Perkins most truly and justly complains that the Feast of Christs Nativity commonly so called is not spent in praising the Name of God but in Revelling Dicing Carding 〈◊〉 Mumming and in all licentious liberty for the most part as 〈◊〉 it were some Heathen Feast of Ceres or Bacchus Perk 〈…〉 Creed Art of Christs Birth apud Gillesp Engl. Pop. Cerem p. 〈…〉 cap. 9. page 48. 2. It is an unspeakable dishonouour to his blessed Sabbaths for men to set their Days by his Days their Posts by his Posts their Altars by his Altars as Jeroboam devised a Feast of his own heart like unto the Feast that was in Judah 1 Kings 12.32 yea as Dr. Ames observes they were from their first use not only equalled unto but extolled above the Lords day Fresh Suit part 2. p. 84. Those Prelates saith Mr. Gillespy that will not abase themselves to preach upon ordinary Sabbaths think the high Holy days worthy of their Sermons Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. cap. 1 pag. 13. Yea they can write Books against the Sabbath as Heylin White Pocklinton and others have done to pluck away that Crown of Glory and Preeminence which God hath set upon that day which he hath chosen and they set up their own devised days in stead thereof Common experience proveth saith Reverend Mr. Dod on the second Commandment p. 68. that all they which stand most for superstitious Holy days are greatest profaners of the Lords Sabbath and contemners of his Word 3. They do dishonour the Wisdom and Word of Christ for Christ the Lord of Time and the Lord of the Sabbath hath sanctified and instituted the first day of the week whereon he arose from the dead for the Commemoration of the great work of our Redemption by him and what can the man do that comes after the King and in those things that have been already done as Eccles 2.12 It is a bold and deep reflection upon the Wisdom of Christ to add thus to his appointments as if the Lord Jesus Christ himself were not wise enough to appoint days and times sufficient to keep his own Nativity Death Resurrection Ascension and all the great things he hath done for us in everlasting remembrance in the hearts of his Saints but the Devil and the Pope must help it out It is therefore in plain terms a profane speech of Dr. Hammond that when the Festivals are turned out of the Church it will not be in the power of weekly Sermons on some head of Religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in mens hearts View of Direct and Vindic. of Liturg. pag. 31. What are not the Institutions of Christ powerful to attain his own blessed ends unless they be pieced out with the additions of mens Inventions surely there is no Christian that hath found the experience of the saving Power and Blessing of Gods Ordinances to his own Soul but will detest and abhor to entertain such base and vile thoughts of them unless he hath forgotten that he was purged by them from his old sins 4. These superstitious Holy days introduced and brought in many other corruptions along with them as bad or worse then themselves like the unclean Spirit with seven Devils more sundry whereof are thus expressed by Dr. Ames Fresh Suit against Cerem part 2. pag. 84. They were saith he from their first rise not only equalled unto but also extolled above the Lords day Easter brought in a superstitious Lent to attend upon it made Baptism wait for her Moon and conformed our Lords Supper to the Jewish Passover in unleavened Bread It was the first Apple of Contention amongst Christians The Latin and Greek Churches striving contending fiercely about the time of it and Victor Bp. of Rome desperately excommunicated those that were not of his opinion in this frivolous Question So that it was the first Weapon wherewith the Bishop of Rome played his Prizes against other Churches and after slew so many Britains with by Austin the Monk Holy days devised by men in honour of Christ invited and drew on Holy days to Saints with many other mischiefs more then can be now numbred up And therefore upon all accounts God is dishonoured by them And so much for that third Reason Reason 4. The true yearly time for the Celebration of these Festivals is not certainly known but much disputed among Chronologers and Divines so that Holiday-keepers cannot affirm that they do commemorate opus diei in die suo the Lord having hid it as he did the Body of Moses to prevent Idolatry The fierce contention for the space of two hundred years or thereabout between the Greek and Latin Churches about the time of celebrating Easter is famous in Ecclesiastical History the Eastern Churches kept it on the fourteenth day of the first month when the Jews kept their Passover from whence they were called quarto-decimani But the Western Churches kept it upon the Christian Sabbath in commemoration of Christs Resurrection who rose upon the first day and both sides pretended Apostolical Tradition for their different practice The difference grew so hot that Victor Boshop of Rome being full of the spirit of Antichrist excommunicated all the Asian Churches as being Fourteeners and as Judaizers Afterwards Constantine the Great called the Council of Nice to compose these differences in the Churches who thought it best to keep it upon the day of Christs Resurrection but they had done better if they had utterly abolished it as the great reforming Parliament did in England But thus we see what a bone of Contention
and the Wave-Offering a thankful frame of spirit to dedicate and give up our selves unto the Lord to be owning God acknowledging and admiring God in every thing receiving it as from his hand and returning it to him again by using it to his Glory Vse 2. We see here the rise and withal the sinfulness of divers of the Popish Superstitions they borrow many of them from the Jews and from the Ceremonial Law As when they talk of a Sacrifice a propitiatory Sacrifice in the Mass for Quick and Dead and so to call the Communion-Table an Altar It is true we have an Altar and a Sacrifice under the Gospel but this Altar is the Deity of Jesus Christ this Sacrifice is the blood of Christ this is the true Atonement between God and sinners whereof the blood of Bulls and Goats was but a weak and low and shady representation So the Priest his lifting up the Host over his head as if it were an Heave-Offering and that late Abomination that they must do it on the north side of the Communion Table or Altar as they love to have it called To reintroduce these old legal Ceremonies and to talk of literal Sacrifices under the Gospel is to dig Moses out of his Grave and to deny Jesus Christ there is more evil in such things then many do imagine or will believe Vse 3. Exhortation to keep close to the Command of God in all the matters of his Worship Consider the 38 Verse of this Chapter This is the Law of the Burnt-Offering and of the Meat-Offering and so of all the rest of their Offerings which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the Children of Israel to offer their Oblations to the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai The manner of Worship is under a Command as well as the matter the Mode of Worship hath a Law which must be attended and observed and kept close unto Let me press this Exhortation that you would in all your Worship keep close unto the Rule of the Word with these four Motives 1. It hath been the great design of Satan in all times and Ages to defile and corrupt the Worship of God if he cannot perswade men to be downright Atheists and to say there is no God he labours then to drive them into the other extream of Idolatry and Superstition and to impose upon them with an Image with an Idol in stead of God and the hearts of men are like Tinder to the fire of these temptations The Stratagem hath been I think as successful and as advantageous to the Devils Kingdom as any that ever came into that Old Serpents head When or how soon this delusion came into the world I need not here dispute Certain it is it was very early for we have express mention made of it amongst Abraham's Ancestors Josh 24.2 Now the Call of Abraham was but four hundred twenty-seven years after the Flood or thereabout as you will find if you compute and put together the Ages of those ten Patriarchs recorded Gen. 11 with Gen. 12.5 So that mankind having been cut down with a Flood but a little before for Atheistical profaneness and wickedness they were lost again and the whole world in a manner overwhelmed and drowned as it were with another and worser Deluge of Idolatry within that short space of four hundred years or thereabouts for unto that Period as I conceive the Rise of Idolatry must be referred And what was the great sin amongst the Jews Was it not this And amongst the old Heathens and Pagans and amongst the Papists and other superstitious Christians at this day What is the great Design and Work of Christ in this Age the work of this Generation but to bring forth his Worship into purity that the new Jerusalem may come down from Heaven This therefore Satan studies chiefly to oppose and so to countermine the Lord Jesus in his great Work And will you take part with him and be on his side against the Lord 2. It will be varnished over with fair colours and plausible pretenses departing from the Will of God revealed in his Word in the matter of his Worship hath ever been so The Image that fell down from Jupiter cryed they Act. 19.35 this was given out for that Ephesian Diana so the Whore of Babylon gives the Wine of her Fornication in a golden Cup. Rev. 17.4 And as the Light increaseth so the Crafts and Methods of Satan are more refined and more subtile and spiritual In the first times of the New Testament he did appear almost like himself in the shape of a great Red Dragon in the Roman Pagan Emperors but when Michael and his Angels overcame and overthrew him in this appearance Rev. 12. Then he puts on a new Vizard and appears in another shape of two wild Beasts Rev. 13. but still pursues the same design though under new pretences and by other Instruments viz. by the Church and Pope of Rome For he hath made it his business ever since the time of Constantine the Great to revive the old Heathenish Idolatry under other names that the world might not be said Idola relinquere but simulacra mutasse that whereas before they worshipped the Devil under the names of Jupiter Diana and Apollo c. now they commit the same Idolatry and worship the same Devil still but under the names of popish Saints Now it is not Jupiter and Diana any more but St. Francis and St. Becket and the Vicar of Christ and the holy Catholick Church of Rome thus doth that Harlot paint her face so the prelatick Superstitions at this day those Reliques of Popery are painted over with those glozing pretences of Antiquity Fathers Councils Order Decency Edification the Peace of the Church and such like 3. If once you leave the Rule of the Word the will of God revealed there and begin in a way of Superstition you will never know where to stop or stay nor where to make an end but you will multiply your Idols and increase your Idolatries and grow worse and worse As in those sensual lusts of drunkenness and uncleanness the poor Creature saith I will seek it yet again so in these spiritual lusts they are unsatiable Ezek. 16.28 because thou wast unsatiable It is an endless sin If you do but wear a Surplice for peace sake why not as well admit the Sign of the Cross in Baptisme or bow to an Altar And then within a little while the same reason is as strong for bowing to an Image to a Crucifix and why not as well say Mass too for the peace of the Church And then at last swallow down every thing submit your Consciences to the Pope worship the Beast and so be damned and go to Hell and all for the peace of the Church O there is no end here but like a man that is tumbling down a steep Hill that cannot stop till he come to the bottom Popery came
Now to unfold the Mystery of the Incense The Incense that was offered upon this Golden Altar was a Type of Prayer the Prayers both of Christ and of his Saints Both the Prayers which Christ offers up for the Saints and which the Saints offer up for themselves in his Name and Mediation See Rev. 5.8 Psal 141.2 Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense You may see the fulness of the analogy more at large in seven particulars 1. It was made up of many choise Ingredients Exod. 30.34 so is the Spirit of Prayer as it were a compound of many excellent Graces There must be Faith Humility Fervency c. and indeed all the Graces of Gods Spirit are drawn forth and exercised in Prayer 2. They are strictly forbidden to make another Persume of their own heads like unto it Exod. 30.37 38. so we are not to make use of any other Intercessors or Mediators but Christ only And in like manner for men to make Prayers in the way of stinted Liturgies though there be many of the same Ingredients in the Mass-book that is good expressions for the matter of them and words and notions that are found in the Scripture yet this being not the Incense that is instituted it is not it cannot be accepted 3. These Ingredients whereof the Incense was made were to be beaten very small into fine Powder Exod. 30.36 This teacheth us that Contrition of heart that ought to be in Prayer how the Soul is to be contrite and broken as it were all to pieces by humbling meditations of its own unworthiness when it appears before the Lord in Prayer These are the Prayers that God regards Psal 51.17 The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Isai 57.15 I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones If a man come with his heart whole and not broken this is to offer the Incense unbeaten unpounded 4. The Incense was to be set on fire and so the smoke went up before the Throne Exod. 30.7 8. This speaks that holy Fervency in Prayer There should be ardent affections inflamed by the Fire of the Holy Ghost Jam. 5 16. the effectual fervent Prayer of a righteous man availeth much We should not come with a dead cold heart before the Lord in Prayer 5. This burning of Incense was a Service performed every day morning and evening Exod. 30.7.8 This teacheth us that Prayer should be a daily work morning and evening David tells us of his praying in the morning Psal 5.3 My Voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up And also in the evening Psal 141.2 The lifting up of my hands as the evening Sacrifice Yea both he and Daniel used to pray thrice a day Psal 55.17 Dan. 6.10 Anna departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day Luk. 2.37 and we are commanded to pray continually 1 Thess 5.17 Praying always with all Prayer Ephes 6.18 that is every day in the seasons of Prayer And Paul mentions his praying day and night 1 Thess 3.10 2 Tim. 1.3 which may well be understood of evening and morning See also 1 Tim. 5.5 and Act. 26.7 6. The time of burning the Incense was when they dressed and lighted the Lamps of the Sanctuary Exod. 30.7 8. This teacheth us the conjunction of the Word and Prayer in the Church Deut. 33.10 Acts 6.4 But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and to the Ministry of the Word 7. The Smoke of the Incense ascended with a sweet and fragrant smell into the Holy of holies before the Mercy seat as Rev. 8.4 and the Smoke of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand It went up out of the Angels hand This speaks that our Prayers come up before the Lord into his holy place even into Heaven before the Throne of Grace with acceptance through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ Acts 4.10 thy Prayers are come up for a memorial before God Hence that expression 1 Kings 8. hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place For the Holy of holies was a Type of Heaven and the Mercy-seat is that Throne of Grace where the Lord is said to dwell between the Cherubims Psal 80.1 It speaks also that God returns gracious answers to them as it is Zech. 1.13 the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good and comfortable words Sometimes there is a gracious terribleness in them I mean a mixture of Mercy and Terror in the Lords answers and returns of Prayer Psal 65. ver 5. by terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us O God of our Salvation Thus Rev. 8.5 when the Angel cast down the Censer upon the earth there were voices and thunderings and lightenings and an earthquake The Lord uttering his voice as it were from the Holy of holies in dreadful dispensations of Providence in the seven Trumpets it is from the Prayers of Saints that those dreadful Trumpets were sounded But one of the strangest instances of the Lords answering Prayer by strange and seemingly contrary Providences is that of the Turks Rev. 9. It is agreed by all Interpreters that the sixth Trumpet is the Turk But did ever any Christian pray for the coming of the Turk into Christendom No but yet they came and the Voice from the four Horns of this Golden Altar of Incense usher'd them in Rev. 9.13 The meaning is this the strange Power of God did answer the Prayers of his people this way it is the Prayers of Gods people that turns the wheel of Providence as it were and brings about all the great and mighty revolutions in the course thereof Vse 1. Of Comfort in five or six particulars This Doctrine of Christs Intercession which is the mystery of this Golden Censer and Altar of Incense is full of Comfort to poor praying Souls thou hast an High Priest which offereth up thy Prayers and they are made acceptable through his Intercession This affords Comfort let thy condition be what it will 1. If thou find thy self unskilful in making application of that part of Christs Priestly Office which consisteth in his Death yet thou maist look up to him to speak a good word for thy Soul this work is doing still though the former be done 2. In case of new sins committed after Grace received here is this Comfort that as Satan puts in new Accusations against thy Soul so Christ puts in new Answers 1 Joh. 2.1 2. if any man sin we have an Advocate c. 3. Many an one is much troubled with fears of future backslidings but Christ prays that thy Faith fail not he prays not only that we should come
1668. Coloss 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ THere are three Doctrines in the words 1. That the Jewish Holy days are of three sorts or may be referred to three general heads Feast days New Moons and Sabbaths 2. That these their holy seasons were shadows of things to come but the Body is of Christ 3. Therefore no Christian should suffer any man to judg him or condemn him for not observing these Jewish times and seasons We are endeavouring to open the substance of these shadows and what were those things to come those things about Jesus Christ and the Gospel which were shadowed forth in them We began first with their Holy days or their Feast days that is their annual Festivals whereof we heard they had five 1. The Passover 2. Pentecost 2. The Feast of Tabernacles 4. The Feast of Trumpets 5. The Feast of Expiation These three the Passover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles were the three great Festivals which were more solemn then the rest because then all the Males of Israel were to assemble together out of the whole Nation and to appear before the Lord in the place that he should choose in a general Church Assembly We heard something that these things pointed to The Passover did point them to the Death and Sufferings of Jesus Christ as the true Paschal Lamb who fulfilled this Type even as to the very season and holy time it self for he suffered at the Passover The Pentecost pointed at the time of the effusion of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension The Feast of Tabernacles pointed them to the Birth and Nativity of Jesus Christ when he should come to tabernacle and pitch his Tent in our Nature We heard indeed that this was the time of Christs Birth and not as it is commonly computed to be in December in the depth of Winter It is not like the Shepherds would be watching their Flocks all night then and that Augustus would command his Subjects to travel to their own Cities to be taxed at such a time and that John would choose that time to baptize in There be two more of the Jewish Feasts to be spoken to which were great and solemn Feasts yet not so great as these three because the people were not all bound to come up to Jerusalem to the Temple namely the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Expiation they were both in the seventh month as was also the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of it the Feast of Expiation on the tenth day and the Feast of Tabernales on the fifteenth day and from thence to the two and twentieth day which is therefore accounted the greatest of all their Feasts being in the seventh month which was also the first in their old account the chiefest of all the months in the year and called by some the Sabbath of months as the seventh day is the Sabbath of days 4. This month began with the Feast of Trumpets which was upon the first day of the seventh month The first Institution of it we have in Lev. 23.23 24 25. and the Lord spake unto Moses saying c. It was celebrated as a Sabbath they were to do no servile work therein This Feast also had its peculiar Sacrifices appointed for it as in Numb 29. the six first verses It was also solemnized with the blowing of Trumpets which being the special Rite of this Festivity it had its Name from thence Here therefore the old legal Musick may fitly be considered this being as it were their Feast of Musick The Institution of these Trumpets we read in Numb 10. the ten first verses mentioned long after as a very solemn Ordinance in Psal 81.3 4 The first mention we have of Musical instruments in the Worship of God is in Exod. 15.20 21. where we read that Miriam used Timbrels and they praised God therewith and they sang the Song of Moses when they were delivered from Pharaoh And Miriam the Prophetess the Sister of Aaron took a Timbrel in her hand and all the Women went out after her with Timbrels and with Dances And Miriam answered them Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the Horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the Sea Moses afterwards by order from God appointed these Trumpets to be made and we read of a further increase of such Instruments in after times As to the use and signification of them there be many Gospel Instructions to be considered in this legal shadow we shall mention seven 1. The general scope of them was to signifie and shadow forth the sound of the Gospel the blessed sound of the Gospel which is called the joyful sound Psal 89.15 the Gospel is called glad tidings it is a joyful pleasant sound indeed Hence the Ministers of the Gospel are said to lift up their voice like a Trumpet Isai 58.1 the Tongue of the just is as choise Silver Prov. 10.20 these Trumpets were of Silver the faithful discharge and execution of their Office is expressed by blowing of the Trumpet Hos 8.1 Ezek. 33.3 4 5. it is said in the day when the Jews shall be converted in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish c. Isai 27. last when God shall gather them one by one ye shall be gathered one by one ver 12. in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown c that is saith Calvin the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel to the conviction and conversion of the Jews God will have his Church instructed not by sight only but by voice not by the eye only but by the ear Even under the Law the Lord would not have his people always to look for miraculous and immediate Guidance but they were to order themselves according to the sound of the Trumpet both in War Peace according to the rule of the Word so according to the rules of the Gospel according as that Trumpet sounds so are you to act This is the first namely the joyful sound of the Silver Trumpet of the Gospel 2. The Joys and Graces of the Spirit of God is another thing intimated by this Trumpet and instrument of Musick that spiritual melody of the Joys and Graces of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of Gods people Psal 98.6 with Trumpets and sound of Cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord the King Ephes 5.18 19. There is a melody and joyful voice in the Consciences of Believers the Spirit of God both sanctifying and comforting of them so the Apostle Col. 3.16 Grace and Joy the fruit of Grace so this Musick remains in the Antitype of it the heart-strings of Believers making melody suitable to the profession of their Lips and to the gracious and peaceable
the Feast of Expiation Answ They had no more of Gods appointment that were perpetual and religious Feasts It is true we read of some others both in Scripture and in the Jewish Writers but either they were not perpetually recurring every year but meerly occasional upon present emergencies of Providence or else they were not holy and religious Feasts but only civil and political or else lastly they were sinful and unwarrantable as 1. There was Solomons Feast that solemn Feast at the Dedication of the Temple as in 2 Chron. 5. but this was extraordinary and occasional and not a standing yearly Festival 2. They had also those Fasts of the fifth and of the seventh month which are mentioned in Zech. 7 3-5 but these also were but temporary and occasional upon occasion of the calamities of their Captivity in Babylon the Land being laid desolate Jerusalem taken the Temple destroyed Hence they had these Fasts only during the time of their sorrow but they ceased and were turned into rejoycing 3. There was the days of Purim mentioned in Esther 9.21 22. that they kept in the month of Adar on the fourteenth and on the fifteenth day of the month yearly for then it was turned from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day This seems not to be a religious but a political constitution so our Divines conclude against the Papists who plead this for their Popish Holidays For there were peculiar Sacrifices appointed for all the holy Festivals Numb chap. 28 and 29. but there was none for this and there is nothing mentioned but civil rejoycing days of Feasting and Joy and sending portions to the needy ver 22. Of this nature is our fifth of November Not but that there may and ought to be upon such times holy rejoycing in God as upon any providential occasion but there ought not to be a religious abstinence from the works of our Callings as upon the Lords day and upon occasional days of Fasting or Rejoycing that ought not to be on any such days Had they been religious Feasts and days wherein they were bound to abstain from the works of their Callings after the nature of religious Feasts we then are to suppose that Mordecai Nehemiah c. had instruction from God about it else they durst not have done it they that had such Light and Holiness 4. We read of two Feasts more appointed in the time of the Maccabees one for the Dedication of the Altar 1 Maccab. 4.56 so they kept the Dedication of the Altar eight days offered Burnt-offerings with gladness and offered sacrifices of deliverance and praise And the other for the Purification of the Temple 2 Maccab. 1.18 we are now purposed to keep the Purification of the Temple upon the five and twentieth day of the month Chesleu Now if these had been only particular and occasional Feasts these things God had left with the Church to appoint but seeing the Jews say they were yearly Feasts they were thererefore superstitious and unwarrantable things for they had no such extraordinary persons amongst them that could give them authority from God for such a thing Thus we have gone through the first word Feast days their Holy days or Feast days Their holy times we referred to three heads their Holy days New Moons and Sabbaths Now a word concerning their New Moons Let no man judge you in respect of the New Moons 2. New Moons 2. The second word in the Text is New Moons of which we read in Numb 28.11 in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a Burnt-offering unto the Lord c. and Numb 10.10 in the beginnings of your months ye shall blow with the Trumpets over your Burnt-offerings c. To open this a little that so you may understand the mind of the Holy Ghost in it you must observe that their computation of the year was not as ours is meerly Solar but partly Lunar for their month always began with the New Moon and the days remaining to fill up their Solar year which are eleven they were wont to intercalate at the appointment of their High Prests and Rulers at the years end Or as some write after the second or third year in an intercalatory month which they called Veader consisting of eleven or one and twenty or three and thirty days Their month still began with a New Moon and the Lord did appoint that it should be a season religiously observed by them you shall offer such and such Sacrifices ye shall blow with Trumpets c. There were four things observable in the solemnizing the New Moons for they did solemnize this season with such religious Rites and Observations as these 1. A holy Convocation and abstaining from the works and business of their Callings Therefore in Amos 8.5 they are brought in as saying when will the New Moons be gone that we may sell Corn c. 2. By repairing to the Prophets for Teaching and Instruction to inquire of God and to hear his Word 2 Kings 4.23 3. With sounding or blowing of Trumpets every New Moon as well as the New Moon of the seventh month Numb 10.10 4. With peculiar Sacrifices yea a greater number of Sacrifices then on the Sabbath day They had peculiar Sacrifices then to be offered on the first day of the month Numb 28.11 Some add fifthly the keeping solemn Feasts of Love and Amity 1 Sam. 20.5.6 Now this Solemnity doubtless had some Divine mystery in it it aimed at some good thing to come something of Christ in the Gospel for the Text saith expresly they were a shadow of things to come And the Worship of God in Gospel-times is expressed under this phrase Isai 66.23 from one New Moon to another so Ezekiel in his Vision of the Temple-worship under the Gospel speaks of it under the name of New Moons Ezek. 46.1 6. But what then did it signifie what was the meaning of all these things Doubtless they were written for our Instruction there was a Gospel-mystery in these legal Institutions In these things principally lay the substance of these shadows 1. Their acknowledgment of God in the Creature that God must be acknowledged in the renovation of the Creatures in the course of Providence as when the Moon begins increases and is renewed then Gods Providence is acknowledged and taken notice of he renews the course of nature and every mercy we enjoy There is no Light to be seen at first in the Moon but it increases till it come to the full Moon Thus God renews every creature and every comfort in the way of his Providence Psal 104.30 thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth They must not bless God in this Solemnity for the Moon when it was at the full then more of the Creature is seen but when there is least of the Creature then God must be owned even in the least of mercies 2. The Renovation of the Church in a way
must all of them be accounted for unto God one day by you that sat under their Ministry Dr. Winter thought the Joy and Glory of Saints in Heaven receives some addition there as their Works while they were on earth do bring forth fruit here below grounding this his Judgment on Jer. 32.19 and the like Scriptures see his Epistle before Mr. Murcots Sermons And there are that think godly Ministers shall at the day of Christ have the presenting unto him those that have been converted and savingly wrought upon by their Ministry The Apostle Paul seems to have an expectation that he should present the Corinthians unto Christ as a chast Virgin espoused unto the Lord by him 2 Cor. 11.2 and he look'd on the Thessalonians as his Joy and Crown of glorying before God not only in this world 1 Thess 3.9 but also hereafter in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thess 2.19 20. If the affectionate remembrance of your former Teachers which still lives in your hearts and ought so to do shall stir you up to make a fruitful improvement of such monuments of their labours as are yet with you whatever advantage shall accrue to them who are now above a thankless world and cloudy sky certainly you will be gainers unspeakably Those Exhortations of the Apostle do speak unto you Remember those that have had the Rule over you and have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ is the same yesterday to day and for ever He will be the same to you that he hath been to them You have not yet resisted unto blood but how soon you may be called forth unto it is with him in whose hand are all our times The Churches of the Hebrews in Judaea had stood when the Apostle so wrote to them much what about the same time that you have been in the fellowship and order of the Gospel And as they then might and did see a day of National Calamity approaching Heb. 10.25 so may you discern black threatning Prognosticks Wherefore forsake not the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhort incourage one another to it and that so much the more as you see the day approaching lift up the Hands that hang down let the feeble Knees be strengthened and make streight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed Follow Peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled c. For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched ye are not under the old dark legal Dispensation which was full of terror but you are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God you are under a far more glorious Gospel Dispensation and have in these Discourses the Gospel and spiritual Glory of that old Dispensation shining out upon you the veil being taken off from it by the Ministry of this Servant of Christ for your sakes For what your Ministers are they are for you Epaphras was a faithful Minister of Christ for the Church at Coloss This Author was inlightned by Christ for you The influences that the Ministers are the Subjects of are for their people If their Consolation abound thrô Christ it is that they may be able to comfort others with the Comforts wherewith they themselves are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1.4 6. If they be enabled to walk exemplarily in Gospel-simplicity holiness justness and unblamableness through variety of singular and sore tryals it is for your sakes 1 Thess 1.5 with chap. 2.2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10. their Light and Gifts are yours and for you 1 Cor. 3.22 These Sermons in the preaching of them were in a peculiar manner for you so are they now in this making of them yet more publick So are those that now labour among you in the Word and Doctrine your Servants for Christs sake The Blessing of Heaven go along with both this Book and their Labours Amen And let every one also that reads say Amen ERRATA BEsides some literal and lesser faults mispointing omission or redundancy or transposing of a small word using the Italick letter for the Roman a great for a small or vice versa which the Reader who observes will not be stumbled by and therefore it would be needless exactness to give a catalogue of there are these which the Reader may do himself a kindness to correct Two pages misnumbred page 327 is printed 307 and pag. 511 is printed 411. pag. 9. the two last lines instead of Objection that read Objection viz. that p. 32. blot out the last line p. 39. l. 2. of mind r. of his mind p. 43. l. 19 20. Hebr. 5.10 r. 12. p. 120. l. 18. Soul of r. Soul out of p. 201. l. 15. unto r. under p. 280. l. antep Wheat Quemach r. Wheat but Quemach ibid. blot out but ibid. l. ult r. bread-corn p. 308. blot out viz. in l. 10. and put it in l. 11. p. 384. Hamans r. Hemans p. 421 l. penult ye in r. ye do in p. 422. l. 23. to the r. of the p. 432. l. 5. aforesaid r. aforehand p. 433 l. 30. yenury r. penury p. 434. l. 17 blot out in the foundation p. 445. l. 10. inner cap. 8. r. inner Court cap. 8. p. 460. l. 13. perfect r. perfecting p. 479. l. 26. thou shalt r. thou shalt not p. 511. l. 26. ark in which r. ark on which p. 532. l. 21 22. bring Wheat r. bringing the Wheat ibid. blot out ing the p. 445. l. 7. God to get r. God get p. 447. l. 7. indeed that this was r. that this was indeed p. 557. l. 22. saith it r. saith of it p. 566. l. antep on the day r. on the tenth day l. penult the great r. that great p. 572. l. 7. have r. having p. 625. the r. our p. 639. l. 14. Saints are that r. Saints that are ibid. l. 21. indeed r. indowed p. 668. l. antep blot out any Pag. 204. read lin 17. before l. 15. p. 573. read the fifth and sixth lines before the third and fourth The Date of the Sermons omitted in the former part of the Book may be thus supplyed pag. 1. March 23. 1666. p. 27. June 27. 1667. p. 43. July 4. p. 56. July 11. p. 65. July 18 p. 79. July 25. p. 90. Aug. 8. p. 115. Aug. 32 and Septemb. 5. p 123. Sept. 5. THE TYPES OR FIGURES OF THE OLD-TESTAMENT BY WHICH Christ and the Heavenly things of the Gospel were preached and shadowed to the People of God of old Hebrews 4.2 For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in
Sword should never depart from his House Solomon was left to the toleration of the publick exercise of Idolatry for which God rent away the Ten Tribes from his Posterity all which came to pass as for other causes so for the Sins of the People As it said in a lesser transgression of David 2 Sam. 24.1 And the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah 2. The ten Tribes under Jeroboam forsook the Temple and the House of David which though as to Gods Providence it was a righteous Judgment yet on their part it was a grievous sin it was a complicated Sin many Sins involved in the bowels of it for it was both Rebellion and Schism and Heresie Rebellion against their lawful Prince Schism from the true Church and Worship yea fundamental Heresie For as they say Look to thy House O David so in rejecting Davids House they reject the Messiah who was to come of him 2 Chron. 10.16 3. There were continual Backslidings to Idolatry even in Judah as well as Israel yea when they saw the Ten Tribes carried away before their eyes for this Sin yet the other would not take warning and reform Ezek. 23.10 11 Aholah signifies a Tent this was the House of Israel who were a corrupt Church Aholibah signifies my Tent is in her this was Judah which were the true Church of God but they declined and departed from God so far that he sent them away to Babylon 3. And so we come to the third Dispensation under the Law namely the time of their Captivity and Bondage under the Yoke of Babylon There were three Deportations 1. Jehoiakims in whose time Daniel was carried captive 2. Jechoniahs in whose time Ezekiel was carried captive 3. Zedekiahs in whose time Jeremiah was carried captive They had now an experimental knowledg of the truth of all Gods Threatnings Yet during the time of this Affliction the Lord did not cast off his care of them but gave forth many Evidences of his unchangeable Love and Faithfulness toward them under this sad Dispensation 1. In that he did preserve them from utter Destruction yet not leave them altogether unpunished not make a full end of them Jer. 30.10 11. He restrained the Enemy from wholly rooting out the Nation Psal 106.46 gave them Favour in the sight of them that carried them captive 2. In that he did convince them and left an everlasting Conviction in the Heart of that people against the grosser sort of Idolatry such an indelible Conviction as hath never been blotted out to this day Insomuch that their great stumbling Block at this day against the Christian Religion is the Idolatry of the Popish Christians For the poor blind Jews consider the Christian Religion no otherwise but as corrupted with those Antichristian Abominations and Idolatries and therefore their Conversion and Return is not to be expected till Antichrist that great stumbling Block be removed out of the way Yea 3. The Lord gave them further and glorious Discoveries by raising up excellent Prophets to them as Ezekiel Daniel Jeremy some part of his Prophesies were after the beginning of their Captivity and Bondage to the Babylonians This sad afflictive Dispensation continued about seventy years Jer. 29.10 4. The fourth and last of all the Old Testament Dispensations is that of the second Temple from the time of their Return out of Babylon till the Messiahs coming And herein there are these remarkable passages 1. The Lord breaks the Yoke of Babylon that his people might be delivered by the Hand of Cyrus prophesied of by name some hundred years before his Birth Isai 44.28 And as they were carried away at several times so they returned also at several times and by degrees First Zerubbabel Ezra 1. and a great company with him afterwards Ezra Ezr. 7.1 after these things Lastly Nehemiah 2. They built the Temple and the City of God again Ezr. 3. Nehem. 1 and 2. They met with many Difficulties and Obstructions in the Work but yet at last it was done both begun and finished by Zerubbabel Zach. 4. in forty six years Joh. 2.20 Dan. 9.25 seven weeks that is forty nine years viz. from the Edict of Cyrus after which we may well allow one year of preparation for their Journy another year for their Journy and a third year for preparing Materials for the Temple wherein David and Solomon spent so many years And if we deduct three out of forty nine the remainder will be but forty six as Joh. 2.20 It wanted somewhat of its former Glory as to the Structure thereof the old men wept to see how much Zerubbabels Temple fell short of Solomons Temple in Ezr. 3.12 As to the Utensils belonging to it the Ark was wanting with the things contained in it the two Tables of Stone the Rod of Aaron the Pot of Manna also the extraordinary and miraculous tokens of Gods Presence as Fire from Heaven c. The Lord would have them now to be more spiritual to see his Presence by Faith when they could not see it with their eyes Yet Haggai saith it had a greater Glory that is in regard of the Messiahs bodily presence in it which Solomons Temple never had 3. They renewed their Covenant with God Nehem. 9. ult and cap. 10. you have the Articles of this solemn League and Covenant 4. The Lord guides them to the reforming of sundry Corruptions which had crept in amongst them and raiseth them up to an higher pitch of Reformation than ever Gross Idolatry they forsook that for ever of which we spake before The Preaching of the Word was restored and renewed among them Neh. 8 1-8 strengthened by the prophesying of Haggai and Zachary Ezr. 5.1 And the Histories of the Church in those times report also how there was great care to get true and perfect Copies of the Scripture and to review the Copies they had And hither as I suppose belongs that famous work of the Punctation of the Hebrew Consonants Much Dispute there is among learned men about it That it is of a Divine Original and Authority is unquestionable if we do but grant the Divine Authority of the Scripture For otherwise the Sense will be vagus incertus wandring and uncertain Some think it was as ancient as the first Invention of Letters which is referred to Moses But if we suppose that Writing as all other useful Arts are usually was brought to perfection by degrees and that the Consonants might suffice while it was a Mother tongue of so great a People and they in such a flourishing condition not oppressed nor mingled with other People and Languages yet possibly the Points might be added afterwards For when they fell under the Yoke of strangers this help became necessary to be added The Lord therefore did by Ezra and others who were divinely inspired now at least add them For to refer it to an humane Original is to overthrow
out in a new dress given forth in a new manner The Lord adorns his Truths with new Ornaments as it were that men may be excited to Inquiries and Affections suitable Hence in every Age there be in one respect or other new Discoveries or new Dispensations and Dealings of God with his People Or if men be taken with Antiquity 1 Joh. 2.7 I write no new Commandment but an old Commandment for the substance of things The good old way of Faith and Holiness remains which all the Saints of God have gone to Heaven in Heb. 11. he shews the same Race which he sets before them had been run by all the Saints from Abel cap. 12.1 being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses let us run our race that is set before us as if he should say I exhort you to nothing but what all those Saints of old have done before you and yet ver 40. he professeth God hath better things for them an higher and better Dispensation and cap. 12.18 Ye are not come to Mount Sinai but ye are come to Mount Sion ver 22. here he fetches an argument from this variety of Dispensation and from the preheminence of that which they wore under above former times Reas 2. For his own greater Glory And under this head many things come in to be considered This various and gradual Dispensation tends to his greater Glory divers ways 1. That there may be an harmony between this and the other Works of God 2. To shew the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom 4. His absolute Liberty And 5. His peculiar Goodness 1. That there might be an harmony between this and the other Works of God It is so in other works of God as well as in his speaking and revealing of his Mind As in the Creation of the World he could have made it all at once but he chose rather to make it in six days and he made various and several kinds of Creatures Therefore this variety of Administration in the Discoveries of himself and his Gospel is suitable to all the rest of his Works wherein he ever delights with Unity to mix Variety with Identity Diversity and Disagreement in some respects with Consent in other So we see in the outward Lineaments of mens Faces so in the inward abilities and dispositions of their Minds both in the common and saving in natural and spiritual endowments what a wonderful Composition there is and how great variety and so indeed in every Creature and Work of God Though in conclusion Omnia fiunt ab uno ad unum God is the Author and the End of all So in the Church 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. there are diversities of Gifts differences of Administrations diversities of Operations but from the same Author Calv. in loc Symmetria Ecclesiae multiplici ut ita loquar unitate constat the Symmetry of the Church consists as I may so say in a manifold Unity 2. To manifest the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son which appears in this in that it is attended with such a multitude of means of divers kinds for the Dispensation of it That so many ordinances Providences Persons and things in several ages of the World should all be subservient to the Exhibition of this one Mystery of Christ and Redemption by him This shews the Glory of it Col. 1.27 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variegata sapientia It is like a party coloured Garment Ephes 3.10 As in the works of Creation and Providence so it is in the Dispensations of his Grace the Wisdom of God cannot be sufficiently manifested in any one or in a few things or in one manner of working And therefore it refracts it self into many parcels and scatters its Beams every manner of way that all put together may argue unto Man the inexhaustible depth and infinite largeness thereof Hence he hath found out many ways and means to convey the same Grace and every several manner hath some peculiar Beam of Wisdom and Worth in it This great variety and change of his Dispensations was not because in process of time God found out a better way and so relinquish'd the old as in the work of Creation he did not profit by Experience though he made Man last the most perfect Creature last For the Inequalities and Degrees of things came from the Wisdom of God as well as the divers kinds of them and every thing is best in its place and kind and proportion to the whole though not simply and in it self It is best that in a body there should be a Foot as well as an Head though simply and in it self the Head be more excellent The Wisdom of God appears not only in the individual natures of things but in their references and proportions to other things and to the whole whereof they are parts so it is better and the Wisdom of God appears more in that there was both a Legal and a Gospel Dispensation of Christ and his Benefits though the Gospel Dispensation be in it self far the more excellent Therefore this is a third Beam of his Glory that shines forth herein viz. his manifold Wisdom As there is infinite Wisdom in every thing God doth so he would have us see it 4. This variety of Dispensation manifests the Lords absolute Freedom and Liberty and Soveraignty in the use of Means and Instruments that he is not tyed to any of them He can work by little or by great means by few or many He can dispense the same Grace to his Church either in a Family-way or in a Nation or in all Nations For the Church of God was first a Family then in populo Israelitico and now in populo Catholico He can reveal himself either by ordinary or extraordinary persons either in a more immediate way or in a mediate way He hath not limited himself to one way or time or manner of speaking lest we should ascribe the Glory to the Means to the Tools rather than the blessed Workman and Author Therefore he is pleased ever and anon to change the Means to break his Tools as it were and throw them away and make new ones Hence if men begin to think that a Temple at Jerusalem hath any Salvation in it he will burn it up and be worshipped in spirit and truth in every Cottage as Joh. 4. pure Incense every where Mal. 1.11 5. The fifth Beam of Divine Glory that shines forth in this variety of Administration is this the Glory of peculiar Goodness which the Lord will receive by this means from every Saint of his according to his peculiar dealing with him Some will bless him for Multitude and Excellency of Means others will admire his Power and Grace in working by small and weak means some will praise him for one kind of
Providence that ever was excepting that of our Redemption by Jesus Christ Yea so famous was the History of Moses that though it was very antient yet the Heathen Historians and Poets have said something of it And he is thought by some to be their Mercurius Trismegistus of whom they spake out of some broken remembrances and traditions though corrupted with fabulous Inventions intermix'd wherein yet some footsteps of the Truth may be discerned They call their Mercurius Interpres Divum and paint him with a Rod twined with Serpents c. Now that Moses was a Type the Scripture is clear Deut. 18.18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee Heb. 3.2 Jesus Christ who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his House But how or wherein was Moses a Type The Answer is in two respects For Moses may be considered two ways 1. In regard of his Dispensation and so he was a type of the Law 2. In regard of his Person and so he was a Type of Jesus Christ And so we have two things to inquire into 1. What of the Law and 2. What of Jesus Christ was shadowed forth in Moses I shall begin with the lower Notion first 1. Moses was a Type of the Law in regard of the Dispensation wherein the Lord was pleased to use him and to introduce by his Ministry into the Church For as hath been formerly shewed the Types are not always to be restrained only to the Person of Christ But there were legal shadows of all other Truths which are more clearly and fully revealed under the New Testament And so they had their Types and Shadows even of the Covenant of Works as was shewed in Abrahams Wives and Children So likewise Moses his Administration of the Mind of God shadowed forth the same thing Hence the Scripture speaks so much of the Law of Moses under the notion of Works The Law came by Moses Joh. 1.17 that is as contradistinguished unto Gospel Grace and Truth for it follows but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ Not that Moses his Dispensation was indeed a Covenant of Works but a shadow or representation of it For had it been indeed a Covenant of Works it would have been their Duty to seek Salvation by their own Merits but they were saved by Grace as well as we and not by Works they were saved by Faith in Christ and in his Righteousness whereof they had some discoveries they were under a Dispensation of Grace but it was like a Covenant of Works and did very much resemble that legal way in many respects Quest But wherein was the Mosaical Dispensation so like unto the Covenant of Works what of the Law was shadowed forth in Moses Answ Something was hinted as to this in the first Sermon on Heb. 4.2 But now to speak a little further to it 1. In regard of the dreadful Majesty and Terror and Glory of that Administration Herein it was like the old Covenant Heb. 12.18 21. God acts as a Soveraign Lord in the Covenant of Works and appears in the dreadful Glory of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over his Creatures 2. There was a darkness also in that Dispensation Heb. 12.18 Ye are not come unto blackness and darkness and Tempest Hence Moses had a Veil upon his Face Exod. 34.29 30 33. But there was a further mystery in this Veil it signifieth a spiritual Veil a Covering upon the Heart 2 Cor. 3.13.14 a Veil upon their Minds Act. 13.27 the Prophets they understood them not though read every Sabbath day 3. There was a Yoke of Bondage which neither we nor our Fathers saith Peter were able to bear Act. 15.10 so the Law genders unto Bondage Gal. 4.24 25. Such as are under the Law their Spirits are under continual Bondage but the Gospel is spiritual Liberty 4. The abiding Strength and Power of the Law to condemn 1 Cor. 3 the Letter killeth It is the Ministration of Death And as Moses his natural Force was not abated Deut. 34.7 so neither is the Strength of the Law as to its condemning Power over Sinners Hereby the continual force of the Law is signified the Power whereof decayeth not in the Conscience of Sinners by number of Days or mutitude of Works Answorth in lec till God take it away and abolish it by Grace in Christ 5. The Weakness of it to save Moses might not enter into Canaan though he did much desire it see Deut. 32.52 And the Reason alledged is his failing in that one point Numb 20.12 What was Moses his error and mistake at that time There is something of difficulty to discern and make it out Three things the Scripture seemeth to intimate 1. He smote the Rock twice Numb 20.11 when his Instructions were no more but to speak unto it v. 8. 2. Something of inordinate Passion seems to be noted Psal 106. he spake unadvisedly with his Lips v. 33. 3. His Unbelief is expresly taxed because ye believed not my Word Numb 20.12 But what was this Unbelief or how came it to be working in him at this time Some have guessed at it thus This Occurrence fell out eight and thirty years after their first murmuring for Water and their was a new Generation now risen up and they falling into the very same sin and that at the same place upon the Borders of Canaan and upon the same occasion want of Water for which the Lord had rejected and excluded their Fathers Moses was afraid that the Lord would now take advantage against this Generation also as he did against their Ancestors causing them to wander forty years and as indeed he might justly have done against these also But yet Moses should not have given way to such Fears unless the Lord had declared it which as to this Generation he did not But for this one failing Moses could not enter into Canaan So the Law if but one Sin be admitted keeps the Soul of Heaven the Law is strong to condemn and destroy Sinners but it is unable and weak to save them The Law cannot save Rom. 8.3 Yea 6. The abrogation of it through Grace As Moses's Body was buried that it could not be found Deut. 34.6 and Satan would have brought it forth again but Michael opposed him Jud. 9. so he hath buried the Law though Satan would revive it in the Spirits of Men. 7. Moses did prepare the people for Joshuahs Dispensation So the Law prepares and sits the Soul for Christ Gal. 3.24 wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith It doth not put us into Christ but it prepares us for Christ Thus in regard of the Terror of that Dispensation and the Darkness and Bondage of it the Strength to condemn the Impotency of it to bring them into Rest and the Abrogation of it and that nevertheless it did prepare and fit them for it Moses did
a temporal Saviour Christ a spiritual Saviour Author of eternal Redemption Heb. 9. The Analogy appears chiefly in five things 1. Joshuah brought the people into Canaan after Moses his death which Moses could not do being alive He divided the Land among them assigning to every one his Portion So Christ brings us to Heaven which the Law could not do Rom. 8.3 And as Joshuah went in himself before them So Christ to Heaven Joh. 14. I go to prepare a place for you in my Fathers House are many Mansions Heb. 6. ult whither the Forerunner is entred for us And as when Joshuah did this the Cloud and Manna ceased which had been in Moses his time Of the Manna it is expressed and the time when Josh 5.12 of the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that it did cease is evident by many passages afterwards in the sacred History but the time when is not set down Probably it might be after they had passed Jordan being divided by the Ark and were on shoar on the other side So shall Ordinances cease when we come to Heaven Rev. 21. God himself is instead of all 2. Joshuah was a Type of Christ in regard of the Miracles wrought by him we read of three 1. He divided Jordan Josh 3. But herein as in all things Christ hath the preheminence for Christ in the same Jordan divides the Heavens when he was baptized Matth. 3. And he commanded the Winds and Seas and walked upon the waters as upon dry ground 2. Moreover Joshuah threw down the Walls of Jericho by the sounding of Rams Horns a weak and an unlikely means for so great a Work yea ridiculous and contemptible in the eye of Reason Josh 6. but it was done by Faith Heb. 11.30 So Christ by the Foolishness of Preaching subdueth Souls unto himself and throws down strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 5. And as Joshua did it again and again six days seven days before the Walls fell So it is in the preaching of the Gospel There must be Assiduity in that work Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept and at last the strong holds are won and the Sinner subdued unto the Lord. 3. Joshuah commanded the Sun to stand still till he had slain his Enemies Josh 10.12 13 ver 14. and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a Man So Jesus Christ when fighting with Principalities and Powers upon the Cross Matth 27.45 when the Sun was ashamed and the Moon confounded and all the Angels in Heaven stood agast Thus you see how great a Person this Joshuah was in that all the Creatures all the Elements obeyed him the Earth the Walls of Jericho prostrate themselves and fell before him the Waters also viz. in Jordan were at his Command yea the Heavens also the Sun and Moon obeyed him thus God magnified him in the sight of all Israel as it is said Josh 4.14 But behold a greater than Joshuah is here For it is said of Christ That God hath given him a Name above every Name Phil. 2.9 that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth ver 10. 3. Joshuah was a Type of Christ in regard of his Conquests and Victories over his Enemies We read of five Kings at once subdued by him Josh 10. and he bids his Captains tread upon their Necks and cap. 12. of one and thirty Kings which he smote yet notwithstanding there were some few Enemies left though weak and inconsiderable but not one that durst or could oppose or disturb the publick peace of Gods people yet they were left for a time for their good least the wild Beasts should multiply upon them Deut. 7.22 So Christ Jesus is a mighty Conqueror he subdueth all the enemies of his people see him described Rev. 6.1 2. conquering and to conquer not only five nor one and thirty but thousands of them One man was possest with a Legion of Devils but they are all cast forth by Jesus Christ And as Christ so his Followers are as Joshuahs Conquerors with and through him and he gives Believers to tread upon the necks of their own Lusts and of the Devils Temptations yet however there be some Canaanites left in the Land some Corruptions in the Hearts of Gods people in this Life to exercise their Graces and to keep them humble which yet if it be not through their own careless negligence shall not disturb their Peace with God But there were some Enemies that were devoted unto everlasting Ruine and Destruction irrecoverable by Joshuah in the spirit of Prophesie viz. Jericho cap 6.26 which Curse did not fall to the ground but was fulfilled in Hiel the Bethelite 1 King 16.34 a shadow of the irreparable Ruines and everlasting Destruction of all the implacable Enemies of God and his people and especially Rome and Antichrist Rev. 18.21 Babylon shall be cast down like a Milstone into the Sea never to rise more The Curse of Christ will fall upon such as endeavour to restore Rome again and raise up the Ruines that he hath brought upon it For it is devoted by our Lord Jesus the true Joshuah to irreparable everlasting Destruction 4. Though Joshuah conquered and destroyed resisting Enemies yet he saved those who submitted themselves as Rahab and the Gibeonites Rahab cap. 6. the Gibeonites cap. 9. Though they acted very sinfully they came out of slavish fear and they dissembled but yet they did submit themselves So Christ resists the proud but gives Grace to the humble that yield up themselves unto him though there be a mixture of much slavish Fear and sinful Selfishness and Unbelief in their so doing as Mark 9.24 5. Joshuah gave them rest fulfilling and accomplishing all the good promised cap. 21.45 and 23.14 Joshuah appeals to all their Knowledges and Consciences about it So when we come to Heaven we shall see the Truth and Faithfulness of God we shall have all the Promises accomplished through Christ the true Joshuah and be able to say with Joy unspeakable not a word hath failed and all through Christ the true Joshuah For in him all the Promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 and this will be Rest for ever As they had Rest so now Believers enter into an everlasting Rest Heb. 4.9 10 11. But yet withal there is a great disparity between Christ and Joshuah and the Rest they bring their Followers into Joshuah brought them but into a state of outward Rest in the Land of Promise but this was not the true Rest But Christ gives us an higher Rest in Heaven by bringing us into a state of Grace and Glory Thus you see how eminently Joshuah was a Type of Jesus Christ Sept. 12. 1667. Who is the Type or Figure of him that is to come Rom. 5.14 THe second Conglobation of typical Persons under the Law is Sampson David and Solomon three famous Rulers amongst
and Demas for a time 2. Elisha called in the New Testament Elizeus Luk. 4. He was a Type of Christ in three respects 1. In that Elisha in respect of Elijah was as it were a Continuation of the same person For he rose up compleatly in the same Spirit The Prophets discerned it 2 Kings 2.15 the Spirit of Elijah did rest upon Elisha So when Christ departed and ascended up to Heaven he left the Comforter in his stead Joh. 16. and he left the Apostles and Ministers to carry on his Work and poured forth his Spirit upon them for that end Or we may accommodate this with respect to John the Baptist thus As Elisha succeeded Elijah so did Christ come after John the Baptist and so Elisha was in this respect a Type of Christ himself 2. In regard of the remarkable Vengeance and Destruction that came upon his wicked Enemies The Children that mocked him were devoured by two She-Bears 2 Kings 2.23 24. Gehazi his treacherous Servant smitten with Leprosie 2 Kings 5.27 So Despisers of Jesus Christ and the Gospel shall be punished with most remarkable and dreadful Destruction Hear ye Despisers and wonder and perish Acts 13.41 For I work a Work in your days a Work which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you incredible Plagues shall the Despisers and Rejecters of Christ and of the Gospel be punished with And Judas the Traytor his Servant you know what dreadful Destruction came upon him Acts 1.18 his Bowels gushed out through the horror of his Conscience and the Fury of the Almighty rending his very Body in pieces as well as his Soul from his Body 3. In regard of his Miracles He and his Predecessor Elijah were the greatest workers of Miracles except Moses that ever we read of in Scripture or that ever the Lord raised up in his Church For Moses was to be the Founder as it were of that Church-Estate and Worship that was in those days and Elijah and Elisha were the Preservers and Restorers of it in a most degenerate and corrupted Age. The Miracles of Elisha were very great and many they are recorded in the second Book of Kings in the 2 3 4 5 6 and 7th Chapters and one more in chap. 13. They were about one and twenty in all There be three recorded in the second chapter viz. his dividing Jordan with Elijahs Mantle his healing the Waters of Jericho the devouring two and forty scoffing Children of those idolatrous Parents the people at Bethel by two She-Bears In the third Chapter there is another viz. the overflowing of the Wilderness of Edom with Water crp. 3.20 see ver 8. to the Destruction of the Moabites In the fourth Chapter there be five more which are the Analysis and Contents of that Chapter viz. 1. His multiplying the Widows Oyl while she had any empty vessels to fill 2. His giving a Son to that great and good Woman the Shunamite 3. His raising her Son when dead unto life again and this is the second person that ever was raised from the dead 4. His healing the deadly Pottage which had poysoned the Students in the Colledge at Gilgal 5. His feeding of an hundred men with twenty Loaves In the fifth Chapter there be two more the curing of Naamans Leprosie and the smiting of Gehazi with that Disease In the sixth Chapter there be six more 1. His causing Iron to swim 2. His disclosing the secret Counsels of the King of Syria by the Spirit of Prophesie 3. An Army of Angels coming down from Heaven for his defence at Dothan 4. The opening of his Servants Eyes to see them 5. The smiting of the Syrians with Blindness And 6. The opening their Eyes again In the seventh Chapter are three more the hideous which noise was heard and caused such a pannick terror in the Camp of the Syrians that their whole Army fled and the incredible Plenty in Samaria with the Death of that unbelieving Nobleman who had questioned whether God could do it And then lastly cap. 13.21 a dead man is restored to life by touching his Bones And this is the third person that was raised from the dead All these Miracles in general were Presignifications of what the Messiah was to do in that kind and some of them were more particularly fulfilled and answered by the Antitype As that of feeding an hundred men with twenty Loaves You know Christ did that and more feeding five thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes Matth. 14.21 And at another time four thousand with seven Loaves and a few little Fishes Matth. 15.38 His raising the dead to life whereof we have three instances in the Old Testament the Widow of Sarepta her Son the Shunamites Son and the Man buried in Elisha's Grave These were Types and Pledges of what Christ should do in raising the dead As in raising Lazarus Jairus his Daughter the Widows Son of Naim and his own blessed Body out of the Grave and many Saints that arose with him And those which the Apostles raised by his Name And finally the raising all his Elect unto eternal Life and all the Sons of men unto Judgment at the great Day There might also be a spiritual application and accommodation of them as to the quickning of mens Souls the healing of the Diseases of the Soul feeding them with the Bread of Life pouring into empty Vessels empty Souls the Oyl of Gladness the Joys and Graces of his Spirit 3. Jonah him I connect with Elijah and Elisha to make the Type more compleat and full Some have conjectured that Jonah was the Widows Son of Zarephath whom Elijah raised from the dead 1 Kings 17.22 23. but this is but a conjecture without proof it is probable enough he might live about their time or perhaps somewhat after That he was a Type of Christ the Scripture is express Matth. 12.39 No Sign shall be given them but the Sign of the Prophet Jonah You may see how the Type fits the Antitype in four respects 1. In his Death he offered himself willingly unto Death to asswage the Storm Jon. 1. and so he is cast into the Sea and devoured by the Whale So did Christ to appease the Tempest of Gods Wrath. And as upon Jonahs being cast into the Sea the Sea ceased from its raging cap. 1.15 and the Seamen were saved from drowning So upon Christs Death Gods Wrath is pacified and Believers saved from the Wrath to come Jonah had sore conflicts and inward agonies of Spirit when he was under that shadow of death in the Whales Belly cap. 2. So had Christ when he cried My God my God why hast thou forsaken me there were unutterable anguishes in his Soul those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown unconceivable sufferings in his Soul 2. He was a Type of Christ in his Burial For look as Jonah was buried in the Belly of the Whale three days and three nights So was Christ in the Belly of the Earth the
attending this Rule of understanding and of accommodating typical Scriptures both to Type and Antitype not excluding either they being really meant of both and most fully of Christ the Antitype who is the scope and centre of all the Counsels and Dispositions of God Caut. 2. That the Lord in these occasional and extraordinary Dispensations whereof we speak did aim at sundry ends and intended them to be for several uses namely to be not only Types but other ways also to be instructive and useful and herein his infinite Wisdom appears the more in causing so many ends to meet at once and indeed so it is in all the rest of his Dispensations towards his people and in the world and so in the Ordinances we have at this day they do not serve for one use only Quest But what are these ends Answ Not to insist upon the general Ends of all the Types in this sort we are now upon viz. transient and occasional Types there were three great Ends. 1. For their outward and temporal good they had by these things outward supply and deliverance so the passing through the red Sea the Manna the Water out of the Rock were outward Mercies so the Brazen Serpent gave outward and bodily Healing to them beside that spiritual and sacramental use it had to adumbrate Jesus Christ 2. They were Instructions in moral Duties as indeed all Providences are the Lords giving them Water out of the Rock and Bread from Heaven were instructing Providences to depend upon God in straits and to trust in him at all times 3. The third End was the typical Adumbration of Christ and Gospel-mysteries besides all other ends and uses of them besides outward and temporal good and moral Instruction they did by the positive Intention of the Spirit of God point at Christ and lead to him For this the Text is express all these things happened unto them in Types and ver 4. that Rock was Christ Quest How may we judge what providential Dispensations had such a typical respect and use Answ This hath been formerly partly spoken to and this Rule was given that it is not safe for men to form Allegories out of their own Fancies unless it be some way hinted in the Scripture unless it be either expressed or may be gathered from thence by clear consequence as when by comparing the Scriptures a manifest analogy doth appear as clear as the Sun at noon day But for men to set their Fancies a work to extract Allegories out of every Scripture history as the Popish Interpreters use to do is not safe nor becoming a judicious Interpreter Luth. in Gen. 3. fol. 57. Luther called such Allegories Spumam Scripturae they beat the Scriptures into Froth by allegorizing all things Allegorias esse vanas speculationes tanquam spumam sacrae Scripturae And fol. 57 58. Hoc monuisse sit satis ut qui Allegoriis uti vellent iis utantur quas indicarunt Apostoli quae habent fundamentum certum in ipsa litera seu historia alioqui fiet ut aedificemus super fundamentum paleam stipulas non aurum Paraeus Protogom in Gen. in Gal. 4.24 Parce admodum Spiritus sanctus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Holy Ghost is sparing in the business of Allegories He doth not allegorize every Providence but some he doth And so these Providences were also Ordinances God was pleased to superinduce the nature of an Ordinance upon them Quest What were those typical Providences which we call occasional and extraordinary Types Answ They may be referred and distributed into 2 sorts things and actions A distribution that some have made use of in this Subject who have not well known where to place it but this I take to be the proper place of it It is indeed these occasional Types that are best distributed into things and actions 1. As to occasional typical things we may instance in seven particulars and I shall set them down before you according to the order of time wherein the Lord gave them 1. Jacobs Ladder 2. Moses his burning Bush 3. The Pillar of Cloud and Fire 4. Manna or the Bread that came from Heaven 5. The Rock that followed them and Water out of the Rock 6. The The Brazen Serpent And 7. Some have added also those healing Waters of the Pool of Bethesda These were typical things Occasional typical actions are such as their coming out of Egypt passing through the red Sea c. of which afterward We are to speak to these occasional typical things some whereof were given to particular persons as that visional Ladder to Jacob the burning Bush was shewed to Moses others of them were given to the whole people of Israel as the Pillar of Cloud and Fire and all the rest that were enumerated 1. Jacobs Ladder which he saw at Bethel This was but an occasional Type it was no permanent thing The History of it is in Gen. 28 12-16 That it had a typical respect our Saviour himself seems to insinuate Joh. 1. ult It represented Christ as the means of Intercourse between God and Man Yet it was not to speak properly a Type but rather a typical Vision being not a thing actually existent but only in a Vision of the night however because divers that have spoke upon the Types have made mention of it I shall also speak a word to it Yet even this circumstance some have thought of a typical accommodation for it thus That as Jacob saw this Ladder but in a Vision so we see Christ here but in a Glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 till the day-light of Glory in Heaven dawn upon us but then face to face But I shall draw the Parallel only in these five things 1. Here was some dark shadow of the Person Natures and Office of Christ thus In that this Ladder the foot of it stood upon the Earth and the top of it reached up to Heaven whereby Heaven and Earth did meet as it were So Christ in regard of his human Nature toucheth the Earth yet in regard of his Deity he is the God of Heaven And as in this Ladder the top and the foot of it made but one Ladder So both the Natures of Christ are but one Person and by this Union of his two Natures he brings Heaven and Earth together unites God and Man which was the great work for which he came into the world 2. This visional Ladder shews the way to Heaven There is no ascending to Heaven but by the spiritual Ladder Jesus Christ no Salvation but by Christ no comfortable Intercourse and Communion between God and us but only in and through him Men cannot climb to Heaven by their own Works and Merits though they should heap Mountain to Mountain of Duties one upon another yet they would fall short Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved Acts 4.12 3. We have in
And here comes in that Quoere concerning the Peace-Offerings whether they were of the Holy of Holies whether they had the double or only the single Holiness They are not called most holy as the other five sorts are The reason whereof is because that some part of them was eaten by the people but yet a part also was burnt upon the Altar and another part eaten by the Priests and these parts were most holy though the whole was not Therefore some have called the Peace Offering Sacrificium varium a divers Sacrifice as being partly holy and partly most holy And the other sorts they call simplex by a simple Sacrifice intending that which was all of it most holy and the whole was to shadow out the Sacrifice and satisfaction of Jesus Christ so Mede Disc 49. 2. The second Ceremony of the Peace-Offering was the limitation of time for the eating of it The parts belonging to the Priest and to the Offerer must be eaten by them the same day or the next but if any was left till the third day it must be burnt with fire Lev. 7.15 16 17.18 And here there is a distinction in the Rule between the two sorts or occasions of Peace-Offerings namely That if it were for Thanksgiving it must be eaten the same day that it is offered but if it were for a Vow or a voluntary Offering it must be eaten within two days The former Rule is in vers 15. The Rule for the latter is in vers 16. But how if they did not observe this Rule see the penalty in vers 17.18 To eat any of it upon the third day was very detestable and abominable see vers 17 18. It is forbidden under the penalty of utter Extermination There might be something of a natural Reason for this because the flesh might putrefy in that hot Climate if kept longer But surely this is not all that was intended in such a severe and vehement Prohibition Therefore there be also two spiritual Mysteries that seem to be intended and aimed at by the Spirit of God in this Ceremony 1. To teach us that we should make haste and not delay Communion with God in the exercise of Faith and thankful obedience Do not delay and put off the work of Believing but receive Christ and Communicate of him in this our day This Instruction is clear and evident out of this Ceremony for seeing eating signifies our feeding upon Christ by Faith and to day and to morrow denotes a short time therefore this instructs us speedily to lay hold upon the Mercy of God in Christ and to feed upon this our Peace-Offering while it is called to day according to that Psal 95.7 8 Heb. 3.12 13 15. So for other duties of obedience we should not delay the expressions of our joy and thankfulness to God Psal 119.60 I made haste and delayed not to keep thy Commandments They had a like Rule touching the Passover Exod. 12.10 Ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire One scope whereof was to teach us to lay hold on present opportunities Do not protract the time there is a day of Peace after which when once expired it is too late God will not accept thy Peace-Offerings then 2. It is thought to have respect unto Christs Resurrection which was upon the third day therefore he saith Luk. 13.32 Behold I cast out Devils and I do Cures to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected Then he ended his work and state of humiliation for our Redemption and had no more to do in a way of Sacrifice and Peace-Offering for our sins In which respect the number of three was a mystical number under the Law as well as the number seven the Scripture often sets a mark upon it Isaac was offered the third day Gen. 22.4 Against the third day they were to be ready to receive the Law upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.10 11. Sanctify the people to day and to morrow and let them wash their Clothes and be ready against the third day for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai so the Ark went before them three days before it rested Numb 10.33 And they departed from the Mount of the Lord three days journey and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days journey to search out a resting place for them And after three days to pass over Jordan into Canaan Josh 1.11 In the third day the unclean person was to purify himself but if he purify not himself the third day then the seventh day he shall not be clean Numb 19.12 In the third day Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and recovered from the sentence of death 2 King 29.5 Hos 6.2 After two days he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight With many other memorable things all which intimates something of mystery in the third day And the greatest Dispensation that ever was upon that day was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead after he had layn part of three days in the Grave Then he was perfected and had no more to do in way of Sacrifice and satisfaction for our sins as after the third day there was no more of the Peace-Offering remaining 3. A third Ceremony in the Peace-Offering was this That they were to offer leavened bread with it Cap. 7. vers 13. This is the more remarkable for that in all their other Sacrifices Leaven was usually very strictly and severely forbidden but here it is required Here we may learn first That it is not the nature of the thing it self but meerly the will of God that makes a thing good or evil in his worship To put Leaven into any other Offering it makes the Sacrifice odious unto God and like a smoak in his Nostrils all the day but if it please him to require it in the Peace-Offering then it must be used So for Honey he forbids it in other Sacrifices Lev 2.11 But in the First Fruits they were to offer Honey 2 Chron. 31.5 The Children of Israel brought in abundance of the First Fruits of Corn Wine Oyl and Honey and of all the Increase of the Field God herein manifesting his Authority and the supremacy of his Will If it had pleased our Lord Jesus Christ to command us to sign men in his Name with the sign of the Cross it would have been a duty and a blessed thing to do it and if he had not commanded us to wash men with Water in his Name it would have been a sinful and an unlawful Administration to baptize More particularly Leaven is taken both in a good and in a bad sense and I find Interpreters do accommodate and apply it both ways as to the Sacrifice of the Peace Offerings 1. In
of the people It would better become private persons to reflect upon themselves and upon their own sins and their own unworthiness then to work out in discontent against those that God hath set over them 3. The third Law of the Sin-Offering is concerning the blood thereof There is a threefold disposal of it appointed by the Rule in this Chapter vers 5 6 7. 1. The Priest is to dip his finger in the blood and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. 2. He is to put part of it upon the four Horns of the golden Altar of Incense 3. He is to pour out the rest of it at the bottom of the Brazen Altar of Burnt-Offering Of these three Ceremonies a few words 1. The Priest is to dip his finger in the blood and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord that is before the Vail of the Sanctuary towards the Holy of Holies Upon the great day of Expiation he was to sprinkle it within the Vail but because he was not to enter into that Holy place every day but only once a year therefore at other times he did but sprinkle it towards the holy place upon or towards the Vail see Lev. 16.14 But the signification was the same in both It teacheth us three things 1. That there is no entrance into Heaven but by the blood of Christ shed and poured forth and sprinkled and applied effectually For the place within the Vail the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven and the Priest entred there not without blood Heb. 9.11 12 24 25 26. Heaven is a Possession purchased by the blood of Christ Eph. 1.14 Heb. 10.19 20. We enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus We had never come there had not the blood of the Sin Offering been sprinkled there for us 2. There is a full and perfect cleansing in the blood of Christ for he is to sprinkle it seven times Seven is a number of perfection because in seven days the Creation of the world was finished and God rested from his works Hence seven is a mystical number often used in Mysteries throughout the Scripture both in typical and in prophetical places Vid. Aynsw in loc As seven times sprinkling the Leper and seven days for his cleansing Lev. 14.7 9. Seven days for consecrating the Priests Lev. 8.35 For purifying the unclean Lev. 12.2 Numb 19.19 Seven Priests with seven Trumpets blew seven days to the overthrowing of the Walls ef Jericho Josh 6. Every seventh day was a Sabbaoth Every seventh year a year of Rest And seven times seven years brought the Jubilee Lev. 25.3 4 8. In the Book of the Revelation the Lamb that was stain which is Jesus Christ is represented with seven Horns to signify the perfection of his Power and with seven Eyes to shew the perfection of his Wisdom and the seven Spirits of God the Holy Ghost in the perfection of all gifts and graces Rev. 5.6 There be also seven Candlesticks seven Churches And indeed the whole Book doth analyse and divide it self into three sevens seven Seals seven Trumpets and seven Vials The seven Seals holding forth the state of the Church under heathenish persecution with the issue thereof in the three first Centuries The seven Trumpets under Antichrist and other intestine troubles And then finally seven Vials of Wrath for the ruine of Anti-christ and other enemies for the Churches prosperity From all which you see that there is something of mystery in the number of seven And in this Ceremony it teacheth us the full and perfect cleansing and atonement we have in the blood of Christ and that our sins need much cleansing much purgation Heb. 9.13 14. Heb. 10.14 For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 3. We may learn further that sprinkling is significative enough of the spiritual cleansing and perfect virtue that is in the blood of Jesus Christ For the Priest was not to pour out the blood upon the Vail nor to wash the Vail in the blood but only to dip his finger and so to sprinkle the Vail with it Isai 52.15 1 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 12.24 2. Another part of the blood was to be put upon the Horns of the Golden Altar of Incense vers 7. And again vers 18. So in the Sin-Offering upon the great day of Expiation Lev 17.18 19. this was used only in the Sin Offering of Bullocks but in the Sin-Offering of Kids or Lambs it was only poured and sprinkled upon the Brazen-Altar vers 25 30 34. The mystery of this Ceremony was this That Christs Intercession is founded in his own blood and satisfaction For the Incense Altar was a Type of Prayer he prays in the virtue of his own blood and sufferings and by the merit thereof he prevails with God for us And it is upon the same account that our prayers also do prevail and find acceptance with the Lord it is because the Incense Altar is sprinkled with blood We pray in his Name and we desire nothing in our prayers but what he hath deserved and procured by his merits See Rev. 8.3 There was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar And 9.13 I heard a voice from the four Horns of the Golden Altar The Golden Altar is the Altar of Incense a voice is heard from thence as in answer to prayer But did ever any Christian pray for the coming in of the Turks upon the Christian world No but God answers the prayers of his people oftentimes by wonderful and terrible things in Righteousness as Psal 65.5 The most dreadful Revolutions of Providence are in answer to prayer and that which makes prayer so powerful is because the Altar of Incense is sprinkled with the blood of the Sin Offering 3. The rest of the blood was to be poured forth at the bottom of the Altar of Burnt-Offering vers 7 18 25 30 34. This instructs us that Christ was consecrated and dedicated unto God in his own blood The effusion of the blood of Christ as a Sin-Offering to the Justice of God for us for our Salvation for the purchase of the pardon of our sins and the relation of that blood to the Altar of his Deity are here taught But this was opened before when we were upon the Burnt-Offering Cap. 1.5 But consider this as in conjunction with the former the blood was sprinkled both upon the holiest of all and upon the Altar of Incense and now the rest poured forth by the Altar of Burnt-Offering It teacheth us That the blood of Christ hath an influence into all the concernments of our Salvation from first to last Exercise Faith in that blood upon all occasions and for all the concernments of your Souls Would you see your sins forgiven and atonement made See and take notice of that blood in the effusion of it as poured forth at the bottom of the Altar Would you see your prayers accepted
that end 2. The Leper must wash his Cloaths and himself and shave his Hair and then come into the Camp but not yet into his Tent. vers 8. The like Ceremony is required in other Cleansings As at the Consecration of the Levites Numb 8.7 they were to cause a Rasor to pass over all their flesh And Deut. 21.12 Of the Captive Woman it is said she shall shave her head and pare her nails Some allegorize this in a plain and a good way thus That it was a figure of casting away all remainders of malice and filthiness James 1.21 Those excrescencies and superfluities of sinful Corruption it shadows out and teacheth the work of Mortification or paring away of sinful superfluities of Lusts and Corruptions as fast as they grow which we cannot be quite rid of but must be paring and cutting them off continually This Expression is used Isai 7.20 in a metaphorical way to signifie the Lords consuming and weakning their strength for much hair argueth strength of nature Hence in age when there is a decay of strength the hair falls off and baldness comes in stead of hair Therefore in a leprous person it seems to argue strength of the Disease therefore the shaving it off is thought to signifie the cutting off and taking away the strength of the Disease and plague of the heart And as to washing this was often required therefore the Apostle speaks of divers washings Heb. 9.10 And the Holy Ghost refers them to the blood of Christ Rev. 1.5 And they respect also the Spirit of Christ often compared to water Isai 44.3 This is that Fountain set open Zach. 13.1 for the house of Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleanness A sinner must wash and bath himself in this Fountain if ever he will be made clean We read of the washing of Regeneration Titus 3.5 which is an allusion to these Ceremonial washings rather than to Baptism And the Leper was to wash his whole body not some part only because Sanctification is a cleansing of the whole man 1 Thes 5.23 And he must wash his clothes as well as himself To teach us that we must purge our selves from all manner of filthiness and every thing that defileth hating the very garment that is spotted with the flesh Any thing of uncleanness the least degree of it Jude ver 23. hating even the garments spotted by the flesh An amplification saith the Margin taken from the forbidden things in the Old Law that did defile that is all appearances occasions any thing that hath the least touch of sin It is a worse sign of a leprous graceless heart for a man to dally with his lust and to allow himself therein than one particular fall into a grosser act of uncleanness if it be abhorred and repented of Thus the Leper must be washed He and his Clothes and his Hair shorn and yet after all this he is not to return to his Tent. The reason is Lest there should be any thing of infection in his Tent. For the very Houses and Garments sometimes were infected with Leprosie 3. The third Ceremony or his after-duty is this After seven days he must use the same Ceremony of shaving and washing over again ver 9. This plainly teacheth us that cleansing work must be renewed from time to time The mortifying and purging out of Corruption it is a gradual work and a frequent work For the Leper is not made clean at once in the first moment nay after all his former observations he is not perfectly clean though he be begun to be made clean but here are seven days must intervene and then he must wash and shave again So that it is a gradual work We should do so in Spiritual Cleansing especially upon the Sabbath day which is the seventh in this sense that is it is one of seven and it is and should be a day of Spiritual washing and cleansing Thus you have seen the first part of this purifying Sacrifice for the Leper viz The two Birds with the several Ceremonies and Ceremonial actions and performances appertaining to them both to the slain Bird and to the living Bird and to the Leper himself 2. The second part of the purifying Sacrifice appointed for him is that of three Lambs with the Ceremonies thereunto belonging and this is declared at large from ver 10. to 32. of that 14. Chapter of Leviticus The Materials of this are two He Lambs the one for a Burnt-Offering the other for a Trespass Offering and an Ew-Lamb for a Sin Offering and fine Flower for a Meat Offering and a log of Oyl These are the Materials Now what must be done with them The Ceremonies about them are chiefly these three 1. The Sacrifices must be slain and offered according to the manner and institution ver 12 13. But this having been opened formerly we shall not insist upon it 2. The Priest must put some of the blood of them upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed ver 14. and some part on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot You have the like Ceremony Exod. 29.20 injoined in the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons The sprinkling these parts did represent and was instead of sprinkling the whole body The sprinkling of a part of the body was appointed by God as significative of universal cleansing of the whole man Engl. Annot. on Exod. 29.20 Our Annotators have this Note upon it The Ear was to be sanctified for holy hearing and against the hearing of any corrupt communication And the Hand for working and the Foot for walking that his Conversation might be holy and his Person sanctified from head to foot So in Baptism there is no necessity of plunging the whole body in water but the sprinkling of it on the Forehead may suffice to signifie the mystical meaning intended by it where by a Sacramental Synechdoche though but a part be sprinkled the whole is washed and cleansed This is the second Ceremony some of the blood in these Sacrifices of the three Lambs must be put upon the Leper The 3d. is That the Priest is to take the Oyl and sprinkle part of it before the Lord and with part to anoint the Leper his Ear Thumb and Foot in the place where he had put the blood before and pour the rest upon his head ver 15 16 17 18. This mystical Oyl whereof they had such continual use under the Law we have often heard that it typifies the Holy Ghost and therefore the Son of God is said to be anointed with the Spirit Isai 61.1 And Act. 10.38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power Therefore the putting of the Oyl upon these parts signifies the saving Graces of the Spirit of Christ whereby they are cleansed and sanctified and comforted who have been justified and reconciled by his blood As to the putting it upon
the matter to this head of the Jewish Festivals subjoined as an Appendix those two Discourses as they were found amongst the Authors Papers Farewell THE GOSPEL of the JEWISH FESTIVALS Jan. 14 17. 1668. Coloss 2.16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Obs 1. THat the Jewish Holy days were of three sorts and may be referred to three Heads Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths 2. That these were Shadows of things to come but the Body or Substance is of Christ 3. That therefore Christians should not suffer any man to condemn them for their not observing of these Days I shall handle the two first together in one shewing under each of these legal Holy days what the substance and thing signified was what of Christ was signified and shadowed forth by them Obs 1. That the Jewish Holy days were of three sorts and may be referred to three heads viz. Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths This Distribution of them doth frequently occur in the Scripture in other places as well as in this Text 2 Chron. 2.4 I build an House saith Solomon for the Burnt-offerings on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons and on the solemn Feasts of the Lord our God Ezek. 45.17 And it shall be the Princes part to give Burnt-offerings c. in the Feasts and in the New Moons and in the Sabbaths even in all the solemnities of the House of Israel that is in their appointed or solemn Assemblies Where Solemnities or solemn Assemblies is the general and this Genus is distributed into three particulars Feasts New Moons and Sabbaths so likewise Hos 2.11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease her Feast-days her New Moons and her Sabbaths even every holy Assembly of hers The first word is Feasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew moyed set times because they came at set times of the year This is meant of their annual Festivals which were in number five The three principal were the Feast of the Passover the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles which continued the two former each of them seven days the last for eight days together and the first day and the last day of them were holy Convocations wherein they were to do no servile work but to be wholly vacant for the Word and Worship of God The first mention of them is in Exod. 23 14-17 They are more largely spoken to in the 23. chap. of Leviticus and again in Deut. 16. and briefly recapitulated and summed up in ver 16. These were the principal because then all the males were to go up to Jerusalem and therefore these three are so often mentioned together There were also two more the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Expiation There are five general Rules observable concerning all these yearly Feasts 1. That they were all to be celebrated at the place the Lord their God should choose which was Jerusalem Exod. 23.14 Deut. 16.16 That which we are to learn therein is this that there is a Church-worship There are some Ordinances of Gods Worship which are not to be enjoyed but in Church-society As there is a personal and family-worship so there is publick or Church-worship of this kind is the Lords Supper If this be not an Ordinance of publick Worship under the Gospel there is none therefore to carry it to private persons upon their death-beds as the Papists doe is unwarrantable and superstitious 2. It is to be observed that they were all in the Summer time and not in Winter for the Passover was upon the fourteenth day of the first month Pentecost was seven weeks after and the Feast of Tabernacles was upon the fifteenth day of the seventh month Hence is that expression Acts. 27.9 Sailing is now dangerous because the Feast was now already past that is the Feast of Tabernacles The Instruction we are here to learn is this namely to see the tenderness of God towards his people even as to the outward man As he will have Mercy rather then Sacrifice so he orders the matters of Sacrifice and Worship with tenderness and mercy even to the bodies of his people yea the Spirit of God vouchsafes to dwell in their very Bodies as well as in their Souls and he preserves the dust thereof as precious reliques in the treasures of his Providence and will gather those dispersed atoms and bring them forth again and raise them up to everlasting life How great is his Goodness to us It shews there is a Duty incumbent upon us in reference to our Bodies and how great a sin it is in men to wrong and hurt their bodies when the Lord himself is tender of them 3. They were not to come empty handed Exod. 23. Deut. 16.16 17. true Religion is bountiful Duties of Worship are to be accompanied with duties of mercy and bounty so upon the Christian Sabbath there should be Collections for the poor 1 Cor. 16.2 Hypocrisie divides these it is willing to serve God but in the cheapest way hypocrites are all for a cheap Religion 4. Whereas there was danger of Invasion by their Enemies when all the Males were absent the Lord secures them by a promise of special Protection Exod. 34.24 Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year Learn here that while we are in our Duty God will take care of our Safety the way of Duty is the way of Safety When the Church of the Jews was gone from God and had crucified the Lord of Life this protecting Providence forsook them For at the Passover it was that the Romans took and destroyed Jerusalem This Ordinance which was at first and ever after a means of safety to them the Lord now makes it a snare to bring them all together as it were into a pound that the Romans might take them and cut them off But while they abode with God in purity of Worship and Obedience he abode with them in his protecting Providence This should be a great encouragement to us in the Work and Worship of God to run all hazards and to fear no colours but be resolute in the discarge and performance of Duty The Lord is with us in such a case and then who can be against us 5. These Feasts as to their end and use were both commemorative of former Benefits and also prefigurative of future It may be said so of other holy times and holy things also but it holds eminently true concerning these three solemn anniversary Feasts The first of these yearly Feasts was the Passover which began upon the fifteenth day of the first month answering chiefly to our March The first Institution of it is in the 12th chap. of Exodus There were three things which were the peculiar observations of this
of Grace as well as the Creature in the way of Providence we must own God in that and depend on him for it for the Church is compared in Scripture to the Moon Psal 89.37 it shall be established for ever as the Moon and as a faithful Witness in Heaven Cant. 6.9 Who is this that looketh forth fair as the Moon c. As the Moon borrows her Light from the Sun so the Church borrows her Light from Jesus Christ who is the Sun of Righteousness As the Church is compared to the Moon so Christ to the Sun for so he is called Mal. 4.2 but to you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings The Church borrows her Light from Christ the Sun of Righteousness as the Moon doth from the Sun in the Firmament for Christ is compared to the Sun as well as the Church to the Moon As the Moon borrows her Light and Lustre from the Sun and is renewed by the aspects and influences thereof so the Church by influences from Christ who is indeed the Sun of Righteousness renewing the state of the Church especially under the Gospel And therefore all those Duties which were to be performed on the New Moons so far as they are perpetual ought to be more plentifully and more abundantly performed under the Gospel as abstaining from servile works from sin the worst of servitudes seeking instruction and attending upon the Ordinances for that end the sounding of the silver Trumpet of the Gospel abounding in spiritual Sacrifices and agreeing in love and amity eating their Bread in singleness of heart 3. Here seemeth to be likewise some intimation of that great mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ I mean his Conception of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary For this aimed at Christ as all the other Ceremonies of the Law and holy times and seasons did And some have gone about to make it out thus That look as Christ fulfilled other great Types and Ceremonies of the Law in other things so he did in this As the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to the time of his Birth on the fifteenth day of the seventh month so if from thence we reckon thirty eight weeks backward it will carry us to the change of the Moon at which time is a great conjunction or union of those two great Luminaries the Sun the Moon Here they think may be some dark and weak shadow of the conjunction or union of the two Natures of Christ in one person when he became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he did as in the whole state of his Humiliation so especially when he was conceived in the Virgins womb 4. The New Moon is put for every thing beneath Christ Rev. 12.1 the world which in respect of the changeableness of it is like the Moon the world and the glory thereof passeth away never standing at the same stay This should be frequently upon our hearts and thoughts 5. They were to observe the first day of the month not the fifth or sixth day so also their morning Sacrifice was to be offered early in the morning and the Passover celebrated the first month in the year To teach them that as ever they expected the Blessing of God upon the rest of their time they must be careful to set apart the first and best of all their days and hours unto his service 6. They were to observe the first day of every month one as well as another which checks that superstitious conceit as if there were lucky and unlucky times whereas God hath sanctified every month and every time to his people as on the contrary to the wicked the most lucky times prove disastrous as among the Papists that famous year 1588. crowned with so many Astrological Praedictions of ensuing happiness and Victory proved quite contrary to their expectations so that Fulke Pref. Rhem. Test saith it Octogesimus Octavus mirabilis annus Clade Papistarum faustus ubique piis No month to a godly man is of it self evil but let a wicked Haman cast lots from the beginning of the year to the ending he shall find no month good So much for the mystery of their New Moons the second sort of their holy times the first was their annual Feasts the second their New Moons the third is their Sabbaths 3. Sabbaths Let no man judge you in respect of the Sabbath A word to that and so we shall finish the Text at this time This is the third sort of holy times and seasons under the Law The general notion of a Sabbath is a time of Rest They had three sorts of Sabbaths their weekly Sabbath every seventh day their yearly Sabbath every seventh year and their great sabbatical year reckoning seven times seven years which was their Jubilee every fiftieth year In every one of which was something of a shadow of things to come the Apostle is express these things are a shadow of things to come Quest Wherein Answ 1. The Sabbath of the seventh day their weekly Sabbath on the seventh day of the week this was partly moral and perpetual considered as a seventh part of weekly time sanctified and set apart by God from common use for man to rest from the works of his weekly Calling in imitation of God and in remembrance of the great work of the Creation of the world But though the Sabbath be partly moral and it must needs be so seeing it is one of the Ten Commandments otherwise there would be but nine moral Commands and the original ground of a Sabbath is not a ceremonial Institution nor the sin and fall of man but a particular Calling and therefore Adam in his innocent and sinless estate needed a Sabbath and God sanctified this day before the fall of man Gen. 2.1 2 3. but yet the Jewish Sabbath was in some respects Ceremonial and therefore it is abrogated and the Christian Sabbath substituted in stead thereof and therefore the Holy Ghost here in the Text reckons the Jewish Sabbaths in the same rank with their New Moons and yearly Festivals amongst the shadows of good things to come for it had some typical respects and uses some ceremonial Rites and Observations annexed to it I shall instance in two things wherein it is typical 1. For the Commemoration of their typical Redemption and Deliverance out of Egypt Therefore though the fourth Commandment as it is recorded in Exod. chap. 20. is grounded upon the Labour of a particular Calling and upon Gods resting from the work of Creation upon the seventh day which are moral grounds yet in the fourth Commandment as it is repeated Deut. 5. one of those moral considerations is omitted viz. the work of Creation and there is a typical consideration substituted in stead thereof viz. their Deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5.15 2. As there was in the Jewish Sabbath a Commemoration of that typical Redemption out of Egypt so secondly it was a typical
Prefiguration of the Rest of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Grave that whole day which was indeed the only whole day of his resting or cessation from the actions of a bodily life For he was in the Grave only some small part of the sixth day and of the first day but he rested the whole Jewish Sabbath So then as they had other legal days and times that pointed them to other things about the Messiah so the Sabbath points to his resting in the Grave And he did not only rest in the humbling of himself under the guilt of our Sins but in his Resurrection from the dead The day of his Resurrection was the day of his entring into his state of rest from his Sufferings but on the Sabbath he rested from the actions of his bodily life therefore the seventh day Sabbath is abrogated and the Lord hath substituted the first day of the week for the Sabbath is moral And there is a ground too for the changing of the day that there should be one day in seven to attend on the Worship of God this is moral and perpetual that it should be the last day in seven this is by Gods Institution made legal and typical Christ entred into his rest of Glory into the state thereof at his Resurrection and into the place thereof when he ascended into Heaven but his resting in the grave was on the seventh day From all which you may see the morality of the Sabbath considered as in general together with the shadowy nature of the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day having these typical respects relations annexed to it and so therein you see the grounds of the abrogation of it and of the substitution of the Christian Sabbath instead therereof And so much may serve for the typical respects and use of the Jewish Sabbath Now as for the Rites and Observations thereof 1. There were more Sacrifices that day then upon other days Numb 28.9 10. The reason was because there were more Mercies given and commemorated that day as the Creation their Deliverance out of Egypt and their Sanctification by the Spirit It shall be a sign between me and them that they might know that I Jehovah do sanctifie them Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 20. Here learn that the more Blessings God gives to any people the greater thankfulness he expects again It reacheth also that special Holiness that should be upon the Sabbath more exercise of Grace and duties of Worship to be performed upon that day then ordinarily upon any other day there should be that among us on the Christian Sabbath that should answer their double Sacrifice upon their Jewish Sabbath But in Ezek. 46.45 there is appointed for the Sabbath six Lambs for one under the Law to teach us that there should be more Holiness now under the Gospel then there was under the Law 2. They might not kindle a fire on that day Exod. 35.3 as some think to put them in mind of their absolute freedom from their Egyptian Bondage and the fiery brick-Brick-works there or from the fire of Gods Wrath in the world to come when entred into that none of these fires should ever be kindled upon them or hurt them though others think that restraint respected only kindling a fire for the building of the Tabernacle nor is it unlikely 3. They were to abstain from building the Tabernacle that day Exod. 31.12 13 14 15 16 17. and 35.2 to teach them that the six days that is the time of this life is the only time wherein God will build the Tabernacle of his Church this life is the only day of Grace and opportunity of Salvation 4. They might not gather Manna on that day Exod. 16. In this life Christ is offered but in the Sabbath of eternity no Manna no means of Grace no offers of Christ then none could have Manna upon the Sabbath but they that had stored it up upon the week day so none can have Christ in Heaven but they that have stored him up in their hearts on earth These things shew the rigor of the Law as to Sabbath-rest but the Pharisees being deeply possest with the spirit of the Law did strain it a peg or two higher that to do a miraculous work of mercy or works of necessity was unlawful 2. They had also a Sabbatical year viz. every seventh year a Sabbath of the seventh year every seventh year was a Sabbatical year as every seventh day was a Sabbatical day Exod. 23.10 Deut. 15.9 This was celebrated by letting the Land rest from its usual culture and husbandry Levit. 25.4 5. Some alledge a political and philosophical reason for this that the Land by resting one year might be the more fruitful the other six quod caret alternâ requie durabile non est This Sabbatical year was celebrated by giving rest unto the Land from tillage and manuring the hungry ground This was a shadow of things to come this signifies something of Christ and Gospel mystery in which observe four things There was a fourfold Instruction in this Sabbatical year 1. This Sabbatical year told them plainly that both they and their Land was the Lords Lev. 25.23 For the Land is mine 2. This taught them to depend upon Providence without worldly care and trusting to the Creature for supply and support For they must not now sow nor till the Land this year for the sixth year was to bring forth the Fruit of three years both for the seventh year and for the eighth and for the ninth till the Harvest time See Lev. 25.20 21 22. and ver 6. the Sabbath of the Land shall be meat for thee The Land of its own accord that year was to produce sustenance enough both for man and beast It is not enough for us to depend on the ordinary course of means God can over-rule them and over-work them as he doth here 3. The Lord hereby teacheth them and us that great Gospel-lesson and duty of mercy and bounty to the poor Exod. 23.10 11. the Land must rest that the poor may eat and Deut. 15.1 2. Creditors must release their Debtors every seventh year Lev. 25.5 6. there is an Equity a Chancery a bountiful condescension to the necessities of the poor that men exact not their own right in all things but rather remit and abate something thereof Not but that men may take their course and use means to get it especially when persons are able and wilful but in case of poverty there should be mercy shewed in such a case 4. This Sabbatical year was a special season and time of instruction in the Law of God Deut. 31.10 11 12. the Lord would have them instructed and taught to know his Mind and the true Religion and the ways of his Worship Therefore he appointed so many times and seasons for it weekly and monthly and yearly and moreover one year in seven as you see Beside the mystery of spiritual rest by Christ of which further in
the next particular viz. 3. The Jubile There was also a third Sabbath beside the weekly Sabbath and the seventh year Sabbath they had likewise a Sabbath of seven times seven that is the Jubile This was their great Sabbatical year for they were to reckon seven times seven years and then to observe a Sabbatical year Lev. 25.9 This also was a Type of Christ as appears in three things that were done in this year of Jubile 1. There was Redemption and Release every one set at liberty every bondage released and every yoke broken Here is a shadow of the spiritual and true Redemption by Jesus Christ who of spiritual slaves by nature makes us the Lords Freemen by Grace Christ hath proclaimed Redemption to sinners and Deliverance to poor captive souls Isai 61.1 2. There was the Trumpet of the Jubile to proclaim it The Gospel is this great Trumpet the proclaiming of the Jubile is alluded to Isai 61.1 2 Isai 27. ult in that day the great Trumpet shall be blown The great Trumpet is the Gospel Calv. in loc 3. Some have observed further that the coming of Christ was at the Jubile that Christ came at the time of the Jubile I know there is some difference amongst Chronologers about it but sure it is it fell thereabout some placing the Jubile upon the preaching of John Baptist who did proclaim the Lords coming but others place it as seemeth more exactly upon the very year of Christs Death by which we were redeemed and set free indeed They began the account of their Jubiles from about anno mundi 2560. for they came out of Egypt about the year 2513. they were forty years in the Wilderness six or seven in conquering and dividing the Land of Canaan Then began their first Sabbatical year from thence to the Death of Christ there were eight and twenty Jubiles his Death being about the year of the world 3960. So you see something of the Gospel-mystery of these Sabbaths of the Jews the three sorts of Sabbaths every week every seventh year and every fiftieth year and thus also you see how these legal holy times and seasons were all shadows of good things to come Take some general Uses from the whole Vse 1. See and remember the unlawfulness and unwarrantableness of the Observation of these Jewish times and seasons under the Gospel for they were typical Amos 5.21 The Papists observe the Passover which they call Easter Pentecost commonly called Whitsuntide and instead of the Feast of Tabernacles they keep the five and twentieth of December for the time of Christs Birth all which we retain And they have also added a Jubile which because it is a profitable time to the Popes Purse he hath ordered it to be kept every five and twenty years instead of fifty These are Errors of dangerous consequence for they do implicitly deny that the Substance is come If these things were shadows of things to come the retaining of them now is an error of dangerous consequence For to retain any of these dark and legal shadows is an implicit denial that Christ the substance is come These things were more fully spoken to the last time Vse 2. See and observe the burthensomness of that old legal Dispensation as also our Christian liberty now under the Gospel The Lord requires no day of us but the Lords day and occasional days of Humiliation or of Thanksgiving upon emergencies of Providence calling thereunto Stand fast therefore in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free Gal. 5.1 and be not again intangled in the yoke of bondage Vse 3. And lastly see wat clear and plentiful evidence the Jews had concerning Jesus Christ that he was the true Messiah and how true this of the Apostle in the Text is that they are a shadow of things to come Put all these things together and you will see these Jewish days made up a rude draught or dark shadow of the good things that were to come under the Gospel in sundry particulars relating to the Body which is of Christ As for instance they lead to the time of his Conception by the Holy Ghost on the first day of the month To the time of his Birth and Nativity being born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and circumcised the eighth He suffered at the time of the Passover He lay and rested in the Grave on the Jewish Sabbath He poured forth his Spirit at their Feast of Pentecost The Jews might have found the Body by these shadows had they been attentive to mind the things belonging to their peace they might have thought when they saw such a conjunction surely this is he that comes speedily to redeem Israel And you though you have a conviction of the truth of the Gospel yet get a further and fuller conviction of it from this that Jesus Christ was so plainly shadowed forth to us by all these ancient Dispensations THE GOSPEL of the GREAT DAY of ATONEMENT Levit. 16. the whole Chapter Jan. 24 28. 1668. THis Chapter is wholy taken up in declaring the Feast of Expiation or Atonement upon the tenth day of the seventh month It is more properly and indeed a Fast but yet commonly called a Feast as taking the word in a more lax acceptation for any set or solemn time And though it was indeed a day of afflicting their Souls yet there was joy in the end of it for their peace was made with God and the Jubile proclaimed this day It was with all the Services and Administrations of it the most full and compleat shadow of the great work of our Redemption that we meet with under the Law the High Priest representing in all he did that which Jesus Christ the true High Priest was to do indeed in the fulness of time I shall endeavour to explain it a little to you as God shall enable me following the method of this Chapter and so you will be able to read it more understandingly and with edification Wherein the first thing that doth occur is the occasion of the Institution ver 1. viz. the Death of the two Sons of Aaron when they offered before the Lord and died which Story is recorded Lev. 10.1 2. Some add that Man fell upon this day but this is not likely It seems more probable from all the circumstances of the Story that he fell upon the seventh day For that he was not fallen upon the sixth day appears by this that in the close of the sixth day God approves all his Creatures that they were good Gen. 1. ult therefore sin had not yet spoiled them And if he had stood out the whole Sabbath day it is probable he had been confirmed by eating of the Tree of Life For it is probable that upon the Sabbath he should have enjoyed all the Ordinances of God and consequently that the Sacrament of that estate should have been the concluding Ordinance as under the New Testament they were wont to
former Rest being disturbed and spoiled by the Fall and Sin of Man is our Christian Sabbath But these Popish Holy days are not the Lords resting days nor is any such thing pretended 4. They commonly put it upon the Church and say the Church hath set apart these times but this is not enough to make them holy for all that the Church can do towards the sanctifying of any time or thing is only to present it and offer it to the Lord but if the Lord do not accept them but refuse such Presents and cast them down as dung in their faces they are not Holiness to the Lord but an abomination to him As suppose the Church of the Jews had offered Swines flesh unto God would this have made Swines Flesh holy no verily because the Lord not did not accept it So here the Church dedicates these days to the Lord but there must be some Word of God to evidence his acceptance of them or else they are not indeed holy times but superstitious times of which the Lord will say at the great day who required these things at your hands whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Isai 1.12 Rom. 14.23 Reason 2. There is not only no warrant in the Scripture for them but clear and sharp reproofs and testimonies against them It was one part of the Superstition of the Pharisees in our Saviours time to fast twice a week Luke 18.12 Those old Papists the Pharisees and our new Pharisees the Papists being men of the same Spirit and acted by the same Principle and walking in the same ways of Superstition And it was the brand set upon Jeroboam 1 Kings 12.33 that he ordained a Feast unto the Children of Israel upon the fifteenth day of the eighth month even the month which he had devised of his own heart which he had lyed or feigned as the word signifies asher bada millibbo quem mentitus est de corde suo And though it was like unto the Feast that was in Judah v. 32. and though he pretended the Glory and Worship of that God that brought them up out of the Land of Egypt as well as the ease and accommodation of the People v. 28. yet all this would not excuse him And what is Christmas and Easter and all the rest of them but days which the Jeroboam of Rome hath devised of his own heart And the Pope had them from the Jews and from the Pagans for what is Christmas but the old heathenish Bacchanalia It is kept at the same time of the year and after the same profane manner only the Pope hath varnished it with a new name But how ill it becomes a Christian to keep the Pagan Festivals hear what Tertullian de Idol cap. 14. saith Nobis saith he quibus Sabbata extranea sunt neomenia feriae aliquando à Deo dilectae Saturnalia Januariae Brumae matronales frequentantur munera commeant strenae consonant lusus convivia constrepunt and is not this as lively a description of Christmas as if it had been purposely intended for it but thus he inveighs against them O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam solennitatem Christianorum sibi vendicat non Dominicum diem non Pentecosten etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicâssent timerent enim ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronunciemur non veremur We that do not own nor observe the New Moons and other Jewish Festivals appointed of old by God himself do we keep the Heathenish Bacchanalia and other Winter and Summer Feasts of theirs feasting and revelling and making merry as the Heathens do O how much more true are they to their Religion then we to ours For they do not observe any day that Christians observe as Pentecost or the Lords day for they would be afraid lest they should seem to bee Christians in so doing but we are not afraid lest we be pronounced to be Heathens Thus he It is true he alloweth Pentecost as a Feast observed by Christians in those times but how this can be defended and all the rest of the Jewish Feasts cashiered let the Christian Reader judge The Apostle makes no difference but condemns the observation of all the Jewish Festivals alike one as much another Col. 2.16 Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come Judicare hic significat culpae reum facere vel Religionem injicere ita ut amplius liberi non simus saith Calvin in Col. 2.16 Such weak and rudimentary Instructions were fit for those darker and weaker times of the Churches nonage when under the Tutorage and Pedagogy of Moses before the coming of Christ But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye back to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain Gal. 4.9 10 11. It is a sign the preaching of the Gospel hath had but small success in such a place and in the hearts of such a people And whereas it is objected both by Papists and Prelates that the Apostle speaks here only against the Jewish Festivals loqui ibi Apostolorum de Judaeorum tantum festis so Bellarmine de Cultu Sanct. c. 10. the Rhemists Annot. in Gal. 4.10 and Bishop Lindsey Perth Ass part 3. pag. 43. This will not take off the force of these Texts For 1. The Armory of Christians against Heresies and Errors should be quickly empty i◠the Weapons which are hung up in the Scriptures should serve only for the persons places and times wherein and against which they were used of the Prophets and Apostles and therefore your shift that the Apostle speaks only against the Jewish Feasts and Fasts is vain saith Mr. Cartwright in Col. 2.16 2. Some of the Popish Feasts are originally Jewish yea which is worse Paganish 3. These Texts do condemn the Popish Feasts as much and in some respects more then the Jewish as Hospinian observes against Bellarmine and Mr. Cartwright in Gal. 4.10 and in Rom. 14.5 gives the same answer to the Rhemists If Paul saith he condemn the Galatians for observing the Feasts which God himself instituted and that for his own Honour only and not for the Honour of any Creature the Papists are much more laid open to this Condemnation which press the Observation of Feasts of Mens devising and to the Honour of Men. For do you think it likely that God should by Christ discharge his people of the yoke of the Law of Moses to bring in another yoke of Mans Ordinances and is there any likelihood that he should abrogate the Festival days consecrated to himself and to his own Majesty to bring in those that are consecrated and set apart to
Easter hath been And as for Christmas it hath been clearly evinced by many learned men that there is a wide mistake in the common account which placeth the Birth of Christ upon the five and twentieth of December Mr. Allin Chain of Scripture Chronology Period 7. Num. 60. pag. 233. gives these Reasons against it 1. Because it is not probable that the Shepherds were abroad all night long keeping of their Flocks in the very deep of Winter Luke 2.8 2. Neither is it like that Augustus would by his Decree enjoin all his Subjects to travel at that time of the year to their chief City to be taxed Luk. 2.1 Nor 3. is it probable that John did go into the River Jordan with the People that were baptized of him in the very coldest part of the year for he baptized in Jordan when Jesus was entring upon his thirtieth year Luke 3.23 It is therefore much more probable that the Birth of Christ was in the month of September So Scaliger de Emend tempor conceives for which he reasons from the Conception of John the Baptist And Mr. Allin also is of the same Judgment which he gathers from the half week which the Angel Dan. 9.27 seems to hold out to be between the Baptism of Christ and his Death for if there was just so much between them his Death being just at the Passover which was about the end of our first month called March then his Baptism must needs be about the latter end of September Thus Mr. Allen ubi supra Which argument indeed to me is very satisfying being grounded upon such clear Testimonies of Scripture For that Christ was baptized and entred upon his Ministry at thirty years old we find recorded Luke 3.23 and that he preached three years and an half besides other arguments may be gathered from that in Dan. 9.27 in the midst of the week shall the Messiah be cut off which is meant of a Prophetical week containing seven years therefore there must be half a week that is half a year above the three and thirtieth whereas the common account makes but a quarter of a year between the Nativity and Easter Of which much more might be said but this is enough to shew that the Festivals are grounded upon a very mistaken and uncertain foundation which is a further evidence that they are not of God Reason 5. It is a great infringement of our Christian Liberty when God hath given us six days wherein to serve him in our Callings Six days shalt thou labour for men to contradict the Lord and say thou shalt not labour six days Why may they not as well controll the other part of the Command and say thou shalt not rest upon the Sabbath day For as Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 152. hath well observed If the Church may restrain the Liberty that God hath given us it may take away the yoke also that God hath put upon us But as it is profaneness to call that common which God hath sanctified and made holy so on the other side it is tyrannical Superstition and Presumption to make that holy which God hath made common And this is one of the Apostles arguments in this very case Col. 2.16 20. Let no man judge you in respect of an Holy day if you be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to Ordinances so likewise Gal. 4.9 10. ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days and months and times and years Si quisquam mortalium saith Calvin in Col. 2.17 judicis officium hâc in parte sibi usurpet ne obsequamur quum Christus legitimus Judex nos absolvat It tendeth to no good policy nor wealth of the people or preservation of good order that there should be so many days wherein men should cease from work being a thing that breedeth idleness and consequently poverty besides other disorders and vices which always go in company with idleness saith Mr. Cartwright First Reply p. 155. And upon this account King Henry the Eighth did abrogate sundry of them as Mr. Fox sheweth in the Book of Martyrs Act Mon. vol. 2. p. 386. Obj. But then days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving as also week-day Sermons and Lectures are unlawful Answ It followeth not for there is clear Scripture ground and Warrant for occasional days of Humiliation or Thanksgiving when there is any present emergency of Providence calling thereunto For Jehosophat proclaimed a Fast 2 Chron. 20.3 so did the King of Nineveh Jonah 3.7 Joel 1.14 and 2.15 From whence some have not unaptly said that God hath left as it were a Warrant dormant with the Magistrate and with the Church for such days neither indeed could all the particular causes and occasions and times thereof be particularly set down in the Scripture because they are infinite And Christ allows also private Fasts Matth. 6.17 18. and so the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.5 but there is no colourable consequence from such occasional days to these annual stated Popish Festivals for which we have neither a general Warrant in the Scripture nor a particular Call of Providence And as for week-day Lectures they are most impertinently objected seeing as some have well observed Re-exam Art of Perth pag. 144. These are not hours sanctified or consecrated to Gods Service but only the most convenient times when most may resort to the hearing of Sermons so that time is only designed occasionally not dedicate or sanctified Time is made to serve Gods People and not Gods People made to serve the Time or to serve God because it is an holy time Ministers do not then preach with any respect at all to the time as more holy then other times that were superstitious The work is not done for the times sake but the time appointed for the works sake They do not preach with respect to any supposed holiness of the time but appoint the time so as may be most convenient for doing the work Obj. 2. Some object the days of Purim which were anniversary Festivals Esth 9. Ans This hath been 700 years since objected by Papists unto the Waldenses as Amesius Fresh Suit part 2. p. 315. observes and since by all Papists that have written against Protestants about Ceremonies as Gregorius de Valentia Bellarmine Suarez and we need not seek for new Answers about it for that which our Divines have answered to the Papists is sufficient in two words 1. That it cannot be evinced that those days of Purim were religious Feasts Junius in Bell. de Cultu Sanct. lib. 3. cap. 10. saith Praeceptum fuit politicum they were only days of civil rejoycing and as another learned Writer Re-exam Art Perth pag. 191. observes They are only called the Days of Purim not the Holy days of Purim they are not called Chaggim No peculiar Sacrifice was appointed nor any holy Convocation of the people enjoined the Ordinance required but Feasting Joy and sending
In England besides the frequent Testimonies of the Martyrs against them Authority hath smitten them once and again the Lord usually carrying on the work of Reformation by degrees The first blow they received by publick Authority was by the Injunctions of King Henry the eighth in the year 1536. in the Preface whereto he reasons thus against them Forasmuch as the number of Holy days is so excessively grown and yet daily more and more by mans devotion yea rather Superstition was like further to increase that the same was and should be not only prejudicial to the Commonwealth by reason that it is occasion as well of much sloth and idleness the very Nurse of Theeves Vagabonds and divers other unthriftiness and inconveniences as of decay of good Mysteries and Arts profitable and necessary for the Commonwealth and loss of mans food many times being clean destroyed through the superstitious observance of the said Holy days in not taking the opportunity of good and serene weather offered upon the same in the time of Harvest but also pernicious to the Souls of many men which being inticed by the licentious vacation and liberty of these Holy days do upon the same commonly use and practise more excess riot and superfluity then upon any other days c. See Mr. Fox Acts and Monum vol. 2. pag. 386. whereupon he abrogates a number of them and especially such as sell in the Harvest time And thus the work was begun But the total extirpation of them was a work and honour reserved by God for the great Parliament who in their Directory pag. ult have declared that Festival days vulgarly called Holy days having no warrant in the Word of God are not to be continued And in their Ordinance of June 8. 1647. they do utterly abolish them in these words Forasmuch as the Feasts of the Nativity of Christ Easter and Whitsuntide and other Festivals commonly called Holy days have been heretofore superstitiously used and observed be it ordained by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the said Feast of the Nativity of Christ Easter and Whitsuntide and all other Festival days commonly called Holy days be no longer observed as Festivals or Holy days within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales Any Law Statute Custom Constitution or Canon to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding See Mr. Scobels Collection anno 1644. cap. 5â— and anno 1647. cap. 81. And now to see these and other abominations by the Prelatick party conjured up again from the Grave and from the bottom of Hell after such a Funeral he said well who said it is almost as prodigious and as ghastly a sight as to see a dead Ghost walking up and down with his winding-sheet about him but God will shortly bury them again and seal the Tomb-stone upon them never to rise more For he hath said I hate I despise your Feast-days See Calv in Amos 5.21 I will not smell your Holy days Amos 5.21 wherein as the most judicious Interpreters observe he doth not only reprove their Hypocrisie in reference to his own blessed days but also their Idolatry and Superstition in observing days of their own Oh! that God would set home this Text by the power of his Spirit upon the Consciences of Holiday-keepers to convince and humble them How dreadful are these words I hate I despise your Feast-days I will not smell your Holy days that is I will never accept them THE SUPERSTITIOUS VANITY OF THE POPISH MUSICK IN THE WORSHIP of GOD. THis is such a strange superstitious Vanity that it is generally accounted in these knowing times as it was of old by Justin Martyr Quest Resp 107 childish and ridiculous insomuch that it doth expose the Papists and their way of Worship to much contempt and laughter and therefore I should have thought it needless to speak much against a thing so generally exploded but that Mr. R. B. hath discovered and declared himself for it as a thing in it self lawful and warrantable His words are these For Organs or other instruments of Musick in Gods Worship they being an help partly natural and partly artificial to the exhilerating of the Spirits for the Praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Meeter and Melody of Singing unlawful but yet if any would abuse it by turning Gods Worship into carnal Pomp and Levity especially by such non-inteligible singing or bleating as some of our Choristers used the common people would have very great cause to be weary of it as accidentally evil Thus he Disp of Humane Cerem p 412. But Bellarmine hath said more then this for it in fewer words Cum habeamus saith he exemplum Testamenti veteris experiamur devotionem per eam excitari taedium minui Bell. de Missa lib. 2. c. 15. and he gives as grave and learned Counsel against the abuse of them In ipsis Organis saith he non nisi res sacras pias sobrie graviter exprimendas neque enim leve peccatum est siquis lascivum aliquid Organis ludat audientium animos non ad pietatem sed ad amorem mundi accendat Bell. de Bon. Oper. in particul lib. 1. cap. 17. The answering of which objections and pretences will sufficiently discover the vanity and groundlesness of this Superstition and that it is more then accidentally evil And first to that plausible Objection of Bellarmine from the use of them in the Old Testament to begin with the strongest Argument first for this is the most specious and hath the greatest seeming weight But though the Jews had Musical Instruments in the Worship of God under the Law yet that they are no part of Gospel-worship these Considerations may evince First There was then a clear word of Institution for them The Trumpets of Silver and Cornets of Horn were instituted by the hand of Moses Numb 10. in the ten first verses and Levit. 23.23 24. we read also in Moses his time of Timbrels used in the publick Praises of God by Miriam the Prophetess Exod. 15.20 and in Davids time we read of Organs also and ten-stringed Instruments and Cymbals of Brass and Harps and Psalteries of fine wood 2 Sam. 6.5 Psal 149.3 and 150.4 2 Chron. 16.4 5. and these Musical instruments were not brought into Gods Worship by David of his own head but by Authority and Direction from God For so was the Commandment of the Lord by his Prophets saith the Text 2 Chron. 29.25 and therefore they are called the musical instruments of God 1 Chron. 16.42 and instruments of Musick of the Lord 2 Chron. 7.6 with relation to God as the Author and Institutor of them For the Lords Name in the Scripture phrase is never set upon things of Humane invention but only upon things of Divine institution as the Lords Supper the Lords Day the Lords Feasts the Lords Altar c. so
of portions to one another The Rest mentioned Esth 9. was only from their enemies so much Work as might stand with a Feasting day was not forbidden Bishop Andrews Serm. on Esth 9.31 his Arguments to prove that they were holy days and not days of civil joy and Solemnity only are fully answered by Mr. Gillespy Engl. Pop. Cerem part 3. c. 6. p. 99 100 who shews that the most of them are meerly grounded upon the Corruptions of the vulgar Latin Translation which the Bishop chooseth to follow And for that one argument from the Hebrew that they took it in animas vers 31. from whence the Bishop infers they made a Soul matter of it the Hebrew word nephesh hath no such emphasis but signifies corpus animatum as well as anima and is commonly taken not for our souls but for our selves as Gen 46.26 all the souls that came with Jacob that is all the persons Yea that it may appear how far the word is from any such emphasis as the Bishop would put upon it it is often used even for a dead carkass as in Numb 9.6 Hagg. 2.13 and in sundry other places 2. Neither can it be evinced that this Feast of Purim was meerly of human Institution if we suppose it to be a religious Feast Mordecai did it saith Dr. Whitaker de Sacram. p. 206. God inspiring him and peradventure by order from some Prophet as we find in Zech. 8. they changed their Fasts into Feasts by the mouth of the Lord by the Ministry of the Prophet And though we do not read expresly that the Lord gave Commandment to them by any of his Prophets for this Feast of Purim yet forasmuch as it stands approved in Scripture there is no doubt saith Mr. Cartwright but it was done by warrant from God Rest of second Reply pag. 193 194. Obj. 3. The Feast of Dedication Joh. 10.22 23. Answ This also hath been objected from the time of the Waldenses But. 1. It is not certainly known what Feast of Dedication this was and whether meerly of human Institution some take it for that which Solomon appointed others ascribe it to Ezra others to the Maccabees See Ames Fresh Suit part 2. p. 318. And it is observed by learned men concerning those declining times that the latter Jews appointed many Fasts and Feasts as may be seen in their Kalender which they had no warrant for out of the Word of God So Mr. Weems vol. 1. concern the Scripture Prolegom cap. 3. pag. 60. 2. Neither is there any evidence that Christ approved this Feast of Dedication The Text only saith that he walked then in Solomons Porch which he might do without observing or approving the Feast Those circumstances of time and place being noted by the Evangelist for evidence to the Story as Mr. Gillespy Engl. Pop. Cerem par 3. cap. 6. p. 103. well observeth and not for any mystery If this Feast was nothing but a Tradition of the Elders we may be sure that Christ who testified against other Inventions of men did never observe this Object 4. The Apostle say some seems to speak of it as a thing indifferent and lawful to regard a Day to the Lord. Rom. 14.5 6. Answ The scope of that place is not to assert the truth of their Opinion who made a difference of Days and Meats for it is evident from many Scriptures that they were in an error but to forbid and reprove an unbrotherly spirit one against another for such differences of Opinion which Reproof falls heavy upon the greatest Patrons and Assertors of these Popish Holy days for they have used much unbrotherly Violence against Dissenters Moreover there was a greater latitude of Christian Charity and Indulgence due to the weak Jews in their adherence for a time to Moses then can be claimed by such as adhere to the Church of Rome Object 5. Some distinguish between the Superstition and the Hospitality of Christmas and the superstitious part they condemn but plead hard for the hospitable part as they call it Answ The Feasting and Sporting is an appendix to the Worship or rather to the Superstition and therefore stands or falls together with it The Apostle therefore calls them Idolaters even for their Feasting and Sporting 1 Cor. 10.7 neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play And if we read the Story of that Idolatry of the Calf Exod. 32. we shall find that it was celebrated much after the same manner that Christmas is or rather somewhat better for they rose up early on the morrow and offered Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings so that it seems they went to Church and said their Prayers most devoutly in the morning and then they sate down to eat and drink and rose up to play v. 6. and there was shouting and singing and dancing and a great deal of mad mirth amongst them v. 18 19. Sober mirth and the temperate use of the good Creatures of God is lawful at any time of the year and there never was any Minister that preached or spake against that But to have better cheer upon a Popish Holy day then at another time meerly upon this account because forsooth it is an Holy day this is superstitious And the revelling and rioting and luxury which is usual at those times is every way an hinderance to Hospitality and not a furtherance to it that which might and ought to be bestowed in a way of liberality to the poor being mispent and lavishe'd away in vain prodigality and luxury Obj. 6. I meet with one who disallows those days that are dedicated to Christ but hath a better opinion of the Saints days His words are these Nor for my part saith he do I make any scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honour their memorial but the hardest part of the question is whether it be lawful to keep days as holy in celebrating the memorial of Christs Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and such like Mr. Ric. Baxt. of Ch. Gov. and Wors disp 5. p. 413. Answ This learned man is very singular in this Opinion as well as in many others and it is contrary even to the common Sense and Reason of most Christians yea of most men to think the days dedicated to Saints more allowable then those in remembrance of the actions of Christ himself Our Divines against the Papists condemn the Saints days as much more intolerable inexcusable then the other Si pium bonum esset saith judicious Ames Bell. Enerv. tom 2. l. 6. c. 10. thes 12. instituere dies festâ—s tota haec pietas melius collocaretur in tot commemorationibus factorum Christi quot Ecclesia ferre posset quam ut ad Sanctos iretur Dicare diem Deo in memoriam hominis ne Judaei quidem in suâ paedagogiâ