they are not fit to be imposed on Christians CHAP. III. Of Ceremonial Laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated Of the dissolving of them and particularly of the Sabbath by Christ Why Christ dissolved the Sabbath The judgment of the Fathers therein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jews did and yet do That Christ appointed no new Sabbath-day instead of the old CHAP. IV. Of Laws Moral and why they are so called More of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and of his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-Lessons and a Fasting-day long after Origen's time That Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jews did that Sabbath That Sunday is not to be called Sabbath Why Easter-day was altered from the Jewish Paschal-day The Author 's reverent esteem of the Christian-Sunday CHAP. V. Of the fourth Commandment what part of it is Morall and what is Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The excellent benefit of this Sabbath-Law Why it is placed in the midst of the Commandments How the whole Law by it is performable by men CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Morall Sabbath Why he is concealed under the word Sabbath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference of the Lord of Sabbâ—oth and the Lord of the Sabbath Of that Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah and another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbathship That Sabbath-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament CHAP. VII The doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Father How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the daies of Moses The doctrine of the Church herein The meaning of the Prayers at the rehear sing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is so performable CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the world is described without mention of evening and morning The Sabbath described by Philo the Jew That the Sabbath and Melchisedech were parallel types of Christ CHAP. IX The sanctifying of the Sabbath How thâ— Godhead is said to be sanctified How the human nature of Christ is sanctified Of the name of God That it signifies God himself That the name Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctifie God How Christ being the Sabbath is to be sanctified or kept holy CHAP. X. Of God's Resting That it is not acessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor of layiâ—â— aside his care and providence in Government That his Rest and Working do consist together Something concerning the Originall of human Souls Of Universalls what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God created any new kinds of Creatures since the first seventh day Two Queries propounded CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the seventh day onely although he did intermit Creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the seventh day and what that was Jewish Fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned untill the seventh day Why it is fixed on the Creation of mankind rather than of any other of the Creatures Answers to certain Enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the onely cause of this expression of the Rest of God CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ is proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the union of Christ with Mankind That this union was shewed by Christ in the Sacramentall Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived or propagated from the first man Something concerning Universall Redemption CHAP. XIV Of Adam's solitude and something concerning Monastick life with the reasons thereof That the help by the Woman consisted not in respect of Society nor of Child-bearing simply considered but onely in respect of the propagation of Christ Of Child-bearing and that it is not salvificall without faith in Christ Of Good and Evill occasioned by the Woman Why she was called Vita or Life Why God permitted the Woman to occasion the Fall CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is onely in Christ and Why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the union of God and Man in Christ was ordained onely in order to man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusion concerning this Rest of God CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called God's Rest is shewed by other like passages of Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God Onely because he is the Rest of Mankind An Answer to the second Querie above mentioned viz. Why God is said to Rest onely on the first seventh day and not before The Conclusion of the Doctrine of God's Rest and St. Austin's judgement therein CHAP. XVII An exposition of the Ceremoniall part of the fourth Commandement begun That the six dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the seventh day is called a Sabbath onely because it was a figure of the true Sabbath That the seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the eighth day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the daies of Moses St. Jerom's translation and our English examined The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of works on the Jewish Sabbath That their corporall Rest was but a figure of our spirituall Rest in Christ CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why Cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these circumstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial and Judaical CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six daies and yet that he ended not his work untill the seventh day Why the Creation was prolonged six daies Of the order of Creatures
from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2◠34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
Epitaph Bononiens p. 173. Hermaphroditus The truth is that the woman was then in Adam though but rough-cast as we use to say and not taken out of the mould not finished or polished For it is as easie to apprehend Eve to be then in the side of Adam as it is for us to believe and acknowledg that all we which now live were even then in the loines of Adam for which we have a strong Apostolical evidence Heb. 7. 10. Where it is said of Levi before he was born that he was in the loins of Abraham And so upon the same reason we were certainly with Levi and Ahraham in the loines of Adam So our Answer to this second Querie for present shall be only this That therefore God is not said to Rest until the seventh-seventh-day Because that until then the principal work was not finished in which alone the Rest of God consisted And what that is will now soon appear In the mean time I will lay this for my conclusion and for a Truth which I firmly beleive that the seventh-seventh-day or ceremonial-Ceremonial-Sabbath was not ordained by God for a memorial of the Creation of the world and all the meer Creatures thereof or for his ceasing from the work of Creation But for an Evangelical memorial of the Rest of God Of which we are next to enquire CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned until the seventh-day Why it is fixed on the Creation of Mankind rather than of any other of the creatures Answers to certain enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the only cause of this Rest of God IT may justly seem strange and wonderful that the most blessed most glorious and Almighty God who is Blessedness and Happiness it self and that so infinitely and incomprehensibly that it is impossible that any addition of happiness or rest can be added to him so as to make him more happy or more at Rest than he was from Eternity And yet so it is that God is here and now said to Rest and also to Rest so now as not before this seventh day Certainly this Rest must be occasioned by something that is External and Extra-essential to God And therefore it must be such a Rest or complacencie or acquiescence as the Godhead assumed and took in some special creature and yet not only in that creature considered singly and meerly in it self for it must be derived from some work of God unto which God intended some excellent beneficial addition of worth goodness by which consideration the Godhead was inclined to express a delight and chearfullness contentedness in it and for it in all the other creatures This as to me seemeth Moses darkly implyeth for he is yet vailed in these words Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the seventh day from al his work which he had made This Rest then seemeth to be occasioned from his work for it is not said that he rested in his work but occasionally from his work It followeth vers 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created to make This sudden repetition of the Rest of God doth intimate something of greater moment and consideration than ordinary Good reader observe with me that in this later expression of God's resting there is much more implied than in the former for in the first it is said He rested from all his work which he had made But in the later it is said He rested from all his work which God created to make These words created to make signifie more than only a creation Our last English Translation reades this text created and made yet in the margin it is there confessed that according to the Hebrew it is to be read created to make which is indeed the true and farr better reading so both St. Hierome and our other masters in the holy tongue read it so doth the Latine of Sixtus and Clemens Quod creavit ut faceret i. e. which he created to make By which expression I humbly conceive that the holy Spirit doth secretly and mysteriously imply that this Rest of God consisteth in some creature newly made upon which the Godhead purposed to conferr some preferment and honour greater than the bare creation of it because it is said he created it to make so saith the Expositor upon those words creavit ut faceret a Martin Borrhaius in loc Ut ad certum usum pararet ac destinaret i. e. God rested from that work which he created that he might prepare and appoint it to a certain use So that To make must signifie that God intended to make some further and greater and more excellent use of that creature than it had of it self in it's own single and created nature and that he would effect some more glorious and gracious work by it which that creature of it self and by it's own power would never be able to perform Now what creaturâ— this is And what further use God intended to make of it And what prerogative of honour he would add to it we are diligently to enquire 1. We can not with reason and judgment fasten the occasion of this Rest of God upon any one particular creature but only upon the creation of Man for from the creation of Adam God did first take occasion to express a complacency and acquiescence or Rest 2. We may not think that this Rest of Goâ— was occasioned only by the creation of the first Adam considered singly by himself and as a 〈◊〉 creature without any further reach or consideration But it was indeed occasioned by a pre-consideration of the second Adam which is Christ who is stiled by St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam because whâ—â— Adam was made Christ also was made Christ as a creature in respect of his humane nature for as Eve was then Originally and Substantially in Adam's side as is before said So was Christ seminally in his Loines so that the consideration of Christ now wrapped up in this Root of Adam was that which occasioned the first hint of an expression of complacencie in the Godhead upon the Creation of the Man for thereupon that was said by God which was not said before upon the Creation of any one or of all his other Creatures and it is said with a note of Remarkableness Gen. 1. 31. Behold it was very good Indeed his other Creatures are said to be good but not any nor all said to be very good till now 3. Though Adam was now made and in him Christ was seminally couched yet it is not presently said that God Rested nor untill some other Act was performed by the Godhead For God is not said to Rest until Eve was taken and formed and finished out of Adam's side and this was not done until the Seventh day as is before shewed This was because Christ the Saviour of
the maker of Peace or Atonement or Reconciliation of Man with God He is called Messiah or Christ that is anointed fitted and prepared for the great Work of Mans Redemption Then he is properly named Jesus and this in order to the benefit of Man for so the holy Angel said Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Mat. 1. 21 And that it may appear that this Person Jesus is qualified and endowed with sufficient power to effect that great and merciful purpose of the Godhead toward Mankind the same Prophet cals him Wonderful Counseller The Mighty God The Everlasting Father This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of Gods Rest Now to the second Querie above mentioned 2. Querie Answered viz. Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day precisely and not before Our Answer is 1. Because on the Seventh day and not before the Creation of Mankind was completed for on that day was the Woman taken and built out of the Man and not before as is above shewed 2. God is not said to Rest until he had actually begun the Work of Mans Rest which was not done untill the Man and the Woman were both of them finished for then and not before was the Saviour of Mankind really and actually laid as the foundation of Mans Rest in which Rest or Sabbath of Man the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead consisteth and in nothing else What God in his Divine and Secret Counsel had determined before all times to be done that did he now on this Seventh day begin which was the building of his Church for now the first stone was laid even Christ who only is the foundaâ—ion and the Rock and the chief corner-stone thereof The house built upon a Rock Matth. 7. 24. signifieth the Church when Peter had said Thou art Mat. 16 16 Christ the Son of the living God Christ presently replied Upon this Rock will I build my Church The Apostle tels us Christ was 1 Cor. 10 4. the spiritual Rock And Other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus 1 Cor. 3 11 Christ Now this foundation of Rest must needs be made known unto the Man for otherwise it could not be his Rest and consequently it could not be the Rest of God until Man did so know it that he might relie and trust and set up his Rest upon it that is upon Christ Therefore the holy Scripture doth by divers intimations signifie that this great Mystery was then revealed to Adam for he was illuminated with prophetical Wisdom He knew as well as Moses that he was made in the 〈◊〉 of God that is in the same shape which God his Redeemer would one day assume as is before shewed He knew the Woman was taken and built out of him on purpose to produce a Redeemer in that only way which might fitly serve for that Work when no other way could for upon the forming of her he said This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh This speech doth shew that the Man was not ignorant in the great Mystery of the Union of Himself and the Woman and their future progenie with Christ also in one lump which union was contrived by the Godhead only in order and necessity to the Redemption of Adam and his off-spring and nothing else And it is the same which by the great Apostle is applied to the mysterious union of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh This Eph. 5. 31 32 is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church After the Fall of Man it pleased the merciful Godhead to give a more open and evident notice by an express promise of this Rest than was before when it was said The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head for after this the Man named the Woman Vita i. e. Life as is before shewed whereby he declared his Faith and expectation of a new and better life to come by the fruitfulness of the Woman than that Life which he forfeited by his fall as may reasonably be thought All these intimations and overtures being but descriptions of the great Saviour to proceed from the Man and the Woman in whom they might set up their Rest as surely they did And God having now actually begun that great Work of Redemption and laid the foundation thereof in the Earth of ouâ— first Parents and made it known unto them Therefore he doth now and not before call this blessed Rest of Man His own Best For the Church of God which consisteth of Christ and his Members united not only in the nature of our first Parents but also cemented by one and the same Spirit of God residing both in Christ the Head and also in all holy Men as inferiour Members under that Head This Church I say is very often in Scripture represented as a building even from the beginning of the World and so continued in the Gospel The Woman is said to be builded of the Rib aedificavit costam in Gen. 2. 22 Multierem Rachel and Leah are said to build the house of Israel The natural Body of Ruth 4 11 Christ is called a building by King Solomon Wisdome hath built her an house So is his mystical Body also Ye are Gods building Prov. 9. 1 1 Cor. 3. 9 And Acts 9. 31. The Churches had rest and were edified The Word of God and preaching and brotherly exhortation are resembled to buildings The Word is able to Act. 20. 32 build you up St. Paul calleth preaching there where Christ was named before building on another mans foundation and Rom. 15 20 exhorteth the Thessalonians to edifie one another 1 Thes 5 11 The prime foundation of this building is Christ upon Him the Prophets and Apostles are laid as Super-structures or second Foundations Of Christ the Prophet saith Behold Isa 28. 16 I lay in Sion for a foundation a Stone a tried Stone a precious corner-Stone a sure foundation And this is so applied to Christ by St. Peter who also calleth the Members of Christ Lively stones built up a spiritual 1 Pet. 2 5 6 house And Sion is mentioned because as the same Prophet foretold Out of Sion shall Isai 2. 3 go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem For so indeed the Law of Christ and the preaching thereof began there as Christ appointed Lukâ— 24. 7. And of Apostles and Prophets and Christ St. Paul telleth the Ephesians That they are built upon Eph. 2. 20 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone It hath been an ancient Custome amongst Men to express a joy and delight both at the laying of the foundation and also at the raising and dedication of magnificent or holy Edifices So did the Jews at the laying of the foundation of the second Temple praising the
not the Law of God so may the people of God keep and sanctifie the true substantiall Sabbath though with the breach or as Christ said profanation of the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath If it be here demanded why God so strictly required a cessation from work and a corporeall Rest on the seventh day seeing he did not expect so exact an obedience thereunto To this we answer That as the seventh day was but the type of the true Sabbath which is Christ so the corporall rest therein was but the figure or signe of our spirituall and eternall rest in Him Therefore as the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath in some cases might be transgressed yet without any breach or neglect of the true Sabbath which is Christ so our corporall rest might be disturbed many waies in this life by labours sorrows sufferings and persecutions yet without any disturbance of our spirituall rest comfort settlement joy and peace in the God of all consolation for so Christ hath said These things have I said unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall Joh. 16. 33 have tribulation For the tribulations of the world do not extinguish or null the peace of God in his servants So he saith again concerning the agonies of this present life Come unto me all ye that labour Mat. 11. 28 and are heavy laden Take my yoke and ye shall find rest unto your souls By which it appeareth that the spirituall Rest or Sabbath in Christ possibly may consist with labours burdens heavinesse and even with bearing the crosse of Christ There is moreover a further reach and reason why God imposed this inconvenient and almost impossible cessation on the seventh-day-Sabbath which we will declare hereafter in its due place CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath-daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish Pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these Circumstanstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial Judaical Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter THey that ask why the wife was not here named may as well ask why the man or husband was not for neither are particularly mentioned because both are alike obliged and both included in this word Thou A woman may have a son and daughter and servantâ— and cattle and a stranger within her gaâ—es especially in her widowhood as well as a man But if they be joyned in matrimony then no need of particular mention of either because both are one The woman was included in the man at the creation of both Male and female created he them And both the Old the New Testament account them as one They Gen. 2. 24 Eph 5. 31. shall be one flesh In Grammar there is Hic haec homo and in Theology the wife is esteemed as haec vir or as St. Jerom translates the originall word Virago and Lyranus yet nearer calls the woman Virâ— Both are invested with superiority over their children and servants and both interested in the fruition of their goods At Heathen marrriages the woman said * Plut. Quaest Rom Ubi tu Câ—ius ego Caia And at our Christian matrimony the man saith With all my worldly goods I thee endow Nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant c. This is added because otherwise the Jews might have thought it no transgression in themselves to have caused their children or servants to work if the parents or masters wrought not But by these words the contrary will appear that if their children or servants were by them compelled to work on their Sabbath day the sin was not to be imputed to the son or servant but to the parents or masters that so commanded For if it had been sin or a transgression of this Law in sons or servants to work upon command and compulsion then it must follow that cattle also even the Ox and the Asse must have been under the obligation of this Commandment and they also must have sinned as †Against Mr. N. Byfield Mr. Brerewood hath observed which to affirm is most ridiculous But if the Jewish sons or servants or subjects had wrought on their Sabbath at their own choice without command or compulsion of their Rulers then the transgression or Sabbath-breach must have been their own and the punishment thereof inflicted on themselves onely and not otherwise Thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant The condition of servants was lamentable their masters power over them was great and so was their cruelty God therefore provided some ease for them otherwise the unmercifull and covetous Jews would have afforded no rest to them at all Neither did the Judaicall Laws of the Jews wholly provide against the cruelty of masters for if a Jew by cruell Ex. 21. 20. stripes had killed his servant the master was not punishable by the Law Judaicall if the abused servant continued alive a day or two after nor except he died under his hand Although no doubt the master sinned against the morall Law Thou shalt not kiil and was therefore answerable to God for murder But their condition under the Gentiles was far worse who had legall power of life and death over them They were not onely bought and sold like cattle but also esteemed as vile or worse than their beasts One makes it a question a Tul. Offic. l. 3. Utrum equi aâ— servi jactura eligenda Another saith b Aâ—g Ps 143. Cariùs equum quà m servum emunt and another c Ambros n Ser. 41. To. 5. Quidam canum magis quam servorum curam habent Their labours were such as cattle are used for they called them d Laert. in Diogen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they were nothing but feet They ground in the Mill and carried their Masters in Litters great journeys as horses now do And when they were old and past work they were cast out of doors to perish by famin which was the practise of their wise Cato the Elder as e in Cato Major Plutarch saith Besides great were the cruelties and tortures inflicted on poor servants for light or no causes f Juvenal Sat. 6. Pone crucem servo Nil fecerit esto Hoc volo sic jubeo Seneca saith of them g Sen. Epist 47. Tussis sternutamentum magno malo luitur One Vedius Pollio a Roman h Dion in Aug. c. 15. commanded one of his servants to be cast into his pond of Lampries onely for breaking a drinking-glasse And when Pedanius a Roman was secretly slain in his own house the murderers being not known 400 of his houshold-servants were all put to death as i Tacit. Annal lib. 14.
In a word he that understands in what particular thing the Rest of God consisteth may by the same easily apprehend why it is fixed on this seventh day Wherefore the Lord blessed c. That which our English readeth Wherefore St. Jerom and the Latines generally read Therefore idcircò From which word we observe that the Judaicall or Ceremoniall Sabbath was not appointed in consideration of the work of Creation or that men should on that day contemplate and meditate onely on the creatures of the world although those wonderfull works are also right worthy of our serious consideration and should be a great motive to incite us to glorisie the Almighty Creator but it was principally ordained to put both the Jews and us Christians also in mind of the Rest of God and to move us all to consider in what this Rest consisteth which doth far more concern us and our happinesse than all the world without it because otherwise neither the world nor any creatures therein nor the perfect knowledge by our Studies and Arts of all the excellencies and secrets thereof can bring us to that everlasting Rest which was but typically figured by this Ceremoniall Sabbath For What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Mat. 16. 26. Now that this Wherefore or Therefore relateth to the Rest of God and not to his creating of the world we are expresly taught by Moses who tells us That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works So that the Gen. 2. 3. Rest of man on that day was afterwards enacted by a Law for a memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God Concerning the blessing and sanctifying whereof we are next to enquire CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures and of the differences of Holiness When the Seventh day was first hallowed and how it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacrilege How the Prophets spake truly of things to come as if they had been past Of the Prophetical figure called Anticipation with Rules and Examples thereof applied to this Sabbath The Lord blessed the Sabbath day or Seventh day THe Leiturgie of the Church of England readeth the Seventh day but the Original hath the Sabbath day Both are read indifferently as Gen. 2. 3. hath the Seventh day and so have some of the other languages in this Commandement as appeareth in the late incomparable and renowned work of our new Great Bible Indeed both are one in this place For the Sabbath Ceremonial is but the Seventh day and the Seventh day only is that Sabbath which is here meant it being but a Sabbath Typical Blessed the Sabbath day To blesse Benedicere is to speak some good of it as in the Leiturgie of St Basil this Prayer is found a Basil n. 2 Domine loquere bonum in cor Regis pro Ecclesia tua When God blesseth he conferreth some favour or special priviledge as here on the Sabbath day such as it was capable of and in order to that purpose for which it was blessed which was to signifie Man's Rest in Christ The blessing of a Day is not like his blessing of a Man on whom by blessing he doth effectually conferre something that is beneficial to him as spirituall Graces or temporal Favours as in Children Lands Cattel Basket and Store mentioned Deut. 28. and as Isaac blessed his Sons with the dew of Heaven and fatnesse of the Earth But the Sabbath being uncapable of such benedictions the blessing of it must consist in such respects as these 1. God chose that day for his own Mysterious Rest 2. He appointed that day only and not any of the other six to be for a memorial to his people of the grand blessing of their Rest in Christ 3. He ordained it for a corporal rest both for Men and Cattel 4. He gave most strict command upon pain of capital punishment for the keeping thereof 5. He appointed larger Sacrifices on that day than on the former dayes 6. He appointed a larger portion of Manna on the Parasceue as a provision for the Sabbath 7. He appointed this holy day to be weekly that is two and fifty times in the year whereas other Festivals except new-Moons were but once These or such like are the blessings thereof And hallowed it Hallowed is holied or sanctified The meaning is that God designed it to be an holy or hallowed day To be an hallowed or sanctified day is to be divided separated or distinguished from other common dayes by way of preferment honour and preheminence and to be set apart so as that work which might lawfully have been done on that day before it was hallowed might not be done on it after the hallowing thereof We read of hallowed or holy oyl holy vessels holy vestments and holy places which might not be used or applied to any other service but that only for which they were hallowed and destinated So this hallowed day was not to be imployed in common works as other unhallowed dayes were for that would have been a profanation thereof but it was wholly to be bestowed and spent in the service of God the Sanctifier by the serious and thankful consideration of that blessed Rest which he had procured and designed for Man And this hallowed use was to continue from the first institution thereof untill the period and repealing of it by the same God who hallowed it Which was performed evidently by Jesus Christ who is the same God which did sanctifie it and this he did not untill God had actually and visibly exhibited in the â—lesh the reall and substantial accomplishment of that Typical Ceremonial and Temporary Sabbath in the Person of the said Lord Jesus But yet during the vigour and continuance of this hallowing the Sabbath day was not altogether and absolutely quitted from all manner of working We know the Priests did then work hard and Souldiers marched and other works were lawfully done the reason was because this Sabbatical Hallowing was but meerly figurative and ceremonial and therefore dispensable in case of pressing necessity and charitable accommodation toward our brethren and in duty to God and also because such workings are commanded by a Superiour Law even the Moral Law of God whereby we are required To love the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbour as our self This Law hath been in force ever since the Creation was finished and so shall continue until the end of the World but the hallowing of the Seventh day was neither from the beginning nor was it to last to the end of the World being but Ceremonial and Temporary and therefore ought to give place to the Law Moral We find Hallowing or Holiness applied diversly to several things and for divers considerations First There is an Holiness Essential which is only
this Law is meant of Christ I have shewed before a Chap. 7. And that Christ only is this everlasting Covenant the Gospel often declareth Christ saith This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26. 28. Or as St. Luke reads it This is the new Testament in my blood Luke 22. 20. Testament and Covenant signifie the same thing but only that a Covenant is a Promise Conditional And a Testament there is the same Promise or Covenant given and bequeathed So Hebr. 13. 20. The blood of Christ is called The blood of the everlasting Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Aeterâ— foederis i. e. Eternal Covenant So these words Testament and Covenant both to our own and also to forrain Translators seem all one so Christ must be this everlasting covenanted Sabbath But then if this everlasting Sabbath be really Christ how is it called a sign as the Typical Sabbath is for so we read Exod. 31. 17. It is a sign for ever To this we answer That this Sabbath is no otherwise called a sign than Christ himself is so called Luke 2. 34. This Child is set for a sign that shall be spoken against And Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven This sign signifieth the very Person of Christ as both Origen and Chrysostome expound it Only the Covenant of Christ's Sabbathship is an everlasting sign but so is not the sign of the Ceremonial Sabbath as hath been proved In this sense only the Sabbath is everlasting as it signifieth Christ of which there is no doubt to be made In a like case when question was made by Act. 13. 22. Dâ—lciâ—â—us how Dâ—vâ—d being a great sinner could be styled A man after Gods own heart St. Austin answered a De 8. Quaest. Dulc. To. 3. De Christo intellige nullus nodus est So we say if we understand that this Sabbath Moral signifieth Christ as certainly it doth then there will be no question of the everlastingness and eternity thereof The Ceremonial or Day-Sabbath was taken away that so the true substantial Sabbath might the better take place in mens minds Just as Typical Sacrifices were rejected by God that so the grand Sacrifice of Christ might be by faith apprehended of which the Apostle expresly thus writeth He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Heb. 10. 9. This is also to be observed for a sign of the depreciating or undervaluing of this Typical or Day-Sabbath that Christ said The Sabbath Mar. 2. 26 was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath This he meant no doubt of the Câ—remonial Sabbath in that it was ordained only to be ministerial and subservient to Man as a Conducter and Guide to the true everlasting Sabbath for if he had spoken of the Moral and Mystical Sabbath he might truly have said That Men was made for the Sabbath because the true Sabbath is God the Son by whom and for whose glory all Men and the World it self were made And he was before all Creatures and not made at all nor created but begotten from Eâ—ernity But yet this Son of God may truly be said to be made the Sabbath for Man yet not as he is meerly the Son of God but as he is also the Son of Man He was made Man for us and by that he became the Mystical Sabbath For the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity cannot be the Sabbath neither can the Son of Man be so if considered without his Divinity but joyntly with both Natures So that in consideration of his assumed humane Nature and therewith his Sabbathship he was made for Man and came to help and minister to Man as himself most graciously acknowledged The Son of Man came not to be ministred Matth. 20. 28. unto but to minister 7. Finally The most notorious slurre of all was That this Seventh day which God appointed to be hallowed could not possibly be so kept on that day in all places of the Earth as any Man that hath but mean knowledge in Geographie may easily apprehend for when in one part of the Earth it is Miâ—-day in another part it is Mid-night and when Day begins in one part Night begins in another so that the Jews themselves in their remote dispersions cannot possibly Sabbatize at the same time By this it may clearly appear that the seventh-day Sabbath was only a national Constitution during the standing of the Judaical Common-wealth and that the Seventh day was not that Moral Sabbath which God required in this fourth Commandement because a Law Moral bindeth all Nations in every part of the Earth but some other Sabbath was intended which possibly might be kept by all Nations that Sabbath is Christ Who therefore sent his Apostles Mar. 16. 15. with an universal Commission Go ye into all the world and preach And not only to the Jews but Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28 19. These and such like incumbrances impossibilities and inconveniences did the Godhead pâ—t upon this Ceremonial Sabbath as no fire-kindling no burden-bearing no meatdressing no stirring out of their places and thereby made that People ridiculous to other Nations as the Prophet saith The adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths And the Manichee Lam 1. 7. called their Saturday Sabbaths * Aug. Cont. Faâ—st l. 18 c. 5. Catcâ—as Saturnâ—acas i. e. the fetters of Saturn Logicians use to say Uno absur do dato mille sequuntur The mis-understanding of this one Sabbath Law led the Jews into strange and ridiculous Superstitions and also to the ruine of their Persons and City and Temple A Jew in a boysterous Sea refused to tug at the stern because it was his Sabbath day and so he perished Another would not be drawn out of a loathsome draught upon the same reason but rather miserably perished as our own Histories record The Jews could not be ignorant that God himself did work on every sabbath-Sabbath-day and that he did also occasionally command others so to do as the Preists and sometimes the Souldiers therefore they might easily have perceived that both the Sabbath or Rest of God and also of his people consisted in something else and not in a meer cessation from worldly works Some Sabbatarian Writers tell us That Man should work when God worketh and rest when God rested But God worketh alwayes so cannot Man If they had said that Man should rest in that thing which God rested in they had spoken home to the true Sabbath indeed For God rested only in Christ and so should we otherwise all Seventh-day Sabbatizing is utterly vain and superstitious By these Reasons a pious and judicious Reader will clearly perceive that these slurrs were put upon the Day Sabbath by our Wise God on purpose and design to withdraw his people from the shadow to the substance and from the Ceremonial to the Moral and substantial Sabbath which is Christ for just such a design God had in his Dispensation even of the Moral Law which was first written in Man's heart Then afterwards when it was to our lapsed and depraved nature impossible yet it was again imposed on us and engraven in stone And this he did that thereby he might direct us both to perform so much of it as we can and also to seek help and mercy of him for what we cannot do There had been no need of writing this Law in Tables of stone which was written defore in Man's heart but only because as St. Austin saith a Aug. in Psal 57. Tu fugitivus eras cordis tui i. â— Man was a run-away from his own heart and principles for we find that Man now perpetrateth wickedness which his own conscience judgeth to be so and also condemneth as an Heathen confessed b Juvenal Sat. 13. Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur The reason why God did impose this Law on Man then when it was impossible is singularly rendred by the Apostle thus The Scripture Gal. 3. 2â— hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Now although the impossible Law is by faith and union with Christ made possible to Man yet it was imposed on us with all its literall impossibilities on purpose to be as the same Apostle saith Our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ or indeed to Ibid. v 24. drive force and necessitate us to seek some other means and way for our justification and salvation besides the Law which way is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom only our peace with God and our everlasting Sabbath consisteth To Him therefore with the Father and the holy Spirit be rendred blessing honour praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Laus Deo FINIS
first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made That their Heaven was intended principally for mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned although it was prepared within the first six daies Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandment and not in any of the other nine That the Morall Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son That he is called the Beginning the Word and the Wisdom of God and is therefore here commanded to be sanctified CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the divine persons co-operated and joyned in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Second Person or Son of God is the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of his Godhead and Manhood Of his severall Appellations respectively Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the seventh-day-Sabbath was instituted for a memoriall of the Resting and 〈…〉 of God CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures The differences of Holinesse When the seventh day was first hallowed How and when it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacriledge How the Prophets spake truly of things to come although they spake as if they had been past Of the Propheticall figure called Anticipation The directions of the Fathers and Scripturall examples thereof applied to this Sabbath CHAP. XXII Reasons why God having conferred honours on the seventh day did also lay some slurs upon it as 1. That this Day-Sabbath was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by zealous David nor this Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. In that God expresly commanded some works on that day 3. That no Manna fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made for man 7. That it was impossible to be generally kept and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews The Conclusion That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabbath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God on purpose to drive man to seek for Rest and Salvation onely in the Lord Jesus Christ Errata PAg. 5. line 8. read force and necessity p. 8. l. 3. tell us p. 13. l. 27. Judaical p. 25. l. 6. Onera p. 26. l. 23. Judaical p. 32. l. 31. We are p. 34. l. 16. Judaico p. 37. l. 6. Speaketh p. 41. l. 23. Pharisaical p. 46. l. 34. killing law p. 48. l. 5. Law of God p. 65. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 89. l. 17. intermundium l. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 107. l. 6. God added p. 134. l. ult And in him p. 166. l. 16. judicial l. 20. judicial p. 168. l. 1. 10 act a part p. 227. l. 1. Jeremie In the Margin p. 13. l. 1. Ignatius p. 125. l. 3. Laertius in Diog. De minutioribus viderit lector The Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered The Sabbath Morall CHAP. I. The Church disturbed about the Doctrine of the Sabbath Of Sunday-Sabbatism Of works practised therein and Recreations forbidden That the celebration of Sunday is pious although not commanded by the Fourth Commandment How the Antient Patriarks did Sabbatize yet kept not a Seventh day That the ten Commandements are still in force A passage in St. Austin and Isychius explained and an abuse of the Commandements in the Roman Catechism shewed THE various opinions of men in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as it is delivered in the Fourth Commandment of the Morall Law hath more disturbed the Christian Church in these latter times then they did the Fathers the Zealous Christians in the Church Primitive yet then was the Doctrin of the Sabbath mistaken and perverted by Ebion who taught that Christians should necessarily keep the Jewish Hebdomarie or seventh-day Sabbath as some among us have done and is therefore by a Epiph. haer 30. Epiphanius and b Theod. haer fab Lib. 2. Theodoret branded with the mark of a Judaizing Heretick And now although the rejection of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath is almost generally agreed among us yet a new Sabbath is set up on the Eighth day or first day of the week to be observed with as great strictnesse as the old Sabbath was on the Seventh day by the Pharisees for now not only labouâ—s are forbidden but also honest recreations such as we do not find to have been forbidden by those very Jewish zelots Which late strictnesse hath given an occasion or pretence to some to think it to be required rather in opposition to former permissions then for any new light or religious zeal because they have observed that by order of the same Superiors who forbad Recreations Souldiers have been commanded to march and the utensils and luggage of War Carts Wagons Artillary have been drawn out and most cruell bloody battells fought on that very new Sabbath-day and all this upon pretence of either private personall necessity or necessity publik which is now called Reason of State whereupon some of the approved Preachers of these times have openly in the Pulpit declared their dislike and said that now the State Civil is become like a Ship and the Church like a Cock-boat which must follow the motions and turnings of that Ship of State intimating hereby that our Religion must be reformed so as to be subservient to the interest and accommodations of the Civill governors which is quite contrary to the desires of those men who hoped and expected that their Kyrk should have bin made the Ship and the State should have bin the Cock-boat Mose and Aaron were brethren and agreed that Moses might be directed by Aaron in Spiritualls and Aaron Supported by the Brachium temporale or civill authority of Moses for stablishing true Doctrine and godly Discipline which formerly was the happy and peaceable usance of this kingdome wherein the state civill was supreme because as Optatus truly said against the disturbing Donatists c Optat. lib. 3. p. 83. Non est Respublica in ecclesia sed ecclesia in Republica est i. e. The Commonwealth is not included in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth And yet the civil power will not excuse those governors before God which authorise the breaking of the Commandments and Moral law of God For if the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath practised in the Jewish Commonwealth or the Eighth among Christians which some yet call the Sabbath were indeed one of the ten Commandments of God which certainly are moral and perpetual then did the Jewes sin in performing the works of Warr and of Circumcision and Midwifery and Sacrificing at the Tabernacle and Temple on their Sabbath day And if our Sunday be really commanded by this morall law of
Sabbath which in the fourth Commandment is so strictly required and that with a Memento also more than any other Commandment as being indeed the greatest of them all and most nearly concerning our everlasting Rest and Happiness as hereafter will appear CHAP. V. Of the Fourth Commandment what part of it is moral and what Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the Ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other Prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The Excellent benefit of this Sabbath-law Why it is placed in the middle of the Commandments How the whole law is performable by men FOr the right understanding of this great mysterious Sabbath we must first diligently examin the words of the fourth Commandment which I here set down fully as I find them recorded Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seaventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the stranger that is within thy Gates For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seaventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it All our learned Divines generally agree thus farr that this Commandment is partly Moral so that the Moral part thereof is to be obeyed and kept at this day and also during the continuance of the world They also agree that part of it is Ceremonial appertaining only to the Jewes and binding them to the observation thereof until their Mâ—ssiah came in the flesh and was made known unto that people or during the Pedagogie of them or at most during the Judaical state and politie All this I conceive to be very true But the main difficulty consisteth onely in the right dividing this Commandment by seperating the Moral and everlasting part from that part which is but Ceremonial and temporal and typical Which that I may truely and Christianly perform I here most earnestly implore the assistance and illumination of thy Divine spirit O gratious Lord Jesus that in this needfull and concerning mystery I may appeare to thee and to thy Church as thy servant Paul exhorted Timothie a workman rightly dividing the word of truth For the understanding whereof I here present â— Tim. 2. 15. to the Consideration of the pious and learned Reader What after much labour of mind and long deliberation and after diligent and serious Consulation with the Ancient Fathers I have conceived to be the true and most necessary meaning of this Commandment and what is the right Division or Seperation of the Moral Mysterious and Perpetuall part thereof from that which is only Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall And what part of that precept bindeth us Christians to observe it as it did also the Ancient Israelites and the Patriarks and Prophets and even Adam himselfe and all his posterity And also what part thereof was proper to and concerned only the Mosaicall or Judaical people and doth not at all concern the Christians or Gentiles nor did in the least oblige the Patriarks which lived and died before the dayes of Moses The want or neglect of a right distinction of these differing parts of this Commandment in our later Theological Writers hath occasioned much trouble heart-burnings and Schisms among Christians and also many Phraisaicall curiosities in the observation of an eighth day Sabbath Which was never intended to be put upon the people of God by this 4th Commandement And moreover it hath also obscured the most needfull most holy and Mysterious Sabbath Spirituall by which we only can expect an eternall and heavenly Sabbath and salvation of our Souls and bodies For many good pious and well-meaning Christians are hereby mislead into the same arror and mistake that the Jews were in by thinking that the whole and ultimate duty commanded and intended in this 4th Comandement consisteth only in keeping holy One day of Seaven Which is but a very mean and low conceipt and far short of the High and Weighty intendment of that Precept and is also a very stumbling Block in the way to retard men from apprehending the true Sabbath therein secretly and mysteriously Veiled Which is Christ Who only is the everlasting Sabbath or Rest both of the Godhead and also of us Men. It is now time that I set down plainly what I conceive to be the Moral part of this Commandment and in what words it is contained that so it may appear how much of that long Precept concerneth us at this day and is an everlasting Law and a law Naturall and Written in Mans heart and binding not only Christians and Jews but Heathens and even all Nations as also it did all the Patriarchs before Moses was born and before it was written in stone These are the words Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy In these few words is contained the whole Morality of that Law So that no more of the words are to be accounted Moral or binding us for all the following words are but a branch of the Ceremoniall law And although they are here joyned with the truly Moral Sabbath and also by the same God written in the same Tables of Stone Notwithstanding this will not make them to be a Moral law because they are so annexed for this reason only to serve as a Type and figure of the Grand Sabbath To keep the Israelites mindfull by a weekly Sabbath or rest of that everlasting Rest which they were to expect in their Messiah and not otherwise For now we see that all learned Divines have rejected and the whool Christian world have long since disused the old Jewish Typical or Seaventh-day Sabbath These later words which are so annexed to the fourth Morall Law are to be considered by themselves in their proper place but for present we must insist only on the former words which I have affirmed to be truly moral and an everlasting law For the understanding whereof the Reader may observe divers things Considerable and some of them proper and peculiar to this Commandment so as not to be found in any other of the Nine 1. In those words recited There is no mention of the Seaventh day for that was meerly Typical and Ceremonial but the Sabbath-day Therefore surely there must be understood some other Sabbath day besides the Seventh day Sabbath for otherwise it had bin enough to have said Remember the Seaventh day to keep it holy But the Seaventh day is one thing and the Sabbath day is another They differ as much as Shadow and Substance as Type and Antitype as Signum Signatum i. e. as the bare signe from that which is signified thereby for the Jewish Seaventh-day-Sabbath which was but only a signe and shadow of the Substantial Mysticall and Spiritual Sabbath which is Christ 2. To this
Ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal 3. 28 The Jâ—wes placed this fourth Commandment of the Sabbath not in the last but in the penultimate place of the first table supposing the fifth Commandment of Honouring parents to belong thereunto and therefore they make it the last Commandment of the b jos Antiq l. 3. cap. 4. said first Table as we find both in a Philo. de Haere Divinorum Philo also in Josephus And this they did because they understood not the right meaning â—mportance of this Sabbath-precept But our Christian writers generally present this Sabbath commandment as the last of the first table as standing in the mid'st and confines of both Tables And this they did as may probably be conjectured because they understood that this Sabbath-Law sheweth us the only way and meanes whereby the whole law of both Tables may be by men performed and that is By keeping or sanctifying this mysterious Sabbath which is Christ If it were not for this Sabbath God had herein made such a law for man as never would have bin kept and obeyed and so his laws must have bin like the lawes which * Theod. de Cur. Grae. affect lib. 9. Plato phansied for his imaginarie Common-wealth which were never executed But as one saith of the invention of Poets c Plautus in Pseâ—d Act. 1. sc 4. Poeta cùm tabâ—las cepit sibi Quaerit quod nusquam est gentium reperit tamen As the Poet when he takes his pen seekes that which is no where extant and yet finds it so our Legistaâ—or writes a law requires obedience which was not possible to be found in any of his Leige people and yet finds it in his own Sonne who thereby becomes the Sabbath or Rest both of God and Man For we well know That the Transgression of the law is sin 1 Ioh. 3. 4. That the wages of sin is death Rom. 6 23. That all men are sinners the Psalmist saith There is none that doth good no not on Ps 14. 3. which the Fathers thus read usque ad unum i. e. none but one And yet Christ saith If thou wiâ—t enter into lâ—fe keep the Commandments Math. 19. 17. These words of Christ are most certainly true No entring into life without keeping these Commandments If we enquire How sinful man can be saved and how we have kâ—pt the law The answer can be none other but this That the law is performed by man but that man is Christ That the due sentence of Death is executed on man but that man is Christ And with all that all faithfull men and true members of Christ have both performed the law and suffered the punishment due for transgression because that which Christ hath done and suffered must be really and justly accounted their's in regard that Christ and they are One. For they are really united with Christ in one body by the cement of the Spirit for the same Spirit which is in the Lord Jesus is given and communicated to them wherby Christ dwellâ—th in thâ—m thâ—y in Christ So that the keeping of Christ faithfully is keeping of the Commandments And keeping this Sabbath is the keeping of Christ for Christ only is thiâ— Sabbath all evangelical exhortations for beleeving in Christ are but precepts for keâ—ping this Sabbath As he that believeth and is baptised Mar. 16. 16. Joh 3. 15. Act. 16. 31. shal be saved That whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish And Beleeve on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved These are the productions and gracious effects of our union with Christ who thereby and not otherwise becomes our Rest and everlasting Sabbath CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Moral Sabbath Why he is concealed under this word Sabhath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference between the Lord of Sabaoth the Lord of Sabbath Of the Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah Another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbath-ship Sabbath-day-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament THis Sabbath as is said doth signify Christ whereof I nothing doubt But under the law both Christ and his gracious intentions towards man-kind were covered as Moses himself was with a vail and as yet not to be made publick Thus the Grand mystery of Christ's union with his members was vailed under the Typicall eating of the Paschal lamb his Cross under the shadow of an Altar His Passion and blood-shedding under the figures of sacrificeâ— beasts And that everlasting Rest and Blessednesse which he purposed to procure for his people is here covered under the vail of Sabbatical rest This Secrecie of Christ and of his benefits was signified by the Ark and Vail of the Temple the meaning whereof was that Christ would be concealed as shut up in a Chest or hidden behind a Curtain until he had actually performed his mercifull purpose especially by his Cross and Passion and Death for after them was the vail rent immediatly and not before And therefore he had formerly charged his Diciples to tell no man that he was the Christ Mat 16. 20. Luk 9. 21. left the certain knowledg of him should hinder his passion for so the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known they would not have Crucified the Lord of glory And after him Tertullian renders the same reason a Tert. Cont. Mar. lib. 3. Nisi ignoratus paâ—â— nâ—n poteraâ— i. e. If Christ had not bin unknown he could not have suffered And upon those words Joh. 8. 28. When ye have lift up the Son of man then shall ye know hat I am he Austin saith b Aug. in Joh. â—ract 40. Differo cognitionem vestram ut â—mpleam passionem meam i. e. he suffered his own Disciples as yet to be ignorant of his purpose that so he might accomplish his Passion And again he saith c Idem de Temp. serm 174. Si Christus man festus venisset quis au leret judicare i. e. If Christ had bin publickly manifested who he was who durst have judged him These are the reasons as may be thought why Christ is so vailed under this word Sabbath for otherwise the Law giver might and would have written this Sabbath-law in plainer words such as these Remembâ—r tâ— sanctify Messiah And in memory faith and expectation of Him thou shalt keep hoâ—â— the 7th day of every week until his comming and therein do no manner of work Verily I firmly beleeve this to be the meaning and main importance of this fourth Commandment But yet for our better satisfaction we must further inquire Whether the holy Scriptures and also the Christian Church do declare Christ to be that Sabbath which in the Moral part of this Commandment is intended and whether Christ be thereupon called the Sabbaâ—h For if so then I trust this Doctrine will be assented to by the Christian Reader To this we say That the Scriptures do clearly
these thy Lawes in ouâ— hearts we beseech thee This prayer is grounded on the promise of God recorded both in the Prophets and also in the Gospel Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 18. 10. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts If we enquire what that Law is and how God doth write it in our hearts and to what intent it is done The Answer is That this Law is Christ The putting or writing of it in our hearts is the mission of the Spirit of Jesus into us The intent or purpose thereof is that by a spiritual union of Christ with us we may fulfill the Law For because Christ and his Members are united by this Spirit and so become one mystical body therefore what Christ hath done in obedience to the Law must be accounted as our obedience and so imputed to us that because he hath performed the Law we also in him have performed it The Apostle tels us a 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you and b Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and c Eph. 3. 17. Christ may dwell in our hearts And Christ himself saith d Matth. 28 20. I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And the Apostle again e Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus And that we may know that when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us then we have also the Lord Jesus himself in us Another Apostle tels us f 1 John 4. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But how shall it appear That the putting of Christ into us is the putting of the Law of God into our hearts The Answer is That Christ is the Law there meant and he is called the Law and is really the Law * Moses is called by Phâ—lo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more is Christ so and not only so but he is moreover The Law with all advantages to us for he is the Law fulfilled That Christ is called the Law the Psalmist tels us a Psal 2. 7. Rom. 8. 2. I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art mâ— Son Here the Son is called the Law or Precept of the Lord. Then that Christ is the Law fulfilled or the fufilling of the Law Of him it is said in another Psalm b Psal 40 10. Heb. 10. 7 In the volume of thy Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart And this Christ himself professed c Mat. 5. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law This also was signified by his Type the Ark wherein d Heb 9. 4 the Law was put for the Ark represented Christ and the Law in it signified that Christ should keep that Law and this he did perform only to our behoof that his obedience might be accounted ours Upon this reason only it is that the Apostle so confidently saith e Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me If he can do all things then he can do all the works of the Law But we are well assured that he could not in his own proper person alone considered perform the Law but it must needs be thus only performed by him in and through Christ And in this consideration only Christ is our Rest and Sabbath For this reason our Church prayeth that God would incline our hearts to keep this Sabbath-law which is Christ That by keeping him the whole Law of God may be kept by us through and in him so as is here expressed by having the Law thus written in our hearts Thus this Moral Law which as Divines acknowledge is altogether impossible to the Natural man especially as it is exegetically aggravated and heightened in the Gospel is by this Sabbath made possible and easie to the Matth. 5. Spiritual man so the Apostle tels us a Rom. 10 4. Christ is the end or perfect on of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth that is He that believeth in Christ hath the benefit of performance of the Law brought home to him So St. Ambrose tels us b Ambr. in loc Perfectionem leg is habet qui credit in Christum CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first Institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the World is described without Evening and Morning The Sabbath described by Philo Parallel'd with Melchisedech and both Types of Christ IF Jesus Christ be the only Sabbath which is mysteriously covered and spiritually meant and really and ultimately intended in the Moral part of this fourth Commandement as certainly he is because he only is our Redeemer our Mediator and the Peace-maker of God with man We must next enquire how this Sabbath if it be so understood can be called a Day as here it is Remember the Sabbath day for by this word Day a man may reasonably-imagine that the principal intendment of this Precept was only for the Celebration or Sanctifying of a day as the Jewes do yet think and many good Christians among us do still though erroneously believe although they agree not in the self same day with the Jews Their reason is because not only in this former part of the fourth Commandement which I have shewed to be a Morall Natural and an everlasting Law but also in the latter words annexed which are a part of the Law ceremonial and therefore but temporal and transient it is also said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God by which words a man at first hearing would think that the Sabbath in both parts of this Law is nothing else but a day for if the seventh day be a Sabbath why may not the Sabbath be thought to be a Seventh day 1. Our Answer is That the seventh day is called a Sabbath because it was a type and figure of our true Sabbath and Rest which is Christ as the Jews corporal rest was but a figure of our spiritual rest in Christ And because it was so appointed for a figure or sign therefore it hath the name of the thing figured or signified thereby as other signs and types have for so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover yet we know Christ only is the true Passover as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 5. 7. So the Rock is called Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. So of the Eucharistical bread it is said This is my body though it was but a Sacrament or holy sign of the body of Christ And the seven Eares are seven Yeares Gen. 41. 26. Just so the seventh day is the Sabbath that is the sign type and figure of the mysterious Sabbath which is Christ 2. As the sign hath
therefore most worthily account and call our Sabbath Yet this is not all for we shall find that Christ is not only the Rest of men but that he is also the Rest of God which is next to be considered CHAP. X. Of Gods Resting That it is not a cessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor his laying aside his care and Providence in Government This Rest and Working doe consist together Something concerning the Creation of Humane Souls Of Vniversals what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God hath created any new kinds of Creatures since the first Seventh day CHrist is our Christian Sabbath we know none other Sabbath besides him for none but he can give sure and lasting Rest to our Souls he only hath wrought our peace with God and appeased the just displeasure of the Godhead he hath effected our Reconciliation and he is that Atonement by which God and man are reunited or set at one By his mediation it is that a Quietus est or Acquittance of our debts is signed by God so that if we can keep this Sabbath holy and persevere therein we may with true comfort and cheerfulness say with the great Apostle Who shall Rom. 8. 33. lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth it is Christ that died Those that teach others or that do imagine That the only duty required by this Sabbath-precept is the sanctifying of a day whether the last day of the week as the Jews do or the first day as some Christians think and therefore presume to call it not only the Lords day which is but a novelty with us in England as is said before but also the Sabbath day They are farre short and beneath the great purpose and intendment of this fourth Commandement and conceive too meanly and lowly of that most high and mysterious Sabbath which signifieth not only the Rest of man from bodily labours but also our rest from labours and terrors of our Conscience and moreover it representeth to us the Rest of God as it is said both in this Commandement and before also Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the Seventh day For to say that God laboured in these six dayes of Creation is a weak and heathenish conceit such as we read in that Epicurean Dispute in Tully a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Si in mundo Deus inest aliquis qui regat qui gubernet qui cursus astrorum muta ionesque temporum rerum vicissitudines or dinesque conservet terrasque maria contemplans hominum commoda vitasque tâ—eatur nae ille est implicatus molestis negotiis operosis If there be a God in this World ruling and ordering it and continuing the motions of the starres and seasons of the years and the various order and changes of times and taking cognisance of the Land and Sea for support of mans life and welfare surely he is a God incumbred with many troublesome and stirring businesses As if the Almighty Demiurgus could not both create and govern this World except he took great pains and labour therein And yet those Christians which say that Gods resting on the Seventh day signifieth only his cessation from that great Work do in a manner affirm the same But the resting of God hath a more high and more noble signification than so as I trust we shall anon make evident In order whereunto these two Queries are to be discoursed 1. What is here meant by Gods resting 2. Why he is said to rest on the Seventh day and not on any of the former six dayes To the first Querie VVhat is meant by 1. Querie Gods resting We say this resting doth not at all signifie or intend any cessation of the Godhead or any suspension or intermission of his operation or working for although it be said He ended his work which he had made and also That he rested from all his works which God had created Gen. 2. 2. yet it is not said that he ceased resting and ceasing are not all one Nor can this Rest be meant of any ease or refreshment of God as after some motion or stirring work or labour for such a rest was needless to him who never laboured at all Nor can it be meant of any weariness of God that were impossible St. Austin saith truly b Aug. de Civit. lib. 12. c. â—â—â— In opere Dei non est labor nec in quiete desidia quiescens agit agens quiescit And again Deus nec creando defessus nec cessando refectus i. e. In Gods working there is no labour nor in his resting any cessation he resteth working and working resteth he was neither weary in creating nor refreshed by ending it Nor can this Rest of God be so understood as if he then laid aside and cast off all care and providence for his Creatures which he had newly made This cannot be imagined by us for all Christians and Heathens also do acknowledge Gods perpetual management and government of the World for he did even that very Seventh day and all other dayes since co-operate with his Creatures by his assistance it is that these great wheels of Heaven are continually turning Nazianzen saith God is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his perpetual operation Both Divines and Philosophers call God Actum Purum and the Schoolmen call him Natur am natur antem i. e. God is purely Active and he that continually supplieth his Creatures with the ability of Operation which we call Nature for in him we live and move and have our being Of him Act. 17. 28. it is said in St. Austin c De Civ l. 4. c. 12. Deus est anima mundi Mundus est corpus Dei e. i. God is operative in the World so as our souls are in our bodies And the Poet saith of the divine Spirit Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Virg. Aeâ— 6. Mens agitat molem magno se corpare miscet All which is signed for a Scriptural-truth by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 6. God worketh all in all So then this Rest cannot signifie Gods cessation from working nor the withdrawing his Providence from his Creatures But our Neoterick Theologs have found out another Answer and do generally expound this Rest of God to signifie only a cessation from the work of Creation for they say that although God doth continually work or operate or co-operate with his Creatures which are already made yet he doth not create or produce any new Creatures indeed he daily maketh individual or particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Plants and Hearbs hut all these new productions are of the same Species i. e. sort and kind that God made at the first 1. In this Answer we observe two things First It is confessed that this Rest of God is not an absolute cessation from Work but only a cessation
the finger of God by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles were they at first created I suppose No. The blind man when he received sight told the Pharisees to their face which they could not deny John 9. 32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind 6. What can be said against the newness of Monsters or of mixt Creatures such as Leopards and Mules c. which now are extant but were not so at first created 7. It is said Jer. 31. 22. The Lord Movi coeli terra extractio Movi Adami generatio miracula morbi novi non sunt opera primae extractionis Mart. Borrhai in Gen. 2. in verbum Requievit hath created a new thing on the Earth a VVoman shall compasse a Man Which is meant of Christ to be conceived in the Womb of the Virgin-Mother which was a new thing indeed and a peculiar Signal mark to know the Messiah by 8. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth If you say it is meant but of a new State or condition of the Church under the Gospel I say so too But this new State or condition is not nothing it is not such as it was before and is new So is the creating of a clean or new heart Psalm 51. 10. it is a work of Regeneration or re-Creation and better to us than the Creation thereof 9. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips therefore the holy Apostolical Eloquence with all the excellencies of Rhetorick and Languages and Arts are the Works of God which are not reckoned among the Works of the first Creation and this is confirmed by Christ himself when he said Matth. 10. 19. Dabitur in illa hora And by that which others said of him John 7. 46. Never man spake like this man And all those new Languages at Babel were of Gods creating Gen. 11. Our Answer to this first Querie for present shall be but only Negative because our Discourse is not yet ripe for a full positive Answer viz. That this Rest of God doth not signifie only his cessation from creating the World And moreover we affirm That although God had made more such Worlds as a Diog. Laert. in Epicuro Epicurus thought or if he had made innumerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worlds of meer Creatures as b Plut. de Placitiâ— Philos l. 2. c. 1. Democritus in Plutarch said yet all such Worlds would not be of value and worth sufficient to procure this Mysterious Rest and complacency of the Almighty Creator But I proceed to the second Querie CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the Seventh day only although he intermitted creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer Creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the Seventh day and what that was Jewish fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve A short Answer to the second Querie OUr second Querie is Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day and not on any of 2 Querie the former six dayes There is surely something more then ordinary implied in this Rest of the Godhead more then the bare Letter expresseth and more then a meer cessation from the work of Creation because this Rest is fixed and appropriated to the Seventh day only and not said at all of any of the former six dayes wherein God did both create and also cease by some pause or respite from creation which interval is by us Mortals called a Rest as the labouring-man at Mid-day is permitted to take some small time for sleep or rest and therein intermitteth his work Doubtless God did not bestow the whole compass of each several day with its evening and morning in a continual creation or forming of his several Creatures for each of them were created by the Will or Word of God which might be in a moment The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens Ps 39. 6 9 made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done It is not likely that this word or breath of God was produced to the length of each whole day but that there was some respite and some time of cessation between the Acts of creating the several Creatures each several day yet this respite of God is never called his Rest until the Seventh day That there was a respite we read that Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2. 13. then Eve It is also very considerable That although it is said Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Whereby it appeareth that all the Creatures were made as the Angels of Heaven the Fowls of the Air and Man Beasts Plants Fishes of the Earth and Sea Notwithstanding God is not yet said to Rest on this sixth day Surely this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides these it seems he rested not in any or all these meer Creatures but in something that was more noble and worthy of this great honour of being the Acquiescence or Rest of the Godhead But what shall we say of the pre-existence of God before the Creation and the infiniteness and eternity thereof before all times when nothing was in being but only the pure Godhead in the three eternal Persons when neither Heaven nor Earth nor Man nor Angels were created We cannot say or imagine that God was then without Rest for besides that He with-held himself from creating and from all external working we know that he was at Rest in himself in his own blessed contentment and all-sufficiencie needing nothing which Rest of God could not then be interrupted by any business or outward operation What the immanent or internal Actions of the Godhead were then we know but little and that only which the holy Apostles have taught us in whom we read of the eternal purpose of God to oâ—dain Christ before the foundation of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. the world and of chusing us in him But we find no mention of any transient or external Works of the Godhead such as Divines call Operationes Dei ad extra and such as Creation is Yet in all that infinite and incomprehensible duration from Eternity it is never said that God Rested nor until this Seventh day Therefore this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides a cessation or suspension of working and also besides that blessed quiet and tranquillity which for ever was and is in the Godhead of which the heathen Philosophers rule is true h Nisi Quietum nihil Beaâ—um est i. e. God could not be happy if â— Tull de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. he were
not at Rest The Rest of God must be in something that is proportionable and equivalent in worth to himself therefore not in the whole great Creature of the World nor in any one particular parcel thereof which is no more then only a Creature moreover the Rest of God must be like himself eternal without any ending or intermission or ceasing therefore not in meer worldly Creatures for Heaven and Earth Mat. 24. 35. Psalm 102 â—â— shall passe away And they shall wax old and perish Indeed men set up their Rest in poor worldly temporalties and for them lose eternal Rest So doth not the Godhead So that this Rest of God must be grounded on some most worthy Subject or occasioned by some most excellent Object better than the world or any meer creature thereof and what that is we will enquire anon In order whereunto I offer to the consideration of the learned Reader one thing more viz. Whether the Godhead did not perform some part of the Creation on this very seventh-day on which God is said to Rest For if it may appear to be true that something was then made or perfected which was not finished in the six dayes This may happily afford us some light to guid us into the meaning or cause or occasion of God's Rest on that seventh-day more then on any or all the former six dayes To this our Answer is fiâ—st That no man doubteth but God did work on the first seventh day and all seventh dayes ever since as is shewed before Secondly That the Scripture seemeth expresly to declare that the whole Creation was not compleated or finished on the sixth but on the seventh-seventh-day for so we read Gen. 2. 2 On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made If it were not ended but on the seventh day then surely it was not ended on the sixth day If it be here said that although it was ended on the 6th day yet it might be truly said to be ended on the seventh day because it was ended before As one in Plutarch said b Plut. de Ira cohib If Alexander be dead to day he will be dead to morrow But this evasion will not serve turn because the Ending of the work and the Resting are both affirmed to be on the seventh-seventh-day precisely and on none other day For otherwise it might be said as well that God ended his work and rested on the eighth or ninth or any other after-day The Septuagint insteed of the Seventh-day rendred The sixth-day Gen. 2. 2. For they being Jews and zealous for their Sabbath would not have it thought that God wrought on the seventh-day But St. Jerome discovered the imposture and saith c Hier. Quaest. in Gen. To. 3. In Hebraeo diem septiman habet That the text in Hebrew hath the seventh-day And addeth Arct abimus Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur dum Deus oper atur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo c. We shall by this much press the Jews against their Sabbatical-Superstition seeing God himself wrought on the Sabbath and therein finished his work That God did not end or finish and compleat the work of Creation but on the seventh-seventh-day is the opinion not only of St. Jerome but of many other Later and right-Learned Divines If it â—e further enquired What particular work God made or finished on the seventh-day which was not so made on the sixth day In this we are Resolved by many great and Learned Divines That Adams side was not opened until the morning of the seventh-day And this may with great probability be observed out of the narration of Moses Gen. 2. Where after the Creation of the man which was performed on the sixth day it is said 1. God put the man into the garden of Eden vers 15. 2. God gave him the Law against eating the forbidden fruit 3. God said he would make him an help meet for him 4. God brought every Reast of the field and every Foul of the aire unto Adam 5. Adam gave names to all Cattel and to the fouls of the aire and to every Beast of the field v. 20. 6. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam And then took one of his ribs and of it made the woman All these transactions required a good space of time which reasonably might extend until the end of the sixth day and so unto the beginning of the seventh which we know was to commence and be accounted from the evening of the said sixth day His travel Estward to Eden and his naming that multitude of Creatures might well cause weariness and weariness might incline him to that deep sleep wherein the woman was made and this may justly be judged to be within the compass of the seventh-day For I think no man will deny but that between the Creation of the Man and the extraction and forming of the woman a good portion of time intervened But then If Eve were not made or formed before the seventh-day how shall we salve the truth of the Scripture which saith In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is To this the Answer is obvious and frequent for in the Creation of the man the woman was substantially and materially included a Civit. l. 15. c. 17. St. Austin observeth That Gen. 2 The man and woman are both called Adam And the Text saith Gen. 1. 27. Male and female created he them This was said before the woman was taken out of Adam's side Walfridus Strabus or whosoever was the author of the Ordinarie Gloss upon those words tels us b Prothemata gloss in Gen. Faemina nondum erat facta gloss Gen. jam homo masculus femina perhibetur sed quia ex latere Adae erat processura in illo computatur per substantiam à quo fuerâ—t producenda per formam i. e. These words are said of the time before Eve was formed the man is here presented both as male and female for Eve was accounted in Adam because she was then Originally and Substantially inrolled in him and soon after to be extracted and built out of him And again the same Glosser upon the same words tels us 1. c. Mulier nondum à viro divisa i. e. When those words were said they were to be understood of a time before the woman was taken out the man This truth was acknowledged by the Jewish writers who nevertheless invented fabulous conceipts thereupon They said that Adam Eve were created as One person their back-parts were joyned together until God divided them And That Adam was created with two faces Some of them called Adam Androgynum d Lyra in Loc. as Lyranus and the Glosser affirm i. e. an Epicene of both sexes just as the poet fained of his e Ovid. Met. l. 4. Aelia laelia Crispis nec vir nec mulier nec Androgyna c. Chytraeus in
WE are now come to the last but the greatest difficulty of this Sabbaticall Doctrine touching the Rest of God and to give some Answer to those two Queries mentioned before in the 10th Chapter First How God can be said to Rest who never laboured or was at unrest Secondly Why his Rest is fixed first on the seventh day of the world and not mentioned before or declared to have been from Eternity as certainly it was seeing this Rest was onely in consideration of the Messiah now secretly laid and couched in our first parents We may not think that this expression of the Rest Contentment or Complacency of God was occasioned onely by the newnesse of that work as man pleaseth himself in new apparell new fashions or new buildings This could not be the cause of God's Rest unto Whom all his intentions and works were known from Eternity and were all present to his Divine Providence with whom there is no futurity because whatsoever is future in respect of our human apprehension is ideally present to God In which respect the words of Solomon may be rightly understood There Eccles 1. 9 is no new thing under the Sun for nothing is new to the Godhead And the Apostles have declared that this very mystery in which as we have shewed the Rest of God consisteth is The eternall purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And That our Redemption Eph. 3. 11 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. with the pretious blood of Christ was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world And moreover That God hath also chosen us in him before the foundation of the Ephes 1 4. world This being undeniable we may wonder that this Rest of God is confined or limited to this one time and not mentioned before although it had been from everlasting To the first of those Queries our Answer is That the onely Rest or Sabbath of God is 1 Querie answered the Messiah because in the Obedience of Christ both active and passive the Godhead doth rest satisfied contented and well-pleased not onely with the proper and individuall person of Christ but also for and in him with all the holy Members of his Body mysticall being by faith united and One with him For therefore doth God rest in him because by him the whole Law was to be and now actually is performed so that all the duties debts and penalties which in justice are requirable of his servants are fully paid by Christ and thereby the just Godhead is satisfied to the uttermost farthing So that the Rest of God is in no wise to be ascribed to him in respect of any cessation from the work of Creation but onely in consideration of the acquiescence of God in Christ's satisfaction and thereby man's acquiescence or acquittance from the wrath of God That the Rest of the Godhead consisteth in Christ onely may appear by many passages in the Old Testament something obscurely and in the New more clearly for so we read in King Solomon's Prayer Arise O 2 Chron. 6. 41. Lord God into thy Resting-place thou and the Ark of thy strength This he said of the Temple at Jerusalem The like was said before by his father David of the Tabernacle Arise O Lord into thy Rest thou and the Ark of thy strength And the like was said Psal 132. 8 Numb 10. 35. before both by Moses Numb 10. 35. And it came to passe when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up Lord and let them that hate thee flee before thee * God is gon up with a shout Ps 42. 5. was said of the Tabernacle and Ark Lyranus in loc Observe here good Reader that Moses calls the Ark Lord and that David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest and Resting-place These speeches must needs point at and signify Christ for therefore onely did Moses give the title of Lord to the Ark because it was the type and signall of his presence with his people And therefore onely did David and Solomon call the Tabernacle and Temple God's Rest because they were the figures and types of Christ's Body wherein the Godhead was to rest but the very substantiall Body of Christ was the reall and true Temple of God indeed so Christ said Destroy this Temple Joh. 2. 19. 21. But he spake of the Temple of his Body That the Ark was the figure or representative of Christ's Body we are taught by St. Jerom upon those words Thou and the Ark of thy strength a Hier. iâ— Psal 132. Tu corpus assumptum quo diviniâ—as tegebaâ—ur So doth St. Austin expound those words b Aug. in loc Corpus Christi quod ex Maria natum est i. e. The Ark signified that body which God the Son assumed of the Virgin Mary in which his Godhead was covered But the Resting place of God cannot be meant principally or ultimately of the typicall Temple for that is destroyed long ago nor of the Ark for that is also lost nor is the Godhead now hid in a Chest The true Resting-place of the Godhead is onely the human Nature of Christ in which it resteth and abideth for ever so as not to be separated from it all Of this residence of the Godhead John Baptist thus spake I knew him not but he Joh. 1. 33. that sent me the same said unto me Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he c. For Christ is he on whom the Divine Spirit or Godhead not onely descended but resteth and remaineth for ever The holy Psalmist in the place before mentioned saith For the Lord hath chosen Sion Psal 132. 13 14. he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell What was Sion literally but an Hill or Rock and how doth God dwell there Verily no otherwise than in any other common part of the world Nor can it truly be said to be his Rest for ever if literally understood because we are sure Sion is long since forsaken as was prophesyed by Isaiah Jeremy and Micah and that this Sion should be plowed as a field Which prophecy Jer. 26. 18 a Euseb de Demon. lib. 6. cap. 13. Eusebius saith he saw performed with his own eyes Which dereliction is thought to have been intimated by that strange voice which was heard in the Temple a little before the finall destruction thereof b Joseph n. 24. Heges n. 34 Euseb Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. Hieron n. 4 Let us depart hence of which speciall notice was taken by many Writers as Josephus Hegesippus Eusebiu and Jerom. But in Sion was the house of David and the Tabernacle and the Ark and the Temple also stood on a part of that great hill of Sion all being figures of Christ for this reason onely it was said of Sion This is my rest for ever because the everlasting Rest of the Godhead
Church-prayer both in behalf of my self and others Lord Incline our hearts to keep this Law Amen Amen Thus much concerning the Sabbath Moral Next of the Sabbath Ceremonial Macrobius Saturnaliorum lib. 6. cap. 9. Quia seculum nostrum ab omni Bibliothecâ vetere descivit Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si Veterum lectio nobis esset familiaris A Discourse of the Jewish Hebdomarie or Ceremonial Sabbath wherein is contained an Exposition of the Later and Ceremoniall Part of the 4th Commandment CHAP. XVII An Exposition of the Ceremonial Part of the 4th Commandment begun That the 6 dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the 7th day is called a Sabbath onely because it is a figure of the true Sabbath That the 7th day Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the 8th day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the dayes of Moses St. Jerom 's Translation and our English compared The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of VVorks on the Jewish Sabbath That Corporall Rest was but the figure of our Rest in Christ HAving thus far proceeded in the search of the Sabbath Morall which is commanded in the fourth Precept of the Morall Law of God in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it In the next place we are to consider the other words of that Law which we have declared to be meerly Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall and obliging the Jews onely and not other Nations and to be now antiquated ever since the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh Which ceremoniall part taketh up all the words of this Law except onely those few above mentioned the severall branches whereof we will now endeavour to expound as they are in order laid down Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work 1. These words are no Command so as to require our labour all the other six dayes but they are onely a Permission by which the Jews were invited to a diligent and cheerfull celebration of their Sabbath in regard God had given them six dayes for their own occasions and reserved but one in the seven to himself when he might have left them but one in the seven which yet was not for any need that God had of it but onely for the benefit of his people just as be permitted all the Trees of Paradice to Adam except onely one Thus far Calvin and other Divines generally agree 2. For if these words were a Command to work all the other six dayes they would contradict other Laws whereby the Jews were commanded to Rest as at the Feast of the Passeover 〈◊〉 12. 16. and at Pentecost Levit. 23. 21. and at the Atonement Levit. 23. 28. at the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 25. and at the feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 35. These Feasts did all depend upon the Moon and therefore might and did fall on any and every one of the other six dayes respectively 3. If this Law were Morall how could we Christians lawfully abstain from working on our Sundayes and Fasting-daies and daies of Thanksgiving and other Festivalls commanded by lawfull Authority It followeth But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God These words as I conceive are not rightly rendred by our English Translators of which we will enquire anon and for present take them as they are presented In what sense the seventh day is here said to be the Sabbath of the Lord our God we have shewed before namely That it is therefore called the Sabbath because it was appointed to be a ceremony and figure to represent to the Israelites the true and reall Sabbath or Rest in the Messiah So that it is called a Sabbath just as we call Pictures by the names of those things which they represent as the Painter in Aelian wrote over his pictures * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 10 c. 10 This is an Ox this is an Horse this is a Tree So in Scripture the Ark is often called JEHOVA as †Catech. part 2. p. 45. Beza observeth the Altar is also so called Exod. 17. 15. and the Dove is called the Spirit Joh 1. 33. the seven Kin◠are seven years Gen. 41. and the Rock i◠Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. For if the seventh day were the onely Sabbath intended in this Commandment we Christians should at this day be bound to keep it as much as the Jews were That Christ or the Apostles changed the seventh day to the eighth or Saturday to Sunday is often too boldly affirmed by our Sabbatarian Writers and too tamely swallowed by their followers which as yet they never have or ever can solidly prove But to say that Christ utterly dissolved the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath and yet left the true Sabbath unaltered to us which is our firm Rest in himself and that the Church first then Christian Magistrates also assumed another day even our Sunday instead of the Jewish seventh day for their holy Assemblies is true and easily proved although they never called this Sunday a Sabbath Nor can the Jewish seventh day possibly be that Morall Sabbath which is meant and intended in this fourth Commandment because it is here said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God For we are well assured that the seventh day is not so to be accounted the Rest of God as if God ceased from his operation on every or on any one seventh day but his Rest was onely in consideration of the Saviour of Mankind because on the first seventh day of the world he formed the Woman as is before shewed and even then on that seventh day and ever since upon every seventh day he hath been operative in governing the world and co-operating with every creature therein without any intermission at all But he is said to rest on that seventh day because then our first parents were compleatly and fully finished and in them was laid the foundation of the future Church that is Christ who together with his holy Members was to be propagated joyntly from the Man and the Woman So that Christ onely was and is the Sabbath or Rest of God and men Upon this reason it was that the seventh day was long after sanctified or set apart for a day of bodily rest that thereby it might be a type figure and ceremoniall remembrance or commemoration of Christ the great and mysterious Sabbath Therefore the Seventh day and the Sabbath day are two distinct and severall things and differ as much as the shadow and the body or as Christ and the Lamb that is as much as Type and Anti-type For as the Lamb literally was not Christ but his figure so the seventh day literally considered was not the Sabbath here meant but typically the shadow or representation thereof Just so the Apostle saith of this seventh-day-Sabbath and of other such like ceremonies that they are a shadow of things to come but the body is Col. 2.
17. Christ The Reader may further observe that it is not here said The seventh day was the Sabbath but Is in the present tense and this because God never declared that the seventh day should be observed untill the daies of Moses although the Godhead did ever from the first seventh day acquiesce in Christ and not onely upon the seventh day but every day and every minute and so will do to eternity when no distinction of daies shall be any more but one everlasting day Therefore they are mistaken that think the seventh day to have been appointed to be observed on the first seventh day of the world as a Sabbath for in all the Histories of the Patriarks before the Flood and also after the Flood in the Mosaicall History of Noah Abraham Isaac and Jacob the Reader will never find the word Sabbath so much as once mentioned untill Moses wrote the History of his own time which was about 24 hundred years after the creation of the world We observe also that in St. Jerom according to the Originall and generally in all the Latin Writers Calvin and all these words are otherwise read than our English Translation hath rendred them for we read them thus The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God but they Septimo die Sabbatum Domini Dei tui est i. e. On the seventh day the Sabboth of the Lord thy God is By these words it may appear that the seventh day was not the true and reall Sabbath here meant but that the celebration and memoriall of the Morall Sabbath was to be performed on the seventh day so that the Sabbath and the seventh day are two distinct things and differ as much as substance and shadow For the Rest of God in Christ is the true Sabbath both of God and men and the corporall rest of men was no more but onely the memoriall and celebration thereof Just so the Fathers spake concerning the great Christian Festivall of the Nativity of Christ on the 8th of the Kalends of January or 25th of December a Cyp. n. 99 Adest Christi Nativitas And b Orig. n. 46. Hieron n. 41. Hodie verus Sol mundo ortus est And c Chrys n. 61. Deus hodie factus est homo And d Aug. de Temp. Ser. 16. Hodie natus est Christus i. e. Now is the Nativity of Christ come This day the true Sun is risen This day was God made Man To day was Christ born In all which passages every one knows that these Fathers meant not that Christ was really born on that very particular day wherein they spake or wrote these words but onely that the celebration of his Nativity was performed on that day So it is here the seventh day was not the true reall and morall Sabbath but onely the day appointed for the memoriall and celebration of that Sabbath for the true Sabbath was the rest of God and men in Christ and the seventh day was the time appointed for the celebration thereof Nazianzen saith of Christian Festivalls e Naz. O. rat 39. Festi celebratio est memoria Dei i. e. Christian Festivals are but memorials of God So God himself said of the Sabbath-Feast Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a signe between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord JEHOVA that doth sanctifie you In it thou shalt not do any work First this branch doubtlesse belongeth onely to the Ceremoniall Jewish or seventh-day Sabbath but not at all to the true substantiall Sabbath and therefore it doth not in the least concern us Christians by vertue of this Law because the seventh day or Saturday-Sabbath is antiquated and quite gon 2. If this branch did belong to the Morall Sabbath or if the sanctifying of the seventh day were the onely Sabbath meant in this Commandment surely it would be a great sin to do any of the prohibited works on that day in any case of necessity or inconvenience because the Morall Law of God is indispensable and so may not be transgressed upon any pretence whatsoever as is before shewed 3. If this branch were Morall it must needs be in force at this day and then No fire must be kindled Exod. 35. 3. No sticks gathered Numb 15. 32. Nor Manna Exod. 16. 26. No burden carried Neh. 13. 19. Jer. 17. 21. No journeying or going out of our place Exod. 16. 29. No harvest-work Exod. 34. 21. In a word we might not feed our Cattle or milk our Kine or draw a Beast out of a pit nor perform the works of Surgery of Midwifery or quench a burning house But if we can shew that such works were done on the seventh day and also that they are sufficiently warranted to be inoffensive to God then I trust the Reader will perceive that this prohibition of works doth not at all belong to the keeping of the true morall and everlasting Sabbath but onely to the Jewish sanctifying of their ceremoniall and temporall Sabbath And therefore this Law was dispensable in case of necessity or of charitable convenience as may thus appear 1. The Israelites performed the works of Journeying and War in their marching about â—ericho seven daies together one of them must be the Sabbath day This was done by God's expresse command in the Old Testament And in the New Testament there is also expresse mention of a Sabbath day's journey Act. 1. 12. 2. The Priests in the Temple carried fuell and kindled fires offered Sacrifices and baked bread and so as Christ said they profaned Mat. 12. 5. the Sabbath that is the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath and yet were blamelesse And this because there was a necessity laid on them even the commandment of God who yet would not have so commanded against his own morall Law 3. As for carrying burdens we know Christ commanded the impotent man to take Joh. 5. 8. take up his bed And for Cures himself performed many on the Sabbath day on set purpose to undeceive the Jews in their Sabbaticall and Pharisaicall superstitions And also excused his own Disciples for gathering corn on the Sabbath 4 As for the works of mercy and charity towards our brethren and even to our poor cattle how many generall precepts have we A righteous man regardeth the life of his Prov. 12. 10. Mat. 12. 11 beast It is Christ's own orgument If a sheep may be lifted out of a pit on the Sabbath day much more may a man in danger be holpen This he grounded on the Word of God by his Prophet Hos 67. I will have mercy and not sacrifice That is God will rather dispense with his own due for a while then thereby retard the works of mercy and compassion The Psalmist saith O Lord thou preservest â—sal 36. 6. man and beast Thus As Moses cast the two Tables of the Law out of his hands and brake them and yet Exod 32. 19. thereby brake
Tacitus reporteth But most barbarously cruell was that fact of Parrhasiâ—s a Painter which is related by k Sen. lib. 5. cont 35. Seneca either as a true History or at least as a case in Law which then was casus dabâ—lis who toâ—tured his captive-servants in flames to death that so he might have a pattern to paint Prometheus by Nor was this all but for an aggravation of their miseries they were so far from being pittied that Poets and Players made them a common argument of publick mirth and derision in open Theaters wherein they were described as l Plautus catenarum coloni ulmorum Acharuns verberea statua Gymnasium flagri Plagipatidae Plagigeruli Sexcentoplagi c. And sometimes were forced to a part in some Tragedy of Phaeton or Hercules burning or of one crucified and in stead of dying in jest they were in earnest really put to death as appeareth by the Spectacula of m Mart. Spect. Ep. 7 Martial And this was done to please the people Thus were the Jews and Heathen-Gâ—ntiles cruell but God was and is mercifull and therefore in consideration of the hard-heartednesse and power of masters over their servants whereby they might by tortures compell them to work on forbidden daies he hath by this Law in such cases laid the transgression and consequently the punishment thereof not on the compelled servant but on the masters own head And there is no doubt but the equity of this ceremoniall Law of the Jews doth also reach the Christians and Gentiles All men are but servants and fellow-servants under one Master who in his Gospell hath thus threatned That servant which shall smite his fellow-servants shall be cut in sunder and shall have his portion with Mat. 24. 49. hypocrites Nor thy Cattle The mercifull Godhead by his Law taketh care even for poor cattle more then the Heathen Laws did for mankind as * Philo de Charitate Mosis p. 710 Philo observeth in imitation whereof the Jews had a Tradition belike from some of their holy Ancestors concerning mercy to be shewed to dumb creatures in distresse as Eusebius reports in these words †Euseb de Praep. l. 8. cap. 2. Nuilius animalis preces cum ad te lamentanti simile refugiat contemnas The meaning was that if a poor beast or bird pursued by ravenous beasts or birds or birds of prey shall fly to a man for safeguard he should protect it from the pursuer This provision for cattle is annexed to this Sabbath-Law for two reasons 1. Because the Jewish-Sabbath was a type or figure of Rest not onely of mankind after the end of this world but also of the rest and freedom of other worldly and domestick creatures which are now subservient to man and toiled with labours as the Ox and Asse the Horse and Mule and Camell c. A mercifull man cannot chuse but many times to pitty and commiserate the excessive labours and daily slaughterings of the creatures of which the Apostle saith that one day They shall be delivered from the bondage under Rom. 8. 21 which the whole creation groaneth 2. Because the working of domestick cattle must needs require the assistance and co-operation of man Therefore it is here forbidden Nor the stranger that is within thy gates By this Law other Nations are not restrained from working on the Jewish Sabbath which did not at all concern them Onely if aliens or forrainers did sojourn within the Jewish-gates that is within the jurisdiction either Domestick or Politick of the Jews then the Jews are required to cause them to forbear working on their Jewish Sabbath day So that this restraint of aliens or strangers was confined to be onely within the Jewish limits and territories for strangers or aliens abiding in other places out of the Jewish pale were at liberty to work and for so doing the Jews are not by this Law required to forbid or hinder them That sons servants and even cattel are here placed before strangers the reason is 1 Because they are the Jews own peculiars of nearer relation and more subject to their commands than strangers are 2. To intimate that the Jews should first practise and obey the Law in their own persons and families for otherwise it would seem vanity pride or hypocrisie to require obedience or compliance from others There is a woe to such as lade other men with burdens which themselves will Luk. 11. 46. not touch with one of their fingers which may concern those which lay the restraint of Jewish Sabbatizing on others under the penalties of pecuniary mulcts or the Stocks or Sequestration which yet themselves sleight by marching travelling fighting and killing on the same day Certain Observations arising from this Exposition By what hath been said it may evidently appear to a diligent Reader that this seventh-day Sabbath was meerly Ceremoniall and concerned onely the Jews or Israeliticall people and not other Nations as may be collected from the premises for these reasons following 1. Because the transgression or violation of this Sabbath-Law by sons or servants by command or compulsion of their Rulers is here declared to be the sin of the commander onely and not of the son or servant which could not be if this Law were Morall 2. If this seventh-day Sabbath-keeping were a Law Morall then it must follow that whosoever transgressed therein whether by his own will and election or by command or fear or compulsion greatly sinned Otherwise the Christian Martyrs might have been as well excused if they had worshipped the Heathen-Idolls when they were commanded by their lawfull Princes and moreover terrified by excessive torments and death But they knew that Idolatry was forbidden by a Law Morall and therefore refused to obey But this seventh-day Sabbatizing is not commanded by a Morall but onely by a Law Ceremoniall 3. These words Thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant c. are not said of any other of these morall Laws Not of having other gods nor of Idols nor Perjury nor dishonouring Parents nor Murder nor Aduliery nor Theft c. Because sons daughters and servants transgressing any of these truly Morall Laws though by any command or terrour of their Governours yet the sin must be their own But if sons or servants did work on this Ceremoniall Sabbath by command and compulsion the sin was in the commander and not in the obeyer Therefore this must needs be a Ceremoniall Precept and not Morall and it is imposed on Parents Masters and Governours because the fault is not in the servants obedience to his Master but in the Masters disobedience to God The Apostle saith Children obey your Parents but Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 18. 20. 22. he addeth in the Lord. And again Wives submit your selves to your own husbands he addeth as it is fit in the Lord. And Children obey your parents in all things Servants obey in all things your masters he addeth Fearing God So that if their commands
for that people being under that command but we have not any such command nor warrant now to expect such miraculous provisions 2. If the Jubilean Sabbath law of repossessing estates by the Ancient and rightfull owners should now take place with us as was commanded Levit. 25. 13. This would bring much sorrow to our late purchasers or intruders into other mens estates would reduce many of our new Gentry to their former trades and much disappoint their Gentle-homified posterity 3. If all those which by ordinary works transgresse the law of the Jewish Sabbath which is our Saturday should be put to death as was commanded Ex. 31. 14. What would become of traders manufactors market-keepers husbandmen and of the greatest part of the Christian World 4. If all false Prophets should be put to death that speak to turne us out of the way which the Lord our God hath commanded us to walk in as is commanded Deut. 13. 5. it would be ill with many of our new Time-serving Preachers for Preaching in the New Testament is often called Prophesying as Mat. 7 22. and 1 Cor. 14. 1. 5. If those that Curse their Parents though but a Domestick Fathâ—r only of a family should be put to death as is commanded Ex. 21. 17. Levit. 20. 9. what should become of those Sonnes of Beâ—â—al which have cursed and blasphemed their Publick Father Patrem Patriae 6. If Sacriledg should now be punished with death as it was Joâ—h 7. 25 Or false wittnesses Such as our Bithynian and b Iuvenal Sat. 8. Cappadocian knights of the post are Or if all young married woemen which are discovered after mariage to have bin deflowred before marriage as Deut. 22. 21 Or if no usury must be taken of our brethren as Deut. 23. 19 Or if all debts must be released freely to our neighbour or brother every seventh year as it is commanded Deut. 15. 2 Such Judicials would much displease a great number of people of this kingdom He that imagineth that he can compose one frame of lawes Politick or Ecclesiastick that may fitly serve and accommodate all christian Commonwealths and Churches may as easily phansy as it is in the fable that he can make a coat for the Moon Let him first perswadeour Nobles and Gentry to keep them to one fashion of apparrel our Legislative Statesmen never to make new or abrogate old Lawes either of the Commonwealth or of the Church But wee have seen both Politick and especially ecclesiastick lawes changeable as the Moon To Solomon the Church appeared fair as the Moon Cant. 6 10. Upon which words the Gloss saith Variatur status ejus nunc clara nunc dehonestata vitiis pravorum i. e. The Church is somtimes cleer somtimes denigrated by the vices of men her state is variable Doctor Donn was a profound Divine and a rare Poet Poets are called Divine and the Scripture calles them Prophets Tit. 1. 12. Luna est Ecclesia quia à filio illuminatur qui est Sol. Aug. in Psal 10. This learned Doctor as a propheticall Divine intituled one of his books Ecclesia Lunatica i. e. The Church Lunatick as St. Austine calls this life a Aug in Solilo c. 11. Tom. Vitam Lunaticam This I trust is enough to shew that the keeping holy of the Jewish Sabbath or Saturday or a weekly Seaventh day cannot be inforced by any authority or vertue of the Judicial law of Moses CHAP. III. Of the Ceremoniall laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated The Dissolving of them and particularly the Sabbath by Christ And why Christ did dissolve it The judgment of the Fathers herein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jewes did and doe yet That Christ appointed no new Sabbathday in-stead of the old 2 The Ceremonial Lawes THere is another sort of lawes imposed on the Ancient people of God which are called the Ceremoniall Lawes such as concerned the Covenant and the worship of God consisting of Ceremonies and Rites to be used by the Abrahamicall or Mosaicall or Jsraeliticall people untill the ending of the Leviticall Preisthood and no longer as Circumcision far more ancient then the seventh day Sabbath having bin imposed on the Abrahamits long before Levi or Moses were born and afterwards it was also inacted as a law by Moses Ex. 12. 49. Levit. 12. 3. So the Pascall feast and Sacrifices of certain beasts and birds to be offered only at the Tabernacle or Temple So Feastivalls are appointed of new Moons of At-onements or Expiation and other Festivalls besides the 7th day sabbath which are recorded Levit. 23. and are also called Sabbaths as the At-onement Levit. 16. 31. And the 7th year Lev. 25. 4. And the feast of Trumpets Lev. 23. 24 and of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 39. All which were but Types Shadows and Figures Which are now expired because the Substance and Antitype of them is come which is Christ who was but onely prefigured and represented by those Ceremonies Now because those Ceremonialls were of none other use but onely to prefigure Christ with his benefits And because the Jewes did not rightly use them to that purpose and intent for which they were appointed God himselfe who Ordained them did neverthelesse reject them even whilest they were in force and to be performed by Command of the Ceremoniall law And this was because the Jews did not rightly understand their Significations and therefore did misuse them Hence it is that God expostulateth with the Jewes Isa 1. 12 13 14. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices bring no more vain oblations-the Newmoons and Sabbaths I cannot away with them-your appointed feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to beare them The same rejection of these Ceremonies we find againe Jâ—r 6. 20. And particularly of their feasts he saith Amoâ— 5. 21 I hate and despise your feast-dayes And before these prophets the holy Psalmist had said Psal 40. 6 Sacrifices and offerings thou diddest not desire All these reprehensions were only because the Israelites of those times did erre from the true meaning and intent for which those Sabbaths and Sacrifices were set up for they supposed that the Opus Operatum or bare outward work and literall performance without any faith or consideration of the Messiah thereby signified was all that God required of them But afterward when Messiah was come and by preaching published those Ceremonies ended so that not only the abuse of them but the very use of them was utterly rejected and became sinfull For St. Paul tels us of the grand ceremony Circumcision Gal. 5. 2. If ye be Circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing And of Sabbaths and other ceremonies he saith Col. 2. 16. Let no man judg you in meat or drink or in respect of an Holy-day or New-moon or of Sabbath dayes which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is Christ By which we are fully
be of things indifferent onely or though against some Laws of God which are but meerly ceremoniall as working on the Jewish Sabbath was then servants must obey actively but if their commands be against the Morall Law of God the servant must in no wise perform his master's command nor obey him therein otherwise than passively by bearing his punishment patiently In this case we have Christ's own direction concerning parents He that loveth father or mother more Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. than me is not worthy of me And If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple For although it is not lawfull in any case to hate the persons of our parents otherwise than we must hate or sleight our own lives or souls yet in obedience to God we may and must hate and detest their pernitious commands 4. If this seventh-day Sabbath had been in force from the first seventh day of the world as some have too hotly and unadvisedly affirmed and if the Israelites in their Aegyptian bondage had been thereby obliged to Sabbatize as they must have been if it had been a Morall Law they must have obeyed God rather than men notwithstanding the Aegyptian rigour towards them But surely they had never heard of such Sabbatizing untill they were delivered out of Aegypt For when they petitioned Pharaoh by Moses to have leave to go into the desart three daies journey to sacrifice Exod. 5. 3. it seemed but a pretence for idlenesse and much more would their weekly Sabbatizing have been accounted by him who never had heard of any such thing For surely neither Jacob nor Joseph nor any of those other Patriarks Sabbatized while they continued in Aegypt which they might have done at their first comming and also during the great authority of Joseph and also would if any such morall Law had been imposed on them Therefore if they had neglected their Exod. 5. 4. Bricks upon an allegation of Sabbatizing not onely the inferiour Israelites but even Moses himself and Aaron also had been relegated as one saith Plaut in Asin Apud Fustitudinas Ferri-crepinas insulas Ubi v. vos homines mortu◠incursant boves But in the Babylonish Captivity when this seventh day-Sabbath was actually in force although no doubt the captive Jews were commanded and forced and therefore did work on this seventh day yet they did not offend God thereby because that Law was but ceremoniall and so must give place to necessity and to the great inconvenience of force and stripes In that book intituled Quaestiones Vet. Novi Testamenti which goes under the name of St. Austin The Author very judiciously thus writeth a Aug. parte 2. quaest 23. To. 4. Quod semper non licet non habet excusationem Sabbatum non observare quand que excusationem habet sed Adulterium c. nunquam i. e. That which to do is alwayes unlawful cannot be excused from sin upon any colour whatsoever but the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath-day in some cases is excusable whereas the transgression of the Moral Lawes of God as by Idolatry Perjury Murder Adultery c. is not at all to be excused in any case Thus this Writer evidently sheweth that the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral Lawes of God 5. Finally Let it be considered that these words Thou thy Son Servant Cattel and Stranger are not placed at the beginning of this fourth Commandement as Remember is nor mentioned until the Moral part of this Law was described and finished But they are with great wisdome warily reserved to be put into the Ceremonial part thereof because they do not belong to the Moral Sabbath which commandeth the keeping holy or the sanctifying of the Messiah for Cattel cannot sanctifie this Moral Sabbath Nor was there any need of requiring Parents or Masters to cause their Sons or Servants so to do because the Son and Servant were by themselves bound to it and if they did not the sin was in themselves and not in the Parent or Master For the Moral Sabbath which is Christ the Messiah might be kept holy or sanctified by Servants even in the midst of their sorest labours As our Christian Martyrs did keep this Sabbath even in the time when they laboured in the Mettal-mines and also in the midst of flames and other agonies Whereas the Ceremonial or Seventh-day-Sabbath is here appointed to be kept by resting from ordinary works without any mention of any other kind of sanctification which not only Servants and the most ignorant Ideots but Cattel also might keep For so the Heathen Romans had a Festival which they called a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Festum Stultorum And at Syracusa in Sicilie there was a Festival called b Plut. in Nicia Dies Asinarius And among the Greeks a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Feast which they called c Athaeneus l. 3. Porcalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And another they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. The Feasts of Fools Asses Swine and Dogs So indeed the Jewish Seventh-day Rest or Sabbath was not only for Masters and Servants but also for Cattel as requiring only bodily Rest which therefore Bishop Andrews doubted not to call d B. Andr. Cat. on the 4th Com. Sabbatum Boum Asinorum In a word the Ceremonial Sabbath belonged not only to Men but to Cattel also who had their interest therein Therefore those words Servants and Cattel are joyntly placed in the ceremonial part of this Commandement and not in the morall part thereof with the Memento But the true Moral and Mysterious Sabbath which is Christ belongeth only to Mankind which the great Prophet doth therefore thus describe e Isa 58. 13. Si vocaveris Sabbatum Delicatum Sanctum Domini gloriosum glorificaveris eum i. e. If thou call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him Here the Sabbath is described as a Person and not as only a day as is before observed And these Titles of Delight and Holy of the Lord and Honourable belong only to Christ who is indeed the only true reall and substantiall Sabbath both of God and Man The Stranger or Gentile includeth all other Nations besides the Jews even us Christians also and so the Jews at this day account us but as Gentiles and Strangers although the wall of partition between them and us is broken Eph. 2. 14. down But we Gentiles do at this day keep the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ so do not the Jews And the Jews keep the Saturday shadowie and ceremonial-Sabbath unseasonably now when it is out of date but so do not we Christians except there be any left among us that judaize CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six dayes and yet that he ended his Work on the Seventh day Why the Creation was
prolonged six dayes The order of Creatures first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made and that it was intended principally for Mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned though it was prepared within the first six dayes Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandement and not in any of the other Nine That the Moral Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son who is called The Beginning the Word and the Wisdome of God and is therefore commanded to be sanctified For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in in them is and rested the Sevenâ—h day IT is here said That the World was made in six dayes and before Gen. 2. 1. that the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the host of them And yet it follows immediatly That on the seventh â—â—y God ended his work which he had made How both these Propositions are true we have shewed before namely That although the Woman was not extracted and separated nor builded or formed out of the Man until the seventh day yet it is truly said that the Creation was finished in six dayes because the Woman was included in the Man Materially Substantially and Originally although as yet Informiter as the Glosse saith that is not formed fashioned or compleated which work was respited until the seventh day and thereupon it is said that on it he ended his Work and not before In six dayes Although God could have made the World in one minute yet he prolonged the work for six dayes whereof St. Austin and other Writers attempt to render some account as 1. To intimate that after the toylings and labours of the six dayes or Ages of this World his Servants should have rest with Him 2. To teach us that we should not expect that God will do all that he can do for us on a sudden either in conferring Mercies temporal or Graces spiritual but orderly and by degrees as calling justifying glorifying and in his good time The promised Seed of Abraham was not born till the old age of his Parents nor the Egyptian deliverance performed nor the Land of Canaan possessed till four hundred yeares after the Promise Heaven and Earth The order of these Creatures is observable First Heaven then Earth The blessing of Jacob was The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth But Esau's was The fatness of earth and the dew of heaven A true Character of Worldlings and Epicures who preferre earthly things before heavenly as one in the a Claud. de Rapt Pros lib. 1. Poet saith Salve gratissima tellus Quam nos praetulimus coelo So the Epicure in Nazianzen professed Da mihâ— praesens i. e. give me my portion in this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let God reserve the future to himself Which is but the same that some among us profess even by their own words and others farre more wickedly practise by bloody deeds prosecuting earthly profits pleasures and honours with the manifest neglect and disclaiming of heaven and trafficking for hell as Witches do and all this at a much lower rate than Satan offered Mat. 4 8. to Christ Heaven Gen. 1. 1. It is said In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth The Heaven there meant I take to be that which St. Paul cals The third Heaven which to us is invisible 2 Cor. 12. 2. that it might be the Paradise or habitation of Angels as both a Aug. de Civit. lib. 11. Austin and other Divines have thought because as God ordained the earthly Paradise for Man at or before his creation so he prepared the Paradise of Heaven at or before their creation and this because it is said Gen. 2. 1. The Heavens and the Earth were finiâ—hed and all the host of them The word Heaven alone implieth the creation of Angels as Austin saith in the place before cited or if not these words all the host of heaven will include them And here it is said The Lord made heaven and earth and all that therein is By which words we conceive that not only the house of Heaven but also the Inhabitants thereof were finished So the Heaven which is said to have been created in the beginning must signifie the Empyreal or highest Heaven because the Creation of this lower heaven which is visible is said to have been done in the second day's work and it is called The Firmament Gen. 1. 7. And this Firmament is also called Heaven vers 8. To pâ—t a difference or distinction between the former and later or the highest and lower Heavens and this to me seemeth to be confirmed by the words of Christ Come ye blessed Mat. 25. 38. inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World By which words surely he meant that Heaven which was created in the beginning for blessed Angels and Men. Now although this highest Heaven was made and also inhabited by Angels yet God is not said to rest in that Work nor untill he had finished the Man and the Woman and in them had laid their Saviour to conduct them to that Heaven which was not intended only for Angels but principally for Mankind as Christ said prepared for You. In order whereunto the Angels were to be instrumental as we are taught by the Apostle Are Heb. 1. 14 they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of salvation By which most gracious provision our God hath declared himself to be a true Philanthropus And also a lover of Mankind rather more than a lover of Angels For out of this heavenly Paradise the apostate-Angels were soon cast and so left without a Redeemer or any hope of return One of them it was that deceived Eve therefore the fall of Angels was before the fall of Man Indeed Man also was sent out of the earthly Paradise for sin but yet he was not left without a possibility of Reconciliation and return to a better Paradise which was to be effected by the Seed of the Woman even the Messiah who is therefore the true and reall Sabbath of Man And herein also is the love of God to Man highly expressed in that he rested only in consideration of Mankind and the Saviour of us and not in the creation either of Heaven or of Angels Heaven and Earth See how our merciful Creator in the very beginning joyneth Earth with Heaven although the Earth was then invisible clouded in darkness and in an abysse of waters between it and Heaven yet they are here joyned as to intimate so early that notwithstanding the powers of darkness and the worldly insultations of proud Oppressors God would in time bring together and unite Earth with Heaven which he performed by and in Christ Even the first Adam was composed of an heavenly Soul and an earthly Body as a resemblance of the second Adam who
〈◊〉 or anticiâ—â—tion as St. Augustine calls it without Aug. lib. locut in Nu. To. 3. which Figure the truth and actuall performance of their prophecies cannot appear And for our right understanding of those proleptiâ—al Prophecies the Fathers have left us many rules and instances such as these Tertullian saith a Tert. de Trin. Scriptura Quae futura suâ—t proâ—factis annuntiat After him Eusebius observeth b Euseb-Demonst l. 4. c. Prophetica consuetudo est Quod futurum est quasi praeâ—â—ritum enuntiare St. Rasil saith c Bas in â—â—a c. 1. â— Naz. Orâ—t 35. Prophetae ennarrant futura quasi praeterita And Nazianzen d In Scriptura sepè â—empora invertuntur The same is observed by Cyril Chrysostom Ambrose and very often by St. Austin The great Apostle hath also taught us that â—o 4. 17. God calleth those things which be not as though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon which words the Glosse saith e â—los in â—oc Apud â—um jam sâ—nt quae futura sunt With God those things are present which to us are to come And Habet electos suos quos creaturus est quos habet apud semetipsum non in naturâ— suâ sed in praesentia sua i. e. God hath his Elect which yet are not born he hath them in himself and present with him though not existent in nature All this we find to be confirmed by the writings of the Prophets in whom God spake Isaiah saith of Christ Unto us a châ—ld is born and unto us a son is given yet Isa 9. 6. this Prophet died about 600 years before the birth of Christ He saith again of the Passion of Christ He was wounded for our transgressions Isa 53. 5 7 he was bruised for our iniquities He was oppressed afflicted brought as a lamb to the slaughter c. Just so the Psalmist spake long before They pierced my hands and Psal â—2 〈◊〉 18. Psal 69. â—1 my feet They cast lots upon my vesture They gave me gall and vinegar All these and many more such prophecies are meant of things not then past but to come and yet were true because as St. Austin saith f Aug. cont Max. lib. 3. â— â—6 To. 6. Pradestinatione â—am faclum eâ—at quod suo â—empore futurum eâ—at i. e. These things were actually decâ—eed in heaven though not acted on earth As Herod and Rilate are said to have done â— 4. 28. whâ—t the hand and counsell of God determined before So we read He predestâ—nated called justified glorified Ro. 8. 30. as if all these were already performed yet many are to be called justified and glorified who then were and as yet are unborn So Christ is called The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world All Rev. 13. 8. these Futures are spoken as if they had been past because to the All-seeing Godhead they were as evident and present as if they had been performed and this in respect of the Divâ—ne Providence and Eternall Decreâ— Upon the same ground Moses might truly assert the Hallowing of the seventh day at the beginning of the world although it was not so declared untill the daies of the said Moses Thus much may serve for Exposition of the Ceremoniall part of this Sabbaticall Commandment CHAP. XXII The Reasons why God conferred honours on the seventh day and why he also laâ—d some sâ—urs upon it as 1. That the Sabbath day was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by David nor the Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. That God commanded some works on that day 3. That no Mana fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made â—or man 7. That it is impâ—ssible to be kept generally and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabâ—ath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God to drive Man to seek for Râ—st and Salvation onely in Christ THe Jews greatly erred in misunderstanding the fourth Commandment as if the hallowing of the seventh day had been the onely scope and purporâ— thereof whereas indeâ—d that day was but a meer figure of the true Sabbath which is Christ for he onely is the Sabbath or Rest both of the Godhead and of us men as hath been at large shewed before Yet because the seventh day was a figure of so great a mystery and blessing therefore God did hallow and honour it with many priviledges such as are before rehearsed But withall he clogged it with many incumbrances and inconveniences and some disparagements and sâ—â—rs also and disgraces more than any other day as an allay or abatement of honour like the Boy 's Memento to King Philip who every morning call'd â—pon him with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so did God with this Aelian l. â— c. 15. Sabbath day And at length when the period of the use thereof was accomplished he cast iâ— quite away And this he did on purpose to withdraw his people from doting on the shadow to the apprehension of the true reall and substantiall Sabbath When Princes confer honours or estates upon their subjects they usually Onerate their Patents with some reservations of fealty homage or service for an acknowledgment of their minoration and subjâ—ction to their Soveraign Upon such divine Policy it pleased the Godhead so to reserve the supream honour to himself in the whole oeconomy of his instrumentall Types and Servants and therefore he chose things which in themselves were but of low condition and base esteem amongst men that so the principall honour and efficacy of their service might be ascribed to himself Thus he appointed those poor creatures Sheep and Neat and Goats as sacrifices to represent the grand Sacrifice and mystery of the death of Christ Then by the brazen image Num. 21. 8. Joh. 3. 14. of a Serpent lifted up upon a pole he represented Christ as crucified although a Serpent is of all creatures esteemed most vile and cursed The great Sacrament of taking away sins called Circumcision was to be performed on that part of man's body which is called uncomely and pudendum Indeed the Temple was a splendid and glorious type but even this and the other were sleighted when they had served their due time All this was to instruct his people not to adhere and rest on the figures but principally to regard and consider the signification and substance of them For when they conâ—ided in and boasted too much of their Templum Domini God suffered Jer. 7. 4. it soon after to be destroyed and when they magnified the brazen Serpent with offering 2 King 18. 4. incense to it the good King Hezekiah brake it in pieces The like policy was used by the Divine Wisdom in the New Testament by choosing contemptible men to administer the Gospell as Fishermen Ideots unlearned
Mankind was not otherwise to come into the open World that there he might perform the grand Work of a Redeemer and Saviour but only through the Woman Our merciful God doth then and not till then declare his Rest when he had laid and compleated the foundation of the Rest of us his otherwise wretched Creatures For neither Adam himself could be saved supposing his fall but through the fertility of the Woman nor could Eve or any of their posterity obtain Redemption and salvation otherwise than so as the Apostle teacheth us 1 Tim. 2. 15 She shall be saved in child-bearing that is by Christ who should descend from Eve and be born of a Woman for God confined our Redemption and our Redeemer so when he said The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Gen 3 15 Serpents head And in the Gospel God sent forth his Son made of a Woman So early Gal 4 4 and late the Godhead was pleased to signifie the conception of Christ by a Woman signally without mention of the Seed of Man promised to David in these words Psalm 132. 11. Ex fructu ventris the fruit of the belly which St. Austin a Aug in loc observes to be meant of Christ because he was only from the Belly or Womb and not from the Thigh And prophesied by Isaiah chap. 7. 14. to be conceived by a Virgin And performed in the person of the ever blessed Virgin Mary Now we may easily return an Answer to the above mentioned Enquiries concerning the Rest of God 1. In which of the Creatures God is said to Rest To this we say That his Rest was only in Mankind not in the man alone but for the honour and everlasting comfort of all holy Women he expressed not his Rest until he had formed the Woman out of the Man although the manner thereof is declared after the expression of God's Rest 2. What further use besides their Creat on God intended to make of the Man and the Woman To this we say That God purposed out of the Man and Woman to raise and produce Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind from eternal and deserved misery and also through the same Christ to crown Mankind with everlasting glory and for this most gracious use only did the Godhead declare it self to Rest so that in Christ alone is the true reall and final Rest and Sabbath comprised both of God and of us Men. 3. What prerogative or peculiar honour added God to this Creature Man more then to any other Creature To this we answer 1. He made Man in his own Image so as not any other Creature was made 2. From the Seed of Man he ordained that the Redeemer should proceed and not from any other Creature although some others were more high excellent than Man as the holy Angels are as the Psalmist saith Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Yet the Apostle tels Psal 8 5 us Heb. 2. 16. That Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 3. God purposed which he also performed to unite himself so with Man as not with any other Creature to be one person with Man even this very Creator at this very time of Mans creation intimated that himself would one day become Man that he would be incarnate and so Emmanuel which is obscurely signified by those words In the Image of God created he him And Gen 1. 27 this Incarnation was most needful for Man because in it only the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of Man consisteth and in nothing else From these Premises my Conclusion is That the principal and indeed the only cause of this Rest of God consisted in the consideration and gracious purpose of the Godhead to produce the Messiah out of the Man and the Woman to be united with our humane nature and therein to fulfill the whole Will of God in our behalf and so to become the Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind Which conclusion being a Doctrine of our greatest concernment we will in the next place endeavour by God's assistance to make plain and evident even to the capacity of ordinary understandings CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the Union of Christ with Mankind Why Redemption is only of Mankind The meaning of the Sacramental Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived and propagated from the first Man Something concerning Universal Redemption THat the Divine purpose of the Incarnation of the second Person in the Trinity was the sole motive that the Rest of God was now and not before declared may appear by many overtures or expressions in and about the Creation and other affairs concerning the first Man and Woman 1. It is said by the Godhead Let us make Gen. 1. 26 Man Whereby the concurrence of all the Divine Persons in the Creation of Man is signified As if the Godhead would express a special care and deliberation and also a consultation about the Creation of Man more than in the Creation of the whole invisible World of Angels or this visible World of all the other Creatures for it was never said before Let us make but God created and Let there be Light and Let there be a Firmament and Let the Earth bring forth c. Now although we know that all the Three Divine Persons did co-operate in the creation of every Creature as the sure Rule of Divines is Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa Yet their concurrence is not so declared until the Creation of Man Therefore surely a greater matter was intended than the making of a meer Creature and that certainly was Christ even He that is better than all Creatures and of whom it is said Let all the Angels of God worship Heb. 1. 6. him 2. Not only the making of Man is decreed but it is added In our Image and likenesse and In the Image of God created he him Here is Our Image Plurally and The Image of God Singly Our Image signifies the Image of the Three Divine Persons stamped on Man Power Wisdom Holinesse which are the Characters of the Father Son and Spirit as Divines say But this is not all for so much of this Image was soon desaced Nor was this Image proper to Mankind but is found also in the holy Angels and also more eminently in them than in Mankind But because these words are said of Man not said of any other Creature therefore we must find out some other Image or likenesse of God which is so peculiar to Man as that it is not to be found in any other Creature as a Theod. in Gen. quaest 20. Theodoret most judiciously observeth This being granted the Image there mentioned must needs relate and point to Christ who is