Circumcision but also observation of Jewish Days Ye observe Days c. he doth not mean the Gospel or New Testament days of Worship but Jewish days he could not be afraid of them if they had only observ'd the first day of the Week because he had given charge to these Churches as well as others religiously to keep it as appears 1 Cor. 16. 1 2 3. but they observ'd the Jewish Sabbath and other Old Testament days nay and they laid such stress upon them as to make the observation of them necessary to eternal Life as some do now by affirming the keeping of the Seventh-day or old Jewish Sabbath is a Moral Duty being of the same nature with the first Commandment viz. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me or any other simple Moral Precept True such at Rome as did esteem some other day besides the first Day of the Week and lookt upon it as an indifferent thing were not reproved as Rom. 14. 5. The converted Jews perhaps thought they might keep the Jewish Sabbath as well as the Lord's-Day and Paul dealt with them for a time as Children or Babes in Christ But when any came to plead for it as a Moral Duty or as necessary to Salvation how sharp was he with them I am afraid of you From hence by the way observe That Jewish-day and shadowy Ordinances under the Law in comparison of New Testament Ordinances are but weak and beggerly Elements The Explanation 1. By Days The Terms of the Text explained I understand the Jewish weekly Sabbath-days 2. By Months is meant their New Moons or monthly Sabbaths which were every new Moon 3. By Times the Feasts of the Passover the Feast of Pentecost and that of Tabernacles 4. By Years every seventh Year and every fiftieth Year which was their great Jubilee I find divers learned Men thus explaining these Terms Perkins on Gal. p. 285. and tho Mr. Perkins seems to go astray afterwards yet he speaks much to the same purpose Now my Brethren the reasons why I conclude by Days here are meant the Jewish weekly Sabbath-days are First Because when Moses speaks of their Feasts and Holy-days he brings in first of all their Seventh-day Sabbath Levit. 23. Secondly If Days Months Times and Years comprehend all Days Months Times and Years which the Jews observed then their Seventh-day Sabbath is comprehended here but Days Months Times and Years comprehend all Days Months Times and Years that the Jews observed therefore it comprehends their Seventh Day here If the Minor be denyed let our Opponents or any Person shew where Days Months Times and Years are mentioned and yet the Seventh-day not comprehended Perhaps it may be objected by some who keep the Jewish Sabbath Object That the Seventh Day is every where in Scripture expressed in the singular Number i. e. Day not Days That is not true Answ for in several places the Seventh-day is expressed in the plural Number i. e. Days the Jews themselves called it Days And they asked him Mat. 12. 10. saying Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath Days see Matth. 12. 5. My Sabbaths ye shall keep 't is a Sign c. Deut. 31. 13. In the Greek 't is read Sabbaths Exod. 28. 8. and Deut. 5. 12. as the Learned in that Language shew and all Men of note both Antient and Modern Expositors of Holy Scripture saith my Author Dr. White p. 165. expound St. Paul Col. 2. 17. of Weekly Sabbaths as well as Annual Sabbaths Again it is objected Object 2. That the Days Months Times and Years were not Jewish but Heathenish Days c. Thus Coppinger in his Dispute with Mr. Ives because 't is said they did Service to them who by nature are no Gods That there were Jews among these Galatians is evident Answ Yet if otherwise i. e. tho they were Gentiles 't is clear they desired to be under the Law Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do you hear the Law You that desire to be circumcised and to observe the Jewish Sabbath and other Mosaical Times and Seasons Do you hear the Law i. e. do you not know that the Bond-woman and her Son are cast out that the Sinai Covenant that gendered to Bondage is abolished and the Law given on Mount Sinai as a Rule of Righteousness is put into the hands of the Son of God considered as Mediator Heb. 12. 2. Ye are not come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Sion and are not now to hear him that spoke of Earth but him that speaketh from Heaven as if Paul should have said Do not you know that Circumcision the Seventh-day Sabbaths and other Jewish Times 2 Cor. 5. 17 18 19 20. Seasons and legal Rites are gone even all old things and that all things are become new My Brethren these Christians did not desire to be under the observation of Heathenish but of Jewish Days They are called the Elements of the World Object 3. therefore not Jewish days 1. The Jewish Rites were called the Elements of the World Answ for does not Paul say We when Children were in bondage under the Elements of the World Gal. 4. 2 3. 2. Besides they were such Rudiments as the Jews were to observe till the appointed time of the Father Now the Father never appointed his Children Gentile idolatrous Rudiments therefore they could not be Heathenish Days 3. What Heathenish Nation kept the seventh or the fiftieth Year as a Sabbath For by Years in our Text our Antagonists confess are meant those Years and I am sure by all Expositors 't is so understood 4. The Jewish Sanctuary is called a Worldly Sanctuary see Heb. 9. 1. Then verily the first Covenant had also Ordinances of Divine Service and a Worldly Sanctuary 5. It is evident the Apostle means Mosaical Rudiments by blaming of Peter who would have the Gentiles live after the manner of the Jews Gal. 2. 14. Moreover he refers as all may see to the Jewish Yoke Gal. 5. 1 2. 6. To put it quite out of doubt what Days he intends read Col. 2. 16. Let no man judg you in Meats or Drinks or in respect of a holy Day or of the New Moons or of the Sabbath Days which are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ I. Now were any of the Idolatrous Days among the Heathen shadows of things to come or of Christ was he or that Rest he hath brought in the Antitype of them II. He speaks of a Holy Day as a Term given to the Seventh-Day in the Old Testament and of Sabbath-Days and do any think he means by neither the Seventh-Day Sabbath and yet speaks of Sabbath-Days distinct from New-Moons Times and Years Certainly he must intend in one or the other the Jewish weekly Sabbath days I find a very Learned Man writing on this Text speaking thus viz. for which also he cites St. Hierom Paul writ this Epistle in the
future â—â—mes for he foresaw Man would fall and need 〈◊〉 Sabbath for himself and a particular day to â—orship God in Now 't is evident a Law may 〈◊〉 instituted * Tho I do not say the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise long before the time of its Comâ—encement or being in force Divers great â—en both Antient and Modern Treatise of the Sab. p. 41. as Dr. White â—â—timates affirm that God by a Decree only destin'd that day to religious Service in future time he instances in venerable Bede and before him Justin Martyr Tertullian and Irenâ—us that God sanctified the seventh day Gen. 2. by his Decree and Destination only not by any present Imposition The Arguments on which this Opinion 〈◊〉 grounded are very weighty which shall 〈◊〉 next consider'd First All generally conclude that God gaâ—â— to Adam but one positive Law and in breaâ—â—ing of that as Dr. Lightfoot and others shewâ— he broke all the ten Commandments which 〈◊〉 to the matter or substance of them were wroâ— in his Heart and that this greatened his Siâ— viz. that tho he had but one Commandment he violated it Secondly Suppose Adam had had this positive Law given to him also to keep holy the seventh day and had broke it had he thereby been guilty of the breach of all the others For I have just now shew'd that most believe him guilty of all in breaking that one Command Thou shalt not eat of the Tree of Knowledg of good and evil But being every way guilty it must be supposed he broke both those positive Commands if he had two given him and so was guilty of the breach of the fourth twice Nay if what I say be consider'd and that which I inquire about be granted he was doubly guilty of the breach of them all Thirdly The Law of the Sabbath was as it is conceiv'd that Adam should keep that day holy nay he must be so oblig'd if any Command was given to him yea and keep it more holy than any of the other six Now if so would it not follow that Adam was not perfect in Innocency Doth Perfection admit of any â—urther degree of Holiness or require more â—anctity on that day than any other Certainâ—â— while he stood every day must be kept with â—e Holiness and Sanctity Or I say what â—ason can be given that Adam who was so â—ly and perfect and capable in the same deâ—ree of contemplating every day the Perfectiâ—ns of his blessed Creator should need one â—ecial day to do this in having nothing to â—vert his thoughts nor any need of a day of â—st from toilsom Labor If so doth not what â—ey say argue some Imperfection attending 〈◊〉 how then was he created in the Image of 〈◊〉 and perfect if he was capable of keeping â—y one day more holy than the rest whilst in â—nocency If any should say he was capable 〈◊〉 rest from dressing the Garden on one day 〈◊〉 answer if the dressing the Garden was any â—nderance to him in Divine Contemplation 〈◊〉 any holy Duty it argues still he was not â—erfect nor compleatly happy Fourthly If one special day was appointed to â—orship God in and this he stood in need of â—ill it not follow by the same reason that he â—eeded to be told what special parts of Worâ—ip he should perform to God on that day â—or as I hinted before it seems strange he â—ould need a special day of Worship by a poâ—â—ive Law to be appointed him and no Duties â—f Worship be instituted sutable to such a day â—vident it is when God commanded his Peoâ—le Israel to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath he â—old them how they should do it and what â—cts of Worship they should discharge on that â—ay Fifthly It may seem strange that any wise â—an should affirm that Adam was injoyned to â—eep a Sabbath from what is said in Gen. 2. whenas we read not one word of a Sabbath there all that Moses says is that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Now as one observes the seventh day is three times mentioned in this Text but the term Sabbath not at all nor indeed any where else till it came to be given to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness nor can they ever prove that the seventh day mentioned Exod. 16. or 20. waâ— the precise seventh day immediately succeedinâ— the six days of the Creation but more 〈◊〉 that hereafter Sixthly Since we read of no day call'd 〈◊〉 Sabbath till near two thousand years from thâ— Creation how should any before the Floodâ— or before Moses know of such a day for thâ— bear Expression that God sanctified the seventâ— day c. if that was known to the old World and afterwards which I much doubt of could not without some other Revelation discover that they were obliged to keep it as a Sabbath in religious Worship tho it is said God sanctified the seventh day yet it is not said that Adaâ— also sanctified it nor can they tell how Adam should know that God then sanctified it for being not created till the sixth day how could he without some special Revelation know the next day after was the seventh day from the Creation Could he tell how long God was in making the Heavens and the Earth c. Moreover 't is worth noting how strenuously our Opponents do urge that there is no express Command to keep the first day Now may not wâ— say there is no express Command for Adam in Innocency or when fallen or for any till Moses's time to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath yet they boldly affirm it was their duty to keep it Again Should it be granted that God commanded Adam to keep that very seventh day on which he himself rested from his Work and that Adam did sanctify that one day yet it is not â—aid that he did or was bid to keep holy every â—eventh day to the world's end and that he must â—egin every such day just at the same time as God did his seventh day or just at the same time â—f the day as it was in Paradise at that moment â—hen God ceas'd to work Dr. Wallis Answ to Mr. Banfield p. 12 13. Thus Dr. Wallis who â—rther saith It is not expresly said that all Manâ—ind must for ever after observe the seventh day 〈◊〉 every week of days reckoned continually from 〈◊〉 first Creation Let me here add what another Author saith â—s to the words of the Text blessed and sanctiâ—â—ed Mr. Gilb. Ironside on the Sab. p. 20 21. That this was done saith he we all agree when it was done is the question for this Circumstance we have not expresly in the Text. Things are said in Scripture to be sanctified two ways 1. By way of Purpose and Destination only as God sanctified Jeremiah to be a Prophet to him before he was born 2. By way of actual use and imployment as when the Levites were admitted to the actual Service of the
Tabernacle God's resting from his Works He calls it Sabbath and sanctifying the seventh day were coetaneous in the first sense i. e. by way of Purpose and Intention which Moses relates but not in the latter by way of actual Execution As soon as he had ended his Work he ordained the seventh day the day of his own Rest to be that on which his Church should rest and follow his Example and this was the great Blessing and Prerogative bestowed on that day Muscul loc com Musculus saith he dos well express Sanctificatus by destinatus a day sanctified by a day destinated and afore-appointed Byfield against Brerewood Mr. Byfield has observ'd That the word in the original signifies to prepare to prepare is one thing and actually to appoint is another So then the Sabbath had not an actual existence in the World from the beginning it had only a metaphysical being as all natural things are said to be in their Causes for the cause or reason of the Sabbath's Sanctification God's Rest was from the beginning tho the Sanctification it self was a long time after Yet he owns God did sanctify the day then by way of Destination That as God then actually rested so he actually sanctified the day but that therefore he then commanded Adam to observe it doth not follow for that God did then sanctify that is destinate that day to be the Church's Sabbath in due time is one thing and to command Adam to observe it is another He proceeds to shew how the Medes were call'd God's sanctified ones that is destinated to be in time Destroyers of Babylon and the Father sanctified his Son and sent hiâ— into the World Joh. 10. 36. Also Cyrus Isa 45. 1. Seventhly Besides the Law of the Seventh day Sabbath ran thus Six days thou shalt work and do all thou hast to do but the seventh is the Sabbath c. Now the Old Testament Sabbath was the last day of the week they were to work six the six first but this he could not do I mean the six first from the Creation because he was not created till the sixth day So that the first six days tho the six days in which thâ— Lord did all his Work could not be Adam's six working days But if the Sabbath was given to him in Innocency no doubt as Tillaâ— says he kept the first Sabbath and then it â—ollows he begun with God and rested before 〈◊〉 labour'd six days contrary to the Order and â—ommand of the instituted Sabbath Exod. 20. Moreover Warren 's Jewish Sabbath c. in his full Answer to Tillam 's Book p. 2 3 4 5 6. many learned Men believe Adam â—ll the same day he was created namely on â—he sixth day and so could not keep one Sabâ—ath in Innocency But I desire such as would 〈◊〉 further inform'd of this to read Mr. Edw. â—arren's Treatise who shews 1. That Adam fell the same day he was created appears from the words of our blessed Saviour Joh. 8. 34. that the Devil was a Murderer from the beginning a Liar and the Father of Lies not saith he from the beginning of the World's Creation but of Man's Creation which most properly and precisely implys the sixth day 2. He says the parly betwixt the Woman and the Serpent intimates as much for both the Serpent's demand and the Woman's reply speak plainly that as yet they had not tasted the sweets of Paradise Hath God said Ye shall not eat of every Tree of the Garden the Serpent had not been so subtile to ask whether that might be done which had been done already Besides we may conclude that had not the Serpent immediately set upon the Woman his Craftiness had not been so great and Adam hearing of a Tree of Life we may suppose would have first tasted of that and Satan it may be fearing the Effects of it immediately set upon the Woman And says our Author the Tree of Life being sacramental hence may it well be thought that if Adam had stood one Sabbath he had tasted of the Tree of Life so had been out of a possibility of falling 3. Satan besure would take the fittest season and therefore tempts the Woman timely 4. 'T is said they heard the Voice of thâ— Lord God in the cool of the day or in thâ— evening Robert 's Myster p. 39. and as he notes Mr. Roberts saith thâ— this is the Evening mention'd after the Creâ—â—tion of Adam and the Covenant made with him Adam was arraign'd and sentenc'd toâ—wards the Evening of the sixth day therefore he sinned the same day and so kept 〈◊〉 Sabbath in Innocency 5. He mentions that Text Adam in honoâ— lodged not a night Psal 49. 12. but was like the Beasts thâ— perish for saith he so it is in the Hebreâ— word for word He further confirms what he says herâ— and answers all Tillam's Objections and thaâ— about the work Adam did of giving Names 〈◊〉 all living Creatures which he shews he might soon do and as to that of God's saying oâ— the sixth day he saw all his Works that theâ— were good therefore Man had not then sinneâ— he replys that God's days works were donâ— each day by a word speaking or in a moâ—ment he did not work as Man doth so thaâ— on the sixth day early or as soon as Maâ— was created he might say all his Works werâ— good yet Man might sin and fall before night 6. He argues from Adam's not knowing hiâ— Wife till he had sinned and shews that 〈◊〉 good reason can be given why he should noâ— have known her had he stood one day Now these things tho doubtful with the otheâ— being well observed why should any affirâ— the Sabbath was given to Adam in Innocency and that he kept the first Sabbath in Paradiâ—â— with his Creator for so saith Tillam Eighthly A Sabbath was not agreeable to Adam in Paradise either in respect to himself â—o rest from Labor or as a special day to worâ—â—ip God in Such was the happiness of his â—ate that he had no Burdens to bear nor â—y toilsom Labour nor was there any Curse 〈◊〉 the Creatures that they should need a day 〈◊〉 Rest he had no need of Servants c. â—o doubt the Sabbath refer'd only to the state 〈◊〉 fallen Man and was given in Mercy to â—â—rael God 's own Covenant-People under the â—aw I say in Mercy to them and to the â—asts who groan under their Burden Adam's â—bour if any in Innocency was matter of â—light and every day was a Sabbath to him â—nd as Tertullian observes Man lived in Paâ—â—dise in a fruition of God Let me close this â—ith what a Reverend Author says First Walker on the Sab. p. 8. They all go too far and have not one word in Scripture for their Opinion that say Adam in Innocency should or would have kept every seventh day for holy Rest and that God would have required it at his hands for all
it they knew noâ— what they should do with him and this was whilst they were in the Wilderness and they put him in ward for it was not yet declar'd what should be done unto him By which it appears saith he to be a new thing not yet adjusted for had it been a Law from the Creation it is scarce possible that all Men should have been ignorant whether any Punishment or not or what Punishment did belong to the Violation of a Law of such standing Object I know that Dr. Owen saith Dr. Owen on the Sab. p. 62. if the original of the Sabbath was here then the National Observation of it is introduced with a strange abruptness c. Answ To which I answer that it doth not so appear to me however let every Man read the words of Moses again and how he repeats the same over and over To morrow is the Sabbath c. To day is a Sabbath unto the Lord â—gain The Lord hath given you the Sabbath â—an any thing be brought in more solemnly â—ut I see how Men will try their Wits to deâ—â—nd their own Scriptureless Notion of a Sabbath given in Paradise as well as in pleading 〈◊〉 other groundless Practices Object But since you grant a Sabbath before 〈◊〉 Law on Mount Sinai or Ceremonial Laws â—ere given doth not this prove it is a moral Preâ—â—pt Answ No not at all because we find that sacrifices and offering the Firstlings of the â—locks Gen. 4. 7. 7. 2. 14. 20. 28. 2. and first Fruits of the Ground were offered to God from the beginning and therefore should we grant that the Seventh-day Sabbath had been practised from the beginning â—â—so yet that would no more prove it a moral â—nd perpetual Law than it proves the offering â—f the Firstlings of the Flocks and the First-â—ruits c. to be perpetual Laws or moral Duties the Sabbath being a sign and shadow as well as they were so We come now to the â—â—urth part of our first general Proposition Object The seventh-day Sabbath was given in the 20th Chapter of Exodus The grand Argument for the Jewish Sabbath consider'd and answer'd with all the other â—ine moral and perpetual Commandments wrote in two Tables of Stone by the finger of Jehovah himself and therefore it obliged believing Gentiles to keep it and all Mankind 1. To this I answer that if I can prove it is not the Duty of Gentile Believers nor any Believers in Christ in all the World to keep the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath from hence I shall overthrow our Opponents strongest Fort and so utterly confute them which I doubt not by God's Assistance I shall fully do and in order hereto shall lay down three Propositions First The method proposed in answering this Argument I affirm the Morality of the fourth Commandment lies not in the observation of the precise seventh day from the Creation Secondly That the Law of the ten Commandments as formally given to Moses and written with the finger of God in two Tables of Stone and given to the whole House of Israel were not given to the Gentiles nor to any other People in the World save the Strangers that were within their Gates or were proselyted to the Jewish Religion Thirdly That the whole Law is changed and that what was Ceremonial or shadows 〈◊〉 things to come ceased at the death of Christ and all Precepts of the Moral Law or what 〈◊〉 simply moral as they were formally given by Moses are taken out of his hand and put into the hands of Christ consider'd as Mediator our Lord and only Lawgiver I shall now begin with the first of these Propositious First I shall give you the sense of the Learned about a pure moral Precept First The Term Moral being but a scholastical Expression and not properly signifying that which is usually understood by it Cawdry 's Christian Sabbath p. 1 2 3. say Mr. Cawdry and Mr. Palmer we have ever judg'd it a Bone of Contention Moral relating to a Law signifies in it self any Precept serving to regulate the Manners of Men. Dr. White saith White on the Sab. p. 26. A Divine Law call'd Moral is a just Rule or Measure imposed by God directing and obliging to Obedience of things holy honest and just The same is twofold simply moral or moral only by some external Constitution or Imposition of God Divine Law simply moral commands or prohibits Actions good or evil in respect of their inward nature and quality Dr. Owen saith Owen on the Sab. p. 118. Moral Laws are such as have the Reasons of them taken from the nature of the things themselves requir'd in them for they are good from their respect to the nature of God himself c. Laws Positive as they are occasionally given so they are esteem'd alterable at pleasure being fixed by mere Will and Prerogative without respect to any thing that should make them necessary antecedently to their being given they may by the same Authority at any time be taken away and abolished Mr. Shepherd saith Shepherd on the Sab. p. 6 7. A Law strictly and especially moral is that which concerns the Manners of all Men of which we now speak and may be thus describ'd viz. It is such a Law as is commanded because it is good and it is not therefore merely good because it is commanded And thus Austin saith he describ'd it long since Also Cameron and multitudes of other Writers and learned Men. But mere Divine positive Laws are commanded of God and therefore good Some say that is simply moral that is the Law of Nature or which naturally obligeth all Men and is distinguished from Laws Ceremonial and Judicial Thus one expresseth himself i. e. Primrose of the Sab. p. 4. This Law Moral all Men take to be the Law of Nature and reciprocally they take the Law of Nature for this Law for that which is naturally and universally just Mr. Cawdry and Palmer say Cawdry Sabbatum p. 3. It implys any Law of God exprest in Scripture whether it can be prov'd natural or not which from the time it was given to the end of the World binds all succeeding Generations of their Posterity to whom it was given and more especially it obliges the Church c. I think Mr. Baxter in this case has said excellently well Baxt. on the Sab. p. 77. Moral saith he signifieth that which by nature is universal and perpetually obligatory He answers this Question Do not Divines say the Decalogue written in Stone is the Moral Law and of perpetual Obligation Answ Yes for by moral they mean natural and so take moral not in a large sense as it signifies a Law de moribus as all Laws be whatsoever but in a narrower sense as signifying that which by nature is of universal and perpetual Obligation Now then that which I call a pure of simple Moral Law or Precept is that which is a Transcript
of God's holy Nature and therefore commanded whether written in the Heart of innocent Adam or in God's Word or Law and doth universally and perpetually oblige the whole World to conform thereunto Now having let you know what is to be understood by a simple Moral Law I shall shew that the Law of the precise seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath is not a Law of this nature i. e. a pure moral Precept universally and perpetually obligatory on all Men tho I deny not but there is that in the fourth Commandment which is moral in the sense I have given viz. 1. A time Three things contain'd in the fourth Commandment a sufficient time to be set apart from all worldly Business for Rest and the Worship of God and this is all I can find simply moral in the fourth Commandment 2. There is something more contained in it which God by a positive Command requir'd from the Soveraignty of his Will as that which he sees just and reasonable namely that one day in seven be set apart as a day of Rest and for his Service and that this should be perpetual to the end of the World I know Divines call this positively moral and tho I cannot see reason so to call it yet I grant as much I think as they mean thereby 3. God did also command the whole House of Israel under their Legal and Typical Church-â—tate to observe the seventh or last day of the week in remembrance of his finishing the Works of the first Creation And now that the precise seventh Day was a â—hadow or a sign I have and shall prove and 〈◊〉 was only a Law to the Israelites during that Typical Dispensation and their Political Church-â—tate which Christ nailed to his Cross and â—uried with all other Shadows and Legal Ceremonies But before I proceed I might give you the Observations of divers Expositors on the order and manner of the Expressions in the fourth Commandment As first the essential part Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy not the seventh day True in the next words God declar'd that the seventh Day should be the Jews Sabbath whom he took into a Legal and Typical Covenant and Church-state to be his own People The seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God not thy God in Christ upon the terms of the new Covenant no no but thy God in a legal and external Covenant And so their Sabbath was given to them upon the terms of the Law of Creation or the Covenant of Works which is a legal relative and external Covenant God enter'd into with the whole House of Israel or Nation of the Jews even them and all their natural Seed as such My Brethren upon this foot of account was the Seventh-day Sabbath founded not in Christ or on a new Covenant bottom nor given to New-Covenant Children as such but it waâ— bottom'd upon the Covenant of Works and only given to that People whom God brought out of the Land of Egypt and redeem'd from Egyptian Bondage And when he enters into that Covenant with them he positively says therefore he gave them his Sabbaths Deut. 5. 1. which was a shadow of a far greater Work than that 〈◊〉 Creation and of a greater Redemption thâ—â— that out of Egypt I heard lately of one 〈◊〉 said this was his chief reason of observing 〈◊〉 Seventh-day Sabbath because it was given 〈◊〉 God's Covenant-People c. not being able to discern between that legal and typical Covenant made with the whole Nation of Israel which took in their fleshly Seed as such anâ— the Covenant of Grace Moreover Expositors observe concerning the close of this Commandment ver 11. Wherefore God blessed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it that 't is not said the seventh day here but the Sabbath-day One day in seven and not the precise seventh Day from the Creation is by a positive Command in this place intimated to be God's Will and Pleasure to be observed to the end of the World But the precise seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath given to Israel I shall prove is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment but a shadow of what was to come and principally refers to Christ and to that spiritual Rest Believers enter into when they first close with him I know Divines call one Day in seven a moral positive as I just now told you by moral they 〈◊〉 as I conceive that which ought perpeâ—â—ally to be observed but that Day which God from the Soveraignty of his Will commanded the Jews was 't is plain the seventh and when Christ came who has given us the true Rest and rose from the dead he appointed as I shall hereafter prove the first Day of seven upon the account of his finishing his Work i. e. the work of Redemption as God commanded the Israeâ—â—tes to keep the seventh-day because on it he â—ested when he had finished his Work viz. â—hat of Creation Now then tho there is something naturally â—nd simply moral in the fourth Commandment â—nd tho God doth here intimate from his own â—rerogative or Arbitrary Will that he will â—ave one day in seven perpetually observed as a â—ay of Rest and sacred Worship yet that â—art of it that speaks of the seventh-day was â—erely positive and typical and so ceased with â—he Covenant of Works Indeed Dr. Owen has excellently shewed how his Commandment is of a mixt or compound â—ature partly simply moral partly positively â—oral and partly typical or Ceremonial the â—â—st he refers to the precise seventh day when he says P. 120 121. It was instituted for an outward present religious Observation to signify and represent something to come And such saith he were all the particulars of the whole System of the Mosaical Worship whereof the Law of the Sabbath was a part And in â—rief the whole Law of the Sabbath was as 〈◊〉 its general nature positive and arbitrary â—nd so changeable and particularly ceremoâ—ial and typical and so is actually changed and abolished Now to proceed The precise Seventh-day Sabbath cannot be a simple moral Precept and therefore in that lies not the Morality of the â—ourth Commandment In order to prove this â—et me lay down this Proposition viz. If the Law of the observation of the precise seventh Day hath not in it one Character of a Law that is simply moral then the Morality of the fourth Commandment doth not confist in the observation of that precise Day but that it has not one Characteâ— of such a Law I shall endeavour to prove First That the precise seventh Day is not the Morality of the fourth Commandment proved largely A simple moral Precept that I meâ— which is naturally moral obliging all Mankiâ—â— for ever as to the very matter of it or this it self as so considered abstracted from 〈◊〉 positive Command is naturally holy as â—â—sulting from the Nature of God But the seventh Day in which our Brethâ—â— place the essence or substance of the fourâ— Commandment or the
World and gave the Ten Commandments as well as he gave forth all the Ceremonial Law the three Persons being the same one God yet Christ is contradistinguished i. e. referring to his Human Nature or the Anointed of God as Mediator or God-man And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord in the New Testament is commonly and peculiarly applied to our Lord Christ as 1 Cor. 8. 6. But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ c. So Eph. 4. One Lord one God and Father c. and to this Lord doth the Day here refer Iâ— the fourth Commandment that which is called the Sabbath of the Lord thy God speaking of Israel is meant of God indefinitely and not of one Person contradistinguished to the other Two The Work of Creation is commonly ascribed to God the Father and so the old seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath is properly the Father's Day not Christ's tho all the three Persons created the World 6. This day is called the Lord's Day in a like sense as the Holy Supper is in some places called the Lord's Supper 1 Cor. 10. 21 22. ch 11. 27. in which places is meant the Lord Christ God and Man This may answer their common Objection viz. Object It might be called the Lord's Day in respect of God the Creator not of Christ the Redeemer and therefore may be meant the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath Besides the World was made by Christ and he gave the Law on Mount Sinai I further tell them this Name or Appellation Christ refers to our Lord as Mediator or as he is God and Man But the second Person was not God and Man when the World was made or when the Law was given on Mount Sinai Tho the second Person or Christ as God created the World and with the Father and Holy Ghost is that one God that gave the Law yet Christ the Anointed or as Mediator God in our Nature actually existed not till the fulness of time was come 2. And why may not they call the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Table so with respect to God the Creator or Christ as Creator 3. Consider that in the New Testament Christ as Mediator is actually exalted to be Lord of 〈◊〉 of all Persons Men and Angels and of all things For to this end Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. 4. So that as the term Lord is peculiarly ascribed to Jesus Christ as Mediator so certainly is the day here called his Day And as the Supper is called the Lord's Supper because he instituted it and it wholly refers to Christ so the first day is called the Lord's Day because the Lord Christ instituted or appointed it as the special Day of his Worship and as it refers to his glorious Resurrection Object If the Scriptures be the Rule to judg whether that day be not the Lord's Day which and which only as distinguished from other days of the Week the Son of Man is Lord of Answ 1. Christ is Lord of all days no doubt because he is Lord of all things but the Seventh-day Sabbath is no where appropriated to Christ as Mediator nor ever called the Lord's Day 2. When 't is said in the New Testament that the Son of Man is Lord also or even of the Sabbath-day he shews that it was in his power to dispose of it for he gives this as a reason for his doing that which the Pharisees counted Sabbath-breaking and by which he oftentimes offended them And so it is far from being a reason of his establishing it to abide a Sabbath in his Kingdom-state And as one well observes it seems plainly to mean that that being a positive Law belonging to Moses our Lord had power to change it or dispense with it as well as other Positive and Mosaical Laws As it is said Eph. 1. 22. He hath made him Head over all things to the Church not Head to all things So he is Lord over all Days but all are not separated to his Worship As it is said Joh. 17. 2. Thou hast given him Power over all Flesh So it may be said thou hast given him Power over all Days that he may sanctify one to his own peculiar service and use and leave the rest common to us to work in 7. There is On the Sab. p. 223. saith Mr. Shepherd no other day on which mention is made of any Work or Action of Christ which might occasion a holy day but this only of his Resurrection which is exactly noted of all the Evangelists to be the first day of the Week and by which work he is expresly said to have all Power given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 18. and to be actually Lord of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. And therefore why should any other Lord's Day be dreamed of Why should Mr. Brabourn imagin that this day might be some superstitious Easter-day which happens once a year The Holy Ghost on the contrary not setting down the Month or Day of the Year but the Day of the Week wherein Christ rose therefore it must be meant of a weekly Holy-day here called the Lord's Day 8. This was the day in which Christ ceased from his Wâ—â—k and rested as the Father ceased from his Work and rested on the Seventh-day and therefore this is his Day as the other was the Father's Day there being a day remaining to him and to us thro him from the same foot of account in the times of the Gospel as we have proved 9. That 't is this day which is called the Lord's Day because of his frequent appearance on it after his Resurrection and because after his Ascension he crown'd it with that miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit to put a Glory upon it and to confirm it as that day appointed for his People to wait upon him in 10. John Owen on the Sab. p. 292. in calling it the Lord's Day did not surprize the Churches with a new Name but denoted to them the time of his Vision by the name of the Day which was well known to them And there is no solid reason why it should be so called but that it owes its preeminence and observation to his Institution and Authority And no man who shall deny these things can give any tolerable account how when and from whence this day came to be so called it is the Lord's Day as the Holy Supper is called the Lord's Supper by reason of his Institution 11. Because as I have proved the Lord hath made it therefore it is called the Lord's Day This is an Argument saith a Reverend Author * Mr. Will. Fenner on the Sab. p. 81. used by the Church of God in all Ages for twelve hundred years St. Austin used it in his time The Psalmist prophesieth of the Resurrection of Christ â—sal 118.
by the Light of Nature But much more say I was it clearly manifested to Adam in Innocency But furthermore saith he the outward means or matter of that Worship which would be acceptable to God was not known by the Light of Nature the Law for a spiritual Worship by the Faculties of our Souls was natural and part of the Law of Creation tho the determination of the particular Acts whereby God would have this Homage testified was of positive Institution and depended not on the Law of Creation Tho Adam in Innocence knew God was to be worshipped yet by nature he did not know by what outward Acts he was to pay this Respect or at what Time he was more solemnly to be exercised in it than another This depended on the Directions God as the Soveraign Governor and Lawgiver should prescribe you shall therefore find the positive Institution It is observable that this great Man is not here concerned to confute the Seventh-day Sabbatarians but about another thing yet affirms with many other Learned Men that Adam by the Law of Creation did not know in Innocency at what time God was more solemnly to be worshipped than another 2. No doubt but the substance of all the ten Precepts was wrote in Adam's Heart The Substance of all Moral Precepts written in Adam's Heart yet it appears the knowledg of the Seventh-day to be kept as a Sabbath was not written there tho that which was simply and naturally moral of the fourth Commandment was Secondly I argue thus If the precise Seventh-day was written in Adam's Heart The Law of the 7th day Sabbath not written in Adam's Heart there had been no need of an Institution or positive Law to make it known to him for what more need had he of an outward Revelation of this than of the other Commandments Take here what a Learned Man hath said * Mr. P. a Minister at Rouen in France p. 3. If the keeping of the Seventh-day were a Moral Duty our Father Adam by that Light of Nature God put in his Mind when he created him would have known it as well as he knew all other things in themselves good and necessary but he neither had nor should have had any knowledg thereof if God had not injoined it to him by a particular Command as those which maintain the morality of the Sabbath do avouch So that this followeth manifestly that the observation of the Seventh-day depends merely on Institution My Brethren Let this be considered well that if the knowledg of the Seventh-day wholly depended on the Will of God or on mere Institution and resulted not as all pure and simple moral Precepts do from the holy Rectitude of God's Nature it follows that the precise Day pertains not to the Essence of the Fourth Commandment but the simple Morality of that Precept lies only in a time of Worship And certainly if God by a mere positive Command had not given it to Israel they had no more known it their duty to keep it than the Pagan World did who were wholly ignorant thereof as I shall prove And be sure if God wrote not the Law or knowledg of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath on Adam's Heart the seventh-Seventh-day is not of the same nature with simply moral Precepts which God engraved on his Heart even the substance or tenor of all the Ten Commandments and made him know them naturally without any instruction by word of mouth But it appears by their own Assertion it was instituted c. Therefore the knowledg of the Seventh-day as a special time of Worship was not wrote in his Heart Our Opponents dare not deny but the substance of the whole Moral Law was wrote in his Heart and they foresee it is dangerous to deny it From whence it appears that all the other Precepts are simply moral and so is a time of Worship but the precise Seventh-day by their own concession was instituted in Man's Innocency and so depends wholly upon an express positive Command declared to Adam by audible Words resounding in his Ears Mr. Tillam says Tillam 's Book p. 7. It was instituted before the Fall and founded in Mount Paradise Answ Tho I believe no such matter nor can any Man prove it yet to grant it for Argument-sake then I say it follows it was not written in Adam's Heart for the being perfect he would naturally have known it without being told it was his Duty to keep it For consider that he was created on the Sixth Day and understood what was naturally and universally good i. e. all those Duties that were essential parts of Godliness and Righteousness or things belonging to good Manners Now if so why need he be told he must keep the Seventh-day or why must that Precept come under express Institution and none of the rest Object God saw good to bring all the ten Commandments under express Institution on Mount Sinai as well as he brought the seventh-day Sabbath in Paradise under express Institution Answ I deny it not God did then see good so to do considering how the Nature of Man was corrupted and his Law written in his Heart was blotted and blur'd by the Fall But let it be consider'd that the Law was not written in two Tables of Stone so much for a Rule of Life as for other reasons The Reasons why God added the Ministration of the Law wrote in two Tables of Stone 1. It was added and written there to aggravate Sin on the Conscience It was added saith Pual because of Transgression Gal. 3. 19. it was to make Sin appear exceeding sinful Rom. 7. 13. 2. It was written there to shew the Creature his sad and woful condition and to make known how unable fallen Man was to fulfil the Righteousness of God 3. And as a Schoolmaster to lead such as were under it to Christ in whom perfect Righteousness only is to be found Man being not able to keep perfectly that holy and just Law 4. And to shew them as I conceive that nothing but the Finger of God could write his holy Law in the stony Hearts of Sinners as shall be further demonstrated hereafter for that whole Ministration of the Law and Covenant I shall prove was a shadow and typical and so no standing Law or Ministration as there written but as it is in the hand of Jesus Christ 5. That whole Law and consequently the Seventh-day Sabbath was given on Mount Sinai as it suted the Judaical Oeconomy as well their Political as Ecclesiastical state There are many Additions made to the Seventh-day Sabbath together with other Ends annex'd and Designs and Uses thereto employ'd which is granted by such as assert it was given to Adam in Paradise * This gave a new state to it saith Dr. Owen p. 8 9. Secondly If it had been given to Adam in Innocency he not knowing without an Institution it was his Duty to keep it I argue from hence it follows that he had the
all Work which God created and made These are the words which contain what is call'd the Institution and Command of the Sabbath to Adam in Paradise Tillam and others make a great noise of the Sabbath instituted in Paradise and given to Adam to keep but Brethren I must tell you that the Learned strangely differ among themselves who would have the Antiquity of the Sabbath thus early some of them affirming it was given to Adam in Innocency others say not till he fell One speaks thus Mr. Geo. Walker's Doctrine of the holy Sabbath p. 10. And for the time when God first instituted the Sabbath I conceiv'd it to have been not in the state of Innocency but after Mans Fall immediately and yet upon the seventh day wherein God rested These are his very words From hence I observe he believ'd Adam did not stand in his Innocency one day and this he endeavours to prove and others as well as he Men of great Learning and Wisdom Let me cite here one more * See Mr. Warren's Jewish Sabbath antiquated I shall propose saith he and endeavour to prove a counter Position namely that it seems more consonant to Scripture tho at the beginning yet after the Fall in Man's corrupt and vitiated state the probation whereof depends much tho not altogether upon the decision of that often canvassed Question whether our first Parents sinned the same day on which they were created Others not of less note and Learning say That the Sabbath did not commence till Israel came into the Wilderness and at the fall of Manna Mr. Primrose in his Treatise of the Sabbath in his Preface it appeareth not at all that God gave any Commandment to Adam either before or after his Fall binding him or his Progeny to the keeping of any such day whatsoever as to a thing moral and necessary neither is there any trace of such a Commandment to be found till the coming of the Israelites to the Wilderness and that God assign'd to them the seventh day of the week P. 20. as a particular point of Ecclesiastical Government whereof he prescrib'd unto them all the particular Rites Now my Brethren I shall shew you 1. What is said by those who affirm it was given to Adam in Innocency whose Arguments seem to me of no weight at all 2. I shall take notice what is said by those learned Men who deny it was given to Adam in Innocency and affirm it was not given as a Command till Israel came into the Wilderness To begin with those who affirm God gave it to Adam before his Fall in Paradise or in his state of Innocency 1. They ground it upon what Moses saith in Gen. 2. because it is there mention'd as the day on which God rested from all his Works 2. Because God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Owen on the Sabbath p. 42 c. Dr. Owen after he had shew'd that some Jews and Rabbins affirm the Sabbath did not begin till the Israelites came into the Wilderness tho some of them differ'd in their Opinions about its Commencement comes to tell us P. 55. That the Opinion of the Institution of the Sabbath from the beginning of the World is founded principally on a double Testimony First From the Old Testament Gen. 2. 1 2 3. because Moses saith God blessed the seventh day P. 62. and sanctified it not saith he that God kept it holy himself nor that he purified it and made it inherently holy which the nature of the day is not capable of nor that he celebrated that which in it self was holy but that he set it apart to sacred use Secondly The Testimony to the same purpose saith he taken out of the New Testament is in Heb. 4. 3 4. For we which believe do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest altho the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World For he speaketh in a certain place on this wise And God did rest the Seventh Day from all his Works Now saith the Doctor the Works and the finishing of them did not at all belong to the Apostle's Discourse but only as they denoted the beginning of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath for it is the several Rests of God alone that he is enquiring after But to pass by what the Doctor saith 1. Let this be considered that in this place only of all Paul's Writings mention is made of the Seventh-day but not one word here intimating that 't was our duty to observe that Day under the Gospel which had it been the Christian Sabbath no doubt he would have given some hint of at this turn 2. By the manner of his Words and Expressions comparing these two Verses together it seems the Sabbath did not commence from the beginning of the world for tho God rested on the Seventh-day and might then set it apart yet he might give no Command to keep it till after-times when Sabbath-day Service or Worship was appointed This I rather think from these words Altho the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World yet the Day as Man's Duty was not given till long after for as our Annotators observe Paul alludes to Exod. 31. 17. For he speaks in a certain place on his wise c. Thus having given you the Proofs of those who assert the Sabbath was given to Man in Inâ—ocency I shall now give you the Reasons urg'd â—y others who affirm it was not given till Israel came into the Wilderness Their Arguments are of two sorts 1. Many of them affirm that Moses wrote â—ere in Gen. 2. by a Prolepsis or way of anticiâ—ation 2. Others do not so much assert that but â—low it might be set apart in the design of God from his finishing his Work and yet afâ—â—rm it was not given to any to keep till Israel's â—oming into the Wilderness when God was aâ—out to form them into an Ecclesiastical and Poâ—itical Church-State and appointed them Laws and Ordinances particularly the Worship Duties and Sacrifices they were to discharge on their Sabbath-day And indeed it may seem unreasonable to believe that the wise God shall give a Sabbath not only for Rest but for Divine Worship before he appointed those Duâ—â—es of Worship he would have them to perâ—orm on that day which were essentially neâ—essary for all to know as well as the special â—recise Day it self 1. But to begin with the first Argument that Moses wrote those words in his History by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation and so to be â—ead as it were in a Parenthesis that is Moses being the first Man that wrote by Revelation or Inspiration and having before he began to write received the Command of the Seventh-day Sabbath and the reason of its Institution coming to write of the Time when God finished his Work put in this concerning the Sabbath by way of Anticipation saying God blessed the
Seventh-day and sanctified it not that Adam knew any thing of it or that he gave him a Command to keep it P. 64 65. Dr. Oweâ— owns there are sundry things asserted in History by way of Anticipation tho he suppose they fell out commonly in the same Age but methinks he saith little to the purpose to confutâ— what other learned Men have said on this account and to reserve my own thoughts to mâ—â—self I shall give you an account of what two 〈◊〉 three of them assert who believe Moses wrotâ— this in Gen. 2. by way of Anticipation Onâ— Author having shew'd that some believe God 〈◊〉 the beginning of the World did set apart thâ— seventh day Heylin's Hist of the Sabbath p. 3. and commanded Adam to keep it says that others and those antienter and oâ— more Authority conceive these words to be spoken by a Prolepsis or Anticipation and to relate to the times wherein Moses wrote and intimated only the reason why God required of the Jews to sanctify the seventh day rather than any other no Precept to that purpose being given to Adam and to his Posterity nor any Mystery in the number seven why it should be thought most proper for God's Publick Worship And this saith he is indeed the antienter and more general Opinion unanimously deliver'd both by Jews and Christians and not so much as question'd till these latter days And tho some ascribe it to Tostatus as the first Inventer of it yet it is antienter far than he tho were it so it could not be deny'd but it had an able and learned Author who considering the times in which he lived and the shortness of his Life hardly ever had his equal 〈◊〉 is true Tostatus makes this Query Whether 〈◊〉 Sabbath being sanctified by God in the Inâ—â—cy of the World had been observ'd by Men â—o the Light of Nature and returns this Anâ—â—er that God commanded not the Sabbath to 〈◊〉 sanctified in the beginning of the World 〈◊〉 it was commanded afterwards by the Law 〈◊〉 Moses when God did publickly make known 〈◊〉 Will on Mount Sinai and that whereas 〈◊〉 Scripture speaks of sanctifying the seventh 〈◊〉 in Gen. 2. it is not to be understood as if 〈◊〉 Lord did then appoint it for his publick â—orship but to be refer'd to the time wherein â—oses wrote which was in the Wilderness c. 〈◊〉 so the meaning of the Prophet will be â—â—iefly this that God did sanctify that day â—at is to us that are his People of the House 〈◊〉 Jacob. So far Tostatus Our Author also cites 〈◊〉 Josephus speaking after the same manner * Antiq. l. 1 2. and â—â—th he Solomon Jarchi one of the principal â—abbins speaks more expresly to this purpose 〈◊〉 makes this Gloss or Comment upon Moses's words God blessed the seventh day i. e. in Manna because for every day of the week an Homer of it fell upon the Earth and a double â—ortion on the sixth but none fell on the seventh â—ay at all He also quotes Mercer one much â—onversant in the Rabbins who confesses the Rabâ—ins generally refer'd Gen. 2. to the following â—â—mes even to the Sanctification of the Sabbath â—stablish'd by the Law of Moses Doubtless â—he Jews who so much doted on their Sabbath would by no means have robbed it of so great Antiquity had they had any ground to approve â—hereof or not known the contrary so that the â—cope of Moses in this place was not to shew the time when but the occasion why God did afterwards sanctify the seventh day because that on that day he rested from all his Works Moreover the same Author saith Nor 〈◊〉 it otherwise conceiv'd than that Moses did heâ—â— speak by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation 〈◊〉 Ambrose Catharini * One of the Trent Council opened the contrary thâ—â— next falls foul upon Tostatus Yet saith he 〈◊〉 same Catharini affirms in the same Book thâ—â— nothing is more frequent in holy Scripture thâ—â— these Anticipations and among others our Aâ—â—thor mentions one or two it is said of Abrâ—â—ham that he removed to a Mountain eastwaâ—â— of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till 〈◊〉 hundred years after and Abraham knew it 〈◊〉 by that name but Moses writing the Historâ— of Abraham saith a French Protestant Divine 〈◊〉 calls it by Anticipation Bethel which was 〈◊〉 so called till Jacob gave it that name Gen. 28. 13. which bâ—â—fore was call'd Luz So in Judg. 5. 9 19. 〈◊〉 said the Angel of the Lord came up from Gâ—â—gal to Bokim which was not so call'd till afteâ—â—wards Ver. 32. We also find in Exod. 16. that Mosâ—â— said This is the thing that the Lord commanded Fill an Omer of it to be kept for your Generations that they may see the Bread wherewith you have been fed in the Wilderness when I brougâ—â— you forth from the Land of Egypt Ver. 33. So Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Calvin saith this Author tells us on this Text indeed it could not well be otherwise interpreted i. e. but by Anticipation for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to keep before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony at that time Moreover Moses tells us in the place before mention'd that the Children of Israel eat Manna forty years which saith he is not otherwise true in that place and time but by Anticipation Now I argue thus If Moses by way of Anticipation speaks of that as being done â—â—ich was not actually done till forty fifty or â—undred years after why might he not in 〈◊〉 2. put that in after the same manner that â—s not indeed done till his time when God gave 〈◊〉 the Commandment of the Sabbath If he â—ts that into his History as done which was 〈◊〉 done till a hundred years after why not 〈◊〉 other thing till two thousand years The â—â—stance of time to me signifies nothing tho 〈◊〉 Owen seems to intimate as if it did I â—â—ll leave this to all Mens serious thoughts 〈◊〉 what little reason the Sabbatarians or others 〈◊〉 to cast so much contempt on what these 〈◊〉 have said Secondly As to the other sort who insist not 〈◊〉 much on this yet deny that God gave Adam 〈◊〉 Command to keep the seventh day tho it 〈◊〉 said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified 〈◊〉 Now by the way consider 1. The Scripture expresses not the manner 〈◊〉 the Lord sanctified it God by way of Destination from the beginning appointed the Sabbath for after-times 1. Whether by â—â—parting any special Holiness to that day â—hich as Dr. Owen saith it was not capable 〈◊〉 there being no inherent Holiness in that day â—ore than another 2. Or by dedicating the â—â—me to any Religious Worship for Adam to be â—â—und in on that day Or 3. Whether he â—â—ight not then by a Decree or Purpose only â—â—estine that day to religious Worship for
the precise seventh day being there a positive Precept SERMON III. Proving the Patriarchs kept not the Seventh-day Sabbath That the knowledg of the seventh day was not written in the Hearts of all Mankind by Nature Gal. iv 10 11. Ye observe days and months c. MY Brethren there are three sorts of Persons I have little hopes of doing good to in preaching on this Subject 1. Such as thro self-conceit are so fond of their own Apprehensions that they resolve not to regard the strongest Arguments against what they believe thus it is with some who have sucked in dangerous Errors who if a Book be presented to them presently cry away with it we will not read it they are not like him that said What I know not teach thou me nor like the great Appollos who was ready to receive further Light by a poor Man and his Wife much inferior to him both as to Parts Knowledg and Learning Acts 18. 2. The second sort are such as thro the weakness of their Capacities are not able to take in the strength of an Argument and therefore let never so much be said do intimate it is all little or nothing to them 3. The third sort are such as seem indifferent whether they keep the seventh or the first day or perhaps any at all as a special day to the Lord these not seeing the danger of observing the old Jewish Sabbath nor of their indifference about keeping any day at all trouble not themselves at all about this matter But to â—â—ass this and proceed I have proved 1. That the Command for or knowledg of keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath was not written in Adam 's Heart 2. That there was 〈◊〉 positive Command given to him to observe that â—ay above any other either before or immediately after his Fall A time to worship God was wrote in Adam's Heart no doubt and indeed all his time while in Innocency he was naturally led to give up to his blessed Creator All Adam's time in Innocency taken up in adoring his blessed Creator What had he to do but to adore and contemplate the Perfections of his bountiful Creator and could he have done it better on one day than another The best and highest Acts of Worship he was capable of performing would have been his work and delight for ever had he abode in that state for Perfection admits of no greater Number Measure Degrees or Additions Now I may infer from hence If the Command of God to observe the seventh day was not wrote in Adam's Heart then it is not written in the Hearts of any of his Offspring by Nature For as I have said the muddy Stream cannot be clearer than the Chrystal Fountain But our Brethren who keep the seventh day and some others affirm that the Patriarchs from Adam to Moses did keep that day Answ This I deny and if I put them to prove it The Patriarchs did not keep the seventh day Sab. they can never do it First I grant that from Adam to Moses the holy and pious Patriarchs not only discharged all Duties of natural Religion but all Duties given by express Command to them yet we read not that God commanded them to keep the seventh day or reminded them of a former Precept given to Adam and in him to them And no doubt they observed a sufficient time for the Worship of God it may be a part of every day or more than one in seven for they not only improved their natural Light and Knowledg but had a special Revelation of the Will of God to them yet we find not the least intimation that any of them kept the seventh day Abel we read sacrificed and this of offering Sacrifices could not be known by the Light of Nature God therefore commanded him so to do or revealed it some way or another in a supernatural way to him because him and his Offering God had respect unto besides he did it in Faith and Faith must have a Rule to act by but we do not read he offer'd Sacrifices on the seventh day or kept that day as a Sabbath had he kept one Sabbath-day tho no mention is made of any Command he had so to do we should no more doubt of it but conclude he had such a Command as we believe he had for his offering Sacrifices but if he or any other of the Patriarchs had kept the seventh day as a Sabbath would it from thence follow it was a moral Precept and obligatory on us any more than their offering Sacrifices obliges us so to do We read of Men who began to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 4. 26. or to call themselves by the Name of the Lord as one reads it See Ainsw Annot. on the place but not a word of such a Sabbath observ'd by them Ainsworth reads it thus Then began Men profanely to call upon the Name of the Lord and one of the Rabins * Rabbi Maimon saith in those days Idolatry took its first beginning so that from hence there can no Proof be taken that they kept the seventh-day as a Sabbath Enoch walked with God three hundred years and certainly if he had kept the Sabbath we should have had â—ome account of it but as we read of no such matter so Justin Martyr as I find him cited by approved Authors declares Enoch was one if those that was not circumcised neither kept the Sabbath Lib. 4. c. 30. Ad Judaeos And Irenaeus mentioning Enoch with my Author speaks thus viz. Enoch that righteous Man being neither circumcised nor a Sabbath-keeper was by the Lord translated And as it cannot be proved that the seventh day was observed before the Flood so we have â—o reason to believe it was kept by Noah in those days the Flood overflow'd the World 〈◊〉 is said Noah was only righteous in that Generation and therefore a true Worshipper of God but we read not of his keeping the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath I know some would catch at that Expression Gen. 8. 10 12. that Noah stay'd seven days before he sent out the Dove as if this might reâ—er to the Sabbath But in Answer to this which indeed needs â—one at all take what a learned Man hath â—id for a reason why Noah stay'd seven days and again other seven days Abulensis Noah saith he desired to know whether the Waters were decreased Now the Waters being regulated by the Moon Noah was most especially to regard her Motions for as she is either in Opposition or Conjunction with the Sun in her increase or wane there is proportionably an increase or falling of the Waters Noah then considering the Moon in her several quarters which commonly we know are at seven days distance sent forth his Dove to bring him tydings for the Text tells us that he sent out the Raven and the Dove four times and the fourth time the Moon being in the last quarter when both by the ordinary course
of Nature the Waters usually are and by the Will of God were then much decreased the Dove which was sent out had found good footing on the Earth There is greater reason to believe this than to suppose it refer'd to the Sabbath * De Emendat Temp. l. 5. Scaliger saith my Author one while thought the day on which Noah left the Ark and offered Sacrifices to be the seventh day but in the next Edition he fixed that day to be the fourth day of the week Now after the Flood we find God gave to Noah and his Sons some express Laws and Commands i. e. not to eat Blood and forbidding Murder c. Now this is the time doubtless to hear of a Sabbath and of the charge about it if God had given it either to Adam before or after the Fall but not one word is mention'd for 't is not said Remember the seventh day c. or ye shall observe my Sabbath Gen. 9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Now from Shem Ham and Japhet both Jews and Gentiles proceeded even the whole World and to me it seems not probable had the Sabbath been commanded that Jehovah should not at this time have given them a charge about it there being then so few positive Laws instituted here is Blood forbid to the whole World and Murder but not one word of a Sabbath or seventh day to be observ'd Seven Precepts given to Noah but no Sabbath The Rabbins speak of seven Precepts given to Noah and his Sons but exclude the Seventh-day Sabbath out of that number If we have it not mentioned here besure we shall not meet with it till we come to Moses but here we have it not nor indeed was it possible for some of them to keep that precise day being scatter'd to the furthermost ends of the Earth We read of Abraham that he kept all God's Commandments yet he kept no Seventh-day Sabbath he built an Altar and sacrificed which were mere positive Precepts and 〈◊〉 the Seventh-day Sabbath is not mention'd â—or commanded him nor a hint given to remember him to keep it Job liv'd also Job liv'd 't is thought about Abraham's time it is concluded about Abraham's time which may be gather'd by the number of years he liv'd which was about two hundred years which few attain'd to after Abraham Joseph liv'd but a hundred and ten 'T is said Job liv'd a hundred and forty years after his sore Trials were ended Job 42. 16. the Jews speak of his living in all two hundred and eighty years â—ow as one observes when he pleads his Inâ—â—grity and Innocence even to very minute Particulars he neither alledges his strict observation of the Seventh-Say Sabbath nor apologizes for the neglect thereof nor do this Friends who rak'd up every thing against him speak a word about this nor of the Sabbath throughout the whole Book which treats in a manner wholly about Worship and Devotion towards God the Sabbath therefore no doubt had not â—â—â—ap'd as he minds if it had been known 〈◊〉 been a Duty in his days As to Isaac he was a most devout Man and 〈◊〉 Life was taken up in a continual course of â—â—ety his custom was to go into the fields to meditate but it is not said he did it on the â—eventh day or that he kept this day as a Sabbath Jacob was a Man that fled from Idolatry 〈◊〉 God's Command and liv'd a godly Life and tho we read of his performing many Acts of Worship yet nothing of his keeping the seventh day as a Sabbath no tho we read of his hard Service when he kept Laban's Sheep both in Winter and Summer which might have caused him to complain of his being incommoded from a strict observation of that day had he known it as his Duty but in all his Complaints not one word of this We know among us how Shepherds are hindered in Sabbath-Observations of which many have complained or may have occasion to do Moreover during Joseph's being in Pharaoh's Court nor before do we read of his observing this Sabbath and when Jacob came into Egypt we read 〈◊〉 of his observation thereof nor of the Egyptian keeping of it or had they forgot it besuâ— there would have been some notice taken of Jacob's keeping it nor would he have avoided iâ— that he might please Pharaoh and his Servants Nor can it be thought on any good grounds that the Children of Israel kept the Seventh-day Sabbath under their Taskmasters in Egypt thâ— some would infer they did from these words that you make the People rest from their Burdens Exod. 5. 5. they would have these words to mean you make them keep a Sabbath where as no such thing seems to have the least countenance because Pharaoh's Officers complain not of their resting or being idle on one day only but two days together see Exod. 5. 14. Wherefore have you not fulfilled your Task in making of Brick both yesterday and to day as heretofore Now since there is no mention that any 〈◊〉 the Patriarchs kept the seventh day as a Sabbath we infer this as the first reason why they observ'd it not Secondly Let it be consider'd that we read 〈◊〉 many positive Commands given to Noah to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but none to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath nor no reminding them of any former Institution or Precept to observe it wherefore we may conclude they kept it not Thirdly The Patriarchs not commended for keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath We read how the faithful Patriarchs were commended for doing whatsoever God commanded them but not of any of them being commended for keeping the seventh day as a Sabbath yet after Moses's time when the Sabbath was instituted and given by God's express Command to Israel he took we find as much notice of their observing his Sabbaths as of any other Duty injoined on them and this to their great Commendation Therefore had the Patriarchs been oblig'd to keep it no doubt they had as faithfully discharged their Duty therein as any of God's Servants did in after times and God besure would have left something on Record to their Commendation Fourthly The old World not charg'd with Sabbath-breaking We read of divers Sins the old World was guilty of which provoked God and brought the Flood upon them but not one word or hint given that they were guilty of Sabbath-breaking Now if it had been known either by the Light of Nature or by any positive Precept given to Adam and handed down to them by Tradition or otherwise they being so universally corrupted and polluted no doubt had profan'd that day and if so the sacred Record had mention'd that great Sin doubtless as well as others Fifthly Sodom not charg'd with Sabbath-breaking Moreover we read of the crying Sins of the People of Sodom c. and no doubt but they had violated all God's Commands or whatsoever were their known Duties but nothing of breaking
the Sabbath is charged against them Now can it be imagin'd they should not have fail'd in this case or that God would overlook or take no notice of it Sixtly We have a Catalogue of almost all immoral Evils before and after the Flood as Idolatry Gluttony Drunkenness Lasciviousness Incest Murder Lying Covetousness Theft c. and how Sin had possessed the Thoughts Hearts and Lives of Men but no account of their Violation of the Sabbath-day Seventhly None from Adam to Moses reprehended for not keeping the Sabbath Let it be consider'd that since God so severely reprehended the Jews for profaning his Sabbaths and hardly reproved them more sharply for any one Sin than for this certainly in his enumerating the Sins 〈◊〉 his People and of the Wickedness of those that liv'd from Adam to Moses he would have reproved them for Sabbath-breaking and not have utterly passed it by in silence had they been guilty of it or can it be rationally supposed that tho they fail'd in all other respects yet that they did not in this No doubt had it been a known Duty and that some of them had been guilty of the breach of it as in all likelihood they would but God would have severely reprehended them for it Eighthly Since we read of no Sabbath till Moses's time Exod. 16. only that God sanctified the seventh day what makes our Brethren so boldly say that Adam in Innocence kept it and all the Patriarchs from Adam to Moses This may seem strange to any thinking Man i. e. that they should affirm this seeing they require an express Command from us for the keeping of the first day or else all is nothing with them Brethren this I will say that had we no more ground to keep the Lord's day in solemn Worship as a day of Rest than they can find for the Patriarchs keeping of the seventh day as a Sabbath we should not say one word more for it I challenge them to shew us one place where a Sabbath is so much as once mention'd or any express or implicit Command given to any to observe it or one Example from the Creation of the World that any Man or Woman ever kept the seventh day as a Sabbath until we come to Moses Exod. 16. I shall God assisting shew that we have more than meer Examples of the Gospel Primitive Churches for observing in a solemn manner the lord's-Lord's-day or the first day of the week when I come to that part of my Work Now let them produce but one Example that â—ne tho but one of the Patriarchs did keep the â—eventh day as a Sabbath I will conclude it might be given to Adam after his Fall for before his Fall it could not be a Law to him for the reasons I have urged but if they could produce such an Example yet say some learned Men it doth no more prove that precise day is a moral Precept or that it from hence follows that it is our Duty in Gospel-times to observe it than it proves 't is our Duty to offer Sacrifices which we read before the Ceremonial Law was given they frequently did But since there is not one Instance to be given of any one Person that kept that day till Moses's time but that the Word of God is wholly silent about it we must and may say according to that common Maxim used by Divines i. e. Where God hath not a Mouth to speak we ought not to have an Ear to hear Ninthly The Proofs of the Learned for the Patriarchs keeping the Sabbath Let us now consider what some learned Men have produced for their pretended Proofs that the Patriarchs kept the seventh day as a Sabbath which I fear hath imboldned the Jewish Sabbatarians to affirm with such Confidence that all the Patriarchs did keep it But by the way Dr. Owen who is one that asserted what I utterly deny doth yet confess that many of the Jewish Masters or Rabbins ascribe the original of the Sabbath to the Statute given to them in Mara Exod. 15. and others of them to Exod. 16. yet the said Reverend Doctor cites some of the probable grounds to prove that the Patriarchs kept it Dr. Owen on the Sab. p. 72. 1. The first and chief place I find he mentions is that in Gen. 18. 19. For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the ways of the Lord and do Justice and Judgment Answ That Abraham had this Charge and Commandment given to him is granted but what little reason there is from hence to conclude he kept the Sabbath or gave charge to his Children so to do I will leave to all Mens Consideration God gave to Abraham Commands we find that evident enough and some of them not very easy to Flesh and Blood as that of offering up his only Son Moreover none doubt of the faithfulness of the Patriarch Abraham but if the Sabbath was not then instituted nor any Command given to him to keep it there could not be any such Command meant or comprehended in that Charge given to him The truth is my Brethren learned Men who are Men also of great natural Parts can put a fair gloss on any thing and make that seem to be a Truth that there is not the least ground to believe is so Abraham did all he did in Faith and therefore he had Divine Authority for all he did in God's Service Dr. Twiss's main Argument to prove that the Patriarchs observed the Seventh-day Sabbath is this Dr. Twiss on the Christian Sab. p. 57. viz. The Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore saith he the Patriarchs did observe it Answ I answer God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it but did not give any Command to Adam to keep it therefore the Patriarchs from thence could not know or see they had any ground to observe it Dr. Twiss saith in the same place i. e. And the truth is until the coming of the Children of Israel out of Egypt we read not of any Church of God any where but in single Families neither do we read of the Patriarchs before the Flood or a long time after that they kept any day consecrated to God's Service But we say with him that it doth not therefore follow that they kept no day at all in God's Service They owned the True God and worshipped him and knew that there must be a time a sufficient time to discharge that Homage or Worship to him and tho perhaps they observ'd one day in seven yet as I conceive they did not know what precise day they ought to observe above any other until God by some express positive Command made it known which was not till he constituted the whole House of Israel into a Typical Church-state and gave them an instituted Worship and commanded their Legal and Typical Sabbath Besides how could the Patriarchs know what Duties proper for Sabbath-observation
they should perform except it had by some positive Law or Precept been discover'd to them of which we read not When God gave to Israel a Sabbath he told them how they should keep it as well as the Reasons End and Causes wherefore Tenthly I might also add here what some learned Men seem to affirm i. e. that 't is doubtful whether the Patriarchs had the distinction of Days into Weeks but rather reckon'd by Months and Years so that the precise seventh day from the Creation cannot be certainly known and 't is thought that the Jews observ'd their seventh day from the falling of Manna six days The Jews reckon'd their Seventh-day Sabbath from the falling of Manna but none on the seventh No doubt but it is impossible for any to know that that was the precise seventh day from the Creation But it may not be amiss to answer our Opponents as to what they say about the Scripture not mentioning any Sabbath from Adam to Moses or any Precept or Remembrance of it and yet things of less moment are punctually recited 1. This they say that we read not of Circumcision perform'd during all the time of Israel's being in Egypt which was near four hundred years till Zippora circumcised her Son 2. Also say they we read not of the Sabbath in the Books of Joshua and Judges c. Answ This is no parallel case for after the positive Command given to Israel to keep it there needed no such constant relation of it for no doubt but after that time it was continually observ'd Let me close this with what I find recited by many learned Men concerning the Judgment of divers of the antient Fathers about the Patriarchs observing the Sabbath The Judgment of the anâ—ient Fathers Justin Martyr saith Just Mart. 〈◊〉 cum 〈…〉 that Melchisedec who it is supposed was Shem the Son of Noah was neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath Irenaeus saith Iren. l. 4. c. 30. Abraham believed and it was imputed to him for Righteousness before he was circumcised and without observing of the Sabbath Tertullian saith Tert. adv Judaeos de praescr c. 2 4. Abel Enoch Noah and Melchisedec observ'd not the Sabbath And again he saith that not any of the Patriarchs kept the Sabbath neither Adam Enoch Noah nor Abraham for 2455 years And hence Tertullian saith Justin de verit l. 2. in Tryph. it is manifest therefore that that cannot be moral nor perpetual that began with Moses as Justin says and ended in Christ Eusebius saith Moses brings in Melchisedec Priest of the most High God Dem. l. 1. c. 6. neither being circumcised nor anointed with Oil as was afterwards commanded in the Law no nor so much as knowing there was a Sabbath Justin Martyr again saith Cont. Tryph. in the days of Enoch People observd not Circumcision or the Sabbath before Abraham there was no Circumcision and before Moses no keeping holy the Sabbath I might also add several of the Jewish Rabbins asserting the same thing But to proceed I infer from hence that that Text Gen. 2. doth not contain in it any present Institution of the Sabbath but signifies God's Destination or Purpose to give it as a Law to his People Israel in after times and was not given to Adam in Innocence for him to sanctify it God might sanctify that precise day to his own Rest after Adam fell with respect had to Christ in whom he took up his perfect Rest and afterwards appointed the seventh day as a sign thereof However it is one thing for God to sanctify or set apart a thing for this or that use and another thing to command that thing or immediately to put it into being Our Lord Jesus was long sanctified or set apart to be our Redeemer Joh. 10. 36. before he was sent into the World actually to redeem us Jeremiah the Prophet was sanctified or set apart to his Work and Office long before he was actually call'd to the execution thereof So that if these words Gen. 2. concerning God's blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day Mr. Sam. Grascom p. 18. are to be extended saith one to relate to any thing further than to that particular seventh day following the Creation it doth not refer to any immediate Institution of the Sabbath but is a historical Narration telling us what was done and not when it was done If therefore we can find out a certain time when the Sabbath was indeed instituted there is good reason to conclude this Text refers to that time as giving us the reason why God in the Institution of the Seventh-day Sabbath made choice of that day And to sum up what I have said take these Arguments 1. We may infer The Arguments against the Patriarchs keeping the Sabbath 〈◊〉 up that if the Patriarchs kept the seventh day they had the knowledg of it by the Light of Nature or by a positive Command but they had not the knowledg of it by the Light of Nature nor by any positive Command therefore they observ'd it not 2. If they kept it by virtue of an express Command and Institution they had no doubt some Directions about the due observation thereof and instituted Sabbath-days Worship but they had no Directions about it nor instituted Sabbath-days Worship therefore they did not observe it 3. Certainly if the Patriarchs were obliged to observe the seventh day as a Sabbath God would either have commended them or some of them for keeping it or else reprehended others for not keeping it but God neither commended any of them for the keeping it nor reprehended any others for profaning and not â—eeping it therefore none of them did observe 〈◊〉 Eleventhly Let me add one Argument more 〈◊〉 prove that the Patriarchs did not observe the seventh day as a Sabbath viz. If the Patriarchs and all Mankind from the beginning of the World were or had been obliged to keep the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath certainly there had â—een some account given of the Penalty or Punishment due to Sabbath-breakers but we read of no Penalty or Punishment to be inflicted on Sabbath-breakers therefore we conclude they were not oblig'd to the observation thereof How can it be thought that the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath should be imposed upon them and yet God should hide the Punishment due to the breach thereof from the World for more than two thousand years Evident it is that they knew what Punishment was to be inflicted for the breach of other moral Precepts as Murder Adultery c. and if this were of like nature i. e. a pure moral Duty how came it to pass that God discover'd not the Penalty to them for violating this Precept Twelfthly My last Argument is this The Sabbath under the Old Testament had a respect to a stated and stinted instituted Worship in a National Church but the Patriarchs and all God's People from Adam to Moses were not brought into such an Ecclesiastical
Dr. Owen p. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the Sabbath or Sabbath-days which were a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ From hence they affirm saith he it will follow that there is nothing moral in the observation of the Sabbath seeing it was a mere Type and Shadow as were other Mosaical Institutions and also that it is absolutely abolished and taken away by Christ And if they mean no more but that precise seventh Day they were certainly right Nay Dr. Owen himself as I conceive determines the matter so as to make that precise day refer to Moses and his Oeconomy But indeed I see some learned Men have wrote very darkly because they strive to preserve a Sabbath in the Gospel-day or a day of Rest and of solemn Worship and that tho not simply yet positively moral from the fourth Command and if by moral positive they mean one day in seven which God from his Soveraign Pleasure will have perpetually observed as a day of Rest and solemn Worship I am of their mind Quest But since the Jewish seventh Day was a Sign and a Shadow what was it a Sign and Shadow of Answ Before I give a direct Answer to this let me premise one thing which in a special manner we ought to regard viz. that the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath was bottom'd upon the Covenant of Works in that Ministration of it given to the whole House of Israel as suting with their Ecclesiastical Political and Typical Church-state And this Dr. Owen has fully proved Dr. Owen on the Sab. p. 221. speaking of that Covenant Now saith he this is not absolutely and merely a Law but as it contain'd a Covenant between God and Man A Law it might have been and not a Covenant which doth not necessarily follow upon either its instructive or preceptive Power Yet it was originally given in the Counsel of God to that end and accompanied with Promises and Threatnings whence it had the nature of a Covenant By virtue of this Law as a Covenant was the observation of a Sabbath prescribed and required as a token and pledg of God's Rest in that Covenant in the performance of the Works whereon it was instituted and of Man's Interest in it Again he saith Seeing therefore that the Moral Law as a Covenant between God and Man requir'd this sacred Rest we must inquire what place as such it had in the Mosaical Oeconomy whereon the true Reason and Notion of the Sabbath doth depend for the Sabbath being originally annexed to the Covenant between God and Man * The Dr. takes it for granted which I deny that the Sabbath was given to Adam the Renovation of the Covenant doth necessarily require a special Renovation of the Sabbath and the change of the Covenant as to the nature of it in like manner doth introduce a change of the Sabbath c. 1. From hence note that Dr. Owen saith the Law given Exod. 20. was a renewal of the Covenant of Works 2. That the Seventh-day Sabbath was given as a Token or Pledg of that Covenant and Rest 3. That the Seventh-day Sabbath of Rest was not a Type of our Eternal Rest in Heaven but a Type or Shadow of that true Spiritual Rest we enter into under the New Covenant when we believe in Christ and so this Rest is the Antitype of the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath My Brethren this is that Rest of God which he referr'd to and in which he takes up his delight and complacence Moreover God shewed his People Israel by their Sabbath how impossible it was for them by the Covenant of Works to enter into this Rest where they should utterly cease from sin it was a sign between God and them that they should perform the whole Obedience due under the Covenant of Works signified by that Obligation that in six days they should labour and do all they had to do and then rest denoting that the whole Law must be kept or no rest the man that doth them shall live by them or have Life Rest and Peace on that Condition This I say did signify Man's working for Life before he could enter into Rest for if they could do all they had to do or God required of them or answer all the Demands of the Law then they should have Rest Peace and Justification thereby Here you have the Six-days Labour and the Seventh-day's Sabbath it being an Epitome of the Covenant of Works For their Sabbath as Calvin shews in the tenor of it put them upon the highest Acts of Obedience even to live and sin not or cease from all Iniquity in Words Thoughts and Actions Now if this did not tend to Bondage and so was a Law against them and contrary to them nothing could but now in Christ who hath kept the Law perfectly for us or has done all we were to do and suffer we come to have true spiritual Rest and Peace And Our Lord no doubt alludes to this Ma◠11. 28 29. Come to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Brethren mind those two words labour and heavy laden On the Jewish Sabbath no servile labour was to be done nor any burdens to be born signifying that Believers in Christ cease from labouring for Life and must not bear any burden of Sin either in respect of the guilt or fear of the punishment Christ having done all and born the burden of all our sins in his own Body on the Tree so that we must cast our Burden on the Lord and he will sustain us And so we begin our Sabbath after all our Works are done and Burdens born by our dear Lord and blessed Surety on the first Day of the Week as he has directed us and from hence we work not for Life and Rest but from Life Rest and Peace Therefore to answer that Question what was the Jewish Sabbath a sign of you have in part heard but shall yet more fully hear 1. I affirm that it was a Sign of the Covenant of Works in that Ministration given to Israel written and engraven in Tables of Stone How often is that Sabbath called a Sign between God and them Exod. 31. 13. Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep it is a Sign between me and you throughout your Generations Again vers 17. 'T is a Sign between me and the Children of Israel Ezek. 20. 12. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbath to be a Sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them But still it is enquired what was it a Sign of Some say that Israel were in bondage in Egypt others that God created the World in six days Answ I answer but remotely if at all it was a Sign of either of them for they are laid down as the Reasons why God gave Israel their Sabbath and not as a Sign of those things But let it now be well considered that God
in the Regions and Climates aforesaid there be no such particular day as is expressed in the fourth Commandment yet there is a sufficient and equivalent space of time which may be measured by hours My answer is That the Law of the Decalogue requireth the keeping holy of such a Seventh-day as is distinguished from the day before and the day after by a new return arising presence and going down of the Sun But Time and Hours in general do not yield or constitute such a Day And saith another Author Mr. Ironside p. 133 There is no moral Law of Nature in Scripture but is it self possible to all in all parts of the World in regard of the thing commanded But a natural Sabbath-day as made to consist of 24 hours or of a Day and a Night is absolutely impossible for some men in some parts of the World to be observed If it be objected That this makes equally against the first Day as against the Seventh I answer We do not say the observation of the first Day is a moral Precept but merely positive No doubt but the Seventh-day was instituted for Israel whose Habitation was fixed in the Land of Canaan See a late Author on the Sabbath T. C. recommended by Dr. Bates and Mr. How c. 10. p. 40. The day of God's Rest saith he which is the seventh Day from the Creation is the same universal Day with all People but it can't be the same Day of the week with all People If the Day of God's Rest be Saturday with some it must needs be Friday or Sunday with others So likewise the time of Christ's coming to Judgment if it be saith he on the Saturday with some it will be on Friday or Sunday with others This he proves because the Earth is not plain but round The Jews saith he neither did nor could keep the very Seventh-day on which God rested in all places but as we according to God's Command work six days and rest the Seventh so did they And as Sunday with Christians was ever the day following six days of labour so was the Saturday with the Jews If this be so it can't be deny'd that the Seventh-day of God's resting cannot be kept by all nor do any know they do keep it Ninthly Christ Lord of the Sabbath can dispose of it as he pleases The morality of the fourth Commandment consists not in the precise Seventh-day Sabbath because of Christ's Lordship over it as Mediator That Commandment over which Christ was absolute Lord as the Son of Man cannot be moral for a moral Precept is part of God's Eternal Law Ironside p. 53 54. over which the Son of Man can have no power saith a Learned Author being made under the Law But Christ as the Son of Man Mat. 12. 8. was Lord of the Sabbath Mark 2. 27. as himself twice has told us Object So it is said he is Lord of the dead and living Answ This saith our Author is to play with the ambiguity of the words 'T is one thing for Christ to be Lord of the Church to guide govern perfect quicken raise and glorify her Eph. 1. 20 21 22. and another to be Lord of a Law or Constitution to moderate dispense with order alter and abolish it for in what other Construction can any one be said to be Lord of a Law Obj. Christ can't be said to refer to this because he had not then abrogated the Sabbath Answ 1. I have shewed that spiritual Rest signified by the seventh-day's Rest was given to all them that believed in Christ so that the Antitype being come the Type was a flying away and was in a dying state at that very time tho all typical Ordinances were not utterly abolished till his Death and Resurrection 2. 'T is as if our Lord should have said you magnify the Sabbath as if that was one of the greatest Commandments and the main end of Man's Creation but you must know the Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath as were all legal Rites and Ceremonies And if it be thus I that am the Messiah am by my Office Lord of the Sabbath and I can and will abrogate it and appoint another day in its room Certainly Man was made to discharge all pure moral Precepts they being originally stampt on his Heart as Christ who was made under the Law was ordain'd to keep the Law for us and not the Law made for him Man was made in the Image of God and under a holy Law and Covenant of perfect Obedience to serve his Creator and by the observation of that holy Law written in his Heart as the Law of his very Creation he bore the Image of God in the World Mark 2. 27. serving him in Righteousness and Holiness to the Glory of his Name and for this he was made yet Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for him i. e. for his good in respect to his Body and Soul 1. As to his outward Rest c. 2. As a help to discharge all Duties of instituted Worship the better for the good of his Soul 3. And chiefly to point out or shadow forth to him the true Rest by Jesus Christ and so that typical Sabbath was to remain no longer than till that true Rest was come and finally established for then it could be of no further use to Man for which end it was chiefly appointed for him Object I know some object from these words the Sabbath was made for Man that therefore it was for every Man Answ The Woman was made for Man also but must every man have a Wife therefore God ne'r design'd that for such to whom he hath given the Gift to live without marrying So neither were all Men to have this Sabbath no none but they to whom it was given tho it was made for Man yet not for every Man in the World but only for the whole House of Israel and the proselyted Stranger within their Gate as I shall shew in the next place Tenthly The pure Morality of the fourth Command consists not in the observation of the precise seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath The simple Morality of the fourth Command lies not in one day in seven because it lies not in one day in seven but in a sufficient time for Rest and the Worship of God tho I do assert and stedfastly believe that by a positive Precept contain'd in the fourth Commandment one day in seven God will have observed to the end of the World which I think is the sum 〈◊〉 what the Learned mean by a Law positive â—â—ral Not that precise day for mind the words Exod. 20. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy In this Clause it does not directly point at one peculiar day more than another the Light of Nature requires a time and God positively lays claim to a seventh day or one day in seven perpetually to be observed as a day of Rest
and solemn Worship And tho the last of seven was that precise Day injoyn'd under the old Covenant upon the People of Israel yet that Sabbath was not to continue longer than till the Antitype came and it being a sign and shadow it is as I have proved done away Dr. Owen Pag. 301. speaking of the Seventh-day Sabbath saith That Day was not directly nor absolutely required in the Decalogue but consequentially only by way of appropriation to the Mosaical Oeconomy whereunto it was then annexed The Command is to observe the Sabbath-day God blessed the Sabbath-day And the mention of the seventh Day in the body of the Command fixes the number of the Days in whose Revolution a Sabbatical Rest returns but determines not an everlasting order in them seeing the order relating to the old Creation is inconsistent with the Law Reason and Worship of the new And if the seventh Day and the Sabbath as some pretend are the same the sense of the Command in the inforcing part of it is but the seventh Day is the seventh Day of the Lord thy God which is none at all So as he and all learned Men generally say 't is not the precise seventh Day but one day in seven which is perpetually obligatory in the fourth Commandment Mind the words again wherein the substance or the essential part of this Command is expressed Six days shalt thou labour but a seventh is a Sabbath 't is not in the original the seventh but seventh denoting not a monthly or yearly but a weekly Sabbath the Phrase is exclusive Mr. Warren p. 48. as one observes implying thus much i. e. Thou art not bound to keep the sixth day or one in six or the tenth or one in ten but the seventh that is one in seven or one in a week The term seventh is opposed to all other numbers either ninth or twentieth as also to the six working days which clearly intend such a number as six in seven so the seventh as one in seven Suppose I give or lend a poor Man seven Pounds on condition that he improves one Pound for me now by the seventh is intended one in seven so doth God here intend one day in seven for a holy Rest to himself Tho I deny not the last of seven or one after six working days was given to the People of Israel yet it was a sign they should keep the whole Law and was a shadow of that spiritual and antitypical Rest we have in Christ and so was upon a special occasion imposed on them with the greatest strictness and severest Penalty But let it be considered that which is signified in the fourth Command as perpetually obliging us is that we observe one day in seven as a day of Rest to the Lord. Let me give you one parallel case more viz. the Law of Tithes Now God required the tenth of their Increase but will any Man say God intended any one precise tenth No begin where you will the tenth Sheaf or Lamb is the Lord's So here God will have one day in seven but the reason why he fixed on the last of the seven under the old Covenant I have shewed and shall further shew why he chuseth the first of seven in the new Covenant neither being expressed in the essential and first part of the fourth Command Had God chose now one in six or one in nine he had altered as one observes the substance of this Command It is needless to recite the words of all * Owen Twiss Shepherd Walker Palmer Hughs Dod Wallis Durham B. of Dorchest Weemse Baxter Bunyan c. those who hold that one in seven not the precise last day of the seven is perpetually to be observ'd and that the old seventh Day is abolished but I shall observe what Mr. Warren saith viz. Thus I grant the time of Worship a Sabbath it self being an inseparable Adjunct of solemn Worship is perpetual but the old Day the seventh from the Creation was made mutable and we have a Sabbath still a literal Sabbath but the old Sabbaths and old Sacrifices being Twins tho both honourable and serviceable in their Generations as they liv'd together and dy'd together let both together in God's Name be buried in the Grave of Christ so as never to rise up again but let our Gospel-worship and Gospel-Sabbath take life from our Saviour's Resurrection which brought with it a new Creation a new World making all things new But to wave this a little 't is well observ'd by Dr. Wallis He 'll say perhaps i. e. Mr. Banfield the Jews observed such a seventh Day from the Creation and that was their Sabbath But that is more than he or I know or any Man living They had I grant a circulation of seven days but from what Epocha we cannot tell And when Moses tells them on the sixth day To morrow is the Rest of the holy Sabbath it seems to be the fixing of a new Epocha from the first raining of Manna and then all his Arguments from the continual observation of the Sabbath from the Creation till that time are at an end i. e. whether this from the first raining of Manna be the same with that from the Creation And there is six to one odds that it is not 1. Observe Mr. B. of Dorchest p. 31. that at the opening and giving forth of the Command Exod. 20. 8. 't is said Remember the Sabbath-day that is the day of holy Rest of God's appointing 2. In the Conclusion of the Command v. 11. Wherefore the Lord blessed and sanctified the Sabbath-day 't is not expressed the seventh day but the Sabbath-day of holy Rest this is evident that neither in the opening nor shutting up the Commandment where we have the moral substance of it is there mention of any particular Day at all 3. What intervenes and comes in by way of explication or inforcement of Obedience between the opening and shutting up of the Command ought to be observed as 1. In what Revolution of time God had appointed this day of holy Rest to be observ'd and that is one whole day of seven of every seven days six for Labour one for Rest not one in ten or one in twenty but one in seven one day in every week 2. I observe the inforcement of Obedience to the Command from God's resting the seventh day Here I acknowledg the last of seven is mentioned but not as any branch of the unchangeable moral substance of the Command nor the observation of it directly but only consequentially being instituted before as is acknowledged by all And it must be owned that the last of seven here mentioned had first of all the honour to be the day of God's appointing and accordingly was observed till the time came that another day the first of seven was to succeed in the rome of it Note 1. As was said before neither in giving forth nor shutting up the Commandment is there any mention of
c. of falâ—â— Brethren that went from Jerusalem and taughâ— the believing Gentiles that unless they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they coulâ— not be saved or that it was needful for them 〈◊〉 to do ver 15. 1. Pray observe the matter well for noâ— we may expect to hear if ever whether 〈◊〉 be the Duty of believing Gentiles or not 〈◊〉 keep the Seventh-day Sabbath because thâ—â— was none of the least Precepts of the Law 〈◊〉 Moses and this was one thing no doubt which these false Brethren taught them to observe 2. All the great and chief Apostles meet together abont this matter and consulted what Answer to send and they had the extraordinary presence of the Holy Ghost with them â—o dictated to them what to write 3. And this was the Result Act. 15. 29. viz. For it seem'd â—â—d to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you greater Burden than these necessary things that â—abstain from Meats offer'd to Idols and from â—ood and from things strangled and from Forâ—cation from which if ye keep your selves ye â—ll do well Fare ye well Note these things were forbidden in the â—â—w and these things they commanded them â—t to do but not one word that they should â—â—ep the Sabbath given in Moses's Law this is â—ne of those things they should observe therefore it is not the Counsel or Mind of the â—oly Ghost that Gentile Believers should keep at Day 6thly Act. 20. 27. Paul says positively that he had not â—â—nned to declare to the Saints all the Counsel of â—d Ver. 20. And how he kept back nothing that was proâ—able to them but had shewed them all things c. â—ow I challenge any Man in the World to â—ew that Paul ever made known or shew'd â—em this thing viz. that it was their Duty to â—â—ep the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath therefore I inâ—â—r this is none of the Counsel of God nor â—ofitable to Believers in gospel-Gospel-days From â—hence I argue thus i.e. Arg. 1. Paul declared all or the whole Counâ—â— of God Paul did not declare the Seventh-â—â—bbath Ergo that is none of the Counsel of â—od 2. If he did declare the Seventh-day Sabbath 〈◊〉 make it known to the Saints to be God's Counâ—â— some one Man or another can shew us the â—ace where it is written but no one Man can â—â—ew us the place where it is written that he declared or made known to the Saints that the seventh-day Sabbath was the Counsel of God Ergo it is none of the Counsel of God to 〈◊〉 Saints or Gospel-Believers 7thly The holy Spirit saith our Lord 〈◊〉 receive of mine Joh. 16. 13 14. and shew it unto you Again 〈◊〉 saith The Spirit of Truth shall guide you 〈◊〉 all Truth But the Spirit of Truth neither guides Believers into the observation of the seventh Day c. in the Word or New Testament nor by his inward Motions Influence and Operations on their Hearts therefore it 〈◊〉 none of their Duty to observe that Day 8thly If not one Gospel-Church observed 〈◊〉 Seventh-day Sabbath in meeting together as 〈◊〉 Church to discharge the Duties of 〈◊〉 Worship then it is not the Duty of Believerâ— in Gospel-days to observe it But not onâ— Gospel-Church c. observ'd the Seventh-day Sabbath c. Therefore 't is not Believers Duty in Gospel-days to observe it Let them shew us where one Gospel-Church did observe that day in meeting together as 〈◊〉 Church to discharge the Duties of Gospel Worship and I will give up the Cause So much in this respect there is in an Apostolical Precedent in my Judgment for what was the Practice of one Church as a Church was the Duty and Practice of every Church 9thly Gentile Believers ought not to observe the Seventh-day Sabbath because the Churches in the Gospel time observed in Religious Duties and Worship the first day of the week and we are not required to keep two days in every week in God's solemn Worship 10thly Because the Law of God written in the Hearts of all Believers doth not teach them to observe the Seventh-day Sabbath And this brings me to the last general Argument Sixthly No Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath written in the Hearts of God's New Covenant Children If it be not the Duty of believing Gentiles to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath from the Law written by the Spirit of the living God in the Hearts of all his New-Covenant Children it is not their Duty to keep it because by no other Law I have proved it is their Duty and now I shall prove that it is not their Duty to keep it by virtue of this Law 1. If it was their Duty by this Law to keep â—â—t the holy Spirit besure had left it written in the New Testament for whatsoever Law is written in our Hearts it is but the same in substance in respect to all simple moral Precepts with what is written in the New Testament 2. Consider that God expresly says in the new Covenant Jer. 31. 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts Saith Paul 2 Cor. 3. 3. Written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God not in Tables of Stone but in the fleshly Tables of the Heart This shews we are not to go to the Tables of Stone to Mount Sinai for the Law of God now the Antitype of that is come God's Finger has wrote his Law in better Tables tho naturally our Hearts were like Stone yet his Spirit can and hath written his Law there What is God's Law but a Transcript or a gracious Impression of his holy Nature or his Divine Image stampt on our Souls Now then read this blessed Book ye New-Covenant Saints look within ye holy and renewed ones and see if you can find the knowledg of the seventh Day or that you have this Precept written in your Hearts and inward parts Were you ever by this Law led to know or reproved for not observing the Seventh-day Sabbath Let me close this with an Answer given to Tillam by Mr. Warren 1. Tillam saith Warren on the Sabb. p. 18 19. It was written in Adam's Heart and for this he quotes Rom. 2. 2. That it was written afterwards in Tables of Stone for which he cites Gal. 3. 19. 3. That it is written in the fleshly Table of renewed Hearts To which Mr. Warren answereth speaking to the latter The Experience of almost all renewed Hearts in Heaven and Earth doth contradict it for to speak in the Language of Eliphas â—ob 5. 1. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn either Scripture-Saints or Church-Saints ask St. Paul St. Cyprian St. Chrysostom St. Augustine and they will tell you that your antiquated Sabbath was so far from being in their Hearts that they have wrote against it with their Pens Turn over the Works of the eminent Fathers Add
to these the most judicious pious and zealous Ministers and Martyrs of Christ who have liv'd and dy'd within the compass of these sixteen hundred years and most if not all of them will tell you that they never owned your Saturday Sabbath they liv'd without it dy'd without it and are I doubt not gone to Heaven without it Besides how many faithful Witnesses of late years has the Lord raised up to bear Testimony against it of whom I suppose the greatest part are yet alive tho some are fallen asleep In a word how many precious and gracious and pious Christians are yet upon the Earth Men and Women redeem'd from the Earth and crucified to the World of whom the World is not worthy who look upon your Sabbath as a Cypher can freely labor and travel upon it buy and sell upon it and this after accurate Inquiry about it and to this day their Consciences never reproach them their Hearts never smote them for it What will you say Are all these Hypocrites unrenewed unsanctified ones this were to condemn the Generation of God's Children and canonize your self with your few misled Associates for the only Saints in Christendom which I would hope you dare not do tho I know * Meaning Tillam you dare as much as another Well the Adversary is brought to this Dilemma either God has no People in the World but such as are of his Perswasion or his moral and immutable Laws are not written in their Hearts or the Saturday Sabbath is none of those Laws Thus this Author If the Law of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath be written in the Hearts of Believers some one Man or another can produce some one Believer that was by the Law written in his Heart convinc'd of it without reading Moses's Law or any Book or Books compiled by Men about the Sabbath But no Man can produce any such Believer that will or can say this therefore it is not written in the Hearts of Believers Thus it appears that it is not the Duty of Gentile Believers to keep the seventh Day from the Law of God written in the Hearts of God's new Covenant Children which was the sixth and last part of the general Argument first proposed The last thing in speaking to the Seventh-day Sabbath I promised to do The dangerous Consequences of the Sabbatarian Principles was to shew you that as some hold and maintain it it is a dangerous Error 1. Is not that dangerous which caused Paul to fear he had bestowed on the Persons he speaks of Labor in vain Was it not because they observ'd Jewish Days laying stress on those things 2. Is not that a dangerous Error that leads Men to ratify or sign the Covenant of Works which binds them to keep the whole Law This I have proved is the natural tendency of this Practice Owen on the Sabb. p. 149. and the same thing Dr. Owen you have heard positively affirms also 3. Is not that dangerous that magnifies the first Creation Work above Redemption It magnifies Creation-work above Redemption or the new Creation Work when God began to create the new Heavens and new Earth which refers to the Gospel or new Creation What saith the Lord the old Heavens and old Earth shall be remembered no more that is in a day kept to that end for otherwise sure the great Works of the first Creation ought not to be forgot but the new Creation excelling the old the new Day must be kept in remembrance thereof and not the old day 4. Is not that a dangerous Error that tends It eclipses the Glory of Christ as the necessary Consequence of it to eclipse the Glory of Christ as the only Lord Head and Lawgiver to his Church and that gives part of this Honour to Moses 5. Is not that dangerous that tends to intangle and bring into Bondage and under legal Terror poor weak Christians as some who have kept the Seventh-day Sabbath have confessed till God open'd their Eyes they fearing they broke the Sabbath in some way or another for indeed no Man can perfectly keep it any more than he can keep the whole Law as has been hinted I was always in a trembling state saith one so long as I kept it c. or to that purpose Brethren it is not to be thought what Bondage it brought the zealous Jews under they not knowing when they had answered the strict observance of that day and if they brake it they must die without Mercy as the poor Man that gathered Sticks on that day they were not to speak their own words c. How should they know when they did this On Mat. 12. 2. p. 361. Nay live and sin not They would not Mr. Trap saith spit nor ease themselves on that day which is hard to believe tho some were superstitiously zealous 't is true yet others who were piously zealous by means of the strictness of the Precept continually were in fear and bondage And sad it is for any to be entangled again thereby 6. Is not that a dangerous thing Jewish Sabbath genders to Bondage that by the necessary consequence of it leads men to observe other Legal Rites and Ceremonies as not to eat Swines-flesh nor wear a Garment of Linen and Woolen nor mar the corner of their Beards Nay some of the chief of them formerly were led to Circumcision and to worse than that also I saw a Book published many years ago by two of them in which they called themselves the Ministers of the Circumcision That these things are the necessary Consequences of their Notion about their Sabbath appears because they go to Moses for it as the Law was in his hand and believe many other things that were meer Judicial Laws to be in force now They are for Moses's Law with the Statutes and Judgments and have declared that that Law is in force to stone to death such as break the Sabbath And no marvel for if that Sabbath be in force the Punishment is in force also Nay they believe I hear that a rebellious Son ought to be put to death 7. Is not that Error dangerous It renders all that keep it not guilty of horrid Immorality and of an evil Nature the necessary Consequence whereof renders all that keep not that precise Seventh-day as the Sabbath nor can be convinced 't is their Duty to observe it to be guilty of Immorality i. e. in breaking a moral Precept in the very Letter of it nay one of the Precepts of the first Table For it must be thus if the morality of the fourth Commandment lies in the observation of the precise Seventh-day Sabbath and it must be as great an Evil to violate it as 't is to have another God or to bow down to a graven Image or to swear or profane the holy Name of God or commit actual Adultery Murder c. and thus their Doctrin renders all true Christians to be guilty of a most
Antient Fathers whose Credit and Authority I see no cause to doubt have positively declared that it was the first day of the week that John called the Lord's-day The first I shall mention is Ignatius Epist ad Trall Magnes who was John 's Disciple and writes thus Let every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ keep holy the Lord's-day which was consecrated to the Lord's Resurrection Ignatius saith my Author was not only contemporary with St. John but was his Disciple or Scholar now John according to the best account we can have from Chronology Dr. Wallis Christ Sab. Part. 1. p. 48 49. wrote his Revelation in Paâ—â—os whither he was banished by Domitian in or about the year of our Lord 96 after which he wrote his Gospel and dy'd anno 98 or 99. and Ignatius dy'd a Martyr under Trajan in the year 107. How long before his Death Ignatius wrote his Epistle to the Magnesians Dr. Young cites the same Passage also of Ignatius p. 53. we are not certain nor is it material In that Epistle to the Magnesians even according to the genuine Edition published by Bishop Vsher out of an antient Manuscript not that which is suspected he doth earnestly exhort them not to Judaize but to live as Christians not any longer observing the Jewish but the Lord's-day on which Christ our Life rose again It is manifest therefore saith he that within eight or ten years after John's writing the Lord's-day did not signify the Jewish Sabbath but the first day of the week on which our Saviour rose again Why should any longer doubt in this matter besure Ignatius well knew what day it was that John called the Lord's-day who for some years conversed with that beloved Apostle and Disciple of Christ I might to this saith this Author add the Testimony of Polycarp Polycarp who was also a Disciple of John and collected and published these Epistles of Ignatius and knew what St. John meant by the Lord's-day He proceeds to Justin Martyr Justin Martyr an 129. his second Apology who saith He was not converted to the Christian Religion till about the year 129. about thirty years after St. John 's Death yet he lived so soon after that he could not be ignorant of the Christian Practice and what they understood St. John to mean by the Lord's-day and how that Day was observed On that day commonly called Sunday there is held a Congregation or general meeting together of all Inhabitants whether of City or Country and there are publickly read the Memorials or Monuments of the Apostles or Writings of the Prophets Again the day called Sunday we do all in common make the meeting-meeting-day for that the first Day is it on which God from Darkness and Matter made the World and our Saviour Christ did rise from the dead c. In which places saith he tho it be not called Dominica * The Lord's but Dies Solis †Sunday because speaking to a Heathen Emperor yet it was then solemnly observed 'T is manifest therefore that the lord's-Lord's-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominica or Dies Dominicus was the known name of a Day so called when John wrote his Revelation that it was a day of Religious Worship contradistinguished to that of the Jewish Sabbath and so observed and so called by Ignatius within eight or ten years at most after John's writing that Book which he would not have done if he had not thought it to be so meant by his Master St. John And in what manner it was observed in their solemn Religious Assemblies Justin Martyr tells us He also adds Clemens Irenaeus Origen Tertullian c. To which I might add Pliny that liv'd under Trajan who tho a Heathen could observe how these morning Stars used to meet early on this day Warren on the Sabb. p. 195 196. and sing Hymns to Christ and not only sing his Praises but celebrate his holy Supper on the Lord's-day And 't is known to have been the common Question put to the Christians by the Pagans Dost thou observe the Lord's-day The usual Answer was I am a Christian I dare not intermit it O blessed Souls saith my Author because they were Christians they durst not intermit the Lord's-day tho they lost their dearest Lives for keeping it The learned Dr. Du-Veil cites not only Ignatius and Clemens On Act. 20. p. 150 151. but Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria to the same purpose also Sedulius and divers other Antient Fathers as Austin Maximus Isidore and Gregorius Turonensis who speaketh thus This is the day of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which we properly call the Lord's-day Eusebius saith We keep holy the Lord's-day Dr. White cites Ignatius his Epistle ad Magnes Ep of Ely on the Sab. p. 74. Instead of the Sabbath let every Friend of Christ keep holy the Lord Christ's Day in memory of his Resurrection Note there is a Treatise of Ignatius that is excepted against called his Epistle to the Philippians as spurious see Mr. Perkins Prep to the Dem. of the Prolem This was also approved by Dr. Twiss after compared with the Latin Translation and two Manuscripts at Oxon. the Day wherein spiritual Life received beginning and Death was vanquished This Encomium saith the Doctor which this holy Martyr Ignatius hath stampt as an honourable Character upon the Lord's-day declareth what Esteem the Primitive Church entertained of this day Moreover Theodoret has this material Passage that they did no longer keep the Sabbath but led their Lives according to the Lord's-day in which our Life arose meaning our blessed Lord. Dionysius See Mr. Warren 's Jewish Sabb. p. 22 23. Bishop of Corinth saith We have spent holy the Lord's-day or passed thro it to the end Tertullian who flourish'd about the year 200 saith On the Lord's-day we hold it lawful to feast * Or unlawful to fast because it is a day of Joy and Gladness so that in his time the Title of Lord's-day was appropriated to the first day of the week Origen saith Origen an 226. The Lord rained Manna from Heaven first upon the first-Day which is the Lord's-day Alsted and upon the Sabbath none Let the Jews understand that even our Lord's-day was preferred before the Jewish Sabbath Chron. Patr. Athanasius 's Testimony is also full Athan. an 326. The Sabbath was of great esteem among the Antients but the Lord hath changed the Sabbath into the Lord's-day not we by our authority have slighted the old Sabbath but because it did belong to the Pedagogy of the Law when Christ the great Master came it became useless as the Candle is put out when the Sun shines He affirmed also that the Sabbath and Circumcision were both of them legal Observances Moreover I might cite Austin Ambrose Hierom and many more who all testify that the Lord's-day was the first day of the week and observed as the special Day in God's
Sign that God sanctified and set them apart to be a peculiar People to himself and as a Sign also of that Obligation they were laid under to keep it as I have proved But God entered into no such Covenant with any other People or Nation under Heaven therefore the Law of the Decalogue could not concern any besides the House of Israel only Were the Heathen Gentiles or Believing Gentiles under that ministration of the Legal Covenant given by Moses to Israel No until Christ came no other People were in covenant with God at all 2. Because 't is expresly said that the Sabbath Exod. 20. was given to the Jews and Proselyte Stranger To thee and thy Man-servant and Maid-servant and Stranger that is within thy Gate Not any Gentiles or Strangers without the Pale of the Jewish Church but only them who were within their Gate So that God doth implicitly declare he injoyns none else to observe it 3. The Law of the Decalogue could not be given to all or any other People because God did not give any Command to Moses or to any of his Servants to promulge declare or make known that Law or the Sabbath to any other People in the World but the Jews only No Law can bind without Promulgation the Gospel is of a large extent as appears by the Commission Mat. 28. 18 19 20. Go into all the World c. Go teach all Nations c. Thus our Lord hath appointed the Promulgation of the Gospel but not a word of any such Commission for the Promulgation of the Law of Moses given Exod. 20. 4. Because Moses was never made or appointed a Lawgiver to any other People but Israel only Moses no Law-giver but to the Jews He was a Ruler over none but the Jews and the Decalogue was but part of the Jewish Law as written in Tables of Stone Others may say Who made thee a Ruler over us or a Legislator or deputed Officer from God to us 4. The Decalogue and consequently the Sabbath could not be given to any other People because it referr'd to a People in a Church-state having many other Laws Statutes and Judgments annexed unto it the punishment for the breach of each Precept thereof being death he that broke the Sabbath must die Now certainly if that Law had been given to other Nations or People God would have put them also into such a Church-state as the Israelites were and have given them like Statutes Judgments and Officers to execute those Judgments but this he did not do 5. Besides as one observes there were Ceremonies belonging to the Sabbath that were essential to the right keeping of it which were not enjoined on the Gentiles except Proselytes That Law given to all People must have the same Services Rites and Ceremonies essentially annexed to it given to them also but those Services Rites and Ceremonies were given to none but the Jews Otherwise as he observes there would be two sorts of Worship acceptable to God and then it would follow also that God was more severe to Israel than to others by imposing more hard and costly Services on them than on the Gentiles 6. Take here what Mr. Bunyan hath said Good Nehemiah threatned the Gentiles that were Merchants for lying then about the Walls of the City for that by that means they were a Temptation to the Jews to break their Sabbath yet he still charges the breach thereof upon his own People Nehem. 13. 16 17 c. Can it be imagined had the Gentiles been concerned by a Divine Law to keep this Sabbath that so holy and good a Man as Nehemiah would let them escape without a rebuke for so notorious a Transgression Moreover in the Prophet Ezekiel ch 20. 10 11 12. 't is said I gave my Sabbaths to be a Sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctified them Before I close with this take what two or three learned Writers have declared in confirmation of what I say Heyl. on the Sabb. p. 65 66. A Law which in it self was general and universal equally pertains to Jews and Gentiles the latter which knew not the Law doing by nature the things contained in the Law as St. Paul has told us but this Law published on Mount Sinai and as delivered by the hand of Moses obliged those of the house of Israel only Take what another saith As neither the Judicial Zanchius de redempt l. 1. c. 11. Tom. 1. nor Ceremonial so nor the Moral Law contained in the Decalogue doth concern us Christians as given by Moses to the Jews but only so far forth as it is consonant to the Law of Nature which bind all alike and was afterwards ratified by Christ our King The Reason he asserts this was to prove the Gentiles were never obliged to observe their Sabbath Let me add what Mr. Baxter hath wrote Baxter on the Sabb. p. 74. He saith That the Fourth Commandment of Moses bindeth us not to the Seventh-day Sabbath because that Moses's Law never bound any but the Jews and those Proselytes that made themselves Inhabitants of their Land or voluntarily subjected themselves to their Policy For Moses was Ruler of none but the Jews nor a Legislator or deputed Officer from God to any other Nation The Decalogue was but part of the Jewish Law if you consider it not as written in Nature but in Tables of Stone and the Jewish Law was given as a Law to no other People but to them It was a national Law as they were a peculiar People and holy Nation so that even in Moses's days it bound no other Nations of the World therefore it needed no abrogation to the Gentiles but a declaration that it did not bind them 7. To close with what we find in the Old Testament about this 'T is worthy our noting that God told the Israelites that those Seven Nations of Canaan whom they should drive out This is a full Answ to Mr. Soarsby who has filled many Pages of his Book to prove the Decalogue Law was given to all the World were defiled with all those Sins and Abominations that he commanded them to abstain from i. e. they had violated all natural or simple moral Precepts But God never charged them with the Sin of breaking the Jews Sabbath So that from thence I infer the Decalogue was not given to them and so not the Sabbath Secondly I shall prove out of the New Testament that the Law of Moses i. e. the Decalogue was given to none but the Jews or People of Israel 1. See Rom. 9. To whom pertaineth the giving forth of the Law c. speaking of the Israelites to whom that is by way of contradistinction to any other People or to them and none else 2. Upon this very account Paul shews that the Jews had the advantage of all other People Rom. 3. 1. What advantage then hath the Jew c. Much every way