bread called say they a Sabbath vers 7. Yea and to put the seven weeks or fifty dayes out of doubt these learned men do expresly declare in the same place the punctuall day of the Feast and of the moneth which begins our account even the second day of the Feast which is say they the 16th day of the moneth Nisan from which day were reckoned the fifty dayes ended at Pentecost reckoning that second day inclusively Here 's the most clear confession that the Sabbath leading to the account of fifty dayes is not the weekly Sabbath but that the morrow following the waved sheaf is the certain fixed 16th day of the moneth and begins the number of 50 days or seven weeks and on what day this 16th of Nisan fell at the death of Christ is clear for upon the 14th day of the first moneth at even Exod. 12.18 Coll. 2.16 17. Matth. 26. did our Lord Jesus who is the true body of these shadows punctually celebrate the Passcover and upon the morrow being the 15th day and commonly called good Friday was our first fruits waved by the Priests upon the Crosse So that the 16th day being the seventh day Sabbath must unavoidably begin the seven weeks or fifty dayes and this is easily known that the same day which begins the account must needs end it and be the true day of Pentecost Though this clear confession from the Sabbaths adversaries might suffice yet through strength from on high with demonstrations of the spirit and power I shall further produce three infallible proofs that the Apostles Pentecost was none other then the sanctified seventh-day Sabbath And this will be evident by Gods institution of a Feast for he assigned a certain day from which the number of fifty dayes began That Christ was punctuall in time see Mat. 27.55 56. Luke 22.35 John 8.20 and this day was the morrow of or after a certain Sabbath which must be punctually fulfilled in and by Christ as well in the Time as in the Type or else why was the time so precisely appointed and the fifty days so exactly to be numbred The morrow after this certain Sabbath will be readily known First by the sickles first entring the Corne Deut. 16.9 Secondly by the waving of the first fruits Lev. 23.11 Thirdly by offering the same day a Lamb without spot Lev. 23.12 The time when these shadows were all punctually fulfilled in Christ the body is abundantly manifest And first the certain day when the the sickle was first put to him Isai 53.8 to cut him downe the whole world knows to be that they call good Friday Luke 23.54 55 56. that is the sixth day of the week The day of the preparation before the 7th day Sabbath from which sixth day Gods account of the seven weeks begun by his appointment Deut. 16.9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the Corne. Is it possible for any truth to shine more clearly Now either Mr. Jenison must deny what he grants pag. 38. That Christ was by the sickle of death cut down upon the sixth day of the week or else he must give glory to God by beginning to number the fifty dayes or 7 weeks from that time the sickle first entred our corn and cut him down by death from which day the holy Sabbath is the very first of the account and at the end of seven full weeks the same blessed seventh day Sabbath that began must needs end the fifty daies exactly upon the Apostles Pentecost Heb. 10.1 although the Law was not the very image of good things to come yet certainly this Sickle was a notable shadow in many particulars 1. It was put to the corn Deut. 16.9 which the Jews performed the night following the Passeover with great solemnity and just so was it fulfilled in Christ Ioh. 18.3 2. They were to cut down green ears Lev. 2.14 Hos 14.3 And even so our Saviour expounds himself the very day of his suffering Luke 23.31 when our green fir-tree was cut down 3. The green corn was bound as the Hebrew signifies Lev. 23.10 and brought to the Priests and so was our green plant Ioh. 18.12 13. 4. The green corn was to be dried by the fire Lev. 2.14 neither was this wanting to our first fruits Luk. 22.54 55. 5. It was to be beaten out of full ears Lev. 2.14 and just so was our Saviour served at full age Matth. 26.67 68. and 27.26.30 After the first fruits were thus fitted as the English Annotations shew on Levit. 23.10 they were upon the morrow of that Sabbath to be waved by the Priest Lev. 23.11 And this is the second infallible token what that Sabbath was namely the Passeover on the morrow of which Sabbath it was exactly accomplished in Christ by the crucifying Priest who waved him between heaven and earth upon the sixth day of the week from which day began the count of the Apostles Pentecost punctually beginning and ending upon the seventh day Sabbath The third infallible mark by which that Sabbath Lev. 23.11 15. is more then fully found was the Lamb without spot appointed to be offered the very same morrow of the Sabbath but this was such an infallible token to know the undoubted day wherein it was accomplished in Christ that Mr. Jeunison hath wholly and I doubt deceitfully omitted it And indeed it is impossible that any thing but wilful blindness should obscure the glory and stupendious eminency of that sixth day of the week whereon our Lamb without spot or blemish was offered Heb. 9.14 1 Pet. 1.19 from which sixth day begun the account of the Apostles Pentecost and as it began so it exactly ended on the seventh day Sabbath to its everlasting glory and the glory of him that sanctified it God blessed for ever Amen And thus while Mr. Jennison and his Informers affirm without one word of Scripture that the Sabbath from whence our reckoning arises Lev. 23.11 15. was the Jews weekly seventh day Sabbath I affirm with the most learned of this Age that it was not the weekly Sabbath but the first day of the Passeover Feast and I have fully proved by three infallible Scripture marks that the fifty dayes did at the death of our Redeemer most exactly begin and end upon the seventh day Sabbath Why blessed be Jehovah the Institutor of this Sabbath and glorified be Jesus the professed Lord of this Sabbath and for ever honoured be that excellent spirit who at the Apostles Pentecost most wonderfully owned and approved this same seventh day Sabbath as hath been convincingly proved by 1. The Sickles first entring our Corn. 2. The waving of our sheaf of first fruits and 3. The offering of our Lamb without spot And now unless Mr. Jennison can confute this precious point which I am sure is utterly impossible I must expect the speedy performance of his promise
14th day at even when the Passover was eaten was the beginning of the fifteenth day as is confessed by the learned commentators Anot. Lev. 23.5 Lash p. 37. and is plain Exod. 12.18 19. and however Mr. Jenison termes it a shuffle to say the first fruits were offered the morrow of or after the Sabbath Amsworth and yet this morrow was the Sabbath it seife he termes not me but Moses if not God himselfe the shufler who plainely calls the 15 th day of the first moneth the morrow after the Passeover when they came out of Egypt yet the very same night of eating the Passeover departing out of Egypt was the beginning of the 15th day Numb 33.3 Exod. 12.18 19. If this be marvellous ignorance as Mr. Jenison termes it I am content to be so sensured by him whilst I have learned Ainsworth Diodati the English commentators Moses and God himselfe to bear me out in it lash p. 38. And that Saviour who is Lord of the Sabbath Sabbath will reckon with Mr. Ienuison for his hard speeches Lash p. 38 39. for we shall seek none other Saviour but he who commands the keeping of his Sabbath Mat. 24.20 As to the judgement of God upon the Prelates indeed it is most just for their opposing the morality of the Sabbath and let those who assert it that sleight it expect the next Vial. I have seen variety of judgements even to astonishment upon rejecters of the revived seventh day Sabbath which in my Reply to the next book which I hear is in the Press I may possibly have more leisure and just ground to particularize The Stress of the Controversie AFter this brief yet full Confutation of Mr. Iennisons inferiour Arguments I find him in my entrance upon the Apostles Pentecost which he concludes the main Stress of the Controversie labouring under two very gross mistakes Act. 2. Lash p. 3. The first is a strange conceit that the first fruits enjoyned Lev. 23.11 was to be ripe corn and upon this his mistake he renders the day of reaping uncertain p. 4. 10. according as Harvest came sooner or latter and so runs on in reckoning the fifty daies or seven weeks at randome to fasten the Apostles Pentecost to his First-day Sabbath whereas the Scripture requires not ripe corn but green ears * Lev. 2.14 Exod. 9.31 Deut. 16.12 Exod. 23.14 such as the field afforded at their going out of Egypt in Memorial whereof these first fruits were appointed and Gods Israel prohibited to eat thereof until this homage were performed This foul fault in the entrance of his account of fifty daies must needs be ill in the end His second intolerable mistake Lash p. 9. which hath nothing to save it from high blasphemy but gross ignorance is his confident assertion that the feast of first fruits was not at the end of the weeks but at the beginning yea and chargeth it as a very great mistake to say the Feast it self was not till the end of the weeks This Charge flies in the face of God himself who hath thus expressy spoken by his servant Moses Also in the day of the first fruits when ye bring a new meat-offering unto the Lord AFTER YOVR WEEKS BE OVT ye shall have an holy Convocation Numb 28.26 with Lev. 23.2.4 ye shall do no servile work This was that holy Convocation Act. 2.1 2. called in Greek Pentecost whereon the bread which was made of the Sheaf or â—nâ—er waved Let. 23.11 was to be again waved before the Lord as the first fruits Lev. 23.17 20 21. I shall not henceforth wonder at Mr. Iennisons error in his reckoning the seven weeks so as to make Pentecost fall upon his first day who can so confidently affirm that this Feast was in the beginning of the weeks and charge Moses with a very great mistake for recording it to be after the weeks were out Now touching that which he terms the main Stress of the Controversie between us Lash p. 3. we have both solemnly engaged before the world in print casting as he saith our whole cause upon it That the day whereon the Apostles Pentecost fell * Act. 2.1 was and is that glorious day which the Saints did and ought to keep as their Sabbath And I desire no more but that he which shall shrink from this clear confession may be henceforth judged and deemed a deserter and profaner of the true acknowledged Christian Sabbath The fair discovery of this Question upon what day the Apostles Pentecost fell will be fully evident in the institution of the Feast Lev. 23.10 11 15. where Jehovah required Moses to speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them when ye be come into the Land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the Priest and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be accepted for you on the morrow of the Sabbath for so is the Hebrew and so Ainsworth renders it on the morrow of the Sabbath the Priest shall wave it And what ever this Sabbath was this is plain that from the morrow following they were enjoyned to begin their reckoning of seven Sabbaths Lev. 23.15 16. which is expresly called seven weeks in Deut. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lev. 23. 16. and the Septuagint is the same in both places And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering seven Sabbaths shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty dayes This Sabbath from whose morrow the account began is by Ainsworth Diodat c. called the Passeover Sabbath Lash p. 4. 5. 8. and Easter But Mr. Jenison is very angry with me for so speaking and yet from the bare authority of certain obscure Informers he confidently concludes that it was the Jewes seventh-day weekly Sabbath and so boldly begins upon the first day of the week to number the 7 weeks or fifty days so to make Pentecost fall Pat as he phraseth it upon his supposed first-day Sabbath I shall not with my small skill in the Hebrew presume to contend with his unknown informers who assures him that it can be no other then the weekly Sabbath yet I suppose modesty will even constrain both him and them to submit unto the information of the most profoundly learned which the long Parliament and Assembly could find for that eminent mark of the English Annotations upon the whole Bible whose Notes upon these very words Lev. 23.11.15 On the morrow after the Sabbath are quite contrary to Mr. Ienison and his informers who say it can be no other then the weekly Sabbath Their notes are these Not the weekly Sabbath English Annot. on Lev. 23. but the first day of the Feast of unleavened
THE LASHER proved LIAR OR The Beadles LASH laid open In a short Reply to a slight Pamphlet ushered into the world with the scurrilous Title of A Lash for a LYAR discovering the vanity of William Jennison with his ungodly abuse of Thomas Tillam Minister of Christs Gospell I Know 't is no new thing for Professors to Lash or smite with the tongue Jer. 18.81 and devise devices against Gods Ministers But wo to that evill servant who shall be found lashing or smiting his fellow-servants like this abusive Beadle Mat. 24.48 much fitter to converse with those Salvages or wilde Heathens in America from whence he came then with any civill man Psal 20.3 4. It is my mercy that the Litigious Title of my sordid adversary hath rendred the Book contemptible with men of ingenuous spirits even of his own opinion and no lesse my misery in bandying with my Beadles Lash to be led to a Language which I loath for whiles I would be serious I see my selfe necessitated to answer a foole according to his folly Prey 15.4 5. Isa 37.22 2 Tim. 3.8 and warrantably allowed to laugh rayling Rabshakeh to scorn yea and to makâ— the mans folly manifest to all men I cannot justly be censured for terming my Lasher a Beadle since his own sinnious Title Page entitles him to the office which he might easily learn in New-England whose Magistrates about seven years since most barbarously condemned Christs servants to be lasht at the common whipping-post for professing the same Gospel-baptisme which I practice and my Beadle opposeth The persons thus persecuted were Mr. John Clarke the present Minister of the Baptized Church at Worcester-house in London and Mr. Obadiah Holms with John Grandall c. And though Mr. Clarks friends secretly purchased his freedome of the mercenary Magistrates as the Pope parts with his pardons for money yet Mr. Holms could not consent to the payment of their imposed thirty pound fine so that he was most lamentably lashed on his naked body by the Beadle of Byston's who severall times spitting on his hand laid on with all his strength It would greatly affect a gracious heart to heare the sad story now lying in print * Entituled ill news from New-England before me how the enraged blood-thirsty Governour told Mr. Clarke he had deserved death for denying Infant-baptisme And how Mr. Wilson Pastor of Boston Church did strike Mr. Holmes before the Judgement-seat saying The curse of God or Jesus go with thee Here 's a sad account of New-England courtesie who were themselves but lately under Prelaticall persecution And why should I look for better from my Beadle then to bring his Lash along with him that he may make a display of a New-England spirit in attempting that with his tongue and pen from which at present his hands are tyed First The sordid title of his Lash publisheth his own punishment If it be a punishment to be often plucked from his dwelling place Psalm 52.5 which he subtlely endeavoured to avoid when he was pluck'd from his dwelling-place at Colchester fiege by his shamelesse seeking for some hundreds of pounds amongst the sufferers desiring our Elder who assisted him in securing his cash to keep his counsell saying He would put in for enough since t was like he should have little enough In his slander of me as a common slanderer of so many as are contrary to my opinions Lash pag. 46. he confutes himselfe by his own confession That I justifie his reprover who was the Town-Lecturer and one of those many that oppose my opinions So are their present Mayor and Magistrates for not many wise mighty or noble are called as also the people termed the Separation all of them contrary to my opinions And if I be not a common slanderer of all these then my Lasher himselfe is a slanderer Yea such a slanderer shall I prove him as will blast the vain boasting of his Factor Burges in applauding his Pamphlet for sober and serious without railing or slandering just like the late vaunts of his neighbour Luskin now lying in his grave whose sale of the fatherlesse Libel by my speedy Reply was dasht as it were in a day But how sober my Lasher is may appear by a taste of his common slanders speciall abuses grosse absurdities manifest contradictions and notorious falshood 1. A touch of his common Slanders THe two grand opinions of Sabbath and Baptism which lye under his Lash will clearly discover him the common Slanderer of so many as oppose his opinions Lash paeg 1. 38. For first he so deifies his first-day-Sabbath that who ever strikes at it he publiquely proclaims and reproaches them all for Impostors and the Devills instruments which surely are slanders sufficient He spares none from ancient Origen to this instant but all both former and later if they either deny a Sabbath or assert every day a Sabbath or sanctifie Jehovah's seventh-day Sabbath all are branded by my Beadle The many thousands in Court City Countrey Army whether Notionists Baptists Independents c. though dark in the seventh-day Sabbath yet if they disown his first day Sabbath must all tast of his Lash So that we are put upon this necessity either to condemn them all both former and later for Impostors and the Devils instruments or else to record our Lasher for the common Slanderer Which is further confirmed by his opposition of Gospel-Baptisme wherein he confidently condemns all of this opinion by branding Anabaptism it selfe as he termes it for the main Engine of the Jesuites and their Factors to overthrow Protestantisme Why Lash pag. 72. what a notable learner is our Lasher who at one Sermon at Peters hearing the Anabaptists term'd the Devills Factors commenceth Doctor in the same Dialect But believe it if the President of the Privy-Councel and so many persons of this opinion in high places be indeed engaged in the main Engine of the Jesuites and their Factors to overthrow Protestantism 't is time for our Beadle and his brethren to look about them And if this be not so I am sure the Lasher is a common Slanderer of such as oppose his opinion The Beadle 's speciall ABVSES WHen his Lash comes to my loyns he layes about him like the Beadle of Boston and as busily as old Burges when the crabbed Caitiffe is cruelly scourging his fellow-creatures called Quakers upon the account of their conscience And yet we must not say here 's any thing but what 's serious and sober not one bit of bitternesse not a rag of rayling unlesse we should censure his lovers as lyars wherefore to secure their credit it seems I must grant First Lash page 1. That he kindly unchristens me in the first encounter and continues the same courteous complement in severall lines of his Lash With the same piety he paints me to the world with a loathsome spirit of Apostacy for opposing Parish Hirelings set maintenance Lash
pag. 26. yea full as bad as Julian that desperate Apostate for reviving Jehovah's Sabbath And to expresse the pinacle of his piety he appoints sundry Professors labouring under the like loathsome disease to keep me company How comfortably he courts me as one eudowed with cunning craftinesse Lash p. 28 labouring to beguile and deceive my Reader not onely beguiling and deceiving but labouring so to do With like humility he heaves me up as a man of a horrible Lash pag. 30. spirit of contradiction and delusien most sober and serious salutes unlesse his Factors say falsly I cannot say 't is unsuitable to his sincerity to spread forth my praises as one so tâ—shly drunk with delusions Lash page 37. See how lovingly he lifts me out of the smoak of the bottomlesse pit Lash page 38. where he found me smothered if he speaks truth and commends me for marvellous ignorance which is more then every one will do Is it not Saint-like indeed to enshrine me in his owne dear bosome as falsitying and deceiving seared and senselesse Lash page 46. And now who will say here 's ought of bitternesse belched forth But if all this be true I may rue the time of my coming to Colchester for I was then so far from being sottishly drunk with delusions seared and senselesse that you may see my loving Lasher contradict all His manifest Contradictions FOr he tells you Lash page 43. That I principally bent my selfe in my preaching against the Quakers who had ensnared many Page 42. But yet he suspects some designe And indeed there is as good ground for it upon our entrance both in one day as for the meeting of Simon Magus and Simon Peter at Rome Euseb Yet doubtlesse the great God eminently designed by my reproached selfe on the one hand and the Quakers on the other to pluck so many plumes from the Parish Presbyters Classical Cap that the hirelings and their hackneys are become restlesse in their rage while the doom of their jus divinum draws on apace For further proof of my being sottishly drunke with delusions seared and senselesse my Lasher assures you Lash page 42 that I discharged my selfe freely and fully to the great and full satisfaction of those that heard me And that I gained esteem of the best and most sound Christians who were taken with the strength of my gifts and plausibility of my deportment And are not these sufficient signs of one smothered in the smoak of the bottomlesse pit which is a punishment somewhat more painful and less profitable then the fume of a Tobacco-shop The last evidence brought by my Beadle of my being sottishly drunk with delusions Lash pag. 43. may be my renewed call to the high employment of preaching For he sayes my Labours were again desired But was not my Lasher himself smothered in smoak and sottishly drunk with delusions to be one that desired my Labours after he knew my opinion in Baptism and I had printed it with my owning of the Sabbath in my Book of laying on of hands which he esteems the Devils doctrine and Jesuites designe But here 's more then enough for a discovery of his Contradictions I shall proceed to a tast of His Gross Absurdities 1. Lash pag. 25. 41. 33. 35. HE assignes the begginning of his Sabbath to morning and his morning to mid-night and then sends poor Israel to grope for Manna and to offer sacrifice but if he say true that his day begins with the morning and that morning at mid-night I am sure his Night must needs begin at Noor Gen. 1.5 Ainsw in loc Our blessed Creator calls the darkness night and begins the day with the evening but the presumptuous creature who hath no more grace then to change Jehovah's Sabbath dare adventure to destroy the very course of nature Isa 5.20 without dreading that doom of putting darknesse for light and light for darknesse Will Saints be thus deceived of Gods sanctified Sabbath by such as dare assert the day begins at Mid-night and Night at Noon 2 He makes no scruple of beginning his First day-Sabbath in his mid-night morning and yet deems it a marvellous difficulty to set upon the true seventh-day-Sabbath in a cloudy evening But if it be so hard to distinguish between common and sacred time in a cloudy evening when we are generally awake how shall thousands be able to discern such difference in his dark mid-night morning when fast asleep 3 But here admire with me the just hand of God against this subverter of his holy Sabbath who is so smothered in absurdities that after sixteen moneths deliberation he hath yielded his whole Cause by this his full confession * Lash pa. 26. That now Christ being come though the services be abolished yet the day may be observed Which confession being discovered since his booke was printed himself is so ashamed of it that he hath raced and blotted it out 'T is strange that after so long consideration and so many suppers for consultation the Lash being lickt over and over by so many hirelings correction and alteration it should come forth with such a clear confession as abolisheth the Ceremonies and celebrates the royal Sabbath 4 I shall at present cease from his Absurdities Lash pag. 44. with his censure of me as deeply drencht in little better then grosse Popery about the Sacraments And indeed this absurdity way well passe for my Lashers Master-piece for he sayes he found me thus drencht by this expression of mine That the outward elements of bread wine in the Lords Supper were spiritual things I do not remember the expression but let 's try by what Logick hee 'l prove me drencht in Popery for thus he must argue The Pope affirmes the Sacramentall bread and wine to be corporal carnal natural things But Thomas Tillam hath said they are spirituall things Therefore Tho Tillam is drencht in little better then grosse Popery Sure the Prophet is a foole the spirituall man is mad Hosea 4.7 and the joynt testimony of his nine New-England Confederates will not recover his credit Lash pag. 40. nor secure him from this sinke of absurdities which ushers in his falshood His notorious Falshood The first falshood HIs leading sin may be that deceitfull falshood of his Lash pag. 22 Rom. 2.14.15 in asserting That the Gentiles still have the Law written in their hearts He that dare thus adulterate Gods word will not stick to censure pure Adam of ignorance of the seventh-day-Sabbath Lash page 23 nor scruple at rayling accusations against Christs Ministers but new Covenant-Christians know that the Law written in the heart is their prerogative Royall and not the words of the Law but onely the work of the Law is found in the hearts of Heathens From this and the like abuse of Scripture A second falshood he hastens to vent his distempered spleen at me in