and complete the fabrick of the new Creation And thus is the resurrection-day prophetically crowned with honour above all other dayes Old Sabbath and all For the work crowns the day and the greater the work the greater the day And therefore although the last day of the week were the greatest in dignity during the supereminency of the old Creation yet when a greater work was to be finished the day on which it was to conclude must without dispute be the greater day As John Baptist being the last and greatest of the prophets yet was lesse then the least in the Kingdome of heaven so I may say of the Old Sabbath the greatest day under the Old Testament yet it must vail and stoop when the Sun of righteousness shines forth in a new day under the New Testament Surely the second Creation must have a Sabbath of commemoration as well as the first or else God should magnifie his lesser work of Creation above his greater work of Redemption And thus I suppose I have made good my Position both Logically and Theologically that the old seventh day was alterable in its first institution since the same ground of stating the Sabbath at first upon that day might be a sufficient ground of translating it to another day as now it is and that by Divine Authority as shall be seen hereafter The adversary has no considerable weapons to oppose this truth withal but what have been already beaten out of Mr. Brabourns hands and are sufficiently blunted by others or if any new ones be added we shall now try what mettal they are made of Obj. 1 T.T. p. 7. The seventh day sayes he was set apart in memorial of the most glorious work of Creation the benefit whereof being extended to us p. 69. engageth us to that day still And again The world being created not only for Israel but for all people I appeal to all conscientious Christians whether all mankind be not bound to that very day who enjoy the benefit of the Creation By the way let me tell him when I read his insulting challenge I expected Scripture-arguments and not popular appeals But to let him swim in his own element the sum of his appealing for arguing I cannot call it amounts but to this that if the old seventh day were set apart in memory of the Creation which every Christian as a creature is bound to commemorate then the day is unchangeable perpetually to be observed But to this I answer The consequence is sick and crasie Answer and therefore it can produce but a weak conclusion For first the Covenant of grace I suppose is as ancient as the old Sabbath I am sure as eminent a mercy as the occasion of the Sabbath And doubtless to every true-hearted Christian the memory of Gods Covenant is and ought to be as precious as the memory of the worlds Creation yet I hope he will not say that circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of the Covenant are therefore still in force or ought to be still in use among Christians who are interested in that Covenant And the like may I say of the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath Let none object the disparity between the Old Sabbath and circumcision for they are both clad in a livery of the same colour in many things they do much resemble one another Was a Gen. 17.11 circumcision a sign betwixt God and the seed of Abraham so was the b Exod. 31.17 old Sabbath betwixt God and the house of Israel Was c Gen. 17.7 circumcision a perpetual Covenant with Abrahams seed in their generation So also was the d Exod. 31.16 Sabbath to be kept as a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations In a word was e Gen. 17.14 circumcision so exacted that whosoever was uncircumcised must be cut off from the house of Israel why so also was the old f Exod. 31.14 Sabbath whosoever doth any work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the people Again let none tax me with incongruity in comparing the old Sabbath and sacrifices together for the Lord of the Sabbath himself hath taught me to lay them in an equal ballance who when the Pharisees clamoured his Disciples for Sabbath breaking stops their mouths with that g Hos 6.6 Mat. 12.7 Pluris apud De um salus mortalium quà ms crifi iapecudum Muscul in Loc. Scripture The Lord will have merey and not socrifice That is the necessities of men relieved rather then the supposed letter of the Law observed In my poor judgment it is very considerable that such a person at such a time should match the Sabbath day and sacrifices together for it was not the Sabbath in general but the Sabbath day which was then under dispute Surely there was some mystery in this Divinity of our Saviour But this may suffice for a first answer As the Covenant of grace is perpetually to be commemorated but not by circumcision and sacrifices the old memorials of it so the work of creation is continually to be had in remembrace but not by the old Sabbaths celebration For we say as the new Covenant must have new signs so the new creation a new Sabbath And 2. A new day might keep alive the memory of the old Creation Meditatio celebratio operum Dei non minus alio die quà m septimoficri potest Ursin although it be primarily intended as a memorial of redemption And this double honour is put upon the Lords day as the first day of the week it commemorates the worlds redemption as the seventh day in weekly recourse it calls to mind the worlds Creation For in labouring six dayes and resting the seventh weekly we recognize Gods working six dayes and resting the seventh originally And here I may as rationally as T.T. appeal to any ingenuous Christian if the Old Sabbath served the Jews as a means to keep them mindful both of the worlds Creation and their redemption from Egypt why may not our Lords day Sabbath be the Christians memorandum both of the worlds Creation Deut. 5.15 and his Redemption from hell Of the last most directly indeed and that most deservedly being the greatest work and the richest mercy For although t is true to have an earth to tread upon an aire to breath in light to look upon creatures to live upon are excellent mercies yet to have an angry God reconciled a sinful nature repaired Death and Hell vanquished Heaven and glory purchased and assured is infinitely more blessed more beneficial To conclude If I must consecrate a weekly Sabbath to the Lord what day more proper more suitable more significant then that which bears a lively inscriptior of the Lord my Redeemer not without some commemoration of God my Creator But the old seventh day may still he retained in memory of the Creation and the Lords day be celebrated too in memory of Redemption though not as a Sabbath both dayes may lovingly live together
with titles of preheminence To perfect this Catalogue Let us take in the Testimony of that renowned Austin yea his judgement too Augustine 12. 't is worth the while to take a view of each his testimony touching the Lords day is plain d Vos in dic quem dicunt Solis solem colitis ficut autem nos cundem diom Dominicum dicimus in eo quòd non solem sed Resurrectionem Domini veneramur Contra Faust Manich. lib. 18. cap. 5. You saith he speaking to the Manichees on the day called Sunday worship the Sun but we call the same day the Lords day because therein we honour not the Sun but the Lords Resurrection and how sound his judgement was in the Doctrine of the Christian Sabbath appears by that which he speaks of the divine Authority of it he assigns this as the reason why it is called the Lords day c Per Christum Factus est Dies Dominicus Ep. 86. because as it is in the Psalm the Lord hath made it and it was made the Lords day by Christ Jesus the Lord And that upon the occasion of his Resurrection as he telleth us twice over f Dies Dominicus Christi Resurrectione sacratus est De Cir. Dei Ep. 119. ad Januar The Lords day was consecrated saies he by the Lords Resurrection and concerning the Jews Sabbath he is as plain and peremptory quisque illus diem observat tanquam litera sonat carnaliter sapit who ever keeps that day as the letter soundeth he savoureth of the flesh And again Christs doctrine is the same with Moses's concerning the Sabbath but the time or day is different It were easie if it were not needless to add any more here is a complete Jury already yet let it not be thought superfluous if one Witness more be called in Eusebius by name Eusebius 13. whose Testimony concerning the universal observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over is worthy to be filed We have it towards the end of his Oration of the praises of Constantine where magnifying Christ above all the gods and grandees of the Heathens he speaks thus g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who of all the gods or Heroes of the Gentiles hath prescribed to all the Inhabitants of the world by sea and land that coming together into one place every week they should celebrate as Festival the Lords day and appointed that as they feed their bodies with food so they should refresh their soules with divine instruction Thus he testifies the Observation of the Lords day all the world over and that by theh appointment of Christ But does he not also tell us of some as the Ebionites who had a religious esteem of the saturday-Saturday-Sabbath still and accordingly kept both days Yes but he writes them down in the black Book among the Hereticks of that age and so does Epiphanius too Haeres 30. Let us a little attend Eusebius in his Historical description of these Hereticks he observes that their name was given them from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies poor Lib 3. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the poverty of their understandings h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the men being very silly and their Heresie very senceless for they did saith he entertain very mean and poor thoughts and opinions of Christ holding that he was but a meer i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a common man Observe it well The high opinion they had of the Saturday-Sabbath was founded upon a low opinion of Jesus Christ I wish the new Ebionites of this age do not still build upon the same foundation Could men but see the Godhead and glory of Christ through the veil of his flesh me thinks the change of the Sabbath should be no such paradox to them especially to such as have felt his divine power in the change of their hearts But to close all let us briefly examine the opposite authorities produced in favour of this Ebionitish errour The first is Clemens Romanus or he that writ the constitutions called Apostolicall who is thus presented in great pomp by our Antagonist That blessed Clement saies he whose name is written in the book of life that elect vessel speaks thus Let us keep holy the Sabbath in memory of the Creation and the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection lib. 7. c. 24. Answ 1 The Author of those Constitutions was not that blessed Clement mentioned by Paul but some bastard Clement of a later extraction as our learned Dr. Fulk tells the Remish Annotators 'T is true the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians is generally repoted the Legitimate issue of that elect vessel But let not this Author be angry if I let the reader see his Legal-demain in ascribing the book of Constitutions to the same Clement which none but Papists do our * Vide Chmenis de lectione patrum Perkins to Demont Praep. of the ptobl Protestant writers I am sure are of another mind 'T is a pitifull forlorn cause that flies so often for sanctuary to the Bulwarks of Popery But If he will needs build upon the authority of these constitutions let him take what followes in the same book Answ 2 Hebdomas una est insignis annus septimus mensis septimus Sabbatum c. iis omnibus praestat Dies Dominious Const lib. 7 c. 36. and much good may it do him Por ch 36. this elect vessel as he calls him prefers the Lords day before the Jewes Sabbath and all other Jewish Festivities whatsoever and herein he concurred with the rest of the antients whereas his Doctrine about the seventh day was but one Doctors opinion The next Testimony objected against us is that of Eusebius who reports a decree of Constantine the Emperour to establish the Lords day as the great holy-day Obj. 2 which the objector calls a presumptuous decree Year Anti-Christ prevailed with Constamine as he would make silly people beleive to change the Sabbath time into the first day Page 113. The Lord rebuke thee thou false tongue Answ That the day was changed by a greater than Constantine even Christ himself and his holy Apostles we have I think made good by Scripture-Argument and that this change was visible in the Church's practice long before Constuntine was born we have manifestly proved by the testimony of the most antient Fathers and eminent Martyrs What if the renowned Emperour Constantine made a decree to establish the Lords day Was he therefore the Author of the day or of the change Sozomen tells us that this Christian Emperour as a tender Nursing Father to the Church of Christ did also by a publick Edict establish the Christian religion in all his dominions Sozomen ib. 1. ch 7. But will any man in his right wits draw such a crack-braind Conclusion from hence viz. That therefore Constantine was the Author of the Christian Religion Understand presumptuous
day of the Lord will be as a day of refreshing to some so a stormy day of tempests and terrors to others and a great part of the tempest of that day will fall upon the thoughts and hearts of men for * Eccles 12. ult God will bring every secret thing into judgement we must be accountable not only for idle words but vain thoughts And thus much of the first thing we must keep the Sabbath as a day of rest but we must not rest in this rest we must not make it a Sabbath of idleness but a Sabbath of holiness we must not so much cease from working as change our work servile work for soul work worldly imployments for spiritual exercises That is the next thing 2. To our holy rest we must join holy work and this is either publike or private something indeed must be done in private before the publike our closet-devotions and Family duties common to other dayes must not he omitted this day but rather augmented their Sacrifices under the Law were * Numb 28.9 doubled upon the Sabbath-day and observe it Exod. 3.7 their first service was the burning of Incense before the Lord. Matth. 28.1 Mark 16.2 John 20.1 Now prayer is our Incense let this be our morning exercise in private Seek the Lord O my soul seek him early do as Mary Magdalen did she was early up to seek him whom her soul loved she was last at the Cross and first at the Sepulchre in the dawning while it was yet dark very early in the morning say the Evangelists Oh that our love to Christ could keep pace with hers Shall we love the world better than Christ if we have a journey to go about worldly concernments we can set out betimes oh that we were as wise for our souls as we are for our bodies let not sleep that devourer of time beguile us of our golden hours in the morning in which we are freshest and fittest for converse with God let the sluggard that sleeps with the Sun-beams in his face remember that saying of Austin If the Sun could speak how roundly might it salute thee with this reproof I laboured more then thou yesterday and yet I am risen before thee to day But this is too low an Argument behold the Sun of righteousness is risen and he rose early this day therefore let us not sleep as do others but say and sing with the Church f Isai 26. â— With my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early Having performed our morning exercises in private how cheerfully should we repair to the publike Assemblies and draw nigh to God in publike Ordinances on this acceptable day this season of grace when Christ sits in State as one speaks scattering treasures of grace amongst hungry and thirsty Saints that are poor in Spirit and wait for spiritual alms at the Throne of grace g Psal 84.1 2. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And again h Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord. For the i Psal 87.2 Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacob and most sweetly the Prophet Isaiah speaking of Gospel-times k Isai 2 1 2. Many people shall go and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths A most lively prediction of our Christian solemn Assemblies the select season of which is signified by t he practice of the Apostles and Primitive Saints to be the first day of the week on this day they met to break bread and Paul preached to them Acts 20.7 on this day they were all together with one accord in prayer Acts 2.1 with chap. 1.2 4. and at these meetings the Scriptures were read by the Apostles command Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. Col. 4.16 1 Thes 5.27 to which may be added singing of Psalms usual at their solemn Assemblies 1 Cor. 14. an Ordinance by which God is much glorified and the souls of his people sweetly cheered and refreshed what greater act of honour can we do to the great God here on earth then publikely to praise him in the great Congregation especially on the Lords day Psal 111.1 when all the Churches of Christ in the world joyn consort with us in this melodious duty Hebr. 10.25 Let us not therefore forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is while we enjoy publike Liberties and Ordinances let us improve them we know not how soon the songs of the Temple may be turned into howlings and Ichabod may be written upon all our Church-doors the glory is departed from Israel Lam. 1.4 16. the ways of Sion de mourn because none come to her solemn assemblies The Lord forbid that ever we should live to see that woful day wherein we shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Son of man but shall not see it Let not our neglect of the Lords day provoke the Lord to deprive us of it let us conscienciously wait upon God in Sabbath-Assemblies and publick Ordinances lest we be forced for contempt of the publike to seek our bread in secret wandring up and down in caves and dens of the earth destitute afflicted tormented as we read of some better than our selves Heb. 11.38 39. Lastly The publike solemnities of the day being ended what remains but that we return again to our private exercises searching the Scriptures concerning the truths taught in publike as the * Acts 17.11 noble Bereans did to which we may joyn Repetition and Conference to whet the Word upon one anothers hearts let not our souls be weary of Sabbath-work only take heed as of resting in the rest so also in the work of the day for what one truly speaks of duties and actings of grace they are good duties and good graces but bad Christs the like may I say of Sabbaths never so well kept they are good Sabbaths but bad Saviours let our rest and confidence be only in Christ and to such as take him for their rest his work is but recreation and so indeed we should esteem it in a spiritual sense not looking upon it as a sowr task or a rigid exaction but calling the Sabbath a delight we should keep it accordingly even the whole day with the whole man as a day of delights to the Lord being transported beyond flesh and the world and having our conversation in heaven as much as is possible for creatures cloathed with flesh To come to a closure There is a double duty to be performed in private on the Lords day which I seriously advise Christians
THE JEWS SABBATH ANTIQUATED AND THE LORDS DAY INSTITUTED By DIVINE AUTHORITY OR The Change of the Sabbath from the Last to the First Day of the Week asserted and maintained by Scripture-Arguments and Testimonies of the Best Antiquity with a Refutation of sundry Objections raised against it The Sum of all Comprized in Seven Positions By EDM. WARREN Minister of the Gospel in COLCHESTER REV. 1.10 I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Hom. de sement ad init Imprimatur EDM. CALAMY LONDON Printed by David Maxwel for W. Weekly of Ipswich and are to be sold by John Rothwel at the Fountain in Cheapside and also by Nath. Web and Will. Grantham at the Black Bear in Pauls Church-yard 1659. To the Right Worshipful JOHN GVRDON Esq Justice of Peace in the County of SUFFOLK HONOURED SIR THe design of this Dedication is not so much to shelter the ensuing Treatise under the protection of your name let it stand or fall at the bar of Scripture and right reason as to shew my real and unfeigned gratitude for the many and much-obliging favours you have been been pleased to heap upon me both while I lived under your roof and since my removal to a more publike station I thought thus with my self It is the first and likely to be the last time of my appearing in Print therefore the best and fittest season to signifie my due resentment of your love and friendship which from first to last since my acquaintance with you I have experienced so firm and constant as also to shew the precions esteem I still have of you and your pious Family which as I found so I left most religiously devoted to the practise of the truth here pleaded for the keeping holy of the Lords day the undoubted Christian Sabbath it is verily no small joy to me in these days of liberty and loosness to find any especially of your rank walking in this truth of Christ Go on dear Sir in this good old way of truth and holiness be you still a friend to this good day the Lords Day and the Lord will be a friend to you in in an evil day yea in that great day of his appearing Concerning which as Paul prayed for Onesiphorus and his houshold the Lord grant that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day so prays for you and yours The Unworthiest of Christs Ministers EDM. WARREN A Word by way of Preface to the Courteous Reader With a Word of Advice to my Christian Friends and Hearers in and about the Town of Colchester Good Reader I Shall not tire thy patience with any tedious Prefatory Discourse only hint a Word or two concerning the occasion of this Treatise with the Method observed in the composure of it about a year and half since or something more amidst that African brood of Erroneous Books which the lawless liberty of the Press has Midwiv'd into the world came forth a Treatise swelling as with a Timpany of vain glorious confidence for the Jews saturday-Saturday-Sabbath so no less opprobious contempt of the Lords day our Christian Sabbath The Author of it Mr. Tho. Tillam by Name by Profession an Anabaptist was pleased in Print to found a challenge and provoke me to the combat in answering of it It was some time before I was fully resolved what to do the sense of my own Insufficiency bespake my silence and willed me rather to sit still in obscurity than venture abroad to the view of a captious and quarrelsom World Besides my Pastoral charge and Preaching-work would scarce afford me that leisure which others of more natural promptness and dexterous parts and gifts might well enough spare for such an Imployment But on the other hand the spreading of this Jewish Leaven together with the pressing Importunity of some Christian Friends perswaded me to undertake this work which accordingly I did and after I had spent much time and written many sheets in answering this Author Page by Page I found his Method so confused his excursions so many his eructations of putrid choler and calumny so bitter that I had not the patience to follow him any longer in that wildgoose-chase but laid all aside and resolved upon a new Method namely to assert the Truth thetically in distinct Positions and answer his most material Arguments as Objections against it He would fain perswade silly people That Antichrist changed the Sabbath and goes about to prove it from Dan. 7. where we read of a little horn that thought to change Times and Laws and with this little horn he makes a loud noise up and down his Book But who told him that this horn was Antichrist Our best Expositors take it to be meant of Antiochus Epiphanes and indeed Dan. 8. cleerly proves it But what desperate insolency is this to take the crown of Christ and set it upon the head of Antichrist Is not the change of the Jewish Law attributed to Christ Hebr. 7.12 and did he not also change their times and seasons of worship was their weekly Sabbath exempted I pray where or how not by the fourth Commandement for we have proved that the seventh day from the Creation was never the substance of that precept nor by any clause in the New Testament for there it is rather repealed 'T is true the Moral duty of rest remains still in a holy day of weekly recourse according to the Commandment but the old Sabbath being of a shadowy nature in the after observation if not in the first Institution of it is certainly done away by Christ the substance of all Legal shadows yet not simply but in way of exchange for a new day of the same number though not of the same shadowy nature What I have argued for the change of the day is sufficiently authorized by the Scriptures the Fathers and our own judicious Divines My Arguments are but few in number more might have been added but for oppressing the Reader 's either purse or patience Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Palmer have largely handled what I have but briefly touched If what I have written be answered with scurrilous gibes and railing Rhetorick as Mr. Jenisons Book was My next answer shall be nothing but silence and contempt which I the rather hint because the Adversary has threatned a Reply before he read my Book right or wrong it seems he is resolved to have the last word for which I purpose never to contend If I know my own heart 't is truth not triumph that I seek and thirst after truth I say grounded upon the Scriptures sealed with the blood of Martyrs attested by the Primitive Fathers and maintained by the pens of the most Reformed Writers such is the truth here asserted and I shall own nothing as an Answer to it but that which fully answers all these Now my Christian Friends and Brethren I beseech you love and live this truth stand to it stand for it and stand in it
too dark to ground an institution upon We must have a Law written in God's book And there is no other that I know of but Gen. 2.3 which if I grant the Adversary to be a command for some do stiffly deny it yet I must be bold to tell him it is but a consequential command For although it be said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it yet it is not said Let man sanctifie it Here is included God's example but no express command And if the New Testament do not afford us as much warrant for the Lord's day as this amounts to I will yield the Cause But of that hereafter Let the Reader onely take notice by the way how mortally T. T. hath wounded his own cause Pa. 36. by exclaiming so bitterly against Consequences He calls it Philosophie and the deceit of men to establish Ordinances by Consequences Why let me ask him Was the Patriarchal Sabbath for above two thousand years together an Ordinance of God for my part I never doubted of it But he can never make it good without a Consequence he must make a new Bible first for express command there is none onely God's example which without a precept is not alwayes binding And so to use his own words the Lord hath disappointed the devices of the crafty and snared him in his own wisdom he digged a pit for the Lord's day and his Saturdays Sabbath is fallen into it help it out how he can For his life he can find no more in Gen. 2. then an implicit command for that old seventh day And now the next question will be Whether it be a temporary or a perpetual precept If perpetual it must be moral But that it cannot be by his own rule for he has fairly granted That a Moral Law is not meerly good because commanded but therefore commanded because it is good understand it of a Moral natural Law Now I beseech you Sir what natural goodness was there in the seventh day more then in the sixth or fifth Is one day in it self any better then another as to God And as to man if any day had been naturally or morally good above the rest Gen. 1.28 Psal 8.56 in all reason it had been the sixth day on which God made man crowned him with his blessings and gave him dominion over his creatures or the first day in which he made the heavens the Angels and the elements Therefore his threefold mystery to the seventh-days morality is but a threefold miserable mistake to make the best of it 1. That it was written in innocent Adam's heart for which he cites Rom. 2. where there is not a word of any such thing â— 10.11 2. That it was afterwards written in Tables of stone for which he quotes Gal. 3.19 as little to his purpose as the other 3. That it is also written in the fleshly tables of renewed hearts which the experience of almost all renewed hearts in heaven and earth does contradict For to speak in the language of Eliphas Job 5.1 S. Paul Col. 2.16 17. Call now if there be any that will answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou turn either Scripture-Saints Cyprian cp ad Fidum 59. Chryso Tom de Res. or Church Saints Ask S. Paul S. Cyprian S. Chrysostom S. Augustine and they will tell you that your antiquated Sabbath was so far from being written in their hearts that they have written against it with their pens August de lit Spir. c. 14. Turn over the works of the eminent Fathers whose books neither you nor I are worthy to bear and their writings are so voluminous that we are not able to bear them Mr. Cawdrey Mr. Palmer Mr. Sheph. Mr. Byfield Mr. White of Dorch and the whole Assembly of Divines Confe of faith Chap. 21. Add to these the most judicious pious and zealous Ministers and Martyrs of Christ who have lived and died 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 lived without it dyed without it and are I doubt not gone to their everlasting rest in 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 though some are fallen asleep In a word God has promised to write his laws in the hearts of all his people Jer. 31.33 Hebr. 8.10 Char. 16. But not one of ten thousand has the Saturday-Sabbath written in his heart therefore it is now none of Gods laws how many precious gracious and pious Christians are yet upon earth men and women redeemed 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 labour and travel upon it buy and sell upon it and that after accurate inquiries about it and to this day their consciences never reproched them their hearts never smote them for it what will you say all these are Hypocrites unrenewed unsanctified ones This were to condemn the generation of Gods Children and Canonize your self with your few misled associates for the only Saints in Christendome which I would hope you dare not do though I know 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-Saturday-Sabbath is none of those Lawes The last is the likeliest in the judgment of any indifferent Reader let his cause be tryed where he pleases either at Natures tribunal or the throne of Grace in the hearts of believers and he will be cast at both Nature is both blind and dumb in the business and if he plead the law of Grace which is rectifyed and refined nature the whole Christian world will give in evidence against him A Sabbath a day of holy rest indeed it will own and one day of seven in proportion but the particularity of the day the seventh from the Creation it utterly disclaims And where he will find advocates for it but either among the unbelieving Jews or a few misbelieving Christians Judaizing I know not Therefore surely it is no ingredient of Gods moral and immutable Lawes The conclusion then is that it was but a temporary precept by which it was established which some call ceremonial others had rather term it positive but none perpetual unless such as are more apt to say anything then able to prove it when then have said it We deny not the fourth Commandement to be a perpetual precept but we are now speaking of Gen. 2. which at most is but a positive Law and positive precepts are alterable at the law-givers pleasure yea though they were given in Paradise as the precept concerning the forbidden fruit though it
it so Having premised this by the way now let us see how the old Sabbath was founded upon the finishing of his works As thus That day which God hath honoured and crowned with the accomplishment of the greatest work must be the day of solemn worship or Sabbath-day But the seventh day from the Creation was thus honoured and crowned in the Cradle or infancy of the world Therefore that day must be the Sabbath day viz. till a greater work take place And then the argument will conclude as strongly for the change of the day as ever it did for the choice of it For we shall argue thus If the ground of stating the Sabbath on the seventh day were applicable to another day then the Sabbath in the first ground-work of it was alterable to another day But the ground of stating it upon that old seventh day was applicable to another day therefore c. The consequence is cleere as the Sun for as it is with duties so with dayes of worship the grounds upon which they are setled being applicable to other times and places the dayes and duties themselves have alwayes been moveable and circumstantially mutable also as that duty of reverencing of Gods Sanctuary which is mated and coupled with keeping his Sabbaths the ground of it being applicable to the Temple as well as the Tabernacle Levit. 19.30 the duty it self was also moveable from the Tabernacle to the Temple although the first were only in being when the precept was given And the like must be said of the Sabbath The consequence hath evidence enough in it self to every vulgar eye If the foundation be moveable so is the building If the Assumption be questioned viz. That the ground of fixing the Sabbath on the seventh day was moveable and applicable to another day we shall thus confirm it The ground of fixing the Sabbath on the old seventh day was Gods honouring and advancing that day above all other dayes for the time being by his most eminent work of Creation manifested to be accomplished on that day therefore when another day shall be crowned with the accomplishment of a more eminent Creation the same ground and reason which cast the Sabbath on the old day will unavoidably carry it to the new Now the work of Redemption is a new Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 and it was long ago prophesied that as the a Hag. 2.9 glory of the second Temple should out shine that of the first so the glory of this new Creation should excell that of the old and comparatively eate out the memory of it b Isai 65.17 Behold I create new heavens and a new earth sayes the Lord and the old shall not be remembered nor come into mind Not that the Lord would simply and absolutely have the memory of the Creation to be lessened but respectively and in comparison of Redemption it must not be obliterated but only subordinated retained and remembred it must be still but as a lesser work then Redemption and as a lesser good to us as the Law is to the Gospel or the Old Testament to the New Redemption must be owned as the greater and better work in as much as Spiritual things are better then Natural and Gods last works are his best the first being only preparative to the last as Dr. Sibbs excellently observes Mat. 16.26 Mark 8.36 And verily he that shall question whether Redemption be a greater and better work then Creation knows little what a Redeemer is or what the ransome of an immortal soul is worth See Mr. Phil. Goodw. Dies Dominic rediv. pa. 11.12 13. I should think as mans gaining the world cannot recompense the loss of his soul so Gods creating of the world doth not equalize Christs redeeming the soul In creating the world indeed the Lord has done much for me but in shedding his precious blood in conquering sin and death he hath done more then if he had created another world for me Let the redeemed of the Lord say so yea the work is not only better to me but greater in it self too In creation there was but a words speaking and the work was presently done 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 See more in Dr. Gouge Heb. 9. S. 63. but in Redemption there was doing and dying God must come down from heaven God must be made man yea God-man must be made sin and a curse for me Here was a work exceeding wonder Besides in the work of Creation there was nothing to with stand But in the work of Redemption here was Justice against Mercy wrath against pity In a word in the Creation God brought something out of nothing but in redemption he hath out of one contrary brought another good out of evil life out of death Is not thy soul ravished Christian at these discoveries of wisdome grace and power shining forth in thy souls Redemption Canst thou see the like in the worlds Creation Is there not more glory in one Christ then in many worlds What a sapless unsavory question therefore to a soul that knows any thing of Christ Pa. 130. is that which T. T. propounds Who told thee the work of Redemption was the greater work A question more beseeming a Jew then a Christian But the answer is ready at hand He that hath told me the heavens are the works of his a Psalm 8.3 fingers and Redemption the work of his b Isal 52.9 10. arm his out-stretched unbared arm hath sufficiently taught me that Redemption is the greater work a work of greater might I am sure of greater mercy And so for his next question If it be the greater work who told thee that it deserves the honour of the day I answer a wiser and better man then you or I that man after Gods own heart who was most likely to know the mind of the Lord he has foretold it in that 118th Psalm when by a prophetick spirit foreseeing the glory of the resurrection day as a day amongst the seven dayes like the Sun amongst the seven planets he accordingly salutes it with a magnificent Title This is the day which the Lord hath made yea magnified for the word signifies not only to make but to magnifie and advance above all others c 1 Sam. 12.6 And such was the power of God in raising Christ hat the Psalmist cryes our it is marvellous in our sight Acts 4.10.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est vel imus vel summus lapis Arretius in 1 Pet. 2.7 Mat. 11.11 As by the same word the Lord is said to advance Moses and Aaron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to lift them up in dignity and preeminency above the rest of the people Thus he foresaw that the Lord would magnifie and exalt the resurrection day and why Because on this day the most glorious work of redemption was to be accomplished the stone which the builders resused being made the head of the corner i. e. to perfect
to break the bonds of Christian unity and the bounds of Christian liberty yea to render the golden yoke of Christs Gospel heavier then the Iron yoke of Moses Law But his wretched design is visible in pressing two dayes in a week he would suppresse one The old seventh day must be kept as a Sabbath the Lords day only as a Church holy-day or State holy-day rather for he calls it mans Sabbath But I beseech you what has man to do to appoint a weekly holy-day contrary to Gods expresse command of six dayes for labour If the Lords day be of mans making you sin in keeping of it Psalm 118.24 But if it be a day of Gods making as the Scripture sayes then you sin in keeping any other weekly day besides it And to close all let me adde this which will not easily be answered To keep the old seventh day as a Sabbath in memory of the Creation and the Lords day only as a lesser holy-day in memory of Redemption is to place the greater honour upon the lesser work and to professe that we are lesse ingaged to Christ for shedding his blood to redeem the world then to God the Father for speaking the word to create the world which how it can stand with that Gospel-precept of honouring the Son as we honour the Father John 5.23 let any sober Christian judg Thus we have considered the ground of the Sabbaths institution in the first sense as Gods ending his work may be understood in respect of Providence But 2. Secondly and chiefly God may be said to have ended his work on the seventh day in respect of the promise then manifested to have been given by Christs actual undertaking the work of his Mediatorship and the Fathers rest or complacency in that blessed undertaking of the Son And here I doubt not but we shall make it appear by the light of Gods candle shining in the Scriptures that the first institution of the seventh day was founded not so much upon the memory of the Creation as upon the first publication of Christ in the promise and then it will undeniably follow that the day was made mutable in the first foundation of it For a day fixed upon the making of a promise must needs be changed upon the making good of that promise To make way for the framing of my argument I shall premise these seven considerations 1. That man sinned and fell the same day on which he was created as has been already argued and shall be further proved in the close of this position neither should it seem improbable or incredible to any that so goodly a building should be raised and ruinated both in one day considering the foundation of it stood upon the tottering Sands of free-will not the impregnable rock of free-grace and Christs righteousness 2. As man fell suddenly so Christ was promised seasonably and early The merciful Lord would not let the Sun go down upon his wrath but in the cool of the day while the wound of mans fall was yet fresh and bleeding he gave him that soveraign plaster in the promise Gen. 3.15 The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head 3. That the fall of man brought corruption and confusion upon the whole Creation Gen. 3.17 18. Rom. 8.21 22. subjecting it to the curse of God the consequences whereof are misery and vanity 4. That therefore when it is said Gen. 2.2 On the seventh day God ended or perfected his work for so the word may be rendered and so it is Ezek. 16.14 it may well bear this construction that upon the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the actual undertaking of Christ newly promised to bring about mans redemption So 2 Chron. 4 12. and the worlds restauration the creatures were brought into a better state then they were in before See more of this in that learned Treatise of Mr. G Walker intituled the Doctrine of the Sabbath as corrupted and defaced by the sin of man This is certain that upon the sixth day the creation was dispatched and fully perfected as to natural perfection Therefore when it is said on the seventh day God perfected his works it may well be understood of a further and higher degree of perfection even that which was supernatural shewing a higher and more excellent end of all things created then that which at first they were created unto At least it implyes such a perfection as consisted in the creatures restauration by the mediation of Christ which made way for the setting of all to rights again A most blessed and seasonable transaction for a sin-shattered world which had certainly been demolished and laine buried in its own ruines had not the blessed Son of God put to his gracious helping-hand These are no humane fancies for a Colos 1.17 Heb. 1.3 Psal 75.3 the Scriptures do abundantly testifie that the Lord Christ is the great supporter and repairer of the Creation without whom we have reason to think that the Sun would not shine one day nor the world stand one moment Hence 5. It followes that God rested on the seventh day That is not only ceased from his work but found rest in his Son he rested and was refreshed Exod. 31.17 that is with a rest full of sweetness and delight such as he finds only in Christ in whom his soul delighteth Isai 42.2 And hence again it is said 6. That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it how did he blesse it but by ordaining it as a day of Grace and spiritual blessings to the souls of his people during the Old Testament Now this kind of blessing was utterly inconsistent with that covenant of works made with Adam in the state of innocency there was no Grace no Christ in that Covenant But all spiritual blessings flow from Christ that fountain of the Gardens Eph. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore blessed be God sayes that blessed Apostle who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesns Did the Lord then ordain the seventh day to be a day of spiritual blessings to the souls of his people Why still this strongly argues that Christ in the promise lay at the bottom of that day in the first designation of it for he was that blessed seed in whom it was all along promised that the nations and families of the earth should be blessed I would ask T.T. and his followers whether the blessings which they expect by vertue of the old Sabbaths Institution be new Covenant-blessings If so then they cannot deny but the day thus blessed was bottomed upon Christ The foundation of the new Covenant a Isai 42.6 I say upon Christ in the promise that renowned promise of blessed memory the seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head which promise was first made to Adam the father of men Gen. 3.15 and afterwards renewed to b Gen. 12.3 c. 18.22 c.
the mighty God King of Saints and King of Nations having all power in heaven and earth put into his hands alter a circumstance concerning the Sabbath by translating it from the last to the first day of the week Well if he had power to alter it then it was alterable which was the thing to be proved If it be said the question is not what the Lord could do but what he did whether he did indeed alter the Sabbath as to the day I answer we shall put this question out of question in the next Position POSITION IV. That the Old Sabbath was actually altered and changed from the last to the first day of the week by the authority of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that upon the noble account of our Redemption manifestly accomplished by his most glorious resurrection from the dead on that day FOR the Confirmation whereof I shall First propound some Scripture-Arguments Secondly Produce some Authentick Records of antiquity both which we shall find harmoniously concurring in all the three branches of this Position First That the day is certainly changed Secondly That this change was occasioned by our Saviours most glorious Resurrection Thirdly That this was done by the Soveraign authority of Christ himself either immediately in his own person or mediately by the prescript and practise of his inspired Apostles either or which will be sufficient We shall begin with Scripture-proof and argument in way of Preface whereunto let it be premised that this truth is not Syllabically and totidem verbis in so many words at length set down in Scripture neither needs it considering the question in not about the change of the septenary number one day in seven but the order only the last for the first of seven and besides it is not the Lords method and manner of speaking in many other New Testament-cases as Church-Government Family-worship and sundry others which were plain enough in the Old Testament to express himself in full sentences but very briefly in short hints and touches here a little and there a little to exercise the ingenuity of believers not to fatisfie the curiosity of Cavillers The Scriptures were no more designed to answer all the cavilling questions of wanton wits then the Sun was made for them to see that shut their eyes yet I deny not the sufficiency of Scripture-light to make us wise unto salvation only we must not presume to give laws to Heaven and teach the Lord how to speak But a Hebr. 12.25 see that ye refuse not him that speaketh from heaven that speaketh I say not only by express word but by his b V. 24. blood or death and so also by his c Joh. 2.19 21. Rom. 1.3 4. resurrection from the dead by the d John 15.26 mission of his Spirit by the unction and inspiration of his Apostles whose writings are his words their counsels his commands their pattern and practise his e 1 Cor. 14.37 precept f Luke 10.16 for he that heareth them heareth him therefore let him that hath an ear hear the voice of Christ yea though he open his mouth in a parable to carnal reason g Psalm 78.1 Mat. 13.9 35. as it seems he does even in some of his Gospel-law yea let us hear Christ speaking by his Spirit I mean the spirit of Prophecy breathing in the Old Testament for h Rev. 19.10 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy nay let us learn to spell his word out of his works for his i John 5 36. ch 10. 25. works do testifie of him In a word consider it is k Luke 11.49 Wisdome it self that uttereth her voice in the written word and she useth to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much in a little yea to speak by l Mat. 22.32 Acts 14.47 arguments couched in Scripture as well as express affirmations and what those Scripture-arguments are which speak the change of the Sabbath as here stated we come now to shew The first may be taken from the new Creation Arg. 1 or reparation of the world by Christ as thus Incongruum erat veteris Creationis Sabbathum novae Creatimi Lighâ—f Horae Hebr. p. 321. ubi plura The new Creation must have a new Sabbath or set-set-day of Commemoration now this new Creation came in by Christs resurrection Therefore a new Sabbath The form of this argument I grant is not found in Scripture but the force of it is as shall be seen in the proof of each proposition 1. That the new Creation must have a Sabbath of Commemoration This may not only be gathered from parity of reason but plain Scripture prophecy I might recite that forementioned famous Text in Isai ch 65. 17. Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall no more be remembred i. e. in respect of solemnity for otherwise remember the work of Creation we do and must but not as the greater work for look as the Jews m Isai 43.18 19. Jer. 16.15 16. ch 23. 7 8. deliverance out of Egypt was subordinated by their after-deliverance out of Babylon so is the work of Creation by that of Redemption whereby the world at least the Church was put into a new frame and form Anno Mundi changed for Anno Domini upon the account whereof as the year of the world was worthily changed for the year of our Lord so was the old Sabbath for the Lords day But that which I would further argue from Isai 65. is this The old Sabbath cannot stand with the new Creation therefore it must have a new or none This was touched before Posit 1. that there should be none at all none but old Anabaptists Familists and Atheists will affirm And that the old cannot stand is evident because the foundation on which it stood the memory and celebrity of the worlds Creation is swallowed up by the glory of a greater work Sicuti Sol exoriens stellis eripit suum fulgorem Calv. in Loc. and we cannot possibly retain that old seventh day but we must memorize our Creation above our Redemption our being above our well-being which were expresly to contradict this ancient promise and Prophecy If it be objected that this Scripture is not yet fulfilled because the Apostle sayes 2 Pet. 3.12 we look for new heavens and a new earth viz. at the end of the world I answer Although it shall then receive a further accomplishment in the latter yet inchoatively and sufficiently as to the thing in question it was fulfilled long ago even before the name Jew was laid aside and the name Christian take up Isai 65.15 So ch 62. 2. for let the context be minded vers 15. the Prophet foretels the rejection of the Jews and the change of their name for the Christian name Ye shall leave your name for a curse to my people Ac si Dominus diceret non amplius nomen
Oracles of God Observation does imply obligation And how can this stand with the soveraignty of God But I suppose his meaning is that God rested the seventh day what then Therefore it was no rudiment had nothing Typical or ceremonial in it It followes not Psam 132.8 2 Chron. 6 41. How often is God said to rest in Types of Christ is not the Tabernacle stiled Gods rest And the Temple and the Temple Worship are not t Gen. 8.21 Exod. 29.18 Numb 15.3 Sacrifices and oblations called a Savour of rest unto God not that Gods soul rested in any of these rests properly nor the people of God neither But he rested in Christ and so did they in these things only as Types or prefigurations of Christ to come And thus he is said to rest on the seventh day We have proved before that man sinned and fell the sixth day and that Christ was promised and actually invested in the office of Mediatorship before the Sabbath was instituted And hereupon God rested the seventh day not only from the work of Creation but from the weight and burthen of Adams sin For God complains of sin as a heavy u Isai 1.14 Amos 5.2.13 burthen and as the sins of the old world are said to * Gen. 6.6 grieve him at his heart so no doubt did the sin of Adam But Christ interposing to make reconcilation God rested the seventh day and was refreshed Exod. 31.17 That the old Sabbath was instituted after the fall besides what has bin formerly alledged appears plainly from that of our Saviour x Mark 2.28 The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath For man that is for man in misery not man in innocency for the context speaks of necessitous indigent man man subject to hunger and thirst and want T is spoken upon the occasion of the hungry disciples plucking the ears of Corn and eating out of pure necessity on the Sabbath day The Pharisees presently censure them as Sabbath breakers Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day having power to dispose of it at his pleasure but sayes the Lord of the Sabbath you quarrel without cause For the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath That is the Sabbath was made for the good and benefit of man in misery Principally for the good of his sick and sinfull soul but partly for the support of his weak and frail body also that it might rest and be refreshed with convenient food Physick and the like which clearly argues that the Sabbath was made ordained and instituted after man was in necessity and misery namely after Adams fall and therefore t is said That God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 Blessed it how not with natural blessings that the Sun should shine brighter or the weather be fairer that day then another No the blessings of the Sabbath were of another nature spiritual blessings such as were suitable to the state of fain man such as God has pronounced Fallen man blessed withall otherwise the institution had never concerned any one man since the fall How could it if the blessings contained in it had bin nothing but Paradise blessings But we shall not inculcate former arguments only add one consideration more to make it further manifest that Gods rest on the seventh day was partly if not chiefly in relation to Christ the promised Messiah T is a saying of the Hebrew Doctors and it agrees well with the a Heb. 2.10 Rev. 5.11 12 13. Scriptures that the world it self had not bin made but for the Messiah For all things were made by him and for him and he is the b Heb. 1.2 heir of all things and that as Mediatour and we have reason to think that Gods heart were more set upon Christ when he set up this visible frame of Heaven and earth then upon all the world besides How unlikely therefore is it that the glorious Creator should set apart a day of rest till the grand design upon which his thoughts had run from all eternity and which was chiefly in his eye when he made the world the glorifying of himself in his Son by investing him with the government of the world and putting him as heir of all things into actuall possession of his hereditary Dominions had some actual inchoate existence 'T is cleare that God did not rest from his other works of Creation till he had made man because till then he had not attained his subordinate end of making the rest of his creatures and t is credible that he would not rest after he had made man till he had made Christ Mediatour and put the government of all upon his shoulders because till then he had not attained his ultimate end for which he made man and all the rest of the world besides Certain it is that the Creation was made but mutably perfect at first and therefore it cannot be conceived how God could keep a setled rest the seventh day till he had setled and established the Creation on Christ the rock c Deut. 32.4 whose work is perfect And this I conceive to be the true and undoubted sense of that saying Gen. 22. On the seventh day God ended Finished or perfected his work namely by establishing it upon Christ that sure foundation 1 Peter 4.18 hence he is styled a faithfull Creator in that he did not leave his work of Creation in a mutable estate as Masons and Carpenters when they have built their houses leave them without any further care what becomes of them but as a faithful Creator * God was not the author or approver of mans falbut only the orderer and over ruler of it to bring good out of evill he over ruled the Fall of Adam for a greater good namely for the establishment of his mutable work by bringing in Christ the right heir setting him as e Ps 8.6 He. 2.8 1 Cor. 15.24 Lord over all the works of his hands puting all things under his feet making him f Josh 3.11 Neb. 9.6 Dan. 10.14 15. Acts 10.36 Lord of the whole world and of all things therein to whom doth appertain the Dominion of the Heavens and the Heaven of Heavens the earth and all that is therein Thus on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made or perfected his work which he had made That which he had made perfect at first with mutable perfection he now perfected again by a further degree of supperadded perfection namely by the promise of Christ and his personall undertaking as Mediatour by whom all things g Col. 1.16 consist And accordingly God rested the seventh day not in the changeable Creature but in Christ the rock and so the Sabbath was stated on the seventh day upon the account of Christ in the promise upon the performance of which promise the seventh day ceases to be any longer a day of rest But
this last book of the Bible to the praise of him who is our Alpha and Omega the very name speaks Christ the Author of it if not his Resurrection whereby he was declared both Lord and Christ the occasion of it The antients had it in singular esteem for the very name sake 't is an elegant and pious poem which I find written upon it by Sedlius an antient Christian Poet who was but a few years * Vid. Sixti Senesis Biblioth sanct p. 308. Jerome's Junior Caeperat intereà post tristia Sabbata felix Irradiare dies Libr. 5. Carm. Culmen qui nominis alti A domino dominante trahit primusque videri Promeruit nasci mundum atque resurgere Christum In English thus After sad Sabbaths th' happy day'gan dawn Whose lofty name from Lord of Lords is drawn A blessed day that first was grac'd to see Christs Rising and the worlds Nativity But we have more antient Records than this appropriating the title of Lords day to our Christian Sabbath Omnes ferè sacrae Scripturae interp etes tam veteres quam Recentiores de primo dïe hebdomadis intelligunt Wallaeus dissert de 4. prae cap. 6. p 150. Ignatius who lived in St. Johns time makes it a weekly holy day of the Christians observed in the room of the Jewes Sabbath So Tertullian Atharasius Hierom Austin who not By this title we may trace it down from the Apostles times through the Ocean of the Fathers Councills Schoolmen to this present age wherein we live And to come to Scripture there seemes to be much in that which Beza observes out of an antient Greek manu-script wherein that first day of the week 1 Cor. 16.2 is expresly called the Lords day and the Syriack translation tells us * Institut Theol loc 48. de cana Dom. that the Christians meeting together to receive the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 was upon the Lords day And Bucanus saith this Sacrament is called the Lords Supper as in respect of the institutor and the end of it I had rather interpret the Lords day by the Lords Supper than as Bucan does the Lords Supper by the Lords day so also in respect of the day on which it was wont to be administ viz. The Lords day citeing that Text Acts 20.7 and hence also the antients stiled it Dies panis the day of bread because the Churches of Christ ever used to break bread on this day But to end all disputes if Scripture may be safely interpreted by Scripture and dark places by plain ones then let us expound the Lords day Rev. 1.10 by the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 Here let the reader take notice that the blessed Spirit of God who had his choice of words and never spake any thing but upon admirable reason never vouchsafed this title of honour in the new Testament but only to the Supper and the day the Lords Supper and the Lords day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.10 Neither can any third Text be produced where this Epithet is applyed to any thing else Now the phrase being the same and thus singular the sense must needs be the same Look therefore in what notion the Supper is the Lords Supper in the same sense is the day stiled the Lords day The supper is the Lords because the Lord Christ instituted it yea and substituted it in the room of the Passeover and why not the day His * So Mr. Perkins in his cases of conscience because he instituted and substituted it in the room of the old Sabbath T is evidently a day of Christs institution a day of the Lords own making and with reference to his Resurrection he made it such a day of the week not such a day of the year as we proved before in a word let any other day be set up in constitution with the first day of the week for the title of Lords day and we shall easily non-suit it Our Saviours birth-day bids fair for it Obj. 1 T.T. Answ Then it must be a day of divine institution which I hope he will not say But I answer further if the day of Christs nativity or any other day besides the first day of the week had been devoted to Christ and intended by John in this place he had spoken very obscurely to say I was in the spirit on the Lords day he would rather have said I was in the spirit on one of the Lords dayes Annot. ad loc But to put this fancy to flight observe the day here dignified with this magnificet title must needs be some noted day the circumstances of time place and person are set down as Beza observes the better to conciliate credit to the truth of these heavenly visions therefore all but that of the place have an eminent badge of cognizance upon them John was a known person and the Lords day with an emphatical Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a well-known day doubtless he that relates to others such a thing done such a day presupposes the day sufficiently and certainly known for a doubtfull circumstance darkens a story and drawes a curtain in stead of opening a casement to give light to the matter now let us put it to the question what day was more eminently and unquestionably known in all the Churches of Christ than the first day of the week Which the Secretaries of Christ all the four Evangelists had so exactly noted and the Psalmist so prophetically extolled as a day of the Lords making St. John could not but know that these seven Churches knew the first day of the week to be Christs Resurrection-day and neither he nor they could be ignorant that Christs Resurrection-day was the day which the Lord had made and what 's that but the Lords day As for our Saviours Birth-day although it were a day of wonderful mercy yet it is left in great obscurity not one of the Evangelists marking it out by name neither can it be so clearly resolved either what day of the * Unless the adversary will grant Mr. A. that it was the first day of the week week or what day of the month or what month of the year nor hardly what year of the world our Saviour was born in but it may be matter of controversie See divers disputes about it in Dr. Willets Hexapl. on Dan. chapter 11. If John intends any single day t is most likely to be the seventh day which was antiently stiled the Lords holy day Obj. 2 Isai 57.6 and is declared by Christ to be his day Mark 2. last and no other day throughout the Gospel does he declare to be his This he and Mr. Braburn in contradiction to the whole Christian world would fain perswade us that the Lords day which St. John speaks was the old Sabbath But He may as well say that the Lords Supper which St. Paul speakes of was the old Passeover Ans
of his Kingdom Our Saviour made them a kind of Letter of Atturney as one speaks to speak and act in his Name as if he himself had been personally present c John 20.21 As my Father sent me so send I you and d Luke 10.16 Non minùs ratum est quod Apostoli dictante S.S. P. tradiderunt quà m quod ipse Christus tradidit Cyprian he that heareth you heareth me Neither does this extend only to their Verbal preaching but to their visible preaching also their practice I mean at least in things Evangelical and of moral general perpetual concernment to the Churches of Christ otherwise why is their practice propounded as our Patern e Philip. 3.17 Walk as ye have us for an ensample And f Philip. 4.19 Those things which ye have seen in me do And again Be g 1 Cor. 11.2 followers of me as I am of Christ sayes the great Apostle Yea not only the Apostles themselves but the first Churches planted by them are imitable paterns to other Churches especially in things apperteining to the publick exercise of Gospel-worship h 1 Thes 2.14 we may exemplifie both together in the observation of the Lords day not once but often not by single persons only but by sundry Churches and Church-assemblies met on this day That general Assembly Acts 2.1 when they were all together with one accord we have already proved to have been upon this high and holy day and how they keep it we have seen and how God crowned it with the effusion of his holy Spirit as also the Conversion of souls is further considerable For 't is very probable that not only the three thousand Acts 2.41 but the other five thousand also Acts 4.3 were all converted upon this day of Pentencost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 3.1 notes identity of time as 2 Sam. 21.9 Deut. 25.5 and the ninth hour ch 3. hath reference to the third hour ch 2. See Dr. Lightfoots Harm in Acts. For it was but the third hour of the day or nine a Clock in the morning when the first Sermon was preached which brought in the three thousand Acts 2.15 and at the ninth hour that is about three a clock in the afternoon Peter and John went into the Temple Acts 3.1 wrought a glorious miracle preacht another powerful Sermon which gained five thousand more Ch. 4. such a Spirit of Conversion was never poured out upon any day as this Well might the Holy Ghost call it i Psalm 120.3 the day of the Lords power the adversary acknowledges it was spoken of this very day Again As this Church at Jerusalem so the Churches of Corinth and Galatia kept this day too as shall presently appear from 1 Cor. 16.2 and so the Church of Troas in Phrygia Acts 20.7 which was a neighbour Church to them of Galatia And the like may be said for the seven Churches of Asia for upon the Lords day St. John saw them all in a vision and saw Christ in the midst of them saw him as the Saints have been wont to see him in his glorious goings in the sanctuary walking amidst his golden Candlesticks Psalm 68.14 Isai 30.20 with stars in his hand that is Gospel-Ministers shining like stars in the Firmament of the Church and diffusing the light of the glorious Gospel in the actual exercise of their Ministry on this day especially Yea upon this day John himself was ravished in spirit which made the place of his exile like Pauls third Heaven to him now I demand how this could come to pass that so many several Churches as the Church at Jerusalem Corinth Galatia Troas Ephesus Thyatira and the rest many of which were at a great distance one from another should so unanimously consent and concurr in keeping this day if the Apostles by the authority of Christ had not setled it as an Ordinance in all Christian Churches Let any rational man tell me how all these Apostolical Churches should so early and in the beginning of their plantation consent together to keep the same day unless they had been directed by their first founders the holy Apostles themselves Add to this the joint and uniform practice of all Christian Churches in all succeeding ages since and he ha's hardly the faith of a Christian if the reason of a man that dares so much as question the divine authority of the Lords day for whence came this universal agreement all the Christian world over that all the Churches of Christ should so early so * Even Herericks themselves and such as were for the Jewes Sabbath as Ebion and his followers did alwayes observe the Lords day also Euseb lib. 3. and so do the Ethiorick Churches to this day as Dr. Heiten testifies universally so constantly observe this day not one Church ever attempting to alter it but from some authority superior to the Churches themselves Certainly such customes as were never ordained by Christ or his Apostles were never observed by all Christian Churches throughout the world as the Lords day hath been Such unity of custom in universality of place with perpetuity of practice all meeting together in that which ha's some footing in Scripture must needs argue a divine institution yea if there had been no express Scripture testimony of the Apostles practice and observation of it as our Divines do solidly argue for the baptisme of infants although there be no express precept nor express example of it found in Scripture yet the grounds and reasons of it being found in Scripture with the general practice of the Church concurring we dare not but own it and maintain it How much more the Lords day yea if there had been neither precept nor practice of it in Scripture as long as the grounds of it are laid in Scripture namely a Moral law for the substance of it as one day in seven and a prophesie for the particularity of the Church without any contradiction till these last disputing dayes wherein men are grown so bold as to deny principles I do the rather instance this because I have to deal with an Anabaptist who confidently calls the baptiseing of grown persons * Let him shew me one Scripture for that if he can either precept or president for the baptiseing of such at years of diferetion as were born of Christian parents To tell us of the Apostles baptiseing men and women is no newes but were they such men and such women as are plunged now adaies no verily they were not born of baptized Christian parents as blessed be God we are born of Christian parents a flourishing truth after it ha's been convicted and condemned by the learnedest pens in Christendom for a foolish error But to come to that I aim at let me advise this man in coole blood to ask his own conscience this question namely whether or no if he could find in Scripture expresse Apostolical practice consequential proof satisfies me and others for
Jewes Sabbath was not at least not as a Sabbath nor with equal solemnity as the Lords day nor as of necessity so it was ever condemned and the Lords day was ever preferred before it if not observed without it in the purest Churches for the first two hundred years after Christ to say no more Let us examin witnesses in order as they come First Ignatius Let us hear what Ignatius saies who lived some thirty years in the Apostles times and in his Epistle to the Magnesians in the Vulgar Edition is brought in speaking to this purpose * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us therefore no longer keep the Jewish Sabbath as rejoicing in idleness for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat and in the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eat thy bread But let every of us keep Sabbath spiritually not in bodily ease but in the meditation of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space nor in dancings and sensless sportings but in admiration of the workes of God And setting aside the Sabbath let every one that loves Christ keep holy the Lords day the Queen of days the Resurrection day the highest of all dayes I do the rather insert this Testimony though Dr. Vsher except against this Edition of Ignatius his Epistles because T. T. cites it also for the Saturday-Sabbath only he mangles and misinterprets it dealing with Ignatius as men use to deal with Mag-pyes slitting their tongues to make them speak what they would have them Just thus he deals with this renowned father severing the last clause from the rest of the sentence and singling out a little piece of it to serve his own turn for he insists only upon the last branch and mistranslates it too his words are these Next after the Sabbath-day let every friend of Christ make the Lords day a Solemn festivall As if Ignatius had preferred the Jewes Sabbath before the Lords day but by his favour this clashes with the context for in the foregoing words Christians are counselled no longer to keep the Jewes Sabbath but to work upon it for it is written He that will not labour let him not eat Whereas on the contrary all that love Christ are charged to keep the Lords day a solemn Festival Exam. Concil Trid. de dieb Fest p. 257. being the Queen and princess of dayes Besides these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are well rendred by setting aside the Sabbath So learned Chemnitius and others translate them If any desire further satisfaction I referr them to judicious Mr. Cawdrey who ha's dexterously discuss'd this Testimony The more * Approved by Dr. Twiss after it had been compared with a latin translation found in Caius Col. library in Cambrig and two other Manuscripts in Oxon the one in Magdal the other in Balliot Coll. Library correct copy of Ignatius ' Epistle to the Magnesians presented by Dr. Vsher as agreeable to the citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret ha's this material and remarkable passage in it The Blessed Martyr speaking of the Jewes converted to the Faith of Christ in his dayes gives this most Christian Character of them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad Magnesian That they did no longer keep the Sabbath but led their life according to the Lords day in which our life arose in which words First He expounds what St. John meant by the Lords day Rev. 1.10 namely the day of our Saviours Resurrection and that not as an anniversary but a weekly holy-day contradistinct to the Jewes Sabbath Seconly He acquaints us with the practice of the Church in those Apostolick times which was to observe the Lords day in stead of the old Sabbath If the converted Jewes did thus how much more the Christian Gentiles Therefore blessed Ignatius his preface to this discourse shall be my conclusion by way of caution to my Christian brethren a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Suffer not your selves to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines for if we shall still live according to the Jewish Law we deny that we have received grace And a litle after b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ibid. Since we are become the disciples of Christ let us learn to live according to Christianity For it is absurd to profess Christ and Judaize For Christianity ha's not beleeved into Judaism but Judaism into Christianity As for Ignatius's Epistle to the Philippians which the adversary glories it is rejected as spurious and counterfeit and indeed there is nothing of an Apostolical spirit breathing in it See Mr. Perkins Praep. to the dem of the problem Our next witness is Justin Martyr who lived in the very prime of the primitive times about a hundred and fifty years after Christ's Nativity Justin Martyr at * Vide Alfied Chron. Patr. p. 450. what time he wrote a learned Apology for the poor persecuted Christians to Antoninus pius the Emperour wherein among other things he mentions the manner of their publick meetings on the Lords day which he calls Sunday because he had to do with a Pagan Emperour his words are these Vpon the day called Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Apol 2. ad Cal◠all that abide within the cities or the villages do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The reader having done the Priest or President ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there rehearsed then standing up together we send up our prayers to Heaven which being ended there is delivered unto us bread and wine with water Water to mingle with their Wine in those hot countries of which as he sayes a little before none are allowed to partake but baptized persons Beleevers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as live according to the rule of Christ After this the Priest or President offers up as much as in him is our prayers and thanksgivings to God and all the people say Amen then those of the richer sort every one as his good will is contribute something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren c. What an excellent pattern is here for after-ages and how agreeable to the practice of the Apostles themselves here we have publike assemblies prayer preaching reading the Scriptures breaking of Bread distributing to the poor and all this upon the day called Sunday that is the Lords day and why upon this day rather than any other let Justin himself resolve this as he doth in the next words * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. On the Sunday saies he we all make a publike Assembly in as much as it is the first day in which God who changed the darkness and the first matter made the world and because on this day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from
venerable and solemn because thereon our Saviour as the rising Sun having dispellea the darkness of death shone forth by the light of his resurrection And elswhere t Dies Sabbati evat dierum Ordine posterior sanctificatione legis anierior sea ubi finis legis advenit qui est Christus Jesus Rom. 10.4 resurrectione sua octavam sanctificavit caepit eadem prima esse quae octava est habens ex numeriordine praerogativam ex resurrectione Domini sanctitatem The Sabbath day was the last in order of dayes but the first in sanctification under the Law but when the end of the Law was come to wit Jesus Christ Rom. 10.4 and by his Resurrection had consecrated the eighth day that which is the eighth began to be the first being dignified by the precedency of the number and sanctified by the Resurrection of the Lord. Then speaking further by way of allusion to Luke 6. he addes u Vbi Dies Dominica â—aepit praecellere qua Dominus Resurrexerit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit a primo prima enim requies Cessavit secunda successit unde ad Hebr. scribens Apostolus ait post hac die restat ergo requies populo Deim requies ergo vera non in operis cessatione sed in Kesurrectionis est tempore Ambr. Enar. in Tit. Psalm 47. When the Lords day on which our Lord arose began to excel the Sabbath which was the first began to be accounted the Second from the first For the first rest ceased and the second succeeded Whence the Apostle writing to the Hebrewes Ch. 4. speaks of another day there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God Therefore the true rest is not now in the cessation of the work meaning the work of Creation but in the time of the Resurrection 'T is as much as if he had said the true Sabbath is not now the seventh day or last day of the week but the first day of the week this is that other day mentioned Heb. 4. this is the rest or Sabbatism that remaineth to the people of God I do the rather cite these sayings of the two worthy Father Ambrose because T.T. quotes him also for the Saturday-Sabbath which he was a zealous disputer against And although he preacht on that day it was but in preparation to the Lords day Hierom 10. Anno 385. Hierom is the next writer of note and eminency in the Church of God and he also speaks very honourably of the of the Lords day In his book against Vigilantius (w) Per unam Sabbati hoc est in die Dominico omnes conferre quae Hierosolymam in solatium dirigerentur praecipit Paulus Item ad Hedib quaestio 4. the Apostle Paul saith he commanded almost all Churches that there should be collections for the poor upon the first day of the week which is the Lords day And elsewhere he informs us how it was observed by the religious in his time x Dominicos dies orationi tantum lectioni vacant Ad Eustoch namely That they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures For which he commends them and by commending approves their practice But of observing the Jewes Sabbath he speaks not a word only he interprets Gal. 4.10 as a repeal of the Saturday Sabbath and so does Tertullian also Libr. 1. Contr. Marc. Ch. 20. After Hierom comes Chrysostom Chrysostom 11. Anno 398. a painful and powerful preacher in his time and her how he thunders against Judaizing Christians y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will close my Sermon saies he with the words of Moses I call heaven and earth to witness against you that if any of us present or those that are absent shall go to look upon the Trumpets or meet in the Synagogues or go up to Matrona a Synagogue of the Jewes two or three miles from Antiochia in Daphne a pleasant village as himself describes it elswhere or joy in their Fasts or partake of their Sabbaths or perform any other Jewish custom great or small I am clear from the blood of you all these words shall stand up in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and you and if you obey they shall give you great boldness but if you disobey or conceal any of them that presume to commit such like things they shall rife up as vehement witnesses against you c. See how zealous this holy man was against Jewish rites and customes and amongst the rest against their Sabbaths Neither was it blind zeal but zeal according to knowledge for he knew and ha's told us z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Paul perswaded the Churches of Christ to leave off Circumcision to slight the Sabbaths and dayes legal dayes he means and all other ceremonials And again a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ ha's freed us from these Jewish observances neither was his practice in these things intended for ouru pattern for as he kept the passeover with the Jewes not that we should keep it with them but that he might introduce the truth in stead of the shadow in like manner he also endured Circumcision and observed Sabbaths and celebrated their Festivals and did all these things at Jerusalem but to none of these are we subject Yet lest we should think Chrysostom an enemy to the Christian as well as the Jewes Sabbath consider what he sayes in another place treating of almes where he occasionally touches that Text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. concerning the collection for the Saints on the first day of the week and asks this question what reason the Apostle had to command this day for the oblation of their alms And answers it thus b Hom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Item 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ubi supre Because this day they did abstain from all workes and the Soul was more cheerful by the rest of the day besides the good things received this day for on this day death was destroyed the curse was dissolved sin vanquished the gates of Hell broken in peices therefore saies he if we so honour our Birth-dayes how much more ought we to honour this day which may well be called the Birth-day of all Mankind and how often does this Father call the First day of the week the c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In John 20. 1 Cor. 16.2 Lords day a royal day a day of rest and the like so others extol it Ignatius calls it the Queen of days the first day of the week and the first day of the world as truly the chiefest as it is undoubtedly the first of dayes saies Eusebius a most Holy day sayes Athanasius higher than the highest saith Nazianzen So sincerely were the Antients devoted to the solemnity of this day that in honour of Christ the Author of it they thought they could never sufficiently grace and garnish it
circumstances considered it more then probable that this third Chapter is nothing but an history of what was done on the sixth day And so the mention of the Sabbath in the beginning of the second Chapter may well enough in order of things take place at the end of the third and then it will roundly follow That the first sin went before the first Sabbath As to that which is further alledged Exod. 31.17 Ans 3 That on the seventh day God rested and was refreshed I answer It is onely a Metaphorical expression for we may not think that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainted or was weary in the works of the Creation or that he needed any rest or respiration But when the Holy Ghost speaks to us men he delights to speak after the manner of men respecting more the weakness of our capacity than the exactness and propriety of the Phrase In a word suppose God's resting and being refreshed on the seventh day intimate some delightful satisfaction like that which men take in things that refresh their souls yet it follows not that this satisfaction was taken in the creatures but rather in Christ who had now undertaken God's satisfaction for man's transgression And this indeed is a sweet refreshing as to a guilty creature so to an angry God and in this sense the Scriptures do sweetly harmonize Isai 42.1 Mat. 3.17 Mat. 12.18 unanimously testifying that our blessed Redeemer is the person in whom the eternal God delighteth in whom the Father is well-pleased As for the other Scriptures which T.T. crouds in for company-sake in his Margin as Job 38.7 Luke 2.13 the one speaking of the Angels song at the Creation of the earth the other of their joyful Hymne at the birth of Christ I wonder how they make for his purpose to prove that man had not sinned before the Sabbath But impertinent quotations are no rarities in his book he would make a glorious shew of Scripture to dazle the eies of the simple when the Scriptures he cites are neither in sense nor sound applicable to his purpose which if it be not packing sophistry let the world judg Well his first tripartite argument is weighed and found to light And hitherto for ought appears to the contrary the first Sabbath was not before sin I proceed to the second 2. T. T s Argum. Some time sayes he must be allowed for the sin of Angels and after that for the parley with the woman and it was no little space wherein Adam gave significant names to the creatures For the Angels sin Ans 1 to guesse precisely at the time of it is neither easie nor necessary And in disputes of this nature we must be wise to sobriety not to curiosity a 1 Tim. 3.6 pride was a principal ingredient in their sin and b Job 4.18 God charged them with folly for their pride how much more folly shall sinful man be found guilty of who in the pride of his foolish heart shall presume to be wise above that which is written Some think that place Luke 10.28 may refer to the first fall of the Angels being mentioned as a check to the disciples ready to be lifted up with pride at the success of their ministry Ne factis miraculis superbirent discipuli adduxit Domiuus exemplum Satanae c. Stella in loc However it is most consentaneous to Scripture and Reason to conceive that the Angels being spiritual substances must in their actings whether good or evil be proportionable to their beings And sin being a spiritual evil how quick a progresse it might make in such creatures let any man judg who can but compare things spiritual with spiritual To me it is no great difficulty to apprehend that in a very few moments by an aspiring thought legions of Angels might become legions of Divels Especially being for ought I know linked together in a conjoyned apostasie For Adam's naming the creatures this also might soon be dispatched Answ 2 considering that not every individual creature as T.T. would have it but onely the birds and beasts were made to pass before Adam of which there are not many kinds Primi parentes insignes Philosophi Luther in Gâ—n Cap. 1. and not many of a kind created at first And doubtless it cost Adam no study to impose significant names upon them He had natural Philosophy enough concreated with him to know the properties and qualities of the creaures 1 Kin. 4.33 34 and he needed no dictionary to find out suitable names for them If Solomon after the Fall were so well read in the book of the creatures that he could write a complete Commentary upon it from the Cedar to the Hysop what shall we think of Adam before the Fall But to put all out of doubt Dr. Twisse moral of the Sabbath p. 51. that the naming of the Creatures took up no long time is evident for they were all named before Eve was formed Gen. 2.19 20. So as all this might be done before noon and time enough left before night for the acting of that fatal tragedy the Fall of Man as a judicious Writer concludes For the parley betwixt the Woman and the Serpent Answ 3 we have no reason to judge that long when the Scripture cuts it so short Questionless the Serpent was not onely a subtile but a nimble disputant and it was his policy to be as quick as he could that the woman might be conquered before she had time to recollect her self Besides in the judgment of most Interpreters she began to stagger and give ground at the first assault So that all this Authors conjectures laid together are too weak to bear the weight of that confident conclusion Nothing is more certain then that the Highest himself did both sanctifie and celebrate the first Sabbath and that before sin p. 11. I may well say nothing is more uncertain I have given some Scripture-arguments already to make it more then probable I shall add more in the third branch to make it little less then infallible that man fell on the sixth day For the present I shall onely cast in one Argument against the supposed institution of the Sabbath in Paradise If the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise Argu. then Adam did observe and was bound to observe the first Sabbath in Paradise But neither of these can be proved from Scripture Therefore c. 1. That Adam did unquestionably observe the first Sabbath in Paradise cannot be demonstratively proved from Scripture This is undeniable that whenever or where-ever he kept his first Sabbath he did it in imitation of God's example Now how could he rest a whole day by God's example till God had fully completed the first seventh dayes rest for his example Eph. 5.1 Imitation of God being a subsequent not a concomitant act a following of him as dear children not a fellow-acting with him I can therefore see
28.4 Abraham the father of the faithful then to David and others in after-ages till at last it was fully accomplished by the most glorious resurrection of Christ from the dead whereby he trode on the Serpents head and all to-bruised it This consideration will out deep in the adversaries cause and to set the better edge upon it let it be further considered 7. And lastly the Holy Ghost has fully assured us that Christ in the promise was of the same antiquity with the confessed ground of the seventh dayes Sabbath c Heb. 3.3 4. The Apostle confesses that one ground or occasion of singling out that precise seventh day was Gods ending his work evidenced by his entring upon his rest And when this was done the same Apostle in the same place informs us the works sayes he were finished from the foundation of the world Now hear another Apostle guided by the same Spirit speaking of Christ in the same terms not differing in a tittle d Revel 13.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Observe the difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one signifies from the other before Joh. 17.24 Eph. 1.4 Thus he styles him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world he does not say the Lomb slain before the foundation of the world as if it intended Christ in the eternal purpose of God but from the foundation of the world which clearly speaks Christ in the promise of Godfrom the beginning Now by the foot-steps of these two Texts compared how visibly may we trace the Antiquity of Christ in the promise and find a Saviour promised before a Sabbath instituted The seventh day-Sabbath was instituted upon Gods finishing of his works now as the works were finished from the foundation of the world so Christ was slain from the foundation of the world slain I say in respect of his Fathers promise and his own personal beginning to undertake that work which he was to perform in a way of suffering and dying so that when the Father ended his work of Creation the Son entred upon his work of redemption and thereby added a further perfection to the first work Whereupon God rested the seventh day and blessed it That is appointed it for a day of spiritual blessings upon the account of Christ the promised and blessed seed All which particulars premised it will be a truth of unquestionable evidence that the institution of the old seventh day was founded and bottomed upon Christ in the promise And now a dim eye may easily discern mutability lying at the very foundation of the day and thus it may be demonstrated A day founded upon Christ in the promise must necessarily be changed when the promise shall be fully accomplished Argum. But the old seventh day was founded upon Christ in the promise as appears by the premises Therefore c. The proposition needs no confirmation or if it does take it thus If the greatest duty founded upon Christ in the promise was to vary and change with the promise how much more the day For instance the great duty of believing in the Lord Jesus It cannot be denyed but one and the same Christ was the object of saving faith in all ages before the law under the law and under the Gospel Heb. 13.8 Rev. 1.8 Christ Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever being he which was and which is and which is to come And so the faith of Gods elect which was and is and is to come looks to the same object But yet according to the different state of the object the eye of faith has had a different and various aspect Old Testament-believers who went before looked to him that should come after we that come after in the New Testament look to him that is gone before As long as Christ was in the promise they believed in the Messiah to come now the promise is fulfilled we believe and know that the Son of God is come And though still we look for his second coming to judge the world 1 Joh. 5.20 yet his first coming to save the world by his blessed Incarnation his bitter Passion and glorious resurrection we no longer expect as to come but look upon as already come and gone Well then you see how this great duty of believing circumstantially varies and changes with the promise and why because it was founded upon Christ in the promise And verily if the old Sabbath had the same foundation as we have proved then it must admit of the same variation As long as Christ continued in the promise the seventh day from the Creation was the Sabbath day but now the promise is accomplished the * Note that well day must be altered for the first foundation upon which it stood is removed And as we cannot now call that true faith which looks upon the Messiah as yet to come in the sense above mentioned so neither can we count that the true Sabbath which leans upon the promise of a Messiah to come Look to it if you keep the old seventh day you must keep Christ still in the old promise and together with the Jews Sabbath profess the Jews faith the twelfth Article of whose cursed Creed is this I believe with perfect faith that the Messiah is yet to come Buxtorf Synag c. 1. p. 4. And thus deluded creatures may see what they have gotten by siding with forlorn infidels against the principles and practises of the Christian world But I must here resolve a scruple or two and then I shall put a period to this first part You will say if the old seventh day were founded upon Christ in the promise Scrup. 1. then it must have been changed as soon as Christ was manifested in the flesh It followes not Resol 1. for the promise was not fully accomplished when Christ was manifested in the flesh but when he was justified in the spirit by his resurrection from the dead then indeed it was completely fulfilled as Paul and Barnabas do plainly testifie to the Jews at Antioch Act. 13.32 33. Acts 13. The promise which was made unto our fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adimpleoit Arius Mont. in that he hath raised up Jesus again So that the day of Christs resurrection was infallibly the day of the old Sabbaths expiration for then the promise upon which it was founded was fully accomplished of which more hereafter But will not this argument overthrow the duty as well as the day the Sabbath it self as the old seventh day Scrup. 2 Not in the least Resol for a Sabbath or day of rest in general is moral-natural and so perpetual but the fixing of it on that precise seventh day was meerly positive if not ceremonial Therefore the particular day may be and is cashiered and yet the duty Sabbath or holy rest still retained as the duty of solemn fasting is still
is not said it shall be a sign that in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth For there is a notable pause in the middle which divides the sentence and the sense also The seventeenth verse containes two distinct arguments or reasons why they should keep the Sabbath 1. Because it was a sign 2. Because it was set apart upon the occasion of Gods work and rest in the beginning 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 2.3 1 Joh. 3.18 There are indicating or evidencing signes such are the Characters of saving grace But neither can this be the sense of the word sign in this place It is a sign that I the Lord do sanctifie you What savingly why then all were Israel that were of Israel for the Sabbath was given to all neither was it so much their keeping the Sabbath as Gods giving them a Sabbath to keep which is here made a sign Witness Ezekiel Moses his interpretor I have given them my Sabbath for a sign Ezek. 20.13 to know that I the Lord do sanctifie them Therefore 3. There are distinguishing or differencing signs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as do visibly mark out a people for Gods peculiar select and sanctified ones above all other people of the earth And in this sense the Sabbath is here given the Jews as a sign a sign of his sanctifying them that is in one word as Calvin speaks a sign of his segregating and singling them out from the rest of the nations as his peculiar people Siquis un◠verbo reddere vellet sanctificare est segregare Cal. Praelec in Ezek. 20. Ita Simler in Exo Levit. 21.8 ch 2.32 So also Simlerus and to the same effect is that of Lavater aforementioned The Sabbath was a sign of Gods sanctifying them as the Sabbath it self was sanctified that is separated from other common dayes and set a part for holy ends and uses And so the Word sanctifie is usually if not only taken in Scripture when it is applyed to the whole bulk or body of a people as here it is Well the Sabbath was given to the people of Israel as a sign of Gods sanctifying them but how long throughout their generations That is during the Oeconomy of the Law as long as the people of Israel should be the only peculiar people of God Exod. 12.14 The very same Phrase is used concerning the Passeover ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance or ever which clearly speaks it a temporary ordinance But Secondly We must distinguish of Sabbaths as well as of signes very briefly the Word Sabbath signifies one of these three things either 1. The moral duty holy rest or 2. The penal rigour of that rest or 3. The precise day of rest Now 1. It cannot be meant of the moral duty simply considered since that extends beyond their generations for there remaineth a rest Heb. 4.9 10. or keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God still neither 2. Can itwell be understood of that penal rigour resting from all work upon pain of corporal death for this in all likelihood lasted not out half their generations being calculated chiefly for their wilderness estate as was saidbefore Therefore 3. It must be the precise day of rest the old seventh-day-Sabbath or nothing which is here set as a sign throughout their generations and this I take to be the true intent of the Holy-Ghost both here and Ezek. 20. The case seems clearly to me to be stated in this wise The old seventh day was at first given to Adam and his posterity as the only true Sabbath during the pre-eminency of the Creation and Christ in the promise and that it was conscientiously kept by the holy Patriarchs for some ages after I doubt not though some of the Ancients seem to deny it but to be sure in tract of time the sinful race of Adam forsaking the true God did also forget the true Sabbath Now when it pleased God out of that degenerate lump of mankind to form Israel or the seed of Abraham a peculiar people to himself he gave them his old Sabbath again in a new Edition That among other ends it might be a visible sign to distinguish them from the rest of the world Other nations no doubt had their Sabbaths as well as their gods but as Israel must serve the only true God so they must also observe the then only true Sabbath Ezod 31.13 So much is implyed in the text Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep saith the Lord. The Word my is Emphatical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it points at the precise day of Gods appointment the seventh and last day of the week therefore this and mainly this was made a sign of Gods sanctifying the Jews throughout their generations which being so how evidently doth it follow that the day was design'd for change and that now it is certainly changed by the will and appointment of God For if the Jews generation be extinct and they that were once the people of God have now a Lo-ammi written upon them Ho. 11.20 1 Thes 2.15 16. Ye are none of my people how shall that day any longer stand as a Sabbath wich was given them as a sign of their being the peculiar people of God and that for a season only till their generations were expired Maledic domine Nazarais Lord curse the Christians is one of their daily imprecations vid Trapp in Hosea Either let the adversay say the blaspheming Jews who powre out daily curses instead of prayers are still the Covenant-people of God in so much as still they retain that Saturday-Sabbath And then he shall speak like a true Jew indeed or let him confess their saturday-Sabbath which was once the crown of their glory is now no better then the badge of their blasphemy whereby they would make the world believe that they are still the sanctified people of God though they trample underfoot the blood of his Son whereby they should be sanctified I speak not this as insulting over the misery of the Jews but as lamenting the sin of apostate Christians who take up that day as a badge of their Saintship which the infidel Jews wear as a badge of their blasphemy and enmity against Christ and Christians Indeed it was once an illustrious sign of their sanctification but it was limited to their generations as the Passeover was and therefore if the one be expired so is the other upon the same account And in this respect I dare boldly affirm and I doubt not to maintain it that it is every whit as lawful for a Christian to celebrate that old Sacrament the Passeover as to observe the old Sabbath For the one was as well a sign as the other and the one was ordained for a season as well as the other There are a few feeble objections to face this argument but the bare repetion with the premises will be
sufficient refutation of them 1. The seventh day being a sign makes it not a ceremony T.T. Obj. 1. p. 18. for Christ was a sign Isai 7.14 Luk. 2.34 the Saints are set for signs Isai 8.18 So is the holy Spirit 1 Joh. 4.13 yea for the same sign as the Sabbath is c. He might have added that circumcision Answ Exod. 13.9 Rom. 4.11 and the Passe over also were signs but then he had spoiled his argument for it is certain that both these were ceremonial yet doubtlesss it had been more proper and pertinent to have compared the old Sabbath with other old Ordinances then to have thus equalized it with Christ and his blessed spirit But to answer his instances Christ was propounded as a sign of Confirmation Isai 7. as a sign of Contradiction or a sign to be spoken against Luke 2. The Saints were set for signs of Wonder Isai 8. The holy spirit for a Witness and not properly a sign now what cognation and alliance is there betwixt these and the old Sabbath which as to the day was a distinguishing sign and that for a season only therefore temporary I will not say ceremonial The Sabbath is set for a sign of things past as the worlds Creation not of good things to come Obj. 2 as the ceremonial Sabbaths So also are the annual Sabbaths Answ Deut. 16.1 c. Passeover and Pentecost ordained in memorial of things past as their deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai yet both are abolished although I grant the Sabbath was never abolished or abrogated as to the substance of it only altered in respect of the circumstance If the morality of the Sabbath cease by being a sign Obj. 3 upon the same account must the whole law cease to be moral since Gods spirit hath set it also for such a sign Deut. 8.6 Thou shalt bind it as a sign upon thine hand But This is frivolous for every child can distinguish between the book and the binding of it Answ Numb 15.38 39 40. The law it self was not a sign but the binding it on their hands and that for a remembrancing sign only the proper use of their fringes and Phylacteries By the way if I mistake not here is a plain contradiction for a little before he had argued that the Sabbath was such a sign as the holy spirit is and now he makes it such a sign as the wearing of the law upon their hands was If one of these be true the other must needs be false for the one is internal the other was external and visible only And this is the Goliahs sward he talks of wherewith He fights with his own fancy Answ 2 for who of sound judgment ever affirmed that the morality of the Sabbath must cease as a sign still he runs upon his ol mistake that the old seventh day was the morality of the Sabbath which we have constantly denyed and disproved The term seventh day is not set for a sign but the term Obj. 4 p. 19. Sabbath The Word Sabbath is very often Answ Levit. 19.3 Isai 1.13 Lam. 1.7 Mat. 12.5.11 Mark 1.21 Luk. 4.31 Acts 13.14 Chap. 17.2 though not alwayes put for the old seventh day especially when it is used in the plural number as here it is Therefore I conclude as before that the day and not the duty is hee set for a temporary sign the duty no otherwise then as it is peculiarly related to the day T is not a Sabbath in general much less the Commandment concerning a weekly Sabbath but the old Sabbath then in use which was given the Jews as a sign and so designed for change for change I mean in respect of the time not of the thing according to that of Augustine who writing against Faustus the Manichee who sought to overthrow the faith of Christians by maintaining that Moses and Christ were opposite in their Doctrines alledging among other things that there was one tradition of Moses another of Christ concerning the Sabbath answers him thus Their doctrine was not divers Non diversa doctrina sed diversum tempus August contra Faust Man lib. 16. cap. 28. only the time or day was different intimating that Moses and Christ were both for a weekly Sabbath but Moses for the last Christ for the first day of the week And thus we have made good the second Position That the old Sabbath being made alterable in the first Institution was further manifested to be alterable in the second Edition of the Sabbath A few words shall suffice for the third POSITION III. That the Old Sabbath was yet further evidenced to be alterable and changeable in the after Observation of it FOr proof whereof I shall only cite the practise of our blessed Saviour in which the Adversary glories most as if it made only for him T is his ground argument for the perpetuity of the old seventh day that Christ did most of his cures and famous miracles on that day Now learned Chemnitius takes the same argument and turns the edge of it against him thus De abrogatione Sabbathi Mosaici dictis docuit Christus libertatem factis sapiuo testatam fecit cum Sabbathis sanaret c. Chemn Examen Concil Trident. cap. de Festis ubiplura The Lord Jesus both by word and deed hath taught us that the Mosaical Sabbath was to be abrogated not only in that he proclaimed himself Lord of the Sabbath but in that he often witnessed his liberty and power over it by sundry of his cures performed on that day Some instance in the cure of the man born blind John 9.6 7 14. Others in the miraculous cure of that cripple or impotent man John 5 whereas Dr. Lightfoot learnedly observes there was the most apparent sign towards the shaking and alteration of the Sabbath as to the day that we meet withall in the New Testament till the alteration it self came To this purpose let the context be duly considered and we shall find two things observable in it 1. What our Saviour did on the Sabbath day he healed a long languishing malady a disease of 38. years standing 2 What he sayed upon this occasion and that 1. To the man his patient 2. To the Jewes his persecutors who call him in question about it To the man he said Take up thy bed and walk Now the question is why our Lord should enjoyn this man to carry his bed on the Sabbath day the expresse letter of the law prohibiting the bearing of any burthens on that day T. T. Supposes that it was either for the confirmation of the miracle to shew the perfectness of the cure Jerem. 17.21 p. 21. or for the publication of Gods glory but it is answerd that both these might have been done as well by his walking upon his feet and leaping as in the like case wee read elsewhere or at least by bearing his bed the next day
of this new creation As to persons it is plain for how is any man a new creature but by being in Christ And how are we in Christ but by h Gal. 2.20 faith And what is the object of this faith Let the same Apostle resolve us l Rom. 10.9 ch 4 24. See DeTwiss p. 97. S. 5. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Josus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead And so the Argument will hold good back again from persons to things still the resurrection of Christ carries the maine stroke in the work of the new creation which inevitably antiquates the old and introduces a new Sabbath Against this t is faintly objected T. T. Obj. p. 134. True all old sins are passed away and all old Ordinances curses and Covenants but the old Sabbath still remains He has fairely granted what he would have denyed Answ and wounded his cause in seeking to heal it For if all old ordinances be done away as he yeelds from 2 Cor. 5.17 let him shew where the old Sabbath is exempted that being also an old ordinance by his own confession For a conclusion of this argument I shall refer the learned Reader to that little but pithy Tractate of Athanasius concerning the Sabbath and circumcision where he may find the same thing argued in the same form as here for alledging the Scriptures speaking of a double world or a twofold Creation the first ending at our Saviours passion when the Sun without any eclipse went out of it self the second beginning with his resurrection he reasons thus about it As the old Sabbath was appointed to be kept in memory of the first Creation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do we celebrate the Lords day as a monument of the second reparation b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning which Paul speaks If any man be in Christ he is a new Creation indeed cas long as the first Creation was in force sayes he the Sabbath was observed c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a new generation succeeding according to that of the psalmist this shall be written for the generation to come it was now no longer necessary that this new people should observe the end of the first Creation but rather the beginning of the second he means the Lords day and what opinion he had of the Divine Authority of this day appears by that which followes d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause Christ having repaired the Creation made in six dayes instituted or set apart that day to this reparation that is to the memory and solemnity of it concerning which the Holy-Ghost forespake in the Psalm This is the day which the Lord hath made Thus good old Athanasius whose word I suppose will be of some weight with such as have but read his Creed And thus the first Argument concludes having both the seal of Scripture-Authority and the stamp of venerable antiquity upon it to warrant it for sound and good We proceed now to a second From the new Covenant it may be formed thus Argum 2 The old Covenant in the special at least in all the symbolical and shadowy branches of it was changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited But the old Sabbath in respect of the day was a special yea a symbolical and shadowy branch of the old Covenant Therefore it was unquestionably altered and changed by Christ when the new Covenant was fully exhibited viz. at his resurrection from the dead This Argument how new soever it may seem at first upon trial will be found true I doubt not in every material term and tittle of it for that our blessed Lord Jesus has changed the old Covenant I mean the Covenant of grace as to the a Rom. 7.6 ◠Cor. 3.6 oldness of the letter and manner of dispensing it and that by erecting and exhibiting a new and a better Covenant is plainly avouched in the New Testament b Hebr. 8.13 in that he saith a new Covenant he hath antiquated or made the first old c. And that the old Sabbath was a special branch or ordinance appertaining to that antiquated Covenant may be clearly gathered from the old Testament not only as it grew at first out of the root of that old promise Gen. 3.15 but in that afterwards it symbolized with that old Covenant by the accession of a c Deut. 5.15 type and so visibly participated of the nature of it that it had the very d Exod. 31.16 name Covenant imparted to it and that in a e Gen. 17.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So in both places like notion with circumcision For thus sayes the Lord the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath for a perpetual Covenant throughout their generations perpetual as circumcision was throughout their generations only in respect of the particular sign and season throughout all generations in respect of the general substance and thing to wit Sabbath and Sacrament for so still we have the Sacrament of circumcision in Baptisme and the Sabbath of the old seventh day in the Lords day But that which I chiefly take hold of in Exod. 31. the term Covenant here the old Sabbath is called by the name of the old Covenant therefore sure it was neer akin to it a special branch yea a shadowy branch of it as we shall shortly see and being so how naturally will it follow that the Covenant being changed in respect of the form there must also of necessity be a change of the Sabbath in respect of the time or day and that by the same Authority that as the old Covenant had the old seventh day and old Sacrament-seals annexed to it See Widley's Treatise of the Sabb. p. 34. so the new Covenant might have new seals and a new day even as in contracts and Covenants renewed betwixt man and man 't is required that as they be new drawn so also new dated and new sealed To prevent mistakes by the way let this be hinted that I do not here intend any change of the Covenant in respect of the essence and substance of it for I grant that when the Holy-Ghost speaks of the new Covenant as distinct from the old it is not to be understood in respect of the matter and substance but circumstance and manner of expressure as the same Commandment is said to be both e 1 John 2.7 8. old and new and the same way to heaven both f Hebr. 10.20 new and g Hebr. 13.8 Rev. 13.8 old or as the same moon for substance is said to be new or old in respect of accidental changes only this must be added that the new Covenant h 2 Cor. 3.10 excels and out-shines the old in glory as far as the Sun at midday out-shines the moon at midnight and consequently it darkens all the ordinances of the old Covenant yea necessitates a change in them
cannot with any colour of reason be denyed surely when he entred into his Kingdome he entred into his glory but by his resurrection from the dead he entred into his Kingdome being solemnly invested with Kingly power and soveraignty c Math. 28.18 Having all power in Heaven and earth put into his hands and f Rev. 3.7 the keys of David the Government of the Kingdom laid upon his shoulders to dispense lawes pronounce pardons pass sentence of life and death g John 20.23 to bind and loose at his princely pleasure In a word it was by his glorious resurrection from the dead that God h Psalm 2.6 7. set him as King upon his holy hill of Sion saying thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Christs resurrection-day was in a special manner his Coronation-day and as earthly Princes are wont on their Coronation-dayes to shew themselves to their subjects in all their royalty casting about their silver and gold so the Lord Jesus delights on this day to manifest himself to the souls of his people scattering his precious gifts and graces in the assemblies of his Saints for as this is the day which the Lord hath made so t is the day in which he himself was made i Rom. 14.9 Lord of the living and the dead k Acts 2.36 ch 3. 15. ch 5. 30 31. Lord and Christ Prince of life King of Heaven and earth a King indeed he was in the l Math. 2.2 cradle a King on the m ch 27. 37. Cross but never so much or so manifestly a King upon earth as when he conquered that King of terrours and carried away n 1 Tim. 6.16 that incomparable Title the blessed and only potentate the King eternal and immortal o Rom. 6.9 who dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him He that shall deny Christs entring into glory by his resurrection will rob him of much of his glory t is true he entred not into the place of glory in his whole person till his ascention but into the state of glory he entred by his resurrection if the bodies of the Saints shall be raised in p 1 Cor. 15.43 glory how much more was the blessed body of Jesus Christ If the glory of the stars be such what is the glory of the rising Sun But I must not expatiate here a word more and I have done He that hath entred into his rest hath ceased from his works as God did from his whence I gather that it is not only Christs rest but the reason of that rest the consummation of the work of redemption which occasions our Sabbath as Gods finishing the work of Creation did the old Sabbath Hebr. 4.3 4. And this the word Rest implies being a demonstrative proof of the accomplishment of the work for even a wise man if he undertake a work will not rest till it be finished or if he do he is p Luke 14.29.30 laugh'd at for his lost labour and therefore much more when the all-wise God is said to rest may we conclude his work is perfected To speak properly if rest imply only a cessation from work we cannot say that God rested from his work of Creation on the seventh day more then he has done ever since or Christ from his work of redemption therefore we must take in the consummation of each work as the ground of each rest otherwise all the time after should be of equal account with the last day in respect of Creation and with the first day in respect of Redemption Now the question will be when the work of Redemption was consummate and complete Doubtless not till the top-stone was laid till Christ was made the head of the corner which the q Act. 4.10 11. Apostle assures us was by his resurrection from the dead for if this had not been done the work had been all to do again If Christ had suffered dyed and been swallowed up of death and corruption in the grave and never risen again then had we remained still in our sins and all our preaching of Christ and faith in Christ had been vain 1 Cor. 15.17 It was by our Saviours joyful resurrection therefore that the work of our Redemption was manifestly accomplished and hereupon Christ rested from his work as God did from his and as when God rested from the work of Creation he appointed a Sabbath although he did not rest from works of Providence in like manner Christ hath appointted a Sabbath upon his resting from the work of Redemption by price although he doth not rest from the work of Redemption by power till all his enemies by vanquished and all his elect saved as a * Dr. Cheynels Treatise of the blessed Trinity pag. 403. learned Author speaks And so much for this Argument on Hebr. 4. only some objections Treatise of the must be removed for T.T. takes this Text of Scripture and wofully wrests it to his own and others misguidance in countenance of the Saturday-Sabbath I shall briefly answer his several Arguments as objections against what has been spoken The polluting of Gods seventh-day-Sabbath was wofully Israels sin Obj. 1 T.T. p. 141. for which the Lord destroyed them in the wilderness as 't is plain Ezek. 20.13 And this being compared with the Apostles admonition to these Christians plainly points out the Sabbath which remains to the people of God he sets forth Israels sin and sorrow on this wise although God finished his work from the foundation of the world and thereupon speaks Gen. 2. Yet neither the glory of his wonderful Creation or authority of his institution could engage them to follow his Example but so highly did they provoke him especially in polluting his Sabbaths that he sware in is wrath they should not enter into his rest c. Wherefore the Apostle concludes in applying all to believers exhorting them in the use of that means which Israel neglected to enter into the eternal rest lest any should fall after the example of Israels unbelief or disobedience as the Greek signifies and then he concludes Magisterially Christians believe it this is the summe of the Apostles admonition But I must tell him they had need of a very strong faith that can believe such incongruous stuffe as this is For Although it be granted that Sabbath-breaking were one of I sraels sins in the wilderness Answ 1 yet it will not follow that this sin is here intimated by the Apostle as the cause of their ruine but rather the sin of unbelief For so 't is expresly affirmed ch 3. v. 18.19 To whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest but to them that believed not So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief So ch 4. v. 2. v. 6. v. 11. And whereas T.T. tells his Reader that the word signifies disobedience I must tell him it is his mistake to render it so in this place for
wants and if we have hearts to weep over our week day sins and stir up our selves to take hold of Christ that we may make peace with God they that have any acquaintance with heart-work find it hard to have to do with a dusty world full of sins and snares and not be defiled or intangled with it earthly things are apt to leave a tincture upon the most holy and heavenly hearts There must therefore be a rubbing off this rust of the world a washing these dirty hearts and hands before we are fit to draw nigh to God in solemn Worship Exod. 19.14 What were those Ceremonial washings of old but emblematical predictions and documents of preparation to Gospel-worship and if I mistake not something to this purpose is prophesied concerning the purest times and Churches in these later days Rev. 15.2 3. Revel 15. We read of those that had gotten the victory over the Beast and his Image i. e. those that had shaken off the yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny and Superstition standing upon a sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands those harps in their hands speak them in a posture of publike worship But what means their standing upon a sea of glass Why among other things I conceive it alludes to that Laver or * 1 Kings 7.23 sea in Solomons Temple in which the the Priests were wont to * 2 Chron. 4.6 wash when they went to worship and it may teach us thus much that the people of God under the Gospel as well as they under the Law must wash before they worship there must be some preparation Secondly the sanctification of the Sabbath follows and this also consists in two things Holy rest and holy work First we must keep it as a day of holy rest to the Lord resting from our own works our own words and our own thoughts 1. We are bound upon the Lords day to rest and cease from our own works whether works of labour or works of pleasure if I may so distinguish The Lords day must neither be our working-day nor our play-day both these are prohibited by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the analogy of that Text which seems to be written as a Commentary upon the Commandment Isai 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thy own words c. In which words we have the lively Picture and Pourtraiture of a true Sabbath in both parts of it it must be celebrated with rest from our own ways works words pleasures and this rest must be accompanied with a spiritual rejoycing in God and delight in his Sabbath arising from an honourable esteem of the day considering whose day it is namely the Lords Now the scope of this Text is as applicable to our Christian Sabbath as ever it was to the Jews Sabbath ours being first a day of holy rejoycing in the Lord as well as theirs Psal 118.24 Secondly a day which hath the Lord for its author as well as theirs Thirdly a day every whit as honourable as theirs yea a degree above it being instituted upon a more noble account Viz. The most gracious and glorious work of Redemption Fourthly a day in all respects as holy as theirs holy I mean in respect of separation and dedication to holy duties as prayer preaching breaking of bread praise and thanksgiving Acts 2.1 and 20.7 Psal 118.27 28. Therefore it must be kept with rest from accustomed labour and pleasure as well as theirs and that by vertue of the fourth Commandment which requires the sanctifying of one day in seven of divine appointment as a Sabbath with rest from servile works and secular imployments And let it be further considered both the fourth Commandement and the Prophet Isaiah in commenting upon it do first and chiefly call for sanctity Secondarily for rest First Remember the Sabbath to sanctifie it then Thou shalt do no work Sanctification is required as the end cessation from labour as the means the one as principal the other as accessary Now both Prophets and Apostles have markt out the Lords day as a holy day to be spent in holy duties of solemn worship and that weekly therefore by the Law of God and nature we are bound to keep it as a day of weekly rest otherwise we separate the end from the means which cannot be rest from servile work being an inseparable adjunct to a day of solemn worship What then shall we say to those that afterwarning make the Lords day either a common working-day or a sporting day the former I may fitly call the Devils workmen who will one day pay them their wages the other the flesh's Bondmen whose pleasure in the end will prove torment without end The Lord awaken both to repentance better then that of Esau whose sin of the two is greater then his * Hebr. 12.16 there are prophane Esau's under the Gospel and they are the worst of Esau's there is also a sin called * Rom. 2.22 Sacrilege condemned in the Gospel and Sabbath-breaking is very like it when sinners lay sacrilegious hands upon that which is consecrated to the Lord for a sin much like to which Ananias and his wife were once stricken with sudden death and how many such dreadful strokes have been felt and heard in these later days I shall not repeat what has been already committed to record by others Mr. Bernard Mr. Byfield and sundry others have been serious observers of Gods heavy hand in this kind I could say something of what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears But I shall forbear Numb 10.1 2. when men are struck dead in the very act of their sin as Vzzah in touching the Ark Nadab and Abihu in offering strange fire when the sin and the judgement meet together and do one point at the other surely Gods hand is not to be slighted Mr. Byfield has related many such tremendous strokes upon those that have presumed to work on the Lords day and ended their lives and their work together having no more respit between their sin and their execution or expiration then with trembling lips to tell others the secret reflections of their own guilty Consciences and how many Malefactors have we heard at their execution bewailing their profanation of the Lords day as the leading-cause of all their mischiefs and miseries Now the Conscience of the sinner smarting under Gods revengeful rod is many times like a finger to point out the sin for which God smites as we see in the case of a Judges 1.7 8. Adonibezek To be short the exemplary judgments of God against this sin of Sabbath-breaking falling in so great variety and happening so thick together in many places do call aloud to the
so the second third fourth c. This is a meer mistake Answ For we deny that the first darkness Gen. 1. was the evening or night of the first day that darkness upon the face of the deep for ought appears to the contrary lasted not longer than a moment the night of the first day was that which followed the light after God had separated the light which he called day from the darkness which he called night to object the order of the words is vain Moses himself takes off that Objection by inverting that order in the following words for v. 4. he puts light before darkness and day before night The Ceremonial Sabbaths because honoured as Sabbaths were to begin at even as 't is said Obj. 2 Levit. 23.32 From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath This law concerned only the day of atonement Answ which was an extraordinary Sabbath for rest and strictness being their yearly Fast wherein they were to afflict themselves by abstinence from i Joel 1.13 and 2.16 sleep as well as food and this is so far from proving that their weekly Sabbath began at even that to me it is a good Argument to prove the contrary for it looks like a particular exception from a general rule and to specifie the beginning of this extraordinary Sabbath at Even had been needless if their ordinary Sabbaths had begun at the same time Nehemiah caused Jerusalems gates to be shut before the Sabbath even while the declining Sun cast some obscurity on the city gates Obj. 3 Neh. 13. â—9 This was to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath the next day Answ and it were to be wished all Christian Magistrates would have the like care of the Lords day Besides 't is said he caused the gates to be shut when they began to be dark and yet saies the Text this was before the Sabbath which seems rather to intimate that in Nebemiahs time the Sabbath did not begin in the evening otherwise as Mr. C. notes he had done it not before but in the Sabbath The precious women having attended our Saviour to his Sepulchre returned and prepared spices and ointments Obj. 4 and rested the Sabbath according to the Commandment This as we said before was after the sun-set evening besides the holy Women did not forbear to anoint the body of Christ that evening because of the weekly Sabbath Answ but possibly because of the Jews Passeover-Sabbath John 19.31 or rather the Jews preparation to it of which we read John 19.42 We are sure Mark 16.2 they came not to anoint him till the morning of the Resurrection-day and it may be they stayed so long in conscience of the Sabbath which was not ended till the morning after mid-night therefore 't is most likely our Lord had taught them that the Sabbath begins and ends in the morning if it had ended at Sun-set we may rationally think they had visited the Sepulchre before they slept that night and not have put it off till the next morning As for those multiplied Scriptures that call for evening-sacrifices Psal 92 1. Isai 30.29 they make as much for us as for him if not more Since as we count the after-evening from sun-set till mid-night a part of the Sabbath and spend it our waking houres at least in Sabbath-duties repetition meditation prayer and praise so we hold a preparation necessary the evening before Of which in the next Position POSITION VII The Lords Day must be kept holy to the Lord. THe very appellation of it together with the Observation of the Apostles and Primitive Christians is sufficient proof of this 'T is a pious and ponderous speech of a late worthy Writer Dr. Cheynels Treatise of the Blessed Trinity p. 402. The approved practise of the primitive Christians declares the doctrine of the Apostles and the doctrine of the Apostles shews what was the command of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath concerning the sanctification of the first day of the week which is therefore called the Lords day and the Christian Sabbath If it be the Lords day as we have proved then let it be consecrated to the Lord as holy and honourable Isai 58.13 even to that Lord whose name it bears to him I say who hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written Rev. 19.16 King of kings and Lord of Lords even the Lord of glory a Lord as far above the greatest lords on earth as they are above their meanest Subjects 'T is the Lords day and therefore the Lords due let us render to Christ the things that are Christs Why did the Lord make this day but that all his faithful subjects and servants should keep it and keep it holy to him that made it O let the law of the living God over-awe our Consciences which is still in force for a day of weekly worship at his appointment and such we have proved the Lords day to be More Arguments might be produced But those already urged are sufficient to secure this truth from the dread of that downfall threatned by the Adversary The Devil and his agents may puff at the Christian Sabbath but confident I am they shall as soon blow out the Sun with a pair of bellows as totally extinguish this Ordinance of Christ the chief ground of my confidence is the Word of God upon which it is founded and next to that the writings of the antients so many in several Countries and several ages bearing witness as one man to this Christian cause with whom although I would be loth to err in any thing yet do I the less mistrust my self to err while I keep them company and do with more confidence look an adversary in the face when my quiver is full of their Testimonies as a late Author speaks on another occasion To draw to a Conclusion from Doctrinal Positions about the Christian Sabbath we shall descend to some practical Directions I cannot stand to speak fully and largely to the duties of the day neither need I other Treatises have done it already as Mr. Sprints Mr. Shepheards Dr. Gouges but especially Mr. Philip Goodwins only for the help of those that want those excellent helps I shall hint a few things and commit all to the blessing of him whose day and honour I have argued and contended for Briefly the practice of the Christian-Sabbath stands chiefly in two things viz. In preparation to it and sanctification of it 1. There must be solemn and serious preparation the evening before to get our hearts into a Sabbath frame this the Lord calls for in the very front of the Commandement Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy remember it before it comes that you may keep it holy when it comes this word Remember should be as a bell to toll us in from our Shops and Farms to our Chambers and Closets there to commune with our own hearts to cast up our spiritual accounts to call over our
to make Conscience of namely the spiritual duty of meditation and the celestial duty of praise First how seasonable it is on the Sabbath to meditate not only on the Word but the Works of God appears from Psal 92. which is a Psalm for the Sabbath-day How does the Psalmist there search and dive into the wonderful works of God Vers 5. How great are thy works O Lord and thy thoughts are very deep Here we have a large field works of Creation and works of Providence here our souls may wander from sea to land See Mr. Baxter Saints ever-lasting Rest from earth to Heaven from time to eternity yea walk upon the Sun Moon and Stars and enter into Heaven it self the Paradise of God How manifold are thy works O Lord in wisdome hast thou made them all Every creature of God that we cast our eyes upon this day should be as a flower to feed our Meditations I speak of cursory Meditation or that which is occasional one special use whereof is to feed our graces by our senses and as we are Christians to conduct us to Christ by the view of all creatures and actions when we look upon the Sun it bids us look up to Christ the Sun of righteousness every star may mind us of that star of Jacob that bright and morning star if we look upon our houses Christ is the door if upon our bodies he is the head if upon our clothes he is the garment of salvation if upon our friends and relations he is our husband our friend our Lord our Law-giver our King if we walk he is the way if we read he is the word if we eat and drink he is our food if we live Christ is our life that is a holy heart may make this spiritual use of all earthly objects and occasions to contemplate Christ in them and if we improve not our senses this way 't is all one as if we were blind or brutish But besides this there is a more distinct deliberate solemn and set meditation required on the Lords day and the work of Redemption being the occasion of the day how should our hearts work upon this blessed subject Come Christian call in thy thoughts from all worldly concernments and contemplate this rare contrivance of thy Redemption by Jesus Christ ponder it deeply get lively and strong apprehensions of it that it may leave deep and lasting impressions upon thy soul view over the several passages and transactions in this Master-piece of all Gods works view it first in the platform how gloriously was this laid in the eternal projects and a Ephes 1.4 purposes of Gods love yea in that eternal promise past between the Father and the Son b Titus 1.2 In hopes of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began Mark it here was a promise a promise of eternal life made by God by God that cannot lie and that before there was a world or man in the world Oh the everlastingness infiniteness unsearchableness of this love of God! that the everlasting God the Majesty of heaven and earth should take care of me before the world was that he should busie himself and his Son about a worthless wretched worm born out of due time the least of Saints the greatest of sinners O my soul admire adore this first love this free love of God and Christ Next see the early discovery and shining forth of this mystery in the very morning of the world no sooner is man fallen but God reaches out a c Gen. 3.15 promise to him and after many ages sends his blessed Son out of his bosome to fulfil it in the d Gal. 4.4 fulness of time Christ comes we could not come up to him lo he comes down to us O see the King of glory stooping bowing the Heavens to come down and dwell in a dungeon to lodge amongst prisoners and pitch his tent in the rebels camp Think O my soul how did the holy Angels wonder to see the King of Heaven stepping down from his throne to sit on his footstool yea putting off to the view the robes of a prince to put on the livery of a e Phil. 2.7 8. servant and that after treason had been stampt upon it taking our nature I mean after it had been up in arms against God not that he took the sin of our nature he that could make our nature without sin could also and did take it without sin but the shame of it he took in that he took it when it was under a cloud under a blot before God and Angels How does this express the love of Christ a heart full of love to lost sinners q. d. poor soult I cannot keep from you I love your very nature and will joyn it to my self and so I may save you from sin and wrath I care not if I become one with you and dwell in your very flesh My glory shall not hinder I will rather veil it for a while and take the form of a servant and become of no reputation than you shall perish for ever Again how does this speak the unspeakable love of God See Mr. Ambrose looking to Jesus p. 342. as one sweetly observes God did so love the very nature of his elect that though for the present he had them not all with him in heaven yet he must have their picture in his Son to see them in and love them in O meditate much on this admirable strein of love till it melt thy heart and make it burn within thee From the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour we may trace him through the several passages of his life to his death and passion and here with an eye of faith look upon him whom thou hast pierced behold the man as he said even that man of sorrows suffering bleeding dying on that tree of shame and ignominy dwell upon the death of Christ till it put life into thy dead heart then follow thy crucified Lord from the cross to the Sepulchre and by the way ponder deeply the severity of Gods justice the sinfulness of sin the love of Christ and the worth of souls which are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. as a lamb without blemish and without spot Why did the Primitive Saints sacramentally shew forth the Lords death on the Lords day Acts 20.7 but to signifie to us that to contemplate and commemorate the death of Christ is a special duty of the day So also his Resurrection which was the great transaction of the day therefore a proper subject for serious meditation It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and become the first-fruits of them that slept Consider O my souls the holy triumph of thy Redeemer this day when he trod on the serpents head took from death its sting from hell its standard Suppose thou hadst