brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage wherevpon followes Thou shalt haue none other Gods before me Thou shalt not make c. For these words I am the Lord thy God whicb brought thee out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage are a preface to the whole Decalogue or ten Commandements setting forth the Author of them vnto us not onely by his name Iehouah but by that neere relation of Confederacy or Couenant of grace made to vs in Christ saying Thy God And that this is the very Couenant of grace made to vs in Christ vnder which the Law is giuen appeareth by this that the words of the Preface containe not onely a history of that peoples temporall deliuerance from the Egyptian bondage but also and especialy the mystery of the Redemption of all the true Israel of God by Christ or their spirituall deliuerance from the bondage of sin and Satan This is a thing most cleare though few obserue it For was not the Paschall Lambe slaine and the blood sprinckled vpon all Israels doore posts and the Angell passed ouer them and Egypts first-borne were slaine and Gods first-borne deliuered And was not Christ prefigured thereby as the Lambe slaine from before the foundation of the world Yea all those passages of Gods people from Egypt to Canaan came to them in Types as the Apostle sayth 1. Cor. 10 Besides other types obserue here two notable ones which ioyntly are pregnant to our purpose first of Christs ascension secondly of sending the Holy Ghost 1. the history in Exodus well obserued makes it plaine that vpon the 40th day after their comming out of Egypt Moses Aron and Hur went vp into the Mount where Moses hands are by Aron and Hur supported while Ioshuah with Gods people fight against Amaleck Now Moses the Prophet Aron the Priest and * Hur signifieth a Prince and he was of the family and tribe of Iuda Hur the Prince for so was his name by interpretation all put together were a type of Christ who on the fortith day after his resurrection ascended into the Mount of Heauen where as our Prophet Priest and Prince hee holds vp the hands of his intercession for his Church militant while she fights with spirituall Amaleck Sin Sathan Antichrist the World the Flesh c. The other Type I note was iust 10. dayes after which from Egypt makes 50. dayes and that was the giuing of the Law in Mount Sina Acts. 2 and therefore called the Iewes Pentecost and we know that on the day of Pentecost iust 50 daies after Christs Resurrection and 10 daies after his Ascention did the Father and Christ send downe the Holy Ghost in his manifold gifts and graces to lead his people into all truth and to reueale fully the Law of Christ vnto them Now therefore the as the type thing typed are for their vse to the faythfull people of God one and the same thing So as the ancient Isralites did all eate the same spirituall meate and did all drinke the same spirituall drinke 1. Cor. 10.3.4 for they drank of that spirituall rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ So that giuing of the Law in Mount Sina being a type of the comming down of the holy Ghost bringing reuealing the Law of Christ to his Church both of them in summe and vse are to the faithfull one and the same law for though they differ in the manner of administration and in the measure of manifestation yet not in the matter it selfe Christ being the summe and matter of both And thus we clearely see that the Morall Law giuen in Mount Sina being giuen by Iehouah our God in Christ the Redeemer and that vnder the couenant of grace being giuen to the Israel of God in the old Testament to which the comming downe of the Holy Ghost in the new Testament fully answereth that it remaines as a perpetuall rule of a holy life to all Gods people to the end of the world So that here by the way an inuincible argument is hence drawne to proue the perpetuall morality of the sabbath to the end of the world against all Antisabbatarians because it was giuen vnder the couenant of grace to be kept But wee will reserue the further discussing of this poynt to the choise of all least the intermingling of it here should interrupt the maine matters in hand Obiection But the Apostle sayth The law is not of fayth How then comes the Law to bee giuen vnder fayth Answere The Law in that place is to bee taken for the first Couenant to wit of workes giuen to Adam in Paradise in the state of innocency which hath no communion with fayth belonging to the second couenant namely of grace But the Law as it was giuen in Mount Sina the literall veile being remooued was not deliuered as the first Couenant but as a rule of conuersation to the faythfull vnder the second Couenant Obiection But the Apostle calls the giuing of the Law in Mount Sina the first Couenant in opposition to the second as Agar to Sara the bond-woman to the free Sina to Sion and Hierusalem Answere The Apostle compares it so onely in regard of the literall killing sense to which the Carnall Iew was captiuated and thereby slaine while not looking vnto Christ the Redeemer that brought his people out of the spirituall Egypt and bondage they sought to bee iustified by the workes of the Law which Saint Paul beats downe the to ground in that Epistle to the Galatians But to the belieuing Iewes the Morall Law was none other but the sweete yoake and light burthen of Christ while they behold him as it were on the top of Iacobs ladder a Redeemer of his people by his owne innocent blood whereby hee expiated all their breaches of the Law fulfilling the Law for them And in no other regard doth the Law in Mount Sina and that in Mount Sion stand opposite but as the letter to the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 while the carnall Iewes could not diserne the pith of the spirit vnder the barke of the letter or by way of comparison the one excelling the other in the manner and measure of mynifestation as 2 Cor. 3.10 Wherevpon the learned and iudicious Caluin vpon those words Gal. 4.24 fayth that the Iewes liberty was hidden vnder the vaile of ceremonies and of the whole economy or dispensation of the Law by which they were then gouerned So that in externall shew nothing but seruitude appeared Yet the seruile generation of the Law hindred not but that the godly fathers who liued vnder the old Testament had for their mother the spirituall Ierusalem which is free â—o that it was partly the Iewes blindnesse and partly the veile couering those Mosaicall mysteries which made that Law in Sina seeme to bee no other but the Couenant of workes made with Adam in his Innocency Question But here by the way it may bee
seauen was meerely Ceremoniall I would aske them how the memoriall of the Commandement could bee kept without a speciall time or day vnlesse they will say that the morality being perpetuall is not tyed to any one day But seeing the Morall Law cannot be kept by the Church in this world without time for as the Preacher saith Eccle 3.1 There is a time for euery purpose vnder the Sunne and this time of keeping the fourth Commandement is limited by God to the 7th day how can this day be separated from the Sabbath as being an inseparable circumstance of the substance of that Commandement Yea so inseparable by diuine appoyntment as Gods wisedome did best know the Sabbath cannot be solemnely kept vnlesse it be one of the seauen I say not one fixed day of seauen to last for euer from the Creation to the end of the world without alteration for so it was ceremoniall in the old Testament but the proportion of a seauenth part of our time decreed by Gods owne institution and perpetually annexed to the morality And the Lord who limited a seauenth day for rest and to bee kept holy hath noe where left it arbitrary to man to allow what day or proportion of time liketh him for that purpose beyond the number of seauen For as God hath reserued a tenth of our goods though we owe him all that we haue as sacred to himselfe and by meanes whereof hee sanctifies all the 9 parts to our vse so also a seauenth of our time though the whole time of our life is to be spent to his honour for the sanctification of our whole life And both these serue ioyntly for the more commodious compleate and solemne administration of his worship and seruice which also redounledeth not onely to our temporall but spirituall and eternall good Nor is it now in mans power to alter the Lords day into any other seauenth day of the weeke sith it is Christs owne Ordinance and therefore vndispensable Inuij Praelect in Gene 2.2 The learned Iunius on Gen. 2.2 concerning the Sabbath thus speaketh Haec lex c. This Law of the Sabbath is naturall hauing a ceremoniall designation of one day affixed vnto it This seauenth day added of God is not naturall but positiue A seauenth day is naturall and remaineth but the seauenth from the creation appoynted of God is positiue instead whereof the Lords day succeedeth in the christian Church called the first day of the weeke and the Lords day Reu. 1.10 celebrated Acts. 20.7 1 Cor 16.2 Causa mutationis c. The cause of this mutation is Christs resurrection and the benefit of restoring the Church in Christ the commemoration of which benefit succeeded the memory of the creation not by humane tradition but by Christs owne obseruation and institution who both on the day of his Resurrection Et octauo quoque die and on euery eight day vntill his ascension into Heauen appeared to his Disciples and came into their assembly And the same was done by the constant obseruation of the Apostles and Disciples and of the Church of Christ to which by the institution and example of Christ the Apostles deliuered the obseruation of the Lords day which is well set forth by Cyril lib. 12. in Iohan. cap. 58. by Augustine ad Casulanum Ep. 86. et ad Ianuarium Ep. 119. cap. 13. And therefore Chrysostome in his fift sermon of the Resurrection writteth that of old in the Primitiue Church this day was called by three names The Lords day The day of bread and the day of light The Lords day because in it being a solemne memoriall of Christs resurrection they attended to his word and worship the day of bread because in it the Sacrament of the Lords supper was administred and the day of light because on it was obserued the administration of Baptisme For the ancients called Baptisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illumination and the day of Baptisme diem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of lights and the Baptized were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 New illuminates Wherefore sith the Lords day by Christs Act example and institution by the most constant obseruation of the Apostles and the auncient Church and by the testimony of Scripture hath bene obserued and put in the place of the Iewes Sabbath ineptè faciunt c. They doe absurdly who affirme that the obseruation of the Lords day continues in the Church by Traditiō and not by authority of the holy Scripture that by these helpes they may si Deo placet support the Traditions of men So he Thirdly where they say that the generality onely of keeping a Sabbath was Morall this generality or morality must either now bee quite lost or else doth necessarily import some speciall day for christians wherein solemly to keepe this morality vnlesse we be bound euery moment or day of our life to keepe it as well as for the Iewes of old by Gods owne limitation But fourthly they say that the vacation and abstinence from seruile labour or the ordinary workes of a manes worldly calling is not any part of the morality of the fourth Commandement but a meere ceremony and so abrogated This is a strange Paradox For then the whole obseruation of the sabbath as touching the reast of it was a Ceremony and where is then the morality of it stands not the morality of it in corporall rest and spirituall exercise Or else tell us wherein Nay certainely that cannot bee a meere ceremony which lasteth for euer But vacation and rest from bodily labour lasteth for euer euen in Heauen in the keeping of the eternall Sabboth as the. Apostle saith Heb 4.9.10 And Reuel 14.13 And in heauen there is noe pleace for meere ceremonies Therefore vacation from labour on the Sabboth is no meere ceremony but one speciall part of the moralitie commanded in the Sabbath So that to rest from labour is of the very essence of the Sabbath which is therefore called Sabbath or rest because one cheife part of the obseruation of it stands in rest Ob. But they obiect That the Commandement of the Sabbath is not morall because it bindes not to all times and to euery day as well as one in the weeke Answ Though the externall solemne rest of it binds but for one day in the weeke yet the due Sanctification of it is such as it reatheth to the Sanctification of the whole time of our life yea to the Sanctifying of our persons acsions affections c. by the right vse of the meanes as the Word and Prayer For as wee sayd before as God by reseruing and consecrating the tenth of our goods thereby sanctifies all the 9 partes vnto vs So by setting apart and hallowing the seauenth of our time to his seruice he extendeth sanctification to euery day of our life that therein wee might bee holy Againe affirmatiue precepts ceasse not to be morall because they bind not ad semper to all times it sufficeth they binde
semqer all wayes in their due time and place Fiftly they deny that the Lords day the christians Sabbath hath any relation to the fourth Commandement of the Sabbath day as succeeding in the place of it And their reason is because say they the Lords day is not by any Diuine institution but humane onely and therefore not of the same force with the fourth Commandement This assertion reason is noe lesse vnresonable and peremptory then the former How The Lords day not of Diuine instiutiō but humane onely Ecclesiasticall they grant though Apostolicall they name not but in no case diuine that they expressely and stiffely deny First therefore wee will proue that the Lords daye is of diuine institution Secondly that it succeeds in the place of the Sabbath and so beitng of deuine instituiton hath the force of a Commandement First that it is of deuine institution thouigh wee haue no expresse Word of Christ yet we haue his Act worke for it Which is euer as good as his word We shewed before how Gods Act in his resting in blessing and sanctfying the Sabbath or seauenth day was his institution For to what end did he blesse and sanctifie it For himselfe what needed hee No surely for man for whom the Sabbath day was made to rest in as well as the sixt to labour in For the Sabbath was made for man saith the Lord of the Sabbath This institution was in Paradise It stands indeede Gen. 2.2 before the fall of Adam But if Adam fell the same day of his Creation being the sixt day as the best Diuines thinke then it is set by way of anticipation or Hysteron Proteron and so this seuenth day began next after the Fall when the son of God incarnate was cleerely promised in which respect the Sonne of man Christ was Lord of the sabbath day being the Institutor of it vnder whom Adam began his spirituall life in the obseruation or sanctification of the Sabbath And then I doubt not he began to Sacrifice as hee taught his sonnes afterwards as wee see Gen. 4. it being not vnprobable that those skins wherewith God cloathed Adams shamefull nakednes were of the Sacrifices which God taught him now vnder Christ to offer as a type of Christ cloathing vs with the robe of his righteousnes imputed to vs and merited for vs by the sacrifice of his death which sacrificing shall wee deny to bee of diuine institution because wee find it not there expressely commanded Otherwise it had beene will-worship and so abominable whereas God had respect to Abel and to his offering And that he respected not Cain it was on Cains parte for want of faith Heb 11 4 And why should not man then in the state of inocency haue a Sabbath to rest solemnly in and to be vacant for Gods worship as hee had a taske though not toylesome layed vpon him to dresse the garden and so much the more being now cast out hauing a hard and sore toyle imposed on him to till the ground whence hee must eate his bread with sowre or brackish sauce to wit the sweat of his face Other wise if hee had had no Sabbath to rest in his state had bene most miserable as attended with incessant toyle and trauell And when in most likelyhood did Cain and Abell bring their sacrifices Most likely on the Sabbath For the text sayth Mikets iamim in the end of the dayes which some referre to the end of the yeare Gene. 4.3 as Ex. 22.16 and why not also may it be ment of the end of the weeke dayes But I will not contend Thus Adam no doubt had the Sabbath not onely before his fall written in his heart but after his fall a speciall day euen the seauenth assigned him vnder Christ the Redeemer the Lord of the Sabbath And Gods owne act in resting from the worke of Creation and in blessing and sanctifying the Sabbath day for mans vse and comfort was warrant enough to make it of diuine institution without any other expresse Commandement The like wee say of the Lords day That which gaue it a stampe of diuine institution was the Lords owne Act in blessing and sanctifying this Lords day with his blessed and glorious Resurrection when now hee ceassed from the worke of Redemption a greater and more glorious worke then that of Creation now beginning also and consecrating the eternall Sabbath So that this very act of Christ was a sufficient consecration of this day as the Sabbath of our Redemption and therefore iustly styled by the Holy Ghost the Lords day because consecrated not onely to him but by him as the author of it Therefore also is he rightly intitled Lord of the Sabbath day of the Iewes as alone hauing a power to abrogate that and to initiate this day For in like manner the Sabbath is called Gods owne Holy-day Isay 58. and the Sabbath of the Lord our God Exod. 20. which hath relation to Christ the Redeemer Exod. 20.2 to shew that hee is the Lord and institutor of it So that it belonged to him alone to cancell the old and to consecrate a new Sabbath to Christians in memoriall of a better Creation and as the entrance iniatition to the eternall Sabbath Againe obserue how he honours this day For the very day of his Resurrection his Disciples being assembled hee presents himselfe personally vnto them comforting and confirming them with the sensible euidence of his Resurrection and breathing on them the gifts of the Holy Ghost And because they should take speciall notice further of this day iust eight dayes after when this day came about againe hee appeared to them the second time where they were assembled and standing in the midst of them as Lord of his Church salutes them with his peace and shewes them many signes for the fuller confirmation of his Resurrection And yet for the more abundant confirmation of the consecration of this day after his Ascention hee sends the Holy Ghost on this very day 50 dayes after his Resurrection whose powerfull presence was an euident sanctification of this day by his manifold giftes graces to his Church vnto the end of the world And it is specially to be noted that on those dayes wherein Christ appeared to his Disciples and the Holy Ghost descended they were all assembled solemnly together in a holy communion in prayer and other sacred duties So that Christs twice appearing vnto and the Holy Ghost descending visibly vpon his Disciples when they were assembled and all vpon this day was warrant sufficient for the Apostles and so for the succeeding Churches to continue the sanctification of this first day of the weeke by their holy assemblies and exercises as Prayer Preaching administring the Sacraments Almes c. They saw that this was the speciall day selected and sealed by Christ and the Holy Ghost For in the mouth of 2. or 3. witnesses shall euery word be established for publique sacred assemblies wherein they might
themselues should keepe it but they should looke their whole family kept it Yet in case the Master should neglect his duty herein and instead of commanding his family to keepe the Sabbath should inioyne them seruile worke doth not the Commandement take hold of the seruant What Is the seruant an Asse or sott to yeald blinde obedience to his master commanding against God Or is he such a slaue as hee hath not a soule to answere for to God as well as his master Or being his Masters seruant is hee thereby exempted from being Gods seruant sayth not the Apostle Hee that is called in the Lord being a seruant is the Lords freeman Likewise also hee that it called being free is Christs seruant Indeede the Masters sin is double not onely in permitting and communing but compelling or commanding his seruant to worke when God commands to rest but yet the seruant obeying his master herein vniustly commanding committes a single sin at least against God if not also double while he preferreth his earthly masters Commandement before his heauenly masters But this say they is Petitio Principij if Gods Commandement reach not to seruants But we shew it doth if seruants be not vnreasonable beasts or blinde Asses Nor ought the Masters Commandement to bee of force yea it hath a meere nullity if it bee contrary to Gods expresse Commandement So that in such a case for a seruant to obey his Master is against and aboue God to set vp an Idoll which is nothing in the world and such seruants slauishly obseruing Sabbatum Asinorum the Sabbath of Asses do iustly deserue the whip for the Asses backe or that censure forementioned in the second synod of Matiscon If a seruant or rusticke doe breake the Sabbath let him be soundly dry basted with clubs But say they the sonne of God hath commanded all christians to heare the Church not to despise hir Canons or Princes Edicts True But is Christs command absolute and without limitation namely to obey Superiours actiuely whatsoeuer they command right or wrong for or against God what if the Canons of the Church doe by mans Traditions disanull the Commandement of God as of old the Iewish Synagogue and of latter times the Romish Are such Canons to be obeyed against Gods expresse Commandement If the Pharisees and chiefe Priests make a Canon to punish with Excommunication or Suspention those that shall confesse Christ or professe or preach his truth and fayth frely faithfully is it not disobedience to God herein to obey them and through slauish feare rather to renounce Christ then not submit to such wicked Canons The Iewes Corban freed Children fom honouring their Parents and doe not they as well make voyd Gods Commandement who in binding seruants to obey their masters commanding against Gods Commandement doe thereby free them from Gods Commandement And for Princes Edicts we all reuerence and willingly imbrace and obey them But without limitation what if they command against God what if they shall forbid by publicke Edict the free preaching of the word of God in any part of it as such and such points of fayth and saluation not to bee handled such and such heresies not to bee medled with by way of confutation Are we not to answere in such a case as the Apostle did Whether it be meete in the sight of God to obey you rather than God iudge you for we cannot but speake the thinges wbich we haue seene and heard And Peter tels the Rulers boldly and plainely Wee ought rather to obey God then men What because Nebuchadnezzer erected his Image and commanded all to worship it and forbad to pray to any God but to the King onely for thirty dayes must this Edict therefore bee obeyed Noe surely And why Because it was against God and therefore it ought to haue beene of no force to exact obedience of any But what will you say Must we be rebels in disobeying our superiours No it is one thing not obey another to bee rebellious superiours ought not to bee obeyed if they command against God Yet this is no rebellion where men are ready to yeald passiue obedience to their vniust cruelty by not resisting it though they derect and deny actiue obedience to their vniust commands Thus Daniel thus the three Children did the one desires rather to bee cast into the Lyons denne the other into the hott fiery fornace then to dishonour God by bowing to the Kings Image Thus all Gods true bred children haue and will doe they neyther dare obey vniust command contrary to Gods word and a good conscience nor yet rebelliously resist vniust punnishments in both which they obey God But enough of this poynt at least in this place where we haue as it were by the way occasionally met with it not purposely minded throughly to handle it but onely as a branch of that morality of the Law of God the whole bulke and body whereof is hewed at by the Antinomians to cut it downe by the very rootes Onely let vs adde here a few reasons and motiues Reasons why the Lords day is to bee sanctfied the more to strengthen and prouoke vs to the more diligent obseruation of this great holy day of the Lord. One reason may bee taken from the comparison betweene christians vnder the new Testament and the Iewes vnder the Old How exactly were the Iewes bound to keepe the Sabbath as a memoriall of their deliuerance from Egypt in token of their perpetuall thankefulnesse How much more then are we thus bound to sanctifie the Lords day in a perpetuall thankefull remembrance of our spirituall deliuerance from the bondage of sin sathan and hell ouer which Christ triumphed manifestly in the day of his Resurrection Secondly Exod 31.16.17 as the Sabbath day was giuen to the Iewes as a signe and meanes of their sanctification So the Lords day in the due sanctifying of it in the vse of the meanes is a pregnant occasion of our sanctification and that not only in regard of the same Ordinances attending vpon it but as it is a perpetuall memoriall of Christs Resurrection and in the faith and fact whereof is begun here not onely our sanctification but also our glorification and eternall Sabbath Ob. But if the Eternall Sabbath began in Christs Resurrection then what further vse is there of a seauenth day weekely to keepe Sabbath in Euery day now yea our whole life time is a Sabbath vnto vs therefore to keepe a seauenth day still is against the nature of the eternall Sabbath hath begun in Christs Resurrection And thus to keepe a seauenth still is to goe backe to the Iewish ceremony againe which is abolished in Christs Resurrection Answ Though the Eternall Sabbath began in Christs Resurrection and is now eternally kept of Christ and of the Church triumphant yet during the time of this life which is measured by times and dayes and in regard of the many corporall necessitys of it must bee
in the Morality oâ— it who can deny the keeping of the Sabbath to be Morall but he must withall procliame open enmity to Gods worship and mans saluation Ob. But the Sabbath day of the Iewes being wholy ceassed as being buried in Christs graue wherein hee rested all that day and so fully kept it of what force is it with christians any longer or what morality remaines of it to bee obserued by vs Answ As the Iewes Sabbath day was a precise seauenth day which no doubt was by successiue reuolution obserued by Adams generations from the seauenth day of the Creation sanctified by Gods owne rest for we reade of it in Exo. 16. which was before the giuing of the Law in Sinai but with all had an addition of a new relation to the typicall Redemption from Egypt as we noted before in which regard it was ceremoniall So as ceremoniall it was subiect to be abrogated and changed from a Legall into an Euangelicall Sabbath which the Scripture calleth the Lords day Although some are bold to deny that the Sabbath was at all obserued by the Old Church vntill Moses time and so till the Law was giuen in Sinai But this seemes to bee a groundlesse opinion if not also Godlesse For though the Scripture makes no mention of the keeping of the Sabbath vntil Exod. 16.5 c. yet both that mention goes before the solemne bidding of it in Mount Sinai and doth also sufficiently inferre that the Sabbath was in vse before that time as being fiist instituted in Paradise For elfs as a learned Diuine of our Church hath noted vpon this very occasion It is absurd for any man to prepare a thing 2000 yeares before the vse thereof And Exod 20.11 the very reason and ground of mans obseruation of the Sabbath is there giuen to bee Gods owne institution of it which was his actuall sanctifying and blessing of it by his owne resting on that day from the workes of Creation Though otherwise the fourth Commandement being a part of the Law written in Adams heart needed not any expresse Commandement more then the rest did sauing that this hath a Memento set vpon it as being most subiect to neglect and prophanation and that the Lord himselfe was pleased to assigne his owne seuenth day for rest and sanctification to those former ages But to proceed Here it may be demanded what is that morality of the fourth Commandement which yet is in force with christians For answere None will question but the Antinomian who altogether denyeth the whole Morall Law to be in force so much as a rule to beleeuers vnder the Gospell the morality of the Sabbath to bee yet of force and vse with Christians Onely some differ both about the manner of it how it is imposed and how exacted of christians and about the matter of it For first they denie that the fourth Commandement hath any thing to doe with the Lords day which is the christian Sabbath Againe they deny that the fourth Commandement reacheth further then to masters of families exempting seruants from imputation of sinne in case they worke at their masters command Thirdly they deny the Lords day is by any diuine institution humane onely and therefore not of the same force with the fourth Commandement Fourthly for the matter they deny that the vacation and abstinence from seruile labour or the ordinary workes of a mans worldly calling is any part of the morality of the fourth Commandement but a meere ceremony and so abrogated Yea they goe further and say that howsoeuer the generality of that Commandement to keepe a Sabbath wherein God might bee honoured was Morall Yet the speciality of it namely to keepe First one day of seauen Secondly the seauenth Thirdly one whole day Fourthly with precise vacancy from all worke was meerely ceremoniall and so the specialities of the Commandement are vanished though for the generality of it it is a law of nature and remaineth So they Here then be sundry things which offer themselues to bee scanned And to make way First where they call the bodily rest obserued once by the Iewes a poynt of exact and extreame vacation from euery kind of worke which christians haue nothing to doe with all This is but a buggbeare or scarcrow to fright Childish christians from so much as looking backe to the fourth Commandement in the keeping of the Lords day For first an extreame vacation was not exacted of the Church of the Iewes as in case of extreamity or vrgent necessity they might worke yea for the sauing of a poore Asses life by pulling him out of the pit on the Sabbath day as our Sauiour conuinceth the carping Iewes How much more in extremities of more importance as the quenching of a scath fire or defending of their City or Country by repelling the inuading or beleaguring enemy yea in such cases not to bestirre themselues and to vse their vtmost labour and skill not onely turned into superstition but many times proued their bane and ruine Among sundry instances in this kinde Iosephus Antiq. of the Ieases lib. 12. c. 8 soli 14. 8. this is one that the Iewes on the Sabbath being assailed by their enemyes would neyther make resistance nor yet so much as close vp their caues mouth to defend themselues and so their liues became a spoyle to their enemyes cruelty So superstitiously obseruant were they of the Sabbath as if God had made it to be a snare for them whensoeuer the crafty enemy should take that oppertunity to inuade them so as in case of extreme necessity as to saue life yea a beasts life the Commandement was not strictly obligatory much more in spirituall obseruance touching Gods worship as the Priests slaying of beasts for sacrifice and the like Extreame vacation then was not exacted of the Iewes in their keeping of their Sabbath Againe we shewed before how the prohibition to the Iewes of kindling a fire and dressing of meate on the Sabbath was peculiar to that Nation or rather Church and was a type and ceremony Nor was it extreame because they liued in an hot climate wherein their was no extreame necessity of fire for one day which they were to supply by their spirituall fire of holy zeale in a due obseruation of the Sabbath Though some are of opinion that this prohibition of kindling a fire reached onely to such fires as were vsed about seruile workes and not about their necessary food But I will not blowe the coales of this controuersie in this poynt at this time hauing shewed sufficient reason already of this restraint Onely this I adde if it were a burthen layed vpon the shoulders of that Pedagogy of Moses it was to teach them and vs to put a difference betweene that hard yoake of the Ceremoniall Law Acts. 15.10 and that sweete yoake and light burthen of Christ Matthew 11.30 In the next place where they say that one whole day for the Sabbath or one seauenth day or one day of