he made them by Jesus Christ but Christ the Son of God spake to us in the last days he did it in and by his Humanity but so he created not the Creatures In the last Proof Eph. 3.9 'T is indeed expresly said That God created all things by Jesus Christ which if meant of the old and whole Creation must be meant as above and 't is as much as if he had said God the Father created all things by God the Son which Son is now Jesus Christ Wherefore we conclude our Reply to this Query by asserting that the God-head of the Lord Christ created the World but that Christ consisting of that God-head and the Humanity hypostatically united to it did not so SECT II. HE asserts Page 9. that Proposition which no Christian ever denyed or questioned and whoever does so deserves not the Name Christian viz. That the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah Which he proves at large home to Page 22. which in these days might have been very seasonable and commendable too had it not been made a progressive Step toward the supremely intended Doctrin of the necessary Obligation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath But yet I must say that our Lord Christs Deity or Jehovah-ship has been more fully prov'd and more methodically and from more Topicks and all these demonstrated and confirmed from Scripture than here it is and that by many Orthodox Divines We acknowledging his Thesis to be good and orthodox we hope he will acknowledge this to be so likewise viz. That Jehovah was not always Christ Christ is and must be everlastingly Jehovah But Jehovah was throughout a past Eternity before there was ever any other Being and in the beginning of time before there was a sinful Being And therefore necessarily before Christ Jesus had a Being For Christ Jesus in an orthodox Notion and according to Scriptural Revelations does pre-suppose a created and a faln sinful Being And so this orthodox Proposition will but contribute very little to that other which we deem heterodox I shall make no Reflections at all upon what he has written in all these Papers save only upon that Medium which he uses Page 12 and 13. which is Christs giving the Law for that 's his Expression where again we urge according to our former Interpretation that Christ properly apprehended did not give the Law before his Incarnation not being Christ before it He gave it not to Man before the Fall When the whole absolute and primary Moral Law was implanted by God on his Mind to know all the Duties he ought to perform towards his God according to his Excellencies and Attributes revealed unto him according to his Works and his Obligations laid upon him and all his Duties toward all his Fellow Creatures In his Will by a perfect and full Complyance with and active and exact Conformity to all these moral Dictates of his Understanding in all the Inferiour Affections Appetites Inclinations Motions Senses Organs and Members of the Body by a ready and compleat Subjection to the holy Will and a most harmonious Obedience thereto Which the Apostle calls Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 Neither did Christ Jesus give the Law just upon the Fall as I suppose the Moral Law must be supposed to be given to Adam seeing that by the Fall he had greatly defac'd and blotted the former clear and perfect Edition of it in his Heart and Soul Neither did he give it in the Third Edition when 't was brought and delivered by the Hand of Moses from the Finger and Mouth of God to the Israelites For all these were long before Jesus Christ came into and so was in the World And St. John himself tells us John 1.17 The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ So that the Law was given long before Jesus Christ came and preached and purchased the Grace and Truth of the Gospel But all this is made use of by this Author to insinuate that even Christ Jesus in the Flesh was the Author of all the Ten Commands as they are verbatim recorded in Moses's Books or were written upon the Tables of Stone and so particularly of that very Clause in the Fourth Command which is given as a reason of the Sanctification of the Seventh day to be the Sabbath home to his own Resurrection But this we shall prove in the Sequel to be a very great Mistake The only Proof that he brings for this which has not been sufficiently answered already or may not be so by what has been formerly said and proved is John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commands And such other like Passages Here I would feign enquire in what Sense he understands the Commands to be Christ's Commands Either as he is Jehovah and so before his Incarnation If so then the Ceremonial and Judicial Commands were his as well and as much as the Moral for he gave the one as well as the other And so by this arguing and from this Topick we are bound to keep the one as well as the other If we would evince to our own Consciences or others Observations that we sincerely love Christ If he understands them to be his after his Incarnation as taught commanded and confirmed by his own blessed Mouth and Doctrin So we confess that all the Moral Law was his and that he taught it in the discharge of his Prophetical Office in the Flesh But then we affirm and doubt not to prove that in all his Doctrin Discourses and Commands there is not one word that teaches or enjoyns the Seventh-day-Sabbath but much to the contrary Or if there be only a perfect silence in this particular without any thing spoken or done by Christ contrary to it whilst he particularly enjoyns and presses all those other Precepts which are acknowledged by all to be Moral I suppose this very Exclusion of it out of all his Discourses carries more weight in it to cashire it from being any one of the Commands of Christ Jesus than all his former Endeavours to prove Christ to be the Maker of the World to be Jehovah and here to be the Giver of the Law have of moment to prove the Morality and so the necessary observance of the Seventh-day I have been here a little the more large because I find the Author Page 24. referring unto his having proved the Law to be given by Christ as to that which highly conduces to his grand Design but being duly weighed we see that 't is of little or no use at all thereto SECT III. WE have a third Interrogation proposed Page 22. Whether after the Creation the Lord rested on the Seventh day And Whether the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath was sanctified and so instituted by him and was observed by him who made the World To the first Clause whereof we have sufficiently answered That it was not the Lord Christ that created the World and rested but it was indeed Jehovah and though Christ be
Jehovah and the Maker of all things as such yet the same Lord Christ is also the Son of Man and made by Jehovah as such And therefore as Christ as God-man he neither created the World nor rested from that Creation Though in the Body of the Question the Efficient of the Creation be only stiled Lord by which may be equally understood the Son of God before and after the Incarnation yet in the Margin he interprets this by the word Christ and therefore we have given a proper a direct and sufficient answer to that part thereof And here it will be worth our observing that in a proper and strict Sense Jehovah the Creator of the World cannot be said to rest because it is impossible that he should either admit of any Weariness or Pain in himself yea or of any the least new motion in himself God being an Infinite Perfect Immutable Act and Life cannot possibly admit of any such thing and all the Changes that he makes either substantially of nothing into Being or Alteration of the Qualities and Conditions of Being c. without himself are and must be without the least Mutation and Alteration within himself And this the very Light of Nature and Metaphysicks will teach us as well as the light of Scripture and Theology as Mal. 3.6 Jam. 1.17 So that though God may properly be said to conclude or end his work of Creation yet cannot he properly be said to rest from it or after it because this in its formal Notion implies Motion Activity and exerting of Power and Ability with a Weariness thereby which the Deity is infinitely free from Which I desire may be heeded because I perceive the Author would fain have every Clause in the Fourth Command to be Moral and of necessary and perpetual Observance and especially this of Gods resting on the Seventh day Now that which is Moral as to Motive and Obligation to the Humane Nature is that which the light of Nature right Reason or to go higher the perfectly irradiated Mind of our first Parents would have of its self discerned and closed with as a Motive and Engagement to Piety or Charity or any Duty Which I think Gods resting on the Seventh day may well be asserted not to be because 1. Reason or the illuminated Mind of Man could never suppose God to take after his work any real Rest or Refreshment in himself which he had not before And Secondly God's working in the maintaining of the Creation in its Being Order and Operation is altogether as great and as much as it was in the Production of it and therefore the School-men say That Preservation is a continual Act of Creation because the same Word and Power is exerted in the one as in the other Yea if we respect the Work it self or the Term of it without God we may well say that the Preservation of the World is a greater work than the Creation of it Though as to the Act it self in God all is the same being the Act of the same infinite Power Wisdom and Godhead because of the contrary Qualities of the Creatures mutually tending to each others Destruction but especially because of the Malice of Devils and the sinful wretched Depravity of Fallen Man which without an infinite Wisdom and Power exerted to the contrary would soon bring all to Ruin at least it would do so by the Humane Nature for which all other things of this World were made and are continued And therefore this Motive to a seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath cannot be in and of it self Moral And this our Saviour clearly shews John 5.17 My Father worketh hitherto and I work Which he gives by way of Reply to those who in the former Context taxed and condemned him for a Breach of the Sabbath Grounding it seems tacitely at least their Accusation from that Passage in the Fourth Command of God's resting on that day as though it had been of a Moral and Perpetual Obligation And therefore our Saviour here tells them It was not so for both he and his Father did work on the Seventh day as well as on any other day of the week from which 't is clear this Clause in the Command is not Moral but Positive As to the Second Part of the Question whether the Seventh-day-Sabbath was Sanctifyed and so Instituted by him and was observed by him who made the World We answer 't was Sanctified and Instituted by the Lord as Jehovah but not as Jesus Christ And then that 't was observed by Jesus Christ Incarnated but not as Jehovah because the Observation of it seems to import some dutiful Obligation upon its Observer which cannot be supposed with respect to the God-head but may be so with respect to the Lord Christ as Mediator in his Human Nature But then this Observance makes no more for the keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath than for the Observance of Pentecost the Passover the Feast of Tabernacles and other Ceremonial and Judicial Laws under which our Lord Christ was and which he observed in the days of his Flesh the Mosaical and the Ceremonial Administration being in force all the while he lived and expired with his Death and were buried in his Grave as to their Vertue and Obligation And so we assert the Seventh-day-Sabbath did also which I hope we may evince in the progress of this Discourse By what has been said we have a sufficient Reply to his Three Proofs which follow his Querly for it 's Affirmative and how they may be orthodoxly admitted or else as Heterodox rejected And here we may take notice that all the former Particulars which the Author makes use of as Foundations to build his beloved Notion upon do as equally militate and plead for the Observance of all the Ceremonial and Judicial Laws as for the Seventh-day-Sabbath for the Creator of the World enjoyned them as well as this The great Jehovah imposed them as well as this The Law-giver gave those Laws as well as this And our Lord Instituted and Sanctifyed those as well as this as he was God and observed those as well as this as Christ Jesus as God-man 'T is as Prejudice sufficient against all those supposed Achillean Arguments that if they prove what they are pleaded for We must all turn Jews But before I leave this Query I must reflect upon one Paragraph or two under it Page 23. wherein we have him laying down all his former great Postulata's that the Lord Christ made the World rested on the Seventh day observed blessed and sanctifyed it By which Repetition we may see how much he depends upon these for the carrying off his Design But withal we have formerly seen how little yea how not at all they conduce thereto But to these he superadds another grand Postulatum as though 't were a Particular which either he had undeniably demonstrated before or were granted by his Adversaries Which is that the Lord instituted this Seventh-day-Sabbath for and imposed it upon Adam and in
did not foresee a more convenient Opportunity for it hereafter Only let us here consider what he himself here grants viz. That the Moral Law was written upon Man's Heart that it did consist in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness wherefore the Seventh-day-Sabbath is no part of it because it was not written upon Man's Heart at first 1. Because God revealed it to Man after his Creation which needed not if it had been in him before 2. Because there are obscure Remains of the Moral Law in the Humane and Rational Creature with respect to all the other Commands as might be easily manifested by an Induction but none as to the Seventh-day-Sabbath It is true as to the Moral Substance of the Law that is found in Mankind even a Separation of time and proper Seasons for the Worship of God but this is not Nay it is so rare that not one among Ten thousand does dream of it or scarce one in an Age does so much as fancy it 3. Because by his own Orthodox Assertion in this very place the Moral Law is reingraven that is more fully clearly and distinctly and in its Spiritual Sense and Latitude upon the Hearts of those that are revived by the Spirit of God which is the Image of God reinstamped upon the Regenerate and Converted as St. Paul saith Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.24 Now it is as clear as the Sun that the Generality of the Called inlightned and sanctified have not the Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath written in their Hearts Nay they have an Aversion from it Of all truly Religious ones that ever I knew Mr. B is the Solitary Person of this Perswasion whence it must necessarily follow that it is no part of the Moral Law or of that Image of God which was instamped upon Man plainly and fully at first and remains imperfectly and obscurely in all Men and is restored to the Saints in their Regeneration and is increased in them in their progressive Sanctification Whence it is also clear that this Command thus stated was not given by Christ to Jews and Gentiles in the Creation And his proof for it is very weak and invalid which is taken from those express Commands given by God to the Jews of causing them that were either their Substance Slaves bought with their own Mony or Proselytes Strangers by Nation but yet joyning themselves to them and dwelling among them and so were of their Body who were bound as he himself there acknowledges and proves to be Circumcised to observe the Passover c. And now what Tendency hath this to prove that the Seventh-day-Sabbath was given to Jews and Gentiles When this proves only that those Gentiles were bound to keep it who were within the Gates and of their Body Politick But has no reference to nor does at all concern other Gentiles some of which might never hear of the Name of Israel or of any of their Laws and Sabbaths It pities me to see such weak and invalid Arguments which if they have any force it is to Judaize all the Christian World As to the second part of the Question whether the weekly seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath were observed ever after during the Old Church We acknowledge it was so still among the Jewish Nation and he needed not to have produced any proofs for it But withall we say never among any other Nations nor any Footstep of it which is a sure Proof against its proper Morality As to that Observation Page 28. That the Seventh Day throughout the Old and New Testament was called the Sabbath day It was fit it should be so all along till our Saviour's Resurrection because it was the Sabbath day till then And afterward if it be so called it was in compliance with the Jews who still held it so to continue or to use the Expression which was in most common use whereby the day might be known they spake of as we do of Sunday Monday c. only to declare what day of the Week we mean or else to declare the Abolition thereof And if we remember it we may make some use of that Assertion that the Seventh day and Sabbath are Synonimous in the Language of the Old and New Testament SECT V. THis Question he endeavours to prove Assirmatively Page 29. That Christ did in the Flesh confirm the Ten Commands without any Exception of the Fourth Commandment or any part or tittle thereof Which if we should fully grant without the least Exception it would make nothing for his Cause nor against ours for as long as Christ was in the World so long we all agree that the Seventh day of the Week was the injoyed Sabbath and therefore ought to be observed and so might have been commanded by Christ to be kept And so we know he ratified the Ceremonial Law by commanding the cleansed Lepers to go and shew themselves to the Priest and offer the Gift which Moses commanded for their cleansing Matt. 8.4 And so also the Judicial Law by injoyning them to pay Tithe of all even of Mint Annis and Cummin Matt. 23.23 which I think few or none do hold to be purely Moral and so the Brother 's taking of his Childless Brother's Wife he seems to confirm by a Tacit Approbation to the Sadducees objecting that to him to baffle and puzzle him about the Resurrection Matt. 22.23 30. Yet nevertheless those Laws were not permanent but expired the Ceremonial with himself and the Judicial with the Judicial State and Polity Withall we add that our Saviour did for ever confirm the Moral Law which is contained in the Ten Commandments And so the Fourth as far as Moral and in all that it commands as such But withall we say that some Passages of the Fourth Command are neither Moral nor yet commanded therein as such or of the Substance thereof Whereof the mentioning of the last the Seventh Day of the Week to be the Sacred Rest is one which here is but nakedly asserted but we defer the Proof and such as was to expire at his Resurrection Wherefore we say that that Passage Matt. 5.17 Till Heaven and Earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away must refer only to the Moral Law Quatenus Moral and as it refers to and obliges all Nations which several Passages belonging to the Ten Commands do not whereof this is one about the Seventh day and I think th is may be cleared by this Argument That which neither our Saviour himself nor any of his Apostles did command or enjoyn to be followed by his or their Disciples and Followers cannot be Moral But neither he nor they did ever enjoyn the Seventh-day-Sabbath therefore it 's not Moral Our Saviour in none of his Discourses that I remember did ever expresly or particularly command the Observance of the Sabbath-day but spake and did things which seem to declare the Abolition of the Seventh day neither do any of his Apostles in any of their Writings impose it upon or command
particular Rite of the Old Testament more particularly spoken of in the New Testament by the Apostle towards its Exclusion from the Christian Church than Circumcision yet there is no express Command against it that I know of And I assert that let him bring what Argument he can from these Epistles against it I will produce the same against the Seventh-day-Sabbath and so they must either stand or fall upon the same Ground and so must the other Ceremonies that are not so much as mentioned in the Books of the New Testament Again here he recurs to the Danger and Presumption of Indulging to Conjectures and Humane Fancies in the things of God without any warrant from Scripture or against the Commands thereof under a pretence of honouring God and Christ thereby and unworthily applies all this to the Assertors of the Lords-day But to this we have answered already and doubt not but to be as Innocent in this Respect as himself and this is the summ of all his answer to this Argument for the First-day-Sabbath But we must not so leave it but speak what I hope God will direct to the Vindication of it And here we must know that this Argument is not the solitary Proof that we bring for the Lords-day's Holy Observation for then it might seem to carry no great weight with it But First We undertake to prove an Abolition of the Seventh day from the Word and then propose the First day as bidding fairest of all the other Week-days for it because we acknowledge one day of the Seven to be the substance of the Fourth Commandment and to be positively and secondarily Moral in it and that therefore there lies still an Obligation upon all the Churches unto the end of the World to keep one day in seven Holy unto the Lord at least all who may have the Commands intirely conveyed to them and duly taught them for there may be a case of Exemption in this particular as we may see in the progress and we say the Seventh day being cashiered the first day ought to be its successor and that because of the glorious Privileges of this day above all others of the Week whereof this of our Lords Resurrection from the Dead is chief because this was the day of God the Redeemer's entring into his Rest And our Argument for the Lords day is both a Pari a Majori from Equality and Eminence Equality with and Eminency to the Rest of God the Creator upon the Seventh day for as the Creators having finished the Sixth days work and rested the Seventh was made a positive Motive for the Observance of that day for a religious Rest during all the time that Jehovah rested from no other more eminent work of his So we say in like manner the Rest of God the Redeemer from that his greater work of Redemption on the first day may be as good a Motive for the Consecrating thereof to a religious Rest for here we suppose the Seventh day excluded Yea we argue a fortiori and say it may much more upon this account challenges its Holy Observation Because 1. The Rest of Jehovah after the works of the Creation was no proper Rest as has been proved but now his Rest after the work of Redemption was a real and proper one from the Labours Sufferings and Humiliation of his humane Nature 2. The Work of Creation cost God but six words of his Mouth but the work of Redemption cost him his Incarnation and in his Manhood his mean and contemptible Birth his poor obscure laborious Life for thirty Years together in his reputed Fathers House and probably at his Trade too and after that his itinerant wearisom tempted reproached persecuted and sad Life for 3 or 4 Years before his Sufferings and his compleat voluntary and sinless Obedience to his Fathers Will all his days and his fearful Sufferings and most dreadful shameful painful lingring and accursed Death 3. By the work of Creation God brought all things out of nothing and so could not possibly meet with any opposition thereto but in the work of our Redemption he waded through and overcame all Opposition all the Temptations of Men and Devils all the Rage and Malice the Revilings horrible Reproaches false Accusations unjust Condemnations of Men all the Rage Fury and Cruelty of Earth and Hell of Men and Devils Yea all the Wrath and Vengeance of his Father which was infinitely worse than all the former and at last Death and the Grave 4. By the Creation God brought our Nature out of nothing but by Redemption from Satan from Sin from Death from Hell from the Wrath of God and from the Grave 5. By the Creation God made us perfectly Holy and Happy planted Paradise for us gave us an Immortality and Abilities and Inclinations and infinite Obligations so to remain for ever but not the effectual Grace for we speedily fell and an animal Life for we were to eat and drink and sleep in Innocency to recruit the Decays of Nature but by Redemption God brings us again into a perfect and more glorious State of Holiness and Happiness conveys us into the third Heaven gives us an eternal Security there and makes us like the Angels for ever and ever and doubtless our Condition in the third Heaven where Redemption conveys and lodges us will be as far more Noble Glorious Blessed and Happy than our Condition in Paradise where Creation made and stated us as that is in Situation above this 6. God glorified his Power Wisdom and Goodness in the work of Creation but much more all these in the work of Redemption as might easily be displayed to the Reader and withall his Pity his Grace his Justice his Holiness his Truth his Jealousie for his own Glory more of Gods Glory shining forth in one Line of the Redeemers Face than in all the Creation both visible and invisible Wherefore seeing this work of Redemption does so unconceivably surpass that of Creation both as to Excellency as wrought out by God and as to its Vtility to us as wrought out for us we say with Reverence and without Offence that the first day hath more to shew upon this account for its Holy Separation from and Exaltation above the rest of the Week-days than ever the Seventh had or can pretend unto And we say withall that it is very Congruous that God the Redeemer should have one day of the Week consecrated to his Rest for 2000 Years in the latter days of the World as well as God the Creator have a day throughout 4000 Years consecrated to his Rest Especially seeing that the Honour and Glory of the Redeemer herein is the Glory and Honour of God the Creator for both are the same Jehovah whereas the Glory of the Creator herein is not the Glory of the Redeemer for the Redeemer was not when the Creation was produced neither should ever have been had the Creation stood in that Estate wherein God created it and
for the first part of the Command the Substance and unquestionably moral Part thereof 2. We have the Explication of that Part of the Command in its following Words Six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy Work and the Day the Seventh a Sabbath to the Lord thy God is or shall be or both a Sabbath to the Lord that is dedicted to the Worship and Service of Him Thou shalt do no Work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter c. Where we have one Day in Seven or of Seven declared and signified to be that Day of Rest or Holy Sabbath which was commnded in the Beginning And here our Authors contend and worthily that this Seventh Day in this Peace is not an Ordinal Seventh Day that is the next Day after the former Six Days But rather a Proportional If I may so express it Day or a distributed part of the Seven that is that of Seven days God will have one entire day to be sanctified to him and his Service without specifying what day of the Seven it should be And I am sure he has no reason nor ground from the Command hitherto to except against this understanding of the Seventh day In this Explication of the Command we have two things 1. The Portion of Time or the Part of the days that God will have sanctified to an Holy Rest the Seventh 2. How he will have the Rest observed By an Abstinence of all sorts of Persons from earthly and worldly Employments except such as do not interfere with its due Sanctification that they may be wholly in Body and Soul busied in his Service as is clearly enjoyned in that word in the Substance of the Command to Sanctifie it As to this Seventh part of time so sanctified and separated to Divine Service this is not Primarily and Purely Moral though we acknowledge it to be Secondarily and Positively so Not such a measure of Time as the Wisdom of Man in Innocency would have precisely separated to Divine Worship and not one day more nor one day less of all the Week-days I think I have shewn before that the light of Nature would have separated and dedicated all to the solemn Service of God all the time that it could spare from the due Recruits of Nature Which I doubt not but in an Estate of Innocency would have been a greater Measure and part of Time than the Seventh For now we find by Experience that even after the Fall since that the Earth is cursed for our Sins and requires a great deal more Labour and Time to be lain out upon it for the Production of our necessary Sustinence than before the Fall Now that our weak crasie and distempered Bodies call for a great deal more Care and Time for their Sustentation their Recruits and Reparation than when they had a perfect Temperature were compleatly Healthy Strong and Immortal in Innocency and many other Civil Domestick Affairs take up and must have a great deal of our time which would have exacted none of it in Innocencency And yet we experience I say that six in seven allotted us for these things are sufficient enough and we can very well spare a Seventh day for the solemn Service of God without any Detriment to our Bodies or our civil Concerns Yea and have many other Seasons and good Opportunities given us to serve God in And doubtless had God seen fit to have required the sixth part of our time it would have been so also Wherefore I conclude that the seventh part of the Week or one day of the Seven is not primarily Moral because the light of Nature could not have precisely dictated it to us Which methinks I could demonstrate by this Supposition Suppose a Person that is against the Morality of the Sabbath that judgeth no day of the week more Holy than another should by Providence be thrown among Mahonietans or Heathens and preaching the Gospel to them should be Instrumental to convert any of them to the Christian Faith I assert that in such a case and he would certainly be horribly uncharitable that should judge the contrary if they did keep all the rest of the Moral Precepts with a sound Faith in Christ they would infallibly be saved though they never separated one day of the week intirely to Gods Worship and Service But now if they did allowedly live in any Breaches of the other Commands yea supposing some of them should never have been expresly taught them by their Converter as if they did not acknowledge the only true God in their Souls if they did worship Idols if they did Swear Falsly or Vainly if they were Rebellious and Undutiful to Parents and Magistrates if they lived in Hatred and were Cruel if in Wantonness and were Lascivious in Theft and Couzenage or were Oppressing in Lying Slandering and False Witnessing or in an inward Love and Delight in any of these Sins they should certainly Perish And why But because all the other Commands are primarily Moral and this of the seventh part of time is not so Yea in keeping the other Commands they keep the Morality of this also Commands they must separate time to the performance of that Divine Service which is the prime Morality of the fourth Precept Thus I think 't is clear that the Sanctification of one Seventh day of the week is not absolutely and primarily Moral but yet it may also be concluded to be secondarily and positively so that is that upon the Revelation of the Will of the Legislator and his Injunction the rational Creature closes with it as that which is Holy Just and Good as that which is infinitely reasonable for what can be more so than that is seventh part of time should be devoted to his Service whose all our time is especially when it is also for the Creature 's chief good 3. We have the Reasons to inculcate its Observation 1. The Legislator's own Example because he was six days in creating the World and ceased from those works on the Seventh day rested on the Seventh day and 't is hence only in all this Command that they can have any shew or ground to plead for the last day or the Seventh day of the week to be the Sabbath or Rest that God did command which is no way cogent because it may be meant a Seventh day by way of part or portion and not the Seventh day of order nor in number of the week And it may be thus understood Because I was six dyas in making the World and then rested so shall you be six days busie in your common lawful Imployments and then a Seventh you shall consecrate to me and my Worship So that in this Sense it doth not injoyn the last day the Seventh day of the week in order but a Seventh day in proportion of time For which we have this to lead That seeing Gods Example is made the great Fundamental Argument of the Seven-day-Rest it should hence follow that if Adam
spoken of Rev. 1.10 But I think I have disproved that Proof Page 91 He himself recurs to Tradition and undertakes to prove that throughout several Centuries there have been Churches who assembled themselves themselves for religious Worship on the Seventh Day And so this is set as a Bar against and a Counterplea to that Prime Primitive and universal Tradition for the Lords-day To which I answer in general 1. That a few Exceptions against a general Rule do rather confirm than weaken it 2. Every Antiquity or Tradition will not cannot serve to prove either Practice or Doctrin to be commendable or orthodox nor derogate from what is so For the Denyal of the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is as ancient as the Apostles Days in which Corinthus was such an Heretick and the Ebionites Photinians and Arains have handed down that damning Doctrin to our Socinians 3. Scarce any Church since the Apostles Days have been without out their Flaws in Doctrin or Worship or both and we doubt not but this hath been one of them if it can be proved to be practised 4. In many Churches where they did observe the Seventh-day as a Day of publick Assemblies yet in them the Lord's-day was also kept and observed and that too as the chief Day For on the Lord's-day all in general were ingaged to wait upon God's publick Worship not so on Saturdays On the Lord's-day all the Ordinances of the Gospel were administred not so on Saturdays And so still the Lords-day had the Preheminence even in those very Churches Which general Answers may be enough to stop the Mouths of all his ancient Witnesses Yet I will take a little Pains and imploy a little Time to inquire into the Particulars for I think they neither deserve nor require much of either As to his first Instance if all the following be such I am sure they are stark naught yea they are not at all For he asserts that in the Apostles times the Seventh Day was observed as the publick Day of divine Worship Here he must meau by Christins or else he trifles But he can never find in all the Scripture that in the Apostles Days there was ever one Society of Christians gathered on the Seventh Day Indeed St. Paul did go on that Day into the Assemblies of the Jews to preach the Gospel to many of them which he could not conveniently do on any other Day But never did he invite any to keep that Day never did he assemble afterward on that Day when he was separated from their Synagogues finding them imperswasible and obstinate But now we can produce several Christian-Assemblies on the First day the Lords day after our Saviours Resurrection in which our Lord appeared to them And 't was then their Custom to Assemble and bring their Publick Alms to the Publick Treasure wherefore I cannot but marvel at this bold Assertion The Basis of traditionary Structue being so visibily sunk and come to nought makes me suspect that the erected Stories thereof will tumble and fall So that 't is clear we have the Apostle Examples the Churches Use in their days and their Commands against the Seventh day and for the Lords day as a sufficient Demurr to all his future Tradition Into which I now descend and must say that I have searched the Magdeburgenses for his Quotations but cannot find them where he quotes them and therefore believe that the Author used either another Edition or another that is various either in the Bulk or in the Pages I found in them the Eliberine Council but there he Twenty Third Canon hath nothing of a Fast upon a Sabbath day As to the other Authors I have them not and know not where to get them that I might peruse them neither is it needful for the matter of these Quotations makes very little for his Cause For whoever considers them will find 1. That very many if not most of them declare the Establishment and Separation of the Dominical day for Divine Service 2. That another great part of them prove the Observation or keeping both of the Dominical day and the Sabbath in very many of the Churches 3. These tell us that the Sabbath was kept as a Fast by the most if not by all of the Churches that kept it and the Lords-day as a Festival which all our Ecclesiastical Writers acknowledge as before And so evince that it was not kept with so equal Authority as the Lords day So does Dr. Young at large which also shews that they never observed it as the ancient Sabbath or 't was enjoyned in the Fourth Command But upon a new Account or for a new Reason even because our Lord Christ lay dead in the Grave on that day Therefore they would Fast and Humble themselves because their Lord and Saviour was on that day in his lowest Humiliation So far were they from this Gentleman's Opinion that his State of Death was his Rest after his Work of Redemption and they would observe the First day with Praises and Holy Rejoycings as the Christian Festival because 't was the Lords day of Triumph over his Enemies even of his Resurrection These include the greatest part by far of his Historical Examples and a very few are left which do not expresly acknowledge these things And they that do not express them may well be thought to include them I mean though some of these Quotations do not verbally tell us that when they kept this Sabbath they also kept the Lords day yet it may well be presumed they did so seeing 't was the common Practice of such Churches to observe both of them in the foresaid manner Such an one for Example is that of Socrates Scholasticus who tells us for I have examined him and find he does verbatim tell us in a manner all the Churches in the World do Celebrate and Receive the Holy Mysteries every Sabbath day after other Yet the People inhabiting Alexandria and Rome of an old Tradition do not use it Yet doubtless they also observed the Lords-day seeing 't was that which Constantine had before by Edict enjoyned the Churches to do And he saith in the very next Page and in the same Chapter of this Quotation that at Caesarea in Cappadocia and at Cyprus the Priests and Bishops do Preach and Expound Holy Scripture at Evening-Prayer on the Saturdays and Sundays by Candle-Light and therefore we may well presume that the other Churches did which before he spake of These being some of these all As for his Historical Account when the Lord's day was brought into Scotland viz. An. 1208. It may be very well answered that the initiating or bringing in of the Dominical day does not refer to the day it self but only to the Authority that introduced it even that in that Year it began to be Established by the Authority of a Council which before it had not been Or if it refer to the day it self it may not simply be understood as if that
gather but find it all ready in the publick Ecclesiastical Treasure I am sure he can bring no Demonstration from the Text for his or against my Interpretation But then I have the Testimony of the most ancient Fathers that on the first day they publickly assembled and then they made Collection for the Poor in these Assemblies Moreover If the Apostle here enjoyned such a profane or worldly Task as he supposes why does he enjoyn them to do it on the First days seeing it might have been done as well n every day of the Week and better on the Sixth day If the Seventh were then their Sabbath that so they might know at the end of the common days what they might well and gratefully spare of that weeks Gains and so lay it up against the ensuing Sabbath for the Poors Stock Whence we see that this supposed Solution to this Argument has no ground at all from the Text and to be sure from no other Topick And therefore conclude that the General Collections and so Associations of the Galatian Church being on the First day And the Appostle commanding the Church of Corinth to make the same Collections on that day in Imitation of them or as they did is with the former a very good Evidence that that day was the instituted day for Worship and so consequently the Seventh excluded Page 60. That Proof for the First-day-Sabbath in Rev. 1.9 10. where that day which St. John calls the Lords-day we say was that day of the week which we will by no means grant but tells us what the Opinions of some singular Persons were concerning it that it was Annual not a weekly day either the day of Christ's Birth or of his Resurrection either Christmas-day or Easter Others say 't is a great providential day to vindicate his Kingly Authority and others the last day of his coming but how this day whereon St. John was in the Spirit should be a future day can hardly be conjectured but every thing must be hinted that may seem to serve to an Undermining of the First day of the week from being the day of this glorious Vision But at length it is granted that some take this Lords-day to be a weekly day But then again these some are crumbled into a Sub-division and some of them assert it to be the First day and some the Seventh day thereof and this is written as though the Assertors of the First day were as small a some as those of the former annual Opinion of a future day to John's Vision and of the last day of the Week Whereas I dare to say put them all together they will not amount to the hundredth part of those solid and learned Authors which understand it of the First day of the week but withall these some for the Seventh day as inconsiderable for number as they are in comparison of the other yet they are far better founded and proceed upon more certain and undeniable Grounds than the First-day-Men do for they proceed upon Scripture but these have only Tradition if they have that for their Opinion Now the Tradition which is pleaded for the First day to be the Lords-day is constant uninterrupted and universal from the days of the Apostles The Generality of Christians acknowledging the Dominical day to be the First day whatever Opinion they had of the Sabbath till of late Years some Sabbatarians have thought fit to question it and virtually if not expresly to deny it Which is such a Tradition as upon which their very Scriptural Proofs are grounded for 't is from Tradition that they know the meaning of the very words of the Scripture Whether the Original Languages carry the Sense they are interpreted in and whether we have the genuine and proper Significations of the Originals can be known by nothing but Humane Tradition for either it must be had from Translations or Lexicons or oral Traditions Wherefore if the Sabbatarians will renounce here such a Tradition as is pleaded they must withall renounce their own Scriptural Authority which course will make wild work in the Church He very well denies it to be Christmas-day or any annual one but the great Query is What day of the Week this was and here in the entrance of his Discourse he endeavours to invalidate the universal Tradition of the Churches for 1600 Years by an Induction of other unlawful Traditions as that of Polygamy among the Patriarchs of whom the Scripture mentions but a few particulars and what is that to the Universality of Christians And which was condemned by our Saviour as alien from the first Institution of Marriage And how does this resemble the First days being the Lords-day which was never blamed by him The like he mentions in the Omission of the Feast of Booths and the Custom of the Profanation of the Seventh-days-Sabbath before the Captivity But these were against express Injunctions and Commands still in force and obliging which we deny the Seventh-day-Sabbath to be and avouch and may yet more prove its Abolition as of other positive and ceremonial Commands without any express or literal Prohibition of them in Scripture What therefore he saith in the following Paragraph would be very cogent and undeniable If he could prove the Seventh day of the week to be still enjoyned by the Fourth Command which he hath not yet done by his positive Proofs for his own Opinion as we have seen nor by his Negative in denying of ours as has been in some measure seen already and may be more hereafter At length he comes to give us his own Judgment concerning this Lords-day what day of the Week it was and if he had not told us we should have presumed that it determined for the Seventh-day which in all things till the end of the World must have the Preheminence according to his thoughts but withall 't is grounded upon Scripture which we will candidly and fairly weigh and examine 1. That the Lord Christ instituted the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath just after the Creation he means too before the Fall quoting Gen. 1. begin which we utterly deny because Jesus Christ then was not nor could be we speak of his Existence not Gods Foresight and Decree for then Man was Guiltless and Sinless and so needed no Jesus nor could have had one But in all these Old Testament Proofs he runs upon that former Fallacy of Ill Composition taking for granted that whatever Jehovah did the Lord Jesus Christ did Jehovah the Godhead of our Saviour did create and institute the Seventh-day-Sabbath but not Christ himself which necessarily includes both the Godhead and the Manhood And therefore the Premises being false the Conclusion cannot be true nor the consequential Discourse thereupon of any Moment His second and third Arguments laboring under the same Mistake admit of the same Answer Besides we know that the positive and ceremonial Precepts of Jehovah before his Incarnation were to be abolished by himself after his Incarnation that
their Annual Monthly and Weekly Festivals their Annual by Holy days their Monthly by New Moons and so their Weekly by Sabbaths And there was no Weekly Festival but the Seventh-day-Sabbath Or if by Holydays we apprehend the Generality of Jewish Festivals because they were all Holydays as long as their First Institution lasted yet then he condescends to some Particulars of them as the Monthly and Weekly which then must necessarily include the Sabbath because that was a Jewish Holy-day Yet again If we should grant that under the last word Sabbaths any other Festivals may be included or meant Yet certainly the Weekly-Sabbath cannot be excluded being the most famous Analogate comprehended under it and therefore in such an Expression cannot be excepted though sometimes the most famous Analogate be only meant and excludes all others yet never is it it self not intended in such Propositions Withal as we said before of the Galatian Church so we do of the Colossian 't was infected by false Teachers that would make a Mixture of the Jewis and Christian Religion and would have Moses's Rites to be kept with Christ's Ordinances And they know well enough that by Sabbaths was meant the Seventh day seeing 't is always so accepted Whence we may well conclude that here is an express exiling the Seventh-day-Sabbath out of the Church of Church Heretofore we were called upon to shew one Text in which the Seventh-day-Sabbath was abrogated and now we bring an express literal one yet it will not do but many Objections are brought in against it Which we shall successively consider and traverse 1. Some think it must be understood of Ceremonial Sabbaths only because else 't would reach the First-day-Sabbath as well as the Seventh But there is no fear of that for the First day is never called Sabbath in the Scripture and therefore cannot be meant and wee say the Seventh-day-Sabbath was both positive and ceremonial for he himself allows it to signify the eternal Rest above 2. He Objects that one place names no Sabbath but only Days the other indeed names Sabbaths which he would have interpreted Weeks for which I can see no Reason but much against it and therefore shall say nothing till he produce his Reasons for it And all the weight of this Argument is but a silly Conjecture of the meaning of the word Sabbaths But we have seen before that this is not a silly Conjecture but grounded upon the very usual Acceptation of the Word upon the Connection of the adjoyned things upon the State of the Churches unto whom he writ and upon the design of his Epistles to them But I am sure what follows is not so much as a Conjecture but a very great Oversight for he tells us that he finds the word Sabbaths in the Plural Number no where in the New Testament ascribed to the Seventh day It was then because he would not be at the pains to sind it for 't is in all these places Mat. 12.5 10 12. Mark 3.4 Luke 4.31 and 6.2 9. In all these places he will find it so and in the Original Greek the word is Sabbaths without a Verbal Superaddition of days which he himself must be inforced to acknowledge spoke of this day 3. The Seventh day he faith was never in Question in any of these Epistles and if there be no such Question about altering it how can such a Sense be imposed c. Just so I may say the New-Moon Observation and the Annual Festivals are no where questioned in these Epistles nor any where else that I remember expresly to be lain aside How therefore can such a Meaning be put upon Years and Months as to include the Judaical seeing Sabbaths are as plain and clear for the Seventh days as any of the former for what they are understood here We have still the Thred-beaten Plea of the Moral Law introduced and improved when I assert that neither he nor all the World can ever prove the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath to be part of the Moral Law Quatenus Moral His Fourth Answer plainly confounds Sabbaths with Years and New-Moons which the Apostle clearly distinguishes and of all the rest I may truly say they are but meer ungrounded Conjectures to baffle an express Text of Scripture But here he has a very strange Fancy That by Days may be meant the First day because the Heathen worshiped the Sun on that day And so then every day because the Heathen worshiped distinct Idols every day And so we should have no Consecrated day at all neither First nor Seventh nor any other All the rest that follows here are but as he expresses his own Thoughts and as well grounded as that Thought of his That the First day was not observed by Christians When yet we have found them several times associated on that day and Christ appearing several times in the midst of them and at Troas Assembled on that day and St. Paul Preaching and Administring the Lords Supper to them and therein to Harmonize with the Church of Galatia which I suppose proved against Objections neither of which can be said concerning the Seventh day Only there were Assemblies of the Jews on that day and St. Paul took the Advantage on these days to Preach to them But what is this to Christs Disciples and Followers We may therefore according to his own Rule That which appears not is not at all conclude that the Seventh day was never observed by the Disciples and Followers of Christ after his Resurrection as a day consecrated to Publick Worship because we never read in the Scripture that they did so meet Whereas the contrary is seen by the First day So I dismiss this Thought and the others as no more likely 5. He farther saith that 't is uncertain and therefore as such I or'e look it 6. He saith from Paul's constant keeping the Seventh-day-Sabbath that he cannot be supposed to condemn his own constant Practice But how he did this we have already seen and therefore shall not stop here 7. That St. Paul commends the Whole Moral Law as Just Holy and Good and therefore can never be thought to condemn it here Here we have anew theatrized the Moral Law which we acknowledge the Apostle doth strenuously urge and never opposed any one Tittle thereof But yet he here decries the Seventh-day-Sabbath as very consistent with and agreeing to all his Zeal for the Moral Law because that was never of the Substance of it Neither is it either Holy or Just or Good I mean not in and of it self as all that is truly and naturally Moral is but by Gods commanding it We acknowledge it to be positively Moral 8. The last Answer is from Math. 24.20 Pray you that your Flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day Upon which place he lays so great a Stress as to suppose it a sufficient Proof for the Observation of the Seventh day as our bounden Duty For here he takes for granted that this Sabbath