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A60369
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A preservative against atheism and error wherein some fundamental points in religion ... are by way of question and answer handled, and with much brevity and clearness proved ... : to which is added a brief answer to William Russel in a book of his entituled No seventh-day-Sabbath in Christs New Testament / by W. Saller.
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Saller, William, d. ca. 1680.
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1664
(1664)
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Wing S399; ESTC R37201
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26,787
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31
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Religion 〈…〉 with 〈◊〉 Law therefore as we love Religion and would see it prosper let uâ— be tender of the root Our Saviour tells us not one jor or tittle shall pass from this Law and that he that breaketh one of the least of them shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.18 19. And James will not allow the breach of it in one point but requires the fulfilling of it Jam. 2.8 9 10 11. Quest Doth the Law stand in the same force and power now as when it was at first given because the Scriptures speak of it as old and done away dead to us and we to it with such-like expressions which make some think it doth not continue to be a Rule of life Answ First The Law continues the same in it self for ever and is an everlasting Rule of Godliness and Righteousness to all Generations as hath been proved nevertheless the Law hath no power to help our distresses which we lie in now since the Fall but our help cometh by our Lord Jesus alone As for example It cannot justifie us not sanctifie us look Rom. 3d 4th 7th chapters with many more Texts like them It cannot now give us life although once it was ordained for that purpose but it is now become the Ministration of Condemnation a killing letter out of whose power there were no escaping were not its cursing Office taken out of its hands by Jesus Christ look Rom. 7. 2 Cor. 3. with other-like places but I cannot now stand to discourse this at large it would require a Book of it self nevertheless I was willing to give thee a little hint or notice of these things to preserve thee from stumbling at this holy Law as many blind and ignorant souls do who will not have it at all that because it will not serve them therefore they will not have it cendemn them nor shew them their sin but this Office it will have in the world to the end of it Rom. 3.20 Quest If the whole and every tittle of the Law be for ever binding then the fourth Command must be binding also and that almost all men are against some think it abolished and that we are bound to keep no Sabhath at all others think it partly moral and partly ceremonial others think the Church had power to change it others think the Apostles and Church in their dayes changed it others think that a seventh part of time at the will and pleasure of man is sufficient instead of it Answ I answer in the words of the Prophet The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men that they are vanity Psal 94.11 for there is no ground for any of these thoughts but the fourth Command is like its fellows given at the beginning of the world and endures as long as the world endures Quest Will you speak a few words to prove its Perpetuity in particular Answ That I shall but seeing there are so many Treatises extant of so many Authors some dead and some living that have so fully proved it and answered all objections I shall say the less Brayborn Ocford Spitlehouse Stenit with many others I omit to name now yet notwithstanding I shall say something heat First It was given in a day of Innocency even the very first whole day of Adams being in the world which is enough to deliver it from all suspition of being ceremonial or changeable but a sanctified season to worship God in and to commemorate the Work of Creation for ever Quest The second of Genesis speaks of God's resting upon it and sanctifying it but is it plain that he gave it to Adam and so to the world Answ For answer to this when God sanctified the Sabbath it must be for Adam or for himself now it is so sorded to say or to think that he sanctified a Rest for himself that one would think that no man that is in his right mind would once imagine it As for outward Rest he cannot want Isa 40.28 and for inward Sanctification he can have as little want of that for who that owneth a God will not confess him to be perfect now if he had no need to sanctifie it for himself he did it for Adam or for no use at all but to judge him so vain in his actions is too great blasphemy for any to affirm that hath his reason and doth but use it Quest Have you any thing more to strengthen this proof Answ Yea when the Lord gave it with the other nine in the 20. of Exodus he placed it in the midst of his Law and wrote it with his own hand and put it into the Ark with its fellows and fenced it about with more Reasons to preserve it from violation than he did all the other six Commands following it and all those Reasons are of a moral nature not one of them otherwise so that here is no occasion given of mens so stumbling at it as they do but that the Duty is spiritual and mens hearts carnal and they love to be ruled by the flesh Quest But is there not ground to judge the Sabbath ceremonial from that 2d of the Colossians Answ Not at all if men did with care read and consider the Scriptures for evident it is that besides the New Moons and holy Dayes of which there were many there were four ceremonial Sabbaths in the seventh Month as appears Levit. 23.24 32 39. which if considered men would be wiser than to imploy that Text in that unworthy Service to take away the Seventh-Day-Sabbath especially seeing the Sabbaths there mentioned are of the nature of the New Moons holy Days shadows of things to come but the Seventh-Day-Sabbath appointed to commemorate the great Work past But further when God declared his ten Commandments in 〈…〉 of â—ny Sabbath but the Seventh-Day burgiveth his People in this Command as free leave to work the six dayes as if he never intended any other Sabbath should be kept at all and yet by Moses shortly after giveth command for them also All which sheweth plainly the difference between these two sorts of Sabbaths the one to contitute a Law for ever the other a shadow till the time of Reformation only Quest Seeing it is so opposed in the world speak one word or two more for its confirmation Answ Our Lord Jesus hath in the Now Testament sufficiently confirmed it First in general By telling that the Law in which the Sabbath is included shall remain in every jot and tittle of it till Heaven and Earth pass away and till all things be fulfilled now we know many great things spoken of in the Law and Prophets are not yet fulfilled neither is Heaven and Earth in any sence passed away and therefore the Sabbath must remain by that Rule without the diminishing of one tittle of it Mat. 5.17 18 19 20. these Texts are of a like import with that already named Luke 16.17 18. Jawes 2.8 10 11. Rev. 11.19 and 12.17
nessecarily depending one upon another like the parts and members of a natural body most comely and beautiful so that the highest commendations Christ gives his Church in that book of the Canticles doth much more belong to that Body of Divinity held forth in the Scriptures by which she is begotten and conformed to his Image Add to this the consideration of the Pen-men thereof who being the Prophets and Apostles and living in several Ages yet without jarr have brought forth this noble work so that you may plainly see they were all guided by one and the same holy Spirit in the writing of them Fourthly The Effects and lively Power of them in the hearts of men declare from whence they are descended that which is spoken of their soul-searching and powerful piercing nature Heb. 4.12 every soul that seriously converseth with them findeth true He that in his old blind estate took his heart to be good when he comes to try it by the Scriptures finds it so notoriously filthy that he abhors himself and as it discovereth sin so it purgeth it out and makes the carnal heart spiritual and brings it unto the Love of God and Holiness which before he hated and works it up to the hatred of sin which before he loved so that its transforming nature plainly sheweth it to be the Words of God Quest But may not other Books perswade men as well as that how many are led by other books into error Answ Yea other books may over-come mens judgements but not transform their natures from carnal to be spiritual from earthlymindedness to be heavenly minded and to bring from the love of sin to the love of holiness as this blessed Book of the holy Scriptures doth Fifthly The constant fulfilling of the Prophecies of them preach to all men their â—nfallibility God made good his Promise to Abraham Gen. 15. as also that to David 2 Sam. 7.12 to the 17. Also his Threatnings to Jeroboam 1 Kings 13.2 As also the Promises made in the 2d of Haggai and 3d of Malachi concerning Christ's coming to the second Temple which is now fallen Also Christ's Prophecy of the fall of this Temple and of Jerusalem Mat. 23.37 38. 24.2 19 20 21 22. Luke 21.20 21 22 23 24. is also come to pass As also the Prophecy of Paul 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. is you see fulfilled to a tittle with many more instances if need were all proving their heavenly birth Sixthly The unsupportable burthen of a Conscience which God woundeth for sin The sealing Testimony of his Love by the Spirit to the soul of the true believer The gracious Answers to prayers made to God in the name of Christ with other like experiences give to all gracious hearts most full assurance that the Scriptures were endited by the Spirit of God Seventhly Jehovah himself hath born witness of them that they are his words beyond all contradiction 1. By declaring the ten Commandments with his own Voice with that terrour as is exprest Exod. 19. and writing them twice with his own hand these being the grand Law on which the whole Scriptures depend and being the foundation of all Religion as by and by will appear 2. The wonderful Signs and Miracles wrought to confirm them as the bringing Israel out of Egypt through the Red-Sea and the Wilderness and Jordan by a piller of a Cloud by day and a piller of Fire by night into Canaan to the terrour of all the Nations round about Also the Sun standing still and coming back The Resurrection of Christ which will be proved anon and the Resurrection of others by Christ with other numberless Miracles all preaching to the world that the Scriptures are the Counsel and Will of God Quest But how shall we know that these wonders have been wrought but by the Scriptures own Testimony or by the Church Answ It may be known if this be considered that the Scriptures have alwayes had and to this day have so many feigned friends open enemies either flatly opposing them or to their uttermost secretly undermining and disgracing them or exalting humane inventions above them in so much that no sober Christian can doubt but that if there had beene possibility to have denied the report of those Miracles in that day in which they are said to be done the World could not have wanted Volumes enough to have shaken the Faith of the Christian World so called long before this day but although they be carpt at and undermined yet may all that love them challenge all their enemies to produce one known and approved Author that hath undertaken to reprove the report of those glorious Miracles and if none can be found then have we the greatest assurance that can be desired that they are certainly true Eightly And lastly They have a Testimony in the consciences and mouths of those that like not to be ruled by them and therefore make as little use of them as possible they can in setting up Religion You have a clear instance of the Papists to go no further Evident it is that as many Decrees Canons Articles Traditions and Ceremonies as the Church of Rome hath yet with all these and her Mass-book Pope and Councils to boot with all their pretended infalliability yet they cannot have a Religion without the holy Scriptures although it be a well-known truth that they love them not For all those that honour and obey them and dare not transgress those blessed Precepts are the only grand Hereticks with them And as for such as conform to their abominable Idolatries and superstitious Inventions pass for Catholick people with them although they be notorious transgressors of the Law of God and yet if these men did wholly cast off the Scriptures as ill as they love them their Religion could not have a Being I am neither insensible nor forgetful that there are both foolish subtile indeavours by several sorts of men besides these some of them I may meet with at another turn others a reasonable understanding will answer and therefore I will go no further in this Quest Have you not some other consideration about the Scriptures meet to be opened you spake a little before of the Dignity of the ten Commandments will you prove those sayings Answ I did so and before I go further I think it meet to do that work for now having proved the Scriptures to be of divine Authority we may with all boldness apply our selves unto them as a safe guide in Religion And first for the Dignity of the ten Commandments it is most evident that they are a superior Law on which all other Laws in the Scriptures depend For this see Christ's own Testimony Mat. 22.35 where giving us the sum of that divine Law consisting in Love to God and to our Neighbour he tells us in express words that the whole Law and the Prophets hang upon it and that this is not my own exposition of the Text but the Apostle Pauls see