they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be
a religious respect to the Sabbath which Moses forthwith explains vers 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath c. and vers 29. See because the Lord hath given you this Sabbath therefore he hath given you on the sixth day the Bread of two days Philo Judaeus saith that the Hebrews were taught by this which was the birth-day of the World whereof their Forefathers were ignorant a very likely thing that Abraham should not know the Patriarchal Sabbath L'Estrange will have it thus That the Elders made not strange at the Sabbath but at the strictness of the Rest now commanded But he should have called to mind that nothing was spoken of that till after the Elders were come to Moses And if we duly weigh the Story the Elders will be found to have thought it strange why the People gathered this double portion on Friday for the Elders knew that a double portion was to be gathered on the sixth day six days before And therefore would doubtless have applied themselves to Moses before now for a resolution if they had then questioned for what end they were to gather double on the sixth day and no other reason can be imagined of that delay but that their thoughts were suspended all that while upon the sixth day of the Patriarchal-week which is Saturday till they saw the People gather on the sixth day in the order of the gathering days and then and not till then they came to Moses that he might resolve them whether the Precept was to be interpreted of the sixth day in the order of the Creation which had hitherto been the preparation for the Sabbath or whether it was God's purpose to alter the Sabbath and transfer it from Sunday to Saturday and that therefore Friday now must be their preparation day or which comes all to one whether the six days were to comense at the first gathering-day or the first of the Patriarchal week And this seruple propounded by all the Elders that is all the grave men of the Congregation who had been longest acquainted with the Ancient Sabbath for Elders in the Text does not imply a name of Office but of Age Elders by Office not being constituted till Jethro had advised Moses to constitute them Exod. 18. 21. These it seems had not themselves gathered a double portion but thought the younger sort timerarious in their account of days and therefore acquaint Moses with it whom Moses thus resolves This is that the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. When did God say this but in his Precept to gather twice as much on the sixth day So that here Moses comments upon the Precept telling them that thereby God appointed to the Jews the morrow following to be thence-forward their weekly Sabbath Whereas if they had been used before to keep Saturday-Sabbath the Rulers needed not to have applied themselves to Moses for the resolution of such a question as a Child might have unriddled for it cannot be imagined but the day before the Patriarchal Sabbath was from the beginning a preparation to it whereon Reason would tell Men that they ought to set their secular Affairs in such good order as they might not be distracted by them in the sacred exercises of the Sabbath which from the first was so to be sanctified as no servile work was to be done thereon And seeing the Israelites at this time had no other servile work to do but gathering and dressing of Manna if they had not been restrained from that on the Sabbath there would have been no difference betwixt that and other days in respect of cessation from common work And therefore upon that supposition that Saturday was their ancient Sabbath the Elders must have been Children in understanding if they perceived not the reason of the Precept for gathering twice as much on Friday To sum up the whole of this Argument This is the first Saturday-Sabbath we find celebrated in the Wrold for 2453 Years at the lowest account and that the whole World should live to that age without a Sabbath is the most incredible of Incredibles In order to the vindication of the Patriarchal-Church from so black a Crime I have endeavoured to shew that Sunday-Sabbath was observed before the Institution of the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath from the first instance And I shall give more clear and unexceptionable proof thereof in the other forenamed instance drawn from Exod. 12. 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation of Israel saying On the tenth day of this mouth they shall take to them a Lamb c. SECT VIII 2d Instance If we reckon backward from the 15th day of the second month which we demonstrated to have been Sunday till we come to the tenth day of the first month we shall find that tenth day to have been Sunday and to have been celebrated by the Israelites and by consequence the Egyptians also their keeping thereon a solemn religious stated Assembly on course 1. That this tenth day fell on Sunday may be thus collected by a retrograde calculation of days from the fifteenth of the second month to the tenth of the first Second month Days 15 8 1. First month days 24 17 10 were 〈◊〉 For the proof of this Account wherein I assign 30 days to a month I have the plain testimony of Moses Gen. 7. 24. compared with Chap. 8. 4. where the beginning of the 150 days of the Waters prevailing above the Earth is said to be the 17th day of the month and the end of those days the 17th of the 7th month that is just five months if we assign to each month 30 days And Deut. 12. 13. She shall bewail her Father and Mother a month of days This would have been a Lesbian Rule if their months had not consisted of an equal number of days And if the days of every of those months wherein the Waters prevailed had not been thirty the space from the 17th of the second to the 17th of the seventh month would not have amounted to 150 days These Texs are so plain as I wonder how so many Men of great and deserved name came to be lulled except by Rabbinical Sorcery into so deep a sleep as to dream of the Jewish months having assigned to them alternatim 30 and 29 days and to forsake Moses his conduct in so plain a path An Errour which the industrious and learned Vsher gives his Testimony against in the Preface to his Annals The Year saith he there of the Patriarchs Egyptians and Hebrews consisted of twelve equal months of thirty days aepiece For that the Hebrews used Lunary months before the Babylonish Captivity is more than can be proved from this so infallible an Evidence that the Patriarchs reckoned thirty days to the month what ever Innovation after-Ages introduc'd is not here material A demonstrative proof may be drawn of the truth of the first Instance also that the 15th of the second month Exod. 16.
Latitude with the beginning Heb. 1. 10. and Heb. 4. 3. Though the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World that is in the sixth day distinguished from the seventh day vers 4. For he spake of the seventh day on this wise and God rested the seventh day from all his Works so that the time specified by from the Foundation of the World vers 3. concludes with the sixth day before the seventh whereon God rested Now Christ cannot be said to be slain then actually for so he was not slain till the fulness of Time till the Hour appointed of the Father nor in the divine Decree for so he was slain before the Foundation of the World but only in respect of the Promise then made to Adam In which Promise he was exhibited as God-man as Man in regard of the Serpent's brusing his Heel as God in regard of his breaking the Serpent's Head This leads me into a Flowry Field of Meditation wherein I must crave leave to expatiate and refresh my self after my tedious Walk through dark and controverted Texts in the pursuit of Truth I shall therefore offer here these things to Consideration 1. When things are once put into a divine Promise they are then in Scripture Language said to be for tho they attain not to actual Existence till long after yet the Promise gives them a real being or metaphysical Essence as rosa in Hieme Hence God saith to Abraham Gen. 17. 15. I have made thee a Father of many Nations when as yet Isaac through whom he was to be the Father of many Nations was not yet conceived in the Womb nor in human probability ever like to be conceived in Sarah's Womb. From which Instance the Apostle draws this Inference that God calls things that be not as to actual Existence as if they were in real Essence because he that promised was able to perform it and was then engaged to perform it upon the honour of his Veracity Rom. 4. 17. so that it was as impossible that it could miscarry or prove abortive as that God can lye From which Promise we have a thousand times greater Assurance to say the Lamb was then slain then we have to say while the Fruit is only in the Root and not brought forth this is a Pippin this a Pearmain c. For this latter is grounded on a Lie upon the immutability of God's Covenant with Day and Night c. which though we cannot yet God can break yea hath broke as when he made the Sun stand still in the days of Joshua go back at Hezekiah's Prayer and suspended its Light at our Saviour's Passion as the Fire did also its burning property in the Case of the three Children but the former is grounded on the Immutability of God's Promise by Oath and the most sacred Oath even by Himself than whom he hath not a greater to swear by In respect of this Immutability the Hebrew Doctors upon Gen. 15. 18. have this Observation He saith not I will give but I have given and yet Abraham had now begotten no Children because the Word of the holy blessed God is a Deed therefore he so speaketh Ainsworth Thus the Son of God was tendered to fallen Man as the Lamb slain he was in this Promise as manifestly held out to Adam as crucified as making an Atonement for Sinners by the Oblation of his Blood as he was after his actual Crucifixion and Ascention held out to the Galatians Chap. 3. 1. 2. The Son of God in the Virtue of this his future Oblation of himself and Mediation by Merit entred upon the Exercise of his Mediatory Office by Intercession immediately upon Adam's Fall he did not suffer the mortal Wound to fester but applied the healing Balm flowing from his bruised Heel to it while it was green as soon as ever he saw Adam naked and in his Blood he poured clean Water upon him cast his Garment over him and entred into a Covenant with him and said unto him Live No sooner had Man made a League with the Serpent and proclaimed War against God but God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself In the Cool of the day that is in the Evening of that Day whereon he fell Adam heard the Voice of the Lord God that is the Word or Son of God as both Christians and Jews expound that place Gen. 3. 8. See Dr. Owen's Exercit. 10. 2. calling him to Repentance by Arraignment to Faith by the Promise of the Woman's Seed yea to Glory by presenting himself in the Form of an human Body and that glorious Body such as he shewed himself in at the Transfiguration and hath now at the Right-hand of the Father Dr. More Append. to Mystery of Iniquity As when Job had wish't Chap. 9. 34. Let him take his Rod away from me and let not his Fear terrifie me Then would I speak and not fear him Elihu according to Job's wish makes him this Offer Behold I am in God's stead I also am formed out of the Clay Behold my Terror shall not make thee afraid neither shall my Hand be heavy upon thee If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up c. Job 33. 5 6 7. So the Lord pleaded with Adam by his Son in the Form of God manifest in the Flesh I doubt not but the Son of God in human shape was all this seventh Day busied in most holy Colloquies with Adam but that he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wish'd him to meditate upon these Works and in them to praise and acknowledg the true God his Creator and taught him that after his Example every seventh Day all Labour set aside he should spend in the Exercise of Piety Zanchy de Creatione Hom. l. 1. Fuller upon these words They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden Gen. 3. 8. hath this Observation By this Voice I understand certain Words which God spake with himself walking Christ appearing to them in human shape 3. This his mediating to reconcile Man to God argues he had upon the instant of Adam's Fall so far reconciled God to Man by becoming his Surety by giving Bond to make Satisfaction pay Man's Ransome at the day appointed at the fulness of Time as the Father upon Consideration thereof would not take the Forefeiture but delegated the Son to treat with his Rebels and offer them Pardon and a better State than that they were fallen from on the Condition of their accepting the Covenant of Grace For Christ did not take this Honour of the Melchisedochian Priest-hood upon himself but was called of God an High-Priest after this order Heb. 5. 10. and made a Priest by Oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever c. Heb. 7. 21. He was sworn to this Office of Mediation and sent to manage it by
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon
The Doctrine of the CHURCH of England Concerning the Lord's-Day or Sunday-Sabbath As it is laid down in the Liturgy Catechism and Book of Homilies VINDICATED From the Vulgar Errours of Modern Writers and settled upon the only proper and sure Basis of God's Precept to Adam and Patriarchal Practice VVHERE An Essay is laid down to prove that the Patriarchal Sabbath instituted Gen. 2. 3. celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick Law and re-inforc'd in the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same day of the VVeek viz. Sunday which Christians celebrate in memory of the perfecting of the Creation of the VVorld by the Redemption of Mankind Stand ye in the Ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good Way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your Souls Jer. 6. 16. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIII THE PREFACE TO THE Intelligent Readers SAd and deplorable Brethren have been our Sabbatarian Controversies For while one Extream pleads there is no other ground for sanctifying the Lord's-Day than there is for other Holy-days to wit Ecclesiastical Constitution thinking thereby to oblige Christians to as religious Observation of other Holy-days as of Sunday They aim at an Impossibility seeing in many religious Persons there is imprinted this common Sentiment That the Lord's-Day ought to be discriminated from other Days And this Principle so deeply imprinted as all Attempts to obliterate do furbish it and make the writing more legible Yea the circumjacent Cold of the Devotion of the contrary-minded as by an Antiperistasis enflames the Zeal of Men seriously devout beyond the due Bounds and pusheth them on to the very Brink if not into the Gulf of Judaizing in the manner of celebrating the Lord's-Day And on the other hand the looser sort observing how some of those that with most Earnestness press the aforesaid Ground of Ecclesiastical Constitution do themselves observe Holy-days think they have fully discharged the Office of good Religious Christians if they sanctify the Lord's-Day as they celebrate other Holy-Days that is by resting from their ordinary Callings frequenting the Morning-Prayer to attend Evensong is a work of Supererogation and trifling away the remainder in pass-times Now what hath or can be the issue of this but Ignorance and Prophaneness and an Incouragement to profane Sundays instead of sanctifying other Holy-days But I love not to be querulous motos praestat componere fluctus I would much rather help towards the calming of this boisterous Sea in order whereunto I shall propound these Preliminaries 1. That the Progress of Men's Devotion for Sundays above other Holy-days into Superstition ought by all means to be prevented and the Jewish Yoke of the strict Ceremonial Rest of their Sabbath as well as their Sabbath-Day it self ought to be taken off the Necks of the Disciples because that Ceremonial Rest being a Shadow of good things to come by Christ the retaining of the Shadow is a denying that Christ the Body is come And bodily Rest as well as bodily Exercise is now under the Gospel unprofitable except it be ordinated to spiritual 2. That yet a due Respect to the Lord's-Day ought by all means to be incouraged 1. Because this seems to be the common Notion of serious Christians and that argues it to be an Infusion from that one Spirit into which we are all baptized and by which as their Intellectus Agens or common Soul all Christ's living Members are animated 2. Because this is one of the surest Nails fastened by the Masters of Assemblies for the Support of Religion especially in this Age For this Principle is that that not only brings Men to Church to worship God and to be instructed by him in the Ministry of the Gospel but also obligeth them in Conscience to do something extraordinary in their Families on the Lord's-Day towards the educating them in the Nurture and Fear of the Lord beyond what they think themselves bound to do on the Week-Days so that if this were an Errour it would be an happy Errour as being an occasion of bringing Men to the Worship of God and Knowledg of the Truth And truly if I were perswaded that the other Opinion that the Sanctification of the Lord's-Day hath no other Ground than Ecclesiastical Constitution were a Truth I should think it a Truth not necessary to be published For if Men did not apply themselves to the Service of God and promoting the Interest of their Souls with more Seriousness of Devotion on the Lord's-Day than it is possible to perswade them to in keeping other Holidays the common Practice of most and the Principles of the more Religious considered Ceres and Bacchus would have more Service from Christians than the only true God For how I pray are our very chief Holy-days celebrated such as Christmas Easter Pentecost Sunday excepted but by Carding Dancing Revelling Whitsun-Ales c If God therefore had not better Sacrifices offered to him and Men's Souls better Sustenance administred to them on the Lord's-Day Men would rob God of his Honour and starve their own Souls 3. The first Errour in the Digestion of Men's Thoughts touching this Controversy is the common Hypothesis of all modern Litigants to wit That the Lord's-Day comes in as a Successour in the room of Saturday Upon which sandy Ground it is not so easy to lay any solid Foundation for sanctifying the Lord's-Day For if that Day which God by his Example and Precept first sanctified for the weekly Sabbath be Saturday that Day cannot be unsanctified and another adopted in its room but by an Equal if not a Superiour Authority to that which consecrated Saturday Now a Superiour Authority to the Example and Precept of God cannot be imagined And that which is alledged by either Party for the unsanctifying Saturday falls far short of Equality to it For what argumentative Force can there be in Christ's rising his appearing to his Apostles the Apostles assembling on Sundays for the sanctifying that Day comparable to the express Command of God for sanctifying Saturday much less can the Constitution of the Church counter-ballance it Briefly they proclaim Sunday an usurping Intruder into the Priviledges of Saturday rather than its legal Successour who advance it into the Possession of Saturday's Crown to be the weekly Holy-day upon no better claim than can possibly be deduc'd for it while they make it a younger Brother 4. This Errour in the first Digestion being incurable must either be removed out of the way of Men's Thoughts when they are pitching them upon this Argument or they will be ever learning and yet never come to the Knowledg of the true Ground for the sanctifying of the Lord's-Day but will endlesly draw the Saw of Contention both ways That the abovesaid Errour therefore may be obviated I have laid down this contrary Hypothesis viz. That Sunday-Sabbath is elder Brother to Saturday-Sabbath That being assigned for the weekly
Sabbath at the beginning by God's Precept to Adam and in him to his whole Posterity to the end of the World and therefore extending to all Ages and all Mankind And this being assigned to the Jews only for that short time wherein the Law-giver was pleased to dispense with that Nation as to this Law given to all Nations and that for Reasons sufficiently palpable 5. This Hypothesis enervates the Arguments brought against the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day and furnisheth Conscience with a solid ground of bearing a due religious Respect to it without danger of Judaizing in the manner of the Celebration thereof 1. To instance in their Herculean Argument drawn from the Gloss they put upon that Text Gen. 2. 3. as being spoke by Moses by way of Anticipation If that Day that God rested on was not Saturday but Sunday his sanctifying the Day he rested on could not have respect to the after-Institution of another Day for what Consequence can be in this because God at first rested on Sunday therefore he appointed Moses above two thousand Years after the Creation to command Saturday to be sanctified comparable to what is in this because God rested on Sunday the Seventh Day in the order of the Creation he therefore blessed it and sanctified it that is separated it by his Precept to Adam to be the weekly Sabbath Indeed the dream of a Prolepsis in this Text chargeth Moses with most gross Equivocation in the use of these words and God blessed except we fancy an Anticipation in those other Places of his Text where these words occur as Gen. 1. 22. where speaking of Fish and Fowl he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and vers 28. speaking of Adam and Eve he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply 2. That this Hypothesis yields a solid Ground for the consciencious observing the Lord's-Day so as there needs not any new Constitution be made by Christ or his Apostles for the observing of it is manifest of it self For if Sunday be the Day that God separated at first to be the weekly Sabbath to the Patriarchs and was accordingly celebrated by them before the giving of the Law by Moses the standing part of the Fourth Command obliging all Mankind must necessarily refer to that and that there is a standing part of that Precept for the Breach whereof we are taught to say Lord have Mercy upon us and for the better observing whereof we are taught to pray Incline our Hearts to keep this Law is the declared Judgment of our Church And then the Temporary and Ceremonial Part both as to the Day and Mode of keeping it peculiar to the Jews being part of those carnal Ordinances that were imposed upon them until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. vanish of themselves as being antiquated by Christ's Cross and give way to the Antient Patriarchal Sabbath And here now our Saviour's Rising from the Dead his frequent Appearing to his Disciples on Sunday the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Church come in seasonably with their Auxiliary Force to strengthen my Hypothesis and to support the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day For though as to the first Consecration therof these Examples signify nothing nor are able to stand upon that old Ground against the joynt Assaults of God's express Precept and Example for sanctifying Saturday Yet upon the Ground that I have laid they are substantial and strenuous Seconds to prove the Restauration of the antient Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath by the Antiquation of the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath though they are not of Authority to appoint a new Lord's-Day yet they are safe Guides to point us to that old Patriarchal Lord's-Day whereon the Lord rested and therefore commanded the Patriarchal Church-Catholick to sanctify it as their weekly Sabbath in Conformity to and in Communion with which Church extending to all Places and Ages Our Saviour after the rending of the Vail rose upon that Day and upon that Day celebrated religious weekly Assemblies with his Apostles and taught them to do the like during those forty Days wherein he convers'd with them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension speaking to them of the things appertaining to the Kingdom of God 3. Lastly this secures us from falling into Jewish Superstition in the manner of celebrating our Christian Sabbath for with the Jewish Day the Jewish manner of keeping that Day vanisheth So that the Christian Church is not obliged to sanctify the Lord's-Day in those strict Formalities of bodily Rest and other carnal Observances imposed upon the Jews but in the more generous and man-becoming Exercises of contemplating the Glory of God in the Creation compleated by the new Creation of believing acquiescing and triumphing in God through Christ of attending on Gospel-Ordinances publick private and secret of visiting the Sick relieving the Indigent and eating our Bread with Gladness of Heart on that day above others that being the Christian weekly Festival and the Day which God hath made for us to be glad and rejoyce in neither need we macerate our selves with studying when to begin when to end the Christian Sabbath at Even Midnight or Morning For he who having set his Secular Affairs in such order as they give no Interruption to his Sunday-Devotion goes to bed with God on Saturday-Night and riseth with God on Sunday-Morning and spends the Day in such like Exercises as have been mentioned may after he has commended himself and his Family if he have one to God go to his Rest on Sunday Night without danger of prophaning the Sabbath at his usual time Briefly the usefulness of this Hypothesis is so great and apparent both as to putting an end to all Strife even amongst the most Litigious and setling inward Peace in the truly Consciencious as I was something jealous lest the prospect thereof might make the Arguments I bring for proof of the Hypothesis seem to have more weight than indeed they have till I had communicated my Papers to several Persons of more quick Understanding in the fear of the Lord with this humble Request That they would weigh their Contents in the Ballance of their impartial Judgments which I heartily thank them they did and thereby gave me occasion to rectify some Passages and Encouragement to commit this Tract as it now stands corrected to publick view If it shall please the divine Goodness to make use of so mean a Person as my self towards the setling the Consciences of Christians upon a safe Ground and the binding up of those Wounds which the Church hath received in the House of her Friends as the poor tattard Captive Democedes cured Darius after that the Egyptian Physicians had for seven Days and Nights by violent handling of his dis-joynted Foot kept him without Sleep Let God have the Praise who chooseth the weak and foolish things of this World to confound the mighty and wise And let him have your Prayers Christian Reader whose utmost
Design and Ambition is to be serviceable in promoting the Eternal Interest of Souls and the Peace of the Church Your Servant in our Common Lord. J. S. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe Patriarchs had stated Assemblies for publick Worship Pag. 3. Sect. 1. They had stated Places for Divine Worship p. 4. Sect. 2. Stated Ministers with Maintenance Jacob's Vow The Egyptian Priests-Lands Cain's Offering p. 6. CHAP. II. The Patriarchs had stated Times proved from Gen. 4. 3. and Gen. 1. 4. p. 17. CHAP. III. These stated Times were weekly p. 19. Sect. 1. The Computation of Times by Septimanes common to all Ages Weeks of Years Gen. 29. 27. Affronts Sacred Chronology p. 20 c. Sect. 2. And to all Nations Computation by Months and Years of human Invention by Weeks of Divine Institution p. 25. Sect. 3. At the End of Days Gen. 4. 3. is the End of a Week p. 28. Sect. 4. Sons of God Job 1. 6. not Angels but Church-Members p. 30. Sect. 5. Sons of God different from Morning-Stars What is the Corner-Stone Job 38. p. 38. Sect. 6. The Sons of God Joh. 1. 6. proved to be the same with the Sons of God Gen. 2. 6. from the Proximity of the Times Job Contemporarian with Phaleg proved from length of his Age. Job was Jobab the Son of Joctan Daughter of Edom in the Land of Us Lam. 4. explained by Jer. 25. Job's Country Arabia Petraea p. 43. Sect. 7. Elihu wrote the History of Job p. 51. Sect. 8. Sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord was their Church-Convention on stated Days weekly p. 56. Sect. 9. The Chimaera of a Prolepsis Gen. 2. proved p. 61. CHAP. IV. The Weekly Patriarchal-Sabbath was Sunday p. 64. Sect. 1. The Patriarchal Sabbath was not Saturday proved from Testimony of Heathens Fathers Scripture which makes a vast difference betwixt the Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that injoyned the Jews by Moses p. 64. Sect. 2. The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and Mosaick grounded upon different Reasons p. 77. Sect. 3. The Patriarchal Sabbath was Sunday proved by two Arguments Saturday-Sabbaterians silenc'd p. 91. Sect. 4. The first Instance of celebrating Sunday before the Institution of Saturday-Sabbath Exod. 16. The pointing of the Septuagint refers the 15th day to their Morning Why that preferrable before the Hebrew p. 97. Sect. 5. The Assembly Ex. 16. 2. a Church-Assembly celebrated on course instructed by an Ecclesiastical Minister p. 115. Sect. 6. This 15th Day was Sunday p. 122. Sect. 7. The Saturday following was the first Saturday-Sabbath that ever was kept p. 126. Sect. 8. The other Instance of a Sunday-Sabbath kept before the giving of the Law by Moses Gen. 12. The Tenth Day there mentioned was Sunday It was on that day not the 14th that Moses and Aaron spake to the whole Church of the Israelites assembled not by an extraordinary Call but on Course for Religious Worship p. 132. CHAP. V. God rested on the seventh Day in his New Creation Man restored by Faith p. 146. Sect. 1. Proved in gross from the Analasis of Gen. Chap. 1 2 3 4. p. ibid. Sect. 2. Adam fell on the Day of his Creation p. 151. Sect. 3. He was restored the same day he fell The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World The Covenant betwixt God the Father and the Son betwixt God and Adam confirmed by Oath how Sect. 4. From thence God smelt a Savour of Rest and not before CHAP. VI. Saturday-Sabbath being the sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that of the fourth Precept Where it has not footing but only in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's death and give place to the Patriarchal p. 179. Sect. 1. The Jewish Sabbath a discriminating Badg an Antidote against Idolatry by worshipping the Sun The day of rest from Egypt c. p. 180. Sect. 2. Plain Intimations of its being local and temporary p. 181. THE Patriarchal Sabbath CHAP. I. Sect. I. The Patriarchal Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. 3. Celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick-Law and Reinforc'd by the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same Day of the Week viz. Sunday that the Christian Church celebrates in Memory of the Creation of the World and Redemption of Mankind FOR the Illustration and Proof of this Assertion it will be requisite that Proof be made of these Particulars 1. The Patriarchs had solemn stated Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. They had solemn Set Times for the Administration of Religious Worship in those Assemblies 3. These Set and Appointed Times were Weekly Sabbaths 4. These Weekly Sabbaths were Sundays 5. The New-Creature Man Restored by Faith in the Promised Seed was that perfect Finishing of the Creation that made all very Good and that from which God smelt so sweet a Savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as therefore to bless it 6. The Mosaical Saturday Sabbath being the Sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the Fourth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christs Death and give place to the Patriarchal CHAP. I. That the Patriarchal Church had Solemn Stated Assemblies for Publick Worship is manifest from their having Stated Places Seperate Persons and Maintenance in order to the Administration of such Worship SECT I. THat they had Sacred Places known by the name of the Houses of God the Presence of God c. is plain from Gen. 28. 17 22. This is none other but the House of God meaning the place of the Altar which his Grandfather Abraham had Erected at his first arrival in Canaan where his and Lot's Families used to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 12. 8. And he removed thence unto a Mountain on the East of Bethel and Pitched his Tents having Bethel on the West and Hai on the East and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord. And Chap. 13. 3. And he went on his Journey from the South even to Bethel unto the Place where his Tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai unto the place of the Altar which he had made there at the firct and there Abraham called upon the Name of the Lord. In both these Texts the Place appears to be the very same where Jacob had the Visions of God to wit Bethel betwixt Ai and Bethel that is the House of God betwixt the City Ai and the City Luz for so was that City called at the first Gen. 28. 19. and afterwards Bethel from the House of God adjacent as the Towns Kirby Kendal Kirby Lunsdal Kirby Steven have their Names from the Churches there built Now that Abraham solemnized Publick Divine Worship here ut Familiam suam in Pietate instrueret that he might edifie his Family in Piety to use the words of Batablus may be rationally concluded from hence that he did not only Pray
made appear to be false in our handling the next General Head CHAP. III. These Set and Appointed Patriarchal Times for Publick Worship were Weekly SECT I. FOr the Proof of this let it be observed 1. That the Computation of Time by Weeks is common to all Ages for it was in use in the Patriarchal Age long before Moses as is manifest from that Speech of Laban to Jacob Gen. 29. 27. Fulfil now her week Some Learned Men to evade that Mortal Stroak which this Text giveth the Prolepsis are pleased to say that by Week is here meant Seven Years which Jacob was to serve after his Marriage to Leah before he had Rachel given to him for Wife and that the Interpretation of a Seven days Nuptial Feast was invented by later Jews and is a manifest Violation of the Text and Contradictory in it self I shall therefore in vindication of that sense of this Text that I give to wit that by her Week is meant the seven days of Leah's Nuptial Feast offer these things to Consideration 1. Fulfil her Week and we will give thee this also Here her and this are contra-distinguish't And by this is meant Rachel as is manifest of it self and therefore by her must be meant Leah and by her Week Leah's Week Which can be nothing else but her Nuptial Feast of seven days for Jacob never served seven years for Leah Nay he would not have served seven days for her if it had not been for the love he bare to Rachel 2. And Jacob did so he fulfilled her Week and he gave him Rachel also to Wife This answers exactly to Laban 's Proposal so that her Week both here and there is Leah 's Week and the this also there is Rachel also here The meaning therefore of Laban 's Proposal can be no other but this Fulfil her Week that is the seven days of Leah's Nuptial Feast Do not disturb the Marriage Feast by renouncing Leah and we will give thee Rachel also at the end of the seven Nuptial days upon condition that thou shalt serve me yet other seven Years for seeing I have cheated thee of thy Wages for one seven Years I cannot think thee so great a fool as to trust me for one seven Years more and therefore consummate thy Marriage with Leah by a voluntary lying with her the remaining Nights of the Marriage Festival for it was against thy Will that thou lay with her this Night And I will cast Rachel into thy Arms and thou shalt have thy Wages in hand before thou begin thy service of other seven Years 3. They that are for this Interpretation are the Cream of Criticks who for Illustration alledge that Parallel Text Judg. 14. 12 15 17. concerning Sampson's Nuptial Feast of seven days as the Custom of those Eastern Countries See Munster Vatablus Grotius Lyra Estius Junius and Trem. Syriach Aben Ezra David Kimhi Jerome Ainsworth Cornel. a Lapide Bonfrerius Malvenda Menochus and Paul Fagius in his Collation of Translations But the reasons they bring against the other Interpretation sway more with me than the authority of their great Names from the rest I shall Cull this one of Tirinus and Ainsworth Viz. That it is utterly inconsistant with Scripture Chronologie For Jacob lived only twenty years with Laban Gen. 31. 41. The first seven whereof he served before he Married Leah and if he had served other seven before he Married Rachel the six remaining years would prove too short a space of time for the Conception Birth and Suckling of the Children that were born to him after his Marriage of Rachel For the evincing of this note 1. That it was the Custome of Patriarchal Matrons to Nurse their Children Gen. 21. 2. That Reuben Leah's First Born was not conceived till some considerable time after the Marriage of Rachel for it was in pity of Leah that God opened her Womb Gen. 29. 31. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated he opened her Womb but Rachel was Barren A Barren Virgin sounds harshly in Physicks and Jacob's loving Rachel before he was Married to her more than his Wife Leah sounds worse in Morals 3. After Reuben Leah bears three Sons more and then ceaseth Child-bearing while Bilha Rachel's Maid bare Jacob two Sons and while Zilpa after Bilha had given over Child-bearing bare two Sons after all which Leah bears two Sons and one Daughter and after that Rachel bears Joseph Gen. 30. and is so far gone in Child with Benjamin before she left her Father's Country as in her Journying thence she was Brought to Bed Gen. 30. So that after Rachel's Marriage Jacob had twelve Children born unto him at single Births and in several years for the Bearing and Suckling whereof thirteen years space is little enough The Week therefore that Jacob fulfil'd before Laban gave him Rachel to Wife and he went in unto her which was the Consummation of Marriage cannot without manifest Contradiction of Scripture be expounded a Week of Years but of Days and that Week of Days can be no other than the seven Days of Leah's Nuptial Feast and this fulfilling of Leah's Week did both sute Labans covetous humour who by this means put off two Daughters with the Expence of one weeks Feasting and secure Jacob from being defrauded of Rachel after other seven Years Service as he had been the first seven years And lastly secure Leah's Marriage whom Jacob might have renounced in the Morning if his lying with her that night in-voluntarily had not been seconded with his voluntary lying with her the succeeding Nights of the Feast No Evasion here but the Sanctuary of a Prolepsis Jacob got Children by Anticipation This argument is so cogent as to make room for these so many Births From the Premises it is apparent that the distinction of Time by Weeks was in use in the Patriarchal Age long before Moses SECT II. And as this Computation of time by Weeks was common to all Ages so also to all Nations witness the Transcendent Encomiums given by Gentiles to the Seventh Day Hesiod stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Day which Title Homer also gives to it more than once and saith that on that day all things were perfected With whom concurs Linus affirming that On the Seventh Day all things were brought forth Perfect that it was the World's Birth-day the chief of Days and perfectly good as Gataker quotes them at large From whence may be Collected 1. That it is the only certain Computation of Time wherein all Nations unanimously agree For though the division of Time into Months Years be universally embraced yet about the Compution of both there have been as many different Practises almost as Nations some reckoning to a Month more some fewer days some reckoning to a Year more some fewer Months as the Romans before Julius Caesar had but ten Months in their Year and even his emendation of the Kalendar was not exact But for this see Scaliger De Emendatione
Temporum 2. That which I infer from the Premises in the next Place is this That the Calculation of Time by Months and Years was of humane Invention as being perfected by degrees and though the Patriarchs before the Flood in respect of their Longevity had a very great advantage of observing the Course of Sun and Moon yet they attained not to so perfect a knowledge thereof as to settle and fix an Astr onomical Canon but left that to the Industry of future Ages for otherwise Noah would have communicated that Canon to his Posterity and some of them would have kept in memory and have delivered down by uninterruped Succession a Tradition so universally advantagious to Mankind 3. That the Computation of Time by Weeks was of divine Institution as being perfect at first as all God's Works are Deut. 32. 4. communicated to and received of the whole Race of Mankind without dispute or least difference in Practice till God was pleased to appoint the Jews another beginning of Weeks as also of Years than he had instituted at the beginning Now it is not imaginable how the whole World could thus unanimously agree in this division of Time by sevens of Days if they had not received it by uninterrupted tradition from the Patriarchs nor from whence the Patriarchs could derive it but from God's resting upon and sanctifying the Seventh Day Of the sence of which Text we cannot possibly have a better Interpreter than this universal Practice of all Nations SECT III. Except what the sacred Text giveth to which I shall now apply my self and begin with Gen. 4. 3. and in process of time or as the Hebrew hath it Milkits Jamim at the end of Dayes Many Learned men following the Hebrew Doctors understand by dayes a year of dayes others understand by dayes years They that by days understand a year of dayes conceive these Oblations brought by Cain and Abel to have been brought at the end of the year when they had gathered the Fruits of the Earth that being a time when even the Gentiles celebrated the divine Goodness by Sacrifices and Praises as Ainsworth observes out of Aristotle Homer Pliny and the twelve Tables But I must crave leave to dissent not so much upon the account of the authority of judicious Mr. Gataker as of the strength of the reason he brings for his Opinion At the end of dayes i. e. saith he that is on the Sabbath Day which concludes the days of the Week For no other distinction of days had hitherto been mentioned by Moses than that which comprehends the Septimane Gen. 2. 2 3. An Argument of more weight if seriously considered than it seems to have at a transitory Glance for 1. It is very probable that Adam was so taken up with the Contemplation of Gods Mercy to him in Redeeming him by the Blood of the Promised Seed that he greatly minded not any other Computation of Time but that which God had appointed him in Commemoration of his Perfecting the Work of Creation by making Adam a New Creature of which more in the Sequel of this Discourse 2. However most certain it is that hitherto no Division of Time but that is mentioned and if Moses had intended here to express another Computation as suppose that by Years Years had as soon been said as Days and afterwards he Computes the Ages of the Patriarchs by Years if such a Computation of Time had been now in use as a Year why did not Moses mention Years here as well as afterwards SECT IV. The next Text I urge for Proof of this Branch of my Discourse is Job 1. 6. and 2. 1. There was a Day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Again there was a Day c. Or the Day came about again when the Sons of God c. I wonder to find so many Learned Men Interpreting Sons of God in this Text by Angels herein following the Septuagint caterva Angelorum But the best is it will not go down with the most Judicious of them without the Salvo of a Prosopopeia for when this question is put How is this Place according to this Exposition the Sons of God that is the Angels to be taken Literally or Figuratively Tirinus indeed answers Literally from the authority of Athanasius Salvian and Lactantius For Lactantius I think it not strange that he should interpret Sons of God by Angels in this Text of Job seeing I find him expounding that Text Gen. 6. 2. by Good Angels as being of opinion that the Good Angels who were set to guard them sell in Love with the Daughters of Men. The other Opinion mentioned by Lyra and Estius were more tolerable than this of Lactantius to wit That the Sons of God that is Daemones Incubi the Unclean Angels committed with the Daughters of Men but that it will be hard to find a Text where Devils are called the Sons of God and yet I am perswaded we may as soon find a Text where that bad as where good Angels are stiled the Sons of God in the Patriarchal Idiome as will be cleared by and by for though Tirinus be for the Literal sense of this Text yet the rest who concur with him in their expounding the Sons of God to be Angels will by no means allow that this Text be taken Literally Others saith Emm. Sa accipiunt Parabolice interpret it Parabolically This thing was not done as is here reported but there is in the words a Prosopopeia or Hypotyposis saith Mariana Haec non crasse ad Literam gesta So Grotius Per Prosopopeian vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indicat haec omnia c. So Scultatus the Divine Providence is here explained under the Form of humane Judgements So Cocceius And though Pinda and Sanctius say That no Inconveniency or Absurdity is Intail'd upon the Literal sense Yet Mercer flys to the subterfuge of the Figurative Sense from those Absurdities that follow from the Literal Satan saith he cannot properly be said to come into the Presence of God for in God's Presence is Fulness of Joy nor can the good Angels be said properly to present themselves before the Lord one day rather than another for they continually are before him beholding his Face But let them that expound the Sons of God Angels agree the matter among themselves how they please I demand in the mean time a solid reason or but the shadow of one why I must be tyed to that Exposition of one Phrase that renders the whole Context absurd and unintelligible without the help of a Figure when I have an Interpretation at hand of that Phrase that renders the whole Sentence in every Letter of it every way consonant to right Reason and the Analogy of Faith and is not incumbred with any absurd consequence for Satan might come into the Presence of God in this Sense as he entred into Judas while he was celebrating the Passover with our Saviour and the rest
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the seventh-Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did
from Elim and all the Congregation of the Children of Israel came into the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departure out of the Land of Egypt And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron For the right stating of the sense of this Text I must crave leave to rectify the Pointing which as it stands refers the sifteenth day to their marching which ought to be referred to the time of this Assembly For of what use imaginable could it be to know the day of the Month when they took their Journey any more than the rest of their Journeyings except that from Mount Sinai Numb 10. 11. for the space of forty years But as God at the Institution of the Passover had changed the beginning of the Year and appointed that Month to be the first to the Israelites which was not the sirst in respect of the Creation So when he was purposed to change the beginning of Weeks to the Israelites and appoint that Day their seventh which was the sixth in the Patriarchal Account and of the whole World beside the Jews It was expedient to leave some plain Note and Character of Time whereby it might be known on what day of the Week the Sabbath was kept before that change Now this misapplication of the fifteenth day may easily be amended by having recourse to the Original and the Septuagint thus and they journeyed from Elim And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel came into the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai ver 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And or But on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departure out of the Land of Egypt the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured c. This is therefore the first Collection I make from this Text. That the whole Congregation are not said to March but to Murmur on the fifteenth day their Sabbath Songs were turned into Howlings like those Amos 8. 3. As to the Reason I assign why the day of the Month is named here and not in any of their Marching saving that from Mount Sinai a Person eminent for Learning and Place in our Church is pleased to except against it by giving this as the Reason why the day of the Month is here named viz. lest the first part of the verse should be mistaken as if they had gone from Elim and come to Sin the same day Whereas they departed from Elim to the Red-Sea and came from the Red-Sea into the Wilderness of Sin Numb 33. To this exception therefore I here humbly offer these two things to consideration 1. Moses in Numb 33. where he purposely Records their Marchings in order and mentions that by the Red-Sea immediately before their coming into the Wilderness doth sufficiently prevent all possibility of mistaking the sense of Ex. 16. except by such negligent Readers as in their reading his Writings slip over that Chapter in Numbers which kind of Persons I suppose Moses was not very careful to gratifie 2. This Reason is so far from preventing the supposed mistake as it necessarily leads to it For read the Text thus They departed from Elim and came into the Wilderness of Sin the fifteenth day and this pointing makes their departure from Elim and coming into the Wilderness to have been on the same day The first being the terminus a quo the other the terminus ad quem of their motion Except we fancy they came into the Wilderness the fifteenth day from no place But refer the fifteenth day to their Murmuring not Marching and both the extream tearms of their March stand firm and there is space enough betwixt them left for their intermediate encamping at the Red-Sea As if a Man should say I removed from London and came to York the 15th day of April we would conclude that he came to York the same day he removed from London But if he should say I came from London to York without specifying the time none would imagine but that he had lodging-places betwixt London and York So that this Exception furnishes me with one Argument more for my applying the 15th day to their Murmuring not Marching The same eminent Person adviseth me to consider whether the Septuagint can weigh down the Hebrew Samaritan Syriac Arabick Targum c. all which refer the 15th day to their Marching I have considered this and am very apprehensive what a difficult and envious Task I undertake if I should prefer the Septuagint above the Hebrew I remember how angry Jerom was with St. Austin for preferring it before his Hebraica Veritas and what opposition the late attempt of Vosius hath met with And yet I cannot but retain a singular honour in my heart for it 1. As being better secured from being corrupted by the faithless Jews when the Hebrew by reason of its being communicated many hundred years before the Christian Aera to the Gentile World and deposited in Ptolomies famous Library whither the Philosophers flocked from all parts of the World saith Elian the divine Providence foreseeing what unfaithful Keepers of the divine Oracles that People to whom they were first committed would prove when for their rejecting Christ they became Lo-ammi provided that the Gentiles should come to the light thereof by means of the Septuagint so long before our Saviour's coming the contemptibleness of whose appearance so enraged the Learned Party of the Jews who had the Hebrew Copies in their custody for the vulgar Jews understood not Hebrew in our Saviour's time as in revenge they defaced his Image drawn by their own Prophets for representing him such as the Apostles proclaimed him to be whence proceeded those numerous Corruptions mentioned by Vossius and others 2. The Apostles making so frequent if not constant use of it in their quotations of the old Testament seems to me a Canonization of the Translation and a commending it above the Hebrew 3. If the Hebrew be to be suspected where it affronts the Septuagiut it ought to be so especially in such Texts as have relation to their Sabbath Their idolizing of which might prompt them to disturb the Pointing of this Text Exod. 16. which according to the Septuagint speaks it to be a younger Brother to Sunday-Sabbath 4. And for my preferring the Septuagint before the Hebrew in those Texts that have relation to the Sabbath I have the example of our own Church to be my warrant which adheres to that Version in the Translation of thef ourth Precept both in the Catechism where she feeds her Babes with Milk and in the Office of Communion where she reminds her adult Members of that part of their Baptismal Vow whereby they stand obliged to keep God's holy Will and Commandments Altho the Hebrew Geneva Spanish and that of Jerom and all I have perused saith L'Estrange render it wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-Day except the
the whole third Chapters unto chap. 4. which from ver 3. And in process of time they brought Offerings unto the Lord shews how the Patriarchs sanctified that Day that God had sanctified It is most manifest from this plain Chronological account of the sacred History that Man fell was restored and thrust out of Paradise the sixth day Cherubims being plac'd with flaming Swords to guard the Tree of Life leaving Adam no hope of life by the first Covenant whither then could he look for Life Eternal but to the promised Seed in Faith of whose Blood and acknowledgment of his own Sin he offered by God's appointment those Beasts in Sacrifice of whose skin 's God made him and Eve Coats that they appearing before God in that which was a Type of the Robes of Righteousness and pleading the Blood of the Covenant might be found and accepted in Christ in whom alone God is well-pleased and smelleth a sweet savour of Rest Upon which account he rested the seventh day and Adam with him in Christ To Adam ' s celebrating the praises of his Redeemer on this Sabbath Day the Chaldee Paraphrase or Targum of Jonathan who was fellow-disciple to Hillel with good old Simeon fourty years before our Saviour's incarnation saith P. Fagius on Gen. 1. seems to have respect for thus that renders the title of Psalm 92. An Hymn which the first man Adam said for the Sabbath-Day as Ainsworth observes Dicunt Rabboth quod Adamus hunc psalmum protulit quando creatus erat vesper Sabbati postea peccavit erat maledictus in hora duodecima diei sexti crat expulsas ab Edene Deus benedictus venit ad judicium mortis Sabbatum super vevit Et Adam Eucharistias quia erat liberatus a judicio mortis profert Darash R. Arama Vicars decupla carticum Adami dicitur ab Hebraeis quod talia dicere potuit Adamus cum res adeo primum conditas aspexit Grot. The Rabbins say that Adam made this Psalm on the Eve of the Sabbath at twelve of the Clock of the Day wherein he was created and afterwards sinned and was accursed and driven out of Eden The blessed God came to pass the Sentence of Death upon him the Sabbath came upon him And Adam because he was set free from the Sentence of Death brought forth thanksgiving Offerings That is saith Grotius because Adam may be supposed to have said such like words when he beheld the things that God created in the beginning SECT II. But all this together may perhaps seem too great a weight to hang upon the single Pin of this one Argument drawn from the Chronology of the History I will therefore more distinctly shew the truth of each particular 1. That Adam fell on the sixth day seems evident from that Greek Proverb grounded upon the almost universal Consent of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam was formed and deformed the same day quoted by Hamond L' Estrange p. 8. Which universal Consent took its rise from Psal 49. 12. Hinc Colligunt Hebraei in Berescit Rabba gloriam primi hominis cum eo non per noctisse Cartw. Mell. Broughton most confidently affirms that Adam did not continue in his Integrity one hour and affirms that all Jews are of that opinion from the Authority of Maimonides and from that Proverb of modern Jews above-said He also saith that all the Greek Fathers are of the same opinion Vna nocte integritate non permanebat Adam saith Vicars for which he quotes the Arabick and Persic Pentateuch The Septuagint indeed renders the above-quoted Text Psa 49 12 thus Man being in honour understandeth not As if it were the same with vers 23. The Syr. Arab and Simmachus follow the Septuagint but this reading contradicts all Hebrew Copies and the best Hebrew Doctors David Kimhi Aben Ezra c. and antient Fathers as Jerom c. who render it thus Adam or Man being in honour did not lodg there a Night or Adam did not lodg one Night in Honour non pernoctavit did not stay one Night in that Estate for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jalin the Hebrew Word here used signifies properly to lodg or stay for a Night Gen. 31. 54. Laban and Jacob tarried all Night in the Mount and early in the Morning departed Gen. 32. 21. Jacob himself lodged with the Company that Night I might add that the Targum interprets Gen. 2. 15. And the Lord took the Man and placed him in the Garden of Eden by a Syriack Word Sharah which in Hiphil signifies to place in a lodging for a Night thus is this word used in the Syriack New Testament Acts 20. 15. And the next day we came to Samos and lodged at Trogillium and the next day c. Luke 9. 12. When the day begun to wear away the Disciples said Send the Multitude away that they may lodg in the Villages Luke 2. 7. There was no place for them in the Inn in the Room they had taken up to lodg in for that Night Shindler Pentaglot So early began our Saviour to have the Chastisment of our Sin laid upon him in a way parallel to Adam's Fall he with his blessed Mother being thrust out of the Inn the Hour he was born as Adam was thrust out of Paradise the day he was created Thus our Saviour gives his Suffrage to John 8. 44. where he stiles the Devil a Murderer from the beginning for this term in the beginning denotes the six days of the Creation and precisely terminates where God finished that Work as is apparent from Gen. 1. 1. In the Beginning God made Heaven and Earth that is in the space of six days wherein the whole Species of things in Heaven and Earth had their beginning Or as our Saviour explains it Mark 13. 19. In those days shall be Afflictions such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created the whole frame whereof speaking of the same thing he calls the World and the space wherein it was made the beginning of the World Mat. 24. 21. or as it is rendred John 9. 33. since the World began was it not heard that c. that is since God finished the Work of Creation Thus the beginning circumscribed the whole Work of Creation Heb. 1. 10. Thou Lord in the beginning founded the Earth c. And though sometimes it may seem to denote the Duration before when it is spoken of God Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his Works of old yet it no where extends its Signification beyound the six days Work when it is applied to the Creature It was therefore within the compass of the six days that this Murderer slew our first Parents 2. That Adam was restored through the Promise of the Woman's Seed the same day whereon he fell is apparent from our Saviour his being stiled Rev. 13. 8. the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World for this is of the very same
that they should not inquire after the Nations way of Worship saying How did those Nations serve their Gods even so will I do that is after that manner will I serve God And in particular not after their burning of their Sons and Daughters in the Fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 30 31. Now the God to whom the Gentiles sacrificed their Children was the Sun whose Idol was called Moloch and Milchom Amos 5. 26. 1 Kings 11. 5 7. as being Molech or King of all the Planets and therefore by the 70 translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince and by the Phoenicians Door-Neighbours to the Jews called Beel-Samen the Lord of Heaven as Sanchoniatho witnesseth in Euseb Evang. Prep l. 1. And yet notwithstanding all these Prohibitions and God's discharging them from the publick Worship of himself on that day whereon the Heathens in their Apostacy from the first Institution worshipped the Sun the Jews imitated the Heathens in this most barbarous Custom of burning their Sons and Daughters in the Fire the Representation of the Sun Jer. 7. 31. 19. 5. Psal 106. 37 38. So exceeding prone was that People to imbrace strange Gods And therefore they stood so much more in need to have all Occasion thereto removed from them and especially such as God had instituted at first for the securing his own but were in process of Time perverted to the Introduction and countenancing of the Worship of false Gods as was the fate of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath Upon the like account the Jews were prohibited very many other Customs if not of divine Institution yet of Patriarchal Practice yea some of them seeming to be the natural Results of the Law of Humanity such was mourning at the Funerals of dear and near Relations wherein the Patriarchs exceeded even to the Admiration of other Nations Gen. 50. 10 11. And they wailed there with a very great and heavy Wailing and he Joseph with his Brethren made a mourning for his Father seven days And the Canaanites saw the Mourning and they said This is an heavy Mourning to the Egyptians therefore the name of that Place was called The Mourning of the Egyptians Yet this so natural a Duty was prohibited the High-Priest for he must not mourn for his Father or Mother Levit. 21. 11. and that because he had the holy Anointing and the holy Garments upon him which were holy only in Type So that here the Law of Nature must yield to the Levitical in this particular Case where the High-Priest's honouring of Father and Mother could do the Dead no good but might be an occasion of Evil to the Living by the way this makes the Case of the High-Priests wholly different from the Pharisees pleading Carban But where lay the Danger Answer in drawing the Jews to Conformity to the idolatrous Heathens in their manner of mourning Baruch 6. 31 32. And the Priests sit in their Temples having their Cloaths rent and their Heads and Beards shaven and nothing upon their Heads They roar and cry before their Gods as Men do at the Feast when one is dead Hence all Communion with the Nations is so pathetically forbidden the Jews lest they should by that means be drawn to Idolatry So much less reason have we to wonder that God should appoint the Jews another Day for their weekly Sabbath than that which was instituted at first to all Mankind when the Gentiles had perverted the Celebration of that Day to the instituting the Worship of the Sun Upon the like reason at the Restitution of Sunday-Sabbath upon the expiring of the Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath the Christian Church changed the name of Sunday into that of the lord's-Lord's-Day that she might secure her Children from the Opinion of the Heathen World that it was in honour of the Planet of the Sun that that day of the Week which bore its name was separated for holy Assembles 3. And now we need not go far to seek for a Reason why God appointed Saturday to be the Jewish Sabbath for that being the week-day immediately preceding Sunday and the whole Oeconomy of Moses's Law as of a thing imperfect pointing to good things to come Heb. 10. 1. It was necessary that their typical Day of Rest should be so placed in the order of the Septiman as from thence they might look immediately unto that Day of true Rest that was to come at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness out of the Grave But besides this the more special Reason of God's appointing them Saturday for their Sabbath was because Saturday was the first day of Rest they had from Egyptian Bondage for they marched from Rameses on Friday the 15th day of the 1st Month and set up their Booths at Succoth on Saturday where they stayed two days according to the common Opinion of Learned Men on the latter whereof Sunday the Premises considered it may be presumed that they kept an holy Rest unto the Lord according to the Patriarchal Custom and that it was in that Assembly that Moses repeated the Ordinances of the Passover and separated the first-born of Males and Firstlings of the Flocks and Herds to be holy to the Lord. SECT II. And that this Precept for Saturday-Sabbath did not vacate the Patriarchal either to all Nations or to the Jews themselves for ever but was only imposed upon them as a Carnal Ordinance of divine Service until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. Or until the Seed should come Gal. 3. 19. and those good things the Body whereof is Christ whereof it was a Shadow God gave the Jews many plain Intimations 1. In his assigning their Deliverance from Egypt and their resting from their hard Labour in that Bondage as the peculiar Reason of his commanding the Jews to celebrate his Sabbaths Deut. 5. 15. That thy Man-Servant c. may rest as well as thou and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty Hand and by a stretched-out Arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day whether weekly monthly or yearly as also the Sabbaths of Years and Jubilees which Reason cannot reach other Nations but is wholly accommodated to the Jews and to them only till the time of Restauration 2. In his suspending the Raigning of Mannah on their Sabbaths and letting it fall on Sunday's Manna being reputed by those that could not look under the Vail Angels Food the Bread of Heaven Psal 105. 40. it s not falling on their Sabbath was interpreted that the giving of true Manna that of which whosoever eateth shall live for ever was reserved for Gospel-times and the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sabbath when he whom the Father sealed would give his Flesh for the Life of the World that true Bread of Life Joh. 6. that spiritual Food which was the desire of all that hungred after Righteousness of the Distribution whereof in the Ordinances of the Gospel when
understood but that the Signification thereof might easily be found out if Men could digest it as Platonism Latinism Graecism signifies the pure natural and genuine Imitation of Plato of the Latine or Greek Tongue so Sabbatism is nothing else but the genuine Imitation of the Sabbath and according to the Tenor of the Apostle's Discourse of that complacential Rest which God took on the seventh Day It remains therefore that the Christian or Lord's-day-Sabbath is the most natural and genuine Copy of God's Rest But it is beyond my Intention to make a just Comment I intended these short Notes as Instances only to shew how Men's disgusting the Notion of a Christian-Sabbath makes them cast up from their nauceating Stomacks the Apostle's Arguments undigested 2. The next Bugbear that frights Men out of the plain way of Truth is a Conceit that when they hear the sound of a seventh-day Sabbath they think they hear the Man-drakes Voice of the Jewish Sabbath I need not here give Instances of this for they occur every-where in all Men's Writings concerning the Sabbath And it is too too common an Opinion that the Jewish Sabbath is the seventh Day in the order of the Creation and our Christian Sabbath the First de Die autem primo Mundi constat inter omnes illum fuisse Diem Dominicum Gregor de Valentia Tom. 1. Disp 5. Quest 3. Pun. 1. Quando quidem Dies septimus ab eo fuit Dies Sabbati Concerning the First Day of the World it is agreed amongst all Men that it was the Lord's-day seeing the Seventh from that was the day of the Sabbath yea his Conceit is that it was called Sunday from the beginning because the Light created on the first Day was the Light of the Sun not yet endowed with its proper Motion North and South which it received the fourth Day but only with that of the Primum mobile from East and West But I have sufficiently proved the contrary to wit that the Jewish Sabbath was not the seventh but sixth Day in order of the Creation but only of gathering Quails and Mannah And that our Lord's-day tho according to the Jewish Idiom it be called the First Day the first Day of their Week after that God had appointed them to observe another beginning of their Work as well as Year then was in use before yet it is in reality the Seventh Day of the Week commencing that Account from the Creation and the same Day of the Week whereon God rested 3. The last thing I shall name here is as a remora to Mens arrival at the true meaning of the Apostle's Discourse is a Tincture with that Spirit which Luther's Aerij Daemones were of or with that wherein they in the Corinthian Church were immerst who would be of Christ in opposition to Paul and Apollos These Men's high-flown Minds will not stoop to the Contemplation of any Sabbath-Day to be celebrated under the Gospel in the visible Communion of Saints but hang hovering in the Clouds about a Day of Rest purely spiritual nor of any Rest but everlasting and in this humour so spiritualize the Apostle's Arguments as they leave nothing in them after their Chymical Operations but thin etherial Vehicles or flitting Elizian Shades But can a certain Day limited to the seventh be an individuum vagum or a limited Day be the eternal Sabbath What ever mean Thoughts such Men may have of the Christian or Lord's-Day-Sabbath the divinely inspired Pen-man had such an high Esteem of it as he thought it a Subject worthy to be treated on as being a very sovereign means to prevent Apostacy and to hold Christians to their Profession For that 's the mark he aimed at and concludes his Discourse of the Sabbath with the mention of that as his aim Chap. 4. 14. as he had begun that Discourse with an Exhortation of the same Tendency viz. To hold fast their Profession Yea it is the main Scope of the whole Epistle to disswade the Hebrew Christians from forsaking Church-Assemblies as some had done and drawn back to the Perdition of their Souls and to perswade them to a firm adhering to Christian-Fellowship in the Administration of Sabbath-Ordinances On which Days also he strictly chargeth the Ministers to be instant in preaching calling that a Preaching in Season and with the same Breath stiling Preaching in the Synagogues of the Jews on their Saturday-Sabbath Preaching out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. That I do not by this Exposition of them pervert the Apostle's Words will be manifest if 1. We consider that the Precept for Preaching presupposeth an Audience of Men. I think none will imagine that Timothy was bound by this Injunction to preach to Stones as they say Venerable Bede did once nor to Sheep Hogs and Birds as that goodly Saint of the Pope's making Anthony is fabled to have done frequently 2. That a publick Audience could not be had but upon stated Days of meeting either upon a civil account as in Markets c. or upon a religious account as in the Jewish Synagogues every of their Sabbath-Days and in Christian Churches on the Lord's-Day the first Day of the Week in the Jewish Reckoning 3. That the Apostles took all Occasions of such publick Assemblies to preach the Gospel besides their teaching from House to House 4. That their Attendance upon the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances to the Church would not permit them on the Lord's-Days to preach to Forreign Assembles either of Jews or Gentiles and therefore preaching to them was out of season being performed on Week-Days Days that were not then appointed of God to be Seasons for sacred Solemnities for even the Jewish Sabbath though it had been appointed to that Nation for a time to be their weekly Sabbath yet not it's grown out of Season and the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath came into season whence Preaching on that day is stiled Preaching in Season How much Light this Observation casts upon the Apostle's Discourse and what Darkness the vulgar Opinion viz. that the Apostle speaks of a spiritual and eternal Rest hath drawn-over the Hearts of Men in their reading this part even of the New Testament is apparent from this one Instance vers 10. For he that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Learned Men are puzled how to give such a Sence of this Clause as is coherent with the Context But understand the Apostle to speak here of the Christian Lord's-Day-Sabbath and the sence is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day and that sence admirably consonant with what precedes and follows thus It remains therefore that the Church in sanctifying the Lord's-Day doth most properly imitate God's seventh Day Rest For he that is entred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Rest of that same People of God to whom the Sabbatism appertains for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Antecedent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he also hath ceased
from his own Works as God did from his For as God rested on the seventh Day from his proper Works as Creator that being the proper Work of God the Father who made me and all the World though as to other kind of Works the Father worketh hitherto Even so he that is entred into the Rest of the People of God the Christian-Sabbath doth therein most genuinely imitate God in that he also hath ceased from his Works that is the Works of the Law of Moses that being the proper Notion of Works in St. Paul's Sence whensoever he makes Comparison betwixt the Law and the Gospel And the Works of the Law being the proper Works of the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was directed as differencing them from all other Nations He hath cast off that Yoak of Ceremonies which neither we nor our Fathers could bear and hath taken the easy Yoke of Christ upon him that he may find rest to his Soul And what an apt Introduction is this to what is immediately subjoyned vers 11. Let us therefore strive to enter into this same Rest lest any Man fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Let me therefore perswade you to imitate God in his Seventh-Day's Rest lest you imitate your fore-Fathers in Unbelief and be excluded from eternal Rest From which fearful State the best way to be secured is to attend upon Christian Lord's-Day's Assemblies and Administrations where you shall hear Moses in the Newness of his Spirit not in the Oldness of the Letter you will see that Vail that Moses put upon his Face done away if you will turn unto the Lord and will find the Word of God as a sharp two-edged Sword drawn out of the Scabbard of Types and Ceremonies wherein it could not do any Execution upon the Soul and so weilded as it shall pierce even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit which is the plain Importance of vers 12. For the Word of God is quick c. that is as it is dispenc'd in Christian-Assembles into which if an Unbeliever should come while they are prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 24. that is applying Old-Testament Prophesies unto Christ and proving thence that Jesus is the Christ he is judg'd convinc'd of all convinc'd of the Sin of Unbelief Joh. 16. 8. convinc'd and judg'd of all that is all that prophesy one by one 1 Cor. 14. 31. not only by the prophesying of such as like Apollos are mighty in the Scriptures Act. 18. 28. but is so mightily convinc'd that Jesus is the Christ even of the weakest of them that have the Gift of Prophesying that is of applying the Old-Testament for proof of the truth of the Gospel he is I say by this powerful Word so convinc'd as the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest and so falling down on his Face he glorifieth God and confesseth that God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. By the Premises it appears that the Apostle's scope in his Discourse of the Sabbath is to withdraw the Jews from the Celebration of their Fruitless Sabbath to the Observation of the Christian-Sabbath As also how well God provided for the Settlement of publick-stated Assemblies in the Church when the Jewish Sabbaths were antiquated by letting the Apostles see that though the Law for that was out of date Col. 2. 16. yet there remained a Sabbath to the People of God viz. That which was instituted from the beginning and commanded in the Decalogue Had the Apostle indeed only decried that and not establish'd this it might have been thought that the Church had been left to her choice what Day of the Week to have celebrated as Calvin and the Prolepsarians conceive But as if the holy Ghost had purposely intended to obviate that Errour the admitting whereof would unavoidably bring Confusion into the Christian World he was pleased to direct the same Apostle whose Pen had cancel'd the Jewish to write in Vindication of the Christian-Sabbath and to inform him that seeing the Partition-wall was taken down there was a plain and open way made for the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath that Sabbath in the sanctifying whereof the greatest part of those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. had received Grace to offer acceptable Sacrifices to God by Faith in the promised Seed to walk with God to be upright before him in the most general Apostacies to obey his Call unreservedly though they knew not whither To exert such Heroick Acts of Faith Patience Contempt of the World Dependance on God c. as made them the Wonders of that World which was unworthy of them and Paterns to the best of Christians That Sabbath in the Celebration whereof the Christian-Church forsook the Jewish Synagogue then became the Synagogue of Satan and betook themselves to the Communion of the General-Assembly and Church of the First-born consisting of all those who from the Publication of the Promise of Christ to Adam had been begotten again of the immortal Seed of that ever-induring Word administred to the Patriarchs and all that adhere to the Patriarchal Religion in all Nations and Ages and administred without those carnal Ordinances and unprofitable bodily Exercises wherewith the Jews Sabbath was incumbred if not wholly taken up therewith For the Jews that out-went the Ox and Ass in keeping the Mosaical Sabbath as such did not go beyond them in the Strength of the Services thereof which could not perfect them that frequented them as touching Conscience but in the strength of the Ordinances of the Patriarchal Sabbath so that it was their doing Sunday's Work on their Saturdays that sanctified the Jews as to Conscience Their own Sabbath's Rest from Work sanctifying them only by the external visible separating of them from other Nations to the end that our Saviour's Descent from Abraham might be more conspicuous And therefore as their fore-Fathers sell short through their looking no further than Canaan so those then Moderate Jews to whom he writes would also fall short of Eternal Rest if they did not look forward beyond their Sabbath-Day to Sunday or the Lord's-Day-Sabbath in the Ordinances whereof Saving Grace is so plentifully dispenc'd as the Eunuch shall have no cause to say I am a dry Tree nor the Sun of the Stranger to complain I am utterly cut off from God's People If they take hold of God's Covenant and keep his Sabbaths now under the Gospel tho they were excluded from the Congregation of the Lord under the Mosaical Sabbath Isa 56. 4 c. but their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar and he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer To this God of all Grace who deals thus bountifully with us Gentiles even to the Father Son and Holy-Ghost be given all Praises and Adoration now and for ever Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian