habitable Under the Pole there is but one day and one Nighâ— in one wholâ— Yeaâ— for it is half a Year Niala and half a Year day together In Greâ—ilâ—â—d saith he are no People But Green or Gâ—oon land is another place the continuance of the Suns Presence in the Summer Hearing and Warming with lively Cherishment all Creatures and in the Winter by his oblique Motion leaving so long a Twi-light and the increased Light of the Moon the Suns great and diligent Lieutenant the brightness of the Stars and whiâ—eness of the Snow not Suffering them to be quite forlorn in darkness Moreover he farther saith in Page 743. speaking of James Halls Voyages to Groenland that he sound their Winter Houses built with Whales-bone covered with Earth and Vaults two-yards deep under the Earth Square Up within the Land they have a King carried on mens Shoulders The next Year he sailed thither the third Time and in a fourth Voyage 1612. was slain there by a Savage And he tells us in his Margin that this Voyage was written by William Boffin Allen Sellows of Redâ—iff told me saith he Hall was slain in seventy six Degrees I have given the Reader the larger account of those Northern Parts that he may receive the fuller Satisfaction that there are Inhabitants in those Countreys that have several Weeks of Day together in the Summer and of Nights together in the Winter and Mr. Chafie saith That in places near either of the Poles See his Tract on the Sabbath Page 18. and 24. where it is commonly Day-light for many days together from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in those places cannot properly be termed a Day having in it many Revolutions of the Sun And in the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and Swedens Countreys where the Sun maketh many Revolutions at some seasons of the Year between his Rising and Setting Men cannot count their Week by Horizontal days that is from Sun-rising to Sun-rising or from Sun-setting to Sun-setting but they do and have counted their Weeks by Meridional days Which is the time from Midnight to Mid-night or from Noon to Noon with any People See Mr. Chasic Page 7.9 And therefore if the Sabbath must be kept from Evening to Evening in all the World after the Jewish pattern then in some remote Northern parts their Horizontal day from Evening to Evening in some parts of their Year is as long as many of ours yea many Weeks of our Days must pass before they can keep their seventh-seventh-day Sabbath to reckon their days from Evening to Evening and so for great part of their Year they cannot follow the Example of Israels Sabbath Besides if the Moral Law be only so binding then both Men and Beasts in some part of their Year are the more exposed to hard bondage and the Relief and Equity of the Law is not alike to all Nations And therefore seeing the Jewish Pattern cannot be binding to all Nations to begin their Sabbath at one and the same precise time of Day nor can universally preserve the equal Reason or Equity of the Law it was not designed of God to answer the Moral Law SECT VIII HEre I come to demonstrate from Gods first appointing the Sabbath to Israel in the Wilderness that we have no certain Pattern from thence that all men should Originally and Precisely have six working days before their Sabbath For 1. We do not find that the Children of Israel had observed their Sabbath from their coming out of Egypt until they gathered Manna We read nothing of it before but that when they had gathered twice as much Manna on the sixth day all the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses which is a Demonstration that they were ignorant of the Reason why the People doubled their Portion on the sixth day And Moses said unto them Exod. 16.23 This is that which the Lord hath said To Morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. And in ver 25. It is called a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that it may be computed 〈◊〉 1. c. they had more than five Weeks time besides what they had in Egypt of working days together without a Sabbath and then their Sabbath when it was first commanded them was not their seventh-seventh-day after no more than their six working days but may be called their first-first-day Sabbath for setting up its Observation to Israel in the Wilderness and herein it did not Answer Gods Example of creating the World in six days and resting on the seventh-seventh-day which he then sanctified And a Confirmation of this may be fairly drawn from Mr. Bampfields own Confession who pleading for the Jewish Sabbath in his Reply to Dr. Wallis pag. 15. saith That he sees to Reason why a new Epocha from Exod. 16.23 30. should be imagined unless it be because it is so plain a Proof of the Israelites observing the seventh-day Sabbath before the Law of Sinai in Obedience to the Law Gen. 2.2 3. And if there were no New Epocha in Exod. 16. then it seems agreed that the seventh-day was never altered and in Page 16. he also saith So I think we are thus far safe that from Gen. 2. to Exod. 20. there was no new Epocha of days there was no Intermission of the days by chance Now tho I differ from Mr. Bampfield having clearly proved that the Account of the days were altered for Ecclesiastical Things from the first Passover yet I shall make some use of his Words viz. That by his thus asserting there was no new Epocha Exod. 16. to alter the Sabbath from the Creation I conceive he does consequentially Confirm what I haâ—e said that the six days of gathering Manna was no Pattern to fix six working days to go Originally before the Sabbath for if the Israelites gathering Manna six days and resting the seventh was no new Epocha notable Event or new Original for setting up their seventh-day Sabbath then their six days of gathering Manna could not be an Epocha for the sixing of their six working days Originally before their Sabbath for if it be not an Epocha to the one it cannot be so to the other And if as he saith it was no Epocha for altering the Sabbath-day then there was no need of it as an Epocha to direct them to keep the right Sabbath day when if it were so as he also saith that the Israelites in Egypt were no strangers to it and that it was not forgotten but well known to them And so it consequently follows from his Assertions that there was also no need of the Israelites gathering Manna six days to be an Epocha to six their six working days before their Sabbath 2. The Reason of the fourth Command to keep the seventh-day Sabbath is For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh-day Wherefore the Lord Blessed the Sabbath-day and Hallowed it Now this Reason
being short of a day in four Years loseth near a day in one hundred Years and we know not which way or that any one Method of keeping the Account of the Age of the World has been constantly and successively used from the Creation thereof to this present day nor how much time we have lost the Knowledge of for want of the exact Account of the Ages of the first Patriarks c. unto Months and Days which are omitted in the Scriptures so that we cannot tell so much as the precise Year of the Creation of the World as our Astronomers tell us that according to Verity is 0000 viz. it is not known Collected in the 〈…〉 Eusâ—â—tus 〈◊〉 â—â—nicon 〈◊〉 552. 〈◊〉 in 1619. And in Eusebius we have divers Authors mentioned that in their Account of the Year of the World when Christ was born they differ many hundred Years from each other Yet the precise Succession of Weeks of seven Days and seven Nights bounded with as many Risings and Settings of the Sun are more eastly preserved and from Gods Example of six working days with a Sabbath were observed by Adam who at first had no other measure to mete out his Age and Time and by Noah Gen 8.10 12. and were successively handed down by Tradition to Laban who said to Jacob sulfil her Week and so forwards unto Posterity Gen. 29.27 〈◊〉 28. and this way the precise Succession of the Sabbath might possibly have been handed down to us from the Creation But seeing there hath been an Interruption of the orderly course of Nature and that the Sacred Scriptures do not any ways confirm it to us nor six the Jewish Sabbath as that precise successive seventh-day but rather gives us ground to believe that if the precise Succession of the first seventh-day Sabbath was preserved among the Gentiles in Worship to their Idols or to the Sun before Israels Deliverance out of Egypt that seeing God to keep those People from the Idolatry of Egypt and other Nations did appoint them a new beginning of their Year and to begin their days at Evening which before began in the Morning I say this rather gives us ground to think that God did appoint their Sâ—bbath to be kept on a different day also to what it was before therefore we may from hence perceive that thâ— neither the Jews nor do I believe the Châ—istians can justifie their seventh or first day Sabbath on this Foundation as being the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation yet our first-day Sabbath standeth fairest for it SECT XIV I Shall here make some Comparisons of the Gospel first-day Sabbath with the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and shew the disparity of the Jewish seventh-day and also treat of the first day Sabbaths beginning in the Morning with some other Matters and then proceed to Answer the chiefest Objections I find against our keeping the first or Lords-day a Sabbath And 1. Our first-day Sabbath better answered the Pattern of our first Parents keeping their Sabbath than the Jewish Sabbath did Gen. 1.27 28. for that after Eve was compleatly formed about the end of the sixth Creation day as Adam first entred upon his Subordinate Lordship which God had given him over the Creatures which he had made and on his first day in the Earthly Paradice on his first-day Sabbath So our Lord Jesus thô his Soul was in the Paradise of Heaven John 20.17 when his Body was in the Grave yet he was not compleatly there in Soul and Body too till he was raised on the first-day of his Ascension in our Nature far above all Principalities and Powers to take Possession of his purchased Inheritance and Kingdom to be increased without end So that herein our first-day Sabbath did Originally answer Adams first Sabbath better than the Jewish seventh-day did in the Wilderness 2. As Adam and Eves Sabbath was Originally their first-day Sabbath and after their six working days their seventh-day Sabbath too So our Gospel Sabbath is the Image or Likeness of it more than the Jewish Sabbath is for thô their seventh-day may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their Original keeping it in the Wilderness yet the Scripture does not shew that it was their first-day Sabbath from so precise an Epocha of Time or notable Event of their Deliverance out of Egypt as our Gospel Sabbath is from the precise Epocha of the Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation from whence it is a more proper first-day Sabbath and bears a greater likeness to Adams Pattern which had its precise Epocha of Time than the Jewish Sabbath does from its Original For thô the Jewish Sabbath was appointed to bare the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt yet the Scripture does not shew that it took its Original from the Epocha of the Passover or from the Red Sea but contrariwise I find that Israel came unto the Wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departing out of the Land of Egypt and the following Words are Exod. 10.1 2 3 11 12. â—er 5 22 23. And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron for Bread And the Lord spake unto Moses saying at Even ye shall cat Flesh and in the Morning ye shall be filled with Bread Now their first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not till the day after their sixth day of gathering Manna and from this account See Mr. Weemse Christian Synagogue Page 9â— if we reckon as the Jews did their Lunar Year according to Mr. Weemse â—rogromma of the Hebrew Kalender that the first Month Nisan or Abib hath thirty days and then reckoning the fifteenth day of this Month on which they departed out of Egypt unto the fifteenth day of their second Month and add this day to their six days of gathering Manna with their first Sabbath it makes together thirty eight days and so their first Sabbath fell on the third day after five Weeks time from their departing out of Egypt and took not its Original from that Epocha nor any other precise Epocha as a first-day Sabbath for if any should insist on their gathering Manna six days as an Epocha which I have shewed was not so for sixing their six working days Precisely and Originally before their Sabbath it would only render it a seventh-day Sabbath Originally in the Wilderness and so it could not answer Adams Pattern of his first-day Sabbath nor be like it in its Epocha from the perfecting of the first Adam as our first-day Sabbath was from its Epocha of the perfecting the second Adam 3. If it should be yet thought thô there is no Reason for it that the Jewish Sabbath was originally sixed to the Israelites in the Wilderness as following their six working days I have this to say that if so then Israel kept their Sabbath therein after a Ceremonial Precept contrary to Adams Pattern in keeping his first-day Sabbath
before his six working days but as for our first-day Sabbath we are justified in keeping it by the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches and the more because as it was changed from the Jewish Sabbath it is our first-day Sabbath before our six working days and so it better agrees with Adams Pattern than the Jewish Sabbath then can do 4. If it should be said as I acknowledge it may that the Jewish Sabbath may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their first observing it in the Wilderness as a boundary before and after their six working days and so by Imitation does answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath I have this to Answer that yet the Jewith Sabbath did not imitate Adams Pattern as our Christian Sabbath doth in beginning it with the Morning Day light for the Jews began their Sabbath at Even contrary to Adams Pattern as there is Reason from Scripture to believe And if it be objected that the Pattern of Adam respecting the beginning of his Sabâ—ath in the Morning is not plainly exprest but drawn by Interence from the Scripture but the Jewish Pattern is expresly commanded and therefore there is better ground of the two to observe the Sabbath after the Pattern in the Mosaical Precept I answer 1. It is not expressy said that Adams first Sabbath was his first-days Sabbath Mark 2.27 But yet seeing Christ hath said the Sabbath was made for Man and that none can deny but that Adam was bound in Duty to God to observe Gods seventh day Sabbath wherein he rested from his Works of Creation then we may insist on the sufficiency of our Evidence for Adams beginning his Sabbath in the Morning it being so rationally inserred thô it is not in Words expressed in the Scriptures 2. It hath been shewed how our Lord made void the Mesaical Precept of Divorcement and justified the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents tho' it was not by any express Word of God nor by so clear an evidence from Adam and Eves being one Fresh that he nor his Posterity but by a special permission of God should not put away their Wives except for Fornication as there is Reason to believe that Adam began his Sabbath in the Morning day light And therefore tho' Christ might have abolished that Precept without setting a Moral Pattern against it yet his justifying the doing of it from thence 2 Tim 3.16 is an Example to be of use to us in other Cases 3. We have greater Reason to begin our Sabbath in the Morning in every Countrey where it can be so observed after the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and the Reason of its change in the New Testament tho' his beginning of it so is but inferred from the Scripture and not expressed in it rather than to begin it after the Jewish Precept at Evening for were this universally binding it could not being a Positive Command accommodate the Necessity of Nature for the different beginning and ending of the Sabbath as the Pattern in Adam and the New Testament Example doth And this I conceive to be one chief Reason that the Jewish Sabbath is abrogated and that we have only the Pattern of Adams Sabbath left us by rational Inference from the Scripture and the Reason of the change of the Sabbath in the New Testament for our beginning of it in the Morning and that we have not any command fixing of it as it was to Israel For 1. That would have either bound us to the precise Point of Time of its beginning in the Lard of Canaan and then the Memorial of Christs Resurrection early in the Morning had not been signified by its beginning in other Nations remote from their Borders for in some places it must then begin at Noon c. and so its day-light there had been divided and the Service of God distructed and our worldly Affairs too much intruding on the meetest time for solemn Worship Or 2. Such a command to six the beginning of the Sabbath would have required it univerfally to begin in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day which is inconsistent with the course of Nature for many Weeks together in some Northern Parts of the World And therefore that those People should not be obliged by any Law to keep such a Sabbath which they are not capable constantly to observe God was pleased to leave only the Moral Precept of the fourth command founded on his first sanctifying of the Sabbath to be binding to us all that those Northern People should answer it by beginning their Sabbath with the first and seventh-day or proportionable Division of a day bounding before and after their six working days and allow it the same Proportion of Time and should preserve the Memorial of the Resurrection of Christ by observing the first day of the Week from and in Distinction to the Jewish seventh-day as near as they can to Answer the Example of the Primitive Churches in the New Testament And that we and all others that have constantly our natural days with Evenings and Mornings twenty four hours long should answer the same Moral Law after the Gospel Pattern and as precisely as we can to begin our first-days Sabbaths early or at the dawning of the Morning in every Nation For if we and all other such Nations should be tyed successively to begin our Sabbath at the very precise Point of Time of the dâ—wning of the first-first-day in Jerusalem to contemporize with them in the Land of Canaan where our Lord afore from the Dead then they must either in other Countries Eastward to the Sun from the Land of Canaan begin their Christian Sabbath later in their Day-light or Westward from them sooner in their Night than they should in Judea and so in the Compass of the whole World Eastward or Westward there would be a beginning and ending of the Sabbath near a day and night differing in their Time of day to the dawning of the day in the Land of Canaan and by this means in some parts of the World the Christian Sabbath would begin at Noon at Evening and at all hours of the Day and Night and so except in that very spot in and about the Land of Canaan they would lose its Memorial of Christs Resurrection at the Dawning of the Day But if other Countries Eastward and Westward from Canaan begin as they ought their first-first-days Sabbath like them at the same time of the day then they must either begin their first day sooner or later than the first day began in Canaan and so in the Compass of the World Eastward or Westward it must begin and end in all Hours of the Jewish seventh or second day of the Week and in some place their first-day must be in the same time and contemporize with their seventh * Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day or in some place with their second-day
he cometh home the first-first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-day or have his seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
of the Moral Law why then should the same Faith in the Gentiles excuse them from it as a Rule 4. Moreover I shall farther add that while the holy Apostles are throwing down the Types and Shadowy Worship under that legal Dispensation 1 Tim. 1.8 yet they assert that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully viz. as a Foundation of our Worship and Obedience to God and just behaviour towards Man which thrô Gospel Grace after the measure we have received is or ought to be put forth according to the several Moral branches of the Law and the Divine Precepts and Patterns given to us in the New Testament And therefore we find the Holy Apostles and Gospel Writers often proving and confirming the Moral part of their Doctrine by the Law as appears in Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth Here the Apostle confirms his Moral Doctrine to the Gentiles by the Authority of the fifth Commandment or first with promise which plainly shews that it is of its self binding to us all under the Gospel and he Moralizeth the Promise by saying Earth instead of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that the Promise was not only to pertain to the Jews in the Land of Canaan but was perpetually to continue to all the Gentiles and so we may say in the aforesaid case of every one that killed a Man unawares who was to flee into the City of Refuge and continue there until the Death of the High-priest Numb 35.25 that thô we have no such High-priest in Gospel days yet the equity of that Law is still in force But to return to our present business we may farther find the Apostle proveth the moral part of his Doctrine from the Commendments Exod. 20. For in Rom. 13.8 9 10. we are exhorted to love one another for saith he Love is the fulfilling of the law and he briefly citeth five of the Ten Commandments to confirm the Duty of Love which comprehendeth them all And in Chap. 7.7 12. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good Therefore surely this Moral Precept in particular and others in general mentioned by the Apostle are of themselves binding to us as a Rule of Holy life for whatsoever Law is morally holy just and good as this particular precept is by which the Apostle came to the knowledge of Sin it is perpetually and universally binding to all Men Rom. 2.14 15. who have the substance of it written in their Hearts by Nature So that from the Apostles making use of the Anthority of the Moral Law of Moses to confirm his Doctrine Matth. 5.19 James 2.8 Chap. 4.11 1 Joh. 3.4 and from the Commendations of it in the New Testament it clearly appears to be in force unto all Men now under the Gospel And seeing the fourth Commandment in particular is delivered in such moral Terms as doth not of its self bind us to the observation of the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening any more than after our Christian pattern from Morning to Morning which does answer that Very Precept as well as theirs did from that single Law we have then no reason to exclude the fourth Commandment from the rest of the Decalogue but to believe it is equally Moral with the other nine as will appear more patticularly in the next ensuing Section SECT VI. TO proceed therefore on the fourth Commandment I shall here recite Exod. 20.9 10 11. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it 1. That this Commandment is morally binding to both Jews and Gentiles is evident because it is in substance the same with God's sanctifying the seventh day for Man Gen. 2. And if the Sabbath be not from thence perpetually binding to all Nations but restrained to the posterity of the Jews then by the same Rule the Gentiles had no interest in the promise of the Womans Seed Gen. 3.15 or the Messias that should bruise the Serpents Head as then made to our first Parents and therefore as I believe it will be granted by all Christians that the Gentiles as well as the Jews had an interest in the first promise as then made viz. in the Original discovery of the Messias as well as in those after promises that are the fruits and effects of it So in like manner we have also ground to believe that the first sanctifying of the Sabbath-day was from thence and is also from the fourth Commandment morally binding of its self to both Jews and Gentiles for if we question the one we may also doubt of the other 2. The End of the fourth Commandment sheweth it to be a Moral Precept for a time of rest is naturally moral and by the example of God and his sanctifying the seventh day to every six working days it is also become morally and perpetually binding for all Men to keep the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to neither more nor less than six working days together and therefore for any to deny the same in the fourth Commandment is in effect to deny the World their sixed Sabbath for thô the Gospel first-day Sabbath hath a new Sanctity yet it is founded on the old Law and Gods sanctifying of the seventh day for Man from the beginning or else it is left very dubious whether we are bound to keep any fixed day of Rest at all but as there is the same Moral reason for a Sabbath as was before so we have reason to conclude that the same Law in the fourth Commandment is morally binding to us all 3. I shall offer some Reasons for satisfaction wherefore I believe the Lord was pleased to sanctifie the Sabbath and to deliver the fourth Command to observe it under the name of the seventh day rather than of the first day Sabbath And 1. Because althô Man abstained from work on the first day after he was compleatly formed yet seeing God gave the Sanctity to the Day for a Memorial of his Creation and for Man to worship him there was reason that the day should answer the memorial of his finishing of and ceasing from the work of Creation rather than of Adams solemn entring upon his subordinate Dominion under God viz. in Honour to the Creator rather than to the Creature
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the sabbath-Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
Sabbath as the Greek Word Sabbaton properly signifies but in the Text Col. 2.16 the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sabbaths for so it is in the Greek and not Sabbath-days as we translate it is not their joined as in those other places to express any particular day of the Week but stands singly of its self for Sabbaths and therefore can only be understood of the Sabbath-days themselves which the Word properly signifies and cannot be otherwise understood but at least comprehensively of the seventh-day weekly Sabbath because other Holy or Feast-days are in the same verse expresly named distinctly by themselves So then seeing the seventh-day Sabbath is included with the New Moon and other Holy or Feast-days as Shadows of Gofpel things it was also abolished with them and there is the like Ceremonial Reason for it as there is for those other Holy-days Gal. 3. to v. 4. Chap. 4.3 4 5 9 10 11 21. Chap. 5.1 to 5. Chap. 6.12 13. Feasts and New Moon expressed with it it being a Sign of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt And considering also that the Apostle saith to the Galatians who after they had been converted from the Idolatry of the Heathens to the Christian Faith desired to be under the Law and were turning to those weak and beggerly Elements Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain I do therefore conclude that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated with their other Holy-days and Times For to imagine that our Lord Jesus who is faithful over his own House Heb. 3.6 should by his Apostle so reprove the Observation of the Jewish Days and Times in general and Name their Sabbaths distinctly from other Holy-days and describe them all to be but shadows which are to be done away and changed with the Priesthood Heb. 7.12 without one word of Exception in the New Testament to confirm the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath for our Observation nor to leave us one Example of any Christian Churches Custom to meet on that day but on the first Day of the Week and yet to require us to keep their Sabbath is groundless and irrational to believe 3. I come to prove the Jewish seventh day Sabbath to be Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations from the Necessity of Nature which renders it impracticable in divers Countreys and in Order therunto I shall first Premise four things 1. It was commanded Israel that they should celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 and if after the Jewish Pattern the Sabbath must begin and end at Evening in every part of the World then in some parts of it the Sabbath would begin when it endeth in other places and so it could not be Gods design to bind all men to keep their Sabbath at one Point of Time prefixed to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness or in the Land of Canaan 2. The Mosaical seventh-day Sabbath could not be the same Successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation if this were either successively kept before their Egyptian Bondage by the Ancient Fathers or if these Patriarchs began and ended their Days and Weeks successively in the same Order of Time from the Creation For God was pleased to the end as it is believed that he might more effectually draw his People from the Idolatry of the Heathen to alter the account of the beginning and ending of their days and years in sacred things to what it was before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt and to what was afterwards observed by them in Civil things and this appears by the Evidence of divers Authors and from the Testimony of the Sacred Scriptures And 1. We find in Scripture that the account of the beginning and ending of the Year was altered to the Jews at their coming out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 12.2 8. This Month viz. Abib shall be unto you the beginning of Months it shall be the first Month of the Year to you Exod. ch 13.3 4. which Month is partly in our March and partly in April Thus their Sacred Year began but their Civil Year began after their Ingathering of the Fruits of the Feild Exod. 23.16 Chap. 34.22 Levit. 25.89 for then it is said to be the End of the Year in their seventh Month of Tisri or Ethanim partly in our September and October for on the tenth day of this Month was the Trumpet blown to begin their fiftieth year of Jubilee And this Mr. Ainsworth noteth on Gen. 7.11 where he saith The second Month to wit of the Year agreeable in part to that we call October For the End and Revolution of the Year was about the Month which we call September Exod. 23.16 and 34.22 and so the New Year then began This was after called the Month of Enthanim 1 Kings 8.2 where the Chaldee paraphraseth that they called it of Old the First Month but now saith he it is the seventh month for the Year changed the beginning of it Ecclesiastically upon the coming of Israel out of Egypt see Euod 12.2 and Levit. 23.39 compared with Exod. 23.16 And Mr. Ainsworth farther saith on Exod. 12.2 By Reason of this their going out of Egypt the Year which before began in September Exod. 23.16 hath his beginning to the Jews Ecclesiastically in Abib or March but for the Jubilees and Civil Affairs it began as it had done before Levit. 25.8 9 10. And to this agreeth Mr. Pool's and the Dutch Annotations on Exod. 12.2 And Mr. Godwyn in his Moses and Aaron page 85. 86. and Mr. Charnock in his Works Vol. 2. page 853. saith It is probable that from the Creation the Year began in September the Autumnal Equinox the Fruit being on the Trees at the Creation but now God orders the beginning of the Year from the time of this first Passeover which was in March the Vernal Equinox Lastly Mr. And. Willet in his Hexapla on Exod. 12.2 speaking of this alteration of the Year agreeth with others that the Jews Ecclesiastical Year began in their first Month called Abib and that their Civil Year began in their seventh Month yet his Opinion is that this Sacred Year began in renovation of the former account discontinued in Egypt but he citeth Josephus to whom saith he consenteth Perertus Simler that the Hebrews always before this time held the seventh Month to be the first Month as they did afterwards for the computation of Jubilee and for other Civil Matters As to Josephus Mr. Willet gives his sense out of his Book in the Greek Latin or some other Tongue for our late English Translation hath either from a corrupt Copy or default in the Translator or Printer an apparent Error viz. December is put instead of September or as the Year began before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt 2. I find there was also an alteration made of the Account of
thereby maketh a new Sacred fifteenth day of the Night of the Civil fourteenth day and the Day-light of the Civil fifteenth Day put together and from thence in an orderly Succession their Sacred time was measured for the due observing of those Feasts Sabbaths and Holy-days which God commanded the Children of Israel But for their Civil Affairs they still accounted their days from Morning to Morning as in 1 Sam. 19.10 And David fled and escaped that night Saul also sent Messengers unto Davids house to watch him and to slay him in the morning And Michal Davids wife told him saying If thou save not thy life to night to morrow thou shalt be slain from which Scripture it plainly appears that after that night the nex Morning or Day-light was accounted the Morrow which was another Day and not belonging to the Night going before And to this Mr. Tho. Godwin witnesseth in his Book called Moses and Aaron page 80. where he tells us That the Jews Natural Day was two-fold Civil a working Day which was destined for Civil Businesses and Works This saith he began at Sun-rising and held till the next Sun-rising Matth. 28.1 Or Sacred a Festival or holy-day destined for Holy Exercises This began at Sun-set and continued till the next Sun-set From all which both Sacred and Humane Evidence I shall make this Inference That if the Patriarchs before and after the Flood and the House of Israel successively had either kept the same precise seventh day Sabbath from the Creation or had reckoned the time of their beginning and ending of their Days and Weeks precisely and successively from thence althô their Sabbath might not have been duely observed in their bondage then the Jewish Sabbath from Evening to Evening after the Alteration of the account of the day could not be the precise successive seventh day from the Creation And seeing the Scripture is silent in fixing the Jewish seventh day or any other Day as that precise successive seventh day we cannot tell which is the same successive seventh day from the first seventh day of Rest which God Sanctified 3. I premise That if the Reasons I have given for Adams beginning his first Sabbath day in the Morning with the Day-light in that Hemisphere of the Garden of Eden should be counted by our Opponents too weak to draw a conclusion for a pattern to justifie us in beginning our Sabbath in the Morning and any should still hold the keeping of the Sabbath from Evening to Evening to be successively from the Creation then we have this to argue against their Opinion That as they have no Scripture for it so the Sun was not made till the fourth day of the Creation and we know not in what part of that day it was Sun-rising or Sun-setting or Noon or Mid-night in any Horizon or Hemisphere except we acknowledge that Adam began his first Sabbath with the Morning and then it follows that a little before the fourth day was ended it was about as much before the beginning of the fifth day with the Morning or Sun-rising in Eden otherwise as it cannot then be known where the seventh day of God's Rest which had the same successive proportion of time as the six days of Creation was bounded with the rising and setting of the Sun but that when God's seventh day of Rest after his sixth day of Creation began and ended any where it began and ended every where at the same instant season and it was no where then any other than the seventh day which began in some places at Evening in others at Morning in others at Midnight in others at Noon and in some or other places at all hours of the Day and Night and the Revolution of the Light and Darkness was the Day which is called Natural in distinction to that which is by some called the Artificial Day or Day-light only There cannot therefore from the first seventh day of God's Rest be any footing of account to measure out to us the time of day for the beginning of our Day nor consequently for the beginning and ending of our Sabbath-day for that it is not known to us where the Sun was when that seventh day of God's Rest first began unless we give way to what hath been clearly demonstrated from the Scripture that the Sun arose or was about rising then to Paradice and to believe as there is reason for it that Adam had that whole Day-light sanctified which preceded the Night of his Sabbath 4. It is very clear that God did never design the Law and Institution of the Sabbath to Israel in the Wilderness to bind either Jews or Gentiles to the observation of the precise orderly Succession of their seventh day Sabbath as from the Creation to the end of the World because we find that God himself did afterwards make an interruption of the Natural Order of the account of Time when the Sun was brought backward ten degrees in the Dial of Ahaz and when it stood still in the midst of Heaver about a whole Day 1. As to the Suns going backward ten degrees Isai 38.8 See his Book Page 157.158 Mr. Weems in his Christian Synagogue has made a draught of Ahaz Dial and explained the matter telling us that that Day was prolonged twenty two hours reckoning the ten degrees or divisions on the Dial to be five hours backward and then the Suns going forward again is 5 hours more with twelve hours is twenty two hours Day-light in all 2. It is said Josh 10.13 So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day Now if we duely consider this place it seems by the Suns standing still in the midst of Heaven that it stood still in the Meridian or Noon-tide of Canaan about a whole day and add to the time of its standing still the half or that part of the Day that was past before and that followed after when the Sun moved forwards to its going down and then that Day or Day-light continued twenty four hours or was about as long as the Day and Night together and so if the Jews did reckon all that large Day-light to belong to the preceding Night then the beginning of their next Sabbath fell later than its usual course about twelve hours time and if they divided that long Day-light and put half of it to the former and half of it to the following Night then they did thereby alter the beginning of their Natural Day for Sacred things and reckon that last twelve hours of Day-light for the former part of the Day belonging to the following Night but such a succession of days for Sacred things was against the Command of God for the Time and Order of beginning and ending all their Sabbaths and Holy-days But instead of these if any should yet say That when the Sun had continued in their Hemisphere about twenty four hours time the Natural Course of the Night being altered
only Judaical and Ceremonial and also that from the Israelites first observing their Sabbath in the Wilderness we have no certain Pattern for having six working days Originally before our Sabbath And having given some New Testament Instances of divers Cases warranted and reformed by the Pattern in our first Parents to shew that their Example of keeping their first Sabbath is also of Moral use to us I shall here speak something farther to explain the Pattern of Adams Sabbath which I have already largely shewed See Page 24. began with the Morning Day-light as our Christian Sabbath doth And therefore I have only here to add That it cannot be supposed but that seeing God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it for Man that he also rested Gen. 2.3 15 18. Mark 2.27 and was not allowed on that same day to dress the Garden of Eden which was his appointed Work in Innocency For if Adam had liberty to dress the Garden on the Day of God's Rest and was bound to begin his Sabbath after his six working days or days wherein he might dress the Garden precisely after God's Example then he did keep his Sabbath on the sixth day after God's Sabbath and not on that seventh day successively which God had sanctified And if he kept no Sabbath till the next seventh day after God's seventh day of Rest then Adam had seven days in which he might dress the Garden before his Sabbath so that Adam must either have kept another seventh day than that precise successive seventh day which God had sanctified viz. the sixth day from God's Sabbath or have seven working days before his first Sabbath contrary to God's Example or else begin his Sabbath before his working days and then it follows that God's seventh day Sabbath after his six days of Creation was Man's First day Sabbath before his six working days and after them the same successive seventh day next following God's seventh day Sabbath was also Man's seventh day Sabbath too And so the sanctifying of the seventh day in Gen. 2. and accordingly in the Moral Law which was afterwards given forth to Israel was answered under the Name either of the first or seventh day Sabbath And farther to explain this Matter God's seventh day Rest after his six Creation days was not designed for a Pattern to Man that he should also have first six working days before he kept his Sabbath for then God would either have Created Adam with some other things in the beginning of his first days Work and have put him in a Capacity to do some business the six Creation days and then to rest the seventh day on which God rested or else some other way have ordered six working days Originally for Man before his Sabbath but seeing it was otherwise it therefore followeth that God's seventh day Sabbath was only a Pattern for Mans dividing and counting his time and for bounding his six working days that he should not have more working days until a Sabbath nor be at Liberty so often as he pleaseth to make any one day in seven his weekly Sabbath viz. to rest on the seventh day in one week and on the sixth fifth fourth third second or first day in the next week after which would have tended to confusion but that Man should have six working days together and no more bounded before and after with a Sabbath as it was in Adams Pattern And thus our Gospel first-day Sabbath answereth the design of God in sanctifying and commanding the observation of the seventh day because it is a boundary before and after to our six working days Moreover As I shewed before it could not be said that God rested a on the day or on the first day before the Creation or time was measured by a Day and therefore the necessity of the Order of Nature placed God's Sabbath after his six Creation days but there was not the like necessity that the same day of Rest which was also made Adams Sabbath should be before his six working days So that it was fixed by the Lord in the Original Order of Adam and Eves time that we should have such a Pattern that not only answereth the principal End of a Sabbath but all Ends and suiteth with the alteration of it and with God's Example too as after Adams six working days And thô Adam's First-day of Rest or abstinence from his own Business was on God's seventh day Sabbath yet seeing that Man 's Original Sabbath was not appointed to be kept after God's Example of working six days first before his Sabbath we have reason to believe that we also are not to follow it farther than we find by the Example of our first Parents that he designed it should be of use to us But that Adams Pattern was to explain the Mind of God in sanctifying the seventh day which I believe cannot rationally be denyed nor that it should be of Moral use to us to justifie our keeping of the Sabbath after the Gospel Pattern to answer the design of God in the Moral Precept and in his first sanctifying of the seventh day against this Exception that it cannot be said to be Originally introduced by only six working days after God's Example of making the World seeing our First Parents did not follow it in this particular SECT XI HAving thus far treated on the Sabbath Day I shall now proceed to shew that there is a first day to be observed holy under the Gospel from the Types and Shadows of it under the Law for all the 〈…〉 and the Law prophesied until John Heb. 9.23 Colos 2.16 17 and was a shadow of 〈◊〉 my things under the Gospel And as other things were typed out undâ—â—â—he legal Administration so also the Gospel First-day Sabbath was typed forth under the Law as it s said the Feast of Tabernacles and ingathering of the Fruits of the Land shall be for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy Convocation ye shall do no servile work therein Levit. 23.34 to 40. Seven days ye shall offer an Offering made by fire unto the Lord on the eighth day shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall offer an Offering made by fire unto the Lord it is a solemn assembly and ye shall do no servile work therein on the first day shall be a Sabbath and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath Ver. 10.15.16 21. ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering seven Sabbaths shall be compleat even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days and ye shall offer a new meat-offering unto the Lord and ye shall proclaim on the self-same day Levit. 25.3 4 8 9 10 11 12. c. that it may be an holy Convocation unto you ye shall do no servile work
therein Six years thou shalt sow thy Field and prane thy Vineyard But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the Land and thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto the forty and nine years then shalt thou cause the Trumpet of the Jubilee to sound and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ye shall not sow neither reap it shall be holy unto you That some of these days were appointed as Memorials of Israels coming out of Egypt is plainly shewed in the Scriptures and of the Jubilee besides what is expressed of it Some have thought that it was a Memorial of their rest and first settlement in the Land of Canaan but yet I conceive there was a farther meaning in them viz. as Types and Shadows of Gospel things For the seventh day Sabbath thô it was first appointed for a Moral End and to preserve the Memorial of God's making the World in six days and resting on the seventh Exod. 31.15 16 17. Heb. 4.9 Rev. 20.4 5 7. and was also afterwards a sign of Israels deliverance out of Egypt yet we find the Apostle makes a farther use of it as the Foundation Type from whence he proveth there remaineth a Rest to the People of God which to answer the Types and the Apostles reasoning in this Scripture is taken for the seventh thousand years of the World So then to follow this instance we may thus argue that those solemn Convocations on the legal first and eighth day and their fiftieth day which if you mind the Text was a first day Sabbath next ensuing one of their legal Sabbaths a plain and clear Type of our Gospel first-day Sabbath that should commence next after one of their Jewish Sabbaths And so their fiftieth Year of Jubilee which followed a seventh Year Sabbath may figure to us that as after seven Sabbaths of Weeks they had a first days Sabbath and as after the seven Sabbaths of seven years and all those legal and external Bondages of Persons and Things there should come a time of release by sound of Trumpet with a first Year Jubilee Sabbath so after all the bondage of the legal Administration there should come a time of Gospel liberty Rom. 10.18 proclaimed by the Gospel with a first days Gospel Sabbath Thus you see how these Types and Shadows under the Law does figure out our Gospel first days Sabbath as far if not farther than many Types does usually suit with Antitypes but as they have often exceptions in their parallels so they are not of themselves positive Proofs but illustrations of Gospel things which seeing we have the Examples of the Primitive Christian Churches keeping their Sabbath on the First day following the Jews Seventh-day Sabbath or on the first day of their Week which does fairly and fully answer those Typical Sabbaths under the Law that are not applicable to any other Scripture observed Times under the Gospel nor to our Eternal Rest for that is not doubted to be a Rest from Labour and a time of Liberty nor can it be typed to us by Time because it is Eternal or by an Eighth day Seeing there is a Time or Day of General Judgment of Wicked Men between the seventh thousand years of the World as some believe and Eternal Rest then surely the Typical first Days and Years Sabbaths under the Law does bare the greater Evidence to our first day Sabbath under the Gospel However I have no dependance on these Shadows for the Justification of our First days Sabbath but on the substantial Law of God and Adams Pattern answering the first Sanctification of it to which I shall here add the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament SECT XII HEre I come to demonstrate the ground we have in the New Testament for our keeping the First day of the Week a Sabbath And 1. I shall premise That Christ arose from the Dead on the First day of the Jewish Week which is frequently called in the Greek Tongue The one of the Sabbaths after their mode of Speech agreeing to the custom of the Hebrews See Dutch Annot on Mat. 28.1 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 See Dutch Annot on Gen. 1 5. and on 1 Cor. 16.2 who sometimes set one for first as may be seen in Gen. 1.5 Chap. 8.5 Numb 29.1 Dan. 9.1 So that we must read the Greek The one of the Sabbaths for the First day of the Week as it is translated in our English Bibles agreeing to the Greek in Mark 16.9 Now when Jesus was risen early 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the first of the Sabbath or as it is in our English on the first day of the week As Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the Week And the Truth of our Translation is farther confirmed because it 's said In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week Luke 23 53 54. to the end Chap. 14.1 c. Mark 15.42 John 19.31 Luke 24.13 15 21. 1 Cor. 15.4 See Mr. John Weemse his Christian Synagogue Page 75 81. John 19.14 Christ arose from the dead For he was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath and on the Sabbath it s said the Women which followed Jesus from Galilee rested according to the Commandment and very early on the First day of the Week they came to Christs Sepulchre and he was risen which was on the third day after he was Crucified according to the Scriptures Now it was the Custom and corrupt Tradition of the Jews when the Passeover Sabbath fell on the day before their weekly seventh day Sabbath they made but one Sabbath and kept their Passeover on their seventh day Sabbath as we find they did when Christ was laid in the Grave and therefore that Sabbath day being a double Sabbath was called an High Day And the first day after on which Christ arose from the dead was no Jewish Sabbath but only the First day of their Week for there are two things that do evidently and clearly shew that the one of the Sabbaths in the Greek cannot be taken for any one of the Jewish Sabbath-days but for the first day of their Week First Because that seeing Christ arose from the Dead on the next day after the Passeover Sabbath as it was then corruptly observed by the Jews and that the Passeover Feast had but two Sabbaths viz. Exod. 12.14 to 19. on the first and seventh day of unleavened Bread then forasmuch as Christ lay in the Grave their Passeover Sabbath the Day following on which he arose could not be one of their Passeover Sabbaths Secondly It cannot be denyed but that Christ did eat the Passeover with his Disciples on the right day according to the Commandment which after our vulgar speech was on Thursday Night or in the former part of the Jews sixth day and on
could not conveniently see the Church in a full Assembly before their usual appointed Time on the first day of the Week Secondly Then they came together to break Bread viz to eat the Lords Supper for so the same Expression is universally understood in Acts 2.42 So that on the first day of the Week the Church of Troas Assembled to hear the Word of God and to solemnize the Ordinances of Jesus Christ which pattern together with the Example of his Disciples before mentioned and the occasion of the change of the Jewish Sabbath answering the Precept of the Moral Law founded on the first sanctifying of the Sabbath with the Observation of the first and seventh-day Sabbath by Adam is a sufficient warrant for the keeping of our first-day Sabbath there being both a Precept and a double Example that justifieth our Observation of it And this I conceive to be the same day which St. John calls the Lords day as Dr. Wallis shews See his Defence of the Christian Sabbath in Answer to Mr. Thomas Bampfield Page 48. that we have the more Reason so to presume because we find it so called by others very soon after St. Johns time as Ignatius who was not only Contemporary with him but was a Disciple or Scholar of St. John now Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians even according to the genuine Edition published by Bishop Vshâ—â— out of an Ancient Manuscript not that which is justly suspected to be interpolated he doth earnestly exhort them not to Judâ—â—ze but to live as Christians not any longer observing the Jewish Sabbath but the Lords day on which Christ our Life rose again It is manifest therefore saith he as may be there further seen that within eight or ten Years after St. Johns writing the Lords day did not signifie the Jewish Sabbath but the first day of the Week on which our Saviour rose again and that it was then observed in contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath he also adds the evidence of Justin Martyr and farther saith that Dominica or dies Dominicus hath been so used not only by the Ancient Christian Writers Ignatius Clement Ireneus Origen Tertullian c. but by the Councils and Church History all along Now this Historical Testimony of Ignatius c. that the Lords day was accounted from St. Johns time the first day of the Week is the more to be regarded seeing Mr. Bampfield in his Reply to the Doctors Book does not as I can find in the least invalidate the Reputation or any ways deny the Truth of the aforesaid History SECT XIII HEre I shall observe that the first day Sabbath which I have been treating of is asserted by many Authors to be as its Heathen Name viz. Sunday that is still in Vulgar use does witness the same successive day which the Gentiles from great Antiquity have observed as the chief day of their Week in worship to the Sun See Dr. Nath. Hâ—lmes his Essay concerning the Sabbath Chap. 7.8 9. as Dr. Hâ—lmes sheweth how anciently the Sun was worshipped Jerem. 43.12 13. He shall break also the Images of Bethshemesh which in our Marginal Notes is translated the House of the Sun that is in the Land of Egypt and the Houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with Fire And Gen. 41.45 And â—haraoh called Josephs name Zaphnath-Paaneah and he gave him to Wife Asenath the Daughter of Potipherah Priest of On which he translates from the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priest of the City of the Sun And he citeth divers Authors as Jo. Gr. Assyr Monarch idem Biblian to shew that Nimrod having given to the Sun his greatest God the Name of Baal Nimâ—od Gen. 10.8 was the Father of Belus See Mr. Tho. Chasiâ— on the Sabbath Page 29. he afterwards assumed that Name to himself And â—elus giving to their greatest God the Sun the Name of Jove the Contract of Jâ—lâ—vah the said Belus afterwards took that Name to himself and was called Jove Bel. I shall add that the Sâ—â—â— and Moon and the Host of Heaven were worshipped by the Gentiles before Israels coming out of Egypt as seemeth by the strict command given to them and the Penalty of Death to any Man or Woman that should worship the Sun and Moon Deut. 17.2 See Mr. Tho. Chasie on the Sabbath Chap. 15. 3 c. Also Mr. Chafie proves from divers Authors that the Heathens did of old Worship the Sun and that the weekly day to wit the seventh-day of every Week with the Gentiles which they call the day of the Sun or Sunday was the very same day which we call the Lords day Moreover Mr. Tho. Bampfield in his Reply to Doctor Walles page 56 57. saith That Mr. Chafie tells us page 40. That to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry viz. of worshipping the Sun the Lord used this means for one that they should not have the day of the Sun that is Sunday for the day of his Worship but the day before that is the Seventh day which saith Mr. Bampfield I think refers to the Time of the sixteenth or twentieth of Exodus which saith he proves not only the Observation of the seventh-day by the Israelites but of Sunday by the Heathens and that very Anciently and that continually in the Weekly Circulation of days to this day And Mr. Chafie's ninth and fifteenth Chapters saith Mr. Bampfield I think might give satisfaction that all Nations of Note under Heaven worshipped the Sun and that very anciently as far back at least as the Time of Moses and that upon Sunday and that weekly Now all the Use I intend to make hereof is that our first day Sabbath according to the Opinion of some Persons and to what Mr. Bampfield approveth of in Mr. Chafie's Book stands fairest to be the successive seventh-seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation of the World See Dr. H. Essay on the Sabbath Page 78.79.82 Gen 12.8 Chap. 13.4 as Dr. Holmeâ— saith We know that Idolaters were always the Apes as Divines call them of true Religion As because Abraham builded an Altar on the Mountain near Bethel and planted a Grove in Beersheba and prepared all things at Gods command to offer up his Son Isaac Therefore Idolaters planted Groves and worshipped in high Places their Idols Gen. 21.33 Chap. 22. and made their Children to pass through the Fire to them and therefore saith he nothing can be more probable than that the seventh-day with the ancient Patriaâ—â—ks was no other but that which afterwards was the Sunday or Day of or to the Sun with the 〈◊〉 and from them was called Sunday by other Nations also To which I add that the Astronomers say the measure of our days by the Revolutions of the Sun in a whole Years time differs between five and six hours from the Revolutions of the Stars which make a day every fourth or Leap Year and yet that the odd Minutes in which their Measure differs
†Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day in the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing the Sabbath cannot be begun universally both at the precise Point of Time and Time of day as it should begin in the Land of Canaan to contemporize with them there And considering that Adams Sabbath was not only designed for the Moral end of Mans abâ—inence from Work for a time of solemn Worship to God but that it had its Memorial of the Creation and that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath afterwards bearing that Memorial was also appointed for â—loral Ends and for a Ceremonial Memorial that rendred it uncapable of being a universal Pattern and that the Memorial of Christs Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation should be preferred before that of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt then we ought to observe our Christan Sabbath as much as can be to Answer thereunto the end of its chinge which may be done by all Nations including those Northern People keeping their first-day Sabbath in Distinction to and from the Jewish seventh day And as for its beginning early in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day the Scriptures shew that so it began in Judea Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn or as John 20.1 While it was yet dark i. e. not light day towards the first-day of the Week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre c. And in Mark 16.2 It 's said they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sun and ver 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first-day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen and said unto her John 20 1â— Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And therefore seeing the Evangelists have Recorded the Time of the dawning and Sun rising of the Day to the History and Circumstances of Christs Resurrection and that we find he was then but newly riten because he had not yet ascended unto the Father when Mary first saw him We have then greater Reason to six the beginning of our first-day Sabbath in all Nations where we can at the dawning of the day expressed in the Scripture to bare the fuller Memortal of the Resurrection of our Lord than at any other time of the day And this we may strengthen from the Example of the Jews beginning their Sabbath in the Evening here in England and in other Nations tho our Evenings here differ and in other Nations are farther from the precise Time of the Evening in the Land of Canaan and their Reason for it is taken from the Precept of Moses which bindeth them to celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 Exod. 12 18 19. And therefore seeing God was pleased under the Type of the Gospel Salvation Church and Sabbath to require the Memorial of that Deliverance by beginning their Sabbath in the Evening as the most proper time to bear its lively remembrance and that from thence they conclude it best answereth the express command of God and his End and Design in sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Evening in the Land of Canaan for them to begin it so in other Countries also rather than to begin it at the precise Point of time of its beginning in Canaan and differ in the Time of day then we have Reason from the Type and their Example to begin our first-first-day Sabbath rather at the dawning of the day in all the World where we can than at the precise Point of Time at a different time of day to contemporize in all places And whatever the Jewish Sabbatharians may invent to say from the Necessity of the Course of Nature in those Northern or Southern Parts against the beginning of our first-first-days Sabbath early in the Morning or at the dawning of the day in all other Parts of the World the same Arguments will equally serve against the beginning of their Sabbath in the Evening where it can be so observed so that they cannot gain the least Advantage by opposing us in beginning our Christian Sabbath early in the Morning unless they can first invalid and disprove the Authority we bring for our keeping the first-day it self that it does not answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment and the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches with all the ends of a Sabbath which is a task too hard for them And seeing the Scriptures sheweth by the Resurrection of our Lord that our Sabbath should begin at the dawning of the first-day of the Week it must consequently not end till the dawning of the second-day Mark 15.42 Luke 23.54 See Mr. Heemse Christ Synagogue Page 74. Who tells us the Jews had three Preparations to their Sabbaâ—h Succeeding each other And from the Custom of the Jews to make Preparations for their Sabbath the preceding Time from twelve a Clock on Saturday Night vulgarly so called till the dawning of the first-day it that time be not spent in our Nights rest it should be employed to prepare our Minds for the Worship and Service of God on the approaching Sabbath day But to proceed That I may remove any doubts that may yet arise about the usefulness of the Pattern of Adams Sabbath to us under the Gospel I shall add something to demonstrate how far it is of a Moral Nature for seeing I have forborn to call it a Moral Pattern because no one Pattern respecting the beginning and ending of the Sabbath can be wholly alike universally so to all Nations I think it 's therefore needful to explain the Moral use that is to be made of Adams Sabbath that so whatever different Apprehensions there may be about the use of the Word Mortal â—o Adams Pattern the thing it self may be understood and the Controversie may not be fomented about Words which some have made the Subject of much Discourse when they have not been able to Confute the thing that was plainly intended by them 1. Therefore as I shewed Page 2. that from Gods sanctifying the seventh-day for Man the Light of Adams Nature taught him that it was most meet to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working days to one Sabbath 2. See Page 24. I have also shewed the Reason we have from Scripture to believe that after Adams first sleep in the Night when the Hamane Nature was compleatly formed and Eve was brought to him at the end of the sixth Creation day their Sabbath began with the Morning day light of the seventh-seventh-day and the first day after the finishing of the Creation which seeing the Order of Gods Working and Rest and the Original Moral Duty of Man
of the Gospel for a successive Conversion of Souls and beinging of all Nations into Subjection to Chrills Righteous and Visible Kingdom cannot be accomplished unless the Christians of those Countreys remain inhabitants therein And for any to imagine that God should send a Moral Pattern by an Institution to men in general which is impossible to be observed by all Mankind in every Countrey under Heaven without the least Exception to accommodate the Necessity of the Course of Nature is both against the Nature of such a Precept the Righteousness of God and the Equiey of his Law But to conclude this Answer I shall make this remark on the Authors Words before recited That seeing he saith That they ought to return again into such Câ—umreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God for Mens Habitations ought to stoop to Gods Law and not Gods Law to their Habitations It is plain he granteth the Law for the seventh-day Sabbath or the fourth Command which he Treats of as binding us to the Observation of the Jewish Sabbath cannot be kept in those Countreys after their Pattern from Evening to Evening and then it must needs be Ceremonial and the Moral keeping of that command is for them and us to observe our seventh-day after our six working days or our first-day before them as near as can be to answer the Gospel Pattern Object 12. Thô the Sun stood still in Joshua's time about a whole day and its going backward and sorward ten Degrees or Divisions in Abaz Dial might lose ten hours account of Time so that after these Interruptions of the orderly Course of the Sun their Sabbath began and ended near or about a whole days time later than they should have done if there had not been such an Interruption in the Order of Nature yet those longer days than ordinary were counted but for days and so the seventh-day was the seventh-day still successively from their first Sabbath Answer Altho' some have thus argued that the seventh-day was the seventh-day still Josh 10.13 Isa 38.8 See Page 29. yet after those Interruptions of the orderly course of the Sun if we count its ten Degrees or Divisions of going backward and then forward again to be ten hours lengthning of that day as there is the greatest Reason to believe that so it was then the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath fell near or about a days time later than their precise orderly Succession of Time would have placed it from their first Sabbath as was shewed before And farther as their seventh-day Sabbaths could not after those Interruptions he properly counted the precise orderly successive Sabbaths from the Creation or its Institution in the Wilderness so if this should be allowed as it is objected then we may also say in those Northern parts where the days are sometimes lengthened by the Suns continuing in their Hemisphere more than twenty four hours time unto Days Weeks and Months that we are still to reckon them but for days contrary to the Custom of those People See Mr. T. Chasie cited Page 33. and the length of days and weeks in Gods Pattern of meafuring time but after this account their days will differ in length of Time Days Weeks and Months from one another and so tho' they have the orderly Succession of the Settings and Risings of the Sun according to the orderly Course of Nature in those places yet the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbath cannot possibly this way be successively kept precisely in Proportion of Time there like as it was in Canaan and other parts of the World So that for any to argue for the precise Succession of the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbath from their first keeping it or from the Creation after those Interruptions of the orderly course of the Day will consequently tend to draw us into great Confusions about the Sabbath and to maintain that in Name which is not properly so in Nature Object 13. The journeying of the two Disciples to Emmaus Luke â—4 13 and back again was near fifteen Miles which is more than a Sabbath days journey how then could their Travelling consist with the keeping of that first-day of the Week a Sabbath Answer 1. We sind Christ reproved them for their unbelief and if this will not be allowed as inclusive for their journeying from Jerusalem when they should have continued in Faith with the eleven Apostles thaâ— were there gathered together then I may farther add that it cannot be proved whether their journey was then Lawful or Unlawful for thô it be not lawful on the Sabbath-day to journey at all on the account of any common or worldly Business of our own yet there may possibly be a Moral necessity to journey on the Sabbath-day without Sin as it may be for the saving a Persons Life and therefore we cannot conclude that the two Disciples sinned in Travelling on the first Christian Sabbath or did thereby make it a common day unless we knew the occasion of it 2. Those two Disciples were not of the number of the Eleven Disciples or Apostles of our Lord which were themselves then but weak in Faith and in the Knowledge of Gospel things and therefore it is the less to be wondered at if those two Disciples did not observe that day a Sabbath when they doubted of the occasion of it viz. the Resurrection of Christ till he appeared to them which he also did to the Eleven Luke 24.33 Math. 28.8 and others who were waiting together on that day for the Confirmation of their Faith Object 14 The Jews reckoned their days to begin at Evening and therefore the Church of 〈◊〉 Acts 20.7 came together to break Bread on the begiâ—â—â—â— of the first day of the Week viz. on Saturday Night 〈◊〉 so called after the Jewish Sabbath was over and the next Morning Paul did go a soot to Asses where he had appoâ—â—ted his Companions to meet him with the Ship So that Paul and his Company travelled on the first day of the Week and therefore tho' he preached and broke Bread on it the Night before yet he kept it not as a Sabbath Answer It s true the Jews were appointed to keep their Sacred days from Evening to Evening or from Sun set to Sun set as Mr. See his Reply to Dr. Wallis Page 28.29,30 Josh 10.26 27. Prov. 〈…〉 Mark 1.32 Chap. 13.35 Baâ—pfield largely proves that the Evening belonging to the days of the Week began at Sun-set and is called the twilight And also Moseâ— dated Israels Deliverance out of Egypt from the Sacrifice of the Passover at Even at the going doan of the Sun But yet I have clearly proved that the days before and after that Deliverance were also reâ—koned from Morning to Morning as in Math. 28.1 In the â—nd of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first-day of the Week From whence its plain that the first-day of the Week on which Christ arose from the Dead was counted by the
XIII Sheweth the ancient Observation of the first day of the Week called Sunday by the Heathens And that there is greater Reason to believe it is rather than the Jewish Sabbath the Old seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation tho' neither the one nor the other can be assured of the same Page 47. Sect. XIV Containeth a brief Discourse shewing wherein our first day Sabbath answers the Pattern of Adams Sabbath better than the Jewish Sabbath doth Page 50. And also sheweth the time of Day when our Christian Sabbath should begin and the Reasons why we had no Positive Command left us in the New Testament to observe the first day of the Week a Sabbath Page 52 c. With a Discourse of the Morality of Adams Pattern Page 56. And of Gods accepting the first of Time Page 58. Lastly Answers to the Chiefest Objections made against our keeping the first day Sabbath A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day WHEREIN The keeping of the First Day of the Week a Sabbath is justified by an Institution of God and a double Example contained in the Old and New Testament THAT we have both a Precept and a double Example to justifie the keeping of the first day of the week a Sabbath I have here to produce from the Holy Scriptures The Precept is in the Fourth Commandment founded on God's first sanctifying the Sabbath-day and we have the Example of Christs Disciples with the primitive Gospel Churches in the New Testament and of Adam to his Posterity all which I shall prove and explain as followeth SECT I. First That the Reader may not be under any mistake about the use I make of the word Moral throughout this Treatise I shall here acquaint him that in its self it belongeth to Manners Civility or Behaviour properly to the Actions of Man only as he is Man And so by some the Moral Law is taken for the Law Light or Instinct of Nature which Adam had in the State of Innocency which altho this be true yet I also make a larger use of the word For as no Man knoweth by Nature the extent of Adams light in all particulars for his Obedience when he was in Innocency and therefore cannot describe the whole of that Law of Nature And as I suppose the prohibition to him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not be deny'd by any to have been binding for all his posterity as Men so we must have recourse to Divine Revelation for the better understanding our Moral and universal Duty to God since the Law of Nature is so much obliterated in us through the fall And therefore because of the darkness and depravity of our Minds we have the substance of the Law of Nature given to us in written Precents which may be called Moral as they are not Ceremonial but perpetually and universally binding to all Men for their Obedience unto God and also Institutions by Divine Revelation as being now a more full discovery to us of the Mind of God first implanted in our innocent Parents than we retain in our Natures or can recover in our fall So that when I speak of the Moral Law or of Morality it must be taken as the Adjunct Matter governs it in either sence of the Law or Light of Nature alone in the State of Innocency or contained in those transcribed Precepts of the Ten Commandments as the substance thereof in general Heads and in those other Precepts that morally do explain them which I shall only take notice of wherein I am concerned and not collect and reserr them all to their proper Heads In brief I use the word Moral in common to those things that are of universal and perpetual Concern to all Mankind for their Obedience to God as their Creator For as to the case before us seeing it s said that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it We cannot say that Adam by his pure Light of Nature alone knew that it was meetest to have but six working days and no less as 5 7 or 8 together to one Sabbath but that from God's Example revealed to him the light of Adams Nature told him that it was most meet for him to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working or common days to one Sabbath SECT II. TO proceed on the Subject Matter of this Treatise I shall here recite the first Foundation Scripture for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to six working days and briefly Note something of the Nature and Quality of the Text Gen. 2.2 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made It is here said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is he made it a happy and holy day by setting it apart from common use for Man to worship him and he appointed it to be a rest for Adam by Revelation as he did that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for otherwise Adam could not by his Light of Nature alone know the time which had passed before he was Created nor could he understand the Mind of God as it was in God himself and therefore the knowledge Adam had of God's sanctifying the seventh day Sabbath was by Supernatural Revelation to him And this I presume none will deny for a time for Man to abstain or rest from his own business to exert his solemn Worship to God is morally implanted in the Heart of Man by Nature and surely God did not conceal from Adam the meetest time when he sanctified the first seventh day of the World for that end Besides before that God had formed Eve Gen. 2.7.8 15. he put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and therefore Adam being appointed to do this business he might have applyed himself thereto immediately after Eve was formed and brought to him if he had not received the knowledge of God's sanctifying the seventh Day yea then it had been lawful for him to have worked on God's Sabbath if it had not been revealed to him Moreover Our Saviour puts this matter clearly out of doubt because he referrs the making of the Sabbath not to the first Institution of it at the gathering of Manna in the Wilderness but to the time of God's creating Man Mark 2.27 saying The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath that is the Sabbath was not first made and then Man for the sake of the Sabbath but Man was first Created and then the Sabbath was sanctified for his Happiness as the blessing of it signifieth God's bare ceasing from Work did not make it for Man but
and its time spent by the long duration of that Day God was pleased in an instant either to pass the Sun thrô their Antipode Hemisphere or suddenly to turn it backward and make it Sun-rising to the Israelites in the Land of Canaan I Answer That if thus it was that in an instant the Sun was passed through their Horizon and the Antipode Hemisphere then they reckoned the first twelve hours of that long Day-light of twenty four hours for one Artificial Day or Day-light and the last twelve hours Day instead of Night adding one to its preceding Night and the other instead of a Night to the following Day-light and so did bring their days into their former course again But as this would have been a greater Miracle than the former which was only a stop to the Course of Nature for a time so there is reason to believe that if it had been so the Holy Ghost would have recorded it in the Scripture and Josephus would not have omitted the Notice of it in his History where he speaks of this larger Day than ordinary And as to the last if the Sun had been suddenly turned backward to make it Sun-rising in the Land of Canaan then it could not have been so properly said that the Sun hasted not to go down about a whole day For if the Sun had been suddenly put backward from its place of setting to its place of rising then the Sun had only hasted from its standing still to the place of its going down and went not down till a day-light and a halfs-time after it stood still in the midst of Heaven contrary to the plain meaning of the Text. And if we say the Sun was turned backwards from the place it stood still or from thence was passed in an instant through their Antipode Hemisphere to its place of rising or which ever way we reckon from that time the Account of the natural course of the Day and Night to settle the Jews could not possibly fall into their due Order of Time again as successively from their former Custom to begin their Sabbaths at Even according to the Law unless it were settled by a greater Miracle than the standing still of the Sun But if we reckon as there is the greatest Reason for it and it is most natural and fairly implyed in the Text that after the Sun had stood still about a whole day or twelve hours it then continued its natural course to go down and add to it the ten hours of the Suns going backward and returning in the Dial of Ahaz which twenty two hours together being computed after the Jewish Custom of some of their Days-light or Artificial-days may make a full day and nights time and then the Jewish Sabbath fell later than its former precise Order of Saccession by near or full a whole days time So that their weekly seventh-day Sabbath after these Afterations of days had but about two hours possibly no time at all in the time which by an orderly Succession should have been their Sabbath and the other twenty two hours and possibly their whole Sabbath-day was in the Time if it had not been so interrupted of the first day of their Week by an orderly Succession from their first Sabbath in the Wilderness And therefore it is apparent that neither the Moral Law nor the Ceremonial Precept for their Sabbath was designed to bind us to the Observation of the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation for if it had God would never have so interrupted the course of Nature and his own Design and Institution unto Men. 5. Having premised these things I proceed to shew that the course of Nature maketh it impossible for all Nations to observe the seventh-day Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern 1. Sir Jonus Moor saith See his Sâ—sem of the Maâ—â—maticks Paâ—â— 48. that the Government of Wardhus is in seventy and seventy one Degrees And there they have the continual Presence of the Sun for many days together in the Summer and in the Winter they are as long without the Sun in their Horison or Hemisphere 2. See his Pilgrimage Page 431 432 433. Parchas gives us a large account of the Northern Parts of the World and tells us that the Samoyeds about the Banks of Pechore are in Subjection to the Moscovites and that in the Year 1611. Josias Logan wintered at the Town of Postozera and there observed that on December eleventh he could see but the way of the Sun Beams on the thirteenth the Beams but not the Sun Which it's there said on Christmas day he saw rising at South and by West and setting at South West and by South not wholly elevated from the Horison but all the way the nether part of the Sun seeming just and even with it Now this Town of Postozera I find in Speeds Maps and Description of the World to be but just over the Artick Circle which is in about sixty six Degrees and half So that Wardbus before mentioned being about four Degrees nearer the Pole has more of the continual Presence of the Sun in Summer and is a longer time without it in the Winter But to return to Purchas History he farther tells us that the Hollanders in the Year 1594. sent to discover a way to Cathay and China by the North-East that William Barentz was the Chief Pilot for this Discovery The next Year the last of August they had Speech with the Samoyeds who know no God The Sun whose Presence they are long deprived of in the Winter which is recompensed in their Nightless Summer is worshipped amongst them and when the Sun is declining out of their sight the Moon or North-Star is his Receiver or Successor if you will in that Tribute of their Devotions Moreover the aforesaid Author saith that they viz. the Hollanders learned of certain Muscovites that the Inhabitants of Nova Zemla had neither Religion â—or Civility prescribed them by any Law but worshipped the Sun Moon and North-Star And that in the Year 1596 there were sent other two Ships to prosecute this Discovery and after many dreadful Combates with the Ice and one of the Ships departing from the other they were forced to Winter in Nova Zemla where they indured a continual Night of many Weeks wherein neither the Sun nor any of his Courtly Train the least Rays to be the Harbingers of his desired Presence did present themselves to their Eyes from the fourth of November till the seven and twentieth of January they saw no Sun Our Author farther addeth in Page 740 741. That Henry Hudson 1607. discovered farther North towards the Pole he found himself in eighty Degrees where they felt it hot and drank Water to Cool their thirst they saw Land to eighty two Degrees and farther It is saith he colder in sixty two Degrees than in nine or ten Degrees more northerly towards the North Eest hence it is that those parts hear and perhaps under the Pole are
when the Humane Nature was compleatly formed to offer the first of Time to the Praise of his Creator before he served himself did first begin the Sabbath with the day-light unto Man we have then Reason to conclude that such a Sabbath is most morally to be observed by the World as no other Sabbath can more universally suit with the Course of Nature in the greatest part of it Indeed God can by his Prerogative and as I have shewed did dispense with the Alteration of the Sabbath from this first Pattern by a Law to Israel as he did by the Precept of Divorcement dispense with the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve that none should put away his Wife for the causes allowed afterwards by a Ceremonial Law but this we find did not at all destroy the Moral Use and Binding Quality of the Pattern in our first Parents after Christ was come and so it is with the first Pattern of the Sabbath which no doubt was binding to others after Adam as precisely to observe the same day as near to the orderly Succession of the same time as could be according to the allowance of the Course of Nature in every Climate wherein they dwelt It 's true it may be said we cannot keep the Sabbath from our Knowledge that we observe the same precise Succession and Order of Time as Adam did and others in the first Ages did or should do in their feveral Countreys But then as God was pleased Exod. 13.2 12 to 16. insigâ—d of the first-born of the Children of Israel which were the Lords to require and accept of the Levites for his Service Exod. 34.19 20. Numb 3.41 to the end Chap. 8.16 c. Levit. 27.25 26 c. Chap. 22.29 30. Deut. 12.6 but still kept up the Memory of his Right by Causing afterwards the Israelites to acknowledge it in paying Redemption Money for their first-born of Man and unclean Beasts and did still require the first-born of clean Beasts to be offered to him So likewise the Practice of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches shews us that the first of Time from the work of purchasing our Redemption bearing the Image of the first of Adams and Eves Time from the Creation is most acceptable to God and after the aforesaid Example of Gods Command and Allowance to Israel concerning their first-born we should likewise offer it as God accepteth of it instead of the same precise Succession of Time from the Creation in Memorial thereof and of the purchase of Mans Salvation And it is rational to conclude that seeing the beginning of the day was changed upon the account of the Type a day might well be changed upon the account of the Antitype If this in the Figure was reckoned worthy of such Note that the account of the days beginning from the Creation with the Day-light most give place to the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt so as that their days must begin at Evening the substance of this Figure appearing might well be the Cause of the Change of a Day and of a Typical Memorial to its Spiritual and Gospel Memorial in our first-days Sabbath To close this Matter seeing the Moral Law requireth the seventh or first-day a boundary to our six working days and that the Precept for the Jewish Pattern is abtogated in the New Testament Nature it self also taking away its binding quality to all Nations because it cannot accommodate its necessity how then can we answer the fourth Command so well as by keeping such a Sabbath that every way agreeth with that Moral Precept that also suiteth with and is justified by the Morality of Adams Sabbath the end of its change from the Jewish seventh-day and the Example of Christs Disciples with the Primitive Churches which doubtless we are bound to follow in Obedience to the fourth Command as we observe their Examples in Obedience to other Precepts As for instance laying on of Hands for Confirmation of Elders or Church Officers and consummating their Ordination is a Divlne Rite which is the Duty of all Compleat and Orderly Gospel Churches Authoritatively to Practise Ordination of Elders being Instituted in Titus 1.5 but yet the manner of compleating this Institution is no otherwise known nor practised by us as I can find but from the Examples of the Apostles and Primitive Churches Acts 14.23 26. with Chap. 13.1 2 3. Chap. 6.1 to 7. Objections Answered Object 1. THE Psalmist saith Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word anto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Natton and as for his Judgments they have not known them Answer This Scripture is no ways repugnant to what I have said of the Use and Benefit of the Law of Moses to the Gentiles For we find the Israelites had continual Wars with the Heathens round about them and the old Inhabitants of Canaan were not wholly subdued till Joab David's Servant 1 Chron. 11.4 c. Chap. 19.20 took the Castle of Jebus which is Jerusalem or about the latter end of Davids days So that till they had obtained Peace and Rest and became in Repute and Honour in Salomons Reign it cannot rationally be supposed that any Gentile Nation for the Text excludes not single Persons had a full and distiuct Knowledge of Moses Law with the Statutes and Judgments therein contained Nay tho' the Gentiles had an Interest in the Uso and Benefit of the Law and were to seek after the Knowledge of the Oracles of God committed to the Jews yet such was their hatred against them and love to gross Idolatry that till about two hundred eighty Years before the Nativity of Chirst See Josephus Book 12. Ch. 2. Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Egypt had caused the Law to be translated into Greek by the Seventy two Interpreters it was never as I can find translated out of the Hebrew Tongue So that as David rightly said that God had not dealt so with any Nation viz. with any other Nation besldes Israel so as to shew them his Oracles under a peculiar Obligation in trust for others also He having designed to pour the Water out of Jacobs Buckets it is likewise also Evident Numb 24.7 that no Gentile Nation thenâ— in Davids Time had a full and distinct Knowledge of Gods Laws tho' respecting the particular Election of God among them they might by some means or other receive the true and saving Knowledge of the Messias through their converse with the Jews Object 2. Some may say the Apostle in Rom. 14.5 seemeth to leave the keeping of days to our own Liberty and also in 2 Cor. 3.7 8. Coloss 2.14 he seemeth to abolish the binding quality of the Ten Commandments as given on Mount Sinai and therefore it is doubtful whether we are under any Obligation to keep a Sabbath or Day of Rest at all Answer 1. To Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day
Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Here as was mentioned before Sabbaths are distinctly expressed from the New Moon and Feasts or other Jewish Holy days that were or had also Sabbaths and were observed under the Law and therefore their weekly seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Word Sabbaths and equally prohibited with the New Moon and other selâ—ival Sabbaths that were then observed 2. It appeareth the Jewish seventh-day was a shadow of things to come in that it was a Sign and Memorial of Israth Deliverance out of Eâ—ypt for that Deliverance with all its Memorials was a Type of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and oâ— the Gospel Signs and Memorials of it for it s said That all the Prophets 〈◊〉 11.13 and the Law prophesud until John 3. Tho' the change of the Jâ—â—ish seventh day into the Christion sirst-day Sabbath in Distinction to tieiâ—s was Typed out by the eighth or sust day and by the Year of Jâ—bilee under the Law as I have shewed yet our Claiâ—â—ion Salbath considered as our seventh-day to our six working days was also shadowed by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath 4. It this will not fatissie I have also this to say That we find nothing applyed in the New Testament as the Antitype of the New Moon It 's true there is something signisied or shadowed to us by the New Moon Isa 66.23 And by the Feast of Tabernacles Zach. 14.16 which places both relate to Christs Glorious Kingdom yet to come and not to our present Gospel-day but yet we cannot certainly say what the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles does particularly shadow to us Howbeit from thence it 's plain that the New Moon is a shadow of something yet to come and seeing the Apostle saith so too and comprehends the seventh-day Sabbath with it we can no more deny his forbidding all Men not to judge or censure the Christians for not observing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath than for not observing their New Moons and other Holy days and for any to except the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath out of this Prohibition because they sind no present Gospel Antitype shadowed by it expresly applyed to it in the New Testament will give equal Liberty for others to except against the Prohibition of observing their New Moons And therefore seeing those Typical days and times of the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles that were not evident shadows of present but of suture Gospel things are not to be kept in our Gospel days as Signs and Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt or for any other Reason and yet the Record of them in Scripture does retain their Typical and Shadowy Significations then surely we have equal Reason to conclude that in Case it were granted as it is not that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath was no shadow of any present Gospel thing yet as a Sign and Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt and also as a shadow of suture things it is not to be observed tho' the Record of it in Scripture does still retain a shadowy Signification and is so of Use to us 5. Tâ—â— some have sound out a more cunning Distinction than an Explanation of Truth batteen the typicalness or significative Nature of the Jewish Sabbith and the Sabbath or day it self yet this covâ—â—ing may castly be removed and their mistake Corrected for tho' the Pypical use oâ— their Sabbath to suture things still temaineth on sacred Record and is not wronged by transâ—erring the same Typical Signiâ—ication to be born also by our actual keeping the 〈◊〉 day Sabbath as the seventh-day Sabbath also yet it is the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath the day it self that is aboâ—ished as other things were that were Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt which respecting their seventh-day Sabbath was in their beginning and ending of it From Evening to Evening to answer their new day from the Sacrisice of their first Passover thereby weekly and dailytoo to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory and so the significative Nature of the day respecting an actual and practical bearing up the Memory of that Deliverance could not be removed unless the Sabbath day it self were altered in its beginning and ending which was to cease with their Church-state and to give way to our Gospel Memorials of the greater deliverance when our Spiritual Redemption and Eternal Salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ 6. The Jewish Sabbath its self is abrogated without a repeal of any part of the Moral Law or Ten Commandments or any Moral Branch of that Law tho' the keeping of it by the Jews did answer and fulfil it in the fourth Command For as I have noted the fourth Command of its self does not require the Sabbath to begin and end from Evening to Evening so it consequently follows it does not of its self limit the keeping of that very day but this was done by another Ceremonial Precept which till it was abrogated tho' it answered the Moral Law as being their seventh-day boundary to their six working days yet it does not therefore follow that it was of its self of a Moral Nature for then we must also say that all other Ceremonial Precepts are Moral and all the Jewish Worship is Moral for nothing was required contrary to the Ten Commandments but for Israels putting forth their Obedience to them which was to be exerted according to the revealed Will of God in all the other Appendant both Moral and Ceremonial Precepts and Branches of the Decalogue So that the prohibiting of the Sabbath according to the Jewish Pattern is no repeal of any Part or Moral Branch of the Ten Commandments but is only an Abrogation of a Ceremonial Precept that pertained to it during the shadowy Dispensation of the Law Object 11. Here I shall answer to something I find in Mr. Edward Stennet's Book of the seventh-day Sabbath Page 47. concerning those Countreys where they have so much day together in the Summer and Night together in the Winter Saith he the Psalmist saith Psal 74.20 The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty That is saith he they are the places by Divine Appointment for the cruel Wild Beasts and not for Man except they will become like Beasts for as David saith There is no Sperch nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard Psal 19.2 3. So that if there be any Speech or Language under Heaven that hear not the Voice of Day and Night they are gone out of that orderly State which they were in in Davids Time and so ought to return again into such Countreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God and live under the means of Grace for men ought to sorsake all that this World affords rather than Sin against God and if so then men may well forsake their dark
places and come to the Light for mens Habitations ought to stoop to Gods Law and not Gods Law to their Habitations Answer 1. The Psalmist faith Psal 74 1â— 20 21. O deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the Multitude of the Wicked forget not the Congregation of thy Poor for ever Have respect unto the Covenant For the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty O let not the oppressed return ashamed let the Poor and Needy Praise thy Name This is a Prayer pleaded from the Covenant that the oppressed Turtle Dove and Congregation of Gods Poor might be delivered from the wicked for saith the Psalmist The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty As if he should say O deliver thy Poor and Needy in those places of the Earth that are dark with Blind and Cruel Inhabitants that oppress them for as there is not one Word of Wild Beasts mentioned in the Text or any Agreement of its connexed Matter to imply the darkness of place to be understood for want of the Light of the Sun and the Natural Day So those Countreys are no more deseribed to us by being called dark places than if they were called the Light places of the Earth Because they have the same Proportion of Light together more than other Countreys have in the Summer as they have of Darkness together in the Winter and in the whole Year they have equal Light and Darkness to other places And therefore as it cannot be proved by any other Scripture that by dark places in the Text are meant those Countreys but that the matter connexed to the Text implies it to and expounds it of dark Persons if it were granted as it is not that by dark places is meant those Countreys it is sufficient to invalidate all that is there said by Mr. Stennet against our proving that the Jewish seventh-day Sâ—bbath from Evening to Evening is not morall â—â—â—ding to all Nations for the â—â—â—â—bitants of such Countreys having no Sun nor Day for several Weeks in Wâ—â—ter not any Night not Evening for several Weeks in Summer they mast of Neâ—â—shty â—vide their â—une and bound their Sabbâ—â—hs some other ways Vz In Summer the account of their Time must be preservâ—â— and their hight measâ—ed and divided into their hight days oâ— twenty soâ—â— hours by their Meridian and in Winter Astâ—oâ—â—mers say when the Sun is absent from them for several Weeks they may preserve the account of Time and Measure and divide their Darkness into dark days of twenty four hours by the help of the Staâ—s And by Clocks or Glasses of Sand as we do our hours of the Day and Night So that tho' their Sabbath may be duely kept with the same Proportion of Time as we do in our Nation yet seeing it cannot there be observed after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening that Precept was therefore never designed for all Nations to exert their Obedience by it to the Moral Law 2. See Mr. Edw. Stennets Book on the seventh-day in Page 47. I now come to speak to the other Text Psaâ—m 19.2 3. which the Author thus citeth saith he David faith There is no Speech nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard But he hath not dealt ingeniously with this Scripture so to transpose the matter in citing of it to make it savour his Cause contrary to its true Order and Sence as it lies in the Holy Bible for the Psalmist saith Vor. 1.2 3. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Day unto Day mâ—â—reth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There as no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard Their Line is gone out through all the Earth and their Words to the â—nd of the World Now let the Reader consider whether this place of Scripture hath any thing in into his purpose surely if it be duely considered it will appear strongly against him for if those Words There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard relate to the two preceding Verses then we must understand them of the Voice of Gods handy-work in the Creation and orderly abiding of the Firmament and Ordinances of the Heavens and Day and Night or Light and Darkness which declare the glorious Wisdom and Power of God to every People according to the Scituation of their Countreys throughout the World but if those Words are expounded as they are most propeâ—â— connexed to the following Verse then the Aposâ—le in Rom. 10. Rom 10.15 16 17 18. Math. 28.19 applies them to the Preathing of the Gospel to the ends of the World and the Lord hath promised in Isa 66.19 which relates to a different Time after the sust Promulga â—on of the Gospâ—â— and therefore may reach to those Blind and â—gnorant Notâ—here People we are treatâ—â—g of that 〈…〉 esâ—â—pe to I arshish Pull and 〈◊〉 c. and to the 〈◊〉 a at oâ—â— that have not heard of his Name nor seen his Glory and the shall declare his Glory among the Gemtles So that the Word of the Gospel and consequently the Moral Law in the Old â—estament annexed to it and consirmed by it was to be 〈◊〉 to Mens Habitations for tho' all Nations shall go up to the Moâ—â—â—ain oâ— the Lords House Isa 2.3 Isâ— 60.1 2 3 c. yet this shall be either their volâ—â—â—â—â— Act to 〈◊〉 their Knowledge of his ways from the extrandinary Light that shall 〈◊〉 oâ— the Tribes of Israel when they shall be returned into their own Land in the Time of Christs Gloâ—ous Kingdom here on Eâ—â—th or to do subjective Homage every car once a year Zach. 14 like to the other Text Isa 66.23 where its 〈◊〉 Teat 〈…〉 new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to 〈◊〉 shaâ— all Plesh come to norship before me saith the Lord And whatever is intended by this monthly worship to be in the suture Glotions Time of Christs Kingdom yet as we have nothing of it now in the New Testament and so this Text can no ways prove that any Nation should in our present day remove their Habitations to another Countrey so it cannot be taken that all Nations should assemble into one place once a Month or every Sabbath for thus they cannot appear before the Lord but once a year and I Question if it be then required of every individual Person but of some of all Nations as it cannot be monthly shictly considered or rather of all those Nations only that came against Jâ—rusalem as it is expresly said Zâ—â—h 14.16 And I do not sind it otherwise that Men should now or then remove their Habitations into any Countrey or the Land of Canaan unto the Gospel for as this can never be until it comes first into the places where they are to convince them and bring them over to the Obedience of it so the end
in the Gospel to the Ministration of Death in the Law and he telleth us that the Glory of the Ministration of Death had no Glory in respect to the Ministration of Righteousness that excelleth it in Glory So that that which was to be done away does not appear to be the binding quality of the Ten Commandments as a Rule of Holy Life or the Commandments themselves but the Renown of their glorious manner of Ministration to Israel which is incomparable to the Revelation of the Grace of God in the Gospel with their power of final Condemnation to those that lay hold of and have an Interest in the Ministration of Righteousness by Jesus Christ Answer 3. To the Objection from Coloss 2.14 Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Here some may also think the Apostle hath abolished the binding quality of the Ten Commandments but it otherwise appeareth from the Reasons following And 1. I shall here recite the Dutch Annotations on this Scripture say they Having blotted out that is dashed through and expunged or wholly razed out as we speak the hand-writing which was against us the Greek word Cheirographon i. e. Hand-writing some do take here for a Writing written with Gods own hand in Tables of Stone as the Law of the Ten Commandments was Exod. 34. â— and this is by them understood of the Moral Law or of the Ten Commandments which are said to be against us in respect of their strict requiring of perfect Obedience or in default thereof by Reason of its Curse which Christ hath born for us on the Cross and delivered us from it Gal. 3.10 13. But seeing the Apostle here properly sets himself against the Observation of Circumcision and other Ceremonies therefore this Hand-writing is here to be understood of the Law of the Ceremonies of the old Testament which are called an Hand-writing that was against us because the same were as an Engagement or Bond of Debt whereby indeed Men daily acknowledge their Trespasses and Debts before God but notwithstanding were never discharged by the outward Performance of the same as Paul declares Heb. 10.1 As this Word Cheirographon or Hand-writing is also taken in the Greek Text Tâ—b 5.3 and 9.3 This appears also by comparing this place with Eph. 2.14 15. where this Word Hand-writing in Institutions is called the Law of Commandments in Institutions which Word Dogmasi i. e. Ordinances or Institutions is no where in Gods Word used for the Law of the Ten Commandments nor yet the Word Dogmatizes the Ver. 20. And that which is there added by Paul proves this also clearly For the Moral Law properly maketh no Enmity betwixt Jews and Gemiles seeing that is also written in Nature Rom. 2.14 but it is only the Ceremonial Law by which this Difference and Enmity betwixt these Nations is occasioned as is noted there Neither can it be well said of the Moral Law That Christ hath taken it away by his Death to free us wholly from the Observation thereof as Pauls intent here is to prove For althô we are by Christ delivered from the Curse and Rigid Observation of the Moral Law nevertheless we remain obliged to the Observation thereof as the Rule of Thankfulness which we owe unto God for our Deliverance To this I shall here add Levit. 11. Deut. 14.21 Acts 10.12 c. Rom. 14.14 Luke 15.2 John 4.9 That the Ceremonial Law was against the Gentiles as a Wall of Partition that kept them more separated from the Jews than under the Gospel Administration For 1. There was a difference in Meats that were forbidden to the Jews by the Law of Moses but were lawful for the Gentiles to eat and this did occasion some Separation of the Jews from them Deut. 7.3 Ezra 9.1 2 14 c. Chap. 10. 2. The Jews were not to take them Wives of the Heathens nor join Affinity with other Nations round about them 3. Josh 14 15. Levit. 25.25 Rom. 9.27 Gal. 3.14 17 29. The Land of Canaan was given and divided by Lot to the Children of Israel for an Inheritance and they were not to sell their Possessions for a longer time than the Year of Jubilee So that the Gentiles could not inherit the Land with them but were separated as Strangers and Sojourners 4. Dent. 14.1 2. Rom. 9.4 5. Thô according to the Election of God in the Covenant of Grace there were a remnant of literal Israel saved as the Seed of Christ yet as they were a Nation in the peculiar Covenant of Circumcision they were all accounted the Children of God above all the Nations that were upon the Earth Isa 56. in so much as the Prophet sheweth that the Sons of the Strangers who laid hold on the Righteousness to be revealed and of Gods Covenant viz. of Grace in Christ were under such Discouragements as to say The Lord hath utterly separated me from his People 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. For the Law being such a Vail that the Children of Israel coald not stedfastly look unto the end of that which is abolished was also a Cloud on the Minds of the Gentiles tho the Lord was pleased to inlighten a Remnant of them so as to discern his Grace in Christ through that shadowy Dispensation But the Knowledge of the Oracles of God which the Elect then sought after amongst the Jews now since the breaking down of the middle Wall of Partition Math. 28.19 is sent by Christs Commission and more clearly opened and revealed by the Ministry of the Gospel to all Nations Ephes 3.4 5 6 7 8. That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same Body and partakers of the Promise in Christ by the Gospel So that the Legal Covenant or Hand-writing of Ceremonial Ordinances mentioned in the Text thô it was neither a Bar against the Proselyting of the Gentiles if they would to the Jews Religion nor did so blind their Minds as to hinder a Remnant of them from laying hold on Christ by Faith yet as it added nothing simply of it self to the Salvation of their Souls by reason they could attain the Knowledge of the Oracles of God without putting themselves absolutely under the Covenant of Circumcision therefore it was a means to keep them out of the Visible Church-state and was such a Wall of Partition and Vail upon their Understandings as in great measure did hide the Mystery of Christ Which the Apostle saith in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of Men as it is now revealed unto his Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit Whereof saith he I was made a Minister that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable Riches of Christ Object 3. A Jew Travelling from Canaan Westward round the World pieceth every day in length but loseth in the Compass of the whole Globe a day in Tale so that when