several of the Ecclesiastical Historians have been examined by me upon this subject matter and I have some Collections by me about it enough to shew how little credit is to be given unto those kind of Authorities which are so fallible and sometimes so self-contradicting and so altogether unsatisfying when the matter of Right comes to be Inquired after and determined any further than they do speak the mind of Christ in his word For either in these Cases of Conscience they write and speak according to the word or not If they do let these Scriptures be particularly pointed to with which they accord If not they are not to be received or followed Yet in regard that my design is to bring all to the Scriptures of truth referring this and all else under Aelohim to their Judgment I shall therefore now debate the Principle with this objector So much of matters of fact as do relate to matters of right and as are necessary for us to believe in order unto Salvation is Recorded in the word of truth Whereunto the whole Scripture is profitable which is enough for us if no more were written by me concerning this particular question in hand For that Scripture referred to is proper and pertinent to this purpose about Christ and his Resurrection and his appearing to his Disciples and his Blessing of them and conference with them as is plain in the foregoing part of the same Chapter and other Scriptures collated and compared with this do evidently speak it But we have yet much more to say about this To assert the perfection of the Scriptures is one of the great truths of the present Age The forces of Earth and of Hell are now joyning together and putting forth their strength to assault and to attempt the overthrow of this useful Doctrine As it was in the daies of Christs Flesh when he was familiarly Conversant here on Earth the Roman Power the Grecian Wisdom the Jewish Traditions Ethnick Philosophers and Diabolical possessions all the humane and devilish Force and Art and invention was called together to War against Christ and against his word So in the latter daies the Worldly might Old and New Philosophy Institutions and Impositions Histories and Traditions Inventions and Authorities of men unwritten pretended necessary verities Generall Councils sayings of those whom they call Fathers Articles of Faith composed by men Confessions and practise of Protestant Reformed Churches the judgment and practice of Learned and Godly men these and such like Extra-scriptural places are the swaying Authority with many whereby Antichristianism and Antiscripturalism in a many of particulars are still held up and maintained against the LORD and against his word who in this Providential day is pouring contempt upon all Flesh upon men and upon their sayings bringing a Blast upon them so far as they are contrary to sound Doctrine and do oppose the mind of Christs Revealed in the written word and is putting a Crown on Christ and an Honour upon his word the Testimony of men may be and often is in Fact Erring and Fallible uncertain and lying self-contradicting and unsatisfying Into which therefore the Christian Doctrine Faith and Religion is not to be resolved either in whole or in part For the word of Jehovah is like himself who is the Author of it of invaluable veracity and of unchangeable truthfulness He truth it self and his word The Truth He a God that is true and that cannot lye and his word That which is truly purely such the word of truth His Law is the truth The asserters of the Seventh day to be the Weekly Sabbath for which we have the whole Scripture are charged with Errour because we will not be resolved by humane Authorities to own the First day in the Room of it Whereas if men do err greatly err it is therefore because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way To assign somewhat else for a cause of this which is not a cause is a by-way of paralogizing-deception of sophistical-arguing and of Fallacious disputing The LORD Jesus Christ doth not in his word and where else as from him shall we look for it assign this as a cause of mans erring that they do not know the magistral dictates of humane Rabbies It is the proud Arrogance of the Antichristian usurper to impose his own placits upon the Churches as if he were imperial Dictator to mens Souls and vniversal Monarch over their Consciences Neither is their Erring from hence that they know not the Antient Records of uncanonicall Church Histories which do sometimes write Contrary to themselves and to one another as those do understand who have been faithfull diligent comparers and collectors of such passages and this both in matters of Fact and in matters of Right and this Objector himself doth confess he Judgeth that some of the writings of these Antients are spurious and corrupt And how few are there of those to whom the Gospel is preached and upon whose Hearts that word of Grace and of Truth doth take most saving holds to which word the LORD himself doth bear witness are versed and read in this kind of Ecclesiastical History And which way shall they be ascertained that it has been all of it read over by others by their Guides and teachers particularly or that the report is faithfully brought to them or if that were whether they ought to be swayed by it Were Church-Histories unerringly inspired Who is so bold as downright to assert this Or if any were so daring how can he prove it Who of our plain Converted People had humane Histories in his thoughts when he was thorowly Regenerated and gratiously visited from Christ and from the Father of Christ by the Spirit of Christ in the word of Christ What a kind of Faith is that which doth ultimate it self into humane Church Histories He that would have judged of the state and Case of Jehovah's Church and people in the daies of Ezra by making search in the book of those Ecclesiastical Records and have judged according to what was Historifyed there would have brought in an hard Charge of Rebellion and of Sedition against them and have been ready to have irritated the powers that were over them against them as their Adversaries did Neither do men therefore err because they know not the Tradition of the Elders which has long obtained by common Custom and by little Controlled usage so as to plead prescription unscriptural Customes and Tradition is a part of that Redemption which our LORD has wrought out for his People And it is a choice Mercy to be throughly delivered from them For in the event and effect they would un LORD Christ and the word of Christ of his and of its due Autority For which he condemned those Scribes and Pharisees of his daies who would have obtruded these upon him and upon his Disciples but he confutes them by his
some particular known day Do not Commissions to Judges and to other Officers meet with this sense by their Dates Do not Charters to Corporations express some special day of Grants Are not Fairs and Markets held upon certain days of the week agreeing with the present Accompt as the reckoning now is Search the records of Marriages Nativities Deaths Burials in Ecclesiastical Register-books and is not the memory of Days preserved there Do not Compacts Covenants Agreements between party and party Wills and Testaments speak the certain knowledg of Days Do not Day-labourers keep to this Accompt Do not Ephemeries Diaries Hemerologies Calendars Almanacks Astronomies assent and consent to this same What further Evidence is now needful in this case of a matter of Fact for the satisfying of them who will keep a Weekly-Sabbath-day Holy unto Jehovah As an act of Faith with an eye to his Promise as an Act of Fear with an eye to his Threatning Sandys in his Travels being a narrow inquirer into the state of other Nations and Kingdoms doth relate this concerning the matters of Religion in the Eastern parts that there is a Christian Empire of the Aethiopians that did still in his time Celebrate Saturday as well as the Sunday as he useth the old Ethnick Phrases and Purchas writes of the Abyssines as Subject to Peter and Paul and especially to Christ that they observed the Saturday Sabbath The Melchites or Syrians are said to Celebrate Divine Service as solemnly on the Sabbath day as on the Dominical day as they call the First day Some Christian Churches have forbid Fasting on both these days Many more Historical records of this may an Ingenious Industrious Reader of such books Collect that would further Inform himself about this Sufficient to me is Scripture Authority warranted in created Nature Having now gone thorow my great Task and undertaking in asserting and proving thorow the whole Scriptures by Aelohim's own assigned Reasons by other Scripture Arguments and by Created Nature and Established Order the Seventh-day which is the last day of the week to be the Weekly Sabbath-day should not every Mouth be stopped from gain-saying of it Yet the plainests clearest Truths have been opposed and so is this Some rise up against it and object that no special Honour is put by the LORD and by his Word upon the seventh day more than upon any other day of the week and that it is but A seventh not The seventh And that that part of time that is and will be accepted with God is declared and determined to be the seventh part of it or one day in seven and that one day in seven hath and must have a natural priority unto the seventh-day because say such the seventh day is one of the seven Whereas such should have more deliberately considered that one day of seven was not before the seventh day in order of time It could not be truly affirmed of any one day that it was one of seven before the seventh day was Created For when the one day was so named there was but that one day so but two on the second day but three on the third day but four on the fourth but five on the fifth but six on the sixth day till the seventh had its natural Existence and it s created being and untill then no one of the fore-going days of the Week could be called one in seven For till then there were not seven and the seventh day is the last number of days and the only seventh in the days of the Week So that here is a stop made and we go no further forward As to the natural created Order and accompt of a Week and therefore that exception and objection which some do bring in against this from ten Lambs any of which may be the tenth according as they may run out is nothing pertinent and applicable to the present matter For the days of every week do not run voluntarily at their pleasure which can be before or behind as they will to go backward or forward when they list but they keep their created order in this successive continued weekly course by a well-established natural unalterable Law although in the exception and objection this should be noted that when the ten Lambs were run out they had each distinct names and the last was the only tenth and no other but the last That particular day of the week is the Weekly Sabbath-day which alone As to this of the weekly-Sabbath has proper marks of Note and of Honour put upon it As Jehovah's own peculiar day which he has culled out from all the rest of the days of the week for his created ends and instituted purposes There is not any one Insignificant word or letter in the whole Book of God All that he has spoken and given to his people is of good use The LORD Jesus Christ has confirmed his Law of the Ten Words to a Letter a Consonant a Vowel a Particle a Point These things amongst others I have commended to their serious Observation who do understand the Original or will take so much pains as to learn the notes of Demonstration and their Significancy which may the LORD blessing it be gotten with a little Industry one is to observe well the first place in the Scriptures where the Doctrine and Law of the Seventh-day-Sabbath is taught here is a Note of Demonstration importing The This or That and it is three times joyned to the word Seventh which particular day of the Week the Last day Aelohim Rested on Blessed and Sanctifyed as the Weekly-Sabbath-day The seventh and a second time The Seventh and a third time The seventh and three times there is a Letter an Inseparable joyned Preposition signifying In Which would carry the discerning obedient Observer of the Weekly-Sabbath-day into the Possession and enjoyment the Duties and Priviledges of that set Seventh-day Besides another Particle there which doth here put a great force upon the signification as That day That Seventh The Note of Demonstration in this Place doth point out a certain known Determinate Fixed Particular Unchangeable day in every Week in that First Created Week and in the after Successive Returns of that last day in every Week as the Weekly Sabbath-day Because this is the First place in the Holy Scriptures where this Note of Demonstration is put to this word Seventh And this was an Eminent Remarkable thing pointed at this seventh day as the day of Weekly Rest And all and every of the foregoing daies of the Week of this Created World have a distinct observable put upon them and therefore so has this also Especially the Seventh day being the most remarkable day in divers respects that was in all the Week Here was a thing certain to be known and to be taken special notice of that was thus Demonstrated and Notificated The Subject matter compared with that which doth go before doth eminently point out as it
and Collated with other Scriptures For they wholly refer to another Matter and to other Sabbaths than the Flatterers of the first day do lay a wrong Claim to As for that word in the Feminin gender which they do translate First but signifieth One I have examined the Exactest * Concordances of the Greek New-Testament and I find it Seventy and nine times used there or about that number and upon a searche into all and every of the places the translation of one of the Learnedest who doth correct the Vulgar Latin Interpretation is One. I could mention more Translators if there were need only for the Information of such Readers as do understand only English the Dutch Annotators and Translators in five of those seven places forementioned in the Margin do acknowledge that the Greek word doth signifie One Only in two of the seven which yet do relate to the same Greek words they render it First without expresly mentioning the true proper significancy of the Greek word which is One which was in five other places done by them Whereby the discerning Reader may observe what their Judgment was in those other two places and no where else that I have yet found of all the rest of the Seventy and nine times do they translate it First but only in one place more I have taken care in going over every one of the particular places and I do not knowingly or willingly misreport any one Quotation The Masculin and Neuter gender of the same word whereof the sorementioned is the Feminin in their several Cases are used in the New Testament Two hundred and seventy or seventy one times As the forementioned Concordances do set them down in every one of which those words are rendred by one of the most Skilful-literal-Translators One In one place he leaves out one Clause in the Original wherein one of those words is and so he translates it not at all but leaves the Vulgar Latin Interpretation in the Margin where it is taken in and rendred One. And in another place he puts in one word for another and renders some One or a certain one for One. In all those Two hundred and seventy or seventy one places the Dutch Annotators and Translators do not in any one of all those Scriptures give this Word in either Masculin or Neuter Gender the significancy of First but always of One. No man that understands the Greek significancy of this Word can but confess if he will speak out the Truth that the Greek word is Properly Primitively One from a Verb which doth denote to be For a being is Unity As for the other word translated Sabbath Sabbaths Upon search I discover that It is used Sixty and eight times in the New Testament In every one of which places that Skilful-literal-Translator spoken of before doth render it Sabbath Sabbaths in the Singular or Plural according as the number is The Dutch Annotators and Translators do render it Sabbath Sabbaths in every one of the places according to the Greek though in Nine places they render it Week also Eight of which do relate to the matter under debate yet in every one of them acknowledging the Greek significancy in its propriety of speech to be Sabbath or Sabbaths All Lexicons and Languages that do derive it from the Hebrew do give this to be the true Genuine Primitive proper significancy of the word which the very sound of the Word doth prove to every Ear that hears it Let then the words be in the Translation as they truly really signify One of the Sabbaths Which if it were done and received as it ought to be what a Scriptureless thing would the first day of the week be discovered even by plain Understandings to be No Translation of Scripture is any further the Word of God than it doth exactly agree with the Original Those who do translate these words the first day of the week do borrow a Phrase which is meerly Talmudical and not Scriptural and it is Invented by Men not grounded upon the Word of God As the words themselves in their own sense are not at all either against the Weekly seventh-day-Sabbath or for the first day of the week as the weekly Sabbath now which is the Common pretence and the mistaken Plea So neither is the meaning of them in any of those places as they are Construed in Syntax standing in the coherence of the Text or as compared with other Scriptures Those places which are cited out of the Four Evangelists the other will be spoken to in their order do in all and in every one of them relate to the Passover-Sabbaths on one of which Christ arose from the Dead The Word of Truth doth here expresly call and name them Sabbaths and therefore we must own it that they were such to wit Sabbaths days of Holy Rest The Authority of the Scriptures should suffice upon which this Appellation doth strongly bottom All the Evangelists are express for the Passover at which time these seven Festival days were and other Scriptures in the Old Testament do agree hereto For under that former Dispensation there were other days in the year as the days of the Passover of Pentecost of Booths of the Fcast of Expiation which are called Sabbaths in express words Shadowie Figuring Typical Sabbaths they were The Weekly seventh-day-Sabbath is a natural Weekly-standing-Sabbath of a different nature from the other Consider further that the first and the last days of that Paschal-Festival are expresly called and named Holy Convocations or Convocations of Holiness So they were to be unto the Israelites They were not to do any Function of Servileneâ—s in them The same Command as to this that is given for the observation of the Weekly seventh-day-Sabbath in the Fourth Word Which doth shew that they were to be kept as Sabbaths The same thing for the Publick Worship and service they were to do To a day every one of those seven days of this Passover-Feast besides the Ascension the Burnt-Offering which was the Dayly-Sacrifice a Burnt-Offering of Continuation which was offered up every day without any intermitting The same thing also which was injoyned on the Seventh-day-Sabbath There were also all the offerings and oblations of the New Moon and somewhat more For it exceeded the sacrifices of the Feast by one Bull and a Ram. Every one of these seven days were Holy Assemblics Feasts to Jehovah and when performed aright they were the savour of his Rest The last day of this Paschal Festival is called in Hebrew a day of Restraint because though so many days together had been Sabbatized on before yet the people of God should not be weary of their priviledg but be willingly restrained one day longer from their servile Work and be retained together in the Publick Holy Assembly Thus deriving its significancy from a root that signities
it Disciples and believers at Christian-assemblies were not to come empty on the first day of the week but were on that day to deposite what they brought in to the Treasury of the Church And this has been the practice of all the Christian Churches in the World since the Apostles daies For which there is the Evidence of Church-history in this matter of Fact into which Humane Authority this must be resolved For this evidence of this Churches Vniversal constant usage is a full and sufficient proof of the matter of Fact That the First day was set apart by the Apostles for Holy worship especially in the publick Church assemblies They that will deny the Validity of this Historical evidence do by consequence betray the Christian Faith or give away or deny the necessary means of proving the truth of it and of many great particulars of Religion For without this Historical evidence we cannot make good the Authority of any one single verse or text of Scripture which we shall alledg because we are not certain of that particular Text or words whether it have been altered or added or corrupted by the Fraud of the Hereticks or the partiality of some Christians or the oversight of Scribes c. thus these objecters The Spirit of these Objecters is now to be tryed whether it be according to Christ and the word of Christ or not Which shall be done by a strict examination of the two Comprehensive particulars more especially whether the Scriptures alledged be truly Translated and rightly Interpreted and meetly applyed as to the present Case in hand either for matter of Fact or for matter of Right And whether Human Church Histories be of such Authority with reference to the certainty and verity of Scripture and of the Christian Faith and Religion conteined therein As for those expressions in our last English Translation of the First day of the week in the places cited I have shewn before that the words in the propriety of speech according to the truth of Grammar-etymology in their proper significancy and regimen of syntax are one of the Sabbaths the Notation of which Phrase in its plain meaning exactly agreeing with the real Nature of the thing punctually set out by it it has been discovered and proved that as to those places in the Evangelists it was one of the Paschal Sabbaths which doth speak nothing as to any substituting of the First day of the week in the room of the Seventh day as the Weekly Sabbath now which is the pretence of our Opposers As neither do the other Scriptures cited where that Expression is used once in the Acts of the Apostles and another time in the first Epistle to the Corinthians for one of the Sabbaths In that place of the Acts was one of those Seven Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost as will be evident to an unprejudiced diligent Comparer of the Scriptures cited in the Margin which is quite another thing from what the adversaries do urge it for And as for the evidence of this there is express mention made both of the feast of unleavened Bread which was the Passover-Feast in the verse immediately going before the place cited and also of Pentecost in nine verses after relating to that season in the same year within the compass of which two Feasts inclusively were seven Sabbaths upon one of which that meeting was of Paul with the Disciples Which doth hold forth a clear Truth contrary to what it is alledged for As for what Paul did more after that Sabbath day was over at the going in of the Sun when another day came on which was meerly occasional he being in a preparedness to depart on the next day after the Sabbath Such as his continuing of his speech till midnight his raising up Eutychus his eating of Brèad his talking with them a long while even till break of day then departing So long Preaching and conference all the Night long is not to be enforced as a necessary Sabbath-duty the Scriptures no where so enjoyning it and if this objector would assert it so far at least as till the midnight according to his account of an whole day in England from midnight to midnight which I have shewn in this treatise to be no right reckoning but contrary to the word of truth Let him and the other learned man whom I answered but a little before who shuts out the night-part from being any part of the weekly-Sabbath-day let them I say if they can find no better work for their time contend about that matter This Night-part belonging to the after day-part as making up the whole next day after the Sabbath was not observed by Paul as the weekly-Sabbath for you may there Read how some of the Disciples went before to ship and sayled to Assos there intending to take in Paul For so had he appointed minding himself to go afoot And when he met with them at Assos they took him in and came to Mytilene this was no Weekly-Sabbath-work no necessity nor mercy enforcing or warranting them thereunto As for the breaking of Bread whether that expressed in the seventh or the other in the eleventh verse if it were admitted to be used in the Administration and participation of the LORD's Supper yet this objector himself doth affirm that it was often done by Apostles and Disciples on other daies of the week than on that which he so earnestly contends for And whereas he doth assert that no day else but only the First day of the Week was peculiarly appointed for breaking of Bread in that ordinance Whither shall we go for a warrant and proof of this We find no such appointment by our LORD in the Scriptures and the Objector cannot but acknowledg that our LORD Jesus Christ did institute and administer it at the first appointing and dispensing of that New-Testament ordinance of the supper on another day of the Week than the first day For the Objector affirms elsewhere that the passover day in that year was the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath and Paul doth expresly say that it was the same Night in which he was betrayed then it was that he took the Bread and the Cup in this LORDly Supper And this did Paul receive from the LORD and so did deliver it unto that Corinthian-Church of Saints as that word-Rule by which they were to reform their abuses which had crept in amongst them as to that ordinance particularly and according unto which they were exactly to measure all their Administrations If this Objector do urge humane Authorities without Scripture-evidence we shall shew the vanity and weakness the incogency and unconvincingness of that empty Plea after a while Reader exercise thy discerning here Is there any thing in this place that speaks at all of any change of the weekly-Sabbath from the Seventh to the first day of the Week do either the significancy of the words or the intendment of the place or the force of
the context or any necessary unavoidable consequence present any such thing to an impartial unprejudiced understanding which doth report a matter of fact done upon another day not medling with any state of this question about this matter of Right Has the First day of the Week either the name of the Weekly Sabbath or the substance and essence of it Is there any one word of Command found here requiring beleiving Christians to observe the First Day as the Weekly Sabbath Is there any Promise made over to the weekly observers of it As such Is there any threatning denounced here against the not-observers of it As such Is there any mention made of Christs being the Author of it As such Is there any one expression of its being instituted by Christ As such Is there any one word or Phrase against the the Seventh daies being now any longer the Weekly-Sabbath-day Can this Objector satisfie and establish thee upon any firm ground such as is Scriptural by any contrary arguing wherein nothing of all this can befound The plain Historical Narration doth inform us that Paul abode at Troas seven daies in the sixth verse And whether he came to Troas on the First day of the week search may be made Troas standing near the Sea of Hellespont in Asia the less whether Paul came from Philippi that was scituated in Greece which was on the other side of Hellespont or of the Euxine Sea which Sea did lie between Europe and Asia the less Macedonia whence Paul came was a Province in Graecia There at Troas Paul stayed seven daies inclusively in the fifth and six verses of this twentyeth Chapter spending a Seventh-day-Sabbath amongst them and then went away from them the next Week in the Seventh and eleventh verses after the Weekly-Seventh-day-Sabbath The Objector therefore mistaking the day to be the first day of the week whereas It was the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath all that which he doth wrongly build upon that mistake falleth to the Ground together with that mistake This answer drawn up from the true proper translating of the words one of the Sabbaths I mainly stick to as plain convincing and self Evidencing though I have elsewhere drawn up much more about it We are not hurried away with noise and multitude But that which swayes with us and keeps our hearts in an awesul fear and trembling-joy and believing establishment with sweet satisfaction nourishing delight and great complacency is the Word of the adored Almighties clearly opened well-agreeingly-collated soundly understood and rightly applyed Christ and his word have their Authority with us beyond any man or men whatsoever or any or all of their sayings to the contrary His words do always best express things according to the true Nature of them in their own familiar sense which the Holy Spirit doth give of them in their respective places The same Genuin significancy has this Phrase in that passage to the Corinthians where also it is in true propriety of speech not the first day of the Week but one of the Sabbaths meaning according to the proper significancy of the words phrase and thing either one of the Sabbaths between Passover and Pentecost inclusively as in the former place of which two Feasts he makes express mention in the same Epistle and of one of them in the same Chapter or else one of the Sabbaths of one or other of those Three great Festivals spoken of else where The Feast of Unleaveneds The Feast of Sevennies and the Feast of Booths or leaf-hutts especially at the time of ingathering the yearly Fruits and increase of the Earth at which time they were able by such a revolution of a year to pass a Judgment upon Jehovahs Blessing of them which cannot be so well estimated on every Weekly return for then all the Males that appeared before the Faces of Jehovah were not to appear empty but every man according to the gift of his Hand or according to the Blessing of Jehovah his God which is much the same with the expression in this Epistle which he had given him And this reply has consent and agreement with other Scriptures and with the nature of the Duty of Charitable Relieving and is evident upon the same place It is the confession and acknowledgment of an adversary as was Noted a few leafs before that about the time of the writing of the Books of the New-Testament both the Jews themselves and all the Heathen that took notice of them called all their Feasts and solemn assemblies their Sabbaths Because they did no servile work in them they had the general Nature of the weekly Sabbath in a cessation from Labour It is known and confessed saith he that at that time when Paul wrote to the Church at Colosse which they suppose to be about twenty and nine years after Christs Ascension into Heaven all Iudaical observation of daies or the daies which they religiously observed whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all other called their Sabbaths They were so called by God himself from their Analogy Thus he And this First Epistle to the Corinthians is reckoned by some to be sent unto that Church about two and twenty years after Christs ascension So that to translate the words one of the Sabbaths is the most proper significant Rendring the most pertinent to the drift and Scope and the most Harmonious in consent with the whole Scripture that treats of this matter The believing Corinthians were to lay a way by themselves somewhat of their income proportionable to the LORD 's prospering of them in a way or Journey of their particular Trades Functions and callings Thus gathering some Treasure that they might have in a readiness that which might afford a necessary supply of the poor Saints at Jerusalem that the collection might be in a preparedness against that time when Paul was to call for it and to carry and distribute it to that End Let the Reader here observe that Corinth to the Church in which City Paul did write this Epistle out of one passage of which the Adversary would raise an objection was that city where Paul had been a publick preacher according to all or every Sabbath So that Paul did keep the Seventh-day-Sabbath there in that Particular place constantlyin this City of Achaia A City Scituate near the Sea where he taught the word of God one whole year and six months and that by a special Call and encouragement from the LORD Jesus Christ So far was he from setting up the First day in the room of the Seventh Day as to the weekly-Sabbath that even there he was a diligent Observer of every Seventh-day-Sabbath For so the Holy Spirit himself calls that day the Sabbath Here is therefore no firm bottom in this place objected to ground a transferring of the weekly Sabbath from one day to another which is nothing at all the design of this place as neither is it
their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their men of understanding shall hide it self though they hide their Counsels never so deep Where is the wise where is the Scribe Where is the Inquirer of this Age Hath not God made Foolish the wisdom of this world which doth measure and judge of the truths and things of God by unscriptural Rules How do such Arguers say then we are wise and the Law of Jehovah is with us Lo certainly in vain worketh the false pen of the Scribes There will be a time when such wise men will be ashamed affrighted and taken Behold they have rejected the word of Jehovah Wisdom-what to them They steal away the word from Aelohim's People which word would be Wheat wholsome nourishing Bread and Food to them and bring unscriptural empty Chaff in the room but these are not ready Scribes in the Law as Ezra was Even a Paul himself is no further to be hearkened unto and followed than he speaks according to the word and is a Follower of Christ Neither doth Errour arise from hence that men do not know or conform to National establishments in the matters of Doctrine and of worship in their humanely-invented and imposed confessions of Faith and stinted Liturgies it has been one of the main Occasions of most of the persecutions that have been carryed on by Adversaries against the Church and People of God in all Ages the inventing Instituting and imposing of unscriptural modes and forms of Worship exclusive of all other which are Regular according to the word and then framing it into a Law with inflicted penalties upon all Non-Conformists And what strong Rationalists do some take themselves to be in pleading and arguing for this and producing many humane Authorities in Church-Histories for this and there want not flatterers at Court who perswade Governours that the main of their Authority and power doth consist in determining of such matters of Indifferency as they miscall them That the appointing of times and seasons and daies for publick worship is left wholly in the Hand and power of the Magistrate and that the way of maintaining peace and preserving Religion in the Land is to enforce uniformity in the service and worship of God according to such National Statutes by seeing mulcts to be inflicted on all Recusants and dissenters Whereas Christ tells us that it is vain worship such humane-traditionary-Worship teaching Doctrines the commandments of men And that every such Plantation in the matters of Corrupt both Doctrine and worship which is not of his Fathers Planting shall be rooted up The LORD reproves the People when they keep Idolatrous superstitious Statutes Too much advantage has been given by the Non-Conformists in their writings and conferences against the Formalists and ceremonialists in that they have not in downright express Terms condemned all humanely-invented-instituted-imposed forms and ceremonies in the matters of Worship as sinful and unlawful especially when they enjoyn them as exclusive of other worship where these are not conformed unto and when they impose them as necessary terms of Church Communion whereas they are expresly in the very letter and meaning of the second Commandment forbidden For we are not to make unto our selves all Form any Form every such Form which men of their own head and out of the device of their own brain do thus make unto themselves and so to others also is under a plain prohibition by this Holy righteous just and good law of the LORD How many have been brought into Courts and Condemned sentenced and fined and Imprisoned as Routers Rioters ill-behaviour'd Schismatical Seditious Turbulent ones for conforming to Christs Laws and for not conforming to the customes and Laws of the Land but doing contrary to mans decrees because they Worship God according to his institutions but not according to mens Ordinances Whereas we are expresly charged not to give our selves to such commandments of men as turn away the truth from us or would turn us away from the Truth And yet they urge a mis-translated Scripture as if we must submit to every Ordinance of man Whereas it is to every humane Creature There is an Honour due to all men as men to some more than to others to the King as superior as having Authority over and above others and to others in their Inferiour places It is because or for the word that Persecution ariseth For the Receiving of this word and a conforming unto it by the Disciples of Christ that they are hated of the World If National establishments were the Rule and measure of Truth and errour were to be judged of by a contrariety to that Then the same thing would be one while Truth and another while Errour when National establishments do upon turns of times and changes of Laws make contradictory Decrees So it was in the Reigns of the Kings of Judah One sets up Idolatry another pulls it down One commands Right Worship according to Institution Another brings in corrupt mixtures Such interchangeable vicissitudes there were in the daies of Abaz Hezekiah Manasseh and Josiah They are to be avoided who ever they be that do cause divisions and offences contrary to received-Scripture-doctrine Then do men err when they go astray from Jehovah's Commandments from his precepts from his statutes They are Humane lies that cause men to erre and to despise the Law of Aelohim Errour proceeds from not knowing and not observing all his Commandments then do a People err in their Hearts when they have not known his waies Unscriptural Establishments in the matters of worship are the work of Errours Further yet neither do men err therefore because they do not know man-invented-Arts and sciences of Philosophical knowledges and of University-humane-learning Nicodemus was a master of Arts and a Doctor of Sciences and yet he greatly erred in the necessary Doctrine of Regeneration Paul greatly erred from the great Truths of the Christian Religion whilst he sat at the feet of Gamaliel a Pharisee a Doctor of the Law held in esteem by all the People one of the Chief in the privy Council of the Jews This Grave tutor of Paul perfectly instructed his attentive diligent Pupil in that kind of Pharisaical Learning and way of Worship and he was a sharpwitted Disciple But when the LORD Christ Revealed himself to and in Paul now he saw how much he had erred from saving Truth and Paul a Convert differed much in his Apprehensions from Paul a Pharisee All other knowledge now in comparison with right Scripture-knowledge with the eminent Excellency of the knowledg of Jesus Christ and of him Crucifyed and of the way of Justification and of Salvation by Faith in him and in his Blood and in his Righteousness he Judgeth as nothing as Dung as Loss as Dogs meat And he saw the gross mistakes of the Learned-University-men at Athens endeavouring to convince them of their Infidel-Errours Antichristian mistakes and Philosophical-falsehoods Now he commends to
preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles as if this had scarce been their duty though it were expresly put into their Commission from the mouth of Christ Till Peter was righter informed by a Vision from Heaven The written word of Christ has an Authority above and beyond the Authority and Testimony of the most eminent Apostles or Angels of Heaven If a Paul had brought his own word contrary to Christs word what were Pauls saying It must be rejected and in that the hearers were to carry themselves towards Paul as if he had been an excommunicate If a Prophet bring a word contradictory to the word of the LORD he should not be hearkened unto If an Angel from Heaven speak otherwise than the God of Angels and would teach disobedience against the word of Jehovah Fellowship should not be kept up with him It is one erroneous part of Antichristianism to set up the Testimony of men or the Authority of the Church in the seat of Christ and of his written word The The Antichrist is the Anomous one the Lawless one the Antinomian And Anomy or Lawlesness or Antinomianism is the great comprehensive sin of the Latter daies And they are Lawless ones that are the erring seducing ones Men as to their Church state have their foundation and bottom their existence and life under a God in Christ from the written word of Christ whereas these Scriptures of Truth have not their groundwork and being from any meer man or men Church or Churches A Church is made up of Believers as the prefaces of the Epistles to the Churches do shew and Believers must have a word to sound and to live upon All true doctrines are to be fetched hence and to be grounded and proved here The Conventions of Pagans and the Synagogues of Sutan are not owned as Churches of Christ because they are not according to Christ and the word of Christ Men though passing into never-so-noted-a-Church-way yet may actually be in process of time so Obstinate in Heresies so Idolatrous in Worship and so scandalous in profaneness as to cease to be a true-Scripture-Church and must be separated from The Christian Church at Rome in Pauls time has another manner of Character given of it in his Epistle to them than the Satanical Synagogue at Rome has by John in the Revelation who saw in a Vision the foul Apostasie thereof Separation in such Cases is holy and a duty The holy Scriptures of Truth do not give a Sovereign Authority to the Testimony of men they did not send us to humane Witness to Church History to unwritten Tradition to fetch Credibility to it It is the Glorious excellency of this Word of Christ to be the one and the only rule of Judging in all Cases both here now and at the Last Judgment day Which no Testimony of men is honoured withal The whole Scripture is God-inspired whose Testimony is the greatest and the most Credible so are not the after-humane-Testimonies Traditions Histories and Authorities The Books of Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy as commonly now called are more Antient than all other written printed bookes The true pure Word of God is of greatest Authority mens Writings are a Postscript The Grace of sound and of Saving Faith must have Almighty Power Infallible truthfulness unchangeable faithfulness and infinite Wisdom to bottom and to build firmly upon A Believers assent and consent to the Infallible Authority of the written word hath been is and may be brought forth without mens-Testimony History Tradition and Authority Many have been made to believe this before they came to any such Human helps and who neither knew read or considered such Church Histories and Traditions which therefore could not be the cause immediate Adequate and Efficient thereof Where the word it self doth work effectually and savingly in a believing heart there it is embraceingly recieved not the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God Saving Faith cannot bottom upon mens Testimonies which humane Writers will still be needing further Arguments and Testimonies to confirm it The Testimony of man can never of it self perswade and enable savingly to credit the infallible Authority of the written word till the Holy Spirit do infuse sound saving Faith and call and draw it forth into Act Though the other pretended cause of Humane Testimonies and Authorities be put into act yet this effect of sound believing doth not follow Many remain Infidels under the highest esteem and strongest perswasions of Church-Histories and of mens Testimonies and some tempted Saints yet cannot be cured of their unbelieving Fears and of their distrustful doubts by any humane Tradition History or Authority till the Spirit and word of Christ from the Father do come with Demonstration and with Power Saving Faith is Supernatural which mens Testimony from Extrascriptural Arguments is not they do each differ in their whole kind and one cannot be in another The best read Historians and other wise learned men of the World are not the soonest brought to assent and consent to the Authority of the word by the force of any or of all humane Arguments If this Faith which is greater in its self and in its Spiritual effects could be inwrought by mens Testimony then other particular objects of Faith or Truths or things to be beleived which are less Such as are the several Doctrines about Spiritual Eternals Invisibles but not these and therefore neither that also Even as to matters of Fact past besides knowing of them by Inspiration Voice or Visions and by natural causes arguing from them to the effects by humane Report which is called History or Tradition they may be known some other waies when they are needful to be known Matters of Fact past have been and still may be known by lots which where the Case and Cause do call for it is a way of natural appeal to the allknowing God Thus was Achans matter of past fact known and thus also was Jonathans past Fact discovered And thus also in the tryal of Jealousie past Facts of works of darkness in Adulterous Acts were brought to light by an Oath of Execration taken by the suspected party and a solemn address thereupon made to the Heart-searching all-knowing Aelohim And this also I would propound to the Ingenious and Studious for the advance and Augment of this best of Sciences Scripture-knowledges whether by lots and Oathes of Execration natural Appeals solemn-Addresses and by miracles other waies the truthfulness of Scripture-revelation would not yet under the present dispensation of Grace For I revive not any of the Old Testament Figures Types and shadows about any of these then used be thus still confirmed were a Spirit of Faith mingled with a word of Faith put into the prayer of Faith As for Humane report the experience that we have had of our own day and time doth inform us how partial men are in these
both these he asserts to be an universal day contrary to Scripture and Nature he saith a little after that Sun setting was in some places on the fourth day before Sun-rising and therefore it may be inferred according to this concession that it was night in some places when it was day in other places in other places it was Sun-rising before it was Sun-setting he who would make it otherwise in respect of the wide earth must take this Authors bare words for it without any proof our weeks and the days thereof here in England are as the first week and the days thereof were at the first creation of this part of the earth unless he can evidence that it was since that brought hither from some other part of the earth and if he could do that yet it would make nothing for the proving of his main general assertion whilst the main of the present inhabited earth doth stand firmly in the same place where it was at the first before it was inhabited There is one part of his objection which doth expect to have somewhat replyed to it wherein he thus argueth and reasoneth our Sunday sabbath saith he is the very same day of the week which was anciently observed by Jews and Gentiles for the solemn day of their solemn weekly worship beginning at the light part or morning of the day before Israels coming out of Aegypt and after that by the Gentiles and since Christs time by Gentil pagans and by Gentil-Christians thus far he the proof whereof he referreth us to some humane Authorities having quite contrary humane histories which do relate a different practice some whereof I am upon this occasion even necessitated to point unto for it is Scriptural Authority and Law and created nature and order which we resort unto for the proof of our position and therefore the Reader is here desired to bear a little herewith seeing I am even driven into it so many several Treatises having been sent and brought unto me which some are under a temptation to misjudge to be unanswerable unless somewhat be said and written to stop the mouths of such gain-sayers The Pagan Sun worshippers kept Sunday as this and other days of the week have their heathenish names still kept up besides the word and contrary to it the Jews kept Saturday for the Heathen charged the Jews that they worshipped Saturn for their God so doth one Historian record because they kept the seventh day which the Pagans had consecrated to Saturn Another called the Rest or quietness or leasure time of the Sabbaths Saturnin chairs or chairs of Saturn and therefore the Christians Sunday Sabbath is not the same day of the week observed by the Jews the Pagans did draw the Ionic or Asiatic Jews into their Civil Courts on the seventh day which the Jews complained of to him that was the Superior Power in Civil Government A learned Lexicographer makes Sunday the first and Saturday the seventh day of the week among Pagans The Warring Pagans both before Christs being born of a Virgin and also since did purposely assault the Jews in fight on the seventh-day The Pagans did scoff at the Jews Sabbath of which we have an account given in Scriptures and humane histories do also speak and write the same when the Christians complyed with the corrupt practice of the Pagans the Pagans charged the Christians that they were worshippers of the Sun because they kept and observed the first day of the week their Sunday The Christians do generally call the first-day of the week the Sunday and their Sabbath-day as this objector doth whereas Saturday has the name of Sabbath in all their Law Books in the English Ancient Records This objector doth confess that their Sunday-sabbath could not be the Jews Saturday-sabbath so that if there were no change of the day of the week from the seventh the last to the first in Moses's time which this Author calleth the seventh day all his building is upon the sand and doth totter and fall Another great Antiquary doth reckon the seven days of the week according to their course and order Sunday the first and so onwards Saturnday the seventh as most Christians now do the most Ancient Germans being Pagans as having appropriated their first day of the week to the particular adoration of the Sun whereof that day doth yet in our English Tongue retain the name of Sunday the next day was Monday appropriated to the Moon as the second great luminary the third day was Tuesday from Tuisco the reputed god among the Ancient German Pagans the Conductor of the Teutonic people at the confusion of Babel This objector doth confess that Adam knew from the standard of Gods working the six foregoing days and resting the seventh what was a day a week and the boundary thereof that in the state of iunocency the seventh day was Sacred and that this seventh day Sabbath was sanctified by God and celebrated by our first parents in Paradise and that never was the week counted to be more or less than seven days with any people Therefore I infer from hence that Adam kept the weekly seventh-day in order of time from the creation As the weekly Sabbath-day in imitation of the Creators Rest and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years which observation he left upon record for after-ages the holy Spirit calleth the seventh day the Sabbath day after Christs Ascension into Heaven Many of the Authorities from humane Histories which this objector doth quote do militate for the LORDS seventh day against the Sunday Sabbath of this Author An Ancient Historian of our own witnesseth that the Rest on the seventh day was wont always to be celebrated who is there saith another that doth not honor that sacred day returning each Septenary of seven days neither is there any City of the Greeks saith a third or of the Barbarians nor any nation to whom the custom of the seventh day in which we Rest hath not come The first Fathers saith a fourth being taught of God kept the seventh day holy to God a fifth speaking of the seventh day affirmeth it to have been Venerable and Sacred in all ages among all Nations I might add a sixth seventh eighth and many more one calleth the Dominical day the eight from the Creation Another doth give it the name of the first after the Sabbath a third doth describe it by the beginning of days which a fourth doth call the first day of the week a fifth doth style it in a Sermon of his the first day of the week a sixth nameth it the eighth day which is also it self the first a perfect week In the second Century Christians on the first day of the week worshipping towards the East while they prayed fell into a suspicion of worshipping the Sun Another affirms that God rested when he had finished the former creation and therefore the men of that