Sabbath which in the fourth Commandment is so strictly required and that with a Memento also more than any other Commandment as being indeed the greatest of them all and most nearly concerning our everlasting Rest and Happiness as hereafter will appear CHAP. V. Of the Fourth Commandment what part of it is moral and what Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the Ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other Prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The Excellent benefit of this Sabbath-law Why it is placed in the middle of the Commandments How the whole law is performable by men FOr the right understanding of this great mysterious Sabbath we must first diligently examin the words of the fourth Commandment which I here set down fully as I find them recorded Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work But the seaventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy Cattel nor the stranger that is within thy Gates For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seaventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it All our learned Divines generally agree thus farr that this Commandment is partly Moral so that the Moral part thereof is to be obeyed and kept at this day and also during the continuance of the world They also agree that part of it is Ceremonial appertaining only to the Jewes and binding them to the observation thereof until their Mâ—ssiah came in the flesh and was made known unto that people or during the Pedagogie of them or at most during the Judaical state and politie All this I conceive to be very true But the main difficulty consisteth onely in the right dividing this Commandment by seperating the Moral and everlasting part from that part which is but Ceremonial and temporal and typical Which that I may truely and Christianly perform I here most earnestly implore the assistance and illumination of thy Divine spirit O gratious Lord Jesus that in this needfull and concerning mystery I may appeare to thee and to thy Church as thy servant Paul exhorted Timothie a workman rightly dividing the word of truth For the understanding whereof I here present â— Tim. 2. 15. to the Consideration of the pious and learned Reader What after much labour of mind and long deliberation and after diligent and serious Consulation with the Ancient Fathers I have conceived to be the true and most necessary meaning of this Commandment and what is the right Division or Seperation of the Moral Mysterious and Perpetuall part thereof from that which is only Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall And what part of that precept bindeth us Christians to observe it as it did also the Ancient Israelites and the Patriarks and Prophets and even Adam himselfe and all his posterity And also what part thereof was proper to and concerned only the Mosaicall or Judaical people and doth not at all concern the Christians or Gentiles nor did in the least oblige the Patriarks which lived and died before the dayes of Moses The want or neglect of a right distinction of these differing parts of this Commandment in our later Theological Writers hath occasioned much trouble heart-burnings and Schisms among Christians and also many Phraisaicall curiosities in the observation of an eighth day Sabbath Which was never intended to be put upon the people of God by this 4th Commandement And moreover it hath also obscured the most needfull most holy and Mysterious Sabbath Spirituall by which we only can expect an eternall and heavenly Sabbath and salvation of our Souls and bodies For many good pious and well-meaning Christians are hereby mislead into the same arror and mistake that the Jews were in by thinking that the whole and ultimate duty commanded and intended in this 4th Comandement consisteth only in keeping holy One day of Seaven Which is but a very mean and low conceipt and far short of the High and Weighty intendment of that Precept and is also a very stumbling Block in the way to retard men from apprehending the true Sabbath therein secretly and mysteriously Veiled Which is Christ Who only is the everlasting Sabbath or Rest both of the Godhead and also of us Men. It is now time that I set down plainly what I conceive to be the Moral part of this Commandment and in what words it is contained that so it may appear how much of that long Precept concerneth us at this day and is an everlasting Law and a law Naturall and Written in Mans heart and binding not only Christians and Jews but Heathens and even all Nations as also it did all the Patriarchs before Moses was born and before it was written in stone These are the words Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy In these few words is contained the whole Morality of that Law So that no more of the words are to be accounted Moral or binding us for all the following words are but a branch of the Ceremoniall law And although they are here joyned with the truly Moral Sabbath and also by the same God written in the same Tables of Stone Notwithstanding this will not make them to be a Moral law because they are so annexed for this reason only to serve as a Type and figure of the Grand Sabbath To keep the Israelites mindfull by a weekly Sabbath or rest of that everlasting Rest which they were to expect in their Messiah and not otherwise For now we see that all learned Divines have rejected and the whool Christian world have long since disused the old Jewish Typical or Seaventh-day Sabbath These later words which are so annexed to the fourth Morall Law are to be considered by themselves in their proper place but for present we must insist only on the former words which I have affirmed to be truly moral and an everlasting law For the understanding whereof the Reader may observe divers things Considerable and some of them proper and peculiar to this Commandment so as not to be found in any other of the Nine 1. In those words recited There is no mention of the Seaventh day for that was meerly Typical and Ceremonial but the Sabbath-day Therefore surely there must be understood some other Sabbath day besides the Seventh day Sabbath for otherwise it had bin enough to have said Remember the Seaventh day to keep it holy But the Seaventh day is one thing and the Sabbath day is another They differ as much as Shadow and Substance as Type and Antitype as Signum Signatum i. e. as the bare signe from that which is signified thereby for the Jewish Seaventh-day-Sabbath which was but only a signe and shadow of the Substantial Mysticall and Spiritual Sabbath which is Christ 2. To this
the finger of God by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles were they at first created I suppose No. The blind man when he received sight told the Pharisees to their face which they could not deny John 9. 32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind 6. What can be said against the newness of Monsters or of mixt Creatures such as Leopards and Mules c. which now are extant but were not so at first created 7. It is said Jer. 31. 22. The Lord Movi coeli terra extractio Movi Adami generatio miracula morbi novi non sunt opera primae extractionis Mart. Borrhai in Gen. 2. in verbum Requievit hath created a new thing on the Earth a VVoman shall compasse a Man Which is meant of Christ to be conceived in the Womb of the Virgin-Mother which was a new thing indeed and a peculiar Signal mark to know the Messiah by 8. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth If you say it is meant but of a new State or condition of the Church under the Gospel I say so too But this new State or condition is not nothing it is not such as it was before and is new So is the creating of a clean or new heart Psalm 51. 10. it is a work of Regeneration or re-Creation and better to us than the Creation thereof 9. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips therefore the holy Apostolical Eloquence with all the excellencies of Rhetorick and Languages and Arts are the Works of God which are not reckoned among the Works of the first Creation and this is confirmed by Christ himself when he said Matth. 10. 19. Dabitur in illa hora And by that which others said of him John 7. 46. Never man spake like this man And all those new Languages at Babel were of Gods creating Gen. 11. Our Answer to this first Querie for present shall be but only Negative because our Discourse is not yet ripe for a full positive Answer viz. That this Rest of God doth not signifie only his cessation from creating the World And moreover we affirm That although God had made more such Worlds as a Diog. Laert. in Epicuro Epicurus thought or if he had made innumerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worlds of meer Creatures as b Plut. de Placitiâ— Philos l. 2. c. 1. Democritus in Plutarch said yet all such Worlds would not be of value and worth sufficient to procure this Mysterious Rest and complacency of the Almighty Creator But I proceed to the second Querie CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the Seventh day only although he intermitted creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer Creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the Seventh day and what that was Jewish fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve A short Answer to the second Querie OUr second Querie is Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day and not on any of 2 Querie the former six dayes There is surely something more then ordinary implied in this Rest of the Godhead more then the bare Letter expresseth and more then a meer cessation from the work of Creation because this Rest is fixed and appropriated to the Seventh day only and not said at all of any of the former six dayes wherein God did both create and also cease by some pause or respite from creation which interval is by us Mortals called a Rest as the labouring-man at Mid-day is permitted to take some small time for sleep or rest and therein intermitteth his work Doubtless God did not bestow the whole compass of each several day with its evening and morning in a continual creation or forming of his several Creatures for each of them were created by the Will or Word of God which might be in a moment The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens Ps 39. 6 9 made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done It is not likely that this word or breath of God was produced to the length of each whole day but that there was some respite and some time of cessation between the Acts of creating the several Creatures each several day yet this respite of God is never called his Rest until the Seventh day That there was a respite we read that Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2. 13. then Eve It is also very considerable That although it is said Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Whereby it appeareth that all the Creatures were made as the Angels of Heaven the Fowls of the Air and Man Beasts Plants Fishes of the Earth and Sea Notwithstanding God is not yet said to Rest on this sixth day Surely this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides these it seems he rested not in any or all these meer Creatures but in something that was more noble and worthy of this great honour of being the Acquiescence or Rest of the Godhead But what shall we say of the pre-existence of God before the Creation and the infiniteness and eternity thereof before all times when nothing was in being but only the pure Godhead in the three eternal Persons when neither Heaven nor Earth nor Man nor Angels were created We cannot say or imagine that God was then without Rest for besides that He with-held himself from creating and from all external working we know that he was at Rest in himself in his own blessed contentment and all-sufficiencie needing nothing which Rest of God could not then be interrupted by any business or outward operation What the immanent or internal Actions of the Godhead were then we know but little and that only which the holy Apostles have taught us in whom we read of the eternal purpose of God to oâ—dain Christ before the foundation of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. the world and of chusing us in him But we find no mention of any transient or external Works of the Godhead such as Divines call Operationes Dei ad extra and such as Creation is Yet in all that infinite and incomprehensible duration from Eternity it is never said that God Rested nor until this Seventh day Therefore this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides a cessation or suspension of working and also besides that blessed quiet and tranquillity which for ever was and is in the Godhead of which the heathen Philosophers rule is true h Nisi Quietum nihil Beaâ—um est i. e. God could not be happy if â— Tull de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. he were
not at Rest The Rest of God must be in something that is proportionable and equivalent in worth to himself therefore not in the whole great Creature of the World nor in any one particular parcel thereof which is no more then only a Creature moreover the Rest of God must be like himself eternal without any ending or intermission or ceasing therefore not in meer worldly Creatures for Heaven and Earth Mat. 24. 35. Psalm 102 â—â— shall passe away And they shall wax old and perish Indeed men set up their Rest in poor worldly temporalties and for them lose eternal Rest So doth not the Godhead So that this Rest of God must be grounded on some most worthy Subject or occasioned by some most excellent Object better than the world or any meer creature thereof and what that is we will enquire anon In order whereunto I offer to the consideration of the learned Reader one thing more viz. Whether the Godhead did not perform some part of the Creation on this very seventh-day on which God is said to Rest For if it may appear to be true that something was then made or perfected which was not finished in the six dayes This may happily afford us some light to guid us into the meaning or cause or occasion of God's Rest on that seventh-day more then on any or all the former six dayes To this our Answer is fiâ—st That no man doubteth but God did work on the first seventh day and all seventh dayes ever since as is shewed before Secondly That the Scripture seemeth expresly to declare that the whole Creation was not compleated or finished on the sixth but on the seventh-day for so we read Gen. 2. 2 On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made If it were not ended but on the seventh day then surely it was not ended on the sixth day If it be here said that although it was ended on the 6th day yet it might be truly said to be ended on the seventh day because it was ended before As one in Plutarch said b Plut. de Ira cohib If Alexander be dead to day he will be dead to morrow But this evasion will not serve turn because the Ending of the work and the Resting are both affirmed to be on the seventh-day precisely and on none other day For otherwise it might be said as well that God ended his work and rested on the eighth or ninth or any other after-day The Septuagint insteed of the Seventh-day rendred The sixth-day Gen. 2. 2. For they being Jews and zealous for their Sabbath would not have it thought that God wrought on the seventh-day But St. Jerome discovered the imposture and saith c Hier. Quaest. in Gen. To. 3. In Hebraeo diem septiman habet That the text in Hebrew hath the seventh-day And addeth Arct abimus Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur dum Deus oper atur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo c. We shall by this much press the Jews against their Sabbatical-Superstition seeing God himself wrought on the Sabbath and therein finished his work That God did not end or finish and compleat the work of Creation but on the seventh-day is the opinion not only of St. Jerome but of many other Later and right-Learned Divines If it â—e further enquired What particular work God made or finished on the seventh-day which was not so made on the sixth day In this we are Resolved by many great and Learned Divines That Adams side was not opened until the morning of the seventh-day And this may with great probability be observed out of the narration of Moses Gen. 2. Where after the Creation of the man which was performed on the sixth day it is said 1. God put the man into the garden of Eden vers 15. 2. God gave him the Law against eating the forbidden fruit 3. God said he would make him an help meet for him 4. God brought every Reast of the field and every Foul of the aire unto Adam 5. Adam gave names to all Cattel and to the fouls of the aire and to every Beast of the field v. 20. 6. God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam And then took one of his ribs and of it made the woman All these transactions required a good space of time which reasonably might extend until the end of the sixth day and so unto the beginning of the seventh which we know was to commence and be accounted from the evening of the said sixth day His travel Estward to Eden and his naming that multitude of Creatures might well cause weariness and weariness might incline him to that deep sleep wherein the woman was made and this may justly be judged to be within the compass of the seventh-day For I think no man will deny but that between the Creation of the Man and the extraction and forming of the woman a good portion of time intervened But then If Eve were not made or formed before the seventh-seventh-day how shall we salve the truth of the Scripture which saith In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is To this the Answer is obvious and frequent for in the Creation of the man the woman was substantially and materially included a Civit. l. 15. c. 17. St. Austin observeth That Gen. 2 The man and woman are both called Adam And the Text saith Gen. 1. 27. Male and female created he them This was said before the woman was taken out of Adam's side Walfridus Strabus or whosoever was the author of the Ordinarie Gloss upon those words tels us b Prothemata gloss in Gen. Faemina nondum erat facta gloss Gen. jam homo masculus femina perhibetur sed quia ex latere Adae erat processura in illo computatur per substantiam à quo fuerâ—t producenda per formam i. e. These words are said of the time before Eve was formed the man is here presented both as male and female for Eve was accounted in Adam because she was then Originally and Substantially inrolled in him and soon after to be extracted and built out of him And again the same Glosser upon the same words tels us 1. c. Mulier nondum à viro divisa i. e. When those words were said they were to be understood of a time before the woman was taken out the man This truth was acknowledged by the Jewish writers who nevertheless invented fabulous conceipts thereupon They said that Adam Eve were created as One person their back-parts were joyned together until God divided them And That Adam was created with two faces Some of them called Adam Androgynum d Lyra in Loc. as Lyranus and the Glosser affirm i. e. an Epicene of both sexes just as the poet fained of his e Ovid. Met. l. 4. Aelia laelia Crispis nec vir nec mulier nec Androgyna c. Chytraeus in
prolonged six dayes The order of Creatures first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made and that it was intended principally for Mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned though it was prepared within the first six dayes Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandement and not in any of the other Nine That the Moral Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son who is called The Beginning the Word and the Wisdome of God and is therefore commanded to be sanctified For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in in them is and rested the Sevenâ—h day IT is here said That the World was made in six dayes and before Gen. 2. 1. that the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the host of them And yet it follows immediatly That on the seventh â—â—y God ended his work which he had made How both these Propositions are true we have shewed before namely That although the Woman was not extracted and separated nor builded or formed out of the Man until the seventh day yet it is truly said that the Creation was finished in six dayes because the Woman was included in the Man Materially Substantially and Originally although as yet Informiter as the Glosse saith that is not formed fashioned or compleated which work was respited until the seventh day and thereupon it is said that on it he ended his Work and not before In six dayes Although God could have made the World in one minute yet he prolonged the work for six dayes whereof St. Austin and other Writers attempt to render some account as 1. To intimate that after the toylings and labours of the six dayes or Ages of this World his Servants should have rest with Him 2. To teach us that we should not expect that God will do all that he can do for us on a sudden either in conferring Mercies temporal or Graces spiritual but orderly and by degrees as calling justifying glorifying and in his good time The promised Seed of Abraham was not born till the old age of his Parents nor the Egyptian deliverance performed nor the Land of Canaan possessed till four hundred yeares after the Promise Heaven and Earth The order of these Creatures is observable First Heaven then Earth The blessing of Jacob was The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth But Esau's was The fatness of earth and the dew of heaven A true Character of Worldlings and Epicures who preferre earthly things before heavenly as one in the a Claud. de Rapt Pros lib. 1. Poet saith Salve gratissima tellus Quam nos praetulimus coelo So the Epicure in Nazianzen professed Da mihâ— praesens i. e. give me my portion in this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let God reserve the future to himself Which is but the same that some among us profess even by their own words and others farre more wickedly practise by bloody deeds prosecuting earthly profits pleasures and honours with the manifest neglect and disclaiming of heaven and trafficking for hell as Witches do and all this at a much lower rate than Satan offered Mat. 4 8. to Christ Heaven Gen. 1. 1. It is said In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth The Heaven there meant I take to be that which St. Paul cals The third Heaven which to us is invisible 2 Cor. 12. 2. that it might be the Paradise or habitation of Angels as both a Aug. de Civit. lib. 11. Austin and other Divines have thought because as God ordained the earthly Paradise for Man at or before his creation so he prepared the Paradise of Heaven at or before their creation and this because it is said Gen. 2. 1. The Heavens and the Earth were finiâ—hed and all the host of them The word Heaven alone implieth the creation of Angels as Austin saith in the place before cited or if not these words all the host of heaven will include them And here it is said The Lord made heaven and earth and all that therein is By which words we conceive that not only the house of Heaven but also the Inhabitants thereof were finished So the Heaven which is said to have been created in the beginning must signifie the Empyreal or highest Heaven because the Creation of this lower heaven which is visible is said to have been done in the second day's work and it is called The Firmament Gen. 1. 7. And this Firmament is also called Heaven vers 8. To pâ—t a difference or distinction between the former and later or the highest and lower Heavens and this to me seemeth to be confirmed by the words of Christ Come ye blessed Mat. 25. 38. inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World By which words surely he meant that Heaven which was created in the beginning for blessed Angels and Men. Now although this highest Heaven was made and also inhabited by Angels yet God is not said to rest in that Work nor untill he had finished the Man and the Woman and in them had laid their Saviour to conduct them to that Heaven which was not intended only for Angels but principally for Mankind as Christ said prepared for You. In order whereunto the Angels were to be instrumental as we are taught by the Apostle Are Heb. 1. 14 they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of salvation By which most gracious provision our God hath declared himself to be a true Philanthropus And also a lover of Mankind rather more than a lover of Angels For out of this heavenly Paradise the apostate-Angels were soon cast and so left without a Redeemer or any hope of return One of them it was that deceived Eve therefore the fall of Angels was before the fall of Man Indeed Man also was sent out of the earthly Paradise for sin but yet he was not left without a possibility of Reconciliation and return to a better Paradise which was to be effected by the Seed of the Woman even the Messiah who is therefore the true and reall Sabbath of Man And herein also is the love of God to Man highly expressed in that he rested only in consideration of Mankind and the Saviour of us and not in the creation either of Heaven or of Angels Heaven and Earth See how our merciful Creator in the very beginning joyneth Earth with Heaven although the Earth was then invisible clouded in darkness and in an abysse of waters between it and Heaven yet they are here joyned as to intimate so early that notwithstanding the powers of darkness and the worldly insultations of proud Oppressors God would in time bring together and unite Earth with Heaven which he performed by and in Christ Even the first Adam was composed of an heavenly Soul and an earthly Body as a resemblance of the second Adam who
consisted of his Heavenly Godhead and his Earthly Manhood He was that prophesied Starr as being heavenly but out of Jacob as to his humane generation Which was also signified by his appellation Numb 24 17. Isa 7. 14. Emmanuel by whom this merciful intention was to be effected for which consideration only He is that Sabbath wherein the Godhead is said to Rest The Sea and all that in them is Here we find Heaven Earth and Sea and all the Creatures in them mentioned which words include both Men and Angels also But we find not any mention of Hell or its inhabitants which yet doubtlesse was ordained within the compasse of the first six daies and also inhabited by those apostate Angels mentioned by St. Jude as Reserved in everlastâ—ng chains under darkness Jude 6. They that imagine Hell to be implied in the word Earth may change their opinion when they consider that Hell and its fire are said to be everlasting but the Earth is a Matth. 25 â—1 Matth. 24 35. 2 Pet. 3. 10. very cold Element as yet but it must be burnt up and also passe away as both St. Matthew and St. Peter tell us but so shall not Hell which is everlasting That Hell was ordained at the beginning of the World is not to be doubted The Prophet speaketh of it under the figure of â—ophet Isa 30. 33. which in the Gospel is called Gehenna or Mat. 5. 22. Hell That it is ordained of old ab heri as it is in the Original and is so acknowledged by our Translators in the Margin thaâ— is â—ophet is ordained from yesterday What yesterday this Prophet meant we are told by the Expositor probably and ingeniously at least if not solidly a Lyranus in loc That it signifieth the first day of the world because that day was the first that ever could be called yesterday And That as God on that day made Heaven for his Elect so he made Hell for the Reprobate and the Gospel teacheth us That the everlasting fire was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For when the Angels fell they became Devils and their fall was very early as is before said If now it be enquired Why no mention is made of Hell in all the history of the Creation We may suppose the reason is because the punishments designed or inflicted by God on his Enemies are of that sort of Works which Divines out of Isai 28. 21. call Isa 28. 21 Alienum opus Dei that is the extorted forced unvoluntary or strange Works of God unto which he is drawn by the iniquities of his Creatures and the strictness of his Justice with which he cannot dispense To this purpose Tertullian saith a Tert. de Resur p. 44 Deus est Optimus de suo Justus de nostro nisi homo deliquisset Optimum solummodo Deum nôsset And again b Ibid. Cont. Marc. l. 2. p. 178 Bonitas Dei est secundum naturam Severitas secundum causam Just so Clemens saith c Deus est bonus per seâ—psum justus propter nos And this even Philo the Jew perceived and said c Philo. Quod Deus immutab p. 309. Boniâ—as Dei est Antiquissima Gratiarum Their meaning is That the Acts of Mercy Grace and Goodness flow from God naturally of himself and of his own meer motion but his Acts of Severity and Justice are not executed but only upon external provocation by sin We often read that God was greâ—ved with his People for their sins as Psal 78. 40. 95. 10. which is but an expression of unwillingness to punish Austâ—n saith in one place if that Book be his d Aug. de Spiritu An. c 6. To. 3. Plus crucâ—at Deum Pâ—ssio Miseri quam ipsum i. e. God is more greived in punishing then the patient is in suffering The Heathens said the like both of their Princes and of their Idol-gods as not punishing but with greif and not at all without external provocation Even Neâ—o himself when he was to subscribe a Warrant for Execution said Quam vellem nescire literas as e Suet. in Neâ— c. 10. Suetonius writeth Another saith of Augustus f Ovid. de Pont. Sed pâ—ger ad poenas Princeps ad praemia velox Qui que dolet quoties Cogitur esse ferox And of the Heathen-Gods another saith g Horat. Od. 3. Neque Per nostâ—um patinâ—ur scelus â—â—acunda Jovem ponere fulmâ—nâ— The Jewish Talmâ—d saith That God at certain times weepeth for that People in consideration of his wrath and their calamities Indeed God did once weep for them when Christ wept over Jerusalem Which h Orig. in Lu. Hom. 38. Origen cals The tears of God And before the Deluge the Scripture telleth us That either for the siâ—s or for the ensuing punishment of the World it gâ—eived God at the heart In the Gen. 6. 6. Prophet God professeth I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth And Christ Ezek. 18. 32. in the Gospel declareth It is not the will of Matth. 18 14. your heavenly Father that one of these little ones should perish But the Heathen-gods have a character of cruelty fastened on them by some other of their own Idolaters for indeed they were but Devils as the Psalmist saith One thus Daemonia Psal 69. 5 writeth of them a Tacit. Hist l. 1. Approâ—atum est Non esse Deis curae securitatem nostram Esse Ultionem And another before him b Lucâ—â— lib. 4. Faelix Roma quidem Silibertatis Superis tam cura fuisset Quà m vindâ—cta placet By which we see that confessed which Moses said of the false and the true God Their Rock Deut. 3â— 31. is not as our Rock our enemies themselves being judges It is right worthy of our serious consideration That God hath annexed to this Sabbatical Commandement divers great and peculiar priviledges which are not to be found in any of the other Nine As 1. The Memento or Remember 2. The Ceremonial Type of the seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath of both these we have taken notice before But 3. Here is another special property farre greater than the other two or than is expressed in any of the other Commandments contained in these words For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. which is a strong argument to provoke us to obedience The Heathens it seems thought all such motives to be needless in Laws One of them saith a Sence Epist 94. Lex-jubeat non disputet And Nihil mihi videtur frigidius nihil ineptius quà m lex cum prologo He would have Lawâ— to command only and not to perswade It seemed otherwise to our Merciful Law-giver who to his Laws hath added both a Prologue and an Epilogue also by which he not only commandeth but disputeth his Leiges into obedience as being most expedient and profitable to themselves for it should strongly induce Man to
obedience of that Law which is imposed on him by the mighty Creator of Heaven and Earth In the first of these Laws which a man would imagine to be the greatest God useth only this motive I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt This was to move them by way of gratitude to adhere only to him their Deliverer and not to acknowledge any other God But the motive used in this fourth Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is far stronger because the deliverance of his people out of bondage might possibly have been performed either by Treaty or by the Arme of flesh without those plagues of Egypt and wonders at the Red Sea for the Israelites were numerous enough to have fought the Egyptians and to subdue them they wanted only Arms and Utensils of Warr which yet might reasonably have either been forced from the Egyptians or supplied by a forrain power we well know â—gypt was not invincible having been so often subdued Now the motive used in this Sabbath Law is proper only to the Almighty and absolutely incommunicable to any Creatures for none but God did or could make heaven and earth which is generally confessed by Heathens Jews and Christians Plato called God a Plut. in Symp. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So by Philo the Jew he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by Dyonis Areop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by Nâ—z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by St. Paul b 2 Cor. 6. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is but The Almighty Father and Maker of the World Among the wise Sentences of old Pythagoras this is recorded for one If any man come and boast that he is God let him create another World and we will believe him And in the holy Scripture This making of Heaven and Earth is often mentioned as a peculiar character of the true God As In the beginning Gen. 1. 1. God created the Heaven and the Earth And Psa 146. 5 Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God which made Heaven and Earth So it is in the New Testament Acts 14. 15. and 17. 24. And by this the true God is differenced from false Gods as The gods that have not made Heaven and Earth shall perish And All the Jer. 10. 11 gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made the Heavens And this character of God is put into the very front of our Creed First As a strong motive to incline us to believe and trust in him Secondly To inform the weaker sort of Christians who cannot appreâ—â—end what God is or what to make the object of their faith That it shall be requisite and sufficient for them at first Tâ—â— believe in God under this notion thus Whatsoever he is that made Heaven and Earth in him do I believe for so the Psalmist declareth My help Psa 121. 2 cometh from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth This great motive here used to incline us to sanctifie the Sabbath doth evidently shew that this Sabbath-Law is of greater concernment to us than the first Law is The reason whereof we have declared before * Chap. 5. And moreover That the Sabbath which is here principally meant doth not consist in keeping of a day whether the last day of the week which God imposed upon the people of Israel only and that but for a certain time Or the first day of the week which God never at all commanded But another kind of Sabbath is here commanded to be sanctified which Sabbath being rightly and deeply considered will prove and appear to be that very same Lord God that made Heaven and Earth For we have proved before First That the Sabbath day mentioned in the Moral part of this Commandement doth signifie God the Son because in him only the Godhead can be truly said to Rest and not otherwise Secondly We have proved That the Jewish Seventh day Sabbath was appointed only to be for a type figure and memorial or commemoration of that true and grand Sabbath which is Christ From these premises we here inferre That the making of Heaven and Earth is mentioned in this Commandment on purpose for a motive to incite us to a serious and most reverentiall sanctification of this true reall and substantiall Sabbath because he that is here called the Sabbath day is the great Day-spring from on high and is really He that made heaven and earth So that if we will acknowledge that the Creator of heaven and earth is to be worshipped and sanctified by us then must we also confesse that this Sabbath which is the Son of God is so to be sanctified No learned or prudent Christian I suppose will deny that this Son of God was the Creator of Heaven and Earth or if any do the Scriptures and primitive Church will gainsay them The Fathers expound these words Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created to signifie God the Father in God the Son And Joh. 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word that is the Word or Son was in the Godhead even that Word by which all things were made For the Word Principium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Tert. Advers Herm. Tertullian observeth doth not signify onely Ordinativum i. e. a Beginning in respect of the order of time but Potestativum i. e. a Primacy in power and authority For from this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes Potentates and Magistrates on earth are by him called * Id. Advers Iâ—daeos Archontes and by others Demarchi i. e. Powers Princes and Rulers of People One of the sayings of Pittacus the Philosopher was b Laert. in Pittac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Magistracy or power will show the disposition of a man Hence also are the words Archangelus in St. Paul Archiepiscopus in Chrysostome and Epiphanius and Archipresbyter and Archidiaconus in St. * Hieron Epist 4. Jerom. As to the appellation Word The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord the heavens Psal 33. 6 were made just so the Evangelist tells us All things were made by him That this Word was Joh. 1 3. God the Son every one knowes The Psalmist saith again vers 9. Let all the Earth and all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of of him for he spake the Word and it was done The Word by which the world was made and of which Moses thus wrote God said Let there be light and Let there be a firmament is not to be thought a transient or vocall word as Austin saith c De Civ lib. 11. c. 8. Non sonabili verbo sed intelligibili And by such a word as d In Ioh. Tract 37. Manebat non sonando transibat i. e. The world was made by that internall and substantiall Word which did not passe away from God as our words do from us but by his Word permanent of which St.
John saith The Word was with God and The Word Joh. 1. 1. was God Psal 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all Who this Wisdom and Beginning and Word is by which all things were made the Gospell hath taught us that it is Christ who is not onely the Beginning and the Word as it is said but is also called The Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And All things were made by him Joh. 1. 3. and All things by him were created that are in heaven and that are in earth Col. 1. 16. The Jews in disparagement of Christ Maâ— 6. 3. Matth. 13 55. called him both a Carpenter and the son of a Carpenter so did Celsus in a Cont. Cels lib. 6. Origen and b Theod. hist. lib. 3. cap. 23. Julian the impious and apostate Emperour Justin Martyr doth indeed affirm that Christ on earth was literally a Carpenter and did make ploughs and yokes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustin Dial. cum Tryph. Ambr. Ser. 10. but withall both St. Ambrose and St. Austin tell us That he was also that Carpenter that built Heaven and this mighty fabrick of the world Finally because this Son of God Aug. de Temp. Ser. 3â— was both the Creator and also the Sabbath both of God and Men therefore for the sanctifying of him this Motive is here mentioned of making heaven and earth And rested the seventh day Touching this Rest of God what it was and why it is fixed on the seventh day we have said much a Chapter 10 11 12 13 15 1â— before and something more must be added which will be more fit to be discoursed in the next that this Chapter may not swell too big CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the Divine Persons concurred in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Son of God or Second Person is the Rest and Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of Godhead and Manhood and his severall Appellations respectfully Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the Ceremoniall Sabbath was for the memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God And Rested the seventh day THe more literall and exact reading of these words is And rested on the seventh day for thus St. Jerom renders them Requievit die septimo and the Clementine-Edition In die septimo For it was not the day that was considered by the Godhead but something that was performed on that day that occasioned this Rest which if it had been so done on any other of the former six daies certainly it would have been said of that day as it is of this that God rested on it What that thing was we have shewed before at large namely that it was in consideration of the Messiah or Christ It would now be enquired what is meant by The Lord who is here said to have made heaven and earth and to blesse and sanctifie the Sabbath day whether it be meant of the Person of the Father onely or of the Person of the Son or of the Person of the Holy Spirit or of all of them because all and every one of them is the Lord and the Creator and the Sanctifier Of the Father no man doubteth and of the Son we have proved before and of the holy Ghost holy Job saith By Job 26. 13 his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens and the Psalmist also Thou sendest forth thy Spirit Ps 104 30 and they are created and the Church at the opening of Councils used to sing that Hymn in St. Ambrose which beginneth a Inter Hymnos Ambros To. 5. Veni Creator Spiritus For when our Vulgar Catechisms ascribe Creation to the Father and Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the holy Ghost we are not so to understand them as if these actions were of each severall person or as if the Father had no interest in our Redemption or Sanctification nor the Son or Spirit in Creation far be it from us to think so But we believe that the whole Godhead and every Person therein did joyntly co-operate in all these acts Indeed the Father created but it was in and by the Son and both by the holy Ghost So the Son Redeemed but it was from the Father and by the Spirit So the holy Ghost Sanctifieth but he doth it from the Father and the Son So also in this place the Rest of God is not to be accounted the Rest of one single Person onely but of the whole Godhead and of every one of the Three most holy Persons therein If it be now granted that the Son of God is this Lord and Creator that made heaven and eaâ—th and He that is here said to Rest and also He that is the onely Rest and Sabbath both of God and of us Men which we have proved before then it must follow that the Rest it self is here said to Rest and the Sabbath it self to rest in the Sabbath and the Son of God must be the Sabbath of the same Son of God Which at our first hearing may seem to be a violent Exposition which yet is not so as will presently appear The Reader may easily apprehend that although God is entirely One yet he is often represented to us under diverse and severall notions and capacities as if he were not the One and the same God for so this Son of God who is the onely God is set forth in Scripture and is so by us to be apprehended and believed as Immortaâ—l and yet mortall as the Mâ—ker of all things and yet made that he was from Eternity and yet born in time the Father of all men and yet the Son of man the Creator of his Mother and yet her Son All these speeches are true of this Son of God considered in his severall and respective capacities neither ought they to seem incredible or strange because we find the like diversities in one and the same Man One in Plutarch said openly to a King sitting in judicature a Plâ—t in Apoph Provoco à Philippo ad Philâ—ppum I appeal from King Philip to King Philip but in another temper So Nazianzen representeth the same person both as a Judge and as one arraigned b Naz. Eâ—ist 79. Te accuso apud te justum judicem So doth St. Ambrose to one as if he were both Client and Counsellor c Ambr. Ser. 64. Stulto consiliario usus es teipso Upon these words Psal 140. 1. Deliver me O Lord from the evill man St. Austin saith d Aug. Hom 29. de Temp. Ser. 233. à te â—e liberat i. e. God doth deliver a man from himself And upon those words Deliver us from evill he saith Deus te liberat à teipso malo We have a Proverb that a man is his own neighbour c Proximus egomet mihi
one If they wil needs use the name of the Lord in calling that day 't were far more consonant with the phrase of Scripâ—ure and Euphony to call iâ— The Day of the Lord which yet will not come home to their purpose Therefore those prudent Sâ—atesmen and learned Prelates which were interessed both in composing our Statutes and also in compiling and authorising our Leiturgie did with great caution decline this appellation and call'd it Sunday as some of the most antient Fathers did before both in the Greek and a Iustin. Mart. Tertul. Latine Church and this in likelyhood before the appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominica was generally received although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in some particular Churches used before those Fathers wrote as may appear by that authentick Epistle of b Ignat. Epist 3. Edit Plant. Ignatius ad Magnesianos Neither did those Primitive Christians before mentioned who first began this solemnity nor the Apostles who approved thereof long before the Revelation was written ever call this day so as it is now called We find it recorded under the title of The first day of the week or first day after the Sabbath Act. 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we find no mention of Sabbath Lord's day or Resurrection day nor did they then call it Sunday because the naming of the seven week-dayes by the seven Planets was never before or at that time used by the Jews nor by the Romans their then Magistrates Whereby it is evident enough that the assigning of the first day of the week for holy assemblies was not originally upon consideration of Christ's Resurrection on that day Notwithstanding the succeeding Church did conform unto that day because their Predecessors had fixed thereon And they further alledged new reasons for the retaining of it They considered That Christ did indeed rise that day from the dead That the descending of the holy Ghost at Pentecost That the creation of Heaven and Earth and Light That Manna rained from Heaven first and all these on this first day of the week Bellarmine addeth if you will believe him b Bel. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. To. 2. That by his and other learned mens calculations the Nativity of Christ fell on this first day of the week These were the reasons for retaining this day though not of instit uting it But in succeeding times the Jewish appellation of dayes by First Second Third c. of the Sabbath or Week was disused Therefore the Church affixed a new name to that day according to the Custom of their Country or Ordinance of the Church and hence came the denomination of Dominica and Sunday respectively We cannot with reason account this appellation Sunday to be any disparagement to the solemnity of the festivall in regard that our Saviour himselfe for whose Honour we sanctifie this Day is called by his Prophets The Sun which shall no more Isa 60. 20 Mal. 4. 2. Matth. 17 2. Matth. 13 43. Rev. 1. 16. 10. 1. 12. 1. go down And the Sun of Righteousnesse his glorious Transfiguration is resembled to the Sun his Saints are promised at their glorification To shine as the Sun his owne Countenance and his mighty Angell and his Spouse are described by the glory of the Sun so that this Name is high and glorious The disusing of this word Sunday and Dominica of late among us is upon some reason of State as of some other good old words also as The word Kingdome and Three Kingdomes and Bishop and Common Prayer Leiturgy and Letanie are now left And instead of them We have Common-wealth Three Nations Presbyters Independents Directory Sabbath Lords-day c. but oâ—d words may return again and new words may grow obsolete when the State seeth it needfull as one saith Multa renascentur quae jam cecidêre Horace cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula Si volet usus As for the warrant and authority for hallowing and assembling thereon We say That it is not grounded on the fourth Commandement which doth not in the least mention or meddle therewith Neither did Christ or any Apostle command it as Chemnitius a Learned Protestant granteth Exam. Conc. Trid. But we keep it rather by vertue of the fifth Commandement which requireth us to Honour our Parents wherein lawfull Magistrates are included and their just lawes authorized Our reasons are these 1. The institution of the Church Primitive 2. The Apostolicall approbation thereof 3. The Imperiall decrees and also the Regall lawes of this Realm 4. The constant practise of the Church Catholick in all ages thereof 5. The scripturall authority for it which is derived as is said before from the fifth Commandement although not directly or expressely and down-right but secondarily consequently and collaterally in these and the like passages Submit your 1 Pet. 2. 13 selves to eveâ—y Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And Obey them that Heb. 13. 17 have rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls Christ also said If be neglect the Church Matth. 18 17. let him be as an Heathen man and a Publican For these and such like reasons we adhere to it and esteem them so ponderous that we account it an high insolency and pride either to abrogate or but to alter the day as some have attempted Thus far we agree in the thing but we dissent from the name Sabbath and Lords day and also from all superstition therein practised As touching the Mysterious Apocalyps from which the late appellation of Lord's day is taken by a Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not rendred exactly to the Originall Letter as is shewed before Although this Scripture be still confessed both by the Church Protestant and Roman to be Theopneust and Canonicall yet it cannot be denied that many Learned men both Anciently and Lately have doubted concerning the Writer thereof and also have been anxiously perplexed with the obscurities therein First for the Writer That he was named John the Book often declareth But whether he were St. John the Apostle the Text doth not declare nor do the Ancients agree therein in so much that in consideration of former disputes concerning the Writer and also of the style phrase form or manner of speech therein used a Prolegom in Apoc. Beza is inclined to conjecture that if it were not written by St. John the Apostle yet that it was written by St. Mark the Evangelist who was also named John because we read of John surnamed Mark Act. 12. 12. and Act. 15. 37. But Beza's conjecture disagreeth with the History of St. Mark who is recorded by b Hier. in Marco St. Jerome to have suffered death in the eighth year of Nero c Origines Alexand. p. 38. Mr. Selden's Eutychius saith he died in the first year
first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made That their Heaven was intended principally for mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned although it was prepared within the first six daies Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandment and not in any of the other nine That the Morall Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son That he is called the Beginning the Word and the Wisdom of God and is therefore here commanded to be sanctified CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the divine persons co-operated and joyned in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Second Person or Son of God is the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of his Godhead and Manhood Of his severall Appellations respectively Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the seventh-day-Sabbath was instituted for a memoriall of the Resting and 〈…〉 of God CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures The differences of Holinesse When the seventh day was first hallowed How and when it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacriledge How the Prophets spake truly of things to come although they spake as if they had been past Of the Propheticall figure called Anticipation The directions of the Fathers and Scripturall examples thereof applied to this Sabbath CHAP. XXII Reasons why God having conferred honours on the seventh day did also lay some slurs upon it as 1. That this Day-Sabbath was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by zealous David nor this Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. In that God expresly commanded some works on that day 3. That no Manna fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made for man 7. That it was impossible to be generally kept and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews The Conclusion That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabbath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God on purpose to drive man to seek for Rest and Salvation onely in the Lord Jesus Christ Errata PAg. 5. line 8. read force and necessity p. 8. l. 3. tell us p. 13. l. 27. Judaical p. 25. l. 6. Onera p. 26. l. 23. Judaical p. 32. l. 31. We are p. 34. l. 16. Judaico p. 37. l. 6. Speaketh p. 41. l. 23. Pharisaical p. 46. l. 34. killing law p. 48. l. 5. Law of God p. 65. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 89. l. 17. intermundium l. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 107. l. 6. God added p. 134. l. ult And in him p. 166. l. 16. judicial l. 20. judicial p. 168. l. 1. 10 act a part p. 227. l. 1. Jeremie In the Margin p. 13. l. 1. Ignatius p. 125. l. 3. Laertius in Diog. De minutioribus viderit lector The Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered The Sabbath Morall CHAP. I. The Church disturbed about the Doctrine of the Sabbath Of Sunday-Sabbatism Of works practised therein and Recreations forbidden That the celebration of Sunday is pious although not commanded by the Fourth Commandment How the Antient Patriarks did Sabbatize yet kept not a Seventh day That the ten Commandements are still in force A passage in St. Austin and Isychius explained and an abuse of the Commandements in the Roman Catechism shewed THE various opinions of men in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as it is delivered in the Fourth Commandment of the Morall Law hath more disturbed the Christian Church in these latter times then they did the Fathers the Zealous Christians in the Church Primitive yet then was the Doctrin of the Sabbath mistaken and perverted by Ebion who taught that Christians should necessarily keep the Jewish Hebdomarie or seventh-day Sabbath as some among us have done and is therefore by a Epiph. haer 30. Epiphanius and b Theod. haer fab Lib. 2. Theodoret branded with the mark of a Judaizing Heretick And now although the rejection of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath is almost generally agreed among us yet a new Sabbath is set up on the Eighth day or first day of the week to be observed with as great strictnesse as the old Sabbath was on the Seventh day by the Pharisees for now not only labouâ—s are forbidden but also honest recreations such as we do not find to have been forbidden by those very Jewish zelots Which late strictnesse hath given an occasion or pretence to some to think it to be required rather in opposition to former permissions then for any new light or religious zeal because they have observed that by order of the same Superiors who forbad Recreations Souldiers have been commanded to march and the utensils and luggage of War Carts Wagons Artillary have been drawn out and most cruell bloody battells fought on that very new Sabbath-day and all this upon pretence of either private personall necessity or necessity publik which is now called Reason of State whereupon some of the approved Preachers of these times have openly in the Pulpit declared their dislike and said that now the State Civil is become like a Ship and the Church like a Cock-boat which must follow the motions and turnings of that Ship of State intimating hereby that our Religion must be reformed so as to be subservient to the interest and accommodations of the Civill governors which is quite contrary to the desires of those men who hoped and expected that their Kyrk should have bin made the Ship and the State should have bin the Cock-boat Mose and Aaron were brethren and agreed that Moses might be directed by Aaron in Spiritualls and Aaron Supported by the Brachium temporale or civill authority of Moses for stablishing true Doctrine and godly Discipline which formerly was the happy and peaceable usance of this kingdome wherein the state civill was supreme because as Optatus truly said against the disturbing Donatists c Optat. lib. 3. p. 83. Non est Respublica in ecclesia sed ecclesia in Republica est i. e. The Commonwealth is not included in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth And yet the civil power will not excuse those governors before God which authorise the breaking of the Commandments and Moral law of God For if the Seventh-day Sabbath practised in the Jewish Commonwealth or the Eighth among Christians which some yet call the Sabbath were indeed one of the ten Commandments of God which certainly are moral and perpetual then did the Jewes sin in performing the works of Warr and of Circumcision and Midwifery and Sacrificing at the Tabernacle and Temple on their Sabbath day And if our Sunday be really commanded by this morall law of
use this word God we should do it with great awefull reverence which yet we ought to do but the name of God doth herâ— signifie God himself as we are well taught by St. Austin a Aug. in Joh. Tract 29. Non est Deus duae syllabae duas syllabas colimus manet aliquod magnum quod est Deus sono non manente i. e. When we mention God or Godhead think not that we mean a word a sound a syllable or two as if we worshipped sounds words or syllables for that great thing which is God remaineth when no sound or syllable is heard Just so he saith of Christ upon those words Joh. 14. 13. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name b Id. lib. Tract 102. Non est intelligendus Dominus de sono syllabis qui hoc sentit de Filio non petit in ejus nomine etiamsi non taceat literis syllabis Christum i. e. When we ask in the name of the Lord Name doth not signifie only that word Christ as if it were a Charme he that thinks so doth not pray in the name of the Son of God though the word Christ be in his mouth Thus he The Son of God is by St. John called â—oh 1. 1. The word yet he that shall think that The Word in that place signifieth only a Grammatical or vocal word and sound doth err dangerously for it followeth The word was God so it signifieth the real and substantial Son of God It is therefore a very slander that someof late have put upon this Church for requiring an adoration of our Lord Jesus when that name is mentioned They say we worship only a name But we worship only the Lord Jesus himself as the Apostle meaneth in whom the name Jesus signifieth the Person Jesus as the name of God signifieth God himself Those phrases of Blessing and Magnifying and Glorifying and Justifying and Sanctifying God and The name of God which we find in the Scripture are all to be understood in the same sense For when it is said Job 1. 21. Blessed be the name of the Lord it is all one with that of Luk. 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel so Mal. 2. 2. Give glory to my name is all one with that of Josh 7. 19. My Son give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel That of Ezech. 36. 23. I will sanctifie my great name is all one with that of 1 Pet. 3. 15. Sanctifie the Lord God Where for those words Lord God both the Syriac and old Latine read The Lord Christ as a Beza in Loc. Beza notes There is also mention of Justifying God Ps 51. 4. yet neither Justifying Blessing Gloryfying or Sanctifying can make any addition by any of these Attributes to the plenitude of God These are but the expressions of man not to make God holy but to declare him to be so and to shew that he is so accounted and esteemed by us indeed God doth sanctify us Really Effectually and Actually by induing us with sanctifying Graces but we cannot sanctifie God otherwise than affectionately declaratively and verbally and also by conforming our selves to his Commandments And so Christ our Sabbath is to be sanctified by us by an holy imitation of his Vertues as the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1. 16. Be ye holy as I am holy and to keep this Sabbath is to be wary and mindful alwayes to keep Christ by a firm faith to be fixed to him never to deny or reject him And to keep him holy is to purifie ouâ— hearts so as to be clean and prepared Mansions fit for so holy a Guest and to walk worthy of so holy and so merciful a Saviour in our private demeanour and outward conversation As the Godhead did really magnifie the Lord Jesus by uniting it self in a Personal union with that man and thereby made him the Christ or the Anointed One in which consideration only he is our Sabbath and being so anointed he was thereby really sanctified by the Godhead and also as that word signifies he was seperated distinguished differenced and preferred above all others as it is said of him Psalm 45. 7. God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows that is above all other Kings Priests and Prophets And Philip. 2. 9. That God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name So we ought to sanctifie the same Lord Jesus our Sabbath in a way of preheminence distinguishing him by the reverence and honour which we perform to him from all other persons and honours in a word we must sanctifie honour and worship him farre more then any one or then all the Creatures of Heaven and Earth God hath many holy Ones but none so holy as our Lord Jesus He is said to be sanctified by the Father John 10. 36. so are others but Christ super-eminently and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel cals him The most Holy Dan. 9. 24. And the same Angel again cals him That holy Thing Luke 1. 35. And even Satan confessed him to be The holy One of God Mar. 1. 24. Therefore Christ our Sabbath being thus by way of excellency declared to be the holy One and the most Holy of all Holies surely he ought to be so esteemed and also to be so declaratively sanctified by us in the most humble and reverential manner that possibly we can according to his infinite holiness This I firmly believe to be the Spirit and meaning of this Moral Sabbath and the sanctifying thereof We find many sanctifyings of Creatures as of Prophets and Priests and of Places as the Tabernacle Temple and Vessels of Dayes and Times as Sabbaths Festivals but none to be so highly sanctified as Christ our Sabbath for the Sanctifying of him is a Separating of him in a preferment above all other hallowings or sanctifyings which are performed to Creatures forasmuch as we find that his very humane Nature was by the Godhead produced in an extraordinary way distinct and separate from other men as it is said Heb 7. 25. Our High-Priest is holy seperate from sinners for he was born of a Virgin and this to seperate him from the common contagron of Original pollution It is also declared Heb. 10. 29. to be an heinous sin worthy of sore punishment to count the blood of the Covenant which is the blood of Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. common which is to esteem his blood no better then the blood of another man or indeed of all men in the world and so not to seperate or preferre or sanctifie it above all others This is the grand Sin there intended because neither all men in the world nor all the Angels of Heaven if they could and would suffer in mans stead yet they would not be sound of sufficient value to Redeem us and to procure our everlasting Rest as Christ hath done whom we
Lord with Trumpets and Cymbals and Ezra 3 10 11 Songs So they did before at the Dedication of Solomon's Temple The Levites aâ—ayed in 2 Chron. 5. 12 13 white linnen singing with Cymbals Psalteries and Harpâ— and an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets and saying For his Mercy endureth for ever This custome was also continued by the Christians in their Encaenia or Dedication of their holy Edifices as the Fathers and Church-Histories do very often report The most noble and most holy Edifice in the World is the Church Whereof God himself is the Builder The Materials of it are the Son of God together with all his holy Members Therefore when Christ who is the first stone and foundation of this Church was first laid in the Earth that is in our first Parents just then it pleased the Divine Founder to express a joy and complacencie therein under the notion of Rest as it is said God Rested And in another place Exod. 31. 39. He was refreshed And this was done only to signifie the Love and Goodness of God to Man for whom he had now actually begun a certain Rest Ease and Refreshment which the Godhead for it self needed not Then again at the Nativity of Christ when this building was raised for that gracious purpose of Mans Salvation it pleased the Godhead to send a whole Quire of Heavenly Levites to sing Glory to God on high And at the Dedication thereof at his Baptism God the Father by a voice from Heaven declared Mat. 3. 17 his complacencie therein so that the joy of Angels and the Rest complacencie or acquiescence of the Godhead consisted only in Christ and in him for none other reason or respect but only because he brought Peace on Earth to men of good-will This is enough to the second Query The Conclusion of the Moral Sabbath THe summe of this Doctrine concerning the Rest or Sabbath of God consisteth in these two Propositions following 1. The Rest of God is only in consideration of Christ 2. Christ is called the Rest of God for none other reason but only because the merciful Godhead intended by him to procure and effect the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of of Man This Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which I have here delivered is not New nor of mine own invention I utterly disclaim all novellism and that which is now adayes but falsly called new light especially in so concerning and weighty matters of Religion for I have shewed before by many testimonies of the Fathers that this Doctrine is the same which by them was taught and believed in the Ancient Church and now again for a close I will sub joyn only the Testimony of St. Austin who surely was the most profound Theologue of them all who thus writeth upon those words Psal 132. 14. This is my Rest for ever a Aug. in Psal 131 Haec verba Dei sunt Requies mea ibi requiesco Fratres Quantum nos ana Deus ut quia nos requiestimus se dicat requiescere non enim ille aliquando turbatur aut sic requiescit sed ibi se dicit requiescere quia nos in illo requiem habebimus i. e. These words of God This is my Rest for ever are my Rest therein do I rest Brethren so great is the Love of God to us that because we rest in Christ God saith that he resteth for God is not at all disturbed nor can so rest yet he saith that he resteth there only because there in Christ we shall have our Rest The same Father upon those words God Resteth saith b De Gen. cont Man lib. 1 c. 22. Tom. 1 Significat Requiem nostram post bona opera And again c Epist 119. c. 10 Significat se daturum nobis requiem aeterndm And again God resteth d De Gen. ad lit lib. 4. c. 9. To. 3 Quia nos quiescere facit And again upon the same words Requievit Deus e De Civit. lib. 11. cap. 8 Deus fit Requies eorum qui in eo requiescunt per fidem That is When God is said to rest it signifieth only our Rest after our labour And That he will give us everlasting Rest And because he maketh us to Rest And because He is the Rest of all them that repose their trust in him Thus doth this learned Father most judiciously and truly expound this Sabbath or Rest of God This Doctrine which declareth the Lord Jesus to be the true and substantial Sabbath which is intended in the fourth Commandement because he only is the Rest both of the Godhead and also the only perfect and solid Rest of us Men if it be again re-admitted into the present Church as it was received and believed by the Fathers and the Church Primitive as is before shewed it will quit us from many doubts waverings and quarrels and will quench those Pen-Polemicks about Sabbatism which have of late disturbed the minds of many good Christians For by this Exposition we shall easily discern that Sabbath-Law to be still in force as much or rather more than any or all the other Nine And so we shall have still Ten Commandements and not only Nine as some have objected And that this Law is truly a Law Moral and Natural and written in our hearts For I beseech the Reader to consider what precept can possibly be imagined to be more naturally imprinted in mans heart than to sanctifie and reverence him who is our â—ll Of him the Psalmist saith Whom Psa 37. 25 have I in heaven but Thee and there is none upon eaâ—th that I desire besides Thee He is our God our Creator Preserver and Maintainer from whom we have our very being our life and motion And more than all this our Lord Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath or the Lâ—rd Sabbath is He that hath redeemed us from everlasting perdition and more also He only hath prepared for us and tendered to us if we will accept his offer the everlasting and unspeakable Sabbath Rest and joyes of Heaven This is that Sabbath which himself included in those general words representing the summe of the first Table of the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Lu. 10. 27 thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind This multiplicity of words argues a weighty and most concerning Charge In this Faith I conclude and thus confidently proâ—ess That the Lord Jesus Christ is my only Sabbath In his Bosome do I repose my self All my hope and expectation of everlasting Rest is treasured up in him only And I trust I shall with faith and comfort on my death-bed say with the holy Psalmist I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for Psal 4. 6 it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety Thus having as I trust retrived the most true and most ancient Sabbath I now close up this discourse with our
this Law is meant of Christ I have shewed before a Chap. 7. And that Christ only is this everlasting Covenant the Gospel often declareth Christ saith This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26. 28. Or as St. Luke reads it This is the new Testament in my blood Luke 22. 20. Testament and Covenant signifie the same thing but only that a Covenant is a Promise Conditional And a Testament there is the same Promise or Covenant given and bequeathed So Hebr. 13. 20. The blood of Christ is called The blood of the everlasting Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Aeterâ— foederis i. e. Eternal Covenant So these words Testament and Covenant both to our own and also to forrain Translators seem all one so Christ must be this everlasting covenanted Sabbath But then if this everlasting Sabbath be really Christ how is it called a sign as the Typical Sabbath is for so we read Exod. 31. 17. It is a sign for ever To this we answer That this Sabbath is no otherwise called a sign than Christ himself is so called Luke 2. 34. This Child is set for a sign that shall be spoken against And Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven This sign signifieth the very Person of Christ as both Origen and Chrysostome expound it Only the Covenant of Christ's Sabbathship is an everlasting sign but so is not the sign of the Ceremonial Sabbath as hath been proved In this sense only the Sabbath is everlasting as it signifieth Christ of which there is no doubt to be made In a like case when question was made by Act. 13. 22. Dâ—lciâ—â—us how Dâ—vâ—d being a great sinner could be styled A man after Gods own heart St. Austin answered a De 8. Quaest. Dulc. To. 3. De Christo intellige nullus nodus est So we say if we understand that this Sabbath Moral signifieth Christ as certainly it doth then there will be no question of the everlastingness and eternity thereof The Ceremonial or Day-Sabbath was taken away that so the true substantial Sabbath might the better take place in mens minds Just as Typical Sacrifices were rejected by God that so the grand Sacrifice of Christ might be by faith apprehended of which the Apostle expresly thus writeth He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Heb. 10. 9. This is also to be observed for a sign of the depreciating or undervaluing of this Typical or Day-Sabbath that Christ said The Sabbath Mar. 2. 26 was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath This he meant no doubt of the Câ—remonial Sabbath in that it was ordained only to be ministerial and subservient to Man as a Conducter and Guide to the true everlasting Sabbath for if he had spoken of the Moral and Mystical Sabbath he might truly have said That Men was made for the Sabbath because the true Sabbath is God the Son by whom and for whose glory all Men and the World it self were made And he was before all Creatures and not made at all nor created but begotten from Eâ—ernity But yet this Son of God may truly be said to be made the Sabbath for Man yet not as he is meerly the Son of God but as he is also the Son of Man He was made Man for us and by that he became the Mystical Sabbath For the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity cannot be the Sabbath neither can the Son of Man be so if considered without his Divinity but joyntly with both Natures So that in consideration of his assumed humane Nature and therewith his Sabbathship he was made for Man and came to help and minister to Man as himself most graciously acknowledged The Son of Man came not to be ministred Matth. 20. 28. unto but to minister 7. Finally The most notorious slurre of all was That this Seventh day which God appointed to be hallowed could not possibly be so kept on that day in all places of the Earth as any Man that hath but mean knowledge in Geographie may easily apprehend for when in one part of the Earth it is Miâ—-day in another part it is Mid-night and when Day begins in one part Night begins in another so that the Jews themselves in their remote dispersions cannot possibly Sabbatize at the same time By this it may clearly appear that the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath was only a national Constitution during the standing of the Judaical Common-wealth and that the Seventh day was not that Moral Sabbath which God required in this fourth Commandement because a Law Moral bindeth all Nations in every part of the Earth but some other Sabbath was intended which possibly might be kept by all Nations that Sabbath is Christ Who therefore sent his Apostles Mar. 16. 15. with an universal Commission Go ye into all the world and preach And not only to the Jews but Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28 19. These and such like incumbrances impossibilities and inconveniences did the Godhead pâ—t upon this Ceremonial Sabbath as no fire-kindling no burden-bearing no meatdressing no stirring out of their places and thereby made that People ridiculous to other Nations as the Prophet saith The adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths And the Manichee Lam 1. 7. called their Saturday Sabbaths * Aug. Cont. Faâ—st l. 18 c. 5. Catcâ—as Saturnâ—acas i. e. the fetters of Saturn Logicians use to say Uno absur do dato mille sequuntur The mis-understanding of this one Sabbath Law led the Jews into strange and ridiculous Superstitions and also to the ruine of their Persons and City and Temple A Jew in a boysterous Sea refused to tug at the stern because it was his Sabbath day and so he perished Another would not be drawn out of a loathsome draught upon the same reason but rather miserably perished as our own Histories record The Jews could not be ignorant that God himself did work on every Sabbath-day and that he did also occasionally command others so to do as the Preists and sometimes the Souldiers therefore they might easily have perceived that both the Sabbath or Rest of God and also of his people consisted in something else and not in a meer cessation from worldly works Some Sabbatarian Writers tell us That Man should work when God worketh and rest when God rested But God worketh alwayes so cannot Man If they had said that Man should rest in that thing which God rested in they had spoken home to the true Sabbath indeed For God rested only in Christ and so should we otherwise all Seventh-day Sabbatizing is utterly vain and superstitious By these Reasons a pious and judicious Reader will clearly perceive that these slurrs were put upon the Day Sabbath by our Wise God on purpose and design to withdraw his people from the shadow to the substance and from the Ceremonial to the Moral and substantial Sabbath which is Christ for just such a design God had in his Dispensation even of the Moral Law which was first written in Man's heart Then afterwards when it was to our lapsed and depraved nature impossible yet it was again imposed on us and engraven in stone And this he did that thereby he might direct us both to perform so much of it as we can and also to seek help and mercy of him for what we cannot do There had been no need of writing this Law in Tables of stone which was written defore in Man's heart but only because as St. Austin saith a Aug. in Psal 57. Tu fugitivus eras cordis tui i. â— Man was a run-away from his own heart and principles for we find that Man now perpetrateth wickedness which his own conscience judgeth to be so and also condemneth as an Heathen confessed b Juvenal Sat. 13. Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur The reason why God did impose this Law on Man then when it was impossible is singularly rendred by the Apostle thus The Scripture Gal. 3. 2â— hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Now although the impossible Law is by faith and union with Christ made possible to Man yet it was imposed on us with all its literall impossibilities on purpose to be as the same Apostle saith Our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ or indeed to Ibid. v 24. drive force and necessitate us to seek some other means and way for our justification and salvation besides the Law which way is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom only our peace with God and our everlasting Sabbath consisteth To Him therefore with the Father and the holy Spirit be rendred blessing honour praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Laus Deo FINIS
they are not fit to be imposed on Christians CHAP. III. Of Ceremonial Laws Why God expressed a dislike of them before they were abrogated Of the dissolving of them and particularly of the Sabbath by Christ Why Christ dissolved the Sabbath The judgment of the Fathers therein That it is now pernicious to Sabbatize as the Jews did and yet do That Christ appointed no new Sabbath-day instead of the old CHAP. IV. Of Laws Moral and why they are so called More of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and of his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-Lessons and a Fasting-day long after Origen's time That Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jews did that Sabbath That Sunday is not to be called Sabbath Why Easter-day was altered from the Jewish Paschal-day The Author 's reverent esteem of the Christian-Sunday CHAP. V. Of the fourth Commandment what part of it is Morall and what is Ceremonial Why a Ceremonial is taken into the ten Commandments Of the Memento and some other prerogatives proper to this fourth Commandment The excellent benefit of this Sabbath-Law Why it is placed in the midst of the Commandments How the whole Law by it is performable by men CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Morall Sabbath Why he is concealed under the word Sabbath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference of the Lord of Sabbâ—oth and the Lord of the Sabbath Of that Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah and another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbathship That Sabbath-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament CHAP. VII The doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Father How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the daies of Moses The doctrine of the Church herein The meaning of the Prayers at the rehear sing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is so performable CHAP. VIII That Christ is called a Day Why Christ and the seventh day are both called Sabbath The first institution for keeping holy the seventh day Why the first seventh day of the world is described without mention of evening and morning The Sabbath described by Philo the Jew That the Sabbath and Melchisedech were parallel types of Christ CHAP. IX The sanctifying of the Sabbath How thâ— Godhead is said to be sanctified How the human nature of Christ is sanctified Of the name of God That it signifies God himself That the name Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctifie God How Christ being the Sabbath is to be sanctified or kept holy CHAP. X. Of God's Resting That it is not acessation from working Nor meant of his ending the Creation Nor of layiâ—â— aside his care and providence in Government That his Rest and Working do consist together Something concerning the Originall of human Souls Of Universalls what they are and where to be found A Question discoursed Whether God created any new kinds of Creatures since the first seventh day Two Queries propounded CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the seventh day onely although he did intermit Creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the seventh day and what that was Jewish Fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned untill the seventh day Why it is fixed on the Creation of mankind rather than of any other of the Creatures Answers to certain Enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the onely cause of this expression of the Rest of God CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ is proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the union of Christ with Mankind That this union was shewed by Christ in the Sacramentall Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived or propagated from the first man Something concerning Universall Redemption CHAP. XIV Of Adam's solitude and something concerning Monastick life with the reasons thereof That the help by the Woman consisted not in respect of Society nor of Child-bearing simply considered but onely in respect of the propagation of Christ Of Child-bearing and that it is not salvificall without faith in Christ Of Good and Evill occasioned by the Woman Why she was called Vita or Life Why God permitted the Woman to occasion the Fall CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is onely in Christ and Why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the union of God and Man in Christ was ordained onely in order to man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusion concerning this Rest of God CHAP. XVI That the Rest of Man is called God's Rest is shewed by other like passages of Scripture That Christ is called the Rest of God Onely because he is the Rest of Mankind An Answer to the second Querie above mentioned viz. Why God is said to Rest onely on the first seventh day and not before The Conclusion of the Doctrine of God's Rest and St. Austin's judgement therein CHAP. XVII An exposition of the Ceremoniall part of the fourth Commandement begun That the six dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the seventh day is called a Sabbath onely because it was a figure of the true Sabbath That the seventh-day-Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the eighth day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the daies of Moses St. Jerom's translation and our English examined The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of works on the Jewish Sabbath That their corporall Rest was but a figure of our spirituall Rest in Christ CHAP. XVIII The Exposition continued Why the Woman is not here mentioned That sons or servants sinned not by working upon command The miseries of servants Why Cattle might not be wrought on Sabbath daies That strangers were not obliged to Sabbatize except they resided within the Jewish pale Why cattle are mentioned before strangers Why servants cattle and strangers are not mentioned at the beginning of this Law with the Memento That by these circumstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial and Judaical CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six daies and yet that he ended not his work untill the seventh day Why the Creation was prolonged six daies Of the order of Creatures
be of things indifferent onely or though against some Laws of God which are but meerly ceremoniall as working on the Jewish Sabbath was then servants must obey actively but if their commands be against the Morall Law of God the servant must in no wise perform his master's command nor obey him therein otherwise than passively by bearing his punishment patiently In this case we have Christ's own direction concerning parents He that loveth father or mother more Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. than me is not worthy of me And If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple For although it is not lawfull in any case to hate the persons of our parents otherwise than we must hate or sleight our own lives or souls yet in obedience to God we may and must hate and detest their pernitious commands 4. If this seventh-day Sabbath had been in force from the first seventh day of the world as some have too hotly and unadvisedly affirmed and if the Israelites in their Aegyptian bondage had been thereby obliged to Sabbatize as they must have been if it had been a Morall Law they must have obeyed God rather than men notwithstanding the Aegyptian rigour towards them But surely they had never heard of such Sabbatizing untill they were delivered out of Aegypt For when they petitioned Pharaoh by Moses to have leave to go into the desart three daies journey to sacrifice Exod. 5. 3. it seemed but a pretence for idlenesse and much more would their weekly Sabbatizing have been accounted by him who never had heard of any such thing For surely neither Jacob nor Joseph nor any of those other Patriarks Sabbatized while they continued in Aegypt which they might have done at their first comming and also during the great authority of Joseph and also would if any such morall Law had been imposed on them Therefore if they had neglected their Exod. 5. 4. Bricks upon an allegation of Sabbatizing not onely the inferiour Israelites but even Moses himself and Aaron also had been relegated as one saith Plaut in Asin Apud Fustitudinas Ferri-crepinas insulas Ubi v. vos homines mortu◠incursant boves But in the Babylonish Captivity when this seventh day-Sabbath was actually in force although no doubt the captive Jews were commanded and forced and therefore did work on this seventh day yet they did not offend God thereby because that Law was but ceremoniall and so must give place to necessity and to the great inconvenience of force and stripes In that book intituled Quaestiones Vet. Novi Testamenti which goes under the name of St. Austin The Author very judiciously thus writeth a Aug. parte 2. quaest 23. To. 4. Quod semper non licet non habet excusationem Sabbatum non observare quand que excusationem habet sed Adulterium c. nunquam i. e. That which to do is alwayes unlawful cannot be excused from sin upon any colour whatsoever but the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath-day in some cases is excusable whereas the transgression of the Moral Lawes of God as by Idolatry Perjury Murder Adultery c. is not at all to be excused in any case Thus this Writer evidently sheweth that the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral Lawes of God 5. Finally Let it be considered that these words Thou thy Son Servant Cattel and Stranger are not placed at the beginning of this fourth Commandement as Remember is nor mentioned until the Moral part of this Law was described and finished But they are with great wisdome warily reserved to be put into the Ceremonial part thereof because they do not belong to the Moral Sabbath which commandeth the keeping holy or the sanctifying of the Messiah for Cattel cannot sanctifie this Moral Sabbath Nor was there any need of requiring Parents or Masters to cause their Sons or Servants so to do because the Son and Servant were by themselves bound to it and if they did not the sin was in themselves and not in the Parent or Master For the Moral Sabbath which is Christ the Messiah might be kept holy or sanctified by Servants even in the midst of their sorest labours As our Christian Martyrs did keep this Sabbath even in the time when they laboured in the Mettal-mines and also in the midst of flames and other agonies Whereas the Ceremonial or Seventh-day-Sabbath is here appointed to be kept by resting from ordinary works without any mention of any other kind of sanctification which not only Servants and the most ignorant Ideots but Cattel also might keep For so the Heathen Romans had a Festival which they called a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Festum Stultorum And at Syracusa in Sicilie there was a Festival called b Plut. in Nicia Dies Asinarius And among the Greeks a Ovid. Fast l. 2. Feast which they called c Athaeneus l. 3. Porcalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And another they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. The Feasts of Fools Asses Swine and Dogs So indeed the Jewish Seventh-day Rest or Sabbath was not only for Masters and Servants but also for Cattel as requiring only bodily Rest which therefore Bishop Andrews doubted not to call d B. Andr. Cat. on the 4th Com. Sabbatum Boum Asinorum In a word the Ceremonial Sabbath belonged not only to Men but to Cattel also who had their interest therein Therefore those words Servants and Cattel are joyntly placed in the ceremonial part of this Commandement and not in the morall part thereof with the Memento But the true Moral and Mysterious Sabbath which is Christ belongeth only to Mankind which the great Prophet doth therefore thus describe e Isa 58. 13. Si vocaveris Sabbatum Delicatum Sanctum Domini gloriosum glorificaveris eum i. e. If thou call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord Honourable and shalt honour him Here the Sabbath is described as a Person and not as only a day as is before observed And these Titles of Delight and Holy of the Lord and Honourable belong only to Christ who is indeed the only true reall and substantiall Sabbath both of God and Man The Stranger or Gentile includeth all other Nations besides the Jews even us Christians also and so the Jews at this day account us but as Gentiles and Strangers although the wall of partition between them and us is broken Eph. 2. 14. down But we Gentiles do at this day keep the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ so do not the Jews And the Jews keep the Saturday shadowie and ceremonial-Sabbath unseasonably now when it is out of date but so do not we Christians except there be any left among us that judaize CHAP. XIX The Exposition continued How God is said to have made all in six dayes and yet that he ended his Work on the Seventh day Why the Creation was