his Sermon on the Paralytick c Chrys Serm. 7. Tom. 5 Christus quando solvebat Sabbatum maximum aliquod meraculum edebat ut sic Sabbatismum auferret When Christ dissolved the Jewish Sabbath he did withall perform some great miracle that it might appeare that Sabbatizing was dissolved by Divine authority The ancient and grand Heretick Marcion upon this truth of Christs dissolving the Saturday Sabbath took occasion to ground his false heresie denying Christ to be the Son of that God who made the World and Ordained the Law supposing that the true son of the Creator would not null the law of the same Creator By this it appeares that even this Heretick so farr agreed with the Catholick Church as to acknowledg the dissolution of that Sabbath by Christ as Tertullian also doth in his writings against that Heretick whereof he gives this reason d Tert. Cont. Mar. Lib. 4. Quia Deus est Dominus Sabbati ergo destruere potuit i. e. Because our Lord Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath therefore he might dissolve it The same Father saith again in another book c De Idololatria c. 4. Nobis Christianis Sabbata extranea sunt sicut Neomen ia To us Christians Sabbatizing is a stranger as much as New-Moon dayes are This he wrote because he knew that Sabbath-keeping was a fading and temporary Ceremony as much as the feasts of New-Moons In some Epistles yet extant which passed between St. Austin and St. Jerome concerning their differing opinions in some Judiciall ceremonies St. Austin thus writeth and faith a Hier. Epist 97. Tom. 2. That after the death Resurrection of Christ â—hose Ceremonies also dyed but that they were to be allowed some convenient time for buriall and an honourable funerall And indeed the publick Preaching up of Christianity was their Funerall Oration and the Burning of the Temple was their Funerall pile But when these Sepulture-offices were once performed then those Typicall Ceremonies became not only dead but deadly pernicious and mortiferous To this St. Hierome addeth this aggravation b August In Barathrum Diaboli devolvunt eum qui observat to which St. Austin also consenteth To use those Ceremonies now is the ready way to drive men into Hell So St. Chrysostom having in his Sermons often forbidden the people under his charge to use Sabbatizing as the Jewes then did at Antioch where Chrysostome then was a preacher he adds c Chrys Homil Antioch 34. That after his admonition if any did Sabbatize himselfe was innocent of their blood So deadly did he think it And before him Origen had both affirmed and preached d Orig. in Jeremi Hom. 9. That now to observe Sabbaths is to return to those beggerly Elements of Ceremonies-Quasi nondum descenderat Christus That the Sabbatizer thereby declareth that he doth not beleeve that Christ is come who is the true Sabbath which now is to be kept For this cause it may reasonably be thought that our Lord Jesus neither at the dissolution of the Old Jewish Sabbath day nor at any time after did command or so much as intimate any new Sabbath day for Christians lest Christians also like the Jewes should erroneously think that the Moral precept for Sanctifying the Sabbath confisted only in the strict observation of a day and thereby utterly neglect the most holy most necessary and Grand Sabbath which is Christ who is the Only Sabbath that wee Christians can or ought to have For at this day we see that the Sabbath which is Commanded in the Fourth precept of the law Moral is by the greater number of people thought to be meant only of Sanctifying a day for so they are now taught by the greater number of our Preachers But herein the People deceive themselves and the Preachers deceive others for that Commandment hath a more noble excellent and beneficiall meaning then so as I trust will appear anone To the judgment of the Ancients before mentioned I crave thy patience good Reader that I may add one more of a late Writer the learned Mr. Mede which I esteem ponderous who in one of his books thus writeth a Mede Diatrib 15 We may not now keep the Jewish Sabbath lest we should thereby seem not to acknowledg our Vbi Bene Nemo meliùs Cassiâ—d de Orig. Redemption performed but expect still Their Sabbath was but a shadow Thus he most truly and correspondently with the Primitive Church It was indeed but a Shaddow of our Redemption by our Redeemer which being performed as the Psalmist speaketh it is passed away like a Shaddow By what hath bin said I trust the Reader Psal 144. 4. apprehends that the weekly Jewish Sabbath is no more but a branch of the Ceremoniall Law now Antiquated and by the authority of Christ himself totally abrogated So that I may for certain conclude that neither the Jewish seaventh-day nor any morall equity deduced from it can be that Sabbath which is injoyned to be Sanctified by the Moral Law of God Of which we are next to Consider CHAP. IV. Of Lawes Moral and why so called Of Sunday-Sabbatizing Of Origen and his Christian Sabbath That Saturday was a Church-day for Sermons Sacraments and Scripture-lessons and then also a fasting day long after Origens time Christians did more reverently keep Saturday then the Jewes themselves did that Sabbath Sunday not to be called Sabbath Easter day why altered from the Jewes Paschall day The author's reverend esteem of the Christian Sunday 3 The Morall Law THe third Sort of lawes recorded in the Scripture and imposed upon Gods People are the laws of the Decalogue the Ten Commandments Which Divines commonly call though improperly The law Moral So called because they were ordained as rules to guide and direct us in our demeanours or Manners for therin we find precepts Ethicall for our private persons against Murther Adultrey Theft Coveting And Oeconomicall for our deportment in a family as honouring of Parents Mercifullnesse to servants and poor Cattle And Political against Idolatry and for Reverencing superiors as Magistrates and especially Kings who are the Publick Parents of Subjects All these Ten Commandments are lawes Moral And more also they are lawes Naturall they are written in our hearts And more yet they were lawes and binding too before they were written in stone and so would be to the end of the World although they never had binne written therefore they are perpetuall all and every one of those Ten never to be abrogated or antiquated I say there are Ten of them although I do not beleeve or affirm that all the words in the fourth Commandment are so viz. the words which mention the seaventh day Sabbath of which I shall give an account anon for we shall find Ten without them The reason why I said that these Ten lawes are but Improperly called Moral is Because if we speak critically and Logically All laws whatsoever are Moral for all are but Rules for
Church-prayer both in behalf of my self and others Lord Incline our hearts to keep this Law Amen Amen Thus much concerning the Sabbath Moral Next of the Sabbath Ceremonial Macrobius Saturnaliorum lib. 6. cap. 9. Quia seculum nostrum ab omni Bibliothecâ vetere descivit Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si Veterum lectio nobis esset familiaris A Discourse of the Jewish Hebdomarie or Ceremonial Sabbath wherein is contained an Exposition of the Later and Ceremoniall Part of the 4th Commandment CHAP. XVII An Exposition of the Ceremonial Part of the 4th Commandment begun That the 6 dayes labour is not a Precept but onely a Permission That the 7th day is called a Sabbath onely because it is a figure of the true Sabbath That the 7th day Sabbath was not changed by Christ to the 8th day but utterly dissolved That it was never instituted till the dayes of Moses St. Jerom 's Translation and our English compared The Jewish Sabbath and Christian Festivalls compared Of VVorks on the Jewish Sabbath That Corporall Rest was but the figure of our Rest in Christ HAving thus far proceeded in the search of the Sabbath Morall which is commanded in the fourth Precept of the Morall Law of God in these words Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it In the next place we are to consider the other words of that Law which we have declared to be meerly Typicall Ceremoniall and Temporall and obliging the Jews onely and not other Nations and to be now antiquated ever since the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh Which ceremoniall part taketh up all the words of this Law except onely those few above mentioned the severall branches whereof we will now endeavour to expound as they are in order laid down Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work 1. These words are no Command so as to require our labour all the other six dayes but they are onely a Permission by which the Jews were invited to a diligent and cheerfull celebration of their Sabbath in regard God had given them six dayes for their own occasions and reserved but one in the seven to himself when he might have left them but one in the seven which yet was not for any need that God had of it but onely for the benefit of his people just as be permitted all the Trees of Paradice to Adam except onely one Thus far Calvin and other Divines generally agree 2. For if these words were a Command to work all the other six dayes they would contradict other Laws whereby the Jews were commanded to Rest as at the Feast of the Passeover 〈◊〉 12. 16. and at Pentecost Levit. 23. 21. and at the Atonement Levit. 23. 28. at the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 25. and at the feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23. 35. These Feasts did all depend upon the Moon and therefore might and did fall on any and every one of the other six dayes respectively 3. If this Law were Morall how could we Christians lawfully abstain from working on our Sundayes and Fasting-daies and daies of Thanksgiving and other Festivalls commanded by lawfull Authority It followeth But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God These words as I conceive are not rightly rendred by our English Translators of which we will enquire anon and for present take them as they are presented In what sense the seventh day is here said to be the Sabbath of the Lord our God we have shewed before namely That it is therefore called the Sabbath because it was appointed to be a ceremony and figure to represent to the Israelites the true and reall Sabbath or Rest in the Messiah So that it is called a Sabbath just as we call Pictures by the names of those things which they represent as the Painter in Aelian wrote over his pictures * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 10 c. 10 This is an Ox this is an Horse this is a Tree So in Scripture the Ark is often called JEHOVA as †Catech. part 2. p. 45. Beza observeth the Altar is also so called Exod. 17. 15. and the Dove is called the Spirit Joh 1. 33. the seven Kin◠are seven years Gen. 41. and the Rock i◠Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. For if the seventh day were the onely Sabbath intended in this Commandment we Christians should at this day be bound to keep it as much as the Jews were That Christ or the Apostles changed the seventh day to the eighth or Saturday to Sunday is often too boldly affirmed by our Sabbatarian Writers and too tamely swallowed by their followers which as yet they never have or ever can solidly prove But to say that Christ utterly dissolved the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath and yet left the true Sabbath unaltered to us which is our firm Rest in himself and that the Church first then Christian Magistrates also assumed another day even our Sunday instead of the Jewish seventh day for their holy Assemblies is true and easily proved although they never called this Sunday a Sabbath Nor can the Jewish seventh day possibly be that Morall Sabbath which is meant and intended in this fourth Commandment because it is here said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God For we are well assured that the seventh day is not so to be accounted the Rest of God as if God ceased from his operation on every or on any one seventh day but his Rest was onely in consideration of the Saviour of Mankind because on the first seventh day of the world he formed the Woman as is before shewed and even then on that seventh day and ever since upon every seventh day he hath been operative in governing the world and co-operating with every creature therein without any intermission at all But he is said to rest on that seventh day because then our first parents were compleatly and fully finished and in them was laid the foundation of the future Church that is Christ who together with his holy Members was to be propagated joyntly from the Man and the Woman So that Christ onely was and is the Sabbath or Rest of God and men Upon this reason it was that the seventh day was long after sanctified or set apart for a day of bodily rest that thereby it might be a type figure and ceremoniall remembrance or commemoration of Christ the great and mysterious Sabbath Therefore the Seventh day and the Sabbath day are two distinct and severall things and differ as much as the shadow and the body or as Christ and the Lamb that is as much as Type and Anti-type For as the Lamb literally was not Christ but his figure so the seventh day literally considered was not the Sabbath here meant but typically the shadow or representation thereof Just so the Apostle saith of this seventh-day-Sabbath and of other such like ceremonies that they are a shadow of things to come but the body is Col. 2.
not the Law of God so may the people of God keep and sanctifie the true substantiall Sabbath though with the breach or as Christ said profanation of the seventh day or ceremoniall Sabbath If it be here demanded why God so strictly required a cessation from work and a corporeall Rest on the seventh day seeing he did not expect so exact an obedience thereunto To this we answer That as the seventh day was but the type of the true Sabbath which is Christ so the corporall rest therein was but the figure or signe of our spirituall and eternall rest in Him Therefore as the Ceremoniall or seventh-day Sabbath in some cases might be transgressed yet without any breach or neglect of the true Sabbath which is Christ so our corporall rest might be disturbed many waies in this life by labours sorrows sufferings and persecutions yet without any disturbance of our spirituall rest comfort settlement joy and peace in the God of all consolation for so Christ hath said These things have I said unto you that in me ye might have peace in the world ye shall Joh. 16. 33 have tribulation For the tribulations of the world do not extinguish or null the peace of God in his servants So he saith again concerning the agonies of this present life Come unto me all ye that labour Mat. 11. 28 and are heavy laden Take my yoke and ye shall find rest unto your souls By which it appeareth that the spirituall Rest or Sabbath in Christ possibly may consist with labours burdens heavinesse and even with bearing the crosse of Christ There is moreover a further reach and reason why God imposed this inconvenient and almost impossible cessation on the seventh-day-Sabbath which we will declare hereafter in its due place 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 Circumstanstances the seventh-day-Sabbath is proved to be meerly Ceremonial Judaical Thou nor thy son nor thy daughter THey that ask why the wife was not here named may as well ask why the man or husband was not for neither are particularly mentioned because both are alike obliged and both included in this word Thou A woman may have a son and daughter and servantâ— and cattle and a stranger within her gaâ—es especially in her widowhood as well as a man But if they be joyned in matrimony then no need of particular mention of either because both are one The woman was included in the man at the creation of both Male and female created he them And both the Old the New Testament account them as one They Gen. 2. 24 Eph 5. 31. shall be one flesh In Grammar there is Hic haec homo and in Theology the wife is esteemed as haec vir or as St. Jerom translates the originall word Virago and Lyranus yet nearer calls the woman Virâ— Both are invested with superiority over their children and servants and both interested in the fruition of their goods At Heathen marrriages the woman said * Plut. Quaest Rom Ubi tu Câ—ius ego Caia And at our Christian matrimony the man saith With all my worldly goods I thee endow Nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant c. This is added because otherwise the Jews might have thought it no transgression in themselves to have caused their children or servants to work if the parents or masters wrought not But by these words the contrary will appear that if their children or servants were by them compelled to work on their Sabbath day the sin was not to be imputed to the son or servant but to the parents or masters that so commanded For if it had been sin or a transgression of this Law in sons or servants to work upon command and compulsion then it must follow that cattle also even the Ox and the Asse must have been under the obligation of this Commandment and they also must have sinned as †Against Mr. N. Byfield Mr. Brerewood hath observed which to affirm is most ridiculous But if the Jewish sons or servants or subjects had wrought on their Sabbath at their own choice without command or compulsion of their Rulers then the transgression or Sabbath-breach must have been their own and the punishment thereof inflicted on themselves onely and not otherwise Thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant The condition of servants was lamentable their masters power over them was great and so was their cruelty God therefore provided some ease for them otherwise the unmercifull and covetous Jews would have afforded no rest to them at all Neither did the Judaicall Laws of the Jews wholly provide against the cruelty of masters for if a Jew by cruell Ex. 21. 20. stripes had killed his servant the master was not punishable by the Law Judaicall if the abused servant continued alive a day or two after nor except he died under his hand Although no doubt the master sinned against the morall Law Thou shalt not kiil and was therefore answerable to God for murder But their condition under the Gentiles was far worse who had legall power of life and death over them They were not onely bought and sold like cattle but also esteemed as vile or worse than their beasts One makes it a question a Tul. Offic. l. 3. Utrum equi aâ— servi jactura eligenda Another saith b Aâ—g Ps 143. Cariùs equum quà m servum emunt and another c Ambros n Ser. 41. To. 5. Quidam canum magis quam servorum curam habent Their labours were such as cattle are used for they called them d Laert. in Diogen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they were nothing but feet They ground in the Mill and carried their Masters in Litters great journeys as horses now do And when they were old and past work they were cast out of doors to perish by famin which was the practise of their wise Cato the Elder as e in Cato Major Plutarch saith Besides great were the cruelties and tortures inflicted on poor servants for light or no causes f Juvenal Sat. 6. Pone crucem servo Nil fecerit esto Hoc volo sic jubeo Seneca saith of them g Sen. Epist 47. Tussis sternutamentum magno malo luitur One Vedius Pollio a Roman h Dion in Aug. c. 15. commanded one of his servants to be cast into his pond of Lampries onely for breaking a drinking-glasse And when Pedanius a Roman was secretly slain in his own house the murderers being not known 400 of his houshold-servants were all put to death as i Tacit. Annal lib. 14.
Simon John and Eleazer of whom we read much in a Jos de Bello lib. 8. Josephus who then rebelled against Caesar their Lawfull Prince at that time though Nero and thereby caused the utter and finall ruine of their Ciâ—y and Country If we now examine the Jewish superstitions and compare them with the practises or commands of some sabbatizing Christians we shall find them running parallel Buxdo f. as they are recorded boâ—h by our own and by forrain Writers as 1. If a Jew fell History of the Sab. short of home on a Sabbath-Eve he must stay there in wood wildernesse or high-way till the Sabbath were past 2. A blind Jew might not carry a staffe 3. A wounded man might not wear a plaister nor a woman a fan 4. A Jew might not carry mony in his purse nor knock at a door with an Hammer or Ringle nor wear Clogs or Pattens nor a Taylor his Needle nor milk Kine nor lift a beast out of a ditch nor kill a flea on that day So some Christian Sabbatarians have Mr. Tho. Roger's Preface on the 39 Artic taught publickly 1. To work on Sunday Lord's day they call it or throw a boule is a sin as great as to kill a man or commit adultery 2. To kill a cock as bad as to kill a servant 3. To make a Feast or dresse a Wedding-dinner as bad as for a father to cut his own child's throat 4. To ring more Bells then one as to commit murder They say one may not carry provender to an Horse a Maid-servant would not sweep her Kitchin nor wash her Dishes a zealous sonne would not ride for a Bone-setter when his Father's bones were broken Some school-men among the Romanist's have bin as eager in this superstition as ours They taught that it is as great a sinne to stitch a poor Man's broken shoe on Sunday as to kill a Thousand men a Advers Concil Trident as Doctor Tuppius reporteth Besides all this some of our own Sabbatarians have laboured to revive and bring in the old Jewish saturday-Sabbath Thus hath this Sabbaticall Law and our Christian Sunday been abused by schismaticall Demagogues who notwithstanding have bin of late both permitted and encouraged for such politick ends as we see are now fully effected The consideration whereof moved me to endeavour a right understanding and vindication of the Divine Sabbath Law I have also addressed this discourse to you My most Honoured Lord and Lady for an acknowledgement of your many favours to my self and to my more dear Consort in these hard times and for a Testimony of my most thankfull apprehension thereof And also for that I am well assured that you My Lord in your love to Truth and Piety have taken pains to inform your selfe in this very Mystery by carefull attention in hearing and by your more private readings and conferences besides your secret Meditations best known to your self Of which Christian imployments because I was in some part Conscious it stirred me the more to hasten this Work wherein I trust you will find satisfaction when your leisure will permit you to read it through I beg both your pardons for my tediousnesse in this addresse being not so much Epistolar as Isagogical which I so designed to be instead of an Introduction needfull for the more easie and unscrupulous perusall of the ensuing Treatise which I have cloathed with ordinary and coorse Apparrel in a low and vulgar style as to be the more fitly accommodated to the ordinary or middle sort of Christians just so as the Books of our Sabbatarians are whereby they have gained too much upon the easinesse and credulity of their adherents This book is therefore of the like alay with theirs as one saith b Mart. l. 7. ep 89. Aequales scribit libros Calvinus Umber In old time Writers were thought to procure a kind of immortality to them whose Names they recorded in their Books therefore a Plin. l. 7. ep 33. Plinius the younger a man of singular worth who procured a stay and mollifying of the persecution under Trajan desired Tacitus his contemporary to record his Name in his History because he thought that so it might continue as long as the World And before him Ovid by the same way promised the like to himselfe and to his Wife b Ovid. Met Trist l. 5 eleg 15. Nomenque erit indelebile nostrum And Perpetui fructum donavi nominis So when Picus Mirandula wrote a book and dedicated it to Politian he returned this answer c P lit lib. 12. Epist 5. Ago tibi gratias ob immortalitatem Just so did d â—ips cent ep 65. Lipsius to another But I may not promise or hope for any such production or issue by these papers to you or to my Lady though I wish I could yet I am well assured that the Doctrine herein delivered being of the greatest concernment and comfort for Christians is such as ought to continue in the Church as long as it is Militant Neither do either of you need any such immortalizing Pharmacum or paper-charm for that which your owne eminent and shining vertues may by themselves procure your piety to God your sincerity and constancy in true Religion your mercifullnesse and charitable compassion and bountifull reliefe of the poor Members of Christ your generall goodnâ—sse toward all sorts of people and particularly to the now oppressed Church-men in these â—ad times will be your Testimonialls or Epistles as the Apostle speaketh a 2 Cor. 3. 2. and Comforts to your Consciences whil'st you live here and Monuments or Trophies to posterity when both of you in a full and good old age shall follow those Prayers and Almes which are gone up before you for a Memoriall before God Act. 10. 4. with whom I trust you will find your names recorded with an everlasting Character in the blessed Registry of the Book of Life In the mâ—an time whil'st my now aged life shall last I will not forget to recommend you and yours in my Prayers to the Mercifull protection of our Lord Jesus and remain My Noble Lord and Lady Your devoted and obliged Servant EDM. PORTER Marsham in Norf. Octob. 1. 1658. THE CONTENTS 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 all the ten Commandments are still in force A passage in St. Austin and another in Isychius explained An abuse of the Commandments in the Roman-Catechisms shewed CHAP. II. That the word Sabbath signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of Man Of our Rest Corporall and Spirituall The differences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish Laws which commanded or enforced the Sabbath Of the Judiciall Laws of the Jews and that
from the very Creation of man or from that very time when God commanded man to abstain from the Tree of knowledg And yet in this Assertion I shall not in the least gainsay the Doctrine of those Ancient and most learned Fathers as a Iust dial cum Tryph. Tert. Adv. Iudaeos Euseb de Demonst lib 1. c. 6. Justin Martyr and Tertallian and Eusebius who tells us that neither Adam nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck did ever Sabbatize And b Athanas in Synopst Athanasius also who affirmed very truely That the observation of the 7th day sabbath be an not untill the dayes of Moses All which I firmly beleeve to be true provided that we understand their Assertion in the same sense that they meant it viz of the hebdomary weekly or 7th day Sabbath which verily is not that Sabbath which is meant mysteriously implied in the fourth Commandment For the Sabbath which in the fourth commandment is required to be Sanctified is the true substantiall mysticall and eternall Sabbath which is the Son of God the Messiah the great Peace-maker even the Lord Jesus Christ of which true Sabbath the Jewish Leviticall Ceremoniall or seaventh-day Sabbath was but a meer shadow type or figure which shadow is now vanished as other legal shadows are such as Circumcision and Sacrifices both which were farr more ancient then the weekly Sabbath was whereas the Sabbath meant and intended commanded in this 4th commandement was in force and kept by all the holy Patriarks before Moses was born and before it was written in stone it was written in man's heart as all other Moral lawes were and it was and is to last untill the end of this world and in the next world also and not to be Antiquated at all as the seaventh-day Sabbath was and is For the Moral law which was written by the finger of God consisteth of ten Commandments just so many no more nor lesse which number the holy Scripture mentioneth Ex. Ex. 34. 2◠34. 28. Ten commandments or Decem verba Foederis Tenn words And so again Deut. 4. 13. Tenn words or Commandments And God wrote them on two Tables of Stone to signifie the durablenesse of them all and therefore the Moral Sabbath there meant must continue as long and as firmly as any of the other nine We must still have Ten Commandments which is the reason that St. Austin and generally all our Divines to this day call this Moral law Decalogum as consisting of Ten words or Commandments The same Father in his book intituled a Aug. Tom 3. Speculum reciting the Moral law out of Ex. 20. doth quite omit the fourth commandment which is of the Sabbath and this he did because 1. He knew that the Seaventh-day Sabbath was none of the Moral laws of God but that it is totally antiquated and expired 2. Because he perceived that men did mistake the meaning of the true Moral Sabbath by fixing the duety thereby required only on the keeping holy of a day whereas they should have known that the Sabbath there meant is only Christ So that by this misconceit men slighted the Substance and magnified the Shadow for the same Father had said before b Aug. epist 86. Judaeus si sabbatum observando Dominum negat c. i. e. If the Jew by observing his Sabbath day doth thereby deny that his Lord Messiah is come how can the Christian safely observe the Sabbath day And again in his 119. Epistle to c Epist 119. cap. 12. Januarius cap. 12. he thus writeth c. Praeceptum de Sabbato solùm figuratè praecipitur de requie quae in solo Deo certa invenitur-ergo non ad literam jubemur observare diemillum nam nisi aliam Spiritualem requiem significet lex ridenda judicatur i. e. The law of the Sabbath day is only figurative signifying that Sabbath or rest which is no where to be found sure and certain but only in our God Therefore we are not hereby to observe a day as it is literally set down for unlesse some other Spiritual rest be thereby meant that Sabbath law might seem ridiculous Thus he Upon the same reason Isychius of Jerusalem affirmeth That the sabbath day which the Jewes observe is none of the Ten Commandements although it was written among them for the Sabbath there meant signifies d Isych in Levit. lib. 7. c. 26. Requiem intelligibilem saith he i. e. not a Corporal but a spiritual or intelligible Rest which rest is only in our God He added that if we will take the words going before viz I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Aegypt for one of the commandments we shall still have Tenn Indeed The mysterious Sabbath which is really meant and intended in the morality of the 4th Commandement is only that God which delivereth us out of not only Egyptian but also Hellish Slavery which deliverance is implied and couched in this word Sabbath so that we need not put out one of the commandments and in the room of it take in a new for preserving the number of of Ten for that number will be found therein without such chopping and we are offended with the Romanists for such practises about these commandments who to hide the second commandement which forbiddeth image-worship have in their Catechisms quite omitted it although it continueth perfectly in their Bibles and to supply the defect they have obtruded the fallacy of Composition in making but one Commandment of the two first And the fallacy of Division in making two of the last as is apparent in their books and particularly in Ledesma's dial p. 81. Ferus libell precat p. 59. 60. the Catechism of Jacobus Ledesma a Jesuite and also of Ferus CHAP. II. The word Sabbath That it signifieth Rest Of the Rest of God and the Rest of man Of our rest Corporal and Spirituall The diffferences of Sabbaths The severall sorts of Jewish lawes which command or enforce the Sabbath The Judicial lawes of the Jewes not fit to be imposed on Christian WHat this word Sabbath signifieth we are certified by two learned Jewes first a Philo. de cherubin Philo saith Sabbatum interpretatur Quies i. e. The interpretation of Sabbath is Rest With him b Ioseph Antiq. l. 1. c. 2. Josephus agreeth Sabbatum significatrequiem i. e. that it signifieth quiet or Rest With them our Christian writers generally consent as Eusebius Nazianzen Epiphanius Jerome Austin The Rest which is signified by this word Sabbath is 1 The Rest of God mentioned Gen. 2. 2. God rested on the 7th day from all his works And so again Ex. 20. 11. How the most blessed Godhead can be said to rest which never laboured or was weary we shall inquire hereafter Secondly The Rest of man and this Rest is of two Sorts First Rest Corporal by ceasing from worldly servile labours on the 7th day both himself his family and his poor beasts
mens manners and demeanours So are the lawes Judiciall and Ceremoniall before handled So are the Evangelicall precepts And all Politik both Imperiall and Municipall lawes So are the Edicts of Supream Magistrates So were anciently the Roman Senatus-consulta Plebâ—scita Consular Tribunitial and Praeterian Edicts and even the Canons and Constitutions of Councells and Synods were Moral but with his difference The Ten Commandements are Moral 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by nature though they never had binne openly Commanded either by Word or Wrting The other Morals most of them are so Only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by Constitution Nor could they have the appellation or the force and power of lawes except they had binne inacted Of the Ten Commandements Nine are confessedly still in full force and vigour whereof no doubt or question is made among prudent and sober Christians but only by another gang of those that are Leavened with the Antinomian dotage Only the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is that which many good men stumble at which hath occasioned much distraction and trouble and bitterness and also many unprofitable written books by some that would have the Seaventh day kept literally on our Saturday as the Jewes did And by others who would ground the Christian Sunday upon this fourth Commandement and thereupon press the Jewish and Pharisaical strictness of Sabbatizing on the Sunday as if all the Scriptural admonitions for keeping of the Jewish seaventh day did by a kind of moral equity as they say require the same to be performed on our Sunday and therefore both themselves and their proselytes call Sunday The Sabbay day Nimiùm patienter as one saith too tamely and unadvisedly For in Horace all the New Testament they cannot find that our Sunday which is the first day of the week is ever called Sabbath unless they will call every day a Sabbath because the Gospels do in their account reckon several week-dayes by the Sabbath For they call our Sunday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the first day from the Sabbaths we translate it The first day of the week Mat. 28. 1. And so it is Joh. 20. 1. 1 Cor 16. 2. Act. 20. 7. again Mar. 16. 2. So the Pharisee is brought in boasting that he fasted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Twice in a Sabbath we translate it Twice in the week so that any week-day might be named Sabbath as well as the first day or Sunday But this is so weak an argument for their Sabbath that the Learned Sabbatarians do not vouchsafe so much as to mention it Neither can they find that our Sunday or first day of the week was ever called the Sabbath day by any of the Ancient Fathers but only by Origen as is pretended by him but once that I could find His words are these â— Sabbatum Christianum observare est desinere ab operibus secularibus ad ecclesiam convenire lectionibus tractatibus aures praebere c. i. e. The observation of the Christian Sabbath is by laying aside our worldly business to assemble in the Church and there to give attention to what is readd out of the Scriptures and to what is delivered by the Preacher This is pretended to be spoken of our Sunday but it is not certain whether he said it of the old seaventh day of the Jewes or of the eighth day of the Christians for it is affirmed by our greatest Sabbatarians That Christians did assemble in Churches on the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath long after Origen's time And the Fathers do also acknowledg that Saturday and Sunday were for a long time Church dayes and so they were with us in England in mine own remembrance in Citties Corporations so had continued until this day if the Long-Parliament had not disturbed us yet even that Parliament dated their Saturday-Orders under the title of Die Sabbati That Christians did so assemble are we assured by Sozomen And â—even in the dayes Soz. Hist lib. 7 c. 19. of Theodosius the Elder long after Origen was dead for he thus writeth Sabbato Postridie Sabbati Constantinopoli Conventus Ecclesiasticus erat In multis civitatibus Aegypti lib. 7. c. 9 vespere in Sabbato mysteriorum participes fiâ—nt Just so saith Socrates also in the reign of the same Theodosius e Soc. Hist lib. 5 cap. 21. Licet omnes ubique Ecclesiae singulis septimanis die sabbati mysteria celebrent tamen Alexandrini Romani id facere â—enuunt Aegyptii finitimi Alexandriae synaxin sabbato exequuntur i. e. On the Sabbath or Saturday at Constantinople and in many Cities of Aegypt the Church assembled and communicated in the holy Sacrament in the Evening and Although all other Churches do weekly on the Sabbath celebrate the holy Communion as also those Aegyptians which border upon Alexandria do notwithstanding the Alexandrians and Romans refuse to observe that Order Sâ— Austin also mentioneth the Custome of Preaching on the old Sabbath-day even there and then when that day was made a fasting day d Aug. de verb. Dom. Ser. 43. Sermo in die Sabbat non erattum prandium eo die venâ—ebant maxime qui esuriebant verbum D there was preaching on the Sabbath day wherin no dinner was on that day came most of all those who hungred after the word of God This he said of the Saturday Besides it is very likely that Origen in using those words of christian Sabbath did only compare the holy practises of Châ—istians with the evil customes of the Jewes which lived in his time shewing that christians did more reverently use the Jewish Sabbath then the Jews themselves did for christians did on that day go to Church hear Scriptures Sermons Communicate But the Jews spent that day a Aug Ps 91. luxurioso ocio i. e in idleness luxury as Austin saith and in dancing also The Jewes of Alexandria spent their sabbath in Theaters or Play-houses in beholding Stage-playes and Pageantry as b Soc. Hist lib. 7. Cap. 12. Socrates affirmeth So Christians were better Sabbath-keepers than the Jewes were This doth not in the least prove that Christians called their own Sunday a Sabbath 〈◊〉 that Origen did so mean For the same Origen had before called our Sunday Diem Dominicum i. e. The Dominical or Lords day and quite distinguished it from the Sabbath day as c Orig in Ex. Hom. 7. Manna non descendebat in Sabbato sed primùm in Dominico die In Nostrà Dominica Dominus semper pluit Manna Intelligant Iudaei etiam tum praelatam esse nostram Dominicam Iudiaco Sabbato i. e. Manna never came down on the Sabbath day but God first rained it on our Sunday The Jewes may hereby take notice that our Sunday was even then so early preferred before their Sabbath And though we should grant that those words Christian Sabbath do there signify our Sunday yet this will not amount to any solid proof of the
Sunday-Sabbath because Origen's authority is invalid having bin condemned by the Church as erronious and his Sectaries are put into the Catalogue of Hereticks by d Epiph. Haer. 64. Epiphanius under the title of Origianistae and yet that book of Origen is now not extant in that Language wherein he wrote it but was translated into Latin by Ruffinus who is generally noted to Deteriorare as St. Ambrose speaketh i. e. to be a depraver of all books that he took in hand to translate or reform Notwithstanding I have Intituled this book Sabbatum By which word I mean that Sabbath which is Moral and natural and is commanded in the fourth Commandement which is still in force and binding both Jewes and Christians and all men in the world and so it was before any Law was written and should have so continued although it had never bin written in stone or although no Day-Sabbath had bin commanded For this fourth Commandment injoyneth and obligeth us to a more noble and needfull Sabbath than ever any seaventh-day Sabbath was or could be which surely the holy Patriarks did apprehend before the dayes of Moses but the Scribes and Pharisees and vulgar Jewes after Moses did not nor yet do to this day The true substantial and moral Sabbath intended in that Law is their Mâ—ssiah our Christ who is the Jesus i. e the Saviour and therefore the perfect and only and everlasting Sabbath or Rest of all believers Which truth I trust will hereafter clearly appear But if our Brethren do indeed believe that our Sunday is that Sabbath which is literally or but equitably as they say commanded in the Moral Law then verily they should perform all those duties and services which the Law giver commanded to be done on the Sabbath day then they must offer bloody Sacrifices two Lambs for the Sabbath besides the two which were for every week-day and Bâ—ke 12 great loaves or cakes of Shew-bread which was to be done on the Sabbath and in order heerunto they should joyn 1 Chron. 9. 32. with the Jewes and help them to build their Temple once more at Jerusalem where these duties are to be performed and with them set up the Fifth Monarchy or Earthly Kingdome of Saints If it be said that the Sunday-Sabbath differs from the Jewish in that theirs was on the last day of the week but this on the first This will not help because other festivals of the Jewes were Sabbaths and all required sacrifices and might fall on any day of the week as the Passover and Pentecost and the rest for they were moveable feasts depending on the Moon But the performance of such shadowie ceremonies now would be a real denyal of Christ as if he were not come and were not the grand Sacrifice of which the former were but meer Figures which figures now are but Cyphers All good and prudent Christians do believe and confess that the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath is now quite gone expired and vanished and that since the true body of them and the true light is come the Jewish figures and shadowes are not to be any longer used by us among which shadowes the Sabbath was one and the most principal of all Surely we ought to abstain from applying the appellation of Sabbath to our Sunday lest therein we should seem to Judaize Justin Martyr saith a just Dialog cum Tryph. Gentes Christiani non observant Sabbata ne Judaei putarentur i. e. The Gentiles or Nations which are Christians do now abstain ftom observing the Sabbath lest they might thereby be thought to be of the Jewish infidelity and seeing that the thing it self is gone there is no cause why we should retain the name For the very word Sabbath applyed to our Sunday is not only a sign of our ignorance in Religion but it is moreover Scandalous in that it hudwinketh the people with a Mosaical Jewish vaile as the Apostle sepaketh 2 Cor. 3. 15. And thereby hindereth them from discerning the true Sabbath which is Christ and leadeth them into the Jewish error so as to think that the whole duty required in the fourth Commandment consisteth in keeping holy one day of the week as if that were the only or principal and ultimate duty thereof which is not only untrue but dangerous also And this error of Sabbatarians mixed with their too hot and ignorant zeal therein and in some other Judaizing practises hath given our adversaries occasion to detest our Persons and also to blaspheme our Religion and as a Luther an once did some Calvinists to call us Baptized Jewes For this reason it was in all probability that the Ancient-fathers most learned Christians in the very primitive times of the Church did so warily cautiously abstain from putting the appellation of Sabbath upon the Christian Sunday lest they should be thought to Judaize And the same reason also moved the Church to alter the Jewish day of the old Passover for the solemnity of our Easter is the remembrance and confession of the Easter that is the Rising or Râ—surection of Christ from the precise fourteenth day of the Moon to the Sunday and this lest Christians should be thought to celebrate only a Typicall Passover as the Jewes did as if Christ the true Passover were not come and therefore Tessares-cae-de catitae the Church adjudged and condemned those that held to the fourtenth day for Hereticks under the appellation of Tessares-cae-decatitae or Quarâ— adecimani as we find in b Epiph. H ar 50 Epiphanius The same reason also moved the holy Apostles themselves to meet in Council on purpose against the errors of some Pharisees and Judaizing Christians in their dayes who said that the Converted Gentiles ought to be Circumcised and to be commanded to keep Moses law they meant the law Ceremonial as we read Act. 15. 5. So early did they decree against the danger of Judaizing This is not said by me as in dislike or in the least to disparage the Christians godly and zealous care in Sanctifying the Sunday devoutly and seriously to the service of our God and by joyning in our holy assemblies in praying and praising God and hearing his Word readd and opened to us and also privately meditating theron Far be it from me so to â—ilipend the godly usance of the Church in all ages thereof and the sacred lawes and decrees of Christian Princes upon which as on two pillars the Authoritative sanctification of our Sunday standeth and not otherwise Onely in all humility I offer this caution to the less learned and more credulous Brethren Rem tene linguam corrige Good Christian keep the Sunday or as now it is in England called of late though not by the Church of England the Lords-day and keep it holy in the name of God but abstain from calling it a Sabbath day Because the Sabbath was but a figure and is gon and because neither the old Jewish Sabbath nor the Christian Sunday are that
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
Commandment the Word Remember is prefixed as a John Baptist or fore runner of Christ which Memento we find not in any of the other Nine Surely there is something in this Commandement of most weighty concernment and more than is in any other of the nine for if in this Commandment God had only intended the keeping of the Seaventh day which we know was but temporary and to be left in its due time he would not have said Remember Because all those lawes which are truly Moral are also unexpirable and undispensable and to be kept at least to the end of the world and this Sabbaticall law especially so long and longer also even to Eternity therefore it deserves a Remember From this Memento Some doe argue that the Seaventh day Sabbath was observed before the dayes of Moses as if Remember related only to former usances If that were true it will make against their Seaventh day Sabbath and for our truly Morall Sabbath i. e. Christ because they may see that the Memento is prefixed to the Sabbath day but not to the Seaventh Day for that was not alwaies to be remembred 3. In this Sabbatical Commandment we finde not only a Memento going before but also another remembrance following after it as a type and shadow of the grand Sabbath for direction of God's people as the Pillar of â—ire and Cloud sometimes before and sometimes behind the Israelites Ex. 14. 19. For so it pleased God to ordain a weekly Shaddowy Sabbath to keep them in a continuall remembrance and expectation of their Messiah in whom only true certain eternall Rest was to be found Indeed Joshuah was to lead them into the Earthly Rest of the land of Canaan the land of Promise but he was but a type of the Messiah and is therefore called Jesus Acts 7. 45. Heb. 4. 8. and Canaan but a shadow of heaven and the weekly Sabbath but a figure of the Substantiall Sabbath Only their Messiah our Jesus was to lead his people into the blessed and everlasting Sabbath or Rest in heaven Now the adding an annexion of a ceremonial type to this Sabbaticall and Moral law which is not found in any other of the Nine doth cleerly shew that the Grand Sabbath here intended is of the most weighty and Considerable concernment of all and is therefore most principally to be Remembred For if it were possible for us men precisely to keep all the other Nine Commandments such a performance would not be Sufficient for our Eternall Rest without the keeping of this For this Sabbath is Christ in whom alone resideth all our hope and confidence of heaven there is none other name whereby we must be saved Acts. 4. 12. And moreover although we have transgressed and broken all the other Nine yet if we shall afterwards constantly and faithfully keep this Sabbath we shall find therein an help and remedy to preserve us from the dangerous consequences that otherwise will follow us upon such disobedience The consideration of that terrible sentence in the Law Deut. 27. 29. Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them and of that in the Gospel Jam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offead in one point is guilty of all may drive Christians to restlesness of conscience and dispaire if this Sabbath or Rest in Christ be not apprehended which is principally that One point in which we must be most cautelous Christ himself hath said Mat 10. 32. Whosoever shall confess me before men him will I confess But whosoever shall deny me totally finally him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven The two Tables of this moral law would Plut. in vit Soloâ— in Moral be to us most uncomfortable and formidable and like those cruel Graecian laws of Draco and Lycurgus which are said to be written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a in blood and death because all transgressions were by them Capitally punished These divine lawes would be far more severe in everlasting punishments if they were not mollified by a gracious Sabbath law Aust saith he disrellished that famous book of Cicero called Hortensius b Aug. conf l. 2. 4. Quod nomen Christi non erat ibi i. e. Because the name of Christ was not there and so should we these two tables if Christ were not included therein But blessed be our gracious Law giver there we find Christ under the name and appellation of Sabbath just as in the Gospel he is called Mat. 11. 30. The Lord of the Sabbath this sweet name only maketh this yoke easie and burden light If there were nothing but the bare letter in this Moral Law woe unto us it would be but a kling law and as the Apostle sairh A killing letter if Christ were not in it But there is also in those sacred Tables as the same Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 6. a spirit that giveth life that is there is a secret mysterious and spiritual meaning not openly or plainly expressed but implyed and covertly intimated and that spirit is Christ who onely giveth life and he is that mysterious and spiritual Sabbath which is here intended By vertue of this secret spirit this Law which of it self considered in the bare letter doth only as the Apostle saith of it Rom 4. 15. The law worketh wrath becommeth good and vital and bringeth healing in it's wings * viperae cineres medentur morsui lact deira cap. 13. p. 716. There are some venemous and mortiferous creatures which as learned men say have in them an Antidote or remedy to preserve men from the danger of their poyson as we read in Plinie of a Plin. lib. 29. c. 4 Theriaci pastilli i. e. cakes or pills of Treacle made of the venemous viper So in a night-vision a Dragon presented an hearb to Great Alexander which cured his friend Ptolomy of a mortal wound by a poysoned arrow as b Diod. sic lib. 17. Diodorus writeth Antiochus had a Theriaca or Treacle that preserved him against all poysons as the forenamed c Plin. lib. 20. cl 24. Plinie reporteth such as Homer phanfied of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Homer Odyss lib. 20. Verily this Law which in the letter and outward appearance of it seemeth so deadly and impossible hath in it a pretious and sure Antidote with being faithfully apprehended and piously applied will preserve us from the killing quality thereof and moreover it will shew us how the whole law may by us be perfectly performed And this Antidote is wrapped up and covered in this Sabbath law For the Sabbath is Christ and Christ hath performed the whole law and we that are united to him as members of his mystical body have also in him by him performed the whole law God because we are one with him as the Apostle saith We are members of his body Eph 5. 3. And
Ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal 3. 28 The Jâ—wes placed this fourth Commandment of the Sabbath not in the last but in the penultimate place of the first table supposing the fifth Commandment of Honouring parents to belong thereunto and therefore they make it the last Commandment of the b jos Antiq l. 3. cap. 4. said first Table as we find both in a Philo. de Haere Divinorum Philo also in Josephus And this they did because they understood not the right meaning â—mportance of this Sabbath-precept But our Christian writers generally present this Sabbath commandment as the last of the first table as standing in the mid'st and confines of both Tables And this they did as may probably be conjectured because they understood that this Sabbath-Law sheweth us the only way and meanes whereby the whole law of both Tables may be by men performed and that is By keeping or sanctifying this mysterious Sabbath which is Christ If it were not for this Sabbath God had herein made such a law for man as never would have bin kept and obeyed and so his laws must have bin like the lawes which * Theod. de Cur. Grae. affect lib. 9. Plato phansied for his imaginarie Common-wealth which were never executed But as one saith of the invention of Poets c Plautus in Pseâ—d Act. 1. sc 4. Poeta cùm tabâ—las cepit sibi Quaerit quod nusquam est gentium reperit tamen As the Poet when he takes his pen seekes that which is no where extant and yet finds it so our Legistaâ—or writes a law requires obedience which was not possible to be found in any of his Leige people and yet finds it in his own Sonne who thereby becomes the Sabbath or Rest both of God and Man For we well know That the Transgression of the law is sin 1 Ioh. 3. 4. That the wages of sin is death Rom. 6 23. That all men are sinners the Psalmist saith There is none that doth good no not on Ps 14. 3. which the Fathers thus read usque ad unum i. e. none but one And yet Christ saith If thou wiâ—t enter into lâ—fe keep the Commandments Math. 19. 17. These words of Christ are most certainly true No entring into life without keeping these Commandments If we enquire How sinful man can be saved and how we have kâ—pt the law The answer can be none other but this That the law is performed by man but that man is Christ That the due sentence of Death is executed on man but that man is Christ And with all that all faithfull men and true members of Christ have both performed the law and suffered the punishment due for transgression because that which Christ hath done and suffered must be really and justly accounted their's in regard that Christ and they are One. For they are really united with Christ in one body by the cement of the Spirit for the same Spirit which is in the Lord Jesus is given and communicated to them wherby Christ dwellâ—th in thâ—m thâ—y in Christ So that the keeping of Christ faithfully is keeping of the Commandments And keeping this Sabbath is the keeping of Christ for Christ only is thiâ— Sabbath all evangelical exhortations for beleeving in Christ are but precepts for keâ—ping this Sabbath As he that believeth and is baptised Mar. 16. 16. Joh 3. 15. Act. 16. 31. shal be saved That whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish And Beleeve on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved These are the productions and gracious effects of our union with Christ who thereby and not otherwise becomes our Rest and everlasting Sabbath CHAP. VI. That Christ is the true Moral Sabbath Why he is concealed under this word Sabhath That the Scriptures do declare him to be the Sabbath The difference between the Lord of Sabaoth the Lord of Sabbath Of the Sabbatism mentioned Heb. 4. 9. A passage of Isaiah Another of St. Paul applied to Christ's Sabbath-ship Sabbath-day-breaking is not called a sin in the New Testament THis Sabbath as is said doth signify Christ whereof I nothing doubt But under the law both Christ and his gracious intentions towards man-kind were covered as Moses himself was with a vail and as yet not to be made publick Thus the Grand mystery of Christ's union with his members was vailed under the Typicall eating of the Paschal lamb his Cross under the shadow of an Altar His Passion and blood-shedding under the figures of sacrificeâ— beasts And that everlasting Rest and Blessednesse which he purposed to procure for his people is here covered under the vail of Sabbatical rest This Secrecie of Christ and of his benefits was signified by the Ark and Vail of the Temple the meaning whereof was that Christ would be concealed as shut up in a Chest or hidden behind a Curtain until he had actually performed his mercifull purpose especially by his Cross and Passion and Death for after them was the vail rent immediatly and not before And therefore he had formerly charged his Diciples to tell no man that he was the Christ Mat 16. 20. Luk 9. 21. left the certain knowledg of him should hinder his passion for so the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known they would not have Crucified the Lord of glory And after him Tertullian renders the same reason a Tert. Cont. Mar. lib. 3. Nisi ignoratus paâ—â— nâ—n poteraâ— i. e. If Christ had not bin unknown he could not have suffered And upon those words Joh. 8. 28. When ye have lift up the Son of man then shall ye know hat I am he Austin saith b Aug. in Joh. â—ract 40. Differo cognitionem vestram ut â—mpleam passionem meam i. e. he suffered his own Disciples as yet to be ignorant of his purpose that so he might accomplish his Passion And again he saith c Idem de Temp. serm 174. Si Christus man festus venisset quis au leret judicare i. e. If Christ had bin publickly manifested who he was who durst have judged him These are the reasons as may be thought why Christ is so vailed under this word Sabbath for otherwise the Law giver might and would have written this Sabbath-law in plainer words such as these Remembâ—r tâ— sanctify Messiah And in memory faith and expectation of Him thou shalt keep hoâ—â— the 7th day of every week until his comming and therein do no manner of work Verily I firmly beleeve this to be the meaning and main importance of this fourth Commandment But yet for our better satisfaction we must further inquire Whether the holy Scriptures and also the Christian Church do declare Christ to be that Sabbath which in the Moral part of this Commandment is intended and whether Christ be thereupon called the Sabbaâ—h For if so then I trust this Doctrine will be assented to by the Christian Reader To this we say That the Scriptures do clearly
be the Lord. The Scriptures often mention Sabbaths in the plural number as Lev. 19. 3. Keep my Sabbaths and also Sabbath in the singular numbâ—r and I doubt not but the Jews were charged to keep other Sabbaths as that which is appointed in the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 24. and that in the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23 39. and that in the Feast of Atonement Levit. 23. 32. as well as the weekly Sabbath because we find that transgressors of the yearly Sabbath are threatned with destruction as well as the breakers of the weekly Sabbath Levit. 23. 29. But now all these Ceremonial Sabbaths are vanished This being granted it will follow in regard of the authority and perpetuity of the Moral Law of God That there must needs be some one special singular and mysterious Sabbath of greater necessity and concernment to be still kept than all those Hebdomarie or Annual Sabbaths and that surely is Christ The Lord Paramount of all Sabbaths which were but shadows of him Whosoever therefore shall imagine that the keeping of any weekly or yearly Day Sabbath is the principal or only duty required in this Moral Law he is such an one as the Psalmist describeth Psal 397. A man that walketh in a vain shadow It is very considerable and surely for some weighty reason That our Saviour very often in the Evangelical Histories occasionally mentioning these Moral Laws and many of them distinctly and severally yet never spake in the least expresly and openly of the Sabbath Law although that fourth Commandment so far as it is Moral is as necessary to be pressed and rather more than any one or indeed then all the other as is shewed before And yet it is not to be doubted but that he meant and also did covertly press this very Sabbath Law in the true intent and meaning thereof to be for ever carefully observed and sanctified I do not take upon me to render a full account of what moved Christ to forbear the reciting of that Law so openly as he did other Moral Laws of the Decalogue yet it may reasonably be thought that he on design and purpose omitted that Law and indeed all the particular Laws of the first Table because he saw that the Jews did misunderstand that Commandment of the Sabbath and that they were zealously obdurate for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as if that had been the full and only intendment and duty required by that Commandment for if Christ had urged it the Jews had been by him countenanced in their erroneous Sabbatizing which he came to dissolve therefore he forbare the naming of that particular Law and for the same cause he abstained from mentioning any of the other Laws of that Table lest if amongst them this Law should be omitted without any mention the Jews would have been more exasperated against him before his time was come to suffer This omission of the Sabbath Law the Reader may observe Mat. 19. 17. Where Christ said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements And when he was asked Which Commandments he answered Thou shalt not murther nor commit adultery nor steal nor bear false witness and Honour thy Father and Mother and Love thy Neighbour as thy self See the same again Mark 10. 19. and Luke 18. 20. In all which places there is no express mention of the Sabbath Law or of any other Law of the first Table But when he was more strictly questioned by a knowing-man a Lawyer or Scribe being a Professor of the Law Mat. 22. 36. Master which is the greatest Commandment in the Law Yet then he answered him but in general terms including the Laws of both Tables without mentioning any one particular Law of either Table thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. This includeth all the four precepts of the first Table Sabbath and all He that performeth this doth thereby keep the Sabbath Therefore to love honour and sanctifie our Lord Jesus Christ who is our only Lord God our God Incarnate the Emmanuel our Creator Redeemer and Saviour is to keep this Moral Sabbath for he only is that Sabbath which is mysteriously commanded to be sanctifyed in that Law this Sabbath Law continueth in full force and vigour at this day and so shall to the end of this world and for ever when all other observations of seventh-Days or any other worldly Sabbaths are quite forgotten and vanished for the true intended Sabbath is a Person Christ the Son of God and the Son of man Finally This Commandment which I have set down in these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is certainly a Moral and an everlasting Law This Sabbath if it be confessed to signifie Christ we have what we desire but if it should signifie only the keeping of a Day whether the last day of the week as the Jews think or the first day as some Christians suppose then surely the not keeping of one at least of these two days is a sin and must be so accounted now under the Gospel for the Apostle tells us 1 Ioh. 34. Sin is the transgression of the Law He means the Law Moral But we are well assured that the Gospel doth not account the Not-keeping of both or either of those days to be a sin against the fourth Commandment or against any other of those ten Moral Laws except indirectly and by consequence for in all the New Testament we cannot find such Sabbath-breaking to be so much as once mentioned in any of the black Rolls of sins as other transgressions of all those Commandments are particularly and often by the great Apostle See 1 Cor. 6. 9 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God See more Gal. 5. 19. Uncleanness lasciviousness wiâ—chcraâ—t hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers revilings and such like See more 1 Tim. 1. 9. Lawless disobedient ungodly and sinnâ—rs unholy and prophane murtherers of fathâ—rs and of motherâ— man-slayers men-stealers such as are now called Spirits â—yars perjured persons Among all this Rabble we find not Sabbath-breakers Yet the abusers or neglecters of the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ are deeply threatned as Judas for betraying him the Jews for crucifying him and All that shall deny him So the Sanctifiers of him are gloriously promised as the confessors of him the believers in him the relievers of him or of his poor Members for his sake to be rewarded with the kingdom of Heaven This is the Scriptural Doctrine concerning the Sabbath-ship of Christ What the Church Catholick conceived thereof is next to be enquired CHAP. VII The Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Fathers How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the days of Moses The Doctrine of the Church of England
herein The meaning of Prayers at the rehearsing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is performable by men TErtullian in that Book which he wrote against the Jews affirmeth That the Law which God imposed upon our first Parents in Paradise was obligatory both to them and also to all the world in their succeeding generations which Law if they had obeyed had been a Law large enough He saith again a Tert. Advers Iudaeos In hac lege Adae datâ omnia praecepta condita recognoscimus quae posteâ— pullul averunt data per Mosem In that Law which God gave to Adam all the Laws of Moses were secretly couched And again b id lib. Primordialis lex est data Adae Evae quasi matrix omnium praeceptorum Dei i. e. That first Law given to Adam and Eve was as the womb of all the Laws of the Decalogue Then he reckoneth up all the Moral Laws first generally as Christ doth Mat. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God wiâ—h all thy heart And Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Then he particularly mentioneth the Laws of the second Table Thou shalt not kill Not commit adultery Not steal Not bear false witness Honour thy Father and Mother Thou shalt not covet Now the Law given to Adam was only in these few words Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat Yet in them all the Laws of the Decalogue saith he are implied His reason is If they had so loved God They would not have disobeyed his Command If they had loved their neighbour that is one another themselves and their posterity they would not have killed them by bringing in Mortality and Original corruption of Lust Nor would they have stolen the fruit which belonged not to them Nor hâ—ve complied with the Serpent's false witnessing concerning the fruit Nor have dishonoured their Father and Creator by that Transgression Thus he From this passage we may observe that in the judgement of this Learned Father the whole Decalogue having been thus imposed upon our first Parents therefore the Law of Sabbath keeping amongst the rest must needs be put upon them We observe again That it being confessed by this Father in the same Book and immediatly after the words before alledged That neither Adam nor Abel nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck nor Abraham did ever Sabbatize although the whole Decalogue was imposed on them also so as is said and although the laws of the Decalogue be every one of them the law of Nature and therefore written in mans heart and also that all those Patriarks must be obliged to keep this Sabbath law as well as any of the other Nine This being granted how shall we quit this learned Father from contradicting himself in these two propositions first The Patriarks were bound to keep the Sabbath second The Patriarks neither did nor were bound to keep the Sabbath This Riddle is easily unfolded by distinguishing the Sabbath Moral from the Sabbath Ceremonial that is The true Real Natural and Substantial Sabbath from the Figurative Typical and Umbratical Sabbath Or. the Body from the Shadow We affirm therefore that the Jewish Hebdomarie seaventh-day or Saturday-Sabbath was but the shadow or type and that the Messiah even Jesus Christ our Lord Emmanuel was and is the true substantial Sabbath and the true Spirit and meaning of that Sabbatical law and is the Lord of the Hebdomarie or Typical Sabbath We also affirm that neither Adam nor any of those forenamed Patriarks did ever keep or sanctify any seaventh-day or Saturday-Sabbath and also that such a Sabbath day was never known or imposed on Gods people before the dayes of Moses And for this we have the confession of a learned Jew even Philo more than once a Philo. de vita Mos lib. 1. Israelitae ignorabant mundi nat alem prinsquam ex Manna didicissent i. e. The Israelites knew not the first day of the world until the Manna fell therefore not the seaventh day Again he saith b idem lib. Ante Mosem Sabbati diem ignor abant homines Before the time of Moses men were ignorant of the Sabbath day This he affirmeth although with a Judaical excuse as if the former knowledg thereof had bin obliterated by Calamities But we also confess and firmly believe that all those holy Patriarks were bound and therefore did certainly keep and sanctify the true substantial Sabbath before Moses was born for their Sabbath was the Son of God even their true and onely Lord God who in due time was to take our humane nature on him So to be the Emmanuel in our nature to perform the whole Law which the Godhead imposeth on man in our steed and this not only by an actual keeping and performing the Commandments but also by a passive obedience in suffring the punishment of our transgressions to quit his faithful ones from the sentence of condemnation and thereby to give comfort ease tranquillity and so a Rest or Sabbath to our otherwise wearied and trembling souls For Christ only is that promised Seed of the woman which should bruise the Serpents head the birth manifestation of him in the flesh is that day which our father Abraham rejoyced to see and he is that well beloved Son in whom alone the Godhead is well pleased and resteth satisfied and at peace with us If those holy Patriarks had not kept this Sabbath they could not enter into the eternal Sabbath of heaven That Christ only is the Sabbath Moral to the sanctification whereof we all are perpetually obliged was the Doctrin of the Ancient Church as may appear by many expressions of the Fathers Origen saith a Orig. in Math. Tract 29. Qui vivit in Christo semper Sabbatizat He that liveth in Christ liveth in a continual Sabbath The holy man Macarius calleth the weekly Sabbath b Marcar Hom 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but a Typical Sabbath and saith It was onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That it was but a branch in the shadowie or Ceremonial Law But Hoc est verâ—m Sabbatum vera requies animae quae conquiescit in verâ quiete laetitià Domini The true Sabbath is the quiet of our souls resting in tranquillity and joy of our Lord. Thus he After him Epiphanius most evidently declareth the same Doctrin more than once for thus he writeth c Epiph Haer. 8. In lege figurae erant in Evangeâ—io veritas illic Circumctsio inservit usque ad magnam Circumcisionem id est Baptismum illic Sabbatum detinens in maâ—num Sabbatum id est Reqâ—iém in Christ Under the law were figures but the truth of them was shewed in the Gospel in the Law carnal Circumcision was used until the great Circumcision by Baptism came in There was a Sabbath also which lasted until the great Sabbath came which is our
Sabbath or Rest in Christ He tels us also that Ebâ—on the Ancient Judaizing Heretick raised a report d Id Haer. 30. That Saint Paul had desired the Jewish High-preist's dâ—ughter to be given to him in mariage but being denied in revenge he wrote against their Sâ—bbath anâ— Circumcision But the true cause of the Apostle's decrying the Jewish Sabbath was this e Id. iâ—iâ— Christus est magnum Sabbatum quietos nos faciens à peccatis nostris -Ejus figura erat parvâ—m Sabbatum quod inserviebat usque ad ipsius adventum Christ is the grand Sabbath for he setteth us at rest from the troubles of our soules by reason of our sins the Jewish little weekly Sabbath was but a figure of Christ our great Sabbath and was to last but until his comming To this doctrine the learned Romanist's do assent as Bishop White hath observed out of Pet. Damianus Bishop of Ostia above 500 years since who thus writeth f Pet. Damiani lib. 2 Eph. 5. Quid per Sabbatum intelligere debemus nisi Christum in Illo siquidem Sabbato requiescâ—mus- spem ponimus i. e. What should we understand by the Sabbath but Christ for in him is our rest and hope St. Aâ—stin is most plentiful in asserting this doctrine for besides what I have observed before out of him he further saith of Circumcision and Sabbath a Aug. Cont Admantum c. 16. To. 6. Circumcisionem approbamus spiritualem- Sabbatum nam ad aeternam requiem intendimus We Christians approve of Circumcision but it is Circumcision spiritual mentioned Rom. 2. 29. Circumcision in the heart not in the letter but in the spirit and Colos 2. 11. Circumcision made without hands we approve of that Sabbath by which we intend and trust to obtain everlasting Rest Of this Sabbath he saith again b Id. Cont Adiman c 2. To. 6. Sabbatum non est repudiatum a nobis Christianis sed intellectum We Christians do not utterly reject the Sabbath but we understand it more truly than the Jews do Of the same mysterious Sabbath he saith again c Id de Gen. ad lit lib. 4 c 13. A fidel bus perpetuum Sabbatum observatur They that believe in Christ do keep a Sabbath perpetual What he meanes by this Sabbath is declared by these words d Id. Cont Faâ—stum lib. 19. c. 9. In Christo Sabbatum habemus nam ait Ego faciam ut requiescatis Our Sabbath is in Christ for he it is that saith I will give you rest Mat. 11. 28. And to shew the difference between the Typical and the Substantial Sabbaths and to what Purpose that Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was ordained He saith The Jews were offended because Christ commanded the infirm man to carry his bed on their Sabbath day Jo. 5. 10. But Christ might have answered them e Aug. in Joan. Tract 17. SacramentuÌ„ Sabbati signum observandi unius diei ad tempus datum Judaeis impletionem verò Sacramenti illius in illo venisse Sabbatum ad significationem meam vobis praeceptum est The Sacramental Sabbath or sign of keeping that day was imposed on the Jews but for a time because the fullfilling of it was performed by the comming of Christ for that Sabbath was given onely to signify Christ To this of Austin Calvin seemeth to me to subscribe where he saith f Calv. instit 2. 8. 31. Christus est verum Sabbati Complementum The keeping of a seaventh-day-Sabbath is but a vain and empty shadow except it be filled with the apprehension of Christ So that as all Typical and Ceremonial shadows were to cease when the thing was come which they signified the Sabbath being but such a sign must also so cease as Justin Martyr long ago taught g Just Dialog cum Triph. Sabbata finem habuêre nato Christo When Christ came Sabbaths went away Lastly it would be inquired what the Church of Englands doctrine is concerning that Sabbath in the fourth Commandment which Church I firmly believe to be in her doctrine and discipline the most truly Catholick Church in the world This we may discover by considering that prayer or suffrage which this Church hath required to be by us said at the rehearsing of this Sabbath-Commandment as at each other of them in these words Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this law This prayer hath much troubled the minds of some of our Religious and well-meaning Countrymen because their teachers did not aright inform them in the true meaning of that Sabbath for both in their pulpits and also in their pâ—inted Catechisms they expound it to be meant only of sanctifying a day as the Jews did But if they so mean this prayer would be not only vain but also an impious mocking of God seeing the Commandment mentions onely the seaventh day and that precisely and none other and that is our Saturday which both we and all other Christian-Churches have utterly rejected but if they thereby understand our Sunday that is not so much as mentioned much less intended there nor may it be called a Sabbath day nor is the celebration of our Sunday to be enforced by vertue of that Commandment but otherwise as is before shewed But those Judicious Leanred and Godly men and also heroical Martyrs who were the compilers of our English Liturgy as Cranmer Ridley and others did rightly understand that Sabbath to signify Christ who onely is our Christian Sabbath and in this sence only we ought to understand it and then this Prayer must needs be confessed to be pious and necessary and not otherwise for the keeping of Christ by faith in him and sanctifying him that is considering his worth and benefits and demeaning our selves towards him so reverendly as becometh us and belongeth to his super-eminent hollness is the only way to procure an everlasting tranquillity Rest and Sabbath to our Consciences For without this Sabbath all our care will prove vain and the very Godhead will be but a terrour to us But if by God's merciful assistance we keep our selves fast in faith and so in Union with this blessed Sabbath we may then with comfort apply Ps 42. 5. that expostulation of the Psalmist to our own souls Why art thou cast down O my soul And why art thou disquieted in me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance Now because the prayer above mentioned though it were granted to us is not full enough to supply and satisfy our defects and necessities for neither a good inclination readiness or willingness nor yet our earnest desires no nor our laborious endeavours to perform the Law do amount to the real and perfect keeping thereof without which we cannot enter into life as Christ hath said Mat. 19 17. Therefore the Church hath added another prayer at the end of these Commandements which is full and perfect In these words Write all
these thy Lawes in ouâ— hearts we beseech thee This prayer is grounded on the promise of God recorded both in the Prophets and also in the Gospel Jer. 31. 33. Heb. 18. 10. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts If we enquire what that Law is and how God doth write it in our hearts and to what intent it is done The Answer is That this Law is Christ The putting or writing of it in our hearts is the mission of the Spirit of Jesus into us The intent or purpose thereof is that by a spiritual union of Christ with us we may fulfill the Law For because Christ and his Members are united by this Spirit and so become one mystical body therefore what Christ hath done in obedience to the Law must be accounted as our obedience and so imputed to us that because he hath performed the Law we also in him have performed it The Apostle tels us a 2 Cor. 13. 5. Jesus Christ is in you and b Gal. 2. 20. Christ liveth in me and c Eph. 3. 17. Christ may dwell in our hearts And Christ himself saith d Matth. 28 20. I am with you alway even unto the end of the world And the Apostle again e Gal. 3. 28. Ye are all one in Christ Jesus And that we may know that when we have the Spirit of Jesus in us then we have also the Lord Jesus himself in us Another Apostle tels us f 1 John 4. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit But how shall it appear That the putting of Christ into us is the putting of the Law of God into our hearts The Answer is That Christ is the Law there meant and he is called the Law and is really the Law * Moses is called by Phâ—lo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more is Christ so and not only so but he is moreover The Law with all advantages to us for he is the Law fulfilled That Christ is called the Law the Psalmist tels us a Psal 2. 7. Rom. 8. 2. I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art mâ— Son Here the Son is called the Law or Precept of the Lord. Then that Christ is the Law fulfilled or the fufilling of the Law Of him it is said in another Psalm b Psal 40 10. Heb. 10. 7 In the volume of thy Book it is written of me that I should fulfill thy will O my God I am content to do it yea thy Law is within my heart And this Christ himself professed c Mat. 5. 17. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill the Law This also was signified by his Type the Ark wherein d Heb 9. 4 the Law was put for the Ark represented Christ and the Law in it signified that Christ should keep that Law and this he did perform only to our behoof that his obedience might be accounted ours Upon this reason only it is that the Apostle so confidently saith e Phil. 4. 13. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me If he can do all things then he can do all the works of the Law But we are well assured that he could not in his own proper person alone considered perform the Law but it must needs be thus only performed by him in and through Christ And in this consideration only Christ is our Rest and Sabbath For this reason our Church prayeth that God would incline our hearts to keep this Sabbath-law which is Christ That by keeping him the whole Law of God may be kept by us through and in him so as is here expressed by having the Law thus written in our hearts Thus this Moral Law which as Divines acknowledge is altogether impossible to the Natural man especially as it is exegetically aggravated and heightened in the Gospel is by this Sabbath made possible and easie to the Matth. 5. Spiritual man so the Apostle tels us a Rom. 10 4. Christ is the end or perfect on of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth that is He that believeth in Christ hath the benefit of performance of the Law brought home to him So St. Ambrose tels us b Ambr. in loc Perfectionem leg is habet qui credit in Christum 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 Evening and Morning The Sabbath described by Philo Parallel'd with Melchisedech and both Types of Christ IF Jesus Christ be the only Sabbath which is mysteriously covered and spiritually meant and really and ultimately intended in the Moral part of this fourth Commandement as certainly he is because he only is our Redeemer our Mediator and the Peace-maker of God with man We must next enquire how this Sabbath if it be so understood can be called a Day as here it is Remember the Sabbath day for by this word Day a man may reasonably-imagine that the principal intendment of this Precept was only for the Celebration or Sanctifying of a day as the Jewes do yet think and many good Christians among us do still though erroneously believe although they agree not in the self same day with the Jews Their reason is because not only in this former part of the fourth Commandement which I have shewed to be a Morall Natural and an everlasting Law but also in the latter words annexed which are a part of the Law ceremonial and therefore but temporal and transient it is also said The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God by which words a man at first hearing would think that the Sabbath in both parts of this Law is nothing else but a day for if the seventh day be a Sabbath why may not the Sabbath be thought to be a Seventh day 1. Our Answer is That the seventh day is called a Sabbath because it was a type and figure of our true Sabbath and Rest which is Christ as the Jews corporal rest was but a figure of our spiritual rest in Christ And because it was so appointed for a figure or sign therefore it hath the name of the thing figured or signified thereby as other signs and types have for so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover yet we know Christ only is the true Passover as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 5. 7. So the Rock is called Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. So of the Eucharistical bread it is said This is my body though it was but a Sacrament or holy sign of the body of Christ And the seven Eares are seven Yeares Gen. 41. 26. Just so the seventh day is the Sabbath that is the sign type and figure of the mysterious Sabbath which is Christ 2. As the sign hath
the maker of Peace or Atonement or Reconciliation of Man with God He is called Messiah or Christ that is anointed fitted and prepared for the great Work of Mans Redemption Then he is properly named Jesus and this in order to the benefit of Man for so the holy Angel said Thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his People from their sins Mat. 1. 21 And that it may appear that this Person Jesus is qualified and endowed with sufficient power to effect that great and merciful purpose of the Godhead toward Mankind the same Prophet cals him Wonderful Counseller The Mighty God The Everlasting Father This I trust is enough to shew the meaning of Gods Rest Now to the second Querie above mentioned 2. Querie Answered viz. Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day precisely and not before Our Answer is 1. Because on the Seventh day and not before the Creation of Mankind was completed for on that day was the Woman taken and built out of the Man and not before as is above shewed 2. God is not said to Rest until he had actually begun the Work of Mans Rest which was not done untill the Man and the Woman were both of them finished for then and not before was the Saviour of Mankind really and actually laid as the foundation of Mans Rest in which Rest or Sabbath of Man the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead consisteth and in nothing else What God in his Divine and Secret Counsel had determined before all times to be done that did he now on this Seventh day begin which was the building of his Church for now the first stone was laid even Christ who only is the foundaâ—ion and the Rock and the chief corner-stone thereof The house built upon a Rock Matth. 7. 24. signifieth the Church when Peter had said Thou art Mat. 16 16 Christ the Son of the living God Christ presently replied Upon this Rock will I build my Church The Apostle tels us Christ was 1 Cor. 10 4. the spiritual Rock And Other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus 1 Cor. 3 11 Christ Now this foundation of Rest must needs be made known unto the Man for otherwise it could not be his Rest and consequently it could not be the Rest of God until Man did so know it that he might relie and trust and set up his Rest upon it that is upon Christ Therefore the holy Scripture doth by divers intimations signifie that this great Mystery was then revealed to Adam for he was illuminated with prophetical Wisdom He knew as well as Moses that he was made in the 〈◊〉 of God that is in the same shape which God his Redeemer would one day assume as is before shewed He knew the Woman was taken and built out of him on purpose to produce a Redeemer in that only way which might fitly serve for that Work when no other way could for upon the forming of her he said This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh This speech doth shew that the Man was not ignorant in the great Mystery of the Union of Himself and the Woman and their future progenie with Christ also in one lump which union was contrived by the Godhead only in order and necessity to the Redemption of Adam and his off-spring and nothing else And it is the same which by the great Apostle is applied to the mysterious union of Christ and his Church They two shall be one flesh This Eph. 5. 31 32 is a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church After the Fall of Man it pleased the merciful Godhead to give a more open and evident notice by an express promise of this Rest than was before when it was said The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head for after this the Man named the Woman Vita i. e. Life as is before shewed whereby he declared his Faith and expectation of a new and better life to come by the fruitfulness of the Woman than that Life which he forfeited by his fall as may reasonably be thought All these intimations and overtures being but descriptions of the great Saviour to proceed from the Man and the Woman in whom they might set up their Rest as surely they did And God having now actually begun that great Work of Redemption and laid the foundation thereof in the Earth of ouâ— first Parents and made it known unto them Therefore he doth now and not before call this blessed Rest of Man His own Best For the Church of God which consisteth of Christ and his Members united not only in the nature of our first Parents but also cemented by one and the same Spirit of God residing both in Christ the Head and also in all holy Men as inferiour Members under that Head This Church I say is very often in Scripture represented as a building even from the beginning of the World and so continued in the Gospel The Woman is said to be builded of the Rib aedificavit costam in Gen. 2. 22 Multierem Rachel and Leah are said to build the house of Israel The natural Body of Ruth 4 11 Christ is called a building by King Solomon Wisdome hath built her an house So is his mystical Body also Ye are Gods building Prov. 9. 1 1 Cor. 3. 9 And Acts 9. 31. The Churches had rest and were edified The Word of God and preaching and brotherly exhortation are resembled to buildings The Word is able to Act. 20. 32 build you up St. Paul calleth preaching there where Christ was named before building on another mans foundation and Rom. 15 20 exhorteth the Thessalonians to edifie one another 1 Thes 5 11 The prime foundation of this building is Christ upon Him the Prophets and Apostles are laid as Super-structures or second Foundations Of Christ the Prophet saith Behold Isa 28. 16 I lay in Sion for a foundation a Stone a tried Stone a precious corner-Stone a sure foundation And this is so applied to Christ by St. Peter who also calleth the Members of Christ Lively stones built up a spiritual 1 Pet. 2 5 6 house And Sion is mentioned because as the same Prophet foretold Out of Sion shall Isai 2. 3 go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem For so indeed the Law of Christ and the preaching thereof began there as Christ appointed Lukâ— 24. 7. And of Apostles and Prophets and Christ St. Paul telleth the Ephesians That they are built upon Eph. 2. 20 the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone It hath been an ancient Custome amongst Men to express a joy and delight both at the laying of the foundation and also at the raising and dedication of magnificent or holy Edifices So did the Jews at the laying of the foundation of the second Temple praising the
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
Tacitus reporteth But most barbarously cruell was that fact of Parrhasiâ—s a Painter which is related by k Sen. lib. 5. cont 35. Seneca either as a true History or at least as a case in Law which then was casus dabâ—lis who toâ—tured his captive-servants in flames to death that so he might have a pattern to paint Prometheus by Nor was this all but for an aggravation of their miseries they were so far from being pittied that Poets and Players made them a common argument of publick mirth and derision in open Theaters wherein they were described as l Plautus catenarum coloni ulmorum Acharuns verberea statua Gymnasium flagri Plagipatidae Plagigeruli Sexcentoplagi c. And sometimes were forced to a part in some Tragedy of Phaeton or Hercules burning or of one crucified and in stead of dying in jest they were in earnest really put to death as appeareth by the Spectacula of m Mart. Spect. Ep. 7 Martial And this was done to please the people Thus were the Jews and Heathen-Gâ—ntiles cruell but God was and is mercifull and therefore in consideration of the hard-heartednesse and power of masters over their servants whereby they might by tortures compell them to work on forbidden daies he hath by this Law in such cases laid the transgression and consequently the punishment thereof not on the compelled servant but on the masters own head And there is no doubt but the equity of this ceremoniall Law of the Jews doth also reach the Christians and Gentiles All men are but servants and fellow-servants under one Master who in his Gospell hath thus threatned That servant which shall smite his fellow-servants shall be cut in sunder and shall have his portion with Mat. 24. 49. hypocrites Nor thy Cattle The mercifull Godhead by his Law taketh care even for poor cattle more then the Heathen Laws did for mankind as * Philo de Charitate Mosis p. 710 Philo observeth in imitation whereof the Jews had a Tradition belike from some of their holy Ancestors concerning mercy to be shewed to dumb creatures in distresse as Eusebius reports in these words †Euseb de Praep. l. 8. cap. 2. Nuilius animalis preces cum ad te lamentanti simile refugiat contemnas The meaning was that if a poor beast or bird pursued by ravenous beasts or birds or birds of prey shall fly to a man for safeguard he should protect it from the pursuer This provision for cattle is annexed to this Sabbath-Law for two reasons 1. Because the Jewish-Sabbath was a type or figure of Rest not onely of mankind after the end of this world but also of the rest and freedom of other worldly and domestick creatures which are now subservient to man and toiled with labours as the Ox and Asse the Horse and Mule and Camell c. A mercifull man cannot chuse but many times to pitty and commiserate the excessive labours and daily slaughterings of the creatures of which the Apostle saith that one day They shall be delivered from the bondage under Rom. 8. 21 which the whole creation groaneth 2. Because the working of domestick cattle must needs require the assistance and co-operation of man Therefore it is here forbidden Nor the stranger that is within thy gates By this Law other Nations are not restrained from working on the Jewish Sabbath which did not at all concern them Onely if aliens or forrainers did sojourn within the Jewish-gates that is within the jurisdiction either Domestick or Politick of the Jews then the Jews are required to cause them to forbear working on their Jewish Sabbath day So that this restraint of aliens or strangers was confined to be onely within the Jewish limits and territories for strangers or aliens abiding in other places out of the Jewish pale were at liberty to work and for so doing the Jews are not by this Law required to forbid or hinder them That sons servants and even cattel are here placed before strangers the reason is 1 Because they are the Jews own peculiars of nearer relation and more subject to their commands than strangers are 2. To intimate that the Jews should first practise and obey the Law in their own persons and families for otherwise it would seem vanity pride or hypocrisie to require obedience or compliance from others There is a woe to such as lade other men with burdens which themselves will Luk. 11. 46. not touch with one of their fingers which may concern those which lay the restraint of Jewish Sabbatizing on others under the penalties of pecuniary mulcts or the Stocks or Sequestration which yet themselves sleight by marching travelling fighting and killing on the same day Certain Observations arising from this Exposition By what hath been said it may evidently appear to a diligent Reader that this seventh-day Sabbath was meerly Ceremoniall and concerned onely the Jews or Israeliticall people and not other Nations as may be collected from the premises for these reasons following 1. Because the transgression or violation of this Sabbath-Law by sons or servants by command or compulsion of their Rulers is here declared to be the sin of the commander onely and not of the son or servant which could not be if this Law were Morall 2. If this seventh-day Sabbath-keeping were a Law Morall then it must follow that whosoever transgressed therein whether by his own will and election or by command or fear or compulsion greatly sinned Otherwise the Christian Martyrs might have been as well excused if they had worshipped the Heathen-Idolls when they were commanded by their lawfull Princes and moreover terrified by excessive torments and death But they knew that Idolatry was forbidden by a Law Morall and therefore refused to obey But this seventh-day Sabbatizing is not commanded by a Morall but onely by a Law Ceremoniall 3. These words Thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man-servant c. are not said of any other of these morall Laws Not of having other gods nor of Idols nor Perjury nor dishonouring Parents nor Murder nor Aduliery nor Theft c. Because sons daughters and servants transgressing any of these truly Morall Laws though by any command or terrour of their Governours yet the sin must be their own But if sons or servants did work on this Ceremoniall Sabbath by command and compulsion the sin was in the commander and not in the obeyer Therefore this must needs be a Ceremoniall Precept and not Morall and it is imposed on Parents Masters and Governours because the fault is not in the servants obedience to his Master but in the Masters disobedience to God The Apostle saith Children obey your Parents but Eph. 6. 1. Col. 3. 18. 20. 22. he addeth in the Lord. And again Wives submit your selves to your own husbands he addeth as it is fit in the Lord. And Children obey your parents in all things Servants obey in all things your masters he addeth Fearing God So that if their commands
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
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-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
in God who is the Fountain of all inherent Holiness and is Holiness it self which we are to acknowledge and which we do confesse when we pray Hallowed be thy Name Secondly There is an Holinesse Moral or of Qualities derived from God the Fountain thereof such is in holy Men as Piety Righteousness Justice Truth Sincerity â—ear and love of God Faith Hope Charity This is that which Divines call Inherent Holiness Thirdly There is an Holinesse by Dedication or Assignment as of Places Vessels Vestments Men and other Creatures and of Times as this Hallowed Sabbath day is Hence we say holy Temple holy Church holy Day holy Eâ—charist for the Bread and Wine to be used therein are of themselves but Elements but after Dedication or Consecration of them or Hallowing which our fore-fathers called Howseling them to that Mysterious use we Fox in Hen. 8. call them Sacraments Divines call this Holinesse Relative It is but a srivolous cavil or excuse of Sacrilegers who make no scruple of abusing or demolishing hallowed places as Churches and Chappels or robbing them of their vessels goods lands and Revenues which were consecrated because they say such things have no holinessâ— or holy qualities inherent in them as no pieâ—y no faith or hope c. I wish such to consider also what inherent holinesse the Jewish Sabbath had or Achan's Wedge of Num. 15. 35. gold or Ananias his money except only the Josh 7. 25. Act. 5. 5. holinesse or hallowing of dedication or destination Yet the profaning and subducing of these was punished by stoning burning and by sudden death and all this by the Sentence of God himself although the hallowing in the case of Ananias was not by God but voluntarily only by himself It may reasonably be feared that the strict injunctions and commands of some such Sacrilegers for observing the Christian Sunday which was not hallowed by any Command of God but only of Men will one day condemn their abuses of other things which were also â—hallowed by Men as Christ said Ex ore tuo serve nequam c. But then the Sabbath-day having been thus hallowed or sanctified by God How comes it to be unhallowed and laid common with other dayes Would God revoke that which himself had constituted Or durst Man presume so to do This seemeth to thwart that heavenly Voice which said to Peter in a like case What God hath cleansed call not thou Act. 10. 15 common To this our Answer is First Man might not presume to alter or null any of Gods Ordinances without Divine warrant But the dissolution of this Sabbath-day was done by the grand Warrant of the Son of God and by him then when he was the Great Son of Man Secondly We say That God never unhallowed or revoked any Sanctions which Himself ordained during the time and purposes that were by him intended for them to continue in force and use For some Divine Constitutions were inacted to continue but for a set-time as the Types were Sacrifices Circumcision Passover Tabernacle and this Sabbath all which and many such were but Ceremonial Sanctions But others were ordained by him to continue to the end of the World as all the ten Commandements which are Sanctions Moral These God never yet revoked nor never will But the other sort which were but Ceremonials and intended to last but during the Pedagogie of his People and so for a certain limited time viz. untill the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh Which being accomplished those temporary Ordinances were to cease and this without any Mutability on Gods part or Sacrilege of Men. Just as when a Man gives a pension or rent to a pious use for a limited time of ten twenty or thirty yeares and no longer when that time is expired the Pension may cease without any Sacrilege of the Doner Hallowed The principal Question in this hallowing which hath most perplexed the minds of many good Christians is concerning the Time when God did actually hallow or set apart the Seventh day whether on the first Seventh day of the World or whether not before the dayes of Moses and the Egyptian deliverance To this we answer confidently and resolutely That although it is most certain that God did rest on the first Seventh day of the World but so as hath been at large shewed before yet he never appointed or hallowed a weekly Seventh day for Man's rest untill the dayes of Moses Our Reasons for this Assertion are these First If the weekly Seventh day had been hallowed at the beginning as a Law it must have been either written in Mans heart as all Moral Lawes of God were ever since Man was made or else it must have been openly declared as a Law positive But the Seventh-day Sabbath was not written in Man's heart For if so then it must have bound all Nations in all Ages which as yet it never did Neither was iâ— then declared overtly as a Law positive for if so then certainly we should have found some mention or footsteps of it in the History of the Patriarks which lived before Moses But we â—ind nothing of it in all that long time and we are well assured that neither Adam nor any of his posterity did ever so Sabbatize untill the dayes of Moses This is the Doctrine of the Fathers generally and of the Church Primitive Secondly The Preface before the ten Moral Laws which containeth the date or time of their Promulgation by writing to me seemeth to be annexed to them on purpose to prove this Assertion concerning the fiâ—st establishment and original of the Seventh-day Sabbath For thus we read I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Thou shaâ—t c. By which it may appear that the publication of the Laws was after the deliverance out of Egypt Just so the Prophets date their Prophesies at the beginnings of them as The vision of Isaiah in the dayes of Uzziah c. And To Jeremiah the Isai 1. 1. Jer. 1. 1 2 word of the Lord came in the dayes of Josiah And In the first year of Jehoiakim's captivity the word of the Lord came expresly to Ezekiel Eze. 1. 2 3. the Priest The like we find in Daniel Amos Micha Zephani Haggi Zechari And in the Gospel also In the dayes of Herod And Caesar Augustus And Tiberius Luke 1. 5. 2. 1 3. 1. Caesar Here I desire the learned Reader to consider with me why it pleased the Divine Wisdom to put so late and low a date to the whole Decalogue of the Law Moral which we are well assured was in force from the creation of the first Man If not for this reason only bâ—cause there was something inserted and added to these Laws which was new and was not written in Man's heart nor ever imposed on the People of God untill they had been delivered out of Egypt And That new thing was this Ceremonial Precept of
hallowing the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath If it be here urged That Mâ—ses expresly writeth in the history of the first Seventh day That God blessed he Seventh daâ— and halâ—owâ—d or sanct fiâ—d it Therefore if it were hallowed so early how can we truly affirm that it was not hallowed untill four and twenty hundred years after To this we say although it hath been most solidly answered before by a right worthy and learned Writer a Hist of the Sabbath That Moses doth not write that God hallowed it â—hen and on that very first Seventh day nor doth he there shew when it was hallowed but only why God did chuse thâ— Seventh day in after-times to hallow or sanctifie it and none other of the six The words of Moses may well justifie this Exposition for thus we read God blessed and sanctiâ—iâ—d it because in it he had rested Had rested â—ignifies the time not present but past So the meaning is That because God had formerly rested on the first Seventh daâ— herefore afterwards when he had drawn his people together out of Egypt he chose and preferred that day above the other daies and commanded them to keep it holy If it be further pressed that even in this fourth Commandment the words of Blessing and Halâ—owing are delivered in a Tense which signifieth the â—ime-past as Benedixâ—t and Sanctificavit that is He hath blessed and sanctified Which words do indeed relate to a former hallowing thereof before the giving of the Law And if so Why may they not point to the hallowing on the first seventh day To this we answer and grant that the Hallowing here signifieth the time past for otherwise it would have been said He blesseth and halloweth in the presenttense But this Past or former â—ime referreth us onely to that time when the Sabbath day was first actually and declaratively hallowed or set apart and was no further off than the time of the falling of Manna So we read Exod. 16. This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow Exod. 16. 13. is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. And vers 29. See the Lord hath given you the Sabbath So the people rested on the seventh day This is the first seventh-day-Sabbath that ever was ordained by God and made known unto his People But let it be supposed and granted that the seventh-day-Sabbath was blessed and hallowed on the first seventh day of the world as we read Gen. 2. 3. yet that Hallowing will noâ— gain-say our assertion For the better understanding whereof I will here set down two Propositions to be examined which at first will seem opposite one to the other and yet will both prove true 1. The seventh day was hallowed in the beginning in the daies of Adam 2. The seventh day was not hallowed untill the daies of Moses Concerning the first The seventh day was hallowed in the daiâ—s of Adam If Moses had said that God hallowed the seventh day not onely in Adam's time but also before the Creation and from Eternity he had said nothing but the truth But this hallowing was secret in the Divine Mind onely in God's Decree and Purpose in his Counsell Providence Predestination and good Pleasure For whatsoever God hath done before these daies or now doth or shall do hereafter were all present to him from eternity for to him Was Is and To come are but as one moment All things and times were present to him from everlasting So that in consideration of this Decree we say that the seventh day was hallowed before the daies of Moses and also before the daies of Adam Just as we may also truly affirm that the world was in Beeing before the actuall Creation thereof But this Beeing is to be understood onely of the Idea in the Divine Mâ—nd and so is this early hallowing of the seventh day And this is really true and may be affirmed in plain down-right speech without any Rhetoricall figure To the second Proposition that The seventh day was not hallowed till the daies of Moses this is to be understood in respect of the actuall performance and execution of the aforesaid Decree and of the patefaction manifestation or declaration thereof The hallowing was Praescitum but not Praestitum The Pre-science of God was before man's Cognisance God's hallowing by his Decree was from Eâ—eâ—nity but the execution and actuall effect thereof was afterwards in â—ime even in the time of Moses and not before It must needs be granted that the world and all its creatures had some kind of Beeing before their actuall creation because the Scripture thus teacheth us Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Act. 15. 18 yet then most particulars were unmade And The Lord knoweth who are his surely he knew 2 Tim. 2. 19. them before they were actually made And He hath chosen us in him in Christ before the foundation of the world every one knows Eph. 1. 4. that Eâ—ection was before Creation We read also of the Purpose of God and of grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the 2 Tim. 1. 9 world began These truths cannot otherwise be understood but onely in consideration of the Beeing of Creatures in the Idea or Divine Mind before their existence in Nature Tertullian saith * Tert. Advers Prax. p. 38â— Ante omnia Deâ—s eraâ— solus qâ—ia nihiâ— extrinsecus praeter illâ—m The Schoolmen have also taught us these Maxims Non entis nâ—lla est scientia And Non ens non intelligitur And In Dâ—o sâ—nt omnia Therefore because neither the Knowledge of God nor his Election nor his Giving grace can be said of Non entities and meer nothings it will follow that these known and chosen objects and sâ—bjects of grace had a beeing before their actuall creation and this Beeing must be onely in the same Knower and Chooser and that is God If it be enquired why Moses mentioneth this Hallowing so early seeing it was not declaratively enacted till so laâ—e as is said To this we answer That there was great and weighty reason why he did so Because the true and â—eall Sâ—bbath whereof the seventh-day-Sabbath was but a figure is indeed the greatest and most-concerning and most beneficiall mystery of true Religion for it signified Christ the Saviour and our onely means and hope of everlasting Rest in him And it will be a great consolation to us if we rightly consider thâ—â— our mercifull God ordained a sure means for our blessednesse so early as not onely at the beginning of the world but also from eternity although the externall publication and celebration thereof was not constituted untill the daies of Moses Just so the latter Prophets spake of the Birth Passiâ—n and Dâ—ath of our Râ—deemer as if all had been performed before their daies which yet was not actually effected till long after the death of those Prophets And this they spake and prophecyed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉