to see that all others did so also 'T is true civill Magistrates may abuse their power judge amisse and thinke that to be the command of God which is not but we must not therefore take away their power from them because they may pervert it and abuse it we must not deny that power they have for God because they may pervert it and turne the edge of it against God for if upon this ground the Magistrate hath no power over his Subjects in matters of the first Table he may have also all his feathers pul'd from him and all his power taken from him in matters of the second Table for we know that he may work strange changes there and perveâ—t Justice and Judgement exceedingly we must not deny their power because they may turne it awry and hurt Gods Church and people by it but as the Apostle exhorts 1 Timâ— 1.2 to pray for them the more that under them we may live a peaceable life in all Godlinesse and Honesty it s a thousand times better to suffer persecution for Righteousnesse sake and for a good Conscience then to desire and plead for toleration of all Consciences that so by this cowardly device and lukewarme principle our owne may be untoucht it was never heard of untill now of late that any of Gods Prophets Apostles Martyrs faithfull Witnesses c. that they ever pleaded for liberty in errour but onely for the Truth which they preacht and prayd for and suffered for unto the death and their sufferings for the truth with Zeale Patience Faith Constancy have done more good then the way of universall toleration is like to doe which is purposely invented to avoyd trouble Truth hath ever spread by opposition and persecution but errour being a Child of Satan hath fled by a zealous resisting of it Sick and weake men are to be tender'd much but Lunatick and Phrantiâ—â— men are in best case when they are well fettered and bound a weake Conscience is to be tendered an humble Conscience tolerated errours of weaknesse not wickednesse are with all gentlenesse to be handled the liberty given in the raign of Episcopacy for Sports and Pastimes and May-games upon the Lords Day was once loathsome to all honest minds bat now to allow a greater Liberty to Buy Sell Plow Cart Thrash Sport upon the Sabbath day to all those who pretend Conscience or rather that they have no Conscience of one day more then another is to build up Iericho and Babel againe and to lay foundations of wrath to the Land for God will certainly revenge the pollutions of his Sabbaths if God be troubled in his Rest no wonder if he disturbes our peace some of the Ancients thinke that the Lord brought the flood of Waters upon the Sabbath day as they gather from Gen. 7.10 because they were growne to be great prophaneâ—s of the Sabbath and we know that Prague was taken upon this day The day of their sinne began all their sorrowes which are continued to this day to the amazement of the World when the time comes that the Lords precious Sabbaths are the dayes of Gods Churches Rest then shall come in the Churches peace Psal. 102.13.14 The free grace of Christ must first begin herein with us that we may finde at last that Rest which this evill World is not yet like to see unlesse it speedily love his Law more and his Sabbaths better I could therefore desire to conclude this doctrine of the Sabbath with teares and I wish it might be matter of bitter lamentation to the mourners in Sion everywhere to behold the universall prophanation of these precious times and seasons of refreshing toward which through the abounding of iniquity the love of many who once seemed zealous for them is now grown cold the Lord might have suffered poore worthlesse sorrowfull man to have worne and wasted out all his daies in this life in wearinesse griefe and labour and to have filled his daies with nothing else but work and minding of his own things and bearing his own necessary cumbers and burdens here and never have allowed him a day of rest untill he came up to heaven at the end of his life and thus to have done would have been infinite mercy and love though he had made him grind the Mill only of his own occasions feele the whip and the lash onely of his daily griefs and labours untill dark night came but such is the overflowing and abundant love of a blessed God that it cannot containe it selfe as it were so long a time from speciall fellowship with his people here in a strange land and in an evill world and therefore will have some speciall times of speciall fellowship and sweetest mutuall embracings and this time must not be a moment an houre a little and then away againe but a whole day that there may be time enough to have their fill of love in each others bosome before they part this day must not be meerly occâ—sionall at humane liberty and now and then least it be too seldome and so strangenesse grow between them but the Lord who exceeds and excels poor man in love therefore to make all sure he sets and flxeth the day and appoints the time and how to meet meerly out of love that weary man may enjoy his rest his God his love his Heaven as much and as often as may be here in this life untill he come up to glory to rest with God and that because man cannot here enjoy his daies of glory he might therefore foretaste them in daies of grace and is this the requitall and all the thanks he hath for his heart-breaking love to turne back sweet presence and fellowship and love of God in them to dispute away these daies with scorne and contempt to smoke them away with Prophannesse and madde mirth to Dreame them away with Vanity to Drinke to Sweare to Ryot to Whore to Sport to Play to Card to Dice to put on their best Apparrell that they may dishonour God with greater pompe and bravery to talke of the World to be later up that dâ—y then any other day of the Weeke when their own Irons are in the fire and yet to sleepe Sermon or scorne the Ministery if it comes home to their Consciences to tell Tales and breake Jests at home or at best to talke of Forraigne or Domesticall newes onely to passe away the time rather then to see God in his Workes and warme their hearts thereby to thinke God hath good measure given him if they attend on him in the Fooreâ—oone although the After-noone be given to the Devill or sleepe or vanity or foolish pastimes to draw neere to God in their bodies when their Thoughts and Hearts and Affections are gone a Hunting or Ravening after the World the Lord knowes where but farre enough off from him do you thus requite the Lord for this great love oh foolish people and unwise do you thus make the daies of your
thus much that it is perpetuall and universall a law which bindes all persons all times and in all ages and herein lies the chiefe matter of controversie at this day Now in what respect and how far forth the law of the Sabbath is perpetuall shall be hereafter shewn mean while it may not be amisse to enquire more narrowly into the nature of a morall law For though a Law primarily morall is perpetuall yet perpetuity seems to bee an adjunct rather than of the essence of a morall law and the difficulty will still remaine untouch'd viz. to know when a law is perpetuall and what is internall and intrinsicall to such a law as makes it perpetuall or morall whereinto I would not search lest I should seem to affect curiosity but that our criticall adversaries put us upon it with whom there is nothing lost in case weâ— gaine nothing by wrastling a little with them upon their owne grounds where for a while we shall come up to them Thesis 14. A divine law may be said to be morall two wayes 1. More largely and generally morall 2. More strictly and specially morall Thesis 15. A law generally morall is this that the whole soveraign will of the Lord be done and submitted unto by every creature and in this large sense every law of God whether ceremoniall judiciall or for speciall triall may be said to be morall because the soveraigne will of God is in all these lawes to be adored It is a morall duty that Gods will be done and hence it is that so far forth as the will of God is in them so far forth to yield obedience to them is a morall duty but the question is not about this morality nor what things are thus morall Thesis 16. A law more strictly and specially morall which concernes the manners of all men and of which wee now speake may bee thus described viz. It is such a Law which is therefore commanded because it is good and is not therefore good meerly because it is commanded Thesis 17. This is Austins description of it long since whom most of the Schoolmen follow which learned Cameron with sundry late Wriâ—â—â— confirme and which our adversaries in this controversie plead hard for and unto which the evidence of Scripture and reason seemes to incline for laws meerly judiciall and ceremoniall are good lawes Deut. 6.18 24. but this was meerly because they were commanded and therefore it had been simply evill to burne Incense offer Sacrifice or performe any ceremoniall duty in the worship of God unlesse they had been commanded What is there therefore in morall lawes which is not in those lawes verily this inward goodnesse in them which others have not and because of which goodnesse they are therefore commanded For to love God to honour parents to preserve the life of man to be mercifull and bountifull and just in all our dealings c. are inwardly good and are therefore commanded and are therefore morall laws and hence we see that when the Apostle would set forth the glory and excellency of the morall law for of no other law can he speake Rom. 7.7 12. he gives these titles to it that it is holy just and good which holines justice and goodnesse he opposeth to his owne morall not ceremoniall wickednesse I am carnall saith he but the law is holy just and good And look as it was evill in it selfe for to have a nature contrary to the law so the Law which was contrary to that nature was good in it selfe and was therefore commanded and therefore in this thing morall lawes are in a higher degree good than such as were onely ceremoniall which were therefore good meerely because commanded The Prophet Micah therefore perceiving how forward many were in ceremonial duties sacrifices in opposition hereunto he tels them The Lord hath shewed thee O man what is good speaking of morall duties of shewing mercy and walking humbly with God Micah 6.8 Was not Sacrifice and Offerings good as well as mercy and walking humbly Yes verily but herein lies the difference as our most Orthodox generally make it Sacrifice and Offerings were not per se and in themselves good but onely as commanded for higher ends and to further morall obedience Ier. 7.22 23 and 6.19 20. Isa. 1.14 16 Psal. 50.13 14 15. but such morall obedience as thâ— Prophet mentions viz. to shew mercy and to walk humbly were good in themselves and were therefore commanded of God and here called by the Prophet good The summe of morall obedience is love to God and man Matth. 22. But what love is this surely t is in such things â—â— are in themselves lovely and consequently in themselâ—â—â— good for otherwise ceremoniall obedience should be a part of morall obedience because in performing such obediences is meerely ceremoniall wee shew our love to God also It being a branch of love to have respect unto all Gods Commandments Deut. 6.1 2 3. with 5 6. Onely herein our love toward God appeares in ceremoniall duties because these lawes are commanded our love appeares in the other because the things commanded are also lovely in themselves The Image of God is good in it selfe as God himselfe is good in himselfe now the morall law is an exact rule of nothing else but Gods Image as is evident Eph. 4.24 where the Image of God is made to consist in holinesse and righteousnesse the first Table being the rule of the one the second Table being the rule of the other and hence it followes undenyably that morall lawes respecting onely Gods Image have respect onely to such things as are good in themselves and wherein we resemble and are made like unto God Some things saith Cameron are good in themselves viz. such things wherein Gods Image shines forth as hee is holy just and good Colos. 3.10 Ephes. 4.24 Some things are indifferent neither good nor bad in themselves but meerely as commanded or forbidden which also bear not Gods Image unlesse it be sub ratione entis but not sub ratione boni moralis i. e. they resemble God as he is a being but not as he is holy just and good in himselfe the rule of which resemblance is the morall law which therefore commands things because they are good Thesis 18. God out of his absolute soveraignty could have made lawes binding all persons in all ages and in this respect morall without having any more goodnesse in them then meerely his owne will but it is his will and good pleasure to make all lawes that are morall to be first good in themselves for all men before he will impose them upon all men And hence it is a weaknesse for any to affirme that a morall law is not such a Law which is therefore commanded because it is good because say they t is not the goodnesse of the thing but the soveraigne will of God which makes all things good for it is the soveraigne will of God as
being shusted into the Decalogue and so might ceremonialls also Thesis 38. There were three sorts of laws which are commonly knowne and which were most eminently appearing among the Jewes 1. Morall 2. Ceremoniall 3. Judiciall Thesis 39. The morall respected their manners as they were men and are therefore called morall The ceremoniall respected them as a Church and as such a kinde of Church The judicial as a Common wealth and as that particular Common-wealth Morall laws were to govern them as an human society Ceremoniall as a sacred society Judiciall as a civill society Thus the Learned speak and being candidly understood are true Thesis 40. The morall law contained in the Decalogue is nothing else but the law of nature revived or a second edition and impression of that primitive and perfect law of nature which in the state of innocency was engraven upon mans heart but now againe written upon Tables of stone by the finger of God For man being made in the Image of God he had therefore the law of holines and righteousnes in which Gods Image consisted written in his heart but having by his fall broken this Table and lost this Image neither knowing or doing the will of God through the law of sinne now engraven on it Hence the Lord hath in much pitty made knowne his law again and given us a faire copy of it in the two Tables of stone which are the copy of that which was writ upon mans heart at first because the first Table containes Love to God in holinesse the second Love to man in righteousnesse which holinesse and righteousnesse are the two parts of Gods Image which was once engraven upon mans soule in his primitive and perfect estate Ephes. 4.24 Nor indeed doe I see how that popish Argument will be otherwise answered pleading for a possibility in man to keep the law perfectly in his lapsed and fallen estate in this life for say they God makes no lawes of impossible things it being unjust for God to require and exact that of a man which hee is not able to doe to which it is commonly and truely answered That man had once power to keep the law in his innocent estate and hence though man be not able to keep it now yet God may require it because hee once gave him power to keep it and that therefore it is no more unjust to exact such obedience which hee cannot performe than for a creditor to require his money of his broken debtor or spend-thrift who is now failed as they say and not able to repay Man therefore having once power to keep the law and now having no power this argues strongly that the law of the Decalogue contains nothing but what was once written as a law of life upon his heart in his innocent estate for I see not how Gods justice can be cleared if he exacts such obedience in the Decalogue which is impossible for man to give unlesse the very same law and power of obedience was written upon his heart at first and therefore it is a wilde notion of theirs who thinke that the Covenant of works which God made with Adam is not the same for matter with the Covenant of works exprest in the morall law for wee see that there is the same Image of holinesse and righteousnesse required in the Tables of stone as the condition of this Covenant which was once written upon mans heart and required in the same manner of him Now this law thus revived and reprinted is the Decalogue because most naturall and suitable to humane nature when it was made most perfect therefore it is universall and perpetuall the substance also of this law being love to God and man holinesse toward God and righteousnesse toward man Matt. 22.37 39. Luke 1. Hence also this law must needs bee morall universall and perpetuall unlesse any should bee so wicked as to imagine it to be no duty of universall or perpetuall equity either to love God or to love man to performe duties of holinesse toward the one or duties of righteousnesse toward the other Hence again the things commanded in this law are therefore commanded because they are good and are therefore morall unlesse any shall think that it is not good in it selfe to love God or man to be holy or righteous and which is still observable there is such a love required herein and such a lovelinesse put upon these lawes as that by vertue of these all our obedience in other things which are not moral becomes lovely for there were many ceremoniall observances in which and by which the people of God exprest their love to God as Mr. Primrose truely concludes from Deut. 6.1 2 3 4 5 6. and Matth. 22.37 38 40. but yet this love did arise by vertue of a morall rule for therefore it was love to worship God in ceremoniall duties because it was lovely to worship God with his own worship of which these were parts which is the moral rule of the second Commandment And hence Master Primrose may see his grosse mistake in making one law of the Decalogue ceremoniall because the summary of the Decalogue being love to God and love to man and our love to God being shewne in ceremoniall as well as in morall duties because our love is seen shewn in our obedience to all the Commandments of God ceremonial as well as moral For though there be love in ceremonial dutys it is not so much in respect of themselves as in respect of some morall rule by vertue of which such duties are attended Thesis 41. The ceremoniall law consisting chiefly of types and shadowes of things to come Heb. 8.5 and therefore being to cease when the body was come Col. 2.17 was not therefore perpetuall as the law morall but temporary and of binding power onely to the nation of the Jewes and their proselytes and not putting any tie upon all Nations as the morall law did Every ceremoniall law was temporary but every temporary law was not ceremoniall as some say as is demonstrable from sundry judicials which in their determinations were proper to that Nation while that Jewish polity continued and are not therefore now to be observed Thesis 42. The Iudiciall lawes some of them being hedges and fences to safeguard both morall and ceremoniall precepts their binding power was therefore mixt and various for those which did safeguard any morall law which is perpetuall whether by just punishments or otherwise doe still morally binde all Nations For as Piscator argues a morall law is as good and as precious now in these times as then and there is as much need of the preservation of these fences to preserve these lawes in these times and at all times as well as then there being as much danger of the treading downe of those lawes by the wilde beasts of the world and brutish men sometimes even in Churches now as then and hence God would have all Nations preserve these fences for
Commandment which therefore sets down the proper punishment for this sin So by love of God is not meant love of God at large which is seen in keeping every Command but in particular when we love God in his owne Ordinances and institutions Look therefore as hatred of God in setting up mans inventions and institutions which superstitious persons thinke to be much love to God is here condemned in the negative part of the Commandment so on the contrary love to God in closing with him and seeking of him in his owne Institutions whether Word or Sacraments c. is here enjoyned in the affirmative part of this Command and consequently not as Wallaeus would have it in the affirmative part of the fourth Command Keeping my Commandments being set downe as a fruit of this love and both together being opposed to hatred of God Hence by Commandments cannot be meant in generall all the ten Commandments as some imagine upon miserable weake grounds which I lift not to mention but in speciall Gods Institutions and Ordinances commanded in speciall by him to which humane inventions and Images of mens heads and hands are commonly in Scripture opposed and are therefore condemned because not commanded or because none of his Commandments Ier. 7.31 Deut. 12.30 31. Matth. 15.9 If therefore againe Gods Institutions and Commandments are here enjoyned in this second Commandment they cannot bee directly required in the fourth Command These things being thus cleared the objections of Wallaeus are easily answered For first he saith That from the negative part of this second Commandment cannot be gathered such an affirmative part as this is viz. That God will be worshipped by the Word and Sacraments But that this assertion thus barely propounded but not proved is false appeares from what hath been said concerning the true meaning of the negative part of this Command For if humane inventions under the name of graven Image bee forbidden then Divine Institutions such as Word and Sacraments bee are here commanded and from that negative any ordinary capacity may readily see what the affirmative is Hee saith again secondly That if instituted worship was contained under the affirmative part of the second Commandment then this Commandment is mutable because God was thus worshipped one way before Christ and another way since Christ but saith he the second Commandment is morall and therefore immutable and therefore such mutable worship cannot be enjoyned herein But we have formerly shewne that although this Commandment be morall and immutable in respect of it selfe yet in respect of the application of it to this or that object or thing commanded it may be in that respect mutable For it is an immutable law that God must be worshipped with his owne worship such as hee shall institute and this is the summe of the second Commandment it selfe yet the things instituted wherein there is onely an application of the command may be mutable the second Commandment doth not immutably binde to the observance of this or that particular instituted worship onely But to observe Gods instituted worship and to attend his appointments which is the onely morall law and rule in the affirmative part of this Command Hee thirdly objects That the worshipping of God in Word and Sacraments c. is never opposed in all the Scripture to the worshipping of Images But this is false for Gods Institutions of which Word and Sacraments are a part are frequently opposed to humane inventions the worship appointed by God to the worship devised by man Images of Gods devising are oft opposed to Images of mens owne inventing the voice of God which was onely heard with the eare is opposed to an Image or similitude which might bee seen Deut. 4.12 A graven Image a teacher of lies is opposed to the Lords teaching of truth and also to his presence in his Temple which was the seat of instituted worship Habak 2.18 19 20. The worship of Images which God would have abolished is opposed to the worship of God by Sacrifices and Ceremonies in the place which God should chuse Deuter. 12.1 to 20. but yet he tels us That to worship God in Images and to worship him in Spirit and Truth which is inward worship are opposite as also the lifting up of pure hands in every place John 4.28 1 Tim. 2.8 Hee tels us also that acknowledging of God in his Immensity and Infinite Majesty are opposed to Image-worship Rom. 1.20 21 22. Isa. 40.22 Bee it so But will it therefore follow that to worship God according to his own Institutions is not to worship him in Spirit and in Truth Is it rather a carnall than a spirituall worship to attend on God in Word and Sacraments May we not lift up pure hands in the use of Gods own institutions Is not Gods Immensity and Majesty acknowledged and seen in the use of his owne Ordinances as well as creatures and providences I confesse the blinder sort of Heathens might worship stocks and stones and Images of creeping things and four-footed Beasts in the place of God himselfe terminatively and God might account of all their Image-worship as such though used relatively and hence the opposition may well bee made between worshipping them as God and an infinite God and this worship as was said fals then under the first Commandment but assuredly this Image-worship which the Apostle condemnes Rom. 1.21 23. in debasing the infinite Majesty and limiting it to this and that Image wherein they did worship it is forbidden being only relative worship in the second Command For I think the Apostle in Rom. 1. hath an eye principally at the most lascivious Idolaters in the world viz. the Egyptians among whom principally we read of those Images of creeping things and foure-footed beasts in their Hierâ—gliphicks and yet we know that all that base worship did set out something or other of the Deity which therein and so relatively they did worship But I must not enter into the Discourse of these things here sufficient is said to cleare up this point viz. That Gods instituted worship fals directly under the second not fourth Command Thesis 62. It is true that the exercise of publick worship of many together is to be at this time upon the Sabbath but doth it follow that therefore this publick worship it self falls directly under this command For if publick Assemblies bee as some think a part of naturall worship so as that the light of nature directs all men dwelling together as creatures to worship God together publickly as Creator then this worship fals directly under the first not fourth Commandment where natural worship is directly commanded but if publick Assemblies be considered as distinct Churches politically united and combined publickly to worship God then such Churches considered thus as politicall not mysticall Assemblies do fall directly under the second Command as parts of instituted worship for as all devised formes of Churches whether Diocesan Provinciall Nationall Universall being the
and shadowes and figures when once the substance is come to wit when they come in this life to the highest attainment which is the bosome of the Father which bosome is the true Sabbath of a Christian man Now I confesse that the bosome of God in Christ is our rest and our All in All in heaven and our sweet consolation and rest on earth and that we are not to rest in any meanes Ordinances Graces Duties but to look beyond them all and to be carried by them above them all to him that is better than all to God in Christ Jesus but to make this bosome of God a kinde of canker-worme to fret and eat out the heart and being not only of all Sabbaths and Ordinances of worship but also of all duties and graces of Gods Spirit nay of Christ Jesus himself as he is manifested in the flesh and is an externall Mediator whom some lately have also cast into same box with the rest Being sent onely as they think to reveale but not to procure the Fathers love of delight and therefore is little else than a meere forme and so to cease when the Father comes in the room of all formes and so is All in All This I dare say is such a high affront to the precious bloud of Christ and his glorious Name and blessed Spirit of grace that he who hath his Furnace in Zion and his fire in Ierusalem will not beare it long without making their judgements and plagues at least spirituall exemplary and wonderfull and leading them forth in such crooked wayes with the workers of iniquity when peace shall be upon Israel Are these abstracted notions of a Deity into the vision and contemplation of whose amazing glory without seeing him as he is in Christ a Christian they say must be plunged lost and swallowed up and up to which hee must ascend even to the unaproachable light the true and onely Sabbath Are these I say the new and glorious light breaking out in these dayes which this age must wait for which are nothing else upon narrow search than Monkish imaginations the goodly cob-webs of the brain-imagery of those idolatrous and superstitious hypocrites the Anchorites Monks and Fryers who to make the blinde and simple world admire and gaze upon them gave it out hereby like Simon Magus that they were some great ones even the very power and familiars of God Surely in these times of distraction warre and bloud if ever the Lord called for sackcloth humiliation repentance faith graces holinesse precious esteem of Gods Ordinances and of that Gospel which hath been the power of God to the salvation of thousands now is the time and must Gods people reject these things as their A. B. C and must the new light of these times be the dreames and visions and slaverings of doting and deluded old Monks Shall the simplicity of Gospel-ministery bee rejected as a common thing and shall Harphius his Theologia Mystica Augustinus Elutherius Iacob Behmen Cusanus Raimundus Sebund Theologia Germanica and such like Monk-admirers be set up as the new lights and beacons on the mountaine of these elevated times Surely if so God hath his time and wayes of putting a better relish to his precious Gospel and the crosse of Christ which was wont in Pauls time to be plainly preached without such popish paintings and wherein Gods people knew how to reconcile their sweâ—â— rest in the bosome of the Father and their Sabbath day Thesis 81. If sinne which is the transgression of the law bee the greatest evill then holines which is our conformity to the law is our greatest good If sin be mans greatest misery then holinesse is mans greatest happinesse It is therefore no bondage for a Christian to be bound to the observance of the law as his rule because it onely binds him fast to his greatest happinesse and thereby directs and keeps him safe from falling into the greatest misery and woe and if the great designe of Christ in comming into the world was not so much as to save man from affliction and sorrow which are lesser evils but chiefely from sinne which is the greatest evill then the chiefe end of his comming was not as some imagine to lift his people up into the love and abstracted speculation of the Father above the law of God but into his owne bosome onely where only wee have fellowship with the Father above the Law of sinne Thesis 82. The bloud of Christ was never shed to destroy all sense of sin and sight of sinne in Beleevers and consequently all attendance to any rule of the law by which means chiefely sinne comes to be seen but he dyed rather to make them sensible of sinne for if he dyed to save men from sin as is evident 1 Iohn 3.5 Tit. 3.14 then hee dyed to make his people sensible of sinne because hereby his peoples hearts are chiefely weaned and sever'd from it and saved out of it as by hardnesse and unsensiblenesse of heart under it they chiefely cleave to it and it to them and therefore we know that godly sorrow workes repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 And that Pharaoh's hardnesse of heart strengthened him in his sin against God unto the last gasp and hence it is also that the deepest and greatest spirit of mourning for sin is poured out upon Beleevers after God hath poured out upon them the spirit of grace as is evident Zach. 12.10 11. because the bloud of Christ which was shed for the killing of their sinne now makes them sensible of their sinne because it 's now sprinkled and applyed to them which it was not before for they now see all their sins aggravated being now not onely sinnes against the law of God but against the bloud and love of the Son of God It is therefore a most accursed doctrine of some Libertines who imagining that through the bloudshed and righteousnes of Christ in their free justification God sees no sinne in his justified people that therefore themselves are to see no sinne because now they are justified and washed with Christs bloud and therefore lest they should be found out to bee grosse liars they mince the matteâ— they confesse that they may see sinne by the eye of sense and reason but faith being crosse to reason they are therefore to see the quite contrary and so to see no sinne in themselves by the eye of faith from whence it followes that Christ shed his bloud to destroy all sight and sense of sin to the eye of faith though not to the eye of reason and thus as by the eye of faith they should see no sin so it will follow that by the same bloud they are bound to see no law no not so much as their rule which as a rule is index sui obliqui and in revealing mans duty declares his sinne I know that in beholding our free justification by the bloud of Christ we are to exclude all law
Minister of the Gospel of Christ to plead for such popish ignorance in a Christian as can see no further then his own buttons and that cannot discern by the Spirit of God the great and wonderfull change from darknesse to light from death to life from Satan to God the visible work of God and graces of the Spirit of God the things which the Apostle cals love are frâ—ely given to them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Peters was imperfect blotted and mixed and yet he could say Lord thou knowest I love thee Ioh. 21.17 the poor doubting mourning man in the Gospel had some faith and was able to see it and say certainly Lord I beleeve help my unbeleef Could Paul discern without extraordinary revelation because he speaks as an ordinary Christian an inner man and a Law in his minde delighting in the Law of God yet mixed with a Law in his members leading him captive into the Law of sin and cannot we and yet the Doctor doth cast such stains upon sincerity universall obedience love to the brethren c. and heaps up the same cavils against the truth of them in the souls of the Saints as the Devil himself usually doth by sinfull suspitions and suggestions when God lets him loose for a season to buffet his people that so they may never know if it were possible what great things the Lord hath done for their souls and whoever reades his book shall finde that he makes a Beleever such a creature as cannot tell certainly whether he be a sincere-hearted man or an arrand hypocrite wheâ—her he be under the power of sin and Satan or not whether one man can be discerned from another to be a Saint or a devill or whether he hath any charity and goes love to them that are Saints from them that are not and so abouâ— to befool and non-plus and puzzle the people of God as the story relates of the German woman desirous to rid the house of her husband who first making him drunk and casting him into a sleep did so shave him and dresse him and cut and clip him that when he awakened he knew not what to thinke of himselfe or to say who he was for by looking upon and in himself he thought he was the womans husband and yet by his new cut and habit he almost beleeved that he was a Fryar as his wife affirmed Sanctification is an evidence alway in it selfe of a justified estate although it be not alway evident unto us and therefore what though a Christian sees his sanctification and graces to day and cannot see them but is doubâ—full about them suppose to morrow shall he therefore reject it as a doubtfull evidence which is ever clear enough in it self though not alway to our discerning for I would know what evidence can there be of a justified estate but partly through dimnesse and weaknesse of faith which is but imperfect and therefore mixt with some doubtings all a mans life sometime or other and partly through the wise and adored providences of God to exercise our faith but that some time or other it cannot be discerned is the immediate testimony of Gods Spirit which some would make the only evidence alway evident and the shinings sheddings and actings of it never suspended but that by some means or other they will be at a losse why then should sanctification be excluded as a doubtfull evidence because sometime it is and at other times not discerned I know there are some who perceiving the conceived uncertainty of all such evidences have therefore found out a strange catholicon for these sick times a sure way of evidencing and leding all mens consciences in a way of peace and unshaken assurance of the love of Christ and therefore they make which I name with horrour the sight of corruption and sinfull pollution through the promise of the Gospel the certain and setled evidence of life and salvation which opinion the least I can say of it is that which Calvin said in the like case to be exundantis in mundum suroris Dei slagellum Wo to the dark mountains of Wales and the fat valleys towns and cities in England and sea coasts and Ilands in America if ever this delusion take place and yet this flame begins to catch and this infection to spread and therefore I finde M. Saltmarsh and W. C. to speak out and openly to own that which the Familists in former times have either been ashamed or afraid to acknowledge and that is this viz That the promise of the Gospâ—l do belong to a sinner quâ sinner or as a sinner and that the Law speaks good news to a righteous man quatenus a righteous man but the Gospel quite contrary it is to a man quatenus a sinner not as a regenerate man or as an humble man or as a Saint or as a beleever but as a sinner and hence they infer That a Christian will never have any setled peace but be off and on as a bone out of joint in and out in and out a reed tossed with the winde never knit to Christ if they lay hold on Christ and Gods love under any other consideration then as to sinners â— and therefore though they see no good in themselves though they be not humbled broken-hearted sinners as one Preacher tels them nor beleeving sinners as another Preacher tels them yet if they see themselves sinners they must know a sinner is the proper object of the Gospel and therefore this is ground enough to beleeve so that if the devil tell a man that he is no Saint if the soul can say I am a sinner if the devil say thou art an hypocrite I but an hypocrite is but a sinner still though I be not a broken-hearted sinner this will be they say a refuge of peace to retreat unto in all temptations and when men have learnt this lesson their souls will not be in and out any more but have constant peace for though they have no interest in Christ as Saints yet they have reall interest in the promises of Christ as sinners hence also they say that no Minister is to threaten or declare the curse and wrath of God against drunkards and sinners as such untill first Christ be offered in the Gospel and they refuse him and that if any do this they are Ministers of the Old Testament not of the new Sic deâ—init in piscem mulier formosa let us therefore see what chaff and what corn what truth and what falsehood there is in this nâ—w divinity It is true 1. That the Gospel reveals the free grace and love of God the death of Christ and salvation by him for sinners and that all those that are or shall be saved are to acknowledge and aggravaâ—e Gods love toward them in casting his eye upon them when they were sinners notwithstanding all their siâ—s this the Scripture everywhere holds forth Rom. 5.6 7. 1 Tim. 1.15.2 'T is true also that the
with the holy Ghost when they heard this Gospel thus preached upon condition of beleeving Act. 10.43 Doth not the Apostle say that the Gospell is the power of God to salvation because therein is Christs righteousnesse revealed not to sinners as sinners but from faith to faith The condition of works is impossible to be wrought in us by the Spirit but the condition of faith though it be impossible for us to work it in our hearts yet it is possible easie and unusuall for God to work it by requiring of it Ier. 3.22 which is no prejudice to Gods free-grace because faith is purposely required and wrought because it chiefly honours and advanceth free-grace Rom. 4 16. The promise is of faith that it might be by grace If Mr W.C. will not preach Christ upon beleeving how will he or any man else preach it Will they tell all men that God loves them and that Christ hath died for them that he that gives grace and salvation will work faith in them Truly thus W.C. seems to affirm but if they shall preach so to all sinners as sinners and tell â—hem absolutely God will work faith in them also I suppose that the Church wals and plentifull and abundant experience would testifie against this falsehood and the Scripture testifies sufficiently that every man shall not have faith to whom the Gospel is preached Now I do beseech the God and father of lights to pitty his straying servants who are led into these deep and dangerous delusions thorow feeble mistake of the true difference between old and new Testament Ministries and that he would pity his people for whose sins God hath let loose these blinding anct hardning doctrines by means of which they are tempted to receive that as the Gospel of truth which is but a meer lye and to take that as an evidence of salvation that is in truth the evidence of perdition and condemnation as hath been shewn Thesis 118. The second thing remains to be cleared whether sanctification may not be a first evidence and therefore more then a carnall inferiour and last evidence as Mr Saltmarsh cals it For if it be not a doubtfull but a clear and certain evidence in it self as hath been proved why may it not be a first evidence why may not the Spirit of God who works it in a person justified first reveal it as an evidence that he is justified What mortall man can limit the Spirit of God to what evidence he shall first bring in to the conscience of a justified estate For let sanctification be taken in the largest sense for any work of saving grace wrought in the Elect whether in vocation to faith or in sanctification which strictly taken followes our justification by faith and take evidence not for evidence of the object for Christ Jesus in his free-grace must be seen first as the ground on which faith rests but for evidence of testimony to the subject and then I thus argue that this first evidence of speciall actuall love in beholding Gods free-grace to a sinner it is either 1. Without the being of faith and other graces Or 2. Without the seeing of them only the eye looking up only to Christ and free-grace But this first evidence is not without the being of faith and holinesse for then it should be to a man actually under the power of sin and his filthy lusts and the devil which hath been already proved in the former Thesis to be a meer delusion there being no such word of the Gospel which reveals Gods free love and actual reconciliation to a sinner as a sinner and as under the power of his sins but the Gospel rather reveals the quite contrary and to affirm the witnesse of the Spirit clears this up is to pretend a testimony of the Spirit contrary to the testimony of the world and yet I strongly fear and do fully beleeve that this is the first evidence which some men plead for viz. to see Gods love toward them while they neither see grace or any change of heart in them or have grace but are still under the dominion of their sin And on the other side if any affirm that this evidence is not without the being of grace but onely without the seeing of it so that a Christians first evidence is the seeing of Gods free grace out of himself without seeing any faith or grace in himself and seeing nothing else but sin in himself this I confesse is nearer the truth but it is an errour which leads a man to a precipice and near unto the pit for if this be so then these things will unavoidably follow 1. That a Christian must see the love of God toward him in Christ and yet must not see himself to be the person to whom this love onely belongs for according to this very opinion it self it belongs only to a beleever and one that hath the being of grace and not to a sinner as a sinner 2. Then a Christian must not see the love of Christ and free grace of God by that proposition or testimony of the Spirit which reveals it and that is this Tu fidelis thou Beleever called and sanctified art freely beloved and thus a man must not see his estate good by the light of the spirit nay thus a Christian must receive the testimony of the Spirit which assures him that he is loved without understanding the meaning of the Spirit which is not thou sinner as such but thou Beleever art beloved not thou that hast no grace but thou that hast the being of it art beloved 3. Then the first evidence is built upon a meer weaknesse nay upon an untruth and falsehood for it is a meer weaknesse not to see that which we should see viz. the being of faith and grace in the heart in which respect the promise is sealed and if any man by not seeing it shall think and say there is no grace no faith no sanctification and now he sees Gods love to such a one and he thinks himself to be such a one when he sees Gods free grace and hath this first evidence it is a falsehood and an untruth for it is supposed to be there in the being of it all this while suppose therefore that some Christians at their first return and conversion to God or afterward have grace and faith but see it not in their assurance of Gods love the eminency of the object and good of it swallowing up their thoughts and hearts from attending themselves yet the question is quo jure they do not see nay should not see and take notice of the being of them in themselves Is not this a meer weaknesse and falsehood which is now made the mystery of this first evidence and indeed somewhat like Cusanus his summa sapientia which he makes to be this viz. Attingere illud quod est inattingibile inattingibiliter That a Christian must see and touch Gods deep love and yet neither
see not touch nor feel any change in himselfe or any being of grace when in truth it is there in which respect also Gods free-grace and love is revealed 4. If this be the first evidence then no Minister no nor any Apostle of Christ Jesus can give any first evidence of Gods love by the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel for although a Minister may say Thou art a sinner therefore the Lord Jesus may save thee yet he cannot say upon that ground that therefore the Lord Jesus will save him for then every sinner should be saved No Minister can say to any unbeleever Christ hath redeemed thee therefore beleeve or say absolutely Thy sins are pardoned for then he should preach contrary to the word which expressely tels us That he that beleeves not is already condemned No minister can say God will work faith in all you that are sinners as hath been shewn but they can say Thou Beleever are pardoned thou that art sanctified art reconciled c. It is therefore an evill speech of one lately in print who cals That a bastard assurance arising from a lying spirit which first proceeds from the sight of any grace and thence concludes they are justified and shall be saved For I would thus argue that this worke of grace suppose love to the Saints hunger and thirst after righteousnesse universall respect to all Gods Commandments c. it is either common to hypocrites and unsound or else it is peculiar to the elect and sincere If the first then it cannot be either first or second evidence it can be no evidence at all either without or with seeing first Gods free love to sinners as sinners if the second then either Gods promise made to such as are hungry and humble and have a work peculiar to Gods elect in them must be fals which is blasphemous to imagine or else whensoever it is seen whether first or last it must needs be a most blessed and sweet and sure evidence for when we say that such a work of grace may be a first evidence we do not mean as if the work simply considered in it self could give in any evidence but only as the free promise of grace is made to such as have such a work of grace this promise we say to such persons whensoever they see this work gives in full and clear evidence of their blessed estate And if the word of grace to a sinner as a sinner may give in a first evidence as some imagine then much more may it give in evidenceâ— where there is not only the word of grace but also the spirit of grace yea the work of grace to assure the conscience and for any to affirm that faith and sanctification are good evidences if justification be first evident is but a quirk of frothy wit for it may be as safely affirmed on the contrary that justification is a good evidence if faith and sanctification he first evident for 't is not these simply but the promise which is our evidence which is never to a sinner as such I shall therefore conclude these things with shewing the true grounds of effectuall evidence of the love of Christ. Thesis 119. The free-grace of God in Christ not works is the only sure foundation of justifying faith or upon which faith is built Rom. 3.24 25. 1 Pet. 2.4 5 6. Mat. 16.18 This free-grace therefore must first be revealed by the Spirit of God in the Ministry of the Gospel in order unto faith Rom. 10.14 15. Eph. 1.13 which generall revelation of free-grace some make to be the first evidence on which faith rests and thus far it is true but now this free-grace is revealed two waies 1. In the free offer of it to be our own by receiving it Act. 10.43 Gal. 2.16 2. In the free promise of it revealing it as our own already having actually and effectually received it Ioh. 1.12 Rom. 5.1 2. 1 Ioh. 5.12 The free offer of grace containing Gods call commandment and beseechings to beleeve and be reconciled gives us right to this possession of Christ or to come and take and so possesse Christ Jesus by faith Ierem. 3.22 1 Cor. 1.9 Rom. 1.5 6. The free promise of grace containing revealed immutable purposes and actual assurances of present and future grace gives us right to the fruition of Christ or to enjoy Christ as a free gift when 't is offered the command and desire of the donor to receive it to be our own gives us right and powet to possesse it and when it is received his promise to us assuring us that it is and shall continue our own gives us right and priviledge to enjoy it and make use of it For by two immutable things the promise confirmed by oath we have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to the hope before us Heb. 6.17 18 19. The free offer is the first ground of our faith why we receive Christ to be our own but the free promise is the first ground of the assurance of faith why we are assured and perswaded that he is our own already for the Gospel containing three things 1. The revelation of Christ 2. The offer of Christ. 3. The promise of Christ to all those that receive this offer Hence faith which runs parallell with the Gospel the proper object of it first sees Christ secondly receives Christ thirdly is assured of the love of Christ having received him The free offer of grace being made to the soul because it is poor and sinfull cursed and miserable and that therefore it would receive Christ hence it is that in this respect the soul is not bound first to see some good in it self and so to receive him but rather is bound at first breathings of God upon it rather to see no good i. nothing but sin and perdition death and darknesse enmity and weaknesse and therefore to receive him Luk. 14.21 Revel 3.17 18. Gal. 3.22 Rom. 11.32 Hos. 13.3 But the promise of free-grace being actually given to the soul and not declared only as it is in the free offer because it hath received Christ already by which he is actually its own hence it is that in this respect the soul is bound to see some good or saving work of grace in it self first and so embrace and receive the promise and Christ Jesus in it So that although in receiving Christ to be our own we are to see no good in our selves wherefore we should receive him or beleeve in him yet in receiving him as our own already we must first see some good the work of free grace in us or else we have no just ground thus to receive him No man can challeng any promise belonging to him without having a part in Christ the foundation of them no man can have Christ but by receiving of him or beleeving in him Ioh. 1.12 Hence therefore they that say that the first evidence of Gods love and free grace or actuall favour iâ— to
a sinner as a sinner had need consider what they say for is it to a sinner as possest with Christ and receiving of him or as dispossest of Christ not having of him but rather refusing and rejecting of him If they say the first they then speak the truth but then they raze down their own pernicious principle that Christ and Gods love belongs to them As sinners If they affirm the latter then they do injuriously destroy Gods free grace and the glory of Christ who think to possesse promises without possessing Christ or to have promises of grace without having Christ the foundation of them all For though the common love of God as the bare offer of grace is may be manifested without having Christ yet speciall actuall love cannot be actually our own without having and first receiving of him And if the Spirit of God convince the world of sin and consequently of condemnation while they do not beleeve Ioh. 16.9 I wonder how it can then convince them of pardon of sin and reconciliation before they do beleeve unlesse we will imagine it to be a lying spirit which is blasphemous These things not considered of have and do occasion much errour at this day in the point of evidencing and hath been an inlet of deep delusion and open gaps have been made hereby to the loose waies and depths of Familism and grosse Arminianism and therefore being well considered of are sufficient to clear up the waies of those faithfull servants of the Lord who dare not sow pillows nor cry peace to the wicked much lesse to sinners as sinners both from the slanderous imputation of legall ministrations after an old Testament manner as also of making works the ground of faith or the causes of assurance of faith the free offer being the ground of the one and the free promise the cause and ground of the other Briefly therefore 1. The free offer of grace is the first evidence to a poor lost sinner that he may be beloved 2. The receiving of this offer by faith relatively considered in respect of Christs spotlesse righteousnesse is the first evidence shewing why he is beloved or what hath moved God actually to love him 3. The worke of sanctification which is the fruit of our receiving this offer is the first evidence shewing that he is beloved If therefore a condemned sinner be asked whether God may love him and why he thinks so he may answer Because Jesus Christ is held forth and offered to such a one If he be further asked why or what he thinks should move God to love him he may answer Because I have received Christs righteousnesse offered for which righteousnesse sake only I know I am beloved now I have received it If he be asked lastly how he knows certainly that he is beloved he may answer safely and confidently Because I am sanctified I am poor in spirit therefore mine is the kingdom of heaven I do mourn and therefore I shall be comforted I do hunger and thirst and therefore I shall be satisfied c. We need in time of distresse and temptation all these evidences and therefore it is greatest wisdom to pray for that spirit which may clear them all up unto us rather then to contend which should be the first And thus we see that the whole morall law is our rule of life and consequently the law of the Sabbath which is a branch of this rule We now proceed to shew the third branch of things generally and primarily morall Thesis 120. Thirdly Not only a day nor only a rest day but the rest day or Sabbath day which is expressed and expressely interpreted in the Commandment to be the seventh day or a seventh day of Gods determining and therefore called The Sabbath of the Lord our God is here also enjoined and commanded as generally morall For if a day be morall what day must it be If it be said that any day which humane wisdom shall determine whether one day in a hundred or a thousand or one day in many years if this only be generally morall then the rule of morality may be broken because the rule of equality may be thus broken by humane determination For it may be very unequall and unjust to give God one day in a hundred or a thousand for his worship and to assume so many beside to our selves for our own use There is therefore something else more particularly yet primarily morall in this Command and that is The Sabbath day or such a day wherein there appears an equal division and a fit proportion between time for rest and time for work a time for God and a time for man and that is a â—â—venth day which God determines A fit proportion of time for God is morall because equal man cannot determine nor set out this proportion God therefore only can and must A day therefore that he shall determine is morall and if he declares his determination to a seventh A seventh day is therefore morall Gomarus confesseth that by the Analogy of this Commandment not one day in a thousand or when man pleaseth but that one day in seven is morall at least equal fit and congruous to observe the same and if the Analogy he speaks of ariseth virtute mandati divini or by vertue of Gods Commandment the cause is in effect yielded but if this Analogy be made virtute libertatis humanae so that humane liberty may do well to give God one in seven because the Jews did so and why should Christians be more scant then I see not but humane liberty may assume power to it self to impose monthly and annuall holy daies as well because the Jews had their new moons and yearly festivals and by Analogy thereof why may not Christians who have more grace poured out upon them and more love shewn unto them under the Gospel hold some meet proportion with them therein also as well as in Sabbaths But it can never be proved that God hath left any humane wisdom at liberty to make holy daies by the rule of Jewish proportions Beside if humane wisdom see it meet and congruous to give God at least one day in seven this wisdom and reason is either regulated by some law and then 't is by vertue of the law of God that he should have one day in seven or 't is not regulated by a law and then we are left to a loose end again for man to appoint what day he sees meet in a shorter or a longer time his own reason being his only law and this neither Gomaras nor the words of the Commandment will allow which sets and fixeth the day which we see is one day in seven which not man but God shall determine and therefore called The Sabbath of the Lord our God Thesis 121. The hardest knot herein to unloose lies in this to know whether a seventh day in generall which God shall determine or that particular Seventh day from the creation be
holy Ghost Rev. 22. yet it 's a grosse mistake and most absurd to make every metaphor or similitude and allusion to be a type for the husbandman sowing of the seed is a similitede of preaching of the word Mat. 13. and yet it 's no type of it an effectionate lover and husband is in sundry Scriptures a similitude and resemblance of Christs affection and love to his Church and spouse the head and members of mans body are similitudes of Christ the head and the Church his members but will any affirm that these are also types of Christ and just thus was Paradise and the Tree of life in it they were similitudes to which the holy Ghost alludes in making mention of Christ and his Church but they were no types of them there was typus fictus in them or arbitrarius which is all one with a similitude but there was no Typus destinatus therein being never purposely ordained to shadow out Christ for the Covenant of works by which Adam was to live is directly contrary to the Covenant of grace by faith in Christ Rom. 11.6 by which we are to live Christ is revealed only in the Covenant of grace and therefore could not be so revealed in the Covenant of works directly contrary thereunto Adam therfore was not capable of any types then to reveal Christ to him of whom the first Covenant cannot speak and of whom Adam stood in no need no not so much as to confirm him in that estate for with leave I think that look as Adam breaking the first Covenant by sinne he is become immutably evill and miserable in himself according to the rule of justice in that Covenant so suppose him to have kept that Covenant all his posterity had been immutably happy and holy not meerly by grace but by the same equity and justice of that first Covenant and hence it follows that he stood in no need of Christ or any Revelation of him by types no not to confirm him in that Covenant I know in some sence whatever God communicates to his creature in way of justice may be saîd to be conveyed in a way of grace if grace be taken largly for that which is conveyed out of Gods free will and good pleasure as all things in the world are even to the acceptance of that wherein there is most merit and that is Christs death and satisfaction for sinne but this is but to play with words for it 's clear enough by the Apostles verdict that grace strictly taken is opposite to works Rom. 11.6 the law of works which only reveals doing and life to the law of faith which only reveals Christ and life under which Covenant of grace Adam was not and therefore had no types then to shadow out Christ to say that Paradise and the Tree of life were types by way of anticipation as some lately affirm is as much as to say that they were not types then and therefore neither these nor the Sabbath were Ceremoniall then and that is sufficient for what we aim at only 't is observable that this unsound expression leads into more palpable errours for as they make the Tree of life Typicall by Anticipation so they make the marriage of Adam and Eve and consequently the marriage of all mankinde typicall and then why should not all marriages cease when Christ the Antitype is come nay they make the rivers and precious stones and gold in Paradise thus Typicall of Christ and his Church Rev. 21. and then why may they not make the Angels in heaven Typicall because men on earth who pour out the Vials are resembled to them and why may not men riding upon white Horses be typicall because Christ is so resembled Rev. 19.11 Pererius who collects out of Hugo de vict a type of the whole new Creation in all the works of six daies first Creation may please himself as other Popish Proctors do with such like shady speculations and Phantasmes and so bring in the Seventh day for company to be Typicall also but a good and healthfull stomack should be exceeding fearfull of a little feeding on such windy meat nor do I think that Hugo's new creation is any more Antitypicall to the first six daies Creation then Damascenes types in the fourth Commandment who makes Thou thy son thy daughter thy servant the stranger to be types of our sinfull affections of spirit and the oxe and the asse figures of the flesh and sensuall partâ— both which he saith must rest upon the Sabbath day Thesis 179. If therefore the Sabbath was given to Adam in innocency before all types nay before the least promise of Christ whom such types must shadow forth then it cannot be in its first and native institution typicall and ceremoniall but morall and therefore in it's first and originall institution of which we speak it did not typifie either our rest in Christ from sinne in this life or our rest with God in heaven in another life or any other imagined rest which mans wit can easily invent and invest the Sabbath with but look as our Saviour in reforming the abuses in marriage câ—ls us to the first institution so to know what is perpetuall in the Sabbath it 's most safe to have recourse hither which when it was first observed we see was no way typicall but morall and if man no way clogg'd with sin and earth had then need of a Sabbath have not we much more Thesis 180. As before the Fall the Sabbath was originally and essentially morall so after the fall it became accidentally typicall i. it had a type affixed to it though of it's own nature it neither was nor is any type at all God affixed a farther end unto it after the Fall to be of farther use to type out somewhat to Gods people while in the substance of it it remaineth morall and hence it is that a Seventh day remains morall and to be observed but not that Seventh day which was formerly kept nor have we that end of resting which was under the Law but this end only that we might more immediatly and specially converse with God which was the main end of the Sabbaths rest before mans fall for if the Sabbath had been essentially typicall then it should be abolished wholly and no more remembrance of it then of new moones and Jubilees but because it was for substance morall being extant before the fall and yet had a type affixed to it after the fall hence a Seventh day is still preserved but that Seventh day is now abolished and hence new moons and other Jewish Festivals as they are wholly Ceremoniall in their birth so they are wholly abolished without any change of them into other daies as this of the Sabbath is in their very being Thesis 181. There are sundry Scriptures alledged to prove the Sabbath to be typicall and ceremoniall out of the old and new Testament as Isa. 66.23 Gal 4.10 Rom. 14.4 5. Col. 2.16 but if
but not that they brake Bread every day in the Temple or from house to house or if they should yet the bâ—eaking of Bread in this verse is meant of Common not Sacred Bread as it is verse 42. where I think the Bread was no more Common then their continuance in the Apostles Droctrine and Fellowship was Common and therefore in this 46. verse the phrase is altered and the Original word properly signifies ordinary Bread for common nourishment And yet suppose they did receive the Sacrament every day yet here the breaking of Bread is made mention of as the opus diei or the speciall businesse of the day and the day is mentioned as the special time for such a purpose and hence no other day if they break Bread in it is mentioned and therefore it s called in effect the day of meeting to break bread Nor do I finde in all the Scripture a day distinctly mentioned for holy duties as this first day of the week is wherein a whole people or Church meet tâ—gether for such ends but that day was Holy the naming of the particular day for such ends implies the Holinesse of it and the time is purposely mentioned that others in after times might purposely and specially observe that Day 8 Nor is it said that the Disciples met together the night after the first day but it s expressely said to be upon the first day of the week and suppâ—se as Mr. Brabourne saith that their meeting was noâ— together in the morning but onely in the evening time to celebrate the Lords Supper a little before the shutting in of the day yet it s a sufficient ground for conscience to observe this day above any other for holy services although every part of the day be not filled up with publike Church duties for suppose the Levites on the Jewish sabbath should do no holy publike duty on their own Sabbath untill the day was farre â—pent will Mr. Brabourne argue from thence that the Jewish Sabbath was not wholly holy unto God But againe suppose the latter part of the day was spent in breaking of Bread yet will it follow that no other part of the day was spent before either in any private or publique holy duties possibly they might receive the Lords Supper in the evening of this Sabbath for the time of this action is in the general indifferent yet might they not spend the rest of the morning in publike Duties as we know some do now in some Churches who are said to meet together to break Bread the latter part of this day and yet sanctifie the Sabbath the whole day before Suppose it be not expressely said that they did shut up shopwindwes at Troas and forsake the Plough and the Wheele and abstaine from all servile work yet if he beleeves that no more was done this day but what is expressely set downe Mr. Brabourne must needs see a pitiful face of Christ in the Lords Supper and people comming â—ushing upon it without any serious examination or preparation or singing of Psalms because no such Duties as these are mentioned to be upon this Day 9. Lastly Master Primrose like a staggering man knowes not what to fasten on in answer to this place therefore tels us that suppose it was a Sabbath yet that it might be taken up from the Churches Liberty and Custome rather then from any Divine institution But besides that which hath been said to dasht his Dreame Thes. 27. the falsenesse of this common and bold assertion will appeare more fully in the explication of the second text 1 Cor. 16.1 2. which now followes wherein it will appeare to be an Apostolical and therefore a Divine Institution from Jesus Christ. Thesis 36. In the second of the places therefore alledged 1 Cor. 16.1 2. These things are considerable to prove the first day in the week to be the Christian Sabbath and that not so much by the Churches practise as by the Apostles precept For 1. Although it be true that in some cases Collections may be made any day for the poore Saints yet why doth the Apostle here limit them to this day for the performance of this Duty they that translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon one day of the week do miserably mistake the phrase which in Scripture phrase onely signifies the first day of it and beat their forheads against the maine Scope of the Apostle viz. to fixe a certaine day for such a Duty as required such a certaine time For they might by this translation Collect their Benevolences one day in foure or ten yeers for then it should be done one day in a week 2 The Apostle doth not onely limit them to this time but also all the Churches of Galatia verse 1. and consequently all other Churches if that be true 2 Cor. 8.13 14. wherein the Apostle professeth he pressâ—th not one Church that he may ease another Church but that there be an equality and although I see no ground from this Text that the maintenance of the Ministry should be raised every Sabbath day for Christ would not have them reckoned among the poore being labourers worthy of their Hire and although this Collection was for the poore Saints of other Churches yet the proportion strongly holds that if there be ordinary cause of such Collections in every particular Church these Collections should be made the first day of the week much more carefully and religiously for the poore of ones own Church and that in all the Churches of Christ Jesus to the end of the world 3. The Apostle doth not limit them thus with wishes and counsels onely to do it if they thought most meet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 1. as I have ordained or instituted and therefore bindes their consciences to it and if Paul ordained it certainly he had it from Christ Jesus who first commanded him so to appoint it who professeth that what he had received of the Lord that onely he commanded unto them to do 1. Cor. 11.23 4. If this day had not been more holy and more fit for this work of Love then any other day he durst not have limited them to this Day nor durst he have honoured this Day above any other in the weeke yea above the Iewish seventh Day For we see the very Apostle tender alway of Christian Liberty and not to binde were the Lord leaves his people free for thus doing he should rather make snares then Lawes for Churches 1 Cor. 7.27.35 and go expressely against his own Doctrine Galat. 5.1 who bids them stand fast in their Liberty and that in this very point of the observation of dayes Galat. 4.10 But what fitnesse was there on this Day for such a service Consider therefore 5. That the Apostle doth not in this place immediatly appoint and institute the Sabbath but supposeth it to be so already as Mr. Primrose is forced to acknowledge and we know Duties of Mercy and Charity as
practice in sports and revellings upon this day beare sufficient witnesse and oh that we had no cause to wash off this spot with our teares from the beautifull and pleasant face of the glorious grace and peace which once shined in the German Churches by whose Graves we may stand weeping and say this is your misery for this your provoking sin Scotland knows best her own integrity whose lights have been burning and shining long in their clearnesse in this particular But England hath had the name and worn this Garland of glory wherewith the Lord hath crowned it above all other Churches But how hath that little flock of slaughter which hath wept for it and preacht and printed and done and suffered for it beene hated and persecuted who have been the scorne and shame and reproach of men but a company of poor weaklings for going out a few miles to hear a faithful painful Preacher from those idle Shepheards who either could not feed them with knowledge and understanding at home or else would not do it through grosse prophanesse or extream idlenesse And now since God hath broken the yoke of their oppressors and set his people at liberty to returne to Sion and her solemne assemblies as in dayes of old and hath given to them the desires of their hearts that they may now be as holy on the Sabbath as they will without any to reproach them at least to countenance such reproaches of them now I say when one would think the precious Sabbaths which so many of Gods servants in former time have brought down to this generation swiming in their teares and prayers and which many in these dayes have so much looked and longed for that every eye should be looking up to Heaven with thankfulnes for these and that every heart should embrace Gods Sabbaths with teares of joyfulnesse and bid this dear and precious friend welcome and lie and rest in their bosome and so I doubt not but that England hath yet may a corner ful of such precious Jewels to whom Gods Sabbathâ— are yet most precious and glorious and who cannot easily forget such blessed seasons and meanes in them whereby if ever the Lord did good unto them they have been so oft refreshed and wherein they have so oft seen God wherein they have so oft met with him and he with them but whose heart will it not make to relent and sigh to hear of late a company not of ignorant debosht persons malignants prelatical and corrupt and carnal men but of such who have many of them in former times given great hopes of some feare of God and much love to Gods Ordinances and Sabbaths and now what hurt the Sabbaths Ordinances of the Lord Jesus therein have done them I know not but it would break ones heart to see what little care there is to sanctifie the Sabbath even by them who think in their judgments that the day is of God What poore preparation for it either in themselves or families what little care to profit by it or to instruct and catehize their families and to bring them also it love with it what secret wearinesse and dead-heartednesse almost wholly unlamented remains upon them what earthly thoughts what liberty in speech about any worldly matter presently after the most warning Sermon is done that the Lord Jesus hath scarce good carcasses and outsides brought him which cannot but threaten more crows to pick them unlesse they repent and yet this is not so sad as to see the loosenesse of mens judgments in this point of the Sabbath whereby some think a Sabbath lawful but not necessary in respect of any command of God nay some think it superstition to observe a weekly Sabbath which should be every day as they imagine they have allegorized Gods Sabbaths and almost all Gods Ordinances out of the world and cast such pretended Antichristian filth and pollution upon them that spiritual men must not now meddle with them nay verily all duties of the moral Law and fruitful obedience and holy walking and sanctification graces and humiliation and such like are the secret contempt of many and the base drudgery for a â—ll-horse and legal Christian rather then for one that is of an Evangelical frame and herein Satan now appears with the ball at his foot and seems to threaten in time to carry all before him and to kick and carry Gods precious Sabbaths out of the world with him and then farewel dear Lord Jesus with all thy sweet love and life if Sabbaths be once taken from us by the blind and bold disputings of wretched men authority as yet upholds them which is no small mercy and the savour of Christs sweetnesse in them and the external brightnesse of the beauty of them do still remaine on many with that strength and glory that it is not good policy for the prince of darknesse now to imploy all his forces against the gates of the Sabbath but the time hastens wherein the assault will be great and fierce and I much fear that for the secret contempt of these things the Lord in dreadful justice will strengthen delusions about this day to break forth and prosper and then pray you poor Saints of God and hidden ones that your flight may not be in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day but woe then to them that give suâ—k woe then to the high Ministry that should have kept these gates woe then to that loose and wanton generation rising up who think such outward formes and observation of dayes to be too course and too low and mean a work for their enobled spirits which are now raised higher and neerer God then to look much after Sabbaths or Ordinances graces or duties or any such outward forms for I doubt not but if after all the light and glory shining in England concerning Gods Sabbaths if yet they are not thereby become precious but that the Lord will make them so by his plagues if this sin once get head God will burne up the whole world and make himself-dreadful to all flesh untill he hath made unto himself a holy people and a humble people that shall love the dust and take pleasure in the very stones of his house and love the place where his Honour dwels and long for the time wherein his presence and blessing shall appear and be poured out upon the Sabbath day It 's matter of the greatest mourning that they above all other should trouble Gods rest wherein perhaps their souls have found so much rest or might have done that in these times wherein the Lord Jesus was coming out to give unto his house his Ordinances and unto his people his Sabbaths and dayes of rest every way that now they above all others should offer to pull them out of his hand tread them under foot and hereby teach all the prophane rout in the world to do the like with a quiet conscience and without any check by their reasonings that now when
rest and joy the daies of the Lords sorrow and trouble do you thus weary the Lord when he gives rest unto you was there ever such mercy shewen or can there be any greater love upon Earth then for the Lord to call to a wicked sinfull Creature which deserves to be banisht for ever out of his Presence to come unto him enter into his Rest take his fill of love and refresh it selfe in his Bosome in a speciall manner all this day And therefore can there be a greater sinne above ground committed out of Hell then thus to sinne against this love I do not thinke that the single breach of the Sabbath as to sport or feast inordinately is as great a sinne as to murther a man which some have cast out to the reproach of some zealous for the observation of the Sabbath day truly the Lord knows for I believe their milk sod over if thus they said but I speak of the Sabbath under this notion and respect and as herein Gods great love appeares to weary sinfull restlesse man as a day wherein all the treasures of his most rich and precious Love are set open and in this respect let any man tell me what greater sinne he can imagine then sinnes against the greatest Love The same sinnes which are committed upon other daies in the Weeke are then provoking sinnes but to commit these sinnes upon the Sabbath Day is to double the evill of them Drinking and Swearing and Rioting and vaine Talking c. are sinnes on the weeke-day but they are now but single sinnes but these are such like sinnes on the Sabbath Day are double sinnes because they are now not only sinnes against Gods command but also against Gods Sabbaths too which much aggravates them and yet men mourn not for these sinnes had the Lord never made knowne his Sabbaths to his Churches and People in these daies they might then have had some excuse for their sinne but now to prophane them since God hath made them knowne to us especially the English Nation and People to do it upon whom the Lord hath shined out of Heaven with greater light and glory in this point of the Sabbath above any other places and Churches in the World what will they have to say for themselves with what Fig-leaves will they hide this nakednesse before the Tribunal of God The Lord might have hid his Sabbaths from us and gone to another People that would have beene more thankfull for them and glad of them then we have beene and yet he hath beene loth to leave us and doe we thus require the Lord surely he hath no need of the best of us or of our attendance upon him upon these daies it s onely his pitty which seeing us wearied with sorrowes and wearying our selves in our sinnes makes him call us back to a Weekly rest in his Bosome who might have let us alone and tyred out our hearts in our own folly and madnesse all our daies and do we thus requite the Lord Certainly the time will come wherein we shall thinke as once Ierusalem did in the daies of her affliction of all our pleasant things we once had in the daies of our prosperity â—ertainly men shall one day mourne for the losse of all their precious time who mispend it now and above al times for the losse of their precious pleasant Sabbath seasons of refreshing which once they had given them to finde rest and peace in when â—he smoke of their tormenting everlasting burning shall ascend for ever and ever wherein they shall have no rest day nor night you shall remember and thinke then with teares trickling down your dry cheâ—ks of the Sabbaths the pleasant Sabbaths that once you had and shall never see one of those daies of the Sonne of man more you shall mourne then to see Abrahams bosome a farre off and thousand thousands at rest in it where you also might have bin as well as they if you had not despised the rest of God here in the bosome of his Sabbaths You shall then mourne and wring your hands and teare your haire and stampe and grow mad and yet weepe to think that if you had had a heart to have spent that very time of the Sabbath in seeking God in drawing neare to God in resting in God which you dispend in idle Talke and Idlenesse in Rioting and Wantonnesse in Sports and Foolishnesse upon this day you had then been in Gods Eternall Rest in Heaven and for ever blessed in God It s said Ierusalem remembred in the day of her affliction all her pleasant things when the Enemy did mock at her Sabbaths and so will you remember with sad hearts the loose of all your pretious seasons of grace especially then when the Devills and Heathens and damned Outâ—asts who never had the mercy to enjoy them shall moâ—k at thee for the losse of thy Sabbaths Verily I cannot thinke that any men that ever tasted any sweetnesse in Christ or his Sabbath and felt the unknown refreshings of this sweet Rest but that they will mourne for their cold affections to them and unfruitfull spending of them before they die otherwise never goe about to bleare mens eyes with Discourses and Invectives and Disputes against them or with carnall Excuses for your licentious spending of them for doubtlesse you taste not and therefore know not what they are and you will one day be found to be such as speake evill of the things you know not Heare ye despisers and wonder and perish is the infinite Majesty and glory of God so vile in your eyes that you do not thinke him worthy of speciall attendance one day in a Weeke doth he call you now to Rest in his Bosome and will you now kick his Bowels despise this Love and spit in his Face doth he call upon you to spend this day in holinesse and will you spend it in Mirth and Sports and Pastimes and in all manner of licentiousnesse Hast thou wearied God with thine iniquities and thy selfe in thine iniquities all the weeke long for which God might justly cut thee off from seeing any more Sabbath and doth the Lord Jesus instead of recompencing thee thus call you back againe to your resting place and will you now weary the Lord againe that he cannot have rest or quiet for you one day in a Weeke Oh that we could mourne for these things And yet walke abroad the face of the whole earth at this day and then say where shall you finde almost Gods Sabbaths exactly kept viz. with meet preparation for them delight in them with wonderment and thankfulnesse to God after the enjoyment of them all the world knowes to whom the barbarous Turks do dedicate their Frydayes the Jewes also how they sanctifie their saturdayes to the Lord Iehovah indeed but not unto the Lord their God What account the Papists put upon the Sabbath's not only their writings which level it with all other Holy-dayes but also their loose