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
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
a spirituall Sabbath in Christ if through Gods righteous judgment blinding their hearts they be also left to reject the outward Word because of an inward woâ—d to teach them and outward Baptisme and Lords Supper because of an inward Baptisme by the Holy Ghost and spirituall Bread from Heaven the Lord Christ Iesus and all outward Ordinances Ministries Churches because of an inward Kingdome and Temple and the Argument will hold strongly that if because they have an inward Sabbath of Rest in the bosome of Christ which I deny not that they may therefore cast away all externall Sabbaths they may then very well reject all outward Baptisme Lords Supper all Churches all Ordinances because herein there is also the inward Baptisme spirituall feeding upon Christ and inward Kingdome and Temple of God But thus they wickedly separate and sever what God hath joyned and may well stand together through the madnesse of which hellish practise I have long observed almost all the late and most pernicious errours of these times arise and those men who have formerly wept for Gods precious Sabbaths and Ordinances and have prayed for them and pleaded for them and have offered their lives in sacrifice for them and fought for them yea that have felt perhaps the comfort sweetnesse and blessing of Gods Sabbaths yea the redeeming and saving-power of Gods Ordinances to their owne soules yet through pretences of more spirituall enjoyments above and beyond and without all these they can part with these their old friends without weeping and reject them as polluted rags and fleshly formes and dark vailes and curtaines which must be drawne aside that so they may not hinder the true Light from shining in them This therfore is the reason why the love of manâ— at this day is grown cold toward the external Sabbath because the internall and spirituall Sabbath is now all in all And therefore many men walk either with bold consciences and will observe no Sabbath or else with loose consciences thinking it lawfull to observe it if men will injoyn it but noâ— thinking that they are tyed and bound therunto from any precept of God That place of Hebrews 4. which they so much stick to wants not light to demonstrate that the Sabbatisme there may well agree not onely with the internall but the outward Christian Sabbath but some of the ensuing Theses will serve to cleare up these things This onely I feare that because of these indignites done thus to Gods Sabbaths even by the under-workings of some of Gods owne people that the time hastens wherein if no man should speake yet the right hand of the sore displeasure of a provoked God by plagues and confusion upon the glory of all flesh will plead for his own Name and for that in speciall which is engraven upon the forehead of his holy Sabbaths Jerusalem remembred with regret of heart in the dayes of her affliction and misery all her pleasant things and especially this of the Sabbath Lam. 1.7 If the dayes of our rest and quietnesse cannot make us to relish the good things of his Temple in the fruition of our Sabbaths then doubt not of it but that the dayes of our affliction shall make a remnant to remember that they were pleasant things of all the mercies of God to Israel this is reckoned to be one of the greatest that he gave his Lawes to Israel Psal. 147.19 20. And of all Lawes this of the Sabbath For so the remnant of the Captivity acknowledged it Nehem. 9.14 who perhaps had far lower thoughts of it before their bondage And if the very making of it known be such a sweet mercy what then is the rest and peace of it the blessing and comfort of it for which I doubt not but many thousands are admiring God in heaven at this day And shall a shady imagination of an Every-day-sabbath make us sell away for nothing such a heavenly and precious season and make it common The Lord Iesus wisht his Disciples to pray that their flight from Jerusalem might not be in winter nor on the Sabbath-day Matth. 24.20 accounting it a great misery that his people should lose the publike benefit through the disturbance of any of one Sabbath-day for be it Iewish or Christian Sabbath I now dispute not sure I am it was a Sabbath-day which it seemes was to continue after Christs Ascension to the Father and therefore not wholly ceremonial And shall we account it no affliction or misery to fight or flie to ride or go to work or play to heare the Word in publike or stay at home upon the Sabbath-day Is it no mercy in these dayes to injoy many Sabbaths which was so sore a misery in Christs account and in the Apostles dayes to lose but one if mans heart be lost in the necessary cumbers of the weeke upon the Sabbath the Lord is wont to recall it again to him if any feare that the time of Grace is past the continuance of the Sabbaths the speciall seasons of grace confutes him if a mans soul be wearied with daily griefs and outward troubles the bosome of Iesus Christ which is in speciall wise opened every Lords day may refresh him and shall we have and professe so little love to such a time more precious then gold to humbled hearts as to cast away such a rich portion of precious time and make it common under a pretence of making every day a Sabbath which is either impossible to do or sinfull the loudest voice one of them of the love of Christ which now sounds in the world continually in the yeers of his people is this Come into my bosome ye weary sinners and enjoy your rest and the next voice to that is this of the Sabbath to call us off from all occasions and then to say to us Come to me my people and rest in my bosome of sweetest mercy all this day Which call would not be a mercy if it were every day for then our owne occasions must be neglected which the wise and fatherly providence of God forbids and spirituall work onely minded and intended which God did never command Nor should any marvel that the voyce of the Law should containe such a voyce of Love and therefore should not think that this controversie about the Law or for this one law of the Sabbath is unfit and unsutable to these Evangelicall and Gospel times for although the Law is dreadfull and full of terrour as considered without Christ and is to man fallen a voyce of words and a voice of terrour and feare which genders unto bondage yet as it is revealed with reference to Christ and a people in Christ so every Commandment doth spirare amorem as he speaks and breaths out Christs love for which the Saints cannot but blesse the Lord with everlasting wonderment that ever he made them to know these heart-secrets of his good will and love especially then when he writes them in their hearts and thereby gives
heard of it do certainly and assuredly know that these men at least doctrines in this point are not of God The word in these mens mouths being flat contrary to the mercifull and the for ever to be adored work of God in their hearts When the Spirit comes his first work if Christ may be beleeved even when he comes as a Comforter is To convince the world of sinne Iohn 16.9.10 which we know is chiefly by the law Rom. 3.20 and shall the Ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit refuse to begin here Especially in these times of wantonnesse contention confusion famine sword and bloud wherein every thing almost cries aloud for sackcloth and therefore not for tiffany and silken Sermons As if this corrupt and putrifying age stood only in need of sugar to preserve and keep them sweet from smelling As if sublime notions about Christ and free grace Covenant of grace love of the Father the kingdome within and Châ—istian excâ—llencies and priviledges were the only things this age stood in need of and not in any need of searchings with candles terrours shakings â—ence of sin or forewarnings of wrath to come As if this old world did need no Noah to fortell them of flouds of fire and wrath to come Or as if the men of Sodom and Princes of Gomorah should do well to mock at Lot for bidding him to hasten out of the city because God would destroy it As if the spirit of Paul in these times should not know the terrour of the Lord and therefore perswade men 2 Cor. 5.10.11 but only the love and free-grace of the Lord Jesus and therefore to exhort men nay rather therefore to relate to men stories and notions about â—ree-grace generall redemption the mystery of the Fathers love and the Christ in you and in the spirit not the person of Christ or Christ in the flesh the hope of glory What will the Lord Jesus one day say to these sleepy watchmen that never tell the secure world of their enemies at the door I finde divers colours and pretences for this course of daubing 1. Some say this savours of an old Testament spirit which was wâ—nt to wound and then to heal to humble and then to raise to preach law and then Gospell but now we are to he Ministers of the new Testament and let no law be heard of I confesse those that preach the law as the means of our justification and as the matter of our righteousnesse without Christ or together with Christ as the false teachers did 2 Cor. 3 6. may well be called as Paul cals them Ministers of the letter not of the Spirit of the old Testament not of the New but to preach Christ plainly and with open face the end of the law and to preach the law as the means to prepare for and advance Christ in our hearts can never be proved to be the old Testament Ministry or to put a vail upon mens hearts that they cannot see the end of the law as the old Testament vail did 2 Cor. 3.14 but it is to take away the vail of all conceit of mans own strength and righteousnesse by seeing his curse that so he may sâ—â— to the end thereof the Lord Jesus and embrace him for righteousnesse For the Apostle doth not call them Ministers of the letter and of the old Testament because they did preach the law to humble and leade unto Christ but because they preached the law for righteousnesse without Christ whom he calls the spirit vers 17. and therefore cals them the Ministers of the letter and their Ministry of death and condemnation there is something in the law which is of perpetuall use and something which is but for a time the vis coactiva legis as some call it i. the force of the law to condemn and curse to hold a man under the curse and to hold a man under the power of sin which the Apostle cals the strength of the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 is but for a time and is but accidentall to the law and may be separated from it and is separated indeed from it as soon as ever the soul is in Christ Rom. 8.1 he is then free from the obligation of it to perform personall and perfect obedience to it that so he may be just also from the malediction and curse of it if he be not thus just But that which is of perpetuall use in it is not only the directive power of it but this preparing and humbling vertue of it for if all men by nature Jewes and Gentiles are apt to be puft up with their own righteousnesse and to blesse themselves in their own righteousnesse and so to feel no such need of Christ then this humbling work of the law to slay men of all their fond conceits and foolish confidences in their own righteousnesse and to make men feel the horrible nature of sinne by revealing the curse and malediction due to it is of morall and perpetuall use And hence it is that though the Gospell strictly taken as is intimated Thesis 110. hath no terrour properly in it because thus it reveals nothing but reconciliation through Christs righteousnesse applyed by saith yet the Gospel largely taken for that doctrine which reveals the glad tidings of Christ already come so there is terrour in it because in this respect the Gospell makes use of the law and confirms what is morall and perpetuall therein The sin and terrour which the Gospell largely taken makes use of out of the Law are but subservient to the Gospel strictly taken or for that which is principally and most properly Gospel for thereby the righteousnesse and free-grace and love of the Lord Jesus and pretiousnesse and greatnesse of both are the more clearly illustrated The law of it selfe wounds and kils and rather drives from Christ then unto Christ but in the hand of the Gospel or as Christ handles it so it drives the soul unto Christ and as hath been shewn is the means to that end and 't is a most false and nauseous doctrine to affirm that love only drawes the soul to Christ unlesse it be understood with this caution and notion viz. love as revealed to a sinner and condemned for sin which sin and condemnation as the law makes known so the Gospel makes use of to drawn unto Christ If indeed the Gospel did vulnerare ut vulneraret i. wound that it may wound and terrifie only which the law doth then it saith Chamier was all one with law which Bellarmine pleads for but when it wounds that it may heal this is not contrary but agreeable to the office of a good Physitian whose chiefe work is to heal and may well sute with the healing Ministry of the Lord Jesus and hence we see that although Christ was sent to preach the Gospel yet he came to confirm the law in the Ministry of the Gospel and therefore shews the spirituall sins against the law more clearly and
the shew of a rationall answer though some have endeavoured it with all wilinesse 3. That whereas by this doctrine they would clear up the way to a full and setled evidence and Christian assurance they do hereby utterly subvert the principall foundation of all setlednesse and assurance of faith which is this viz. that if Jesus Christ be given to death for me then he will certainly give all other things to me if we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more shal we be saved by his life if Christ hath died and risen for us who then shall condemn who shall then seperate us from Gods love Rom. 8.32 Rom. 6.9 10. But if they hold no such principles I would then know how any man can have evidence of this viz. that God loves him and that Christ hath died for him while he is a sinner and as he is a sinner or how any Minister of the New Testament can say to any man under the power of his sins and the devil that he is not condemned for his sins but that God loves him and that Christ hath died for him without preaching falsehoods and lies and dreams of their own heart for 1. God hath not loved nor elected all sinners nor hath Christ died for all sinners 2. If every man be in a state of condemnation before he beleeve the Gospel then no man can be said to be in a state of reconciliation and that God hath loved him untill he refuse the Gospel but every man is in a state of condemnation before he beleeve because our Saviour expresly tel us that by faith we passe from death to life Ioh. 5.24 and he that hath not the son hath not life 1 Ioh. 5.12 and therefore if those be Ministers of the new Testament who first preach to all the drunkards and whoremongers and villaines in a parish that God loves them and that they are reconciled by Christ death and that they may know it because they are sinners then let the heavens hear and the earth know that all such Ministers are false Prophets and cry Peace Peace where God proclaims wrath and that they acquit them whom God condemns and if they be Ministers of the Old Testament spirit who first shew men their condemned estate and then present God as wroth against them while they be in their sin that so they may prize and fly to favour and free grace then such are Ministers of the old Testament and not of the new because they preach the truth and if preaching the truth be an old Testament Ministry no wise man then I hope will desire the new wine for the old is better while the Lion sleeps and God is silent and conscience slumbers all the beasts and wilde sinners of the world and many preachers too may think that there is no terrour in God no curse or wrath upon themselves in the midst of the rage increase and power of all their sins but when this lion roars and God awakens and conscience looks above head they shall then see how miserably they have been deceived they may slight sin abolish condemnation talk of and wonder at free-grace now and beleeve easily because they are sinners but certainly they shall be otherwise minded then Some men may have good ends in preaching Gods free-grace after this manner in the Gospel and make the Gospel a revelation of Gods actuall love to sinners as sinners and make a Christians evidence of it nothing else but the sight of his sin and of his being under the power of it but little do they think what Satan the father of this false doctrine aims at which are these four things chiefly 1. That sanctification faith c. might be no evidence at all to a Christian of a good estate for this they say is a doubtfull evidence and an unsettling way of assurance because they will hereby be as bones out of joynt in and out humbled to day and then comforted but hard-hearted to morrow and then at a losse whereas to see ones self a sinner that is a constant evidence for we are alway sinners and the Gospel proclaims peace to sinners as sinners 2. That so men may keep their lusts and sins and yet keep their peace too for if peace be the portion of a man under the power of sin and Satan look then as he may have it why may he not keep it upon the same terms And therefore W. C. saith That if conscience object thou art an hypocrite perhaps truly yet a hypocrite is but a sinner and Gods love belongs to sinners as sinners And if this be thus what doth this doctrine aim at but to reconcile God and Belial Christ and Mammon not onely to open the door to all manner of wickednesse but to comfort men therein 3. That so he may bring men in time purposely to sin the more freely that so they may have the clearer evidence of the love of God for if Gods love be revealed to sinners as sinners then the more sinfull the more clear evidence he hath of Gods love and therefore one once intangled with these delusions was inticed to commit a grosse wickednesse that more full assurance might be attained 4. That so the true preaching and Ministry of the Gospel of Gods free-grace might be abolished at least despised which is this viz. Thou poor condemned sinner here is Christ Jesus and with him eternall remission of sins and reconciliation if thou believe and receive this grace offered humbly and thankfully for this is Gospel Mat. 28.19 Mark 16.16 Rom. 10.5 6 7 8. Rom. 3.14 25. Act. 8.37 And hence Mr. W.C. hath these words That if the Gospel hold forth Christ and salvation upon beleeving as many saith he preach it were then little better tidings then the law Ah wretched unworthy speech that when Jesus Christ himselfe would shew the great love of God unto the world Ioh. 3.16 he makes it out by two expressions of it 1. That the father sent his only Son 2. That whosoever did beleeve in him or if they did beleeve in him they should have eternall life The Lord shews wonderfull love that whoever beleeve may have Christ and eternall life by beleeving but this doctrine breathing ouâ— Gods dearest love by this mans account is little better then law which breaths out nothing but wrath But why doth he speak thus Because saith he it is as easie to keep the ten Commandements as to beleeve of ones self Very true as to beleeve of ones self but what is this against the preaching and holding forth Christ and salvation upon condition of beleeving For is not this preaching of the Gospel the instrument and means of working that faith in us which the Lord requires of us in the Gospel And must not Jesus Christ use the means for the end Were not those three thousand brought into Christ by faith by Peters promise of remission of sins upon their repentance Were not many filled
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
is proved to make every morall law good and therefore to command it rather than to make it good by a meer commanding of it Thesis 19. The will of God is indeed the rule of all goodnesse and consequently of all morall lawes but we know there is voluntas decreti and voluntas mandati the first of which viz. the will of Gods decree as it appeares in the execution of it makes a thing to be good whether it bee creature or law the second of these viz. the will of Gods command enjoynes the practise of such a duty the rule and law to guide which is first made good if it bee a morall law by the wisdome and power of the will of Gods decree so that the will of God appearing in both these viz. Gods decreeing and commanding will is the compleat rule of every morall law So that as no law is morally good meerly because it is commanded so neither is it thus good unlesse also it be commanded Gods will in all morall laws is first to make them good and then to command them when they are thus far made good both which together make up a morall law Thesis 20. T is true that sin is the transgression of Gods law there is nothing therefore sinfull but it is the transgression of some law and hence there is no obedience good but what is conformable unto some law But wee must know that as transgression of any law doth not make a thing morally sinfull for then to breake a ceremoniall law would be a morall sinne so also obedience to every law doth not make a duty morally lawfull and good for then obedience to a ceremoniall law must be a morall obedience morall transgression therefore is a breach of such a law which forbids a thing because it is evill as morall obedience is our conformity to such a law which commands a thing because it is good not that anything is morally evill in it selfe before it be forbidden for then there should bee a morall sinne before and without any law to forbid it which is most absurd but because a thing is evill in it selfe and is therefore forbidden it is therefore morally evill God may and doth make it fundamentally evill before it be forbidden but it is not morally evill untill it be forbidden The like may be said concerning moral obedience according to any morall law No man should therefore thinke that this description given of a morall law should give occasion to any to imagine that some things are morally good or evill before any law passe upon them and that therefore there are some duties and some sinnes which are so without and before any law of God For wee see that things good in themselves must be commanded else they are not morall duties yet withall they are therefore commanded because they are good in themselves It s true that by the verdict of some of the Schoolemen some duties are morally good before any law commands them as to love and magnifie God and that some sinnes as to curse and blaspheme God are morally evill before any law forbids them but to omit other answers if such suppositions may bee rationally made which some deny yet it may bee upon good grounds denyed that any duty can be morally good or any sinne morally evill untill some law passe upon them either to command or forbid the same 'T is indeed sutable and meet in nature for man to love God and unsutable and unmeet to blaspheme and hate God but such sutablenesse or unsutablenesse as they make things fundamentally good or evill so they cannot make any thing morally good or evill unlesse we suppose some Law for it would be in this case with man as 't is in brute creatures who doe many things unnaturall as to eate up and destroy their owne young which yet are not morally sinfull because they are not under any morall law and one of the most ancient and best of the Schoolemen though he thinks that the observance of the Sabbath before Moses time was not secundâ—m rationem praecepti or debitè fieri i. was not actually commanded yet that it was secundum rationem honesti hoc est dignè steri i. It was congruous and a thing meet and worthy to bee observed even from the first creation But will any of our Adversaries hence say that because it was meet and worthy to bee observed that therefore it was a morall law from the beginning of the world while it had no command as is by them supposed to be observed For it must be something meet and congruous and worthy to be observed of man which when it is commanded makes it to be a morall law for then the Law commands a thing that is good and because 't is good iâ— is therefore commanded which goodnesse wee must a little more narrowly now enquire into Thesis 21. If it be demanded therefore What is that goodnesse in a morall law for which it is therefore commanded The Answer is given by Vasques Suarez Smifinga and most of the Schoolemen and sundry of our owne Writers that it is nothing else but That comely sutablenesse and meetnesse in the thing commanded unto humane nature as rationall or unto man as rationall and consequently unto every man When I say as Rationall I understand as Master Ironside doth viz. as right reason neither blinded nor corrupted doth require When I say as sutable to man and consequently to every man I hereby exclude all lawes meerely Judiciall and Evangelicall from being morall the first of which are sutable to some men onely the other are not sutable to men as men but to man as corrupt and fallen and therefore binde not all men but onely those among whom they are sufficiently and actually promulgated as is evident Rom. 10.14 Iohn 15.22 But morall lawes are sutable to all men and have an inward meetnesse and congruity to be observed of all men For look as when the Lord gives Laws to any particular nation whether immediately by himself or mediately by man he ever makes them sutable to the peoples peace and good of that nation so when he makes lawes binding all mankinde in all Nations he makes them sutable to humane nature or all mankinde therein And look as nationall Lawes binde not meerly by the meere will of the Law-giver but from the goodnesse and sutablenesse in the thing unto their common good so here morall lawes which concerne all Nations bind not meerly because of the will of God which of it selfe is sufficient to binde all men if he had pleased to put no more in morall lawes but also because of some goodnesse in the things commanded which is nothing else but such sutablenes as is mentioned unto the common good of man What this sutablenesse to humane nature is we shall shew in due place meane while I doe not understand by sutablenesse to humane nature the inclination of humane nature now corrupted by sinne for
a sevenâ—h yet let us consider of God as acting by counsell and weighing and considering with himselfe what is most meet and equall and what proportion of time is most fit for himselfe and then with leave of better thoughts when I see better reason I suppose no man can prove unlesse hee bee made privy to the unknowne secrets of the wisdome of God that any other proportion had been as meet as this now made by the actuall determination of God there was not therefore the meer and soveraigne will of God which thus determined of this seventh part of time but also the wisedome of God which considering all things saw it most meeâ— and suitable for man to give and God to receive from man and therefore being commanded and thus particularly determined becomes morall Thesis 29. If that commandment be morall which is therefore commanded because it is good then hence it followes in the second place that such lawes onely are not morall lawes which are known to all men by the light of corrupt nature For as hath been already said a law may bee holy just good suitable and meet for all men to observe whether the light of corrupt nature by awakening or sleeping principles as some call them know it or no and such a comelinesse and suitablenesse in such a law is sufficient to make it morall There were many secret morall sinnes in Paul which he never saw nor could have seene by the light of corrupt nature untill the law fell upon him with mighty efficacy and power Romans 7. for God is not bound to crook his morall lawes to what our corrupt mindes are actually able of themselves to see any more than to what our corrupt wils are actually able to doe If the light of nature be imperfect in us since the fall which no wise man doubts of then there may be many things truely morall which the light of nature now sees not because 't is imperfect which in its perfection it did see and this consideration of the great imperfection of the light of nature is alone sufficient for ever to stop their mouthes and silence their hearts who goe about to make an imperfect light and law of nature the perfect rule and onely measure of morall duties and who make so narrow a limitation of that which is morall to that which is thus imperfectly naturall 't is not now lex nata but lex data which is the rule of morall duties The holy Scriptures containe the perfect rule of all morall actions whether mans corrupted and imperfect light of nature see them or no. It is a common but a most perilous and almost groundlesse mistake of many in this controversie who when they would know what is morall and what is not so of such things as are set downe in the Scriptures they then â—lye to the light of corrupt nature making it to bee the supream Judge hereof and there fall to examining of them whether they are seen by the light of nature or no which is no lesse folly than to set up a corrupt and blinde Judge to determine and declare that which is morall to make the perfect rule of morality in Scripture to bow downe its back to the imperfection and weaknesse of nature to pull out the Sunne in heaven from giving light and to walke by the light of a dim candle and a stinking snuffe in the socket almost gone out to make the horne-book of naturall light the perfection of learning of the deepest matters in morall duties to make Aristotles Ethicks as compleat a teacher of true morality as Adams heart in innocency and in a word to make man fallen and in a manner perfectly corrupt and miserable to bee as sufficiently furnished with knowledge of morall duties as man standing when he was perfectly holy and happy Imagine therefore that the light of nature could never have found out one day in seven to bee comely and most meet for man to give unto God yet if such a proportion of time be most meet for man to give to God and it appeares so to be when God reveales it it may and should then be accounted a morall law although the light of nature left in all men could never discerne it The Schoolmen and most of the popish generation not considering these things which notwithstanding are some of their owne principles have digged pits for themselves and made snares for some of their followers in abolishing the fourth Commandment from being in the true sense of it morall because they could not see how such a speciall part of time viz. a seventh part could be naturall or by the light of corrupt nature discernable which things so discernable they sometimes conclude to be onely morall But how farre the light of corrupt nature may discerne this proportion shall be spoken to in its proper place Thesis 30. If lastly those things which are thus commanded because they are good be morall then the whole Decalogue may hence appeare to be the morall law of God because there is no one law in it which is therefore good onely because 't is commanded but is therefore commanded because it is good and suitable to humane nature When I say suitable to humane nature I doe not meane humane nature considered absolutely but relatively either in relation to God or relation unto man for not onely the light of nature but of common sense also beare witnesse that every precept of the second Table wherein man is considered in relation to man is thus farre good for how comely and good is it to honour Parents to be tender of other mens lives and comforts to preserve ones selfe and others from filthy pollutions to doe no wrong but all the good we can to other mens estates c. Nor doe I thinke that any will question any one Commandment of this Table to bee good and suitable to humane nature unlesse it be some Nimrod or Brennus that professed he knew no greater justice than for the stronger like the bigger fishes of the Sea to swallow up the lesser in case they bee hungry or some Turkish Tartar or Caniball or some surfetted Professor transformed into some licentious opinionist and so growne Master of his owne Conscience and that can audaciously out-face the very light of nature and common sense through the righteous judgement of God blinding and hardning his heart And if the Commandments of the second Table be thus farre good in themselves are not those of the first Table much more Is love to man when drawne out into all the six streames of the second Table good in it selfe and shall not love to God drawn out in the foure precepts of the first Table as the Spring from whence all our love to man should flow much more Are the streams morally sweet and is not the spring it self of the same nature Love to God and love to man are the common principles saith Aquinas truely of the law of nature and all
particular precepts saith hee perhaps unawares are conclusions flowing from these principles out of Matth. 22. And are the principles good in themselves and suitable to humane nature and doe not all the conclusions participate of their nature For what are all particular precepts but particular unfoldings of love to God and love to man If all the precepts of the second Table be morall which doe onely concerne man why should any of the first fall short of that glory which doe immediately concerne God Shall man have six and all of them morally good and God have but foure and some one or more of them not so Is it comely and good to have God to be our God in the first Commandment to worship him after his owne minde in the second to give him his worship with all the highest respect and reverence of his Name in the third and is it not as comely good and suitable that this great God and King should have some magnificent day of state to be attended on by his poore servants and creatures both publikely and privately with speciall respect and service as oft as himselfe sees meer and which we cannot but see and confesse to be most equall and just according to the fourth Commandment If mans life must bee divided into labour and rest is it not equall and good if wee have six dayes that God should have a seventh If the bruit beasts could speake they would say that a seventh dayes rest is good for them Exod. 23.12 and shall man who hath more cause and more need of rest even of holy rest say that it is not good for him even to rest in the bosome of God himselfe to which he is called this day Take away a Sabbath who can defend us from Atheisme Barbarisme and all manner of Devilisme and prophanesse And is it evill thus to want it and shall it not be good to have it I confesse if God had commanded a perpetuall Sabbath it had not then been good but sinfull to observe any set Sabbath but if God will have man to labour for himselfe six dayes and this labour be morally good being now commanded why is it not then as good to observe a seventh in rest to God being also commanded of him Thesis 31. It is therefore at least an indigested assertion of those who affirme that the Decalogue sets out the precepts of the law of Nature and yet withall doth superad certaine precepts proper to the Jewish people in which last respect they say all men are not bound to the observance thereof and they produce the fourth Commandment for proof but in respect of the first they are But although in the application of a law something may bee proper to the Jewish people yet with leave of the learned there is never a law in it but it is morall and common to all for to make any law in the Decalogue proper is an assertion springing from a false and blinde principle viz. That that law onely is morall which is naturall not naturall as suitable to humane nature but which is seene and knowne by the common light of corrupt nature without the helpe of any externall usher or teacher If also any lawes in the Decalogue be proper how will any finde out and discerne morall lawes which concerne all from proper laws which appertaine onely to some For if God hath made such a mingling and not severed morall lawes by themselves then man hath no law or revelation by any dictinct and severed lawes left unto him to discerne lawes proper and peculiar from laws morall and common which how pernicious it may bee to mens soules to bee left to such uncertainty as also how injurious to God and crosse to his maine ends in discovering morall lawes let the wise consider for if they say that wee must flye for help herein to the light of corrupt nature then as hath been shewn an imperfect light and a blinde guide and a corrupt judge must be the chief rule of discerning that which is morall from that which is peculiar and proper for doubtlesse such a kinde of light is the light of corrupt nature Thesis 32. Some thinke that those commandments onely are morally good which the Gospel hath declared and confirmed to be so and by this shift they thinke to avoid the absurdity of flying to the blinde guide of corrupt nature to judge of these colours viz. what is morall and what is not Mr. Primrose therefore excludes the fourth Commandment from being morall the other nine being ratified by the light of the Gospell which this he saith is not but if his meaning be that there must be a generall ratification of lawes morall by the verdict of the Gospell then the fourth Commandment cannot be excluded from being morall because it hath a ratification in generall from the Gospell for therein wee read that the morall law is holy just and good Rom. 7. and that Christ came not to destroy the least jot or tittle of the law Matth. 5. much lesse a whole law of the fourth Commandment In the Gospel also God promiseth to write his Law upon our hearts wherein the fourth Commandment is not excepted But if his meaning beâ— this that the Gospell must particularly mention and so make a particular ratification as it were by name of every morall law then his assertion is unsound there being many judiciall lawes of Moses of which some are wholly morall others containing in them something of common and morall equity which we have no expresse mention of in the blessed Gospell and let him turne over al the leaves of the Gospell hee shall not finde that proportion of time which himselfe affirmes to be morall in the fourth Commandment to bee expressely and particularly mentioned in the Gospell and therefore that also must be excluded from being morall upon his owne principles as well as what we contend for in this Commandment so to bee Thesis 33. Some of those who maintaine the law of the Sabbath to be ceremoniall affirme that every Law in the Decalogue is not morall upon this ground to wit because the Law is called Gods Covenant which Covenant they shew from sundry instances not only to comprehend moralls but also ceremonialls for they make it the excellency of the Decalogue to comprehend as a short epitome all Gods Ordinances both morall and ceremoniall which epitome is more largely opened in the writings of Moses where not onely morall but also ceremoniall lawes are expressed and dispersed And hence they thinke that as the other nine are the summary and epitome of all morall Ordinances so the fourth Commandment which was kept with the practise of Ceremonies was the summary and epitome of all the ceremoniall ordinances and hence the fourth Commandment becomes ceremoniall But for answer to this wily notion unjustly father'd upon Austin and Calvin by some it may thus farre be granted that as the word Law is sometimes taken more strictly for
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
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
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
in regard of the bare abstinence from work but that having no work of our own to mind or do we might be wholly taken up with Gods worke being wholly taken off from our own that he may speak with us and reveale himselfe more fully and familiarly to us as friends do when they get alone having called and carried us out of the noyse and crowd of all worldly occasions and things Thesis 14. Holy rest therefore being for holy work it may not be amisse to enquire what this work is and wherein it consists for which end I shall not instance in any the particular severall duties in publique and private of holinesse and mercy because this is to be found in all who write upon this subject I shall onely speake of that kind of holinesse which the Lord requires in all publique and private duties and is to run thorow them and as it were animate them and in truth to finde out this and observe this is one of the greatest difficulties but yet the greatest excellency of a Christian life It consists therefore in these five things Thesis 15. The first The Holinesse upon this day ought to be immediate I doe not meane without the use of publique or private means but in respect of worldly things for we are commanded to be holy in all manner of conversation all the week in our worldly affaires 1 Pet. 1.17 Holinesse is to be writ upon our cups and pots and hors-bridles and ploughs and sickles Zach. 14.20.21 but this holinesse is more immediate we enjoy God by and in the creature and in our weekly occasions and providences but do we think that there is no more holinesse required upon the Sabbath verily every day then should be our Christian Sabbath which is most false and therefore some more immediate holinesse is required now on this day which is not then nor required of us every week day and what can this be but drawing neer to God this day more immediately and as neer as mortall man can do and casting aside the world and getting out of it and so to be neere God in Prayer in hearing the Word in Meditation c Psal. 95.5.6 if it were possible to be with and enjoy Christ in Heaven where there are no meanes we should this day long for it and prize it but because this cannot yet be and that the Lord comes down from Heaven to us in his ordinances and thereby makes himselfe as neer to us as he can in this fraile life hence we are not onely to draw neer to Ordinances but to God and Christ in them upon this day and so be as neere them with greatest immediatenesse that we can Psalm 42.1 2. Psalm 63.1 2 3. Adam did enjoy God in his calling the week day but this was not so immediate as he was to have upon the Sabbath day Thesis 16. The second is this holinesse ought not only to be immediate but also speciall and in our endeavours after the highest degree and with the greatest intention of holinesse for we are bound every day to be holy in more immediate and neere approaches to God some time or other of the day but now we are called to be more specially holy because both the day and our selves are now set apart for it in a more speciall manner we are to love feare delight in God and pray to him and muse on him every day but now in a more speciall manner all these are to be done the Sabbath is not onely called holy but holinesse to the Lord Exod. 31.15 which shewes that the day is exceeding holy and suitably our affections and hearts ought therefore so to be the Sacrifice on this day was to be doubled Numb 28.9 the Lord would have double honour from us this day that as in the weeke time we are sinfully drowned in the cares of this world and affections thereto so upon every Sabbath we should be in a holy manner drowned in the cares and thoughts and affections of the things of God and hence we are commanded to call the Sabbath our delight and not to think our own thoughts or doe our own workes this day Esay 58.13 David said Psalm 43.4 that he would goe to the Altar of God the place of publique worship to God his joy yea his exceeding joy so are we not onely to draw neere to Altar Word Sacraments Prayer but to God in them nay to God in them as our exceeding joy our exceeding love our exceeding feare c. especially upon this day there is scarse any week but we contract soyle from our worldly occasions and by touching worldly things and we suffer many decayes and lose much ground by temptations herein now the Lord pitying us and giving us a Sabbath of Recovery what should we doe now but return recover and renew our strength and like the Eagle cast our bils and stand before our God and King this day of State and Royall Majesty when all his Saints compassâ— his Throne and presence with our most beautifull Garments mourning especially that we fall so farre short of Sabbath acts and services we should not content our selves with working-day holinesse joyes feares hopes prayers praises but Sabbath joyes feares praises must be now our ornaments and all within us must be raised up to a higher straine that as God gives us this day speciall grace means of grace seasons of grace speciall occasions of grace by reviewing all our experiences the week past so there is good reason that the Lord should be honoured with speciall holinesse this day Thesis 17. The third is This holinesse ought to be not onely immediate and speciall but constant and continued the whole day together For upon every day of the week we are to take some time for converse with God but our worldly occasion soon call us off and that lawfully but Sabbath holinesse must be constant and continued all the day if the Lord was so strict that he would not lose a moments honour in a ceremoniall day of rest Levtt 23 3â— what shall we thinke the Lord expects upon this day which is morall the Lord would not be honoured this day onely by fits and flashes and sudden pangs which passe away as the early dew but as t is in the Psalme for the Sabbath It s good to sing of his loving kindnesse in the morning and of his faithfulnesse every night Psal. 92.1 2. and though this be a wearisome thing to the flesh to be so long pent in and although we cannot perfectly doe it yet it s a most sweet and glorious work in it selfe to think that the infinite glorious God should call a poor sinfull creature to be with him and attend upon him all the day long to be ever with the Lord is best of all but next to that to be with him a whole day together they that see how fit they are to be for ever banisht from the presence of the most High and how exceeding
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
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