erring of their great erring about this Controversie as in many other weighty Cases is because they know not the Scriptures nor the Power of God put forth in a word-way 48 That the cause of mens erring is not therefore because they do not know and acknowledge and own either the Magistral dictates of Humane Rabbies 48 Or the Ancient Records of Vncanonical Church-Histories and Traditions of men 48 49 Or the Councils of the Sanhedrim and the sayings of the ancient Fathers 49 50 Or unwritten verities to be as Scripture Supplements to be received by the people from their Leaders upon trust without tryal 50 Or the judgement opinion and practice of of those who are reputed the Learned and the Godly in the present Age 50 Or the Natio-al Establishments in the matters of Doctrine and of Worship in their humanely invented and imposed confessions of Faith and stinted Leiturgies 50 51 Or man-invented-Arts and Sciences of Philosophical Knowledges and of university humane Learning 51 52 Or the innate or acquired powers of mens own rational Intellect and Will 52 Or Natural Experiments and fleshy sensations 52 53 Or the unscriptural Impulses of Speculative Enthusiasts 53 Or the doubtful questioning of unsettled Scepticks 54 55 That our Faith is not to be resolved into the Authority of fallible men but into the infallible veracity of the truthful Aelohim 54 to 62 That the Old Testament Types and Figures did contain New Testament Institutions as to particular Churches Seals of the Covenant Presbyters Deacons Diaconesses 58 59 60 That Revel 1. 10. Doth not prove any change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of the week 62 to 65 Neither doth Psalm 118. 22-26 65 66 67 Neither doth Act 2. 1 2 c. 67 Nor Ezek. 43 25 26 27. 68 Nor Heb. 4. 9 10 68 to 145 Here the plain meaning and scope of this passage in the Epislle to the Hebrews is given 68. 69 70 Here is further shewn that the Day expressed in the ninety fifth Psalm and referred unto by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not to be understood of the First day of the week as the weekly Sabbath-day 70 71 72 That the rest spoken of in this is not meant of the Weekly Sabbath Rest 72 73 74 to 77 Where is opened the significancy of the Word Sabbatism in the Graek 〈◊〉 towed from Hebrew Origination as many other Greek words are 74 to 77 That the He mentioned in one passage of this part of this Epistle is meant of the Believer 75 76 77 That the parallel between Workers Works and Rest doth not hold in some things and where in it doth hold is discovered 77 78 79 80 Here is shewn what are the works which Believers do rest from when they enter into this Sabbatism 79 80 The force of the conjunction For is shewn 80 81 As also what the import of the change of of the number from the plural to the singular is 81 82 And how this Rest is both God's Rest and the Believers Rest too 82 83 Here is further manifested that it is a mistake to go about to found a pretended First day Sabbath upon the New Creation as if it precisely began on the Day of Christ's Resurrection 83 to 145 It is Premised that it is a choice Priviledge and a special Liberty which Believers do injoy under the New Testament Administration of Grace 84 85 Where also some objections that do wrest Galat. 4. 9 10. and Colos 2. 8 16 17. are answered 85 86 87 And that the LORD Jesus Christ was Administrator under the Old as well as New Testament Dispensation of Grace 87 88 The particulars are here instanced in What the old things are which pass away and what the things are which do become new 88 89 to 92 The renewing of the Covenant in the latter days is spoken to 92. 93 That there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration is asserted and evidenced from the Scriptures Page 93 to pag. 101 And that the whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament 101 to 108 And in what sense the Seventh-day Sabbath is some ways a sign of this 108 to 116 The new Worship was Typically signified in the Figuring pattern of the Old This is also demonstrated 116 to 120 And that the Law of Faith was a Law under the Old Testament Dispensation 120 to 123 And that it is an errour to affirm that the Decalogue has less in it than the Law of Nature At also that therefore it was never intended for a mere or perfect Transcript of the Law of Nature 123 Vnder this is discovered That to this Decalogue it doth belong to believe that the Soul is 124 And to love our selves with a just and necessary Love 124 125 And to take greatest care to save our souls above our bodies 125 And to tame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our Salvation 125 126 And to deny all bodily pleasure profits honour liberty and life for the securing of our Salvation 126 The Old Law of the Ten Words is proved in the Word of Truth to be still the same both to Jew and Gentile It was the Rule of Obedience to them under the Old Testament as unto God in Christ and is still so a Rule unto us under the new Difference of Horizons and of Climates makes no change of the Law of the Seventh-day Sabbath 126 to 147 The Ingenuous Reader is earnestly desired to correct the Errours in Printing especially those that do much disturb the sense and quite alter the meaning Errours in the Margin are thus to be corrected in the Second Part. For g Gen. page 5. line 1. read g Gen. 2. 2. f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 6. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 1 Cor. 15. 3 14. p. 6. l. 17 18. r. 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. f. 17 19. p. 7 l. 11. r. 17. 10. f. Acts 13 24. p. 11. l. 11. r. Acts 13. 14. f. 58. 13. p. 15. l. 16. r. 58. 12. f. Cor. 1. 16. p. 21. l. 35. r. Col. 1. 16. f. Gen. 28. p. 21. l. 40. r. Gen. 1. 28. f. Heb. 7 8. p. 21. l. 41. r. Heb. 2. 7 8. f. Aclum p. 27. l. 25. r. Atrium f. 3. 12. p. 30 l 34. r. 3. 12. 〈◊〉 f. 33 34. p. 31. l. 28. r. 32 33. f. 12 19 p. 31. l. 43. r. 13 19 f. Gnatrereth p. 35. l. 16. r. Gnetzereth f. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 14. r. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 37. l. 9. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f. pag. 110. to pag. 120. of this Treatise p. 38. l. 11 12 13. r. pag. 91. to page 103. of the first Part of
Objector doth not confirm his reasoning thus only with respect to the first Day but doth carry it much further on by his asserting that the first Institution of Church Officers and Orders as well as that of the LORD's Day by which he means the first Day was not by Scripture The proof saith he is undeniable because the Old Testament did not contain the Institution e. g. of particular Churches Sacraments Presbyters Deacons Diaconesses and the LORD's Day c. And the New Testament was none of it written till An. 40. at soonest and it was not all written till An. 99. Now it is certain that the Church was not all these years without the Orders now in question nor without a day to meet on for publick Worship even as Baptism and the LORD's Supper were Instituted by Christ himself long before the writing of any part of the New Testament and the Church was in long possession of them upon the bare word and Declaration of the Apostles So he writes That the Church was not all these years without a day to meet on for publick Worship we readily subscribe for they knew the Seventh day Sabbath was the weekly day to meet on for that end of which the Churches had had long possession for near four thousand years and of which they had still the Tenure and for the continuance of which title and practice they had the whole Writen Word of God whereunto the practice of Christ and of his Apostles did fully agree But as for his other exemplified instances we desire both him and the Reader a little to consider If these were received and practised by the Church upon the bare verbal Declaration of the Apostles and not by Scripture what then meant the Types of these Did these signifie nothing Was there nothing of these understood by Moses Aaron the Priests and Levites Did not Moses by the Word and Prayer sanctifie the Baptismal Types of the Red Sea and the Cloud and the Supper-Types of the Paschal Lamb the Heavenly Manna and springing Rock Though there was a veil upon these and such other Figures and Shadows in the reading of the Old Testament yet Believers had some knowledge of their meaning and some insight into their Mystery and there were Teachers by Office who were to interpret the signifyingness of these things and to open the spiritual part of the Pattern Had not these things a Spiritual Relation unto Christ and to an after administration of Grace Was not this the end the drift the design the purport the scope of these Institutions to refer unto Christ They were a Pedagogue a Leader of those Children to the Christian School for their Institution and Discipline There áre divers Scriptures in the Old Testament which did discover unto discerning Believers of that Dispensation that those Types Figures and Shadows were to be done away under an after administration of Grace to receive their perfection and accomplishment in the Messiah who was to be born of a Virgin and in his days Several Prophesies also under that former Ministration do speak punctually to this matter though we who have the New Testament-fulfilling of them and Commentary upon them have a more clear unveiled manifestation of them The Christian Religion for sum and for substance being one and the same under both dispensations particularly as to the institutions mentioned For there is one Baptism in this sense the Baptismal Types of old and the Baptismal Antitypes now are thus one and the same excepting the different manner of Administration So that suppose Baptism was instituted by Christ himself before the writing of any part of the New Testament yet was not this upon the bare verbal Declaration of the Apostles especially not as to that part of the Church which was in Christ's time For John's Baptizing of others particularly of Christ and Christ's Baptizing by his Apostles and Christ's Doctrine which he several times taught about Baptism and John's foretelling of this As John himself also was Prophesied of of old particularly by Isaiah and by Malachi By these and such like passages was this known to such at least knowable by them and somewhat of this had a confirmation and testimony from Heaven As for particular Churches and the calling and gathering of them there were such under the Old Testament times In Adam's days in Epoch's days in Noab's days Though at the first they called upon the Name of Jehovah in a way of family Worship yet afterwards in greater Church-Assemblies and a difference was put between the true and pure Worshipers and those that were corrupt So it was before the Flood and thus also it was after the Flood Melchisedec was a Priest in the Church of Aelohim Abraham had a Church in his Family and was King Priest and Prophet there So was Isaac and Jacob. Job and Eliphaz were of congregated Societies and had their Church-meetings in their days though living in other Regions in Countries distant from Abraham In Moses's time the Israelites were put into a Church way and had such Institutions and Laws and Ordinances for Church-Assemblies and Societies as were afterwards observed not only by the Israelites as a national Church but by particular Churches of the Israelites when after Moses's death they were settled in the promised Land in the days of Joshua Judges and the Kings For the Priests and Levites were not only for all the Tribes joyntly but also for several Tribes distinctly and further for the several Cities and Towns and other populous places in every particular Tribe where they had distinct Assembles injoying all Ordinances Institutions Priviledges excepting what was specially limited to some particular place of Jehovah's chusing and appointing for some solemn Sacrifices and Festivals and they exercised Church-Discipline in those particular Churches Neither was Syria and Mesopotamia in Moses days without their congregated Societies Church convention and worshiping Assemblies Balaam having a gift of Prophesie was an hireling that served Congregations There are particular Congregations both described and prophesied of in what was written afore of old A wise observer and a spiritual discerner and a diligent comparer may easily find and plainly see how Christ's Institutions and Directions for management of Church Affairs and for the Exercise of the Duties of Church fellowship and Discipline have evident reference to his Institutions under the old Dispensation though clearer and more spiritual and glorious and heavenly now and it will be found in experience as it is evident in Scripture that several Church proceedings will not be either so well understood or so regularly practised but by a collating of Old with New Testament directions about those matters particularly for Church-Discipline as in the case of Leprosie especially As for Church-Officers Overseers Presbyters or Elders teaching and ruling Ones Pastors and Teachers Diacons or Ministers under the Old Testament it were no very difficult task to write a large Treatise upon that
from whom other Nations shall receive a shining Light giving them Honour doing them Homage and bringing in their Glory to them whom the King of Saints so much will delight in as to dignifie them with the Glory of his presence compleating and perpetuating their Purity and Peace their Holiness and Happiness So that these are Works which were never yet so finished and which yet remain behind to be done That Prophesie in Jeremiah doth speak much the same thing For there is foretold the destruction of the Enemies of the Jews which will be in the last days the usual expression setting out the accomplishment of this glorious Mystery as other Scriptures do declare Then will Jehovah renew a Covenant with all the Families of Israel All with the ten as well as with the other two Tribes Here also is the place expressed from what part of the inhabited Earth their return should first be even from the North. The Call would be to the generality of that people to come unto Christ and so great a multitude would be converted to him as were not to be numbred by man Jehovah himself would be their Conductor and Leader in the way of their Return The LORD 's providential appearance would be so wonderful in this that the Nations afar off and remote in distance from them would upon report hereof brought unto them much praise Aelohim for his Grace and Favour towards his People The Lamention was foretold then would be great when Innocents were slain at Christ's Birth but for greater in the latter Days after that when the Israelites would repent and turn unto Christ then should they return home to their own Land to dwell in their Cities Their Enemies would be overthrown by a Woman these Converts should peaceably inhabite their Country and become very happy in being made a pure glorious Church The new or renewed Covenant would be firmly ratified and surely established with them Jerusalem would once again be rebuilt Have these gladtyyings yet had their through fulfilling are they not Works yet to be performed That other Scripture in the Epistle to the Hebrews has the same Import and Design as to the Covenant and the renewing of it Here is no determinate Day of Christ's Resurrection mentioned when this Promise was to have its exact precise fulfilling and if we would point any particular time more than other according to this kind of arguing it was rather the Fruit of Christ's Ascension if it relate to those times so near Christ when this High Priest entred into the Holy of Holies For this Chapter doth more particularly set out the High Priesthood of Christ entred into Heaven with Blood and with Incense satisfying and interceding there fitting at the Right hand of his Father Raigning having all Power sending Messengers to teach his People and so is more consummately a glorious Priest King and Prophet together actually bestowing upon Believers all those purchased covenanted Blessings for which he intercedes on their behalf as Pardon Peace Grace Mercy Reconciliation Assistance Acceptance and such like which he did for Believers before but in another way of dispensing For whilst he remained on Earth even after his Resurrection till he ascended into Heaven the Levitical Priesthood did continue So that the Honour is more in some respect put upon Christ's Ascension if we will date these new things about that time when Christ went up into the highest Heavens For then more especially was the new and living Way new made by Christ's entring into the Holy of Holies into the highest Heaven As to what doth relate to the New Testament Ministration as such more spiritually dispensed we have several times acknowledged that without making any change in the sum and substance of the Christian Religion in the Law of the ten Words The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews doth set out the excellency of the New Testament above and beyond the Old as to the clearness and gloriousness of dispensing the same Truths and Things of God which were of old under a darker administration This new Covenant spoken of has had in all Ages since the writing of that Epistle some particular fulfillings when the Regenerating Spirit doth write the Holy Law of the ten Words on the two Tables of the Mind and Heart of any person and people especially if they be of the converted Hebrews who are more eminently concerned in this Promise the most of which is yet behind unaccomplished and waits for the larger conversions of that people in days yet to come For that is a prophetical Scripture yet taken out of that place in Jeremiah which has been spoken unto already and which is again mentioned towards the closing up of the New Testament Canon as reserved for one of the choicest Blessings of the last days The newest things then will be the last things called therefore the newest Times For the fulfilling of this the whole Creation doth groan and wait especially those who have the First Fruits of the Spirit they groan in themselves expecting the Adoption Redemption of their Body The rest of the Creation long to be delivered from the wrong that is done to them by fallen Devils and by sinful men They labour under their subordination to vanity their oppresling servitude their travelling pain their use and service being so quite perverted from what it was at their primitive make and they shall be freed when the New Created-State shall come For which Holy longers do expect and hope when Tzijon shall put on her Royal Ornaments when the new Heavens and the new Earth shall appear clothed with their new glorious Dress when the Elect have been all gathered in unto Christ when the Saints shall be possessed of the full and whole of their Heavenly Inheritance to which they are adopted of their glorious Liberty to which they are appointed from remaining indwelling Sin to a complete Holiness from persecutions temptations sorrows and other troubles to an uninterrupted peace and happy Sabbatism from their strange Country where they meet with such unkind usage to their purchased Home and prepared Palace in their new City when their Body shall be more perfectly Redeemed that it may be transformed into a likeness unto Christ's glorious Body together with their Spirit and Soul all together fully to injoy this God in Father Son and holy Spirit for ever to glorifie him in consort with the blessed Inhabitants of that Heavenly Country where they may have all their waitings for fulfilled all their Prayers answered all their longings satisfied all their capacities filled up with a suitable good Then shall groanings pass into shoutings and sighings into singings O for that day O who will give this O how could Hearts sick of Love for more of Christ in clearness of Vision and in fulness of injoying even leap out of the Body and forthwith give a spring into Glory O how
good is it to be here But I must come down to this Mount and do further work yet for my LORD and Master I am now to evidence from the Scriptures of Truth that there was a Covenant of Grace under the Old Testament Administration This Doctrine of Grace is that which must lay the foundation for an after assertion of mine about a Law of faith under the Old Testament For Grace and Faith are companions Rich Grace abounding Mercy free Love from the Father in and through his Son Christ revealed to and in his people doth by his Spirit in his Word Inwork the Grace of Faith in them and calls forth acts of Faith from them that Christ may be made to them Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that no flesh might glory in his Presence but that those who glory mighty glory in the LORD and saving justifying Faith doth bottom upon the Power and Truth of God manifesting his unchangeable free Grace to Believers giving them this Grace of Faith whereby they apply Christ and his Righteousness unto themselves for their justification in the fight of God making them to acknowledge that they are justified accepted and saved not of Works neither of themselves but by Grace through and for Christ In Order to the Augmentation of this Holy Science I would propound these Questions to further Disquisition Q. Whether where ever in the Old Testament he that appeared as a Man or as an Angel and withal is called Jehovah be not always Christ manifesting himself under that Dispensation of Grace Q. Whether if all the Hebrew Words which in the Old Testament do set out Grace Mercy Sweet Savour Acceptance free Favour Covenanting Atonement Reconciliation Propitiation Pardon and such like withal Synonyms and Phrases relating thercunto If all these were put together it would not bring great Light to this Doctrine of a Covenant of Grace Q. Whether there be clear Scripture-Evidences that ever there were any Covenant made between God and Man of Salvation by Works only without Free Grace in a Mediator on God's part and without Faith in a Messiah on Man's part So that Man's Justification and Eternal Life was solely and merely upon this one only condition of mans perfect perpetual absolute personal obedience to the whole Law of God to all and every of his Commands Before I pass more thorowly into the Proof of a Covenant of Grace under the old Dispensation it may be of some use to open that expression of a New or a Renewed Covenant in the Prophesie of Jeremiah and in the Epistle to the Hebrews The Hebrew word for New is several times rendred Renewed by the English Translators themselves as the Reader may see in the Scriptures cited in the Margin the Hebrew often signifying not New for the Kind but another of the same thing for Kind The same word which is in Jeremiah A Covenant Renewed as New Days and New Mercies are Renewed Days and Renewed Mercies Thus a new Commandment of Love is a Renewed Commandment of the good old duty of Love Thus also in the Greek Language in that forementioned Instance it was an old Command renewed and revived So it is also in the Verb. Hence the Renewing of our Mind and the Renewnig of the Holy Spirit That it has this sense in the eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews will yet more clearly appear when I shall discover that all and every of the particulars expressed in that Covenant are such as have been as were in their nature real Existence and actual Being under the Old Testament dispensation In this as in other great Undertakings in this Treatise my Calls are more vocal than others from the LORD to commit my soul by well doing unto this Faithful Creator and loving Redeemer Jehovah Christ Considering the much opposition I have met with heretofore about this and other such Enquiries and may yet further be exercised with But he who made all things is also the Head of the Body of his Body the Church that in all he might hold the Chief For so it pleased the Father who in and through and by his Son has in all Ages of the world manifested and dispensed much of the freeness of this Love and of the Riches of his Grace which that it might be made firm unto his people he hath put into a Promise made sure with his Oath That Covenant which Aelobim in Christ made with his people was a Covenant of Grace one and the same both in the Old and New Testament differing only in the manner of dispensing As also is the whole of the Christian Religion one and the same in both for Doctrines and Duties for Graces and Privileges and such like parts of this Religion which doth vary only in the several ways of Administration By a Covenant of Grace I mean the LORD' 's free promising of Life of Wisdome of Righteousness of Sanctification of Redemption of all good things to his people believing in Christ who are thus specally favoured by him The Instances which I shall particularize in will be those after Adam's Fall Such a Gracious Covenant the LORD made with his people who were under the Old Testament-dispensation How much of Grace was there put into that one comprehensive Promise The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's head I shall gather a little out of that full store of this which is to be found and put it together Noah was one that found grace in the eyes of Jehovah a just man perfect in his Generations he walked with Aelohim It is one of Jehovah's Names that he is gracious And it is the special privilege of his people that he has a peculiar favour for them This Grace doth Paul in what he wrote to the Church of Rome oppose unto Works and unto Debt It was the free meroy of God in Christ Noah did not deserve it And it was by faith that Noah pleased God and served him with acceptance With this Noah did Aelohim establish his Covenant that Noah should enter into the Ark he and his Sons and his Wife and his Sons wives with him where they should be saved from the common drawning Noah in faith and in abedience prepares the Ark to the saving of his houshold through the which be condemned the World and was heir of the righteousness which is by faith as is mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews Peter calleth him A Preacher of Righteousness That this was typical and had some further spiritual meaning in it the same Peter doth declare by shewing that Baptism under the New Testament was an Anti-type to this an answerable Figure saving of Believers by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ This Doctrine of the Free Covenant of Mercy of Righteousness and of Salvatiou by Faith in Christ did Noah commend to his hearers and it was sealed up towards the Faithful in that wonderful deliverance in the Ark which
will remember unto them said Jehovah Aelohim speaking of his Covenanting Israel walking obediently the Covenant of Ancestors them whom I brought forth out of the Land of Egypt before the eyes of the Heathen to be unto them a God I Jehovah Thus did he often in that Book of Moses make over himself to his people in Christ such delight did he take in taking occasion to tell them that he was and would be a God unto them Was not here Covenanting Grace and Redeeming Love It was the faine that was made before with Jacob Isaac and Abraham as sometimes the order of words is In other places is mentioned from Abraham downwards to Isaac and Jacob But in one place of Moses's Book it is mentioned renewed and confirmed going upward from the people near a deliverance in Egypt to Jacob to Isaac to Abraham the Father of the Faithful Thus leading them to that former and more ancient Promise and Gospel-covenant of Grace in Christ Believers could say in the Psalmist's time that J. â—â—lohim was their portion for ever Hath the LORD graciously promised that a chosen People shall be his people So they were of old in Moses's days If ye shall walk in my Stntutes thus spake he to them and keep my Commandments and do them then I will walk among you and will be to you a God and you shall be to me a People Jehovah hath avouched or hath caused to say or to promise by giving his and by taking thy Word thee to be unto him for a People of peculiar Treasure as be hath spoken unto thee and to keep all his Commandments For Jehovah ' s Portion is his people Jacob the Line of his Inheritance Ho hath divided and separated them unto himself as his allotted part and peculiar Possession Hath he promised Covenant teaching and Knowledge This also was a Covenant privilege of Old He taught them his name Jehovah and made himself known to them by that name in putting a Being into his Promises made to their Fathers for their deliverance and proclaimed this Name to Moses His people sate down at his feet receiving of his Words Thus were Christ's Disciples even then taught by him as their Master Thou saith he to his people then hast been made see to know that Jehovah he Aelohim none else besides him And thou shalt know and cause to return into thy heart that Jehovah he Aelohim in the heavens above and on the earth beneath none else This doth particularly relate to their being instructed to acknowledge Christ's Jehovahship In David's time the Secret of Jehovah was to them who feared him and his Covenant to make them for to know He revealed in the inner Man of Believers the hidden Mysteries of Wisdom Will he be merciful to the unrighteousness of his Covenant-people no more remembring their sins and their iniquities The same free Mercy and Grace was manifested under the former Dispensation Christ hath put it into the second Word or Command and proclaimed it as his Name when Moses went up into Mount Sinai as Jehovah had commanded him taking in his hand the two Tables of Stone Jehovah Jehovah God pitiful and gracious long suffering and much in Mercy and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin Doth not the blessedness of man consist in this Whereupon Moses makes haste and bows himself and pleadeth this in Prayer Pardon thou O LORD our iniquity and our sin Was not this the meaning of the Sin Offerings and of the Trespass Offerings with the annexed promises of Pardon and of acceptation Did not the covering Merch seat which was altogether as broad as the Ark wherein were the two Tables preach this Did it not set out the merciful covering and propitiation of sins Was not this a precious Figure of Jesus Christ by and through whom received by and through Faith in him his peoples transgranssings of the Law of the ten Words are freely fully forgiven and wholly covered How full are the Books of Moses of the Psalms and of the Prophets of this comforting Doctrine So that all these Promises in the Covenant of Grace have been are and will be the same under both the Dispensations All the difference is that in the last days there will be a more clear discovery of this gracious Covenant A more glorious way of dispensing a more through inabling to the keeping of it For to this especially have the expressions of difference an eye and respect between the old and renewed Covenant Spoken of in Jeremiah and in the Epistle to the Hebrews compared There will be larger pouring out of the holy Spirit and blessing from the Father in the Name of the Son in those latter purer times that are near at hand So that this Covenant shall not be broken as it has been under former Dispensations of Grace but be better kept with more exactness and faithfulness with more intireness and continuedness in the fulness and perfection of it Halelujah I will confess Jehovah with all the heart Gracious He. He will Remember his Covenant for ever toward his people The secret of Jehovah to them who fearing him and his Covenant to make them for to know All the paths of Jehovah Mercy and Truth to them that keep his Covenant and Testimonies and that remember his precepts for to do them Have respect unto the Covenant For ever thou wilt keep for thy Saints thy excelling Ones thy Mercy and thy Covenant faithful to them The whole of the Christian Religion for Doctrines Graces Duties Priviledges and such like parts of that Religion is one and the same under both the Old and New Testament Is not the Word called the Word of Christ Is not Christ named the speaking-one both by Daniel and by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Doth not Christ call himself the Word and the Word of God Is not He the sum and the subject matter of the whole Scriptures Is not he the Author of them Hath he not said of himself he is the one Doctor or Teacher of his Disciples Is he not the great Prophet Is he not the LORD God of the holy Prophets Did he not at Mount Sinai speak by his own voice from Heaven Was it not his forewithessing Spirit who from him spake in the Prophets of old declaring the sufferings that should befal Christ and the glory that was to follow as saith Peter in his first Epistle Was not that passage in the ninety and fifth Psalm To day if you will hear his voice applyed to the voice of Christ in what was written to the Hebrews Has not Christ himself declared that those who searched the Scriptures might find them testifying of him And what other Scriptures had they at that time but those of the Old Testament When he himself in the days of his flesh did exercise his publick Ministery preaching the glad tydings of Justice in the
the Sign of Circumcision as a Seal of this Righteousness of Faith which was thus imputed to him Is not Abraham propounded as an Example to after-Believers in this being called the Father of all that believe in the Foot steps of whose Faith after-Believers are to walk For what was so counted to him for Righteousness was written not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for the sake of Paul and of others in Paul's time and so still for our sakes in the present day to whom it shall be imputed namely to them that do believe in him what Moses doth speak of the Duties of the Law Paul doth interpret of the Faith of the Gospel It would fill up much paper to inlarge in all the other instances of the old Testament-Believers recorded in the new particularly in that eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews There is one Faith one and the same Doctrine of Faith to be believed and one and the same Grace of Faith by which men do believe for Justification and Salvation both under the Old and New Testament It was the open confession of Peter's Faith in one of the first Councils or Synods held in the New Testament when the Apostles and Elders were assembled together to debate some weighty Question of the Christian Religion We believe saith he by the Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ to be saved in such manner as they also as the believing Fore-fathers under the Old Testament were merely through free Grace by Faith in Grace by Faith in Christ in his righteousness They by Faith in Christ who was then to come to be in due time born of the Virgin which was held forth in Types of old to this end We in Christ as the perfect Anti-type thus already come The Analogy of Faith in both Testaments should be attended unto by a diligent discerning Reader of the Word a due proportional collating of them between and to each other would discover the uniformness and well-agreingness of the Will of our LORD in them both by a particular right application and limitation of their Analogy the orderly regulation whereof must be made according to that measure and number of proportion which the different manner of dispensing doth call for and no further is it to be admitted as to any substantial and essential part of the Christian Religion there is a likeness of Word a sameness of Sense a oneness of intendment on them both unto which Analogy he must keep close who would give forth a true explication of sound Doctrine That Faith which is required and promised in the Covenant of Grace is for the substance of it one and the same Grace which is commanded in the Law of the ten Words and let it be further researched into by the ingenuous for the augment of this Spiritual Science Whether the Faith of Adam in his innocence I do not put here into this inquiry as to the special use and the proper object of it were not for the substance of the Grace one and the same with the New Covenant Grace of Faith Was not Adam in all things to give confident credence to all as to every Truth which Aelohim his Creator had revealed or should further reveal was he not bound to believe in the promised Messiah by the Law of Creation and of Nature as soon as ever Jehovah should reveal this to him The whole Scripture is profitable for this doctrine of the oneness and sameness of old and New Testament Faith and I am perswaded after some years research into the word of Truth about this matter and long experience suited thereunto that one great occasion at least if not cause of the Apostasies and Backslidings of some of the loose ungospel-like and ill-principled-conversation of others and of the practical Atheism and Infidelity of some others and of the doubts and fears and unprofitable walking of other some has been men's unscriptural unwarrantable setting up of so many different Religions in the Old and New Testament and the urging of some one or a few misunderstood misinterpreted Scriptures wrested and wryed to some particular purpose contrary to the drift and intent and scope of the whole Scripture besides which doth write about that Case Whereas the whole Scripture is uniform and harmonious speaking with one mouth one and the same thing The only difference between the Old and the New being in the mode of Administration as has been opened once and again Let me here further add seeing this Objector doth call this a New Law of Faith as a part of the the New Creation brought in and perfected particularly and only upon the first day of the Week and upon no other day as he pretends that this Grace of Faith was put into a Law under the Old Testament Dispensation for besides that if there had been no Law for this Faith under that Dispensation it had been no sin no transgression not to have believed with that Faith for sin is the transgression of some Law and I have shewn it was Christ manifesting himself to Moses in Egypt and in the wilderness whom the Israelites did so often tempt grieve provoke and not not believe But further Faith in that Jehovah Aelohim who proclaimed the ten words at Mount Sinai was a plain duty injoyned in the first word or command and that Promulgator I have proved to be the Messiah or Christ So that it was a duty actually to believe him to believe in him Faith in the Lawgiver is one of the ways and commandments of this Jehovah I had here given a dismiss unto this that I might hasten to the last particular but that I called to mind how another adversary of and objector against the Seventh-day Sabbath had affirmed that the Decalogue had less in it than the Law of Nature and that therefore it was never intended for a mere or perfect Transcript of the Law of Nature Although if he had improved his own concession he might have seen how he tacitely gave an answer to his own Objection for he says That the chief Heads of Natutes Law are contained in the Decalogue He gives instances in divers particulars some of the chief of them in which he seems much to glory I shall examine In which he judgeth the Decalogue is defective such as the belief of the Soul to love our selves with a just and necessary Love to fame and mortifie all our fleshly lusts in order to our Salvation to deny all bodily Pleasure Profit Honour Liberty and Life for the securing of our Salvation Let the considerate Reader now spiritually according to the Word of Truth discern in these matters If the Scripture-rules of interpreting these ten Words Laws or Commands be observed allowed and applyed it will be manifest That they are a comprehensive as for other things so for the particulars specified so far as doth concern the discharge of Duty and the avoiding of Sin These general Laws do take
so a rule unto us under the New And then let me be discharged from this Scholastick War Let this be one premise which is several times in short expressions here and there in this Treatise That it is a choice priviledge and a special liberty which Believers do enjoy under the New Testament Administration of Grace Christ profiteth them nothing by his coming in the Flesh born of the Virgin Mary to accomplish and to perfect the Types of old which did so set out his thus coming who keep themselves still under the former dispensation of Types Shadows and Figures We thankfully acknowledge to the Honour of our LORD that gracious administration especially now towards the latter-day glory of it that we are brought under which if compared with the former under the Old Testament as to the different manner of dispensing For otherwise we are to discover in it's place that the Christian Religion is one and the same for Doctrines Duties Gifts Graces Priviledges under both has excelling advantages such as these for the measures and for the degrees of them It has more lively efficaciousness more quick sensible Fellowship It has more clear convincing Light and more abounding spreading knowledge And blessed be Jehovah who is in this providential day clearing up and reviving some too long neglected Truths and Duties amongst some others this about the weekly Seventh day Sabbath It has more manifested Grace It has a more spiritual way of Worship It has a more excelling Holiness refined purity and shining Glory having through the Spirit who is the LORD more power to transform into this those who with unveiled Face do look into this Glass It has more enlarged liberty of heart in the way and service of the LORD It has more of self evidencingly revealed mysteries It has more Royal privileges set out therefore by a Kingdom of God and of Heaven And the things of it are called Heavenly things This is meant of a Church State here on Earth For above in the Heavenly glory there are no unfruitful ones no Tares no Scandals no Doers of Iniquity no bad Fish no foolish ones This New Testament Church State has the name of a Kingdom of Heaven as it doth much resemble that glorious Kingdom which is above in Heaven in its way of Government In its order of subjection in its sights of Faith in its enjoyments of Communion in its service of Delight and in its conformity of Holiness Here these are in growingness of measure There they are in fulness of Perfection This new Church State has much brought down from Heaven to it Such as are gracious visits from Jehovah-Aelohim in Father Son and Holy Spirit Angelical Ministry like-affectionedness of the perfectly sanctified spirits of just Men and Heavenly Messengers with the Everlasting Gospel This new Church State is drawn up to be much in the Spirit in Heaven above by joynt unions By mutual Fellowships and it doth believe and expect a new Heaven and a new Earth and a new City where they shall be all the Saints and Believers both of Old and New Testament together with one another and with the elect Angels and with their LORD to hidden Age ever as yet Thus it grows up into a Spiritual Kingdom How large and delightful a Field is here for Heavenly Meditation The manner of administring is not now by obscure Types and by darkish shadows as of old but without a veil and open faced yet Christ is the substance of both the Old and the New Testament the same promises and rewards of Life everlasting were in this Christ and purchased by him and there was one way and the same mean of receiving of this under both which was Faith in the Messiah The difference that is between the Old and the New doth discover it self in the Form of dispensation which had a diversity for the manner of it in the Old from the New But this made no real specifick difference or change in the essentials of the Christian Religion Under the Old Believers had an eye towards a Messiah who was then to come in the Flesh to be born of a Virgin and so they eyed the Pattern and Propheties and Promises looking for the coming Christ What were all the Figures and Types the Rites and Shadows but confirmers of their Faith in and encouragers of their hope of Christ's coming In the New we have it revealed that Christ is now actually already come to accomplish those Types and to perfect Salvation by his personal Sacrifice The Reader may therefore be well satisfied in this that our pleading of the cause of the weekly Seventh-day Sabbath as it hath no tendency in it self so no design in me To cast any back or to hold any under the Old Testament Administration as to the Types Shadows and Figures of it much less to draw off or to thrust back any from coming into and enjoying of New Testament priviledges I shall not say that it was the Objectors intended aim but it is evidently consequential from his manner of discourse that his Lines about this would secretly insinuate into the Reader of them as if the Assertors and Observers of the weekly Seventh day Sabbath did Apostatize into Judaic ceremonies I have here another opportunity to wipe off a slanderous charge which some have brought in against us as if we stood guilty according to those two Scriptures in the Margin of catching at the shadow and letting go the body Let it be granted that the Elements Rudiments or first beginnings mentioned in that place of the Epistle to the Galatians are the Mosaical Rites ceremonial Laws and shadows of a Christ who under that dispensation was then to come to be born of a Virgin but is now already come so born This then doth shew that the Apostle condemneth their superstitions observing or their keeping besides Right and Equity as that word which they tranflate ye observe doth signifie when taken in an ill sense Especially when it was with an opinion of acceptance and justification in the sight of God thereby such either un-Scriptural days as were never instituted by Jehovah Christ or Scriptural days in an un-Scriptural manner This were a foul matter of sinful Fact sharply to be reprehended As when either the right object a God in Christ is not worshipped or when for the matter of observing it is not New Testament Worship Or when for the Form of observing of Times and of Worship there was not an orderly address unto Jehovah Aelohim To the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit in a word way not in a spiritual manner not from inward principles of new Nature of Faith of Love and of Obedience or when the ends of observing of Days and Times were not right ends when the Gospel designs of humbling emptying and abasing of Man and of exalting and glorifying of a God in Christ were not promoted thereby when there was a
should withdraw our selves from such It has been great encouragement and sweet satisfaction unto me for divers years that I have Christ and his Word his Will and his Law for me in this Holy Contest His ten Words or Commandments how perfect and complete how standing and unchangeable a Rule of life are they in all and every of the matters of Duty to be performed and of Sin to be avoided It was Jehovah Christ himself who by his Spirit from his Father wrote upon the two Tables the Words of the Covenant the ten Words or Precepts This Scripture more especially I undervalue not any of the rest though this have its signal remark cannot be broken This is a perfect Law These words Jehovah spake and he added no more Christ would not have us so much as think that he came to destroy to dissolve the Law he came not to dissolve but to fulfill He confirms it by an high Asseveration that till Heaven and Earth do pass one Jod or Chirek one either Consonant or Vowel or any thing else originally belonging thereunto shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and such do the most of men compt the weekly Sabbath though misjudgingly and will teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach men the same shall be called Great in the Kingdom of Heaven This Law is established This Law or Testimony is sure or faithful or firm or constant it endures for ever it is standing-abiding continuing firm yet and perpetually This is the Rule of the New Creature by this must we walk This is to be bound up and sealed among Christs Disciples To the Law and to the Testimony must we refer all our Controversies in Religion for Determination and Resolution If any speak not according to this Word it is because No morning-light is as yet in them Here is the full comprehensive of what is our Duty to do Where or for what no Law is there is no Transgression or neither a Transgression Sin is not imputed where is no Law for Sin is a Transgression of the Law Then a Soul is guilty when it sinneth against any of the Commandments of Jehova in what ought not to be done and shall do against any of them This Law of the Ten words was put into the Ark and this alone and nothing else but this put there in which it was so closed as that it was not to be taken out or changed having a Crown of gold by Jehovah's own appointment put round about it This particular Law of the weekly-seventh day-Sabbath has a special mark of remembrance fixt unto it at the very entrance into it This must not be forgotten to be kept Holy and the Works of our particular Functions are expresly prohibited to be done on it This Seventh-day must be sanctified as the weekly Sabbath of Jehovah our God because all and every of those weighty Reasons which Jehovah Aelohim the Law-maker the Law-giver himself hath assigned and rendred and no Reasons can be so demonstrative and convincing as those which he doth give who is only wise from whence to inforce and perswade Obedience to his Command in observing of a Weekly-Sabbath-day Holy to him do properly belong and are applicable to the Seventh which is the last day in every Week in Order of time in the weekly returns of it As the weekly Sabbath-day and to no other day of the Week as such neither to the first second third fourth fifth or sixth day Six daies in the week we are to labour and the Seventh day in the same week is the Sabbath The Seventh-day the seventh-day has its peculiar Note of Honour put upon it There can be but one Seventh day in one Week in the weekly Order and Succession of the Seven days though each of the other foregoing six days in the week are one of seven or one of the seven daily parts of weekly time Every one of the other days of the week have another name as one the second the third the fourth the fifth the sixth Only the last day of the week is called the Seventh day and the Sabbath day Weeks will be to the worlds end concluded within the compass of Seven days One of Aelohims Reasons is because he rested upon the seventh day upon that and that only which is the last day in the week and upon no other day in the week as a weekly Sabbath-day This History of the Creation doth go this day over three times on or in the Seventh-day the Seventh-day the Seventh-day Aelohim rested and again a second time He rested Afterwards in Moses time a little before Christ's Proclaiming of the Law of the Ten words at Mount Sinai the Seventh-day and the rest or Sabbath on it are several times mentioned the Seventh-day the Seventh-day the Seventh-day and a fourth time the Seventh-day The Rest of the Holy Sabbath or a Resting of Holy Rest for Sabbath signifies a Rest a Sabbath the Sabbath the Sabbath the People rested on it At the Promulgation of this Law this same Reason is resumed again For in six days Jehovah made the Heavens and the Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the Seventh-day and therefore His people ought to rest on the same day as the Holy-Sabbath-day The Scriptures do carry this further along after the Promulgation of it Six days shall men work but on the Seventh-day the Seventh-day a Sabbath a Sabbath of rest a Sabbath-day the Sabbath the Sabbath Jehovab rested on this day and refreshed himself Six days thou shalt work but on the seventh-day thou shalt rest thou shalt rest Six days shall work be done but on the Seventh-day there shall be to you an Holy-day a Sabbath of rest to Jehovah the seventh-day is the Sabbath of rest the Sabbath the seventh day is the Sabbath to Jehovah Thus also in the After-Prophets in Jeremiah's days Bear no burden on the Sabbath-day the Sabbath-day the Sabbath-day the Sabbath-day sanctifie the Sabbath-day to do no Work therein The Sabbath-day the Sabbath-day Thus in Nehemiah's time that zealous Reformer would not suffer Ware or any Victuals to be brought to be sold on the Sabbath-day on the Sabbath-day on the Holy-day the Sabbath-day the Sabbath the Sabbath-day the Sabbath the Sabbath the Sabbath No burden shall be brought in on the Sabbath-day the Sabbath the Sabbath-day The New Testament also doth take special notice of this The Seventh-day has the name of Sabbath or of Rest given it there above threeâ—â—ore times They rested Christs followers were silent from the Works of their particular Functions the seventh-day The Seventh-day God did rest the seventh-day from all his Works None of all this is said of any other day of the week Particularly not of the first and therein the LORD Jesus
his Dsiciples that when troublous times would be some years after his Ascending into the highest Heavens they would be much in Prayer that upon the Enemies Invading their Land their flight might not be on the Sabbath lest they should be hindered from or disturbed in the Blessings of that seventh-day which alone has the Name of the Weekly Sabbath Thus is the whole Scripture profitable for the clearing and confirming of these two Reasons of Christs Assigning as I am now also further to manifest that it is so for his third Reason which is this because Aelohim sanctified the seventh which is the last day in every week that and that only and no other day of the week as the Weekly Sabbath-day Thus at the First Creation and Institution the seventh day the seventh-day the seventh-day Aelohim sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which he Created for to make or to do He hath sanctified this same seventh-day he doth and he will sanctifie it setting it apart as the only weekly Sabbath-day for Spiritual services and for other holy ends he segregated it from all prophane common employments and usages and dedicated it to his own peculiar worship It was not to be reckoned nor counted amongst vulgar daies but was to be had and held as solemn and sacred holy and honourable desirable and delightful He hath put a difference between this seventh day and other daies by way of Excellency in a dignifying manner by appropriating and â—evering of it in the special holiness thereof from ordinary foregoing week-daies that are but of a common rank that it may be singularly filled up as becometh the sanctity or holiness of it By this derived or relative sanctity it is the peculiar appropriate day of Jehovah â—lohim He has separated Ordinances for his separated People on this separated day O how holy is Jehovahs seventh-day-sabbath on which he would have his Worshippers to be so Holy All here in this History of the Creation is actual and real Anticipations here have no such place as those pretend who would have this sanctification of the seventh day as a Weekly Sabbath to be only in Aelohims Decree and destination as if it took not place actually till the proclaiming of the Law at Mount-Sinai which was above two thousand years after for this Scripture as others also collated with it do evidently shew that it was thus set apart from the beginning of the World from Adams time and so downwards This History doth treat of Existences of Beings in their Created nature As Aelohim rested on that day Actually and it was made for Adam and for his posterity for that purpose and end that he and they might sanctifie it and that it might be a blessed day to him and to them The Creator and maker of daies did put apart the seventh-day from all and from every of other daies for peculiar uses and Ends. The Proof is convincing enough to the Ingenious and unprejudiced that the sanctification of the seventh-day-Sabbath was before the promulgation of it at Sinai Moses speaks of it as of a thing known using the same reasons and grounds of equity and much in the same words which Aelohim himself used in the proclaiming and referring to the first institution of labouring on the six fore going daies and Sabbatizing on the seventh where the seventh day is mentioned four times and Sabbath Sabbatism Rest Rested about six times declaring that in times past of old Jehovah had given the Sabbath for this end that in it there should be a ceasing from ordinary Labour and accordingly the People rested on the seventh-day-Sabbath at Mount-Sinai the promulgator of this Law himself delivers his mind to be still the same in much plainness of speech six daies thou shalt labour but the seventh day is the Sabbath in it thou shalt not do any work for six daies Jehovah made the Heavens and the Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore Jehovah hallowed the Sabbath day he sacrated it consecrated it sanctified it restored it to its holy use he spiritually distinguished it from the other foregoing six daies of the week Setting it apart for his more solemn worship and instituted service And thus you may carry this sanctification of it through the rest of the Scriptures that do treat on this subject for the People of God all along were Sabbath-keepers and Aelohim-worshippers They remembred this as that word of memoir and of remark bringing in this Law upon their hearts as of special observance The sanctification of the sabbath doth set out sometimes the whole worship of God for where this is duly observed it doth promote all other religion and it is put Prophetically by Isaiah for the spiritual worship under the New Testament dispensation it was instituted to the end that solemn service might be performed to the LORD therein therefore did his People hold publick conventions on the seventh day-Sabbath when they assembled to read to Interpret and to hear the word of Jehovah Aelohim And these were stated ordinances on every such day Then they put up their publick requests and made Prayers to the LORD they then pleasantly sang songs to him they had spiritual conferences holy Arguings heavenly meditations merciful actings It being a day of spiritual delight of heavenly joy and of high praising Then they offered up instituted sacrifices unto him to the honour of his name Which sacrifices now under this administration are spiritual glorious heavenly accepttable to God by Jesus Christ Thus and in such like holy services is it to be sanctified by us The seventh-day-Sabbath is therefore said to be holy unto the LORD's People as it is holy in its Institution and holy unto Aelohim And now is it not great and good reason that these reasons of Aelohims own giving should have a convincing-cogency and winning perswasiveness upon our hearts to yield obedience unto this holy Law of his which is every way so designed and fitted for our own Good I pass on to some other spiritual proofs of this After long and serious search into the whole scripture about this matter I find that all the Scriptures through where the holy Spirit doth speak of a weekly Sabbath day there the name and thing of a weekly Sabbath is given only to the seventh which is the last day of the week in the weekly revolutions and returns and successive courses of it and to no other day of the week as a weekly-Sabbath-day That there is no Command given for the Observation of any other day in the week as the weekly-Sabbath-day but only of the seventh day That there is no promise made to the observing of any other day in the week as the weekly Sabbath-day but only of the seventh day and that there is no threatning either Denounced against or executed upon any that have not observed any other day in