Jehovah forgivest the iniquity of my sin To this agreeth that of Isaiah who brings in Jehovah himself thus speaking I I for my self blot out thy transgressions and remember not thy sin And the same Prophet doth record it of Hezekiah that he thankfully acknowledged this Thou O Jehovah hast cast behind thy back all my sins And that was the same which Isaiah had experienced in his own case Thus speaks the Prophet Micah in an holy triumphing manner Who is a mighty God like unto thee Forgiving iniquity and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his Inberitance Thou wilt cast all their sins into the bottom of the Sea And long before him this was revealed to Moses when Jehovah proclaimed this to be part of his Name He who forgiving iniquity and trespass and sin How often was this Truth preached over in the Sacrifices for Sin offerings and in their Typical Washings and Purifications and such like which held forth this in the spiritual meaning of them And Christ appointed some who in their Function by Office were to teach Jacob his Judgments and Israel his Law to shew them what those Truths and Things were that were so shadowed out by those Figures Thus also was not the Sanctification or Holiness of a Covenant-people The Declared Will of Jehovah Aelohim Is not the Command express in Moses's Book Ye shall sanctifie your selves and be holy for I Jehovah your God And ye shall keep my statutes and do them I Jehovah who sanctifie Ye shall set to it to be holy and ye shall be holy for I holy Has he not put that honour upon them by calling them Saints His Saints An holy People in Covenant with him How many ways did he preach this Doctrine to them The Priests must be Holy the Levites Holy the Prophets Holy the People Holy the Convocation Holy the Sabbath Holy the Place of Worship Holy the City Jerusalem is named Holy the House Holy the Mount Holy the Land Holy the Garments Holy the Tabernacle Holy the Temple Holy the Scriptures Holy the Law Holy the Covenant Holy Did not their whole Burnt-Offerings call upon them to be sanctified throughout their whole intire Spirit and Soul and Body to be kept unblamable Did not the Precepts to abstain from prohibited Pollutions and to use prescribed cleansings in case of contracted uncleanness speak the same Truth Was not the Law of the ten Words a comprehensive perfect Doctrine of all Holiness and Righteousness And are not the Sermons of the faithful Prophets full of Dehortations from sin and of Exhortations to Holiness If thou wouldest be instructed in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Did not the LORD Christ himself prove and teach this out of the saying of Jehovah Aelohim unto Moses in the Bush I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but the God of living From whence he doth infer that though Abraham Isaac and Jacob were dead as to their body yet they were still alive in their Spirit and Soul which bodies were parts of them and therefore their bodies should in time rise again For hereby it was evident that there is another life after this is ended which those departed Saints that were dead as to this life had their shares and parts in So that God not only was heretofore but still now is and will be their God after their death The Bodies of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob shall rise and therefore the bodies of the dead shall rise they shall live again whereas now they are dead and therefore they shall arise For he is their God now they are dead and therefore they shall live again though now they be dead For God is not the God of the dead who are so dead that they shall never live again So that he declaring himself to be their God ever since they were dead it must unanswerably follow as convincingly concluding that their bodies shall live again With what a clear judgement and holy confidence doth Job speak the same truth I know said he that my Redeemer living and that the latter one shall rise upon the dust Therefore after I shall awake and that the worms have digged through this yet in my fiesh I shall see God Whom I shall behold to me and mine eyes have seen and not a stranger My reins are consumed within my bosom Was not Christ's Resurrection plaintly taught in the sixteenth Psalm Where Christ himself doth thus express his sure hope of rising again from death the third day My flesh shall dwell in considence for thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol Thou wilt not give thy gracious Saint to see corruption doth not Peter so interpret this And did not Paul so explain and apply this And if the head be raised must not the members of that body to which the head is so nearly related in union and in fellowship be raised also Hath not David left behind him a lively Testimony of his firm belief of this in his day and time When he set out the different apprehensions that he had concerning his expressed happiness in another better hâ—â— and world from what the unbelieving men of this World had They those mortal men of this transitory World they counted their good things to be their part and portion here in this life I saith he as if he all past into this this was his Belief this was Hope this his Portion this his Happiness I in justice shall view thy faces shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy image There would be a day when he should awake out of the dust of the Earth from the sleep of death when he should see and know plainly and perfectly and bear the Image of the Heavenly The Psalmist speaks of a Morning when those that sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake and rise He believed that Aelohim would redeem his soul from the hands of Sheol because he would receive him A glorious Testimony of his belief of a Resurrection Daniel in his Prophetick Spirit speaks of a time when many of them that sleep in the dusty Earth shall awake some unto everlasting life and some unto reproach and shame everlasting Which doth also point to a Day of Judgement following of this Resurrection Though Daniel in this place doth not seem to speak of the last general Resurrection yet hereby insinuating the Doctrine thereof According as Enoch also the seventh from Adam is recorded by Jude to have Prophetyed Behold the LORD hath come with his holy ten thousands to do judgement against all and convincingly to reprove all those corrupt Worshippers of them concerning all those their works of corrupt worship which they have impiously done and of all their hards which they have spoken against the LORD who sinners worshiping corruptly The wicked shall not stand up in judgement as is
Christ is the great Exemplary Pattern for his Disciples to imitate and to follow he rested on that Seventh-day and therefore his people must also rest on the same seventh-day Thus he himself doth argue He was the First-seventh-day-Sabbath-Observer and under all the several Administrations of Grace He called upon his People to do the same In the days of his flesh here on earth after he was born of the Virgin Mary he through the Weeks of his life yielded Obedience unto this Command by keeping the Seventh-day as the weekly Sabbath-day and no other day in the weekly return as such And this was and is a part of that perfect Righteousness which every sound believer doth apply to himself as his Plea of Justification in the sight of God for his Sin of Sabbath-breaking and every such believer is to conform in Sanctification to Christ in all the Acts of Christs Obedience to this Law of the ten words He as his Custom was went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-day and stood up for to read He taught the people such as would give him the hearing on the Sabbath-days And whither shall we go to get our selves cloathed with Sabbath Righteousness but unto him putting on this Lord Jesus and making this Jehovah to be our Righteousness How can there be such an apt proper distinct suitable Sabbath-Righteousness from Christ applyed to the Soul but by those who make out after that weekly seventh-day-Sabbath-Righteousness which was in its perfection in Christ Those that observe any other day of the week as the weekly Sabbath cannot so directly go to Christ for such a days Righteousness not particularly for the First-days Righteousness as to a Sabbath which First day Christ all his life through never observed as the weekly Sabbath He has left us an example a Pattern a Copy such as Writing Masters do leave to their Scholars that we should follow his steps He that saith he abideth in Christ ought himself also to walk even as he walked Because as he is so are we in this World if we keep to his Rule and Example for the Scripture speaks of things as they ought to be taking it for granted that they be so and they are so so far forth as Believers do act regularly like themselves as doth become them According to this Pattern we have Paul practising after Christs Ascension into Heaven on every Sabbath-day it was his Custom and Usage his constant Practice the same Expression that sets out Christs continued weekly observing of the Seventh-day-Sabbath that it was usual to him is affirmed also of that eminent Servant of his That it was also usual to this Paul O that the same might be truly testified of more in our Day of Leaders and of their People that Christ might hold such forth before others and say Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus The Holy Seed of Christ and of his Church are such as keep these Commands of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ O the happy Progresses O the blessed goings on with a strait foot of such as do his Commandments A Second Reason of his affixing to this Holy Law of the weekly Seventh-day-Sabbath who is Wisdom essential Wisedoms All Wisdoms in one is this For that Aelohim blessed the Seventh which is the last day in the week that and that only and no other day of the week as the weekly-Sabbath-day Thus it was from the beginning and thus it is and will be to hidden ages of hidden ages The blessing is its peculiar Portion and what is Man that he will take away this Heritage of Blessing from the Seventh-day to endeavour to settle it on any other day on the first day particularly where the LORD himself never so gave and secured it The Seventh-day the Seventh-day Aelohim blessed the Seventh-day he hath blessed it he doth bless it and he will bless it and it shall be blessed O blessed day which Jehovah himself hath blessed so blessed This blessing was afterwards renewed revived solemnly openly declared at Mount Sinai and affix'd to the seventh-day Six days thou shalt labour but the seventh-day is the Sabbath In it thou shalt not do any work For six days Jehovah made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh-day Wherefore Jehovah blessed that day that Sabbath the blessing is gone forth for this Seventh-day-Sabbath irreversibly from the Mouth of Jehovah Mashiach himself It has his Applaud and approve for its due estimation and deserved renown its noble majestickness and Royal imperialness How many are the Prerogatives and Priviledges which he hath Conferred upon it Christ is the Seventh-daies-benedictor and benefactor This is the day which he hath Dedicated to the Instituted worship and service of Jehovah Aelohim A day greatly to be desired and delighted in by his Children Friends and Servants as a day of holy rest and of Heavenly joy A day of sweet converse between him and his Saints A day that calleth upon them for a singingshouting-triumphing-rejoycing-frame and therefore there is a peculiar Psalm fitted for this purpose to this end Thus is the Crown of special Benediction put upon the head of the Seventh-day and no other foregoing day of the Week is to share with it in this princely honour Isaiah that evangelical Prophecier and Preacher has from Jehovah Pronounced those Blessed even to admiration O the happy Progresses O the happy goings on of such that do keep this Sabbath and not prophane it They shall enjoy many a covenant-favour O how choice Spiritual blessings are there that do visit the Hearts of Holy observers of this Seventh-day-Sabbath under the New-Testament Administration O what a Blessed day did Christ make it to be unto some whose sick bodies he healed whose sinful Souls he pardoned whose sadned Spirits he comforted unto whom his Gracious words were converting and Restoring teaching and enlightning quickning and strengthning whom he met in Sabbath ordinances and gave them the Blessing of this separated day and how many a Soul had cause to bless the LORD for ever who so prospered Pauls labours on the Seventh-day-Sabbath for blessing for good to them Christ taught daily in the Temple and Paul was often in the Synagogues on the foregoing daies of the Week and much good was done thereby but the whole Scripture doth take peculiar notice of this That the Seventh-day as the Weekly Sabbath-day carried away the Sabbath-blessings which no other day in the week did though the LORD do bless his People every day yet not with Sabbath-blessings but only on the seventh-day Aelohim gave a Special Blessing an appropriated Blessing to this day above all the other daies So true and good is that saying of Christ still That this Sabbath was made for Adam for Man for a blessing to him every way for his cheifest and choicest good It was Christs counsel to
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
make a full end of all those Old Testament Types and Figures becoming now the glorious Mediator of the New Testament which is established or legitimated in better Promises The holy Spirit hereby signifying this that the way of this Heavenly Sanctuary the Holy of Holies was not yet made manifest to be perfectly accomplished till Christ ascended there whereby there is evident proof made that the Aaronical Levitical Priesthood being a Type Figure Pattern and Shadow of this Coelestial super-Coelestial Priesthood of Christ did stil stand till then and was not to give way and place as a Type and Figure unto the Antype and Truth until this great High Priest Christ went into Heaven The Birth the Life the Passion the Death the Resurrection the Ascension of Christ have every one of them somewhat peculiar in them as to the Redeeming-work and must all of them be put together for the thorough completing of so good and so gracious so great and so glorious a Work But those who would make the Resurrection-day of Christ to speak that about a pretended change of the weekly Sabbath from the Seventh day to the first should consider that the perfect consummation of this Work in the Antitype was at Christ's ascending up into Glory Then did he Captive Captives unto himself which was done when he thus went up on high which was a part of Redeeming Work The effusion of his holy Spirit was one Fruit of Christ's Ascension thither Into Heaven he went in the name of his people for their good to take possession for them Now hereby was the Heavenly Holy of Holies opened Here did this high Priest intercede for those whom the Father gave unto him The Priests entring into the Holiest was a Type of this yet in some things there was a difference The Typical high Priest of old was to enter in there once every year But Christ entred into Anti-typical Heaven once for all The High Priest of old entred into the Type with the blood of Bulls and of Goats Christ entred into Heaven with his own blood The High Priest appeared of old before the Ark for the people a little while and then came away quickly agen But Christ for ever doth appear before God his Father having hereby obtained Eternal Redemption for those who are his What shall I more say about this To expound the whole of the Old Testament pattern as to the matters of worship and in all the other parts of that Administration and then to apply it in the new how exactly one doth correspond to the other were task enough for a long Life That the shadowy ceremonies and figuring Types of the Old Testament as such that is to say as shadowy ceremonies and figuring Types are done away and leave no obligation of duty upon Believers under this New Testament ministration to observe and perform the outward part of them I would thus demonstrate by Arguments drawn from those Propheties in the Old Testament which do foretel this The LORD Jesus Christ upon his coming in the flesh born of a Virgin was to cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and thus he bespeaks his Father Sacrifice and Oblation thou wouldest not mine ears hast thou digged open burnt-offering and sin-offering thou askedst not Then said I lo I come in the Roll of the Book it is written of me My God I delight to do thy acceptable will and thy Law is within my Bowels Christ's Ear was digged open it was pierced and became listning to his Father's call and obedient to his Father's voice his Ears were bored by the Father whose servant for ever Christ was the Father fitted a Body to this beloved Son of his preparing and ordaining it to be an ordinary and expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the World it being impossible that ceremonial sacrifices should purge away sins which therefore were now refused as unprofitable and they received their perfection and accomplishment in Christ I argue further from those Scripture Names which are given unto those Rites and Ceremonies whereby their Nature is aptly expressed and significantly described sometimee they are set out by Types as they were under the old to which the Anti-types do directly answer in the New so that the old Types do give place and the new Anti-types do stand in their Room those Types being representing signs as of some spiritual thing signified then so also of some future thing come to pass now which being come to pass as it had a correspondency to the former so also did it do away the external part of that which had before adumbrated it They are in other places called shadows which are obscure representations of somewhat else that was the express form they were a picturing delineation and a well drawn Image of Heavenly things of future good things They were exemplars as so many Images representing of Christ and of his benefits They were a parable or collation an artificial prefiguring narration of somewhat else signified thereby a form of Ritual Worship which served for that time under that administration putting somewhat that was visible before the eyes which yet had a more inward mysterious meaning in it They were fleshy and flesh those external ceremonies and outward works were exercised about outward earthy crass infirm and fading things hence the Laws and commands about them are said to be fleshy precepts injoyning the offering up the flesh of bulls rams and goats they were fleshy rites and one of their signs that of Circumcision was a mark in the flesh The Reader should not here mistake me as if I were in this against all the outward part of Worship now under the New Testament whilst I declare the abolishing of those external sacrifices and outward Rites which were Typical and figuring of old A just respect of outward reverence is due unto Jehovah Aelohim where he doth manifest his gracious presence Here is a duty of veneration to be expressed by outward gesture Although the inward Worship be principally in several respects intended and required yet the outward and bodily part is not excluded but enjoyned also such as elevation of the Eye and palms of the Hands bowing kneeling and the like where meet circumstances of time and place and other parts of the case are fitted for it The LORD made the body of Man to be worshipped and glorified by as well as the Spirit and Soul and Believers have a promise and so are under expectation of having their bodies glorified as well as their spirits and souls in the World and Life to come and if they look for a glorifying reward they should perform a worshiping work though the inward worship be the life of the outward worship yet the outward must be expressive of the inward the one is not complete without the other Where there is only the outward worship without the inward there the worship doth
in more particulars than is commonly observed for the particulars are expressed by some word or other in the general Law which by collating of other Scriptures in the Original words and phrases doth evidently demonstrate this which is well worth the noting and improving for the advancement of this decalogue-Science The definition of every one of the ten Words is so fully and comprehensively fitted as they take in all the Laws of Natural Holiness and Righteousness So that we may say with the Psalmist In all perfection I have seen an end but thy commandment O Jehovah is very large O how I love thy Law To believe that the Soul is what Scripture and Nature do say that it is is comprehended in the Decalogue The Maker and Giver of this Law is the best Interpreter of it When the Lawyer asked Christ which was the great Commandment in the Law The LORD Jesus answered him Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thine understanding and with all thy strength This is the first and the great Commandment and the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self On these two Commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets Observe here Is not the Soul particularly taken notice of in the expression And that too as a distinct essential constitutive part of man from the spirit and body And is not this a Word to be believed Is it not plain here that the Scripture Doctrine of the Soul is to be believed And this as comprehended within the due bounds of the Decalogue That Christ doth here speak of the Law of the ten words is evident by collating of other Scriptures which do historically relate the same thing where the Preface Hear O Israel doth shew that it is meant of this Law of the ten words seeing there is a particular enumeration of several of the ten Words in express terms Which ten Words do summarily contain the whole Doctrine of Holiness and of Righteousness whatsoever the Law and the Prophets do speak of And how much is there in these concerning the Doctrine of the Soul This exposition of the Law-maker himself is a sufficient warranting of this interpretation For he doth make the sum of the first Table to which the four first words do belong to be the loving of Jehovah our Aelohim with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might And the sum of the second Table which takes in the six last words to be Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self And the expressions which Christ doth use are remarkable the whole Heart the whole Soul the whole Strength the whole Mind which words do take in the whole Power and Powers of the inner and outer man The whole strength doth more properly set out the might of the Body in the external Members Limbs and Parts of it The whole Heart doth express all the Inwards of the bodily fleshy part of man The whole Mind doth call for the Vigour and Activity the light and life of the Spirit of Man The spirit of a Man is naturally Luminous and has Light enough in it to demonstrate his Being to be distinct from the respiring faculty in Man So that the whole in his All and in every part of him is concerned and engaged in this Love And all these words thus put together do discover and declare that this Law of the Ten Words doth extend to Spirit Soul and Body both the External and Internal parts of the Body which three do constitute and make up a complete Man And the LORD can make this good use of this part of the Answer to put the Readers upon further Inquiries into the Word of Truth after the true nature and proper difference of their Spirits Souls and Bodies and what the distinct duties of each are and wherein they must all joyntly agree in obeying this precept of Love The Fourth Word doth declare Jehovah Aelohim to be the Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all things that are therein and the Soul of Man is one of these things which he created and made It is of the Law of Nature agreeably to the Word to believe that souls are and that there is a Maker of them And that it is a duty both to get more of the knowledge of our souls and with our souls to love and honour the Creator of them To love our selves with a just and necessary Love as such is of the Law of Nature He that doth it not is a Self Murderer he doth kill somewhat or other of himself which is against the express Letter of the Sixth Word Those that by sinning against and hating of the LORD Christ are Oppressors Wrongers Abusers of their own Souls and love death they do that by which they bring death and destruction upon themselves and so do not discharge that duty which under and for him they owe unto themselves To love our Neighbour as our selues is of the Law of Nature in the Decalogue which is the sense that the Law-giver himself doth give of his own Law This Objector himself doth acknowledge all the Duties of self-love to be deeply written in Man's Nature but in this he doth mistake in that he saith That all the Duties of self love as such are passed by as supposed in Moses's Decalogue In the way men should use more tenderness in their expressions about these holy Laws of Christ upon which he himself doth put so much honour This Adversary doth sometimes call it a Jewish Law and here Moses's Decalogue when he had before and after written so much diminitively about these ten Words whereas the Scriptures do name them with more honour the Words of the Covenant the ten Words the ten Words which Jehovah spake which he gave unto Moses Moses called them the ten Words of Jehovah's Covenant which Jehovah wrote upon two Tables of Stone with many more of such glorious Names and Titles But to my matter in hand If these Duties of self love are supposed where are they supposed if not in this present comprehensive Law which doth include all Duties Christ's Rules of Interpreting do expresly take in self-love making this commanded Duty of self-love to be the measure of our Love to our Neighbour the one must be regulated by the other according to the Word In his own Commentary upon his own Law he doth affirm all the Law and the Prophets to make a regular Love to our selves to be the measure of our Love to others This Law of self-love is not then so passed by but that in express terms if we will take Christ for an Interpreter it is a Duty required in the Law of the ten Words Both Old and New Testament do speak one and the same thing in this matter And men will never be thorowly true right lovers of
Nature the King of Kings and Lord of Lords sitting on the glorious Throne of his exalted Majesty at the right hand of his Father negotiating all the weighty affairs of such more especially whom the Father hath given unto him There he continually presenteth himself and the All-sufficiency and full satisfactoriness of his sacrifice and oblation and the purchases of his passion and the merits of his death There he appears in a Court both of Justice and Mercy as an Advocate before the face of God making intercession for thee that all procured benefits may be made effectual for thee In that highest world there mayst thou see thousand times thousands ministring before the LORD and ten thousand times ten thousands of glorious Angels standing before Him these with the Spirits of just men perfectly sanctified worshipping before the throne of God and of the Lamb where his Servants serve him and see his face O my Soul be thou in the Spirit with those doing their work and enjoying their priviledg by improving a mystical Membership Lo there the new four-squared City Christ's Father's house which he is gone before to prepare that He and His good Disciples may be together there Enter in there and take possession of thy mansion Behold above this lower Firmament are the Treasures of Rain and of Dew of Snow and of Hail of all the upper waters when thou hast been there where thou hopest to be for ever come down a while and let thine Eye glance it self upon the visible objects of this middle world seest thou the yonder azure expanse O what a goodly Canopy hath the LORD spread over thy head observest thou what glittering spangles the starry studs are what shining balls the Sun and Moon are how glorious is their beauty how golden are their beams how operative their influences All that vast space of Heavens which my eye can compass the Sun the Moon and the stars these are thine a Part of thy Portion how useful a Creature is that light by which other visibles are discovered and discerned Here mayst thou see the cloudy bottles and the flying Fowls Here is the Air in which thou dost breath step one stair lower now and walk the earth a while If thou well observest it in its seasons in its springing verdure how lovely doth it appear in it 's garnished ornaments and green attire green a colour both pleasing and strengthening to the Eye whereas if it shewed its beauty only in white it would dazle thy fight into a blindness O what admirable variety is there here The grass I tread on how many are its kinds of how great benefit is this The herbs were made for my use and they have often served at my Table and have been both for food and for medicine how often have the flowers perfumed the Air for me and brought me in their sweetness in their way of natural perception taking some kind of delight that their maker has put any thing into them that might be pleasurable to me How many are the sorts of Fruit-bearing-trees and how often have their fruits dropt themselves to me and yielded themselves to my gathering and several of them have travelled scores hundreds and some of them thousands of miles to visit me and to let me know from Christ that much of the end of their being was to find out my hand and to fill my mouth How many springs have been flowing and Rivers running and wells filling to afford me water How often have I eaten of the kidneys of wheat of the finest of the flower How often have the well-fed both of the flock and of the herd parted with their lives to make meats and feasts for me What shall I say how many thousands of hands have wrought hard for me who never saw my face nor knew my name The Ploughman the sower the reaper the in-gatherer the thresher the winnower the seller the miller the kneader the baker the carder the spinner the weaver the dyer the clothier the taylor with multitudes of more and all these under my LORD Jesus Christ my Servants employed by him for a supplying good to me Shall I now dig deep and get into the bowels of this earth O what a hidden Kingdom of subterraneous minerals is here Here are the roots of those Trees which have afforded their beams of Timber for my habitation Here are the quarries of stone which have yielded materials to raise up walls for me to dwell safely within Here the Colliers dig hard to send in winter fewel to me Here the Searchers after the mines do find out the Tin and the Lead the Iron and the Steel the Brass and the Copper the Silver and the Gold which so often have brought me in some of their necessary Supplies If I go down to the Sea the great and wide Sea in a Ship there I may see the works of Jehovah and his wonders in the Deeps in the great waters which are under the earth How large and how deep a Subject is there here to swim and to fail in There are things creeping innumerable both small and great there the Whales the Sea-dragons do play in the troublesom Deep at the bottom whereof is the mire of Depth where is no standing And now my Soul thy meditations have led thee to the lowest world to Hell beneath a place out of which the Creator will fetch the glory of his Justice a place full of terrible confused darkness a place of torment Here I see the two-leafed-doors unfolding and opening of themselves before my thoughts through which passage when the damned are entred these doors do close themselves over such and they are left to sink and to fall down into the gulphy empty space a dark dreadful deep where are no walls to hang by nor any stay to rest on where the black passengers bound hand and foot are thrown down being amazingly surprized with overwhelming horrour full of fears they sink lower and lower till the bottomless pit of Hell do open its mouth upon them gaping wide to swallow them down into a foul and hideous prison a doleful place where are yelling Complaints and howling noises woful out-cries and frightful shrieks Thus have I taken a short view of the manifold marvellous works of Jehovah Aelohim as made in admirable wisdom How ample and large how clear and splendid how illustrious and magnificent is his name in all the earth who hath given his glorious Majesty above the Heavens who or what am I that he hath given me such an excellent formation as to behold and admire to acknowledg and confess his incomparable perfections in his gracious words and in his glorious works That he made me a tongued Trumpeter to proclaim and to commend his power and skill in so wonderful a Creation and that he has not taken me hence before I left behind me some written printed Testimony of his Royal Excellencies I was now passing into a Sabbath-enjoyment as
on the Sabbath In obedience to this Law and Command of Christ it was that Paul preached and the People heard the word of God on this Sabbath-day some years after Christ was Ascended up into Glory Whither can the Observers of the First day as the Weekly Sabbath-day go to find out Commands in the whole Scripture for their day One of the adversaries of the seventh-day-Sabbath who appeared in Writing against a Letter of another to him upon his own desire which conteined some reasons and Scriptures for the weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath He in delivering his Judgment concerning the First day upon this Question whether there be any Express word for the Institution of the first day of the week to be observed as the Lords-day the day for his Weekly Sabbath has these passages we might say that it might be Instituted though it be not Recorded he meaneth in the Scriptures When and where and again t is acknowledged saith he we have no express word in so many letters and Words or Syllables for the Institution of the First day of seven And a Third time what if it should be said that he that is that Jesus Christ the Mediator did according to his Power actually change the day though when and how it be not recorded And a Fourth time why might he not Institute this he intends the first day although it be not expressed when or where and though it be not recorded Observe here thou who readest this with a desire to have the mind of Christ in this matter Suppose in the serious tenderness of thy Heart thou shouldest enquire of this Answerer whether there be any Institution of the First day of the week to be Observed as the Weekly Sabbath-day under the New-Testament in the Room of the weekly seventh-day-Sabbath and he should say there may be an Institution of the First day of the Week as the Weekly-Sabbath-day though it be not recorded Suppose thou shouldest further ask when for the time might this Institution be if it were at all And he should reply there might be an Institution though it be not recorded when for the time Put case thou demand of him further where for the Place might this supposed Institution be And he should tell thee there might be an Institution though it be not Recorded where for the place Upon this thou further propoundest this to him how is this pretended Institution for the occasion or manner that I might be somewhat Directed in my practise if it were manifested to be my Duty to observe the first day as the weekly Sabbath-day To which he should return thee these words there might be an Institution though it be not recorded how for the occasion or manner Can such answers as these give thee any Convincing Demonstration or satisfying Evidence What After all thy Trading in Sabbath-Religion wilt thou at last be sent thou knowest not whether to pretended unwritten verities for thy Religion Art thou under any Obligations of Conscience in these matters to beleive further than what is written Can thy spiritual Appetite savour in such Cases what is not written As for any other Framed Fancyed Forged Grounds of Instituting the First day as the weekly Sabbath-day from pretended practise of the Apostles for this end in this or any other Author I meet with or from what other Reasons Conjecturally unscripturally suggested it will be spoken unto in its place Only here is one part of the fore-mentioned passage which I would write somewhat about lest the force of the answerers Arguing should be thought to be passed by unobserved which is that expression according to his Power whereby the answerer intends that Jesus Christ as Mediator had Power to Change the Weekly Sabbath from the Seventh which is the last day to the First day of the Week What Power the LORD Jesus Christ as Mediator has received I thankfully acknowledge and through Mercy and Grace purchased by him for me and freely richly given from the Father to me in the supplies of the holy Spirit I have been for several years an applyer of a liver upon and somewhat an Improver of though I find great cause to be deeply humbled for that I have put it to no better use As for the Power of Christ considering him as mediator we have it from his own Mouth in his life time that the Father had given all Judgment unto the Son That the Father hath given unto Christ Power to do Judgment because he is the Son of Man that the Father hath given all things into his hand And a little before his death that the Father gave him power of all Flesh And after his Resurrection that unto him all Authoritative Power was given in Heaven and on Earth This is my Faith and my Food Yet withal it must be considered that Christ as Mediator was one put into Office by his Father and sent by him in a delegated Function having his proper work assigned him And thus his Power was Limited Let us search whether the whole Scripture be profitable for this In the Law of Moses there is a Prophesie that Jehovah the Aelohim of his People would raise up unto them a Prophet meaning the LORD Jesus Christ as is manifest by a collation of those other Scriptures which do so interpret this from the midst of them of their Brethren like unto Moses unto him they were to hearken and I said Jehovah the Father will give my words into his Mouth and he shall speak unto the People all that I shall Command him And it shall come to pass that the Man who will not hearken to my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Remark here It was the Father who raised up Christ to this Office of being a Prophet they were the Fathers words which were given into Christs Mouth and Christ was to speak unto the People all that which the Father should Command him They must be the Fathers words and it must be in the Fathers Name that Christ was to speak To this Clause in the Commission must Christ keep close And accordingly so he did In the Book of the after-Prophets you may read Jehovah the Father thus speaking concerning his Son Christ behold my servant whom I uphold mine Elect my Soul delighteth I have given my spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgment to the Nations Christ as Mediator was his Fathers Servant he took upon him the Form of a Servant and the Servant must keep close to the will and word and Command of him whose Servant he is especially in this case where all and every of the words and wills and Commands of the Father are Holy just and good And it is fore told of Christ that he would when he had a bodie Prepared for and taken to him thus bespeak his Father I take pleasure O my Aelohim to do thy well-pleasing thy will as Christ else where in the history of
away those Idolatrous Names of daies As Sunday c. of which Jebovah has prophesied that He will cut them off Having thus far attended the Weekly-seventh-day-Sabbath in its strait-footed walk in a plain path through the whole Scripture there thwarts the Reader now a straying company that would perswade him to get into another way along with them the way of the first day as the weekly-Sabbath as if this were now the New-Testament-Dispensation And for this they would have him to consider these Scriptures in the Margin as Translated out of the Greek into English Before I return an express direct Answer to the several particular Scriptures themselves I advise the Reader to ask these Transferrers of the Weekly-Sabbath-day from the seventh to the first day of the week when they judg it was that the first day of the week began to be the weekly Sabbath-day Most will say that it began on the particular day of Christ's Resurrection by Christ himself Some few will assert that it was a little after that Resurrection by the Apostles of Christ but all of them will acknowledge that it was before any part of the New-Testament was written It being so then let the Reader improve this last Concession and further demand of these men if one of the Apostles as Peter by name for Supposition had preached up this Doctrine that the Weekly Sabbath-day under the New-Testament-Administration of Grace was translated and changed from the Seventh which is the last day of Week to the first day of the week and that one of the Hearers had asked Peter upon what Scripture do you bottom this Doctrine How are whatsoever words of God were heretofore written Profitable and written for such a Doctrine What Answer do these Men imagine that Peter could have returned The New Testament was not then written and all the Scriptures which they then had were the Writings of the Old Testament Those of Moses and of the Prophets This Hearer searcheth these and can meet with no such thing in the Preceptive or Prophetical or Promissary part of that Word neither could any other refer him to clear-convincing-proofs of this How then could this Man be well satisfied that this was True Doctrine when he could not find it in his Bible but the quite contrary all the Old Testament through another day the Seventh in order of Created Time all along Commanded and commended And if this Hearer should further have asked Peter If I should work upon the seventh-day contrary to the Precept in the Law what Scriptures would bear me out in so doing when I appear before the righteous Judg who has in so many Words forbid this and so often in all the Scriptures that I have which speak of this thing and if I do not observe the first day as the Weekly-Sabbath-day but do work on that day having Aelohim's Command and Example for it what Scriptures have you by which to reprove me After this Arguing what could Peter have replyed to this from Old-Testament-Scripture I leave the Reader further to improve this in his Study and Meditation For the Christianized believers did search the Scriptures whether those things which the Apostles of Christ taught them were so or not even in the Case of Paul himself who was one of the most Eminent and most used of them all I shall now in the supplies of the Spirit of Holiness according to the word of Truth discover the deceitful colours of these Mens wrestings of some Scriptures and then shew the Reader the convincing reprehension of those Colours Which colours how fair soever to outward appearance for a while yet are a false Disguise a Paint that will melt away before the fire of the Word The Fallacies are soon detected and confuted before a discerning and judicious an unprejudiced and Impartial Reader There are some Scriptures in our English Bibles of the New-Testament say these Objectors which do speak of the first day of the week as the day of Christ's Resurrection when he rested from his work of Redemption which is now appointed and determined as the Weekly-Sabbath-day unto the Church in memory of Christ's Resurrection One of the Sabbaths doth frequently occur and is the same with the first day of the week One being often put for First the Numeral for the Cardinal The generality of the Antients both Greek and Latin agree whose Testimony about the sense of aWord is the best Dictionary and Evidence we can expect and this same phrase used of the day of Christ's Resurrection by the Evangelists proveth it Thus they say The Resurrection of Our LORD Jesus Christ from the Dead on the third day according to the Scriptures I thankfully acknowledg together with the many exceeding great and precious priviledges and benefits thereof and through Mercy and Grace I do firmly believe and particularly apply This true Doctrine is one main part of that solid Foundation on which we are to bottom our Hope and O how gladly could I here lay aside this Controversie and be taken up with sweet Delight and with Rapturing joy into an Heavenly Meditation on an arisen Saviour Here could I leave this unkind World and wrangling-generation and get up above that I might rise with Christ to be where he is to behold his Glory O how willingly could I here breath and long desire and pant that this arisen Redeemer whom my Soul loves would be with my Spirit that my spirit might be more with him O that I might more Experimentally sensibly satisfyingly Know and acknowledge that Power that Vertue of his Resurrection That I might more and better Evidence my being planted into it by walking in Newness of life Here could I bid this Fallacious Sophistry of Quarrellers with Christ's weekly seventh-day-Sabbath to stay behind whilst I find my heart with much Complacencie safely lodged in a full Christ and in his sull Word O the Savourie-nourishing-Meditations that this Subject-Matter would afford Here the admiring Soul may pass into a spiritual-Rest by silent-Thinkings secret Adorings Marvelling-loves Exalting-Praises and Filling-enjoyments But the Reader expects an Answer In all the places of the New Testament relating to the matter in hand where the last English Translation doth render it the first day of the week the Words do properly signify one of the Sabbaths except only in one place where it is the first day of the Sabbath The meaning whereof may be afterwards opened All the other places you may find cited in the Margin and the words in the Greek rightly done into English in every one of these are one of the Sabbaths not the first day of the week nor the first of Sabbaths nor the alone Day or only day or Sabbaths Not at all concluding the first day of the week to be now the Weekly Sabbath-day in the room of the seventh which the words do not mean either in their proper Significancie or intended sense as they stand in Syntax or Coherence
therefore and the comparative like as in the seventh Verse of the third Chapter relating to the twelfth Verse of the same Chapter doth shew the exhortation to be inforced upon the Believer therefore as the Holy Spirit exhorteth you to believe and obey the Voice of Christ so look to it that you do believe and obey his Voice The reason is strong from an example of old because your Fathers who contemned the Voice of Christ and did not contemper the word with Faith were frustrated of the Heavenly rest The reason of which consequence is seeing there is the like reason of you and of them For both to you and them it was Evangelized in the second Verse of the fourth Chapter The whole drift of the Discourse from the seventh Verse of the third Chapter to the eleventh Verse of the fourth Chapter doth respect a professing people that would pass for the people of God and be accounted Travellers towards the promised Heavenly rest which none but the believing perswadeable obedient true spiritual Israel of God would enter into The Sabbatism or rest spoken of in the first third ninth tenth and eleventh verses of this fourth Chapter is a rest that remaineth in the sixth and ninth verses of the same Chapter A rest that was before them towards which they were travelling and short of which they should fear lest they came by their loytering behind in the first Verse A rest that in the time of the Authour of this Epistle when he wrote this was as to himself and the believing people of God then alive before them and they were left behind it as yet short of it Into which they were not as then so fully entred but they were under a promise or expectation thereof And the same may be said of his believing people who are now alive in the present day whilst it is called to day There is a promised rest which they should have in their eye which they are not as yet so thorowly passed into Of which that place in the Psalm was a Typical prediction The rest here is a rest yet in the promise yet to come and hoped for attainable enterable and enjoyable if unperswadeableness hinder not The Eleventh verse doth again introduce and enforce the principal exhortation by way of rational inferehee and by a doubled Argument Therefore let us study to enter into that rest that not any one sall by the same example of disobedience If we believe and obey Christ's Voice we shall then enter into it but if not we shall be shut out from it as those were who died away in their unperswadeableness The whole Context both in this place and in the Psalm doth evidently demonstrate that the rest here treated of and foretold by David is such a rest as out of which the unbelieving unperswadeable and disobedient living and dying such would be shut and into which the believing perswadeable and obedient such a people of God should enter and none but such Which therefore cannot be ineant of a pretended first day of weekly rest For if that had been the rest the believing had already actually entred into not only the outward but also the inward rest and even the unbelieving had actually entred into the outward part of that rest had they so far observed it as the weekly Sabbath Whereas the Israelites in Type in Moses's time had not entred so much as into the outward part of the Type of it That is to say not those of them who were above twenty years of Age when the Spies returned from searching the Land All except Joshuah and Caleb died short of Canaan that were above that number of years whether Believers or unbelievers All the Promises and the Threatnings the Exhortations and the Cautions and such like that are made use of in all this Discourse do plainly relate to a prosessing people according as they believe or believe not and so do enter or not enter into this rest As for what doth concern the parallel wherein it doth not hold and wherein it doth hold I shall open now my thoughts The Parallel here is not between God the Father as Creator and his Son Christ as Redeemer though there are some others that would have it so For the LORD Jesus himself the Christ the Mediator was the Creator not excluding the Father nor the Holy Spirit As I have proved before in this Treatise and have here again put some of the Scriptures into the Margin which the Reader may examine if he have need The Authour of this Epistle doth industriously prove and promote this great Truth of Christ's Jehovah ship or God-ship by his Creator-ship as well as by other Arguments from Scripture That God who is spoken of in the tenth verse of this fourth Chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews is the same Christ by whom the Father made the Worlds the Ages He was the LORD in the beginning who laid the Foundation of the Earth and the works of whose hands the Heavens were as is declared in the second and tenth Verses of the first Chapter the same God who built all things in the fourth verse of the third Chapter Which doth make way for the following discourse concerning his rest and entring or not entring into it as Christian Professors did believe and obey or not As this Objector himself doth elsewhere confess upon the tenth Verse of the third Chapter that Christ is so brought in as God and expresly called God to make way for this following discourse about works and rest The same God whose voice from his Father by his Spirit in his Word the Israelites of Old and the Hebrews in this Authour's time were called upon to hearken unto in the seventh and fifteenth Verses of that third Chapter The same living God from whom they should take heed lest by an evil Heart of unbelief in them they did depart in the twelfth Verse Which the Authour doth expresly interpret of Christ in the fourteenth Verse The same God who was tempted provoked grieved disbelieved by the Israelites in the Wilderness in the eighth ninth tenth sixteenth and seventeenth Verses of this third Chapter which also is confirmed elsewhere in the Word the same God who did rest the Seventh-day from all his Works which were finished from the foundation of the World in the third and fourth Verses of the fourth Chapter The same God who has a people more pecularly belonging unto him in the ninth Verse The same God whose Word is quick and powerful or living and active and sharper than any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and of Spirit and of the Joynts or Nerves and Marrow and is a critical discerner or a Critick of the imaginations and thoughts of the Heart in the twelfth Verse hold forth also in other Scriptures The same God who is the great high Priest of his People passed into the Heavens as into the full Rest