was to be in the family posterity or Son of Mat. 1. 1. David and is him who was represented typified or prefigured by the Tabernacle Temple and Ark and that is onely in the Lord Jesus Christ And so Arnobius expounds that Prophecie c Arnob. iâ— Psal 131. Requies Dei in Jesu evidens est specialis in quo est arca This Rest of God is meant evidently of Jesus in whom especially was the Ark of God That which the great Prophet Isaiah saith of the progeny of Jesse may put us out of doubt that Jesus onely is the Sabbath or Rest of the Godhead Is 11. 1. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him For from Jesse came David from David came Christ and upon Christ doth the Divine Spirit or Godhead for ever rest And this Rest of the Godhead is the very same thing which was signified by that heavenly voice of God the Father uttered more then once in the Gospell This is my beloved Son in whom I am Mat. 3. 1 17. 5. Beza in Math. 3. 17. well pleased which Beza most pertinently and for weighty reasons renders In quo acquiesco i. e. In whom the Godhead doth acquiesce or is at rest For if God were not well pleased and satisfied and at rest with mankind by Christ the expostulation of the Psalmist might with trembling be taken up by us all Wherefore hast thou made all men Ps 89. 46. for nought If it be here said that this Rest of the Godhead in Christ may possibly signifie the continuall and sempiternall mansion conjunction and union of God and man in Christ So that by these two ingrediâ—nts of Godhead and Manhood thus joyned one Hypostatical or Personall union is made whereby God and Man are become one Person and shall so rest inseparably for ever To this we answer and affirm that all the said allegation is true and that Christ may rightly be called the Rest of God in consideration of the everlasting union of the Godhead with the human nature of Christ But withall we say that there is more to be considered in this Rest than onely a meer union of God with man For we must further enquire Why it pleased the Almighty Godhead to condescend to this abasement and Exinanition so as to be personally united with a creature and to be in the form of a servant whereby the mighty God in the person of the Son became mortall and subject to all the infirmities of mankind except sin and even death also By the serious meditation hereof we shall find that the finall cause or motive of this union of the Godhead with our human nature was not intended or effected for any rest contentment or complacency of the Godhead for it self because God in respect onely of himself did not stand in need of any such Rest oâ— he had from eternity all possible blessednesse rest and Ineffable happinesse and so would have had everlastingly although neither Man nor Angel nor the World had been creaâ—ed or although God the Son or Word had never been incarnate Therefore it must needs be granted that the Incarnation was designed by God for the rest and benefit not of God but of mankind as we are excellently taught by * Atha ser 3 cont Ariâ—n Athanasius that God the Son had never been ordained to become Emmanuel or Incarnate if Mans necessity for Redemption had not wanted and necessarily required it Thus he It being thus evident that this Rest of God is not called a Rest in respect of himself but only in respect of that Rest which by his goodnesse and mercy he hath ordained for his poor Creatures It must needs follow that God calleth that his Rest which is indeed not only principally but solely the Rest of Mankind For our Lord Jesus the Emmanuel is therefore the Rest or Sabbath of the Godhead because he is the Rest or Sabbath of us Men in whom and through whom only our otherwise languishing and fainting souls may find consolation rest and refreshment he is the only solid hope and Sabbath upon whom we can depend and rest and expect and hope for an eternall Rest for in and by him only the offended Godhead is reconcileable so as to be at peace and Atonement with Man and to rest satisfied or well pleased as the Angels sang at his Nativity Glory be to God and on Earth peace Good will towards Men Or as Beza more truly reads it To Men Beza in Luk. 2 of good will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is To Men designed by Gods free Grace and good pleasure From these premises I infer the 4 conclusions following which I offer to the consideration of the Christian Reader and do here set them down that in this Doctrine of the Sabbath I may be rightly and plainly understood First That Christ is that only Sabbath or Rest both of God and Man which is mentioned and meant in the fourth Commandement and also in Gen. 2. 2. Secondly That Christ is therefore called the Rest of God because God hath in mercy ordained him to be the Rest for Mankind Thirdly That God cannot otherwise be said to Rest in Christ for our good but only because all faithful and holy Men do set up their Rest in Christ Fourthly That the Rest of God here meant consisteth only in the Rest of Man and that God calleth that his Rest which indeed is primarily and properly Mans Rest The Rest of God cannot be meant of any new rest in respect of himself only because it is impossible that any increase or access can be added to infiniteness such as is the blessed eternal and unspeakable Rest of the Godhead Therefore there must needs be some other external respect in which God is said to rest otherwise than before and that surely is the Rest which he hath procured for Man which God calleth his own Rest The holy Scriptures do very often ascribe the passions or affections of Men unto God as when God is said to repent to be angry to be greived and vexed and displeased although we are sure that no such changes can consist with the immutable Godhead for the same Scripture that saith in one place It repented Gen. 6. 6. 1 Sam. 15. 29 the Lord In another place saith The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent Therefore such speeches are but Anthropo-pathetical or after the manner of Men as a Man puls down an house which himself built because he is angry or displeased with it so God in justice destroyes some Creatures which himself made yet God is not angry but because he doth such a thing as Man in Anger doth therefore he is said to be angry Just so the Rest which is only in Man is here for the like reason called Gods Rest As when a provident Father hath settled a good and
John saith The Word was with God and The Word Joh. 1. 1. was God Psal 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all Who this Wisdom and Beginning and Word is by which all things were made the Gospell hath taught us that it is Christ who is not onely the Beginning and the Word as it is said but is also called The Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And All things were made by him Joh. 1. 3. and All things by him were created that are in heaven and that are in earth Col. 1. 16. The Jews in disparagement of Christ Maâ— 6. 3. Matth. 13 55. called him both a Carpenter and the son of a Carpenter so did Celsus in a Cont. Cels lib. 6. Origen and b Theod. hist. lib. 3. cap. 23. Julian the impious and apostate Emperour Justin Martyr doth indeed affirm that Christ on earth was literally a Carpenter and did make ploughs and yokes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustin Dial. cum Tryph. Ambr. Ser. 10. but withall both St. Ambrose and St. Austin tell us That he was also that Carpenter that built Heaven and this mighty fabrick of the world Finally because this Son of God Aug. de Temp. Ser. 3â— was both the Creator and also the Sabbath both of God and Men therefore for the sanctifying of him this Motive is here mentioned of making heaven and earth And rested the seventh day Touching this Rest of God what it was and why it is fixed on the seventh day we have said much a Chapter 10 11 12 13 15 1â— before and something more must be added which will be more fit to be discoursed in the next that this Chapter may not swell too big CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the Divine Persons concurred in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Son of God or Second Person is the Rest and Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of Godhead and Manhood and his severall Appellations respectfully Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the Ceremoniall Sabbath was for the memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God And Rested the seventh day THe more literall and exact reading of these words is And rested on the seventh day for thus St. Jerom renders them Requievit die septimo and the Clementine-Edition In die septimo For it was not the day that was considered by the Godhead but something that was performed on that day that occasioned this Rest which if it had been so done on any other of the former six daies certainly it would have been said of that day as it is of this that God rested on it What that thing was we have shewed before at large namely that it was in consideration of the Messiah or Christ It would now be enquired what is meant by The Lord who is here said to have made heaven and earth and to blesse and sanctifie the Sabbath day whether it be meant of the Person of the Father onely or of the Person of the Son or of the Person of the Holy Spirit or of all of them because all and every one of them is the Lord and the Creator and the Sanctifier Of the Father no man doubteth and of the Son we have proved before and of the holy Ghost holy Job saith By Job 26. 13 his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens and the Psalmist also Thou sendest forth thy Spirit Ps 104 30 and they are created and the Church at the opening of Councils used to sing that Hymn in St. Ambrose which beginneth a Inter Hymnos Ambros To. 5. Veni Creator Spiritus For when our Vulgar Catechisms ascribe Creation to the Father and Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the holy Ghost we are not so to understand them as if these actions were of each severall person or as if the Father had no interest in our Redemption or Sanctification nor the Son or Spirit in Creation far be it from us to think so But we believe that the whole Godhead and every Person therein did joyntly co-operate in all these acts Indeed the Father created but it was in and by the Son and both by the holy Ghost So the Son Redeemed but it was from the Father and by the Spirit So the holy Ghost Sanctifieth but he doth it from the Father and the Son So also in this place the Rest of God is not to be accounted the Rest of one single Person onely but of the whole Godhead and of every one of the Three most holy Persons therein If it be now granted that the Son of God is this Lord and Creator that made heaven and eaâ—th and He that is here said to Rest and also He that is the onely Rest and Sabbath both of God and of us Men which we have proved before then it must follow that the Rest it self is here said to Rest and the Sabbath it self to rest in the Sabbath and the Son of God must be the Sabbath of the same Son of God Which at our first hearing may seem to be a violent Exposition which yet is not so as will presently appear The Reader may easily apprehend that although God is entirely One yet he is often represented to us under diverse and severall notions and capacities as if he were not the One and the same God for so this Son of God who is the onely God is set forth in Scripture and is so by us to be apprehended and believed as Immortaâ—l and yet mortall as the Mâ—ker of all things and yet made that he was from Eternity and yet born in time the Father of all men and yet the Son of man the Creator of his Mother and yet her Son All these speeches are true of this Son of God considered in his severall and respective capacities neither ought they to seem incredible or strange because we find the like diversities in one and the same Man One in Plutarch said openly to a King sitting in judicature a Plâ—t in Apoph Provoco à Philippo ad Philâ—ppum I appeal from King Philip to King Philip but in another temper So Nazianzen representeth the same person both as a Judge and as one arraigned b Naz. Eâ—ist 79. Te accuso apud te justum judicem So doth St. Ambrose to one as if he were both Client and Counsellor c Ambr. Ser. 64. Stulto consiliario usus es teipso Upon these words Psal 140. 1. Deliver me O Lord from the evill man St. Austin saith d Aug. Hom 29. de Temp. Ser. 233. à te â—e liberat i. e. God doth deliver a man from himself And upon those words Deliver us from evill he saith Deus te liberat à teipso malo We have a Proverb that a man is his own neighbour c Proximus egomet mihi
be the Lord. The Scriptures often mention Sabbaths in the plural number as Lev. 19. 3. Keep my Sabbaths and also Sabbath in the singular numbâ—r and I doubt not but the Jews were charged to keep other Sabbaths as that which is appointed in the Feast of Trumpets Levit. 23. 24. and that in the Feast of Tabernacles Levit. 23 39. and that in the Feast of Atonement Levit. 23. 32. as well as the weekly Sabbath because we find that transgressors of the yearly Sabbath are threatned with destruction as well as the breakers of the weekly Sabbath Levit. 23. 29. But now all these Ceremonial Sabbaths are vanished This being granted it will follow in regard of the authority and perpetuity of the Moral Law of God That there must needs be some one special singular and mysterious Sabbath of greater necessity and concernment to be still kept than all those Hebdomarie or Annual Sabbaths and that surely is Christ The Lord Paramount of all Sabbaths which were but shadows of him Whosoever therefore shall imagine that the keeping of any weekly or yearly Day Sabbath is the principal or only duty required in this Moral Law he is such an one as the Psalmist describeth Psal 397. A man that walketh in a vain shadow It is very considerable and surely for some weighty reason That our Saviour very often in the Evangelical Histories occasionally mentioning these Moral Laws and many of them distinctly and severally yet never spake in the least expresly and openly of the Sabbath Law although that fourth Commandment so far as it is Moral is as necessary to be pressed and rather more than any one or indeed then all the other as is shewed before And yet it is not to be doubted but that he meant and also did covertly press this very Sabbath Law in the true intent and meaning thereof to be for ever carefully observed and sanctified I do not take upon me to render a full account of what moved Christ to forbear the reciting of that Law so openly as he did other Moral Laws of the Decalogue yet it may reasonably be thought that he on design and purpose omitted that Law and indeed all the particular Laws of the first Table because he saw that the Jews did misunderstand that Commandment of the Sabbath and that they were zealously obdurate for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as if that had been the full and only intendment and duty required by that Commandment for if Christ had urged it the Jews had been by him countenanced in their erroneous Sabbatizing which he came to dissolve therefore he forbare the naming of that particular Law and for the same cause he abstained from mentioning any of the other Laws of that Table lest if amongst them this Law should be omitted without any mention the Jews would have been more exasperated against him before his time was come to suffer This omission of the Sabbath Law the Reader may observe Mat. 19. 17. Where Christ said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements And when he was asked Which Commandments he answered Thou shalt not murther nor commit adultery nor steal nor bear false witness and Honour thy Father and Mother and Love thy Neighbour as thy self See the same again Mark 10. 19. and Luke 18. 20. In all which places there is no express mention of the Sabbath Law or of any other Law of the first Table But when he was more strictly questioned by a knowing-man a Lawyer or Scribe being a Professor of the Law Mat. 22. 36. Master which is the greatest Commandment in the Law Yet then he answered him but in general terms including the Laws of both Tables without mentioning any one particular Law of either Table thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. This includeth all the four precepts of the first Table Sabbath and all He that performeth this doth thereby keep the Sabbath Therefore to love honour and sanctifie our Lord Jesus Christ who is our only Lord God our God Incarnate the Emmanuel our Creator Redeemer and Saviour is to keep this Moral Sabbath for he only is that Sabbath which is mysteriously commanded to be sanctifyed in that Law this Sabbath Law continueth in full force and vigour at this day and so shall to the end of this world and for ever when all other observations of seventh-Days or any other worldly Sabbaths are quite forgotten and vanished for the true intended Sabbath is a Person Christ the Son of God and the Son of man Finally This Commandment which I have set down in these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is certainly a Moral and an everlasting Law This Sabbath if it be confessed to signifie Christ we have what we desire but if it should signifie only the keeping of a Day whether the last day of the week as the Jews think or the first day as some Christians suppose then surely the not keeping of one at least of these two days is a sin and must be so accounted now under the Gospel for the Apostle tells us 1 Ioh. 34. Sin is the transgression of the Law He means the Law Moral But we are well assured that the Gospel doth not account the Not-keeping of both or either of those days to be a sin against the fourth Commandment or against any other of those ten Moral Laws except indirectly and by consequence for in all the New Testament we cannot find such Sabbath-breaking to be so much as once mentioned in any of the black Rolls of sins as other transgressions of all those Commandments are particularly and often by the great Apostle See 1 Cor. 6. 9 Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God See more Gal. 5. 19. Uncleanness lasciviousness wiâ—chcraâ—t hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers revilings and such like See more 1 Tim. 1. 9. Lawless disobedient ungodly and sinnâ—rs unholy and prophane murtherers of fathâ—rs and of motherâ— man-slayers men-stealers such as are now called Spirits â—yars perjured persons Among all this Rabble we find not Sabbath-breakers Yet the abusers or neglecters of the true Moral Sabbath which is Christ are deeply threatned as Judas for betraying him the Jews for crucifying him and All that shall deny him So the Sanctifiers of him are gloriously promised as the confessors of him the believers in him the relievers of him or of his poor Members for his sake to be rewarded with the kingdom of Heaven This is the Scriptural Doctrine concerning the Sabbath-ship of Christ What the Church Catholick conceived thereof is next to be enquired CHAP. VII The Doctrine of the Primitive Church concerning the Sabbath shewed out of Tertullian and other Fathers How the Patriarks kept the Sabbath before the days of Moses The Doctrine of the Church of England
Mankind was not otherwise to come into the open World that there he might perform the grand Work of a Redeemer and Saviour but only through the Woman Our merciful God doth then and not till then declare his Rest when he had laid and compleated the foundation of the Rest of us his otherwise wretched Creatures For neither Adam himself could be saved supposing his fall but through the fertility of the Woman nor could Eve or any of their posterity obtain Redemption and salvation otherwise than so as the Apostle teacheth us 1 Tim. 2. 15 She shall be saved in child-bearing that is by Christ who should descend from Eve and be born of a Woman for God confined our Redemption and our Redeemer so when he said The Seed of the Woman should bruise the Gen 3 15 Serpents head And in the Gospel God sent forth his Son made of a Woman So early Gal 4 4 and late the Godhead was pleased to signifie the conception of Christ by a Woman signally without mention of the Seed of Man promised to David in these words Psalm 132. 11. Ex fructu ventris the fruit of the belly which St. Austin a Aug in loc observes to be meant of Christ because he was only from the Belly or Womb and not from the Thigh And prophesied by Isaiah chap. 7. 14. to be conceived by a Virgin And performed in the person of the ever blessed Virgin Mary Now we may easily return an Answer to the above mentioned Enquiries concerning the Rest of God 1. In which of the Creatures God is said to Rest To this we say That his Rest was only in Mankind not in the man alone but for the honour and everlasting comfort of all holy Women he expressed not his Rest until he had formed the Woman out of the Man although the manner thereof is declared after the expression of God's Rest 2. What further use besides their Creat on God intended to make of the Man and the Woman To this we say That God purposed out of the Man and Woman to raise and produce Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind from eternal and deserved misery and also through the same Christ to crown Mankind with everlasting glory and for this most gracious use only did the Godhead declare it self to Rest so that in Christ alone is the true reall and final Rest and Sabbath comprised both of God and of us Men. 3. What prerogative or peculiar honour added God to this Creature Man more then to any other Creature To this we answer 1. He made Man in his own Image so as not any other Creature was made 2. From the Seed of Man he ordained that the Redeemer should proceed and not from any other Creature although some others were more high excellent than Man as the holy Angels are as the Psalmist saith Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Yet the Apostle tels Psal 8 5 us Heb. 2. 16. That Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 3. God purposed which he also performed to unite himself so with Man as not with any other Creature to be one person with Man even this very Creator at this very time of Mans creation intimated that himself would one day become Man that he would be incarnate and so Emmanuel which is obscurely signified by those words In the Image of God created he him And Gen 1. 27 this Incarnation was most needful for Man because in it only the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of Man consisteth and in nothing else From these Premises my Conclusion is That the principal and indeed the only cause of this Rest of God consisted in the consideration and gracious purpose of the Godhead to produce the Messiah out of the Man and the Woman to be united with our humane nature and therein to fulfill the whole Will of God in our behalf and so to become the Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind Which conclusion being a Doctrine of our greatest concernment we will in the next place endeavour by God's assistance to make plain and evident even to the capacity of ordinary understandings CHAP. XIII That the Rest of God consisted in his purpose of producing Christ proved by Scripture and Reason Of the Image of God Why the Woman was taken out of the Man Of the Union of Christ with Mankind Why Redemption is only of Mankind The meaning of the Sacramental Bread and Wine That the Soul of Christ was derived and propagated from the first Man Something concerning Universal Redemption THat the Divine purpose of the Incarnation of the second Person in the Trinity was the sole motive that the Rest of God was now and not before declared may appear by many overtures or expressions in and about the Creation and other affairs concerning the first Man and Woman 1. It is said by the Godhead Let us make Gen. 1. 26 Man Whereby the concurrence of all the Divine Persons in the Creation of Man is signified As if the Godhead would express a special care and deliberation and also a consultation about the Creation of Man more than in the Creation of the whole invisible World of Angels or this visible World of all the other Creatures for it was never said before Let us make but God created and Let there be Light and Let there be a Firmament and Let the Earth bring forth c. Now although we know that all the Three Divine Persons did co-operate in the creation of every Creature as the sure Rule of Divines is Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa Yet their concurrence is not so declared until the Creation of Man Therefore surely a greater matter was intended than the making of a meer Creature and that certainly was Christ even He that is better than all Creatures and of whom it is said Let all the Angels of God worship Heb. 1. 6. him 2. Not only the making of Man is decreed but it is added In our Image and likenesse and In the Image of God created he him Here is Our Image Plurally and The Image of God Singly Our Image signifies the Image of the Three Divine Persons stamped on Man Power Wisdom Holinesse which are the Characters of the Father Son and Spirit as Divines say But this is not all for so much of this Image was soon desaced Nor was this Image proper to Mankind but is found also in the holy Angels and also more eminently in them than in Mankind But because these words are said of Man not said of any other Creature therefore we must find out some other Image or likenesse of God which is so peculiar to Man as that it is not to be found in any other Creature as a Theod. in Gen. quaest 20. Theodoret most judiciously observeth This being granted the Image there mentioned must needs relate and point to Christ who is
as one saith of a companion c Mart. 12. 47. ex Ovid. l 3. Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te This mysterious truth surely was known by Adam who was a Prophet and is so accounted both by d Orig in cant hom 3. Aug de Gen l. 9. c 19. Origen and Austin as may also appear by his prophetical words before the fall Gen. 2. 23. but especially by his so naming the woman after the Fall whom he called vitam that is life Gen. 3. 20. as both e Hier. in Gen. Ambr. de Parad c 14 Joh. 14. 6. St. Jerome and St. Ambrose read that place and the word Eve or Cavah signifieth life whereby he declared both his expectation and faith in the Messiah to proceed from the woman even that Messiah who calls himself The way the truth and the life for thereby only could she be an help meet for man now fallen and in this respect only was she called life because from her Christ was to come so that she was indeed the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or parent of God as the blessed virgin is often called by the Fathers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mother of God viz. of God-incarnate otherwise she was not an help meet for man but rather quite contrary Nor could her châ—ld-bearing have saved her self or others except Christ the Saviour had bin in her progeny nor yet could her bearing of Christ originally in her womb have helped her except she had also conceived him in her heart by saith as St. Austin very truly affirmeth of the blessed Virgin Mary who was neerer akin to Christ than Eve was f Aug. de vir c. 3 To. 6. Nihil Mariae profuisset materna propinquitas nisi feliciùs Christum corde quà m carne gestasset c. Neither Eve nor Mary could have bin saved by propagating or bearing Christ in the womb if they had not conceived him in their hearts If we lay aside this consideration of Eve consider her only as a woman she will appear rather an impediment than an help to man for she occasioned the fall of the man by conversing with Satan in wch respect Tertullian saith of her a Tert. de habit Mulieb Faeâ—â—na est janua Diaboli The first inlet of Satan was the woman as Chrysostome cals Job's wife b Chrys n. 56. The Instrument of Satan and c Orig. n. 17. Origen cals her c muscipuiam i. e. The trap of Satan And saith moreover that Satan destroying the goods and children of Job yet touched not his wife but left her on purpose to supplant the holy man But God looked otherwise on Eve when he called her an help and considered her so as the Fathers speak of the blessed Virgin-mother whom they call a Ambr. de Spirit lib. 3. c. 12. Templum Dei And b Fulg. serm 3. Fenestram Coeli And c id ibid Scalam Coeli And d Euseb Emis Homil in Vigil Nativ Portam Coeli i. e. A Temple of God The window of heaven The ladder and gate of heaven for all these was Eve in respect of her fruitfulness and the propagation of Christ from her For in other child bearing she was unhappy as first in Cain then in the holy but unfortunate Abel some of her posterity are called a generation of vipeâ—s and also said to be of their Father the Devil and one of them â—â— called Joh. 6. 70. a Devil The consideration of such miscarriages hath made some parents wish themselvs childless The great Emperor Augustus wished that he had died without wife and child a Suet. in Aug. c 65. his issue proved so ill Capitolinus saith of the good Emperor Antoninus the Philosopher b Capit. in M. Aut. c. 8. Felix fuisset si fiâ—ium non reliquisset i. e. he had bin happy if he had not left a Son he meant wâ—cked and bloody Commodus Dead Tantalus in the fable is brought in desiring rather to return to hell whence he came than to see and promote the wickedness and calamities of his posteritie c Sen. in Thyeâ—te Lu. 23. 29. In which respect Eve might rather have desired barrenness as Christ also said for such reasons Blessed are the barren So the help which Adam had by his wife was not in regard of her society nor in her childbearing generally considered neither was she named Life onely for that she was to be the mother of all other men and women to come nor for any amorous or lascivious apprehension as wantons since used to their minions a Juâ— Sat. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And b Ter. in Eun. Anime mi mi Phaedria But it was surely in a far greater consideration and in prophecy and faith of the Messiah to come by her and of redemption and immortall life which would be onely through him that he named the woman Vita or Life This certainly was the reason that God called the Woman An help and meet for man and for nothing else but onely the preconsideration of the Saviour to descend from her for so the holy Psalmist hath taught us Our help Psal 124. 7. standeth in the name of the Lord which hath made heaven and earth For without this help he saith in another place O be thou our help in trouble for vain is the help of man And more vain is the help of Woman Finally for this cause it may reasonably be thought that the wisdom and providence of the Godhead permitted the fall of man to be occasioned by the woman that so the man might be induced and necessitated to seek for Life and Help otherwise and not in the Person but in the blessed Seed and posterity of the woman To which purpose St. Ambrose thus writeth a Ambros de Parad. cap. 10. Et si mulier prior peccatura erat tamen Redemptionem sibi paritura salva erit per generationem siliorum inter quos generavit Christum i. e. Although the woman first sinned yet Redemption was to come by her therefore she shall be saved in child-bearing because amongst her children Christ was one By this time I trust it appeareth to the Reader that the grand and onely reason of the expression of the Rest of God at that time was the providentiall and mercifull consideration of Christ the Seed of the Woman and Saviour of her and of the man and of their posterity CHAP. XV. An Answer to the Question How God can be said to Rest That the Rest of God is in Christ and why That the Tabernacle and Temple are called God's Resting-place onely as they were figures of Christ That the Ark is called God's strength in the same respect That God's Rest in Sion is also meant of Christ That the Union of God and man in Christ was ordained onely for man's Salvation and everlasting Rest That man's Rest is called God's Rest Certain Conclusions concerning this Rest of God
this Law is meant of Christ I have shewed before a Chap. 7. And that Christ only is this everlasting Covenant the Gospel often declareth Christ saith This is my blood of the new Testament Matth. 26. 28. Or as St. Luke reads it This is the new Testament in my blood Luke 22. 20. Testament and Covenant signifie the same thing but only that a Covenant is a Promise Conditional And a Testament there is the same Promise or Covenant given and bequeathed So Hebr. 13. 20. The blood of Christ is called The blood of the everlasting Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza renders Aeterâ— foederis i. e. Eternal Covenant So these words Testament and Covenant both to our own and also to forrain Translators seem all one so Christ must be this everlasting covenanted Sabbath But then if this everlasting Sabbath be really Christ how is it called a sign as the Typical Sabbath is for so we read Exod. 31. 17. It is a sign for ever To this we answer That this Sabbath is no otherwise called a sign than Christ himself is so called Luke 2. 34. This Child is set for a sign that shall be spoken against And Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven This sign signifieth the very Person of Christ as both Origen and Chrysostome expound it Only the Covenant of Christ's Sabbathship is an everlasting sign but so is not the sign of the Ceremonial Sabbath as hath been proved In this sense only the Sabbath is everlasting as it signifieth Christ of which there is no doubt to be made In a like case when question was made by Act. 13. 22. Dâ—lciâ—â—us how Dâ—vâ—d being a great sinner could be styled A man after Gods own heart St. Austin answered a De 8. Quaest. Dulc. To. 3. De Christo intellige nullus nodus est So we say if we understand that this Sabbath Moral signifieth Christ as certainly it doth then there will be no question of the everlastingness and eternity thereof The Ceremonial or Day-Sabbath was taken away that so the true substantial Sabbath might the better take place in mens minds Just as Typical Sacrifices were rejected by God that so the grand Sacrifice of Christ might be by faith apprehended of which the Apostle expresly thus writeth He taketh away the first that he may establish the second Heb. 10. 9. This is also to be observed for a sign of the depreciating or undervaluing of this Typical or Day-Sabbath that Christ said The Sabbath Mar. 2. 26 was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath This he meant no doubt of the Câ—remonial Sabbath in that it was ordained only to be ministerial and subservient to Man as a Conducter and Guide to the true everlasting Sabbath for if he had spoken of the Moral and Mystical Sabbath he might truly have said That Men was made for the Sabbath because the true Sabbath is God the Son by whom and for whose glory all Men and the World it self were made And he was before all Creatures and not made at all nor created but begotten from Eâ—ernity But yet this Son of God may truly be said to be made the Sabbath for Man yet not as he is meerly the Son of God but as he is also the Son of Man He was made Man for us and by that he became the Mystical Sabbath For the Son of God considered in his pure Divinity cannot be the Sabbath neither can the Son of Man be so if considered without his Divinity but joyntly with both Natures So that in consideration of his assumed humane Nature and therewith his Sabbathship he was made for Man and came to help and minister to Man as himself most graciously acknowledged The Son of Man came not to be ministred Matth. 20. 28. unto but to minister 7. Finally The most notorious slurre of all was That this Seventh day which God appointed to be hallowed could not possibly be so kept on that day in all places of the Earth as any Man that hath but mean knowledge in Geographie may easily apprehend for when in one part of the Earth it is Miâ—-day in another part it is Mid-night and when Day begins in one part Night begins in another so that the Jews themselves in their remote dispersions cannot possibly Sabbatize at the same time By this it may clearly appear that the seventh-day Sabbath was only a national Constitution during the standing of the Judaical Common-wealth and that the Seventh day was not that Moral Sabbath which God required in this fourth Commandement because a Law Moral bindeth all Nations in every part of the Earth but some other Sabbath was intended which possibly might be kept by all Nations that Sabbath is Christ Who therefore sent his Apostles Mar. 16. 15. with an universal Commission Go ye into all the world and preach And not only to the Jews but Go and teach all Nations Matth. 28 19. These and such like incumbrances impossibilities and inconveniences did the Godhead pâ—t upon this Ceremonial Sabbath as no fire-kindling no burden-bearing no meatdressing no stirring out of their places and thereby made that People ridiculous to other Nations as the Prophet saith The adversaries did mock at her Sabbaths And the Manichee Lam 1. 7. called their Saturday Sabbaths * Aug. Cont. Faâ—st l. 18 c. 5. Catcâ—as Saturnâ—acas i. e. the fetters of Saturn Logicians use to say Uno absur do dato mille sequuntur The mis-understanding of this one Sabbath Law led the Jews into strange and ridiculous Superstitions and also to the ruine of their Persons and City and Temple A Jew in a boysterous Sea refused to tug at the stern because it was his Sabbath day and so he perished Another would not be drawn out of a loathsome draught upon the same reason but rather miserably perished as our own Histories record The Jews could not be ignorant that God himself did work on every Sabbath-day and that he did also occasionally command others so to do as the Preists and sometimes the Souldiers therefore they might easily have perceived that both the Sabbath or Rest of God and also of his people consisted in something else and not in a meer cessation from worldly works Some Sabbatarian Writers tell us That Man should work when God worketh and rest when God rested But God worketh alwayes so cannot Man If they had said that Man should rest in that thing which God rested in they had spoken home to the true Sabbath indeed For God rested only in Christ and so should we otherwise all Seventh-day Sabbatizing is utterly vain and superstitious By these Reasons a pious and judicious Reader will clearly perceive that these slurrs were put upon the Day Sabbath by our Wise God on purpose and design to withdraw his people from the shadow to the substance and from the Ceremonial to the Moral and substantial Sabbath which is Christ for just such a design God had in his Dispensation even of the Moral Law which was first written in Man's heart Then afterwards when it was to our lapsed and depraved nature impossible yet it was again imposed on us and engraven in stone And this he did that thereby he might direct us both to perform so much of it as we can and also to seek help and mercy of him for what we cannot do There had been no need of writing this Law in Tables of stone which was written defore in Man's heart but only because as St. Austin saith a Aug. in Psal 57. Tu fugitivus eras cordis tui i. â— Man was a run-away from his own heart and principles for we find that Man now perpetrateth wickedness which his own conscience judgeth to be so and also condemneth as an Heathen confessed b Juvenal Sat. 13. Se judice nemo nocens absolvitur The reason why God did impose this Law on Man then when it was impossible is singularly rendred by the Apostle thus The Scripture Gal. 3. 2â— hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Now although the impossible Law is by faith and union with Christ made possible to Man yet it was imposed on us with all its literall impossibilities on purpose to be as the same Apostle saith Our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ or indeed to Ibid. v 24. drive force and necessitate us to seek some other means and way for our justification and salvation besides the Law which way is only the Lord Jesus Christ in whom only our peace with God and our everlasting Sabbath consisteth To Him therefore with the Father and the holy Spirit be rendred blessing honour praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever Amen Laus Deo FINIS