The Divine Appointment of the Lords Day, Chapter 2

The Divine Appointment of the Lords Day · Chapter 2

p. 180CHAP. II. An Answer to more Arguments for the seventh day Sabbath.

Reasons.

1. THat the Lord Jesus Christ is Jehovah, Zach. 11. 13. & 12, 4,—10. Gen. 19. 24. Act. 2. 25. compared with Psal. 16. 8, &c. The Lord our Righteousness, Jer. 23. 6.

Answers.

1. THis is no Controversie among us, meaning of Christs Divine Nature; and his person in respect thereof.

Reasons.

2. That the World was made by Jehovah Christ, Joh. 1. 3, 10. Heb. 1. 2, 3, 10. Col. 1. 14, 15, 16, 17. Eph. 3. 9. Psal. 102. 22, 24, 25. Heb. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 36. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Gen. 2. 4, &c.

Answers.

2. Nor is this any Controversie, if meant of the second person in the eternal Trinity, not yet Incarnate, nor in the flesh Annointed (Christ.)

Reasons.

3. The seventh day Sabbath was instituted by Jehovah Christ, and kept by him, Gen. 2. 2, p. 1813, 4. whilest man was in innocency, before the Fall, Gen. 3. 6. (and before any Types.)

Answers.

3. Though this have long been doubted in the Church, some thinking it mentioned p. 181but by Anticipation yet I deny it not, but believe that it was Sanctified and kept from the beginning, because the Reason of the Consecration was from the beginning. But, 1. The second Person is not called Christ before the fall, nor without respect to his humane Nature. 2. It is uncertain whether it was before the fall; because we know not whether man fell on the same day in which he was Created, which is the commonest opinion, (though unproved) Whereupon Mr. …. Walker in his Treat. of the Sabbath maintaineth, that the fall and promise went before the Sabbath, and so that Gods rest had respect to Christ promised, as the perfection of his works, and that the Sabbath was first founded on Christ and the promise. But because all this is unproved Opinion, I incline to the Objectors, and the common sense.

Reasons.

4. The seventh day Sabbath was kept by Abraham, Gen. 26. 5. by the Israelites, Exod. 5. 5. The Law for the seventh day was repeated Exod. 16. 22, 23.

Answers.

4. I am of the same opinion; but it is uncertain; so far as it is uncertain whether it was instituted actually at first. But the rest, Ex. 5. 5. seemeth plainly to referr to no Sabbath, but to the peoples neglect of their tasks, while Moses kept them in hope of deliverance, and treated for them. And their tasks, with their desire, to go into the Wilderness to Sacrifice, maketh it probable that Pharaoh never allowed them the Sabbaths rest.

Reasons.

p. 1825. The Decalogue was spoken by Jehovah Christ, Exod. 20. 1. (see the Assemblies lesser Catechisme on the Preamble in the Commands:) Because the Lord is our God, &c. Redeemer, &c. therefore we are bound to keep, &c. Exod. 19. 3. compared with Act. 7. 38. Esa. 63. 9. Ex. 19. 17. The Decalogue written by his Finger, Ex. 31. 18. On Tables of Stone, Ex. 32. 15, 16, 19. & 34, 1, 28. and kept by all the Prophets.

Answers.

5. All true, and uncontroverted, with these suppositions: 1. That the Father as well as the Son gave the Decalogue: 2. That the second person was not … Incarnate, (Christ.) 3. That the Law was given by the Ministration of Angels, who its like are called the Voice and Finger of God. 4. That God our Redeemer did variously Govern his Kingdom, by his Law and Covenant in various Editions: of which more anon.

Reasons.

6. The Decalogue was confirmed by Jehovah, Christ, Ma…. 5. 17, 18, 19. Luk. 16. 17. Mat. 28. 20. Joh. 14. 15. & 15. 14. Rom 3. 31. & 7. 12. Jam. 2. 8, 12. NewCovenant, Heb. 8. 10. 1 Joh. 3. 22, 24. 1 Joh. 5. 3. 2 Ep. Joh. 5. 6. Rev. 12. 17. & 14. 12. & 22. 14, 18. compared with Mal. 4. 4.

Answers.

6. Here beginneth our fundamental difference: I shall first tell you what we take for the truth, and then consider of what you alledge against it.

1. We hold that every Law is the Law of some one; some Law-maker or Soveraign power: And therefore Christ being p. 183now the Head over all things to the Church, Eph. 1. 22, 23. whatever Law is now in Being to the Church, must needs be the Law of Christ.

2. We hold that Christs Redeemed Kingdom hath been Governed by him, with variety of Administrations, by various Editions of his Law or Covenant: That is, I. Universally to Mankind; viz. 1. Before his Incarnation: which was; first, To Adam, and secondly to Noah, and to mankind in them both: 2. After his Incarnation. II. Particularly, to the seed of Abraham even the Jews as a particular Political society; chosen out of the World (not as the only people or Church of God on Earth, but) for peculiar extraordinary mercies as a peculiar people.

3. We believe that each of these Administrations was fittest for its proper time and subject, according to the manifold Wisdom of God: But yet the Alterations were many and great, and all tended towards perfection: so that the last Edition of the Covenant by Christ Incarnate and his Holy Spirit, much excelled all that went before, in the Kingdom of the Mediatour. And all these changes were made by God-Redeemer himself.

4. As it was the work of the Redeemer to be the Repairer of Nature, and recoverer of man to God; so in all the several Administrations, the great Laws of Nature containing mans duty to God, resulting from and manifested in our Nature as related to God, and in the Natura rerum or the Works of God, was still made the chief part of the Redeemers Law: so that this Law p. 184of Nature, whose summe is the Love of God, and of his Image, is ever the Primitive unchangeable Law; and the rest are secondary subservient Laws, either Positive, or remedying, or both. And no tittle of this shall ever cease, if nature cease not.

5. But yet there are temporary Laws of Nature, which are about Temporary things; or where the Nature of the thing it self is mutable, from whence the Natural duty doth result. As it was a duty by the then Law of Nature it self; for Adams Sons and Daughters to Marry [Increase and multiply] being made a natural Benediction, and the means a natural Duty. And yet now, it is incest against the Law of Nature, for Brother and Sister to Marry. So it was a Natural duty for Adam and Eve before their Fall to love each other as innocent; but not so when they ceased to be innocent: For cessanie materiâ cessat obligatio.

6. So also some Positive Commands made to Adam in Innocence ceased on the fall, and sentence; (As to dress that Garden.) And some positives of the first Administrations of Grace, did cease by the supervening of a more perfect administration. As the two Symbolical or Sacramental Trees in the Garden, were no longer such to man when he was turned out; so no positive Ordinance of Grace, was any longer in force, when God himself repealed it, by the introduction of a more perfect Administration.

7. Accordingly we hold, that a change is now made of the sanctified day. Where note, 1. That we take not the seventh day, (no nor one day in p. 185seven, though that be nothing to our Controversie) to be a Duty by the proper Law of Nature, but by a Positive Law: 2. That the seventh day is never called a Sahbath till Moses time, but only a Sanctified and blessed day; the word Sabbath being ever taken in Scripture for a day of Ceremonial Rest, as well as of spiritual Rest and Worship. 3. That Christ himself hath continued a seventh day, but changed the seventh day to the first; not as a Sabbath, that is, A day of Ceremonial Rest, for he hath ended all Sabbaths as shadows of things that were to come, even of rest which remained for the people of God, Heb. 4. 9. Col. 2. 16. And this is it which is incumbent upon us to prove, and I think I have fully proved already. 4. That having proved the thing done (the positive Law of the seventh day changed by the Holy Ghost to the first day) it concerneth us not much to give the reasons of Gods doings: But yet this reason may secondarily be observed: That God having made the whole frame of Nature very good, did thereby make it the glass in which he was to be seen by man, and the Book which he would have man chiefly study, for the knowledge of his Maker and his Will. But sin having introduced, disorder, confusion and a curse upon part of the Creation for mans sake, God purposed at once, both to notifie to man, what he had done by sin, in bringing disorder and a curse upon the Creature, and blotting the Book of Nature which he should have chiefly used, and also that it was his good pleasure to set up a clearer Glass, even Christ Incarnate, in which man might see his Makers face, in a representation p. 186suitable to our need; not now as smileing upon an Innocent man, nor as frowning on a guilty man, but as reconciled to Redeemed man; and to Write a Book in which his will should be more plainly read, than in the blotted Book of Nature: Yea in which he that in the Creature appeared most eminently in Power, might now appear most eminently in LOVE, even redeeming, reconciling, adopting, justifying and saving Love. So that, though God did not change the day, till the Person of the Incarnate Mediator, with his perfect last edition of the Covenant, was exhibited, and set up as this clearer Glass and Book, yet then as the seasonable time of Reformation (Heb. 9, 10, 11.) he did it. To teach man that though still he must honour God as the Creator, and know him in the Glass and Book of the Creature, yet that must be now but his secondary study; for he must primarily study God in Christ; where he is revealed in Love, even most conspicuous, wonderous Love.

And how suitable this is to man after sin and cur…e and wrath, may thus evidently appear.

1. We were so Dead in sin, and utterly deprived of the spiritual Life, that the Book of the Creatures, was not a sufficient means of our reviving: But as we must have the QUICKNING SPIRIT of Jesus the Mediator, so we must have a suitable means for that Spirit to work by: which that the cursed mortified Creature is not, appeareth in the experience of the case of Heathens

2. We were so Dark in sin, that the Creature was not a sufficient means of our Illumination: p. 187But as we must have the ILLUMINATING SPIRIT of Jesus, so we must have a Glass and Book that was suited to that illuminating work.

3. We were so alienated from God, by Enmity and malignity, and loss of LOVE, that as it must be the spirit of Jesus which must regenerate us unto LOVE, so it must be a clearer demonstration of LOVE than the Creature maketh in its cursed state, which must be the fit means for the spirit to work by in the restitution of our LOVE.

Where further note, 1. That LOVE is Holiness and Happiness it self: and the operations of Divine Love are his Perfective operations, and so fit for the last perfective act. 2. That man had many wayes fallen from LOVE: As he had actually and habitually turned away his own heart from God; and as he had fallen under Gods wrath, and so lost those fullest emanations of Gods Love, which should cherish his own Love to God; and as he had forfeited the assistance of the spirit which should repair it; and as he was fallen in Love with the accursed Creature, and lastly as he was under the Curse or threatning himself, and the penalties begun; It being impossible to Humane Nature, to Love a God who we think will damn us, and feel doth punish us in order thereunto. So that nothing could be more suitable to Lapsed man, or more perfective of the Appearance and Operations of God, than this demonstration of Reconciling saving Love, in our Incarnate Crucified, Raised, Glorified, Interceding Redeemer. All which p. 188sheweth that Gods removal of the sanctified day from the seventh to the first of the Week, and his preferring the Commemoration of Redemption, and our use of the Glass and Book of an Incarnate Saviour before that of the now accursed Creature, is a work of the admirable wisdom of God, and exceeding suitable to the nature of the things.

II. Now I come to consider of what you say against all this. You Cite the numbers of many Chapters and Verses (contrary to your grand principles, these divisions being Humane Inventions;) in all which there is nothing about the Controversie in hand. The Texts speak not of the Decalogue only, but of the Law, and of Gods Commandments, and Christs Commandments. Now I must tell you before-hand, that I will take no mans word for the Word of God, nor believe any thing that you say, God speaketh; without proof. Prove it, or it goeth for nothing with me. For as I know that adding to Gods Word is Cursed, Rev. 22. 18. as well as taking away; so it I must once come to believe that God saith this or that without proof, I shall never know whom to believe: For twenty men may tell me twenty several tales, and say that God saith them all.

I expect your proof then of one of these two assertions (for which it is that you hold, no man can gather by your own words, or citations.) 1. That all the Law which was in being at Christs Incarnation, was confirmed and continued by him (which yet I do not Imagine you to hold▪ … all Pauls Epistles, and especially the p. 189Ep. to the Heb. do so fully plead against it.) 2. Or else that by the Law in all those Texts is meant all the Decalogue, and the Decalogue alone.

The Texts cited by you prove no more than what we hold as confidently as you: viz, 1. That all the Law of Nature, (where the Matter or Nature of the things continue) is continued by Christ, and is his principal Law. 2. That the Decalogue as to that matter of it, is continued as it is the Law of Nature (which is almost all that is in it,) but not as the Jewish Law given by Moses hands to the Political body. 3. That the Natural part of all the rest of Moses Law is continued as well as the Decalogue. 4. That all Moses Law as well as the Decalogue shall be fullfilled, and Heaven and Earth shall sooner pass away than one jot or tittle of it shall pass till it be fulfilled. 5. That the Elements, Shadows, Predictions, Preparations, &c. are all fulfilled by the coming of Christ, and by a more perfect Administration. For Christ fulfilled all Righteousness, Mat. 3. 15. (foreign is sometimes put materially for foreign,) 6. That a change may be two waies made, 1. By destroying a thing. 2. By perfecting it. And that by the Law in Matth. 5. 17, &c. Christ meaneth, the whole body of Gods Law then in force to the Jews, considered as one frame, consisting of Natural and Positive parts. Of which he saith, that he came not foreign, to dissolve, pull in pieces or destroy the Law, as a licentious Teacher, that would take off Gods obligations, and leave the Wills and Lusts of men to a Lawless liberty (which was it that the Pharises imputed to such as were against the p. 190Law:) But that he came to bring in a greater strictness, a righteousness not only exceeding that of his accusers, v. 20. but instead of destroying it, to perfect the Law it self, that is, to bring in a perfecter Administration and Edition of the Law. So that as Generation turneth semen in suppositum, and so doth do away the seed, not by destroying it, but by changing it into a perfecter being; and as Paul saith, 1 Cor. 13. 16, 17, 18. When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away; When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood (or was affected) as a child, I thought (or reasoned) as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things, &c. not that the child or his knowledge is destroyed, but perfected, and changed into better; And yet many Acts of his childish reasonings may cease; And as he that would repair the Temple to a greater glory, may take away the brass, and put Gold instead of it, and so not change one pin of the Temple by a destructive change but by a perfecting change, which (to the frame) is to edifie, and not to destroy; Even so Christ professeth that he came not to gratifie the lusts of men, nor to destroy the Law in the smallest point, but 1. Himself to fulfill it in the very letter, and 2. To accomplish the shadows, Predictions and Types, by coming himself as the Truth and End, which when they had attained they were fulfilled; And 3. By a more perfect Edition and spiritual Administration, advancing the Law to a higher degree of excellency; by which not the Law is said to be put away, or destroyed, but the imperfections or weaknesses of it to be done p. 191away. Not but that all Gods Laws are perfect is to the time and subject which they are fitted to; but not in comparison of the future time, and degrees to be added. It is a Better Testament that Christ bringeth in; Heb. 7. 22 & 8. 6. established on better promises, and procured by better Sacrifice, and bringing a better hope, Heb. 8. 6. & 7. 19. and better things that are provided for us, that they without us should not be made perfect, Heb. 11. 40. So that when Moses Law is considered as such, in that Imperfect state, it is essentially or formally all done away; but not materially, for it is done away but by changing it into a better Testament and more perfect administration, which retaineth all that is natural in it, and addeth better positives suited to riper times.

So that the Law as denominated from the nobler Natural part, and as signifying the whole Law or systeme of precepts, then in force, is not destroyed, but perfected; But the Law as signifying that called Jewish delivered by Moses to that Republick, as such, though part of the said systeme, yet is the Imperfect part, and is taken down and is now no Law, though it be not destroyed, but fulfilled, and turned into a more perfect Testament and Administration.

Now that by the Law and Commandments I am not to understand the Decalogue only, in any of your cited Texts, I thus prove.

1. From the notation of the name. The word [Law] in its usual proper sense, doth signifie the whole, or other parts as well as that; and not that one part only. Therefore I must p. 192so take it, till you prove that in any Text it hath a limited sense. Else I shall turn Gods universal or indefinite terms into particular, and pervert his word, by limiting by my own invention where God hath not limited.

2. Because the common sense in which the Jewes, (against whom Christ spake) did take the word [Law] Was not for the Decalogue only but for the Pentateuch, or all Moses Law. And if Christ speak to them, he is to be supposed to speak intelligibly, and therefore in their sense.

3. Because Christ in this very Chapter, Mat. 5. extendeth the sense further than the Decalogue: As v. 17. he adjoynes the Prophets equally with the Law, which he came not to destroy. And thus he speaketh as the Jews, who distributed the Old Testament into the Law and Prophets, when by the Law they meant the Pentateuch. Now it is certain that all the Prophesies that say [The Messiah is not yet come, but shall come, and be incarnate, and that shew the time and manner,] &c. are not now true de futuro, as they then spake; And yet they are not destroyed but fulfilled, and so cease as prophecies of things yet future. And so it is with the Positives of Moses Law. 2. V. 18. he saith universaly, Till all he fulfilled, and not the Decalogue only. 3. V. 19. he extendeth it to the Least command. 4. V. 20. he extendeth it to all the Pharises Righteousness, which was Righteousness indeed. 5. V. 21. [Whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the Judgement,] hath the political penalty in it, above the bare sixth Commandment. 6. V. 31. Whosoever shall put away his Wife, let him give her a writing p. 193of divorcement, is not the bare seventh Commandment, but fetcht from Deut. 24. 1. And this instance it self expoundeth, v. 17, 18. For when Christ had protested against destroying an iota or tittle of the Law, yet he changeth this very Law now cited by himself, so far as it indulgeth putting away; so that it is hence evident that be meaneth not that he came not to make a perfective change, but that he came not to indulge licentiousness, and Lust by a destructive change. Luk. 16. 18. 1 Cor. 7. 10. Mat. 19. 9. So 7. V. 33. Thou shalt not forswear thy self, &c. is fetcht from, Lev. 19. 12, &c. 8. V. 38. An eye for an eye, &c. is fetcht from Exod. 21. 24. Lev. 24. 20. Deut. 19. 21. and not from the Decalogue alone. 9. So V. 43. is from Lev. 19. 18. and other places.

4. Because in all Pauls Epistles, and commonly in all the New Testament the word Law is ordinarily, if not alwayes, taken more extensively than the Decalogue: Therefore to expound it for the Decalogue only, is to contradict the constant use of the Scripture, under pretense of expounding the Scripture.

If then by the Law, be meant either the whole systeme of Gods Laws, Natural and Positive, or all Moses Law, or the Pentateuch, then I may thus argue. It is most certain that much of this Law of Moses is ceased or abrogate. Therefore it is certain, that it was none of Christs meaning that he would abrogate none of that Law which he speaketh of, or change it for a better.

That all and every word of the Decalogue is not of the dureable Law of Nature, I shall prove anon.

p. 194That by the word [Law] the Scripture meaneth more than the meer Decalogue these Texts among others prove, Exod. 13. 9. & 24. 12. Deut. 1. 5. & 4. 8. & 17. 18, 19. & 28. 61. & 29. 29. & 31. 9. 2 King. 17. 37. & 23. … 25. 2 Chron. 31. 21. & 33. 18. & 34. 19. … 7. 6. & 14. 26. & 10. 3 Neh. 8. 2, 7, 9, … & 10. 29 & 13. 3. Mal. 2. 6, 7, 8, 9. … 11. 13. & 12. 5. & 26. 36, 40. … Luk 2. 22. 27. Joh. 1. 17, 45. & 7, 19. 23. …1. & 8. 5. & 10. 34. & 12. 34. & …5 25 Act. 6. 13. & 13. 15, 39. & 15. 5, 24. & 21. 20, 28. & 22. 3, 12. & 23. 3, 29 & …. 23. Rom. 2. 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 23. & 3. 19, 20, 21, 28, 31. & 4. 13, 14, 15, 16. & 5. 13. & 7. 1, 2, 3, 4. 5, 6, &c. And so to the end of the New Testament; which I need not f…rther number.

7. That the seventh day Sabbath was kept by the Lord Jehovah Christ during his life, Ma…k. 1. 21. & 6. 2. Luk. 4 31. & 6. 6. 1. 5. & 13. 10. Mat. 12. 1, 9. & 13. 1, 2. and constantly, Luk. 4. 16. 17. See Christs counsel▪ which was to come to pass about forty years after his death. Mat. 24. 20.

7. 1. So Christ was Circumcised, and joyned in the Synagogue Worship, and held Communion with the Jewish Church, and Priesthood, and observed all the Law of Moses, never violating any part; For he was made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law, Gal. 4. 4, 5. Do you think that all this is established for us? 2. And his Counsel, Mat. 24. 20. had respect to the Jews misery and not to their duty. He p. 195therefore foretelleth their destruction, because they would reject him and his Law, in a perverse zeal for Moses Law; And therefore intimateth that even Moses should condemn them, and their misery should be increased by their zeal for his Law; For their City was taken on the Sabbath day, which increased their Calamity, who scrupled on that day to fight or fly. And can you think Christ approved of that opinion, who had so oft before condemned the like, about their over rigid sabbatizing? Or as Dr. Hammond thinks, it is liker to be spoken of a Sabbath year, when the War and Famine would come together. However it be, it only supposeth their adherence to their Law and Sabbath, but justifieth it not at all: Though yet the total and full abrogation of the Jewish Law, was not fully declared, till, at that time of the destruction of their City and Temple, their policy more fully ceased.

8. That after Jehovah had finished the work of Redemption, Joh. 19 30. his body rested in the Grave, Mat. 27. 66. and himself in Heaven, Luk. 23. 42, 43. as he rested when he ended the work of Creation, Gen. 2. 2, 4.

8. You again adde to the Word of God: It is not said that he had finished the work of Redemption. But only [It is finished] which seemeth to mean but that, 1. This was the last act of his life, in which he was actively to fulfill the Law and offer himself a Sacrifice for man; 2. And in which all the Law and Prophets were fulfilled which foretold this Sacrifice. For that it is not meant of the whole work of Redemption as p. 196finished when he spoke those words, is evident, 1. Because after those words he was to die; 2. Because his state in death and his burial were part of his humiliation as is implyed, 1 Cor. 15. 4. Joh. 17 7. Rom. 6. 4. Col. 2. 12. Isa. 53. 9. 1 Cor. 1…. 35. Act. 2. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 26. Phil. 3. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 10. Heb. 2. 14, 15. 3. Because his Resurrection was his victorious act, and a part of the work of mans Redemption; 4. And so is his Intercession. For Redemption is larger than Humiliation or Sacrifice for sin. As Exod. 6 6. Luk. 24. 21. Rom. 3. 24. & 8. 23. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Eph. 1. 14. Luk. 21. 28. It is the Resurrection by which we are made Righteous and receive our hope of life, and victory over death and Satan, Rom. 1. 4. Phil. 3. 10, 11. 1 Pet. 1. 3. & 3. 21. Rom. 4. 25.

2. The clean contrary therefore to your Collection is true: viz. That God did indeed end the Work of his Creation on the sixth day, and rested in it, as finished on the seventh: But Christ was so far from ending his on the sixth, and resting in it on the seventh, that on that day above all other he seemed conquered by men and by him that had the power of death, Heb. 2. 14 and was held as Captive by the Grave, so that his Disciples hopes did seem dead with him, Luk. 24. 21. This State of Death being not the least, if not the lowest part of his Humiliation: Whence came the Churches Article that he descended into Hades. 3. I did more probably before prove from Christs own words compared with his burial, a casting down of the seventh day Sabbath, thus. That day on which p. 197the Disciples are to fast, is not to be kept as a Sabbath (For that is a day of Thanksgiving) But on the day of Christs Burial, the Disciples were to fast, (that is, to walk heavily:) Which appeareth from Mark. 2. 20. When the Bridegroom is taken from them, then they shall fast. Now though this meant not to command any one day for fasting, much less the whole time of his bodily absence, yet both the sense of the words themselves, and the interpretation of the Event tell us, that as there was no day in which he was so sadly taken from them as that Sabbath day, which almost broke their hearts and hopes, (for the next day he was restored to them) So there was no day in which they were so dejected, and unlike to the Celebraters of a Gospel day of Joy, or Sabbath. Do you call the day of Satans power, and triumph, and of the Discples greatest fear and grief that ever befell them, the Celebration of a Sabbath rest? It had indeed somewhat like an outward Rest, but so as seemed plainly to burie in his Grave the seventh day Ceremonial Sabbath. And from the Reasons now pleaded it was that the Western Churches kept the seventh day as a Fast.

9. Whilest the Lord Jehovah Christ rested, private believers rested according to the Commandment, Luk. 23. 55, 56. Mar. 15. 42. & 16. 1. compared.

9 A. They did indeed keep yet the Jewish Sabbath, till Christs Resurrection, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost: And so they did the rest of the Jewish Law. For they yet knew not that it was abrogated; But must p. 198we do so too? You may as well argue from their keeping the Sabbath before Christs Death, as on that day when he was dead. The change of the day was made by Degrees, by three several acts or means. 1. The Resurrection of Christ, was the founding act, which gave the Cause of changing it; Like Gods finishing his works of Creation at first. 2. The Inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles doth teach them, and bring all things to their remembrance which Christ commanded, and was the authorising means of the change: And the Apostles actual settlement thereupon was the Promulgation. 3. The gradual notification by the Preachers to the Churches, and finally the destruction of the Jewish Policie, and Temple, and Priesthood, were the fuller proclamation of it, and the way of bringing the change that was made by Command into fuller Execution.

10. The seventh day Sabbath was observed by the Apostles after the Resurrection and Ascension, Act. 13. 14, 15, 16, 42, 44. & 16. 13, 14. And constantly, Act. 17. 2. (the same Greek phrase with that Luk. 14. 16. for Christ constant keeping the seventh day Sabbath as before) Act. 18. 1, 4. &c.

10 A. 1. But withal, in this time they stablished the Lords day, as soon as (on that day) the Holy Ghost came down upon them.

2. So all that while they kept other parts of the Jewish Law: They scrupled, yea refused a while Communion with the Gentiles as Act. 10. shews. They so carryed it to the Jews that Paul made it his defence, that he had p. 199not offended any thing at all, either against the Law of the Jews or against the Temple, Act. 25. 8. And when he Circumcised Tim…thy, purified himself, shaved his head, for his Vow, &c. Do you think that all these are duties to Believers?

3. None of the Texts cited by you do prove that the Apostles kept the Sabbath at all as a Sabbath, that is, a day on which it was their duty to Rest; But only that they Preached on that day in the Synagogues, and to the people; For when should they Preach to them but when they were Congregated, and capable of hearing? They took it for no sin to Preach on the Sabbath no more than I would do to Preach Christ on Friday, which is their Sabbath, to the Turks, if they would hear me. But Sabbatizing according to the Law, was something else than Preaching.

4. And it is most evident that for a long time the Christian Jews did still keep the Law of Moses: And that all that the Apostles did against it then, was, but 1. To declare that Christ was the end of the Law, and so to declare the keeping of it to be unnecessary to Salvation, but not unlawful, laying by the opinion of necessity. 2. That the Gentile Christians should not be brought to use it, because it was unnecessary. For the Apostles Act. 15. do not forbid it to the Jews, but only to the Gentiles, (who were never under it.) Therefore the Apostles who lived among the Jews no doubt did so far comply with them to win them, as to keep the Law externally, though not as a necessary thing, that is, not as a Law in force obliging them, but as a thing yet lawful to further the Gospel. And p. 200therefore no wonder if Peter went so far as to withdraw from the Gentiles when the Jews were present, when even Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles who speaketh so much more than all the rest against the Law, doth yet as aforesaid Circumcise Timothy, shave his head, purifie himself, &c. and as he became all things to all men, so to the Jews he became a Jew. But when the Jews Policie and Temple ceased, the change was executively yet further made, and the Jewish Christians themselves were weaned from their Law. In the mean time Paul and John, Rev. 2. & 3. do openly rebuke the Judaizing Hereticks, the Ebionites and Cerinthians, and Nicolaitans, and shew the perniciousness of their conceits.

11. The Holy Spirit calls the seventh day (and no other day) the Sabbath, throughout the Scriptures, before and after the Death, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord Jehovah Christ, Gen. 2. 2, 3, 4. Exod. 20. 10, &c. Act. 13. 14, 15, 16, 42, 44. & 16. 13, 14. & 17. 2. & 18. 1, 4.

11. A. Though it be not true that the seventh is called the Sabbath, Gen. 2. and though others deny the sufficiency of your enumeration, yet I grant your assertion as true. And therefore am satisfied that it is the seventh day which is put down, when Sabbatizing was put down; and that it could be none but the seventh day which Paul meant, Col. 2. 16. Let no man judge you in mea…s, &c. and Sabbaths which were Shadows of things to come. For the first day is never called a Sabbath as you truly say; therefore it was not put down with the p. 201Sabbath. See Dr. Youngs Dies Dom. on Col. 2. 16.

12. The seventh day Sabbath was prophaned by the Church heretofore and reformed: Neh. 10. 28, 29, 31. & 13. 15, 17, 18, 22. See Belg. Annot. on Dan. 7. 25, &c. as prophesied who would change it.

12. This is all granted. Sacrificing also was then Prophaned and Reformed, and polluted and destroyed by Antiochus; And yet we are not still under the obligation of Sacrificing. We are not under the Law, but under Grace.