A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Section 16 – Section 17
SECTION. XVI. Of the ſeventh day Sabbath.
AS we ſee it muſt be one day in the week ſo we by the Lord are directed to the ſeventh day in the week.
1. By God his free donation of ſix dayes to us, for to labour in, and to do all that we have to do: our common and ordinary buſineſſes muſt be all done, and ended in this ſpace: which ſpace he preſently after the Commandement allotteth unto us. He firſt telleth us, what and how many dayes in the week are ours, before he tels us which is the day that is his: 1. That ſo we might learn where to begin to finde out the Sabbath. 2. By appropriating unto himſelf the ſeventh day for Sabbath: The ſeventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
This ſeventh day here ſpoken of is not that one individuall ſingular ſeventh day of the Creation on which God reſted, but a ſeventh day after the ſix dayes given to us: For.
2. As the ſix dayes allowed us, are not the very ſix dayes in which God created the world, which were gone and paſt, but only ſix dayes in likeneſſe and revolution, no more is this the ſelf ſame ſeventh day, but another in likeneſſe by revolution. So it is as if he had ſaid I allow the ſix dayes together for your labour in the week, be thoſe ſix dayes, what dayes ſoever begon and reckoned together; But the ſeventh day following thoſe ſix dayes is mine, It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
2. That firſt ſeventh day, and the firſt ſix dayes mentioned in the firſt and ſecond chapters of Geneſis, are underſtood by God in the words following as a reaſon added to this direction of God, why he giveth us for ever ſix dayes, and reſerveth the ſeventh day alwayes for himſelf; becauſe he wrought thoſe ſix dayes, and reſted that ſeventh day, which words of God are not the reaſon of the Commandement, but of his giving us ſix dayes, and his reſerving to himſelf the ſeventh day.
3. Gods concluſion concerning the fourth Commandement helpeth us in this: For in the end he turneth his ſpeech unto the very words of the Commandement: ſaying, Wherefore the Lord bleſſed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, He ſaith not, that ſeventh day, but the Sabbath day, (that is) the reſt of that firſt Seventh, as a Sabbath for ever, fall it upon another ſeventh day, whatſoever it be.
The ſeventh day therefore is ever the Sabbath day.
1. By Gods irrevocable donation of ſix dayes unto us.
2. By our acceptation of ſo many dayes in the week to our ſelves, from all times unto this day: If from Gods words in this direction here we dare without doubt or ſcruple take our ſix dayes, are we not then tyed to give him the ſeventh day by the like authority, who reſerved to himſelf at the ſame time, when he gave us our ſix that we ſhould afford him the ſeventh?
3. By Gods propoſing his own example, as a perpetuall pattern to be followed of us, in his ſix dayes labour, and in his ſeventh dayes reſt; For ſaith (that ever honoured Biſhop Lakes) what time God himſelf took for his work, and for his reſt, the ſame did he aſſign to men, and made his pattern a perpetuall Law: In his Theſis the 8.
4. For that the ſeventh part of time God did chuſe to himſelf before before fall: and ſo Gods ordinance is everlaſting as the world, a portion of time eternall, as the ſame reverend Father affirmeth in his 25 Theſis and 32. See alſo for this very fully Maſter Hooker, in his fifth Book of Eccleſ. Pol. Sect. 70.
5. Becauſe if a man had ſtood in his full perfection, not only our firſt parents, but all his poſterity, had obſerved the firſt ſeventh day: But ſin (not any Ceremony) made that day alterable ſaith the ſame Father, as it now is altered upon the recreation of all things by Chriſt; But yet is ſtill the ſame portion of time kept, a ſeventh day in the week.
This alterableneſſe of that ſeventh day, through ſin, is a reaſon why God, in giving the fourth Commandement delivered as (I have ſaid) the ſame in ſuch a generall manner.
SECTION. XVII. Of the fix dayes work:
THeſe ſix dayes are called working dayes, Ezek 46. 1. in them men are to labour, which labour is to be imployed in doing work; and it muſt be all, and it muſt be thy work, ſo labouring to do all that thou haſt to do, that is, which by thy profeſſion, Art, trade, and calling belongeth unto thee to labour in and to do.
The words are a permiſſion put only by a conceſſion: in ſix dayes may work be done, Exod. 31. 15. and not preceptive, but as they have reſpect to the Sabbath day; for the better obſerving of it, when we neglect not our buſineſſe on the ſix dayes, nor deferre any thing thereof unto the ſeventh day.
For the Lord in the firſt Table commandeth mans duty to himſelf, and how to expreſſe his love to him; which is the ſum of the firſt Table, Matth. 22, 37. and not what man ſhould do for his corporall and outward eſtate, for that belongeth to the ſecond Table.
Therefore in theſe words is a preparation for the Sabbath, and a prevention for hindering our ſpirituall reſt, and alſo our bodily toyle for our ſelves, in and about our ordinary calling, when the day of reſt is come.
Yet here we are not ſo tyed to labour in theſe dayes, but that God muſt have herein religious duties performed to him of every one privately, Pſal. 55. 17. Dan. 6. 10. 13. and ſome part of the day to his ſervice publikly, if he appoint it, as under Moſes he did a dayly worſhip and offering of Sacrifices morning and evening, yea he may take a whole day, as once in a monethmonth, once in a yeer, as he ordained Feſtivalls in Iſrael: and when he calleth for publike Faſting by his judgements, Joel 2. 15. or for publike thankſgiving by ſome ſingular mercies, we are to ſet ſome time apart for the ſame, as the Jews did. Ester 9. 19, 22.