A Threefold Treatise of the Sabbath, Section 22 – Section 23
SECTION. XXII. The Arguments to prove it Ceremoniall, anſwered.
MEn diſpoſed to wipe out this Commandement out of the Decalogue, fain would make it Ceremoniall; but their arguments, brought for this purpoſe, are of no validity: They ſay it was Ceremoniall,
I. For the exact ſtrictneſſe of it, which they have imagined, but I have proved it to be onelyonly an imagination: For that ſtrict obſervation which was kept, was but for a time, and from acceſſory Commandements, not from the fourth Commandement it ſelf.
II. In their keeping of that ſeventh day: But the Seventh day is not of the ſubſtance of the Commandement; and a ſeventh day is proved to be perpetuall. Nor was the ſeventh in the firſt Inſtitution Ceremoniall: And the Church obſerveth ſtill a Seventh day.
III. For that the Seventh day is abrogated, but this is not ſo, its changed, but not abrogated, as meer Ceremonies be.
IV. It was a ſigne (ſay they) between God and the Iſraelites: Exod. 31. 13, 17. Ezek. 20. 12. God, in giving his Law, ſaith no ſuch thing: and ſtill we muſt make a difference between the Law it ſelf, and what after were added for inſtruction, as the then ſtate of the people required.
Again, every ſigne is not a Ceremony; for the Rain-bow was a ſigne, Gen. 9. yet no Ceremony.
Moreover, the reaſon added why it was a ſigne, belongeth to us, For in ſix dayes the Lord made beaven and earth, and on the Seventh day he rested, Exod. 31. 17.
The end why he made it, a ſigne doth a like appertain to us, to wit, That they might know him to be the Lord that Sanctified them, Exod. 31. 13. Ezek. 20. 12. And are not we to learn and know as much in keeping our reſt-day in holy duties? yea, bleſſed are they that do learn this leſſon, to know the Lord, that he doth ſanctifie them in the uſe of his Ordinances, upon the day of our reſt.
V. It was a memoriall, ſay, they, of their deliverance out of Egypt, Deut. 5. 15. This reaſon was Moſes addition to move the people to pity their ſervants and cattell: Muſt Moſes his charitable uſe made of the Sabbath, and his argument to perſwade them to mercy, from Gods mercy to them, alter the nature of the Precept, and diſannull it? The words in the beginning of the verſe, may be conceived in a Parentheſis, and are brought in onelyonly as a memoriall of that great deliverance, as God remembred it in the preface to all the Commandements, to move them to obſerve the whole Law; and the word, Therefore, is to be annexed to the end of the 14 verſe, as indeed it ought in ſenſe and reaſon: which being ſo, the words prove not the Sabbath to be inſtituted for a memoriall of their deliverance from Aegypt, though they had good cauſe to remember it on this day, and in keeping the fourth Commandement, impoſing reſt, as alſo in obſerving the firſt and all the other: for, as I ſaid, its in the Preface to the whole Law, as never to be forgotten of them, but to be remembred as a ſtrong motive, to ſtirre them up to obedience.
VI. Say they, its ranked by the Apoſtle, Col. 2. 16, 17. among ſhadows.
But the place is not meant of the weekly Sabbaths.
I. The weekly Sabbath is the ſubſtance of the fourth Commandement: and therefore durable, not aboliſhed, as the Apoſtle ſpeaketh of theſe Sabbaths.
II. The Apoſtle ſpeaketh here of ſuch things as cannot agree with the weekly Sabbaths.
1. The Tearm, Ordinances, verſ. 14. ſhew where the Sabbath of the week is called an Ordinance?
2. The word, Ordinances, are expounded to be the Commandements contained in Ordinances: and theſe were the middle partition-wall between the Jew and Gentile, taken away on the Croſſe, Eph. 2. 15. But the Sabbath day was no part of the partition-wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, for we keep ſtill a Sabbath unto the Lord.
3. They are the hand writings againſt us, and contrary to us, blotted out, and aboliſhed, Col. 2. 14. Eph. 2. 15. but not ſo the weekly Sabbath.
4. Theſe were a ſhadow of things to come, whereof, the body was Chriſt, verſ. 17. but the *Generally the Fathers take it to prefigure Chriſts reſt, that day onelyonly, full and wholly in his praiſe: as D. Andr: in his Star-Chamber ſpeech, acknowledgeth.Sabbath of the week was no ſuch thing: if we conſider it in it originall, and not of the declaratory, cloathed with it acceſſories, as BP. Lake ſpeaketh: for, ſaith he, before the fall, the Sabbath was a kinde of reſt, ſhadowing out our eternall reſt, but not of that whereof Christ is the Body. To us the Lords day is a foretaſte of that eternall reſt, and I hold the ſhadow to be as laſting as the world. Thus this lea…ned Father and Doctor in our Church, who ſaith further, that they who alleadge the Col. 2. 16. are out of the argument, becauſe le ſpeaks of ſhadows, whereof Chriſt is the body, which he denieth of the weekly Sabbath, conſidering it in the originall inſtitution, and not after the fall made a ſhadow by acceſſories.
III. Here the Sabbaths are equalized, with meat, drink, holy-day, new Moon, which were the ſhadow of things to come.
Therefore hereby muſt be underſtood other Sabbaths.
Such were theſe Sabbaths, the firſt day of the ſeventh monethmonth, Lev. 23. 24, 32. the ſeventh yeer, Lev. 25. 4. the yeer of Jubilee, Lev. 25. 8, 11.
So the holy Convocation of the Feſtivall times, the firſt day, Lev. 23. 7. the ſeventh day, verſ. 8. the eighth and the tenth, verſ. 27, 32. all which were called Sabbaths, 39. the ſame mentioned with the new Moons, Eſa. 1. 13. called appointed Feaſts, verſe 14.
Thoſe kinde of Sabbaths muſt be here meant,
1. Theſe were called Ordinances, as the Apoſtle calleth them here.
2. Theſe were of the partition-wall, and aboliſhed, and taken out of the way.
3. A ſhadow of things to come.
4. Thus the word, Sabbaths, taken, agree well with meat, drink, new Moon, and holy day.
5. The Apoſtle varying the number from new Moon and holy day ſingularly, to Sabbaths plurally, would have us to underſtand the annexed Convocations, called Sabbaths, Lev. 23. 39. before mentioned.
Thus we ſee their arguments, what little ſtrength they have to prove the fourth Commandement Ceremoniall.
SECTION. XXIII. That the fourth Commandement, is in no part Ceremoniall.
IT is clear enough that the fourth Commandement is not Ceremoniall not in part, as ſome do grant it, much leſſe the whole, as ſome of late boldly affirm it to be.
1. The inſtitution of the Sabbath, on which the Commandement is grounded, commanding no more, then at the firſt inſtitution, was before the fall, when there was no need of any Ceremony.
2. God never made himſelf an example of any Ceremoniall precept, as he doth in this.
3 A Ceremoniall precept conſiſts wholly, or in part of ſome Ceremoniall ſervice preſcribed by it; but no ſuch ſervice, neither in whole, nor in part, in this, neither in the day, nor in the ſtrict obſervation of it, as before is proved.
4. All, and every Ceremoniall precepts, and politicall, were given mediately, only by Moſes, Levit. 27. 34. Deut. 4. 14. But this was given immediately by God himſelf.
5. That which was Ceremoniall was properly and directly the School-maſter to Chriſt: For the Ceremoniall Law was that proper, and direct School-Maſter, Gal. 4. 24. But this precept is not any part of that School-maſter to Chriſt, properly and directly.
6. Whatſoever was Ceremoniall, was Carnall, Heb. 7. 16. and a beggerly rudiment, Gal. 4. But Saint Paul ſpeaking of the Morall Law, calleth it holy, juſt, good, and ſpirituall, Rom. 7. 12, 14. of which Morall Law, this is an undelible precept, and not a Carnall and beggerly rudiment.
7. All Ceremoniall precepts are abrogated by Chriſt, as all confeſſe: But this precept is not abrogated by Chriſt, but rather eſtabliſhed, Matth. 5. 17, 18. who hath ordained us another reſt day, in ſtead of the former ſeventh day; to uphold the Commandement.