The Lords Day Vindicated, Tract · Section 21
SECT. XXI.
AS the Concluſion and Reſult of all this Diſcourſe, I think, I have ſhewn, that the Lord Christ did not make the World; that Jehovah was not Chriſt before the World; that he never inſtituted the Seventh day, nor reſted on it, till his Incarnation; nor being Chriſt really till then; that he gave not the Commands on Mount Sinai: Neither were they there given to the Gentiles, but to the Jews only, and thoſe mixed People that came out of Egypt: That the Ten Commands were confirmed by our Lord Chriſt in his Sermons and Diſcourſes; but the Seventh-day-Sabbath never ſo much as mentioned by him in them all; as that which was no part at all of the Moral Law; but purely poſitive, both in it ſelf, and in its Grounds and Motive upon which 'tis founded, and impoſed upon its Obſervers in the Old Teſtament; and therefore was liable to be changed with the other poſitive and ceremonial Precepts of the Law of God; that our Lord Chriſt indeed obſerved it in his own Perſon in the Fleſh, becauſe he was made under the antecedent Law of all the Ceremonies and Moſaical Adminiſtration, and obſerved them all as well as the Sabbath; but yet he then ſpake, and did ſuch things as declared its approach to Diſſolution and its Non-Morality; that he reſted no more in the Grave on the Seventh day, than he did on the Croſs on the Sixth, when he hung dead thereon; but the day of his Reſt from the work of Redemption, was the firſt day of the week; which day he ſupreamly honoured above all the days of the week, by his Reſurrection thereon from the Dead; by his ſeveral Appearances thereon to his Diſciples after his Death; by his moſt gracious Diſcourſes thereon unto them (which he never did, nor made, on the Seventh day after his Reſarrection) and by the Miſſion of the Holy Ghoſt upon his Diſciples thereon: Upon which account St. John calls it the Lords day, and by all the Churches ever ſince, that Lords day has been taken to be the first day of the Week: That the Apoſtles and Believers kept the Lords day, or the firſt day of the week as their religious Reſt; and met together on that day as the day of their publick Aſſemblies, and we never read of any Aſſemblies on the Seventh day, ſave thoſe of the Jews (our Lords Enemies) in their Synagogues, to whom Paul went to preach the Goſpel then and there; but when he experienced their deſperate Obſtinacy; left that time, and thoſe Synagogues, and we never read that ever on that day he joyned with any religious Society; after that at Troas he preached and adminiſtred the Sacrament to the Believers on the firſt day, the Lords day; and that the Holy Ghoſt does call the firſt day of the week the Lords day, being the day of the Redeemer's Reſt from a far more glorious, laborious, gracious and beneficial, Work, than that of the Creation: And that there is an expreſs Prohibition of the Seventh-day-Sabbath in St. Paul's Epiſtles; and conſequently, ſeeing the poſitive Morality of one day in Seven in the Fourth Command, is of perpetual Obligation to the Churches; therefore the firſt day muſt be that day, and the Sabbath was excluded, that the Lords day might ſucceed, and that the Promiſes made to the Reſt of one day in Seven in the Command, are made to, and entail'd upon the firſt day of thoſe Seven now, as they were upon the laſt of them, before its Expiration; and that a due Obſervation thereof, ſhall have a gracious Acceptation with, a bountiful Remuneration from our God and our Saviour, according to all the Bleſſed Experiences of the ſtrict and conſciencious Obſervers thereof. That there is a more expreſs and peremptory Abolition of this Sabbath in the Scriptures of that Apoſtle, than there is, or can be found in them for the Ceſſation of many other particular, poſitive and ceremonial Inſtitutions; which yet Chriſtians in general (and this Gentleman in particular) diſregard as diſſolved and vaniſhed: And I profeſs, if I could ſee but half ſo much in the Second Command, to prove a Form of Prayer to be the Peſel there forbidden, or at leaſt included therein, I ſhould utterly deny all Forms as Idolatrous (which now I dare not do; but in ſome caſes hold them not only lawful, but neceſſary and Praiſe-worthy) or but half ſo much in any Line or Sentence of the New Teſtament againſt the uſe of the Lords Prayer in the publick Congregation; I would never ſo uſe it more, but to my due power would endeavour its Baniſhment thence: If, I ſay, but half ſo much as I find expreſſed for the Seventh days Depoſal; well may we wonder that in ſuch things a Man ſees what ſcarce no Man elſe ever did, in the word of God, and yet in this, that he ſhould not ſee what almoſt every Man elſe can plainly diſcover.
Wherefore I queſtion not, but all our Divines and Miniſters of Congregations, are ſufficiently ſatisfied, that they ſerve God duly, as to the Circumſtance of time on Lords days; and may, and do, in Faith, aſſociate on the Lords day, as the only Sacred day of the Week, with all other Chriſtians in the Apoſtles days ſince our Saviours Reſurrection, home to this very Generation: And I cannot but hope that this piece, how ſpecious ſoever it be, and with what confidence ſoever recommended; however back'd with the Pretences of Divine Authority, of Jehovah's Will, &c. with pathetical Inculcations of thoſe in multitudes of its Pages, for the Obſervance of the Seventh day will find but very few, if any, Proſelites among our common Profeſſors; and, I am confident, none among our Wiſe, Stade, experienced Chriſtians; or if any be in danger of Infection, I pray to God that this Reply, intended for this end, may be an Antidote to ſecure them. Laſtly, it will be good Advice to this Gentleman, who hath cauſed the Expence of ſo much time in this Controverſie, to bethink himſelf how his Opinion leads us to Judaize; and this work of his tends only to divide the Church, to ſtumble the Weak, to imploy and pleaſe the Silly, Fantaſtical and Giddy in matters of Religion, to encourage the Profaners of the firſt day, or rather of the Lords day, to ſcandalize and grieve all, and therefore to ceaſe from farther Attempts of this kind. And all I deſire is, that the Reader would impartially compare what he has written for his Seventh day againſt the Lords day; and what I have written for the Lords day, againſt his Seventh day; and beg Wiſdom and Underſtanding from God to have a due Inſight into, and draw a right Concluſion from both.
FINIS.