THAT we may be truly and clearly informed of the Doctrine of the Sabbath, we must consider and re­ceive these following Truths.

First, That Adam so long as he continued in the estate of Innocency in which he was created of God, nor was, nor could be under the obligation of the ten Commandments, and so not under the obedience of the fourth Commandment: for can it rationally be supposed, that Adam being created perfectly holy, Gen. 1. 26, 27, made after the Image of God, which was perfect in Adam; his Understanding was as full of concreated light of the knowledg of God and of his works, as was necessary to his present happiness; and he was suitably perfect in his will and af­fections; and therefore while he continued in this perfect holy estate, what need had he of the Ten Commandments? or of what use could they be unto him? He knew not what it was to worship an Image, or to take Gods Name in vain; nor could he know any of the sins forbidden, nor any of the duties com­manded in the second Table of the Law; nor was of it any use to him, who was perfectly holy; nor did he know that God would set apart one day in seven to be more holy than the rest; for had he continued in the estate of Innocency more days than that in which he was created, the eight day, and the ninth, and the tenth day, and every had been alike holy to him, and as much a Sab­bath to him as the Seventh day; for he would have been still per­fectly holy, and therefore not subject to bodily weariness, and so needed not bodily rest; nor would he then have needed any of those outward duties and ordinances of worship required of us [Page 2] in the second or fourth Commandments, for our spiritual edifica­tion and comfort; for he needed not either spiritual information or spiritual comfort, or spiritual growth, as we do since the fall; a perfect estate of grace and holiness hath no need of any of these spiritual helps and means, no more than the holy Saints in Hea­ven have now need or use of them. And hence two things must necessarily be inferred.

1. That man was fallen from his Innocency before he was com­manded to observe the seventh day as the time of the Sabbath or holy Rest, as it was afterwards expressed in the fourth Command­ment; and it is evident, that Gods great design in creating man, was not his continuance in the estate of innocency for one day;, and therefore as soon as man was created and put into Paradise God made a Covenant with him for himself and all his posterity, That if he did eat first of the fruit of the tree of knowledg of good and evil, he and all his posterity should presently dye, that is, a spiritual death, by being stript of that holy image of God in which he was created; but if he did eat first of the tree of Life, which stood next to the other, then he and all his posterity should continue for ever in their present holy and happy estate. Now the Devil hearing and knowing that God had made this Covenant with him, and fearing lest Adam should eat first of the tree of Life, and so he and all his posterity should live for ever; he being full of envy, and malice, and subtilty, he presently entred into the Serpent, and in and by the Serpent perswaded and prevailed with Eve, and by Eve perswades and prevailed with Adam to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree; and so they both, and all their posterity, were deprived of that innocent and holy estate in which they were created; therefore Gods great design in creating man, was, that by his fall he might take occasion to glorifie both his Mercy and Justice in sending his Son into the world to be a Re­deemer and Saviour, which he did in promise immediately upon mans fall, Gen. 3. 15; and by actual exhibition, when the ful­ness of time was come, Gal. 4. 4: And therefore Adam's conti­nuance in the estate of innocency for so short a time, was most su­table to Gods great design in man's creation.

2. This also must necessarily be inferred, That Adam being created perfectly innocent and holy, could not fall from that holy and happy estate by any other way, but only by doing some out­ward act, in its own nature lawful, which God should forbid him [Page 3] to do; and God forbad him to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledg of good and evil, which was in it self lawful, but be­came unlawful for him to eat of that fruit, by a positive nega­tive precept from God, Gen. 2. 17. For God never made with man but two Covenants essentially differing one from the other; the first was made with man in the estate of innocency, before his fall, expressed in Gen. 2. 16, 17; and this, if you will, you may call a Covenant of Works; and this Covenant he brake, Gen. 3. 6. And the second Covenant God made with man in his lapsed or fallen estate, being devoid of all spiritual good, overspread with original sin, and under the guilt of eternal death; and this was a Covenant of Grace, touching the redemption and salvation of man, a sinner, by the death and sufferings of Christ, both God and Man; and this Covenant of Grace God did reveal and ex­press to Adam immediately upon his fall, in Gen. 3. 15. and what God hath revealed to be his will in reference to man a sinner, ever since he made that promise, hath been but an explication and am­plification of that Covenant-promise made in Christ. Now this Covenant of Grace (since that first promise made to man in his lapsed estate) God hath revealed to man a sinner, or rather to his Church and people by such degrees and means as he pleased; for as for the first two thousand years after that promise, God reveal­ed his will and mind to his people, not by writing, but either by visions, or dreams, or by audible voice, and the like; but at the end of two thousand years, when God brought his people out of Egypt, they being grown to a great Nation, in their passage through the Wilderness, God established the Covenant of Grace with them in a more publick way, and after a more solemn man­ner, upon Mount Sinai; and then, and not before, he spake the Ten Commandments to them with his own mouth; and also he wrote them in two Tables of stone with his own hand, to be unto them, and to all succeeding Churches, in covenant with him, a rule to walk by, Exod. 31. 18. Now these Ten Words, or Ten Commandments, are no where in the Scripture called the Moral Law; but by Divine Writers they are so called a morando, because they were and are to continue a rule of righteousness and obedience to the Church and people of God to the end of the world; and they are said to be moral, not simply and absolutely, but synecdochically, or in some respect only; and therefore in the Ten Commandments rightly to understand them, we must consi­der [Page 4] two things: First, The substance of every Commandment: And Secondly, The circumstances of every Commandment. Now the substance of every Commandment is moral, of perpetual E­quity, and knowable by the Light of Nature or Reason in man fallen; but the circumstances are positive, and depend upon Re­velation, or Gods positive Commands expressed in the Scripture. This is true of every one of the Ten Commandments; I shall instance only in two of them, which will give light to all the rest: I shall instance in the Second and Fourth Commandments. First, The Second Commandment concerneth the outward Worship of God; now the morality or substance of this Second Command­ment is this, Thou shalt outwardly worship the Lord thy God only by such ways and duties as he shall command and appoint. And this may be known to fallen man by the light of Reason; for that doth dictate to him, that there is a God, and that God is to be worshipped, and that he is to be worshipped only by such du­ties, ways and means, as he shall command and appoint: but for the circumstances of this Commandment, namely, the particular duties and ordinances by which God will be outwardly worship­ped, they depend wholly upon Revelation, and the positive Com­mands of God; for all the duties of worship commanded of God both in the Old and New Testament, are to be referred to the Second Commandment. So the substance or morality of the Fourth Commandment, is contained in these words only, Re­member the Sabbath-day to keep it holy; that is, Thou shalt keep holy that day of Rest which I do appoint; and this also the light of Reason may dictate, That it belongeth to God only to set a­part and appoint to his people a day of holy Rest; and all the other words expressed in this Commandment, are but circumstan­tial, and depend upon Revelation; as the appointing the Seventh day from the Creation to be the day of holy Rest to the people of God before Christ, was by positive command of God; for Adam in the estate of innocency could not know by his concreated light, that God would finish his work of Creation in six days; and yet God doth make that the ground of his instituting the Seventh day to be the day of holy Rest, Gen. 2. 3. much less could it be known by the light of Nature or Reason in man fallen: We read of A­ristotle, that great Philospher, who did excel in the light of Rea­son, that he affirmed that the World had no beginning; and the Scripture saith expresly, Heb. 11. 3, By faith we understand that [Page 5] the worlds were framed by the word of God; and that which we understand by faith, we know by revelation only, which is the ground of faith; and the Seventh day being a created time as well as the other six days, could not be a holy time to fallen man, but by Gods special and positive Command and Institution.

2. A second thing to be considered for the right understanding of the Doctrine of the Sabbath, is this, That the Seventh day from the Creation appointed of God to be the Sabbath or day of holy Rest to the people of God before Christs incarnation, being but the positive part of the Fourth Commandment, did cease and end as a holy Sabbath at the time of Christs resurrection from the dead; the reason is, Because though it was primarily com­manded of God to be so observed; yet afterwards a typical sense and use was by Moses from God added to it; as Circumcision and the Passover, they were instituted to be the ordinary Sacra­ments belonging to the Church of the Jews and were both seals of the Covenant of Grace; the first of Initiation, the other of confirmation and growth; yet being also used as typical during the legal administration, they both ceased with the Ceremonial Law; and in the room of them Christ ordained Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the only Sacraments to all Christian Chur­ches in time of the Gospel. So the Seventh day from the Creati­on it was primarily by a positive command of God set apart to be the Jews weekly holy Sabbath; yet it came to be used also as ty­pical, to signifie to the faithful their spiritual rest in Christ in this [...]ife, and their eternal rest by and with Christ in Heaven, as Exod. 31. 13, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign betwixt me and you throughout your generations; which is meant also of the Seventh-day-Sabbath, as is evident in ver. 14, 15, 16; and in ver. 17, It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: and it is reckoned up amongst the other Jewish Festival Sabbaths in Levit. 23. 2, and in Col. 2. 16, 17, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ. And Heb. 4. 3, 4, 5, 9. There remain­eth therefore a Sabbatism to the people of God; and it is evident that this Sabbatism was typified by the Seventh-day-Sabbath in ver. 4. And from these Scriptures it must be granted, That God appoin­ted the Rest of the Seventh-day not only as a sanctified time of his Worship publick and private, but also as a sanctified sign of mans resting on the Seed of the Woman, and of his eternal Rest [Page 6] in Heaven; and therefore as soon as the Seed of the Woman had finished his Sacrifice, and was risen from the dead, the holy Rest of the Seventh-day ceased, as did all the other types of Moses his Law, Gal. 4. 9, 10, 11; and in the room of it was appointed by Christ the First day of the week. For to deny that God hath in­stituted another day to be the day of holy Rest to Christians in the time of the Gospel, is to deny the Moral part of the Fourth Commandment.

3. A third thing therefore to be considered for the right un­derstanding of the Doctrine of the Sabbath is this, That upon the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, God did appoint the First day of the week to be the day of holy Rest to the Churches of Christ to the end of the world; which yet in his great wis­dom is so contrived, that the weekly return of it is but one day in seven, that still man may have six days for his labour, and God may have the Seventh-day to be his holy Sabbath, and this by virtue of the moral part of the Fourth Commandment, and that expressed in these words, Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath-day; that is, the day that I shall appoint by posi [...]ive Command to be my holy Sabbath-day: Now that God hath appointed the First day of the week, it being the Eight from the Creation, and the Seventh day from the Resurrection of Christ, to be the Chri­stian Sabbath, hath been, and may be made evident to any one, who can but so far deny himself, as to think that he may err and be mistaken in his opinion, and is resolved to receive the truth whensoever and by whomsoever it shall be made manifest to him from the holy Scriptures.

Now for the proof of this Third particular, consider, that the Seventh day from the Creation being appointed of God by posi­tive command the day of holy Rest to the Jews; and that day being also made typical, and so ceased, as hath been already pro­ved; it was necessary from the moral part of the Fourth Com­mandment, that God should appoint another day for his holy Sabbath, instead of the Seventh day from the Creation; for God only can so set apart and sanctifie a Sabbath day as to bind the in­ward as well as the outward man to be holily exercised all that day, as it is expressed in Isa. 58. 13, 14. Now that the First day of the week is appointed and ordained of God to be the Christi­ans holy Sabbath-day, is sufficiently evidenced by these things.

[Page 7] 1. That the eight day from the Creation, being the day of Christs resurrection from the dead, is very eminent and famous in the Old Testament before the time of Christ his incarnation; as▪ 1. No creature was allowed for sacrifice until it was eight days old, Exod. 22. 27, 30. 2. The Law of Circumcision was strictly tied to the eight day, Gen. 17. 12, and in divers other places▪ 3. The persons of the Priests were not perfectly consecrated to minister in their Office, until the eighth day, Levit. 8. 33, and 9. 1. 4. The leprous person was not perfectly cleansed until the eight day, Lev. 14. 10; nor the polluted Nazarite, Numb. 6. 10. 5. The last and great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, was on the eight day, which was a Sabbath-day, Joh. 7. 37: and all this to typifie the eminency of the Resurrection-day of Christ, even above the Seventh from the Creation; and all this did clearly intimate and imply, that God would at Christs resurrection take off the Crown of honour from the Seventh day, and set it upon the head of the Eight day, the day of his Son's resurrection from the dead, ha­ving then finished the great work of man's Redemption.

2. It is evident by Scripture, that it hath been Gods frequent practice to set a character or mark of remembrance and honour upon his most considerable works and actions, by setting apart a set and solemn time to be piously observed and kept upon that ac­count: As for his other great works, he commanded only an yearly solemnity, as in Exod. 12. 42, and chap. 13. 3▪ and in Hest. 9. 20. But the great work of the Creation God would have to be remembred and honoured by a weekly solemnity, by setting apart and sanctifying the Seventh day from the Creation to be observed in the weekly return of it, as his holy Sabbath, or day of Holy Rest, Gen. 2. 3. And can we reasonably imagine, that Gods Plea­sure, Acquiescence and Rest, in raising his Son, his only begotten Son, from the dead, having finished the great work of Redemp­tion, a greater and a more glorious work than that of the Creati­on, and of a more dear and precious resentment to God the Fa­ther; that yet this wonderful and blessed work, the very admira­tion of Angels, should not be honoured with a day of remem­brance, as frequent, as solemn, as sacred, and by Gods own ap­pointment, as the other was, how can it but seem very strange to a considerate, believing, and redeemed Christian.

3. The Lord Jesus himself began to celebrate and solemnize the individual day of his Resurrection, by an holy and heavenly [Page 8] conference with two of his Disciples as they were going from Je­rusalem to Emaus, Luk. 24. 30; And behold two of them went the same day; the Evangelist gives special notice of the day: and the same day he did administer the Sacrament of the Supper to them: Ver. 30, And it came to pass as he sate at meat with them, &c. You see that they were then eating; and then he took the bread, and bles­sed it, and brake it, and gave it to them; these words he useth only in the administration of the Holy Supper. Now the same hour saith the Evangelist) they returned again to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, ver. 33, &c. and ver. 36, &c. Now why did the Holy Ghost give such parti­cular notice of the day, to be the same day, the eight day, the first day of the week, the day of his resurrection from the dead, ver. 1, but to signifie that Christ on that day began to sanctifie the day of his resurrection in religious exercises, to lead the way to all that should believe in him to do the like. Now beside this, Christ made two other appearances, and each of them was on the first day of the week, the day in which he rose again from the dead, not mentioning any thing spoken or done by him the six days between; and why all this, but to put a mark of special re­membrance and honour on this day, the first day of the week, it being now to become the holy Sabbath-day to all Christian Churches to the end of the world; and it is very observable, that after Christs resurrection, and before his ascension, he spake to his Disciples of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, Acts 1. 3, that is, what the Apostles were afterwards to do in the Church of God, both in respect of Government, and Preaching, and Writing; and then commands them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, ver. 4; which they did, as in Acts 2. 1, 2, 3, 4. Now the day on which the Holy Ghost was sent from Heaven, and fell up­on the Apostles in that miraculous manner, was the first day of the week, as is evident from the computation of the days of Pen­tecost, which are here said to have been fully come (or fulfilled), Lev. 23. 15, 16.

4. It was afterwards the practice of the Saints in the Apostles days, to solemnize the First day of the week in a religious assem­bling of themselves for Sabbath duties and exercises; as Acts 20. 7. And upon the first day of the week, when the Disciples came together to break bread (meaning, after their usual and accustomed manner) [Page 9] Paul preached unto them, &c. and in 1 Cor 16. 1, 2, Ʋpon the first day of the week, when ye are met together; namely, according to your usual custom: and in both these places, the exact notation of the day, the first day of the week, did denote to them, that this was and ought to be the day to be kept by Christians for their weekly Sabbath; for the Apostles had greatly sinned, and caused the Chri­stian Churches to have sinned, if they had not direction and com­mand from Christ to observe that day of the week holy, as being now the Christian Sabbath, 1 Cor 14. 37, and the other abolished by Christ, as hath been already proved.

5. In Rev. 1. 10, saith the Apostle John, I was in the spirit on the Lords day, this cannot be meant of the Seventh-day-Sabbath, for it was above fifty years after Christs resurrection when the Apostle John wrote to the Seven Churches of Asia, and then the Seventh-day-Sabbath was generally laid aside by Christians, and the first day of the week, the day of Christs Resurrection, was generally obser­ved and kept by them instead of it; and therefore this title was by the Apostle John given to that day, without any circumstance, as that which was familiarly known, and grown in frequent use and practice in all the Christian Churches. And as Christ ordained the Holy Supper instead of the Passover, and therefore stiled by the A­postle Paul, The Lords Supper; so because Christ ordained the day of his Resurrection to be the Christians day of Holy Rest, instead of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath; therefore it is stiled by the Apostle John, The Lords Day.

6. Ever since the Apostles time, the First day of the week, be­ing the day of Christs Resurrection hath been generally observed & kept as the Christian Sabbath in all Christian Churches through­out all succeeding Ages, unto this day. Now that they all should live and dye in an erroneous & sinful practice, without repentance, so much controverted, and an inconsiderable party of them, much inferior to multitudes of them both in Learning, Parts, Gifts, and Spiritual Grace and Holiness, should yet only be in the right, who hold the Jewish Sabbath, the Seventh day from the Creation, to be still in force, and accordingly do observe and keep it, contrary to the declared judgment and practice of all other Christians, cannot be thought but to proceed either from ignorance, or from pride, or from both, one or both of these having been the root and cause of all the Schisms, and Errors, and Heresies, which do, or ever have disquieted and disturbed the Churches of Jesus Christ.