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It is true indeed that fome Churches, for a confiderable Time after Chrift, did obferve both the Jewish and the Chriftian Sabbath: But fure this cannot be brought as an Argument against what we are faying. It is plain, by their Practice, they all made a Confcience of keeping one Day in feven holy to God; but if, in Imitation of the Jews, they would keep Saturday as well as Sunday, this rather ftrengthens our Affertion, that they thought the Law of the Fourth Commandment to be obliging to them, than any way to weaken it: It fhews indeed, fuppofing they took up this Practice as a Matter of Duty, that they were in Doubt which was the right Day they were obliged to keep, and therefore for Sureness they would keep both; but, in the mean time, it is a Demonftration that they thought themselves obliged to keep one Day in Seven.

Thus I have reprefented to you, in as few Words as I can, the Arguments that are brought for the proving that the Sabbath, or the Obfervation of one Day in seven for religious Uses, is more than a bare human Inftitution; and that it is bound upon us by God Almighty himself. I must confefs, I think there is great Weight in them: But I will not cenfure any Man that cannot come up to these Measures, provided that he takes himself to be obliged in Conscience to obferve the Lord's-day, though he

fetches

fetches that Obligation from other Grounds and Principles: But whoever doth not that, whoever hath fo little Senfe of Religion as not to think himself bound to dedicate one Day in the Week to join with his FellowChriftians in the folemn Worship of God, fuch a Man I can hardly believe to be a Chriftian, though he never fo much calls himself by that Name.

And thus much of our firft Head, namely, concerning our Obligation to obferve the Sabbath in general; that is, to fet apart one Day in feven for the more folemn Worfhip of God.

I now come to the Second Head, concerning the Change of the Sabbath from the Seventh Day of the Week, as it was obferved by the Jews, to the First Day of the Weck, as it is obferved by the Chriftians. And here the obvious Question is, By what Authority was this done? What Law of the Gofpel have we to fhew for this Change? And if we can produce none, how comes it to pass that we Chriftians do not observe the Seventh Day of the Week, as it is ordered in the Fourth Commandment? God faith, Remember the Sabbathday to keep it holy. Now all the World knows that the Sabbath-day that is there fpoken of, was the laft Day in the weekly Revolution, that Day which the Jews obferve for their Sabbath, and not the firft Day of the Week, or Sunday, as we Chri

ftians now obferve: Either therefore you muft fhew fome Law of Chrift, whereby he hath appointed Sunday to be the Day that is to be folemnly devoted to him, or elfe, if we be obliged to observe any Sabbath at all, we are obliged to obferve it according to the Law of the Fourth Commandment.

I have put the Difficulty as ftrongly as I can, and I doubt not but I fhall fufficiently clear it, if you will have the Patience to attend to what I have to fay to it.

The first thing I fay, is this, That all this Argumentation proceeds upon a falfe Ground, it fuppofeth that we were all under an Obligation to obferve the fame Day of the Week that the Jews were, unless Chrift fhould give a contrary Command: But this is a great Miftake; we are no more bound to obferve the Sabbath, as it was a Jewish Inftitution, than we are bound to obferve their New Moons, and folemn Festivals; and this St. Paul himself hath told us in 2 Coloff. xvi. Let no Man, faith he, judge you in refpect of an Holy-day, or of the New Moon, or of the Sabbath-days, which are a Shadow of Things to come, but the Body is of Chrift. That is to fay, Let no Man cenfure or condemn you Chriftians, for not religioufly obferving thofe folemn Days which the Law of Mofes commanded the Jews to keep holy, fuch as the New Moons and the Sabbaths, for these were the Types

and

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and Shadows of what was to come, and fo are vanished by the appearing of the Subftance, which is Chrift Jefus. Thefe Words do as plainly fhew, as Words can do, that if St. Paul be to be believed, we Chriftians are not bound to keep the Sabbath-day, as the Jews, by their Law, were obliged to keep it.

The Truth of it is, No Law of Mofes did oblige any but the Jews, to whom they were given, and those that lived among them: So far indeed as the Matter and Reafon of thofe Laws were of univerfal Concernment, fo far all Mankind that came to the Knowledge of them, were bound to take Notice of them: And there was fomething in the Law of the Sabbath, that feemed to be of this Nature, namely, That we should keep one Day in feven in Memory of the Creation, but for the particular Day that the Jews kept, that was appointed them by God for a Reafon that did peculiarly concern themselves, and therefore none but themselves, and those that lived among them, were obliged by it. This now being fo, it is an impertinent Question to ask what Law of Chrift hath abrogated Saturday, and put Sunday in the Place of it? For what needed there any Authority of Chrift to abrogate a Law that we were never bound to obferve?

But here it will be faid, Doth not our Church own the Fourth Commandment to

lay

lay an Obligation upon us? And doth not that Fourth Commandment expressly require the Obfervation of the laft Day of the Week, and not of the firft?

To this I will give two plain Answers. First, Tho' our Church owns the Authority of the Fourth Commandment, as well as of the reft, yet it doth not own an Obligation to practise all that is required in the Fourth Commandment, for neither our Church, nor any other Chriftian Church, from our Saviour's Time to this, did ever teach that Chriftians were bound to observe that strict bodily Reft, both of Man and Beaft, which the Fourth Commandment feems to require, and which the Jews practifed. So far from that, that feveral Chriftian Councils have cenfured them for Judaizers, that thought themselves bound to follow the Letter of the Jewish Law in this Matter; and they likewife paffed the fame Cenfure upon those that believed they were obliged to keep the fame Day: So that you fee we may own the Obligation of the Fourth Commandment without thinking our felves concerned either to obferve the fame Day, or the same Reft on that Day, which that Commandment requires.

But then, Secondly, If it is ftrictly examined, it will be found, that the Fourth Commandment doth not lay any greater Strefs upon one Day of the Week, than

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