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believer, and they accused him for speaking against the law and Moses, who witnessed the end of it.

P. Thou sayst, There is a conceit, that the disciples in assembling on the First-day, did celebrate the sabbath. And they were so far from believing that Christ was risen, that it seemed to them as idle tales. The First-day was finished before they believed, and so they could not have faith to do any such thing.'

A. The scriptures speak no such thing, and tell us no such conceit, that the disciples did celebrate the first-day to be the sabbath; but this is thine and your imaginations, got up among you that own not the body Christ, who ends all signs, types, and shadows. Christ was. before days were, and who lives in him doth not celebrate days.

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P. Thou sayst, 'John intends a single day, it is much like it was the sabbath day; and he speaks of the Lord's day, judgment day, and this he calls the day, and this day he must show unto John in the vision. The ancient Christians who call it the Lord's day, did never term it the sabbath. But religiously celebrated the Seventh-day with it.'

A. John doth not call it the sabbath day, nor did the Christians celebrate the sabbath with it, but said the old was signs and shadows, the body of them was Christ; but since the days of the apostles and the apostacy, ye have wanted the body Christ, and ye have fallen into the days; for Christ saw those that should come up, and draw people into the days. And the day of the Lord is light, and in the day of the Lord was John.

P. Thou sayst, Old things are passed away, and all things are be

come new.'

A. Then the sabbath was a thing, and it must pass away; and it was a rest, and we must have a new rest: and the sabbath was in the old time given as a sign, and a command, and given by God to be kept since the fall.

P. Thou sayst, 'There remains therefore the celebrating the sabbath to the people of God.'

A. But the scripture of the New Testament doth not say so. The apostle says, 'There remains therefore a rest for the people of God,' such as come off the signs to Christ the body, the soul's rest; there remains in him a rest for the people. And such as celebrate the sabbath, rest in the shadow, and do not come to the body Christ, and such are not the believers that do enter into the rest Christ. And such as rest in the sign and shadow, and there remain, celebrating the sabbath, come not into the body, Christ, the rest of God's people.

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P. Thou sayst, Christ rested, or ceased from his great work, and entered into his rest, and this is laid down as a gospel reason why the

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Jew, the outward Jew, had types, shadows and figures; the Jews inward witnessed the substance, who are the true christians, the law in their hearts, and circumcision there, and the end of the law they came into, and entered into the rest, Christ Jesus, that is not an outward Seventh-day; but entered into rest, ceased from their works as God did from his; these that enter into rest, cease from their own works, and the type, the figure, the Seventh-day sabbath. Do no work, thou, nor strangers, nor the cattle,' and so the sabbath was a rest from all. This was a type, and God gave them the sabbath for a sign, (who hath ceased from his own works, enters into his rest,) a figure of the restoration of the creation of Christ, the rest, the restorer, redeemer, and saviour, that brings peace on earth. And so they that believe have entered into him, into the rest Christ, the rest to all wearied souls, who helps all creatures upon the earth, man and beast, and destroys the cause of all oppression; and so many are come from Hagar. And though the Seventh-day in the law was a rule among the Jews, a true type, yet the apostle that preaches Christ, the end of the law, brings people to the body, Christ.

P. Thou sayst, Circumcision nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commands of God, viz. of sanctifying God's sabbath.' And thou sayst, 'The seventh angel sounded forth the ancient of glory, the Lord's sabbath, swearing that time should be no longer.'

. A. Circumcision was a command of God, and so was the sabbath, and they that love God, keep his commandments. And did not the apostle bring people off circumcision, and from the signs and shadows, the sabbath days, and told them the body was Christ? And were not offerings and sacrifices the commands of God? Now they that love God, keep his commands, and those are believers that have passed from death to life, and have come to the end of the law and the prophets. And the angel in the Revelations, makes no mention of a sabbath there; but many are come to witness him to whom the angels must bow down, who saw the end of time, and the beginning of time, and the supper of the Lord, and the rest, and the temple of God with them, and heavenly Jerusalem' come down from above.'

P. Thou sayst, 'It cannot be but God's people must bethink themselves of this doctrine delivered by Stephen, to the sanctification of the Lord of the sabbath."

A. Stephen no where mentions the sabbath day in his examination, though he judged the Jews for not keeping the law, which they had received, but persecuted the Just One: so he preached the substance, Christ, the end of the law, and said they had not kept the law, but turned against the Just, and persecuted him. He did not establish the VOL. III.

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Jews in their ceremonies, signs, and types; but Stephen brings them to the substance. And so God that gave forth the law with types and figures and shadows in it to the weak capacity of people in their transgression, sent his son to redeem them from it, and to end the types, figures, and shadows in the first covenant; who is the new and living way, in whom is no changing and shadows, no variableness nor altering, no turning. P. And thou sayst, 'Sin is double on the sabbath day?' And thou sayst, 'I conceive a sabbath-day's journey is so far as a person may ride to go without toil to a meeting. So where there is no law there is no transgression, and the extent is left to the conscience.'

A. How now, must the beast bear a burthen? Where doth the scripture say that thou wast to ride upon the sabbath day? Do the beasts work then? He says, "Thou shalt do no manner of work: but six days shalt thou labour, and do all thou hast to do.' And you that make sabbaths, and set up the old sabbath, and do not keep it according to the law of God, with the law of God you are judged and condemned, if ye do not fulfil it in every point; and they that believe Christ is the end of the law, to them he is the body, which is the end of the shadow.

P. Thou sayst, 'That the Jews that were not to make a fire on the sabbath day, this was mentioned of the ceremonial law, and so concerns not christians, and so not in danger of stoning. It is the revealed will of God, that we should not turn our foot to the defiling the sabbath. When the six days are done, be sure thou do not turn thy foot to pollute the sabbath.'

A. And dost not thou confound thyself in this, and turn thy foot to pollute it, and sayst, it is the ceremonial law that commands it? and they that gathered sticks, and made a fire, were stoned to death: did not they pollute it? And dost not thou say it doth not concern the christians, and they were not in danger of stoning? And so hast not thou taught them to break the law and the sabbath both, and pollute it, and so hast overthrown all thy doctrine in thy book, and confounded thyself? And doth not he that goes out and gathers sticks and makes a fire, turn his foot from the sabbath? For he that went out to gather sticks, broke the sabbath day, and was cursed, and stoned to death: for no fire, no meat, no burthens were to be borne on that day of rest, a figure of the everlasting rest, wherein no meat is gathered, no fire is made, no burthen is borne, and there is no turning the foot, but all walking in rest and peace; and so I find thee neither in law nor gospel.

P. Thou sayst, 'But to be sure the law was made for Christ's disciples. Whosoever boasts of a light within, and speaks against this law of the sabbath, hath no light in him.' And thou sayst, "Quakers will not admit of this royal law as a rule of righteousness, but pervert the scriptures, which say, the law was not made for a righteous man.'

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A. The disciples of Christ, the law was not made for them that came to witness Christ the end of the law; for they said plainly, the law was not made for the righteous.' And 'Christ is the end of the law to them that believe for righteousness' sake.' And the Quakers witness Christ, the end of the law, for their rule of righteousness, and do not pervert the scriptures, but are the believers in him who ends the law, and who was before it was, and is the body which ends the types, shadows, and figures; and they that draw people under the law, and the types, and shadows, and figures from the light within, do not know law or gospel; for the law is light, and the gospel is the power of God, and such as witness Christ the end of the law, witness the end of the sabbath.

P. Thou sayst, 'Among all God's laws, none sets the soul more at liberty than the fourth lively oracle.'

A. And yet thou sayst, men may make a fire and not be stoned, and so thou teachest to break it; and thy horse may bear a burden. And so dost not thou pollute it here, and destroy thy own soul by thy own judgment? But I tell thee, Christ is the bishop of the soul, who ends the law, and brings the law within, into the mind and heart: so now the soul being subject to the higher power, the power by which all the changeable things are held up, that power remains when all the changeable fails, and decays, and ends, and the soul witnesses that, and the body of Christ, the power, stands.

P. The sabbath 'was intended to righteous Stephen and all his followers, and is designed to all persons, to whom the supper is joined; the sabbath is a precept, ancient and universal, both for Adam a public person, and for all his posterity, but none can sanctify the sabbath saving Christ's disciples.'

A. Stephen suffered death for witnessing against the shadows, and witnessing the substance, and the apostle no where joins the sabbath with the supper, but Stephen saw Christ the body, in whom was the rest, in whom he entered; and the saints that come to sup with the Lord, and are supping with him, come into the body, which is the end of all types, and shadows, and signs, as are sabbaths, and have seen them flee away, and are come to the beginning, before the world was made, him who was before signs, shadows, and types were.

The sabbath was not given to Adam in the beginning, who had the dominion over all creatures living, but to Adam's posterity in the fall, a sign when they came to receive the law of God, the types, and shadows, and figures, which they were to rest on, a sign of rest. But when Christ came he gave rest to the day from the inward burdens that men were bound under; the apostle that preached him who was the body, that took off the nature which caused the oppression and transgression,

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