on the Cross on one and the same day Sith it was the fourteenth day at Even when he eat the Passover and gave then his Body and Blood Sacramentally when he instituted the Lords Supper but it was the fifteenth day when he wrought our full Redemption and actually and really gave his Body and Blood for us on the Cross The answer to both these are the same It was on one and the same day of their Week but not of their month for it was on the fourteenth day of Abib on which the Israelites ate the Passover in Egypt but their going out of Egypt from Rameses was on the fifteenth day So also Christ ate the Passover with his Disciples on the fourteenth day of the first month according to the Law of the Passover but he was Crucified on the next day which was the fifteenth day In the fourteenth day of the first month at Even is the Lords Passover on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast Num. 28.16 17. Lev. 23.15 6. Yet both in one and the same day of their week for the days of their week ever after their freedom from slavery were as I shewed before Horizontal days every of which began at the Sun-setting of the former day at the time they ate the Passover in Egypt so they were commanded to begin their Sabbath days Lev. 23.32 and therefore so also did they begin the days of their week called the Sabbath for meting out to them their Sabbath-days And herein the Romanists do not a little Judaize who continued the like custom of beginning all their Sacred days as Lyranus tells us In diem seriam viz. decimam quartam c. On the fourteenth day of the month in the Even whereof the Lamb was sacrificed and the Solemnity of the Passover began which was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the month According to which custom the Solemnities of our Church do begin with the evening of the day before going (a) Lyra. Postil in Joan. 13. Christ with the Disciples ate the Passover and was Crucified also on one and the same week day which was the sixth day of the week with the Jews which consisted partly of our Thursday and partly of our Friday as their sabbath-Sabbath-day consisted partly of our Friday and partly of our Saturday 2. If it be demanded whether the demand made by the Disciples where they should prepare the Passover and their killing the Paschal Lamb and their eating the Passover and Peters denial and the Cocks Crowing were all done in the same day The answer hereto is like the former They were done in the same day of the month but not in the same day of their week The Disciples demand the killing and preparing the Passover was all in the fifth day of their week but their eating it and Peters denial and the Cocks Crowing were done on the sixth day of their week Yet all on the fourteenth day of the month and all done on our day of the week which we call Thursday 3. If it be demanded How we may conceive it to be on the first day of unleavened bread in which the Disciples asked of Christ where they should prepare for him to eat the Passover Sith the Evangelists Mark and Luke do affirm it to be on that day Mar. 14.12 Luke 22.7 yet the first of the seven days of unleavened bread began not till the time of eating the Passover The answer is as before The first day of the week of unleavened bread was not then begun but the first day of the month of unleavened bread was begun long before Though there was just one week or seven days of unleavened bread yet were there eight days of the month of unleavened bread On the fourteenth day of the first month they were commanded to eat unleavened bread and so to the one and twentieth day at even Exod. 12.18 From the Even of one to the Even of the other was just a week or seven days but sith they began to eat unleavened bread on the fourteenth day according to the Commandment that fourteenth day of the month was properly their first day of unleavened bread and the one and twentieth was the eighth or last Thus St. Matthew calleth the first of those eight days in which they ate unleavened bread the first day of the Feast of unleavened Bread Mat. 26.17 The like answer is made unto those who object out of John 13.1 that Christ ate not the Passover on the Feast-day of the Passover but one day foregoing And many more such like questions and doubts may hereby be resolved CHAP. VII What kind of day the Sabbath-day is Not known when the day of Gods rest beginneth THe Sabbath-day of the Lord is not an Artificial day which hath no night nor is but a part of the Horizontal day See chap. 1. For the Sabbath-day is proportionable unto the other six days of the week allowed for labour every of which hath a night or darkness as well as day-light and in which night men may as lawfully labour as in the day-light Joseph and Mary fled by night Mat. 2 14. The Disciples of Christ rowed by night and in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them Mat. 14.25 Some Countreys are so hot that their chiefest work is in the night and so dangerous by reason of Wild Beasts that their chiefest care over their flocks is by night Jacobs special care over Labans flock was such Gen. 31.40 And when Christ was born an Angel brought the glad tidings thereof to the Shepherds by night as they were watching their flocks Luke 2.8 If the six days of labour which God alloweth Man be such as have nights as well as day-lights then such ought the Sabbath-day of the Lord to be also Neither is the Sabbath-day here commanded an Universal day such as was the very day of Gods rest For then there would have been an impossibility in respect of the thing it self for men to keep the same and that for these two reasons First It is impossible for any man to know within half a year what time of the year it is with us when the first year of the World began Some have presumed to tell the same to a day and in the Calendar prefixed to our Church-Bibles and Common Prayer Books suppose it to be the five and twentieth day of March and there the same day is supposed to be that in which Christ was Conceived in the Womb of the Virgin Mary which if granted the thirtieth day of the same month of March must be yearly the day of Gods Rest For if one be the first day of the Creation the other must be the seventh Again Let it be as supposed so granted that the 25th day of March yearly is truly the first day of the Creation yet not a man living is there that can tell within three days what day of our week that five and twentieth day of March was which was
the first day of the Creation All the Art and indeavour of man is not sufficient to find out whether the first day of Creation was Sunday or Saturday or Monday c. and therefore not whether the day of Gods Rest was Thursday Friday or Saturday Let it yet be further granted that it was Sunday on which the first day of the Creation began and therefore the day of Gods Rest must then have its beginning on Saturday No man can for all that tell within eleven hours at what time of the Sunday the first day of the Creation or at what time of the Saturday the day of Gods Rest began either here or in Virginia or in Rome Jerusalem Paradise or in any other place whatsoever whether it was at Sun-rising Sun-setting noon or at the hour of one or two c. in the forenoon or afternoon Wherefore if by the seventh here commanded had been meant an Universal day it must be then that seventh Universal day on which God Rested the which cannot be observed by men because they cannot tell on what day of their week nor about what time of their day they should begin the observation thereof Secondly an Universal day such as was the day of Gods Rest cannot be observed of all the People of God Though it should be granted what is of some believed that the day of God's Rest began in Paradise on Saturday and at the rising of the Sun there yet all Gods People cannot observe that very day For 1. The earth being Global and the true longitude of the place where Paradise was being unknown no man can tell when to begin that day in the place where he liveth We know when it is Saturday in some places it is then Sunday or Friday in some other places We know that when Christ Rose from the Grave it was then Sunday at Jerusalem in the fore-noon and we know that it was then Saturday in Virginia in the afternoon but no man can knowingly say that the day of Gods Rest beginneth on the Saturday in the forenoon with him though it be granted that it so began in Paradise 2. Though the day of Gods Rest or any other Universal day be made known unto men at what time and on what day it began in Paradise and the very place where Paradise was made known also Yet all Gods People could not possibly keep that very day of Gods Rest By reason of the diversity of Longitudes of the Places wherein they may Live they cannot keep all of them one and the same day This hath been proved unto us fully and plainly even by the opposers of the Sabbath Dr. Heylin hath even demonstrated the same that men could not possibly have kept one and the same day for their Sabbath had it been commanded (a) Heyl part 1. pag. 45 46 47 48. And further sheweth that the Jews themselves kept not the very day of Gods Rest (b) Page 125. though they had one day in seven set apart for Holy Rest and meditation Mr. Ironside also (c) Irons chap. 18. pag. 164. from the diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be Universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East-parts and West-parts too of Judea and in Babylon and in Rome by reason of their diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three degrees difference of Longitude yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three though it will not make them so much to differ The like argument hath Doctor Francis White late Bishop of Ely (d) Dr. Francis White in his Treat of the Sabb. pag. 175. and divers others Wherefore sith the Universal day such as was the day of Gods Rest cannot be possibly kept by all Gods People no more than any other set particular day can it is not the day here commanded by the Lord. The Sabbath-day here commanded to be kept Holy is such a kind of day as may be known kept and observed by men wheresoever they inhabit though in many and divers Longitudes of the Earth Such as might have been kept in the Wilderness where the Law was delivered and in the East and West-parts of Canaan and in Babylon Rome Spain and in all other habitable places and therefore ought to be either an Horizontal or else a Meridional day In all places of the World none other but Horizontal or Meridional days are now or at any other time heretofore have been in use with men for measuring out unto them their seven days or week and such as are their six days of the week for Labour such ought the seventh day even the day for Holy Rest to be also The Sabbath-day with the Jews was an Horizontal day but then such were the other days of their week also and what Nation soever have their week to consist of Horizontal days ought to have their Sabbath-day to be so also In the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and Queen of Swedens Countreys where the Sun maketh many Revolutions at some seasons of the year between his rising and setting men cannot count their week by Horizontal days but they do and have counted their weeks by Meridional days And so do all Christians generally of what Longitude or Latitude of the Earth soever they are mete out their weeks by Meridional days then such ought their seventh day of their week to be also CHAP. VIII What day the Sabbath is to be in order or tale NOw is to be shewn what day in tale is to be the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord and this the Law-giver himself hath plainly pointed out unto us in this Law to be the day following the six days of labour so that none need to say the knowledge hereof is hidden from us Who shall ascend for us into Heaven and bring the knowledge thereof to us that we may know it and observe it But it is clearly demonstrated unto us by the Lord God so that he that worketh with the Spade may know the same as well as he that handleth the Pen. Six days shalt thou labour and c. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The seventh day that is the day following the six known days of labour is none of ours it is the Lords day We may not make the Sabbath-day to be the sixth day for then we should shew our selves unthankful in not receiving the Lords own bountiful allowance nor the eighth day for then we should encroach on the Lords right and not be contented with his Liberal allowance of six days for our selves reserving only the seventh for himself much less ought we to make it the fifth or the ninth or tenth or any other than the seventh day Our weeks are not to consist
Honour of their greatest God the Sun rather than that which before was held to the Honour of God the Creator Surely not any other And when the Assyrian and Chaldean Powers had as much as in them lay robbed God if I may so say of his Titles Attributes Providence Works of Creation Government and Worship and gave the chief of all their spoils to their chiefest God the Sun Nimrod giving him the name Baal (a) Jo. Greg. Assyr Monar which he afterwards assumed to himself (b) Biblian Belus giving him the name Jove Jehovah in the Hebrew the which he assumed afterward unto himself and was called Jove Bel. They called the Sun God and held him the God of Gods and Lord of Lords and Governour of all things and that the World was not Created but was from everlasting governed by the Planets the Sun being Chief and Soveraign Ruler Would they not do the like may any one think with that day which was held to the Honour of the Creator All that was known to be for the Worship and Honour of God the Creator they gave to the Honour of the Sun and therefore doubtless they deputed to the Sun that day also Again When they assigned to every of those Gods the several days of the week no indifferent understanding man but will conceive that they would Dedicate to their greatest God the Sun the day held before to the Honour of the great God of Heaven and Earth rather than to the Moon Mercury or other inferior Gods So that most likely the seventh day with the Patriarks was none other but that which afterwards was the Suns day with the Assyrians and from them was called the day of the Sun with other Nations also as the other week-days were called by the names of the other Planets and so by custom have they continued to be called with all Nations of any note for Civility and Knowledge except with the Jews only who after their coming out of Egypt had another day assigned unto them for their seventh Sacred day and had a special Command given them not to make any mention of those Gods of the Nations nor to have their names at all in their mouth as I have shewed before 2. Sunday was the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles as may be Collected from the Pens of many Learned Authors as well Christian as Heathen Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. Speaking of the seventh day affirmed that it was in omni aetate inter omnes gentes venerabilis sacer The like do Chrysostome Beda and other more whose words I have before in the 13. Chapter expressed Also amongst the most Antient Poets divers of them do testifie the same as Linus Callimachus Hesiod and Homer who was above two hundred years before Eudoxus knew what Astrology was All of them were Heathen yet all of them spake very laudably of the seventh Sacred day Their words for brevities sake I will not here rehearse sith they are to be seen and are urged by many Writers as namely Clem. Alexand. Strom. l. 5. Euseb de Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 17. Rivetus in Gen. c. 2. and in his Dissert de Origine Sabba Also Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath part 1. c. 4. Now the seventh day so laudably by them spoken of was the day of the Sun For 1. It was not Saturday the Jews seventh day The Gentiles liked the Jews Saturday as said a Papist the Devil doth Holy-water It was counted by them a disdainful novelty their Poets commonly would have one lash or other at the Jews for it and never spake in honour thereof 2. The Adversaries themselves do grant that the day of the Sun was the seventh day and Sacred also with the Heathen but here 's their evasion The seventh day Sacred to the Sun with the Heathen say they was the seventh day of the Month and not the seventh day of the week Now that the day of the Sun was the seventh day of the week with the Heathen and not the seventh day of the month thus I prove 1. Clemens and Eusebius both alledge the said Poets to shew that the Gentiles had the seventh day of the week Sacred with them 2. Other Authors generally take Sunday with the Gentiles for a week-day and not for the day of a month 3. Had the seventh day Sacred to the Sun been the seventh day of every month as they affirm the Greeks doubtless would have noted the same down in their Calenders Though they could not set down constantly the seventh day of the week by reason of their intercaling so many days at a time no more than others then could do and no more than we can set down the moveable Feasts that were with us unless it be in a yearly Almanack before that Julius Caesar had corrected the year Yet never shall we see a Calender in which the Principal immovable Sacred days were omitted Now there is an Antient Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger de emend temp wherein things of less consequence are noted but this seventh day Sacred to the Sun in each month cannot be found 4. Dr. Francis White and Dr. Heylin also tell us (b) White of the Sabbath p. 197. Heyl. par 2. p. 53. that Christians of the first Ages because they kept the Sunday for their Sacred Services and bowed Eastward in their Worship were upbraided for Sun-Worshippers though they neither Worshipped the Sun nor called their day of Worshipping God Sunday but the Lords day being their Sabbath Sacred day of Rest to the Lord. Surely if Sunday had not been with the Heathen who were Sun Worshippers indeed a weekly service day but the seventh day of the month only there had been no cause or ground why either Jew or Gentile should have cast such an aspersion on them of being Worshippers of the Sun 5. This may further appear by the decree of Pope Milchiades whom some call Miltiades the last of all the Popes that were Martyrs He to make a clear difference between the observation of Sunday by Christians and the observation of Sunday by the Heathen ordained that all Gentiles who were converted and were Christians should not fast on the Sundays nor on Thursdays as the other Gentiles did Note that as Wednesday Friday and Sunday were now in late times called Sacred or prayer-Prayer-days so were Thursday and Sunday in old times on which days they filled not themselves as on other days till their Sacred Services were ended The decree Sever. Binius on the Life of the said Pope sets down thus Jejunium verò Dominici diei quintae feriae nemo celebrare debet ut inter jejunium Christianorum Gentilium veraciter c. He would not that Christians should fast on the Thursday and on the Lords day called by the Gentiles Sunday that so there might be an open and apparent distinction between Christians and the Heathen in the observation of those days From which time
till of late our Tables have testified obedience to that decree being usually furnished with more variety of Dishes on the Sundays and Thursdays than on any day of the week besides If any one here say that these days were not Sacred but Fasting days because Binius call them jejunia I would have him informed that Sacred days were with the Heathen called Fasts because they abstained from feeding themselves till their Services were ended the like did the Jews yea and Christians too in old time Trogus Writing the Customs of the Jews when he would tell us that Moses ordained the Saturday being the seventh day with the Jews to be a Sacred day perpetually he thus expresseth the same Septimum diem more Gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne aevum jejunio sacravit Moses (a) Trog li. 36. Dr. Heylin sheweth plentifully that the Heathen Poets and others called Sacred days Fasting days (b) Heyl. part 1. page 102. But to put us out of doubt that the Thursday and Sunday were not only fasting days but Sacred also with the Heathen Platina resolveth the case who on the Life of the said Pope sets down his Decree thus Miltiadis institutum fuit né Dominico neve feriâ quintâ jejunaretur quia hos dies Pagani quasi sacros celebrant Whereby it appears that Sunday was a Sacred day not of the month but of the week with the Heathen 6. Lastly The Testimonies of divers Learned Writers shew that the day of the Sun with the Gentiles was a week-day even the same which we call the Lords day Sozomen telleth us that Constantine commanded Dominicum diem quem Ebraei primum Sabbati appellant Graeci Soli deputant c. à cunctis celebrari (c) Soz. Eccl. hist li. 1. cap. 8. Constantine then held that the day which the Heathen then Greeks deputed to the Sun was the very same which we call the Lords day Justin Martyr in several passages called the Lords day no otherwise than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as then the Gentiles or Greeks called it saith Dr. Heylin (d) Heyl. part 2. page 62. and we call it now Bonaventure acquaints us how Christians spoiled the day of the Sun of its Idolatrous Worship and so kept it in honour of Christ Secundum Gentiles dies Dominicus primus est cum principio illius diei incipit dominari principalis planeta Sol propter quod vocabant eundem diem Solis exhibebant ei venerationem Ut ergo error ille excluderetur reverentia cultûs Solis Deo exhiberetur praefixa fuit Dominica dies quâ populus Christianus vacaret cultui Divino (a) Borav in 3. Distin 37. Cael. Rhodigin lect Antiq. li. 13. cap. 22. thus sheweth Nos jure optimo diem quem Mathematici Solis vocant Domino ascripsimus dicavimúsque illius cultui totum mancipavimus It seemeth by these that Christians at first devested the Sun of the Worship given him on the day of the Sun and gave the whole right of Worship on that day unto the Lord God They served the day of the Sun as the men of Israel were to serve their Captive Maidens the things that grew excrementitiously on them as hair and nails were to be shaven and cut Deut. 21.12 and so cast away c. and then the men lawfully might keep and use them So Christians of the first Age after Christs Ascension pared off and cast away what did excrementitiously if I may so say grow on the day of the Sun as the Adoration and Superstitious Services given to it on that day and then they lawfully might and did make use of the same and it became their standing service-day unto Gods honour Divers other Testimonies of sundry Authors may be given to prove the day of the Sun with the Gentiles to be not their seventh day of the month but the seventh day of the week all which I here omit only I referr the Reader for his further satisfaction to Doctor Heylins History of the Sabbath (b) Heyl par 2. pag. 53 61 62 63. wherein he sheweth that not only the days of the Moon of Mars of Mercury c. with the Gentiles were the same which we call Munday Tuesday Wednesday c. But also that the day of the Sun is the same which we call Sunday proving the same out of Tertullian Justin Martyr Saint Augustine and others Quest But here it may be demanded that sith the Sunday was the day Sacred with the Heathen Dedicated to the Sun and to the dishonour of God so much abused by their Heathenish Superstition and Idolatry Whether Christians in the Apostles time or afterward should not have done well to have chosen Friday or Saturday or some other day for their standing day of the week for Gods service rather then the Sunday Answer To alter or change the Sabbath from the seventh day and to make it the eighth ninth sixth or any other than the seventh which is the last day of the week is against the express Law of God as before hath hath been shewed though it be no where forbidden to alter the whole week by beginning the same sooner or later Secondly They lawfully might and did alter and change both the name and also the Worship or service done on that day for they called it no longer Sunday unless in their common talk with the Heathen but they called it the Lords day being the day which the Lord in this Law commanded to be Sanctifyed Neither did they adore and Worship the Sun any more on that day but the Lord their Creator and Redeemer Thirdly It is true that all the week-days were abused to the Idolatrous Worship of the Planets though not in the like degree as was the Sunday And that one day in it self was no more holy than another Yet Christians should not have done well in changing or in their endeavouring to have changed their standing service day from Sunday to any other day of the week and that for these reasons 1. Because of the contempt scorn and derision they thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived and toward whom they ought by St. Pauls rule to live inoffensively 1 Cor. 10.32 in things indifferent If the Gentiles thought hardly and spake evil of them for that they ran not into the same excess of riot with them 1. Pe◠4.4 what would they have said of Christians for such an Innovation as would have been made by their change of their standing service-day If long before this the Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their Saturday-Sabbath which the Gentiles held to be a singularity and innovation brought in by Moses insomuch that Jeremy lamenteth the same Lam. 1.7 How grievous would be their Taunts and reproaches against the poor Christians living with them and under their power for their new set Sacred day had the Christians chosen any other than the Sunday Had Sr. Francis Drake
and Captain Cavendise and their companies who Travelled round the Earth with them either out of tenderness of Conscience or else out of obstinacy continued to keep that Sunday Sacred which fell to them by course and true tale of the days succeeding each other they must needs have had their Sunday on our Munday and our Sunday would be their Saturday When it was holy day with them it would be working day with us and holy day with us when they would work So Tacitus said of the Jews Profana illic quae apud nos sacra rursum concessa quae nobis illicita (a) Corn. Tacit. Diurnal li. 21. Now how unquiet may any one imagine should those Travellers have lived among us as long as our Sunday was a week-day with them Would not every Ballad-maker have had them in their Rimes Would they not have been a by-word with all and every Apparator would be ready with a Citation for them And can we conceive that Christians at first should find more favour from the Heathen for their wilfulness which was less excuseable 2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of People and the Gentiles most probably would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly except on their Sunday 3. Had they changed their seventh day from their Sunday to another day there must have followed an unsufferable confusion in the count of the week-days with whom they lived as for example had Sir Francis Drake and his company observed at his return the weeks which by his exact account fell to them by course and not have changed them and made them the same with our weeks there would have followed a miserable confusion even in their own families The third day of the week with some must have been the fourth with others of the same family And never a day would have been the same with them all The like would it have been with the Christians and Gentiles with whom they lived if they had changed their seventh standing day for Gods Worship which was Sunday for another 4. Because had they assayed such a change it would have been a Testimony against them of slighting the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 who on the Sunday most Triumphantly Rose from the Dead for the Justification of all his People 5. It would have been but labour in vain for them to have assayed the same they could never have brought it to pass For 1. They had no authoritative specification of any set day either by Jesus Christ or by his Apostles on which they ought to keep the Lords day Had there so been St. Paul would never have prest the indifferency of days as he did Rom 14.1 2 Col. 2.16 nor would he himself have with the believing Jews kept the Saturday Acts 13.14 42.17 2 18.4 and with the Christians by Christians I mean the Gentiles converted to Christ have kept the Sunday Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 neither would the believing Jews have remained so obstinate but would have kept that day for their Sabbath which was so pointed out unto them if there had been such Whereas they for the generality of them would never be withdrawn to keep any other than their Saturday for their Sabbath hundreds of years after the Apostles days 2. They had no coercive Power to draw refusers to the observation of any other day for the Lords day had they been so disposed to have set any other 3. Christians were not all of one City or of one Countrey or of one Nation Tongue or Government It would have been even a miracle to have gotten all Christians in all parts of the World to have observed one and the same day for the Lords day with them all which should be chosen not by a general meeting or by a general consent but by some of them only had they chosen any other than the day of the Sun which they were generally before their Conversion accustomed to keep The People of Israel were but one Nation all of one Tongue and severed from all other People and also had Moses their Captain-General yet Moses should never have withdrawn them from their old accustomed day to the observation of the Saturday-Sabbath different from the custom of all other Nations had not the Lord God miraculously in the fall of Quails and Manna Exod. 16.12 16 22 23 26. shewed that it was his good pleasure so to have it when he assigned unto them their six days for their labour and so pointing out to them the Saturday being the seventh from their first gathering Quails and Manna to be the day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. Sylvester the first Pope of that name when out of his hatred to the memory of the Heathen Gods he would have changed but the names of the week-days decreed them to be called by the names of Feriae as hath been before shewed though he was of great Authority and Command and highly beloved of the People yet he could not prevail herein but with very few except Schollars the vulgar People in their common talk called their week days as they did before by the names of the Planets and so have they continued to call them even to this day The Jews are now a weak People yet there is not a Prince or Power on earth able to withdraw them from their Superstitious Custom of keeping the Saturday Sacred yea the believing Jews as was shewed in the Apostles time and in many years after could not be won by any means that the Christians might use to give over their Saturday-Sabbath and for Unities sake to keep the Lords day on the Sunday except a very few of them who better knew and acknowledged their liberty by Christ How impossible may we then think it to be for any to bring to pass that all Christians in all quarters of the World should leave off their observing the Sunday Sacred and have another day instead thereof In vain therefore would it have been for poor Christians at first to have assayed the same These reasons if there were no more may suffice to shew that although all days be in themselves indifferent yet Christians should not have well done had they endeavoured to have changed their seventh Sacred day from Sunday to any other week-day no not to Thursday though it was the day of Christ his glorious Ascension nor to Friday though it was the day in which Christ paid our Ransom but better to retain the same day as they did and which the Church of Christ hath since that kept even to this present time and by Gods Grace will so do unto the end CHAP. XVI The Sabbath-day is to be sanctified Works of Piety Government and of Nature only are to be done on the Sabbath-day c. the necessary helps thereunto THere hath been before shewed that the Sabbath day in this Law commanded to be kept holy
A Brief TRACT ON THE FOURTH Commandment Wherein is Discover'd The CAUSE of all our CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE Sabbath-DAY And the means of reconciling them More particularly is shewed 1. That the seventh day from the Creation which was the day of Gods Rest was not the seventh day which God in this Law commanded his People to keep Holy neither was it such a kind of day as was the Jews Sabbath-day 2. That the seventh day in this Law commanded to be kept holy is the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six days of labour with all People 3. That Sunday is with Christians as truly the Sabbath-day as was Saturday with the Jews Recommended by the Reverend Dr. Bates and Mr. John How LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and for Jon. Robinson at the Golden-Lyoâ— in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1692. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Believe thou art not ignorant of the many dissensions contentions that have been among the People of God about the Sabbath-day Some stood for the old Sabbath so called by some meaning the Jews Sabbath-day Some for a new Sabbath so called by some meaning the day of Christs Resurrection And some for no Sabbath but what Magistrates do appoint No small Controversies have been between all these about the Sabbath-day as I believe thou knowest But the ground and cause of all such their Controversies and how for Peace and Agreement sake it may be removed and taken away I suppose thou dost not know both which I will discover unto thee The ground of such their differences is a misunderstanding of these words of the Commandment Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work By the six days must be meant either the six days of Gods work or the six days of work with men either the six first days at the Creation in which God wrought and made all things or else the six work-days of the week in use with men where they live So also the seventh day must relate to the six days of Gods work or else to the six days of mens labour it must be the seventh day from the beginning of the Creation or the seventh day from mens beginning their six week-days of labour It must either be the day of Gods Rest which immediately followed the six days of his work or the day of rest with men which immediately follows their six days of work where they live They between whom the said dissensions have been and are have and do hold generally that the seventh day must and doth relate to the six days of Gods labour and not of mans It must be they all think the very day of Gods Rest the seventh day from the Creation Thus they all thought that the Jews Sabbath-day which was from Fridays Sun-setting to Saturdays Sun-setting was the precise day of Gods Rest and every of their other six days of the week to be the very same with the six days of the Creation whether they lived in Judea in Babylon in Spain in Ophyr or in any other place it maketh no matter think they Though Sunday with Christians be the day immediately following their six days of labour and on which they having laboured six days do then rest from their labour according unto Gods example Yet at no hand will they yield Sunday to be the seventh day and Sabbath of the Lord Sunday they hold to be the first day of the week and the very same with the first day of the Creation with Christians where-ever they live From this common errour sprouted out various opinions which set them all at Variance 1. The Jews and such as adhere to their superstition do will still plead for the Saturday-Sabbath the Saturday they believe to be the day of Gods Rest the day he Blessed and Sanctified they cannot conceit well of a new Sabbath they know not whence it is Though an Angel should come from Heaven and tell them that Christ the Son of God came into the World and hath taken away their Sabbath and hath established another contrary to what God the Father Instituted So that whereas before they had the seventh day for a day of rest Christ Instituted that seventh day to be a work day That whereas God the Father Blessed and Sanctified the seventh day Christ took off the â—lessing from it and gave it to the first day That whereas God the Father appointed his People to work before they did rest Christ appointed them to rest before they did work That whereas before they were to work and do all that they had to do in six days and rest on the seventh day according to Gods example Now they must rest on the first day and work the six days after which is contrary to Gods example I say if an Angel from Heaven should come and teach them thus they would not believe him 2. Some there be and they not a few Godly Precious and tender-hearted Christians who knowing that the Church of God hath ever since our Saviours Ascension observed the Sunday for their Sabbath and that not against but with the Approbation of the Apostles of Christ do slight the Seventh-day Sabbath and are tooth and nail for the first day of the week so they count Sunday to be neither can they count it otherwise as long as they hold the Jews Sabbath to be the seventh day from the Creation believing that the Apostles of Christ by the appointment of our Saviour changed the old Sabbath so they call the Seventh-day Sabbath to the Sabbath of the first day of the week so that now the Church of God is to rest before they labour and unto not from their labour 3. Some again knowing that the Jews Saturday Sabbath was Ceremonial and abrogated do thence hold and maintain the Seventh day Sabbath to be abrogated also and for that they know not any other Sabbath day appointed by Divine Authority instead thereof do inferr that Christians now in time of the Gospel are to have and keep no Sabbath-day at all Thus kind Reader I have shewed thee the ground and cause of these various and different Opinions about the Sabbath-day Whence have issued most if not all the Controversies which are now on foot between them The only mean to stop all future Controversies and briâ—g all sides to accord in one truth about the Sabbath day is to take away and wipe off from their minds the aforesaid errour which occasioned all their differences For as long as they or any side of them hold that the seventh day which God Blessed and Sanctified and commanded to be observed by all his People doth relate to the six days of Gods work and not of mans that is as long as they hold the seventh day here commanded to be the very day of Gods Rest the
may I say for the day you have lost you lost it not all at one time but by little and little every degree that you went Westward you pieced your day and made it the three hundred and sixtieth part of a day longer than it was but therewithal you losed the three hundred and sixtieth part of your day in tale you must look to lose one way if you gain another way In your travel of the whole round which is three hundred and sixty degrees you gained a whole day in the length of your days but you have lost thereby a whole day in tale For tell me when it was Sunday at your coming home what day was it then with you Indeed quoth John it was but Saturday with us and I wondered much why we in the count of the days of our Week came still to a day short of what they counted here But I pray tell me what counsel you will give me in the Case between me and my Brother Why quoth Ployden be ruled by me and fear not make one Voyage more and go back the same way that you came and you shall certainly find again the day which you lost and then come to me and I will warrant your Case Though now I approve not Ploydens Judgment in every point yet I say what he told John of the lengthning of his days and losing a day in tale at his return whereby he had not lived so many Week-days as his brother Johannes had by a day is very true whether he counted the Week by Horizontal or by Meridional days But yet John lived as many Universal days as did his Brother and losed not one hour or minute of an hour in the Universal day it could neither be lengthned or shortned by continual travel When the Sun came to that Meridian in which it was when it began the fifth sixth or seventh day at the first Creation then did the Universal day end and the next began both with John and with his Brother though they were half the Compass of the Earth distant from each other 2. Week-days whether they be Horizontal or Meridional cannot be the same in all places much less can their parts or hours be the same But the Universal day is not only the same day in all places but every part or hour of that day is without any variation the same every where The last day in which Christ shall come to judge the World which must needs be on two week days with People if it be on Sunday with some it will be on Saturday or Monday with some others and on different times also of the week-day if it shall be at mid-night with some not only mid-night of security Mat. 25.6 13 24 39 50. but in respect of the week-day it will be at noon with some others c. Yet will it be one and the same Universal day therefore every where in Holy Scripture that time is called a day John 6.39 40 54.11.24 Acts 2.20 Mat. 10.15 not days It shall not be on one day here and on another day elsewhere but on one and the same day It will be a general day of Judgment not only in respect of all conditions of men but also of all places they shall be gathered from the four Winds Mar. 13.27 from all quarters of the World Yea his coming shall then be not only on one and the same Universal or general day but on one and the same hour of that day in respect of all People In an hour of that day the Trumpet shall sound Mat. 24.31 1 Thes 4.16 then all in all places shall hear the Voice thereof at that same moment even at the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.52 In vain shall the Plea of any be alledging that it is Tuesday then with some People and it is but Monday with us O let us tarry till Tuseday too or that it is but one of the Clock with us and it is three or more with others and therefore too soon for them No for their account of the day will not serve the turn All shall find that hour to be a general hour of a general or Universal day that is not sooner in one place than in another CHAP. VI. The difference between Horizontal and Meridional days THere is not a little difference between the Meridional and the Horizontal day as may appear by what hath been before said First They differ in length and duration for the Meridional day whereby the Jews counted the days of their Months and we the days of our Weeks and Months is in time four and twenty hours without any sensible difference But the Horizontal day by which the Jews count the days of their weeks from Sun-setting to Sun-setting or from Sun-rising to Sun-rising by which some other have counted the days of their week is sometimes in some places near five and twenty hours and at some other time in the same places it will be but about three and twenty hours in length When I say the Horizontal day is the time between Sun-setting and Sun-setting or between Sun-rising and Sun-rising I mean so in all places in and between the temperate Zones and not in places near either of the Poles where it is continual day-light for many days together From Sun-setting to Sun-setting in those places cannot properly be termed a day having in it many revolutions of the Sun never was it in use with any People to mete out unto them their Week Month Year or Age. Men living in such places measure out their weeks and months by Meridional days as we do Neither is there any mention made of such days any where in Sacred Scripture and it is of such kind of days as are there mentioned which I promised to speak of See chap. 1. Secondly they differ much in respect of their beginning and ending Here in York and other places of England there is sometimes five sometimes eight and never so little as three hours difference between their beginnings and the like between their endings Whence it must follow that every of the week-days with the Jews consisted partly of two days of their month and that every day of the month with them consisted partly of two of their week-days the days of their month being Meridional and their days of the week Horizontal days as I said before The knowledge hereof is very useful for the reconciling divers places and resolving divers doubts in the Sacred Scripture about the Jews customs in observing their feasts as for instance if it be demanded 1. Whether the Israelites ate the Passover in Egypt and came out of Egypt from Rameses on one and the same day Sith it is said that on the fourteenth day at Even they ate the Passover Exod. 12.8 but it was the next day being the morrow after viz. the fifteenth day when they came from Rameses Numb 33.3 Or whether our Saviour Christ ate the Passover with his Disciples and after that suffered Death
have kept the Sabbath on Sunday as on the Saturday St. Pauls practice taught Christians then that difference of days was taken away Unto the Jews saith he I became as a Jew 1 Cor. 9.20 When he was with the Jews he kept the Saturday-Sabbath as the Jews did Acts 17.2 and 18.4 and 13 14.42 But when he was with the Gentiles that were turned unto Christ and imbraced the Gospel he observed and kept the same seventh Sacred day they did which with them was called the day of the Sun on which day they usually met together 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 There arose no small difference between the converted Jews and the converted Gentiles hereabout The Jews esteeming the Saturday to be more Holy than the Sunday condemned the Gentiles for Prophaners of the Sabbath because they observed not the Saturday and for that they kept the day of the Sun the Jews held them to be Worshippers of the Sun as other Gentiles were The Gentiles on the other side upbraided the Jews as superstitious for their observing their set Holy-days whereof their Saturday-Sabbath from evening to evening was one which were abolished This upbraiding and condemning one another in things indifferent St. Paul speaketh against and writeth to the contrary in his Epistle to the Romans Rom. 14.5 and to the Colossians Col. 2.16 The Jews were no more bound thenceforth by the Law of God to keep their Sabbath on the Saturday than on the Sunday The Sabbath-day by the Lord Commanded to them and to all in this Law being not this or that day but the seventh relating to the six days of our labour before-going is the seventh day of the week with all People Now that it may the better appear what the seventh day of the week is and that Sunday is the seventh day of the week with us and generally with all Christians I will shew 1. What some have held to be a week in chap. 11. 2. What a week and what the week is and what the seventh day of the week is in chap. 12. 3. The Antiquity of weeks in chap. 13. 4. What hath been chiefly objected against the Antiquity of weeks in chap. 14. 5. That Sunday was the seventh day Sacred with the Gentiles in chap. 15. 6. Why the Gentiles after their Conversion continued Sunday to be their standing day of the week for Gods Worship though it had been before Idolatrously abused to the Worship of the Sun in chap 16. CHAP. XI The Opinion of some concerning weeks How it 's hatched from the Earths supposed plainness IT hath been the general Opinion not only of the Vulgar but of the Learned also that the seventh day commanded us in this Law hath relation only to the six work-days of the Lord God and not to the six work-days with men as if the meaning of these words of the Commandment Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy VVork but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God so it is in the Hebrew should be thus The six days in which I wroutgh when I Created all things shall be thy six work-days in them thou shalt do all thy VVork but the seventh day wherein I rested thou shalt rest and do none of thy VVorks on any part of that day but shalt keep that day Holy it is the day of my Rest From hence they will have a week to be none other with any People but seven such days whereof the six former days be the same with the first six days of the Creation and the seventh be the same with the day of Gods Rest Weeks in use with the Jews they held to be such the first six days of their week to be the same with the six days on which God wrought and their seventh day which was from Friday at the setting of the Sun to Saturdays Sun-setting to be the very day of Gods Rest Though Sunday be the day following the six days of labour with us and on which we rest from our labour having wrought six days before yet we do not rest on the seventh day as they say according to Gods example but on the first day from Sunday to Sunday they will not have to be a week but from Saturday to Saturday only And from hence do they who deny the Morality of the seventh-day-Sabbath teach and write that the boundary or seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods Rest and that the day of Gods Rest was the very day which God Blessed and Sanctified and in this Law commanded to be kept holy and that the Jews Sabbath only was the seventh-day Sabbath which in this Law is commanded to be observed Holy and that the Jews Sabbath-day being Ceremonial and abolished by the coming of the Messias the seventh-day-Sabbath in this Law expresly commanded to be Sanctified is abolished also and not to be observed by Christians and that sith no other set day is instituted in stead thereof by any Divine Authority it resteth in the bosom of the Church or Magistrates to appoint what day they please for Gods publick Worship Though all and every of these be very false yet are they all by these men held to be even as true as their Creed they little considering from how unsound and rotten a root these and every of them have had their first spring and that is from a supposal that the Earth is plain and not round It is an odd but an Old conceit of some Philosophers which afterward was held and maintained by the Antient Fathers that the Earth was not roâ—nd but plain as a Champaign-field They thought there could be no dwellers under the earth which go foot to foot against us and that if there should be any Antipodes imagined yet them not to be Adams Posterity whom they held to have all dwelt upon the Earth and to have been all drowned except eight persons when Noahs flood covered all the face of the Earth So strong did this Opinion prevail with the said Fathers as that whoever held the contrary was counted near as bad as an Heretick Witness Vigilius whom some call Virgilius who was complained of by Boniface unto Zachary then Pope and was degraded for holding that there were Antipodes and that they had a Sun and Moon to shine unto them as well as to us This story may be seen in Aventine (a) Aven Annal Bar. l. 3. and in Baronius who sought to cover the fact with fig-leaves Now that the Adversaries to the Morality of this Law held all those tenents before-said and that they all sprang from this errour of the Earths supposed plain superficies I will next shew For the clearing whereof I need not cite many of them one may serve for all being approved by them all Neither will I tell here all that he Writes hereabout but that which chiefly concerns the point in hand Mr. Ironside a Reverend Divine and of singular gifts and Parts but overswayed by the stream of late times
doth in his book called the Seven Questions of the Sabbath Dedicated to the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury VVilliam Laud tell us First That it is necessary not only for the Learned but also for the weak and inferiour sort of People to know to a minute when the Lords-day or Sabbath doth begin and when it doth end and that for two special reasons The one is for the Peace and quiet of their Consciences which else would be wounded and disquieted The other is for that unless the very day and the whole day be kept to a minute all the duties done on that day are lost His words words are these It is necessary to inquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration and continuance of time it must be (b) Irens 7. Quest pag. 2. Amongst those things which disquiet and perplex the Consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and intire obedience without diminution or defalcation unless every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and pieces of the day is not regarded (a) Pag. 126. It is also that which concerns the most sort of our inferiour People to be satisfied in lest the Commandment requiring one thing their imployments another they many times wound their Consciences and rob themselves of that Peace which otherwise they might enjoy (b) Pag. 127. 2ly That God might have his due tribute and the weak if they will may keep their Consciences quiet in observing the true and full time of the Sabbath he setteth down the precise day of the Sabbath as he conceiveth and the exact time to a minute when the Sabbath-day is to begin As for the day he tells us that the Sabbath-day must be precisely the day of Gods Rest Thus Assoon as God had ended his VVork he ordained and appointed that the seventh day the day of his own Rest else he will not conceive that it can be the seventh day should be that on which the Church should rest (c) Page 21. Unless we rest that very seventh day in which God Rested we no more resemble his Rest than a man that hath a Ladder resembles Jacob that had a Vision of a Ladder (d) Page 90. As for the exact time when the Sabbath is to begin and end he tells us that the very minute in which the Sun is in the Horizon at his rising is the true beginning of the day and he proveth that it must so be for that when the fourth day at the Creation began the Sun was then in the Horizon at his rising so that any of the inferior sort of People he before spake of may by looking in his Almanack tell to a minute if Mr. Ironsides rule fail him not at any time throughout all the year and in any place throughout the World when the fourth day of the Creation and the very day of Gods Rest and so consequently when the Sabbath beginneth These are his words If the natural day be measured by the Revolution of the Sun as all confess sure it is that untill the Sun begin his course the day cannot begin At what time now did the Sun set forth upon the fourth day at the Creation Common reason will say when he first appeared in the Horizon The rising therefore of the Sun in the Horizon must needs be the first Period of the Natural day (e) Irons 7. Quest page 12. 3. 3ly He tells us that the Jews Sabbath-day was the day of Gods Rest and the same with that which God blessed and sanctified making no difference between all these three His words are these That particular Sabbath-day given unto the Jews even the day of Gods Rest is not a Sabbath but the Sabbath even that which God sanctifyed The Sabbath must be the same with the seventh or else there is no tolerable sense or congruity in that Law (f) Page 70. Whereas he saith the same with the seventh he meaneth by the seventh the seventh day from the Creation even the very day of Gods Rest which he proved to begin at the rising of the Sun like as the fourth day did Now whereas some may and that not without just cause doubt how the day of Gods Rest which began at Sunrising as he saith and the Jews Sabbath which ever began at the setting of the Sun wheresoever they dwelt could be one and the same day Sith that they as well in respect of their beginnings as also in respect of their endings are Heavenly wide the one from the other even as far as the Sun-rising is distant from Sun-setting between both which there must be half a days difference And so the day of Gods Rest must begin either at Sun-rising before the Jews Sabbath day began or at the Sun-rising after If at the Sun-rising before that is on the Friday morning then the Turks Sabbath so Doctor Heylin (a) Heyl. part 1. page 48. calleth it may more truly be called the day of Gods Rest than that of the Jews But if at the Sun-rising after then our Christian Sabbath-day ever began on the day of Gods Rest the which the Jews Sabbath never did For the wiping off this and all such doubts Mr. Ironside tells us both at what time and also by what means the day of Gods Rest and the Jews Sabbath was made to be one and the same day which were always two before His words are VVhen God Commanded the Jews their Sabbaths from evening ot evening the order of the Natural day was inverted by him not so much looking to the number of four and twenty hours as to the time of Israels deliverance out of Egypt which began when the Passover was eaten at Even (b) Iron p. 138. c. His meaning in these his Words may be conceived to be this When God Commanded the Jews after their coming out of Egypt to keep their Sabbath on the Saturday and to begin the same at the Sun-setting of the day before-going that is on Friday at the setting of the Sun God miraculously at an instant turned the East into the West and so the place of Sun-rising came unto the place of Sun-setting so close as they kissed each other as he saith the end of one contiguum is the beginning of the other (c) Iron p. 138. If such should not be his meaning it is not to be conceived how he should make Sun-rising and Sun-setting or the day of Gods Rest which he saith began at Sun-rising and the Jews Sabbath which began at Sun-setting to be one and the same Fourthly and lastly He tells us that the observation of the Sabbath is abrogated this error is strong with him because the Jews Sabbath-day is abrogated he thinking no difference to be made between the Jews Sabbath-day and
the Sabbath day here in this Law Commanded to be kept Holy whereas they differ as doth the species from its Genus And from hence he inferreth that it wholly resteth in the power of the Church and Magistrates to appoint the time for Gods publick Worship His words are these The observation of that Sabbath which is pretended to have been Commanded Adam in Paradise is abrogated by Christ as he is the Messias even that day on which God Rested and which he Sanctified (a) Iron pa. 12. The Letter of the Law of Moses being wholly Ceremonial it must be that the determinate time of Cessation from VVorks together with the manner in regard of the strictness thereof is wholly left to the power and wisdom of the Church and Magistrate (b) pag. 225. Now if any reasonable man will weigh these tenets of Mr. Ironside he may plainly perceive that they and every of them do flow from the supposal of the Earths plainness If this be true so must the other and if false then so must all and every of the other be false also they all either stand or fall together and so will their contraries also issuing from the Earths roundness For Let it be granted that the Earth is plain all these following will be true and not otherwise 1. There is but one Horizon to all Nations and places 2. The Sun was in the Horizon at his rising when on the fourth day of the Creation he first appeared and began his course for that day 3 The rising of the Sun in the Horizon was the first period of the fourth day and of the seventh day the day of Gods Rest 4. Men who can tell exactly when it is Sun-rising with them may tell to a minute when the day of Gods Rest doth begin with them in any place 5. Every week-day is the same day in all places all having the same Sun-rising 6. The seventh day even the day of Gods Rest is the seventh day of the week with all People as well in Dublin Salisbury Jerusalem Virginia Japan as in all other places all having the same Horizon Though the day of the coming of the Son of Man in Glory be unknown and likewise the hour whether at midnight or at the Cock-crowing or at the day-dawning yet if it shall be on the Saturday with some it shall be on the Saturday with all and if it be at midnight with some it shall be at mid-night with all or if at the Cock-crowing or at the day-dawning with some then so shall it be with all 7. As the seventh day from the Creation even the day of Gods Rest is the Saturday that is the seventh day of the week with all People so be all the six days of the Creation the same with the six days of the week with all People 8. The seventh day which God blessed and sanctified and commanded in this Law to be kept Holy was the very day of Gods Rest which after God had inverted the day turning morning into evening came to be the same day with the Jews Sabbath where ever they dwelt and began at Sun-setting in all places wherever the Jews abode as in Arabia Jerusalem Babylon Room Spain Ophyr and in all other places where the Jews had never any abiding place for all places having one and the same Horizon must have their day to be one and the same and to begin at one and the same time 9. The Jews had not rested on the seventh day according to Gods example had they not rested on that very seventh day on which God Rested 10. The Jews Sabbath day being the day of Gods Rest and the day which God appointed by this Law to be kept Holy is wholly abolished and abrogated by the coming of the Messias and no other day is commanded by the Lord instead thereof therefore it now resteth in the power of the Church and Magistrates to appoint what day they please for Gods publick Worship If the Earth be plain all and every one of the ten before-going are true but if round they must be all false Let it be granted that the Earth is round all these following will be true and not otherwise 1. Every Nation and place have a several Horizon differing from other 2. The Sun when he first appeared was directly over some part of the Earth or other and shone most gloriously on half the Earth making it to be noon then in the place under him and in all places of the same Meridian The Sun cannot properly be said to be then in the Horizon unless it be meant to some particular place or other as in the Horizon to London c. 3. The first period of the fourth day and so of the day of Gods Rest was noon in some places and one two three c. of the Clock in the afternoon in some and eight nine ten c. of the Clock in the forenoon in some other places 4. The wisest man on Earth cannot tell either at York or at Rome or at any other place the just time when the day of Gods rest did or doth begin within eleven hours of our day 5. As People are distant in place so have they different Horizons and as their Horizons differ so do their week-days from being the very same 6. The day of Gods Rest which is the seventh day from the Creation is the same Universal day with all People but it cannot be the same day of the week with all People If the day of Gods Rest be Saturday with some it must needs be Friday or Sunday with some other People So likewise the time of Christs coming to Judge the World if it be on the Saturday with some it will not be on the Saturday with all but on the Sunday or Friday with some others also if it be at mid-night with some it shall be at Cock-crowing with other some and at day dawning with some others but it will not be at midnight with all nor at Cock-crowing nor at day-dawning with all 7. As the day of Gods Rest cannot be the Saturday nor the seventh day of the week with all People so cannot the six days of the Creation be the same with the six days of the week with all People 8. The seventh day which God Blessed and Sanctified and Commanded in this Law to be kept holy was not the day of Gods Rest For this cannot any where be known when it beginneth or endeth and if it should be known yet all Gods People in all places could not keep the same though they had never fallen by Adam And whether there was or was not an inversion of the day made as aforesaid yet the day of Gods Rest could not be the same day with the Jews Sabbath for this they did or might keep from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in Arabia Jerusalem Babylon Rome Spain Ophyr and in all other places of their abode but the day of Gods Rest they did not nor possibly could
they keep the same from Sun-setting to sun-setting in all places where any of them had their abode unless the surface of the Earth had been plaid and not round 9. The Jews neither did nor could keep that very seventh day on which God Rested in all places as hath been shewed But as we according to Gods example work six days and rest the seventh so did they As the Sunday with Christians was ever the day following their six days of labour so was the Saturday with the Jews 10. The Jews Sabbath-day was not the day of Gods Rest as hath been shewed Neither as it was the Saturday their seventh from their first gathering Quails and Manna Nor as it began at the setting of the Sun was it directly by this Law Commanded to any In these respects it was Ceremonial and abolished That which is expressed in this Commandment they and all else are still bound to which is that having wrought the six days of labour they rest on the seventh day according to Gods example and keep it holy to the Lord. From this neither they nor any else living is freed It is Gods Law it will be great impiety and intrenching into the Prerogative of the most high God for any Persons whatsoever and under any pretence soever to seek the alteration or change hereof or to set and appoint any other day for Gods publick Worship in the stead of that which he himself hath set and appointed If the Earth be round all and every one of the ten beforegoing are true but if plain they all must needs be false I Having now shewed the Opinion of the most concerning weeks and the ground from whence that and many other errours sprang among which this is none of the least That the day of Gods rest the precise seventh day from the beginning of the Creation was the seventh day which God Commanded his Church in this Law to keep Holy as if the seventh day which God Blessed and Sanctified and commanded us in this Law should not relate to the six days labour of the week in use with men where they live but to the six first days of the Creation and so should be with People whereever they dwell the very day of Gods Rest from whence all our many and great contentions about the Sabbath have been raised and fostered I will in the next shew what weeks are CHAP. XII What a Week is The Seventh day of the Week is the Lords day A Week is the space of time made by seven whole days without intermission By seven days I mean seven such days as are all of one and the same kind If any of them be Horizontal days they are all to be Horizontal days such as were the seven days of the Week with the Jews And if any be Meridional they are all to be Meridional days as are the days of the week with Christians The Jews Sabbath or seventh day was from Sun-setting to Sun-setting therefore so should the six days of their week be also The six days of our week are from mid-night to mid-night and therefore the seventh is not to be from Sun-setting to Sun setting but from mid-night to mid-night also The seventh day must relate to the six days before-going The seventh day which was the day of Gods Rest cannot relate to the six days of work with any People Nor can the seventh day of the week with any People relate to the six days of Gods Work at the Creation these were not of the same kind of days with the week-days that now are or at any time heretofore have been or can be in use with men as I have already fully proved See Chap. 5. That seven whole days without intermission from any time as from Sunday to Sunday or from Saturday to Saturday or from Munday to Munday is a week may appear First From the several names and appellations by which a week is called with People of several Tongues and Languages Our Antient Saxons and we from them call it Sennight and two such weeks fortnight that is seven nights and fourteen nights The Romans called it Septimana that is seven mornings taking the morning for the whole day as the Saxons did the night With the Greeks it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is defined to be Intervallum septem dierum That is seven dayâ— The Hebrews called a week not seven nights as the Saxons did nor seven mornings as the Romans did but as the Greeks did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven days or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a seveny of days Secondly Frequently in Holy Scripture seven days from any set time is counted a week Laban bade Jacob fulfill her her week Gen. 29.27 meaning the seven days of Leas Marriage Such was the usual time for Marriage-feasts in those days Judg. 14 10 12. If a Woman was at any time delivered of a Man-child she was to be unclean seven days or a week but if she was delivered of a Maid-child Lâ—v. 12.2 5 she was to be unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is two weeks And so is it in our last Translation The Lord appointed the Jews to count for their feast of Pentecost called their feast of Weeks thus On the morrow after the First-day of the Passover which never fell on the same day of the week two years together shalt thou number unto thee seven weeks Levit. 23.11 15 16. Deut. 16.9 So that it is evident that these their weeks for meting out unto them their Feast of Pentecost began from different times or days of their Sabbatical week Thirdly seven days so succeeding each other as that their boundary be the seventh day every indifferent man will grant to be a week But such may be from any set time or day Such were the seven days of unleavened bread they began sometimes on Monday and sometimes on Tuesday and sometimes on other days and never two years together on one and the same day of the Jews Sabbatical week Yet were those seven days a week with them even their week of Sweet Bread the boundary whereof was the seventh day Lev. 23.8 Deut. 16.8 Exod. 12.16 There is no difference made either in respect of Letters Vowels or Accents between the seventh day of the week of sweet Bread before-said and the seventh day of their Sabbatical week which with them was the Sabbath-day of the Lord. The like is to be said of the weeks appointed to their Priests for their judgment in the case of Leprosie Lev. 13.5.27 And of the weeks of Daniels mourning Dan. 10.2 3. By all which it is clear that a week is seven days succeeding each other from any set time or day and that if the first day thereof be known the seventh day of the same will be known also Next We are to know what the seventh day of the week is being the day here in this Law commanded to be kept Holy There is much difference between a seventh day and
the seventh day Every day of a week is a seventh day but only the boundary thereof is the seventh day of that week In like manner there is much difference between the seventh day of a week and the seventh day of the week The seventh day from the birth of a Child is the seventh day of a week and the boundary thereof then was the Child a week Old The last day of the week of unleavened-bread was the seventh day of a week and so was the seventh day appointed to the Priest in the case of Leprosie as before was shewed but it was not the seventh day of the week of the week whose boundary is Sacred and Commanded to be kept Holy This week is the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath some excellency in it which other weeks have not and that in respect of its Use Constancy and Universality First It is more excellent than other weeks in regard of its excellent use which is to measure out to men what days are common and what are Sacred which are their six days in which they may work which is the Lords day in which they may not work according to the Lords own standard held out unto us in this Law Six days shalt thou labour c. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. God by this Law tyeth no Nation to a set hour or time when to begin their week nor by what names they should call the days of their week But he tyeth all Nations that at what time sâ—ever they begin the week they work not on the seventh day but Sanctifie it It is the Lords All other weeks are for use inferiour to this Other weeks may for to shew the just time for payments of monies weekly or monthly billeting of Souldiers taking of journeys and for a thousand other reckonings in Civil affairs but all inferiour in use unto this Secondly Other weeks are more inconstant than this they vary in one and the same place or else continue but a short time The weeks of Sweet Bread varied every year with the Jews like as their Passover did which never fell on the same week-day two years together but were as unconstant as the Moon Weeks for payments of moneys billeting Souldiers c. are of short continuance Of those that do use them seldom or never do all of the same City or Town begin them at the same time Whereas weeks in use for pointing out the seventh day Sacred are constant Thirdly Other weeks are not generally in use with all All do not billet by the week nor pay nor receive wages by the week neither do men generally make their reckonings and Accounts by weeks But weeks for measuring out the six days of labour and the seventh day Sacred have been in use with all People and Nations of any note and fame not only with Christians and Jews but also with Turks and Heathen Nations Though the week was not the same with them all and therefore their seventh day Sacred could not be the same with all yet all had seven days to the week and all had the seventh day of their week Sacred The Turks seventh Sacred day with them called Algama is on our Friday because on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib (a) Twiss page 119. The Jews kept their seventh Sacred day on our Saturday beginning the same on Friday at the setting of the Sun because at that time the Israelites first began their six days of gathering Quails and sustenance as may appear in Exod. 16. And because at that time of the day their deliverance out of Egypt was assured and Sealed unto them Deut. 6.6 and also for the Lord Commanded them to do so Lev. 23.32 And Christians keep their seventh day Sacred on the Sunday beginning the same with the morning chiefly for that our Lord and Saviour at Jerusalem made his glorious Resurrection on the Sunday morning The Gentiles also had the Sunday for their seventh Sacred day though they kept it Sacred in honour of the Sun of which I shall say more anon See chap. 15. In these respects this week may truly be said to be more excellent than all other and the boundary thereof to be not only the seventh day of a week but the seventh day of the week CHAP. XIII The Antiquity of Weeks proved THE Antiquity of weeks may be gathered First From that it hath been the general practice of most Nations to have just seven days to the week and every particular day of the week to bear the name of the same Heathenish God or Planet with them all even with those Nations between whom there was no commerce or traffick and were unknown the one to the other How can it be conceived that many Nations should have neither more nor less than seven days to the week and to have the day of the Sun to be Sunday with them all and the day of the Moon to be Monday with all and so every week-day to be the same with them all except with the Jews and Turks who only as far as I can read of altered their week the Jew beginning the same on the Sunday and the Turk on the Saturday for the reasons before given had not their Ancestors before ever they were dispersed far from the Land of Shinar and Assyria under the Assyrian Monarchy in the time the Planets were held the Gods of the World so counted the week and called every week-day by the name of the same Planet as now generally we do They who shall be alive in America three hundred years hence and see there so many Notions of different Tongues and all to have just seven days to the week and all to have Sunday for their seventh Sacred day and call every of their other week-days alike will they not say or conceive that this could never have so happened had not their Ancestors in Europe observed weeks and had just so many days to the week and call every day of the week by the same names before ever they removed thence and were dispersed into so many and various Plantations in America The like may we well conceive of the Antient Saxons Romans Egyptians and other Antient Nations that it could never so have happened that every of them should have weeks and just seven days to the week and every week-day to be called by the name of the same Planet with them all had not their Ancestors under the Assyrian Monarchs who first set up the Idolatry of Worshipping the Planets observed seven days to the week and called the week-days by the same names of the Planets before they came to be Planted abroad in several Nations Secondly Adam at first had no other measure to mete out his Age and time but days and weeks These be had from the Lords Standard who having wrought six days and rested the seventh did Sanctifie the seventh day Adam knew all Creatures at the first sight
the Saturday and the third Sanctifieth the Sunday a he would not call Sunday our Sabbath (c) Heyl. part 1. page 48. as he doth Friday the Turks Sabbath Then that upon the Saturday the Turk begins his journey VVestward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the VVorld do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going VVestward having lost a day and the Christian going Eastward having got a day one and the self same day will be a Friday to the Turk a Saturday to the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian Sith then one and the same day came to be a Friday a Saturday and a Sunday unto these three by their Travel there must be three several Planets to govern the first hour of that day or else the Planets must by little and little have gotten and lost a whole course of governing as the Travellers did by little and little gain and lose a whole day by their Travel both which will shew this hourly rule of the Planets to be both vain and feigned Touching the latter that week-days had not their names from the supposed hourly rule of the Planets may from these reasons be gathered First This hourly rule doth flow from the names of the week-days and not the week-day names from it Men must first know by what Planets name the day is called before they can tell what Planet must govern the first hour thereof For suppose the two Travellers before-said the Christian and the Turk had met at any place before they had ended their journey it must be as Dr. Heylin hath demonstrated the like a Sunday then with the Turk (c) Heyl par 1. p. 46 47 48. when it was but Saturday with the Christian then at their meeting Now let the most skilful of Astrologer be demanded what day it should be unto them both either Saturday or Sunday whether the Sun or Saturn ruled the first hour thereof He will answer as the Chaldees did Nebuchadnezzar There is not a man upon the earth that can shew this matter Dan. 2.10 Yea though the place where those Travellers met were made known also yet would the question remain unresolvable unless there be some line or other supposed where the Planets should begin their Government and from whence the Calculation is to be made But in that supposal there is no certainty Now if the said Travellers agree together to have that day of their meeting to be Sunday then any Astrologer will readily tell them that the Sun was he that ruled the first hour thereof or if they make it Saturday then Saturn was he First therefore the week-days must be known before men can know the said planetary Rule and Government I would not have any conceive that by the Planetary Rule and Government I should mean here that Government and Lordship which the Planets are of old said to have in their own Home and Houses it is the hourly Rule of the Planets mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter that I mean I confess my self to be but little skill'd in the one but this he that hath but the use of a pair of Globes may demonstrate to be false and to have no truth in it 2. The Germans had weeks and called the week-days by the names of their Gods whom they adored which were the seven Planets and this long before they came to have any knowledge of this hourly Rule of the Planets which Henricus Hassianus got in Paris and then after taught the same in Vienna and that not yet four hundred years since The Doctor saith That the Grecians had not weeks till Eudoxus had taught them this excellency in Astrology which he brought from Egypt a little before he might with as much truth have said that the Germans had not weeks till Henricus Hassianus had taught this knowledge in Astrology which he brought from Paris a little before There is the same reason in them both but this is known to be far from truth If any say that the Germans had learnt to have weeks and to call the days of the week by the names of the Planets since the said hourly Rule was found out and that either from the Romans or Grecians or from some other Nation with whom they lived before they came to inhabit in Germany as the French the English the Dutch and other People in America have weeeks and call the week-days by the same names those Nations did with whom their Ancestors lived before they came into America My answer is they are much mistaken for Germany was a very Antient Kingdom as Theodore Bibliander and Verstegan also do acquaint us Twisco who before he died was a King and the first King of the Germans was born long before there was a Monarchy of the Romans Grecians or Persians either He was antienter than Abrahams father Bibliander thus writeth of him Tuisco quem aliqui putant c. Tuisco whom some think to be Aschenaz the Nephew of Noah erected the Kingdom of Sarmatia and from whom the Dutch-men are called Teutshen Tacitus holdeth him to be the Son of Terra or Arezia Noahs wife (a) Theod Bibl. Mannus who was Twisco his Son and the second King of the Germans was born not twenty years after Abraham and Wigwoner their third King was born before Abraham went out of Ur a Town of the Chaldees and therefore according to Bibliander before the Egyptians had learnt Astrology For it seems the Egyptians as well as other Nations severing themselves from Noahs Posterity remaining about Chaldea Assyria and other parts of Shinar busied themselves so about their new Plantation in Egypt that they neglected and forgot Astrology till Abraham came out of Chaldea and went down into Egypt where as Josephus saith he taught Astronomy unto them being ignorant thereof before (b) Joseph Antiq Jud. l. 1. c. 15 16. See chap. 9. The Germans were a Nation and a Kingdom before Eudoxus knew what a Planet was Verstegan also tells us that the Saxons had in Antient times the seven Planets for their Gods whom they called Son Mone Tuisco c. and also called the days of the week by the names of those their Gods before ever they had any Commerce with the Grecians or Romans either 3. Week-days bear the names of the Planets not from the said late invented hourly Rule supposed to be given them by God when he Created them but as they were the Heathens Gods and were orderly Worshipped and Adored by them Thus the day we call Sunday was by the Heathen anciently called the day of the Sun because of all the Planets who were held to be the Lords and Governours of the World he was that Lord and Governour which had special Worship done unto him on that day and for that his Worship began with that days beginning even at the Sun-rising for at that time did the Heathen begin their