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 Sabbathr 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 moneth 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 Sundayes nor on the Thursdayes as the other Gentiles did Note that as Wednesday Friday and Sunday were now in late times called sacred or Prayer-dayes so were Thursday and Sunday in old times on which dayes they filled not themselves as on other dayes 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 dayes From which time till of late our tables have testified obedience to that decree being usually furnished with more variety of dishes on the Sundayes and Thursdayes then on any day of the week besides If any one here say that these dayes were not sacred but Fasting dayes because Binius calls them jejunia I would have him informed that sacred dayes were with the Heathen called Fasts because they abstained from feeding themselves till their services were ended the like did the Jewes yea and Christians too in old time Trogus writing the customes of the Jewes when he would tell us that Moses ordained the Saterday being the seventh day with the Jewes 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. Doctor Heylin sheweth plentifully that the Heathen Poets and others called sacred dayes Fasting dayes b Heyl. part 1. pa. 102. But to put us out of doubt that the Thursday and Sunday were not only fasting dayes 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 nè Dominico neve feriâ quintâ jejunaretur quia hos dies Pagani quasi sacros celebrant Whereby it appears that Sunday was a sacred day not of the moneth but of the week with the Heathen 6. Lastly the testimonies of diverse learned writers shew that the day of the Sunne 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 Sozom. Eccl. hist. li. 1. cap. 8. Constantine then held that the day which the heathen Greeks deputed to the Sunne was the very same which we call the Lords day Justin Martyr in several passages called the Lords day no otherwise then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as then the Gentiles or Greeks called it saith Doctor Heylin d Heyl. par 2. pag. 62. and we call it now Bonaventure acquaints us how Christians spoiled the day of the Sunne of its Idolatrous worship and so kept it in honour of Christ Secundum Gentiles dies Dominicus primus est cùm principio illius diei incipit dominari principalis planeta Sol propter quod vocabant eundem diem Solis exhibebant ei venerationem Vt ergo error ille excluderetur reverentia cultús Solis Deo exhiberetur praefixa fuit Dominica dies quâ populus Christianus vacaret cultui Divino f Bonav 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 Sunne of the worship given him on the day of the Sunne and gave the whole right of worship on that day unto the Lord God They served the day of the Sunne as the men of Israel were to serve their captive maidens the things that grew excrementitiously on them as hair and nailes were to be shaven and cut a 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 Sunne 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 Sunne with the Gentiles to be not their seventh day of the moneth but their seventh day of the week all which I here omit only I referre 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 dayes 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 Sunne is the same which we call Sunday proving the same out of Tertullian Justin Martyr Saint Augustin and others Quest But here it may be demanded that sith the Sunday was the day sacred with the Heathen dedicated to the Sunne 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 Saterday 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 then the seventh which is the last day of the week is against the expresse law of God as before hath been shewed though it be nowhere 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
and the same day Sith it was the fourteenth day at Even when he ate the Passeover 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 Crosse The answer to both these are the same It was on one and the same day of their week but not of their moneth for it was on the fourteenth day of Abib on which the Israelites ate the Passeover in Egypt but their going out of Egypt from Rameses was on the fifteenth day So also Christ are the Passeover with his disciples on the fourteenth day of the first moneth according to the law of the Passeover but he was crucified on the next day which was the fifteenth day In the fourteenth day of the first moneth at Even is the Lords Passeover and on the fifteenth day of the same moneth is the Feast f Numb 28.16 17. Lev. 23.5 6. Yet both in one and the same day of their week for the dayes of their week ever after their freedom from slavery were as I shewed before Horizontal dayes every of which began at the Sun-setting of the former day at the time they ate the Passeover in Egypt so they were commanded to begin their Sabbath-dayes g Lev. 23.32 and therefore so also did they begin the dayes of their week called the Sabbath for meting out to them their Sabbath-dayes And herein the Romanists do not a little Judaize who continued the like custome of beginning all their sacred dayes as Lyranus tells us In diem feriam viz. decimam quartam c. On the fourteenth day of the moneth in the Even whereof the Lamb was sacrificed and the solemnity of the Passeover began which was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the moneth According to which custome 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 Passeover and was crucified also on one and the same week-day which was the sixth day of the week with the Iewes 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 Saterday 2. If it be demanded Whether the demand made by the disciples where they should prepare the Passeover and their killing the Paschal Lambe and their eating the Passeover 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 moneth but not in the same day of their week The disciples demand the killing and preparing the Passeover 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 moneth 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 eate the Passeover Sith the Evangelists Mark and Luke do affirm it to be on that day c Mar. 14.12 Luke 22.7 yet the first of the seven days of unleavened bread began not til the time of eating the Passeover The answer is as before The first day of the week of unleavened bread was not then begun but the first day of the moneth of unleavened bread was begun long before Though there was just one week or seven dayes of unleavened bread yet were there eight dayes of the moneth of unleavened bread On the fourteenth day of the first moneth they were commanded to eat unleavened bread and so to the one and twentieth day at even d Ex. 12.18 From the Even of the one to the Even of the other was just a week or seven dayes but sith they began to eat unleavened bread on the fourteenth day according to the Commandment that fourteenth day of the moneth was properly their first day of unleavened bread and the one and twentieth was the eigth 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 f Mat. 26.17 The like answer is made unto those who object out of Iohn 13 a Iohn 13.1 that Christ ate not the Passeover on the feast-day of the Passeover but on the day beforegoing And many more such like questions and doubts may hereby be resolved CHAP. VII What kinde 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 a See chap. 1. For the Sabbath-day is proportionable unto the other six dayes of the week allowed for labour every of which hath a night or darknesse as well as day-light and in which night men may as lawfully labour as in the day-light Ioseph and Mary fled by night b Mat. 2.14 The disciples of Christ rowed by night and in the fourth watch of the night Iesus went to them c Mat. 14.25 Some Countreys are so hot that their chiefest work is in the night and so dangerous by reason of wilde beasts that their chiefest care over their flocks is by night Iacobs special care over Labans flock was such d Gen. 31.40 And when Christ was borne an Angel brought the glad tidings thereof to the Shepherds by night as they were watching their flocks e Luke 2.8 If the six dayes of labour which God alloweth man be such as have nights as wel 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 unpossible for any man to know within halfe a year what time of the year it is with us when the first yeare 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 moneth 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 25. 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 the Creation was Sunday or Satcrday or Munday c. and therefore not whether the day of Gods rest was Thursday Friday Saterday c. 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 his beginning on Saterday No man can for all that tell within eleven houres at what time of the Sunday the first day of the Creation or at what time of the Saterday the day of Gods rest began either here or in Virginea or in Rome Ierusalem Paradise or in any other place whatsoever whether it was at Sun-rising Sun-setting Noone or at the houre 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 Gods rest began in Paradise on Saterday 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 Saterday 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 forenoon and we know that it was then Saterday in Virginea in the afternoon but no man can knowingly say that the day of Gods rest beginneth on the Saterday 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 be 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. Heylyn 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 Iewes 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 chaf 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 Iewes in the East-parts and West-parts too of Iudea 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 dayes 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 f Dr. Francis White in his of the Sabbath Page 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 then 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 kinde 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 wildernesse 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 dayes are now or at any other time heretofore have been in use with men for measuring out unto them their seven dayes or week and such as are their six dayes of the week for labour such ought the seventh day even the day for holy rest to be also The Sabbath-day with the Iewes 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 dayes 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 dayes but they do and have counted their weeks by Meridional dayes And so do all Christians generally of what longitude or latitude of the earth soever they are of mete out their weeks by Meridional dayes 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 shown what day in tale is to be the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord and this the Law-giver himselfe hath plainly pointed out unto us in this law to be the day following the six dayes 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 dayes 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 dayes 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 dayes for our selves reserving only the seventh for himself much lesse ought we to
Assyrian Monarchy Pag. 203. every one on his day had some peculiar worship done unto it and the day on which any of the Planets had his worship according to their order that day was called by the name of that Planet so worshipped As Saint-worshippers do call the dayes of the moneth on which they give special worship to St. Peter St. Iohn St. Iames St. Peters day St. Iohns day and St. James day So did those Sun-worshippers on what days of the week they gave special worship to the Sun or Moon or Saturn those dayes were called by the names of the day of the Sun the day of the Moon the day of Saturn The time of the day for their worship was ever the forenoon not the whole forenoon for them all but at the rising of the Sun when the first houre of their day for such worship began And that Planet which came to be worshipped by course the first houre of the day was counted trump or Lord of that day They gave not equal honour unto the Planets neither were the dayes of their week alike sacred but they had the Sun in the greatest honour and for their most high God next to him was the Moon and next Saturn so accordingly were their dayes sacred their chiefest day of the week being then the day of the Sun of which I shall speak more when I come to speak of their seventh day sacred Boëmus telleth us writing of Assyria and their customes that foure of the Planets they had in lesse esteem then the rest His words are these Martem Venerem Mercurium Jovem prae caeteris observari quoniam velut proprium cursum sortiti futura ostenderent tanquam Deorum interpretes quod ipsum adeò persuasum habuerunt ut quatuor ista astrauno nomine Mercurios appellarent b Boëmus ubi de Assyria That they diligently observed Mars Venus Mercury and Jupiter for these by their proper course would foreshew things to come as being Interpreters of the gods out of considence whereof they called all these foure starres Mercuries And my opinion is that as Boëmus doth here orderly recite their names in the same order did the idolaters place them aloft in their Temples Mars on the right hand and Venus on the lest hand of the other three chief then Mercury on the right hand next to Mars and Iupiter last on the left hand according to this forme presented to the eye Whereto for distinguishing them I have set their usual characters being not skill'd to make a lively draught of them as Verstegan hath done in his Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities And I have set down under them their names also not in the Assyrian language but as the ancient Saxons of old when they were Heathen called them according to Verstegan aforesaid and worshipped them calling the dayes of their week also by the names of these their gods or planets which then they worshipped Sunday Monday Tuescoes day Woodensday Thorsday Frigaesday Saterday And we from them to this houre so call our week-dayes Munday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday c. I suppose the Saxons to be a very ancient Nation for that among many other they come nearest to the Assyrians in their ancient idolatry But behold the forme ☿ Woden ♂ Tuisco ☾ Mone ☉ Sone ♄ Sater ♀ Friga ♃ Thor Note here that the Assyrians reade from the right hand to the left and so we are to read the names of these Planets The reasons moving me to think these Idols to be thus placed aloft in their Temples are especially two First for that the Romish Church when they had got some power into their hands and did in Pope Boniface the fourth his dayes suppresse the Idolatries of the Heathen who worshipped their Idols in the Temple at Rome which was dedicated to all the gods and then called Pantheon and having instead thereof set up another kinde of worship like unto that even of the Virgin Mary and All Saints whereupon that day was by that Pope Boniface made an holy day called by the Name of All-Saints day and the Temple also dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Saints called thenceforth Ecclesia Beatae Mariae rotunda a Tho. Val. Nic. Triveth Com. in Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 2. c. 4. I will deliver the words of an old Chronologer hereof Iste Bonifacius scilicet Quartus consecravit Pantheon id est Templum omnium Deorum ubi Christiani periclitabantur à Daemonibus Et est pulchra similitudo quomdo Spiritus Sanctus ex malis institut is Paganorum scit eligere Sanctum exercitium devotionis quasi medicina fiat ex veneno Vbienim impii colebant Daemones ibi Christiani colunt omnes Sanctos sic ars deluditur arte b Fascicu tempotum And a little after Festum omnium Sanctorum institur à Bonifacio quarto Then at that time I suppose were the images of the Saints placed up on high in their roode which common people here with us call their rood-loft in imitation of the Heathen For commonly when the Romish Church put down any idolatrous custom of the Heathen then they set up another resembling that which they put down and this did they either for avoiding the greater scandal of the Heathen which were then potent or to winne them the better by degrees to Christian Religion or for some other by-respect As the Heathen had some one or other particular Planet or Idol to be the Patron and Protector of some one people or other and so many Protectors as there were nations Belus for Assyria Diana for Ephesus Jupiter for Rome Juno for Samos Bacchus for Thebes c. So when that idolatry was supprest in stead of these idols the Romane Church had holy Saints to be invocated and had for Protectors in like manner Thus was St James for Spaine St. Dionysius for France St. Andrew for Scotland c. As the heathen idolaters had for several occasions several gods and goddesses on whom they called for help Bellona in time of warre Cunina for infants Segetia for standing corne Forculus to keep the doors c Aug. de Civ Dei l. 4. c. 1. c. So the Romane Church to winne the heathens by degrees suffered them to continue in idolatry still but instead of their Demi-gods they should invocate Saints St. Rumbal for the tooth-ache St. Petronel for the ague St. Loye for horses St. Anthony for pigs St. Gregory for Schollers St. George for souldiers c. What were the Monks and Friars the chaste shavelings and holy Nunnes but the natural successors of Berecynthia's and Vesta's Priests and Virgins Rome heathen had two goddesses in special reverence Berecynthia and Vesta Berecynthia they held to be the mother of the gods a Aug. de Civ Dei l. 2. c. 4. Her Priests were chaste unmarried men and if it hapned that any one of them could not live chastely yet he lived warily until that Atys b Tho. Vallois
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 dayes of their Sabbatical week Thirdly seven dayes so succeeding each other as that their boundary be the seventh day every indifferent man wil grant to be a week But such may be from any set time or day Such were the seven dayes of unleavend bread they began sometimes on Munday sometimes on Tuesday and sometimes on other dayes and never two years together on one and the same day of the Jews Sabbatical week Yet were those seven dayes a week with them even their week of Sweet Bread the boundary whereof was the seventh day a 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 judgement in the case of Leprosie b Lev. 13.5 27. And of the weeks of Daniels mourning c Dan. 10.2 3. By all which it is clear that a week is seven dayes 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 childe is the seventh day of a week and the boundary thereof then was the childe 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 then other-weeks in regard of its excellent use which is to measure out to men what dayes are common and what are sacred which are their six dayes in which they may work and 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 dayes 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 houre or time when to begin their week nor by what names they should call the dayes of their week But he tyeth all Nations that at what time soever 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 serve for to shew the just time for payments of monies weekly or monethly billetting 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 then this they vary in one and the same place or else continue but a short time The weeks of Sweet bread varied every yeare with the Jewes like as their Passeover did which never fell on the same week-day two yeares 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 dayes 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 Jewes 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 dayes 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 p. 119. The Jewes kept their seventh sacred day on our Saterday beginning the same on Friday at the setting of the Sun because at that time the Israelites first began their six dayes of gathering Quailes 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 b Deut. 6â—6 and also for that the Lord commanded them to do so c 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 d See chap. 15. In these respects this week may truly be said to be more excellent then 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 dayes 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 traffique and were unknown the one to the other How can it be conceived that many Nations should have neither more nor lesse then seven dayes 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 Munday with all and so every week-day to be the same with them all except with the Jewes and Turks who only as far as I can reade of altered their week the Jew beginning the same on the Sunday and the Turk on the Saterday for the reasons before given had not their Ancestors before ever they were dispersed far from the land of Shinar
by the names of the Planets and so have they continued to call them even to this day The Jewes are now a weak People yet there is not a Prince or Power on earth able to withdraw them from their superstitious custome of keeping the Saterday sacred yea the believing Jewes as was shewed in the Apostles time and in many years after could not be wonne by any means that the Christians might use to give over their Saterday-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 passe that all Christians in all quarters of the world should leave off their observing the Sunday sacred and have another day in stead 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 dayes 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 ransome but betrer 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 helpes thereunto THere hath been before shewed that the Sabbath-day in this law commanded to be kept holy is not a part of a day as is the Artificial day but an whole day And that it is not such a kinde of day as are the dayes of the Creation mentioned in the first of Genesis but such a kinde of day as is or hath been in use with men And also that it is not in tale the fifth sixth eighth or nineth day but the seventh not the seventh day of the moneth but the seventh day of the week the day following the six known dayes of labour where men dwell and inhabit Which day with Christians is vulgarly called Sunday otherwise more fitly and as indeed it is The Lords day even our Sabbath-day to the Lord. Now in the next place is to be shewed how the Lords day is to be sanctified To the sanctification of the Sabbath-day of the Lord which we call the Lords day two things are required 1. That we keep it a day of rest 2. That we sanctifie that time of rest That we are to keep it a day of rest the Scripture fully sheweth On the seventh day thou shalt rest in earing time and in harvest d Exod. 34.21 The like have we in divers other places of Scripture calling it a day of rest All men are to cease from the works of their calling which on other dayes they lawfully may yea and ought to do for the maintenance of themselves and theirs Six dayes shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest ye shall do no work therein f Lev. 23.3 So are the words here in this law Thou shalt not do any work But whereas we are here forbidden to do any work we must not so understand the words as if on the Sabbath-day we should rest from all kinde and manner of works and so do no work at all upon that day the words of the text do not bear such a sense These are the words of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not do all thy trade Art or occupation and such are the words of the text in divers other places of Scripture a Deut. 5.14 Exod. 35.2 and 31.15 Lev. 23.3 7. Val. Schindler in his Pentaglot on the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telleth us thus The Rabbines take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Art or vocation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural for Arts and vocations So Arias Montanus also correcteth Pagnines translation of the Bible that whereas Pagnine hath it Non facies omne opus he turneth it Non facies omnem functionem b Deut. 5.14 where Pagnine translateth thus Omnis quifecerit in eo opus c. Montanus hath it Omnis faciens in eo functionem c Exod. 35.2 Where Pagnine saith Omnis faciens opus in die Sabbati it is thus to be read according to Montanus Omnis faciens opificium in die cessationis d Exod. 31.15 c. The like may be seen in divers other places of Scripture so translated by the one and so corrected by the other Whence we may gather that the true meaning of these words commonly read in our translations Thou shalt not do any work is not that we should do no manner of work at all but that we should do on the Sabbath-day no manner of the works of our trade function and occupation The Smith is not to work at his Anvil nor the Shoomaker with his Awle nor any other about any works that belong to mens trade and profession which on the six dayes of labour they may and should do for getting their maintenance and livelihood There be some other works which on every day may lawfully be done even on the Sabbath-day it self without the least breach of this law and they are of three sorts 1. Works of Piety 2. Works of Government towards the creature subjected to us 3. Works needful to the preservation of mans life These works may be done on every day without any violation to the Law of the Sabbath Neither doth the law of the Sabbath abridge us from doing them on any day What God ordained before ever the seventh day was in being was not and is not nulled or abridged by the law of the Sabbath but these works were before ordained by the Lord. First Man was made and had his being to serve God to honour and worship him to perform duties of Piety in such manner as he should appoint him The doing of these duties on the Sabbath-day doth no violation to the law of the Sabbath Men doing them may be said to break or profane the Sabbath yet not break the law of the Sabbath When we have been diligent on the Sabbath-day in doing service unto God and the duties he requireth of us for his honour we may therein be said not to make the day a day of rest but to break the rest or Sabbath yet not to break the Commandment by doing these works Thus Christ told the Pharisees that the Priests in the Temple did profane the Sabbath and are blamelesse a Mat. 12.5 Sure they could not be said to be blamelesse had they by their sacrificing bullocks or sheep broken the Commandment they brake the Sabbath they made it not
THE SEVENTH-DAY Sabbath Or a Brief TRACT ON THE IV. Commandment WHEREIN Is discovered the Cause of all our Controversies about the Sabbath-day and the meanes 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 kinde of day as was the Jewes 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 dayes of labour with all People 3. That Sunday is with Christians as truly the Sabbath-day as was Saterday with the Jewes By Thomas Chafie Parson of Nutshelling LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. and are to be sold by J. B. at the Guilded Acorne in Pauls Church-yard 1652. To the Worshipful RICHARD MAIJOR OF HURSLEY Esquire SIR THis Tract on the fourth Commandment though little in Bulk yet found great opposition before it could come to light The Author was charged to be such as Ishmael whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against him whereas next to the Glory of God in maintaining this his law to be in force and his Sabbath to be observed his principal scope is to discover the cause of all our Controversies about the Sabbath-day that so a mean may appear for ending all differences thereabout and that the great offence given the Jewes of Christians not keeping the Sabbath-day be wholly removed Yet is it likely for all this to finde evil-willers and not a few wherefore I have made my selfe bold to send it forth under your Protection You have so indeared unto you the whole Countrey round about by your uncessant indeavour for the Peoples Welfare that the credit of your name written in the front hereof shall procure it the better acceptance Yet will I not make so bold an adventure as to send this abroad under your name without your Approbation wherefore first I present it unto you as for your judicious trial and warrant so also to be a testimony of thankfulnesse for both your countenance and many benefits and also an Obligation wherein I stand bound to pray for you and be Your Worships in any Christian Office to be commanded THO. CHAFIE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Believe thou art not ignorant of the many dissensions and 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 Jewes 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 dayes 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 dayes must be meant either the six dayes of Gods work or the six dayes of work with men either the six first dayes at the Creation in which God wrought and made all things or else the six work-dayes of the week in use with men where they live So also the seventh day must relate to the six dayes of Gods work or else to the six dayes 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 immediatly followed the six days of his work or the day of rest with men which immediately follows their six dayes 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 dayes 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 Jewes Sabbath-day which was from Fridayes Sun-setting to Saterdayes Sun-setting was the precise day of Gods rest and every of their other six dayes of the week to be the very same with the six dayes of the Creation whether they lived in Judea in Babylon in Spaine in Ophyr or in any other place it maketh no matter think they Though Sunday with Christians be the day immediately following their six dayes of labour and on which they having laboured six dayes 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 whereever they live From this common errour sprouted out various opinions which set them all at variance 1. The Jewes and such as adhere to their superstition do and will still plead for the Saterday-Sabbath the Saterday 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 Sonne 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 blessing 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 dayes and rest on the seventh day according to Gods example now they must rest on the first day and work the six dayes 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 naile 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 Jewes Sabbath to be the seventh day from the Creation
the Sun and assigned unto them the Saterday for their Sabbath Concerning which we may truly say that as their Sabbath-day was their seventh day from their first gathering Quailes and Manna and as it was to begin at Sun-setting which Moses termed the season that they came out of Egypt b Deut 16.6 so was it Ceremonial a signe and token whereby they were known to be Gods peculiar people c Exod. 31.13 and distinguished from all Nations that adored the Sun Unto the observation of which seventh day from their first labouring for Manna were they bound and none but they and they no longer then till the coming of him of whom Moses their Captain said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear d Acts 7.37 Even Iesus Christ who is the Captain of our salvation f Heb. 2.10 who is greater then Moses who brought us out of a greater bondage then Moses did the Israelites and who gave us not Quailes and Manna but his own flesh he gave us the true bread that came down from heaven that we might live through him After whose coming as all other shadows and Ceremonies so this of their Saterday Sabbath from Sun-setting to Sun-setting did vanish also The day of Saturn was thenceforth no more holy then the day of the Sun The Jewes might as lawfully with their general consent have kept the Sabbath on the Sunday as on the Saterday Saint Pauls practice taught Christians then that difference of dayes was taken away Vnto the Iewes saith he I became as a lew a 1 Cor 9.20 When he was with the Jewes he kept the Saterday-Sabbath as the Jewes did b 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 c 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 There arose no small difference between the converted Jewes and the converted Gentiles hereabout The Jewes esteeming the Saterday to be more holy then the Sunday condemned the Gentiles for Prophaners of the Sabbath because they observed not the Saterday and for that they kept the day of the Sun the Jewes held them to be Worshippers of the Sun as other Gentises were The Gentiles on the other side upbraided the Jewes as superstitious for their observing their set holy-dayes whereof their Saterday-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 Romanes d Rom. 14.5 and to the Colossiaus f Col. 2.16 The Jewes were no more bound thenceforth by the law of God to keep their Sabbath on the Saterday then 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 fix dayes 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 plainnesse 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-dayes of the Lord God and not to the six work-dayes with men as if the meaning of these words of the Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God so it is in the Hebrew should be thus The six dayes in which I wrought when I created all things shall be thy six work-dayes in them thou shalt do all thy work but the seventh day wherein I rested thou shalt rest and do none of thy works on any part of that day but shalt keep that day holy it is the day of my rest From hence they wil have a week to be none other with any people but seven such dayes whereof the six former dayes be the same with the first six dayes of the Creation and the seventh be the same with the day of Gods rest Weeks in use with the Jewes they held to be such the first six dayes of their week to be the same with the six dayes on which God wrought and their seventh day which was from Friday at the setting of the Sun to Saterdays Sun-setting to be the very day of Gods rest Though Sunday be the day following the six dayes of labour with us and on which we rest from our labour having wrought six dayes 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 Saterday to Saterday 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 Jewes Sabbath only was the seventh-day Sabbath which in this law is commanded to be observed holy and that the Jewes 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 bosome 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 odde but an old conceit of some Philosophers which
afterward was held and maintained by the ancient Fathers that the earth was not round but plain as a Championfield 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 Witnesse 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 earth 's 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 concernes the point in hand Mr. Ironside a Reverend Divine and of singular gifts and parts but over-swayed 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 William 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 unlesse the very day and the whole day be kept to a Minute all the duties done on that day are lost His words are these It is necessary to inquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration and continuance of time it must be a 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 unlesse 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 b Page 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 employments another they many times wound their consciences and rob themselves of that Peace which otherwise they might enjoy c Page 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 work 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 d Page 21. Vnlesse we rest that very seventh day in which God rested we no more resemble his rest then a man that hath a ladder resembles Jacob that had a vision of a ladder c 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 inferiour sort of people he before spake of may by looking in his Almanack tell to a minute if Mr. Ironsides rule faile him not at any time throughout all the year and in any place through out the world when the 4th 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 Sunne as all confesse sure it is that until 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 a I rons 7. Qu pag c 123. 3ly he tels us that the Jews Sabbath-day was the day of Gods rest and the same with that which God blessed 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 b Page 70. Whereas he saith the same with the 7th he meaneth by the 7th the 7th 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 4th day did Now whereas some may and that not without just cause doubt how the day of Gods rest which began at Sun-rising as he saith and the Jews Sabbath which ever began at the setting of the Sun whersoever 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 farre as the Sun-rising is distant from Sun-setting between both which there must be half a dayes 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 calleth it may more truly be called the day of Gods rest a Heyl. part 1. pag. 48. then 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 alwayes two before His words are When God commanded the Jews their Sabbaths from evening to evening the order of the natural day was inverted by him not so much looking to the number of four twenty hours as to the time of Israels deliverance out of Egypt which began when the Passeover was eaten at even b Iron pa. 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 Saterday and to begin the same at the Sun-setting of the day before-going that is on the Friday at the setting of the Sunne 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 that they kissed each other as he saith the end of one contiguum is the beginning of the other c Iron pa. 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 errour 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 doeth 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 publique 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 works together with the manner in regard of the strictnesse thereof is wholly left to the power and wisdome of the Church and Magistrate b pa. 225. Now if any reasonable man will weigh these tenents of Master Ironside he may plainly perceive that they and every of them do flow from the supposal of the earths plainnesse 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 roundnesse For Let it be granted that the earth is plain all these following will be true and not otherwise Let it be granted that the Earth is round all these following will be true and not otherwise 1. There is but one Horizon to all nations and places 1. Every Nation and place have a several Horizon differing from other 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 2. The Sun when he first appeared was directly over some part of the earth or other and shone most gloriously on halfe 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 unlesse it be meant to some particular place or other as in the Horizon to London c. 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 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. 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 4. The wisest man on earth cannot tell either at York or at Rome or at at any other place the just time when the day of Gods rest did or doth begin within eleven houres of our day 5. Every week-day is the same day in all places all having the same Sun-rising 5. As People are distant in place so have they different Horizons and as their Horizons differ so do their week-dayes from being the very same 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 Virginea 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 houre whether at midnight or at the Cock-crowing or at the day-dawning yet if it shall be on the Saterday with some it shall be on the Saterday with all and if it be at midnight with some it shall be at midnight with all or if at the Cock-crowing or at the day-dawning with some then so shall it be with all 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 Saterday 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 Saterday with some it will not be on the Saterday with all but on the Sunday or Friday with some others also if it be at midnight 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 seventh day from the Creation even the day of Gods rest is the Saterday that is the seventh day of the week with all people so be all the six dayes of the Creation the same with the six dayes of the week with all people 7. As the day of Gods rest cannot be the Saterday nor the seventh day of the week with all people so cannot the six dayes of the Creation be the same with the six dayes 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 Iewes Sabbath where ever they dwelt and began at Sun-setting in all places where-ever the Iewes abode as in Arabia Jerusalem Babylon Rome Spain Ophyr and in all other places where the Iewes had never any abiding place for all
then in being 3. If it be supposed that none before the flood were such excellent Astrologers yet the Chaldees whose Religion was in adoring the Host of Heaven and in searching after the motions and effects of the Planets who bestowed their whole time therein even from their childehood who instructed their little children in the knowledge of the starres b Beëmus ubi dee Assyria as we teach children the Catechisme these I say of all other since the flood should have been the finders out of this Rule and Government of the Planets had there been any such among them A vanity is it to imagine that such an excellency should be kept secret from the Creation during thousands of yeares and not found out till in late times by some Egyptians of no note or name whereas the discoverers thereof had there been such a thing indeed found out deserved to have their names ingraven in marble for their lasting memory to all succeeding ages 4. If this hourely Government be really true then there can but one planet govern the first houre of one and the same day at one and the same place and which shall give name to that day if otherwise then this hourely rule is not sound but feigned Now we know that one and the same day at one and the same place may be Friday Saterday and Sunday to several persons I will clear this in Dr. Heylins own words Suppose saith he that a Turk a Jew and a Christian should dwell together at Jerusalem whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday the other on the Saterday and the third sanctifieth the Sunday a Heyl. part 1. p. 48. he would not call Sunday our Sabbath as he doth Friday the Turks Sabbath Then that upon the Saterday the Turk begin his journey Westward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the world do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going westward 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 Saterday to the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian Sith then one and the same day came to be a Friday a Saterday and a Sunday unto these three by their travel there must be three several planets to govern the first houre 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 later that week-dayes had not their names from the supposed hourly rule of the planets may from these reasons be gathered First this hourely rule doth flow from the names of the week-dayes 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 houre 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 Heyl. par 1. p. 46 47 48. Sunday then with the Turk when it was but Saterday with the Christian then at their meeting Now let the most skilful of Astrologers be demanded what day it should be unto them both either Saterday or Sunday whether the Sun or Saturn ruled the first houre thereof he will answer as the Chaldees did Nebuchadnezzar There is not a man upon the earth that can shew this matter c Dan. 2.10 Yea though the place where those travellers met were made known also yet would the question remain unresolveable unlesse 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 houre thereof or if they make it Saterday then Saturn was he First therefore the week-dayes 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 hourely Rule of the Planets mentioned in the beginning of this chapter that I mean I confesse my self to be but little skilled in the one but this he that hath but the use of a paire of Globes may demonstrate to be false and to have no truth in it 2. The Germanes had weeks and called the week-dayes 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 hourely rule of the planets which Henricus Hassianus got in Paris and then after taught the same in Vienna and that not yet foure 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 Germanes 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 Germanes had learnt to have weeks and to call the dayes of the week by the names of the planets since the said hourely rule was found out and that either from the Romanes 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 weeks and call the week-dayes 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 ancient Kingdom as Theodore Bibliander and Verstegan also do acquaint us Twisco who before he died was a King and the first King of the Germanes was borne long before there was a Monarchy of the Romanes Grecians or Persians either He was ancienter then 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 Kingdome of Sarmatia and from whom the Dutchmen are called Teutshen Tacitus holdeth him to be the sonne of Terra or Arezia Noahs wife a Theod. Bibl. Mannus who was Twisco his sonne and the second King of the Germanes was borne not twenty years after Abraham And Wigwoner their third King was born before Abraham