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
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
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
that either it must begin in some one place or other first before it began in any place else either East or West thereto or else that it was infinite without any first beginning at all Either of which no understanding man will affirme much lesse that the day of Gods rest begins sooner in one place then in another Secondly I have proved sufficiently that the day of Gods rest could not be the same with the Iews Sabbath-day nor the same kinde of day and that all and every of the dayes of the creation were farre different from week-dayes that were in use with the Iews or are or at any time have been in use with men To this purpose I have shewed what kinde of dayes our week-dayes be and what the Iews week-dayes be and what the dayes of the creation were and how they all differ in kinde from each other in Chap. 2 3 4 5 6. And then what kinde of day the Sabbath-day must be in Chap. 7. Thirdly I have shew'd what day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of order and tale That it is to be the seventh day Not the seventh day from the first beginning of the creation nor the seventh from any set Era or Epoche but the seventh day from the time we begin the week for labour where we live in Chap. 8. Concerning which I have shewed why the Lord set the Israelites a time when they after they came out of Egypt must begin their week whereby in count of their week-dayes and so also of their seventh sacred day they differed from all other Nations in Chap. 8 9 10. and what weeks be and the difference between a week and the week and between a seventh day of the week and the seventh day of the week which last is the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord in Chap. 11 12. and also the antiquity of weeks and the answer unto to the main objection thereto in Chap. 13 14. Fourthly I have shewed that Sunday was of old the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles and most probably was the seventh day of the week also with the Patriarchs before the flood and hath continued with Christians their seventh day of the week even unto this present day and doubtlesse ever will to the worlds end in Chap. 15. Christian Reader my hearty desire is that thou and all other the obedient servants of Iesus Christ be rightly informed concerning our observation of the Sabbath-day Haply thou didst before the reading hereof hold that this fourth Commandment is a branch of the moral law that it is agreeable to the law of nature to have a day in seven to be for Gods worship that Sunday is our christian Sabbath as Saterday was the Jews Sabbath and that as God wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and consecrated the seventh day unto holinesse and rest even so all Gods obedient people should not be slothful but diligent in their callings on the six work dayes and rest on the Sunday according to Gods example and keep it holy If this was thine opinon thou wert in the right and didst hold nothing in all these but what godly and learned men and the servants of Iesus Christ did generally teach in former time the people of God here in England as may plainly appear to thee if thou readest only that Homily which is for the time and place of Gods worship But since that subtile heads have been imployed to the subverting hereof and bringing in a dangerous errour opening a floodgate to all licentionsnesse on the Lords Sabbath they have publickly taught and published to the world that the seventh day commanded to be kept holy is none other but the day of Gods rest They would bring People in hand that the Iewes Sabbath was the very seventh day from the Creation and none other but that to be the seventh day of the week with any People and so Sunday to be with us the first day of the week To this end I suppose they would have the name of our Sabbath-day which the Jewes called in their tongue The first day of the Sabbath to be translated as it is in our Bibles not The Lords day or Sunday by which names Christians whose Ancestors were Gentiles ever called it but The first day of the week that so People may conceive hereby though a new name doth not alter the nature of the thing that Sunday with us is not in order the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six dayes of labour but the day going before the six dayes of labour with us and therefore not the Sabbath-day here commanded for the rooting out of which errour and confirming all in the truth concerning the Lords day I have sent abroad this little Tract If now by thy serious perusal hereof thou art the more encouraged to render the Lord his due honour in the heedful observation of the Lords day which with us is Sunday not for customs sake because thy fore-fathers and the Church of God ever observed the same since the time of the Apostles nor for that the Magistrates have commanded us to keep this day holy Nor for that the seventh-day-Sabbath is abolished and this to be a new Sabbath instituted but for that God in this his law which is perpetual and unalterable hath commanded thee and all People expresly to keep holy the seventh day Give God the glory and lift up a Prayer unto him for me a poor sinner T. C. The Synopsis or Abridgement of the whole Tract In this fourth Commandment there be two parts viz. 1. The duty commanded in which we be to know What day the Sabbath of the Lord is concerning which know 1. What kinde of day the Sabbath-day is and therin note There be foure kindes of dayes which we shall meet with in the Holy Scripture which are these viz. the Artificial day Chap. 1. Universal day Chap. 2. Horizontal day Chap. 3. Meridional day Chap. 4. They differ every one from the other The Artificial day differeth from all other Chap. 5. The Universal day differeth from all other Chap. 5. Horizontal and Meridional dayes differ one from the other Chap. 6. Which of these foure kindes of days is the Lords Sabbath Chap. 7. 2. What day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of orderand tale wherein note 1. The Sabbath-day is the seventh day of the week that is the day following the six known dayes of labour Chap. 8. 2. The cause why the Jewes had Saterday for their Sabbath was to take them off from the Assyrian idolatries concerning which note that 1. The Assyrian idolatries were their worshipping the Sun and the other planets all called the Host of heaven And also their worshipping Belus called Baal Chap. 9. 2. From their example all nations as well as Israel worshipped the Sun Chap. 9. 3. Among many meanes God used to take the Jewes off from worshipping the Sun one was that instead of Sunday they must have Saterday
little Every degree that you went westward you pieced your day and made it the three hundred and sixtieth part of a day longer then 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 dayes but you have lost thereby a whole day in tale For tell me when it was Sunday here at your coming home what day was it then with you Indeed quoth Iohn it was but Saturday with us and I wondred much why we in the count of the dayes of our week came still 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 feare not make one voyage more and go back the same way that you came and you shall certainly finde again the day which you lost and then come to me and I will warrant your Case Though now I approve not Ploydens judgement in every point yet I say what he told Iohn of the lengthening his dayes and losing a day in tale at his return whereby he had not lived so many week-dayes as his brother Iohannes had by a day is very true whether he counted the week by Horizontal or by Meridional days But yet Iohn lived as many Universal days as did his brother and losed not one hour or minute of an houre of the Vniversal day it could neither be lengthened or shortened 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 Vniversal day end and the next began both with Iohn and with his brother though they were half the Compasse of the earth distant from each other 2. Week-dayes whether they be Horizontal or Meridional cannot be the same in all places much lesse can their parts or houres be the same But the Universal day is not only the same day in all places but every part or houre 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-dayes with People if it be on Sunday with some it will be on Saterday or Munday with some others and on different times also of the week-day if it shall be at midnight with some not only mid-night of security b 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 on one and the same Universal day therefore every where in holy Scripture that time is called a day c Iohn 6.39.40 54.11.24 Acts 2.20 Mat. 10.15 not dayes It shall not be on one day here and on another day elsewhere but on one and the same day It wil be a general day of judgement not only in respect of all conditions of men but also of all places they shal be gather'd from the foure windes d Mar. 13.27 from all quarters of the world Yea his coming shall then be not only on one and the same Vniversal or general day but on one and the same houre of that day in respect of all People In an houre of that day the trumpet shall sound e Mat. 24.36 1 Thes 4.16 then all in all places shall heare the voice thereof at that same moment even at the twinkling of an eye f 1 Cor. 1â— 52 In vaine shall the plea of any be alledging that it is Tuesday then with some people and it is but Munday with us O let us tarry till Tuesday 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 finde that houre to be a general houre of a general or Universal day that is not sooner in one place then in another CHAP. VI. The difference between Horizontal and Meridional dayes 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 Jewes counted the dayes of their moneths and we the dayes of our weeks and moneths is in time foure and twenty houres without any sensible difference But the Horizontal day by which the Jewes count the dayes of their weeks from Sun-setting to Sun-setting or from Sun-rising to Sun-rising by which some other have counted the dayes of their week is sometimes in some places near five and twenty houres and at some other time in the same places it will be but about three and twenty houres 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 dayes 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 moneth year or age Men living in such places measure out their weeks and moneths by Meridional dayes as we do Neither is there any mention made of such dayes any where in sacred Scripture and it is of such kinde of dayes as are there mentioned which I promised to speak of c 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 houres difference between their beginnings and the like between their endings Whence it must follow that every of the week-dayes with the Jewes consisted partly of two dayes of their moneth and that every day of the moneth with them consisted partly of two of their week-dayes the dayes of their moneth being meridional and their dayes of the week Horizontal dayes 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 Jewes customes in observing their feasts as for instance if it be demanded 1. Whether the Israelites ate the Passeover 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 Passeover b Exod. 12.8 but it was the next day being the morrow after viz. the fifteenth day when they came from Rameses d Num. 33.3 Or whether our Saviour Christ ate the Passeover with his disciples and after that suffered death on the Crosse on one
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-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
make it the fifth or the nineth or tenth or any other then the seventh day Our weeks are not to consist of more or lesse then seven dayes the last day whereof is the Lords day Some call this day the standing day of the week for Gods worship some the Lords day some the Sabbath of the Lord some the seventh day of the week and in this law it is set out to be the day after our six dayes of labour Though these appellations do much differ in letter sound and phrase yet they all signifie the same thing it cannot be the seventh day of the week but it will also be the day after our six known dayes of labour and the standing day of the week for Gods worship this is the Lords day or the Sabbath of the Lord or to the Lord and this is not only a seventh day of the week as all and every other of the week-dayes are but it is the seventh day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not appointed from the Lord by this law any set time whence men should begin their week or sevening for to finde the Lords day so that no People Jew or Gentile are tied by this Commandment directly to keep their Sabbath precisely on such or such a day or to begin their Sabbath at any set particular time as from midnight or from Sun-rising noon or Sun-setting God separated the tenth of grapes of lambes of corn c to the use of the Priests and Levites As the seventh day is in this Commandment said to be the Lords and sanctified by the Lord so were those tenths said to be the Lords and sanctified or holy to the Lord. But it cannot there be meant of the very tenth Lambe that fell in order from the Damme or of the tenth eare of corn or of the tenth cluster of grapes first appearing or grown ripe this was too too difficult for to finde out but of the tenth in proportion successively according to the customary manner of their tithing in the places where they lived No more can it be meant here of the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation which cannot be found out nor from any particular time set by the Lord but the seventh day in proportion successively according as any Nation or people do customarily begin their week in what longitude of the earth soever they do inhabit that seventh day by the expresse words of this law is the Lords day or Sabbath-day to or for the Lord not of the Lord in that sense which some take it as if it were the very day of Gods rest but the 7th day unto the Lord that is sacred or holy to or for the Lord so do the very words of the text import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord so also in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereto doth the Chaldee Paraphrase accord Die autem septimo Sabbatum est coram Domino And on the seventh day is the Sabbath before the Lord. Also Jun. and Tremel Dies verò septimus Sabbatum est Iehovae But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord. The sense then and meaning of these words of this Commandment The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord is this The seventh day of the week or the day following the six dayes here allowed man for labour is the Lords day or is sacred to the Lord thy God As we say in tithing of corne wheresoever men by agreement do begin to tithe that nine cocks or stacks of corn are the Farmers but the tenth is the Parsons or is due to the Parson So in sevening out our dayes at what time soever according to mens custome they begin their week or sevening six days are ours but the seventh day is the Lords it is his due and not our own God hath not bound men by this law to any set time when to begin their week either at the Sun-setting as the Jews began their week or at midnight as Christians begin theirs or at any other set time but in every Nation however they begin their week the seventh day thereof is the Lords It is true that the Jewes had a set time when they should begin their week or sevening and so had a set and peculiar time or day on which they were to keep their Sabbath but this they were not bound unto by this law That Saterday was their seventh or sacred day and that it began at Sun-setting rather then at another time was not by any expresse out of this Commandment but accidentally that thereby they might be the better taken off from the Assyrians idolatry wherewith they and generally most Nations were deeply infected of which I will speak more particularly in the next Chapter CHAP. IX The Assyrians idolatrie All Nations worshipped the Sun THe Assyrians idolatrie wherewith Egypt the Israelites and generally other Nations were infected was both the worshipping of Baal the adoring of the Host of heaven The one was a man deified and worshipped the other were the Starres viz. the Sun Moone and the rest of the Planets a The other stars were honoured but as subservient unto these whom they magnified and adored as gods and governours of the world Concerning Baal and how he came to be worshipped we shall thus finde in Histories and ancient Chronologies Nimrod that mighty Hunter before the Lord being a great and strong Giant began to suppresse and tyrannize over others bringing others in Shinar under him and he ruled as King over them The beginning of his Kingdome was Babel wherefore he was called Saturnus Babylonicus For the most ancient Kings and first founders of a Realme or People they called by the name of Saturne and his eldest son or heire by the name of Jupiter and his daughters were called Junoes c Guevar Epist Thus they cal'd his father Cush Gush Saturnus Aethiops for that Aethiopia was peopled by him And his Grandfather Cham they cal'd Saturnus Aegyptius for that he and his son Jupiter Mizraim peopled Egypt Beside Babel this Nimrod had Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar d Gen. 10.9 10 11 12. In Processe of time Nimrod left the Kingdom of Babel unto his son Belus whom they called Iupiter Belus not driven out of his Kingdom by his son but Nimrod left the same unto him and went into Ashur there he tyrannized over the children of Ashur and there he built Cities also Niniveh and Rehoboth and Calah and Rezen Ninus succeeded his Father Belus and his Grandfather Nimrod in their Kingdomes and inlarged Niniveh calling it by his own name Niniveh and much inlarged his dominions and became a Monarch This Ninus so condoled and took such grief for the death of his father Belus that for his own comfort and his fathers honour he had a goodly image and representation of his father made which he had in much honour Others
the world to be eternal like as the Chaldees before them did 6. The like I say for Rome that was built by the posterity of the Trojane fugitives though Pantheus was dead yet they had their Temple Pantheon which continued to be so called till the dayes of Boniface the fourth as I shewed before c See chap. 9. Under divers formes and names did the Romanes worship the Sun as Macrobius sheweth Romani solem sub nomine specie Iani Dydimaei Apollinis c Appellatione venerantur saith he d Macrob. Sacarn l. 1. c. 17. 7. The Massagethites that Scythian and unhumane Nation had the Sun for their God though they would not acknowledge any other as Boëmns recordeth of them Deum quendam sed non Deos agnoscunt ex Diis enim Vnum Solem venerantur cui equos immolant ut pernicissimo sideri è pecoribus omnibus pernicissimum mactent e Boëm. ubi de Scythia 8. The Ethiopians Cathaines Tartars and other Nations worshipped the Sun their god as the said Boëmus recordeth writing of their manners and customes 9. Doctor Francis White late B. of Ely in his Book against Theophilus Brabourne f White p. 197. speaking of the Pagans in general telleth us that they worshipped the Sun Now to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry so generally practised by the Nations the Lord used divers means of which this was one that they should not have the day of the Sun for the day of his worship but the day before that but of this in the next chapter CHAP. X. The means God used to take the Israelites off from worshipping the Sun THe Israelites living in Egypt were deeply tainted with the aforesaid Assyrian Idolatries which the Egyptians from them had learnt and set up Doctor Heylin proveth out of Cyril that the Jews worshipped the Sun and Moon and Host of heaven as in those times the Egyptians did And to the end they mght acknowledge God alone to be the Creatour their Sabbath-day was set unto them c. a Heyl. hist. part 1. p. 74 75 76. It is very true indeed what Doctor Heylin saith of them touching their Idolatries Insomuch that when the Lord brought them out of Egypt to be a peculiar people to himself God then used many means to draw them off from worshipping the Sun Moon and the rest of the Planets all called the Host of heaven whereof the Sun was the chief First God gave them a special charge that thenceforth not any of them should serve the Sun or Moon c. And that if any man or woman among them should be known to serve the Sun or Moon or any of the Host of heaven then the party whether man or woman was to be stoned to death without mercy b De t. 17.2 3 4 5. Secondly God charged them not to speak of those gods or to have their names come out of any of their mouths c Exod. 23.13 They might not call the dayes of the week by the names of the Planets the day of the Sun the day of the Moon c. as other Nations did and do for the most part but they called them thenceforth the first of the Sabbath the second of the Sabbath c. Insomuch that all the Evangelists in recording the day and time of our Saviours Resurrection say not In the morning of the day of the Sun as other Nations commonly called that time and we now In the Sunday-morning but In the morning of the first day of the Sabbath so did they call our Sunday Saint Paul also though he wrote to the Church in Corinth yet writing in the behalf of somes Jews in Judea that were in want called their weekly meeting day not the day of the Sun as the Gentiles cal'd that day but the first day of the Sabbath b 1. Cor. 16.2 being the proper name thereof with the Jewes It is true that Saint John though he was a Jew yet writing not to the Jews but to the Gentiles lately converted c Diod. in loe that is to the seven Churches of Asia d Rev. 1.4 called our Sunday not by the name of the day of the Sun as the Gentiles called it nor by the name of the first day of the Sabbath as he and the Jews commonly called it but he called it The Lords day John called it not the day of the Sun for he was a Jew nor did he call it the first day of the Sabbath for that he wrote to the Gentiles to whom the name of the Sabbath was odious as was the name of the day of the Sun to the Jews and we finde not that Christians who descended of the Gentiles did in many yeers after this use the name of Sabbath in their writings nor did the Jews use the name of the day of the Sun in theirs But Iohn called it the Lords day being as truly the Lords day with the Churches of the Gentiles as was the Saterday with the Jews Thirdly the Lord caused them to alter their times which were measured out to them by the course of the Sun as years moneths weeks and dayes Whereas their year before began in Tisri when the Sun was in the Autumnal Equinox they must thenceforth begin the same when the Sun is most remote from it that is in Abib Abib now must be their first moneth and Tisri their seventh which was their first before d See chap. 4. Their weeks were then wholly altered the day of the Sun which was the Gentiles seventh sacred day as I shall shew anon f See chap. 15. must thenceforth be with them a common or ordinary work-day and the day which they must have for their seventh sacred day was thenceforth to be that day which the Lord pointed out unto them by Moses that is the day following their six dayes of gathering Quailes and Manna g Ex. 16.23 26 when they were ready to perish through want of food Also to draw the people unto an awful obedience hereto and that they might not think it to be an innovation raised by Moses as the Heathen generally thought it to be a Cornel. Ta. Diurn l. 21. Trog Pom. l. 36 the Lord confirmed this new order of their week-dayes miraculously insomuch as on that seventh pointed out unto them for their Sabbath there was no signe of Manna to be seen and the portion thereof gathered the day before and kept unto their Sabbath-day stanck not The miraculous feeding them many years after this maner bred in them a custome of observing the week according to this new assignment The Lord by Moses caused them to alter the beginning of their dayes of the week too for wheras before they began their dayes as other worshippers of the Sun did at the first appearance of the Sun in the Horizon counting the first houre of their day to begin at Sun rising thenceforth they must begin their day for the service of
God when the Sun is furthest off from his rising Sun-rising was the time when the Gentiles began their worship to the Sun but theirs must begin at Sun-setting Their evening sacrifice was their prime sacrifice c Psal 141.2 Their Feast of the Passeover must be at the setting of the Sun d Deut. 16.6 and their Sabbaths must begin with the evening from evening to evening were they to celebrate their Sabbaths f Lev. 23.32 that so they may the better remember and acknowledge the Lord God their Creator and Governour that it was he and not the Sun Moon or Host of heaven that wrought their great deliverance in bringing them out of Egypt Fourthly to bring the Israelites into the greater dislike and detestation of worshipping the Sun towards the East as the Nations did the Lord would that they should turn their breech or back-parts toward the Sun-rising when they worshipped him The idolatrous Nations in those dayes when they worshipped the Sun Moon or any of the Host of heaven bowed towards the East that is towards the Sun-rising in honour of the Sun but now in contempt of that idolatry the Jewes were to have their faces toward the West or Sun-setting and their breech toward the Sun-rising when they bowed and worshipped God The holy place therefore in the Tabernacle was toward the West as Dr. Willet proveth h Willet Syn. Con. 9. And when the Temple of God was built the house of God was so placed in the inner Court as that they who came thither to pray when they bowed had their Posteriours as it is in the Hebrew towards the Sun-rising and their faces Westward towards the house of God 5. Lastly the day of the Sun must no longer be their seventh sacred day The having that day sacred might have nursed them in or have drawn them again to the said idolatry of worshipping the Sun but that they might be taken wholly off from it the day of the Sun was to be with them common or prophane and another day the day before the day of the Sun even that which was the seventh from their first gathering Quailes and Manna k Exod. 6.12 13 23 26. The day which the ancient Saxons called the day of Seater and we from them Saterday was thenceforth to be their seventh-seventh-day sacred Yet all these courses which the most wise God took with them prevailed not they would not be reclaimed from their idolatry they were resolved to uphold their wicked custom not only the meaner sort but the Kings of Judah the Princes the Priests and wicked Prophets loved sought served worshipped and walked after the Sun Moon a Ier. 8.1 2. c. Great charges were their Kings at for making horses and chariots which they dedicated to the Sun the which good Josiah afterward in zeal to the Lord of Hosts did burn with fire b 2 Kings 23.11 Yet could he not root out this monstrous abomination of worshipping the Sun but they strengthened themselves therin insomuch that even in the Temple of God in the place where they should worship the Lord of Glory with their faces Westward towards the house of God they would in a most high contempt worship the Sun and bow with their breech towards the house of God having their faces towards the Sun-rising Of which contempt the Lord complaineth to his Prophet Ezechiel to whom he shewed their great abominations and greater yea and greater then those at length he shewed him this which out-passed all the other Turn thee again saith the Lord and thou shalt see greater abominations then these and he brought me into the inner Court of the Lords house and behold at the door of the Temple of the Lord between the Porch and the Altar were about five and twenty men with their Posteriors toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the East and they worshipped the Sun towards the East c Ezecb. 8.15 16. The women were resolute to worship the Moon too after the manner of the Heathen We will certainly do said they d Ier. 44.17 18. whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth to burne incense to the Queen of Heaven and to poure out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem c. The Heathenish women against their time of Childe-bearing sought and implored the Moon for ease and safety the like custome the Hebrew women seemed to have had who did knead their dough to make Cakes to the Queen of Heaven f Ier. 7.18 Of this I will be sparing of my own but deliver you the very words of that learned Iohn Gregory as he layeth them down in his Assyrian Monarchy thus The Assyrians worshipped the Moon under the name of Mylitta which word Scaliger hath well noted in their language signifieth Genetricem in which sense it may not unaptly be applied to the Moon The reason he gives for it is for that If the Moon did nothing help the second causes in generation yet in the bringing forth it is evident for this is most certain though every Midwife hath not observed so much that the most easie delivery a woman can have is alwayes in the increase toward and in the full of the Moon and the hardest labours in the new and silent Moon which was the reason that the Midwives heretofore he meaneth among the Jewes as well as the Heathen did alwayes in such a Case implore the aide of that Planet for the safe and easie delivery of their infants an example hereof you may have one among many in the Comedy a Terent. Aâ—â—dria where the woman in the extremity of her travel cries out to the Moon Juno Lucina fer opem and this amongst others must needs be a reason why the Assyrians worshipped the Moon and why they worshipped her under that name The Prophet Jeremy maketh mention of this worship in the seventh Chapter where he calleth the Moon the Queen of Heaven as our English Translation hath very well rendred The reason which he giveth why the women called on the Moon at such times I omit here to relate being the same which Physicians commonly do give The Prophet addeth that the women made Cakes to this Queen This Custom of offering Cakes to the Moon our Ancestors may seem not to have been ignorant of to this day our women make Cakes at such times yea the childe it self is no sooner born but 't is baptized into the names of these Cakes for so the women call their Babes Cake-bread So much John Gregory and more Though Israel forsook the Covenant of their God and went a whoring after the gods of the Nations chiefly after the Sun yet the Lord was not wanting in affording the many means aforesaid for reclaiming them where of this was not the least in that he took them off from the memory of the day of
the Sun and assigned unto them the Saterday for their Sabbath Concerning which we may truly say that as their sabbath-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-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
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
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 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 Iewes Sabbath for this they did or might keep from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in Arabia Jerusalem Babylon Rome Spaine 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 unlesse the surface of the earth had been plain and not round 9. The Iewes had not rested on the seventh day according to Gods example had they not rested on that very seventh day on which God rested 9. The Iewes 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 dayes and rest the 7th so did they As the Sunday with Christians was ever the day following their 6 days of labour so was the Saterday with the Iewes 10. The Iewes sabbath-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 10. The Jewes Sabbath-day was not the day of Gods rest as hath been shewed Neither as it was the Saterday 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 bonnd to which is that having wrought the six dayes 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 plain all and every one of the ten before-going are true but if round they must be all false If the earth be round all and every one of the ten before-going are true but if plain they all must needs be false I Having now shewed the opinion of the most concerning weeks 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 dayes 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 where ever 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 dayes without intermission By seven dayes I mean seven such dayes as are all of one and the same kinde If any of them be horizontall dayes they are all to be horizontal dayes such as were the seven dayes of the Week with the Jews And if any be meridional they are all to be meridional dayes as are the dayes of the week with Christians The Jews Sabbath or seventg day was from Sun-fettinh to Sun-setting therefore so should the six dayes of their week be also The six dayes of our week are from midnight to midnight and therefore the seventh is not to be from Sun-setting to Sun-setting but from midnight to midnight also The seventh day must relate to the six dayes 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 dayes of Gods work at the creation these were not of the same kinde of dayes with the week-dayes that now are or at any time heretofore have been or can be in use with men as I have already fully proved a See Chap. 5. That seven whole dayes without intermission from any time as from Sunday to Sunday or from Saterday to Saterday 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 ancient Saxons 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 dayes 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 dayes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a seveny of dayes Secondly frequently in holy Scripture seven dayes from any set time is counted a week Laban bade Jacob fulfill her week b Gen 23.27 meaning the seven dayes of Leas marriage Such was the usual time for marriage-feasts in those dayes c Iudg. 14.10 12. If a woman was at any time delivered of a man-child she was to be unclean seven dayes or a week but if she was delivered of a maid-childe d Lev. 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 feast-day of the Passeover which never fell on the same day of the week two years together shalt thou number unto thee seven weeks f 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 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
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
it hath already been proved 1. That the seven planets were of old the Gentiles gods 2. That the seven dayes of the week were deputed to those their gods and as John Gregory doth assure us a Jo. Greg. in his Assyrian Monarchy in his Assyrian Monarchy that the dayes of the week were called of the Assyrians by the names of the same planets unto whom the week-dayes were severally dedicated and that all Nations did from them call the dayes of the week in like manner 3. That the Sun was of all their gods held the chiefest and supreme Now common sense and reason will tell us that the day which was by them dedicated to their chiefest God and bare his name the day of the Sun which we call Sunday must be with them the chiefest day of all the seven in their estimation and therefore was it with them not only a seventh day of the week but the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither was Sunday the 7th day of the week with the idolatrous Gentiles only but was also as it is most probable that seventh day which the Patriarchs before the flood held to the honour of the Creator in remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day For when Nimrod otherwise called Saturnus Babylonicus Belus his sonne and other Potentates of Assyria and Chaldea had idolatrously set up the whole Host of heaven that is the Sunne Moon and the other planets with constellations subservient to them which of the seven dayes of the week will any reasonable man imagine did they dedicate to the honour of their greatest god the Sun rather then that which before was held to the honour of God the Creatour surely not any other And when these 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 spoiles to their chiefest god the Sun Nimrod giving him the name Baal b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar which he afterwards assumed to himself b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar Belus giving him the name Jove b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar Jehovah in the Hebrew the which he assumed afterward unto himself b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar and was called Jove Bel c Biblian 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 Sunbeing 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 Creatour All that was known to be for the worship and honour of God the Creatour they gave to the honour of the Sun and therefore doubtlesse they deputed to the Sun that day also Again when they assigned to every of those gods the seseveral dayes 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 then to the Moon Mercury or other inferiour gods So that most likely the seventh day with the Patriarchs was none other but that which afterward 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-dayes were called by the names of the other planets and so by custome have they continued to be called with all Nations of any note for Civility and Knowledge except with the Jewes only who after their coming our 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 omniaetate 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 ancient Poets divers of them do testifie the same as Linus Callimacus 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 par 1. c. 4. Now the seventh day so laudably by them spoken of was the day of the Sun For 1. It was not Saterday the Jewes seventh day The Gentiles liked the Jewes Saterday 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 Jewes 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 moneth 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 moneth 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 moneth 3. Had the seventh day sacred to the Sun been the seventh day of every moneth as they affirme the Greeks doubtlesse 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 dayes at a time no more then others then could do and no more then we can set down the moveable Feasts that were with us unlesse 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 dayes were omitted Now there is an ancient Attick Calender to be seen in Scaliger de emend temp wherein things of lesse consequence are noted but this seventh day sacred to the Sun in each moneth cannot be found 4. Dr. Frances White and Dr Heylin also tell us b White of the Sabbath p. 197. Heyl. part 2. p. 53. that Christians of the
on that day for they called it no longer Sunday unlesse 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 Sunne any more on that day but the Lord their Creatour and Redeemer Thirdly It is true that all the week-dayes 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 then 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 Saint Pauls rule to live inoffensively a 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 excesse of riot with them b 1 Pet. 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 Saterday-Sabbath which the Gentiles held to be a singularity and innovation brought in by Moses insomuch that Jeremy lamenteth the same a Lam. 1.17 How grievous would be their Taunts and reproaches against the poore Christians living with them and under their power for their new set sacred day had the Christians chosen any other then the Sunday Had Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cavendise and their companies who travelled round the earth with them either out of tendernesse of conscience or else out of obstinacy continued to keep that Sunday sacred which fel to them by course true tale of the days succeeding each other they must needs have had their Sunday on our Munday our Sunday would be their Saterday When it was holy day with them it would be workingday 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 nobisillicita a Cornel. Tacit. Diurnal li. 2â— 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 wilfulnesse which was lesse 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 dayes with whom they lived As for example had Sir Francis Drake and his company observed at his returne 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 Sunne of Righteousnesse a 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 vaine for them to have assayed the same they could never have brought it to passe 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 Saint Paul would never have prest the indifferency of dayes as he did b Rom. 14.1 2 3. Col. 2.16 nor would he himself have with the believing Jewes kept the Saterday c 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 d Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 neither would the believing Jewes 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 then their Saterday for their Sabbath hundreds of years after the Apostles dayes 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 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 then 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 Saterday-Sabbath different from the custome of all other Nations had not the Lord God miraculously in the fal of Quails Manna e 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 dayes for their labour and so pointing out to them the Saterday being the seventh from their first gathering Quailes 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-dayes 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 Schollers the vulgar people in their common talk called their week-dayes as they did before
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
and not ours it is The Sabbath of the Lord thy God as it is in this place in our Bibles so translated it is saith God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbath to the Lord that is a Rest or Cessation to the Lord as before I have shewed d See Chap. 8. It is a day holy to the Lord and therefore none other then the Lords All the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree in the time of the law was the Lords f Levit. 27.30 and so was the tithe of the herd or of the flock even of whatsoever passed under the rod g Verse 32. for the tithe of all these were holy to the Lord h Verse 30.32 and therefore they were the Lords they were his seed his fruit his Lambes c. One Lambe was no more holy then another when they fell from their Dammes and before they were tithed out the Possessor of them might have mingled them at his pleasure he was not tied to begin his tithing at one Lambe rather then at another but from what Lambe soever he began every tenth Lambe that in order passed under the rod was the Lords he might not then change it nor search whether it was good or bad k Verse 33. it was then holy to the Lord it was the Lords Lambe and of such as detained the tenth the Lord complained that they had robbed him l Mal. 3.8 9. And so I say concerning the seventh day in the like sense That one day of it self is no more holy then is another Christians were not tied by any divine law to begin their week or sevening from any set particular time but they continuing their accustomed week and so beginning their sevening from the day of Christs Resurrection the seventh from thence in an orderly course is sacred to the Lord it is the Lords day no man upon his particular occasions may change the same he may not say My businesse is such that I cannot keep this Sabbath-day but I will keep another day in the week which will be as good He doth deceive himself herein he may not put off the seventh to another day but should defer his businesse rather When men take the seventh day which is sacred to the Lord and imploy the same about their own businesse either in whole or in part they may as truly be said to rob the Lord as they under the law were said so to do in not paying their due tithes and offerings m Mal. 3 8 9. Sixthly the Lord was pleased to set out unto us the ground of this law why he would have a day in a week appointed for his worship rather then a week in every moneth or a moneth in every yeare And why he would have the seventh day for his service rather then the tenth the ground hereof the Lord here sheweth to be this In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day The same ground for the sanctification of the seventh day is also declared before in Genesis n Gen. 2.3 Seventhly the Lord declareth and he would have his People hereby to know that he hath annexed a blessing unto this day God blessed the seventh day They who wait on the Lord and serve him sincerely during this their day of attendance shall finde the Lord a bountiful rewarder their ceasing from labour for doing him service shall be for their profit they shall be gainers thereby Lastly if there had been none other reason or motive to stir us up unto obedience in a careful keeping of the seventh day unto the honour of God yet this alone which the Lord hath given in the close of this Commandment should suffice The Lord hath sanctified it God hath instituted it But when the Lord hath given us such a special charge of remembring the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it and hath so plainly pointed out unto us what the day is whith he will have us to sanctifie that none may plead ignorance about the time and how many words the Lord used in prohibiting all works and in the enumeration of all degrees prohibited laying down also the equity hereof his own example together with his blessing it and his sovereign institution hereof how can any without palpable ignorance or wilful rebellion plead ignorance of the Sabbath or knowing it not yield ready obedience thereto Imprimatur JOHN DOWNAME A POSTSCRIPT To the READER I Pray thee before thou readest correct these faults which alter the sense the other though many amend in reading And when thou hast read this Tract consider seriously whether the day of rest the Seventh day in this law commanded to be observed do relate to the six dayes of Gods work or to the six dayes of mans labour It cannot relate to the six dayes of Gods work and so be the day of Gods rest unlesse the day of Gods rest and the Jews Sabbath-day be the same and begin in all places at Sun-setting whereever the Jews did or ought to observe their Sabbath which cannot possibly be except the earth be plain as I have shewed Or except the day of Gods rest did at the first and doth begin sooner in some places then in other and so first at one particular place when it was no where else the day of Gods rest either East or West thereto Both which are so against reason that no understanding man will hold either But if thou findest that the seventh day commanded doth relate as truly it doth to the six dayes of Labour with men and so must be the day following their six week-dayes of labour whereever they live then consider whether Sunday be not as truly the day following the six dayes of labour with Christians as Saterday was with the Jews and as truly the seventh day with Christians and by the expresse words of this law commanded to be kept holy as the Saterday was with the Jews If so what cause thinkest thou have Jews Antinomians Libertines or any other to scandalize or say of Christians that they do not nor at any time have observed the true time and day commanded of God in this law FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. the whole Read to the whole p. 6. l. 22. so if r. if so p. 7. l. 6. and the evening r. and the morning p. 12. l. 2. this r. his p. 22. l. 9. thirtieth r. one and thirtieth p. 35. l. 10. noâ—e thus their r. nose thus Their. p. 39 l. 33. Hemer r. Homer p. 39. l. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 28. Gallimachus r. Callimachus p. 69. l. 16. feigned r. been feigned p. 80. l. 1. Sabbathrsacred r. Sabbath or sacred p. 86. l. 22. betrer r. better In the Margin pag. 41. line 22. Det read Deut.
their seventh day sacred Chap. 10 3. The vain opinion of some who think that the Sabbath that is the seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods rest Chap. 11 4. What a week is and what the week is and that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath Also why many of the ancient Writers called the Jewes Sabbath the day of Gods rest sith they knew that it could not be that very day Chap. 12 5. Weeks proved to be from all Antiquity Chap. 13 6. Week-dayes had their names from the planets as they were the Heathen-gods and not from their supposed hourely Government Chap. 14 7. Sunday was the Gentiles seventh day of the week sacred to the Sun and most probably was the seventh day sacred with the Patriarchs before Noahs flood Also that Christians did not neither ought to have chosen any other then the Sunday for their seventh sacred day although it had been much abused before to idolatry Chap. 15 What it is to keep holy and sanctifie the Sabbath day Chap. 16 2. The Lords special provision to bring all people to a heedful keeping the duty commanded set out in sundry particulars Chap. 17 THE SEVENTH-DAY Sabbath EXOD. 20.8 9 10 11. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and c. CHAP. I. The Division of the Text. The Artificial Day THe Lord God who made Heaven and Earth and all for the good of man made man for his own honour in his own Image and to bear his Image in the world to his glory done by the due observation of the Moral Law whereof this fourth Commandement is a part in which God maketh known unto man the special time and day which he hath destinated unto his worship commanding man to sanctifie the same and keep it holy to the Lord. In this text are these two parts First the duty commanded which is to keep holy the Sabbath-day Secondly the care and provision had by the Lord for mans heedful keeping and observing the same in all the other words and branches of this Commandement I will first treat of the duty commanded and in it for our better observing the Sabbath-day we are to know First what the Sabbath-day is that is here commanded to be sanctified Secondly what it is to sanctifie the same or to keep it holy Touching the former of these we are to know First what kinde of day the Sabbath is to be Secondly what day it is to be in order or tale Concerning the former of these There be foure kindes of dayes which we shall meet with in holy Scripture 1. The Artificial day 2. The Universal day 3. The Horizontal day 4. The Meridional day These termes or appellations I confesse are not common but the use of them is needful for the better distinguishing them one from the other whereby it may the better appear which of these kindes of days the Sabbath-day ought to be And now I will 1. Shew what every of them is 2. How they differ the one from the other 3. Which of these kindes of days man is to observe and keep for his Sabbath Of the Artificial day The Artificial day as it is generally taken is the whole time between Sun-rising and Sun-setting with any people This kinde of day was especially in use with the Jewes They divided this day alwayes into twelve equal parts which they called hours which hours were ever proportionable to the day In Summer-time the longer their day was the longer were their houres and at Winter when their day was not ten of our houres yet was it twelve of theirs Of this kinde of day mention is made in divers places of sacred Scripture a Iohn 11.9 Psal 104.23 Mat. 20.2 3 6. And the houres thereof are now called Jewes houres b Horae Jndaicae And Antique houres c Horae Antiquae for that not only the Jewes but other nations also did anciently so divide the day into twelve such houres Thus was their Dial divided into twelve houre-lines whereof the fifth Persius d Pers Sat. 3. Quinta dum linea tangitur umbrá will have to note out the fifth houre with them which is about ten of the Clock with us Martial e Mart. li. 4. Epigr. 8. Prima salutantes atque altera continet â—oâ—a c. also in twelve verses distinguisheth the twelve houres of the day then in use in the like manner CHAP. II. The Vniversal day The dayes of the Creation Why Moses set the Evening before the Morning THe Vniversal day is that which is one and the same day in all places through the whole Universe as well in respect of its beginning as of its duration and ending It is not one day at one part of the earth and another day at another part but when it beginneth or endeth any where it beginneth or endeth every where at the same time This kinde of Day cannot properly be said to begin either in the East or in the West or at Sun-rising or at Sun setting or at Midnight or at Noon as other kinde of dayes do For there is neither East nor West nor Sun-rising nor Sun-setting nor midnight nor noon in respect of the world though in respect of the parts of the world all and every of these may be said to be yet so as what is East or morning to one part is West or Sun-setting to another part and midnight to one part is midday to another part but neither of them properly can be so said to be the whole world Such kinde of dayes were those which Moses spake of in the first of Genesis a Gen. 1.5 8 13 19 23.31 And of which mention is made in this text and elsewhere b Ex. 20.11 and 31.17 Acts 2.20 Rev. 6.17 2 Pet. 2.9 and 3.7 10. Ioel. 2.31 In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. and rested the seventh day That these dayes which some do terme and fitly enough may be called The dayes of the Creation were such Universal dayes I will endeavour to clear by giving instances in every of them which Moses spake of in rehearsing the Works of the Creation The first of those seven dayes was such an Universal day when it began any where it began every where no where then was it no day nor any other then the first day The first things God made were day and night or light and darknesse They were neither of them in time before the other but were both coëtaneous There was in nature before though not in time a mixed or confused darknesse which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Gen. 1.2 which Arias Montanus correcting Pagnin translateth and calleth it Caligo it was neither perfect day nor perfect night But when God had thence formed the light and made it to shine out of the darknesse d 2 Cor. 4.6 and had divided the light from the darknesse so as that they should never