the first day The first things God made were day and night or light and darkness 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 darkness which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and had divided the light from the darkness so as that they should never be both in one Hemisphere but succeed in order each other which is called Gods Covenant of the day and of the night Jer. 33.20 God then called that light so divided Day and that darkness so divided called by Moses Emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God called night Gen. 1.4 5. the full Revolution of both which was the first day in this division of the light and darkness or day and night though the night was before the day in one Hemisphere and the day before the night in the other yet in respect of the whole Universe neither of them was before the other in time When the first day began somewhere when it was night at the same time that first day began some otherwhere when it was day-light every where did the first day begin at the same time The second day and the third day in like manner were Universal days When God stretched out the firmament on the second day it was every where then the second day On the next day also wheresoever God the Universal Worker did his work throughout the whole round in gathering together the Waters making the Seas and dry Land there every where was it the third day And after that every where was it the same third day where God made the Earth to bring forth Grass and Herbs and fruit-trees Gen. 1.11 12 13. no where was it then either the second or fourth day The fourth day in which the Sun Moon and Stars were made was an Universal day When it was the fourth day any where it was the fourth every where It is not revealed in what part of the fourth day those lights of Heaven were made but most certain is it that when the Sun first appeared to the World on that day it was over some part of the Earth at that time making it to be noon there and in all places in that Hemisphere which were in the same Meridian with the Sun And that in many places ninety degrees East from thence it was Sun-setting and in as many places ninety degrees West from thence it was then at the same time Sun-rising Also that in the other Hemisphere to which the Moon or Stars appeared it was then night and mid-night there in those places that were in the same Meridian with the Sun So that although on that fourth day Sun-setting was before Sun-rising in some places and Sun-rising before Sun-setting in some other places and in some places noon was before either of the other and in some other places mid-night was before them all yet in respect of the whole Earth not one of them was on that fourth day before the other But at the Suns first appearing and shining over half the Earth it was at that very instant the fourth day as well where it was Sun setting or Sun-rising as where it was noon and likewise it was then the fourth day also in the other part of the Earth to which the Moon or Stars first appeared For neither the Sun Moon or Stars appeared to any place on the third day which was the day before they were made and the fifth day was not then begun The like I say for the fifth day and for the sixth day when God made Fish and Foul on the fifth day or when he made Adam the last of his Creatures on the sixth day it was then after Sun-setting in some places and before Sun-rising in some other places and it was then noon in some places and mid-night in some other places yet all on the same day The like I say also for the seventh day the day of Gods rest When God rested from all his Works that he had made it was no where then the sixth day but every where the seventh day The day of Gods rest began in some places at Sun-rising in some places at Sun-setting and in some at noon and in other some at mid-night in the same day For so was it on the fourth day when the Sun first appeared and so when it was half ended and so likewise when it was fully ended and therefore so was it when the fifth sixth or seventh day began or ended It is not revealed and therefore no man can know what or where in the Earth those places are where it was Sun-rising or Sun-setting or noon or mid-night either when the Sun first shined forth to the World or when half of that fourth day was ended or when it was fully ended and therefore no man can tell nor possibly can any find out whether here in England or in any other particular place or Countrey it was Sun-setting or Sun-rising noon or mid-night day-light or night when the fifth sixth or seventh day the day of Gods Rest began and yet at the beginning of that seventh day it was either of these somewhere or other Quest But some may say why then did Moses rehearsing every of the six days Works of the Creation set the evening before the morning so if the evening was not before the morning Answ I answer Moses naming the evening in order before the morning in the first of Genesis Gen. 1.5.8 13 19 23 31. doth not thereby make either of them to be in time before the other one he was to name first and the reasons why he named the evening before the morning may be these First For that after the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt and I suppose this History to be written after that their Year their Months and the days of their Week were all changed in respect of their beginnings and endings so that whereas they began their days with the morning thenceforth they constantly began their Week-days with the evening See chap. 3. as I shall shew more at large in the next Chapter If Moses now should have set the morning before the evening he might have seemed to dislike this their new custom of beginning their days of the Week with the evening for which he had direction from the Lord God Secondly Or else it may be for that they who were best skill'd in dividing and distinguishing of time as were Astronomers such as doubtless Moses was who was Learned in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians Acts 7.22 began the day at noon making the evening that is all the time from noon to midnight to be the former part of the day and the evening that is all the time from mid-night to noon
may I say for the day you have lost you lost it not all at one time but by little and little every degree that you went Westward you pieced your day and made it the three hundred and sixtieth part of a day longer than it was but therewithal you losed the three hundred and sixtieth part of your day in tale you must look to lose one way if you gain another way In your travel of the whole round which is three hundred and sixty degrees you gained a whole day in the length of your days but you have lost thereby a whole day in tale For tell me when it was Sunday at your coming home what day was it then with you Indeed quoth John it was but Saturday with us and I wondered much why we in the count of the days of our Week came still to a day short of what they counted here But I pray tell me what counsel you will give me in the Case between me and my Brother Why quoth Ployden be ruled by me and fear not make one Voyage more and go back the same way that you came and you shall certainly find again the day which you lost and then come to me and I will warrant your Case Though now I approve not Ploydens Judgment in every point yet I say what he told John of the lengthning of his days and losing a day in tale at his return whereby he had not lived so many Week-days as his brother Johannes had by a day is very true whether he counted the Week by Horizontal or by Meridional days But yet John lived as many Universal days as did his Brother and losed not one hour or minute of an hour in the Universal day it could neither be lengthned or shortned by continual travel When the Sun came to that Meridian in which it was when it began the fifth sixth or seventh day at the first Creation then did the Universal day end and the next began both with John and with his Brother though they were half the Compass of the Earth distant from each other 2. Week-days whether they be Horizontal or Meridional cannot be the same in all places much less can their parts or hours be the same But the Universal day is not only the same day in all places but every part or hour of that day is without any variation the same every where The last day in which Christ shall come to judge the World which must needs be on two week days with People if it be on Sunday with some it will be on Saturday or Monday with some others and on different times also of the week-day if it shall be at mid-night with some not only mid-night of security Mat. 25.6 13 24 39 50. but in respect of the week-day it will be at noon with some others c. Yet will it be one and the same Universal day therefore every where in Holy Scripture that time is called a day John 6.39 40 54.11.24 Acts 2.20 Mat. 10.15 not days It shall not be on one day here and on another day elsewhere but on one and the same day It will be a general day of Judgment not only in respect of all conditions of men but also of all places they shall be gathered from the four Winds Mar. 13.27 from all quarters of the World Yea his coming shall then be not only on one and the same Universal or general day but on one and the same hour of that day in respect of all People In an hour of that day the Trumpet shall sound Mat. 24.31 1 Thes 4.16 then all in all places shall hear the Voice thereof at that same moment even at the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.52 In vain shall the Plea of any be alledging that it is Tuesday then with some People and it is but Monday with us O let us tarry till Tuseday too or that it is but one of the Clock with us and it is three or more with others and therefore too soon for them No for their account of the day will not serve the turn All shall find that hour to be a general hour of a general or Universal day that is not sooner in one place than in another CHAP. VI. The difference between Horizontal and Meridional days THere is not a little difference between the Meridional and the Horizontal day as may appear by what hath been before said First They differ in length and duration for the Meridional day whereby the Jews counted the days of their Months and we the days of our Weeks and Months is in time four and twenty hours without any sensible difference But the Horizontal day by which the Jews count the days of their weeks from Sun-setting to Sun-setting or from Sun-rising to Sun-rising by which some other have counted the days of their week is sometimes in some places near five and twenty hours and at some other time in the same places it will be but about three and twenty hours in length When I say the Horizontal day is the time between Sun-setting and Sun-setting or between Sun-rising and Sun-rising I mean so in all places in and between the temperate Zones and not in places near either of the Poles where it is continual day-light for many days together From Sun-setting to Sun-setting in those places cannot properly be termed a day having in it many revolutions of the Sun never was it in use with any People to mete out unto them their Week Month Year or Age. Men living in such places measure out their weeks and months by Meridional days as we do Neither is there any mention made of such days any where in Sacred Scripture and it is of such kind of days as are there mentioned which I promised to speak of See chap. 1. Secondly they differ much in respect of their beginning and ending Here in York and other places of England there is sometimes five sometimes eight and never so little as three hours difference between their beginnings and the like between their endings Whence it must follow that every of the week-days with the Jews consisted partly of two days of their month and that every day of the month with them consisted partly of two of their week-days the days of their month being Meridional and their days of the week Horizontal days as I said before The knowledge hereof is very useful for the reconciling divers places and resolving divers doubts in the Sacred Scripture about the Jews customs in observing their feasts as for instance if it be demanded 1. Whether the Israelites ate the Passover in Egypt and came out of Egypt from Rameses on one and the same day Sith it is said that on the fourteenth day at Even they ate the Passover Exod. 12.8 but it was the next day being the morrow after viz. the fifteenth day when they came from Rameses Numb 33.3 Or whether our Saviour Christ ate the Passover with his Disciples and after that suffered Death
after they came out of Egypt must begin their week whereby in count of their week-days 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 the main Objection thereto in Chapters 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 doubtless ever will to the Worlds end in Chap. 15. Christian Reader my hearty desire is that thou and all other the Obedient Servants of Jesus 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 Saturday was the Jews Sabbath and that as God wrought six days and rested the seventh and Consecrated the seventh day unto Holiness and Rest even so all Gods Obedient People should not be slothful but diligent in their callings on the six work-days and rest on the Sunday according to Gods example and keep it Holy If this was thine Opinion thou wert in the right and didst hold nothing in all these but what Godly and Learned men and the Servants of Jesus 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 flood-gate to all licentiousness on the Lords Sabbath they have publickly Taught and Published to the World that the seventh day commanded to bept holy is none other but the day of Gods rest They would bring People in hand that the Jews 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 Jews 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 days of labour but the day going before the six days 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 theti me 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 Abridgment 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 kind of day the Sabbath-day is therein note There be four kinds of days which we shall meet with in the Holy Scripture which are these viz. the Artificial day 1. Vniversal day 2. Horizontal day 3. Meridional day 4. They differ every one from the other The Artificial day differeth from all other 5. The Vniversal day differeth from all other 5. Horizontal and Meridional days differ one from the other 6. Which of these four kinds of days is the Lords Sabbath 7. 2. What day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of order and tale wherein note 1. The Sabbath-day is the seventh day of the week that is the day following the six known days of labour 8. 2. The cause why the Jews had Saturday 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 9. 2. From their example all nations as well as Israel worshipped the Sun 9. 3. Among many means God used to take the Jews off from Worshipping the Sun one was that instead of Sunday they must have Saturday their seventh day Sacred 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 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 Antient Writers called the Jews Sabbath the day of Gods Rest sith they knew that it could not be that very day 12. 5. Weeks proved to be from all Antiquity 13. 6. Week-days had their names from the Planets as they were the Heathen Gods and not from their supposed hourly Government 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 than the Sunday for their seventh Sacred day although it had been much abused before to Idolatry 15. What it is to keep Holy and Sanctifie the Sabbath-day 16. 2. The Lords special provision to bring all People to a heedful keeping the duty commanded set out in sundry particulars 17. Christian Reader THis following Treatise published forty years ago by the Reverend Author Mr. Thomas Chafie then Minister of Nutshelling being now become rare as not easie to be met with as indeed it was before for the peculiarity of the notion pursued in it these Book-sellers have by a new Impression recover'd it out of the obscurity wherein time
had almost buried it And we reckon their performance herein very Commendable and capable of turning to publick good The discourse it self aptly serving a twofold design partly to shew the continuing Obligation upon Christians from the fourth Commandment to keep a weekly seventh day Holy to God partly to shew their no-Obligation to keep the same day which the Jews kept and do keep The former how much it tends to preserve and propagate serious Religion experience hath shewn and hath imprest upon England a laudable Character compared with the greater Latitude in this respect of divers Forreign Countries both in principle and practice even where the Reformed Religion hath obtained And for the latter it is of no little concernment to exempt some pious minds from scruple that seem sollicitous whether they ought not to return to the observation of the Jewish Sabbath For which there can be no pretence till it can be clearly shewn that the particular seventh day which the Jews were enjoyned to observe Exod. 16. was as to it's beginning and ending the very same day on which God himself rested from his Work of the Creation And that the fourth Commandment was intended to confine them and Christians in all places whatsoever to those same limits of time as Hallowed and Sacred which are things simply impossible ever to be shewn or indeed that any day can by just computation for all People and parts of the World be found to come nearer those first limits than the day which Christians do now keep Vnto which purposes we reckon what is very considerable is said in this Book And that the publishing of it anew is in this enquiring Age very seasonable as it may occasion not only a further search into the grounds here laid but also a further improvement of them William Bates John Howe THE Seventh-Day SABBATH EXOD. XX. 8 9 10 11. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six days 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 Commandment 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 Commandment 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 kind 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 four kinds of days 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 terms or appellations I confess 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 kinds 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. VVhich of these kinds 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 kind of day was especially in use with the Jews They divided this day always 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 hours and at VVinter when their day was not ten of our hours yet was it twelve of theirs Of this kind of day mention is made in divers places of Sacred Scripture John 11.9 Psal 104.23 Mat. 20.2 3 6. And the hours thereof are now called Jews hours (a) Horae Judaicae And Antique hours (b) Horae Anquae for that not only the Jews but other Nations also did anciently so divide the day into twelve such hours Thus was their Dial divided into twelve hour lines whereof the fifth Persius (c) Pers Sat. 3. Quinta dum linea tangitur umbra will have to note out the fifth hour with them which is about ten of the Clock with us Martial (d) Mart. li. 4. Epigr. 8. Prima solutantes atque aloera continet hora c. also in twelve verses distinguishes the twelve hours of the day then in use in the like manner CHAP. II. The Universal day The days of the Creation Why Moses set the Evening before the Morning THE Universal 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 kind of Day cannot properly be said to begin either in the East or in the VVest or at Sun-rising or at Sun-setting or at Mid-night or at Noon as other kind of days do For there is neither East nor VVest nor Sun-rising nor Sun-setting or at Midnight nor Noon in respect of the VVorld 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 mid-day to another part but neither of them properly can be so said to be the whole World Such kind of days were those which Moses spake of in the first of Genesis Gen. 1.5 8 13 19 23 31. And of which mention is made in this text and elsewhere Exod. 20.11 and 31.17 Acts 2.20 Rev. 6.17 2 Pet. 2.9 and 3.7 10. Joel 2.31 In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth c. and rested the seventh day That these days which some do term and fitly enough may be called The days of the Creation were such Universal days 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 days was such an Universal day when it began any where it began every where no where then was it no day nor any other than
doth in his book called the Seven Questions of the Sabbath Dedicated to the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury VVilliam Laud tell us First That it is necessary not only for the Learned but also for the weak and inferiour sort of People to know to a minute when the Lords-day or Sabbath doth begin and when it doth end and that for two special reasons The one is for the Peace and quiet of their Consciences which else would be wounded and disquieted The other is for that unless the very day and the whole day be kept to a minute all the duties done on that day are lost His words words are these It is necessary to inquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration and continuance of time it must be (b) Irens 7. Quest pag. 2. Amongst those things which disquiet and perplex the Consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and intire obedience without diminution or defalcation unless every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and pieces of the day is not regarded (a) Pag. 126. It is also that which concerns the most sort of our inferiour People to be satisfied in lest the Commandment requiring one thing their imployments another they many times wound their Consciences and rob themselves of that Peace which otherwise they might enjoy (b) Pag. 127. 2ly That God might have his due tribute and the weak if they will may keep their Consciences quiet in observing the true and full time of the Sabbath he setteth down the precise day of the Sabbath as he conceiveth and the exact time to a minute when the Sabbath-day is to begin As for the day he tells us that the Sabbath-day must be precisely the day of Gods Rest Thus Assoon as God had ended his VVork he ordained and appointed that the seventh day the day of his own Rest else he will not conceive that it can be the seventh day should be that on which the Church should rest (c) Page 21. Unless we rest that very seventh day in which God Rested we no more resemble his Rest than a man that hath a Ladder resembles Jacob that had a Vision of a Ladder (d) Page 90. As for the exact time when the Sabbath is to begin and end he tells us that the very minute in which the Sun is in the Horizon at his rising is the true beginning of the day and he proveth that it must so be for that when the fourth day at the Creation began the Sun was then in the Horizon at his rising so that any of the inferior sort of People he before spake of may by looking in his Almanack tell to a minute if Mr. Ironsides rule fail him not at any time throughout all the year and in any place throughout the World when the fourth day of the Creation and the very day of Gods Rest and so consequently when the Sabbath beginneth These are his words If the natural day be measured by the Revolution of the Sun as all confess sure it is that untill the Sun begin his course the day cannot begin At what time now did the Sun set forth upon the fourth day at the Creation Common reason will say when he first appeared in the Horizon The rising therefore of the Sun in the Horizon must needs be the first Period of the Natural day (e) Irons 7. Quest page 12. 3. 3ly He tells us that the Jews Sabbath-day was the day of Gods Rest and the same with that which God blessed and sanctified making no difference between all these three His words are these That particular Sabbath-day given unto the Jews even the day of Gods Rest is not a Sabbath but the Sabbath even that which God sanctifyed The Sabbath must be the same with the seventh or else there is no tolerable sense or congruity in that Law (f) Page 70. Whereas he saith the same with the seventh he meaneth by the seventh the seventh day from the Creation even the very day of Gods Rest which he proved to begin at the rising of the Sun like as the fourth day did Now whereas some may and that not without just cause doubt how the day of Gods Rest which began at Sunrising as he saith and the Jews Sabbath which ever began at the setting of the Sun wheresoever they dwelt could be one and the same day Sith that they as well in respect of their beginnings as also in respect of their endings are Heavenly wide the one from the other even as far as the Sun-rising is distant from Sun-setting between both which there must be half a days difference And so the day of Gods Rest must begin either at Sun-rising before the Jews Sabbath day began or at the Sun-rising after If at the Sun-rising before that is on the Friday morning then the Turks Sabbath so Doctor Heylin (a) Heyl. part 1. page 48. calleth it may more truly be called the day of Gods Rest than that of the Jews But if at the Sun-rising after then our Christian Sabbath-day ever began on the day of Gods Rest the which the Jews Sabbath never did For the wiping off this and all such doubts Mr. Ironside tells us both at what time and also by what means the day of Gods Rest and the Jews Sabbath was made to be one and the same day which were always two before His words are VVhen God Commanded the Jews their Sabbaths from evening ot evening the order of the Natural day was inverted by him not so much looking to the number of four and twenty hours as to the time of Israels deliverance out of Egypt which began when the Passover was eaten at Even (b) Iron p. 138. c. His meaning in these his Words may be conceived to be this When God Commanded the Jews after their coming out of Egypt to keep their Sabbath on the Saturday and to begin the same at the Sun-setting of the day before-going that is on Friday at the setting of the Sun God miraculously at an instant turned the East into the West and so the place of Sun-rising came unto the place of Sun-setting so close as they kissed each other as he saith the end of one contiguum is the beginning of the other (c) Iron p. 138. If such should not be his meaning it is not to be conceived how he should make Sun-rising and Sun-setting or the day of Gods Rest which he saith began at Sun-rising and the Jews Sabbath which began at Sun-setting to be one and the same Fourthly and lastly He tells us that the observation of the Sabbath is abrogated this error is strong with him because the Jews Sabbath-day is abrogated he thinking no difference to be made between the Jews Sabbath-day and
and Captain Cavendise and their companies who Travelled round the Earth with them either out of tenderness of Conscience or else out of obstinacy continued to keep that Sunday Sacred which fell to them by course and true tale of the days succeeding each other they must needs have had their Sunday on our Munday and our Sunday would be their Saturday When it was holy day with them it would be working day with us and holy day with us when they would work So Tacitus said of the Jews Profana illic quae apud nos sacra rursum concessa quae nobis illicita (a) Corn. Tacit. Diurnal li. 21. Now how unquiet may any one imagine should those Travellers have lived among us as long as our Sunday was a week-day with them Would not every Ballad-maker have had them in their Rimes Would they not have been a by-word with all and every Apparator would be ready with a Citation for them And can we conceive that Christians at first should find more favour from the Heathen for their wilfulness which was less excuseable 2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of People and the Gentiles most probably would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly except on their Sunday 3. Had they changed their seventh day from their Sunday to another day there must have followed an unsufferable confusion in the count of the week-days with whom they lived as for example had Sir Francis Drake and his company observed at his return the weeks which by his exact account fell to them by course and not have changed them and made them the same with our weeks there would have followed a miserable confusion even in their own families The third day of the week with some must have been the fourth with others of the same family And never a day would have been the same with them all The like would it have been with the Christians and Gentiles with whom they lived if they had changed their seventh standing day for Gods Worship which was Sunday for another 4. Because had they assayed such a change it would have been a Testimony against them of slighting the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The Sun of Righteousness Mal. 4.2 who on the Sunday most Triumphantly Rose from the Dead for the Justification of all his People 5. It would have been but labour in vain for them to have assayed the same they could never have brought it to pass For 1. They had no authoritative specification of any set day either by Jesus Christ or by his Apostles on which they ought to keep the Lords day Had there so been St. Paul would never have prest the indifferency of days as he did Rom 14.1 2 Col. 2.16 nor would he himself have with the believing Jews kept the Saturday Acts 13.14 42.17 2 18.4 and with the Christians by Christians I mean the Gentiles converted to Christ have kept the Sunday Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 neither would the believing Jews have remained so obstinate but would have kept that day for their Sabbath which was so pointed out unto them if there had been such Whereas they for the generality of them would never be withdrawn to keep any other than their Saturday for their Sabbath hundreds of years after the Apostles days 2. They had no coercive Power to draw refusers to the observation of any other day for the Lords day had they been so disposed to have set any other 3. Christians were not all of one City or of one Countrey or of one Nation Tongue or Government It would have been even a miracle to have gotten all Christians in all parts of the World to have observed one and the same day for the Lords day with them all which should be chosen not by a general meeting or by a general consent but by some of them only had they chosen any other than the day of the Sun which they were generally before their Conversion accustomed to keep The People of Israel were but one Nation all of one Tongue and severed from all other People and also had Moses their Captain-General yet Moses should never have withdrawn them from their old accustomed day to the observation of the Saturday-Sabbath different from the custom of all other Nations had not the Lord God miraculously in the fall of Quails and Manna Exod. 16.12 16 22 23 26. shewed that it was his good pleasure so to have it when he assigned unto them their six days for their labour and so pointing out to them the Saturday being the seventh from their first gathering Quails and Manna to be the day of Holy Rest unto the Lord. Sylvester the first Pope of that name when out of his hatred to the memory of the Heathen Gods he would have changed but the names of the week-days decreed them to be called by the names of Feriae as hath been before shewed though he was of great Authority and Command and highly beloved of the People yet he could not prevail herein but with very few except Schollars the vulgar People in their common talk called their week days as they did before by the names of the Planets and so have they continued to call them even to this day The Jews are now a weak People yet there is not a Prince or Power on earth able to withdraw them from their Superstitious Custom of keeping the Saturday Sacred yea the believing Jews as was shewed in the Apostles time and in many years after could not be won by any means that the Christians might use to give over their Saturday-Sabbath and for Unities sake to keep the Lords day on the Sunday except a very few of them who better knew and acknowledged their liberty by Christ How impossible may we then think it to be for any to bring to pass that all Christians in all quarters of the World should leave off their observing the Sunday Sacred and have another day instead thereof In vain therefore would it have been for poor Christians at first to have assayed the same These reasons if there were no more may suffice to shew that although all days be in themselves indifferent yet Christians should not have well done had they endeavoured to have changed their seventh Sacred day from Sunday to any other week-day no not to Thursday though it was the day of Christ his glorious Ascension nor to Friday though it was the day in which Christ paid our Ransom but better to retain the same day as they did and which the Church of Christ hath since that kept even to this present time and by Gods Grace will so do unto the end CHAP. XVI The Sabbath-day is to be sanctified Works of Piety Government and of Nature only are to be done on the Sabbath-day c. the necessary helps thereunto THere hath been before shewed that the Sabbath day in this Law commanded to be kept holy