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A33970 A modest plea for the Lords Day or rather the summe of the plea made by divines for the Lords Day as the Christian Sabbath, against those who contend for the old Sabbath of the seventh day, in order from the creation / by J.C., D.D. Collinges, John, 1623-1690. 1669 (1669) Wing C5327; ESTC R43109 56,915 142

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brightness of his Fathers Glory the express image of his person as the Apostle speaketh And that in pursuance of an Eternal Covenant he was in the fulness of time ●●nt into the world not only to work out mans redemption by his Active and passive obedience to the Law But also as the first Minister of the Gospel as the head and Law-giver of the Gospel Church to reveal his Fathers will for the Worship of God in it to this purpose he tells us Matth. 11.27 That all things were delivered him by the Father Accordingly Matth. 26. he instituteth the Lords Supper and in Matth. 28.18 he instituteth the Ministry preaching the Gospel and Baptisme and Matth. 28.20 he authorizeth his Apostles to teach whatsoever he had commanded them And lest we should think that although the alteration of the Acts of Worship were within Christs commission yet the alteration of the solemn time of Worship was not he hath inspired three of the four Evangelists to tell us what he asserted that he was Lord of the Sabbath Matth. 12.8 Mar. 2.28 Luk. 6.5 Texts which I wonder Mr. Titham should fancy to have any thing in them for the old Sabbath For he who reads any of the Evangelists must yield the sense to be this at first sight That he had authority to expound the Law of the Sabbath contrary to the rigid sense of the Doctors of those times so as it should allow a liberty for acts of necessity piety and mercy The words do plainly assert our Saviour an Authority to alter the Sabbath for he is Lord of it Our Brethren by their daily practice yield our Saviour a liberty to alter the Acts of Worship hence they do not offer Sacrifices as the Jews did though by the way observe our Saviour never said to us You shall no longer Sacrifice they allow of Baptisme instead of Circumcision though it be worthy of our Brethrens observation that Mr. Titham and Mr. Pooly fell to Circumcision and consequently to a denyall of Christ and under the terror of that Text If you be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Our Brethren also allow the Ordinances of the Lords Supper and Preaching and certainly it is very unreasonable for our Brethren to allow their Lord and Saviour the authority to alter the Acts of Worship and to deny him a power as to the time of Worship Certainly the time is not so considerable as to the glory of God as the Acts of Worship are besides that as I said before to deny our Saviour this Authority is to deny him to be God Equall with his Father and to deny what three of the Evangelists expresly assert with an even and also The Son of Man is Lord even or also of the Sabbath day CHAP. V. That the Lord Jesus Christ in pursuance of his Commission for establishing the Gospel Church did alter the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the Week How this appears THis being obtained we have nothing to doe but to prove That our Lord did alter the Sabbath day In order to which proof Sheppard Thes Sab. th 24. what that holy and learned man Mr. Sheppard hath said is to be observed We are not to expect such evidence from Scripture concerning this change as fond and humorous wits sometimes plead for in this controversie Namely that Christ should come with Drum and Trumpet as it were upon Mount Zion and proclaim by word or writing in express words The Jewish Sabbath is abrogated and the first day of the week instituted in its room to be observed of all Christians to the end of the world For it is not the Lords manner to speak so in many things concerning his Kingdom but as it were occasionally or in way of history or Epistle to some particular Church or people c. The Scripture saith that Christ after his resurrection continued upon the Earth forty dayes speaking of things concerning the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 and St. John chap. 21. tells us that all things which he said were not written for the World would not have held the books Indeed it is not expressely said that in that time he instructed them as to the change of the Sabbath as it is not said he any time spake to them about the ceasing of Circumcision Sacrifices the Paschall Lamb c. nor is it said what in particular he taught them within those forty dayes But certainly a moderate degree of charity will inforce us to believe that what we shall find in Holy Writ the Apostles and primitive Churches exemplarily practising in this thing they learned either by word of mouth or by infallible inspiration from their Lord and Master which is all one to us and we must be very uncharitable to think that those first and greatest Ministers of the Gospel the greatest Light ever set upon the Lords Hill should by word of mouth or practice teach the Primitive Christians so weighty a thing as the change of the Sabbath without any direction or authority from the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostles in what they did were followers of Christ Jesus and upon this account 1. Cor. 11.1 the Apostle calls to the Corinthians to be followers of him and Phil. 4.9 Those things which you have learned and heard and seen in me do ye It is true the Examples of the Apostles are not in all things our rules nor by us to be imitated But in those things which they did not upon some special reason and wherein we can imitate them unquestionably they are to be imitated and that in force of many Scriptures speaking to that purpose And in such things their example unquestionably amounts to a divine Institution What have we more than the example of the Apostolical Churches practice for our use of Water in Baptisme administring the Lords Supper to Women c. So that the business in question will much lye upon these two things Whether we can shew any Institution of Christ or practice of the Apostolical Churches in this case Here we will also freely grant our Brethren That the exercise of holy dutyes on a day will not argue such a day was observed as a Sabbath But if we will prove that the first day of the week was by the Apostolical Church observed as the Christian Sabbath we must prove That Day set apart for Sabbath Services more than any other day in the Week and honoured above any other day for that end To this purpose there have been three more eminent Texts in the New Testament insisted on almost by all Divines who have handled this controversie I shall not pretend to add any thing much considerable to what hath been largely and learnedly said by Dr. Young Mr. Caudry Mr. Sheppard Mr. Warren c. but I shall gather what they have said into fewer words and give it my Brethren in their own tongue and it may be more in their own dialect in a plain and familiar style for I write not
it is said v. 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread So as plainly their designed meeting to break bread was upon the first day ot the week I clearly think the second breaking of bread v. 11. was not any religious duty but a bodily refreshment Paul took before his journey the phrase is so used besides the manner of the phrase methinks in this place plainly enough signifieth it When he had broken bread and eaten and talkt with them When all the Religious duties of the day were over and Paul had refreshed himself with some Victuals and discoursed with his friends he took his journey The sense of the Text is plainly this Paul religiously with them kept the first day of the Week preaching administring the Lords Supper and he being to leave them preached something longer than usually Eutichus falls asleep falls from the window where he was and was taken up dead Paul the duties being done recovers him to life again refresheth himself with Victuals and discourseth with them till break of the day and then departeth Lastly Mr. Titham is mistaken to say St. Pauls once preaching at Troas is so stood upon as canonizing a Sabbath That which is insisted upon is this That Paul staying at Troas seven dayes no mention is made of the Christians there meeting together any other day but on the first day of the week upon which it is evident that they met and met on purpose for the most solemn Gospel-services and brake not up from them till midnight yea and the Holy Ghost mentions their meeting that day as an usual customary thing Mr. Brabourn puts us to too hard a task to prove that they abstained from their servile labour We hope our Brethren will not think that they were at their servile labour whiles Paul was preaching or while they were me● together to partake of the Lords Supper And it is not very charitable for us to think if they had not kept this day as the Christian Sabbath that so near a solemn service which requireth preparation they should be distracting themselves with secular labour Besides that this will fall as heavy upon our brethren What one Text have our Brethren to prove that Paul or any Christians abstained from all servile labour on the seventh day which was the Jewish Sabbath or that they kept it It is indeed said Acts 13.14 15. That Paul coming to Antioch went into the Synagogue and sate down and after the reading of the Law and the Prophets upon the desire of the Rulers of the Synagogue Paul preacht a notable Gospel-sermon to them to convince them of their errors V. 42. The Gentiles desired that those words might be preached to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it the next Sabbath and I must ingenuously confess that if that translation were necessary it would have more colour for an argument on our Brethrens side than any place I know in Scripture will afford them that the Christians when the Jews were gone should pitch upon the next Sabbath above other dayes to hear Paul again But as there is no necessity to translate it so so neither is that translation of the particle I think to be justified by any like usage of it We translate it Between generally See Matth. 18.15 Between thee and him alone Matth. 23 35. Luk. 11.51 Between the Temple and the Altar Luk. 16.26 There is a gulf between me and thee Joh. 4.26 In the mean while that is in the time between Acts 12.6 Peter was sleeping between two Souldiers Acts 15.9 betwixt us and them Rom. 2.15 Their thoughts in the mean while or between themselves as it is in the Margent So as to this very Text. The Margent tells you it may be read In the week between or in the Sabbath between If our Brethren will allow the latter which is justifiable there was a Sabbath between that and the next Jewish Sabbath which must be the Christian Sabbath but if they take it in the former sense the Gentiles did not desire Paul to preach the next sevent● day those words but in the week between so the words are And the Margent of ou● Bibles tell us the Translators saw thus it might be read nor could any thing lead them to this translation but v. 44. where it is said that the next Sabbath day came almost the whole City together to hear the word of the Lord which they might do yet that not the day which the Gentiles before mentioned desired to hear the same things again Acts 16. Paul comes to Derbe and Lystra quarters very full of Jewes for the Text saith for that very reason Paul circumcised Timothy though his Father was a Greek v. 3. Thence they go to Philippi there v. 13. It is said that on the Sabbath day they went out of the City by the River side where Prayer was wont to be made It is not indeed said it was by the Jews but Lydia is called one that worshipped God who but Jewes in Macedonia should worship God at that time I cannot tell for we never read before that the Gospel was preached in those parts Whereas Mr. Brabourn objects so it is said Cornelius Acts 10 2. was one who feared God with all his house it is true but he lived in Caesarea a place not so far from Hierusalem where the Apostles had so abundantly preacht the Gospel as Philippi in Macedonia was and therefore far more likely to be a Gentile Proselyte than Lydia was but at once to answer this objection of the Apostles going into the Jewish Synagogues and preaching on their Sabbath day either there or elsewhere where they were met 1. It is most evident that the Lord indulged the Christians a time to be satisfied that those things in this Rule of Worship given to the Jews which were ceremonial and temporary had an end during which time it was lawfull for them to observe them Though they all died with Christ yet the Lord allowed them having his own ancient Institution a time for honourable Burial Hence Acts 16. Paul circumcised Timothy as well as kept the Sabbath day and in the first Councel the Apostles injoyn'd the Gentiles to abstain from blood and things strangled and Rom. 14.6 gives a liberty to the Christian to observe the Jewish dayes This liberty did not last long for the Apostle tells the Galatians Acts 15.2 That if they were circumcised Christ should profit them nothing And in this very point of dayes Gal. 4.13 he tells them that he was afraid of them because they observed dayes and months and years It is manifest this Epistle to the Galathians was one of his last it was written from Rome where as he tells us he was then in bonds and as judicious Interpreters think not above two year before his death which was about 65 years after our Saviour That to the Romans was wrote long before so was his circumcising Timothy Acts 16.
urge them or at least only concerned the Jews in that time not afterward The fire forbidden to be kindled must necessarily be understood 1. Either in reference to the making the Tabernacle of which he there speaks or 2. more largely of any trade-fire kindled for men to work with to get a livelihood not such as is kindled for dressing of meat refreshing us in cold weather or when we are sick 1. It is not probable there was no fire in the Jews houses that made the feast at which our Saviour was Luk. 14. besides we find works paralell to this justified in Scripture Though going out of their doors on the Sabbath must be understood to gather manna Exod. 16.29 or upon other ends than in order to actions of piety ne●ssity or preservation and mercy for that ●●stance Numh. 15.32 33. The Scripture so shortly relates that story of the mans being put to death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day as to the cause of it that it is hard to give a satisfactory answer Stoning to death was a punishment used in the highest cases as that of blasphemy c. with which our reason would not judge such a violation of the Sabbath as gathering sticks was to be put in the ballance but in the Judgement there could be no error for it was given by the Judge of the whole Earth who cannot err in appointing punishments to sins That he gathered sticks on the Sabbath and this was the matter of his guilt is plain but whether it was after some special command of Moses to the contrary which the scripture saith not or to assert a profane liberty and his not regarding the commandment of God when he had no need to it Or whether it was in order to kindle some fire for labour contrary to the precept Exod. 35.3 Or what other circumstance fell in to aggravate the action to such a degree of guilt we cannot tell Suppose it was to kindle a necessary fire yet we are sure it might have been done before the Sabbath so as it was an unnecessary labour as to any necessity but what a former neglect had created something was doubtless in it more than we have in the story It is certain Moses brings this example next after the Law against presumptuous sinners Num. 15.30 31 32. Nor do we read afterwards of any such examples of sev●rity But enough is said to shew how the Sabbath should be kept as a rest from labour 2. But this is not all it is called an holy rest the rest of the holy Sabbath and the commandment expresly saith Remember to keep it holy Now an holy rest certainly stands distinguished from a rest meerly natural when our bodies cease from action and worldly labour 2. A rest that is profane By which I understand not only a sinful rest unlawful on any day but a rest from recreations and pastimes lawful enough on other dayes We read not in the old Law of any toleration for sports on the Sabbath we read on the contrary that it was to be an holy rest kept holy c. To which sports cannot contribute It seems unreasonable to think that labour should be forbidden in order to our more serious and solemn service of God and yet sports should be allowed which every way as much distract and unfit the Soul for acts of solemn worship But the prophets are best interpreters of the Law Now the prophet Isaiah Isa 58.13 expounding this Law saith If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy-day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thy own pleasure nor speaking thy own words Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it There is a precept v. 13. and a promise annexed to the due observance of that precept v. 14. The precept is directive for the sanctification of the Sabbath which is called the Sabbath the Lords holy day The end of the Sabbath for which God instituted it and which every one ought in the observation of it to aim at and shalt honour him the honouring and glorifying of God that is the end Then you have the manner directed how you should honour God in it 1. By a reverent esteem of it calling it Honourable 2. By a free and chearful entertaining it calling it a delight 3. By an abstaining from our own pleasure our own words our own wayes and turning our foot from it Our own pleasure word wayes certainly signify such pleasure such words such wayes as we meerly serve and gratifie our selves by and bring no immediate honour and glory to God Now whether this be not as exclusive of all recreations sports pastimes c. as of all laborious actions other than those before excepted by warrant from the word of God I leave to every conscientious and sober Christian to consider with himself and judge I shall only further add that what Divines truly say of all other moral precepts must be true of this That where an action is in any precept forbidden all words and thoughts relating to it are also forbidden and this is also hinted by the prophet in special in those words not speaking thy own words I am not ignorant that many of our brethren in the other reformed Churches are not of our minds in this point of the Sabbath But 1. It is therefore to be observed that they do not think the Sabbath moral we do and ●rge it as commanded us in the fourth Commandment 2. And secondly upon inquiry we may possibly find that both amongst their Ministers and People those who are most strict in their lives lament the looseness of others of their Brethren in this thing and order their personal demeanours and their Families after another rate However we are to live by rule and not by example I have thus as shortly as I could opened your duty and shewed you how the Sabbath is to be kept as a rest as an holy rest unto the Lord. Let me now plead with my brethren that knowing our Masters will we may do it I will urge a few arguments in the case 1. It is a piece of Religion by which the people of God have formerly more honoured God in these Nations than in most if not than in any other places Professors strict observation of the Sabbath in England hath even from the beginning of the Reformation been their Crown and their Glory Oh let not this Crown in our dayes fall from our heads God hath alwayes had in this Nation a strict Sabbath-observing people in the worst of times There have been of late greater light greater means more preaching more Profession than in former times oh let there not be a less strict Sabbath-keeping
used to express the resting place of Thorns laid up to be burned 2 Sam. 23.7 Now because those dayes which it pleased God to set apart for himself were dayes in which he did require a cessation from labour to that end that they might better attend Religious dutyes these dayes were called Sabbaths and that as well before the giving of the Law upon Sinai Exod. 16.25 26 29. as after in innumerable Texts So as the word is indifferently used to signifie the weekly Sabbath as those other holy dayes which God appointed the Jews twice in Holy Writt we find the word with a little alteration doubled Exod. 16.23.35.2 we translate it a Sabbath of Rest In the Hebrew it is but the doubling of the same word or words or of a word from the same root and of the same significancy A rest of rest signifying it was not to be a bare cessation from labour but an holy religious rest So as the fourth Commandement is no more than Keep holy a day of Rest And because God had instituted but one such day in the revolution of a Week therefore by an usual figure the word doth sometimes signifie a week as Lev. 23.15.25.8 and so in the New Testament But that usage of the word in this case w● have nothing as yet to do with 2. A second thing which our Brethre● should know and observe is That thos● little particles a and the are English particles not found in the Hebrew but put 〈◊〉 by translation to make up the sense according to our way of speaking the Hebre● hath no more than Remember to keep holy d● of Rest or day of Sabbath and it is indifferent whether according to our Englis● way of speaking we put in a or the no● can any argument on either side be fetche● from those supplyes to the Text. These things being premised we say That there are three things or four whic● the Fourth Commandement requireth o● us 1. That we should keep some solemn time 〈◊〉 a time of holy Rest unto the Lord. 2. That it should be one day of seven a seventh part of our time 3. That it should be an intire day 4. That it should be such an intire day of seven as God hath appointed But that this day should be the sevent● day in order from the Creation we say falleth not at least primarily under the Fourth Commandment I say primarily not secondarily it doth as that was the day which God had appointed to the Jews Now we say 1. That this is not a singularity but divers divine Precepts both of those which were temporary to the Jews and of those which are of perpetual concernment have just such an interpretation allowed even by our Brethren and by all judicious Christians God commanded Deut. 12.5.11 You shall offer all your sacrifices only in the place which the Lord your God shall choose I would ask our brethren whether this Precept did not oblige them to offer their Sacrifices in the Tabernacle while that lasted and in the Temple afterwards when God had chosen that and in Ezra's Temple when that was builded You shall remember saith God to keep holy a Sabbath day one day in seven for an holy rest such a one as God shall choose for a Sabbath why must this be the seventh from the Creation only and not that only till God should choose another which done the Commandment as much obligeth to that We say in the second Commandment God requires of us observance of the Acts of Instituted Worship which with the Jews quite differed from ours Yet the command obliged both them to sacrifice an● us to preach hear receive the Lords Supper● How so The Commandment only require● of us in the generall to worship God according to his will The fifth Commandment requires us to Honour the King whe● it was given the Jews were bound to honour Moses their chief Magistrate at tha● time and many years after they were bound to honour Ahaz Hezekiah and all in force● of the same Precept God requires by th● Fourth Commandment that his People in all Ages should keep holy to him a Sabbath day He expounds himself thus One day in seven in which we shall not labour h● any bodily labour and such a day as 〈◊〉 should appoint You will say then how did the Jews know or how shall we know what to keep We answer the Jew● knew by a Law given them of the same Age with that for Sacrifices many hundreds of years before the Law given at Sinai and by a temporary Law often repeated and quite of another kind from the Fourth Commandment which day must hold still if we can neither find it expired nor repealed nor another substituted in the room of it bu● if we can find any such sacred Record The Fourth Commandment is not destroyed but established That required a Sabbath a day one of seven such day as God had or should appoint We plead only for a new appointment of the particular day to the New Earth the New World which God made by the sending of his Son into the world in the mean while the Fourth Commandement doth neither require this nor that day otherwise than as that day was at that time by another Law by God set apart Let us hear what our Brethren object 1. Some of them have observed an emphatical note in the Hebrew as much as that Sabbath Remember to keep holy the day of that Sabbath Answ We yield it that the affix Π is indeed sometimes emphatical but hundreds of places are to be shewed where it is not so as no argument of force can be drawn from it 2. But we may grant it so it is not that day but the day of that Sabbath if the note of Emphasis had been to the word signifying day it had been far more to our Brethrens purpose But what is it to our Brethrens purpose that it is the day of that rest or that Sabbath We will grant them that it is no ordinary rest but a special emphatical rest a spiritual holy religious rest which God requireth not a meer cessation from labour but a rest of rests as God sometimes calls it an holy rest in which we mus● not think our own thoughts 2. But say our Brethren you grant th● God requires by the Fourth Commandement 〈◊〉 seventh day how can it be a seventh if it 〈◊〉 a first day can the first be the seventh Answ All this runs upon the forme● mistake that the fourth Commandeme●● requireth the seventh in order from the Creation which we have denyed it require no more than such seventh Day as God ha● or should appoint Suppose seven pieces o● Silver on a Table before us either the one or other of the outermost pieces may be the seventh accordingly as we begin to count We must suppose the seven dayes of the Week so to lye before the great Lord o● our time surely that is the seventh whic● God will appoint and make
to Scholars and so am under no temptation to shew reading or Rhetorick nor am I ingaged with any particular Adversary and so not concerned to digress to answer all his impertinencies The first Text I find insisted on is Acts 20.7 where we read that the Apostle having sailed from Philippi to Troas abode there seven dayes Vpon the first day of the week saith the Text when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech untill Midnight And there was many lights in the upper Chamber where they were gathered together 1. It is first very observable That the Holy Ghost tells us that Paul abode at Troas seven dayes one of which must needs be the Jewish Sabbath It is not unlikely that the Apostle prayed and preached amongst them more than once but here 's no notice taken of any meetings of the Christians any day or of any Religious duties performed by St. Paul any day but upon the seventh day after he came there which the Apostle tells us was the first day of the week so that there is an especial notice taken of this day by the Holy Ghost of the day before none at all in this place amongst a company of Christians Paul was there seven dayes it is not said that he rested or went into the Jewish Synagogue on th● Sabbath probably there was none there but the sixth day of Pauls abode there i● reckoned as an ordinary day at Troas yet that must be the Jewish Sabbath no mention of any preparation to it any solemn dutyes in it it is counted amongst the other week-dayes 2. Secondly If here had been no more notice taken of the Lords day the first day of the Week than of the day before we could have had no argument from hence but it is expressely said Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread c. where many things are to be noted 1. The Name The first day of the week not one day in the week as some would have it It is the same phrase Job 20.1 Matth. 28.1 Mar. 16.2 Luk. 24. 1. Certainly the Evangelists design was not to tell us that our Lord rose one day of the week but the day next to the Jewish Sabbath which was the last day of the week If as some have contended the word should be translated One day of the week it would agree with no other use of the phrase in Holy Writ 2. It would not tell us when they met which plainly is the Holy Ghosts design Were it reasonable to translate Mar. 16.1 2. And when the Sabbath was past very early in the morning one day of the week they came c. is it not plainly the Evangelists design to tell us what time they came and therefore he saith 1. When the Sabbath was past 2. Early in the morning 3. The first day of the week It is a manner of speaking according to the Hebrews who ordinarily for want of such a plenty of words as other Languages have express the cardinall number by the Ordinall numerall So Gen. 1.5 The evening and the morning were One day so it is in the Hebrew that is the first day 2. It is not said Paul called them together or that the Church called a meeting that day but when the Disciples met together or they being gathered together for in the Greek it is the Genitive case put absolute the Text mentions it as a time when of course and according to their custom they were met together 3. It is not said when some of the Disciples were met together but the Disciples being gathered together that is the Church being met as publickly as those times would bear they came together v. 7. They were gathered together v. 8. there were many lights in the room where they were gathered v. 8. Here are words enough to conclude a Church-meeting a numerous meeting such a one as required many lights and put Eutichus to take his seat in a dangerous window 4. The Text saith they were met together to break bread A phrase indeed which doth not alwayes signifie receiving the Lords Supper but very ordinarily It is further said that Paul preached and continued his speech till midnight The end of their meeting was solemn religious dutyes in a Church-assembly and they accordingly were performed till Midnight 5. It is not said they were gathered together in the evening but upon the first day of the week though the duties were held on till midnight therefore it is but a fancy of them who think it was evening before they met If Paul did preach amongst them upon other dayes and the Lords Supper were administred any of the other dayes Yet the Holy Ghost's taking no notice of those performances but only of what was done in this day is no mean argument that this was the day which he would have us take notice of as the solemn time for Christians Gospel-worship in imitation of the Apostolical president I am not ignorant what pains some have taken to avoid the dint of this Text. Mr. Brabourn and Mr. Titham both tell us the Meeting was but occasional and extraordinary for which there had been some colour if the Text had said That Paul called them together or that they were called together but it saith they being met together speaking of it plainly as an ordinary customary day when they were wont to meet But saith Mr. Titham As soon as they were met lights were seen in the upper Chamber so that he sayes t is not probable they met till towards evening But the Scripture saith no such thing it saith they were met on the first day of the week and Paul continued his speech till midnight when he began it it saith not but the term continued implieth he began long before Mr. Brabourn thinks it probable they did not begin to meet till toward evening because that was the time for the Lords Supper according to our Saviours example Mar. 14 17. and the example of the Primitive Church 1 Cor. 11.21 That our Saviour first celebrated the Lords Supper in the Evening was plainly upon a special reason that being the instituted time for the Passeover in the close of which he designed the institution of the Supper but that either we are still obliged to that hour or that the Apostles kept them to that hour is very hard to prove The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used 1 Cor. 11.21 will not do it It is translated Feast Mat. 23.6 Mar. 12.39 Luk. 20.46 and indifferently signifies Breakfast Dinner or Supper as might be shewed from many Authors Mr. Titham sayes the Lords Supper was not administred till the next day for Paul continued his speech till midnight and after this he restored Eutychus and v. 11. when he was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talkt a long while even till break of day he departed But