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-Seventh-Day SABBATH EXOD. XX. 8 9 10 11. Remember the sabbath-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
A Brief TRACT ON THE FOURTH Commandment Wherein is Discover'd The CAUSE of all our CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE Sabbath-DAY And the means of reconciling them More particularly is shewed 1. That the seventh day from the Creation which was the day of Gods Rest was not the seventh day which God in this Law commanded his People to keep Holy neither was it such a kind of day as was the Jews Sabbath-day 2. That the seventh day in this Law commanded to be kept holy is the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six days of labour with all People 3. That Sunday is with Christians as truly the Sabbath-day as was Saturday with the Jews Recommended by the Reverend Dr. Bates and Mr. John How LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and for Jon. Robinson at the Golden-Lyoâ— in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1692. TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Believe thou art not ignorant of the many dissensions contentions that have been among the People of God about the Sabbath-day Some stood for the old Sabbath so called by some meaning the Jews Sabbath-day Some for a new Sabbath so called by some meaning the day of Christs Resurrection And some for no Sabbath but what Magistrates do appoint No small Controversies have been between all these about the Sabbath-day as I believe thou knowest But the ground and cause of all such their Controversies and how for Peace and Agreement sake it may be removed and taken away I suppose thou dost not know both which I will discover unto thee The ground of such their differences is a misunderstanding of these words of the Commandment Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work By the six days must be meant either the six days of Gods work or the six days of work with men either the six first days at the Creation in which God wrought and made all things or else the six work-days of the week in use with men where they live So also the seventh day must relate to the six days of Gods work or else to the six days of mens labour it must be the seventh day from the beginning of the Creation or the seventh day from mens beginning their six week-days of labour It must either be the day of Gods Rest which immediately followed the six days of his work or the day of rest with men which immediately follows their six days of work where they live They between whom the said dissensions have been and are have and do hold generally that the seventh day must and doth relate to the six days of Gods labour and not of mans It must be they all think the very day of Gods Rest the seventh day from the Creation Thus they all thought that the Jews Sabbath-day which was from Fridays Sun-setting to Saturdays Sun-setting was the precise day of Gods Rest and every of their other six days of the week to be the very same with the six days of the Creation whether they lived in Judea in Babylon in Spain in Ophyr or in any other place it maketh no matter think they Though Sunday with Christians be the day immediately following their six days of labour and on which they having laboured six days do then rest from their labour according unto Gods example Yet at no hand will they yield Sunday to be the seventh day and Sabbath of the Lord Sunday they hold to be the first day of the week and the very same with the first day of the Creation with Christians where-ever they live From this common errour sprouted out various opinions which set them all at Variance 1. The Jews and such as adhere to their superstition do will still plead for the Saturday-Sabbath the Saturday they believe to be the day of Gods Rest the day he Blessed and Sanctified they cannot conceit well of a new Sabbath they know not whence it is Though an Angel should come from Heaven and tell them that Christ the Son of God came into the World and hath taken away their Sabbath and hath established another contrary to what God the Father Instituted So that whereas before they had the seventh day for a day of rest Christ Instituted that seventh day to be a work day That whereas God the Father Blessed and Sanctified the seventh day Christ took off the â—lessing from it and gave it to the first day That whereas God the Father appointed his People to work before they did rest Christ appointed them to rest before they did work That whereas before they were to work and do all that they had to do in six days and rest on the seventh day according to Gods example Now they must rest on the first day and work the six days after which is contrary to Gods example I say if an Angel from Heaven should come and teach them thus they would not believe him 2. Some there be and they not a few Godly Precious and tender-hearted Christians who knowing that the Church of God hath ever since our Saviours Ascension observed the Sunday for their Sabbath and that not against but with the Approbation of the Apostles of Christ do slight the Seventh-day Sabbath and are tooth and nail for the first day of the week so they count Sunday to be neither can they count it otherwise as long as they hold the Jews Sabbath to be the seventh day from the Creation believing that the Apostles of Christ by the appointment of our Saviour changed the old Sabbath so they call the Seventh-day Sabbath to the Sabbath of the first day of the week so that now the Church of God is to rest before they labour and unto not from their labour 3. Some again knowing that the Jews Saturday Sabbath was Ceremonial and abrogated do thence hold and maintain the Seventh day Sabbath to be abrogated also and for that they know not any other Sabbath day appointed by Divine Authority instead thereof do inferr that Christians now in time of the Gospel are to have and keep no Sabbath-day at all Thus kind Reader I have shewed thee the ground and cause of these various and different Opinions about the Sabbath-day Whence have issued most if not all the Controversies which are now on foot between them The only mean to stop all future Controversies and briâ—g all sides to accord in one truth about the Sabbath day is to take away and wipe off from their minds the aforesaid errour which occasioned all their differences For as long as they or any side of them hold that the seventh day which God Blessed and Sanctified and commanded to be observed by all his People doth relate to the six days of Gods work and not of mans that is as long as they hold the seventh day here commanded to be the very day of Gods Rest the
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 might acknowledge God alone to be the Creator their Sabbath day was set unto them c (a) Heyl. hist part 1.74 75 76. It is very true indeed that 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 Deut. 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 Exod. 23.13 They might not call the days 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 St. Paul also though he wrote to the Church in Corinth yet writing in the behalf of some Jews in Judea that were in want called their weekly meeting day not the day of the Sun as the Gentiles call'd that day but the first day of the Sabbath 1 Cor. 16.2 being the proper name thereof with the Jews It is true that St. John though he was a Jew yet writing not to the Jews but to the Gentiles lately converted (b) Diod. in loc that is to the seven Churches of Asia 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 find not that Christians who descended of the Gentiles did in many years 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 John called it the Lords day being as truly the Lords day with the Churches of the Gentiles as was the Saturday 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 months weeks and days 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 month and Tisri their seventh which was their first before 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 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 days of gathering Quails and Manna 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. Tac. Diurn l. 21. Trog Pom. l. 36. the Lord confirmed this new order of their week-days miraculously insomuch as on that seventh pointed out unto them for their Sabbath there was no sign of Manna to be seen and the portion thereof gathered the day before and kept unto their Sabbath-day stank not The miraculous feeding them many years after this manner bred in them a custom of observing the week according to this new assignment The Lord by Moses caused them to alter the beginning of their days of the week too for whereas before they began their days as other Worshippers of the Sun did at the first appearance of the Sun in the Horizon counting the first hour 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 Psal 141.2 Their Feast of the Passover must be at the setting of the Sun Deut. 16.6 and their Sabbaths must begin with the evening from evening to evening were they to celebrate their Sabbaths 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 days 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 Jews were to have their faces toward the West or Sunsetting 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 D. Willet proveth (a) Willet Syn. Can. 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 Quails and Manna Exod. 6.12 13 23 26. The day which the Antient Saxons called the day of Seater and we from them Saturday was thenceforth to be their 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 c. Jer. 8.1 2. 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 2 Kings 23.11 Yet could he not root out this monstrous abomination of VVorshipping the Sun but they strengthned themselves therein insomuch that even in the Temple of God in the place where they should VVorship the Lord of Glory with their faces VVestward 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 Ezekiel to whom he shewed their great aboninations and greater yea and greater than 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 than 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 VVorshipped the Sun towards the East Ezek. 8.15 16. The Women were resolute to Worship the Moon too after the manner of the Heathen We will certainly do said they Jer. 44.17 18. whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth to burn 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 Child-bearing sought and implored the Moon for ease and safety the like custom the Hebrew Women seemed to have had who did knead their Dough to make Cakes to the Queen of Heaven Jer. 7.18 Of this I will be sparing of my own but deliver you the very words of that Learned John Gregory as he layeth them down in his Assyrian Monarchy thus The Assyrians VVorshipped 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 applyed 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 Mid-wife hath not observed so much that the most easy delivery a VVoman can have is always in the increase toward and in the full of the Moon and the hardest labours in the new and silent Noon which was the reason that the Mid-wives heretofore he meaneth among the Jews as well as the Heathen did always in such a Case implore the aid 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. Andria where the VVoman 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 VVorshipped the Moon and why they VVorshipped her under that name The Prophet Jeremy maketh mention of this VVorship 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 VVomen called upon the Moon at such times I omit here to relate being the same which Physicians commonly do give The Prophet addeth that the VVomen 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 VVomen make Cakes at such times yea the Child it self is no sooner Born but 't is Baptized into the names of these Cakes for so the VVomen 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 whereof 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 Saturday for their Sabbath Concerning which we may truly say that as their Sabbath-day was their seventh day from their first gathering Quails and Manna and as it was to begin at Sun-setting which Moses termed the season that they came out of Egypt Deut. 16.6 so was it Ceremonial a sign and token whereby they were known to be Gods peculiar People 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 than 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 Acts 7.37 Even Jesus Christ who is the Captain of our Salvation Heb. 2.10 who is greater than Moses who brought us out of a greater bondage than Moses did the Israelites and who gave us not Quails 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 shaddows and Ceremonies so this of their saturday-Saturday-Sabbath from Sun-setting to Sun-setting did vanish also The day of Saturn was thenceforth no more Holy than the day of the Sun The Jews might as lawfully with their general consent
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
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
the first day of the Creation All the Art and indeavour of man is not sufficient to find out whether the first day of Creation was Sunday or Saturday or Monday c. and therefore not whether the day of Gods Rest was Thursday Friday or Saturday Let it yet be further granted that it was Sunday on which the first day of the Creation began and therefore the day of Gods Rest must then have its beginning on Saturday No man can for all that tell within eleven hours at what time of the Sunday the first day of the Creation or at what time of the Saturday the day of Gods Rest began either here or in Virginia or in Rome Jerusalem Paradise or in any other place whatsoever whether it was at Sun-rising Sun-setting noon or at the hour of one or two c. in the forenoon or afternoon Wherefore if by the seventh here commanded had been meant an Universal day it must be then that seventh Universal day on which God Rested the which cannot be observed by men because they cannot tell on what day of their week nor about what time of their day they should begin the observation thereof Secondly an Universal day such as was the day of Gods Rest cannot be observed of all the People of God Though it should be granted what is of some believed that the day of God's Rest began in Paradise on Saturday and at the rising of the Sun there yet all Gods People cannot observe that very day For 1. The earth being Global and the true longitude of the place where Paradise was being unknown no man can tell when to begin that day in the place where he liveth We know when it is Saturday in some places it is then Sunday or Friday in some other places We know that when Christ Rose from the Grave it was then Sunday at Jerusalem in the fore-noon and we know that it was then Saturday in Virginia in the afternoon but no man can knowingly say that the day of Gods Rest beginneth on the Saturday in the forenoon with him though it be granted that it so began in Paradise 2. Though the day of Gods Rest or any other Universal day be made known unto men at what time and on what day it began in Paradise and the very place where Paradise was made known also Yet all Gods People could not possibly keep that very day of Gods Rest By reason of the diversity of Longitudes of the Places wherein they may Live they cannot keep all of them one and the same day This hath been proved unto us fully and plainly even by the opposers of the Sabbath Dr. Heylin hath even demonstrated the same that men could not possibly have kept one and the same day for their Sabbath had it been commanded (a) Heyl part 1. pag. 45 46 47 48. And further sheweth that the Jews themselves kept not the very day of Gods Rest (b) Page 125. though they had one day in seven set apart for Holy Rest and meditation Mr. Ironside also (c) Irons chap. 18. pag. 164. from the diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be Universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East-parts and West-parts too of Judea and in Babylon and in Rome by reason of their diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three degrees difference of Longitude yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three though it will not make them so much to differ The like argument hath Doctor Francis White late Bishop of Ely (d) Dr. Francis White in his Treat of the Sabb. pag. 175. and divers others Wherefore sith the Universal day such as was the day of Gods Rest cannot be possibly kept by all Gods People no more than any other set particular day can it is not the day here commanded by the Lord. The Sabbath-day here commanded to be kept Holy is such a kind of day as may be known kept and observed by men wheresoever they inhabit though in many and divers Longitudes of the Earth Such as might have been kept in the Wilderness where the Law was delivered and in the East and West-parts of Canaan and in Babylon Rome Spain and in all other habitable places and therefore ought to be either an Horizontal or else a Meridional day In all places of the World none other but Horizontal or Meridional days are now or at any other time heretofore have been in use with men for measuring out unto them their seven days or week and such as are their six days of the week for Labour such ought the seventh day even the day for Holy Rest to be also The Sabbath-day with the Jews was an Horizontal day but then such were the other days of their week also and what Nation soever have their week to consist of Horizontal days ought to have their Sabbath-day to be so also In the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and Queen of Swedens Countreys where the Sun maketh many Revolutions at some seasons of the year between his rising and setting men cannot count their week by Horizontal days but they do and have counted their weeks by Meridional days And so do all Christians generally of what Longitude or Latitude of the Earth soever they are mete out their weeks by Meridional days then such ought their seventh day of their week to be also CHAP. VIII What day the Sabbath is to be in order or tale NOw is to be shewn what day in tale is to be the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord and this the Law-giver himself hath plainly pointed out unto us in this Law to be the day following the six days of labour so that none need to say the knowledge hereof is hidden from us Who shall ascend for us into Heaven and bring the knowledge thereof to us that we may know it and observe it But it is clearly demonstrated unto us by the Lord God so that he that worketh with the Spade may know the same as well as he that handleth the Pen. Six days shalt thou labour and c. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The seventh day that is the day following the six known days of labour is none of ours it is the Lords day We may not make the Sabbath-day to be the sixth day for then we should shew our selves unthankful in not receiving the Lords own bountiful allowance nor the eighth day for then we should encroach on the Lords right and not be contented with his Liberal allowance of six days for our selves reserving only the seventh for himself much less ought we to make it the fifth or the ninth or tenth or any other than the seventh day Our weeks are not to consist
length Bel or Belus his Image was held to be the Protector of Assyria and so adored as their Protector Yet was he not Worshipped in a Temple till after Ninus was dead Semiramis the Empress and the Relict of Ninus amplifying yet more the Dominions of her late Husband built for Belus a Sumptuous Temple and in it a Costly Pillar for this Idol in which Pillar was Ingraven these words or Epitaph Mihi Pater Jupiter Belus Avus Saturnus Babylonicus Proavus Cbush Saturnus Aethiops Abavus Saturnus Aegyptius Atavus Caelius Phoenix Ogyges Ab Ogyge ad meum Avum Soloâ—bem suum circumlustravit semel tricies centies Ab Avo ad Patrem sexies quinquagies A Patre ad me bis sexagies Columnam Templum Statuam Jovi Belo Socero Matri Rheae in Olympo Semiramis dicavi (a) Guevara ep to Don. Fra. Vâ—llo Guevara that great Antiquary maketh no mention who first Translâ—ted this Epitaph or in what language it was engraven but thus is it from his words Engl shed My Father was Jupiter Belus my Grandfather was Satuâ—nus Bâ—bylonicus my great Grandfather was Chush Saturnus Aeâ—hiops my great Grandfathers Father was Saturnus Aegyptiacus my great Grandfathers Grandfather was Caelius Phoenix Ogyges so she called Noah From Noah unto my Grandfather Nimrod were one thirty and an hundered years note that the Chaldees and Assyrians read and count their numbers from their right hand as we do from the left From my Grandfather Nimrod unto my father Belus were six and fifty so long Nimrod reigned My Father Belus reigned two sixty years I Semiramis have dedicated this Pillar Temple and Image unto Belus my Father in Law and Rhea his Mother in Law in Olympia in the name of my late Husband Ninus This was the first Idol that ever we could read of to be Worshipped in a Temple Assyria becoming a great Monarchy other Nations either for fear or favour had this Belus also for their Protector too calling it according to their several Languages (a) Fascicul tempor Bel Baal Baalim Beelphegor Beelzebub c. with this Idolatry as were the Egyptians so were the Israelites much infected The other main Idolatry set up by the Power of the Assyrians through the help of their Chaldees was the Worshipping of the Host of Heaven that is the Sun and moon and the rest of the Planets The skilful in Astronomy and Astrology do unanimously testifie of the Fathers and Patriarchs before the Flood that they were the first Founders and excellently skilful in Astrology and Astronomy and this may witness the two Columns which they built the one of Brick the other of Stone in which were Engâ—â—â—en the principles thereof that Posterities after the Flood may be skill'd also in the knowledge of the Heavens and motion of the Stars as well as they one whereof remained in Syria in the time of Josephus as he himself relateth (b) Josephus Antiq. Jud l. 1. c. 4 8. Clav. de Sphae in Jo. de Sacro c. 1. Snel in Ram. Yea it is not altogether unlikely that the Idolatry of Worshipping the Host of Heaven was long before the Flood and that men called then the week-days by the names of the Planets as now men do Dr. Hammond in his Tract of Idolatry commends Maimonides for the soberest of the Jewish Writers he telleth us that from the days of Enosh the Stars were Worshipped as Gods to whom were built Temples and Sacrifices were offered After which in time the great God was generally forgotten no man knew the true God save Henoch Methusalah Nab Sem and Heber and so continued till Abraham was born Thus much Maimon (c) Maimon de idol primo How he could come to the knowledge hereof I cannot conjecture But be it granted that before the Flood when Astrology principally flourished men were not so wicked then to be carried away to the Adoration of any of the Planets yet sure enough Sem who lived a long time before the Flood did also live unto the time or near the time when the Planets were held to be the Universal Governours of the World Though he lived not unto Moses days yet did he live till Abraham was an Old Man if so he lived not after Abraham was buried and this Idolatry of Worshipping the Host of Heaven was before that set up by the Assyrians and their Chaldees After the Flood Astrology continued to flourish in and about the Countreys of Shinar but especially in Chaldea and such as excelled others there in Astrology were advanced by the Assyrian and Chaldean Monarchs However Nebuchadnezzar would in his wrath had them to be killed for not telling his dreams Dan. 2.12 They were called the wise men Dan. 2.12 13 14. and 4.6 And by those who had their Plantations Westward they and such Astrologers as they were were stiled the Wise men of the East These Chaldees or Magi were held in that Honour and esteem with the Assyrians as were the Sophi with the Persians or Priests with the Egyptians (d) Boomus ubi de Assyria Boëmus certifieth us further of them that the Planets were their proper and peculiar Gods and that as Schollars now study Divinity so did they Astrology and as we Catechize and teach our Children in the knowledge of God so did they theirs in the knowledge of the Stars Children were taught Astrology of their Parents they sucked it according to him even from their Mothers Breasts (a) Boëmus ib. They who went down from thence into remote places to find new Plantations could not apply their time unto such studies Building and Fencing and Planting gave not them the leisure Egypt had small knowledge hereof when Abraham came out of Chaldea and after that came into Egypt and there as Josephus (b) Josephus de Antiq. Jud l. 1. cap. 15.10 and others write instructed their Priests more fully in the knowledge of the Stars for which he was of the King rewarded with rich Gifts (c) Rodolph Snel in P. Rami Geom. in prooemio The Grecians were far more ignorant thereof till near about six hundred years before Christ his Incarnation when Anaximander Melisius Thales Melisius Pythagoras and in Platoes time Eudoxus Cnidius brought the knowledge of Astrology into Greece having learned the same of the Egyptian Priests and Chaldeâ—s (d) Clavius in Sphaer Jo. Sacr. The Romans grew more Ignorant then the Grecians the farther off Shinar they went the more Ignorant Rude and Base they grew even to Worship Beasts and base Creatures for their Gods which we find not that ever the Assyrians and Chaldeans did before they were subdued and mixed with other Nations but the Host of Heaven that is the Planets were their Gods These their Gods they Worshipped by course (e) Jo. Gregory in his 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
Worship to the Sun and to every of the rest of the Host of Heaven as I have shewed before which was the first hour of the day with them he hath been said and held to begin his Lordship or Government on the beginning or first hour of that day and hence is it that that day was by the Antient Heathen called the day of the Sun the like may be said of the other names of the week-days That the week-days were by the Heathens called by the names of the Planets as they were the Heathens Gods adored by them is evident not only from the Testimonies of sundry Learned men but also from Dr. Heylins own Pen. He himself doth say as much for ask this question of him and he will tell you yea and saith That they are more Nice than Wise who out of a desire to have all things new would have new names for every day or call them as sometimes they were the first day of the week the second day of the week sic de caeteris and all for fear lest it be thought that we do still adore those Gods whom the Gentiles VVorshipped (a) Heyl part 2. page 63. Ask by whose Authority he proveth week-days to have their names from the Gods of the Heathen He tells us by St. Augustines and alledgeth these his words Deorum suorum nomina Gentes imposuerunt diebus istis c. The Gentiles saith the Father gave to every day of the week the name of one or other of their Gods c. Ask him again why Pâ—pe Sylvester changed the names of the week-days and would have no week-day to be called by the name of any of the Planets but all to be called by the names of Feria prima Feria secunda c. Was it for that Eudoxus had learn't the aforesaid Government of the Planets and so he and other Astrologers after him taught this rarity in their Schools whereby many admit all Grecians had weeks and called the week-days by the names of the Planets as their Astronomers taught them and now the Pope fearing lest the Romans from the example of the Greeks should in time come to have weeks for till that time and after that too untill the Romans had admitted Christianity throughout their Empire Dr. Heylin saith they had no weeks (b) Heyl. part page 84. and should call the week-days by the names of the Planets as the Grecians did No sure it was for that the Gentiles generally as Romans and Greeks did call the days of the week as they were taught from their Ancestors and they from theirs even by the names of their Gods which of Old they adored who were the seven Planets and for that Christians also generally except Jews did call them so in like manner as their Heathen Ancestors did even in the time when this Pope lived which so displeased the said Pope that in detestation of the memory of these Heathen Gods he changed the names of the week-days and decreed to have them called by the names of Feriae Dr. Heylin proving this citeth Polydore Virgil for his authority Sylvester Romanus Pontifex ejus nominis primus vanorum deorum memoriam inabhorrens (c) Pol. Vir. de Inv. rerum l. 6. c. 5. c. Sylvester the first Pope of that name hating the name and memory of the Gentile Gods gave order that the days should be called by the name of Feriae (d) Heyl. part 2. page 62. c. Had the Planets such Power and Vertue given them of God so to Govern by an hourly course as that thereby every week-day was designed and pointed out Sylvester had cause rather to magnifie the Creator who revealed the knowledge hereof unto some which was kept secret from all Generations till then and to have in Love and Laud the Parties though Heathen to whom the Lord had made known this Rarity whereby the Grecians had weeks in his life time and the Romans and other Nations might in short time come to have weeks also than to bear such spite and hatred to the Planets for such their Vertue given them or to the finders out of this Planetary Government as should move him to take away the memory either of the Planets or of this their Government or of the finders out thereof by changing the names of the week-days sure his dislike and hatred was against the Idolatry of the Heathen who still continued to count the Planets as Gods and to call the week-days by their names hence is it that he made the change even to take away the remembrance of their names out of mens especially out of Christians mouths Thus having now been shewed first that there is indeed no such hourly Government as is pretended And secondly that the week-days had not their names from thence Any man may see the weakness of Dr. Heylins principal argument to prove thereby that neither of the four great Monarchies nor any People else the Jews only excepted had weeks and therefore no Sabbath CHAP. XV. Sunday was the seventh day with the Gentiles Sunday continued to be the seventh day of the week with Christians HAving declared what weeks are and the long continuance of them and also answered the main objection made against their Antiquity I will now indeavour to make apparent that Sunday was not only a seventh but the seventh day with the Gentiles Concerning which it hath already been proved 1. That the seven Planets were of the old Gentiles Gods 2. That the seven days 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 Assyrians Monarchy that the days of the week were called of the Assyrians by the names of the same Planets unto whom the week-days were severally dedicated and that all Nations did from them call the days of the week in like manner 3. That the Sun was of all their Gods held the Chiefest and Supream 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 seventh 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 Son and other Potentates of Assyria and Chaldea had Idolatrously set up the whole Host of Heaven that is the Sun Moon and the other Planets with constellations subservient to them which of the seven days of the week will any reasonable man imagine did they dedicate to the
Honour of their greatest God the Sun rather than that which before was held to the Honour of God the Creator Surely not any other And when the Assyrian and Chaldean Powers had as much as in them lay robbed God if I may so say of his Titles Attributes Providence Works of Creation Government and Worship and gave the chief of all their spoils to their chiefest God the Sun Nimrod giving him the name Baal (a) Jo. Greg. Assyr Monar which he afterwards assumed to himself (b) Biblian Belus giving him the name Jove Jehovah in the Hebrew the which he assumed afterward unto himself and was called Jove Bel. They called the Sun God and held him the God of Gods and Lord of Lords and Governour of all things and that the World was not Created but was from everlasting governed by the Planets the Sun being Chief and Soveraign Ruler Would they not do the like may any one think with that day which was held to the Honour of the Creator All that was known to be for the Worship and Honour of God the Creator they gave to the Honour of the Sun and therefore doubtless they deputed to the Sun that day also Again When they assigned to every of those Gods the several days of the week no indifferent understanding man but will conceive that they would Dedicate to their greatest God the Sun the day held before to the Honour of the great God of Heaven and Earth rather than to the Moon Mercury or other inferior Gods So that most likely the seventh day with the Patriarks was none other but that which afterwards was the Suns day with the Assyrians and from them was called the day of the Sun with other Nations also as the other week-days were called by the names of the other Planets and so by custom have they continued to be called with all Nations of any note for Civility and Knowledge except with the Jews only who after their coming out of Egypt had another day assigned unto them for their seventh Sacred day and had a special Command given them not to make any mention of those Gods of the Nations nor to have their names at all in their mouth as I have shewed before 2. Sunday was the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles as may be Collected from the Pens of many Learned Authors as well Christian as Heathen Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. Speaking of the seventh day affirmed that it was in omni aetate inter omnes gentes venerabilis sacer The like do Chrysostome Beda and other more whose words I have before in the 13. Chapter expressed Also amongst the most Antient Poets divers of them do testifie the same as Linus Callimachus Hesiod and Homer who was above two hundred years before Eudoxus knew what Astrology was All of them were Heathen yet all of them spake very laudably of the seventh Sacred day Their words for brevities sake I will not here rehearse sith they are to be seen and are urged by many Writers as namely Clem. Alexand. Strom. l. 5. Euseb de Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 17. Rivetus in Gen. c. 2. and in his Dissert de Origine Sabba Also Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath part 1. c. 4. Now the seventh day so laudably by them spoken of was the day of the Sun For 1. It was not Saturday the Jews seventh day The Gentiles liked the Jews Saturday as said a Papist the Devil doth Holy-water It was counted by them a disdainful novelty their Poets commonly would have one lash or other at the Jews for it and never spake in honour thereof 2. The Adversaries themselves do grant that the day of the Sun was the seventh day and Sacred also with the Heathen but here 's their evasion The seventh day Sacred to the Sun with the Heathen say they was the seventh day of the Month and not the seventh day of the week Now that the day of the Sun was the seventh day of the week with the Heathen and not the seventh day of the month thus I prove 1. Clemens and Eusebius both alledge the said Poets to shew that the Gentiles had the seventh day of the week Sacred with them 2. Other Authors generally take Sunday with the Gentiles for a week-day and not for the day of a month 3. Had the seventh day Sacred to the Sun been the seventh day of every month as they affirm the Greeks doubtless would have noted the same down in their Calenders Though they could not set down constantly the seventh day of the week by reason of their intercaling so many days at a time no more than others then could do and no more than we can set down the moveable Feasts that were with us unless it be in a yearly Almanack before that Julius Caesar had corrected the year Yet never shall we see a Calender in which the Principal immovable Sacred days were omitted Now there is an Antient Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger de emend temp wherein things of less consequence are noted but this seventh day Sacred to the Sun in each month cannot be found 4. Dr. Francis White and Dr. Heylin also tell us (b) White of the Sabbath p. 197. Heyl. par 2. p. 53. that Christians of the first Ages because they kept the Sunday for their Sacred Services and bowed Eastward in their Worship were upbraided for Sun-Worshippers though they neither Worshipped the Sun nor called their day of Worshipping God Sunday but the Lords day being their Sabbath Sacred day of Rest to the Lord. Surely if Sunday had not been with the Heathen who were Sun Worshippers indeed a weekly service day but the seventh day of the month only there had been no cause or ground why either Jew or Gentile should have cast such an aspersion on them of being Worshippers of the Sun 5. This may further appear by the decree of Pope Milchiades whom some call Miltiades the last of all the Popes that were Martyrs He to make a clear difference between the observation of Sunday by Christians and the observation of Sunday by the Heathen ordained that all Gentiles who were converted and were Christians should not fast on the Sundays nor on Thursdays as the other Gentiles did Note that as Wednesday Friday and Sunday were now in late times called Sacred or Prayer-days so were Thursday and Sunday in old times on which days they filled not themselves as on other days till their Sacred Services were ended The decree Sever. Binius on the Life of the said Pope sets down thus Jejunium verò Dominici diei quintae feriae nemo celebrare debet ut inter jejunium Christianorum Gentilium veraciter c. He would not that Christians should fast on the Thursday and on the Lords day called by the Gentiles Sunday that so there might be an open and apparent distinction between Christians and the Heathen in the observation of those days From which time
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 business rather When men take the seventh day which is Sacred to the Lord and imploy the same about their own business 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 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 than a week in every month or a month in every year And why he would have the seventh day for his Service rather than the tenth the ground hereof the Lord here sheweth to be this In six days 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 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 find 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 Good 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 which 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 and his own example together with his Blessing it and his Soveraign Institution hereof how can any without palpable Ignorance or wilful Rebellion plead Ignorance of the Sabbath or knowing it not yield ready Obedience thereto A POSTCRIPT TO THE READER I Pray thee 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 days of Gods Work or to the six days of mans labour It cannot relate to the six days of Gods work and so be the day of Gods Rest unless the day of Gods Rest and the Jews Sabbath day be the same and begin in all places at Sun-setting where-ever 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 than 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 days of labour with men and so must be the day following their six week-days of labour where-ever they live then consider whether Sunday be not as truly the day following the six days of labour with Christians as Saturday was with the Jews and as truly the seventh day with Christians and by the express words of this Law commanded to be kept Holy as the Saturday 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
have kept the Sabbath on Sunday as on the Saturday St. Pauls practice taught Christians then that difference of days was taken away Unto the Jews saith he I became as a Jew 1 Cor. 9.20 When he was with the Jews he kept the Saturday-Sabbath as the Jews did Acts 17.2 and 18.4 and 13 14.42 But when he was with the Gentiles that were turned unto Christ and imbraced the Gospel he observed and kept the same seventh Sacred day they did which with them was called the day of the Sun on which day they usually met together 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 There arose no small difference between the converted Jews and the converted Gentiles hereabout The Jews esteeming the Saturday to be more Holy than the Sunday condemned the Gentiles for Prophaners of the Sabbath because they observed not the Saturday and for that they kept the day of the Sun the Jews held them to be Worshippers of the Sun as other Gentiles were The Gentiles on the other side upbraided the Jews as superstitious for their observing their set Holy-days whereof their Saturday-Sabbath from evening to evening was one which were abolished This upbraiding and condemning one another in things indifferent St. Paul speaketh against and writeth to the contrary in his Epistle to the Romans Rom. 14.5 and to the Colossians Col. 2.16 The Jews were no more bound thenceforth by the Law of God to keep their Sabbath on the Saturday than on the Sunday The Sabbath-day by the Lord Commanded to them and to all in this Law being not this or that day but the seventh relating to the six days of our labour before-going is the seventh day of the week with all People Now that it may the better appear what the seventh day of the week is and that Sunday is the seventh day of the week with us and generally with all Christians I will shew 1. What some have held to be a week in chap. 11. 2. What a week and what the week is and what the seventh day of the week is in chap. 12. 3. The Antiquity of weeks in chap. 13. 4. What hath been chiefly objected against the Antiquity of weeks in chap. 14. 5. That Sunday was the seventh day Sacred with the Gentiles in chap. 15. 6. Why the Gentiles after their Conversion continued Sunday to be their standing day of the week for Gods Worship though it had been before Idolatrously abused to the Worship of the Sun in chap 16. CHAP. XI The Opinion of some concerning weeks How it 's hatched from the Earths supposed plainness IT hath been the general Opinion not only of the Vulgar but of the Learned also that the seventh day commanded us in this Law hath relation only to the six work-days of the Lord God and not to the six work-days with men as if the meaning of these words of the Commandment Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy VVork but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God so it is in the Hebrew should be thus The six days in which I wroutgh when I Created all things shall be thy six work-days in them thou shalt do all thy VVork but the seventh day wherein I rested thou shalt rest and do none of thy VVorks on any part of that day but shalt keep that day Holy it is the day of my Rest From hence they will have a week to be none other with any People but seven such days whereof the six former days be the same with the first six days of the Creation and the seventh be the same with the day of Gods Rest Weeks in use with the Jews they held to be such the first six days of their week to be the same with the six days on which God wrought and their seventh day which was from Friday at the setting of the Sun to Saturdays Sun-setting to be the very day of Gods Rest Though Sunday be the day following the six days of labour with us and on which we rest from our labour having wrought six days before yet we do not rest on the seventh day as they say according to Gods example but on the first day from Sunday to Sunday they will not have to be a week but from Saturday to Saturday only And from hence do they who deny the Morality of the seventh-day-Sabbath teach and write that the boundary or seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods Rest and that the day of Gods Rest was the very day which God Blessed and Sanctified and in this Law commanded to be kept holy and that the Jews Sabbath only was the seventh-day Sabbath which in this Law is commanded to be observed Holy and that the Jews Sabbath-day being Ceremonial and abolished by the coming of the Messias the seventh-day-Sabbath in this Law expresly commanded to be Sanctified is abolished also and not to be observed by Christians and that sith no other set day is instituted in stead thereof by any Divine Authority it resteth in the bosom of the Church or Magistrates to appoint what day they please for Gods publick Worship Though all and every of these be very false yet are they all by these men held to be even as true as their Creed they little considering from how unsound and rotten a root these and every of them have had their first spring and that is from a supposal that the Earth is plain and not round It is an odd but an Old conceit of some Philosophers which afterward was held and maintained by the Antient Fathers that the Earth was not roâ—nd but plain as a Champaign-field They thought there could be no dwellers under the earth which go foot to foot against us and that if there should be any Antipodes imagined yet them not to be Adams Posterity whom they held to have all dwelt upon the Earth and to have been all drowned except eight persons when Noahs flood covered all the face of the Earth So strong did this Opinion prevail with the said Fathers as that whoever held the contrary was counted near as bad as an Heretick Witness Vigilius whom some call Virgilius who was complained of by Boniface unto Zachary then Pope and was degraded for holding that there were Antipodes and that they had a Sun and Moon to shine unto them as well as to us This story may be seen in Aventine (a) Aven Annal Bar. l. 3. and in Baronius who sought to cover the fact with fig-leaves Now that the Adversaries to the Morality of this Law held all those tenents before-said and that they all sprang from this errour of the Earths supposed plain superficies I will next shew For the clearing whereof I need not cite many of them one may serve for all being approved by them all Neither will I tell here all that he Writes hereabout but that which chiefly concerns the point in hand Mr. Ironside a Reverend Divine and of singular gifts and Parts but overswayed by the stream of late times
the Saturday and the third Sanctifieth the Sunday a he would not call Sunday our Sabbath (c) Heyl. part 1. page 48. as he doth Friday the Turks Sabbath Then that upon the Saturday the Turk begins his journey VVestward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the VVorld do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going VVestward having lost a day and the Christian going Eastward having got a day one and the self same day will be a Friday to the Turk a Saturday to the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian Sith then one and the same day came to be a Friday a Saturday and a Sunday unto these three by their Travel there must be three several Planets to govern the first hour of that day or else the Planets must by little and little have gotten and lost a whole course of governing as the Travellers did by little and little gain and lose a whole day by their Travel both which will shew this hourly rule of the Planets to be both vain and feigned Touching the latter that week-days had not their names from the supposed hourly rule of the Planets may from these reasons be gathered First This hourly rule doth flow from the names of the week-days and not the week-day names from it Men must first know by what Planets name the day is called before they can tell what Planet must govern the first hour thereof For suppose the two Travellers before-said the Christian and the Turk had met at any place before they had ended their journey it must be as Dr. Heylin hath demonstrated the like a Sunday then with the Turk (c) Heyl par 1. p. 46 47 48. when it was but Saturday with the Christian then at their meeting Now let the most skilful of Astrologer be demanded what day it should be unto them both either Saturday or Sunday whether the Sun or Saturn ruled the first hour thereof He will answer as the Chaldees did Nebuchadnezzar There is not a man upon the earth that can shew this matter Dan. 2.10 Yea though the place where those Travellers met were made known also yet would the question remain unresolvable unless there be some line or other supposed where the Planets should begin their Government and from whence the Calculation is to be made But in that supposal there is no certainty Now if the said Travellers agree together to have that day of their meeting to be Sunday then any Astrologer will readily tell them that the Sun was he that ruled the first hour thereof or if they make it Saturday then Saturn was he First therefore the week-days must be known before men can know the said planetary Rule and Government I would not have any conceive that by the Planetary Rule and Government I should mean here that Government and Lordship which the Planets are of old said to have in their own Home and Houses it is the hourly Rule of the Planets mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter that I mean I confess my self to be but little skill'd in the one but this he that hath but the use of a pair of Globes may demonstrate to be false and to have no truth in it 2. The Germans had weeks and called the week-days by the names of their Gods whom they adored which were the seven Planets and this long before they came to have any knowledge of this hourly Rule of the Planets which Henricus Hassianus got in Paris and then after taught the same in Vienna and that not yet four hundred years since The Doctor saith That the Grecians had not weeks till Eudoxus had taught them this excellency in Astrology which he brought from Egypt a little before he might with as much truth have said that the Germans had not weeks till Henricus Hassianus had taught this knowledge in Astrology which he brought from Paris a little before There is the same reason in them both but this is known to be far from truth If any say that the Germans had learnt to have weeks and to call the days of the week by the names of the Planets since the said hourly Rule was found out and that either from the Romans or Grecians or from some other Nation with whom they lived before they came to inhabit in Germany as the French the English the Dutch and other People in America have weeeks and call the week-days by the same names those Nations did with whom their Ancestors lived before they came into America My answer is they are much mistaken for Germany was a very Antient Kingdom as Theodore Bibliander and Verstegan also do acquaint us Twisco who before he died was a King and the first King of the Germans was born long before there was a Monarchy of the Romans Grecians or Persians either He was antienter than Abrahams father Bibliander thus writeth of him Tuisco quem aliqui putant c. Tuisco whom some think to be Aschenaz the Nephew of Noah erected the Kingdom of Sarmatia and from whom the Dutch-men are called Teutshen Tacitus holdeth him to be the Son of Terra or Arezia Noahs wife (a) Theod Bibl. Mannus who was Twisco his Son and the second King of the Germans was born not twenty years after Abraham and Wigwoner their third King was born before Abraham went out of Ur a Town of the Chaldees and therefore according to Bibliander before the Egyptians had learnt Astrology For it seems the Egyptians as well as other Nations severing themselves from Noahs Posterity remaining about Chaldea Assyria and other parts of Shinar busied themselves so about their new Plantation in Egypt that they neglected and forgot Astrology till Abraham came out of Chaldea and went down into Egypt where as Josephus saith he taught Astronomy unto them being ignorant thereof before (b) Joseph Antiq Jud. l. 1. c. 15 16. See chap. 9. The Germans were a Nation and a Kingdom before Eudoxus knew what a Planet was Verstegan also tells us that the Saxons had in Antient times the seven Planets for their Gods whom they called Son Mone Tuisco c. and also called the days of the week by the names of those their Gods before ever they had any Commerce with the Grecians or Romans either 3. Week-days bear the names of the Planets not from the said late invented hourly Rule supposed to be given them by God when he Created them but as they were the Heathens Gods and were orderly Worshipped and Adored by them Thus the day we call Sunday was by the Heathen anciently called the day of the Sun because of all the Planets who were held to be the Lords and Governours of the World he was that Lord and Governour which had special Worship done unto him on that day and for that his Worship began with that days beginning even at the Sun-rising for at that time did the Heathen begin their