of the Moral Law why then should the same Faith in the Gentiles excuse them from it as a Rule 4. Moreover I shall farther add that while the holy Apostles are throwing down the Types and Shadowy Worship under that legal Dispensation 1 Tim. 1.8 yet they assert that the Law is good if a man use it lawfully viz. as a Foundation of our Worship and Obedience to God and just behaviour towards Man which thrô Gospel Grace after the measure we have received is or ought to be put forth according to the several Moral branches of the Law and the Divine Precepts and Patterns given to us in the New Testament And therefore we find the Holy Apostles and Gospel Writers often proving and confirming the Moral part of their Doctrine by the Law as appears in Ephes 6.1 2 3. Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first Commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth Here the Apostle confirms his Moral Doctrine to the Gentiles by the Authority of the fifth Commandment or first with promise which plainly shews that it is of its self binding to us all under the Gospel and he Moralizeth the Promise by saying Earth instead of the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee So that the Promise was not only to pertain to the Jews in the Land of Canaan but was perpetually to continue to all the Gentiles and so we may say in the aforesaid case of every one that killed a Man unawares who was to flee into the City of Refuge and continue there until the Death of the High-priest Numb 35.25 that thô we have no such High-priest in Gospel days yet the equity of that Law is still in force But to return to our present business we may farther find the Apostle proveth the moral part of his Doctrine from the Commendments Exod. 20. For in Rom. 13.8 9 10. we are exhorted to love one another for saith he Love is the fulfilling of the law and he briefly citeth five of the Ten Commandments to confirm the Duty of Love which comprehendeth them all And in Chap. 7.7 12. What shall we say then is the law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the law had said Thou shalt not covet Wherefore the law is holy and the Commandment holy and just and good Therefore surely this Moral Precept in particular and others in general mentioned by the Apostle are of themselves binding to us as a Rule of Holy life for whatsoever Law is morally holy just and good as this particular precept is by which the Apostle came to the knowledge of Sin it is perpetually and universally binding to all Men Rom. 2.14 15. who have the substance of it written in their Hearts by Nature So that from the Apostles making use of the Anthority of the Moral Law of Moses to confirm his Doctrine Matth. 5.19 James 2.8 Chap. 4.11 1 Joh. 3.4 and from the Commendations of it in the New Testament it clearly appears to be in force unto all Men now under the Gospel And seeing the fourth Commandment in particular is delivered in such moral Terms as doth not of its self bind us to the observation of the Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening any more than after our Christian pattern from Morning to Morning which does answer that Very Precept as well as theirs did from that single Law we have then no reason to exclude the fourth Commandment from the rest of the Decalogue but to believe it is equally Moral with the other nine as will appear more patticularly in the next ensuing Section SECT VI. TO proceed therefore on the fourth Commandment I shall here recite Exod. 20.9 10 11. 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 not do any work For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it 1. That this Commandment is morally binding to both Jews and Gentiles is evident because it is in substance the same with God's sanctifying the seventh day for Man Gen. 2. And if the Sabbath be not from thence perpetually binding to all Nations but restrained to the posterity of the Jews then by the same Rule the Gentiles had no interest in the promise of the Womans Seed Gen. 3.15 or the Messias that should bruise the Serpents Head as then made to our first Parents and therefore as I believe it will be granted by all Christians that the Gentiles as well as the Jews had an interest in the first promise as then made viz. in the Original discovery of the Messias as well as in those after promises that are the fruits and effects of it So in like manner we have also ground to believe that the first sanctifying of the Sabbath-day was from thence and is also from the fourth Commandment morally binding of its self to both Jews and Gentiles for if we question the one we may also doubt of the other 2. The End of the fourth Commandment sheweth it to be a Moral Precept for a time of rest is naturally moral and by the example of God and his sanctifying the seventh day to every six working days it is also become morally and perpetually binding for all Men to keep the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to neither more nor less than six working days together and therefore for any to deny the same in the fourth Commandment is in effect to deny the World their sixed Sabbath for thô the Gospel first-day Sabbath hath a new Sanctity yet it is founded on the old Law and Gods sanctifying of the seventh day for Man from the beginning or else it is left very dubious whether we are bound to keep any fixed day of Rest at all but as there is the same Moral reason for a Sabbath as was before so we have reason to conclude that the same Law in the fourth Commandment is morally binding to us all 3. I shall offer some Reasons for satisfaction wherefore I believe the Lord was pleased to sanctifie the Sabbath and to deliver the fourth Command to observe it under the name of the seventh day rather than of the first day Sabbath And 1. Because althô Man abstained from work on the first day after he was compleatly formed yet seeing God gave the Sanctity to the Day for a Memorial of his Creation and for Man to worship him there was reason that the day should answer the memorial of his finishing of and ceasing from the work of Creation rather than of Adams solemn entring upon his subordinate Dominion under God viz. in Honour to the Creator rather than to the Creature
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the sabbath-Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
habitable Under the Pole there is but one day and one Nighâ— in one wholâ— Yeaâ— for it is half a Year Niala and half a Year day together In Greâ—ilâ—â—d saith he are no People But Green or Gâ—oon land is another place the continuance of the Suns Presence in the Summer Hearing and Warming with lively Cherishment all Creatures and in the Winter by his oblique Motion leaving so long a Twi-light and the increased Light of the Moon the Suns great and diligent Lieutenant the brightness of the Stars and whiâ—eness of the Snow not Suffering them to be quite forlorn in darkness Moreover he farther saith in Page 743. speaking of James Halls Voyages to Groenland that he sound their Winter Houses built with Whales-bone covered with Earth and Vaults two-yards deep under the Earth Square Up within the Land they have a King carried on mens Shoulders The next Year he sailed thither the third Time and in a fourth Voyage 1612. was slain there by a Savage And he tells us in his Margin that this Voyage was written by William Boffin Allen Sellows of Redâ—iff told me saith he Hall was slain in seventy six Degrees I have given the Reader the larger account of those Northern Parts that he may receive the fuller Satisfaction that there are Inhabitants in those Countreys that have several Weeks of Day together in the Summer and of Nights together in the Winter and Mr. Chafie saith That in places near either of the Poles See his Tract on the Sabbath Page 18. and 24. where it is commonly Day-light for many days together from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in those places cannot properly be termed a Day having in it many Revolutions of the Sun And in the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and 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 that is from Sun-rising to Sun-rising or from Sun-setting to Sun-setting but they do and have counted their Weeks by Meridional days Which is the time from Midnight to Mid-night or from Noon to Noon with any People See Mr. Chasic Page 7.9 And therefore if the Sabbath must be kept from Evening to Evening in all the World after the Jewish pattern then in some remote Northern parts their Horizontal day from Evening to Evening in some parts of their Year is as long as many of ours yea many Weeks of our Days must pass before they can keep their seventh-day Sabbath to reckon their days from Evening to Evening and so for great part of their Year they cannot follow the Example of Israels Sabbath Besides if the Moral Law be only so binding then both Men and Beasts in some part of their Year are the more exposed to hard bondage and the Relief and Equity of the Law is not alike to all Nations And therefore seeing the Jewish Pattern cannot be binding to all Nations to begin their Sabbath at one and the same precise time of Day nor can universally preserve the equal Reason or Equity of the Law it was not designed of God to answer the Moral Law SECT VIII HEre I come to demonstrate from Gods first appointing the Sabbath to Israel in the Wilderness that we have no certain Pattern from thence that all men should Originally and Precisely have six working days before their Sabbath For 1. We do not find that the Children of Israel had observed their Sabbath from their coming out of Egypt until they gathered Manna We read nothing of it before but that when they had gathered twice as much Manna on the sixth day all the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses which is a Demonstration that they were ignorant of the Reason why the People doubled their Portion on the sixth day And Moses said unto them Exod. 16.23 This is that which the Lord hath said To Morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord. And in ver 25. It is called a Sabbath unto the Lord. So that it may be computed 〈◊〉 1. c. they had more than five Weeks time besides what they had in Egypt of working days together without a Sabbath and then their Sabbath when it was first commanded them was not their seventh-day after no more than their six working days but may be called their first-day Sabbath for setting up its Observation to Israel in the Wilderness and herein it did not Answer Gods Example of creating the World in six days and resting on the seventh-day which he then sanctified And a Confirmation of this may be fairly drawn from Mr. Bampfields own Confession who pleading for the Jewish Sabbath in his Reply to Dr. Wallis pag. 15. saith That he sees to Reason why a new Epocha from Exod. 16.23 30. should be imagined unless it be because it is so plain a Proof of the Israelites observing the seventh-day Sabbath before the Law of Sinai in Obedience to the Law Gen. 2.2 3. And if there were no New Epocha in Exod. 16. then it seems agreed that the seventh-day was never altered and in Page 16. he also saith So I think we are thus far safe that from Gen. 2. to Exod. 20. there was no new Epocha of days there was no Intermission of the days by chance Now tho I differ from Mr. Bampfield having clearly proved that the Account of the days were altered for Ecclesiastical Things from the first Passover yet I shall make some use of his Words viz. That by his thus asserting there was no new Epocha Exod. 16. to alter the Sabbath from the Creation I conceive he does consequentially Confirm what I haâ—e said that the six days of gathering Manna was no Pattern to fix six working days to go Originally before the Sabbath for if the Israelites gathering Manna six days and resting the seventh was no new Epocha notable Event or new Original for setting up their seventh-day Sabbath then their six days of gathering Manna could not be an Epocha for the sixing of their six working days Originally before their Sabbath for if it be not an Epocha to the one it cannot be so to the other And if as he saith it was no Epocha for altering the Sabbath-day then there was no need of it as an Epocha to direct them to keep the right Sabbath day when if it were so as he also saith that the Israelites in Egypt were no strangers to it and that it was not forgotten but well known to them And so it consequently follows from his Assertions that there was also no need of the Israelites gathering Manna six days to be an Epocha to six their six working days before their Sabbath 2. The Reason of the fourth Command to keep the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath is For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh-seventh-day Wherefore the Lord Blessed the sabbath-Sabbath-day and Hallowed it Now this Reason
being short of a day in four Years loseth near a day in one hundred Years and we know not which way or that any one Method of keeping the Account of the Age of the World has been constantly and successively used from the Creation thereof to this present day nor how much time we have lost the Knowledge of for want of the exact Account of the Ages of the first Patriarks c. unto Months and Days which are omitted in the Scriptures so that we cannot tell so much as the precise Year of the Creation of the World as our Astronomers tell us that according to Verity is 0000 viz. it is not known Collected in the 〈…〉 Eusâ—â—tus 〈◊〉 â—â—nicon 〈◊〉 552. 〈◊〉 in 1619. And in Eusebius we have divers Authors mentioned that in their Account of the Year of the World when Christ was born they differ many hundred Years from each other Yet the precise Succession of Weeks of seven Days and seven Nights bounded with as many Risings and Settings of the Sun are more eastly preserved and from Gods Example of six working days with a Sabbath were observed by Adam who at first had no other measure to mete out his Age and Time and by Noah Gen 8.10 12. and were successively handed down by Tradition to Laban who said to Jacob sulfil her Week and so forwards unto Posterity Gen. 29.27 〈◊〉 28. and this way the precise Succession of the Sabbath might possibly have been handed down to us from the Creation But seeing there hath been an Interruption of the orderly course of Nature and that the Sacred Scriptures do not any ways confirm it to us nor six the Jewish Sabbath as that precise successive seventh-day but rather gives us ground to believe that if the precise Succession of the first seventh-day Sabbath was preserved among the Gentiles in Worship to their Idols or to the Sun before Israels Deliverance out of Egypt that seeing God to keep those People from the Idolatry of Egypt and other Nations did appoint them a new beginning of their Year and to begin their days at Evening which before began in the Morning I say this rather gives us ground to think that God did appoint their Sâ—bbath to be kept on a different day also to what it was before therefore we may from hence perceive that thâ— neither the Jews nor do I believe the Châ—istians can justifie their seventh or first day Sabbath on this Foundation as being the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation yet our first-day Sabbath standeth fairest for it SECT XIV I Shall here make some Comparisons of the Gospel first-day Sabbath with the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and shew the disparity of the Jewish seventh-day and also treat of the first day Sabbaths beginning in the Morning with some other Matters and then proceed to Answer the chiefest Objections I find against our keeping the first or Lords-day a Sabbath And 1. Our first-day Sabbath better answered the Pattern of our first Parents keeping their Sabbath than the Jewish Sabbath did Gen. 1.27 28. for that after Eve was compleatly formed about the end of the sixth Creation day as Adam first entred upon his Subordinate Lordship which God had given him over the Creatures which he had made and on his first day in the Earthly Paradice on his first-first-day Sabbath So our Lord Jesus thô his Soul was in the Paradise of Heaven John 20.17 when his Body was in the Grave yet he was not compleatly there in Soul and Body too till he was raised on the first-day of his Ascension in our Nature far above all Principalities and Powers to take Possession of his purchased Inheritance and Kingdom to be increased without end So that herein our first-day Sabbath did Originally answer Adams first Sabbath better than the Jewish seventh-day did in the Wilderness 2. As Adam and Eves Sabbath was Originally their first-day Sabbath and after their six working days their seventh-day Sabbath too So our Gospel Sabbath is the Image or Likeness of it more than the Jewish Sabbath is for thô their seventh-day may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their Original keeping it in the Wilderness yet the Scripture does not shew that it was their first-day Sabbath from so precise an Epocha of Time or notable Event of their Deliverance out of Egypt as our Gospel Sabbath is from the precise Epocha of the Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation from whence it is a more proper first-day Sabbath and bears a greater likeness to Adams Pattern which had its precise Epocha of Time than the Jewish Sabbath does from its Original For thô the Jewish Sabbath was appointed to bare the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt yet the Scripture does not shew that it took its Original from the Epocha of the Passover or from the Red Sea but contrariwise I find that Israel came unto the Wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departing out of the Land of Egypt and the following Words are Exod. 10.1 2 3 11 12. â—er 5 22 23. And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron for Bread And the Lord spake unto Moses saying at Even ye shall cat Flesh and in the Morning ye shall be filled with Bread Now their first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not till the day after their sixth day of gathering Manna and from this account See Mr. Weemse Christian Synagogue Page 9â— if we reckon as the Jews did their Lunar Year according to Mr. Weemse â—rogromma of the Hebrew Kalender that the first Month Nisan or Abib hath thirty days and then reckoning the fifteenth day of this Month on which they departed out of Egypt unto the fifteenth day of their second Month and add this day to their six days of gathering Manna with their first Sabbath it makes together thirty eight days and so their first Sabbath fell on the third day after five Weeks time from their departing out of Egypt and took not its Original from that Epocha nor any other precise Epocha as a first-day Sabbath for if any should insist on their gathering Manna six days as an Epocha which I have shewed was not so for sixing their six working days Precisely and Originally before their Sabbath it would only render it a seventh-day Sabbath Originally in the Wilderness and so it could not answer Adams Pattern of his first-day Sabbath nor be like it in its Epocha from the perfecting of the first Adam as our first-day Sabbath was from its Epocha of the perfecting the second Adam 3. If it should be yet thought thô there is no Reason for it that the Jewish Sabbath was originally sixed to the Israelites in the Wilderness as following their six working days I have this to say that if so then Israel kept their Sabbath therein after a Ceremonial Precept contrary to Adams Pattern in keeping his first-day Sabbath
could not conveniently see the Church in a full Assembly before their usual appointed Time on the first day of the Week Secondly Then they came together to break Bread viz to eat the Lords Supper for so the same Expression is universally understood in Acts 2.42 So that on the first day of the Week the Church of Troas Assembled to hear the Word of God and to solemnize the Ordinances of Jesus Christ which pattern together with the Example of his Disciples before mentioned and the occasion of the change of the Jewish Sabbath answering the Precept of the Moral Law founded on the first sanctifying of the Sabbath with the Observation of the first and seventh-day Sabbath by Adam is a sufficient warrant for the keeping of our first-day Sabbath there being both a Precept and a double Example that justifieth our Observation of it And this I conceive to be the same day which St. John calls the Lords day as Dr. Wallis shews See his Defence of the Christian Sabbath in Answer to Mr. Thomas Bampfield Page 48. that we have the more Reason so to presume because we find it so called by others very soon after St. Johns time as Ignatius who was not only Contemporary with him but was a Disciple or Scholar of St. John now Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians even according to the genuine Edition published by Bishop Vshâ—â— out of an Ancient Manuscript not that which is justly suspected to be interpolated he doth earnestly exhort them not to Judâ—â—ze but to live as Christians not any longer observing the Jewish Sabbath but the Lords day on which Christ our Life rose again It is manifest therefore saith he as may be there further seen that within eight or ten Years after St. Johns writing the Lords day did not signifie the Jewish Sabbath but the first day of the Week on which our Saviour rose again and that it was then observed in contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath he also adds the evidence of Justin Martyr and farther saith that Dominica or dies Dominicus hath been so used not only by the Ancient Christian Writers Ignatius Clement Ireneus Origen Tertullian c. but by the Councils and Church History all along Now this Historical Testimony of Ignatius c. that the Lords day was accounted from St. Johns time the first day of the Week is the more to be regarded seeing Mr. Bampfield in his Reply to the Doctors Book does not as I can find in the least invalidate the Reputation or any ways deny the Truth of the aforesaid History SECT XIII HEre I shall observe that the first day Sabbath which I have been treating of is asserted by many Authors to be as its Heathen Name viz. Sunday that is still in Vulgar use does witness the same successive day which the Gentiles from great Antiquity have observed as the chief day of their Week in worship to the Sun See Dr. Nath. Hâ—lmes his Essay concerning the Sabbath Chap. 7.8 9. as Dr. Hâ—lmes sheweth how anciently the Sun was worshipped Jerem. 43.12 13. He shall break also the Images of Bethshemesh which in our Marginal Notes is translated the House of the Sun that is in the Land of Egypt and the Houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with Fire And Gen. 41.45 And â—haraoh called Josephs name Zaphnath-Paaneah and he gave him to Wife Asenath the Daughter of Potipherah Priest of On which he translates from the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Priest of the City of the Sun And he citeth divers Authors as Jo. Gr. Assyr Monarch idem Biblian to shew that Nimrod having given to the Sun his greatest God the Name of Baal Nimâ—od Gen. 10.8 was the Father of Belus See Mr. Tho. Chasiâ— on the Sabbath Page 29. he afterwards assumed that Name to himself And â—elus giving to their greatest God the Sun the Name of Jove the Contract of Jâ—lâ—vah the said Belus afterwards took that Name to himself and was called Jove Bel. I shall add that the Sâ—â—â— and Moon and the Host of Heaven were worshipped by the Gentiles before Israels coming out of Egypt as seemeth by the strict command given to them and the Penalty of Death to any Man or Woman that should worship the Sun and Moon Deut. 17.2 See Mr. Tho. Chasie on the Sabbath Chap. 15. 3 c. Also Mr. Chafie proves from divers Authors that the Heathens did of old Worship the Sun and that the weekly day to wit the seventh-day of every Week with the Gentiles which they call the day of the Sun or Sunday was the very same day which we call the Lords day Moreover Mr. Tho. Bampfield in his Reply to Doctor Walles page 56 57. saith That Mr. Chafie tells us page 40. That to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry viz. of worshipping the Sun the Lord used this means for one that they should not have the day of the Sun that is Sunday for the day of his Worship but the day before that is the Seventh day which saith Mr. Bampfield I think refers to the Time of the sixteenth or twentieth of Exodus which saith he proves not only the Observation of the seventh-seventh-day by the Israelites but of Sunday by the Heathens and that very Anciently and that continually in the Weekly Circulation of days to this day And Mr. Chafie's ninth and fifteenth Chapters saith Mr. Bampfield I think might give satisfaction that all Nations of Note under Heaven worshipped the Sun and that very anciently as far back at least as the Time of Moses and that upon Sunday and that weekly Now all the Use I intend to make hereof is that our first day Sabbath according to the Opinion of some Persons and to what Mr. Bampfield approveth of in Mr. Chafie's Book stands fairest to be the successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation of the World See Dr. H. Essay on the Sabbath Page 78.79.82 Gen 12.8 Chap. 13.4 as Dr. Holmeâ— saith We know that Idolaters were always the Apes as Divines call them of true Religion As because Abraham builded an Altar on the Mountain near Bethel and planted a Grove in Beersheba and prepared all things at Gods command to offer up his Son Isaac Therefore Idolaters planted Groves and worshipped in high Places their Idols Gen. 21.33 Chap. 22. and made their Children to pass through the Fire to them and therefore saith he nothing can be more probable than that the seventh-day with the ancient Patriaâ—â—ks was no other but that which afterwards was the Sunday or Day of or to the Sun with the 〈◊〉 and from them was called Sunday by other Nations also To which I add that the Astronomers say the measure of our days by the Revolutions of the Sun in a whole Years time differs between five and six hours from the Revolutions of the Stars which make a day every fourth or Leap Year and yet that the odd Minutes in which their Measure differs
the beginning and ending of their days to what they were before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or before their Bondage 1. For thô it 's said Gen. 1.2 3 5. That darkness was upon the face of the deep And God said Let there be-light and there was light and the evening and the morning was the first day Yet from hence there is no sufficient ground to conclude Mr. Tho. Chasie in his Tract on the Sabbath p. 4. saith The first things God made was day and night or light and darkness There was in Nature before thô not in time a mixed or confused darkness which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Arias Montanus correcting Pagnin translateth and calleth it Caligo it was neither perfect day nor perfect Night that the Night was created before the day for Mr. Chasie observes that the Hebrew word signifieth a mixed darkness neither perfect Day nor perfect Night and its rational to believe that those words In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth should be taken for God's creating the matter of the Heavens and the Earth before their form As it s said The Earth was without form and void and darkness or gloominess was upon the face of the deep And then the light and darkness was mixed and confused together and so if the order of expression of Gods perfecting any piece of the Creation does carry any precedency in order of time then the Day-light did Originally go before its Night but I conceive that neither of them was perfectly formed before the other for it s said ver 4. that God divided the light from the darkness which plainly sheweth they were mixed together and that he separated the Day from the Night that they should no more be mixed and confused together as they were before but should be distinctly placed in the two Hemispheres successively to circulate round the Heavens So that at the same time when the Light was separated into one Hemisphere or half part of the Heavens the Darkness was placed in the other and therefore neither of them were perfectly formed before the other in time It s true Isal 45.7 Moses was under a necessity to set either the Evening or the Morning or the Light or Darkness first in the account of the order of God's Creation which he wrote after the change of the account of the day And therefore least he should seem to dislike the Alteration which God had then but newly made of the beginning and euding of the account of the Natural Day for Sacred things he named the Evening before the Morning in the History of the Creation But yet we may plainly see that as the light was put tho not precreated before the darkness in the account of the first days Work of Creation and as it s said That God made two great lights Gen. 1.3.10.18 the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness So the light was counted afterwards for the former part of the Natural Day which consisteth of a Day-light and its Night or the revolution of the Sun in twenty four hours time For 2. We find that God created the Fowls of the Air on the fifth day and the Beasts and Cattel and every creeping thing of the Earth on the sixth day and made Adam and put him into the Garden of Eden and then brought them to him that he should give them Names before that God had caused a deep Sleep to fall upon him while he took out one of his Ribs and formed Eve and brought her unto him It is therefore rational to believe seeing it must necessarily take up time to name the Creatures and that Adam could not so well behold them in the Night as in the Day to distinguish every little Bird and every Fowl of the Air and all the Cattel and every Beast and creeping thing from each other to give them proper Names and to know them again by sight that he was formed in the day-light of that Hemisphere and that he spent the remaining part of it in that affair and that his sleep was in the following Night as the most proper time for it and then from this foot of account after Eve was formed at the Conclusion of the sixth days work of Creation both Adam and Eve first entred on God's seventh and their first day Sabbath at the beginning of the day-light or morning of the day to adore and worship God For as they had no need of the Night to sleep in for that they were newly made and fresh in the Strength and Perfection of their Nature Gen. 1.27 28. and as it best became our First Parents for the Lordship they received of God over the Creatures which he had made immediately to Attribute their Worship to him So it was most proper they should have first the Day-light to behold the Beauty of the Creation thereby to be excited from the Objects of their Eyes together with the Light of their Understandings to glorifie God on the first sanctified Day of his Rest from all his Works So that it is Rational to believe that Adam began his first First-day Sabbath with the morning or Day-light and consequently the following working days and Sabbath-days were all so to begin and successively to continue to others after him and according to this it s said a Exod. 10.13 Chap. 13.21 Lev. 8.35 Deut. 28.66 Job 26.10 Jer. 33.20 in Gen. 7.4 I will cause it to rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And so in Ver. 12. Forty days and forty nights And Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights Exod. 24.18 And in Gen. 8.6 At the end of forty days From which last place it is observable as well as from many other Scriptures b Gen. 8.10 12 Chap. 17.12 Exod. 21.21 Numb 14.34 that the Day and Night together is commonly called Day which is the most excellent part of that which is called the Natural Day of twenty four hours and therefore God might also give it the precedency in respect to its revolution with its Night originally unto Man 3. Leaving what I have already said of the beginning of the Natural Day to the serious Consideration of those that desire Information herein hoping it may be of use to them I proceed to bring in other Scripture Evidence also to prove that before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or were in bondage there the Day-light See Purchas Pilgrimage Page 118. lib 2.77 Emend Tem. lib. 1. Ainsworth on Gen. 10.10 Ezek. 23.15 Dan. 1.1 2. Ains Gen. 1.5 See Mr. G. Hughes Analytical Exposit of Genesis on Chap. 1.9 Gen. 10.8 9 10. Gen. 11.27 28 31. and not the Night was counted for the former part of the Natural Day As Purchas tells us citing Pliny and Scal. That the Babilouians began
thereby maketh a new Sacred fifteenth day of the Night of the Civil fourteenth day and the Day-light of the Civil fifteenth Day put together and from thence in an orderly Succession their Sacred time was measured for the due observing of those Feasts Sabbaths and Holy-days which God commanded the Children of Israel But for their Civil Affairs they still accounted their days from Morning to Morning as in 1 Sam. 19.10 And David fled and escaped that night Saul also sent Messengers unto Davids house to watch him and to slay him in the morning And Michal Davids wife told him saying If thou save not thy life to night to morrow thou shalt be slain from which Scripture it plainly appears that after that night the nex Morning or Day-light was accounted the Morrow which was another Day and not belonging to the Night going before And to this Mr. Tho. Godwin witnesseth in his Book called Moses and Aaron page 80. where he tells us That the Jews Natural Day was two-fold Civil a working Day which was destined for Civil Businesses and Works This saith he began at Sun-rising and held till the next Sun-rising Matth. 28.1 Or Sacred a Festival or holy-day destined for Holy Exercises This began at Sun-set and continued till the next Sun-set From all which both Sacred and Humane Evidence I shall make this Inference That if the Patriarchs before and after the Flood and the House of Israel successively had either kept the same precise seventh day Sabbath from the Creation or had reckoned the time of their beginning and ending of their Days and Weeks precisely and successively from thence althô their Sabbath might not have been duely observed in their bondage then the Jewish Sabbath from Evening to Evening after the Alteration of the account of the day could not be the precise successive seventh day from the Creation And seeing the Scripture is silent in fixing the Jewish seventh day or any other Day as that precise successive seventh day we cannot tell which is the same successive seventh day from the first seventh day of Rest which God Sanctified 3. I premise That if the Reasons I have given for Adams beginning his first Sabbath day in the Morning with the Day-light in that Hemisphere of the Garden of Eden should be counted by our Opponents too weak to draw a conclusion for a pattern to justifie us in beginning our Sabbath in the Morning and any should still hold the keeping of the Sabbath from Evening to Evening to be successively from the Creation then we have this to argue against their Opinion That as they have no Scripture for it so the Sun was not made till the fourth day of the Creation and we know not in what part of that day it was Sun-rising or Sun-setting or Noon or Mid-night in any Horizon or Hemisphere except we acknowledge that Adam began his first Sabbath with the Morning and then it follows that a little before the fourth day was ended it was about as much before the beginning of the fifth day with the Morning or Sun-rising in Eden otherwise as it cannot then be known where the seventh day of God's Rest which had the same successive proportion of time as the six days of Creation was bounded with the rising and setting of the Sun but that when God's seventh day of Rest after his sixth day of Creation began and ended any where it began and ended every where at the same instant season and it was no where then any other than the seventh day which began in some places at Evening in others at Morning in others at Midnight in others at Noon and in some or other places at all hours of the Day and Night and the Revolution of the Light and Darkness was the Day which is called Natural in distinction to that which is by some called the Artificial Day or Day-light only There cannot therefore from the first seventh day of God's Rest be any footing of account to measure out to us the time of day for the beginning of our Day nor consequently for the beginning and ending of our Sabbath-day for that it is not known to us where the Sun was when that seventh day of God's Rest first began unless we give way to what hath been clearly demonstrated from the Scripture that the Sun arose or was about rising then to Paradice and to believe as there is reason for it that Adam had that whole Day-light sanctified which preceded the Night of his Sabbath 4. It is very clear that God did never design the Law and Institution of the Sabbath to Israel in the Wilderness to bind either Jews or Gentiles to the observation of the precise orderly Succession of their seventh day Sabbath as from the Creation to the end of the World because we find that God himself did afterwards make an interruption of the Natural Order of the account of Time when the Sun was brought backward ten degrees in the Dial of Ahaz and when it stood still in the midst of Heaver about a whole Day 1. As to the Suns going backward ten degrees Isai 38.8 See his Book Page 157.158 Mr. Weems in his Christian Synagogue has made a draught of Ahaz Dial and explained the matter telling us that that Day was prolonged twenty two hours reckoning the ten degrees or divisions on the Dial to be five hours backward and then the Suns going forward again is 5 hours more with twelve hours is twenty two hours Day-light in all 2. It is said Josh 10.13 So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day Now if we duely consider this place it seems by the Suns standing still in the midst of Heaven that it stood still in the Meridian or Noon-tide of Canaan about a whole day and add to the time of its standing still the half or that part of the Day that was past before and that followed after when the Sun moved forwards to its going down and then that Day or Day-light continued twenty four hours or was about as long as the Day and Night together and so if the Jews did reckon all that large Day-light to belong to the preceding Night then the beginning of their next Sabbath fell later than its usual course about twelve hours time and if they divided that long Day-light and put half of it to the former and half of it to the following Night then they did thereby alter the beginning of their Natural Day for Sacred things and reckon that last twelve hours of Day-light for the former part of the Day belonging to the following Night but such a succession of days for Sacred things was against the Command of God for the Time and Order of beginning and ending all their Sabbaths and Holy-days But instead of these if any should yet say That when the Sun had continued in their Hemisphere about twenty four hours time the Natural Course of the Night being altered
for the Observation of the Sabbath on the seventh-seventh-day does destroy its Moral Limitation to the seventh-day appointed to Israel next after the sixth day on which they gathered Manna as a Pattern sixing their six working days before their Sabbath because we are referred by it to the Pattern in the beginning when Gods seventh-day Sabbath was Mans first-day Sabbath and not to the time of gathering Manna nor of Israels coming out of Egypt which last appeareth from other places of Scripture to be the Reason of the Ceremonial beginning and ending of their Sabbath from Evening to Evening It 's true that seventh-day appointed in the Wilderness did answer the Moral Precept of the fourth Commandment but yet mistake me not It is not found to Answer it simply because it was that very seventh-day then appointed or simply for that very days-sake without regard to their Deliverance out of Egypt and that new Appointment for if another seventh-day had been sixed for their Sabbath it had answered the command as well as that but because that same seventh-day was appointed to them a boundary successively before and after their six working days nor did this command Morally-limit them to keep the same precise seventh-day successively from the Creation for such a Limitation is not in this Precept nor in any other place in the Holy Scriptures but it tyeth the Sabbath to the seventh-day as a boundary to their or our or any Nations six working days or to the first-day before and after them which answereth the same Law SECT IX I Shall here Instance some particular Cases in the New Testament in which we are referred to the Pattern in our first Parents which may serve as Examples to juslifie our doing the like for the Observation of the Sabbath-day as 1. It is said in 1 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Let the Woman learn in Silence with all Subjection But I suffer not a Woman to 〈◊〉 nor to usurp Authority over the Man but to be in Silence For Adam was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Transgression And 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your Women keep Silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law In these two Scriptures there are two Moral Reasons given and one Command mentioned for Womens Subjection unto the Men. 1. Because Adam had the Priority of being formed before Eve and he having her Original Humane Substance first in himself had thereby a natural Precedency to her Free and Voluntary Subjection But 〈◊〉 The Woman being first deceived and in the Transgression she fell thereby under a more absolute Law of Obedience to her Husband Gen. 3.16 Vnto the Woman he said thy desire shall be to thy or as it is in our Margin Subject to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee Now from hence we may clearly see how the Apostle confirms his Doctrine from the Order of Nature in our first Parents and the Institution of God to them and if these are of Moral Use and Perpetually binding for our Obedience then we have Reason to believe that Gods sanctifying the first seventh-day-Sabbath and the Order of Adam and Eve keeping of it before their six working days is also of Moral use unto us 2. I shall shew that an express Law of Moses is not only Abrogated by the Authority of Jesus Christ but he justifies the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents as may be seen in Mark 10.2 3 4. And the Pharisees came to him and asked him Is it lawful for a Man to put away his Wife tempting him And he answered and said unto them What did Moses command you And they said Moses suffered to write a Bill of Divorcement and to put her away And Jesus answered and said unto them For the hardness of your Heart he wrote you this Precept But from the beginning of the Creation God made them Male and Female For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh what therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder And he saith unto them whosoever shall put away his Wife Matthew saith except it be for Fornication and Marry another committeth Adultery against her 1. To prevent any mistake about this Precept of Divorcement and to confirm what I may conclude from our Saviours Words before recited I shall consider the Original Transcript of it in Deut. 24.1 When a Man hath taken a Wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in our Margin it is matter of Nakedness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And here I shall note that this matter of Uncleanness or Nakedness is not to be understood of Adultery or Whoredom For the Dutch Annotations say that the Hebrew Word signifieth Nakedness or Scandalousness of any thing wherein the Husband taketh dislike to her except Whoredom or Fornication And Mr. Ainsworth saith It is any thing of Shame or Ignominy as the Greek translateth a Shameful or Vncomely thing and he also saith that this is thought of some not to be meant of Adultery for which she was to dye if it were proved but of some evil thing in her Conditions or Actions which displeased her Husband Deut. 22.22 So the Phrase was used in Deut. 23.14 for that which was uncleanly and unseemly 2. The Sence of our Saviours Words clearly sheweth that this Law of Divorcement was designed for other Matters than for Whoredom or Fornication for our Lord owning Moses Precept of Sufferance to put away their Wives excepts against it unless it be in the Case of Fornication which if it were so limited under the Law then Moses Sufferance was nothing but what our Saviour still alloweth and Christs Prohibition was nothing at all This being Premised it now follows that our Lord maketh that Adultery under the Gospel that was not accounted so under the Law And from the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve he Abrogateth the Use and Authority of Moses Precept for suffering Men to put away their Wives for smaller Causes than Fornication and if the Pattern in our first Parents was of such Moral use as to justifie our Saviours abolishing of a written Precept of Moses we have then Reason also to believe that their Example or the Order of time of their first observing the Sabbath-day that was sanctified for them is of Moral use to us we also having the Jewish Sabbath Abrogated by Christs Authority in the New Testament SECT X. HAving opened and explained the two Foundation Scriptures for our keeping the Sabbath-day and proved the fourth Commandment to be Morally binding to all Nations and that the Jewish Pattern for the Sabbath is
Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Here as was mentioned before Sabbaths are distinctly expressed from the New Moon and Feasts or other Jewish Holy days that were or had also Sabbaths and were observed under the Law and therefore their weekly seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Word Sabbaths and equally prohibited with the New Moon and other selâ—ival Sabbaths that were then observed 2. It appeareth the Jewish seventh-day was a shadow of things to come in that it was a Sign and Memorial of Israth Deliverance out of Eâ—ypt for that Deliverance with all its Memorials was a Type of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and oâ— the Gospel Signs and Memorials of it for it s said That all the Prophets 〈◊〉 11.13 and the Law prophesud until John 3. Tho' the change of the Jâ—â—ish seventh day into the Christion sirst-day Sabbath in Distinction to tieiâ—s was Typed out by the eighth or sust day and by the Year of Jâ—bilee under the Law as I have shewed yet our Claiâ—â—ion Salbath considered as our seventh-day to our six working days was also shadowed by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath 4. It this will not fatissie I have also this to say That we find nothing applyed in the New Testament as the Antitype of the New Moon It 's true there is something signisied or shadowed to us by the New Moon Isa 66.23 And by the Feast of Tabernacles Zach. 14.16 which places both relate to Christs Glorious Kingdom yet to come and not to our present Gospel-day but yet we cannot certainly say what the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles does particularly shadow to us Howbeit from thence it 's plain that the New Moon is a shadow of something yet to come and seeing the Apostle saith so too and comprehends the seventh-day Sabbath with it we can no more deny his forbidding all Men not to judge or censure the Christians for not observing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath than for not observing their New Moons and other Holy days and for any to except the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath out of this Prohibition because they sind no present Gospel Antitype shadowed by it expresly applyed to it in the New Testament will give equal Liberty for others to except against the Prohibition of observing their New Moons And therefore seeing those Typical days and times of the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles that were not evident shadows of present but of suture Gospel things are not to be kept in our Gospel days as Signs and Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt or for any other Reason and yet the Record of them in Scripture does retain their Typical and Shadowy Significations then surely we have equal Reason to conclude that in Case it were granted as it is not that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath was no shadow of any present Gospel thing yet as a Sign and Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt and also as a shadow of suture things it is not to be observed tho' the Record of it in Scripture does still retain a shadowy Signification and is so of Use to us 5. Tâ—â— some have sound out a more cunning Distinction than an Explanation of Truth batteen the typicalness or significative Nature of the Jewish Sabbith and the Sabbath or day it self yet this covâ—â—ing may castly be removed and their mistake Corrected for tho' the Pypical use oâ— their Sabbath to suture things still temaineth on sacred Record and is not wronged by transâ—erring the same Typical Signiâ—ication to be born also by our actual keeping the 〈◊〉 day Sabbath as the seventh-day Sabbath also yet it is the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath the day it self that is aboâ—ished as other things were that were Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt which respecting their seventh-day Sabbath was in their beginning and ending of it From Evening to Evening to answer their new day from the Sacrisice of their first Passover thereby weekly and dailytoo to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory and so the significative Nature of the day respecting an actual and practical bearing up the Memory of that Deliverance could not be removed unless the Sabbath day it self were altered in its beginning and ending which was to cease with their Church-state and to give way to our Gospel Memorials of the greater deliverance when our Spiritual Redemption and Eternal Salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ 6. The Jewish Sabbath its self is abrogated without a repeal of any part of the Moral Law or Ten Commandments or any Moral Branch of that Law tho' the keeping of it by the Jews did answer and fulfil it in the fourth Command For as I have noted the fourth Command of its self does not require the Sabbath to begin and end from Evening to Evening so it consequently follows it does not of its self limit the keeping of that very day but this was done by another Ceremonial Precept which till it was abrogated tho' it answered the Moral Law as being their seventh-day boundary to their six working days yet it does not therefore follow that it was of its self of a Moral Nature for then we must also say that all other Ceremonial Precepts are Moral and all the Jewish Worship is Moral for nothing was required contrary to the Ten Commandments but for Israels putting forth their Obedience to them which was to be exerted according to the revealed Will of God in all the other Appendant both Moral and Ceremonial Precepts and Branches of the Decalogue So that the prohibiting of the Sabbath according to the Jewish Pattern is no repeal of any Part or Moral Branch of the Ten Commandments but is only an Abrogation of a Ceremonial Precept that pertained to it during the shadowy Dispensation of the Law Object 11. Here I shall answer to something I find in Mr. Edward Stennet's Book of the seventh-day Sabbath Page 47. concerning those Countreys where they have so much day together in the Summer and Night together in the Winter Saith he the Psalmist saith Psal 74.20 The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty That is saith he they are the places by Divine Appointment for the cruel Wild Beasts and not for Man except they will become like Beasts for as David saith There is no Sperch nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard Psal 19.2 3. So that if there be any Speech or Language under Heaven that hear not the Voice of Day and Night they are gone out of that orderly State which they were in in Davids Time and so ought to return again into such Countreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God and live under the means of Grace for men ought to sorsake all that this World affords rather than Sin against God and if so then men may well forsake their dark
places and come to the Light for mens Habitations ought to stoop to Gods Law and not Gods Law to their Habitations Answer 1. The Psalmist faith Psal 74 1â— 20 21. O deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the Multitude of the Wicked forget not the Congregation of thy Poor for ever Have respect unto the Covenant For the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty O let not the oppressed return ashamed let the Poor and Needy Praise thy Name This is a Prayer pleaded from the Covenant that the oppressed Turtle Dove and Congregation of Gods Poor might be delivered from the wicked for saith the Psalmist The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty As if he should say O deliver thy Poor and Needy in those places of the Earth that are dark with Blind and Cruel Inhabitants that oppress them for as there is not one Word of Wild Beasts mentioned in the Text or any Agreement of its connexed Matter to imply the darkness of place to be understood for want of the Light of the Sun and the Natural Day So those Countreys are no more deseribed to us by being called dark places than if they were called the Light places of the Earth Because they have the same Proportion of Light together more than other Countreys have in the Summer as they have of Darkness together in the Winter and in the whole Year they have equal Light and Darkness to other places And therefore as it cannot be proved by any other Scripture that by dark places in the Text are meant those Countreys but that the matter connexed to the Text implies it to and expounds it of dark Persons if it were granted as it is not that by dark places is meant those Countreys it is sufficient to invalidate all that is there said by Mr. Stennet against our proving that the Jewish seventh-day Sâ—bbath from Evening to Evening is not morall â—â—â—ding to all Nations for the â—â—â—â—bitants of such Countreys having no Sun nor Day for several Weeks in Wâ—â—ter not any Night not Evening for several Weeks in Summer they mast of Neâ—â—shty â—vide their â—une and bound their Sabbâ—â—hs some other ways Vz In Summer the account of their Time must be preservâ—â— and their hight measâ—ed and divided into their hight days oâ— twenty soâ—â— hours by their Meridian and in Winter Astâ—oâ—â—mers say when the Sun is absent from them for several Weeks they may preserve the account of Time and Measure and divide their Darkness into dark days of twenty four hours by the help of the Staâ—s And by Clocks or Glasses of Sand as we do our hours of the Day and Night So that tho' their Sabbath may be duely kept with the same Proportion of Time as we do in our Nation yet seeing it cannot there be observed after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening that Precept was therefore never designed for all Nations to exert their Obedience by it to the Moral Law 2. See Mr. Edw. Stennets Book on the seventh-seventh-day in Page 47. I now come to speak to the other Text Psaâ—m 19.2 3. which the Author thus citeth saith he David faith There is no Speech nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard But he hath not dealt ingeniously with this Scripture so to transpose the matter in citing of it to make it savour his Cause contrary to its true Order and Sence as it lies in the Holy Bible for the Psalmist saith Vor. 1.2 3. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Day unto Day mâ—â—reth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There as no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard Their Line is gone out through all the Earth and their Words to the â—nd of the World Now let the Reader consider whether this place of Scripture hath any thing in into his purpose surely if it be duely considered it will appear strongly against him for if those Words There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard relate to the two preceding Verses then we must understand them of the Voice of Gods handy-work in the Creation and orderly abiding of the Firmament and Ordinances of the Heavens and Day and Night or Light and Darkness which declare the glorious Wisdom and Power of God to every People according to the Scituation of their Countreys throughout the World but if those Words are expounded as they are most propeâ—â— connexed to the following Verse then the Aposâ—le in Rom. 10. Rom 10.15 16 17 18. Math. 28.19 applies them to the Preathing of the Gospel to the ends of the World and the Lord hath promised in Isa 66.19 which relates to a different Time after the sust Promulga â—on of the Gospâ—â— and therefore may reach to those Blind and â—gnorant Notâ—here People we are treatâ—â—g of that 〈…〉 esâ—â—pe to I arshish Pull and 〈◊〉 c. and to the 〈◊〉 a at oâ—â— that have not heard of his Name nor seen his Glory and the shall declare his Glory among the Gemtles So that the Word of the Gospel and consequently the Moral Law in the Old â—estament annexed to it and consirmed by it was to be 〈◊〉 to Mens Habitations for tho' all Nations shall go up to the Moâ—â—â—ain oâ— the Lords House Isa 2.3 Isâ— 60.1 2 3 c. yet this shall be either their volâ—â—â—â—â— Act to 〈◊〉 their Knowledge of his ways from the extrandinary Light that shall 〈◊〉 oâ— the Tribes of Israel when they shall be returned into their own Land in the Time of Christs Gloâ—ous Kingdom here on Eâ—â—th or to do subjective Homage every car once a year Zach. 14 like to the other Text Isa 66.23 where its 〈◊〉 Teat 〈…〉 new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to 〈◊〉 shaâ— all Plesh come to norship before me saith the Lord And whatever is intended by this monthly worship to be in the suture Glotions Time of Christs Kingdom yet as we have nothing of it now in the New Testament and so this Text can no ways prove that any Nation should in our present day remove their Habitations to another Countrey so it cannot be taken that all Nations should assemble into one place once a Month or every Sabbath for thus they cannot appear before the Lord but once a year and I Question if it be then required of every individual Person but of some of all Nations as it cannot be monthly shictly considered or rather of all those Nations only that came against Jâ—rusalem as it is expresly said Zâ—â—h 14.16 And I do not sind it otherwise that Men should now or then remove their Habitations into any Countrey or the Land of Canaan unto the Gospel for as this can never be until it comes first into the places where they are to convince them and bring them over to the Obedience of it so the end