XIII Sheweth the ancient Observation of the first day of the Week called Sunday by the Heathens And that there is greater Reason to believe it is rather than the Jewish Sabbath the Old seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation tho' neither the one nor the other can be assured of the same Page 47. Sect. XIV Containeth a brief Discourse shewing wherein our first day Sabbath answers the Pattern of Adams Sabbath better than the Jewish Sabbath doth Page 50. And also sheweth the time of Day when our Christian Sabbath should begin and the Reasons why we had no Positive Command left us in the New Testament to observe the first day of the Week a Sabbath Page 52 c. With a Discourse of the Morality of Adams Pattern Page 56. And of Gods accepting the first of Time Page 58. Lastly Answers to the Chiefest Objections made against our keeping the first day Sabbath A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day WHEREIN The keeping of the First Day of the Week a Sabbath is justified by an Institution of God and a double Example contained in the Old and New Testament THAT we have both a Precept and a double Example to justifie the keeping of the first day of the week a Sabbath I have here to produce from the Holy Scriptures The Precept is in the Fourth Commandment founded on God's first sanctifying the Sabbath-day and we have the Example of Christs Disciples with the primitive Gospel Churches in the New Testament and of Adam to his Posterity all which I shall prove and explain as followeth SECT I. First That the Reader may not be under any mistake about the use I make of the word Moral throughout this Treatise I shall here acquaint him that in its self it belongeth to Manners Civility or Behaviour properly to the Actions of Man only as he is Man And so by some the Moral Law is taken for the Law Light or Instinct of Nature which Adam had in the State of Innocency which altho this be true yet I also make a larger use of the word For as no Man knoweth by Nature the extent of Adams light in all particulars for his Obedience when he was in Innocency and therefore cannot describe the whole of that Law of Nature And as I suppose the prohibition to him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not be deny'd by any to have been binding for all his posterity as Men so we must have recourse to Divine Revelation for the better understanding our Moral and universal Duty to God since the Law of Nature is so much obliterated in us through the fall And therefore because of the darkness and depravity of our Minds we have the substance of the Law of Nature given to us in written Precents which may be called Moral as they are not Ceremonial but perpetually and universally binding to all Men for their Obedience unto God and also Institutions by Divine Revelation as being now a more full discovery to us of the Mind of God first implanted in our innocent Parents than we retain in our Natures or can recover in our fall So that when I speak of the Moral Law or of Morality it must be taken as the Adjunct Matter governs it in either sence of the Law or Light of Nature alone in the State of Innocency or contained in those transcribed Precepts of the Ten Commandments as the substance thereof in general Heads and in those other Precepts that morally do explain them which I shall only take notice of wherein I am concerned and not collect and reserr them all to their proper Heads In brief I use the word Moral in common to those things that are of universal and perpetual Concern to all Mankind for their Obedience to God as their Creator For as to the case before us seeing it s said that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it We cannot say that Adam by his pure Light of Nature alone knew that it was meetest to have but six working days and no less as 5 7 or 8 together to one Sabbath but that from God's Example revealed to him the light of Adams Nature told him that it was most meet for him to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working or common days to one Sabbath SECT II. TO proceed on the Subject Matter of this Treatise I shall here recite the first Foundation Scripture for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to six working days and briefly Note something of the Nature and Quality of the Text Gen. 2.2 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made It is here said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is he made it a happy and holy day by setting it apart from common use for Man to worship him and he appointed it to be a rest for Adam by Revelation as he did that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for otherwise Adam could not by his Light of Nature alone know the time which had passed before he was Created nor could he understand the Mind of God as it was in God himself and therefore the knowledge Adam had of God's sanctifying the seventh day Sabbath was by Supernatural Revelation to him And this I presume none will deny for a time for Man to abstain or rest from his own business to exert his solemn Worship to God is morally implanted in the Heart of Man by Nature and surely God did not conceal from Adam the meetest time when he sanctified the first seventh day of the World for that end Besides before that God had formed Eve Gen. 2.7.8 15. he put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and therefore Adam being appointed to do this business he might have applyed himself thereto immediately after Eve was formed and brought to him if he had not received the knowledge of God's sanctifying the seventh Day yea then it had been lawful for him to have worked on God's Sabbath if it had not been revealed to him Moreover Our Saviour puts this matter clearly out of doubt because he referrs the making of the Sabbath not to the first Institution of it at the gathering of Manna in the Wilderness but to the time of God's creating Man Mark 2.27 saying The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath that is the Sabbath was not first made and then Man for the sake of the Sabbath but Man was first Created and then the Sabbath was sanctified for his Happiness as the blessing of it signifieth God's bare ceasing from Work did not make it for Man but
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-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
of the Gospel for a successive Conversion of Souls and beinging of all Nations into Subjection to Chrills Righteous and Visible Kingdom cannot be accomplished unless the Christians of those Countreys remain inhabitants therein And for any to imagine that God should send a Moral Pattern by an Institution to men in general which is impossible to be observed by all Mankind in every Countrey under Heaven without the least Exception to accommodate the Necessity of the Course of Nature is both against the Nature of such a Precept the Righteousness of God and the Equiey of his Law But to conclude this Answer I shall make this remark on the Authors Words before recited That seeing he saith That they ought to return again into such Câ—umreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God for Mens Habitations ought to stoop to Gods Law and not Gods Law to their Habitations It is plain he granteth the Law for the seventh-day Sabbath or the fourth Command which he Treats of as binding us to the Observation of the Jewish Sabbath cannot be kept in those Countreys after their Pattern from Evening to Evening and then it must needs be Ceremonial and the Moral keeping of that command is for them and us to observe our seventh-day after our six working days or our first-day before them as near as can be to answer the Gospel Pattern Object 12. Thô the Sun stood still in Joshua's time about a whole day and its going backward and sorward ten Degrees or Divisions in Abaz Dial might lose ten hours account of Time so that after these Interruptions of the orderly Course of the Sun their Sabbath began and ended near or about a whole days time later than they should have done if there had not been such an Interruption in the Order of Nature yet those longer days than ordinary were counted but for days and so the seventh-day was the seventh-day still successively from their first Sabbath Answer Altho' some have thus argued that the seventh-day was the seventh-day still Josh 10.13 Isa 38.8 See Page 29. yet after those Interruptions of the orderly course of the Sun if we count its ten Degrees or Divisions of going backward and then forward again to be ten hours lengthning of that day as there is the greatest Reason to believe that so it was then the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath fell near or about a days time later than their precise orderly Succession of Time would have placed it from their first Sabbath as was shewed before And farther as their seventh-day Sabbaths could not after those Interruptions he properly counted the precise orderly successive Sabbaths from the Creation or its Institution in the Wilderness so if this should be allowed as it is objected then we may also say in those Northern parts where the days are sometimes lengthened by the Suns continuing in their Hemisphere more than twenty four hours time unto Days Weeks and Months that we are still to reckon them but for days contrary to the Custom of those People See Mr. T. Chasie cited Page 33. and the length of days and weeks in Gods Pattern of meafuring time but after this account their days will differ in length of Time Days Weeks and Months from one another and so tho' they have the orderly Succession of the Settings and Risings of the Sun according to the orderly Course of Nature in those places yet the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath cannot possibly this way be successively kept precisely in Proportion of Time there like as it was in Canaan and other parts of the World So that for any to argue for the precise Succession of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath from their first keeping it or from the Creation after those Interruptions of the orderly course of the Day will consequently tend to draw us into great Confusions about the Sabbath and to maintain that in Name which is not properly so in Nature Object 13. The journeying of the two Disciples to Emmaus Luke â—4 13 and back again was near fifteen Miles which is more than a Sabbath days journey how then could their Travelling consist with the keeping of that first-day of the Week a Sabbath Answer 1. We sind Christ reproved them for their unbelief and if this will not be allowed as inclusive for their journeying from Jerusalem when they should have continued in Faith with the eleven Apostles thaâ— were there gathered together then I may farther add that it cannot be proved whether their journey was then Lawful or Unlawful for thô it be not lawful on the Sabbath-day to journey at all on the account of any common or worldly Business of our own yet there may possibly be a Moral necessity to journey on the Sabbath-day without Sin as it may be for the saving a Persons Life and therefore we cannot conclude that the two Disciples sinned in Travelling on the first Christian Sabbath or did thereby make it a common day unless we knew the occasion of it 2. Those two Disciples were not of the number of the Eleven Disciples or Apostles of our Lord which were themselves then but weak in Faith and in the Knowledge of Gospel things and therefore it is the less to be wondered at if those two Disciples did not observe that day a Sabbath when they doubted of the occasion of it viz. the Resurrection of Christ till he appeared to them which he also did to the Eleven Luke 24.33 Math. 28.8 and others who were waiting together on that day for the Confirmation of their Faith Object 14 The Jews reckoned their days to begin at Evening and therefore the Church of 〈◊〉 Acts 20.7 came together to break Bread on the begiâ—â—â—â— of the first day of the Week viz. on Saturday Night 〈◊〉 so called after the Jewish Sabbath was over and the next Morning Paul did go a soot to Asses where he had appoâ—â—ted his Companions to meet him with the Ship So that Paul and his Company travelled on the first day of the Week and therefore tho' he preached and broke Bread on it the Night before yet he kept it not as a Sabbath Answer It s true the Jews were appointed to keep their Sacred days from Evening to Evening or from Sun set to Sun set as Mr. See his Reply to Dr. Wallis Page 28.29,30 Josh 10.26 27. Prov. 〈…〉 Mark 1.32 Chap. 13.35 Baâ—pfield largely proves that the Evening belonging to the days of the Week began at Sun-set and is called the twilight And also Moseâ— dated Israels Deliverance out of Egypt from the Sacrifice of the Passover at Even at the going doan of the Sun But yet I have clearly proved that the days before and after that Deliverance were also reâ—koned from Morning to Morning as in Math. 28.1 In the â—nd of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first-day of the Week From whence its plain that the first-day of the Week on which Christ arose from the Dead was counted by the