Convocation no manner of Work shall be done in them save that which every man shall eat that is they are to be kept as a Sabbath or day of Holy Rest ver 15 16. From the Fourteenth day at evening till the One and Twentieth day at evening ver 18. that is from the Fourteenth day at Midnight till the One and Twentieth at Mid-night And in like manner Lev. 23. 32. from Even to Even or Night to Night that is from Mid-night to Mid-night or from the end of one Evening to the end of the next Evening So in Levit. 23. 5. and Numb 28. 16 17. In the Fourteenth day of the First month is the Pass-over of the Lord and in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast Seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten c. Where it is manifest that the fourteenth day which is the Lords Pass-over is another day from the fifteenth which is the first day of the Feast For I will pass through the land of Egypt saith God this night that is the night of the Fourteenth day and will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt Ex. 12. 12. And what time of the night it was we are told ver 28. And it came to pass at Midnight the Lord smote all the first born of the land of Egypt And to the same purpose Moses tells Pharaoh chap. 11. 4 5 6 7 Thus saith the Lord About Mid-night will I go out into the midst of Egypt And the first born of the land of Egypt shall dy from the first born of Pharaoh c. that ye may know that the Lord hath put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel So that the fourteenth day which was the Lords Pass-over continued till the Mid-night of that day and then began the fifteenth day which was the first day of the Feast Than which I think nothing can be more clear And Num. 33. 3. The fifteenth day of the first month is the morrow after the Pass-over In like manner Deut. 16. 6. Thou shalt Sacrifice the Pass-over at even at the going down of the Sun that is after the going down of the Sun or when the Sun is gone down at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt which was about Mid-night Ex. 12. 21. Ex. 11. 4. What he offers from Gen. 1. 5. is easily answered The evening and the morning were the first day and so of the other days Whence he would have it thought that the day is to begin at the begining of the Evening Or as the Margin tells us it is in the Hebrew the evening was and the morning was the first day Or there was evening and there was morning day one for in such order the words stand in the Hebrew Or and was evening and was morning day one That is there was in the first day and so in the rest evening and morning or darkness and light And the Dark is put first because beginning the day from Midnight the dark is before the Light And by day one is meant the first day And it was moreover very agreable so to reckon For supposing Paradise the principal seat of Action the Sun may reasonably be supposed to be Created in the middle of the Fourth day Gen. 1. 16. in the Meridian of that place as in its greatest Splendor or if not in the Meridian of that place it must needs be in the Meridian of some place and wherever that be the day of 24 hours being there half past it must have begun at Mid-night foregoing And I doubt not but a Child born on Saturday night at Ten a Clock was to be Circumcised the next Saturday as being the Eighth day not on the Sunday after I have insisted the longer on this because I find him afterward moving another question about what time the Sabbath is to begin and end and lays great stress upon it as we shall see anon Of which I think we need not be further solicitous than to begin and end this day according as other days are accounted to begin and end in the places where we live I do not think the Fourth Commandment to descend to these Punctilio's But if he think it necessary to be more curious in it I take it to be very plain from what I have said that at the time of Christs Death and Resurrection it was accounted to begin very early in the morning while it was dark and continue till very late at night according as we now account our days from Midnight to Mid-night But I go on We have now found our Saviours Example as to the two First Sundays from his Resurrection if at least their first day of the Week be our Sunday imploying the day in Religious Exercises and Sabbatical Affairs with his Disciples How many more Sundays he so spent with them we cannot tell Which Examples of his Two first with their Imitation of him in others after of which we are to speak by and by and the Churches practise ever since looks so like the Celebration and Institution of a Christian Sabbath or day of Holy Rest and Religious Exercise as that we may warrantably do the like I am sure it is more than he can shew for the Saturday Sabbath in Gen. 2. 3. Save that men are apt to think a small thing an Institution and Ius Divinum for what they fansy but as to what they do not nothing will serve but Full Express Words We have next clear Evidence of a like Practise consonant to this Example in Act. 20. 7. On the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul Preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his Speech until Mid-night Which is so plain that he is much put to his shifts to avoid it That here is a Religious Assembly of the Disciples he doth not deny Paul was Preaching very late even till Mid-night and they met to break bread which I think is generally agreed by Interpreters to signify the Celebration of the Lords Supper and I know not well what clearer Character we need demand of a Religious meeting for Worship sutable to the Work of a Sabbath or Holy Rest. And it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I think he will not deny though he seem to cavil at it to signify on the first day of the Week But he excepts that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated Preached is elsewhere render'd Reasoned or Discoursed Be it so and if that word will please him better let it be so here he reasoned discoursed treated or did hold forth that I think will not alter the case and he continued or held on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Discourse this Speech this Sermon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sermonem till Mid-night he held on this holding forth till Mid-night which I take to be the same with what we now call Preaching or very like it 't was a long continued discourse to a
A DEFENSE OF THE Christian Sabbath In Answer to A TREATISE of Mr. Tho. Bampfield Pleading for SATURDAY-SABBATH BY IOHN WALLIS D. D. And Professor of Geometry in the University of OXFORD OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield and are to be Sold by Chr. Coningsby at the Golden Turks-Head over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street LONDON 1692. Imprimatur IONATH EDWARDS Vice-Can OXON Sep. 17 t. 1692. A DISCOURSE Concerning The Christian Sabbath SIR Iune 12. 1692. I Had a while since a Book sent me by the Carrier I know not well from whom of Mr. Thomas Bampfield which in the Title-Page is said to be Printed for the Author 1692. It is Concerning the Sabbath Which he thinks should rather be Observed on what we call Saturday than on what we call Sunday I should not on this Account give any Disturbance to the Peace or Practise of the Church where I live so that a Sabbath be duly Observed as to the Substantials of it though perhaps not upon what day I should chuse For I do not know and I believe no man living can tell me whether what we now call Sunday be a First a Second a Third or a Seventh day in a continued Circulation of Weeks from the Creation And what it is impossible for me to know I think will be no Crime to be Ignorant of Nor hath this Author any other way than common Tradition on which he is not willing that we should lay weight whereby to guess which is the First or which is the Seventh day in such a Circulation of Weeks either from the Creation or even from Christ's Time I am sufficiently satisfied that we ought to keep a Sabbath that is a day of Holy Rest after Six days of ordinary Labour according to the Fourth Commandment and this in a continued Course or Circulation But I am not certain nor can I be which is a First or a Seventh day in such a Circulation of Weeks from the Creation And therefore shall content my self to observe that day which I find observed in the Church where I live In Old England I observe the Sabbath which here I find And if I were in New-England I would observe the Sabbath which I find observed there Though I think it may be disputable whether they and we may be said to observe the same day the First Meridian passing between them and us And yet I would not advise to have it changed in either Now I can hardly think that God hath laid the great stress of so weighty a Point as whereon the main of Gods publick Worship doth much depend on such a Circumstance as is impossible for us to know and of which we may be modestly ignorant I should rather think that what Christ says of the Place Ioh. 4. 21 23 The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor in Ierusalem worship the Father but the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth is in good measure true of the Time also And as it is not so material whether in this or that Place God be Worshiped so he be Worshiped Aright so neither is it so material whether on this or that day as that a Sabbath or day of Holy Rest be duly kept The publick Worship of God was then in great measure confined to the Temple not indifferently in any place within thy Gates but in the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse to put his name there Deut. 16. 6 11 15 16. For which any other place may now be as well assigned that men pray every where lifting up holy hands c. 1 Tim. 2. 8. Privately in private places and Publickly in places appointed for the publick And I do not think we are now more confined to the Iewish Sabbath than to the Iewish Temple This premised I can agree with this Author in many things by him discussed I agree that Our Lord Iesus Christ according to his Divinity was God and is so the true God the God that made Heaven and Earth the God who delivered the Law upon Mount Sinai For though we do acknowledge in the Godhead a Trinity of Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost whereof Christ according to his Divinity is called the Second Person the Son of God or God the Son yet those Three Persons are but One God Nor do I know any other true God but One The God that made Heaven and Earth The Lord Iehovah The God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob The Lord God of Israel The Lord their God who brought them out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage and besides whom we are to have no Other God The God who delivered the Law to them on Mount Sinai And I do agree that Our Lord Iesus Christ is as to his Divinity this God the True God the onely true God and that he was so before his Incarnation How far each of those Actions are to be ascribed to this or that Person of the Trinity we need not be over solicitous What in the New Testament is more peculiarly ascribed to this or that of the Three Persons is in the Old Testament wont to be ascribed to God indefinitely without such particular application the doctrine of the Trinity being then not so distinctly discovered But I cannot agree that Christ as God and Man in contradistinction to the Father and Holy Ghost did all those things for he was not then Man I agree with him also that God who made the World in Six days Rested the Seventh day Gen. 2. 23. Exod. 20. 11. And that he Blessed the Sabbath day and Hallowed it And that accordingly he hath appointed after Six days of ordinary Labour Man should observe a Seventh day of Holy Rest and this in a continued succession But I should rather say that our Lord Iesus Christ is according to his Divinity that God who Blessed the Seventh day Gen. 2. than that the God who Blessed the Sabbath day is the Lord Iesus Christ as he doth p. 64. and elsewhere very often seeming to lay great stress upon it For he was not then the Lord Christ God and Man nor did he bless it as Christ but as God in Union with the Father and Holy Ghost not as contradistinguished from them I agree also that the Law of the Sabbath is one of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments delivered to Israel on Mount Sinai Ex. 20. But I am willing to think it was a Law before Not only because we find it observed Exod. 16. before the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai Ex. 20. but especially because of that in Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the Seventh day and Sanctified it because in it he rested from all his Work And those who are most averse to the Morality as it is wont to be called or the Perpetuity of the Sabbath or Day of Holy Rest and are yet very zealous for the Holiness of Places would be very fond of it if they could find so clear
a Power given them from Christ to Abrogate Circumcision or the like and thereupon to proceed pro imperio But they Argue it from the nature of the thing That what was Typical of Christ was at an end now Christ is come That what was Distinctive of the Jews from other Nations was now to cease when the partition wall was broken down That what were but shadows as to the Substantials of Religion were now to pass away as beggarly Rudiments Christ regarding the Body or Substance not the Shadows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these are but shadows in comparison of what Christ came to settle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 't is the Body the Substance that Christ respects Col. 2. 17. They do not Command but Argue They do no where pretend that God or Christ had given them Authority to Abrogate a Law which God had made But Argue from the nature of the thing that the Law was ceased and was not intended to Oblige longer That the Law was now Antiquated or Expired when the End for which it was made was attained That the Types were at an End when the Thing Typified was Exhibited That the Distinctive Marks were now no more of Use when Jews and Gentiles were United That the Elements or Rudiments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God for reasons best known to himself thought fit for the Training-up of his Church while as in a State of Minority wherein a Child though Heir of All doth little differ from a Servant should now cease when it comes to full Age Gal. 4. And to the same purpose Heb. 8. He argues that the Old Covenant was at an end when a Better Covenant was come in the room citing that of Ier. 31. Behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers when I led them out of the land of Egypt For this is the Covenant that I will make That I will put my laws into their Mind and write them in their Hearts Meaning instead of an outward Ceremonial Service he would establish a service more Spiritual From whence he concludes the Antiquation of the Former In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first Old Now that which Decayeth and waxeth Old is ready to Vanish away They do not claim a Power to Abolish a Law of Gods making But prove by Argument that these Laws are Antiquated or Expired as not being intended by the Law-maker to bind longer than till such a time As Rom. 7. The Woman is bound by the Law to her Husband as long as he lives But if the husband be Dead she is free from the Law Not that the Law is Abolished but the Case is Altered And it is from these Considerations that he Argues against Circumcision Col. 2. 11. and the Iewish Sabbath ver 16. For as to the Substantials of the Service provided a Sabbath be duly kept it is much one whether on the Seventh or the First day Now these Substantials are he tells us p. 83. a lively spiritual Converse with the Father Son and Holy-Ghost in private Duties and publick Ordinances where they can be had and in a Holy Rest all that day saving emergent cases of Necessity and Mercy Which may be equally done on either day But as to those who were not satisfied with these Arguments if they were such as were before under those Commands he doth not urge his Authority He leaves them to practise according to their own judgment but without censuring others till they shall be better satisfied as in Rom. 14. But as to the Gentiles who had never been under these Laws the case was otherwise Which makes him argue otherwise with the Gentile Galatians Ephesians and Colossians than with the Christian Iews at Rome And as to his Question p. 47. When where and by whom it was taken away I say Then there and by the same who took away Circumcision and the other Mosaick Rites That is Fundamentally by Christ at his death who nailed them to his Cross after which they ceased to be Obligatory But Executively and Practically by his Apostles and the Christian Church according as they did leisurably and in time come to understand their Liberty All which we are to presume they did according to such directions as Christ gave them For as this Author observes p. 80. Paul in those Primitive times when the Ceremonial Law was fresh in memory and the Gospel newly preached had much a do tâ—â—e move the first converted Iews from Circumcision and other Ceremonials and so from their Iewish Sabbath therefore these things were to wear off by degrees and not to be torn from them all at once And this I think is enough to a person not prejudiced as to the Removal of the then Iewish Sabbath appointed by Moses after their coming out of Egypt on the seventh day from the first raining of Manna and not given to all the world but to be a distinctive sign of them from other Nations Now as to the other Point in Question the Observation of the Lords day I would ground that originally on the Fourth Commandment which doth appoint a Seventh day of Holy Rest after Six days of Ordinary Labour Which doth directly concern the Substantials of Worship that a Sabbath be kept and God thus served but whether on this or that day of the Seven is meerly Circumstantial and as Paul calls it a Shadow in comparison of the Body or Substance which is he tells us what Christ respects But then as to that Why the First day rather than another I answer First Here was a much more memorable Accident of Christs Resurrection than was that of Raining Manna from whence the Jewish Sabbath takes its date as the Seventh day from it not from the Creation or that of the Quails the Night before the first day that God fed them by Miracle from Heaven And therefore stands as fair for beginning such a Circulation of Weeks and Sabbaths We are told Ier. 16. 14 15. and Ier. 23 7 8. Behold the days come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said The Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt But The Lordliveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of the North Country Not that the former deliverance was to be forgotten but a greater than it did make it comparatively to disappear as when the light of the Sun doth obscure that of the Moon and Stars And so here the Resurrection of Christ to be commemorated paramount to that of former Mercies Next in pursuance of this Occasion we find our Saviour did on that day of his Resurrection appear to Mary Magdalen and the other Women declaring to them the Doctrine of the Resurrection then to the two Disciples going to Emmaus Preaching to them at large the same Doctrine and Celebrating with
a Testimony and so ancient for the holiness of Place as here is for that of Time I agree also that the Law of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments though then given peculiarly to Israel is Obligatory to Us also For though some Clauses therein do peculiarly respect them as that who brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage and that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee which I think is there said with a particular respect to the land of Canaan which God gave to Israel not to us yet the Body of that Law and the preceptive part of it I take to be Obligatory to others also and to Us in particular the Decalogue being Declarative of what was I think a Law before however neglected or forgotten and is by Christ and his Apostles frequently cited as such even to Gentiles as well as Jews Nor will I dispute it with him whether the Sabbath were observed from the Creation to the Floud For I am willing to think that if it were not it should have been though in the short History that Moses gives us of that time there be no mention made of such Observation But I doubt it was not universally so observed if at all For when all flesh had corrupted their ways I doubt the Sabbath day and the worship of that day were by them not much regarded Nor do I find Gen. 2. 3. any express Command such as he demands for the First days Sabbath that it should be observed thenceforth by Men every Seventh day of the Week for ever How far the words he blessed and sanctified it may extend I will not dispute It may be a strong Intimation and I think it is But it is not expresly said that All Mankind must for ever after observe every Seventh day in every Week of days reckoned continually from the first Creation Nor do I think it necessary to have been so recorded by Moses any more than the Law for Sacrifices if it did otherwise appear to have been the Will of God And therefore I would not have him lay too great a stress on what he saith that there is no express Commandment Recorded in the New Testament for observing the First day It is enough if we there find sufficient Intimation for us to judge that God was pleased to have it observed I say the like as to the time from the Floud to that of Abraham and from thence to the coming of Israel out of Egypt For I do not find any mention of their observing a Sabbath either in the Writings of Moses or the Book of Iob earlier than that of Exod. 16. after Israels coming out of Egypt and after the time that God is said to have made a statute and ordinance for them at Marah Ex. 15. 25. What that Statute and Ordinance was we cannot tell The Jewish Writers think or some of them that it was that of the Sabbath and perhaps it might or this be some part of it It was perhaps a Revival of what had been before disused Nor is it likely that their Task-Masters in Egypt would suffer them to be Idle and neglect their Work one whole day in Seven Nor do I find any foot-steps in History that any other Nation but the Jews did for many Ages after this time so much as measure out their time by Weeks I know that many Learned and Pious men have been searching to that purpose and willing to lay hold on any thing that might seem to look that way And I should be well enough pleased to see it made out But I have not seen any thing convictive to give me satisfaction therein I have consulted Clemens Alexandrinus and what he cites in the Fifth Book of his Stromata who hath I believe made the best search of any into Heathen Writers for that purpose His design in that Book is to shew that the Heathens had stollen or borrowed much of their Philosophy from what he calls Philosophia Barbara or Barbarorum meaning thereby the Iewish Learning for with the Greeks all but themselves were Barbarians And amongst many other things he takes notice of the number Seven sometimes mentioned in Heathen Writers as with some veneration which he thinks to be occasioned from that number oft mentioned in the Sacred Writers and particularly from that of their Sabbath and measuring their time by Weeks But he doth not at all intimate as if himself did think the Heathens so to have divided their time or to keep that Sabbath but only that they were acquainted with the Jewish Learning and borrowed much of theirs from thence That which therein seemed to me the most promising and by others also is oft alledged was that Cited from Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Seventh a Sacred day But when I consulted the place in Hesiod in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the latter part of which he treats of Days I find nothing there of Weeks or days of the Week but only days of the Month. For 't is this he there proposeth to speak of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Thirty days of the Month on which he makes divers Remarks as which of them were to be accounted Good days and which Bad days and for what purposes And begins with these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Begin we with the First and the Fourth and the Seventh a Sacred day Because that on this day Apollo who hath the Golden Sword was born of Latona So that it seems the Seventh day not the First was then Sunday For Apollo with his Gold Sword is but another name for the Sun But it was the Seventh day of the Month not the Seventh day of the Week for of Weeks he there says nothing And he then goes on to speak of the Eighth and Ninth days then of the Eleventh and Twelfth next of the Thirteenth and so of other days of the Month shewing which of them were accounted Lucky days and which Unlucky and for what Affairs But nothing of Weeks at all However Hesiod himself though one of the Oldest of the Heathen Writers is but young as to the times we speak of who is reckoned to have lived about the time of King Uzziah Seven Hundred years after the time we are now considering upon the coming of Israel out of Egypt Nor doth Clemens Alexandrinus think when they name Seven it was from any Old Tradition from Adam or Noah but from what acquaintance they then had with the Jewish Writers of later time Nor do I find any thing that is more to the purpose in all there Cited by Clemens Alexandrinus than this of Hesiod But if any where he could have found that the Heathens divided their Time by Weeks no doubt but he would have mentioned this as borrowed from the Iewish Learning which was the thing he was there inquiring after And when he saith nothing of it we may be sure he could not find it I find indeed
the Feast of Unleavened Bread For though it were the fourteenth day at evening yet it was the fourteenth day not the fifteenth And Luke 23. 54. the evening after our Saviours Crucifixion on the sixth day when it was late at night as was shewed before and must be according to the story of what had been done before that time was yet but the preparation not the Sabbath the Seventh day being not yet begun For so we have it it was the preparation and the Sabbath drew on And the Women were then preparing their Spices and Oyntments yet rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment So that the Sabbath day was not yet begun nor was it ended when the evening of the next day began but on the morning of the day following as was shewed above And as we shewed at large before the first day of the Week on which Christ rose began very early in the morning while it was dark and continued the same day till very late at night And this is the constant Language of the New Testament every where So that when the Congregation of Christians Acts 20. 7. did on the first day of the week assemble to break Bread and Paul Preached to them continuing his Sermon till Mid-night this must needs be on what we call Sunday and the morning following was Munday morning not Sunday morning as this Author would have it 'T is manifest therefore that there was a Religious Assembly of the Christian Congregation at Troas on the First day of the Week for celebration of the Lords Supper and Preaching and Paul with them Which I take to be the celebration of a Christian Sabbath However this he says is but One Instance True this is but one But we have heard of more before and shall hear of more by and by But this one is more than he can shew for more than Two Thousand Five Hundred Years from God's resting on the Seventh day Gen. 2. 3. till after Israel was come out of Egypt Ex. 16. during which time he would have us think the Seventh-day Sabbath was constantly observed And if he could shew any one such instance of Enoch Noah Abraham or other where such a Religious Assembly for the Worship of God was held on the seventh day in course from the Creation he would think his point well proved though no more were said of it than is of this Whereas now as to the time from thence to the Floud he brings no other proof but that Abel and Enoch and Noah were good men as no doubt they were and therefore it is to be presumed they kept a Sabbath and that upon the seventh day Which is to beg the question not to prove it From thence till Israels going into Egypt all that he brings to prove this matter of fact is but that of Gen. 13. 6. where speaking of Abram and Lot with the multitude of their Cattel it is said the land was not able to bear them that they might Dwell together for their substance was great so that they could not Dwell together and there was a strife between the Herd-men of Abrams Cattle and the Herd-men of Lots Cattle c. They could not Dwell together that is saith he they could not Rest together that is they could not keep a Sabbath together therefore he concludes they did use to keep a sabbath and that Sabbath was the seventh day in course from the Creation And is not this a goodly proof I should think if he would put a stress on the word Rest it should rather signify they could not live quietly together without their herd-mens quarrelling about their Pasture for so it follows in the next words there was a strife between their herds-men From thence till after their coming out of Egypt he brings no other proof but that of Ex. 5. 4 5. Where when Moses and Aaron had been pressing Pharaoh to let Israel go three days Iourney into the Wilderness to keep a Feast and Sacrifice to the Lord their God Pharaoh replies Wherefore do ye Lett or hinder the People from their Work you make them rest from their Burdens or you take them off from their Work that is says he you make them keep a Sabbath For the Word or Verb there Translated you make them Rest is he tells us a derivative from another Verb which signifies to Rest from which Verb the word Sabbath is also derived They did therefore Rest saith he that is keep a Sabbath and that Sabbath was every Week and it was on the seventh day in course from the Creation Alas how little do either or both of these places prove of what he would have to be granted him thence He tells us sometimes there were other Sabbaths besides that of the seventh day I am sure there were other Restings If Moses and Aaron had desired Pharaoh to excuse them from their Work one day in seven that on such day they might serve the Lord their God it would have looked like an Argument But when it is to go three days into the Wilderness to keep a Feast to the Lord what is this to a Weekly Sabbath This Seventh-day sabbath so runs in the mind of this Author that if any where he can lay hold of the word Rest it must presently prove a Seventh-day-sabbath Else who would have thought that because Abram and Lot could not dwell quietly together therefore they must needs keep a Sabbath and that upon the seventh day and in course from the Creation And the like of the Israelites in Egypt because Moses and Aaron are said to hinder them from their work Therefore they did constantly keep a weekly Sabbath and that upon the seventh day in course from the Creation He might have to better purpose alleged Pharaoh's seven fat kine and seven lean ones and the seven full Ears of Corn and seven empty for here we have the number seven signalized only these were Seven Years not Seven Days and the like of Nebuchadnezzar's being seven years turned out to the Beasts of the field Dan. 4. 25 32 33. Or that of the Clean Beasts and Fowls coming into the Ark by sevens Gen. 7. 2 3. But what is more to his purpose and which he should not have missed is that of Gen. 7. 4. and Gen. 8. 10 12. where we have the interval of seven days particularly mentioned For yet seven days and I will cause it to rain upon the Earth c. Chap. 7. 4. where God gives to Noah just a Weeks warning of the time when the Floud should begin during which interval if those days were Sabbath days he might remove himself and what was necessary into the Ark before the next Sabbath And toward the end of the Floud Noah sends out the Dove Chap. 8. 8. And he staid seven days and again sent forth the Dove ver 10. And he staid yet other seven days and sent forth the Dove c. ver 12. Where we have the Dove sent out three
to Us Now as it did Then to Israel I cannot assent to it For it cannot be said of all Us who are under that Law that God hath Brought us out of the land of Egypt out of the house of Bondage or that We are to expect long life in the land of Canaan which he Gave Them If he say that our deliverance from spiritual bondage is equivalent to theirs from Egypt and our land the same to us as Canaan was to them I grant it But so is our Lords Day equivalent to their Seventh-day-sabbath and Christ the true Manna more than equivalent to that of theirs from the raining of which they reckoned their Iewish Sabbaths As to what he says of Mat. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath-day which he thinks to be understood of the Iewish Sabbath 38 years after Christs Resurrection Perhaps it may For the obstinate Jews who would not in their day understand the things that belonged to their peace but rejected Christ did no doubt continue to observe their Jewish Sabbath and thought themselves obliged so to do And it would then be as great an Affliction to them as if their Sabbath were yet in force But no more a sin to fly on that day than to fly in the Winter It would be so to the Christians if put to flight on the Christian Sabbath for the case would be the like of both and they might as well Pray against it That is Against their Flight on the Christian Sabbath as the Iews on the Iewish Sabbath This therefore makes nothing at all to his purpose He might as well argue from hence that it were a sin to labour in Winter as on the Iewish Sabbath He hath many other little excursions as little to the purpose with which I shall not trouble my self or you having fully answered what seems to me to have any appearance of Argument But he takes great pleasure to expose the Name of Sunday Yet I do not find any more fond of using it than he Not that he would be thought to like the Word but because he thinks it a Reproach If he do not like that name he may call it as we do the Lords Day the Christian Sabbath or if he think these too good names for it he may call it the First day of the Week But why not as angry with the Monday or other of the Week days If on Monday the Heathens as he would have us think did worship the Moon as the Sun on Sunday why is he not as angry with that It is as much Idolatry to worship the Moon on Monday as the Sun on Sunday True But that doth not concern the Christians Sabbath which is what he hath a mind to reproach and therefore he speaks little of the other and but seldome But Sunday is to be snubbed upon every occasion He would not have a Sabbath upon Sunday because he says on that day they worshiped the Sun But why upon Saturday if on that day as he would have us think they worshiped Saturn Now 't is true that some of the Heathen did worship the Sun and the Moon and the Host of Heaven But that they did worship the Sun more upon Sunday than they did upon Monday or Tuesday is more than I know or he can prove He tells us Verstegan says that the Heathen Saxons did so But Verstegan is too young an Author to settle this upon his own Authority unless he can bring Vouchers for it more ancient than himself It was I suppose a Fansy of Verstegan Then as it is of our Author Now But I do not remember that he cites any Author ancienter than himself And though some others may say the like Yet I look upon it but as a plausible conjecture without any good foundation in History And even the Heathen Suxons are too late for his purpose He tells us p. 88. The Heathen Nations long before Christs Birth did offer Sacrifice to the Sun and worship it as a God upon Sunday His proof is from Iob 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined or the Moon walking in brightness and my heart hath been secretly enticed or my mouth hath kissed my hand this were an iniquity to be punished by the Iudges for I should have denied the Lord above But what is all this to Sunday It may perhaps be a disclaimer of worshiping the Sun but says nothing of Sunday Doth our Author think the name of Sunday to be as old as Iob's times If Iob had said If I have worshiped the Sun upon Sunday or the Moon upon Monday and not the Lord upon Saturday it had been to his purpose But here is nothing of that Not a word of what day it was on which they worshiped the Sun But I would not have him lay too great a load upon Sunday For Hesiod tells us as was said before that in his time one of the oldest of the Heathen Writers though younger than Iob the Seventh day was Sun-day not the First And he hath nothing to shew more than the bare Name of Sunday to make us believe that those of the Heathen who worshiped the Sun did confine that worship to this day of the Week or Did more worship it on this day than on others I do not certainly know how Ancient those Names are of Saturday Sunday Monday c. nor upon what occasion they were first taken up nor is it much to our purpose The most ancient Heathen Writer whom I know to have mentioned them is Dio Cassius who lived about the Year of our Lord 230. Who speaking of the Destruction of Ierusalem and the Temple tells us that the Iews had such a reverence for Saturn's day as that they would not Labour on that day for their Defense which the Romans understanding did on that day assault them and prevailed Against their Temple and Sabbath both at once Not as if the Iews did then call it Saturn's day nor am I sure that any other did then so call it for they called it their Sabbath-day But it was that day of the Week which in Dio's time was called Saturday But Dio speaks of it as a new Thing so to call the Days of the Week and which the Ancient Greeks he tells us knew not 'T was therefore not very Ancient And therefore he supposeth the Romans to have taken it up from the Egyptians Not the Old Egyptians of Moses's time but rather from those about the time of Ptolomy not of King Ptolomy but of Claudius Ptolomaeus the Astronomer or perhaps somewhat earlier when Astronomy there flourished and from whom the Romans had it In a Christian Writer I find it earlier than Dio in Iustin Martyr's Apology written about the Year of Christ 150. who mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Day of the Sun as the Christian Sabbath And Tertullian in his Apology mentions Saturday and Sunday And it may perhaps be found in Writers