afterward was held and maintained by the ancient Fathers that the earth was not round but plain as a Championfield They thought there could be no dwellers under the earth which go foot to foot against us and that if there should be any Antipodes imagined yet them not to be Adams Posterity whom they held to have all dwelt upon the earth and to have been all drowned except eight persons when Noahs flood covered all the face of the earth So strong did this opinion prevail with the said Fathers as that whoever held the contrary was counted near as bad as an Heretick Witnesse Vigilius whom some call Virgilius who was complained of by Boniface unto Zachary then Pope and was degraded for holding that there were Antipodes and that they had a Sun and Moon to shine unto them as well as to us This story may be seen in Aventine a Aven Annal. Bar. l. 3. and in Baronius who sought to cover the fact with fig-leaves Now that the adversaries to the Morality of this law held all those tenents before-said and that they all sprang from this errour of the earth 's supposed plain superficies I will next shew For the clearing whereof I need not cite many of them one may serve for all being approved by them all Neither will I tell here all that he writes hereabout but that which chiefly concernes the point in hand Mr. Ironside a Reverend Divine and of singular gifts and parts but over-swayed by the stream of late times doth in his book called the Seven Questions of the Sabbath dedicated to the late Arch-bishop of Canterbury William Laud tell us First that it is necessary not only for the learned but also for the weak and inferiour sort of people to know to a minute when the Lords day or Sabbath doth begin and when it doth end and that for two special reasons The one is for the Peace and quiet of their consciences which else would be wounded and disquieted The other is for that unlesse the very day and the whole day be kept to a Minute all the duties done on that day are lost His words are these It is necessary to inquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration and continuance of time it must be a Irens 7. Quest pag. 2. Amongst those things which disquiet and perplex the Consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and intire obedience without diminution or defalcation unlesse every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and pieces of the day is not regarded b Page 126. It is also that which concerns the most sort of our inferiour People to be satisfied in lest the Commandment requiring one thing their employments another they many times wound their consciences and rob themselves of that Peace which otherwise they might enjoy c Page 127. 2ly that God might have his due tribute and the weak if they will may keep their consciences quiet in observing the true and full time of the Sabbath he setteth down the precise day of the Sabbath as he conceiveth and the exact time to a minute when the Sabbath-day is to begin As for the day he tells us that the Sabbath-day must be precisely the day of Gods rest Thus Assoon as God had ended his work he ordained and appointed that the seventh day the day of his own rest else he will not conceive that it can be the seventh day should be that on which the Church should rest d Page 21. Vnlesse we rest that very seventh day in which God rested we no more resemble his rest then a man that hath a ladder resembles Jacob that had a vision of a ladder c Page 90. As for the exact time when the Sabbath is to begin and end he tells us that the very minute in which the Sun is in the Horizon at his rising is the true beginning of the day and he proveth that it must so be for that when the fourth day at the Creation began the Sun was then in the Horizon at his rising so that any of the inferiour sort of people he before spake of may by looking in his Almanack tell to a minute if Mr. Ironsides rule faile him not at any time throughout all the year and in any place through out the world when the 4th day of the Creation and the very day of Gods rest and so consequently when the Sabbath beginneth These are his words If the natural day be measured by the Revolution of the Sunne as all confesse sure it is that until the Sun begin his course the day cannot begin At what time now did the Sun set forth upon the fourth day at the Creation Common reason will say when he first appeared in the Horizon The rising therefore of the Sun in the Horizon must needs be the first Period of the natural day a I rons 7. Qu pag c 123. 3ly he tels us that the Jews Sabbath-day was the day of Gods rest and the same with that which God blessed sanctified making no difference between all these three His words are these That particular Sabbath-day given unto the Jews even the day of Gods rest is not a Sabbath but the Sabbath even that which God sanctifyed The Sabbath must be the same with the seventh or else there is no tolerable sense or congruity in that law b Page 70. Whereas he saith the same with the 7th he meaneth by the 7th the 7th day from the Creation even the very day of Gods rest which he proved to begin at the rising of the Sun like as the 4th day did Now whereas some may and that not without just cause doubt how the day of Gods rest which began at Sun-rising as he saith and the Jews Sabbath which ever began at the setting of the Sun whersoever they dwelt could be one and the same day Sith that they as well in respect of their beginnings as also in respect of their endings are heavenly wide the one from the other even as farre as the Sun-rising is distant from Sun-setting between both which there must be half a dayes difference And so the day of Gods rest must begin either at Sun-rising before the Jews Sabbath-day began or at the Sun-rising after If at the Sun-rising before that is on the Friday morning then the Turks Sabbath so Doctor Heylin calleth it may more truly be called the day of Gods rest a Heyl. part 1. pag. 48. then that of the Jews But if at the Sun-rising after then our Christian Sabbath-day ever began on the day of Gods rest the which the Jews Sabbath never did For the wiping off this and all such doubts Mr. Ironside tells us both at what time and also by what means the day
and not ours it is The Sabbath of the Lord thy God as it is in this place in our Bibles so translated it is saith God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbath to the Lord that is a Rest or Cessation to the Lord as before I have shewed d See Chap. 8. It is a day holy to the Lord and therefore none other then the Lords All the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree in the time of the law was the Lords f Levit. 27.30 and so was the tithe of the herd or of the flock even of whatsoever passed under the rod g Verse 32. for the tithe of all these were holy to the Lord h Verse 30.32 and therefore they were the Lords they were his seed his fruit his Lambes c. One Lambe was no more holy then another when they fell from their Dammes and before they were tithed out the Possessor of them might have mingled them at his pleasure he was not tied to begin his tithing at one Lambe rather then at another but from what Lambe soever he began every tenth Lambe that in order passed under the rod was the Lords he might not then change it nor search whether it was good or bad k Verse 33. it was then holy to the Lord it was the Lords Lambe and of such as detained the tenth the Lord complained that they had robbed him l Mal. 3.8 9. And so I say concerning the seventh day in the like sense That one day of it self is no more holy then is another Christians were not tied by any divine law to begin their week or sevening from any set particular time but they continuing their accustomed week and so beginning their sevening from the day of Christs Resurrection the seventh from thence in an orderly course is sacred to the Lord it is the Lords day no man upon his particular occasions may change the same he may not say My businesse is such that I cannot keep this sabbath-Sabbath-day but I will keep another day in the week which will be as good He doth deceive himself herein he may not put off the seventh to another day but should defer his businesse rather When men take the seventh day which is sacred to the Lord and imploy the same about their own businesse either in whole or in part they may as truly be said to rob the Lord as they under the law were said so to do in not paying their due tithes and offerings m Mal. 3 8 9. Sixthly the Lord was pleased to set out unto us the ground of this law why he would have a day in a week appointed for his worship rather then a week in every moneth or a moneth in every yeare And why he would have the seventh day for his service rather then the tenth the ground hereof the Lord here sheweth to be this In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day The same ground for the sanctification of the seventh day is also declared before in Genesis n Gen. 2.3 Seventhly the Lord declareth and he would have his People hereby to know that he hath annexed a blessing unto this day God blessed the seventh day They who wait on the Lord and serve him sincerely during this their day of attendance shall finde the Lord a bountiful rewarder their ceasing from labour for doing him service shall be for their profit they shall be gainers thereby Lastly if there had been none other reason or motive to stir us up unto obedience in a careful keeping of the seventh day unto the honour of God yet this alone which the Lord hath given in the close of this Commandment should suffice The Lord hath sanctified it God hath instituted it But when the Lord hath given us such a special charge of remembring the sabbath-Sabbath-day to sanctifie it and hath so plainly pointed out unto us what the day is whith he will have us to sanctifie that none may plead ignorance about the time and how many words the Lord used in prohibiting all works and in the enumeration of all degrees prohibited laying down also the equity hereof his own example together with his blessing it and his sovereign institution hereof how can any without palpable ignorance or wilful rebellion plead ignorance of the Sabbath or knowing it not yield ready obedience thereto Imprimatur JOHN DOWNAME A POSTSCRIPT To the READER I Pray thee before thou readest correct these faults which alter the sense the other though many amend in reading And when thou hast read this Tract consider seriously whether the day of rest the Seventh day in this law commanded to be observed do relate to the six dayes of Gods work or to the six dayes of mans labour It cannot relate to the six dayes of Gods work and so be the day of Gods rest unlesse the day of Gods rest and the Jews Sabbath-day be the same and begin in all places at Sun-setting whereever the Jews did or ought to observe their Sabbath which cannot possibly be except the earth be plain as I have shewed Or except the day of Gods rest did at the first and doth begin sooner in some places then in other and so first at one particular place when it was no where else the day of Gods rest either East or West thereto Both which are so against reason that no understanding man will hold either But if thou findest that the seventh day commanded doth relate as truly it doth to the six dayes of Labour with men and so must be the day following their six week-dayes of labour whereever they live then consider whether Sunday be not as truly the day following the six dayes of labour with Christians as Saterday was with the Jews and as truly the seventh day with Christians and by the expresse words of this law commanded to be kept holy as the Saterday was with the Jews If so what cause thinkest thou have Jews Antinomians Libertines or any other to scandalize or say of Christians that they do not nor at any time have observed the true time and day commanded of God in this law FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. the whole Read to the whole p. 6. l. 22. so if r. if so p. 7. l. 6. and the evening r. and the morning p. 12. l. 2. this r. his p. 22. l. 9. thirtieth r. one and thirtieth p. 35. l. 10. noâ—e thus their r. nose thus Their. p. 39 l. 33. Hemer r. Homer p. 39. l. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 28. Gallimachus r. Callimachus p. 69. l. 16. feigned r. been feigned p. 80. l. 1. Sabbathrsacred r. Sabbath or sacred p. 86. l. 22. betrer r. better In the Margin pag. 41. line 22. Det read Deut.
believing that the Apostles of Christ by the appointment of our Saviour changed the old Sabbath so they call the Seventh-day Sabbath to the Sabbath of the first day of the week so that now the Church of God is to rest before they labour and unto not from their labour 3. Some again knowing that the Jewes Saterday-Sabbath was Ceremonial and abrogated do thence hold and maintain the Seventh-day Sabbath to be abrogated also and for that they know not any other Sabbath-day appointed by divine Authority in stead thereof do inferre that Christians now in time of the Gospel are to have and keep no Sabbath-day at all Thus kinde Reader I have shewed thee the ground and cause of these various and different opinions about the Sabbath-day Whence have issued most if not all the Controversies that are now on foot between them The only mean to stop all future Controversies and bring all sides to accord in one truth about the Sabbath-day is to take away and wipe off from their mindes the aforesaid errour which occasioned all their differences For as long as they or any side of them hold that the seventh day which God blessed and sanctified and commanded to be observed by all his people doth relate to the six dayes of Gods work and not of mans that is as long as they hold the seventh day here commanded to be the very day of Gods rest the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation they will never come to agree in the truth but more and more differences will still rise Whereas if they all consent in the true understanding of the aforesaid words of the Commandment that the seventh day relateth to the six dayes of work with men and so must be the day after the six week-dayes of labour with people whereever they dwell Agreement then of all sides will be had That great stumbling block given the Jewes of our not keeping the seventh day according to Gods Precept and Example which doth so stave them off from affecting our Religion will be wholly taken away they cannot then but acknowledge that we keep the seventh day of the week the day following our six dayes of labour the very Sabbath-day pointed out unto us here in this law They also who now stand for a new Sabbath-day who say the Sabbath-day is changed and the first day of the week to have been instituted in stead of the seventh will have no ground for such their assertion And lastly they who say the Church of Christ never observed the Sabbath since Christs Ascension and would from the practice of the Apostles and the Church of Christ argue the abrogation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath will quickly be of another minde and acknowledge that as the Jewes observed that day for their Sabbath which in this law was commanded by the Lord God so Christians also have ever done they have observed the same day the last day of the week the day following their six dayes of labour according to Gods example But Courteous Reader haply thou doubtest here and wouldest be satisfied that whereas God commandeth by this law all his obedient children to keep the seventh day of the week which is the Sabbath-day holy unto his honour If the Jewes then keep the Sabbath-day on the seventh day of the week according to Gods command How can Christians who keep their Sabbath a whole day after be said to keep their Sabbath on the seventh day of the week too according to Gods Commandment For thy satisfaction herein let me now ask thee one Question like unto thine thine answer to mine will satisfie thine owne Suppose the Pope made a decree that all his obedient children should keep the 25. day of December which is Christmas day holy to the honour of Christ If the French then keep Christmas-day on the 25. of December according to the Popes decree How can the English Papists who keep their Christmas-day full ten dayes after be said to keep their Christmas-day on the 25. day of December too according to the Popes decree Thou wilt answer me that the French and English Papists did all of them keep their Christians-day on the same day of the moneth on the 25 day of December according to the Popes decree and that the reason why the 25. day of December with the French came to be ten dayes sooner then with the English was for that they began their moneths sooner by ten dayes then the English did ever since Pope Gregory altered their year The like answer I give thee the Iewes and Christians all of them keep their Sabbath on the same day of the week on the seventh day of the week and that the reason why the seventh day of the week with the Iewes came to be a day sooner then it did with Christians was because they began their week a day sooner then they did before and sooner then the Gentiles did and Christians now do and that did they ever since the Lord caused them after their coming out of Egypt to alter their year and their moneths as I have shewed in the 3. and 10. Chapters more fully So that if we could agree in the true understanding of the aforesaid words of the Commandment that by the seventh day is not meant the day following Gods six dayes of work but the day following mens six dayes of labour all our controversies about the Sabbath-day will soon end Wherefore to clear and make apparent unto all men that this is the true meaning and that the said words of the Commandment are so to be understood I have in this ensuing Tract First discover'd that old and rotten root from whence this error of holding the day of Gods rest to be the same with the Jews Sabbath whereever they lived had its first spring and that was from a meer supposal of the earths superficies to be plain as a champion field as is shewed fully in the 11. Chap. Indeed if the earth be plain every day must be the same day with all people Every of the six dayes at the creation must be every where the same day of the week and so the seventh day from the first beginning of the creation the day of Gods rest must be the seventh day of the week with the the Jews in Judea in Ophir in Spain and in all other places the which cannot be if the earth be round as thou mayest see more at large in Chap. 11. Object But the dayes of the week begin sooner in some places then in other Then so may the day of Gods rest also Answ One and the same week-day doth not begin sooner in some places then in other The day which men call Sunday at Jerusalem begins sooner then the day we call Sunday here But they be not both one and the same day One and the same day is for one and the same place only If one and the same day should begin sooner in some places then in other then it must needs be
that either it must begin in some one place or other first before it began in any place else either East or West thereto or else that it was infinite without any first beginning at all Either of which no understanding man will affirme much lesse that the day of Gods rest begins sooner in one place then in another Secondly I have proved sufficiently that the day of Gods rest could not be the same with the Iews Sabbath-day nor the same kinde of day and that all and every of the dayes of the creation were farre different from week-dayes that were in use with the Iews or are or at any time have been in use with men To this purpose I have shewed what kinde of dayes our week-dayes be and what the Iews week-dayes be and what the dayes of the creation were and how they all differ in kinde from each other in Chap. 2 3 4 5 6. And then what kinde of day the Sabbath-day must be in Chap. 7. Thirdly I have shew'd what day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of order and tale That it is to be the seventh day Not the seventh day from the first beginning of the creation nor the seventh from any set Era or Epoche but the seventh day from the time we begin the week for labour where we live in Chap. 8. Concerning which I have shewed why the Lord set the Israelites a time when they after they came out of Egypt must begin their week whereby in count of their week-dayes and so also of their seventh sacred day they differed from all other Nations in Chap. 8 9 10. and what weeks be and the difference between a week and the week and between a seventh day of the week and the seventh day of the week which last is the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord in Chap. 11 12. and also the antiquity of weeks and the answer unto to the main objection thereto in Chap. 13 14. Fourthly I have shewed that Sunday was of old the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles and most probably was the seventh day of the week also with the Patriarchs before the flood and hath continued with Christians their seventh day of the week even unto this present day and doubtlesse ever will to the worlds end in Chap. 15. Christian Reader my hearty desire is that thou and all other the obedient servants of Iesus Christ be rightly informed concerning our observation of the Sabbath-day Haply thou didst before the reading hereof hold that this fourth Commandment is a branch of the moral law that it is agreeable to the law of nature to have a day in seven to be for Gods worship that Sunday is our christian Sabbath as Saterday was the Jews Sabbath and that as God wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and consecrated the seventh day unto holinesse and rest even so all Gods obedient people should not be slothful but diligent in their callings on the six work dayes and rest on the Sunday according to Gods example and keep it holy If this was thine opinon thou wert in the right and didst hold nothing in all these but what godly and learned men and the servants of Iesus Christ did generally teach in former time the people of God here in England as may plainly appear to thee if thou readest only that Homily which is for the time and place of Gods worship But since that subtile heads have been imployed to the subverting hereof and bringing in a dangerous errour opening a floodgate to all licentionsnesse on the Lords Sabbath they have publickly taught and published to the world that the seventh day commanded to be kept holy is none other but the day of Gods rest They would bring People in hand that the Iewes Sabbath was the very seventh day from the Creation and none other but that to be the seventh day of the week with any People and so Sunday to be with us the first day of the week To this end I suppose they would have the name of our sabbath-Sabbath-day which the Jewes called in their tongue The first day of the Sabbath to be translated as it is in our Bibles not The Lords day or Sunday by which names Christians whose Ancestors were Gentiles ever called it but The first day of the week that so People may conceive hereby though a new name doth not alter the nature of the thing that Sunday with us is not in order the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six dayes of labour but the day going before the six dayes of labour with us and therefore not the sabbath-Sabbath-day here commanded for the rooting out of which errour and confirming all in the truth concerning the Lords day I have sent abroad this little Tract If now by thy serious perusal hereof thou art the more encouraged to render the Lord his due honour in the heedful observation of the Lords day which with us is Sunday not for customs sake because thy fore-fathers and the Church of God ever observed the same since the time of the Apostles nor for that the Magistrates have commanded us to keep this day holy Nor for that the seventh-day-seventh-day-Sabbath is abolished and this to be a new Sabbath instituted but for that God in this his law which is perpetual and unalterable hath commanded thee and all People expresly to keep holy the seventh day Give God the glory and lift up a Prayer unto him for me a poor sinner T. C. The Synopsis or Abridgement of the whole Tract In this fourth Commandment there be two parts viz. 1. The duty commanded in which we be to know What day the Sabbath of the Lord is concerning which know 1. What kinde of day the Sabbath-day is and therin note There be foure kindes of dayes which we shall meet with in the Holy Scripture which are these viz. the Artificial day Chap. 1. Universal day Chap. 2. Horizontal day Chap. 3. Meridional day Chap. 4. They differ every one from the other The Artificial day differeth from all other Chap. 5. The Universal day differeth from all other Chap. 5. Horizontal and Meridional dayes differ one from the other Chap. 6. Which of these foure kindes of days is the Lords Sabbath Chap. 7. 2. What day the Sabbath-day is to be in respect of orderand tale wherein note 1. The Sabbath-day is the seventh day of the week that is the day following the six known dayes of labour Chap. 8. 2. The cause why the Jewes had Saterday for their Sabbath was to take them off from the Assyrian idolatries concerning which note that 1. The Assyrian idolatries were their worshipping the Sun and the other planets all called the Host of heaven And also their worshipping Belus called Baal Chap. 9. 2. From their example all nations as well as Israel worshipped the Sun Chap. 9. 3. Among many meanes God used to take the Jewes off from worshipping the Sun one was that instead of Sunday they must have Saterday
their seventh day sacred Chap. 10 3. The vain opinion of some who think that the Sabbath that is the seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods rest Chap. 11 4. What a week is and what the week is and that the seventh day of the week is the Sabbath Also why many of the ancient Writers called the Jewes Sabbath the day of Gods rest sith they knew that it could not be that very day Chap. 12 5. Weeks proved to be from all Antiquity Chap. 13 6. Week-dayes had their names from the planets as they were the Heathen-gods and not from their supposed hourely Government Chap. 14 7. Sunday was the Gentiles seventh day of the week sacred to the Sun and most probably was the seventh day sacred with the Patriarchs before Noahs flood Also that Christians did not neither ought to have chosen any other then the Sunday for their seventh sacred day although it had been much abused before to idolatry Chap. 15 What it is to keep holy and sanctifie the Sabbath day Chap. 16 2. The Lords special provision to bring all people to a heedful keeping the duty commanded set out in sundry particulars Chap. 17 THE seventh-SEVENTH-DAY Sabbath EXOD. 20.8 9 10 11. Remember the sabbath-Sabbath-day to keep it holy Six dayes shalt thou labour and c. CHAP. I. The Division of the Text. The Artificial Day THe Lord God who made Heaven and Earth and all for the good of man made man for his own honour in his own Image and to bear his Image in the world to his glory done by the due observation of the Moral Law whereof this fourth Commandement is a part in which God maketh known unto man the special time and day which he hath destinated unto his worship commanding man to sanctifie the same and keep it holy to the Lord. In this text are these two parts First the duty commanded which is to keep holy the sabbath-Sabbath-day Secondly the care and provision had by the Lord for mans heedful keeping and observing the same in all the other words and branches of this Commandement I will first treat of the duty commanded and in it for our better observing the Sabbath-day we are to know First what the Sabbath-day is that is here commanded to be sanctified Secondly what it is to sanctifie the same or to keep it holy Touching the former of these we are to know First what kinde of day the Sabbath is to be Secondly what day it is to be in order or tale Concerning the former of these There be foure kindes of dayes which we shall meet with in holy Scripture 1. The Artificial day 2. The Universal day 3. The Horizontal day 4. The Meridional day These termes or appellations I confesse are not common but the use of them is needful for the better distinguishing them one from the other whereby it may the better appear which of these kindes of days the Sabbath-day ought to be And now I will 1. Shew what every of them is 2. How they differ the one from the other 3. Which of these kindes of days man is to observe and keep for his Sabbath Of the Artificial day The Artificial day as it is generally taken is the whole time between Sun-rising and Sun-setting with any people This kinde of day was especially in use with the Jewes They divided this day alwayes into twelve equal parts which they called hours which hours were ever proportionable to the day In Summer-time the longer their day was the longer were their houres and at Winter when their day was not ten of our houres yet was it twelve of theirs Of this kinde of day mention is made in divers places of sacred Scripture a Iohn 11.9 Psal 104.23 Mat. 20.2 3 6. And the houres thereof are now called Jewes houres b Horae Jndaicae And Antique houres c Horae Antiquae for that not only the Jewes but other nations also did anciently so divide the day into twelve such houres Thus was their Dial divided into twelve houre-lines whereof the fifth Persius d Pers Sat. 3. Quinta dum linea tangitur umbrá will have to note out the fifth houre with them which is about ten of the Clock with us Martial e Mart. li. 4. Epigr. 8. Prima salutantes atque altera continet â—oâ—a c. also in twelve verses distinguisheth the twelve houres of the day then in use in the like manner CHAP. II. The Vniversal day The dayes of the Creation Why Moses set the Evening before the Morning THe Vniversal day is that which is one and the same day in all places through the whole Universe as well in respect of its beginning as of its duration and ending It is not one day at one part of the earth and another day at another part but when it beginneth or endeth any where it beginneth or endeth every where at the same time This kinde of Day cannot properly be said to begin either in the East or in the West or at Sun-rising or at Sun setting or at Midnight or at Noon as other kinde of dayes do For there is neither East nor West nor Sun-rising nor Sun-setting nor midnight nor noon in respect of the world though in respect of the parts of the world all and every of these may be said to be yet so as what is East or morning to one part is West or Sun-setting to another part and midnight to one part is midday to another part but neither of them properly can be so said to be the whole world Such kinde of dayes were those which Moses spake of in the first of Genesis a Gen. 1.5 8 13 19 23.31 And of which mention is made in this text and elsewhere b Ex. 20.11 and 31.17 Acts 2.20 Rev. 6.17 2 Pet. 2.9 and 3.7 10. Ioel. 2.31 In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth c. and rested the seventh day That these dayes which some do terme and fitly enough may be called The dayes of the Creation were such Universal dayes I will endeavour to clear by giving instances in every of them which Moses spake of in rehearsing the Works of the Creation The first of those seven dayes was such an Universal day when it began any where it began every where no where then was it no day nor any other then the first day The first things God made were day and night or light and darknesse They were neither of them in time before the other but were both coëtaneous There was in nature before though not in time a mixed or confused darknesse which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c Gen. 1.2 which Arias Montanus correcting Pagnin translateth and calleth it Caligo it was neither perfect day nor perfect night But when God had thence formed the light and made it to shine out of the darknesse d 2 Cor. 4.6 and had divided the light from the darknesse so as that they should never
The Horizontal day is the time between Sun-rising and Sun-rising or between Sun-setting and Sun-setting The parts of the Horizontal day are two the one is the Artificial day or day light of which we may read of in Genesis a Gen. 1.5 14 16. and 8.22 and 31.39 the other part is the night or darknesse called by b Clav. de Sphoer Clavius the Artificial night and which in ancient times was divided with the Jewes into three watches the evening watch the middle watch and the morning watch but after that when they were subdued by the Romanes they divided the night as the Romanes did into four watches The Artificial day or day-light was anciently counted to be the former part of this day and the night the latter part and so not only before the Israelites coming out of Egypt but after their deliverance did they count this day so to begin in respect of their civil affairs as may appear First for that when the parts of this day were mentioned the morning was set before the night before the Israelites coming out of Egypt d Gen. 1.16 18. an 8.22 and 7 4 12.39.39 40. yea and commonly afterwards too f Lev. 8.35 Ex. 13.21 22. Numb 9.21 though they had the beginning of their dayes altered Secondly because at what time soever of the day-light they spake of the night following they expressed the same thus To night this night this same night a Gen. 19.34 and 26.24 1 Chron. 17.3 Numb 11.32 Ios 4.3 Iudg. 6.25 and 79. as belonging to the same day and not to the day after that And whenever they at any time of the day-light spake of the night past they never used such expressions whereby it may seem to belong as a part of the day following but contrariwise shewing it to be a part of the day before-going as yesternight b Gen. 31.42 and 19.33.34 the night of yesterday Also at night when they spake of the day following they used not to say To day or this day as they did of the day before-going but To morrow or the morrow after c Numb 33.3 1 Sam. 19.11 and to morrow signifieth another day d Mat. 6.34 Jam. 4.13 14. When the Israelites came out of Egypt the night was made the former part of the day even from that night in which they had their deliverance It was a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations e Exod. 12.42 They were commanded after that time to celebrate their Sabbath from Even to Even f Lev. 23.32 And therefore so did they begin their week-days also whereby their Sabbath-day was measured out to be unto them their seventh day otherwise their seventh day would not have been proportionable to their six dayes of labour Their yeare also had thenceforth a new beginning They must not begin their year in Tisri as they did before but with that moneth in which they had their freedome This moneth shall be unto you the beginning of moneths g Exod 12.2 This moneth called by the Hebrewes Abib h Exod. 13.4 and 23.15 Deut. 16.1 and by the Chaldeans Nisan k Esth 147. which consisted partly of our March and partly of April being with them the moneth after the Vernal Equinoctial was their first moneth thenceforth so that whereas before they began their year after their harvest and after all their in-gathering of the fruits of the earth was ended a Exod. 23.16 and 34.22 which was partly in our September after this they were to begin their year farthest off from that time They had then a new yeare and a new moneth and a new day to begin their year withal No otherwise then if the day of their deliverance had been their birth-day for their deliverance was a kinde of a new birth unto them The beginning of the yeare was then changed for the greater lustre unto the birth of the Church saith Calvin And a new time of the day had they to begin their first day of the yeare for their Caput anni or New-yeares day was a sacred day with them they began it at even at the going down of the Sunne at the season they came forth out of the land of Egypt h Deut. 16.6 then was their deliverance made and sealed up unto them in the Passeover So that although in respect of their Civil affairs they began their yeare their moneths and their dayes as they did before yet in this their New Ecclesiastical or Sacred yeare or Computation of time they began their day at Even All their Sabbath-days and all other their sacred dayes and so all their week-dayes for measuring out unto them their sacred dayes began at the Even they had the evening to be the former part of the day And this may be one reason why Moses in rehearsing the works of Creation setteth the evening before the morning as I said before i See chap. 2. CHAP. IV. Meridional day what it is The parts thereof and which the former part THe Miridional day is the time from midnight to midnight or from noon to noon with any People or more largely thus The Meridional day with any People is that space of time in which the Sun is in going from their Meridian at midnight until it come into that part of their Meridian again at their next midnight Or else from their Meridian at noon until it come into that part of their Meridian again at noon The parts of the Meridional day are these two The Morning and the Evening The Morning is all that time in which the Sun is in its rising until it come unto its greatest height that is all the time between midnight and noon is the morning And the Evening is all the time the Sun is in its descending that is all the time between noon and midnight Thus Christians generally now do formerly have counted and called these parts of this day If common service unto God hath been done in Churches or Colledges at any time in the forenoon either at three foure six nine or eleven of the Clock it was commonly called by the name of Mattins Morning-service or Morning-Prayer and if it had been done at any time in the afternoon it was then commonly called Evening-Song Evening-Prayer Evening-service or such like though it had been done by day-light or by Candle-light So also the People of God did in ancient times divide the day into such parts one whereof they called the Morning and the other the Evening a Gen. 29.23 Eccles 11.6 1 Sam. 17.16 Ier. 6.4 though an act was done before day yet did they count it to be done in the morning b Gen. 31.55 Laban rose early in the night according to the vulgar translation which in ours is early in the morning
within three days what day of our week that five and twentieth day of March was which was the first day of the Creation All the art and indeavour of man is not sufficient to find out whether the first day of the Creation was Sunday or Satcrday or Munday c. and therefore not whether the day of Gods rest was Thursday Friday Saterday c. Let it yet be further granted that it was Sunday on which the first day of the Creation began and therefore the day of Gods rest must then have his beginning on Saterday No man can for all that tell within eleven houres at what time of the Sunday the first day of the Creation or at what time of the Saterday the day of Gods rest began either here or in Virginea or in Rome Ierusalem Paradise or in any other place whatsoever whether it was at Sun-rising Sun-setting Noone or at the houre of one or two c. in the forenoon or afternoon Wherefore if by the seventh here commanded had been meant an universal day it must be then that seventh universal day on which God rested the which cannot be observed by men because they cannot tell on what day of their week nor about what time of their day they should begin the observation thereof Secondly an universal day such as was the day of Gods rest cannot be observed of all the People of God Though it should be granted what is of some believed that the day of Gods rest began in Paradise on Saterday and at the rising of the Sun there yet all Gods People cannot observe that very day For 1. The earth being global and the true longitude of the place where Paradise was being unknown no man can tell when to begin that day in the place where he liveth We know when it is Saterday in some places it is then Sunday or Friday in some other places We know that when Christ rose from the grave it was then Sunday at Jerusalem in the forenoon and we know that it was then Saterday in Virginea in the afternoon but no man can knowingly say that the day of Gods rest beginneth on the Saterday in the forenoon with him though it be granted that it so began in Paradise 2. Though the day of Gods rest or any other universal day be made known unto men at what time and on what day it began in Paradise and the very place where Paradise was be made known also Yet all Gods people could not possibly keep that very day of Gods rest By reason of the diversity of longitudes of the places wherein they may live they cannot keep all of them one and the same day This hath been proved unto us fully and plainly even by the opposers of the Sabbath Dr. Heylyn hath even demonstrated the same that men could not possibly have kept one and the same day for their Sabbath had it been commanded a Heyl. part 1. pag. 45 46 47 48. And further sheweth that the Iewes themselves kept not the very day of Gods rest b Page 125. though they had one day in seven set apart for holy rest and meditation Mr. Ironside also c Irons chaf 18. pag. 164. from the diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Iewes in the East-parts and West-parts too of Iudea and in Babylon and in Rome by reason of their diversity of longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three degrees difference of longitude yet will that difference make the dayes as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three though it will not make them so much to differ The like argument hath Doctor Francis White late Bishop of Ely f Dr. Francis White in his of the Sabbath Page 175. and divers others Wherefore sith the universal day such as was the day of Gods rest cannot be possibly kept by all Gods people no more then any other set particular day can it is not the day here commanded by the Lord The Sabbath-day here commanded to be kept holy is such a kinde of day as may be known kept and observed by men wheresoever they inhabit though in many and divers longitudes of the earth Such as might have been kept in the wildernesse where the law was delivered and in the East and West-parts of Canaan and in Babylon Rome Spain and in all other habitable places and therefore ought to be either an Horizontal or else a Meridional day In all places of the world none other but Horizontal or Meridional dayes are now or at any other time heretofore have been in use with men for measuring out unto them their seven dayes or week and such as are their six dayes of the week for labour such ought the seventh day even the day for holy rest to be also The Sabbath-day with the Iewes was an Horizontal day but then such were the other days of their week also and what Nation soever have their week to consist of Horizontal dayes ought to have their Sabbath-day to be so also In the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and Queen of Swedens Countreys where the Sun maketh many Revolutions at some seasons of the year between his rising and setting men cannot count their week by Horizontal dayes but they do and have counted their weeks by Meridional dayes And so do all Christians generally of what longitude or latitude of the earth soever they are of mete out their weeks by Meridional dayes then such ought their seventh day of their week to be also CHAP. VIII What day the Sabbath is to be in order or tale NOw is to be shown what day in tale is to be the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord and this the Law-giver himselfe hath plainly pointed out unto us in this law to be the day following the six dayes of labour so that none need to say the knowledge hereof is hidden from us who shall ascend for us into heaven and bring the knowledge thereof to us that we may know it and observe it But it is clearly demonstrated unto us by the Lord God so that he that worketh with the Spade may know the same as well as he that handleth the pen. Six dayes shalt thou labour and c. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The seventh day that is the day following the six known dayes of labour is none of ours it is the Lords day We may not make the sabbath-Sabbath-day to be the sixth day for then we should shew our selves unthankful in not receiving the Lords own bountiful allowance nor the eighth day for then we should encroach on the Lords right and not be contented with his liberal allowance of six dayes for our selves reserving only the seventh for himself much lesse ought we to
make it the fifth or the nineth or tenth or any other then the seventh day Our weeks are not to consist of more or lesse then seven dayes the last day whereof is the Lords day Some call this day the standing day of the week for Gods worship some the Lords day some the Sabbath of the Lord some the seventh day of the week and in this law it is set out to be the day after our six dayes of labour Though these appellations do much differ in letter sound and phrase yet they all signifie the same thing it cannot be the seventh day of the week but it will also be the day after our six known dayes of labour and the standing day of the week for Gods worship this is the Lords day or the Sabbath of the Lord or to the Lord and this is not only a seventh day of the week as all and every other of the week-dayes are but it is the seventh day of the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not appointed from the Lord by this law any set time whence men should begin their week or sevening for to finde the Lords day so that no People Jew or Gentile are tied by this Commandment directly to keep their Sabbath precisely on such or such a day or to begin their Sabbath at any set particular time as from midnight or from Sun-rising noon or Sun-setting God separated the tenth of grapes of lambes of corn c to the use of the Priests and Levites As the seventh day is in this Commandment said to be the Lords and sanctified by the Lord so were those tenths said to be the Lords and sanctified or holy to the Lord. But it cannot there be meant of the very tenth Lambe that fell in order from the Damme or of the tenth eare of corn or of the tenth cluster of grapes first appearing or grown ripe this was too too difficult for to finde out but of the tenth in proportion successively according to the customary manner of their tithing in the places where they lived No more can it be meant here of the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation which cannot be found out nor from any particular time set by the Lord but the seventh day in proportion successively according as any Nation or people do customarily begin their week in what longitude of the earth soever they do inhabit that seventh day by the expresse words of this law is the Lords day or sabbath-Sabbath-day to or for the Lord not of the Lord in that sense which some take it as if it were the very day of Gods rest but the 7th day unto the Lord that is sacred or holy to or for the Lord so do the very words of the text import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord so also in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereto doth the Chaldee Paraphrase accord Die autem septimo Sabbatum est coram Domino And on the seventh day is the Sabbath before the Lord. Also Jun. and Tremel Dies verò septimus Sabbatum est Iehovae But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord. The sense then and meaning of these words of this Commandment The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord is this The seventh day of the week or the day following the six dayes here allowed man for labour is the Lords day or is sacred to the Lord thy God As we say in tithing of corne wheresoever men by agreement do begin to tithe that nine cocks or stacks of corn are the Farmers but the tenth is the Parsons or is due to the Parson So in sevening out our dayes at what time soever according to mens custome they begin their week or sevening six days are ours but the seventh day is the Lords it is his due and not our own God hath not bound men by this law to any set time when to begin their week either at the Sun-setting as the Jews began their week or at midnight as Christians begin theirs or at any other set time but in every Nation however they begin their week the seventh day thereof is the Lords It is true that the Jewes had a set time when they should begin their week or sevening and so had a set and peculiar time or day on which they were to keep their Sabbath but this they were not bound unto by this law That Saterday was their seventh or sacred day and that it began at Sun-setting rather then at another time was not by any expresse out of this Commandment but accidentally that thereby they might be the better taken off from the Assyrians idolatry wherewith they and generally most Nations were deeply infected of which I will speak more particularly in the next Chapter CHAP. IX The Assyrians idolatrie All Nations worshipped the Sun THe Assyrians idolatrie wherewith Egypt the Israelites and generally other Nations were infected was both the worshipping of Baal the adoring of the Host of heaven The one was a man deified and worshipped the other were the Starres viz. the Sun Moone and the rest of the Planets a The other stars were honoured but as subservient unto these whom they magnified and adored as gods and governours of the world Concerning Baal and how he came to be worshipped we shall thus finde in Histories and ancient Chronologies Nimrod that mighty Hunter before the Lord being a great and strong Giant began to suppresse and tyrannize over others bringing others in Shinar under him and he ruled as King over them The beginning of his Kingdome was Babel wherefore he was called Saturnus Babylonicus For the most ancient Kings and first founders of a Realme or People they called by the name of Saturne and his eldest son or heire by the name of Jupiter and his daughters were called Junoes c Guevar Epist Thus they cal'd his father Cush Gush Saturnus Aethiops for that Aethiopia was peopled by him And his Grandfather Cham they cal'd Saturnus Aegyptius for that he and his son Jupiter Mizraim peopled Egypt Beside Babel this Nimrod had Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar d Gen. 10.9 10 11 12. In Processe of time Nimrod left the Kingdom of Babel unto his son Belus whom they called Iupiter Belus not driven out of his Kingdom by his son but Nimrod left the same unto him and went into Ashur there he tyrannized over the children of Ashur and there he built Cities also Niniveh and Rehoboth and Calah and Rezen Ninus succeeded his Father Belus and his Grandfather Nimrod in their Kingdomes and inlarged Niniveh calling it by his own name Niniveh and much inlarged his dominions and became a Monarch This Ninus so condoled and took such grief for the death of his father Belus that for his own comfort and his fathers honour he had a goodly image and representation of his father made which he had in much honour Others
the world to be eternal like as the Chaldees before them did 6. The like I say for Rome that was built by the posterity of the Trojane fugitives though Pantheus was dead yet they had their Temple Pantheon which continued to be so called till the dayes of Boniface the fourth as I shewed before c See chap. 9. Under divers formes and names did the Romanes worship the Sun as Macrobius sheweth Romani solem sub nomine specie Iani Dydimaei Apollinis c Appellatione venerantur saith he d Macrob. Sacarn l. 1. c. 17. 7. The Massagethites that Scythian and unhumane Nation had the Sun for their God though they would not acknowledge any other as Boëmns recordeth of them Deum quendam sed non Deos agnoscunt ex Diis enim Vnum Solem venerantur cui equos immolant ut pernicissimo sideri è pecoribus omnibus pernicissimum mactent e Boëm. ubi de Scythia 8. The Ethiopians Cathaines Tartars and other Nations worshipped the Sun their god as the said Boëmus recordeth writing of their manners and customes 9. Doctor Francis White late B. of Ely in his Book against Theophilus Brabourne f White p. 197. speaking of the Pagans in general telleth us that they worshipped the Sun Now to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry so generally practised by the Nations the Lord used divers means of which this was one that they should not have the day of the Sun for the day of his worship but the day before that but of this in the next chapter CHAP. X. The means God used to take the Israelites off from worshipping the Sun THe Israelites living in Egypt were deeply tainted with the aforesaid Assyrian Idolatries which the Egyptians from them had learnt and set up Doctor Heylin proveth out of Cyril that the Jews worshipped the Sun and Moon and Host of heaven as in those times the Egyptians did And to the end they mght acknowledge God alone to be the Creatour their sabbath-Sabbath-day was set unto them c. a Heyl. hist. part 1. p. 74 75 76. It is very true indeed what Doctor Heylin saith of them touching their Idolatries Insomuch that when the Lord brought them out of Egypt to be a peculiar people to himself God then used many means to draw them off from worshipping the Sun Moon and the rest of the Planets all called the Host of heaven whereof the Sun was the chief First God gave them a special charge that thenceforth not any of them should serve the Sun or Moon c. And that if any man or woman among them should be known to serve the Sun or Moon or any of the Host of heaven then the party whether man or woman was to be stoned to death without mercy b De t. 17.2 3 4 5. Secondly God charged them not to speak of those gods or to have their names come out of any of their mouths c Exod. 23.13 They might not call the dayes of the week by the names of the Planets the day of the Sun the day of the Moon c. as other Nations did and do for the most part but they called them thenceforth the first of the Sabbath the second of the Sabbath c. Insomuch that all the Evangelists in recording the day and time of our Saviours Resurrection say not In the morning of the day of the Sun as other Nations commonly called that time and we now In the Sunday-morning but In the morning of the first day of the Sabbath so did they call our Sunday Saint Paul also though he wrote to the Church in Corinth yet writing in the behalf of somes Jews in Judea that were in want called their weekly meeting day not the day of the Sun as the Gentiles cal'd that day but the first day of the Sabbath b 1. Cor. 16.2 being the proper name thereof with the Jewes It is true that Saint John though he was a Jew yet writing not to the Jews but to the Gentiles lately converted c Diod. in loe that is to the seven Churches of Asia d Rev. 1.4 called our Sunday not by the name of the day of the Sun as the Gentiles called it nor by the name of the first day of the Sabbath as he and the Jews commonly called it but he called it The Lords day John called it not the day of the Sun for he was a Jew nor did he call it the first day of the Sabbath for that he wrote to the Gentiles to whom the name of the Sabbath was odious as was the name of the day of the Sun to the Jews and we finde not that Christians who descended of the Gentiles did in many yeers after this use the name of Sabbath in their writings nor did the Jews use the name of the day of the Sun in theirs But Iohn called it the Lords day being as truly the Lords day with the Churches of the Gentiles as was the Saterday with the Jews Thirdly the Lord caused them to alter their times which were measured out to them by the course of the Sun as years moneths weeks and dayes Whereas their year before began in Tisri when the Sun was in the Autumnal Equinox they must thenceforth begin the same when the Sun is most remote from it that is in Abib Abib now must be their first moneth and Tisri their seventh which was their first before d See chap. 4. Their weeks were then wholly altered the day of the Sun which was the Gentiles seventh sacred day as I shall shew anon f See chap. 15. must thenceforth be with them a common or ordinary work-work-day and the day which they must have for their seventh sacred day was thenceforth to be that day which the Lord pointed out unto them by Moses that is the day following their six dayes of gathering Quailes and Manna g Ex. 16.23 26 when they were ready to perish through want of food Also to draw the people unto an awful obedience hereto and that they might not think it to be an innovation raised by Moses as the Heathen generally thought it to be a Cornel. Ta. Diurn l. 21. Trog Pom. l. 36 the Lord confirmed this new order of their week-dayes miraculously insomuch as on that seventh pointed out unto them for their Sabbath there was no signe of Manna to be seen and the portion thereof gathered the day before and kept unto their sabbath-Sabbath-day stanck not The miraculous feeding them many years after this maner bred in them a custome of observing the week according to this new assignment The Lord by Moses caused them to alter the beginning of their dayes of the week too for wheras before they began their dayes as other worshippers of the Sun did at the first appearance of the Sun in the Horizon counting the first houre of their day to begin at Sun rising thenceforth they must begin their day for the service of
the Sun and assigned unto them the Saterday for their Sabbath Concerning which we may truly say that as their Sabbath-day was their seventh day from their first gathering Quailes and Manna and as it was to begin at Sun-setting which Moses termed the season that they came out of Egypt b Deut 16.6 so was it Ceremonial a signe and token whereby they were known to be Gods peculiar people c Exod. 31.13 and distinguished from all Nations that adored the Sun Unto the observation of which seventh day from their first labouring for Manna were they bound and none but they and they no longer then till the coming of him of whom Moses their Captain said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall ye hear d Acts 7.37 Even Iesus Christ who is the Captain of our salvation f Heb. 2.10 who is greater then Moses who brought us out of a greater bondage then Moses did the Israelites and who gave us not Quailes and Manna but his own flesh he gave us the true bread that came down from heaven that we might live through him After whose coming as all other shadows and Ceremonies so this of their Saterday Sabbath from Sun-setting to Sun-setting did vanish also The day of Saturn was thenceforth no more holy then the day of the Sun The Jewes might as lawfully with their general consent have kept the Sabbath on the Sunday as on the Saterday Saint Pauls practice taught Christians then that difference of dayes was taken away Vnto the Iewes saith he I became as a lew a 1 Cor 9.20 When he was with the Jewes he kept the Saterday-Sabbath as the Jewes did b Acts 17.2 and 18.4 and 13.14 42. But when he was with the Gentiles that were turned unto Christ and imbraced the Gospel he observed and kept the same seventh sacred day they did which with them was called the day of the Sun on which day they usually met together c 1 Cor. 16.2 Acts 20.7 There arose no small difference between the converted Jewes and the converted Gentiles hereabout The Jewes esteeming the Saterday to be more holy then the Sunday condemned the Gentiles for Prophaners of the Sabbath because they observed not the Saterday and for that they kept the day of the Sun the Jewes held them to be Worshippers of the Sun as other Gentises were The Gentiles on the other side upbraided the Jewes as superstitious for their observing their set holy-dayes whereof their Saterday-Sabbath from evening to evening was one which were abolished This upbraiding and condemning one another in things indifferent St. Paul speaketh against and writeth to the contrary in his Epistle to the Romanes d Rom. 14.5 and to the Colossiaus f Col. 2.16 The Jewes were no more bound thenceforth by the law of God to keep their Sabbath on the Saterday then on the Sunday The sabbath-Sabbath-day by the Lord commanded to them and to all in this law being not this or that day but the seventh relating to the fix dayes of our labour before-going is the seventh day of the week with all people Now that it may the better appear what the seventh day of the week is and that Sunday is the seventh day of the week with us and generally with all Christians I will shew 1. What some have held to be a week in chap. 11. 2. What a week and what the week is and what the seventh day of the week is in chap. 12. 3. The Antiquity of weeks in chap. 13. 4. What hath been chiefly objected against the Antiquity of weeks in chap. 14. 5. That Sunday was the seventh day sacred with the Gentiles in chap. 15. 6. Why the Gentiles after their Conversion continued Sunday to be their standing day of the week for Gods worship though it had been before idolatrously abused to the worship of the Sun in chap. 16. CHAP. XI The Opinion of some concerning weeks How it 's hatched from the earths supposed plainnesse IT hath been the general Opinion not only of the vulgar but of the learned also that the seventh day commanded us in this law hath relation only to the six work-dayes of the Lord God and not to the six work-dayes with men as if the meaning of these words of the Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord thy God so it is in the Hebrew should be thus The six dayes in which I wrought when I created all things shall be thy six work-dayes in them thou shalt do all thy work but the seventh day wherein I rested thou shalt rest and do none of thy works on any part of that day but shalt keep that day holy it is the day of my rest From hence they wil have a week to be none other with any people but seven such dayes whereof the six former dayes be the same with the first six dayes of the Creation and the seventh be the same with the day of Gods rest Weeks in use with the Jewes they held to be such the first six dayes of their week to be the same with the six dayes on which God wrought and their seventh day which was from Friday at the setting of the Sun to Saterdays Sun-setting to be the very day of Gods rest Though Sunday be the day following the six dayes of labour with us and on which we rest from our labour having wrought six dayes before yet we do not rest on the seventh day as they say according to Gods example but on the first day from Sunday to Sunday they will not have to be a week but from Saterday to Saterday only And from hence do they who deny the Morality of the seventh-day-Sabbath teach and write that the boundary or seventh day of the week must be the day of Gods rest and that the day of Gods rest was the very day which God blessed and sanctified and in this law commanded to be kept holy and that the Jewes Sabbath only was the seventh-day Sabbath which in this law is commanded to be observed holy and that the Jewes Sabbath-day being Ceremonial and abolished by the coming of the Messias the seventh-day Sabbath in this law expresly commanded to be sanctified is abolished also and not to be observed by Christians and that sith no other set day is instituted in stead thereof by any divine authority it resteth in the bosome of the Church or Magistrates to appoint what day they please for Gods publick worship Though all and every of these be very false yet are they all by these men held to be even as true as their Creed they little considering from how unsound and rotten a root these and every of them have had their first spring and that is from a supposal that the earth is plain and not round It is an odde but an old conceit of some Philosophers which
16. Deut. 16.9 So that it is evident that these their weeks for meting out unto them their feast of Pentecost began from different times or dayes of their Sabbatical week Thirdly seven dayes so succeeding each other as that their boundary be the seventh day every indifferent man wil grant to be a week But such may be from any set time or day Such were the seven dayes of unleavend bread they began sometimes on Munday sometimes on Tuesday and sometimes on other dayes and never two years together on one and the same day of the Jews Sabbatical week Yet were those seven dayes a week with them even their week of Sweet Bread the boundary whereof was the seventh day a Lev. 23.8 Deut. 16.8 Exod. 12.16 There is no difference made either in respect of letters vowels or accents between the seventh day of the week of sweet bread before-said and the seventh day of their Sabbatical week which with them was the sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord. The like is to be said of the weeks appointed to their Priests for their judgement in the case of Leprosie b Lev. 13.5 27. And of the weeks of Daniels mourning c Dan. 10.2 3. By all which it is clear that a week is seven dayes succeeding each other from any set time or day and that if the first day thereof be known the seventh day of the same will be known also Next we are to know what the seventh day of the week is being the day here in this Law commanded to be kept holy There is much difference between a seventh day and the seventh day Every day of a week is a seventh day but only the boundary thereof is the seventh day of that week In like manner there is much difference between the seventh day of a week and the seventh day of the week The seventh day from the birth of a childe is the seventh day of a week and the boundary thereof then was the childe a week old The last day of the week of unleavened-bread was the seventh day of a week and so was the seventh day appointed to the Priest in the case of Leprosie as before was shewed but it was not the seventh day of the week of the week whose boundary is sacred and commanded to be kept holy This week is the week 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath some excellency in it which other weeks have not and that in respect of its use constancy and universality First it is more excellent then other-weeks in regard of its excellent use which is to measure out to men what dayes are common and what are sacred which are their six dayes in which they may work and which is the Lords day in which they may not work according to the Lords own standard held out unto us in this Law Six dayes shalt thou labour c. But the seventh-seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. God by this Law tyeth no nation to a set houre or time when to begin their week nor by what names they should call the dayes of their week But he tyeth all Nations that at what time soever they begin the week they work not on the seventh day but sanctifie it It is the Lords All other weeks are for use inferiour to this Other weeks may serve for to shew the just time for payments of monies weekly or monethly billetting of souldiers taking of journeys and for a thousand other reckonings in Civil affairs but all inferiour in use unto this Secondly other weeks are more inconstant then this they vary in one and the same place or else continue but a short time The weeks of Sweet bread varied every yeare with the Jewes like as their Passeover did which never fell on the same week-day two yeares together but were as unconstant as the Moon Weeks for payments of moneys billeting souldiers c. are of short continuance Of those that do use them seldom or never do all of the same City or Town begin them at the same time Whereas weeks in use for pointing out the seventh day sacred are constant Thirdly other weeks are not generally in use with all All do not billet by the week nor pay nor receive wages by the week neither do men generally make their reckonings and accounts by weeks But weeks for measuring out the six dayes of labour and the seventh day sacred have been in use with all People and Nations of any note and fame not only with Christians and Jewes but also with Turks and Heathen-Nations Though the week was not the same with them all and therefore their seventh day sacred could not be the same with all yet all had seven dayes to the week and all had the seventh day of their week sacred The Turks seventh sacred day with them called Algama is on our Friday because on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib a Twiss p. 119. The Jewes kept their seventh sacred day on our Saterday beginning the same on Friday at the setting of the Sun because at that time the Israelites first began their six dayes of gathering Quailes and sustenance as may appear in Exod. 16. And because at that time of the day their deliverance out of Egypt was assured and sealed unto them b Deut. 6â—6 and also for that the Lord commanded them to do so c Lev. 23.32 And Christians keep their seventh day sacred on the Sunday beginning the same with the morning chiefly for that our Lord and Saviour at Jerusalem made his glorious Resurrection on the Sunday morning The Gentiles also had the Sunday for their seventh sacred day though they kept it sacred in honour of the Sun of which I shall say more anon d See chap. 15. In these respects this week may truly be said to be more excellent then all other and the boundary thereof to be not only the seventh day of a week but the seventh day of the week CHAP. XIII The Antiquity of weeks proved THe Antiquity of weeks may be gathered First from that it hath been the general practice of most Nations to have just seven dayes to the week and every particular day of the week to bear the name of the same Heathenish god or planet with them all even with those Nations between whom there was no commerce or traffique and were unknown the one to the other How can it be conceived that many Nations should have neither more nor lesse then seven dayes to the week and to have the day of the Sun to be Sunday with them all and the day of the Moon to be Munday with all and so every week-day to be the same with them all except with the Jewes and Turks who only as far as I can reade of altered their week the Jew beginning the same on the Sunday and the Turk on the Saterday for the reasons before given had not their Ancestors before ever they were dispersed far from the land of Shinar
by the names of the Planets and so have they continued to call them even to this day The Jewes are now a weak People yet there is not a Prince or Power on earth able to withdraw them from their superstitious custome of keeping the Saterday sacred yea the believing Jewes as was shewed in the Apostles time and in many years after could not be wonne by any means that the Christians might use to give over their Saterday-Sabbath and for unities sake to keep the Lords day on the Sunday except a very few of them who better knew and acknowledged their liberty by Christ How impossible may we then think it to be for any to bring to passe that all Christians in all quarters of the world should leave off their observing the Sunday sacred and have another day in stead thereof In vain therefore would it have been for poor Christians at first to have assayed the same These reasons if there were no more may suffice to shew that although all dayes be in themselves indifferent yet Christians should not have well done had they endeavoured to have changed their seventh sacred day from Sunday to any other week-day no not to Thursday though it was the day of Christ his glorious Ascension nor to Friday though it was the day in which Christ paid our ransome but betrer to retain the same day as they did and which the Church of Christ hath since that kept even to this present time and by Gods grace will so do unto the end CHAP. XVI The Sabbath-day is to be sanctified Works of Piety Government and of Nature only are to be done on the Sabbath-day c. the necessary helpes thereunto THere hath been before shewed that the Sabbath-day in this law commanded to be kept holy is not a part of a day as is the Artificial day but an whole day And that it is not such a kinde of day as are the dayes of the Creation mentioned in the first of Genesis but such a kinde of day as is or hath been in use with men And also that it is not in tale the fifth sixth eighth or nineth day but the seventh not the seventh day of the moneth but the seventh day of the week the day following the six known dayes of labour where men dwell and inhabit Which day with Christians is vulgarly called Sunday otherwise more fitly and as indeed it is The Lords day even our sabbath-Sabbath-day to the Lord. Now in the next place is to be shewed how the Lords day is to be sanctified To the sanctification of the sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord which we call the Lords day two things are required 1. That we keep it a day of rest 2. That we sanctifie that time of rest That we are to keep it a day of rest the Scripture fully sheweth On the seventh day thou shalt rest in earing time and in harvest d Exod. 34.21 The like have we in divers other places of Scripture calling it a day of rest All men are to cease from the works of their calling which on other dayes they lawfully may yea and ought to do for the maintenance of themselves and theirs Six dayes shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest ye shall do no work therein f Lev. 23.3 So are the words here in this law Thou shalt not do any work But whereas we are here forbidden to do any work we must not so understand the words as if on the Sabbath-day we should rest from all kinde and manner of works and so do no work at all upon that day the words of the text do not bear such a sense These are the words of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not do all thy trade Art or occupation and such are the words of the text in divers other places of Scripture a Deut. 5.14 Exod. 35.2 and 31.15 Lev. 23.3 7. Val. Schindler in his Pentaglot on the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telleth us thus The Rabbines take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Art or vocation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural for Arts and vocations So Arias Montanus also correcteth Pagnines translation of the Bible that whereas Pagnine hath it Non facies omne opus he turneth it Non facies omnem functionem b Deut. 5.14 where Pagnine translateth thus Omnis quifecerit in eo opus c. Montanus hath it Omnis faciens in eo functionem c Exod. 35.2 Where Pagnine saith Omnis faciens opus in die Sabbati it is thus to be read according to Montanus Omnis faciens opificium in die cessationis d Exod. 31.15 c. The like may be seen in divers other places of Scripture so translated by the one and so corrected by the other Whence we may gather that the true meaning of these words commonly read in our translations Thou shalt not do any work is not that we should do no manner of work at all but that we should do on the Sabbath-day no manner of the works of our trade function and occupation The Smith is not to work at his Anvil nor the Shoomaker with his Awle nor any other about any works that belong to mens trade and profession which on the six dayes of labour they may and should do for getting their maintenance and livelihood There be some other works which on every day may lawfully be done even on the Sabbath-day it self without the least breach of this law and they are of three sorts 1. Works of Piety 2. Works of Government towards the creature subjected to us 3. Works needful to the preservation of mans life These works may be done on every day without any violation to the Law of the Sabbath Neither doth the law of the Sabbath abridge us from doing them on any day What God ordained before ever the seventh day was in being was not and is not nulled or abridged by the law of the Sabbath but these works were before ordained by the Lord. First Man was made and had his being to serve God to honour and worship him to perform duties of Piety in such manner as he should appoint him The doing of these duties on the Sabbath-day doth no violation to the law of the Sabbath Men doing them may be said to break or profane the Sabbath yet not break the law of the Sabbath When we have been diligent on the Sabbath-day in doing service unto God and the duties he requireth of us for his honour we may therein be said not to make the day a day of rest but to break the rest or Sabbath yet not to break the Commandment by doing these works Thus Christ told the Pharisees that the Priests in the Temple did profane the Sabbath and are blamelesse a Mat. 12.5 Sure they could not be said to be blamelesse had they by their sacrificing bullocks or sheep broken the Commandment they brake the Sabbath they made it not
a day of rest from these works and so were said to profane it that is in respect of these labours they made it common with other dayes all dayes being alike lawful or common for doing works of Piety Secondly works of Government of the Creatures subjected unto man were ordained of the Lord before man was made Let us make man saith God in our image after our likenesse and let them have dominion over c b Gen. 1.26 28 and when God had made man he commanded them to have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowle over cattel and over every living thing upon the earth This law and ordinance was not repealed or nulled by any succeding law Man is to exercise this his Rule and Government committed unto him on any day If fire should threaten to destroy house or houses corne or such like on the Sabbath-day man is as well bound to use his power in suppressing the same on the Sabbath-day as on any other If water indanger drowning of cattel or if cattel strive together whereby some are like to perish and man do not succour and seek to preserve what was in danger because it was on the Sabbath-day he sheweth himself to be a bad Governour of the creature or if he should suffer sheep or other cattel to perish for want of foddering folding or housing them as need requireth he is not worthy to have the Government of cattel The like Isay concerning works needful for the preservation of mans life When Adam was in the state of innocency before ever the seventh day was even on the day of his Creation the Lord ordained him food Behold I have given you said God every herbe bearing seed some whereof were Physical which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat d Gen. 1.29 It was Gods Will and Ordinance then that man being made a living soul should use the means for the preservation of his life And this his ordinance was never repealed by any succeeding law All these three kinde of works may be done on the sabbath-Sabbath-day as well as on other dayes alwayes provided that there be no irregularity in performing them We must have regard to necessity requiring present help when this giveth way the duties more excellent are more especially to be regarded And as these works may be done on the Lords day so may the necessary helps thereunto be then done also A man may on the sabbath-Sabbath-day travel on foot to the meeting place and assembly of Gods people and if he cannot well go on foot he may ride Also as men may feed folde or house their Cattel on the Lords day so may they use the necessary helps thereto which could not be done the day before And so also may they not only eat drink sleep and take Physick according as need requireth but also may use needfull helps thereunto as heating their meat and such like for all stomacks cannot feed on cold meat But let all take heed lest under a pretence of necessity he robs God of his due honour and his conscience of true peace Object But here some will object that this Commandment tyed the Jews from kindling any fire on their Sabbath-day If then we are bound to keep this law as strictly as the Jews were we ought not to kindle fire at all upon the Sabbath-day for any occasion whatsoever though for saving ones life Answer To which I answer that this precept in Exodus the five and thirtieth Chapter b Exod. 35.3 and third Verse forbade the Jews not from making any fire at all whether it be a help towards the duties of piety or mens health and safety But from making fire whereby it should be a help towards their trades occupations or functions which are expresly forbidden to be done in this commandment on the Sabbath-day And that this is the meaning may appear for that First this precept hath an eye and refiecteth on the words immediately going before in the former verse in which is a rehearsal of the summe of this fourth commandment In these words according to the Hebrew text d Arias Monte. Six dayes shall function occupation or trade be done and in the seventh day there shall be to you holinesse a rest of cessation to the Lord every one doing his function in that day shall die Then immediately followeth There shall no fire be kindled in all your habitations in the day of cessation The works about mens personal callings and functions for getting wealth being forbidden in the former verse in this is forbidden the means tending thereto as the kindling of fire And haply kindling fire is here mentioned rather then any other means for that they being all Brickmakers in Egypt before they kindled fire throughout their habitations for the burning their tale of Bricks But when workes are lawful and needful to be done on the Sabbath-day such as are works of piety and works of preserving the life of man the necessary helps thereunto as making fire is lawful also Secondly the continued and never blamed practice of the Jews of making fire on the Sabbath-day for these duties proveth the same They were never at any time blamed for making fire on the Sabbath for these duties as farre as we can read in sacred Scripture The man that was put to death for gathering wood whether to fagot it or to adde it to his Pile or heap is not expressed on the Sabbath-day b Num. 15.32 doth make nothing hereto And that they did make fire on the Sabbath-dayes for these duties is undeniable How else should the meat-offrings baken in ovens and in pannes and in frying-pannes be made which they were to bring to the Priests as obligations d Levit. 2.4 5 7. How else could the Shewbread be baked which were constantly provided and set on the pure Table of the Lord every Sabbath day f Levit. 24.5 6 c. And how else should the Paschal lambe be roasted when the feast of the Passeover fell on the Sabbath-day Every family was then to eat rostmeat throughout their habitations and the remaines to be burnt in the fire that nothing be left untill the morning g Exod. 12.10 Sure these things could not be done without making fire In like manner did they make fire on the Sabbath for preservation of their life and health For doubtlesse the Israelites baked and sod their Manna on their Sabbath-dayes as they did on the other dayes of the week Cold Manna and unpound would not agree with many mens stomakes on the Sabbath who on every of the other dayes did eat it hot either baked or sodden On every of the other six dayes they gathered every man according to his eating an Omer for every man b Exod. 16.16 18. And then ground it or beat it in a mortar and baked it in pannes and
made Cakes of it d Num. 11.8 And in that week which was set for the measuring out to them their first Saterday-Sabbath which was their seventh day from their first beginning of gathering Quailes and manna Moses on the sixt day that is on the day before their new Sabbath appointed said unto them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning f Exod. 16.23 24. On this sixth day they gathered double to what they did before whereof Moses told them that the one part they should bake or seeth at their pleasure but the remainder that is the other part they were not willed either to bake or to seethe on that day but to lay it up for the next day the which they did and although it was neither baked nor sodden yet it stank not neither did wormes appear therein Now if the Israelites might not pound the said manna laid up for their food nor bake nor boile the same and so eat it hot as on other dayes the Sabbath-day which should be a delight unto them would breed them sorrow and be burthensome unto them and doubtlesse then we should read of their complaints hereof We read how they complained for want of change and wept when they remembred the flesh Cucumbers Melons Leeks Onions and Garlick which they had in Egypt But now said they our soul is dryed away there is nothing beside this Manna c g Num. 11.6 How would they have complained if on the Sabbath-dayes they should have been driven to have eaten the manna not pound nor baked nor sod Their silence herein argueth them not to have been driven to such a strait but that they did either bake or boile their Manna and so eat it hot as they did on the other dayes the which could not be done without their making a fire Or otherwise if by this precept the Jews were not to make any fire at all on their Sabbath-day neither for the furtherance of their services and duties towards God nor for the preservation of the health and life of man then I say that that precept was particularly given to the Jews and peculiarly concerned that Nation and no other Common-wealth whatsoever And that this Commandment bound them not thereto no more then it bindeth us or any other people whatsoever This law bound and doth binde all men to make the seventh day with them a day of rest not only from works of slavery commonly called servile works from which the Jews were bound on their feast of the Passeover b Lev. 23.7 Nun. 28.18 and on certaine other of their feast-dayes c Lev. 23.8 21.25 35 36. Num. 28.25.26 But also from all the works of mens trade occupation or function whatsoever Yea our thoughts and mindes are not to be upon them on the Lords day as the one are called our works d Exod. 23.12 so the other are called our thoughts This Law bindeth all that they should not only make the seventh day to be a day of rest and cessation from all the works of our callings but also that we sanctifie that rest Remember saith God that thou sanctifie the sabbath-Sabbath-day that is in English the day of cessation or rest for that it is the Sabbath of the Lord. We may well call it the Lords day or the Lords Sabbath for that it is a day holy to the Lord we are not only to cease from the works of our professions and callings on that day but are then to performe also and do duties and works of holinesse unto the Lord. On the seventh day is a cessation to rest a Convocation of holinesse d Lev. 23.3 Or as it is in our translation The seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy convocation And in Exodus In the seventh day is the rest of cessation holinesse to the Lord f Exod. 31.15 And a little after that In the seventh day shall be to you holinesse a rest of cessation unto the Lord g Exod. 35.22 All which do shew that on the Sabbath-day which is the day following our six dayes of labour we should not only rest from all our functions and works of our professions for getting of worldly wealth and maintenance but we are to keep this rest cessation or sabbath holy to the glory and honour of the most great God our Creatour and Redeemer Quest If any ask here whether it be lawful for an Apothecary to let blood in case of great need or for a Physician to minister Physick to his sick Patient on the Sabbath-day Answ Doubtlesse it is lawful and not only so but either of them may go or ride for that purpose it being of the duties before spoken of for the preservation of the life and health of mankinde which are not forbidden by this Law provided neither of them do the same for his fee reward and gaine for then he maketh it a work of his Profession for gaining of worldly wealth and maintenance which may be done on other dayes but not on the Sabbath without making himself a transgressor And now I conclude this point with the expresse words of the Homily for the time of Prayer Thus it may plainly appear that Gods Will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the week wherein the People should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and to render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving kinde and obedient People And with that a little before And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful works for like as it appeareth by the Commandment that no man in six dayes ought to be slothful or idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him Even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietnesse and rest from labour even so Gods obedient People should use the Sunday holily As concerning the particular duties to be done on the Sabbath-day there being so many learned and godly men who have written so fully of them and are or may be in most mens hands or closets I forbear to speak of them here for brevities sake referring the Reader to their plenty and now in the next place will speak of the second part of this Commandment CHAP. XVII The great care and provision had by the Lord for mans keeping and sanctifying the Sabbath-day THe former part of this fourth Commandment which is
that we should keep holy the sabbath-Sabbath-day hath been at large handled before now it resteth that I speak somewhat of the second part also which I will do briefly in this Chapter In this second part is set out in many words the great care and provision had of the Lord that men should observe this law and keep holy the sabbath-Sabbath-day as God commandeth And this provision of the Lord standeth not in one two or three only but in many and weighty inducements and reasons the least of which should have been sufficient to inforce our obedience had not our hearts been hardened and we most rebellious wilfully refusing to yield obedience unto the same The several inducements and reasons the Lord used to win us unto obedience to this law are these First is the Caveat prefixed only to this and to none other of the Commandments Remember Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it This charge of heedfulnesse would mightily work upon an obedient heart he would every day of his six be thinking how to do and dispatch all his businesses in those dayes that when the seventh day come he may freely without any incumbrance betake himself to the worship and service of his God and when it cometh will be mindeful of the day and careful of observing and keeping the same holy as his God commandeth Secondly the Lord hath here plainly pointed out unto man what day is the sabbath-Sabbath-day which he should sanctifie The Lord hath affixed as it were an Index to this law that as the true houre of the day is known and pointed out by the Index or Finger in a Dial whereby he that can but tell the number of the hour-lines may easily know what houre of the day it is so here he that can but tell the dayes of the week may easily tell what day is the Sabbath-day Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath The seventh day is the Sabbath not the seventh day from thy birth nor the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation nor from any set Epoche for then it would have put the most skilful Mathematicians to a stand for the finding out when this seventh day should begin but it is the day following the six dayes of labour In what countrey soever a man is though he is not well skilled in the language of that place and doth not understand what the names of the week-dayes signifie yet if he can tell which be their six work-dayes he may then tell also which is their seventh day It maketh not much by what names the dayes of the week be called nor what the signification of either or any of the week-dayes should be The seventh day of the week with Christians hath been called by divers several names and that even by Christians themselves such as these Sunday The Lords day The first day of the week and in later times it hath been called also the Sabbath-day but in the first times Christians would not call it the Sabbath-day because all the Gentiles detested the name of Sabbath as the Jewes did the name of Sunday as before is shewed neither could they relish this name for a good while after their Conversion It is not much matter by which of these names we call our seventh day nor whether we understand the signification of the name as what Sunday or The Lords day or The first day of the week do signifie or why we do so call our seventh day Though he do not know it to be called Sunday from our Heathen Ancestors who called this day so in honour of the Sun whom they worshipped nor know it to be called the Lords day because it is his Sabbath who sanctified it nor know it to be called the first day of the week for that the Jewes called this day the first of the Sabbath and so was called by them in sacred Scripture and for that the latter Translators of the Bible would have this name by which the Jews called it to be in our tongue called the first day of the week So as that now we count it not the day of the Sun as our Heathen Ancestors did nor count it to be the first of our work-dayes or first in order and tale of our week-dayes as the Jewes did The name of the day doth neither adde nor alter any thing of the nature thereof Thirdly here is set down the equity of this law It is so reasonable that none need complain The Lord alloweth man six dayes and reserveth but one for himself Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh is the Sabbath How unreasonable are such who are not contented with the Lords liberal allowance but incroach on the Lords day also which he reserved for his own honour and worship Fourthly in that the Lord did in many words set down so punctually 1. The works from which men are restrained 2. The persons who are restrained The works forbidden are all kinde of Trades Professions and Occupations which on other dayes men do or may use for getting their living and maintenance There is no word in English which doth so fully expresse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which here the Lord forbiddeth to be done as doth Function Art or Occupation as I shewed before so that none can excuse himself saying that his Profession requireth little or no labour of the body as do husbandry and divers other Handicrafts for God forbids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Vocations Functions or Occupations Men ought to abstain from all their works of what Profession or Vocation soever they be Yea these works are not only forbidden in respect of the labour of the hand but of the tongue and minde also we should not be talking of them neither should our hearts and mindes run on them on the Lords day As God for the furtherance of mans true obedience to this law hath fully shewed the works we are forbidden to do so doth he also as fully and in many words shew who are forbidden to do any of these works Thou nor thy sonne nor thy daughter nor c. Whosoever hath any authority and command over himself must not only be careful that he himself abstain from his labours but also if he hath authority and command over others as sonne daughter man or maid Oxe or Asse he is to see that they also cease from all work-day-labours on the seventh day he is not to imploy any of them he nor any of his may imploy either Oxe or Asse nor lend or let them to hire for their labour on the seventh day or on any part of that day The Lords expressions are large herein that so all pretences and excuses may be taken away Fifthly the Lord sheweth here and would have us to know that we have no right unto the seventh day nor to any part thereof for doing of our own works thereon for the seventh day is the Lords day
THE SEVENTH-DAY Sabbath Or a Brief TRACT ON THE IV. Commandment WHEREIN Is discovered the Cause of all our Controversies about the Sabbath-day and the meanes of reconciling them More particularly is shewed 1. That the seventh day from the Creation which was the day of Gods rest was not the seventh day which God in this Law commanded his People to keep holy neither was it such a kinde of day as was the Jewes Sabbath-day 2. That the seventh day in this Law commanded to be kept holy is the seventh day of the week viz. the day following the six dayes of labour with all People 3. That Sunday is with Christians as truly the Sabbath-day as was Saterday with the Jewes By Thomas Chafie Parson of Nutshelling LONDON Printed by T. R. and E. M. and are to be sold by J. B. at the Guilded Acorne in Pauls Church-yard 1652. To the Worshipful RICHARD MAIJOR OF HURSLEY Esquire SIR THis Tract on the fourth Commandment though little in Bulk yet found great opposition before it could come to light The Author was charged to be such as Ishmael whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against him whereas next to the Glory of God in maintaining this his law to be in force and his Sabbath to be observed his principal scope is to discover the cause of all our Controversies about the Sabbath-day that so a mean may appear for ending all differences thereabout and that the great offence given the Jewes of Christians not keeping the Sabbath-day be wholly removed Yet is it likely for all this to finde evil-willers and not a few wherefore I have made my selfe bold to send it forth under your Protection You have so indeared unto you the whole Countrey round about by your uncessant indeavour for the Peoples Welfare that the credit of your name written in the front hereof shall procure it the better acceptance Yet will I not make so bold an adventure as to send this abroad under your name without your Approbation wherefore first I present it unto you as for your judicious trial and warrant so also to be a testimony of thankfulnesse for both your countenance and many benefits and also an Obligation wherein I stand bound to pray for you and be Your Worships in any Christian Office to be commanded THO. CHAFIE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Believe thou art not ignorant of the many dissensions and contentions that have been among the People of God about the Sabbath-day Some stood for the old Sabbath so called by some meaning the Jewes Sabbath-day Some for a new Sabbath so called by some meaning the day of Christs Resurrection And some for no Sabbath but what Magistrates do appoint No small Controversies have been between all these about the Sabbath-day as I believe thou knowest But the ground and cause of all such their Controversies and how for Peace and Agreement sake it may be removed and taken away I suppose thou dost not know both which I will discover unto thee The ground of such their differences is a misunderstanding of these words of the Commandment Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt do no manner of work By the six dayes must be meant either the six dayes of Gods work or the six dayes of work with men either the six first dayes at the Creation in which God wrought and made all things or else the six work-dayes of the week in use with men where they live So also the seventh day must relate to the six dayes of Gods work or else to the six dayes of mens labour it must be the seventh day from the beginning of the Creation or the seventh day from mens beginning their six week-days of labour It must either be the day of Gods rest which immediatly followed the six days of his work or the day of rest with men which immediately follows their six dayes of work where they live They between whom the said dissensions have been and are have and do hold generally that the seventh day must and doth relate to the six dayes of Gods labour and not of mans It must be they all think the very day of Gods rest the seventh day from the Creation Thus they all thought that the Jewes Sabbath-day which was from Fridayes Sun-setting to Saterdayes Sun-setting was the precise day of Gods rest and every of their other six dayes of the week to be the very same with the six dayes of the Creation whether they lived in Judea in Babylon in Spaine in Ophyr or in any other place it maketh no matter think they Though Sunday with Christians be the day immediately following their six dayes of labour and on which they having laboured six dayes do then rest from their labour according unto Gods example yet at no hand will they yield Sunday to be the seventh day and Sabbath of the Lord Sunday they hold to be the first day of the week and the very same with the first day of the Creation with Christians whereever they live From this common errour sprouted out various opinions which set them all at variance 1. The Jewes and such as adhere to their superstition do and will still plead for the Saterday-Sabbath the Saterday they believe to be the day of Gods rest the day he blessed and sanctified they cannot conceit well of a new Sabbath they know not whence it is Though an Angel should come from heaven and tell them that Christ the Sonne of God came into the world and hath taken away their Sabbath and hath established another contrary to what God the Father instituted so that whereas before they had the seventh day for a day of rest Christ instituted that seventh day to be a work-day That whereas God the Father blessed and sanctified the seventh day Christ took off the blessing from it and gave it to the first day That whereas God the Father appointed his people to work before they did rest Christ appointed them to rest before they did work That whereas before they were to work and do all that they had to do in six dayes and rest on the seventh day according to Gods example now they must rest on the first day and work the six dayes after which is contrary to Gods example I say if an Angel from heaven should come and teach them thus they would not believe him 2. Some there be and they not a few godly precious and tender-hearted Christians who knowing that the Church of God hath ever since our Saviours Ascension observed the Sunday for their Sabbath and that not against but with the approbation of the Apostles of Christ do slight the Seventh-day Sabbath and are tooth and naile for the first day of the week so they count Sunday to be neither can they count it otherwise as long as they hold the Jewes Sabbath to be the seventh day from the Creation
be both in one Hemisphere but succeed in order each other which is called Gods Covenant of the day and of the night a Ier. 33.20 God then called that light so divided Day and that darknesse so divided called by Moses emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God called night b Gen. 1.4 5. the full Revolution of both which was the first day in this division of the light and darknesse or day and night though the night was before the day in one Hemisphere and the day before the night in the other yet in respect of the whole Universe neither of them was before the other in time When the first day began somewhere when it was night at the same time that first day began some otherwhere when it was day-light every where did the first day begin at the same time The second day the third day in like maner were universal days When God stretchd out the firmament on the second day it was every where then the second day On the next day also whersoever God the Universal Worker did his work throughout the whole round in gathering together the waters making the seas and dry land there every where was it the third day And after that every where was it the same third day where God made the earth to bring forth grasse and herbes and fruit-trees d Gen. 1.11 12 13. no where was it then either the second or fourth day The fourth day in which the Sunne Moone and Starres were made was an Universal day When it was the fourth day any where it was the fourth every where It is not revealed in what part of the fourth day those lights of heaven were made but most certain is it that when the Sunne first appeared to the world on that day it was over some part of the earth at that time making it to be noone there and in all places in that Hemisphere which were in the same Meridian with the Sunne And that in many places ninety degrees East from thence it was Sun-setting and in as many places ninety degrees West from thence it was then at the same time Sun-rising Also that in the other Hemisphere to which the Moon or Stars appeared it was then night and midnight there in those places that were in the same Meridian with the Sunne So that although on that fourth day Sun-setting was before Sun-rising in some places and Sun-rising before Sun-setting in some other places and in some places noone was before either of the other and in some other places mid-night was before them all yet in respect of the whole earth not one of them was on that fourth day before the other But at the Sunnes first appearing and shining over half the earth it was at that very instant the fourth day as well where it was Sun-setting or Sun-rising as where it was noone and likewise it was then the fourth day also in the other part of the earth to which the Moone or Starres first appeared For neither the Sun Moone or Starres appeared to any place on the third day which was the day before they were made and the fifth day was not then begun The like I say for the fifth day and for the sixth day when God made fish and fowle on the fifth day or when he made Adam the last of his creatures on the sixth day it was then after Sun-setting in some places and before Sun-rising in some other places and it was then noone in some places and mid-night in some other places yet all on the same day The like I say also for the seventh day the day of Gods rest When God rested from all his works that he had made it was no where then the sixth day but every where the seventh day The day of Gods rest began in some places at Sun-rising in some places at Sun-setting and in some at noone and in other some at mid-night in the same day For so was it on the fourth day when the Sunne first appeared and so when it was halfe ended and so likewise when it was fully ended and therefore so was it when the fifth sixth or seventh day began or ended It is not revealed and therefore no man can know what or where in the earth those places are where it was Sun-rising or Sun setting or noone or mid-night either when the Sun first shined forth to the world or when halfe of that fourth day was ended or when it was fully ended and therefore no man can tell nor possibly can any finde out whether here in England or in any other particular place or Countrey it was Sun-setting or Sun-rising noone or mid-night day-light or night when the fifth sixth or seventh day the day of Gods rest began and yet at the beginning of that seventh day it was either of these somewhere or other Quest But some may say why then did Moses rehearsing every of the six dayes work of the Creation set the evening before the morning so if the evening was not before the morning Answ I answer Moses naming the evening in order before the morning in the first of Genesis a Gen. 1.5 8 13 19 23 31. doth not thereby make either of them to be in time before the other one he was to name first and the reasons why he named the evening before the morning may be these First for that after the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt and I suppose this History to be written after that their year their moneths and the dayes of their week were all changed in respect of their beginnings and endings so that whereas they began their dayes with the morning thenceforth they constantly began their week-dayes with the evening b Sec chap. 3. as I shall shew more at large in the next Chapter If Moses now should have set the morning before the evening he might have seemed to dislike this their new custome of beginning their dayes of the week with the evening for which he had direction from the Lord God Secondly or else it may be for that they who were best skild in dividing and distinguishing of time as were Astronomers such as doubtlesse Moses was who was learned in all the wisdome of the Egyptians d Acts 7.22 began the day at noone making the evening that is all the time from noone to midnight to be the former part of the day and the evening that is all the time from mid-night to noone to be the latter part as I will more fully shew in the fourth Chapter a See cap. 4. CHAP. III. The Horizontal day What the parts of the Horizontal day are And which part is the former THe Horizontalday with any Nation is that space of time in which the Sunne is in going from their Horizon at its rising untill it cometh again into their Horizon at its next rising or from their Horizon at its setting untill it come unto their Horizon again at its next setting or more briefly thus
and the same day Sith it was the fourteenth day at Even when he ate the Passeover and gave then his body and blood Sacramentally when he instituted the Lords Supper but it was the fifteenth day when he wrought our full Redemption and actually and really gave his body and blood for us on the Crosse The answer to both these are the same It was on one and the same day of their week but not of their moneth for it was on the fourteenth day of Abib on which the Israelites ate the Passeover in Egypt but their going out of Egypt from Rameses was on the fifteenth day So also Christ are the Passeover with his disciples on the fourteenth day of the first moneth according to the law of the Passeover but he was crucified on the next day which was the fifteenth day In the fourteenth day of the first moneth at Even is the Lords Passeover and on the fifteenth day of the same moneth is the Feast f Numb 28.16 17. Lev. 23.5 6. Yet both in one and the same day of their week for the dayes of their week ever after their freedom from slavery were as I shewed before Horizontal dayes every of which began at the Sun-setting of the former day at the time they ate the Passeover in Egypt so they were commanded to begin their Sabbath-dayes g Lev. 23.32 and therefore so also did they begin the dayes of their week called the Sabbath for meting out to them their Sabbath-dayes And herein the Romanists do not a little Judaize who continued the like custome of beginning all their sacred dayes as Lyranus tells us In diem feriam viz. decimam quartam c. On the fourteenth day of the moneth in the Even whereof the Lamb was sacrificed and the solemnity of the Passeover began which was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the moneth According to which custome the solemnities of our Church do begin with the evening of the day before going a Lyra. Postil in Joan. 13. Christ with the disciples ate the Passeover and was crucified also on one and the same week-day which was the sixth day of the week with the Iewes which consisted partly of our Thursday and partly of our Friday as their Sabbath-day consisted partly of our Friday and partly of our Saterday 2. If it be demanded Whether the demand made by the disciples where they should prepare the Passeover and their killing the Paschal Lambe and their eating the Passeover and Peters denial and the Cocks crowing were all done in the same day The answer hereto is like the former They were done in the same day of the moneth but not in the same day of their week The disciples demand the killing and preparing the Passeover was all in the fifth day of their week but their eating it and Peters denial and the Cocks crowing were done on the sixth day of their week Yet all on the fourteenth day of the moneth and all done on our day of the week which we call Thursday 3. If it be demanded How we may conceive it to be on the first day of unleavened bread in which the disciples asked of Christ where they should prepare for him to eate the Passeover Sith the Evangelists Mark and Luke do affirm it to be on that day c Mar. 14.12 Luke 22.7 yet the first of the seven days of unleavened bread began not til the time of eating the Passeover The answer is as before The first day of the week of unleavened bread was not then begun but the first day of the moneth of unleavened bread was begun long before Though there was just one week or seven dayes of unleavened bread yet were there eight dayes of the moneth of unleavened bread On the fourteenth day of the first moneth they were commanded to eat unleavened bread and so to the one and twentieth day at even d Ex. 12.18 From the Even of the one to the Even of the other was just a week or seven dayes but sith they began to eat unleavened bread on the fourteenth day according to the Commandment that fourteenth day of the moneth was properly their first day of unleavened bread and the one and twentieth was the eigth or last Thus St. Matthew calleth the first of those eight days in which they ate unleavened bread the first day of the feast of unleavened bread f Mat. 26.17 The like answer is made unto those who object out of Iohn 13 a Iohn 13.1 that Christ ate not the Passeover on the feast-feast-day of the Passeover but on the day beforegoing And many more such like questions and doubts may hereby be resolved CHAP. VII What kinde of day the sabbath-Sabbath-day is Not known when the day of Gods rest beginneth THe sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord is not an Artificial day which hath no night nor is but a part of the Horizontal day a See chap. 1. For the Sabbath-day is proportionable unto the other six dayes of the week allowed for labour every of which hath a night or darknesse as well as day-light and in which night men may as lawfully labour as in the day-light Ioseph and Mary fled by night b Mat. 2.14 The disciples of Christ rowed by night and in the fourth watch of the night Iesus went to them c Mat. 14.25 Some Countreys are so hot that their chiefest work is in the night and so dangerous by reason of wilde beasts that their chiefest care over their flocks is by night Iacobs special care over Labans flock was such d Gen. 31.40 And when Christ was borne an Angel brought the glad tidings thereof to the Shepherds by night as they were watching their flocks e Luke 2.8 If the six dayes of labour which God alloweth man be such as have nights as wel as day-lights then such ought the sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord to be also Neither is the Sabbath-day here commanded an Universal day such as was the very day of Gods rest For then there would have been an impossibility in respect of the thing it self for men to keep the same and that for these two reasons First it is unpossible for any man to know within halfe a year what time of the year it is with us when the first yeare of the world began Some have presumed to tell the same to a day and in the Calendar prefixed to our Church-Bibles and Common-Prayer-books suppose it to be the five and twentieth day of March and there the same day is supposed to be that in which Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary which if granted the thirtieth day of the same moneth of March must be yearly the day of Gods rest For if one be the first day of the Creation the other must be the seventh Again let it be as supposed so granted that the 25. day of March yearly is truly the first day of the Creation yet not a man living is there that can tell
Assyrian Monarchy Pag. 203. every one on his day had some peculiar worship done unto it and the day on which any of the Planets had his worship according to their order that day was called by the name of that Planet so worshipped As Saint-worshippers do call the dayes of the moneth on which they give special worship to St. Peter St. Iohn St. Iames St. Peters day St. Iohns day and St. James day So did those Sun-worshippers on what days of the week they gave special worship to the Sun or Moon or Saturn those dayes were called by the names of the day of the Sun the day of the Moon the day of Saturn The time of the day for their worship was ever the forenoon not the whole forenoon for them all but at the rising of the Sun when the first houre of their day for such worship began And that Planet which came to be worshipped by course the first houre of the day was counted trump or Lord of that day They gave not equal honour unto the Planets neither were the dayes of their week alike sacred but they had the Sun in the greatest honour and for their most high God next to him was the Moon and next Saturn so accordingly were their dayes sacred their chiefest day of the week being then the day of the Sun of which I shall speak more when I come to speak of their seventh day sacred Boëmus telleth us writing of Assyria and their customes that foure of the Planets they had in lesse esteem then the rest His words are these Martem Venerem Mercurium Jovem prae caeteris observari quoniam velut proprium cursum sortiti futura ostenderent tanquam Deorum interpretes quod ipsum adeò persuasum habuerunt ut quatuor ista astrauno nomine Mercurios appellarent b Boëmus ubi de Assyria That they diligently observed Mars Venus Mercury and Jupiter for these by their proper course would foreshew things to come as being Interpreters of the gods out of considence whereof they called all these foure starres Mercuries And my opinion is that as Boëmus doth here orderly recite their names in the same order did the idolaters place them aloft in their Temples Mars on the right hand and Venus on the lest hand of the other three chief then Mercury on the right hand next to Mars and Iupiter last on the left hand according to this forme presented to the eye Whereto for distinguishing them I have set their usual characters being not skill'd to make a lively draught of them as Verstegan hath done in his Restitution of decayed Intelligence in Antiquities And I have set down under them their names also not in the Assyrian language but as the ancient Saxons of old when they were Heathen called them according to Verstegan aforesaid and worshipped them calling the dayes of their week also by the names of these their gods or planets which then they worshipped Sunday Monday Tuescoes day Woodensday Thorsday Frigaesday Saterday And we from them to this houre so call our week-dayes Munday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday c. I suppose the Saxons to be a very ancient Nation for that among many other they come nearest to the Assyrians in their ancient idolatry But behold the forme ☿ Woden ♂ Tuisco ☾ Mone ☉ Sone ♄ Sater ♀ Friga ♃ Thor Note here that the Assyrians reade from the right hand to the left and so we are to read the names of these Planets The reasons moving me to think these Idols to be thus placed aloft in their Temples are especially two First for that the Romish Church when they had got some power into their hands and did in Pope Boniface the fourth his dayes suppresse the Idolatries of the Heathen who worshipped their Idols in the Temple at Rome which was dedicated to all the gods and then called Pantheon and having instead thereof set up another kinde of worship like unto that even of the Virgin Mary and All Saints whereupon that day was by that Pope Boniface made an holy day called by the Name of All-Saints day and the Temple also dedicated to the Virgin Mary and All Saints called thenceforth Ecclesia Beatae Mariae rotunda a Tho. Val. Nic. Triveth Com. in Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 2. c. 4. I will deliver the words of an old Chronologer hereof Iste Bonifacius scilicet Quartus consecravit Pantheon id est Templum omnium Deorum ubi Christiani periclitabantur à Daemonibus Et est pulchra similitudo quomdo Spiritus Sanctus ex malis institut is Paganorum scit eligere Sanctum exercitium devotionis quasi medicina fiat ex veneno Vbienim impii colebant Daemones ibi Christiani colunt omnes Sanctos sic ars deluditur arte b Fascicu tempotum And a little after Festum omnium Sanctorum institur à Bonifacio quarto Then at that time I suppose were the images of the Saints placed up on high in their roode which common people here with us call their rood-loft in imitation of the Heathen For commonly when the Romish Church put down any idolatrous custom of the Heathen then they set up another resembling that which they put down and this did they either for avoiding the greater scandal of the Heathen which were then potent or to winne them the better by degrees to Christian Religion or for some other by-respect As the Heathen had some one or other particular Planet or Idol to be the Patron and Protector of some one people or other and so many Protectors as there were nations Belus for Assyria Diana for Ephesus Jupiter for Rome Juno for Samos Bacchus for Thebes c. So when that idolatry was supprest in stead of these idols the Romane Church had holy Saints to be invocated and had for Protectors in like manner Thus was St James for Spaine St. Dionysius for France St. Andrew for Scotland c. As the heathen idolaters had for several occasions several gods and goddesses on whom they called for help Bellona in time of warre Cunina for infants Segetia for standing corne Forculus to keep the doors c Aug. de Civ Dei l. 4. c. 1. c. So the Romane Church to winne the heathens by degrees suffered them to continue in idolatry still but instead of their Demi-gods they should invocate Saints St. Rumbal for the tooth-ache St. Petronel for the ague St. Loye for horses St. Anthony for pigs St. Gregory for Schollers St. George for souldiers c. What were the Monks and Friars the chaste shavelings and holy Nunnes but the natural successors of Berecynthia's and Vesta's Priests and Virgins Rome heathen had two goddesses in special reverence Berecynthia and Vesta Berecynthia they held to be the mother of the gods a Aug. de Civ Dei l. 2. c. 4. Her Priests were chaste unmarried men and if it hapned that any one of them could not live chastely yet he lived warily until that Atys b Tho. Vallois
Nic. Triveth in Aug. de Civ Dei l. 2. c. 4 7. l. 7. c. 25. one of her dearest Priests lived neither chastely nor warily wherefore he was caused to be gelded c Ovid. de fast l. 4. after which time the Priests of Berecynthia otherwise called Cybel were gelded also and as some Commentators on Augustine say were cal'd Galli id est Castrati d Tho. Val. Nic. Trivethiccis praedic When these were put down by Christians Popish Priests and Friars succeeded in their room until this time It hath been wished by not a few that these had been gelded also as were the former for though these have lived cautè chastely no more then Atys did witnesse the many bones and sculls of infants that have been credibly reported to have been found in their motes and ponds e Nic Fox his Martyr p. 1155 Andr. Willet Synops Pap. Controv. 5. Quaest. 5. As for the other goddesse Vesta Ovid and Augustine witnesse and none denieth that her Priests were Virgins that idolatrous custome being put down also this of Nuns and Votaries of chastity unto the honour of the Virgin Mary much like unto that was set up Now I say these and other the like practices of the Roman Church in putting down the idolatrous customes of the Heathen idolaters and setting up such of their own near alike and resembling them make me to conceive that the idols which the Heathen worshipped in their Temple Pantheon and in other their Temples were placed aloft in a rowe or rank in like manner as I shewed before for that the images of the Saints which the Romane Church erected to be worshipped in stead of the other were so set Secondly for that as Lyranus telleth us the learned Doctors expound these words of Ezechiel And lo they put the branch to their nose f Lyra. in Ezec. c. 8.17 thus their idols were lifted up aloft therefore the idolaters reached up rods or branches to touch them and after that they put their rods or branches to their mouths or noses in reverence to their idols Had not their idols been placed aloft in manner as the images of the Saints afterwards were I suppose those Doctors would not have given such an interpretation of that text The placing of the idols of the heathen in such manner as is before said I confesse is my opinion and for the reasons before given which if they seem weak to any I leave the same to his better judgement not willing to contest against any herein being not a matter of great concernment But that the planets were the proper gods of the Chaldeans and Assyrians of old time and that the dayes of the week were first so called by the Chaldeans according to the names of the Planets which they worshipped and had for their gods as I before said is not mine opinion only but learned men have testified as much And People as they multiplied and planted themselves the nearer to Chaldea and Assyria the more did they either for feare or favour imitate them in their idolatries insomuch that among the Persians none were to be honoured as Kings unlesse they were Astronomes a Clav. in Sphaer Je. de Sacr. Bos c. 1. neither were any to be Priests with the Egyptians but such They all were worshippers of the Host of heaven generally and called the dayes of the week by the names of the Planets as the Chaldees did And as the Chaldees had the Sunne and Moon in more special honour then the other planets so had other Nations also Concerning the Egyptians thus saith Eusebius of them Priscos Aegyptios cum oculos in hujus mundi contemplationem defixissent cúmque rerum omnium c. That when the Egyptians in old time had fixed their eyes in the contemplation of this world and with the greater admiration wondred at the nature of all things concluded that the Sun and the Moon were everlasting gods and governours of all things b Euseb de Praepa Evan. l. 1. c. 9. So did many other Nations also count the Sun and Moon to be chief him to be King and her to be Queen worshipping them in the forme of men and women and called the Sun Phoebus and the Moon Phoebe him Delius her Delia him Cynthius her Cynthia him Titan her Titania him Janus her Iana or Diana by prefixing the letter D. according to Nigidius quaelitera saepè ante I decoris cansâ apponitur of which see Macrobius a Macro Saturn l. 1. c. 23. him they called Iupiter her Iuno him Dux Princeps luminum the King of Heaven her Astroarche the Queen of Heaven Yet gave they not equal honour and worship to the Moon or to any other of the Planets as they did to the Sun him they held to produce and order all things and all the others to be as Rulers and Governours under the Sun acting no further then they had power and commission from the Sun from whom they received their light influence and power of working Wherefore as Papists say that in worshipping Peter Iames Magdalene and the rest of the Saints on their dayes they worship Christ in them Christ in his Saints So the Sun-worshippers thought that in honouring the Commissioners and chiefest Officers of the Sun they honoured the Sun who was the Lord of them all And therefore when they worshipped any one of these planets on his day they regarded not whether the planet was before them or behinde their backs or over them or under them or in what Meridian soever it was but alwayes worshipped Eastward towards the Sun-rising e Ezech. 8.16 and that at the rising of the Sun only And such as were more devout then other would have their places for worship on the tops of hills or at least on the roofs of their houses f 2 King 17.10 11. 16.4 Ezech. 6.13 Esa 65.757 7. Zeph. 1.5 Jer. 19.13.32 29. where they may adore the Sun at his first approach into their Horizon And the images of the other planets were all called the images of the house of the Sun g Ier. 43.13 The Gentiles had a multitude of gods by which they honoured the Sun and which they honoured as gods from some vertue or excellency of the Sun Diversae virtutes solis nomina Diis dederunt as Macrob. sheweth fully d Macrob. Saturn l. 1. c. 9.17 18 19 20 21 22 23. and that Iupiter Mars and all the Rabble of the Heathens chiefest gods had their godship from the Sun As the Chaldees had the Sun for their supreme God everlastingly governing not only all the rest of the planets but all other things in the world wherby the world was by them held to be eternal without either beginning or ending and the memory then of the Creation and of the Creator himself vanished from among them Even so had other nations also the Sun for their chiefest Governour of the world and thus they reasoned the
places having one and the same Horizon must have their day to be one and the same and to begin at one and the same time 8. The seventh day which God blessed and sanctified and commanded in this law to be kept holy was not the day of Gods rest For this cannot any where be known when it beginneth or endeth and if it should be known yet all Gods people in all places could not keep the same though they had never fallen by Adam And whether there was or was not an inversion of the day made as aforesaid yet the day of Gods rest could not be the same day with the Iewes Sabbath for this they did or might keep from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in Arabia Jerusalem Babylon Rome Spaine Ophyr and in all other places of their abode but the day of Gods rest they did not nor possibly could they keep the same from Sun-setting to Sun-setting in all places where any of them had their abode unlesse the surface of the earth had been plain and not round 9. The Iewes had not rested on the seventh day according to Gods example had they not rested on that very seventh day on which God rested 9. The Iewes neither did nor could keep that very seventh day on which God rested in all places as hath been shewed But as we according to Gods example work six dayes and rest the 7th so did they As the Sunday with Christians was ever the day following their 6 days of labour so was the Saterday with the Iewes 10. The Iewes sabbath-Sabbath-day being the day of Gods rest and the day which God appointed by this law to be kept holy is wholly abolished and abrogated by the coming of the Messias and no other day is commanded by the Lord instead thereof therefore it now resteth in the power of the Church and Magistrates to appoint what day they please for Gods publick worship 10. The Jewes Sabbath-day was not the day of Gods rest as hath been shewed Neither as it was the Saterday their seventh from their first gathering Quails and Manna Nor as it began at the setting of the Sun was it directly by this law commanded to any In these respects it was Ceremonial and abolished That which is expressed in this Commandment they and all else are still bonnd to which is that having wrought the six dayes of labour they rest on the seventh day according to Gods example and keep it holy to the Lord. From this neither they nor any else living is freed It is Gods law it will be great impiety and intrenching into the Prerogative of the most high God for any persons whatsoever and under any pretence soever to seek the alteration or change hereof or to set and appoint any other day for Gods publick worship in the stead of that which he himself hath set and appointed If the earth be plain all and every one of the ten before-going are true but if round they must be all false If the earth be round all and every one of the ten before-going are true but if plain they all must needs be false I Having now shewed the opinion of the most concerning weeks the ground from whence that and many other errours sprang among which this is none of the least That the day of Gods rest the precise seventh day from the beginning of the Creation was the seventh day which God commanded his Church in this law to keep holy as if the seventh day which God blessed and sanctified and commanded us in this Law should not relate to the six dayes labour of the week in use with men where they live but to the six first days of the Creation and so should be with people where ever they dwell the very day of Gods rest from whence all our many and great contentions about the Sabbath have been raised and fostered I will in the next shew what weeks are CHAP. XII What a Week is The Seventh day of the Week is the Lords day A Week is the space of time made by seven whole dayes without intermission By seven dayes I mean seven such dayes as are all of one and the same kinde If any of them be horizontall dayes they are all to be horizontal dayes such as were the seven dayes of the Week with the Jews And if any be meridional they are all to be meridional dayes as are the dayes of the week with Christians The Jews Sabbath or seventg day was from Sun-fettinh to Sun-setting therefore so should the six dayes of their week be also The six dayes of our week are from midnight to midnight and therefore the seventh is not to be from Sun-setting to Sun-setting but from midnight to midnight also The seventh day must relate to the six dayes before-going The seventh day which was the day of Gods rest cannot relate to the six days of work with any people Nor can the seventh day of the week with any people relate to the six dayes of Gods work at the creation these were not of the same kinde of dayes with the week-dayes that now are or at any time heretofore have been or can be in use with men as I have already fully proved a See Chap. 5. That seven whole dayes without intermission from any time as from Sunday to Sunday or from Saterday to Saterday or from Munday to Munday is a week may appear First from the several names and appellations by which a week is called with people of several tongues and languages Our ancient Saxons we from them call it Sennight and two such weeks fortnight that is seven nights and fourteen nights The Romans called it Septimana that is seven mornings taking the morning for the whole day as the Saxons did the night With the Greeks it was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is defined to be Intervallum septem dierum That is seven dayes The Hebrews called a week not seven nights as the Saxons did nor seven mornings as the Romans did but as the Greeks did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seven dayes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a seveny of dayes Secondly frequently in holy Scripture seven dayes from any set time is counted a week Laban bade Jacob fulfill her week b Gen 23.27 meaning the seven dayes of Leas marriage Such was the usual time for marriage-feasts in those dayes c Iudg. 14.10 12. If a woman was at any time delivered of a man-child she was to be unclean seven dayes or a week but if she was delivered of a maid-childe d Lev. 12 2 5. she was to be unclean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is two weeks And so is it in our last Translation The Lord appointed the Jews to count for their feast of Pentecost called their feast of weeks thus On the morrow after the feast-day of the Passeover which never fell on the same day of the week two years together shalt thou number unto thee seven weeks f Levit. 23.11 15
and Assyria under the Assyrian Monarchy in the time the planets were held the gods of the world so counted the week and called every week-day by the name of the same planet as now generally we do They who shall be alive in America three hundred yeares hence and see there so many Nations of different tongues and all to have just seven dayes to the week and all to have Sunday for their seventh sacred day and call every of their other week-dayes alike will they not say or conceive that this could never have so happened had not their Ancestors in Europe observed weeks and had just so many dayes to the week and call every day of the week by the same names before ever they removed thence and were dispersed into so many and various plantations in America The like may we well conceive of the ancient Saxons Romanes Egyptians and other ancient Nations that it could never so have happened that every of them should have weeks and just seven dayes to the week and every week-day to be called by the name of the same planet with them all had not their Ancestors under the Assyrian Monarchs who first set up the idolatry of worshipping the planets observed seven dayes to the week and called the week-dayes by the same names of the planets before they came to be planted abroad in several Nations Secondly Adam at first had no other measure to mete out his age and time but dayes and weeks These he had from the Lords standard who having wrought six dayes and rested the seventh did sanctifie the seventh day Adam knew all ereatures at the first sight of them and gave names to the creatures suitable to their natures He knew them to be not eternal nor a year old and therefore might as well know their age to a day When the Lord brought Eve unto him he knew her by sight He knew she was not three dayes nor a day old He knew that she was made of him and on the same sixth day in which he himself was made and that the Lord on the next day rested from his works of Creation By this patterne and standard of the Lord he might mete out time by weeks before he could have any experimental knowledge of moneths and years which were afterward in time gotten by observation of the course of the Sun and Moon And we finde that in ancient times there was much difference and variation in the count of yeares and moneths with people Some had but three moneths some ten the Jewes had sometimes twelve and sometimes thirteen moneths to the yeare Their moneths did also much differ for length but never was the week counted to be more or lesse then seven dayes with any people Thirdly from the testimony of sundry learned and pious Writers Chrysostome thus Jam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomadae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem a Chrys Homil 10. in Gen. Aug. Steuchius on Gen. 2. speaking of the seventh day affirmeth it to be in omni aetate inter omnes Gentes venerabilis sacer Beda in his Hexameron testifieth that the rest of the seventh day semper celebrari solebat They who compiled the book of Homilies tell us That it is according to the law of Nature to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest from our lawful works b Hom. for the time of Prayer Mercer commended by Dr. Heylin for a learned Protestant c Heyl. part 1. page 5. is of opinion that the first Fathers being taught of God kept the seventh day holy Philo Judaeus also maketh this challenge Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat d Phil. de vita Mos l. 2. Josephus to the same purpose Neque est ulla Civitas Graecorum aut Barbarorum neque ulla gens ad quam septimi diei in quo vacamus consuetudo minimè pervenerit f Ioseph Cont. App. l. 2. Fourthly from the testimony of ancient heathen Poets such as Homer Hesiod Gallimachus Liuus who have spoken very laudably of the Creation and of the seventh day g Clem. Alexan. Strom. l. 5. This knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day and consequently of the count of dayes by sevens or weeks they could not have but by tradition or from the Books of Moses From the Books of Moses doubtlesse they had it not for they were not extant in the Greek tongue untill Prolomie prevailed to get seventy two Seniors of the Jewes to turn them into Greek which was many hundreds of yeares after Homer While-as the Kingdomes of Israel and Judah flourished the Gentiles could never get the least parcel of sacred Scripture The Jewes counted it to be an high prophanation of the Books of Moses if they were any wayes communicated to the Heathen John Gregory plentifully sheweth and proveth that before this interpretation was made by the said 72 Seniors the Heathen had no light from the Books of Moses a Jo Greg. discourse of the seventy c. If it should be supposed that the Poets got the knowledge of the seventh day from the Books of Moses then must it be the Jewes Saterday-Sabbath which they spake so laudably of but they knew that to be an holy day with them no ancienter then Moses Septimum diem more Gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne oevum jejunio sacravit Moses The seventh day with that Nation called the Sabbath Moses made a perpetual Holy day saith Trogus b Trog l. 36. for which supposed innovation brought in by Moses the Heathen generally envied them and their Poets wrote very disgracefully of them about their Sabbath-day It was not then from Moses but by tradition that they had the knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day Fifthly Gomarus who with all his might opposed the Morality of the Sabbath-day doth yet acknowledge that Adam Methuselah Sem and Abraham had knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day c Gomar de Sab. p. 113. And why not Moses also and thousands beside them Moses indeed had a full knowledge by divine revelation and infallible inspiration by the Holy Ghost which guided him in the Historical relation of the Creation of all things and of the day of Gods rest as well as of other things related in his books yet questionlesse he had some general knowledge by tradition of most things he wrote of as they were delivered from father to son unto his dayes It would have been a very wilde conceit of Gomarus to think when he wrote that the knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day came from Adam to Methuselah and from him to Sem and from Sem to Abraham that the knowledge thereof was intailed to the heires male or to some persons in a lineal descent from Noah to Abraham and
not to others also Incredible is it that Noah should teach the knowledge thereof to Sem only and not to Cham and Japhet too and that Sem should reveal the same to Arphaxad only keeping it as a secret from all other his sonnes and daughters and that Arphaxad should do the like unto Sala and he to Heber and he to Peleg and he to Reu and he to Serug and he to Nahor and he to Terah and he to Abraham and that none of them should impart that knowledge to any other of their sonnes and daughters and that the remembrance as well of the seventh day as of the Creation was wholly extinct with Abraham Without all peradventure Cham and Japhet and their Posterities had and retained the knowledge thereof for many generations some of them to the dayes of the before-named Poets and long after too Orpheus Aeschylus Aratus Pindarus Epicharmus and others mentioned by Clemens could else never have spoken so truly of Jehovah whom they called Jove as he relateth them to have done a Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 5. Sixthly from the testimony of those who have been the chief Writers against the Sabbath 1. Mr. Ironside professeth that he maketh no question but that the Heathen who never heard of a seventh-day Sabbath have weeks as well as moneths and years b Irons chap. 4. But he thinks they had the knowledge hereof by the subdivision of moneths as if knowing most of our moneths to consist of one and thirty dayes by subdividing them there must be just seven rather then eight dayes to the week And a little after It is true saith he that Clemens Alexandrinus brings many Authorities out of Homer Hesiod and Callimachus to prove that the very Heathen knew that the seventh day was to be kept holy c Irons chap. 9. which they could not know or do without the observation of weeks but herein he holds them to be thieves of holy things having stolne this light out of Moscs writings which they had translated whereas the Heathen had not Moses books translated hundreds of years after Homer as I before shewed concerning which I referre the Reader to that learned Discourse of John Gregory of the seventy Interpreters 2. Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath and in the second part tells us That Christians of the first ages called the dayes of the week according as they found the time divided and that we retaine those names amongst us whereat some are become offended which were commended to us by our Ancestors and to them by theirs a He l. Part. 2 pag. 61. He sheweth out of Polydore Virgil that Pope Sylvester hating the name and memory of the Gentile gods by whose names they called the week-dayes gave order that the dayes should be called by the name of Feriae and the distinction to be made by Prima feria Secunda feria c. And out of Honorius Augustodunensis that the Hebrewes call their dayes he meaneth their week-dayes the first of the Sabbath c. The Pagans thus The day of the Sun the day of the Moon c. And Christians thus The Lords day Feria Prima c b Page 62. He saith further That they are more nice then wise who out of a desire to have all things new would have new names for every day of the week he meaneth or call them as sometimes they were The first day of the week the second day of the week c. and all for feare lest it be thought that we do still adore those gods whom the Gentiles worshipped St. Augustine as it seems had met with some this way affected and thus disputes the Case with Faustus Manichaeus The Gentiles saith the Father gave unto every day of the week the name of one or other of their gods and so they did also unto every moneth If then we keep the name of March and not think of Mars why may we not preserve the day of Saturn and not think of Saturn Dr. Heylin addeth Why may we then not keep the name of Sunday and not think of Phoebus or Apollo or by what other name soever the old Poets call him a Heyl. par 2. Pag. 63. 3. Dr. Francis White late Bishop of Ely who hath also written against the Morality of the Sabbath doth yet acknowledge one day in seven for Gods worship to be most agreeable to reason b Dr. White de Sab. pag. 90 107 151. which presupposeth weeks to be from the beginning unlesse men were then void of reason 4. Gomarus also who hath stoutly written against the Sabbath doth confesse that Methuselah Sem and Abraham retained the knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day c Gomar de Sab. p. 113. though he will at no hand grant that they kept it holy yet their retaining the memory and knowledge of the seventh day proveth them to have observation of weeks Seventhly they who compiled the book of Homilies tell us That it is according to the law of nature to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest from our lawful works d Hom. for the time of Prayer but this could never be done without the observation of weeks Lastly Dr. Twisse sheweth and proveth that the distinction of time by weeks was observed by the Gentiles from all Antiquity and confirmeth the same out of many learned Writers to whose book of the Morality of the fourth Commandment I referre the Reader and therein chiefly to these pages 12 13 15 59 60 63 77 78 151 152 153 189 199 200 208. to 214. As also to Rivetus de Origine Sabbati and therein chiefly to the pages 15.16 63 64 65 66. to 81. CHAP. XIV Objection against Antiquity of weeks answered The hourely Government of the Planets is feigned THere be many who have published abroad to the world that there is a certain hourly Rule or Government which the planets have given them of the Creator by which every of them successively and in a vicissitude doth govern his houre according to this common distich Cynthia Mercurius Venus Sol Mars Jove Satur Ordine retrogado sibi quivis vindicat horam Hence they say that until this hourely Government was by skilful Astronomers found out and known the Gentiles had no weeks and having no weeks they could not have the seventh day sacred supposing none before this to have weeks but the Jewes only and therefore none but they to have a Sabbath-day Among many other Doctor Heylin was of this opinion who from hence doth argue the Sabbath-day not to be moral being not observed or known but by the Jewes only He would have us take it for granted that no Nation without the knowledge of Astrology the Jewes excepted whereby men came first to know the planets hourely Government and so consequently what planet governed the first houre in every day could have weeks or call the week-dayes by the names of the planets The
went out of Vr a town of the Chaldees and therefore according to Bibliander before the Egyptians had learnt Astrology For it seems the Egyptians as well as other Nations severing themselves from Noahs Posterity remaining about Chaldea Assyria and other parts of Shinar busied themselves so about their new plantation in Egypt that they neglected and forgat Astrology till Abraham came out of Chaldea and went down into Egypt where as Iosephus saith he taught Astronomy unto them being ignorant thereof before a Joseph Antiq Jud. l. 1. c. 15 16. See Chap. 9. The Germanes were a Nation and a Kingdom before Eudoxus knew what a planet was Verstegan also tells us that the Saxons had in ancient times the seven planets for their gods whom they called Son Mone Tuisco c. and also called the dayes of the week by the names of those their gods before ever they had any Commerce with the Grecians or Romanes either 3. Week-dayes bear the names of the planets not from the said late invented hourely rule supposed to be given them by God when he created them but as they were the Heathens gods and were orderly worshipped and adored by them Thus the day we call Sunday was by the Heathen anciently called the day of the Sun because of all the planets who were held to be the Lords and Governours of the world he was that Lord and Governour which had special worship done unto him on that day and for that his worship began with that dayes beginning even at the Sun-rising for at that time did the Heathen begin their worship to the Sun and to every of the rest of the Host of heaven as I have shewed before which was the first houre of the day with them he hath been said and held to begin his Lordship or Government on the beginning or first houre of that day and hence is it that that day was by the ancient Heathen called the day of the Sun the like may be said of the other names of all the week-dayes That the week-dayes were by the Heathens called by the names of the planets as they were the Heathens gods adored by them is evident not only from the testimonies of sundry learned men but also from Dr. Heylins own pen. He himself doth say as much for ask this question of him and he will tell you yea and saith That they are more nice then wise who out of a desire to have all things new would have new names for every day or call them as sometimes they were the first day of the week the second day of the week sic de caeteris and all for fear lest it be thought that we do still adore those gods whom the Gentiles worshipped a Heyl. part 2. page 63. Ask by whose Authority he proveth week-dayes to have their names from the gods of the heathen He tells us by St. Augustines and alledgeth these his words Deorum suorum nomina Gentes imposuerunt diebus istis c. The Gentiles saith the Father gave to every day of the week the name of one or other of their Gods c. Ask him again why Pope Sylvester changed the names of the week-dayes and would no week-day to be called by the name of any of the planets but all to be called by the names of Feria prima Feria secunda c. was it for that Eudoxus had learn't the aforesaid Government of the planets and so he and other Astrologers after him taught this rariety in their schooles whereby many admit all Grecians had weeks and called the week-dayes by the names of the planets as their Astronomers taught them and now the Pope fearing lest the Romanes from the example of the Greeks should in time come to have weeks for till that time and after that too until the Romanes had admitted Christianity throughout their Empire Dr. Heylin saith they had no weeks b Heyl. part 1. pag. 84. and should call the week-days by the names of the planets as the Grecians did No sure it was for that the Gentiles generally as Romanes and Greeks did call the dayes of the week as they were taught from their Ancestors and they from theirs even by the names of their gods which of old they adored who were the seven planets and for that Christians also generally except Jewes did call them so in like manner as their Heathen Ancestors did even in the time when this Pope lived which so displeased the said Pope that in detestation of the memory of those Heathen gods he changed the names of the week-dayes and decreed to have them called by the names of Feriae Dr. Heylin proving this citeth Polydore Virgil for his authority Sylvester Romanus Pontifex ejus nominis primus vanorum deorum memoriam in abhorrens a Pol. Vir. de Inv. rerum l. 6. c. c. Sylvester the first Pope of that name hating the name and memory of the Gentile gods gave order that the dayes should be called by the name of Feriae b Heyl. part 2. pag. 62. c. Had the planets such power and vertue given them of God so to govern by an hourely course as that thereby every week-day was designed and pointed out Sylvester had cause rather to magnifie the Creator who revealed the knowledge hereof unto some which was kept secret from all generations till then and to have in love and laud the Parties though Heathen to whom the Lord had made known this rarity whereby the Grecians had weeks in his life time and the Romanes and other Nations might in short time come to have weeks also then to bear such spite and hatred to the planets for such their vertue given them or to the finders out of this Planetary Government as should move him to take away the memory either of the Planets or of this their Government or of the finders out thereof by changing the names of the week-dayes sure his dislike and hatred was against the idolatry of the Heathen who still continued to count the Planets as gods and to call the week-dayes by their names hence is it that he made the change even to take away theremembrance of their names out of mens especially out of Christians mouths Thus having now been shewed first that there is indeed no such hourly Government as is pretended And secondly that the week dayes had not their names from thence Any man may see the weaknesse of Dr Heylins principal argument to prove thereby that neither of the foure great Monarchies nor any People else the Jewes only excepted had weeks and therefore no Sabbath CHAP. XV. Sunday was the seventh day with the Gentiles Sunday continued to be the seventh day of the week with Christians HAving declared what weeks are and the long continuance of them and also answered the main objection made against their Antiquity I will now indeavour to make apparent that Sunday was not only a seventh but the seventh day with the Gentiles Concerning which
first ages because they kept the Sunday for their sacred services and bowed Eastward in their worship were upbraided for Sun-worshippers though they neither worshipped the Sun nor called their day of worshipping God Sunday but the Lords day being their Sabbathr sacred day of rest to the Lord. Surely if Sunday had not been with the Heathen who were Sun-worshippers indeed a weekly service day but the seventh day of the moneth only there had been no cause or ground why either Jew or Gentile should have cast such an aspersion on them of being worshippers of the Sun 5. This may further appear by the decree of Pope Milchiades whom some call Miltiades the last of all the Popes that were Martyrs He to make a clear difference between the observation of Sunday by Christians and the observation of Sunday by the Heathen ordained that all Gentiles who were converted and were Christians should not fast on the Sundayes nor on the Thursdayes as the other Gentiles did Note that as Wednesday Friday and Sunday were now in late times called sacred or Prayer-dayes so were Thursday and Sunday in old times on which dayes they filled not themselves as on other dayes till their sacred services were ended The decree Sever. Binius on the life of the said Pope sets down thus Jejunium verò Dominici diei quintae feriae nemo celebrare debet ut inter jejunium Christianorum Gentilium veraciter c. He would not that Christians should fast on the Thursday and on the Lords day called by the Gentiles Sunday that so there might be an open and apparent distinction between Christians and the Heathen in the observation of those dayes From which time till of late our tables have testified obedience to that decree being usually furnished with more variety of dishes on the Sundayes and Thursdayes then on any day of the week besides If any one here say that these dayes were not sacred but Fasting dayes because Binius calls them jejunia I would have him informed that sacred dayes were with the Heathen called Fasts because they abstained from feeding themselves till their services were ended the like did the Jewes yea and Christians too in old time Trogus writing the customes of the Jewes when he would tell us that Moses ordained the Saterday being the seventh day with the Jewes to be a sacred day perpetually he thus expresseth the same Septimum diem more Gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne aevum jejunio sacravit Moses a Trog li. 36. Doctor Heylin sheweth plentifully that the Heathen Poets and others called sacred dayes Fasting dayes b Heyl. part 1. pa. 102. But to put us out of doubt that the Thursday and Sunday were not only fasting dayes but sacred also with the Heathen Platina resolveth the case who on the life of the said Pope sets down his decree thus Miltiadis institutum fuit nè Dominico neve feriâ quintâ jejunaretur quia hos dies Pagani quasi sacros celebrant Whereby it appears that Sunday was a sacred day not of the moneth but of the week with the Heathen 6. Lastly the testimonies of diverse learned writers shew that the day of the Sunne with the Gentiles was a week-day even the same which we call the Lords day Sozomen telleth us that Constantine commanded Dominicum diem quem Ebraei primum Sabbati appellant Graeci Soli deputant c. à cunctis celebrari c Sozom. Eccl. hist. li. 1. cap. 8. Constantine then held that the day which the heathen Greeks deputed to the Sunne was the very same which we call the Lords day Justin Martyr in several passages called the Lords day no otherwise then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as then the Gentiles or Greeks called it saith Doctor Heylin d Heyl. par 2. pag. 62. and we call it now Bonaventure acquaints us how Christians spoiled the day of the Sunne of its Idolatrous worship and so kept it in honour of Christ Secundum Gentiles dies Dominicus primus est cùm principio illius diei incipit dominari principalis planeta Sol propter quod vocabant eundem diem Solis exhibebant ei venerationem Vt ergo error ille excluderetur reverentia cultús Solis Deo exhiberetur praefixa fuit Dominica dies quâ populus Christianus vacaret cultui Divino f Bonav in 3 Distin. 37. Cael. Rhodigin lect Antiq. li. 13. cap. 22. thus sheweth Nos jure optimo diem quem Mathematici Solis vocant Domino ascripsimus dicavimúsque illius cultui totum mancipavimus It seemeth by these that Christians at first devested the Sunne of the worship given him on the day of the Sunne and gave the whole right of worship on that day unto the Lord God They served the day of the Sunne as the men of Israel were to serve their captive maidens the things that grew excrementitiously on them as hair and nailes were to be shaven and cut a Deut 21.12 and so cast away c. and then the men lawfully might keep and use them So Christians of the first age after Christs ascension pared off and cast away what did excrementitiously if I may so say grow on the day of the Sunne as the adoration and superstitious services given to it on that day and then they lawfully might and did make use of the same and it became their standing service-day unto Gods honour Divers other testimonies of sundry authors may be given to prove the day of the Sunne with the Gentiles to be not their seventh day of the moneth but their seventh day of the week all which I here omit only I referre the reader for his further satisfaction to Doctor Heylins history of the Sabbath b Heyl. par 2. pag. 53 61 62 63. wherein he sheweth that not only the dayes of the Moon of Mars of Mercury c. with the Gentiles were the same which we call Munday Tuesday Wednesday c. But also that the day of the Sunne is the same which we call Sunday proving the same out of Tertullian Justin Martyr Saint Augustin and others Quest But here it may be demanded that sith the Sunday was the day sacred with the Heathen dedicated to the Sunne and to the dishonour of God so much abused by their Heathenish superstition and Idolatry Whether Christians in the Apostles time or afterward should not have done well to have chosen Friday or Saterday or some other day for their standing day of the week for Gods service rather then the Sunday Answer To alter or change the Sabbath from the seventh day and to make it the eighth ninth sixth or any other then the seventh which is the last day of the week is against the expresse law of God as before hath been shewed though it be nowhere forbidden to alter the whole week by beginning the same sooner or later Secondly they lawfully might and did alter and change both the name and also the worship or service done
on that day for they called it no longer Sunday unlesse in their common-talk with the Heathen but they called it the Lords day being the day which the Lord in this law commanded to be sanctifyed Neither did they adore and worship the Sunne any more on that day but the Lord their Creatour and Redeemer Thirdly It is true that all the week-dayes were abused to the Idolatrous worship of the planets though not in the like degree as was the Sunday And that one day in it self was no more holy then another Yet Christians should not have done well in changing or in their endeavouring to have changed their standing service-day from Sunday to any other day of the week and that for these reasons 1. Because of the contempt scorn and derision they thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived and toward whom they ought by Saint Pauls rule to live inoffensively a 1 Cor. 10.32 in things indifferent If the Gentiles thought hardly and spake evil of them for that they ran not into the same excesse of riot with them b 1 Pet. 4.4 what would they have said of Christians for such an Innovation as would have been made by their change of their standing service-day If long before this the Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their Saterday-Sabbath which the Gentiles held to be a singularity and innovation brought in by Moses insomuch that Jeremy lamenteth the same a Lam. 1.17 How grievous would be their Taunts and reproaches against the poore Christians living with them and under their power for their new set sacred day had the Christians chosen any other then the Sunday Had Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cavendise and their companies who travelled round the earth with them either out of tendernesse of conscience or else out of obstinacy continued to keep that Sunday sacred which fel to them by course true tale of the days succeeding each other they must needs have had their Sunday on our Munday our Sunday would be their Saterday When it was holy day with them it would be workingday with us and holy day with us when they would work So Tacitus said of the Jews Profana illic quae apud nos sacra rursum concessa quae nobisillicita a Cornel. Tacit. Diurnal li. 2â— Now how unquiet may any one imagine should those Travellers have lived among us as long as our Sunday was a week-day with them Would not every ballad-maker have had them in their rimes would they not have been a by-word with all and every Apparator would be ready with a Citation for them And can we conceive that Christians at first should find more favour from the Heathen for their wilfulnesse which was lesse excuseable 2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of people and the Gentiles most probably would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly except on their Sunday 3. Had they changed their seventh day from their Sunday to another day there must have followed an unsufferable confusion in the count of the week dayes with whom they lived As for example had Sir Francis Drake and his company observed at his returne the weeks which by his exact account fell to them by course and not have changed them and made them the same with our weeks there would have followed a miserable confusion even in their own families The third day of the week with some must have been the fourth with others of the same family And never a day would have been the same with them all The like would it have been with the Christians and Gentiles with whom they lived if they had changed their seventh standing day for Gods worship which was Sunday for another 4. Because had they assayed such a change it would have been a testimony against them of slighting the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour the Sunne of Righteousnesse a Mal. 4.2 who on the Sunday most triumphantly rose from the dead for the justification of all his people 5. It would have been but labour in vaine for them to have assayed the same they could never have brought it to passe For 1. They had no authoritative specification of any set day either by Jesus Christ or by his Apostles on which they ought to keep the Lords day Had there so been Saint Paul would never have prest the indifferency of dayes as he did b Rom. 14.1 2 3. Col. 2.16 nor would he himself have with the believing Jewes kept the Saterday c Acts 13.14 42.17 2 18 4. and with the Christians by Christians I mean the Gentiles converted to Christ have kept the Sunday d Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 neither would the believing Jewes have remained so obstinate but would have kept that day for their Sabbath which was so pointed out unto them if there had been such Whereas they for the generality of them would never be withdrawn to keep any other then their Saterday for their Sabbath hundreds of years after the Apostles dayes 2. They had no coercive power to draw refusers to the observation of any other day for the Lords day had they been so disposed to have set any other 3. Christians were not all of one City or of one countrey or of one Nation Tongue or Government It would have been even a miracle to have gotten all Christians in all parts of the world to have observed one the same day for the Lords day with them all which should be chosen not by a general meeting or by a general consent but by some of them only had they chosen any other then the day of the Sun which they were generally before their Conversion accustomed to keep The People of Israel were but one Nation all of one Tongue and severed from all other People and also had Moses their Captain-General yet Moses should never have withdrawn them from their old accustomed day to the observation of the Saterday-Sabbath different from the custome of all other Nations had not the Lord God miraculously in the fal of Quails Manna e Exod. 16.12 16 22 23 26. shewed that it was his good pleasure so to have it when he assigned unto them their six dayes for their labour and so pointing out to them the Saterday being the seventh from their first gathering Quailes and Manna to be the day of holy rest unto the Lord. Sylvester the first Pope of that name when out of his hatred to the memory of the Heathen-gods he would have changed but the names of the week-dayes decreed them to be called by the names of Feriae as hath been before shewed though he was of great authority and command and highly beloved of the people yet he could not prevail herein but with very few except Schollers the vulgar people in their common talk called their week-dayes as they did before
God when the Sun is furthest off from his rising Sun-rising was the time when the Gentiles began their worship to the Sun but theirs must begin at Sun-setting Their evening sacrifice was their prime sacrifice c Psal 141.2 Their Feast of the Passeover must be at the setting of the Sun d Deut. 16.6 and their Sabbaths must begin with the evening from evening to evening were they to celebrate their Sabbaths f Lev. 23.32 that so they may the better remember and acknowledge the Lord God their Creator and Governour that it was he and not the Sun Moon or Host of heaven that wrought their great deliverance in bringing them out of Egypt Fourthly to bring the Israelites into the greater dislike and detestation of worshipping the Sun towards the East as the Nations did the Lord would that they should turn their breech or back-parts toward the Sun-rising when they worshipped him The idolatrous Nations in those dayes when they worshipped the Sun Moon or any of the Host of heaven bowed towards the East that is towards the Sun-rising in honour of the Sun but now in contempt of that idolatry the Jewes were to have their faces toward the West or Sun-setting and their breech toward the Sun-rising when they bowed and worshipped God The holy place therefore in the Tabernacle was toward the West as Dr. Willet proveth h Willet Syn. Con. 9. And when the Temple of God was built the house of God was so placed in the inner Court as that they who came thither to pray when they bowed had their Posteriours as it is in the Hebrew towards the Sun-rising and their faces Westward towards the house of God 5. Lastly the day of the Sun must no longer be their seventh sacred day The having that day sacred might have nursed them in or have drawn them again to the said idolatry of worshipping the Sun but that they might be taken wholly off from it the day of the Sun was to be with them common or prophane and another day the day before the day of the Sun even that which was the seventh from their first gathering Quailes and Manna k Exod. 6.12 13 23 26. The day which the ancient Saxons called the day of Seater and we from them Saterday was thenceforth to be their seventh-day sacred Yet all these courses which the most wise God took with them prevailed not they would not be reclaimed from their idolatry they were resolved to uphold their wicked custom not only the meaner sort but the Kings of Judah the Princes the Priests and wicked Prophets loved sought served worshipped and walked after the Sun Moon a Ier. 8.1 2. c. Great charges were their Kings at for making horses and chariots which they dedicated to the Sun the which good Josiah afterward in zeal to the Lord of Hosts did burn with fire b 2 Kings 23.11 Yet could he not root out this monstrous abomination of worshipping the Sun but they strengthened themselves therin insomuch that even in the Temple of God in the place where they should worship the Lord of Glory with their faces Westward towards the house of God they would in a most high contempt worship the Sun and bow with their breech towards the house of God having their faces towards the Sun-rising Of which contempt the Lord complaineth to his Prophet Ezechiel to whom he shewed their great abominations and greater yea and greater then those at length he shewed him this which out-passed all the other Turn thee again saith the Lord and thou shalt see greater abominations then these and he brought me into the inner Court of the Lords house and behold at the door of the Temple of the Lord between the Porch and the Altar were about five and twenty men with their Posteriors toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the East and they worshipped the Sun towards the East c Ezecb. 8.15 16. The women were resolute to worship the Moon too after the manner of the Heathen We will certainly do said they d Ier. 44.17 18. whatsoever thing goeth out of our own mouth to burne incense to the Queen of Heaven and to poure out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes in the Cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem c. The Heathenish women against their time of Childe-bearing sought and implored the Moon for ease and safety the like custome the Hebrew women seemed to have had who did knead their dough to make Cakes to the Queen of Heaven f Ier. 7.18 Of this I will be sparing of my own but deliver you the very words of that learned Iohn Gregory as he layeth them down in his Assyrian Monarchy thus The Assyrians worshipped the Moon under the name of Mylitta which word Scaliger hath well noted in their language signifieth Genetricem in which sense it may not unaptly be applied to the Moon The reason he gives for it is for that If the Moon did nothing help the second causes in generation yet in the bringing forth it is evident for this is most certain though every Midwife hath not observed so much that the most easie delivery a woman can have is alwayes in the increase toward and in the full of the Moon and the hardest labours in the new and silent Moon which was the reason that the Midwives heretofore he meaneth among the Jewes as well as the Heathen did alwayes in such a Case implore the aide of that Planet for the safe and easie delivery of their infants an example hereof you may have one among many in the Comedy a Terent. Aâ—â—dria where the woman in the extremity of her travel cries out to the Moon Juno Lucina fer opem and this amongst others must needs be a reason why the Assyrians worshipped the Moon and why they worshipped her under that name The Prophet Jeremy maketh mention of this worship in the seventh Chapter where he calleth the Moon the Queen of Heaven as our English Translation hath very well rendred The reason which he giveth why the women called on the Moon at such times I omit here to relate being the same which Physicians commonly do give The Prophet addeth that the women made Cakes to this Queen This Custom of offering Cakes to the Moon our Ancestors may seem not to have been ignorant of to this day our women make Cakes at such times yea the childe it self is no sooner born but 't is baptized into the names of these Cakes for so the women call their Babes Cake-bread So much John Gregory and more Though Israel forsook the Covenant of their God and went a whoring after the gods of the Nations chiefly after the Sun yet the Lord was not wanting in affording the many means aforesaid for reclaiming them where of this was not the least in that he took them off from the memory of the day of