to the Eleven as they sat at Meat Mark 16. 14. agrees therewith it was as they sat at Meat And to what he offers p. 19. from Luke 24. 36. 42. and John 20. 19. our Lords appearing to the Disciples at Jerusalem and saying peace be unto you So Mark 16. 14 15 16. I answer this Salutation of Peace be unto you or such like is frequent in the Scriptures and must be strangely and strongly forced to speak any thing of instituting the First day The Resurrection was and is a great Truth and necessary to be known and assured and yet the Disciples were unbelieving of it notwithstanding all that Christ told them before his Death Mark 9. 31. That he should be delivered into the hands of Men and be killed and after that rise the third day as Mark 10. 33 34. Luke 24. 7 c. And his Resurrection was proved to them by several Witnesses Luke 24. 10. whose words seemed to them as Idle tales v. 11. and the Lord himself upbraides them for their hardness of heart because they believed not them who had seen him after he was risen Mark 16. 14. So it became necessary if I may so say for the Lord to give full and undeniable Evidence of the Truth of his Resurrection by his Personal appearing to the Eleven upon the very day thereof as he did as they sat at Meat Mark 16. 14. that there might be no room left for any doubt of his being actually risen from the Dead A Truth upon which the whole Doctrine of the Gospel did and does eminently depend and this I think is a fair account of our Lords appearing to the Disciples at Jerusalem But that this did alter the Seventh or appoint the First day for a Sabbath I find not but seems all dark Conjecture without any warrant from the Scriptures And yet the Doctor p. 20. says all which being put together seems to him very like the Celebration if not the Consecration of a Christian Sabbath or day of Holy Rest and Religious Service I fully acknowledge that all that was spoken by our Lord as well before as after his Resurrection was Spiritual and Heavenly upon all the Sabbaths he kept as his Custom was and at all other times before and after his Resurrection but yet that that which the Doctor allows as it seems to me as providential and not upon a Sabbatical account should alter the Seventh day or institute the First I see not And we do not read the Lord blaming his Disciples for resting upon the Sabbath day or for travelling upon the First but for their not believing his Resurrection So as the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath by all the Doctor has yet offered seems not hurt From John 20. 26. After eight days Christ appeared to the Disciples and Thomas with them Christ had appeared to the Eleven Disciples at Evening upon the day of his Resurrection as they sat at Meat Mark 16. 14. which was the First day of the Week John 20. 19. when they were assembled for fear of the Jews but Thomas not being there John 20. 24. would not believe unless he should thrust his hand into his side ver 25. And after eight days Christ appeared to the disciples and Thomas with them John 20. 26. and saith to Thomas reach hither thy hand and thrist it into my side and be not faithless but believing ver 27. which was an admirable Condescension of our Lord to cure his and all others unbelief Those Words after eight Days the Doctor thinks was that day seven-night c. The Cavil for so the Doctor calls it he says is so weak that he is sorry to see it p. 20. And then takes great pains to prove That after eight days as we commonly speak in English on that day seven-night is the next First day after the Resurrection I have perused the Enquiry p. 50. 51. that after eight days is not that day seven-night and I neither discern it to be a Cavil nor so weak as the Doctor represents it but that after eight days may be as it seems to me the second or third day seven-night after the Resurrection In Matth. 26. 2 6 14 16 17. after two days was the passover seems to be meant after two days exclusively i. e. excluding the day on which that was said Rev. 11. 11. After three days and an half about the two witnesses the spirit of life from God entred into them and they stood upon their feet is understood as I think with Reason after not two but three Days or Years and an half expired God will revive them and restore them to his Service and 't is same Greek word for after here as John 20. 26. So after eight days may not include the day wherein 't was spoken and so may be the second or third day seven-night after And I do not know that ever I heard much less do we commonly so speak that after eight days is that day seven-night after or that after eight days does include the day wherein it is so said for one of the eighth days and if it did include it yet after eighth seems to be the ninth and that in John 20. 26. was also spoken in the Evening i. e. near the end of that day As for what the Doctor offers that after eight days must be that day seven night because Christs rising the third day is said in Mark 8. 31. to be after three days I say the Crucifixion was upon the sixth day the Resurrection upon the first Day of the next Week which does explain what is meant by after three days Mark 8. 31. that is after part of the Sixth day the whole seventh Day and part of the First day Now when after three days is so explained in divers Scriptures to be the third day it may not follow that after eight Days which is no where that I know so explained must include the Day spoken in and exclude the day after the Eighth And that the Resurrection was upon the third day I think there is enough offered in the Enquiry see Matth 6. 21 17. 23 20. 19 27. 64. Mark 9. 31. 10. 34. The words of our Lord The Son of Man shall rise again the third day Luke 9. 22 13. 32 18. 33 24. 7 21. 46. 1 Cor. 15. 4. He rose again the third day so as the Resurrection was on the third Day and the words after three Days are fully explained to be the third Day or in on or upon the third Day and the first of these three Days is expresly included And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after sometimes signifies in and Mark 8. 31. rendred in three Days answers that Objection and the Enemies Matth. 27. 64. desired Pilate that the Sepulchre might be secured untill the third Day that is till the third Day is come not till after the third Day is past and so the Enemies understood the Resurrection would be in or on the
be all finished upon the Sixth day before the Sabbath drew on Luke 23. 54 55 56. And for the Women to prepare Spices and Ointments the same Sixth day and all before the Sun set And this way of the Doctor 's reasoning if it would hold which I think it will not would break in upon the Sabbath upon which the Women rested according to the Commandment Luke 23. 56 c. and would leave a doubt whether the Sixth day were one of the Three days unless men believe as the Doctor that the days begin at mid-night see Mr. Shepherd's Tract on this Subject The general opinion I think is right in this that the reckoning of days in the time of the Old Testament was from Evening to Evening which reckoning I find not yet altered in the Word but the Romans who were then Heathens did reckon days from mid-night to mid-night And p. 24. how long the First day lasted is built on a Foundation as if the day began at mid-night And p. 25. he says We reasonably suppose from Luke 24. 29 30 35. that the two Disciples from Emmaus came pretty late at night to Jerusalem Which is but supposed not in the Word which Word is the Wisdom of God and the highest Reason Ver. 29. They said to Christ abide with us for it is towards evening and the day is far spent which might and surely did leave time enough for them to return to Jerusalem that day for Luke 24. 33. They rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem which intimates their haste in returning to Jerusalem And 't was the same Day of the Resurrection that is the First Day of the Week at Evening that our Lord appeared to the Disciples at Jerusalem John 20. 19. as they sat at Meat when the Doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews upon the First day at Evening and John 19. 40 41 42. The Body of Jesus was laid in a Garden because of the Jews Preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand and so no need of much time to bury him all was easie to be finished before the Sabbath began to which the Sixth day was a Preparation day which proves it to be the day before the Sabbath yet the Doctor thinks it was about mid-night and then infers as manifest that the Jews and four Evangelists did reckon their days from mid-night to mid-night and there adds if they did not so reckon Christ could not be said Matth. 12. 40. to be three Days and three Nights in the heart of the Earth which I take it is not well said for to make a doubt of the three Days in the Grave unless we believe it manifest that the Jews and four Evangelists did reckon their days from mid-night to mid-night seems very blamable The Doctor thinks p. 26. the days in the time of the Old Testament reckoned from mid-night to mid-night and from Exod. 12. 6 14 15 16. about the Passover that Evening v. 6. or as in the Margent between the two Evenings is at mid-night and that as soon as mid-night is past Morning began and says the account thereof is so fair as we need not scruple to embrace it And he thinks from the first born of Egypt being slain at midnight that the midnight began the next day after the Passover then which he thinks nothing can be more clear and p. 28. takes it to be very plain from what he has said That at the time of Christs Death and Resurrection the days were counted from midnight to mid-night which matters which he thinks plain clear and manifest I think are mistaken by him What was offered from Gen. 1. 5. the Evening and the Morning were the First day the Doctor thinks is easily answered and renders it as in the Hebrew and the Evening was and the Morning was one day i. e. says he there was in the First day and so in the rest Evening and Morning or Darkness and Light which is so far true and says Darkness is put first because beginning the Day from mid-night the Dark is before the Light but if it were so which I think is not then the Darkness would be after the Light viz. till mid-night after and would put Night and Day in Confusion To which I further say as he by day one or one day Gen. 1. 5. is there meant the First day and so I think in the New-Testament by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one day is generally meant the first day and the first day is certainly meant as to the day of Christs resurrection But that the Evening in Gen. 1. 5. began at midnight is contrary to the current of learned men Doctor p. 26. and contrary to Mr. Chafie and contrary to the Hebrews who best knew the meaning of the Books of Moses and I think contrary to the Scriptures throughout which begin the Evening when the Sun does set Mark 1. 32. whereof more by and by And as to the Evenings Exod. 12. 6. it seems to me that one or the First Evening was the Evening which after the Sun created began the days i. e. when the Sun did set and the other Evening was about the time of the daily and weekly Sacrifices which ordinarily I think was about their ninth Hour i. e. our three a Clock in the Afternoon which Acts 3. 1. is called the ninth Hour the Hour of Prayer when Peter and John went to the Temple So Cornelius in a Vision saw an Angel about the ninth Hour Acts 10 3. And the ninth Hour that is our three a Clock in the Afternoon was about the Hour of our Saviours being made a Sacrifice for his People Matth. 27. 46. Mark 15. 34. Or that other Evening might be 1 Kings 18. 29 36. when Mid-day was past And betwixt the two Evenings Exod. 12. 6. is understood by many to be betwixt the declining of the Sun after Noon and the setting of the Sun which may well be but the first Evening began at Sun set and belonged to the Day of the Week which Days of the Week consisted of Evening and Morning as before Their Morning-Worship seems to have been about our nine a Clock in the Morning which I think was their third Hour Acts 2. 4 15. at which Hour the Holy Spirit was poured out But the Evening of the Days of the Week after the Sun created I think began at or about Sun set and comprehended from Sun setting to Sun rising and the Morning from Sun rising to Sun set which Evening and Morning made up every day of the Week then and ever since as before And yet the Doctor p. 25. thinks that both the Jews and four Evangelists did reckon their days from mid-night to midnight And the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. 3 6. which was to be killed the Fourteenth day of the first Month between the two Evenings Exod. 12. 2 6. whether the Evening wherein they were to kill it began at our three a clock
ADVERTISEMENT There is 〈◊〉 Printed a Book Intituled A Treatise of the Holy Trinunity in two Parts The First asserteth the Deity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Vnity of Essence with God the Father The Second in Defence of the former answereth the chiefest Objections made against this Doctrine By I. M. Chap. I. THe Case is briefly stated Chap. II. Sheweth that there is but one God the Creator and Former of all things Chap. III. Asserteth a Plurality of Divine Subsistences Chap. IV. Of the Father Chap. V. Proveth the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ 1. By his Names 2. That God in the Old Testament in divers Places is Christ in the New 3. By seven particular Texts of Holy Scriptures 4. That Christ pre-existed his Incarnation in his Divine Nature and is no Angel incarnate but is Coeternal with the Father 5. His Deity is proved by his Works And 6. By Divine Worship given to him Chap. VI. Proveth the Deity of the Holy Ghost 1. That he is a Divine Person 2. His Deity is asserted from several Texts of Scripture 3. By his Works 4. By Divine Worship given to him Chap. VII Proveth the Unity of the Holy Trinity Chap. VIII Containeth some Explications of the Holy Trinunity 1. Of the Essential Being of God 2. Of the Divine Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit 3. Of the Distinctions of the Divine Nature and the Persons and some Shadows by way of Comparison of the incomparable and inconceivable Being of God and of the Union of Christ's two Natures PART II. Chap. I. Answereth Objections against the Scriptural Proofs of Christ's Deity Chap. II. Answers to Objections drawn from several Texts of Scriptures Chap. III. Answers to several Arguments against the Deity of Christ Chap. IV. Answers to several Objections against the Scriptures that prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost Chap. V. Answers to some Objections drawn from divers Scriptures to disprove the Deity of the Holy Spirit Chap. VI. Answers to some Scriptures from whence our Adversaries assert that the Father only is the true God With a general Answer and Conclusion Price bound one Shilling A REPLY TO Doctor Wallis HIS DISCOURSE Concerning the Christian SABBATH By THO. BAMPFIELD LONDON Printed for Thomas Fabian at the Bible in Cheapside near Bread-street End 1693. A REPLY TO Dr. WALLIS's DISCOURSE Concerning the Christian Sabbath SIR A Little after the Printing the Enquiry Whether the Lord Jesus Christ made the World and be Jehovah and gave the Moral Law And whether the Fourth Command be Repealed or Altered There was Reprinted a Tract of Mr. Chafies on the Fourth Command I think as Answer to that part of the Enquiry which referred to the Fourth Command and then another by one Mr. G. T. both which I had no sooner Examined but another was Published by John Wallis D. D. Which Discourse of the Doctor 's as containing the strength of what is said for the First Day I hold my self principally concerned to consider I find the Doctor p. 1. would not on the account of the Day whether the Seventh or the First give any Disturbance to the Peace or Practice of the Church where he Lives so that a Sabbath be duly observed tho' perhaps not upon what Day he should choose What Day he would choose I know not but hope it would be the Day the Lord hath Chosen and Blessed But the Question is not what Day he would choose to rest upon but what day we ought to choose and I am willing to hope he would choose that Day which after the best Judgment I can make upon his Book I think is the Seventh Day and that he means that Day by that otherways Doubtful Expression And I think the Word is the Rule of Worship c. And not the Practise of the Church where we live Nor know I certainly what Church may be meant for that he and I live in an Age wherein there are variety differing a little from one another nor am I willing to disturb the true Peace of the Churches of Christ but if in any thing they be defective in their Judgment or Practice their Peace lies in their returning to their Obedience which is better than Sacrifice 1 Sam. 15. 22. And till the Lord bring that about I see little likelyhood the Sabbath should be duly observed or have the full Blessing bestowed on it which is annexed to it Nor do I think the true Sabbath is so hard to be found as he supposes to whom I may say as Moses to the Israelites Deut. 30. 11 12 13 14. This Commandment is not hid from thee neither is it far off 'T is not beyond the Seas that we should need to go round the Earth to fetch it as the Dr. p. 79. pleasantly adviseth but the Word is very nigh unto thee in thy Mouth and in thine Heart that thou mayst do it He says also p. 1. That he does not know whether Sunday be a first or second a third or a seventh Day in a continual Circulation of Weeks from the Creation or from Christ's time and if so he is at a great uncertainty and I do not wonder if he be yet to choose his Day which Expressions in his first Page may give some Light to state this Question for if he does not know from Christ's time which Day of the Week Sunday as he calls it is I see very little reason why he should observe it He adds And what it is impossible for him to know he thinks will be no Cirme to be ignorant of and if he do not know what Day of the Week Sunday is and much more if it be impossible for him to know it I see no reason at all why he should write a Book for the Observation of a Day impossible for him to know All the Christian and Hebrew Churches in the World I think are agreed that Sunday is the first Day of the Week which Day I presume by the rest of his Book the Doctor observes and if we be right in that as I think we are that Sunday is the first Day it will be no great Task by telling seven to resolve which is the seventh Day But notwithstanding the impossibility for him to know what Day of the Week Sunday is he is sufficiently satisfied that we ought to keep a Sabbath and so am I and I think we may be sufficiently certain which is the seventh Day in the weekly Circulation and am willing to observe that Blessed and Sanctified Day and Time which I think is the Lord's Day and not changed and so not hard to be found And I do not think God has left the stress of a Point whereon his Publick Worship doth somewhat depend upon a thing impossible for us to know by his Word and Works he can make this plain to all First I agree with him that the place of Worship under the Gospel p. 2. is not so material whether this or that John 4.
but the Sabbath and surely he understood his own Institution and was not mistaken in the Day And the Doctor p. 4. says The Words he Blessed and Sanctified it may be a strong Intimation for Mankind ever after to observe the Seventh day c. But he says is not expresly said And that the Seventh day Blessed and Sanctified Gen. 2. 2 3. is not only a strong Intimation as the Doctor but does include the Seventh day of every Week afterward in a continual Succession or Circulation of Days and Weeks I think is proved by the Words of Blessing and Sanctifying or making Holy the Seventh day which are comprehensive Words and from Exod. 20. 10 11. as that day of every Week which Men were and are to remember to keep Holy And God's Sabbatizing on the Seventh day was as I think that Man might keep the Sabbath day in the continual Circulation of Weeks in a Spiritual Rest And in this Scripture Gen. 2. 2. we have the Foundation for the Seventh day Sabbath where the Words are And on the seventh day God had ended his work which he had made and he rested or sabbatized on the seventh day from all his work which he had made Heb. 4. 4. Where it is said he spake of the Seventh day in this wise and God did rest the seventh day from all his works and Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his works which God created and made Gen. 2. 3. And from God's Sabbatizing here it is That the seventh day is called the sabbath Exod. 20. 9. 11. And throughout the Old and New-Testament from the Heb. root Shabath he kept Sabbath And the Lords Blessing the Seventh day Gen. 2. 3. makes it a day of his distributing the greatest heavenly Blessings upon all that obey his Voice And his Sanctifying the Seventh day shews it to be Consecrated and so separated from all common Works and earthly Employments and shews it to be Dedicated and Sanctified by him to his Worship as an Holy day and as his day i. e. the Lords day to be used in Holy Solemn Exercises of Religion as long as the World lasts till Believers come to that Sabbatism in Heaven which remains for the People of God Heb. 4. 4 8 9. And he that doubts the Seventh day Gen. 2. 2 3. does not include every Seventh day in the continual Succession of Weeks may see by comparing Exod. 20. that this Institution is not mentioned in Exod. 20. as then first given but as that which God had Instituted upon his creating the World and the keeping the weekly Sabbath was as absolutely necessary for the Spiritual good of those Believers and others who lived in the first Ages of the World after the Fall and of Adam and Eve also if they had not fallen as it is for us at this day to Contemplate his infinite Excellencies and mighty Works And p. 3. from Gen. 2. 2 3. and Exod. 20. 11. he does agree that God hath appointed after six days of ordinary Labour Man should observe a Seventh day of Holy rest and this in a continual Succession which I think goes far to resolve this question not a but the Seventh day only being first instituted Gen. 2. and afterward observed as a Sabbath throughout the Scriptures And if he agrees as he does p. 3. that it was the Seventh day that was Blessed and Sanctified Gen. 2. 3. and that this is a clear and ancient Testimony for the Holiness of time as he doth then till another Sanctified Day of the Week and another weekly time can be found which is Blessed and Sanctified by the Lord we are for ought I can see to rest or keep Sabbath upon the Seventh day as our Lord did by whom we have no other weekly Day or Time Consecrated or observed as Holy but only the Seventh day and the Doctor 's opinion of the Holiness of this time has confirmed and as I think established my Thoughts of the Holiness of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath I agree also with him that the Law of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commands Exod. 20. and am not only willing to think as the Doctor but am satisfied it was a Law before and that not only because we find it observed Exod. 16. before the Law given at Sinai Exod 20. in which Exod. 16. 25 26. the Seventh day is called a Sabbath to the Lord i. e. the Lord's day but especially as the Doctor acknowledges for that Gen. 2. 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his Work and I do with the Doctor think this a clear Testimony and as ancient as the Creation for the Holiness of Time i. e. as far as I can possibly discern for the Holiness of the weekly Seventh day for there was no other weekly Day then or since made Holy that we can find in the Word but the Seventh day only and this alone will go very far to resolve and settle this question I agree also with the Doctor that the Law of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments tho' then given to Israel is binding to us also p. 3. 4. And I think we have sufficient Evidence from the Scriptures that the Sabbath was observed from the Creation to the Flood tho' he thinks in the short History Moses gives of that time there be no mention made of such Observation from the Creation to the Flood For First on the Seventh day God Heb. Elohim had ended his Work which he had made and he Sabbatized on the Seventh day from all his Work which he had made Gen. 2. 2. The Example of God's keeping the first Seventh-day-Sabbath is one undeniable Evidence of the Seventh-day-Sabbath kept after the Creation For Gen. 2. 1. The heavens and the earth and all the Hosts of them were finished before the seventh day and so the Seventh day was kept after the Creation and before the Flood A second Evidence is the same repeated Gen. 2. 3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his Work which he had Created and Made Which Repetition of God's resting the Seventh day does strongly inculcate and inforce our Duty and certainly prove that God had rested the Seventh day after the Creation and before the Flood A third Evidence from the Case of Cain and Abel Gen. 4. 3. And in process of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord and v. 4. Abel also brought his offering In Process of Time Heb. Mikketz Jammin at the end of Days or at the cutting off of Days Enquiry p. 23. Which end or cutting off of days so far as God hath revealed seems to be the end of the Days of the Week when the reckoning of Days was cut off and after the Seventh day ended they were to begin to reckon again 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and 't was the Seventh day the last day
of the Week which before was Blessed and Sanctified when the Creation upon the six days was finished which Seventh day was the end of the days of the Week So as Cain as bad as he was and Abel who obtained witness that he was righteous Heb. 11. 4. both as I think kept the Sabbath Cain outwardly but Abel no doubt by that witness of his Righteousness in an Holy Spiritual and Heavenly manner to whose offering the Lord had respect Gen. 4. 4. but to Cain's offering he had not respect And if the Seventh day then ended the Week as it now does and if none can tell us of any other end of days at that time I may thence infer these offerings were at least very probably if not certainly upon the Seventh-day-Sabbath and are a good Evidence for it And the Righteousness ascribed to Abel Heb. 11. 4. surely does import his Obedience to all Gods Wills then revealed whereof the Seventh day was eminently one and Abel's sacrificing the Firstlings of his Flock was another Gen. 4. 4. Which Offerings were Types of Christ and proper for the Sabbath-day which Abel offered unto God by Faith and was a more excellent Sacrifice then Cain's by which Abel obtained witness that he was Righteous God testifying of his Gifts and by it he being dead and yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. I think he yet speaketh to us to be Righteous as he was and to observe the Seventh day And that Abel was a Person obedient unto God in all things we have the Testimony of Christ who calls him Righteous Abel Matth. 23. 35. A fourth Evidence is from Gen. 5. 22. Enoch walked with God three hundred years And ver 24. and Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him Enquiry p. 23. Which Enoch was a Prophet and Jude 14. 15. Prophesied the Lords coming to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that were ungodly Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Corrupt or all no Worshippers thrice mentioned in the 15 ver 'T is true those who do not Worship God or do not Worship him aright are highly blameable but the true Signification of the Greek word being from Alpha privative and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Worship the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does tell us who they were whom Enoch reproved that is such as did not Worship God at all or not according to his appointments and does imply that Enoch did Worship God aright or else how could Enoch convince others if himself did not keep the Blessed and Sanctified Day and whether the word in Jude 14. 15. do not imply also that the rest of the then degenerated Posterity of Adam whom Enoch reproved did neglect the Blessed Day seems as I conceive very probable And these are Evidences for the Seventh-day-Sabbath before the Flood At present I pass by Gen. 13. 2 3 4 5 6 9 10. Jashebeth because by the Points it may be from the verb Jashab he dwelt Evidences that after the Flood the Sabbath was kept before the Law at Sinai Gen. 26. 2 4. Enquiry p. 23. 24. the Lord appeares to Isaac and promises that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed ver 5. Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws Blessing the Nations in his Seed includes a promise of Christ upon Abraham's Obedience How Abraham came to know all the Commandments Statutes and Laws I know not certainly It may be they being implanted in Adam who was created in Gods own Image Gen. 1. 26 27. were taught down along from Adam in gracious Families from Father to Son and so to Abraham And it may be also by special Revelation but this is certain that Abraham knew these how else could he keep or obey them and 't is certain he obeyed the Lords voice and kept his Commandments and his Laws and one eminent Voice and Law of God was Gen. 2. 2 3. and God blessed the seventh day and Sanctified it And Abraham kept my Commandments Gen. 26. 5. and in Exod 16. 27 28. how long refuse ye to keep my commandments the same Hebrew word with that Gen. 26. 5. and the Command which Israel brake Exod. 16. 27 28. Was that some of them upon the Seventh-day-Sabbath went out to gather Manna which they ought not to have done and so the Command which they brake it seems was one of those which Abraham kept And Gen. 26. 5. Abraham kept my Laws and in Exod. 16. 4. The Lord to Moses I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day that I may prove them whether they will walk in my Law or no and Exod. 16 27 28. when some brake the Sabbath and went out to gather Manna on the seventh Day the Lord says to Moses How long refuse ye to keep my laws it is the same Hebrew word with that Gen. 26. 5. where the Lord says Abraham kept his Laws and the Doctor does neither offer nor pretend that Abraham brake the Sabbath Now if the Law broken by the Israelites Exod. 16. 4 28. were the Seventh-day-Sabbath as it certainly was then 't is very likely one of the Laws of God kept by Abraham Gen. 26. 5. tho the Sabbath be not particularly there named was the Seventh-day-Sabbath which the Israelites brake Exod. 16. for we have the same Hebrew word for both so that it does appear by Gen. 26. 5. That Abraham obeyed the Lords voice and kept his commandments and his laws and I see no good colour to doubt it And he that says Abraham kept not the Sabbath when God says Abraham kept his Commands and his Laws may as well deny that Abraham kept any other of the Commands or Laws of God a Sixth is from Exod. 5. 5. In Exod. 3. 18. the Lord to Moses Say to the King of Egypt the Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us and now let us go we beseech thee three days journey into the Wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God which they could not freely do in Aegypt Exod. 8. 26. Now Horeb as Geographers observe was without hinderances about three days Journey from Aegypt concerning which Mountain God foretold Moses Exod. 3. 12. When thou hast brought forth the people out of Aegypt ye shall serve God upon this mountain Upon which Mountain the Law for the Sabbath was reinforced Exod. 20. 8. And in Exod. 4. 21 23. The Lord to Moses say unto Pharaoh thus saith the Lord Israel is my Son and I say unto thee let my Son go that he may serve me And Exod. 4. 29 30 31. When Aaron had spoken to the Israelites all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses the people believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the Children of Israel and that he had looked upon their Affliction then they bowed their Heads and worshipped and it were
not hard to say 't is probable that Aarons preaching to them all the words the Lord had spoken and their worshipping was upon the Sabbath day as will further appear in Exod. 5. 4 5 8 14 17 19. In Exod. 5. 1. Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh Thus saith the Lord God of Israel let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness and 't is not over hard to imagine what that Feast was which by comparing Exod. 14. where the Aegyptians were drowned Exod. 15. 1 22 23. where is Moses's song and the murmuring at Morah and Exod. 16. 1 23. it s likely was the Feast of the Sabbath Exod. 5. 2. Pharaoh said Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go and ver 3. Moses and Aaron said the God of the Hebrews bath met with us let us go we pray thee and sacrifice unto the Lord our God and ver 4. the King said unto them Wherefore do ye Moses and Aaron let the people or make them to cease from their work get you to your burdens and Exod 5. 5. Pharaoh said behold the people of the land now are many and you make them rest from their burdens You make them rest Heb. Vehishbattem which as I take it is in the conjugation Hiphil praeterit tense second Person plural number from the root Shabath he kept Sabbath and signifies and yemake them to keep sabbath from their burdens the very same root in Gen. 2. 2. God sabatized rested or kept Sabbath on the seventh Day from all his Work which he had made and from the same root Gen. 2. 3. and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made So as Pharaoh charges Moses and Aaron as making the Israelites to cease from their Work and as making of them to keep Sabbath from their Burdens And when the Word of God is so plain and full and certain and that by the Mouth of Pharaoh an enemy that Moses and Aaron did make the Israelites cease from their Work ver 4. and did make them keep Sabbath ver 5. For the Doctor to say against such a plain Word beside what was said before of Abel Abraham c. as he does p. 7. And I think sometimes afterward to the like effect that we have not the least mention of the Sabbath from Gen. 2. 3. 'till after Israels coming out of Aegypt may excuse my so long insisting on these Scriptures So we have here in Exod. 5. 5. express mention of the Israelites ceasing from their work and keeping the Sabbath and the Taskmasters exacting their daily Tasks every day Exod. 5. 13 14. shews this which are evidences for keeping the Sabbath before they came out of Aegypt and Exod. 5. 17. Pharaoh upbraids them as idle therefore ye say let us go to do Sacrifice to the Lord. And the Sacrifices though they were to be offered every day yet as a Feast-day were offered on the Sabbath And Exod. 8. 1 8 25 26 27 28. and Exod. 9. 1 13. and Exod. 10. 3 7 8 9 11 22 24 25. are agreeable to Exod. 3. 4. 5. and Exod. 12. 12 13. After the Plague upon the first Born Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron rise up get you forth and go and serve the Lord as ye have said also take your Flocks and your Heards as ye have said and be gone and bless me also And that excellent History does shew how the Lord delivered his people out of Pharaoh's hand and all his strugling to hinder the Service of God and to debar them of the liberty to offer Spiritual Sacrifices unto him did all contribute to make the Deliverance more compleat from that oppressing Bondage sedately to serve God and keep his Sabbaths as in Exod. 16. 23. where they had a Feast of Bread from Heaven ver 4. and I think ver 13. of Quails also besides their Flocks and Heards Exod. 12. 12 13. Another proof that Moses and Aaron and the Israelites had the knowledge of the Seventh-day-Sabbath and did observe it and that before the Law at Sainai is from Exod. 16. As to the Doctor 's Opinion of a new Institution of another Sabbath Exod. 15. 23 25. at Marah I answer that upon their murmuring there because the Waters were bitter which were there cured by a Tree which the Lord shewed Moses he made a Statute and an Ordinance and there he proved them ver 25. 26. said If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Aegyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee which seems expresly the Statute and Ordinances before mentioned which Statute and Ordinance confirms the Lords Commandments and all his Statutes but alters none of them so that the conceit of a new Sabbath day here instituted without any word from God is a meer conjecture by learned Mr. Chafie as afterward and what that Statute and Ordinance was the Doctor says p. 4. We cannot tell which I think is enough to set aside all new Epocha here And Exod. 15. 27. from Marah they came to Elim where they encamped by other Waters And Exod. 16. 1. They journyed from Elim to the Wilderness of Sin and there they murmured again for want of Bread and Exod. 16. 2 3. the Lord to Moses I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day ver 4. And the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily ver 5. And at even the quails came up ver 13. And every man gathered the Manna every morning ver 4. 21. which was every Day of the Week except the seventh Day ver 22. So the Lord there reckons the days the sixth Day and the seventh Day after the same manner as at the first Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. And this as it seems was not at Elim nor at Marah but at another place and time viz. in the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Synai Exod. 16. 1. But that the Lord there altered the way of numbring the days or instituted a new Sabbath day no such thing is there that I can find but reckons the sixth and seventh days which supposes the 1 2 3 4 and 5 to make up the Week in the same manner as Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. to which seventh Day as Exod. 5. 5. the Israelites in Aegypt were no strangers And the Sabbath ver 23. is here called the Holy Sabbath that is the Sabbath hallowed or sanctified by the Lord Gen. 2. 3. and the Sabbath is four times called the seventh Day from ver 26. to 30. But not a word
of altering the Seventh-day-Sabbath as Mr. Chafie p. 31. nor any new Epocha as the Doctor p. 10. And so the seventh Day was not forgotten but well known to them and yet the Doctor p. 10. tells us That as to the sabbath observed from the Creation to this first raining of Manna that there is six to one that it is not the same so that was uncertain also Nor do I see any reason why a new Epocha from Exod. 16. 23 30. should be imagined unless it be because it is so plain a proof of the Israelites observing the Seventh-day-Sabbath before the Law at Sinai in obedience to the Law Gen. 2. 23. which answers so much of learned Mr. Chafie's and of the Doctor 's Books And if there were no new Epocha in Exod. 16. then it seems agreed that the seventh Day was never altered till the coming of Christ And the fourth Command Exod. 20. 8 11. I think puts this out of doubt Remember the seventh day to keey it holy six days shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God ver 9. 10. that is the seventh Day is the Lords Day For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day and blessed the sabbath and made it holy Does any fancy that the Sabbath-day here is meant A Sabbath-day or that the seventh-day is meant only A seventh-day and so that another Day of the Week is intended and will answer the letter of the fourth Command as well as the seventh-day I answer beside what is said in the Enquiry That such meaning of the fourth Command I think is no where found in any Book before the time of Christ nor during his Life for such a sense would have gratified the Jews to object against Christ nor is it found whilst any of the Apostles lived nor I think in many hundreds of years after all their deaths Does any doubt which is the sabbath-Sabbath-day he is to remember to keep holy Does any doubt which is the sabbath-Sabbath-day which the Lord Blessed Or Does any doubt which is the Day of the Week the Lord made Holy The Answer is here express The seventh-seventh-day is the Sabbath which the Lord blessed and made holy which we are to remember to keep holy Does any doubt whether the order of the Days of the Week settled Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. was altered The answer is here plain For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day which does refer to and seem to me directly to confirm the days and their names of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. appointed in Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. together with the time when they begin and end and so I think we are thus far safe that from Gen. 2. to Exod. 20. there was no new Epocha of days nor any manner of uncertainty which was the seventh-day there was no intermission of the days by chance nor the Day forgotten or neglected as the Doctor p. 61. nor as I think any manner of doubt when the days did begin and end This seems to me so plain as I had said nothing thereof if I had not found the Doctor insist much as if there had passed some alteration of days and afterwards as if the Days began at Midnight and as if I had nothing but Tradition whereby to guess which is the seventh-day from the Creation to Exod. 20. for which we have before so many highly probable and other certain Scripture Proofs and for which the fourth Command alone is proof enough being declarative of what was blessed and hallowed before in Gen. 2. and is here in Exod. 20. explained and confirmed The Oracles of God were committed to the Israelites Rom. 3. 2. to them was committed the keeping the Old Testment and therein the Moral Law and therein the fourth Command and therein the seventh-seventh-day and the Laws given at Sinai are said to be true Laws and good Commandments and so they certainly were and are both true and good and the Lord made known unto them his holy Sabbaths Nehe. 9. 13 15. and if they were made known to them then they knew his holy Sabbaths and if they knew them as they did then his Sabbaths were not altered And whether other Nations did measure their time by Weeks p. 5. See Mr. Chafie chap. 13. p. 45. chap. 14. p. 49. I think expresly for it And to argue from Abel Enoch Noah and Abraham with such high Characters as the Lord gives them in his word and of Abraham as keeping his Laws and his Commandments are as I think strong arguments to prove the matter of fact and sufficiently expressed that they kept the Sabbath which is one of the Commandments tho the Doctor p. 7. thinks them weak And from their Practice and the Scriptures before cited I think we have a certainty thereof whereof the Doctor p. 8. says We have scarce a Conjecture which seem hard Words against one and yet harder against so many Scriptures And tho' I am willing to thank the Doctor for what he would give me to begin the Week on Monday p. 9. that so his Sunday may be the Seventh-day yet I do not think any Mans Authority so great as to alter the way of numbring the Days which God hath settled or to controul or alter the Day God has Blessed and I am content with Gods Allowance and Command therein What is offered about the Paschal Lamb and Passover and Circumcision p. 11. being sometimes intermitted I think does confirm the Seventh-day and not hurt it for that when the Israelites returned to those appointments they kept them again And if it be true which p. 13. the Doctor thinks without doubt and certain that we do not know which is the Seventh-day in a continual Circulation from the Creation then all the Doctors Arguments before and afterwards for the First day are here as it seems without doubt and certainly answered by himself for if we do not know which is the Seventh day we cannot know which is the First day and so cannot possibly keep a Day which we know not and somewhat like this he offers p. 1. Nor do I see how the Doctor or any other Person can be long held to think as they seem to do And p. 1. He thinks it impossible for him to know the First day and p. 14. Impossible for any Man to know the Seventh day which are also directly against him And p. 16. he says We have no particular Command in another Case which I think we have and not only a practice most likely to be Gods Will p. 17. But that not being now in question I pass it by And as to what he there says for the change of the Seventh to the First day that I would think so also if I were not otherwise prepossed with Prejudice and with a great fondness to find out somewhat wherewith to find fault I Reply that I doubt we have many great Faults not
hard to be found and I commend to the Doctor Rev. 3. 17. But I know nothing of Prejudice or Fondness corrupt Nature and human Frailties by Grace disallowed in this and all Cases excepted as he surmises but whensoever I find in the Scriptures any Truth which would correct my Conversation and make it agreeable to Gods Will after due seach and consideration honestly and conscientiously to comply with it as other Christians do or ought and this question has been considered by me now near twenty six Years And if such Truth according to the best of that Knowledge God hath graciously given concern others also then to communicate it and if it be a Truth which can be by me no other way opened to them then to do it in this sort as I weakly can and I shall be heartily glad the Doctor or any other would do it much better as he is very well able And if we are not to hide our selves from our Brother's Ox or his Sheep when we see them go astray Deut. 22. 1 2 3 4. And if we are obliged when others especially our Brethren err in Judgment or Practice to reprove them How much more are we bound when we see many erring in a moral Duty to endeavour to set them right And to surmise upon him that he writes those Reflections and many others to prepossess and prejudice Readers I am loath to do Nor had I made this Vindication if I had not been compelled by the Doctor 's Charge And as to the Israelites keeping the true Seventh-day-Sabbath commanded Exod. 20. from thence to the Incarnation of our Lord I do not remember the Doctor to deny it for which I think there is enough said in the Enquiry p. 26. 27 28. and much more might be added if need were and I am unwilling to write again the same things altho' by repeating the same Objections and reinforcing the old with new Words I am sometime constrained so to do And in general I say that as far as I can judge there is enough said in the Enquiry to prove that not A but The Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. and Repeated Exod. 20. and observed from thence to Christs coming and with every tittle of the rest of the Moral Law confirmed and made perpetual by Christ in Matth. 5. 17 18 19. and Luke 16. 14 17. who certainly knew the true Sabbath day binds all men till the Heaven and Earth pass away which is not yet And not A Seventh day but The Seventh day there established and made perpetual was observed by Christ during his Life for so was his custom Luke 4. 16 to 21. Enquiry p. 38. 39 41 42 43 45. and was observed by Believers after his Death Resurrection and Ascension so was Paul's custom Acts 17. 2. which was never altered by the Word that I know Which confirming and making the Law perpetual and every Jot and Tittle of it by Christ who was and is Jehovah does also fully prove as I think that not A but the Seventh-day-Sabbath was neither altered nor changed nor forgotten nor any way uncertain to Christs time neither as to the day nor as to the beginning or ending of it and that the Seventh day is the Lords Day This being premised let us consider what the Doctor further offers for the First or against the Seventh day p. 17. 18. he tells us That Christ on the day of his resurrection did not only appear to the good Women at the Sepulchre and declare to them the Resurrection but also the same day himself declares it to two of them going to Emmaus Luke 24. 27 32. and did expound to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself and did open to them the the Scriptures and did as he takes it celebrate the Lords Supper implyed in the words he took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them ver 30 c. 'T is true Christ after the Resurrection appeared to Mary Magdalen and to the other Mary Matth. 28. 1. 9. And the Angel said to them v. 5. and Mark 16. 5 6. He is not here but is risen go tell his disciplees that he is risen from the dead which they did but the Disciples believed them not Now 't is certain as 't is agreed that Christ rose the Third day which Third day was the First day of the Week and that the Angel Matth. 28. 5. and two Angels Luke 24. 4. and John 20. 12. said to the Women that Christ was risen and the women told it to the Disciples yet the Disciples would not believe them and we have Christ appearing to two Disciples as they travelled into the Country Mark 16. 12. And they went and told it to the rest of the Disciples but they believed not them Verse the 13. And Christ's appearing to the Women was a practical proving of the Resurrection Some think the two Disciples Mark 16. 12. to be the two Disciples traveling to Emmaus Luke 24. 13. which is very likely and that Peter from Luke 24. 34. and 1 Cor. 15. 5. was one of them But 't is certain they were two Disciples and yet the rest would not believe them Mark 16. 13. And their Discourse upon the way as they travelled together Luke 24. 13. was such as the Doctor mentions and Christ there reproved them for not believing what the Prophets had spoken v. 25. That Christ ought to suffer but did not reprove them that we read for travelling on that day And 't is likely the Breaking and Blessing of Bread ver 30. might be for ought I know the Sacrament of the Supper and implied But still the Journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus and back again was a travelling Journey being near fifteen Miles and more then a Sabbath days Journey as the Doctor agrees and I do not see how he can make that Journey consist with the keeping that First day as a Sabbath whereof there is there or before no Institution nor any Mention but rather the direct contrary their travelling upon that First day of the Week without any reproof from Christ as upon any other of the Six days seems directly against the Doctor And whether our Lord did then travel without pain as the Dr. is not written he had then the Wounds in his Body and at his appearing afterward to the Disciples and Thomas John 20. 25 27. Luke 24. 29. and yet might be without pain for ought I know but surely the two Disciples travelled as others do And although the Disciples were eminently Holy yet because not written I do not know what they were then imployed about at Jerusalem unless it were mourning and weeping Mark 16. 10. where they were assembled for fear of the Jews John 20. 19. before or after the report of the Women whom they did not credit And p. 19. I think the Doctor agrees the meeting of the Disciples there providential and not upon a Sabbath account for 't was for fear of the Jews And Christs appearing
third Day and all Scholars know that Greek Prepositions and Particles are often variously rendered as the reason of the place where they are used does require And if this place in Mark 8. 31. be so rendered in three Days i. e. after the third Day is come that agrees with all the above cited Scriptures for his rising the third Day and so Grotius and Beza and other Annotators on Mark 8. 31. And there is this difference as before that after eight days is no where explained to be the eighth day including the first of the eight or excluding the day after the eighth nor explained by in eight days as after three days in Mark 8. 31. is expresly explained by many Scriptures to be the third day and as above in three days i. e. till the third day What is offered p. 22. from Luke 1. 59. on the eighth day they came to Circumcise John was according to the Institution Gen. 17. 12. He that is eight days old shall be circumcised which Institution does actually include the day of Birth for that the day of Birth is one day and seven days more do accomplish eight days Luke 2. 21. but 't is no where said of that that I know that 't was after eight days that they were to be Circumcised But if after eight days did include the first of the eight days and did exclude the day after the eighth day yet here is no abrogating the Seventh-day-Sabbath nor any instituting the first day not any word to any such purpose but this seems an occasion taken by our Lord after eight days after his Resurrection when Thomas was with the rest of the Disciples who was not present at Christs first appearing to them to cure his unbelief and to confirm the Faith of the rest of the Disciples and of all others in these two great Doctrines one of the Deity of Christ whom Thomas there openly and expresly owns to be the Lord his God My Lord and my God John 20. 28 29. The other of the Resurrection of Christ which till then Thomas said he would not believe John 20. 24 25. In which two great Doctrines the rest of the Disciples were before confirmed as in the Enquiry From p. 23. to p. 28. the Doctor would make the day begin at mid-night and to end at mid-night according to the Roman account and that to be the Evening and the Morning Gen. 15. and from mid-night to mid-night to be the day And though I am not willing to contend about terms what is the Natural and what the Artificial day yet I may not admit the Days of the Week to be any other than what God first fixed in the Scriptures that is the Evening and the Morning 'T is true the Day as distinguished from the Night begins in the Morning and ends in the Evening and the Night or Darkness as distinguished from Day begins in the Evening and ends in the Morning but the whole day consisted of Evening and Morning that is of Night and Day and we find Gen. 1. 3. that when Light was Created Let there be light Ver. 4. God divided the light from the darkness Ver. 5. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night and the evening and the morning were the first day And so the Light was the Day and Darkness the Night as distinguished from one another but one Day or the First Day of the Week consisted of Evening and Morning that is of Darkness and Light which was the First day And so Ver. 8. the evening and the morning were the second day and ver 13. the evening and the morning were the third Day and ver 19. the evening and the morning were the fourth Day and ver 23. the evening and the morning were the fifth Day and ver 31. the evening and the morning were the sixth Day and the seventh day God rested or Sabbatized Gen. 2. 2 3. where Seventh day is thrice mentioned And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it or made it Holy which making it Holy I think resolves the main Question which Days of the Week consisting of Evening and Morning that is of Darkness and Light and so beginning in the Evening and ending the Evening after is there appointed and fixed and material and plain and may not be altered And our manner of reckoning of days here I think is not in question now between us P. 22. He takes notice about what time Mary Magdalen came to the Sepulchre on the day of Christs Resurrection And upon Luke 23. 55 56. When they beheld the Sepulchre and how the Body was laid the Doctor says that was on the sixth day at night which night I cannot find in the word that it was at Night and they returned and prepared Spices and Ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment which is true that they returned prepared Spices rested and kept the Sabbath which was not A but the Seventh-day-Sabbath after the Death of Christ whilst his Body was in the Grave and he in Paradice i. e. in Heaven But I know no word for that that Christ was buried in the Night but towards the end of the sixth Day and if it were not at Night the Doctor ought not so to write And from Luke 24. 1. Matth. 28. 1. Mark 16. 1. John 20. 1. The Doctor would observe p. 23. that the Sabbath according to their Account did not end till towards the Morning of the next day but it being not said in either of those places or elsewhere that I find in the word that the Sabbath did not end till towards the Morning but that Christ was risen when the Sabbath was past Mark 16. 1. Early in the morning of the first day ver 2. This proves against him as I think that the Sabbath was ended before viz. the Evening before And yet the Doctor says it is manifest that at this time as well the Sabbath as other days were by them reckoned not from Evening to Evening but rather according to the Roman account from mid-night to mid-night And to prove it says it was sometime after the ninth hour i. e. our three a Clock in the Afternoon that Christ gave up the Spirit Mark 15. 34 37. and later when they brake the Thieves Legs and later when Joseph begged his Body took it and buried it by which he would prolong the time to run it up into the Night for which Night we find no Word and for which I see no Reason nor know any other to whom his sence of this prolonged time is manifest the general sence of Learned Cristians being as I think against him All those things being well consistent before the Sabbath drew on and our Lords giving up the Spirit the begging of his Body taking it and burying it in a Tomb prepared might all be in a very little time for John 19. 42. The sepulchre was nigh at hand which surely was so little time as to
Preacher And it seems if it were not written incautelously to be highly blamable In which Expressions of Holding forth with others afterward which refer to Spiritual Praying and Praising as this does to Preaching the Gospel The Doctor goes in bad company and I doubt highly gratifies them whilst he writes so agreeably to their Language Which words of the Doctor however written with some seeming softness are a very ill Bleat if they were meant which I hope they were not as they are commonly understood by all good and bad Men that I know And in further Reply to the Doctor 's from Acts 20. 7. I refer to what is in the Enquiry p. 55. 56 57 58. And admitting that one there is one day and that one day the First day of the Week and that the Disciples there came to gether to break Bread and admitting that breaking of Bread was the Lords Supper and the Assembly there to be a Christian Assembly as it was yet supposing the day as before does not begin at mid-night but in the Evening as I think it certainly doth and supposing Paul as his manner was Acts 17. 2. as before preached on the Sabbath every Sabbath Acts 18. 4. Acts 16. 30. and that to Jews and Gentiles Acts 13. 14 42 c. which cannot be denied and supposing that what we have in the Prophets reproving Israel for prophaning or polluting as Esai 56. 2 4 6. Esai 58. 13 c. the Sabbath or any part thereof to be generally expressed by their refusing to keep the Sabbath and supposing what we have in the New-Testament about our Lords custom of keeping the Sabbath to be briefly expressed by his going into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and as preaching does comprehend and include all the rest that was requisite to the perfect keeping the Sabbath as it certainly did or else we should have read it there objected against him which we do not find and supposing the like of the Apostles in their measure in the Acts c. about their keeping Sabbath I think any Man may reasonably suppose that Paul who kept every Sabbath as before had kept the Sabbath Acts 20. 7. And that when the Seventh day was over Paul and the Disciples met that Evening that is the Evening of the First day being ready to depart on the Morning which Evening his readiness to depart on the morrow seems to imply which the Doctor p. 31. thinks a pleasant shift which seems a plain and true Fact for Paul there continued his Speech till mid-night ver 7 8. And when he had recovered Eutichus and broken bread and eaten and tarried a long while till break of day Paul did depart accordingly Acts 20. 7 11. And I know none has yet imagined that Paul and the Christians kept two Sabbath days in one Week So as supposing the Doctor 's mid-night-day mistaken as I think it is and supposing the First day to begin in the Evening which I think it did and does And supposing Paul's manner was to preach every Sabbath in the Synagogue Acts 13. 14 42. Acts 16. 30. Acts 18. 4. which he certainly did and supposing that Paul s preaching in the Synagogue did comprehend his conscientious observing the whole Sabbath day then instead of a President for the first Day as the Doctor would make it putting all those places in the Acts together it seems a President for keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath and the breaking Bread and Paul's preaching to the Disciples there that Evening till mid-night to be both after the Sabbath kept and ended and his travelling the next Morning Acts 20. 11. if it were as it seems the Morning of the First day after the Sabbath was over makes it that he did not keep the First day but travelled upon it So supposing as before the breaking of Bread imports the Lords Supper which the Disciples came together for upon the First day of the Week that might very well succeed Paul's and their keeping the Sabbath before upon the Evening of which First day the Converted might come together to receive the Lords Supper together when they were distinguished from the rest of the Assembly as is usual in our Assemblys to this day to whom Paul preached Christ upon the Sabbath day before and departed in the Morning read and judge and this is the clear Evidence which the Doctor says he has from Acts 20. 7. And the Doctor thinks I am not in earnest and calls it trifling and shifting which are hard Words to render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one day of the Week from which I see no inconvenience when he renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one which signifies one yet was the First day Gen. 1. 5. and when he himself renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one p. 42 and when it is agreed that tho' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies one which no Grammarian can deny yet that one was the First day and so by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 20. 7. I think may be meant the First day of the Week tho' the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one be rendred one Scores of times in the New-Testament I pass by the Doctor 's case of a Horse bought for five Pounds and paid by five Pounds of Candles c. because I have no mind to that way of arguing by telling old Tales p. 32. he goes over again the case of the Passover the days of Crucifixion and Resurrection and Acts 20. 7. to all which before and p. 33. the case of Abel Enoch Noah and Abraham and from thence till Israel's coming out of Aegypt he says I bring no other proof for their keeping the Sabbath but Exod. 5. 4 5. And if he mean that I bring no other Proof but one Scripture Proof that seems somewhat hardly meant And he may find in the Enquiry and here before other Proofs besides Exod. 5. 4 5. But I had thought one plain full Word of God for Israel's there keeping Sabbath or for proving any other Truth or Matter of Fact had been enough to convince the most Learned who acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Scriptures which I hope the Doctor does and I do What the Doctor would p. 34. teach me as to better purpose for the Seventh-day-Sabbath from Pharaoh's seven fat and lean Kine and the seven days before Noah's Flood and Nebuchadnezzar's being seven Years at Grass and from the three Intervals of seven days one about the Rain before the Flood Gen. 7. 4. and the other two of Noah's staying seven days and then again seven days before he sent out the Dove Gen. 8. 10 12. which he says is better Argument then any I bring I hope he will not oblige me or any other to believe he so thinks for if those his Arguments be better then any I bring I doubt he would not have writ this Book at his Age to Answer them P. 34 35. he says There is nothing of a weekly Sabbath in Job which if it were true
here is not one word in this order to keep Holy the First day nothing of that day as a Sabbath nothing of Praises breaking Bread Praying or Preaching or of any Worship or Resting here but only an order for every one of the Christians there to lay by him in store as God had prospered him which seems also when they were asunder and at home that there might be no gathering when Paul came and this I should think any who read it without great prejudice must needs see and know so that for the Doctor to say he thinks it plain there that the First day was weekly observed and wont to be observed at Corinth and Galatia and that Paul takes it for granted and supposeth it c. without any word for it seems all from a strong and willing fancy and very blameable as highly imposing on the World And in p. 38. and 39. he reassumes what he had written to before which in me without any great cause that I know he p. 39. calls trifling and Childs-play which shews him to be angry and p. 41. says It must be great Ignorance or somewhat worse which sort of Language agrees well enough in this Cause to prop it up instead of Word and Argument with hard Expressions and if that will please him I shall easily acknowledge my Ignorance and Weaknesses which are many and great but withal I think a weak and simple Man who has the word and command of God on his side as I think I certainly have in this case may contend with the most Learned for whom otherwise I yield my self much too weak Nor do I find in all his Book any reason much less any reason to believe as he p. 42 c. that the First day was then generally observed or wont to be observed or at all observed unless by the Heathens nor that it was according to Christs direction because we have no word that I know for either which word is the highest Reason and why then does the Doctor top upon others those Words According to Christ's Direction And a like saying of the Doctor 's we have p. 43. by Christs giving commandments to the Apostles about things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Acts 1. 2 3. that we are to presume this in particular about the observing the First day of the Week and yet there confesseth what those Commandments were in particular we cannot tell so we are to presume what he admits we cannot tell which to me is a new Article in Religion made for this purpose And upon such Presumptions without one word from Christ that I know the Doctor 's opinion seems built P. 41. He considers Mark 2. 28. The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath and supposeth by Son of Man is there meant Christ and if he suppose it why then does he there controvert it which Text shews the Sabbath to be the Lords Day as ver 27. The Sabbath was made for man shews it was made for the good of Man for his Spiritual and Eternal good And says I can't shew that ever the Jewish Sabbath is called the Lords day although he knows if he have read the Enquiry p. 64 65 66 67. that I there quote divers Scriptures where the Lords Seventh day is called the Lords Day whereof more by and by upon Rev. 1. 10. What he says p. 43. that I cannot tell whether of the two that is the Seventh or the First day is the Seventh day of the Week does again overturn all his Book for if it be as he says uncertain so as we know not which day is which how can any Man observe his day in Faith and what is not of Faith is Sin and what then is become of all his Arguments for an uncertain weekly First day But I think we can tell which is the Seventh-day-Sabbath and I say as before from Nehe. 9. 13 14. that the Lord made known to them his Sabbaths his Sabbaths so the Sabbath was the Lords Day which they knew and from him and them we have his Sabbaths And Rom. 3. 2. to the Jews were committed the words of God which with the Old-Testament and therein the Ten Commands they still have and I think we ought to believe what the Lord Christ accounted and named to be the Sabbath day was then and I think is now his sabbath-Sabbath-day that is the Lords Day Mark 2. 28. P. 44. 45 46. Rev. 1. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lords day which he would have to be on the First day which I think I have shewn by the Scriptures Enquiry from p. 64. to 68. to be the Seventh day to which I do not remember he offers any answer unless some Traditions to which to avoid Tautologies I refer the Reader and am of the same opinion as there and without Prejudice which he would often insinuate I think the Lords Day Rev. 1. 10. was not only the name of a day but the name of the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath Gen. 2. 2 3 4. Exod. 20. 10. Deut. 5. 14. Isaiah 58. 13. Matth. 12. 8. Mark 2. 28. Luke 6. 5. which Scriptures he that will examine and consider may easily see that the Seventh-day-Sabbath is the Lords Day if the Scriptures be as they ought to be the rule of judging in this case which the Doctor would fain have to be the First day and cannot tell us which day of the Week the First day is now from Christs time as before and does not know it and thinks it impossible to know it And p. 46. 47. he again admits That Christ was the God who gave the Commandments by which he does admit that the seventh day there given by Christ is the Lords day for Exod. 20. 10. the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God i. e. the Seventh day is the Lords day And so it often falls out in this debate that what he and others are constrained to admit in one point answers what they would deny in another as I think this does for if the Lord gave the Commandments as he did and as the Doctor admits together with the Father and Holy Spirit then he gave the Fourth Command and therein the Seventh day Exod. 20. 10. which Seventh day is there expresly said to be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is to be the Lords day which as I think by his own admission tells us which is the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. Of his Traditions p. 48. 49. on which the Doctor before I think there is or can be no certainty from them And their Authority to alter any thing in Doctrinals or Practicals stated in the Scriptures is of no force with me nor with any Protestant that I know nor I hope with him and he may see in the Enquiry divers Traditions Histories and Records for the Seventh-day-Sabbath which the Doctor answers not although I build all upon the Scriptures and not on Traditions I say as before that Christs manner was not
to keep A but The Sabbath during his Life and the Women and others kept it whilst his Body rested in the Grave whilst he was in Paradice that is in Heaven not only on what they called the Sabbath as the Doctor p. 50. which I think not well surmised by him as if they or rather the Holy Spirit there called a wrong day the Sabbath but on what was the Sabbath and that some of the Disciples travelled upon the very Resurrection day and that Paul and other Christians did not only seem to which are the Doctor 's words and I think are hard words but expresly and actually did observe not only what they called the Sabbath but what was the Sabbath the true Seventh day-Sabbath not only after Christs Resurrection but after his Ascension and after the Holy Spirit given and that that was Paul's manner and of others every Sabbath day as before these Repetitions I am forced to Which I think do prove that Christ and the Apostles did then take not A but The Seventh day to be the Christian Sabbath as it was or why else doth the Holy Spirit so very often in the four Evangelists before his Death and Resurrection and in the Acts after his Resurrection and Ascension and after the pouring out the Holy Spirit name it not A but The Sabbath not only what they called but what was the Sabbath Yet the Doctor p. 51. thinks Paul's Preaching upon the Sabbath days to be occasional by which if he means as it there seems occasional only I know no word he has from God in the Scriptures for his Sence of occasional and I think Paul's constant Practice to Preach upon the Sabbath days was according to the Duty of a Minister of Christ and in Obedience to Christs express Command Matth. 28. 19 20. by which Command I think all other his Ministers are obliged And as to the Passover and all Sacrifices and other Ceremonials that they are abolished by the Death of Christ I think certain and to what is said in the Enquiry as to that I add this That the Passover sacrifices are all set aside by that word Luke 22. 19. and 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25 26. This do in remembrance of me and so the Passover c. are laid aside by the Lords Supper by which Ordinance of the Supper we declare that Christ was sacrificed for the Sins of his People and by this we declare his Death till he come in Glory to judge the Quick and Dead and there was or is no further need of Sacrifices or Types to represent Christs Death And so the Passover and all other Sacrifices to be at an end by these words This is my body which is given for you or which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me Which Lords Supper was then instituted and immediately succeeded the Passover which Passover then ceased Matth. 26. 17 20 26. And as they were eating Jesus took bread c. Mark 14. 22 c. And to what is offered p. 54. from Rom. 14 4 5 6. He that regardeth a day regardeth it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it It is not said what was the day there in question but the Doctor thinks it most likely to be that of the Jewish Sabbath What day this was is hard for any Man at this distance of time to determine and more hard to build any certain Doctrine upon it as a certain Day when God has not that I know told us in his Word what day it was but left it wholly uncertain I find nothing in that Epistle about days till Rom. 14. 4 5 6. where one Man esteemed one Day before another another esteemed every day he that regardeth the day regardeth it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it And it is not there said as the Doctor acknowledges p. 54. what was the Day there nor do I now see how possibly to know what Weekly or Monthly or Yearly or Feasting or Fasting or other day it did refer to but of the Sabbath there is no mention and why is it then most likely to be the Sabbath which he confesses is not there said and whatever day it was it seems it was no great matter whether they regarded it or not ver 6. And whatever day that were it was certainly such a day as Paul would not have them judge one another for ver 4. which makes it likely to me that it was not the Sabbath day which Paul so constantly preached Christ upon and observed as before which Sabbath is a part of that Moral Law which Paul was under to God but was such a day whatever day it was as he thought fit at that time and place to leave undetermined As for Gal. 4. 3 8 9 10. In Galatia were some Disciples Acts 18. 1 4 23. In which Chapter it is said Paul preached at Corinth every sabbath to Jews and Gentiles And Paul Gal. 1. 2. directs that Epistle to the Churches of Galatia where probably were some converted and many unconverted And Gal. 4. 3. Paul says When we were children we were in bondage under the Elements or under the Rudiments of the world which seems the Heathen World ver 8. When they knew not God they did service to them who they knew by nature were no Gods which was the case of the Heathens for the Israelites did then and do still Worship Jehovah who is God the true God and so do actually Worship Christ the only Messiah who is Jehovah as in the Enquiry p. 9 c. And the Father Son and Holy Spirit are one Jehovah Deut. 6. 4 5. Enquiry p. 12. But the Israelites don't yet know Christ to be Johovah their Messiah Saviour and Redeemer which Truth upon their Conversion and Restoration remains to be revealed to them So as this place seems specially directed to those who had an Heathenish Education who before served those who were no Gods who after they knew God Gal. 4. 9. were turning again to the weak and beggarly Rudiments to their first Teachings and Heathenish Instruction which Paul there blames ver 10. you observe days and months and times and years ver 11. I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain What days these were is the Question the Doctor says t is not here said in particular what those days were that are here meant yet he thinks it is most likely and scarce to be doubted to be meant of the Sabbath To which I answer That I think days there cannot be meant of a weekly Rest and if it be it is directed there not to rest upon Sunday which was observed by the Heathens in honour of the Sun as we may see afterward And every Sabbath being observed by Paul and the Sabbath not being that I can find in question days there I think cannot refer to the Sabbath Which the
variety by so old and weak a Man as I am besides Errors in Transcribing and Printing under some Difficulties it will be strange if there be not now committed more and greater Errors which a little Candour and Temper would easily excuse And p. 45. the Doctor takes a third exception and writes near half a page upon it on a similitude I use of Moses no man knows of his Sepulchre to this day that is no Man ever knew where his Sepulchre was And as to the Similitude or Comparison referring to the day of Christs Incarnation the Doctor would rather say at this day then as I to this day which great Exception can hardly be excused for in that similitude I think he mistakes my words and meaning also At the Incarnation some then knew the day tho no Man At this day knows what day it was and the Doctor agrees the day of the Week or Year of Christs Incarnation is now not known so as this Exception of to against at seems very little at best And I think he knows that the Lord buried Moses in a Sepulchre unknown not only at that time but to this day Deut. 34. 6. Now t is true the Greek word Sabbath in the plural number in the New Testament is also applyed to the Sabbath as to the Week Matth. 12. 15 10 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 28. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the plural number from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbath in the singular number is in the New Testament sometimes understood of the Sabbath and sometimes of the Week and in Matth. 28. 1. properly meant of both And so the question remains Whether Sabbaths Colossians 2. 16. ought to be rendred Sabbaths or Sabbath or Weeks and if Sabbaths Whether the Seventh day be there meant or no The Doctor thinks Sabbaths here must be meant of the Seventh-day-Sabbaths which words must be one very positive and against the Opinion of many Learned as by and by which he thinks it manifest p. 56. were there in dispute which dispute I cannot find in that Epistle nor any where else in the Word and why then does the Doctor without the Word think it to be there in dispute and manifest and he thinks it was then at an End which End we read not in the Word but find it still observed in many Churches of Christ to this day Enquiry p. 106. to 112 118 119 120. and why then does he think it was then at an end Nor do I find any new order from Christ or his Apostles as he surmises p. 59. And if Sabbaths Coloss 2. 16. do mean Weeks and not the Weekly Sabbath day then that Objection of the Doctor falls and if it mean the First day i. e. Sunday which the Heathens observed then it is against the Doctor so far as Paul's blaming their judging will go And if it mean Weeks as it seems to me more likely it ought to be here rendred or if it means Ceremonial Sabbaths then so far as this reaches it refers to the Observation of Weeks and Ceremonial Sabbaths now abolished But both one and other seem to me uncertain now to build any must be 's upon And Coloss 2. 16. Let no man judge you in respect of a feastival or of the new moon or of the sabbaths Beside the Seventh-day-Sabbath there were at least three Feastivals or Sabbaths amongst the Jews At the Passover the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven Days from which Passover Lev. 23. 4 5. we have the pretence for Easther now ceased as before The Feast of Pentecost fifty days after the Passover that is seven Weeks after ver 15. 16. where we have the pretence for Whitsuntide There were also the Sabbaths of Years every seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the Land a sabbath for the Lord Lev. 25. 4. And after seven sabbaths of years ver 8. they were to sound the trumpet of the Jubilee ver 9. and ye shall hallow or sanctifie the fiftieth year ver 10. And hence as I take it we have the ground of the Roman Jubilees Now it seems to me that if the word there do mean Sabbaths that those three may be blotted out and taken out of the way and all Heathenish Feasts Feastivals Weeks and Sabbaths as well Sunday as the rest Coloss 2. 14. But that which I think does fairly and fully answer the whole Objection from Coloss 2. 16. besides what is hereafter offered by Learned Men may be that this is a caution against judging the Believers at Colosse in meat or in drink or in respect of the Feastivals new moons or sabbaths and seems to agree with Rom. 14. 4 5 6. Who art thou that judgest another mans servant one man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day and at Rome and Colosse were then cautious against judging the Christians about days And we find not in either of those Epistles one word to alter the Seventh day to the First or to institute the First all that would be a forced interpretation the Text is against judging of Christians there about days And whether it be meant at that time and place of judging for or against those Meats and Drinks or Days or Feasts or Fasts or Weeks or Sabbaths whatever they were is not now over easie to be resolved 'T is likely some converted Teachers whether Jews or Gentiles I know not had taught what was not right about Days which Paul here corrects And t is certain there are some things in Paul's Epistles hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. and if they were hard to be understood in Peter's time which was Paul's time for they were Contemporaries much more hard now near 1700 Years after and by whom hard places in Paul's Epistles were then wrested we may gather a little light 2 Pet. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were not subject to the Law of God were the wresters and this place in Col. 2. 16. seems strongly wrested beyond the words of it which are against judging the Saints at Colosse in those respects at that time when the Ministers of the Gospel had much to do to preach Christ and by Christ to lay the foundations of christianity which foundation in the Lord Jesus Christ the Redeemer and Creator of all things Paul soundly laid in this Epistle Coloss 2. 3 14 16. Which Caution against judging one another was no doubt at that time and place necessary and rightly understood is still of great use And let no man beguile you or seduce you Coloss 2. 17. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the world whether Heathenish or Jewish Why are ye subject to Ordinances ver 18. which are nothing else if not instituted by Christ or if laid aside by him but human inventions ver 20. according to the commandments and doctrines of men ver 22. which are appointed not by the Lord
Sabbath as the Doctor knows and so Matth. 24. 20. feems to the purpose for the Sabbath was to continue by that Text after the Death of Christ Pag. 63. my many other little Excursions as little to the purpose he will not name which is a short way of answering But says I take great pleasure to expose the name of Sunday by which name for distinction I sometimes call it as himself does often which if he pleaseth he may henceforth call the First day its true name as I often do and other snubbing of Sunday as the Doctor there I remember none but he often calls the Lords Sabbath by a reflecting addition which I often pass by without snubbing again He says 'T is true some of the Heathens did Worship the Sun but that they did it more on Sunday then on Monday or Tuesday is more then he knows or I can prove For Reply to which see Enquiry p. 88 89 90. And for his and others satisfaction herein I refer them to Mr. Chafies Learned Tract on the Fourth Command Reprinted 1692. which Reprinting I think of use being a Learned and Moderate Tract tho I think Mr. Chafie is out in the main Question about the Seventh day but helps much to prove the Worshipping the Sun weekly upon Sundays and many other Truths In which Tract Mr. Chafie p. 20. chap. 9. does shew that the Assyrians which seems to have been before Moses and one of the first Heathenish Dominions and that all Nations Worshipped the Sun with which Idolatry he says the Aegyptians and many of the Israelites and generally other Nations were infected where p. 23. Mr. Chafie tells us That those Sun-Worshippers on what Days of the Week they gave especial Worship to the Sun or Moon those Days were called by the Names of the Day of the Sun that is Sunday and the Day of the Moon that is Monday So as Sunday is a very ancient day of the Week and by him it appears they did very anciently divide their time by Weeks which ancient weekly Sun-Worship I think is proved by the Prohibition Deut. 4. 19. See also Ezek. 8. 16. 2 Kings 23. 5. Deut. 17. 3 c. In which 9th Chap. of Mr. Chafie's we have also how the Heathens always Worshipped towards the Sun rising pag. 26. 27 28 29. which Authorities the Doctor may easily sind Mr. Chafie says not any Nation of Note under Heaven but adored the Sun as their God the Sun was King and the Moon was Queen but the Sun was Trump The Chaldeans Persians Aegyptians Phenecians Trojans Grecians Romans Scythians Aethiopians Tartars c. all Worshipped the Sun And p. 71. Mr. Chafie says That Sunday was so called from our Heathen Ancestors who called this day that is Sunday so in honour of the Sun whom they Worshipped upon Sunday And p. 30. Mr. Chafie tells us That to take off the Israelites from this Idolatry the Lord used this means for one that they should not have the day of the Sun that is Sunday for the day of his Worship but the day before that is the Seventh day which I think refers to the time of the 16th or 20th of Exodus which proves not only the Observation of the Seventh day by the Israelites but of Sunday by the Heathens and that very anciently and that continually in the weekly Circulation of Days to this day tho' I think Mr. Chafie be out about the change of the Seventh day as before and after And Mr. Chafie chap. 15. p. 59. gives the Testimony of divers Ancient and Learned Writers which shew that the day of the Sun with the Gentiles was a Week-day even the same which Mathematici the Mathematicians of old called Sunday which seem sufficient Proofs that the Sun was Worshipped on Sunday and that weekly and that very anciently Which 9th and 15th Chapters of Mr. Chafie I think might give satisfaction that all Nations of Note under Heaven Worshipped the Sun and that very anciently as far back at least as the time of Moses and that upon Sunday and that towards Sun-rising that is towards the East and that weekly whilst the Israelites Worshipped weekly towards the West upon the Seventh day And Mr. Chafie p. 32. chap. 10. tells us That the Holy Place or Holy of Holies in the Temple at Jerusalem was towards the West and that when Worshippers Prayed there and Bowed their Posteriors were towards the Sun-rising and their Faces Westward and that Temple was built by the Lords special Direction Which is one of the means assigned by Mr. Chafie God used to take off the Israelites from Worshipping the Sun so Sun-Worship was long before that Which Tract of Mr. Chafie I shall a little further consider afterward Pag. 65 66 67. the Doctor considers the Names of our Days Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday which being now the known Names of the Days he thinks we need no more scruple the use of these Names then to talk of Pope Pious Clement c. Which I think he gives as answer to what is in the Enquiry p. 90. against those Names of Days whose Original the Doctor agrees to be from Heathenish Idols To which I Reply from one of the Texts quoted in the Enquiry Exod. 23. 13. Make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let it be heard out of thy mouth which Learned Mr. Chafie p. 30. l. 25. 26 27. thinks refers to the Idol Names of the Days of the Week which also proves the Antiquity of Sunday and the Antiquity of Weeks And the changing those Names of Days I remember was propounded by some of the Reformers about the beginning of the Reformation in England And Pope Sylvester the first of that Name hating the Name and Memory of the Gentile Gods gave order that the Days should be called by the Name of feriae as I remember they are named in the Centuries And it seems to me in this and some other cases the main Doubt is Whether we shall be ruled by the Word or no And the Names of our Days of the Week being Idolatrous as the Doctor agrees I did in the Enquiry p. 90. upon the occasion of Sunday say a little about them upon which the Doctor expatiates and falls hard upon Scruples Now causeless Scruples I yield are a Weakness but a true Conscientious Tenderness of Mind not to offend God in any thing wherein his Will in his Word is made known is as I think one of the most excellent Frames in Man And if the Doctor under his Notion of Scruples thinks to reflect upon Conscientious Obedience to the Word or any part thereof which I hope he does not he will be much to blame and God having so expresly forbidden the mention of the Names of Idols as these were by which the Days are called Sunsday Moonsday Tuiscosday Wodensday Thorsday Frizasday Saturnsday And having also expresly given us in his Word the proper true Names of the first second third fourth fifth
sixth and seventh Days which Seventh day is called the Sabbath throughout the Scriptures how ever that may seem to the Doctor I make no Scruple to call the Days of the Week by the same Names as the Lord calls them and if the Doctor will retain the old Idol Names without Scruple notwithstanding his own acknowledgement whence they are and notwithstanding the Word against them I cannot help it and it seems to me the most subtile of those who are so fond of holding fast the Idol Names of Days do doubt the consequence of laying them aside as if it might by degrees introduce both true Names and Things What is said p. 68. 69 70. upon the occasion of Scruples about Spiritual Worship and Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth I think does much concern all that fear God But because he does not speak out directly but only falls upon Scrupulosities and Shadows and Circumstances seemingly though I think it pretty plain what he reflects upon I shall reply but a little to that and do refer the Reader to the Enquiry p. 32. where he may find in few words what I think from the second Command besides many other Scriptures of Forms of Worship Graven Printed or Written and not instituted by the Lord but invented And in Reply to another I think Luke 11. 2. compared with Matth. 6. 5 6 7 8 9. about the Lords Prayer that the same Cautions of into thy Closet shut thy Door and in secret and in secret c. Matth. 6. 6. do refer to and explain Luke 11. 2. By which Cautions I think he should be governed and Enquiry p. 32. he may see what I think from Eph. 5. 18 19. Col. 3. 16. about singing all which and much more some may count little things Scruples and causeless Scruples nice Speculations and needless Scrupulosities whereby as such may pretend men are diverted from the Substantials of serious Religion and spiritual Worship which I think are very hard Reflections Now I doubt that not only the Romish World but some others not of that way as far as I can discern are yet at some distance from their Duty in those cases who are held to the Frames wherein they walk by the Authority of Men and who for years past have taken a liberty to comply with the Worship of the Country where they live and take all down without chewing as they find them and so I doubt esteem those who differ from them who upon the most diligent Search and long Experiance Worship God as they think according to the Word as scrupulous and as standing for little Circumstances and Shadows and so Conscientious Lively Spiritual Worshipping as but Shadows and not substance of Christian Worship and such Worshippers as diverters of others from serious Religion many of whose Rods do yet bud and blossom and bring forth Almonds which if God so please I shall be heartily glad to hear of their Rods who reflect upon them Which little Circumstances and Shadows as they are called do not at all as some pretend influence the substance of spiritual Worship but are meer scruples and minute things and here it seems we have some thoughts of spiritual Prayer c. as before of Preaching And thus the very Life and Power of Christian Worship is as I think reflected upon by some who have Frames of right Worship 2 Tim. 3. 5. and some of them correct Frames that is who have a way of Worship which has some similitude or likeness to right Worship who change their Glory for that which doth not profit and drink the Waters of other Rivers instead of Living Fountains between which several Waters there is an internal difference as great and manifest as there is between good wholesome running and living Springs and dead Water which may be some short and weak Reply to the Reflections before mentioned And if it were not to avoid offence I had written and might write more on this subject which so much concerns all Mankind certainly to know how to Worship Jehovah aright and which for all Mankind Ministers and others old and young who have the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament and common Sence and can speak and are by Grace made willing is demonstrably as easie to be put in practice without Crutches and to be taught even to Children without more adoe as for such to be taught for just Reasons to speak for any thing they stand in need of and would desire another in whose power it is to give unto them And upon this occasion I had thought on some Lines about Swearing to a Point and about abjuring Endeavours whether lawful peaceable and honest Praying and Preaching Endeavours be excluded but to avoid offence have crossed them out And to return Tho it be all one to the Doctor whether the days be called Saturday Sunday or Alpha Beta Gamma in this we differ a little he takes them as it seems as he finds them in the World and I take them as I find them in the Word and I know no principle amongst men which does so effectually answer and cure all blamable scruples and unquietnesses of Mind as a sincere Obedience to all the Wills of God which he that will do shall know John 7. 17. which I doubt taking all as one finds them though it may lull in security will never perform Pag. 66. He blames the whole of Judicial Astrology as precarious and only a Trick to amuse credulous People and make a gain of them which is truly blameable yet amongst two sorts of People is now very common As to what is said p. 68. about meeting once upon a Sabbath day besides Morning and Evening Worship c. I Reply that I think that most for the real Service of God and the Good of his People which God has directed in his Word which Rule unless some necessity intervene will be always found free from all Inconveniences and for that I refer the Reader to the Enquiry p. 83. 84. Almost all the Questions in these Papers depend much upon this Whether Man shall be allowed to be wiser then God Pag. 69. Whether to begin the Sabbath at Six or Twelve a Clock at Night he thinks a thing not worth contending about And if it be so small a thing not worth contending about Why does he not begin it when the Lord began it that is in the Evening one would think that none should differ with the Lord over all for a small thing and of so little worth when he has in his Word plainly told us his Will And tho he thinks it not much more whether on this or that day so the Sabbath be well kept I do not yet know what he means by well keeping but the words this or that day seem in him very indifferent to either and I doubt will make any Man of that mind very cold in well keeping it I think with the Doctor we are to avoid foolish Questions and to study things which
Prudence to interpose and of tacit Limitations implyed I doubt reserves a liberty inconsistent with the Word and Law of God and very hard to be defended For with those Limitations and if Humane Laws shall determine the Divine Laws in some Parts of the World bad Men may find Pretences for the rankest Atheism Theism Arrianism and Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit notwithstanding the First Command for the foulest Corruptions and Invasions on Christian instituted Spiritual Worship notwithstanding the Second for the highest Prophanations of the Name of the Divine Majesty notwithstanding the Third as well as for polluting the Sabbath notwithstanding the Fourth and for Rebellion Murder Adultery Stealing False-witnessing and Covetting notwithstanding the other Six And so it seems to me such Limitations c. have need of many Cautions to correct them Now before I answer the Doctor 's two Expedients I first Reply to somewhat more I find in Mr. Chafie's Learned Tract Mr. Chafie in p. 2. of his Epistle says That Christ the Son of God hath taken away the Jews Sabbath and Established another contrary to what God the Father instituted c. Now tho I hope he was a very Good as well as a Learned Man yet he seems not to have then had clear Apprehensions of Christ as creating the World and then resting nor of Christ as instituting the Sabbath Gen. 2. 2 3. nor of Christ confirming the Moral Law at Synai c. Exod. 20. nor of Christ making it perpetual in Matth. 5. 18. Luke 16. 17. And in that Tract Mr. Chafie speaks of one Sabbath at the Creation another in Exod. 16. and another at the Resurrection of Christ by which Notion he makes to have been three Sabbaths from whom I think the Doctor takes up if I mistake him not the like opinion of three Sabbaths wherein I think they are both out as before And hereafter for Mr. Chafie's Notion of one Seventh-day-Sabbath at the Creation and another Seventh-day Sabbath in Exod. 16. I doubt would make two Seventh-day-Sabbaths in one Week of seven Days which seems to me inconsistent and would make the First day more uncertain also besides the uncertainties of the Doctor Mr. Chafie's opinion p. 19 20. That God hath not bound men to any set time to begin their Week and chap. 8. p. 18. he says The Law-giver himself hath plainly pointed out unto us in this Law that is in the Fourth Command which is the Lords Day or Sabbath of the Lord and that is the day following the six days of Labour with Men and that in every nation however they begin their Week the Seventhday thereof is the Lords p. 20. l. 9. p. 44. l. 6 7. and his Epistle p. 7. l. 4. and that the Seventh day is not to be reckoned from the six days of God's Labour but from the six days of Labour with Men and so also in his Postscript but doth acknowledge chap. 11. p. 35. it hath been the general opinion not only of the Vulgar but of the Learned also which opinion of the Learned I think is right that the Seventh day commanded us in this Law hath Relation only to the six work-Work-days of the Lord God and not to the six Work-days with Men which opinion of Mr. Chafie's for Mans Day is I think contrary to Gen. 2. 2. for on the seventh day God ended his work c. and rested the seventh day from all his work so as t was the six days God wrought which were the six working-Working-days and the Seventh day God rested when he ended his Work which was and is the Holy and Blessed Sabbath which first appointment of the Lord I find no where changed and so Exod. 20. 9 10 11. Six days shalt thou labour but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord in it thou shalt not do any work c. For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy and so it seems very plain that the six working-Working-days are those on which the Lord wrought and the Resting or Sabbath day that which the Lord made Holy and Blessed and on which he Rested And Mr. Chafie in chap. 12. says God by his Law tyeth all Nations that at what time soever they begin the Week they work not on the Seventh day but sanctifie it Which would be true if men began the Week as the Lord directed in Gen. 1. but else by that Rule of Mr. Chafie's Friday in Turkey being their weekly Sabbath the Christians living in Turkey are bound by the Fourth Command to sanctifie Friday i. e. the sixth Day of the Week as the Lords Sabbath day because the Turks there so do And by the same Rule those Christians who live in any Heathen Nation where they Worship the Sun and observe Sunday there they must keep Sunday and Sanctifie it because the Heathens where they live so do And those Christians who live in those Christian Provinces who keep the Seventh day must keep the Seventh day as the Lords Day because others so keep it and for that reason And the like of those who live in any part of the World amongst the Israelites And those Christians who live in those Christian Countries where they keep the seventh-day-Seventh-day-Sabbath and the First day also must keep I know not which of them by Mr. Chafie's Rule And I take it as agreed we are not to keep two Days in a Week and that there are some such people of these sorts see Enquiry p. 119 c. Which Rule of Mr. Chafie's to resolve which is the Sabbath day commanded by the Practice of the Country where we live and that God hath not bound men when to begin their Week is to set up Mans Day as it seems to me against the Lords Day and I think the Doctor writes by for he seems to take it as he finds it Which Rule I doubt will agree neither with the letter or meaning of Gen. 2. 2 3. or of the Fourth Command What Mr. Chafie objects That by the different Horizons where-ever Paradice was which p. 17. he says is unknown no man can tell in the place where he liveth when to begin the Day of Gods resting at the Creation I Answer if our Sabbath did begin at the same instant of time that Gods first Rest did and Men were obliged to that instant then that were an hard objection But I know no place in the Word where it is said that every Sabbath afterward was to begin the same moment or time that the first Sabbath began in Paradice or at Synai c. Nor do I remember any thing so offered in any Writer But that the Sabbath then did and that Sabbaths afterward were to begin in the Evening everywhere as Time was distributed into Days at the Creation I think is before shewn and that every Day of the Week began in the Evening and lasted from Evening to Evening and that the
Days began at or about Sun-set and supposing the Darkness and light were the Evening and Morning of the three first Days Gen. 1. 5 8 13. sure the Days then did not begin at mid-night when Darkness began the Day and Darkness and Light made up the First day and so the Second day and so the Third day which Word I think may settle that Point that the Days did not begin at mid-night Suppose also the Sun Created as it was the Fourth day and went round the Earth every day after it was created as it did and does to this Day But on what part of the Fourth day the Sun was created is not certainly revealed that I know The Fowls and the Fishes were created upon the fifth day And Adam was created on the Sixth day and being created in the image of God was made capable of knowing and contemplating the Perfections of him that created him and of observing and keeping Holy the Seventh day which presently after his Creation was Consecrated or made Holy and Blessed to let him into that Spiritual and Heavenly Life and Rest which his State of Innoceney made easie and pleasant to him And in Reply to one of the Doctor 's Expedients we may also suppose the Sun when set in the Firmament Gen. 1. 17. travelled Westward round the Earth daily as it still doth Now when the Sun did set the Fourth day then the Fifth day began at Paradice and when the Sun did set there next the Sixth day began there and when the Sun did next set there the Seventh day began there and that first Seventh day was probably as long as the other Days of the Week were and are And as the Posterity of Adam and so of Noah travelled East West North or South by degrees the Earth was overspread Gen. 9. 19. and into whatever Country they came as the Sun did set so every Day of the Week began and so on to this day I Write as plain as I can So as the weekly Seventh day did begin as the Sun did set in every place round the Earth from Paradice Westward till the Sun came about in 24 hours to Paradice again And for an instance and for certainties sake I will begin with the Eleventh of March the vernal Aequinox 1692 3 which falls out to be the Seventh day of the Week And the Seventh day at the Creation did begin as the three First days and the other Week-days did that is in the Evening as Mr. Chafie and many other Learned Men do agree at or about Sun set as I think is before shewn and lasted 24 Hours from Evening to Evening according to Gen. 1 and Gen. 2. And the Sabbath day then was as it still is proportionably as long as the other Six Days of the Week allowed for Work or rather wherein we are commanded to work every of which six Days hath a Night or Darkness as well as Day Light in which Night or Darkness if need be Men may as lawfully work as in the Day Light tho generally the Day is made for Work and the Night for Rest And so the Sabbath day hath an Evening and a Morning that is a Night and Day of Holy Rest in which Night we may take Rest as in other Nights As for those who begin the Sabbath day in the Morning they lose the Evening that is the Night of that Day which being no part of the Sixth day nor to such any part of the Seventh day yet 12 Hours of time between the End of the Sixth and Morning of their Seventh day would cease to them to be any part of the Week if their Opinion would hold who begin the Sabbath in the Morning unless they continue their Sabbath till the next Morning and so turn God's first Institution upside down Others who begin and end the Sabbath day at mid-night being then generally asleep at both when they begin and end it they cannot tell when they begin or end it and so must needs loose those Meditations which are peculiar to the one and to the other and how any can begin or end it at mid night I know not But supposing as before the Evening in all Parts of the Earth begins and ends the Day then it is easie for all to know the beginning and ending of it And as the Evening and Morning made up every Day of the Week in Paradice so Evening and Morning as Mankind came about the Earth made up every Day of the Week everywhere else and as the Evening of the Seventh day came so the Sabbath began and the Sabbath ended everywhere as the rest of the Days of the Week ended that is the Evening after And if this be the true Scheme of Days then somewhere in the Round of the Earth every Inhabitant of it the 11th of March 1692 3. may not only keep the Sabbath but certainly know when it begins and ends and will have also their full six Nights and Days in the Week for their Work and Callings And so as Adam or his Posterity and so as Noah or his Posterity travelled into any part of the Earth East West North or South where ever they came after six days of Travel or other Labour they might as the Sun did set Rest the Seventh day And all the tying up all parts of the Earth to the precise time or moment of the Lords resting in the Evening of the first Seventh day at the Creation and that the Seventh day Sabbath everywhere over the Earth ever after must begin and end the same minute the first Sabbath began and ended whether it be at mid-day or mid night or any other part of Night or Day seems a meer cramping of the Question without any Ground for it that I know from the Word Whereas if the days begin in the Evening as I think they do and if the Evening and the Morning do constitute and make up a day as they do then all the Scruples raised when every Day of the Week and in particular when the Seventh day-Sabbath all over the Earth doth begin and end are resolved that is in the Evening and so the two long days in Joshuah's and Ezekiah's times make no alteration of Days as in the Enquiry And so the Evening and the Morning make up every Day of the Week to us in England and to every other Nation in the Earth and for any other certain way to resolve when the days do begin and end but by Gods first appointment I know not for else it would put the most skilful Mathematicians everywhere to a stand when to begin and end the Days and leave all Computations of Days and Weeks and Time in uncertainties and great disorder I take the 11th of March the vernal Aequinox because Astronomers agree the Sun to be then in the Aequator as it is the 11th of September at the Autumnal Aequinox at which times the Days and Nights are by them said to be equal all over the Earth
may resort to the Book And to conclude Instead of further summing up what I have weakly written here in Reply to the Learned Doctor and others as I could I commend to the Reader a few Scriptures Gen. 2. 2 3 4. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because that in it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made and so the Sabbath is the day upon which God rested after his Work and which he Blessed and made Holy who is v. 4. Jehovah Aelohim the Lord God so the Seventh day is the Lords day Exod. 16. 29. The seventh-day-seventh-day-sabbath is said to be as it is a gift The Lord hath given you the sabbath and so we should take it as a Gift from him as his Gift and as the Lords day Exod. 20. 8 9 10 11. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy c. The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God and so the Seventh day is the Lords day Exod. 31. 13. The Lord calls them my sabbaths verily my sabbaths ye shall keep so the Sabbath is the Lords day it is a sign between me and you c. that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you v. 14. and ye shall keep the sabbath because it is holiness to you v. 15. Six days work shall be done but the seventh is the sabbath of rest holiness to the Lord v. 16. the sabbath a perpetual covenant t is holiness to you v. 14. and holy to the Lord v. 15. v. 16. the sabbath a perpetual covenant and v. 17 a sign for ever For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed so the Seventh day is the Lords day And v. 18. The Lord gave to Moses to tables of testimony written with the finger of God And Exod. 32. 15 16. the tables were the work of God and the writing the writing of God upon which tables of testimony or witness the fourth command was one Exod. 35. 2. Six days shall work be done and on the seventh day it shall be to you holiness Lev. 23. 3. Six days shall work be done but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest an holy convocation ye shall do no work therein it is the sabbath of the Lord c. so the Seventh day is the Lords day Lev. 23. 32. from even unto even shall ye celebrate your sabbath which I think is directing in an Humiliation day which is there to begin in the Evening when they were to afflict themselves And I think states this part of the Question when the Days began that is in the Evening and when they ended that is at the next Evening which the Dr. p. 27. thinks began and ended at mid-night In Numb 15. 32. we have the case of the Man who gathered sticks not A but The Sabbath day which is a great certain undeniable example against the least prophaning of the Sabbath day Deut. 5. 12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctifie it as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee 13. Six days labour c. v. 14. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God c. so the Seventh day is the Lords day of Rest i. e. the seventh day is the Lords day Psal 119. 1 6. blessed are those who walk in his law and in keeping of his commandments there is great reward Psal 19. 11. Esai 56. 2. Blessed is the man who keepeth the sabbath from polluting it v. 4. 6. from polluting it Ezek. 20. 13 16 24 my sabbath they greatly polluted if we would be Blessed keep his Sabbaths and dont pollute them which it seems was Israels Sin of old Esai 58. 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the sabbath a delight or delights the holy of the Lord so the Sabbath day is the Lords day honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own ways nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words v. 14. then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord c. and is not that a desirable frame Ezek. 22. 1 2. The word of the Lord thou hast prophaned my sabbath v. 26. her Priests have violated my law c. and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths So the Sabbath day is the Lords day Ezek. 44. 4 5 15 24. in the prophesie of the new temple there is a promise that the Priests who shall come near unto the Lord to minister unto him they shall hallow my sabbaths So the Sabbath day is the Lords day Matth. 5. 17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law v. 18. For verity I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled dont think that Christ altered one tittle of the Law and so not one jot or tittle is yet passed from the Law Matth. 18. 8. Christ is said to be Lord of the Sabbath day and if Christ be Lord of the Sabbath day then the Sabbath day is the Lords day Mat. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not on the sabbath day which flight was about 38 years after Christs Death which I think shews it was to continue after his Death that is as I think as long as the World lasts Matth. 28. 18 19 20. Christ to his Disciples go teach all nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and Christ with the Father and holy Spirit one Jehovah gave the commands as before Mark 1. 21. after Christs Baptism by John v. 9. Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God v. 14. repent ye and believe the Gospel v. 15. then he calls Simon and Andrew James and John and they followed him v. 16 to 20. and they went into Capernaum and straitway on the sabbath day he entered into the Synagogue and taught and Mark 2. 27. the sabbath was made for man for his good for his spiritual good Mark 16. 1 2. Jesus came into his own country and his disciples followed him and when the sabbath day was come he began to preach in the synagogue which also proves the Sab. made for the spiritual use of man Luke 4. 16 to 27. in v. 14. after his being tempted v. 13. Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee and v. 15. taught in their Synagogues and v 16. he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read and preached the Gospel v. 17 to 29. and then he came down to Capernaum and taught them on the sabbath day besides divers other places in the Evangelists which do all prove
the Sabbath made for the spiritual good of Man And so I think we have enough to prove that our Lord Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath during his life and that perfectly for he was a lamb without spot or blemish 1 Pet. 1. 19 c. and that the Seventh day Sabbath was made holy for the spiritual Good of Man Luke 16. 17. it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass then one tittle of the Law to fail which one would think are strong words and of Authority in this case And Heaven and Earth are not yet passed and so not one tittle of the Law does yet fail and if this Scripture be true as it surely is it mightily proves the Seventh day to be the Sabbath Ezod 20. 10. which Seventh day in the Fourth Command is more then a tittle Luke 23. 54 55 56. And when he was Crucified Dead and Buried and the Sabbath drew on the Women followed after and beheld the Sepulchre and how his Body was laid and they returned and prepared Spices and Ointments and rested not A but The Sabbath day according to the Commandment that is according to the Fourth Commandment and so the Seventh day was not altered then and so kept not A but the Sabbath day after Christs Death and Burial as in probability all other Believers then did for I do not remember to have read of any that deny it John 14 15. If ye love me keep my commandments Exod. 20. 6. Deut. 7. 9 John 14. 21. he that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me 23. If a man love me he will keep my words John 15. 10. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love 14. ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Are we Friends of Christ and would we abide in his Love then keep his Commands Acts 13. 13 14. Paul and his Company went into the Synagogue at Antioch on the Sabbath day and v. 15. After the reading of the law and the prophets v. 16. Paul stood up and preached Christ to them from v. 16. to 41. and v. 42. the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath not the next Morning upon the First day of the Week but the next Sabbath and so after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and after the Disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit Acts 2. 1 4. T is certain Paul kept the Sabbath and Preached to Jews and Gentiles not upon the First day of the Week but upon the Sabbath day And we have the like Acts 13. 44. the next Sabbath day not the next Morning almost the whole City came together to hear the Word of God and v. 47 48. as many of the gentiles as were ordained to eternal life believed so divers Gentiles were here converted unto Christ on the Sabbath day v. 49. the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region and v. 52. the disciples were filled with joy and with the holy spirit and is not this a desirable frame and doe not all these prove that the Sabbath was made for the spiritual good of Man And Acts 14 1. In Iconium Paul and Barnabas went both together into the Synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed a great multitude and v. 3. The Lord gave testimony to the word of his grace by signs and wonders done by them Acts 16. 1 3 12 13 14 15. at Philippi Paul and Timothy on the Sabbath day went out of the City by a Rivers side where Prayer was wont to be made and spake to the women which resorted thither where Lydia was converted whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and was baptized and her Houshold which Scriptures with many others do shew and I think prove that the Sabbath was not altered but did continue after Christs Ascension and was observed Acts 17. 1. to 4. at Thessalonica where was a Synagogue of the Jews Paul as his manner was as Christs manner was Luke 4. 16. went in unto them and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the Dead and that this Jesus whom he preach'd unto them is Christ and some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks that is of the Gentiles a great multitude and of the the chief Women not a few were converted to Christ upon the Sabbath day so the Law for keeping Holy the Sabbath was not then passed away And Acts 18. 1 2 4 5 19. at Corinth Paul Reasoned that is Greek Preached in the Synagogue every Sabbath and perswaded the Jews and the Greeks that is the Jews and Gentiles And what greater and stronger and clearer Evidence and Proof for the Seventh-day-Sabbath can Man desire then these plain Scriptures are and that it was at first Instituted Blessed and made Holy and throughout the Scriptures of Old and New Testament used for the conversion and eternal good of Man Rom. 3. 31. Do we then make void the law through Faith be it not yea we establish the law Rom. 7. 12. The law is holy and just and good Rom. 7. 14. we know that the Law is Spiritual Rom. 10. 4. Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth And 1 Cor. 9. 21. Paul was under the law to Christ and 1 Cor. 11. 1. he saith be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ who 1 Cor. 15. 3. dyed for our sins and 1 John 3. 4. sin is the transgression of the law but Gal. 3. 11. no man is justified by the law v. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law v. 21. Is the law against the promises of God God forbid or be it not v. 24. but our schoolmaster unto Christ that we might be justified by faith who Tit. 2. 14. gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all anomy or contrariety in Opinion or Conversation to the law of God and Heb. 8. 10. the Lord saith I will put my laws into their minds and write them in or upon their hearts which surely is greatly desirable that his Law be written on our Hearts And we have the like promise Heb. 10. 15 16 17. saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them which Law in Jam. 20. 8. is called a Royal Law that is the Kingly Chief and universal Law under which all other Laws of God are comprehended which Christ the Lord and King over all hath prescribed and commanded 1 John 1. 10. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar 1 John 2. 3. and hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commandments v. 4. he that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is mistaken v. 6. he that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk even as he walked and Christ kept the sabbath and 1 John 3. 22. whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and 1 John 5. 3. for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments 2 Ep. of Joh 6. this is love that we walk after his commandments Rev. 12. 17. The Dragon was wroth and went to make War with those who kept the Commandments of God and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ and Rev. 14. 1◠Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. for Cronologies read Cronologers p. 4. l. 5. r. one p. 5. l. 15. for v. 19. r. v. 16. p. 5. l. 39. r. but p. 9. l 27. dele and p. 10. l. 15. for Jashebeth r. Lashebeth p. 12. l. 15. for Morah r. Marah p. 13. l. 14. dele 22. l. 15. for Exod. 12. 12 13. r. Exod. 12. 32. p. 15. l. 4. for 23. r. 2 3. p. 16. l 28. for 15. r. 14. p. 18. l. 37. dele 14. p. 19. l. 26. for v. 5. r. v. 6. p. 21. l. 1. dele 42. p. 23. l. 18. for 6. r. 16. l. 21. dele 21. 46. p. 24. l. 23. for one r. One p. 29. l. 40. for Num. 6. r. Num. 9. p. 33. l. 5. for 30. r. 13. l. 35. for 30. r. 13. p. 34. l. 18. dele it p. 41. l. 23. for sacrificis r. and sacrifices p. 46. l. 6. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 7. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 47. l. 6. for 15. r. 5. and for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 8. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 9. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 17. for must be one r. must be are p. 49. l. 32. dele and p. 50. l. 6. for Apostles r. Apostle l. 9. for day r. days l. 14. for other r. others p. 53. l. 11. for was r. is p. 54. l. 34. for put p. 58. l. 21. for Anp r. And l. 26. dele as p. 63. l. 31. for His r. ' T is p. 64. l. 17. for or r. of l. 23. for his r. ' t is p. 65. l. 20. r. as before and hereafter p. 72. l. 30. r. degrees
21 23. 1 Tim. 2. 8. God is a Spirit and his true worshippers did do and shall worship him in spirit and in truth And I know no colour now for the Holiness of Places for which yet as the Dr. p. 3. some are zealous I agree with him that Christmas is of Human Institution which I think he admits by the words so be it p. 3. which I think does also lay aside all other Holy Days which are but of Human Institution and p. 13. about Christmas the Doctor says It is not agreed amongst Chronologies either what Year or what Month much less what day of that Month our Saviour was Born yet he says we keep December the 25th in memory of his Birth as supposing him to have been then Born And p. 45. he says No Man at this Day knows what Day it was and p. 13. That we are at so great uncertainty as we reckon the Year 1692 from his Circumcision to begin the first of January and the same Year his Conception not till the 25th of March after as if his Birth and Circumcision had been a quarter of a Year before his Conception And so the Doctor leaves those days If I mistake not utterly uncertain In p. 12. he tells us The Pascal Tables which should direct us what day to keep Easter on do put us further out then if we had none at all I agree with the Doctor p. 2 3. that our Lord Jesus Christ according to his Divinity was God and is so the true God the God that made Heaven and Earth the God who delivered the Law at Mount Synai and I think those three the father the Son and the Holy Spirit are on Jehovah Deut. 6. 4. 5. Jehovah Aelohenu Jehovah our Mightiest is Jehovah Aechad is one Jehovah was is and will be one Jehovah i. e. the Lord our God is one Lord and Mark 12. 29 30. The Lord our God is one Lord which are the words of Jesus And I agree also that the Blessing and Sanctifying the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. was by Jehovah the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit which goes far in this Question and I think proves the seventh Day to be the Lord's Day And when he has acknowledged the Father Son and the Holy Spirit to be three yet but one God the Lord Jehovah c. he adds p. 3. But he cannot agree that Christ as God and Man in Contradistinction to the Father and Holy Spirit did all those things for he that is Christ was not then Man Which Words of the Doctor of what he does agree and what he cannot agree insinuates as if I had said that Christ as God-Man did all those things which the Doctor cannot agree whereas he must needs know that is not so for I neither say nor ever thought till that I read it in Mr. G. T. and the Doctor that Christ was Incarnate at the making of the World or at his giving of the Law on Sinai so as the Doctor has not well surmized in this and any Reader may see it is not so for Christ took our Nature on him about 4000 years after the Creation and I find not a word of any Contradistinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Son in the Enquiry but the direct contrary viz. their oneness with the Son in those Works which they both cannot but know And he adds p. 3. what he should rather say about our Lord Jesus Christ's blessing the seventh Day because he was not then the Lord Christ God and Man c. seems to make the Surmize somewhat worse upon which he says that I p. 64. lay great stress for neither I nor any other that I know has said or thought that Christ when he Blessed the seventh Day was then in the Flesh so that in this I think the Doctor blamable But the Doctor does acknowledge that the Son is Jehovah i. e. that he is Lord for which see Enquiry p. 9. 10. c. and I think he does believe that the Son of God is Jesus that is the Saviour the only Saviour and that he is Christ that is the anointed for that Glorious Blessed Work of Redemption that is the Messiah he is called as I think often in the Old-Testament For the Father has chosen us in him before the foundation of the World in him that is in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ as Christ is expresly named Eph. 1. 2 3 4. And in Colos 1. 16. speaking of Christ as he by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth v. 17. and he is before all things he that is Christ is expresly Colos 1. 2 3. there named the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ who v. 19. created all things and Christ is named our Lord Jesus Christ in every Epistle from Rom. to the Heb. for so far I searched a little and that frequently and sometime after also Mr. G. T. whom the Doctor in this Objection seems to follow writes of this great Mystery in two or three places under the like and greater mistakes and so at present I leave him But for the Doctor to impose upon his Readers herein as he does p. 2 3. seems blameable And why he thus begins in a Case which relates to the Deity of Christ with such Insinuations for which he has no colour that I know from the Enquiry wherein Christ's Deity and his being Jehovah is directly affirmed unless it be at first to infuse some Prejudice I am not willing to conjecture And as to this if the Holy Spirit by Paul names Christ the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ in whom the Father hath chosen his before the foundation of the world by whom all things were created and who was before all things I see no reason why Mr. G. T. and the Doctor should vary from the Apostles expressions and divers other Scriptures And such Artifices the Reader may discern afterward I agree also with the Doctor That God who made the world in six days rested the seventh day Gen. 2. 2 3. Exod. 20. 11. And that he blessed the sabbath day and hallowed or Sanctified it Doctor p. 3. and here he does read it not a seventh bue the seventh Day the same Hebrew word here in Gen. 2. 2 3. Hashebigni which is used in Exod. 20. 10 11. which some would render there a seventh and the Reason and Sence of Gen. 2. 2 3. does require that it be rendered as the word signifies the Seventh Day for no man that I know does imagine that the Lord Gen. 2. 2 3. Blessed and Sanctified any other Day of the Week for Rest but that only on which he Rested and that was expresly not a but the Seventh and no other day of the Week and so I think for all after Seventh days in the Circulation of after Weeks and Christ in the time of his Incarnation kept not a Sabbath
in the Afternoon or presently after Noon gave them time enough to kill it and dress it without running up the time to mid-night 'T is true The Lord smote the first born of Aegypt at mid-night ver 29. and why it was at mid-night I know not but if we may so humbly say it might be inter alia for greater terror to Aegypt Which mid-night there did not that we find alter the institution of the Passover much less did that smiting the Aegyptians alter the Days of the Week and so our Lord observed the Passover before his Passion with his Disciples the Fourteenth Day of the first Month at Even Matth. 26. 20. Mark 14. 17. Luke 22. 7 14. And we read at Even there was upon the Tabernacle as it were the appearance of Fire untill the Morning and so it was alway and so the Evening did not here begin at mid-night but as it began to be dark Numb 6. 9 15 16 21. that is when the Sun did set Which Fire gave Light when it was Dark that is from the Evening till the Morning And that the Evening does begin not at mid-night but at Sun set we have many places in the Old and New-Testament Deut. 23. 11. When the Evening cometh on is when the Sun is down they are the words of Moses who wrote Genesis and Deuteronomy And Josh 10. 26 27. The five Kings were hanged on five trees until the evening and at the time of the going down of the sun they took them down by Joshua ' s command so as the Evening was the time of the Suns going down in Moses and Joshua's time In Prov. 7. 9. the Evening is called the Twilight in the Twilight in the Evening of the Day and the Twilight begins when the Sun sets Jer. 6. 4. The day goeth away for the shadows of the evening are stretched out now when the Sun sets the Earth begins to be shadowed and then the former day goeth away Mark 1. 32. And at even when the sun did set they brought to him all that were diseased or the Evening being come when the Sun had set which makes it as plain as words can well express it that the Evening began not at mid-night but when the Sun did set and that when Mark wrote his Gospel So Mark 13. 35. The Words of Christ Watch for ye know not when the master cometh at even or at mid-night or at cock-crowing or in the morning so the Even was one time and midnight another so the Evening did not begin at mid-night and yet the Doctor thinks it manifest and that we need not scruple to embrace it then which he thinks nothing can be more clear whereas it seems very plain by the Scriptures that every day begins in the Evening that is when the Sun sets And if it be so as above then all which the Doctor says for mid-night-day and all he builds thereon fails which may confirm us that the Crucifying of Christ was on the Sixth day of the Week about our three a Clock in the Afternoon and that the Resurrection was upon the First day of the Week in the Morning and yet the Doctor p. 28. thinks it to be very plain that at the time of Christs Death and Resurrection the Day began at mid-night and did continue till mid-night And in p. 28. says We have now found our Saviours Example as to the two first Sundays from his Resurrection if at least their First day of the Week be our Sunday for the uncertainty of the days which is the First and which is the Seventh day he still holds as before as I think against himself for if our Sunday be not the First day why does he plead for it By which frequent reserve of the uncertainty which is the First day of the Week if the Doctor does mean to rebuild the First day as the Romanists and some few others upon the authority of the Church or of the Civil Magistrate it seems fair to tell us so for if it be uncertain what day of the Week the First day is I cannot see any Foundation in the Word or common Reason for observing an uncertain weekly Day and if it be uncertain then it is certainly gone As to our Saviours Example which the Doctor has found as to one of those two First Sundays it is an Example of our Saviours and two of his Disciples travelling on Sunday which Example I may allow him without any hurt or danger to the main question And his other Example about after Eight days which he has found has been answered as I think before And these two Sundays are all that the Doctor finds as Examples by Christ for altering the Sabbath from the Seventh to the First day of which altering we find not one word in either He says nothing of any Word or Example of Christ before his Death for such alteration for he knows our Saviours manner was to keep the Sabbath during his Life Nor says he that I remember any thing of the Thief his being with Christ in Paradice the same day of his Crucifixion Luke 23. 42 43. Then p. 29. he says We have clear Evidence of a like Practice Acts 20. 7. And so leaps over all about Paul and others keeping the Sabbath that is in the former Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles which I shall have occasion to remember him of From which Acts 20. 7. he renders dielegeto holding forth and this rendring holding forth the Doctor does twice page 29. In the Enquiry p. 55 in answer to the Objection from Acts 20. 7. where Paul Preached to the Disciples I take notice that the Greek Word there rendred Preached is in Acts 17. 2. rendred Reasoned where Paul as his manner was Preached to them three Sabbath-days and so the same Greek word with that in Acts 20. 7. is rendred Reasoned in Acts 18. 4. where Paul Preached in the Synagogue every Sabbath to Jews and Gentiles this little notice I take of the same Greek word in these three places of Acts 20. 7. Acts 18. 4 and Acts 17. 2. rendred Preached Acts 20. 7. but rendred Reasoned Acts 18. 4. and Acts 17. 2. Though it be the same Greek word which I think of some use to shew that Paul preached Christ every Sabbath the Doctor seems to take offence at and gives leave to render it Paul did hold forth and instead of he continued his Speech that he held on his holding forth till mid-night which Expression of holding forth has been much abused in this Age by some Men against eminently Holy and Learned Non conforming Ministers when they have been accused as Malefactors for Preaching the Gospel to scorn reproach and despise them as holders forth c. And the Expression of Holding forth being taken in an ill and despightful sence by some who so use it I think the Doctor might have spared to put it upon Paul who in his Preaching Christ was then a Non-conformist Minister and
needs not if there be as there is enough for it elsewhere in the Word And if you will allow a little Digression see Job 31. 26 27 28. which the Doctor p. 64. says may perhaps be Job's disclaimer of Sun-Worship which is somewhat towards it And see that of Eliphaz Job 22. 17 22. Receive I pray thee the law at his mouth that is Gods Mouth where the word Law is the same Hebrew Word used Exod. 16. 28. about the Sabbath and Job 22. 22. Lay up his words in thine heart so as whenever and where-ever Job lived t is certain he and his Friends had some knowledge of the Law and Words of God and if of the Law and Words of God why not of the Sabbath which is his Word and a part of his Law See also Job 1. 1 5 6 8 9. Job 2. 1 3. especially Job 1. 6. and Job 2. 1. which day at least some of the Hebrew Rabbies thought to be the Sabbath And although the Doctor p. 35. would make all that is offered in the Enquiry that the Ascension of Christ might be upon the Sabbath day Acts 1. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12. to be a little matter and yet serving my turn I refer the Reader for that to the Enquiry p. 43. to which I add I do not yet see but that the Ascension day might be upon the Sabbath day according to Acts 1. 12. for I do not think those words that Mount Olivet the place of his Ascension is from Jerusalem a sabbath-days-journey Acts 1. 12. which of old was esteemed about two Miles are so expressed there by the Holy Spirit but for some special respect to the Sabbath day which words of a Sabbath-days-journey are no where else so expressed in the Scriptures that I find but I take it t is agreed by Geographers that Mount Olivet is about two Miles from Jerusalem In Exod. 16. 29. The Lord giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days abide every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day that is that day they were not to go abroad into the Field to gather Manna nor to do any other Work Exod. 20. 10. but they might go to the Holy Convocation Lev. 23. 3. And the Cities of the Levites were to reach 2000 Cubits from without the City East South West North Numb 35. 5. and in Josh 3. 3 4. when the Ark was born towards Jordan the People were to go after it yet there was to be a space between them and it about 2000 Cubits by measure and they were not to come nearer to it what those Cubits in measure did extend to the Jews could best tell us who thought it about two Miles which those in the Camp might travel to the Ark the place of their Publick Worship upon the Sabbath day Enquiry p. 43. 44 45. And it seems to me that Acts 1. 12. is so expressed to shew that Christ and his Disciples going from Jerusalem to Mount Olivet and the Disciples going from thence back again to Jerusalem was no breach of the Sabbath day But however this were I think the main question which is the true Christian Sabbath is built and established upon many other direct full Scriptures before and after cited which give no colour for denying What the Doctor offers for the Feast of Pentecost Acts 2. 1. p. 37. as to the day when it was which he thinks was on the First day of the Week I know no Word for that or other Ground but Conjectures and some uncertain Romish Traditions for what day the Fiftieth day was from the true day on which Christ and his Disciples kept the Passover Matth. 26. 17 18 19 20. I do not yet so certainly know and the Doctor p. 12. agrees that our Saviour kept his last Passover on one day and the Jews on another But the most probable Judgment I can make from Mat. 26. 17 18 19 20. from Acts 1. 12. and Acts 13. Acts 16. Acts 17. Acts 18. 4 c. is that it might be on the Sabbath day and this is certain that when the day of Pentecost was fully come the Holy Spirit was poured out Acts 2. 1. 2. But supposing what the Doctor agrees p. 12. that Christ kept it one day and the Jews on another I think I can prove by the Word that Pentecost was on the Seventh-day-Sabbath and not upon the first day of the Week But this also about what day it was not being yet so evident to all and the Sabbath being as I think clearly proved by other Texts I pass it by at present I pretermit divers things to which he recurs p. 38. and takes up again and again what he had written to before and then the Doctor adds A like place is that of 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him that there be no gathering when I come What likeness there is between those two places I can see very little of and that this yields nothing at all for his purpose any man who will read it twice may easily discern yet he thinks it is plain from thence that the Frst day of the Week was weekly observed and was wont to be observed both by the Church of Corinth and by the Churches of Galatia which he thinks Paul supposes and takes for granted which are all meer Conjectures where I think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may well be rendred one day of the Week without any offence To which place I think there is answer Enquiry p. 58. 59. to which I add If the Doctor by the Words was weekly observed and wont to be observed mean was weekly and wont to be observed as a Sabbath or as a weekly Day of Holy Rest without which he says nothing I reply that here is not one word of any Sabbath or Rest weekly or other Rest or of any Worship or Preaching or any such thing not one such word either at Corinth or Galatia or taking it for granted c. but the quite contrary that is an order that they should every one of them lay by in store for charitable Uses which does include the casting up their Accompts how else could they know how God had prospered them which the Doctor p. 39. says scornfully is a wise Objection which seems a true and plain Matter of Fact What that order was to the Churches of Galatia he says that I cannot tell but leaves out my next words unless it were to remember the Poor and to what is in the Enquiry p. 58. about an yearly Collection I add 2 Cor. 9. 1 2. where he said Achaia was ready a year ago and 2 Cor. 8. 10. others were forward a year ago But admitting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here signifies First
but according to the pleasure of men as I think the First day is whereas the Seventh day is appointed by the Lord and the Conscience and whole life of man ought to be governed by the commandments of God without adding or diminishing Deut. 12. 32. Matth. 15. 6 9. Which commandments of men have indeed a shew of wisdom in will-worship Coloss 2. 23. Worship which some men imposed on themselves and others as if they could do and teach better and wiser then God had commanded which it seems is an old and humane Infirmity Mr. Cawdrey and Mr. Palmer in their Treatise of the Sabbath pag. 50. say That the Apostle in Col. 2. 16. speaks of the other Holy days and Sabbaths and not of the weekly Sabbath Mr. Sheppard in his Doctrine of the Sabbath pag. 166. Thes 181. speaking of Gal. 4. 10. Rom. 14. 4 5. Col. 2. 16 c. saith If we suppose that these places be meant of the weekly Sabbath and riggidly urge them we may quickly press Blood instead of Milk out of them and wholly abolish as Walleus the Observation of any Christian Sabbath Doctor Owen in his Treatise of the Sabbath pag. 214. speaking of Col. 2. 16 17. saith It is known and confessed that at that time all judaical Observations of Days whether Feasts or Fasts Weekly Monthly or Annual were by themselves and all others called their Sabbaths And that kind of speech was then in common use is here observed by our Apostles it must therefore necessarily be allowed that there were two sorts of Sabbaths amongst them the first and Principal was the Weekly Sabbath so called from the rest of God upon the finishing of his Works and that other day became from their Analogy thereto to be called Sabbaths also But that the difference between these Sabbaths was great The one of them was ordained from the foundation of the world before the entrance of Sin and so belonged to all mankind in general to all Mankind the other were appointed in the Wilderness as a part of the peculiar Church-worship of the Israelites That the one was directly commanded in the Decalogue wherein the Law of our creation the Learned Doctor calls it the Law of our Creation was revived and expressed and that the other have their Institution expresly among the residue of ceremonial temporary Ordinances See to the like purpose p. 215 216 217. Mr. Richard Byfield in his Treatise on the Sabbath p. 130. on Col. 2. 16. saith That the Apostle there speaketh not of the Fourth Commandment because he treateth expresly of those Sabbaths which were of the same rank with the New Moons And that he speaketh as he doth to the Galatians chap. 4. 10. of the Observation of Days Months and Years which pertained to the Servitude and Bondage of weak and beggarly Rudiments as in ver 9. Now saith he that any precept of the Decalogue should be so accounted and reckoned as a weak and beggarly Rudiment was far from the Apostle to think and is abhorred to Christian Ears and Religion Which I think Answer to the Doctor 's Objections from Col. 2. 16 c. Which four Opinons I had from another hand since I came to London and if I had the use of my own persecuted Study and other Books here 't were easie I think to gather many more And upon the whole I find Col. 2. 16. to be against judging of Christians then and there and for ought appears against judging either way and so this place in whatsoever sence we take it makes only against judging in those cases Pag. 59. the Doctor takes the Law for the Seventh day Sabbath to be a new Yoke to the Gentiles because it was given to the Jews as a Sign or a distinctive mark and for a perpetual Covenant Exod. 31. 13 16 17. Ezek. 20. 12 20. But this also will be against him as we shall see by and by That it was then new to the Heathens who observed Sunday I agree T is true it was a sign but such a sign as all Proselytes did embrace and obey till the coming of Christ and by him is made a perpetual law Matth. 5. 18 c. and so a perpetual sign between him and his people And tho Circumcision were a sign yet that is ceased as before and Baptism instituted And the Pascal Lamb tho it were a distinction between the Israelites c. and the Aegyptians yet being a Type of Christ was lain aside by him at his Institution of the Lords Supper as before by the words This do in remembrance of me Luke 22. 19. and ceased at his Death And if it be meerly circumstantial and doth not at all influence Religion whether in the Temple or other place God be Worshipped John 4. 21. as the Doctor p. 60. p. 2. Yet God having so directly resolved that the Seventh day is the Sabbath that is not a new Yoke but an old Institution for the good of all Mankind given at the Creation and commanded in the Decalogue and so given by Christ And with the rest of the Commandments Matth. 5. 18. and Luke 16. 17. made perpetual by him and so I think is Christs Yoke and an easie Yoke for it is only to take the commanded weekly Seventh instead of the First day Matth. 11. 29 30. which the Doctor and others should willingly take upon them Pag. 60. he adds That the Jewish Sabbath so he often calls it and the Word Jewish runs much in his mind seems to be not a continuation of a former Sabbath but rather a new Institution which I cannot find in the Word as he says he has shewed before which upon all the search I have made I cannot find in all his Book and I am loath to observe what I often read therein the great Latitude he takes that way The Doctor p. 60. quotes the Enquiry p. 26. and says I press and put great weight upon it that the Seventh day is a Sign and perpetual Covenant to distinguish his People from other that is saith he the People of the Jews from other Nations which last words the People of the Jews from other Nations are added by the Doctor whereas my words and meaning was and is throughout that the Sabbath was and is a perpetual Sign and Covenant with all true Israelites that is all true Believers of all Nations in all Ages from the beginning of the World to the end of it to distinguish such from the disobedient to Gods Laws And such Artifice to add somewhat of his own to turn what is offered into his own Notion are blameable And for the Doctor to say as he there That Circumcision the Passover and the Seventh-day-Sabbath were distinctive Marks and at an end by the Death of Christ is not so 'T is true of Circumcision and the Passover that they are at an end as before but not of the Sabbath So that a particular unravelling the many Allegations which I think are not so would make
And if I had supposed the Sun in his Declination to either of the Topicks the various Climates and obliquity of the Horizon might have occasioned disputes which what I can I avoid and therefore take the 11th of March 1692 3. Nor do I enquire the place of Paradice where it is about which there are many disputes which place Learned Mr. Chafie confesseth is not known And if we know not where Paradice is then I cannot begin to give Instances of the Scheme before from thence but if it lies East or West from Mount Synai that will make some difference of time in the beginning and end of Days at Synai and at Paradice and yet not alter the days of the Week in either for that the Seventh day of the Week in Paradice was is and will be in the weekly Circulation of days the Seventh day of the Week there And the Seventh day in the Week at Synai though it may differ in degrees of Longitude from Paradice yet was is and will be in the weekly Circulation of Days the Seventh day of the Week at Synai and so of the rest of the Days there and in every other place as in Aegypt Exod. 5. 5. where the Israelites kept the Sabbath and Exod. 16. 1 23 to 30. in the Wilderness of Sin And yet notwithstanding that difference in Degrees between Paradice and Aegypt and the Wilderness and Synai that made no difference between them as to the beginning or ending of Days In Paradice the Seventh day as the First Second and other Week-days began in the Evening and ended the next Evening and so the Seventh day in Aegypt in the Wilderness and at Synai began in the Evening and ended the next Evening And at all those places according to appointment at the making of the World Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. notwithstanding the different Degrees or Minutes there might be of the Sun-setting at Paradice and at those places The Lord who knows all his own Works the Beginning or Head of whose Word is Truth Gen. 1. 1. Psal 119. 160. The entrance of whose words will give light Psal 119. 130. Blessed and made holy the seventh day Sabbath Gen. 2. 3. at Paradice And blessed and made holy the seventh day at Synai Exod. 20. 11 12. although it is likely there are some Degrees or Minutes between But how ever that be yet we are pretty certain by the Maps where Synai was and is and where Jerusalem was and is And according to the common received Principles of Astronomy fifteen Degrees making an Hour Jerusalem is situate about six Degrees in Longitude Westward from Synai and so the Sun sets at Jerusalem after his setting at Synai twenty four Minutes of an Hour or thereabout that is two fifth parts of an Hour Westward from Synai and yet that difference in the beginning of the Seventh day at Synai and of the Seventh day at Jerusalem made no alteration of the beginning or ending of the Seventh day-Sabbath at either The same Seventh day which was commanded to be remembered to be kept Holy at Mount Synai and which was repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy near Jordan which place near Jordan may be about twenty two Minutes of Longitude from Synai was certainly remembered and kept Holy by the Israelites at Mount Zion in Jerusalem with this difference that the Seventh day began at Jerusalem twenty four Minutes of an Hour after it began at Synai and some Minutes after it began near Jordan which made no alteration of Days at either but the Seventh day at Synai began in the Evening twenty four Minutes of an Hour before it began at Jerusalem and at Jerusalem the Seventh day began twenty four Minutes of an Hour Westward after it began at Synai and yet was the Seventh day in both and began in the Evening at both that is at or about Sun set at both notwithstanding the difference in time of twenty four Minutes which may a little direct how to find when the Seventh day doth begin and so of the rest of the Days every where This may be illustrated by further Instances and for certainties sake I will set out and begin to reckon from Jerusalem where they observed the true Seventh day Westward without setting a Meridian there altho it be Arbitrary as the Doctor acknowledgeth and may be set where we will and by degrees bring the Account round the Earth to Jerusalem again From Jerusalem to Colosse are about seven Degrees that is twenty eight Minutes From Jerusalem to Ephesus 9 Degrees that is 36 Minutes From Jerusalem to Antioch where Paul and his Company kept the Sabbath Acts 13. 13 14 15 16 27 42. q From Jerusalem to Philippi now ruined and desolate which was situated on the confines of Thrace are about 14 Degrees that is 56 Minutes where they kept the Sabbath Acts 16. 12 13 14. From Jerusalem to Corinth are about 17 Degrees that is 1 Hour and 8 Minutes yet this difference of time and so of beginning of the Sabbath made no alteration of the Sabbath where they also kept the Sabbath Acts 18. 1 4. As they did also as Thessalonica Acts 17. 1 2. where the Sun sets about 1 Hour and 10 Minutes after it sets at Jerusalem And every where as the Sun did set so the Sabbath day as every other Day of the Week did begin and end as before From Jerusalem to Warsaw in Poland are about 22 Degrees that is 1 Hour and 28 Minutes difference of Sun-setting From Jerusalem Westward to Vienna are about 29 Degrees that is 1 Hour 56 Minutes From Jerusalem to Rome are about 30 Degrees that is 2 Hours From Jerusalem to Amsterdam are about 40 Degrees i. e. 2 Hours and 40 Minutes From Jerusalem to Paris are 44 Degrees that is 2 Hours 56 Minutes From Jerusalem to London are about 48 Degres that is 3 Hours and 12 Minutes From Jerusalem to Edinburgh 49 Degrees that is 3 H. 16 Min. From Jerusalem to Dublin about 53 Degrees that is 3 Hours and 32 Minutes From Jerusalem to Lisbon are about 57 Degrees that is 3 Hours and 48 Minutes From Jerusalem to New England are about 120 Deg. that is 8 H. I have passed over the first Meridian which is Arbitrary as before and follow the Sun as it goes round the Globe of the Earth till it comes about to Jerusalem again which as to this way of accounting I think makes no alteration And all these differences in Hours and Minutes from the setting of the Sun at Jerusalem and the setting of the Sun in all these before-mentioned and all other places in the Earth make no alteration of the Days or of the Sabbath all which begin every where as the Sun sets every where and when the Sun every where did set so the Sabbath day as every other Day of the Week did begin and end as before I still follow the Sun from Jerusalem to Japan the Sun may be said to set seventeen Hours at Japan after it
sets at Jerusalem and when the Sun sets at Japan then the Seventh day begins at Japan 11 of March 1694 5. And from Japan to pass over the other Meridian and Rest of the Land in Asia to Jerusalem again about seven Hours And so from Jerusalem as the Sun goeth round the Earth to Jerusalem again are 24 Hours that is from the Sun-setting at Jerusalem the 11th of March 169â— â— to the Sun-setting at Jerusalem the 12th of March 169â— are 17 Hours from Jerusalem to Japan and 7 Hours from Japan to Jerusalem and 17 and 7 are 24 Hours the Evening and the Morning which make up the Day Which Scheme does as I weakly can travel round the World and if it be right in the main may answer some Doubts about the Days in this case And if I mistake I think I do not wilfully mistake in which account I had no help from Globes and so I have no great assurance but that there may be mistakes and I am content to be corrected by the Learned Doctor who excels in Astronomy in Geography and I think in most other Learning Or any other Ingenious Unprejudiced and Skilful who may find mistakes in the Degrees of Longitude and in the Hours or Minutes which however I think may not hurt the Opinion built upon it that the difference in the time of the Sun setting in any of and all those places and so of all other places in the Earth the 11 of March 1692 3. makes no alteration in the beginning or ending of the Sabbath day supposing as before that day with the rest of the Days of the Week did begin at the Creation and does still begin and end about the time of the Sun setting and suppose also that beginning and ending never altered since the Creation to this day And if this be so it seems demonstrable that every Day of the Week began every where in the Evening and to the Seventh day also round the World as the Sun did set The Doctor 's other expedient he would have me begin my Week on Monday and then Sunday will be the Seventh day I suppose he means if I can tell seven But if the Doctor please to begin the Week as God begins it Gen. 1. 5. and if he reckon on v. 8. 13 19 23 31 as God does he will find Gen. 2. 2 3. the Seventh day to be the Sabbath and as it seems to me to begin in the Evening And in lieu of his two Expedients I will with his Favour advise him and others two things 1st Upon the Fourth Command Exod. 20. 8 9. To take heed how they assume a liberty to alter any Command of God or any jot or tittle thereof because of Mat. 5. 18 19. Rev. 22. 18 19 c. 2dly Upon the Second Command Whatever be the manner of Worship in the place where he or they live unless they be sure that for Matter and Manner it be according to Christs Institutions That they beware how they take it as they there find it which though it may be a probable means of worldly Advantages yet I have some doubt it is no sound Rule to Worship by because the Lord thy God is a jealous God visiting iniquity c. and shewing mercy to those who love him and keep his commandments Exod. 20. 4 5 6. Deut. 5. 8 9 10 c. And upon the whole I think not A but the Seventh-day-Sabbath was observed by the Lord Gen. 2. 2 3. and afterward by the Patriarchs by Moses and by the Israelites in Aegypt and in the Wilderness of Sin where they had Mannah and at Mount Synai and at Mount Zion in Jerusalem and to the end of the Old Testament to whom the Lord made known his sabbath Neh. 9. 13 14. his Sabbaths as before and to whom he gave them as a sign and as an everlasting covenant and that not A but The Sabbath was observed perfectly and constantly by Christ during his life which I think proves it not forgotten nor altered to his time and that not A but The Sabbath was observed by his Disciples inspired by the Holy Spirit after his Resurrection and Ascension which also proves it not forgotten nor altered then And as their losing the Knowledge which was the Seventh day is not in the Word that I know so the certain Seventh day was preserved by all Nations Worshipping the Sun on Sunday Mr. Chafie p. 20 c. and all the Israelites before Christ and all the Jews since that we can read or hear of and some Christians still keep not A but The Seventh day and many Christians keep the first day other Christians keep both Seventh and First day as in the Enquiry and the early and long Controversies about what Days to keep the Passover on and the Histories Counsels Centuries and our own Records Ancient and Modern as in the Enquiry seem plainly to prove that the Seventh day was never altered from Christs time to this day nor from the Creation to Christs time and that the Seventh day in England is the same Seventh day varying the Hours and Minutes as before which was observed by Christ which was made perpetual by Christ which was observed at Mount Zion which was given at Synai and which was blest and made holy at the Creation Gen. 2. And here I might also observe that the Doctor neither denys nor answers the Authorities in the Enquiry for observing the Sabbath 400 and 700 years c. after Christ and for the changing the Seventh day to the First day by Rome c. not the clear Evidence for the first bringing in the First day into Scotland by a Counsel there above 1200 years after Christ nor that of the King and Nobles of England here to like purpose Enquiry p. 106. to 114 c. Nor that how all our Antient and Modern Records in England to this day call the Seventh day of the Week the Sabbath day Enquiry p. 117. to which the Doctor says nothing nor to that of the many Provinces and one Empire still observing the Seventh day Enq. p. 119. 120. And all put together I think may sufficiently disprove the uncertainty which is the Seventh day which the Doctor so often would leave doubtful against himself and may prove that our Seventh day of the Week is the true Seventh day blessed and made holy at the creation And I insist that Christs Command to keep Holy the Seventh day not being altered nor repealed but with all the rest confirmed and made perpetual by him still binds as all the rest of the Commands do I have passed by divers Expressions in the Doctor 's Book but have not that I know declined any thing that required as I think further Reply and what he objects again and again I often think it enough to answer to but once And if I do not fully repeat his Objections or Words at large it is to make this Reply as short as I can and the Reader