worked Six nor to work each day as they listed for God rested the Seventh and blessed it that is he made it a Holy Rest a Sabbath Sect VIII From this either Command or Precedent without all doubt proceeded The Sabbath observed by the Church before the Law even before Moses's Law the Observation of The Sabbath amongst all such at least as adhered to the worship of the true God which observation has been by diverse learned men amply proved both from Scripture and Fathers the proof is too long here to insert I will only mention that St. Epiphanius expresly distinguishes betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath by nature or Law Naturall appointed from the beginning and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath ordained under the Law which shews a Sabbath before the Law was in his time or at least by him in no wise doubted of Sect. IX For mine own part I am in that Paradox with submission to better T is probable Adam and Eve observed the Sabbath in Paradise judgments that the Sabbath was kept by Adam in Paradise notwithstanding what the Rabbies talk to the contrary and that it was the only intire day he stood in his Innocency For that Adam fell not on the Sixth day as many have thought Eves being Created late that Day and God's pronouncing all very good for the conclusion of the day seem to me little less than demonstration And whereas God having finished his works immediatly rested blessed the Seventh day and sanctified it it looks not likely that the day which God blessed and sanctifyed should be the day on which the curse enter'd into the World Therefore I say it seems to me most probable that our first Parents received the revelation of Gods resting upon the very day he rested and so kept the first Seventh or Sabbath day in Paradise But be that as it shall I contend not However I think it cannot be denyed but to them who in those early ages knew the History of the Creation which undoubtedly Seth's Race in general till the Floud and many of them long after it did know there was as also there will be to the end of the World more reason for keeping one Day in Seven than one Day in Six or one in Eight Nine or Ten for that the first Period by which even from the begining Time was distinguisht was that of a septenary of Days or a Week God worked Six Days and rested the Seventh Nor is it improbable but that to such a periodical distinction of days may that passage Gen. iv 3. be referr'd At the end of days so stands it in the Hebrew Text what we too largely render In process of time that is not improbably I say upon the Revolution of some certain Week namely upon some Sabbath Day Cain and Abel brought their Offerings The like may be believed of those Texts in Job a History generally granted to be elder than the Law There was a day when the Sons of God as the Holy Race are stiled Gen. vi 2. came to present themselues before the Lord Job i. 6. and ii 1. This cannot be better fix'd than as by Learned Persons it is on the Sabbath Day Sect. X But to pass the Patriarchal Observation There can be no question The fourth Command of the Decalogue Morall of the command of the Sabbath from Mount Sinai amongst the other Commands of the Decalogue It is delivered in a style more emphatical than any of the other And therefore a man would wonder that it alone of all the Ten should not be Moral Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy which words that they should injoyn matter of meer Ceremony of concernment only to the Jews and of no lasting obligation to Christians as to a weekly day of a holy rest for the publick Service of God the Arguments which I have yet known offered I must confess are much too feeble to perswade 'T is true indeed the Apostle tells us Colloss ii 16 17. the Jewish differencings of Meats and Drinks their Holy days their New Moons and Sabbaths Sabbath days is not in the original but Sabbaths that is their great variety of Carnal Rests their Sabbaths of Years and their Sabbaths of Months and their Sabbaths of Days for all these they had their Feast-Sabbaths and Fast-Sabbaths and the peculiar ways of observing them by feeding on certain appointed Meats and abstaining from others usual enough at common seasons all these were a shadow of things to come But will this which concerns only a part of the Ceremonial Law evacuate one of the branches of the Decalogue all whose other Commands are confessedly moral Let that precise Seventh day namely the last day of the Week be Temporary and only obligatory till the fullness of time were come Let bodily rest and strictness of the rest thereon injoyned to the Jews not to do so much of servile work as to kindle a fire thereon let these I say be Ceremonial significative of a speritual Rest under the Gospel Was therefore a weekly Sabbath holy to God for his publick worship a shadow too and no certain constant proportion of time to be allowed as separate to God because the multitude of Jewish Festivals and even the Judaism and Ceremonialness of the Sabbath were to be abrogated which is the utmost can be concluded hence Let us beware of arguing thus there being no reason for such conclusion as the Objectours would infer Before we resolve of laying aside any part of the Law of God let us consider it better There was more in the Command then a meer Carnall Rest and therefore more than a Ceremony Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day Resting from common labours thereon was a Ceremony but somewhat of this Rest a Ceremony necessary and pre-requisite to the keeping of it Holy the main substance of the Command or chief matter commanded was keeping it holy that is worshiping God thereon in publick contemplating him and his works in secret being wholy free to him for that day Is Divine Worship and Holy Contemplation and Converse with God a Ceremony Further Somewhat there is too in the Command as to other days which we cannot account Ceremonious Is it a Ceremony a thing in it self meerly Indifferent how we spend our time the Regulation of which is most plainly the summe of this Commandment Six days to be spent in our common calling as persons of such or such condition or occupation And a Seventh in our holy calling as worshippers of the true God Sect. XI Let who will say this Command is meerly Ceremonial I am sure no The Judgment of our Church herein Son of the Church of England must say so For if this as well as the other nine Commandments be not in the Judgment of our Church a part of the Moral Law why were we just now upon our knees before God by order of our Church beging Gods mercy for our
breaking it and his Grace for inclining our hearts to keep it What to keep a Jewish abrogate Ceremony No no It s moral obligation is by our Church and us before God solemnly acknowledged in these very Prayers as oft as we make them and further as before hinted in the Homily of the time and place of Prayer to which I refer my self it is more at large asserted Now sure our holy Mother never intended both her self to falsify with God and Man and to breed her Children too to so hopeful a practice A hopeful practice I say to falsify with God in her Prayers even in her most solemn Office the Communion Service and with Man in her form of Doctrine or Homilies both which she does if this be not her sence It is then the Judgment of our Church what we have otherwise proved that by the eldest positive Law of God a Seventh day is holy to him Sect. XII And this Seventh day is now the Lords day or First day of the Week The Reasonableness of Christian Peoples observing the Lords day instead of the Jewish Sabbath by the Law Christian Here also the evidence is too long to give it in in full at present But. First a word or two for the reasonableness of the First day of the Week under the Christian state The very self same reasons with which God of old bound the Seventh day-day-Sabbath on Adam and on the Jews bind the observation of the First day of the Week upon us Christians The reason to Adam was on the Sixth day God ended his works that he had Created and Rested the Seventh In like manner the Seventh day of the Week being ended our Lord Jesus had finisht his work of the new Creation in that thereon by his resurrection he made Man again the second time happily immortal and having wrested from Death its Sting from the Grave its Victory opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers entred into it himself and began the everlasting Sabbatism of the new World Which work had he not finisht what had it advantaged poor mankind to have been Created once Alas had not the work of Redemption been compleated Mans first Creation had only capacitated him to have been eternally miserable This reason therefore from the Divine Rest thereon holds to us Christians much stronger for this Christian Sabbath The Reason to the Jews in speciall was because the Lord thy God brought thee out of the Land of Egypt through a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm therefore the Lord thy Deut v. 15. God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day On the Sabbath or Seventh day say the Jewish Doctors their Forefathers sung their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Triumphal Hymne to God at the Red Sea over the drowned Egyptians And on the first day of the Week while it was yet early Our Lord rose from the dead as out of a Red Sea of Bloud and brought with him the raised Bodies of many Saints which slept the Bodies of our first Parents saith an old tradition and having thus rescued mankind from under the bonds of Sin and Death and of him that had the power of Death the Devil he made a shew of them triumphing over them openly Thus also there is the like reason for the First day of the Week to be a Christian Sabbath as there was for the Seventh day to be the Jewish Sect. XIII But where have we any Institution for this day in the Records of the Of the Institution of the Lords Day 1. By Christ himself New Testament I answer our Lord Instituted it the most effectual way imaginable namely by his own practice His frequent if not constant shewing himself to his Disciples on this day during the Forty days after his Resurrection his meeting them in their Assemblies sometimes with some of them breaking bread with all of them always speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God was as solemn a dedication of this day to the Christian worship as well can be conceived John XX. 19. The same day which was ver 1. the first day of the week at evening the doors being shut for fear of the Jews came Jesus where the Disciples were assembled and stood in the midst of them and said Peace be unto you and shewed them his hands and his feet And on the Eighth day which reckoning after the Jewish use inclusively was the next Lords day they are met again ver 26. and now Thomas was with them for the course of Sunday-Assemblies was begun and Jesus came again the Doors being shut and said Peace be unto you Then addressing himself more particularly to Thomas for the satisfying his doubts and thereby confirming the Faith of them all he pronounces a Blessing not only on them but on all that should believe on him to the end of the World How often in those Forty days our Lord appeared to his Disciples it has not pleased the Holy Ghost precisely to set down Two Lords days apparitions to them in their assembly we have thus seen expresly on Record and on the same days several private apparitions to diverse of them apart are recorded also which we may not stand to examine Thirdly the most famous and often fore-appointed appearance on the mountain in Galilee a place distant enough from Jerusalem that none might fear disturbance from the Chief Priests and their Partisans is by some very great men placed on the Lords day at which time he was seen of above Five hundred Brethren at once speaking no doubt as his use was of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God And being that this his appearance cannot consistently with St. Paul's account be 1 Cor. xv 6 7. coincident with that at his Ascension there is little probability all circumstances being considered for placing it on any other day Last of all our Lord chose to bless the First day of the Week by that most illustrious manifestation of his being the Son of God in sending the spirit of Promise Acts. XI 1. When the day of Pentecost was fully come Pentecost that is the Fiftieth day there is no reason to regard precisely the Jewish Festival or to make a proper name of a common one on the Fiftieth day I say which from the Resurrection must needs fall on the First day of the week reckon it at leisure they were all with one accord in one place continuing still their Assemblies on the First day of the week and suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a mighty wind In a word the Holy Spirit most miraculously came upon them all as the Lord had promised Here is from our Lord himself another sanctifying of the Lords day to the purpose For indeed with it he miraculously sanctified the whole body of the faithfull assembled thereon Subsequent hereto or after the 2. By his Apostles mission of the holy Ghost the Apostles and Apostolical Churches constant observing the Lords day in
best part of my books having been strangers to my Eyes now above seven years for which reason I have forborn to cite parricularly most of the Authorities I have alledged as I pass along But if need be I promise sacredly particular citations in a new Edition when God shall restore my books to me I alledge what I do now mostly out of Excerpta taken many years ago by my self but not with connexions and references so particular as I can fully trust to But to Return That which makes many persons of sound and good Judgment shy of this name Sabbath under Christianity is I conceive for that they who use it most seem under this style to endeavour the introducing a Judaical Yoke and entiteling the Lords day to all the Sabbatical strictnesses or severities of the bodily Rest imposed on the old people by the letter of the fourth Commandment and the Precepts appendant to it in the Law As to Duration of time they would oblige all Christian people to a Natural day of twenty four hours from Even to Even or from twelve of the Clock Midnight to twelve of the Clock Midnight in all which space they would bear us in hand nothing is to be done which was not lawful for the Jews to have done on their Sabbath Nay indeed as to the strictness of the Rest diverse Liberties allowed because not forbidden the Jews are by these teachers upon the pretence of a Sabbath Spiritual as well as Corporal said to be forbidden Christian people even by the letter of the fourth Commandment And thus intolerable burthens and inextricable snares the particulars of which would require a volume to set down are prepared for us As to all which I conceive if People would duely heed no more need to be said for the disentangling Conscience from the scruples these men have injected than that truely Apostolical Canon Acts xv It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no greater burden upon you than these necessary things That ye abstain from meats offered to Idols and from bloud and from things strangled and from fornication Amongst which necessary things there is no Syllable importing any of the Sabbatical Rites Nor can it be said the Reason of such silence was the sense the world had of the immutable Obligation of the fourth Command for the Obligation of the sixth and seventh Commandments must be acknowledged as immutable yet is there mention here of Fornication and of Blood in the very Conciliary Decree I do conclude therefore as well from hence as from Colloss ii urged in the discourse that all the Ceremonial part of the fourth Command with the appendant Laws are truely ceased nailed to the Cross of Christ and by it taken away which is amply sufficient for the setting Conscience at liberty But I must together conclude that the Natural and Spiritual part of that Commandment are no whit at all infringed The natural part was and is nothing but immutable and Eternal Equity That God should have a due proportion of our time And that not so much privately by secret Devotion of our own though that be necessary also as by a publick separating it or cutting it off from Common Employments to publick sacred Offices Thus much of a Sabbath I insist on to be perpetually and naturally Moral from Paradise in Eden to Paradise in a better World And as to the Spiritual part of the Command that certainly is so far from being abated by the Gospel-Oeconomy that it is rather set higher There is none deny the Christian is bound to the Spiritual Rest onely some tell us and that not without Reason that this is our Duty for our whole life and not for one day in the week onely I embrace with all my heart this Doctrine of Christian peoples being obliged to endeavour their whole life may be a Spiritual Sabbath a Rest from Sin Carnality Voluptuousness c. And I onely desire we may hold to it Let all those therefore who hold this Doctrine pardon me if I adventure according to their Concessions Minus aequo petere ut aequum feram to intreat them and all Christian People but to keep the Lords day as such a Spiritual Rest In plain terms I would desire no more towards the keeping Holy the Lords day than that the Christians of the present Age would in private keep the Lords day as perfectly a Spiritual Sabbath as the Primitive Christians did every day in the week onely with this Addition That what publick Offices the Primitive Christians observed constantly on each Lords day may also be observed thereon by us at present and what Liberties they forbore always may be forborn on this day The point of controversy falls mainly on private or Family-duties These some men cannot endure that all Christian People should be obliged to And for the shifting off the necessity of these and setting the ordinary people free to Games and Sports on the Lords Day-afternoon diverse Laborious and some truely not unlearned Books have been written Wherein I must confess I cannot but wonder to see Protestant Doctors hunt for and greedily snap those Nice distinctions in use with the Popish Schools for the defence of the corruptions of their Church and gravely apply them for the decision of Cases of Conscience against their Protestant Brethren I will 〈◊〉 lanch forth into particulars of Controversy but instead thereof pursuant to what I now desired onely lay down two conclusions which I suppose must approve themselves by their own intrinsick Evidence without Controversy to the conscience of all who understand and will consider them 1. None who call themselves Christians may in this Age make such Liberties Sports Games and Recreations as it cannot be proved the Primitive Christians allowed themselves on any days to be their ordinary divertisments on the Lords Day And if so I am sure Cards Dice Tables c. within doors Dancing Pipeing Revells c. without doors must all be laid aside For none can shew the Antient Christians used these any daies On the contrary many Canons of the antient Councils severelly condemn them at all times especially to some Persons And if there should be any of our Clergy who plead for those within-door Games mentioned they will do well to consult the XLII Irish Canon and the Old Injunctions in the Reformation of King Edward and Queen Elizabeth whence most probably the Compilers of our Canons more immediatly took those parts of them and whence I hope they may be satisfied But to proceed I say 2dly In all doubtful cases it is still the best to take the safer side and that which in it self cannot be sinful but is Pious and commendable Now certainly upon the Lords day preparing our selves for our publick Devotions by private Prayer Examination of Conscience and composing our minds to a serious temper and awful apprehensions of God whom we are to worship before we go to Church Recollections in convenient time when we
even to himself Waving then what was extraordinary Let us attend to what is ordinary and ought to be constant We may and ought on the Lords Day to be 1 in Spiritual Exercises and 2 in a Spiritual temper for attending them Sect. 16 Spiritual Exercises I call the offices of Worship or ordinary duties Of Spiritual Exercises on the Lords Day of Devotion on the Lords Day and those are either Publick Private or Secret which cannot commonly be omitted without sin Publick duties are those which are performed in Church Assemblies And they are chiefly four in their Scripture Names Praying Singing Doctrine and Breaking of Bread There is no reason to surmise from what we have extant in the Acts and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians that any Lords Day in the Primitive Church passed without each of these in their Solemnity What amongst us is most neglected give me leave to touch upon Of which sort is constant communicating The Christian Church while it continued in any tolerable purity never spent a Lords Day without the Lords Supper on which of old it was more Scandalous for any Christians to turn their backs than it is now for Men amongst us to live Excommunicate this I could easily prove at large but must forbear And that our own Church esteems the Lords day but half celebrated without the Communion appears by her having provided a Communion Service for every Lords Day in the Year The Communion as we have heard was ever attended with a Collection for the Poor now called Oblations Never Eucharist without Offertory And this we have seen to be as ancient as St. Pauls planting the Gospel Doctrine was subdivided into Prophesying or Interpreting of Scripture which we now call Preaching into Reading Exhortation Teaching and perhaps otherwise Now the word commonly used for teaching is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Catechise This Office was of so great note in the Primitive Church that it was committed to some choice Person appointed purposely thereto but him commonly most learned And by Catechising I do not mean meer hearing young People repeat the words of their Catechism but expounding to them the Doctrine of it Examining them upon such Expositions and by all the several plainest ways possible inculcating these Doctrines till they understand them And for gaining reverence to this Office as well as for other reasons which I will not name Elder people ought to fit by In a word all forrein Churches outdo us herein And if we take not more care than yet usual amongst us as to this work we shall without a miracle in the next age go very neer to loose our Religion Private Duties I call those which are performed in private Families Parents Children Sojourners Servants joyning in Prayer and Praises to God and in reading his Word and other good Books as conveniency offers Secret Duties are such as every Christian should perform by themselves in the Closet or Retirements Such are Meditation self Examination Recollection of our improvements and in the close Prayer and Thanksgiving as occasion requires Section XVII Those who demand Proof for these being duties of the day will give me leave to ask them whether Proof for these Duties such practices in the Family or in the Closet be necessary and duties on any day If they be so there is no sufficient reason for their omission on the Lords day when by Law of God and Man there is most leisure for them Besides they will be pleased to consult Numbers xxviii 9 10. where they will find the peculiar sacrifice for the Sabbath both Morning and Evening was required of the Jews over and above the continual daily Burnt offering the like too upon the New Moons ver 24. and on other Festivals ver ult That which I infer from hence is that the publick Lords Days Worship and other Festival Offices must not supercede or abate our ordinary Private or Secret Devotions on those Dayes These are to be faithfully superaded to them Section XVIII This haply some will cry out is Fanaticism Puritanism Sabbatarianism and the like A Vindication of this Practice from ill imputations I answer there may be a Fanatical and perhaps a Pharisaical way too of doing these duties but the practice of the duties it self is not Fanatical or Pharisaical and much less is it Sabbatarianism We must make Fanaticks and Sabbatarians of the most Ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church and the most learned Doctors and Pillars of our own Church if we can find either Fanaticisme or Sabbatarianisme in spending the whole Lords day in a succession or holy exchange of such Duties as these mentioned Justin Martyr was no Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet in his second Apology he tells us the Christians of that age which was but one hundred and forty Years from Christ used to repeat at home what they had learned that day in the Publick Assembly Origen and St. Chrysostome were no Fanaticks nor yet Sabbatarians yet both nay the later more than once press the spending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This whole day in the exercise of Spirituals And to wave others of the Ancients and come neerer home I scarce think any Son of the present Church will adventure to brand the Reformation in King Edward the Sixths days with Fanaticisim or Sabbatarianism yet under that I find a Canon acknowledged for spending the Lords Day in private Prayer and Thanksgiving acknowledging our Offences reconciling our selves to our Brethren visiting the Sick comforting the Afflicted relieving the Poor and instructing Children and Servants in the nurture and fear of the Lord. But to be sure the Authors of the Book of Homilies we must not say were either Fanaticks or Sabbatarians For the Homilies we are bound still to subscribe and approve at least if not publickly to read yet they teach that on this day people shauld cease from all common and bodily labour and give themselves Wholly note that word to the exercises of Gods true Religion Arch Bishop Whitgift against the Admonitioners was no Fanatick Puritan or Sabbatarian yet saith he no man doubteth the meaning of these words Six days shalt thou labour c. to be this that seing God hath permitted us Six days to do our own works in we ought in the Seventh Wholly to serve him Bishop Francis White in his Book against the Sabbatarians was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he tells us our Church requires that upon the Lords day Parents and Masters instruct their Children and Servants in the fear and nurture of the Lord. Mr. Hooker was neither Fanatick nor Sabbatarian yet he teaches we are to account the Sanctification of one Whole day in the week a Duty which Gods immutable Law doth enact for ever Finally I believe no sober man will say that Excellent Book The Whole duty of man savours either of Fanaticism or Sabbatarianism yet Partit 2. Sect. 17. The Author teaches all in their Families the practice I have perswaded
mean the eldest Records of our Christianity I must for that brevity's sake which use has made necessary wave the deductions I had prepared at length from the Law of Nature as to this matter and say in few words summarily Sect. IV Nature teaches God is publickly to be worshipped Publick Worship cannot Natural reason for a Sabbath be without times publickly ascertained for it If such times be either too short or too seldom returning the impressions of God of Holyness and of an Unseen World which such Publick Worship is designed to make on the Worshippers will either be very slight or by infrequency defaced beyond recovery In either of which cases the worship is rendred unprofitable Further since 't is impossible for us intirely to attend two things at once therefore on such days as this Publick Worship is to be paid common business is to be laid aside There must then through all Bodies or Societies of People be frequent vacations from ordinary Employments for the Publick Worship of God That is a Sabbath or fixt and certain time of holy rest for the publick Offices of Religion is from Nature Sect. V For such reasons as these to come briefly to Law positive we may The first institution of a Sabbath in Paradise with humble reverence conceive it was that the most holy and wise God has provided there should be extant a very early Revelation and most ancient Record of his resting immediately upon the finishing of the Creation Gen. ii v. 1 2 3. Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them and on the Seventh day God ended his work which he had made and rested the Seventh day from all his works which he had made and God blessed the Seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made By these words there must be designed either a direct Command given or at least a precedent in the Oeconomy of God's actions proposed which might be instead of a Command for keeping a Seventh day from the begining Holy unto God For mine own part I am of the mind with the * Rivet alledges 30 of the Reformed Divines beyond Sea Besides diverse of the Fathers and even of the Romanists Dissert de Orig. Sabbat cap. 1 generality of Interpreters both antient and modern It is a Command For what less can be meant by Gods blessing the Seventh day and sanctifying it Let blessing it signifie what it can sanctifying it in the very primary sense of the word signifies separating it namely to Religious purposes Now how could it be thus separated without a Command Sect. VI The conceit of a Prolepsis here or that this was spoken and recorded Objections answered out of time only as a kind of antedating the Fourth Commandment besides that it is forced if not rash and with all likelihood in that great person who first advanced the Notion due meerely to an excess of zeal against Judaism is no better than a bold begging of the Question without any ground in the Text or Context rather indeed against the manifest import and scope of both For 't is plain thence that the Six days and the works thereof being ended God did then or on that first Seventh day of time actualy rest that is as St. Austin expounds it cease from making other kinds of Creatures But how incongruous is it to refer things spoken continuedly and connected as done in one and the same instant to refer such things I say to so distant parts of time viz. Gods resting to the first Seventh day of time and his blessing and sanctifying the Seventh day to another like Seventh day above two thousand-years after This is forcing wide asunder what God joined Who can digest this Paraphrase on the Text God having finisht his Six days work then Rested the Seventh day and two thousand five hundred and fourteen years after he Sanctified the like day of the Week or appointed it to be kept Holy If so I say here are two Seventh days spoken of in one and the same word the Seventh day whereon God rested and the Seventh day which recurred in the weekly course so long after which I think all men of sense must acknowledge to be as great a violence as was ever used to a word and never allowed in interpreting any other place of Scripture wherefore not to be admitted here Add hereto that when this Institution came to be reinforced at Sinai the observation of the Sabbath having been discontinued by the Israelites during their travel and perhaps during their bondage too the very wording of the Command bespeaks the thing commanded to have been of elder use For Remembring is of things formerly known Now Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy is the very letter of the Text On which the Jews tell us as Tertullian hinself reports it that God sanctifyed the Seventh day from the beginning by resting thereon from all his works and therefore Moses said Remember the Sabbath day If it be objected the sanctifying a Seventh day could be no Command from the beginning for then we should have had it amongst the Precepts of the Sons of Noah I answer to say nothing of the uncertainty of the Tradition of those Precepts any otherwise than as they are grounded in Moses's writings Neither have we in these Precepts any mention of Sacrifices of Prayer of a Priesthood c. Yet are we sure that Adam had Command or which is much the same Directions or Revelations from God touching all these And that they were practised by him and his posterity before the Law If it be said these were included in the Precept Gnal Birkath Hashshem touching Divine Worship or against profaning the Name of God for I think the words may be rendred either way I say so may this of the Sabbath well be too and the rather in as much as it being impossible to perform an outward act without time the same Law which commands that Act must be understood to command time for the doing it Sect VII But supposing not granting no proper command then given yet Gods Example Obligatory can it not be denyed that God by declaring and causing to be recorded this his Procedure of gradually finishing all his works in Six days and resting the Seventh did propose his practice as a precedent to our first Parents for their Ordinary passing their time God was under no necessity to take up Six days in making the World He could have done it had he pleased in Six hours Nay in Six minutes Nor was he under any fatigue by working so that he needed to talk of resting therefore his proceeding thus and not wraping up his procedure in darkness and silence but making all matter of Revelation and a standing Record plainly shews he design'd thereby to teach Adam and in him all mankind they were neither to live Idle any of their days for God