within three days what day of our week that five and twentieth day of March was which was the first day of the Creation All the art and indeavour of man is not sufficient to find out whether the first day of the Creation was Sunday or Satcrday or Munday c. and therefore not whether the day of Gods rest was Thursday Friday Saterday c. Let it yet be further granted that it was Sunday on which the first day of the Creation began and therefore the day of Gods rest must then have his beginning on Saterday No man can for all that tell within eleven houres at what time of the Sunday the first day of the Creation or at what time of the Saterday the day of Gods rest began either here or in Virginea or in Rome Ierusalem Paradise or in any other place whatsoever whether it was at Sun-rising Sun-setting Noone or at the houre of one or two c. in the forenoon or afternoon Wherefore if by the seventh here commanded had been meant an universal day it must be then that seventh universal day on which God rested the which cannot be observed by men because they cannot tell on what day of their week nor about what time of their day they should begin the observation thereof Secondly an universal day such as was the day of Gods rest cannot be observed of all the People of God Though it should be granted what is of some believed that the day of Gods rest began in Paradise on Saterday and at the rising of the Sun there yet all Gods People cannot observe that very day For 1. The earth being global and the true longitude of the place where Paradise was being unknown no man can tell when to begin that day in the place where he liveth We know when it is Saterday in some places it is then Sunday or Friday in some other places We know that when Christ rose from the grave it was then Sunday at Jerusalem in the forenoon and we know that it was then Saterday in Virginea in the afternoon but no man can knowingly say that the day of Gods rest beginneth on the Saterday in the forenoon with him though it be granted that it so began in Paradise 2. Though the day of Gods rest or any other universal day be made known unto men at what time and on what day it began in Paradise and the very place where Paradise was be made known also Yet all Gods people could not possibly keep that very day of Gods rest By reason of the diversity of longitudes of the places wherein they may live they cannot keep all of them one and the same day This hath been proved unto us fully and plainly even by the opposers of the Sabbath Dr. Heylyn hath even demonstrated the same that men could not possibly have kept one and the same day for their Sabbath had it been commanded a Heyl. part 1. pag. 45 46 47 48. And further sheweth that the Iewes themselves kept not the very day of Gods rest b Page 125. though they had one day in seven set apart for holy rest and meditation Mr. Ironside also c Irons chaf 18. pag. 164. from the diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Iewes in the East-parts and West-parts too of Iudea and in Babylon and in Rome by reason of their diversity of longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three degrees difference of longitude yet will that difference make the dayes as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three though it will not make them so much to differ The like argument hath Doctor Francis White late Bishop of Ely f Dr. Francis White in his of the Sabbath Page 175. and divers others Wherefore sith the universal day such as was the day of Gods rest cannot be possibly kept by all Gods people no more then any other set particular day can it is not the day here commanded by the Lord The Sabbath-day here commanded to be kept holy is such a kinde of day as may be known kept and observed by men wheresoever they inhabit though in many and divers longitudes of the earth Such as might have been kept in the wildernesse where the law was delivered and in the East and West-parts of Canaan and in Babylon Rome Spain and in all other habitable places and therefore ought to be either an Horizontal or else a Meridional day In all places of the world none other but Horizontal or Meridional dayes are now or at any other time heretofore have been in use with men for measuring out unto them their seven dayes or week and such as are their six dayes of the week for labour such ought the seventh day even the day for holy rest to be also The Sabbath-day with the Iewes was an Horizontal day but then such were the other days of their week also and what Nation soever have their week to consist of Horizontal dayes ought to have their Sabbath-day to be so also In the North of Russia and of the King of Denmarks and Queen of Swedens Countreys where the Sun maketh many Revolutions at some seasons of the year between his rising and setting men cannot count their week by Horizontal dayes but they do and have counted their weeks by Meridional dayes And so do all Christians generally of what longitude or latitude of the earth soever they are of mete out their weeks by Meridional dayes then such ought their seventh day of their week to be also CHAP. VIII What day the Sabbath is to be in order or tale NOw is to be shown what day in tale is to be the Lords day or Sabbath of the Lord and this the Law-giver himselfe hath plainly pointed out unto us in this law to be the day following the six dayes of labour so that none need to say the knowledge hereof is hidden from us who shall ascend for us into heaven and bring the knowledge thereof to us that we may know it and observe it But it is clearly demonstrated unto us by the Lord God so that he that worketh with the Spade may know the same as well as he that handleth the pen. Six dayes shalt thou labour and c. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The seventh day that is the day following the six known dayes of labour is none of ours it is the Lords day We may not make the Sabbath-day to be the sixth day for then we should shew our selves unthankful in not receiving the Lords own bountiful allowance nor the eighth day for then we should encroach on the Lords right and not be contented with his liberal allowance of six dayes for our selves reserving only the seventh for himself much lesse ought we to
afterward was held and maintained by the ancient Fathers that the earth was not round but plain as a Championfield They thought there could be no dwellers under the earth which go foot to foot against us and that if there should be any Antipodes imagined yet them not to be Adams Posterity whom they held to have all dwelt upon the earth and to have been all drowned except eight persons when Noahs flood covered all the face of the earth So strong did this opinion prevail with the said Fathers as that whoever held the contrary was counted near as bad as an Heretick Witnesse Vigilius whom some call Virgilius who was complained of by Boniface unto Zachary then Pope and was degraded for holding that there were Antipodes and that they had a Sun and Moon to shine unto them as well as to us This story may be seen in Aventine a Aven Annal. Bar. l. 3. and in Baronius who sought to cover the fact with fig-leaves Now that the adversaries to the Morality of this law held all those tenents before-said and that they all sprang from this errour of the earth 's supposed plain superficies I will next shew For the clearing whereof I need not cite many of them one may serve for all being approved by them all Neither will I tell here all that he writes hereabout but that which chiefly concernes the point in hand Mr. Ironside a Reverend Divine and of singular gifts and parts but over-swayed by the stream of late times doth in his book called the Seven Questions of the Sabbath dedicated to the late Arch-bishop of Canterbury William Laud tell us First that it is necessary not only for the learned but also for the weak and inferiour sort of people to know to a minute when the Lords day or Sabbath doth begin and when it doth end and that for two special reasons The one is for the Peace and quiet of their consciences which else would be wounded and disquieted The other is for that unlesse the very day and the whole day be kept to a Minute all the duties done on that day are lost His words are these It is necessary to inquire of the dimensions of this day of what duration and continuance of time it must be a Irens 7. Quest pag. 2. Amongst those things which disquiet and perplex the Consciences of the weak concerning the Lords day this is not the least where it is to begin and how long it lasteth For God requiring of us perfect and intire obedience without diminution or defalcation unlesse every minute of time which the Lord requireth of us as his tribute and homage be duly tendred to him our whole labour bestowed upon the parts and pieces of the day is not regarded b Page 126. It is also that which concerns the most sort of our inferiour People to be satisfied in lest the Commandment requiring one thing their employments another they many times wound their consciences and rob themselves of that Peace which otherwise they might enjoy c Page 127. 2ly that God might have his due tribute and the weak if they will may keep their consciences quiet in observing the true and full time of the Sabbath he setteth down the precise day of the Sabbath as he conceiveth and the exact time to a minute when the Sabbath-day is to begin As for the day he tells us that the Sabbath-day must be precisely the day of Gods rest Thus Assoon as God had ended his work he ordained and appointed that the seventh day the day of his own rest else he will not conceive that it can be the seventh day should be that on which the Church should rest d Page 21. Vnlesse we rest that very seventh day in which God rested we no more resemble his rest then a man that hath a ladder resembles Jacob that had a vision of a ladder c Page 90. As for the exact time when the Sabbath is to begin and end he tells us that the very minute in which the Sun is in the Horizon at his rising is the true beginning of the day and he proveth that it must so be for that when the fourth day at the Creation began the Sun was then in the Horizon at his rising so that any of the inferiour sort of people he before spake of may by looking in his Almanack tell to a minute if Mr. Ironsides rule faile him not at any time throughout all the year and in any place through out the world when the 4th day of the Creation and the very day of Gods rest and so consequently when the Sabbath beginneth These are his words If the natural day be measured by the Revolution of the Sunne as all confesse sure it is that until the Sun begin his course the day cannot begin At what time now did the Sun set forth upon the fourth day at the Creation Common reason will say when he first appeared in the Horizon The rising therefore of the Sun in the Horizon must needs be the first Period of the natural day a I rons 7. Qu pag c 123. 3ly he tels us that the Jews sabbath-Sabbath-day was the day of Gods rest and the same with that which God blessed sanctified making no difference between all these three His words are these That particular sabbath-Sabbath-day given unto the Jews even the day of Gods rest is not a Sabbath but the Sabbath even that which God sanctifyed The Sabbath must be the same with the seventh or else there is no tolerable sense or congruity in that law b Page 70. Whereas he saith the same with the 7th he meaneth by the 7th the 7th day from the Creation even the very day of Gods rest which he proved to begin at the rising of the Sun like as the 4th day did Now whereas some may and that not without just cause doubt how the day of Gods rest which began at Sun-rising as he saith and the Jews Sabbath which ever began at the setting of the Sun whersoever they dwelt could be one and the same day Sith that they as well in respect of their beginnings as also in respect of their endings are heavenly wide the one from the other even as farre as the Sun-rising is distant from Sun-setting between both which there must be half a dayes difference And so the day of Gods rest must begin either at Sun-rising before the Jews Sabbath-day began or at the Sun-rising after If at the Sun-rising before that is on the Friday morning then the Turks Sabbath so Doctor Heylin calleth it may more truly be called the day of Gods rest a Heyl. part 1. pag. 48. then that of the Jews But if at the Sun-rising after then our Christian Sabbath-day ever began on the day of Gods rest the which the Jews Sabbath never did For the wiping off this and all such doubts Mr. Ironside tells us both at what time and also by what means the day
and the same day Sith it was the fourteenth day at Even when he ate the Passeover and gave then his body and blood Sacramentally when he instituted the Lords Supper but it was the fifteenth day when he wrought our full Redemption and actually and really gave his body and blood for us on the Crosse The answer to both these are the same It was on one and the same day of their week but not of their moneth for it was on the fourteenth day of Abib on which the Israelites ate the Passeover in Egypt but their going out of Egypt from Rameses was on the fifteenth day So also Christ are the Passeover with his disciples on the fourteenth day of the first moneth according to the law of the Passeover but he was crucified on the next day which was the fifteenth day In the fourteenth day of the first moneth at Even is the Lords Passeover and on the fifteenth day of the same moneth is the Feast f Numb 28.16 17. Lev. 23.5 6. Yet both in one and the same day of their week for the dayes of their week ever after their freedom from slavery were as I shewed before Horizontal dayes every of which began at the Sun-setting of the former day at the time they ate the Passeover in Egypt so they were commanded to begin their Sabbath-dayes g Lev. 23.32 and therefore so also did they begin the dayes of their week called the Sabbath for meting out to them their Sabbath-dayes And herein the Romanists do not a little Judaize who continued the like custome of beginning all their sacred dayes as Lyranus tells us In diem feriam viz. decimam quartam c. On the fourteenth day of the moneth in the Even whereof the Lamb was sacrificed and the solemnity of the Passeover began which was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the moneth According to which custome the solemnities of our Church do begin with the evening of the day before going a Lyra. Postil in Joan. 13. Christ with the disciples ate the Passeover and was crucified also on one and the same week-day which was the sixth day of the week with the Iewes which consisted partly of our Thursday and partly of our Friday as their Sabbath-day consisted partly of our Friday and partly of our Saterday 2. If it be demanded Whether the demand made by the disciples where they should prepare the Passeover and their killing the Paschal Lambe and their eating the Passeover and Peters denial and the Cocks crowing were all done in the same day The answer hereto is like the former They were done in the same day of the moneth but not in the same day of their week The disciples demand the killing and preparing the Passeover was all in the fifth day of their week but their eating it and Peters denial and the Cocks crowing were done on the sixth day of their week Yet all on the fourteenth day of the moneth and all done on our day of the week which we call Thursday 3. If it be demanded How we may conceive it to be on the first day of unleavened bread in which the disciples asked of Christ where they should prepare for him to eate the Passeover Sith the Evangelists Mark and Luke do affirm it to be on that day c Mar. 14.12 Luke 22.7 yet the first of the seven days of unleavened bread began not til the time of eating the Passeover The answer is as before The first day of the week of unleavened bread was not then begun but the first day of the moneth of unleavened bread was begun long before Though there was just one week or seven dayes of unleavened bread yet were there eight dayes of the moneth of unleavened bread On the fourteenth day of the first moneth they were commanded to eat unleavened bread and so to the one and twentieth day at even d Ex. 12.18 From the Even of the one to the Even of the other was just a week or seven dayes but sith they began to eat unleavened bread on the fourteenth day according to the Commandment that fourteenth day of the moneth was properly their first day of unleavened bread and the one and twentieth was the eigth or last Thus St. Matthew calleth the first of those eight days in which they ate unleavened bread the first day of the feast of unleavened bread f Mat. 26.17 The like answer is made unto those who object out of Iohn 13 a Iohn 13.1 that Christ ate not the Passeover on the feast-day of the Passeover but on the day beforegoing And many more such like questions and doubts may hereby be resolved CHAP. VII What kinde of day the Sabbath-day is Not known when the day of Gods rest beginneth THe Sabbath-day of the Lord is not an Artificial day which hath no night nor is but a part of the Horizontal day a See chap. 1. For the Sabbath-day is proportionable unto the other six dayes of the week allowed for labour every of which hath a night or darknesse as well as day-light and in which night men may as lawfully labour as in the day-light Ioseph and Mary fled by night b Mat. 2.14 The disciples of Christ rowed by night and in the fourth watch of the night Iesus went to them c Mat. 14.25 Some Countreys are so hot that their chiefest work is in the night and so dangerous by reason of wilde beasts that their chiefest care over their flocks is by night Iacobs special care over Labans flock was such d Gen. 31.40 And when Christ was borne an Angel brought the glad tidings thereof to the Shepherds by night as they were watching their flocks e Luke 2.8 If the six dayes of labour which God alloweth man be such as have nights as wel as day-lights then such ought the sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord to be also Neither is the sabbath-Sabbath-day here commanded an Universal day such as was the very day of Gods rest For then there would have been an impossibility in respect of the thing it self for men to keep the same and that for these two reasons First it is unpossible for any man to know within halfe a year what time of the year it is with us when the first yeare of the world began Some have presumed to tell the same to a day and in the Calendar prefixed to our Church-Bibles and Common-Prayer-books suppose it to be the five and twentieth day of March and there the same day is supposed to be that in which Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary which if granted the thirtieth day of the same moneth of March must be yearly the day of Gods rest For if one be the first day of the Creation the other must be the seventh Again let it be as supposed so granted that the 25. day of March yearly is truly the first day of the Creation yet not a man living is there that can tell
not to others also Incredible is it that Noah should teach the knowledge thereof to Sem only and not to Cham and Japhet too and that Sem should reveal the same to Arphaxad only keeping it as a secret from all other his sonnes and daughters and that Arphaxad should do the like unto Sala and he to Heber and he to Peleg and he to Reu and he to Serug and he to Nahor and he to Terah and he to Abraham and that none of them should impart that knowledge to any other of their sonnes and daughters and that the remembrance as well of the seventh day as of the Creation was wholly extinct with Abraham Without all peradventure Cham and Japhet and their Posterities had and retained the knowledge thereof for many generations some of them to the dayes of the before-named Poets and long after too Orpheus Aeschylus Aratus Pindarus Epicharmus and others mentioned by Clemens could else never have spoken so truly of Jehovah whom they called Jove as he relateth them to have done a Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 5. Sixthly from the testimony of those who have been the chief Writers against the Sabbath 1. Mr. Ironside professeth that he maketh no question but that the Heathen who never heard of a seventh-day Sabbath have weeks as well as moneths and years b Irons chap. 4. But he thinks they had the knowledge hereof by the subdivision of moneths as if knowing most of our moneths to consist of one and thirty dayes by subdividing them there must be just seven rather then eight dayes to the week And a little after It is true saith he that Clemens Alexandrinus brings many Authorities out of Homer Hesiod and Callimachus to prove that the very Heathen knew that the seventh day was to be kept holy c Irons chap. 9. which they could not know or do without the observation of weeks but herein he holds them to be thieves of holy things having stolne this light out of Moscs writings which they had translated whereas the Heathen had not Moses books translated hundreds of years after Homer as I before shewed concerning which I referre the Reader to that learned Discourse of John Gregory of the seventy Interpreters 2. Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath and in the second part tells us That Christians of the first ages called the dayes of the week according as they found the time divided and that we retaine those names amongst us whereat some are become offended which were commended to us by our Ancestors and to them by theirs a He l. Part. 2 pag. 61. He sheweth out of Polydore Virgil that Pope Sylvester hating the name and memory of the Gentile gods by whose names they called the week-dayes gave order that the dayes should be called by the name of Feriae and the distinction to be made by Prima feria Secunda feria c. And out of Honorius Augustodunensis that the Hebrewes call their dayes he meaneth their week-dayes the first of the Sabbath c. The Pagans thus The day of the Sun the day of the Moon c. And Christians thus The Lords day Feria Prima c b Page 62. He saith further That they are more nice then wise who out of a desire to have all things new would have new names for every day of the week he meaneth or call them as sometimes they were The first day of the week the second day of the week c. and all for feare lest it be thought that we do still adore those gods whom the Gentiles worshipped St. Augustine as it seems had met with some this way affected and thus disputes the Case with Faustus Manichaeus The Gentiles saith the Father gave unto every day of the week the name of one or other of their gods and so they did also unto every moneth If then we keep the name of March and not think of Mars why may we not preserve the day of Saturn and not think of Saturn Dr. Heylin addeth Why may we then not keep the name of Sunday and not think of Phoebus or Apollo or by what other name soever the old Poets call him a Heyl. par 2. Pag. 63. 3. Dr. Francis White late Bishop of Ely who hath also written against the Morality of the Sabbath doth yet acknowledge one day in seven for Gods worship to be most agreeable to reason b Dr. White de Sab. pag. 90 107 151. which presupposeth weeks to be from the beginning unlesse men were then void of reason 4. Gomarus also who hath stoutly written against the Sabbath doth confesse that Methuselah Sem and Abraham retained the knowledge of the Creation and of the seventh day c Gomar de Sab. p. 113. though he will at no hand grant that they kept it holy yet their retaining the memory and knowledge of the seventh day proveth them to have observation of weeks Seventhly they who compiled the book of Homilies tell us That it is according to the law of nature to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest from our lawful works d Hom. for the time of Prayer but this could never be done without the observation of weeks Lastly Dr. Twisse sheweth and proveth that the distinction of time by weeks was observed by the Gentiles from all Antiquity and confirmeth the same out of many learned Writers to whose book of the Morality of the fourth Commandment I referre the Reader and therein chiefly to these pages 12 13 15 59 60 63 77 78 151 152 153 189 199 200 208. to 214. As also to Rivetus de Origine Sabbati and therein chiefly to the pages 15.16 63 64 65 66. to 81. CHAP. XIV Objection against Antiquity of weeks answered The hourely Government of the Planets is feigned THere be many who have published abroad to the world that there is a certain hourly Rule or Government which the planets have given them of the Creator by which every of them successively and in a vicissitude doth govern his houre according to this common distich Cynthia Mercurius Venus Sol Mars Jove Satur Ordine retrogado sibi quivis vindicat horam Hence they say that until this hourely Government was by skilful Astronomers found out and known the Gentiles had no weeks and having no weeks they could not have the seventh day sacred supposing none before this to have weeks but the Jewes only and therefore none but they to have a Sabbath-day Among many other Doctor Heylin was of this opinion who from hence doth argue the Sabbath-day not to be moral being not observed or known but by the Jewes only He would have us take it for granted that no Nation without the knowledge of Astrology the Jewes excepted whereby men came first to know the planets hourely Government and so consequently what planet governed the first houre in every day could have weeks or call the week-dayes by the names of the planets The
and not ours it is The Sabbath of the Lord thy God as it is in this place in our Bibles so translated it is saith God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sabbath to the Lord that is a Rest or Cessation to the Lord as before I have shewed d See Chap. 8. It is a day holy to the Lord and therefore none other then the Lords All the tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree in the time of the law was the Lords f Levit. 27.30 and so was the tithe of the herd or of the flock even of whatsoever passed under the rod g Verse 32. for the tithe of all these were holy to the Lord h Verse 30.32 and therefore they were the Lords they were his seed his fruit his Lambes c. One Lambe was no more holy then another when they fell from their Dammes and before they were tithed out the Possessor of them might have mingled them at his pleasure he was not tied to begin his tithing at one Lambe rather then at another but from what Lambe soever he began every tenth Lambe that in order passed under the rod was the Lords he might not then change it nor search whether it was good or bad k Verse 33. it was then holy to the Lord it was the Lords Lambe and of such as detained the tenth the Lord complained that they had robbed him l Mal. 3.8 9. And so I say concerning the seventh day in the like sense That one day of it self is no more holy then is another Christians were not tied by any divine law to begin their week or sevening from any set particular time but they continuing their accustomed week and so beginning their sevening from the day of Christs Resurrection the seventh from thence in an orderly course is sacred to the Lord it is the Lords day no man upon his particular occasions may change the same he may not say My businesse is such that I cannot keep this Sabbath-day but I will keep another day in the week which will be as good He doth deceive himself herein he may not put off the seventh to another day but should defer his businesse rather When men take the seventh day which is sacred to the Lord and imploy the same about their own businesse either in whole or in part they may as truly be said to rob the Lord as they under the law were said so to do in not paying their due tithes and offerings m Mal. 3 8 9. Sixthly the Lord was pleased to set out unto us the ground of this law why he would have a day in a week appointed for his worship rather then a week in every moneth or a moneth in every yeare And why he would have the seventh day for his service rather then the tenth the ground hereof the Lord here sheweth to be this In six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day The same ground for the sanctification of the seventh day is also declared before in Genesis n Gen. 2.3 Seventhly the Lord declareth and he would have his People hereby to know that he hath annexed a blessing unto this day God blessed the seventh day They who wait on the Lord and serve him sincerely during this their day of attendance shall finde the Lord a bountiful rewarder their ceasing from labour for doing him service shall be for their profit they shall be gainers thereby Lastly if there had been none other reason or motive to stir us up unto obedience in a careful keeping of the seventh day unto the honour of God yet this alone which the Lord hath given in the close of this Commandment should suffice The Lord hath sanctified it God hath instituted it But when the Lord hath given us such a special charge of remembring the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it and hath so plainly pointed out unto us what the day is whith he will have us to sanctifie that none may plead ignorance about the time and how many words the Lord used in prohibiting all works and in the enumeration of all degrees prohibited laying down also the equity hereof his own example together with his blessing it and his sovereign institution hereof how can any without palpable ignorance or wilful rebellion plead ignorance of the Sabbath or knowing it not yield ready obedience thereto Imprimatur JOHN DOWNAME A POSTSCRIPT To the READER I Pray thee before thou readest correct these faults which alter the sense the other though many amend in reading And when thou hast read this Tract consider seriously whether the day of rest the Seventh day in this law commanded to be observed do relate to the six dayes of Gods work or to the six dayes of mans labour It cannot relate to the six dayes of Gods work and so be the day of Gods rest unlesse the day of Gods rest and the Jews Sabbath-day be the same and begin in all places at Sun-setting whereever the Jews did or ought to observe their Sabbath which cannot possibly be except the earth be plain as I have shewed Or except the day of Gods rest did at the first and doth begin sooner in some places then in other and so first at one particular place when it was no where else the day of Gods rest either East or West thereto Both which are so against reason that no understanding man will hold either But if thou findest that the seventh day commanded doth relate as truly it doth to the six dayes of Labour with men and so must be the day following their six week-dayes of labour whereever they live then consider whether Sunday be not as truly the day following the six dayes of labour with Christians as Saterday was with the Jews and as truly the seventh day with Christians and by the expresse words of this law commanded to be kept holy as the Saterday was with the Jews If so what cause thinkest thou have Jews Antinomians Libertines or any other to scandalize or say of Christians that they do not nor at any time have observed the true time and day commanded of God in this law FINIS ERRATA PAge 3. line 28. the whole Read to the whole p. 6. l. 22. so if r. if so p. 7. l. 6. and the evening r. and the morning p. 12. l. 2. this r. his p. 22. l. 9. thirtieth r. one and thirtieth p. 35. l. 10. noâ—e thus their r. nose thus Their. p. 39 l. 33. Hemer r. Homer p. 39. l. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 28. Gallimachus r. Callimachus p. 69. l. 16. feigned r. been feigned p. 80. l. 1. Sabbathrsacred r. Sabbath or sacred p. 86. l. 22. betrer r. better In the Margin pag. 41. line 22. Det read Deut.
believing that the Apostles of Christ by the appointment of our Saviour changed the old Sabbath so they call the Seventh-day Sabbath to the Sabbath of the first day of the week so that now the Church of God is to rest before they labour and unto not from their labour 3. Some again knowing that the Jewes Saterday-Sabbath was Ceremonial and abrogated do thence hold and maintain the Seventh-day Sabbath to be abrogated also and for that they know not any other Sabbath-day appointed by divine Authority in stead thereof do inferre that Christians now in time of the Gospel are to have and keep no Sabbath-day at all Thus kinde Reader I have shewed thee the ground and cause of these various and different opinions about the Sabbath-day Whence have issued most if not all the Controversies that are now on foot between them The only mean to stop all future Controversies and bring all sides to accord in one truth about the Sabbath-day is to take away and wipe off from their mindes the aforesaid errour which occasioned all their differences For as long as they or any side of them hold that the seventh day which God blessed and sanctified and commanded to be observed by all his people doth relate to the six dayes of Gods work and not of mans that is as long as they hold the seventh day here commanded to be the very day of Gods rest the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation they will never come to agree in the truth but more and more differences will still rise Whereas if they all consent in the true understanding of the aforesaid words of the Commandment that the seventh day relateth to the six dayes of work with men and so must be the day after the six week-dayes of labour with people whereever they dwell Agreement then of all sides will be had That great stumbling block given the Jewes of our not keeping the seventh day according to Gods Precept and Example which doth so stave them off from affecting our Religion will be wholly taken away they cannot then but acknowledge that we keep the seventh day of the week the day following our six dayes of labour the very Sabbath-day pointed out unto us here in this law They also who now stand for a new Sabbath-day who say the Sabbath-day is changed and the first day of the week to have been instituted in stead of the seventh will have no ground for such their assertion And lastly they who say the Church of Christ never observed the Sabbath since Christs Ascension and would from the practice of the Apostles and the Church of Christ argue the abrogation of the Seventh-day-Sabbath will quickly be of another minde and acknowledge that as the Jewes observed that day for their Sabbath which in this law was commanded by the Lord God so Christians also have ever done they have observed the same day the last day of the week the day following their six dayes of labour according to Gods example But Courteous Reader haply thou doubtest here and wouldest be satisfied that whereas God commandeth by this law all his obedient children to keep the seventh day of the week which is the Sabbath-day holy unto his honour If the Jewes then keep the Sabbath-day on the seventh day of the week according to Gods command How can Christians who keep their Sabbath a whole day after be said to keep their Sabbath on the seventh day of the week too according to Gods Commandment For thy satisfaction herein let me now ask thee one Question like unto thine thine answer to mine will satisfie thine owne Suppose the Pope made a decree that all his obedient children should keep the 25. day of December which is Christmas day holy to the honour of Christ If the French then keep Christmas-day on the 25. of December according to the Popes decree How can the English Papists who keep their Christmas-day full ten dayes after be said to keep their Christmas-day on the 25. day of December too according to the Popes decree Thou wilt answer me that the French and English Papists did all of them keep their christians-Christians-day on the same day of the moneth on the 25 day of December according to the Popes decree and that the reason why the 25. day of December with the French came to be ten dayes sooner then with the English was for that they began their moneths sooner by ten dayes then the English did ever since Pope Gregory altered their year The like answer I give thee the Iewes and Christians all of them keep their Sabbath on the same day of the week on the seventh day of the week and that the reason why the seventh day of the week with the Iewes came to be a day sooner then it did with Christians was because they began their week a day sooner then they did before and sooner then the Gentiles did and Christians now do and that did they ever since the Lord caused them after their coming out of Egypt to alter their year and their moneths as I have shewed in the 3. and 10. Chapters more fully So that if we could agree in the true understanding of the aforesaid words of the Commandment that by the seventh day is not meant the day following Gods six dayes of work but the day following mens six dayes of labour all our controversies about the Sabbath-day will soon end Wherefore to clear and make apparent unto all men that this is the true meaning and that the said words of the Commandment are so to be understood I have in this ensuing Tract First discover'd that old and rotten root from whence this error of holding the day of Gods rest to be the same with the Jews Sabbath whereever they lived had its first spring and that was from a meer supposal of the earths superficies to be plain as a champion field as is shewed fully in the 11. Chap. Indeed if the earth be plain every day must be the same day with all people Every of the six dayes at the creation must be every where the same day of the week and so the seventh day from the first beginning of the creation the day of Gods rest must be the seventh day of the week with the the Jews in Judea in Ophir in Spain and in all other places the which cannot be if the earth be round as thou mayest see more at large in Chap. 11. Object But the dayes of the week begin sooner in some places then in other Then so may the day of Gods rest also Answ One and the same week-day doth not begin sooner in some places then in other The day which men call Sunday at Jerusalem begins sooner then the day we call Sunday here But they be not both one and the same day One and the same day is for one and the same place only If one and the same day should begin sooner in some places then in other then it must needs be
The Horizontal day is the time between Sun-rising and Sun-rising or between Sun-setting and Sun-setting The parts of the Horizontal day are two the one is the Artificial day or day light of which we may read of in Genesis a Gen. 1.5 14 16. and 8.22 and 31.39 the other part is the night or darknesse called by b Clav. de Sphoer Clavius the Artificial night and which in ancient times was divided with the Jewes into three watches the evening watch the middle watch and the morning watch but after that when they were subdued by the Romanes they divided the night as the Romanes did into four watches The Artificial day or day-light was anciently counted to be the former part of this day and the night the latter part and so not only before the Israelites coming out of Egypt but after their deliverance did they count this day so to begin in respect of their civil affairs as may appear First for that when the parts of this day were mentioned the morning was set before the night before the Israelites coming out of Egypt d Gen. 1.16 18. an 8.22 and 7 4 12.39.39 40. yea and commonly afterwards too f Lev. 8.35 Ex. 13.21 22. Numb 9.21 though they had the beginning of their dayes altered Secondly because at what time soever of the day-light they spake of the night following they expressed the same thus To night this night this same night a Gen. 19.34 and 26.24 1 Chron. 17.3 Numb 11.32 Ios 4.3 Iudg. 6.25 and 79. as belonging to the same day and not to the day after that And whenever they at any time of the day-light spake of the night past they never used such expressions whereby it may seem to belong as a part of the day following but contrariwise shewing it to be a part of the day before-going as yesternight b Gen. 31.42 and 19.33.34 the night of yesterday Also at night when they spake of the day following they used not to say To day or this day as they did of the day before-going but To morrow or the morrow after c Numb 33.3 1 Sam. 19.11 and to morrow signifieth another day d Mat. 6.34 Jam. 4.13 14. When the Israelites came out of Egypt the night was made the former part of the day even from that night in which they had their deliverance It was a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt This is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations e Exod. 12.42 They were commanded after that time to celebrate their Sabbath from Even to Even f Lev. 23.32 And therefore so did they begin their week-days also whereby their Sabbath-day was measured out to be unto them their seventh day otherwise their seventh day would not have been proportionable to their six dayes of labour Their yeare also had thenceforth a new beginning They must not begin their year in Tisri as they did before but with that moneth in which they had their freedome This moneth shall be unto you the beginning of moneths g Exod 12.2 This moneth called by the Hebrewes Abib h Exod. 13.4 and 23.15 Deut. 16.1 and by the Chaldeans Nisan k Esth 147. which consisted partly of our March and partly of April being with them the moneth after the Vernal Equinoctial was their first moneth thenceforth so that whereas before they began their year after their harvest and after all their in-gathering of the fruits of the earth was ended a Exod. 23.16 and 34.22 which was partly in our September after this they were to begin their year farthest off from that time They had then a new yeare and a new moneth and a new day to begin their year withal No otherwise then if the day of their deliverance had been their birth-day for their deliverance was a kinde of a new birth unto them The beginning of the yeare was then changed for the greater lustre unto the birth of the Church saith Calvin And a new time of the day had they to begin their first day of the yeare for their Caput anni or New-yeares day was a sacred day with them they began it at even at the going down of the Sunne at the season they came forth out of the land of Egypt h Deut. 16.6 then was their deliverance made and sealed up unto them in the Passeover So that although in respect of their Civil affairs they began their yeare their moneths and their dayes as they did before yet in this their New Ecclesiastical or Sacred yeare or Computation of time they began their day at Even All their sabbath-Sabbath-days and all other their sacred dayes and so all their week-dayes for measuring out unto them their sacred dayes began at the Even they had the evening to be the former part of the day And this may be one reason why Moses in rehearsing the works of Creation setteth the evening before the morning as I said before i See chap. 2. CHAP. IV. Meridional day what it is The parts thereof and which the former part THe Miridional day is the time from midnight to midnight or from noon to noon with any People or more largely thus The Meridional day with any People is that space of time in which the Sun is in going from their Meridian at midnight until it come into that part of their Meridian again at their next midnight Or else from their Meridian at noon until it come into that part of their Meridian again at noon The parts of the Meridional day are these two The Morning and the Evening The Morning is all that time in which the Sun is in its rising until it come unto its greatest height that is all the time between midnight and noon is the morning And the Evening is all the time the Sun is in its descending that is all the time between noon and midnight Thus Christians generally now do formerly have counted and called these parts of this day If common service unto God hath been done in Churches or Colledges at any time in the forenoon either at three foure six nine or eleven of the Clock it was commonly called by the name of Mattins Morning-service or Morning-Prayer and if it had been done at any time in the afternoon it was then commonly called Evening-Song Evening-Prayer Evening-service or such like though it had been done by day-light or by Candle-light So also the People of God did in ancient times divide the day into such parts one whereof they called the Morning and the other the Evening a Gen. 29.23 Eccles 11.6 1 Sam. 17.16 Ier. 6.4 though an act was done before day yet did they count it to be done in the morning b Gen. 31.55 Laban rose early in the night according to the vulgar translation which in ours is early in the morning
The like is said of Moses f Exod. 34.4 Mary Magdalene's coming to the Sepulchre was before day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the darknesse or night yet in being g Iohn 20.1 notwithstanding that time was counted to be in the morning and the time of our Saviours Resurrection was before that yet was it in the morning This kinde of day that is the Meridional day is and ever hath been in common use with all Christians who do and have counted the day as their Heathen ancestors did before them after midnight reckoning one two three and so to twelve of the Clock in the morning and the like in the afternoon for the evening So we at this time do begin the day from midnight making the morning to be the former part of the day and the evening the latter part So did the Egyptians who were for dividing and observing of time excellent and so did the Romanes and accordingly so did Christians begin the day from midnight Aegyptii Sacerdotes Romani à media nocte in alteram mediam noctem numerabant diem quae consuetudo adhuc in Ecclesia Romana permansit saith Clavius a Clav. in Sphaera Jo. de sacro Bos ubi de officiis Meridian In like manner did the Jewes begin the day with them in their ordinary common account of time making the morning to be the former part of the day though the Jewes from their coming out of Egypt began all their sacred dayes or Sabbaths from the time of the setting of the Sun d See chap. 3. and also the dayes serving to mete out to them their sacred dayes f Exod. 13.6 7. Lev. 23.5 6. Ex. 12.18 19 Deut. 16.4 all which were Sabbatical dayes and called by the Jewes The first day of the Sabbath the second day of the Sabbath c. for thus they called the dayes of their week or Sabbath Yet otherwise commonly and generally they continued to count their day to begin with the morning as before Never did they begin any day of their moneth but with the morning making the evening to be the latter part of the day As for instance the day before their coming out of Rameses was the fourteenth day of Abib g Num. 33.3 Ex. 12.6.18 In that night that is in the night of that fourteenth day they did eate the Passeover a Exod. 12.8 and in that night before the morrow they burned what of the Passeover they are not b Exod. 12.10 and not one after that till midnight was past and the morrow come was to go out of the door of his house c Exod. 12.22 At midnight all the first-born in Egypt were slain d Exod. 12.29 But the next day that is after midnight Pharaoh and the Egyptians urged them while it was night to rise and haste away Insomuch that the Israelites took their dough before it was leavened and so in haste went from Rameses f Exod. 12.30 31 32 33 34 37. Whence it is evident that the evening in which they ate the Passeover and were not to stir out of doors till the morning was part of the fourteenth day and that the time after midnight in which they were urged to haste away and in which they went abroad out of doors to provide their cattel to consult about their journey and their going from Rameses was on the fifteenth day They ate the Passeover on the fourteenth and took their journey on the fifteenth day h Numb 33.3 Secondly The flesh of the Peace-offering was to be eaten on the same day it was offered and might not be eaten after the whole evening was fully past The same may appear also if the offering had been a vow k Lev. 7.15 16 17 18. Thirdly the day in which Jesus Christ ate the Passeover with his disciples was the fourteenth day of the moneth on the same day Christs disciples asked him where they should provide and prepare for him to eat the Passeover and on the same day Peter denied his Master and the Cock crew m Mar. 14.30 Luke 22.34 I say the Question demanded of Christ by his disciples the killing the Paschal Lambe the eating the Passeover Peters denying this Master and the Cocks crowing were all done on one and the same day of the moneth though the eating the Passeover Peters denial and the Cocks crowing were done in the evening in the latter part of that fourteenth day The Astronomers especially and some others in ancient times began the Meridional day at noon John of Holifax telleth us that the Arabians began their day at noon and giveth this reason for it Because when the Sun was made and appeared to the world it was then in a Meridian p Jo. de sacr Bosc in libello de Computo Ecclesiastice In the day so beginning at noon they had the same parts of the day viz. morning and evening only they made the evening to be the former part And it is more probable then otherwise that when the Sun was made and first appeared to the world it was then in the same Meridian that Paradise was of making it then to be noon there At that time doth the Sun shew it self with the greatest light a Deut 28.29 Iob 11.17 5.14 Psal 37.6 Isa 59.10 Amos 8.9 lustre strength and glory making it to be Sun-rising ninety degrees from it westward and Sun-setting ninety degrees from it Eastward and day-light in all places in either side Now I see no reason and I think no man can give any to the contrary but that the Sun should rather thus appear in its glory unto Paradise first then unto Spain Judea America or to any other place whatsoever And then if so Moses had good reason even from hence to set the evening before the morning c See chap. 2. And then it is likely that God made the living creature after his kinde and Adam also in the afternoon and that in the night following I mean when it was night in Paradise though it was then day in some other places the deep sleep fell on Adam when God made the woman and that she was brought unto him in the morning The naming of the creatures may be after this for ought we know to the contrary yet all before the next evening that is before the next day beginning at noon there But if any will contend that unlesse there be better proofs given then probabilities we should not conceive the dayes of the Creation either the fourth sixth or seventh to begin in Paradise rather at noon then at midnight Sun-rising or at Sun-setting Yet sure it is more then probable that Moses would have the evening to begin at noon What else could he mean by the two Evenings which he in divers places mentioneth f Exod. 29.39 Numb 28.4 8. if he meant not thereby the time between noon and Sun-setting viz. the time between the evening of the day in
then in being 3. If it be supposed that none before the flood were such excellent Astrologers yet the Chaldees whose Religion was in adoring the Host of Heaven and in searching after the motions and effects of the Planets who bestowed their whole time therein even from their childehood who instructed their little children in the knowledge of the starres b Beëmus ubi dee Assyria as we teach children the Catechisme these I say of all other since the flood should have been the finders out of this Rule and Government of the Planets had there been any such among them A vanity is it to imagine that such an excellency should be kept secret from the Creation during thousands of yeares and not found out till in late times by some Egyptians of no note or name whereas the discoverers thereof had there been such a thing indeed found out deserved to have their names ingraven in marble for their lasting memory to all succeeding ages 4. If this hourely Government be really true then there can but one planet govern the first houre of one and the same day at one and the same place and which shall give name to that day if otherwise then this hourely rule is not sound but feigned Now we know that one and the same day at one and the same place may be Friday Saterday and Sunday to several persons I will clear this in Dr. Heylins own words Suppose saith he that a Turk a Jew and a Christian should dwell together at Jerusalem whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday the other on the Saterday and the third sanctifieth the Sunday a Heyl. part 1. p. 48. he would not call Sunday our Sabbath as he doth Friday the Turks Sabbath Then that upon the Saterday the Turk begin his journey Westward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the world do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going westward having lost a day and the Christian going Eastward having got a day one and the self-same day will be a Friday to the Turk a Saterday to the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian Sith then one and the same day came to be a Friday a Saterday and a Sunday unto these three by their travel there must be three several planets to govern the first houre of that day or else the planets must by little and little have gotten and lost a whole course of governing as the travellers did by little and little gain and lose a whole day by their travel both which will shew this hourly rule of the planets to be both vain and feigned Touching the later that week-dayes had not their names from the supposed hourly rule of the planets may from these reasons be gathered First this hourely rule doth flow from the names of the week-dayes and not the week-day names from it Men must first know by what planets name the day is called before they can tell what planet must govern the first houre thereof For suppose the two travellers before-said the Christian and the Turk had met at any place before they had ended their journey it must be as Dr. Heylin hath demonstrated the like a Heyl. par 1. p. 46 47 48. Sunday then with the Turk when it was but Saterday with the Christian then at their meeting Now let the most skilful of Astrologers be demanded what day it should be unto them both either Saterday or Sunday whether the Sun or Saturn ruled the first houre thereof he will answer as the Chaldees did Nebuchadnezzar There is not a man upon the earth that can shew this matter c Dan. 2.10 Yea though the place where those travellers met were made known also yet would the question remain unresolveable unlesse there be some line or other supposed where the planets should begin their Government and from whence the calculation is to be made but in that supposal there is no certainty Now if the said travellers agree together to have that day of their meeting to be Sunday then any Astrologer will readily tell them that the Sun was he that ruled the first houre thereof or if they make it Saterday then Saturn was he First therefore the week-dayes must be known before men can know the said planetary Rule and Government I would not have any conceive that by the Planetary Rule and Government I should mean here that Government and Lordship which the planets are of old said to have in their own home and houses it is the hourely Rule of the Planets mentioned in the beginning of this chapter that I mean I confesse my self to be but little skilled in the one but this he that hath but the use of a paire of Globes may demonstrate to be false and to have no truth in it 2. The Germanes had weeks and called the week-dayes by the names of their gods whom they adored which were the seven planets and this long before they came to have any knowledge of this hourely rule of the planets which Henricus Hassianus got in Paris and then after taught the same in Vienna and that not yet foure hundred years since The Doctor saith That the Grecians had not weeks till Eudoxus had taught them this excellency in Astrology which he brought from Egypt a little before he might with as much truth have said that the Germanes had not weeks till Henricus Hassianus had taught this knowledge in Astrology which he brought from Paris a little before There is the same reason in them both but this is known to be far from truth If any say that the Germanes had learnt to have weeks and to call the dayes of the week by the names of the planets since the said hourely rule was found out and that either from the Romanes or Grecians or from some other Nation with whom they lived before they came to inhabit in Germany as the French the English the Dutch and other people in America have weeks and call the week-dayes by the same Names those Nations did with whom their Ancestors lived before they came into America My answer is they are much mistaken for Germany was a very ancient Kingdom as Theodore Bibliander and Verstegan also do acquaint us Twisco who before he died was a King and the first King of the Germanes was borne long before there was a Monarchy of the Romanes Grecians or Persians either He was ancienter then Abrahams father Bibliander thus writeth of him Tuisco quem aliqui putant c. Tuisco whom some think to be Aschenaz the Nephew of Noah erected the Kingdome of Sarmatia and from whom the Dutchmen are called Teutshen Tacitus holdeth him to be the sonne of Terra or Arezia Noahs wife a Theod. Bibl. Mannus who was Twisco his sonne and the second King of the Germanes was borne not twenty years after Abraham And Wigwoner their third King was born before Abraham
it hath already been proved 1. That the seven planets were of old the Gentiles gods 2. That the seven dayes of the week were deputed to those their gods and as John Gregory doth assure us a Jo. Greg. in his Assyrian Monarchy in his Assyrian Monarchy that the dayes of the week were called of the Assyrians by the names of the same planets unto whom the week-dayes were severally dedicated and that all Nations did from them call the dayes of the week in like manner 3. That the Sun was of all their gods held the chiefest and supreme Now common sense and reason will tell us that the day which was by them dedicated to their chiefest God and bare his name the day of the Sun which we call Sunday must be with them the chiefest day of all the seven in their estimation and therefore was it with them not only a seventh day of the week but the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither was Sunday the 7th day of the week with the idolatrous Gentiles only but was also as it is most probable that seventh day which the Patriarchs before the flood held to the honour of the Creator in remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day For when Nimrod otherwise called Saturnus Babylonicus Belus his sonne and other Potentates of Assyria and Chaldea had idolatrously set up the whole Host of heaven that is the Sunne Moon and the other planets with constellations subservient to them which of the seven dayes of the week will any reasonable man imagine did they dedicate to the honour of their greatest god the Sun rather then that which before was held to the honour of God the Creatour surely not any other And when these Assyrian and Chaldean Powers had as much as in them lay robbed God if I may so say of his Titles Attributes Providence Works of Creation Government and Worship and gave the chief of all their spoiles to their chiefest god the Sun Nimrod giving him the name Baal b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar which he afterwards assumed to himself b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar Belus giving him the name Jove b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar Jehovah in the Hebrew the which he assumed afterward unto himself b Jo Greg. Assyr Monar and was called Jove Bel c Biblian They called the Sun God and held him the God of Gods and Lord of Lords and Governour of all things and that the world was not created but was from everlasting governed by the planets the Sunbeing chief and soveraign Ruler Would they not do the like may any one think with that day which was held to the honour of the Creatour All that was known to be for the worship and honour of God the Creatour they gave to the honour of the Sun and therefore doubtlesse they deputed to the Sun that day also Again when they assigned to every of those gods the seseveral dayes of the week no indifferent understanding man but will conceive that they would dedicate to their greatest god the Sun the day held before to the honour of the great God of heaven and earth rather then to the Moon Mercury or other inferiour gods So that most likely the seventh day with the Patriarchs was none other but that which afterward was the Suns day with the Assyrians and from them was called the day of the Sun with other Nations also as the other week-dayes were called by the names of the other planets and so by custome have they continued to be called with all Nations of any note for Civility and Knowledge except with the Jewes only who after their coming our of Egypt had another day assigned unto them for their seventh sacred day and had a special command given them not to make any mention of those gods of the Nations nor to have their names at all in their mouth as I have shewed before 2. Sunday was the seventh day of the week with the Gentiles as may be collected from the pens of many learned Authors as well Christian as Heathen Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. speaking of the seventh day affirmed that it was in omniaetate inter omnes gentes venerabilis sacer The like do Chrysostome Beda and other more whose words I have before in the 13. chapter expressed Also amongst the most ancient Poets divers of them do testifie the same as Linus Callimacus Hesiod and Homer who was above two hundred years before Eudoxus knew what Astrology was All of them were Heathen yet all of them spake very laudably of the seventh sacred day Their words for brevities sake I will not here rehearse sith they are to be seen and are urged by many Writers as namely Clem. Alexand. Strom. l. 5. Euseb de Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 17. Rivetus in Gen. c. 2. and in his Dissert de Origine Sabba Also Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath par 1. c. 4. Now the seventh day so laudably by them spoken of was the day of the Sun For 1. It was not Saterday the Jewes seventh day The Gentiles liked the Jewes Saterday as said a Papist the devil doth holy water It was counted by them a disdainful novelty their Poets commonly would have one lash or other at the Jewes for it and never spake in honour thereof 2. The Adversaries themselves do grant that the day of the Sun was the seventh day and sacred also with the Heathen but here 's their evasion The seventh day sacred to the Sun with the Heathen say they was the seventh day of the moneth and not the seventh day of the week Now that the day of the Sun was the seventh day of the week with the Heathen and not the seventh day of the moneth thus I prove 1. Clemens and Eusebius both alledge the said Poets to shew that the Gentiles had the seventh day of the week sacred with them 2. Other Authors generally take Sunday with the Gentiles for a week-day and not for the day of a moneth 3. Had the seventh day sacred to the Sun been the seventh day of every moneth as they affirme the Greeks doubtlesse would have noted the same down in their Calenders Though they could not set down constantly the seventh day of the week by reason of their intercaling so many dayes at a time no more then others then could do and no more then we can set down the moveable Feasts that were with us unlesse it be in a yearly Almanack before that Julius Caesar had corrected the year Yet never shall we see a Calender in which the principal immovable sacred dayes were omitted Now there is an ancient Attick Calender to be seen in Scaliger de emend temp wherein things of lesse consequence are noted but this seventh day sacred to the Sun in each moneth cannot be found 4. Dr. Frances White and Dr Heylin also tell us b White of the Sabbath p. 197. Heyl. part 2. p. 53. that Christians of the
on that day for they called it no longer Sunday unlesse in their common-talk with the Heathen but they called it the Lords day being the day which the Lord in this law commanded to be sanctifyed Neither did they adore and worship the Sunne any more on that day but the Lord their Creatour and Redeemer Thirdly It is true that all the week-dayes were abused to the Idolatrous worship of the planets though not in the like degree as was the Sunday And that one day in it self was no more holy then another Yet Christians should not have done well in changing or in their endeavouring to have changed their standing service-service-day from Sunday to any other day of the week and that for these reasons 1. Because of the contempt scorn and derision they thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived and toward whom they ought by Saint Pauls rule to live inoffensively a 1 Cor. 10.32 in things indifferent If the Gentiles thought hardly and spake evil of them for that they ran not into the same excesse of riot with them b 1 Pet. 4.4 what would they have said of Christians for such an Innovation as would have been made by their change of their standing service-day If long before this the Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their Saterday-Sabbath which the Gentiles held to be a singularity and innovation brought in by Moses insomuch that Jeremy lamenteth the same a Lam. 1.17 How grievous would be their Taunts and reproaches against the poore Christians living with them and under their power for their new set sacred day had the Christians chosen any other then the Sunday Had Sir Francis Drake and Captain Cavendise and their companies who travelled round the earth with them either out of tendernesse of conscience or else out of obstinacy continued to keep that Sunday sacred which fel to them by course true tale of the days succeeding each other they must needs have had their Sunday on our Munday our Sunday would be their Saterday When it was holy day with them it would be workingday with us and holy day with us when they would work So Tacitus said of the Jews Profana illic quae apud nos sacra rursum concessa quae nobisillicita a Cornel. Tacit. Diurnal li. 2â— Now how unquiet may any one imagine should those Travellers have lived among us as long as our Sunday was a week-day with them Would not every ballad-maker have had them in their rimes would they not have been a by-word with all and every Apparator would be ready with a Citation for them And can we conceive that Christians at first should find more favour from the Heathen for their wilfulnesse which was lesse excuseable 2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of people and the Gentiles most probably would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly except on their Sunday 3. Had they changed their seventh day from their Sunday to another day there must have followed an unsufferable confusion in the count of the week dayes with whom they lived As for example had Sir Francis Drake and his company observed at his returne the weeks which by his exact account fell to them by course and not have changed them and made them the same with our weeks there would have followed a miserable confusion even in their own families The third day of the week with some must have been the fourth with others of the same family And never a day would have been the same with them all The like would it have been with the Christians and Gentiles with whom they lived if they had changed their seventh standing day for Gods worship which was Sunday for another 4. Because had they assayed such a change it would have been a testimony against them of slighting the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour the Sunne of Righteousnesse a Mal. 4.2 who on the Sunday most triumphantly rose from the dead for the justification of all his people 5. It would have been but labour in vaine for them to have assayed the same they could never have brought it to passe For 1. They had no authoritative specification of any set day either by Jesus Christ or by his Apostles on which they ought to keep the Lords day Had there so been Saint Paul would never have prest the indifferency of dayes as he did b Rom. 14.1 2 3. Col. 2.16 nor would he himself have with the believing Jewes kept the Saterday c Acts 13.14 42.17 2 18 4. and with the Christians by Christians I mean the Gentiles converted to Christ have kept the Sunday d Act. 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 neither would the believing Jewes have remained so obstinate but would have kept that day for their Sabbath which was so pointed out unto them if there had been such Whereas they for the generality of them would never be withdrawn to keep any other then their Saterday for their Sabbath hundreds of years after the Apostles dayes 2. They had no coercive power to draw refusers to the observation of any other day for the Lords day had they been so disposed to have set any other 3. Christians were not all of one City or of one countrey or of one Nation Tongue or Government It would have been even a miracle to have gotten all Christians in all parts of the world to have observed one the same day for the Lords day with them all which should be chosen not by a general meeting or by a general consent but by some of them only had they chosen any other then the day of the Sun which they were generally before their Conversion accustomed to keep The People of Israel were but one Nation all of one Tongue and severed from all other People and also had Moses their Captain-General yet Moses should never have withdrawn them from their old accustomed day to the observation of the Saterday-Sabbath different from the custome of all other Nations had not the Lord God miraculously in the fal of Quails Manna e Exod. 16.12 16 22 23 26. shewed that it was his good pleasure so to have it when he assigned unto them their six dayes for their labour and so pointing out to them the Saterday being the seventh from their first gathering Quailes and Manna to be the day of holy rest unto the Lord. Sylvester the first Pope of that name when out of his hatred to the memory of the Heathen-gods he would have changed but the names of the week-dayes decreed them to be called by the names of Feriae as hath been before shewed though he was of great authority and command and highly beloved of the people yet he could not prevail herein but with very few except Schollers the vulgar people in their common talk called their week-dayes as they did before
by the names of the Planets and so have they continued to call them even to this day The Jewes are now a weak People yet there is not a Prince or Power on earth able to withdraw them from their superstitious custome of keeping the Saterday sacred yea the believing Jewes as was shewed in the Apostles time and in many years after could not be wonne by any means that the Christians might use to give over their Saterday-Sabbath and for unities sake to keep the Lords day on the Sunday except a very few of them who better knew and acknowledged their liberty by Christ How impossible may we then think it to be for any to bring to passe that all Christians in all quarters of the world should leave off their observing the Sunday sacred and have another day in stead thereof In vain therefore would it have been for poor Christians at first to have assayed the same These reasons if there were no more may suffice to shew that although all dayes be in themselves indifferent yet Christians should not have well done had they endeavoured to have changed their seventh sacred day from Sunday to any other week-day no not to Thursday though it was the day of Christ his glorious Ascension nor to Friday though it was the day in which Christ paid our ransome but betrer to retain the same day as they did and which the Church of Christ hath since that kept even to this present time and by Gods grace will so do unto the end CHAP. XVI The Sabbath-day is to be sanctified Works of Piety Government and of Nature only are to be done on the Sabbath-day c. the necessary helpes thereunto THere hath been before shewed that the Sabbath-day in this law commanded to be kept holy is not a part of a day as is the Artificial day but an whole day And that it is not such a kinde of day as are the dayes of the Creation mentioned in the first of Genesis but such a kinde of day as is or hath been in use with men And also that it is not in tale the fifth sixth eighth or nineth day but the seventh not the seventh day of the moneth but the seventh day of the week the day following the six known dayes of labour where men dwell and inhabit Which day with Christians is vulgarly called Sunday otherwise more fitly and as indeed it is The Lords day even our Sabbath-day to the Lord. Now in the next place is to be shewed how the Lords day is to be sanctified To the sanctification of the Sabbath-day of the Lord which we call the Lords day two things are required 1. That we keep it a day of rest 2. That we sanctifie that time of rest That we are to keep it a day of rest the Scripture fully sheweth On the seventh day thou shalt rest in earing time and in harvest d Exod. 34.21 The like have we in divers other places of Scripture calling it a day of rest All men are to cease from the works of their calling which on other dayes they lawfully may yea and ought to do for the maintenance of themselves and theirs Six dayes shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest ye shall do no work therein f Lev. 23.3 So are the words here in this law Thou shalt not do any work But whereas we are here forbidden to do any work we must not so understand the words as if on the Sabbath-day we should rest from all kinde and manner of works and so do no work at all upon that day the words of the text do not bear such a sense These are the words of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt not do all thy trade Art or occupation and such are the words of the text in divers other places of Scripture a Deut. 5.14 Exod. 35.2 and 31.15 Lev. 23.3 7. Val. Schindler in his Pentaglot on the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 telleth us thus The Rabbines take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Art or vocation and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural for Arts and vocations So Arias Montanus also correcteth Pagnines translation of the Bible that whereas Pagnine hath it Non facies omne opus he turneth it Non facies omnem functionem b Deut. 5.14 where Pagnine translateth thus Omnis quifecerit in eo opus c. Montanus hath it Omnis faciens in eo functionem c Exod. 35.2 Where Pagnine saith Omnis faciens opus in die Sabbati it is thus to be read according to Montanus Omnis faciens opificium in die cessationis d Exod. 31.15 c. The like may be seen in divers other places of Scripture so translated by the one and so corrected by the other Whence we may gather that the true meaning of these words commonly read in our translations Thou shalt not do any work is not that we should do no manner of work at all but that we should do on the Sabbath-day no manner of the works of our trade function and occupation The Smith is not to work at his Anvil nor the Shoomaker with his Awle nor any other about any works that belong to mens trade and profession which on the six dayes of labour they may and should do for getting their maintenance and livelihood There be some other works which on every day may lawfully be done even on the Sabbath-day it self without the least breach of this law and they are of three sorts 1. Works of Piety 2. Works of Government towards the creature subjected to us 3. Works needful to the preservation of mans life These works may be done on every day without any violation to the Law of the Sabbath Neither doth the law of the Sabbath abridge us from doing them on any day What God ordained before ever the seventh day was in being was not and is not nulled or abridged by the law of the Sabbath but these works were before ordained by the Lord. First Man was made and had his being to serve God to honour and worship him to perform duties of Piety in such manner as he should appoint him The doing of these duties on the Sabbath-day doth no violation to the law of the Sabbath Men doing them may be said to break or profane the Sabbath yet not break the law of the Sabbath When we have been diligent on the Sabbath-day in doing service unto God and the duties he requireth of us for his honour we may therein be said not to make the day a day of rest but to break the rest or Sabbath yet not to break the Commandment by doing these works Thus Christ told the Pharisees that the Priests in the Temple did profane the Sabbath and are blamelesse a Mat. 12.5 Sure they could not be said to be blamelesse had they by their sacrificing bullocks or sheep broken the Commandment they brake the Sabbath they made it not
that we should keep holy the Sabbath-day hath been at large handled before now it resteth that I speak somewhat of the second part also which I will do briefly in this Chapter In this second part is set out in many words the great care and provision had of the Lord that men should observe this law and keep holy the sabbath-Sabbath-day as God commandeth And this provision of the Lord standeth not in one two or three only but in many and weighty inducements and reasons the least of which should have been sufficient to inforce our obedience had not our hearts been hardened and we most rebellious wilfully refusing to yield obedience unto the same The several inducements and reasons the Lord used to win us unto obedience to this law are these First is the Caveat prefixed only to this and to none other of the Commandments Remember Remember the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it This charge of heedfulnesse would mightily work upon an obedient heart he would every day of his six be thinking how to do and dispatch all his businesses in those dayes that when the seventh day come he may freely without any incumbrance betake himself to the worship and service of his God and when it cometh will be mindeful of the day and careful of observing and keeping the same holy as his God commandeth Secondly the Lord hath here plainly pointed out unto man what day is the Sabbath-day which he should sanctifie The Lord hath affixed as it were an Index to this law that as the true houre of the day is known and pointed out by the Index or Finger in a Dial whereby he that can but tell the number of the hour-lines may easily know what houre of the day it is so here he that can but tell the dayes of the week may easily tell what day is the Sabbath-day Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath The seventh day is the Sabbath not the seventh day from thy birth nor the seventh day from the first beginning of the Creation nor from any set Epoche for then it would have put the most skilful Mathematicians to a stand for the finding out when this seventh day should begin but it is the day following the six dayes of labour In what countrey soever a man is though he is not well skilled in the language of that place and doth not understand what the names of the week-dayes signifie yet if he can tell which be their six work-dayes he may then tell also which is their seventh day It maketh not much by what names the dayes of the week be called nor what the signification of either or any of the week-dayes should be The seventh day of the week with Christians hath been called by divers several names and that even by Christians themselves such as these Sunday The Lords day The first day of the week and in later times it hath been called also the Sabbath-day but in the first times Christians would not call it the Sabbath-day because all the Gentiles detested the name of Sabbath as the Jewes did the name of Sunday as before is shewed neither could they relish this name for a good while after their Conversion It is not much matter by which of these names we call our seventh day nor whether we understand the signification of the name as what Sunday or The Lords day or The first day of the week do signifie or why we do so call our seventh day Though he do not know it to be called Sunday from our Heathen Ancestors who called this day so in honour of the Sun whom they worshipped nor know it to be called the Lords day because it is his Sabbath who sanctified it nor know it to be called the first day of the week for that the Jewes called this day the first of the Sabbath and so was called by them in sacred Scripture and for that the latter Translators of the Bible would have this name by which the Jews called it to be in our tongue called the first day of the week So as that now we count it not the day of the Sun as our Heathen Ancestors did nor count it to be the first of our work-dayes or first in order and tale of our week-dayes as the Jewes did The name of the day doth neither adde nor alter any thing of the nature thereof Thirdly here is set down the equity of this law It is so reasonable that none need complain The Lord alloweth man six dayes and reserveth but one for himself Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh is the Sabbath How unreasonable are such who are not contented with the Lords liberal allowance but incroach on the Lords day also which he reserved for his own honour and worship Fourthly in that the Lord did in many words set down so punctually 1. The works from which men are restrained 2. The persons who are restrained The works forbidden are all kinde of Trades Professions and Occupations which on other dayes men do or may use for getting their living and maintenance There is no word in English which doth so fully expresse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which here the Lord forbiddeth to be done as doth Function Art or Occupation as I shewed before so that none can excuse himself saying that his Profession requireth little or no labour of the body as do husbandry and divers other Handicrafts for God forbids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Vocations Functions or Occupations Men ought to abstain from all their works of what Profession or Vocation soever they be Yea these works are not only forbidden in respect of the labour of the hand but of the tongue and minde also we should not be talking of them neither should our hearts and mindes run on them on the Lords day As God for the furtherance of mans true obedience to this law hath fully shewed the works we are forbidden to do so doth he also as fully and in many words shew who are forbidden to do any of these works Thou nor thy sonne nor thy daughter nor c. Whosoever hath any authority and command over himself must not only be careful that he himself abstain from his labours but also if he hath authority and command over others as sonne daughter man or maid Oxe or Asse he is to see that they also cease from all work-day-labours on the seventh day he is not to imploy any of them he nor any of his may imploy either Oxe or Asse nor lend or let them to hire for their labour on the seventh day or on any part of that day The Lords expressions are large herein that so all pretences and excuses may be taken away Fifthly the Lord sheweth here and would have us to know that we have no right unto the seventh day nor to any part thereof for doing of our own works thereon for the seventh day is the Lords day