a little before the promulgation of that on Mount Sinai viz. at the first gathering of Manna or as laying an obligation upon you to observe that also so as you must keep two Sabbaths in a week for the prevention of either of which mistakes now that I am come to the mentioning of the fourth Precept I will let you know that though indeed as you are Men you are obliged to keep in memory the Rest of the Creation yet as you are Jews a Nation separated to God from all Nations God hath dispensed with you as to the precise day and expects that you should keep that day which he hath peculiarly appointed you to celebrate in commemoration of his giving you rest from Egyptian Bondage which was so severe and afflicting that in regard thereof it had been better for you that you had not been created or died as soon as you were born Note from hence that the fourth Precept when applied to the Jews ought to be interpreted as commanding one day of seven But as it stands in the Decalogue and appertains to all Nations and Ages it commands the celebration of the precise Seventh day whereon God rested So directly contrary to Moses his Exposition of this Law does the common cry of modern Expositers go who make it command A seventh day to all and The seventh day to the Jews Observe how unaccountable these Expositors make the Christian Practise of keeping Sunday if that be not the seventh day of the fourth Precept but only one of the seven seeing that Precept enjoyns the seventh on which God rested and that upon this reason because God rested thereon And how justifiable the Jewish practise was of keeping Saturday though that was not the seventh day whereon God rested for they had for their so doing a plain Divine Precept of their Ceremonial and peculiar Law dispencing in respect of the day with the Law of the Sabbath which was given to Adam and his whole Posterity from the beginning Let it be noted in the next place that all the other nine Precepts repeated here by Moses are the very same verbatim with those that were writ on the two Tables as they were spoken on the Mount but the fourth Precept as it is repeated here is not the same fourth Precept that was spoken by God's Mouth and writ by God's Finger but vastly different from that both in its form and reason and both peculiar to the Jews but neither of them applicable to other Nations Not the former for as the Jews were a part of the Patriarchal Church seeing God had for that time of their Separation from other Nations assigned them another day than that of the fourth Precept as it stands in the Decalogue it was very requisit that a Memento should be presixt before that Command to sanctifie the Patriarchal-Sabbath which was to take place again when the Partition-Wall should be broken down that they might then after so long an intermission call to mind or remembrance God's primitive Seventh-day to sanctifie it And therefore the fourth Precept in the Decalogue begins with Remember But there is no Remember prefixt before this Precept as it is here repeated by Moses and adapted to the Jewish state because as such they were to sanctify Saturday and to observe the Precept as enjoining to them the Sanctification of that Day as their peculiar Sabbath only till the time of Reformation and then they were to forget it thus Judaiz'd as well as the rest of their Ceremonial Laws At which time of Restauration this their new Saturday-Sabbath would be grown old and must come no more in remembrance Isa 65. 17. And then the Covering of the Ark where the two Tables of the everlasting Law was laid up being taken away the Jews might reade the fourth Precept as it was uttered from the Lord's Mouth vvith a Memento before it to put them in remembrance of that seventh day whereon God rested I would thank that Man who will give me any better or indeed any other Reason than this why a Memento should begin this Precept and none of the rest seeing we ought as well remember to observe them as this or why Moses should prefix Remember before the fourth Precept as it stands in the Decalogue and not as he repeats it here Or why he should assign God's resting as the ground of the fourth Precept there and the Israelites resting from Egyptian Bondage as the reason of it here Or lastly how Moses can be acquitted from self-contradiction from adding to and taking from the words of the Law when in the twentieth of Exodus he saith God spake thus Remember c. for in six days the Lord made c. wherefore the Lord blessed c. And yet in this 5th of Deut. he not only leaves out the Remember and the Reason of the fourth Precept in the Decalogue but assigns another reason and yet after all tells them These words the Lord spake unto all your Assembly in the Mount and he added no more and he wrote them in two Tables of Stone How can Moses his Fidelity in this case be vindicated but by this Salvo That the other nine do indifferently appertain to Jew and Gentile and therefore they are repeated intirely as they came from God's Mouth But the fourth Precept for that time did not appertain to the Jews either as to the Day commanded to be sanctified or the reason for its Sanctification but only in regard of its equity in respect of the proportion of time but to all Mankind save the Jews at all times and would appertain to the Jews when Christ had made of that twain Jew and Gentile one and therefore Moses to secure that entirely against that time sets it down in the Decalogue word by word as God spake it But when he applies that Precept to the peculiar state of the Jews at that present to whom God had before the promulgation of the Law on the holy Mount appointed another Day for their weekly Sabbath than that whereon God had rested it had been ridiculous to have mentioned God's finishing his Work of Creation in six Days and his resting on the seventh as the reason why the Jews should rest on that Day whereon God wrought and therefore he omits that and assigns another reason most proper and cogent and repeats no more of the Precept but what was common to them and other Nations And thus it 's true what Moses saith These words the Lord spake in the Mount unto your whole Assembly and he added no more that is that you are at present concern'd in And as to the words expressing the reason God spake them in the Preface to the whole Decalogue as the reason of your being obliged above other Nations to keep all and every one of those Laws and my applying them to the Law of the Sabbath is a faithful exposition of both the Laws concerning the Sabbath to wit the Ceremonial which concerns you alone and the
fell on Sunday Thus the first month days 10 17 24. The second month days 1 8 15 were Sundays And thus these Instances will mutually illustrate one another as we shall see in the remaining Inferences also which we shall make from the second instance of a Sunday-Sabbath 2. The next thing I infer hence is this That on this Sunday falling on the tenth of the first month Moses and Aaron spake unto the whole Congregation concerning the Ceremonies and institution of the Passover Exod. 12. 1 2 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation the whole Church of the Israelites so Ainsworth saying on the tenth day that they take up a Lamb c. So Ainsworth verbatim after the He-Hebrew saying that the Hebrew refers the 10th day to Moses and Aaron's speaking to them more distinctly Speak ye on the tenth day And they shall take up a Lamb. And vers 21. where Moses speaks then to the Elders saying Draw you out a Lamb. And vers 22. Where the Text saith They went and did as Moses and Aaron had commanded them From these Texts it is clear as day that it was the tenth day whereon this Speech was made to the Church-Assemhly For this term Then can speak nothing less and the sequel implies that at the breaking up of the Assembly they went immediately and took up their Lambs the same day for the Passover that was to be kept the 14th day Besides seeing the taking up the Paschals on the tenth day was peculiar to this first Passover as also were several other Ceremonies of it as the after-practice of the Jews and of our Saviour himself evinceth It had been madness to have bid them on the 14th day take up Lambs on the tenth foregoing And therefore I wonder to see wise Men like so many Geese in a mist straggle in so much light from the plain path of most obvious truth into that maze of vulgar errour viz. that Moses spake to the Congregation on the 14th day touching the Institution of the Passover especially when I consider the weakness of the Argument inducing them into that opinion this being their Herculean because it is said This night will I pass through Egypt and stay c. But who save one that hath his Eyes in the ends of the Earth can over-look this easy answer that that is spoken of the night of that day whereof there he speaks not of that whereon he spake From the Premises also appears the over-sight of them who prolong the three days darkness unto the 14th day dreaming as if they had been frighted out of their Senses by some of those Hob-Goblins which they fancy appear'd to the Egyptians during that darkness that the Israelites took that opportunity to provide themselves for their Journey of Egyptian Jewels and other necessaries This indeed had been a robbing of the Egyptians with a witness But they must have had Cats Eyes if they could see where their Prey lay in that palpable darkness For though the Israelites had light where they dwelt yet I do not think that they could find in the dwellings of the Egyptians light enough to pilfer by if they did not bring it with them in their Eyes or Cloakbags from Goshan Lastly How opposite is this to the whole series of the History which tells us that the Egyptians lent them freely what they had occasion for That Moses was in high esteem of Pharaoh's Servants and all the Egyptians who would have lent or given the Israelites the Shirts off their backs to have been quit of them and their Plagues together 3. From the foresaid Texts and the circumstances of the story it appears that this Assembly was not called togather by special Summons upon an extraordinary account but met upon ordinary course For 1. How could Moses or any body else convene them on such a sudden who were scattered throughout all the Land of Egypt to gather stubble 2. Or is it probable that their Taskmasters would have permitted them to leave their work to assemble on such a Summons 3. Or if the Israelites had obtain'd a play-day of their Taskmasters is it like they would have met together upon the Summons of Moses whom they look'd upon as a Person that came to make their bondage more heavy Exod. 5. 21. and to whose promises they gave no heed the last time before this he had occasion to speak with them Exod. 6. 9. They must therefore either be assembled now upon course or by immediate inspiration of them one by one for there can be no other subterfuge here And there is no disputeing with Men that betake themselves to such fastness Briefly the matter stands thus The tenth day being the weekly Sabbath whereon they usually met to worship God Moses and Aaron are commanded by God to take the opportunity of that Convention to speak unto them And considering the Circumstances the Jews were then in it is more then probable that these Conventions were of the like nature when they met with Moses to chide and curse him And when Moses applied himself to them with promises of a good issue to his Message and they regarded not As also that the Egyptians and by consequence all other Nations celebrated the same day of the week Sunday For can it be imagined that the Jews in Egypt who were kept so close to their work as to have their task set them day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Samaritan Translation renders Pensum quotidianum their daily Task Targum Dnhelos per singulos dies every several day And the Hebrew opus diei in die suâ the work of every day in its proper day would be allowed to rest from their daily work on Sundays if their Taskmasters and the rest of the Egyptians had not themselves also rested on that day On the other hand it was as much the interest of the Egyptians to have the Israelites rest on Sunday as it was to the Jews to have the Stranger within their Gates rest on Saturday because if the Strangers might have followed their ordinary Callings on those days whereon the Natives rested from theirs they would have diverted the gain of that work from the Natives Grotius in exp Decalogue 4. The last Inference I draw from this second Instance is that this solemn Assembly was for Religious Worship Which the Premises duly considered evince For it was an Assembly upon course celebrated by the Israelites at what time the Egyptians also rested for what else can we imagine they met together but to worship God And seeing their Bondage was so hard that their Taskmasters would not let them rest while themselves were at their daily labour it may be safely concluded that on whatsoever day they had remission from their daily Tasks so as to meet together the Egyptians also ceased from their works I cannot see what possibly can invalidate this Consequence but the Dream of this Assembly's being kept during the time of Darkness when the Egyptians
they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be
Sabbath at the beginning by God's Precept to Adam and in him to his whole Posterity to the end of the World and therefore extending to all Ages and all Mankind And this being assigned to the Jews only for that short time wherein the Law-giver was pleased to dispense with that Nation as to this Law given to all Nations and that for Reasons sufficiently palpable 5. This Hypothesis enervates the Arguments brought against the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day and furnisheth Conscience with a solid ground of bearing a due religious Respect to it without danger of Judaizing in the manner of the Celebration thereof 1. To instance in their Herculean Argument drawn from the Gloss they put upon that Text Gen. 2. 3. as being spoke by Moses by way of Anticipation If that Day that God rested on was not Saturday but Sunday his sanctifying the Day he rested on could not have respect to the after-Institution of another Day for what Consequence can be in this because God at first rested on Sunday therefore he appointed Moses above two thousand Years after the Creation to command Saturday to be sanctified comparable to what is in this because God rested on Sunday the Seventh Day in the order of the Creation he therefore blessed it and sanctified it that is separated it by his Precept to Adam to be the weekly Sabbath Indeed the dream of a Prolepsis in this Text chargeth Moses with most gross Equivocation in the use of these words and God blessed except we fancy an Anticipation in those other Places of his Text where these words occur as Gen. 1. 22. where speaking of Fish and Fowl he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and vers 28. speaking of Adam and Eve he saith And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply 2. That this Hypothesis yields a solid Ground for the consciencious observing the Lord's-Day so as there needs not any new Constitution be made by Christ or his Apostles for the observing of it is manifest of it self For if Sunday be the Day that God separated at first to be the weekly Sabbath to the Patriarchs and was accordingly celebrated by them before the giving of the Law by Moses the standing part of the Fourth Command obliging all Mankind must necessarily refer to that and that there is a standing part of that Precept for the Breach whereof we are taught to say Lord have Mercy upon us and for the better observing whereof we are taught to pray Incline our Hearts to keep this Law is the declared Judgment of our Church And then the Temporary and Ceremonial Part both as to the Day and Mode of keeping it peculiar to the Jews being part of those carnal Ordinances that were imposed upon them until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. vanish of themselves as being antiquated by Christ's Cross and give way to the Antient Patriarchal Sabbath And here now our Saviour's Rising from the Dead his frequent Appearing to his Disciples on Sunday the Practice of the Apostles and Primitive Church come in seasonably with their Auxiliary Force to strengthen my Hypothesis and to support the Divine Institution of the Lord's-Day For though as to the first Consecration therof these Examples signify nothing nor are able to stand upon that old Ground against the joynt Assaults of God's express Precept and Example for sanctifying Saturday Yet upon the Ground that I have laid they are substantial and strenuous Seconds to prove the Restauration of the antient Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath by the Antiquation of the Jewish Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath though they are not of Authority to appoint a new Lord's-Day yet they are safe Guides to point us to that old Patriarchal Lord's-Day whereon the Lord rested and therefore commanded the Patriarchal Church-Catholick to sanctify it as their weekly Sabbath in Conformity to and in Communion with which Church extending to all Places and Ages Our Saviour after the rending of the Vail rose upon that Day and upon that Day celebrated religious weekly Assemblies with his Apostles and taught them to do the like during those forty Days wherein he convers'd with them betwixt his Resurrection and Ascension speaking to them of the things appertaining to the Kingdom of God 3. Lastly this secures us from falling into Jewish Superstition in the manner of celebrating our Christian Sabbath for with the Jewish Day the Jewish manner of keeping that Day vanisheth So that the Christian Church is not obliged to sanctify the lord's-Lord's-Day in those strict Formalities of bodily Rest and other carnal Observances imposed upon the Jews but in the more generous and man-becoming Exercises of contemplating the Glory of God in the Creation compleated by the new Creation of believing acquiescing and triumphing in God through Christ of attending on Gospel-Ordinances publick private and secret of visiting the Sick relieving the Indigent and eating our Bread with Gladness of Heart on that day above others that being the Christian weekly Festival and the Day which God hath made for us to be glad and rejoyce in neither need we macerate our selves with studying when to begin when to end the Christian Sabbath at Even Midnight or Morning For he who having set his Secular Affairs in such order as they give no Interruption to his Sunday-Devotion goes to bed with God on Saturday-Night and riseth with God on Sunday-Morning and spends the Day in such like Exercises as have been mentioned may after he has commended himself and his Family if he have one to God go to his Rest on Sunday Night without danger of prophaning the Sabbath at his usual time Briefly the usefulness of this Hypothesis is so great and apparent both as to putting an end to all Strife even amongst the most Litigious and setling inward Peace in the truly Consciencious as I was something jealous lest the prospect thereof might make the Arguments I bring for proof of the Hypothesis seem to have more weight than indeed they have till I had communicated my Papers to several Persons of more quick Understanding in the fear of the Lord with this humble Request That they would weigh their Contents in the Ballance of their impartial Judgments which I heartily thank them they did and thereby gave me occasion to rectify some Passages and Encouragement to commit this Tract as it now stands corrected to publick view If it shall please the divine Goodness to make use of so mean a Person as my self towards the setling the Consciences of Christians upon a safe Ground and the binding up of those Wounds which the Church hath received in the House of her Friends as the poor tattard Captive Democedes cured Darius after that the Egyptian Physicians had for seven Days and Nights by violent handling of his dis-joynted Foot kept him without Sleep Let God have the Praise who chooseth the weak and foolish things of this World to confound the mighty and wise And let him have your Prayers Christian Reader whose utmost
Septuagint which renders it The Seventh Day altho our last Translation of the Bible follows the Hebrew Altho the Puritans as they were called have called long and loud to our Church to rectify the Reading and conform it to the Hebrew as knowing that their opinion of the fourth Precept commandeth a Seventh not the Seventh Day is utterly overthrown by rendring it Wherefore the Lord Blessed the Seventh-day And altho our Church hath gratified their Clamours in conforming the Epistles and Gospels to our last Translation yet in the forenamed versions of the fourth Precept she adheres still to the Septuagint and persisteth in teaching her Children young and old that the Sabbath of the fourth Precept in the plain literal sense of it is the Seventh day wherein God rested and therefore sanctified and separated to be observed by us Christians in obedience to that Precept and in conformity to God's Example Or to give her sense of this Precept thus translated in her own words Homilie of the time and place of Prayer God expresly in the fourth Precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday And not only commandeth it but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same And a little after this Example and Command of God the Godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ It was you see in obedience to this Command urged by this Example that the Christians began to celebrate Sunday in our Churche's Judgment In Obedience I say to this Precept in the plain literal sense of it For sure the Church of England is a more indulgent Mother than to teach her Babes by Tropes and Figures and far-fetch'd Consequences what that holy Will of God is to the keeping whereof their Baptismal Vow obligeth them or to oblige them to say Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law after the pronouncing of the fourth Precept at the Lord's Table if that did not stand intirely in every tittle of it according to its plain and primitive sense in as full force now under the Gospel as any of the rest Moses was faithful in God's House and therefore at his repeating of the Decalogue and applying it to the Israelites he lets them know that they were not concerned in that Reason for sanctifying of that Sabbath which God published on the Mount to wit because God rested on the Seventh-day but urgeth the keeping of their Sabbath by another Reason peculiar to themselves to wit their resting from Egyptian Bondage Deut. 5. which very Reason is an Argument that their Saturday-Sabbath was not the day on which God rested but local and temporary And God's urging the sanctifying of the Sabbath of the fourth Precept from his own Example argues the day therein commanded to be the day whereon God rested and to concern all Ages and Nations The reason of it being common to all and therefore to be our Sunday And this speaks the faithfulness of our Church viz. her informing her Children that the whole and intire both Precept and Reason appertains to us Christians and therefore we are bound to beg pardon for the breach thereof and Grace to observe it I had never much Artificial yet have so much Natural Logick as to think this a very strange Inference God rested the Seventh-day that is Saturday wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day that is Sunday and the common Opinion to be void of Reason viz. That the day commanded in this Precept is gon but the Precept remains seeing all that 's commanded is the sanctifying of the day whereon God rested It may with every whit as much reason be said the honouring of Father and Mother is gone but the Law commanding that Honour is still in force as that the day whereon the Command bids us rest is gone but the Precept commanding that Day of Rest remains as if that day injoyned belonged to the Jews and the Precept enjoyning to us My resentment of such horrible absurdities unavoidably issuing from the common Opinion that Saturday is the Day whereon God rested and that Day which he commanded the Jews to sanctifie in the fourth Precept And yet that the Precept is still in force to us Christians obliging us to sanctifie another day Sunday in Conjunction with the reverence I bear to the sounder Doctrine of the Church of England viz. That the fourth Precept commands us to celebrate Sunday upon the Account of God's resting on that day first put me upon that enquiry whereof my Treatise of the Sabbath is the result viz. whether that Hypothesis could be proved from Scripture and Reason and if proved whether it would secure unto us our Sunday-Sabbath without any new Institution by Christ's Precept upon better grounds than can be laid by the vulgar opinion and such as free our Necks from the yoak of those carnal austerities which attend the Jewish Temporary and Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath This Design I confess affronts the whole World of private modern Writers but I have standing on my side the Church of England which carried on the Reformation of Christian Religion from Papal Innovations more pecately regularly cautiously and with a greater respect to Catholick Antiquity than any other Reformed Church did And that which inclined me the rather to follow her Conduct through my whole Tract of the Sabbath was this because I observed that the Writers upon the fourth Precept have fallen into inextricable perplexities meerly through this one mistake That the Sabbath injoyned in that Precept is Saturday and not as our Church teacheth Sunday And that if they had followed our Churches Clew they would have found the way out of those Labyrinths wherein they have lost themselves For if Sunday be the Day whereon God rested and therefore commanded in that Precept to be sanctified after God's Example and unless it be that day wereon God rested that Precept does not command the sanctification of it how naturally will these Consequences follow 1. That Adam and the Patriarchs could not be ignorant of that Example of God which was laid down in the Precept as the Reason why we are to sanctifie it for if that reason oblige us who only hear it It must much more oblige Adam who after a sort saw it 2. That the Law of the Saturday-Sabbath is not expresly commanded in that Precept but only reducible to it in regard of its equity and proportion of time viz. one of seven And therefore Saturday-Sabbath may depart and the Precept continue in full force Nay that Sabbath together with the Ceremonial Precepts concerning it must as the rest of Mosaick Ceremonies depart at the rending of the Vail and give way to the Sunday-Sabbath And thus the Christian Church is disburdened of those Austerities about which there hath been so much wrangling amongst Modern Writers 3. That there was no need of a new Gospel-Precept for the first Institution of Sunday-Sabbath and that
that they should not inquire after the Nations way of Worship saying How did those Nations serve their Gods even so will I do that is after that manner will I serve God And in particular not after their burning of their Sons and Daughters in the Fire to their Gods Deut. 12. 30 31. Now the God to whom the Gentiles sacrificed their Children was the Sun whose Idol was called Moloch and Milchom Amos 5. 26. 1 Kings 11. 5 7. as being Molech or King of all the Planets and therefore by the 70 translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince and by the Phoenicians Door-Neighbours to the Jews called Beel-Samen the Lord of Heaven as Sanchoniatho witnesseth in Euseb Evang. Prep l. 1. And yet notwithstanding all these Prohibitions and God's discharging them from the publick Worship of himself on that day whereon the Heathens in their Apostacy from the first Institution worshipped the Sun the Jews imitated the Heathens in this most barbarous Custom of burning their Sons and Daughters in the Fire the Representation of the Sun Jer. 7. 31. 19. 5. Psal 106. 37 38. So exceeding prone was that People to imbrace strange Gods And therefore they stood so much more in need to have all Occasion thereto removed from them and especially such as God had instituted at first for the securing his own but were in process of Time perverted to the Introduction and countenancing of the Worship of false Gods as was the fate of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath Upon the like account the Jews were prohibited very many other Customs if not of divine Institution yet of Patriarchal Practice yea some of them seeming to be the natural Results of the Law of Humanity such was mourning at the Funerals of dear and near Relations wherein the Patriarchs exceeded even to the Admiration of other Nations Gen. 50. 10 11. And they wailed there with a very great and heavy Wailing and he Joseph with his Brethren made a mourning for his Father seven days And the Canaanites saw the Mourning and they said This is an heavy Mourning to the Egyptians therefore the name of that Place was called The Mourning of the Egyptians Yet this so natural a Duty was prohibited the High-Priest for he must not mourn for his Father or Mother Levit. 21. 11. and that because he had the holy Anointing and the holy Garments upon him which were holy only in Type So that here the Law of Nature must yield to the Levitical in this particular Case where the High-Priest's honouring of Father and Mother could do the Dead no good but might be an occasion of Evil to the Living by the way this makes the Case of the High-Priests wholly different from the Pharisees pleading Carban But where lay the Danger Answer in drawing the Jews to Conformity to the idolatrous Heathens in their manner of mourning Baruch 6. 31 32. And the Priests sit in their Temples having their Cloaths rent and their Heads and Beards shaven and nothing upon their Heads They roar and cry before their Gods as Men do at the Feast when one is dead Hence all Communion with the Nations is so pathetically forbidden the Jews lest they should by that means be drawn to Idolatry So much less reason have we to wonder that God should appoint the Jews another Day for their weekly Sabbath than that which was instituted at first to all Mankind when the Gentiles had perverted the Celebration of that Day to the instituting the Worship of the Sun Upon the like reason at the Restitution of Sunday-Sabbath upon the expiring of the Ceremonial Saturday-Sabbath the Christian Church changed the name of Sunday into that of the Lord's-Day that she might secure her Children from the Opinion of the Heathen World that it was in honour of the Planet of the Sun that that day of the Week which bore its name was separated for holy Assembles 3. And now we need not go far to seek for a Reason why God appointed Saturday to be the Jewish Sabbath for that being the week-day immediately preceding Sunday and the whole Oeconomy of Moses's Law as of a thing imperfect pointing to good things to come Heb. 10. 1. It was necessary that their typical Day of Rest should be so placed in the order of the Septiman as from thence they might look immediately unto that Day of true Rest that was to come at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness out of the Grave But besides this the more special Reason of God's appointing them Saturday for their Sabbath was because Saturday was the first day of Rest they had from Egyptian Bondage for they marched from Rameses on Friday the 15th day of the 1st Month and set up their Booths at Succoth on Saturday where they stayed two days according to the common Opinion of Learned Men on the latter whereof Sunday the Premises considered it may be presumed that they kept an holy Rest unto the Lord according to the Patriarchal Custom and that it was in that Assembly that Moses repeated the Ordinances of the Passover and separated the first-born of Males and Firstlings of the Flocks and Herds to be holy to the Lord. SECT II. And that this Precept for Saturday-Sabbath did not vacate the Patriarchal either to all Nations or to the Jews themselves for ever but was only imposed upon them as a Carnal Ordinance of divine Service until the time of Reformation Heb. 9. 10. Or until the Seed should come Gal. 3. 19. and those good things the Body whereof is Christ whereof it was a Shadow God gave the Jews many plain Intimations 1. In his assigning their Deliverance from Egypt and their resting from their hard Labour in that Bondage as the peculiar Reason of his commanding the Jews to celebrate his Sabbaths Deut. 5. 15. That thy Man-Servant c. may rest as well as thou and remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty Hand and by a stretched-out Arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day whether weekly monthly or yearly as also the Sabbaths of Years and Jubilees which Reason cannot reach other Nations but is wholly accommodated to the Jews and to them only till the time of Restauration 2. In his suspending the Raigning of Mannah on their Sabbaths and letting it fall on Sunday's Manna being reputed by those that could not look under the Vail Angels Food the Bread of Heaven Psal 105. 40. it s not falling on their Sabbath was interpreted that the giving of true Manna that of which whosoever eateth shall live for ever was reserved for Gospel-times and the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sabbath when he whom the Father sealed would give his Flesh for the Life of the World that true Bread of Life Joh. 6. that spiritual Food which was the desire of all that hungred after Righteousness of the Distribution whereof in the Ordinances of the Gospel when
from his own Works as God did from his For as God rested on the seventh Day from his proper Works as Creator that being the proper Work of God the Father who made me and all the World though as to other kind of Works the Father worketh hitherto Even so he that is entred into the Rest of the People of God the Christian-Sabbath doth therein most genuinely imitate God in that he also hath ceased from his Works that is the Works of the Law of Moses that being the proper Notion of Works in St. Paul's Sence whensoever he makes Comparison betwixt the Law and the Gospel And the Works of the Law being the proper Works of the Hebrews to whom this Epistle was directed as differencing them from all other Nations He hath cast off that Yoak of Ceremonies which neither we nor our Fathers could bear and hath taken the easy Yoke of Christ upon him that he may find rest to his Soul And what an apt Introduction is this to what is immediately subjoyned vers 11. Let us therefore strive to enter into this same Rest lest any Man fall after the same Example of Vnbelief Let me therefore perswade you to imitate God in his Seventh-Day's Rest lest you imitate your fore-Fathers in Unbelief and be excluded from eternal Rest From which fearful State the best way to be secured is to attend upon Christian Lord's-Day's Assemblies and Administrations where you shall hear Moses in the Newness of his Spirit not in the Oldness of the Letter you will see that Vail that Moses put upon his Face done away if you will turn unto the Lord and will find the Word of God as a sharp two-edged Sword drawn out of the Scabbard of Types and Ceremonies wherein it could not do any Execution upon the Soul and so weilded as it shall pierce even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit which is the plain Importance of vers 12. For the Word of God is quick c. that is as it is dispenc'd in Christian-Assembles into which if an Unbeliever should come while they are prophesying 1 Cor. 14. 24. that is applying Old-Testament Prophesies unto Christ and proving thence that Jesus is the Christ he is judg'd convinc'd of all convinc'd of the Sin of Unbelief Joh. 16. 8. convinc'd and judg'd of all that is all that prophesy one by one 1 Cor. 14. 31. not only by the prophesying of such as like Apollos are mighty in the Scriptures Act. 18. 28. but is so mightily convinc'd that Jesus is the Christ even of the weakest of them that have the Gift of Prophesying that is of applying the Old-Testament for proof of the truth of the Gospel he is I say by this powerful Word so convinc'd as the Secrets of his Heart are made manifest and so falling down on his Face he glorifieth God and confesseth that God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. By the Premises it appears that the Apostle's scope in his Discourse of the Sabbath is to withdraw the Jews from the Celebration of their Fruitless Sabbath to the Observation of the Christian-Sabbath As also how well God provided for the Settlement of publick-stated Assemblies in the Church when the Jewish Sabbaths were antiquated by letting the Apostles see that though the Law for that was out of date Col. 2. 16. yet there remained a Sabbath to the People of God viz. That which was instituted from the beginning and commanded in the Decalogue Had the Apostle indeed only decried that and not establish'd this it might have been thought that the Church had been left to her choice what Day of the Week to have celebrated as Calvin and the Prolepsarians conceive But as if the holy Ghost had purposely intended to obviate that Errour the admitting whereof would unavoidably bring Confusion into the Christian World he was pleased to direct the same Apostle whose Pen had cancel'd the Jewish to write in Vindication of the Christian-Sabbath and to inform him that seeing the Partition-wall was taken down there was a plain and open way made for the Restauration of the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath that Sabbath in the sanctifying whereof the greatest part of those Worthies mentioned Heb. 11. had received Grace to offer acceptable Sacrifices to God by Faith in the promised Seed to walk with God to be upright before him in the most general Apostacies to obey his Call unreservedly though they knew not whither To exert such Heroick Acts of Faith Patience Contempt of the World Dependance on God c. as made them the Wonders of that World which was unworthy of them and Paterns to the best of Christians That Sabbath in the Celebration whereof the Christian-Church forsook the Jewish Synagogue then became the Synagogue of Satan and betook themselves to the Communion of the General-Assembly and Church of the First-born consisting of all those who from the Publication of the Promise of Christ to Adam had been begotten again of the immortal Seed of that ever-induring Word administred to the Patriarchs and all that adhere to the Patriarchal Religion in all Nations and Ages and administred without those carnal Ordinances and unprofitable bodily Exercises wherewith the Jews Sabbath was incumbred if not wholly taken up therewith For the Jews that out-went the Ox and Ass in keeping the Mosaical Sabbath as such did not go beyond them in the Strength of the Services thereof which could not perfect them that frequented them as touching Conscience but in the strength of the Ordinances of the Patriarchal Sabbath so that it was their doing Sunday's Work on their Saturdays that sanctified the Jews as to Conscience Their own Sabbath's Rest from Work sanctifying them only by the external visible separating of them from other Nations to the end that our Saviour's Descent from Abraham might be more conspicuous And therefore as their fore-Fathers sell short through their looking no further than Canaan so those then Moderate Jews to whom he writes would also fall short of Eternal Rest if they did not look forward beyond their Sabbath-Day to Sunday or the Lord's-Day-Sabbath in the Ordinances whereof Saving Grace is so plentifully dispenc'd as the Eunuch shall have no cause to say I am a dry Tree nor the Sun of the Stranger to complain I am utterly cut off from God's People If they take hold of God's Covenant and keep his Sabbaths now under the Gospel tho they were excluded from the Congregation of the Lord under the Mosaical Sabbath Isa 56. 4 c. but their Sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar and he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer To this God of all Grace who deals thus bountifully with us Gentiles even to the Father Son and Holy-Ghost be given all Praises and Adoration now and for ever Amen FINIS Books printed for and sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wilson's Compleat Christian
The Doctrine of the CHURCH of England Concerning the Lord's-Day or Sunday-Sabbath As it is laid down in the Liturgy Catechism and Book of Homilies VINDICATED From the Vulgar Errours of Modern Writers and settled upon the only proper and sure Basis of God's Precept to Adam and Patriarchal Practice VVHERE An Essay is laid down to prove that the Patriarchal Sabbath instituted Gen. 2. 3. celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick Law and re-inforc'd in the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same day of the VVeek viz. Sunday which Christians celebrate in memory of the perfecting of the Creation of the VVorld by the Redemption of Mankind Stand ye in the Ways and see and ask for the old Paths where is the good Way and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your Souls Jer. 6. 16. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXIII THE PREFACE TO THE Intelligent Readers SAd and deplorable Brethren have been our Sabbatarian Controversies For while one Extream pleads there is no other ground for sanctifying the Lord's-Day than there is for other Holy-days to wit Ecclesiastical Constitution thinking thereby to oblige Christians to as religious Observation of other Holy-days as of Sunday They aim at an Impossibility seeing in many religious Persons there is imprinted this common Sentiment That the Lord's-Day ought to be discriminated from other Days And this Principle so deeply imprinted as all Attempts to obliterate do furbish it and make the writing more legible Yea the circumjacent Cold of the Devotion of the contrary-minded as by an Antiperistasis enflames the Zeal of Men seriously devout beyond the due Bounds and pusheth them on to the very Brink if not into the Gulf of Judaizing in the manner of celebrating the Lord's-Day And on the other hand the looser sort observing how some of those that with most Earnestness press the aforesaid Ground of Ecclesiastical Constitution do themselves observe Holy-days think they have fully discharged the Office of good Religious Christians if they sanctify the Lord's-Day as they celebrate other Holy-Days that is by resting from their ordinary Callings frequenting the Morning-Prayer to attend Evensong is a work of Supererogation and trifling away the remainder in pass-times Now what hath or can be the issue of this but Ignorance and Prophaneness and an Incouragement to profane Sundays instead of sanctifying other Holy-days But I love not to be querulous motos praestat componere fluctus I would much rather help towards the calming of this boisterous Sea in order whereunto I shall propound these Preliminaries 1. That the Progress of Men's Devotion for Sundays above other Holy-days into Superstition ought by all means to be prevented and the Jewish Yoke of the strict Ceremonial Rest of their Sabbath as well as their sabbath-Sabbath-Day it self ought to be taken off the Necks of the Disciples because that Ceremonial Rest being a Shadow of good things to come by Christ the retaining of the Shadow is a denying that Christ the Body is come And bodily Rest as well as bodily Exercise is now under the Gospel unprofitable except it be ordinated to spiritual 2. That yet a due Respect to the Lord's-Day ought by all means to be incouraged 1. Because this seems to be the common Notion of serious Christians and that argues it to be an Infusion from that one Spirit into which we are all baptized and by which as their Intellectus Agens or common Soul all Christ's living Members are animated 2. Because this is one of the surest Nails fastened by the Masters of Assemblies for the Support of Religion especially in this Age For this Principle is that that not only brings Men to Church to worship God and to be instructed by him in the Ministry of the Gospel but also obligeth them in Conscience to do something extraordinary in their Families on the Lord's-Day towards the educating them in the Nurture and Fear of the Lord beyond what they think themselves bound to do on the Week-Days so that if this were an Errour it would be an happy Errour as being an occasion of bringing Men to the Worship of God and Knowledg of the Truth And truly if I were perswaded that the other Opinion that the Sanctification of the Lord's-Day hath no other Ground than Ecclesiastical Constitution were a Truth I should think it a Truth not necessary to be published For if Men did not apply themselves to the Service of God and promoting the Interest of their Souls with more Seriousness of Devotion on the Lord's-Day than it is possible to perswade them to in keeping other Holidays the common Practice of most and the Principles of the more Religious considered Ceres and Bacchus would have more Service from Christians than the only true God For how I pray are our very chief Holy-days celebrated such as Christmas Easter Pentecost Sunday excepted but by Carding Dancing Revelling Whitsun-Ales c If God therefore had not better Sacrifices offered to him and Men's Souls better Sustenance administred to them on the Lord's-Day Men would rob God of his Honour and starve their own Souls 3. The first Errour in the Digestion of Men's Thoughts touching this Controversy is the common Hypothesis of all modern Litigants to wit That the Lord's-Day comes in as a Successour in the room of Saturday Upon which sandy Ground it is not so easy to lay any solid Foundation for sanctifying the Lord's-Day For if that Day which God by his Example and Precept first sanctified for the weekly Sabbath be Saturday that Day cannot be unsanctified and another adopted in its room but by an Equal if not a Superiour Authority to that which consecrated Saturday Now a Superiour Authority to the Example and Precept of God cannot be imagined And that which is alledged by either Party for the unsanctifying Saturday falls far short of Equality to it For what argumentative Force can there be in Christ's rising his appearing to his Apostles the Apostles assembling on Sundays for the sanctifying that Day comparable to the express Command of God for sanctifying Saturday much less can the Constitution of the Church counter-ballance it Briefly they proclaim Sunday an usurping Intruder into the Priviledges of Saturday rather than its legal Successour who advance it into the Possession of Saturday's Crown to be the weekly Holy-day upon no better claim than can possibly be deduc'd for it while they make it a younger Brother 4. This Errour in the first Digestion being incurable must either be removed out of the way of Men's Thoughts when they are pitching them upon this Argument or they will be ever learning and yet never come to the Knowledg of the true Ground for the sanctifying of the Lord's-Day but will endlesly draw the Saw of Contention both ways That the abovesaid Errour therefore may be obviated I have laid down this contrary Hypothesis viz. That Sunday-Sabbath is elder Brother to Saturday-Sabbath That being assigned for the weekly
Design and Ambition is to be serviceable in promoting the Eternal Interest of Souls and the Peace of the Church Your Servant in our Common Lord. J. S. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe Patriarchs had stated Assemblies for publick Worship Pag. 3. Sect. 1. They had stated Places for Divine Worship p. 4. Sect. 2. Stated Ministers with Maintenance Jacob's Vow The Egyptian Priests-Lands Cain's Offering p. 6. CHAP. II. The Patriarchs had stated Times proved from Gen. 4. 3. and Gen. 1. 4. p. 17. CHAP. III. These stated Times were weekly p. 19. Sect. 1. The Computation of Times by Septimanes common to all Ages Weeks of Years Gen. 29. 27. Affronts Sacred Chronology p. 20 c. Sect. 2. And to all Nations Computation by Months and Years of human Invention by Weeks of Divine Institution p. 25. Sect. 3. At the End of Days Gen. 4. 3. is the End of a Week p. 28. Sect. 4. Sons of God Job 1. 6. not Angels but Church-Members p. 30. Sect. 5. Sons of God different from Morning-Stars What is the Corner-Stone Job 38. p. 38. Sect. 6. The Sons of God Joh. 1. 6. proved to be the same with the Sons of God Gen. 2. 6. from the Proximity of the Times Job Contemporarian with Phaleg proved from length of his Age. Job was Jobab the Son of Joctan Daughter of Edom in the Land of Us Lam. 4. explained by Jer. 25. Job's Country Arabia Petraea p. 43. Sect. 7. Elihu wrote the History of Job p. 51. Sect. 8. Sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord was their Church-Convention on stated Days weekly p. 56. Sect. 9. The Chimaera of a Prolepsis Gen. 2. proved p. 61. CHAP. IV. The Weekly Patriarchal-Sabbath was Sunday p. 64. Sect. 1. The Patriarchal Sabbath was not Saturday proved from Testimony of Heathens Fathers Scripture which makes a vast difference betwixt the Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that injoyned the Jews by Moses p. 64. Sect. 2. The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and Mosaick grounded upon different Reasons p. 77. Sect. 3. The Patriarchal Sabbath was Sunday proved by two Arguments Saturday-Sabbaterians silenc'd p. 91. Sect. 4. The first Instance of celebrating Sunday before the Institution of Saturday-Sabbath Exod. 16. The pointing of the Septuagint refers the 15th day to their Morning Why that preferrable before the Hebrew p. 97. Sect. 5. The Assembly Ex. 16. 2. a Church-Assembly celebrated on course instructed by an Ecclesiastical Minister p. 115. Sect. 6. This 15th Day was Sunday p. 122. Sect. 7. The Saturday following was the first Saturday-Sabbath that ever was kept p. 126. Sect. 8. The other Instance of a Sunday-Sabbath kept before the giving of the Law by Moses Gen. 12. The Tenth Day there mentioned was Sunday It was on that day not the 14th that Moses and Aaron spake to the whole Church of the Israelites assembled not by an extraordinary Call but on Course for Religious Worship p. 132. CHAP. V. God rested on the seventh Day in his New Creation Man restored by Faith p. 146. Sect. 1. Proved in gross from the Analasis of Gen. Chap. 1 2 3 4. p. ibid. Sect. 2. Adam fell on the Day of his Creation p. 151. Sect. 3. He was restored the same day he fell The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World The Covenant betwixt God the Father and the Son betwixt God and Adam confirmed by Oath how Sect. 4. From thence God smelt a Savour of Rest and not before CHAP. VI. Saturday-Sabbath being the sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that of the fourth Precept Where it has not footing but only in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's death and give place to the Patriarchal p. 179. Sect. 1. The Jewish Sabbath a discriminating Badg an Antidote against Idolatry by worshipping the Sun The day of rest from Egypt c. p. 180. Sect. 2. Plain Intimations of its being local and temporary p. 181. THE Patriarchal Sabbath CHAP. I. Sect. I. The Patriarchal Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. 3. Celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick-Law and Reinforc'd by the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same Day of the Week viz. Sunday that the Christian Church celebrates in Memory of the Creation of the World and Redemption of Mankind FOR the Illustration and Proof of this Assertion it will be requisite that Proof be made of these Particulars 1. The Patriarchs had solemn stated Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. They had solemn Set Times for the Administration of Religious Worship in those Assemblies 3. These Set and Appointed Times were Weekly Sabbaths 4. These Weekly Sabbaths were Sundays 5. The New-Creature Man Restored by Faith in the Promised Seed was that perfect Finishing of the Creation that made all very Good and that from which God smelt so sweet a Savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as therefore to bless it 6. The Mosaical Saturday Sabbath being the Sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the Fourth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christs Death and give place to the Patriarchal CHAP. I. That the Patriarchal Church had Solemn Stated Assemblies for Publick Worship is manifest from their having Stated Places Seperate Persons and Maintenance in order to the Administration of such Worship SECT I. THat they had Sacred Places known by the name of the Houses of God the Presence of God c. is plain from Gen. 28. 17 22. This is none other but the House of God meaning the place of the Altar which his Grandfather Abraham had Erected at his first arrival in Canaan where his and Lot's Families used to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 12. 8. And he removed thence unto a Mountain on the East of Bethel and Pitched his Tents having Bethel on the West and Hai on the East and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord. And Chap. 13. 3. And he went on his Journey from the South even to Bethel unto the Place where his Tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai unto the place of the Altar which he had made there at the firct and there Abraham called upon the Name of the Lord. In both these Texts the Place appears to be the very same where Jacob had the Visions of God to wit Bethel betwixt Ai and Bethel that is the House of God betwixt the City Ai and the City Luz for so was that City called at the first Gen. 28. 19. and afterwards Bethel from the House of God adjacent as the Towns Kirby Kendal Kirby Lunsdal Kirby Steven have their Names from the Churches there built Now that Abraham solemnized Publick Divine Worship here ut Familiam suam in Pietate instrueret that he might edifie his Family in Piety to use the words of Batablus may be rationally concluded from hence that he did not only Pray
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the seventh-Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did
Moral so far as it concerns you that is in the equity of it He spake indeed more words but not unto your whole Assembly in its present Constitution but as you shall be at the rending of the Vail he would have you hear that which I omit to repeat for that time to come seeing the pressing of you upon that reason to keep that Sabbath-Day God hath commanded you to observe would be a strong Argument against your keeping it SECT III. I could name other differences the Sacred Scripture makes betwixt the Patriarchal and Jewish Sabbath but these already mentioned are sufficient to convince rational Men that the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Patriarchal Sabbath commanded in the fourth Precept I come now to shew that the Patriarchs celebrated Sunday for their weekly Sabbath Arg. 1. And here first I urge the Premises If Saturday was not the Patriarchal Sabbath either Sunday must be it or it will follow that there have been three several Sabbaths one of the Patriarchs before the Law another of the Jews under the Law and a third of Christians under the Gospel A consequence which a Mahometan may perhaps not disgust but I am sure it will sound harsh in a Christians Ear. Arg. 2. There can no other justifiable account be given of Christians celebrating Sunday but this That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was Ceremonial and Temporary and therefore to give place to that day that was sanctified from the beginning by God's Example and Precept gave place I say to that at the expiration of the Mosaical Law without any new Precept 1. For if Saturday-Sabbath had been the day on which God rested and commanded Adam to rest on and keep holy it could not have been unsanctified but by a Precept as manifest and of as great Authority as that was whereby it was instituted which I am confident can never be made to appear in the translation of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday And that which is alledged for this comes far short For what Argumentative force can there be in Christ's rising his appearing after his Resurrection and celebrating religious Assemblies with his Apostles ordinarily on Sundays in the Apostles assembling on that day for religious Worship what force I say can there be in all this for the unsanctifying of Saturday and giving its Crown to Sunday comparable to the express Command of God grounded upon his own Example to sanctifie Saturday Nay what are Mens pleading such things as these for the change of the Sabbath upon supposition that Saturday was God's day of rest and commanded by him to be kept but a setting up of their own conceits and miscollected conclusions that because Saturday was instituted in memory of the Creation and Sunday was the day wherein Christ perfected Man's Redemption by his Resurrection c. therefore Saturday must give place to Sunday in direct opposition to God's express precept If Saturday be the day intended in the fourth Precept or Gen. 2. 2. But then I would not have the Saturday-Sabbatarians crow as if I adjudged the victory to them For upon the ground that I have laid the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath being calculated particularly to that Nation and therefore Temporary and Ceremonial must with other Mosaick Ceremonies be abrogated by Christ's Death and give place to the Antient Patriarchal Sabbath on course without any new Precept And here now our Saviour's rising from the dead his frequent appearing to his Disciples on Sundays the practise of the Apostles and primitive Church come in seasonably with their Auxiliary force to support the divine Institution of the Lords-day For though as to the first Consecration thereof their Examples signifie nothing nor are able to stand their ground against the Assaults of God's both Example and Precept yet upon that ground I have laid they are substantial and strenuous Seconds to prove the Restauration of the Ancient Patriarchal Sabbath by the Antiquation of the Judaick What greater influence could our Saviour's rising on Sunday have upon that day to the sanctifying thereof than his suffering on Friday or his Ascension on Thursday could have upon either of those days to sanctifie either of them for the weekly Sabbath 3. But yet Christ chose to rise on Sunday because God had sanctified that day from the beginning And therefore his Resurrection and the Apostles celebrating Church-Assemblies on that day though they are not of Authority sufficient to appoint a new Lord's-Day yet they are safe Guides to point us to that old Patriarchal Lord's-Day whereon the Lord rested and therefore commanded the Patriarchal Church Catholique to sanctifie it in Conformity to and Communion with which Church extending to all Ages and Places save Judea which never was any other but a particular Church God having in all Nations some that feared God and wrought Righteousness and therefore were accepted of him Our Saviour after the rending or the Vail and removal of the Partition-Wall rose upon that Day and upon that Day celebrated Religious Assemblies c. And this was sufficient to revoke the Sabbath to its first beginning to which all things were revoked by Christ saith Tertullian in Monogamia and to intimate that Sunday was the Patriarchal Sabbath It being manifest that the Jewish Sabbath instituted not only four hundred but three thousand years after the institution of the Patriarchal could not make that void any more than the Mosaick Law could vacate the Promise made to Abraham before that Law was given according to the Apostles way of Arguing Gal. 3 17. The Covenant that was before confirmed of God to Abraham the Law which was 430 years after could not disanul that it should make the Promise of none effect And that therefore that Mosaic Law of the Sabbath being made void the Patriarchal must of course take effect without any new Injunction The necessity of which Cousequence will be made more apparent by the next Argument Viz. SECT IV. Arg. 3. That the Patriarchs did celebrate the Sunday-Sabbath before the Institution of Saturday-Sabbath may be proved if not demonstrated from Scripture-Instances It were indeed unreasonable to expect Mathematical Demonstrations in this case seeing Moses his History of the Patriarchal Religion is so exceeding concise as his Narrative thereof for above two thousand years may be in a manner comprised in a Nut-shell Yet if we diligently search I doubt not but we shall find Instances next to Demonstrations in two places viz. Exod. 12. Exod. 16. I will begin with the last because it leads to the change of the Patriarchal Sabbath to the Jewish which seeing we all know to be Saturday by reckoning backward till we come to the day on which that general Church-Assembly mentioned ver 2. was kept we may certainly find on what day of the week it fell Inst 1 The first Instance therefore that I shall give of a Religious weekly Assembly kept on course by the Patriarchs on Sundays is from Exod. 16. 1 c. And they took their Journey
from Elim and all the Congregation of the Children of Israel came into the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departure out of the Land of Egypt And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron For the right stating of the sense of this Text I must crave leave to rectify the Pointing which as it stands refers the sifteenth day to their marching which ought to be referred to the time of this Assembly For of what use imaginable could it be to know the day of the Month when they took their Journey any more than the rest of their Journeyings except that from Mount Sinai Numb 10. 11. for the space of forty years But as God at the Institution of the Passover had changed the beginning of the Year and appointed that Month to be the first to the Israelites which was not the sirst in respect of the Creation So when he was purposed to change the beginning of Weeks to the Israelites and appoint that Day their seventh which was the sixth in the Patriarchal Account and of the whole World beside the Jews It was expedient to leave some plain Note and Character of Time whereby it might be known on what day of the Week the Sabbath was kept before that change Now this misapplication of the fifteenth day may easily be amended by having recourse to the Original and the Septuagint thus and they journeyed from Elim And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel came into the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai ver 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And or But on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departure out of the Land of Egypt the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured c. This is therefore the first Collection I make from this Text. That the whole Congregation are not said to March but to Murmur on the fifteenth day their Sabbath Songs were turned into Howlings like those Amos 8. 3. As to the Reason I assign why the day of the Month is named here and not in any of their Marching saving that from Mount Sinai a Person eminent for Learning and Place in our Church is pleased to except against it by giving this as the Reason why the day of the Month is here named viz. lest the first part of the verse should be mistaken as if they had gone from Elim and come to Sin the same day Whereas they departed from Elim to the Red-Sea and came from the Red-Sea into the Wilderness of Sin Numb 33. To this exception therefore I here humbly offer these two things to consideration 1. Moses in Numb 33. where he purposely Records their Marchings in order and mentions that by the Red-Sea immediately before their coming into the Wilderness doth sufficiently prevent all possibility of mistaking the sense of Ex. 16. except by such negligent Readers as in their reading his Writings slip over that Chapter in Numbers which kind of Persons I suppose Moses was not very careful to gratifie 2. This Reason is so far from preventing the supposed mistake as it necessarily leads to it For read the Text thus They departed from Elim and came into the Wilderness of Sin the fifteenth day and this pointing makes their departure from Elim and coming into the Wilderness to have been on the same day The first being the terminus a quo the other the terminus ad quem of their motion Except we fancy they came into the Wilderness the fifteenth day from no place But refer the fifteenth day to their Murmuring not Marching and both the extream tearms of their March stand firm and there is space enough betwixt them left for their intermediate encamping at the Red-Sea As if a Man should say I removed from London and came to York the 15th day of April we would conclude that he came to York the same day he removed from London But if he should say I came from London to York without specifying the time none would imagine but that he had lodging-places betwixt London and York So that this Exception furnishes me with one Argument more for my applying the 15th day to their Murmuring not Marching The same eminent Person adviseth me to consider whether the Septuagint can weigh down the Hebrew Samaritan Syriac Arabick Targum c. all which refer the 15th day to their Marching I have considered this and am very apprehensive what a difficult and envious Task I undertake if I should prefer the Septuagint above the Hebrew I remember how angry Jerom was with St. Austin for preferring it before his Hebraica Veritas and what opposition the late attempt of Vosius hath met with And yet I cannot but retain a singular honour in my heart for it 1. As being better secured from being corrupted by the faithless Jews when the Hebrew by reason of its being communicated many hundred years before the Christian Aera to the Gentile World and deposited in Ptolomies famous Library whither the Philosophers flocked from all parts of the World saith Elian the divine Providence foreseeing what unfaithful Keepers of the divine Oracles that People to whom they were first committed would prove when for their rejecting Christ they became Lo-ammi provided that the Gentiles should come to the light thereof by means of the Septuagint so long before our Saviour's coming the contemptibleness of whose appearance so enraged the Learned Party of the Jews who had the Hebrew Copies in their custody for the vulgar Jews understood not Hebrew in our Saviour's time as in revenge they defaced his Image drawn by their own Prophets for representing him such as the Apostles proclaimed him to be whence proceeded those numerous Corruptions mentioned by Vossius and others 2. The Apostles making so frequent if not constant use of it in their quotations of the old Testament seems to me a Canonization of the Translation and a commending it above the Hebrew 3. If the Hebrew be to be suspected where it affronts the Septuagiut it ought to be so especially in such Texts as have relation to their Sabbath Their idolizing of which might prompt them to disturb the Pointing of this Text Exod. 16. which according to the Septuagint speaks it to be a younger Brother to Sunday-Sabbath 4. And for my preferring the Septuagint before the Hebrew in those Texts that have relation to the Sabbath I have the example of our own Church to be my warrant which adheres to that Version in the Translation of thef ourth Precept both in the Catechism where she feeds her Babes with Milk and in the Office of Communion where she reminds her adult Members of that part of their Baptismal Vow whereby they stand obliged to keep God's holy Will and Commandments Altho the Hebrew Geneva Spanish and that of Jerom and all I have perused saith L'Estrange render it wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-Day except the
a religious respect to the Sabbath which Moses forthwith explains vers 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath c. and vers 29. See because the Lord hath given you this Sabbath therefore he hath given you on the sixth day the Bread of two days Philo Judaeus saith that the Hebrews were taught by this which was the birth-day of the World whereof their Forefathers were ignorant a very likely thing that Abraham should not know the Patriarchal Sabbath L'Estrange will have it thus That the Elders made not strange at the Sabbath but at the strictness of the Rest now commanded But he should have called to mind that nothing was spoken of that till after the Elders were come to Moses And if we duly weigh the Story the Elders will be found to have thought it strange why the People gathered this double portion on Friday for the Elders knew that a double portion was to be gathered on the sixth day six days before And therefore would doubtless have applied themselves to Moses before now for a resolution if they had then questioned for what end they were to gather double on the sixth day and no other reason can be imagined of that delay but that their thoughts were suspended all that while upon the sixth day of the Patriarchal-week which is Saturday till they saw the People gather on the sixth day in the order of the gathering days and then and not till then they came to Moses that he might resolve them whether the Precept was to be interpreted of the sixth day in the order of the Creation which had hitherto been the preparation for the Sabbath or whether it was God's purpose to alter the Sabbath and transfer it from Sunday to Saturday and that therefore Friday now must be their preparation day or which comes all to one whether the six days were to comense at the first gathering-day or the first of the Patriarchal week And this seruple propounded by all the Elders that is all the grave men of the Congregation who had been longest acquainted with the Ancient Sabbath for Elders in the Text does not imply a name of Office but of Age Elders by Office not being constituted till Jethro had advised Moses to constitute them Exod. 18. 21. These it seems had not themselves gathered a double portion but thought the younger sort timerarious in their account of days and therefore acquaint Moses with it whom Moses thus resolves This is that the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. When did God say this but in his Precept to gather twice as much on the sixth day So that here Moses comments upon the Precept telling them that thereby God appointed to the Jews the morrow following to be thence-forward their weekly Sabbath Whereas if they had been used before to keep Saturday-Sabbath the Rulers needed not to have applied themselves to Moses for the resolution of such a question as a Child might have unriddled for it cannot be imagined but the day before the Patriarchal Sabbath was from the beginning a preparation to it whereon Reason would tell Men that they ought to set their secular Affairs in such good order as they might not be distracted by them in the sacred exercises of the Sabbath which from the first was so to be sanctified as no servile work was to be done thereon And seeing the Israelites at this time had no other servile work to do but gathering and dressing of Manna if they had not been restrained from that on the Sabbath there would have been no difference betwixt that and other days in respect of cessation from common work And therefore upon that supposition that Saturday was their ancient Sabbath the Elders must have been Children in understanding if they perceived not the reason of the Precept for gathering twice as much on Friday To sum up the whole of this Argument This is the first Saturday-Sabbath we find celebrated in the Wrold for 2453 Years at the lowest account and that the whole World should live to that age without a Sabbath is the most incredible of Incredibles In order to the vindication of the Patriarchal-Church from so black a Crime I have endeavoured to shew that Sunday-Sabbath was observed before the Institution of the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath from the first instance And I shall give more clear and unexceptionable proof thereof in the other forenamed instance drawn from Exod. 12. 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation of Israel saying On the tenth day of this mouth they shall take to them a Lamb c. SECT VIII 2d Instance If we reckon backward from the 15th day of the second month which we demonstrated to have been Sunday till we come to the tenth day of the first month we shall find that tenth day to have been Sunday and to have been celebrated by the Israelites and by consequence the Egyptians also their keeping thereon a solemn religious stated Assembly on course 1. That this tenth day fell on Sunday may be thus collected by a retrograde calculation of days from the fifteenth of the second month to the tenth of the first Second month Days 15 8 1. First month days 24 17 10 were 〈◊〉 For the proof of this Account wherein I assign 30 days to a month I have the plain testimony of Moses Gen. 7. 24. compared with Chap. 8. 4. where the beginning of the 150 days of the Waters prevailing above the Earth is said to be the 17th day of the month and the end of those days the 17th of the 7th month that is just five months if we assign to each month 30 days And Deut. 12. 13. She shall bewail her Father and Mother a month of days This would have been a Lesbian Rule if their months had not consisted of an equal number of days And if the days of every of those months wherein the Waters prevailed had not been thirty the space from the 17th of the second to the 17th of the seventh month would not have amounted to 150 days These Texs are so plain as I wonder how so many Men of great and deserved name came to be lulled except by Rabbinical Sorcery into so deep a sleep as to dream of the Jewish months having assigned to them alternatim 30 and 29 days and to forsake Moses his conduct in so plain a path An Errour which the industrious and learned Vsher gives his Testimony against in the Preface to his Annals The Year saith he there of the Patriarchs Egyptians and Hebrews consisted of twelve equal months of thirty days aepiece For that the Hebrews used Lunary months before the Babylonish Captivity is more than can be proved from this so infallible an Evidence that the Patriarchs reckoned thirty days to the month what ever Innovation after-Ages introduc'd is not here material A demonstrative proof may be drawn of the truth of the first Instance also that the 15th of the second month Exod. 16.
could not stir from the place where they sate down upon which supposition indeed the Israelites might have had a conveniency of meeting without check But how weak their Arguments are who are of that Opinion hath been shewed already And I will now shew the Impossibility of it from the plain order of the sacred History For it is thence manifest that what passed in the whole 11th Chapter was after the end of the Darkness and before Moses went from Pharoah's presence That is as soon as Moses Chap. 10. ult had answered Pharoah Thou shalt see my face no more God tells Moses while he yet stood before Pharoah that he would bring one Plague more upon Egypt that would force Pharoah to dismiss them not only with their own Goods but with the Jewels Silver and Gold c. of the Egyptians also And Moses reports this Message to Pharoah and then and not till then Moses goes out from Pharoah in a rage Chap. 11. 8. Now it was after all this that God commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to the whole Congregation that should be assembled then on the 10th day Besides God's bidding both Moses and Aaron speak to the Congregation argues it to have been a Church-Assembly Chap. 4. 15. Thou shalt speak to Aaron the Levite and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and his mouth And he shall be thy Spokesman unto the People And Chap. 7. 1. Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet The meaning therefore of Speak ye c. Chap. 12. 1. is That Moses should speak to Aaron and Aaron speak to the People Now why must Aaron speak to the People if they had not been a Church-Assembly seeing he was not a temporary but standing Prophet nor a Prophet who received Revelations from God but publish'd to the People divine Revelations received by Moses which is the proper work of an Ecclesiastical Minister in a Church-Assembly 1 Cor. 14. 23 24. But what is reported of this Assembly Exod. 12. 27. that at its breaking up the People bowed the head and worshipped puts it beyond all doubt that it was conven'd for Religious Worship And yet let me add as a joint-confirmation of the whole premises that it is scarce conceivable whence in more likelihood than from the Patriarchal Custom of celebrating Sunday-Sabbath could flow that most ancient and universal Idolatry of worshipping the Sun as the most generally beneficient and salvifick Deity Or from whence else could proceed the change of the Name of the City On where Joseph's Father-in-law the Prince-Priest or Metropolitan of all Egypt had his residence into that of Heliopolis or the City of the Sun but from the abuse and misinterpretation of the Patriarchal Sabbath conceiving that Planet whose name that Day bore which was celebrated as the chief Day of the Week to be the chief God For that the Sun was worshipped of the Egyptians and all Nations as the general all-healing all-saving Deity is affirmed by Diodorus Macrobius Agellius and all the Ancients with unanimous consent A quovis salubris subvenit animis corporibusque mortalium Macrob. Saturnal l. 1. c. 20. And so decry the Opinion of the Heathen that the Sun was a God because the Day called by his Name was dedicated of all the Days of the Week to divine Worship it seemed good to the Christian Church to give it a new name the Lords Day as being celebrated in memory of our Lord's Resurrection who on that Day entred into his Rest and ceased from his Works as God did from his So that we have in these two Instances which fell within the space of five Weeks an account given of the Patriarches keeping two Sunday-Sabbaths whereas we hear not of two Saturday-Sabbaths kept either by the Patriarchs or the Jews in the whole Old-Testament though that contains an History of the Church for above 3500 years I mean Saturday-Sabbaths circumstanced as these Sunday-Sabbaths are with the nomination of the day and month whereon they were celebrated CHAP. V. The new Creature Man restored by faith in the promised Seed was that finishing perfection of the Creation which made all very good and from which God smelled so sweet a savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as to bless and sanctify it SECT I. FOR the proof of this in general let us consider the order of Time respecting Moses his Narrative of Man's Creation Male and Female and the immediate Consequents thereof till they were turned out of Paradise and thence we may certainly collect that Adam fell and was restored on the sixth day 1. That Eve was formed the sixth day is without all doubt And therefore the History in the whole second Chapter from the end of vers 3. in order of time immediately follows the mention of God's creating them Male and Female Chap. 1. 27. and precedes what is recorded from the beginning of Vers 28. Chap. 1. And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitsul and multiply though in the order of narration it be set after because Moses would not interpose so long a Parenthesis in his breviate of the Creation as the manner of creation and disposal of the Female makes 2. The whole third Chapter touching the Temptation Fall Promise of Christ and turning out of Eden in time precedes God's Grant to Adam and Eve made Chap. 1. vers 29. Behold I have given you every Herb upon the face of the whole Earth and every Tree c. For while they were in Eden they had leave only to eat of the Trees of the Garden and not of all them neither Chap. 2. 17. They must therefore have starv'd after they were turn'd out of Paradise if God had not enlarged their Charter And to find what that was and when granted we must recur back from the end of the third Chapter where God takes away the Table he had furnish'd for them in Eden unto the forequoted chap. 1. 29. where he spreads a larger Table for them furnish'd with every Herb and Tree upon the face of the whole Earth For it is to be noted that although Beasts and Birds and Fishes fall to 't without saying Grace and those that live by prey sustain themselves not only with Vegitables but Animals without asking other leave than their own natures give them yet Man as he had not right to feed on Animals till God granted him that power after the Flood Gen. 9. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green Herb have I given you all things So neither could he deprive Vegitables of life for the sustenance of his own till God granted him liberty 3. From this Grant therefore Chap. 1. 29. we must continue the Story if we will bring it into due order of time unto the end of vers 3. chap. 2. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested c. And thence pass over the remaining part of the second and
the whole third Chapters unto chap. 4. which from ver 3. And in process of time they brought Offerings unto the Lord shews how the Patriarchs sanctified that Day that God had sanctified It is most manifest from this plain Chronological account of the sacred History that Man fell was restored and thrust out of Paradise the sixth day Cherubims being plac'd with flaming Swords to guard the Tree of Life leaving Adam no hope of life by the first Covenant whither then could he look for Life Eternal but to the promised Seed in Faith of whose Blood and acknowledgment of his own Sin he offered by God's appointment those Beasts in Sacrifice of whose skin 's God made him and Eve Coats that they appearing before God in that which was a Type of the Robes of Righteousness and pleading the Blood of the Covenant might be found and accepted in Christ in whom alone God is well-pleased and smelleth a sweet savour of Rest Upon which account he rested the seventh day and Adam with him in Christ To Adam ' s celebrating the praises of his Redeemer on this Sabbath Day the Chaldee Paraphrase or Targum of Jonathan who was fellow-disciple to Hillel with good old Simeon fourty years before our Saviour's incarnation saith P. Fagius on Gen. 1. seems to have respect for thus that renders the title of Psalm 92. An Hymn which the first man Adam said for the Sabbath-Day as Ainsworth observes Dicunt Rabboth quod Adamus hunc psalmum protulit quando creatus erat vesper Sabbati postea peccavit erat maledictus in hora duodecima diei sexti crat expulsas ab Edene Deus benedictus venit ad judicium mortis Sabbatum super vevit Et Adam Eucharistias quia erat liberatus a judicio mortis profert Darash R. Arama Vicars decupla carticum Adami dicitur ab Hebraeis quod talia dicere potuit Adamus cum res adeo primum conditas aspexit Grot. The Rabbins say that Adam made this Psalm on the Eve of the Sabbath at twelve of the Clock of the Day wherein he was created and afterwards sinned and was accursed and driven out of Eden The blessed God came to pass the Sentence of Death upon him the Sabbath came upon him And Adam because he was set free from the Sentence of Death brought forth thanksgiving Offerings That is saith Grotius because Adam may be supposed to have said such like words when he beheld the things that God created in the beginning SECT II. But all this together may perhaps seem too great a weight to hang upon the single Pin of this one Argument drawn from the Chronology of the History I will therefore more distinctly shew the truth of each particular 1. That Adam fell on the sixth day seems evident from that Greek Proverb grounded upon the almost universal Consent of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam was formed and deformed the same day quoted by Hamond L' Estrange p. 8. Which universal Consent took its rise from Psal 49. 12. Hinc Colligunt Hebraei in Berescit Rabba gloriam primi hominis cum eo non per noctisse Cartw. Mell. Broughton most confidently affirms that Adam did not continue in his Integrity one hour and affirms that all Jews are of that opinion from the Authority of Maimonides and from that Proverb of modern Jews above-said He also saith that all the Greek Fathers are of the same opinion Vna nocte integritate non permanebat Adam saith Vicars for which he quotes the Arabick and Persic Pentateuch The Septuagint indeed renders the above-quoted Text Psa 49 12 thus Man being in honour understandeth not As if it were the same with vers 23. The Syr. Arab and Simmachus follow the Septuagint but this reading contradicts all Hebrew Copies and the best Hebrew Doctors David Kimhi Aben Ezra c. and antient Fathers as Jerom c. who render it thus Adam or Man being in honour did not lodg there a Night or Adam did not lodg one Night in Honour non pernoctavit did not stay one Night in that Estate for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jalin the Hebrew Word here used signifies properly to lodg or stay for a Night Gen. 31. 54. Laban and Jacob tarried all Night in the Mount and early in the Morning departed Gen. 32. 21. Jacob himself lodged with the Company that Night I might add that the Targum interprets Gen. 2. 15. And the Lord took the Man and placed him in the Garden of Eden by a Syriack Word Sharah which in Hiphil signifies to place in a lodging for a Night thus is this word used in the Syriack New Testament Acts 20. 15. And the next day we came to Samos and lodged at Trogillium and the next day c. Luke 9. 12. When the day begun to wear away the Disciples said Send the Multitude away that they may lodg in the Villages Luke 2. 7. There was no place for them in the Inn in the Room they had taken up to lodg in for that Night Shindler Pentaglot So early began our Saviour to have the Chastisment of our Sin laid upon him in a way parallel to Adam's Fall he with his blessed Mother being thrust out of the Inn the Hour he was born as Adam was thrust out of Paradise the day he was created Thus our Saviour gives his Suffrage to John 8. 44. where he stiles the Devil a Murderer from the beginning for this term in the beginning denotes the six days of the Creation and precisely terminates where God finished that Work as is apparent from Gen. 1. 1. In the Beginning God made Heaven and Earth that is in the space of six days wherein the whole Species of things in Heaven and Earth had their beginning Or as our Saviour explains it Mark 13. 19. In those days shall be Afflictions such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created the whole frame whereof speaking of the same thing he calls the World and the space wherein it was made the beginning of the World Mat. 24. 21. or as it is rendred John 9. 33. since the World began was it not heard that c. that is since God finished the Work of Creation Thus the beginning circumscribed the whole Work of Creation Heb. 1. 10. Thou Lord in the beginning founded the Earth c. And though sometimes it may seem to denote the Duration before when it is spoken of God Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his Works of old yet it no where extends its Signification beyound the six days Work when it is applied to the Creature It was therefore within the compass of the six days that this Murderer slew our first Parents 2. That Adam was restored through the Promise of the Woman's Seed the same day whereon he fell is apparent from our Saviour his being stiled Rev. 13. 8. the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World for this is of the very same
understood but that the Signification thereof might easily be found out if Men could digest it as Platonism Latinism Graecism signifies the pure natural and genuine Imitation of Plato of the Latine or Greek Tongue so Sabbatism is nothing else but the genuine Imitation of the Sabbath and according to the Tenor of the Apostle's Discourse of that complacential Rest which God took on the seventh Day It remains therefore that the Christian or Lord's-day-Sabbath is the most natural and genuine Copy of God's Rest But it is beyond my Intention to make a just Comment I intended these short Notes as Instances only to shew how Men's disgusting the Notion of a Christian-Sabbath makes them cast up from their nauceating Stomacks the Apostle's Arguments undigested 2. The next Bugbear that frights Men out of the plain way of Truth is a Conceit that when they hear the sound of a seventh-day Sabbath they think they hear the Man-drakes Voice of the Jewish Sabbath I need not here give Instances of this for they occur every-where in all Men's Writings concerning the Sabbath And it is too too common an Opinion that the Jewish Sabbath is the seventh Day in the order of the Creation and our Christian Sabbath the First de Die autem primo Mundi constat inter omnes illum fuisse Diem Dominicum Gregor de Valentia Tom. 1. Disp 5. Quest 3. Pun. 1. Quando quidem Dies septimus ab eo fuit Dies Sabbati Concerning the First Day of the World it is agreed amongst all Men that it was the Lord's-day seeing the Seventh from that was the day of the Sabbath yea his Conceit is that it was called Sunday from the beginning because the Light created on the first Day was the Light of the Sun not yet endowed with its proper Motion North and South which it received the fourth Day but only with that of the Primum mobile from East and West But I have sufficiently proved the contrary to wit that the Jewish Sabbath was not the seventh but sixth Day in order of the Creation but only of gathering Quails and Mannah And that our Lord's-day tho according to the Jewish Idiom it be called the First Day the first Day of their Week after that God had appointed them to observe another beginning of their Work as well as Year then was in use before yet it is in reality the Seventh Day of the Week commencing that Account from the Creation and the same Day of the Week whereon God rested 3. The last thing I shall name here is as a remora to Mens arrival at the true meaning of the Apostle's Discourse is a Tincture with that Spirit which Luther's Aerij Daemones were of or with that wherein they in the Corinthian Church were immerst who would be of Christ in opposition to Paul and Apollos These Men's high-flown Minds will not stoop to the Contemplation of any sabbath-Sabbath-Day to be celebrated under the Gospel in the visible Communion of Saints but hang hovering in the Clouds about a Day of Rest purely spiritual nor of any Rest but everlasting and in this humour so spiritualize the Apostle's Arguments as they leave nothing in them after their Chymical Operations but thin etherial Vehicles or flitting Elizian Shades But can a certain Day limited to the seventh be an individuum vagum or a limited Day be the eternal Sabbath What ever mean Thoughts such Men may have of the Christian or Lord's-Day-Sabbath the divinely inspired Pen-man had such an high Esteem of it as he thought it a Subject worthy to be treated on as being a very sovereign means to prevent Apostacy and to hold Christians to their Profession For that 's the mark he aimed at and concludes his Discourse of the Sabbath with the mention of that as his aim Chap. 4. 14. as he had begun that Discourse with an Exhortation of the same Tendency viz. To hold fast their Profession Yea it is the main Scope of the whole Epistle to disswade the Hebrew Christians from forsaking Church-Assemblies as some had done and drawn back to the Perdition of their Souls and to perswade them to a firm adhering to Christian-Fellowship in the Administration of Sabbath-Ordinances On which Days also he strictly chargeth the Ministers to be instant in preaching calling that a Preaching in Season and with the same Breath stiling Preaching in the Synagogues of the Jews on their Saturday-Sabbath Preaching out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. That I do not by this Exposition of them pervert the Apostle's Words will be manifest if 1. We consider that the Precept for Preaching presupposeth an Audience of Men. I think none will imagine that Timothy was bound by this Injunction to preach to Stones as they say Venerable Bede did once nor to Sheep Hogs and Birds as that goodly Saint of the Pope's making Anthony is fabled to have done frequently 2. That a publick Audience could not be had but upon stated Days of meeting either upon a civil account as in Markets c. or upon a religious account as in the Jewish Synagogues every of their Sabbath-Days and in Christian Churches on the Lord's-Day the first Day of the Week in the Jewish Reckoning 3. That the Apostles took all Occasions of such publick Assemblies to preach the Gospel besides their teaching from House to House 4. That their Attendance upon the Administration of Gospel-Ordinances to the Church would not permit them on the Lord's-Days to preach to Forreign Assembles either of Jews or Gentiles and therefore preaching to them was out of season being performed on Week-Days Days that were not then appointed of God to be Seasons for sacred Solemnities for even the Jewish Sabbath though it had been appointed to that Nation for a time to be their weekly Sabbath yet not it's grown out of Season and the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath came into season whence Preaching on that day is stiled Preaching in Season How much Light this Observation casts upon the Apostle's Discourse and what Darkness the vulgar Opinion viz. that the Apostle speaks of a spiritual and eternal Rest hath drawn-over the Hearts of Men in their reading this part even of the New Testament is apparent from this one Instance vers 10. For he that is entred into his Rest hath ceased from his own Works as God did from his Learned Men are puzled how to give such a Sence of this Clause as is coherent with the Context But understand the Apostle to speak here of the Christian Lord's-Day-Sabbath and the sence is as clear as the Sun at Noon-day and that sence admirably consonant with what precedes and follows thus It remains therefore that the Church in sanctifying the lord's-Lord's-Day doth most properly imitate God's seventh Day Rest For he that is entred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Rest of that same People of God to whom the Sabbatism appertains for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Antecedent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he also hath ceased
nothing left for Forrage to himself and 's Army nothing to feed on but Dust the carnal sensual devilish part of Mankind Now and not till now every Tree brought forth Fruit in its kind when the true Vine began to flourish when the Tree of Life had thus put forth its Leaves and Fruit for the healing of Mankind Till God thus shined in Man's Heart to give the Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ he had not commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness out of that more dismal Darkness then sate upon the Face of the unformed Earth even that wherewith Adam's Sin had invelop'd the whole Creation and made it a more confused Chaos than that rude and indigested Lump out of which it had been reduced For hereby Adam defac'd the Image of God so far lost the the Dominion of the Creature as he retained not so much thereof as the Rule over himself Nay the whole Fabrick of the World was loosned and ready to fall this Keistone of the Arch being crumbled into Dust If Christ had not sustained the Weight of that ruinous Building upon his own Shoulders while it was a repairing by God's making Adam anew and building him upon a new Foundation even the Rock of Ages that precious and elect Corner-Stone at the laying whereof the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job 38. 6 7. Wast thou by when he laid the chief Corner-Stone thereof when the Morning Stars sang together c. Gen. 2. 4. These are the Generations of Heaven and Earth in the day that Jehovah made the Earth and the Heavens The name of Jehovah is here first given to God which Name the Cabalists observe to imply the Mercy of God as Elohim signifies his Justice P. Fagius in locum who observes also that the word Tholedhoth Generations is no where writ perfectly but here and Ruth 4. 18. because these Generations only to wit of the World and the Messias of whose Family the Book of Ruth treateth are perfect Now was Man twice formed as is implied vers 7. And the Lord God formed Vai-jitzer duplex hic est Jod ad significandum inquit R. S. duplicem hominis formationem hujus futuri seculi post Resurrectionem P. Fagius Here is a double Jod to signifie the two-fold Generation of Adam the first relating to this World the second to the World to come that is his Formation as Man his Reformation as a new Man And these Generations thus perfected are said vers 4. to be made in one day because the whole Creation was perfected by Man's new Creation at the entrance of the seventh day 6. Till all the Host of Heaven and Earth was thus finished by the Formation of the new Creature and Introduction of the second Adam God had not made sufficient Preparation for his resting in his Works as very good and altogether adequate to the bringing about of his own glorious and gracious ends But now this Workmanship of God created in Christ for good Works Eph. 2. 9. being made Christ's personal being exhibited in the Promise as adopted into Man's Family and Christ mystical being born of the immortal Seed of that Word of Promise and by Faith adopted into the Family of God the Pleasure of the Lord thus prospering in the Mediator's Hands and Christ's seeing and reaping the Fruit of the travel of his Soul what could the issue of this be but Satisfaction Acquiescency Rest Man renewed and restored into Communion with God through the Mediation of the Son of God was in the fore-Appointment of it the mutual Pleasure of God the Father and God the Son from all Eternity Prov. 8. 29 30 31. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth then was I by him I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. The Son's delight was among the Sons of Men in the habitable parts of the Earth before Man was created or the Foundations of the Earth laid save only in the Decree and Appointment of God And this rejoycing of the Son was the Father's delight And for this Pleasures sake Heaven and Earth and the whole Furniture of both were created Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created The whole World say the Jewish Doctors was created for the Messias and the Messias say all Christians was exhibited for the Redemption of Mankind from that state of Sin and Misery into which we fell through the Transgression of the Proto-plast This Redemption was tendred to Adam in the Promise of the Woman's Seed and accepted by Adam through Faith in that Promise and that acceptance ratified by a Covenant of Salt by a Sacrifice salted with Fire the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering which burning upon the Altar all Night unto the Morning Lev. 6. 9. And figuring the Oblation of Christ's Body and Adam's Oblation of his Body as a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God through Christ must needs come up with Acceptance before God and send forth a sweet Savour of Rest unto God at the dawning of the seventh Day The Talmudists say that God created Fire on the seventh day I suppose they mean that Fire that came down from Heaven on Adam's Sacrifice in token of God's Approbation So that God having perfected his Work on the seventh Day even all the Work that he had made Gen. 2. 2. Or all the Work that he created to make vers 3. Rested on the Seventh Day and sanctified it The Hebrews distinguish betwixt creating forming and making thus To create is the Production of any thing out of nothing to from is the bestowing of Form and Shape upon any thing created to make is to perfect finish and to adapt to its proper use that that is created and formed They are all three used to this sense in one Verse Isa 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory I have formed him yea I have made him that is every way fitted him for the attaining that end for which I created and formed him P. Fagius in Targ. Onkelos Now Adam being created to bring forth good Works in Christ Jesus was not God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Workmanship fitted for the Production of the end of his Creation while he was either in a state of Innocence or of the Lapse which alone is sufficient to prove that Adam fell and was restored by Faith in the promised Seed the day of his Creation for otherwise God could not have rested that is have taken Delight and Complacency in all the Work he created to make as very that is perfectly good and compleated for the effecting the end of Creation to wit the glorifying of God by good Works done in Christ And therefore that seventh Day 's rest on Sunday where God saw all very good as good as Heart
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon