XIII Sheweth the ancient Observation of the first day of the Week called Sunday by the Heathens And that there is greater Reason to believe it is rather than the Jewish Sabbath the Old seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation tho' neither the one nor the other can be assured of the same Page 47. Sect. XIV Containeth a brief Discourse shewing wherein our first day Sabbath answers the Pattern of Adams Sabbath better than the Jewish Sabbath doth Page 50. And also sheweth the time of Day when our Christian Sabbath should begin and the Reasons why we had no Positive Command left us in the New Testament to observe the first day of the Week a Sabbath Page 52 c. With a Discourse of the Morality of Adams Pattern Page 56. And of Gods accepting the first of Time Page 58. Lastly Answers to the Chiefest Objections made against our keeping the first day Sabbath A TRACT ON THE Sabbath-Day WHEREIN The keeping of the First Day of the Week a Sabbath is justified by an Institution of God and a double Example contained in the Old and New Testament THAT we have both a Precept and a double Example to justifie the keeping of the first day of the week a Sabbath I have here to produce from the Holy Scriptures The Precept is in the Fourth Commandment founded on God's first sanctifying the Sabbath-day and we have the Example of Christs Disciples with the primitive Gospel Churches in the New Testament and of Adam to his Posterity all which I shall prove and explain as followeth SECT I. First That the Reader may not be under any mistake about the use I make of the word Moral throughout this Treatise I shall here acquaint him that in its self it belongeth to Manners Civility or Behaviour properly to the Actions of Man only as he is Man And so by some the Moral Law is taken for the Law Light or Instinct of Nature which Adam had in the State of Innocency which altho this be true yet I also make a larger use of the word For as no Man knoweth by Nature the extent of Adams light in all particulars for his Obedience when he was in Innocency and therefore cannot describe the whole of that Law of Nature And as I suppose the prohibition to him not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will not be deny'd by any to have been binding for all his posterity as Men so we must have recourse to Divine Revelation for the better understanding our Moral and universal Duty to God since the Law of Nature is so much obliterated in us through the fall And therefore because of the darkness and depravity of our Minds we have the substance of the Law of Nature given to us in written Precents which may be called Moral as they are not Ceremonial but perpetually and universally binding to all Men for their Obedience unto God and also Institutions by Divine Revelation as being now a more full discovery to us of the Mind of God first implanted in our innocent Parents than we retain in our Natures or can recover in our fall So that when I speak of the Moral Law or of Morality it must be taken as the Adjunct Matter governs it in either sence of the Law or Light of Nature alone in the State of Innocency or contained in those transcribed Precepts of the Ten Commandments as the substance thereof in general Heads and in those other Precepts that morally do explain them which I shall only take notice of wherein I am concerned and not collect and reserr them all to their proper Heads In brief I use the word Moral in common to those things that are of universal and perpetual Concern to all Mankind for their Obedience to God as their Creator For as to the case before us seeing it s said that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it We cannot say that Adam by his pure Light of Nature alone knew that it was meetest to have but six working days and no less as 5 7 or 8 together to one Sabbath but that from God's Example revealed to him the light of Adams Nature told him that it was most meet for him to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working or common days to one Sabbath SECT II. TO proceed on the Subject Matter of this Treatise I shall here recite the first Foundation Scripture for keeping the seventh day Sabbath as a boundary to six working days and briefly Note something of the Nature and Quality of the Text Gen. 2.2 3. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made It is here said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is he made it a happy and holy day by setting it apart from common use for Man to worship him and he appointed it to be a rest for Adam by Revelation as he did that he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil for otherwise Adam could not by his Light of Nature alone know the time which had passed before he was Created nor could he understand the Mind of God as it was in God himself and therefore the knowledge Adam had of God's sanctifying the seventh day Sabbath was by Supernatural Revelation to him And this I presume none will deny for a time for Man to abstain or rest from his own business to exert his solemn Worship to God is morally implanted in the Heart of Man by Nature and surely God did not conceal from Adam the meetest time when he sanctified the first seventh day of the World for that end Besides before that God had formed Eve Gen. 2.7.8 15. he put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it and therefore Adam being appointed to do this business he might have applyed himself thereto immediately after Eve was formed and brought to him if he had not received the knowledge of God's sanctifying the seventh Day yea then it had been lawful for him to have worked on God's Sabbath if it had not been revealed to him Moreover Our Saviour puts this matter clearly out of doubt because he referrs the making of the Sabbath not to the first Institution of it at the gathering of Manna in the Wilderness but to the time of God's creating Man Mark 2.27 saying The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath that is the Sabbath was not first made and then Man for the sake of the Sabbath but Man was first Created and then the Sabbath was sanctified for his Happiness as the blessing of it signifieth God's bare ceasing from Work did not make it for Man but
2. Thô Adam rested or rather abstained from Work on God's Sabbath before he had passed six working days that he might perform his moral Worship to God before he dressed the Garden or meddled in his own Affairs and praise him for the Lordship he had received over the Creatures which God had made and so with respect to the chief Moral end for which the Sabbath was first made for Man it might have properly been called the first day Sabbath throughout all Generations yet seeing God had also designed the Sabbath to be a figure of a greater rest in the seventh thousand years of the World Heb. 4.3.10 Rev. 20.4 5 7. as it is believed by many Christians it therefore could not have been so glorious a Type if it had been delivered to us under the name of the First day So that the Sabbath-day was appointed in the name of the seventh day not to deny Adam's Moral Obedience in keeping his first day Sabbath before his six working days to be a pattern to his posterity or that Adams first Sabbath could not properly be called afterwards successively Mans first days Sabbath but because the seventh day of God's Rest and so considered as after Mans six working days did better suit the Memorial of God's Creation and Rest and the Typical uses of the Sabbath day 3. The Sabbath was commanded in the Name of the seventh day and not of the first because tho God abstained from Work before the Creation yet it could not be said he Rested Ceased or Abstained from Work a day before a Day was made or there was time measured by a day So that the necessity of Nature placed Gods Sabbath after his Creation days but there was not the like necessity that Adam should have his Sabbath before his six working days and therefore seeing that God sanctified the seventh day on which he ceased from his Works of Creation with respect to Man that Man should abstain from his Work to Worship him Mal. 3.6 Isal 40.28 Heb. 13.8 and not because that God himself had need of rest for he fainteth not nor is weary neither is the most high changeable or subject to accidents in his Nature Then the seventh-day Sabbath bore this Name from the Necessity of Nature in Gods Example of measuring time more than from its proper Nature immediate End and principal Use to Man for in all these respects Adams first Sabbath was his first days Sabbath 4. The Sabbath was expresly sanctified in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command in these Words the seventh day and not a seventh day to preserve the constant Order of our six Working days together and that men should not choose any one day in the Week and at their own Pleasures alter the Sabbath to any different day as to the first day in one Week and the second or third c. in the Weeks following so as they keep one or a day in seven in every Week Moreover it is not said a but the seventh-seventh-day to prevent Mens Alteration of it to any other day than what we have a Pattern for in the Holy Scriptures that as it was to bind Adam and others after him to the Observation of the seventh-day successively after his first days Sabbath without Alteration so it was to oblige Israel to keep the seventh-day Sabbath successively after their first Sabbath in the Wilderness without a change and to tye us that forasmuch as the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated in the New Testament as you may see afterwards in this Treatise and that we have a Pattern left us to observe the first day of the Jewish Week that from thence we should keep our Christian Sabbath successively on the seventh-day after its first taking place by the abolishing of the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament without Alteration Colos 2.16 17 as Adam and the Israelits did after their first days Sabbath which if the Sabbath in Gen. 2.2 3. and in the fourth Command had been sanctified in the express Words of a seventh-day and not of the seventh-day it might have occasioned Doubts and Confusions about the Observation of the aforesaid several Sabbaths but it being expresly commanded in these Words the seventh-seventh-day it does signifie the Mind of God so clearly as both to prevent such Confusions and yet to preserve the Moral Law in the Fourth Commandment unviolated under the change that hath been made of the Sabbath SECT VII HEre I shall prove both from the Holy Scriptures and the Course and Necessity of Nature that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations And 1. This appeareth in that it was not only a sign to Israel as our Gospel Sabbath considered as the seventh-day is to us that in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth Exod. 31.13 14 15 16 17. and on the seventh-day he rested but it was also a Sign and a Covenant throughout their Generations that they should remember that Israel was a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord their God brought them out thence through a Mighty hand and by a stretched out Arm Deut. 5.15 Therefore saith Moses the Lord their God commanded them to keep the Sabbath-day So then as their Sabbath was a Sign of their deliverance out of Egypt with respect to their Beginning and Ending of it from Evening to Evening thereby to suit their other new days Beginning from their first Passover Evening and so to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory it is Ceremonial and ceaseth as other Sabbaths and Memorials of that Deliverance have done by the coming of Jesus Christ 2. The old Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is proved to be Ceremonial by the Apostles Words Col. 2.16 17. Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat or in Drink or in respect of an Holy-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in part of a Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath-days Which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ For as the Holy-day or Feast-days New Moon and Sabbaths herein mentioned must be taken for those written by Moses and given to Israel because those only and not the Heathen Idolatrous Holy-days were given of God as Types and Shadows of good things to come so the Sabbath-days there distinctly expressed from other Holy-days appointed for the Observation of Israel must be taken for their weekly seventh-days Sabbath and the two Verses plainly comprehends all their Sabbaths and Holy-days to be but Shadows of Things to come But saith the Text the Body is of Christ Object But some do say the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sabbaths here ought to be rendred Weeks as the same Greek Word is rendred John 20.19 Luke 24.1 Mark 16.2 Matth. 28.1 Answer The Word Sabbath in Greek Sabbaton used in those places is not there translated Week for any other Reason than because it was customary to call the days of the Week the days of the
for the Observation of the Sabbath on the seventh-day does destroy its Moral Limitation to the seventh-day appointed to Israel next after the sixth day on which they gathered Manna as a Pattern sixing their six working days before their Sabbath because we are referred by it to the Pattern in the beginning when Gods seventh-seventh-day Sabbath was Mans first-first-day Sabbath and not to the time of gathering Manna nor of Israels coming out of Egypt which last appeareth from other places of Scripture to be the Reason of the Ceremonial beginning and ending of their Sabbath from Evening to Evening It 's true that seventh-day appointed in the Wilderness did answer the Moral Precept of the fourth Commandment but yet mistake me not It is not found to Answer it simply because it was that very seventh-day then appointed or simply for that very days-sake without regard to their Deliverance out of Egypt and that new Appointment for if another seventh-day had been sixed for their Sabbath it had answered the command as well as that but because that same seventh-seventh-day was appointed to them a boundary successively before and after their six working days nor did this command Morally-limit them to keep the same precise seventh-seventh-day successively from the Creation for such a Limitation is not in this Precept nor in any other place in the Holy Scriptures but it tyeth the Sabbath to the seventh-day as a boundary to their or our or any Nations six working days or to the first-day before and after them which answereth the same Law SECT IX I Shall here Instance some particular Cases in the New Testament in which we are referred to the Pattern in our first Parents which may serve as Examples to juslifie our doing the like for the Observation of the Sabbath-day as 1. It is said in 1 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Let the Woman learn in Silence with all Subjection But I suffer not a Woman to 〈◊〉 nor to usurp Authority over the Man but to be in Silence For Adam was first formed then Eve And Adam was not deceived but the Woman being deceived was in the Transgression And 1 Cor. 14.34 Let your Women keep Silence in the Churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under Obedience as also saith the Law In these two Scriptures there are two Moral Reasons given and one Command mentioned for Womens Subjection unto the Men. 1. Because Adam had the Priority of being formed before Eve and he having her Original Humane Substance first in himself had thereby a natural Precedency to her Free and Voluntary Subjection But 〈◊〉 The Woman being first deceived and in the Transgression she fell thereby under a more absolute Law of Obedience to her Husband Gen. 3.16 Vnto the Woman he said thy desire shall be to thy or as it is in our Margin Subject to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee Now from hence we may clearly see how the Apostle confirms his Doctrine from the Order of Nature in our first Parents and the Institution of God to them and if these are of Moral Use and Perpetually binding for our Obedience then we have Reason to believe that Gods sanctifying the first seventh-day-Sabbath and the Order of Adam and Eve keeping of it before their six working days is also of Moral use unto us 2. I shall shew that an express Law of Moses is not only Abrogated by the Authority of Jesus Christ but he justifies the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents as may be seen in Mark 10.2 3 4. And the Pharisees came to him and asked him Is it lawful for a Man to put away his Wife tempting him And he answered and said unto them What did Moses command you And they said Moses suffered to write a Bill of Divorcement and to put her away And Jesus answered and said unto them For the hardness of your Heart he wrote you this Precept But from the beginning of the Creation God made them Male and Female For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one Flesh what therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder And he saith unto them whosoever shall put away his Wife Matthew saith except it be for Fornication and Marry another committeth Adultery against her 1. To prevent any mistake about this Precept of Divorcement and to confirm what I may conclude from our Saviours Words before recited I shall consider the Original Transcript of it in Deut. 24.1 When a Man hath taken a Wife and married her and it come to pass that she find no favour in his Eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in our Margin it is matter of Nakedness in her then let him write her a Bill of Divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his House And here I shall note that this matter of Uncleanness or Nakedness is not to be understood of Adultery or Whoredom For the Dutch Annotations say that the Hebrew Word signifieth Nakedness or Scandalousness of any thing wherein the Husband taketh dislike to her except Whoredom or Fornication And Mr. Ainsworth saith It is any thing of Shame or Ignominy as the Greek translateth a Shameful or Vncomely thing and he also saith that this is thought of some not to be meant of Adultery for which she was to dye if it were proved but of some evil thing in her Conditions or Actions which displeased her Husband Deut. 22.22 So the Phrase was used in Deut. 23.14 for that which was uncleanly and unseemly 2. The Sence of our Saviours Words clearly sheweth that this Law of Divorcement was designed for other Matters than for Whoredom or Fornication for our Lord owning Moses Precept of Sufferance to put away their Wives excepts against it unless it be in the Case of Fornication which if it were so limited under the Law then Moses Sufferance was nothing but what our Saviour still alloweth and Christs Prohibition was nothing at all This being Premised it now follows that our Lord maketh that Adultery under the Gospel that was not accounted so under the Law And from the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve he Abrogateth the Use and Authority of Moses Precept for suffering Men to put away their Wives for smaller Causes than Fornication and if the Pattern in our first Parents was of such Moral use as to justifie our Saviours abolishing of a written Precept of Moses we have then Reason also to believe that their Example or the Order of time of their first observing the sabbath-Sabbath-day that was sanctified for them is of Moral use to us we also having the Jewish Sabbath Abrogated by Christs Authority in the New Testament SECT X. HAving opened and explained the two Foundation Scriptures for our keeping the Sabbath-day and proved the fourth Commandment to be Morally binding to all Nations and that the Jewish Pattern for the Sabbath is
therein Six years thou shalt sow thy Field and prane thy Vineyard But in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the Land and thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto the forty and nine years then shalt thou cause the Trumpet of the Jubilee to sound and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof ye shall not sow neither reap it shall be holy unto you That some of these days were appointed as Memorials of Israels coming out of Egypt is plainly shewed in the Scriptures and of the Jubilee besides what is expressed of it Some have thought that it was a Memorial of their rest and first settlement in the Land of Canaan but yet I conceive there was a farther meaning in them viz. as Types and Shadows of Gospel things For the seventh day Sabbath thô it was first appointed for a Moral End and to preserve the Memorial of God's making the World in six days and resting on the seventh Exod. 31.15 16 17. Heb. 4.9 Rev. 20.4 5 7. and was also afterwards a sign of Israels deliverance out of Egypt yet we find the Apostle makes a farther use of it as the Foundation Type from whence he proveth there remaineth a Rest to the People of God which to answer the Types and the Apostles reasoning in this Scripture is taken for the seventh thousand years of the World So then to follow this instance we may thus argue that those solemn Convocations on the legal first and eighth day and their fiftieth day which if you mind the Text was a first day Sabbath next ensuing one of their legal Sabbaths a plain and clear Type of our Gospel first-day Sabbath that should commence next after one of their Jewish Sabbaths And so their fiftieth Year of Jubilee which followed a seventh Year Sabbath may figure to us that as after seven Sabbaths of Weeks they had a first days Sabbath and as after the seven Sabbaths of seven years and all those legal and external Bondages of Persons and Things there should come a time of release by sound of Trumpet with a first Year Jubilee Sabbath so after all the bondage of the legal Administration there should come a time of Gospel liberty Rom. 10.18 proclaimed by the Gospel with a first days Gospel Sabbath Thus you see how these Types and Shadows under the Law does figure out our Gospel first days Sabbath as far if not farther than many Types does usually suit with Antitypes but as they have often exceptions in their parallels so they are not of themselves positive Proofs but illustrations of Gospel things which seeing we have the Examples of the Primitive Christian Churches keeping their Sabbath on the First day following the Jews seventh-Seventh-day Sabbath or on the first day of their Week which does fairly and fully answer those Typical Sabbaths under the Law that are not applicable to any other Scripture observed Times under the Gospel nor to our Eternal Rest for that is not doubted to be a Rest from Labour and a time of Liberty nor can it be typed to us by Time because it is Eternal or by an Eighth day Seeing there is a Time or Day of General Judgment of Wicked Men between the seventh thousand years of the World as some believe and Eternal Rest then surely the Typical first Days and Years Sabbaths under the Law does bare the greater Evidence to our first day Sabbath under the Gospel However I have no dependance on these Shadows for the Justification of our First days Sabbath but on the substantial Law of God and Adams Pattern answering the first Sanctification of it to which I shall here add the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament SECT XII HEre I come to demonstrate the ground we have in the New Testament for our keeping the First day of the Week a Sabbath And 1. I shall premise That Christ arose from the Dead on the First day of the Jewish Week which is frequently called in the Greek Tongue The one of the Sabbaths after their mode of Speech agreeing to the custom of the Hebrews See Dutch Annot on Mat. 28.1 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 See Dutch Annot on Gen. 1 5. and on 1 Cor. 16.2 who sometimes set one for first as may be seen in Gen. 1.5 Chap. 8.5 Numb 29.1 Dan. 9.1 So that we must read the Greek The one of the Sabbaths for the First day of the Week as it is translated in our English Bibles agreeing to the Greek in Mark 16.9 Now when Jesus was risen early 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the first of the Sabbath or as it is in our English on the first day of the week As Luke 18.12 I fast twice in the Sabbath that is twice in the Week And the Truth of our Translation is farther confirmed because it 's said In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week Luke 23 53 54. to the end Chap. 14.1 c. Mark 15.42 John 19.31 Luke 24.13 15 21. 1 Cor. 15.4 See Mr. John Weemse his Christian Synagogue Page 75 81. John 19.14 Christ arose from the dead For he was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath and on the Sabbath it s said the Women which followed Jesus from Galilee rested according to the Commandment and very early on the First day of the Week they came to Christs Sepulchre and he was risen which was on the third day after he was Crucified according to the Scriptures Now it was the Custom and corrupt Tradition of the Jews when the Passeover Sabbath fell on the day before their weekly seventh day Sabbath they made but one Sabbath and kept their Passeover on their seventh day Sabbath as we find they did when Christ was laid in the Grave and therefore that Sabbath day being a double Sabbath was called an High Day And the first day after on which Christ arose from the dead was no Jewish Sabbath but only the First day of their Week for there are two things that do evidently and clearly shew that the one of the Sabbaths in the Greek cannot be taken for any one of the Jewish Sabbath-days but for the first day of their Week First Because that seeing Christ arose from the Dead on the next day after the Passeover Sabbath as it was then corruptly observed by the Jews and that the Passeover Feast had but two Sabbaths viz. Exod. 12.14 to 19. on the first and seventh day of unleavened Bread then forasmuch as Christ lay in the Grave their Passeover Sabbath the Day following on which he arose could not be one of their Passeover Sabbaths Secondly It cannot be denyed but that Christ did eat the Passeover with his Disciples on the right day according to the Commandment which after our vulgar speech was on Thursday Night or in the former part of the Jews sixth day and on
Fryday or their sixth day which was according to the Law the first day of their Passeover Sabbath he was crucified and there being no other Passeover Sabbath wherein the Jews were forbidden to work till the seventh day of the Passeover Feast it must then follow that the Sabbath on which the Women rested as it 's said according to the Commandment being the next day after the first true Passeover Sabbath was undeniably the Jews weekly seventh day Sabbath and the day next ensuing called The one of the Sabbaths and the first of the Sabbath on which Christ arose from the dead must of necessity be understood of the First day of the Jewish Week after their seventh-day Sabbath and from thence the Christians observe their First day Sabbath wherein they solemnly worship God And to this I shall cite the Confession and Testimony of Mr. Theophilus Brabourn in his Discourse upon the Sabbath day See his Book Pag 68. wherein he labours to justifie the keeping of the seventh day Saturday Sabbath saith he Remember Saturday to keep it holy c. Now that Sabbath day was a proper Name of one of their Week days is apparent to all since they counted all the other six days of the Week by the Sabbath day thus the seventh and last day of the Week they viz. the Jews called Sabbath-day the first-day of the Week our Sunday they called the first of the Sabbath the second day of the Week our Monday they called the second of the Sabbath our Tuesday the third of the Sabbath c. So that the clear Confession of the Saturday Sabbatharians themselves does confirm that which is undeniably manifest in the Holy Scriptures that the first of the Sabbath which is so called Marâ— 16.9 and is the same as one of the Sabbaths in the other Evangelists as hath been shewed is the Name of the First day of the Jewish Week See his Reply â—age 28. as it is also owned by Mr. Bampfield 2. This First day Sabbath at its first founding by the Resurrection of Christ thó it broke the Order of the Jewish working days among the Christians by taking their first day for our Sabbath and their Sabbath into the Christians six working or common days yet there was no breach of the Moral Law respecting the Order of the six working days considered as being bounded before and after with a Sabbath for the Jewish Sabbath after their six working days being followed with a New Sabbath made two Sabbaths together but this neither broke the Order of the six working days before the Jewish Sabbath nor of the six working days after the Christian Sabbath Luke 23.56 nay nor before it because we must suppose that the Christians at that time kept both the Sabbaths and did not reckon the Jewish Sabbath as a common day before the Resurrection of the Lord. So that at the first sounding of our Christian Sabbath it was bounded with six Jewish working days and their Sabbath before and six working days with the seventh-day of Christian Sabbath after iâ— and is as much our seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days as Adams seventh day Sabbath was after his six working days which Sabbath when it was first sounded on Gods seventh-day of Rest was also Adams first-day Sabbath From whence I observe that the Christians Sabbath considered as both their first and seventh-day Sabbath is like as it was in the beginning to which Christ refers us in other things for a Pattern to answer the Moral Law and to make void the Ceremonial Addition to it as hath been shewed And now since the abolishing of all Ceremonial Things in the Law of Moses that we have a Pattern for the Sabbath given to us by the Practice of the Holy Apostles and the Primitive Churches in the New Testament appears as followeth 1. After Christ arose from the Dead Luke 14.1.9 10 13 33 36. on the first day of the Week he appeared unto his Disciples and the eleven Apostles who were gathered together on the same day John 10.1.19.26 And after eight days Jesus appeared again to his Disciples that were Assembled which was on the next first-day being the eighth day for it was the custom of the Hebrews after this manner to express this day-week or this day seven-night as we have an Instance in 2 Chron. 10.5 12. And he said unto them come again unto me after three days and the People departed So Jeroboam and all the People came to Rehoboam on the third day Which Example plainly shews that after three days was on the third day and so here in the Evangelist after eight days was on the eighth day or after eight days were come and not after they were past on the ninth day as it is also clearly explained in Mark 8.31 The Son of Man must suffer and be killed and after three days rise again For Christ arose from the Dead not after but on the third day after he was Crucified And to this present day the Hollanders in their Vulgar Discourse express this day Week after the same manner saying Over eight days so that the Disciples were assembled also on the second first day of the Week after the Resurrection of our Lord who appeared to them on that day also 3. The Apostle ordered and appointed the Churches of the Galatians and Corinthians to make their Collections for the Saints on the first day of the Week 1 Cor. 16.12 which business had no temporary Reason in it to limit the doing of it to that day and therefore it is a clear Demonstration that it was the accustomed day of their Assembling together to worship God and for such Church Affairs otherwise it 's rational to believe the Apostle would have rather left them at Liberty to do it on any day which Example of this Nature having something of an Institution in it some have thought it is a sufficient warrant of its self to justifie our keeping of the first day of the Week a Sabbath 4. In Acts 20.6 7 11. It is said that Paul abode at Troas seven days And upon the first day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continued his Speech until Mid-night When he therefore was come up again and had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed First I observe from this Scripture that Paul abode there seven days in which time we hear nothing of his Preaching or of the Disciples coming together till on the first day of the Week which was the last of the seven days so that Paul came thither on the second day of the Week and tarried till the usual day of their Assembling together otherwise he need not have straitned himself for time so as to preach till Midnight when he was to depart at break of day but that it may rationally be concluded that he
alike Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Mind Whatever some may imagine from this Scripture yet seeing Adam in Paradice had his Sabbath for the solemn worship of God Levit. 23.3 and Israel had their Sabbath for the same end and to rest from their work and labour there being still the same Moral Use and Necessity of Nature for a Sabbath there is Reason to believe that such a day is to be observed as well now and in after Ages as it was before And considering the undeniable Evidence that hath been given to prove the Decalogue to be Morally binding to us under the Gospel there is a necessity for the Preservation of the Concord of Holy Writ to give such an Exposition of this Text of Scripture as will both suit and agree with the Letter of it and the binding quality of other Scriptures to keep a Sabbath-day To proceed therefore the Apostle surely would not have singled forth the first-day of the Week on which the Churches were wont to have their Assemblies as the properest time to make their Collection for the Saints Nor would the Apostle John have called it the Lords day as hath been shewed from History if it had not been a sanctified day for Holy Use neither would the Holy Ghost have Recorded the Disciples gathering together on the two first-days after the Resurrection of Christ nor that the Church of Troas came together on the first day of the Week to solemnize the Gospel Ordinances of Divine Worship as the only Examples to answer the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment If the same Spirit of Truth in the Apostle had here designed to make every day alike Common 2. If the Apostle in this Scripture had so designed he would not have cited so many Precepts of the Ten Commandments in Chap. 13.9 of the same Epistle and have said of the rest of them as binding to the Romans to confirm his Moral Doctrine That if there be any other Commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self And therefore seeing he doth so plainly discover the binding quality of the Ten Commandments to the Gentile Christians there is no Reason to conceive he should dissolve the Obligation of any one of them in the following Chapter considering that the Liberty there mentioned of esteeming or not esteeming of Days is not there reserred or applyed as having Retation to the Moral Observation of the sourth Command 3. The Apostle would not have abolished as hath been shewed the Jewish Feasts Holy days and Sabbaths Colos 2.16 17. nor have said to the Galatians Ye observe Days Gal. 4.10 and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain If he or any other by Christs Authority had given absolute Liberty for Christians to observe the Jewish Holy days And therefore the sence of this Text which is freest from all Exceptions is That the Apostle neither giveth us Liberty to sleight the Observation of the seventh-day required of us in the fourth Commandment as the Bond of the Gospel Pattern nor yet doth give us absolute Liberty to observe the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath and their other Holy-days but he is teaching us how we should bear with one another in indifferent Matters as the eating of Herbs and esteeming of Jewish days That in Case a Brother should be so weak as that after he is converted from the Jewish Religion to the Christian Faith he should still retain some esteem of their Holy days yet being sound in all the Essential Principles to Salvation and in the constituted Order of a Regular Gospel Church his Communion is not to be refused Ver. 1. but here let the Reader well observe that my meaning is not that any Church should receive such a Christian into full Communion with them at the Lords Table that holdeth and maketh our first-first-day Sabbath only as a common day to him for this in the Judgment of a Church according to Scripture Rule bringeth him under the guilt of Sin and the Church should not partake of it by their holding such full Communion with him But the Apostle means that in Case a Converted Jew as he is there treating of such a one as maketh a difference between Meats to be Clean and Unclean Ver. 14 1â— if he should still esteem some of their Holy days yet if he also keepeth the first-first-day Sabbath Holy unto the Lord the Church in such a Case should be tender of grieving his weak Conscience by Continual and Uncharitable Disputations with him about the Matter wherein he is not clearly enlightned so as to give him an occasion to stumble and sall at the Offence For seeing he Conscientiously keepeth Holy the first-day Sabbath Gal. 4.13 15 20 21 23. for his retaining an esteem for some Jewish Holy days so they be kept to the Lord in Christian Worship and not for Jewish Sacrifices or such things which betoken Christs not being yet come and fully exhibited in the Flesh we are not to deny Communion at the Lords Table with such a Brother seeing he neither observeth the Jewish days to uphold their worship contrary to the Prohibition of Legal Ceremonies under the Gospel Dispensation nor can any ways be charged with disorders in Ordinances or in Matters Essentially pertaining to the Regular Constitution of a Gospel Church And that this is the Mind of Christ in the Text appeareth in two things 1. Because the Apostle joineth this Liberty of Regarding or not Regarding of days with Eating or not Eating of Meats as things of a like indifferent Nature but the Keeping or not Keeping of the Weekly Sabbath hath been fully proved to be no indisserent thing but an absolute Duty and therefore it is none of the Subject Matter included in the Apostles Words 2. He intended to give no Liberty to observe the Jewish days for Legal Ceremonial Worship for this under the Gospel would not be counted a keeping of a day to the Lord but not a keeping of it to him and so as the Apostle argueth it is not a keeping of a day at all And thus having opened this Scripture and given the sence of the Apostles Words in Reconciliation to the Authority of other Places that are binding to us for the Observation of the Sabbath day I shall leave it to the serious Consideration of the Impartial Reader Answer 2. To the Objection from 2 Cor. 3.7 where the Apostle saith But if the Ministration of Death written and ongraven in Stones was glorious so that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the Face of Moses for the Glory of his Countenance which Glory was to be done away how shall not the Ministration of the Spirit be rather Glorious In Answer to this Scripture I shall Note that in the preceding and following Verses the Apostle is signifying the different and exceeding Glory of the Ministration of the quickening Spirit
he cometh home the first-day in Canaan is by his account but the seventh-day and contrarywise if he Travelleth round the World Eastward he loseth in the length of his days but gaineth a day in Tale so that by his account the first day in Canaan falleth to be his second day at his return from whence some have argued that neither a Law nor Example can bind us universally to the Observation of any one Day and therefore if it were agreed amongst men any day of the Week or one day in seven may be made our seventh-seventh-day Sabbath boundary to six working days and so would answer the Moral Law Answer 1. The Question is Whether the Moral Law bindeth us to keep the seventh-seventh-day which men may appoint at their own pleasures or the seventh-seventh-day that we are directed unto in the Holy Scriptures Phil. 3.17 2 Thes 3.9 Surely we ought to exert our Obedience to Gods Precepts after the Examples of those that are set forth to be an Example to us I say not that we should follow them in all things they ever did but in all things they did which were essential to answer any Moral or Gospel Precept given for our Practice and consequently in this particular of the first-day Sabbath For seeing the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath is abroga ed and the Course of Nature maketh it impossible to be morally binding to all Nations we have then no other Directions how to answer the Moral Law but the Gospel Pattern justified by the Example of our first Parents and therefore we having a positive Law to keep the seventh-day Sabbath we are under a necessity to make that our Pattern For tho' the Apostle did go into the Jews Synagogues and there preâ—â—â—hed the Gospel on their seventh-seventh-day Sabbath 2 Tim. 4.2 as the meetest time to Convert both the Jews and Gentiles who assembled together on that day Yet we no where sind in Scripture that the Apostles Disciples of Christ and Primitive Churches did of choice set a-part that day but the first day of the Week for Gospel Service and this being Recorded as the only Example of the Gospel Churches Obedience to the Moral Law in this particular of the Sabbath surely it is lest for our Directions whatever is otherwise handed down by Humane History as the Practice of some Christians for the Scriptures snew that divers were under mistakes and errors Acts 15.1 c. Gal. 2.12 Ch. 4.21 and Ch. 3 and very Subject to Judaize even in the Apostles days 2. Mr. Chasie saith That Mr. Ironside also from the Diversity of Meridians proveth that one and the same day cannot be universally kept and therefore never commanded the whole Church One and the same day sath he could not possibly be observed a Sabbath by all the Jews in the East parts and West parts 〈◊〉 of Judea and in Babilon and in Rome by Reason of their Diversity of Longitudes And if it be supposed to be but two or three 〈◊〉 difference of Longitudes yet will that difference make the days as truly to differ from being the same as will an hundred and three tho it will not make them so much to differ But altho' this be true and the Law of Moses for sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Even in the Wilderness and in the Land of Canaan was never designed to bind the Israelites to that which is impossible viz. to begin their Sabbaths both at the same time of day and at the precise Point of Time to contemporize in all places where they sojourned yet it doth not from hence follow as some have argued that such differences of days do free us from all Obligations to keep any one particular day so that if Christians agree upon the fourth fifth sixth or any other day of the Week to make it the seventh-day Sabbath after our six working days it does answer the Mind of God in the Moral Law as well as by keeping our first-day Sabbath For altho as I have proved the Jewish Sabbath being by Law to begin at Even was therefore never designed for a universal Pattern to all Nations yet who will say that it was not a Pattern for the Jews in all places that had Evenings where they did sojourn and where the days have no Evenings for many Revolutions of the Sun there was no Provision made for their Sabbath in the Ceremonial Law which they were under For God had placed Israel within other Nations and required all their Males three times a Year to appear before him in Jerusalem And therefore Dem. 16.16 they were not to sojourn so far amongst the Heathens as those Northern or Southern Parts while they were a free and peculiar Kingdom of Priests to God Exod. 19.5 6. So then notwithstanding the Ceremonial Precept for the Sabbath was neither designed to oblige the Heathens In those Northern Countreys if they were then inhabited nor could by Reason of the difference of their days accommodate the Jews to keep their Sabbaths there Yet if that Law was binding at all under the least Alteration of their Day as I think none can doubt of that nor consequently that it was obliging to the Jews in other parts of the World also where the days differed more in Point of Time to begin their Sabbaths at Evening with allowance to comply with the Necessity of the Course of Nature I say then seeing that Ceremonial Precept was binding under such Alterations of their day it must be granted that it obliged them not to vary from one another in the time of keeping their Sabbath farther than the Necessity of Nature did compell them for the beginning and ending of it at the time prefixed by the Law Otherwise if their Law did not so restrain them it was of no force nor use to them and consequently if the Gospel Pattern for us to keep the first day Sabbath be any Pattern at all for us to follow as I have shewed it is it doth then oblige us to observe it with no farther Allowance to alter the day than to accommodate the Necessity of Nature in every Countrey where we dwell Object 4. Tho' Gods seventh-day Sabbath on which he rested after his six Creation days was Adams first-day Sabbath of Abstinence from work before his six working days yet that was properly Gods own Sabbath on which he rested and not Adams because he could not be said to rest before he had any working days and therefore tho Adam abstained from work on Gods Sabbath yet the Moral end of Gods Example fixed Adams first Sabbath to begin on the next seventh day after the Sabbath on which God had rested from his Work of Creation Answer 1. Adam was either allowed to dress the Garden on Gods seventh-day of Rest which he sanctified and so to have seven working days as hath been said before he could rest on the next successive seventh-day or have his seventh-day rest a day before it which I believe
they murmured for Bread and also count unto the day of their gathering Manna we cannot rationally allow so little as seven days time and yet it was the seventh-day after all this which was their first Sabbath in the Wilderness in which time from their coming from the Red Sea they might have had at least two seventh-seventh-day Sabbaths and therefore I see no Reason to believe that their gathering Manna six days before their Sabbath was designed of God as a sixing six working days before their first Sabbath seeing neither the Scripture does so assign it nor that the Lord did appoint either the first seventh-day after their first Passover or after their Deliverance from the Red Sea to be their Sabbath but suffered them to break such an Order by having more than six working days unto their first Sabbath after their Deliverance 2. If the Lord had designed to make the Sabbath next after the first six days of Israels gathering Manna a Pattern for all Nations to have answered the Moral Law in keeping the same seventh-day Sabbath precisely and successively from that Original Point of Time he would not have absolutely limited the beginning and ending of it to be observed from Evening to Evening but would have lest the beginning and ending thereof to other Times of the Day and Night as would suit with every Nation and render them capable to answer the Moral End and Equity of the Law Object 6. The Lord on Mount Sinai made known unto Isratl his Holy Sabbath Nehem. 9.13 14. and therefore his Sabbath was not altered Answer The Word his Holy Sabbath no more consirmeth the Sabbath made known to Israel to be the precise successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation than Gods giving those people at the same Place as it is there expressed right Judgments and good Statutes c. called in Psalm 147.19 a shewing his Word unto Jacob his Statutis and his Judgments unto Israel Must be taken in a limited Sence of the Will of God implanted in our first Parents Nature or delivered to them or â—o Noah or Abraham by Revelation in Distinction to and Exclusion of the Ceremonial Precepts of the Law And therefore as we have no Reason so to limit his Statutes and his Judgments so there is no Reason to understand his Sabbaths in a limited sence of the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation but of his Sabbath instituted in the Wilderness as well as his Word Statutes and Judgments or whole Will there appointed which was not so made known before to any Nation Object 7. The Sabbath was instituted and sixed to Israel in the Wilderness before the Law was given on Mount Sinai and therefore it did not pertain unto it as a Molaical new day but as it was sanctified from the Creation it was then restored and soon after repeated and consirmed again in the fourth Commandment Answer 1. I have already shewed that Adams Sabbath and the days afterwards began with the Morning day-light And that after Israels departure out of Egypt the account of their days for their Sabbaths and Holy things were changed from what they were reckoned before in Adams Lots Jacobs and Labans time So that by that account of the beginning and ending of their days the Jewish Sabbath could not be the precise successive seventh-seventh-day rest from the Creation And considering it was never assigned in Scripture to be the same but rather another day to draw the Israelites from the Idolatry of the Heathens who worshipped the Sun on our first-day called therefore Sunday which is believed to be most likely the old seventh-day from the Creation And also seeing the Lord himself interrupted the orderly Course of Nature and consequently the precise Succession of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath There is therefore no Reason to think that the Sabbath fixed to Israel in the Wilderness was the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation 2. Thô the Sabbath was given to Israel before the Law was promulgated on Mount Sinai yet it follows not that therefore it was that old precise seventh-day for if this should pass for sufficient proof thereof then we may say the Month of Abib Exod. 12.2 14 c. Ver. 49. Chap. 13.2 4. c. which was commanded to be the first Month of the Year to Israel was counted the first Month of the Year before And that the Institutions for the Passover and the Feast of unleavened Bread That one Law should be to him that is home-born and to the Stranger that sojourned among them That Israel should sanctifie all their first-born of Man and unclean Beasts as well as of clean Beasts that these as well as their Sabbath-day by the same rule were all of an ancienter date than their Deliverance out of Egypt because they were commanded before the Law was given on Mount Sinai 3. From those Words Exod. 16.27 28. which were spoken upon the going out of some of the People to gather Manna on their first Sabbath Saying How long resuse ye to keep my Commandments and my Laws We have no Reason to believe that the same duy was known to them for the Sabbath-day before that present time of their gathering 〈◊〉 for the Laws and Comuâ—â—ments of God are there expressed in the Plural Number and therefore the Lords compâ—â—â—â—ing of Israâ—â— former disobedience must have respect to some other Laws and Commandments made before Chap. 15.25 26. and 18.15 16. or to their Murmurings Chap. 14.11 12. Chap. 15.24 and 16.3 8 and to the breach of his Law in leaving some of the Maunâ— till the Morning vo 19 20. all which were before the Lord compleined in the Text of the â—â—ople for going forth on the first Sabbâ—th And therefore this Scripture hath nothing in it to prove that Israâ—ls Sabbath in the Wilderness was the old preâ—ise successive Sabbath known to them and broken by them before Nor doth the Cantion given in the fourth Commandment to Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy shew the same for so it s said Exod. 13.3 Remâ—mber this day in which ye came out from Egypt Besides 't is said Exod. 16.29 See for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath called a Sabbath ver 25. therefore he giveth you on the sixth-day the Bread of two days Exod. 13.22 So that by the Rulers coming before to tell Moses of the Peoples gathering the Bread of two days as if they knew not of the Sabbath to be the Reason of it till Moses told them of it in his Answer to them wherein he first made mention of their Sabbath and also because 't is there said to be given to them as a day they had not known for a day of Rest before it appears therefore to be a new day but newly given and not the old preeise successive seventh-day from the Creation Object 8. The Reason for the Sabbath in the fourth Command sheweth us and also because 't is there called The Sabbath of the Lord thy
God therefore it was the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation Answer 1. The Reason for the Sabbath in the fourth Command is For in six days the Lord made Heavon and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the sâ—â—enth-day wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and ballowed it Now tho this resers us to the Pattern in the beginning yet it followeth not that therefore this Precept sixed the old precise successive seventh-day to Israel For 1. It is not assigned to be the same nor doth it appear that the reference was made to the first Pattern for that end But that as God had six Creation days together and then his Sabbath so after his Example they should also have six working days and no more together to one Sabbath or Lords day For it is not ours for common use but to rest and refresh our selves to worship and serve the Lord Isa 58.13 and therefore 't is called his Holy day as other things are called his that were set a-part from common use to his Service yea tho' they were not the very same from the Original Ezra 6.16 17. Zach. 6.14 and 7.2 3. Exod. 13.2 12 13 15. Chap. 12.29 30. â—evit 27.8 as 1. The new Temple builded in Ezra's time was called the House of God and Temple of the Lord tho it was not the same which Solomon builded 2. The first-born among the Children of Israel both of Men and of Beasts were sanctified and set a-part to the Lord and are said to be his and yet the same in kind was not always required of them for his Service for tho' they were to Sacrifice all the first-born to the Lord being Males except the first-born of Man which they redeemed yet they were also allowed to redeem an unclean Beast according to the Estimation of the Priest and to be at Liberty either to redeem an Ass with a Lamb or break his Neck And so we sind in the Case of the seventh-day Sabbath given to Israel in the Wilderness Exod. 20.10 Josh 10.13 Isa 38.8 Chap. 58.13 that tho' after our English Translation 't is said in the sourth Command to be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God yet nevertheless after the Interruption of the orderly course of the Night and Day and consequently of the Sabbath-day too it was called Gods Holy Day and therefore we cannot say that because the Sabbath given to Israel in the Wilderness is called the Sabbath of the Lord therefore there is ground to believe it was the same precise successive seventh-day from the Creation 2. Mr. Ainsworth Translateth the Hebrew Text Exod. 16.23 To Morrow is the Sabbatism the Sabbath of Holiness to Jehovah And ver 25. It is the Sabbath to day unto Jehovâ—th And Lâ—vit 23.3 But in the seventh shall be a Sabbath of Sabbatism And Deut. Mr. Rebertsons Gate to the Holy Tongue Page 110. See Mr. Hughes in his Analitical Exposition 5.13 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God And Exod. 20.10 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God Which two last places Ari. Montanus reads Et die septimo Sabbathum Domino Deo â—uo And Mr. Will. Robertson translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laihovah Elobecha to the Lord thy God and Mr. Hughet on Exod. 16.23 reads it To Morrow is the Sabbatism the Sabbath of Holinesâ— to Jehovah ver 25. For the Sabbath to Jehovah is to day and Chap. 20.10 But the seventh-day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God And Mr. Pools Annotations reads the last place Exod. 20.10 Or to the Lord i. e. Conscerated to his Vse Honour and Service And therefore seeing that whith our English Tranâ—lations read in the fourth Commandment the Sabbath of the Lord is a Sabbath to Jehovah there is nothing that hath the least Appearance of Demonstration that the Sabbath day instituted in the Wilderness was the same precise successive seventh-day from the Creation Object 9. It does not appear that the Sabbath as to its first Original was Typical or instituted to prefigure any thing that was Future for the Law of it was before the sirst Promise of Christ in the state of Innocency wherein there was no respect unto the Mediation of Christ And therefore the Sabbath could not be abolished in the New Testament as a shadow of things to come Answer Gen. 2.9 Prov. 3.18 Luke 23.43 Rev. 2.7 Chap. 22.2 14. The Tree of Life in the midst of the earthly Paradice was also before the fall of Man and the first Promise of Christ and yet both of them were Types of the Spiritual Tree of Life in the Heavenly Paradice So that tho' the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and the Sabbath Originally before the fall were not known to Adam as Figures of Future Things in Christ yet from the Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God they were designed as Shadows of things to come For in the Covenant with his Eternal Son before the Foundation of the World Ephel 1.4 11 having Chosen and Predestinated a Select number of Mankind to inherit an Heavenly Paradise he also disposed and ordered all things to accommodate the Declaration of his Counsel to fallen Man with Shadows of those Heavenly Things that were to come And therefore there is no Reason to deny the day of Gods rest from the Work of his Creation to be more than for a Memorial of it but to believe it was also designed of God before the fall to be of Typical Use to Man as appeareth Heb. 4. 2. In Answer to this Objection I have this farther to say that whatever may be thought of the Original Sabbath from the Creation yet the Sabbath days in Colos 2.16 cannot be denied to be the Jewish Sabbaths and of these the Apostle saith they are a Shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ and therefore the shadows are done away Object 10. Seeing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath did answer the Moral Law and yet you say it is abrogated under the Gospel Colos 2.16 Then either its Typicahâ—ess or Significative Nature as it is a Shâ—â—ow or was a Memerial of Israâ—h Deliverance out of Egypt is only abolished and not the day it self or else a Branch of the Moral Law it self is reâ—ealed Answer I have shewed before that the seventh-seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Prohibition of Sabbaths as a shadow of things to come and have already cleared this Scripture Colos 2.16 from divers Exceptions that may seem to weaken its Authority from abrogating the Jewish Sabbath yet because I sind Mr. Brabourne has laboured with all his might to stifle that which I conceive is the Mind of the Holy Ghost in it I shall therefore clear it from other things that may possibly puzzle the Minds of some weak Christians And 1. It s there said Let no Man therefore judge you in Meat oâ— in Drink or in respect of an Holy Day Gr. of a
his Sanctifying it or setting that time apart from the common use of Man for the service and worship of his Creator and then we have reason to believe he did immediately reveal the knowledge of it to Adam that he might answer the design of God in sanctifying the seventh day for him and to make it a pattern for aster Ages But some have said That the sanctifying of the seventh-day Sabbath on which God rested from his Work of Creation was written by way of Anticipation of the Order of time in Moses Sacred History and so thô God rested the seventh day from all his Works yet the Sabbath was not sanctified for Man till after Israels coming out of Egypt Answer This is a weak and groundless Notion that some have taken up as will appear from the proper sence of the Text and the Reasons following For 1. It 's said That on the seventh day God ended his Work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his Work which he had made From whence it 's plain that God's seventh day on which he rested from his Work of Creation was that same seventh day on which he ended his Work else how could it be said he rested from his work on the seventh day if his seventh day rest was not immediately aster it was ended 2. It 's said God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made Now what seventh day can this be which God blessed and sanctisied but the same seventh day on which he ended his Work from which sence for any to invert the Text is a gross and paspable wrong to it for God sanctified 〈◊〉 because in 〈◊〉 he had rested from all his Work Note it well that seventh day in which God had rested before Moses wrote this History was the same he sanctified that Man should bound his six working days with a Sabbath 3. No Anticipation is to be put upon any Text of Scripture unless a just necessity compell it H. Scursby Discouise of the Sabbath Page 23. 2â— for otherwise the order of History may be inverted at Mens pleasures And therefore the reason why Anticipations are allowed in any Text of Scripture is because there is some necessity or other arising to preserve the verity or sence of Scripture but there is no such thing to be pleaded in this case Therefore no Anticipation to be intruded on the Text. 4. Anticipations are only to be allowed in any Text when either the same or some other Text discovers that so it is but we presume no such thing can be assigned relating to the thing under consideration therefore none is here to be admitted SECT III. HERE I come to open and explain the Law of God which commandeth the seventh day to be observed and because I find that some have taken up an Opinion and I conceive for the sake of nothing else but to escape the Arguments which some have drawn from the fourth Commandment for keeping the Jewish seventh day Sabbath do assert that there is nothing of the Law as given on Mount Sinai binding to us under the Gospel or that nothing of it is obliging to us but what is given forth again and confirmed to us in the New Testament To remove therefore this mistake and to demonstrate that the Ten Commandments are of themselves binding to all both Jews and Gentiles as a Rule of Holy Life thò not as a Covenant of Justification for so they are done away in Christ I shall discourse the more largely of the Law of God and the Decalogue in general and then of the fourth Commandment in particular And 1. I shall here premise Numb 15.14 15 16. Ex. d. 12.43 48 49. Deut. 5.27 Chap. 4 37 38. Chap. 7 6 7 8. Chap. 9.5 Heb. 3.1 2. that the House of Israel with the Proselytes joyned to them by Circumcision having all one Law were peculiarly concerned in Sinaâ—'s Covenant more than other Nations For God having loved their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob he therefore chose their Seed aster them and delivered them out of Egypt to intrust them with his Oracles and Counsels for all the World And to this end he renewed the Law of Nature at Mount Sinai and directed it peculiarly unto them and brought them under it as a visible Covenant of Works requiring their perfect Obedience thereunto and to his whole revealed Will in the Ceremonial precepts added to it And so the Israelites being thus separated from all Nations and under a special Obligation of Ceremonial and Typical service and having a Sacred Record of the Law of Nature with the Promises and Prophecies of the Messias that was to come â—xod 19.6 Isa 43.10 Heb. 9.9 23. ch 10.1 transcribed by Moses and delivered to them they became the Ministers of the certain knowledge of them to all Nations faâ—ther witnessing to the Messias in the Types and Shadows of the Law and by the writings of other Prophets that were among them Gen. 12.3 chap. 26.4 Galat 3.16 Zach. 10.4 Jer. 23.5 6. chap. 11.1 Micah 5.2 Gen. 49.10 Isa 53. Psal 16.10 Psal 68.18 Joel 2.28 29. That Christ should come of the Seed of Abraham of the Tribe of Judah of the House of David and should be born in Bethlehem of Judea that the Scepter â—â—ould not depart from Judah till Shiloh came of his Susserings Râ—surrection Ascension and of the Ministration of the Spirit c. to point unto all the World where and when they should look for the true Messias and how they should know him when he came So that herein the Jews were peculiarly concerned in Sinai's Covenant that under its Obligations and their trust of the Oracles of God together with it the Messias should be declared and in the Typical service of the visible Covenant of Works they should Minister as Witnesses of the Grace of God in Christ to the Gentile Nations 2. But thô the Jews with the Gentile Proselytes that put themselves under their Covenant of Works by Circumcision were under a peculiar Obligation of the whole Mosaical Lâ—w yet they were not so absolutely tyed up unto this Covenant of Works Deut. 4.13 as to be wholly concluded by it unto their Eâ—ernal State for God did not bring that People absolutely under it in all the rigor of it according to its whole Law and tenor so as to stand or fall absolutely by it Promises or Threatnings for the promise of Grace in Christ being given upon the first entrance of Sin into the World and renewed to Abraham 430 Years before the giving of the Law to his posterity Gal. 3.16 17. there was a blessed relief and Salvation provided therein for the Elect that betook themselves unto it and made use of it against the Curse and Threatnings annexed to the first Covenant broken in and by our first Parents and to our Personal Transgresâ—â—ons of the Law So
thereby maketh a new Sacred fifteenth day of the Night of the Civil fourteenth day and the Day-light of the Civil fifteenth Day put together and from thence in an orderly Succession their Sacred time was measured for the due observing of those Feasts Sabbaths and Holy-days which God commanded the Children of Israel But for their Civil Affairs they still accounted their days from Morning to Morning as in 1 Sam. 19.10 And David fled and escaped that night Saul also sent Messengers unto Davids house to watch him and to slay him in the morning And Michal Davids wife told him saying If thou save not thy life to night to morrow thou shalt be slain from which Scripture it plainly appears that after that night the nex Morning or Day-light was accounted the Morrow which was another Day and not belonging to the Night going before And to this Mr. Tho. Godwin witnesseth in his Book called Moses and Aaron page 80. where he tells us That the Jews Natural Day was two-fold Civil a working Day which was destined for Civil Businesses and Works This saith he began at Sun-rising and held till the next Sun-rising Matth. 28.1 Or Sacred a Festival or holy-day destined for Holy Exercises This began at Sun-set and continued till the next Sun-set From all which both Sacred and Humane Evidence I shall make this Inference That if the Patriarchs before and after the Flood and the House of Israel successively had either kept the same precise seventh day Sabbath from the Creation or had reckoned the time of their beginning and ending of their Days and Weeks precisely and successively from thence althô their Sabbath might not have been duely observed in their bondage then the Jewish Sabbath from Evening to Evening after the Alteration of the account of the day could not be the precise successive seventh day from the Creation And seeing the Scripture is silent in fixing the Jewish seventh day or any other Day as that precise successive seventh day we cannot tell which is the same successive seventh day from the first seventh day of Rest which God Sanctified 3. I premise That if the Reasons I have given for Adams beginning his first Sabbath day in the Morning with the Day-light in that Hemisphere of the Garden of Eden should be counted by our Opponents too weak to draw a conclusion for a pattern to justifie us in beginning our Sabbath in the Morning and any should still hold the keeping of the Sabbath from Evening to Evening to be successively from the Creation then we have this to argue against their Opinion That as they have no Scripture for it so the Sun was not made till the fourth day of the Creation and we know not in what part of that day it was Sun-rising or Sun-setting or Noon or Mid-night in any Horizon or Hemisphere except we acknowledge that Adam began his first Sabbath with the Morning and then it follows that a little before the fourth day was ended it was about as much before the beginning of the fifth day with the Morning or Sun-rising in Eden otherwise as it cannot then be known where the seventh day of God's Rest which had the same successive proportion of time as the six days of Creation was bounded with the rising and setting of the Sun but that when God's seventh day of Rest after his sixth day of Creation began and ended any where it began and ended every where at the same instant season and it was no where then any other than the seventh day which began in some places at Evening in others at Morning in others at Midnight in others at Noon and in some or other places at all hours of the Day and Night and the Revolution of the Light and Darkness was the Day which is called Natural in distinction to that which is by some called the Artificial Day or Day-light only There cannot therefore from the first seventh day of God's Rest be any footing of account to measure out to us the time of day for the beginning of our Day nor consequently for the beginning and ending of our sabbath-Sabbath-day for that it is not known to us where the Sun was when that seventh day of God's Rest first began unless we give way to what hath been clearly demonstrated from the Scripture that the Sun arose or was about rising then to Paradice and to believe as there is reason for it that Adam had that whole Day-light sanctified which preceded the Night of his Sabbath 4. It is very clear that God did never design the Law and Institution of the Sabbath to Israel in the Wilderness to bind either Jews or Gentiles to the observation of the precise orderly Succession of their seventh day Sabbath as from the Creation to the end of the World because we find that God himself did afterwards make an interruption of the Natural Order of the account of Time when the Sun was brought backward ten degrees in the Dial of Ahaz and when it stood still in the midst of Heaver about a whole Day 1. As to the Suns going backward ten degrees Isai 38.8 See his Book Page 157.158 Mr. Weems in his Christian Synagogue has made a draught of Ahaz Dial and explained the matter telling us that that Day was prolonged twenty two hours reckoning the ten degrees or divisions on the Dial to be five hours backward and then the Suns going forward again is 5 hours more with twelve hours is twenty two hours Day-light in all 2. It is said Josh 10.13 So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day Now if we duely consider this place it seems by the Suns standing still in the midst of Heaven that it stood still in the Meridian or Noon-tide of Canaan about a whole day and add to the time of its standing still the half or that part of the Day that was past before and that followed after when the Sun moved forwards to its going down and then that Day or Day-light continued twenty four hours or was about as long as the Day and Night together and so if the Jews did reckon all that large Day-light to belong to the preceding Night then the beginning of their next Sabbath fell later than its usual course about twelve hours time and if they divided that long Day-light and put half of it to the former and half of it to the following Night then they did thereby alter the beginning of their Natural Day for Sacred things and reckon that last twelve hours of Day-light for the former part of the Day belonging to the following Night but such a succession of days for Sacred things was against the Command of God for the Time and Order of beginning and ending all their Sabbaths and Holy-days But instead of these if any should yet say That when the Sun had continued in their Hemisphere about twenty four hours time the Natural Course of the Night being altered
and its time spent by the long duration of that Day God was pleased in an instant either to pass the Sun thrô their Antipode Hemisphere or suddenly to turn it backward and make it Sun-rising to the Israelites in the Land of Canaan I Answer That if thus it was that in an instant the Sun was passed through their Horizon and the Antipode Hemisphere then they reckoned the first twelve hours of that long Day-light of twenty four hours for one Artificial Day or Day-light and the last twelve hours Day instead of Night adding one to its preceding Night and the other instead of a Night to the following Day-light and so did bring their days into their former course again But as this would have been a greater Miracle than the former which was only a stop to the Course of Nature for a time so there is reason to believe that if it had been so the Holy Ghost would have recorded it in the Scripture and Josephus would not have omitted the Notice of it in his History where he speaks of this larger Day than ordinary And as to the last if the Sun had been suddenly turned backward to make it Sun-rising in the Land of Canaan then it could not have been so properly said that the Sun hasted not to go down about a whole day For if the Sun had been suddenly put backward from its place of setting to its place of rising then the Sun had only hasted from its standing still to the place of its going down and went not down till a day-light and a halfs-time after it stood still in the midst of Heaven contrary to the plain meaning of the Text. And if we say the Sun was turned backwards from the place it stood still or from thence was passed in an instant through their Antipode Hemisphere to its place of rising or which ever way we reckon from that time the Account of the natural course of the Day and Night to settle the Jews could not possibly fall into their due Order of Time again as successively from their former Custom to begin their Sabbaths at Even according to the Law unless it were settled by a greater Miracle than the standing still of the Sun But if we reckon as there is the greatest Reason for it and it is most natural and fairly implyed in the Text that after the Sun had stood still about a whole day or twelve hours it then continued its natural course to go down and add to it the ten hours of the Suns going backward and returning in the Dial of Ahaz which twenty two hours together being computed after the Jewish Custom of some of their Days-light or Artificial-days may make a full day and nights time and then the Jewish Sabbath fell later than its former precise Order of Saccession by near or full a whole days time So that their weekly seventh-day Sabbath after these Afterations of days had but about two hours possibly no time at all in the time which by an orderly Succession should have been their Sabbath and the other twenty two hours and possibly their whole Sabbath-day was in the Time if it had not been so interrupted of the first day of their Week by an orderly Succession from their first Sabbath in the Wilderness And therefore it is apparent that neither the Moral Law nor the Ceremonial Precept for their Sabbath was designed to bind us to the Observation of the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation for if it had God would never have so interrupted the course of Nature and his own Design and Institution unto Men. 5. Having premised these things I proceed to shew that the course of Nature maketh it impossible for all Nations to observe the seventh-day Sabbath after the Jewish Pattern 1. Sir Jonus Moor saith See his Sâ—sem of the Maâ—â—maticks Paâ—â— 48. that the Government of Wardhus is in seventy and seventy one Degrees And there they have the continual Presence of the Sun for many days together in the Summer and in the Winter they are as long without the Sun in their Horison or Hemisphere 2. See his Pilgrimage Page 431 432 433. Parchas gives us a large account of the Northern Parts of the World and tells us that the Samoyeds about the Banks of Pechore are in Subjection to the Moscovites and that in the Year 1611. Josias Logan wintered at the Town of Postozera and there observed that on December eleventh he could see but the way of the Sun Beams on the thirteenth the Beams but not the Sun Which it's there said on Christmas day he saw rising at South and by West and setting at South West and by South not wholly elevated from the Horison but all the way the nether part of the Sun seeming just and even with it Now this Town of Postozera I find in Speeds Maps and Description of the World to be but just over the Artick Circle which is in about sixty six Degrees and half So that Wardbus before mentioned being about four Degrees nearer the Pole has more of the continual Presence of the Sun in Summer and is a longer time without it in the Winter But to return to Purchas History he farther tells us that the Hollanders in the Year 1594. sent to discover a way to Cathay and China by the North-East that William Barentz was the Chief Pilot for this Discovery The next Year the last of August they had Speech with the Samoyeds who know no God The Sun whose Presence they are long deprived of in the Winter which is recompensed in their Nightless Summer is worshipped amongst them and when the Sun is declining out of their sight the Moon or North-Star is his Receiver or Successor if you will in that Tribute of their Devotions Moreover the aforesaid Author saith that they viz. the Hollanders learned of certain Muscovites that the Inhabitants of Nova Zemla had neither Religion â—or Civility prescribed them by any Law but worshipped the Sun Moon and North-Star And that in the Year 1596 there were sent other two Ships to prosecute this Discovery and after many dreadful Combates with the Ice and one of the Ships departing from the other they were forced to Winter in Nova Zemla where they indured a continual Night of many Weeks wherein neither the Sun nor any of his Courtly Train the least Rays to be the Harbingers of his desired Presence did present themselves to their Eyes from the fourth of November till the seven and twentieth of January they saw no Sun Our Author farther addeth in Page 740 741. That Henry Hudson 1607. discovered farther North towards the Pole he found himself in eighty Degrees where they felt it hot and drank Water to Cool their thirst they saw Land to eighty two Degrees and farther It is saith he colder in sixty two Degrees than in nine or ten Degrees more northerly towards the North Eest hence it is that those parts hear and perhaps under the Pole are
being short of a day in four Years loseth near a day in one hundred Years and we know not which way or that any one Method of keeping the Account of the Age of the World has been constantly and successively used from the Creation thereof to this present day nor how much time we have lost the Knowledge of for want of the exact Account of the Ages of the first Patriarks c. unto Months and Days which are omitted in the Scriptures so that we cannot tell so much as the precise Year of the Creation of the World as our Astronomers tell us that according to Verity is 0000 viz. it is not known Collected in the 〈…〉 Eusâ—â—tus 〈◊〉 â—â—nicon 〈◊〉 552. 〈◊〉 in 1619. And in Eusebius we have divers Authors mentioned that in their Account of the Year of the World when Christ was born they differ many hundred Years from each other Yet the precise Succession of Weeks of seven Days and seven Nights bounded with as many Risings and Settings of the Sun are more eastly preserved and from Gods Example of six working days with a Sabbath were observed by Adam who at first had no other measure to mete out his Age and Time and by Noah Gen 8.10 12. and were successively handed down by Tradition to Laban who said to Jacob sulfil her Week and so forwards unto Posterity Gen. 29.27 〈◊〉 28. and this way the precise Succession of the Sabbath might possibly have been handed down to us from the Creation But seeing there hath been an Interruption of the orderly course of Nature and that the Sacred Scriptures do not any ways confirm it to us nor six the Jewish Sabbath as that precise successive seventh-day but rather gives us ground to believe that if the precise Succession of the first seventh-day Sabbath was preserved among the Gentiles in Worship to their Idols or to the Sun before Israels Deliverance out of Egypt that seeing God to keep those People from the Idolatry of Egypt and other Nations did appoint them a new beginning of their Year and to begin their days at Evening which before began in the Morning I say this rather gives us ground to think that God did appoint their Sâ—bbath to be kept on a different day also to what it was before therefore we may from hence perceive that thâ— neither the Jews nor do I believe the Châ—istians can justifie their seventh or first day Sabbath on this Foundation as being the precise successive seventh-day from the Creation yet our first-day Sabbath standeth fairest for it SECT XIV I Shall here make some Comparisons of the Gospel first-day Sabbath with the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and shew the disparity of the Jewish seventh-day and also treat of the first day Sabbaths beginning in the Morning with some other Matters and then proceed to Answer the chiefest Objections I find against our keeping the first or Lords-day a Sabbath And 1. Our first-day Sabbath better answered the Pattern of our first Parents keeping their Sabbath than the Jewish Sabbath did Gen. 1.27 28. for that after Eve was compleatly formed about the end of the sixth Creation day as Adam first entred upon his Subordinate Lordship which God had given him over the Creatures which he had made and on his first day in the Earthly Paradice on his first-day Sabbath So our Lord Jesus thô his Soul was in the Paradise of Heaven John 20.17 when his Body was in the Grave yet he was not compleatly there in Soul and Body too till he was raised on the first-day of his Ascension in our Nature far above all Principalities and Powers to take Possession of his purchased Inheritance and Kingdom to be increased without end So that herein our first-day Sabbath did Originally answer Adams first Sabbath better than the Jewish seventh-day did in the Wilderness 2. As Adam and Eves Sabbath was Originally their first-day Sabbath and after their six working days their seventh-seventh-day Sabbath too So our Gospel Sabbath is the Image or Likeness of it more than the Jewish Sabbath is for thô their seventh-seventh-day may be called their first-first-day Sabbath respecting their Original keeping it in the Wilderness yet the Scripture does not shew that it was their first-day Sabbath from so precise an Epocha of Time or notable Event of their Deliverance out of Egypt as our Gospel Sabbath is from the precise Epocha of the Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation from whence it is a more proper first-first-day Sabbath and bears a greater likeness to Adams Pattern which had its precise Epocha of Time than the Jewish Sabbath does from its Original For thô the Jewish Sabbath was appointed to bare the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt yet the Scripture does not shew that it took its Original from the Epocha of the Passover or from the Red Sea but contrariwise I find that Israel came unto the Wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second Month after their departing out of the Land of Egypt and the following Words are Exod. 10.1 2 3 11 12. â—er 5 22 23. And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron for Bread And the Lord spake unto Moses saying at Even ye shall cat Flesh and in the Morning ye shall be filled with Bread Now their first Sabbath in the Wilderness was not till the day after their sixth day of gathering Manna and from this account See Mr. Weemse Christian Synagogue Page 9â— if we reckon as the Jews did their Lunar Year according to Mr. Weemse â—rogromma of the Hebrew Kalender that the first Month Nisan or Abib hath thirty days and then reckoning the fifteenth day of this Month on which they departed out of Egypt unto the fifteenth day of their second Month and add this day to their six days of gathering Manna with their first Sabbath it makes together thirty eight days and so their first Sabbath fell on the third day after five Weeks time from their departing out of Egypt and took not its Original from that Epocha nor any other precise Epocha as a first-day Sabbath for if any should insist on their gathering Manna six days as an Epocha which I have shewed was not so for sixing their six working days Precisely and Originally before their Sabbath it would only render it a seventh-day Sabbath Originally in the Wilderness and so it could not answer Adams Pattern of his first-day Sabbath nor be like it in its Epocha from the perfecting of the first Adam as our first-day Sabbath was from its Epocha of the perfecting the second Adam 3. If it should be yet thought thô there is no Reason for it that the Jewish Sabbath was originally sixed to the Israelites in the Wilderness as following their six working days I have this to say that if so then Israel kept their Sabbath therein after a Ceremonial Precept contrary to Adams Pattern in keeping his first-day Sabbath
before his six working days but as for our first-day Sabbath we are justified in keeping it by the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches and the more because as it was changed from the Jewish Sabbath it is our first-day Sabbath before our six working days and so it better agrees with Adams Pattern than the Jewish Sabbath then can do 4. If it should be said as I acknowledge it may that the Jewish Sabbath may be called their first-day Sabbath respecting their first observing it in the Wilderness as a boundary before and after their six working days and so by Imitation does answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath I have this to Answer that yet the Jewith Sabbath did not imitate Adams Pattern as our Christian Sabbath doth in beginning it with the Morning Day light for the Jews began their Sabbath at Even contrary to Adams Pattern as there is Reason from Scripture to believe And if it be objected that the Pattern of Adam respecting the beginning of his Sabâ—ath in the Morning is not plainly exprest but drawn by Interence from the Scripture but the Jewish Pattern is expresly commanded and therefore there is better ground of the two to observe the Sabbath after the Pattern in the Mosaical Precept I answer 1. It is not expressy said that Adams first Sabbath was his first-days Sabbath Mark 2.27 But yet seeing Christ hath said the Sabbath was made for Man and that none can deny but that Adam was bound in Duty to God to observe Gods seventh day Sabbath wherein he rested from his Works of Creation then we may insist on the sufficiency of our Evidence for Adams beginning his Sabbath in the Morning it being so rationally inserred thô it is not in Words expressed in the Scriptures 2. It hath been shewed how our Lord made void the Mesaical Precept of Divorcement and justified the doing of it by the Moral Pattern in our first Parents tho' it was not by any express Word of God nor by so clear an evidence from Adam and Eves being one Fresh that he nor his Posterity but by a special permission of God should not put away their Wives except for Fornication as there is Reason to believe that Adam began his Sabbath in the Morning day light And therefore tho' Christ might have abolished that Precept without setting a Moral Pattern against it yet his justifying the doing of it from thence 2 Tim 3.16 is an Example to be of use to us in other Cases 3. We have greater Reason to begin our Sabbath in the Morning in every Countrey where it can be so observed after the Pattern of Adams Sabbath and the Reason of its change in the New Testament tho' his beginning of it so is but inferred from the Scripture and not expressed in it rather than to begin it after the Jewish Precept at Evening for were this universally binding it could not being a Positive Command accommodate the Necessity of Nature for the different beginning and ending of the Sabbath as the Pattern in Adam and the New Testament Example doth And this I conceive to be one chief Reason that the Jewish Sabbath is abrogated and that we have only the Pattern of Adams Sabbath left us by rational Inference from the Scripture and the Reason of the change of the Sabbath in the New Testament for our beginning of it in the Morning and that we have not any command fixing of it as it was to Israel For 1. That would have either bound us to the precise Point of Time of its beginning in the Lard of Canaan and then the Memorial of Christs Resurrection early in the Morning had not been signified by its beginning in other Nations remote from their Borders for in some places it must then begin at Noon c. and so its day-light there had been divided and the Service of God distructed and our worldly Affairs too much intruding on the meetest time for solemn Worship Or 2. Such a command to six the beginning of the Sabbath would have required it univerfally to begin in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day which is inconsistent with the course of Nature for many Weeks together in some Northern Parts of the World And therefore that those People should not be obliged by any Law to keep such a Sabbath which they are not capable constantly to observe God was pleased to leave only the Moral Precept of the fourth command founded on his first sanctifying of the Sabbath to be binding to us all that those Northern People should answer it by beginning their Sabbath with the first and seventh-day or proportionable Division of a day bounding before and after their six working days and allow it the same Proportion of Time and should preserve the Memorial of the Resurrection of Christ by observing the first day of the Week from and in Distinction to the Jewish seventh-day as near as they can to Answer the Example of the Primitive Churches in the New Testament And that we and all others that have constantly our natural days with Evenings and Mornings twenty four hours long should answer the same Moral Law after the Gospel Pattern and as precisely as we can to begin our first-days Sabbaths early or at the dawning of the Morning in every Nation For if we and all other such Nations should be tyed successively to begin our Sabbath at the very precise Point of Time of the dâ—wning of the first-day in Jerusalem to contemporize with them in the Land of Canaan where our Lord afore from the Dead then they must either in other Countries Eastward to the Sun from the Land of Canaan begin their Christian Sabbath later in their Day-light or Westward from them sooner in their Night than they should in Judea and so in the Compass of the whole World Eastward or Westward there would be a beginning and ending of the Sabbath near a day and night differing in their Time of day to the dawning of the day in the Land of Canaan and by this means in some parts of the World the Christian Sabbath would begin at Noon at Evening and at all hours of the Day and Night and so except in that very spot in and about the Land of Canaan they would lose its Memorial of Christs Resurrection at the Dawning of the Day But if other Countries Eastward and Westward from Canaan begin as they ought their first-days Sabbath like them at the same time of the day then they must either begin their first day sooner or later than the first day began in Canaan and so in the Compass of the World Eastward or Westward it must begin and end in all Hours of the Jewish seventh or second day of the Week and in some place their first-day must be in the same time and contemporize with their seventh * Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day or in some place with their second-day
†Or within a very small time of it viz. of their seventh or second-day in the Land of Canaan And therefore seeing the Sabbath cannot be begun universally both at the precise Point of Time and Time of day as it should begin in the Land of Canaan to contemporize with them there And considering that Adams Sabbath was not only designed for the Moral end of Mans abâ—inence from Work for a time of solemn Worship to God but that it had its Memorial of the Creation and that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath afterwards bearing that Memorial was also appointed for â—loral Ends and for a Ceremonial Memorial that rendred it uncapable of being a universal Pattern and that the Memorial of Christs Purchase of our Spiritual and Eternal Salvation should be preferred before that of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt then we ought to observe our Christan Sabbath as much as can be to Answer thereunto the end of its chinge which may be done by all Nations including those Northern People keeping their first-first-day Sabbath in Distinction to and from the Jewish seventh day And as for its beginning early in the Morning or at the dawning of the Day the Scriptures shew that so it began in Judea Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn or as John 20.1 While it was yet dark i. e. not light day towards the first-day of the Week came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre c. And in Mark 16.2 It 's said they came unto the Sepulchre at the rising of the Sun and ver 9. Now when Jesus was risen early the first-day of the Week he appeared first to Mary Magdalen and said unto her John 20 1â— Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God And therefore seeing the Evangelists have Recorded the Time of the dawning and Sun rising of the Day to the History and Circumstances of Christs Resurrection and that we find he was then but newly riten because he had not yet ascended unto the Father when Mary first saw him We have then greater Reason to six the beginning of our first-first-day Sabbath in all Nations where we can at the dawning of the day expressed in the Scripture to bare the fuller Memortal of the Resurrection of our Lord than at any other time of the day And this we may strengthen from the Example of the Jews beginning their Sabbath in the Evening here in England and in other Nations tho our Evenings here differ and in other Nations are farther from the precise Time of the Evening in the Land of Canaan and their Reason for it is taken from the Precept of Moses which bindeth them to celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 Exod. 12 18 19. And therefore seeing God was pleased under the Type of the Gospel Salvation Church and Sabbath to require the Memorial of that Deliverance by beginning their Sabbath in the Evening as the most proper time to bear its lively remembrance and that from thence they conclude it best answereth the express command of God and his End and Design in sixing the Jewish Sabbath to begin at Evening in the Land of Canaan for them to begin it so in other Countries also rather than to begin it at the precise Point of time of its beginning in Canaan and differ in the Time of day then we have Reason from the Type and their Example to begin our first-day Sabbath rather at the dawning of the day in all the World where we can than at the precise Point of Time at a different time of day to contemporize in all places And whatever the Jewish Sabbatharians may invent to say from the Necessity of the Course of Nature in those Northern or Southern Parts against the beginning of our first-days Sabbath early in the Morning or at the dawning of the day in all other Parts of the World the same Arguments will equally serve against the beginning of their Sabbath in the Evening where it can be so observed so that they cannot gain the least Advantage by opposing us in beginning our Christian Sabbath early in the Morning unless they can first invalid and disprove the Authority we bring for our keeping the first-first-day it self that it does not answer the Pattern of Adams Sabbath the Moral Law in the fourth Commandment and the Example of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches with all the ends of a Sabbath which is a task too hard for them And seeing the Scriptures sheweth by the Resurrection of our Lord that our Sabbath should begin at the dawning of the first-day of the Week it must consequently not end till the dawning of the second-day Mark 15.42 Luke 23.54 See Mr. Heemse Christ Synagogue Page 74. Who tells us the Jews had three Preparations to their Sabbaâ—h Succeeding each other And from the Custom of the Jews to make Preparations for their Sabbath the preceding Time from twelve a Clock on Saturday Night vulgarly so called till the dawning of the first-day it that time be not spent in our Nights rest it should be employed to prepare our Minds for the Worship and Service of God on the approaching Sabbath day But to proceed That I may remove any doubts that may yet arise about the usefulness of the Pattern of Adams Sabbath to us under the Gospel I shall add something to demonstrate how far it is of a Moral Nature for seeing I have forborn to call it a Moral Pattern because no one Pattern respecting the beginning and ending of the Sabbath can be wholly alike universally so to all Nations I think it 's therefore needful to explain the Moral use that is to be made of Adams Sabbath that so whatever different Apprehensions there may be about the use of the Word Mortal â—o Adams Pattern the thing it self may be understood and the Controversie may not be fomented about Words which some have made the Subject of much Discourse when they have not been able to Confute the thing that was plainly intended by them 1. Therefore as I shewed Page 2. that from Gods sanctifying the seventh-day for Man the Light of Adams Nature taught him that it was most meet to divide his time like his Creator and so it became the Moral Duty of Men as Men to have no more nor less than six working days to one Sabbath 2. See Page 24. I have also shewed the Reason we have from Scripture to believe that after Adams first sleep in the Night when the Hamane Nature was compleatly formed and Eve was brought to him at the end of the sixth Creation day their Sabbath began with the Morning day light of the seventh-day and the first day after the finishing of the Creation which seeing the Order of Gods Working and Rest and the Original Moral Duty of Man
Feast or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the Body is of Christ Here as was mentioned before Sabbaths are distinctly expressed from the New Moon and Feasts or other Jewish Holy days that were or had also Sabbaths and were observed under the Law and therefore their weekly seventh-day Sabbath must at least be comprehended in the Word Sabbaths and equally prohibited with the New Moon and other selâ—ival Sabbaths that were then observed 2. It appeareth the Jewish seventh-day was a shadow of things to come in that it was a Sign and Memorial of Israth Deliverance out of Eâ—ypt for that Deliverance with all its Memorials was a Type of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and oâ— the Gospel Signs and Memorials of it for it s said That all the Prophets 〈◊〉 11.13 and the Law prophesud until John 3. Tho' the change of the Jâ—â—ish seventh day into the Christion sirst-day Sabbath in Distinction to tieiâ—s was Typed out by the eighth or sust day and by the Year of Jâ—bilee under the Law as I have shewed yet our Claiâ—â—ion Salbath considered as our seventh-day to our six working days was also shadowed by the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath 4. It this will not fatissie I have also this to say That we find nothing applyed in the New Testament as the Antitype of the New Moon It 's true there is something signisied or shadowed to us by the New Moon Isa 66.23 And by the Feast of Tabernacles Zach. 14.16 which places both relate to Christs Glorious Kingdom yet to come and not to our present Gospel-day but yet we cannot certainly say what the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles does particularly shadow to us Howbeit from thence it 's plain that the New Moon is a shadow of something yet to come and seeing the Apostle saith so too and comprehends the seventh-day Sabbath with it we can no more deny his forbidding all Men not to judge or censure the Christians for not observing the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath than for not observing their New Moons and other Holy days and for any to except the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath out of this Prohibition because they sind no present Gospel Antitype shadowed by it expresly applyed to it in the New Testament will give equal Liberty for others to except against the Prohibition of observing their New Moons And therefore seeing those Typical days and times of the New Moon and Feast of Tabernacles that were not evident shadows of present but of suture Gospel things are not to be kept in our Gospel days as Signs and Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt or for any other Reason and yet the Record of them in Scripture does retain their Typical and Shadowy Significations then surely we have equal Reason to conclude that in Case it were granted as it is not that the Jewish seventh-seventh-day Sabbath was no shadow of any present Gospel thing yet as a Sign and Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt and also as a shadow of suture things it is not to be observed tho' the Record of it in Scripture does still retain a shadowy Signification and is so of Use to us 5. Tâ—â— some have sound out a more cunning Distinction than an Explanation of Truth batteen the typicalness or significative Nature of the Jewish Sabbith and the Sabbath or day it self yet this covâ—â—ing may castly be removed and their mistake Corrected for tho' the Pypical use oâ— their Sabbath to suture things still temaineth on sacred Record and is not wronged by transâ—erring the same Typical Signiâ—ication to be born also by our actual keeping the 〈◊〉 day Sabbath as the seventh-day Sabbath also yet it is the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath the day it self that is aboâ—ished as other things were that were Memorials of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt which respecting their seventh-day Sabbath was in their beginning and ending of it From Evening to Evening to answer their new day from the Sacrisice of their first Passover thereby weekly and dailytoo to keep that deliverance in fresher Memory and so the significative Nature of the day respecting an actual and practical bearing up the Memory of that Deliverance could not be removed unless the Sabbath day it self were altered in its beginning and ending which was to cease with their Church-state and to give way to our Gospel Memorials of the greater deliverance when our Spiritual Redemption and Eternal Salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ 6. The Jewish Sabbath its self is abrogated without a repeal of any part of the Moral Law or Ten Commandments or any Moral Branch of that Law tho' the keeping of it by the Jews did answer and fulfil it in the fourth Command For as I have noted the fourth Command of its self does not require the Sabbath to begin and end from Evening to Evening so it consequently follows it does not of its self limit the keeping of that very day but this was done by another Ceremonial Precept which till it was abrogated tho' it answered the Moral Law as being their seventh-day boundary to their six working days yet it does not therefore follow that it was of its self of a Moral Nature for then we must also say that all other Ceremonial Precepts are Moral and all the Jewish Worship is Moral for nothing was required contrary to the Ten Commandments but for Israels putting forth their Obedience to them which was to be exerted according to the revealed Will of God in all the other Appendant both Moral and Ceremonial Precepts and Branches of the Decalogue So that the prohibiting of the Sabbath according to the Jewish Pattern is no repeal of any Part or Moral Branch of the Ten Commandments but is only an Abrogation of a Ceremonial Precept that pertained to it during the shadowy Dispensation of the Law Object 11. Here I shall answer to something I find in Mr. Edward Stennet's Book of the seventh-day Sabbath Page 47. concerning those Countreys where they have so much day together in the Summer and Night together in the Winter Saith he the Psalmist saith Psal 74.20 The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty That is saith he they are the places by Divine Appointment for the cruel Wild Beasts and not for Man except they will become like Beasts for as David saith There is no Sperch nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard Psal 19.2 3. So that if there be any Speech or Language under Heaven that hear not the Voice of Day and Night they are gone out of that orderly State which they were in in Davids Time and so ought to return again into such Countreys where they may be in a Capacity to serve God and live under the means of Grace for men ought to sorsake all that this World affords rather than Sin against God and if so then men may well forsake their dark
Sabbath as the Greek Word Sabbaton properly signifies but in the Text Col. 2.16 the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Sabbaths for so it is in the Greek and not Sabbath-days as we translate it is not their joined as in those other places to express any particular day of the Week but stands singly of its self for Sabbaths and therefore can only be understood of the Sabbath-days themselves which the Word properly signifies and cannot be otherwise understood but at least comprehensively of the seventh-day weekly Sabbath because other Holy or Feast-days are in the same verse expresly named distinctly by themselves So then seeing the seventh-day Sabbath is included with the New Moon and other Holy or Feast-days as Shadows of Gofpel things it was also abolished with them and there is the like Ceremonial Reason for it as there is for those other Holy-days Gal. 3. to v. 4. Chap. 4.3 4 5 9 10 11 21. Chap. 5.1 to 5. Chap. 6.12 13. Feasts and New Moon expressed with it it being a Sign of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt And considering also that the Apostle saith to the Galatians who after they had been converted from the Idolatry of the Heathens to the Christian Faith desired to be under the Law and were turning to those weak and beggerly Elements Ye observe Days and Months and Times and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in Vain I do therefore conclude that the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath is abrogated with their other Holy-days and Times For to imagine that our Lord Jesus who is faithful over his own House Heb. 3.6 should by his Apostle so reprove the Observation of the Jewish Days and Times in general and Name their Sabbaths distinctly from other Holy-days and describe them all to be but shadows which are to be done away and changed with the Priesthood Heb. 7.12 without one word of Exception in the New Testament to confirm the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath for our Observation nor to leave us one Example of any Christian Churches Custom to meet on that day but on the first Day of the Week and yet to require us to keep their Sabbath is groundless and irrational to believe 3. I come to prove the Jewish seventh day Sabbath to be Ceremonial and not Morally binding to all Nations from the Necessity of Nature which renders it impracticable in divers Countreys and in Order therunto I shall first Premise four things 1. It was commanded Israel that they should celebrate their Sabbaths from Evening to Evening Lev. 23.32 and if after the Jewish Pattern the Sabbath must begin and end at Evening in every part of the World then in some parts of it the Sabbath would begin when it endeth in other places and so it could not be Gods design to bind all men to keep their Sabbath at one Point of Time prefixed to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness or in the Land of Canaan 2. The Mosaical seventh-day Sabbath could not be the same Successive seventh-day Sabbath from the Creation if this were either successively kept before their Egyptian Bondage by the Ancient Fathers or if these Patriarchs began and ended their Days and Weeks successively in the same Order of Time from the Creation For God was pleased to the end as it is believed that he might more effectually draw his People from the Idolatry of the Heathen to alter the account of the beginning and ending of their days and years in sacred things to what it was before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt and to what was afterwards observed by them in Civil things and this appears by the Evidence of divers Authors and from the Testimony of the Sacred Scriptures And 1. We find in Scripture that the account of the beginning and ending of the Year was altered to the Jews at their coming out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 12.2 8. This Month viz. Abib shall be unto you the beginning of Months it shall be the first Month of the Year to you Exod. ch 13.3 4. which Month is partly in our March and partly in April Thus their Sacred Year began but their Civil Year began after their Ingathering of the Fruits of the Feild Exod. 23.16 Chap. 34.22 Levit. 25.89 for then it is said to be the End of the Year in their seventh Month of Tisri or Ethanim partly in our September and October for on the tenth day of this Month was the Trumpet blown to begin their fiftieth year of Jubilee And this Mr. Ainsworth noteth on Gen. 7.11 where he saith The second Month to wit of the Year agreeable in part to that we call October For the End and Revolution of the Year was about the Month which we call September Exod. 23.16 and 34.22 and so the New Year then began This was after called the Month of Enthanim 1 Kings 8.2 where the Chaldee paraphraseth that they called it of Old the First Month but now saith he it is the seventh month for the Year changed the beginning of it Ecclesiastically upon the coming of Israel out of Egypt see Euod 12.2 and Levit. 23.39 compared with Exod. 23.16 And Mr. Ainsworth farther saith on Exod. 12.2 By Reason of this their going out of Egypt the Year which before began in September Exod. 23.16 hath his beginning to the Jews Ecclesiastically in Abib or March but for the Jubilees and Civil Affairs it began as it had done before Levit. 25.8 9 10. And to this agreeth Mr. Pool's and the Dutch Annotations on Exod. 12.2 And Mr. Godwyn in his Moses and Aaron page 85. 86. and Mr. Charnock in his Works Vol. 2. page 853. saith It is probable that from the Creation the Year began in September the Autumnal Equinox the Fruit being on the Trees at the Creation but now God orders the beginning of the Year from the time of this first Passeover which was in March the Vernal Equinox Lastly Mr. And. Willet in his Hexapla on Exod. 12.2 speaking of this alteration of the Year agreeth with others that the Jews Ecclesiastical Year began in their first Month called Abib and that their Civil Year began in their seventh Month yet his Opinion is that this Sacred Year began in renovation of the former account discontinued in Egypt but he citeth Josephus to whom saith he consenteth Perertus Simler that the Hebrews always before this time held the seventh Month to be the first Month as they did afterwards for the computation of Jubilee and for other Civil Matters As to Josephus Mr. Willet gives his sense out of his Book in the Greek Latin or some other Tongue for our late English Translation hath either from a corrupt Copy or default in the Translator or Printer an apparent Error viz. December is put instead of September or as the Year began before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt 2. I find there was also an alteration made of the Account of
the beginning and ending of their days to what they were before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or before their Bondage 1. For thô it 's said Gen. 1.2 3 5. That darkness was upon the face of the deep And God said Let there be-light and there was light and the evening and the morning was the first day Yet from hence there is no sufficient ground to conclude Mr. Tho. Chasie in his Tract on the Sabbath p. 4. saith The first things God made was day and night or light and darkness There was in Nature before thô not in time a mixed or confused darkness which Moses called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Arias Montanus correcting Pagnin translateth and calleth it Caligo it was neither perfect day nor perfect Night that the Night was created before the day for Mr. Chasie observes that the Hebrew word signifieth a mixed darkness neither perfect Day nor perfect Night and its rational to believe that those words In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth should be taken for God's creating the matter of the Heavens and the Earth before their form As it s said The Earth was without form and void and darkness or gloominess was upon the face of the deep And then the light and darkness was mixed and confused together and so if the order of expression of Gods perfecting any piece of the Creation does carry any precedency in order of time then the Day-light did Originally go before its Night but I conceive that neither of them was perfectly formed before the other for it s said ver 4. that God divided the light from the darkness which plainly sheweth they were mixed together and that he separated the Day from the Night that they should no more be mixed and confused together as they were before but should be distinctly placed in the two Hemispheres successively to circulate round the Heavens So that at the same time when the Light was separated into one Hemisphere or half part of the Heavens the Darkness was placed in the other and therefore neither of them were perfectly formed before the other in time It s true Isal 45.7 Moses was under a necessity to set either the Evening or the Morning or the Light or Darkness first in the account of the order of God's Creation which he wrote after the change of the account of the day And therefore least he should seem to dislike the Alteration which God had then but newly made of the beginning and euding of the account of the Natural Day for Sacred things he named the Evening before the Morning in the History of the Creation But yet we may plainly see that as the light was put tho not precreated before the darkness in the account of the first days Work of Creation and as it s said That God made two great lights Gen. 1.3.10.18 the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness So the light was counted afterwards for the former part of the Natural Day which consisteth of a Day-light and its Night or the revolution of the Sun in twenty four hours time For 2. We find that God created the Fowls of the Air on the fifth day and the Beasts and Cattel and every creeping thing of the Earth on the sixth day and made Adam and put him into the Garden of Eden and then brought them to him that he should give them Names before that God had caused a deep Sleep to fall upon him while he took out one of his Ribs and formed Eve and brought her unto him It is therefore rational to believe seeing it must necessarily take up time to name the Creatures and that Adam could not so well behold them in the Night as in the Day to distinguish every little Bird and every Fowl of the Air and all the Cattel and every Beast and creeping thing from each other to give them proper Names and to know them again by sight that he was formed in the day-light of that Hemisphere and that he spent the remaining part of it in that affair and that his sleep was in the following Night as the most proper time for it and then from this foot of account after Eve was formed at the Conclusion of the sixth days work of Creation both Adam and Eve first entred on God's seventh and their first day Sabbath at the beginning of the day-light or morning of the day to adore and worship God For as they had no need of the Night to sleep in for that they were newly made and fresh in the Strength and Perfection of their Nature Gen. 1.27 28. and as it best became our First Parents for the Lordship they received of God over the Creatures which he had made immediately to Attribute their Worship to him So it was most proper they should have first the Day-light to behold the Beauty of the Creation thereby to be excited from the Objects of their Eyes together with the Light of their Understandings to glorifie God on the first sanctified Day of his Rest from all his Works So that it is Rational to believe that Adam began his first First-day Sabbath with the morning or Day-light and consequently the following working days and Sabbath-days were all so to begin and successively to continue to others after him and according to this it s said a Exod. 10.13 Chap. 13.21 Lev. 8.35 Deut. 28.66 Job 26.10 Jer. 33.20 in Gen. 7.4 I will cause it to rain upon the Earth forty days and forty nights And so in Ver. 12. Forty days and forty nights And Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights Exod. 24.18 And in Gen. 8.6 At the end of forty days From which last place it is observable as well as from many other Scriptures b Gen. 8.10 12 Chap. 17.12 Exod. 21.21 Numb 14.34 that the Day and Night together is commonly called Day which is the most excellent part of that which is called the Natural Day of twenty four hours and therefore God might also give it the precedency in respect to its revolution with its Night originally unto Man 3. Leaving what I have already said of the beginning of the Natural Day to the serious Consideration of those that desire Information herein hoping it may be of use to them I proceed to bring in other Scripture Evidence also to prove that before the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt or were in bondage there the Day-light See Purchas Pilgrimage Page 118. lib 2.77 Emend Tem. lib. 1. Ainsworth on Gen. 10.10 Ezek. 23.15 Dan. 1.1 2. Ains Gen. 1.5 See Mr. G. Hughes Analytical Exposit of Genesis on Chap. 1.9 Gen. 10.8 9 10. Gen. 11.27 28 31. and not the Night was counted for the former part of the Natural Day As Purchas tells us citing Pliny and Scal. That the Babilouians began
their Natural Day of twenty four hours at the rising of the Sun the Egyptian and Romish Priests at Midnight Ainsworth and Mr. Hughes also say that the Chaldeans counted the beginning of the Day at San rising Now as for Babilon in Hebrew Babel the Metropolis of the Chaldeans it was first built by Nimrod before Abraham and Lots time who were Chaldeans born and it is plain from the Sacred Scriptures that Lots and Abrahams Generations reckoned their Natural days after the manner of the Chaldeans to begin with the Day-light and not the Night as appears in Gen. 19. 33 34. And they made their Father drink Wine that night and the first-born went in and lay with her Father and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose And it came to pass on the morrow that the first-born said unto the younger Behold I lay yesternight with my Father let us make him drink Wine this night also And in Gen. 31.26 29 36 42. And Laban said to Jacob the God of your Father spake unto me yesternight And Jacob answered God hath seen my Afflictions and the labour of my hands and rebuked thee yesternight The Hebrew word in these three places for yesternight is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Emesh heri sero Yesterday late in the Evening Pagnin Praterita Nocte last Night Arias Montanus Hesternâ Nocte Yesterdaynight Buxtorf Leigh Crit. Robertson's Lex c. Some add Evening or Yester Evening which is sometimes put for the whole Night as in the History of the Creation Gen. the Evening and the Morning is put for the Day and Night but that the Hebrew word Emesh does properly signifie Yester-night is farther evidenced because the Hebrews have another word for Yesterday viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temol Exod. 5.14 1 Sam. 20.27 2 Sam. 15.20 Job 8.9 Psal 90.4 See Pagnin Arias Montan. Buxtorf Leigh Crit. c. And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ghnereb or Ereb is properly the Evening and betokens the mixing of Light with Darkness after the Sun is set So that the word Emesh signifieth as it is rightly translated in our English Bibles See Ainsw Gen. 1.5 Leigh Gett. and as Ainsworth readeth it Yester-night or Yesterdayright which is the same Moreover this word in Gen. 19.34 cannot be otherwise understood without an apparent wrong to the Sacred Scripture For it 's said Ver. 33. And they made their Father drink Wine that night and the first-born went in and lay with her Father viz. that same Night And it came to pass on the morrow that the first-born said unto the younger Behold I lay yesternight with my Father let us make him drink Wine this Night also And they made their Father drink Wine that Night also Now let it be duely considered that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lailah which is properly Night is in the Context used in those three places and that the word Lailah Night in Ver. 33. does undeniably confirm the word Emesh in ver 34. to be there put for Yesternight and not for Yesterday or Yesterday Evening because the Hebrew word Lailah Night is used in the foregoing Verse to express that same time and Night which is called Yesternight Besides the following words this Night also does also farther imply that the word Emesh is put for Yesternight So that beside the proper signification of the word the rendring of it according to our common English Translation is confirmed with a threefold Evidence viz. 1. That the Hebrew Tongue has other words to express Yesterday and Evening 2. That the following Context does imply that Emesh is put for Yesternight And 3. That the same time called Yesternight ver 34. is called Night ver 33. So that in Lots and Jacobs time by the Morrow next following to Yesternight it appears the Day-light was counted for the former part of the Natural Day 4. This is farther evident for when at Night they spake of the Day-light following they used not to say to day or this Day but to Morrow or the Morrow after Numb 33.3 They departed from Rameses in the first month Exod. 12.6 8 10. Dent. 10.6 Mark 14.17 Matth. 16.20 on the fifteenth day of the first month on the morrow after the Passeover which was killed on the fourteenth day at Even and prepared at the going down of the Sun and was eaten within that Night and not in the Evening as our Saviour sheweth how the Passeover was to be kept according to Law for it s said In the Evening he cometh with the twelve And when the Even was come he sat down with them Matth. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.23 and as they were eating it he instituted the Holy Supper as 't is said The same Night in which he was betrayed According as it was expresly commanded that the Passeover should be eaten in or within that Night which belong'd to the fourteenth day as they reckoned their days for Civil things for after the Lord had passed over the Children of Israel and smote the first-born of Egypt at Mid-night Exod. 11.29 c. 37 38. Numb 1.1 2 45 46. and Pharaoh and all his Servants were risen and had called Moses and Aaron and bid them and the Children of Israel with their Flocks and Herds to be gone and 600000 Footmen besides Women and Children could depart thô they were in some readiness yet it is rational to believe it musts needs be in the next Day-light and to confirm this we find they were expesly commanded that none of them should go out of the Door of his house until the Morning viz. of the morrow after the passeover Night Exod. 12 2◠called the fifteenth day and therefore it did neither belong to the Passover Night nor the fourteenth day But from this Passeover the account of the Natural Day was altered and by God's Appointment was put back a whole Night for the Passeover was killed and prepared on the fourteenth day at Evening from whence the first day of unleavened Bread began and the Feast continued till the one and twentieth day at Evening which is just seven days according to the Commandment Exod. 12.17 18 19. But yet observe in Levit. 23.6 and Numb 28.17 it is said that on the fifteenth day is the Feast of unleavened Bread seven days which to reckon it to begin from the morrow or next morning after the Passeover as before is shewed Numb 33.3 on account of their Civil days like as was reckon'd in Lot and Jacob's time would come short a whole night of the seven days appointed from the fourteenth day at Even till the one and twentieth day at Even And therefore I see no other way to make up the full seven days than to begin their fifteenth Sacred Day at or after the Evening and end of their Civil or common fourteenth artificial Day of Day-light which cuts off its following Night belonging to it and so puts that Night to the following Day-light and
places and come to the Light for mens Habitations ought to stoop to Gods Law and not Gods Law to their Habitations Answer 1. The Psalmist faith Psal 74 1â— 20 21. O deliver not the Soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the Multitude of the Wicked forget not the Congregation of thy Poor for ever Have respect unto the Covenant For the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty O let not the oppressed return ashamed let the Poor and Needy Praise thy Name This is a Prayer pleaded from the Covenant that the oppressed Turtle Dove and Congregation of Gods Poor might be delivered from the wicked for saith the Psalmist The dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Cruelty As if he should say O deliver thy Poor and Needy in those places of the Earth that are dark with Blind and Cruel Inhabitants that oppress them for as there is not one Word of Wild Beasts mentioned in the Text or any Agreement of its connexed Matter to imply the darkness of place to be understood for want of the Light of the Sun and the Natural Day So those Countreys are no more deseribed to us by being called dark places than if they were called the Light places of the Earth Because they have the same Proportion of Light together more than other Countreys have in the Summer as they have of Darkness together in the Winter and in the whole Year they have equal Light and Darkness to other places And therefore as it cannot be proved by any other Scripture that by dark places in the Text are meant those Countreys but that the matter connexed to the Text implies it to and expounds it of dark Persons if it were granted as it is not that by dark places is meant those Countreys it is sufficient to invalidate all that is there said by Mr. Stennet against our proving that the Jewish seventh-day Sâ—bbath from Evening to Evening is not morall â—â—â—ding to all Nations for the â—â—â—â—bitants of such Countreys having no Sun nor Day for several Weeks in Wâ—â—ter not any Night not Evening for several Weeks in Summer they mast of Neâ—â—shty â—vide their â—une and bound their Sabbâ—â—hs some other ways Vz In Summer the account of their Time must be preservâ—â— and their hight measâ—ed and divided into their hight days oâ— twenty soâ—â— hours by their Meridian and in Winter Astâ—oâ—â—mers say when the Sun is absent from them for several Weeks they may preserve the account of Time and Measure and divide their Darkness into dark days of twenty four hours by the help of the Staâ—s And by Clocks or Glasses of Sand as we do our hours of the Day and Night So that tho' their Sabbath may be duely kept with the same Proportion of Time as we do in our Nation yet seeing it cannot there be observed after the Jewish Pattern from Evening to Evening that Precept was therefore never designed for all Nations to exert their Obedience by it to the Moral Law 2. See Mr. Edw. Stennets Book on the seventh-day in Page 47. I now come to speak to the other Text Psaâ—m 19.2 3. which the Author thus citeth saith he David faith There is no Speech nor Language under Heaven where the Voice of Day and Night is not heard But he hath not dealt ingeniously with this Scripture so to transpose the matter in citing of it to make it savour his Cause contrary to its true Order and Sence as it lies in the Holy Bible for the Psalmist saith Vor. 1.2 3. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work Day unto Day mâ—â—reth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There as no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard Their Line is gone out through all the Earth and their Words to the â—nd of the World Now let the Reader consider whether this place of Scripture hath any thing in into his purpose surely if it be duely considered it will appear strongly against him for if those Words There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard relate to the two preceding Verses then we must understand them of the Voice of Gods handy-work in the Creation and orderly abiding of the Firmament and Ordinances of the Heavens and Day and Night or Light and Darkness which declare the glorious Wisdom and Power of God to every People according to the Scituation of their Countreys throughout the World but if those Words are expounded as they are most propeâ—â— connexed to the following Verse then the Aposâ—le in Rom. 10. Rom 10.15 16 17 18. Math. 28.19 applies them to the Preathing of the Gospel to the ends of the World and the Lord hath promised in Isa 66.19 which relates to a different Time after the sust Promulga â—on of the Gospâ—â— and therefore may reach to those Blind and â—gnorant Notâ—here People we are treatâ—â—g of that 〈…〉 esâ—â—pe to I arshish Pull and 〈◊〉 c. and to the 〈◊〉 a at oâ—â— that have not heard of his Name nor seen his Glory and the shall declare his Glory among the Gemtles So that the Word of the Gospel and consequently the Moral Law in the Old â—estament annexed to it and consirmed by it was to be 〈◊〉 to Mens Habitations for tho' all Nations shall go up to the Moâ—â—â—ain oâ— the Lords House Isa 2.3 Isâ— 60.1 2 3 c. yet this shall be either their volâ—â—â—â—â— Act to 〈◊〉 their Knowledge of his ways from the extrandinary Light that shall 〈◊〉 oâ— the Tribes of Israel when they shall be returned into their own Land in the Time of Christs Gloâ—ous Kingdom here on Eâ—â—th or to do subjective Homage every car once a year Zach. 14 like to the other Text Isa 66.23 where its 〈◊〉 Teat 〈…〉 new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to 〈◊〉 shaâ— all Plesh come to norship before me saith the Lord And whatever is intended by this monthly worship to be in the suture Glotions Time of Christs Kingdom yet as we have nothing of it now in the New Testament and so this Text can no ways prove that any Nation should in our present day remove their Habitations to another Countrey so it cannot be taken that all Nations should assemble into one place once a Month or every Sabbath for thus they cannot appear before the Lord but once a year and I Question if it be then required of every individual Person but of some of all Nations as it cannot be monthly shictly considered or rather of all those Nations only that came against Jâ—rusalem as it is expresly said Zâ—â—h 14.16 And I do not sind it otherwise that Men should now or then remove their Habitations into any Countrey or the Land of Canaan unto the Gospel for as this can never be until it comes first into the places where they are to convince them and bring them over to the Obedience of it so the end
Evange list according to their Civil days not to begin till the dawning of the Day or Sun-rising and agreeable to Mr. Bampfields Discourse against the first-days beginning at Midnight after the Roman account it must necessarily follow that the first-day Acts 20.7 11. must be reckoned to begin with the Morning day-light For it s said Vpon the first-day of the Week when the Disciples came together to break Bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the Morrow and continaâ—d his Speech until Midnight When he therefore had broken Bread and eaten and talked a long while even till break of day so he departed And here I observe that the Morning in which Paul departed was the Morrow which betokens another day and therefore it was no part of the first day of the Week So that it is not only undeâ—iably clear from the Text it self that the Night in which Paul preached was part of the first-day belonging to the preceeding day-light joining to it but it s also evident that the first day of the Week began in the Morning before and not on that Evening in which the Apostle preached and so it appears that the Morrow on which Paul travelled was the second day of the Week and the Text clearly proves that on the day before being the first day of the Week Paul with the Church of Troas Assembled to solemnize the Ordinances of the Gospel as on the Sabbath day Object 15. It s said Math. 12.40 As â—onas was three days and three Nights in the Whales belly So shall the Sun of man be three days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth And this seemeth to disagree with other places of Scripture concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Answer 1. It cannot be thought St. Matthew or the other Evangelists faw any Discord in the Testimony they bore of Christ or that the three Days and three Nights expressed by our Saviour should be repugnant to the other Evangelsts undeniable Evidence that Christ was not in the Grave three Nights Now to reconcile this Difficulty I shall cite Dr. Hammond on the Text saith he The way of Interpreting this place mast be taken from a Figure which expresseth one whole thing by two parts of it Thus the Heavens and the Earth in St. Peter 2 Pet. 3.7 signifie the World and so Christ is said to be three Days and three Nights in the Earth thô the first natural Day he was not in the Grave any part of the Night but the latter part of the Fryday all Saturday and so much of Sunday as until the Sun approached their Horizon And as it is practised in the business of Circumcision This of Circuâ—â—ision is alâ—â— affirmed by Mr. Wâ—â—mâ—â— in his Christ Sâ—nag Page 114. which was precifely observed the eighth day if the Child were born in one day thô but half an hour before the end of it that is before the beginning or Evening of the next that half hour was counted for one of the eight days because say they legal days are not accounted from Time to Time or from Hour to Hour Thus when Luke 9.28 'T is said about eight days after Math. 17.1 and Mark 9.2 'T is after six Days that is after six Days compleat the first and the last being not compleat and so thô numbred by one yet omitted by two Evangelists And accordingly the space of those very three days of Christs lying in the Grave until his Resurrection are when it is Prophetically mentioned in Hosea 6 â— said to be after two days 2. The Dutch Annotations also say of those three Days and three Nights For a part of the Days is here taken whole days and nights like that is Customary with the Hebrews see Esth 4.16 compared with Chap. 5.1 And so they take it after the Romanists reckoning that the days began and ended on the Midnight and so it falleth yet clearer To which I shall add this brief Note That seeing 't is said As Jonas was three Days and three Nights c. so Christ should be three days and three Nights c. 'T is thought from our Saviours Words that sonas was not compleatly three Nights in the Whales Belly but as Christ was in the Grave Object 16. Christs Body rested in the Grave on the Jews Sabbath and his Soul in Paraaice and therefore he never intended by his Death to make it a common work-day Answer Luke 2.21 Gal. 4.4 Math. 5.17 18. As Christ was born a Jew and was Circumcised and came to fulfil the whole Law so every Jot and Little of it was rulsilled by him and therefore he always observed the Jewish Sabbath and if his Body being in the Grave and his Soul in Paradice should in some Sence be taken for a rest in Comparison of what he laboured under before for our Redemption yet then it must be only so considered with respect to the Law tâ—â— our Justification was compleatly Purchased by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead Rom. 4.25 â— Cor. 15.17 18. who was delivered that is to be Crucisied for our Offences and was raised again for our Justification And the Apostle also saith That if Christ be not raised your Faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins Then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished So that thô the Vail of the Temple was Rent at his Passion as a Sign that there was thereby a Rent made in the Types and Shadows of Heavenly Things which was then making void yet the Heavenly Things themselves were not compleatly purchased for us until the Body of Christ was raised for our Justification Heb. 9.12 And then as the Apostle saith By his own Blood he entred in once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us Now therefore thô Christs being in the Grave should be called a Comparative Rest to what he suffered on the Cross yet it cannot be understood of his Ceasing from the Work of purchasing our Redemption until the Omnipotency of his Divine Nature was put forth in loosing him from the Pains of Death Heb. 2.10 Chap. 5.9 and Chap. 11.40 Acts 2.24 or part of the Sentence of the Law and raising his Body to Life again for till then the New Creation was not perfected in the second Adam And then on the first day of the Week having ceased from this Work and so rested it was thereby sanctified in stead of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath which was then to be abolished as all other Legal Ceremonial Things were And the Gospel first and seventh day Sabbath taking its place was to answer the Moral Law and to bear the Type of the Rest that remaineth to the People of God as also principally the Memorial of Christs Resurrection and to continue our Sabbath unto his second Personal Coming To close this Treatise seeing we are obliged to keep the first day of the Week a Sabbath or Day of Rest from our worldly Business to worship and
when the Humane Nature was compleatly formed to offer the first of Time to the Praise of his Creator before he served himself did first begin the Sabbath with the day-light unto Man we have then Reason to conclude that such a Sabbath is most morally to be observed by the World as no other Sabbath can more universally suit with the Course of Nature in the greatest part of it Indeed God can by his Prerogative and as I have shewed did dispense with the Alteration of the Sabbath from this first Pattern by a Law to Israel as he did by the Precept of Divorcement dispense with the Moral Pattern in Adam and Eve that none should put away his Wife for the causes allowed afterwards by a Ceremonial Law but this we find did not at all destroy the Moral Use and Binding Quality of the Pattern in our first Parents after Christ was come and so it is with the first Pattern of the Sabbath which no doubt was binding to others after Adam as precisely to observe the same day as near to the orderly Succession of the same time as could be according to the allowance of the Course of Nature in every Climate wherein they dwelt It 's true it may be said we cannot keep the Sabbath from our Knowledge that we observe the same precise Succession and Order of Time as Adam did and others in the first Ages did or should do in their feveral Countreys But then as God was pleased Exod. 13.2 12 to 16. insigâ—d of the first-born of the Children of Israel which were the Lords to require and accept of the Levites for his Service Exod. 34.19 20. Numb 3.41 to the end Chap. 8.16 c. Levit. 27.25 26 c. Chap. 22.29 30. Deut. 12.6 but still kept up the Memory of his Right by Causing afterwards the Israelites to acknowledge it in paying Redemption Money for their first-born of Man and unclean Beasts and did still require the first-born of clean Beasts to be offered to him So likewise the Practice of Christs Disciples and the Primitive Churches shews us that the first of Time from the work of purchasing our Redemption bearing the Image of the first of Adams and Eves Time from the Creation is most acceptable to God and after the aforesaid Example of Gods Command and Allowance to Israel concerning their first-born we should likewise offer it as God accepteth of it instead of the same precise Succession of Time from the Creation in Memorial thereof and of the purchase of Mans Salvation And it is rational to conclude that seeing the beginning of the day was changed upon the account of the Type a day might well be changed upon the account of the Antitype If this in the Figure was reckoned worthy of such Note that the account of the days beginning from the Creation with the Day-light most give place to the Memorial of Israels Deliverance out of Egypt so as that their days must begin at Evening the substance of this Figure appearing might well be the Cause of the Change of a Day and of a Typical Memorial to its Spiritual and Gospel Memorial in our first-days Sabbath To close this Matter seeing the Moral Law requireth the seventh or first-day a boundary to our six working days and that the Precept for the Jewish Pattern is abtogated in the New Testament Nature it self also taking away its binding quality to all Nations because it cannot accommodate its necessity how then can we answer the fourth Command so well as by keeping such a Sabbath that every way agreeth with that Moral Precept that also suiteth with and is justified by the Morality of Adams Sabbath the end of its change from the Jewish seventh-day and the Example of Christs Disciples with the Primitive Churches which doubtless we are bound to follow in Obedience to the fourth Command as we observe their Examples in Obedience to other Precepts As for instance laying on of Hands for Confirmation of Elders or Church Officers and consummating their Ordination is a Divlne Rite which is the Duty of all Compleat and Orderly Gospel Churches Authoritatively to Practise Ordination of Elders being Instituted in Titus 1.5 but yet the manner of compleating this Institution is no otherwise known nor practised by us as I can find but from the Examples of the Apostles and Primitive Churches Acts 14.23 26. with Chap. 13.1 2 3. Chap. 6.1 to 7. Objections Answered Object 1. THE Psalmist saith Psal 147.19 20. He sheweth his Word anto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any Natton and as for his Judgments they have not known them Answer This Scripture is no ways repugnant to what I have said of the Use and Benefit of the Law of Moses to the Gentiles For we find the Israelites had continual Wars with the Heathens round about them and the old Inhabitants of Canaan were not wholly subdued till Joab David's Servant 1 Chron. 11.4 c. Chap. 19.20 took the Castle of Jebus which is Jerusalem or about the latter end of Davids days So that till they had obtained Peace and Rest and became in Repute and Honour in Salomons Reign it cannot rationally be supposed that any Gentile Nation for the Text excludes not single Persons had a full and distiuct Knowledge of Moses Law with the Statutes and Judgments therein contained Nay tho' the Gentiles had an Interest in the Uso and Benefit of the Law and were to seek after the Knowledge of the Oracles of God committed to the Jews yet such was their hatred against them and love to gross Idolatry that till about two hundred eighty Years before the Nativity of Chirst See Josephus Book 12. Ch. 2. Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Egypt had caused the Law to be translated into Greek by the Seventy two Interpreters it was never as I can find translated out of the Hebrew Tongue So that as David rightly said that God had not dealt so with any Nation viz. with any other Nation besldes Israel so as to shew them his Oracles under a peculiar Obligation in trust for others also He having designed to pour the Water out of Jacobs Buckets it is likewise also Evident Numb 24.7 that no Gentile Nation thenâ— in Davids Time had a full and distinct Knowledge of Gods Laws tho' respecting the particular Election of God among them they might by some means or other receive the true and saving Knowledge of the Messias through their converse with the Jews Object 2. Some may say the Apostle in Rom. 14.5 seemeth to leave the keeping of days to our own Liberty and also in 2 Cor. 3.7 8. Coloss 2.14 he seemeth to abolish the binding quality of the Ten Commandments as given on Mount Sinai and therefore it is doubtful whether we are under any Obligation to keep a Sabbath or Day of Rest at all Answer 1. To Rom. 14.5 One Man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day