And if I had supposed the Sun in his Declination to either of the Topicks the various Climates and obliquity of the Horizon might have occasioned disputes which what I can I avoid and therefore take the 11th of March 1692 3. Nor do I enquire the place of Paradice where it is about which there are many disputes which place Learned Mr. Chafie confesseth is not known And if we know not where Paradice is then I cannot begin to give Instances of the Scheme before from thence but if it lies East or West from Mount Synai that will make some difference of time in the beginning and end of Days at Synai and at Paradice and yet not alter the days of the Week in either for that the Seventh day of the Week in Paradice was is and will be in the weekly Circulation of days the Seventh day of the Week there And the Seventh day in the Week at Synai though it may differ in degrees of Longitude from Paradice yet was is and will be in the weekly Circulation of Days the Seventh day of the Week at Synai and so of the rest of the Days there and in every other place as in Aegypt Exod. 5. 5. where the Israelites kept the Sabbath and Exod. 16. 1 23 to 30. in the Wilderness of Sin And yet notwithstanding that difference in Degrees between Paradice and Aegypt and the Wilderness and Synai that made no difference between them as to the beginning or ending of Days In Paradice the Seventh day as the First Second and other Week-days began in the Evening and ended the next Evening and so the Seventh day in Aegypt in the Wilderness and at Synai began in the Evening and ended the next Evening And at all those places according to appointment at the making of the World Gen. 1. and Gen. 2. notwithstanding the different Degrees or Minutes there might be of the Sun-setting at Paradice and at those places The Lord who knows all his own Works the Beginning or Head of whose Word is Truth Gen. 1. 1. Psal 119. 160. The entrance of whose words will give light Psal 119. 130. Blessed and made holy the seventh day Sabbath Gen. 2. 3. at Paradice And blessed and made holy the seventh day at Synai Exod. 20. 11 12. although it is likely there are some Degrees or Minutes between But how ever that be yet we are pretty certain by the Maps where Synai was and is and where Jerusalem was and is And according to the common received Principles of Astronomy fifteen Degrees making an Hour Jerusalem is situate about six Degrees in Longitude Westward from Synai and so the Sun sets at Jerusalem after his setting at Synai twenty four Minutes of an Hour or thereabout that is two fifth parts of an Hour Westward from Synai and yet that difference in the beginning of the Seventh day at Synai and of the Seventh day at Jerusalem made no alteration of the beginning or ending of the Seventh day-Sabbath at either The same Seventh day which was commanded to be remembered to be kept Holy at Mount Synai and which was repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy near Jordan which place near Jordan may be about twenty two Minutes of Longitude from Synai was certainly remembered and kept Holy by the Israelites at Mount Zion in Jerusalem with this difference that the Seventh day began at Jerusalem twenty four Minutes of an Hour after it began at Synai and some Minutes after it began near Jordan which made no alteration of Days at either but the Seventh day at Synai began in the Evening twenty four Minutes of an Hour before it began at Jerusalem and at Jerusalem the Seventh day began twenty four Minutes of an Hour Westward after it began at Synai and yet was the Seventh day in both and began in the Evening at both that is at or about Sun set at both notwithstanding the difference in time of twenty four Minutes which may a little direct how to find when the Seventh day doth begin and so of the rest of the Days every where This may be illustrated by further Instances and for certainties sake I will set out and begin to reckon from Jerusalem where they observed the true Seventh day Westward without setting a Meridian there altho it be Arbitrary as the Doctor acknowledgeth and may be set where we will and by degrees bring the Account round the Earth to Jerusalem again From Jerusalem to Colosse are about seven Degrees that is twenty eight Minutes From Jerusalem to Ephesus 9 Degrees that is 36 Minutes From Jerusalem to Antioch where Paul and his Company kept the Sabbath Acts 13. 13 14 15 16 27 42. q From Jerusalem to Philippi now ruined and desolate which was situated on the confines of Thrace are about 14 Degrees that is 56 Minutes where they kept the Sabbath Acts 16. 12 13 14. From Jerusalem to Corinth are about 17 Degrees that is 1 Hour and 8 Minutes yet this difference of time and so of beginning of the Sabbath made no alteration of the Sabbath where they also kept the Sabbath Acts 18. 1 4. As they did also as Thessalonica Acts 17. 1 2. where the Sun sets about 1 Hour and 10 Minutes after it sets at Jerusalem And every where as the Sun did set so the Sabbath day as every other Day of the Week did begin and end as before From Jerusalem to Warsaw in Poland are about 22 Degrees that is 1 Hour and 28 Minutes difference of Sun-setting From Jerusalem Westward to Vienna are about 29 Degrees that is 1 Hour 56 Minutes From Jerusalem to Rome are about 30 Degrees that is 2 Hours From Jerusalem to Amsterdam are about 40 Degrees i. e. 2 Hours and 40 Minutes From Jerusalem to Paris are 44 Degrees that is 2 Hours 56 Minutes From Jerusalem to London are about 48 Degres that is 3 Hours and 12 Minutes From Jerusalem to Edinburgh 49 Degrees that is 3 H. 16 Min. From Jerusalem to Dublin about 53 Degrees that is 3 Hours and 32 Minutes From Jerusalem to Lisbon are about 57 Degrees that is 3 Hours and 48 Minutes From Jerusalem to New England are about 120 Deg. that is 8 H. I have passed over the first Meridian which is Arbitrary as before and follow the Sun as it goes round the Globe of the Earth till it comes about to Jerusalem again which as to this way of accounting I think makes no alteration And all these differences in Hours and Minutes from the setting of the Sun at Jerusalem and the setting of the Sun in all these before-mentioned and all other places in the Earth make no alteration of the Days or of the Sabbath all which begin every where as the Sun sets every where and when the Sun every where did set so the Sabbath day as every other Day of the Week did begin and end as before I still follow the Sun from Jerusalem to Japan the Sun may be said to set seventeen Hours at Japan after it
21 23. 1 Tim. 2. 8. God is a Spirit and his true worshippers did do and shall worship him in spirit and in truth And I know no colour now for the Holiness of Places for which yet as the Dr. p. 3. some are zealous I agree with him that Christmas is of Human Institution which I think he admits by the words so be it p. 3. which I think does also lay aside all other Holy Days which are but of Human Institution and p. 13. about Christmas the Doctor says It is not agreed amongst Chronologies either what Year or what Month much less what day of that Month our Saviour was Born yet he says we keep December the 25th in memory of his Birth as supposing him to have been then Born And p. 45. he says No Man at this Day knows what Day it was and p. 13. That we are at so great uncertainty as we reckon the Year 1692 from his Circumcision to begin the first of January and the same Year his Conception not till the 25th of March after as if his Birth and Circumcision had been a quarter of a Year before his Conception And so the Doctor leaves those days If I mistake not utterly uncertain In p. 12. he tells us The Pascal Tables which should direct us what day to keep Easter on do put us further out then if we had none at all I agree with the Doctor p. 2 3. that our Lord Jesus Christ according to his Divinity was God and is so the true God the God that made Heaven and Earth the God who delivered the Law at Mount Synai and I think those three the father the Son and the Holy Spirit are on Jehovah Deut. 6. 4. 5. Jehovah Aelohenu Jehovah our Mightiest is Jehovah Aechad is one Jehovah was is and will be one Jehovah i. e. the Lord our God is one Lord and Mark 12. 29 30. The Lord our God is one Lord which are the words of Jesus And I agree also that the Blessing and Sanctifying the seventh Day Gen. 2. 3. was by Jehovah the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit which goes far in this Question and I think proves the seventh Day to be the Lord's Day And when he has acknowledged the Father Son and the Holy Spirit to be three yet but one God the Lord Jehovah c. he adds p. 3. But he cannot agree that Christ as God and Man in Contradistinction to the Father and Holy Spirit did all those things for he that is Christ was not then Man Which Words of the Doctor of what he does agree and what he cannot agree insinuates as if I had said that Christ as God-Man did all those things which the Doctor cannot agree whereas he must needs know that is not so for I neither say nor ever thought till that I read it in Mr. G. T. and the Doctor that Christ was Incarnate at the making of the World or at his giving of the Law on Sinai so as the Doctor has not well surmized in this and any Reader may see it is not so for Christ took our Nature on him about 4000 years after the Creation and I find not a word of any Contradistinction between the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Son in the Enquiry but the direct contrary viz. their oneness with the Son in those Works which they both cannot but know And he adds p. 3. what he should rather say about our Lord Jesus Christ's blessing the seventh Day because he was not then the Lord Christ God and Man c. seems to make the Surmize somewhat worse upon which he says that I p. 64. lay great stress for neither I nor any other that I know has said or thought that Christ when he Blessed the seventh Day was then in the Flesh so that in this I think the Doctor blamable But the Doctor does acknowledge that the Son is Jehovah i. e. that he is Lord for which see Enquiry p. 9. 10. c. and I think he does believe that the Son of God is Jesus that is the Saviour the only Saviour and that he is Christ that is the anointed for that Glorious Blessed Work of Redemption that is the Messiah he is called as I think often in the Old-Testament For the Father has chosen us in him before the foundation of the World in him that is in the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ as Christ is expresly named Eph. 1. 2 3 4. And in Colos 1. 16. speaking of Christ as he by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth v. 17. and he is before all things he that is Christ is expresly Colos 1. 2 3. there named the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ who v. 19. created all things and Christ is named our Lord Jesus Christ in every Epistle from Rom. to the Heb. for so far I searched a little and that frequently and sometime after also Mr. G. T. whom the Doctor in this Objection seems to follow writes of this great Mystery in two or three places under the like and greater mistakes and so at present I leave him But for the Doctor to impose upon his Readers herein as he does p. 2 3. seems blameable And why he thus begins in a Case which relates to the Deity of Christ with such Insinuations for which he has no colour that I know from the Enquiry wherein Christ's Deity and his being Jehovah is directly affirmed unless it be at first to infuse some Prejudice I am not willing to conjecture And as to this if the Holy Spirit by Paul names Christ the Lord Jesus Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ in whom the Father hath chosen his before the foundation of the world by whom all things were created and who was before all things I see no reason why Mr. G. T. and the Doctor should vary from the Apostles expressions and divers other Scriptures And such Artifices the Reader may discern afterward I agree also with the Doctor That God who made the world in six days rested the seventh day Gen. 2. 2 3. Exod. 20. 11. And that he blessed the sabbath day and hallowed or Sanctified it Doctor p. 3. and here he does read it not a seventh bue the seventh Day the same Hebrew word here in Gen. 2. 2 3. Hashebigni which is used in Exod. 20. 10 11. which some would render there a seventh and the Reason and Sence of Gen. 2. 2 3. does require that it be rendered as the word signifies the Seventh Day for no man that I know does imagine that the Lord Gen. 2. 2 3. Blessed and Sanctified any other Day of the Week for Rest but that only on which he Rested and that was expresly not a but the Seventh and no other day of the Week and so I think for all after Seventh days in the Circulation of after Weeks and Christ in the time of his Incarnation kept not a Sabbath
hard to be found and I commend to the Doctor Rev. 3. 17. But I know nothing of Prejudice or Fondness corrupt Nature and human Frailties by Grace disallowed in this and all Cases excepted as he surmises but whensoever I find in the Scriptures any Truth which would correct my Conversation and make it agreeable to Gods Will after due seach and consideration honestly and conscientiously to comply with it as other Christians do or ought and this question has been considered by me now near twenty six Years And if such Truth according to the best of that Knowledge God hath graciously given concern others also then to communicate it and if it be a Truth which can be by me no other way opened to them then to do it in this sort as I weakly can and I shall be heartily glad the Doctor or any other would do it much better as he is very well able And if we are not to hide our selves from our Brother's Ox or his Sheep when we see them go astray Deut. 22. 1 2 3 4. And if we are obliged when others especially our Brethren err in Judgment or Practice to reprove them How much more are we bound when we see many erring in a moral Duty to endeavour to set them right And to surmise upon him that he writes those Reflections and many others to prepossess and prejudice Readers I am loath to do Nor had I made this Vindication if I had not been compelled by the Doctor 's Charge And as to the Israelites keeping the true Seventh-day-Sabbath commanded Exod. 20. from thence to the Incarnation of our Lord I do not remember the Doctor to deny it for which I think there is enough said in the Enquiry p. 26. 27 28. and much more might be added if need were and I am unwilling to write again the same things altho' by repeating the same Objections and reinforcing the old with new Words I am sometime constrained so to do And in general I say that as far as I can judge there is enough said in the Enquiry to prove that not A but The Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. and Repeated Exod. 20. and observed from thence to Christs coming and with every tittle of the rest of the Moral Law confirmed and made perpetual by Christ in Matth. 5. 17 18 19. and Luke 16. 14 17. who certainly knew the true Sabbath day binds all men till the Heaven and Earth pass away which is not yet And not A Seventh day but The Seventh day there established and made perpetual was observed by Christ during his Life for so was his custom Luke 4. 16 to 21. Enquiry p. 38. 39 41 42 43 45. and was observed by Believers after his Death Resurrection and Ascension so was Paul's custom Acts 17. 2. which was never altered by the Word that I know Which confirming and making the Law perpetual and every Jot and Tittle of it by Christ who was and is Jehovah does also fully prove as I think that not A but the Seventh-day-Sabbath was neither altered nor changed nor forgotten nor any way uncertain to Christs time neither as to the day nor as to the beginning or ending of it and that the Seventh day is the Lords Day This being premised let us consider what the Doctor further offers for the First or against the Seventh day p. 17. 18. he tells us That Christ on the day of his resurrection did not only appear to the good Women at the Sepulchre and declare to them the Resurrection but also the same day himself declares it to two of them going to Emmaus Luke 24. 27 32. and did expound to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself and did open to them the the Scriptures and did as he takes it celebrate the Lords Supper implyed in the words he took bread and blessed it and brake and gave to them ver 30 c. 'T is true Christ after the Resurrection appeared to Mary Magdalen and to the other Mary Matth. 28. 1. 9. And the Angel said to them v. 5. and Mark 16. 5 6. He is not here but is risen go tell his disciplees that he is risen from the dead which they did but the Disciples believed them not Now 't is certain as 't is agreed that Christ rose the Third day which Third day was the First day of the Week and that the Angel Matth. 28. 5. and two Angels Luke 24. 4. and John 20. 12. said to the Women that Christ was risen and the women told it to the Disciples yet the Disciples would not believe them and we have Christ appearing to two Disciples as they travelled into the Country Mark 16. 12. And they went and told it to the rest of the Disciples but they believed not them Verse the 13. And Christ's appearing to the Women was a practical proving of the Resurrection Some think the two Disciples Mark 16. 12. to be the two Disciples traveling to Emmaus Luke 24. 13. which is very likely and that Peter from Luke 24. 34. and 1 Cor. 15. 5. was one of them But 't is certain they were two Disciples and yet the rest would not believe them Mark 16. 13. And their Discourse upon the way as they travelled together Luke 24. 13. was such as the Doctor mentions and Christ there reproved them for not believing what the Prophets had spoken v. 25. That Christ ought to suffer but did not reprove them that we read for travelling on that day And 't is likely the Breaking and Blessing of Bread ver 30. might be for ought I know the Sacrament of the Supper and implied But still the Journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus and back again was a travelling Journey being near fifteen Miles and more then a Sabbath days Journey as the Doctor agrees and I do not see how he can make that Journey consist with the keeping that First day as a Sabbath whereof there is there or before no Institution nor any Mention but rather the direct contrary their travelling upon that First day of the Week without any reproof from Christ as upon any other of the Six days seems directly against the Doctor And whether our Lord did then travel without pain as the Dr. is not written he had then the Wounds in his Body and at his appearing afterward to the Disciples and Thomas John 20. 25 27. Luke 24. 29. and yet might be without pain for ought I know but surely the two Disciples travelled as others do And although the Disciples were eminently Holy yet because not written I do not know what they were then imployed about at Jerusalem unless it were mourning and weeping Mark 16. 10. where they were assembled for fear of the Jews John 20. 19. before or after the report of the Women whom they did not credit And p. 19. I think the Doctor agrees the meeting of the Disciples there providential and not upon a Sabbath account for 't was for fear of the Jews And Christs appearing