, 27o Chap. 3.The docirineofthefabbath andLords day, &,c. Corr, .. 'T take the fame to bethe meaningof the words (the feventh day is thefabbath ofthe Lord thyCord) that is, the day confecrated toGod from the beginning. Therefore Annal. sa<r. Toroicdus coilecis from thofe words in Pb 38, 4. 7. where waft thou when Ilaid the at diem 7. foundationsof the earth,whenthe morningftarsfrng togetherand all thefoes ofGodlbeu- seft. 2. ted for joy ? that upon the ,feventh day, when the world was finifht; "the Angels, who are titled the fons of God, kept the fabbath. And though I will not peretitptorily affirm that theAngels kept it, yet I take it to bevery probable, that the people of God, the Patriarches andotherholy men, as they had publick facrifices and forms of worfhip, fo they had force fet times for the ordinary performance thereof, which is moil likely to have been on this day , it is hardly credible that in Deuiamir.in the time of Enoch, men fhould feparate themfelves from the fons ofCain, by calling Gen. 4..26. upon the name of the Lord (that is by force publick worfhip, and as learned Drufus caiy. in thinks by force publick forms or liturgies) without forte fet and folemn time for Exact. 204 in the performance thereo£And Calvin himfelf(though far from the fabbatarian errors) }reaepr 4. to et thinks, that the frequent facrifices performed by Abraham and the other Pa. Mercir to Y. q P Y r Gen r; peter triarches, were ufually upon this day, and therefore concludesit probable, that the Naar cc. fandification of it was before the Law. And feeing there never was any nation *tau cuff. 2. in the world, but had force certain and fet dayes for their religious exercifes, can G-° it be imagined, that the people of God for thofe many hundred years before the cit. a3. area!- flood , and after , even when they were grown into great multitudes in Egypt, to the learned when they lived for divershundred years, fhouldall that time be without any certai, Grotlnsincx- time when to worfhip God, that they fhould have their facrifices, their priefls po(.decal. m viz: the eldeft of .the fatuity their Altars, and confecrated places, their tithes precept.4.lu which was Gods portion (appointed by divine pofitive law from the beginning, pins in o -ier P (PP y P g gA tut! Apo. as may be elfewhere proved) and yet have no certain drayes for role= worfhip, tkokets pol this feems tome altogether incredible, cfpecially if we confider that it is moral= n 17 ly impornble that Religion fhould long continue and be preferved among any peo. Exod. t6.. pie without force certain time for the publick exercife thereof. And therefore though there be no expreffementionof anyLich dayes, yetI make no queflion but they obferved force, and if any, then furely this day. Befides, the ceafing of the Manna to fall upon the feventh day, for Tome time before the Lawwas given, is an argument that the fabbath was known before as a day farted to God, though it begunthen firft to be kept as a day of reit, which was afterwards prefcribed by,a law. And hence it was that force relicks, of this day were found among the Heathen (though much obliterated, becaufe not written in their hearts by nature) and a high efteem they had of the feventh day , as appears by Clem. Strom. 5. Eufeb. prepter L,I 3, e. I a. who out of Belied, mentions Wiper fare rïpap lvaxfepruma faníta to Septiru4dv.Appi.la.circaprnem&Philode diefeptimo,fhew that therewas net nation fobarbarous but that theyhonouredthe feventh day, and that it was theho- ty, day not for one nation but for all the word. The fame isgathered fromHo.. mer and Callimachus by Clem.Alex, Strom.5. The like we find in rheopbilus Ant.lib. 2. adAutolicum, Suetonius in Therm 32.Philofratusi. 3. c. 13.Dion,Carthuf 1, 3 4. La. cian, Tibollus, and others. And whereas yuftine Martyr, 7eìtullian, and othersof the fathers fay often that before the law, holy men pleafed God without keep. ing the fabbath; theyunderftand lay fabbatizing, not the publick praife and wor- fhipof God, but the Jewilh refs upon the fabbath; which its true was proper to them and fymbolical, and was not obferved by the Patriarchs. And that they mean this maybe gathered from Teri-1411.1. 4. contraMercion.Hoc priviligium donatumfab- bato a prionordio, quo dies ipfecomportaseft, veniamjejuniidico, where we fee he de- rives she fabbath as a day of rejoycing from the beginning of the world, and thereupon grounds the cuftome of not fatting on that day : ° and yet the fame man denies, that the Patriarchs kept the fabbath, that is, the Jcwith fymbo- licatieft. 4. The fourth conclufon, which I naafi propound likewife as probable, at leaf} is, that the Lords day which the Chriflian Churchobferves inftead ofthe fabbath, is ofdivine inftitution,that asthe feventh day from the Creation was initívsted byGod him'elf; by a pofitive law obliging all-the world ; fo the Lords day is by pofitive Law obliging all Chriflians to the end of all the world , inftituted by authority from Chrilt, who changed the day by his refurrettion, from the feventh to the firft day of
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