552 THE SABBATH PERPETUAL, &C. the Friday by those who went westward, the Sunday by those who went eastward, and the Saturday by those who tarried at home. And by another such voyage, the eastern travellers would bring their sabbath to Monday, and the western to"Thurs- day. Can we think thatthe moral law ofGod requires this diversity of sabbaths ? Is it a moral command to the eastern travellers, that they should keep their seventh day, which is the eighth to the inhabitants of the nation ? ' Is it amoral duty to the western travellers to keep their seventh, which is the sixth to all the nation besides ? And if it were a moral duty, would it be laty- ful for either of them to resign their, pretences to the custom. of the nation when they came home, and to change their day ? One day in seven may be moral, because it may be observed by all the dwellers and travellers round the earth ; but the seventh day from the creation cannot be so, and therefore is not unchangeable. Perhaps it will be replied here, does not this difficulty and uncertainty fall as hard and heavy on the first day of the week as it does on the seventh ? . I answer ; By no means, for I bring it only to prove, that the very seventh day of the creation is not a moral law : Nowwe do not pretend, that the first day is of a moral nature, but is a mere positiveappointment ; and since we find out that, rather by thecustom of the churches and apostles, than by express words of scripture- ; so I would follow the cus- tom of the churches also in any such difficulty, where the first day should be lost or become doubtful, since it is not a duty of the moral law, and its institution by Christ, is not so express and evident, as could be desired. I own I lay not much stress upon such geographical arguments about the change' of the day by travellers ; but I had a mind to shew, that God would not lay muelí stress upon such a changeable point, and that this change of the day to travellers, does not se much affect the christian Lord's-day, as it does the seventh day from the creation, if the one be insisted on as a moral law and unchangeable, and the other does not pretend to such a morality and unchangeableness. Question II. If the christian sabbath depend on the com- mand in paradise, as to the proportion of one day in seven, why did it not immediately take place upon the abolition of all Jewish sabbatisms ? And why was not this plain and original reason given for it by the apostles ? And if the day was charm-- ed from the seventh to the first, what reason can be given; why the .Jews did raise a violent' opposition to it, at its first institution, whonever failed to oppose every thing of that kind, contrary to the Mosaic law ? And why did christians themselves keep the seventh day, which it is plain from church-history, that many of them did long after the pretended institution of the first day. Answer. I join all these questions in one because I think
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