25. But it is further pleaded (p. 54), “That indeed the Gentiles could be no way obliged to the observation of the fourth command- ment, seeing they had no indication of it, nor any means to free them
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SECT. 25, 26.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 825
from their ignorance of the being of any such law. That they had once had, and had lost the knowledge of it, in and by their progenitors,
is rejected as a vain pretence.” And so much weight is laid on this
consideration, that a demand is made of somewhat to be returned in answer that may give any satisfaction unto conscience. But I understand not the force of this pretended argument. Those who had absolutely lost the knowledge of the true God (in and by their progenitors), as the Gentiles had done, might well also lose the knowledge of all the concernments of his worship. And so they had done, excepting only that they had traduced some of his insti- tutions, as sacrifices, into their own superstition; and so had they corrupted the use of his sabbaths into that of their idolatrous feasts. But when the true God had no other acknowledgment amongst them but what answered the title of “ The unknown God,” is it any - wonder that his ways and worship might be unknown amongst them also? And it is but pretended that they had no indication of a sabbatical rest, nor any means to free them from their ignor- ance. Man’s duty is both to be learned and observed in order. It is in yain to expect that any should have indications of a holy rest unto God before they are brought to the knowledge of God him- self. When this is obtained—when the true God upon just grounds is owned and acknowledged,—then that some time be set apart for his solemn worship is of moral and natural right. That this is in- cluded in the very first notion of the true God and our depend- ence upon him, all men do confess. And this principle was abused among the heathen to-be the foundation of all their stated annual and monthly sacred solemnities, after they had nefariously lost the only object of all religious worship. Where this progress is made, as it might have been, by attending to the directive light of nature, and the impressions of the law of it left upon the souls of men, there will not be wanting sufficient indicatives of the meetest season for that worship. However, these things were and are to be considered and admitted in their order; and with respect unto that order is their obligation. The heathen were bound first to know and own the true God, and him alone; then to worship him solemnly; and after that, in order of nature, to have some solemn time separated unto the observance of that worship. Without an admission of these, all which were neglected and rejected by them, there is no place to inquire after the obligation of a hebdomadal rest. And their non- observance of it was their sin, not firstly, directly, and immediately, but consequentially, as all others are that arise from an ignorance or rejection of those greater principles whereon they do depend.
26. The trivial exception from the difference of the meridians is yet pleaded also; for hence it is pretended to be impossible that all
326 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC, III.
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men should precisely observe the same day. For if a man should sail round the world by the east, he will at his return home have gotten a day by his continual approach towards the rising sun; and if he steer his course westward, he will lose a day in the annual revolution, as it is gotten the other way: so did the Hollanders, anno 1615. And hence the posterity of Noah, gradually spreading themselves over the world, must have gradually come to the obser- vation of different seasons, if we shall suppose a day of sacred rest required of them or appointed to them. “ Apage, nugas.” If men might sail eastward or westward, and not continually have seven days succeeding one another, there would be some force in this trifle. On our hypothesis, wherever men are, a seventh part of their time, or a seventh day, is to be separated to the remembrance of the rest of God, and the other ends of the Sabbath. - That the observance of this portion of time shall in all places begin and end at the same instants, the law and order of God’s creation will not permit. It is enough that amongst all who can assemble for the worship of God there is no difference in general, but that they all observe the same proportion of time. And he who, by cireumnayi- gation of the world, (such rare and extraordinary instances being not to be provided for in a general law,) getteth or loseth a day, may at his return, with a good conscience, give up again what he hath got, or retrieve what he hath lost, with those with whom he fixeth; for all such occasional accidents are to be reduced unto the common standard. All the difficulty, therefore, im this objection relates to the precise observation of the seventh day from the crea- tion, and not in the least unto one day in seven. And although the seventh day was appointed principally for the land of Palestine, the seat of the church of old, wherein there was no such alteration of meridians, yet I doubt not but that a wandering Jew might have observed the foregoing rule, and reduced his time to order upon his return home. What other exceptions of the like nature occur in this cause, they shall be removed and satisfied in our next inquiry, which is after the causes of the Sabbath, and the morality of the observation of one day in seven.