FOr the confirmation whereof we shall consider 1. The Time when it was Instituted . 2. The Command by which it was Instituted . 3. The Ground upon which it was Instituted .

1. First , let us soberly examine the time when it was instituted ; the obscurity whereof may easily be gathered from the variety of opinions and apprehensions about it . Some think the first foundation of it was laid upon mount Sinai , induced thereunto by those words of Nehemiah , Thou camest down upon the mount , Nehem 9.13 , 14. and madest known to them thy holy Sabbath by the hand of Moses thy Servant . Others have travelled a little beyond the mount , and have found ( as they suppose ) the first footsteps of a Sabbath in the wilderness of Sin , at the first falling of Manna . T. T. p. 71. Mr. Tillam , with some others , is confident that it was instituted before the fall of man , and founded upon mount Paradise ; not a little abusing that Scripture to prove it , Psal 87.1 . Gods foundations are in the holy mountaint . Belike he would insinuate , with Tostatus and some other Popish Authors , that Paradise was some mountainous place ( a fancy purposely devised by them to shelter Enoch from the floud : ) But this is to build castles in the aire ; such notions may pass for glorious truths among Vulgar heads , when judicious pens have branded them as Popish Legends . For the opinion it self , viz. That the Sabbath was first instituted in Paradise before the fall of man , we shall in due time discover the weakness of it , and give satisfying answers to all the seeming arguments brought to support it . But first I shall propose , and endeavour to prove a Counter position , namely , that it seems more consonant to Scripture , to affirm , that the Sabbath was instituted ( though in the beginning ) yet after the fall , in mans corrupt and vitiated estate . The probation whereof depends much ( though not altogether ) upon the decision of that often canvassed question , Whether our first Parents sinned the same day on which they were created ? I shall not be so peremptory as to pass a damnatory sentence upon those that are for the negative ; yet after some study and inquiry into Scriptures and Authors about it , I am inclined to undertake the affirmative , namely , That our first Parents were created and corrupted , Gen. 1. & 2 ch. compared with chap. 3.1 . made and marrd , alive and dead in one and the same same day ; which seems very probable by this , that as soon as Moses had spoken of their creation , without mention of any other thing considerable , he passes to their defection . This is no singular notion , but the generally received opinion of ancient and modern times . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek Churches and Fathers were so almost universally of this perswasion , that it is well known to have been their common sentence , speaking of Adam , The same day he was created he fell . Among the Latines Augustine and Bernard were also of the same mind ; August . de genes. ad lit . lib. 9. c. 4. Bern. l 4.8 . and among our own writers , Reverend Mr. Cawdrey , and Mr. Palmer incline this way : Dr. Willet , Mr. G. Walker , Mr. H. Broughton have strenuously argued it from Scripture . I shall but hint a few of the many Scripture-arguments , that have been and may be alledged to this purpose .

1. From the testimony of our Saviour Jesus Christ , who hath told us expresly , that the Divel was a murtherer ( or manslayer ) from the beginning , a lyar and the father of lies ; John 8.34 . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not from the beginning of the worlds creation , but of mans creation , which most properly and precisely implyes the sixth day , wherein the Serpent beguiled our first Parents by lying , and murthered them . That word ( from the beginning ) is the same in the Syriack version which is used Gen. 1. and it usually refers to some date of time within the creation , as the learned in that Language observe . This cannot be denyed , that when our Saviour affirms the Divel was a murtherer from the beginning , we must lay it as neer the beginning as we may , without crossing other texts of Scripture : now it crosses not a tittle of Scripture to state it on the sixth day ; nay it consents with other Scriptures ; for

2. The verity of Gods threatning seems to put it out of question that Adam sinned and was slain by the Serpent on the sixth day ; for let the words be well weighed , In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye . Gen. 2.17 . Die quo Deus condidit redemit & hominem , i. e. sexta feria . Bern. I demand whether this sentence were fully executed on the first Adam in the day that he sinned ? or whether in his and our behalf it were not also verifyed on the second Adam in the day that he suffered ? If the latter be granted ( as it cannot well be denyed ) then it will rationally follow , that the second Adam suffering and dying on the sixth day of the week , the first Adam also sinned on the sixth day , in which he was created . a a John 29. v. 14 , 15 , 16. compared with Mat 27.46 , 50. That Christ suffered the sixth day , needs no dispute . b b Rom. 5 14. That the Holy Ghost speaks so sparingly of the state of innocency , evidently shews that it lasted but a very little while . Mortons three-fold state , ep. to the Reader . In all reason ( as another sayes ) if Adam had stood long , his good deeds as well as his evil deeds had been committed to history , especially how he kept his first Sabbath ; which had been an excellent pattern to posterity . But not a syllable of this in Scripture . Most probably therefore the first Adam , the figure of him that was to come ( and that in respect of this point ) sinned and fell on the sixth day ; and so the Divine threatning was punctually fulfilled . The force of this argument cannot without shameful wrangling be evaded : For to say that this may as well state the fall on that day seven-night as on the first sixth day , is to say little to the purpose . For by the same rule you may as well carry it to that day three weeks , or that day moneth , yea that day twelve-moneth , and so in infinitum . I should rather think , that since by Christs sufferings it appears that Adam sinned on a sixth day ; and our Lord affirms that the Devil was a manslayer from the beginning ; that therefore certainly our first Parents fell on the first sixth day . Some have not unfitly observed a remarkable conformity betwixt the sin and curse of Adam , and the sufferings of Christ , in many concurrent circumstances . As our Saviours agony in the garden , answering to Adams sin in the garden ; his bloody sweat , to the curse of eating bread in the sweat of our browes ; his crown of thornes , to the curse of thornes ; his suffering upon a tree , to their sin in eating of the tree , &c. a fit subject for a devotional pen. But that which I insist upon as argumentative is only the day in which out Lord suffered and dyed , which in my judgment doth much help to determine the day in which Adam sinned .

3. The parley betwixt the woman and the serpent insinuates as much ; for both the serpents demand and the womans reply speak plainly that as yet they had not tasted the sweets of Paradise : Gen. 3.1 . Hath God said ye shall not eate of every tree of the Garden ? The serpent had not been subtile to ask whether that might be done which had been done already ; and the womans replying in the future tense , we may , or shall eate hereafter , makes it more probable that as yet they had not eaten . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is utterly improbable that they would have continued a whole day in the Garden , in the midst of all that delicious fruit , and not have tasted of some . Besides , the tree of life being sacramental ( as Augustine sayes , Erat homini in lignis aliis alimenium , in hoc verò Sacramentum , Aug. de Gen. ad lit . in other trees there was nourishment , in this a Sacrament ) may it not well be thought that if Adam had stood the first Sabbath , he had tasted of the tree of life ? Doubtless he had observed all the ordinances of the day . But that he had not yet touched that tree , is evident from that speech of God , where he resolves upon his speedy banishment out of Paradise , Gen. 3.22 . lest ( sayes the Lord ) he put forth his hand to the tree of life , and eate and live for ever ; which had been spoken too late , if he had already done it .

4. The policy and activity of Satan in contriving of mischief may assure us that he was tampering with our first parents betimes , partly that he might take the advantage to shake them before their habits of grace were setled and confirmed by exercise ( as new-planted trees are more easily plucked up at first , then after they are more deeply radicated ; ) but principally , that by poysoning the fountain of mankind before any streams issued from it , he might the more easily and certainly corrupt the whole current of mans posterity . Such as have been taught by sad experience how crafty an adversary that old serpent the Divel is , cannot but subscribe to the validity of this argument .

5. To all these I may adde the circumstance of time when these malefactors were brought to the bar , and arraigned for what they had done ; viz. in the coole of the day , Hebr. in the wind of the day , Gen. 3.8 . in the wind after midday , as Hierom renders it , or in the Even-tyde , a a Adversus haereses lib 5. cap. 15. ad fin . as Irenaeus . Now it is very observable ( sayes a late Worthy ) that this is the first evening mentioned after the creation of Adam , Mr. Roberts myster. & medulla . Bibl. p. 39. and the covenant made with him . Adam was arraigned and sentenced towards the evening of the sixth day , therefore he sinned the same day .

As for that of the Psalmist , Adam being in honour loàged not a night , Psa. 49.12 . but was like the beasts that perish ( for so it is in the Hebrew word for word ) although I will not restrain it to the first Adam , for ( as learned Ainsworth observes ) it may be meant both of the first man Adam , who continued not in his dignity , Annot. in locum and his posterity also ; yet it doth most singularly point at him , and is most pregnantly applicable to him , as being in the greatest honour that ever man was in upon earth , Lord of all the lower world , and father of all mankind . c c Exod. 23.8 . Deut. 19.4 . 2 Sam. 17. Psal. 30.5 . And the word baal jalin does properly signifie to lodge or tarry for a night . What if it be in the future tense , as . T.T. suggests , yet as d d Dr. Twiss great a Rabbin as himself has told us that it is nothing strange for the future tense ( the structure of the words requiring it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Assimulatus fuit . as here it does , the next word being of the preter tense ) to signifie the time past . Again , what if the context does not in every circumstance suit with Adam ? Is it any unusual thing ( especially in the book of Psalms ) for one and the same sentence to point at several persons ? How often are David and Christ both intended in the same place ; yea , where every thing spoken of the one does not agree to the other ? The adversary might therefore have spared that passage , that this text cannot be applyed to Adam , because t is said , v. 19. He shall go to the generation of his fathers , unless I could shew him what fathers Adam had to go to . p. 10. I will answer his Dilemma with another ; when he himself sayes , that innocent Adam had all the Ten Commandments written in his heart , let him tell me , what father and mother had Adam to honour in a second . Table sense ? But to let that pass , enough is said ( if this text was silent ) to make it more then probable , that the transgression of our first parents presently followed their creation , i.e. the same day . To be sure there is more evidence of truth in it then all his objections to the contrary are able to obscure . Indeed his confidence is great , but we shall now scan his evidence , and accordingly judg of his confidence .

He argues , [ That man , T.T. Obj. 1. yea and the Angels also stood in their integrity with the clo sure of the sixth day , for then all things were very good , Gen. 1.31 . And no sooner did the sixth day end , and the seventh begin , but God rested , and sanctifyed his holy Sabbath , and was refreshed , and exceeding well satisfyed with the goodness of his creatures , which must needs precede sin .

This great argument has many little ones in the belly of it , and accordingly I shall return several answers to it .

Whereas he dictates , Answ. 1 That man had not sioned in the closure of the sixth day , for then all things were very good : I answer , the word then is an addition to the text ; And therefore the whole weight of his argument hanging upon this wooden pin of his own making , must needs fall to the ground . 'T is a conclusion founded upon a fallacy , which the Logicians call a Fallacy of composition , when those things are jumbled together which ought to be taken asunder ; for the detection whereof let it be considered , that in the text alledged , Gen. 1.31 . there be two distinct clauses ; first , Gods approbation of his works , He saw every thing that he made , and behold it was very good . Secondly , the conclusion of the day ; and the evening and the morning were the sixth day . Now to take these two clauses conjunctly , which are related distinctly , and to argue ( as this Author does ) that man had not sinned on the sixth day , for then all was very good , is a meer sophisme , such as every puny in Logick is able to resolve ; for why might not Gods approbation be given forth in the morning or forenoon of the sixth day , and time enough left before night for sin to creep into the world ? To clear this , let it be noted , See Dr. Willets Hexapla in Exod. 31. That although God was pleased to parcel out his work into six distinct dayes , yet he measured not every dayes work by the hour-glass of time as we creatures do , but what he did on each day was done in an instant . He did but speak the word and it was done , he commanded and it was created . Psal. 33.9 . Psa. 146.5 .

This is evident from principles of reason as well as from the forementioned places of Scripture ; for creation is the production of something out of nothing , or that which is as much as nothing . Now betwixt the being of something and nothing there can be no intermediate state , and consequently no imaginable space of time , but an imperceptible moment : Hence that received maxime , that Creation is in an instant . Now to accommodate this to the work of the sixth day , consisting of man and beasts ; certainly the forming of these creatures being momentaneous in the sense above mentioned , took up but little of the day . I can see no colour of reason to the contrary , but our first Parents might be created , and the whole creation compleated in the fore part of the sixth day . And doubtless , as soon as the creation was ended , the divine approbatiom was added ; And God saw that it was good . For surely as soon as the creature was , the Creator saw what it was , and he saw it to be good , for he made it good . And although the conclusion of the day be presently added , yet 't is without dispute , that many other things were transacted ( though not expressed in the first Chapter ) before the close of the sixth day : as the naming of the creatures , the joyning of our first parents together in marriage , and disposing of them in the garden , yea the giving of the Law , and in all likelyhood the breaking of it too . And so the first knot is untied .

Whereas he adds , Answer 2 That as soon as the sixth day ended , and the seventh began , God rested and sanctified the Sabbath ; I answer , This Assertion is built upon a very uncertain , if not a false supposition , viz. That the order of the words and Chapters is exactly answerable to the order of the things done . Whereas in the judgment of the learned here is a manifest dislocation or misplacing of the sacred story , as to the order of things ; for if we regard the exact order of things done , the second chapter of Genesis would begin at the fourth verse , as learned Junius affirms : And the second and third verses would come in at the end of the third Chapter , Junij Praelect . in Gen. 2. and so the mention of the Sabbaths institution would follow the description of Adam's sin ; as an acute * * De. Lightfoot's Harmony of the Old Testa . and he gives this solid reason why the words stand as they do , and why the mention of the Sabbath is set down before Adams fall , viz. because the Holy Ghost would dispatch the general history of the first seven daies together without the interposition of any particular story . Writer of our own hath observed . But because the adversary will say these are but humane fancies , let us see whether they have not sure footing in the Word it self . To this purpose let the Reader turn to Genes. 2. and view the texture and composure of the whole Chapter . In the three first verses you have an account of God's finishing the heavens and the earth , as also his resting on the seventh day . From the third to the eighth verse you have the creation of Vegetables , herbs and plants , which was the work of the third day . From ver. 8. to ver. 15. you have the planting of the garden , and adorning of it with trees and rivers ; which ( if it were a work of creation ) was done before the seventh day , though it be not mentioned till after it . Again , ver. 7. you have the forming of the man , and from ver. 18. to 22. the framing of the woman ; as a also the creating of birds and beasts , and the naming of the creatures , which you see are all mentioned after the seventh day , yet all , or most of them done on the sixth . So that should we strictly cleave to the letter , In Scriptura non est prius & posterius . The order of time is not alwaies kept in Scripture , but sometimes that is placed first which was done last , & contrà . and believe that all things were done in the same order as they are here set down , we must believe that herbs and plants , birds and beasts , man and woman were all created after the creation was ended , and God had rested the seventh day . Yea , if the literal and historical order of the words must be maintained , how will T.T. make good his Mount-paradise-notion ? For according to the order of the words , Paradise was not planted till after the Sabbath . How then could Adam keep his first Sabbath in Paradise ? Viderit ipse . Hitherto therefore he must of necessity yield a transposition ; that is , that although these things be mentioned after the seventh day , yet they were done before it , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , Haec est un● de regulis ad intelligendam Scripturam sanctam necessariis . Luth. loc. com . p. 75. and here set down by way of Postscript : Now let us see what may be said for that which follows , ver. 16.17 . compared with the three last verses ; you have the woman given in marriage to the man , and the Creators Law touching the forbidden fruit given in charge to both ; and that all this was done on the sixth day will be readily granted . Well then , Chap. 3. you have the story of the Serpents temptation , the transgression of our first parents , their conviction in the cool of the day , and lastly their expulsion out of Paradise ; and the juncture of all this lying so close to the story of the sixth day , Chap. 2. that unless you purposely loosen the connexion , you may rationally look upon it as one and the same daies work . And verily methinks the Serpents first on-set sounds as if there were very little distance of time between God's giving the Law , and Satan's tempting the woman to break it , Gen. 3.1 . Yea , hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden ? a very abrupt motion , if it had not been made immediately upon the giving of the Law . The words are ( as one observes ) a form of speech used by one who standing aloof , and over-hearing what was forbidden , Mr. Walker , Doctrine of the Sabbath . doth presently step in and ask if it were not so as he took it to be : and besides , the woman's answer ( as was hinted before ) being in the future tense , we may , or shall eat hereafter implies that they had scarce eaten as yet . So that all circumstances considered , it more then probable , that this third Chapter is nothing but an history of what was done on the sixth day . And so the mention of the Sabbath in the beginning of the second Chapter , may well enough ( in order of things ) take place at the end of the third , and then it will roundly follow , That the first sin went before the first Sabbath .

As to that which is further alledged , Exod. 31.17 . Ans. 3 That on the seventh day God rested , and was refreshed . I answer , It is onely a Metaphorical expression ; for we may not think that the everlasting God , the Lord , the Creator of the ends of the earth fainted , or was weary in the works of the Creation , or that he needed any rest or respiration . But when the Holy Ghost speaks to us men , he delights to speak after the manner of men , respecting more the weakness of our capacity , than the exactness and propriety of the Phrase . In a word , suppose God's resting and being refreshed on the seventh day intimate some delightful satisfaction , like that which men take in things that refresh their souls , yet it follows not that this satisfaction was taken in the creatures , but rather in Christ , who had now undertaken God's satisfaction for man's transgression . And this indeed is a sweet refreshing ( as to a guilty creature ) so to an angry God : and in this sense the Scriptures do sweetly harmonize , Isai. 42.1 . Mat. 3.17 . Mat. 12.18 . unanimously testifying that our blessed Redeemer is the person in whom the eternal God delighteth , in whom the Father is well-pleased . As for the other Scriptures which T.T. crouds in for company-sake in his Margin , as Job 38.7 . Luke 2.13 . the one speaking of the Angels song at the Creation of the earth , the other of their joyful Hymne at the birth of Christ , I wonder how they make for his purpose , to prove that man had not sinned before the Sabbath . But impertinent quotations are no rarities in his book ; he would make a glorious shew of Scripture , to dazle the eies of the simple , when the Scriptures he cites are neither in sense nor sound applicable to his purpose ; which if it be not packing sophistry , let the world judg . Well , his first tripartite argument is weighed , and found to light . And hitherto ( for ought appears to the contrary ) the first Sabbath was not before sin .

I proceed to the second .

2. T. T s . Argum. [ Some time ( sayes he ) must be allowed for the sin of Angels and after that for the parley with the woman ; and it was no little space wherein Adam gave significant names to the creatures . ]

For the Angels sin , Ans. 1 to guesse precisely at the time of it , is neither easie nor necessary : And in disputes of this nature we must be wise to sobriety , not to curiosity ; a a 1 Tim. 3.6 . pride was a principal ingredient in their sin , and b b Job 4.18 . God charged them with folly for their pride ; how much more folly shall sinful man be found guilty of , who in the pride of his foolish heart shall presume to be wise above that which is written ? Some think that place , Luke 10.28 . may refer to the first fall of the Angels , being mentioned as a check to the disciples , ready to be lifted up with pride at the success of their ministry . Ne factis miraculis superbirent discipuli , adduxit Domiuus exemplum Satanae , &c. Stella in loc. However it is most consentaneous to Scripture , and Reason to conceive that the Angels ( being spiritual substances ) must in their actings , whether good or evil , be proportionable to their beings . And sin being a spiritual evil , how quick a progresse it might make in such creatures , let any man judg who can but compare things spiritual with spiritual . To me it is no great difficulty to apprehend , that in a very few moments , by an aspiring thought , legions of Angels might become legions of Divels . Especially being ( for ought I know ) linked together in a conjoyned apostasie .