A practical exposition of the X. Commandments with a resolution of several momentous questions…A practical exposition of the X. Commandements with a resolution of several momentous questions…

If the first Six of Moses's reckoning begin so, then this beginneth so also, but they do begin so, which may be cleared from Gen. 1. where the evening and the morning make the First day after the Creation.

1. If there the morning and the evening do fully divide the natural day, then the morning must go before the evening, every morning being for its own evening: But they do divide the natural day, all being comprehended under Six days, Ergo, &c. the consequence is clear, to natural sense, for the forenoon, which is the morning must be before the afternoon, which is the evening; the ascending of the Sun is sure before its declining, and seeing the morning natural (to speak so) of the natural day, is from the twelfth hour at night, this must be the beginning of the day.

Again, the question then, being only, whether to reckon the evening or the morning first; it would seem necessary to reckon the morning first; for if the evening be first, that evening must either be, 1. the evening of a day preceding morning, seeing every evening supposeth a morning to go before it in proper speech (and I suppose the History of the Creation, Gen. 1. is not set down in metaphorical terms;) or 2. it must be an evening without a morning, and that in proper speech (here used) is absurd, and seems also to be as impossible i • nature, to wit, that there should be a consequent and posterior evening or afternoon, without a preceding morning or forenoon, as that there should be an effect without a cause; or 3. it must be the evening following its own morning, and so that morning must be last preceding the first evening recorded