CHAP. I.
That the SABBATH was not instituted in the beginning of the World.

(1) The entrance to the worke in hand. (2) That those words▪ Genes. 2. And God blessed the seventh Day, &c. are there delivered, as by way of anticipation. (3) Anticipations in the Scripture confessed by them, who deny it here. (4) Anticipations of the same nature not strange in Scripture. (5) No Law imposed by God on Adam, touching the keeping of the Sabbath. (6) The Sabbath not ingraft by nature in the soule of man. (7) The greatest Advocates for the Sabbath, deny it to be any part of the Law of Nature. (8) Of the morality and per­fection, supposed to be in the number of seven, by some lear­ned men. (9) That other numbers in the confession of the same learned men, particularly the first, third, and fourth, are both as morall and as perfect as the seventh. (10) The like is proved of the sixth, eighth, and tenth; and of other numbers. (11) The Scripture not more favourable to [Page 2] the number of seven, then it is to others. (12) Great caution to be used by those, who love to recreate themselves in the mysteries of numbers.

(1) I Purpose by the grace of God to write an History of the Sabbath, and to make knowne what practi­cally hath been done, therein, by the Church of God, in all ages past, from the Creation till this present: Primaque ab origine mundi, ad mea perpetuum deducere tempora car­men. One day, as David tells us, teacheth another. Nor can wee have a better Schoolmaster in the things of God, then the continuall and most constant practice of those famous men, that have gone before us. An under­taking of great difficulty, but of greater profit. In which I will crave leave to say, as doth Saint Austine, in the en­trance to his Book [...] de Civitate; Magnum opus & ardu­um, sed Deus est adjutor noster. Lib. 1. c. 1. Therefore▪ most humbly begging the assistance of Gods holy Spirit to guide me in the way of truth, I shall apply myselfe to so great a worke; beginning with the first beginnings, and so continuing my discourse, successively, unto these times, wherein we live. In which no accident of note, as farre as I can dis­cerne, shall passe unobserved, which may conduce to the discovery of the truth, and setling of the minds of men in a point so controverted. On therefore [...] to the present businesse. In the beginning (saith the Text) God created the Heaven and the Earth. Gen. 2. Which being finished, and all the hosts of them made perfect, on the seventh day God ended his worke which [...]e had made, and hee rested on the seuenth day from all his worke which he had made. And then it followeth▪ And God bless [...]d the seventh day and [Page 3] sanctified it, because that in it hee had rested from all his worke, which God created and made. Vnto this passage of the text, and this point of time, some have referred the institution and originall of the Sabbath; taking these words to be a plain narration of a thing then done, accor­ding to that very time, wherein the Scripture doth re­port it: And that the sanctifying of the seventh day there­in mentioned, was a Commandement given by God to our Father Adam, touching the sanctifyng of that day to his publick worship. Conceiving also that there is some speciall mystery and morality in the number of seven, for which that day, and none but that, could be designed and set apart for this employment. Others and those the an­cienter, and of more authority, conceive these words to have been spoken by a Prolepsis or Anticipation; and to relate unto the times wherein Moses wrote. And that it was an intimation onely of the reason why God imposed upon the Iewes, the sanctifying rather of the seventh day, then of any other: no precept to that purpose being gi­ven to Adam and to his posterity; nor any mystery in that number, why of it selfe it should be thought most proper for Gods publick service. The perfect stating of these points, will give great light to the following sto­ry. And therefore wee will first crave leave to remoove these doubts before we come to matter of fact, that after­wards I may proceed with the greater [...]ase unto my se [...]f, and satisfaction to the Reader. The ground-worke or foundation laid, the building will be raysed the surer.

(2) And first it is conceived by many learned men, that Moses in the second of Genesis relates unto the times in the which hee lived, and wrote the History of the Creation: when God had now made known his holy will unto him, and the Commandement of the Sabbath had by his Ministery been delivered to the house of Israel. This is indeed the ancienter and more generall tendry, unanimously delivered both by Iew and Christian; and not so much as questioned til these later dayes. And how­soever [Page 4] some ascribe it to Tostatus, as to the first inventer of it; yet is it ancienter farre then he: though were it so, it could not be denyed, but that it had an able and a learned Author. A man, considering the times in which he lived, and the short time of life it pleased God to give him; that hardly ever had his equall.I [...] Gen. 2. Its true, Tostatus thus resolues it. He makes this quaere first, Num Sabbatum cum à Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio mundi rerum, &c. Whe­ther the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the first in­fancy of the World, had beene observed of men, by the Law of nature. And thereunto returns this answere, quod Deus non dederit praceptum illud de observatione Sabbati in principio, sed per Mosen datum esse, &c. That God commanded not the Sabbath to be sanctified in the be­ginning of the World, but that it was commanded after­wards by the Law of Moses; when God did publickly make known his will upon Mount Sinai. And that wheras the Scripture speaketh of sanctifying the seventh day, in the second of Genesis, it is not to be understood, as if the Lord did then appoint it, for his publick worship; but is to be referred unto the time wherein Moses wrote, which was in the Wildernesse. Et sic Moses intendebat dicere quod Deus illum diem sanctificavit sc. nobis, &c. And so the meaning of the Prophet will be briefly this, that God did sanctifie that day, that it to us, to us that are his people of the house of Iacob, that we might consecrate it to his ser­vice. So farre Tostatus. In which I must confesse, that I see not any thing, but what Iosephus said before him, though in other words: who speaking of the Worlds Creation, doth conclude it thus, [...], &c. So that Moses saith, Antiqu. l. 1. 2. that the World and all that is therein was made in six whole dayes and that upon the seventh day God took rest, and ceased from his labours. [...], &c. By rea­son whereof wee likewise desist from travaile on that day, which we call the Sabbath, i. e. repose. So that the institu­tion of the Sabbath by Tostatus; and the observation of [Page 5] it, by Iosephus; are both of them referred, by their us, and wee, unto the times of Moses, and the house of Israel. Nor is Iosephus the only learned man amongst the Iewes, that so interpreteth Moses meaning Solomon Iarchi, one of the principall of the Rabbins speaks more expresly to this purpose; and makes this Glosse or Comment upon Moses words▪ Benedixit ei, i.e. in manna, &c. God bles­sed the seventh day, i.e. in Mannah, because for every day of the week, an Homer of it fell upon the earth, & a double portion on the sixt, & sanctisied it, i.e. in Mannah, because it fell not on the seventh day at al. Et scriptura loquitur de refutura. And in this place (saith he) the Scripture speaks as of a thing that was to come. But what need more be said. Mercer a learned Protestant, In Gen. 2. & one much cōversant in the Rabbins, cōfesseth that the Rabbins generally referred this place & passage to the following times, even to the sancti­fication of the Sabbath, established by the Law of Moses. Hebreifere ad futurū referunt, i.e. sanctificationem Sabbati postea lege per Mosen sancitam: unde & Manna eo die non descendit. And howsoever for his own part, he is of opi­nion, that the first Fathers being taught by God, kept the seventh day holy: yet he conceives withall, that the Com­mandement of keeping holy the Sabbath day, was not made till afterwards. Nam hinc (from Gods own resting on that day) postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est, as hee there hath it. Doubtlesse, the Iewes, who so much doted on their Sabbath, would not by any means have robbed it of so great antiquity; had they had any ground to ap­prove thereof, or not known the contrary. So that the scope of Moses in this present place, was not to shew the time when; but the occasion, why the Lord did after san­ctity the seventh day for a Sabbath day: viz. because that on that day he rested from the works which he had created.

(3) Nor was it otherwise conceived, then that Mo­ses here did speak by way of Prolepsis, or Anticipation, till Ambrose Catharin, one of the great sticklers in the Trent-Councell, opined the contrary. Hee in his Comment on [Page 6] that text fals very foule upon Tostatus; and therein leads the dance to others, who have since taken up the same o­pinion. Ineptum est quod quidam commentus est, &c. ‘It is a foolish thing (sayth he) that▪ In Gen. 2. (as a certain Writer fancieth) the sanctification of that day which Moses speaks of, should not be true as of that very point of time whereof he speaks it, but rather is to be referred unto the time wherein he wrote: as if the meaning onely were, that then it should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses.’ And this he calls Commentum ineptum, & contra literam ipsam, & contra ipsius Moseos declarationem; A foolish and absurd conceit, contrary unto Moses words, and to his meaning. Yet the same Catharin doth affirme in the self [...] same Booke, Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per an­ticipationem narrare; that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures, then these anticipations. And in particu­lar, that whereas it is said in the former Chapter, male and female created he them, per anticipationem di [...]tum esse non est dubitandum, that (without doubt) it is so said by anti­cipation: the woman not being made, as he is of opinion, till the next day after, which was the Sabbath. For the Anticipation he cites Saint Chrysostome, who indeed tels us on that text, [...]. Behold, saith he, how that which was not done as yet, is here related as if done already. He might have added, for the purpose, Origen on the first of Genesis, and Gre­gory the Great, Moral. lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take no­tice of a Prolepsis, or Anticipation in that place of Moses. For the creation of the woman he brings in Saint Ierome, who in his Tract against the Iewes expresly saith, mulie­rem conditam fuisse die septimo, that the woman was crea­ted on the seventh day or Sabbath: to which this Catha­rin assents, and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day; that being the last that he created. This seemes indeed to be the old tradition, if it be lawfull for me to digresse a little: it be­ing [Page 7] supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixt day, in the end whereof hee was created; did fall that night into a deepe and hea­vy sleepe: and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened, and a rib took thence, for the creation of the woman.Aug Steuchiu [...] in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend. And this I have the rather noted, to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon. For whereas he concludes from the rest of God, that, without doubt, the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested: it seemes, by him, God did not rest upon that day, and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all; or else it will be lawfull for us by the Lords example to do what ever worke we have to do, upon that day; and after sanctifie the remaynder. And yet I needs must say withall, that Catharinus was not the onely hee, that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath. Problem l [...]. 5 [...] Aretius also so conceived it. Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete trans­acta, sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit, ut Hebraeus contextus habet. Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew, denyeth not but the Hebrew text will beare that mea­ning.In Gen▪ 2. Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place, did purposely translate it, [...], that on the sixt day God finished all the worke that he had made, and after rested on the seventh. And this they did, saith he, ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent, to take away all hint of collecting thence, that God did any kind of worke upon that day. For if hee fi­nished all his works on the seventh day, it may be thought (saith he) that God wrought upon it. Saint Hierome no­ted this before, that the Greeke text was herein different from the Hebrew; and turns it as an argument against the Iewes; and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath. Artabi­mus igitur Iudaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur, Qu Hebrai [...] in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit, dum Deus operatur in Sabbato, complens opera sua in eo; & benedicens ipsi diei, quia in ipso vniversa compleve­rat. [Page 8] If so, if God himselfe did breake the Sabbath, as Saint Hierome turns upon the Iewes: wee have small cause to thinke that he should at that very time, impose the Sab­bath as a Law upon his creatures.

(4) But to proceed. Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus, have had as ill successe as he; in being forced either to grant the use of anticipation in the holy Scripture; or else to run upon a tenet, wherein they are not like to have any seconds. I will instance one­ly in two particulars, both Englishmen, and both excee­ding zealous in the present cause. The first is Doctour Bound, who first of all did set a foot these Sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England, 2. Edit. p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted. He determines thus. ‘I deny saith he, but that the Scripture speaketh often of things, as though they had been so before, because they were so then, when the things were written. As when it is said of Abraham, that hee remooved unto a Mountaine Eastward of Bethel, whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred yeares after. The like may be said of another place in the Booke of Iudges called Bochin, &c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so. And why not so in this, as well as those? Because (saith he) Mo­ses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath, not onely because it was so then when hee wrote that Booke, but specially because it was so even from the Creation.’ Which by his leave, is not so much a rea­son of his opinion,Medull [...] Th [...]ol. l. 2 c. 15. [...] 9. as a plain begging of the question. The second Doctor Ames, the first I take it, that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath, in the Netherlands. Who saith expresly first, and in generall termes, hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse, that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scrip­ture; the contrary whereof is already proved. After more warily, and in particular, de hujusmodi institutione Pro­leptica, that no such institution is set down in Scripture, by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation, either in that Book, [Page 9] or in any other. And herein, as before I said, he is not like to find any seconds. We find it in the sixteenth of Exo­dus, that thus Moses said. This is the thing which the Lord commandeth: Vers. 32. Fill an Omer of it [of the Mannah] to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wher­with I have fed you in the Wildernesse, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt. It followeth in the text, that as the Lord commanded Moses,Vers. 34. so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. Here is an ordinance of Gods, an institution of the Lords, and this related in the same manner, by anticipation, as the former was. Lyra up­on the place affirmes expresly, that it is spoken there per anticipationem: and so doth Vatablus too, in his Annota­tions on that Scripture. But to make sure worke of it, I must send Doctor Ames to schoole to Calvin, who tels us on this text of Moses, non contexuit Moses historiam suo ordine, sed narrarem [...] interposita, melius confirmat, &c. Indeed it could not well be otherwise interpreted. For how could Aaron lay up a pot of Man­nah to be kept before the testimony, when as yet there was neither Arke, nor Tabernacle, and so no testimony before which to keep it. To bring this businesse to an end, Mo­ses hath told us in the place before remembred, that the children of Israel did eat Mannah forty yeares, Vers. 35. which is not otherwise true, in that place and time, in which he tells it, but by the helpe and figure of anticipation. And this Saint Austin noted in his questions upon Exodus, Qu. 62. sig­nificat scriptura per Prolepsin, i. e. hoc loco commemorando quod etiam postea factum est. And lastly, where Amesius sets it downe for certain, that no man ever thought of an anticipation in this place of Moses, Vers supra. qui praejudicio aliquo de observatione diei Dominicae non prius fuit prius anticipa­tus, who was not first possessed with some manifest pre­judice against the sanctifying of the Lords day: this cannot possibly be said against Tostatus, who had no enemy to encounter, nor no opinion to oppose, and so no prejudice. We cōclude then, that for this passage of the Scripture, we [Page 10] find not any thing unto the contrary, but that it was set down in that place and time, by a plain and meer antici­pation; and doth relate unto the time wherein Moses wrote: And therefore no sufficient warrant to fetch the institution of the Sabbath, from the first beginnings. One onely thing I have to adde, and thats the reason which moved Moses, to make this mention of the Sabbath, even in the first beginning of the Booke of God, and so long time before the institution of the same. Which doubtlesse was, the better to excite the Iewes to observe that day, from which they seemed at first to be much averse: and therefore were not onely to be minded of it, by a Me­mento in the front of the Commandement; but by an inti­mation of the equity and reason of it, even in the entrance of Gods Book, derived from Gods first resting on that day after all his works. Theodoret hath so resolved it, in his Questions on the Book of Genesis, Qu 21. Maxime autem Iu­daeis ista scribens, necessario posuit hoc, sanctisific avit eum [...], ut majore cultu prosequantur Sabbatum. Hoc enim in legi­bus sanciendis inquit, sex diebus creavit Deus, &c.

(5) I say an intimation of the equitie and reason of it, for thats as much as can be gathered from that place: though some have laboured what they could, to make the sanctifying of the seventh day, therein mentioned, a precept given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctify­ing of that day, to his publicke worship. Of this I shall not now say much, because the practice will disprove it. Onely I cannot but report the minde and judgement of Pererius a learned Iesuite. Who amongst other rea­sons that he hath alleaged, to prove the observation of the Sabbath not to have took beginning in the first infancy of the World, makes this for one: that generally the Fathers have agreed on this, Deum non aliud imposuisse Adamo praeceptum omnino, posit [...]um nisi illud de non edendo fructu arboris scientiae, &c. that God imposed no other Law on Adam, then that of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of knowledge. Of which since he hath instanced in none [Page 11] particularly, I will make bold to lay before you some two or three; that so out of the mouthes of two or three witnes­ses the truth hereof may be established. And first we have Tertullian, Adv. Iudaeos. who resolves it thus. Namque in principio mundi ipsi Adae & Evae legem dedit, &c. ‘In the beginning of the World, the Lord commanded Adam and Eue that they should not eat of the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the Garden. Which Law (saith he) had been sufficient for their justification, had it been obser­ved. For in that Law, all other precepts were included, which afterwards were given by Moses.’ S. Basil next,De je­unio. who tels us first, that abstinence or fasting was cōmanded by the Lord in Paradise. And then, [...], &c. the first Commandement given by God to A­dam, was that he should not eate of the tree of know­ledge. The very same, which is affirmed by Saint Am­brose in another language,Lib. de Elia & jejunio c. [...]. Et ut sciamus non esse novum jejunium, primam illic legem, [i. e. in Paradise] constituit de jejunio. So perfectly agree in this, the greatest lights both of African, the Easterne, and the Westerne Churches. If so, if that the law of abstinence had been alone sufficient for the justification of our Father Adam, as Tertullian thinks; or if it were the first law, given by God unto him, as both Saint Basil and Saint Ambrose are of opinion: then was there no such law at all then made, as that of sancti­fying of the Sabbath; or else not made according to that time and order, wherein this passage of the Scripture is laid down by Moses. And if not then, there is no other ground for this Commandement in the Booke of God, be­fore the wandring of Gods people in the Wildernesse, and the fall of Mannah. A thing so cleere, that some of those, who willingly would have the Sabbath to have bin kept from the first Creation; and have not the confidence to ascribe the keeping of it, to any ordinance of God, but onely to the voluntary imitation of his people. And this is Torniellus way,Ann▪ 236. amongst many others, who though he [Page 12] attribute to Enos both set formes of prayer, and certaine times by him selected for the performance of that duty; praecipue vero diebus Sabbati, In die 7. especially upon the Sabbath: yet he resolves it as before, that such as sanctified that day, if such there were; non ex praecepto divino, quod nullum tunc extabat, sed ex pietate solum, id egisse. Of which o­pinion, Mercer seemes to be, as before I noted. So that in this particular point, the Fathers and the modern Wri­ters; the Papist and the Protestant, agree most lovingly together.

(6) Much lesse did any of the Fathers, or other anci­ent Christian Writers, conceive that sanctifying of the Sabbath, or one day in seven, was naturally ingrafted in the minde of man, from his first creation. Its true, they tell us of a Law, which naturally was ingrafted in him. So Chrysostome affirmes,In Rom. 7. 12. [...]om. 12. that neither Adam, nor any other man, did ever live without the guidance of this Law: and that it was imprinted in the soule of man, assoone as hee was made a living creature. [...] as that Father hath it. But neither he nor any other, did ever tell us that the Sabbath was a part of this law of na­ture: nay, some of them expresly have affirmed the con­trary. Theodoret for example,In Ezech. c. 20. that these Commande­ments, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adulte­ry, Thou shalt not steale, and others of that kind, alios quoque homines natura edo [...]uit, were generally implanted by the law of nature, in the minds of men. But for the kee­ping of the Sabbath, it came not in by nature, but by Moses law. At Sabbati observandi non natura magistra, sed latio legis. So. Theodoret. And answerably thereun­to Sedulius doth divide the law into three chiefe parts. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis, In Rom. 3. of signes and Sacra­ments, as Circum [...]sion, and the Passeover: the second is, quae congruit legi naturali, the body of the Law of nature, and is the summary of those things which are prohibited [Page 13] by the words of God: the third and last, factorum, of [...]ites and ceremonies (for so I take it is his meaning) as new Moones and Sabbaths▪ which cle [...]rly doth exempt the Sabbath, from having any thing to doe with the law of nature. De [...] [...]ide l 4 c. 24. And Damascen assures too, that when there was no law enacted, nor any Scripture inspired by God, that then there was no Sabbath neither [...]. To which three Ancients we might adde many more of these later times,In Dec [...]l [...]g. Ryvet andMedulla theol. l. 2 cap. 15. A [...]es, and divers others, who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sab­bath: dare not referre the keeping of it, to the law of nature, but onely (as wee shall see annon) unto positive lawes, and divine authority. But hereof wee shall speake more largely when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law, in the time of Moses: where it will evident­ly appeare to be a positive Constitution onely, fitted pecu­liarly to the Iewes; and never otherwise esteemed of, then a Iewish Ordinance.

(7) Its true, that all men generally have agreed on this, that it is consonant to the law of nature, to set apart some time to Gods publicke service: but that this time should rather be the seventh day, then any other, that they impute not unto any thing in nature; but either to di­vine, legall, or Ecclesiasticall institution. The Schoolmen, Papists, Protestants, men of almost all perswasions in re­ligion, have so resolved it. And for the Ancients, our ve­nerable Bede assures us, that to the Fathers before the law, all dayes were equall; the seventh day having no preroga­tive before the others:In Lu [...]. 19. and this he cals naturalis Sabbati libertatem, the liberty of the naturall Sabbath, which ought (saith he) to be restored at our Saviours comming. If so, if that the Sabbath or time of rest unto the Lord, was naturally left free and arbitrary, then certainly it was not restraind more unto one day thē another; or to the se­venth day, more than to the sixth or eighth. Even Ambrose Catharin, as stout a chāpion as he was for the antiquity of [Page 14] the Sabbath, finds himselfe at a losse about it. For having tooke for granted, as hee might indeed, that men by the prescript of nature, were to assigne peculiar times for the service of God; and adding that the very Gentiles used so to do: is fain to shut up all with an Ignoram [...]s. Nesci [...] modo quem diem praecipue observarunt prisci illi Dei cult [...] ­res. We cannot well resolve (saith hee) what day especi­ally was observed by those who worshipped God in the times of old. Wherein he doth agree exactly with Ab [...] ­lensis, against whom principally he tooke up the bucklers; who could have taught him this, if he would have learnt of such a Master, that howsoever the Hebrew people, or any other, before the giving of the Law, were bound to set apart some time for religio [...]s duties: non [...]amen magis in Sabbat [...], In Exod. 20. Qu. 11. quam in quolibet ali [...]rum dierum, yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day than to any o­ther. So for the Protestant Writers, two of the greatest Advocates of the Sabbath, have resolved accordingly. Quod dies ille solennis unus debeat esse in septimana, hoc po­sitivi juris est; thats Amesius doctrine. And Ryvet also saith the same, Lege de Sabbato pos [...]tiv [...], non naturalem agnosci [...]us. The places were both cited in the forme [...] Section; and both doe make the Sabbath a meere positive Law. But what need more be said in so cleere a case; o [...] what needs further Witnesses be produced to give in evi­dence, when wee have con [...]tentem [...]. For Doctour Bound, who first amongst us here endevoured to advance the Lords day into the place of the Iewish Sabbath; and fained a pedigree of the Sabbath even from Adams infan­cie: hath herein said enough to betray his cause, and those that since have either built upon his foundation; or beau­tified their undertakings with his collections. ‘Indeed (saith he) this law was given in the beginning, not so much by the light of nature, as the rest of the nine Commandements were; but by expresse words when God sanctified it. For though this be in the law of na­ture, that some dayes should be separated to Gods [Page 15] worship, as appeares by the practice of the Gentiles: yet that it should be every seventh day, 2. Ed [...] p 11. & 16. the Lord him­selfe set down in expresse words; which otherwise by the light of nature they could never have found.’ So that by his confession, there is no Sabbath to be found in the law of nature; no more then by the testimony of the Fa­thers, in any positive law, or divine appointment, untill the Decalogue was given by Moses.

(8) Nay, Doctor Bound goeth further yet; and robs [...]is friends & followers of a speciall argument. For where Danaeus askes this questiō, Why one of seven rather then one of eight or nine; and therunto makes answer, that the num­ber of seven doth signifie perfection and perpetuitie: ‘First, saith the Doctor,Ib. p. 69. I doe not see that proved, that there is any such mysticall signification, rather than of any other. And though that were granted, yet doe I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture, why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy, ra­ther then the sixth, or eighth. And in the former page. The speciall reason why the seventh day should be ra­ther kept than any other, is not the excellencie or per­fection of that number, or that there is any mystery in it, or that God delighteth more in it, than in any other: though, I confesse (saith hee) that much is said that way, both in divine and humane Writers.’ Much hath been said therein; indeed, so much, [...] we may wonder at the strange niceties of some men, and the unprofitable pains they have tooke amongst them, in searching out the mysteries of this number; the better to advance, as they conceive,In Gen. 2. the reputation of the Sabbath. Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in generall, that this day and number is most naturall, and most agreeable to divine imployments, and therefore in omni aetate inter omnes gentes habitus venera­bilis & sacer, accounted in all times and Nations, as most venerable; and so have many others said since him. But he that lead the way unto him, and to all the rest, is Philo the Iew; who being a great follower of Platos, tooke up his [Page 16] way of trading in the mysteries of severall numbers: wherein he was so intricate and perplexed, that numero Platonis obscurius, did grow at last into a Proverbe. This Philo therefore Platonizing, Tu [...]. ad Attic. l. 7. Epl. 13. first tells us of this number of seven, [...], that he perswades himselfe,De mundi [...]pifi­cio. there is not any man able suf­ficiently to extoll it; as being farre above all the powers of Rhetoricke: and that the Pythagoreans (from them first Plato learnt those trifles) did usually resemble it, [...], even to Iove himselfe. Then, that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven ages, each age contayning seven full yeares; to which the changes of mans constitution are all framed and fit­ted: as also that the Beare, or Arcturus, as they use to call it, and the constellation called the Pleiades, consist of seven starres severally, neither more nor lesse. Hee shewes us also,De legis All [...]g. l. 1 how much nature is delighted in this number, [...], as viz. that there are seven Planets, and that the Moone quartereth every seventh day, that Infants borne in the seventh moneth are usually like enough to live; that there are seven severall motions of the body, seven intrailes, so many outward members, seven holes, or out-lets, in the same, seven sorts of excrements; as also that the seventh is the criticall day in most kindes of maladies. And to which purpose this, and much more of the same condition, every where scat­tered in his Writings; but to devise some naturall reason for the Sabbath. For so he manifests himselfe in another place.Ap. Euseb. Prae­par. l. [...]. c. 7. [...], &c. ‘Now why God chose the seventh day, and established it by law for the day of rest, you need not aske at all of me, since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft decla­red, of what great power and vertue that number is, as in all other things, so specially on the nature and state of man. [...]. And thus (saith he) you have the reason of the seventh day Sabbath.’ Indeed Philosophers and Physicians and other learned men of [Page 17] great name and credit, have spoken much in honour of the number of seven, and severally impute great power unto it in the workes of nature; and severall changes of mans body. Whereof [...]ee C [...]nsorinus de die natali, cap. 12. Varro in Gellius lib. 3. c. 10. Hippocrates, Solon, and Hermippus Beritus in the sixt Booke of Clemens of Alex­andria, besides divers others. Nay, it grew up so high in the opinion of some men, that they derived it at the last, [...], i. e. ab insita maj [...]state. So Philo tels us. Macrobius also saith the same.De legis All [...] ­gor. Apud veteres [...] voci­tatur, quod graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debi­tam numero. Thus he in Somnio Scipionis.

(9) But other men as good as they find no such my­stery in this number, but that the rest may keepe pace with it, if not goe before it: and some of those which so much magnifie the seventh, have found, as weighty my­steries in many of the others also. In which I shall the rather enlarge my selfe, that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and [...]ontention that is between them in these needl [...]e curiosities; we may the better finde the slightnesse of those arguments, which seeme to place a great moraliti [...] in this number of seven; as if it were by nature the most proper number for the service of God. And first, whereas the learned men before mentioned, affixe a speciall power unto it in the works of nature, Iustine the Martyr plainly tels us,Respo [...]s. ad qu 69. ‘ [...], &c. that the accomplishment of the workes of nature is to bee ascribed to nature onely, not unto any period of time accounted by the num­ber of seven: and that they of [...] times come to their perfection sooner, or later, then the said periods; which could not be, in case that nature were ob­servant of this number, as, they say, shee is, and not this number tied to the course of nature. [...], &c. There­fore (saith hee) this number hath no influence on the workes of nature.’ Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the [Page 18] rest; Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus; Macro­bius, that it is numerus solidus & perfectus: De Repu [...] l. l. 4. Bodinus doth affirme expresly, neutrum de septenario dici potest, that neither of those attributes is to be ascribed unto this num­ber; that the eight number is a solid number, although not a perfect one; the sixt a perfect number also. Now as Bo­dinus makes the eighth more solid, and the sixt more per­fect; so Servius on these words of Virgil, Septima post de­cimam foelix, In Georgic. 1. preferres the tenth number a farre deale be­fore it: Vt primum locum decimae ferat, quae sit valde faelix; secundum septimae, ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit. Nay, which may seeme more strange then this, the Arithmeticians generally,Ora [...]io secund [...]. as we read in Nyssen, make this seventh number to bee utterly barren and unfruitfull, [...]. But to go forwards in this matter. Macrobius who before had said of this number of seven, that it is plenus & venerabilis; hath in the same Booke said of the number of one, that it is principium finis & omnium▪ and that it hath a speciall reference or resem­blance unto God on high: which is by farre the greater commendation of the two.In Amos 5. And Hierom, that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven: prima tamen beatitudo est, esse in primo numero, yet the prime happinesse or beatitude is to be sought for in the first. So for the third, In Gen. hom. 8. Origen generally affirmes that it is aptus sa­cramentis, even made for mysteries: and some particu­lars he nameth. Macrobius findeth in it all the naturall facultie [...] of the Soule; [...], or rationall; [...] ▪ or irascible, and last of all [...], or concupiscible. Saint Athanasius makes it equall altogether with the se­venth; Ad Antioch▪ qu. 51. the one being no lesse memorable for the holy Trinitie, then the other for the Worlds Creation. And Servius on these words of Virgil, numero Deus impare gaudet, In Eclog. [...]. saith that the Pythagoreans hold it for a perfect number, and do resemble it unto God, à quo principium & medium, & finis est. De repub. l. 4. Yet on the contrary, Bodinus takes up Aristotle, Plutarch, and Lactantius, for saying that the third is a perfect number: there being in his rec­koning, [Page 19] but foure perfect numbers in 100000; which are 6. 28. 496. & 8128. Next for the fourth, De mundi opif. Philo, not onely hath assured us, that it is [...], a perfect number, Bodinus contradicts him: but that it is highly honoured,De Abrahamo. as amongst Philosophers, so by Moses also, who hath affirmed of it, that it is, [...], both holy, and prayse-worthy too. And for the mysteries ther­of, Clemens of Alexandria tels us, that both Iehovah in the Hebrew, Strom. l. 5. and [...] in the Greeke, consisteth of foure letters onely:Orat. 44. and so doth Deus in the Latine. Na­zianzen further doth enforme us, that as the seventh a­mongst the Hebrew, so was the fourth honoured by the Pythagoreans: [...], and that they used to sweare thereby when they tooke an oath. Yet for all this, Saint Ambrose thought this number not alone un­profitable but euen dangerous also. Numerum quartum plerique canent, & inutile putant, Lib 4. c. 9 as he in his Hexaemeron. Then for the fift, Macrobius tels us that it comprehen­deth all things both in the Heavens above,In Levit. hom [...]6 and the earth below. And yet by Origen it is placed indifferently, part­ly in laudabilibus, partly in culpabilibus; there being five foolish Virgins for the five wise ones.

(10) Now let us looke upon the sixt, whichIn Gen. 2▪ Beda reckoneth to be numerus perfectus; and Bodin, De rep. l. 4. primus perfectorum. De mundi opif. Philo, and generally theCle [...] Alex. S [...]rom l. 4. Pythagoreans doe affirme the same. Yet the same Bodin▪ tells us in the selfe-same Booke, that howsoever it be the first perfect number, such as according unto Plato, did sort most fit­ly with the workmanship of God: Videmus tamen vi­lissimis animantibus convenire, yet was it proper, in some sort,In Levit 12. to the vilest creatures. As for the eighth, Hesychius makes it an expression, or figure of the world to come. Macrobius, tells us that the Pythagoreans used it as an Hieroglyphick of Iustice, quia primus omnium solvitur in numeros pariter pares; because it will be alwayes divisi [...]le into even or equall members. Nay, whereas those of A­thens did use to sacrifice to Neptune, on the eighth day of every moneth:In These [...]. Plutarch hath found out such a mysticall [Page 20] reason for it, out of the nature of that number; as others in the number of seven, for the moralitie of the Sabbath. ‘They sacrifice (saith he) to Neptune on the eighth day of every moneth, because the number of eight is the first Cube, made of even numbers, and the double of the first square: [...], which doth represent an immoveable stedfastnesse properly attributed to the might of Nep­tune; whom for this cause wee name Asphalius and [...], which signifieth the safe keeper and stayer of the earth.’ As strong an argument for the one, as any mysterie or moralitie derived from numbers, can be for the other. But if we looke upon the tenth, we find a greater commendation given to that, then to the seventh: yea, by those very men themselves, to whom the seventh appea­red so sacred. Philo affirmes thereof,De mundi [...]pific. that of all num­bers it is mostDe congress. qu erudi [...]. gr. absolute and complete; not meanly ce­lebrated by the Prophet Moses; most proper and fami­liar unto God himself;De Decalog [...]. that the powers and vertues of it are innumerable: and finally, that learned men did call it [...], because it comprehended in it selfe all kind of numbers. With whom agree Macrobius, who stiles it numerum perfectissimum; andStrom. l. 6. Clemens Alexandrinus, who gives it both the attributes of holi­nesse and perfection,Qu. ad An­tioch 51. Nazianzen and▪ Ora [...]. [...]2. Athanasius are as full, as they. And here this number seemes to mee to have got the better: there being nothing spoken in disgrace of this, as was before of the seventh, by severall Authours there remembred. So that for ought I see, in case the argument be good for the morality of the Sab­bath, we may make every day, or any day a Sabbath, with as much reason as the seventh: and keepe it on the tenth day, with best right of all. Ad [...]o argumenta ab absurdo petita in [...]ptos habent exitus, said Lactantius truly. Nay, by this reason, we need not keepe a Sabbath oftner, then every thirtieth day, or every fiftieth, or every hundreth: because those numbers have been noted also to containe great mysteries, and to be perfecter too then others. For [Page 21] Origen hath plainly told us, that if wee looke into the Scriptures,In Gen h [...]m. 2. invenies nulla magnarum rerum gesta sub tri­cenario & quinquegenario contineri; we shall find many notable things delivered to us in the numbers of thirtie and fiftie. Of fifty more particularly Philo affirmes upon his credit,De vita con­templ. that it is [...], the holiest and most naturall of all other numbers: and Ori­gen conceived so highly of it, that he breaks out into a ti­meo hujus numeri secreta discutere, In Num. [...]om. 8. and durst not touch upon that string. So lastly for the Centenary the same Au­thour tels us, that it is plenus and perfectus, no one more absolute.In Gen. h [...]m▪ 2. Wee may have Sabbaths at our will, either too many, or too few, if this plea be good.

(11) Yea, but perhaps, there may be some thing in the Scripture, whereby the seventh day may be thought more capable, in nature, of so high an honour. Some have so thought indeed, and thereupon have mustered up all those texts of Scripture, in which there [...] hath beene any good expressed or intimated which concernes this num­ber, or is reducible unto it. Bellarmine never took more pains, out of that fruitlesse topick to produce seven Sa­craments: then they have done from thence to derive the Sabbath. I need not either name the men, or recite the places: both are knowne sufficiently. Which kind of proofe if it be good, we are but where we were before, amongst our Ecclesiasticall and humane Writers. In this, the Scriptures will not helpe us, or give the seventh day naturally, and in it selfe, more capabi­lity or fitnesse for Gods worship, then the ninth or tenth. For first the Scriptures give not more honour to this number in some texts thereof, then it detracts from it in others: and secondly, they speake as highly of the other numbers, as they doe of this. The Iesuite Pererius shall stand up,In Gen. 6. n. 17. to make good the first; and Doctor Cracanthorp to avow the second. Pererius first resolves it cleerly, numerum Septenarium etiam in rebus pessimis & execrandis saepenumero positum esse in Scriptu­ra [...] [Page 22] sacra. As for example. ‘The evill spirit (saith Saint Luke) brought with him seven spirits worse then him­selfe: and out of Mary Magdalen did Christ cast out seven Devils, as Saint Marke tels us. So in the Revela­tion, Saint Iohn informes us of a Dragon that had seven heads and seven Crownes, as also of seven plagues, sent into the earth, and seven Viols of Gods wrath powred out upon it.’ (He might have told us had he listed, that the purple beast whereon the great Whore rid, had seven heads also, and that shee sate upon seven Mountaines.) ‘It's true (saith hee) which David tels us, that hee did prayse God seven times a day: but then as true it is, which [...]olomon hath told us, that the just man falleth seven times a day.’ So in the booke of Genesis, we have seven leane kine, and seven thinne eares of Corn; as well as seven fat Kine▪ and seven full Eares: To proceed no further. Pererius hereupon makes this generall resolu­tion of the case; Apparet igitur eosdem numeros, aeque in bonis & malis poni, & usurpari in sacra scriptura. Next whereas those of Rome, Contra Spalat. cap. 30. as before I noted, have gone the same way to find out seven Sacraments: our Cracanthorpe, to shew the vanitie of that argument, doth the like, for the proofe of two. ‘Quod & si nobis fas esset, &c. If it were lawfull for us to take this course, we could pro­duce more for the number of two, then they can for se­ven. As for example, God made two great lights in the Firmament, and gave to man two eyes, two eares, two feet, two hands, two armes. There were two Na­tions in the wombe of Rebecca, two tables of the Law, two Cherubins, two Sardonich stones in which were written the names of the sonnes of Israel. Thou shalt offer to the Lord, two Rams, two Turtles, two Lambes of an yeere old, two young Pigeons, two Hee-goats, two Oxen for a peace-offering. Let us make two Trum­pets, two Doores of the wood of Olives, two Nets, two Pillars. There were two Hornes of the Lambe, two Candle sticks, two Olive branches, two Witnesses, two [Page 23] Prophets, two Testaments; and upon two Comman­dements hang all the Law and the Prophets, saith our Saviour.’ Congruentiis facile vinceremus, si nobis in [...]une campum descendere libet, &c. We should (saith he) pre­sume of an easie victory, should we thus dally with con­gruities, as doe those of Rome. Hence we conclude, that by the light of Scripture, we find not anything in nature, why either every seventh day should; or every second day should not be a Sabbath. Not to say any thing of the o­ther numbers, of which the like might be affirmed, if we would trouble our selves about it.

(12) Its true, this tricke of trading in the mysteries of numbers, is of long standing in the Church, and of no lesse danger: first borrowed from the Platonists and the Pythagoreans; by the ancient Hereticks, Marcion, Valenti­nus, Basilides, and the rest of that damned crew; the bet­ter to disguise their errours, and their palliate impieties. Some of the Fathers afterwards tooke up the devise, per­haps to foyle the Hereticks at their own weapons: though many of them purposely declined it: Sure I am Chrsostome dislikes it.In Gen. h [...]m 24▪ Who on those words in the 7. of Genesis, by se­ven & by seven (which is the number now debated) doth instruct us thus. [...], &c. ‘Many (saith hee) doe tell strange matters of this fact, and taking an occasion hence, make many ob­servation, out of severall numbers. Whereas not ob­servation, but onely an unseasonable curiositie hath produced those fictions, [...], from whence so many heresies had their first originall. For oftentimes (that out of our abundance we may fit their fancies) wee finde the even or equall number no lesse commemorated in holy Scripture, as when God sent out his Disciples by two, and two: when he chose twelve Apostles, and left foure Evange­lists. But these things it were needles to suggest to you, [Page 24] who have so many times beene lessened,’ [...], to stop your eares against such follies. Saint Augustine also, though hee had descanted a while upon the mysteries of this number:De Civil. Dei, l. 11. c. 31. yet he cuts off him­selfe, in the very middle, as it were, Ne scientiolam suam leviter magis quam utiliter, jactare velle videa­tur; lest hee should seeme to shew his reading, with more pride, then profit. And thereupon he gives this excellent rule, which I could wish had beene more pra­ctised in this case; Habenda est itaque ratio moderatio­nis & gravitatis, ne forte cum de numero multum loqui­mur, mensuram & pondus negligere judicemur. Wee must not take, saith hee, so much heed of numbers, that wee forget at the last, both weight and measure. And this wee should the rather doe, because that gene­rally there is no rule layd downe, or any reason to be gi­ven in nature, why some particular numbers have been set apart for particular uses, when other numbers might have served: why Hiericho should be rather compassed seven times, then sixe or eight; why Abraham rather trained three hundred and eighteene of his servants, then three hundred and twenty; or why his servant tooke ten Camels with him into Padan Aram, and not more or lesse: with infinite others of this kind in the Law Leviti­call. Yet I deny not, but that some reason may be given, why in the Scripture, things are so often ordered by se­vens and sevens: viz▪ as Iustin Martyr tels [...],R [...]spons. ad qu. 69. the better to preserve the memory of the Worlds Creation. Another reason may be added, which is, by this inculcating of the number of seven, unto the Iewes, to make that people, who other­wise were at first averse from it, as before I noted, conti­nually mindfull of the Sabbath. Numerum septenarium propter Sabbatum Iudaeis familiarem esse, In Esaiae. 4. was the obser­vation of Saint Hierom. To draw this point unto an end, It is apparant by what hath before been spoken, that there [Page 25] is no Sabbath to be found in the beginning of the World, or mentioned as a thin done, in the second of Genesis: either on any strength of the Text it self, or by immediate ordinance and command from God, collected from it, or by the law and light of nature imprinted in the soule of man, at his first creation: much lesse by any naturall fit­nesse in the number of Seaven, whereby it was most capable in it selfe of so high an honour, which first premised, we shall the easier see what hath been done in point of practice.

CHAP. II.
That there was no SABBATH kept, from [...] the Creation, to the Floud.

(1) Gods rest upon the seventh day, and from what hee rested. (2) Zanchius conceit touching the san [...]tifying of the first seventh day, by Christ our Saviour (3) The like of Torniellus, touching the sanctifying of the same, by the Angells in Heaven (4) A generall demonstration that the Fathers before the Law, did not keepe the Sabbath. (5) Of Adam, that he kept not the Sabbath. (6) That Abel, and Seth did not keepe the Sabbath. (7) Of Enos, that hee kept not the Sab­bath. (8) That Enoch and Methusalem did not keepe the Sabbath. (9) Of Noah, that hee kept not the Sab­bath. (10) The Sacrifices and devotions of the An­cients were occasionall.

(1) HOw little ground there is, whereon to build the originall of the [...]abbath, in the s [...]cond of Genesis, wee have [...]t large de­clared in the former Chapter. Yet wee deny not but that Text affords us a suffi­cient intimation of the equity and reason of it,O [...]igen c [...]ntra Ce [...]s l. 6. which is Gods rest upon that day after all his works that hee had made. Not as once Celsus did object against [Page 27] the Christians of his time, as if the Lord, [...], &c. like to some dul artificer, was weary of his labours, and had need of sleepe: for he spake the word onely and all things were made. There went no greater labour to the whole creation, then a dixit Do­minus. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth,D [...] Gen. ad lit l. 4. c 14. nec cum creavit defessus, nec cum cessavit refectus est; that God was neither weary of working, nor refreshed with rest­ing. [...]he meaning of the Text is this, that hee desi [...]ted then, from adding any thing, de novo, unto the World by him created: as having in the six former dayes, fashioned the Heaven and Earth, and eve [...] thing in them contai­ned; and furnished them with all things necessary, both for use and ornament. I say, from adding any thing, de novo, unto the World by him created; but not from go­verning the same: which is a worke by us as highly to be prized, as the first creation; and from the which God never resteth. Sabbaths and all dayes are alike in respect of providence: in reference to the universall government of the World and Nature.Hom 23. in Num. Semper videmus Deum ope­rari, & Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus non operetur, in quo non producat Solem suum super bonos & malos. No Sabbath, whereon God doth rest from the administrati­on of the World by him created, whereon hee doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad; where­on he raines not plenty, upon the sinner and the just, as Origen hath truly noted Nor is this more, then what our Saviour said in his holy Gospell. I worke (saith he) and my Father also worketh. Contra Faus [...]um Man. l. 16. [...]. 6. A saying, as saith Saint Austine notes, at which the Iewes were much offended, our Sa­viour meaning by those words that God rested not, nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem, and that there was no day wherein he tended not the preservation of the crea­ture: and therefore for his own part, he would not cease from doing his Fathers businesse, ne Sabbatis quidem, no though it were upon the Sabbath. By which it see­meth, that when the Sabbath was observed, and that if [Page 28] still it were in force, it was not then, and would not be un­lawfull unto any now, to look to his estate on the Sabbath day, and to take care that all things thrive and prosper which belong unto him: though he increase it not, or adde thereto by following, on that day, the workes of his daily labour. And this according to their rules, who would have Gods example so exactly followed, in the Sabbaths rest: who rested, as we see, from creation one­ly, not from preservation. So that the rest here mentio­ned, was as before I said, no more then a cessation or a leaving off, from adding any thing, as then, unto the World by him created [...] Vpon which ground, hee after­wards designed this day for his holy Sabbath, that so by his example the Iewes might learne to rest from their Worldly labours; and be the better fitted to meditate on the workes of God, and to commemorate his goodnesse manifested in the Worlds Creation.

(2) Of any other sanctification of this day, by the Lord our God, then that he rested on it now, and after did command the Iewes that they should sanctifie the same, we have no Constat in the Scriptures: nor in any Author, that I have met with, untill Zanchies time. Indeed hee tels us, a large story of his owne making, how God the Sonne came down to Adam, and sanctified this first Sab­bath with him; that hee might know the better how to doe the like. Ego quidem non dubito, &c. I little doubt, saith he,De creat [...]ami­nis l. 1. ad finem. ‘(I will speake onely what I thinke, without wrong or prejudice to others, I little doubt) but that the Sonne of God, taking the shape of man upon him was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam; that he made known himselfe both to him, and Eve; taught them the order that he used in the Worlds creation; exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works; in them to prayse the Name of God, acknow­ledging him for their Creatour; & after his example, to spend that day for ever, in these pious exercises. I doubt not, finally, saith hee, but that hee taught them on that [Page 29] day the whole body of divinity: and that he held them busied all day long, in hearing him, and celebrating with due prayses their Lord and God; and giving thankes unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciou [...]ly vouchsafed to bestow upon them. Which said, he shuts up all with this conclusion. Haec est illius septimi diei benedictio & sanctificatio, in qua fi­lius Dei una cum patre & spiritu sancto, quievit ab ope­re quod fecerat. This was (saith hee) the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day, wherein the Sonne of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, did rest from all the workes that they had made.’ How Zanchie thwarts himselfe in this,See n. 5. wee shall see hereafter. Such strange conceptions, though they miscarry not in the birth: yet commonly they serve to no other use, then monsters in the works of nature, to be seen and shewne; with wonder at all times, and sometimes with pitie. Had such a thing occurred in Pet. Comestors supplement, which he made unto the Bible, it had been more tolerable. The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairely also have been excused, if any such devise had been extant in them. The gravity of the man makes the tale more pittifull, though never the more to be regarded. For certainly, had there been such a weighty conference between God and Man; and so much tending unto information, and instruction: it is not probable, but that we should have heard thereof in the holy Scriptures. And finding nothing of it there, it were but unadvisedly done, to take it on the word and credit of a private man. Non credimus quia non legimus, was in some points Saint Hieroms rule; and shall now be ours.

(3) As little likelihood there is, that the Angels did observe this day and sanctifie the same to the Lord their God: yet some have been so venturous as to affirme it. Sure I am Torniellus saith it.Annal. d. 7. And though he seem to have some Authors, upon whom to cast it; yet his approving of it, makes it his, as well as theirs who first devised it. [Page 30] Quidam, non immerito, existimarunt hoc ipso die in Coelis omnes Angelorum choros, speciali quadam exultatione in Dei laudes prorupisse, quod tam praeclarum & admirabile opus absolvisset. Nay, he, and they, who ever they were, have a Scripture for it;38. 4, 6. even Gods words to Iob: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth; when the morning starres sang together, and all the sonnes of God shouted for joy? Who, and from whence those Quidam were, that so interpreted Gods words, I could never finde; and yet have took some pains to seek it. Sure I am, Saint Austin makes a better use of them, and comes home indeed unto the meaning. Some men, it seemes, affir­med that the Angels were not made, till after the sixe dayes were finished,De Civit, Dei, l. 11. c. 9. in which all things had been crea­ted: and he referres them to this Text for their confutati­on. Which being repeated, he concludes. I am ergo e­rant Angeli, quando facta sunt sydera, facta autem sunt sydera die quarto. Therefore (saith he) the Angels were created before the Starres; and on the fourth day were the starres created. Yet Zanchius, and those Quidam, be they who they will, fell short a little of another con­ceit of Philos, De vita Mosis lib. 3. who tels us that the Sabbath had a privilege above other dayes, not onely from the first Creation of the World (though that had beene enough to set out the Sabbath:) [...], but even before the Heavens and all things visible were created. If so it must be sanctified by the holy Trinitie, without the tongues of men and Angels: and God, not having worked, must rest; and sanctifie a time, when no time was; But to return to Torniellus, however those Quidam did mislead him, & make him think that the first Sabbath had been sanctified by the holy A [...]gels; yet he ingenuously confesseth that sa [...]ctifying of the Sabbath here upon the earth was not in use till very many ages af­ter,Annal▪ d 7. not till the Law was given by Moses. Veruntamen in terris ista Sabbati sanctificatio non nisi post multa secula in usum venisse creditur, nimirum temporibus Mosis, quando sub praecepto data est filiis Israel. So Torniellus.

[Page 31](4) So Torniellus, and so farre unquestionable. For that there was no Sabbah kept amongst us men, till the times of Moses, the Christian Fathers generally, and some Rabbins also, have agreed together. Which that we may the better shew, I shall first let you see what they say in generall, and after what they have delivered of particular men, most eminent in the whole story of Gods Booke, untill the giving of the Law. And first that never any of the Patriarkes before Moses time, did observe the Sab­bath, Iustin the Martyr hath assured us;Dial. cum T [...]yph [...]. None of the righteous men, saith he, and such as walked before the Lord, were either circumcised or kept the Sabbath, untill the seve­rall times of Abraham and Moses. And where the Iewes were scandalized, in that the Christians did eat hot meats on the Sabbath dayes: the Martyr makes reply, that the said just and righteous men, not taking heed of any such ob­servances, [...], obtained a nota­ble testimony of the Lord himselfe. Adv haeres. l. [...]. c. 30. So Irenaeus, having first told us that Circumcision and the Sabbath were both gi­ven for signes; and having spoke particularly of Abra­ham, Noah, Lot, and Enoch, that they were justified without them: addes for the close of all, that all the mul­titude of the faithfull before Abraham were justified without the one; Et Patriarcharum [...]orum qui ante Mo­sen fuerunt, and all the Patriarkes which preceded Mo­ses, without the other.Adv. Iud [...]s. Tertullian next, disputeth thus a­gainst the Iewes, that they which think the Sabbath must be still observed, as necessary to sal [...]ation; or Circumcisi­on to be used upon pain of death: Doceant in Praeteritum justos sabbatriasse, aut circumcidisse, & sic amicos Dei ef­fectos esse; ought first of all, saith he, to prove, That the Fathers of the former times were circumcised or kept the Sabbath, or that thereby they did obtaine to be accounted the friends of God. Hist. l. 1. c. 4. Then comes Eusebius the Historian, and he makes it good, that the Religion of the Patriarchs [Page 32] before Moses Law, was nothing different from the Chri­stian: and how proves he that? [...] ▪ They were not circumcised, no more are we; they kept not any Sabbath, no more doe we: they were not bound to abstinence from sundry kinds of meates, which are pro­hibited by Moses: nor are wee neither. Which argument be also useth to the self- [...]ame purpose in his first Booke, de demonstr. Evang. and sixth Chapter. And in his seventh, de praeparatione, Cap. 6. he resolves it thus, [...], &c. The Hebrewes which pre­ceded Moses, and were quite ignorant of his Law (where­of he makes the Sabbath an especiall part) disposed their wayes according to a voluntary kind of pietie, [...], framing their lives and actions to the law of nature. Adv haereses l. 1. n. 5. This argument is also used by Epi­phanius, who speaking of the first ages of the World, in­forms us that as then there was no difference among men, in matters of opinion, no Iudaisme, nor kinde of heresie whatsoever: [...], &c. but that the faith doth now flourish in Gods Church was from the begin­ning. If so, no Sabbath was observed in the times of old, because none in his. I could enlarge my Catalogue, but that some testimonies are to be reserved to another place: when I shall come to shew you, that the commandement of the Sabbath was published to Gods people,See Ch. 4. by Moses onely; and that to none but to the Iewes. After so many of the Fathers, the moderne Writers may perhaps seeme unnecessary;2 Edit p 12. yet take one or two. First, Musculus, (as Doctour Bound informes mee, for I take his word) who tels us that it cannot bee proved that the Sabbath was kept before the giving of the Law, either from Adam to Noah, or from the floud to the times of Moses, or of Abraham and his posterity. Which is no more then what wee shall see shortly out of Eusebius. Hospinian next,Def [...]is 1 cap [...] who though he faine would have the sanctifying of [Page 33] the Sabbath, to be as old as the beginning of the World; yet he confesseth at the last, Patris idcirco Sabbatum ob­servasse ante legem, that for all that it cannot be made good by the Word of God, that any of the Fathers did observe it, before the Law. These two I have the rather cited, because they have beene often vouched in the pub­like controversie, as men that wished well to the cause, and say somewhat in it.

(5) We are now come unto particulars. And first we must begin with the first man Adam. The time of his Creation as the Scriptures tels us, the sixt day of the week, being as Scaliger conjectured in the first Edition of his Worke,Emend. temp. l. 5. the three and twentieth day of Aprill; and so the first Sabbath, Sabbatum primum, so hee calls it, was the foure and twentieth.Doctrina temp. l 4 c. 6 Petavius, by his computation, makes the first Sabbath to be the first day of November; and Scaliger, in his last Edition, the five and twentieth of October: more neere to one another then before they were. Yet saith not Scaliger, that that primum Sabbatum had any reference to Adam, though first he left it so at large, that probably some might so conceive it: for in his later thoughts he declares his meaning to be this, Sabba­tum primum in quo Deus requievit ab opere Hexa [...]meri. Indeed the Chaldee paraphrase seemes to affirme of A­dam, that he kept the Sabbath. For where the 92 Psalme doth beare this Title, A Song or Psalme for the Sabbath day: the Authors of that paraphrase doe expound it thus, Laus & Canticum quod dixit homo primus pro die Sabbati, the Song or Psalme which Adam said for the Sabbath day. Somewhat more wary in this point was Rabbi Kimchi, who tels us how that Adam was created upon Friday about three of the clocke; fell at eleven, was censured and driven out of Paradise at twelve, that all the residue of that day, and the following night he bemoned his miseries; was taken into grace next morning, being Sabbath day; and taking then into consideration all the works of God, brake out into such words as those, al­though [Page 34] though not the same. A tale that hath as much foundati­on, as that narration of Zanchie, before remembred. Who though he seeme to put the matter out of doubt with his three non dubito's, that Christ himselfe did sanctifie the first Sabbath, with our Father Adam; and did command him ever after to observe that day: yet in another place, he makes it onely a matter of probability, that the comman­dement of the Sabbath, Iu 4. manda [...]ū. was given at all to our first pa­rents. Quomodo autem sanctificavit? Non solum decreto & voluntate, sed reipsa; quia illum diem, (ut non pauci vo­lunt & probabile est) mandavit primis parentibus sanctifi­candum. So easily doth he overthrow his former structure. But to return unto the Rabbins, and this dreame of theirs, Besides the strangenesse of the thing, that Adam should continue not above eight houres in Paradise, and yet give names to all the creatures, fal into such an heavy sleep, and have the woman taken out of him, that shee must be in­structed, tempted, and that both must sin, and both must suffer in so short a time: besides all this, the Christian Fa­thers are expr [...]sse, that Adam never kept the [...]abbath. Iu­stine the Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho, a learned Iew, makes Adam one of those, [...], &c. [...], which being neither circumcised, nor keeping any Sabbath, were yet accepted by the Lord. And so Tertullian in a Treatise written against the Iewes, Adv▪ Iudaeos. affirmes of Adam, quod nec circumcisum nec sabbatizan­tem Deus [...]um instituerit. Nay, which is more, he makes a challenge to the Iewes, to prove unto him if they could, that Adam ever kept the Sabbath. Doceant Adamum sabbatizasse, as hee there hath it. Which doubtlesse nei­ther of them would have done, considering with whom the one disputed, and against whom the other wrote: had they not beene very well assured of what they said. The like may be affirmed both of Eusebius, De Praepar. E. v [...]g l. 7. c. 8. and Epipha­ [...]ius, two most learned Fathers. Whereof the first, main­tayning positively that the Sabbath was first given by Moses, makes Ad [...]m one of those, which neither troubled [Page 35] himselfe with Circumcision, [...], nor any of the Lawes of Moses; Adv haer [...]s. l. 1. [...]. 5. The other reckoneth him amongst those also, who lived according to that faith, which when he wrote, was generally recei­ved in the Christian Church. Therefore no Sabbath kept by our Father Adam.

(6) But whatsoever Adam did, Abel, I hope, was more observant of this duty. Thus some have said indeed, but on no authority. It is true the Scriptures tell us, that he offered Sacrifice: but yet the Scriptures do not tell us, that in his Sacrifices he had more regard unto the seventh day, then to any other. To offer Sacrifice, he might learne of Adam, or of naturall reason, which doth sufficiently instruct us, that we ought all to make some publick testi­mony of our subjection to the Lord. But neither Adam did observe the Sabbath, nor could nature teach it, as be­fore is shewne. And howsoever some Moderne Writers have conjectured, and conjectured onely, that Abel in his Sacrifices might have respect unto the Sabbath: yet those whom we may better trust, have affirm'd the con­trary. For Iustin Martyr disputing against Trypho, brings Abel in for an example; that neither Circumcision nor the Sabbath, the two great glories of the Iewes, were to be counted necessary. For if they were, saith hee, God had not had so much regard to Abels Sacrifice, being as hee was uncircumcised: and then he add [...], &c. [...], that though he was no Sabbath-keeper, yet was he acceptable unto God. And [...]o Tertul­lian, that God accepted of his Sacrifice,Adv. Iudae [...]. though he were neither circumcised, nor kept the Sabbath. Abelem offe­rentem sacrificia incircumcisum neque sabbatizantem lau­davit Deus, accepta ferens qu [...] in simplicitate cordis offe­rebat. Yea, and hee brings him also into his challenge, Doceant Abel hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem, Sabbati re­ligionem placuisse: which is directly contrary to that, which is conjectured by some Moderne Writers.Adv. haeres. l▪ 1, n. 5. So E­piphani [...]s also makes him one of those, who lived accor­ding [Page 36] to the tendries of the Christian Faith. The like hee also saith of Seth, whom God raised up instead of Abel, to our Father Adam. Therefore no Sabbath kept by ei­ther.

(7) It is conceived of Abel that hee was killed in the one hundred and thirtieth yeare of the Worlds Creation: of E [...]os, Seths sonne, that he was borne Anno two hun­dred thirty six. And till that time there was no Sabbath. But then, as some conceive, the Sabbath day began to be had in honour, because it is set downe in Scripture, that then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. Gen. 4. A [...]al. Anno 236. n. 4. That is, ‘as Torniellus descants upon the place, then, were spiri­tuall Congregations instituted, as wee may probably conjecture, certaine set formes of Prayers and Hymnes devised to set forth Gods glory, certaine set times and places also set apart for those pious duties: praecipue die­bus Sabbati, especially the Sabbath dayes, in which most likely they began to abstaine from all servile works, in honour of that God, whom they well knew had rested on the seventh day from all his labours▪’ Sure Torniel­lus minde was upon his Mattins, when he made this Pa­raphrase. Hee had not else gathered a Sabbath from this Text, considering that not long before hee had thus con­cluded; That sanctifying of the Sabbath here on earth was not in use, V. [...] 3. of this Chapter. untill the Law was given by Moses. But cer­tainly this Text will beare no such matter, were it consi­dered as it ought. The Ch [...]ldee P [...]raphrase thus reades it, Tunc in diebus ejus inceperunt filii hominum [...], Q [...] [...]ebrai [...]. i [...] [...]n G [...]. ut non ora­rent in nomine Domini; which is quite contrary to the English. Our Bibles of the last Translation in the margin, thus; then began men to call themselues by the name of the Lord: and generally the Iewes, as Saint Hierome tels us, doe thus glosse upon it, Tunc primum in nomine Domini, & in similitudine eius fabricata sunt idola; that then be­gan men to set up Idols both in the name, and after the si­militude of God. Ainsworth in his Translation thus, Then began men prophanely to call upon the Name of the [Page 37] Lord: who tels us also in his Annotations on this Text, out of Rabbi Maimony, that in these dayes Idolatry tooke its first beginning, and the people worshipped the starres and all the host of Heaven; so generally that at the last there were few left which acknowledged God, as Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Sem, and Heber. So that wee see not any thing in this Text, sufficient to produce a Sabbath. But take it as the English reades it, which is agreeable to the Greeke, and vulgar Latine; and may well stand with the origi­nall: yet will the cause be little better. For men might call upon Gods Name, and have their publick meetings & set formes of Prayer, without relation to the seventh day more then any other.De P [...]aeparat. Evang l 7▪ 8. As for this E [...]os, Eusebius propo­seth him unto us, [...], as the first man commended in the Scripture for his love to God: that we by his example might learn to call upon Gods Name with assured hope. But yet withall he tels us of him, that he ob­served not any of those Ordinances which Moses taught unto the Iewes, whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe; as formerly we observed in Adam. And Epiphanius rankes him amongst those Fathers, who lived according to the rules of the Christian Church: Therfore no Sabbath kept by Enos.

(8) We will next looke on Enoch, who, as the Text tels us, walked with God, and therefore doubt wee not, but he would carefully have kept the Sabbath, had it been required. But of him also, the Fathers generally say the same, as they did before of others. For Iustin Martyr not onely makes him one of those which without Cir­cumcision and the Sabbath, had been approved of by the Lord: but pleads the matter more exactly. The substance of his plea is this, that if the Sabbath or circumcision were to be counted necessary to eternall life, wee must needs fall, upon this absurd opinion,Dial. cum Try­ph [...]. [...], that the same God whom the Iewes worshipped, was not the God of Enoch, and of other men about those times: which neither had been [Page 38] Circumcised, [...], nor kept the Sab­bath, nor any other Ordinances of the Law of Moses. So Irenaeus speaking before of Circumcision and the Sabbath, placeth this Enoch among those,Lib. 4 cap 30. qui sine iis quae praedicta sunt justificationem adepti sunt, which had beene justified without any the Ordinances before remembred. Tertul­lian more fully yet.Adv. Iudaeos. Enoch justissimum nec circumcisum▪ nec sabbatizantem, de hoc mundo transtulit, &c. Enoch ‘that righteous man being neither Circumcised nor a Sabbath-keeper, was by the Lord translated, and saw not death, to be an Item or instruction unto us, that we, without the burden of the Law of Moses, shall be found acceptable unto God.’ Hee set him also in his challenge, as one whom never any of the Iewes could prove, Sabbati cultorem esse, to have been a keeper of the Sabbath. Eusebius too, who makes the Sabbath one of Moses institutions,De Demonstr. l. 4. c 6. hath said of Enoch, that hee was nei­ther circumcised, nor medled with the Law of Moses: [...], &c. and that hee lived more like a Christian, than a Iew. The same Euse­bius in his seventh de praeparatione, and Epiphanius in the place before remembred, affirme thesame of him, as they do of Adam, Abel, Seth, and Enos: and what this Epi­phanius saith of him, that hee affirmes also of his sonne, Methusalem. S [...]al. de Em [...]d. Temp l 7. Therefore nor Enoch, nor Methusalem e­ver kept the Sabbath. Its true, the Aethiopians in their Calendar have a certain period, which they call Sabbatum Enoch, Enoch's Sabbath. But this consisteth of seven hundred yeares, and hath that name, either because E­noch was borne in the seventh Century from the Creati­on, viz. in the yeare six hundred twenty two, or because he was the seventh from Adam. Its true, that many of the Iewes, and some Christians too, have made this E­noch an Embleme of the heavenly and eternall Sabbath, which shall never end: [...] in Ge [...]. 4. because he was the seventh from Adam, and did never taste of death, as did the six that went before him. But this is no Argument, I trow, that [Page 39] Enoch ever kept the Sabbath whiles hee was alive. Note that this Enoch was translated about the yeare nine hun­dred eighty seven: and that Methusalem died but one yeare onely before the Floud, which was 1655. And so farre we are safely come, without any rub.

(9) To come unto the Floud it selfe, to Noah, who both saw it, and escaped it; it is affirmed by some, that he kept the Sabbath: and that both in the Arke, and when he was released out of it, if not before. Yea, they have arguments also for the proofe hereof, but very weake ones: such as they dare not trust themselves. It is delive­red in the eighth of the Booke of Genesis, that after the return of the Dove into the Arke, Noah stayed yet other se­ven dayes before he sent her forth againe.Vers. 10 & 12. What then? This seemes unto Hospinian to be an argument for the Sabbath. In historia diluvii, columbae ex arca emissae septenario die­rum intervallo, ratione sabbati videntur. So hee, and so verbatim, Iosias Simler, in his Comment on the twentieth of Exodus. But to this argument, if at the least it may be honoured with that name, Tostatus hath returned an an­swere as by way of prophecie.In Gen. 8. He makes this Quaere first, s [...]d quare ponit hic, quod No [...] expectabat semper septem dies, &c. Why Noah, betwixt every sending of the Dove, expected just seven dayes, neither more nor lesse: and then returns this answere to it, such as indeed doth excellent­ly satisfie both his own Quaere, and the present argument. ‘Resp. quod Noah intendebat scire utrum aquae cessas­sent, &c. Noah (saith he) desired to know whether the waters were decreased. Now since the waters being a moyst body, are regulated by the Moone, Noah was most especially to regard her motions: for as she is ei­ther in opposition or conjunction with the Sunne, in her increase or in her wane, there is proportionably an increase or falling of the waters. Noah then conside­ring the Moone in her severall quarters, which com­monly we know are at seven dayes distance, sent forth his Birds to bring him tydings: for the Text tels us [Page 40] that he sent out the Raven and the Dove foure time [...]. And the fourth time, the Moon being then in the last quarter, when both by the ordinary course of nature the waters usually are, and by the will of God were then much decreased: the Dove which was sent out had found good footing on the earth, and returned no more.’ So farre the learned Abulensis; which makes cleere the case. Nor stand wee onely here, upon our de­fence. For wee have proofe sufficient that Noah never kept the Sabbath. Vbi▪ supra. Iustin the Martyr, and Irenaeus both make him one of those, which without circumcision & the Sabbath, were very pleasing unto God, and also justified without them. Tertullian, positively saith it, that God delivered him from the great water floud,Adv. Iuda [...]. nec circum­cisum, nec sabbatizantem: and chalengeth the Iewes to prove if any way they could, sabbatum observasse, that he kept the Sabbath. Eusebius also tels us of him, that being a just man, and one whom God preserved as a remayning sparke to kindle piety in the World, yet knew not any thing that pertained to the Iewish Ceremony:De demonstr. l. 1. c 6. not Cir­cumcision, [...], nor any other thing ordained by Moses. Remember that Eusebius makes the Sabbath one of Moses Ordinances. Finally, Epiphanius in the place before remembred, ranks▪ Noah in this particular, with Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, and the other Patriarchs.

(10) Its true, that Ioseph Scaliger once made the day, whereon Noah left the Arke, and offered sacrifice to the Lord, to be the seventh day of the week,De Emend [...]. Temp. l. 5. 28. Decembris, feria septima, egressus Noah, [...] im­molavit Deo, saith his first Edition. Which were enough to cause some men, who infinitely admire his Dictates, from thence to have derived a Sabbath: had hee not changed his minde in the next Edition, and placed this memorable action, not on the seventh day, but the fourth. I say it might have caused some men, for all men would not so have doted, as from a special accident to conclude a [Page 41] practice. Considering especially that there is no ground in Scripture to proove that those before the Law, had in their Sacrifices any regard at all to set times and dayes; either unto the sixt day, or the seventh, or eighth, or any other: but did their service to the Lord, I mean the pub­lick part thereof, and that which did consist in externall action, according as occasion was administred unto them. The offerings of Cain and Abel, for ought we can informe our selves, were not very frequent. The Scrip­ture tels us that it was in processe of time; Gen 4. 3. at the yeares end as some expound it. For at the yeares end, as Ains­worth noteth; men were wont in most solemne manner, to offer sacrifice unto God, with thanks for all his bene­fits, having then gathered in their fruits.Exod. 23. 16. The Law of Mo­ses so commanded; the ancient Fathers so observed it, as by this place we may conjecture: and so it was accusto­med too among the Gentiles; their ancient Sacrifices and their Assemblies to that purpose,Ethic. l. 8. (as Aristotle hath infor­med us) being after the gathering in of fruits. No day selected for that use, that we can heare of. This Sacrifice of Noah, as it was remarkable, so it was occasionall: an Eucharisticall Oblation for the great deliverance, which did that day befall unto him. And had it hapned on the seventh day, it were no argument that hee made choice thereof as most fit and proper, or that he used to sacrifice more upon that day, then on any other. So that of A­braham in the twelfth of Genesis, was occasionall only. The Lord appeared to Abraham saying,Gen. 12. 7. unto thy seed will I give this land (the land of Canaan.) And then it follow­eth that Abraham builded there an Altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. The like hee did when hee first set his footing in the promised land, and pitched his Tents not farre from Bethel, Vers. 8. and when hee came to plant in the Plaine of Mamre, Vers. 18. in the next Chapter. See the like, Gen 21. 33. & 1. 22, 13. Of Isaac, Gen. 26. 25. Of Iacob, Gen. 28. 8. & 31. 54. & 33. 20. & 35. 7. 14. [Page 42] No mention in the Scripture of any Sacrifice or publick worship,In Gen. 8. 20. but the occasion is set downe. Hoc ratio natu­ralis dictat, ut de donis suis honoretur imprimis ipse qui de­dit. Naturall reason, saith Rupertus, could instruct them, that God was to be honoured with some part of that▪ which he himselfe had given unto them: but naturall reason did not teach them, that one day differed from another.

CHAP. III.
That the SABBATH was not kept from the Floud to Moses.

(1) The sonnes of Noah did not keepe the Sabbath. (2) The Sabbath could not have been kept, in the disper­sion of Noahs sonnes, had it been commanded. (3) Di­versity of Longitudes and Latitudes, must of necessity make a variation in the Sabbath. (4) Melchisedeck, Heber, Lot, did not keepe the Sabbath. (5) Of Abraham and his sonnes, that they kept not the Sabbath. (6) That Abraham did not keepe the Sabbath in the confession of the Iewes. (7) Iacob nor Iob no Sabbath-keepers. (8) That neither Ioseph, Moses, nor the Israelites in E­gypt did observe the Sabbath. (9) The Israelites not permitted to offer Sacrifice while they were in Egypt. (10) Particular proofes that all the Morall Law was both knowne and kept amongst the Fathers.

(1) WEE are now come unto the hither side of the Floud, to the sonnes of Noah. To whom, the Hebrew-Doctors say, their Father did bequeath seven several Com­mandements, which they and th [...]ir po­sterity were bound to keepe▪ I [...] Lexico, p. 1530. Septem prae­cepta acceperunt filii Noah, &c. as Shindler reckoneth [Page 44] them out of Rabbi Maimony. First, That they dealt up­rightly with every man: Secondly, That they should blesse and magnifie the Name of God: Thirdly, that they abstained from worshipping false gods, and from all Ido­latry: Fourthly, That they forbeare all unlawfull lusts and copulations: The fift against shedding bloud: The sixt against theft and robbery: The seventh and last, a prohi­bition not to eat the flesh, or any member of a beast, ta­ken from it when it was alive; whereby all cruelty was forbidden. These precepts whosoever violated, either of Noahs sonnes, or their posterity, was to be smitten with the sword. Yea, these Commandements were reputed so agreeable to n [...]ture, that all such Heathens as would yee [...]d to obey the same, were suffered to remaine and dwell amongst the Israelites, though they received not Circum­cision, nor any of the Ordinances which were given by Moses. [...]o that amongst the precepts given unto the sonnes of Noah, we find no footstep of the Sabbath. And where a Moderne Writer, whom I spare to name, hath made the keeping of the Sabbath, a member of the second precept, or included in it; it was not so advisedly done: there being no such thing at all,Cunaeus de re­pub. Hebr. 2. 19. either in Schindler, whom he cites; nor in Cunaeus, who repeats the selfe-same pre­cepts, from the self-same Rabbi. Nay, which is more, the Rabbin out of whom they cite it, doth in another place, exclude expresly the observation of the Sabbath out of the number of these precepts given the sonnes of Noah. The man and woman-servant, Ap. Ainsworth in Exod. 20. saith he, which are comman­ded to keepe the Sabbath, are servants that are circumcised, or baptized, &c. But servants not circumcised nor baptised, but onely such as have received the seven Commandements given to the sonnes of Noah, they are as sojourning strang­ers, and may do worke for themselves openly on the Sabbath, as any Israelite may on a working day. So Rabbi May­mony in his Treatise of the Sabbath, Chap. 20. § 14. If then wee finde no Sabbath amongst the sonnes of Noah, whereof some of them were the sonnes of their Fathers [Page 45] piety: there is no thought of meeting with it, in their children or their childrens children; the builders of the Tower of Babel. For they being terrified with the late Deluge, as some conjecture, and to procure the name of great undertakers, as the Scripture saith; resolved to build themselves a Towre, unto the top whereof, the waters should in no wise reach. A worke of a most vast extent, if we may credit those reports that are made thereof; and followed by the people,Antiqu Iud l. [...]. cap. 5. as Iosephus tells us, with their ut­most industry, there being none amongst them idle. If none amongst them would be idle; as likely that no day was spared from so great an action, as they conceived that worke to be. Those that durst bid defiance to the Heaven of God▪ were never like to keepe a Sabbath to the God of Heaven. This action was begun and ended, Anno 1940, or thereabouts.

(2) To ruinate these vain attempts▪ it pleased the Lord first to confound the language of the people, which before was o [...]e; and after to disperse them over all the earth. By meanes of which dispersion, they could not possibly have kept one and the same day for a Sabbath, had it been commanded: the dayes in places of a different longitude, which is the distance of a place from the first Meridian, beginning at such different times, that no one day could be precisely kept amongst them. The proofe and ground whereof, I will make bold to borrow from my late learned friend Natha: Carpenter; that I may manifest in some sort the love I bore him: though pro­bably I might have furnished out this argument, from mine own wardrope; at least have had recourse to many other learned men, who have written of it. For that the difference of time, is varied according to the diffe­rence of longitudes, in divers places of the earth may be made manifest to every mans understanding, out of these two principles: First, if the earth is sphaericall, and se­condly, that the Sunne doth compasse it about it twenty foure houres. From hence it comes to passe, that places [Page 46] situate Eastward see the Sunne sooner then those do, that are placed Westward. And that with such a different pro­portion of time, that unto every houre of the Sunnes mo­tion, there is assigned a certaine number of miles upon the Earth: every fifteen degrees▪ which is the distance of the Meridians, being computed to make one houre; and every fifteene miles upon the earth, correspondent to one minute of that houre. By this wee may perceive, how soone the noon-tide hapneth in one City before another. For if one City stands Eastward of another, the space of three of the aforesaid Meridians, which is 2700. miles; it is apparant that it will enjoy the noon-tyde, no lesse then three houres before the other: and consequently in 10800. miles, which is halfe the compasse of the earth, there will be found no lesse then twelve houres difference in the rising and setting of the Sunne, as also in the noon and midnight. The reason of which difference of times, is as before we said the difference of longitudes, wherein to every houre, Cosmographers have allotted fifteene de­grees in the Suns diurnall motion: so that fifteen degrees being multiplied by twenty foure houres, which is the naturall day, the product will be 360, which is the num­ber of degrees in the whole circle. Now in these times, wherein the sonnes of Noah dispersed themselves, in case the Sabbath was to have been kept, as simply morall; it must needs follow, that the morall Law is subject unto manifold mutations and uncertainties, which must not be granted. For spreading as they did over all the earth, some farther, some at shorter distance; and thereby chang [...]ng Longitudes with their habitations: they must of meet ne­cessity alter the difference of times and daies, and so could keepe no day together. Nor could their issue since their time observe exactly and precisely the self-same day, by reason of the manifold transportation of Colonies, and transmigration of Nations from one Region to another; whereby the times must of necessity be supposed to vary. The Authour of the Practice of Pietie, though he plead [Page 47] hard for the moralitie of the ‘Sabbath, cannot but confesse, that in respect of the diversitie of the Meridians, and the unequall rising and setting of the Sunne, every day va­rieth in some places a quarter, in some halfe, in others an whole day: therefore the Iewish Sabbath cannot (saith he) be precisely kept in the same instant of time, every where in the World.’ Certainly if it cannot now, then it never could: and then it will be found, that some at least of Noahs posterity, and all that have from them descend [...]d, either did keep at all no Sabbath, or not upon the day ap­pointed; which comes all to one. Or else it needs must follow that God imposed a Law upon his people, which in it selfe without relation to the frailty, ne dum to the iniquity of poore man, could not in possibility have been observed: Yea, such a Law, as could not generally have been kept, had Adam still continued in his perfect inno­cence.

(3) To make this matter yet more plaine, It is a Co­rollary or conclusion in Geographie, that if two men doe take a journey from the self-same place, round about the earth; the one Eastward, the other Westward, and meet in the same place againe: it will appeare that hee which hath gone East, hath gotten; and that the other going Westward, hath lost a day, in their accompt. The reason is, because hee that from any place assigned doth travaile Eastward, moving continually against the proper motion of the Sunne, will shorten somewhat of his day: taking so much from it, as his journey in proportion of distance from the place assigned, hath first opposed, and so antici­pated in that time, the diurnall motion of the Sunne. So daily gaining something from the length of day; it will a­mount in the whole circuit of the Earth to twenty foure houres, which are a perfect naturall day. The other go­ing Westward, and seconding the course of the S [...]nne by his own journey, will by the same reason ad [...] as much proportionably, unto his day, as the other lost, and in the end will lose a day in his accompt. For demonstration of [Page 48] the which, suppose of these two Travellers, that the for­mer for every fifteen miles, should take away one minute from the length of the day: and the latter adde as much unto it, in the like proportion of his journey. Now by the Golden Rule, if every fifteene miles substract or adde one minute in the length of the day; then must 21600. miles, which is the compasse of the Earth, adde or substract 1440 minutes, which make up twenty foure houres, a just na­turall day. To bring this matter home, unto the businesse now in hand, suppose we that a Turk, a Iew, & a Christian, should dwell together at Hierusalem, whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday; the other, on the Saturday; and the thi [...]d sanctifieth the Sunday: then, that upon the Saturday, the Turke begin his journey West­ward, and the Christian, Eastward; so as both of them compassing the World, do meet again in the same place; the Iew continuing where they left him. It will fall out, that the Turke by going Westward, having lost a day; and the Christian, going Eastward, having got a day: one and the self-same day, will be a Friday, to the Turke; a [...]atur­day, unto the Iew; and a Sunday to the Christian; in case they calculate the time exactly, from their departure to their returne. To prove this further, yet by a matter of fact. The Hollanders in their Discovery of Fretū le Maire, Anno 1615.1615. found by comparing their accompt, at their comming home, that they had cleerly lost a day (for they had trauailed Westward in that tedious Voyage:) that which was Munday to the one, being the Sunday to the other. And now what should these people do when they were returnd? If they are bound by nature, and the mo­rall Law, to sanctifie precisely one day in seven, they must then sanctifie a day a part from their other Countrymen; and like a crew of Schismaticks, divide themselves from the whole body of the Church: or to keepe order, and comply with other men, must of necessity be forced to go against the law of nature, or the morall law; which ought not to be violated for any by-respect-whatever. But to [Page 49] return unto Noahs sonnes, whom this case concernes; It might, for ought we know, be theirs in this dispersion, in this removing up and downe, and from place to place. What shall we thinke of those that planted Northwards, or as much extremely Southwards; whose issue now, are to be found, as in part is known, neere and within the Po­lar circles: what Sabbath think we could they keep? Some times a very long one sure, and sometimes none: indeed none at all, taking a Sabbath, as wee do, for one day in se­ven. For neere the Polar Circles, as is plainly known, the dayes are twenty foure houres in length. Betweene the Circle and the Pole, the day, if so it may be called, increa­seth first by weeks, and at last by moneths; till in the end, there is six moneths perpetuall day, and as long a night. No roome in those parts for a Sabbath. But it is time to leave these speculations, and return to practice.

(4) And first we will begin with Melchisedech, King of Salem, the Priest of the most high God, Rex idem ho­minumque divumque sacerdos; a type and figure of our Sa­viour; whose Priest [...]ood still continueth in the holy Gospell. With him the rather, because it is most gene­rally conceived, that he was Sem the Sonne of Noah. Of him it is affirmed by Iustin Martyr, that hee was neither circumcised, nor yet kept the Sabbath, and yet most ac­ceptable unto God,Dial. cum Try­phone. Adv. Iudaos. [...], Tertullian also tels us of him, Incircumcisum nec sabbatizantem ad sacerdotium Dei allectum esse: and puts him also in his chalenge, as one whom none amongst the Iews could ever prove to have kept the Sabbath. Eusebius yet more fully‘then either of them:Dem. l. 1. c. 6. Moses, saith he, brings in Melchi­sedech Priest of the most high God, neither being cir­cumcised, nor anointed with the holy Oyle, as was af­terwards commanded in the Law; [...], no not so much as knowing that there was a Sabbath; and ignorant altogether of those Ordinan­ces, [Page 50] which were imposed upon the Iewes, and living most agreeably unto the Gospell.’ Somewhat to that purpose also doth occurre,Cap. 8. in his seventh de praeparation [...]. Melchi [...]edec whosoever he was, gave meeting unto A­braham, about the yeare of the World, 2118: and if we may suppose him to be Sem, as I think we may, hee lived till Isaac was fifty yeares of age, which was long after this famous enterview. Now what these Fathers say of Sem, if Sem at least was he whom the Scriptures call Mel­chisedech; the same almost is said of his great grand-child Heber: he being named by Epipha [...]ius for one of those, who lived according to the faith of the Christian Church; wherein no Sabbath was observed in that Fathers time. And here we will take Lot in too although a little before his time, as one of the Posterity of Heber; that when we come to Abraham, wee may keepe our selves within his Family. Him, Iustin Martyr, and Iren [...]s both, in the places formerly remembred, make to be one of those, which without Circumcision & the Sabbath, were accep­table to the Lord, and by him justified. And so Tertullian, that sine legis observatione, (Sabbath, and Circumcision, and the like) de Sodomorum i [...]cendio liberatus est. Ther­fore nor Lo [...], nor Heber, nor Mel [...]hisedech ever kept the Sabbath.

(5) For Abraham next, the Father of the Faithfull, with whom the Covenant was made, and Circumcision, as a seale, annexed unto it: The Scripture is exceeding co­pious in setting downe his life and actions, as also of the lives and actions of his Sonne, and Nephewes; their fli [...] ­tings and removes, their Sacrifices, formes of Praye [...], and whatsoever else was signall in the whole course of their [...]: but yet no mention of the Sabbath. Though such a memorable thing, as sanctifying of a constant day unto the Lord, might probably have beene omitted in the for­mer Patriar [...]es, of whom there is but li [...]tle left, save their [...] into the [Page 51] story, to make way for him: yet it is strange that in a punctuall and particular relation of his life and piety, there should not be one Item to point out the Sabbath, had it been observed. This is enough to make one thinke there was no such matter. Et quod non invenis usquam, esse pu­tes nusquam, in the Poets language. I grant indeed that Abraham kept the Christian Sabbath, in righteousnesse and holinesse serving the Lord his God, all the dayes of his life: and so did Isaac and Iacob. Sanctificate diem Sabba­ti, saith the Prophet Ieremiah to the Iewes, i. e. ut omne tempus vitae nostrae in sanctificatione ducamus, sicut fecerunt patres nostri, Abraham, Isaac, & Iacob, In Hier. 17. as Saint Hierome glosseth it. Our venerable Bede also hath affirmed as much,In Luc. 19▪ that Abraham kept indeed the spirituall Sabbath, quo semper à servili, i. e. noxia vacabat actione, whereby he alwayes rested from the servile works of sinne: but that he kept or sanctified any other Sabbath, the Christian Fa­thers deny unanimously.In Dial. cu [...] Tryphone. Iustin the Martyr numbring up the most of those before remembred, concludes; that they, [...], were justified without the Sabbath: [...] and so was Abraham after them, and all his chil­dren untill Moses. And whereas Trypho had exacted a necessary keeping of the Law, Sabbaths, New-moones, and Circumcision: the M [...]tyr makes reply, that Abra­ham, Isaac, Iacob, Iob, and all the other Patriarkes both before and after them untill Moses time; yea, and their wives, Sarah, Rebecca, Rach [...]l, Lea, and all the rest of religious women unto Moses mother, [...]. neither kept any of them all, nor had commandement so to do, till Circumcision wa [...] enjoyned to Abraham and his Posterity.Lib. 4. 30. So Ire­naeus, that Abraham, sin [...] Circumcis [...]one & observatione sabbatorum credide [...] D [...]o, without or Circumcision or the Sabbath did beleeve in God, which was imputed to him for righteousnes. And where the Iews objected in defence [Page 52] of their ancient Ceremonies, that Abraham had been cir­cumcised:Adv Iudaeos. Tertullian makes reply, sed ante placuit Deo quam circumcideretur; nec tamen sabbatizavit; that hee was acceptable unto God before his being circumcised; and yet he never kept the [...]abbath. See more unto this purpose, in Eusebius de Demonstr. l. 1. c. 6. de praeparat. l. 7. c. 8. (where Isaac and Iacob are remembred too:) as al [...]o Epiphanius adv. haeres. l. 1. n. 5.

(6) Thus farre the ancient Christian Writers have de­clared of Abraham, that hee kept no Sabbath: and this in conference with the Iew, and in Bookes against them. Which doubtlesse they had never done, had there beene any possibility for the Iewes to have proved the contrary. Some of the Iewes indeed, not being willing thus to lose their Father Abraham, have said, and written too, that he kept the Sabbath, as they do: and for a proofe thereof they ground themselves on that of Genesis, because that Abraham obeyed my voyce, 26. 5. and kept my charge, my Com­mandements, my statutes and my laws. The Iewes conclude from hence, as Mercer and Tostatus tell us, upon the text▪ that Abraham kept the Sabbath, and all other Ceremo­nies of the Law: as much I thinke the one, as hee did the other. Who those Iewes were that said it, of what name & quality, that they have not told us: & it were too much for wardnes to credit any nameles Iew, before so many Chri­stian Fathers. Tostatus though he do relate their dicunt, yet beleeves them not: And herein wee will rather follow him, then Mercer; who seemes a little to incline to that Iewish fancy. The rather since some I [...]wes of name and quality, have gone the same way, that the Fathers did, before remembred.De▪ Areanis l. 11. c▪ 10. For Petrus Galatinus tels us, how it is written in Beresith Ketanna, or the lesser exposition up­on Genesis, a Book of publick use, and great authority among them, that Abraham did not keepe the Sabbath. And this he tels us on the credit of Rabbi I [...]annan, who saith expresly, that there, upon these words, God blessed the seventh day; it is set downe positively, Non scripta est [Page 53] de Abrahamo observatio Sabbati. And where it is ob­jected for the Iew, that in case Abraham did not keep it, it was because it was not then commanded: this Galati­nus makes reply, Ex hoc saltem infertur sabbati cultum non esse de lege naturae, that therefore it is evident that the Sabbath is no part of the Law of nature. As for the text of Genesis, we may expound it well enough, and never find a Sabbath in it, which that it may be done with the least suspition, we will take the exposition of Saint Chry­sostome, who very fully hath explaned it. ‘Because he hath obeyed my voyce, &c.] Right, saith the Father, God said unto him, Get thee out from thy Fathers house, and from thy kindred, and goe into the land that I shall shew thee: and Abraham went out, [...], and left a faire possession for an expectation: and this not wavering, but with all ala­crity and readinesse. Then followeth his expectation of a sonne in his old age, (when nature was decayed in him) as the Lord had promised; his casting out of Is­mael, as the Lord commanded; his readinesse to offer Isaac, as the Lord had willed, and many others of that nature.’ Enough to give occasion unto that applause, be­cause he hath obeyed my voice; although hee never kept the Sabbath. Indeed the Sabbath could not have relati­on to those words in Gen. because it was not then com­manded.

(7) Next looke on Iacob the heire as well of Abra­hams travels, as of his faith. Take him as Labans sheep­heard, and the Text informes us of the pains he tooke. In the day time the drought consumed mee, Gen. 31. 40. and the frost by night, and the sleepe departed from mine eyes. No time of rest, much more, no seventh part of his time allotted unto rest from his daily labours. And in his flight from Laban, it seemes hee stood not on the Sabbath. For though hee fled thence with his wives and children, and with all his substance; and that hee went but easily, according as the cattell and the children were able to endure: yet he went [Page 54] forwards still without any resting. Otherwise Laban, who heard of his departure on the third day, and pursued after him amayn, must needs have overtaken him before the seventh. Now for the rest of Iacobs time, when hee was setled in the Land appointed for him, and afterwards removed to Egypt; wee must referre you unto Iustin Martyr, [...]ee n. 5. of this [...]hapter. and Eusebius: whereof one saith expresly, [...], that he kept no Sabbath; the other makes him one of those, which lived without the Law of Moses, whereof the Sabbath was a part. Having brought Iacob into Egypt, we should proceed to Ioseph, Moses, and the rest of his off-spring there: but wee will first take Iob a­long, as one of the posterity of Abraham; that after wee may have the more leisure to wait upon the Israelites in that house of bondage. I say as one of the posterity of Abraham, [...]emonstr. l. 1. [...] 6. the fifth from Abraham, so Eusebius tels us; who saith, moreover, that hee kept no Sabbath. ‘What (saith he) shall we say of Iob, that just, that pious, that most blamelesse man? What was the rule whereby he squared his life, and governed his devotions? Was any part of Moses Law? Not so. [...]; Was any keeping of the Sabbath, or observation of any other Iewish order? How could that be, saith he, con­sidering that he was ancienter then Moses, and lived before his Law was published? For Moses was the se­venth from Abraham, and Iob the eighth.’ [...]o [...]arre Eu­sebius. And Iustin Martyr also joynes him with Abra­ham and his Family, as men that took not heed of New Moones, or Sabbaths, [...]. Edit. p. 14. whereof see before, n. 5. l find in­deed in Doctour Bound, that Theodor [...] Beza on his own authority hath made Io [...] very punctuall, in sanctifying septimum salte [...] qu [...]mque diem, every seventh day at least, as God, saith he, from the beginning had appointed. But I hold Beza no fit match for Iustin, and Eusebius; nor to be credited in this kinde, when they say the contrary, [...]sidering in w [...]at [...] they lived, [...] with whom they dealt.

[Page 55](8) And now we come at last unto the Israelites in Egypt; from Ioseph, who first brought them thither, to Moses who conducted them in their flight from thence;Dem. l. 1 [...]. [...]. and so unto the body of the whole Nation. For Ioseph, first, Eusebius first tels us in the generall, that the same in­stitution and course of life which by the Ordinance of Christ was preached unto the Gentiles; had formerly been commended to the ancient Patriarkes: particular in­stances whereof, he makes Melchisedech, and Noah, and Enoch, and Abraham, till the time of Circumcision. And then it followes, [...], &c. [...]. That Ioseph in the Court of Egypt long time before the Law of Moses, lived answerably to those ancient pat­ternes, and not according as the Iewes. Nay, he affirmes the same of Moses, [...], the very Law-giver himselfe, the Chieftain of the Tribes of Israel. As for the residue of the people, we can expect no more of them, that they lived in bond­age, under severe and cruell Masters: who called upon them day by day to fulfill their takes;See Exod. 5. v. 5. & 14. and did expostulate with them in an heavy manner, in case they wanted of their Tale. The Iewes themselves can best resolve us in this point.De vita Mosis lib. 1. And amongst them Philo doth thus describe their troubles. [...], &c. ‘The Taskmasters or Overseers of the works were the most cruell and unmercifull men in all the Country, who laid upon them greater taskes than they were able to endure: inflicting on them no lesse punishment then death it selfe, if any of them, yea, though by reason of infirmity, should withdraw himself from his daily labour. Some were commanded to employ themselves in the publick structures; others in bringing in materi­alls, for such mighty buildings; [...],Antiqu. Iud. lib. 2. c. 5. never enjoying any rest either night or day, that in the end they were e [...]en spent and tired with conti­nuall travaile.’ Iosep [...] go [...] a little further, and tels us [Page 56] this, that the Egyptians did not onely tire the Israelites with continuall labour; [...], but that the Israelites endevoured to performe more then was expected. Assuredly in such a wofull state as this, they had nor leave, nor leisure, to observe the Sab­bath.Apud Ry [...]at. in Decalog. And lastly, Rabbi Maimony, makes the matter yet more absolute, who saith it for a truth, that when they were in Egypt, neque quiescere, vel sabbatum agere potue­runt, they neither could have time to rest, nor to keepe the Sabbath, seeing they were not then at their owne dis­posing. So he ad Deut. 5. 15.

(9) Indeed it easily may be beleeved, that the people kept no Sabbath in the Land of Egypt; seeing they could not be permitted in all that time of their abode there, to offer sa [...]rifice: which was the easier duty of the two, and would lesse have tooke them from their labours. Those that accused the Israelites to have been wanton, lazy, and I know not what, because they did desire to spend one onely day in religious Exercises: what would they not have done, had they desisted every seventh day from the works imposed upon them. Doubtlesse, they had beene carried to the house of Correction, if not worse handled. I say in all that time they were not permitted to offer sa­crifice in that Country: and therefore when they purpo­sed to escape from thence,Exod. 8. they made a suite to Pharaoh, that he would suffer them to go three dayes journey into the wildernesse, to offer sacrifice there to the Lord their God. Rather then so, Pharaoh was willing to permit them for that once, to sacrifice unto the Lord in the land of Egypt: and what said Moses thereunto? It is not meet (saith he) so to doe. For we shall sacrifice the abhominati­on of the Egyptians to the Lord our God, before their eyes; and they will stone us. [...] 26. His reason was, because the Gods of the Egyptians were Buls and Rammes, and Sheep and Oxen, as Lyra notes upon that place: talia verò anima­lia ab Hebraeis erant immola [...]da, quod non permisissent Ae­gypti [...] in terra sua; And certainly the Egyptians would [Page 57] not endure to see their Gods knocked down, before their faces. If any then demand, wherein the Piety and Reli­gion of Gods people did consist especially: wee must needs answere, that it was in the integrity and hon [...]sty of their conversation; and that they worshipped God one­ly in the spirit and truth. Adv. haeres l. 1. h [...]. [...]. Nothing to make it knowne that they were Gods people, [...], but onely that they feared the Lord and were circum­cised; as Epiphanius hath resolved it: nothing but that they did acknowledge one onely God, & exercised them­selves in justice, in modesty, in patience and long suffe­ring, both towards one another and amongst the Egyp­tians; framing their lives agreeably to the will of God, and the law of nature. Therefore we may conclude with safety, that hitherto no Sabbath had been kept in all the World from the creation of our first Father Adam, to this very time; which was above 2500. yeares: no nor com­manded to be kept amongst them in their generations.

(10) I say there was none kept, no nor none com­manded: for had it been cōmanded, sure it had been kept. It was not all the pride of Pharaoh, or subtle tyranny of his subjects, that could have made them violate that sa­cred day, had it bin commended to them from the Lord. The miseries which they after suffered under Antiochus, rather then that they would prophane the Sabbath; and those calamities which they chose to fall upon them by the hands of the Romans; rather then make resistance upon that day, when lawfully they might have done it: are proofes sufficient, that neither force, nor feare, could now have wrought upon them not to keepe the same, had such a duty been commanded. Questionlesse, Ioseph for his part, that did preferre a lothsome prison before the unchast imbraces of his Masters wife, would no lesse carefully have kept the Sabbath, then he did his chastity; had there been any Sabbath then to have been observed, either as dedicated by nature, or prescribed by Law. And certainly either the Sabbath was not reckoned all this [Page 58] while, a [...] any part or branch of the Law of nature: or else it findes hard measure in the Booke of God, that there should be particular proofes how punctually the rest of the morall Law was observed and practised amongst the Patriarches; and not one word or Item that concernes the observation of the Sabbath. Now that the whole Law was written in the hearts of the Fathers, and that they had some knowledge of all the other Commande­ments, and did live accordingly: the Scripture doth suf­ficiently declare unto us. First, for the first,Gen. 17. 1. I am God all-sufficient, walke before me, and be thou perfect. So said God to Abraham. Then Iacobs going up from25 2. Be­thel, to clense his house from Idolatry; is proofe enough that they were acquainted with the second. The pious care they had▪ not to take the Name of the Lord their God in vaine, appeares at full, in the religious making of their Oath [...]s; 2 [...]. 27 &c. Abraham with Abimelech, and31. 51. Ia­cob with Laban. Next for the fifth Comman [...]ement, what duties children owe their parents, the practice of 24 67 & Isaac and28. [...]. Iacob doth declare abundantly, in being ruled by them in the choice of their wives, and readily obeying all their directions. So for the sin of murder, the history of Iacobs 34 26▪ 30 children, and the grieved Fathers curse upon them for the slaughter of the Sichemites; to­gether with Gods precept given to9. 6. Noah against shed­ding bloud; shew us that both it was forbidden, and condemned being done. The39 8. continency of Ioseph before remembred; and the punishment threatned to 70. [...]. Abimelech for keeping Sarah, Abraham [...] wife: the 31. [...]0. quarrelling of Laban for his stolne Idols; and44. 4. Io­sephs pursuite after his brethren for the silver cup that was suppo [...]ed to be purloyned: are [...] sufficient that a­dultery and theft were [...] unlawf [...]l. And last of all, Abi [...]elech [...] reprehension of [...]0 9. Abraham and [...]6. [...]0. Isaa [...] for bearing false witnesse in the deniall of their wives; shew plainly that they had the knowledge of that Law also. The like may also be affi [...]med of their [...] the [Page 59] wives and good [...], or [...]ny thing th [...]t was their Neighbours. For though the history cannot tell us of mens secret thoughts: yet wee may judge of good mens thoughts by their outward actions. Had Ioseph coveted his Masters wife,Io [...] 31. 26. he might have enjoyed her. And Iob, more home unto the point, affirmes expresly of himselfe, that his heart was neuer secretly enticed: which is the same with this, that he did not covet. We conclude then, that seeing there is particular mention how all the residue of the com­mandements had been observed and practised by the Saints of old; and that no word at all is found which con­cerns the sanctifying of the Sabbath: that certainly there was no Sabbath sanctified in all that time, from the Creation to the Law of Moses; nor reckoned any part of the Law of Nature, or any speciall Ordinance of God.

CHAP. IV.
The nature of the fourth Commandement: and that the SABBATH was not kept among the Gentiles.

(1) The Sabbath first made known in the fall of Man­nah. (2) The giving of the Decalogue; and how farre it bindeth. (3) That in the judgement of the Fathers, in the Christian Church, the fourth Commandement is of a different nature from the other nine. (4) The Sabbath was first given for a Law by Moses. (5) And being gi­ven was proper onely to the Iewes. (6) What moved the Lord to give the Israelites a Sabbath. (7) Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath, then any other. (8) The seventh day not more honoured by the Gentiles, then the eighth or ninth. (9) The Attributes given by some Greeke Poets to the seventh day, no argu­ment that they kept the Sabbath. (10) The Iewes deri­ded for their Sabbath, by the Graecians, Romans, and E­gyptians. (11) The division of the yeere into weekes not generally used of old, amongst the Gentiles.

(1) THus have wee shewne you how Gods Church continued without any Sabbath, the space of 2500. yeares and upwards; even till the children of Israel came out of Egypt. And if the Saints of God, in [Page 61] the line of Seth, and the house of Abraham; assigned not every seventh day for Gods publick worship; it is not to be thought that the posterity of Cain, and the sonnes of Canaan, were observant of it. To proceed therefore in the history of the Lords owne people, as they observed no Sabbath when they were in Egypt, so neither did they presently after their departure thence. The day of their deliverance thence, was the seventh day, as some conceive it, which after was appointed for a Sabbath to them. Tor­niellus I am sure is of that opinion: and so is Zanchie two, who withall gives it for the reason, why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath, In quarium p [...]a­cep. um. then any other. Popu­lus die septima liberatus fuit ex Aegypto; & tunc jussit in hujus rei memoriam diem illam sanctificare. Which were it so, yet could not that day be a Sabbath, or a day of rest, considering the [...]udden and tumultuous manner of their going thence: their sonnes and daughters, maid servants, and men servants, the cattell and the strangers within their gates, being all put hardly to it, and fain to flie away, for their life and [...]afety. And if Saint Austins note be true, and the note be his,S [...]rm. de temp. 154. that on the first day of the week, trans­gressi sunt filii Israel mare rubrum siccis pedibus, the Israe­lites went dry foot over the Red Sea, or Sea of Edom: then must the day before, if any, be the Sabbath day; the next seventh day after the day of their departure. But that day certainly was not kept, as a Sabbath day. For it was wholly spent in murmuring and complaints against God and Moses. Exod. 14. 11. & 12. They cryed unto the Lord, and they said to Moses, why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the wildernesse? Had it not been better farre for us to serve the Egyptians? Nothing in all this murmurings and seditious clamours, that may denote it for a Sabbath, for an holy Festivall. Nor do we finde that for the after times, they made any scruple of journying on that day, till the Law was given unto the contrary, in Mount Sinai: which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt. It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon, that the Sabbath was [Page 62] first given in Marah, and that the sacrifice of the red Co [...] mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers, was instituted at that time also.Exod. 15. 26. This fancy founded on th [...]se words in the Booke of Exodus, If thou wils diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, &c. then will I bring none of those diseases upon thee, that I brought on the Egyptians. But Torniellus, and Tostatus, and Lyra, though himselfe a Iew, count it no other then a Iewish and Rabbinicall folly. Sure I am, that on the fifteenth day of the second moneth after their departure out of Egypt▪ being that day seven-night before the first Sabbath was discovered, in the fall of Mannah: we finde not any thing that implies either rest or worship.Exod. 16. 2. We read indeed how all the Congrega­tion murmured as they did before against Moses and a­gainst Aar [...], wishing that they had died in the land of Egypt, where they had bread their b [...]llies full, rather then be destroyed with Famine. So eagerly they murmured, that to content them, God sent them Quailes that night, and rained downe bread from Heaven next morning. Was this, thinke you the sanctifying of a Sabbath to the Lord their God? Indeed the next seventh day that followed, was by the Lord com­mended to them for a Sabbath▪ and ratified by a great and signall miracle the day before: wherein it plea­sed him, to give them double what they used togather on the former dayes, that they might rest upon the seuenth, with the greater comfort. This was a preamble or pre­parative to the following Sabbath: for by this miracle, this rest of God from raining [...] on the seventh day, the people came to know which was precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation: whereof they were quite ignorant at that present time. Philo assures us in his third Booke [...] that the knowledge of that day on which God rested from his works▪ had been quite forgotten, [...], by reason of [...] which had [...] the [...] by this [Page 63] miracle, the Lord revived again the remembrance of it. And in another place,De vita Mosis, l. 1. when men had made a long enqui­ry after the birth day of the World, and were yet to seek: [...], &c. God made it knowne to them by a speciall miracle, which had so long beene hidden from their Ancestors. The falling of a double por­tion of Mannah on the sixt day, and the not putrifying of it on the seventh; was the first light that Moses had to descry the Sabbath: which he accordingly commended unto all the people, to be a day of rest unto them; that as God ceased that day from sending, so they should rest from looking after their daily bread. But what need Phi­lo be produced, when wee have such an ample testimony from the word it selfe. For it is manifest in the story, that when the people, on the sixt day, had gathered twice as much Mannah, as they used to doe;Exod. 16. 5. according as the Lord had directed by his servant Moses: they understood not what they did,Vers. 22. at least why they did it. The Rulers of the Congregation, as the Text informes us, came and told Mo­ses of it: and he as God before had taught him, acquain­ted them,Vers. 23. that on the morrow should be the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; and that they were to keepe the over-plus untill the morning. Nay, so farre were the people from knowing any thing of the Sabbath, or of Gods rest upon that day, that though the Prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbaths rest, the people gave small credit to him. For it is said, that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day, Vers. 27. (which was the se­venth day after, or the second Sabbath as some think) not­withstanding all that had been spoken, and that the Man­nah stanke not, as on other dayes. So that this resting of the people, was the first sanctifying of the Sabbath men­tioned in the Scriptures: and Gods great care to make provision for his people on the day before, the blessing he bestowed upon it. And this is that, which Solomon Iarehi [Page 64] tels us, as before we noted, Benedixit e [...]] i.e. in Manna [...], quia omnibus diebus septimanae descendit Om [...]r pro singuli [...], C [...]. 1. n. 2. & sexto pani [...] duplex: & sanctificavit eum] i.e. in Man­nah, quia non descendit omnino. Nay, generally the He­brew Doctours doe affirme the same: assuring us that the Commandement of the Sabbath is the foundation and ground of all the rest,De [...]est Iud [...]or. c. 3. as being given before them all, at the fall of Mannah. Vnd [...] dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fun­damentum esse aliorum praeceptorum, quod ante alia praecep­ta hoc datum sit, quando Mannah acc [...]perunt. So Hospinia [...] tels us. Therefore the Sabbath was not given before, in their own confession. This hapned on the two and twen­tieth day of the second moneth after their comming out of Egypt; and of the World [...] Creation, Anno 2044. the people being then in the Wildernesse of Sin, which was their seventh station.

(2) The seventh day after, being the nine and twentieth of the second moneth, is thought by some, I know not upon what authority, to bee that day whereon some of the people, distrusting all that Moses said, went out to gather Mannah, as on other dayes:Num. 33. but whether they were then in the Wildernesse of Sin, or were incamped in Dophkath, Alush, or Re­phidim, which were their next removes, that the Scrip­tures say not. Most likely that they were in the last stati­on, considering the great businesses there performed; the fight with Amalek, and the new ordering of the Go­vernment by Iethroes counsaile; and that upon the third day of the third moneth which was Thursday following, they were advanced so farre as to the Wilde [...]nesse of Si­nai. I say the third day of the third moneth▪ For where the Text hath it,Exod. 19. 1. In the third moneth when the children of Israel were gone forth out of Egypt, the same day came they into the wildernesse of Sinai▪ by the same [...] is meant the same day of the moneth, which was the third day, being Thursday▪ after our Accompt.Exod. 19. v. 3. 10, 11. The morrow after went Moses up unto the Lord, and had commandement [Page 65] from him to sanctifie the people that day, and to morrow, and to make them ready against the third day: God mea­ning on that day to come downe in the eyes of all the peo­ple in Mount Sinai, and to make knowne his will unto them. That day being come,Vers. 17. which was the Saturday or Sabbath, the people were brought out of the Campe to meet with God, and placed by Moses at the nether part of the Mountaine: Moses ascending first to God, and des­cending after to the people, to charge them that they did not passe their bounds before appointed. It seemes the Sabbaths rest was not so established,Vers. 21. but that the people had been likely to take the pains to climbe the Mountain, and to behold the wonders which were done upon it; had they not had a speciall charge unto the contrary. Things ordered thus, it pleased the Lord to publish and proclaime his Law unto the peopl [...], in thunder, smoake, and lightnings, and the noyse of a Trumpet; using there­in the Ministery of his holy Angels: which Law we call the Decalogue, or the ten Commandements, and con­taines in it the whole morall Law, or the Law of nature. This had before been naturally imprinted in the mindes of men; however that in tract of time, the character thereof had been much defaced; so dimmed and darke­ned that Gods own people stood in need of a new impres­sion: and therefore was proclaimed in this solemne man­ner, that so the letter of the Law might leave the cleerer stampe in their affections. A law which in it selfe was ge­nerall and universall,Rom. 2. 1 4. equally appertaining both to Iew and Gentile; the Gentiles whcih know not the law, doing by nature the things contained in the Law, as Saint Paul hath told us: but as at this time published on Mount Si­nai, and as delivered to the people by the hand of Moses, they obliged onely those of the house of Israel. Zanchius hath so resolved it amongst the Protestants. (not to say anything of the Schoole-men who affirme the same:) ut Politi [...]ae & ceremoniales, sic etiam morales leges quae De­calogi nomine significantur, De Redempti. l. 1. c. 11. Th. 1. quatenus per Mosen traditae [Page 66] fuerunt Israeliti [...], ad no [...] Christi [...] ni [...]il pertinent, &c. As neither the Iudiciall nor the Ceremoniall, so nor the Morall Law contained in the Docalogue, doth any way conc [...] us Christians, as given by Moses to the Iewes: but onely so farre forth, as it is consonant to the law of nature, which bindes all alike; and after was confirmed and ratified by Christ, our King. His reason is, because that if the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Iewes, did concerne the Gentiles; the Gentiles had been bound by the fourth Commandement, to observe the Sabbath, in as strict a manner as the Iewes. Cum verò constet ad hujus diei sanctification [...] nunquam fuisse Gentes obligatas, &c. Since therfore it is manifest that the Gentiles never were obliged to observe the Sabbath, it followeth that they neither were, nor possibly could be bound to any of the residue, as given by Moses to the Iewes. Wee may con­clude from hence, that had the fourth Commandement been meerly morall, it had no lesse concerned the Gen­tiles, then it did the Israelites.

(3) For that the fourth Commandement is not of the same condition with the rest, is no new invention: The Fath [...]rs joyntly so resolue it. Its true that Iren [...]ns tel [...] us, how God, the better to prepare us to eternall life, Decalogi verba per somet ipsum omnibus fimiliter locutus est, Li [...]. 4. cap. 31. did by himselfe proclaime the Decalogue to all people equally: which therefore is to be in full force amongst [...], as having rather been inlarged then diss [...]lued, by our S [...] ­viours comming in the flesh. Which word [...] of Iren [...]us, if considered rightly, must be referred to that part of the fourth Commandement which indeed is Morall; or else the fourth Commandement must not be reckoned as [...] part or member of the Decalogue: because it did receive no such enlargement, as did the rest of the Comman­dements, by our Saviours preaching; (whereof see Math. 5. 6, and 7. Chapters) but a dissolution rather by his pra­ctice. [...] Try­ [...] Iustin the Martyr more expresly, in his dispu [...] with Trypl [...] a learned Iew, maintain [...] the Sabbath to be [Page 67] onely a Mosaicall Ordinance; as we shall see anon more fully; and that it was imposed upon the Israelites, [...], because of their hard-heartedn [...]sse, and irregularity.Contra Iudaeos. Tertullian also in his Treatise against the Iewes, [...]aith that it was not spiritale & aternum mandatum; sed temporale, quod quandoque cessaret, not a spirituall and eternall institution, but a temporall onely. Saint Austin yet more fully,In Epistola [...]d Ga [...]at. that it is no part of the morall Law. For he divides the Law of Moses into these two parts, Sacraments, and morall duties: ac­counting Circumcision, the new Moo [...]es, Sabbath [...], and the Sacrifices to appertain unto the first: ad mores autem, non occides, &c. and these Commandements, Thou shalt not kill, nor commit adultery, nor beare false witnesse, and the rest, to be contained within the second. Nay more, he tels us,De Spiritu & li [...]. c. 114 that Moses did receive a Law to be delivered to the people, writ in two Tables made of stone by the Lords own finger: wherein was nothing to be found ei­ther of Circumcision, or the Ie [...]ish Sacrifices. And then he addes, In illis igitur decem pr [...]ceptis, excepta Sabbati observatione, dicatur mihi quid non sit observādum à Chri­stiano: Tell me, saith he, what is there in the Decalogue, except the observation of the Sabbath day, which is not carefully to be observed of a Christian man. To this wee may referre all those severall places, wherein hee cals the fourth Commandement, praeceptum figuratum, & i [...] umbra positum, a Sacrament, a shadow, and a figure: as Tract the third in Ioh. 1. and Tract. 17. and 20. in Ioh. 5. ad Bonifac. l. 3. T. 7. contra Faust. Manich. l. 19. c. 18. the 14. Chapter of the Booke de spiritu & lit. before re­membred: and finally, to go no further, Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. where he speaks most home, and to the purpose. Ex decem praeceptis hoc solum figurate dictum est. Of all the ten Commandements this onely was delivered as a signe or figure. See also what is said before out of Theo­doret, and Sedulius, Chap. 1. n. 6. Hesychius goes yet fur­ther, and will not have the fourth Commandement to be [Page 68] any of the ten; Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit, non tamen exiis esse; In Levit. l. 6. [...]. 26. and howsoever it is placed amongst them, yet it is not of them. And therefore to make up the number, divides the first Commandement in two, as those of Rome have done the last, to exclude the second. But here Hesychius was deceived, in taking this Commandement to be onely ceremoniall, whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature: for so the Schoolemen, and other learned Authors in these later times, grounding themselues upon the Fathers, have resolued it generally. Morall it is as to the dutie, that there must be a time appointed for the service of God: and Ceremoniall, as unto the Day, to be one of seven, and to continue that whole day, and to sur­cease that day from all kinde of worke. As morall, placed amongst the ten Commandements, extending unto all mankind, and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of nature: as ceremoniall, appertaining to the Law Levi­ticall, peculiar onely to the Iewes, and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses institutes. Aquinas thus, 2. 2 ae, qu, 122. art. 4. resp. ad primum. Tostatus thus in Exod. 20. qu. 11. So Petr. Galatinus also lib. 11. cap. 9. and Bona­venture in his Sermon on the fourth Commandement. And so divers others.

(4) I say, the fourth Commandement, so farre as it is ceremoniall, in limiting the Sabbath day to be one o [...] se­ven, and to continue all that day, and thereon to sur­cease from all kind of labour; which three ingredients are required in the Law, unto the making of a Sabbath: is to be reckoned with the rest of Moses institutes, and proper onely to the Iewes. For proofe of this, wee have the Fathers very copious. And first that it was one of Moses institutes, Iustin the Martyr saith expresly.Dial. cum Try­ph [...]e. [...], &c. As Circumcision began from Abraham, and as the Sabbath, Sacrifices, Feasts and Offerings, came in by Mo­ses: so were they all to have an end. And in another place of the same Discourse, seeing there was no use of [Page 69] Circumcision until Abrahams time, [...], nor of the Sabbath untill Moses: by the same rea­son there is as little use now of them, as had been before. So doth Eusebius tell us,De Praeparat l. 7. c. 6. [...], &c. that ‘Moses was the first Law-giver amongst the Iewes, who did appoint them to observe a certaine Sabbath in memory of Gods rest from the Worlds Creation, as also divers anniversary Festivals, together with the dif­ference of clean and unclean creatures, and of other Ceremonies not a few.’ Next Athanasius lets us know that in the Book of Exodus, Synopsis sacr [...] Scripe. wee have the institution of the Passeover, the sweetning of the bitter waters of Ma­rah, the sending down of Quailes and Mannah, the wa­ters issuing from the rocke: [...], what time the Sabbath took beginning, and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sin [...]i. Macarius a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirme as much,Hom. 35. viz. that in the Law [...] which was given by Moses, it was commanded, as in a figure or a shadow that every man should rest on the Sabbath day from the workes of labour.In Ezech. [...]0. Saint Hierome also lets us know, though he name not Moses, that the observation of the Sabbath, amongst other Ordinances, was given by God unto his people in the Wildernesse. Haec praecepta, & justificationes, & observantiam Sabbati, Dominus dedit in deserto; which is asmuch, as if he had expresly told us, that it was given unto them by the hand of Moses. Then Epiphanius, God saith he, rested on the seventh day from all his labours;De Pond. & mensur▪ n. 22. which day hee blessed and sanctified, [...], and by his Angel made knowne the same to his servant Moses. See more unto this purpose aduers. haeres. l. 1. haer. 6. n. 5. And lastly, Da­mascen hath assured us, that when there was no Law nor Scripture,De [...]ide Orth [...]d. lib. 4. c. 24. that then there was no Sabbath neither: but when the Law was given by Moses, [...], then was the Sabbath set apart for Gods pub­lick [Page 70] worship. Adde here, that [...] and I [...]stin referre the institution of the Sabb [...]th unto Moses onely: of which more hereafter.

(5) Next that the Sabbath was peculiar onely to the Iewes, or those, at least that were of the house of Israel, the Fathers do affirme more fully, then they did the o­ther. For so Saint Basil, [...] the Sabbath was given unto the Iewes, in his first Homily of Fasting. Saint Austin so, Sabbatum datum est priori po­pulo in otio corporali, Èpistola 119. & Sabbatum Iudaeis fuisse praeceptum in numbra futuri, de Gen. ad lit. l▪ 4. c. 11. and in the 13. of the same Booke, [...]num diem observan. dum mandavit populo Hebraeo: the like to which occurres Epist. 86. ad Casulanum. The Iewes, the Hebrewes, and the former people; all these three are one: and all doe serve to shew that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them onely. That it was given unto the Iewes, exclusively of all other Nations, is the opinion and conceit also of the Iewes themselues. This Petrus Gala­tinus proves against them, on the anthority of their best Authours. Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa, &c. Wee reade,Ch▪ 16. 29. saith he, in their Glosse on these words of Exodus, The Lord hath given you the Sabbath: what meane, say they, these words, he hath given it you? Quia vobis viz. Iudae is dedit, & non gentibu [...] saeculi; because it was given unto the Iewes, and not unto the Gentiles. It is affirmed also, saith hee, by R. Iohannan, that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel, he gave it to them publickly, except the Sabbath; and that was given to them in secret: ac­cording unto that of Exodus. Exod. 31. 17. It is a signe betweene mee and the children of Israel. Quod si ita est, non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum. If [...]o [...]aith Galatinus, the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath. A signe between me and the children of Israel? It seemes,Ains [...]th in Exod. 13. 9. the Iewes were all of the same opinion. For where they used on other dayes to weare their Phylacteries on their armes or fore­head [...], to be a signe or t [...]ken to them, as the Lord com­manded; [Page 71] they laid them by upon the Sabbaths: because, say they, the Sabbath was it selfe a signe. So truly said Procopius Gazaeus, In Gen. 2. It a Iudaeis imperavit supremum numen, ut segregarent à caeteris diebus diem septimum, &c. ‘God, saith he, did command the Iewes, to set apart the se­venth day to his holy worship; that if by chance they should forget the Lord their God, that day might call him back unto their remembrances,’ where note, it was commanded to the Iewes alone. Adde, that Iosephus calls the Sabbath in many places, a nationall or locall cu­stome, [...] a law peculiar to that people; as Antiqu. l. 14. c. 18. & de bello l. 2. c. 16. as wee shall see hereafter more at large. Lastly, so given to the Iewes a­lone, that it became a difference between them, and all o­ther people.In Ez [...]ch. 20. Saint Cyrill hath resolved it so. God, saith bee, gave the Iewes a Sabbath, not that the keeping of the same should be sufficient to conduct them to eternall life: sed ut haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à gentium institutis distinguat eos; but that so different a forme of civill government, should put a difference be­tween them, and all Nations else. Theodoret more fully, that the Iewes being in other things like to other people, in observatione sabbati propriam videbantur obtinere rem­publicam, In Ezech. 20. seemed in keeping of the Sabbath to have a cu­stome by themselves. And which is more, saith he, their Sabbath put a greater difference between the Iewes, and other people; then their Circumcision: For Circumcisi­on had been used by the Idumaeans, and Aegyptians: sab­bati verò observationens sola Iudaeorum natio custodiebat, but the observation of the Sabbath, was peculiar onely to the Iewes. Nay, even the very Gentiles took it for a Iewish Ceremony; sufficient proofe whereof wee shall see ere long, But what need more be said in this, either that this was one of the Lawes of Moses, or that it was peculiar to the Iewes alone; seeing the same is testified by the holy Scripture? Thou camest downe upon mount Sinai, saith Nehemiah, Cap. 19. 13. &▪ and spakest with them [the house of Israel) [Page 72] from Heaven: Vers. 14. and gavest them right judgements and true lawes, good statutes and commandements, what more? It followeth, And madest knowne unto them thy holy Sab­baths, and commandedst them precepts, statutes and lawes, by the hand of thy servant Moses.

(6) Now on what motives God was pleased to pre­scribe a sabbath to the Iewes, more at this time then any of the former ages; the Fathers severally have told us; yea and the Scriptures too in severall places. Iustin Martyr, as before we noted, gives this generall reason, because of their hard-heartednesse, and irregular courses; wherein Saint Austin closeth with him.Qu. ex N [...]v. Test. 69. Cessarunt onera legis quae ad duritiem cordis Iudaici fuerunt data, [...]nescis, sabbatis, & neomenii [...]: where note how he hath joyned together, new-moones, and sabbaths, and the Iewish difference be­tweene meat and meat. Particularly, Gregory Nyssen makes the speciall motive to be this,Testim. advēt [...]s D [...]i i [...] carne. ad sedandum nimium eorum pecuniae studium, so to restraine the people from the love of money. ‘For comming out of Egypt very poore and bare, and having almost nothing but what they borrowed of the Egyptians; they gave them­selues, saith he, unto continuall and incessant labour, the sooner to attain to riches. Therefore said God, that they should labour six dayes, and rest the seventh.Da­mascen’ somewhat to this purpose,D [...] [...]ide Ort [...] l. 4 [...]. 24. [...] &c. ‘God, saith he, seeing the carnall and the covetous disposition of the Israelites, appo [...]nted them to keepe a sabbath, that so their servants and their cattell might partake of rest.’ And then he addes, [...], &c. as also, that thus resting from their worldly businesses, they might repaire unto the Lord in Psalmes, and Hymn [...]s and spirituall songs, and meditation of the Scriptures. [...]. 5. i [...] lo [...]. c. 5. Rupertu [...] harps on the same string that the others did, save that hee thinks the sabbath given for no other cause, then that the labouring man be­ing wearied with his weekly toyle, might have some time to refresh his spirits. Sabbatum nihil ali [...]d est nisi requ [...]es, [Page 73] vel q [...]am ob ca [...]sam data est, nisi ut operarius fessus caeteris septimanae diebus uno die requiesceret? Gaudentius Brixia­nus in his twelfth Homily or Sermon, is of the same minde also, that the others were. These seeme to ground themselues on the fifth of Deutronomy, Vers. 14. where God com­mands his people to observe his sabbaths, that thy man­servant, and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And then it followeth,Vers. 1 [...]. Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, though with a mighty hand & an out-stretched arme: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. The force of which illation is no more then this, that as God brought them out of Egypt where­in they were servants, so he commands them to take pity on their servants, and let them rest upon the sabbath: considering that they themselues would willingly have had some time of rest, had they been permitted. A second motive might be this, to make them alwayes mindfull of that spirituall rest, which they were to keepe from the acts of sinne; and that eternall rest that they did expect from all toyle and misery. In reference unto this eternall rest, Saint Augustine tels,De Gen. ad lit. l. 4▪ c. 11. us that the Sabbath was com­manded to the Iewes, in umbra futuri, quae spiritalem requiem figuraret; as a shadow of the things to come, in S. Pauls language, which God doth promise unto those that doe the works of righteousnesse. And in relation to the other, the Lord himselfe hath told us, that he had gi­ven his Sabbath unto the Iewes, to be a signe between him and them, that they might know, that he was the Lord that sanctified them. Exod. 31. 13. which is again repeated by Ezech. cap. 20. 12. That they may know that I am the Lord which sanctifieth them. ‘For God, as Gregory Nys­sen notes it, seemes onely to propose this unto himself, that by all meanes he might at least destroy in man,De re [...]urrect. Chr. Orat. 2. his inbred corruption. [...]. This was his ayme in Circumcision, and in the Sab­bath, and in forbidding them some kinde of meates: [Page 74] [...],’for by the Sabbath he informed them of a rest from [...] To cite more Fathers to this purpose were a thing unnecessary▪ and indeed s [...]nsibile super sensum. This yet confirmes us further▪ that the Sabbath was intended for the Iewes alone. For [...]ad God given the Sabbath to all other people, as he did to them, it must have also been a [...]ig [...]e, that the Lord had sanctifi [...]d all people, as hee did the Iewes.

(7) There is another motive yet to be considered, and that concerne [...] as well the day▪ as the institution. God might have given the Iewes a Sabbath, and yet not tied the sabbath to one day of seven, or to the seventh pre­cisely from the World [...] Creation. Constit [...]i potuisset, quod in die sabb [...]i coloretur De [...] ▪ a [...]t in die Mar [...]is, aut in alte­ra die. God,In Exod. 20. qu. 11. saith T [...]st [...]tus, might have ordered it, to have his Sabbath on the Saturday, or on the Tuesday, or any other day what ever, what any other of the weeke, and no more then so; No, hee might have appointed it, aut bis, aut semel tantum in [...], aut in mense, once or twice a yeere, or every moneth; as hee had listed. And might not God as well exceed this number, as fall short thereof? yes say the Protestant Doctors, that hee might have done. He might have made each third, or fourth, or fifth day a sabbath; In Exod. 20. indeed as many as he pleased. Sivo­l [...]isset Deu [...] absolut [...] suo, pot [...]itplures dies im­per are cultui suo impendendos: so faith Doctor Ry [...]et, one of the Professors of Leiden, and a great Friend to the an­tiquity of the sabbath. What was the principall motive then▪ why the seventh day was chosen for this purpose, and [...]one but that?Dial. cum Try. phone. [...], to keep God alwayes in their mindes▪ so saith Iustin Martyr. But why should that bee rather do [...] by a seventh day Sab­bath, then by any other?De fest Paschal. [...]om. 6. Saint Cyrill answeres to that point exceeding fully. ‘The Iewes, saith hee, became infe [...]ted with the [...] of Egypt, worshipped the [...] host of Hea­ven: [Page 75] which seemes to be insinuated in the fourth of Deut. vers. 19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be Gods workmanship, [...]os [...] suum [...] jubet, he willeth them that they imitate their Creatour; that resting on the sabbath day, they might the better understand the reason of the Festi­vall. Which if they did, saith hee, in case they rested on that day, whereon God had rested, it was a plaine confession that all things were made by him; and con­sequently that there were no other Gods besides him.’ Et haec una ratio sabbato indicte quietis; Indeed the one and onely reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandement; which re [...]ects onely on Gods rest from all his worke which he had made, and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion, why the seventh day was rather chosen, for the sabbath, then the sixt, or eighth, or any other. Which being so, it is the more to be admired, that Philo being a learned Iew, or any learned Christian Writer, leaving the cause expressed in the Law it selfe, should seeke some secret reason for it, out of the nature of the day,De Abrahamo. or of the number. First, Philo tels us, that the Iewes doe call their seventh day by the name of sabbath, which signifieth repose and rest. Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labours: [...], but because se­ven is found to be, both in the world and man himselfe, the most quiet number, most free from trouble, warre, and all manner of contention. A strange conceit to take beginning from a Iew: Problem. loc. 55. yet that that followes of Aretius is as strange as this. Who thinks that day was therefore consecrated unto rest, even amongst the Gentiles, quod putarent civilibus, actionibus ineptum esse, fortasse propter frigus planetae, contemplationibus vero idoneum: because they thought that day, by reason of the dulnesse of the Planet Saturne, more fit for contemplation, then it was for action. Some had, it seemes, conceived so, in the for­mer times, whom thereupon To [...]tatus censures in his [Page 76] Comment on the fifth of Deutro [...]y. For where it was Gods purpose,Qu. 3. as before we noted out of Cyrill, to weane the people from Idolatry and Superstition: to lay down such a reason for the observation of the sabbath, was to reduce them to the worship of those Starres and Planets, from which he did intend to weane them. I had almost omitted the conceit of Zan [...]hie, See [...]. 1. before remembred; who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather; be­cause that on the same day, he had brought his people out of Egypt. In case the ground be true, that on this day the Lord wrought this deliverance for his people Israel, then his conceit may probably be countenanced from the fifth of Deuteronomy, where God recounting to his peo­ple, that with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arme he had delivered them from Egypt; hath thereupon com­manded them that they should keepe the sabbath day. Lay all that hath been said together, and it will come in all to this, that as the sabbath was not known till Moses time; so being knowne, it was peculiar unto Israel onely. Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cul­tum; Annal d 7. nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse, as Torniellus doth conclude it.

(8) For that the Gentiles used to keepe the seventh day sacred, as some give it out, is no where to be found, I dare boldly say it, in all the Writings of the Gentiles. The seventh day of the moneth indeed they hallowed, and so they did the first, and fourth; as Hesiod tels us.Opera & die [...]. [...]. Not the first day, and the fourth, and seventh of every weeke, for then they must have gone beyond the Iewes: but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it, à noviluni [...] exorsus laudat tres, the first, fourth, and seventh. And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier then the other two, because the attribute of [...] seemes joyned unto it: the Scholiast takes away that scruple, à novilu­nio exorsus tres laudat, omnes sacras dicens, septimam etiam ut Apollonis natalem celebrans; and tels us that all three [Page 77] are accounted holy, and that the seventh was also celebra­ted as Apollos birth-day. For so it followeth in the Poet, [...]: from whence the Flamines or Gentile Priests did use to call him [...], i. e. the God born on the seventh day. For further proofe hereof,Dies Geniales l. 3. c. 18. we finde in Alexander ab Alexandro, that the first day of every moneth was consecrated to Apollo, the fourth to Mercurie, the seventh againe unto Apollo, the eighth to Theseus. The like doth Plutarch say of Theseus, that the Athenians offered to him their greatest Sacrifice, upon the eighth day of October, because of his arriuall that day from Crete: and that they also honoured him, [...], on the eighth day of the other moneths, because he was derived from Neptune; to whom, on the eighth day of every month, De D [...]calogo. they did offer sacrifice. To make the matter yet more sure, Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles, and the Iewes, that diverse Cities of the Gentiles did solemnize the seventh day, [...] once a moneth, beginning their account with the New-moone: [...], but that the Iews did keep every seventh day constantly. Its true that Philo tels us more then once or twice, how that the sabbath was become a generall Festivall: but that was rather taken up in imitation of the Iewes, then practised out of any instinct or light of nature, as wee shall see hereafter in a place more proper. Besides which dayes before remem­bred, the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius; Hospin. de orig. Fest. cap. [...]. the third and fifteenth to Minerva; the ninth unto the Sunne; the last to Pluto; and every twentieth day kept holy by the Epicures. Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moones and seventh day to Pho [...]bus, the fourth of every moneth to Mercury, and the eighth to Neptune, & sic de c [...]teris: so every ninth day in the yeare, was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Iupiter; the Fla­mines or Priests upon that day,Satur [...]l. l. 1▪ [...]. 16. offering a Ramme unto him for a Sacrifice. Nundinas Iovis ferias esse, ait Gra­ [...]ius Licinius: [...]iquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis [eve­ry [Page 78] ninth day] in regia Iovi [...] as [...] Macrobius. So that we see the seventh day was no more in honour, then either the first, fourth, or eighth; and not so much as was the ninth: this being as it were a weekly Festivall, and that a monethly. A thing so cleere and evi­dent that Doctour Bo [...]d could tell us,2. Edit. p. 6 [...]. that the memory of Weeks and Sabbaths was altogether suppressed and buried amongst the Gentiles. And in the former page. ‘But how the memory of the seventh day was taken away a­mongst the Romans, Ex veteri [...]ndinarum instit [...] apparet, saith Beroaldus. And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians, the holy memory of the sevēth day, by obtruding on the wicked rites of Super­stition, which on the eighth day they did keep in honor of Neptune. So that besides other holy dayes, the one of them observed the eighth day, and the other the ninth, and neither of them both the seventh as the Church doth now, and hath done alwayes from the beginning.’ Its true, Diogenes the Grammarian, did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or [...]. in Tiber. [...]. 32. Sabbath: and when Ti [...]erius at an extrordinary time came to heare his exercises; in diem septimum distulerat, the Pedant put him off until the Saturday next following. A right Di [...]genes indeed, and as rightly served. For com­ming to attend upon Tiberius, being then made Empe­rour, he sent him word, ut post annum septimum rediret, that he would have him come again the sevēth year after. But then as true it is, which the same S [...]etoni [...]s tels us of Antonius [...], De [...]. Grammat. a [...] too, that he taught Rhe­ [...]orick every day; declamaret vero non ni [...]i [...]dinis, but declaimed o [...]ly on the ninth. But then as true it is, which [...] hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians, that they pronounced their Declamatio [...]s on the sixth day chiefly.

As the Poet hath [...].

[Page 79]All dayes, it seemes, alike to them; the first, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and indeed what not, as much in honour as the seventh: whether it were in civill, or in sacred mat­ters.

(9) I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithetes are by some ancient Po [...]ts amongst the Grecians appro­priated to this day: which we find gathered up together, by Clemens Alexandrin [...]s, Clem Strom. l. 5. Euseb. Praepar. l. 13. c. 12. and E [...]sebius; but before either of them, by one Aristob [...]lns a learned Iew, who lived about the time of Pt [...]lomie Philometor King of Egypt. Both Hesiod and Homer, as they there are cited, give it the title of [...] or an holy day, & so it was esteemed amongst them, as before is shewn: but other dayes estee­med as holy. From Homer they produce two Verses, wherein the Poet seemes to be acquainted with the Worlds Creation, and the perfection of it on the seventh day.

The like are cited out of Linus, as related by Eusebi [...], from the collections of Aristobulus before remembred: but are by Clem [...]ns fathered on Callimachu [...], another of the old Greek Poets, who between them thus.

Which put together may be thus Englished, in the main, though not [...]

This Clemens, makes an argument that not the Iewes onely but the Gentiles also knew that the seventh day had a priviledge, yea, and was hallowed above other dayes; on which the world, and all things in it were complete and finished. And so we grant they did: but neither by the light of nature, nor any observation of that day a­mongst themselves, more then any other. Not by the light of nature. For Aristobulus, from whom Clemens probably might take his hint, speaks plainly, that the Poet [...] had consulted with the holy Bible, and from thence sucked this knowledge:Ap. [...]. [...] as that Authour saith of Hesiod and Homer. Which well might be, considering that Homer who was the oldest of them flourished about five hundred yeares after Moses death; Callimachus who was the latest, above seven hun­dred yeares after Homers time. Nor did they speake it out of any observation of that day, more then any other a­mongst themselues. The generall practice of the Gentiles, before related, hath throughly as we hope, removed that scruple. They that from these words can collect a Sab­bath, had need of as good eyes as Clemens, Strom l. 5. who out of Plato in his second d [...] republ. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lords day, above a [...]l the rest: because it is there said by Plato, that such as had for seven dayes solaced in the pleasant Mea­dowes, were to depart upon the eighth, and not returne till foure dayes after. As much a Lords day in the one, as any Sabbath in the [...]ther. Indeed the argument is weak, that some of those that thought it of especiall weight, have now deserted it, as too light and triviall. Ryvet by na [...]e, who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis, to prove the Sabbath no lesse ancient then the worlds Crea­tion; [Page 81] doth on the Decalogue, thinke them utterly unable to conclude that point, nisi aliunde suffulciantur, unlesse they be well backed with better arguments, and authori­ties out of other Authours.

(10) Nay, more then this, the Gentiles were so farre from sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day, themselues; that they derided those that kept it. The Circumcision of the Iews was not more ridic [...]lous amongst the Heathens, then their Sabbath [...] were; nor were they more extreme­ly scoffed at for the one,Ap. Aug. de civit. Dei, l. 6. c. 11. then for the other, by all sorts of Writers. Seneca layes it to their charge, that by oc­casion of their Sabbaths, septimam fere aetatis suae par­tem vacando perdant, Hist▪ [...] 5. they spent the seventh part of their their lives in sloth and idlenesse: and Tacitus, that not the seventh day, but the seventh yeare also, was as un­profitably wasted. Septimo quoque die otium placuisse ferunt; dein blandiente inertia, septimum qu [...]que annum ignaviae datum. Moses, saith he, had so appointed, because that after a long sixe dayes march, the people became quietly setled on the seventh. Iuvenal makes also the same objection,Sat. 14. against the keeping of the Sabbath by the Iew­ish Nation.

And Ouid doth not onely call them peregrina sabbata, Reme. amor. l. [...]. as things with which the Romans had but smal, and that late acquaintance: but makes them a peculiar marke of the Iewish Religion.

[Page 82]Where by the way Tostatus notes upon these words,In Exod 20. that sacra s [...]ptima are here ascribed unto the Iewes, as their badge or cognizance; which had been most improper, & indeed untrue, si gentes aliae servarent sabbatum, if any o­ther Nation, specially the Romans, had observed the same. But to proceed, Persius hits them in the teeth with their recutita sabbata: Sat. 5. [...]. 4 ep. [...]. and Martial scornfully calleth them Sabbatarians, in an Epigram of his to Bassus, where rec­koning up some things of an unsavoury smell, he reckoneth Sabbatariorum jejunia, Ap. Iosephum▪ An [...]iq. l. 12. 1. amongst the principall. So Aga­charcides who wrote the lives of Alexanders successours accuseth them of an unspeakable superstition; in that [...], they suffered P [...]olomie to take their City of Hierusalem, on a sabbath day, rather then stand upon their guard. But that of [...]pi [...]n, the great Clerke of Alexandria, Ioseph. adv▪ Api [...]n l. 2. is the most shamefull and reproachfull of all the rest: Who, to despight the Iewes the more, and lay the deeper stain upon their Sabbaths; relates in his Egyptian story, that at their going out of Egypt, having travelled for the space of six whole dayes, they became stricken with c [...]rtain inflammations in the privie parts, which the E­gyptians call by the name of Sabbo: [...], and for that cause they were compelled to rest on the seventh day, which afterwards they called the Sabbath. Then which, what greater ca­lumny could a malicious Sycophant invent against them? Doubtlesse, those men that speake so [...]picably and re­prochfully of the Iewish sabbath▪ had never any of their own: Nor did the Greeks and L [...]tines, and Egyptians only out of the plenty, or the redundāce rather of thei [...] wit, de­ride & scoff [...] the Sabbaths celebrated by those of Iewry: it was a [...] on them,Cap. [...]. when wit was not so [...] For so the Pro­phet Ieremiah in his Lamentations, made on the death of King Iosiah. [...] at her sabbaths. [...] this obser­vation. All nations else, both Gr [...]cian and Barbarian, had [Page 83] never so agreed together, to deride them for it.

(11) Yet we deny not all this while, but that the fourth Cōmandement, so much therof as is agreeable to the law and light of nature, was not alone imprinted in the minds of the Gentiles, but practised by them. For they had stat [...]s dies, some appointed times, appropriated to the worship of their severall gods, as before was shewed: their h [...]ly­dayes, & half-holydayes, according to that estimatiō which their gods had gotten in the World. And this as well to comfort and refresh their spirits, which otherwise had bin spent & wasted with continuall labour; as to do service to those Deities which they chiefly honoured.De leg. l. [...]. Dii genus ho­minum laboribus natura pressum miserati, remissionem la­borum statuerunt solennia festa; was the re [...]olution once of Plato. But this concludes not any thing that they kept the sabbath, or that they were obliged to keep it, by the law of nature. Purch. Pilgr. l. [...] c. 4. And where it is conceived by some, that the Gentiles by the light of nature had their Wakes, which is supposed to be an argument that they kept the sabbath, a week being onely of seven dayes, and commonly so cal­led both in Greeke, and Latine: we on the other side af­firme, that by this very rule, the Gentiles, many of them, if not the most, could observe no sabbath; because they did observe no weeks. For first the Chaldees, and the Per­sians had no weeks at all: but to the severall dayes of each severall moneth, appropriated a particular name of some King or other:Emend. [...]mp l. 3. as the P [...]ruvians doe at this present time, & nomina dicbus mensis indunt, ut prisci Persae, as Scaliger hath noted of them. The Grecians also did the like in the times of old: there being an old Attick Calendar to be seen in Scaliger, wherein is no division of the m [...]neth into weeks at all. Then for the Romans, they divided their ac­compt into eighths & eighths; as the Iewes did by sevens and sevens: the one reflecting on their nundinae, as the o­ther did upon their sabbath. Id. l. 4. Ogdoas Romanorum in tri­butione dierum servabatur propter nundinas, ut hebdomas apud Iudaeos propter sabbatum. For proofe of which there [Page 84] are some ancient Roman [...]Calendars to be seen as yet, one in the aforesaid S [...]aliger; the other in the Roman Antiqui­ties of Iohn Rossinus: wherin the dayes are noted from A to H, as in our common Almanacks from A to G. The Mexicans go a little further,Id. l. 1. Edit. 2. and they have 13. dayes to the week, as the same Scaliger hath observed of them. Nay even the Iewes themselues were ignorant of this division of the yeere into weeks, I [...] Levit. 23. qu. 3. as Tostatus thinks, till Moses learnt it of the Lord, in the fall of Mannah. Nor were the Greeks & Romans destitute of this accompt, onely whiles they were rude and untrained people, as the Peruvians and the Mexicans at this present time; but when they were in their greatest flourish for Arts and Empire.Hist. l. 36. Dion affirmes it for the ancient Grecians, that they knew it not; [...],N [...]tura [...]. 7. for ought hee could learne: and Seneca more punctually, that first they learnt the motions of the Planets, of Eudoxus, who brought that knowledge out of Egypt; and consequently could not know the w [...]ke before. And for the Romans, though they were well enough acquainted with the Pla­nets in th [...]ir latter times; yet they divided not their Ca­lendar into weeks, as now they doe, till neere about the time of Dionysius Exiguus, who lived about the y [...]ere of Christ, 520 [...] Nor had they then received it in all pro­bability, had they not long before admitted Christianity throughout their Empire; and therewithall the know­ledge of the holy Scriptures, where the accompt by weeks was exceeding obvious. Therefore according to this rule, the Chaldees, Per [...]ians, Greeks, and Romans, all the foure great Monarchies did observe no Sabbaths; because they did observe no weeks. Which said in this place once for all, wee resolue it thus: that as the Israelites kept no Sab­bath before the Law, so neither did the Gentiles when the Law was given: which prooves it one of Moses Or­dinances, no prescript of nature.

CHAP. V.
The Practice of the Iewes in such observan­ces, as were annexed unto the SABBATH.

(1) Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Iewish Sabbath. (2) The Annuall Festivals called Sabbaths in the Booke of God, and reckoned as a part of the fourth Commandement. (3) The Annuall Sabbaths no lesse solemnely observed and celebrated, the [...] the weekly were; if not more solemnely. (4) Of the Parasc [...]e or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemne Festivalls. (5) All manner of worke as well forbidden on the An­nuall, as the weekly Sabbaths. (6) What things were lawfull to be done on the Sabbath dayes. (7) To [...]ching the prohibitions of not kindling fire, and not dressing meat. (8) What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Iewes, with Fasting on the Sabbath day. (9) Touching this Prohibition, Let no man goe out of his place on the Sabbath day. (10) All lawfull recrea­tions, as Dancing, Feasting, Man-like Exercises, allowed and practised by the Iewes upon their Sabbaths.

(1) I Shewed you in the former Chapter, the institution of the Sabbath, by whom it was first published, and to whom pre­scribed. It now remaynes to see, how it was observed; how farre the people [Page 86] thought them [...]e [...]es oblig [...]d by it, and in what [...]ases they were pleased to dispense th [...]rewith. Which that we may the better doe, we will take notice first of the Law it selfe, what is contained in the same, what the Sabbath signifi­eth: and then of such particular observances, which by particular statutes were affixed by God to the fourth Commandement, either by way of Comment on it, or addition to it; and after wer [...] misconstrued by the Scribes and Pharisees to insnare the people. And first, not to say any thing in this place, of the quid nominis, or deri­vation of the word, which Phil [...] and Iosephus, and the Seventy doe often render by [...] ▪ repose, or rest: Sabbath is used in Scripture to signifie some selected time by GOD himselfe deputed unto rest and holinesse. Most specially and [...], it points out unto us the seventh day, as that which was first honoured with the name of Sabbath, Exod▪ 16. 25. and in the second place those other Festivals, which were by God prescribed to the house of Israel, and are called Sabbaths also, as the o­thers were. Of these the one was we [...]kly, and the others Ann [...]all: the New-moones not being honoured with this title in the Booke of God, though in heathen Authours. The we [...]kly Sabbath was that day, precisely, whereon God rest [...]d from the workes that he had made, which he commanded to be kept for a day of rest unto the Iewes that so they might the better meditate on the wondrous works, that he had done every seventh day exactly, in a continuall revolution, from time to time.De [...]fide Orth [...]d. l. 4. c. 24. Therefore, saith Damascē, when we haue reckoned to seven daies, [...], our computation of the time runnes round, and begins anew. These as in generall, and [...], as before I said, they were cal­led Sabbaths: so w [...]re there some of them that had par­ticular adjuncts, whereby to know them from the rest: whereof the one was consta [...]t and the other casuall. The [...] adjunct is that of [...], or [...] as the [...] tenders it: menti­on [Page 87] whereof is made in Saint Lukes Gospel. Our English reades it,Cap 6. 1. on the second Sabbath af [...]er the first. A place and passage that much exercised mens wits in the former times, and brought forth many strange conceits: untill at last, this, and the [...], and super flu­vious manare, font [...]s, Cas [...]ub. Exerc. 14. n. 1. came to be reckoned in a Proverbe as preposterous things. Scaliger hath of late untied the knot, and resolved it▪ thus,Eme [...]d. Temp. lib. 6. that all the Weeks or Sabbaths from Pas [...]h to Pente [...]st, did take their name [...], from the second day of the Feast of Passe­over; that being the Ep [...]che, or point of time, from which the fifty dayes were to be accompted by the Law: and that the first Weeke or Sabbath after the said second day, was called [...], the second, [...], the third, [...], and so the rest. According to which reckoning, the second Sabbath after the first, as we translate it, must be the first S [...]bbath [...], from the second day of the Passeover. The casuall ad­junct is, that sometimes there was a Sabbath that was cal­led [...], the great Sabbath, Cap. 19. 31. or as it is in Saint Iohns Gospel [...], magnus ille dies Sabbati, as the Latine hath it. And is so called not for its owne sake,Excerc. 16. n. 31. for Casaubon hath rightly noted, nunquameam appellationem Sabbato tributam reperiri propter ip­sum: but because then, as many other times it did, the Passeover did either fall, or else was celebrated on a Sab­bath. Even as in other cases, and at other times, when any of the greater and more solemne Festivalls did fall upon the Sabbath day, they used to call it,Epist. 110▪ l. 3▪ Sabbatum Sabba­torum, a Sabbath of Sabbaths. [...], as Isidore Pe­lusiotes notes it.

(2) For that the Annuall F [...]sts were called Sabbaths too, is most apparant in the Scriptures especially; Levit. 23. where both the Passeover, the Feast of Trampets, the Feast of Expiation, and the Feast of Tubernacles, are severally entituled by the [...] of Sabbaths. The Fathers [Page 86] [...] [Page 87] [...] [Page 88] also note the same, [...], saith Saint Chysost [...]me: Hom. in M [...]th. 39. and [...], saith Isidore, in the place before remembred. Even the New-moones, amongst the Gentiles had the same name also, as may appeare by that of Horace, who calls them in his Sa­tyres, Tricesima Sabbata, L. 1. Sat. 9. because they were continually celebrated every thirtieth day. The like they did by all the rest,Emend. Temp. lib. 3. if Ioseph Scaligers note be true, as I think it is; who hath affirmed expresly, Omnem festivitatem Iudai­cam non s [...]lum Iudaeos sed & Gentiles sabbatum vocare. Nay, as the weekly Sabbaths, some of them had their pro­per adjuncts:De Sabbat. & Circumcis. so had the annuall. Saint Athanasius tels us of the Feast of Expiation, that it was [...], or the principall Sabbath: for so I take it is his mea­ning: which selfe same attribute is given by Origen, to the Feast of Trumpets. Clemens In Num. 2 [...]. h [...]m. 23. of Alexandria 6. Stro­mat. brings in a difference of those Festivalls, out of a sup­posed worke of Saint Peter the Apostle: wherein, besides the New-moons and Passeover, which are there so named, they are distributed into [...], or the first Sabbath, the Feast [...] so called,Exer. 14. [...]. 1. and the Great day. Casaubon for his part prote­steth, ipsi obscurum esse quid fit sabbatum primum, that he was yet to seek what should the meaning be of that first Sabbath. But Scaliger conceives, and not improbably, that by this first Subbath, [...]nd. Temp. [...]roleg Edit. 2. or [...], was meant the Feast of Trumpets, because it was caput anni, or the beginning of the civill yeere: the same which Origen cals Sabbatum sabbatorum, as before we noted. As for the Feast [...] so named in Clemens, that hee con­ceives to be the Feast of Pentecost; and the great day in him remembred, the Feast of Tabernacles: for the which last, he hath a [...]thority in the Scriptures, who tell of the Great day of this very Feast, Ioh. 7. 37. Not that the Feast of Tabernacles was alone so called, but in a more especi­all manner: For there were other dayes so named, besides the Sab [...]aths. [...] Dies [...], saith Tertullian, & sabbata [Page 89] ut opinor, & coenas puras, & jej [...]nia, & dies magnos. Where sabbata & dies magni, are distinguished plainly. Indeed it stood with reason that these annuall Sabbaths, should have the honour also of particular adjuncts as the weekly had: being all founded upon one & the same Com­mandement. Philo affirmes it for the Iewes. De Decalog. [...], &c. The fourth Command [...]ent, [...]aith he, is of the Sabbath, and the Festivalls▪ of Vowes, of Sacrifices, formes of purifying, and other parts of divine worship. Which is made good by Zanchie for the Chri­stian Writers, who in his worke upon the De [...]alogue doth resolue it thus.In Ma [...]d [...]t. 4▪ Sabbati nomine ad I [...]daeos quod atti­nebat, Deus intellexit non solum sabbatum septem dierum, sed sabbata etiam annorum, item omnia festa, quae per Mo­sen illis explicavit. It was the morall part of the fourth Commandement, that some time should be set apart for Gods publicke service: and in the body of that Law it is determined of that time, that it should be one day in se­ven. Yet not exclusively, that there should be no other time appointed, either by God, or by his Church, then the seventh day onely. God therefore added other times, as to him seemed best, the list whereof wee may behold in the twenty third of Leviti [...]us: and the Church too by Gods example, added also some, as namely the Feast of Dedication, and that of Purim.

(3) Now as the Annuall Festivalls ordained by God, had the name of Sabbath, as the weekly had: [...]o the observances in them were the [...]ame; or not m [...]ch dif­ferent, if in some things the weekly Sabbath▪ seemed to have preheminence, the Annuall Sabbaths went beyond thē in some others also. For the cōtinuance of these Feasts, the weekly Sabbath was to be observed throughout th [...]ir generations, for a perpetuall covenant; Exod 31. 16. So for the Passeover; you shall observe it throughout your ge­nerations, by an ordinance for ever. Exod. 12. 14. The like of Pentecost, it shall be [...] for [...]ver throughout your gen [...]rations; [...]. 23. 21. So also for the Feast of Expiation, Levit. 23. 31. and for the Feast of Taberna­cles, [Page 90] Levit, 23. 41. Where note, that by these words for [...]ver, and throughout their generations, it is not to be un­derstood that these I [...]wis [...], Festivall [...] were to be perpe­t [...]all, for then they would oblige us now, as they did the Ie [...]es: but that they were to last as long, as the Repub­lick of the Iewes should stand; and the Mosaicall Ordi­na [...]ces were to be in force. Per generationes vestras, i.e. quam di [...] Res [...]b. Iudaica consta [...]t, as T [...]status notes up­on this twenty third of Leviticus. For the solemnity o [...] these Feaste, the presence of the high priests was as nece [...]a­ry in the one as in the other.bello l. 6. 6. The high priests also (saith [...] ­ [...]ep [...]us) [...] with the priests into the Temple, [...], and yet not alwayes, but onely on the Sabbaths, and New-moones, [...], as also on those other Feasts, and solemne as­semblies, which ye [...]ely were to be observed, according u [...] ­to the [...] of the Country. And hitherto, wee finde no difference at all: but in the manner of the rest, there ap­peares a littl [...], between the weekly Sabbath, and some of the Annuall. For of the weekly Sabbath it is said expres­ly, that thou shalt doe no manner of worke: as on the other side of the Passeover, the Pen [...]icost, the Feast of Trum­pets▪ and of Tabernacles, that they shall do no servile work: which being well examined will be found the same in sence,i [...]. 23. 7, 21, 36. though not in sound. But then again for sence and [...]ound, it is expresly said of the Expiation, that therein tho [...] shalt do no manner of work, as was affirmed before of the weekly Sabbath. So that besides the seventh day Sab­bath, there were seven Sabbaths in the yeare, in sixe of which, viz. the first and seventh of unleavened bread, the day of Pent [...]cost, the Feast of Trump [...]ts, and the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they were to doe no servile work [...]: and on the Expiation d [...]y, no worke at all. So that in thi [...] respect the w [...]ekly Sabbath & the day of Expiation were directly equall, according to the very letter. In other things the day of Exp [...]at [...]n seemes to h [...]ve [...], the [Page 91] high Priest, [...] indutus, at­tired in his [...] might goe into the San [...]tum san­ctorum, or the holiest of all, to make a [...]onement for the people; whereof see Lev [...]. 1 [...]. And secondly, in that the sacrifices for this day [...] more, and greater, then those appointed by the Lord for the weekly S [...]bbaths: which last is also true of the other Festivals. For where the sacrif [...]c [...] appointed for the weekly Sabbath, con [...]isted onely of two Lambes, over and above the daily sacrifice; with a meat-offering and a drink-offering thereunto pro­portioned: on the N [...]w-moones▪ and all the Annuall Sab­baths before remembred, the sa [...]rifices were enlarged, nay, more then trebled, as is expressed in the 28. and 29. of the booke of Numbers. Nay, if it hapned any time as some times it did▪ that any of these Festivals did fall upon the weekly Sabbath; or that two of them, as the New-moones and the Feast of Trumpets fe [...]l upon the same: the [...]ervice of the weekly Sabbath lessened not at all, the sacri­fices destinate to the Annuall Sabbath; but they were all performed in their severall turns. The Text it selfe affirmes as much, in the two Chapters before specified: and for the practice of it, that so it was, it is apparant to be seen in the Hebrew Calendars. Ap. A [...]sw [...]rth. in Num. [...]8. Onely the difference was this, as Rabbi [...]Maimony informes us, that the addition of the Sabbath was first performed; and after, the addition of the New-moone, and then the addition of the Good day, or other Festivall. So that in case the weekly sabbath had a priviledge above the Annuall, in that the Shew-bread or the loaves of proposition, were onely set before the Lord on the weekly Sabbaths: the [...]nnuall Sabbaths, seeme to have had amends, all of them in the multiplicitie of their sacrific [...]s; and three of them in the great solemnity and concourse of people: all Israel being bound to appeare before the Lord on those three great Festivals, the Passe­ouer, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. As for the p [...]nalty inflicted on the breakers of these solemne Fe­ [...]vals, it is expresly said of the weekly sabbath, that who­soever [Page 92] doth any w [...]rks [...] 31. 15. and in the Vers [...] before, that whosoever doth any worke therein, that soule shall be cut off (or as the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it, that man shall be destroyed) from amongst his people. Which if it signifie the same, [...] by the Chaldee Paraphrase it seemes to doe; it is no more, then what is elsewhere said of the Expiation, for so saith the Text.Levi [...]. 23 30. And whatsoever soule it be that doth any w [...]rke in that same day, that s [...]le will I destroy from amongst his people. But if the phrase be different, as the Rabbins say, the difference is no more, then this, that they that breake the weekly Sabbath; are to be put to death by the Civill Magistrate: and they that worke upon the Feast of Ex­piation, shall be cut off by God, by untimely deaths. As for the other Annuall Sa [...]baths, the Rabbins have determi­ned thus,Ap. Ainsworth. in Levit. 23. 7. ‘that whosoever doth in any of them, such works as are not necessary for food, as if he build, or pull downe, or weave, and the like, hee breaketh a Com­mandement, and transgresseth against this prohibition, yee shall not doe any servile worke; and if he doe, and there be witnesses and evident proofe, hee is by law to be beaten or scourged for it.’ So that we see, that whe­ther we regard the institution, or continuance of these severall Sabbaths; or the solemnities of the same, either in reference to the Priests, the Sacrifices, and concourse of people; or finally the punishment inflicted on the brea­kers of them; the difference is so little, it is scarce remark­able▪ considering especially, that if the weekly Sabbaths do gain in one point, they loose as often in another. For the particulars we shall speake of them hereafter, as occa­sion is.

(4) As for the time, when they began their Sabbaths, and when they ended them, they tooke beginning on the evening of the day before, and so continued till the eve­ning of the Feast it selfe. The Scripture speaks it onely, as I remember of the Expiation; which is appointed by the Lord to be observed on the t [...]th day of the seventh [Page 93] moneth, Levit. 23. 27. yet [...]o that it is ordered thus in the 31, It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and yee shall af­flict your soules on the ninth day of the moneth, at even. And then it foll [...]weth, From even to even shall yee celebrate your Sabbath. But in the practice of the Iewes, it was so in all: either because they tooke those words for a gene­rall precept; or else because they commonly did accompt their day from even to even. For where the Romans and Egyptians began the day at midnight;Em [...]nd. Temp. l. [...]. the Chaldees and the Persians with the rising [...]unne; and the Vmbri, an Italian people, reckoned theirs from noone to noone: the Iewes and the Athenians took the beginning of their day, ab occasu solis, from Sun-setting, as Scaliger and divers o­thers have observed.D [...] imagi [...] [...] Yet sure I am, Honorius Augusto­dunensis, who lived foure hundred yeares agoe and up­wards, placeth the Ie [...]es together with the Persians and Chaldeans, as men that doe begin their day at the Sun-rising. However, in this case it is not to be thought that the even was any part of the Sabbath following, (for the addition [...]ll sacrifices were offered onely on the morning and the evening of the severall Sabbaths) but a [...] or preparation thereunto: which preparation if it were before the weekly Sabbath, it was called [...] if before any of the Annuall, it was called [...]. In imitation of the Gentiles, the Latine Writers call the [...]e Parasceve's or Evens of preparation, by the name of Coena pura, as Augustine noteth up [...]n the nineteenth of Saint Iohn; because of some resemblance that was be­tweene them:Exer. 16. n. 106. but yet they had a difference too. For Ca­saubon hath taught us this, that in the Coena pura amongst the Gentiles, a part of the ceremony did consist in the choice of meats: where no such thing occurres at all in these preparations of the Iewes▪ Now these Parasceves, or preparation dayes, the Iewes did afterward divide into these foure parts. The first was [...] a prepara­tive, as it were, to the preparation, which began in the morning, and held on till noone. The second was [...]. [Page 94] largely taken, from noone, u [...]till the evening-sa­crifice of the day: the third [...], or the approching of the Sabbath, which began after the evening Sacrifice, continued till Sun-set, and was properly called the [...], the fourth was the [...], or entrance of the Sabbath, which lasted from Sun-set unto the dawning of the day. They had amongst them a tra­dition, or a custome rather, that one whole day, from the [...] till Sun-set, they might not travaile a­bov [...] twelue miles: left comming home too late, they might not have sufficient leisure to prepare things before the Sabbath. Syn [...]g Iud. c. 10. The time was, as Buxdor [...]us tels us, qu [...] corn [...] vel inflata tuba daretur signum, when there was publick warning given by sound of Trumpet, that every man should cease from worke, and make all things ready for the Sabbath: though in these dayes, the Clerke or Sexton goeth about from doore to doore, to give notice of it.De Bello l. 5 c.9 The time was so indeed, ‘So Ioseph [...] tels us, that in Hierusalem one of the Priests continually standing upon a Pillar, [...], made knowne upon the even before by sound of [...]rumpet, which time the sabbath did be­gin; and on the evening of the Sabbath, at which time it ended: that [...]o the people might be certified both at what time to rest from labour, and at what time they might againe apply their minds and hands unto it.’ Now what Iosephus saith of the weekly Sabbath the same was done, saith Phil [...], in the New-moones also: [...], which is much alike. And consequently we may say the [...]ame of the Annuall sabbaths, Num. 10. 10. in which the sonnes of Aaron were to blow the Trumpets, as well as in the New-moones or the weekly sabbaths. As for the works prohibited or permitted on these dayes of preparation, whether before the weekly or the Annuall sabbaths, I find little difference. This I am sure of, that it was as much unlawfull for the Iudges to sit on any [...] cri [...]es, the day before the Annuall [Page 95] Sabbath, as before the weekly: and the reason was, be­cause the morrow after, of which sort soever,Ap. Casaub. Ex [...]. 10. n. 10. was thought to be no fit day for execution. Iudices rerum Capitalium non judicant in parasceve Sabbati, aut in parasceve diei se­sti, quia non debet id fieri; & r [...]us occidi postridie non po­test. So saith Rabbi Maimony. Of the ridiculous nicety of the moderne Iewes in these Paras [...]eves, wee shall speake hereafter.

(5) To come unto the day it selfe, it is said expresly in the Law, that therein thou shalt doe no manner of worke. What, no worke at all? How could they eat and drink, and put on their clothes? The [...]e are some manner of works, yet done every Sabbath: yea, by the Pharisees themselues, which were most strict ob [...]ervers of the weekly Sabbaths. Quis Pharisaeorum, In Math. 1 [...]. saith Saint Hierome, in die sabbati non extendit manum, portans cibum, porri­gens calicem, & caetera quae victui sunt necessaria: yet all all these were workes. How could they circumcise, and offer sacrifice, and set on the Shew-bread on the Sabbath? Surely all these are works too; some of them very trou­blesome: yet commonly performed on the weekly Sab­bath, of which more anon. Therefore when all is done, we must expound these words of ordinary and servile la­bours, such as are [...]oylesome in themselues, and ayme at profit. Zanchie, I am sure, doth expound them so.In Manda [...]. 4. Nomen operis quod hic habet Moses, non significat opus simpliciter, sed opus quod propter opes comparandas suscipitur: Tale autem opus est vere servile. In Esa. 58. 13. Saint Hierome also expounds it, Lege preceptum est ne in sabbatis opus servile faciamus, &c, Wee are commanded in the Law to doe no servile works on the Sabbath dayes. And on the fift of Amos he affirmes the same; jubet ne quid in eo operis servilis [...]at, &c. And so Tertullian; Nec dubi [...]m est eos opus servile operatos, &c. in his second booke against Marriage. If so, there is no difference at all betweene the weekly and the Annuall Sabbaths in this one particular; because all ser­vile works expresly are forbidden in them also, as before [Page 96] we shewed. But take it in the very words, no manner of worke: and aske the Hebre [...] Doctours, what they meant thereby. They will then tell you first, there must be n [...] marketting, no not buying of victuals; for which they cite the 13 of Nehemiah, Verse 16, 17. nor n [...] embalming of the dead, in which they vouch Saint Lukes Gospel, Ch. 27. Verse 54, 56. This we acknowledge for a truth, but then we say with all, that neither of these two were law­full on the Annuall Sabbaths. For when it hapned any time, as sometimes it did, that a weekly Sabbath and an Annuall Sabbath came next dayes together; the Iewes did commonly in their later times, put [...]ff the Annuall Sab­bath to a farther day. And this they did, as themselues tell us, because of burials, and of meats which were fit for eating: lest by deferring either the one or the other, the carkasses should putrifie,Ap C [...]s [...]ub▪ Exerc. 16. n. 20. and the meats be spoyled. No [...] facimus duo sabbata continua, propter olera, & propter mortuos, ut Rabbini dictitant. Which need not be, in case they held it lawfull either to bury, or to buy, on the An­nuall Sabbaths. They tell us next, that the Iewes could not travaile on the weekly Sabbath, and this from Exod. 16. 29. Whether that Text were so intended, we shall see anon. But sure I am, that when the Iewes began to rec­kon it an unlawfull matter to travaile on the weekly Sab­bath; Ioseph. An iq. l. 13. c. 15. they held it altogether as unlawfull, to travaile on the Annuall Sabbaths. ‘Nic. Damascen reporteth (as Iosephus tels us) how that Antiochus the great King of Syria, erected a Trophee neere the floud Lycus, and abode there two dayes at the request of Hyrcanus the King of Iewrie, by reason of a solemne Feast at that time, whereon it was not lawfull for the Iewes to tra­vaile. In which, he was no wise mistaken. For (saith Io­sephus) the Feast of Pentecost was that yeere the mor­row after the Sabbath (for at that troublesome time, the Pentecost was not deferred) what then? It follow­eth, [...], and unto us it is not lawfull, either upon our [Page 97] Sabbaths, or our Feasts, to journey any whither.’ They tell us also, that it is not lawfull to execute a malefactor on the weekly Sabbath, although it be commanded that hee must be punished; nor doe they doe it on the Feasts or Annuall Sabbaths, as before we noted. As also that it is not lawfull to marry on the Sabbath day, nor on the Even before the Sabbath, nor the morrow after; lest they pol­l [...]te the Sabbath by dressing meat for the Feast: and on the solemne Festivals or the Annuall Sabbaths, they were not suffered to be married, lest,Ap. Ainsw. in Levit. 23. say the Rabbins, the joy of the Festivall be forgotten through the joy of the wedding. The many other trifling matters, which have beene pro­hibited by the Iewish Doctours, and are now practised by that senslesse and besotted people: shall somewhere be presented to you towards the end of this first Booke.

(6) Againe, demand of these great Doctors, since it is said expresly, that wee shall doe no manner of worke, whether there be at all no case, in which it may be law­full to doe work on the Sabbath day: and then they have as many shifts to put off the Sabbath; as they had niceties before, wherewith all to beautifie it. A woman is in travaile on the Sabbath day; is it not lawfull for the Mid-wife to discharge her duty; although it be for gaine, and her usuall trade? Pet. Gal [...]tin. l. 11. c. 10. Yes, saith that great Clerke Rabbi Si­meon, propter puerum unius diei vivum, solvunt sabba­tum; to save a childe alive we may breake the Sabbath. This childe being borne, must needs be circumcised on the eighth day after, which is the Sabbath: May not the Ministers do their office? yes, for the Rabbins have a ma­xime, that Circumcisio pellit sabbatum. And what? doth onely Circumcision drive away the Sabbath? No, any common danger doth it: And then they change the phrase a little, & periculum mortis pellit sabbatum. Nay more, the Priest that waiteth at the Altar, doth he doe no worke upon the Sabbath? yes more then on the other dayes, and for that too they have a maxime, viz.Ap Casaub. Ex [...]. 10. n. 20. qui ob­servari jussit sabbatum, is profanari jussit sabbatum. Wee [Page 98] shall meet with some of these againe, hereafter. There­fore we must expound these words, n [...] manner of worke, i. e. no kind of servile worke, as before we did: or else the weekly Sabbath and the fourth Commandement, must be a n [...]se of waxe, and a Lesbian rule, fit onely to be wrested and applied to whatsoever end and purpose it shall please the Rabbi [...]s. More warily and more soundly have the Christian Doctors, yea, and the very Heathens determi­ned of it: who judge that all such corporall labours, as tend unto the morall part of the fourth command, which are rest and sanctity; are fit and lawfull to be done on the Sabbath day. That men should rest upon such times, as are designed and set apart for Gods publick service, and leave their daily labours till some other season; the Gen­tiles knew full well by the light of nature. Therefore the Flamines were to take especiall care ne f [...]riis opus fieret, Ma [...]rob Sat. l. 1. c. 16. that no worke should be done on the solemne dayes; and to make it knowne by proclamation, ne quid tale agere­tur, that no man should pre [...]ume to do it. Which done, if any one offended, he was forthwith mulcted, yet was not this enjoyned so strictly, that no worke was permitted in what case soever. All things which did concerne the Gods, and their publick worship, vel ad urgentem vitae uti­litatem respicerent, or were important any way to mans life and wel-fare, were accounted lawfull. More punctu­ally Scevola, being then chiefe Pontifex. Who being de­manded what was lawfull to be done on the Holy-dayes, made answere, quod praetermissum n [...]c [...]ret, which would miscarry if it were left undone. Hee therefore that did underprop a ruinous building, or rayse the cattaile that was fallen into the ditch; did not breake the Holy-day in his opinion. No more did he that washed his sheep, si hoc remedii causa fieret, were it not done to clense the wooll and make it ready for the sh [...]arers; but onely for the cure of some sore or other: according unto that of Virgil, Ba­lantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri. Geo g [...]c. Thus farre the Gentiles have resolued it, agreeably to the Law of nature: [Page 99] and so farre do the Christian Doctours, yea, and our Lord and Saviour determine of it. The corporall labours of the Priest on the Sabbath day, as farre as it concernes Gods ser [...]ice: were accounted lawfull: The Priests in the Tem­ple breake the sabbath, and yet were blamelesse. So was the corporall labour of a man, either to save his owne life, or preserve anothers: Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the sabbath, being then an hungred, Math. 12. Verse 1. & 3. and restored many unto health on the sabbath day, Math. 12. 13. and in other places. Finally, corporall labours to preserve Gods creatures, as to draw the sheepe out of the pit, Math. 12. 11. and con­sequently to save their Cattaile from the Thiefe; a ruinous house from being over-blown by tempest; their Corn and Hay also from a sudden inundation; these and the like to these, were all judged lawfull on the sabbath. And thus you see, the practice of the Gentiles governed by the light of nature, is every way conformable to our Sa­viours doctrine: and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandement, as farre as it containes the law of nature.

(7) For such particular Ordinances, which have been severally affixed to the fourth Commandement, either by way of Comment on it, or addition to it: that which is most considerable is that prohibition in the 35 of Exodus viz.Vers. 12. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day. The Rabbins, some of them, conceive, that hereby is meant that no man must be beaten, or put to death upon the sabbath: and then it must be thus ex­pounded, yee shall kindle no fire, i. e. to burne a man upon the sabbath, who is condemned by the Law to that kinde of death; and consequently not to put him on that day, unto any punishment at all. Others of late, referre that prohibition unto the building of the Tabernacle, in that Chapter mentioned: and then the meaning will be this, that they should make no fire on the sabbath, no, though it were to hasten on the worke of the holy Tabernacle. [Page 100] Philo restraines it chiefly unto manuall Trades, [...], such whereby men doe get their livings: and then it must be thus interpreted, yee shall not kindle any fire, that is, to doe any common ordinary and servile works, like as doe common Bakers, Smiths, and Brewers, by making it part of their usuall trade.De vit. Mos. l. 3. The later Rabbins, almost all, and many Christian Writers also taking the hint from Vatablus, and Treme­lius in their Annotations, referre it unto dressing of meat, according to the latter custome. Nay, generally the Iews in the later times, were more severe and rigid in the ex­position of that Text; and would allow no fire at all, ex­cept in sacred matters onely. For whereas Rabbi Aben Ezra had so expounded it,Tostat. in Iosu [...], [...]. q. 2. quod liceat ignem accendere ad calefaciendum si urgeret frigus, that it was lawfull to make a fire wherewith to warme ones selfe, in the extremity of cold weather; though not to dresse meate with it for that dayes expence: the Rabbins generally would have procee­ded against him as an Hereticke; and purposely writ a Booke in confutation of him which they called the Sab­bath. How this interpretation was thus generally recei­ved, I cannot say. But I am verily perswaded that it was not so in the beginning: Ex. 16. 23. and that those words of Moses, quae coquenda sunt, hodie coquite, bake that which yee will bake to day, and seeth what ye will seeth, which words are commonly produced to justifie and confirme this fancie; do prove quite contrary to what some would have them. The Text and Context both make it plaine and manifest that the Iewes baked their Mannah on the Sabbath day. The people on the sixt day had gathered twice as much as they used to do, whereof the Rulers of the Congregati­on acquainted Moses. And Moses said, to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which yee will bake to day, and seeth what yee will seeth, and that which remayneth over, lay up to be kept untill the morning. i. e. As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day; that bake or boyle, according as you use to [Page 101] doe: and for the rest, let it be laid by, to be baked or boy­led to morrow, that you may have wherewith to feed you, on the Sabbath day. That this interpretation is most true and proper,I [...]e [...]se 24. appeares by that which followeth in the holy Scripture: viz. They laid it up as Moses bade, and it did not stinke, neither was any worme therein; as that which they had kept till morning, on some day before, Verse 20. This makes it evident that the Mannah was laid up unbaked: for otherwise what wonder had it been at all, that it did neither breed worme, nor stinke, had it been baked the day before. Things of that nature so preserved, are farre enough from putrifying in so short a time. This, I am verily perswaded was the practice then: and for this light unto that practice, I must ingenuously confesse my selfe obliged to Theophilus Braborne, Cha [...]. [...]. the first that e­ver looked so neere into Moses meaning. And this most likely, was the practice of the Iewes in after times, even till the Pharisees had almost made the words of God of no effect, by their traditions: for then came in those many rigid ordinances about this day, which made the day and them ridiculous unto all the Heathens. Sure I am that the Scriptures call it a day of gladnesse, for it was a Festivall; and therefore probable it is, that they had good cheere. And I am sure that D. Bo [...]nd, the Founder of these Sabba­tarian fancies,2 Edit. p. 137. 138. though he cōceive that dressing meat upon the Sabbath, was by the words of Moses, utterly unlawfull in the time of Mannah: yet hee conceives withall, that that Commandement, was proper onely unto the time of Mannah, in the Wildernesse, and so to be restrained unto that time onely. Therefore, by his confession, the Iewes for after times might as well dresse their meat on the Sab­bath day, as on any other: notwithstanding this injuncti­on of not kindling fire. Indeed why not as well dresse meat, as serve it in: the attendance of the servant at his Masters Table, being no lesse con [...]iderable on the Sabbath day, then of the Cookes about the Kitchin: especially in those riotous and excessive Feasts, which the Iewes kept upon this day, however probably they might dresse their meat [...] on the day before.

[Page 102](8) I say those riotous and excessive Feasts which the Iewes [...]ept upon that day; and I have good authoritie for what I say. Saint Augustine tels us of them they kept the Sabbath, onelyTract. 3. in Ioh. ad luxuriam & ebrietatem; and that they rested onelyDe 10. chordis c. 3. ad nugas & luxurias suas; that they consumed the day, languide & luxurioso otio; and final­ly did abuse the same, not onelyIn Psal 91. deliciis Iudaicis, but ad nequitiam, In Psal. 32. even to sinne and naughtinesse. Put alto­gether, and we have luxury, and drun [...]ennes [...]e, and sports and pleasures enough to manifest that they spared not any dainties to set forth their Sabbath, though on a Pharisai­call prohibition they forbare to dresse their meats upon it. Nay,Sympo Isac l. 4. Plutarch layes it to their charge, that they did feast it on their Sabbath, with no small excesse, but of wine e [...]pecially. Who thereupon conjectureth, that the name of Sabbath had its originall from the Orgies or Feasts of Bacchus; whose Priests used often to ingemi­nate the word Sabbi, Sabbi, in their drunken Ceremo­nies. Which being so, it is the more to be admired, that generally the Romans did upbraid this people with their Sabbaths fast. Augustus having been at the Bathes, Suet [...]n. in Octau. c. 76. and fasting there a long time together; gives notice of it to Ti­berius▪ thus: ne Iuda [...]ns quide [...] tam dilig [...]nter sabbatis je­j [...]ium [...], that [...] any I [...]w [...]ad [...] more exactly on the Sabbaths then he did that day. [...] Martial recko­ning up some things of unsavoury [...]ell, names amongst others, [...]ejunia sabbatariorum; for by that name hee did con [...]emp [...]ously mean the Iewes, as bef [...]re I noted. And where the R [...]mans in those times, bega [...], some of them, to incline to the Iewish Ceremonies, and were observant of the Sabbath, as wee shall [...]ee hereafter in a p [...]ace more proper:Sat. 5. Persius objects against them this, [...] a monent [...] i. e. that being Romans as they were, they [...] out their Prayers as the Iewes accustomed, and by observing of the Fast on the Iewish Sabbaths, gr [...]w leane and pale for [...]ry hunger. So saith, Petroni [...] An [...]er, that the Iewes did celebrate their [Page 103] Sabbath, jejunia lege, Hist. l. 36. by a legall fast: and Iustin yet more generally, septimum diem more gentis sabbatum appella­tum in omne aevum jejunto sacravit, Moses, that Moses did ordain [...] the [...]abbath to be a fasting day for ever. [...]hat the Iewes fasted very often, sometimes twice a weeke, the Pharisee hath told us in Saint Lukes Gospel: and proba­bly the jejunia sabbatariorum in the Poet Martial, might reflect on this. But that they fasted on the Sabbath is a thing repugnant both to the Scriptures, Fathers, and all good antiquity: except in one case onely, which was when their City was besieged,Ap. Baron. A. 34. n. 156. as Rabbi Moyses Aegyp­tius hath resolued it. N [...]y, if a man had fasted any time upon the Sabbath, they used to punish him in this sort, ut sequenti etiam die jejunaret, to make him fast the next day after. Yet on the other side, I cannot but conceive that those before remembred, had some ground or rea­son, why they did charge the Iewes with the Sabbaths Fast: for to suppose them ignorant of the Iewish custome, consi [...]ering how thick they lived amongst them, even in Rome it selfe, were a strange opinion. The rather since by Plutarch, who lived not long after Sueton, if hee lived not with him; the Iewes are generally accused for too much riot and excesse upon that day. For my part, I con­ceive it thus. I finde in Nehemiah, Cap. 8. [...], 3. that when the people were returned from the captivity, Ezra the Priest brought forth the Law before the Congregation, and read it to them from the morning untill mid-day: which done, they were dismissed by Nehemiah to eat, Vers 10. 12. and drinke, and make great joy; which they did accordingly. This was upon the first day [...]f the Feast of Tabernacles, Vers 18. one of the solemne An­nuall Sabbaths: and this they did for eight dayes toge­ther, from the first day unto the last that the Feast conti­nued. After when as the Church was s [...]tled, and that the Law was read amongst them in their Synagogu [...]s on the weekly Sabbaths, most probable it is, that [...] the same custome; holding the Congregation from morn to noon: and that the Iewes came thither Fasting, ( [...]s ge­nerally [Page 104] men doe now unto the Sacrament) the better to prepare themselues and their attention for t [...]at holy ex­ercise.In vit. Mosi [...]. Sure I am that Ios [...]phus tels us, that at mid-day they used to dismisse the Assemblies, that being the ordi­nary houre for their repast: as also that Buxdorfius saith of the moderne Iewes, S [...]n. Iud. cap. 10. that ultra tempus m [...]ridianum jeju­nare non licet, it is not lawfull for them to fast beyond the noon-tide on the Sabbath days. Besides they which found [...]o great fault with our Lords Di [...]ciples for eating a few eares of Corn on the Sabbath day, are not unlikely, in my minde to have aimed at this. For neither was the bodily labour of that nature, that it should any wayes offend them, in so high a measure: and the defence made by our Lord in their behalfe, being that of Davids eating of the S [...]ew-bread, when he was an hungred; is more direct and literall to justifie his Disciples eating, then it was their working. This abstinence of the I [...]wes, that lived amongst them; the R [...]mans noted; and being good Trenchermen themselues at all times and seasons, they used to hit them in the teeth with their Sabbaths fasting. But herein I sub­mit my selfe to better judgements.

(9) There was another prohibition given by God a­bout the Sabbath, which being misinterpreted became as great a snare unto the consciences of men, as that before remembred of not kindling fire, [...]. 16. and dressing meate upon the Sabbath: viz. Let no man goe out of his place on the se­venth day▪ Which pr [...]hibition, being a bridle onely unto the people, to keepe them in, from seeking after Mannah, as before they did, upon the Sabbath: was afterwards ex­tended to restrain them also, either from taking any jour­ney, or walking forth into the fields, on the Sabbath dayes. Nay, so precise were some amongst them, that they ac­counted it unlawfull to stirre hand or foot upon the Sab­bath: ne leviter quispi [...]m se [...], quod s [...] fecerit, le­gis trangressor fit, [...]. 5 [...]. 13. as Saint Hierom [...] hath it. Others more charitably, chalked them out a way, how farre they might advent [...]re, and how farre they might not: though in this [Page 105] the Doctours were divided. Some made the Sabbath dayes journey to be 2000. Cubits, [...] Ep [...]. 151. of whom Orig [...]n tels us: o­thers restrained it to 2000. foot; of whom Hierom [...] speakes; and some againe enlarged it unto six furlongs, which is three quarters of a mile. For where Ios [...]phus hath informed us that Mount Olivet was sixe furlongs from Hierusalem▪ and where the Scriptures tell us, that they were distant about a Sabbath dayes journey: wee may perceive by that, how much a Sabbath dayes journey was accounted then. But of thes [...] things we may have oppor­tunity to speake hereafter. In the mean time, if the injun­ction be so absolute and generall, as they say it is, we may demand of these great Clerks, as their Successours did of our Lord and Saviour; by what authoritie they doe these things, and warrant that which is not warranted in the Text: if so the Text be to be expounded. Certaine I am that ab initio non fuit sic, from the beginning was it nei­ther so, nor so. The Scripture tels us, that when the peo­ple were in the Wildernesse, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. They found him, where? Not in the Campe; hee was not so audacious as to transgres [...]e the Law in the open view of all the people: knowing how great a penalty was appointed for the Sabbath-brea­ker: but in some place farre off, where in he might offend without feare or danger. Therefore the people were per­mitted to walke forth, on the Sabbath day; and to walke further then 2000. foot, or 2000. Cubits: otherwise they had never found out this unlucky fellow. And so saith Phi­lo, De vita Mosis l. 3. that they did. [...], &c. ‘Some of the people going out into the wildernesse, that they might finde some quiet and retired place, in which to make their Prayers to God; saw what they looked not for, that wretched and prohited spectacle.’ So that the people were not stinted in their goings on the Sabbath day, nor now, nor in a long time after: as by the course of the ensuing story will at large appeare. Even in the [Page 106] time of Mannah, they did not thinke themselues obliged not to stirre abroad upon the Sabbath, or not to travaile above such and such a compasse: in case they did it not, out of a meere distrust in God, as before they did, to ga­ther Mannah; but either for their meditation, or their re­creation.

(10) What said I for their recreation? what was that permitted? yes, no doubt it was. Though the Comman­dement did prohibit all manner of work; yet it permitted, questionlesse, some manner of pleasures. The Sabbaths rest had otherwise been more toylesome, then the week-dayes labour: and none had gained more by it, then the Oxe and Asse. Yea this injunction last related, Let none g [...] out of his place on the seventh day, had been a greater bon­dage to that wretched people, then all the drudgeries of Egypt. Tostatus tels us on that Text, non est simpliciter intelligendum, &c. It is not so to be conceived, that on that day the people might not stirre abroad, or go out of their doores at all; but that they might not goe to labour, or trafficke about any wordly businesses. Etenim die sa [...] ­bati ambulari possunt Hebraei ad solaciandum, &c. For the Iewes lawfully might walk forth on the Sabbath day, to recreate and refresh themselues, so it be not in pursuite of profit. And this he saith, on the confession of the Iews themselves,Cop. 10. ut ipsi communiter confitentur. Buxdorfius, in his Iewish Synagogue, informes us further. Permissum est juvenibus ut tempore sabbati, currendo, spatiando, saltan­do sese oblectent, &c. It is, saith he, permitted, that their young men may walke, and run, yea and dance also on the Sabbath day; and leape and jumpe, and use other ma [...]like Exercises: in case they doe it for the honour of the holy Sabbath. This speakes he of the moderne Iewes, men as tenacious of their Sabbath, and the rigours of it, as any of the Ancients were: save that the Essees and the Pharisies had their private flings above the meaning of the Law. Of manly Exercises on the Sabbath, wee shall see more anon in the seventh Chapter. And as for dancing, that [Page 107] used anciently to dance upon the [...]ab [...]at [...], is a thing un­questionable. Saint Austine saith, they used it, and rebukes them for it: not that they danced upon the Sabbath, but that they spent & wasted the whole day in dancing▪ There is, no question, an abuse even of lawfull pleasures. And this is that which he so often layes unto them.I [...] P [...]al. 32. Melius to­ta die foderent, quam tota die saltarent: better the [...] did digge all day, then dance all day. And for the women, melius e [...]rum foeminae lanam facerent, quam illo die [&] in neomeniis saltarent: [...]roct 3. in Iob. 1. better the women spin, then waste all that day and the New-moones in dancing, as they use to do. I have translated it all that day, agreeable unto the Fa­thers words in another place; where it is said expresly in tota die. Melius foeminae eorum die sabbati lanas facerent, quam tota die [&] in neomeniis suis impudice saltarent. De decem chor­dis, c. 3. Where note, not dancing simply, but lascivio [...]s dancing; and dancing all day long without respect to pious and re­ligious duties;Ad Mag [...]esia­nos. are by him disliked. Ignatius al [...]o saith the same, where he exhorts the people not to observe the Sabbath in a [...]ewish fashion: walking a limited space, and setting all their mind, [...], as they did in dan­cing, and in capering. They used also on that day to make invitations, Feasts, and assemblies of good neighbourhood; to foster brotherly love and concord amongst one ano­ther: a thing, even by the Pharisees themselues both al­lowed and practis [...]d. Saint Luke hath given an instance of it,Luk [...] 14. [...]. how Christ went into the house of a chiefe Pharisee to eat bread on the Sabbath day: In plainer termes the Pha­risee invited him that day to dinner. Wee may as [...]ure our selves so famous a Professour had not invited so great a Prophet; nor had our Saviour Christ accepted of the in­vitation: had they not both esteemed it a lawfull matter. It [...]eemes it was a common practice for friends to meete and feast together on the Sabbath▪ Finito cultu Dei sole­bant amici convenire, & inter se convivia agitare, Harmon c. 119. as Chem­nitius notes upon the place. Lastly, they used upon this day, as to invite their Friends and Neighbours, so to make [Page 108] them welcome: oy [...]ting their heads with oile to refresh their bodies; and spending store of wine amongst them, to make glad their hearts. In which regard, whereas all other marketting was unlawfull on the Sabbath dayes; there never was restraint of selling wine: the Iewes be­leeving that therein they brake no Commandement. Hebraei faciunt aliquid speciale in vino, viz.In Exod 1 [...]. quod [...]um in sabbato suo à caeteris venditionibus & emptionibus cessent, solum vinum vendunt; credentes se non solvere sabbatum▪ as Tostatus hath it. How they abused this lawfull cu­stome of Feasting with their Friends and Neighbours on the Sabbath day, into foule riot and excesse; we have seen already. So having spoken of the weekly and the Ann [...]all Sabbaths, the differenc [...] and agreement which was be­tweene the [...], both in the institution, and the observati­on: as also of such severall observances as were annexed unto the same; what things the Iewes accounted lawf [...]ll to be done, and what unlawfull, and how farre they de­clared the same in their constant practice▪ it is high time that we continue on the story, ranking such speciall passages as occure here­after, in their place and order.

CHAP. VI.
Touching the obse [...]vation of the SAB­BATH, unto the time the people were established in the Promised Land.

(1) The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the people wandred in the Wildernesse. (2) Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day. (3) Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist, in the time of Moses (4) The Law not ordered to be read in the Con­gregation every Sabbath day. (5) The sack of Hieri­cho and the destruction of that people was upon the Sabbath. (6) No Sabbath, after this, without Circumcision; and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest. (7) What moued the Iewes, to preferre Circumcision before the Sabbath. (8) The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Io [...]uah, &c. could not but make some al­teration about the Sabbath. (9) What was the Priests worke on the Sabbath day; and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest. (10) The scattering of the Le­vites over all the [...]ribes, had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbath dayes.

(1) WE left this people in the Wildernes, where [...]he Law was given them: and whether this Commandement were there kept, or not, hath been made a question; and that both by the Iewish Doctours, and by the [Page 110] Christian. Some have resolved it negatively, that it was not kept in all that time, which was forty yeares: and o­thers, that it was at some times omitted, according to the stations or removes of Israel; or other great and weighty businesses, which might intermit it. It is affirmed by Rabbi Solomon, that there was onely one Passeover ob­served, whiles they continued in the Deserts; notwith­standing that it was the principall solemnity of all the yeare. Et si illud fuit omissum, multo fortius alia minus principalia. If that, saith he, then by an argument à ma­jore ad minus, much rather were the lesser Festivals omit­ted also.Ap. Galatin l. 11. c. 10. More punctually Rabbi Eleazar, who on those words of Exodus, and the people rested the s [...]venth day, Chap. 16. 30. gives us to understand, that for the space of forty yeares, whilest they were in the Wildernesse, non fe­cerunt nisi duntaxat primum sabbatum, they kept no more then that first Sabbath. According unto that of the Pro­phet Amos▪ Have yee offered unto mee sacrifices and offe­rings in the wildernesse forty yeares, O house of Israel? Chap. 5. 25. On which authority, Ar [...]tius for the Christian Doctors doth affirme the same: Sabbata per annos 40. n [...]n observavit in deserto populus Dei. Amos 5. 25.Probl. loc. 35. The argument may be yet inforced by one more particular, that Circum [...]ision was omitted for all that while, and yet it had precedency of the Sabbath, both in the institution for the times be­fore; and in the observation, for the times that followed. If therefore neither Circumcision, nor the daily sacrifices, nor the Feast of Passeover, being the principall of the Annuall Sabbaths, were observed by them till they came to the land of Canaan: why may not one conclude the same of the weekly Sabbaths? Others conceive not so, di­rectly; but that it was omitted at [...]ometimes, and on some occasions. Omitted at some times, as when the people journied in the Wildernesse many dayes together,In Exod. 12▪ nulla requi [...] [...]liquorum dierum habita, without rest or ceasing: and this the Hebrew Doctours willingly confesse, as Tosta­tus tels us▪ Omitted too on some occasions, as when the [Page 111] spi [...]s were sent to discover the Land, what was the strength thereof, and what the riches; in which discove­ry they spent fo [...]ty dayes: it is not to be thought that they kept the Sabbath. It was a perillous work that they went about, not to be discontinued and layed by so often, as there were Sabbaths in that time. But not to stand upon conjectures, the Iewish Doctors say expresly, that they did not keepe it.Lib. 11. c. 10. So Galatine reports from their owne re­cords, that in their latter exposition on the Book of Num­bers, upon those words,Chap. 13. 2. send men that they may search the land of Canaan; ‘they thus resolue it. Nuncio praecepti licitum est, &c. A Messenger that goes upon Com­mand, may travaile any day, at what time hee will. And why? because he is a Messenger upon command. Nuncius autem praecepti excludit sabbatu [...]. The phrase is somewhat darke, but the meaning plaine: that those which went upon that errand, did not keepe the Sab­bath.’ Certaine it also is, that for all that time, no nor for any part thereof, the people did not keepe the Sab­bath, completely as the Law appointed. For where there were two things concurring to make up the Sabbath, fir [...]t, rest from labour, and secondly, the sacrifices destinate un­to the day: however they might rest some Sabbaths from their daily labours; yet sacrifices they had none untill they came into the land of Canaan.

(2) Now that they rested, sometimes, on the Sab­bath day, and perhaps did so, generally, in those forty yeares, is manifest by that great and memorable businesse, touching the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath. The case is briefly this:Numb. 15. Vers. 32. ad 37. the people being in the wildernes, found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, and brought him presently unto Moses. Moses consulted with the Lord, and it was resolued that the offender should be stoned to death, which was done accordingly. The Law before had ordered it, that he who so offended should be put to death; but the particular manner of his death was not knowne till now. The more remarkable is this case, [Page 112] because it was the onely time that wee can heare of, that execution had been done upon any one, according as the Law enacted: and thereupon the Fathers have took some pains,De vit. Mos. l. 3 to search into the reasons of so great severity. Philo accuseth him of a double crime, in one whereof hee wa [...] the principall, and an Accessar [...] onely in the other. For where it was before commanded, that there should be no fire kindled on the Sabbath day: this party did not onely labour on the day of rest; but also laboured in the ga­thering of such materials, [...], which might administer fuell to prohibited fire. Saint Basil seemes a little to bemoan the man,De judicio D [...]i. in that hee smarted so for his first offence; not having otherwise of­fended either God or Man: and makes the motive of his death, neither to consist in the multitude of his sinnes, or the greatnesse of them, [...], but onely in his disobedience to the will of God. But we must have a more particular motive yet then this. And first Rupertus tels us,In locum. per superbiam illud quod videbatur exiguum commisit, that he did sinne presumptuously with an high hand against the Lord: and therefore God de­creed he should die the death: God not regarding either what or how great it was, sed qua mente fecerat, but with what minde it was committed. But this, is more, I think, then Rupertus knew, being no searcher of the heart. Rather I shall subscribe herein unto Saint Chrysostome. Hom. 39. in Math. 12. Who makes this Quaere first, seeing the Sabbath, as Christ saith, was made for man, why was he put to death that ga­thered sticks upon the Sabbath. And then returns this an­swere to his owne demand, [...], &c. because, in case God had permitted that the Law should have been slighted in the first beginning, none would have kept it for the future.Qu 31. [...]n Num. Theodoret to that purpose also, ne autor fieret leges transgrediendi, lest oth [...]r men encouraged by his example should have done the like: the punishment of this one man, striking a terrour unto all. No question but it made the people farre more [Page 113] observant of the Sabbath, then they would have beene: who were at first but backwards in the keeping of it, as is apparant by that passage in the sixteenth of Exod. v. 27. And therefore stood the more in need, not onely of a watch-word or Memento, even in the very front of the Law it selfe; but of some sharper course to stirre up their memory. Therefore this execution was the more reqvi­site at this instant, aswell because the Iewes by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toyle, could not be suddainly drawne unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terrour: as also because no­thing is [...]ore needfull then with extremity to punish the first transgressours of those Lawes, that do require a more exact observation for the times to come. What time this Tragedy was acted, is not known for certain. By Torni­ellus it is placed in the yeare 2548. of the Worlds Crea­tion; which was some foure yeares after the Law was given. More then this is not extant in the Scripture tou­ching the keeping of the Sabbath, all the life of Moses. What was done after, we shall see in the land of Pro­mise.

(3) In the mean time, it is most proper to this place, to take a little notice of those severall duties, wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist especially: that we may know the better what we are to looke for at the peo­ples hands, when wee bring them thither. Two things the Lord commanded in his holy Scripture, that concern the Sabbath, the keeping holy of the same: one in relati­on to the people; the other in reference to the Priest. In re [...]erence to the people, he comma [...]ded onely rest from la­bour, that they should doe no manner of worke; and thats contained expresly in the Law it selfe. In reference to the Priest, Numb. 28. he commanded sacrifice, that on the Sabbath day, over and above the daily sacrifice, there should be offered to the Lord two Lambes of an yeare old, without blemish, one in the morning, and the other in the evening: as also to prepare first, and then place the Shewbread, being twelue [Page 114] loaves, one for every Tribe, continually before the Lorde [...]very Sabbath day. These severall references so divided, the Priest might do his part, without the people, and con­trary the people doe their part without the Priest. Of any Sabbath duties, which were to be performed betweene them; wherein the Priest and people were to joyne toge­ther: the Scriptures are directly silent. As for these seve­rall duties, that of the Priest, the Shew-bread, and the sa­crifice, was not in practice till they came to the Land of Canaan: and then, though the Priest offered for the peo­ple; yet he did not, with them. So that for forty yeares to­gether, all the life of Moses, the sanctifying of the Sab­bath did consist onely, for ought we finde, in a bodily rest, a ceasing from the works of their weekly labours: and af­terwards in that, and in the sacrifices which the Priest made for them. Which as they seeme to be the greater of the two, so was there nothing at all therein, in which the people were to doe; no not so much, except some few, as to be spectatours: the sacrifices being offered onely in the Tabernacle, as in the Temple after; when they had a Temple, the people being scattered over all th [...] Country in their Townes and Villages. Of any reading of the Law, or exposition of the same unto the people; or publicke forme of prayers to be presen­ted to the Lord, in the Congregation; wee finde no footstep now, nor a long time after. None in the time of Moses, for hee had hardly perfected the Law before his death: the booke of De [...]teronomy being dedicated by him, a very little before God tooke him. None in a long time after, no not till Nehemiahs dayes, as wee shall see hereafter in that place and time. The resting of the people was the thing commanded, in imitation of Gods rest when his works were finished: that as hee rested from the works which hee had created, so they might al [...]o rest in memoriall of it. But the employment of this rest to par­ti [...]ular purposes either of contemplation or dev [...]tion; than not declared unto us in the Word of God: but left at [Page 115] large, either unto the libertie of the people, or the Autho­ritie of the Church. Now what the people did, how they imployed this rest of theirs, that Philo tels us in his third ‘Booke of the life of Moses. Moses, saith hee, ordai­ned, that since the World was finished on the seventh day, all of his Common-wealth following therein the course of nature should spend the seventh day, [...], in Festivall delights, resting therein from all their works: yet not to spend it as some do in laughter, childish sports, or (as the Romans did their time, of publick Feastings) in beholding the activity either of the Iester or common Dancers; but [...], and a little after, [...], in the study of true philo­sophy, and in the contemplation of the workes of na­ture. And in another place,De Dec [...]log. He did command, saith he, that as in other things so in this also they should imitate the Lord their God, working six dayes, and resting on the seventh, [...], and spending it in meditation of the works of nature, as before is said. And not so only, but that upon that day they should consider of their actions in the weeke before, if happily they had offended against the Law: [...], &c. that so they might correct what was done amisse, and be the bet­ter armed to offend no more.’ So in his booke de mun­di opificio, he affirmes the [...]ame, that they implyed that day in divine Philosophy, [...], even for the bettering of their manners, and reckoning with their consciences. That thus the Iewes did spend the day, or some part thereof, is very probable; and wee may take it well enough upon Philo's word: but that they spent it thus, by the direction or command of Moses is not so ea­sily proved, as it is affirmed; though for my part, I wil­lingly durst assent unto it. For be it Moses so appointed, yet this concernes onely the behaviour of particular per­sons; and reflects nothing upon the publick duties, in the Congregation.

[Page 116](4) It's true that Philo tels us in a booke not extant, how Moses also did ordaine these publick meetings. [...],Ap. Euseb. Prae­par. l. 8 7. ‘What then did Moses order to be done on the Sabbath day? He did appoint, saith he, that we should meet all in some place together, and there set down with modesty and a ge­nerall silence, [...], to heare the Law, that none plead ignorance of the same. Which custome we continue sti [...]l, harkening with wonderfull silence to the Law of God, unlesse perhaps we give some joy­full acclamation at the hearing of it: some of the Priests, if any present, or otherwise some of the El­ders, reading the Law, and then expounding it unto us, till the night come on.’ Which done, the people are dismissed, full of divine instruction, and true pietie. So he, or rather out of him, Eusebius. But here by Philo's leave, we must pau [...]e a while. This was indeed the cu­stome in our Saviours time, and when Philo lived: and he was willing, as it seemes, to fetch the pedigree there­of as farre as possibly hee could. So Salianus tells him on the like occasion. Videtur Philo Iudaeorum morem in sy­nagogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse, quem à Chri­sto & Apostolis observatum legimus. Annales. An. 2546. n. 10 The same reply wee make to Iosephus also, who tells us of their lawmaker, that he appointed not, that they should onely heare the ‘Law once or twice a yeare: [...],Cont. Ap. 2. Deut. 6. 7. but that once e­very week we should come together to hear the laws, that we might perfectly learn the same. Which thing, saith he, all other Law-makers did omit.’ And so did Moses too, by Iosephus leave, unlesse we make a day and a yeare all one. For being now to take his farewell of that people, and having oft advised them in his exhorta­tion to meditate on the words that he had spoken, even when they tarried in their houses, and walked by the way, when they rose up, and when they went to bed: he called the Priests unto him, and gave the Law into their hands, [Page 117] and into the hands of all the Elders of Israel. Verse 31. 9. And hee commanded them and said, Verse 10. At the end of every seven yeares, in the solemnity of the yeare of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles; Vers. 11. when all Israel is come to appeare before the Lord their God in the place that thou shalt choose, thou shalt reade this Law before Israel in their hearing: that they may heare, and that they may le [...]rne and feare the Lord your God, and observe all the words of this Law to do them. Vers. 12. This was the thing decreed by Moses; and had beene needlesse, if not worse▪ in case hee had before provided that they should have [...]he Law read openly unto them e­very Sabbath day. So then, by Moses order, the Law was to be read publickly, every seventh yeare onely: in the yeare of release, because then servants being manumit­ted from their bondage, and Debtours from their Credi­ [...]ours, all sorts of men might heare the Law with the greater cheerfulnesse: and in the Feast of Tabernacles, because it lasted longer then the other Festivals, and so it might be read with the greater leasure, and heard with more attention: and then it was but this Law too, the booke of De [...]teronomy. This to be done onely in the place which the Lord shall choose to be the seat and recep­tacle of his holy Tabernacle; not in inferiour Townes; much les [...]e petite Villages: and yet this thought sufficient to instruct the people in the true knowledge of Gods Law, and keeping of his testimonies. And indeed happy had they been, had they observed this order and decree of Moses; and every seventh yeare reade the Law as he ap­pointed: they had then questionlesse escaped many of those great afflictions, which afterwards God brought upon them for contempt thereof. That in the after times, the Law was read unto them every Sabbath, in their se­verall Synagogues, is most cleere and manifest: as by the testimony of Philo and Iosephu [...], before related; and by sufficient evidence from the holy Gospel. But in these times, and after for a thousand yeares, there were no Sy­nagogues, no publick reading of the Law in the Congrega­tion, [Page 118] excepting every seventh yeare onely, and that not often: Sure I am, not so often as it should have beene. So that in reference to the people, we have but one thing onely to regard, as yet, touching the keeping of the Sab­bath, which is rest from labour, rest from all manner of worke, as the [...]aw commanded: and how farre this was kept, and how farre dispensed with, we shal see plainly by the story. The private meditations and devotions of particular men, stand not upon record at all: and there­fore we must onely judge by externall actions.

(5) This said and shewne, we will passe over Iorda [...], with the house of Israel, and trace their foot-steps in that countrey.Ios. 4. 19. This happened on the tenth day of the first moneth, or the moneth of Nisan, forty dayes after the death of Moses Ann. 2584. That day they pitched their tents in Gilgal. And the first thing they did, was to erect an Altar in memoriall of it: that done to circumcise the people, who all the time that they continued in the wil­dernesse, (as many as were borne that time) were uncir­cumcised. The 14. of the same moneth did they keepe the Passeover: 5. 10. 12. and on the morrow after God did cease from raining Mannah; the people eating of the fruits of the land of Canaan. And here, the first Sabbath which they kept, as I conjecture, was the day before the siege of Hiericho: Ios. 5. which [...]abbath, probably was that very day, whereon the Lord appeared to Iosuah; and gave him or­der how he should proceed in that great businesse. The morrow after, being the first da [...] of the week, they began to compasse it, as the Lord commanded, the Priests some of them bearing the Arke,Ios. 6. some going before with Trum­pets; and the residue of the people, some before the Trumpetters, some behinde the Arke. This did they once a day, for sixe dayes together. But when the seventh day came, which was the Sabbath, they compassed the Towne about seven times, and the Priests blew the Trumpets, and the people shouted, and they tooke the Citie: destroying in it young and old, man, woman, and [Page 119] children. I said it was the Sabbath day, for so it is agreed on generally, both by Iewes and Christians. One of the seven dayes; be it which it will, must needs be the Sab­bath day; and be it which it will, there had been work e­nough done on it: but the seventh day wheron they went about seven times, and destroyed it finally, was indeed the Sabbath. For first the Iews expr [...]sly say it, that the over­throw of Iericho fell upon the Sabbath; and that from thence did come the saying, Qui sanctificari jussit sabba­tum, is profanarijussit sabbatum. So R. Kimchi hath resol­ved on the 6. of Iosuah. In Ios. 6. qu. [...]. The like Tostatus tels us, is affir­med by R. Solomon, who addes that both the falling of the wall, and slaughter of that wicked people, was purposely deferred, In honorem sabbati, to adde the greater lustre unto the sabbath. Galatine prooves the same out of divers Rabbines, L. 11. c. 10. this Solomon before remembred, and R. Ioses in the Book called Sedar Ole [...]; and many of them joyned togeth [...] [...] Beresith ketanna, or lesser exposition on the [...] Genesis they all agreeing upon this, Dies sab­ba [...]er [...], cum fuit praeli [...]m in Hiericho; and againe, Non capta fuit Hiericho nisi in sabbato; That certainly both the battell and the execution fell upon the sabbath. So for the Christian writers,Adv. Marc. l. 2. Tertullian saith not onely in the gene­rall, that one of those seven dayes was the Sabbath day: but makes that day to be the Sabbath, wherein the Priests of God did not onely work, Sed & in ore gladii praedata sit civitas ab omni populo, but all the people sacked the Ci­tie, and put it to the sword. Nec dubium est eos opus ser­vile operatos, &c. Qu. 61. ex. n. Test. And certainly, saith he, they did much servile worke that day, when they destro [...]ed so great a Citie, by the Lords commandement. Procopius Cazaeus doth affirme the same.In Exod. 10. Sabbato Ie [...]us expugnavit & cepit Hiericho. Austin thus, Primus Iesus nunc divino praecep­to sabbatum non servavit, quo facto muri Hiericho ultro ceciderunt. So lastly, Lyra on the place, who saith, that dies septimus, in quo [...]apta Hiericho, sabbatum erat: and [...]et they did not sin, saith hee, because they did it on that [Page 120] day by Gods own appointment. This doth indeed excuse the parties, both from the guilt of sinne, and from the pe­nalty of the law: but then it shews withall, that this Com­mandement i [...] of a different qualitie from the other nine, and that it is no part of the law of nature. God never hath commanded any thing contrary to the law of nature, un­lesse it were tentandi causa, as in the case of Abraham and Isaac. As for the spoyling of the Egyptians, that could be no theft, considering the Egyptians owed them more, than they lent unto them, in recompence of the service they had done them, in the former times.

(6) But was the Sabbath broken or neglected onely on the Lords Commandement; in some especiall case, and extraordinary occasion? I thinke none will say it. Nay, was there ever any Sabbath, which was not broken publickly, by common appprobation, and of common course: Surely not one. In such a numer [...] Common-wealth as that of Iewry, it is not to be [...] that each day was fruitfull in the workes o [...] [...] borne every Sabbath day, as well as others: [...] to be circumcised on the same day also. And so they were continually, Sabbath by Sabbath, Feast by Feast, not one day free in all the yeare from that solemnitie; and this by no especiall order and command from God, but meerely to observe an ancient custome. In case it was deferred some time, as sometimes it was, it was not sure in conscience to observe the Sabbath▪ but onely on a ten­der care to preserve the Infant, which was perchance in­firme and weake, not able to abide the torment. No que­stion, but the Sabbath following the sacke of Hiericho, was in this kinde broken: and so were all that followed after Nullum enim Sabbatum praeteribat, quin multi in Iudaea infantes circumciderentur. In Io [...] 7. 21. It is Calvins note: Bro­ken, I say, For Circumcision, though a Sacrament, was no such easie Ministerie, but that it did require much labour, and many hands to go through with it. Buxdor [...]ius thus describes it in his Synagoga. Lib 2. Tempore diei octavi ma­tutino, [Page 121] ea quae ad circumcisionem opus sunt tempestive pa­rantur, &c. In the morning of the eight day all things were made ready. ‘And first two seats are placed, or else one so framed, that two may set apart in it; adorned with costly Carpets answerable unto the qualitie of the partie. Then comes the suretie for the childe, and placeth himselfe in the same seat, and neare to him the Circumciser. Next followeth one bringing a great torch, in which were lighted twelve waxe-candles, to represent the twelve Tribes of Israel: after, two boyes carrying two cups full of red-wine, to wash the Cir­cumcisers mouth when the worke is done; another bearing the Circumcisers knife; a third a dish of sand, wher [...]into the fore-skinne must be cast, being once cut off; a fourth, a dish of oyle wherein are linnen clouts to be applyed unto the wound: some others, spices and strong wines, to refresh those that faint, if any should.’ All this is necessarily required as preparations to the Act of Circumcision; nor is the Act lesse troublesome, then the preparations make shew of: which I would now de­scribe, but that I am perswaded I have said enough, to make it knowne how much adoe was like to be used about it. And though perhaps some of these ceremonies were not used in thi [...] present time, whereof we speake: yet they grew up, and became ordinarie many of them, before the Iewish commonalty was destroyed and ruina­ted.Hom. de Se­m [...]nte▪ [...] Where there is circumcision, there must be knives, and sponges to receive the bloud, and such other necessaries, said A [...]hanasius. And not [...]uch other onely as concerne the worke, but such as app [...]t [...]ine also to the following cure.I [...] Ioh. l. 4. [...] 50: Circumciditur & cur [...]tur homo circum­cisus in Sabbato, as Saint Cyrill note [...] it. Which argu­ment our Saviour used in his owne defence, viz▪ that he as well might make a man every whit whole on the Sab­bath day; I [...]. 7. as they, one part. Now that this Act of circum­cision was a plaine breaking of the Sabbath (besides the [Page 122] troublesomenesse of the worke) is affirmed by many of the Fathers.L. 1. h [...]res. 30. n. 32. By Epiphanius expresly, [...]. If a childe was borne upon the Sabbath, the circumcision of that childe tooke away the Sabbath. And Saint Chry­sostome speakes more home then he,Hom 49 in Ioh. [...]. The Sabbath, saith the Father, was broke many wayes among the Iews; but in no one thing more, then in circumci­sion.

(7) Now what should move the Iews to preferre cir­cumcision before the Sabbath, unlesse it were because that circumcision was the older ceremony, I would gladly learne: especially considering the resemblance that was betweene them in all manner of circumstances. Was circumcision made to be a token of the Covenant betweene the Lord of heaven, and the seed of Abraham? Genes. 17. 11. So was the Sabbath betweene God and the house of Israel, Exod. 31. 17. Was circumcision a perpetuall co­venant with the seed of Abraham in their generations? Gen. 17. 7. So was the Sabbath to be kept throughout their generations, for a perpetuall covenant also. Exod. 31. 16. Was circumcision so exacted, that whosoever was not circumcised, that soule should be cut off from the people of God? Gen. 17. 14. So God hath said it of his Sabbath, that whosoever breakes it, or doth any manner of worke there­in, that soule shall be cut off from among the people. Exod. 31. 14. In all these points there was a just and plaine e­qualitie betweene them: but had the Sabbath beene a part of the Morall law, it must have infinitely gone be­fore Circumcision. What then should move the Iewes to preferre the one before the other: but that conceiving both alike, they thought it best to give precedencie to the [...]lder, and rather breake the Sabbath, then put of circum­cision to a further day. Hence grew it into a common maxime amongst that people, Circumcisio pellit Sabba­tum, that Circumcision drives away the Sabbath; as be­fore [Page 123] I noted. Nor could it be that they conceived a grea­ter or more strict necessitie to be in circumcision, then in the Sabbath; the penaltie and danger, as before we shew­ed you, being alike in both: for in the Wildernesse, by the space of 40. yeares together, when in some sort they kept the Sabbath; most certaine that they circumcised not one, not one of many hundred thousands that were borne in so long a time. Againe, had God intended Cir­cumcision to have beene so necessarie, that there was no deferring of it for a day or two: he either had not made the Sabbaths rest so exact and rigid; or else out of that generall rule had made exception in this case. And on the other side, had he intended that the Sabbaths rest should have beene literally observed, and that no manner of worke should be done therein:Iust. Mar [...]yn. cont. Tryph. he had not so precisely limited circumcision to the eight day onely, [...], yea though it fell upon the Sabbath; but would have respited the same till another day. The Act of cir­cumcision was not restrained unto the eight day so pre­cisely, but that it might be, as it was sometimes, deferred upon occasion; as in the case of Moses children, and the whole people in the Wildernesse, before remembred. In­deed it was not to be hastened, and performed before. Not out of any myst [...]rie in the number, which might adapt it for that busi [...]esse, as some Rabbins thought; but because children till that time are hardly purged of that bloud and slime, which they bring with them into the world. Vpon which ground the Lord appointed thus in the law Leviticall. Levit. 22. v. 27. When a bullocke, or a sheepe, or a goat is brought forth, it shall be seven dayes under the damme: and from the eighth day, and thence-forth, it shall be ac­cepted for an offering to the Lord. This makes it manifest, that the Iewes thought the Sabbath to bee no part of the Morall law; and therefore gave precedencie to cir­cumcision as the older ceremony: Not because it was of Moses, but of the Fathers; that is, saith Cyrill on that place,L. 4. in I [...]. c. 49 because they thought not fit to lay aside an ancient [Page 124] custome of their ancestors, for the Sabbaths sake. Quia non putabant consuetudinem patrum propter honorem Sab­bati contemnendam esse; as the Father hath it. Nay so farre did they prize the one before the other, that by this brea­king of the Sabbath, they were perswaded verily that they kept the law. Moses, saith Christ our Saviour, gave you circumcision, Ioh. 7. 22. and you on the Sabbath day circum [...]se a man, that the law of Moses should not be broken. It seemes that circumcision was much like Terminus and Iuventus in the Romane story, who would not stirre nor give the place, not to Iove himself. More of this point, see Chry­sost. hom. 49. in Ioh.

(8) But to proceed, the next great action that oc­curres in holy Scripture, reducible unto the businesse now in hand, is that so famous miracle of the Sunne's standing still at the prayers of Iosuah: Ios. 10. 13. when as the Sunne stood still in the middest of heaven, and hasted not to go downe about a whole day, Cap. 4 [...]. 4. as the text hath it. Or as it is in Ecclesiast. Did not the S [...]nne go backe by his mean [...]s, and was not one day as long as two? The like, to take them both together in this place, was that great miracle of mercy shewed to Hezekiah, 2 King 20. by bringing of the shadow ten degrees back­ward, by which it had gone downe in the diall of Ahaz. In each of these there was a signall alteration in the course of nature, and the succession of time: so notable, that it were very difficult to finde out the seventh day precisely from the worlds creation; or to proceed in that account since the late giving of the law. So that in this respect, the Iews must needs be at a losse in their calculation: and though they might hereafter set apart one day in seven, for rest and meditation; yet that this day so set apart, could be precisely the seventh day from the first creation, is not so easie to be proved. The Author of the Practise of Piety, as zealously as he pleads for the morality of the sabbath, confesseth, that in these regards the sabbath could not be observed, precisely, on the day appointed. ‘And to speake properly, saith he, as we take a day for the distinction [Page 125] of time, called either a day naturall consisting of 24. houres, or a day artificiall, consisting of 12. houres from Sunne-rising to Sunne-setting: And withall con­sider the Sunne standing still at noone, the space of an whole day in the time of Iosuah; and the Sunne going backe ten degrees (viz. five houres which is almost halfe an artificiall day) in Hezekiahs time: the Iewes themselves could not keepe their Sabbath, on that pre­cise and just distinction of time, called at the first, the seventh day from the creation.’ If so, if they observed it not at the punctuall time, according as the law com­manded: it followeth then, on his confession, that from the time of Iosuah, till the destruction of the Temple, there was no Sabbath kept by the Iewes at all; because not on the day precisely, which the law appointed.

(9) This miracle, as it advantaged those of the house of Israel in the present slaughter of their enemies: so could it not but infinitely astonish all the Canaanites; and make them faint, and flie before the conquerours. Inso­much that in the compasse of five yeares, as Iosephus tels us, there was not any left to make head against them. So that the victory being assured, and many of the Tribes in­vested in their new possessions:Ios. 8. 1. it pleased the Congrega­tion of Israel to come together at Shilo, there to set up the Tabernacle of the Congregation. And they made choice thereof,Antiqu. Iud. l 5. c. 1. as Iosephus saith, because it seemed to be a very convenient place, by reason of the beauty of the place. Rather because it sorted best with Iosuahs liking, who being of the Tribe of Ephraim, within whose lot that Citie stood, was perhaps willing to conferre that honour on it. But whatsoever was the motive, here was the Ta­ber [...]acle erected, and hitherto the Tribes resorted; and finally here the legall ceremonies were to take beginning: God having told them many times, these and these things ye are to do, when ye are come into the land that I shall give you. viz. Levit. 14. and 23. Numb. 15. Deut. 12. That G [...]lgal was the standing lampe, and that the Levites [Page 126] there laid down the Tabernacle, as in a place of strength and safety; i [...] plaine in Scripture: but that they there erected it, or performed and legall Ministery therein, hath no such evidence. Though God had brought them then into the Land of Promise, yet all this while they were unsetled. The Land was given after, when they had possession. So that the next Sabbath which ensued on the removall of the Tabernacle unto Shil [...]; was the first Sabbath which was celebrated with its Legall Ceremo­nies: and this was Anno Mundi 2589. In which if we consider aswell the toylesomenesse as multiplicity of the Priest like-offices: wee shall soone see, that though the people rested then, yet the Priest worked hardest. First, for the Loaves of Proposition, Antiqu. Iud. l 3. c. 10. or the Shew-bread, however Iosephu [...] tell us, that they were baked [...], the day before the Sabbath; and probably in his time it might be so: yet it is otherwise in the scriptures. The Kohathites, 1. Chron. 9. saith the Text, were over the Shew-bread, for to prepare it every Sabbath. These loaves were twelue in number, one for every Tribe, each of them two tenth deales, or halfe a peck; so the Scriptures say: every Cake square, ten hand-breadthes long, five square, and seven fingers high; so the Rabbins teach us. The kneading, ba­king, and disposing of these Cakes must require some la­bour.A [...]han [...]s. hom. de semente. [...], &c. Where there is baking, saith the Father, then must be heating of the Oven, and carrying in of faggots, and whatsoever worke is necessary in the Bakers trade. Then for the Sa­crifices of the day, the labour of the Priest, when it was left, was double what it was on the other dayes. [...]. as Chrysostome hath rightly noted.Concio 1. de La­zaro. The daily sacrifice was of two lambs, the supernumerary of the Sabbath was two more. If the New-moone fell on the Sabbath, as it often did, there was besides these named already, an offering of two Bullocks, a Ramme, seven Lambs: and if that New-moone were the Feast of Trumpets also, as it sometimes was, there was a [Page 127] further offering of seven Lambs, one Ramme, on Bul­lock. And which is more, each of these had their seve­rall Meat-offerings, and Drink-offerings, Persumes, and Frankincense, proportionable to attend upon them. By that time all was done, so many beasts kill'd, skinned, washed, quartered, and made ready for the Altar; so many fires kindled, meate and drinke offerings in a readinesse; and the sweet Odours fitted for the worke in hand: no question but the Priest had small cause to boast himselfe of his Sabbaths rest; or to take joy in any thing but his larger fees, and that he had discharged his duty. As for the people though they might all partake of the fruits hereof: yet none but those that dwelt in Shilo, or neere unto it at the least, could behold the sight; or note what paines the Priests tooke for them, whilest they themselues sate still and stirred not. Had the Comman­dement beene morall, and every part thereof of the same condition: the Priests had never done so many manners of worke, as that day they did. However, as it was, our blessed Saviour did account these works of theirs, to be a publick prophanation of the Sabbath day. Math. 12. 5. Reade yee not in the Law, saith hee, how that upon the Sabbath dayes, the Priests in the Temple doe prophane the Sab­b [...]th? yet hee declared withall that the Priests were blamelesse, in that they did it by direction from the God of Heaven. The Sabbath then was daily broken, but the Priest excusable. For Fathers that affirme the same, See Iustin Martyr▪ dial & qu. 27. ad Orthod. Epiphan. l. 1. haer. 19. n. 5. Hierom. in Psal. 92. Athanas. de Sabb. & Circumcis. Austin. Qu. ex N. Test. 61. Isi­dore Pelusiot. Epl. 72. l. 1. and divers others.

(10) These were the Offices of the Priest, on the Sabbath day; and questionlesse they were sufficient to take up the time. Of any other Sabbath duties by them performed, at this present time, there is no Constat in the Scripture: no nor of any place, as yet, designed for the [Page 128] performance of such other duties, as some conceive to pertain unto the Levites. That they were scattered and dispersed over all the Tribes, is indeed most true. The Curse of Iacob, now was become a blessing to them. For­ty eight Cities had they given them for their inheritance (whereof thirteen were proper onely to the Priests:) be­sides their severall sorts of [...]ithes, and what accrewed un­to them from the publick Sacrifices, to an infinite value. Yet was not this dispersion of the Tribe of Levi, in refe­rence to any Sabbath duties, that so they might the better assist the people in the solemnities and sanctifyng of that day. The Scripture tels us no such matter. The reasons ma­nifested in the word were these two especially. First, that they might be neere at hand to instruct the people, and teach them all the statutes, Levit. 10. 10, 11 which the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses: as also to let them know the difference betweene the holy and unholy, the uncleane and cleane. Ma­ny particular things there were in the Law Leviticall, touching pollutions, purifyings, and the like legall Ordi­nances, which were not necessary to be ordered by the Priests, above, those that attended at the Altar, and were resorted too in most difficult cases: Therefore both for the peoples ease, and that the Priests, above, might not be troubled every day in matters of inferiour moment; the Priests and Levites were thus mingled amongst the Tribes. A second reason was, that there might be aswell some nursery to train up the Levites, untill they were of age fit for the service of the Tabernacle; as also some re­tirement unto the which they might repaire, when by the Law they were dismissed from their attendance. The number of the Tribe of Levi, in the first generall muster of them, from a moneth old and upwards, was 22000. just: out of which number, all from 30 yeares of age to 50, being in all 8580 persons, were taken to attend the publicke Ministery. The residue with their wives and daughters, were to be severally disposed of in the Cities [Page 129] allotted to them: therein to rest themselues with their goods and cattaile, and do those other Offices above re­membred. Which Offices as they were the works of eve­ry day: so if the people came unto them upon the Sab­baths or New-moones, 2. King 4 23. as they did on both, to be instructed by them in particular cases of the Law; no doubt but they informed them answerably unto their knowledge. But this was but occasionall onely, no constant duty. Indeed it is conceived by Master Samuel Purchas, Pilg [...]. l. 2. c. 3. on the autho­rity of Cornelius Bertram, almost as moderne as him­selfe, That the forty eight Cities of the Levites had their fit places for Assemblies; and that thence the Synagogues had their beginnings: which were it so, it would be no good argument, that in those places of Assemblies, the Priests and Levites publickly did expound the Law unto the people on the Sabbath dayes, as after in the Syna­gogues. For where those Cities were but foure in every Tribe, one with another, the people must needs travaile further then six Furlongs, which was a Sabbath dayes journey of the largest measure, as before we noted; or else that nice restriction was not then in use. And were it that they tooke the paines to goe up unto them, yet were not those few Cities able to cōtain the multitudes. When Ioab not long after this,2 S [...]m. [...]4. did muster Israel at the com­mand of David; he found no fewer then thirteen hun­dred thousand fighting men. Suppose we then, that unto every one fighting man, there were three old men, wo­men and children, fit to heare the Law, as no doubt there were. Put these together, and it will amount in all to two and fifty hundred thousand. Now out of these set by foure hundred thousand for Hierusalem, and the service there; and then there will remayne one hundred thousand just, which must owe suite and service every Sabbath day, to each severall City of the Levites. Too vast a number to be entertained, in any of their Cities; and much lesse in their Synagogues, had each house beene one. So that wee [Page 130] may resolue for certain, that the dispersion of the Levites over all the Tribes, had no relation, hi­therto, unto the reading of the Law, or any publick Sabbath duties.

CHAP. VII.
Touching the keeping of the SABBATH, from the time of David to the Maccabees.

(1) Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature. (2) That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath. (3) What David did being King of Is­rael, in ordering things about the Sabbath. (4) Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath; and what else hapned on the Sab­bath, in Elijahs time. (5) The limitation of a Sabbaths dayes journey, not known amongst the Iewes, when Elisha lived. (6) The Lord becomes offended with the Iewish Sabbaths; and on what occasion. (7) The Sabbath en­tertained by the Samaritans; and their strange niceties therein. (8) Whether the Sabbaths were observed du­ring the Captivitie. (9) The speciall care of Nehemiah to reforme the Sabbath. (10) The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath dayes, began by Ezra. (11) No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law, during the Government of the Kings. (12) The Scribes and Doctours of the Law, impose new rigours on the people a­bout their Sabbaths.

(1) THus have wee traced the Sabbath from the Mount, to Silo, the space of forty five yeares or thereabouts, wherein it was observed sometimes, and sometimes broken: broken [Page 132] by publick order from the Lord himselfe▪ and broken by the publick practice both of Priest and people. No pre­cept in the Decalogue so controuled, and justled by the Legall Ceremonies, forced to give place to Circumcision, because the younger; and to the Legall Sacrifices, though it was their Elders. t and all this while, no blame or im­putation to be laid on them, that so prophaned it. Men durst not thus have dallied with the other nine; no no [...] with this neither, had it been a part of the Law of nature. Yet had the Sabbath beene laid by in such cases onely, wherein the Lord had specially declared his will and pleasure, that these and these things should be done upon it, or preferred before it: there was lesse reason of com­plaint. But we shall see in that which followed, that the poore Sabbath was inforced to yeeld up the place, even to the severall necessities and occasions of particular men: and that without Injunction or Command from the Court of Heaven. This further proves the fourth Com­mandement as farre as it concernes the time, one whole day of seven,Ryvet. in Deca. to be no part nor parcell of the Law of Nature, for if it were the Law of Nature, it were not dispensable, no not in any exigent or distresse what euer. Nullum poriculum suadet, ut qua ad legem natur alem directe pertinent infringamus. No danger, saith a moderne Writer, is to occasion us to breake those bonds, wherewith wee are obliged by the Law of Nature. Aquinas 1. 2 ae▪ qu. 100. art 9. Nor is this onely Protest [...]nt Divinitie, for that Praecepta decalogi omnino sint indispensabilia, is a noted maxime of the Schoolmen. And yet it is not onely Schoole Divinitie, Qu. [...]. N. Test. 6 [...]. for the Fathers taught it. It is a prin­ciple of Saint Austins, Illud quod omnino non licet semper non licet; nec aliqua necessitate mitigatur, ut admissum, non obsit: est enim semper illicitum, quod legibus, quia crimi­nosum est, prohibetur. ‘That, saith the Father, which is unlawfull in it selfe, is unlawfull alwayes; nor is there any exigent or extremity, that can so excuse it, being done, but that it makes a man obnoxiou [...] unto Gods [Page 133] displeasure. For that is alwayes to be reckoned an un­lawfull thing, which is forbidden by the Law because simply evill.’ So that in case this rule be true, as no doubt it is; and that the fourth Commandement prohi­biting all manner of worke on the Sabbath day, as simply evill, be to be reckoned part of the Morall Law: they that transgresse this Law, in what case soever, are in the self-same state with those, who to preserve their lives or for­tunes, renounce their Faith in God, and worship Idols: which no man ought to do, no though it were to gain the world. For what will it profit a man to gain the world, and to lose his soule?

(2) But sure the Iewes accounted not the Sabbath of so high a nature; as not to venture the transgressing of that Law, if occasion were. Whereof, or of the keeping it, we have no monument in Scripture, till we come to Da­vid. The residue of Iosuah, and the Booke of Iudges, give us nothing of it. Nor have wee much in the whole story of the Kings: but what we have wee shall present unto you in due place and order. And first for David, we reade in Scripture how he stood in feare of Saul his Ma­ster,1. Sam. 20. how in the Festivall of the New-moon his place was empty, how Saul became offended at it, and publickly declared his malicious purpose, which in his heart he had before conceived against him. On the next morning, Io­nathan takes his bow and arrowes, goes forth a shooting, takes a boy with him to bring back his arrowes: and by a signall formerly agreed between them, gives David no­tice that his Father did seeke his life. David on this makes haste, and came to Nob unto Abimelech the Priest; and being an hungry, desires some sustenance at his hands. The Priest not having ought else in readinesse, sets the Shew-bread before him, which was not lawfull for any man to eat, but the Priest alone. Now if we aske the Fa­thers of the Christian Church, what day this was, on which poore David fled from the face of Saul, they an­swere [Page 134] that it was the Sabbath. Saint Athanasius doubt­ingly,H [...]m d [...] sem [...]n [...]. with a peradventure, [...], most likely that it was the Sabbath. His reason makes the matter surer, than his resolution. ‘The Iewes, saith hee, upbraid our Saviour, that his Disciples plucked the eares of Corne on the Sabbath day: to satisfie which doubt, hee tells them what was done by David, on a Sabbath also.’ [...]. as that Father hath it. Saint Hierome tells us that the day wheron he fled away from Saul, was both a Sabbath and New-moone; In Ma [...]h. 12. & ad sabbati solennita­tem accedebant neomeniarum dies. Indeed the story makes it plaine, it could be no other. The Shew-bread was changed every Sabbath, in the morning early: that which was brought in new, not to be stirred off from the Table till the Week was out: the other which was taken away, being appropriated to the Priests, and to be eaten by them onely. Being so stale before, wee may the easier thinke it lay not long upon their hands: and had not Da­vid come, as he did, that morning; perhaps hee had not found the Priest so well provided, in the afternoon. Had David thought that breaking of the Sabbath in what case soever, had been a sinne against the eternall Law of Na­ture: he would, no doubt, have hid himselfe that day in the field,1. Sam. 20. Verse 19, 24, by the stone Ezel, as he had done two dayes be­fore; rather then so have run away, as well from God, as from the King. Especially considering that on the Sab­bath day hee might have lurked there with more safetie, then before he did: none being permitted, as some say, by the Law of God, to walke abroad that day, if occasion were. Neither had David passed it over in so light a manner, had he done contrary to the Law. That heart of his which smote him for his murder and adultery, and for his numbring of the people would sure have taken some impression, upon the breaking of the Sabbath; had hee conceived that Law to be like the rest. But David knew [Page 135] of no such matter: neither did Ionathan, as it seemes. For howsoever Davids fact might be excused by reason of the imminent perill; yet surely Ionathans walking forth with his bow and arrowes, was of a very different nature. Nor did he doe it fearfully, and by way of stealth, as if he were affraid to avow the action: but tooke his Page with him to bring back his arrowes, and called aloud unto him to doe thus and thus, according as he was directed; as if it were his usuall custome. Ionathan might have thought of some other way to give advertisement unto David, of his Fathers anger: rather then by a publick breaking of the Sabbath, to provoke the Lords. But then, as may from hence be gathered, shooting and such like manlike exer­cises, were not accounted things unlawfull on the Sab­bath day.

(3) This act and flight of Davids from the face of Saul, hapned in Torniellus computation, Anno 2974: and forty six yeares after that, being 3020 of the Worlds Creation, and the last yeare of Davids life, hee made a new division of the sonnes of Levi. For where the Le­vites were appointed in the times before, to beare about the Tabernacle, as occasion was: the Tabernacle now be­ing fixed and setled in Hierusalem, there was no further use of the Levites service,1. Chron 23. 4, 5 in that kind. Therefore King David thought it good to set them to some new employ­ments; and so he did: some of them to assist the Priests, in the publick Ministery; some to be Overseers and Iudges of the people, some to be Porters also in the house of God, and finally, some others to be singers to prayse the Lord with instruments that he had made, with Harps, with Viols and with Cymballs. Of these the most considerable were the first and last. The first appointed to assist at the daily Sacrifices:Vers. 31. as also at the Offering of all burnt Offe­rings unto the Lord, in the Sabbaths, in the moneths, and at the appointed times according to the number and ac­cording to their custome continually before the Lord. The other were instructed in the songs of the Lord. Chap. 25. 7. The other [Page 136] chiefly which were made for the Sabbath dayes, and the other Festivals: and one hee made himselfe, of his owne enditing, entituled a Song or Psalme for the Sabbath day. Calvin upon the 92 Psalme is of opinion,Psal. 92. that hee made many for that purpose; as no doubt hee did; and so he did for the Feasts also.Antiq Iud. l. 7. c. 10. Iosephus tels us, that hee com­posed Odes and Hymnes to the prayse of God, as also that hee made divers kinds of instruments, and that hee taught the Levites to prayse Gods Name upon the Sab­bath dayes, [...], and the other Festivals: as well upon the Annuall, as the weekly Sabbath. Where note, that in the distribution of the Levites into severall Offices, there was then no such Office thought of, as to be Readers of the Law; which prooves sufficiently that the Law was not yet read publickly unto the people on the Sabbath day. Nor did he onely appoint them their Songs and Instruments, but so exact and punctuall was hee, that he prescribed what habit they should weare, in the dis­charging of their Ministery, in singing prayses to the Lord; which was a white linnen rayment, such as the Sur­plice, 2. Chron. 5. 12, 13. now in use, in the Church of England. Also the Le­vites, saith the Text, which were the singers, being arrayed in white linnen, having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps, stood at the East end of the Altar, &c. praysing and thank­ing God, for his Grace and mercies. And this he did not by commandement from above, or any warrant but his own as we finde, and that he thought it fit, and decent. David the Prophet of the Lord knew well, what did belong to David the King of Israel, in ordering matters of the Church, and setling things about the Sabbath. Nor can it be but worth the notice, that the first King whom God raised up to be a nursing Father unto his Church, should exercise his regall power in dictating what hee would have done on the Sabbath day, in reference to Gods pub­lick worship. As if in him, the Lord did meane to teach all others of the same condition, as no doubt he did, that it pertaines to them to vindicate the day of his publicke [Page 137] service, as well from superstitious fancies, as prophane contempts: and to take speciall order that his name be glorified, as well in the performances of the Priests, as the devotions of the people. This speciall care wee shall find verified in Constantine, the first Christian Emperour, of whom more hereafter in the next Booke, and third Chapter. Now what was there ordained by David, was afterwards confirmed by Solomon (wherof see 2. Chron. 8 14) Who as he built a Temple for Gods publick worship; for the New-moones, and weekly Sabbaths, and the solemne Feasts, as the Scripture tels us: so hee, or some of his Successours, built a faire seat within the Porch thereof, wherein the Kings did use to set, both on the Sabbaths and the annuall Festivals. The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati, the covert for the Sabbath; 2 Kings 16. that is, saith Rabbi Solomon, locus quidam in porticu templi gratiose coopertus, in quo Rex sedebat die sabbati, & in magnis festivitati­bus, as before was said. So that in this too, both were equall.

(4) From David passe wee to Elijah, from one great Prophet to another: both persecuted, and both faine to flie, and both to flie upon the Sabbath. Elijah had made havock of the Priests of Baal, and Iezebel sent a message to him, that hee should arme himselfe to expect the like. The Prophet warned hereof, arose, and being incouraged by an Angell, 2. K [...]ng [...] 19. 8▪ he did eat and drinke, and wal­ked in the strength of that meat forty dayes & forty nights, untill he came to Horeb the Mount of God. What, wal­ked he forty dayes and as many nights without rest, or cea­sing? So it is resolved on. Elijah as we reade in Damas­cen, De fide O [...]th [...]d l. 4. c. 24. [...] ‘disquieting himselfe not onely by continuall fasting, but by his travailing on the Sabbath, even for the space of forty dayes, [...] did with­out question breake the Sabbath: yet God who made that Law was not at all offended with him, but rather to reward his vertue, appeared to him in Mount Ho­reb.’ [Page 138] So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men, [...] qu. 122. 2. [...] 4. in the olde Testament, qui transgredientes observan­tiam sabbati, non peccabant, who did transgresse against the Sabbath, and yet did not [...]inne; makes instance of E­lijah, and of his journey: wherein, saith he, it must needs be granted, that hee did travaile on the Sabbath. And where a question might be made, how possibly Elijah, could spend forty dayes and forty nights in so smal a jour­ney: Tostatus makes reply, that hee went not directly forwards, but wandred up and downe, and from place to place; ex timore & inquietudine mentis, partly for feare of being found,I [...] lo [...]um. and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted minde. Now whiles Elijah was in exile, Benha­dad King of Syria invaded Israel, and incamped neere Aphek; where Ahab also followed him, and sate downe by him with his army. And, saith the Text, they pitched one over against the other seven dayes, 1. Kings 20. 29. and so it was that in the seventh day the battaile was joyned, and the children of Israel sl [...]e of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. Aske Zanchius what this seventh day was; and he will tell you plainly that it was the Sabbath. In 4 Ma [...]dat. For shew­ing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath, if either charity, or unauoydable necessity doe so require: hee brings this History in, for the proofe thereof. And then he addes, Illi die ipso sabbati, quia ne­cessitas postulabat, pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt, &c. The Israelites, saith he, fighting against their enemies on the Sabbath day, necessity inforcing them thereunto, pre­vailed against them with a great and mighty slaughter. Neither is he onely one that so conceived it.Loci. Com. l 7. cl. 2. Peter Mar­tyr saith as much, and collects from hence, die sabbati militaria munia obijsse eos, that military matters were per­formed on the Sabbath day. This field was fought, Anno Mundi 3135: and was eleven yeares after Elijahs flight.

(5) Proceed wee to Elisha next. Of whom though nothing be recorded that concerns this businesse; yet on [Page 139] occasion of his piety and zeale to God, there is a passage in the Scripture, which gives light unto it.2. Kings 4. The Shunamite having received a Child at Elisha's hands, and finding that it was deceased, called to her husband, and said, send with me I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the Asses, Vers. 2 [...]. for I will hast to the man of God, and come again. And he said, wherefore wilt thou goe to him to day? Verse 2 [...]. It is neither New-moon, nor Sabbath day. Had it beene either of the two, it seemes shee might have gone and sought out the Prophet: and more then so, shee used to doe it at those times, else what need the question? It was their custome, as before we noted, to travaile on the Sabbath dayes, and the other Festivals, to have some conference with the Levites, if occasion were; and to repaire unto the Pro­phets at the same times also, as well as any day what ever. In illis diebus festivis frequentius ib [...]nt ad Prophetas ad au­diendum verbum Dei, as Lyra hath it on the place. And this they did without regard unto that nicety of a Sab­bath dayes journey; which came not up till long after: sure I am was not now in use. Elisha, at this time, was retired to Carmel, which from the Shunamites City was ten miles at lest: as is apparant both by Adrichomius Map of Aser, and all other Tables that I have met with. And so the limitation of 2000 foot, or 2000 Cubits, or the six Furlongs, at the most, which some require to be allotted for the utmost travaile on the Sabbath; is vanished sud­dainly into nothing. Nay, it is evident by the story that the journey was not very short: the woman calling to her servant to drive on, and go forwards, and not to slack his riding unlesse she bid him: Which needed not, in case the journey had not beene above sixe Furlongs. Neither New-moone nor Sabbath day, It seemes the times were both alike in this respect: the Prophets to be sought unto, and they to publish and make knowne the will of God, as well at one time, as the other. [...] Num 28. qu. 29. Quasi Sabbatum & Calen­dae aequalis essent solennitatis, as Tostatus hath it. If so, if the New-moones, in this respect, were as solemne as the [Page 140] weekly Sabbath: no question but the Annuall Sabbaths were as solemne also. And not in this respect alone, but in many others. Markets prohibited in the New-moones, as in the Sabbath; When will the New-moone be gone, that we may sell our Corne? in the eighth of Amos; the Sacri­fices more in these then in the other, of which last we [...] have spoke already. So when the Scriptures prophecie of those spirituall Feasts, which should be celebrated by Gods Saints, in the times to come: they specifie the New-moones as particularly,Esay 66 23. as they do the Sabbaths. From one New-moone to another, and from one Sabbath to ano­ther, shall all flesh come to worship before mee, saith the Lord. See the like Prophecie in Ezech. Ch. 46. Vers. 1. 3. Vpon which last Saint Hierome tels us,In Ezech. 46. Quod privilegium habet dies septimus in hebdomada, hoc habet privilegium▪ mensis exordium, the New-moones and the Sabbath have the like Prerogatives.

(6) Nay, when the Iewes began to set at naught the Lord, and to forget that God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt; when they began to loath his Sab­baths, and prophane his Festivals, as they did too often: the Lord expostulates the matter with them, as well for one as for the other. When they were weary of the New-moone, Am [...] [...] 8. 5. and wished it gone, that they might sell corn; and of the Sabbath, because it went not fast enough away, that they might set forth wheate to sale: the Lord objects against them, both the one and the other, by his Prophet Amos; that they preferred their profit, before his plea­sure.In locum. Et Deisolennitates turpis lucri gratia, in sua verte­rent compendia, as Saint Hierome hath it. When on the other side they did prophane his Sabbaths, and the holy Festivals with excesse and furfeiting, carowsing wine in bowles, [...] 6. stretching themselues upon their couches, and oyn­ting of themselues with the chiefe oyntments: the Lord made knowne unto them by his servant Esaiah, how much he did dislike their courses. The New-moones and Sabbaths, Chap. [...]. [...]4▪ the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with; it [Page 141] is iniquity even the solemne meeting. It seemes they had exceedingly forgot themselues, when now their very Fe­stivals were become a sinne. Nay, God goes further yet, your New-moones and your appointed F [...]asts my soule ha­teth, Chap. 1. 14. they are a trouble to mee, I am weary to beare them. Your New-moones, and your Feasts, saith God, are not mine. Non enim mea sunt quae geritis, they are no Feasts of mine,Sermo 12. which you so abuse. How so? Iudaei enim negle­ctis spiritualibus negotjis quae pro animae salute agenda deus praeceperat, omnia legitima sabbati, ad ocium luxuriaemque contulere. So [...]aid Gaudentius Brixianus. The Iewes, saith he, neglecting those spirituall duties which God com­manded on that day, abused the Sabbaths rest unto ease and luxury.Cyrill. in Amos 8. For whereas being free from temporall cares, they ought to have employed that day to spirituall uses, and to have spent the same in modesty and temperan [...]e, [...], and in the repetition and com­memoration of Gods holy Word: they on the other side did the contrary, [...], wasting the day in gluttony, and drunkennesse, and idle delicacies. How farre Saint Augustiue▪ chargeth them with the self-same crimes, wee have seene before. Thus did the house of Israel rebell against the Lord, and prophaene his Sabbaths. And therefore God did threaten them by the Prophet Hosea, Hos. 2. 1 [...]. that hee would cause their mirth to cease, their Feast dayes, their New-moones and Sabbaths, and their solemne Festivals: that so they might be punished in the want of that, which formerly they had abused.

(7) And so indeed he did, beginning first with those of the revolted Tribes, whom he gave over to the hand of Salmanassar the Affyrian, by whom they were lead Cap­tive unto parts unknowne, and never suffered to returne. Those which were planted in their places, as they desired in tract of time, to know the manner of the God of the Land: so for the better means to attaine that knowledge, they entertained the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses; [Page 142] and with them, the Sabbath. They were beholding to the Lions which God sent amongst them. Otherwise they had never knowne the Sabbath, nor the Lord who made it. Themselues acknowledge this in an Epistle to Antiochus Epiphanes, when hee made havock of the Iewes. The Epistle thus. [...], &c. ‘To King Antiochus Epiphanes, Ioseph. Antiq. li. [...]. 2. c. 7. the mighty God, the suggestion of the Sidonians that dwell at Sichem. Our Ancestors enforced by a continuall plague which de­stroyed their Country (this was the Lions before spo­ken of) and induced by an ancient superstition, [...], tooke up a custome to observe that day as holy, which the Iewes call the Sabbath.’ So that it seemes by this Epistle that when the A [...]yrian sent backe one of the Priests of Israel, to teach this people what was the manner of the God of the Land; that at that time they did receive the Sabbath also: which was about the yeare of the Worlds Creation, 3315. The Priest so sent, is said to have been called Dosthai; and as the word is mollified in the Greeke, Orig [...] l. 4. it is the same with Dositheus: who as hee taught these new Samaritans, the observation of the Sab­bath; so as some say, he mingled with the same, some nea [...] devises o [...] his own. For whereas it is said in the Booke of Exodus, Let no man go out of his place on the sabbath day: this Dositheus, if at lest this were hee, keeping the letter of the Text, did affirme and teach, that in what ever posture any man was found, [...], in the beginning of the sabbat [...]; in the self-same he was to be [...], even untill the evening. I say if this were hee, and as some say, because there was another Dositheus, a Samaritan too, that lived more neere unto the time of Origen, and is most like to be the man. How­ever, we may take it for a Samaritan device, as indeed it was; though not so ancient as to take beginning with the first entertainment of the Sabbath, in that place and people.

[Page 143](8) This transportation of the ten Tribes, for their ma­ny sins, was a faire warning unto those of the house of Iu­dah, to turn unto the Lord, & amend their lives, & observe his Sabbaths: his sabbata annorum, Sabbaths of years, aswel as either his weekly or his yearly Sabbaths. The Iewes had been regardlesse of them all, & for neglect of all, God resolued to punish them. First, for the weekly Sabbath, that God avenged himselfe upon them for the breach thereof, is evident by that one place of Nehemiah. Did not your Fathers thus, Ch. 13. v. 18 saith he, and our God brought this plague upon us, and upon our Citie? yet yee increase the wrath upon Israel, in breaking the Sabbath. Next for the Annuall Sabbaths, God threatned that he would deprive them of them, by his Prophet Hosea; as before was said. And lastly, for his Sabbaths of yeares, they had been long neglected & almost forgotten; if observed at all. Torniel­lus finds three onely kept in all the Scripture. Nor are more specified in particular, but sure more were kept: the certain number of the which may easily be found by the proportion of the punishment. God tels them that they should remayn in bondage,2. Chron. 36. [...] untill the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for so long as she lay desolate, shee kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten yeares. So that as many yeares as they were in bondage, so many sabbaths of yeares they had neglected. Now from the yeare 2593 which was the seventh yeare after their possession of the Land of Ca­naan, unto the yeare 3450, which was the yeare of their Captivitie: there passed in all 857 yeares just; of which 122 were yeares Sabbaticall. By which account it is ap­parant, that they had kept in all that time, but fifty two sabbaticall yeares: and for the seventy sabbaths of yeares which they had neglected, God made himselfe amends, by laying desolate the whole Country, seventy yeares to­gether, till the earth had enjoyed her sabbaths. Not that the earth lay still all that while, and was never tilled; for those that did remayne behinde, and inhabit there, must have meanes to live: but that the tillage was so little, and the [Page 144] crop so small, the people being few in numbers; that in comparison of formertimes, it might seeme to rest. But whatsoever Sabb [...]ths the earth enjoyed, the people kept not much themselues. The solemne Feasts of Pentecost, the Passeover, and the Feast of Tabernacles, they could not celebrate at all, because they had no Temple to repaire unto:In H [...]s 2. nor did they celebrate the New-moones and the weekly sabb [...]th, as they ought to doe. Non neomeniae non sabbati exercere laetitiam, n [...]c omnes festivitates quas uno nomine comprehendit, as Saint Hierome hath it. For that they used to work on the sabbath day, both in the Harvest and the Vintage, during the Captivitie, we have just rea­son to suspect con [...]idering what great difficulty Nehemiah found to redresse those errours. So little had that people profited in the schoole of Piety: that though they felt Gods heavy anger for the breach thereof, yet could they hardly be induced to amend their follies.

(9) But presently on their return from Babylon, Ez [...]a 3. 4, 5. they reared up the Altar, and kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and the burnt offerings day by day, and afterward the con­tinuall burnt-offering, both in the New-moones, and the solemne Feast-dayes that had beene consecrate unto the Lord. This the first worke that was endevoured by the Zorobabel, and other Rulers of the people: and it was somewhat that they went so farre in the reformation, as to revive the sabbaths and the publick Festivals. I say the sabbaths, amongst others; for so Iosephus doth expresse it, ‘They celebrated at that time, saith he, the feast of Ta­bernacles, according as their Law-maker had ordained: and afterwards they offered oblations and continuall Sacrifices, observing their sabbaths, and all holy solem­nities.’ Yet they observed them not so truly, but that some evill customes which had crept amongst them, du­ring the Captivitie, were as yet continued: Markets per­mitted on the sabbath, and the publick Festivals; Burdens brought in, and out; the Vintage no lesse followed on those dayes, than on any other. And so continued till the [Page 145] yeare 3610, which was some ninety yeares after they were returned from Babel: what time they celebrated that great Feast of Tabernacles; and Ezra publickly read the Law before all the people. Vpon which Act, this good ensued, that both the Priests and Princes, and many o­thers of the people, did enter covenant with the Lord, that If the people of the Land brought ware, Ne [...]. 10. v. 31. or any victu­alls, to sell them on the sabbath day, that wee would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy dayes, and that we would leave the seventh yeare free, and the exaction of e­very debt. Where still observe, that they had no lesse care of the annuall sabbaths, yea, of the sabbaths of yeares, then of the weekly: and marketting not more restrained on the weekly sabbaths, then on the Annuall. A covenant not so well performed, as it was agreed. For Nehemiah who was principall on the peoples part, being gone for Babylon; at his return, found all things contrary to what he looked for. I saw, Chap▪ 13. 15. saith hee, in Iudah, them that trode Wine-presses on the sabbath, and that brought in sheafes, and which laded Asses also with Wine, Grapes, and Figges, and brought them into Hierusalem on the sabbath day; and others,Verse 16. men of Tyrus that brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold it on the sabbath unto the children of Iu­dah: a most strange disorder. So generall was the crime become, that the chiefe Rulers of the people were most guilty of it. So that to rectifie this misrule, Nehemiah was not onely forced to shut up the Gates, upon the Even be­fore the sabbath, yea, and to keepe them shut all the sab­bath day; whereby the Merchants were compelled, to rest with their commodities, without the walls: but to use threatning words unto them, that if from that time for­wards, they came with Merchandise on the sabbath, hee would forbeare no longer, but lay hands upon them. A course not more severe, then necessary, as the case then stood. Nor had those mischiefs been redressed, being now countenanced by custome, and some chiefe men among the people: had they not met a man, both resolved and [Page 146] constant; one that both knew his worke, and had a will to see it finished. This reformation of the sabbath, or ra­ther of those foule abuses which had of late defiled it, and even made it despicable; is placed by Torniellus, An. 3629: which was above an hundred yeares after the restitution of this people to their Native Country. So difficult a thing it is to overcome an evill custome.

(10) Things ordered thus, and all those publick scandals being thus remooved: there followed a more strict observance of the Sabbath day, then ever had beene kept before. The rather since about these times, began the reading of the Law in the Congregation. Not every seventh yeare onely, and on the Feast of Tabernacles, as before it was, or should have been at the least, by the law of Moses; but every sabbath day, and each solemne mee­ting: nor onely in the Temple of Hierusalem, as it used to be; but in the Townes and principall places of each seve­rall Tribe. Ezra first set this course on foot, a Priest by calling, one very skilfull in the Lawes of Moses: who ha­ving took great pains to seek out the Law, and other Ora­cles of God; disgested and disposed them into that forme and method, in which we have them at this present. Of this see Iren. l. 3. 25. Tertullian de habitu mulierum, Cle [...]. Alexandr. l. 1. Strom. Chrysost. hom. 8. ad Hebraeos, and divers others. This done, and all the people met to­gether at the Feast of Tabernacles, Anno 3610, which was some ninety yeares after the returne from Babylon, as before was said: hee tooke that opportunity to make knowne the Law unto the people. Nelem. 8. 4. For this cause he pro­vided a Pulpit of wood, that so he might be heard the bet­ter; and round about him stood the Priests, Vers. 4. 7. and Levites, learned men; of purpose to expound the Text, and to give the sense thereof,Vers. 8. that so the people might the better understand the reading. Verse [...] 8. And this they did eight dayes to­gether, from the first day untill the last, when the Feast was ended. Now in this Act of Ezraes, there was no­thing common, nothing according to the custome of the [Page 147] former times, neither in time, or place, or any other circumstance. For the time, although it was the Feast of Tabernacles, yet it was the seventh yeere as Moses orde­red it: that yeare,Neh. 8. [...], [...] which was the first of Nehemiahs com­ming unto Hierusalem, not being the sabbaticall yeare, but the third yeare after, as Torniellus doth compute it. Then for the place it should have beene performed in the Temple onely, as both by Moses Ordinance, and Iosiahs practice, doth at large appeare: but now they did it in the street before the Water-gates, as the Text informes us. So for manner of the reading, it was not onely published, as it had beene formerly, but expounded also. Whereof, as of a thing never knowne before, this reason is laid downe by Torniellus, quod lingua Hebraica desierat jam v [...] lgaris esse, Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in ejus locu [...] surrogato, An. 3610. n. [...]. because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written, was now growne strange unto the people; the Chaldee or the Syriack being generally received in the place thereof. And last of all, for the continuance of this exercise, it held out eight dayes, all the whole time the Feast continued: whereas it was appointed by the Law of Moses, that onely the first and last dayes of the Feast of Tabernacles should bee esteemed and solemni­zed, as holy convocations to the Lord their God. Levit. 23 35. & 36. Here was a totall alteration of the ancient custome; and a faire overture to the Priests, who were then Rulers of the people to beginne a new: a faire instruction to them all, that reading of the Law of God was not confined to place, or time; but that all times, and places were alike to his holy word. Every seventh day as fit for so good a du­ty, as every seventh yeare was acounted in the former times: the Villages and Townes as capable of the Word of God, as was the great and glorious Temple of Hieru­salem: and what prerogative had the Feast of Taberna­cles, but that the Word of God might be as necessary to be heard on the other Festivals, as it was on that? The [Page 148] law had first been given them on a Sabbath day, and ther­fore might be read unto them every Sabbath day. This might be pleaded in behalfe of this alteration, and that great change which followed after, in the weekly Sab­baths; whereon the Law of God was not onely read un­to the people, such of them as inhabited over all Iudea; but publickly made knowne unto them, in all the Pro­uinces and Townes abroad, where they had either Syna­gogues or habitations. God certainly had so disposed it, in his heavenly counsailes, that so his holy Word might be more generally knowne throughout the World; and a more easie way layed open, for the admittance and receipt of the Messiah, whom he meant to send: that so Hieru­salem and the Temple, might by degrees be lesned in their reputation;Iohn 4. [...]0. and men might know that neither of them was the onely place, where they ought to worship. This I am sure of, that by this breaking of the custome, although an institute of Moses, the Law was read more frequently, then in times of old: there being one other reading of it, publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah, when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles, nor Sabbaticall yeare, for ought we finde in holy Scrip­ture. Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath, which, much about those times, beganne to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congre­gation, First in Hierusalem, and after by degrees, in most places else, as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues, houses selected for that purpose, to heare the Word of God, and observe the same. Of which times, & of none before,Chap. 6. n 4. those passages of Phil [...] & Iosephus before re­membred, touching the weekly reading of the Law, and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of assem­blies; are to be understood and verified, as there we noted.

(11) For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law, before these times; (beside [...] what hath been said already) we will now make manifest. No Synagogu [...] before these times, for there is neither mention [Page 149] of them in all the body of the old Testament; nor any use of them in those dayes, wherein there were no Congre­gations in particular places. And first there is no menti­on of them in the old Testament. For where it is suppo­sed by some, that there were Synagogues in the time of David; and for the proofe thereof they produce these words,Psal 74. [...]. they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land: the supposition and the proofe are alike in firme. For not to quarrell the Translation, which is directly dif­ferent from the Greek, and vulgar Latine, and somewhat from the former English: this Psalme, if writ by David, was not composed in reference to any present misery which befell the Church. There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time, as is there complained of. Therefore if David writ that Psalme, hee writ it as in­spired with the spirit of prophecy, and in the spirit of prophecy did reflect on those wretched times, wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God, and ransacked his inheritance. To those most probably must it be re­fer [...]ed: the miseries which are there bemoned, not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble, as it was in this.In Psal. 74. Magis probabilis est conjectura, ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias, as Calvin notes it. And secondly, there was no use of th [...]m before, because no reading of the Law in the Congregation, of ordinary course, and on the Sabbath dayes. For had the Law been reade unto the people every Sabbath day, wee either should have found some Commandement for it, or some practice of it: but we meet with neither. Rather we find strong arguments to perswade the contrary. We read it of Iehosaphat, 2. Chron. 17. 7. that in the third yeere of his reigne he sent his Princes, Ben-hail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Nathaneel, and Micaiah, to teach in the Cities of Iudah. These were the princi­pall in Commission; and unto them he joyned nine Levites, and two Priests to beare them company; & to assist them. It followeth,Verse 9. And they taught in Iudah, and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them, and they went about [Page 150] throughout all the Cities of Iudah, and taught the people. And they taught in Iudah, and had the Booke of the Law with them? This must needs be an needlesse labour, in case the people had beene taught every Sabbath day: or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant, and ex­tant must it be, if it had beene read) in every Towne and Village over all Iudaea. Therefore there was no Syna­gogue, no reading of the Law every Sabbath day, in Ie [...] ­sophats time.2. Kings 22. But that which followes of Iosiah, is more full then this. That godly Prince intended to repaire the Temple, and in pursuite of that intendment, Hilkiah the Priest, to whom the ordering of the work had been com­mitted; found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God, which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses. This Booke is brought unto the King, and read unto him; And when the King had heard the words of the Law, Verse 11. hee rent his clothes. And not so onely, but hee gathered toge­ther all the Elders of Iudah and Hi [...]rusalem, Chap. 23. 1, 2. and read in their eares all the words o [...] the Book of the Covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it beene formerly the custome, to reade the Law each Sabbath unto all the people: it is not to be thought that this good King I [...] ­siah, could possibly have beene such a stranger to the Law, of God; or that the finding of the Booke had beene related for so strange an accident, when there was scarce a Towne in Iudah, but was funished with them. Or what need such a suddain calling of all the El­ders, and on an extraordinary time, to heare the Law; if they had heard it every Sabbath, and that of ordinary course? Nay, so farre were they at this time, from ha­ving the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath, that as it seemes, it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of yeares, as Moses had before appointed. For if it had been read unto them once in seven yeares onely; that vertuous Prince had not so soone forgotten the content [...] thereof. Therefore there was no synagogue, no weekly rea­ding of the law, in Iosiahs dayes. And if not then, and not [Page 151] before, then not at all till Ezras time. The finding of the booke of God before remembred, is said to happen in the yeare 3412. of the worlds creation: not forty yeares be­fore the people were led Captives into Babylon; in which short space, the Princes being carelesse, and the times distracted, there could be nothing done that concern'd this businesse. Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra, unto the Councell holden in Hierusalem, there passed 490. yeares, or thereabouts. Antiquitie suffi­cient to give just cause to the Apostle, there to affirme, that Moses in old time in every Citie had them that prea­ched him, Act. 15. [...]1. being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day. So that we may conclude for certaine, that till these times wherein we are, there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath dayes: and in these times, when it was taken up amongst them, it was by Ecclesia­sticall institution onely, no divine authoritie.

(12) But being taken up, on what ground soever, it did continue afterwards, though perhaps sometimes in­terrupted, untill the finall dissolution of that Church and State: and therewithall grew up a libertie of interpreta­tion of the holy words, which did at last divide the peo­ple into sects and factions. Petrus Cunaeus doth affirme, that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times,De republ. l. 2. ca. 17. either in publike or in private; yet the bare text was onely read, without glosse or descant. Interpre­tatio magistrorum, commentatio nulla. But in the second Temple, when there were no Prophets, then did the Scribes and Doctors begin to comment, and make their severall expositions on the holy Text: Ex quo natae dispu­tationes & sententiae contrariae; from whence, saith he, sprung up debates, and doubtfull disputations. Most pro­bable it is, that from this liberty of interpretation, sprung up diversity of judgements, from whence arose the seve­rall sects of Pharisees, Essees and Sadduces, who by their difference of opinions did distract the multitude, and [Page 152] condemne each other. Of whom, and what they taught about the Sabbath, we shall see next Chapter. Nor is it to be doubted, but as the reading of the Law, did make the people more observant of the Sabbath, then they were before: so that libertas prophetandi, which they had amongst them, occasioned many of those rigours, which were brought in after. The people had before neglected the sabbaticall yeares, but now they carefully observed them.I [...]seph. Ant li. [...]1. ca ul [...]. So carefully that when Alexander the Great being in Ierusalem anno 3721, commanded them to aske some boone, wherein he might expresse his favour and love unto them: the high Priest answered for them all, that they desired but leave to exercise the ordinances of their fore-fathers, [...], and that each seventh yeare might be free from tribute; be­cause their lands lay then untilled. But then againe, the libertie and varietie of interpretation, bredde no little mischiefe. For where in former times, according to Gods owne appointment, th [...] Sabbath was conceived to be a day of rest, whereon both man and beast might re­fresh themselues, and be the more inabled for their ordi­nary labours: by canvassing some Texts of Scripture, and wringing bloud from thence instead of comfort, they made the Sabbath such an yoke, as was insupportable. Nor were these weeds of doctrine very long in grow­ing. Within an hundred yeares, and lesse, after Nehemi­ah, the people were so farre from working on the Sab­bath day; (as in his time we see they did, and hardly could be weaned from so great a sinne:) but thought it utterly unlawfull to take sword in hand, yea though it were to save their libertie, and defend Religion. A follie, which their neighbour Ptolomie, I [...]s [...]ph. Ant. li. 12. c. 1. the great King of Aegypt, made especiall use of. ‘For having notice of this humour, as it was no better, he entred the Citie on the Sab­bath day, under pretence to offer sacrifice; and present­ly without resistance surprised the same: the peo­ple, [Page 153] [...], not laying hand on any weapon, or doing any thing in defence thereof; but sitting still, [...] in an idle slothfulnesse, suffered themselues to be subdued by a Tyrant Con­querour.’ This happened Ann. M. 3730. And many more such fruits of so bad a doctrine, did there happen afterwards: to which now wee hasten.

CHAP. VIII.
What doth occurre about the Sabbath from the Maccabees, to the destruction of the Temple.

(1) The Iews refuse to fight in their owne defence upon the Sabbath; and what was ordered thereupon. (2) The Pharisees, about these times, had made the Sabbath bur­densome by their Traditions. (3) Hierusalem twice ta­ken by the Romans, on the Sabbath day. (4) The Ro­mans, many of them, Iudaize, and take up the Sabbath: as other Nations did by the Iews example. (5) Augu­stus Caesar very gratious to the Iews, in matters that con­cerned their Sabbath. (6) What our Redeemer ta [...]ght, and did, to rectifie the abuses of, and in the Sabbath. (7) The finall ruine of the Temple, and the Iewish cere­monies on a Sabbath day. (8) The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies (9) Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath, mentioned in the Scriptures and a­mongst the Fathers. (10) The idle and ridiculous niceties of the moderne Iews, in their Parasceues, and their Sab­baths conclude the first part.

(1) WEe shewed you in the former Chapter, how strange an alteration had beene made in an hundred yeares, touching the keeping of the Sabbath. The people hard­ly at the first restrained from working, when there was no need; and after easily [Page 155] induced to abstaine from fighting, though tending to the necessary defence both of their libertie and Religion. Of so much swi [...]ter growth is superstition, then true pietie. Nor was this onely for a fit, as easily layed aside, as taken up; but it continued a long time, yea and was every day improved: it being judged, at last, unlawfull to defend themselves, in case they were assaulted on the Sabbath day. Antiochus Epiphanes the great King of Syria, in­tending utterly to subvert the Church and Common­wealth of Iudah, 1. Mac. 1. did not alone defile the Sanctuary, by shedding innocent bloud therein: but absolutely prohi­bited the burnt-offerings and the sacrifices, commanding also that they should prophane the Sabbaths, and the festi­vall dayes. So that the Sanctuary was layed waste, the holy dayes turned into mourning, and the Sabbath into a re­proach, as the story tels us: some of the people so farre yeelding through feare and faintnesse, that they both offe­red unto Idols, and prophaned the Sabbaths, as the King commanded. But others, who preferr'd their pietie, be­fore their fortunes, went downe into the wildernesse, and there hid themselues in caves and other secret places. Thither the enemies pursued them, and finding where they were in covert, assayled them on the Sabbath day, the Iews not making any the least resistance,Ioseph. li. 12. ca 8. no not so much as stopping up the mouthes of the Caves, [...], a [...] m [...]n resolved not to offend against the honour of the Sabbath, in what extremitie soever. These men were certainly more perswaded of the moralitie of the sabbath, then David or Elijah in the former times: and being so per­swaded, thought it not fit to flie or fight upon that day; no, though the supreme law of nature, which was the saving of their lives did call them to it. Tantum religio p [...]tuit suadere malorum, in the Po [...]ts language. Bu [...] [...]at­tathias, one of the Priests, a man that durst as much [...]s any in the cause of God, and had not beene infected with those dangerous fancies; taught those that were about [Page 156] him a more saving doctrine: Assuring them that they were bound to fight upon the sabbath, if they were as­saulted. For otherwise, if that they scrupulously observed the law, in such necessities: [...], they would be enemies to themselues, and finally be destroyed both they and their Religion. It was concluded there­upon, [...]. Macc. 2. that whosoever came to make battell with them on the Sabbath day, they would fight against him: and after­wards it held for currant, as Iosephus tells us, that if n [...] ­cessitie required they made no scruple, [...], to fight against their enemies on the Sabbath day. Yet by Iosephus leave, it held not long, as he himselfe shall tell us in another place: what time, the purpose of this reso­lution was perverted quite, by the nice vanities of those men, who tooke upon them to declare the meaning of it. But howsoever it was with those of Iewrie, such of their Countreymen as dwelt abroad amongst other Nations, made no such scruple of the Sabbath, but that they were prepared, if occasion were, as well to bid the battell, as to▪ expect it: as may appeare by this short story, which I shal [...] here present in briefe, leaving the Reader to Iose­phus for the whole at large. Two brethren, Asinaeus, and Anilaeus, borne in Nearda, in the territory of Babylon, be­gan to fortifie themselves, and commit great outrages: which knowne, the Governour of Babylon prepares his forces to suppresse them. Having drawne up his Army, he layes in ambush neere a marish: and the next day, which was the Sabbath, (wherein the Iews did use to rest from all manner of worke) making account that without stroke stricken, they would yeeld themselues, he march­ed against them [...]aire and softly, to come upon them un­awares. But being discovered by the scouts of Asinaeus, it was resolved amongst them to be farre more safe, vali­antly to behave themselues in that necessitie, yea though it were a breaking of the very Law; then to submit them­selues, and make proud the enemy. Whereupon all of them at once marched forth, and slaughtered a great [Page 157] many of the enemies; the residue being constrained to save themselues by a speedy flight. The like did Anilaeus, after; being provoked by Mithridates, another Chiefe­taine of those parts. This happened much about the yeare 3957. that of the Maccabees before remembred, Ann. 3887. or thereabouts. Happy it was these brethren lived not in Indaea; for had they done so there, the Scribes and Pharisees would have tooke an ord [...]r with them, and cast them out of the Synagogues, if not used them worse.

(2) For by this time those Sects which before wee spake of, began to shew themselues, and disperse their doctrines. Iosephus speakes not of them till the time of Ionathan, who entred on the Government of the Iewish Nation, Ann. 3894. Questionlesse they were knowne and followed in the former times; though probablie not so much in credit, their dictates not so much adored, as in the ages that came after. Of those the Pharisees were of most authoritie, being most active in their courses, se­vere professours of the Law, and such as by a seeming san­ctitie had gained exceedingly on the affections of the common people. The Sadduces were of lesse repute, (though otherwise they had th [...]ir dependants) as men that questioned some of the common principles: denying the resurrection of the dead, the hope of immortalitie. As for the Essees or Essens, they were a kinde of Monkish men, retyred and private; of farre more honestie then the Pharisees, but of farre lesse cunning: therefore their ten­dries not so generally received, or hearkened after, as the others were. In matters of the Sabbath they were strict alike; but with some difference in the points wherein their strictnesse did consist. In this the Essee seemes to go beyond the Pharisee, [...] that they not onely did abstaine from dressing meat, and kindling fire upon the Sabbath, as probably the others did: [...]. But unto them it was unlawfull to remove a dish or any other vessell out of the place, where­in [Page 158] they found it, yea or to go aside to ease nature. And on the other side, the Pharisee in the multiplicitie of his Sabbath-speculations, went beyond the Essee: all which were thrust upon the people, as prescribed by God, and grounded in his holy Law; the perfect keeping of the which seemed their utmost industry. There is a dictate in the Scripture,Exod. 16. that No [...]an go out of his place on the Sab­bath day. This was impossible to be kept, according to the words and letter: therefore there must be some de­vice to expound this Text, and make the matter feasible. Hereupon Achiba, Simeon, and Hillel, three principall Rabbins of these times, found out a shift to satisfie the Text, and yet not binde the people to impossible bur­dens. This was to limit out the Sabbaths journey, allow­ing them 2000. foot to stirre up and downe, for the ease and comfort of the body: by which devise they thought the matter well made up, the people happily contented, and the Law [...]bserved. This was the refuge of the Iews, when afterwards the Christians pressed them with the not keeping of this. Text, R. A [...]hiba, Simeon, & Hillel magistri nostri tradiderunt nobis, ut bis mille pedes ambu­laremus in sabbato, Ad Algasium. as Saint Hierome tells us. But this be­ing somewhat of the least, they afterwards improved it to 2000. Cubits, then to three quarters of a myle, as be­fore we noted: and this, with this inlargement too, that in their Townes and Cities they might walke as much and as farre as they listed, though as bigge as Nineveh. This Rab. Hillel above named, lived in the yeare 3928. which was some fifteene yeares after Ionathans death: and therefore to be reckoned of these times in the which we are. The other two, for ought we know, were his Coaetanei, and lived about the same times also. So for the other Text, Thou shalt not kindle fire on the Sabbath day, this also must be literally understood: and then compa­ring this with that in Exodus, Bake that which ye will bake to day; it needs must follow that no meat must be made ready on the Sabbath. We shewed before, that ge­nerally [Page 159] the people did use to fast on the Sabbath day, till they came from Church, that so they might be more at­tent unto the reading of the Law: this might suggest a plausible pretence unto the Pharisee, to teach the people that they should forbeare from dressing meate, that so their servants also might be present, when the Law was read. Hence came the saying used amongst them, Qui parat in parasceve, vescetur in Sabbato; hee that doth cooke it on the Eve, may cate upon the Sabbath. There is a Tex [...] in Ieremy, Ch. 17. v. [...]. expresly against bearing of bur­dens on the Sabbath day. This by the Christian Fathers is interpreted of the burden of sinne. Custodit animam suam qui non portat pondera peccatorum in die quietis, & sabbati, as Saint Hierome hath it on the place. See the same Father also on the 58 of Esay; and Basil, on the first of the same Prophet. And certainly had Gods intent beene plaine and peremptory, that whosoever did beare any burden on the Sabbath day, should never enter into the Kingdome of Heaven: our Saviour never had commanded the poore lame man, to take up his bed upon the Sabbath. But for the Pharisees, they have so dallied with this Text, that they have made both it and themselues ridiculous. For finding it impossi­ble that men should carry nothing at all about them, to salue the matter they devised some nice absurdities. A man might weare no nailed shooe [...] on the Sabbath day, [...] because the nailes would be a burden: [...]. that which a man did carry on one shoulder onely was a burden to him; not what he carried upon both, as Origen informs us of them. So where they fonnd it in the Law, that thou shall doe no manner of worke, they would have no worke done, at all, no though it were to save ones life: neither to heale the wounded, or to cure the sick, both which they did object against Christ our Saviour; nor finally to take sword in hand, for the defence either of mens persons or their Country. And though their rigour herein had been over­ruled [Page 160] by Mattathias, and that it was concluded lawfull to fight against their enemies on the Sabbath day; yet they f [...]und out a way to elude this order: teaching the people this, that they might fight that day against their enemies, if they were assaulted; but not molest them in their pre­parations, for assault and batterie. This is now made the meaning of the former law, and this cost them deare. As good no Law at all, as so bad a Comment.

(3) For when that Pompey warred against them, and besieged their Temple, hee quickly found on what foot they halted; and did accordingly make use of the occasi­ons, which they gave unto him. ‘Had not the Ordinance of the Country, as Iosephus tels it, commanded us to keepe the Sabbath, Antiq. Iud. l. 14. c. 8. and do no labour on that day: the Romans never had been able to have raised their Bul­warks. How so? [...] Because the Law permits us to defend our selves, in case at any time we are assailed, and urged to fight; but not to set upon them or disturbe them, when they have other worke in hand. Which when the Romans found, saith he, they neither gave assault, or proferd any skirmish on the Sabbath dayes, but built their Towers and Bulwarks, and planted Engines thereupon: and the next day put them in use against the Iewes.’ It seemes they were not well resolued on the former point, whether they might defend themselues on the Sabbath day, Hist. l. 56. though they were assault [...]d. For on that day it was, that Pompey tooke the City, and enslaved the people. So Dio tells us touching the use the Romans made of that advantage; addes for the close of all, [...], that at the last they were surprised upon the Saturday, not doing any thing in their owne defence. Strabo therein concurres with Dio, [...] in making Saturday the day, but takes it for a solemne fast, [...], wherin it is not law­full to do any worke. And so it was a Fast indeed, but [Page 161] such a Fast as fell that time upon the Sabbath. Iosephus tels us onely that the Temple was taken in the third mo­neth, on a fasting day:Exerc. 16. 108. which C [...]saubon conceives to be the seventh, and Scaliger the seventeenth of the moneth called Tamur; Em. Temp. edit. 2. l. 3. but both agree upon it, that it was the Sabbath. As for their fasting on that day, it was permit­ted in this case, and in this case onely, when as their Ci­ty was besieged; as before wee shewed. Yet could not this unfortunate rigour be any warning to the Iewes; but needs they must offend again in the self-same kind. For just upon the same day seven and twenty yeares, the City was againe brought under by Sosius and Herod, who had then besieged it: in the same moneth, and on the same day,L. 14. [...] 24. l 49. as Ios [...]phus t [...]ls it; [...], and on the day called Saturday, as Dion hath it. So fatall was it to the Iewes, to perish in the folly of their super­stitions. The first of these two actions, is placed in An­no 3991. therefore the last, being just 27 years after, must be 4018 of the Worlds Creation, Augustus Caesar being then in the Triumvirate.

(4) By means of these two victories, the Iewes being tributary to the Romans, began to finde admittance into their Dominions; in many places of the which they be­gan to plant, and filled at last whole Townships with their numerous Families. Scarce any City of good note in Syria, and the lesser Asia, wherein the Iewes were not considerable for their numbers; and in the which, they had not Synagogues for their devotions. So that the manner of their lives, and formes of their Religion being once observed: the Roman people, many of them, be­came affected to the rites of the Iewish worship, and a­mongst other Ceremonies, to the Sabbath also. It was the custome of the Romans to incorporate all Religions into their own; and worship those Gods whom before they conquered: Et quos post cladem triumphatos colere co [...]perunt, in Minutius words. Therefore the marveile is the lesse, that they were fond of somthing in the Iews re­ligion; though of all others they most hated that, as most [Page 162] rep [...]gnant to their own. Yet many of them out of wan­tonnesse, and a love to novelties, began to stand upon the Sabbath; some would be also circumcised; and abstaine from Swines flesh; others use Candlesticks and Tapers, as they saw the Iewes. [...] The Satyrist thus scoffs them for it.

Remember Persius taunteth them with their Sabbat [...] recutita, as before wee noted. Now as the Poet did up­braid them with Circumcision, and forbearing Swines flesh:Epist. 95. so Seneca derides them for the Sabbaths, and their burning Tapers on the same, as a thing unnecessary; nei­ther the Gods being destitute of light, nor mortall men in love with smoke. Accondere aliquam lucernam sabb [...] praecipiamus, quoniam nec lumine dii egent, & ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine. Nay, some of them bewaile the same, and wish their Empire never had extended so farre as Iewrie, that so the Romans might not have beene acqu [...]i [...]ted with these superstitions of their Sabbaths.

Nor were the Sabbaths entertaind onely in Rome it selfe. Some, in almost all places of their Empire, were that way enclined; as Seneca most rightly noted. Eo us­que sceleratissimae gentis consuetudo invaluit, ut per omnes jam tarras recepta sit, & victi victoribus leges dederunt. Saint Augustine so reports him in his sixt Book de civita­te. Cap. 1 [...]. And this is that,De mund. opi [...]. which Philo meanes when as hee calls the Sabbath [...], the generall Festivall of all people: when hee sots up this challenge against all the World,De vita Mos. l. 2. [...]; &c. ‘What man is there in all the World, who doth not re­verence this our holy Sabbath, which bringeth rest and ease to all sorts of Men, Masters and Servants, bond and free, yea, to the very bruite beasts also.’ Not that they knew the Sabbath by the light of nature, or had observed the same in all ages past; but that they had ad­mitted it in Philos time, as a Iewish ceremony. For let Iosephus be the Comment upon Philo's Text, and he will thus unfold his meaning. The Lawes, saith hee, establi­shed amongst us, have been imitated of all other Nations: [...]. ‘Yea,L. 2. cont. Ap [...]on and the common people did long since imitate our piety. Neither is there any Nati­on Greek or Barbarous, to which our use of resting on the seventh day hath not spread it selfe: who also keep not Fasting dayes, and Lamps with lights; and many of those Ordinances about meates and drinkes, which are enjoynd us by the Law.’ So farre Iosephus.

(5) These Romans, and what other Nations they were soever which did thus Iudaize about the Sabbath; were many of them Proselytes, of the Iews, such as had been admitted into that Religion: for it appeares that they did also worship the God of Heaven, and were cir­cumci [...] [Page 164] cumcised, and abstained from Swines flesh. Otherwise we may well beleeve that of their own accord they had not bound themselues so generally to observe the Sab­bath, being no parts nor members of the Iewish state: con­sidering that such strangers as lived amongst them, not be­ing circumcised nor within the Covenant, were not ob­liged so to do.In Exod. [...]0. qu. 14. Tostatus tels us of two sorts of strangers amongst the Iews. The first, qui adveniebat de Gentilita­te & convertebatur ad Iudaismum, &c. who being ori­ginally of the Gentiles had been converted to the religion of the Iewes, and was circumcised, and lived amongst them: and such were bound, saith he, to observe the Sab­bath, & omnes observantias legis, and all other rites of the Law of Moses. This is evident by that in the twelfth of Exodus, where it is said, that every man-servant bought with money, when he was circumcised should eat the passe­over: but that the forreiner and hired servant (conceiue it not being circumcised) might not eat thereof. The other sort of strangers, were such as lived amongst them onely for a certain time, to trade and traffique or upon any o­ther businesse of what sort soever. And they, saith hee, were not obliged by the Commandement to keepe the Sabbath, quia non poterant cogi ad aliquam observantiam l [...]galem, nisi vellent accipere circumcisionem: because they could not be constrained to any legall ordinance, except they would be circumcised, which was the doore unto the rest. Finally, he resolues it thus, that by the stranger with­in their gates, which by the Law were bound to observe the Sabbath, were onely meant such strangers de gentili­tate ad Iudaismum conversi, which had renounced their Gentilisme, and embraced the Religion of the Iewes. And he resolued it so, no doubt, according to the practice of the Iewes, amongst whom he lived; and to the doctrine of their Rabbins, amongst whose writings he was very conversant. Lyra himselfe a Iew, and therefore one who knew their customes as wel as any, doth affirme as much, [Page 165] and tels us that the stranger, in the Law intended, Genti­lis est conversus ad ritum Iudaeorum, is such a stranger as had been converted to the Iewish Church. And this may yet appeare, in part, by the present practice of that peo­ple, who though themselues milke not their Kine on the Sabbath day, Buxdo [...]f. Sy [...]a­gog. c. 1 [...]. permissum est & iis ut die Sabbatino dicant Christiano, &c. Yet they may give a Chris [...]ian leave to performe that office; and then to buy the milke of him for a toy, or trifle. Adde here what formerly w [...] noted of their Servants. Of whom wee told you out of Rabbi Maimony, Ch. 3. n. 1. that if they were not circumcised or baptiz [...]d, they were as sojourning strangers, and may doe worke for themselues openly on the Sabbath, as any of the Israelites might on a working day. By which it seems that strangers, yea, and servants too, in case they were not circumcised, or otherwise initiated into their Churches were not obli­ged to keep the Sabbath▪ Which plainly shews that by the Iewes themselues, the keeping of the Sabbath was not ta­ken for a morall Law; or to concerne any but themselues and those of their religion onely. For had they took it for a part of the Law of Nature, as universally to be obser­ved as any other; they had not suffered it to be broke amongst them, before their faces, and that without con­troule or censure: no more, then they would have p [...]r­mitted a sojourning stranger to blaspheme their God, or publickly to set up Idolatry, or without punishment to steale their goods, or destroy their persons. The rather since their Sabbath had prevailed to farre, as to be taken up with other parts of their religion, in many principall Ci­ties of the Roman Empire: or otherwise by way of imi­tation, so much in use among the Gentiles▪ And this I have the rather noted in this place and time, because that in these times the Countrie of the Iewes was most resor­ted to by all sorts of strangers; and they themselues in favour with the Roman Emperours.