Exodus 31:15,16. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keepe the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations: it is a signe between mee and the children of Israel, for ever.

CHAPTER - THAT THE SABBATH WAS NOT INSTITUTED IN THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD. (1) The entrance to the Worke in hand. (2) That those Words Genesis 2. And God blessed the seventh Day, etc. are there delivered, as by way of Anticipation. (3) Anticipations in the Scripture confessed by them, who denie 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, denie it to be any part of the Law of Nature. (8) Of the moralitie 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 favorable to 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 known what practically has been done therein by the Church of God in all ages past, from the Creation till this present: Primaq; ab origine mudi ad mea perpetuum deducere tempera carmen. One day, as David tells us, teaches another. Nor can we have a better Schoolmaster in the things of God, than the continual 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 does Saint Austine, in the entrance to his Books de Civitate; Magnum opus & arduum, sed Deus est adjutor noster. Therefore, most humbly begging the assistance of God’s holy Spirit to guide men in the way of truth, I shall apply myself to so great a work, beginning with the first beginnings, and so continuing my discourse successively unto these times wherein we live. In which no accident of note, as far as I am able to discern, shall pass unobserved, which may conduce to the discovery of the truth and settling of the minds of men in a point to be controverted. On therefore * to the present business. [In the beginning (saith the Text) God created the Heaven and the Earth. Which being finished, and all the host of them made perfect, on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And then it follows, And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his works, which God created and made. Unto this passage of the Text, and this point of time, some have referred the institution and original 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 Commandment given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his public worship. Conceiving also that there is some special 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 only of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctifying rather of the seventh day, than of any other: no precept to that purpose being given to Adam and to his posterity; nor any mystery in that number, why of itself it should be thought most proper for God’s public service. The perfect stating of these points will give great light to the following story. And therefore we will first crave leave to remove these doubts before we come to matter of fact; that afterwards I may proceed with the greater ease to my self, & satisfaction to the Reader. The ground work or foundation laid, the building will be raised 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 he lived and wrote the History of the Creation: when God had now made known his holy will unto him, and the Commandment of the Sabbath had by his Ministry been delivered to the house of Israel. This is indeed the ancienter and more general tendry, unanimously delivered both by Jew and Christian; and not so much as questioned till these later days. And however some ascribe it to Tostatus as to the first inventer of it; yet it is ancienter far than he: though were it so, it could not be denied but that it had an able and 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 equal. It’s true, Tostatus thus resolves it. He makes this query first, Num sabbatum cum a Deo sanctificatum fuerit in primordio rerum, etc. “Whether the Sabbath being sanctified by God in the infancy of the World, had been observed of men, by the Law of Nature.” And thereunto returns this answer, “quod Deus non dederit praeceptum illud de observatione sabbati in principio, sed per Mosen datum esse, etc. “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 publicly make known his will upon Mount Sinai. And that whereas 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 public worship; but is to be referred unto the time wherein Moses wrote, which was in the Wilderness. Et sic Moses intendebat dicere quod Deus illum diem sanctificavit, se. N O B I S, etc. And so, saith he, the meaning of the Prophet will be briefly this, that God did sanctify that day, that is, to Us, to us that are his people of the house of Jacob, that we might consecrate it to his service.” So far Tostatus. In which I must confess, that I see not any thing but what Josephus said before him, though in other words: who speaking of the World’s Creation doth conclude it thus, *, etc. So that Moses saith that the World and all that is therein, was made in six whole days, and that upon the seventh day God took rest, and ceased from his labors. *, etc. By reason whereof, we likewise desist from travail on that day, which we call the Sabbath, i.e. repose. So that the institution of the Sabbath, by Tostatus; and the observation of it, by Josephus; are both of them referred, by their use of us, and we, unto the times of Moses, and the house of Israel. Nor is Josephus the only learned man amongst the Jews that so interpreteth Moses’ meaning. Solomon Iarchi, one of the principal of the Rabbins speaks more expressly to this purpose; and makes this Gloss or Comment upon Moses’ words: “Benedixit ei, i.e. in manna, etc. God blessed the seventh day, i.e. in Mannah, because for every day of the week, an Homer of it fell upon the earth, and a double portion on the sixth, and sanctified it, i.e. in Mannah, because it fell not on the seventh day at all. Et scriptura loquitur de re futura. “And in this place” (saith he) “the Scripture speaks as of a thing that was to come.” Nay, generally the Hebrew Doctors do affirm as much, assuring us that the Commandment of the Sabbath was neither given nor known till the fall of Mannah; & ante alia mandata datum esse, quando Mannah acceperunt: whose testimony more at large shall be reported in the first Section of the fourth Chapter of this Book. If not before the fall of Mannah, then certainly not given at the first beginning: and therefore mentioned here as by Anticipation. But what need more be said? Mercer, a learned Protestant and one much conversant in the Rabbins, confesseth that the Rabbins generally refer this place and passage to the following times, even to the sanctification of the Sabbath established by the law of Moses, and the fall of Mannah, Hebrei fere ad futurum 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 withal that the Commandment of keeping holy the Sabbath days was not made till afterwards. Nam hinc (from God’s own resting on that day) postea praeceptum de Sabbato natum est, as he there hath it. Doubtless the Jews, 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 sanctify 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 Council, opined the contrary. He in his Comment on that Text falls very foul upon Tostatus; and therein leads the dance to others, who have since taken up the same opinion. “Ineptum est quod quidam commentus est, etc. It is a foolish thing (saith he) that (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 only 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 affirm in the self-same Book, Scripturis frequentissimum esse, multa per anticipationem narrare; that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations. And in particular, that whereas it is said in the former Chapter, male and female created he them, per anticipationem dictum 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 Chrystostome, who indeed tells 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 that 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 Jerome, who in his Tract Against the Jews expressly 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 seems indeed to be the old tradition, if it be lawful for me to digress a little: it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day, in the end whereof he was created, did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep; and that upon the Sabbath or seventh day morning, his side was opened and a rib took thence, for the creation of the woman.

So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend. And this I have the rather noted, to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon. Whereas he concludes from the rest of God, that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day when God rested: it seems, by him, God did not wholly rest upon that day, and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all; or else it will be lawful for us by the Lord’s example, to do whatever work we have to do upon that day; and after sanctify the remainder. And yet I needs must say withal, that Catharinus was not the only he, that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath. Aretius also so conceived it. Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta, sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit, ut Hebraeus contextus habet. “The whole day was not spent” (saith he) “in rest from labor, but then God rested when he had perfected all his works; according as the Hebrew Text informs us.” Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew, denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning. Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the Translation of that place, did purposely translate it, *, that on the sixth day God finished all the works that he had made, and after rested on the seventh. “And this they did,” saith he, “ut omnem dubit andi occasionem tollerent, to take away all hint of collecting thence, that God did any kind of work on that day. For if he 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 Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew; and turns it as argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath. Arctavimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio sabbati gloriantur, quod jam tunc in principio sabbatum dissolutum sit, dum Deus operatur in sabbato, complens opera sua in eo; & benedicens ipse diei, quia in ipso uiuersa compleverat. “Here,” saith the Father, “have we brought the Jews to a narrow strait, who so much glory in their Sabbath; as being broken even in the first beginning, when God did work upon that day, perfecting on the same his works, and therefore blessing it, because thereon he finished all the works which he had created.” If so, if God himself did break the Sabbath, as Saint Hierome turns upon the Jews; we have small cause to think 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 success 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 only two particulars, both Englishmen, and both exceeding zealous in the present cause. The first is Doctor Bound, who first of all did set afoot these Sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England, wherewith the Church is still disquieted. He determines thus: “I deny not, (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 he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel, whereas it was not called Bethel till above a 100 years after. The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin, etc. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so. And why not so in this, as well as in those? Because (saith he) Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath, not only because it was so then, when he wrote that Book, but specially because it was so even from the Creation.” Which by his leave, is not so much a reason of his opinion, as a plain begging of the question. The second, Doctor Ames, the first I take it, that sowed Bound’s doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands. Who saith expressly first, and in general terms, 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 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: Fill an Omer of it [of the Mannah] to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of AEgypt. It followeth in the text, that as the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony to be kept. Here is an ordinance of God’s, an institution of the Lord, and this related in the same manner, by anticipation, as the former was. Lyra upon the place affirms expressly, that it is spoken there per anticipationem: and so doth Vatablus too, in his annotations on that Scripture. But to make sure work of it, I must send Doctor Ames to school to Calvin, who tells us on this text of Moses, non contexuit Moses historiam suo ordine, sed narratione * interposita, melius confirmat, etc. Moses, saith he, relates not here the history in its place and order; but sets it down by way of prolepsis or Anticipation. 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 Ark, nor Tabernacle, and so no testimony before which to keep it? To bring this business to an end, Moses hath told us in the place before remembered, that the children of Israel did eat Mannah forty years, which is not otherwise true, in that place and time in which he tells it, but by the help and figure of anticipation. And this Saint Austin noted in his Questions upon Exodus, Significat scriptura per Prolepsin, i.e., hoc loco commemorando quod etiam postea factum est: “This is expressed, saith he, in Scripture by an anticipation: that is, by mentioning in that place and time, a thing not done a long while after.” And lastly, where Amesius sets it down for certain that no man ever thought of an anticipation in this place of Moses, qui praejudicio aliquo de observatione diei Dominicae non fuit prius anticipatus, who was not first possessed with some manifest prejudice against the sanctifying of the Lord’s day; this cannot possibly be said against Tostatus, who had no enemy to encounter, nor no opinion to oppose, and so no prejudice. We conclude then, that for this passage of the Scripture, we find not any thing unto the contrary, but that it was set down in that place and time by a plain and mere 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 only thing have I to add, and that’s the reason which moved Moses to make this mention of the Sabbath, even in the first beginning of the Book of God, and so long time before the institution of the same. Which doubtless was, the better to excite the Jews to observe that day, from which they seemed at first to be much averse: and therefore were not only to be minded of it, by a Memento in the front of the Commandment; but by an intimation of the equity and reason of it, even in the entrance of God’s Book, derived from God’s first resting on that day after all his works. Theodoret hath so resolved it in his Questions on the book of Genesis, Maxime autem Judaeis ist ascribens, necessario posuit hoc, sanctificavit cum, ut majore cultu prosequantur Sabbatum. Hoc enim in legibus sanciendis inquit, sex diebus creavit Deus, etc. Moses, saith he, writing these things for the use and benefit of the Jews, was of necessity to set down the sanctifying of the sabbath at this place and time, that so they might observe it with the greater reverence. (5) I said an intimation of the equity and reason of it, for that’s as much as can be gathered from that place: though some have labored what they could, to make the sanctifying of the seventh day, threin mentioned, a precept given by God to our Father Adam, touching the sanctifying of that day to his public worship. Of this I shall not now say much, because the practice will disprove it. Only I cannot but report the mind and judgment of Pererius, a learned Jesuit. Who amongst other reasons which he hath alleged, 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 positivum, nisi illud de non edendo fructu arboris scientiae, etc. that God imposed no other law on Adam, which was plainly positive, than that of not eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of knowledge. Of the which Fathers, since he hath instanced in none particularly, I will make bold to lay before you some two or three; that so out of the mouths of two or three witnesses the truth hereof may be established. And first we have Tertullian, who resolves it thus. Namque in principio mundi ipsi Adae et Evae legem dedit, etc. In the beginning of the World, the Lord commanded Adam and Eve 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. Saint Basil next, who tells us first, that abstinence of fasting was commanded by the Lord in Paradise. And the, *, etc. the first Commandment given by God to Adam was that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge. The very same, which is affirmed by Saint Ambrose in another language, Et ut sciamus no esse novum jejunium primam illic legem, [i.e. in Paradise] constituit de jejunio. That we may know, saith this good Father, that abstinence or fasting is no new invention, the first Law which the Lord proclaimed in Paradise, was that of fasting. See to this purpose Chrysost. hom. 14. & 16. on the book of Genesis; Austin de Civit.l.14.c.I2; and many other Christian Doctors of all times and ages, who do from hence aggravate the offense of Adam, in that he had but one commandment imposed on him, and yet kept it not. So perfectly agree in this, the greatest lights both of African, the Eastern, and the Western 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: the only Law, as both Saint Austin and the Schoole-men think: 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 Commandment in the Book of God before the wandering of God’s people in the Wilderness and the fall of Mannah. A thing so clear, that some of those who willingly would have the Sabbath to have been kept from the first Creation, have not the confidence to ascribe the keeping of it to any ordinance of God, but only to the voluntary imitation of his people. And this is Torniellus’ way, amongst many others, who though he attribute to Enos both set forms of prayer, and certain times by him selected for the performance of that duty; praecipue vero diebus Sabbati, 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; “were not obliged to do, by any precept from the Lord, none such being given, but only of an arbitrary piety.” Of this opinion doth Mercer also seem 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 less 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 mind of man from his first creation. It’s true, they tell us of a Law which naturally was ingrafted in him. So Chrysostome affirms, that neither Adam nor any other man did ever live without the guidance of this Law; and that it was imprinted in the soul of man, as soon as as he 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 expressly have affirmed the contrary. Theodoret for example, “that these Commandments, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, and others of that kind, alios quoque homines natura edocuit, 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 chief parts. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis, of signs and Sacraments, as Circumcision, and the Passover; the second is, quae congruit legi naturali, the body of the Law of nature, and is the summary of those things which are prohibited by the words of God; the third and last, factorum, of rites and ceremonies (for so I take it is his meaning) as new Moons and sabbaths: which clearly doth exempt the Sabbath, from having any thing to do with the law of nature. “ And Damascen assures us 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 may add many more of these later times, Ryvet and Ames, and divers others, who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sabbath, dare not refer the keeping of it to the law of nature; but only (as we shall see anon) unto positive law, and divine commandment. But hereof we shall speak more largely, when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law in the time of Moses; where it will evidently appear to be a positive Constitution only, fitted peculiarly to the Jews; and never otherwise esteemed of than a Jewish ordinance. (7) It’s true, that all men generally have agreed on this, that it is consonant to the law of nature to set apart some time to God’s public service; but that this time should rather be the seventh day than any other, that they impute not unto any thing in nature; but either to divine, legal, or Ecclesiastical institution. The Schoole-men, Papists, Protestants, men of almost all persuasions in religion, have so resolved it. And for the Ancients, our venerable Bede assures us, “that to the Fathers before the law, all days were equal; the seventh day having no prerogative before the others; and this he calls naturalis sabbati libertate, the liberty of the natural sabbath, which ought (saith he) to be restored at our Savior’s coming.” If so, if that the Sabbath, or time of rest unto the Lord, was naturally left free and arbitrary, then certainly it was not restrained more unto one day than another; or to the seventh day, more than to the sixth or eighth. Even Abrose Catharin, as stout a champion as he was for the antiquity of the Sabbath, finds himself at a loss about it. For having took for granted, as he might indeed, that men by the prescript of nature were to assign 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 Ignoramus. Nescimus modo quem diem praecipue observarunt prisci illi Dei cultores. We cannot well resolve (saith he) what day especially was observed, by those who worshipped God, in the times of old.” Wherein he doth agree exactly with Abulensis, against whom principally he took 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 religious duties: non tamen magis in sabbato, quam in quolivet aliorum 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 solennia unus debeat esse in septimana, hoc positivi juris est; that’s Amesius’ doctrine. And Ryvet also saith the same. Legem de Sabbato, positivam, non naturalem agnoscimus. The places were both cited in the former Section; and both do make the Sabbath a mere positive law, no prescript of nature. But what need more be said in so clear a case; or what needs further Witnesses be produced to give in evidence, when we have confitentem reum. For Doctor Bound, who first amongst us, here, endeavored to advance the Lord’s day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath; and feigned a pedigree of the Sabbath, even from Adam’s infancy: hath herein said enough to betray his cause, and those, who 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 Commandments were; but by express words when God sanctified it. For though this be in the law of nature, that some days should be separated to God’s worship, as appears by the practice of the Gentiles: yet that it should be every seventh day, the Lord himself set down in express 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 than by the testimony of the Fathers, in any positive law, or divine appointment, until the Decalogue was given by Moses. (9) Nay, Doctor Bound goeth further yet, and robs his friends and followers of a special argument. For where Danaeus asks this question, Why one of seven, rather than one of eight, or nine; and thereunto makes answer, that the number of seven doth signify perfection and perpetuities. “First, saith the Doctor, I do not see that proved, that there is any such mystical signification, rather than of any other. And though that were granted, yet do I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture, why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy, rather than the sixth, or eighth. And in the former page, The special reason why the seventh day should be rather kept than any other, is not the excellency 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 confess (saith he) that much is said that way, both in divine and humane writers.” Much hath been said therein indeed, so much that we may justly wonder at the strange niceties of some men, and the unprofitable pains they have took amongst them in searching out the mysteries of this number; the better to advance, as they conceive, the reputation of the Sabbath. Aug. Steuchius hath affirmed in general, that this day and number is most natural and most agreeable to divine employments, and therefore in omni aetate interomnes gentes habitus venerabilis & facer, accounted in all times and Nations holy and venerable; and so have many others said since him. But he that led the way unto him, and to all the rest, is Philo the Jew; who being a great follower of Plato’s, took up his way of trading in the mysteries of several numbers: wherein he was so intricate and perplexed, that numero Platonis obscurius, did grow at last into a Proverb. This Philo therefore Platonizing, first tells us of this number of seven, *, that he persuades himself there is not any man able sufficiently to extol it; as being far above all the powers of Rhetoric, and that the Pythagoreans (from them first Plato learnt those trifles) did usually resemble it, *, even to Jove himself. Then, that Hippocrates doth divide the life of man into seven ages, each age containing seven full years; to which the changes of man’s constitution are all framed and fitted: as also that the Bear, or Arcturus, as they use to call it, and the constellation called the Pleiades, consist of seven stars severally, neither more nor less. He shows us also, how much nature is delighted in this number, *, as viz. that there are seven Planets, and that the Moon quartereth every seventh day, that Infants borne in the seventh month are usually like enough to live; that there are seven several motions of the body, seven entrails, so many outward members, seven holes, or outlets, in the same, seven sorts of excrements; as also that the seventh is the critical day in most kinds of maladies. And to what purpose this, and much more of the same condition every where scattered in his Writings, but to devise some natural reason for the Sabbath? For so he manifests himself in another place. *, etc. “Now why God chose the seventh day, and established it by law, for the day of rest, you need not ask at all of me; since both Physicians and Philosophers have so oft declared of what great power and virtue that number is, as in all other things, so especially in 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 great name and credit, have spoken much in honor of the number of seven; and severally impute great power unto it in the works of nature, and several changes of man’s body. Whereof see Censorinus de Die natali, cap.12; Varro in Gellius lib.3.cap.10; Hippocrates, Solon, and Hermippus Beritus in the sixth Book 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. from the reverence due unto it. So Philo tells us. Macrobius also saith the same. Apud veteres * vocitatur quod Graeco nomine testabatur venerationem debitam numero: as he, in Somnio Scipionis. (9) But other men as good as they find no such mystery in this number, but that the rest may keep pace with it, if not go before it: and some of those, which so much magnify the seventh, have found as weighty mysteries in many of the others also. In which I shall the rather enlarge myself, that seeing the exceeding great both contradiction and contention that is between them in these needless curiosities, we may the better find the slightness of those arguments which seem to place a great morality 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 affix a special power unto it in the works of nature, Justin the Martyr plainly tells us, “*, etc. that the accomplishment of the works of nature is to be ascribed to nature only, not unto any period of time accounted by the number of seven; and that they oft times come to their perfection sooner or later than the said periods: which could not be, in case that nature were observant of this number, as they say she is, and not this number tied to the course of nature. *, etc. Therefore (saith he) this number hath no influence on the works of nature.” Then whereas others attribute I know not what perfection to this number above all the rest; Cicero affirming that it is plenus numerus; Macrobius, that it is numerus solidus & perfectus; Bodinus doth affirm expressly, Neutrum de septenario dici potest, that neither of those attributes is to be ascribed unto this number; then, that the eighth number is a solid number, although not a perfect one; the sixth, a perfect number also. Now as Bodinus makes the eighth more solid, and the sixth more perfect; so Servius on these words of Virgil, Septima post decimam foelix, prefers the tenth number a far deal before it: Ut primum locum decimae ferat, quae sit valde foelix; secundum septima, ut quae post decimae foelicitatem secunda sit. Nay, which may seem more strange than this, the Arithmeticians generally, as we read in Nyssen, make this seventh number to be utterly barren and unfruitful, *. But to go forwards in this matter. Macrobius who before had said of this number seven, that it is plenus & venerabilis, both full and venerable; hath in the same Book said of the number of one, that it is principium & finis omnium, the beginning and end of all things, and that it hath a special reference or resemblance unto God on high: which is by far the greater commendation of the two. And Hierom, that however there be many mysteries in the number of seven, prima tamen beatitude est, esse in primo numero, yet the prime happiness or beatitude is to be sought for in the first. So for the third, Origen generally affirms that it is apsus sacramentis, even made for mysteries; & some particulars he nameth. Macrobius findeth in it all the natural faculties of the soul; *, or rational; *, or irascible, and last of all *, or concupiscible.

Saint Athanasius makes it equal altogether with the seventh; the one being no less memorable for the holy Trinity, than the other for the World’s Creation. And Servius on these words of Virgil, Numero Deus impare gaudet, saith that the Pythagoreans hold it for a perfect number, and do resemble it unto God, a quo principium, & medium, & finis est. 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 but four perfect numbers in 100000; which are 6, 28, 496, and 8128. Next for the fourth, Philo not only hath assured us that it is *, a perfect number, wherein Bodinus contradicts him; but that it is highly honored, as amongst Philosophers, so by Moses also, who hath affirmed of it that it is *, both holy, and praise-worthy too. And for the mysteries thereof, Clemens of Alexandria tells us, that both Jehovah in the Hebrew, and * in the Greek, consisteth of four letters only; and so doth Deus in the Latin. Nazianzen further doth inform us that as the seventh amongst the Hebrews, so was the fourth honored by the Pythagoreans, *, and that they used to swear thereby, when they took an oath. Yet for all this, Saint Ambrose thought this number not alone unprofitable, but even dangerous also. Numerum quartum plerique cavent, & inutile putant, as he in his Hexaemeron. Then for the fifth, Macrobius tells us that it comprehendeth all things both in the Heavens above 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 look upon the sixth, which Beda reckoneth to be numerus perfectus; and Bodin, primus perfectorum. Philo, and generally the Pythagoreans do affirm the same. Yet the same Bodin tells us in the selfsame Book, 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 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 justice, Quia primus omnium selvitur in numeros pariter pares, because it will be always divisible into even or equal members. Nay, whereas those of Athens did use to sacrifice to Neptune on the eighth day of every month; Plutarch hath found out such a mystical reason for it out of the nature of that number, as others in the number of seven for the morality of the Sabbath. “They sacrifice (saith he) to Neptune on the eighth day of every month 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 steadfastness, properly attributed to the might of Neptune; whom for this cause we name Asphalius and *, which signifieth the safe keeper and stayer of the earth.” As strong an argument for the one, as any mystery or morality derived from numbers can be for the other. But if we look upon the tenth, we find a greater commendation given to that than to the seventh; yea, by those very men themselves, to whom the seventh appeared so sacred. Philo affirms thereof that of all numbers it is most absolute and complete; not meanly celebrated by the Prophet Moses; most proper and familiar unto God himself; that the powers and virtues of it are innumerable; and finally, that learned men did call it *, because it comprehended in itself all kind of numbers. With whom agree Macrobius, who styles it numerum perfectissimum, the most perfect number; and Clemens Alexandrinus, who gives it both the attributes of holiness and perfection. Nazianzen and Athanasius are as full as they. And here this number seems to me to have got the better; there being nothing spoken in disgrace of this, as was before of the seventh, by several Authors there remembered. So that for ought I see, in case this 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 keep it on the tenth day, with best right of all. Adeo argumenta ab absurdo petita, ineptos habent exitus, said Lactantius truly. Nay, by this reason, we need not keep a Sabbath oftener than every thirtieth day, or every fiftieth, or every hundredth; because those numbers have been noted also to contain great mysteries, and to be perfecter than others. For Origen hath plainly told us that if we look into Scriptures, invenies multa magnarum rerum gesta sub tricenario & quinquagenario contineri, we shall find many notable things delivered to us in the numbers of thirty and fifty. Of fifty more particularly, Philo affirms upon his credit that it is *, the holiest and most natural of all other numbers; and Origen conceived so highly of it that he breaks out into a timeo hujus numeri secreta discutere, and durst not touch upon that string. So lastly for the Centenary, the same Author tells us that it is plenus and perfectus, no one more absolute. We may have Sabbaths at our will, either too many, or too few, if this plea be good. (11) Yea, but perhaps, there may be something in the Scripture whereby the seventh day may be thought more capable in nature of so high an honor. Some have so thought indeed, and thereupon have mustered up all those Texts of Scripture in which there hath been any good expressed or intimated, which concerns this number, or is reducible unto it. Bellarmine never took more pains out of that fruitless Topick to produce seven Sacraments, than they have done from thence to derive the Sabbath. I need not either name the men, or recite the places; both are known sufficiently.

Which kind of proof if it be good, we are but where we were before, amongst out Ecclesiastical and humane Writers. In this the Scriptures will not help us, or give the seventh day naturally and in itself more capability or fitness for God’s worship than the ninth or tenth. For first the Scripture gives not more honor to this number in some Texts thereof, than it detracts from it in others; and secondly, they speak as highly of the other numbers as they do of this. The Jesuit Pererius shall stand up to make good the first, and Doctor Cracanthorp to avow the second. Pererius first resolves it clearly, numerum Septenarium etiam in rebus possimis & execrandis saepe numero positum esse in Scriptura sacra: that the seventh number is oft used in Scripture to signify the vilest and most execrable things. As for example. “The evil spirit (saith Saint Luke) brought with him seven spirits worse than himself; and out of Mary Magdalen did Christ cast out seven Devils, as Saint Marke tells us. So in the Revelation, Saint John informs us as also of seven plagues sent into the earth, and seven Vials of God’s wrath poured 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 she sat upon seven Mountains.) It’s true (saith he) which David tells us, that he did praise God seven times a day; but then as true it is, which Solomon hath told us, that the just man falleth seven times a day.” So in the Book of Genesis, we have seven lean kine, and seven thin ears of Corn; as well as seven fat Kine, and seven full Ears. To proceed no further. Pererius hereupon makes this general resolution of the case: Apparet igitur eosdem numeros, aeque in benis & malis poni, & usurpari in sacre a Scriptura:

Hence it is manifest, saith he, that the same numbers frequently are used in Scripture, both for good and evil. Next, whereas those of Rome, as before I noted, have gone the same way to find out seven Sacraments; our Cracanthorpe, to shew “the vanity of that argument, doth the like for the proof of two. Quod & si nobis fac esset, etc. If it were lawful for us to take this course, we could produce more for the number of two than they can for seven. As for example, God made two great Lights in the Firmament, and gave to man two eyes, two ears, two feet, two hands, two arms. There were two Nations in the womb of Rebecca, two Tables of the Law, two Cherubins, two Sardonich stones in which were written the names of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt offer to the Lord, two Rams, two Turtles, two Lambs of a year old, two young Pigeons, two he-goats, two Oxen for a peace-offering. Let us make two Trumpets, two Doors of the wood of Olives, two Nets, two Pillars. There were two Horns of the Lamb, two Candlesticks, two Olive branches, two Witnesses, two prophets, two Testaments; and upon two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets, saith our Savior. Congruentiis facile vinceremus, si nobis in hunc campum descendere libet, etc. We should (saith he) presume of an easy victory, should we thus dally with congruities, as do those of Rome.”

Hence we conclude that by the light of Scripture, we find not any thing in nature why either every seventh day should, or every second say 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 ourselves about it. (12) It’s true, this trick of trading in the mysteries of numbers is of long standing in the Church, and of no less 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 errors, and palliate their impieties. Some of the Fathers afterwards took up the device, perhaps to foil the Hereticks at their own weapons; though many of them purposely declined it. Sure I am, Chrysostom dislikes it. Who on those words in the seventh of Genesis, by seven and by seven (which is the number now debated) doth instruct us thus: *, etc. “Many (saith he) do tell strange matters of this fact, and taking an occasion hence, make many observations out of several numbers.

Whereas not observation, but only an unseasonable curiosity hath produced those fictions, *, from whence so many heresies had their first original. For oftentimes (that out of our abundance we may fit their fancies) we find the even or equal number no less commemorated in holy Scripture; as when God sent out his Disciples by two, and two; when he chose twelve Apostles, and left four Evangelists. But these things it were needless to suggest to you, who have so many times been lessoned,” *, to stop your ears against such follies. Saint Augustine also, though he had descanted a while upon the mysteries of this number; yet he cuts off himself in the very middle, as it were; Nescientolam suam leviter magis quam utiliter, jactare velle videatur; lest he should seem to shew his reading, with more pride than profit. And thereupon he gives this excellent rule, which I could wish had been more practiced in this case: Habenda est itaque ratio moderationis & gravitatu, ne forte cum de numero multumloquismur, mensuram & pondus negligere judicemur. “We must not take, saith he, so much heed of numbers, that we forget at the last both weight and measure.” And this we should the rather do, because that generally there is no rule laid down, 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 Jericho should be rather compassed seven times, than six or eight; why Abraham rather trained three hundred and eighteen of his servants, than three hundred and twenty, or why his servant took ten Camels with him into Padan Aram, and not more or less; with infinite others of this kind, in the Law Levitical. Yet I deny not that some reason may be given, why in the Scripture, things are so often ordered by sevens and sevens: viz. as Justin Martyr tells *, the better to preserve the memory of the world’s Creation. Another reason may be added, which is, by this inculcating the number of seven unto the Jews, to make that people, who otherwise were at first averse from it, as before I noted, continually mindful of the Sabbath:

Numerum septenarium propter Sabbatum Judaeis familiarem esse, being the observation of S. Hierom. To draw this point unto an end, It is apparent by what hath before been spoken, that there is no Sabbath to be found in the beginning of the World, or mentioned as a thing done, in the 2. of Genesis, either on any strength of the Text itself; or by immediate ordinance and command from God, collected from it; or by the law and light of nature, imprinted in the soul of man at his first creation: much less by any natural fitness in the number of seven, whereby it was most capable in itself of so high an honor. Which first premised, we shall the earlier see what hath been done in point of practice.

CHAPTER - THAT THERE WAS NO SABBATH KEPT, FROM THE CREATION, TO THE FLOOD. (1) Gods rest upon the seventh day; and from what hee rested. (2) Zanchius conceit touching the sanctifying of the first seventh day, by Christ our Savior. (3) The like of Torniellus, touching the sanctifying of the same, by the Angels 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 keep the Sabbath. (7) Of Enos, that he kept not the Sabbath. (8) That Enoch and Methusalem did not keep the Sabbath. (9) Of Noah, that he kept not the Sabbath. (10) The Sacrifices and devotions of the Ancients were occasionall. (1) HOW little ground there is whereon to build the original of the Sabbath, in the second of Genesis, we have at large declared in the former Chapter.

Yet we deny not but that Text affords us a sufficient intimation of the equity and reason of it, which is God’s rest upon that day after all his works that he had made. Not as once Celsus did object against the Christians of his time, as if the Lord, *, etc. like to some dull Artificer, was weary of his labors, and had need of sleep: for he spake the word only, and all things were made. There went no greater labor to the whole Creation, than a Dixit Dominus. Therefore Saint Austin rightly noteth, nec cum creavit defessus, nec cum cessavit refectus est; that God was neither weary of working, nor refreshed with resting. The meaning of the Text is this, that he desisted then, from adding any thing, de novo, unto the World by him created: as having in the six former days fashioned Heaven and Earth, and every 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 work by us as highly to be prized as the first Creation; and from the which God never resteth. Sabbaths and all days are alike in respect of providence, in reference to the universal government of the World and Nature. Semper videmus Deum operari, & Sabbatum nullum est in quo Deus no operetur, in quo no producat Solem suum super bonos & malos.

No Sabbath, whereon God doth rest from the adminstration of the World by him created, whereon he doth not make his Sun to shine both on good and bad; whereon he rains not plenty upon the sinner and the just, as Origen hath truly noted. Nor is this more than what our Savior said in his holy Gospel. I work (saith he) and my Father also worketh. “A saying, as Saint Austine notes, at which the Jews were much offended, our Savior 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 Father’s business, ne Sabbatis quidem, no though it were upon the Sabbath. By which it seemeth, that when the Sabbath was observed, and that if still it were in force, it was not then, and would not be unlawful to 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 add thereto by following on that day the works of his daily labor. And this according to their rules, who would have God’s example so exactly followed in the Sabbaths rest; who rested, as we see, from creation only, not from preservation. So that the rest here mentioned, was as before I said, no more than a cessation or a leaving off from adding any thing as then, unto the World by him created. Upon which ground he afterwards designed this day for his holy Sabbath, that so by his example the Jews might learn to rest from their worldly labors, and be the better fitted to meditate on the works of God, and to commemorate his goodness manifested in the World’s Creation. (2) Of any other sanctification of this day by the Lord our God, than that he rested on it now, and after did command the Jews that they should sanctify the same, we have no Constat in the Scriptures; no nor in any Author that I have met with, until Zanchie’s time. Indeed he tells us, a large story of his own making, how God the Son came down to Adam, and sanctified his first Sabbath with him; that he might know the better how to do the like. Ego quidem non dubito, etc. “I little doubt, saith he, (I will speak only what I think, without wrong or prejudice to others, I little doubt) but that the Son of God, taking the shape of man upon him, was busied all this day in most holy conferences with Adam; that he made known himself both to him and Eve; taught them the order that he used in the World’s Creation; exhorted them to meditate on those glorious works; in them to praise the Name of God, acknowledging him for their Creator; & after his example, to spend that day for ever in these pious exercises. I doubt not, finally, saith he, but that he taught them on that day the whole body of Divinity; and that he held them busied all day long in hearing him, and celebrating with due praise their Lord and God; & giving thanks unto him for so great and many benefits as God had graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon them. Which said, he shuts up all with this conclusion: Haec est illius septimi dici benedictis & sanctificatio, in quae filius Dei una com patre & spiritu sanctu, quievit ab opere quod fecerat. This was (saith he) the blessing and sanctifying of that seventh day, wherein the Son of God did rest from all the works which they had made.” How Zanchie thwarts himself in this, we shall see hereafter. Such strange conceptions, though they miscarry not in the birth: yet commonly they serve to no other use than monsters in the works of nature, to be seen and shown; with wonder at all times, and sometimes with pity. Had such a thing occurred in Pet.

Comestor’s supplement, which he made unto the Bible, it had been more tolerable. The Legendaries and the Rabbins might fairly also have been excused if any such device had been extant in them. The gravity of the man makes the Tale more pitiful, though never the more to be regarded. For certainly, had there been such a weighty conference between God and man; & so much tending to information & 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 & credit of a private man. Non credimus, quia non legimus, This we believe not, because we read it not, was in some points Saint Hierom’s rule; and shall now be ours. (3) As little likelihood there is, that the Angels did observe this day and sanctify the same to the Lord their God: yet some have been so venturous as to affirm it. Sure I am Torniellus saith it. 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. 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. “Some men have thought, saith he, and that not improbably, that on this day the Choir of Angels in the Heavens brake out into the praise of God, in a special manner, in honor of that excellent and admirable work which he then had perfected.” Nay he, and they, who ever they were, have a Scripture for it; even God’s words to Job: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Who, and from whence those Quidam were, that so interpreted God’s words, I could never find; 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 seems, affirmed that the Angels were not made till after the six days were finished in which all things had been created, and he refers to this Text for their confutation. Which being repeated, he concludes: Iam ergo erant Angeli, quando facta sunt sydera, facta autem sunt sydera die quarto. “Therefore (saith he) the Angels were created before the Stars; and on the fourth day were the Stars created. Yet Zanchius, and those Quidam, be they who they will, fell short a little of another conceit of Philos, who tells us that the Sabbath had a privilege above other days, not only from the first Creation of the World (though that had been 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 Trinity, without the tongues of men and Angels: and God, not having worked, must rest, and sanctify a time when no time was.

But to return to Torniellus, however those Quidam did mislead him, and make him think that the first Sabbath had been sanctified by the holy Angels; yet he ingenuously confesseth that sanctifying of the Sabbath here upon the earth was not in use till very many ages after, not till the Law was given by Moses. Veruntamen in terris ista sabbati sanctificatio non nisi post multa saecula in usum venisse creditur, nimirum temporibus Mosis, quando sub praecepto data est filiis Israel. So Tornellius. (4) So Tornellius, and so far unquestionable. For that there was no Sabbath 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 show, I shall first let you see what they say in general, and after what they have delivered of particular men, most eminent in the whole story of God’s Book, until the giving of the Law. And first that never any of the Patriarchs before Moses’ time did observe the Sabbath, Justin the Martyr hath assured us: *. None of the righteous men, saith he, and such as walked before the Lord, were either circumcised, or kept the Sabbath, until the several times of Abraham and Moses. And where the Jews were scandalized, in that the Christians did eat hot meats on the Sabbath days, 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 himself. So Irenaeus, having first told us that Circumcision and the Sabbath were both given for signs; and having spoke particularly of Abraham, Noah, Lot, and Enoch, that they were justified without them, adds for the close of all that the multitude of the faithful before Abraham were justified without the one; Et Patriarcharum eorum qui ante Mosen fuerunt, and all the Patriarchs which preceded Moses without the other. Tertullian next, disputeth thus against the Jews, that they which think the Sabbath must be still observed, as necessary to salvation; or Circumcision to be used upon pain of death: Doceant in praeteritum justos sabbatizasse, 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 obtain to be accounted the friends of God. Then comes Eusebius the Historian, and he makes it good that the Religion of the Patriarchs 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 do we: they were not bound to abstinence from sundry kinds of meats, which are prohibited by Moses; nor are we neither. Where still observe how constantly these several Fathers rank Circumcision and the Sabbath in one rank or order, which shows that they thought them both of the same condition. This or the like argument doth he also use to the self-same purpose in his first Book, de demonstrat. Evangel, and sixth Chapter. And in his seventh, de praeparatione, he resolves it thus, *, etc. The Hebrews which preceded Moses, and were quite ignorant of his Law (whereof he makes the Sabbath an especial part) disposed their ways according to a voluntary kind of piety, *, framing their lives and actions to the law of nature. This argument is also used by Epiphanius, who speaking of the first ages of the World, informs us this: that then there was no difference among men in matters of opinion; no Judaism, nor kind of heresy whatsoever;*, etc. but that the faith which doth now flourish in God’s 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 show you that the commandment of the Sabbath was published to God’s people by Moses only; and that to none but to the Jews. After so many of the Fathers, the modern Writers may perhaps seem unnecessary; yet take one or two. First, Musculus (as Doctor Bound informs me, for I take his word), “who tells us that it cannot be proved that the Sabbath was kept before the giving of the Law, either from Adam to Noah, or from the Flood to the times of Moses, or of Abraham and his Posterity.” Which is no more than what we shall see shortly out of Eusebius. Hospinian next, who though he fain would have the sanctifying of the Sabbath to be as old as the beginning of the World,; yet he confesseth at the last, Patres idcirco Sabbatum observasse ante legem, etc. “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 been often vouched in the present controversy as men that wished well to the cause, and say somewhat in it. (5) We are now come to particulars. And first we must begin with the first man Adam. The time of his Creation, as the Scriptures tells us, the sixth day of the week, being as Scaliger conjectured in the first Edition of his Work, the three and twentieth day of April; and so the first Sabbath, Sabbatum primum, so he calls it, was the four and twentieth. 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 near to one another than 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 Hexaemeri; the first Sabbath on the which God rested from his six days’ work. Indeed the Chaldee Paraphrase seems to affirm of Adam, that he kept the Sabbath. For where the 92nd Psalm doth bear this Title, A Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day, the Authors of that Paraphrase do expound it thus: Laus & Canticum quod dixit homo primus pro die Sabbati, the Song or Psalm which Adam said for the Sabbath day.

Somewhat more wary in this point was Rabbi Kimchi, who tells us how that Adam was created upon Friday about three of the clock, fell at eleven, was censured and driven out of Paradise at twelve; that all the residue of that day and the following night he bemoaned his miseries, was taken into grace next morning, being Sabbath day; and taking then into consideration all the works of God, in similia istius Psalmi verba prorupisse, brake out into words as there are recorded. A tale that hath as much foundation, as that narration of Zanchy before remembered. Who though he seem to put the matter out of doubt, with his three non dubito’s, that Christ himself did sanctify the first Sabbath with our Father Adam, and did command him ever after to observe that day; yet in another place he makes it only a matter of probability that the commandment of the Sabbath 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. How did God sanctify that day, saith he? Not only by decree or designation, but in very deed; in that, as not a few conceive, and probable it is that it may be so, he did command it to be kept by our first Parents. So easily doth he overthrow his former structure, making that there to be only probable, which formerly he had affirmed to be unquestionable. But to return unto the Rabbins and this dream of theirs, besides the strangeness of the thing, that Adam should continue not above eight hours in Paradise, and yet give names to all the creatures, fall into such an heavy sleep, and have the woman taken out of him; that she 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 express that Adam never kept the Sabbath. Justin the Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho, a learned Jew, makes Adam one of those, *, etc. *, which being neither circumcised, nor keeping any Sabbath, were yet accepted by the Lord. And so Tertullian in a Treatise written against the Jews, affirms of Adam, quod nec circumcisum, nec sabbatizantem, Deus eum instituerit; That God did institute and direct him, being neither circumcised nor a Sabbath- keeper. Nay, which is more, he makes a challenge to the Jews to prove unto him, if they could, that Adam ever kept the Sabbath. Doceant Adamum sabbatizasse, as he there hath it. Which doubtless neither of them would have done, considering with whom the one disputed, and against whom the other wrote; had they not been very well assured of what they said. The like may be affirmed both of Eusebius, and Epiphanius, two most learned Fathers. Whereof the first, maintaining positively that the Sabbath was first given by Moses, makes Adam one of those which neither troubled himself with Circumcision, *, nor any of the Laws of Moses: 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 than to any other. To offer Sacrifice, he might learn of Adam, or of natural reason, which doth sufficiently instruct us, that we ought all to make some public testimony of our subjection to the Lord. But neither Adam did observe the Sabbath, nor could nature teach it, as before is shown. And howsoever some Modern Writers have conjectured, and conjectured only, that Abel in his Sacrifices might have respect unto the Sabbath; yet those whom we may better trust have affirmed the contrary. For Justin Martyr disputing against Trypho, brings Abel in for an example; “that neither Circumcision nor the Sabbath, the two great glories of the Jews, were to be counted necessary. For if they were, saith he, God had not had so much regard to Abel’s Sacrifice, being as he was uncircumcised; and then he adds, *, etc. *,” that though he was no Sabbath-keeper, yet he was acceptable unto God. And so Tertullian, that God accepted of his Sacrifice, though he were neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath. Abelem offerentem sacrificia, incircumcisum neque sabbatizantem laudavit Deus, acceptaferens qua in simplicitate cordis offerebat. Yea, and he brings him also into his challenge, as one to whom the Jews could produce no proof that ever he had observed the Sabbath. Doceant Abel, hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem, Sabbati religionem, placuisse: which is directly contrary to that which is conjectured by some Modern Writers. So Epiphanius also makes him one of those who lived according to the tendries of the Christian Faith. The like he also saith of Seth, whom God raised up instead of Abel, to Father Adam. Therefore no Sabbath kept by either. (7) It is conceived of Abel, that he was killed in the one hundred and thirtieth year of the World’s Creation: of Enos, Seth’s son, that he was born, 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 honor, because it is set down in Scripture that then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. “That is, as Torniellus descants upon the place: then were spiritual Congregations instituted, as we may probably conjecture, certain set forms of prayers and Hymns devised to set forth God’s glory, certain set times and places also set apart for those pious duties: praecipue diebus Sabbati, especially on the Sabbath days, in which, most likely, they began to abstain from all servile works, in honor of that God, whom they well knew had rested on the seventh day from all his labors.” Sure Torniellus’ mind was upon his Matins when he read this paragraph. He had not else gathered a Sabbath from this Text, considering that not long before he had thus concluded: That sanctifying of the Sabbath here on earth was not in use until the Law was given by Moses. But certainly this Text will bear no such matter, were it considered as it ought. The Chaldee Paraphrase thus reads it, Tunc in diebus ejus inceperunt filii hominum, ut non orarent in nomine Domini; then in those days began the sons of men, not to address their invocations to the name of God: which is quite contrary to the English. Our Bibles of the last Translation in the margin, thus; Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord: and generally the Jews, as Saint Hierome tells us, do thus gloss upon it, Tunc primum in nomine Domini, & in similitudine ejus, fabricat a 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 profanely to call upon the Name of the Lord: who tells us also in his Annotations on this Text, out of Rabbi Maimony, that in these days Idolatry took its first beginning, and the people worshiped the stars 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 we see not any thing in this Text sufficient to produce a Sabbath. But take it as the English reads it, which is agreeable to the Greek and vulgar Latin; and may well stand with the original; yet will the cause be little better. For men might call upon God’s Name, and have their public meetings and set forms of Prayer, without relation to the seventh day more than any other. As for this of Enos, 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 God’s Name with assured hope. But yet withal he tells us of him that he observed not any of those ordinances which Moses taught unto the Jews;” whereof the Sabbath was the chief, as formerly we observed in Adam; and Epiphanius ranks him amongst those Fathers who lived according to the rules of the Christian Church. Therefore no Sabbath kept by Enos. (8) We will next look on Enoch, who, as the Text tells us, walked with God, and therefore doubt we 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 Justin Martyr not only 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 eternal life, we must needs fall upon this absurd opinion, *, that the same God whom the Jews worshiped, was not the God of Enoch, and of other men about those times: which neither had been 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, qui sine iis quae praedicta sunt justificationem adepti sunt, which had been justified without any of the ordinances before remembered. Tertullian more fully yet. Enoch justissimum nec circumcisum, nec sabbatizantem, de hoc mundo transtulit, etc. “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.” He sets him also in his challenge, as one whom never any of the Jews could prove, Sabbati cultorem esse, to have been a keeper of the Sabbath. Eusebius too, who makes the sabbath one of Moses’ institutions, hath said of Enoch, that “he was neither circumcised, nor meddled with the Law of Moses: *, etc. and that he lived more like a Christian than a Jew.” The same Eusebius in his seventh de praeparatione, and Epiphanius in the place before remembered, affirm the same of him as they do of Adam, Abel, Seth, and Enos: and what this Epiphanius saith of him, that he affirms also of his son, Methuselem. Therefore not Enoch, nor Methusalem ever kept the Sabbath. It’s true, the Aethiopians in their Calendar have a certain period which they call Sabbatum Enoch, Enoch’s Sabbath. But this consisteth of seven hundred years, and hath that name, either because Enoch was born in the seventh Century from Creation, viz. in the year six hundred twenty-two, or because he was the seventh from Adam. It’s true that many of the Jews, and some Christians too, have made this Enoch an Emblem of the heavenly and eternal sabbath, which shall never end: 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 Enoch ever kept the Sabbath, whiles he was alive. Note that this Enoch was translated about the year nine hundred eighty-seven: and that Methusalem died but one year only before the Flood, which was 1655. And so far we are safely come, without any rub. (9) To come unto the Flood itself, to Noah, who both saw it, and escaped it; it is affirmed by some, that he kept the Sabbath; and that both in the Ark, and when he was released out of it, if not before. Yea, they have arguments also for the proof hereof, but very weak ones: such as they dare not trust themselves. It is delivered in the eighth of the Book of Genesis, that after the return of the Dove into the Ark, Noah stayed yet other seven days before he sent her forth again. What then? This seems unto Hospinian to be an argument for the Sabbath. In historia diluvii, columba ex arca amisse septenario dierum intervallo, ratione sabbati videntur. So he, and so verbatim, Josias Simler in his Comment on the twentieth of Exodus. But to this argument, if at the least it may be honored with that name, Tostatus hath returned an answer as by way of prophecy. He makes this Query first, sed quare ponit hic, quod Noe expectabat semper septem dies, etc. Why Noah, betwixt every sending of the Dove, expected just seven days, neither more nor less; and then returns this answer to it, such as indeed doth excellently satisfy both his own Query and the present argument. “Resp. quod Noah intendebat scire, utrum aquae cessassent, etc. “Noah (saith he) desired to know whether the waters were decreased. Now since the waters being a moist body, are regulated by the Moon, Noah was most especially to regard her motions: for as she is either in opposition or conjuction with the Sun, in her increase or in her wane, there is proportionably an increase or falling of the waters. Noah then considering the Moon in her several quarters, which commonly we know are at seven days distance, sent forth his Birds to bring him tidings; for the Text tells us that he sent out the Raven and the Dove four times. 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 far the learned Abulensis; which makes clear the case. Nor stand we only here upon our defense. For we have proof sufficient that Noah never kept the Sabbath. Justin the Martyr, and Irenaeus both, make him one of those which without circumcision and the Sabbath, were very pleasing unto God, and also justified without them. Tertullian positively saith it, that God delivered him from the great water flood, Nec circumcisum, nec sabbatizantem; being neither circumcised, nor a Sabbathkeeper; and challengeth the Jews to prove, if any way they could, sabbatus observasse, that he kept the Sabbath. Eusebius also tells us of him, that being a just man, and one whom God preserved as a remaining spark to kindle piety in the World, yet knew not any thing that pertained to the Jewish Ceremony: 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 remembered, ranks Noah in this particular with Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, and the other Patriarchs. Therefore no sabbath kept by Noah. (10) It’s true that Joseph Scaliger once made the day, whereon Noah left the Ark and offered sacrifice to the Lord, to be the seventh day of the week; Decembris 28, feris 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 he not changed his mind 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 practice. Considering especially that there is no ground in Scripture to prove that those before the Law had in their sacrifices, any regard at all to set times and days. Either unto the sixth day, or the seventh, or eighth, or any other; but did their service to the Lord, I mean the public part thereof, and that which did consist in external action, according as occasion was administered unto them. The offerings of Cain and Abel, for ought we can inform ourselves, were not very frequent. The Scripture tells us that it was in process of time; at the year’s end, as some expound it. For at the year’s end, as Ainsworth noteth, men were wont in most solemn manner to offer sacrifice unto God, with thanks for all his benefits, having then gathered in their fruits. 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, (as Aristotle hath informed us) being after the gathering in of fruits. No day selected for that use, that we can hear of.

This sacrifice of Noah, as it was remarkable, so it was occasional: an Eucharistical Oblation for the great deliverance which did that day befall unto him. And had it happened on the seventh day, it were no argument that he made choice thereof as most fit and proper, or that he used to sacrifice more upon that day than on any other. So that of Abraham in the twelfth of Genesis was occasional only. The Lord appeared to Abraham saying, 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 he did when he first set his footing in the promised Land, and pitched his Tents not far from Bethel, V. 8 and when he came to plant in the Plain of Mamre, in the next Chapter. See the like, Genesis 21.33. & 22.13. Of Isaac, Genesis 26.25. Of Jacob, Genesis 28.8. & 31.54. & 33.20. & 35.7-14. No mention in the Scripture of any Sacrifice or public worship, but the occasion is set down. Hoc ratio naturalis dictat, ut de donis fuis honoretur imprimis ipse qui dedit. Natural reason, saith Rupertus, could instruct them that God was to be honored with some part of that which he himself had given unto them; but natural reason did not teach them that one day differed from another.

CHAP. 3.

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) Diversitie of Longitudes and Latitudes, must of necessitie make a variation in the Sabbath. (4) Melchisedech, 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 Jewes. (7) Jacob, nor Job, no Sabbath-keepers. (8) That neither Joseph, 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) WE are now come unto the hither side of the Flood, to the sons of Noah. To whom, the Hebrew Doctors say, their Father did bequeath seven several Commandments, which they and their Posterity were bound to keep. Septem praecepta acceperunt filii Noah, etc. as Schindler reckoneth them out of Rabbi Maimony. First, That they dealt uprightly with every man; Secondly, That they should bless and magnify the Name of God; Thirdly, that they abstained from worshiping false gods, and from all Idolatry; Fourthly, That they forbear all unlawful lusts and copulations; The fifth, against shedding blood; The sixth, 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 Noah’s sons, or their posterity, was to be smitten with the sword. Yea, these Commandments were reputed so agreeable to nature that all such Heathens as would yield to obey the same, were suffered to remain and dwell amongst the Israelites; though they received not Circumcision, nor any of the ordinances which were given by Moses. So that amongst the precepts given unto the sons of Noah, we find no footsteps of the Sabbath. And where a Modern 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, either in Schindler, whom he cites, nor in Cunaeus, who repeats the self-same precepts, from the self-same Rabbi.

Nay, which is more, the Rabbin out of who they cite it, doth in another place exclude expressly the observation of the Sabbath out of the number of these precepts given the sons of Noah. The man and woman-servant, saith he, which are commanded to keep the Sabbath, are servants that are circumcised, or baptized, etc. But servants not circumcised nor baptised, but only such as have received the seven Commandments given to the sons of Noah, they are as sojourning strangers, and may do work 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.Sect.14. So that it seems, that sojourners and servants, in the land of Jewry, however they were bound to observe the seven commandments given to the sons of Noah, were not obliged to keep the Sabbath: unless they had been circumcised, or otherwise initiated in the Jewish Church, by some kind of washing, as probably were women Proselytes. Which proves sufficiently that the sons of Noah were not bound to observe the Sabbath. If then we find no Sabbath amongst the sons of Noah, whereof some of them were the sons of their Father’s piety, there is no thought of meeting with it in their children, or their children’s 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 Tower unto the top whereof the waters should in no wise reach. A work of a most vast extent, if we may credit those reports that are made thereof; and followed by the people, as Josephus 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 work to be: Those that durst bid defiance to the heaven of God, were never like to keep 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 one; and after to disperse them over all the earth. By means of which dispersion, they could not possibly have kept one and the same day for a Sabbath, had it been commanded: the days 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 proof and ground whereof, I will make bold to borrow from my late learned friend Nath. 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 I 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 man’s understanding, out of these two principles: First, that the earth is spherical: and secondly, that the Sun doth compass it about in twenty-four hours.

From hence it comes to pass, that places situate Eastward see the Sun sooner than those do that are placed Westward. And that with such a different proportion of time, that unto every hour of the Sun’s motion, there is assigned a certain number of miles upon the Earth: every fifteen degrees, which is the distance of the Meridians, being computed to make one hour; and every fifteen miles upon the earth, correspondent to one minute of that hour. By this we may perceive how soon the noon-tide happeneth 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 apparent that it will enjoy the noon-tide no less than three hours before the other: and consequently in 10,800 miles, which is half the compass of the earth, there will be found no less than twelve hours difference in the rising and setting of the Sun, 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 hour, Cosmographers have allotted degrees in the Sun’s diurnal motion: so that 15 degrees being multiplied by twenty-four hours, which is the natural day, the product will be 360, which is the number of degrees in the whole circle. Now in these times, wherein the sons of Noah dispersed themselves, in case the Sabbath was to have been kept as simply moral, it must needs follow that the moral 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 changing longitudes, with their habitations: they must of mere necessity alter the difference of times and days, and so could keep 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 Author of the Practice of Piety, though he plead hard for the “morality of the Sabbath, cannot but confess that in respect of the diversity of the Meridians, and the unequal rising and setting of the Sun, every day varieth in some places a quarter, in some half, in others an whole day: therefore the Jewish Sabbath cannot (saith he) be precisely kept in the same instant of time, everywhere in the World.” Certainly if it cannot now, then it never could: & then it will be found that some at least of Noah’s posterity, and all that have from them descended, 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 itself without relation to the frailty, ne dum to the iniquity of poor 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 plain, It is a Corollary or conclusion in Geography, that if two men do undertake a journey from the self-same place, round about the earth: the one Eastward, the other Westward, and meet in the same place again: it will appear that he which hath gone East, hath gotten: and that the other going Westward, hath lost a day, in their account. The reason is, because he that from any place assigned doth travel Eastward, moving continually against the proper motion of the Sun, will shorten somewhat of his day: taking so much from it, as his journey in proportion of the distance from the place assigned, hath first opposed, and so anticipated in that time, the diurnal motion of the Sun. So daily gaining something from the length of the day; it will amount in the whole circuit of the Earth, to twenty- four hours, which are a perfect natural day. The other going Westward, and seconding the course of the Sun by his own journey, will by the same reason add as much proportionably, unto his day, as the other lost, and in the end will lose a day in his account. For demonstration of the which, suppose of these two Travelers, that the former for every fifteen miles, should take away one minute from the length of the day: and the latter add as much unto it, in the like proportion of his journey. Now by the Golden Rule, if every fifteen miles subtract or add one minute in the length of the day, then must 21,600 miles, which is the compass of the Earth, add or subtract 1440 minutes, which make up twenty-four hours, a just natural day. To bring this matter home unto the business now in hand, suppose we that a Turk, a Jew, and a Christian should dwell together at Jerusalem, whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday; the other, on the Saturday; and the third sanctifieth the Sunday: then, that upon the Saturday, the Turk begin his journey Westward, and the Christian, Eastward; so as both of them compassing the World, do meet again in the same place; the Jew continuing where they left him. It will fall out, that the Turk 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 Turk; a Saturday, unto the Jew; and a Sunday to the Christian; in case they calculate the time exactly, from their departure to their return. To prove this further yet, by a matter of fact. The Hollanders in their Discovery of Fretum le Maire, Anno 1615, found by comparing their account at their coming home, that they had clearly lost a day (for they had traveled Westward in that tedious Voyage); that which was Monday to the one, being the Sunday to the other. And now what should these people do when they were returned? If they are bound by nature, and the moral law, to sanctify precisely one day in seven; they must then sanctify a day apart from their other Countrymen; and like a crew of Schismaticks, divide themselves from the whole body of the Church: or to keep order, and comply with other men, must of necessity be forced to go against the law of nature, or the moral law; which ought not to be violated by any respect whatever. But to return unto Noah’s sons, whom this case concerns; it might, for ought we know, be theirs, in this dispersion, in this removing up and down, and from place to place. What shall we think of those that planted Northwards, or as much extremely Southwards; whose issue now, are to be found, as in part is known, near 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 we do, for one day in seven. For near the Polar Circles, as is plainly known, the days are twenty-four hours in length. Between the Circle and the Pole, the day, if so it may be called, increaseth first by weeks, and at last by months; till in the end, there is six months perpetual day, and as long a night. No room 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 sacerdes; a type and figure of our Savior; whose Priesthood still continueth in the holy Gospel.

With him the rather, because it is most generally conceived that he was Sem the son of Noah. Of him it is affirmed by Justin Martyr, that he was neither circumcised, nor yet kept the Sabbath, and yet most acceptable unto God, *. Tertullian also tells us of him, Incircumcisum nec sabbatizantem ad sacerdotium Dei allectum esse; that he was called unto the Priesthood, not being circumcised, nor an observer of the Sabbath: and puts him also in his challenge, as one whom none amongst the Jews could ever prove to have kept the Sabbath. Eusebius yet more fully than either of them: “Moses, saith he, brings in Melchisedech Priest of the most high God, neither being circumcised, nor anointed with the holy Oil, as was afterwards commanded in the Law; *, *, no not so much as knowing that there was a Sabbath; and ignorant altogether of those ordinances, which were imposed upon the Jews, and living most agreeably unto the Gospel.”

Somewhat to that purpose also doth occur, in his seventh de praeparatione.

Melchisedech, whosoever he was, gave meeting unto Abraham, about the year of the World, 2118: and if we may suppose him to be Sem, as I think we may, he lived till Isaac was fifty years of age, which was long after this famous interview. 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 Epiphanius for one of those who lived according to the faith of the Christian Church; wherein no Sabbath was observed in that Father’s 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, we may keep ourselves within his Family.

Him, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus both in the places formerly remembered, make to be one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath, were acceptable to the Lord, and by him justified. And to Tertullian, that sine legis observatione, de Sodomorum incendio liberatus est: that without keeping of the Law (Sabbaths and circumcision and the like), he was delivered from the fire of Sodom. Therefore not Lot, nor Heber, nor Melchisedech, ever kept the Sabbath. (5) For Abraham next, the Father of the Faithful, with whom the Covenant was made, and Circumcision, as a seal, annexed unto it: The Scripture is exceeding copious in setting down his life and actions, as also of the lives and actions of his Son, and Nephews, their flittings and removes, their sacrifices, forms of Prayer, and whatsoever else was signal in the whole course of their affairs: but yet no mention of the Sabbath. Though such a memorable thing as sanctifying of a constant day unto the Lord, might probably have been omitted in the former Patriarchs, of whom there is but little left, save their names and ages; as if they had been only brought into the story, to make way for him: yet it is strange that in a punctual 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 think 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 righteousness and holiness serving the Lord his God, all the days of his life: and so did Isaac and Jacob. Sanctificae diem sabbati, saith the Prophet Jeremiah to the Jews, i.e. ut omne tempus vitae nostre in sanctificatione ducamus, sicut fecerus patres nostri, Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob, as Saint Hierome glosseth it. Our venerable Bede also hath affirmed as much, that Abraham kept indeed the spiritual sabbath, quo semper a servili, i.e. noxia vacabat actione, whereby he always rested from the servile work of sin: but that he kept or sanctified any other Sabbath, the Christian Fathers deny unanimously. Justin the Martyr numbering up the most of those before remembered, concludes; that they *, were justified without the Sabbath: *. & so, saith he, was Abraham after them, & all his children until Moses. And whereas Trypho had exacted a necessary keeping of the Law, Sabbaths, New-moons, & Circumcision: the Martyr makes reply, “that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and all the other Patriarchs both before and after them, until Moses’ time; yea, and their wives, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Lea, and all the rest of religious women unto Moses’ mother, * neither kept any of them all, nor had commandment so to do, till Circumcision was enjoined to Abraham & his posterity. So Irenaeus, that Abraham, sine Circumcisione & observatione Sabbatorum credidit Deo, etc. without or Circumcision, or the Sabbath did believe in God, which was imputed to him for righteousness. And where the Jews objected in defense of their ancient Ceremonies, that Abraham had been circumcised:

Tertullian makes reply, sed ante placuit Deo quam circumcideretur, nec tamen sabbatizavit; that he was acceptable unto God, before his being circumcised; and yet he never kept the Sabbath. See more unto this purpose, in Eusebius de Demonstr.l.I c.6; de praeparat.l.7.c.8; (where Isaac and Jacob are remembered too:) as also Epiphanius adv.haeres.l. I.n.5. In all which passages of the Fathers we may still observe how evenly Circumcision and the Sabbath do keep pace together; both Ceremonies, both to end at our Savior’s passion, both of them special marks and cognizances to discern the Christian from the Jew. (6) Thus far the ancient Christian Writers have declared of Abraham, that he kept no Sabbath: and this in conference with the Jew, and in Books against them. Which doubtless they had never done, had there been any possibility for the Jews to have proved the contrary. Some of the Jews 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 proof thereof they ground themselves on that of Genesis, because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my Commandments, my statutes and my laws. The Jews 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 think the one, as he did the other. Who those Jew were that said it, of what name and quality, that they have not told us: and it were too much forwardness, to credit any nameless Jew, before so many Christian Fathers. Tostatus though he do relate their dicunt, yet believes them not: And herein we will rather follow him than Mercer; who seems a little to incline to that Jewish fancy. The rather since some Jews of name and quality have gone the same way that the Fathers did, before remembered. For Petrus Galatinus tells us how it is written in Beresith Ketanna, or the lesser exposition upon Genesis, a Book of public use and great authority among them, that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath. And this he tells us on the credit of Rabbi Johannan, who saith expressly that there, upon these words, God blessed the seventh day; it is set down positively, Non scripta est de Abrahamo, observatio Sabbati; that there is no such thing recorded of our Father Abraham, as that he ever kept the Sabbath. And where it is objected for the Jew, 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 natura, 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 suspicion, we will take the exposition of Saint Chrystostome, who very fully hath explained it. “Because he hath obeyed my voice, etc.] Right, saith the Father, God said unto him, Get theee out from thy Father’s house, and from thy kindred, and go into the land that I shall show thee: and Abraham went out, *, and left a fair possession for an expectation: and this not wavering, but with all alacrity and readiness. Then followeth his expectation of a son in his old age (when nature was decayed in him), as the Lord had promised; his casting out of Ishmael, as the Lord commanded, his readiness 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 he never kept the Sabbath. Indeed the Sabbath could not have relation to those words in Genesis because it was not then commanded. (7) Next look on Jacob, the heir as well of Abraham’s travels, as of his Faith. Take him as Laban’s shepherd, and the Text informs us of the pains he took. In the day time the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and the sleep departed from mine eyes. No time of rest, much more, no seventh part of his time allotted unto rest from his daily labors. And in his flight from Laban, it seems he stood not on the Sabbath. For though he fled thence with his wives and children, and with all his substance; and that he went but easily, according as the cattle and the children were able to endure: yet he went forwards still without any resting. Otherwise Laban, who heard of his departure on the third day, & pursued after him amain; must needs have overtaken him before the seventh. Now for the rest of Jacob’s time, when he was settled in the Land appointed for him, and afterwards removed to Egypt; we must refer you unto Justin Martyr and Eusebius: whereof one saith expressly, *, that he kept not any of the things before remembered, the Sabbath being one as before was showed; the other makes him one of those which lived without the Law of Moses, whereof the Sabbath was a part. Having brought Jacob into Egypt, we should proceed to Joseph, Moses, & the rest of his offspring there: but we will first take Job along, as one of the posterity of Abraham; that after we may have the better leisure, to wait upon the Israelites in that house of bondage. I say as one of the posterity of Abraham, the fifth from Abraham, so Eusebius tells us; who saith, moreover, “that he kept no Sabbath. What (saith he) shall we say of Job, that just, that pious, that most blameless man? What was the rule whereby he squared his life, & governed his devotions? Was any part of Moses’ Law? Not so, *; Was any keeping of the Sabbath, or observation of any other Jewish order? How could that be, saith he, considering that he was ancienter than Moses, and lived before his Law was published? For Moses was the seventh from Abraham, and Job the fifth.” So far Eusebius. And Justin Martyr also joins him with Abraham and his Family, as men that took not heed of New Moons, or Sabbaths, whereof see before, n.5. I find indeed in Doctor Bound, that Theodore Beza on his own authority hath made Job very punctual, in sanctifying septimum saltem quemque diem, every seventh day at least, as God, saith he, from the beginning hath appointed. But I hold Beza no fit match for Justin and Eusebius, nor to be credited in this kind when they say the contrary, considering in what times they lived, and with whom they dealt. (8) And now we come at last unto the Israelites in Egypt; from Joseph, who first brought them thither, to Moses who conducted them in their flight from thence; and so unto the body of the whole Nation. For Joseph, first, Eusebius first tells us in the general, 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 Patriarchs: particular instances whereof, he makes Melchisedech, and Noah, and Enoch, and Abraham, till the time of Circumcision. And then it follows, *, That Joseph in the Court of AEgypt long time before the Law of Moses, lived answerably to those ancient patterns, and not according to the Jews.

Nay, he affirms the same of Moses, *, the very Law-giver himself, the Chieftain of the tribes of Israel. As for the residue of the people, we can expect no more of them, that lived in bondage under severe and cruel Masters: who called upon them day by day to fulfill their tasks; and did expostulate with them in an heavy manner in case they wanted of their Tale. The Jews themselves can best resolve us in this point. And amongst them Philo doth thus describe their troubles. *, etc. “The Taskmasters or Overseers of the works, were the most cruel and unmerciful men in all the Country, who laid upon them greater tasks than they were able to endure: inflicting on them no less punishment than death itself, if any of them, yea, though by reason of infirmity, should withdraw himself from his daily labor.

Some were commanded to employ themselves in the public structures; others in bringing in materials, for such mighty buildings; *, never enjoying any rest either night or day, that in the end they were even spent and tired with continual travail. Josephus goes a little further and tells us this, that the AEgyptians did not only tire the Israelites with continual labor; *, but that the Israelites endeavored to perform more than was expected.”

Assuredly, in such a woeful state as this, they had not leave, nor leisure, to observe the Sabbath. And lastly, Rabbi Maimony makes matter yet more absolute, who saith it for a truth, that when they were in AEgypt, neque quiescere, vel Sabbatum agere potuerunt, they neither could have time to rest, nor to keep the Sabbath, seeing they were not then at their own disposing. So he ad Deuter. 5.15. (9) Indeed it easily may be believed, that the people kept no Sabbath in the Land of AEgypt; seeing they could not be permitted in all that time of their abode there, to offer sacrifice; which was the easier duty of the two, and would less have took them from their labors. Those that accused the Israelites to have been wanton, lazy, and I know not what, because they did desire to spend one only day in religious Exercises: what would they not have done, had they desisted every seventh day from the works imposed upon them? Doubtless, they had been 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, they made a suit to Pharoah, that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness, to offer sacrifice there to the Lord their God. Rather than so, Pharaoh was willing to permit them for that once, to sacrifice unto the Lord in the land of AEgypt: and what said Moses thereunto? It is not meet (saith he) so to do.

For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the AEgyptians to the Lord our God before their eyes, and they will stone us. His reason was, because the Gods of the AEgyptians were Bulls and Rams, and Sheep and Oxen, as Lyra notes upon that place: Talia vero animalia ab Hebrais erant immolanda, quod non permisissent AEgyptii in terra sua; And certainly the Egyptians would not endure to see their Gods knocked down, before their faces. If any then demand, wherein the Piety and Religion of God’s people did conflict especially: we must needs answer that it was in the integrity and honesty of their conversation; and that they worshiped God only in the spirit and truth. Nothing to make it known that they were God’s people, *, but only that they feared the Lord, and were circumcised; as Epiphanius hath resolved it: nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God, and exercised themselves in justice, and in modesty, in patience and long suffering, both towards one another and amongst the AEgyptians; 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 five and twenty hundred years: no nor commanded to be kept amongst them, in their generations. (10) I say there was none kept, no not none commanded: for had it been commanded, 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 been commended to them from the Lord. The miseries which they after suffered under Antiochus, rather than that they would profane the Sabbath; and those calamities which they chose to fall upon them by the hands of the Romans; rather than make resistance upon that day, when lawfully they might have done it: are proofs sufficient, that neither force, nor fear, could now have wrought upon them not to keep the same, had such a duty been commanded. Questionless, Joseph for his part, that did prefer a loathsome prison before the unchaste embraces of his Master’s Wife, would no less carefully have kept the Sabbath than he did his chastity; had there been any Sabbath then to have been observed, either as dictated by nature, or prescribed by Law. And certainly either the Sabbath was not reckoned all this while, as any part or branch of the Law of nature: or else it finds hard measure in the Book of God that there should be particular proofs, how punctually the rest of the Moral Law was observed and practiced amongst the Patriarchs; and not one word, or Item, which concerns 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 Commandments, and did live accordingly: the Scripture doth sufficiently delcare unto us. First, for the first, I am God all- sufficient, walk before me, and be thou perfect. Genesis 17.1. So said God to Abraham. Then Jacob’s going up from Bethel, Genesis 25.1, to cleanse his house from Idolatry; is proof enough that they were acquainted with the second. The pious care they had not to take the Name of the Lord their God in vain, appears at full in the religious making of their Oaths; Abraham with Abimelech (Genesis 21.27, etc.), and Jacob with Laban. Genesis 31.51. Next for the fifth Commandment what duties children owe their parents, the practice of Isaac (Genesis 24.67.etc.) and Jacob (Genesis 28.42) doth declare abundantly, in being ruled by them in the choice of their Wives, and readily obeying all their directions: as also doth Noah’s curse on his graceless son, for showing no more reverence to his naked Father. Then for the sin of murder, the History of Jacob’s children (Genesis 34.26, 30), and the grieved Father’s curse upon them for the slaughter of the Sichemites; together with God’s precept given to Noah ((Genesis 9.6) against shedding blood; shew us that both it was forbidden, and condemned being done. The continence (Genesis 39.8) of Joseph before remembered; and the punishment threatened to Abimelech (Genesis 20.3) for keeping Sarah, Abraham’s Wife: the quarreling (Genesis 31.30) of Laban for his stolen Idols; and Joseph’s pursuit (Genesis 44.4) for the silver cup, that was supposed to be purloined: are proofs sufficient that adultery and theft were deemed unlawful. And last of all, Abimelech’s reprehension of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 20.9) for bearing false witness in the denial of their wives; shew plainly that they had the knowledge of that Law also. The like may also be affirmed of their not coveting the wives, or goods, or any thing that was their Neighbor’s. For though the history cannot tell us of men’s secret thoughts: yet we may judge of good men’s thoughts by their outward actions. Had Joseph coveted his Master’s wife, he might have enjoyed her. And Job, more home unto the point, affirms expressly of himself, That his heart was never 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 commandments had been observed and practiced 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 spe- cial ordinance of God.

CHAPTER - THE NATURE OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT: AND THAT THE SABBATHWAS NOT KEPT AMONG THE GENTILES. (1) The Sabbath first made knowne in the fall of Mannah. (2) The giving of the Decalogue, and how farre it bindeth. (3) That in the Judgement of the Fathers of the Christian Church, the fourth Commandment 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 only to the Jewes. (6) What moved the Lord, to give the Israelites a Sabbath. (7) Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath, than any other. (8) The seventh day not more honored 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 Jewes derided for their Sabbath, by the Graecians, Romans, and AEgyptians. (11) The division of the yeare into weeks, not generally used of old, amongst the Gentiles. (1) THUS have we shown you, how God’s Church continued without any Sabbath, the space of 2500 years and upwards, even till the children of Israel came out of AEgypt. And if the Saints of God in the line of Seth, and the house of Abraham, assigned not every seventh day for God’s public worship; it is not to be thought that the posterity of Cain, and the sons of Canaan, were observant of it. To proceed therefore in the History of the Lord’s own 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 too, who withal gives it for the reason, why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than any other. “Populus die septima liberatus fuit ex AEgypto; & tunc jussit in hujus rei memoriam diem illam sanctificare.” The people, as he tells us, were on the seventh day delivered out of Egypt: and thereupon it was commanded that the seventh day should be observed in memorial of it.” Which were it so, yet could not that day be a Sabbath, or a day of rest; considering the sudden and tumultuous manner of their going thence: their sons, and daughters, maid- servants, and men-servants, the cattle and the strangers within their gates being all put hardly to it, and fain to fly away for their life and safety. And if Saint Austin’s note be true, and the note be his, that on the first day of the week, transgressi sunt filii Israel, Marerubrum, 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. They cried unto the Lord, and they said to Moses, why hast thou brought us out of Egypt to die in the Wilderness? Had it not been better far for us to serve the Egyptians? Nothing in all their murmurings and seditious clamors that may denote it for a Sabbath, for an holy Festival.

Nor do we find that for the after times, they made any scruple of journeying on that day, till the Law was given them in Mount Sinai: which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt. It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon that the Sabbath was first given in Marah; and that the sacrifice of the red Cow, mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers, was instituted at that time also. This fancy founded on those words in the Book of Exodus, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, etc. then will I bring none of those diseases upon thee, that I brought on the Egyptians. But Torniellus and Tostatus, and Lyra, although himself a Jew, count it no other than a Jewish and Rabbinical folly. Sure I am, that on the fifteenth day of the second month, after their departure out of Egypt; being that day seven-night before the first Sabbath was discovered in the fall of Mannah: we find not any thing that implies either rest or worship. We read indeed how all the Congregation murmured, as they did before, against Moses and against Aaron; wishing that they had died in the land of Egypt, where they had bread their bellies full, rather than be destroyed with Famine. So eagerly they murmured, that to content them God sent them Quailes that night; and rained down bread from Heaven, next morning. Was this, think you, the sanctifying of a Sabbath to the Lord their God? Indeed the next seventh- day that followed, was by the Lord commanded to them for a Sabbath; and ratified by a great and signal miracle the day before: wherein it pleased him, to give them double what they used to gather on the former days, that they might rest upon the seventh, with greater comfort. This was a preamble or preparative to the following Sabbath: for by this miracle, this rest of God from raining Mannah on the seventh day, the people came to know, which was precisely the seventh day from the World’s Creation: whereof they were quite ignorant, at that present time. Philo assures in his third Book de vita Mosis, that the knowledge of that day on which God rested from his works had been quite forgotten, *, by reason of those many miseries which had befallen the World by fire and water: and so continued, till by this miracle, the Lord revived again the remembrance of it. “And in another place, when men had made, saith he, a long enquiry after the birth day of the World, and were yet to seek; *, etc. God made it known to them by a special miracle, which had so long been hidden from their Ancestors.” The falling of a double portion of Mannah on the sixth day, and the not putrifying of it on the seventh; was the first light which 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 we have such an ample testimony from the Word itself? For it is manifest in the story, that when the people, on the sixth day, had gathered twice as much Mannah, as they used to do; according as the Lord had directed by his servant Moses: they understood not what they did, at least why they did it. The Rulers of the Congregation, as the Text informs us, came and told Moses of it: and he, as God before had taught him, acquainted them that on the morrow should be the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; and that they were to keep the over-plus until the morning.

Nay, so far were the people from knowing any thing of the Sabbath, or of God’s rest upon that day; that though the prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbath’s rest, the people gave final credit to him. For it is said, that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day (which was the seventh day after, or the second Sabbath, as some think), notwithstanding all that had been spoken, and that the Mannah stank not, as on other days. So that this resting of the people was the first sanctifying of the Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures; and God’s great care to make provision for them on the day before, the blessing he bestowed upon it.

And this is that which Solomon Iarchi tells us, as before we noted, Benedixit ei] i.e. in Mannah, quia omnibus diebus septimanae descendit Omer pro singulis, & sexto panis duplex: & sanctificavit eum] i.e. in Mannah, quia non descendit omnino. Nay, generally the Hebrew Doctors do affirm the same: assuring us that the commandment of the Sabbath is foundation and ground of all the rest, as being given before them all, at the fall of Mannah. Unde dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fundamentum esse aliorum praeceptorum, quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit, quando Mannah acceperunt. So Hospinian tells us. Therefore the Sabbath was not given before, in their own confession. This happened on the two and twentieth day of the second month after their coming out of AEgypt; and of the World’s Creation, Anno 2044; the people being then in the Wilderness of Sin, which was their seventh station. (2) The seventh day after, being the nine and twentieth of the second month, is thought by some, and those of very good esteem, to be that day whereon some of the people, distrusting all that Moses said, went out to gather Mannah, as on other days: but whether they were then in the Wilderness of Sin, or were encamped in Dopthkath, 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 business there performed; the fight with Amalek, and the new ordering of the Government by Jethro’s counsel; and that upon the third day of the third month, which was Thursday following, they were advanced as far as the Wilderness of Sinai. I say the third day of the third month; For where the Text hath it, In the third month when the children of Israel were gone forth out of AEgypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai: by the same day is meant the same day of the month, which was the third day, being Thursday, after our Account. The morrow after went Moses up unto the Lord, and had commandment from him to sanctify the people that day, and tomorrow, and to make them ready against the third day: God meaning on that day, to come down in the eyes of all the people on Mount Sinai, and to make known his will unto them. That day being come, which was the Saturday or Sabbath, the people were brought out of the Camp to meet with God, and placed by Moses at the nether part of the Mountain: Moses ascending first to God, and descending after to the people; to charge them that they did not pass their bounds, before appointed. It seems the Sabbath’s rest was not so established, but that the people had been likely to take the pains to climb the Mountain, and to behold the wonders which were done upon it: had they not had a special charge unto the contrary.

Which their averseness at the first, when they went out to gather Mannah; and their forgetfulness at the present, though so shortly after, was doubtless the occasion of that watch-word, or memento prefixed before the fourth Commandment. But to proceed. Things ordered thus, it pleased the Lord to publish and proclaim his Law unto the people in thunder, smoke, and lightnings, and the noise of a Trumpet; using therein the Ministry of his holy Angels: which Law we call the Decalogue, or the ten Commandments, and contains in it the whole Moral Law, or the Law of Nature. This had before been naturally imprinted in the minds of men; however that in tract of time, the character thereof had been much defaced; so dimmed and darkened, that God’s own people stood in need of a new impression: and therefore was proclaimed in this solemn manner, that so the letter of the Law might leave the clearer stamp in their affections. A Law which in itself was general and univeral, equally appertaining both to Jew and Gentile; the Gentiles which 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 by the hand of Moses, they obliged only those of the house of Israel. Zanchius hath so resolved it amongst the Protestants, (not to say any thing of the Schoolmen, who affirm the same:) ut Politicae & Ceremoniales, sic etiam morales leges quae Decalogi nomine significantur, quatenus per Mosen traditae fuerunt Israelitis, ad nos Christianos nihil pertinent, etc. “As neither the Judicial nor the Ceremonial, so nor the Moral Law contained in the Decalogue, doth any way concern us Christians, as given by Moses to the Jews: but only so far forth, as it is consonant to the Law of Nature, which binds 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 Jews did concern the Gentiles; the Gentiles had been bound by the fourth Commandment, to observe the Sabbath, in as strict a manner as the Jews. Cum vero constet ad hujus diei sanctificationem numquam fuisse Gentes obligatas, etc. “Since therefore 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 Jews.” We may conclude from hence, that had the fourth Commandment been merely moral, it had no less concerned the Gentiles, than it did the Israelites. (3) For that the fourth Commandment is not of the same condition with the rest, is no new invention. The Fathers jointly so resolve it. It’s true that Irenaeus tells us, “how God, the better to prepare us to eternal life, Decalogi verba per semetipsum omnibus similiter locutum est, did by himself proclaim the Decalogue to all people equally: which therefore is to be in full force amongst us, as having rather been enlarged than dissolved by our Savior’s coming in the flesh.” Which words of Irenaeus, if considered rightly, must be referred to that part of the fourth Commandment which indeed is Moral, or else the fourth Commandment must not be reckoned as a part or member of the Decalogue: because it did receive no such enlargement, as did the rest of the Commandments, by our Savior’s preaching (whereof see Matth.5.6 and 7 Chapters); but a dissolution rather by his practice. Justin the Martyr more expressly, in his dispute with Trypho a learned Jew, maintains the Sabbath to be only a Mosaical Ordinance; as we shall see anon more fully; & that it was imposed on the Israelites, *, because of their hardheartedness, and irregularly. Tertullian also in his Treatise against the Jews, saith that it was not spiritale & aeternum mandatum; sed temporale, quod quandoque cessaret, not a spiritual and eternal institution, but a temporal only. The like saith Chrystostome, that this Commandment is not any of those, *, which naturally were implanted in us, or made known unto our conscience: *, but that it was temporary and occasional, and such as was to have an end; where all the rest were necessary and perpetual. Saint Austin yet more fully, that it is no part of the Moral Law. For he divides the Law of Moses into these two parts, Sacraments, and moral duties: accounting Circumcision, the New Moons, Sabbaths,and the Sacrifices, to appertain unto the first: ad mores autem, non occides, etc. and these Commandments, Thou shalt not kill, nor commit adultery nor bear false witness, and the rest, to be contained within the second. Nay more, he tells us that Moses did receive a Law to be delivered to the people, writ in two Tables made of stone by the Lord’s own finger: wherein was nothing to be found either of Circumcision, or the Jewish Sacrifices. And then he adds, In illis igitur decem praeceptio, excepta Sabbati observatione, dicatur mihi quid non sit observandam a 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 we may refer all those several places, wherein he calls the fourth Commandment, praeceptum figuratum, & in umbra positum, a Sacrament, a shadow, and a figure: as Tract. the third in Joh.I. and Tract 17. and 20. in Joh.5. ad Bonifac.l3.T.7. contra Faust. Manich.l.9,c.I8. the I4 Chapter of the Book de spiritu & lit. before remembered: 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 Commandments this only was delivered as a sign or figure. See also what is said before out of Theodoret, and Sedulius,Chap.I.n.5. Hesychius goes yet further, and will not have the fourth Commandment to be any of the ten; Etsi decem mandatis insertum sit, non tamen ex iis esse; and howsoever it is placed amongst them, yet it is not of them. And therefore to make up the number, divides the first Commandment into two, as those of Rome have done the last, to exclude the second. But here Hesychius was deceived, in taking this Commandment to be only ceremonial, whereas it is indeed of a mixt or middle nature: for so the Schoolmen, and other learned Authors in these later times, grounding themselves upon the Fathers, have resolved it generally. Nor is it any prejudice unto the Decalogue that any thing therein should be ceremonial: God haply thinking fit, (as one rightly noteth) to dispose it so, that he might intimate the perpetual necessity of having some Ceremonies in the Church. So then, the fourth Commandment is moral as unto the duty, that there must be a time appointed for the service of God: and Ceremonial as unto the Day, to be one of seven, and to continue that whole day, and to surcease that day from all kind of work. As moral, placed amongst the ten Commandments, extending unto all mankind, and written naturally in our hearts by the hand of nature: as ceremonial, appertaining to the Law Levitical, peculiar only to the Jews, and to be reckoned with the rest of Moses’ institutes. Aquinas thus, 2.2aqu.122.art.4.resp.ad primum.

Tostatus thus in Exod.20.qu.II. So Petr. Galatinus also, lib.II,cap.9. and Bonaventure in his Sermon on the fourth Commandment; and so divers others: besides what shall be said hereafter of the Protestant Doctors. (4) I say, the fourth Commandment, so far as it is ceremonial, in limiting the Sabbath day to be one of seven, and to continue all that day, and thereon to surcease from all kind of labor: 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 only to the Jews. For proof of this, we have the Fathers very copious. And first that it was one of Moses’ institutes, Justin the Martyr saith expressly. *, etc. “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 Circumcision until Abraham’s time, *, nor of the Sabbath until Moses: by the same reason, there is as little use now of them, as had been before.” So doth Eusebius tell us, *, etc. “that Moses was the first Law-giver, amongst the Jews, who did appoint them to observe a certain Sabbath, in memory of God’s rest from the World’s 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, we have the institution of the Passover, the sweetening of the bitter waters of Marah, the sending down of Quails and Mannah, the waters issuing from the rocks *, what time the Sabbath took beginning, and the Law was published by Moses on Mount Sinai. Macarius, a Contemporary of Athanasius doth affirm as much, 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 works of labor. 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 Wilderness. Haec praecepta, & justificationes, & observantiam Sabbati, Dominus dedit in deserto: which is as much as if he had expressly 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 labors; which day he blessed and sanctified, *, and by his Angel made known the same to his servant Moses. See more unto this purpose advers.haeres.l.I.her.6.n.5. And lastly, Damascen hath assured us, that when there was no Law nor Scripture, that then there was no Sabbath neither: but when the Law was given by Moses, *, then was the Sabbath set apart for God’s public worship. Add here, that Tacitus, and Justin both, refer the institution of the Sabbath unto Moses only: of which more hereafter. (5) Next that the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews, or those, at least that were of the house of Israel; the Fathers do affirm more fully than they did the other. For so Saint Basil, *, the Sabbath was given unto the Jew, in his first Homily of Fasting. Saint Austin so, that it was given unto the former people; and namely to the Jews, or Hebrews, as he elsewhere calleth them: and given to them, not only for their bodily rest, but for a type or figure of the rest to come. Or as his own words are, Sabbatum datum est priori populo in otio corporali, Epistola 119. & Sabbatum Judaeis fuisse praeceptum in umbra futuri, de Genesis ad lit.l.4.c.II. and in the 13. of the same Book, unum diem observandum mandavit populo Hebraeo: the like to which occurs Epist.86.ad Casulanum, the Jews, the Hebrews, and the former people; all these three are one: and all do serve to show, that Saint Austin thought the Sabbath to be peculiar unto them only.

That it was given unto the Jews, exclusively of all other Nations, is the opinion and conceit also of the Jews themselves. This Petrus Galatinus proves against them, on the authority of their best Authors. Sic enim legitur apud eos in Glossa, etc. We read, saith he, in their Gloss on these words of Exodus, The Lord hath given you the Sabbath: what mean, say they, these words, he hath given it you? Quia vobis, viz. Judaeis dedit, & non gentibus saeculi: Because it was given unto the Jews, and not unto the Gentiles. It is affirmed also, saith he, by R. Johannan, that whatsoever statute God gave to Israel, he gave it to them in secret: according unto that of Exodus. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel. Quod si ita est, non obligantur gentes ad sabbatum. If so saith Galatinus, the Gentiles were not bound to observe the Sabbath. A sign between me and the children of Israel. It seems the Jews were all of the same opinion. For where they used on other days to wear their Phylacteries on their arms or foreheads, to be a sign or token to them as the Lord commanded; they layed them by upon the Sabbaths: because, say they, the Sabbath was itself a sign. So truly said Procopius Gazaus, Ita Judaeis imperavit supremum numen, ut segregarent a caeteris diebus diem septimum, etc. “God, saith he, did command the Jews 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 Jews alone.” Add, that Josephus calls the Sabbath in many places a national or local custom, *, a law peculiar to that people; as Antiqu.lib.14.cap.18. & de Bello,lib.2.cap.16 as we shall see hereafter more at large. Lastly, so given to the Jews alone that it became a difference between them and all other people. Saint Cyril hath resolved it so. “God, saith he, gave the Jews a Sabbath, not that the keeping of the same should be sufficient to conduct them to eternal life: Sed ut haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris, a gentium institutis distinguat eos; but that so different a form of civil government should put a difference between them, and all Nations else.

Theodoret more fully, that the Jews being in other things like to other people, In observatione Sabbati, propriam videbantur obtinere rempublicam; seemed in keeping of the Sabbath to have a custom by themselves. “And which is more, saith he, their Sabbath put a greater difference between the Jews and other people, than their Circumcision: for Circumcision had been used by the Idumaeans, and AEgyptians: sabbati vero observationem sola Judaeorum natio custodiebat, But the observation of the Sabbath, was peculiar only to the Jews.” Nay, even the very Gentiles took it for a Jewish Ceremony, sufficient proof whereof we shall see ere long. But what need more to be said in this, either that this was one of the Laws of Moses, or that it was peculiar to the Jews alone, seeing the same is testified by the holy Scripture? Thou camest down upon mount Sinai, saith Nehemiah, and spakest with them [the house of Israel] from Heaven: and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments, what more? It followeth, And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbaths, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of thy servant Moses. Add here what God himself delivered to his servant Moses, where he informed him that he had made the Sabbath to be a sign between him and the people of Israel; Exodus 31.16. (6) Now on what motives God was pleased to prescribe a Sabbath to the Jews, more at this time than any of the former ages; the Fathers severally have told us: yea and the Scriptures too in several places. Justin Martyr, as before we noted, gives this general reason, because of their hardheartedness and irregular courses; wherein Saint Austin closeth with him.

Cessarunt onera legis quae ad duritiem cordis Judaici fuerunt data, in escis, Sabbatis, & neomeniis: where note how he hath joined together, newmoons, and Sabbaths, and the Jewish difference between meat and meat.

Particularly, Gregory Nyssen makes the special motive to be this, Ad sedandum nimium eorum pecuniae studium, “so to restrain the people from the love of money. For coming out of AEgypt very poor and bare, and having almost nothing but what they borrowed of the AEgyptians; they gave themselves, saith he, unto continual and incessant labor, the sooner to attain to riches. Therefore said God, that they should labor six days, and rest the seventh.” Damascen somewhat to this purpose, *, etc. “God, saith he, seeing the carnal and the covetous disposition of the Israelites, appointed them to keep a Sabbath, that so their servants and their cattle might partake of rest. And then he adds, *, etc. as also, that thus resting from their worldly businesses, they might repair unto the Lord in Psalms, and Hymns, and spiritual songs, and meditation of the Scriptures.”

Rupertus harps on the same string that the others did, save that he thinks the Sabbath given for no other cause, than that the laboring man being wearied with his weekly toil, might have some time to refresh his spirits.

Sabbatum nihil aliud est nisi requies, vel quam ob causam data est, nisi ut operarius fessus caeteris septimanae diebus, uno die requiesceret?

Gaudentius Brixianus in his twelfth Homily or Sermon, is of the same mind also, that the others were. These seem to ground themselves on the fifth of Deuteronomy, where God commands his people to observe his Sabbaths, that thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And then it followeth, Remember that thou wast a servant in the Land of AEgypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, though with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. The force of which illation is no more than this, that as God brought them out of AEgypt wherein they were servants, and let them rest upon the Sabbath: considering that they themselves would willingly have kept some time of rest, had they been permitted. A second motive might be this, to make them always mindful of that spiritual rest which they were to keep from the acts of sin; and that eternal rest that they did expect from all toil and misery. In reference to this eternal rest, Saint Augustine tells us that the Sabbath was commanded to the Jews, in umbra futuri, quae spiritalem requiem figuraret; As a shadow of the things to come, in Saint Paul’s language, which God doth promise unto those that do the works of righteousness. And in relation to the other, the Lord himself hath told us, that he had given his Sabbath unto the Jews, to be a sign between him and them, that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them. Exod.31.13; which is again repeated by Ezekiel ad 20.12. That they may know that I am the Lord which sanctifieth them.

For God, as Gregory Nyssen notes it, seems only to propose this unto himself, that by all means he might at least destroy in man his inbred corruption. *. This was his aim in Circumcision, and in the Sabbath, and in forbidding them some kind of meats: *, for by the Sabbath he informed them of a rest from sin.” To cite more Fathers to this purpose were a thing unnecessary; and indeed sensibilie super sensum. This yet confirms us further, that the Sabbath was intended for the Jews alone. For had God given the Sabbath to all other people, as he did to them, it must have also been a sign that the Lord had sanctified all people as he did the Jews. (7) There is another motive yet to be considered, and that concerns as well the day as the institution. God might have given the Jews a Sabbath, and yet not tied the Sabbath to one day of seven, or to the seventh precisely from the World’s Creation. Constitui pouisset, quod in die sabbati coleretur Deus, aut in die Martis, aut in altera die. “God, saith Tostatus, 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 week, and no more than so? No, he might have appointed it, Aut bis, aut semel tantum in anno, aut in mense, once or twice a year, or every month, as he had listed.

And might not God as well exceed this number, as fall short thereof? yes say the Protestant Doctors, that he might have done. “He might have made each third, or fourth, or fifth day a Sabbath; indeed as many as he pleased.

Si volnisset Deus absolute uti dominio suo, potuit plures dies imperare cultui suo impendendos:” so saith Doctor Ryvet, one of the Professors of Leyden, and a great Friend to the antiquity of the Sabbath. What was the principal motive then, why the seventh day was chosen for this purpose, and none but that? *, to keep God always in their minds; so saith Justin Martyr. “But why should that be rather done by a seventh day Sabbath than by any other? Saint Cyrill answers to that point exceeding fully. The Jews, saith he, became infected with the Idolatries of AEgypt, worshipped the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, and the host of Heaven: which seems to be insinuated in the fourth of Deuter.vers.19. Therefore that they might understand the Heavens to be God’s workmanship, eos opificem suum imitari jubet, he willeth them that they imitate their Creator; that resting on the Sabbath day, they might the better understand the reason of the Festival. Which if they did, saith he, in case they rested on that day, whereon God had rested, it was a plain confession that all things were made by him; and consequently that there were no other Gods besides him.” Et haec una ratio sabbato indicta quietis; And this, saith he, is the only reason of the Sabbath’s rest. Indeed the one and only reason that is mentioned in the body of the Commandment, which reflects only on God’s rest from all his work which he had made: and leaves that as the absolute and sole occasion, why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than the sixth or eighth, or any other. Which being so, it is the more to be admired, that Philo being a learned Jew, or any learned Christian Writer, leaving the cause expressed in the Law itself, should seek some secret reason for it, out of the nature of the day, or of the number. First, Philo tells us that the Jews do call their seventh day by the name of Sabbath, “which signifieth repose and rest. Not because they did rest that day from their weekly labors: *, but because seven is found to be, both in the world and man himself, the most quiet number, most free from trouble, war, and all manner of contention. A strange conceit to take beginning from a Jew: yet that, that follows of Aretius, is as strange as this. Who thinks that the day was therefore consecrated unto rest, even amongst the Gentiles. Quod putarent civilibus actionibus ineptum esse, fortasse proper frigus planetae, contemplationibus vero idoneum: “because they thought that day, by reason of the dullness of the Planet Saturne, more fit for contemplation, than it was for action.” Some had it seems, conceived so in the former times, whom thereupon Tostatus censures in his Comment on the fifth of Deuteronomy. For where it was God’s purpose, as before we noted out of Cyril, to wean 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 Stars and Planets, from which he did intend to wean them. I had almost omitted the conceit of Zanchie, before remembered, who thinks that God made choice of this day the rather; because that on the same day, he had brought his people out of AEgypt. 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 arm he had delivered them from AEgypt; hath thereupon commanded them, That they should keep 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 known, it was peculiar unto Israel only. Non nisi Mosaicae legis temporibus in usu fuisse septimi diei cultum; nec postea nisi penes Hebraeos perdurasse, as Torniellus doth conclude it. I only add, that this assigning of a reason to the fourth, and to none other in the Decalogue, is by Saint Chrysostome made an argument to prove the Sabbath not to be a part of the law of nature, or naturally made known unto our consciences. For, saith the Father, “when God saith, Thou shalt not kill, *, he adds not any reason unto the precept, intimating that murder is an evil act: as taking it for granted, *, that that was naturally known unto us. Whereas enjoining them to keep the Sabbath, he adds a reason to the law, as being of that sort which had not formerly been made known unto them by the light of nature. (8) For that the Gentiles used to keep 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 month indeed they hallowed, and so they did the first, and fourth; as Hesiod tells us. *. Not the first day, and the fourth, and seventh of every week, for then they must have gone beyond the Jews: but as the Scholiast upon Hesiod notes it, of every month: a novilunio exorsus laudat tres, Beginning with the new moon he commends three days, the first, fourth, and seventh. And lest it should be thought that the seventh day is to be counted holier than the other two, because the attribute of * seems joined unto it: the Scholiast takes away that scruple, a novilunio exorsus tres laudat, omnes sacras dicens, septimam etiam ut Apollonis natalem celebrans; and tells us that all three are accounted holy, and that the seventh was also celebrated as Apollo’s birthday. 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 proof hereof, we find in Alexander ab Alexandro, that the first day of every month was consecrated to Apollo; the fourth, to Mercury; the seventh, again unto Apollo; the eighth, to Theseus. The like doth Plutarch say of Neptune, where he affirms that the Athenians offered unto Theseus their greatest sacrifice upon the eighth day of October, because of his arrival that day from Crete: and that they also honored him, * on the eighth day of the other months, because he was derived from Neptune; to whom, on the eighth day of every month, they did offer sacrifice. To make the matter yet more sure, Philo hath put this difference between the Gentiles and the Jews; that diverse Cities of the Gentiles, did solemnize the seventh day, *, once a month, beginning their account with the New-moon: *, but that the Jews did keep every seventh day, constantly. It is true that Philo tells us more than once or twice, how that the Sabbath was become a general Festival: but that was rather taken up, in imitation of the Jews, than practiced out of any instinct or light of nature, as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper. Besides which days before remembered, the second day was consecrate to the bonus Genius; the third, and fifteenth, to Minerva; the ninth, unto the Sun; the last, to Pluto: and every 20th day kept holy by the Epicures. Now as the Greeks did consecrate the New-moons, and seventh- day, to Phoebus; the fourth of every month, to Mercury; and the eighth to Neptune, & sic de caeteris: so every ninth day in the year, was by the Romans anciently kept sacred unto Jupiter; the Flamines or Priests upon that day, offering a Ram unto him for a sacrifice. Nundinas Jovis ferias esse, ait Granius Licinius: siquidem Flaminica omnibus nundinis [every ninth day] in regia, Iovi arietem solere immolare: as in Macrobius.

So that we see the seventh day was no more in honor, than either the first, fourth, or eighth, and not so much as was the ninth: this being, as it were, a weekly Festival, and that a monthly. A thing so clear and evident, that Doctor Bound could tell us, “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 nundinarum instituto apparet, saith Beroaldus. And Satan did altogether take away from the Graecians, the holy memory of the seventh day, by obtruding on them wicked rites of Superstition, which on the eighth day they did keep in honor of Neptune. So that besides other holy days, 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 always from the beginning.” It is true, Diogenes the Grammarian, did hold his disputations constantly upon the Saturday or Sabbath: and when Tiberius at an extraordinary time came to hear his exercises; In diem septimum distulerat, the Pedant put him off, until the Saturday next following. A right Diogenes indeed, & as rightly served. For coming to attend upon Tiberius, being then made Emperor; he sent him word, Ut post annum septimum rediret, that he would have him come again the seventh year after. But then as true it is, which the same Suetonius tells us of Antonius Gnipho, a Grammarian too, that he taught Rhetoric every day; Declamaret vero nonnisi nundinis, but declaimed only on the ninth. But then as true it is, which Juvenal hath told us of the Roman Rhetoricians, that they pronounced their Declamations on the sixth day chiefly. Nil salit Arcadico juveni, cujus mihi sexta Quaque die, miserum dirum caput Annibal implet. As the Poet hath it. All days, it seems, alike to them; the first, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, and indeed what not, as much as in honor as the seventh: whether it were in civil, or in sacred matters. (9) I am not ignorant that many goodly Epithets are by some ancient Poets amongst the Graecians, appropriated to this day: which we find gathered up together, by Clemens Alexandrinus, and Eusebius; but before either of them, by one Aristobulus a learned Jew, who lived about the time of Ptolomie Philometer King of AEgypt. Both Hesiod and Homer, as they there are cited, give it the title of * or an holy day, and so it was esteemed amongst them, as before is shown: but other days esteemed as holy. From Homer they produce two verses, wherein the Poet seems to be acquainted with the World’s Creation, and the perfection of it on the seventh day. On the seventh day all things were fully done, On that we left the waves of Acheron.

The like are cited out of Linus, as related by Eusebius, from the collections of Aristobulus before remembered: but are by Clemens fathered on Callimachus, another of the old Greek Poets; who between them thus.

Which put together may be thus Englished, in the main, though not verbatim. On the seventh day all things were made complete, The birth-day of the World, most good, most great. Seven brought forth all things in the starrie skie; Keeping each yeare their courses constantly. This Clemens makes an argument, that not the Jews only but the Gentiles also, knew that the seventh day had a privilege, yea, and was hallowed above other days; 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 than any other. Not by the light of nature. For Aristobulus, from whom Clemens probably might take his hint, speaks plainly, that the Poets had consulted with the holy Bible, & from thence sucked this knowledge: *, as that Author saith of Hesiod, and Homer. Which well might be, considering that Homer who was the oldest of them, flourished about 500 years after Moses’ death; Callimachus who was the latest, above 700 years after Homer’s time. Nor did they speak it out of any observation of that day, more than any other, amongst themselves. The general practice of the Gentiles, before related, hath thoroughly, as we hope removed that scruple. They which from these words can collect a Sabbath, had need of as good eyes as Clemens; who out of Plato in his second de repub. conceives that he hath found a sufficient warrant for the observing of the Lord’s day, above all the rest: because it is there said by Plato, That such as had for seven days solaced in the pleasant Meadows, were to depart upon the eighth, and not return till four days after. As much a Lord’s day in the one, as any Sabbath in the other. Indeed the argument is so weak, that some of those that thought it of especial weight have now deserted it, as too light and trivial. Ryvet by name, who cites most of these Verses in his notes on Genesis, to prove the Sabbath no less ancient than the world’s Creation; doth on the Decalogue, think them utterly unable to conclude that point, Nisi aliunde suffulciantur, unless they be well backed with better arguments and authorities out of other Authors. (10) Nay, more than this, the Gentiles were so far from sanctifying the Sabbath or seventh day, themselves; that they derided those that kept it.

The Circumcision of the Jews was not more ridiculous amongst the Heathens than their Sabbaths were; nor were they more extremely scoffed at for the one, than for the other, by all sorts of Writers. Seneca lays it to their charge, that by occasion of their Sabbaths, septimam fere atatis sua partem vacando perdant, they spent the seventh part of their lives in sloth and idleness: and Tacitus, that not the seventh day, but the seventh year also, was as unprofitably wasted. Septimo quoque die otium placuisse ferunt; dein blandiente inertia, septimum quoque annum ignaviae datum.

Moses, saith he, had so appointed, because that after a long six days’ march, the people became quietly settled on the seventh. Juvenal makes also the same objection against the keeping of the Sabbath by the Jewish Nation. ----quod septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava, & partem vitae non attigit ullam.

Every seventh day in sloth they lose, And on it no employment use.

And Ovid doth not only call them peregrina sabbata, as things which with the Romans had but small, and that late acquaintance: but makes them a peculiar mark of the Jewish Religion. Quaque die redeunt, rebus minus apta gerendis, Culta Palestino septima sacra viro.

The seventh day comes, for business unfit; Held sacred by the Jew, who halloweth it.

Where by the way, Tostatus notes upon these words that sacrima septa are here ascribed unto the Jews, as their badge or cognizance: which had been most improper, and indeed untrue, si gentes altae 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: 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, amongst the principal. So Agacharcides who wrote the lives of Alexander’s successors accuseth them of an unspeakable superstition; in that *, they suffered Ptolomie to take their City of Jerusalem, on a Sabbath day, rather than stand upon their guard.

But that of Apion, the great Clerk of Alexandria, is the most shameful and reproachful of all the rest! Who, to despite the Jews the more, and lay the deeper stain upon their Sabbaths; relates in his Egyptian story, that at their going out of Egypt, having traveled for the space of six whole days, they became stricken with certain inflammations in their privy 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. Than which, what greater calumny could a malicious Sycophant invent against them? Doubtless, those men that speak so despicably and reproachfully of the Jewish Sabbath; had never any of their own. Nor did the Greeks and Latins, and Egyptians only out of the plenty, or the redundance rather of their wit, deride and scoff the Sabbaths celebrated by those of Jewry: it was a scorn that had before been fastened on them, when wit was not so plentiful as in later times. For so the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentations, made on the death of King Josiah. The adversaries saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths. The Jews must needs be singular in this observation. All Nations else, both Graecian and Barbarian, had never so agreed together, to deride them for it. (11) Yet we deny not all this while, but that the fourth Commandment, so much thereof as is agreeable to the law and light of nature, was not alone imprinted in the minds of the Gentiles, but practiced by them. For they had statos dies, some appointed times, appropriated to the worship of their several gods, as before was showed: their holydays, & half-holydays, according to that estimation which their gods had gotten in the World. And this as well to comfort and refresh their spirits, which otherwise had been spent and wasted with continual labor as to do service to those Deities which they chiefly honored. Dii genus hominum laboribus natura pressum miserati, remissionem laborum statuerunt solennia festa; was the resolution 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. And where it is conceived by some that the Gentiles by the light of nature had their weeks, which is supposed to be an argument that they kept the Sabbath; a week being only of seven days, and commonly so called both in Greek, and Latin: we on the other side affirm, 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 several days of each several month, appropriated a particular name of some King or other; as the Peruvians do at this present time: nomina diebus mensis indunt, ut prisci Persae, as Scaliger hath noted of them. The Graecians also did the like in the times of old: there being an old Attic Calendar to be seen in Scaliger, wherein is no division of the month into weeks at all. Then for the Romans, they divided their account into eighths and eighths; as the Jews did by sevens and sevens: the one reflecting on their nundinae, as the other did upon their Sabbath. Ogdoas Romanorum in tributione dierum servabatur propter nundinas, ut hebdomas apud Judaeos propter Sabbatum. For proof of which there are some ancient Roman Calendars to be seen as yet, one in the aforesaid Scaliger; the other in the Roman Antiquities of John Rossinus: wherein the days are noted from A to H, as in our common Almanacks from A to G.

The Mexicans go a little further, and they have 13 days to the week, as the same Scaliger hath observed of them. Nay even the Jews themselves were ignorant of this division of the year into weeks, as Tostatus thinks; till Moses learnt it of the Lord, in the fall of Mannah. Nor were the Greeks & Romans destitute of this account only while 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. Dion affirms it for the ancient Grecians, that they knew it not; *, for ought he could learn: 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 weeks before. And for the Romans, though they were well enough acquainted with the Planets in their latter times; yet they divided not their Calendars into weeks, as now they do, till near about the time of Dionysius Exiguus, who lived about the year of Christ, 520. Nor had they then received it in all probability, had they not long before admitted Christianity throughout their Empire; and therewithal the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, where the account by weeks was exceeding obvious. Therefore according to this rule the Chaldees, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, all the four great Monarchies, did observe no Sabbaths; because they did observe no weeks. Which said in this place once for all, we resolve it thus: that as the Israelites kept no Sabbath before the Law, so neither did the Gentiles when the Law was given: which proves it one of Moses’ Ordinances, no prescript of nature.

CHAPTER - THE PRACTICE OF THE IEWS IN SUCH OBSERVANCES, AS WERE ANNEXED UNTO THE SABBATH. (1) Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish 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, then the weekely were; if not more solemnely. (4) Of the Parasceve 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) Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire, and not dressing meat. (8) What moved the Gentiles, generally, to charge the Iews, 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 practiced by the Iews upon their Sabbaths. (1) I Showed you in the former Chapter, the institution of the Sabbath, by whom it was first published, and to whom prescribed. It now remains to see, how it was observed; how far the people thought themselves obliged by it, and in what cases they were pleased to dispense therewith. Which that we may the better do, we will take notice first of the Law itself, 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 Commandment, either by way of Comment on it, or addition to it; and after were misconstrued by the Scribes and Pharisees, to ensnare the people. And first, not to say any thing in this place of the quid nominis, or derivation of the word, which Philo and Josephus, and the Seventy do often render by *, repose, or rest: Sabbath is used in Scripture to signify some selected time by God himself deputed unto rest and holiness. Most specially and *, it points out unto us the seventh day, as that which was first honored with the name of Sabbath, Exodus 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 weekly, and the others Annual: the New-moons not being honored with this title in the Book of God, though in Heathen Authors. The weekly Sabbath was that day, precisely, whereon God rested from the works which he had made: which he commanded to be kept for a day of rest unto the Jews, that so they might the better meditate on the wondrous works that he had done; every seventh day exactly, in a continual revolution, from time to time. Therefore, saith Damascen, when we have reckoned to seven days, *, our computation of the time runs round, and begins anew. These as in genearl, and *, as before I said, they were calculated Sabbaths: so were there some of them that had particular adjuncts, whereby to know them from the rest: whereof the one was constant, and the other casual.

The constant adjunct is that of *, or sabbatum secundoprimum, as the Latin renders it: mention whereof is made in Saint Luke’s Gospel. Our English reads it, on the second Sabbath after the first. A place and passage which much exercised men’s wits, in the former times, and brought forth many strange conceits: until at last, this, and the * sophistarum, and super fluvios manare fontes, came to be reckoned in a Proverb, as preposterous things.

Scaliger hath of late untied the knot, and resolved it thus, that all the Weeks or Sabbaths from Pasch to Pentecost, did take their name *, from the second day of the Feast of Passover; that being the Epoch, or point of time, from which the fifty days were to be accounted by the Law: and that the first Week 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 Sabbath * from the second day of the Passover. The casual adjunct is, that sometimes there was a Sabbath that was calculated *, the great Sabbath; or as it is in Saint John’s Gospel, *, magnus ille dies Sabbati, as the Latin hath it. And is so called not for its own sake, for Casaubon hath righly noted, nunquam eam appellationem sabbato tributam reperiri propter ipsum: but because then, as many other times it did, the Passover 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 solemn Festivals did fall upon the Sabbath day, they used to call it, Sabbatum sabbatorum, a Sabbath of Sabbaths. *, as Isidore Pelusiotes notes it. (2) For that the Annual Feasts were called Sabbaths too is most apparent in the Scriptures; especially Levit. 23. where both the Passover, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Expiation, and the Feast of Tabernacles, are severally entitled by the name of Sabbaths. The Fathers also note the same, *, saith Saint Chrysostome: and *, saith Isidore, in the place before remembered. Even the New-moons, amongst the Gentiles, had the same name also; as may appear by that of Horace, who calls them in his Satyres, Tricesima Sabbata, because they were continually celebrated every thirtieth day. The like they did by all the rest, if Joseph Scaliger’s note be true, as I think it is; who hath affirmed expressly, Omnem festivitatem Judaicam non solum Judaeos, sed Gentiles, sabbatum vocare. Nay, as the weekly Sabbaths, some of them had their proper adjuncts: so had the annual. Saint Athanasius tells us of the Feast of Expiation, that it was *, or the principal Sabbath: for so I take it is his meaning: which selfsame attribute is given by Origen, to the Feast of Trumpets. Clemens of Alexandria, 6.Stromat. brings in a difference of those Festivals, out of a supposed work of Saint Peter the Apostle: wherein, besides the New-moons, and Passover, which are there so named, they are distributed into *, or the first Sabbath, the Feast * so called, and the Great day. Casaubon for his part protesteth, ipsi obscuram esse quid sit Sabbatum primum, that he was yet to seek what should be the meaning of that first Sabbath. But Scaliger conceives, and not improbably, that by this first Sabbath, or *, was meant the Feast of Trumpets, because it was caput anni, or the beginning of the civil year: the same which Origen calls Sabbatum sabbatorum, as before we noted. As for the Feast * so named in Clemens, that he conceives to be the Feast of Pentecost; and the great day in him remembered, the Feast of Tabernacles: for the which last he hath authority in the Scriptures, who tell of the Great day of this very Feast, Joh.7.37. Not that the Feast of Tabernacles was alone so called, but in a more especial manner: For there were other days so named, besides the Sabbaths. Dies observatis, saith Tertullian, & Sabbata, ut opinor, & coenas puras, & jejunia, & dies magnos. Where sabbata & dies magni are distinguished plainly. Indeed it stood with reason that these annual Sabbaths should have the honor also of particular adjuncts, as the weekly had: being all founded upon one & the same Commandment. Philo affirms it for the Jews, *, etc. “the fourth Commandment, saith he, is of the Sabbath, and the Festivals, of Vows, of Sacrifices, forms of purifying, and other parts of divine worship.” Which is made good by Zanchie for the Christian Writers, who in his work upon the Decalogue doth resolve it thus, Sabbati nomine ad Judaeos quod attinebat, Deus intellexit non solum sabbatum septem dierum, sed sabbata etiam annorum, item omnia festa, quae per Mosen illis explicavit. “By Sabbath, saith that Author, God doth signify not only the weekly Sabbath, but the Sabbath of years, and all the other Feasts which he commanded to the Jews by his servant Moses.” So he, in his exposition on the fourth Commandment. It was the Moral part of the fourth Commandment, that some time should be set apart for God’s public 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, than the seventh day only. God therefore added other times as to him seemed best, the list whereof we may behold in the twenty-third of Leviticus: and the Church too by God’s example, added also some, as namely the Feast of Dedication, and that of Purim. (3) Now as the Annual Festivals ordained by God, had the name of Sabbath, as the weekly had: so the observances in them were the same, not much different. If in some things the weekly Sabbaths seemed to have preeminence, the Annual Sabbaths went beyond them in some others also.

For the continuance of these Feasts, the weekly Sabbath was to be observed throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant, Ex.31.16.

So for the Passover, you shall observe it throughout your generations, by an ordinance for ever. Exod.12.14. The like of Pentecost, it shall be a statute for ever, throughout your generations; Leviticus 23.21. So also for the Feast of Expiation, Leviticus 23.31. and for the Feast of Tabernacles, Levit.23.4. Where note, that by these words for ever, and throughout their generations, it is not to be understood that these Jewish Festivals were to be perpetual; for then they would oblige us now, as they did the Jews: but that they were to last as long, as the Republic of the Jews should stand; and the Mosaical Ordinances were to be in force. Per generationes vostras, i.e. quam diu Respub. Judaica constaret, as Tostatus notes upon this twentythird of Leviticus. For the solemnity of these Feasts, the presence of the high Priests was as necessary in the one as in the other. The high Priests also (saith Josephus) ascended with the Priests into the Temple, *, and yet not always, but only on the Sabbaths, and New-moons, *, as also on those other Feasts and solemn assemblies which yearly were to be observed, according unto the custom of the Country. And hitherto we find no difference at all: but in the manner of the rest, there appears a little, between the weekly Sabbath, and some of the Annual. For of the weekly Sabbath it is said expressly, that thou shalt do no manner of work: as on the other side, of the Passover, the Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, and of Tabernacles, that they shall do no servile work: which being well examined, will be found the same in sense, though not in sound. But then again for sense and sound it is expressly said of the Expiation, that therein thou 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 year, in six of which, viz. the first and seventh of unleavened bread, the day of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, and the first and eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they were to do no servile works and on the Esxpiation day, no work at all. So that in this respect the weekly Sabbath and the day of Expiation were directly equal, according to the very letter. In other things the day of Expiation seems to have preeminence; first, that upon this day only, the high Priest, omnibus pontificalibus indumentis indutum, attired in his Pontificals might go into the Sanctum sanctorum, or the holiest of all, to make atonement for the people; whereof see Levit.16. And secondly, in that the sacrifices for this day were more, and greater, than those appointed by the Lord for the weekly Sabbaths: which last is also true of the other Festivals. For where the sacrifice appointed for the weekly Sabbath, consisted only of two Lambs, over and above the daily sacrifice: with a meat-offering and a drink- offering thereunto proportioned: on the New-moons, and all the Annual Sabbaths before remembered, the Sacrifices were enlarged, nay, more than trebled; as is expressed in the 28. and 29 of the book of Numbers. Nay, if it happened any time as some times it did, that any of the Festivals did fall upon the weekly Sabbath; or that two of them, as the New-moon, and the Feast of Trumpets, fell upon the same: the service of the weekly Sabbath lessened not at all the sacrifices destinate to the Annual Sabbath; but they were all performed in their several turns. The Text itself affirms as much, in two chapters before specified: and for the practice of it, that so it was, is apparent to be seen in the Hebrew Calendars. Only the difference was this, as Rabbi Maimony informs us, that the addition of the Sabbath was first performed: and after, the addition of the New-moon, and then the addition of the Great day, or other Festival. So that in case the weekly Sabbath had a privilege above the Annual, in that the Shew-bread or the loaves of proposition, were only set before the Lord on the weekly Sabbaths: the Annual Sabbaths seem to have had amends, all of them in the multiplicity of their sacrifices; and three of them in the great solemnity and concourse of the people. For it is manifest in the Scripture, that all the people of Israel were bound to appear before the Lord on those three great Festivals; the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. As for the penalty inflicted on the breakers of these solemn Festivals, it is expressly said of the weekly Sabbath, that whosoever doth any work therein, shall be put to death; Exodus 31:15; and in the Verse before, That whosoever doth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off (or as the Chaldee Paraphrase reads it, that man shall be destroyed) from amongst his people. Which if it signify the same, as by the Chaldee Paraphrase it seems to do; it is no more than what is elsewhere said of the Expiation, for so saith the Text. And whatsoever soul it be, that doth any work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from amongst his people. But if the phrase be different, as the Rabbins say, the difference is no more than this; that they which break the weekly Sabbath, are to be put to death by the Civil Magistrate: and they which work upon the Feast of Expiation, shall be cut off by God, by untimely deaths. As for the other Annual Sabbaths, the Rabbins have determined thus, “that whosoever doth in any of them, such works as are not necessary for food, as if he build, or pull down, or weave, and the like, he breaketh a Commandment, and transgresseth against this prohibition, ye shall not do any servile work: and if he do, and there be witnesses and evident proof, he is by law to be beaten or scourged for it.

So that we see, that whether we regard the institution, or continuance of these several 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 lose as often in another. For the particulars, we shall speak of them hereafter, as occasion is. Only I add, by way of observation from the former premises, that by the same reason, on which some have labored a continuance of the Sabbath day; they may as well bring into the Church all the Jewish Festivals, as being grounded all on the fourth Commandment, and otherwise so equal in all observance. (4) As for the time, when they began their Sabbaths, and when they ended them; they took beginning on the Evening of the day before, and so continued till the evening of the Feast itself. The Scripture speaks it only, as I remember of the Expiation; which is appointed by the Lord to be observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, Levit.23.27; yet so that it is ordered thus in the 31st. It shall be unto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month, at even. And then it followeth, From even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. But in the practice of the Jews, it was so in all: either because they took those words for a general precept; or else because they commonly did account their day from even to even. For where the Romans and Egyptians began the day at midnight; the Chaldees, and the Persians, with the rising Sun; and the Umbri, an Italian people, reckoned theirs from noon to noon: the Jews and the Athenians took the beginning of their day, ab occasu solis, from Sunsetting, as Scaliger and divers others have observed. Yet sure I am, Honorius Augustodunensis, who lived four hundred years ago and upwards, placeth the Jews together with the Persians and Chaldeans, as men that do 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 additional sacrifices were offered only on the morning and the evening of the several Sabbaths;) but a * or preparation thereunto: which preparation if it were before the weekly Sabbath, it was called *: if before any of the Annual, it was called *. In imitation of the Gentiles, the Latin Writers call these Parasceves or Evens of Preparation, by the name of Coena pura, as Augustine noteth upon the nineteenth of Saint John; because of some resemblance that was between them: 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 occurs at all in these preparations of the Jews. Now these Parasceves or Preparation days, the Jews did afterward divide into these four parts.

The first was *, a preparative, as it were, to the preparation, which began in the morning, and held on till noon. The second was * largely taken, from noon until the evening sacrifice of the day; the third was *, or the approaching 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 custom rather, that on the whole day, from the * till Sun-set, they might not travel above twelve miles: lest coming home too late, they might not have sufficient leisure to prepare things before the Sabbath. The time was, as Buxdorfius tells us, quo cornu vel inflata tuba daretur signum, when there was public warning given by sound of Trumpet, that every man should cease from work, and make all things ready for the Sabbath: though in these days the Clerk or Sexton goeth about from door to door to give notice of it. The time was so indeed, So Josephus tells us, “that in Jerusalem one of the Priests continually standing upon a Pillar, *, made known upon the even before by sound of Trumpet, what time the Sabbath did begin; and on the evening of the Sabbath, at what time it ended: that so the people might be certified, both at what time to rest from labor; and at what time they might again apply their minds and hands unto it.” Now what Josephus saith of the weekly Sabbath, the same was done, saith Philo, in the New-moons also: *, which is much alike. And consequently we may say the same of the Annual Sabbaths in which the sons of Aaron were to blow the Trumpet, as well as in the New-moons, or the weekly Sabbaths. As for the works prohibited or permitted on these days of preparation, whether before the weekly or the Annual sabbaths, I find little difference. This I am sure of, that it was as much unlawful for the Judges to sit on any capital crimes, the day before the Annual Sabbath, as before the weekly: and the reason was, because the morrow after, of which sort soever, was thought to be no fit day for execution. Iudices verum Capitalium non judicant in parasceve Sabbati, aut in parasceve dici festi, quia non debet id fieri: & reus occidi postridie no potest. So saith Rabbi Maimony. Of the ridiculous nicety of the modern Jews in these Parasceves, we shall speak hereafter. (5) To come unto the day itself, it is said expressly in the Law that therein thou shalt do no manner of work. What, no work at all? How could they eat and drink, and put on clothes? These are some manner of works, yet done every Sabbath: yea, by the Pharisees themselves, which were most strict observers of the weekly Sabbaths. Quie Pharisaeorum, saith Saint Hierom, in die Sabbati non extendis manum, portans cibum, porrigens calicem, & caetera quae victui sunt necessaria. “Which of the Pharisees, saith he, doth not upon the Sabbath day stretch out his hand, and take his meat, and reach his cup; and whatsoever else appertains to victuals?” 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 labors, such as are toilsome in themselves, and aim at profit.

Zanchie, I am sure, doth expound them so. Nomen operis quod hic habet Moses, non significat opus simpliciter, sed opus quod propter opes comparandas suscipitur: Tale autem opus est vere servile. “The name of work, saith he, which here Moses useth, signifieth not simply and properly any kind of work: but works which chiefly are undertaken on hope of profit: which kind of works are truly servile.” Saint Hierome also expounds it, Lege praeceptum est ne in Sabbatis opus servile faciamus, etc. We are commanded in the Law, to do no servile works on the Sabbath days. And on the fifth of Amos he affirms the same; Iubet ne quid in eo operis servilis fiat, etc. And so Tertullian; Nec dubium esteos opus servile operatos, etc. in his second Book against Marcion. If so, there is no difference at all between the weekly and the Annual Sabbaths, in this one particular; because all servile works, expressly, are forbidden in them also, as before we showed. But take it in the very words, No manner of work: and ask the Hebrew Doctors what they mean thereby. They will then tell you first, there must be no marketing, no not buying of victuals; for which they cite the 13. of Nehemiah, Vers.16,17; nor no embalming of the dead, in which they vouch Saint Luke’s Gospel, Chap.27.Vers.54,56. This we acknowledge for a truth, but then we say withal, that neither of these two were lawful on the Annual Sabbaths. For when it happened any time, as sometimes it did, that a weekly Sabbath and an Annual Sabbath, came next days together: the Jews did commonly in their later times, put off the Annual Sabbath to a farther day. And this they did, as themselves tell us, because of burials, and of meats which were fit for eating; lest by deferring either the one or the other, the carcasses should putrify, and the meats be spoiled. Non facimus duo Sabbata continua, propter olera, & propter mortuos, us Rabbini dictitant. Which need not be, in case they held it lawful either to bury, or to buy, on the annual Sabbaths. They tell us next, that the Jews could not travel 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 Jews began to reckon it an unlawful matter to travel on the weekly Sabbath, they held it altogether as unlawful to travel on the Annual Sabbaths. “Nic. Damascen reporteth (as Josephus tells us) how that Antiochus the great King of Syria, created a Trophee near the flood Lycus, and abode there two days, at the request of Hyrcanus the King of Jewry; by reason of a solemn Feast at that time, whereon it was not lawful for the Jews to travel. In which he was no wise mistaken. For (saith Josephus) the Feast of Pentecost was that year 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 lawful, either upon our 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 he must be punished: nor do they do it on the Feasts, or Annual sabbaths, as before we noted. As also that it is not lawful to marry on the Sabbath day, nor on the Even before the Sabbath, nor the morrow after; lest they pollute the Sabbath by dressing meat for the Feast: and on the solemn Festivals or the Annual Sabbaths, they were not suffered to be married; lest, say the Rabbins, the joy of the Festival be forgotten, through the joy of the wedding. The many other trifling matters, which have been prohibited by the Jewish Doctors, and are now practiced by that senseless and besotted people, shall somewhere be presented to you, towards the end of this first Book. (6) Again, demand of these great Doctors, since it said espressly, that we shall do no manner of work, whether there be at all no case, in which it may be lawful to do work on the Sabbath day: and then they have as many shifts to put off the Sabbath; as they had niceties before, wherewithal to beautify it. A woman is in travail on the Sabbath day, is it not lawful for the Midwife to discharge her duty; although it be for gain, and her usual trade?

Yes, saith that great Clerk Rabbi Simeon, propter puerum unius diei vivum, solvunt Sabbatum; To save a child alive, we may break the Sabbath. This child being born, 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 maxim, that Circumcisio pellit Sabbatum. And what? doth only Circumcision drive away the Sabbath? No, any common danger doth it:

And then they change the phrase a little, Et periculum mortis pellit Sabbatum. Nay more, the Priest that waiteth at the Altar, doth he no work upon the Sabbath? yes, more than on the other days, and for that too they have a maxim, viz. Qui observari jussit Sabbatu, is profanari jussit Sabbatu:

He which commanded that the Sabbath should be sanctified, commanded also that it should be profaned. We shall meet with some of these again, hereafter. Therefore we must expound these words, No manner of work, i.e. no kind of servile work, as before we did; or else the weekly Sabbath & the fourth Commandment, must be a nose of wax, and a Lesbian rule, fit only to be wrested and applied to whatsoever end and purpose shall please the Rabbins. More warily and more soundly have the Christian Doctors, yea, and the very Heathens determined of it: who judge that all such corporal labors as tend unto the moral part of the fourth Commandment, which are rest and sanctity; were fit and lawful to be done on the Sabbath day. That men should rest upon such times as are designed and set apart for God’s public service, and leave their daily labors till some other season, the Gentiles knew full well by the light of nature. Therefore the Flamines were to take especial care, Ne feriis opus fieret, that no work should be done on the solemn days; and to make known by proclamation, Ne quid tale ageretur, that no man should presume to do it. Which done, if any one offended, he was forthwith mulcted, yet was not this enjoined so strictly that no work was permitted in what case soever. All things which did concern the Gods, and their public worship, Vel ad urgentem vitae utilitatem respicerent, or were important any way to man’s life and welfare, were accounted lawful. More punctually Scevola, being then chief Pontifex. Who being demanded what was lawful to be done on the Holydays, made answer, Quod praetermissum noceret, that which would probably miscarry, if it were left undone. He therefore that did underprop a ruinous building, or raise the cattle that was fallen into the ditch; did not break the Holy-day, in his opinion. No more did he that washed his sheep, si hoc remedii causa fieret, were it not done to cleanse the wool and make it ready for the shearers; but only for the cure of some sore or other: according unto that of Virgil, Balantumque gregem fluvio mersare salubri.

Thus far the Gentiles have resolved it agreeably to the Law of nature: and so far do the Christian Doctors, yea, and our Lord and Savior determine of it. The corporal labors of the Priest on the Sabbath day, as far as it concerns God’s service, were accounted lawful: The Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath, and yet were blameless. So was the corporal labor of a man, either to save his own life, or preserve another’s. Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the Sabbath, being then an hungered, Matth.12.Vers.1.&3; and restored many unto health on the Sabbath day, Matth.12.13; and in other places. Finally, corporal labors to preserve God’s creatures, as to draw the sheep out of the pit, Matth.12.11 and consequently to save their Cattle from the Thief; a ruinous house from being over-blown by the tempest; their Corn and hay also from a sudden inundation, these and the like to these, were all judged lawful on the Sabbath. And thus you see, the practice of the Gentiles governed by the light of nature, is every way conformable to our Savior’s doctrine; and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandment, as far as it contains the Law of nature. (7) For such particular ordinances, which have been severally affixed to the fourth Commandment, either by way of Comment on it, or addition to it: that which is most considerable, is that prohibition in the 35th of Exodus viz. 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, Ye shall kindle no fire, i.e. to burn a man upon the Sabbath, who is condemned by the Law to that kind of death; and consequently not to put him on that day, unto any punishment at all. Others of late, refer 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 upon the Sabbath day, no, though it were to hasten on the work of the holy Tabernacle. Philo restrains it chiefly unto manual Trades, *, such whereby men do get their livings: and then it must be thus interpreted, Ye shall not kindle any fire, that is, to do any common, ordinary, and servile works, like as do common Bakers, Smiths, and Brewers, by making it part of their usual trade. The later Rabbins, almost all; and many Christian Writers also, taking the hint from Vatablus, and Tremellius, in their Annotations; refer it unto dressing of meat, according to the latter custom. Nay, generally the Jews 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 only. For whereas R. Aben Ezra had so expounded it, Quod liceat ignem accendere ad calefaciendum, si urgeret frigus, That it was lawful to make a fire whereiwth to warm oneself, in the extremity of cold weather, though not to dress meat with it for that day’s expense: the Rabbins generally would have proceeded against him as an Heretic; and purposely wrote a Book in confutation of him, which they called the Sabbath. How this interpretation was thus generally received, I cannot say. But I am verily persuaded, that it was not so in the beginning: and that those words of Moses, Quae coquenda sunt, hodie coquite, Bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe what ye will seeth, Which words are commonly produced to justify and confirm this fancy; do prove quite contrary to what some would have them. The Text and Context both make it plain and manifest that the Jews baked their Mannah on their Sabbath day. The people, on the sixth 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 ye will bake to day, and seethe what ye will seethe, and that which remaineth over, lay up to be kept until the morning. i.e. As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day, that bake or boil, according as you use to do: and for the rest, let it be laid by, to be baked or boiled to morrow, that you may have wherewith to feed you on the Sabbath day. That this interpretation is most true and proper appears by that which followeth in the holy Scripture: viz.

They laid it up as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was any worm therein; as that which they had kept till morning, on some day before, Vers.2. This makes it evident, that the Mannah was laid up unbaked: for otherwise, what had it been at all, that it did neither breed worm, or stink, had it been baked the day before. Things of that nature, so preserved, are far enough from putrefying in so short a time. This, I am verily persuaded was the practice then: and for this light unto that practice, I must ingenuously confess myself obliged to Theophilus Braborne, the first that ever looked so near into Moses’ meaning. And this most likely, was the practice of the Jews in after times, even till the Pharisees had almost made the word of God of no effect, by their traditions: for then came in those many rigid ordinances about this day, which made the day & them ridiculous, unto all the Heathens. Sure I am that the Scriptures call it a day of gladness, for it was a Festival; and therefore probable it is, that they had good cheer. And I am sure that Dr. Bound, the Founder of these Sabbatarian fancies, though he conceive the dressing meat upon the Sabbath was by the words of Moses, utterly unlawful in the time of Mannah: yet he conceives withal, that that commandment was proper only unto the time of Mannah, in the Wilderness, and so to be restrained unto that time only. Therefore, by his confession, the Jews for after times might as well dress their meat on the Sabbath day , as on any other: notwithstanding this injunction of not kindling fire. Indeed why not as well dress meat, as serve it in: the attendance of the servant at his Master’s Table, being no less considerable on the Sabbath day, than of the Cooks about the Kitchen; especially in those riotous and excessive Feasts, which the Jews kept upon this day, in their later times. (8) I say those riotous and excessive Feasts which the Jews kept upon that day; and I have good authority for what I say. Saint Augustine tells us of them, they kept the Sabbath, only ad luxuriam & ebriatatem, in rioting and drunkenness; and that they rested only ad nugus & luxurias suas, to luxury and wontonness; that they consumed the day, languido & luxurioso otio, in an effeminate slothful ease; and finally did abuse the same, not only deliciis Judaicis, in Jewish follies, but ad nequitiam, even to sin and naughtiness.

Put all together, and we have luxury and drunkenness, and sports, and pleasures; enough to manifest that they spared not any dainties to set forth their Sabbath. Nay, Plutarch lays it to their charge, that they did feast it on their Sabbath, with no small excess; but of Wine especially. Who thereupon conjectureth, that the name of Sabbath, had its original from the Orgies, or Feasts of Bacchus: whose Priest 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 Sabbath’s fast. Augustus having been at the Baths, and fasting there a long time together; gives notice of it to Tiberius, thus: ne Judaeus quidem tam diligenter Sabbatis jejunium servat; that never any Jew had fasted more exactly on their Sabbaths than he did that day. So Martial reckoning up some things of unsavory smell, names amongst others, jejunia sabbatariorum; for by that name did he contemptuously mean the Jews, as before I noted. And where the Romans in those times, began, some of them, to incline to the Jewish Ceremonies, and were observant of the Sabbath; as we shall see hereafter in a place more proper: Persius objects against them this, labramonent taciti, recutitaque sabbatapalient, i.e. that being Romans, as they were, they muttered out their Prayers as the Jews accustomed, and by observing the Fast, on the Jewish Sabbaths, grew lean and pale for very hunger. So saith Petronius Arbiter, that the Jews did celebrate their Sabbath, jejunia lege, by a legal Fast: and Justin yet more generally, septimum diem more gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne avum jejunio sacravit, Moses, that Moses did ordain the Sabbath, to be a fasting day for ever. That the Jews fasted very often, sometimes twice a week, the Pharisee hath told us in Saint Luke’s 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 only, which was when their City was besieged, as Rabbi Moises AEguptius hath resolved it. Nay, 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 remembered, had some ground of reason, why they did charge the Jews with the Sabbaths Fast: for to suppose them ignorant of the Jewish custom, considering how thick they lived amongst them, even in Rome itself, were a strange opinion.

The rather since by Plutarch, who lived not long after Sueton, if he lived not with him; the Jews are generally accused for too much riot and excess upon that day. For my part, I conceive it thus: I find in Nehemiah, 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 until mid-day: which done, they were dismissed by Nehemiah to eat, and drink, and make great joy; which they did accordingly. This was upon the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the solemn Annual Sabbaths: and this they did for eight days together, from the first day unto the last that the Feast continued. After when as the Church was settled, and that the Law was read amongst them in their Synagogues, on the weekly Sabbaths; most probable it is that they continued the same custom, holding the Congregation from morn to noon: and that the Jews came thither fasting (as generally men do now unto the Sacrament), the better to prepare themselves, and their attention, for that holy exercise. Sure I am that Josephus tells us, that at mid-day they used to dismiss the Assemblies, that being the ordinary hour for their repast: as also that Buxdorfius saith of the modern Jews, that ultra tempus meridianum jejunare non licet, It is not lawful for them to fast beyond the noon-tide on the Sabbath days.

Besides, they which found so great fault with our Lord’s Disciples, for eating a few ears of Corn on the Sabbath day, are not unlikely, in my mind to have aimed at this. For neither was the bodily labor of that nature that it should any ways offend them in so high a measure: and the defense made by our Lord in their behalf, being that of David’s eating of the Shew-bread when he was an hungered; is more direct and literal to justify his Disciples eating, than it was their working. This abstinence of the Jews that lived amongst them, the Romans noted; and being good Trenchermen themselves, at all times and seasons, they used to hit them in the teeth with their Sabbaths’ fasting. But herein I submit myself to better judgments. (9) There was another prohibition given by God about the Sabbath, which being misinterpreted, is become as great a snare unto the consciences of men, as that before remembered of not kindling fire, and dressing meat upon the sabbath: viz. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day, Which prohibition, being a bridle only unto the people, to keep 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 days. Nay, so precise were some amongst them, that they accounted it unlawful to stir hand or foot upon the Sabbath: Ne leviter quispiam se commeveat, quod sifecerit, legis transgressor sit, as Saint Hierome hath it. Others, more charitably, chalked them out a way, how far they might adventure, and how far they might not: though in this the Doctors were divided. Some made the Sabbath day’s journey to be 2000 Cubits, of whom Origen tells us: others restrained it to 2000 foot, of whom Hierome speaks: and some again enlarged it unto six furlongs, which is three quarters of a mile. For where Josephus hath informed us that Mount Olivet was six furlongs from Jerusalem; and where the Scriptures tell us that they were distant about a Sabbath day’s journey: we may perceive by that how much a Sabbath day’s journey was accounted then. But of these things we may have opportunity to speak hereafter. In the mean time, if the injunction be so absolute and general as they say it is, we may demand of these great Clerks, as their Successors did of our Lord and Savior; by what authority they do these things, and warrant that which is not warranted in the Text: if so the Text be to be expounded. Certain I am that ab initio non fuit sic, from the beginning was it neither so, nor so.

The Scripture tells us that when the people were in the Wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. They found him, where? not in the Camp; he was not so audacious as to transgress 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 far off, wherein he might offend without fear or danger. Therefore the people were permitted to walk forth, on the Sabbath day; and to walk further than 2000 foot, or 2000 Cubits: otherwise they had never found out this unlucky fellow. And so saith Philo, that they did, *, etc. “Some of the people going out into the wilderness, that they might find some quiet and retired place in which to make their prayers to God; saw what they looked not for, that wretched and prohibited 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 appear. Even in the time of Mannah, they did not think themselves obliged not to stir abroad upon the Sabbath, or not to travel above such and such a compass: in case they did it not out of a mere 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 Commandment did prohibit all manner of work; yet it permitted, questionless, some manner of pleasures. The Sabbath’s rest had otherwise been more toilsome than the week-day’s labor: and none had gained more by it than the Ox and Ass. Yea this injunction last related, Let none go out of his place on the seventh day, had been a greater bondage to that wretched people than all the drudgeries of AEgypt.

Tostatus tells us on that Text, “non est simpliciter intelligendum, etc. It is not so to be conceived, that on that day the people might not stir abroad, or go out of their doors at all; but that they might not go to labor, or traffic about any worldly business. Et enim die Sabbati ambulare possunt Hebrai, ad solaciandum, etc. For the Jews lawfully might walk forth on the Sabbath day, to recreate and refresh themselves, so it be not in pursuit of profit.

And this he saith, on the confession of the Jews themselves, ut ipsi communiter confitentur, Buxdorfius, in his Jewish Synagogue, informs us further. Permissum est juvenibus, ut tempore Sabbati, currendo, spatiando, faltando, sese oblectent, etc. “It is, saith he, permitted that their young men may walk, and run, yea and dance also on the Sabbath day; and leap and jump, and use other manlike Exercises:” in case they do it for the honor of the holy Sabbath. This speaks he of the modern Jews, men as tenacious of their Sabbath, and the rigors of it, as any of the Ancients were; and such as have more private flings, above the meaning of the Law, than either the Pharisees, or Essees. Of manly Exercises on the Sabbath, we shall see more anon, in the seventh Chapter. And as for dancing, that they used anciently to dance upon the Sabbath, 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 and wasted the whole day in dancing. There is, no question, an abuse even of lawful pleasures. And this is that which he so often lays unto them. Melius tota die foderent, quam tota die saltarent:

Better the men did dig all day, than dance all day. And for the women, Melius corum foemine lanam facerent, quam illo die [&] in neomeniis saltarent: Better the women spin, than waste all that day, and the Newmoons, in dancing, as they use to do. I have translated it all that day, agreeable unto the Father’s words in another place; where it is said expressly in tota die. Melius foemine corum die sabbati lanas facerent, quam tota [&] in neomeniis fuis impudice saltarent. “Better, saith he, the women spent the Sabbath, at their wheels in spinning; than that they revelled all day long, both on that day and the New-moons in immodest dancings:” Where note, not dancing simply, but lascivious dancing; and dancing all day long, without respect to pious and religious duties; are by him disliked. Ignatius also saith the same, where he exhorts the “people to observe the Sabbath, in a Jewish 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 neighborhood; to foster brotherly love and concord amongst one another: a thing, even by the Pharisees themselves both allowed and practiced. Saint Luke hath given an instance of it, how Christ went into the house of a chief Pharisee, to eat bread on the Sabbath day: In plainer terms the Pharisee invited him that day to dinner. We may assure ourselves, so famous a Professor had not invited so great a Prophet; nor had our Savior Christ accepted of the invitation: had they not both esteemed it a lawful matter. It seems it was a common practice for friends to meet and feast together on the Sabbath. Finito cultu Dei solebant amici convenire, & inter se convivia agitare, as Chemnitius notes upon the place. Lastly, they used upon this day, as to invite their Friends and Neighbors, so to make them welcome: anointing their heads with oil, to refresh their bodies; and spending store of wine amongst them, to make glad their hearts. In which regard, whereas all other marketing was unlawful on the Sabbath days; there never was restraint of selling wine: the Jews believing that therein they brake no Commandment. Hebrai faciunt aliquid speciale in vino, viz. quod cum in Sabbato suo a caeteris venditionibus & emptionibus cessent, solum vinum vendunt; credentes se no solvere sabbatum, as Tostatus hath it. How they abused this lawful custom, of Feasting with their Friends and neighbors, on the Sabbath day, into foul riot and excess; we have seen already. So having spoken of the weekly and the Annual Sabbaths, the difference and agreement which was between them, both in the institution, and the observation: as also of such several observances as were annexed unto the same; what things the Jews accounted lawful to be done, and what unlawful, and how far they declared the same, in their constant practice: it is high time that we continue on the story, rank- ing such special passages as occur here- after, in their place and order.

CHAPTER - TOUCHING THE OBSERVATION 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 by Moses to be read in the Congregation, every Sabbath day. (5) The sacke of Iericho, 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 moved the Iews, to preferre Circumcision before the Sabbath. (8) The standing still of the Sunne at the prayer of Iosuah, etc. 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 Tribes, had no relation unto the reading of the Law, on the Sabbath dayes. (1) WE left this people in the Wilderness, where the Law was given them: and whether this Commandment were there kept, or not, hath been made a question: and that both by the Jewish Doctors, and by the Christian, some have resolved it negatively, that it was not kept in all that time, which was forty years: 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 only one Passover observed, whiles they continued in the Desert; notwithstanding that it was the principal solemnity of all the year. Etsi illud fuit omissum, multo fortius alia minus principalia. If that, saith he, then by an argument a majore ad minus, much rather were the lesser Festivals omitted also. More punctually Rabbi Eleazar, who on those words of Exodus, And the people rested on the seventh day, Chap.16.30; gives us to understand, that for the space of forty years, whilst they were in the Wilderness, Non fecerunt nisi dunt axat primum sabbatum: they kept no more than that first sabbath.

According unto that of the Prophet Amos, Have ye offered unto me sacrifice and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? On which authority, Aretius for the Christian Doctors doth affirm the same:

Sabbata per annos 40 non observavit in deserto populus Dei; that for the space of forty years, the people in the wilderness did not keep the Sabbath; Amos 5.25. The argument may yet be enforced by one more particular, that Circumcision 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 Passover, being the principal of the Annual 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 some times, and on some occasions. Omitted at some times, as when the people journied in the Wilderness many days together, Nulla requie aliquorum dierum habita, without rest or ceasing: and this the Hebrew Doctors willingly confess, as Tostatus tells us. Omitted too on some occasions, as when the spies were sent to discover the Land, what was the strength thereof, and what the riches; in which discovery they spent forty days: it is not to be thought that in that time they kept the Sabbath. It was a perilous 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 Jewish Doctors say expressly that they did not keep it. So Galatine reports from their own records, that in their latter exposition on the Book of Numbers, upon those words, “Send men that they may search the land of Canaan; they thus resolve it. Nuncio praecepti licitum est, etc. A Messenger that goes upon Command, may travel any day, at what time he will. And why? because he is a Messenger upon command. Nuncius autem praecepti excludis Sabbatum.” The phrase is somewhat dark, but the meaning plain: that those which went upon that errand, did not keep the Sabbath. Certain it also is, that for all that time, no nor for any part thereof, the people did not keep the Sabbath, completely as the Law appointed. For where there were two things concurring to make up the Sabbath, first, rest from labor, and secondly, the sacrifices destinate unto the day: however, they might rest some Sabbaths from their daily labors; yet sacrifices they had none until 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 years; is manifest, by that great and memorable business touching the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath. The case is briefly this: The people being in the wilderness, found a man gathering sticks, on the Sabbath day, and brought him presently unto Moses. Moses consulted with the Lord, and it was resolved 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 known till now. The more remarkable is this case, because it was the only time which we can hear of, that execution had been done upon any one, according as the Law enacted: and thereupon the Fathers have took some pains, to search into the reasons of so great severity. Philo accuseth him of a double crime, in one whereof he was the principal, and an Accessory only in the other. For where it was before commanded that there should be no fire kindled on the Sabbath day: this party did not only labor on the day of rest; but also labored in the gathering of such materials, *, which might administer fuel to prohibited fire, and consequently to those works and labors which forbidden on that day. Saint Basil seems a little to bemoan the man, in that he smarted so for his first offense; not having otherwise offended either God or Man: and makes the motive of his death neither to consist in the multitude of his sins, or the greatness of them, *, but only in his disobedience to the will of God.

But we must have a more particular motive yet than this. And first Rupertus tells us, Per superbiam illud quod videbatur exiguum commisit, That he did sin 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 mind it was committed. But this is more, I think, than Rupertus knew, being no searcher of the heart. Rather I shall subscribe herein unto Saint Chrysostome, Who makes this Query 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 answer to his own demand, *, etc. 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. Theodoret to that purpose also, ne autor fieret leges transgrediendi, lest other men encouraged by his example should have done the like: the punishment of this one man, striking a terror unto all. No question but it made the people far more observant of the Sabbath than they would have been: who were at first but backwards in the keeping of it, as is apparent by that passage in the sixteenth of Exod.v.27. And therefore stood the more in need; not only of a watch-word or Memento, even in the very Front of the Law itself; but of some sharper course to stir up their memory. Therefore this execution was the more requisite at this instant, as well because the Jews by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toil, could not be suddenly drawn unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terror: as also because nothing is more needful than with extremity to punish the first transgressors of those laws, which 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 year 2548 of the World’s Creation; which was some four years after the Law was given. More than 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 several duties, wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did conflict especially: that we may know the better what we are to look for at the peoples’ hands, when we bring them thither. Two things the Lord commanded in his holy Scripture, which concern the Sabbath, the keeping holy of the same: one in relation to the people, the other in reference to the Priest. In reference to the people, he commanded only rest from labor, that they should do no manner of work; and that is contained expressly in the Law itself. In reference to the Priest, he commanded sacrifice, that on the Sabbath day, over and above the daily sacrifice, there should be offered to the Lord two Lambs of a year old, without blemish, one in the morning, and the other in the evening: as also to prepare first, and then place the Shewbread, being twelve loaves, one for every Tribe, continually before the Lord every Sabbath day. These several references so divided, the Priest might do his part, without the people, and contrary the people do their part, without the Priest. Of any Sabbath duties, which were to be performed between them, wherein the Priest and people were to join together, the Scriptures are directly silent. As for these several 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 years together, all the life of Moses, the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist only, for ought we find, in a bodily rest, a ceasing from the works of their weekly labors: and afterwards in that, and in the Sacrifices which the Priest made for them.

Which as they seem to be the greater of the two, so was there nothing at all therein, in which the people were to do; no not so much, except some few, as to be spectators: the Sacrifices being offered only in the Tabernacle first, as in the Temple after, when they had a Temple; the people being scattered over all the Country, in their Towns and Villages. Of any reading of the Law, or exposition of the same unto the people; or public form of prayers to be presented to the Lord in the Congretation; we find no footstep now, nor a long time after. None in the time of Moses, for he had hardly perfected the Law before his death: the book of Deuteronomy being dictated by him, a very little before God took him. None in a long time after, no not till Nehemiah’s days, as we shall see hereafter in that place and time. The resting of the people was the thing commanded, in imitation of God’s rest when his works were finished: that as he rested from the works which he had created, so they might also rest in memorial of it. But the employment of this rest to particular purposes either of contemplation or devotion, that is not declared unto us in the Word of God: but left at large, either unto the liberty of the people, or the Authority of the Church.

Now what the people did, how they employed this rest of theirs, that Philo tells us in his third Book of the life of Moses. “Moses, saith he, ordained, that since the Word was finished on the seventh day, all of his Commonwealth following therein the course of nature should spend the seventh day, *, in Festival 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 public Feastings) in beholding the activity either of the Jester or common Dancers; but *, and a little after, *, in the study of true Philosophy, and in the contemplation of the works of nature. And in another place, He did command, saith he, that as in other things so in this also they should imitate the Lord their God, working six days, 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 week before, if haply they had offended against the Law: *, etc. that so they might correct what was done amiss, and be the better armed to offend no more. So in his Book de mundi opificio, he affirms the same, that they implied that day in divine Philosophy, *, even for the bettering of their manners, and reckoning with their consciences.

That thus the Jews did spend the day, or some part thereof, is very probable: and we 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 concerns only the behavior of particular persons; and reflects nothing upon the public duties in the Congregation. (4) It is true that Philo tells us in a Book not extant, how Moses also did ordain those public meetings. *, etc. 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 sit down with modesty and a general silence, *, to hear the Law, that none plead ignorance of the same. Which custom we continue still, harkening with wonderful silence to the Law of God, unless perhaps we give some joyful 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 piety.” So he, or rather out of him, Eusebius. But here by Philo’s leave, we must pause a while. This was indeed the custom in our Savior’s time, and when Philo lived: and he was willing, as it seems, to fetch the pedigree thereof, as far as possible he could. So Salianus tells him on the like occasion. Videtur Philo Judaeorum morem in Synagogis differendi, antiquitate donare voluisse, quem a Christo & Apostolis observatum legimus. The same reply we make to Josephus also, who tells of their Lawmaker, “that he appointed not, that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year:*, etc. 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 Josephus’ leave, unless we make a day and a year 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, and into the hands of all the Elders of Israel. And he commanded them and said, At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God, in the place that thou shalt choose, thou shalt read this Law before Israel in their hearing: that they may hear, and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God, and observe all the words of this Law to do them. This was the thing decreed to Moses; and had been needless, if not worse, in case he had before provided, that they should have the Law read openly unto them every Sabbath day. So then, by Moses’s order, the Law was to be read publicly, every seventh year only: in the year of release, because then servants, being manumitted from their bondage, and Debtors from their Creditors, all sorts of men might hear the Law with the greater cheerfulness: and in the Feast of Tabernacles, because it lasted longer than 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 book of Deuteronomy. This to be done only in the place which the Lord shall choose, to be the seat and receptacle of his holy Tabernacle: not in inferior Towns, much less petite Villages: and yet this thought sufficient to instruct the people in the true knowledge of God’s Law and keeping of his testimonies. And indeed happy had they been, had they observed this order and decree of Moses; and every seventh year read the Law as he appointed: they had then questionless 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 several Synagogues, is most clear and manifest: both by the testimony of Philo and Josephus, before related; and by sufficient evidence from the holy Gospel. But in these times, and after for a thousand years, there were no Synagogues, no public reading of the Law in the Congregation, excepting the seventh year only, and that not often: Sure I am, not so often as it should have been. So that in reference to the People, we have but one thing only to regard, as yet, touching the keeping of the Sabbath, which is rest from labor rest from all manner of work, as the Law commanded: and how far this was kept, and how far dispensed with, we shall see plainly by the story. The private Meditations and Devotions of particular men stand not upon record at all: and therefore we must only judge by external actions. (5) This said and shown, we will pass over Jordan, with the house of Israel, and trace their foot-steps in that Country. This happened on the tenth day of the fifth month, or the month of Nisan, forty days after the death of Moses, Anno 2584. That day they pitched their Tents in Gilgal. And the first thing they did, was to erect an Altar in memorial of it: that done to circumcise the people, who all the time that they continued in the Wilderness (as many as were born that time), were uncircumcised. The 14th of the same month did they keep the Passover: 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 Jericho, which Sabbath probably was that very day whereon the Lord appeard to Joshua, and gave him order how he should proceed in that great business. The morrow after, being the first day of the week, they began to compass it, as the Lord commanded; the Priests some of them bearing the Ark, some going before with trumpets; and the residue of the people, some before the Trumpeters, some behind the Ark. This did they once a day, for six days together. But when the seventh day came, which was the Sabbath, they compassed the Town about seven times; and the Priests blew the Trumpets, and the people shouted, and they took the City: destroying in it young and old, man, woman, and children. I said it was the Sabbath day, for so it is agreed on generally, both by Jews and Christians. One of the seven days, 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 whereon they went about seven times, and destroyed it finally, was indeed the Sabbath. For first the Jews expressly say it, that the overthrow of Jericho fell upon the Sabbath; and that from thence did come the saying, Qui sanctificari jussit Sabbatum, is profanari jussit Sabbatum. So R. Kimchi hath resolved on the sixth of Joshua. The like, Tostatus tells us, is affirmed by R. Solomon, who adds that both the falling of the wall and slaughter of that wicked people was purposely deferred, In honorum Sabbati, to add the greater luster unto the Sabbath. Galatine proves the same out of divers Rabbines, this Solomon before remembered, and R. Joses in the Book called Sedar Olem; and many of them joined together, in their Beresith ketanna, or lesser exposition on the book of Genesis: they all agreeing upon this, dies Sabbati erat, cum fuit praelium in Hiericho; and again, Non capta fuit Hiericho nisi in Sabbato; That certainly both the battle and the execution fell upon the Sabbath. So for the Christian Writers, Tertullian saith not only in the general, that one of those seven days was the Sabbath day: “but makes that day to be the Sabbath wherein the Priests of God did not only work, Sed & in ore gladii praedata sit civitas ab omni populo, but all the people sacked the City, and put it to the sword. Nec dubium est eos opus servile operatos, etc. And certainly, saith he, they did much servile work that day, when they destroyed so great a City by the Lord’s commandment.

Procopius Gazaeus doth affirm the same. Sabbato Jesus expugnavit & cepit Hiericho. Saint Austin thus, Primus Jesus 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 capta Hiericho, Sabbatum erat: all jointly pitching upon this, that the seventh day, whereon the City was destroyed, was the Sabbath day. And yet they did not sin, saith Lyra, because they did it on that day by God’s own appointment. This doth indeed excuse the parties, both from the guilt of sin and from the penalty of the Law: but then it shows withal, that this Commandment is of a different quality from the other nine, and that it is no part of the law of nature. God never did command them any thing, contrary to the law of nature; unless it were tentandi causa, as in the case of Abraham and Isaac. As for the spoiling of the AEgyptians, that could be no theft; considering the AEgyptians owed them more than they lent unto them, in recompence of the service they had done them in former times. (6) But was the Sabbath broken or neglected only on the Lord’s Commandment; in some especial case, and extraordinary occasion? I think none will say it. Nay, was there ever any Sabbath which was not broken publicly, by common approbation, and of common course? Surely not one.

In such a numerous Commonwealth as that of Jewry, it is not to be thought but that each day was fruitful in the works of nature: children born every Sabbath day, as well as others; and therefore 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 year from that Solemnity: and this by no especial order and command from God, but merely to observe an ancient custom.

In case it was deferred some time, as sometimes it was, it was not sure in conscience to observe the Sabbath; but only on a tender care to preserve the Infant, which was, perchance, infirm and weak, not able to abide the torment. No question, but the Sabbath following the sack of Jericho, was in this kind broken: and so were all that followed after: Nullum enim Sabbatum praeteribat, quin multi in Judaea infantes circumciderentur. It is Calvin’s note. There passed not any Sabbath day, saith he, in which there were not many children circumcised in the Land of Jewry. Broken, I say.

For Circumcision, though a Sacrament, was no such easy Ministry but that it did require much labor and many hands to go through with it. Buxdorfius thus describes it in his Synagoga. Tempore diei octavi matutino, ea quae ad circumcisionem opus sunt, tempestive parantur, etc. “In the morning of the eighth 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 quality of the party. Then comes the surety for the child, and placeth himself in the same seat, and near to him the Circumciser. Next followeth one bringing a great Torch in which were lighted twelve wax-candles, to represent the twelve Tribes of Israel: after, two boys carrying two cups full of red-wine, to wash the Circumciser’s mouth, when the work is done; another, bearing the Circumciser’s Knife; a third, a dish of sand, whereinto the fore-skin must be cast, being once cut off, a fourth, a dish of Oil wherein are linen clouts to be applied 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 less troublesome than the preparations make show of: which I would now describe, but that I am persuaded I have said enough to make it known how much ado was like to be used about it. And though perhaps some of these ceremonies were not used in this present time, whereof we speak: yet they grew up, and became ordinary, many of them, before the Jewish Commonalty was destroyed and ruinated. *. “Where there is Circumcision, there must be Knives, and Sponges to receive the blood, and such other necessaries. So saith the Author of the Homily, De Sement, ascribed to Athanasius. And not such other only as concern the work, but such as appertain also to the following cure.

Circumciditur & curatur homo circumcisus in Sabbato, as Saint Cyril notes it. Which argument our Savior used in his own defense, viz. that he as well might make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day; as they, one part.

Now that this Act of Circumcision was a plain breaking of the Sabbath, (besides the troublesomeness of the work) is affirmed by many of the Fathers. By Epiphanius expressly, *. “If a child was born upon the Sabbath, the circumcision of that child took away the Sabbath.” Saint Chrysostome speaks more home than he: *. “The Sabbath, saith the Father, was broke many ways among the Jews; but in no one thing more than in Circumcision.” (7) Now what should more the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath, unless it were because that Circumcision was the older ceremony, I would gladly learn: especially considering the resemblance which was between them in all manner of circumstances. Was the Circumcision made to be a token of the Covenant between the Lord of heaven, and the seed of Abraham? Genes.17.11. So was the Sabbath between God and the house of Israel, Exod.31.17. Was Circumcision a perpetual covenant with the seed of Abraham, in their generations? So was the Sabbath to be kept throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant also. Exod.31.16.

Was Circumcision so exacted, that whosoever was not circumcised, that soul should be cut off from the people of God? Genesis 17.14. So God hath said it of his Sabbath, that whosoever breaks it, or doth any manner of work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among the people, Exod.31.14. In all these points there was a just and plain equality between them: but had the Sabbath been a part of the Moral Law, it must have infinitely gone before circumcision. What then should move the Jews to prefer the one before the other: but that conceiving both alike, they thought it best to give precedence to the elder; and rather break the Sabbath, than put off Circumcision to a further day. Hence grew it into a common maxim amongst that people, Circumcisio pellit Sabbatum, that Circumcision drives away the Sabbath; as before I noted. Nor could it be, that they conceived a greater or more strict necessity to be in Circumcision, than in the Sabbath; the penalty and danger, as before we showed you, being alike in both: For in the Wilderness, by the space of forty years together, when in some sort they kept the Sabbath; most certain that they circumcised not one of many hundred thousands which were born in so long a time. Again, had God intended Circumcision to have been so necessary, that there was no deferring of it for a day or two: he either had not made the Sabbath’s rest so exact and rigid; or else out of that general rule, had made exception in this case. And on the other side, had he intended that the Sabbath’s rest should have been literally observed, and that no manner of work should be done therein: he had not so precisely limited Circumcision to the eighth day only. *, 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 eighth 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 Wilderness, before remembered. Indeed it was not to be hastened, and performed before. Not out of any mystery in the number, which might adapt it for that business, as some Rabbins thought; but because children, till that time, are hardly purged of that blood and slime which they bring with them into the World, Upon which ground the Lord appointed thus in the Law Levitical. When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat is brought forth, it shall be seven days under the dam: and from the eighth day, and thence-forth, it shall be accepted for an offering to the Lord. This makes it manifest, that the Jews thought the Sabbath to be no part of the Moral Law; and therefore gave precedence to Circumcision, as the older ceremony: Not because it was of Moses, but of the Fathers, as our Savior tells us, John 7.22. That is, saith Cyril on that place, because they thought not fit to lay aside an ancient custom of their Ancestors for the Sabbath’s sake. Quia non putabant consuetudinem patrum propter honorem Sabbati contemnendam esse; as the Father hath it.

Nay, so far did they prize the one before the other, that by this breaking of the Sabbath, they were persuaded verily that they kept the Law. Moses, saith Christ our Savior, gave you circumcision, and you on the Sabbath day circumcise a man, that the Law of Moses should not be broken. It seems that circumcision was much like Terminus and Juventus, in the Roman story, who would not stir nor give the place, not to Jove himself. More of this point, see Chrysost. Hom.49. in Joh. (8) But to proceed. The next great action which occurs in holy Scripture, reducible unto the business now in hand, is that so famous miracle of the Sun’s standing still at the prayers of Joshua: when as the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day, as the Text hath it. Or as it is in Ecclesiast. Did not the sun go back by his means, 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 showed to Hezekiah, by bringing of the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz. In each of these there was a signal alteration in the course of nature, and the succession of time: so notable that it were very difficult to find out the seventh day precisely from the world’s creation; or to proceed on that account, since the late giving of the law. So that in this respect, the Jews must needs be at a loss 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 easy to be proved. The Author of the Practice 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 speak properly, saith he, as we take a day for the distinction of time, called either a day natural consisting of 24 hours, or a day artificial, consisting of twelve hours from Sun-rising to Sun-setting:

And withal consider the Sun standing still at noon, the space of an whole day in the time of Joshua; and the Sun going back ten degrees (viz. five hours which is almost half an artificial day) in Hezekiah’s time: the Jews themselves could not keep 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 punctual time, according as the Law commanded: it followeth then, on his confession, that from the time of Joshua, till the destruction of the Temple, there was no Sabbath kept by the Jews 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 fly before the conquerors.

Insomuch that in the compass or five years, as Josephus tells 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: 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, as Josephus saith, because it seemed to be a very convenient place, by reason of the beauty of it. Rather because it sorted best with Joshua’s liking, who being of the Tribe of Ephraim within whose lot that City stood, was perhaps willing to confer that honor on it. But whatsoever was the motive, here was the Tabernacle erected, and hitherto the Tribes resorted; and finally here the legal 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 which I shall give you, viz. Levit.14. and 23, Numb.15, Deut.12. That Gilgal was the standing lamp, and that the Levites there laid down the Tabernacle, as in a place of strength and safety; is plaine in Scripture: but that they there erected it, or performed any legal Ministry therein, hath no such evidence. Though God had brought them into the Land of Promise, yet all this while they were unsettled. The Land was given after, when they had possession. So that the next Sabbath which ensued on the removal of the Tabernacle unto Shilo, was the first Sabbath which was celebrated with its Legal Ceremonies: and this was Anno Mundi 2589. In which if we consider as well the toilsomeness as multiplicity of the Priest-like-offices: we shall soon see, that though the people rested then, yet the Priest worked hardest. First, for the Loaves of Proposition, or the Shew-bread, however Josephus tells 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, saith the Text, were over the shew-bread, for to prepare it every Sabbath. These loaves were twelve in number, one for every Tribe, each of them two tenth deals, or half a peck; so the Scriptures say; every Cake square, ten hand-breadths long, five square, and seven fingers high; so the Rabbins teach us. The kneading, baking, and disposing of these Cakes must require some labor. *, etc.

Where there is baking, saith the Author of the Homily, de Semente, ascribed to Athanasius, then must be heating of the oven, and carrying in of faggots, and whatsoever work is necessary in the Baker’s trade. Then for the sacrifices of the day, the labor of the priest, when it was left, was double what it was on the other days. *. as Chrysostome hath rightly noted. The daily sacrifice was of two lambs, the supernumerary of the Sabbath was two more. If the New- moon fell on the Sabbath, as it often did, there was besides these named already, an offering of two Bullocks, a Ram, seven Lambs: and if that New- moon were the Feast of Trumpets also, as it sometimes was, there was a further offering of seven Lambs, one Ram, one Bullock. And which is more, each of these had their several Meat-offerings, and Drink-offerings, Perfumes, and Frankincense, proportionable to attend upon them. By that time all was done, so many beasts killed, skinned, washed, quartered, and made ready for the Altar; so many fires kindled, meat and drink-offerings in a readiness, and the sweet odors, fitted for the work in hand: no question but the Priest had small cause to boast himself of his Sabbath’s rest; or to take joy in any thing but his larger fees, and that he had discharged his duty. In which regard, the Jews retain this still amongst their traditions, In Templo non esse Sabbatum, That in the Temple they observed no Sabbath. As for the people, though they might all partake of the fruits hereof: yet none but those which dwelt in Shilo, or near unto it at the least, could behold the sight; or note what pains the Priests took for them, whilst they themselves sat still and stirred not. Had the Commandment been moral, and every part thereof of the same condition: The Priests had never done so many manners of work, as that day they did. However, as it was, our blessed Savior did account these works of theirs to be a public profanation of the Sabbath day. Read ye not in the Law, saith he, how that upon the Sabbath days, the Priests in the Temple do profane the Sabbath? yet he declared withal that the Priests were blameless, 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 affirm the same, see Justin Martyr. dial. & qu.27. ad Orthod; Epiphan.l.I.haer.19.n.5; Hierom. in Psal.92; Athanas.de Sabb.& Circumcis; Austin, Qu. ex N. Test.61; Isidore Pelusiot.Epl.72.l.I; and divers others. (10) These were the Offices of the Priest on the Sabbath day; and questionless 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 not of any place, as yet, designed for the performance of such other duties, as some conceive to appertain unto the Levites. That they were scattered and dispersed over all the Tribes, is indeed most true. The curse of Jacob now was become a blessing to them. Forty-eight Cities had they given them for their inheritance, (whereof thirteen were proper only to the Priests) besides their several sorts of Tithes, and what accrued unto them from the public 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 sanctifying of that day. The Scripture tells us no such matter. The reasons manifested in the word were these two especially. First, that they might be near at hand to instruct the people, and teach them all the statutes which the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses: as also to let them know the difference between the holy and unholy, the unclean and clean. Many particular things there were in the Law Levitical touching pollutions, purifying, and the like legal Ordinances; which were not necessary to be ordered by the Priests, above those that attended at the Altar, and were resorted to in most difficult cases: Therefore both for the people’s case, and that the Priests, above, might not be troubled every day in matters of inferior moment; the Priests and Levites were thus mingled amongst the Tribes. A second reason was, that there might be as well some nursery to train up the Levites, until they were of age fit for the service of the Tabernacle; as also some retirement unto the which they might repair, when by the Law they were dismissed from their attendance. The number of the Tribe of Levi, in the first general muster of them, from a month old and upwards, was 22000, just: out of which number, all from 30 years of age to 50, being in all persons, were taken to attend the public Ministry. The residue with their wives and daughters, were to be severally disposed of in the Cities allotted to them: therein to rest themselves with their goods and cattle, and do those other Offices above remembered. Which Offices as they were the works of every day: so if the people came unto them upon the Sabbaths, or New-moons, 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 occasional only, no constant duty. Indeed it is conceived by Master Samuel Purchas, on the authority of Cornelius Bertram, almost as modern as himself, 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 publicly did expound the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days, as after in the Synagogues.

For where those Cities were but four in every Tribe, one with another, the people must needs travel further than six Furlongs, which was a Sabbathday’s journey of the largest measure, as before we noted; or else that nice restriction was not then in use. And were it that they took the pains to go up unto them, yet were not those few Cities able to contain the multitudes.

When Joab, not long after this, did muster Israel at the command of David; he found no fewer than thirteen hundred thousand fighting men. Suppose we then, that unto every one fighting man, there were three old men, women and children, fit to hear 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 four hundred thousand for Jerusalem, and the service there; and then there will remain one hundred thousand just,* which must owe suit and service every Sabbath day, to each several City of the Levites.

Too -------------- * Heylyn’s arithmetic is unclear: thirteen hundred thousand (1,300,000) is more than a million, and multiplied by four is 5,200,000. vast a number to be entertained in any of their Cities; and much less in their Synagogues, had each house been one. So that we may resolve for certain, that the disper- sion of the Levites over all the Tribes, had no relation, hitherto, unto the reading of the Law, or any public Sabbath duties.

CHAPTER - TOUCHING THE KEEPING OF THE SABBATH, FROM THE TIME OF DAVID TO THE MACCHABEES. (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 Sabbath days journey, not knowne 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 therin. (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 we traced the Sabbath from the Mount to Shilo, the space of forty-five years or thereabouts; wherein it was observed sometimes, and sometimes broken: broken by public order from the Lord himself; and broken by the public practice both of Priest and people. No precept in the Decalogue so controlled, and jostled by the Legal Ceremonies; forced to give place to Circumcision, because the younger; and to the Legal sacrifices, though it was their Elders: and all this while, no blame or imputation to be laid on them that so profaned it. Men durst not thus have dallied with the other nine; no nor with this neither, had it been a part of the Law of nature. Yet had the Sabbath been laid by in such cases only, 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 less reason of complaint. But we shall see in that which follows, that the poor Sabbath was enforced to yield up the place, even to the several necessities and occasions of particular men: and that without injunction or Command from the Court of Heaven. This further proves the fourth Commandment, as far as it concerns the time, one whole day of seven, to be no part nor parcel of the Law of Nature: for if it were the Law of Nature, it were not dispensable, no not in any exigent or distress what ever.

Nullum periculum suadet, ut quae ad legem naturalem directe pertinent infringamus. No danger (saith a modern Writer) is to occasion us to break those bonds, wherewith we are obliged by the Law of Nature. Nor is this only Protestant Divinity, for that Praecepta decalogi omnino sint indispensabilia, is a noted maxim of the Schoolmen. And yet it is not only School Divinity, for the Fathers taught it. It is a principle of S. Austin’s, 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 unlawful in itself, is unlawful always, nor is there any exigent or extremity that can so excuse it being done, but that it makes a man obnoxious unto God’s displeasure. For that is always to be reckoned an unlawful thing, which is forbidden by the Law because simply evil.” So that in case this rule be true, as no doubt it is; and that the fourth Commandment prohibiting all manner of work on the Sabbath day, as simply evil, be to be reckoned part of the Moral Law: they that transgress 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 soul? (2) But sure the Jews 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 Joshua and the Book of Judges give us nothing of it. Nor have we much in the whole story of the Kings: but what we have, we shall present unto you in due place and order. And first for David, we read in Scripture how he stood in fear of Saul his Master, how in the Festival of the New-moon his place was empty, how Saul became offended at it, and publicly declared that malicious purpose which in his heart he had before conceived against him. On the next morning, Jonathan takes his bow and arrows, goes forth a shooting, takes a boy with him to bring back his arrows: and by a signal formerly agreed between them, gives David notice that his Father did seek 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 readiness, sets the shew-bread before him, which was not lawful for any man to eat, but the Priest alone. Now if we ask the Fathers of the Christian Church what day this was, on which poor David fled from the face of Saul, they answer that it was the Sabbath. The Author of the homily, de Semente, ascribed to Athanasius, hath resolved it so: *, “most likely that it was the Sabbath. His reason makes the matter surer than his resolution. The Jews, saith he, upbraid our Savior, that his Disciples plucked the ears of Corn on the Sabbath day: to satisfy which doubt, he tells them what was done by David, on a Sabbath also.” *, as that Father hath it. S. Hierome tells us, that the day whereon he fled away from Saul was both a Sabbath and Newmoon; Et ad sabbati solennitatem accedebant neomeniaru dies. Indeed the story makes it plain, 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 only. Being so stale before, we may the easier think it lay not long upon their hands: and had not David come, as he did, that morning; perhaps he 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 sin against the eternal Law of Nature: he would, no doubt, have hid himself that day in the field, by the stone Ezel, as he had done two days before; rather than so have run away, as well from God as from the King.

Especially considering that on the Sabbath day he might have lurked thre, with more safety, than before he did: none being permitted, as some say, by the Law of God, to walk 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 numbering of the people; would sure have taken some impression, upon the breaking of the Sabbath, had he conceived that Law to be like the rest.

But David knew of no such matter: neither did Jonathan, as it seems. For howsoever David’s fact might be excused, by reason of the imminent peril; yet surely Jonathan’s walking forth with his bow and arrows was of a very different nature. Nor did he do it fearfully, and by way of stealth, as if he were afraid to avow the action: but took his Page with him to bring back his arrows, and called aloud unto him to do thus and thus, according as he was directed; as if it were his usual custom. Jonathan might have thought of some other way to give advertisement unto David of his Father’s anger: rather than by a public 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 unlawful on the Sabbath day. (3) This act and flight of David’s from the face of Saul happened in Torniellus’ computation, Anno 2974: and forty-six years after that, being 3020 of the World’s Creation, and the last year of David’s life, he made a new division of the sons of Levi. For where the Levites were appointed in the times before to bear about the Tabernacle, as occasion was: the Tabernacle now being fixed and settled in Jerusalem, there was no further use of the Levites’ service 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 public Ministry; some to be overseers and Judges of the people; some to be Porters also in the house of God; and finally, some others to be singers, to praise the Lord with instruments that he had made, with Harps, with Viols, and with Cymbals. Of these the most considerable were the first and last. The first appointed to assist at the daily sacrifices: as also at the Offering of all burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths, in the months, and at the appointed times, according to the number, and according to their custom continually before the Lord. The other were instructed in the songs of the Lord: Those chiefly which were made for the Sabbath days, and the other Festivals: and one he made himself, of his own inditing, entitled a Song or Psalm for the Sabbath day.

Calvin upon the 92nd Psalm is of opinion, that he made many for that purpose, as no doubt he did; and so he did for the Feasts also. Josephus tells us that he composed Odes and Hymnes to the praise of God; as also that he made divers kinds of instruments, and that he taught the Levites to praise God’s Name upon them, both on the Sabbath days, *, and the other Festivals: as well upon the Annual, as the weekly Sabbath. Where note, that in the distribution of the Levites into several Offices, there was then no such Office thought of, as to be Readers of the Law: which proves sufficiently, that the Law was not yet read publicly unto the people on the Sabbath day. Nor did he only appoint them their songs and Instruments: but so exact and punctual was he, that he prescribed what habits they should wear in the discharging of their Ministry, in singing praises to the Lord; which was a white linen raiment, such as the surplice now in use in the Church of England. Also the Levites, saith the Text, which were the singers, being arrayed in white linen, having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps, stood at the East end of the Altar, etc. praising and thanking God, for his grace and mercies. And this he did, not by commandment from above, or any warrant but his own that we can hear of, 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 settling 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 regal power in dictating what he would have done on the Sabbath day, in reference to God’s public worship. As if in him, the Lord did mean to teach all others of the same condition, as no doubt he did, that it pertains to them to vindicate the day of his public service, as well from superstitious fancies, as profane contempts: and to take special order that his name be glorified, as well in the performances of the Priests, as the devotions of the people. This special care we shall find verified in Constantine, the first Christian Emperour, of whom more hereafter in the next Book, and third Chapter. Now what was here ordained by David, was afterwards confirmed by Solomon (whereof see 2.Chron.8.14.) who as he built a Temple for God’s public worship; for the New-moons, and weekly Sabbaths, and the solemn Feasts, as the Scripture tells us: so he, or some of his successors, built a fair seat within the Porch thereof, wherein the Kings did use to sit, both on the Sabbaths and the annual Festivals. The Scripture calls it tegmen sabbati, The covert for the Sabbath: 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 equal; as well as in the Psalms, and Hymns, and public lauds, which David had ordained for both; without any difference. (4) From David pass we to Elijah, from one great Prophet to another: both persecuted, and both fain to fly, and both to fly upon the Sabbath. Elijah had made havoc of the Priests of Baal, and Jezebel sent a message to him, that he should arm himself to expect the like. The Prophet warned hereof, arose, and being encouraged by an Angel, he did eat and drink, and walked in the strength of that meat, forty days and forty nights, until he came to Horeb the Mount of God. What, walked he forty days and as many nights, without rest or ceasing? So it is resolved on. Elijah as we read in Damascen, *, etc. “disquieting himself not only by continual fasting, but by his traveling on the Sabbath, even for the space of forty days, *, did without question break the Sabbath: yet God who made that Law, was not at all offended with him, but rather to reward his virtue, appeared to him in Mount Horeb.” So Thomas Aquinas speaking of some men in the old Testament, Qui transgredientes observantiam Sabbati, non peccabant, “Who did transgress against the Sabbath, and yet did not sin; makes instance of Elijah, and of his journey: wherein, saith he, it must needs be granted, that he did travel on the Sabbath.” And where a question might be made, how possibly Elijah, could spend forty days and forty nights in so small a journey: Tostatus makes reply that he went not directly forwards, but wandered up and down, and from place to place; Ex timore & inquietudine mentis, partly for fear of being found, and partly out of a disquieted and afflicted mind. Now while Elijah was in exile, Benhadad King of Syria invaded Israel, and encamped near Aphek; where Ahab also followed him, and sat down by him with his Army. And, saith the Text, they pitched one over against the other, seven days, and so it was that in the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. Ask Zanchius what this seventh day was; and he will tell you plainly, that it was the Sabbath. For showing us that any servile works may be done lawfully on the Sabbath, if either charity, or unavoidable necessity do so require: he brings this History in, for the proof thereof. And then he adds, Illi die ipso Sabbati, quia necessitas postulabat, pugnam cum hostibus commiserunt, etc. “The Israelites, saith he, fighting against their enemies on the Sabbath day, necessity enforcing them thereunto, prevailed against them with a great & mighty slaughter.” Neither is he the only one that so conceived it. For Peter Martyr saith as much, and collects from hence, Die Sabbati militaria munia obijsse eos, “That military matters were performed by the Jews on the Sabbath day.” This field was fought, Anno mundi 3135: and was years after Elijah’s flight. (5) Proceed we to Elisha next. Of whom, though nothing be recorded that concerns this business; yet on occasion of his piety and zeal to God, there is a passage in the Scripture which gives light unto it. 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, for I will haste to the man of God, and come again. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? It is neither New-moon, nor Sabbath day. Had it been either of the two, it seems she might have gone and sought out the Prophet; and more than so, she used to do it at those times: else what need the question? It was their custom, as before we noted, to travel on the Sabbath days and the other Festivals, to have some conference with the Levites, if occasion were; and to repair unto the Prophets at the same times also, as well as any day whatever. In illis diebus festivis frequentius ibant 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 day’s journey; which came not up till long time after: sure I am was not now in use. Elisha, at this time, was retired to Carmel, which from the Shunamite’s City was ten miles at least; as is apparent both by Adrichomius’ Map of Issachar, and all other Tables that I have met with. And to the limitation of 2000 foot, or 2000 Cubits, or the six Furlongs, at the most, which some require to be allotted for the utmost travel on the Sabbath, is vanished suddenly 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 unless she bid him: which needed not, in case the journey had not been above six Furlongs. Neither New-moon nor Sabbath day? It seems the times were both alike, in this respect: the Prophets to be sought unto, and they to publish and make known the will of God, as well at one time as the other.

Quasi Sabbatum & Calendae equalis essent solennitatis, as Tostatus hath it.

If so, if the New-moons, in this respect, were as solemn as the weekly Sabbath: no question but the Annual Sabbaths were as solemn also. And not in this respect alone, but in many others. Markets prohibited in the New- moons, as in the Sabbath. When will the New-moon be gone, that we may sell our corn? in the eighth of Amos: the Sacrifices more in these than in the other, of which last we have spoke already. So when the Scriptures prophesy of those spiritual Feasts which should be celebrated by God’s Saints in the times to come: they specify the New-moons as particularly as they do the Sabbaths. From one New-moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. See the like Prophecy in Ezech.Chap.46,Ver.1.3. Upon which last S.Hierome tells us, Quod privilegium habet dies septimum in hebdomada, hoc habet privilegium mensis exordium: The New-moons and the Sabbath have the like Prerogatives. (6) Nay, when the Jews began to set at naught the Lord, and to forget that God which brought them out of the Land of AEgypt; when they began to loath his Sabbaths, and profane 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-moon, 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 wheat 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. Et Dei solennitates turpis lucri gratia, in sua verterent compendia, as Saint Hierome hath it. When on the other side they did profane his Sabbaths, and the holy Festivals with excess and surfeiting, Carousing wine in bowls, stretching themselves upon their couches, and anointing of themselves with the chief ointments: the Lord made known unto them by his servant Isaiah, how much he did dislike their courses. The New-moons and Sabbaths, the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. It seems they had exceedingly forgot themselves, when now their very Festivals were become a sin. Nay, God goes further yet, Your New-moons and your appointed Feasts my soul hateth, they are a trouble to me. I am weary to bear them. Your Newmoons, and your Feasts, saith God, are not mine. Non enim mea sunt quae geritis, they are no Feasts of mine, which you so abuse. How so? Judaei enim neglectis spiritualibus negotiis quae pro animae salute agenda deus praeceperat, omnia legitima Sabbati, ad otium luxuriamque contulere. So said Gaudentius Brixianus. “The Jews, saith he, neglecting those spiritual duties which God commanded on that day, abused the Sabbath’s rest unto ease and luxury.” For whereas being free from temporal cares, they ought to have employed that day to spiritual uses, and to have spent the same in modesty and temperance, *, and in the repetition and commemoration of God’s holy Word: they on the other side did the contrary, *, wasting the day in gluttony, and drunkenness, and idle delicacies. How far S.

Augustine, chargeth them with the self-same crimes, we have seen before.

Thus did the house of Israel rebel against the Lord, and profane his Sabbaths. And therefore God did threaten them by the Prophet Hosea, that he would cause their mirth to cease, their Feast days, their New-moons and Sabbaths, and their solemn 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 Shalmaneser the Assyrian; by whom they were led Captive unto parts unknown, and never suffered to return.

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 attain that knowledge, they entertained the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses; and with them, the Sabbath. They were beholding to the Lions which God sent amongst them. Otherwise they had never known the Sabbath, nor the Lord who made it. Themselves acknowledge this in an Epistle to Antiochus Epiphanes, when he made havoc of the Jews. The Epistle thus, “*, etc. To King Antiochus Epiphanes, the mighty God, the suggestion of the Sidonians that dwell at Sichem. Our Ancestors enforced by a continual plague which destroyed their Country (this was the Lions before spoken of) and induced by an ancient superstition, *, took up a custom to observe that day as holy, which the Jews call the Sabbath.” So that it seems by this Epistle, that when the Assyrians sent back 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 year of the World’s Creation, 3315. The Priest so sent, is said to have been called Dosthai; and as the word is mollified in the Greek, it is the same with Dositheus: who as he taught these new Samaritans the observation of the Sabbath; so as some say, he mingled with the same, some neat devices of his own. For whereas it is said in the Book of Exodus, Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day: this Dositheus, if at least this were he, keeping the letter of the Text, did affirm and teach, that in whatever posture any man was found, *, in the beginning of the Sabbath; in the selfsame he was to be *, even until the evening: as Origen hath told us of him.

I say, if this were he, and as some say; because there was another Dositheus, a Samaritan too, who lived more near 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. (8) This transportation of the ten Tribes, for their many sins, was a fair warning unto those of the house of Judah, to turn unto the Lord, and amend their lives, and observe his Sabbaths: his sabbata annorum, Sabbaths of years, as well as either his weekly, or his yearly Sabbaths. The Jews had been regardless of them all, & for neglect of all, God resolved to punish them. First, for the weekly Sabbath, that God avenged himself upon them for the breach thereof, is evident by that one place of Nehemiah. Did not your Fathers thus, saith he, and our God brought this plague upon us, and upon our City? yet ye increase the wrath upon Israel, in breaking the Sabbath. Next for the Annual Sabbaths, God threatened that he would deprive them of them, by his Prophet Hosea; as before was said. And lastly, for his Sabbaths of years, they had been long neglected and almost forgotten; if observed at all. Torniellus finds 3 only 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 tells them that they should remain in bondage, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for so long as she lay desolate, she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years. So that as many years as they were in bondage, so many Sabbaths of years they had neglected. Now from the year 2593, which was the seventh year after their possession of the Land of Canaan; unto the year 3450, which was the year of their Captivity: there passed in all 857 years just; of which 122 were years sabbatical. By which account it is apparent, that they had kept in all that time, but fiftytwo sabbatical years: and for the seventy Sabbaths of years which they had neglected, God made himself amends, by laying desolate the whole Country, seventy years 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 remain behind, and inhabit there, must have means to live: but that the tillage was so little, and the crop so small (the people being few in numbers) that in comparison of former times, it might seem to rest. But whatsoever Sabbaths the earth enjoyed, the people kept not much themselves. The solemn Feasts of Pentecost, the Passover, and the Feast of Tabernacles, they could not celebrate at all, because they had no Temple to repair unto: nor did they celebrate the New-moons and the weekly Sabbath, as they ought to do. Non neomeniae, non sabbati exercere laetitiam, nec 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 Captivity, we have just reason to suspect, considering what great difficulty Nehemiah found, to redress those errors. So little had that people profited in the School of Piety; that though they felt God’s heavy anger for the breach thereof, yet could they hardly be induced to amend their follies. (9) But presently on their return from Babylon, they reared up an Altar, and kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and the burnt offerings day by day, and afterward the continual burnt- offering, both in the New-moons & the solemn Feast-days, that had been consecrate unto the Lord. This the first work that was endeavored by their Zorobabel, & other Rulers of the people: and it was somewhat that they went so far in the reformation, as to receive the Sabbaths, and the public Festivals. I say the Sabbaths, amongst others; for so Josephus doth express 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 continual Sacrifices, observing their Sabbaths, and all holy solemnities.” By which it seems, the Sabbaths had not been observed, in time of the captivity. Nor were they now observed so truly, but that some evil customs, which had crept amongst them during the Captivity, were as yet continued: Markets permitted on the Sabbath, and the public Festivals; Burdens brought in and out; the Vintage no less followed on those days, than on any other. And so continued till the year 3610, which was some 90 years after they were returned from Babel: what time they celebrated that great Feast of Tabernacles; and Ezra publicly read the Law before all the people. Upon 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, or any victuals, to sell them on the Sabbath day, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath, or on the Holy-days, and that we would leave the seventh year free, and the exaction of every debt. Where still observe, that they had no less care of the annual sabbaths, yea, of the sabbaths of years, than of the weekly: and marketing not more restrained on the weekly Sabbaths, than on the Annual. A covenant not so well performed, as it was agreed. For Nehemiah who was a principal on the people’s part, being gone for Babylon; at his return, found all things contrary to what he looked for. I saw, saith he, in Judah, them that trod Wine-presses on the Sabbath, and that brought in sheaves, and which laded Asses also with Wine, Grapes, and Figs, and brought them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and others, men of Tyrus, that brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold it on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah: a most strange disorder. So general was the crime become, that the chief Rulers of the people were most guilty of it. So that to rectify this misrule, Nehemiah was not only forced to shut up the Gates, upon the Even before the Sabbath, yea, & to keep them shut all the Sabbath day; whereby the Merchants were compelled, to rest with their commodities, without the walls: but to use threatening words unto them, that if from that time forwards, they came with Merchandise on the Sabbath, he would forbear no longer, but lay hands upon them. A course not more severe than necessary, as the case then stood. Nor had those mischiefs been redressed, being now countenanced by custom, and some chief men among the people: had they not met a man, both resolved and constant; one that both knew his work, and had a will to see it finished. This reformation of the Sabbath, or rather of those foul abuses which had of late defiled it, and even made it despicable; is placed by Torniellus, Anno 3629: which was above a 100 years after the restitution of this people to their Native Country. So difficult a thing it is to overcome an evil custom. (10) Things ordered thus, and all those public scandals being thus removed: there followed a more strict observance of the Sabbath day, than ever had been kept before. The rather since about these times, began the reading of the Law in the Congregation. Not every seventh year only, 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 solemn meeting: not only in the Temple of Jerusalem, as it used to be; but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe. Ezra first set this course on foot, a Priest by calling, one very skillful in the Laws of Moses: who having took great pains to seek out the Law, & other Oracles of God, digested and disposed them into that form and method, in which we have them at this present. Of this see Iren.l.3.25; Tertull. de habitu mulierum; Clem.Alex.l.I.

Strom; Chrysost.hom.8.ad Hebraeos; and divers others. This done, and all the people met together at the Feast of Tabernacles, An. 3610, which was some ninety years after the return from Babylon, as before was said: he took that opportunity to make known the Law unto the people. For this cause he provided a Pulpit of wood, that so he might be heard the better: & round about him stood the Priests and Levites, learned men, of purpose to expound the Text and to give the sense thereof; that so the people might the better understand the reading. And this they did eight days together, from the first day until the last, when the Feast was ended. Now in this Act of Ezra’s, there was nothing common, nothing according to the custom of the former times, neither in time or place, or any other circumstance. First for the time, although it was the Feast of Tabernacles, yet was it not the seventh year, as Moses ordered it: that year, which was the first of Nehemiah’s coming into Jerusalem, not being the Sabbatical year, but the third year after; as Torniellus doth compute it. Then for the place, it should have been performed in the Temple only, as both by Moses’ Ordinance and Josiah’s practice doth at large appear. But now they did it in the street before the Water-gates, as the Text informs us. So for manner of the reading, it was not only published, as it had been formerly, but expounded also. Whereof, as of a thing never known before, this reason is laid down by Torniellus, quod lingua Hebraica desierat jam vulgaris esse, Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in ejus locum surrogato, “because the Hebrew Tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written, was now grown strange unto the peoples, the Chaldee or the Syriac being generally received in the place thereof.” And last of all, for the continuance of this exercise, it held out eight days, all the whole time the Feast continued: whereas it was appointed by the law of Moses, that only the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles should be esteemed and solemnized as holy convocations to the Lord their God, Levit.23.35.& 36. Here was a total alteration of the ancient custom; and a fair overture to the Priests, who were then Rulers of the people, to begin anew; a fair 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 year was accounted in the former times: the Villages, and Towns, as capable of the Word of God, as was the great and glorious Temple of Jerusalem: 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 Law had first been given them on a Sabbath day, and therefore might be read unto them every Sabbath day. This might be pleaded in behalf of this alteration, and that great change which followed after, in the weekly Sabbaths: whereon the Law of God was not only read unto the people, such of them as inhabited over all Judaea; but publicly made known unto them, in all the Provinces and Towns abroad, where they had either synagogues or habitations. God certainly had so disposed it, in his heavenly counsels, that so his holy Word might be more generally known throughout the world; and a more easy way laid open for the admittance and receipt of the Messiah, whom he meant to send: that so Jerusalem and the Temple might by degrees be lessened in their reputation and men might know that neither of them was the only place where they ought to worship. This I am sure of, that by this breaking of the custom, although an institute of Moses, the Law was read more frequently, than in times of old: there being one other reading of it, publicly, and before the people, related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah, when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year, for ought we find in holy Scripture. Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath; which, much about those times, began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation: First in Jerusalem, and after by degrees, in most places else, as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues, Houses selected for that purpose, to hear the Word of God, and observe the same. Of which times, and of none before, those passages of Philo and Josephus before remebered, touching the weekly reading of the Law, and the behavior of the people in the public 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, (besides what hath been said already) we will now make manifest. No Synagogue before those times, for there is neither mention of them, in all the body of the Old Testament: nor any use of them in those days, 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 proof thereof they produce these words, they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land: the supposition, and the proof, are alike infirm. For not to quarrel with the Translation, which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latin, and somewhat from the former English: this Psalm, if written by David, was not composed in reference to any present misery which befell the Church. There had been no such havoc made therof, in all David’s time, as is there complained of. Therefore if David wrote that Psalm, he wrote 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 referred; the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble, as it was in this. Magis probabilis est conjectura, ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias, as Calvin notes it. And secondly, there was no use of them before: because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course, and on Sabbath days. For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day, we either should have found some Commandment for it, or some practice of it: but we meet with neither. Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary. We read it of Jehoshaphat, that in the third year of his reign, he sent his Princes, Ben-hail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Nathaneel, and Micajah, to teach in the cities of Judah.

These were the principal in Commission, and unto them he joined nine Levites, and two Priests, to bear them company; and to assist them. It followeth, And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them, and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah, and taught the people. And they taught in Judah, and had the Books of the Law with them. This must needs be a needless labor, in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day: or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant (and extant must it be, if it had been read), in every Town and Village over all Judea. For what need they have carried with them in that Visitation, a Copy of the book of the Law; as the Text tells us that they did: had it been so, that every Town or Village in all the Country was provided of it. Therefore there was no Synagogue, no reading of the Law every Sabbath day, in Jehoshaphat’s time. But that which follows of Josiah, is more full than this. That godly Price intended to repair the Temple, and in pursuit 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 Book is brought unto the King, and read unto him; And when the King had heard the words of the Law, he rent his clothes. And not so only, but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom, to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people: it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God: or that the finding of the book had been related for so strange an accident; when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them. Or what need such a sudden calling of all the elders, and on an extraordinary time, to hear the Law; if they had heard it every Sabbath, and that of ordinary course? Nay, so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath, that as it seems, it was not read amongst them in the Sabbath of years, as Moses had before appointed. For if it had been read unto them, once in seven years only, that virtuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof. Therefore there was no Synagogue, no weekly reading of the Law, in Josiah’s days. And if not then, and not before, then not at all till Ezra’s time. The finding of the Book of God, before remembered, is said to happen in the year 3412 of the World’s Creation; not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon: in which short space the Princes being careless, and the times distracted, there could be nothing done that concerned this business. Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra, unto the Council holden in Jerusalem, there passed 490 years, or thereabouts, Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City, had them that preached him, being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day. So that we may conclude for certain, that till these times wherein we are, there was no reading of the Law unto the people, on the Sabbath days: and in these times, when it was taken up amongst them, it was by Ecclesiastical Institution only, no divine authority. (12) But being taken up, on what ground soever, it did continue afterwards, though perhaps sometimes interrupted, until the final dissolution of that Church and State: and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretaion of the holy Word, which did at last divide the people into Sects and Factions. Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm, that howsoever the Law was read amogst them, in the former times, either in public, or in private; yet the bare Text only was read, without gloss 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 several expositions on the holy Text: Ex quo natae disputationes & sententiae contrariae; from whence, saith he, sprung up debates, and doubtful disputations. Most probable it is, that from this liberty of interpretation sprung up diversity of judgments: from whence arose the several Sects of Pharisees, Essees and Sadduces, who by their difference of opinions did distract the multitude, and condemn each other.

Of whom, and what they taught about the Sabbath, we shall see in the next Chapter. Nor is it to be doubted, but as the reading of the Law did make the people more observant of the Sabbath than 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 Sabbatical years, but now they carefully observed them. So carefully, that when Alexander the Great being in Jerusalem, anno 3721, commanded them to ask some boon, wherein he might espress his favor 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 year might be free from tribute; because their lands lay then untilled. But then again, the liberty and variety of interpretation bred no little mischief. For where in former times, according to God’s own appointment, the Sabbath was conceived to be a day of rest; whereon both man and beast might refresh themselves, and be the more enabled for their ordinary labors: by canvassing some Texts of Scripture, and wringing blood from thence instead of comfort, they made the Sabbath such a yoke as was insupportable. Nor were these weeds of doctrine very long in growing.

Within an 100 years, and less, after Nehemiah, the people were so far from working on the Sabbath day, (as in his time we see they did, and hardly could be weaned from so great a sin:) but thought it utterly unlawful to take sword in hand; yea though it were to save their liberty, and defend Religion. A folly, which their neighbor Ptolomie, the great King of AEgypt, made especial use of. For having notice of this humor (as it was no better), “he entered the City on the Sabbath day, under pretense to offer sacrifice; and presently without resistance surprised the same: the people, *, not laying hand on any weapon, or doing any thing in defense thereof; but sitting still, * in an idle slothfulness, suffered themselves to be subdued by a Tyrant Conqueror.” This happened Ann.M.3730. And many more such fruits of so bad a doctrine, did there happen afterwards: to which now we hasten.

CHAPTER - WHAT DOTH OCCURRE ABOUT THE SABBATH FROM THE MACCABEES, TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE. (1) The Iews refuse to fight in their own defense upon the Sabbath; and what was ordered thereupon. (2) The Pharisees, about these times, had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions. (3) Ierusalem 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) Whether the strangers dwelling amongst the Iews, did observe the Sabbath. (6) Augustus Caesar very gratious to the Iews, in matters that concerned their Sabbath. (7) What our Redeemer taught, and did, to rectifie the abuses of, and in the Sabbath. (8) The finall ruine of the Temple, and the Iewish ceremonies, on a Sabbath day. (9) The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies. (10) Wherein consisteth the spirituall Sabbath, mentioned in the Scriptures, and amongst the Fathers. (11) The idle and ridiculous niceties of the moderne Iews, in their Parasceves, and their Sabbaths conclude this first part. (1) WE shewed you in the former Chapter, how strange an alteration had been made in an hundred years, touching the keeping of the Sabbath. The people hardly at the first restrained from working, when there was no need; and after easily induced to abstain from fighting, though tending to the necessary defense both of their liberty and Religion. Of so much swifter growth is superstition, than true piety. Nor was this only for a fit, as easily laid aside as taken up; but it continued a long time, yea, and was every day improved: It being judged, at last, unlawful to defend themselves, in case they were assaulted on the Sabbath day. Antiochus Epiphanes the King of Syria, intending utterly to subvert the Church and Common-wealth of Judah, did not alone defile the Sanctuary, by shedding innocent blood therein: but absolutely prohibited the burnt-offerings and the Sacrifices, commanding also that they should profane the Sabbaths, and the Festival days. So that the Sanctuary was laid waste, the holy days turned into mourning, and the Sabbath into a reproach, as the story tells us: some of the people so far yielding through fear and faintness, that they both offered unto Idols, and profaned the Sabbaths, as the King commanded. But others, who preferred their piety before their fortunes, went down into the wilderness, and there hid themselves in caves and other secret places.

Thither the enemies pursued them, and finding where they were in covert, assailed them on the Sabbath day; the Jews not making any, the least resistance, no not so much as stopping up the mouths of the Caves, *, as men resolved not to offend against the honor of the Sabbath, in what extremity soever. These men were certainly more persuaded of the morality of the Sabbath than David or Elijah in the former times: and being so persuaded, thought it not fit to fly 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 potuit suadere malorum, in the Poet’s language. But Mattathias, one of the Priests, a man that durst as much as any in the cause of God, and had not been infected with those dangerous fancies; taught those that were above 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 themselves, and finally be destroyed both they and their Religion. It was concluded thereupon, that whosoever came to make battle with them on the Sabbath day, they would fight against him: and afterwards it held for current, as Josephus tells us, that if necessity required, they made no scruple, *, to fight against their enemies on the Sabbath day. Yet by Josephus’ leave, it held not long, as he himself shall tell us in another place: what time, the purpose of this resolution was perverted quite, by the nice vanities of those men who took upon them to declare the meaning of it. But howsoever it was with those of Jewry, such of their Countrymen 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 battle as to expect it: as may appear by this short story, which I shall here present in brief, leaving the Reader to Josephus for the whole at large. Two brethren, Asinaeus, and Anilaeus, born in Nearda, in the Territory of Babylon, began to fortify themselves, and commit great outrages: which known, the Governor of Babylon prepares his forces to suppress them. Having drawn up his Army, he lies in ambush near a marsh: and the next day, which was the Sabbath (wherein the Jews did use to rest from all manner of work), making account that without stroke stricken, they would yield themselves, he marched against them fair and softly, to come upon them unawares. But being discovered by the Scouts of Asinaeus, it was resolved amongst them to be far more safe, valiantly to behave themselves in that necessity, yea, though it were a breaking of the very Law; than to submit themselves, and make proud the Enemy.

Whereupon all of them at once marched forth, and slaughtered a great many of the enemies; the residue being constrained to save themselves by a speedy flight. The like did Anilaeus, after; being provoked by Mithridates, another Chieftain of those parts. This happened much about the year 3957, that of the Macchabees before remembered, Anno 3887, or thereabouts.

Happy it was these brethren lived not in Judea; for had they done so there, the Scribes and Pharisees would have took an order with them; and cast them out of the Synagogues, if not used them worse. (2) For by this time, those Sects which before we spake of, began to shew themselves, and disperse their doctrines. Josephus speaks not of them till the time of Jonathan, who entered on the Government of the Jewish Nation, Anno 3894. Questionless they were known and followed in the former times; though probably 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 authority, being most active in their courses, severe professors of the Law, and such as by a seeming sanctity had gained exceedingly on the affections of the common people. The Sadducees were of less repute (though otherwise they had their dependents), as men that questioned some of the common principles: denying the resurrection of the dead, the hope of immortality. As for the Essees or Esseni, they were a kind of Monkish men, retired and private; of far more honesty than the Pharisees, but of far less 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 strictness did consist. In this the Essee seems to go beyond the Pharisee, that they not only did abstain from dressing meat, and kindling fire upon the Sabbath:*. “But unto them it was unlawful to remove a dish, or any other vessel, out of the place wherein they found it, yea or to go aside to ease nature. And on the other side, the Pharisee in the multiplicity of his Sabbath speculations, went beyond the Essee: all of 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, that No man 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 principal Rabbins of these times, found out a shift to satisfy the Text, and yet not bind the people to impossible burdens. This was to limit out the Sabbath’s journey, allowing them 2000 foot to stir up and down, for the ease and comfort of the body: by which device they thought the matter well made up, the people happily contented, and the Law observed. This was the refuge of the Jews, when afterwards the Christians pressed them with the not keeping of this Text, R. Achiba, Simeon, & Hillel magistri nostri tradiderunt nobis, ut bis mille pedes ambularemus in Sabbato, 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 mile, as before we noted: and this, with this enlargement too, that in their Towns and Cities they might walk as much and as far as they listed, though as big as Nineveh. This Rab. Hillel above named, lived in the year 3928, which was some fifteen years after Jonathan’s death: and therefore to be reckoned of these times in the which we are. The other two, for ought we know, were his Coatanei, 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 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 pretense unto the Pharisees of the latter times, to teach the people that they should forbear from dressing meat, that so their servants also might be present when the Law was read. Hence came the saying used amongst them, Quo parat in parasceve, vescetur in sabbato; He that doth cook it on the Eve, may eat upon the Sabbath. There is a Text in Jeremy, expressly against bearing of burdens on the Sabbath day. This by the Christian Fathers is interpreted of the burden of sin. Custodit animam suam qui non portat pondera peccatorum in die quietis, & sabbati; “That man doth safely keep his soul which doth not carry the burden of his sins in the day of rest, the eternal Sabbath,” as S. Hierome hath it on the place. See the same Father also on the 58th of Isaiah; and Basil, on the first of the same Prophet. And certainly had God’s intent been plain and peremptory, that whosoever did bear any burden on the Sabbath day should never enter into the kingdom of Heaven: our Savior never had commanded the poor 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 themselves, ridiculous. For finding it impossible that men should carry nothing at all about them; to salve the matter, they devised some nice absurdities. “A man might wear no nailed shoes on the Sabbath day, because the nails would be a burden: *: that which a man did carry on one shoulder only, was a burden to him; not what he carried upon both, as Origen informs us of them. So where they found it in the Law, that thou shalt do no manner of work, they would have no work done at all, no though it were to save one’s life: neither to heal the wounded, or to cure the sick, both which they did object against Christ our Savior; nor finally to take sword in hand, for the defense either of men’s persons, or their Country. And though their rigor herein had been over-ruled by Mattathias, and that it was concluded lawful to fight against their enemies on the Sabbath day; yet they found 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 battery. This is now made the meaning of the former law, and this cost them dear. As good no Law at all, as so bad a Comment. (3) For when that Pompey warred against them and besieged their Temple, he 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 Josephus tells it, commanded us to keep the Sabbath, and do no labor on that day: the Romans never had been able to have raised their Bulwarks. How so? *. Because the Law permits us to defend ourselves, in case at any time we are assailed, and urged to fight; but not to set upon them or disturb them when they have other work in hand. Which when the Romans found, saith he, they neither gave assault, or proffered any skirmish on the Sabbath days, but built their Towers and Bulwarks, and planted Engines thereupon: and the next day put them in use against the Jews. It seems too, that they were not well resolved on the former point, whether they might defend themselves on the Sabbath day, though they were assaulted. For on that day it was, that Pompey took the City, and enslaved the people. So Dio tells us touching the use the Romans made of that advantage: adds for the close of all, *, That at the last they were surprised upon the Saturday, not doing any thing in their own defense.”

Strabo therein concurs with Dio in making Saturday the day; but takes it for a solemn fast, *, wherein it is not lawful to do any work. And so it was a fast indeed, but such a Fast as fell that time upon the Sabbath. Josephus tells us only that the Temple was taken in the third month, on a fasting day: which Casaubon conceives to be the seventh, and Scaliger the seventeenth of the month called Tamuz; but both agree upon it, that it was the Sabbath.

As for their fasting on that day, it was permitted in this case, as before we shewed. Yet could not this unfortunate rigor be any warning to the Jews, but needs they must offend again in the self-same kind. For just upon the same day seven and twenty years, the City was again brought under by Sosius and Herod, who had then besieged it: in the same month, and on the same day, as Josephus tells it; *, and on the day called Saturday, as Dion hath it. So fatal was it to the Jews, 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 World’s Creation, Augustus Caesar being then in the Triumvirate. (4) By means of these two victories, the Jews being tributary to the Romans, began to find 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 Jews 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 forms of their Religion, being once observed: the Roman people, many of them, became affected to the rites of the Jewish worship, and amongst other Ceremonies, to the Sabbath also. It was the custom of the Romans to incorporate all Religions into their own; and worship those Gods whom before they conquered: Et quos post cladem triumphatos colere coeperunt, in Minutius’ words. Therefore the marvel is the less, that they were fond of something in the Jews’ Religion; though of all others they most hated that, as most repugnant to their own. Yet many of them, out of wantonness and a love to novelties, began to stand upon the Sabbath; some would be also circumcised, & abstain from flesh; others use Candlesticks and Tapers, as they saw the Jews. The Satyrist thus scoffs them for it.

Quidam sortiti metuentem Sabbata pairem, Nil praeter nubes & coeli numen adorant, Nec distare putant humana carne suillam, Quapater abstinnis: mox & praeputia ponunt.

Some following him, the Sabbaths who devised, Only the Clouds and Sky, for Gods adore; Hating Swine’s flesh, as they did man’s before, Cause he forbare it; and are circumcised.

Remember Persius taunteth them with their Sabbata recutita, as before we noted. Now as the Poet did upbraid them with Circumcision, and forbearing Swine’s flesh: 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 mortal men in love with smoke. Accendere aliquam lucernam Sabbatis praecipiamus, quoniam nec lumine dii egent, & ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine. Nay, some of them bewail the same, and wish their Empire never had extended so far as Jewry; that so the Romans might not have been acquainted with these superstitions of their Sabbaths. For thus Rutilius Claudius, having before upbraided them for the Circumcision and other ceremonies; doth thus deride them for their Sabbaths.

Radix stultitiae, cui frigida Sabbata cordi, Sed cor frigidius religione sua.

Septima quaque dies turpi damnata veterno, Tanquam lassati mollis imago Dei. Caetera mendacis deliramenta Catastae, Nec pueros omnes credere posse reor. Atq; utinam nunquam Iudaea subacta fuisset Pompeii bellis, imperioque Titi. Latius excisae gentis contagia serpunt, Victoresque suos natio victa premit.

Vain men, by whom their sluggish Sabbaths are So priz’d, yet have an heart more sluggish far: Who each seventh day to their old sloth devote; Of their tired God, a true, but lazy note. Other the dotages of that lying Sect, Me thinks no child should credit, or respect. O would Judea never had been won By Pompey’s armies, or Vespasian’s son! Their superstition spreads itself so far, That they give Laws unto the Conqueror.

Nor were the Sabbaths entertained only in Rome itself. Some, in almost all places of their Empire, were that way inclined; as Seneca most rightly noted. Eo usque sceleratissima gentis consuetudo invaluit, ut per omnes jam terras recepta sit, & victi victoribus leges dederunt. “So far, saith he, the custom of that wretched people hath prevailed amongst us, that it is now received over all the world; and the conquered seem to prescribe laws unto the victors.” Saint Augustine so reports him in his sixth Book De Civitate. And this is that which Philo means when as he calls the Sabbath *, the general Festival of all people: when he sets up this challenge against all the World, *; etc. “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 brute 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 Philo’s time, as a Jewish ceremony. For let Josephus be the Comment upon Philo’s Text, and he will thus unfold his meaning. “The Laws, saith he, established amongst us, have been imitated of all other Nations: *. Yea, 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 itself: who also keep not Fasting days, and Lamps with lights; and many of those Ordinances about meats and drinks which are enjoined us by the Law.” So far Josephus. By which it is most clear and manifest, that if the Gentiles in these times took up the fashion of keeping every seventh day sacred; it was in imitation only, and not as taught by the law, or light of nature. For were it otherwise, their keeping fasting days, and lamps with lights, and other things before remembered, must have been planted in them by nature also. (5) These Romans, and what other nations they were soever which did thus Judaize about the Sabbath, were many of them Proselytes of the Jews: such as had been admitted into that Religion: for it appears that they did also worship the God of heaven, and were circumcised, and abstained from swine’s flesh. Otherwise we may well believe that of their own accord they had not bound themselves so generally to observe the Sabbath, being no parts nor members of the Jewish state: considering that such strangers as lived amongst them, not being circumcised nor within the Covenant, were not obliged so to do. Tostatus tells us of two sorts of strangers amongst the Jews. The first, Qui adveniebat de Gentilitate, & convertebatur ad Iudaismum, etc. Who being originally of the Gentiles, had been converted to the religion of the Jews, and were 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 12th of Exodus where it is said, that every man- servant bought with money, when he was circumcised should eat the Passover: but that the foreigner and hired servant (conceive it not being circumcised) might not eat thereof. The other sort of strangers, such as lived amongst them only for a certain time to trade and traffic: or upon any other business, of what sort soever. “And they, saith he, were not obliged by the Commandment to keep the Sabbath, Quia non poterant cogi ad aliquam observantiam legalem, nisi vellent accipere circumcisionem: Because they could not be constrained to any legal ordinance, except they would be circumcised, which was the door unto the rest. Finally, he resolves it thus, that by the stranger within their gates, which by the Law were bound to observe the Sabbath; were only meant such strangers, De Gentilitate ad Judaismum conversi, which had renounced their Gentilism, and embraced the Religion of the Jews. And he resolved it so, no doubt, according to the practice of the Jews amongst whom he lived; and to the doctrine of the Rabbins, amongst whose writings he was very conversant. Lyra, himself a Jew, and therefore one who knew their customs as well as any, doth affirm as much; and tells us that the stranger, in the Law intended, Gentilis est conversus ad ritum Judaeorum, is such a stranger as had been converted to the Jewish Church. And this may yet appear, in part, by the present practice of that people, “who though themselves milk not their kine, on the Sabbath day, Permissum est iis ut die Sabbatino dicant Christiano, etc. Yet they may give a Christian leave to perform that office; and they to buy the milk of him for a toy, or trifle.” Add here what formerly we noted of their servants. Of whom we told you out of Rabbi Maimony, that if they were not circumcised, or baptized, they were as sojourning strangers; and might do work for themselves openly on the Sabbath, as any of the Israelites might do 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. And here it is to be observed out of Rabbi Maimony, that servants not being circumcised, might lawfully work on the Sabbath for themselves, though not for their Masters: which plainly shews, that the Commandment of keeping holy the seventh day, in the opinion of the Rabbins, was given unto the Masters principally; and not unto the servants, but by way of Accessory. So then it seems that by the Jews themselves, the keeping of the Sabbath was not taken for a moral Law; or supposed to concern any but themselves, and those of their religion only. 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 control or censure: no more than they would have permitted a sojourning stranger to blaspheme their God, or publicly to set up Idolatry, or without punishment to steal their goods or destroy their persons. The rather since their Sabbath had prevailed so far as to be taken up with other parts of their religion, in many principal 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 Country of the Jews was most resorted to by all sorts of strangers; and they themselves in favor with the Roman Emperors. (5) [sic] Indeed these customs of the Jews did fly about the Roman Empire with a swifter wing, by reason of that countenance which great Augustus Caesar did shew both to the men, and unto their Sabbath. First, for the men, he did not only suffer them to enjoy the liberty of conscience in their own Country; and there to have their Synagogues and public places of assembly, as before they had: but he permitted them to inhabit a great part of Rome, and there to live according to their country’s laws. *, “and yet, saith he, he knew that they had their Proseuchas, or Oratories; that they assembled in the same, especially on the holy Sabbaths; and finally, that there they were instructed in their own Religion. Then for the Sabbath, the Jews had anciently been accustomed not to appear in judgment either upon the Sabbath day or the Eve before. Augustus doth confirm this privilege, bestows upon their Synagogues the prerogative of Sanctuary, enables them to live according to the Laws of their own Country; and finally threateneth severe punishment on those which should presume to do any thing against his Edict. The tenor of which Edict is as followeth. Caesar Augustus Pont.

Max. Trib. Pleb. ita censet. Quoniam Judaeorum gens semper fida & gratafuit populo Romans etc. placet mihi de communi Senatus sententia, eos propriis uti legibus & ritibus, quibus utebantur tempore Hyrcani Pontificis Dei maximi, & corum fanis jus Asyli manere, etc. neque cogi ad praestanda vadimonia Sabbatis, aut pridie Sabbatorum, post horam nonam in Parasceve, etc. Quod si quis contra decretum ausus fuerit, gravi poena mulctabitur. In English thus. “Forasmuch as the Nation of the Jews hath been always faithful to the Romans, etc. I have ordained with the consent of the Senate, that they shall live according to their own rites and laws, which they observed in the time of Hyrcanus Priest of the most high God: and that their Temple shall retain the right of a Sanctuary, etc. And that they shall not be compelled to appear before any Judge on their Sabbath days, or on the day before in the afternoon; if any shall presume to do contrary to our Decree, he shall be punished with a grievous punishment.”

This Edict was set forth Anno 4045, and after, many of that kind were published in several Provinces, by Mark Agrippa, Provost General under Caesar: as also by Norbanus Flaccus, and Julius Antonius, Proconsuls at that time; whereof see Julius Antonius. Nay, when the Jews were grown so strict, that it was thought unlawful either to give, or take an alms on the Sabbath day; Augustus, for his part, was willing not to break them of it; yet so to order and dispose his bounties, that they might be no losers by so fond a strictness. For whereas he did use to distribute, monthly, a certain donative, either in money, or in corn: this distribution sometimes happened on the Sabbath days, *, as Philo hath it, whereon the Jews might neither give nor take, neither indeed do any thing that did tend to sustenance.”

Therefore, saith he, it was provided, that their proportion should be given them *, on the next day after, that so they might be made partakers of the public benefit. Not give nor take an Almes on the Sabbath day? Their superstition sure was now very vehement, seeing it would not suffer men to do the works of mercy, on the day of mercy. And therefore it was more than time, they should be sent to school again, to learn this lesson; I will have mercy and not sacrifice. (6) And so indeed they were, sent unto School to him, who in himself was both the teacher and the truth. For at this time our Savior came into the world. And had there been no other business for him to do: this only might have seemed to require his presence; viz. to rectify those dangerous errors, which had been spread abroad, in these latter times, about the Sabbath. The service of the Sabbath, in the congregation, he found full enough. The custom was, to read a Section of the law, out of the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses; and after, to illustrate, or confirm the same, out of some parallel place amongst the Prophets. That ended, if occasion were, and that the Rulers of the Synagogue did consent unto it; there was a word of exhortation made unto the people, conducing to obedience, and the works of piety. So far it is apparent by that passage in the Acts of the Apostles; touching S. Paul, and Barnabas: that being at Antioch in Pisidia, on the Sabbath day, after the reading of the Law and Prophets, the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation to speak unto the people, dicite, say on. As for the Law (I note this only by the way) they had divided it into 54 Sections, which they read over in the two and fifty Sabbaths: joining two of the shortest, twice, together, that so it might be all read over within the year; beginning on the Sabbath, which next followed the feast of Tabernacles, ending on that which came before it. So far our Savior found no fault, but rather countenanced & confirmed the custom, by his gracious presence, and example. But in these rigid vanities, and absurd traditions, by which the Scribes and Pharisees had abused the Sabbath, and made it of an ease to become a drudgery: in those he thought it requisite to detect their follies, and ease the people of that bondage; which they, in their proud humors, had imposed upon them. The Pharisees had taught, that it was unlawful on the Sabbath day, either to heal the impotent, or relieve the sick, or feed the hungry: but he confutes them all, both by his Acts, and by his disputations. Whatever he maintained by argument, he made good by practice. Did they accuse his followers, of gathering corn upon the Sabbath, being then an hungered? he lets them know what David did, in the same extremity. Their eating, or their gathering on the Sabbath day, take you which you will, was not more blameable, nay not so blameable by the law; as David’s eating of the shewbread: which plainly was not to be eat by any, but the Priest alone. The cures he did upon the Sabbath, what were they more, than what themselves did daily do, in laying salves unto those Infants, whom on the Sabbath day they had circumcised? His bidding of the impotent man to take up his bed, & get him gone, which seemed so odious in their eyes; was it so great a toil, as to walk round the walls of Jericho, and bear the Ark upon their shoulders? or any greater burden to their idle backs, than to lift up the ox, and set him free out of that dangerous ditch, into the which the hasty beast might fall as well upon the Sabbath, as the other days? Shoud men take care of oxen, and not God of man? Not so.

The Sabbath was not made for a lazy idol, which all the Nations of the world should fall down, and worship: but for the ease and comfort of the laboring man, that he might have some time to refresh his spirits, Sabbatum propter homine factum est, the Sabbath, saith our Savior, was made for man; man was not made to serve the Sabbath. Nor had God so irrevocably spoke the word, touching the sanctifying of the Sabbath, that he had left himself no power to repeal that Law; in case he saw the purpose of the Law perverted: the Son of man, even he that was the Son both of God and Man, being Lord also of the Sabbath, Nay it is rightly marked by some, that Christ our Savior did more works on charity on the Sabbath day, than on all other days else. Zanchius observes it out of Irenaeus, Saepius multo Christum in die Sabbati praestitisse opera charitatis, quam in alii diebus; and his note is good. Not that there was some urgent and extreme necessity; either the Cures to be performed that day, or the man to perish.

For if we look into the story of our Savior’s actions, we find no such matter. It’s true, that the Centurion’s son, and Peter’s mother in law, were even sick to death: and there might be some reason in it, why he should haste unto their Cures, on the Sabbath day. But on the other side, the man that had the withered hand, Matth.13; and the woman with her flux of blood 18 years together, Luk.13; he that was troubled with the dropsy, Luk.14; and the poor wretch which was afflicted with the palsy, Joh.5; in none of these was found any such necessity, but that the cure might have been respited to another day. What then? shall it be thought our Savior came to destroy the Law? No, God forbid. Himself hath told us, that he came to fulfill it rather. He came to let them understand the right meaning of it; that for the residue of time wherein it was to be in force, they might no longer be misled by the Scribes and Pharisees, and such blind guides as did abuse them. Thus have I briefly summed together, what I find scattered in the writings of the ancient Fathers: which who desires to find at large, may look into Irenaeus,li.4.ca.19.&20. Origen, in Num.homs.23. Tertull.lie .4. contr.Marcion. Athanas.hom.de Semente,p.1061.& 1072.edit.gr.lat.

Victor Antioch. cap.3.in Marcum. Chrysost.hom.39.in Matth.12.

Epiphan.li.I. haeres.30.n.32. Hierom. in Matth.12. Ambros.in cap.3.

Luk.li.3. Augustin. cont.Faustum, li.16.ca.28.&li.19.ca.9. to descend no lower. With one of which Father’s sayings, we conclude this list. “Non ergo Dominus rescindit Scripturam, Vet. Tost. sed cogit intelligi. Our Savior’s purpose, saith the Father, was not to take away the Law, but to expound it.” (7) Not then to take away the Law; it was to last a little longer. He had not yet pronounced, Consummatum est, that the Law was abrogated. Nor might it seem so proper for him, to take away one Sabbath from us, which was rest from labor; until he had provided us of another, which was rest from sin. And to provide us such a Sabbath was to cost him dearer, than words and arguments. He healed us by his Word before. Now he must heal us by his stripes, or else no entrance into his rest, the eternal Sabbath.

Besides the Temple stood as yet, and whilst that stood, or was in hope to be rebuilt, there was no end to be expected of the legal Ceremonies. The sabbath, and the Temple did both end together; and which is more remarkable, on a Sabbath day. The Jewes were still sick of their old disease, and would not stir a foot on the Sabbath day, beyond their compass: no, though it were to save their Temple, and in that their Sabbath, or whatsoever else was most dear unto them. Nay, they were more superstitious now, than they were before. For whereas in the former times, it had been thought unlawful, to take arms and make war on the Sabbath day; unless they were assaulted and their lives in danger: now, *, it was pronounced unlawful even to treat of peace. A fine contradiction.

Agrippa laid this home unto them, when first they entertained a rebellious purpose against the Romans, *, etc. “If you observe the custom of the Sabbaths, and in them do nothing, it will be no hard matter to bring you under: for so your Ancestors found in their wars with Pompey, who ever deferred his works until that day, wherein his enemies were idle and made no resistance. *, etc. If on the other side, you take arms that day, then you transgress your Country’s Laws, yourselves; and so I see no cause why you should rebel.” Where note, Agrippa calls the Sabbath, a custom, and their Country’s Law; which makes it evident that they thought it not any Law of Nature. Now what Agrippa said, did in fine fall out: the City being taken on the Sabbath day, as Jos. Scaliger computes it; or the Parasceve of the Sabbath, as Rab. Joses hath determined. Most likely that it was on the Sabbath day, itself. For Dion speaking of this war, and of this taking of the City, concludes it thus. *. “Jerusalem, saith he, was taken on the Saturday, which the Jews most reverence till this day.” Thus fell the Temple of the Jews, and with it all the Ceremonies of the Law of Moses.” Since when, according as Eusebius tells us, *, etc. It is not lawful for that people, either to sacrifice according to the Law, or to build a Temple, or erect an Altar, to consecrate their Priests, or anoint their Kings, *, or finally, to hold their solemn assemblies, or any of their Festivals, ordained by Moses.” (8) For that the Sabbath was to end with other legal Ceremonies, is by this apparent, first, that it was an institute of Moses; and secondly, an institute peculiar to the Jewish Nation; both which we have already proved: and therefore was to end with the Law of Moses, and the state of Jewry.

Fathers there be good store, which affirm as much: some of the which shall be produced to express themselves, that we may see what they conceived of the abrogation of the Sabbath. And first for Justin Martyr, it is his chief scope and purpose in his conference with Trypho, to make it manifest and unquestionable; that as there was no use of Circumcision, before Abraham’s time, nor of the Sabbath until Moses, *, so neither is there any use of them, at this present time: that as it took beginning then, so it was now to have an end. Tertullian in his argument against the Marcionites, draws out this conclusion. Ad tempus & praesentis causae necessitatem convaluisse, non ad perpetuit temporis observationem; “That God ordained the Sabbath, upon special reasons, and as the times did then require; not that it should continue always.” Saint Athanasius thus discourseth: “When God, saith he, had finished the first Creation, he did betake himself to rest, *, etc and therefore those of that creation, did celebrate their Sabbath on the seventh day. But the accomplishment of the new creature hath no end at all, and therefore God still worketh, as the Gospel teacheth. Hence is it, that we keep no Sabbath, as the ancients did, expecting an eternal Sabbath, which shall have no end.” That of S. Abrose, Synagoga diem observat, Ecclesia immortalitatem, comes most near to this. But he that speaks most fully to this point, is the great S. Austin; and what he saith, shall be delivered under three several heads. first, that the Sabbath is quite abrogated; Tempore gratiae revelatae, observatio illa Sabbati, quae unius diei vacatione figurabatur, ablata est ab observatione fidelium: The keeping of the Sabbath, is taken utterly away, in this time of Grace. De Genesis ad lit. l.4.c.13. See the like ad Bonifac.l.3.Tom.7. contra Faust. Man.l.6.c.4.

Qu.ex N.Test.69. Secondly, that the Sabbath was not kept in the Church of Christ; In illis decem praeceptia, excepta Sabbati observatione, dicatur mihi quid non sit observandum a Christiano, desp. & lit.c.14. “What is there (saith the Father) in all the Decalogue, except the keeping of the Sabbath, which is not punctually to be observed of every Christian?” More of the like occurs de Genesi contr. Manich.l.I.c.22. cont. Adimant.ca.2. Qu. in Exod.l.2.1u.173. And Thirdly, that it is not lawful for a Christian to observe the Sabbath. For speaking of the Law, how it was a Pedagogue, to bring us unto the knowledge of Christ; he adds, “that in those Institutes and Ordinances, Quibus Christianis uti fas non est, quale est Sabbatum, circumcisio, sacrificia, etc. which are not lawful to be used by any Christian, such as are the Sabbath, circumcision, sacrifices, and such other things; many great mysteries were contained.” And in another place, Quisquis dierem illum observat, sicut litera sonat, carnaliter sapit. Sapere autem secundum carnem mors est. “He that doth literally keep the Sabbath favors of the flesh; but to favor of the flesh is death.” Therefore no Sabbath to be kept by the sons of life. (9) No Sabbath to be kept at all? We affirm not so: We know there is a spiritual Sabbath, a Sabbath figured out unto us in the fourth Commandment, which every Christian man must keep, who doth desire to enter into the rest of God. This is that Sabbath which the Prophet Isaiah hath commended to us. Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it. Quid autem sabbatum est quod praecipit observandum, etc. “What Sabbath is it, saith S. Hierome, which is here commanded? The following words, saith he, will inform us that, keeping our hands from doing evil. This is the Sabbath here commanded, Sibona faciens quiescat a malis, if doing what is good we do rest from sin.” Nor was this his conceit alone; the later Writers so expound it. The Prophet in this place, saith Ryvet, thus prophesies of the Church of Christ, Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hands from doing any evil. Ubi manus suas a malo. And in these words, saith he, to keep a Sabbath in the Christian Church, is only to preserve our hands from doing evil. The like spiritual Sabbath doth the man of God prescribe unto us in the 58 Chap. of his book. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, etc. not doing thine own way, nor finding thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, etc. What saith S. Hierome unto this? It must be understood, saith he, spiritually. Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in Sabbato, ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libertas delinquendi. “For otherwise, if those things above remembered, are prohibited only on the Sabbaths; then were it lawful for us on the other days, to follow our own sinful courses, speak our own idle words, and pursue our own voluptuous pleasures; which were most foolish to imagine.” And so saith Ryvet too for the modern Writers, Perpetuam ab omnibus operibus nostris vitiosis cessationem, etc. “That everlasting rest from all sinful works, which is begun in this life, here; and finished in the life to come; is signified and represented by those words of Isaiah, ca.58.” They therefore much mistake these Texts, and the meaning of them, who grounding thereupon, forbid all manner of recreations and lawful pleasures, on their supposed Sabbath day; as being utterly prohibited by God’s holy Prophet. The Jews did thus abuse this Scripture, in the times before: and made it an unlawful matter, for any man to walk into the fields, or to see his Gardens on the Sabbath day; either to mark what things they wanted, or how well they prospered: because this was to do his own pleasure, and so forbidden by the Prophet.

But those that understand the spiritual Sabbath, apply them to a better purpose; as was showed before. And for the Christian or spiritual Sabbath, what it is, and in what things it doth consist, besides what hath been said already, we shall add something more from the ancient Fathers. If any man, saith Justin Martyr, which hath been formerly a perjured person, a deceiver of his Neighbors, an incontinent liver, repents him of his sins, and amends his life: * That man doth keep a true and holy Sabbath day to the Lord his God. See to this purpose also, Clemens of Alexandria, Strom l.4. So Origen, Omnis qui vivit in Christo semper in Sabbatis vivit; “That man, whose life is hid with Christ in God, keeps a daily Sabbath.” See to that purpose, Hom.23. in Numbers, Macarius tells us also, that the Sabbath given from God by Moses, was a Type only and a shadow of that real Sabbath *, given by the Lord unto the soul. More fully Chrysostome *, etc. “What else, saith he, is there of a Sabbath, to him whose conscience is a continual Feast, to him whose conversation is in Heaven? For now we feast it every day, doing no manner of wickedness, but keeping a spiritual rest, holding our hands from covetousness, our bodies from uncleanness. What need we more? The Law of righteousness contains ten Commandments.”

The first, to know God; the second to abstain from Idols; the third not to profane God’s Name; The fourth, Sabbatum celebrare spirituale, to keep the true spiritual Sabbath, etc. So he that made the Opus imperfectum, on Saint Matthew’s Gospel. Saint Augustine finally makes the fourth Commandment, so far as it concerns us Christians, to be no more than requies cordis, & tranquillitas mentis, quam facit bona conscientia, “the quiet of the heart, and the peace of mind occasioned by a good conscience.” Of any other Sabbath to be looked for now, the Fathers utterly are silent: and therefore we may well resolve, there is no such thing. (10) Yet notwithstanding this, the Jews still dote upon their Sabbath; and that more sottishly, and with more superstition far, than they ever did. A view whereof I shall present you, and so conclude the first part of this present argument. And first for the Parasceves, or their Eves, Buxdorfius thus informs us of their vain behavior, Die Veneris singuli ungues de digitis ab abscindunt, etc. “On Friday in the afternoon, they pare their nails, and whet their knives, and lay their holy-day clothes in readiness, for the reception of Queen Sabbath, for so they call it; and after lay the cloth, & set on their meat, that nothing to be done upon the morrow. About the evening goes the Sexton from door to door, commanding all the people to abstain from work, and to make ready for the Sabbath. That done they take no work in hand. Only the women, when the Sun is near its setting, light up their Sabbath lamps in their dining rooms; and stretching out their hands towards them, give them their blessing and depart. The morrow they begin their Sabbath, very early; and for an entrance thereunto, array themselves in their best clothes, and their richest jewels: it being the conceit of Rabbi Solomon, that the memento in the Front of the fourth Commandment, was placed there especially, to put the Jews in mind of their holy-day Garments.” Nay, so precise they are in these preparations, and the following rest; that if a Jew go forth on Friday, and on the night falls short of home, more than is lawful to be traveled on the Sabbath day: there must he set him down, and there keep his Sabbath, though in a Wood, or in the Field, or the highway side, without all fear of wind or weather, of Thieves or Robbers, without all care also of meat and drink Periculo latronum praedonumque omni, penuria item omni cibi potusque, neglectis, as that Author hath it. For their behavior on the Sabbath, & in the strange niceties wherewith they abuse themselves, he describes it thus, Equus aut asinus, Domini ipsius stabulo exiens, froenum aut capistrum non aliud quicquam portabit, etc. “An horse may have a bridle, or an halter, to lead, not a saddle to load him; and he that leadeth him, must not let it hang so loose, that it may seem he rather carrieth the bridle, than leads the Horse. An Hen must not wear her hose, sowed about her leg. They may not milk their Kine, nor eat any of the milk, though they have procured some Christian to do that work; unless they buy it. A Taylor may not wear his Needle sticking on his sleeve. The lame may use a staff, but the blind may not. They may not burden themselves with Clogs or Pattens, to keep their feet out of the dirt: nor rub their Shoes, if foul, against the ground; but against a wall: nor wipe their dirty hands with a cloth or Towel; but with a Cow’s or Horse’s tail may they do it lawfully.

A wounded man may wear a plaster on his sore, that formerly was applied unto it: but if it fall off, he may not lay it on anew, or bind up any wound that day, nor carry money in their purses, or about their clothes. They may not carry a fan or flap to drive away the Flies. If a Flea bite, they may remove it, but not kill it; but a Louse they may; yet Rabbi Eliezer thinks one may as lawfully kill a Camel. They must not fling more Corn unto their Poultry, than will serve that day: lest it may grow by lying still, and they be said to sow their Corn upon the Sabbath. To whistle a tune with one’s mouth, or play it on an instrument, is unlawful utterly: as also to knock with the ring, or hammer of a door; or knock one’s hand upon a Table, though it be only to still a child. So likewise, to draw letters either in dust or ashes, or on a wet- board is prohibited; but not to fancy them in the air.”

With many other infinite absurdities of the like poor nature, wherewith the Rabbins have been pleased to afflict their brethren, and make good sport to all the World, which are not either Jews, or Jewishly affected. Nay, to despite our Savior, as Buxdorfius tells us, they have determined since, that it is unlawful to lift the Ox or Ass out of the ditch; which in the strictest time of Pharisaical rigors, was accounted lawful. Indeed the marvel is the less, that they are so uncharitable to poor Brute creatures; when as they take such little pity upon themselves. Crantzius reports a story of a Jew of Magdeburg, who falling on the Saturday, into a Privy, would not be taken out, because it was the Sabbath day: and that the Bishop gave command, that there he should continue on the Sunday also: so that between both, the poor Jew was poisoned with the very stink. The like our Annals do relate of a Jew of Tewkesbury; whose story being cast into three rhyming Verses, according to the Poetry of those times, I have here presented and translated: Dialogue-wise as they first made it. Tende manus Solomon, ut te de stercore tollam.

Sabbata nostracolo, de stercore surgere nolo.

Sabbata nostra quidem, Solomon celebrabis ibidem.

Friend Solomon, thy hands up-rear, And from the jakes I will thee bear.

Our Sabbath I so highly prize, That from the place I will not rise.

Then Solomon, without more ado, Our Sabbath thou shalt keep there too.