Design and Ambition is to be serviceable in promoting the Eternal Interest of Souls and the Peace of the Church Your Servant in our Common Lord. J. S. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe Patriarchs had stated Assemblies for publick Worship Pag. 3. Sect. 1. They had stated Places for Divine Worship p. 4. Sect. 2. Stated Ministers with Maintenance Jacob's Vow The Egyptian Priests-Lands Cain's Offering p. 6. CHAP. II. The Patriarchs had stated Times proved from Gen. 4. 3. and Gen. 1. 4. p. 17. CHAP. III. These stated Times were weekly p. 19. Sect. 1. The Computation of Times by Septimanes common to all Ages Weeks of Years Gen. 29. 27. Affronts Sacred Chronology p. 20 c. Sect. 2. And to all Nations Computation by Months and Years of human Invention by Weeks of Divine Institution p. 25. Sect. 3. At the End of Days Gen. 4. 3. is the End of a Week p. 28. Sect. 4. Sons of God Job 1. 6. not Angels but Church-Members p. 30. Sect. 5. Sons of God different from Morning-Stars What is the Corner-Stone Job 38. p. 38. Sect. 6. The Sons of God Joh. 1. 6. proved to be the same with the Sons of God Gen. 2. 6. from the Proximity of the Times Job Contemporarian with Phaleg proved from length of his Age. Job was Jobab the Son of Joctan Daughter of Edom in the Land of Us Lam. 4. explained by Jer. 25. Job's Country Arabia Petraea p. 43. Sect. 7. Elihu wrote the History of Job p. 51. Sect. 8. Sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord was their Church-Convention on stated Days weekly p. 56. Sect. 9. The Chimaera of a Prolepsis Gen. 2. proved p. 61. CHAP. IV. The Weekly Patriarchal-Sabbath was Sunday p. 64. Sect. 1. The Patriarchal Sabbath was not Saturday proved from Testimony of Heathens Fathers Scripture which makes a vast difference betwixt the Sabbath of the fourth Precept and that injoyned the Jews by Moses p. 64. Sect. 2. The Sabbath of the fourth Precept and Mosaick grounded upon different Reasons p. 77. Sect. 3. The Patriarchal Sabbath was Sunday proved by two Arguments Saturday-Sabbaterians silenc'd p. 91. Sect. 4. The first Instance of celebrating Sunday before the Institution of Saturday-Sabbath Exod. 16. The pointing of the Septuagint refers the 15th day to their Morning Why that preferrable before the Hebrew p. 97. Sect. 5. The Assembly Ex. 16. 2. a Church-Assembly celebrated on course instructed by an Ecclesiastical Minister p. 115. Sect. 6. This 15th Day was Sunday p. 122. Sect. 7. The Saturday following was the first Saturday-Sabbath that ever was kept p. 126. Sect. 8. The other Instance of a Sunday-Sabbath kept before the giving of the Law by Moses Gen. 12. The Tenth Day there mentioned was Sunday It was on that day not the 14th that Moses and Aaron spake to the whole Church of the Israelites assembled not by an extraordinary Call but on Course for Religious Worship p. 132. CHAP. V. God rested on the seventh Day in his New Creation Man restored by Faith p. 146. Sect. 1. Proved in gross from the Analasis of Gen. Chap. 1 2 3 4. p. ibid. Sect. 2. Adam fell on the Day of his Creation p. 151. Sect. 3. He was restored the same day he fell The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World The Covenant betwixt God the Father and the Son betwixt God and Adam confirmed by Oath how Sect. 4. From thence God smelt a Savour of Rest and not before CHAP. VI. Saturday-Sabbath being the sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that of the fourth Precept Where it has not footing but only in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's death and give place to the Patriarchal p. 179. Sect. 1. The Jewish Sabbath a discriminating Badg an Antidote against Idolatry by worshipping the Sun The day of rest from Egypt c. p. 180. Sect. 2. Plain Intimations of its being local and temporary p. 181. THE Patriarchal Sabbath CHAP. I. Sect. I. The Patriarchal Sabbath Instituted Gen. 2. 3. Celebrated by the Patriarchs before the Mosaick-Law and Reinforc'd by the fourth Precept of the Decalogue was the same Day of the Week viz. Sunday that the Christian Church celebrates in Memory of the Creation of the World and Redemption of Mankind FOR the Illustration and Proof of this Assertion it will be requisite that Proof be made of these Particulars 1. The Patriarchs had solemn stated Assemblies for Publick Worship 2. They had solemn Set Times for the Administration of Religious Worship in those Assemblies 3. These Set and Appointed Times were Weekly Sabbaths 4. These Weekly Sabbaths were Sundays 5. The New-Creature Man Restored by Faith in the Promised Seed was that perfect Finishing of the Creation that made all very Good and that from which God smelt so sweet a Savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as therefore to bless it 6. The Mosaical Saturday Sabbath being the Sixth Day in order of the Creation was instituted upon other grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the Fourth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christs Death and give place to the Patriarchal CHAP. I. That the Patriarchal Church had Solemn Stated Assemblies for Publick Worship is manifest from their having Stated Places Seperate Persons and Maintenance in order to the Administration of such Worship SECT I. THat they had Sacred Places known by the name of the Houses of God the Presence of God c. is plain from Gen. 28. 17 22. This is none other but the House of God meaning the place of the Altar which his Grandfather Abraham had Erected at his first arrival in Canaan where his and Lot's Families used to call upon the Name of the Lord Gen. 12. 8. And he removed thence unto a Mountain on the East of Bethel and Pitched his Tents having Bethel on the West and Hai on the East and there he builded an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the Name of the Lord. And Chap. 13. 3. And he went on his Journey from the South even to Bethel unto the Place where his Tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hai unto the place of the Altar which he had made there at the firct and there Abraham called upon the Name of the Lord. In both these Texts the Place appears to be the very same where Jacob had the Visions of God to wit Bethel betwixt Ai and Bethel that is the House of God betwixt the City Ai and the City Luz for so was that City called at the first Gen. 28. 19. and afterwards Bethel from the House of God adjacent as the Towns Kirby Kendal Kirby Lunsdal Kirby Steven have their Names from the Churches there built Now that Abraham solemnized Publick Divine Worship here ut Familiam suam in Pietate instrueret that he might edifie his Family in Piety to use the words of Batablus may be rationally concluded from hence that he did not only Pray
a religious respect to the Sabbath which Moses forthwith explains vers 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath c. and vers 29. See because the Lord hath given you this Sabbath therefore he hath given you on the sixth day the Bread of two days Philo Judaeus saith that the Hebrews were taught by this which was the birth-day of the World whereof their Forefathers were ignorant a very likely thing that Abraham should not know the Patriarchal Sabbath L'Estrange will have it thus That the Elders made not strange at the Sabbath but at the strictness of the Rest now commanded But he should have called to mind that nothing was spoken of that till after the Elders were come to Moses And if we duly weigh the Story the Elders will be found to have thought it strange why the People gathered this double portion on Friday for the Elders knew that a double portion was to be gathered on the sixth day six days before And therefore would doubtless have applied themselves to Moses before now for a resolution if they had then questioned for what end they were to gather double on the sixth day and no other reason can be imagined of that delay but that their thoughts were suspended all that while upon the sixth day of the patriarchal-Patriarchal-week which is Saturday till they saw the People gather on the sixth day in the order of the gathering days and then and not till then they came to Moses that he might resolve them whether the Precept was to be interpreted of the sixth day in the order of the Creation which had hitherto been the preparation for the Sabbath or whether it was God's purpose to alter the Sabbath and transfer it from Sunday to Saturday and that therefore Friday now must be their preparation day or which comes all to one whether the six days were to comense at the first gathering-day or the first of the Patriarchal week And this seruple propounded by all the Elders that is all the grave men of the Congregation who had been longest acquainted with the Ancient Sabbath for Elders in the Text does not imply a name of Office but of Age Elders by Office not being constituted till Jethro had advised Moses to constitute them Exod. 18. 21. These it seems had not themselves gathered a double portion but thought the younger sort timerarious in their account of days and therefore acquaint Moses with it whom Moses thus resolves This is that the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. When did God say this but in his Precept to gather twice as much on the sixth day So that here Moses comments upon the Precept telling them that thereby God appointed to the Jews the morrow following to be thence-forward their weekly Sabbath Whereas if they had been used before to keep Saturday-Sabbath the Rulers needed not to have applied themselves to Moses for the resolution of such a question as a Child might have unriddled for it cannot be imagined but the day before the Patriarchal Sabbath was from the beginning a preparation to it whereon Reason would tell Men that they ought to set their secular Affairs in such good order as they might not be distracted by them in the sacred exercises of the Sabbath which from the first was so to be sanctified as no servile work was to be done thereon And seeing the Israelites at this time had no other servile work to do but gathering and dressing of Manna if they had not been restrained from that on the Sabbath there would have been no difference betwixt that and other days in respect of cessation from common work And therefore upon that supposition that Saturday was their ancient Sabbath the Elders must have been Children in understanding if they perceived not the reason of the Precept for gathering twice as much on Friday To sum up the whole of this Argument This is the first Saturday-Sabbath we find celebrated in the Wrold for 2453 Years at the lowest account and that the whole World should live to that age without a Sabbath is the most incredible of Incredibles In order to the vindication of the Patriarchal-Church from so black a Crime I have endeavoured to shew that Sunday-Sabbath was observed before the Institution of the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath from the first instance And I shall give more clear and unexceptionable proof thereof in the other forenamed instance drawn from Exod. 12. 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation of Israel saying On the tenth day of this mouth they shall take to them a Lamb c. SECT VIII 2d Instance If we reckon backward from the 15th day of the second month which we demonstrated to have been Sunday till we come to the tenth day of the first month we shall find that tenth day to have been Sunday and to have been celebrated by the Israelites and by consequence the Egyptians also their keeping thereon a solemn religious stated Assembly on course 1. That this tenth day fell on Sunday may be thus collected by a retrograde calculation of days from the fifteenth of the second month to the tenth of the first Second month Days 15 8 1. First month days 24 17 10 were 〈◊〉 For the proof of this Account wherein I assign 30 days to a month I have the plain testimony of Moses Gen. 7. 24. compared with Chap. 8. 4. where the beginning of the 150 days of the Waters prevailing above the Earth is said to be the 17th day of the month and the end of those days the 17th of the 7th month that is just five months if we assign to each month 30 days And Deut. 12. 13. She shall bewail her Father and Mother a month of days This would have been a Lesbian Rule if their months had not consisted of an equal number of days And if the days of every of those months wherein the Waters prevailed had not been thirty the space from the 17th of the second to the 17th of the seventh month would not have amounted to 150 days These Texs are so plain as I wonder how so many Men of great and deserved name came to be lulled except by Rabbinical Sorcery into so deep a sleep as to dream of the Jewish months having assigned to them alternatim 30 and 29 days and to forsake Moses his conduct in so plain a path An Errour which the industrious and learned Vsher gives his Testimony against in the Preface to his Annals The Year saith he there of the Patriarchs Egyptians and Hebrews consisted of twelve equal months of thirty days aepiece For that the Hebrews used Lunary months before the Babylonish Captivity is more than can be proved from this so infallible an Evidence that the Patriarchs reckoned thirty days to the month what ever Innovation after-Ages introduc'd is not here material A demonstrative proof may be drawn of the truth of the first Instance also that the 15th of the second month Exod. 16.
Temporum 2. That which I infer from the Premises in the next Place is this That the Calculation of Time by Months and Years was of humane Invention as being perfected by degrees and though the Patriarchs before the Flood in respect of their Longevity had a very great advantage of observing the Course of Sun and Moon yet they attained not to so perfect a knowledge thereof as to settle and fix an Astr onomical Canon but left that to the Industry of future Ages for otherwise Noah would have communicated that Canon to his Posterity and some of them would have kept in memory and have delivered down by uninterruped Succession a Tradition so universally advantagious to Mankind 3. That the Computation of Time by Weeks was of divine Institution as being perfect at first as all God's Works are Deut. 32. 4. communicated to and received of the whole Race of Mankind without dispute or least difference in Practice till God was pleased to appoint the Jews another beginning of Weeks as also of Years than he had instituted at the beginning Now it is not imaginable how the whole World could thus unanimously agree in this division of Time by sevens of Days if they had not received it by uninterrupted tradition from the Patriarchs nor from whence the Patriarchs could derive it but from God's resting upon and sanctifying the Seventh Day Of the sence of which Text we cannot possibly have a better Interpreter than this universal Practice of all Nations SECT III. Except what the sacred Text giveth to which I shall now apply my self and begin with Gen. 4. 3. and in process of time or as the Hebrew hath it Milkits Jamim at the end of Dayes Many Learned men following the Hebrew Doctors understand by dayes a year of dayes others understand by dayes years They that by days understand a year of dayes conceive these Oblations brought by Cain and Abel to have been brought at the end of the year when they had gathered the Fruits of the Earth that being a time when even the Gentiles celebrated the divine Goodness by Sacrifices and Praises as Ainsworth observes out of Aristotle Homer Pliny and the twelve Tables But I must crave leave to dissent not so much upon the account of the authority of judicious Mr. Gataker as of the strength of the reason he brings for his Opinion At the end of dayes i. e. saith he that is on the Sabbath Day which concludes the days of the Week For no other distinction of days had hitherto been mentioned by Moses than that which comprehends the Septimane Gen. 2. 2 3. An Argument of more weight if seriously considered than it seems to have at a transitory Glance for 1. It is very probable that Adam was so taken up with the Contemplation of Gods Mercy to him in Redeeming him by the Blood of the Promised Seed that he greatly minded not any other Computation of Time but that which God had appointed him in Commemoration of his Perfecting the Work of Creation by making Adam a New Creature of which more in the Sequel of this Discourse 2. However most certain it is that hitherto no Division of Time but that is mentioned and if Moses had intended here to express another Computation as suppose that by Years Years had as soon been said as Days and afterwards he Computes the Ages of the Patriarchs by Years if such a Computation of Time had been now in use as a Year why did not Moses mention Years here as well as afterwards SECT IV. The next Text I urge for Proof of this Branch of my Discourse is Job 1. 6. and 2. 1. There was a Day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Again there was a Day c. Or the Day came about again when the Sons of God c. I wonder to find so many Learned Men Interpreting Sons of God in this Text by Angels herein following the Septuagint caterva Angelorum But the best is it will not go down with the most Judicious of them without the Salvo of a Prosopopeia for when this question is put How is this Place according to this Exposition the Sons of God that is the Angels to be taken Literally or Figuratively Tirinus indeed answers Literally from the authority of Athanasius Salvian and Lactantius For Lactantius I think it not strange that he should interpret Sons of God by Angels in this Text of Job seeing I find him expounding that Text Gen. 6. 2. by Good Angels as being of opinion that the Good Angels who were set to guard them sell in Love with the Daughters of Men. The other Opinion mentioned by Lyra and Estius were more tolerable than this of Lactantius to wit That the Sons of God that is Daemones Incubi the Unclean Angels committed with the Daughters of Men but that it will be hard to find a Text where Devils are called the Sons of God and yet I am perswaded we may as soon find a Text where that bad as where good Angels are stiled the Sons of God in the Patriarchal Idiome as will be cleared by and by for though Tirinus be for the Literal sense of this Text yet the rest who concur with him in their expounding the Sons of God to be Angels will by no means allow that this Text be taken Literally Others saith Emm. Sa accipiunt Parabolice interpret it Parabolically This thing was not done as is here reported but there is in the words a Prosopopeia or Hypotyposis saith Mariana Haec non crasse ad Literam gesta So Grotius Per Prosopopeian vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indicat haec omnia c. So Scultatus the Divine Providence is here explained under the Form of humane Judgements So Cocceius And though Pinda and Sanctius say That no Inconveniency or Absurdity is Intail'd upon the Literal sense Yet Mercer flys to the subterfuge of the Figurative Sense from those Absurdities that follow from the Literal Satan saith he cannot properly be said to come into the Presence of God for in God's Presence is Fulness of Joy nor can the good Angels be said properly to present themselves before the Lord one day rather than another for they continually are before him beholding his Face But let them that expound the Sons of God Angels agree the matter among themselves how they please I demand in the mean time a solid reason or but the shadow of one why I must be tyed to that Exposition of one Phrase that renders the whole Context absurd and unintelligible without the help of a Figure when I have an Interpretation at hand of that Phrase that renders the whole Sentence in every Letter of it every way consonant to right Reason and the Analogy of Faith and is not incumbred with any absurd consequence for Satan might come into the Presence of God in this Sense as he entred into Judas while he was celebrating the Passover with our Saviour and the rest
Age imployed in the Service of Idols yet the Institution of the Calling it self and the Publick Maintenance annex'd thereto was truly Patriarchal as appears 4thly From Cain and Abel bringing their Oblations Gen. 4. 3. And it came to pass that in process of time Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an Offering unto the Lord c. Where I note 1. That they brought their Oblations to Adam who was Priest that he might offer them to God as the Hebrew Doctors teach saith P. Fagius And the Text makes for this for it is not said that they themselves offered them but that they brought them to be offered to the Lord that is by the hands of Adam the Priest of the Lord. 2. That they brought them to the Place appointed for Prayer as Aben Ezra observes from whence it may be infer'd that they met together to worship God in a Place destined thereunto and that there were always Solemn Meetings of Pious Men for the Worship of God and from Cain's not having that due reverence to this Sacred Assembly which he ought to have had the Hebrew Doctors conclude That he who has not a due regard to Church-Assemblies shall have no part in the Age to come P. Fagius And that those Oblations of Cain and Abel were offer'd in a Publick Assembly is apparent from the dejection of Cain's Countenance upon Gods rejecting his Offering for if God had declared his acceptance of Abel's Offering before Cain's only in private to his own Conscience what offence could Cain have taken thereat Nay if God by some visible token of his displeasure had not shamed him before the Assembly he would have been no more affected with a private Check then he was with that which God gave him afterwards notwithstanding which he slew his Brother besides the Apostle's Expression is a confirmation of this Heb. 11. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God testifying of his Gift for to what purpose is giving his Testimony if it be not in publick Hereunto assent the most Judicious Divines who conceive that God gave open Testimony of his acceptance of Abel's Offering by consuming it with Fire sent down from Heaven so Fagius Lyra c. so almost all the Fathers says Mede Turinus c. and Ainsworth observes that it was usual for God to declare his acceptance of Mens Offerings or rejecting of them the first by sending Fire from Heaven to consume them to ashes the other by leaving the Sacrifice untouch't We have Instances of the first Levit. 9. 24. when Aaron made the first Oblation 1. Chron. 21. 26. when David Sacrificed on the Threshing-Floor of Ornon 2 Chron. 7. 1. when Solomon Dedicated the Temple And of both 1 Kings 18. in the Contest betwixt Gods Prophets and Baals And in this Case of Cain and Abel where Cain's Sacrifice was not toucht by that Fire that consumed Abel's See Mede Turinus c. See Viccars his Decupla Psal 20. 4. Nay some Hebrew Doctors saith Fagius tells us that in that Fire falling from Heaven and consuming those Sacrifices that God accepted there was the appearance of the Face of a Lion God thereby signifying that Mens Persons and Oblations are acceptable to Him only through Christ that Lion of the Tribe of Judah See Fagius 3. The third Observation I make from this Text is That Cain and Abel had Families and Substance distinct from Adam's for Abel is commended for bringing the Firstlings and Fat of the Flock but it would have been no thanks to him to have cut large shives out of his Fathers Loaf Which is another argument that this was a Publick Church-Assembly consisting of many Families 4. The fourth and last Note I make upon this Text is this Seeing Cain's Oblation was not consumed by Fire which way could it be disposed of but to the use of the Priest that officiated For it having been once dedicated to God could not be alienated without Sacriledge and therefore must fall to the Portion of him that served at the Altar that he might live of the Altar having nothing else of the Altar to live upon but the Remainder of Oblations of the Fruit of the Ground Seeing all Oblations of Beasts and Fowl were whole Burnt-Offerings and therefore by the way it is a vain Question to ask what became of the Remainder of such Sacrifices and seeing also that Man was then confin'd to the Fruit of the Ground for his Food To conclude we see the Patriarchs had stated Publick Religious Assemblies Celebrated in Stated Places separate to that use and guided by Persons separate by Special Calling to that Work and maintained by Tithes Oblations c. Now it is against all Reason to think that the Faithful paid Tithes to their Priests upon any other account than that of their Sowing Spirituals in the Assemblies of the Faithful whose Temporals they reaped CHAP. II. The Patriarchs had Solemn Set Times for these Publick Ministers to Officiate in those Publick Assemblies THough this be sufficiently evident from the Premises for it is not conceivable how such Assemblies could meet if they had not Stated Times when to meet yet I shall offer these things for the proof of it 1. It is agreed on all hands that Ketz the word used Gen. 4. 3. At the end of Days signifies a precise fixt and certain end Whereupon saith Paul Fagius I am altogether pleased with this Opinion that this Text be understood to speak of a Certain and Stated Time of Divine Worship The Learned indeed dispute what stated Time is here meant Annual Monthly or Weekly but that a Stated Time for Religious Assemblies is here meant is I think consented to by all at least by Silence 2dly Gen. 1. 14. God Created the two great Luminaries to be Lemognadim for Appointed Seasons of Holy Assemblies ad Statas Solemnitates Let them be for stated Solemnities that being the proper signification of the Hebrew word in the Opinion of some Hebrew Doctors who therefore put this sense upon Psal 104. 19. He hath appointed the Moon for certain Seasons this is meant of the New-Moon and Festivals by some of our Doctors saith Aben Ezra in Psal 104. 19. And the Learned and Judicious Mede reflecting upon this word in both the Texts of Gen. and Psalms observeth that Festivals are pointed out by Course of the Moon Certum est pleraque Festorum ad Lunae motum descripta fuisse As New-Moons the Passover Pentecost Feast of Tabernacles And as the Moveable Feasts attend the motion of the Moon so the Immoveable follow the Course of the Sun It will be replyed perhaps that Moses wrote this by Anticipation and that his meaning is that after the giving of the Law these great Luminaries should be for pointing out Solemn Seasons But that in the Interval of above two thousand years they should serve only to direct men to the proper seasons for Planting Plowing Sowing Reaping Cutting of Timber c. as it is absurd of it self so it will be
made appear to be false in our handling the next General Head CHAP. III. These Set and Appointed Patriarchal Times for Publick Worship were Weekly SECT I. FOr the Proof of this let it be observed 1. That the Computation of Time by Weeks is common to all Ages for it was in use in the Patriarchal Age long before Moses as is manifest from that Speech of Laban to Jacob Gen. 29. 27. Fulfil now her week Some Learned Men to evade that Mortal Stroak which this Text giveth the Prolepsis are pleased to say that by Week is here meant Seven Years which Jacob was to serve after his Marriage to Leah before he had Rachel given to him for Wife and that the Interpretation of a Seven days Nuptial Feast was invented by later Jews and is a manifest Violation of the Text and Contradictory in it self I shall therefore in vindication of that sense of this Text that I give to wit that by her Week is meant the seven days of Leah's Nuptial Feast offer these things to Consideration 1. Fulfil her Week and we will give thee this also Here her and this are contra-distinguish't And by this is meant Rachel as is manifest of it self and therefore by her must be meant Leah and by her Week Leah's Week Which can be nothing else but her Nuptial Feast of seven days for Jacob never served seven years for Leah Nay he would not have served seven days for her if it had not been for the love he bare to Rachel 2. And Jacob did so he fulfilled her Week and he gave him Rachel also to Wife This answers exactly to Laban 's Proposal so that her Week both here and there is Leah 's Week and the this also there is Rachel also here The meaning therefore of Laban 's Proposal can be no other but this Fulfil her Week that is the seven days of Leah's Nuptial Feast Do not disturb the Marriage Feast by renouncing Leah and we will give thee Rachel also at the end of the seven Nuptial days upon condition that thou shalt serve me yet other seven Years for seeing I have cheated thee of thy Wages for one seven Years I cannot think thee so great a fool as to trust me for one seven Years more and therefore consummate thy Marriage with Leah by a voluntary lying with her the remaining Nights of the Marriage Festival for it was against thy Will that thou lay with her this Night And I will cast Rachel into thy Arms and thou shalt have thy Wages in hand before thou begin thy service of other seven Years 3. They that are for this Interpretation are the Cream of Criticks who for Illustration alledge that Parallel Text Judg. 14. 12 15 17. concerning Sampson's Nuptial Feast of seven days as the Custom of those Eastern Countries See Munster Vatablus Grotius Lyra Estius Junius and Trem. Syriach Aben Ezra David Kimhi Jerome Ainsworth Cornel. a Lapide Bonfrerius Malvenda Menochus and Paul Fagius in his Collation of Translations But the reasons they bring against the other Interpretation sway more with me than the authority of their great Names from the rest I shall Cull this one of Tirinus and Ainsworth Viz. That it is utterly inconsistant with Scripture Chronologie For Jacob lived only twenty years with Laban Gen. 31. 41. The first seven whereof he served before he Married Leah and if he had served other seven before he Married Rachel the six remaining years would prove too short a space of time for the Conception Birth and Suckling of the Children that were born to him after his Marriage of Rachel For the evincing of this note 1. That it was the Custome of Patriarchal Matrons to Nurse their Children Gen. 21. 2. That Reuben Leah's First Born was not conceived till some considerable time after the Marriage of Rachel for it was in pity of Leah that God opened her Womb Gen. 29. 31. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated he opened her Womb but Rachel was Barren A Barren Virgin sounds harshly in Physicks and Jacob's loving Rachel before he was Married to her more than his Wife Leah sounds worse in Morals 3. After Reuben Leah bears three Sons more and then ceaseth Child-bearing while Bilha Rachel's Maid bare Jacob two Sons and while Zilpa after Bilha had given over Child-bearing bare two Sons after all which Leah bears two Sons and one Daughter and after that Rachel bears Joseph Gen. 30. and is so far gone in Child with Benjamin before she left her Father's Country as in her Journying thence she was Brought to Bed Gen. 30. So that after Rachel's Marriage Jacob had twelve Children born unto him at single Births and in several years for the Bearing and Suckling whereof thirteen years space is little enough The Week therefore that Jacob fulfil'd before Laban gave him Rachel to Wife and he went in unto her which was the Consummation of Marriage cannot without manifest Contradiction of Scripture be expounded a Week of Years but of Days and that Week of Days can be no other than the seven Days of Leah's Nuptial Feast and this fulfilling of Leah's Week did both sute Labans covetous humour who by this means put off two Daughters with the Expence of one weeks Feasting and secure Jacob from being defrauded of Rachel after other seven Years Service as he had been the first seven years And lastly secure Leah's Marriage whom Jacob might have renounced in the Morning if his lying with her that night in-voluntarily had not been seconded with his voluntary lying with her the succeeding Nights of the Feast No Evasion here but the Sanctuary of a Prolepsis Jacob got Children by Anticipation This argument is so cogent as to make room for these so many Births From the Premises it is apparent that the distinction of Time by Weeks was in use in the Patriarchal Age long before Moses SECT II. And as this Computation of time by Weeks was common to all Ages so also to all Nations witness the Transcendent Encomiums given by Gentiles to the Seventh Day Hesiod stiling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sacred Day which Title Homer also gives to it more than once and saith that on that day all things were perfected With whom concurs Linus affirming that On the Seventh Day all things were brought forth Perfect that it was the World's Birth-day the chief of Days and perfectly good as Gataker quotes them at large From whence may be Collected 1. That it is the only certain Computation of Time wherein all Nations unanimously agree For though the division of Time into Months Years be universally embraced yet about the Compution of both there have been as many different Practises almost as Nations some reckoning to a Month more some fewer days some reckoning to a Year more some fewer Months as the Romans before Julius Caesar had but ten Months in their Year and even his emendation of the Kalendar was not exact But for this see Scaliger De Emendatione
it because that in it God rested from all his Works which he created and made For the understanding whereof and applying it for the support of a weekly Patriarchal Sabbath Let it be observed 1. That the conceit of a Prolepsis in these words of Moses is clearly overthrown by the Premises for if the Patriarchs had stated dayes of Publick Worship so long before Moses that practice of theirs could not possibly be grounded upon any other bottom but God's resting upon the Seventh-day and therefore sanctifying it to be a day of Rest by his Precept to Adam Seeing that their appointing stated dayes for such Worship on their own heads would have been no better than Will-Worship and such as God might justlie have expostulated with them about saying Who hath required this at your hands and so much a greater affront to the divine Majestie as they were further off from all possibilitie of Ignorance of God's resting the Seventh day Nay what presumption had it been in the Patriarchs to have expected God's blessing upon their celebrating other stated Days than God had sanctiâ—â—ed And sure none can imagine but that they waited upon God for his blessing upon their sacred conventions Thus the practice of the Patriarchs is a full Comment on this Text. 2. It being granted that this Text is to be understood according to the plain literal sense then it will cast light upon those Patriarchal Texts that have been alledged concerning their stated times for sacred Assemblies and clearly discover those Sons of God in Job to have presented themselves before the Lord on that Day which God had sanctified at first to that end Let this at present suffice for the proof of this third Proposition which will be further cleared in the handling the fourth viz. CHAP. IV. These weekly Sabbaths observed before the Mosaical Law were Sundays not Satterdayes SECT I. IN order to the vindication of this point from the charge of Novelty and singularity I shall first shew from the Testimonies of Heathens and Fathers as well as from Reasons deduced from Sacred Writ That the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Patriarchs ARGUMENT I. Those Encomiums above quoted which Heathen Poets who were antiently Divines and Philosophers bestow upon the Seventh-day cannot be meant of the Jewish Sabbath partly because those ancient Poets Hesiod Homer Linus had not any acquaintance with the Jewish Affairs as Josephus contra App. lib. 1. observes And therefore those Praises appertain to that weekly Day which that part of the Gentile World that retained the old Tradition observed But especially because when the Jewish Sabbath came under the observation of the Heathens they made a mock thereat they mocked at their Sabbaths Lam. 7. 7. And they who derided them were not the scum but the most intelligent Moralists such as Seneca quoted by St. Aug. de Civ Dei 6. 11. Septimam vitae partem sic perdunt vacando The Jews saith he spend the seventh part of their life in doing nothing With him concur Plutarch de Superst Rutilin in itinerario in diriding the Jewish Sabbath As also Juvenal Sat. 14. Cui septima quaeque fuit lux Ignava et partem vitae non attigit ullam The Jewish Seventh day is a day of Idleness and contributes nothing to any part of life And Persius Sat. 5. At cum Herodis venere dies c. Labra movis tacitus recutitque Sabbata palpes Even whilst thou art celebrating speaking to a Jew Festivals the forethought of the Jewish Sabbath makes thee look pale These seem to deride the Jews for the manner of keeping their Sabbaths for leading thereon a Dog's life of hunger and ease But Agatharcides as Josephus reports cont App. l. 1. styled the Jewish Sabbath it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corrupt or depraved Custom as degenerate from that weekly Holy-day which was anciently and universally observed Arg. 2. This may also be evinc'd by the Testimonies of those Fathers of the primitive Church who were nearest to the Apostles Justine Martyr Dial. cum Triphone Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath that is the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Question here discust betwixt him and Triphon the Jew was Whether the Fathers before the Law celebrated the Jewish Sabbath Of which Question the Jew held the Affirmative and Justine the Negative Tertullian contra Judaeos makes this Challenge to the Jews Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize that is observe Saturday as their weekly Holiday for that they did celebrate that Sabbath day that God instituted at the beginning Tertullian himself confesseth ad Martionem libr. 4. hoc privilegium donatum Sabbato a primordio c. This priviledge was granted to the Sabbath from the beginning c. Ireneus l. 4. c. 30. all the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath Eusebius hist Eccles l. 1 c. 4. there was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us this cannot possibly be meant of any other Sabbath than the Jewish 1. Because Eusebius in praeparat Evang. proveth that the most antient Gentiles had knowledg of and veneration for the seventh day out of Hesiod c. which they could not have from the Jews with whom these NaNations had then no Converse 2. Because of that last clause as also none amongst us which cannot exclude the Lord's day for Christians celebrate that but only the Jewish Saturday Grotius expounds these Testimonies as if they only denied the Patriarchs to have kept the Sabbath after the rigid mode of the Jews grounding that opinion upon Tertullian's Sabbatize but that learned Man should have considered that Tertullians curt Stile and his humour to coin new words renders him the unmeetest of all the Fathers to umpire the sense of others since his own is in very many places past finding out save by the light of other Writers and therefore the other Fathers that writ upon the same Subject ought rather to interpret him than he them But Grotius his haste to wrest these Testimonies out of the hands of the Prolepsarians makes this slip more excuseable than the course that Hamon L'Estrange takes to evade the dint of this Argument by denying the competency of the Witnesses For what humane Authority can be of more weight in the esteem of indifferent Judges than this of these Fathers who were as learned Defenders of the Christian Cause against Jews Gentiles and Hereticks as the Church hath been blest with especially in this case wherein they had to deal with most subtil Adversaries and therefore it is to be presumed that here they did not glance on the Question but examined and discuss'd it throughly neither indeed could these great Defenders of the Christian Cause have stood their Ground in maintaining the Christian Practice of Celebrating Sunday for their weekly Sabbath against the Assaults made from God's Command to the Jews to celebrate Saturday but by denying as our Saviour did
fell on Sunday Thus the first month days 10 17 24. The second month days 1 8 15 were Sundays And thus these Instances will mutually illustrate one another as we shall see in the remaining Inferences also which we shall make from the second instance of a Sunday-Sabbath 2. The next thing I infer hence is this That on this Sunday falling on the tenth of the first month Moses and Aaron spake unto the whole Congregation concerning the Ceremonies and institution of the Passover Exod. 12. 1 2 3. Speak ye unto all the Congregation the whole Church of the Israelites so Ainsworth saying on the tenth day that they take up a Lamb c. So Ainsworth verbatim after the He-Hebrew saying that the Hebrew refers the 10th day to Moses and Aaron's speaking to them more distinctly Speak ye on the tenth day And they shall take up a Lamb. And vers 21. where Moses speaks then to the Elders saying Draw you out a Lamb. And vers 22. Where the Text saith They went and did as Moses and Aaron had commanded them From these Texts it is clear as day that it was the tenth day whereon this Speech was made to the Church-Assemhly For this term Then can speak nothing less and the sequel implies that at the breaking up of the Assembly they went immediately and took up their Lambs the same day for the Passover that was to be kept the 14th day Besides seeing the taking up the Paschals on the tenth day was peculiar to this first Passover as also were several other Ceremonies of it as the after-practice of the Jews and of our Saviour himself evinceth It had been madness to have bid them on the 14th day take up Lambs on the tenth foregoing And therefore I wonder to see wise Men like so many Geese in a mist straggle in so much light from the plain path of most obvious truth into that maze of vulgar errour viz. that Moses spake to the Congregation on the 14th day touching the Institution of the Passover especially when I consider the weakness of the Argument inducing them into that opinion this being their Herculean because it is said This night will I pass through Egypt and stay c. But who save one that hath his Eyes in the ends of the Earth can over-look this easy answer that that is spoken of the night of that day whereof there he speaks not of that whereon he spake From the Premises also appears the over-sight of them who prolong the three days darkness unto the 14th day dreaming as if they had been frighted out of their Senses by some of those Hob-Goblins which they fancy appear'd to the Egyptians during that darkness that the Israelites took that opportunity to provide themselves for their Journey of Egyptian Jewels and other necessaries This indeed had been a robbing of the Egyptians with a witness But they must have had Cats Eyes if they could see where their Prey lay in that palpable darkness For though the Israelites had light where they dwelt yet I do not think that they could find in the dwellings of the Egyptians light enough to pilfer by if they did not bring it with them in their Eyes or Cloakbags from Goshan Lastly How opposite is this to the whole series of the History which tells us that the Egyptians lent them freely what they had occasion for That Moses was in high esteem of Pharaoh's Servants and all the Egyptians who would have lent or given the Israelites the Shirts off their backs to have been quit of them and their Plagues together 3. From the foresaid Texts and the circumstances of the story it appears that this Assembly was not called togather by special Summons upon an extraordinary account but met upon ordinary course For 1. How could Moses or any body else convene them on such a sudden who were scattered throughout all the Land of Egypt to gather stubble 2. Or is it probable that their Taskmasters would have permitted them to leave their work to assemble on such a Summons 3. Or if the Israelites had obtain'd a play-day of their Taskmasters is it like they would have met together upon the Summons of Moses whom they look'd upon as a Person that came to make their bondage more heavy Exod. 5. 21. and to whose promises they gave no heed the last time before this he had occasion to speak with them Exod. 6. 9. They must therefore either be assembled now upon course or by immediate inspiration of them one by one for there can be no other subterfuge here And there is no disputeing with Men that betake themselves to such fastness Briefly the matter stands thus The tenth day being the weekly Sabbath whereon they usually met to worship God Moses and Aaron are commanded by God to take the opportunity of that Convention to speak unto them And considering the Circumstances the Jews were then in it is more then probable that these Conventions were of the like nature when they met with Moses to chide and curse him And when Moses applied himself to them with promises of a good issue to his Message and they regarded not As also that the Egyptians and by consequence all other Nations celebrated the same day of the week Sunday For can it be imagined that the Jews in Egypt who were kept so close to their work as to have their task set them day by day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Samaritan Translation renders Pensum quotidianum their daily Task Targum Dnhelos per singulos dies every several day And the Hebrew opus diei in die suâ the work of every day in its proper day would be allowed to rest from their daily work on Sundays if their Taskmasters and the rest of the Egyptians had not themselves also rested on that day On the other hand it was as much the interest of the Egyptians to have the Israelites rest on Sunday as it was to the Jews to have the Stranger within their Gates rest on Saturday because if the Strangers might have followed their ordinary Callings on those days whereon the Natives rested from theirs they would have diverted the gain of that work from the Natives Grotius in exp Decalogue 4. The last Inference I draw from this second Instance is that this solemn Assembly was for Religious Worship Which the Premises duly considered evince For it was an Assembly upon course celebrated by the Israelites at what time the Egyptians also rested for what else can we imagine they met together but to worship God And seeing their Bondage was so hard that their Taskmasters would not let them rest while themselves were at their daily labour it may be safely concluded that on whatsoever day they had remission from their daily Tasks so as to meet together the Egyptians also ceased from their works I cannot see what possibly can invalidate this Consequence but the Dream of this Assembly's being kept during the time of Darkness when the Egyptians
could not stir from the place where they sate down upon which supposition indeed the Israelites might have had a conveniency of meeting without check But how weak their Arguments are who are of that Opinion hath been shewed already And I will now shew the Impossibility of it from the plain order of the sacred History For it is thence manifest that what passed in the whole 11th Chapter was after the end of the Darkness and before Moses went from Pharoah's presence That is as soon as Moses Chap. 10. ult had answered Pharoah Thou shalt see my face no more God tells Moses while he yet stood before Pharoah that he would bring one Plague more upon Egypt that would force Pharoah to dismiss them not only with their own Goods but with the Jewels Silver and Gold c. of the Egyptians also And Moses reports this Message to Pharoah and then and not till then Moses goes out from Pharoah in a rage Chap. 11. 8. Now it was after all this that God commanded Moses and Aaron to speak to the whole Congregation that should be assembled then on the 10th day Besides God's bidding both Moses and Aaron speak to the Congregation argues it to have been a Church-Assembly Chap. 4. 15. Thou shalt speak to Aaron the Levite and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth and his mouth And he shall be thy Spokesman unto the People And Chap. 7. 1. Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet The meaning therefore of Speak ye c. Chap. 12. 1. is That Moses should speak to Aaron and Aaron speak to the People Now why must Aaron speak to the People if they had not been a Church-Assembly seeing he was not a temporary but standing Prophet nor a Prophet who received Revelations from God but publish'd to the People divine Revelations received by Moses which is the proper work of an Ecclesiastical Minister in a Church-Assembly 1 Cor. 14. 23 24. But what is reported of this Assembly Exod. 12. 27. that at its breaking up the People bowed the head and worshipped puts it beyond all doubt that it was conven'd for Religious Worship And yet let me add as a joint-confirmation of the whole premises that it is scarce conceivable whence in more likelihood than from the Patriarchal Custom of celebrating Sunday-Sabbath could flow that most ancient and universal Idolatry of worshipping the Sun as the most generally beneficient and salvifick Deity Or from whence else could proceed the change of the Name of the City On where Joseph's Father-in-law the Prince-Priest or Metropolitan of all Egypt had his residence into that of Heliopolis or the City of the Sun but from the abuse and misinterpretation of the Patriarchal Sabbath conceiving that Planet whose name that Day bore which was celebrated as the chief Day of the Week to be the chief God For that the Sun was worshipped of the Egyptians and all Nations as the general all-healing all-saving Deity is affirmed by Diodorus Macrobius Agellius and all the Ancients with unanimous consent A quovis salubris subvenit animis corporibusque mortalium Macrob. Saturnal l. 1. c. 20. And so decry the Opinion of the Heathen that the Sun was a God because the Day called by his Name was dedicated of all the Days of the Week to divine Worship it seemed good to the Christian Church to give it a new name the Lords Day as being celebrated in memory of our Lord's Resurrection who on that Day entred into his Rest and ceased from his Works as God did from his So that we have in these two Instances which fell within the space of five Weeks an account given of the Patriarches keeping two Sunday-Sabbaths whereas we hear not of two Saturday-Sabbaths kept either by the Patriarchs or the Jews in the whole Old-Testament though that contains an History of the Church for above 3500 years I mean Saturday-Sabbaths circumstanced as these Sunday-Sabbaths are with the nomination of the day and month whereon they were celebrated CHAP. V. The new Creature Man restored by faith in the promised Seed was that finishing perfection of the Creation which made all very good and from which God smelled so sweet a savour of Rest on the Seventh Day as to bless and sanctify it SECT I. FOR the proof of this in general let us consider the order of Time respecting Moses his Narrative of Man's Creation Male and Female and the immediate Consequents thereof till they were turned out of Paradise and thence we may certainly collect that Adam fell and was restored on the sixth day 1. That Eve was formed the sixth day is without all doubt And therefore the History in the whole second Chapter from the end of vers 3. in order of time immediately follows the mention of God's creating them Male and Female Chap. 1. 27. and precedes what is recorded from the beginning of Vers 28. Chap. 1. And God blessed them and said unto them be fruitsul and multiply though in the order of narration it be set after because Moses would not interpose so long a Parenthesis in his breviate of the Creation as the manner of creation and disposal of the Female makes 2. The whole third Chapter touching the Temptation Fall Promise of Christ and turning out of Eden in time precedes God's Grant to Adam and Eve made Chap. 1. vers 29. Behold I have given you every Herb upon the face of the whole Earth and every Tree c. For while they were in Eden they had leave only to eat of the Trees of the Garden and not of all them neither Chap. 2. 17. They must therefore have starv'd after they were turn'd out of Paradise if God had not enlarged their Charter And to find what that was and when granted we must recur back from the end of the third Chapter where God takes away the Table he had furnish'd for them in Eden unto the forequoted chap. 1. 29. where he spreads a larger Table for them furnish'd with every Herb and Tree upon the face of the whole Earth For it is to be noted that although Beasts and Birds and Fishes fall to 't without saying Grace and those that live by prey sustain themselves not only with Vegitables but Animals without asking other leave than their own natures give them yet Man as he had not right to feed on Animals till God granted him that power after the Flood Gen. 9. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you even as the green Herb have I given you all things So neither could he deprive Vegitables of life for the sustenance of his own till God granted him liberty 3. From this Grant therefore Chap. 1. 29. we must continue the Story if we will bring it into due order of time unto the end of vers 3. chap. 2. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested c. And thence pass over the remaining part of the second and
blessing Adam in turning him from his Iniquity before the beginning of Days natural on the sixth creating-Creating-Day and will continue the Exercise of it to the end of Days natural otherwise he would not be a Priest without beginning and end of Days Heb. 7. 3. 4. That Adam did not defer his Repentance but forthwith complied with the gracious Terms that were tendred him cannot be doubted if we seriously consider how utterly incredible it is that he who was so ashamed of himself and his Nakedness should refuse to beg at any rate Raiment of Christ to cover his Nakedness Rev. 3. That he who was so confounded in himself as he ran to hide himself in the Bushes from the Presence of God should stand consulting whether he should accept or refuse Mercy offered That he whose own Conscience and God greater than his Conscience had condemned so as he saw his Soul drawing nigh unto the Grave and his Life to the Murderers should when God not by a Servant but his Son sent this Message to him I have received the Atonement I have accepted the Ransom Job 33. reject the Benefit of that Atonement the Fruit of that Ransom That he who had known what it was to have Communion with God should under the deepest and most deplorable sense of its loss not be ready to imbrace the means of recovering that Communion Especially if we duly ponderate to what end those Beasts were slain of whose Skins God made them Coats of Honour seeing Adam and Eve could not slay them for Food for the Flesh of Animals was not allowed Mankind for Meat till after the Flood That their Flesh was offered in Sacrifice is the common Tenet of most judicious Divines and that partly it was disposed of that way seems very probable but the Scripture does more than hint two other ends of slaying those Beasts which I wonder have not been taken notice of The first for the striking of the Covenant betwixt God the Father and the Son when that Oath which the Sacred Scripture so frequently mentions past betwixt them Psalm 110. 4. The Lord sware and will not repent This Oath past at Christ's Initiation into his Mediatorship Forasmuch as that was not without an Oath c. Heb. 7. 20. By this Oath Christ became or was made the Surety of that better Covenant and more antient than that of Moses These Covenants by Oath for the greater solemnity thereof were made thus Beasts being cut in twain and the parts laid a sunder one against another as Shoulder against Shoulder and Leg against Leg with a space to go between The Parties covenanting passing betwixt the Pieces made Oath Gen. 15. 18. Jer. 24. 18. The Covenant which they made when they cut the Bullock in twain and passed between the parts of it saying Let me be struck as this Beast is struck if I break this Covenant whence came the Phrase of ferire foedus to strike or smite Covenant Now this Oath was given and taken betwixt God the Father and the Son before Christ called to Adam saying Where art thou for otherwise he would have entred upon his Mediatory Office without an Oath And it is very probable that the Voice of God walking in the Garden which Adam heard before that Call was the Voice of the Son of God passing through the Parts of the divided Beasts The Second end of slaying Beasts was for the striking of the Covenant betwixt God and Adam a thing usual in the Ratification of all other Covenants betwixt God and Man as that with Abraham Gen. 15. 18. That with the Jews Exod. 24. 5. half of the Blood of the Sacrifices was sprinkled upon the Altar which represented God and the other half upon the People or the twelve Pillars representing the twelve Tribes after they had consented to the Covenant at the reading of the Book saying Behold the Blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath stricken with you concerning all these Words See Ainsworth on Psal 50. 5. My Saints that have stricken a Covenant with me by Sacrifice But the Apostle's Argument Heb. 9. 16. Where a Testament is there must of necessity be the Death of the Testator For a Testament is of no force at all while the Testator liveth from whence he inferreth that therefore the first Testament was not without Blood will with equal Firmness support this Inference That the first Covenant of Grace with Adam was ratified by Blood And that the Testator must of necessity be dead in Type and Effigy as well at the sealing of that as this And now in the third place comes in that other use of the Flesh of these slain Beasts to wit Adam's offering them in Sacrifice as a Burnt-Offering for the Lord. Thus at that mutual Stipulation betwixt God and Israel Ex. 24. 5. They offered Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices of Peace unto the Lord. And at God's covenanting with Noah he offered Burnt-Offerings Gen. 8. 20. in all likelihood of the Beasts that had been first cut in twain For this was a Covenant by Oath Isa 54. 9. I have sworn that the Waters of Noah shall no more go over the Earth and therefore struck not only by God's stretching out his Right-hand and swearing as the Hebrew Doctors conceive but by passing between the pieces of the Bullock c. that being the most ancient Patriarchal Mode of ratifying a Covenant by Oath and taken up from this Primitive Example of God's Covenanting with Adam Here we have an account of the disposal of the Flesh of those Beasts with whose Skins God apparell'd Adam and Eve fully consonant to the holy Scriptures and such as speaks Adam to have consented to the Covenant upon its first proposal and the New Creature Man restored by Faith in Christ to have been brought forth into actual Existence before that Seventh Day whereon God rested 5. And now and not till now the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the Hoast of them when this Captain of the Lord's Hoast had his Commission sealed had mustered his Army and administred Sacramentum Militare the Military Oath to his holy Elect and faithful Ones his Army on Earth was but a small Company consisting but of two but it was terrible with Banners the Banner of Love over it the Banner of defiance against the Enemy who took this Captain of their Salvation for so many and beheld in these two such a Troop coming tho but of Sheep yet led on by the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as at its first looking out in this Morning of the day of Grace the ramping and roaring Lion was Thunder-strook prostrate laid flat upon the Ground and made to creep upon his Belly had none to side with him ever since save his own profligated Angels that had forsaken their first Station and a cripled crew of Kaitiffs that were bowed together by Satan and could not stand upright a Company of Monsters in human shape with two-legg'd Bodies and four-footed Souls and had
nothing left for Forrage to himself and 's Army nothing to feed on but Dust the carnal sensual devilish part of Mankind Now and not till now every Tree brought forth Fruit in its kind when the true Vine began to flourish when the Tree of Life had thus put forth its Leaves and Fruit for the healing of Mankind Till God thus shined in Man's Heart to give the Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ he had not commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness out of that more dismal Darkness then sate upon the Face of the unformed Earth even that wherewith Adam's Sin had invelop'd the whole Creation and made it a more confused Chaos than that rude and indigested Lump out of which it had been reduced For hereby Adam defac'd the Image of God so far lost the the Dominion of the Creature as he retained not so much thereof as the Rule over himself Nay the whole Fabrick of the World was loosned and ready to fall this Keistone of the Arch being crumbled into Dust If Christ had not sustained the Weight of that ruinous Building upon his own Shoulders while it was a repairing by God's making Adam anew and building him upon a new Foundation even the Rock of Ages that precious and elect Corner-Stone at the laying whereof the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Job 38. 6 7. Wast thou by when he laid the chief Corner-Stone thereof when the Morning Stars sang together c. Gen. 2. 4. These are the Generations of Heaven and Earth in the day that Jehovah made the Earth and the Heavens The name of Jehovah is here first given to God which Name the Cabalists observe to imply the Mercy of God as Elohim signifies his Justice P. Fagius in locum who observes also that the word Tholedhoth Generations is no where writ perfectly but here and Ruth 4. 18. because these Generations only to wit of the World and the Messias of whose Family the Book of Ruth treateth are perfect Now was Man twice formed as is implied vers 7. And the Lord God formed Vai-jitzer duplex hic est Jod ad significandum inquit R. S. duplicem hominis formationem hujus futuri seculi post Resurrectionem P. Fagius Here is a double Jod to signifie the two-fold Generation of Adam the first relating to this World the second to the World to come that is his Formation as Man his Reformation as a new Man And these Generations thus perfected are said vers 4. to be made in one day because the whole Creation was perfected by Man's new Creation at the entrance of the seventh day 6. Till all the Host of Heaven and Earth was thus finished by the Formation of the new Creature and Introduction of the second Adam God had not made sufficient Preparation for his resting in his Works as very good and altogether adequate to the bringing about of his own glorious and gracious ends But now this Workmanship of God created in Christ for good Works Eph. 2. 9. being made Christ's personal being exhibited in the Promise as adopted into Man's Family and Christ mystical being born of the immortal Seed of that Word of Promise and by Faith adopted into the Family of God the Pleasure of the Lord thus prospering in the Mediator's Hands and Christ's seeing and reaping the Fruit of the travel of his Soul what could the issue of this be but Satisfaction Acquiescency Rest Man renewed and restored into Communion with God through the Mediation of the Son of God was in the fore-Appointment of it the mutual Pleasure of God the Father and God the Son from all Eternity Prov. 8. 29 30 31. When he appointed the Foundations of the Earth then was I by him I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him in the habitable Parts of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. The Son's delight was among the Sons of Men in the habitable parts of the Earth before Man was created or the Foundations of the Earth laid save only in the Decree and Appointment of God And this rejoycing of the Son was the Father's delight And for this Pleasures sake Heaven and Earth and the whole Furniture of both were created Rev. 4. 11. Thou hast created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were created The whole World say the Jewish Doctors was created for the Messias and the Messias say all Christians was exhibited for the Redemption of Mankind from that state of Sin and Misery into which we fell through the Transgression of the Proto-plast This Redemption was tendred to Adam in the Promise of the Woman's Seed and accepted by Adam through Faith in that Promise and that acceptance ratified by a Covenant of Salt by a Sacrifice salted with Fire the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering which burning upon the Altar all Night unto the Morning Lev. 6. 9. And figuring the Oblation of Christ's Body and Adam's Oblation of his Body as a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to God through Christ must needs come up with Acceptance before God and send forth a sweet Savour of Rest unto God at the dawning of the seventh Day The Talmudists say that God created Fire on the seventh day I suppose they mean that Fire that came down from Heaven on Adam's Sacrifice in token of God's Approbation So that God having perfected his Work on the seventh Day even all the Work that he had made Gen. 2. 2. Or all the Work that he created to make vers 3. Rested on the Seventh Day and sanctified it The Hebrews distinguish betwixt creating forming and making thus To create is the Production of any thing out of nothing to from is the bestowing of Form and Shape upon any thing created to make is to perfect finish and to adapt to its proper use that that is created and formed They are all three used to this sense in one Verse Isa 43. 7. I have created him for my Glory I have formed him yea I have made him that is every way fitted him for the attaining that end for which I created and formed him P. Fagius in Targ. Onkelos Now Adam being created to bring forth good Works in Christ Jesus was not God's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Workmanship fitted for the Production of the end of his Creation while he was either in a state of Innocence or of the Lapse which alone is sufficient to prove that Adam fell and was restored by Faith in the promised Seed the day of his Creation for otherwise God could not have rested that is have taken Delight and Complacency in all the Work he created to make as very that is perfectly good and compleated for the effecting the end of Creation to wit the glorifying of God by good Works done in Christ And therefore that seventh Day 's rest on Sunday where God saw all very good as good as Heart
could wish was the Rest of Redemption And the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath the rest of the Creation uncompleated on the sixth day before Man was capacitated by Faith in Christ to glorify God through his Redeemer Saturday and Sunday-Sabbath came into the World not like Esau and Jacob but like Phares and Zara. The Jewish Saturday-Sabbath was not born first and afterwards the Christian Sunday-Sabbath catching the Jewish by the Heel supplanted it and obtained the Blessing of Primogeniture But the Christian Sabbath like Zara first put out its Hand and upon Sunday's Wrist was tied the Thred the Bond of God's Injunction to sanctify that Day and the Scarlet-Thred the Bond of the Covenant of Grace sealed in the Blood of the promised Seed for by binding is signified the imposing of the Law of hallowing the Sunday-Sabbath whence God's Laws are called Bonds and Cords Let us break their Bonds asunder and cast their Cords from us that is the Laws of God and of his Christ Psal 2. 2 3. And a Bond or Cord of Scarlet Thred was to Rahab a sign of the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Christ Josh 2. 18. compared with Heb. 11. 31. By Faith the Harlot Rahab perished not And the Patriarchal Church unto the Flood and all since the Flood who adhered to that Church in their Sunday-Sabbath Celebrities had an Eye of Faith upon that Scarlet-Thred bound to the Wrist of that Day But when the villanous Subtilty of such Politicians as designed to make themselves absolute Soveraigns over the Nations independent from God had perverted that custom of worshipping God in publick Assemblies on Sundays by inacting the Worship of the Sun on that day that bare the name of that Planet making that Hand which God had set at the end of the Volumn of his Book as the Index pointing to the chief Contents of that Volumn the eternal Word making Propitiation through his Blood to point the contrary way to the Worship of the Creature Then the Scarlet-Thred was drawn back out of the Jews sight till the fullness of time and now comes forth the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath more than 2400 Years after the Patriarchal Sunday-Sabbath which Saturday-Sabbath was not imposed upon any Nation but the Jews nor upon them in room of the Patriarcal but upon other accounts as will be shewed in the handling of the sixt and last Branch of our Discourse upon the Sabbath CHAP. VI. The Mosaical Saturday-Sabbath fixt on the sixth Day of the Week in the order of Creation was instituted upon other Grounds than that mentioned in the Decalogue and having no footing in the forth Precept but in the Ceremonial Law was to expire at Christ's Death and give place to the Patriarchal Sabbath SECT I. THat Saturday-Sabbath as well as the rest was appointed the Jews to be a Ceremonial Badg to difference them from all other Nations who celebrated Sunday as their weekly Sabbath is so frequently affirmed in Sacred Scripture in these or equivalent Terms It is a sign between me and you throughout your Generations that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you As all that is requisite for the proof hereof is to shew that in those places by God's sanctifying of them is meant his visible separating them from all other People for his own Inheritance by a Covenant of Peculiarity For evincing of which let it be considered that in Ezek. 20. God's giving them Statutes and Judgments that is Moral and Judicial Laws is not said to be to this end that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them as his giving them his Sabbaths to be a sign between him and them was vers 11 12. and vers 19 20. I am the Lord your God hallow my Sabbaths and they shall be a Sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God That is That I have taken you to be unto me a People and an Inheritance as ye are at this day Deut. 4. 20. Levit. 20. 24. And yet more plain Exod. 31. 13. it is affirmed of all the Sabbaths Indefinitely that the keeping of them is a sign between God and the Jews That he is the Lord their God c. and vers 16. The Children of Israel shall keep my Sabbaths throughout their Generations by an everlasting Ordinance It is a Sign betwixt me and the Children of Israel for ever 2. The reason why God would not have the Jews to celebrate the Sunday which the Patriarchs and themselves till the Institution of the Saturday-Sabbath celebrated as the weekly Sabbath but appointed them another day was to secure them from idolizing the Sun with the Heathens who had perverted Sunday-Sabbath from the Worship of God to the Worship of the Sun from the Guilt of which Idolatry in celebrating the Patriarchal Sabbath Job purgeth himself Job 31. 26 27 28. If I beheld the Sun when it shined and my Heart hath been secretly enticed or my Mouth hath kissed my Hand this also were an Iniquity to be punished by the Judg For I should have denied the God that is above That is if I had worship'd the the Sun secretly in my Heart it would have been a denying of God But if I had worship'd it openly by kissing my Hand at the sight of it I had become obnoxious to the sentence of the Judg where note that in Job's time who lived some Generations before Abram the World grew propense to this idolizing of the Sun but hitherto the Noachal Religion was so prevalent as the publick Law of the Nations opposed its Incroachment Mercer in locum Vnde videatur Jobi conterraneos tum non fuisse idolatras quia dicit se non clam id fecisse nedum palam non prodit statim in publicum ista temeritas nisi postquam cor plane occaecatum fuerit consensus favorque plurium accesserint Job's Contemporaries and Country-men were not Idolaters because he saith he did not worship the Sun either secretly or openly such Temerity as this doth not forthwith appear in publick but after that the Heart is altogether blinded and common Consent and Favour come to take its part However in Moses's time this idolizing of the Sun had universally prevail'd and even in Abraham's time was back't by the secular Law in Vr of the Chaldees for the Contempt whereof in his refusing to worship the Caldean Emblem of the Sun Abraham with his Father Terah found Vr of the Caldees too hot for them By the way observe that the word which in this place of Job is translated the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that from whence Vr of the Caldees deriv'd its Name and the Egyptians the Name they give the Sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macrob. Saturnal 1. 21. Hence Moses so frequently reneweth this Caution that the Jews should take heed of making any Representations of the Sun or any of the Host of Heaven Deut. 4. 19. and Chap. 7. 3. in special to the Sun and Moon
they heard Christ discourse they cried out Lord evermore give us of this Bread Not so much as the Type of that Bread which can give Satisfaction and Rest to the Soul was communicated on their Sabbath and that was a plain enough Indication that their Sabbath was not the true Rest 3. In the very form of its first Institution Exod. 16. 23. the Imposition of the Name bewrays the nature of the thing is the Rest of the Sabbath Sabbathon Sabbath the Sabbatism the Sabbath holy to the Lord so Ainsworth reads it But he is exceeding wide of the sense of the Hebrew Word Sabbathon in translating it Sabbatism except he takes Sabbatism for a Diminitive for Schindler in his Penteglot and P. Fagius on the Chaldee Paraphrase Exod. 31. 15. affirm that Sabbathon hath the form of a Diminitive which saith he the Hebrews form by adding on to the end of the Primitive as Isch viz. Ishcon virunculus so of Sabbath comes Sabbathon Sabbatulum And Fagius observes that the Hebrew Doctors do thus distinguish these two words that Sabbath signifies the whole day from beginning to end Sabbathon that part of the Eve before the just beginning of the Sabbath which was taken from the prophane and added to the sacred Time by such as chose rather to over-do than to come short The Name therefore given Saturday-Sabbath at first was the Puny Sabbath the demy-Rest or the Eve-rest of the true Sabbath A Diminitive Rest for Children under Age preparative to that holy Rest suitable to Men which was to succeed 4. David speaking of another day of Rest than that which Moses had instituted the Celebration of and of another Rest than that which Joshua brought them into the Possession of made so clear a Comment upon the Precept of the Sabbath as well as of their Rest in Canaan as from thence the Jews might have collected that both were but shadows of a better Rest and better Day of Rest approaching by the same way of Ratiocination that the Apostle useth in the 3d and 4th Chapters to the Hebrews Touching the Rest of Canaan it is not material to my Business and therefore I shall not speak of that but occasionally But what the Author of that Epistle argueth from David's speaking of another day so long a time after the giving of the Precept touching Saturday-Sabbath is of such moment towards the right Perception of the Strenuousness of his Arguments for both and of so great Concernment towards the Illustration of that Point I am now handling as I shall for the clearing of the Apostle's Discourse on that Subject commit to the Censure of the pious and learned these Annotations 1. The Rest of Joshua and the Sabbath of Moses as reflected on by David are that Yoke of Heifers wherewith the Apostle plows to find out the Riddle of the Lord's-day-Sabbath and the not making them to draw equally is the main reason why Commentators make no better Work of St. Paul's Arguments touching another Day and why they make a balk or a bungle of the Christian Sabbath though all the Texts alledged not only in their own most natural Tendency but in the Apostle's express Application of them look directly thitherward I will begin with that which Beza confesses to be a most obscure place Heb. 4. 3. For we which have believed do enter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into that Rest as he said as I have sworn in my Wrath if they shall enter into my Rest although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World It is the Mis-translation of this last Clause makes this Text unintelligible but if Men did not shut their Eyes for fear of seeing the Light of the Christian-Sabbath dart in upon them from hence or cast the Vail of their own Pre-occupations upon the face of it there would be no Obscurity at all in it for take it as the Apostle gave it if it were writ by him in Greek and it is as light as Day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall enter into my Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equidem scilicet nempe I mean or that is to say or to wit in the Works when they were finished from the Foundation of the World i. e. They shall not enter into that Rest I took on the seventh Day when I saw all things that I had made and lo it was very good For he speaks in a certain place of the seventh Day on this wise And God did rest the seventh Day from all his Works as it immediately follows vers 4. by which Quotation of what is said Gen. 2. 2. the Apostle proves that he hath given a right Explanation of David's Words when he saith the Rest of God there meant is God's resting in the Contemplation of the Perfections of his Works on the seventh Day upon the account whereof he blessed the seventh Day because it is there said of the seventh Day that God rested from all his Works And that he had rightly concluded from God's swearing Unbelievers out of his Rest that Believers that is Christians had entred into it seeing the only Bar put in against entering is Unbelief he proves vers 5. from that place of David which the Apostle had taken for his Text Chap. 3. and in this place again that is he speaks again of the seventh Day on this wise If they shall enter into my Rest The reason of which Consequence the Apostle gives vers 6. Seeing then some must enter in for to what purpose else serves the Promise of entring and they to whom it was first preached entred not in because of Vnbelief The Consequence is so plain that it needs not be repeated to wit that therefore they that have believed are entred And again or furthermore vers 7. He limiteth a certain day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying to David to day after so long a time it is said To day if you will hear my Voice That is the Day that David speaks of cannot be the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath for the Jews were very zealous in keeping that carnal Commandment insomuch as he that did but gather a few Sticks was stoned to death and in recompence thereof had bodily Rest given them by Joshua in Canaan but it was many hundreds of Years after that that David spake of another Day and another Rest which he would not have done if that had been God's seventh Day 's Rest conducting them to the true Rest For if Jesus i. e. Joshua had given them Rest then would he not afterwards have spoken of another Day vers 8. From all which Premises the Apostle draws this Conclusion There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God ver 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. therefore the Sabbatism remains or is left or falls to the share of the People of God i.e. to the Christian Church according to that Rom. 9. 25. I will call them my People that were not my People And now Sabbatism is not so hard to be