And if St. Austins note be true and the note be his Serm. de temp 154. that on the first day of the week transgressi sunt filii Israel mare rubrum siccis pedibus the Israelites went dry-foot over the Red-sea or Sea of Edom then must the day before if any be the Sabbath-day the next seventh day after the day of their departure But that day certainly was not kept as a Sabbath day For it was wholly spent in murmuring and complaints against God and Moses They cryed unto the Lord Exod. 14.11 12. 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 these murmurings and seditious Clamours 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 journying on that day till the Law was given unto the contrary in Mount Sinai which was the eleventh station after their escape from Egypt It was the fancy of Rabbi Solomon that the Sabbath was first given in Marah and that the sacrifice of the Red Cow mentioned in the nineteenth of Numbers Exod. 15.26 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 c. then will I bring none of those Diseases upon thee that I brought on the Egyptians But Torniellus and Tostatus and Lyra though 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 seventhnight before the first Sabbath was discovered in the fall of Manna 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 Exod. 16.2 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 commended 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 the 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 Worlds Creation whereof they were quite ignorant at that present time Philo assures us in his third Book de vita Mosis that the knowledg of that day on which God rested from his works had been quite forgotten 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of those many miseries which had befaln 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 De vita Mosis l. 1. when men had made a long enquiry after the birth-day of the World and were yet to seek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God made it 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 that Moses had to descry the Sabbath which he accordingly commended unto all the people to be a day of rest unto them that as God ceased that day from sending so they should rest from looking after their daily Bread But what need Philo be produced when we have such an ample Testimony from the word it self 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 Exod. 16.5 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 Verse 22 came and told Moses of it and he as God before had taught him acquainted them Verse 23 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 Gods rest upon that day that though the Prophet had thus preached unto them of a Sabbaths rest the people gave small credit to him For it is said that some of the people went out to gather on the seventh day Verse 27 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 Gods great care to make provision for his people on the day before the blessing he bestowed upon it And this is that which Solomon Iarchi tells us Ch. 1. n. 2. 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 the foundation and ground of all the rest as being given before them all at the fall of Mannah Vnde dicunt Hebraei sabbatum fundamentum esse aliorum praeceptorum quod ante alia praecepta hoc datum sit De fest Judaeor c. 3. 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 Egypt and of the Worlds Creation Anno 2044. the people being then in the Wilderness of Sin which was their seventh station The seventh day after being the nine and twentieth of the second month is thought by some I know not upon what authority to be that day whereon some of the people distrusting all that Moses said went out to gather Mannah Numb 35. as on other days but whether they were then in the Wilderness of Sin or were incamped in Dophkath Alush or Rephidim which were their next removes that the Scriptures say not Most likely that they were in the last station considering the great businesses there performed the fight with Amalek and the new ordering of the Government by Jethroes Counsel and that upon the third day of the third moneth which
Dion affirms it for the ancient Grecians that they knew it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ought he could learn Natural 7. 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 week before And for the Romans though they were well enough acquained with the Planets in their latter times yet they divided not their Calendar 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 accempt 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 CHAP. V. The Practice of the Jews in such observances as were annexed unto the Sabbath 1. Of some particular adjuncts affixed unto the Jewish Sabbath 2. The Annual Festivals called Sabbaths in the Book of God and reckoned as a part of the fourth Commandment 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day 10. All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths I Shewed 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 it self 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 insnare 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 signifie some selected time by God himself deputed unto rest and holiness Most specially and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it pints out unto us the seventh day as that which was first honoured with the name of Sabbath Exod. 16.25 and in the second place those other Festivals which were by God prescribed to the house of Israel and are called Sabbaths also as the others were Of these the one was weekly and the other Annual the New-moons not being honoured 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 that 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 Damaseen De side Ortbod l. 4. c. 24. when we have reckoned to seven days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our computation of the time runs round and begins anew These as in general and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before I said they were called 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 secundo primum as the Latine renders it mention whereof is made in Saint Lukes Gospel Our English reads it on the second Sabbath after the first Cap. 6.1 A place and passage that much exercised mens wits in the former times and brought forth many strange conceits until at last this and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sophistarum Casaub Exerc. 14. n. 1. 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 Emend Temp. lib. 6. that all the Weeks or Sabbaths from Pasch to Pentecost did take their name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the second day of the Feast of Passeover that being the Epoche or point of time from which the fifty days were to be accompted 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 Passcover The casual adjunct is that sometimes there was a Sabbath that was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Sabbath or as it is in Saint Johns Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnus ille dies Sabbati Cap. 19.31 as the Latine hath it And is so called not for its own sake for Casaubon hath rightly noted Exerc. 16. n. 31. nunquam eam appellationem Sabbato tributam reperiri propter ipsum But because then as many other times it did the Passeover did either fall or else was celebrated on a Sabbath Even as in other cases and at other times when any of the greater and more solemn Festivals did fall upon the Sabbath day they used to call it Epist 110. l. 3. Sabbatum Sabba torum a Sabbath of Sabbaths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore Pelusiotes notes it For that the Annual Feasts were called Sabbaths too is most apparent in the Scriptures especially Levit. 23. where both the Passeover the Feast of Trumpets the Feast of Expiation and the Feast of Tabernacles are severally entituled by the name of Sabbaths The Fathers also note the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostom and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidore in the place before remembred Hom. in Math. 39. Even the New-moons amongst the Gentiles had the same name also as may appear by
usual trade Yea saith that great Clerk Rabbi Simeon Pet. Galatin l. 11. c. 10. 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 periculum mortis pellit sabbatum Nay more the Priest that waiteth at the Altar doth he do no work upon the Sabbath Yes more than on the other days and for that too they have a maxim viz. qui observari jussit sabbatum Ap. Casaub Exer. 16. n. 20. is profanari jussit sabbatum 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 and 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 it 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 labours as tend unto the moral part of the fourth command which are Rest and Sanctity are fit and lawful to be done on the Sabbath day That men should rest upon such times as are designed and set apart for Gods publick service and leave their daily labours till some other season the Gentiles knew full well by the light of nature Macâ—ob Sat l. 1. c. 16. 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 it 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 enjoyned so strictly that no work was permitted in what case soever All things which did concern the Gods and their publick worship vel ad urgentem vitae utilitatem respicerent or were important any way to mans life and wellfare were accounted lawful More punctually Scevola being then chief Pontifex Who being demanded what was lawful to be done on the Holy-days made answer quod praetermissum noceret which would miscarry if it were left undone He therefore that did underprop a ruinous building or raise the Cattel 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 cause 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 Georgie 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 Saviour determine of it The corporal labours of the Priest on the Sabbath day as far as it concerns Gods service were accounted lawful The Priests in the Temple break the Sabbath and yet were blameless So was the corporal labour of a man either to save his own life or preserve anothers Christ justified his Disciples for gathering Corn upon the Sabbath being then an hungred Matth. 12. v. 1.3 and restored many unto health on the Sabbath day Matth. 12.13 and in other places Finally corporal labours to preserve Gods Creatures as to draw the Sheep out of the Pit Matth. 12.11 and consequently to save their Cattel from the Thief a ruinous house from being over-blown by tempest their Corn and Hay also from a sudden Inundation these and the like to these were all judged 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 Saviours doctrine and the best Comment also on the fourth Commandment as far as it contains the law of natue 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 Vers 12. is that Prohibition in the 35 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 on the Sabbath no though it were to hasten on the work of the holy Tabernacle Philo restrains it chiefly â—â—to manual Trades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such whereby men do get their livings And then it must be thus interpreted Ye shall not kindle any sire that is to do any common ordinary and servile works like as do common Bakers Smiths and Brewers De vit Mos l. 3. by making it part of their usual trade The later Rabbins almost all and many Christian Writers also taking the hint from Vatablus and Tremelius it their Annotations refer it unto dressing of Meat according to the latter custom Nay generally the Jews in the latter times were more severe and rigid in the exposition of that Text Tostat in Josua c. q. 2. and would allow no fire at all except in sacred matters only For whereas Rabbi Aben Ezra had so expounded it quod liceat ignem accendere ad caiefaciendum siurgeret srigus that it was lawful to make a fire wherewith to warm ones self in the extremity of cold weather though not to dress meat with it for that days expence the Rabbins generally would have proceeded against him as an Heretick and purposely writ a Book in contutation 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 Exod. 16.23 and that those words of Moses quae coquenda sunt hodie coquite bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth what ye will seeth which words are commonly produced to justifie 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 the 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
part of the fourth Commandment Page 359 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly Page 360 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals Page 361 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths Page 362 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days Page 363 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat Page 364 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day Page 365 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Page 366 10 All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths ibid. CHAP. VI. 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 Wilderness Page 368 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibid. 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses Page 369 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day Page 370 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that People was upon the Sabbath Page 371 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest Page 372 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath Page 373 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath ibid. 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest Page 374 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbath-days Page 375 CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the Sabbath from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature Page 376 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath Page 377 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath ibid. 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time Page 378 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived Page 379 6. The Lord becomes offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion ibid. 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein Page 380 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity ibid. 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath Page 381 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra Page 382 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings Page 383 11. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths Page 384 CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the Sabbath from the Maccabees to the destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon Page 385 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions Page 386 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day Page 387 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example Page 388 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath Page 390 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath ibid. 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day Page 391 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies Page 392 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers Page 393 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Perasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. Page 394 BOOK II. CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual ordinance Page 400 1. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviou Christ Page 401 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or the Apostles but instituted by the authority of the Church Page 402 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath Page 404 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath Page 405 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by S. Peter S. Paul or any other of the Apostles ibid. 7. S. Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons Page 406 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden at Hierusalem Page 407 9. The preaching of S. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises Page 408 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose Page 409 11. Those places of S. Paul Gal. 4.10 Coloss 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for Page 410 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first age and what that title adds unto it Page 411 CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the Reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation Page 413 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time Page 414 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day Page 415 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business Page 416 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches ibid. 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clemens of Alexandria his dislike thereof Page 417 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Pentecost Page 418 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church Page 419 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly Page 420 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time ibid. 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was Page 421 12. The