they had the benefit of them as some have not set down content to believe that the prophesie of Enoch mentioned by S. Jude was written and that what Josephus relateth of the Pillars errected by the posterity of Seth is true but they conceive also that Adam and all the succeeding Patriarchs compiled the histories of their own times But how Moses attained his knowledge I leave to the disquisition of them who affect curiosities yet this give me leave to note as received amongst the best Divines That the holy Ghost was not so much an intelligencer as a directer and guide to Moses in the framing the history of Genesis For the omniscient Wisdome foreseeing that it would not be alwayes safe to make Tradition the perpetuall depositary of so rare choice a jewel as the story of his Primitive Church which might either through carelesnesse loose part of what was betrusted to her or under colour of sole possessing the Truth vend counterfeit and sophisticate stuff thought it necessary for the good of his Church that a set and certain story of the first times should be compiled to which purpose he selected Moses as his Amanuensis and Register aiding him extraordinarily with his holy Spirit by whose assistance he was enabled to distinguish truth from fables which had by surreption intruded exactly to describe many minute circumstances of time place persons names c. which memory was not able to comprehend and to digest it into that perfect order wherein we now see it So that one way or other either by tradition or letters or both the precise seventh day could not at that time have been lost or forgot and consequently that no cause for the Sabbath to begin at the fall of Manna And was there any other what To be a preamble and preparation to the subsequent Sabbath this would be proved A preparation to the after strictnesse of the Sabbath it was that I confesse not to the Sabbath it self this I deny an introduction it might be to the solemnity of the Sabbath which began after not so to the Sabbath it self which was long before For though it was but in its minority but magni nominis umbra a very shadow of the after celebrity yet a Sabbath it was and the seventh day Sabbath too and this not my singular assertion but the consent of the most profound Doctours as well ancient as modern So the Fathers Origen a What was afterward commanded in the Law concerning the Sabbath the same Job both observed himself and taught his children to do the like Cyprian b This septenary number gained Authority from the creation of the world because the first works of God were made in six dayes and the seventh was dedicated to rest as sacred it being honoured with the solemnity of a command and entitled to the sanctifying Spirit Basil c The Sabbath which was the seventh day from the first creation is a type of our perfect Rest in the remission of our sinnes Nazianzen d The Creation began on the Lords day as is evident because the seventh from it is made the Sabbath bringing rest from labours Athanasius e As long as the first age or Creation was inforce so long the Sabbath was observed Epiphanius f mentioneth a twofold Sabbath under the old Law the Naturall or Weekly which was defined from the Creation the Legall or Ceremoniall which was enjoyned by the law of Moses At the heels of the Fathers follow the Schoolmen who busying themselves about nicer subtilties have left us little of their opinions concerning the Sabbath Alexander Halensis a the irrefragable Doctour though he thinketh the Sabbath was not observed by virtue of any precept before the Law yet he granteth that it was inspired as a thing meet and fit to be observed All these before Ambrose Catharine b he then not the first that understood Moses according to the letter nor yet the last no not of his own Partie Genebrard c The Sabbath was sanctified in Paradise which was also observed all the time till the Law promulgated as the Hebrews and Lyranus upon Gen. 7. deliver And in another place he telleth us out of Rabbi Abraham that Job did observe it Cornelius à lapide d It is manifest that the Sabbath was instituted and established not first by Moses Exod. 20. but long before to wit from the beginning of the world Salianus also in his Ecclesiasticall Annals doth at large refute the Prolepsis as absurd As for Protestant writers whether they be Lutheranes Calvinists or our own English we dare vie it with the Anticiparians and give them oddes two for one at least and bate the preciser sort too Luther e himself shall lead the van The Sabbath was destined from the beginning of the world to religious worship Baldwin f The Sabbath was observed from the Creation Calvin in Exod. apud a Prideaux Gualter b Doubtlesse the Fathers before the Law diligently observed the Sabbath P. Martyr c That people rest from labour one day in the week did not onely appertain to Moses Law but had beginning from Gen. 2. Zanchy d I doubt not mine own I relate without prejudice to others opinions I doubt not I say but the Sonne of God in humane shape was all this seventh day busied in most holy colloquies with Adam but he fully revealed himself to him and Eve shewed him how and in what order he created all things wisht him to meditate upon these works and in them to praise and acknowledge the True God his Creatour taught him that after his example every seventh day all labour set aside he should spend in this exercise of Pietie c. What could modesty her self more modestly assever he doth not imperiously obtrude for truth what he saith he onely telleth you his own conceit and it hath ever been permitted for men in such cases as this both to think what they will and speak what they think as the Historian saith Can any therefore but wonder that the bare delivery of a private opinion so soberly without incrochment upon others liberties should gain the Authour no better esteem then to be reckoned amongst lying Legendaries and fabulous Rabbines What Zanchy was his works speak him a learned and good man in that repute he lived in that he died I never heard him defamed for a Palephatus or Tale-coyner till now and I hope never shall again a Ursin The Sabbath was commanded from the beginning of the world by God unto all men b Bullinger The Sabbath was observed from the beginning of the world by a law naturall and divine c Beza The Precept of the Sabbath was established in the very Creation of the world even before mans fall and elsewhere he saith that Job did sanctifie at least every seventh day A saucy fellow to controul Justin Martyr his better and therefore is taught manners by my Authour
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to preach to pray to break bread on this day and B. White averreth as much And as to that Text of Acts 2. vers. 46. whether the margent of our English Testament transmitteth us I say that it is not inevitably not evidently to be understood of common food For f Humbertus taketh it for the Eucharist Behold the true Evangelist testifieth that the faithfull in the Apostolicall times assembled every day in Prayer and breaking of bread what are you then who say that full Masse that is the celebrating of the Eucharist ought to be performed onely twice a week And though the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may seem to boulster out the contrary opinion yet if you take them as they are both by the Syriack and Arabick and our own margent rendered for At home the meaning may very consonant to truth be as my learned * Tutour conceiveth That when they had performed their dayly devotions in the Temple at the accustomed times of Prayer there they used to resort to this Coenaculum immediately and there having celebrated the mysticall banquet of the holy Eucharist afterward took their ordinary repast with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart In which interpretation there is enough to reconcile both parts something for illustration being super-added For the holy Ghost doth here so I take it regard the practice of the Christians in their Love-feasts g and happily from hence they took their commencement which consisting of divers viands provided by a common purse and collation their fashion was to take so much thereof as they thought sufficient for the Communicants and so to celebrate the Lords Supper together which done they presently fell to their spare and slender chear entertaining and solacing themselves with spirituall and divine colloquies So that the fraction of bread here might have reference to their mysticall repast in the blessed Eucharist which was the first course or part of their Agape and the latter part of the verse might look at the other part thereof viz. corporall refection Their next cavill is that this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoteth not the first but some one day of the week wherein as they are become Separatists from our Church in her most absolute Translation so them and her I leave to end the quarrel We meet with it also 1. Cor. 16.1 and there an ordinance of the Apostles that their oblations should be upon that day Now I would gladly learn why this day rather then any other should be appointed for an Almes-day had it not been observed Holy in those times Lastly we meet with it Apoc. 1.10 but not now as formerly styled the First day of the week but apparelled in a Christian name and called the Lords-day which certainly the holy Ghost would not have done had it not passed for currant amongst Christians by that name and how could it obtain that name had it not been destined then to religious actions as a weekly holy-day Laying all these premised evidences of Apostolick practice together do they not clearly demonstrate the translation of the Sabbath into the Lords day For why should the Christian Church even in those times when every day was sanctified with devout exercises and seemed an holy Sabbath select any one distinct and peculiar day to be kept holy and why one in a week rather then in a moneth or yeare and why not in the weekly circuit the old Sabbath rather then the Lords day had not God some way made known his will to them that he would still have a Sabbath exempted from the common condition of other dayes that Sabbath to be weekly and that weekly not the old Jewish but the new Christian to be the first of the week as dignified by the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Anabaptisme of the Apostles Vtrumque mysterium nostrum utrumque utilitas nostrae as Hierome a in another case Dispensers both of inestimable benefits upon his Church the one of her justification the other of her sanctification and so this day a fit memoriall of both But here it will be demanded By whom this translation was made and to clear this doubt Hic labor hoc opus est Athanasius the great hath resolutely affirmed that Christ was the authour thereof {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords day But some have found as they think an evasion for this viz. That Christ was not the authour by any mandate of his but onely the occasion of the translation which unparalleled glosse suggests to my memory that of Augustine b It is easie with every man to reply who can not hold his tongue But let us look upon the colour or fucus wherewith this interpretation as false as new is dawbed over and see if it will not with great facility wash off If Christ himself translated it then the Father thwarteth what he said before c where he tells us that the Lords day was taken up as a voluntary usage {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we honour the Lords day he mentions no command whereas of the Sabbath he saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he commanded it to be kept This indeed were something to decline our objection out of the Father if we were not assured otherwise of his mind for apparent it is that the Father neither regarded in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluntary usage nor in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} imposed command for do we not meet in him the same in effect counter-changed Doth he not elswhere say as much of the Sabbath as here of the Lords day That when God had finished the prime creation he rested and therefore men did OBSERVE the Sabbath in those dayes while the first creation was especially in force d He mentions here no command was therefore their observation of the Sabbath a voluntary usage Nay saith he not as much of the Lords day as of the Sabbath e When God had renewed and restored man by finishing the work of redemption he willed that the same day should be dedicated to that Restauration which the holy Ghost foreshewed by the Prophet saying This is the day which the Lord hath made And again f Gods will was that the Lords day should be manifest and declared that thou mayest know the end of the first generation to be accomplished What say you now Sir will your ingenuity descend to recant or your pregnant invention afford you another refuge Now there be many wayes by which Christ may be said to be the Translatour of the Sabbath Either by immediate institution and example as Junius a or by ratifying and approving the Translation already made by the Apostles as Maldonate b or by giving them direct and expresse commission to do it or lastly by revealing his
day God ended his work perhaps those copies which they followed expressed it so or else their aim was to suppresse the seeming discord which they knew not otherwise how to salve A discord indeed I confesse there is yet such an one as disturbeth not the sacred harmony yea rather a discord elegantly gracefull For you must know that in no operation the end is attained whilest the operation is in progression and untill it ceaseth a rest being Perficientis perfectio perfecti c The perfection of the perficient and of the thing perfected Now because rest demonstrateth the motion consummated therefore God is said most properly to have perfected his work on the seventh day whereon he rested so that the finishing and perfecting mentioned in this verse or period is no actuall operation but a mere desisting à motu creationis And indeed Moses giveth the honour of the perfection of the world to both the sixth and the seventh day not without great and weighty cause to the sixth to exclude all thought that God wrought upon the seventh to the seventh to assure us that he did not rest and give over on the sixth For the end of the sixth day gave end to the work of creation and denihilation and the beginning of the seventh gave beginning to Gods rest Therefore it is said that On the seventh day God perfected the work which he had made viz. on the six dayes before whence it is that Junius and Mercer a render it in the preterpluperfect tense Cùm absolvisset Deus When God had now perfected his work meaning that as soon as the seventh day arrived it might be truly said God had now perfected his work b And perfected it was undoubtedly on the sixth day God did not abruptly break off till he had throughly perfected all I confesse the Jews tell us a pretty story c How that God about the end of the sixth day was making Faunes Satyres and such imperfect creatures and that the evening of the Sabbath overtook him so fast that he was fain to leave them but half made up and therefore on the Sabbath dayes these creatures usually hide themselves in their kennels not daring to look out A perfect Jewish fable and by Mercer suspected to be rather derived from Tradition and heare-say then from any Hebrew Authour extant because he could never in all his reading light upon him for the satisfying of the like doubt in others I have troubled my margine with the Authours name as I find him cited by a Wierus That God gave but one positive law to Adam in Paradise is neither in it self likely nor in respect of repugnant Scripture credible for is it not said that God put Adam into the garden to dresse it was not this a command Augustine b holdeth clear it was so if a command then a law for Lex dicitur à ligando A law is called a law because it bindeth c and every command is so farre as it bindeth a law If then it was a law it must be either merely naturall or positive if merely naturall then immutable still in force and we must all tag and rag turn gardiners or plowmen if it was positive then their Prolepsis halteth on that foot Consider the Law it self and you shall see the positive accrue to the naturall by way of superfoetation Man must be alwayes busie alwayes in action there is the naturall his imployment is limited to tilling of the garden there is the positive law But if Adams apostasie and fall was the same day he was formed as many have thought and is still disputable this argument might well have been spared because the command concerning sanctifying the Sabbath might have been given in his corrupt and vitiated estate If we should yield them what they fain would have viz. that Jacob and the Israelites observed no Sabbath during their thraldome yet shall they never be able to inferre from thence that they had no command concerning it For did they alwayes observe whatsoever was commanded them Moses said to Pharaoh in the person of God Let my people go that they may hold a Feast to me in the wildernesse Was not this Feast some solemn time consecrated and commanded of God to be observed no doubt it was for will-worship is to God abominable Did they keep this Feast Certainly no It is resolved by all Divines ancient and modern the Patriarchs before the Law were by God appointed to offer sacrifice Did the Israelites under Pharaoh keep this commandment the Scripture answereth No God strictly injoyned that every male child eight dayes old should be circumcised was this performed by the Israelites in the wildernesse the Scripture answereth No there was not one circumcised all that while and yet they abode there fourtie years Now if they had upon such occasions a dispensation for not observing of other feasts for not sacrificing for not circumcising might they not have one for the weekly Sabbath also To their last argument from Nehemiah I say The Sabbath was at the time of the law given made known to them yet not then first but in a more solemn manner then before We have a saying none more frequent when the Sunne hath dispelled a cloud or mist and sheweth it self in its brightnesse we then say the Sunne shineth and yet no man is so simple but knoweth it shined before even while it was most befogged though not with equall splendour So the Sabbath is said to be made known to the Israelites upon mount Sinai because it was then as it were revived and proclaiâ—â—d in more state and pomp then before And if you restrain it strictly to mount Sinai as the letter seemeth to import you must of necessity offer violence to Exodus 16 where at the fall of Manna it is clear the Sabbath was made known before the Law pronounced on mount Sinai And so the Prolepsis faileth in this her last refuge as in the former Having thus disarmed them of those Reasons wherewith they esteemed themselves sufficiently fortified I now apply my self to their Authority the Authority of men many of them singular both for learning and piety But shall we without more adoe yield to bare Authority Doth the end of dispute depend merely upon what they have said May we not examine the matter yet a little further May we not question whether these men spake as they meant whether their arguments jumped together for did they alwayes so No if Hierome be of any credit The Ancients are sometimes enforced to speak not so much what themselves think as what they conceive may most non-plus the Gentiles This was their policy against the Heathen might not they use it also against the Jews with whom they were in continuall conflict If they spake as they thought might not vehemency of dispute transport them to inconsiderate speeches in their heat and through too eager opposition to one errour to incurre
indeleble memory and that whilest man is amused with admiration of so miraculous a structure he may be excited to a gratefull recognition of the goodnesse of God who created all these things for man and onely man for himself Is not this benefit of Creation common and universall do not all participate of it but the elect especially and inexplicably Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in the blessings which result from it as that since and ought it not then as freely as frequently to celebrate its sacred Festivall If then before and since the Law there were the same reasons sure there was also the same thing observed yea and the same commanded for from the Reason to the Law from the Cause to the Effect from the End to the Means is a solid argument and never faileth but when that end may be acquired by a better means and impossible it is to demonstrate how the tyred bodies both of man and beast could have been more charitably provided for Gods solemn worship in a more sweet decorum performed and the memory of the Creation better preserved from the immerging deluge of time and profanenesse by any day other then the weekly Sabbath the day which God indigitated for the same purposes by his own example an example equivalent to a Law For though there had been no vocall no verball institution of the Sabbath yet Adam and the succeeding Patriarchs who had a view and clear notion of all Gods works their orderly existencies and exact consummation but especially who were manuducted and guided by an inerring spirit could not but collect from Gods example a the analogicall equity for man to imploy six dayes in the works of his calling and to interferiate the seventh consecrating that to religious duties And therefore that main Argument from the want of a solemn Institution is but like a ruffled arrow that maketh a great noise in the aire but falleth short of the mark For the controversie is not de Modo neither of the command whether Internall or Externall nor of the observation whether voluntary or imposed by precept but de Re whether it was or observed or commanded yea or nay that it was observed the equity thereof common and agreeable to both times evinceth and observed it could not be otherwise then in obedience to command either prolated or tacitely inspired by the holy Ghost for impute we must not to those sanctified men superstitious and will-worship If then the Sabbath was both observed and commanded before the Law why might not the command arise out of Gods blessing and sanctifying the seventh day mentioned Gen. 2.3 why should we not rather embrace the proper and grammaticall sense of the words then resort to a peerlesse and senselesse Prolepsis that hath neither fellow to associate nor reason to strengthen it It hath not its match in the hole sacred volume which is another note of its absurdity There is not one Prolepsis of such an Institution saith Amesius of any Institution at all so I and yet I doubt not to find many seconds One place there is I grant which at the first blush seemeth to perswade the contrary but upon more mature consideration it exhibiteth nothing lesse The text is Exod. 16.32 The words these This is that which the Lord commandeth fill an Omer thereof viz. of the Manna to be kept for your generations c. And as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Lo here say they an Institution of the Lords related by anticipation as the former was for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it An Institution indeed I see here but no Anticipation nor can I without your spectacles I say no Anticipation of the Institution For might not I pray this command this Institution be dictated to Moses at the same time whereof he wrote might not the precept be given now though the execution of the precept was adjourned nay is it not most likely it was so for where in the hole bible meet you with any injunction concerning it but here touching the building of the Tabernacle and the ordering every thing else appertaining to it God did exactly lesson Moses on the mount but of the filling the pot of Manna and placing it before the Testimony no hint at all was given there nor anywhere else but here onely And though we should grant that this command was given after the Tabernacle finished yet cannot the mentioning of it here be properly said to be by Prolepsis This narration taken hole and together is I confesse mentioned by Prolepsis not so the parts of it Hole and Part have not things so common betwixt them that what belongeth to the hole belongeth also to the part A total Prolepsis of an entire story before another there may be and yet no partial of one part of that story before another the parts may be marshalled in their due order though the hole be antedated All that series of Divine story from Genesis to Job may be said to be related by Prolepsis for it is the currant opinion that Job was comtemporary with Jacob and Joseph but improper it were to say that the fall of Manna the giving of the Law the building of Solomons Temple and such particulars are in respect of the history of Job set down by way of Prolepsis Prolepsis onely aimeth at what is next her she beholdeth not things remote So it is in this text the verses from the 27 to the end of the chapter constitute a narration distinct and in a canton by it self For Moses having in the former 26 verses reported so much of the history of Manna as was peculiar to that time whereof he wrote thought it not amisse to superadde what else concerned it though he delayed a while the ensuing occurrents which should have been precedents to it because it being not much he had to say and that so homogeneal with what went before he was resolved to take now an ultimum vale of it therefore he telleth you of an after ordinance of God concerning the filling an urn with Manna the disposing of it before the Testimony the execution of that command by Aaron and lastly the duration of the use thereof by the Israelites fourty-yeare which last is supposed to be the supplement of Joshua or Eleazar If now you consider this digression abstracted from the ensuing story you will find the hole preposterously related and yet the parts not at all inordinate and if you look wistly upon Calvines a words you shall find him not repugnant to what I have here delivered Lastly it is absurd for there can no solid reason be given why Moses should by a Prolepsis of about 2670 years insert this Institution It could not be to
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear
given shall abide Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo h The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed and what was agreeable to both Testaments is by no change altered They i to whom positive-immulable seemeth so prodigious a thing may now spare their wonder at Amesius and bestow it upon their own ignorance what he taught in this point he might and did learn no doubt in England and not onely of the Puritanes For what say you To Whitgift k No man doubteth the meaning of these words Six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted to us six dayes to do our own works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him To Hooker l We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever To Donne m God seposed a seventh of our time for his exteriour worship To Andrews n The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight the seventh the Sabbath the tenth Gods part the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God To Bacon o God demandeth a tenth of our substance and which is more strict a seventh of our time What say you to these But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this Kingdome had he then escaped the contagion of this errour Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches assuredly no Those two lights of the reforming age Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity a so in this they differed not Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith and consequently of eternall life Bucer b That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no humane device Martyr c It is a morall precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the externall service of God so Zanchie d God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Pareus e It is a naturall law that every seventh day be sacred to God Junius f That enemy of God g Arminius h It is morall to set apart one day of seven for Gods service The Lutherane Churches dissent not Conradus Dietericus as my Authour i informeth me Baldwin k It is morall to sanctifie one day of seven And to make up the harmony complete the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him saith Fenus l To depute every seventh day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially the same day be not alwayes deputed so Suarez m The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship so Bellarmine n Nor is the opinion an upstart I appeal to Chrysostome o who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sepose one day in a week for religious actions And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetuall ordinance of the fourth Commandment Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfie him unlesse he have the designation and determination of that one p It must be the day consecrated by God either immediately by himself or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever the Day be as I told you before out of Zanchy so that the Day must be of Divine Institution And this is evident First de Jure Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath his dominion was not onely over the old Sabbath to abrogate that but over the new also to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other Secondly de Facto For Gods own act is the best interpreter of his will and if he had meant the Church should have had her libertie her Conge d' Eslier leave to chuse he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelicall Sabbath whereof as well as of the Legall he was not onely the efficient but the exemplary cause by finishing the work of our redemption on that day But here it is demanded p Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lords day If yea by whom By any commandment of Christ where is it Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or out of the new commanding it to be translated or intimating that by Christs commandment it was translated Take both or which you will either the old or new Covenant and withall the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof and then I dare presume you will soon discry a Translation For the first it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification So saith Cyprian q and with him Augustine r The Lords day could not but be known to the holy Prophets for there is a Psalme entituled FOR THE EIGHT DAY and on the Eight day Children were circumcised and the like elsewhere It was Prophecied in the title of the Psalmes the sixth and eleventh In finem pro octavo So Ignatius s Nazianzene t Augustine Prophecied in the * 101. Psalme Scribatur illa in generationem novam This shall be written for the Generation to come vers. 18. so Athanasius In the * 109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis the day of Power but above all prophecied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place For the second or new Covenant we need search no higher then to the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards to warrant and assure us of this Translation I say from the Resurrection for this their practice did not as some suppose begin in long wast of time There was no interregnum no vacancy at all no cessation of a Sabbath No not the first week No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed The Jewish Sabbath that slept we all know its last in the grave with our Saviour Its ghost according to Countrey dialect or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after but it self the old Sabbath expired then and immediately entered the Lords day Immediately when Christ himself was but newly up from that very day whereon he arose doth S. Augustine u derive the
it is to be examined the Lords day being an Apostolicall Tradition whether it be immutable whether the Church hath power to alter the day and substitute another in liew thereof I answer Nay the Church hath not such a power the sphere of her activitie extendeth not so farre she cannot null and rescind the act of God If the Sunday be established and established so I have proved it Jure divino it is without all dispute unchangeable for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum as the Canonists compound it who make it which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel and remaineth perpetuall a True it is I grant that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them but that a divine Law can be abrogated yea or displaced by humane authority that no sober man will yield to And I hope though many have of late set her on her tip-toes and advanced her to a tickle point the Churches power and authority reacheth not Divine Besides there is an especiall and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lords Day more then is usuall in other constitutions though Divine for God hath a propriety therein Six dayes in the week he hath bestowed upon us but the seventh he reserved for himself wherein he hath as good nay better freehold estate then any man in his possessions and then the rule of the Law is b What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles and so it becometh an Apostolicall Tradition for even this though the lowest degree of Divine appointment doth conferre exemption enough upon this day to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it I will not dissemble it some learned men have I confesse ascribed to the Church an authoritie over this day so as she may if it please her transferre it to another But you must know withall that not one of these do repute it as an Apostolicall Tradition which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth nor if they did are we to give absolute credit to their dictates Men they were of excellent endowments great both for their piety and learning and amongst them I honour none more then that famous Bishop c of Geneva Mr Calvin yet in some things as this for one I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian d As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others so were there some things which he might learn of others If you can produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an Apostolicall institution or tradition and withall an alterable ordinance and I will promise you to affoard you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary But here perhaps you will demand What are all Apostolicall Traditions immutable That restriction from eating bloud or things offered to idoles that of collections for the poore every Lords Day c. I answer let it be first agreed what Apostolicall Traditions are under which name many upstart and recent customes intruded themselves into the Church a Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolick Traditions saith Hierome Apostolicall Traditions then I say were of two sorts the one particular the other generall Particular were such as were framed by the Apostles either joyntly or severally but restrained to some especiall circumstance of time place persons or the like and so having onely reference and regard to such circumstance the removall of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease Such are those Traditions above named in the objection such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West b one observing both the Sabbath and Lords Day the other the Lords Day onely and fasting on the Sabbath one celebrating the Festivall of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon the other upon the Sunday after Generall were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time place c. nor any moveable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles such were the Creed the books of the Canonicall Scripture the observation of the Lords Day Paedobaptisme c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine b is a character What the Catholick and Vniversall Church holdeth not decreed by Councels but ever observed we may safely believe it proceeded from no lesse then Apostolick authoritie Now these generall Traditions I averre to be immutable and such as must ever be observed in the Church not onely because they have or mention or foundation in the Scripture for so the particular have also and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions Apostolicall but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy c Pareus d and other learned men As for particular Traditions they being at first framed for speciall occasions are now those occasions being ceased but as laws dormant untill the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again Dormant I said not dead Life vigour and force they have still and should the same occasion arise again God would expect from the Church the same observation For they being Apostolicall and so evidences of the Divine will upon severall occasions we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will seeing in Philosophy The same agent whilest he is the same effecteth the same thing Dead therefore they cannot be so long as there remaineth a possibilitie for the same occasion to set them on work again and so that School-rule may fit them well e They oblige alwayes but not upon all occasions Well be the Lords Day Divine be it Immutable what then are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation which the Jewish Sabbath required I answer Yes f He which succedeth into anothers jurisdiction is invested in his predecessours right The same strictnesse of observation belongeth to the Lords Day that anciently did to the Sabbath I say by the fourth Commandment for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atome of obligation which it injoyed during the Law but bindeth still without abbreviation of time or alleviation of restraint during that time As for the duration of time though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to perswade yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole naturall Day And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day the words are
very direct Thou shalt do no manner of work What not quench an house of fire not water a beast not provide necessary food yes works of necessitie works of mercy thou mayest do the precept onely interdicteth servile work ordinary work of our vocation All Doctours whatsoever so understand it which being granted the fourth precept for ought I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath the Canon and Statute Law of this land concerning the meanest holy Day Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England it cannot be denied she hath expressed her self otherwise viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessitie But seeing in the substance viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lords Day with that extreme severitie which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath we consent I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo but a veniall fault our dissent is onely this That strictnesse which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment I rather lodge and settle in those accessory and occasionall laws which are quite of another parish and have nothing to do here If it be here objected That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lords Day and therefore no matter what it injoyneth I answer it doth oblige to the observation of this day for no other day can properly be called Gods Sabbath then this because no other day is weekly solemnized in the Church and thereto destined by Divine appointment which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment Besides all Expositours interpret this precept of this day especially and some of none other and above all our Church it self is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose then what she hath delivered Like as it appeareth by this Commandment saith she that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull and idle but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And a few lines after she saith That to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday is Gods expresse commandment These are lowd and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought wherein two things are remarkable First that she reduceth the observation of the Lords Day to the fourth Commandment and secondly that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath yea and The Sabbath A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken and all that use it are checkt by our great Schoolman who good man in a tender care of us adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost as also of the Primitive Church that we vary not from other reformed Churches that we gratifie not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ that we offend not our weak brethren and lastly that we use that name which doth most edifie viz. the LORDS DAY As concerning the style Lords Day we quarrell not at it we are no enemies of it we use it for ought I know more frequently then Sabbath yet were it truly sensed and according to right sense duly observed it would contract not onely the title but nature of a Sabbath for what is our Lords Day but the Evangelicall Sabbath as the Legall Sabbath was the Jewish Lords Day Be the Lords Day thus stated call it then by that name ever if you please it not at all offendeth us but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day or rather playday from the Lords Day the Churches Day we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions and lowd manifestations that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and also the Lords Day that is of his Institution But to persue this not without wonder behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies the Canons Ecclesiasticall and Edicts of our Princes behold their perversitie The words Altar Priest Sacrifice Holy of Holies will down with them so easily as now they begin to rellish nothing else It is rare very rare a great novelty to heare the course and homely terms of Table Minister Lords Supper or Chancel in their mouths Now I say and aver the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to Gods Church comparable to that of Altar Priest c. For first the Lords Day is a Sabbath The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly and directly whereas these words Altar Priest c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but figuratively and symbolically Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence for if any incline to Judaisme it is in the strictnesse not now in the day But the other words stumble many especially in these times wherein we have cause and just cause to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphoricall And are not our fears just when Transsubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtile and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the grosse masse of corporeall presence in a corporeall sense so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithfull But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants yet are not our fears just when that uncouth and apish bowing toward if not to the Altar is not onely warranted and defended but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church which whosoever shall dive into it and search antiquitie will find it one of the Parents Elevation or Ostension being the other which begot adoration of the Host which begot Impanation or Transsubstantiation Let not any think here that by Antiquitie I understand the very Primitive Church with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine for certain it is that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device you shall indeed many times very often find in the Fathers a that they bowed or worshipped towards the East and this they did onely at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi But of bowing for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation not genuflection as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place towards the Altar as you call it or ducking as often as they approched unto or departed from it you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in
application thereunto Nay doth not preparation imply application are they not coordinate and coincident together Examine the places quoted and see if they will not confesse as much Moses was commanded to sanctifie the Israelites the third day that is to prepare them as you say To prepare them how nothing but to have them in a readinesse that they lasily wait the time or so no there is more in it yet application to holinesse you shall meet with positive Let them wash their clothes vers. 10. negative Come not at your wives vers. 15. A thing so clear as the very Heathen were enlightned with it and not onely in the generall decorum of it which they couched under their Ite missa est or Procul ô procul este profani Hence all prophane before their sacrifices but some glimpse they had even of those externall Mosaicall ceremonies I now mentioned Preparatory lotions they had before they durst approch their sacred mysteries Aeneas would not so much as touch his Tutelary Gods till he might rinse himself in fountain water Abstinence also from the Nuptiall bed was at least for one night interdicted Discedite ab aris Queis tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus Casta placent superis And though we reade in this Text onely of externall preparatory rites enjoyned yet must we know that they were but as significant Emblemes of that spirituall preparation which should truly dispose the soul in a sanctified frame for the approching near that God which is clothed in majestie and honour Apply that which I have now said for illustration of this portion of Exodus to those parallel places of Joshua and there will onely remain that of Jeremie unanswered where the Prophet is said to be sanctified in his mothers womb which I confesse could no otherwayes be then in the preordination of God But what because the word signifieth Destination in Jeremy must it needs inferre as much in Genesis I see no such law imposed upon Interpreters That of Jeremy could not without extreme violence be wrested to any other sense then that of Destination which out of Gen. 2. is neither necessarily nor probably emergent I see no necessitie that the Institution Genesis 2. must suppose it to be in Paradise and before the fall for it is not improbable I determine nothing that Adam sinned and was expelled out of Paradise the very day he was formed as the Fathers almost universally have thought from whose full consent in this point proceeded that Greek saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The same day he was created he fell Neither was Paradise in my opinion compounded of any such ingredients as would in no wise incorporate with a Sabbath it was indeed a place exempted from the works both of toil and sinne and therefore no otium to refresh the body no Sabbath to sanctifie the soul in respect either of the one or the other necessary And though the whole tract of time spent in that innocent condition might worthily seem a continued Sabbath yet some parts and portion even of that time should I conceive have been allotted to a more solemn worship then others For God imposed upon man a calling of husbandry should he so incessantly have intended his tillage as never to intermit never to give over should he have spared no time to exercise himself in the contemplation of his Creatour the truest object of perfect beatitude or could he simul semel at one instant intend both his vocation and Gods worship God created in him the naturall appetite of food and sleep Is it likely that Adam would have applied himself either to repast or repose without some more then ordinary thanksgiving It is by all confessed that in Adams heart the Law of nature was most perfectly implanted and imprinted and as unanimously agreed that to consecrate some time to the worship of God was and is a member of that Law nay more then so it must be certum aliquod tempus some certain and determinate time as the very Atlas of the Prolepsis Tostatus assureth us which being granted it followeth that the state of innocency was no barre or obstacle to the seposing times not onely occasionall and pro renata but set and constant to the service of God That God framed Eve upon the seventh day is a most horrible and grosse untruth and giveth the lie to Moses or rather to the holy Ghost who saith Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them that is all things visible and invisible according to the Nicene Creed and this was before Gods rest on the seventh day and evident it is that the hole second Chapter of Genesis from the fourth verse to the twenty fifth is but a larger narration by way of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or postscript of what was most remarkable in the third and sixth dayes work and was for brevity sake omitted in the first chapter but upon weighty cause mentioned in the second For as S. a Basil excellently If Moses had onely said that God made man thou mightest have thought that he made him after the same manner that he created brutes plants and herbs therefore to denote to thee that thou oughtest to have nothing common with unreasonable creatures the Scripture hath mentioned a peculiar and distinct work of God in framing thee Besides it is most evident out of Genesis 1.27 that Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day Male and female created he them not by Prolepsis as they fancy but really truly upon that very day That wherewith they would palliate this errour is the second verse of Genesis 2. On the seventh day God ended his work whence they collect that he wrought upon part of it which meaning a learned Commentatour b acknowledgeth the Text will bear and because Eve is the last work of creation whereof the Scripture maketh mention they inferre that she must have been formed on the seventh day But to uncase this foul errour and to shew it in its proper deformities is no hard task What meaning the Text will bear is many times not so considerable as what the Context c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or contradiction is for the Spirit of Truth no companion nor will he own that sense which maketh him speak things repugnant If in the end of the sixth day God beheld all that he had made c. 1.31 and had finished the heavens and the earth and all the host of them c. 2.1 what could be left for him to finish and actually to perfect on the seventh day Well but then there is an interfering a jarring betwixt Scripture and Scripture how shall they be reconciled I answer It is not amisse to acquaint you that whereas the Hebrew readeth it And on the seventh day God ended his work the Septuagint and Samaritanes a render it On the sixth