Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	creation_n	day_n	sabbath_n	8,102	5	9.9122	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56630	A commentary upon the first book of Moses, called Genesis by the Right Reverend Father in God, Symon, Lord Bishop of Ely.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1695 (1695)	Wing P772; ESTC R1251	382,073	668

variety and excellent order Ver. 2. And on the seventh Day God ended his Work Or rather had ended as it may be translated for he did not work on the Seventh Day But rested from all his Work which he had made haing so compleatly finished it that there remained no more to be done An Emblem of the Rest that we shall have when we have done our Work faithfully and left none undone as Origen's words are L. VI. contra Celsum Ver. 3. And God blessed the seventh Day and sanctified it As God sanctified Jeremiah in after-times from his Mother's Womb Jer. I. 5. by ordaining him to be a Prophet So he now determined and appointed the Seventh Day from the very beginning of the World to be observed in Memory of its Creation And this setting it apart and consecrating it to that Holy Use was his blessing it or recommending it to be observed as a Day of blessing and praising him in all his Works of Wonder And I know not why I should not add of his bestowing Blessings upon all his pious Worshippers There is no mention indeed made of Adam's or Abel's c. observing this Day which hath inclined many to conclude these words to have been written by way of anticipation This Day being set apart in after-times by the Law of Moses for God's Service but in their Opinion not till then To which I cannot agree because it seems to me far more reasonable to think That God took Care to preserve the Memory of the Creation in the Minds of Mankind and the Worship of Him the One Only God by whom it was created Which could not be done by any means more effectually than by setting apart this Day for that purpose Which if he had not appointed yet Men being made Religious Creatures I cannot but think they would have agreed upon some set time for the Exercise of their Religion as well as some set Place though that be not mentioned neither where to meet for Divine Service And what time more proper wherein to Honour their Creator with their Sacrifices Praises and Thanksgivings than this Day Which Philo well stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the birth-day of the World Which was so much observed all the World over though they forgot the reason that the Seventh Day he observes may be truly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vniversal Festival kept by all People Josephus speaks to the same purpose and there is a great deal more said by Aristobulus a Peripatetick Philosopher out of Hesiod Homer and others in Eusebius his Praepar Evang. L. XIII c. 12. concerning the Sacredness of the Seventh Day Which though Mr. Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. cap. 17 c. endeavours to prove is meant of the Seventh Day of the Month not of the Seventh Day of the Week yet we may look upon that as a Remain of this ancient Tradition Which in time Men forgot as they did the most Natural Duties having so corrupted their ways as we read Gen. VI. 10 11. that there was nothing good among the generality of them And therefore no wonder if they did not regard the Service of God every Seventh Day To which I shall show in due place Noah the only righteous Man among them had some regard Which continued in the Family of Abraham after the Flood Moses speaking of it not long after their coming out of Egypt where it is likely they were not suffered to observe it having no time free from their intolerable Labours as a Day known to them before the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai Exod. XVI 23 25 26. Which is not to be understood as if the Patriarchs before and after the Flood kept such a Rest as God enjoyned the Israelites by Moses For that was proper to them for a peculiar reason because they had been Slaves in Egypt and therefore were commanded to keep the Sabbath without doing any manner of work upon that Day Deut. V. 15. Which is all the Christian Fathers mean when they say the Patriarchs did not Sabbatizare keep the Sabbath as the Jews did See Tertullian adv Judaeos cap. 2 4. Irenaeus and others For in Religious Offices I doubt not they observed the Seventh Day as a proper time for that Sacred Hymn which Galen himself L. III. de usu Partium says we should all sing to the Creator of all if we our selves first know and then tell others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. how wonderful he is in Wisdom how great in Power and how rich in Goodness Because that in it he had rested from all his work This is the reason why this Day was distinguished from the other Six That a remembrance of God's resting from all his Works on this Day might be preserved by Mens laying aside their other Employments so long as to praise him Solemnly by whom this great World was made Which God created and made Or as the Hebrew phrase is created to make i. e. rested from all the Six Day 's Work For he created something at the first out of which to make all the rest in six Day 's space and now he ceased from all Ver. 4. These are the generations c. That is this is a faithful Account of the Original of the World Which Moses here repeats more deeply to imprint on the Peoples Minds that the World was not a God but the Work of God Which they were to acknowledge every Seventh Day In the Day i. e. At that time so Day often signifies when the LORD God made the Earth and the Heavens It is observed by Tertullian That exinde Dominus qui retro Deus tantum c. from henceforward verse 7 8 9 15 c. he is called LORD who hitherto was called only God Of which he endeavours to give a reason L. adv Hermog cap. 3. The Hebrew Doctors observe that Jehovah Elohim LORD God joyned together is the full and perfect Name of God And therefore fitly reserved till this place when the Works of God were perfected and not before Ver. 5. And every Plant in the Field before it was in the Earth c. That is before there was any Seed to produce them God made them to spring up with their Seed in them as was said before in the first Chapter And Moses here mentions these alone because they were the first Productions out of the Earth without which there had been no Food for living Creatures For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the Earth and there was not a Man to till the Ground Here are two reasons to confirm that Plants were not produced in the way they are now For there had been no showers of Rain nor was there any Man to prepare the Earth to receive the Seed if there had been any both which are necessary in the ordinary Method of Divine Providence ever since the World was made From hence some collect there were no Praedamites People before Adam for then

formed all things out of the Water By the Spirit of God some of the ancient Jews have understood the Spirit of the Messiah as Hackspan observes in his Cabala Judaica n. LXVI out of Baal Hatturim the Hierusalem Targum c. which explains the Evangelist St. John who in the beginning of his Gospel says all things were made by the Eternal ΛΟΓΟΣ or WORD of God the same with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ancient Philosophers whose Almighty Spirit agitated the vast confused Mass of Matter and put it into Form Ver. 3. And God said These words are taken notice of by Longinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a truly lofty expression wherein appears the Wisdom of Moses who represents God like himself commanding things into Being by his Word that is by his Will For wheresoever we read these words in the History of the Creation He said the meaning must be understood to be He willed as Maimonides interprets it More Nev. P. I. cap. 65. This Justin Martyr demonstrates Orpheus had learnt out of Moses his Books when he swears by the Heaven the Work of the Great and Wise God and by the Word of the Father which he spake at first when he establish'd all the World by his Counsels So his words are in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16. And as there is nothing more famous in Antiquity than the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orpheus his Egg which I before mentioned so it is remarkable that the Egyptians among whom Orpheus travelled described their God KNEPH with an Egg coming out of his Mouth Which was a lively representation of this World noted by the Egg produced by God's Omnipotent Word For how richly soever the CHAOS was furnished with Materials it could have brought forth nothing without his Powerful Motion and Wise Contrivance by whom it was created So Anaxagoras himself resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Mind was the Principle of Motion as Laertius tells us in his Life by which Mind he understood God as others have reported his Opinion more largely in these admirable words The Beginning of all things is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind who is the Cause and the Lord of the whole World and gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. order to things in disorder and motion to things immovable and distinction to things confused and beauty to things deformed Let there be Light Having spoken of the Creation of all things now follows an account of their Formation out of that rude Matter which was at first created And the first thing produced was Light which Greg. Nazianzen Orat. XLIII p. 699. a. calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it was not yet collected into a Body as it is now in the Sun Others think it to have been a dimmer sort of Light from the Sun not yet perfectly formed Abarbinel upon the XL of Exodus takes this to be the SCHECHINAH the most excellent of all created things called in Holy Scripture the Glory of the LORD which God saith he sealed up in his Treasures after the Luminaries were created to serve him upon special Occasions for instance to lead the Israelites in the Wilderness by a cloudy Pillar of Fire when he would make himself appear extraordinarily Present And because of the Perfection of this Light he fansies it is that Moses says in the next Verse That God saw the Light repeating the word Light that it was good Whereas in all the rest of the Six Days Work he only says He saw it was good without naming again the thing he had made But it seems to me most rational by this Light to understand those Particles of Matter which we call Fire whose two Properties every one knows are Light and Heat which the Almighty Spirit that formed all things produced as the great Instrument for the Preparation and digestion of the rest of the Matter which was still more vigorously moved and agitated from the top to the bottom by this restless Element till the purer and more shining Parts of it being separated from the grosser and united in a Body fit to retain them became Light Ver. 4. And God saw the Light that it was good He was pleased in this Work of his as agreeable to his Design Which for the present was we may conceive to influence the upper Parts of the CHAOS and to be the Instrument of Rarefaction Separation and all the rest of the Operations which were necessary to mold it into such Creatures as were afterwards made out of it And God divided the Light from the Darkness Appointed that they should constantly succeed one another as we see they do now that this Light is embodied in the Sun and as they did then by the circular Motion of this first Light of Fire round about the CHAOS in the space of Twenty-four Hours which made it Day to those Parts where it shined and Night where it did not It is remarkable how Moses ascribes every thing to GOD the Former of all things who by making this Light move round about the Chaos still more prepared and exalted the remaining indigested Parts of Matter for their several uses Ver. 5. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night He setled them that is in such a constant Course that it gave them these distinct Names And the Evening and the Morning were the first Day In the Hebrew Language Evening and Morning signifie a whole Day which the Motion of this Light made if we conceive it to have been formed about Noon and to have gone round the fore-mentioned Heap of Matter in Twenty-four Hours How long all things continued in mere Confusion after the CHAOS was created before this Light was extracted out of it we are not told It might be for any thing that is here revealed a great while and all that time the mighty Spirit was making such Motions in it as prepared disposed and ripened every Part of it for such Productions as were to appear successively in such spaces of time as are here and afterward mentioned by Moses who informs us That after Things were so digested and made ready by long fermentations perhaps to be wrought into Form God produced every day for six days together some Creature or other till all was finished of which Light was the very first This Maimonides hath very happily illustrated in his More Nevochim P. II. c. 30. where he observing that all things were created at once and then were afterwards separated one from another successively he says their wise Men resemble this proceeding to that of a Husbandman who sows several Seeds in the Earth at the same moment some of which are to come up after one day others after two and others not till three days be past though the whole sowing was in one and the same moment Thus God made all things at the first which did not appear together but in the space of six Days were formed and put in order one after