All this clearly proves, that the book of Genefis, which is the first of the books of Mofes, was never forged under his name, fince it was always owned as the writing of that famous author, and is ftill fo acknowledged by the Jews at this day. С НА Р. VII. That it appears from GENESIS, that the Sabbath was conftantly obferved from the Beginning of the World until MOSES. THE HE other objection of the Atheists (fuppofing that Mofes was the author of Genefis, as we have now proved) is this, that it feems abfurd to give credit to the relations of a perfon who lived fo many ages diftant from the things he recites. To anfwer this objection, we must first of all declare to them, by what means the memory of the fact which Mofes relates was preferved fo lively and entire as to give Mofes fo diftinct a knowledge of them, and that it was not in his power to forge or add any thing of his own, it being a thing known to the whole world as well as himself. There is no way whereby we can more folidly evince that it is impoffible the creation of the world fhould be forged by Mofes, than by making it appear, that the law of the fabbath hath a natural relation to the creation of the world, and that it hath been always conftantly observed from that time until Mofes. The fame alfo will help us clearly to conceive after what manner the memory of the promife of the Messiah hath been preferved fo distinct amongst thofe that lived fince the creation until Mofes. We are no fooner informed that the fabbath is a folemn day, ordained at first to celebrate and perpetuate the memory of the creation, but we judge it impoffible that fo important an event, commemorated every feventh day, by virtue of a Divine law, fhould be an impofture. But forafmuch as this impoffibility is grounded on these two propofitions; the one, that God gave this law of the fabbath to the first man; the other, that the fame was obferved by his pofterity ever fince, till the time of Mofes, and that God only removed it in the law given from mount Sinai thefe are the truths I am now to clear; and it is of more importance to be proved, because, though the generality of authors, ancient and modern, Jews as well as Chriftians, are of this opinion, yet there are fome of the Chriftian fathers who feem to deny that the fabbath was ever obferved by the Patriarchs. But it will be an easy matter to prove from Mofes, that the antiquity of the fabbath is fuch as I affert, and at the fame time time to demonftrate the truth of the creation, as well as of the promise of Messiah, which in a manner immediately followed it. Mofes, in the fecond chapter of Genefis, expreffes himself thus: And God bleed the feventh day and fanElified it, because that in it he had refted from from all his work, which he had created (a): which words clearly evince a folemn confecration of the seventh day to God's fervice, by its being made a commemoration of his finishing the creation of the heavens and the earth. But because it may be faid, that the intent of Mofes in this place was only to fet down the reason why God fet apart this day, of all others, to his fervice, by the law at mount Sinai, we are to take notice, that this appointment was made for man's fake, already placed in the garden of Eden. This we may gather from the order Mofes obferves: for he fets down first the formation of man on the fixth day, and his being placed in Paradife, which he gives a more particular account of in the second chapter; and after thefe, he relates God's refting from his works, and the confecration of the fabbath, with the reafon of that law which he impofed on man; and then adds, Thefe are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth. All that precedes thefe words, is only a relation of what paffed in the feven firft days; and that which Mofes fets down concerning God's bleffing of the feventh day, and his confecrating it, ought as well to be accounted a law appointing the seventh day for his fervice, as those other bleffings given to the creatures according to their kinds, are acknowledged as inviolable laws of God, by virtue whereof they fubfift, and are perpetuated, each according to their kind, by the way of generation. In the second place, it is very remarkable that the Patriarchs maintained a public worship, at leaft fince the time of Seth; which it was neceffary should be determined to fome certain day; and fince we find that even at this time they diftinguished between beafts clean and unclean, with respect to their facrifices, (which they could not do but from revelation) we have much more reafon to conclude that God had set apart a time for his own worship and fervice. And, indeed, there are many evident figns, that even then the feventh day was observed (b). I will not here peremptorily affert that ancient tradition of the Jews which tells us, that the ninety-fecond Pfalm, whofe title is a Pjalm for the Sabbath, was made by Adam himself, who was made on the evening of the fabbath: but this I dare affert, that it is apparent, that what we read in the eighth chapter of Genefis, (c) about the deluge, doth refer to this cuftom, where we find Noah fending forth the dove and the raven on the seventh day, which plainly hints to us his obferving of that day; for it feems, that Noah having, in an especial manner, on that folemn day, implored the affiftance of God in the affembly of his family, he expected a particular bleffing from it. And we cannot but make some reflexion on that which we read in the xxixth of Genefis concerning the term of a week fet apart to the nuptials of Leah, where, at the twenty-feventh verfe, Laban thus expreffes himfelf: Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this alfo, for the fervice which thou shalt ferve with me yet feven other years (d). This week here doth fo plainly fignify a week of days, that it cannot be more naturally expressed; and, indeed, all generally understand by this week of the marriage-feast (a) Gen. ii. 3. (b) Kimchi Præfat. in Pfalmos. (d) Gen. xxix. 27. of of Leah, that term of time which in fucceeding ages hath been customary to allot to nuptial feftivals, as appears from the book of Efther, where the wedding feaft of Vashti lafted seven days; this term of feven days having fo long fince been confecrated to nuptial rejoicings. The fame we may alfo gather from the time which was ordinarily allotted to mourning for the dead; to which we find the Patriarchs allotted a term proportioned to that of their rejoicing. For as we fee that the Egyptians mourned ten weeks for Jacob, because of his quality, as being the father of Jofeph; fo we find that Jofeph, and thofe that accompanied him, mourned feven days at his interment in the land of Canaan: and as we find, that this cuftom was perpetually afterwards obferved by the Jews, as appears from Ecclefiafticus xxii. 12. fo likewife we find the fame obferved by the Afiatics, as may be feen in the hiftory of Ammianus Marcellinus, at the beginning of his nineteenth book; and from them it paffed to the Chriftians, as we find in St. Ambrofe (e). Thirdly, It appears from Exod. vii. 25. that God observed feven days (f) after he had fmote the river to change the waters thereof into blood; from whence the Jews conclude, that the three plagues, viz. that of blood, of frogs, and of lice, abode on the land of Egypt fix days, and were withdrawn on the seventh, which is the fabbath. We may also gather, if we calculate the time exactly, that the Jews in Egypt obferved the fabbath. We find from the hiftory of their departure out of Egypt, that the fame happened on a Thursday, being the fifteenth of the month Nifan; and the day in which they fung thofe hymns of deliverance, was the fabbath which God had particularly fet apart for this week. It is alfo evident from Exod. xvi. that the keeping of the fabbath was obferved by the Ifraelites, before the law was given on mount Sinai. For we find God fpeaking there concerning the fabbath, not as of a thing newly inftituted, but as of an ancient law, which they were not to tranfgrefs by gathering the manna on that day; for he orders them to gather a double portion the fixth day, and not to gather any on the feventh. We fee that the Ifraelites refting on the feventh day is here fuppofed a known and cuftomary thing, prefcribed to them by a law of old. They who went forth to gather manna on the feventh day are reprefented as tranfgreffors of a known law, as appears from the words of the Lord to Mofes. How long refufe ye to keep my commandments and my laws? Mofes alfo fpeaks of the fabbath, which was to be the next day, as of a thing cuftomary, and received amongst them. To-morrow (faith he, at v. 23.) is the rest of the fabbath of helinefs unto the Lord; words which would have been unintelligible to the Ifraelites, and expreffed a law altogether impracticable, in cafe they had been deftitute of any further knowledge concerning it, and had not been acquainted that it was the very day in which the great work of creation had been finished. My fourth obfervation I take from the very words of the Decalogue, where first of all we find God fpeaking in this manner, Remember the (e) De fide Refur. in obitu Sat. p. 321. Jabbath (f) Seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had fmote the river. Jalkut in h. 1. fabbath day (g); which words clearly import, that the law he gave, was not a new law, but indeed as old as the world, and which had been obferved by their forefathers. It feems probable alfo that God expreffes himself in these terms, because the tyranny of Pharaoh had forced them to break this law, by obliging them to deliver their tale of bricks every day, without excepting the fabbath, which before he had allowed them to keep. This is explained very diftinctly in the fifth of Exodus, and feems to have been the occafion of Mofes's demanding ftraw of Pharaoh for the Ifraelites to go and facrifice; in answer to which demand, Pharaoh (b) expreffes himself in terms which fhew that formerly they had obferved a reft on that day: however it be, yet thus much is apparent, that God commands them to make their bond fervants to obferve the fabbath, becaufe the Egyptians, by their example, inclined them not to be very careful in exempting them from all labour on that day. Moreover, in the fecond place, we are to take notice, that in the last words of the fourth commandment, God fpeaks of it as of a thing formerly appointed and determined by him, faying, For in fix days the Lord made heaven and earth, and refted the feventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the fabbath day, and hallowed it; which words have a manifest and undeniable reference to that which happened the feventh day after the creation, and to the law then given to man concerning it. We may gather from the fourth chapter of the epiftle to the Hebrews, that the fenfe which we have put upon the third verfe of the second of Genefis, is the fame which the Jews have always had of it. The Apostle, difcourfing from thofe words of David, Pfal. xcv. To whom I fware in my wrath, that they should not enter into my reft, doth fuppofe a threefold reft; the first of which is the rest of the fabbath, of which mention is made in the second of Genefis, where we have the first inftitution of it; the fecond was the reft in the land of Canaan promifed to the Jews upon their enduring all thofe trials in the wildernefs; the third, the reft in heaven, of which the two foregoing were but the figures. He argues therefore that thefe words of David could not be understood concerning the fabbath day, forafmuch as from the beginning of the world men entered into that reft of the fabbath; and he proves this, by that paffage in Genefis of which he only cites the firft words, viz. that God refled the feventh day from all his works; as fuppofing that the Jews, to whom he wrote, had no need of having the following words quoted to them, which tells us, that God bleffed the feventh day and hallowed it: that is, he confecrated the fame to his worthip and fervice, forafmuch as nothing was more publicly and univerfally known amongst them, the obfervation of the fabbath being a thing generally received, even before the giving of the law. And, indeed, though Philo the few be of opinion that the practice of folemnizing that day had fuffered fome interruption, and that for this reafon the law of the fabbath was given to Mefes, yet it is well known first of all, that Ariftobulus the Peripatetic (i), in a treatife dedicated by him to Ptolemy, furnamed Philadelphus, cites feveral paffages of Homer, Hefod, (g) Exod. xx. 8. (1) Eufeb. prep. Evang. 1. 13. c. 12. (b) Exod. v. 5. Heftod, and Linus, heathen poets, which mention the feventh day as a feftival and folemn day, because all things were finished in the fame. In the next place, it is notorious, that if fome of the fathers, as Julin Martyr and Tertullian writing against the Jews, have denied that the Patriarchs obferved the feventh day, they did fo rather with regard to the rigour of that law which forbad all manner of work on that day upon pain of death, (which was fuperadded by God to the first law of the Sabbath) than to the obfervation of the fabbath, as it was a day appointed to make a folemn commemoration of the creation of the world. In a word, we are to take notice, that the difference which God makes between the fabbath obferved by the Patriarchs, and that which he appointed to the Jews, did confist in two things. First, in that God did impose an abfolute neceffity upon the Jews to abftain from all manner of work, even to the very dreffing of meat, neceffary for the fupport of life we find this diftinction clearly expreffed in the law which God gave concerning the first and feventh day of the feast of unleavened bread; for he abfolutely forbids all manner of work on these two days, as much as on the fabbath, even the preparing of neceffary food, which he permits the five other days, forbidding only fervile laborious works. Secondly, In that the working on that day by the law is made punishable with death, which was not fo before; which innovation, and new rigour of the law, eftablished by God, was authorised by the punishing of him who had gathered fticks on the fabbath-day; whereas we find, that before the law was given upon mount Sinai, God did not command those Jews to be punished with death, who went forth the feventh day to gather manna, according to their ancient custom of dreffing their meat on that day. Let me add this further, that though the Apostles had abolished the rigour of the law concerning the fabbath, introduced by Mofes, yet they themselves obferved it; which practice of theirs, in all probability, gave occafion to the Chriftians, for almost four centuries, to keep the fabbath as well as the first day of the week, folemnizing both the days, the one as a commemoration of the creation of the world, and the other of the refurrection of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. But whatever judgment may be pafied on this laft remark, it is very evident from Genefis and Exodus,-firft, that the law of the fabbath was obferved before Mofes: fecondly, that this obfervation was by the first Patriarchs propagated among the heathens alfo, as well as the idea of the creation; or as the practice of facrificing, with the other parts of religious worship, the original whereof may be feen in the book of Genefis, as we shall make appear in our following difcourfe. After all this, we muft conclude against the Atheist, that either Mofes muft have imprudently laid a fnare for himfelf, in forging a matter of fact of which not only the Jews, but all the world, were able to convince him, fince there were none amongst them but muft needs be con fcious whether they had obferved the fabbath in commemoration of the creation, as he relates it, or no; or elfe, that the creation of the world, being a matter of fact fo generally known, and the memorial of it folemnized every feventh day by all thofe who preceded him, muft needs be an uncontested and immovable truth, which I fhall farther evince by |