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A55487 Sabbatum. The mystery of the Sabbath discovered Wherein the doctrine of the Sabbath according to the Scriptures, and the primitive church, is declared. The Sabbath moral, and ceremonial are described, and differenced. What the rest of God signified, and wherein it consisted. The fourth commandment expounded. What part of the fourth commandment is moral, and what therein is ceremonial. Something (occasionally) concerning the Christian Sunday. By Edm. Porter, B.D. sometime fellow of St John's Colledge in Cambridge, and Prebend of Norwich. Porter, Edmund, 1595-1670. 1658 (1658) Wing P2984; ESTC R218328 143,641 276

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prolonged six dayes The order of Creatures first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made and that it was intended principally for Mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned though it was prepared within the first six dayes Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandement and not in any of the other Nine That the Moral Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son who is called The Beginning the Word and the Wisdome of God and is therefore commanded to be sanctified For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in in them is and rested the Seven●h day IT is here said That the World was made in six dayes and before Gen. 2. 1. that the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the host of them And yet it follows immediatly That on the seventh ●●y God ended his work which he had made How both these Propositions are true we have shewed before namely That although the Woman was not extracted and separated nor builded or formed out of the Man until the seventh day yet it is truly said that the Creation was finished in six dayes because the Woman was included in the Man Materially Substantially and Originally although as yet Informiter as the Glosse saith that is not formed fashioned or compleated which work was respited until the seventh day and thereupon it is said that on it he ended his Work and not before In six dayes Although God could have made the World in one minute yet he prolonged the work for six dayes whereof St. Austin and other Writers attempt to render some account as 1. To intimate that after the toylings and labours of the six dayes or Ages of this World his Servants should have rest with Him 2. To teach us that we should not expect that God will do all that he can do for us on a sudden either in conferring Mercies temporal or Graces spiritual but orderly and by degrees as calling justifying glorifying and in his good time The promised Seed of Abraham was not born till the old age of his Parents nor the Egyptian deliverance performed nor the Land of Canaan possessed till four hundred yeares after the Promise Heaven and Earth The order of these Creatures is observable First Heaven then Earth The blessing of Jacob was The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth But Esau's was The fatness of earth and the dew of heaven A true Character of Worldlings and Epicures who preferre earthly things before heavenly as one in the a Claud. de Rapt Pros lib. 1. Poet saith Salve gratissima tellus Quam nos praetulimus coelo So the Epicure in Nazianzen professed Da mih● praesens i. e. give me my portion in this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let God reserve the future to himself Which is but the same that some among us profess even by their own words and others farre more wickedly practise by bloody deeds prosecuting earthly profits pleasures and honours with the manifest neglect and disclaiming of heaven and trafficking for hell as Witches do and all this at a much lower rate than Satan offered Mat. 4 8. to Christ Heaven Gen. 1. 1. It is said In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth The Heaven there meant I take to be that which St. Paul cals The third Heaven which to us is invisible 2 Cor. 12. 2. that it might be the Paradise or habitation of Angels as both a Aug. de Civit. lib. 11. Austin and other Divines have thought because as God ordained the earthly Paradise for Man at or before his creation so he prepared the Paradise of Heaven at or before their creation and this because it is said Gen. 2. 1. The Heavens and the Earth were fini●hed and all the host of them The word Heaven alone implieth the creation of Angels as Austin saith in the place before cited or if not these words all the host of heaven will include them And here it is said The Lord made heaven and earth and all that therein is By which words we conceive that not only the house of Heaven but also the Inhabitants thereof were finished So the Heaven which is said to have been created in the beginning must signifie the Empyreal or highest Heaven because the Creation of this lower heaven which is visible is said to have been done in the second day's work and it is called The Firmament Gen. 1. 7. And this Firmament is also called Heaven vers 8. To p●t a difference or distinction between the former and later or the highest and lower Heavens and this to me seemeth to be confirmed by the words of Christ Come ye blessed Mat. 25. 38. inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World By which words surely he meant that Heaven which was created in the beginning for blessed Angels and Men. Now although this highest Heaven was made and also inhabited by Angels yet God is not said to rest in that Work nor untill he had finished the Man and the Woman and in them had laid their Saviour to conduct them to that Heaven which was not intended only for Angels but principally for Mankind as Christ said prepared for You. In order whereunto the Angels were to be instrumental as we are taught by the Apostle Are Heb. 1. 14 they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of salvation By which most gracious provision our God hath declared himself to be a true Philanthropus And also a lover of Mankind rather more than a lover of Angels For out of this heavenly Paradise the apostate-Angels were soon cast and so left without a Redeemer or any hope of return One of them it was that deceived Eve therefore the fall of Angels was before the fall of Man Indeed Man also was sent out of the earthly Paradise for sin but yet he was not left without a possibility of Reconciliation and return to a better Paradise which was to be effected by the Seed of the Woman even the Messiah who is therefore the true and reall Sabbath of Man And herein also is the love of God to Man highly expressed in that he rested only in consideration of Mankind and the Saviour of us and not in the creation either of Heaven or of Angels Heaven and Earth See how our merciful Creator in the very beginning joyneth Earth with Heaven although the Earth was then invisible clouded in darkness and in an abysse of waters between it and Heaven yet they are here joyned as to intimate so early that notwithstanding the powers of darkness and the worldly insultations of proud Oppressors God would in time bring together and unite Earth with Heaven which he performed by and in Christ Even the first Adam was composed of an heavenly Soul and an earthly Body as a resemblance of the second Adam who
the finger of God by the Prophets by Christ and by the Apostles were they at first created I suppose No. The blind man when he received sight told the Pharisees to their face which they could not deny John 9. 32. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind 6. What can be said against the newness of Monsters or of mixt Creatures such as Leopards and Mules c. which now are extant but were not so at first created 7. It is said Jer. 31. 22. The Lord Movi coeli terra extractio Movi Adami generatio miracula morbi novi non sunt opera primae extractionis Mart. Borrhai in Gen. 2. in verbum Requievit hath created a new thing on the Earth a VVoman shall compasse a Man Which is meant of Christ to be conceived in the Womb of the Virgin-Mother which was a new thing indeed and a peculiar Signal mark to know the Messiah by 8. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth If you say it is meant but of a new State or condition of the Church under the Gospel I say so too But this new State or condition is not nothing it is not such as it was before and is new So is the creating of a clean or new heart Psalm 51. 10. it is a work of Regeneration or re-Creation and better to us than the Creation thereof 9. The same Creator professeth Isaiah 57. 19. I create the fruit of the lips therefore the holy Apostolical Eloquence with all the excellencies of Rhetorick and Languages and Arts are the Works of God which are not reckoned among the Works of the first Creation and this is confirmed by Christ himself when he said Matth. 10. 19. Dabitur in illa hora And by that which others said of him John 7. 46. Never man spake like this man And all those new Languages at Babel were of Gods creating Gen. 11. Our Answer to this first Querie for present shall be but only Negative because our Discourse is not yet ripe for a full positive Answer viz. That this Rest of God doth not signifie only his cessation from creating the World And moreover we affirm That although God had made more such Worlds as a Diog. Laert. in Epicuro Epicurus thought or if he had made innumerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worlds of meer Creatures as b Plut. de Placiti● Philos l. 2. c. 1. Democritus in Plutarch said yet all such Worlds would not be of value and worth sufficient to procure this Mysterious Rest and complacency of the Almighty Creator But I proceed to the second Querie CHAP. XI That the Rest of God is fixed on the Seventh day only although he intermitted creation for some time in every former day That his Rest did not consist in any meer Creature Of the Rest of God before the Creation That God performed part of the Creation on the Seventh day and what that was Jewish fables concerning the creation of Adam and Eve A short Answer to the second Querie OUr second Querie is Why God is said to Rest on the Seventh day and not on any of 2 Querie the former six dayes There is surely something more then ordinary implied in this Rest of the Godhead more then the bare Letter expresseth and more then a meer cessation from the work of Creation because this Rest is fixed and appropriated to the Seventh day only and not said at all of any of the former six dayes wherein God did both create and also cease by some pause or respite from creation which interval is by us Mortals called a Rest as the labouring-man at Mid-day is permitted to take some small time for sleep or rest and therein intermitteth his work Doubtless God did not bestow the whole compass of each several day with its evening and morning in a continual creation or forming of his several Creatures for each of them were created by the Will or Word of God which might be in a moment The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens Ps 39. 6 9 made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth for he spake and it was done It is not likely that this word or breath of God was produced to the length of each whole day but that there was some respite and some time of cessation between the Acts of creating the several Creatures each several day yet this respite of God is never called his Rest until the Seventh day That there was a respite we read that Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2. 13. then Eve It is also very considerable That although it is said Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Whereby it appeareth that all the Creatures were made as the Angels of Heaven the Fowls of the Air and Man Beasts Plants Fishes of the Earth and Sea Notwithstanding God is not yet said to Rest on this sixth day Surely this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides these it seems he rested not in any or all these meer Creatures but in something that was more noble and worthy of this great honour of being the Acquiescence or Rest of the Godhead But what shall we say of the pre-existence of God before the Creation and the infiniteness and eternity thereof before all times when nothing was in being but only the pure Godhead in the three eternal Persons when neither Heaven nor Earth nor Man nor Angels were created We cannot say or imagine that God was then without Rest for besides that He with-held himself from creating and from all external working we know that he was at Rest in himself in his own blessed contentment and all-sufficiencie needing nothing which Rest of God could not then be interrupted by any business or outward operation What the immanent or internal Actions of the Godhead were then we know but little and that only which the holy Apostles have taught us in whom we read of the eternal purpose of God to o●dain Christ before the foundation of 1 Pet. 1. 20. Eph. 1. 4 2 Tim. 1. 9. Tit. 1. 2. the world and of chusing us in him But we find no mention of any transient or external Works of the Godhead such as Divines call Operationes Dei ad extra and such as Creation is Yet in all that infinite and incomprehensible duration from Eternity it is never said that God Rested nor until this Seventh day Therefore this Rest of God consisteth in something else besides a cessation or suspension of working and also besides that blessed quiet and tranquillity which for ever was and is in the Godhead of which the heathen Philosophers rule is true h Nisi Quietum nihil Bea●um est i. e. God could not be happy if ● Tull de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. he were
diseases of the soul And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as exercising vertues and striving against vices And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as perpetual supplicants to God And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being ever in contemplation of divine wisdome Thus Adam might have continued solitary as well as any of these if some other inconvenience had not bin foreseen besides want of company for prevention whereof the mercifull Godhead said It is not good that man should be alone These words as all the words of God are weighty in truth and in mystery In these the mystery of the Messiah is implyed God had said before of all the creatures man and all that they were very good But now He saith It is not good c. Divines say In sinu Dei non est contradictio God doth neither harbour nor utter contradictions The woman was in the man Originally when God pronounced the creatures very good but she was not yet seperated and formed out of the man she was intended by God and by her the Saviour but she was not yet extended or exhibited The man was indeed very good even in his own very creation being but newly come out of the Creator's hand but yet if man had so continued singly and alone without the woman it had bin finally ill for him by his own fault the fall being foreseen for he must have perished thereby being remediless Neither may we think that this Solitude of the man was much bettered by the society of the woman considered meerly singly of her self without any further intendment the man had not yet need of her in respect of any corporal or worldly necessity for as yet concupiscence was not entred into him and moreover he had society and conversation with God and so might have had with holy Angels If nothing but only society had bin intended God would have produced more creatures like unto the man as he did Angels without any distinction of Sexe and so the world below might have bin like the Angelical world above or as the people of Rome are said to have bin at first a Flor●● l. 1. c. 1. Populus virorum a people of men without any women If it be demanded How mankind should have continued if no supply had bin by generation if no woman had bin or if all men would have resolved on continencie St. Austin answereth that this question is b Aug. de Bono viduit b. 23. To. 4. Querela vanorum i. e. but a vain querie For God could have made Immortal bodies of men as wel as Immortal souls and men might have continued as Immortal Angels do Besides If the help here intended had bin only for propagation of children and for replenishing the earth without any further or greater consideration this might have bin don by creating several men and women at first and these of several parcels of earth or other materials nor should the woman have needed to be made of a peece of the man another lump of clay would have served for so the earth might have bin replenished St Jerome upon those words Gen. 1. 28. Be fruitfull and replenish the earth Thus writeth to the noble virgin Eustochium c Hier. Epist 22. cap. 8. Crescat ille qui terram impleturus est tuum agmen in Caelo est So the wise and merciful Godhead intended this help for man not only to replenish the earth but also to supply heaven by producing the Saviour of the man and woman from both The Loneliness here meant is in another respect far more grievious than the want of such companions as either women or men or Angels could be and the help intended is better than the society of any of these and better yet than an External communication or society with the most holy Godhead For we find that not only wicked men as Cain Gen. 4. 9. and Baalam the conjuter Num 22. 12. had external conference and communication with God but even Satan also as we read Job 1. 6. And in the Gospel when Satan not only conversed and talked with God the Son but also took him up and carried him to the top of Lu. 4. an high mountain and to the Pinacle of the Temple Therefore without another kind of society and communion with God neither Adam nor we his posterity can find any help meet for us though with the Prophet we seek one in the streets of Jerusalem or with Jer. ● ● Lanct in Diog. the Philosopher in the populous Citiy of Athens For only the Son of God which is hereintimated to be derived from the man and through the woman is that help meet for man without whom in any other condition it would not be good for man to be For without this help man had continued alone although he had not wanted other company because he had bin nothing but meer man if God had not vouchsafed to be come Emmanuel or God-with-Man The Jewish Doctors have observed that in the appellation of man and woman Ish and Isha Gen 2. 23. the name of God Jah is inserted and this was to intimate that God was to be incarnate and so united with our humane nature personally and this was the society principally meant to quit man from miserable solitariness such as the Apostle mentions That they might not be without Christ having no hope and without God in the Eph. 2. 12. world But might be of The society of Jesus rightly understood Without this society the sentence of Solomon would be verified on the man Wo to him that is alone when Eccl. 4 10. he falleth he hath not anot her to help him up Christ the Redeemer was already in the loins of the man but not yet in the womb of the woman nor could he be actually produced without the woman of the incarnation of the Son of God It is truly said by St. Austin a in Psal 44. That it is Conjunctio nuptialis Thalamus est uterus Virginis i. e. A matrimonial union and the mariage-chamber was the Virgin 's womb This mariage was now contracted in Paradise and consummate when the word was actually made flesh But the Bride is not yet brought home to the bridgroom's house This is that great mystery which the Apostle mentions They two shal be one flesh-but I speak of Christ Eph. 5. 31. the Church This is that help meet for man which the merciful Godhead intended without which man had continued wofully alone without God without a Saviour though he had an Eve with him yet both had bin miserably solitary and as one saith b Terent. ● Eun. solus cum sola neither could they have bin such an help to each other as was meet for both They had indeed at the creation a life natural given them but without this Divine help Eve could not have procured that spiritual heavenly and most happy life which yet was to be effected through her fertility and not otherwise
Lord with Trumpets and Cymbals and Ezra 3 10 11 Songs So they did before at the Dedication of Solomon's Temple The Levites a●ayed in 2 Chron. 5. 12 13 white linnen singing with Cymbals Psalteries and Harp● and an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets and saying For his Mercy endureth for ever This custome was also continued by the Christians in their Encaenia or Dedication of their holy Edifices as the Fathers and Church-Histories do very often report The most noble and most holy Edifice in the World is the Church Whereof God himself is the Builder The Materials of it are the Son of God together with all his holy Members Therefore when Christ who is the first stone and foundation of this Church was first laid in the Earth that is in our first Parents just then it pleased the Divine Founder to express a joy and complacencie therein under the notion of Rest as it is said God Rested And in another place Exod. 31. 39. He was refreshed And this was done only to signifie the Love and Goodness of God to Man for whom he had now actually begun a certain Rest Ease and Refreshment which the Godhead for it self needed not Then again at the Nativity of Christ when this building was raised for that gracious purpose of Mans Salvation it pleased the Godhead to send a whole Quire of Heavenly Levites to sing Glory to God on high And at the Dedication thereof at his Baptism God the Father by a voice from Heaven declared Mat. 3. 17 his complacencie therein so that the joy of Angels and the Rest complacencie or acquiescence of the Godhead consisted only in Christ and in him for none other reason or respect but only because he brought Peace on Earth to men of good-will This is enough to the second Query The Conclusion of the Moral Sabbath THe summe of this Doctrine concerning the Rest or Sabbath of God consisteth in these two Propositions following 1. The Rest of God is only in consideration of Christ 2. Christ is called the Rest of God for none other reason but only because the merciful Godhead intended by him to procure and effect the everlasting Sabbath and Rest of of Man This Doctrine concerning the Sabbath which I have here delivered is not New nor of mine own invention I utterly disclaim all novellism and that which is now adayes but falsly called new light especially in so concerning and weighty matters of Religion for I have shewed before by many testimonies of the Fathers that this Doctrine is the same which by them was taught and believed in the Ancient Church and now again for a close I will sub joyn only the Testimony of St. Austin who surely was the most profound Theologue of them all who thus writeth upon those words Psal 132. 14. This is my Rest for ever a Aug. in Psal 131 Haec verba Dei sunt Requies mea ibi requiesco Fratres Quantum nos ana Deus ut quia nos requiestimus se dicat requiescere non enim ille aliquando turbatur aut sic requiescit sed ibi se dicit requiescere quia nos in illo requiem habebimus i. e. These words of God This is my Rest for ever are my Rest therein do I rest Brethren so great is the Love of God to us that because we rest in Christ God saith that he resteth for God is not at all disturbed nor can so rest yet he saith that he resteth there only because there in Christ we shall have our Rest The same Father upon those words God Resteth saith b De Gen. cont Man lib. 1 c. 22. Tom. 1 Significat Requiem nostram post bona opera And again c Epist 119. c. 10 Significat se daturum nobis requiem aeterndm And again God resteth d De Gen. ad lit lib. 4. c. 9. To. 3 Quia nos quiescere facit And again upon the same words Requievit Deus e De Civit. lib. 11. cap. 8 Deus fit Requies eorum qui in eo requiescunt per fidem That is When God is said to rest it signifieth only our Rest after our labour And That he will give us everlasting Rest And because he maketh us to Rest And because He is the Rest of all them that repose their trust in him Thus doth this learned Father most judiciously and truly expound this Sabbath or Rest of God This Doctrine which declareth the Lord Jesus to be the true and substantial Sabbath which is intended in the fourth Commandement because he only is the Rest both of the Godhead and also the only perfect and solid Rest of us Men if it be again re-admitted into the present Church as it was received and believed by the Fathers and the Church Primitive as is before shewed it will quit us from many doubts waverings and quarrels and will quench those Pen-Polemicks about Sabbatism which have of late disturbed the minds of many good Christians For by this Exposition we shall easily discern that Sabbath-Law to be still in force as much or rather more than any or all the other Nine And so we shall have still Ten Commandements and not only Nine as some have objected And that this Law is truly a Law Moral and Natural and written in our hearts For I beseech the Reader to consider what precept can possibly be imagined to be more naturally imprinted in mans heart than to sanctifie and reverence him who is our ●ll Of him the Psalmist saith Whom Psa 37. 25 have I in heaven but Thee and there is none upon ea●th that I desire besides Thee He is our God our Creator Preserver and Maintainer from whom we have our very being our life and motion And more than all this our Lord Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath or the L●rd Sabbath is He that hath redeemed us from everlasting perdition and more also He only hath prepared for us and tendered to us if we will accept his offer the everlasting and unspeakable Sabbath Rest and joyes of Heaven This is that Sabbath which himself included in those general words representing the summe of the first Table of the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all Lu. 10. 27 thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind This multiplicity of words argues a weighty and most concerning Charge In this Faith I conclude and thus confidently pro●ess That the Lord Jesus Christ is my only Sabbath In his Bosome do I repose my self All my hope and expectation of everlasting Rest is treasured up in him only And I trust I shall with faith and comfort on my death-bed say with the holy Psalmist I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for Psal 4. 6 it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety Thus having as I trust retrived the most true and most ancient Sabbath I now close up this discourse with our
obedience of that Law which is imposed on him by the mighty Creator of Heaven and Earth In the first of these Laws which a man would imagine to be the greatest God useth only this motive I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt This was to move them by way of gratitude to adhere only to him their Deliverer and not to acknowledge any other God But the motive used in this fourth Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is far stronger because the deliverance of his people out of bondage might possibly have been performed either by Treaty or by the Arme of flesh without those plagues of Egypt and wonders at the Red Sea for the Israelites were numerous enough to have fought the Egyptians and to subdue them they wanted only Arms and Utensils of Warr which yet might reasonably have either been forced from the Egyptians or supplied by a forrain power we well know ●gypt was not invincible having been so often subdued Now the motive used in this Sabbath Law is proper only to the Almighty and absolutely incommunicable to any Creatures for none but God did or could make heaven and earth which is generally confessed by Heathens Jews and Christians Plato called God a Plut. in Symp. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So by Philo the Jew he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by Dyonis Areop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by N●z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And by St. Paul b 2 Cor. 6. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is but The Almighty Father and Maker of the World Among the wise Sentences of old Pythagoras this is recorded for one If any man come and boast that he is God let him create another World and we will believe him And in the holy Scripture This making of Heaven and Earth is often mentioned as a peculiar character of the true God As In the beginning Gen. 1. 1. God created the Heaven and the Earth And Psa 146. 5 Happy is the man whose hope is in the Lord his God which made Heaven and Earth So it is in the New Testament Acts 14. 15. and 17. 24. And by this the true God is differenced from false Gods as The gods that have not made Heaven and Earth shall perish And All the Jer. 10. 11 gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made the Heavens And this character of God is put into the very front of our Creed First As a strong motive to incline us to believe and trust in him Secondly To inform the weaker sort of Christians who cannot appre●●end what God is or what to make the object of their faith That it shall be requisite and sufficient for them at first T●● believe in God under this notion thus Whatsoever he is that made Heaven and Earth in him do I believe for so the Psalmist declareth My help Psa 121. 2 cometh from the Lord which made Heaven and Earth This great motive here used to incline us to sanctifie the Sabbath doth evidently shew that this Sabbath-Law is of greater concernment to us than the first Law is The reason whereof we have declared before * Chap. 5. And moreover That the Sabbath which is here principally meant doth not consist in keeping of a day whether the last day of the week which God imposed upon the people of Israel only and that but for a certain time Or the first day of the week which God never at all commanded But another kind of Sabbath is here commanded to be sanctified which Sabbath being rightly and deeply considered will prove and appear to be that very same Lord God that made Heaven and Earth For we have proved before First That the Sabbath day mentioned in the Moral part of this Commandement doth signifie God the Son because in him only the Godhead can be truly said to Rest and not otherwise Secondly We have proved That the Jewish Seventh day Sabbath was appointed only to be for a type figure and memorial or commemoration of that true and grand Sabbath which is Christ From these premises we here inferre That the making of Heaven and Earth is mentioned in this Commandment on purpose for a motive to incite us to a serious and most reverentiall sanctification of this true reall and substantiall Sabbath because he that is here called the Sabbath day is the great Day-spring from on high and is really He that made heaven and earth So that if we will acknowledge that the Creator of heaven and earth is to be worshipped and sanctified by us then must we also confesse that this Sabbath which is the Son of God is so to be sanctified No learned or prudent Christian I suppose will deny that this Son of God was the Creator of Heaven and Earth or if any do the Scriptures and primitive Church will gainsay them The Fathers expound these words Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created to signifie God the Father in God the Son And Joh. 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word that is the Word or Son was in the Godhead even that Word by which all things were made For the Word Principium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Tert. Advers Herm. Tertullian observeth doth not signify onely Ordinativum i. e. a Beginning in respect of the order of time but Potestativum i. e. a Primacy in power and authority For from this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Princes Potentates and Magistrates on earth are by him called * Id. Advers I●daeos Archontes and by others Demarchi i. e. Powers Princes and Rulers of People One of the sayings of Pittacus the Philosopher was b Laert. in Pittac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Magistracy or power will show the disposition of a man Hence also are the words Archangelus in St. Paul Archiepiscopus in Chrysostome and Epiphanius and Archipresbyter and Archidiaconus in St. * Hieron Epist 4. Jerom. As to the appellation Word The Psalmist saith By the Word of the Lord the heavens Psal 33. 6 were made just so the Evangelist tells us All things were made by him That this Word was Joh. 1 3. God the Son every one knowes The Psalmist saith again vers 9. Let all the Earth and all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of of him for he spake the Word and it was done The Word by which the world was made and of which Moses thus wrote God said Let there be light and Let there be a firmament is not to be thought a transient or vocall word as Austin saith c De Civ lib. 11. c. 8. Non sonabili verbo sed intelligibili And by such a word as d In Ioh. Tract 37. Manebat non sonando transibat i. e. The world was made by that internall and substantiall Word which did not passe away from God as our words do from us but by his Word permanent of which St.
one If they wil needs use the name of the Lord in calling that day 't were far more consonant with the phrase of Scrip●ure and Euphony to call i● The Day of the Lord which yet will not come home to their purpose Therefore those prudent S●atesmen and learned Prelates which were interessed both in composing our Statutes and also in compiling and authorising our Leiturgie did with great caution decline this appellation and call'd it Sunday as some of the most antient Fathers did before both in the Greek and a Iustin. Mart. Tertul. Latine Church and this in likelyhood before the appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dominica was generally received although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in some particular Churches used before those Fathers wrote as may appear by that authentick Epistle of b Ignat. Epist 3. Edit Plant. Ignatius ad Magnesianos Neither did those Primitive Christians before mentioned who first began this solemnity nor the Apostles who approved thereof long before the Revelation was written ever call this day so as it is now called We find it recorded under the title of The first day of the week or first day after the Sabbath Act. 20. 7. and 1 Cor. 16. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we find no mention of Sabbath Lord's day or Resurrection day nor did they then call it Sunday because the naming of the seven week-dayes by the seven Planets was never before or at that time used by the Jews nor by the Romans their then Magistrates Whereby it is evident enough that the assigning of the first day of the week for holy assemblies was not originally upon consideration of Christ's Resurrection on that day Notwithstanding the succeeding Church did conform unto that day because their Predecessors had fixed thereon And they further alledged new reasons for the retaining of it They considered That Christ did indeed rise that day from the dead That the descending of the holy Ghost at Pentecost That the creation of Heaven and Earth and Light That Manna rained from Heaven first and all these on this first day of the week Bellarmine addeth if you will believe him b Bel. de Cultu Sanct. l. 3. c. 11. To. 2. That by his and other learned mens calculations the Nativity of Christ fell on this first day of the week These were the reasons for retaining this day though not of instit uting it But in succeeding times the Jewish appellation of dayes by First Second Third c. of the Sabbath or Week was disused Therefore the Church affixed a new name to that day according to the Custom of their Country or Ordinance of the Church and hence came the denomination of Dominica and Sunday respectively We cannot with reason account this appellation Sunday to be any disparagement to the solemnity of the festivall in regard that our Saviour himselfe for whose Honour we sanctifie this Day is called by his Prophets The Sun which shall no more Isa 60. 20 Mal. 4. 2. Matth. 17 2. Matth. 13 43. Rev. 1. 16. 10. 1. 12. 1. go down And the Sun of Righteousnesse his glorious Transfiguration is resembled to the Sun his Saints are promised at their glorification To shine as the Sun his owne Countenance and his mighty Angell and his Spouse are described by the glory of the Sun so that this Name is high and glorious The disusing of this word Sunday and Dominica of late among us is upon some reason of State as of some other good old words also as The word Kingdome and Three Kingdomes and Bishop and Common Prayer Leiturgy and Letanie are now left And instead of them We have Common-wealth Three Nations Presbyters Independents Directory Sabbath Lords-day c. but o●d words may return again and new words may grow obsolete when the State seeth it needfull as one saith Multa renascentur quae jam cecidêre Horace cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula Si volet usus As for the warrant and authority for hallowing and assembling thereon We say That it is not grounded on the fourth Commandement which doth not in the least mention or meddle therewith Neither did Christ or any Apostle command it as Chemnitius a Learned Protestant granteth Exam. Conc. Trid. But we keep it rather by vertue of the fifth Commandement which requireth us to Honour our Parents wherein lawfull Magistrates are included and their just lawes authorized Our reasons are these 1. The institution of the Church Primitive 2. The Apostolicall approbation thereof 3. The Imperiall decrees and also the Regall lawes of this Realm 4. The constant practise of the Church Catholick in all ages thereof 5. The scripturall authority for it which is derived as is said before from the fifth Commandement although not directly or expressely and down-right but secondarily consequently and collaterally in these and the like passages Submit your 1 Pet. 2. 13 selves to eve●y Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And Obey them that Heb. 13. 17 have rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls Christ also said If be neglect the Church Matth. 18 17. let him be as an Heathen man and a Publican For these and such like reasons we adhere to it and esteem them so ponderous that we account it an high insolency and pride either to abrogate or but to alter the day as some have attempted Thus far we agree in the thing but we dissent from the name Sabbath and Lords day and also from all superstition therein practised As touching the Mysterious Apocalyps from which the late appellation of Lord's day is taken by a Translation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not rendred exactly to the Originall Letter as is shewed before Although this Scripture be still confessed both by the Church Protestant and Roman to be Theopneust and Canonicall yet it cannot be denied that many Learned men both Anciently and Lately have doubted concerning the Writer thereof and also have been anxiously perplexed with the obscurities therein First for the Writer That he was named John the Book often declareth But whether he were St. John the Apostle the Text doth not declare nor do the Ancients agree therein in so much that in consideration of former disputes concerning the Writer and also of the style phrase form or manner of speech therein used a Prolegom in Apoc. Beza is inclined to conjecture that if it were not written by St. John the Apostle yet that it was written by St. Mark the Evangelist who was also named John because we read of John surnamed Mark Act. 12. 12. and Act. 15. 37. But Beza's conjecture disagreeth with the History of St. Mark who is recorded by b Hier. in Marco St. Jerome to have suffered death in the eighth year of Nero c Origines Alexand. p. 38. Mr. Selden's Eutychius saith he died in the first year
first Heaven then Earth When the Heaven of Angels was made That their Heaven was intended principally for mankind Why Heaven and Earth are mentioned together Why the making of Hell is not mentioned although it was prepared within the first six daies Why the Creation is mentioned in this fourth Commandment and not in any of the other nine That the Morall Sabbath doth signifie the Creator which is God the Son That he is called the Beginning the Word and the Wisdom of God and is therefore here commanded to be sanctified CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the divine persons co-operated and joyned in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Second Person or Son of God is the Rest or Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of his Godhead and Manhood Of his severall Appellations respectively Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the seventh-day-Sabbath was instituted for a memoriall of the Resting and 〈…〉 of God CHAP. XXI The Exposition concluded The meaning of blessing and hallowing the Sabbath day The difference of hallowing God's Name and hallowing of Creatures The differences of Holinesse When the seventh day was first hallowed How and when it was dis-hallowed Something of Sacriledge How the Prophets spake truly of things to come although they spake as if they had been past Of the Propheticall figure called Anticipation The directions of the Fathers and Scripturall examples thereof applied to this Sabbath CHAP. XXII Reasons why God having conferred honours on the seventh day did also lay some slurs upon it as 1. That this Day-Sabbath was not made known till Moses time nor at all mentioned by zealous David nor this Sabbath-Law by Christ 2. In that God expresly commanded some works on that day 3. That no Manna fell on it 4. That Christ lay dead on that whole day 5. That God called it but a signe and that it was nothing else 6. That it is said to be made for man 7. That it was impossible to be generally kept and also inconvenient occasionally to the Jews The Conclusion That the impossibility both of the seventh-day-Sabbath and also of the Morall Law was designed by God on purpose to drive man to seek for Rest and Salvation onely in the Lord Jesus Christ Errata PAg. 5. line 8. read force and necessity p. 8. l. 3. tell us p. 13. l. 27. Judaical p. 25. l. 6. Onera p. 26. l. 23. Judaical p. 32. l. 31. We are p. 34. l. 16. Judaico p. 37. l. 6. Speaketh p. 41. l. 23. Pharisaical p. 46. l. 34. killing law p. 48. l. 5. Law of God p. 65. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 89. l. 17. intermundium l. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 107. l. 6. God added p. 134. l. ult And in him p. 166. l. 16. judicial l. 20. judicial p. 168. l. 1. 10 act a part p. 227. l. 1. Jeremie In the Margin p. 13. l. 1. Ignatius p. 125. l. 3. Laertius in Diog. De minutioribus viderit lector The Mystery of the Sabbath Discovered The Sabbath Morall CHAP. I. The Church disturbed about the Doctrine of the Sabbath Of Sunday-Sabbatism Of works practised therein and Recreations forbidden That the celebration of Sunday is pious although not commanded by the Fourth Commandment How the Antient Patriarks did Sabbatize yet kept not a Seventh day That the ten Commandements are still in force A passage in St. Austin and Isychius explained and an abuse of the Commandements in the Roman Catechism shewed THE various opinions of men in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as it is delivered in the Fourth Commandment of the Morall Law hath more disturbed the Christian Church in these latter times then they did the Fathers the Zealous Christians in the Church Primitive yet then was the Doctrin of the Sabbath mistaken and perverted by Ebion who taught that Christians should necessarily keep the Jewish Hebdomarie or seventh-day Sabbath as some among us have done and is therefore by a Epiph. haer 30. Epiphanius and b Theod. haer fab Lib. 2. Theodoret branded with the mark of a Judaizing Heretick And now although the rejection of the Jewish Seventh-day-Sabbath is almost generally agreed among us yet a new Sabbath is set up on the Eighth day or first day of the week to be observed with as great strictnesse as the old Sabbath was on the Seventh day by the Pharisees for now not only labou●s are forbidden but also honest recreations such as we do not find to have been forbidden by those very Jewish zelots Which late strictnesse hath given an occasion or pretence to some to think it to be required rather in opposition to former permissions then for any new light or religious zeal because they have observed that by order of the same Superiors who forbad Recreations Souldiers have been commanded to march and the utensils and luggage of War Carts Wagons Artillary have been drawn out and most cruell bloody battells fought on that very new Sabbath-day and all this upon pretence of either private personall necessity or necessity publik which is now called Reason of State whereupon some of the approved Preachers of these times have openly in the Pulpit declared their dislike and said that now the State Civil is become like a Ship and the Church like a Cock-boat which must follow the motions and turnings of that Ship of State intimating hereby that our Religion must be reformed so as to be subservient to the interest and accommodations of the Civill governors which is quite contrary to the desires of those men who hoped and expected that their Kyrk should have bin made the Ship and the State should have bin the Cock-boat Mose and Aaron were brethren and agreed that Moses might be directed by Aaron in Spiritualls and Aaron Supported by the Brachium temporale or civill authority of Moses for stablishing true Doctrine and godly Discipline which formerly was the happy and peaceable usance of this kingdome wherein the state civill was supreme because as Optatus truly said against the disturbing Donatists c Optat. lib. 3. p. 83. Non est Respublica in ecclesia sed ecclesia in Republica est i. e. The Commonwealth is not included in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth And yet the civil power will not excuse those governors before God which authorise the breaking of the Commandments and Moral law of God For if the Seventh-day Sabbath practised in the Jewish Commonwealth or the Eighth among Christians which some yet call the Sabbath were indeed one of the ten Commandments of God which certainly are moral and perpetual then did the Jewes sin in performing the works of Warr and of Circumcision and Midwifery and Sacrificing at the Tabernacle and Temple on their Sabbath day And if our Sunday be really commanded by this morall law of
John saith The Word was with God and The Word Joh. 1. 1. was God Psal 104. 24. O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all Who this Wisdom and Beginning and Word is by which all things were made the Gospell hath taught us that it is Christ who is not onely the Beginning and the Word as it is said but is also called The Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And All things were made by him Joh. 1. 3. and All things by him were created that are in heaven and that are in earth Col. 1. 16. The Jews in disparagement of Christ Ma● 6. 3. Matth. 13 55. called him both a Carpenter and the son of a Carpenter so did Celsus in a Cont. Cels lib. 6. Origen and b Theod. hist. lib. 3. cap. 23. Julian the impious and apostate Emperour Justin Martyr doth indeed affirm that Christ on earth was literally a Carpenter and did make ploughs and yokes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iustin Dial. cum Tryph. Ambr. Ser. 10. but withall both St. Ambrose and St. Austin tell us That he was also that Carpenter that built Heaven and this mighty fabrick of the world Finally because this Son of God Aug. de Temp. Ser. 3● was both the Creator and also the Sabbath both of God and Men therefore for the sanctifying of him this Motive is here mentioned of making heaven and earth And rested the seventh day Touching this Rest of God what it was and why it is fixed on the seventh day we have said much a Chapter 10 11 12 13 15 1● before and something more must be added which will be more fit to be discoursed in the next that this Chapter may not swell too big CHAP. XX. The Exposition continued That all the Divine Persons concurred in Creating Resting Blessing and Sanctifying How the Son of God or Second Person is the Rest and Sabbath of the same Son of God How he resteth in himself Of the divers considerations of God the Son in respect of Godhead and Manhood and his severall Appellations respectfully Why the seventh day was preferred above the former six That the Ceremoniall Sabbath was for the memoriall of the Resting and not of the Working of God And Rested the seventh day THe more literall and exact reading of these words is And rested on the seventh day for thus St. Jerom renders them Requievit die septimo and the Clementine-Edition In die septimo For it was not the day that was considered by the Godhead but something that was performed on that day that occasioned this Rest which if it had been so done on any other of the former six daies certainly it would have been said of that day as it is of this that God rested on it What that thing was we have shewed before at large namely that it was in consideration of the Messiah or Christ It would now be enquired what is meant by The Lord who is here said to have made heaven and earth and to blesse and sanctifie the Sabbath day whether it be meant of the Person of the Father onely or of the Person of the Son or of the Person of the Holy Spirit or of all of them because all and every one of them is the Lord and the Creator and the Sanctifier Of the Father no man doubteth and of the Son we have proved before and of the holy Ghost holy Job saith By Job 26. 13 his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens and the Psalmist also Thou sendest forth thy Spirit Ps 104 30 and they are created and the Church at the opening of Councils used to sing that Hymn in St. Ambrose which beginneth a Inter Hymnos Ambros To. 5. Veni Creator Spiritus For when our Vulgar Catechisms ascribe Creation to the Father and Redemption to the Son and Sanctification to the holy Ghost we are not so to understand them as if these actions were of each severall person or as if the Father had no interest in our Redemption or Sanctification nor the Son or Spirit in Creation far be it from us to think so But we believe that the whole Godhead and every Person therein did joyntly co-operate in all these acts Indeed the Father created but it was in and by the Son and both by the holy Ghost So the Son Redeemed but it was from the Father and by the Spirit So the holy Ghost Sanctifieth but he doth it from the Father and the Son So also in this place the Rest of God is not to be accounted the Rest of one single Person onely but of the whole Godhead and of every one of the Three most holy Persons therein If it be now granted that the Son of God is this Lord and Creator that made heaven and ea●th and He that is here said to Rest and also He that is the onely Rest and Sabbath both of God and of us Men which we have proved before then it must follow that the Rest it self is here said to Rest and the Sabbath it self to rest in the Sabbath and the Son of God must be the Sabbath of the same Son of God Which at our first hearing may seem to be a violent Exposition which yet is not so as will presently appear The Reader may easily apprehend that although God is entirely One yet he is often represented to us under diverse and severall notions and capacities as if he were not the One and the same God for so this Son of God who is the onely God is set forth in Scripture and is so by us to be apprehended and believed as Immorta●l and yet mortall as the M●ker of all things and yet made that he was from Eternity and yet born in time the Father of all men and yet the Son of man the Creator of his Mother and yet her Son All these speeches are true of this Son of God considered in his severall and respective capacities neither ought they to seem incredible or strange because we find the like diversities in one and the same Man One in Plutarch said openly to a King sitting in judicature a Pl●t in Apoph Provoco à Philippo ad Phil●ppum I appeal from King Philip to King Philip but in another temper So Nazianzen representeth the same person both as a Judge and as one arraigned b Naz. E●ist 79. Te accuso apud te justum judicem So doth St. Ambrose to one as if he were both Client and Counsellor c Ambr. Ser. 64. Stulto consiliario usus es teipso Upon these words Psal 140. 1. Deliver me O Lord from the evill man St. Austin saith d Aug. Hom 29. de Temp. Ser. 233. à te ●e liberat i. e. God doth deliver a man from himself And upon those words Deliver us from evill he saith Deus te liberat à teipso malo We have a Proverb that a man is his own neighbour c Proximus egomet mihi
ours assumed and propagated from the first Man and also as Athanasius most truly affirmeth a De Incarnat Christi p. 552. In the work of Redemption his body was given for our bodies and his soul for our souls and his whole man for our whole man Many of the Fathers and those of them who are most eminent for learning were much taken with a common fame and also perswaded thereunto as a truth by a Tradition of the Tert. Poem n. 11. Cyp. n. 97 Or●g●n 43. Athan. n. 25 Basil Mag. n. 23 Basil Seleuc n. 14. Hier n. 4 Aug. To. 10 n. 55 Epip Haer. 49 Jews That Christ was crucified in the very place where Adam was buried as we find in Tertullian Cyprian Origen Athanasius in both the Basils in Epiphanius Jerome and Austi● And that because Adam's crany or scull was there found therefore that place was named Golgotha or Calvaria which is noted by all ●he four Evangelists and called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just as other Writers report of the Roman Capitol that at the foundation thereof the head or scull of a Man was found and because the name of that Man when he lived was ●olus as Arnob. Cont. Gent. lib. 6. Arnobius saith therefore they named that building Capi-tolium The Fathers took such special notice of this tradition of Golgotha because they conceived that it was to signifie the benefit of Christs death to be extended to the whole Adam that is both to his own person also to all his posterity The words of St. Jerome in an Epistle to Marcella are these b Hier. Epist 17 Calvaria appellata esi quia ibi Calvaria Adami condita est ut sanguis Christi stillans de cruce peccata ejus dilueret For as Christ is the head of the whole body or corporation Mystical so is Adam the fountain and head of the whole corporation Natural of Mankind There was lately a book printed and published wherein the Writer laboureth to prove that there were men before Adam If the Author so believed he was very ignorant in Christian Doctrine and if not then it may be thought he wrote it purposely to deride Christianity as a Pagan Turk or Jew would do for such another thing did the Jews invent and report as a Tradition that For the first Man God created two Wives or Women And hence it was that the Jews forged many vain Genealogies which are the same that St. Paul forbids as fabulous and endless 1 Tim. 1. 4. As c Cont. Advers legis l 2. c 1. Tom. 6. St. Austin thought This phansie doth disturb the Doctrine of Redemption by Christ who was necessarily to proceed from on Man and through that one Woman of whom it is said The Seed of her shall bruise thy head therefore for our comfort and for confirmation of our faith and for the manifestation of the just proceedings of God in the way and manner thereof he hath in the holy Scripture named the Man and the Woman from whom all Mankind together with Christ were propagated CHAP. XIV Of Adam 's Solitude and something of Monastick life and the reasons thereof That the Womans help consisted not in society nor child-bearing simply considered but only in respect of the Generation of Christ Of Child-bearing that it is not salvifical without Faith in Christ Of good and evil occasioned by the Woman Why she was named Vita or life Why God suffered the Woman to occasion the fall of Man 4. MY fourth Reason why I have said that this Rest of God consisteth in the consideration of Christ is grounded upon these words of the Godhead It is not good that Man should be alone I will make him an help meet for Gen. 2. 18 him The Heathens accounted Solitude a great infelicity although they abounded in all other provisions One saith a Tul. de Amic Si Deus nos in Solitudine c●llocare● And Si quis in coelum ascendisset in suave foret nisi aliquem cui narraret haberet i. e. If God should place a man in a desart or if a man were in heaven alone it would seem unpleasant if he wanted a companion to discourse with He thought also that b Id. inter frag God himself could not be happy if he were alone Solitariness doth indeed incline some to carelesness and nemo videt is an incouragement to vices The great Philopher soid of a solitarie man c Arist Pol. lib. 1. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had need be exceeding good and likeunto God or else he wil be as bad as a beast The Poet saith d Ovid d● Remed Loca sola nocent loca sola caveto Semper habe Pyladen aliquem qui cures Orestem The man is now placed in his pleasant Paradise yet even there it is said It is not good to be alone But the Church doth not absolutely condemn solitude It hath bin accounted a great help to piety in two respects 1. as being a refuge from the scandals of sin and aversions from God The Ancient Eremitical and Monastick Christians were so called because they retired on purpose to apply their service to God only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Naz. in Poe● Nazianzen saith and therefore such were called b Salvian de gub lib. 8. servi Dei as being the principal servants of God 2. The desart was a refuge and a preservation of holy persons in the time of presecution which as c Soz. lib. 1. c. 13. Sozomen thought was the chief c●●se of Eremitical retirement Elias fled in ●●●he wilderness from the fury of Jezabel 1 Reg. 19. Rev. 12. 14. So the Church in the Apocalyps is described flying into the wilderness from the Dragon John Baptist was sent into the wilderness by his father to escape Herods massacre as Basil of Seleucia thought d Basil Seleu. in Erist can n. 17. Mat. 23. 35. where it seems he continued until the time of his ministry for which cause and also for asserting the virginity of the Virgin mother his holy father Zacharias the son of Barachias was slain as many of the Fathers affirm These two are by St. Jerome accounted the precedents of Eremitical solitude practised by many holy men such as Antonius and Paulus who continued many years so and Didymus who continued 90. years without any society of men as e Soc lib. 4. c 18. Socrates writeth The piety of such Eremites as these caused the desart to be thought the cheif school of vertue St. Jerome said that f Hier. Epist 22. he retired into the desart That thereby he might escape hell An holy woman in g Chrys cont vituperatores l. 3. To. 4. Chrysostome desired that her son might be brought up in a solitary life that thereby he might obtain heaven This kind of life was accounted a continual repentance by St. Jerome and other Ancient writer's called such Livers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as curing the