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1. A generall reply, that the workes forbidden particularly, had reference onely to the abode of the people in the wildernesse.
2. First Answer, The Commandement to tary at home on the Sab∣bath day was perpetuall.
3. Second Answer, The prohibition to prepare meat was perpetu∣all.
4, The first reply to this Answer refuted.
5. The said reply is not well grounded on the example of a Phari∣see, who called Christ to eat bread on the Sabbath day.
6. Confirmation of the refutation of the said reply by the Scrip∣tures.
7. By the testimony of Saint Augustine, and of Saint Ignace, and by reason.
8. The second reply taken from equality, yea from oddes of rea∣son refuted.
9. A mystery hid in the prohibition to cooke meat on the Sabbath day, &c.
10. Third Answer, the prohibition to kindle fire was perpetuall, and not referred to the building of the Tabernacle.
11. If it was referred thereto, it was onely by application.
12. If it was not lawfull to kindle fire for the uses of the Taber∣nacle, farre lesse for other uses.
13. Confirmation of this answer by reason, and by the testimony of Philo.
14. Fourth Answer, The particular prohibitions were explica∣tions of the generall prohibition of the fourth Commandement.
15. Fifth and last Answer, God hath no where made an exception of any worke on the weekely Sabbath, as he did on the Sabbath of the Passeover.
1 SOme of the contrary opinion have seene the difficulty pro∣pounded in the former Chapter, to wit, that there is no rea∣son to say, that some workes which the Iewes were forbid∣den to do, as wel as all other, by the fourth Commandement are per∣mitted, but the rest are not permitted, if it be true that the prohibi∣tion of the fourth Commandement obligeth us, as they pretend. Therefore they say, that these workes, which, as they confesse, we are permitted to doe, as to kindle the fire, and to make meat ready on the Sabbath day, were permitted to the Iewes as well as unto us, and are not comprised in the prohibition of the fourth Commande∣ment, and that the particular prohibitions which are made in Exo∣dus Chapter 16. and 35. were temporall, had respect only to the time of the peoples sojourning in the wildernesse, and were groun∣ded on reasons particular to that time.
2 But this is an affirmation without ground, and without all likelihood. For to speake of the injunction given them, to tarry every man in his place, and not to goe out of it on the Sabbath day, Exod. 16. vers. 29. it is true, that it was given them by occasion of the Manna, to the intent that they should not goe forth to seeke any, yet undoubtedly it was extended also to all other things of the like nature, to wit, to all bodily and earthly ends, God by that one example forbidding them to apply themselves to the seeking of them, there being a like reason for all. I say, bodily and earth∣ly, because a spirituall and heavenly end was excepted by the third verse of the three and twenty Chapter of Leviticus, and there was no other end but such a one, which might be an exception from the said prohibition. Will any man say, that during their abode in the wildernesse, they might freely and without offence goe about other worldly businesses, the gathering of Manna excepted? This goeth beyond all semblance of truth: And therefore, if this was not left to their liberty, the prohibition of the sixteenth Chapter of Exo∣dus had a farther regard than to the Manna onely. Now if they were restrained in the wildernesse, and durst not goe forth for earthly imploiments, as to gather Manna, what reason can be allea∣ged, why in the land of Canaan they were free to come and to goe, and trouble themselves with the care and pursuit of the bread that perisheth, and of other things of this world?
3 The same judgement ought to be made of the prohibition to to cooke and dresse meat in the wildernesse on the Sabbath day, which meat was Manna: wherefore ought not this prohibition to have place in the land of Canaan for all other meats? The Israelites had they not leisure in Canaan to prepare their meat the day before the Sabbath, as much, nay more than they had for the Manna in the wildernesse? Neverthelesse, the day before the Sabbath, which was the sixth day of the weeke, God said to them concerning the Manna, Bake that which ye will bake, and seethe that which ye will seethe, and all that remaineth lay it up to be kept till the morning for you. And why? To morrow, saith he, is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord, Exod. 16. vers. 23. words which shew, that the observation of the Sabbath day by him prescribed unto them, with respect not onely to their pilgrimage in the wildernesse, but also to their abode in Canaan, was the cause why hee rained not
Manna upon them, and suffered them not to prepare any on that day, and by his law forbade them universally in their generations to cooke and prepare any meat on the Sabbath day. For if it were a thing that he left to their libert•• by the Law, wherefore did hee not raine Manna upon them on the Sabbath day? Or if hee gave them not any, lest they should goe forth and gather it on that day, and if he obliged them to gather twice as much the day before, gi∣ving them that day bread for two dayes, vers. 29. which necessity forced them to doe, seeing the next day there was not any to bee found in the fields, wherefore did he not, at least, suffer them to deferre till the Sabbath day, the cooking of that portion which they had gathered and laid up for that day, rather than to injoyne them, as he did, to make ready twice as much the day before, and so take from them all occasion of preparing it on the Sabbath day, which they might have done easily, although there was none to be found in the fields that day? Certes he did betoken, that not onely the seeking and gathering, but also the cooking and preparing of meat on that day displeased him, because it was a day ordained by him to rest in: which is a perpetuall reason for all the dayes and times that the Law of Moses was to continue.
4 To say, that God commanded both to gather, and to prepare the Manna the day before, and to keepe it till the Sabbath day, be∣cause he would manifest his miraculous power in preserving from corruption the Manna, which else had bred wormes, and stunke, Exod. 16. vers. 20. from one of these dayes to the other, is an un∣sufficient answer. For first, the same miracle had beene although the Manna had beene kept crude and unbaked, to be sodden and pre∣pared the next day. Secondly, God might have done, if it had plea∣sed him, the same miracle in respect to another day, as well as to the Sabbath day. Wherefore then did he it for the Sabbath day, but to ordaine to the Israelites the cessation from all workes, and amongst others from making meat ready on the Sabbath day in their genera∣tions? Also wee see no examples of preparing of meat on the Sab∣bath day among them.
5 To prove that they did, is unfitly alleaged the first verse of the fourteenth chapter of S. Luke, where it is said, that Iesus Christ entred into the house of one of the chiefe Pharisees, on the Sabbath day, to eat bread, that is, to take his refection. For it is not said,
that this Pharisee had caused the repast to be made ready on the same Sabbath day, which he had never done, seeing the Pharisees found sault with the simple action of Christs Disciples, who on the Sabbath day going thorow the corne fields, plucked some eares of corne, and did rub them in their hands to eat them, Luke 6. vers. 1.
6 Which is againe a most manifest argument, that in those dayes the Iewes prepared not any meat on the Sabbath day, and also that it was not permitted by the Law. For if it had beene permit∣ted, the accusation of the Pharisees against Christs Disciples had wanted all ground and colour of reason, when they said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawfull to do on the Sabbath dayes? Luk. 6. vers. 1. And it had not beene needfull, that Christ should have alleaged, to defend them, that the hunger wherewith they were pinched, and their present need of sustenance, excused their action, even as a like cause excused the action of David, and of those that were with him, when being an hungred they tooke and ate the Shew-bread, which was not lawfull to eate but for the Priests onely: as also that God will have mercy, and not Sacrifice, Matth. 12. vers. 3, 4, 5. For he might have answered in one word, that the action of his Disciples to prepare meat, was not at all forbidden by the Law, and that there was no semblance of reason to blame it; whereas by his answer he supposeth, that indeed it was forbidden ordinarily, as well as to eat of the Shew-bread to all others but Priests, and he maintaineth not his Disciples to be excusable, but by their present necessity, which made lawfull that which other∣wise had beene unlawfull unto them. For if that whereby hee defended them had beene lawfull otherwise than in case of ne∣cessity, what need had hee to excuse them upon their present ne∣cessitie. S. Austin in the fourth chapter of the sixth booke against the Manichees, saith that the Iewes on their Sabbath gather not any kinde of fruit in the field, that they mince and cooke no meat at home.
7 Also S. Ignace Martyr in his Epistle to the Magnesians, tea∣ching how the Sabbath is to be observed, and that by opposition to the fashions of the Iewes, amongst other things saith, that it ought not to be kept by eating meats prepared and kept the day before, (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) which sheweth, that the Iewes prepared not their
meat on the Sabbath day, but the day before, which for this cause they have called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, Preparation, Mar. 15. 42. because on it they prepared all that was needfull for the Sabbath following: As also the same name for the same reason is given to the day that went immediately before the first day of the unleavened bread of the Passeover. This abstinence from making ready all kinde of meat on the Sabbath day, was undoubtedly the cause that moved some Pagans to beleeve and say, that the Iewes fasted on that day, “ 1.1as we see in the one and thirtieth Booke of the History of Iustin, and in the life of Augustus Caesar written by Suetonius, * 1.2 chap. 76.
8 The inference which is made from equality, or rather odsof rea∣son, that sith the Law permitted the Iews to lead their cattell to the water on the Sabbath day, as is cleare by the testimony of S. Luk. 13. 15. it permitted them also to prepare their own meat, is of no value. For there is not a like necessity of the last, as of the first. A man must every day water his beast, that it may be fed & entertained, but it is not necessary that a man prepare meat every day for himselfe: for he may in the day before prepare meat enough for the day following. The inference that can be lawfully and in equall tearmes made of the foresaid permission concerning a mans beast, is, that farre more should a man be licensed to eat and drinke on the Sabbath day, if he be an hungred, or a thirst, and give meat and drink to another that is very hungry or dry, yea & to make meat ready too in an urgent and present necessity of hunger and thirst, in case there were not any al∣ready prepared to be found, which I would not deny but the Law did permit. But it followeth not hereof, that it was permitted to make an ordinary preparation of meat on the Sabbath day, as on o∣ther dayes, and to deferre the preparation thereof, which might have beene wisely done the day before, till the Sabbath day, which is the point in question, and which I have clearely shewed before to be ex∣presly forbidden by the Law, Exod. 16. 23. Which ordained not for the time onely of the abode of the people in the wildernesse, but also for all their generations in time to come, that all workes ne∣cessary for the Sabbath should be prepared before it came.
9 Wherein may be considered a type and a mysterie, God giving to understand thereby, that during the time of this life, we ought to prepare good workes, to the end we may injoy the profit and uti∣lity issuing of them, and eat their fruit, as the Scripture speaketh, in
the eternall Sabbath of the life to come, and not to differre from day to day, till that great Sabbath come, the preparing of our lampes, and filling them with abundance of oyle, left we knocke and cry in vaine, Lord, Lord open unto us, Matth. 25. 1. &c. Mat. 7. vers. 22, 23.
10 As for the prohibition to kindle fire on the Sabbath day, Exod, 35. vers. 3. it is cleare, that it speaketh, not onely what the Israe∣lites were to do in the wildernesse, but also in Canaan. The words are plaine, Ye shall kindle no fire thorowout (or, in any of) your ha∣bitations upon the Sabbath day; which words thorowout, or in any of your habitations, ought to be referred rather to the land of Ca∣naan, * 1.3 than to the wildernesse, because it was in Canaan that they were to have their habitations and seats, as is implied by the word in the originall, whereas in the wildernesse they sojourned onely in tabernacles: And it is very unreasonable to imagine, that because immediately after mention is made of the building of the Taberna∣cle of God, this prohibition to kindle fire on the Sabbath day had respect onely unto it, as if God had forbidden onely to kindle fire for preparing and fitting their tooles, and imploying them on that day about that work. For although the speech of the building of the Tabernacle followeth immediately after the prohibition to kindle fire, yet it followeth not, that there is any connexion betweene these things, and that they are relative one to another: Nay they seeme rather to be dis-joyned and severed in the text it selfe. For af∣ter the injunction to kindle no fire, these words are added, And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, &c. which may very well denote a discourse depending on the former, made upon another matter, and perhaps also in another time.
11 But although this last discourse had beene made in dependance upon the other, & the other relatively unto it, that is, though Moses had forbidden in the third verse to kindle fire for the use of the Arti∣ficers & handicrafts men that were to build the Tabernacle, wherof he speaketh afterward, lest the Israelites should surmise, that it was lawfull unto them for to doe it, for the hastening and setting for∣ward of that excellent edifice, which God had appointed to be his house, it should be nothing else but an application of a prohibition, in it selfe generall, to a particular subject, whereunto it extended it selfe as unto others; even as the prohibition of the second verse
to doe any work on the Sabbath day, under the paine of death, is un∣doubtedly in the meaning thereof generall, although Moses had in that place referred it particularly to the edifice of the Taberna∣cle. Yea, Moses of set purpose had applied the one and the other to the particular subject or the building of the Tabernacle, to make better knowne, and to inferre from thence the generality and ex∣tent of both.
12 For if it were forbidden to worke, and to kindle fire on the Sabbath day for the edifying of the Tabernacle, farre more was it forbidden for all other worke, sith scarce could there be any more important than that, and which could so well deserve a particular licence to labour and kindle fire to doe it, as which had no other regard, saving the accelerating and rearing up of the house of God.
13 The prohibition to cooke meat on the Sabbath, whereof I have spoken before, sheweth that this kindling of fire, should be referred unto it; to wit, that it was not lawfull to kindle any to make meat ready, which must be also understood of all other ends of the same nature. This is confirmed by Philo the Iew, who in the Booke of Abrahams Pilgrimage, and in the third Booke of the life of Mo∣ses, among the works which it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day, putteth these two, to dresse meat, and kindle the fire.
14 I adde, that the fourth Commandement of the Law, was to the Israelites the cause of their abstinence and cessation on the Sab∣bath day, when they were in the wildernesse. So was it in Canaan also, and after the same manner as it was in the wildernesse. The particular prohibitions given afterward unto them, and which they received, were onely explications, illustrating the sense and the end of the Commandement. Now sith the words of the Com∣mandement are generall, In it thou shall not doe any worke, with what shew of truth can it be said, that the workes to bake and cooke meat, to kindle the fire, and such like, were not forbidden by these words, but onely by particular and speciall commandements, and that for the time of the abode of the Israelites in the wilder∣nesse, seeing there is no place to be found, where they are excepted from this generall tearme, Any worke, expresly set downe in the Commandement, and where licence is given to the Israelites to do them in the land of Canaan?
15 If God had meant that it was lawfull to the Iewes to kindle fire, dresse meat, and travell on the Sabbath day, questionlesse hee had made an exception & particular declaration therupon, as he did concerning the two Sabbaths, the first and the last of the feast of the Passeover. For he forbade also to doe any work on these two daies. But he excepted the preparation and dressing of as much meat as e∣very man must eat, Exod. 12. vers. 16. and he permitted them after they had rosted and eaten the Paschall Lambe in the evening, to returne to their home the next morning, Deut. 16. vers. 7. Vn∣doubtedly the same is to bee understood of the Sabbaths of other feasts, but not of the ordinary Sabbath properly so called, wherein God required a rest more exact, because this day was ordained to be a particular type of the spirituall and heavenly rest, as we have de∣clared before, and shall touch it againe hereafter.
Moses septimum diem more gentis Sab∣batum appel∣latum in om∣ne avum je∣junio sacra∣vit.
Ne Iudaeus quidem tam diligenter Sabbatis je∣junium ser∣vat.
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