QUEST. III. Why Abraham made a feast when Isaack was weaned.

ANd Abraham made a great feast. 1. Neither is it like, that Abraham, lest he should seeme to imitate the fashions of the heathen, did institute a feast not usuall: for it is not unlike, but that there was great re∣joycing also at the birth of Isaack: as vers. 6. Sarah said, God hath made me to rejoyce. 2. Neither was this done either mystically, as Augustine, to signifie that then we should rejoyce, cum factus est homo spiritualis, when a man is become spirituall, and weaned from carnall desires. 3. Neither yet was it performed ty∣pically, to foreshew that Christ should weane us ab infantilib. ritib. &c. from the childish rites of the Law: Rupertus. 4. But rather it seemeth to have beene laudabilis consuetudo, a laudable custome in those dayes, ut initium comedendi, &c. that the beginning of the eating of the first-borne should bee celebrated with a feast, Cajetane. For at the birth of the childe, the mother being in griefe, and at the circumcision, the infant being in griefe, it might seeme not so fit a time of feasting, as at the weaning, Mercer. 5. And beside, speciall mention seemeth to be made of this feast, because Ismael at this time, scorning this solemni∣tie, derided and mocked Isaack, Calvin.