* 13. Neither was the number of seven only in general sacred
VOL. XIX. 20
306 OF THE ORIGINAL OF T:iE SABBATH. [EXERC. I.
amongst them, but there are testimonies produced out of the most ancient writers amongst the heathen expressing a notion of a seventh day’s sacred feast and rest. Many of these were of old collected by Clemens Alexandrinus and by Eusebius out of Aristobulus, a learned Jew. They have by many been insisted on, and yet I think it not amiss here once more to report them. The words of Aristobulus, wherewith he prefaceth his allegation of them, are in Eusebius, Preepar. Evangel., lib. xiii. cap. xii, speaking of the seventh day, Aiacdper” Ownpos xu) ‘Hoiodos wereiAnpires én rev juerépav BiCAlwy iepay elvar—“ Homer and Hesiod, taking it out of our books, do openly affirm that it is sacred.” That what they affirm herein was taken from the Jewish books I much question, nor do I think that in their time, when the Law only was written, the nations of the world had any the least acquaintance with their writings, nor much until after the Babylonish captivity, when they began to be taken notice of ; which [knowledge of them] was principally diffused under the Per- sian empire, by their commerce with the Grecians, who inquired into all things of that nature, and that had an appearance of secret wisdom. But these apprehensions, whatever they were, they seem rather to have taken up from the secret insinuations of the law of creation, and the tradition that was in the world of the matter of fact. Out of Hesiod, therefore, he cites the following testimonies, "Epy. nal ‘Hy. 770:— Llparoy tvn, rerpds re, wad ECdaun, sepdv jyeep>— “The first, the fourth, and the seventh day, is sacred.” Again,— “EGdomern D airis Aaparpoy Patos Herio1o-—
“The seventh again, the sacred or illustrious light of the sun.”
And out of Homer,—
“EQsuarn 3D hrere xarnrvbey sepdv jyap-— “Then came the seventh day, that is sacred.’ Again,— “EOdouoy nuup tny nod ry rertrcizo Eravra:— “Tt was the seventh day, wherein all things were finished, or perfected.” Again,— “EOdouden 9% of Alwomey poov 2 Ax Epovros-— “ We left the flood of Acheron on the seventh day.’ Whereunto he subjoins an ingenious exposition about the relinquish- ment of the oblivion of error, by virtue of the sacredness of the number seven. He adds also out of Linus:—
‘EOdqudrn On of rertAtousye wdvre chruxres.—
“The seventh day, wherein all things were finished.”
SECT. 14.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 307
Again,— “ECdsun civ ayebois, wal t6doun tori yevidan, “EbStun tv xpwroies, xd tCdoun tor) ceAsin-—
“The seyenth day among the best things, the seventh is the nativity of all things, The seventh is among the chiefest, and is the perfect day.”
Again,— ‘Ere i rdvra ciroxras ty obpuyy aoreposves "Ey xundoics Qavive’ tairtrAAomtyvols Evicvrois:
of which before.
The same testimonies he repeats again in his next chapter out of Clemens, with an alteration of some few words not of any import- ance; and the verses ascribed to Linus in Aristobulus are said to be the work of Callimachus in Clemens,—which is not of our concern- ment. Testimonies to the same purpose may be taken out of some of the Roman writers. So Tibullus, giving an account of the excuses he made for his unwillingness to leave Rome,—
« Aut ego sum causatus ayes, aut omina dira Saturni sacra me tenuisse die ;’’—
“ Bither I laid it on the birds” (he had no encouraging augury), ‘“‘or that bad omens had detained me on the sacred day of Saturn,” lib. i. eleg. iii.
14, I shall not, from these and the like testimonies, contend that the heathens did generally allow and observe themselves one day sacred in the week. Nor can I grant, on the other hand, that those ancient assertions of Hesiod, Homer, and Linus, are to be measured by the late Roman writers, poets or others, who ascribe the seventh day’s sacred feast to the Jews in way of reproach; as Ovid,—
—— “Nec te peregrina morentur Sabbata,” Remed. Amoris, v. 219 ;—
“Stay not” (thy journey) “ for foreign Sabbaths.” And Artis Amator. lib. i. 416,— “ Culta Palestino septima festa Syro ;”— «The seventh day feast observed by the Jew.”
Nor shall I plead the testimony of Lampridius, concerning the Emperor Alexander Severus going into the Capitol and the temples on the seventh day, seeing in those times he might learn that observance from the Jews, whose customs he had occasion to be acquainted with; for all ancient traditions were before this time utterly worn out or inextricably corrupted. And when the Jews by their conversation with the Romans, after the wars of Pompey, began to present them unto them again, the generality despised them all, out of their hatred and contempt of that people. And I do know that sundry learned men, especially two of late, Gomarus and Selden, have endeavoured to show that the testimonies usually pro- duced in this case do not prove what they are urged for. Great
308 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. II.
pains they have taken to refer them all to the sacredness of the sep- tenary number before mentioned, or to the seventh day of the month, sacred, as is pretended, on the account of the birth of Apollo; where- unto, indeed, it is evident that Hesiod hath respect in his 2€8omov iepiv jwep. But the authority of Aristobulus and Clemens is not to be despised. Something they knew, undoubtedly, of the state of things in the world in their own days and those that went before; and they do not only instance in the testimonies before rehearsed, but also assert that the sacredness of one of the seven days was generally admitted by all. And the testimonies of Philo and Josephus are so express to that purpose as that their force cannot be waived without offering violence unto their words. The words of Philo we expressed before. And Josephus, in his second book against Apion, chap. xxxix., says positively, O08 Zorw ob wéAuc ‘EAAjvay, obdnriooty 008 BapCapos, odd ty Zbvos, evda un rd ris ECdomcOns Hy Kpyolmev Hmeis, Td bog 0d drarepoirqxe-—“There is neither any city of the Greeks, nor barbari- ans, nor any nation whatever, to whom our custom of resting on the seventh day is not come.” And this, in the words foregoing, he affirmeth to have been 2x waxpod, from a long time before, as not taken up by an occasional acquaintance with them. And Lucian in his Pseudologista tells us that children at school were exempted from studying év rats £€dduors, “on the seventh days;” and Tertullian in his Apology, cap. xvi., tells the Gentiles of their sabbaths or feasts on Saturday. But yet, as was intimated, I shall grant that the observation of a weekly sacred feast is not proved by the testimonies produced; which is all that those who oppose them do labour to dis- prove. But I desire to know from what original these traditions were derived, and whether any can be assigned unto them but that of the original institution of the sabbatical rest. Tt is known that this was common amongst them, that when they had a general notion or tradition of any thing, whose true cause, reason, and be- ginning, they knew not, they would feign a reason or occasion of it, accommodated to their present apprehensions and practices, as I have elsewhere evinced and cleared. Having, therefore, amongst them the tradition of a seventh day’s sacred rest, which was originally catholic, and having long lost the practice and observance of it, as well as its cause and reason, they laid hold on any thing to affix it unto which might have any resemblance unto what was vulgarly received amongst them, or what they could divine in their more curious speculations.