the Sabbath was inftituted in memory of the Creation of the World by the true God; and therefore the belief and obfervation of it, was an open Defiance to all Idolatry, as the Pfalmift joyns them together; All the Gods of the Hea- Plal.96.5. thens are Idols: But the Lord made the Heavens.

And this is the distinctive Character that God hath given between himself, the only true God, and the Heathen Idols or Vanities; The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth Shall perish from the Earth, and from under the Heavens. The Lord hath made the Earth by his Power be hath Jer.10.11, framed the Universe by his Wisdom, and hath stretch. 12. ed out the Heavens by his Difcretion.

د

Now the observation of the Sabbath, as instituted in honour of the invisible Creator of the visible or material World, being the fundamental Article of Faith in the Jewish Church, in oppofition to Idolatry, or giving the Worship of the fupreme Deity to created Beings, it is for that reafon more frequently recited than any other Law, and its Breach as severely punished as Idolatry it Yelf; the recital of this command is almost half of the Law and the Prophets, and the violation of it certain Death, as a Crime of the fame Nature with Idolatry it felf.So evident is it through the whole Series of facred History that the Sabbath was instituted in opposition to Idolatry, and that the Idolatry it was opposed to, was the Wor

hip

Hom 6.de

1

Ship of created Beings as the fupreme uncreated

Deity.

To conclude this Argument, tho I designed to confine my felf to the Testimony of Holy Scripture, that is the only competent witness in the cafe yet I find such a pregnant Paffage cited out of St. Cyril of Alexandria to the same purpose with the Premises, from his ownObfervation of the Train of Scripture History, that it were great pity

"

to rob the Reader of fo fair an Authority, " After felt. Pafch. the Ifraelites, (fays he) left their own Country to " fojourn in Egypt, in process of time they lost all memory of their Ancestors, and descent from the Line of Abraham; so that their ancient Customs being worn out by degrees, and the Religion of their Forefathers difus'd, they were at length debauched by conversation with the Egyptians to Idolatry, and gave the worship of the fupreme God to the Sun, and under him to the Heavens, Earth, Moon, Stars. "And therefore when God delivered them out of their "Egyptiau Bondage, to bring them to the promised "Land he peremptorily conımands them to discard all "their Egyptian Errors; but because there was need " of an evident fign by which they should, as it were, be forced to confess, that Heaven was made by "Almighty Power; and that the Sun, Moon and "Stars, and all other Beings, were the works of his bands; he commands the Festival of the Sabbath

his

as a Menorial and Imitation of himself and bis

' work; and therefore they that devote themselves to rest as their Creator rested, by that acknowledge, "that all other things were the Product of his Power; " and that is the natural design of the Sabbath Rest,

८८

to affect them with a sense of the Supreme Deity, or

"Creator of all things.

r

In the fecond place, a very great and confidera ble part of the Mosaick Law was enacted, purely in oppofition to the Old Heathen Rites and Cufloms. Here I omit the Idolatry of the Zabii fo much of late infifted upon by learned Men, because I find no ancient Footsteps of any fuch People in the World.

The Mahometan Arabic Writers are the first that make any mention of them, and their Divinity(as the Arabians describe it) is a meer Fanatick Rhapfody of Chaldaism, or Aftrologick Idolatry, Judaism, or the History of the Patriarchs turned into Fables; Gnosticism, or the worship of Demons and Angels; Pythagorism, or turning all things into Allegories, and therefore must be of a much younger Date than Christianity.wonoro The first time we read of them, is in the Alchoran, and Mahomet gives them that name of Zabii, because they lay Eastward from Arabia, for so the Word fignifies Easterlings: Or more probably from a Fanatick Imitation of the Old Tefta ment, that frequently and commonly styles the Heathen Idolaters by the Title of the men of the East,

نوع .

4

1

Eaft, i.c. the Chaldeans, who were situated Eastward of Judea.

After himwe have no accouut of any fuch Nation as the Zabii, till about Eight Hundred Years fince. For the Prophet and his barbarous Followers, as they conquered, destroyed all Monuments of Learning, till being fetled in Peace and Empire, (as is the manner of all Barbarians) they betook themselves to the humour of Learning, and tranflated Books out of other Languages, not only Greek and Latin, but of their Neighbour Nations into their own Tongue.

こ

This is the most ancient Account, after all the noife that has been made of their extreme Antiquity, that we have of any Zabian Writers; fo that fetting that modern Nation afide, the Mofaick Rites were instituted in oppofition to the more ancient Idolatry of their Neighbour Nations,particularly the Egyptians and the Canaanites, of whom there was most danger by reason of their late conversation with the one, and their new conversation with the other. And therefore against these God arms them with a special Caution, Lev.18.3. After the doings of the Land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do; and after the doings of the Land of Canaan, whether I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their Ordinances. This contrariety of the Jews to the Laws and Cuftoms of all other Nations is made use of by Haman

to

to King Abafuerus to procure their Destruction; Efth.3.8. And Haman Said unto King Abafuerus, there is a certain People Scattered abroad, and difperfed among the People in all the Provinces of thy Kingdom, and their Laws are divers from all People, neither keep they the Kings Laws; and therefore it is not for the King's Interest to suffer them. If it please the King, let it be written that they may be destroyed.

This is perpetually objected by Manetho the Egyptian Prieft against the Jews, that they aimed at nothing so much in the Rites of their Religion, as to affront and reflect Defiance upon the Egyptian Devotion. And so Tacitus his account of them is this; Mofes ut fibi in posterum Judæorum Hift. 1. 5. gentum firmaret, novos ritus contrariosque cateris mortalibus indidit; Prophana illis omnia, quæ apud nos facra; rurfum conceffa apud illos, quæ nobis incesta. Mofes, that he might the better confirm the Jewish Nation to himself, instituted new Rites, contrary to the customs of the rest of Mankind; what is moft sacred with us, is most prophane with them; and what with us is esteemed most abominable, is allowed to them as lawful and

innocent.

This is the certain ground of that known universal contempt and hatred of all other Nations against the Jews: And so that Paffage in Jeremiah, cap. 12. ver. 9. is applyed by Grotius to the Jews, Mine Heritage is unto me as Speckled

as a

Bird; the Birds round about her are against her: Mine

P

Inhe