t given to set a
certain mark, some sign or other, upon the foreheads of the elect. So have
our English translators taken the place.

This exposition is confessed by Gasper Sanctius,(836) to be followed
almost by all the Hebrew masters, and by the most ancient interpreters, to
wit, the Septuagint, Aquilla and Symmachus. The word beareth this gloss,
even according to the confession of those who expound it otherwise in this
place, to wit, for an image or representation of the cross. _Tau_ (saith
Sanctius) _commune nomen est, quod signum indefinite significat_.(837)
_Tau_ is expounded by Bellarmine(838) to signify _signum_ or _terminus_.
Well then: our adversaries themselves can say nothing against our
interpretation of the word _tau_. We have also Buxtorff for us, who in his
Hebrew Lexicon turneth _tau_ to _signum_, and for this signification he
citeth both this place, Ezek. ix. 4, and Job. xxxi. 35. _Taui signum
meum._

Lastly, If _tau_ be not put for a common appellative noun, signifying a
mark or sign, but for the figure or character of the letter _tau_ as an
image of the cross, by all likelihood this character only should have been
put in the Hebrew text, and not the noun fully written; _vehithvith a
tau_, and mark a mark. As to the other place,(839) Rev. vii. 3, Pareus
observeth, that there is no figure or form of any sign there expressed,
and he thinks that seal was not outward and visible, but the same whereof
we read, 2 Tim. ii. 19, and Rev. xiv. 1, which cannot be interpreted _de
signo transeunte; nam Christianum semper nomen filii, et patris in fronte
oportet gerere_, saith Junius.(840)

Dr Fulk, on Rev. vii. 3, saith, that the sign here spoken of is proper to
God's elect, therefore not the sign of the cross, which many reprobates
have received.

_Sect._ 7. Bishop Andrews will have the feast of Easter drawn from that
place,(841) 1 Cor. v. 8, where he saith, there is not only a warrant, but
an order for the keeping of it; and he will have it out of doubt that this
feast is of apostolical institution, because after the times of the
apostles, when there was a contention about the manner of keeping Easter,
it was agreed upon by all, that it should be kept; and when the one side
alleged for them St. John, and the other St. Peter, it was acknowledged by
both that the feast was apostolical.

I answer, The testimony of Socrates deserveth more credit than the
Bishop's naked conclusion.

"I am of opinion (saith Soc