given shall abide Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo h The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed and what was agreeable to both Testaments is by no change altered They i to whom positive-immulable seemeth so prodigious a thing may now spare their wonder at Amesius and bestow it upon their own ignorance what he taught in this point he might and did learn no doubt in England and not onely of the Puritanes For what say you To Whitgift k No man doubteth the meaning of these words Six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted to us six dayes to do our own works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him To Hooker l We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever To Donne m God seposed a seventh of our time for his exteriour worship To Andrews n The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight the seventh the Sabbath the tenth Gods part the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God To Bacon o God demandeth a tenth of our substance and which is more strict a seventh of our time What say you to these But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this Kingdome had he then escaped the contagion of this errour Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches assuredly no Those two lights of the reforming age Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity a so in this they differed not Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith and consequently of eternall life Bucer b That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no humane device Martyr c It is a morall precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the externall service of God so Zanchie d God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Pareus e It is a naturall law that every seventh day be sacred to God Junius f That enemy of God g Arminius h It is morall to set apart one day of seven for Gods service The Lutherane Churches dissent not Conradus Dietericus as my Authour i informeth me Baldwin k It is morall to sanctifie one day of seven And to make up the harmony complete the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him saith Fenus l To depute every seventh day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially the same day be not alwayes deputed so Suarez m The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship so Bellarmine n Nor is the opinion an upstart I appeal to Chrysostome o who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sepose one day in a week for religious actions And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetuall ordinance of the fourth Commandment Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfie him unlesse he have the designation and determination of that one p It must be the day consecrated by God either immediately by himself or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever the Day be as I told you before out of Zanchy so that the Day must be of Divine Institution And this is evident First de Jure Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath his dominion was not onely over the old Sabbath to abrogate that but over the new also to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other Secondly de Facto For Gods own act is the best interpreter of his will and if he had meant the Church should have had her libertie her Conge d' Eslier leave to chuse he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelicall Sabbath whereof as well as of the Legall he was not onely the efficient but the exemplary cause by finishing the work of our redemption on that day But here it is demanded p Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lords day If yea by whom By any commandment of Christ where is it Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or out of the new commanding it to be translated or intimating that by Christs commandment it was translated Take both or which you will either the old or new Covenant and withall the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof and then I dare presume you will soon discry a Translation For the first it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification So saith Cyprian q and with him Augustine r The Lords day could not but be known to the holy Prophets for there is a Psalme entituled FOR THE EIGHT DAY and on the Eight day Children were circumcised and the like elsewhere It was Prophecied in the title of the Psalmes the sixth and eleventh In finem pro octavo So Ignatius s Nazianzene t Augustine Prophecied in the * 101. Psalme Scribatur illa in generationem novam This shall be written for the Generation to come vers. 18. so Athanasius In the * 109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis the day of Power but above all prophecied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place For the second or new Covenant we need search no higher then to the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards to warrant and assure us of this Translation I say from the Resurrection for this their practice did not as some suppose begin in long wast of time There was no interregnum no vacancy at all no cessation of a Sabbath No not the first week No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed The Jewish Sabbath that slept we all know its last in the grave with our Saviour Its ghost according to Countrey dialect or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after but it self the old Sabbath expired then and immediately entered the Lords day Immediately when Christ himself was but newly up from that very day whereon he arose doth S. Augustine u derive the
but the revelation of Christs will there is nothing else now desiderable but onely to prove that in this very act of instituting the Lords day or Sabbath of the new Covenant they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or prompted by that guiding Spirit a thing little lesse visible then the former for shall we say that the Spirit seised upon them onely at certain tides and fits That he assisted them in their office both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain but did he onely then was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away did he onely wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel and abandon them in the moderation of the Church was the doctrine they taught inspired from above and were their constitutions Ecclesiasticall an humane device Certainly no the voyce of truth it self soundeth the contrary For in their first councel we reade of a Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But that was a businesse of great weight and so might require a more then ordinary assistance let us behold more triviall and petty matters S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question which amongst others the Corinthians put to him of Digamy whether it was lawfull for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband and he determineth affirmatively yes but rather commendeth her containing her self in her widowhood Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion certainly no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I think I have the Spirit of God evinceth the contrary and I hope no man will affirm this to be a businesse of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lords day To dispatch without more ado there is a question the first hint whereof Aerius the heretick is supposed to have given and Hierome is not altogether dissenting from him whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino Much hath been said either way yet not enough to end the bickering and though the conflict be still on foot yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversie to move upon Apostolicall Institution that which the one to prove the other to disprove do equally eagerly labour is onely Apostolicall Institution the decision whereof endeth the dispute King James ascendeth no higher That Bishops ought to be in the Church I ever maintained as an Apostolicall Institution and so the Ordinance of God Beza for the other part yieldeth as much If I could saith he be assured that this superioritie of a Bishop over the rest of his Clergie hath proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum divine Right from Apostolicall Institution why may not also the Lords Day which I am sure can shew as good cards for her descent do so too and then with what face can it be gain-said by any that either is or would be a Bishop yet so it hath come to passe that they who have most cried down the paritie of Clergy have most cried up the paritie of dayes But let any be he what he will that maligneth the honour of this glorious day mutter his pleasure yet nor he nor all the learning of the world shall be able to produce one solid argument sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from Apostolicall Institution It being by all learned men agreed upon that whatsoever the Apostles as Apostles and in their Apostolicall function or did or spake or writ is simply without modification Juris divini the Reason being evident because they were not sui Juris not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they had no power of themselves to speak or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church but all was suggested by the spirit who could embreath nothing not diviâ—e With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset something they fain would retort knew they what and at last to shew their courage and that Nec victi possunt absistere ferro they will not yield though overcome forth steps one and assaults us with two distinctions of Apostolicall inspirations one of Apostolicall traditions the other Concerning the first he saith The Apostles are to be considered either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel or as Pastours to govern the Church already planted As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions As Pastours their inspirations were onely such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to Pastours of the Church unlesse by some personall miscariages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions I Answer a It is your dutie to prove indubitately both these to me but I am not covetous make good but one and I am satisfied And first tell me good Sir if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude where find you the Pastorall and Apostolicall Office in the same persons distinct where reade you of a double Commission one to plant the Church the other to govern the Church already planted were not both these parts of the Apostolicall function were they not Apostles i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other Instance in any one act of their Pastorall office which was not in the latitude of their Apostolicall patent Secondly admit them for severall functions where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration according to those severall functions If those irradiations you talk of which were shed upon them as Pastours were no other then what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers then I say the beams or species intentionall of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium naturall corruption through which they passed and every thing which as Pastours they did not onely may but must have a rellish of sinne or errour which ever did and ever shall more or lesse distain the best action of the justest man infected with originall corruption and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired living upon earth If then the Apostles as Pastours were but ordinarily inspired and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their Pastorall works from sinne and errour it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory to weed out all those passages which relate to the Pastorall office of the Apostles and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha I see also no necessitie why Children should be baptized why women nay why any of the Laitie should be admitted to the Eucharist which are Apostolicall devices whereof expresse command from our Saviour to them we find none and to speak to the point in question I see no necessitie of celebrating the Lords day but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessitie for I see Gods command to observe it and I see no countermand to abolish it If
impossibility is a necessity with which the Law dispenseth And this is the reason to speak to the point in question why the Sabbath being given to Adam and in him to all mankind Gen. 2. was not described as the other six dayes by evening and morning as also why the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment of like latitude with the former is not set out by expresse bounds of from Eve to Eve as that in the Leviticall Law which onely concerned the Jews to intimate that the journall or dayly round of the Sunne should be no precise rule or character of his Sabbath in such places where time is not so distinguished but that there his people are to give him a seventh of their time as it is with them distinguished And though the Regions abovesaid have not naturall dayes described by the circulation of the Sun from East to West yet times they have holding so near correspondence with such naturall dayes that in some parts they are denominated dayes and for Island if my intelligence misleadeth me not their dayes are homonymall with ours in England an argument of their not different either Planters or Conquerours as derived from the same idoles in Planetary computation whereof the learned Selden and Verstegan can inform you There is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospel that there is of preaching praying administering the Sacraments c. But these are not determined how often they shall be done Ergò It is not limited what time shall be a set Sabbath Every of these though they be not absolutely restrained yet their proper time is this very Sabbath whereof those duties were a finall cause to speak in particular It is a Day of Preaching and so ever was in the Primitive Church Origen alluding to the first fall of Manna in the wildernesse saith The Lord ever raineth down Manna from Heaven on our Lords day and so in the Apostolicall age Acts 20.7 It is a Day of Prayer We must by all means intend our Prayers on the Lords Day that by them on that Day we may expiate for all our negligences and escapes in the week-dayes So Acts 2.1 the Christians were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one accord on this Day and how they were wont then to be imployed the Historian telleth you c. 1. v. 14. it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Prayer It is a * Day proper for the Eucharist and therefore anciently called Dies panis and in some places as in Alexandria the onely Day and Time for it So Acts 20. vers. 7. the Disciples came together to break bread that is to communicate of the Eucharist It is a day proper for the Sacrament of Baptisme and therefore anciently called Dies lucis the Day of illumination This Sacrament not usually being conferred unlesse in case of eminent necessity but upon this Day So Acts 2.41 the most notorious president extant no lesse then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} very near three thousand were this Day baptized Lastly it was a day of almes Pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuunt quod ità colligitur apud praepositum deponitur saith Justin Martyr And so 1. Cor. 16.1 Saint Paul ordained it should the First of the week be a day of collection for the poore That which is expresly against Christian libertie was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles But to have the Conscience burdened with any outward observations putting religion in them as being parts of Gods worship is directly against Christian libertie for how is he free that is thus bound to times and dayes What you understand by Christian libertie I know not sure I am that Christ onely delivered us from the observation of the old ceremoniall Laws and from the sting of punishment due to the breach of the Morall but that he exempted us from all outward observations whatsoever is a fancy of your own without warrant from the Scripture For would he then have imposed the outward observation of Sacraments if we had not been obliged to them and you are in this implunged in errour beyond the Anabaptists for they cry up Christian libertie to free them from the constitutions of men onely but you will have it reach to the very ordinations of God There is no dutie essentiall in Religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospel Epistles or Acts But the keeping of the first Day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved in all the new Testament Ergò c. Paedobaptisme the communicating of women is I hope essentiall in Religion secundùm esse perfectum but where do you find any exhortation to the observation any reproof for the neglect of these duties Besides I see nothing to the contrary but it may be included in Saint Pauls admonition of Tenete Traditiones whereof before Had the observation of the Lords Day been of Divine Institution it is very probable that the Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to law would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lords Day But he omitteth c. That which you make so probable was I affirm considering the Spirit which alwayes assisted him utterly impossible in the Apostle for how could he who knew his Lord and Master had often determined the contrary in very like cases opposing Pharisaicall strictnesse how could he nay how durst he prevaricate or swerve from Christs rule he knew it lawfull to cure a crazie body and was it sinne to consolidate a crackt estate upon the Sabbath it was justifiable to drag a beast out of the ditch why not also land out of the oppressours claws on that day when it could not be done on another If Christ had appointed this day as the day of his Resurrection then the Eastern Churches which followed S. John transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter on another day But they sinned not in it Ergò c. Christ nor his Apostles for ought we know gave no commandment concerning Easter neither is it necessary that the anniversary and weekly memoriall of one and the same benefit should alwayes jump together Gods own precept in almost the same case we know was otherwise The Jewish Sabbath and Passeover were both commemoratives of their redemption out of Egypt yet one was fixed to the day of the week the other to the full of the moon so as they seldome met together Had it been a Divine Institution doubtlesse those Fathers and Synods which have spoken so much in praise of the Day displaying the prerogatives thereof would never have omitted this
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in
any certain or particular but an indefinite feast The word Sabbath especially this so frequently as no meanly lettered man is such a novice to whom it is a novelty The New-moon more sparingly yet when mated with Sabbath seldome retaineth it any other signification Examples whereof are first this text of the Kings then that of Isaiah 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Again that of Ezech. 46.3 The people of the land shall worship at the doore of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and in the New-moons Lastly that of Amos 8.5 When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat In all these portions of Scriture Sabbaths New-moons by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is when one thing is expressed by two words are onely put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted Nor is the word New-moon taken thus onely when linked with the Sabbath but somewhile also when single and alone as 1. Kings 12.33 For where in our translation as in I am sure most if not all others it is said that Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth moneth the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the New-moon but to speak properly the New-moon it could not be for the Moon was then in her full it being the 15 day and the feast is thought by learned men to be devised by Jeroboam in imitation indeed to suppresse it in oblivion of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh moneth But not to expatiate too farre in collaterall transcursions the reading of the Law may not absurdly be expiscated out of Acts 15.21 where James giving definitive sentence in the Councel of Hierusalem saith Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day But against this place they except viz. that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used in Scripture of many things not very ancient as Matth. 5.21 27 33. Acts 15.7 But this objection is easily repelled the question is not what sense the like phrase hath Matth. 5.21 c. but what it meaneth here and that it is to be taken in the construction we make of it an eminent Bishop r witnesseth The sound of the Spirit viz. preaching all the Law-long sounded in them by whom Moses was preached every Sabbath day So he upon this very text But in defence of the contrary interpretation it may be objected That the text speaketh of Synagogues which came not into use untill the captivitie To which I say that the most and best Divines s hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan when the priestly and propheticall offices ceased in the first-born and masters of families but were supplyed the first by the Leviticall priests the second by the seventy Elders as some suppose t but more certainly by the Prophets whose ordinary calling was to reade and expound the Law The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places no matter how or Colledges or Synagogues or otherwise denominated destinate to that and such like holy-duties Their last argument is not compounded of much better stuff For first the finding of the book of the Law by Hilkiah and presenting of it to Josiah is no infallible signe Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices That there were besides no other books thereof not to Genebrard u I am sure and it may well be controverted For if in times of harder pressures when the Temple and the authentick books in it were burnt when utter havock was made of all and the people of God led captives into Babylon even in the extremitie of that desolation if some copies were no doubt preserved in private mens hands as Daniels Ezechiels a Jeremies c. For how otherwise could Esdras restore the Sacred volume to its first integrity then by comparing divers exemplaries then extant together and so reforming what errours had been committed by negligent penmen if I say some copies escaped the fire at that time probable it is that all perished not before Josiahs reign But be it granted that all were lost not one to be found before Hilkiah chanced to light upon that yet are you short still your argument is not ad idem for the question is of a duty part of Gods publick and solemn worship and your instance is of a time under persecution when the ensigne of the Church was the Crosse when there was no solemn worship of the true God publickly tolerated and you may as well upon this instance inferre that there was no Sabbath observed as deny the observation of it by this dutie of Reading and Hearing the Law No man for ought I know contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law alwayes every Sabbath and that in times of distresse was practiced and that it was at other times even Cajetan b himself who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the onely remnant acknowledgeth Holy exercises as reading and expounding the Law during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected and neglect I hope insinuateth a dutie formerly practiced that the book of the Law is related as a thing new discovered So he True it is he mentioneth not the Sabbath day as whereon these neglecta divina ought to have been performed but seeing the words seem to referre to duties which ought to have been publickly performed their publick performance ought to have regard to both times and places destinate thereto This point I prosecute no further enough I hope if not too much hath been said to perswade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath as well as on the annuall of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release I passe then to the last question In this as brief I shall be as in the former I was tedious At the end of every seven years in the solemnitie of the year of Release in the feast of Tabernacles thou shalt reade the Law before Israel in their hearing saith the text Upon which words Tostatus thus c The Law saith he is meant especially of Deuteronomy And d others since have imbraced the same opinion but none have thought us worthy to be privy to the reasons inducing that opinion nor indeed can any be devised For who knoweth not that the word Law importeth the whole Pentateuch of Moses of I believe an hundred of instances I will produce but one and that of any the likeliest to make for their purpose God injoyneth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book Now I pray tell me is Deuteronomy onely
will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension To render mine own opinion and beyond opinion I will not adventure Furiosares est in tenebris impetus it is madnesse to run too boldly in the dark where the Scripture is silent it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing to render I say mine own opinion the first way seems to me the more probable considering our Saviours apparition the assembling of the Apostles upon that day whilest he abode with them and the testimony of Athanasius Nazianzene and Augustine but especially because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians saith g Our Saviours pleasure was that oblations and publick service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed Which if it were true we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lords day a weekly holyday it being the principall day we reade of destined to sacred duties in the Apostolicall age But the matter is not much by which so we be able to prove that at least by one of these waies he did it And this is a thing very feasable For to take a short and speeding course the most embraced and popular opinion is that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day this is agreed upon by all ancient and modern Augustine a The Apostles and Apostolick men ordained the Lords day to be celebrated with religious solemnity The Authour b of that Tract or at least of that Chapter falsely ascribed to Basil affirmeth the station and custome of standing upon the Lords day to be an Apostolicall Tradition if so then the day it self much more Isichius c We following the Tradition of them that is the Apostles sequestre the Lords day for holy meetings Epiphanius d saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the Wednesday Friday and Lords day I keep the originall word Synaxes because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable e The same is affirmed by Zanchy in quartum praeceptum pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer Ratio Can. Examin Mercer in Gen. Beza in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day Apostolicae Ecclesiae to the Apostolick Church onely of the time when they translated it he leaveth as he findeth doubtfull Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet And so 〈◊〉 his words in two severall editions I have perused that in quarto and the other in folio which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity who in his also two severall editions hath by a new transsubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo and to make it apparent he did it de industria he descants on it and renders it How by what authority Ursin Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum is of the same mind and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted catech. in praecept 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others indeed what needs more it is confest by our very Antagonists themselves Brerewood a B. White b Heilen c who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lords day This foundation of Apostolicall institution being thus laid I advance forward to enquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow onely from the generall authority delegated to them by Christ or some definite and expresse command to that effect or rather in clear terms I proceed to discusse that great question Whether the Lords day be established Jure Divino Great I call it not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it no Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got and therefore great but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage errour Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is great and will prevail yea but that is the question whose Truth is It is so and come then for the decision of this question d To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equall object of us both let us give attention our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornnesse To entitle a command Divine it is not onely required saith that thus farre judiciously learned Brerewood that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted for there may be Divine authority for humane decrees but that the Authour also by whom it is established be Divine Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of Gods authority as they are declarations of his will and pleasure Which being without controversie true that which we are to make good is That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and severall command to that purpose which can no sooner render it self manifest then by surveying the Apostolicall both Mission and Commission As for their Mission it was with all the grace and honour that might be nothing wanting that might any way enhance it As my Father sent me so send I you John 20.21 He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of Atturney to receive what obedience himself might claim And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions Go saith he Matth. 28.19 there is their Mission and Legation and teach there is their Commission But what to teach what themselves think fit no there is a limitation a restriction it must be onely the observation of what thinâ—s I have commanded you and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essentiall to their message Christ himself will have an eye to them I am with you alway even to the end of the world saith he With them how in corporeall presence that could not be for he was now ready to leave them No he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter whom he promised to send them John 15.26 And this Comforter had his Commission too To bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them John 14. â—6 And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing lesse then truth yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth he presently saith withall That he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall heare that he shall speak He shall receive of mine and shew it to you which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especiall manner to be ascribed to Christ then to the holy Ghost who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spake in him 2. Cor. 13.3 It being then indisputably clear that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and that that Divine enthusiasme was
it is to be examined the Lords day being an Apostolicall Tradition whether it be immutable whether the Church hath power to alter the day and substitute another in liew thereof I answer Nay the Church hath not such a power the sphere of her activitie extendeth not so farre she cannot null and rescind the act of God If the Sunday be established and established so I have proved it Jure divino it is without all dispute unchangeable for Immutable is one ingredient into the definition of Jus divinum as the Canonists compound it who make it which is comprehended in the Law and Gospel and remaineth perpetuall a True it is I grant that many positive divine Laws are changeable by the same authority which first imposed them but that a divine Law can be abrogated yea or displaced by humane authority that no sober man will yield to And I hope though many have of late set her on her tip-toes and advanced her to a tickle point the Churches power and authority reacheth not Divine Besides there is an especiall and peculiar reason of the inalterability of the Lords Day more then is usuall in other constitutions though Divine for God hath a propriety therein Six dayes in the week he hath bestowed upon us but the seventh he reserved for himself wherein he hath as good nay better freehold estate then any man in his possessions and then the rule of the Law is b What is ours without our assent cannot be transferred to another So that the Church hath no power to make that a work-day which God himself hath consecrated to his holy worship Nor mattereth it whether this designation were performed by Christ immediately or by the mediation of his Spirit assisting and infallibly directing the Apostles and so it becometh an Apostolicall Tradition for even this though the lowest degree of Divine appointment doth conferre exemption enough upon this day to secure it from any jurisdiction the Church can claim over it I will not dissemble it some learned men have I confesse ascribed to the Church an authoritie over this day so as she may if it please her transferre it to another But you must know withall that not one of these do repute it as an Apostolicall Tradition which is the hinge upon which the hole question moveth nor if they did are we to give absolute credit to their dictates Men they were of excellent endowments great both for their piety and learning and amongst them I honour none more then that famous Bishop c of Geneva Mr Calvin yet in some things as this for one I may say of him as Augustine of Cyprian d As there were many things which learned Calvin taught others so were there some things which he might learn of others If you can produce any one who hath affirmed it to be an Apostolicall institution or tradition and withall an alterable ordinance and I will promise you to affoard you two at least for him who have resolved the contrary But here perhaps you will demand What are all Apostolicall Traditions immutable That restriction from eating bloud or things offered to idoles that of collections for the poore every Lords Day c. I answer let it be first agreed what Apostolicall Traditions are under which name many upstart and recent customes intruded themselves into the Church a Every Province accounteth the constitutions of its Forefathers Apostolick Traditions saith Hierome Apostolicall Traditions then I say were of two sorts the one particular the other generall Particular were such as were framed by the Apostles either joyntly or severally but restrained to some especiall circumstance of time place persons or the like and so having onely reference and regard to such circumstance the removall of that circumstance made the observation of the Law to cease Such are those Traditions above named in the objection such are supposed to be the different rites of the East and West b one observing both the Sabbath and Lords Day the other the Lords Day onely and fasting on the Sabbath one celebrating the Festivall of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon the other upon the Sunday after Generall were such as neither regarding any circumstance of time place c. nor any moveable occasion were universally agreed upon to be received and so prescribed to the Christian Church by all the Apostles such were the Creed the books of the Canonicall Scripture the observation of the Lords Day Paedobaptisme c. whereof that golden rule of S. Augustine b is a character What the Catholick and Vniversall Church holdeth not decreed by Councels but ever observed we may safely believe it proceeded from no lesse then Apostolick authoritie Now these generall Traditions I averre to be immutable and such as must ever be observed in the Church not onely because they have or mention or foundation in the Scripture for so the particular have also and they which have not are not by us owned for Traditions Apostolicall but because they were at first made without limitation and restriction and herein I have the suffrage of Zanchy c Pareus d and other learned men As for particular Traditions they being at first framed for speciall occasions are now those occasions being ceased but as laws dormant untill the emergency of the like occasion awakeneth them again Dormant I said not dead Life vigour and force they have still and should the same occasion arise again God would expect from the Church the same observation For they being Apostolicall and so evidences of the Divine will upon severall occasions we must not think that one and the same cause can operate in the Immutable Essence a diverse will seeing in Philosophy The same agent whilest he is the same effecteth the same thing Dead therefore they cannot be so long as there remaineth a possibilitie for the same occasion to set them on work again and so that School-rule may fit them well e They oblige alwayes but not upon all occasions Well be the Lords Day Divine be it Immutable what then are we obliged to observe it with that severe and rigid vacation which the Jewish Sabbath required I answer Yes f He which succedeth into anothers jurisdiction is invested in his predecessours right The same strictnesse of observation belongeth to the Lords Day that anciently did to the Sabbath I say by the fourth Commandment for that Commandment hath not lost under the Gospel the least scruple or atome of obligation which it injoyed during the Law but bindeth still without abbreviation of time or alleviation of restraint during that time As for the duration of time though I cannot discern such distinct abbuttalls thereof in this Commandment as some seem to perswade yet am I of opinion that the word Day comprehendeth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a hole naturall Day And as touching restraint from negotiation and toil on that Day the words are
the right observation of the Christian Sabbath Is it now likely that the doctrine of so eminent a Teacher as Origen should perswade none to conformitie with what he here delivered But suppose the worst and that you were able to afford us an example or two of labour on this day must it therefore follow that there was no decree of restraint made by the Apostles and that we are at libertie to plow and cart on this day notwithstanding any divine Law to the contrary Nothing lesse for as his late Majestie g judiciously said It is not sound reasoning from things done before a Church be settled and grounded unto those which are to be performed in a Church estalibshed and flourishing There might be and was weighty cause to dispence with so strict a vacancie from worldly businesse as the state of the Church then stood Heavy were their pressures many thousands were the slaves of miscreant masters who in likelihood would not forbear their servants work an hole day in a week but exact it from them under the penaltie of many stripes so that should any of that servile condition have refused his masters work on that day nothing could he expect but severe if not inhumane usage and should the Christian Church have engaged herself in the vindication and justification of such contempt it had been the high-way to have made both her Religion and self even to eradication odious as the incendiaries of disobedience and maintainers of Anarchie And therefore very discreetly the fathers of the Laodicean Councel wary of giving offence yet willing to shew how they stood affected decreed in the twentie ninth canon of that Councel that Christians should rest from labour on the Lords day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} if they could that is if their Pagane masters would not constrain them to work and so it is by Brerewood understood But here it will be excepted If the Law of God commanded their rest and cessation upon the Lords Day the law of man enjoyning the contrary was not to be weighed for in such cases h No man is subject to a law of an inferiour repugnant to another of a superiour or It is better to obey God then man Acts c. 5. v. 29. I answer Better it is indeed to obey God then man when they command things repugnant but it must be with this proviso that the Law of God be fundamentall and paramount from which there is no appeal to an higher For if it be a positive or ceremoniall law a law of lesser caract then Aquinas his rule must be retorted with the losse but of one letter No man is obliged by an inferiour law against a superiour All positive laws whatsoever are subordinate and when they stand in competition with moralls and fundamentalls they must strike sail Because the point is tickle and may perhaps give offence to weaker apprehensions I will illustrate it with two examples taken out of Holy writ where God dispenced with ceremoniall laws for a while that the morall might be preserved inviolate The ceremoniall law of God enjoyned the Israelites to offer such and such sacrifices at such and such times in such and such places directly crosse to which Pharaoh their King imposed upon them such a task as would not afford them any leisure to perform those sacred duties Now the fundamentall law of God enjoyned them as it doth all men to obey their superiours in all things either simply good or not simply evil and betwixt this fundamentall and the other ceremoniall laws stood the contest But what was the issue Did God with the Israelites in this case as Popes in their fury by a Nos Sanctorum with the subjects of an heretick Prince absolve them from their obedience The Israelites were more and mightier then their adversaries did he instigate and spurre them on to rebell or by assassination to make away their King No he sent to Pharaoh and commanded him to let his people go he knew the fault and impediment to be in him alone the Israelites were blamelesse and as Augustine saith in a similarie case i The obliquitie of the command made the King blame-worthy the ordinance of obeying made the subject innocent Nay to pursue this example a little further when Pharaoh condescended to let the people go to sacrifice provided they went not farre Moses refused the leave upon such conditions as were like to bring them in peril of their lives It is not meet so to do shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Aegyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us Exod. 8.26 A true confirmation of Gods impresse I will have mercie and not sacrifice Hos. 6.6 Both he will have where both may be had but if he must part with one mercie he will have let the other go Upon this text a learned Commentatour thus k God preferreth the moralls of the second Table before ceremonialls of the first And the same is the opinion of divers others * The second dispensation was in the wildernesse and that from observation of a sacramentall law for we reade Joshua 5.5 that circumcision was omitted all that time and the Israelites abode there 40 years The most probable cause of this omission was because they were every minute to watch the motion of the convoy-cloud and to march with it but circumcision would either retard their expedition or hazard the lives of the infants therefore God in mercie had rather respect to the safety of those innocents then to his ordinance of circumcision I could also instance in Gods dispensation during the persecution under Manasses and other idolatrous Kings as also under the Captivitie of Babylon in all which severall times doubtlesse there was a fail in many ceremoniall duties otherwise observable The truth is all ceremoniall laws have respect to the latitude of Jury and the land of Canaan as well in a morall as a literall sense viz. they are framed onely for the Church whilest she enjoyeth a visible and open profession of her religion whilest her peace remaineth indisturbed for when the fury of persecution hunteth her like a partridge on the mountains when times of tribulation and calamitie seise upon her God then accepteth what service she can with her own safety afford him he standeth not upon shadows the substance is that he onely then looketh after Ceremonies are but the outward dresse of religion onely made to decore her in publick profession and therefore not absolutely of the essence of a Church and so but respectively necessary The very Sacraments themselves are but so as the glory of our Church l hath rightly observed upon that fail of circumcision in the wildernesse yet Sacraments I take it are the highest stair and degree of ceremonies Now these premises considered nothing discern I to the contrary but a constitution of the Apostles concerning labour to be omitted on this day there might be though not to
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to preach to pray to break bread on this day and B. White averreth as much And as to that Text of Acts 2. vers. 46. whether the margent of our English Testament transmitteth us I say that it is not inevitably not evidently to be understood of common food For f Humbertus taketh it for the Eucharist Behold the true Evangelist testifieth that the faithfull in the Apostolicall times assembled every day in Prayer and breaking of bread what are you then who say that full Masse that is the celebrating of the Eucharist ought to be performed onely twice a week And though the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may seem to boulster out the contrary opinion yet if you take them as they are both by the Syriack and Arabick and our own margent rendered for At home the meaning may very consonant to truth be as my learned * Tutour conceiveth That when they had performed their dayly devotions in the Temple at the accustomed times of Prayer there they used to resort to this Coenaculum immediately and there having celebrated the mysticall banquet of the holy Eucharist afterward took their ordinary repast with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart In which interpretation there is enough to reconcile both parts something for illustration being super-added For the holy Ghost doth here so I take it regard the practice of the Christians in their Love-feasts g and happily from hence they took their commencement which consisting of divers viands provided by a common purse and collation their fashion was to take so much thereof as they thought sufficient for the Communicants and so to celebrate the Lords Supper together which done they presently fell to their spare and slender chear entertaining and solacing themselves with spirituall and divine colloquies So that the fraction of bread here might have reference to their mysticall repast in the blessed Eucharist which was the first course or part of their Agape and the latter part of the verse might look at the other part thereof viz. corporall refection Their next cavill is that this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoteth not the first but some one day of the week wherein as they are become Separatists from our Church in her most absolute Translation so them and her I leave to end the quarrel We meet with it also 1. Cor. 16.1 and there an ordinance of the Apostles that their oblations should be upon that day Now I would gladly learn why this day rather then any other should be appointed for an Almes-day had it not been observed Holy in those times Lastly we meet with it Apoc. 1.10 but not now as formerly styled the First day of the week but apparelled in a Christian name and called the Lords-day which certainly the holy Ghost would not have done had it not passed for currant amongst Christians by that name and how could it obtain that name had it not been destined then to religious actions as a weekly holy-day Laying all these premised evidences of Apostolick practice together do they not clearly demonstrate the translation of the Sabbath into the Lords day For why should the Christian Church even in those times when every day was sanctified with devout exercises and seemed an holy Sabbath select any one distinct and peculiar day to be kept holy and why one in a week rather then in a moneth or yeare and why not in the weekly circuit the old Sabbath rather then the Lords day had not God some way made known his will to them that he would still have a Sabbath exempted from the common condition of other dayes that Sabbath to be weekly and that weekly not the old Jewish but the new Christian to be the first of the week as dignified by the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Anabaptisme of the Apostles Vtrumque mysterium nostrum utrumque utilitas nostrae as Hierome a in another case Dispensers both of inestimable benefits upon his Church the one of her justification the other of her sanctification and so this day a fit memoriall of both But here it will be demanded By whom this translation was made and to clear this doubt Hic labor hoc opus est Athanasius the great hath resolutely affirmed that Christ was the authour thereof {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords day But some have found as they think an evasion for this viz. That Christ was not the authour by any mandate of his but onely the occasion of the translation which unparalleled glosse suggests to my memory that of Augustine b It is easie with every man to reply who can not hold his tongue But let us look upon the colour or fucus wherewith this interpretation as false as new is dawbed over and see if it will not with great facility wash off If Christ himself translated it then the Father thwarteth what he said before c where he tells us that the Lords day was taken up as a voluntary usage {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we honour the Lords day he mentions no command whereas of the Sabbath he saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he commanded it to be kept This indeed were something to decline our objection out of the Father if we were not assured otherwise of his mind for apparent it is that the Father neither regarded in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluntary usage nor in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} imposed command for do we not meet in him the same in effect counter-changed Doth he not elswhere say as much of the Sabbath as here of the Lords day That when God had finished the prime creation he rested and therefore men did OBSERVE the Sabbath in those dayes while the first creation was especially in force d He mentions here no command was therefore their observation of the Sabbath a voluntary usage Nay saith he not as much of the Lords day as of the Sabbath e When God had renewed and restored man by finishing the work of redemption he willed that the same day should be dedicated to that Restauration which the holy Ghost foreshewed by the Prophet saying This is the day which the Lord hath made And again f Gods will was that the Lords day should be manifest and declared that thou mayest know the end of the first generation to be accomplished What say you now Sir will your ingenuity descend to recant or your pregnant invention afford you another refuge Now there be many wayes by which Christ may be said to be the Translatour of the Sabbath Either by immediate institution and example as Junius a or by ratifying and approving the Translation already made by the Apostles as Maldonate b or by giving them direct and expresse commission to do it or lastly by revealing his