unjust If therefore Conscience dictate as Chrysostom thinks that the very art of this pleasure be dishonest and unjust let them who commend them to the Church see where those sober and modest dances which they speak of can find any place and to those that expound choreas ducere only of lascivious dances we will in a form of speech commodious enough interpret these dances to be meant of all dancings whatsoever otherwise St. Cyprian had not affirmed that David danced before God unless any should think that the Bl. Martyr which never came into his mind would brand the Royal Prophet with a mark of lascivious and obscene dancing And if there be any that think that dancing be sober and modest they are at their liberty for me to abound in their own sense at least with Octavius that good defender of the Christian Religion and other lights of Reformed Christianity it seems meet for me to repute them as obscene and evil pleasures Lastly let the patrons of those dances which they call sober bring forth any testimony out of approved Authors whereby any dances on the Lords Dayes can be defended and then we will believe them that such dances were not prohibited by the Fathers which till it be done we will with the ancients say we ought not to lead dances or effeminate our ears with pipes and harps The ancients cursed those kinds of pleasures which then were in use If the things which at this day are highly esteemed by the world and are reckoned as sober had in their age put up the head doubtless they would have condemned them with the same zeal and holy fervour of spirit as being contrary to the Lords solemnity and which hindred the sanctification thereof In the mean while since we see that sports and dances by St. Cyril all pleasures by Leo and Anthemius sports and dances by the Fathers of Colen dancings by the Council of Millain to be condemned the pleasures of showes to be reckoned evil of Octavius and Chrysostome to reprehend dances as leading to the Devil we affirm that these worldly showes which are the very fomes of pleasures and whose art witness Chrysostom is dishonest and unbeseeming the Christian name are not to be kept on the Lords day Moreover neither are the fore-mentioned prohibitions so to be expounded as if dances and showes were only forbidden while the sacred exercises of piety were held on the Lords day in the publick assemblies which being finished who will may lawfully be employed in them for that indeed would be nothing else but to go straight out of Gods Church into the Devils But God grant that such a desire of destructive pleasure be prevented from his people We have in the fifth Chapter declared that Christians must keep all the whole day holy and afterwards God willing will teach what duties of piety are to be done by Christians when Church-meetings are ended And thus from the premises we find that the Lords Day is to be violated by no pleasures For we must honour this day with a spiritual honour not in feasting and drinking not in drunkenness and dances c. The End of the First Book THE Lords-Day THE SECOND BOOK In Which It 's shewed at large out of the Records of the ancients what things are required to the sanctification of the Lords Day CHAP. I. The Lords Day ordinary duties were both publick and private publick Church-assemblies on the Lords Day the mention of which we oftener meet with in the following than in the former Church Night-meetings and why abolished Meetings before day and on the day in the morning and in the evening WHat we have recited in the foregoing Book do shew that the Lords day was alwayes solemnized by the Church and what things they were which did ordinarily hinder the solemnity thereof amongst the men of this world now we come to those things in which the solemn sanctification thereof consisteth for we must not onely abstain from labours and pleasures on that day but also we must attend upon Divine worship neither is the rest commanded on the Lords day to be dedicated to our affections sports pleasures or sins but to the Worship of God alone which the pious practise of the Apostles and of the Church following them doth declare Among the ancients there were Lords day solemnities or ordinary duties which were performed in the Church and what they were the same author explains in the same Chapter namely reading of the Scriptures singing of Psalms Adlocutiones q. d. speakings unto and Prayers By those Adlocutiones which were uttered in the Church assembly the Battologies as Pamelius on that place would have it frequently repeated in the Mass as Dominus vobiscum The Lord be with you Pax vobiscum Peace be to you Oremus Let us pray Gratias agamus Domino Let us give thanks to God c. which are in the Mass offices repeated ad nauseam are not to be understood but by adlocutiones in Tertullian are meant the Ministers Sermons to the people after the Scriptures were read in the assembly For those that expounded the Scriptures spoke to the people by exhortations admonitions c. as afterwards will appear And in this sense of ours we meet with the word adlocutio in Cyprian de Lapsis sect prima Those offices also to be performed on the Lords day are extant in Clemens Constit p. 2. c. 59. The Lords day solemnities wherewith they honoured this day are the duties that appertain to godliness whereof some were of a publick others of a private right those were to be performed by every Church in the publick assemblies and these of the faithful members of the Church when they were returned home the publick assembly being ended This place therefore requireth that something be added about the publick meetings of the Church being held on the Lords dayes In describing whereof we will first teach that they were in use with the Church of God even from the Apostles age Secondly we will enquire what was done in them by the Church Thirdly we will add something of the places wherein they were held Although the ancients as we have seen in the former book ch 5. did destinate the whole Lords day or the first day of the week to the exercises of Divine Worship yet did they hold their publick assemblies at certain hours and what time remained besides they spent it also privately in holy duties Whence we may easily observe that there was a solemn and religious observation of the Lords day both publick and private the publick was performed in the publick conventions of the Church and that Christians in what part of the world soever they lived so often as they could for persecution were wont to meet together in one place to handle the duties of piety is so clear from divers places of the New Testament that it wanteth no testimony These assemblies could not be held without a stated time
manner as the Church did in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection doth make mention of this day whence it is collected that the Church did celebrate the Lords day otherwise Eusebius had not affirmed that the Ebionites had done it after the same manner as the Church did And the testimonies which follow teach us the same Cyprian mentions this day which he calls the first after the Sabbath Basilius M. saith the Church standing up made their supplications on the first day of the week which he calls the beginning of dayes De Sp. Sanct. c. 27. Chrysostom saith on the first day of the week or the Lords day the Christians ceased from all labour that by their relaxation and holy dayes the minds of the offerers might become more cheerful Ambrose on the Lords day after the readings and treating of the Creed communicated Baptism to the Competentes i. to those who being instructed in the Christian faith sought Baptism Aug. Retract lib. 1. ch 17. libro de Fide operibus cap. 6. at the Fonts of the Church We meet with frequent mention of this day in St. Austin Ep. 119. c. 13. and in the end of those Books De Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 30. also Serm. 15. de verbis Apostoli and many times elsewhere Hilary saith the Church doth joyfully celebrate a Festival on the eighth day which is also it self the first of a perfect week Prol. in Psalmos Amongst the Holy-dayes confirmed by the laws of the Emperours Valens Theodosius and Arcadius the Sundayes which their Ancestors rightly called the Lords-dayes were reckoned Leo also and Athenius ordain the Lords day to be alwayes venerable and honoured a Leo in the same place by his eleventh law ordains that all should cease from their labours on the Lords dayes I can also bring forth many more testimonies for confirming the truth of this solemnity yea of all that have flourish'd in the Church of Christ to this very day But I will add no more lest I should seem to lend light to the Sun and those that have been cited hitherto do abundantly enough declare that the Lords day was alwayes solemnly kept of the Church because the holy Fathers acknowledge it for the chief yea for an holy day On it the Church ceased from their labours on it solemn assemblies were kept or they rejoyced in the festival of the Sabbath perfected on it the Scriptures were handled the Sacraments were administred on it the Church made supplications and therefore it is numbred amongst the chief solemnities of the Christians and is provided for by the laws of godly Emperours that studied all they could to promote the Worship of God that the holy solemnity of that day should not be defiled by labours or any pleasures But although those most Religious Emperours ordained the Lords day as was fitting to be celebrated it would be ridiculous from thence to conclude that the Lords Festival was not celebrated in the Church before they came to the Empire The Christians as hath appeared from the premises attended to celebrate this Festival when as yet there were no Magistrates Christian on whose authority the ordination of the Lords day doth not depend even over the whole world when the preaching of the Gospel came For which cause as we shall by and by hear divers under Dioclesians Reign were punished But when the Emperours became Christian they ordained that the solemnity which was before observed of the Christians by Christs authority should also by their own laws be celebrated and took care that others should not defile it by worldly businesses or the pleasures of the Flesh but they did not institute it at the first Constantine the Great the first of the Christian Emperours having got the whole Roman Empire by publick Edict commanded his Subjects that they should observe the Christian Religion as witnesseth Sozomen yet no man well in his wits will thence inseâ—r that the Christian Religion was then first known to the world although the free exercise of it was not safe before he was set happily over the Government of the Empire So must we think of the Lords solemnity which the Church of God observed not without great danger before the Emperours embraced the Christian Faith but after that the Emperours became nursing-fathers of the Christian Religion they did it freely a Law being made of the Emperours for this end Moreover let none be offended that before the times of Constantine publick Judges did attend the hearing of Law-suits on the Lords day which to do was declared unlawful in his Reign as though if the Lords day had been formerly known to the World Magistrates had been forbidden the exercise of publick judicatures on that day that most godly Emperour greatly contended by all means that he could to promote our Religion and for the greater solemnity of this Festival provided that all Court clamour should on that day cease Before his most auspicious Government the publick Magistrates did attend Judicatures even on the Lords day and no wonder for before he got the stern of Government the Judges were not Christian but under his Reign the Christians began to bear almost all the Offices of the Roman Empire most whereof he dignified with authority some with the Senators office many also with the Consular dignity But after the Judges embraced the Christian truth they submitted themselves to this law of celebrating the Lords day with greatest good will and did rest the parties from their controversies in honour of that day I might also add this It was needful that one law being made for observing the Lords day by another he should interdict the Judges from the cognizance of causes on that day For it was provided by the Roman Laws That no Judge should presume on his own authority to make any holy dayes He therefore made this Law in favour of the Judges who might know on what dayes they should attend the Office which the Emperour committed to them and on what they should keep holy dayes free from the same These things thus being weighed in an equal scale it appeareth that the Law for not hearing Law-suits on the Lords day doth detract nothing from the honour of its solemnity but rather much conduce to favour it That I may at length put an end to this Chapter We have seen how the Fathers have piously admonished the Church to celebrate the Lords day and the Emperours by their Laws made for this purpose very carefully provided that the Christian people should obey their admonitions so also we may find it observable from the Writers of those times that the Christians did celebrate this day's solemnity with as much devotion of Religion as they could and therefore while they prayed on that day towards the East they fell into a suspicion of worshipping the Sun with the Heathen amongst whom they lived that hated the Christian name Yet could they by
DIES DOMINICA OR THE Lords Day Ignat. Epist. ad Magnes After the Sabbath let all that love Christ celebrate the Lords Day as being consecrated to the Lords Resurrection the Queen and Princess of all dayes THE Lords-Day OR A SUCCINCT NARRATION Compiled Out of the Testimonies of H. SCRIPTURE and the Reverend Ancient FATHERS and Divided into Two Books In the former whereof is declared That the observation of the Lords Day was from the Apostles and by the Christian Church solemnized in a continual series that its Institution was Divine and what things do hinder its solemnity In the Later is shewn In what things its Sanctification doth consist In both which also Several Ecclesiastical Antiquities not unworthy to be known are explained Lately Translated out of the Latine Aug. de verb. Apost Serm. 15. The Lords Resurrection hath promised us an eternal day and consecrated for us the Lords Day which is called the Lords Day because it seemeth to belong properly to the Lord. Acta Martyrum apud Baronium an 303. n. 37 c. The Martyrs being called into judgment and ask'd of the Proconsul Whether they had done their Collect or celebrated the Lords day answered with the same words often repeated that they were Christians that they had done thes Lords Collect and celebrated the Lords Day with a congruou devotion of Religion because it could not be intermitted London Printed by E Leach and are to be sold by Nevil Symmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1672. TO THE READER Reader IN the midst of our distractions confusions and desolations our declinings and the increase of wickedness in the land it would be no small reviving to our hopes if we could but procure a more general and conscientious observation of the Lords day I mean not a Judaizing Touch not Taste not Handle not Go but a Sabbath dayes journey Heal not on the Sabbath day Rub not the Ears of Corn to eat c. but a holy diligence all the day in learning the Will of God in reading and hearing his Word in singing and speaking out his praises in calling upon his name in the Communion of Saints in the Sacramental Commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour till he come Nor do I mean the preferring of the Name of the Sabbath before the naming of it The Lords Day But the real separation of it for these Holy works from all works that are common and unclean not calling that unclean which God hath cleansed but avoiding all unnecessary things which are a true impediment to the duties of the day and to the edification and comfort of our Souls Could we but procure a general Conscience of this Holy day and work Oh what a blessed means would it prove to the increase of knowledge and holiness among us How could men spend one day of seven in the serious reading and hearing of Gods Word and not grow in the understanding of it How could they spend each week a day in hearing heavenly discourses and in holy prayers praises and thanksgivings and not become themselves more holy if they did this in good earnest and not with hypocritical formality Where there is a profitable publick Ministry what a furtherance would this be to its success Where there is not O what a supply would this be in Families If Parents and Masters did but spend the day in Catechising their Children and Servants and reading to them the Word of God and holy profitable Books and in praying singing of Psalms and fruitful Conferences how much would it make up the loss of a profitable Ministry where there is none But I confess for those many thousand families where none is able thus to Read or Pray the case is hard in these times when they dare not come to their neighbours families that can help them But O that the love of our souls were as strong as natural self-love is in the preservation of our lives If prohibited persons did put the case to me Whether it were lawful for them against their Rector's wills to go beg bread at their neighbours houses rather than famish or feed on grass I think their resolutions would anticipate my answer And if he have not the love of God in him who seeth his brother in need and shutteth up the bowels of compassion from him I may inferr that he neither rightly loveth God nor himself who will suffer his Soul and Family to famish and deny God his Worship and spend the Lords own Day unprofitably and think it a sufficient excuse to say I was forbidden and man must be obeyed Nor will it excuse Neighbours from helping one another who live out of the reach of publick helps as alas too many do especially in the remote parts of the Kingdome to cast the blame on negligent Ministers or to cry out It is the Prelates that famish so many souls nor to complain of the silencing of Faithful Teachers For every man hath his own part to do in building up the City of God And if you do not your own work you do but condemn your selves while you complain of others Was that your Covenant with Christ that you would serve him if others did or if none forbad you or else not If others perform not their duty will you sin for company and yet condemn them If you think they do ill why will you imitate them If well why do you blame them Do you cry out of silent or unprofitable Ministers and do you think that silence and unprofitableness in the Governour of a Family is no crime What if all the rest of the Town denied food or cloathing to the poor Would your obligation to feed and cloath them think you be the less or the greater As ever you would have your families to be under the blessing and protection of God and not exposed to the miseries of such as he forsaketh see that you dedicate them as holy Societies to God and set up his Government over them and his worship among them especially in the Holy Improvement of the Lords Dayes And I take it to be a merciful and comfortable prognostick that God hath suddenly stirred so many to write on this subject and to confute all that is said against this duty And some more are ready if not hindred shortly to come forth Among them all I take this Book to be of singular weight and worth which having declared in my own lately published on this subject it hath occasioned many to enquire after it and a worthy Knight who had this Translation by him to be willing to publish it I confess I intended no more than to provoke the Learned to take more notice of the Book as it is in the Latin Tongue For being strong in the testimonies of Antiquity and the opening of Church-customes on which as an historical evidence of fact I laid in this controversie no small stress I thought it fittest for the perusal of the Learned But seeing it
But yet since it 's no casie thing to obliterate and wholly to eradicate the matter of that Law which commands us to set apart a whole day within the compass of a week and refer it for Spiritual Labour therefore that sly Adversaries by his Emissaries whose wit is ready and that have a mercenary tongue for colouring Impostures changing their opinion at pleasure with the inconstant Ecebolius at the first only desputes after his crafty manner whether such a time be ordained of God These men more boldly than truly acknowledge the authority of time to be received not from Gods but Mens constitution as though the Lords-Day were like the Holy-dayes which were commanded the Romans namely such as the Praetors according to their arbitrary power did proclaim And so its observation should depend upon the civil Magistrate and Churches authority These things thus being handled after these mens will and others not strenuously applying their minds to retard the speedy course of their enterprises reasons are found out with a little ado for errour is a fruitful thing by which men not very religious and observant of piety may at last rush upon the constant sanctification of this time with unwashen hands and feet as the Proverb is and tread it under feet as if it were only instituted of God not for the sake of any Spiritual work but carnal idleness These things courteous Reader have given me occasion more narrowly to search out both the Institution and Sanctification of this time namely whether first it could be shown from the Fountain of holy Writ from whence wise men know we must always judge what is to be defined of every Divine Truth and the ancient practise of the following Church which learned it from the Apostles any part of time weekly be destined to performe the holy exercises of Religion Secondly by what Authority that time is imposed upon the Church Divine or Humane Thirdly in what things the solemn sanctifying thereof consisteth Touching all which what may be shown from the foresaid Fountains the following pages will briefly without prejudice of others judging according to truth by the grace of God inform us These are I say the things of which I have purposed to treat God assisting which before I enter on some things remain of which the Reader studihus of truth is timely to be admonished First of all though there be none of any authority and name amongst the Professors of more pure Christianity who beareth not most clear testimony to the Lords Festival yet in no case must we expect that all things which chiefly make for the illustrating it can be demonstrated out of the papers of the most approved Fathers in one age Nor can any one of right be offended or wonder at this since the reverend authority of the Fathers especially in the controversies that unhappily sprang up in their age is to be attended in weighing whereof they have professedly and openly declared what their mind was but in other things which they have touched upon only by the bye they have not so roundly shewed their judgements Besides we know there is no point of Christian Religion the illustration whereof hath not more and more increased in the Church by progress of time to effect which the succeeding Church was enforced through a certain necessity for sometimes the foolish frowardness of adversaries and sometimes the lewdly-imployed manners of their own men have required this that diverse Canons about some heads of Religion the knowledge whereof formerly increased in the Church should be appointed I believe none will deny that the most profound mystery of the Holy Trinity was known to the Christian Church from its infancy yet in several Councils of the succeeding Church diverse Canons were ordained about it The Reverend Fathers in the Council of Nice ordain that our Lord Jesus Christ is not a Creature and this they did according to Pauls word In the Council of Constantinople all profess they did believe that the Holy Ghost is true God as co-essential to God both Father and the Son In the Council of Ephesus under the Emperor Theodosius the younger the Divinity of the Son is again concluded These mysteries were illustrated by these new constitutions and yet who will be so mad as for that cause to contend they were first then known to the Church when these new Canons were set forth about them which only the Holy Fathers ordained to obviate the frowardness of Hereticks that either denyed er adulterated the received Truth that the Divine verity which the former Church embraced being obscured and held down by the wicked artifices of adversaries might be restored to its ancient vigour But not onely the madness of Hereticks but sometimes also the inordinate manners of Christians have occasioned new Canons ordaining about things formerly known for it was an usual thing for the Fathers to inquire into the manners of those Churches that were commended to their care and when they observed that their Christian people were ensnared in errour or wandring from the path of truth or at least walking not uprightly according to the received rule of piety they straightway used new Canons as medicines congruous to both these evils and so in the Church as in the Commonwealth good Laws grew out of evil manners And although the things that were before ordained were abundantly sufficient to quench those errours newly sprung up or reform their lewd manners yet either the new breaking out of errour or dilating of manners not at all consonant to the holy light of the Gospel and creeping every way like leaven were stopped by the bar of new Canons But thereupon we must not think that the former Church was not bound to the truth which was by a Postliminium established with new sanctions or to manners reformed by their authority Which is easie to be observed in this business of the Lords Day The succeeding Church through the care of the best Emperours having obtained peace established divers things about the Lords Festival which are not now extant in the Doctors of the Primitive Church But who will say that the piety established by new Canons for observing that solemnity was not known to the former Christians whenas even in the Apostles age as it shall afterwards appear from the Scriptures the Lords Day was solemnly used for all the exercises of Religion in which the true manner of keeping it holy doth consist And the Fathers of the succeeding Church ordaining new Canons about its solemnity have not concealed this as is to be seen in the second Council at Matiscon Can. 1. in which they gravely study to set forth the Lords solemnity but to this they were moved by the rash custome of some as they say who exposed the Lords day to contempt In Concil Cabilon held about the year 664. caution is taken for prohibiting Country labours on that day which thing when the Fathers did ordain they confess they did
ordained that what sometime the Priest Abimelech asked of David 1 Sam. 21. 4. that should 〈…〉 done by Christians on the Lords Day So in the Council of Friuli Can. 13. this is reputed by some for a trifle Concerning which thing it yet troubled not St. Paul to make a Canon for the married in case of Prayer and Fasting 1 Cor. 7. 5. Put for that part of Friuli's Canon wherein it 's ordained to abstain from our Wives on that day whether it was added by the Fathers or foisted into the Canon by some Sciolist on the Marginal explication of a Carnal work I dispute not I onely assert this if it be their grief that trifles repugnant to the Word of God are obtruded on the Church of Christ in this I commend and accept very well their temper who set at nought whatever point is dissonant from the Holy Soâ—iptures however approved in the judgments of many men but if under the name of trifles as they call them they shall reject those Canons that contradict not the reverend authority of writers I cannot approve their fact in this at least I would be taught this thing of them which they may find out by the whole huge Volume of Councils All the things therein ordained are not approved now adayes by all and yet those Councils are not therefore rejected by wise men Some things enacted in the first Council of Nice which have come to our hands if the authentick acts of the Council have not perished through the injury of time or cunning of the Arrians are over orude which savour not of Athanasius Ofius or Paphnatius's wit and other approved Fathers which were present at the Council and which things are now also antiquated shall we therfore judge all things in the reverend Council which hath so many witnesses to be rejected far be it from us In that Council also it 's ordained that there must be no bowing of the knees on the Lords Dayes or from the Passover to Pentecost in pouring out prayers to God Perhaps there will be some that will think this ordinance worthy derision rather than observation who will not yet for that cause reject the Council Once in a Council at Trulla Spiritual affinity as they call it was forbidden yea there we read an injunction for the fifth Canon says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. for avoiding ridiculous jesters and other spectacles at any time but at this day they esteem it a trifling Canon who judge those tumblers to be rejected not alwayes but even on the very Holy day do permit Christian people to be present at the childish arts of tumblers when the publick exercises of Religion are ended and yet they refuse not all the Canons of that Council I can bring forth many more other examples of Canons determining small matters but I 'le spare this labour At least I add but this when in Provincial Councils of every Province Questions were handled Conc. 1. Constantinop Can. 2. T. 1. p. 510. and nothing was brought to the General Council but what could not fitly be determined in the Provincial it was needful for the Fathers to determine of the propounded questions of what kind or weight soever they were and so if any minute things which by some are reckoned trifles do occurr in the Canons they are rather to be ascribed to others who propounded them to the Fathers assembled in Council than to them determining of them These are the rocks which in the following Treatise by Gods help shall be more clearly explained in their places of which things most courteous Reader I judged it expedient to admonish thee before I dismiss thee to read it over lest in any place thou be at at a stand In which things having briefly prefaced by Gods assistance I hasten to my purpose THE Lords-Day THE FIRST BOOK In which is demonstrated the Solemnity and Antiquity of the Lords Day CHAP. 1. That to the Solemn Worship of God a determined time is necessary Concerning the Assemblies of the Apostles and how the Apostles and other Christians were present in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath Day THat some certain time is to be assigned by Divine Institution on which men ceasing from common affairs are diligently to bend themselves to Divine Worship for Gods glory and the Churches good although no Religion be placed in Holy-dayes I think to be without controversie the custome received amongst Nations of all Ages that namely at a stated time and upon certain dayes all should meet to invocate and worship that Deity which they took for their supreme doth witness this and reason it self doth require the same Conventions also for performing exercises of Piety were alwayes used by the Christian Church in which said exercises it practised what pertained to godliness and the worship of God for which cause the Apostle Heb. 10. 25. allows not of that readiness in Christians to forsake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. that coming to the Synagogue or meeting together and if Christ disdained not to come himself to the Temple and the Jews Synagogues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 4. 16. 1. As his custome was who will he be that shall think the places dedicated for the Churches assemblies are not to be gone unto by Christians But the necessity which Chrysostom at large decyphers de verbis Isaiae of these Assemblies of which more afterwards being admitted we must at this time briefly enquire out the fit season without which the exercise of Divine worship cannot fitly be acted in them for holding of them for the best sign of the time which was solemnized by the Church must be observed from the publick conventions which were held for performing of the Duties of Religion The time assigned for Divine worship amongst the ancient Christians was either extraordinary or ordinary solemnly to celebrate the extraordinary time they were called upon only by an extraordinary occasion when it sell out so while the Apostles were living Luke tells us Acts 12. that many were gathered together in Maries house during St. Peter's imprisonment and for his sake poured out Prayers continually 10 God the occasion of which convention was extraordinary yet did they not therefore intermit the ordinary time of meeting the ancient writers do also witness that such were the meetings of the Christians after the Apostles times when a just occasion was offered who as often as persecutions or publick calamities sell out they then joyned Prayers in their meetings congregated on that occasion and so as it were by making a band in their Prayers to God they compassed him about as they prayed which thing we read was done by the Apostles and Church Acts 4. 23. 31. When the Elders of the People forbad the Apostles they should not preach Christ the Church poured forth Prayers to God The ordinary time for the exercises of Piety was at which they attended Divine worship upon a stated and determinate day to
worship amongst men Wallaeus and Rivet have clearly taught this The former whereof in his third Chapter of the fourth Command doth teach this proving it by the grave testimonies of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza Peter Martyr Bullinger Zanchy Ursin Gualter Aretius Bonaventure Bertram Merrer Antonius Faius Junius Paraeus Zepperus Martinius and Alstedius To which the famous Rivet in his Dissertation de Sabbatho cap 1. adds the authorities of Lambertus Danaeus Rod. Hospinianus Martinus Chemnitius â—oh Gerhardus Conradus Pâ—eilen Henricus Butingus Bartasius Gonlartius Tilenus while yet he warred with us in our tents Marloratus and Fequernehianus Thâ—se two very learned Divines having deserved well of the Christian Common-wealth being compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses of great authority have made it evident to all that the observation of the Sabbath hath alwayes been used in the Church of God before Moses from whose judgment no man of reason will easily suffer himself to be perswaded to recede although one or two of the modern writers go contrary thereunto Touching which opinion after these men to say any more although it may be thought the part of a man that 's diligent in vain yet since this opinion being supported by the testimonies of so many famous Divines is weakened both by some reasons and also by the authorities of the ancients a few things more arâ— to be added These which follow are the chief of those reasons wherewith they do oppose the truth received of so many learned men In the first place Before the lamentable fall of Adam there was no need of the Sabbath on which his strength being spent with labours it was to be repaired Secondly Nothing is read in Scripture of the Patriarchs keeping the Sabbath Thirdly If the Sabbath had been observed from the Creation the Heathens had been obliged to observe it somewhere in the Scriptures they would have been accused by God for the neglect of the Sabbath w ch yet is no where read in H. Records These are the reasons which bear the greatest shew of probability for which they assert there was no use of the Sabbath before Moses in the world To the two first whereof the famous Wallaeus answers solidly To whose answer I only add this Since Adam could not conveniently attend at one and the same time two businesses of a diverse nature it seemeth not unreasonable that God assigned him a stated time for doing both in conveniently to the end he might both till the Garden freely and also solemnly celebrate the publick worship of God Moreover since we believe that the night was assigned to him in his happy condition of innocency wherein he might rest why should not also the day be appointed for a Divine contemplation of the works of God Lastly whereas the Saints themselves in that blessed Kingdome of Heaven do enjoy a perpetual Sabbath it will not be thought incongruous or disagreeable to the condition of Adam if the Sabbath were assigned to him in Paradice to worship God on although we read not that he did keep the Sabbath Some institutions are expressed in Scripture whose observation doth not constantly occurr in the same Neh. 18. 8. Those that returned from the captivity are read to make themselves tabernacles in which they abode which was not done before even from the times of Joshua to that very day although it was provided for in the Law Lev. 23. 40. And after the Law given by Moses about the Sabbath there is made no mention of its observation in the whole book of Judges c. yet none will thence conclude that the Sabbath was not instituted at that time because we meet with no footsteps of its festivity being observed Nor do we read that Sampson Deborah or Joshua did keep the Sabbath yet do we not deny upon that account that the Sabbath was instituted So also might it happen before the Law was given in the Mount And what if we say that the Aegyptians would not suffer the Israelites while they were their slaves to be idle on the seventh day Perhaps they gave place to necessity which Josephus tells us fell out also in the time of Antiochus When saith he the Jews were interdicted upon most severe punishments the observation of the seventh day within a very short time not only in Antioch but in the neighbouring regions the Sabbath was neglected Moreover it is read no where that Adam worshipped God publickly which yet we must conclude for certain he did We may judge the like of the Sabbath's not being observed of him because if he had the mode of worship prescribed him of God surely that a time was defined of God to exercise it in cannot rightly be denied although we read nothing of the express time for it is most agreeable to natural equity that as well the time for performance of the worship as the worship it self should be defined As to the third reason brought from the Heathens Some think if the Sabbath had been observed from the Creation then the Gentiles had been bound to celebrate its solemnity But this they deny for a double reason First because no footsteps of the seventh day's observation are found amongst them Secondly they are not reproved of God for neglecting the Sabbath To the first the learned VVallaeus answers loc praedicto that though it should be granted that the mentioning of it was obliterated amongst the Heathens it doth not thence follow that the use of the Sabbath remained not amongst the posterity of Adam or Noah so VVallaeus The searchers out of Hebrew antiquities tell us out of Maimonides that a corrupt religion grew up from the beginning of the world and so far received augmentations till at length the Divine Religion was almost turned upside down yet that great Rabbi hath excepted Enoch Melchisedech Noah Shem c. who worshipped the true God with a pure heart the truth of whose relation being bottomed on Scripture authority who will question If therefore the true Religion and that which was instituted of God and put into the minds of men hath ceased amongst the posterity of the Heathen in other chief points what wonder if amongst them also the observation of the Sabbath was not continued which yet was alwayes observed by the Church of God That the seventh day was celebrated amongst the Gentiles and that they observed it with a certain solemn devotion either from the instinct of nature or by a tradition received from the Ancestours from whom they descended or from a general knowledge of the Creation it self their very writings in express words do shew in which whoever will look into them he may easily find clear footsteps of a Sabbatical solemnity That the seventh day is sacred not only the Hebrews but also the Greeks know on which the universe of things animate and inanimate is turned about saith Clemens Alexandrinus which he proveth by the testimonies of Hesiod Homer Callimachus and
the hands undecently and jumpest with the feet and turnest about with the whole body And how is it that thou fearest not nor tremblest to hear of these things against such Oracles doest thou not think that God is invisibly present here who measureth the motion of every man and hath a consideration of the conscience doest thou not think that the Angels do stand by this stupendous table and with reverence compass it about but thou dost not think on these things because the things which are heard and seen in the Theatres have darkned thy mind and therefore doest thou bring in that to be used in the Church which is done there therefore doest thou discover a disordered mind in clamours that signifie nothing certain how therefore wilt thou beg the pardon of thy sins how wilt thou receive the Lord into thy house who dost so contemptuously offer him a prayer Thou sayest Have mercy on me O God and declarest that thy manners are far from mercy Thou criest out Save me and expressest an outward shew far from salvation Why are thy hands spread out to pray which are alwayes thrown aloft and turned about in an unseemly manner Which through the importunate impulse of a vehement and violent spirit make a sound which signifies nothing certain are not those examples partly of silly women that exercise whorish tricks in the streets and partly of them that bawl in the Theatres c. These are the words wherein that grave Father taxes those rude voices in singing of hymns which signifie nothing certain as being such as rather become Theatres than the Church of God because they were borrowed from thence and are unseemly for the Church of God in which all things are to be done with reverence because of the tremendous presence of God who observes the motion of every one in the Church yea he reckons those rude voices in singing for tokens of an uncomposed mind which do declare that men are rather mad than humbly confessing their sins to God and lowly begging pardon of God for them But if there be any one that desires to hear the commodity of a moderated singing consisting of a clear voice and convenient moderation therein let him read Austins tenth Book of Confessions and chap. 33. When I call to mind saith he the tears I shed at the hearing of the Church-songs in the beginning of my recovered faith yea and at this very time whenas I am moved not with the singing but with the thing sung I then acknowledged the great good use of this institution And elsewhere Confess lib. 9. c. 6. he saith How abundantly did I weep before God to hear these Hymns of thine being toucht to the very quick by the voices of thy sweet Church-song the voices flowed into my ears and thy truth pleasingly distilled into my heart which caused the affections of my devotion to overflow and my tears to run over and happy did I find my self therein This shews that Austin did approve that sort of singing in the Church which tended to edification by the help whereof the hearers mind was more lift up to God such was the manner of singing used at Millain of which Austin here speaketh not that which onely pleased the eares nor that which suffered the words when they were uttered in singing to be heard or understood This kind of singing which is delicately pronounced with a certain allurement of the voice is a delight to unregenerate eares for there followeth the contempt of the flesh unto which it was not fit to give over the soul to be effeminated but will be of no advantage to move the mind from whence the calm affections of religion should be excited Then again we must observe also in the manner of singing then used by the Church that Psalms were sung sometimes of one sometimes by the Quire sometimes of all together At first they sung all at once So Chrys who saith they had all one voice and one heart He adds also in the same place he that sings sings above that is rehearses the words of the Hymn to be sung and goes first before the rest in singing as shortly after the words of Basil will tell us and when all sung after him the voice came as it were out of one mouth When Basil describes the manner of singing of Psalms in his age he saith now when they sing they are divided into two parts and sing after one another by course then this charge being committed to one of these persons to begin before the rest in singing then the rest sung after him but he saith this variety of singing Psalms was ordained that now and then prayers being mixed also they might pass the night with less wearisomness when day appeared they all offered up a Psalm to God as with one mouth and one heart The custome of Anthemns or Antiphones that is of singing verses alternately by way of answer not onely at Antioch but in other Churches the writers of Ecclesiastical history do derive from Ignatius whom they report did first institute Anthemns So Socrates Hist 6. 8. and Niceph. 13. 8. although this seems improbable to divers men of no mean judgment because Responsory Hymns or Anthemns are not so much worth as for their sake there must needs Angels come down from Heaven and appear to sing before others which the aforesaid writers searching out the reason of Anthemns do affirm whereas the Church at that time wanted not Psalms and Hymns which the Epistle of Plinius Secundus to Trajan witnesseth for Ignatius suffered Martyrdome when Trajan was Emperour And after Ignatius for a long time there was one voice of all in the Church while they prayed to God one prayer of all when they sung hymns the voice was uttered as out of one mouth as formerly we heard out of Chrysostom The invention of harmonious tuning among the Syrians they attribute to Ephraimus Syrus Soz. 3. 15. but Theodoret acknowledges it received from Flavianus and Diodorus who having divided the Quire into two parties gave them Davids Psalms to be sung by course They followed the manner of Antioch which Theodoret saith spread afterwards to the uttermost parts of the earth Lib. 2. 24. In the Western Churches Platina ascribes this to Pope Damasus whose opinion agrees with Damasus his Epistle to Hierom and with the Pontifical as we have formerly mentioned Platina in his Life relates that Vitalianus the first Pope of Rome did ordain singing using Organs as some would have it for harmony But the author of those answers whoever he was ad Orthodoxos which are added to Justin Martyr saith that the custome of singing by inanimate instruments in the Church was taken away in his time and upon that account simple Prayers were retained because songs rattles and organs are fitter for children and fools than the Church Leo the second brought Hymns to a better concord Plat. in vita Leonis It was provided
by the fifteenth Canon Conc. Laod. that none should sing in the Church besides certain that were chosen for singing the reason of which Canon is assigned by Baronius to be this Because saith he when the people and Clergy sung promiscuously through the unskilfulness of the singers it oft fell out that by the disordered sound of voices the diversity marred that harmonious singing which was congruous to the Churches dignity therefore it was prohibited the people in the Church that none should sing but those unto whom this work was assigned To confirm this conjecture he hath recourse to Chrysostom the same doth Binius Conc. T. 1. in Notis Conc. Laodic To me it is not manifest what was the true reason of ordaining the Laodicean Canon After the Laodicean Council the fore-observed testimonies have shewed us that it was an usual thing for the Christian people to sing with others in the Church but as for the place in Chrysostom cited by Baronius it brings no help at all to establish the conjecture of Baronius For in that place of which we have formerly heard in this Chapter St. Chrysost only blames that unseemly manner of singing which was borrowed from the Theatres Mimicks and Dancers and confisted of clamours which signified no certainty But he hinders not the people from the liberty of singing in the Church This none will deny that looks into the place of Chrysostom cited by Baronius When all is done saith he we forbid not jubilation the contrary whereto is affirmed by Baronius and his follower Binius but a voice that signifies nothing not the voice of praise but a rude voice of absurdity the vain and rash throwing up of the hands into the air stamping with the feet unseemly and effeminate songs which are the playes of them that sit idle in the Theatres and at Horse-races Thus Chrysostom which is far from the sense for which Baronius brought it Which doth also more evidently appear from the end of that Homily in which he speaks to his hearers that they would come to God with a calm and repressed voice and not lift up their hands in disorderly motions but present them to God both together Which things being well observed with what face can the Papists alledge Chrysostom for denying the people a liberty to sing in the Church Now from the premises it may easily be observed that the Fathers approved not of that which they call Broken Musick that consists rather in the noise of the voice than the fervour of the spirit as if from such Musick God neither got any praise or the Church profit Therefore passing over that they prescribed the Church simple singing It displeased Gregory the Great that those who were chosen to office of preaching and the holy Ministry should having that charge betake themselves to singing in a Synod at Rome held in the time of Mauritius Gregory would not have so much time taken up in singing and almost no place left for preaching Zonaras also teacheth that Readers in the Church ought rather to attend the care of singing than the reading of holy bookes To conclude I leave it for others to judge what to think of that Popish singing which is fitted to the exact measures of all kind of Musick since Cornelius Agrippa one of their own profession hath copiously enough painted out the liberty of Musick which they allow for setting out of hymns There is saith he at this day such a licentiousness of Musick in Churches that even a deal of bawdy songs on the Organs have equal place with the Canon of the Mass and they chaunt the Divine offices holy mysteries and prayers having hired a company of wanton Musicians with a great sum of money not to the Hearers understanding not to the Elevation of the Spirit hearken here you Papists that number your Psalms but love to bray them out like Asses without understanding them but for lecherous tickling not with mens voices but belluine clamours while the boyes whine the descant others bellow the tenor others bark the counterpoint others roar the treble others grunt the base and they make that many sounds may be heard but no words or sentences be understood but the authority of judgment is taken away both from the ears and mind Thus he who warrs with you in your tents De vanitate Scientiarum in the end of the sixteenth chapter in which he doth paint out to the life as they say the bawdry of Roman Musick in their holy mysteries well enough befitting the Babylonish whore and the incommodities thereof little agreeing to the holy worship of God And the like doth Polydor Virgil De inventione rerum lib. 6. c. 2. And these are the things which I had to mention of the two exercises of Religion comprehended under the Ministry of the Word and Prayer that were to be performed upon the Lords Day CHAP. XIII Administration of the Sacraments on the Lords Day THe third thing among the publick exercises of Religion wherein the observation of the Lords day was solemnized among the ancients follows viz. the administration of the Sacraments Which although not tied to the Lords day were administred on the Lords day the Scriptures bearing witness Acts 20. 7. the Disciples being gathered together on the first day of the week to break bread Paul preached to them c. where breaking of bread is not to be expounded of a domestick feast but of the H. Supper as we have shewn Book 1. chap. 2. For having continued his speech until midnight St. Paul took bread the comparing of ver 7. with 11. evinces this now the Disciples met not at that time of night to break their daily bread But we must make account that there was a solemn day proclaimed amongst them for celebrating the Holy Supper which should be more commodious than all the other and that was the first day in the week on which that place doth evidently enough conclude that the Church met together And the Apostle teaches that it met in the same place to eat the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11. 20. Justin in the place above so often cited doth witness that the Eucharist or as Tertull lib. 2. ad Ux. cap. 4. the Lords Feast was wont to be administred by the Church on the Lords day So Chrys Hom. 18. in Act. Ap. Ambrose delivered to the Catechumeni whom he calls Competentes that is those that were instructed in the Christian faith suing for Baptism on the Lords day after the reading and Treatise the Symbol of the Church in the fonts which we understand of Baptism without which none were admitted to the Eucharist That the Sacraments were administred on the Lords day none doubts concerning the administration whereof I leave the prolix narration to be drawn out of the learned Commentaries of Divines of whom this age by the grace of God reapeth a fruitful crop who professedly handle common places of Divinity lest I should