A brief ANSWER to a late Treatise OF THE SABBATH DAY Digested Dialogue-wise between two Divines A. and B. A. BRother you are happily mett B. And you Brother also A. I would I might spend an houre or two with you in private conference in a point wherein I have of late been not a little perplexed B. Why what is the matter Brother A. Have you not seene a late Treatise of the Sabbath Day pubished by an eminent Antistes in this Church B. Yes I have both seene and perused it A. I pray you what thinke you of it B. I thinke it is a very dangerous Booke A. What meane you by that B. I 〈…〉 to the Author if it were well examined before 〈…〉 A. How so I pray you B. Because it overthrowes the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of the Sabbath A. Pardon mee that seemes to mee impossible B. VVhy A. Because hee sayth expresly in the very title page of his booke that it contayneth A Defence of the Orthodox all Doctrine of the Church of England against Sabbatarian novelty And therefore I am confident hee will looke to make that good B. But be not too confident you know the Proverbe Fronti rara fides The fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences A. That is true you say But yet I cannot be perswaded that so great a Personage would so farre overshoot as to give that advantage to those whom hee makes his adversaries Nay you know his Booke is dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury by whose direction and that according to his sacred Majesties command hee was set upon this worke both for the preventing of mischief as himself sayth in his Epistle dedicatory to the sayd Archbishop and to settle the Kings good subjects who have long time been distracted about Sabbatarian questions Now if hee mayntaine not but as you say overthrow the doctrine of the Church of England hee will have small thanks from his sacred Majestie for his paines who is the Defender of the Faith of the Church of England and hath often solemnely protested and that in his publike Declarations in print that hee will never suffer therein the least innovation And what thanks then can hee expect from the Archbishop trow you And in stead of preventing hee will pull on greater mischiefs and in stead of setling the Kings good subjects hee will fill their minds with greater distractions And therefore Brother in so saying you lay a heavy charge upon him It s dangerous so to charge a person of that dignity and esteeme in the world Take heed therefore what you say You know also that hee is a great Scholar deeply learned a reverend Father of the Church so as his judgment is taken almost for an Oracle And you know also what is sayd in a late Booke allowed by authority that the holy Fathers in God the Bishops are to be guides in Divinity unto the whole Clergy of inferior order so as all Priests are to submit unto their Godly iudgements in all matters pertayning unto Religion And the reason is given because the Fathers of the Church now and alwayes doe in the great mystery of Godlinesse comprehend many things which the common people doe not yea also some things which Ministers of the inferior order doe not apprehend So as it is expected of those holy Prelates that wee must lay our hand on our mouth when they speake and be altogether regulated by their profound Dictates B. I remember well the booke And I cannot but wonder that those passages were not expunged with many others when the booke was called in and then the second time published You know wee live in a learned age and wee deny the Popes infallibility or that it can convey it self as from the head and so confine it self within the veines of the bodie of the Prelacy or that a Rotchet can conferre this grace ex opere operato And beleeve mee Brother when wee see such a Papall spirit begin to perke up in this our Church is it not high time trow you to looke about us Shall wee stumble at noone day and in this Meridian of the Gospell close up our eyes and become the sworne vasalls of blind obedience No no. In this case therefore were Goliah himself the Champion I would by Gods grace try a fall with him A. Brother such a resolution had need have a good ground to stand upon And being a matter of such moment it requires our best zeale and strength especially to vindicate the doctrine of our reverend Mother the Church of England which wee have sucked from her purer breasts Nor onely so but to vindicate her name from reproach For if it be so as you have sayd that the doctrine of our Church is by that booke overthrowne then consequently as I conceive shee must deeply suffer and be wounded through the sides of those whom hee so often in his booke brandeth with the odious name of Novell Sabbatarians B. Brother you conceite a right For in truth all those calumnious and odious termes which hee gives to those whose opinions except Brabournes onely hee impugneth in his Treatise as venimous serpents noysome Tares pestilent weeds and uncleane beasts termes to be abhorred of all true Christians and in a word Novell Sabbatarians they all result upon our deare Mother the Church of England For who are the most of those or rather all whom hee thus stigmatizeth Are they not or were they not in their time the true bred children of the Church of England all unanimously professing and maintayning her Orthodox doctrines Can therefore the mother be free when her pious sonnes are so traduced and reproached and that for defending those very doctrines which by her meanes they sucked from the breasts of both the Testaments A. That must needs follow I confesse Now then I pray you satisfy my earnest desire in this by declaring how hee overthrowes the doctrine of the Church of England in this point of the Sabbath B. I will make it most cleare unto you Now the doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Sabbath is most clearely and fully set forth in the Booke of Homilies which Booke the 35 Article to which all wee Ministers doe subscribe doth commend as contayning a Godly and whole some doctrine and necessary for these times and therefore judged to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people Now the Homilie of the time and place of prayer part 1. sheweth that our Lords Day is grounded upon the fourth Commandement in the Decalogue in these words Whatsoever is found in the Commandement appertaining to the Law of nature as a thing most Godly most just and needfull for the setting forth of Gods glory it ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people And therefore by this Commandement wee ought to have a time as one day in the weeke wherein wee ought to
what day in the weeke the Sabbath day is to wit the Sabbath day of the Lord thy God that day in the weeke wherein the Lord our God resteth must be our Sabbath day So that as the Commandement prescribes unto us a weekely Sabbath day to be sanctified so Gods Precedent and example points out unto us what or which day in the weeke wee must rest on to sanctify it And this is not onely the naturall equity which the adversary in generall confesseth but the very naturall Law and substance of the fourth Commandement to prescribe a set solemne day in the weeke to be sanctified and not to leave it in the power of man or of the Church to appoint what time they please The reasons are these 1. because the Commandement expresly limiteth one set day in the weeke being the Sabbath day of the Lord our God as hath bene sayd Now the Commandement prescribing a set and fixed day in the weeke what humain power shall dare to alter it into an indefinite time call it what you will convenient or sufficient to be appointed at the pleasure of man This is with the Papists to commit high sacriledge in altering the property of Gods Commandements For upon this ground of a generall equity they have bene bold to suppresse the second Commandement saying it is comprised in the first As they have robd the people of the cup in the Sacrament saying the blood is contained in the body under the formes of bread So our adversary imagining a generall I wot not what equity in the fourth Commandement of some certain uncertain time for Gods publicke worship doth thereby destroy the very property of the Commandement which expresly prescribeth the Sabbath day in every weeke A second reason why it is not left in the power of the Church to prescribe what time men please is because as it is Gods prerogative as a Maister to appoint his owne worship and service so the time wherein hee will be served This God himself commandeth in the fourth Commandement Now as the King will not take it well that any meddle with his prerogative and arrogate that to himself which is the Kings right so God is justly offended when men presume to assume to themselves that power which is proper and peculiar to God alone If any will take upon him to coyne money by counterfeting the Kings stampe and name his act is treason how then shall they escape if presume to coyne what time they please for Gods solemne worship though they set the counterfeit stampe of God upon it Now the Sabbath day is of the Lords owne making and stamping and therefore called the Lords day A third reason why it is not left in mans power to institute the solemne day of Gods worship his Sabbath day or to appoint him what proportion of time they please is because an indefinite time must either bind to all moments of time as a debt when the day of payment is not expresly dated is liable to payment every moment or els it binds to no time at all For if the Law of God bind us not to an expresse determinate time or day consecrate to his service then the not allowing of him a set time or day is no sinne at all For what Gods Law commaunds not therein man is not bound And where no Law is of a set time or day there is no transgression if a set time or day be not observed So as by this reason if the Law of the fourth Commandement prescribe no set sacred time or day for Rest and sanctification it is a meere nullity For to say there is a naturall equity in it for some sufficient and convenient time and yet no man can define what this sufficient and convenient time is nay all the wits and heads in the world put together are not able to determine it is as to say there is a world in the moone consisting of Land and Sea and inhabitants because there are some black spots in it which yet is not a more lunaticke opinion then that is presumptuous and absurd Hath not the profane world found by wofull experience that of late dayes within these two yeares last past wherein men have taken a liberty to profane and pollute but a part of the Lords day that this is a most horrible sinne And a sinne it cannot be but as a breach of one of Gods holy Commandements For where there is no Law there is no transgression The profanation I say of the Lords day is clearely shewed to be an horrible presumptuous sinne and in speciall a bold breach of the fourth Commandement by those many markable judgements of God which have fearefully fallen upon fearelesse Sabbath breakers and that I say within these two yeares last past the like whereof cannot be paralleld in all the Histories of all the Centuries since the Apostles times Which alone if men were not altogether possessed with the spirit of stupidity and of a croced conscience were sufficient to teach their dull wits that the fourth Commandement is still in force commaunding the Sabbath day to be sanctified the profanation whereof wee see so terribly punished by divine revenge A point also which our Homily hath noted which were sufficient to admonish the adversary of his presumptuous oppositions thereunto A. Sir you have abundantly satisfied me in this point and I suppose every rationall man and true bred-sonne of the Church of England And surely I wonder so learned a man should commit so fowle an errour as not to search better into the Doctrine of our Church so clearely expressed in the Homily B. You need not wonder at it wee have all knowne him to doe as great a matter as that For was not his hand to the Approbation of a Booke in print though afterwards called in by Soveraigne Authority which contaynes and maintayns many sundry Tenents both Pelagian and Popish flatt against the cleare Doctrines of our Church and whereby hee hath as yet made no publike recantation to remoove the scandall from the Church of England and to satisfy so high an offence given Yea in stead of Recantation I my self have heard him in open Court speake against both Iustification that a man might be justified to day and damned to morrow and against Election of some to eternall life and against the sanctification of the Sabbath saying I say there is no sanctification of the Sabbath but Rest Rest onely And therefore cease to wonder that this man should be so feareles either privily to undermine or apertly to oppugne the expresse doctrines of our Church A. Yet I cannot but wonder how hee dare be so bold and upon what grounds hee should thus impune beare himself B. The grounds I examine not as pertayning to those that are more judicious and in highest place over the Church but the fact cannot be dissembled A. But perhaps hee will say this is your private interpretation of the Homily and of a sort of
factions Sabbatarian Novellists But what instances can you bring of any that were eminent in this Church for learning and parts and not any way inclined to the Disciplinarian Faction that concurre with you in the same judgement and understanding of the doctrine of our Church layd downe in the Homily B. First the words of the Homily as you have heard and as every one may plainely see are so expresse cleare and full that they cannot possibly admit of the least ambiguity And for instances I could give many I will content my self with two witnesses enough to establish the matter VVhat say you to the learned Hooker and to the learned Dr. Andrewes were these any way inclined unto the Disciplinarian Faction or were they novell Sabbatarians A. No surely I thinke D. VVh himself will not say so of them but will admit them for very competent witnesses in this cause as without all exception B. First then for Mr. Hooker Hee in his fift booke of Ecclesiasticall Policy Sect. 70. hath these words If it be demanded whether wee observe these times to wit holy dayes as being thereunto bound by force of Divine Law or els by the onely positive Ordinances of the Church I answer to this that the very Law of nature it self which all men confesse to be Gods Law requireth in generall no lesse the sanctification of times then of places persons and things unto Gods honor For which cause it hath pleased him heretofore as of the rest so of time likewise to exact some parts by way of perpetuall homage never to be dispensed withall nor remitted againe to require some other parts of time with as strict exaction but for lesse continuance and of the rest which were left arbitrary to accept what the Church shall in due consideration consecrate voluntarily unto like Religious uses Of the first kind amongst the Iewes was the Sabbath day Of the second those Feasts which are appointed to the Law of Moses the Feast of Dedication invented by the Church standeth in the number of the last kind The Morall Law requiring therefore a seventh part throughout the age of the whole world to be that way imployed although with us the day be changed in regard of a new revolution begun by our Saviour Christ yet the same proportion of time continueth which was before because in reference to the benefit of Creation and now much more of Renovation thereunto added by him which was Prince of the world to come wee are bound to account the sanctification of one day in seven a duety which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever So hee there VVhere you see how in terminis hee agreeth and jumpeth with the expresse doctrine of our Church in the Homily touching the perpetuall morality of the fourth Commandement Wee are bound sayth hee to account the sanctification of one day in seven which before hee sayth is now the Lords day a duety which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever The second instance is the late Reverend and learned B. of VVinkc who in his speech in the Starre-chamber which with other of his workes hath been by the great diligence and care of the now Archbishop of Cant. published in print confuting Trasks opinion about the Iewes Sabbath hath these words It hath ever been the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords day presently came in place of it Dominicus c. 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 For the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ wee are a new creature a new creation by him and to have a new Sabbath And a little after The Apostles they kept their meetings on that day On that day they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is held their synaxes their solemne assemblies to preach to pray to break bread or celebrate the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords Supper on the Lords day For these two onely the Day and the Supper have the Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicum in the Scriptures to shew Dominicum is alike to be taken in both This for the practise then If you will have it in Precept The Apostle gives it and in the same word still that against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first day of the weeke the day of their assembly every one should lay apart what God should moove him to offer to the Collection for the Saincts and then offer it which was soever in use That the day of oblations So have you it in practise and in precept both c. And after A thing so notorious so well knowne even to the heathen themselves as it was in the Acts of the Martyrs ever an usuall question of theirs even of Course in their examining What Dominicum Servasti Hold you the Sunday and their answer knowne they all averre it Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian I cannot intermit it And besides others hee cites Athanasius who shewes the abolishing of the Iewes day and the succeeding of the Lords day in place of it and that so full as no man can wish more Last of all hee both quotes and commends the Councell of Laodicea for that Canon 29. That Christen men may not Iudaize or grow Iewes that is not make the Sabbath or Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords day So hee I will adde onely a brief note of the same Author in one of his Sermons on those words This is the day which the Lord hath made The day of Christs Resurrection made by God Dies Dominicus and to it doe all the Fathers apply this verse So hee I might here also adde what is sayd in that Booke which is intituled A Patterne of catecheticall Doctrine and printed at London 1630. which though it have not Dr. Andrewes name prefixt unto it yet it is well knowne it was his worke even ex ungne Leonem being his Catecheticall exercise in Cambridge as I have been credibly informed and whereof I have the Manuscript by mee which I keep as an Antiquity I know the booke will not very well relish with our adversaries palate For there pag. 233. are these passages Quest. But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Answ. Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whither it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour Object And if they say it prefigured the rest that wee shall have from our sinnes in Christ. Answ.