Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and our demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus opposethem onely it were well but it is apparant that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee
by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38. 7. When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16. 31. And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7. 3. 5. and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52. 12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7. 5. they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22. 12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping a festivall unto him when hee calleth us thereunto lest otherwise it prove out of season when it is begun a long time after and utterly neglected upon the fresh memory thereof Wee reade that when the Ilienses inhabitants of Ilium called anciently by the name of Troy sent an Embassage to Tiberius to condole the death of his Father Augustus hee considering the unseasonablenesse thereof it being a long time after his death requited them accordingly saying that hee was sorry for their heavinesse also having lost so renowned a Knight as Hector was to wit above a thousand years before in the warres of Troy Surely when in the fourth Commandement and in the reason given it is sayd For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it it stands with far better reason to conceave the meaning hereof in reference to time past thus therefore the Lord commanded the sanctification of it 2500 yeares before then to understand Moses words Gen. 2. 3. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in reference to the time to come thus therefore the Lord commanded that seventh day to be sanctified 2500 yeares after And observe I pray the forme of words in the fourth Commandement when it is sayd Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it not of the time present that hee now doth blesse it and sanctify it but of the time past therefore hee did blesse it and sanctifie it and when I pray but immediately from the Creation that very day whereon hee first rested and consequently that very day he commanded the seventh day to be sanctified for to sanctifie the day is to command the sanctification of it as is confessed otherwise there were no place to plead anticipation And that the phrase of speech must signifie Gods Command for the sanctification of it I have already proved As for the Fathers affirming that the ancient Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath albeit their authority is of no force to countervaile so manifest evidence both of Scripture it selfe and of the reason drawne from the division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continued unto the Jewes in the very dayes of Moses Yet I may be bold to say we have better authority from the ancients for justifying of our cause than our adversaries have for theirs
Walaeus hath represented Chrysostome Theophilus Antiochenus Austin Theodor maintaining that the justification of the Sabbath hath beene from the Creation To these Rivetus addes Tertullian as of the same mind howsoever alleged on the adversaries part And he also acknowledgeth the Jewes to be of the same opinion Beda is alleged indeed by Perenius as on the part of Tostatus but no such thing appeares in his Hexameron but rather expressely the contrary his words being these of the Sabbath semper celebrari solebat as I have shewed in my answer to the preface Sect. 1. Where also are represented the testimonies of Athanasius and Epiphanius as maintaining the institution of the Sabbath to have beene from the Creation which also hath beene shewed to have beene the opinion of Philo and Iosephus and divers of the Jewish Rabbins and of the author of the Chaldee-Paraphrase upon the Psalms and of divers others Againe concerning the passages alleged out of some Fathers to the contrary not onely Hospinian answereth that those proceed of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath but Iacobus Salianus a Papist in particular thus interpreteth Tentullian and Tertullian must be in some such sense understood as namely either of observation of other Sabbaths in use among the Jewes or of the rigorous observation of the Jewish Sabbath or of the Jewish manner in observing it by particular sacrifices appointed for that day for as much as he clearely professeth that the Sabbath day was à primordio sanctus as Rivetus sheweth and that the other Fathers which are but foure truly alleged are to be interpreted by some such manner I have endeavoured to evince by divers reasons in my answer to the Preface And though some are willing to admit that of Torniellus that in the accomplishment of the Creation the Angels did observe the Sabbath provided he recompence them in this particular now in question and adde that the observance of it here upon the earth was not till many ages after Yet this naked authority being little worth his reason is so weake in the former that we have cause to suspect it will not prove any thing stronger in the latter though I should have beene content to afford it due consideration had it been proposed As for the Angels singing and shouting for joy this was performed as Torritallus acknowledgeth the day wherein the foundation of the earth was laid which undoubtedly could not be after the first day of the creation For if the foundation of the earth was not laid then when the Lord said that it was without forme and voyd and the waters covered it I cannot devise when it should be It is granted that it may be probably conjectured that the sanctification of the Sabbath was before the Law as concurring herein with Calvin but that Calvin saith that no more is not proved neither is that passage exhibited wherein Calvin should deliver his mind so coldly thereof but Calvin in his harmony upon the foure bookes of Moses and on the fourth Precept is expresse that Diem septimū sibi sumpsit Deus ac consecravit completa mundi creatione that God assumed and consecrated the seventh day unto himselfe upon the finishing of the worlds creation And it is enough for us that then it was instituted and hereupon let every sober reader judge whether it be not more then probable that the holy Patriarches at least observed it Neither doe we affect that any man should rest satisfied with our conjectures but let our reasons be considered and the plaine Text of Scripture professing that because God rested the seventh day therefore hee blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and let them yeeld thereunto no more in this particular then whereof it doth convince a man in conscience Yet who those late Writers be who are so unsatisfied in this point I know not well I verily thinke they are very few Protestants Gomarus as I remember allegeth but two Vatablus and Musculus whereas Walaus and Rivetus between them have alleged no lesse than thirty maintaining the contrary As for the Papists we shall take notice of them in the next Section It is confessed that this proofe is good God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it therefore he commanded it to be kept holy by his people The sanctifying of the day in the true notion thereof being nothing but Gods commanding man to sanctifie it which yet if any man deny I appeale to my former argument delivered in the former Section for the justifying thereof Onely it is said that therence it followeth not that Then or at that time to wit the very day whereon God rested he commanded it to be kept holy by his people Now this exception also I have remooved in the former Section And it is very strange we should be to seeke of the time in reference whereunto this is delivered most of all if spoken onely in reference to 2500 yeares after and not the least intimation of so strange an anticipation beyond all example as Walaeus and Rivetus have proved When Abulensis saith that Moses spake this by anticipation rather to shew the equity of the Commandement then the Originall If the booke of Genesis were written before the Commandement was given on mount Sina this interpretation must suppose that the Lord had already revealed to Moses what hee would doe on Mount Sina and what ground is produced for the building of so much as any conjecture hereof thereupon And what wise man would expect that any man should be satisfied herewith Doth it not concerne them who maintaine this affirmative to make it good by Texts of Scripture If after the Commandements were delivered on Mount Sina what neede of representing the equity thereof seeing the equity and that in this very way is expressed in the Commandement it selfe and that in such manner as to manifest evidently that God did not now begin to command this but that hee commanded it of old even from the Creation as already I have disputed and proved And though Abulensis were of this opinion yet Catarinus was not and though Pererius the Jesuite tooke part with Tostatus yet Rivetus hath shewed that Cornelius de lapide Emmanuel Sa. Ribera all Jesuites do not but with Catarinus rather or that Steuchus Eugubinus Genebrard and Iacobus Salianus concurre with them against the opinion of Tostatus Gomarus acknowledgeth Marius also to be of the same minde all Papists and let mee adde unto these all the Remists as appeares in their notes upon Apoc. 1. 10. Enosh might call upon the Lord and Abraham offer sacrifice without relation to a set and appointed time oftner and seldomer as they had occasion It was in the former Section signified to be Torniellus his reason which here is answered now Torniellus was of a contrary opinion to us in this particular yet hee confesseth that it seemed hardly credible neither doth the Doctor deny it onely hee saith that Enosh might so doe hee doth not say hee did