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
rest yea from our lawfull and needfull workes For like as it appeareth by this Commandement that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull or idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and worke day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietnes and rest from labour Even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and dayly businesse and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service So that God doth not onely command the observation of this holy day but also by his owne example doth stirre and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same Good naturall children will not onely become obedient to the Commandement of their Parents but also have a diligent eye to their doeings and gladlie follow the same So if wee will be the children of our heavenly Father wee must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not onely for that it is Gods expresse Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gratious Lord and Father So the Homily And againe as followeth Thus it may plainlie appeare that Gods will and Commandement was to have a solemne time and standing day in the weeke wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderfull benefits and to render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving kind and obedient people This example and Commandement of God the Godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ c. So the Homily and much more VVhence wee plainely observe these conclusions 1. That all Christians ought and are bound in conscience of the fourth Commandement to keep the Lords Day holily 2. That by the force of the fourth Commandement one day in 7. is perpetually to be kept holy 3. That the keeping of the Lords Day is grounded upon and commanded in the fourth Commandement and so is not of humane institution 4. That the Lords Day is and may be called our Christian Sabbath day therefore it is not Iewish to call it so 5. That this day is wholly to be spent in holy rest and dueties of sanctification and therefore no part of it to be spent in vaine pleasures and profane pastimes Now the Author of the Treatise doth overthrow all these conclusions as is to be seene throughout his booke A. I pray you shew some instances hereof B. Pag. 23. his words are This position to wit that the fourth Commandement is properly and perpetually morall and is for quality and obligation equall to the other nine Commandements which for many yeares hath raigned in Pamphlets Pulpits and Conventicles and is entertained as an Oracle by all such as either openly professe or doe leane towards the Disciplinarian Faction is destitute of truth These are his words VVhich comparing with the words of the Homily of our Church already cited are found quite contrary For the Homily sayth that the fourth Commandement is a Law of nature and ought to be retained and kept of all good Christians in as much as it commands one day of the weeke for rest and God hath given an expresse charge to all men that the Sabbath Day which is our Sunday should be spent wholly in heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service So as this man doth most unjustly condemne all those Godly Preachers that have for so many yeares maintayned the expresse doctrine of our Church in their writings and Sermons and so hee flatly condemneth our Church and her doctrine of the Sabbath wherein shee is more cleare and sound then any Churches in the world And long may this doctrine still florish amongst us maugre all the malicious opposers thereof who are so bold as to affirme that it is destitute of truth A. I assure you I begin now to suspect the man that hee hath not dealt uprightly in the cause B. Nay it is past all suspition for his words are so expresse that they can admit of no favorable interpretation but that they condemne the cleare Doctrine of our Church touching the perpetuall morality of the fourth Commandement for one day in the weeke and so our Lords Day or Sunday the first day of the weeke our Christian Sabbath day which God hath given expresse charge to all men to keep holy A. I confesse the words of the Homily are most cleare without all ambiguity or obscurity But yet the Author seemes to acknowledge some morality naturall to be in the fourth Commandement For pag. 135. hee sayth Our resting from labour in respect of the generall is grounded upon the Law of nature or the equity of the fourth Commandement B. This is nothing to the purpose to acquit him from being an adversary to the expresse doctrine of our Church Dolosus versatur in universalibus it was the speech of King Iames. The naturall morality of the fourth Commandement is not in generall to imply some individuum vagum some certaine uncertaine indefinite time for Gods worship For the Commandement is expresse for a certaine day in the weeke for the Sabbath day Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it It sayth not Remember to set apart and allow some time for the service of God but it determines the time and day least otherwise being left undetermined man should forget God and himself and allow no time or day at all for Gods service or if hee did God should be beholden to him for it But it is a Law of nature that every Lord and Master should have the power in himself to appoint not onely the kind of service but the time when it should be performed of his servants As Alexander d'Ales sayth upon the fourth Commandement The time of this rest it is not in mans power to determine but Gods Againe the adversary acknowledgeth an equity in the fourth Commandement VVhat equity if as it bound the ancient people of God to one day in the weeke it doe not also bind the Christian people to keep one day in the weeâ—â—nd if it be the equity of the fourth Commandement to prescribe one day in seaven then they are very unjust that deny the keeping of the Lords day to be grounded upon the equity of the fourth Commandement It were well if they would stand to equity But this doth our adversary fly from For hee sayth in the next words The particular forme and circumstances of resting are prescribed unto us by the precepts of the Church Our spirituall actions according to that which is maine and substantiall in them are taught by the Euangelicall Law Their modification and limitation in respect of rituall and externall forme and in
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.
and zealous in the point of the Sabbath and now in the Meridian of the Gospell so many with their eyes closed up doe with both hands fight against this truth A. I confesse it is to me no small matter of wonder But Sir now that you have so fully cleared the poynt about Recreation from all the subterfuges of him that hath so moyled himself to make some thing of nothing and therein also have vindicated the Lawes both Divine Ecclesiasticall and Civill from giving any countenance or connivence to such Recreations there remaynes yet one thing to be cleared and that is about the judgement of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas which the opposite authour pleadeth to be all for him B. It s true And I cannot but smile when I thinke of it That they which make no bones even in open Court to vilifie the prime pillars of those Churches yea and to nullify the Churches themselves as if they were no true Churches as having no lawfull Ministers because no Prelatés to put them in orders should notwithstanding daigne to grace them so much as to call them in and to account them competent witnesses in the cause But a bad cause is glad of any Patron or Advocate to plead for it though the Client have openly stigmatized him for a 〈◊〉 But what stead will the Reformed Divines stand him in Certainly in the point of Sports and Recreations they will utterly faile him yea and disclame him too In the point of the Institution of the Lords day indeed and the obligation of it to Christians a great part is for him though the better part is for us This is confessed of us A. But I pray you are they against him in the point of Sports and Recreations I have been credibly informed that the contrary report hath made a strong impression of perswasion in some gentle and generous breasts whose credulity subtile insinuations can prevaile so with as to make them beleeve the Moone is made of green cheese I pray you therefore cleare this one point and I will weary you no longer at this time the night now drawing on apace B. In a word then True it is that many and most of those Churches for the vulgar generality come farre short of the due esteeme of the Lords day in poynt of practise But yet for the Ministers of the 17. Provinces Reformed and of the neighbouring Churches in Germany even all those that were of the Councill of Dort did unanimously make some Canons and Decrees joyntly to petition the States Generall of the United Provinces for the reformation of the manifold profanations of the Lords day For in the 14. Session are these words Ne autem c. And least the people on the Lords dayes in the afternoone being taken up with other affayres or exercises be withdrawne from the afternoon-sermons the Magistrates are to be supplicated that they by more severe Edicts prohibit all servile or dayly works and especially sports drinkings and other profanations of the Sabbath whereby the afternoone time on the Lords dayes and specially in villages is usually spent that so by this meanes also they may be brought to those afternoone Sermons and so may learne to sanctify the whole Sabbath day And D. VVallaeus in his Preface before his Treatise of the Sabbath hath set downe so much of the Synods Petition to the States as was drawne into forme for this purpose in these words Vt gravissimae illae c. That these most grievous and manifold profanations of the Sabbath which are dayly committed by Faires wakes banquets of societies Watchmen Neighbourhoods Mariages by the exercise of Armes by hunting fishing fowling playing at ball by Histrionicall acting of Comedies by dauncings Port-hale of goods drinkings that many other like things which in these Countryes doe every where abound to the great scandall reproach of the Reformed Religion and to the great hinderaÌ„ce of Gods worship may be most strictly prohibited c. So the Synod Thus in one brief view you see the unanimous judgement of the Divines of that Synod for the due sanctification of the Lords day or Sabbath day as they often call it although the streame of a wicked custome in point of practise hath made an universall inundation in those Provinces which I feare will in time drowne them up in their profanenesse And the Synods judgement in the poynt of Institution by Divine authority and that from the fourth Commandement seemes to be no lesse sound and consentient sith they so often call the Lords day the Sabbath day and so zealously plead for the due sanctification thereof 〈◊〉 enough of this A. Sir I heartily thanke you for this your sweet conference which I could be content might last yet a whole summers day but that as I sayd the day now bidding us farewell leaves us to bid one another good night B. And so good night to you Brother A. And to you also good Brother Deo gratias Octob. 2. 1635. * Declaration about the dissolving of the Parliament And Declaration before the 39 Articles Communion Booke Catech expounded by Beve Pag. 20. Alex. d'Ales P. 3. q. 32. m. ar Ibid. * Pag. 90. In the High Commission at the Censure of Th. Brabourne B. Andrewes speech in Starte-chamber against Mr. Traske Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione declaratus est Christianis ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam Aug. p. 119. c. 13 * Thus D. Andr. is point blanck against D. Wh. who pag. 270. quoted before saith that the Euangelicall Law hath not determined any certain day or time Yet lo here a certain day determined by the Euangelicall Law delivered by the Apostle Serm. 1. of the gunpowder treason on Psa. 118 23. 24. A Patterne of Catecheticall Doctrine And the whole Decalogue succinctly judiciously expounded ‡ So there should be confusion Manuscr Pag. 211. 189. ☜ Pag. 207. * Aug. de Temp. Ser. 251. De eo quod scriptum est vacate videte quoniam ego sum Deus Ac ideo sancti Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbatismi in illam Dominicam transferre ut quod ipsi in figura nos celebraremus in veritate observemus ergo diem Dominicam fratres sanctificemus illam sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbato dicente Legislatore A vespere usque ad vesperam celebrabitis Sabbata vestra Videamus â—e otium nostrum vanum sit sed a vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei Dominici sequestrati à rurali opere ab omni negotio soli Divino cultui vacemus Sic quoque sanctificamus ritè Sabbatum Domini dicente Domino Omne opus non facietis in eo Hilar in Psalm explanato Prologus Cum in septimo die Sabbati sit nomen observantia constituta tamen nos in octava die quae ipsa prima est perfecti Sabbatum festivitate laetamur Heb. 4 see Zanchy de hominis creatione lib. 1. cap. 1. Sect. 36. ☞ The way to the true Church Ibid. Sect 43. Digress 46. n. 6. Ibid Sect. 38. n. 1. Pag. 224. Pag. 229. Caroli M. Leges Ecclesiast lib. 6. cap. 202. Ludovic Pius ibid. Additio c. 9. Clem. Alex. Poedag lib. 3 c. 11. nere the end Hee lived about the yeare of Christ 200. * Pag. 268. * Pag. 249. * See Aug. de Consensu Euangelist l. 2 c â—7 ☞ * Gloss Interlin Haec sunt opera tenebrarum * Opera carnis ibi M. Bucer de Regno Christi lib. 2. ca. 10. Scripta Anglicana Concil Mediolan 4. Concil Mediolan 1. Concil Mediolan 3. Conc. Rom. anno 826. Conc. pars 3. Bin. Can. Conc. Colon. anno 1563. explic in Deoalogum Iustinian Cod. 15. tit 5. * A necessary Doctrine for a Christen man * Printed 1537. The Institution of a Christen man * Vpon the fourth Commandement * Institution fol. 77. 2. Sess. 177.