was scil the 94. yeare after Christ before wee finde the Church took notice of it by a proper name and when hee hath brought in the opinion of Gomarus against it with a smile as if hee meant to favour it hee puts it out againe with a frowne saying p D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 1. pag. 73. But touching this meaning i. e. of Doctor Gomarus applying of that name to the day of judgement which Saint John might see being rapt in Spirit as if it were come already wee will not meddle let them that owne it looke unto it the rather since Saint John hath generally beene expounded in the other sense by q Arethas Andr. Caesariens taken by D. Heyl. for two Writers are but severall names of the same Authour or Work in Vos his Thes de Advent Christ pag. 273. but the reconciliation may be that though the men were two the work in a manner was but one for Arethas Caesariens made a compendium out of the larger commentary of Andr. Caesariens Bellarm. de Eccles Script pag. 134. Arethas and Andr. Caesariensis upon the place and by Bede de Rat. Temp. cap. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best exposition of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle beene honoured by that name above other daies yea and r Qâ—ae ratio etsi non mihi sufficere videtur ad rejiciendum communem interpretationeÌ„ facilè concedam diem Dominicum eam significare quâ Dominus resurrexit c. D. Gomar def Invest Sab. c. 10. p. 133. Doctor Gomarus himselfe confesseth it to bee the common interpretation of those words the Lords day and that they signifie the day wherein Christ rose from the dead I need the lesse here to bring in a Catalogue of the names of the Ancients to this purpose they will come in to doe more service when wee treat of the Authority and Antiquitie of the day where we shall with one labour further cleare both the title and tenure of it by such testimonies as make indifferently for them both and for the present that which hath been said may I conceive be sufficient to secure the title of the Lords day to the day wee celebrate against such exceptions as have been taken by these two opposites Doctor Gomarus or Master Braburne and two more I think will hardly be found since the first spring of that day who have shut their eyes against such light of truth or opened their mouthes to speake or moved their pens to write in such sort against it as they two have done In whose confutation is virtually included an answer to that which Mr. Primrose since them hath affirmed by way of comparison of the daies of Christs Passion Ascension and of Pentecost viz. Å¿ M. Primrose part 3. c. 8. pag. 140. that the day of the Resurrection hath none advantage beyond the daies of Christs Passion Ascension or of Pentecost For it was saith hee inferiour to the day of Christs Passion in regard of the merit to purchase and to the day of Pentecost in regard of efficacie to communicate the spirituall and heavenly gifts the Ascension day is conforme unto it in the same correspondency both to the acquisition and to the execution of the establishment of the Church For disproofe whereof wee have already said enough save that wee must adde that which himselfe hath said viz. That though the Resurrection of our Saviour be not the merit of our Redemption but rather the reward of it as t Aquia part 3. quast 57. art 2. Aquinas resolveth of his Ascension yet it is a demonstration that our debt is paid as when u M. Primrose part 3. cap. 8. pag. 139. a debter commeth out of prison and that is matter of more manifest rejoycing and so the fitter ground for a solemne and sacred gratulation then the payment of a debt especially then such a payment as was so painfull and pensive as our Saviours Passion was And for the day of Pentecost of which alone wee have said nothing hitherto it may bee sufficient to alledge First ″ In die Dominico venisse Spiritum sanctum communis traditio est Lorin in Act. 1. ver 1. pag. 74. col 1. That many have and not without reason taken it to have beene the same day of the weeke which we call Lords day Secondly That no age since that time hath observed a weekly holiday upon that occasion as all ages from the Apostles time have done upon the Resurrection But x Ea discrepantia exigui est momenti quia in re ipsa est consensus Gomar cap. 10. pa. 132. Defens Investig Sab. Doctor Gomarus saith It is a difference of small moment since in the thing it selfe there is consent and if so there hath been much waste of words about it in drawing on the dispute thus farre Not so neither for First Wee have under the title of words and names made some preparations for materiall points that come in question for the words we have here used have not beene an empty sound without solide and reall notions under them Secondly It is not a matter of small moment to set seducing glosses upon that sacred text which in the controversie of the Christians weekely holiday hath alwayes beene of speciall note and use from the Apostles time to this day Thirdly If it were a small difference and drew after it none evill consequence at all as it doth for it layeth a stumbling block at the doore of the Sanctuary causing men to stop or stumble at the very entrance of the cause which for the new Testament if Testimonies bee taken in due order beginneth there it was no small fault in him and the other for a small difference to runne out of the road way from so good and so great company to tread out a Schismaticall track by themselves CHAP. VI. Of the name Sunday Whether wee may call our weekly holiday by that name Objections against the use of the name Sunday for our weekly holiday THe next name of note which is stuck at is the name Sunday whereof some make scruple as if it had in it as wee use it an unsavoury smack of heathenish superstition and some againe as if therein they bewrayed a spice of Puritan precisenesse flout at them as for negative nicety in their forbearance of it as one who was in his time a man of eminent mark in a pleasant Poëm which hee calleth Iter Boreale speaking of the Professors of N. a Towne where hee lodged in his Northern journey from Oxford among other particulars at which hee scoffed as savouring of too much precisenesse bringeth in this for one a Proque die Sabb. scelus est ibi dicere Sunday Dr. Eades in his â—er Boreale That to call the Sabbath by the name of Sunday they account a crime But against that name some in sober sadnesse have framed this Argument
eighth day to bee received and therein as e Octavus dies id est post Sabbatum primus quo Dominus Circumcisionem spiritualem daret hic dies octavus praecessit in imagine Cypr. lib. 3. Ep. 8. pag. 80. col 2. S. Cyprian thought and f August in Psalm 150. tom 8. part 2. pag. 1059. S. Augustine hath the like conceipt was the Christians weekly holiday prefigured With these Appellations of number order we may remember those Titles of honour ascribed unto it by g Chrysologus Serm. 77. Chrysologus who calleth it the primate of dayes and by h Ignat. Epist ad Magnens vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 57. Edit Genev. 1623. Ignatius who advanced it to a denomination of an higher straine naming it the Queene and Princesse of dayes other feast-dayes being as i Mr. Godwin in his Moses and Aaron lib. 3. c. 3. p. 110 111. concubines and the worke-daies as hand-maids not as k Mr Brab in his Discourse upon the Sabbath in 8o. page 53. In his Defence in 4 to page 159. 488 490. Mr. Brab would have it as if hee left the Title of King and Prince for the Saturday Sabbath for if hee had meant such a titular prelation of that day above the Lords day hee would not surely where hee speaketh of them both have adorned the one with the title of a Queene and not the other with the title of a King which hee hath no where done nor any body else for ought that I have yet either read or heard but Mr. Brab it is his peculiar Courtship whereby he would restore the old Sabbath to the prerogative of a Crown after it hath been justly deposed from it for many hundred yeers together in the Christian Church Besides the Bishop of l Tho Bp. of Elie in his Treat of the Sab. pag. 75. Elie hath pertinently replyed to this imaginary preheminence of the Jewish Sabbath by giving instance of the Rabbins stiling it by the name not of a King but of a Queene and of the Philosopher and Oratour terming Justice Eloquence and Mony by the same title and hence hath hee rightly inferred that Ignatius named the Lords day the Queene of dayes not by way of derogation but to signifie the eminent and transcendent honour of the day But howsoever the words went in Ignatius his time to call the one a King the other a Queene in our daies would sound like an m The Ebionites keepe the Jewish Sabbath and celebrate the Sunday also Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 24. pag. 50. Ebionitish combination or marriage of Saturday and Sunday together for the Ebionites honoured them both with a weekly observation but for that Mr. Brab while hee disavowed the Lords day on the one side and others of sounder judgement disclayming the Saturday Sabbath on the other would bee ready to forbid the banes of matrimony before-hand or afterwards to sue out a divorce There is another name of this day which hath a sound of dignity with a sense of diminution for some of late saith n Dr. Bound on the Sabbath part 1. p. 117. Dr. Bound have given it a new name unknowne to the world and not properly belonging to it calling it the Kings day the Queens day the Emperours day So have some Divines done saith he but he nameth them not and it is not worth the while to seek after the names of such ungodly godfathers ungodly doubtlesse if in giving it these names they meant as there is good cause to suspect thereby to degrade the day from all sacred to meere secular Authority But these Appellations already specified are either out of use or out of Question and so wee may quickly quit them and may betake our selves to the consideration of other Titles of more regardable observation in our dayes CHAP. III. Of three most usuall names of the Christians weekely Holiday Lords day Sunday and Sabbath And first of the name Lords day Rov 1.10 The strange opinion of Doctor Gomarus and Master Braburne charging the Title as applyed to the Christian Sabbath with impertinencie and novelty THe names of our weekly Holiday more frequent in use and yet not free from exception are three the Lords day Sunday and Sabbath day I put the Lords day first though it bee the youngest name of the three not as a Dr. Bound on the Sab. part 1. p. 110. 120. some who preferre it so farre as by it to put downe the use of the other two but because it hath so much in preheminence of dignity by its notation of neere reference to the Authour of Rests and Father of Lights as maketh amends for what it wanteth in age and feniority and the Sabbath I place last though it bee the eldest of all because I shall most insist upon it and best conclude with it in regard of the reall inquiries and observations which with reference to it must begin when this Logomachie or word-warre is at an end The title Lords day is not taken from Saint Paul 2 Cor. 10.26 wherein hee saith the earth is the Lords and so that day may be called the Lords day in a common sense because the Lord made it for a common use as b As the earth is the Lords 1 Cor. 10.26 because the Lord made it and all things therein to serve man in his ordinary and common use Gen. 1.26 9.3 So this day is called the Lords day because Christ ordained it for mans ordinary and common use that is for a working day Mr. Brab defence of his Discourse pag. 240. Master Brab not by any common but by his own singular conceit hath said but from Saint John Rev. 1.10 where he saith I was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is on the day on which Christ our Lord rose from the dead Upon this ground grew the observation of that day we celebrate under that name wherein both the most and the best Authours doe agree Against this exceptions have been taken by two late Divines who each of them have written two Treatises a piece upon the weekely Holiday of the Church and have in all foure sought by new surmises to shift off the title both as in and to this text of Saint John the one is Doctor Francis Gomarus the States Professour of Divinity in the Universitie of Groning the other Mr. Theophilus Braburn a Minister of the County of Norfolke a man as the Bishop of Elie of whose Diocesse hee was when hee was Bishop of Norwich c In his Epist Dedic pag. 22 23. before his Treat of the Sabbath noteth of him who laid a load of disgrace and contempt on his Puritan adversaries as hee termeth them Doctor Gomarus maketh the Lords day to bee the same with the day of the Lord and by the day of the Lord understandeth the day of the d De die apparitionis Domini aut in carne ut dies natalis aut quâ
SUNDAY A SABBATH OR A Preparative Discourse for discussion of Sabbatary doubts By JOHN LEY Pastor of Great Budworth in Cheshire There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God Hebr. 4.4 Nos octava die quae ipsa prima est perfecti Sabbati festivitate laetamur Hilar. Prolog in Psalm pag. 335. LONDON Printed by R. Young for George Lathum at the signe of the Bishops Head in Pauls Church-yard 1641. TO The most reverend Father in God JAMES by the grace of God Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Most reverend Father in God and besides the ceremony of your stile really my very gracious Lord IT is become a formality of the times to enter bookes into the world under great names and to make them seeme greater then they be by studied straines of excessive commendation whereby many times they raise the Readers fancy much higher then his faith and while they advance their Patrons praise farre above all beliefe they depresse their owne reputations below a charitable hope and so make many instead of reading on when they have begun as it were with one foot on the threshold first to stop and then to step backe lest their entertainment in the second course should be answerable to the first their deceitfull flourishes in the dedication promising little sincerity in the ensuing discourse I have no cause to feare it will be my ill hap to take such handsale of any judicious and pious peruser of these papers while I doe but tell not you my Lord for it is already upon evident record whereof your owne great reading gives you intelligence at the first hand but others how you are valued by such as are best able to judge and seeme to have least of the Bias of advantagious interests or partiall affections to wry their censures from the streight line of truth to the crooked brace of a favourable falshood which I would have them know not so much for your honour as for their owne good that in the fulnesse of such an example as your Grace's others especially of our Tribe and most of all those of your own orbe may find both the discovery of their own defects and inducements to diligence in following so faire a patterne for their further proficiency Of many who have writtâ—n what your modesty will not acknowledge I will take up with the testimonie of three onely The first shall bee learned Master Selden a man of that profession which by some is held too emulous of the credit of the Clergy and who hath taken much paines against their profit in his history of Tythes he notwithstanding hath the most reverend Archbishop of Armagh in that esteeme that he holds him a Reverendissimus Antistes Jacobus Usserius Archiepisâ—opus Armachanus vir summâ pietate judicio singulari usque ad miraculum doctus Selden Marmora Aruâ—… deliana in editionis ansa p. 8. sine p. 9. princip A Prelate of exceeding great piety of singular judgement and of so much learning as is no lesse then miraculous The second shall bee b Ea certè pietatis tuae eruditionis apud nos est existimatio ut Usserii nomen pietatis nobis virtutis nomen sit quibus fama constans frequenter ingerit tot ingentes dotes quibus te Deus instruxit Frederic Spanhem epist Dedicator praefix 3. parâ—i dubiorum Evangelicoâ—um excus Genev. an 1639. Fredericus Spanhemius Pastor of the Church and Professor of Divinity in the University of Geneva a man who by his bookes of Evangelicall doubts hath given undoubted evidence of his Abilities both for the Pulpit of the one and the Chaire of the other and hee from Geneva writes thus Your piety and learning is of that accompt among us that the name of Usher to us is a name of piety and ″ So said Greg. Nazianz of Athanas A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. orat 21. tom 1. p. 373. vertue constant and continuall fame ringing in our eares the many and great gifts wherewith the Lord hath endowed you And because piety is the Principall and therefore Master Selden did well to assigne it the first place in his Elogium he remembers it againe c Summa cum laude voce ac calamo plus tamen exemplo doces c. Seld. You teach saith he to your great praise by your tongue and by your pen but much more by your practice among them who daily look upon your life and observe the uprightnesse and integrity of your manners And d Vident in te non anxiam non affectatam pietatem sed gravem seriam quae in illum solum fertur cui soli debetur vident raram humilitatem per quam à fastigio tuo descendis nec quicquam infra tuam dignitatem existimas quod ad promovendum regnum Deâ— facit Ibid. Your serious and unaffected piety which is directed only towards God to whom alone of duty it belongeth and withall this they see that which makes these graces the more shining and more sure your rare humility whereby you descend from your height of dignity and desert and condescend to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 thinking nothing too meane for the eminence of your place which may any way conduce to advance the Kingdome of God Whence hee takes occasion e Publicè profiteor quanta Genevae nostrae nominis tui sit claritudo quantus apud nostrates honor Ibid. publickly to professe how glorious a name you have how great honour in the City of Geneva The third witnesse and that I may not turne your candor into another colour the last I will produce who gives ample attestation to your great worth is the late Author of an Epistle published principally against Bishop Halls tenet of Episcopacy by divine right under the borrowed name of Iraeneus Philadelphus who in the first page of his supplement of things omitted having left you out where hee names other Bishops with respect makes you amends with this honourable mention f Segrego etiam à choro Episcoporum Romanensium Jacobum Usserium Archiepiscopum Armachanum rarum non solum magnae Brittaniae Hiberniae sed universi Christiani Orbis ornamentum in quem quicquid superiori saeculo clara lumina Cranmerus Latimerus Hooperus Juellus habuerunt pietatis zeli suavitatis moram sanctitatis vitae doctrinae atque reconditae eruditionis videtur quasi soedere facto concurrisse Omiss fol. 1. post pag. 76. epist Iraenei Philadelph I except saith hee from the company of Romanizing Bishops James Usher Archbishop of Armagh a grace or ornament not onely of great Brittain and Ireland but of the whole Christian world in whom all the piety and sanctity of life all the zeale and sweetnesse of disposition and the learning the hidden learning hidden from the knowledge of other learned men of those famous lights of the former age Cranmer Latimer Hooper Jewell are met as it were
by a covenanted consent It is not possible my Lord that such eminency of grace and applause should not be dogg'd at the heeles with envie and dogged envie barkes out many times with reproachfull calumny and Gods wisdome suffers mans wickednesse so to worke for the welfare of those he loves best lest they should love themselves too well and take a dangerous delight in too good a conceit of their owne good parts and others great prayses which might robb them of their fundamentall grace humility for either of these but especially both together like the abundance of Revelations 2 Cor. 12.7 may incline many to selfe-exaltation for the buffeting of Satans messenger the tongue of a slanderer for there is a smiting with the tongue Jer. 18.18 and if any tongue bee Satans it is that which malignantly traduceth the most worthy is either a meanes to prevent such puffing up or a remedy against it God by his all-wise goodnesse tempering and turning a rank poyson into a soveraigne medicine and so wel I doubt not it will be with you my Lord if others be so ill minded towards you and in such a case an Apology put in may prevaile and prosper so farre as not only to heal the wound which that cruell weapon the tongue for it is a sharp sword Psa 57.4 hath made but to smooth the scarre in the skin when the flesh is made whole If then there be any in whom sin so aboundeth because grace aboundeth in you and towards you as to suspect your sincerity and to speake as ill as they thinke and it is like with men who run to extremes on either hand you may suffer on both sides on the one as a Bishop on the other as too gracious with such as mislike or admit not of Episcopall Governement I conceive beside the clearing testimony of your owne conscience and Gods attestation to the integrity thereof you may for the one sort who set misconceits upon you for the callings sake with comfort call to minde that such as are addicted to a discipline which denyeth that disparity wherein you are placed have given that testimony of you which I have here observed and more surely of that sort would doe you right in the like kinde if they knew as well as I and I hope they shall know it ere long how humble you have beene not humbled as some are by the Parliament and in humility how hearty and forward to take downe your selfe and to project a forme of Ecclesiasticall Government wherein you might be but as one of us in a sociable participation of Ordination and Jurisdiction with the rest of your brethren the incumbent Pastors and Preachers of particular Churches And for the other sort who thinke you have but too kindely complyed with the Disciplinarians of Geneva and other parts else they would not have honoured you so much as they have done the wiser and better sort will take it for a token of your wisdome and goodnesse and to take off the offence of some who in an over high conceit of Episcopall preheminence disdaine all reformed Churches but those that have it I can tell them that Archbishop Whitgift entertained a Minister of the French Church one Master Buse to preach a weekly Latine Lecture in his owne Chappell and to other forraigne Ministers was very bountifull as to Drusius Rhenicherus Fregevill whom hee entertained in his owne house and not onely gave liberally to those whose merit was farre above their meanes when they came within his reach but sent his bounty abroad to like objects in forraine parts as to Master Beza hee sent sundry times much money out of his owne purse besides the generall collections and contributions to Geneva which hee also greatly furthered as g Sr. G. Paul in the life of Archb. Whitgift p. 63 64. Sir George Paul hath written in the relation of his life And it had beene more for the honour of the English Prelacie and much better for the publick peace both of the Church and State if there had beene more courteous correspondence betwixt Episcopall and Presbyteriall Divines notwithstanding the differences betwixt them in opinion or preheminence But there are a sort of men who whether out of unsoundnesse in religion or pride or perversenesse of disposition or some politick intention I cannot tell but out of some motive surely which is not good take small cause to raise great clamours against those whom they should rather rescue from reproach if others did defame them Such an one was hee who sate so heavie upon the skirts of the Geneva Bible publickly in the Pulpit charging the marginall annotations with Judaisme and Arrianisme against whom I wrote an Apologie about twenty eight yeers agoe which a double occasion now calleth to remembrance the one precedent the other present The former is That it was the time of my first happy acquaintance with your Grace when upon your perusall of some part of it you left a letter for mee at your departure from Oxford approving what I had done and encouraging mee to hold on in clearing their innocency who were most untruly traduced in a solemne assembly of the whole University so long since is it that I have had cause to observe your sincere affection to all the faithfull Labourers in the Lords vine-yard whether of Geneva or any other Church of the reformed religion The other occasion is present and it is the desire of divers who wish well to the edification of ordinary Readers of the Bible and therefore desire that the Geneva notes after a serious review and needfull correction may be restored to their attendance upon the sacred Text from which they have been all this while discarded as if they had been guilty of those heynous accusations which were objected against them and whereof my book I doubt not by the sentence of a h The worthy Knight Baronet Sr. Edw. Dering who hath the Chair in the Cōmittee of Books competent Judge in whose hands it now is will fully and cleerely acquit them which hath led me a little out of my way but it is but a short digression as a step from the margine to the text whereto the tax of these marginall annotations did induce me and whence I may readily goe on to note another Accuser of the brethren of the same kind who upon the difference of one word in the Edition of Ignatius at Geneva falls foule first upon the Printers in these words i Sed à Genevensibus Typographis praeter fraudes fucos praestigia non est quod quicquam expectemus Ric. Montacutius Eccles Cicestr Minister Apparat. ad origin Ecclesiasticas p. 19. Of these Geneva Printers we must expect nothing but frauds and fallacies and impostures And then upon Videlius a learned and religious Minister of that Citie who set forth that Father in such intemperate termes as these k Neque audax importunus Ignatii censor quicquam attulit ad paginas suas
supercilious disdaine rash and peremptory censures rigorous usages of such as have had the advantage of the upper ground to trample on those that were placed below them which hath been a principall cause of the great hatred and contempt of the Prelacie so that it is not now taken by many as an honour to the man but the man an honour and succour to it who takes the calling of a Bishop as Saint n Episcopatus nomen est operis non honoris August de Civit. Dei lib. 9. cap. 19. Augustine said of it rather for a matter of duty then of dignity which binds him o Quantum quis praecelsi culminis obtinet locum tanto necesse est praecedat caeteros gratiâ meritorum Concil Toletan 11. cap. 2. tom 4. pag. 820. Edit Parisiis 1636. to so much more diligence as hee hath the higher preheminence and that duty p Ibid. Item Concil Constantinop 6. can 19. tom 5. Concil pag. 328. Concil Trident. Sess 24. Can. 4. tom 9. pag. 414. chiefly to consist in preaching of the Word making more account of the Canons which concerne the substance then the ceremonies of their calling as all men see your Grace doth preaching every week in the Parish of your abode according to the Canon of the q Episcopus si infirmitate non fuerit impeditus Ecclesiae cui proximè fuerit die Dominico deesse non debet Concil Aurel. can 33. tom 1. p. 723. first Aurelian Councell and abiding there though with disadvantage and inconvenience to your selse where you may doe most good making the choice of the Prophet Jeremy I will get mee to the great men and speake unto them for they saith hee have knowne the way of the Lord Jer. 5.5 If they had not known it he might have come to teach it them and if our great men know it already you will make them know it much better smoothing the difficulties and clearing the doubts of faith in such sort that their minds may bee settled in assurance of that which before they had but in fancie or held but in opinion and this in a plaine and easie way yet full of power and authority so that I may say of your Grace as the people said of our Saviour reserving a just measure of preheminence to him that spake as never man spake Jo. 7.46 you teach as one having authority and not as the Scribes Luke 7.29 not as they who write all they say and can say nothing but what they have written who preach coldly as Erasmus noteth because they are word-bound to a peece of paper and not as the Scribes because they said and did not Matth. 23.3 but your life is a patterne as well as your doctrine and a rule of religious conversation and therefore I doubt not but God shall have much honour among the honourable by your ministery unto them and intercourse with them at Court and elsewhere for if Plato his presence and example wrought so much change in the Court of Dionysius a Tyrant that upon his comming thither there followed a wonderfull modestie and temperance in Feasts and banquets and other reformations so that as r Plutarch in the life of Dion p. 972. Plutarch noteth the Court was cleane changed how much rather may we expect that the Court of so good a King as blessed bee God wee have should bee much bettered by your Graces addresses to his Majestie and your preaching and practice so much observed so highly esteemed by the best of all sorts Which was one cause that induced mee to dedicate this preparative discourse of the Sabbath to your Grace for that being the chiefe of dayes for honour to God and holinesse in men it was meet the defence of it should bee countenanced with a name which is eminent in both Besides which gives your Grace more interest both in mee and what now I present to publick observation the better to furnish and further mee in the prosecution of this cause you have beene pleased to communicate unto mee divers MS. Treatises of the Sabbath such I could not hope for from any other treasurie of learning then yours which aboundeth with exquisite variety not to be found either in Booksellers shops or common Libraries and to promise mee under your hand any help of that kind Wherein I am like enough my Lord to take you at your word and sure enough that you will keepe it when upon just occasion I shall present my desires to your Grace to that purpose It may be some will think I should have dispatched the difference about the title of our Christian Holiday in a shorter discussion and to them I shall oppose others who have read it and are wise enough to censure it that say there is nothing idle or impertinent in it nothing vainely or tautologically repeated and the more sit to bee somewhat large because so many adversaries which are not to bee sleighted have so long opposed it and one of them with so much acceptation among some yong Students in the University Dr. Pocklingt his Book as that for their delight they have read his booke at their common sires which the high Court of Parliament judged to the fire to bee burned and by mine intentive handling of that which is of smaller moment though the least things in Religion as the filings of Gold be very precious I was willing to engage my selfe to a proportionable care and diligence in those more important parts of my Sabbatary Treatises which hereafter by Gods assistance I shall set forth It is time I should draw towards an end lest I make my porch too large for the pyle of building that belongeth to it and yet I beleeve no Reader will think me too long but your Grace nor you but that you will thinke I grace you too much and indeed my Lord if I did not know you had so much humilitie with all that excellencie of knowledge and goodnesse which is obvious to all unblemished eyes that no prayses are like to puffe you up and were not confident that you know mee too well to take mee for a flatterer I would not allow my selfe to make such a dedication unto you But while I apprehend you as you are in your selfe and as I conceive towards mee I cannot thinke I have offended in excesse but I should bee very faulty in defect if I should not adde to all that I have said an Advertisement to your Grace touching the generall both observation and expectation which now especially is set upon you which I am sure will never be frustrate by your default Your great abilities and your acceptation with the greatest make many of the best and some of the wisest confident that you can and your answerable zeale and sincerity makes them of strong hope that you will take all the faire opportunities that God puts into your hands to helpe forward the casting of all scandals out of the Church and the setting up
in many points of more importance I must dissent and against whom for them I must dispute CHAP. IX Of the etymologie of the name Sabbath And first of the abusive derivations of it by Appion Justine and Plutarch by way of contempt of the Jewes Their Religion and manners THe second point proposed concerning the name Sabbath for that is the right writing and wee must stick to it is the etymologie of it wherein comparing some collections of mine owne with what I have met withall since in Doctor Prideaux his Lecture and Doctor Gomarus his Investigation of the Sabbath I finde that for a good part wee have all of us light upon the like observations yet without conspiracie or plagiarie dealing with one another for though that Booke of Doctor Gomarus came forth foure yeers after Doctor Prideaux his Lecture was in print yet when hee published the Defence of it two yeere after sixe in all hee had not seene it as in the tenth Chapter of his later Booke hee a De quibus etiam doctissimi Doctoris Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare eodem judicio libenter intelleximus etsi eam orationem videndi faelicitas nondum contigeret D. Gomar Defens Invest cap. 10. p. 136. expressely professeth and before either the one or the other came abroad viz. at least two yeeres before the Act in the yeere 1622. when our learned Doctor first delivered his Lecture of the Sabbath I had noted most of the observations of the notation of the name as some of good place well know to whom upon speciall occasion I imparted them with other points of this Argument in writing whereto if I adde any thing of theirs for which I am beholding to them I shall not bee more ready to make use of it then to give thankes for it by a respective mention of their names and so shall I deale with all other Authours as they shall give mee occasion in the like kinde yet not doubting but they may meet with some animadversions of mine by which if I borrow ought they may account themselves to be paid and mee sufficiently quit of that debt The derivations of the word Sabbath are foure derivations I say not etymologies for that word signifieth right speech and most of them are wrong two of them are aliens from the Common-weale of Israel or at least stragglers out of their owne Tribe and have no kindred with the stock or roote from whence the word Sabbath is deduced The first is that of Appion the Grammarian against whom Josephus wrote two books which is that of the Egyptian word Sabbo which as b Hosp de orig fest Judaeor Ethn. cap. 3. f. 7. pag. b. Hospinian out of Giraldus observeth signifieth the spleene but by c Josephus against App. l. 2. pag. 783. Josephus in his second Booke against Appion it is taken for a disease in the privie parts upon which Appion telleth this tale viz. That the Jewes troubled with it in their journey out of Egypt for sixe dayes together were constrained the seventh day to rest and thereupon when they came into Judea they kept an holiday under that name Justine the Historian telleth rather the Fable then the Story in another manner d Cum scabiem Egyptii pruriginem paterentur Just l. 36. p. 284. Edit Meae the edition which Dr. Gomar followeth readeth scabiem vitiliginem Gomar Investig Sab. cap. 1. pag. 2. The Egyptians saith hee being infected by the Jewes with the scab and itch but as some have it with the leprosie were warned lest the disease should spread any farther to drive out Moses and his diseased country-men who having wandred seven dayes in the desart of Arabia with much hunger and labour at mount Sinai obtained an end of both and therefore there they set up the Sabbath as a remembrance of their freedome from famine and wandring and being expelled from the Egyptians for feare of the infection lest for that cause they should grow odious to other people they forbad and forbare communion with them and by degrees turned their turning out of Egypt into a matter of discipline and religion So Justine in the fore-cited place But whatsoever Moses and the Jewes did by way of digression in the desart hee wandreth farre wide from truth in this Discourse but no marvell in matters of this kinde hee was a blinde man without a guide The second errour is that of Plutarch which I could not but observe having read him through with diligence and delight upon the especiall commendation of e Apud Claud. verd Cension in Auth. p. 174. Theodorus Gaza who said of him That if he must read but one mans Books hee would confine himselfe to Plutarch the more pitie to observe in so worthy a Writer so foule an errour as now I must note as f Caelius Rhodigin Antiq. lection lib. 7. c. 15 col 302. Hospin de origin Fest Judaeor Ethn. cap. 4. sol 7. pag. b. D. Prid. Lect. de Sab. p. 131. D. Gomar Invest Sab. cap. 1. pag. 2. D. Walaeus desertat de 4 to Praecepto c. 1. pag. 2. others have done about the notation of the word Sabbath hee having in divers particulars charged the Jewes with riotous rites like the Services of Bacchus in their principall g Plutarc Sympos lib. 4. cap. 5. pag. 712. Feasts will have it That their Sabbath holdeth neere affinity with the Feast of Asebesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the grammaticall sense doth signifie impiety and prophanenesse as h Budaeus in Locico Budaeus renders it but in Plutarch it is taken for the inordinate motion and agitation of the people devoted to Bacchus who are called in many places of Greece Sabboi and who in their Bacchinals used to reiterate these words Evoi and Sabboi as appeareth in the Oration of the Crowne which Demosthenes made against Eschines as also in the Poet Menander So farre Plutarch more like a vaine Poet then a grave Historian as most what hee was To which purpose it is pertinent to observe that as i Hensius exercit sacr cap. 1. pag. 11. Hensius hath it Sabasius is one of the names of Bacchus among the Greeks and thence is Sabazein a word used as k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Budaeus Lexic verb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Budaeus noteth among the Thracians importing Bacchanall excesse and disorder from that Plutarch saith Hensius insinuates the Hebrew word Sabbath to bee derived but hee is deceived I meane Plutarch for both word and practice are rather Greek then Hebrew and hence is that which l Graeco more potare interpretantur quidem grandibus poculis se invitare Cael Rhod. lib. 18. cap. 16. col 1292. princip Rhodiginus noteth of the Grecians viz. That to drink after the manner of the Greeks is to provoke one another to excesse with great cups and Pergraecari in Plautus is taken for excessive eating
therewith they might deck and trim up the Lords day p Ibid. which is as if one should take the crowne off the head of a King and set it upon a common subject q Ibid. pag. 35. for Saturday saith hee is a King or Mistresse to the Lords day Hee had spoken with more congruity to himselfe though not unto the truth if hee had kept to his gender and called it a King and Master or a Queene and Mistresse hee objecteth further r Ibid. p. 50. that wee may as well call Å¿ Ibid. Baptisme Circumcision and the Lords Supper the Passeover and t Ibid. p. 494. that when the Minister saith Remember to sanctifie the Sabbath day to take it for the Lords day and so to say Lord have mercy upon us c. is to make answer as deafe men doe who when a man calleth for a knife doe bring him a sheath The resolution at which hee would have his reasons and exceptions arrive is this Let mee saith he for conclusion exhort Minister and people to refraine putting the name Sabbath day on the Lords day and let them take with it u Ib. p. 54 55. that they must with forbearance of the name Sabbath day refraine the use of the fourth Commandement for these goe unseparably together Where wee may see in him as in others that of Bishop Andrewes made good of shewing ill will to the thing by carping at the name as before wee have noted for Mr. Braburne and wee may say the like of some others knowing the right and title claimed for the Lords day by the fourth Commandement to bee kept a foote by the title Sabbath first fettereth it to the Jewish weekly holiday by affixing the word Saturday unto it not daring to trust it alone lest being left loose it should bee ready for use as an appellation of the Lords day Much like the Papists who pinion the name Catholick with the addition of Romane that so they might keepe it captive to their owne side and by it as by a lock or bolt might let in or keep out of the Church as please themselves But the most severe Censurer of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day is the Authour of the Book called Altare Christianum wherein speaking of him who wrote the Letter to the Vicar of Grantham hee saith ″ D. Pockl. his book called Altare Christianum cap. 22. p. 130. Hee had shewed himselfe more like a sonne of the Church if he had said that the name Sabbath had crept into the Church in a kinde of complying in phrase with the people of the Jewes and that in a shadow of things to come as if Christ were not come in the flesh against the Apostles expresse doctrine and charge Colos 2. and from hence would have sought to have cast that old leaven out of our Church which hath sowred the affections of too many toward the Church and disturbed the peace and hindred the pious devotion thereof This is enough and bad enough yet hee saith more and worse in his Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Bishop of Lincolne Aug. 7. 1635. wherein hee visiteth with the rod those that call the Lords day Sabbath day and with it giveth such sharp jerks as these x D. Poâ—kl Visitation Serm. called Sunday nâ— Sabbath pag. 6. What shall wee thinke of Knox Whittingham and their fellowes anabaptizing the Lords day or Sunday after the minde of some Jew hired to bee Godfather thereof who call it Sabbath and doe disguise it with that name and who were the first that so called it and the Testators who have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites y D. Pockl. Ib. pag. 6 7. It was saith he thirty yeers before their children could turne their tongues to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraemites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt up these two before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath saith hee is not a bare name like a spot in the forehead to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but it is a mystery of iniquity intended against the Church and the mystery as hee reveales it is to shut out the Letanie and all the Service of the Communion Book for that is no Service for their Sabbath but for Sunday z Ibid. p. 19. Item they must make a Sabbath of Sunday to keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath being applyed to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry neck'd that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors a Ibid. p. 20. Others saith hee againe for the plot 's sake must uphold the name Sabbath that stalking behinde it they may shoote at the Service appointed for the Lords day Yet further hee maketh the name of the Sabbath as on the face of the Lords day to bee as an ugly vizzard which doth as well become it as the crowne b Ibid. of thornes did the Lord himselfe this was platted saith hee to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it saith hee they will call it Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or guilefull zeale to bee thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes for that day which they nickname Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day they meane Thus farre hee who that his ill will to this word Sabbath as applyed to our Sunday might appeare in every page the Title throughout his Booke is Sunday no Sabbath CHAP. XIII Reasons why Sunday or the Lords day may be called Sabbath day delivered and defended BUt on the contrary if impetuous passion may bee so husht that religious reason may be heard wee shall shew cause sufficient to take up an Antititle to that of Doctor Pocklington his Sermon and to say Sunday a Sabbath and that upon such evidence both rationall and exemplary as without cavilling as I conceive cannot bee contradicted and first for Reason First The name a Joseph Ant. l. 1. c. 2. pag. 3. and in his first Book against Appion p. 783. Isidor etymolog l. 6. c. 18. fol. 32. p. 2. col 2. and all Hebrew Lexicons Sabbath signifieth rest reason 1 rest from the accustomed labours of the weeke But the Sunday is a day of rest wherein men are restrained from their wonted workes and ought to rest saith b B. White his Treat on the Sabb. pag. 152 153 158. Bishop white and to give themselves to religious exercises Therefore the Sunday may bee called a Sabbath For when the thing is acknowledged why should the word by which it is most fitly signified bee denyed And when the thing is denyed as rest on the Saturday by us
Deut. 16. the feast of Tabernacles from the tents and boothes wherein the people lived in the Desart and which more punctually meets with this objection their weekly holiday had its name not from him to whom it is dedicated but from Rest the duty of the day enjoyned Secondly In the Christian Church his rule of denomination doth not hold for wee call one holiday dedicated to Christ by his Birth another by his Circumcision another by his Ascension which are the things done on the day not by his name onely to whom they were dedicated If it bee said when wee speake of the Nativitie we understand the Birth of the Lord and so also the Circumcision of the Lord and the Ascension of the Lord I grant wee doe so and so when wee say the Sabbath wee may meane as in the Commandement is expressed the Sabbath of the Lord or to the Lord. Thirdly That the names of dayes should not bee taken from the quality of the person onely to whom they are intended is plaine by the feast of Pentecost so called from the number of the dayes betwixt it and Easter and the name of the Lords day called from its order by the Evangelists and the Apostle Paul the first day of the weeke and by the Ancients the day of light from illumination at the Sacrament of Paptisme and the day of Bread from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper administred every Lords day as n Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. p. 124 125. Mr. Ironside himselfe hath observed Fourthly If the names of holidayes should be taken from the quality of the person to whom they are intended as because our weekly holiday is intended to the honour of the Lord it must be called the Lords day then all the holidayes which are named by the Saints should have their names from their Lord for though the portions of Scripture read on them concerne their lives and deaths the honour and service of the day is directed and intended not to them but to the Lord yea all holidayes of both Testaments are dayes dedicated to his honour by that reason then all must bee called the Lords dayes and so names that should bee given for distinction would turne to confusion Thus much for the first Reason for the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day or Sunday which were more then enough if there had not beene much more then there was need and cause objected against it but the rest we shall contract into a narrower compasse The second Reason why our weekly holiday may be called Sabbath day is this Reas 2 It is confessed by all that are not branded with the note of heresie that there are ten Commandements to us Christians as well as to the lewes and that the fourth Commandement is one of the ten and requireth at least the assigning or setting apart of some time to religious rest and that by vertue of these words Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy that time then which the Church keepeth as in obedience to that part of the Commandement expressed in the letter of the law by the name Sabbath may or rather must be called by that name By that word Sabbath in that Commandement as o B◠Andr. his Serm. de Natic pag. 37. Bishop Andrewes said of the words which shall bee wee hold and though wee say not as hee farther addeth it is our best tenure yet a tenure it is which wee must not let goe but wee must as hee said of the word p Idem In his second Serm. of the Nativ pag. 15. nobis make much of it for thereby our tenure and interest groweth up to a further degree of assurance and evidence Thirdly Reas 3 q B. Hall dec of Ep. 6. epist 2. p. 384. Bishop Hall saith The sonne of righteousnesse rising upon that day called the Lords day drew the strength of that mor all Precept unto it for all the vertue and vigour of it is vanish'd from the Jewes Sabbath so that it remaineth a meere working day and if so the title of Rest surely did not stay behinde it but with the strength was transferred to the day for which it was changed Fourthly Reas 4 It is enough to gaine a title from one thing to another to possesse the place as Successor upon the decease and in stead of another as the Christians Lords day by the ordinance of the Lord himselfe as r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius de Semente Tom. 1. pag. 835. Edit Graeco-lat Commelian Ann. c 10.10 c. Athanasius saith succeeded the Jewish Sabbath whose name it may have in that respect if there were none other reason of more weight Here it will haply bee objected that so one might call Baptisme by the name of Circumcision and the Lords Supper by the name of the Passeover for these two Sacraments of the new Testament succeeded those two of the old which were to bring in a confusion of termes and times and so in part to incurre the scorne which the f Bish of Elie his examinat of the Dialogue pag. 85. Bishop of Elie putteth upon his Dialogist for his Argument drawn from the succession of the one day to the other I answer Howsoever the Argument of the Dialogist succeed which wee have nothing to doe withall at this time wee shall easily shake off this slight exception thus First Wee doe not ascribe the proper name of the old Sabbath to the Lords day for wee doe not say Saturday is Sunday or the Lords day but that name which is common to them both and wherein the one by a reall right and congruity of sense succeedeth the other and that is the name Sabbath signifying Rest which belongeth to them both and that is not as if one should call Baptisme Circumcision or the Lords Supper the Passeover but as if wee should call them Sacraments and Seales of the Covenant in which respect the later have both the authority and appellation of the former Or as if one should say Doctor White succeeded Doctor Buckeridge Bishop of Elie therefore hee hath the Title and Authoritie of the Bishop of Elie though hee bee not called by his Predecessors Christian or surname in particular hee saith indeede t Examinat of the Dialogue p. 63 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday but if that were true which I deny hee cannot say the word Saturday is named there and if it were wee would not take that but the name Sabbath for the true title of the Lords day against which no just exception hath yet beene taken nor in truth can bee And for a second Answer which in regard of the ground of it it will not become a Bishop to slight wee may say That upon a substitution of one thing in the roome of another it is not unusuall in our Church to assigne the name as well as the place to that which is substituted for a
parcell of Scripture is called by our Church the Epistle though it bee not taken out of those writings which are properly so called◠but out of some booke of * Prophes Isa ch 7. ver 10. On the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary 40. v. 1. On Saint John Baptists day 63. v. 1. On Munday in Passion week Jer. c. 23. ver 5. On the twenty fifth Sunday after Trinity Joel c. 2. v. 12. The first day in Lent Prophesie or ″ Hist Acts ch 1. ver 1. On Ascension day ver 15. On Saint Matthias day 2. v. 1. On whitsunday 5. v. 12. On Saint Bartholomewes day 7. v. 55. On Saint Stevens day 8. v. 14. On Tuesday in Whitsun week 9. ver 1. On the Convers of S. Paul 10. v. 34. On Munday in Easter week On Mund. in Whitsun week 11. ver 22. On Saint Barnabies day ver 27. On Saint James his day 12. ver 1. On Saint Peters day 13. v. 26. On Tuesday in Easter week Historie as in the Service of divers Sundayes and Holidayes in the yeer according to the Catalogue in the margine because it is read in the place and standeth in stead of the Epistle And thus u M. Brab Desence p. 600.601 Master Braburne will allow the Lords day not onely the name but the honour of a Sabbath viz. as in the roome of the old Sabbath for a time and for its sake Fifthly Reas 5 wee have already shewed out of Chrysostome of old and Jos Scaliger of late that the other holidays of the Jewes which were not weekely are called Sabbaths and * Doctor Hevl Hist Sab. part 1. c. 5. pag. 87 88. Doctor Heylin x M. Brab Discourse p. 81 82. Master Braburne and y Master Ironside queil 3. cap. 13. pag. 123. Master Ironside acknowledge no lesse and if they when the seventh dayes Sabbath was yet in force and use might be called by that name much more may the Lords day now which is a weekly day of rest as the old Sabbath was but now is not so that there is nothing in it much lesse in any other day of the week that may give it a better right to the title Sabbath then the Lords day hath Sixthly Reason 6 z There is a Sabbath or rest from sinne D. Heyl. Hist of the Sab. part 2. c. 5. pag. 157. Doctor Heylin alloweth the name Sabbath to bee given to cessation from sinne why then not rather to rest from labour Since this is literall and proper as the law of the Sabbath requireth that metaphoricall and sigurative and the right of appellation goeth rather by the letter then by the figure as a Bish Andr. 3. Serm. of the Nat. p. 64. Bishop Andrewes observing of the world day taken sometime figuratively for the whole time of mans life and sometimes properly and literally as in our ordinary speech for the seventh part of the weeke maketh his choice of the sense which consenteth with the letter and leaveth the figure Adde hereunto a further latitude of the word Sabbath allowed by b Mr. Broad in his 3d. quest p. 5. Master Broad and therewithall a greater liberty for the use of it to Christians which is That the Kingdome of heaven and the Sabbath have one common name and yet saith hee the difference betwixt them is as much as betwixt the sacrifices of beasts by the law and the sacrifice of Christ in the Gospel and if the difference bee lesse betwixt day and day rest and rest in observation of Jewish and Christians holidayes which cannot reasonably be denyed the same name may bee attributed to their holiday and to ours especially by turnes to theirs while it was in force to ours since that being put downe it hath obtained the honour of the day Seventhly Reas 7 Doctor Heylin againe notwithstanding his exceptions both against the name and thing it selfe noted by the name takes the name Sabbath to bee an honour where hee saith that the new Moones were not honoured with that title in the booke of God conceiving belike as c M. Brah. des of his disiourse pag. 53. Master Braburn said that the name was a crown on the head rather then as d D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 20. Doctor Pocklington held a deformed vizzard on the face And if the Lords day have gotten the honour of the Jewes Festivity as indeed it hath since that was put down and this set up in its stead that name as well agreeing with the precedent proofes may be the more fitly attributed to it Eightly e M. Dowe in his Discourse of the Sabbath and Lords day pag. 41. Master Dowe observeth though by way of complaint for which there is no great cause that the day we celebrate is vulgarly called and known by the name of the Sabbath the like hath f Mr. Brab def p. 626. Master Braburne Doe not they saith hee usually call Sunday or Lords day the Sabbath And if it bee vulgarly knowne and called by that name the rule is Wee must speake with the vulgar and think with the wise Master Ironside by way of exception to this vertually I meane not expressely for hee maketh no mention of the rule saith g Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. Who speaks most religiously the Apostles and the whole Church or some few private persons of late yeeres is easie to determine wherein hee implyeth that the first and best and most Christians forbeare the name Sabbath and use rather the word Lords day therefore the name Sabbath must cease as savouring both of novelty and schisme Whereto I answer for the present that all the foure Evangelists note the day wee celebrate by the name of the first day of the weeke and onely one of them viz. S. John and that but once viz. Rev. 1.10 calleth it the Lords day yet without any imputation of novelty or schisme which we shall more cleerly fully take off and avoid for the denomination of the L. day by the name of the Sab. in the ensuing Chapters CHAP. XIIII Ancient evidence for calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath observed especially against a D. Pockl. Visitation Serm. called Sunday no Sabbath Dr. Pocklington his Assertion viz. That no ancient Father no learned man tooke the name Sabbath otherwise from the beginning of the world till the yeere 1554. then for Saturday observed by the Jewes USe of speech which for the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day hath for our age beene b See c. 12. and c. 13. propè sin confessed by the adversaries of it is as the c Si volet usus Quem penes arbitrium est vis norma loquēdi Hor. de art poet Poet saith the rule of speech and of such authority that wise men willingly submit unto it and that sometimes so farre as to speake amisse that they may bee understood aright so did d Ossum sic enim potius
also further strength to this that Saint John in his Revel calleth this our Sabbath day the Sunday Dominicumdiem and afterward having set downe some generall duties of the day saith he m Ibid. p. 74. These things are not to bee done onely on the Sabbath day but every day even all our life long So doth that renowned and so admired n Sacratissimus antistes Lancelotus Andrewes linguarum artium scientiarum humanorum divinorum omnium infinitus Thesaurus stupendium oraâ—ulum c. So in the Title page the second edition of his Sermons Bishop of Winchester Bishop Andrewes who used to make a curious choice of his words as well as of his matter in his third Sermon of the Resurrection where speaking of the women that would have embalmed our blessed Saviour hee saith o B. Andrewes his 3d Sermâ—n on the Resurrection p. 406 407. Though they faine would have been embalming him yet not with breach of the Sabbath their diligence leap'd over none of Gods Commandements for haste no not this Commandement which of all other the world is most bold with and if they have haste somewhat else may but sure the Sabbath shall never stay them And beginning his Sermon at the Court on Whitsunday 1606. hee saith thus p B. Andr. his Serm. Acts 2. vers 2 3 4. pag. 595. Wee are this day besides our weekly due of the Sabbath to renew and to celebrate the yeerely memory of the sending down of the holy Ghost And even there where he set himselfe most seriously against Judaicall opinions viz. in his Speech against Mr. Traske in the Star-chamber hee saith thus q Ibid. In his Speech to the Starre-Chamber against Master Tracke pag. 72 73. and this name new Sabbath hee hath if the Authour of the Dialogue betwixt A. and B. reckon right twenty times in his Book called Catec Doctr. So the Dialogue betwixt two Divines A. B. edit 2. pag. 20. the Sabbath had reference to the old creation but in Christ wee are a new creature a new creation by him and so to have a new Sabbath if a new Sabbath then not no Sabbath as Doctor Pocklington would have it And the Bishop meaneth by that the Lords day which hee maintaineth against Master Traske who stood for Saturday the Sabbath of the Jewes Bishop Alley Bishop of Exceter in his Book called The poore mans Library printed Anno 1560. speaking of the due observation of the day wee celebrate saith r Bish Alleys Poore mans Library miscelan praelect 5. fol. 143. p. 2. All Governours and Housholders offend against this precept if they doe not their diligence to retaine the sanctifying of the Sabbath in their houses whosoever despise the Religion of the Sabbath give evident testimony in themselves of impiety and contempt of God c. Bishop King not long since Bishop of London Bishop King who in his time was accompted a very venerable Prelate and alwaies well affected to the Government of the Church before himselfe was made a Governour of it in his Lectures upon Jonah of severall impressions useth the name Sabbath divers times for Sunday or the Lords day as in his sixth Lecture where he reproveth carelesse dissolute and ill disposed persons he saith f Bishop King lect 6. p. 90. They love the thresholds of their private doores upon the Sabbaths of the Lord and their benches and ale-houses better then the Courts of the Lords house And a little after he taxeth them by the name of Profaners of our sanctified Sabbaths And in his seventh Lecture he hath these words t Ibid. lect 7. pag. 96. The Sabbath is reserved as the unprofitablest day of the seven for idlenesse sleeping walking rioting tipling bowling dancing and what not I speake what I know saith he upon a principall Sabbath For if the resurrection of Christ deserve to alter the Sabbath from day to day I see no cause but the comming downe of the Holy Ghost should adde honour and ornament to it I say upon a principall Sabbath c. Doctor Howson late Bishop of Durham though a reall opposite to the Sabbath in some particulars was not an enemy to that name when hee made mention of the thing for in his Sermon u Bish Howsons Sermon of Festiv pag. 6. edit 2. in defence of Festivities he hath these words Beloved Christians were any of those excellent Fathers in our times what thinke you he would say if he should see Oratoria turned into Auditoria Churches into Schooles our Sabbaths and Festivities not spent in cultu latriae but in hearing of Exercises as some call it c. though hee were no friend to the Sabbath either for the dignity of the day or the duties belonging unto it for both in opinion and practice he was opposite to preaching yet was hee not so ill affected to the name as Doctor Pocklington and others have been That very learned Bishop of Bath and Wells whose Sermons were so approved by Doctor Reynolds Bishop Lake that what he heard him preach hee still desired to reade and therefore used to crave a copy of his Sermon was not onely a friend to the name Sabbath for Sunday but a zealous pleader for it as we shall observe in another place And the Bishop of Exceter that now is who hath so decently dressed Devotion and Piety with delicacie of conceipt and elegancy of expression as to make it amiable in all eyes in his art of divine meditation saith in approbation of it thus * Bish Hall in the art of divine meditation cap. 10. p. 111. No Manna fell to the Israelites on their Sabbath on ours it doth Where the word Sabbath must bee necessarily understood in the word Ours And if so it be not plaine enough see further in his second booke of Characters where part of his description of a distrustfull man is this x Lib. 2. Charact p. 196. Hee dares not come to the Church for feare of the croud nor spare the Sabbaths labour for feare of want nor come neere the Parliament house for feare it should be blowne up I make no doubt but the Articles of Episcopall Visitations give allowance for the like use of the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day for so it is in the 15. Article of Archbishop Parker his Visitation Nor is it to be doubted but in Archbishop Whitgifts Articles the word was in the same sense for as we have noted before hee turned the word Sunday into Sabbath in translating a testimony out of Justin Martyr And sure wee are that Archbishop Bancroft used the word Sabbath for the Lords day foure times in his Articles of Visitation twice in two Articles viz. 75 76. whence it is probable that other Bishops were in phrase and forme of speech for that name conformable to them for in the Province of Yorke much more in that of Canterbury it was so as in our Diocesse of Chester Bishop Lloyd in his Visitation
and Clemens Romanus yet there is no reason we should give up the proper title of the religious Rest of the fourth Commandement to a day which wee use neither for Rest nor for Religion Secondly If they held a mysticall conformity betwixt the Jewes Sabbath and a Christians holy conversation sufficient ground for bestowing the name Sabbath upon a spirituall rest from sin it must needs bee so much more warrantable to call the Lords day Sabbath as there is the more agreement betwixt it and the Jewish Sabbath now betwixt them there is an agreement much more then mysticall for whereas that mysticall Sabbath as the Bishop taketh it may bee every day in the weeke and all the dayes of mans life our solemne Sabbath commeth onely once every weeke as the Jewes Sabbath did In ours wee forbid and forbeare secular imployments so was it with the Jewes there was a cessation from such works with them that they might the better attend upon religious exercises and those principally publick and so it is with us Christians The reason of the Commandement drawne from Gods example in his proportion of working six dayes and resting on the seventh is exemplary to us as well as to the Jewes it belongeth to Christians to deale as equally with God in letting him have one day in seven for his honour who alloweth us sixe for one for our owne occasions as to the Jewes And for their end and use of the Sabbath which is a gratefull remembrance of their creation and the blessing of God upon their carefull and holy observation of it wee Christians are as much bound to the one and may hope for as much benefit by the other as the Jewes All which literall conformities considered betwixt their Sabbath and ours with reference to the letter of the fourth Commandement our Church taketh that Commandement wholly into her Liturgy and prayeth as after the other nine Lord have mercy upon us c. and therefore the distinction of literall and mysticall to say the least of it is impertinently applyed to preclude the title Sabbath in a literall sense from the day wee celebrate Bishop Whites second Exception touching the name Sabbath in the Homilies answered Secondly Against that which is propounded for the name Sabbath out of the Homilies of our Church hee saith f Exam. p. 37. It may be questioned in what sense the Homilie stileth Sunday the Sabbath whether in a proper and a literall sense according to the stile of the old Law or in a mysticall and analogicall sense as Christ is called our Passeover 1 Cor. 5.7 But a little after hee putteth the matter out of question by a peremptory resolution which is this The Lords day is not the literall Sabbath of the fourth Commandement and therefore in propriety of speech it cannot be called the Sabbath day expresly and in particular commanded in the Decalogue but the same is stiled by the Homily our Christian Sabbath in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as mortification is called circumcision g Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter Rom. 2.29 Rom. 2.29 sincerity truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 This exception of his touching the name Sabbath taken out of our Homilies is obnoxious to so many exceptions that I wish rather some weak and worthlesse Adversary to our cause had made it then a man of so great learning gravity and authority as he was for whose sake I will deale as respectively in the returne of mine answer as I well may without betraying the truth and so first I say 1. That in saying That the Lords day is not expresly and in particular commanded in the fourth Commandement hee implyeth which h Bish White in his treat of the Sab. day p. 112 126 269. and in his examinat of the Decalog p. 46 52 63. marg 69. marg elsewhere hee expresly delivereth that the Jewes Sabbath which was Saturday is expresly and in particular there commanded which is not true in it selfe as I shall prove in handling the materiall points of that Commandement and being yet acknowledged by learned Christians doth gratifie the Jewes and prejudice our Christian Holiday so much that upon that ground Master Braburne set up the Saturday for a Sabbath and did what hee could to demolish the doctrine and observation of the Lords day and others have and many more may if that be granted incurre the like scandall It is not i April 26. 1636. long since a woman one Margaret Former examined before Sir John Lambe Doct. Turner and Doctor Somes disclaimed our Saviours Doctrine by the name of Ceremonies Rites and Sabbaths and professed to keep the Sabbath of the Lord of Hosts which said she is Saturday If shee had been examined why shee did so could shee have given a better answer then such a one as the Bishops examination of the Dialogue ministreth to the Reader viz. k Bish Thites examinat pag. 63. marg p. 69. marg That the fourth Commandement appointed a particular fixed day to wit Saturday The time commanded in the fourth Commandement is Saturday Who can desire a better warrant for any thing hee will say or doe then that and what is there to bee alledged for the Lords day which may preponderate such a proofe which yet is no proofe but against such as are so inconsiderate as to confesse that which the adversary cannot prove viz. that Saturday is particularly prescribed in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Commandement appointeth the proportion of one day in seven for sacred and solemne services of Religion which is as the Characteristicon to the Jewes Sabbath and the Christians which are the variations into which it is divided while neither of them is expresly and in particular there commanded so that to say the Jewes Sabbath is literall and the Christians onely mysticall is as if one should say that Homo signifieth literally a man but hominis homini and hominem note not a man literally but mystically Thirdly whereas hee saith the Homily useth the word Sabbath for the Lords day but in a mysticall and analogicall sense even as Mortification is called Circumcision c. There bee two particulars very faulty The one is his assertion the other his similitude 1. For his assertion l The Homily of the time place of praier pag. 164. edit 1582. That the Homily useth the name Sabbath but in a mysticall and analogicall sense the contrary is evident to any intelligent Reader of the Homily for such a one may out of it deduce these literall observations 1. That by the fourth Commandement Christians must have one standing day in a week for the exercises of Religion 2. That they must rest upon it after Gods example 3. That on that day lawfull workes must bee forborne 4. That yet they must not be idle but wholly give themselves to exercises of Gods true Religion and Service There bee other deductions
as Sabbathary errours And though the Bishop pretend the errour of the old Sabbath and rigour of the new to have been so new that Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker could not take notice of it being before their time and that therefore they tooke the lesse heed to their termes when they spake of our Christian and Weekly Holiday yet it is not like that either was unknowne unto them as he saith the heresie of Pelagius was to Chrysostome and Augustine when they wrote somewhat uncircumspectly concerning some points which he perverted For the conceipt of the necessity and perpetuity of the Saturday Sabbath hath bin the heresie of all Jewes and of some Christians ever since the Christian Sabbath was ordained and the most rigorous excesses touching the observation of the Lords day were published in a n M Rogers Prefat to the Art of Relig. printed anno 1607. Booke of generall note and common use before the passages cited out of Bishop Andrewes writings were published by himselfe or any one else at least before his Starre-chamber speech against Mr. Traske was made and in that speech though Traske were Jewishly conceipted of the Saturday Sabbath he gives the name Sabbath to the Lords day as hath been noted and even Doctor Howson Bishop of Durham though in his Sermon of Festivities hee mention the same straines of ever-strained severity in observation of the Christian Sabbath calleth Sunday or the Lords day for all that by the name Sabbath Besides the wiser sort well knew that to prejudice the piety and authority of the Lords day as from the fourth Commandement from whence the name Sabbath is derived upon it would bee to give too much countenance to Libertines and Antinomists whose heresie being plausible to the flesh by the craft of the Divell was like to find more welcome entertainment with the world then that opinion of the Saturday Sabbath or then those extreme severities in observation of the Lords day So that all doubts and dangers duely considered on both sides I make no doubt if most of those Worthies whose testimonies wee have produced for the name Sabbath were now alive to see the carriage of the cause in our daies but they would thinke it most convenient to continue the title Sabbath to the Lords day to make good their precedent by subsequent attestations to this truth and to adde their further care to oppose profanenesse which hath mightily advanced since the Legall and Evangelicall authority and piety of this day hath been so opposed I may say in the Bishops owne words and with reference to him opposed with an high hand for no hand so high as his did ever strive so to weaken the one and darken the other since the darknesse of Popery was by the light of the Gospel driven out of our English Horizon as his hath done Fourthly yet for all that as he desires I will judge charitably of him for my charity inclines mee to conceive that he wrote what he thought but withall my discretion telleth me that his pen marched in this quarrell after Jehu's pace in some pangs of passion which are no helps to true information in any difference whether of Religion or otherwise else hee would not have stained his stile with such infected phrases as o Bish Whites answer to the Dialogue p. 72. the mangy objections of the Dialogue-dropper and the scabby similitudes of old Thomas Cartwright termes more meet for the Frocke then for the Rochet If his Adversary dealt uncivilly with him I excuse him not if I might be so bold as to speak my mind of them both I should freely blame them for mingling so much of the drosse of their owne corruptions with the pure Gold of the Sanctuary in this cause of the Sabbath The fourth exception of the Bishop touching the testimony of his Brother Doctor John White answered Fourthly for that which is brought in in the name of his brother Doctor John White calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath he replyeth thus There is not any contradiction between the two brethren in this Doctrine for the one brother calleth the Lords day Sabbath in a mysticall sense and the other brother saith that it is not the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement in a literall and proper sense Where he bringeth in againe the distinction of literall and mysticall taking literall in a negative sense for his owne part for he denieth the name in that sense and giving mysticall in a positive acception but with an implicite negation of the letter to his brother to which I answer First that had Doctor John White been alive when the Bishop wrote thus he could not I beleeve have made him such a yonger brother though hee were the elder brother and a Bishop both as to put upon him his opinions of the Sabbath either for the title or tenure Secondly the mist of that mis-application of mysticall and literall is already dispelled by the exposition of the Homily which containeth the Tenet of the Church of England so that we may say supposing his brother an Orthodox Doctor of this Church hee did not howsoever he should not so take the name Sabbath in a mysticall sense as to deny the literall in application to the Lords day Thirdly by that I have heard of that learned and godly Doctor both for his Doctrine where he preached and for his conversation where he lived I have cause to suspect his brother imposeth an opinion on him which he did not hold as he did on our Churches Homily before rehearsed Fourthly whosoever shall please to peruse the p Chap. 16. quotation out of Doctor John Whites Booke shall evidently see that he tooke the word Sabbath not in a mysticall but in a literall sense and without absurd and perverse wrestling of his words they cannot otherwise be expounded CHAP. XVIII A particular Answer to the particular exceptions made against the name Sabbath as applyed to Sunday or Lords day and first of the dangerous plot pretended by Doctor Pocklington in the use of the name Sabbath for Sunday and of his prodigious comparison of the name Sabbath on the Lords day and the crowne of Thornes on the Lords head WHat before wee have observed by way of exception against the word Sabbath was onely to note how farre by some it was disliked now wee must particularly examine the grounds and reasons of their dislike and give answer to them though some of them be rather passionate reproaches then probable objections Here the clamours of Doctor Pocklington are so loud that hee must needs first be heard with his accusations against the word Sabbath which if they be as true as they are hainous just cause there is to decree downe and cry down the name Sabbath as the name of him who to bee famous burned the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and thereupon became so infamous that all mention of his name was forbidden by a solemne Decree His charge on the use of
the name Sabbath is That there is in it a double plot the a Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. pag. 20. one is to stalke behind that name and to shoot at the service appointed for the Lords day the b Ibid. other is to impose upon the day damnable superstition which hee aggravates by this opprobrious comparison hee c Ibid. resembleth the putting of the name Sabbath upon the Lords day to the putting of a crowne of Thornes upon the head of the Lord himselfe making them both unsutable alike and saith This was platted to impose on him damnable derision that was plotted to impose on it damnable superstition Now because he was aware that his comparison might touch some to the quicke who were better then himselfe hee putteth on their heads as a linnen cap for an head-piece this poor Apology to save them from pricking d Ibid. p. 20. If we find the word Sabbath for Sunday saith he used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerks good men for it Nor entitle the misprision any higher or otherwise then to these pretenders of piety who for their own ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be managed under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods Law doe likewise suffer the name often to escape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the deviser in the closet of their hearts In which speech to spare many other passages of his booke which lye open to just exception of reason and religion there are divers particulars worthy of examination and censure which we may referre First to the fault objected an impious plot Secondly to the persons for whom he putteth in a perplexed and impotent plea to acquit or excuse them from participation therein For the former viz. the plot it is twofold as hee takes it the one to stalke behind the name Sabbath and to shoot at the service appointed for the Lords day the other to impose upon the day damnable superstition For the first Let him remember what hee hath said page 7. viz. e Dr. Pockling Sunday no Sab. pag. â— Allow them their Sabbath and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath then must you have no Letany for that 's no service for their Sabbaths but for Sundayes To which I say First Hee seemeth to except against a Sabbatary service as faulty or offensive in some positive points but noteth nothing in particular but what is negative the leaving out of the Letany Secondly That those whom wee have produced for the use of the word Sabbath require no Jewish services on that day nor any other then such as the Church hath established under the name Sunday Thirdly That if the word Sabbath will serve for a stalking horse against the Letany and other service of the Church because that is enjoyned not under the name Sabbath but Sunday then the word Lords day which hee alloweth will serve as well for a stalking horse to the same purpose for the Service is entituled not with the name Lords day but with the name Sunday which as wee have observed before is the word that beareth the greatest sound and sway throughout all the Communion Books since the Reformation of Religion within this Realme yea the title Lords day will serve better to that purpose for the name Sabbath is incorporated into the service of the Church in the fourth Commandement where that title Sabbath is repeated thrice over and that Commandement with the other nine is appointed by the order of our Church to bee rehearsed in her publick Liturgie every Sunday and holiday and besides them on the fifth of November and on the dayes of solemne fasting prescribed upon especiall occasion of the Church and State and to bee learned by heart by the younger sort as a part of the Christian Catechisme but the name Lords day is not to my remembrance once mentioned in our Communion Book now in use Now for the other plot It is as hee saith to impose upon the day damnable superstition I answer That the day may lawfully be called by that name as before wee have proved the abuse of it in some if it were such as hee pretended but cannot prove cannot take away the Christian liberty of others for the lawfull use of it nor hinder but that good Christians may have their intentions when they use it truely pious though the mindes of others bee superstitious Secondly That this condemning censure of an harmelesse word in f Peccar qui damnat quasi peccata quae nulla sunt Aug. de lib. arb lib. 3. cap. 15. Saint Augustine his judgement is a sinne and that sinne may bee a severe and sowre superstition for there is a superstition negative as well as positive as in those who say Touch not taste not handle not Col. 2.21 The forbearance of a thing as unlawfull when it is lawfull is a superstition and the damning of such a thing may bee a damnable superstition but howsoever saith the Doctor it is a great indecorum to call the Lords day by the name Sabbath g D. Pockl. p. 20. The vizzard of the Sabbath on the face of the Lords day saith he doth as well become it as the crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe A speech not sit to be delivered for shame without a vizzard on the face of him that speaketh it to hide his blushing at the guilt of such an excessive absurdity if hee have any modesty at all or to cover his impudency if hee have none Here by the way let him not thinke it much if we returne him a taste of rue or herbe grace for his full dos of vinegar and gall for what indecorum can bee conceived comparable to that of setting of a crowne of thornes upon his head who was so innocent and excellent that roses and the powder of gold were not good enough to bee strewed in his way nor worthy to be trodden on by the sandals of his feet Surely if there had beene an appearance of such uncomelinesse in calling the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath King James so pregnant in apprehension so sound in judgement and the learned Bishops with other Ecclesiasticks of especiall choice who were at the conference of Hampton Court would not have shewed an unanimous assent to the thing Doctor Reynolds proposed which was the Reformation of abuse of the Lords day by the name of the Sabbath day without any exception at the word used by him But indeed there was no cause of offence in it at all for want of comelinesse as Doctor Pocklington objecteth for the comelinesse of words chiefly consisteth in their congruity with
would then bee more willing to meet and the Gentiles being now converts would easily joyne with them having no holidayes of their own to pitch upon but such as were stained with odious idolatry and so the Apostles had the better opportunity to sow their sacred seed in larger fields with better hope of greater fruit And afterward the c B. of Elie Ib. p. 189. Bishop sheweth how long this double devotion of Christians was in use The Apostles saith he and likewise the successors of the Apostles for many ages at least three hundred yeers in some Churches kept holy the Saturday in every week as well as the Sunday Dr. Prid. who is brought in by the Translator of his Lecture as not well affected to the title Sabbath for the Christians holiday having said that Christ ascended up on high and left behind him his Apostles to preach the Gospel asketh d D. Prid. Lect. Sect. 6. p. 24. English And what did they not keep the Jewish Sabbath without noise or scruple and gladly teach the people congregated on the Sabbath dayes nay more then this did not the primitive Church designe as well the Sabbath day as the Lords day to sacred meetings Little doe you know saith e M. Breerwood his first treat against M. Byf. pag. 77. MS. pag. 48. Mr. Breerwood to Mr. Byfield if you know it not that the ancient Sabbath did remaine and was observed together with the Lords day by the Christians of the Easterne Church three hundred yeers and more after our Saviours Passion And f D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 2. pag. 56. c. 3. p. 57. Doct. Heylin hath an observation out of Basil That the Christians assembled foure times a week and Saturday and the Lords day were two of them and of these two the observation was more generall then of the other both for time and place both while the Apostles lived and after their decease which I note rather for the Jewes day for the present then for the Lords daies sake for that belongeth to another place To these Testimonies most what of the adverse party assenting to that which will inferre their conviction for application of the name Sabbath I will annexe other evidences both for the Apostles time and for some succeeding ages of the Church First for the time of the Apostles their practice for religious and solemne Assemblies on the Jewes Sabbath is plaine in the relation of their acts by St. Luke whereof they that doubt may reade their owne resolution and receive satisfaction in Act. 13. ver 14 42 44. Act. 16.23 and chap. 27. ver 2. besides other places Secondly from the Apostles time untill the counsell of Laodicea which was about the yeare 364. the holy observation of the Jewes Sabbath continued as may be proved out of many g Ignat. â—p ad Magnes p. 77. edit Vedel Athanas tract de semente Socrat Scholast hist lib. 6. ca. 8. ca. 29. Centuriat Cent. 406. col 410. Concil Laod. can 29. tom 1. concil pag. 300. edit Bin. 1636. Paris in lib. qui inscrib Canon Apost Sanctor Concil 4. per Jo. Tilium Hospin de orig Festor Christian cap. 9. Authors yea notwithstanding the Decree of that Councell against it about the yeare 380. h Quibus oculis diem Dominicum intueris qui Sabbathum dedecorâsti an nescis hos dies germanos fratres esse si in alterum injuriosus sis in alterum impingis Greg. Nyssen de castig in cos qui aegrè ferunt reprehens Greg. Nyssen passionately complained of the violation of the old Sabbath as an holy brother to the new Lords day questioning the profaners of it thus as the i Bish Whites Treat pag. 80. Bishop of Ely brings him in With what face saith he dost thou looke upon the Lords day who hast dishonoured the Sabbath Knowest thou not that they are Germane brethren and that thou canst doe wrong to neither but thou must be injurious to both But saith the k Bish of Ely his Treat of the Sab. p. 72. Bishop Saturday was not made a weekly Holiday universally in all Primitive Churches for l Cent. 4. ch 6. col 477. at Rome Alexandria and throughout Africa it was a work day To which I answer First that though Saturday were not universally kept as an Holiday in the Primitive Church yet it was observed as a sacred time and noted by its ancient name in so many places and I thinke I may say in most for the Easterne Church for divers hundred yeares after Christ as the places fore-cited in the margin shew So that then to have put the name Sabbath upon the Lords day had been to speak with confusion unlesse some other terme were added to it for distinction sake Secondly for the Churches specified by the Bishop viz. the Churches of Rome Alexandria and Africa I answer first for Rome First that there might bee some especiall reasons why they kept not holy the old Sabbath as the Eastern Church did and that either because they had a religious respect to Wednesdaies and Fridaies m Hieron com in â—p ad Galat. c. 4. as Saint Hierome sheweth more then the Easterne Church had Secondly or because the Jewes and the Romanes were by the warres betwixt them become most odious to each other as appeareth by the history of n Joseph de bello Jud. l. 6. 〈◊〉 26 l. 7. c. 18. Josephus and otherwise as I have observed in mine historicall part of the Sabbath though now which I point at but for a glance by the way toward the Popish Metropolis they bee better accepted at Rome then the best Christians who are not suffered there to live while the Jewes are o Sr. Ed. Sands his Relat. pag. 218. edit 1632. toler ated to trade in usury straining it up upon Christians after eighteene in the hundred whereas halfe that summe in a Christian is not allowed Thirdly Though the old Sabbath were sleighted at Rome it was not so farre out of request but that elsewhere even in Italie it was sociably observed with the Lords day and that in Millaine and there by p Crastino die Sabbati Dominico de orationis ordine dicemus Amb. de Sacr. l. 4. c. 6. Saint Ambrose and the people of his Church to whom it seemes by what hee saith in his discourse of the Sacraments hee preached as well on the one day as on the other Secondly For the Church of Alexandria we have cause to conceive that there the old Sabbath was observed for the Centurists observe out of Athanasius who was Bishop there a saying of his to that purpose q Cent. 4. col 410. q. Wee assemble on the Sabbath day saith hee not as if wee were infected with Judaisme but therefore wee meet together on the Sabbath that wee may worship the Lord of the Sabbath which in part is acknowledged by the r B. of Elie his Treat of the Sabb.
in Justin Martyrs 2d. Apol. ad Antoninum pium about the yeare 150. but the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is ancienter then them both Secondly if we compare them for Authority we may consider it in a double sense as divine and humane First by divine Authority the Sabbath and Lords day have the best warrant for they are both Scripture names and the name Sunday is not so I confesse in the translation of the Bible published in King Henry the eight his daies anno 1540. before which Archbishop Cranmer prefixed a Preface the words of Saint John Revel 1.10 are rendred thus I was in the spret on a Sunday as I noted before but in the originall there is not that word which signifieth either Sun or Son and in all other translations that I have seen it is rendred according to the originall Lords day and not Sunday Secondly the name Sabbath for a weekly Holiday is in the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue the greatest warrant of Authority that can be thrice mentioned neither the name Lords day nor Sunday are so And for humane Authority in the Liturgy of our Church the name Sabbath and Sunday are both mentioned and the name Lords day to my remembrance not at all In the Canons of the Church though the name Sabbath for the English edition as I have already observed be not omitted the names Sunday or Lords day are more often mentioned and in the Latine Canons the title Lords day onely Thirdly if we compare them for significancy that swayeth the preheminence by three respects First by Dignity secondly Propriety thirdly Perspicuity First for Dignity the name Lords day hath prelation over the other two and carrieth a signification of his dignity who is Lord of all both Angels Men and Divels and imports with his person his absolute Lordship over the world especially over his Church and the name Sunday sheweth his illustrious excellency if wee understand the terme according to the Prophet Malachy for the Sunne of Righteousnesse but the name Sabbath in its Grammaticall sense signifieth onely Rest which is in dignity inferiour to them both Secondly for Propriety that is to be considered as opposed either to figurativenesse or to community taking proper for that which is not figurative the name Sabbath signifying in the Grammaticall sense a literall rest which is required on an holiday is a more proper word then either of the other which are not well understood without a figure for wee call the Sabbath Lords day by an a For all dayes are the Lords but this by an especiall eminency Antinomasie and Sunday by a b In the sense of the Heathens who dedicated the day to the Sun and thence gave it that name Metonymie or c In the religious sense in the Prophet Malach. c. 4. v. 2. Metaphor But taking propriety as opposed to generality or community the names Lords day and Sunday as in application to dayes are more proper and particular noting a set and certaine day in the weeke viz. that which wee Christians celebrate and none other as the d Soveraigne Antidote against Sabbatary errors pag. 7. Authour of the soveraigne Antidote well observeth Whereas Sabbath hath been a name for any holiday which may fall out any day of the weeke In which respect if there had not been other considerable reasons to the contrary hee had well resolved that when wee speake of a time of rest undeterminately and in generall the name Sabbath is the fittest the other two Lords day and Sunday when we speake determinately of that day which is observed in the Christian Church Thirdly For Perspicuitie that is most perspicuous which is least ambiguous so is the name Sunday which presently points all to the day wee observe but the names Sabbath and Lords day are not at all times and in all places so cleare since the name Sabbath hath beene for a long time taken for Saturday and the name Lords day hath beene taken not onely for the weekly Sabbath of the Resurrection but also for the day of Christs Nativity Passion Ascension and last Judgement as hath beene shewed in the second Chapter Besides the Apostle saith there bee Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 and the more they bee the more ambiguous is the name whereof that word maketh up the one halfe Yet to say the truth in our Church and age they are all perspicuous and cleere enough so that there is scarce any one so silly but hee presently knoweth if hee heare the name Sabbath Lords day or Sunday what day of the week is understood by them Fourthly If wee compare them for facilitie or readinesse of speech the names Sabbath day or Sunday are more apt to be taken up as when wee speake of the weekly holiday past or to come it is readier to say and withall more distinctly understood the last Sabbath or the last Sunday next Sabbath or next Sunday some Sabbath or some Sunday as in his Majesties Briefes fore-noted then the last Lords day or the next Lords day or some Lords day Fifthly If for acceptation with speaker or hearer they are every one of them single for the most part of better relish then the other two with some or other some like best of the name Sabbath some of the name Lords day some of Sunday and by that wee have observed of each of them before it appeareth that there are many of the better sort of men who stand divided in their inclinations and prelations according to the diversity of the titles fore-mentioned and yet when two holidaies were observed in a week the name Lords day for the day wee celebrate was most acceptable to most men and since they have all of them beene taken to indifferent use by the wiser sort it hath been lesse obvious to exception then either the name Sabbath or Sunday have beene while some though without just cause have charged the one with Judaisme the other with Paganisme which is worse since our Religion hath more affinity with Jewish then with Heathenish principles Sixthly For frequencie or community of use all in our Church are bound to assent unto the name Sabbath and to use it also by the obligation that tyeth them to the Liturgy and Catechisme of the Church and as Religion hath advanced so hath that name prevailed and bin most frequently used by the religious of our Church untill that a very few yeers agoe some tooke up such exceptions against it as have beene seene in the precedent Discourse which either reason may work out or time wear out of mens opinions as in the title Lords day hath come to passe for that at at the first did not passe without cavill and contempt for in the memory of some yet alive many were as much offended suspecting a tang of excessive precisenesse that some said Lords day for Sunday as any now are at those who say rather Sabbath then either Seventhly and lastly If wee compare the three names for
is honoured yea and all weeke dayes as hee is Lord of all time however measured or entitled might bee called Lords daies and onely use hath shrunke in generality into a propriety and confined the title Lords day to that which hath a weekly recourse for religious observation as it hath done the name Scripture and Bible but now mentioned and in this also the name Sabbath hath as much propriety as it Object To succour this objection c M. Ironside qu. 3. ch 12. pag. 122. Master Ironside his Argument may be brought in which is this That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper this I thinke saith hee will be easily agreed on by all parties But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie for it leads us onely to a cessation from bodily labour on the contrary the Lords day doth betoken and explaine the whole nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs resurrection acknowledging his Lordship over the Church and over all other creatures in the world Ergo c. I answer Answ Both major and minor are infirme and unable to beget or bring forth the conclusion which hee desireth First for the major That name which doth lesse edifie is lesse proper saith he and hee saith it with confidence that all parties will yeeld consent to that conceipt But if his proposition bee generall and so it must be or it will be too narrow for a Logicall conclusion I conceive it is subject to just exception and so is not like to obtaine an acceptation of such an extent as he talketh of for it imports a neerer affinity betwixt propriety of words and edification then wee find in use and sets words not proper at a further distance from edification then there is cause First for the first Proper words doe not alwaies best edifie nor improper or figurative least nay many times improper words and figurative speeches give both most light to the understanding and worke with greatest force upon the affections and so are of best use for edification There are memorable instances hereof both in the Scripture and in other Authours which will be superfluous in this place since we need none other then his owne word edifie which as hee useth it is a figurative and not a proper terme for it signifieth properly the building of an house figuratively the bringing of light to the understanding working heat upon the affection or any furtherance in matter of Religion and in that sense it is usually both uttered and understood by men whether learned or illiterate Secondly if propriety and edification consort so well together as hee saith it maketh much for the preheminence we plead for for the name Sabbath is proper First as not figurative signifying a literall Rest which is requisite for celebration of our weekly Holiday and proper Secondly as not common to all Holidaies common use now having confined it to our weekly Holiday though called also Sunday or Lords day according to the different impressions set upon the fancy or affection of those that mention it Secondly for the minor which is But the name Sabbath doth lesse edifie then the Lords day doth for it leads us onely to an outward cessation I answer First that the name Sabbath doth lead us directly to the fourth Commandement the fundamentall Authority for a weekly Holiday and if the foundation be of most use in building and edification the name Sabbath leading us to that doth best edifie the word Lords day leads us to a tenure of lesse both evidence and assurance and consequently of lesse authority as hath partly been shewed already and we shall further manifest afterwards Secondly The name Sabbath leadeth not onely to a cessation from bodily labour but to holinesse also for it leadeth us to the Commandement which saith as well Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy as Thou shalt do no manner of work Thirdly Whereas hee saith The Lords day doth best open and explaine the nature and duty of the day as the remembrance of Christs Resurrection and acknowledgement of his Lordship over the Church and all other creatures of the world Let any one reade the fourth Commandement where the Sabbath is named and the first of the Revelat. ver 10. where the Lords day is named and let him tell mee which of them doth more explaine the duty of the day nay the name Lords day doth neither expressely nor by necessary consequence direct to the duties of the day nor to the Evangelicall ground of it the Resurrection of our Saviour since other dayes have been set up with our weekly holiday by way of competition for that title as hath before beene observed Besides When the name Sabbath leadeth to the fourth Commandement it bringeth us to the title Lords day for if it be the Sabbath of the Lord as it is there called it is the Lords day for the Sabbath is a day and hee is called Lord of the Sabbath Mat. 12.8 Mark 2.28 and the Lordship hee hath there is not onely particular over the Church but universall over the world for there it is said that in sixe dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and every thing contained in them all Yet I deny not but the title Lords day is generally used for the day of our Saviours Resurrection wherein as a Lord of life and death he raised his body from the state of the dead and returned to the living accomplishing thereby actually his owne restitution to a glorious liberty and vertually ours but that consideration is more remote from the sanctification of one day in seven then that which the name Sabbath doth import Notwithstanding I deny not but that it might bee well used to edification if men would so take it to bee the Lords day as to take none of it from the advancement of his glory to the promotion of their owne profit or practice of their owne pleasures wherein most make as bold with it to serve their sâ—â—â—lar affaires or sensuall humours sometimes upon very sleight occasions as if not Christ but they were Lords of that day Object But the name Lords day inclineth to no erroneous conceipts and the name Sunday though once it did doth not in our dayes bring with it any perill of Paganisme but the name Sabbath may import some danger of Judaisme therefore the name Lords day is the best the name Sabbath the worst Answ I have in effect though not formally answered to this objection before and have made it plaine that Judaisme is best opposed and those that are Jewish most displeased by entitling our Lords day to the name Sabbath and to the authority of the fourth Commandement as it prescribeth the holy observation of one day in seven and by averring that their seventh day in order is not expressely there prescribed but a seventh day in number as shall be manifested in its proper place Object But a learned and zealous Pleader for a weekely Sabbath in the