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
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
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
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
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
Lords sacred ordinance of the Sabbath Some endeavouring to undermine and supplant the fabricke of it from the very foundation on which it is set and others piling upon it so many over rigorous positions and observances as with their sad and sullen weight may incline it to crack and fall asunder Thirdly The necessary instruction of the people in the heads of Catechisme pressed by especiall command of our dread Soveraigne that late was and of his Majestie that now is maketh the Decalogue and within it the Commandement of the Sabbath a more common Theme for popular discourses and therewith all a more fruitfull ground of erroneous descants then heretofore if in such variety of opinions which cast a mist upon the truth there be not some more means to cleare it and to guide men to that choice from which too many now endeavour to seduce them Fourthly I observed that as some set their wits on worke to impeach the piety of the doctrine of the Sabbath so many set their wils either to worke or play and so to pursue their profit or pleasure as to make the Lords holiday every way in practice as unholy and profane as in position it could be Irreligion and Libertinisme being a descent from Sion hill which hath no need of hands to thrust it downewards towards hell It was well said of a grave c The Bish of S. Asaph Prelate when hee heard of some too indulgent doctrines this way that therules of manners should be strict for mens behaviour would incline fast enough to loosenesse of themselves Besides there is a sinister zeale in some against superstition which proveth many times prejudiciall to the practice of religion for as our late learned d King James his Cign cant â— 8 Soveraigne hath observed under colour of weeding out superstition it will pluck up by the roots many plants of Paradise And wee see but too many ill harvest men using the weeding hooke to the wheat which should bee exercised onely to plucke up the tares of whose ill worke I shall beware for my selfe and I hope shall give such warning unto others as may not only withhold them from the like but may bee a direction to the simpler sort what to take and what to take heed of as either of them shall bee offered to their choice Fifthly While men make no scruple to violate the holy rest of the Lords day they become the more bold to disobey their Superiours whether supreme or subordinate for Mat. 22. v. 31. as giving to God the things that are Gods and unto Caesar the things that are Caesars are sociable duties and well sort together so commonly where dues are denyed detained from God the King is not like to receive his right either for aid or obedience for the fourth and fifth Commandements are so neere neighbours that the like lot whether of observance or of sleighting is like to befall them which wee may well perceive if wee doe but observe how our people have lately fallen not onely from piety but from civility and broke out into manifold offences against the lawes of the King since they were taught a lesson too easily learned to make light of this holy Commandement of God Nor is there any cause to expect any better behaviour among them untill their consciences let loose from this bond bee tucked up to it by a more religious regard both of the authority and observation of the Sabbath Then may wee have more hope and not till then under our Governours for whom the Apostle prescribeth all manner of prayer to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Sixthly These motives were the more sharpned and I the more quickned for the safer conduct of them that doubt to set out my light whether candle or torch I must leave to other men to judge by severall sollicitations of many religious and learned friends but especially by a joynt Letter the copie whereof I shall present to the view of the Reader next after this Preface sent me under the hands of many of my Brethren of the Ministery of whom there are divers for their gifts and parts of especiall note and all of them painefull and profitable Preachers in their places and such as build up the walls of our Jerusalem as with both hands with sound doctrine and religious conversation Seventhly Since that time I have received not onely incouragement but incitement to the same service with a Manuscript Treatise of the Sabbath from the hand of a great Prelate a glorious Starre of the first magnitude shining illustriously in the Church both by his admirable learning and answerable living Eighthly I was not a little provoked to lend my poore ability to the protection of the truth herein by the importunate pressing of Master Breerewood whereby Master Nic. Byfield was forced to the field when hee had no thought nor minde to fight as wee shall seasonably note in another place for when hee had excused himselfe for being unwilling to enter the lists of controversie with him as wanting warrant to leave his calling and to spend his time about such confutations Mast Breerwood returnes upon him with this patheticall expostulation e M Breerw his first Treat of the Sabbath p. 89 90. How Sir is the defending of the doctrine you have taught a leaving of your calling Are you called to teach the truth and not to defend it Are not Gods Ministers to defend Christs truth is that no part of their calling or have you no warrant say you for such confutations What no warrant to confute them in the behalfe of the truth whom ye yet condemn for adversaries of the truth Why Christ is the authour of the truth John 14.6 or the truth it selfe you are a Minister of Christ there is a warrant for you The holy Ghost is the spirit of truth Ephes 1.13 and he sanctified you to that Ministry there is a warrant for you The Gospel is the word of truth you are a Preacher of the Gospel there is a warrant for you The Church is the Pillar of truth you are a Pillar of the Church there is a more warrant for you For would not the Authour of the truth the spirit of truth c. and to all these you owe your service and allegiance have their Minister to defend the truth A strange thing that Christs Ministers should have no warrant to confute oppositions made against the truth who are bound to give their lives in defence of it Must they spend their life and bloud for confirmation of it and may they not spend a little labour and time about such confutations So farre he Where whether the goodnesse of Master Breerwood his cause or the apprehension of his owne better abilities and more list and leasure then Master Bifield had to reciprocate disputes of this sort did more prompt him to these braving provocations may bee better discerned when
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
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
8â— Lipsiae an 1633. Schickardus Professor of that tongue at Tubinge upon experience hath averred they may attaine to remarkeable proficiencie therein before they can be furnished with reall knowledge And I remember one Wolfgangus a Jew a Teacher of the Hebrew tongue in my time in Oxford who as both my selfe and others who were his Schollers with mee easily observed had but little learning either in divinity or humanity and so little acquaintance with the Latin tongue that hee could not without much difficulty dictate two lines in that language with congruity So farre short was hee of a facility for elegant speech and yet hee tooke upon him to read his Lecture to us in Latine and I have heard of some by such as I may well beleeve who are meere aliens in Logick and Philosophy and so little acquainted with the Latin tongue that they cannot construe one sentence in the easiest Latin Authour without consulting with a Dictionary who yet are so familiar with the Hebrew that their people are in danger to bee choaked with Hebrew roots which they obtrude upon them in their ordinary Sermons and in as much danger to bee starved too for want of the sap and juice of good instruction which they are not like to receive from them who are become ″ Priùs imperitorum magistri quà m doctorum discipuli Hieron ad Demetriad p. 70 Teachers of the ignorant before they have beene Schollers to the learned which puts mee in minde of the censure which an ingenious Student a Master N.S. sometimes my Chamber-fellow and Proctor of the University made of the Sermon of a verball Doctor who with very little matter had a Babell of words in his head and mouth which was That hee spake nothing in as many languages as ever hee heard any man And I doubt not but there bee many such as deserve the censure of Tacitus upon Secundus Carinates viz. b Hiâ— GraecaÌ„ doctrinâ ore tenus exercitatus animum bonis artibus non imbuerat Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. f. 236. b. That hee had some wordy learning in his mouth and little knowledge of the Arts in his minde Secondly I say for Master Brerewood that his Booke of Inquiries into Languages and Religions besides other evidence of his great knowledge in the Hebrew tongue and other learning might have set him farre enough out of the reach of all suspicion of such ignorance as the mistaking of that title may import in him that made it Thirdly The word Sabaoth is in that part of the Booke which is Master N. Byfields dictate as well as in that which is Master Brerewoods and it is so also in Master Byfields owne handwriting as I can shew yet will I not impute that unto ignorance for it might bee the sliding of his pen into a word neere unto it as I have often taken my selfe with misprision of prophet for profit and contrariwise through cursory writing Or Fourthly It may be the Transcribers mistaking of his dictates into which he might easily be induced by the like writing in many Bookes of Common prayer in the fourth Commandement of divers editions and in the parcels of Scripture therein rehearsed and in the books of c In the Homily of the place and time of prayer p. 161 162 164. Homilies d Archbish Whitgift pag. 541. Archbishop Whitgift against Mr. Cartwright e Bish Bilson part 2. pag. 270. Bishop Bilson in the true difference betwixt Christian subjection and unchristian rebellion f Dr. John White pag. 210. D. White in his Way to the Church g Master Perkins in the Order of causes of salvation and damnation chap. 5. pag. 14. col 2. Master Perkins in the Order of causes of salvation and damnation h Mr. Sprint his Propositions of the Christian Sabbath in which Book the word Sabaoth is in every leafe at least and in some it is divers times repeated Master Sprint his Propositions of the Christian Sabbath for in the Bookes that beare their names and particularly in the places quoted in the margine the name is mis-written either Sabaoth or Sabboth for Sabbath Fifthly Some Authours have that word so miswritten in their Works who yet were verys kilfull in the Hebrew tongue as is evident by i Bp. Andrewes in his Speech in the Star-chamber p. 72 73. Bishop Andrewes in his Speech in the Star-chamber and in his k And in his third Sâ—rm of the Resurrect pag. 406 407. third Sermon of the Resurrection by l Weemse Exercit cerem exer 3. p. 7. Mr. Weemse in his Exercit. and in his m In his Christ Synag lib. 1. cap. 4. pag. 45. cap. 5. pag. 71. p. 74. eight times p. 75. eleven times Christ Synag n Test Rev. 1.10 Mr. Cartwright in his Answer to the Rhemists Sixthly Whereas as o Mr. R. Byfield Praef. pag. 1. Master R. Byfield saith I would have imputed this to the Printers oversight if either the errata had mentioned it or the whole Treatise in any one place had given the true orthography of it It may be replyed First That there is no necessity that either the Printer or the Authour should beare the blame of that mistaking but rather the Publisher betwixt them both and so as I have ″ By Mr. A. Byfield Mr. N. Byfields sonne Febr. 1640. heard since my comming to London it was Master Richard Byfields meaning to impute the ignorance to the Publisher and none else which I conceive he had just cause to doe Secondly For Master Brerewood I can shew it in a manuscript of his owne hand many times so lettered as it should have beene throughout the Treatise and not once as it is in the mistaken title And lastly In the Answer to Master Brerewoods Book Mr. R. Byfield himself hath brought a Letter of his to Alderâ—…n Ratcliffe wherein the word is written right by Master Brerewood five times in one page the p Mr. R. Byfield his Answer to Mr. Brerewood pag. 224. later page of the last leafe but one and not otherwise by him at all in that Letter I have insisted longer on this erroneous writing and the exception made against it then a Criticall Reader would require or perhaps allow of but I was induced unto it partly to correct the indiscreet ostentation and comparisons of some who have vaunted themselves of a little Hebrew and disvalued Latine learning in all faculties in those men whose Bookes if they be balanced with them in Scholasticall abilities they are not worthy to beare nor are they able to beare the volumes which some of them have written and partly by this pleading for Master Brerewood whom in many things I shall have cause to contradict to advertise the indifferent Reader that my purpose is to deale indifferently and without partiality in the Controversies of the Sabbath which hee may observe by my readinesse to right him even to a word or letter from whom
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
restlesse turbulencie of sinne for that is a very troublesome evill the sinne of Simeon and Levi troubled Jacob Gen. 34.30 the sinne of Jonas troubled the aire and the sea and made it restlesse untill hee was offered up as a sacrifice to becalme it and The wicked saith Isaiah are like the troubled sea whose waves cast up mire and dirt Esa 57.20 and though the godly having lesse sinne have thereby the more rest yet to them it is a very troublesome and toylesome evill which will not suffer them to sleepe Davids teares are eye-witnesses hereof Psal 6.6 and for a more solide assurance of this truth hee bringeth in his bones to give testimony to it I finde no rest in my bones saith hee by reason of my sin Psal 38.3 The third acception of the name Sabbath but adding it to the former the sixth is that which the Apostle useth Heb. 4.9 the word in the originall is not Sabbatum but Sabbatismos but the termination troubles not the rest of the former part of the word and therefore our best Bibles render it as if it had beene the word Sabbatum by our English word Rest and this is the best Sabbath or Rest of all others wherein the Elect shall wholly cease from sinne and labour and it is that eternall Sabbath whereof the externall or temporall Sabbath was a Type in respect of the time of it as the Tabernacle or Temple was a Type for the place to the kingdome of Heaven where it shall bee enjoyned CHAP. XII Whether the day called Lords day or Sunday may not also be called Sabbath day or the Sabbath The exceptions which are taken up by divers against it THese acceptions premised it will bee the more easie to answer the exceptions which some have taken at the use of the name Sabbath as applyed to the Lords day who would have that name under so rigorous an arrest at the sute of Saturday that it may not stirre one step to the day next unto it and so wee may not by their leave call the Lords day the Sabbath day Of this minde are some of the greatest friends of the Lords day as well as they that as enemies oppose the divine authority of it for a D. bound l. 1. de Sab. p. 110. Doctor Bound a man sincerely devoted to the doctrine and duties of the fourth Commandement saith The name of the Sabbath was changed into the name of the Lords day which must bee retained and if the old name bee to bee changed and the new must be retained then the old name must bee taken to bee abolished at least to bee prohibited as to the day now solemnely observed and generally received And b M. Brerew repl p. 73. 74 Master Brerewood an opponent against divers points of Doctor Bound his Booke of the Sabbath in his Reply to Mr. Byfields Answer saith The name of the Sabbath remained appropriated to the old Sabbath and was never attributed to the Lords day for many hundreds of yeers after our Savious time none of the Apostles nor of the ancient Christians for many hundreds of yeers after them ever intituled it by the name of Sabbath and since him c Bish white treat of the Sab. pag. 134 135. Bishop White hath written Wee Christians keep a weekly holiday namely Sunday which with the holy Apostle Revel 1.10 wee stile the Lords day not the Sabbath day d D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 255. Doctor Heylin in his History of the Sabbath having objected against some an intent to cry downe holidayes as superstitious and Popish ordinances mentioneth as in scorne their new found Sabbath and Sabbath now saith he it must be called And the Translator of e The Transl of D ◠Prid. his Lect. on the Sab. Praef. pag. ult edit 2. Doctor Prideaux his Lecture of the Sabbath in his Preface before it bringeth in Barkley a Papist with a notable Dilemma as hee calleth it the better to encounter those who still retaine the name of the Sabbath What is the cause saith hee that many of our sectaries call this day meaning the Christians weekely holiday by the name Sabbath If they must observe it because God rested on that day then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labour If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death His question God willing shall bee answered anon as yet wee are to note onely his disallowing of the name as applyed to the Lords day which wee may observe also in f M. Dowe in his Discourse pag. 4. 19. Master Dowe his late Discourse of the Sabbath or Lords day and in g Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 12 13. Master Ironside his seven questions concerning the Sabbath h Mr. Broad his MS. of the Sab. part 2. cap. 2. p. 26. propè sin Master Broad forbiddeth Preachers in their Sermons to say Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and would have them in stead thereof to say Remember to sanctifie the Lords day for the Lords day saith hee may bee called no more Sabbath then the Sabbath may bee called Lords day If as much it will bee enough as shall be shewed afterward But Master Braburne as hee misliketh that the Lords day should lord it over the Jewish Sabbath more then any so he cavilleth more at the calling of it by the name of the Sabbath lest under that name it should take up some authority from the fourth Commandement Hee beginneth his Discourse which is his former Book against it thus i Mr. Braburns Discourse of the Sab. p. 1. Bee pleased Christian Reader first of all to note that wee now adayes apply the name Sabbath to the Lords day promiscuously and without difference now thus to confound two proper names of dayes is as if wee should call Sunday Saturday and Saturday Sunday And to restraine the name Sabbath to the old day of the Jewes which hee pleads for hee would have the words of the Commandement rendred thus k Ibid. pag. 7. pag. 68. Remember the Saturdayes Rest to keepe it holy from which saith l Ibid. p. 200. hee the name Sabbath cannot bee separated And in his other Booke which hee wrote in defence of the former hee saith m M. Brab Defence p. 164. edit 2. That it is an errour of our Ministers to call the Lords day or the first day of the weeke by the name of Sabbath and a n Ibid p. 164. 626. meere fiction since none of the Apostles ever called it so nor is it any where so named in the Scripture hee addeth that o Ib. pag. 52. by calling the Lords day by the name of Sabbath they have robbed the Sabbath of its honourable ornaments that
regnare To these two Reverend Deanes I will add two worthy Doctors who are witnesses to the warrantable application of the word Sabbath to the Sunday and who though neither Bishops nor Deanes have had the reputation and not without desert of very learned and religious men viz. Doctor John White brother to Doctor Fr. White late Bishop of Elie and Doctor Daniel Featly houshold Chaplain to the late ″ Archbish Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Joh. White in his answer to the Papists bragging of the holinesse of their Church and upbraiding of our Church for want of holinesse hath among other accusations of their courses these words i D. Joh. White in his way to the true Church §. 38. p. 210. And for mine owne part having spent most of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinnes Papists have been the ring-leaders in royotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practices in profaning the Sabbath c. And againe Papists hold that it is lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt dance keepe Faires and such like this is that which hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath breakers that live And Doctor Featly as hee had more occasion to mention the day and the duties thereof so hee more frequently maketh use of the name Sabbath as in his Hand-maid to Devotion wee finde mention of an k Dr. Featly Hand-maid to Devotion in the direction for the use of the book p. 4. hymne and prayer before the Sabbath wherein saith hee the duties of the Sabbath are expressed and in preparation for the receiving of the Sacrament there is a confession in these words l Hand maid to devotion pag. 107. Thou commandest me to keepe holy thy Sabbath and settest an especiall marke of Remembrance upon it yet I have not remembred to put off my ordinary businesse and in the Devotion for the Christian Sabbath the name is m Ib. â— p. 172. ad pag. 200. often used for the day wee celebrate sometimes with the word Christian joyned to it sometimes the name Sabbath is set without it and in his volume of printed Sermons treating on these words Wherefore God hath highly exalted him hee saith n Dr. Featly Serm. which he calleth Lowlinesse exalted pag. 735. If the rest of God from the works of Creation were just cause of sanctifying a perpetuall Sabbath to the memory thereof may not the rest of our Lord from the worke of Redemption more painefull to him and more beneficiall to us challenge the like prerogative of a day to bee hallowed and consecrated unto it shall wee not keepe it as a Sabbath on earth for him which hath procured for us an eternall Sabbath in heaven And a little after hee addeth o Ib. pag. 735 736. The holy Apostles and their successors fixed the Christian Sabbath upon the first day of the weeke to eternize the memory of our Lords Resurrection and speaking of Easter day With what Religion saith p Ib. pag. 736. he is the Christian Sabbath of Sabbaths to be kept I could lengthen this Catalogue for the name Sabbath thus applyed with many more names of those whose sufficiencie and sincerity is such that it would little become them that carpe most at the name Sabbath in this sense to teach them how to speake without corrupting their dialect with the dregs of Ashdod as of q Mr. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5 p. 183. 385 M. Mâ—son who wrote of the consecrat of Bishops anno 1613. p. 269. Pet. Ramus de Relig. l. 2. c. 6. Master Hooker with divers others but that will not need especially if wee add unto these that which hath beene confessed or rather complained of by r M. Brab in his Desence p. 626. Master Braburne and Å¿ M. Dowe his discourse p. 4. Master Dowe viz. That the Lords day is usually and vulgarly called and known by the name Sabbath and then there will bee a full answer to Master Ironside his objection which soundeth as if the name Sabbath for the Lords day were a meere mistake of a t Mr. Ironside quest 3. cap. 13. pag. 126. few private persons of late yeeres I hope Kings Archbishops Bishops and Deanes and other eminent Doctors are not private persons nor they together with the vulgar few and wee may yet make them more by bringing in some of those to beare witnesse to the lawfull use of the word Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day being drawne to yeeld some assent unto it by the force of truth who otherwise shew their great dislike of that denomination CHAP. XVI Of such as are adversaries to the name Sabbath as put for Sunday sometimes assenting thereunto and using the name in that sense or yeelding that which doth inferre it AS first Master Braburne in his discourse to this Objection the name Sabbath signifieth Rest Now on the Lords day we Rest therefore wee may call it Sabbath day answereth a M. Brab discourse p. 81. 'T is true the Sabbath signifieth Rest and so the Lords day might bee called Sabbath day but yet in no other sense then every common Holiday wherein we worke not may bee called Sabbath day that is Resting day We take his concession for the Lords day to be called Sabbath but not his comparison for as much as that hath more right to the name which hath a weekly recourse of Rest then that which cometh but once a yeare which himselfe doth in effect acknowledge when he so ″ In his Defence p. 276 277 481. often mentioneth the Lords day Sabbath as out of a kind of necessity to expresse his owne conceptions otherwise to use his owne b M Brab Defens p. 50. phrase hee would not so often have taken the crowne off his King Saturnes head and set it upon that day which in his conceipt is but a common Subject 2. Doctor Heylin notwithstanding what wee have before observed of him appeareth sometimes indifferently disposed to give to the Lords day the name of Sabbath as c Doct. Hâ—yl hist Sab. part 2. c. 6 pag. 182. where he saith By the Doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may bee a Lords day or a Sabbath If we were to judge of his opinion by this place we could not tell which word hee liked better Sabbath or Lords day hee sheweth himselfe so equally affected to them both seeming to bee the same man and of the same mind with him who in another booke wrote thus d Pet. Heylin Geogr. p. 702. I dare not so farre put my sickle into this harvest as to limit out the extent of Sabbath keeping which commanding us to doe no manner of worke doth seeme to prohibit us to worke for our owne safeguard Wherein hee sheweth such modesty in himselfe and such equity both to
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
not to breake the bond of conscience to the duties of the day and to make way for more living and lesse labour to heap up Benefices and shrinke in the services due to the Lord of the Sabbath and to the soules of the people on that day to give them leave to turne a Christian Holiday into a profane play-day that his paines may be lesse looked for at his Pastor all charge and his negligence the lesse blamed when hee is absent from it or idle at it And if a man reade his booke over and give way to the working of his imagination as hee hath done may hee not haply thinke that by his setting upon the name Sabbath his plot was to prostitute the dignity of that day to such profanation as might bee a preparation to Popish superstition for if ever Popery like the uncleane spirit return to the place whence it was expelled the common breach of the fourth Commandement by violation of the Sabbath will be if not a wide gate yet at least an open wicket or window to receive it againe For as Bellarmine observeth well though hee apply it ill l Nec fere solet accidere ut ante circa fidem aliquis naufraget quà m naufragare caeperit circa mores Bellar. orat in Schol. ant tom 4 fine orat The shipwracke of manners is the readiest way to the shipwracke of faith And for shipwracke of manners there is not a readier way then profanely to rush upon the breach of that Commandement which is as a pale or wall to all the rest CHAP. XIX An Answer to Barkley the Papist his Dilemma against the name Sabbath for Sunday or Lords day THe next Exception to bee answered against the word Sabbath is the Quaere and a Dilemma of Barkley the Papist in his Parenaesis ad Sectar translated thence by the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture and by him called a notable Dilemma a The Translator of Dr. Prid. Lectine in Epist to the Reader p. ult but in Barkley his Paraenes ad Sectar it is l. 1. pag. 161. What is the cause saith hee that many of our Sectaries call this day meaning the Christian weekely Holiday by the name of Sabbath If they observe it saith hee as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on that day and then they ought to keepe that day wherein God rested and not the first as now they doe wherein the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the power of death To which I answer Ans First That not onely Sectaries but prudent and potent Kings reverend and learned Bishops and other orthodox Divines have allowed of the word Sabbath for the Lords day as the Testimonies premised sufficiently shew Secondly for the Dilemma it is an absurd impertinency to the point in question for the Question is of the appellation and the Dilemma is made of the observation of the Sabbath yet as if it were not a squint-eyed and distorted Argument but looked directly to the title I answer 1. To the first part of it that to call a day Sabbath there is no necessity it should bee the same day on which God rested for the name is given to it not onely because of Gods example of rest but also because of his ordinance of rest for if he had not rested himselfe but onely instituted a day of rest such a day might significantly and sutably be called by such a name as wee have observed The Holidayes of the Jewes were so called besides the Sabbath of weekly recourse yet is not God said to have rested on them nor did hee for they were dayes of worke both to him and to us 2. The second part of it is If they observe it as the day of our Saviours Resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest but valiantly overcame the powers of death Which words are liable to the like exceptions as the former for the Resurrection containeth not the nature of the Christian Sabbath but the occasion of it nor is the day called Sabbath from Christs example and practice on that day but from Christians resting from their secular affaires for a religious gratefull and solemne memoriall thereof Secondly It is called Sabbath with reference to the Creation which was finished in sixe dayes and Gods rest on the seventh and to our duty to sinish our secular affaires in the like number of working dayes and after them to rest as God did after his workes but with reference to the Resurrection it is called not Sabbath day but Lords day because on that day the Lord of the Sabbath shewed his Lordship and Dominion over the Divell death and the grave in breaking their bonds and rising up in despigh◠of their power when they had him at their greatest advantage being under their Arrest And for that hee faith our Saviour did not rest on the day of his Resurrection wee may say with b See B. White his examinat of the Dialog pag. 110 111 113. Bishop White and his ″ Ibid. Adversary also for therein they are not adversaries but agree well together that though he were in action yet did he not labour for his glorifyed body had that ability and perfection in it that all motions and actions were as pleasing to it as any ease or rest could be and not onely that day but all the dayes betwixt the Resurrection and Ascension hee was conversant in Sabbatary or sanctified employment speaking of the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God for forty daies together Act. 1.3 and though hee did not rest nor needed it as wee doe yet wee must And if we may call the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ the Lords Supper though wee take it before dinner as Christ did not wee may call our day Sabbath since we rest though he did not So this notable Dilemma brought in with its two hornes against the two syllables of the word Sabbath hath not defaced one letter but left it entire for a title of the Lords day and Barkley hath but barked at it not bitten it to doe it any manner of hurt CHAP. XX. Master Braburne his objection of confusion in calling Sunday Sabbath answered ob 3 THe third objection may be that of M. Braburne who chargeth the Appellation with confusion a Mr. Braburns discourse pag. 1. 79. And in his def of the discourse p. 494. To call Sunday Sabbath day is saith he as if a man should call Sunday Saturday and what a confusion would this breed in time b M. Primrose Treat of the Sab. or Lords day part 2. c. 6. pag. 123. For this name Sabbath is the proper particular name of the seventh day i.e. from the Creation c M. Brab def p. 43 44 522
besides these which found to the same sense but these sufficiently shew that the Compilers of the Homily tooke the name Sabbath not in a meere mysticall sense but in a literall and herein their Doctrine is conformable to the letter of that Commandement Secondly for his similitude that our Lords day is called Sabbath but as Mortification is called Circumcision the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 or as sincerity and truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 or as Christ our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 it is guilty of grosse disproportion for 1. In a naturall acception no two numerall things are more like then one day is like another but circumcision of the flesh and mortification of the corruptions of the heart sincerity and unleavened bread Christ and the Passover though in some respects semblable as the Kingdome of heaven and a graine of Mat. 13.31 mustard seed are yet in their kinds at very great distance for Circumcision is an act of the hand Mortification an act or rather an habit wrought by the spirit upon the mind unleavened bread is a visible substance sincerity an invisible quality Christ is a most excellent person consisting of a divine and humane nature the Passover an action literally the Angels passing over the doores which were sprinckled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe which after the Angell was immediatly yet figuratively applyed to the Lambe it selfe and afterward by another figure more remote from the letter and so more mysticall our Saviour was called the Passover Secondly if wee take the two dayes in a religious as well as in a naturall acception there is much more conformity betwixt them then betwixt the termes of the Bishops comparison so much that the name Sabbath may bee literall to them both though in his instances one part be purely mysticall and analogicall For to say nothing of other conformities forementioned it may suffice to make them both partakers of the name Sabbath which signifieth Rest that rest or cessation from secular labours was on the one and is required and observed on the other wherein the advantage now rests upon the part of our Christian Sabbath since that is still and will be to the worlds end a day of religious rest and the Jewes day though it were so from the beginning was many an hundred years ago degraded from the dignity of a weekly Holiday and made a work-day and so shall be untill our temporall Sabbath on earth be changed into the eternall Sabbatism in heaven which the Apostle promiseth Heb. 4.9 The third Exception of Bishop White touching Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker applying the name Sabbath to our Sunday answered Thirdly For the Allegations out of Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker for application of the name Sabbath to the Lords day the Bishop taketh occasion to observe that m Bish White his examinat of the Dialog p. 89. 96. the greatest Doctors at some times and before errours and heresies are openly defended are not neither can bee so circumspect in their writing as to avoid all formes and expressions all sentences and propositions all and every Tenet which in after times may yeeld advantage to the adversaries of the truth and hee giveth instance in Augustine and Chrysostome speaking not so warily as they should have done concerning the naturall power of freewill before the Pelagian heresie did arise which hee applyeth to the precedent Testimonies thus Before there arose a controversie in our Church concerning the Sabbath or at least wise before the controversie grew to an height Divines spake and writ more freely and they were not alwayes so cautelous circumspect as to foresee the evill construction which the adversaries of the truth might make of their writing and speaking but now when the Sabbatarian heresie for necessary observation of the old Sabbath and a fanaticall opinion of some others for the observation of the Lords day in a more precise forme then the very Judaicall Law it selfe obliged the Jewes to keepe the old Sabbath when I say these errours sprang up and were defended with an high hand and obtruded upon the Church a necessity was cast upon us to examine all such positions as were the grounds and formes of speaking which were incident to the question in hand Now if upon evidence of truth saith hee wee shall in some passages dissent from some men of note living in this Church before us or use other termes in our writing or disputing nay if we should in some things have altered our owne former opinion and formes of speaking wee trust that godly Christians will not impute this unto us as an offence but in their charity will judge of us as the ancient Church did of Saint Augustine to wit that what wee doe in this kinde proceedeth from the care wee have in a faire and perspicuous manner to maintaine and defend the truth Thus farre the Bishop I have set downe his exception at large because I meane to make a full answer to it for that purpose three particulars are especially to be observed in this the saying of the Bishop The first Of the ancient Fathers unwary writings before heresies arose which is true but not to the purpose for none that reads them at the first hand unlesse hee bring with him a violent impression of prejudice against the Sabbath will conceive one syllable in them to sound to that sense which the Bishop intendeth The second His application thereof to the Sabbatarie controversies which is to the purpose but as hee states the difference not true The third is a request for charitable construction which in regard of the second he hath need of We need say nothing of the first and for the second it may be said First that though some have exceeded in severity both for the doctrine and practice of the Sabbath and yet I accompt not all to bee excessive which the Bishop approveth not many have much more exceeded in loosnesse and profanenesse which is more dangerous to the actors and more scandalous to the observers of their excesses and there was more need that all the Bishops of the Land should oppose this then that he should set upon that in such sort as he did Secondly for that he saith of the Sabbatarian heresie for the necessary observation of the old Sabbath the way to withstand it is not as he doth to take the title Sabbath from the Lords day and to shift it from the firme ground of the fourth Commandement and to make it stand so much upon meere tradition as hee doth nay so to give up that both title and text as hee hath done to the old Sabbath is to confirme rather then to confute the Sabbathary errour which by his manner of handling the matter neither is nor can be soundly convinced as it should be Thirdly whosoever will advisedly reade and consider what hath been lately written concerning the Sabbath will find as great cause to give caution against Anti-sabbathary
the things to which they are applyed and betwixt the name Sabbath and the Lords day there is that congruity for that word signifieth rest and the Lords day is a day of rest whether of such strict rest as the Jewes Sabbath was is a Question not now to be discussed Now if Master Doctor like his owne resemblance let him take the consequence of his odious comparison which is That it is as comely or not more uncomely to put a crowne of thornes upon the head of Christ then to call the Lords day by the name of Sabbath day and then hee may joyne hands and hold society for Paradoxes with them or rather bee the Ringleader to them in such absurd similitudes unto them who match in malignity and guilt h They cannot resolve whether the sinne bee greater to bowle shoot or dance on the Sabbath then to commit murther or the Father to cut the throat of his owne childe all which doubts will soone bee resolved by plucking off the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day which doth as well and truly become it as the crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 20. bowling shooting or dancing on the Sabbath with the commitâ—ing of murther or the Fathers cutting the throat of his owne childe which barbarous absurdities he condemnes and within foure lines after commits the like himselfe in his comparison of the word Sabbath set upon the Lords day with the crowne of thornes on our Lords head Secondly for the persons for whom he seemeth to plead and put in an excuse saying If wee find the word Sabbath for Sunday used in some writings that of late came to our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it c. It would be knowne First whom hee calleth these good men whether Clerkes or others for his words are ambiguous Secondly whether hee take the word Clerkes for Clergy-men or for such onely as transcribe the Dictats of others if of these as it seemeth he doth then Thirdly how hee knoweth that in such late writings as have the name Sabbath for Sunday or the Lords day the Clerkes who copied them out mistook the Authors mind and hand so much as to write the one for the other there being no such vicinity in the words as might lead them to such a misprision Fourthly whether it bee not more likely that the word might drop from the Authors pens as well as it did often escape the lips as he confesseth of such as he commends for men of judgement learning and vertue rather then that these Clerkes good men as hee calls them should corrupt their manuscripts in their transcription Fifthly how is it probable that a few pretenders to piety should so long deceive the world with zealous clamours of the word Sabbath men of judgment learning and vertue not excepted as hee pretendeth especially since as he saith they were most ignorant clamours hee addeth I grant or cunning clamours but how ignorance and cunning being so contrary should so indifferently bee disposed to produce the same effect in men of judgement and why ignorant clamours should not as much withhold from assent unto them as cunning clamours induce them to consort with them is that which my shallownesse cannot conceive and his wisdome I thinke will not bee able to manifest Sixthly how could hee come to know that these whom hee exempteth from society in this Sabbathary stratagem should detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts since not hee nor any but God onely hath the key of that closet and if they did so how could they have the name Sabbath whereby it is advanced so frequently in their mouthes If they knew it not how could they detest it If they did know it how could they being such men of judgment as hee taketh them for so familiarly use it without feare of scandall or danger by it Lastly how could so many reverend and learned men Prelates Deanes and other Doctors or these men of judgement learning and vertue i Men of learning judgement and verzue not heeding perhaps what crafty and wicked device may be managed under the vaile of a faire word Doct. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 21. whom hee commendeth be so blinded as not to see or so mindlesse as not to heed this crafty and wicked device managed under the vaile of a faire word as he suggesteth that not any one from the yeare 1554. when as hee feignes it was first set on foot apprehended it until this Doctor made discovery of such a dangerous plot and withall of their dulnesse who all the while could not discerne it Pardon me good Sir if I beleeve they were so wise and watchfull over the safety of the publicke service of the Church and the purity of Religion as to give due warning against such damnable superstition If there had been any such danger in the use of the word Sabbath as you seeme to conceive they would not have left the honour of that discovery and caution to you much lesse would they have used the word themselves as they have done whereto they were not induced by the Clamours of the pretenders of piety as k Doct. Pockl pag. 21. you pretend but rather in all likelihood by the fourth Commandement it selfe by the Liturgie of the Church requiring that to bee said as a part of divine Service and to be learned by heart as a part of the Catechisme as before was observed wherein all her children by her prescription are to be instructed and examined from hence might the word Sabbath be a name of vulgar use for our weekly Holiday and not from the noise which such men have rung in the eares of all men Here if a man should returne to Master Doctor some of his own language and say No ancient Father no learned man Heathen or Christian ever imagined such a plot or mystery of iniquity to lye hid under the name Sabbath before the yeare 1554. yea not one besides himselfe and yet one besides himselfe were the likest to light upon such fantastick Bugbeares from the beginning of the world untill the day and yeare of his preaching the Visitation Sermon at Ampthill August 17. 1635. ever found out or feigned such a dangerous device in the use of that word as hee hath invented in his study or elsewhere and vented in the Pulpit and since made publicke by the presse I am consident he cannot give one Instance to confute it nor name one man who may be thought to lead him to it and I hope he will find no more to follow him in his strange and extravagant surmises And may not a man cry quittance with him in it by taking a liberty to imagine that he who so vehemently inveigheth against the name Sabbath had a plot therein to shake the foundation of the Lords day which as it is a weekly day of Rest resteth on the fourth Commandement to slacken if