true and onely GOD is to bee worshipped in spirit and in truth and not in materiall idols That His Name ought to bee hallowed and great heed is to bee had that it bee not prophaned That respect and honour is to bee yeelded to Fathers to Mothers and to all Superiours That murther adultery lechery theft false witnesse covetousnesse of things belonging to another are vices condemnable and worthy to bee censured We finde a great deale of good precepts and excellent documents in the Lawes and writings of Paynims pertaining to these points And they all may be confirmed by naturall reason Therefore the Apostle speaking of Infidels in his Epistle to the Romanes Romanes 2. verse 14 15. saith That they doe by nature the things contained in the Law shew the worke of the Law written in their hearts and are a Law unto themselves If they have sinned against these points as undoubtedly they have most horribly many wayes as the same Apostle sheweth in the first Chapter of the said Epistle they have by such hainous and monstrous sinnes fought against their owne knowledge and detained in unrighteousnesse the truth which GOD had imprinted in their mindes and whereof they were not ignorant Romanes 1. 18. Whereupon God thunders fearefull threats upon their unrighteous heads which in all ages have beene accompanied with terrible thunder bolts of exemplary judgment Moreover in things concerning Gods outward and publike service they have knowne that all men ought to serve GOD publikely and that to offer sacrifices unto him is a service wherewith he is well pleased This they knew not onely by a naturall instinct and by the voice of that inward Doctor saying to their hearts that all sinnes whereof mortall men are guilty must be expiated and that atonement must be made betweene man offender and God offended by offerings and sacrifices But also questionlesse by an acquired knowledge come unto them successively from these first Fathers who by Gods Ordinance and allowance had offered sacrifices of atonement to his most holy Majesty This is the true originall and source of the sacrifices which these blinde and mis-led wights have alwaies offered to the God-head which they in their ignorance thought worthy to be worshipped 4 They have likewise knowne by naturall and necessary consequence that seeing God will be served publikely and by troupes of people times must be appointed for their meetings Therefore they have with one accord consecrated festivall and solemne daies for the publike and common exercises of their religion And God hath often blamed the vices and abominations of their sacrifices and solemnities propounding and traducing them in the persence of his people to whom hee spoke having regard to their instruction and correction and not to the conversion of the Gentiles whom hee suffered to walke in their owne waies Acts 14. vers 16. 5 But as there is no naturall reason shewing the least sparkle of justice and equity in the keeping of the seventh day of the weeke rather than another So the Gentiles did not keepe and are no where blamed for not keeping one day of seven which is to be thought on and considered with great attention For if they knew or were bound to know the necessity of the observation of this day if they were obliged unto it as to a morall thing or as to an Ordinance of God published by God himselfe to all men in the person of Adam Father of us all from the beginning of the world I aske What can be the cause that God never accused never reprehended them for the inobservation or profanation of so holy a day Seeing hee rebuked and threatned them so eagerly for the transgression of all other Commandements of the morall Law as may be seene in divers places of the Bookes of Moses Fxodus 23. verse 24. 32. Exod. 34. vers 12. 13 14 15 16. Levit. 18. vers 3. 24. Levit. 20. vers 23. Deut. 6. vers 14. Deut. 7. vers 4. 5. 10. 25. Deut. 12. ver 2. 3. 30. 31. Of the Prophets 1 King 14. vers 23. 24. 2 Chron. 33. vers 2. c. Psal. 106. vers 35. c. Esa. 10. vers 7. 12 13. Esa. 13. vers 11. Esa. 16. vers 6 Esa. 47. vers 6. c. Ierm 10. vers 2. 3. Ierem. 48. vers 7. 13. 29. 30 35. Ierem. 31. ver 13. 35. 47. Ezech. 16. vers 49. Ezech. 20. vers 7. Ezech. 23. verse 7. 8. 30. Ezech. 25. vers 3. 15. Ezech. 28. vers 2. 5. 16 17. 18. Ezech. 32. vers 12. Ezech. 35. vers 5. 6. 12. Amos 1. vers 3. 6. 9. 11. Obad. vers 3. 10 11. Micah 4. vers 5. Nahum 1. vers 14. Nahum 2. vers 12. Nahum 3. vers 14. Habak 1. vers 11. 13. 16. Habak 2. vers 5. 6. 8. 9. 10. 15. 18 19. Zeph. 2. vers 8. 10. 15. Zech. 9. vers 3. 5. and else-where and of the new Testament and namely in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans Againe I would faine know how it is come to passe that Gods ordinary custome was to withdraw the Israelites from all the vices that he had forbidden by telling them that the profane and aliene Nations had defiled themselves with all these vices and when these vices of Infidells were in some sort of such a quality that they sorted well to his people would most bitterly upbraide them with following the abominations of the Nations and yet hee hath never kept that course in the inhibitions that hee hath made so frequently to the Israelites against the breach of the Sabbath hath never told them that the Gentiles were Sabbath-breakers hath never warned them not to follow in this crime their example which had beene much to the purpose if the Gentiles had beene obliged to keepe the Sabbath day 6 Surely God never tied them by any positive Law to such a day neither gave hee them any notice thereof by the inbred light of nature And it appeareth not any where that they ever heard amongst them any mention of a seventh day of Sabbath but as of a Iewish Ceremony and Ecclesiasticall regiment the rumour whereof ranne abroad after the Law was given to the people of Israel in the wildernesse Hence it is that this ceremonies is by their Authours attributed to the Iewes as come from them and particular to their Nation Yea many of them laid it in their dish with flowting and derision Whereunto some doe apply these words of Ieremiah in his Lamentations Chap. 1. verse 7. The adversaries of Ierusalem saw her and did mocke at her Sabbaths And Seneca a wise Heathen said of the Iewes jeering at them that by the observation of their Sabbath they made losse of the seventh part of their life 7 They object against this that Philo a learned Iew who lived in the times of the Apostles in the second Booke of the life of Moses speaking of other Nations which were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the
place Exod. 31. ver 13. where God saith Uerily my Sabbaths yee shall keep for it is a signe betweene me and you throughout your generations that yee may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you And for more ample declaration in the Verses following 14. 15 16 17. he expounds those Sabbaths of the weekely Sabbath only Although this were not so whosoever speaketh of Sabbaths in the number of multitude and maketh no exception understandeth whatsoever is contained in the signification of that word and hath the same denomination Verily when the Apostle saith that no man should condemne us in distinction of an Holy day or of Sabbaths if he had not understood all Sabbaths but had beleeved that God hath expresly ordained under the New Testament as hee did under the old a day to be for his service a day of festivity and of Sabbath he was bound to except it particularly and by name and so to keepe the Church from falling into an error namely seeing we are not taught in any part of his Epistles nor else where in the New Testament that GOD hath made such an ordinance that in any time the observation of a Sabbath hath beene injoyned unto us that any such day hath beene excepted from those dayes and Sabbaths which in the said New Testament we are forbidden to keepe 6 When the Apostle saith that Christ hath abolished the Law of commandements Eph. 2. vers 15. and hath made a change of the Law Heb. 7. vers 12. We see easily that he understandeth the ceremoniall and not the morall Law because in the same places he explicates his meaning calling it The Law of Commandements contained in ordinances the middle wall of partition betweene the Iewes and Gentiles Ephes. 2. vers 14 15. the Law of a carnall Commandement and of the Leviticall Priesthood weake unprofitable and which made nothing perfect Heb. 7. vers 11. 16 18 19. Because also in many other places wee are taught that the Law abolished by Christ is the Ceremoniall only and doe see all morall Commandements confirmed and ratified by him But when the Apostle discourseth of the abolishment of holy daies and of Sabbaths without any limitation or modification there is no cause why the seventh day should be excepted seeing he excepted it not neither is it excepted in any place of the Gospell which speaketh no where unto us of morall daies of Sabbath as also it is absurd to establish any such day 7 It sufficeth not to alledge that the fourth Commandement of the Law injoineth the seventh day of Sabbath and to inferre from thence that of necessity the Apostles minde was to except that Sabbath as being morall For I say rather that the fourth Commandement in as farre as it injoineth the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath is not morall seeing the Apostle without exception saith that under the Gospell our consciences should not be tied to Sabbath daies words which he had never so uttered if the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement had beene morall and obligatory At least in some other places information and instructions had beene given us of this by him and by the rest of the Evangelists and Apostles who have instructed us in the knowledge of all other morall points which is not to be found For there is not to be seene in the whole new Testament any injunction to observe a Sabbath day But of this point we shall speake more fully hereafter CHAPTER Tenth REASON 10. 1 The Christians in S. Pauls time had no time appointed to them for Gods service seeing some of them esteemed one day above another others esteemed every day alike 2 Answer is made to this argument that those which esteemed every day alike were weeke and therefore erred 3 Refutation of this answer First by the analogie of the other point where hee who did eat herbs onely is called weake and he who knew he might eat all things is called strong 4 Second Because to esteeme all daies alike cannot be called weakenesse 5 Third Because if Christ or his Apostles had appointed a set day for Gods service to esteeme all daies alike had not beene weaknesse but profanenesse which neverthelesse it was not 6 Fourth Otherwise the Apostle would not have said that he that doth not regard a day to the Lord doth not regard it but rather against the Lord. 7 Of what day it is said that one regarded it another regarded it not 8 Fifth Seeing to regard a day is weaknesse and not to regard a day is strength of knowledge God hath not obliged the Christian Church to any set day for his service by any morall or positive Law 1 THE same is plainly shewed by these words of the Epistle to the Romans Chap. 14. vers 5 6. One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his owne minde He that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it In this place the Apostle speaketh of religious Christians shewing that they were at variance about two divers heads For some of them beleeved that a Christian man should not sticke nor make a scruple of conscience to eate indifferently all meats Others for conscience sake would eate nothing but herbs Some of them also esteemed every day alike others esteemed one day above another Of those two parties he calleth the one strong the other weak and exhorteth them that were strong to beare the infirmities of the weake namely seeing these things were of small moment and that the weake did such things out of conscience and through a religious respect to God that indeed their conscience was not well informed and directed but at length might be and affiance was to be had that they should be holden up because GOD was able to make them stand verse 4. As concerning eating of all things or eating of herbs onely the Apostle calleth directly weake those which did eate nothing but hearbes And strong those which beleeved that they might eate and indeed did eate all things indifferently But on the other point concerning the disagreement which was among them about dayes whether every day should be esteemed alike or one day should bee esteemed above another he declareth not expresly who were strong who weake Some of those which urge the observation of the Sabbath day as a point of Religion and of conscience commanded by Christ shunning the argument which this place affords against their opinion doe say that those which esteemed every day alike were weake and the others were strong and that this is the Apostle his intention But it is easie to perceive that the contrary opinion is true that say I those which esteemed every day alike were strong and those weake which esteemed one day above another 3 First the analogy of the other point which the Apostle alleadgeth concerning meates sheweth it manifestly For as
nor also of Gods rest which in effect hath continued ever since because this other rest which it figured shall never have an end 7 Now this figure of Gods resting from the works of grace which he had first resolved and determined in himselfe and founded upon his owne rest from the workes of nature was intimated by him when giving his Law to the Israelites he commanded to forbeare all workes and by that cessation to sanctifie the seventh day which he had rested in to the intent that this day and their cessation on it as an image correspondent in some sort to the example of his owne rest should be unto them likewise a type and figure of the eternall rest which they should obtaine in heaven after all the workes and toiles of this life according to his good pleasure whereby he had ordained from the beginning that it should be so And so Gods rest on the seventh day after the creation was ended and the rest which he ordained also to the Israelites on that same day after their six daies worke were in effect two types of one and the same thing to wit of the accomplishment of the salvation and of the blessednesse and glory of the faithfull in heaven but in divers respects according as this accomplishment may have relation either to God or to the faithfull To God as to the author who having begun and furthered it will also accomplish and perfect it in which respect it hath had properly Gods rest for figure To the faithfull as unto those which shall injoy and possesse the benefit thereof after the turmoile of their irkesome workes in this world In which regard it had properly for type the rest ordained to the Israelites It is likely that the Apostle in consideration of this mystery when he speaketh vers 9. of the heavenly rest calleth it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he doth in all the former verses but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using a word taken from the Sabbath of the Iewes and that purposely to teach us that the Sabbath of the Iewes in the relation it had to Gods rest on the seventh day which it was founded upon was a figure of the eternall rest prepared for the faithfull 8 And indeed the Iewes have alwaies understood it so For they teach that this rest of the seventh day was a type of the rest prepared for Gods people in the world to come Whereunto they apply this Title of the 92. Psalme A Psame of song for the Sabbath day saying that this Psalme is a song for the time to come to wit for the day of eternall life which is all Sabbath all an holy rest signified also by the Sabbath named jointly with the new Moones in Isaiah 66. Chapter verse 23. Where God saith that from one New Moone to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before him Which words being applyed to the estate and condition of the world to come as they may be most fitly give to understand that the New Moones and the Sabbaths wherein holy convocations and solemne actions of Gods service were practised were types and figures of the great convocation of all that are his in his heavenly kingdome and of the eternall rest which they shall enjoy there serving him without interruption because there is no intervall no space there betweene the Sabbaths and the New Moones that is betweene the times appointed for rest and the solemne service of GOD as there was under the Law among the Iewes but one Sabbath following immediately another one New Moone succeeding without interposition another as the words of the Text doe import and the whole time being nothing else then a continuall Sabbath that is a perpetuall tenor an unintermitted continuance without change of serving God after a most glorious and unconceivable manner And as God after he had created and made all his workes in sixe dayes ceased on the seventh day ceased I say not simply but with pleasure and content enjoying that glory which from hence redounded unto him even so he shall then rejoyce and magnifie himselfe on that day in all his faithfull in whom he shall have accomplished his glorious work of their redemption and they reciprocally shall rejoyce in him shall rest from their labours and their workes shall follow them Revel 14. ver 3. That is they shall receive pleasure glory and reward of all their good works and shall inherite a glorious rest conformable in some sort to Gods rest Vndoubtedly the use which the Sabbath day had to be a type and figure of this heavenly rest was the cause that God did so precisely urge the Iewes to observe and keepe it inviolably For he designed by so severe an injunction of the exact observation of the typâ— the great importance and necessity of the thing signified thereby 9 Of this I inferre first that the day of rest seeing it was ordained to be a type and figure of the heavenly and eternall rest which Iesus Christ was to purchase to those that are his â—onsâ—â—ering â—â—so that the Scripture for no other â—ause maketh mention oâ— Gods resting on that day and hallowing of it out for this typicall and mâ—sterious use that say I that day was not ordained to Adam from the beginning to bee kept by him in the state of innocency because there is great cause to beleeve that although Adam had persevered in that state and condition he should not have entred into the heavenly rest but had enjoyed simply a terrestriall and eternall blessednesse here below in the Paradise of Heden where God had put him because the heavenly happinesse is alwayes proposed in the Scripture as a supernaturall gift of the grace of God through Christ Iesus and not at all as a naturall grace And it is in that respect that the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romanes Chapter 5. ver 15. 16 17. saith that we receive much more in Iesus Christ then we have lost in Adam and that there is a superaboundance of grace by IESUS CHRIST towards us going farre beyond all the losse wee have made in Adam which could not be said if we had lost any thing over and above an earthly felicity and immortality in these lower parts and if Adam persisting in the state of integrity was to be after many ages on earth received into the kingdome of heaven To which belongeth also that which is written in the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians where the Apostle making a distinction betweene Adam and Christ saith verse 45. that Adam was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a living soule that is to live a naturall life on earth and to communicate it to his off-spring but Iesus Christ was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a quickning spirit that is to give to those that are his a spirituall and heavenly life by the mighty power of the grace of Sanctification Also that which he addeth Verse
Christ as in all other signes As in the feast of Passeover the Lambe which was killed figured manifestly the person of Iesus Christ put to death for our redemption The sacrifices of beasts were figures of the Sacrifice of Christs body The sprinklings and washings were types of his blood of the shedding of it upon the crosse of the sprinkling thereof upon our consciences by the holy Ghost and of the spirituall washing which we receive thereby 15 To this I answer that the figurative and typicall signes of the old Testament were not all of one sort It is true that all had relation to Christ but some of them represented meerly and directly Christs person the actions of his person and consequently the benefits depending thereon Others represented nothing directly but his spirituall benefits yet as proceeding from him and from his actions which consequently they figured also Of the first kind was the Paschall Lambe and the sacrifices that were offered which properly were figures of Christs person and of his sacrifice and consequently of our redemption and of the expiation of our sins made by him which is the benefit proceeding from his sacrifice 16 Of the second sort was the Sabbath day which properly and directly represented the sanctification of the people and their ceasing from workes of sinne but figured also therewith Iesus Christ Because by him that benefit was to be purchased to the faithfull and they were to receive it by his meanes For it is by the offering of the body of IESUS CHRIST once for all that we are sanctified Heb. 10. ver 10. Of the same sort was the Circumcision wherein no thing can be found that figured properly CHRISTS person and the actions thereof But because it sealed the righteousnesse of faith Romanes 4. verse 11. figured the spirituall circumcision of the heart Rom. 2. ver 28 29. Col. 2. ver 11. and was a signe of the covenant of grace Genesis 17. ver 7 9 10 11. which benefits Christ was to deserve by his death in that respect it was a figure of Christ and a shadow whereof the body was in him who also hath abolished it The like were so many Sabbaths ordained on the first and last day of the feasts of the Passeover and of Tabernacles on the feast of Pentecost on the tenth day of the seventh moneth in every seventh yeere in the fiftieth yeere of Iubile which all confesse to have beene abolished by Iesus Christ as things typicall Yet there was no thing in them that made them more particular to the Iewes more ceremoniall and typike nay not so much as the ordinary Sabbath whereof God had said that which he hath not said of these that it was a signe betweene him and his people c. Neither figured they Iesus Christ otherwise then this ordinary Sabbath did For they were not types of his person nor of his actions but only of the spirituall benefits which are alwayes received of the faithfull and which the true Iewes received then in him and through him Now if all the signes of this second kinde which had of old a great sway in the Synagogue were accounted to be figurative and as such are abrogated wherefore should not the Sabbath be likewise abolished 17 Yea how many things were there under the Old Testament whereof no man can tell what relation they had to Christ either in his person in his actions or in his benefits and which perhaps in effect represented no such thing had no typicall signification but were only ordinances belonging to order and ecclesiasticall government servill exercises childish rudiments elements of the world wherewith it was GODs pleasure to burthen his people in those times which were the times of the infancy and bondage of the Church and therefore were ceremonies as well as those that had some typicall and figurative signification For under the name of Ceremonies may and ought to be comprised not only the types and figures which properly and manifestly were such but universally all the observations of the ecclesiasticall policy and government of the Iewes all the ordinances of the Law of commandements which were a partition wall betweene them and all other nations as the Apostle saith Ephes. 2. verse 14 15. Or were memorials of things past which did belong to the Iewes only and for that cause have beene abrogated by Iesus Christ. So that although the Sabbath had not had any typicall signification nor relation to Iesus Christ as it had it was enough to make it to be done away that it did belong to the ecclesiasticall government of the Iewes and was also given them for memoriall of a benefit particular to them to wit of their deliverance out of the land of Aegypt and of that miserable bondage wherein they had not any one day free neither to rest from their labours nor to serve the Lord their God For in the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomie God repeating by the mouth of Moses the Commandements of his Law addeth to the fourth Commandement this reason of the institution of the Sabbath ver 15. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arme Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keepe the Sabbath day shewing by these words that the deliverance which he had given them from that laborious bondage of the land of Aegypt should not onely oblige them to keepe the Sabbath so much the more carefully and religiously but was a cause why he ordained it to wit that it might be unto them a memoriall or a token for remembrance of that glorious and wonderfull deliverance CHAPTER Thirteenth Conclusion of the first part of this Treatise 1. The Sabbath was not ordained nor knowne till after the deliverance of the Israelites out of the land of Aegypt 2. The Sabbath was onely a signe figurative of Christ and a memoriall of a benefit particular to the Iewes 3. All the dayes of the weeke ought to bee Sabbaths to Christians 1 OF all that hath beene said heretofore we conclude First that the Sabbath was not ordained till after the deliverance of the Israelites out of the land of Aegypt and consequently that they kept it not in Aegypt and therefore that they had not learned of the Patriarkes their Fathers to observe it that the Patriarkes did not observe it that Adam received not any commandement of God to keepe it neither had any notice thereof finally that therefore it is not morall For if it were morall and therefore alwayes and in all times necessary if God had commanded it to Adam if the Patriarkes had kept it they had taught their children to keepe it and that being so the Israelites had assuredly kept it in Aegypt If there they had kept it there had been no cause to ordaine it for a memoriall of their deliverance out of Aegypt and to say that after their deliverance and in
pleased to subject him unto and to stint unto him that time to wit the seventh day for the particular time of his service even as he appointed unto him the garden of Heden for the place where he would have him to make his residence and there to apply himselfe to admire the workes of his Creator to serve and to worship him And indeed any man may with as good reason conclude that it must needs be a morall thing to serve God in Heden because it was the place where God had setled Adam to be served by him there in the state of his innocency as they doe which seeke to prove that it is a point of morality to keepe a seventh day of Sabbath because God ordained in that state a seventh day to Adam For the determination of a certaine time can no more be a morall point then the determination of a place neither of them being founded in the principles of nature and of naturall justice and equity as should be whatsoever is morall and as indeed is all that is written in the ten Commandements saving the Commandement of the seventh day of Sabbath which is a thing depending entirely on institution and government as shall be seene more fully afterwards Or why may it not be inferred that not only a seventh day but the last of seven is morall because if God ordained a seventh day to Adam it was the last of seven as those against whom we doe dispute doe avouch 6 Now if a seventh day could not be ordained to Adam in quality of a morall thing but onely as a point and rule of order granting that it was prescribed unto him it is inconsequent that it was to continue afterwards by a perpetuall ordinance given to all men For there is no necessity that all men after sinne came into the world ought to be alwaies ruled in Gods service by the same outward order that Adam was ruled by before he sinned seeing things pertaining meerly and simply to order are subject to alteration 7 It is most true that if in the state of innocency God had ordained to Adam a particular day amongst others to serve him it should be as much nay farre more fit and necessary that wee under the state of sinne should alwaies have alike ordinance for us But I say withall seeing it is supposed that Adam had one of seven daies prescribed unto him in that estate although he applyed himselfe every day to Gods service without distraction that we in the estate we are in and wherein we give our selves so seldome and so sparingly to Gods ordinary service by reason of our worldly imployments should have beene tyed to more then one in seven Yet for all that Seeing God hath never prescribed to sinfull men but one seventh day and that as I pretend for the time of the bondage of the Law only Seeing also under the new Testament although we be alwaies sinners he would not stint unto us any day but in that point hath left his Church free I inferre from thence that it is not likely that hee ordained and limitted to Adam a seventh day nay not any other day of Sabbath For by such a limitation he had tyed and inthralled him in that estate of innocency as much and more then his off-spring in the estate of sinne which seemeth to imply that hee was as much and more led daily away from Gods service then are poore sinners which goe farre beyond all reason CHAPTER Third Answer to the second Reason 1. Second reason for the morality of the Sabbath that before the Law was given the people of Israel went not out to gather Manna in the wildernesse on the seventh day of the weeke 2. First answer Of this argument the morality of the Sabbath cannot be inferred no more than of many ceremonies which were religiously observed long before the Law was given 3. Second answer In the wildernesse God commanded the observation of the Sabbath and of sundry other ceremonies before the Law was given and then onely beganne the keeping of the Sabbath 4. Therefore in vaine are urged the words of Exodus Chap. 16. vers 29 30. The Lord hath given you the Sabbath c. which have relation onely to the command newly made 5. Third answer If the institution of the Sabbath had beene more ancient and if it had beene kept by the Patriarches their children had knowne it and practised it in Egypt 6. Nullity of the reply made to this answer that they had forgotten it first because God did never rebuke them for the inobservation of the Sabbath in the land of Egypt 7. Secondly because many godly men which were in Egypt had not forgotten it and yet before the commandement concerning it was given in the wildernesse made never mention of it nay knew it not as is proved by the Text. 8. And by other places of the old Testament 9. Second reply that besides the generall reason which moved God to give the Sabbath to all men he appropriated it to the people of Israel for some other reasons besides 10. First answer to this reply it cannot be proved that GOD gave it to all men nay it is absolutely appropriated to the Iewes 11. Second answer There is not one of the reasons why God gave the Sabbath to the Iewes adapted to other nations although they were capable of many of them 12. Nor also to the Patriarches who had no notice of the Sabbath 13. If in the Scripture any thing be adapted to the Iewes which was common to other men it is knowne to have beene common either by the nature thereof or by the testimony of Scripture But it is not so of the Sabbath 1 THe second argument alledged for the morality of the Sabbath is that before the Law was given by Moses it was observed which is proved by the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus where it is said that on the seventh day the Israelites went not out to gather Manna but rested every man in his place on that day because it was the holy Sabbath unto the Lord which the Lord himselfe had ordained Whence they would conclude that it was already an ancient ordinance knowne of the Israelites to be such that for this cause they went not out on the seventh day to seek Manna that for the same cause God powred it not downe on that day lest it should be an occasion unto them of violating the Sabbath For all this was done before the Law was given the giving whereof is described afterwards in the same Booke of Exodus Chap. 20. 2 To this I answer first that although it could be most cleerely shewed that the Sabbath was observed from the beginning before the Law which notwithstanding cannot be proved that availeth nothing for the morality of the Sabbath We see that from the beginning and in all times before the Law the firstlings of the slocke and the first fruits of the ground were offered to God Genes 4. ver
in any day whatsoever according as every one should have the commoditie till the Apostles comming and was to cease after he at his comming had received the whole summe that these contributions should amount unto And so of this passage cannot be gathered the observation of any day and farre lesse of the first day of the weeke for Ecclesiasticall meetings whereof according to this Exposition which hath a great likenesse of truth no mention is made in it 4 But secondly although the Apostle had intended to stint the Corinthians to a particular day wherein they were to put a part every one with himselfe a portion of their goods to goe and distribute it that same day in their Ecclesiasticall assemblies for all that it appeareth not that he meant by that day the first day of the weeke For these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated in this other sense On a Sabbath day or on every Sabbath day as excellent interpreters alleage and approve this exposition and hath nothing for the divine institution of our Sunday 5 Thirdly put the case that the Apostle speaketh of the first day of the weeke as of a day appointed for Ecclesiasticall meetings and in them for Gods service and for publike collections no other thing can be proved from thence saving that it was a custome received in the Church of Corinth in the Churches of Galatia and probably in others to meet together on the first day of the weeke but in no wise that the Apostle had given them an injunction concerning that day It is true that in the foresaid words mention is made of an injunction given by the Apostle but of the collections only not of the time wherein they were to be made which time the Apostle supposeth onely as received and observed among them on the first day of the weeke but commandeth it not 6 Fo◠the words are Concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so doe yee 1 Cor. 16. vers 1. where we see the injunction hath reference to the collections as to the end thereof and by no meanes to the day that they were to be levied in He saith againe in the next verse Upon the first day of the weeke let every man lay aside by himselfe and put in store c. where also the injunction is of the collection and the day is not named by way of commandement but onely as supposed to be ordinary for the ecclesiasticall meetings and consequently for the collections 7 I say therefore that it appeareth not that the Apostles have instituted the first day of the weeke But although they had ordained it it should not follow that they had received of the Lord an expresse commandement so to doe It is true that in matters concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and things essentiall to Gods service they have taught nothing but what they received of the Lord as the Apostle protested 1 Cor. 11. vers 23. and as Christ had given them the commandement Matth. 28. vers 20. But as for things which are wholly of order they had power to dispose and ordaine of them with Christian wisedome as they should thinke fit 8 Of that hath beene said we may see the vanity of the argumentation framed by some Divines upon the words of the Apostle to the Philippians chap 4. vers 9. The things which ye have both learned and received and beard and seene in me do them They saw in him the observation of the first day of the weeke which we call Sunday therefore he willeth them to keepe also that day 9 Whereunto I answer first that by a like ratiocination they may conclude that the Apostle would have the faithfull to observe and celebrate all the dayes of the week but namely the Sabbath of the Iewes for he was heard and seene often preaching all the dayes of the weeke but principally every Sabbath day for his manner was to doe so Acts 17. vers 2. Secondly that the foresaid argumentation may have some value it must presuppose that it was an order established by the Apostle and observed regularly by him to celebrate the first day of the week For to beleeve that whatsoever he was seene to do sometimes accidentally and by occasion the faithfull ought necessarily to doe it alwayes were a too great impertinency For he was seene shave his head according to the ceremony of the Mosaicall Nazareat Num. 6. vers 18. Acts 18. vers 18. Acts 21. vers 24. 26. and circumcise Timothy Acts 16. v. 3. But such a presupposition hath no foundation as hath beene shewed Thirdly the Apostle himselfe betokeneth by the connexion of the 9. vers with the 8. going before what things he would have the Philippians to do by imitation of his example and according to his instructions to wit whatsoever things are true honest just pure loveable of good report if there be any vertue or any praise that is these things properly which are a part of godlinesse towards God and of love towards the neighbour But to observe for Gods service the first day of the weeke rather than an other day is not of that nature as being a thing meerely indifferent and established by custome onely It is also a conjecture without apparance that the Apostle among the things which he designeth in the ninth verse meant to comprise the observation of Sunday CHAPTER seventh Answer to the sixth Reason 1. Sixth Reason Mention is made in the Revelation Chap. 1. vers 10. of the Lords day 2. Answer It may be so called in two other respects rather than that which is pretended 3. Instance It is called the Lords day because he ordained it as for that cause the Sabbath is called the Lords rest the Eucharist the Lords Supper 4. Nullitie of this instance 5. Many excellent Divines of the Protestant Churches speake of the first day of the weeke as of a custome of the Church not as a commandement of Christ. 1 IT is said in the first Chapter of the Revelation and the tenth verse That Iohn was in the Spirit on the Lords day whence also they would faine inferre that the first day of the weeke which hath obtained the name of The Lords day was instituted by the Lord Iesus or by his Apostles to be a day dedicated to the exercices of godlinesse 2 But from hence we cannot conclude a divine or Apostolicall institution of that day for S. Iohn might make mention of that day in respect of the Lords rising on such a day and not to signifie that it ought to be appointed or was already set a part more solemnely than any other day for Gods service and for the commemoration of Christs benefits and especially of his Resurrection Yea although he had qualified it with this title in respect of the consecration thereof which was ordinary at that time and in consideration whereof it had commonly the name of The Lords day amongst Christians
which remaineth over lay up for you to bee kept untill the morning The sense of which words is evident that as God on the day before the Sabbath rained Manna for two dayes so they should prepare it on the same day for two dayes baking that which they would bake seething that they would seeth and frying that they would prepare so and after they had eaten of it sufficiently for that day they should lay up the rest so prepared to be kept untill the next day 5 For if as some doe esteeme God would have suffered them to prepare on the Sabbath day that which remained over and the sense of the foresaid words were onely that on Friday they should prepare and made ready such a portion as they should thinke sufficient for the meat of that day and keepe the overplus to be prepared the next day God had not given them on Friday bread for two dayes and had not forborne to raine down Manna upon them on the Sabbath day For it had been farre lesse paines unto them to gather on the seventh day the measure that was needfull unto them then to make it ready afterwards Neither is it likely that after he had forbidden them and had taken from them the meanes to gather any on the Sabbath hay hee gave them liberty to bake seeth frie and prepare it on that day Therefore when he sent them twice as much Manna the day before the Sabbath he did it manifestly that they might both gather and prepare double portion the same day and refraine from preparing any on the Sabbath day 6 And wherefore had Moses advised them so carefully on Friday rather than on the other dayes to bake that which they had to bake but to tell them that the same day they ought to bake the double measure which they should gather For otherwise this advertisement had beene to no purpose because they were wont every day to bake the portion which they had gathered for the day knowing that without a warner But they could not well know without information that they were bound to prepare on the same day the two portions which they had gathered for two dayes And to shew yet more cleerely that what they layd up for the next day they kept it baken Moses said not unto them bake to day that which yee have laid up but only Eat that to day For to day is the Sabbath unto the Lord verse 25. which reason was as valuable to hinder them from preparing as from gathering it the one being no more necessary then the other For as GOD gave them the meanes to gather double measure on the sixt day so had they on the sixt day the means and leasure to bake and prepare that double measure and were not constrained by any necessity to reserve a part or to prepare and bake it on the Sabbath day It is objected against this that if they had layd by the Manna prepared and baken till the next day after it had not beene a wonder that it did not stinke neither was there any worme therein where neverthelesse is related as a marvell verse 24. seeing baking and seething hinder all stinke and breeding of wormes But this objection hath no weight and is not to be regarded For although the Manna so prepared might naturally remaine sound and wholesome untill the next day yet by Gods Almighty power and righteous judgement it had stunke and bred wormes if it had beene kept otherwise then hee had expressely commanded For undoubtedly the Manna unbaken and unprepared might have beene kept on any other day of the weeke till the next day without corruption or any noysome smell The only cause why it stunke and bred wormes was Gods prohibition to leave of it till the morning ver 19 20. which prohibition proceeding from so powerfull and righteous a Lawgiver was of such force that it had stunke and bred wormes being kept till the next morning of any day whatsoever although the Israelites had done their utmost indeavour by baking seething frying and by all other possible meanes to keepe it from putrefaction And therefore it is well noted to the purpose that being laid up baken and prepared on Friday for Saturday it stunke not because that being done according to Gods commandement he restrained his judgement which he had displayed in another day if they had kept it till the next morning 8 Moreover God gave another prohibition to his people saying Ye shall kindle no fire thorowout your habitations on the Sabbath day Exod. 35. vers 3. although it was an action of little importance soone done and bringing no disturbance to Gods service A man went out and gathered stickes on the Sabbath day for his present necessitie as it is to be presumed For this hee was by Gods expresse command stoned to death as a manifest transgressour of the Commandement concerning the Sabbath Numb 15. vers 32 33 34 35. To say that he was stoned not so much for gathering stickes on the Sabbath as for doing it through a too bold contempt of that day is a supposition uncertaine and it is farre more likely that he did it through negligence and unadvisednesse than through contempt and presumptuous audacitie and that this unwarinesse whereof he made an open declaration or some other apparent excuse wherewith he shielded himselfe and which was thought to be true or also the manifest slightnesse of the action was unto them a cause of doubting if they should put him to death according to the Ordinance of the Law Exod. 31. vers 14 15. And so much the rather that God shewed indulgence to those which through errour sinned against his Commandements as may be seene in the same fifteenth Chapter of Numbers verse 22 23 24. And therefore it was thought necessary in this occasion to consult the mouth of the Lord who ordained that this man should bee stoned to death by the whole multitude This he commanded to conciliate so much more credit and reverence to his Law touching the Sabbath to give to understand that it had particular reasons wherfore it ought to be exactly observed and that the lightest faults against the rest of the seventh day were not pardonable and to make by this example of severity the Israelites so much the more fearefull to violate the Sabbath and carefull to abstaine in it from all servile workes even from the least And indeed God in the denunciation of the punishments against the transgressours of this Law had not said that he onely who should profane and vilipend the Sabbath but more generally that he who should doe any worke therein should be put to death and so cut off from among his people as may bee seene in the foresaid 35. Chapter of Exodus verse 2. Also some of the contrary opinion to this which I defend acknowledge that it is so and thereupon vouch that in this rigour of the Law condemning a man to die for gathering stickes on the Sabbath day
perpetuall 4 The first reply to this Answer refuted 5. The said reply is not well grounded on the example of a Pharisee who called Christ to eat bread on the Sabbath day 6. Confirmation of the refutation of the said reply by the Scriptures 7. By the testimony of Saint Augustine and of Saint Ignace and by reason 8. The second reply taken from equality yea from oddes of reason refuted 9. A mystery hid in the prohibition to cooke meat on the Sabbath day c. 10. Third Answer the prohibition to kindle fire was perpetuall and not referred to the building of the Tabernacle 11. If it was referred thereto it was onely by application 12. If it was not lawfull to kindle fire for the uses of the Tabernacle farre lesse for other uses 13. Confirmation of this answer by reason and by the testimony of Philo. 14. Fourth Answer The particular prohibitions were explications of the generall prohibition of the fourth Commandement 15. Fifth and last Answer God hath no where made an exception of any worke on the weekely Sabbath as he did on the Sabbath of the Passeover 1 SOme of the contrary opinion have seene the difficulty propounded in the former Chapter to wit that there is no reason to say that some workes which the Iewes were forbidden to do as wel as all other by the fourth Commandement are permitted but the rest are not permitted if it be true that the prohibition of the fourth Commandement obligeth us as they pretend Therefore they say that these workes which as they confesse we are permitted to doe as to kindle the fire and to make meat ready on the Sabbath day were permitted to the Iewes as well as unto us and are not comprised in the prohibition of the fourth Commandement and that the particular prohibitions which are made in Exodus Chapter 16. and 35. were temporall had respect only to the time of the peoples sojourning in the wildernesse and were grounded on reasons particular to that time 2 But this is an affirmation without ground and without all likelihood For to speake of the injunction given them to tarry every man in his place and not to goe out of it on the Sabbath day Exod. 16. vers 29. it is true that it was given them by occasion of the Manna to the intent that they should not goe forth to seeke any yet undoubtedly it was extended also to all other things of the like nature to wit to all bodily and earthly ends God by that one example forbidding them to apply themselves to the seeking of them there being a like reason for all I say bodily and earthly because a spirituall and heavenly end was excepted by the third verse of the three and twenty Chapter of Leviticus and there was no other end but such a one which might be an exception from the said prohibition Will any man say that during their abode in the wildernesse they might freely and without offence goe about other worldly businesses the gathering of Manna excepted This goeth beyond all semblance of truth And therefore if this was not left to their liberty the prohibition of the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus had a farther regard than to the Manna onely Now if they were restrained in the wildernesse and durst not goe forth for earthly imploiments as to gather Manna what reason can be alleaged why in the land of Canaan they were free to come and to goe and trouble themselves with the care and pursuit of the bread that perisheth and of other things of this world 3 The same judgement ought to be made of the prohibition to to cooke and dresse meat in the wildernesse on the Sabbath day which meat was Manna wherefore ought not this prohibition to have place in the land of Canaan for all other meats The Israelites had they not leisure in Canaan to prepare their meat the day before the Sabbath as much nay more than they had for the Manna in the wildernesse Neverthelesse the day before the Sabbath which was the sixth day of the weeke God said to them concerning the Manna Bake that which ye will bake and seethe that which ye will seethe and all that remaineth lay it up to be kept till the morning for you And why To morrow saith he is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Exod. 16. vers 23. words which shew that the observation of the Sabbath day by him prescribed unto them with respect not onely to their pilgrimage in the wildernesse but also to their abode in Canaan was the cause why hee rained not Manna upon them and suffered them not to prepare any on that day and by his law forbade them universally in their generations to cooke and prepare any meat on the Sabbath day For if it were a thing that he left to their libertâ— by the Law wherefore did hee not raine Manna upon them on the Sabbath day Or if hee gave them not any lest they should goe forth and gather it on that day and if he obliged them to gather twice as much the day before giving them that day bread for two dayes vers 29. which necessity forced them to doe seeing the next day there was not any to bee found in the fields wherefore did he not at least suffer them to deferre till the Sabbath day the cooking of that portion which they had gathered and laid up for that day rather than to injoyne them as he did to make ready twice as much the day before and so take from them all occasion of preparing it on the Sabbath day which they might have done easily although there was none to be found in the fields that day Certes he did betoken that not onely the seeking and gathering but also the cooking and preparing of meat on that day displeased him because it was a day ordained by him to rest in which is a perpetuall reason for all the dayes and times that the Law of Moses was to continue 4 To say that God commanded both to gather and to prepare the Manna the day before and to keepe it till the Sabbath day because he would manifest his miraculous power in preserving from corruption the Manna which else had bred wormes and stunke Exod. 16. vers 20. from one of these dayes to the other is an unsufficient answer For first the same miracle had beene although the Manna had beene kept crude and unbaked to be sodden and prepared the next day Secondly God might have done if it had pleased him the same miracle in respect to another day as well as to the Sabbath day Wherefore then did he it for the Sabbath day but to ordaine to the Israelites the cessation from all workes and amongst others from making meat ready on the Sabbath day in their generations Also wee see no examples of preparing of meat on the Sabbath day among them 5 To prove that they did is unfitly alleaged the first verse of the fourteenth chapter of S. Luke
where it is said that Iesus Christ entred into the house of one of the chiefe Pharisees on the Sabbath day to eat bread that is to take his refection For it is not said that this Pharisee had caused the repast to be made ready on the same Sabbath day which he had never done seeing the Pharisees found sault with the simple action of Christs Disciples who on the Sabbath day going thorow the corne fields plucked some eares of corne and did rub them in their hands to eat them Luke 6. vers 1. 6 Which is againe a most manifest argument that in those dayes the Iewes prepared not any meat on the Sabbath day and also that it was not permitted by the Law For if it had beene permitted the accusation of the Pharisees against Christs Disciples had wanted all ground and colour of reason when they said unto them Why do ye that which is not lawfull to do on the Sabbath dayes Luk. 6. vers 1. And it had not beene needfull that Christ should have alleaged to defend them that the hunger wherewith they were pinched and their present need of sustenance excused their action even as a like cause excused the action of David and of those that were with him when being an hungred they tooke and ate the Shew-bread which was not lawfull to eate but for the Priests onely as also that God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Matth. 12. vers 3 4 5. For he might have answered in one word that the action of his Disciples to prepare meat was not at all forbidden by the Law and that there was no semblance of reason to blame it whereas by his answer he supposeth that indeed it was forbidden ordinarily as well as to eat of the Shew-bread to all others but Priests and he maintaineth not his Disciples to be excusable but by their present necessity which made lawfull that which otherwise had beene unlawfull unto them For if that whereby hee defended them had beene lawfull otherwise than in case of necessity what need had hee to excuse them upon their present necessitie S. Austin in the fourth chapter of the sixth booke against the Manichees saith that the Iewes on their Sabbath gather not any kinde of fruit in the field that they mince and cooke no meat at home 7 Also S. Ignace Martyr in his Epistle to the Magnesians teaching how the Sabbath is to be observed and that by opposition to the fashions of the Iewes amongst other things saith that it ought not to be kept by eating meats prepared and kept the day before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sheweth that the Iewes prepared not their meat on the Sabbath day but the day before which for this cause they have called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Preparation Mar. 15. 42. because on it they prepared all that was needfull for the Sabbath following As also the same name for the same reason is given to the day that went immediately before the first day of the unleavened bread of the Passeover This abstinence from making ready all kinde of meat on the Sabbath day was undoubtedly the cause that moved some Pagans to beleeve and say that the Iewes fasted on that day as we see in the one and thirtieth Booke of the History of Iustin and in the life of Augustus Caesar written by Suetonius chap. 76. 8 The inference which is made from equality or rather odsof reason that sith the Law permitted the Iews to lead their cattell to the water on the Sabbath day as is cleare by the testimony of S. Luk. 13. 15. it permitted them also to prepare their own meat is of no value For there is not a like necessity of the last as of the first A man must every day water his beast that it may be fed entertained but it is not necessary that a man prepare meat every day for himselfe for he may in the day before prepare meat enough for the day following The inference that can be lawfully and in equall tearmes made of the foresaid permission concerning a mans beast is that farre more should a man be licensed to eat and drinke on the Sabbath day if he be an hungred or a thirst and give meat and drink to another that is very hungry or dry yea to make meat ready too in an urgent and present necessity of hunger and thirst in case there were not any already prepared to be found which I would not deny but the Law did permit But it followeth not hereof that it was permitted to make an ordinary preparation of meat on the Sabbath day as on other dayes and to deferre the preparation thereof which might have beene wisely done the day before till the Sabbath day which is the point in question and which I have clearely shewed before to be expresly forbidden by the Law Exod. 16. 23. Which ordained not for the time onely of the abode of the people in the wildernesse but also for all their generations in time to come that all workes necessary for the Sabbath should be prepared before it came 9 Wherein may be considered a type and a mysterie God giving to understand thereby that during the time of this life we ought to prepare good workes to the end we may injoy the profit and utility issuing of them and eat their fruit as the Scripture speaketh in the eternall Sabbath of the life to come and not to differre from day to day till that great Sabbath come the preparing of our lampes and filling them with abundance of oyle left we knocke and cry in vaine Lord Lord open unto us Matth. 25. 1. c. Mat. 7. vers 22 23. 10 As for the prohibition to kindle fire on the Sabbath day Exod 35. vers 3. it is cleare that it speaketh not onely what the Israelites were to do in the wildernesse but also in Canaan The words are plaine Ye shall kindle no fire thorowout or in any of your habitations upon the Sabbath day which words thorowout or in any of your habitations ought to be referred rather to the land of Canaan than to the wildernesse because it was in Canaan that they were to have their habitations and seats as is implied by the word in the originall whereas in the wildernesse they sojourned onely in tabernacles And it is very unreasonable to imagine that because immediately after mention is made of the building of the Tabernacle of God this prohibition to kindle fire on the Sabbath day had respect onely unto it as if God had forbidden onely to kindle fire for preparing and fitting their tooles and imploying them on that day about that work For although the speech of the building of the Tabernacle followeth immediately after the prohibition to kindle fire yet it followeth not that there is any connexion betweene these things and that they are relative one to another Nay they seeme rather to be dis-joyned and severed in the text it selfe For after
to Gods service to wit 1. If it be a thing of naturall justice of perpetuall necessity and whereunto all are tied by a morall commandement appertaining to the New as well as to the Old Testament that of seven daies of the weeke one be kept for the end aforesaid 2. If before the Law was given by Moses to the people of Israel yea if from the beginning of the world God himselfe made the particular designation of this day setting it apart for his service and commanding to Adam and to all his posterity the hallowing and keeping of it 3. If under the New Testament there be a divine ordinance of such a day of rest as well as there was under the Old Testament 4. And if by Gods command the consciences of faithfull Christians are under the Gospell as much obliged to hallow it as the Iewes were under the Law and for the better and more religious sanctification thereof to abstaine from all outward workes which are lawfull and are practised on other daies lest they should transgresse that divine Commandement and so finne against religion and conscience These are the maine points which some learned Divines and godly Christians instructed by them demurre upon 1. Some of them deeme that the keeping of one of the seven dayes of the weeke is a morall and naturall duty that God himselfe sanctified it for his service by an expresse and perpetuall Commandement that so it was from the beginning so it is still and shall never be otherwise till the end of the world 2. That before sin came into the world as soone as Adam was created God prescribed unto him and to Eve our first parents and in them to all men which were in their loynes and were to come out of them the hallowing of one day of the weeke which was the seventh day 3. That he reiterated and renewed this Commandement in the fourth precept of the morall Law which he gave in Horeb to the people of Israel and hath bound all Christians under the New Testament to hallow and keepe it religiously because it is of the same nature with the rest of the Commandements of the Decalogue which are all morall 4. That for this cause our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and his blessed Apostles have ordained and prescribed it unto them And so all men have beene all men are all men shall in all times be tied to the religious observation thereof by the necessity of a divine and morall Commandement 5. That we are bound in conscience by the binding power of this Commandement to refraine alwayes on this seventh day of Sabbath or of rest from all earthly workes used on the other dayes of the weeke 6. This onely they acknowledge that the particular observation of one constant day amongst these seven as of the first or of the last of seven is not morall nor of a like obligation under the Old and under the New Testament that it is onely a point of order and of ecclesiasticall government which God did otherwise order and settle under the Old than he hath done under the New Testament That under the Old Testament from the creation of the world till the comming of Christ he ordained the observation of the last day of the weeke in remembrance that he created the world in six dayes and rested on the seventh or last day from all the works that he had made whereas he hath ordained that under the New Testament the first day of the weeke shall be religiously solemnized in remembrance that on that day our Lord Iesus Christ rose from death to life and by the exceeding greatnesse of the power of his glorious resurrection hath performed the worke of the second creation which is the redemption of the world from the slavery of the devill the power of the Law the bondage of sinne And therefore it behooveth the first worke of the Creation to yeeld to this worke the prerogative of excellencie of nature as likewise of the possession which it had till then of the solemne day of rest That for this cause so important and peremptory the day of Gods service was to bee changed and removed from the last day of the weeke wherein was finished the first Creation unto the first day wherin the second was fully accomplished by our Lord Iesus Christ who hath himselfe appointed this alteration 5 Others doe hold that verily it is a duty naturall morall and perpetuall to serve God publikely 1. That all men are obliged unto it and bound to meet together in the Church for that purpose 2. That being there they ought to give their mindes to the exercises of religion with a more particular earnestnes diligence than they are able to do every day at home or abroad 3. That they must have a set day purposely stinted for the fulfilling of a duty so religious so necessary and so fruitfull 4. But that such a day must be one of seven or of another number which in order of that nūber they deny to be a morall point to have in it any naturall necessity For their tenet is that it is a thing of order of Ecclesiastical government depending intirely of institution 5. That indeed under the Law which God gave by Moses to the children of Israel this holy and most perfect Law-giver amongst other points whereby he directed the Ecclesiasticall order and Church-government which that people was to be ruled by instituted and commanded the consecrating of a severall day for his service even of one of seven and of the last of those seven which he had rested on from all his works a most strict precise forbearance of all worldly works on that day 6. But appeareth not at all that God gave any commandement to Adam either before or after his fall binding him or his progenie to the keeping of any day whatsoever as to a thing morall and necessarie neither is there any trace of such a Commandement to be found till the comming of the Israelites to the wildernesse for till then God had left it free 7. That under the New Testament one day of seven is kept to wit the first day of the weeke wherein our Lord Iesus Christ rose from the dead But not for any morall necessity tying all men to observe one day of the weeke Nay not for any expresse Commandement which God the onely Law-giver hath given by Iesus Christ or his Apostles to keepe such a day and namely the first but through an usage which hath beene introduced and conserved in the Christian Church since her first beginnings till this present time 8. That therefore this observation is simply of Ecclesiasticall order and that a cessation from ordinary workes on this day is more particularly requisite than in another day of the weeke seeing the Church hath appointed and set it apart for Gods publike service Yea that an universall refraining from all these workes to the intent that the whole day bee without
Hesiode who speaketh not of a seventh day of the weeke but of a seventh day of the moneth consecrated to the remembrance of Apollo's birth and whose holinesse was not thought by him nor others to have a more ancient beginning I say further that these Writers lived many hundred yeeres after the Law was given by Moses to the Iewes that some knowledge of the points of the said Law and by it of the keeping of the seventh day might have come unto them but under a cloud so thicke and darke that they spoke of it as all the Poets have done of the Floud saying that on the seventh day all things were made whereas on it nothing was made Some of those which lay hold on such passages seeing this acknowledge freely that they are not strong enough to inforce men to beleeve that from the beginning and in all times the Gentiles celebrated the seventh day and made of it a day of rest 10 Indeed if wee could finde that the Gentiles have commonly and regularly observed from time to time a seventh day though not the same seventh to wit the last of seven that God rested in and hallowed a more probable inference might be made of that continuall practice that the observation of a seventh day is of the Law of nature or at least that God from the beginning injoyned it to all mankinde and that so it passed by tradition to the Gentiles yet not without receiving some alteration and corruption by processe of time and by the trechery of men But no such thing is to be found nothing can be gathered out of the ancient Writers saving this onely that the Gentiles have kept holy and solemne daies yet with great diversitie which fits not the turne of the maintainers of the Sabbath but availeth onely to prove that the hallowing of some daies to the God-head for his solemne service is a point of the law of nature further it goeth not and is no manner of way steading to prove the necessity of the consecration of a particular day amongst a setled number rather then of another day and farre lesse of a seventh day for Gods service 11 I repeat what I have said before in part that if the keeping of a seventh day had beene a point of naturall morality and if God had commanded it from the beginning to Adam Father of all mankinde to be kept by him and by all his off-spring after him all the Gentiles in all times should have knowne and practised it either by naturall instinct or by Tradition as they had the knowledge of all other morall duties and in some measure practised them Of if they had utterly forgotten that day GOD had rebuked them for this omission and inobservation as he reprehended them most sharply for the transgression of all the rest of morall Commandements As indeed they had beene for such an omission and commission blame worthy chiefly after they were informed by the renued institution of this day among the Iewes that GOD had ordained it from the beginning of the world to be kept by all men they should not have found any pretence to excuse the ignorance of their duty whereby they were bound to keepe holy that day if as it is pretended the fourth Commandement of the Law implyed an universall observation of that dutie amongst all people and Nations of the world For if they beleeved not that the Commandement did belong to them their unbeliefe could not be unto them a cause of excuse and make them blamelesse Nay they were so much the more worthy of reprehension that their blindnesse was voluntary And in such a case God had not beene silent 12 Some of those that acknowledge the Ordinance of the Sabbath to be a positive cōmandement unknowne by nature and depending wholly of institution yet as ancient as the creation of our first Parents reply that God did not checke the Gentiles for the inobservation of the Sabbath because hee had matters worthy of reprehension of farre greater consequence then this was namely hainous crimes against the Law of nature common to them all which made him to conceale this under the cloake of silence as being onely an omission of a positive Law forgotten by them and of farre lesser consequence then these monstrous and ougly sinnes That no man can infer of this silence that the Ordinance of the Sabbath hath not beene and was not obligatory from the beginning seeing we finde some crimes committed even against the Law of nature which GOD hath not in any part of holy Scripture censured in the Gentiles As for example Polygamy or having of moe than one wife at once And yet no Christian will inferre thence that the mariage of two persons only to be one flesh hath not beene established by God from the beginning to be practised of all men 13 This reply is of small weight For although the forgetting and inobservation of the Sabbath be a crime lesser than are many which are committed against the Law of nature and that might have beene a reason to God to censure it more seldome and not so eagerly in the Gentiles as he did in his owne people yet in all likenesse of truth it could not bee a reason to his wisdome and goodnesse why he should not reprove it at all but passe it under perpetuall silence whiles he rebuked in diverse places most carefully their other crimes seeing that when he made reflexion upon the Iewes although the inobservation of the Sabbath considered in it selfe was in them also a crime of lesser moment then others whereby they violated the morall Law neverthelesse hee hath most frequently and sharpely imputed it unto them If the renewing of the Sabbath to them as is pretended was afterwards to God a sufficient ground and just reason to reprove them grievously both for the oblivion and for the contempt thereof when now and then they transgressed in the one or in the other supposing the first institution of the Sabbath to have beene made for all men and given to all from the beginning of the world why was it not also a just cause to chide the Gentiles if not so eagerly as the Iewes yet in some sort for transgressing it namely when GOD set himselfe purposely to condemne their faults and so much the more that the oblivion of it could not in any sort bee a colourable excuse to helpe them Moreover the neglecting of such a day continually by sinne of omission for want of observation and not only the setting at naught but also the profaning of that day which God had ordained to be holy and to be used in all nations with great holinesse for so notable and so worthy an end as is the commemoration of that great worke of the Creation common to all men and so falling into the most filthy sinne of commission for polluting the said day by doing all kind of workes and actions contrary to the sanctification thereof and thus heaping transgression upon
many recent and orthodoxe Divines deny it directly Amongst those that affirme it the most learned and renowned dare not avouch it but as a thing uncertaine and probable only And amongst those that most confidently stand unto it Some are constrained to call in question if the Patriarkes kept it after the manner which was afterwards prescribed to the Iewes to wit with a strict obligation of an exact cessation from all workes as from kindling of fire c. Exod. 35. ver 3. All these thought it a thing unsutable to the condition of the Patriarkes that they should have been loaden with so many scruples and difficulties Neverthelesse it is most probable that if God had charged them with the keeping of the Sabbath day he would also have tyed them to this intermission of workes in consideration whereof it was called the Sabbath it represented and called to remembrance GODs resting from all his workes and was a type of the spirituall eternall and glorious rest of the faithfull in the kingdome of heaven which was the principall end of the institution thereof I might stuffe the paper with the testimonies of all the foresaid Authors if I had not resolved to dispute by arguments taken out of holy Scripture and from reason and not by authorities of men 6 Divers Replies are made against this argument to impaire the strēgth debace the worth therof when I say it is not written that the Patriarchs observed the Sabbath and therefore they kept it not And first they suppose that they celebrated divers fasts whereof no mention is made in the Booke of holy Scripture which is indeed a meere supposition if fasting be taken properly for daies of abstinence from all kind of meat through devotion and for religious ends For where is that written If it be not written as it is not why may I not mistrust gain-say and deny it and pray the authors of this reply to defend their cause not with forcelesse and deniable suppositions but with powerfull and undeniable reasons from Scripture or from Nature Now supposing their supposition to be as true as I suppose it to be false doe they not know that fasting is not a part of Gods service that God hath not beene earnest about it that by the Law of Moses which exacted so many kindes of serviceable devotions he commanded no ordinary and stinted fast saving a yeerely one for a typicall reason on the feast of atonement Levit. 16. verse 29. 30. 31. and Levit. 23. vers 27. 29 that he prescribed not any before the Law and hath not injoyned any to Christians under the Gospell Therefore God having left the indiction and observation of such fasts free as the Patriarchs should thinke fit although now and then they had humbled themselves before God with extraordinary fasting It is no marvell that no mention is made thereof in the History of their religious exercises because it was not one of them but at the most a certaine helpe unto them or an accidentall dependancy on them The same must be said of all other doings of the Patriarches which either did not belong to Gods service or were not of great importance For it was not needfull that the Scripture should tell us all things done by them in their imployments about the affaires of this present life This cannot be said of the observation of the Sabbath day For seeing it is pretended to be morall that God from the beginning of the world ordained it to Adam and to all his progeny that it hath alwaies been necessary for his service undoubtedly it had beene mentioned in the History of the Patriarchs if they had practised it But seeing it is not so much as once named this perpetuall silence theweth in all likelihood that they never practised it that therefore all that is pretended to the contrary is untrue This as I have said the most part of the ancient and many of our modern Divine confirme by their consent 7 Secondly some doe make another reply saying that albeit the Patriarches had not kept the Sabbath day nothing can be thence concluded saving an oblivion and negligence of that day which should not call in question the first institution and observation therof no more then Polygamie which is the having at once of moe wives then one practised in their time not onely by Infidels but by them also can justifie that the holy Law of marriage betweene two persons onely was not established from the beginning To this I answer that there is no even match betweene these two For the Scripture teacheth us cleerely in the History of the creation that in the beginning God formed but one man and one woman which he took from man and established marriage between them two onely that they might be twaine in one flesh and no more and that Adam had a perfect and cleere knowledge of this truth Genes 2. vers 22 23 24. Likewise in other places of the Ancient Testament Malac. 2. vers 15. and of the New Testament Matth. 19. vers 4 5. Mark 10. vers 7 8. Ephes. 5. vers 31. the unseparable union of two persons in wedlocke is confirmed by the institution of marriage in the beginning Moreover this institution is grounded on justice and honesty knowne of Pagans which had no light given them by instruction from the Word of God All the holy Fathers that were before the flood observed it faithfully The first that violated it was Lamech a man of the posterity of wicked Cain of whom it is recorded as a thing extraordinary and new that he tooke unto him two wives Genes 4. vers 19. Wherefore if after the flood some practised polygamie no man can thence make a sound inference that by Gods institution it was so from the beginning seeing the contrary is evident and undeniable And that abuse of marriage by plurality of wives among the Patriarches must be imputed to some other reasons What if among the Israelites many stumbled at the same stone Who will inferre thence that God had not forewarned them to take heed to their waies forebidding them to multiply their wives by an expresse Law which may be seene Levit. 18. vers 18. and Deut. 17. vers 17 But seeing wee can no where finde that before the Law was given by Moses the Patriarches kept the seventh day of rest we have good reason to make a question if that day was instituted from the beginning of the world For the institution thereof appeareth not cleerely in the Historie of the creation it is not in any part of the Bible referred to that first time neither is it grounded on any naturall or morall righteousnesse as shall be seene largely hereafter This is a sufficient answer to a third reply which some would faine take from purity of reason Saying that as in the beginning God made but one man and one woman and matched them together to be one body and to beget a lawfull and holy posterity Mal. 2. vers
be not the same seventh day who will not conceive that it had not well become the Apostle to condemne the observation of Iudaicall daies namely of the particular day of the Iewish Sabbath as being a yoake and a ceremony of the Law considering that in the meane while hee tied the Christians to the odinary and precise observation of a stinted day even of a seventh day of Sabbath which was all one seeing the day onely had been changed and the yoake and the ceremony had been still kept For the yoake and bondage of the Law consisted in the observation of certaine stinted daies and namely of a seventh day of Sabbath by Gods Ordinance and obligation of conscience and not in keeping the last seventh day rather than another seeing otherwise it is not a heavie yoake nor a greater bondage to keepe the last then to keepe the first of the seven daies of the weeke CHAPTER ninth REASON 9. 1 A most forcible argument out of the Epistle to the Colossians Chap. 2. vers 16. where the Apostle teacheth that Christian mens conscience is not tied to the keeping of holy daies and of Sabbaths 2 Answer is made that the naming of Sabbaths in the plurall number sheweth they must be understood of the Sabbaths of holy daies and not of the weekely Sabbath 3 First reply In the name of a holy day the Sabbaths thereof are included 4 Second reply Sabbaths in the plurall number include necessarily the weekely Sabbath which also is most frequently called Sabbaths in holy Scripture 5 Third reply The Apostle by Sabbaths understandeth onely the weekely Sabbath 6 Fourth reply The weekely Sabbath did belong to the Law of Commandements which is abolished and the Apostle speaketh without exception indefinitely of the â—â—â—gation of holy dayes and Sabbaths 7. Thence it followeth that the fourth Commandement in so farre as it stinteth the seventh day for Gods service is not morall 1 OF the same nature is the passage in the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians verse 16. Let no man judge you in meat or in drinke or in distinction of a holy day or of the new Moone or of Sabbaths Where the Apostle teacheth that under the New Testament the conscience of beleevers is not bound to make distinction and observation of any holy day and namely of Sabbaths neither altogether nor in part no more than of meats and of drinkes ranking all those with the ordinances and shadowes which have beene abrogated by Iesus Christ ver 14 17. For like as in matters concerning meat and drinke nature hath necessarily need of them for the entertainment of the body but the conscience is not now bound to that distinction of them which was of old prescribed by the Law of Moses even so it is necessary for the maintenance of the Soule that times bee appointed for Gods publike service in the Church but mens conscience is no more subjected to a seventh day which the Law prescribed to the Iewes 2 To this passage answer is made that the Apostle speaketh of the Iewish holy dayes the Passeover Pentecost c. and of divers Sabbaths which the Iewes observed such as were the first and last day of some annuall feasts which lasted many dayes to wit of the Passeover of the feast of Tabernacles of the feast of Propitiations which was kept on the tenth day of the seventh moneth every seventh yeere which was the Sabbath of rest unto the land because in it they did neither sow their field nor prune their Vineyards every fiftieth yeere which was a jubile All which times are called Sabbaths in the Scripture But it s denyed that he speaketh of the Sabbath day which God had ordained to be kept weekely as well under the New as under the Old Testament For which cause the Apostle speaketh of Sabbaths in the plurall number and not of a Sabbath in the fingular number to signifie that he understood those Sabbaths and not this 3 This answer is not sufficient For the Apostle speaketh generally of an holy day and of Sabbaths saying that we should not be judged or condemned in distinction and separation or part and respect of an Holy day and putting the word signifying an Holy day in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word denoteth any holy day whatsoever Now if we be bound for conscience sake to the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath if we be tyed by Religion to make a distinction of dayes if we be condemned for the omission of that pretended duty are wee not condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in distinction of an Holy day 4 Againe seeing he speaketh of Sabbath in the plurall number with what reason can it be affirmed that his intention was to speak only of the Sabbaths of certaine yeerely feasts and not of the ordinary Sabbath of every weeke although he useth a word befitting it aswell yea more than the rest and including it infallibly in its plurality Namely seeing this word is much more used in the plurall number then in the fingular and is ordinarily taken both in the New and in the Old Testament for the Sabbath whereof wee treat The seventy Greeke translators of the Old Testament are accustomed to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall number when in Hebrew mention is made of the ordinary Sabbath of the weeke in the singular number as we may see Exod. 16. ver 23 26 29. Exod. 20. uer 8 10. Exod. 31. ver 16. Exod. 35. v. 2 3. Levit. 23. v. 3. Levit. 24. ver 8. Numb 28. 2 9. Deut. 5. ver 12 14 15. and else where conformably to them This plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the same sence by the writers in the New Testament as Matthew 12. verse 1 5 10 12. Matth. 28. ver 1. Mark 1. ver 21. Mark 2. ver 24 28. Mark 3. ver 2. Luk. 4. ver 16 31. Luk. 13. ver 10. Iohn 20. ver 1 19. Acts 13. ver 14. Acts 16. ver 13. Acts 17. ver 2. I say therefore that to conclude that the Apostle in the foresaid passage speaketh not of the Sabbath day which returned weekely because he useth the word Sabbath in the plurall number is a weake argument seeing in the Scriptures stile and manner of speaking this word in the plurall number hath a single signification Nay it may bee affirmed with good reason that the Apostle when he speaketh of Sabbaths understands only the ordinary Sabbath of the seventh day and under the name going before of an Holy day hath comprehended all other Sabbaths which God had commanded in the Law even as God himselfe in Leviticus Chapter 23. ver 37. by the word Feasts understandeth all other solemne dayes which he had commanded and ver 38. by the word Sabbaths the seventh day in every weeke according to the ordinary signification thereof not only in the Greeke but also in the Hebrew tongue to which purpose there is a most manifest
those which did not sticke for conscience sake to eate all kinde of meates because they esteemed them all to bee indifferent were strong and those which were scrupulous for conscience sake to eate any thing but hearbes were weake even so accordingly to that wee must ac-acknowledge those which made no difference of dayes for conscience sake but esteemed all dayes equally to have beene strong and those which esteemed one day above another to have beene weake 4 Secondly I cannot see how any man should imagine that the Apostle in his judgement esteemed those to be weake which esteemed every day alike seeing to esteeme every day equally without distinction of any day for conscience sake putting the case there were a fault in that opinion cannot be called weakenesse and infirmity in the sence wherein this word weakenesse is taken by the Apostle in this place and in other places of the Gospell For weaknes and infirmity is said to be in a man when there is a defect in his beliefe concerning things which are lawfull to him that is to say when hee beleeveth not that to bee lawfull which is lawfull unto him and therefore refraineth for conscience sake from that which he is not bound to forbeare So he who beleeveth that it is not lawfull unto him to eate all kinde of meates although God hath given him the free use of them all is weake and infirme But when there is excesse in his beliefe when I say he beleeveth to have liberty to doe that which is not lawfull unto him to doe and doth it without any respect of conscience unto it that is not in the Scriptures language called weakenes but rather ignorance error mistaking If then those which esteemed every day alike had failed in this point as they had done of necessity if there had beene any fault in them they had never beene esteemed and called weake by the Apostle as they are pretended to have beene but rather ignorant errants nay dissolute loose profane 5 Verily if it were true that Iesus Christ had ordained the observation of a set day of rest that the Apostles had commanded it that the Church had practised it as a divine ordinance and as a morall point belonging to Religion as is pretended these Christians who could not bee ignorant of such things and neverthelesse esteemed every day alike established not religion and a point of conscience in any of them and made no greater account of the Lords day then of any other day were of necessity profane men and no better reckoning was to be made of them Yet the Apostle reputeth them not to bee such For he forbiddeth to judge and condemne them as hee will not have them to judge and condemne those that were of contrary opinion ver 3. 10. 6 Nay he affirmeth that those which regarded not the day to the Lord regarded it not verse 6. the meaning of which words is that in so doing they had regard to the glory and obedience due to God knowing that he had made them free from the distinction of dayes and received them being well pleased with that which they did Now supposing the morality of the Sabbath and the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles which made the observation thereof a necessary point of Religion which these men could not be ignorant of I cannot conceive how not regarding the day for Religion and conscience sake to the Lord they regarded it not seeing they had rather sinned against the Lord by not regarding it For they had manifestly vilipended him by their misbeliefe whereby they esteemed not the observation of a day of rest which they knew to be morall and most straitely commanded of God to bee a necessary point of Religion It is therefore more conformable to reason that those which made distinction of dayes and esteemed one above onother were weak And in this doe all the interpreters agree Neverthelesse the Apostle saith with good reason of these weake ones that what they did they did it to the Lord because they did it through devotion and tendernesse of conscience having some Religious ground which was a colourable excuse to their infirmitie and made it tolerable not only to men but to God also 7 Now it being so that the Apostle did write to the Romans who were Gentiles converted to the Christian faith wee may esteeme with great appearance that this day which some of them through infirmitie had so much regard unto was Sunday which was kept in the Church not by any divine Ordinance not also through necessity of Religion but simply by an ecclesiasticall custome in remembrance that on that day Christ rose from death unto life was esteemed of them a day of necessary observation in and for it selfe which others better instructed esteemed not This being so establisheth throughly the opinion that I defend and evicts the other But although the Apostle had intended to speake of dayes commanded in the Old Testament by the Law of Moses to the religious observation whereof many not as yet well instructed in the knowledge of Evangelicall liberty thought themselves to be bound for conscience sake the argument remaineth as strong as can be 8 For howsoever the Apostle his meaning be taken he speaketh generally and imputeth to infirmity of knowledge and of conscience under the Gospell the esteeming of one day above another and to strength and firmenesse the esteeming of all dayes alike which he neither could nor should have pronounced so in generall tearmes if at the same time there had beene a set day of rest binding the conscience of Christians to observe it for its owne sake as being morall and for Gods sake who had commanded it For by this meanes those had not well done so farre were they from being strong in knowledge and conscience for esteeming every day equally which they should not have done But the others had done well and religiously to esteeme one day above another so far were they from being weak which yet notwithstanding is manifestly against the scope of the Apostle who declareth them to be weak not simply as we have touched heretofore for observing a certaine day but for keeping it with a consciencious regard and opinion of a religious obligation particular unto it more than to any other day which is the only thing worthy to be blamed and might be a just cause of offence CHAPTER Eleventh REASON II. 1. The Sabbath was to the Israelites a signe of their sanctification 2. Not only in the toylesome ages of this mortall life but also in the eternity and rest of the life to come 3. Through IESUS CHRIST who hath perfectly accomplished the benefits which it represented imperfectly 4. And therefore it was to continue till his comming only 5. This truth is confirmed in the Epistle to the Hebrewes by the type of the bodily rest of the people in the land of Canaan 6. As also by the type of Gods rest on the Seventh day 7. Gods rest and
consideration thereof they were commanded to keepe the Sabbath day which is the thing that God pronounceth most expressely in the place lately cited Deut. 5. verse 15. and Ezek. 20. verse 11 12. where upon that hee had said ver 10. that hee caused the Israelites to goe forth out of the land of Aegypt he addeth and I gave them my statutes moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths c. 2 Secondly seeing the Sabbath day was ordained to be a memoriall of a benefit particular to the Israelites to wit of their deliverance out of the land of Aegypt and of their separation from all other nations it followeth that the Sabbath day obligeth not Christians under the New Testament as if it were morall and as if God had â—â—dained it by an expresse commandement to continue till the worlds end For this end of the Sabbath to be a memoriall of their deliverance and separation from all other people dwelling upon the face of the earth with the other end afore mentioned to be a figurative signe of Iesus Christ to come and of the saving benefits which were to be purchased by him made up the whole use of the Sabbath Of which end neither the one nor the other doth belong to the New Testament 3 The faithfull Christians are a people more spirituall then the Iewes were because they are under the Gospell which is an estate more spirituall and heavenly then was the condition of Gods people under the Law for which cause it is called the kingdome of heaven And therefore all dayes under the Gospell should be to all the faithfull that live in that blessed and heavenly estate as many Sabbath dayes more particularly then to the Iewes to rest from their sinnes and to give themselves to prayers calling upon the Name of the Lord to reading and meditation of his holy Word and to other religious exercises of godlinesse according to the words in Isaiah Chapter 66. v. 23. if they be applyed unto the estate of the Church under the Gospell as they may be and indeed are so expounded by many interpreters when it is there said that then there shall be no more New Moones nor Sabbaths distinguished by intervalls and spaces of times but one Sabbath shall succeed immediately to another Sabbath and that all the dayes of the weeke and of the whole yeere shall bee as Sabbaths unto them This is the conclusion of all that hath beene said in this first part which shall be more fully confirmed by the refutation of the arguments that are brought to maintaine the morality of the Sabbath Which refutation shall bee the subject of the second part of this Treatise THE SECOND PART wherein the reasons brought to justifie the morality and perpetuity of a Seventh day of Sabbath are confuted CHAPTER First First Answer to the first Reason 1. The opinion of those that hold the morality of a Seventh day of Sabbath cleerely set downe 2. Their first Reason taken out of Genesis Chapter 2. ver 2 3. Where it is said that God rested on the Seventh day from all his workes and blessed the Seventh day and sanctified it c. 3. First answer to this Reason Moses writing the History of the Creation after the Law was given declareth occasionally the cause that moved God to blesse and sanctifie the Seventh day to the Iewes according to the custome of the Scripture to joyne things done long before with those that were done long after as if they had beene done together and at one time 4. Confirmation of this by places named by anticipation 5. By that which is written Exod. 16. ver 33 34. where it is said that Aaron laid up in a Pot an Omer of Manna before the Testimony which was not done many yeeres after 6. And by the History of Davids combat with Goliah 1 Sam. 17. Where it is written ver 54. that David tooke the head of the Philistine and brought it to Ierusalem but he put his armour in his tent although there was a great intervall of time betweene these two actions 7. This joyning of things farre removed in time is not unsutable to him that speaketh or writeth 8. First instance against this answer taken from the connexion of the third verse with the second from the same tence used in both and from the identitie of the same seventh day spoken of in both c. 9. First answer to this instance shewing that in the holy Scripture things distant in-time are expressed by words of the same tence when the one hath some dependancie upon the other 10. Application of this answer to the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day in Moses his time joyned with Gods rest after the creation because it was the foundation of that blessing 11. Second answer It was not the same particular seventh day after the creation but the same by revolution which God sanctified 12. Third answer the Hebrew article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmeth not that the seventh day which God blessed was the same seventh day wherein he rested 13. Second instance as Gods blessing of his creatures after they were made was present so was his blessing of the seventh day immediately after the creation 14. Answer to this instance the reason is not alike 15. Confirmation of the answer made to the words of Moses in Genesis by the conformity of the same words used in the commandement given to the Iewes concerning the Sabbath 16. As also because the Sabbath was not hallowed for Adam who in the estate of innocency had no need of such a day 17. First instance Adam was taught by Gods example that hee stood in need of such a day refuted 18. Second instance as God ordained Sacraments to Adam so he ordained to him a seventh day of rest refuted by a reason shewing the nullity of that consequence 19. And by the excellency of Adams condition to which the ordination of such a day was derogatory 20. Third instance as Gods rest on the Seventh day was the foundation of the commandement given to the Iewes to rest on that day so was it from the beginning refuted 1 THose that hold the second opinion doe say that the keeping of a Seventh day of Sabbath is a morall thing which from the beginning of the world should continue to the end thereof with this difference only that God before and till the comming of Iesus Christ had ordained that the last day of the weeke wherein hee rested from all the workes which hee had made when he created the world should be sanctified by all men in remembrance of the creation and of his rest on that day But since the manifestation of Iesus Christ it was his will that instead of the last day of the weeke the first day wherein Christ rising from among the dead rested from the work of our redemption should be observed in the Christian Church for a memoriall of this worke which being more excellent then the former it was beseeming
had their full performance he taking occasion of the historicall narration which he was writing of the first Manna which God sent to his people relateth also the Ordinance that God gave to put a pot full of it in the Tabernacle before the Arke and the execution of the said Ordinance which neverthelesse must be referred to a long time after 6 So in the first Booke of Samuel and in the 17. chapter after the narration made of Davids combat against Goliah of his victory of that Giant and of the defeat of the Philistins it is added in the Text verse 54. And David tooke the head of the Philistine and brought it to Ierusalem but hee put his armour into his Tent which notwithstanding was not done but after that David being anointed King tooke the whole towne of Ierusalem from the Iebusites with the strong hold of Sion and dwelled in it calling it the City of David 2 Sam. 5. vers 7. 9. And therefore our French translation in the foresaid place 1 Sam. 17. addeth the word depuis that is since saying And David since brought the head of the Philistine to Ierusalem and put his armes in his Tabernacle to shew that David did not this as soone as he had overthrowne the Philistine although it be related in the Text jointly and at once with his combat and victory as if both had happened together because when that history was a writing the transportation of the head and armes of Goliah to Ierusalem and to the fort of Sion was done And therefore it is related by occasion as it were with one breath in consequence of the victory gotten over him Other examples might be found to this purpose if it were needfull 7 To keepe this course in discoursing and writing is no wise unfitting nor misbecomming If any writing under the New Testament the History of the first Creation of the world and relating the forming of light on the first day should adde by occasion And it is also on the first day that the true light of the world hath shined by his resurrection from the dead and for that cause wee observe that day Or if re-hearzing that God brought forth bread out of the earth to strengthen mans heart and Wine to make it glad he should adde joyntly upon this occasion And it is in this bread and in this Wine which nourish the body that Iesus Christ hath instituted the Sacrament of the nourishment of the soule by him who should finde any thing blame-worthy in such discourses Wherfore then Moses might he not most fitly by occasion of that hee had written of the Seventh day and of Gods rest in it in the History of the Creation touch also in the same discourse the edict made about the sanctification of that day seeing that edict had a great sway when he wrote the History of the Creation and Gods rest on the Seventh day was the cause and reason thereof although it was not so ancient as the first Seventh day 8 Against this answer the instance hath no force which they urge from the conjunction and whereby the third verse is joyned with the second that is the blessing and hallowing of the Seventh day with the finishing of the workes of God and of his rest on that day as being done at the same time and expressed in words of the same tence and moode Nor what they say further that in these two verses as most cleerely appeareth the whole discourse is of the same Seventh day and as in the second verse is understood the first Seventh day wherein God after he had finished his workes rested likewise in the third verse it is understood so when it is said that he blessed and sanctified the Seventh day which is also expressed by the demonstrative Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew that it was the same Seventh day that otherwise the reason which is added and taken from the rest of God should be worthlesse because God did not rest from the worke of Creation on that day which he ordained to the Iewes to be their Sabbath day but on that day wherein hee finished first all his workes 9 For I answer to this that the conjunction and may well enough joyne things distant in time and farre removed one from another that also they may be expressed by words of the same tence and moode specially if they have any connexion and dependancy one upon another as in this place The blessing and hallowing of the Seventh day although done long after Gods rest on the Seventh day dependeth upon that rest as upon the cause and reason which was an occasion to God to make it In the Texts before mentioned of Exodus 16. Chapter the 32. and 33. verses and of the 17. Chapter of the first booke of Samuel in the 54. verse which expresse manifestly things done many yeares after these which are rehearsed before but depending on them are joyned to the verses immediately going before by the conjunction and which is diverse time reiterated and the words whereby these diverse things are expressed are set downe in the same tence and moode It imports not that in these examples the thing subsequent joyned straight with the precedent was not a great deale so farre remote in time from it because both hapned within the space of the age of one man as should be in the Text of Genesis before cited the sanctification of the Seventh day from Gods rest on the Seventh day if this being past on the first Seventh day after the Creation that came not to passe till the dayes of Moses which should be an intervall of more than two thousand yeeres For when two things separated and distant in time are to bee coupled together in a discourse if so bee the one hang upon the other those that are remote by many thousand of yeares may be joyned together as well as those of twenty or forty yeeres distance Neither doe I see wherefore it is not as allowable and convenient to rehearse at once a thing come to passe two thousand yeeres and more after another that it relyeth on notwithstanding there be a great intervall of time betweene as to recite one chanced twenty or forty yeares after another whereunto it hath some relation In the one and in the other there is the same reason and the same liberty 10 Wherefore the blessing of the Seventh day made in the dayes of Moses might bee fitly coupled with the Rest of God after the Creation which was the foundation thereof notwithstanding any whatsoever distance of time betweene them As indeed it is so joyned in the fourth Commandement Exodus Chapter 20. verse 11. where GOD speaking to the Israelites saith In sixe dayes the LORD made heaven and earth and rested the Seventh day wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it In which place cannot be understood a blessing and hallowing done at the same time that God rested first on the Seventh day but
that only which was made in behalfe of the Israelites as is cleere by the repetition of the Law in the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomie where that which was absolutely said in Exodus Therfore the Lord blessed the Seventh day is restrained to the Israelites v. 15. Therefore the Lord commanded thee to keepe the Sabbath day And in Exodus 16. v. 29. The Lord hath given you the Sabbath And in the 31. Chap. ver 16 17. The Children of Israel shall keepe the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generation for a perpetuall covenant It is a signe betweene mee and the children of Israel for ever For in sixe dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the Seventh day he rested where it cannot be denyed but that with the end of the Creation and Gods rest on the Seventh day is immediately joyned the institution of the Sabbath to the Israelites at least in quality of a signe If then in that place Moses might speake after this manner and say God created in sixe dayes heaven and earth and rested the Seventh day and therefore he hath ordained to the Israelites the Sabbath day for a signe wherefore in the second of Genesis might he not say after the same manner God made heaven and earth in sixe dayes and finished them on the Seventh day and rested from all his workes and this his Rest on the Seventh day hath moved him to blesse ánd sanctifie that day to wit to the Israelites to be a signe unto them according to that hath been said in the places before mentioned which are an evident and cleere explication thereof 11 Neither is it any wise necessary as is pretended that in the second Chapter of Genesis in the second and third verses one and the same singular seventh day should be understood and that God hath precisely sanctified the same seventh day wherein he rested and rested on the same day that he sanctified and therefore because in the second verse the first seventh day after the Creation is understood it must be taken so in the third verse For it sufficeth to understand in the third verse the same seventh day in likenesse and revolution and generally a seventh day correspondent continually in order to that which GOD rested on after his workes of the sixe dayes And this reason that God rested on the first seventh day might have been to God a most reasonable cause to ordaine long after the sanctification of a seventh day answerable in all points to that first seventh day The sequell of Moses his discourse is as fitting in this regard as in the other As if I said our Lord Iesus Christ rose againe and rested from the worke of our redemption on the first day of the weeke wherefore the Church hath dedicated the first day of the weeke that hee rose in to be holy and solemne the sequele is good although it be not the same first singular day that Christ rose on and the Church hath consecrated but the same onely in likenesse and revolution yea although there passed a long time after the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour before the first day of the weeke could be well setled as a day of holy and religious exercises We say on Friday before Easter this day Christ hath suffered on the Ascension day this day Christ is ascended into heaven At Whitsunday On this day the Holy Ghost is come downe although those things came to passe on a certaine singular day which is past long agoe But we name so all the dayes following which correspond to that first day according to the similitude which is betweene them And we call the day of the Passion of the Ascension of the descent of the Holy Ghost those which are not such properly but onely have by revolution correspondancie with the first dayes wherein such things were done Even so when it is said in the third verse of the second Chapter of Genesis And therefore the Lord hath blessed the Seventh day and hath hallowed it because in it he hath rested from all his workes that is to be understood not of the same first day wherein hee rested but of a Seventh day answering unto it in the order and continuall succeson of dayes 12 The Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put in the third verse before the word that signifieth seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proveth not that it is a peculiar seventh even that seventh day that God rested in verse 2. For although the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be often used to betoken emphatically a thing singular and individuall already knowne and mentioned yet this is not universall For it is used much without any emphasis or expresse demonstration of any thing either singular or certaine yea simply to serve for an ornament and to make the word that it is joyned unto more full which use hath also in the Greeke tongue the article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verily in the third ver which we speak of in this place it is cleere that the said Article cannot be restrained to a seventh singular day as it is in the second verse Nay it betokeneth more generally a seventh day comprehending in it many singular dayes which by similitude in regard of the order and succession of times have reference and analogie to the first seventh day mentioned in the said second verse and have followed it from time to time at the end of sixe dayes For it is such a seventh day that God hath sanctified and not a singular seventh And that seventh day may bee called a particular seventh and considered as particularised by the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in effect in as much as it is not indifferently all seventh day or any of the seven dayes of the weeke that God hath sanctified but it is the last of them We seeke only to know when God began to blesse and to hallow it to men to be kept by them And I maintaine that this hallowing began not incontinent after the Creation was finished but more than two thousand yeeres after Neither is the contrary proved by this passage of Genesis 13 No greater weight hath another instance which is much urged that as in the course of the Creation when it is said that God after he had created every living thing blessed them Gen. 1. v. 21 22 27 28. is to be understood a present benediction and not put off to a long time Even so when in the second of Genesis with the perfection of the Creation on the seventh day is joyned the blessing and hallowing of that day a present sanctification is to be understood 14 For the reason is not alike in the one and in the other First the blessing of all living creatures and the blessing of the seventh day are not to be taken in the same sence That is a blessing of actuall and reall communication of goods and graces This is a blessing of destination to be solemnized by men Secondly
and the tree of knowledge of good and evill to speake properly were no more Sacraments to Adam then the other trees of the Garden yea then all other workes of God in all which he might have considered signes and markes of the grace and power of GOD But the one was unto him a meanes of the perpetuall conservation of his bodily life by eating of the fruit therof and the other an occasion to try his obedience by the prohibition made unto him to eate thereof Besides this the consequence is naught For to establish signes and Sacraments signifying to Adam the perpetuall grace of God and his immortality if he persevered in obedience and on the contrary threatning him with the disgrace of God and with death if he became a transgressor was not a thing repugnant to his condition in the state of innocency neither had it any unreasonablenesse joyned with it But to ordaine a particular day of rest to a man to whom all the dayes had beene Sabbaths and who day by day had served God as much as was necessary and as God did require of him was not a thing sutable and convenient to his condition As in the heavenly Paradise there is no particular day of Sabbath but a perpetuall Sabbath because there GOD is glorified without stint or ceasing by the heavenly Host even so in the terrestriall Paradise where man was righteous and holy and in a condition conforme in some sort to that of the kingdome of heaven and a figure thereof he had observed a perpetuall Sabbath to GOD. For although hee could not doe it so perfectly as it is done in heaven because he was obnoxious to the necessities of this naturall life neverthelesse hee might have done it and did it as perfectly as the quality and condition of his being here beneath could suffer so that it was no wise requisite that he should have a particular day of Sabbath 19 Nay I esteeme that to affirme that GOD ordained unto him a seventh day of Sabbath derogateth too much from the excellency of his condition For it is most sure that the determination of a particular time of GODs service made to a man expressely supposeth that he wants the commodity and is not able to serve GOD ordinarily or hath not an inclination and affection to doe it and it therefore must be layd upon him as a Yoake tying him thereunto and withdrawing him from his other occupations as also it is a marke of a servile condition in witnesse whereof the appointment of so many solemne dayes of Gods service under the Law was a part of the Yoke thereof from which God hath freed the state of the Gospell as being more free and more perfect wherein wee should be stirred up with a more free and voluntary affection to his service To one that is both able and willing to serve God continually every day as Adam was in that state of innocency and of perfect righteousnesse it is not needfull to limit a particular day And though a day chosen and picked out from others had beene usefull to Adam to the end that giving over all other things he might give himselfe intirely and only to Gods service doubtlesse God had left that choice to his liberty considering the wisedome and godlinesse wherewith he had endowed him 20 To say that since Gods rest on the seventh day after the labour of sixe dayes in the Creation was the foundation and the reason of the institution made in the Law of a seventh day to bee a Sabbath day the same reason being of the same force and use from the beginning of the world should have caused at that time the same ordinance and the same hallowing of the seventh day to all men it is a forceles consequence For there was not a like necessity of the institution of a particular day of rest in these first beginnings when Adam was in the state of innocency nor afterwards when the Church subsisted in a few families or particular persons as there hath been after the Church was become a great body of people having need of a stinted order and government whereof GOD would take the care upon himselfe and for that end among other points of ecclesiasticall order and rules of his service ordaine to his people of Israel growen to a great number a day of Sabbath and the seventh of the week taking for the foundation and reason of the institution of a seventh day his own resting on the seventh day which became at that time only a reason of this ordinance because God grounded himselfe thereupon to make it but it followeth not that before that time and from the beginning of the world this rest of God which was on the first seventh day should be a reason of the same ordinance That should be right and prove good if it were of its owne nature a reason absolutely necessary and a cause bringing forth unfallibly such an effect which is not Otherwise it should follow that God was bound to hallow the seventh day and could not sanctifie any other It is indeed a reason not of it selfe but only for as much as God thought fit and was pleased to ground upon it the sanctification of the seventh day Whereof this is a manifest proofe that under the New Testament this reason hath no force to make us observe the day of Gods rest Now there is no necessity obliging us to inferre that if God would and thought fit it should bee a reason in the time of the Law he was also willing and thought fit it should be a reason also before the Law and since the beginning of the world Whereas it is manifest by the reasons already alledged that it was very fit it should be so under the Law but was not so from the beginning and before the Law was given CHAPTER Second Three other answers to the first reason 1. Second answer although God had from the beginning sanctified the Seventh day he gave no commandement to man to sanctifie it 2. Third answer although God had sanctified the Seventh day with relation to man he had done it only with intention to command it afterwards to the Israelites under the Law 3. For in Scriptures sanctification is often taken for destination to some use in time to come 4. The Reply that so God should have rested on the Seventh day by destination only to rest afterwards refuted 5. Fourth answer although God had commanded Adam to hallow the Seventh day that proveth not the morality of the Sabbath but only the necessity of a set time for orders sake in Gods service 6. Whence no necessity can bee inferred of the observation of the same time stinted to Adam by all men 7. But rather of moe times to bee kept by them seeing all are sinners 1 BVt Secondly put the case that the mention made in the second Chapter of Genesis ver 3. Of Gods blessing and hallowing the seventh day should be understood as done at that
that they were in the wildernesse ver 13. 7 Secondly supposing that some of the Israelites had put the ordinance of the Sabbath out of minde this fault could not be common to all not forsooth to Moses Aaron Caleb Ioshuah and to other persons eminent in godlinesse and authority If these had it in memory how did they not put the people in minde of it to make them keepe it as soone as they were in the wildernesse in a full liberty to serve GOD without hinderance But so far were they from remembring it that it is noted ver 22. that all the rulers of the congregation who should have had best knowledge of the divine and ancient ordinances when they saw the people gather and prepare on the sixth day Manna for that day and for the seventh following according to the expresse command which Moses had given them were astonished at it as at a strange and extraordinary thing whereby they were moved to come to Moses and acquaint him with it who upon that occasion informed them of Gods ordinance concerning the day of Sabbath not as of an ancient but as of a new thing which was unknowne before unto them and which he had a fresh learned himselfe verse 23. So in the 29. verse he said to the Israelites See that the Lord hath given You the Sabbath speaking of it as of an ordinance particular to them 8 It is also mentioned elsewhere in the same respect as an observation which God had injoyned them particularly and as a prerogative proper unto them whereby GOD had separated them from all other nations and consecrated them to himselfe as he had done by the rest of the ceremonies of the Law of Moses This the Levites made a religious confession of in Nehemiah 9. Chapter verse 13 19. Thou camest downe upon Mount Sinai and spakest with them from heaven and gavest them right judgements true Lawes good statutes and commandements and madest knowne unto them thy Sabbath c. This the Lord said to them by Ezekiel in the twentieth Chapter ver 10 11 12. I caused them to goe forth out of the land of Aegypt and brought them into the wildernesse and I gave them my statutes c. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths to bee a signe betweene me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifie them Which sheweth evidently that the Sabbath was never given but for the Iewes who also have acknowledged by those places and taught in their bookes that the Gentiles were not bound to keepe the Sabbath 9 They reply that the Sabbath is thus appropriated to the Israelites in the places which we have cited because besides the generall reason which was the cause of the institution and ordinance therof to all and for all since the beginning of the world to wit to bee a memoriall of the Creation and of the rest of God God renewed it againe to the Iewes for other reasons particular to them as to be a token for remembrance of their deliverance and rest which God had given them from the bondage of Aegypt and of the miracle done in the Manna 10 This reply which they bring cannot bee of any weight seeing it cannot be found that any one man hath kept the Sabbath day nor that GOD hath at any time commanded it to the Israelites for any reason whatsoever nor that the people of Israel had kept and observed it at any time before their abode in the wildernesse Nay it is said that God gave it to them in the wildernesse and the Sabbath is often appropriated to them absolutely even in its substance without mention of any circumstances or particular reasons as we proved in the places before cited out of the ninth Chapter of Nehemiah and the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus verse 29. in the last of which places God establisheth not the Sabbath for a memoriall of the miracle of the Manna but saith that he had ordained to the Iewes the Sabbath to be kept by them and for that cause rained not Manna on that day upon them 11 Moreover seeing there is not any of the reasons that moved GOD to institute the Sabbath found to be adapted to any other but to them it is unreasonable to extend the Sabbath it selfe to others then to them For although to be a memoriall of the creation as also to be a signe of sanctification are reasons capable of themselves to be common to others as well as to them yet God applyeth them never to others but to them only To them only he said Uerily my Sabbaths yee shall keepe for it is a signe betweene me and you throughout your generations that yee may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you Exod. 31. ver 13. And verse 17. It is a signe betweene me and the children of Israel for ever for in sixe dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed which sheweth cleerely that God took not occasion of his rest on the seventh day from all his workes to institute that day for a day of rest but for the Israelites sake only to wit that it might bee a signe of their consecration to God to be his people of their sanctification and of their spirituall and eternall rest which were benefits peculiar unto them and not common to other nations For it is against reason to say that God would ordaine a signe of these benefits to other nations which he had excluded from the covenant of grace and consequently from sanctification and from eternall life 12 It is no more reasonable to say that it was a signe to the Patriarches and faithfull which were before the Law seeing that is not mentioned in the Scripture where it is said expresly that it was a signe belonging to the generations of the Israelites that is to the ages of the continuance of the Law under which the Israelites did live and not to them that had lived before or were to live after And as when God said to Abraham that he established his covenant to wit Circumcision with him and his seed after him in their generations Genes 17. vers 7 8 9 10. wee inferre from thence very well that before the daies of Abraham Circumcision was not used In like manner from the institution of the Sabbath to be kept by the Israelites in their generations we conclude soundly that before that time it was not observed Nay with as good reason may it be thought that circumcision was used before the dayes of Abraham and that GOD did onely revive it after some particular fashion although no mention be made thereof before Abraham as many doe surmise the Sabbath day to have beene kept from the beginning and that God did only renew it to the Iewes although that be not written 13 I acknowledge that in some places of Scripture some things may be found appropriated to the Israelites particularly which appertained and did still pertaine to
of the Apostle 4. First answer In that place the Apostle speaketh not directly of any rest ordained to man but onely of Gods rest 5. Second answer Indirectly Gods rest on the seventh day and the rest of the Iewes commanded to them afterwards being as types and figures of the heavenly rest applyed unto the said words prove not that both are one rest and the one as ancient as the other 6. Confirmation of this answer 7. Answer to the first argument It is not necessary to understand that Gods rest on the seventh day is a rest given to man as the two other rests of God must be so understood 8. Answer to the second argument shewing by the exposition of the words of the Apostle that there is no equivocation to be found in them although the rest of God in one place be not understood of a rest given to man as in the two other places 9. Answer to the third argument shewing there is no defect in the argumentation of the Apostle although he speaketh not directly of the rest ordained in the fourth Commandement THEY object also from the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes that the Apostle citeth out of the 95. Psalme verse 11. and applyeth to the Hebrewes the threat denounced of old against the incredulous Israelites in the daies of Moses that they should never enter into his rest That the Psalmist adapted it also to the Iewes of his time exhorting them not to harden their hearts when they shall heare the voice of God as their Fathers have done lest they also should come short of entring into his rest That I say the Apostle citing that threat as applyed by the Psalmist to his time observeth that God at that time spoke on this wise I have sworne in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest although his workes were finished from the foundation of the world For he spake in a certaine place to wit in the second Chapter of Genesis of the seventh day on this wise And God rested the seventh day from all his workes And that from thence the Apostle maketh this inference that God in this threat wherein hee spake in Davids time of a rest to come whereof the Israelites should come short could not understand the rest of the seventh day mentioned in the second of Genesis because that rest had a great sway from the foundation of the world As hee sheweth also in the verses following that it could not be taken for the rest of the Land of Canaan because Ioshuah a long time before had brought the Israelites into that rest and therefore of necessity God spake of another rest then of these two to wit of a spirituall and heavenly rest which those that beleeve are admitted into and all those that beleeve not come short of 2 They endeavour to make out of this discourse this illation that the observation of the Sabbath day was ordained to all men from the beginning of the world even from that seventh day wherein God rested from all his workes For they put in this the force of the argumentation of the Apostle to wit That the rest of the seventh day was not to be understood in the threat denounced in Davids time against the Israelites that they should never enter into Gods rest because men were already entred into it from the beginning of the world as it is written And God rested the seventh day from all his workes and is so cited by the Apostle and by them urged as impossible to be understood onely of Gods resting from all his works after he had finished them and as of necessity to be taken for a rest ordained of God to men which at that same time hee brought them into 3 Because even as the Apostle by the other rest of the land of Canaan which he alledgeth also and by the heavenly rest which he mentioneth likewise understands a rest that men enter into and whereof they have an enjoying and possession the one and the other being called Gods rest because he puts them in possession of them likewise by the rest of God on the seventh day which hee maketh mention of as of a thing which had sway when the workes of God were finished from the beginning of the world he understands necessarily a rest which men enjoyed and practised at that same time after Gods example For otherwise and if it had not belonged to men in vaine had the Apostle excepted it as a thing that could not be understood in Gods threat As also there should be an equivocation in this that the Apostle making mention of three rests of God to wit of the rest of the seventh day of the rest of the land of Canaan and of the heavenly rest should by the first understand a rest whereby God onely rested and belonging to him alone and by the two others a rest which he had given or was to give to men for their rest That moreover if by the rest of the seventh day he had not understood a rest ordained to men from the beginning but only Gods owne rest his argumentation should be defective and subject to an easie reply because he had omitted the rest which out of all doubt God instituted at least in the fourth Commandement concerning which rest seeing hee excluded it not the Hebrewes might have replyed unto him that God understood and denoted it in that threat wherewith hee threatned the Israelites by David that they should not enter into his rest and so hee had not obtained his end which was to shew that God speaketh there of the heavenly rest and not of any other 4 To all this reasoning which to some that make use of it seemeth to be of great weight to others but light and probable I answer shortly that albeit it hath some shew it hath not strength enough to prove that which is in question to wit that the observation of the Sabbath day was ordained to man from the beginning of the world For the Apostle in the place above cited ver 3. 4. speaketh not expresly of any rest ordained to man nor that men had at that time entred into any rest nay he maketh no mention that God had blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day but saith that God did rest the seventh day as soone as his works were finished Therefore it is not his scope to teach that the rest of the seventh day was kept by men from the foundation of the world and that for that cause God could not understand it when in the daies of David he spake to the Israelites of a new entrance into his rest For if hee had propounded to himselfe that end doubtlesse he had uttered it in more expresse tearmes at least he had rather cited these words of the second Chapter of Genesis And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it which had manifestly beene more unto the purpose then these others And the seventh day God rested from all his workes
Although that howbeit he had alleadged them no man can necessarily inferre from thence that he had such an intention whereas his mentioning only of GODS rest on the seventh day and his omitting of the blessing and hallowing thereof which followeth immediately in the Text sheweth he acknowledged that it was not practised from the beginning and that also his minde was to speake directly of GODS Rest only and to shew as a thing most evident that that rest seeing it was past and there was no possibility of entring into it could not be understood in the promise which God so long after made by David to the faithfull of entring into his rest Hebr. 1. ver 1 3. which promise was included in the threat that unbeleevers should not enter into his Rest but another rest to wit a spirituall rest prepared to the faithfull in heaven whereof that Rest of God on the seventh day was as a type and figure 5 Which GOD gave them to understand when he caused Moses to observe in the description of the History of the Creation that on the seventh day hee rested from all his workes conformably whereunto he commanded the Iewes to keepe the seventh day and to rest on it as he had rested that it might be unto them a type and figure of the heavenly rest And in this respect we may grant that the Apostle speaketh also of the rest of the seventh day ordained to men and excludeth it out of the sence of the threat but indirectly and by consequence only for as much as affirming that even the rest of God Himselfe on the seventh day after he had finished his works was not understood in the foresaid threat when GOD denounced it by David we may inferre from thence that likewise the rest ordained to men was not understood in it Not because this was as ancient as that for in such an asseveration there is no consequence but because that was the foundation of the institution of this to the Israelites and this had a great sway when GOD gave that warning with such a threat as well as that albeit not of so long a date 6 To confirme that I say serveth the tenth verse where it is said that he that is entred into Gods Rest hath also rested from his owne workes as God did also from his the meaning of which words is that they which are entred into the heavenly Rest cease from all their labours and businesses of this life even as God on the seventh day rested from all his workes whereby the Apostle signifieth that God in his own rest established a figure of the heavenly Rest which he would conferre upon men whereof he gave them notice afterward whence it followeth that in the third and fourth verses which the tenth verse hath relation unto where it is observed that God from the foundation of the world after his workes were finished rested the seventh day and notified so much by Moses in the second Chap. of Genesis the Apostle designed directly no other rest but Gods owne Rest and meant not rest ordained from the beginning to Adam For if he had meant such a rest he had said in the 10. verse he that entreth into Gods heavenly rest ceaseth from all the workes of this life even as Adam by Gods commandement rested on the seventh day and had not said simply as God rested from all his workes 7 The instances alleadged are weak For what necessity is there that because by the two other rests of God mentioned by the Apostle He. 4. v. 1 8 9. to wit the rest of the land of Canaan and the heavenly rest a rest given to men is understood even so by the rest of the seventh day in the 2. 3. verses a like rest is to be formally understood and in the same respect As if one and the same word were not often found in the Scripture in the same tenor of a discourse taken in different respects and much more different then is here Gods rest which in two places signifieth directly and expresly a Rest of God in as much as given to men and in the third a Rest of God in as much as he himselfe rested But indirectly and by consequence in as much as he ordained afterwards to men to rest according to his example 8 Which is an equivocation if they will have it to be so called of small weight and inferior to many others which in other passages may be found in one and the same word which moreover bringeth no inconveniency with it For what necessity was there that this tearme The Rest of God should be alwayes in this discourse of the Apostle taken in the same sence seeing his only intention was to demonstrate that all other Rest of God which the Scripture calleth so saving the heavenly rest in whatsoever sence it be taken could not be understood in the threat denounced by David For I will here set downe a sence which may bee conveniently fitted to the words of the Apostle God in his threat wherewith he threatned the Israelites by David that if they were rebellious they should not enter into his rest understood either his owne Rest which he rested on the seventh day after his workes were finished from the Creation of the world and which was the foundation and occasion moving him to ordaine long after the rest of the Seventh day to men Or the rest of the land of Canaan or the heavenly Rest seeing there is no mention in the Scripture of any Rest of God but of those three Now of necessity he understood the heavenly Rest. For hee could not understand the rest of the land of Canaan because the Israelites were already entred into that land and enjoyed it Nor also his owne Rest which he rested on the seventh day because it was past and gone from the foundation of the world besides that it was not of such a nature that men could enter into it Whence followed also that likewise God did not understand the Rest of the seventh day ordained to men because indeed it was not ordained unto them but conformably to the example of Gods Rest which was the cause and reason of the institution thereof And therefore if this rest was excluded from Gods intention in his threat that was excluded also although the Apostle expresseth not this unto us and farre lesse at what time God gave to men the ordinance of the seventh day contenting himselfe with the expression of Gods own Rest after he had finished his workes on the first seventh day which Rest being excluded excluded also the other ordained to men in whatsoever time it was ordained unto them whether in the proper time of Gods rest or long after Neither of which can be learned of the Apostles words in this discourse but may be elsewhere 9 According to this it is cleere that by the Apostles reasoning the way was shut up to the foresaid reply which as is pretended may be made
had finished after hee had made them in the sixe daies before which was the cause that hee loved and esteemed particularly that day hath in that respect sanctified one of seven daies indefinitely which by that meanes might have beene one of those wherein hee wrought and not the same seventh wherein he rested If that were true it should follow that the Israelites did not observe the last day of the weeke by obligation of the fourth Commandement tying them thereunto but onely in generall one of the seven daies of the weeke and that by some other particular Law they were taught to observe the last of seven although all the rest of Gods Ordinances which are to be found concerning the Sabbath say no more then doth the fourth Commandement and are relative unto it Whereas it is most sure that the Iewes in all times have professed and doe still make profession that they keepe the last day of the weeke by expresse obligation of the fourth Commandement which according to this saying they did never understand All these are as many palpable absurdities And therefore it is most certaine that the fourth Commandement ordaineth expresly and formally the observation of a particular seventh day to wit of the last of seven and not of another 25 Neverthelesse it may be said in some sort that any day whatsoever which is celebrated to the honour and glory of God hath its foundation on the fourth Commandement and that so we now doe observe our Sunday and other solemne and extraordinary daies by vertue of that Commandement Not that it enjoyneth them properly and directly but onely indirectly and by deduction or consequence taken from the foundation and generall end thereof which is to enjoyne all men to serve God publikely and to consecrate for that purpose some solemne times which in this respect whatsoever they be may be all referred unto it not as being commanded in their particular kinde but onely in their genus which is covertly and fundamentally contained in it and therewith determined expresly to one kinde only to wit to the seventh day and to the last of seven not for ever but during the time of the old Testament only Wherefore to say that the fourth Commandement obligeth onely and in expresse termes to a seventh day unstinted and not to this particular seventh which is here the point in question is a thing altogether unreasonable as is evident by that hath beene said 26 It is also a thing farre removed from all reason to say that verily the observation of a certaine day of seven to wit the last was a thing ceremoniall and positive and that this is the day which the Gospel hath abrogated but to observe alwaies one day of seven is morall and that this is ratified and confirmed by the Gospell For the determination and particular observation of any day whatsoever amongst a certaine number in quality of such a one cannot be a morall thing Now to ordaine one of seven to be kept maketh a determination and particular observation not forsooth so particular as when one of seven as for example the last is by name determined and appointed yet so farre particular that none can devise farre lesse tell reasonably wherefore there should be a morality to ordaine and observe a seventh day regularly rather then to ordaine and observe the last of seven wherefore the Gospell should confirme that more then this abrogate this more then that wherefore finally there is lesser inconvenience to avouch that the fourth Commandement is ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth a particular seventh day to wit the last whereof some of those against whom I dispute are constrained to acknowledge the establishment in the fourth Commandement but as of a ceremony as to say that it is also ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth one day of seven which is the point I stand unto 27 Verily there is farre more reason to say that the fourth Commandement ordaineth as a morall thing the publike service of God and consequently that there be for that purpose a stinted day ordinary common and so frequent in its revolution that it may be sufficient for the practise and exercise of that service for the continuall edification of the Church For nature teacheth that it is fit that the publike service of God be frequently practised which hath as great force under the Gospell as under the Law but that the said Commandement obligeth precisely to a seventh day and to that seventh day wherein God rested from all his workes it is an ordinance of ceremony and of order which was for the Iewes only and hath beene disanulled by the Gospell 28 For since the Gospell came it is a thing in its selfe indifferent to observe not forsooth one day of any number how great so ever it be as of thirty sixtie of an hundred or of a yeare which as all the world may see should not be sufficient to serve God publikely by his people and should bewray in such a people a great negligence and want of affection to Gods service but one of foure of five of sixe or in summe of such a number wherein that day may returne frequently and suffice for the intertainement of Religion and godlinesse And it may perhaps be gathered out of the fourth Commandement that one day in seven is very sutable and fitt and that we should not under the Gospell dedicate lesse to God for seeing GOD ordained to the Iewes other wayes burthened with many other ceremonies and holy dayes one of seven it is an argument probable enough that Christians ought to consecrate to him at least as much if not more of their time which neverthelesse God left to the liberty of the Church to ordaine with wisedome and conscience as hath beene already said And so although the ceremoniall order prescribed in the fourth Commandement concerning the day of rest obligeth not precisely and directly the Christian Church she may notwithstanding inferre from thence good instructions whereby she may be directed in things concerning a convenient time for Gods publike service as she maketh a good use for her direction of many other ceremonies of the Law Wherefore if there were any man who would rashly maintaine that it sufficeth under the New Testament to observe one day of twenty or of an hundred he should be sufficiently refuted by the foresaid reason besides the practise of the Christian Church which hath judged it fit to observe one of seven dayes which practise no man shall gainesay but he shall forthwith bewray himselfe to be new-fangled fantasticall and selfe-willed 28 Of all that hath beene said it is evident that the inconveniences alleadged in the argument are not to be feared For I have already shewed that it is no inconvenience to say that of tenne Commandements contained in the Decalogue there are but nine morall which oblige us now and that the Law which is called morall belongeth not unto us in all
the rest of the seventh day I may say that the painefull labour of sixe dayes before the Sabbath was a type and figure of these troubles and afflictions wherewith the faithfull are tossed to and fro during the ages of this life before they come to the rest of the kingdome of heaven and that so this labour also was ceremoniall 6 They take their third argument from these words The seventh day is the rest of the LORD thy God that is it is the day which God hath not only created and made as the other dayes but also hath put a part to the end that it be applyed to his service Whence it is often called The day holy to the Lord the rest of God or Gods Sabbath c. Of this they inferre seeing it is not lawfull to steale from God that which pertaineth unto him nor to commit sacriledge by devouring that which is holy Pro. 20. ver 25. we must if we will not incurre this crime consecrate alwayes to God one of seven dayes 7 But I answer first that if this argument be of any value it shall prove that it is the last of seven which all are bound to keepe alwayes as the rest of God For it is this particular seventh day which is understood in the words before alleadged and which also was the Sabbath holy to the Lord. Secondly I say that these words serve not at all to prove the morality and perpetuity of the Seventh day In them it is truly said that the seventh day is the Lords rest to wit because at that time he ordained it to the Iewes to be observed by them in their generations and if the Iewes had not observed but applyed it to their owne affaires undoubtedly they had beene guilty of sacriledge but doth it follow that because it is called the Lords Rest in regard of the ordinance whereby he injoyned the Iewes to keepe it we also are obliged under the New Testament to sanctifie it Doth he not also in the Old Testament when he speaketh of the Leviticall sacrifices and offerings c. call them most frequently His sacrifices His offerings and all the other Sabbaths of the Iewes His Sabbaths as well as the Sabbath of the seventh day In a word doth hee not claime all other things which hee commanded to the Iewes concerning his service as his owne Shall we then conclude by the same reason that seeing it is not lawfull to touch holy things and God did claime all these things as belonging unto him we must yet dedicate and consecrate them unto him under the New Testament Who seeth not the absurdity of this consequence and by the same meanes of the consequence which is inferred of these words The seventh day is Gods Rest For as these things which I have mentioned did belong to God but did oblige the Iewes only to observe them it fareth even so with the Sabbath 8 In the fourth place they urge also these words In it thou shalt not doe any worke thou nor thy Sonne nor thy Daughter thy man-servant nor thy maide-servant nor thine Oxe nor thy Asse nor any of thy Cattell nor thy stranger that is within thy gates Where they observe that God hath respect to the easing of servants and of cattell to the intent that when they have beene kept sixe dayes at worke a seventh of relaxation be given them to rest and as it were to breath a little and specially that the servants as well as their masters may set themselves about Gods service to learne and practise it For which cause in the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomie this particularitie is added at the end of the 4th Commandement That thy man-servant and thy maide-servant may Rest as well as thou The same is likewise to be found Exodus 23. verse 12. All this is of perpetuall justice and equity For God under the New Testament hath not stript and cast away the bowels of compassion and forsaken the care of servants and poore beasts They take also in consideration that the stranger is by name and specially obliged to keepe the Sabbath day by refraining from all kinde of worke from whence they inferre that it was not a Iewish ceremony but a morall point because nothing is universall binding strangers as well as Iewes saving that which is morall whereas the ceremonies were only for the Iewes and as it were a middle wall of separation between them and all strangers Eph. 2. ver 14. And therefore seeing the strangers which were Gentiles were by Gods command bound to keepe the Sabbath day as well as the Iewes and when they were in the Land of Canaan were constrained unto it by the Magistrates as may be seene in the 13. Chapter of Nehem. vers 28. it followeth that the observation of the seventh day of Sabbath is a morall point and not simply ceremoniall 9 I answer that to give refreshment to servants and poore beasts after they have beene wearied with labour and to be carefull that servants learne to serve God and apply them to so holy a duty as well as their Masters is a thing naturally just and equitable and that the words of the fourth Commandement as farre as they have respect to that duty doe denote a perpetuall morality and therefore Christians ought to give a time of relaxation and rest from labour to their servants and beasts instruct their servants in the feare of God and be carefull that they serve him both in their particular devotions at home and publike abroad with the rest of the faithfull in such times and places that are appointed for that service by the order of the Church which if they doe not they sin But to set apart for the rest and easing of servants and their imployment in Gods service one of seven daies rather then one of another number and to rest precisely on the seventh day according to the words of the Commandement The seventh day is the rest In it thou shalt not doe any worke that I say againe and againe is a thing simply belonging to order and Church-governement and bindeth not necessarily for ever As for the instance taken from the words whereby strangers are bound to keeke the Sabbath day it is altogether vaine and frivolous For there mention is made onely of strangers that were within the gates of the Iewes that is dwelling and sojourning among them These strangers were either Proselytes converted to the religion of the Iewes which were in effect obliged by religion to the observation of the Sabbath just as the Iewes themselves because they were of the same religion that the Iewes were of and by their conversion were become Iewes Or they were strangers Pagans and Infidels sojourning in Iudea for divers temporall occasions such as were those of whom mention is made in Nehem. Chap. 13. These indeed were constrained by the Magistrate to keepe or rather not to violate the Sabbath publikely as those were of whom mention is made in the foresaid Chapter
signes And I cannot see a cause why under the new Testament we should burthen our selves with a signe which God declareth to have beene ordained by him to the Iewes in their generations as if without it we could not remember the thing signified unto them by it Let us content our selves with the gracions signes and memorialls which Iesus Christ hath instituted and given us of the worke of our Redemption fulfilled by him of our justification of our sanctification c. These are Baptisme and the Lords Supper which being signes of a worke farre more excellent then the Creation have caused the ancient memoriall of that other worke to cease which notwithstanding we may and ought to record having in nature continually many memorialls thereof before our eyes to wit the heavens the earth all the creatures which advertise us of their Author and of the beginning of their existance And in holy Scripture many documents which entertaine and hold us most frequently in the consideration of this worke Yea the Sacraments also signifying unto us our Regeneration and new Creation draw us back consequently to the meditation of our first Creation And we may in all places and times indifferently call to minde and for it glorifie the Lord our God possessour of heauen and earth although we be not tyed by the Law to any particular day For of him and through him and to him are all things To him be glory for ever Rom. 11. 36. 13 The example of God who made in sixe daies heaven and earth and rested on the seventh day is of no force to this purpose For to say without restriction that Gods example is of necessity to be alwaies followed as being of it selfe and of its nature imitable or rather that God in all his works proposeth himselfe as a paterne and president to follow is a proposition too generall God may be considered either in regard of his attributes or in regard of his actions Of his attributes there be some which wee ought to imitate and they are in the Scripture laid downe unto us as examples of imitation Such are his goodnesse his mercy his love his justice as it is written Be yee holy for I am holy Levit. 19. vers 2. 1 Pet. 1. vers 16. Be yee perfect and mercifull as your Father which is in heaven is perfect and mercifull Matth. 6. vers 48. Luk. 6. vers 36. Let us love one another for love is of God for God is love 1 Ioh. 4. verse 7 8. If yee know that he is righteous yee know that every one that doth righteousnesse is borne of him 1 Ioh. 2. vers 29. There be others which to speake properly are not paterns of imitation neither are we in any sort able to imitate them Such are his Eternity the Infinity of his Essence and Knowledge his omnipotency c. which also we are nevâ—â— exhorted to imitate 14 It is consequently even so of his actions and of his fashion in working Of them some flow immediatly from these first attributes of his holinesse bounty mercy love righteousnesse c. and are essentially actions charitable mercifull bountifull righteous c. These of their nature and of themselves are imitable and that alwaies For example God is bountifull and doth good unto all forgiveth all those that have recourse to his mercy giveth a convenient and sutable reward unto vertue and a due punishment to vice protecteth those that are strengthlesse and oppressed upholdeth those that are infirme and weake c. whereof hee hath given triall by divers experiences From thence wee may conclude truely and soundly that by reason of the righteousnesse holinesse goodnesse which are essentially imprinted in these actions men ought to imitate them in all times to their power and abilitie according to the calling wherein they are called and the rules that he hath in his holy Word prescribed unto them There be other actions proceeding from these other attributes or proprieties of God For example from his omnipotency Such as are his miraculous actions God hath created the world of nothing hath framed man of the dust of the earth and doth a thousand more or such great wonders These actions oblige us not to imitate Gods example in them also God propoundeth them not unto us as examples to be followed for we are not able to imitate them Likewise wee are not bound to immitate the actions and proceedings of God which are grounded on his Will pure and simple whereof although God had the reasons in his owne brest yet we cannot on our part alledge any reason taken from an essentiall righteousnesse inherent in them but onely say for all reason he hath done as it pleased him As that he made the walls of Ierico to fall downe by seven blasts of seven trumpets of Rams-hornes in seven severall daies Iosh. 6. vers 3. 4. 20. cured Naaman of his leprosie sending him to Iordan to wash in it seven times 2 King 5. vers 10. 14 c. 15 Like in all things is unto this the course which God did observe in the Creation making all his works in sixe daies and resting on the seventh day For no man can tell why he did so saving onely because he would the thing it selfe not having in it any naturall equity or evident morality And therefore no kinde of obligation to doe the like can be naturally inferred from thence I meane to observe sixe daies of worke and one of rest All these and other semblable proceedings of God are not an example and oblige not any man to imitate them saving in case God be pleased to command them to doe so as hee would not through any necessity which was in the thing and whereby he was bound to make such a Commandement but because such was his good pleasure command the Iewes to worke sixe daies and rest the seventh day who also afterwards observed that precept not through necessity of imitation taken from the thing it selfe nor that naturally it was emplary unto them but because it pleased God to command them so to doe As also in the fourth Commandement this reason that God in sixe dayes made and finished all his workes and rested the seventh day is not alleadged immediately for an example and a cause of obligation to the Iewes to doe the like but as an occasion that GOD tooke according to his free will to bind them by that Commandement to this observation which also in consequence of the said Commandement they practised For it is said in expresse tearmes In sixe dayes God made all his workes and rested the seventh day Therefore he blessed the seventh day and hallowed it to wit to be observed by the Iewes And it was this blessing and hallowing notified by Commandement which obliged the Iewes to the observation of the seventh day and not Gods course of proceeding immediately For undoubtedly this will be advowed that if God had not declared his will by a Commandement the Iewes had not thought
maxime rejecteth as unlawfull Now what certainty or probability is there that Iesus Christ on the first day of his appearing to his Disciples gave them this ordinance Further although he had given it sith he appeared not unto them till the evening following the day in the morning whereof he rose againe they were at least all that day preceding his first manifestation unto them free from all bond tying them to the observation of any particular seventh day and their obligation to the observation of a certaine day hath begun by the extremity of the day to wit at the same time when CHRIST appearing unto them injoyned them to heepe it which difficulties I see not how those that hold the aforesaid maxime can well resolve 21 They say that when the first change was made the Disciples kept two Sabbaths consecutively to wit the last of the weeke to put an end to the order of the ancient Testament and thereafter the first day of the weeke immediately following to begin the new order which was to remaine for ever under the New Testament and to keepe alwayes one day of seven But this saying is a pure imagination For who hath told them that the Disciples did keepe that course Besides this giveth no satisfaction to the difficulties afore mentioned For Iesus Christ being dead and having by his death abrogated all the ceremonies of the Law the last day of the weeke at the same very instant that he gave up the Ghost ceased to be obligatory And so although Iesus Christ shewing himselfe to his Disciples on the first day of the weeke that he rose in had ordained unto them expressely that day and made them to sanctifie it in quality of a Sabbath day to persist afterwards till the end of the world neverthelesse sith the day before which was the Sabbath had not obliged them to keep it and if they observed it they did it not through any obligation binding them thereunto because it was abolished it followeth manifestly that the obligation to one day of seven was caused in one weeke at least yea in more then one if he ordained not Sunday to be kept as soone as he shewed himselfe unto them after his resurrection Nay is casseered in them all if he gave them no ordinance at all concerning that or any other day which is more probable as we shall see more fully hereafter Howsoever of this ariseth this conclusion that the order of one of seven daies is not morall sith it could suffer once at least an interruption in the obligation or binding power which it had 22 I would againe faine know sith Christs resurrection might without inconvenience cause the changing of the particular day wherein the Sabbath was before observed which was the last day of the weeke into another day which was the first wherein it came to passe why it might not likewise without any inconvenience at all give occasion to change the whole generall order of the observation of one day of seven and deliver the Church from all obligation unto it Sith as we have already shewed there is no greater necessity to observe one day of seven then the last of seven Sith also this resurrection of Christ which was as it were his rest from the worke of our Redemption cannot be said to have happened as Gods rest from the worke of Creation after sixe daies of labour to ratifie thereby the observation of this number but to reckon since the day wherein Christ began to be in agony in the garden which was to speake properly the beginning of the worke of our Redemption till the day that he rose out of the grave which containeth the space of three or foure daies wherein he suffered died was buried came to passe after three or foure daies only of labour and of paine whereby he redemed us why may it not with as good reason be a foundation and powerfull motive to change one day of seven into one of foure sith Christ rose on the fourth day after the beginning of his passion as well as the observation of the last day of the weeke into the first in consequence of his resurrection on that first day For there should be as little evill or danger in the one as in the other 23 But here is the maine point of the matter For as much as the order which God observed of sixe daies for his labour in the Creation and of a seventh day for his rest carrieth not with it any necessary and naturall obligation to imitate it and was not obligatory under the old Testament but because it pleased God to command and establish it by his Law for that time onely under the new Testament there was no obligation to keepe it and therefore the necessity of observing it as of all other legall ceremonies having come to an end and being expired the last day of seven hath wihout sinne yea with good reason been changed into the first that Christ rose in the Church thinking it fit to do so whereunto she was not moved by an opinion that the consideration of Christs rising from the dead on that day was of it selfe obligatory For why should the day of Christs resurrection of its nature oblige us to observe it as a day holy and solemne rather then the day of his nativity or the day of his death whereby he said All was fulfilled Ioh. 19. vers 30. to wit all that was requisite for the expiation of our sinnes and redemption of the world conformably to the ancient prophecies and figures of the Law or the day of his ascension which might as well and better be called the day of Christs rest then the day of his resurrection Sure the Church might have in any of those daies called to minde and celebrated the remembrance of the worke of our Redemption as well as in the day of the Resurrection because all the actions of Christ have respect unto it Nay she might have as well changed the order of one of seven into a day of another number seeing the worke of Redemption was not tyed to the same number of daies was that the worke of Creation But because there was no necessity in this she thought it expedient to keepe this order of one day in the weeke observed by the Iewes amongst whom the weeke had its beginning and to change onely the particular seventh day of the Iewes into another to make a distinction between them and that servile people as also to keepe a memoriall of Christs Resurrection Of all this it appeareth evidently that the reason taken from Gods example as it is alledged out of the fourth Commandement hath no force to prove that which it is produced for and to shelter those that make a buckler of it 24 Finally they rely much upon these last words of the Commandement God hath blessd the Sabbath day and hath sanctified it Now say they if GOD hath ordained this seventh day to be observed and to be a
places of the wildernesse the battell being given them on the Sabbath day chused rather to be slaine with their Wives Children and cattell then to make resistance for the safety of their lives least they should profane the Sabbath day 1 Maccab. 2. verse 32. c. There is another example of a like scruple in the second booke Chapter 6. verse 11. And we read in Iosephus in the eight Chapter of the foureteenth booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes and in the first booke of the Warres of the Iewes Chapter 5. that when the Romans under their generall Pompeius beleagured the Temple of Ierusalem the Iewes which were fled thither although they defended themselves on the Sabbath day if they were assaulted yet they remained quiet and bonged not if they were not assaulted which when the Romans had perceived they set not on them and threw nothing against them on the Sabbath day but prepared only things necessary for the assaults dressed terrasses and forts brought neere their engines to make use of them the next day and the Iewes of Religion and great devotion toward the Sabbath suffered them to doe what they would without disturbance And Iosephus approveth this Religion or rather superstition as if it had beene conformable to the ordinance of the Law saying that the Law permitteth on the Sabbath day if the enemies come to wage battell or give blowes to drive them backe Many might have beene intangled with the same superstition during the desolation wherof Christ speaketh in the place before alleadged For although that upon such an occasion as this was to wit to save their lives they should and might have beene informed that they had full liberty to work and flie yet the devotion so ancient so usually practised so exactly and scrupulously observed towards the Sabbath specially in these times as may be seene in sundry places of the Gospell this devotion I say was more than sufficient to forme many difficulties in their mindes and cast into many perplexities concerning the practise of this knowledge even those that had it Wherefore our Lord Iesus Christ foreseeing that many in the dayes of the future desolation of Ierusalem should be disquieted with such feares should make such difficulties or at least conceive a great displeasure to be constrained to worke and travell on the Sabbath day for the preserving of their lives adviseth them to pray to God that their flight be not on that day 4 If they reply that Iesus Christ spake these words to his Disciples who were infallibly to be well instructed before the desolation of Ierusalem concerning the Evangelicall day of Sabbath and concerning all things that may be lawfully done on it and therefore there was no occasion to feare that they should suffer themselves to be carryed away with any Religion or rather superstition towards the Iewish Sabbath day which before that time should be abrogated To that objection I answer againe that verily Iesus Christ spake to his Disciples who apparantly were alone with him but not in regard to them For he knew well that about the time of the desolation of Ierusalem they should be either dead or farre removed from Iudea among the other nations of the earth and therefore this danger was not to be feared on their behalfe Wherefore in their persons he spake to all the Iewes who were all to be in common partakers of this desolation or at least to all the faithfull who in that time should be conversant in Iudea as if they had been present before him with his Disciples This is evident by these words in the 16. 17 18 19. Verses Then let them that be in Iudea flee into the mountaines Let him which is on the house toppe not come downe to take any thing out of his house Neither let him which is in the field returne backe to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child and unto them that give sucke in those dayes c. For these are common advertisements to all that were to be insnared in that danger and so is likewise this Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day which must be understood as said to all the Iewes to whom the preceding warnings are directed amongst whom Iesus Christ knew that many Christians converted unto him and carryed away with a Religious respect towards the Law should still have the opinion of the Sabbath which I have specified Nay he knew that amongst the faithfull Iewes the best instructed should tye themselves for a certaine space of time after his Ascension into heaven to the observation of certaine legall ceremonies and specially of the Sabbath although of right they were all made of no effect by his death not for any conscience to them-ward nor through an acknowledgement of any obligation on their behalfe to the ceremoniall Law which had beene a thing hurtfull and dangerous but simply through love to shunne all occasions of giving offence to the other Iewes to imbrace all meanes of gaining them more easily to the faith and to bury the ceremonies with honour which in that respect was lawfull So then for these reasons he might well exhort them all to pray that there flight should not befall on the Sabbath day because those that are weake and not so well instructed should not dare to flie or should flie with scruple of conscience and the strong that had greater knowledge should doe it although without trouble of Conscience yet not without some griefe remembring that on that day they were accustomed till then to apply themselves to religious actions and foreseeing that their flight might be offensive and make them odious to some that also they might be hindered in their flight and preparatives for it by those which should superstitiously sticke fast unto the prohibitions not to worke to run and to toyle on the Sabbath day 5 I adde that although we should consider this Commandement of Christ Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day as directed to the Disciples only and should advow that being well instructed there was no cause why they should feare to flie on the Sabbath day and therefore no cause why they should pray for their particular that their flight should not happen on that day we may fitly say that Iesus Christ commanded them to pray so having regard not to them but to others that he foresaw should be ignorant and weake and to whom the Sabbath day should be an impediment to flie For although Christians strong in the faith make no such difficulty and in that respect have no cause to feare for themselves yet knowing that such difficulties to some other ignorants and weake in faith wil be a stumbling block they ought to pray to God having regard to them that the causes and occasions of such difficulties happen not if it be possible and â—in this respect Iesus Christ might have said to his Disciples Pray that your flight from the desolation to come be not
travellers that seeke it the cessation and bringing of it to naught teacheth that the Sabbath hath ceased and is abrogated And so having refuted all reasons that are put abroach for the morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath I end here the second part of this Treatise THE THIRD PART Of the originall and institution of the first day of the weeke for the day of Gods publike service in the Christian. CHURCH CHAPTER First Establishment of the opinion most admittable concerning the originall and institution of the Lords day 1. The first day of the weeke was kept from the beginning of the Christian Church in remembrance of Christs Resurrection not for any necessity in the thing it selfe 2. Not also by obligation of the fourth Commandement 3. The state of the Question whether this day be an institution of IESUS CHRIST or of his Apostles or whether the faithfull of themselves without any Commandement made choice of it 4. The first opinion hath no solid foundation The second hath 5. First argument against the first opinion There is no record in the whole New Testament that Christ or his Apostles ordained that day c. 6. Second argument the first day of the weeke was not equally kept by all Christians till Constantine by an imperiall Law tyed them unto it as also to the sixt day which wee call Friday 7. First observation upon the imperiall Law of Constantine concerning the first day of the weeke 8. Second Observation upon the same Law concerning the sixt day 9. Whence it is cleere that both were of Ecclesiasticall institution 10. Third argument the first Christians especially in the East observed for the space of three hundred yeeres and more the seventh day of the weeke with the first day 11. Confirmation of this truth by the Councell of Laodicea and sundry Fathers c. 12. Which shew evidently that the Christians in those dayes beleeved not that the first day of the weeke was by CHRIST or his Apostles subrogated to the Iewish Sabbath 1 IT is plaine and generally agreed on that the first day of the weeke was kept from the beginning of the Christian Church and that undoubtedly upon the consideration of the Resurrection of CHRIST which came to passe on that day Yet this observation was not grounded upon any necessity of the thing it selfe obliging Christians to keepe that day of the weeke rather than another For as it hath beene shewed before it is impossible to explicate with shew of reason either what morall necessity one day of seven hath in it more than hath another number or wherefore it was necessary that the day of the week that Christ rose in should be kept in the Christian Church rather than the day wherein he was borne or the day wherein he suffered on the Crosse or the day wherin hee ascended into heaven Or if the day of his Resurrection must be observed why these others of his birth death and Ascension ought not to be also kept weekely The resurrection of Christ might did give occasion unto the observation of that day but that it was a cause obliging necessarily and having a fundamentall relation or that CHRIST by his Resurrection on that day intended to sanctifie it particularly to the Christian Church cannot bee proved 2 Neither also hath the fourth Commandement obliged Christians to observe this day For it injoyned the last day of the weeke precisely and not the first and in that respect was ceremoniall which also hath beene shewed And therefore the observation of the first day of the weeke cannot be grounded upon the tearmes thereof For the foundation thereof should be absurd and unreasonable thus God ordained under the Old Testament as a point of ceremony and of order for that time the last day of the weeke wherein hee rested from all his workes Therefore in vertue and through obligation of this Commandement men are bound under the New Testament to observe the first day of the weeke wherein God began to apply himselfe to the production of his works Who seeth not the manifest absurdity of such an illation Therefore this observation of the first day of the weeke must of necessity bee attributed to some other free and voluntary institution made concerning it in the New Testament 3 Here beginneth a new question whether the institution therof be divine or Apostolicall If it was our Lord Iesus Christ that ordained it after his Resurrection to be kept by all Christians during the whole time of the New Testament if the Apostles also injoyned it to all the faithfull till the end of the world so that they are all bound to the observation thereof by the institution of Christ or of his Apostles Or whether the faithfull did not of themselves without any commandement through respect to the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ keepe the day wherein it came to passe as also to make a distinction thereby between them and the Iewes and to shew that they were made free from all Iewish observations types and figures amongst which was the Sabbath day and that they observed not a day in quality of type and figure but onely for orders sake and for Ecclesiasticall government to apply themselves together to the exercises of Religion and for that cause had changed the seventh day of the Iewes into another which usage and custome as very fit and convenient being begunne first amongst a few faire and softly prevailed and was established with the Christian Religion amongst all those that imbraced it and since that time hath continued in the Christian Church till this day 4 Although the first of these opinions were true it cannot inforce the morality of a seventh day of rest but only that the first day of the weekes was instituted by IESUS CHRIST or his Apostles as a point of order whereunto in such a case the faithfull should be bound by the necessity of a divine and apostolicall commandement But I see not that this opinion hath any solid ground whereas the second is well founded For there is nothing found in the New Testament concerning the observation of the first day of the weeke importing a commandement of Christ or of his Apostles neither is there any such commandement inferred but by remote and most weake consequences and it is more likely that all the places alleadged to that purpose denote onely a simple usage among some Christians in those dayes which by succession of time hath beene setled and is become universall 5 Indeed if Iesus Christ or his Apostles by expresse commandement from him or by divine inspiration had ordained that day as a point so necessary as it is thought to be I doubt not but their commandement should have beene expressely set downe in the books of the New Testament as are all other ordinances of necessary things and that in them we should finde reprehension against those that had neglected the observation of that day as in them there are reprehensions against all kinde of
sinners But seeing there is no such commandement to bee found in them that it cannot bee gathered from them but by consequences which are of no force that no man is blamed in them for the inobservation of that day whereas under the Old Testament God taxed so often and so sharply those that kept not his Sabbaths this is to mee a most firme and assured proofe that neither IESUS CHRIST nor his Apostles have ordained it 6 I adde that if had beene an ordinance of Iesus Christ or of his Apostles undoubtedly the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospell when they found and established the Christian Churches had established the observation of this day as a point of the will of Iesus Christ and of his service under the New Testament and it had beene kept equally by all the Churches For why had they not received it as well as the other points of the Christian Religion and doctrine of the Gospell sith the same authority obliged them therunto Now this is most true that the observation thereof was not practised throughout them all and became not universall wel setled but by the commandements and constitution of the Emperours There diverse imperiall constitutions for the observation of the first day of the weeke Eusebius in the fourth booke of the life of Constantine Chapter 16. and after him Sozomene in the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall History and in the 8 Chapter relateth that Constantine the first made a Law and ordained that on Sunday which is the first day of the weeke and on Friday all publike judgments should surcease that all other affaires should be intermitted that on these dayes all should apply themselves to serve GOD by prayers and supplications and that so he reverenced Sunday because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead and Friday because on it hee was crucified 7 This passage is considerable For it sheweth that Sunday was not observed throughout al the Churches but that it was used as a work-day and that on it common pleas and publike judgements were practised whence we may conclude with a great shew of truth that it was not an institution of Christ nor of his Apostles For if it had beene questionlesse the observation thereof had beene better known and practised and Christians had thought themselves more obliged unto it for the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles then for any imperiall constitution The writers of that story telling also what reason Constantine had to make a constitution concerning the observation of Sunday say simply that he made it because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead which indeed hath alwayes beene the foundation of this usage but they say not that it was because Iesus Christ and his Apostles had ordained which they ought not to be silent of if that had been true and it had been needlesse to alleadge any other reason 9 This is also worthy to be marked that Sozomen joyneth the Friday with the Sunday and saith that Constantine ordained that day as wel as this day That day because on it Christ was crucified this day because on it Christ rose againe Which sheweth plainely that the day of Christs Resurrection is not of it selfe more obligatory to make christians keep it then is the day of his passion upon the Crosse or of any other of his actions or sufferings That the one may yeeld as just and peremptory a cause thereof as the other that Christ also had not given a commandement more expresse and more necessary for the one then for the other but had left all this to the liberty of the Church For if he had given a particular commandement concerning Sunday it had bin in Constantine a great temerity to ordaine another day in equall ranke with that which Christ had ordained because he ought to thinke that Christ had good reasons for the institution of that day which had not beene valuable for any other day and that by the institution of one day in the weeke particularly and of no moe he would have all Christians to know that no man ought to attempt to institute any other besides that which he had instituted 9 Constantine had beene guilty of farre greater rashnesse and indiscretion by making Friday which was of his institution equall to Sunday which Iesus Christ had ordained yet he did so as is manifest by the words of Sozomen who maketh no ods betweene the ordinance made for Friday and that which was made for Sunday But seeing Constantine in what hee did did nothing amisse it is evident thereby that the observation of Sunday was not of divine institution but of usage and custome only which was not received every where nor well practised where it was received because it was not esteemed necessary Wherefore Constantine by his constitution made it necessary adding another like unto it for Friday all this is flat contrary to the assertion of those which to prove that Sunday is of divine institution yeeld this reason of their opinion that no humane authority can sanctifie a day And lo Constantine sanctified Friday ordaining that it should be imployed in exercises of Religion only wherof we shall speake againe something hereafter God willing 10 Socrates in the fifth booke and 21 Chapter of his Ecclesiasticall story marketh sundry customes in the Churches about the day of their assemblies which some kept in one day of the weeke some in another And saith expressely that Iesus Christ and his Apostles have not ordained any thing concerning holy dayes but have only given precepts of godlinesse and of an holy life And it is most likely that the Christian Churches which in the beginning God assembled among the Iewes kept not for a long while any other day for the exercise of their religion saving the 7th and last day of the week And it is a thing most certain that many Churches of the Gentiles especially in the last more than three hundred yeeres after Christ observed the Sabbath day of the Iewes with the Sunday and made of the one a day of devotion as well as of the other Saint Ignatius Martyr an hundred yeeres after Iesus Christ in his Epistle to the Magnesians exhorteth the Christians to observe the Sabbath not after the manner of the Iewes which there he describeth but after a spirituall and holy manner such as hee setteth downe and addeth that after they had observed the Sabbath they should also observe the first day of the weeke The Councell which met in Laodicea in the fourth age after Christ ordained that Christians must not keepe the Sabbath day and rest in it after the manner of the Iewes which sheweth that till then they observed it Nay according to the translations which we have the Councell did not forbid them absolutely to keepe the Iewish Sabbath but permitted it unto them if they would with this caveat that it were not after the fashion of the Iewes and that they should preferre Sunday before it
the first day of unleavened bread that is said figuratively because of the immediate cōjunction of the time wherein the Lamb was prepared with the time wherin it was eaten with unleavened bread For it was prepared at the end of one day and eaten at the beginning of the next day Or because the same day wherein the Lamb was prepared the Iewes put away leaven and leavened bread out of their houses and prepared unleavened bread for the day following Or also because amongst the Romans of whom the Iewes did at that time depend the naturall day began by the light and the night was the last part therof whereunto it may be the Evangelists had regard But otherwise to speak properly according to the ordinance of the Law it is most certain that the day wherin the Lamb was rosted and prepared was not the first day of unleavened bread For that was the 14. day betweene the two evens this was the 15. day at the entrance thereof On that day leavened bread might be eaten on this day and on the dayes following all leaven was most strictly forbidden That was not a day of rest but of travell and of preparation as it is often called in the Gospel Mat. 27. v. 62. Mar. 15. v. 42. Luk. 23. v. 54. Ioh. 19. v. 14 31. because on it were all things prepared for the feast following as to search and put away all leaven and leavened bread out of their houses to kill to slay to rost the Lamb c. Nay we see that on that day the Iewes caused the Lord Iesus to be crucified and two thieves with him and vexed themselves extreamly all that day to come to their intent This was a great and solemne Sabbath wherein it was not lawfull to doe any manner of worke 10 Let us adde to that hath beene said the practise of the observation of the Sabbath which we read in the thirteenth Chapter of Nehemiah It is said there ver 15 16 17 19 20. that because all manner of ware was brought into the City of Ierusalem and sold on the Sabbath day Nehemiah commanded that as soone as the Sunne should withdraw it selfe from the gates of the City before the Sabbath the gates should be shut and that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath so that the Merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Ierusalem once or twice from whence we gather manifestly the Sabbath began at the going downe of the Sun and that the night made the first part thereof For if the Sabbath had not begun then wherefore did Nehemiah command so carefully to shut the gates as soone as the sun should withdraw his beames from them and it should begin to be darke And if not the night preceding the day but the night following had made a part of the Sabbath surely the Merchants had beene of necessity constrained to remaine two nights out of Ierusalem whereas it is only said that they past the night once or twice without the Towne to wit the night after Nehomiah had given order that the gates shold be shut as soone as the Sun should retire from them and therfore that night with the day following composed the Sabbath which ending on the next even at the setting of the sun Nehemiah commanded that they should be opened again v. 19. a cōmandement being necessary for the opening of them then at that time because the night returning it was the time to keep them barred and locked seeing they were already shut If the Sabbath had ended with the end of the night it had not beene needful that Nehemiah should command to open the gates after the Sabbath For it was usuall to open them after the night was ended and a particular commandement for that was needlesse But although I had omitted these reasons which I have alleadged the words of the original shew plainly and of themselves what we say These they are v. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Causher Tsallou Shahare Ieroushalaim liphne Hasshabbat that is as the gates of Ierusalem were darkned before the face or in the presence of the Sabbath or before the Sabbath For the ordinary signification of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Liphne is before the face in the presence And therefore seeing the gates were darkened before the face or in presence of the Sabbath it followeth that when the sun was setting the Sabbath was comming and began at that same instant to shew it selfe if I may speake so 11 Likewise we read in St. Iohn Chap. 19. v. 40 41 42. that Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus having obtained leave of Pilate to take away the body of Iesus as soone as he was dead tooke it wrapt it in a winding sheete with spices as the manner of the Iewes was to bury and laid it in a new Sepulchre which was in a Garden in the same place where he was crucified and laid it there because of the Iewes preparation day for the Sepulchre was nigh at hand that is the night being at hand the beginning of the Sabbath being nigh and comming apace with the night and the day of preparation which preceded the Sabbath drawing nigh the evening and making hast to finish they carryed not farre the body of Iesus but laid it in a Sepulchre hard by after they had wound it in linnen cloathes with aromaticall and fragrant drugs only without any imbalming at that time because they had no leasure to anoint and imbalme him by reason of the neerenesse of the Sabbath which was unto them an high day of Sabbath as it is called in the one and thirtieth verse of the same Chapter for as much as at that time the extraordinary Sabbath of the first day of the feast of unleavened bread occurred with the ordinary Sabbath of the weeke For the same reason the Iewes ver 31. that the bodyes of those that were crucified should not remaine upon the Crosse on the Sabbath day besought Pilate that they might be taken away betimes that is before the end of the day as the Text sheweth plainely Now if the Sabbath had not begun in the evening but only in the morning the Iewes should not have had a cause to urge the taking away of the bodies from the Crosse so quickly nor Ioseph and Nicodemus to bury the body of Iesus so speedily and to interre it in the same place where hee was crucified which the Text sheweth they did on a sudden For the Iewes should have had all the evening and all the night following to procure the taking away of the bodyes Ioseph and Nicodemus should have likewise had time enough to imbalme transport and interre at leasure the body of the LORD where they should thinke fit This is distinctly observed by Saint Luke Chapter 23. verse 53 54. where he saith that the day wherein Ioseph laid the body of Iesus in a Sepulchre was the preparation and the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is drew on was a comming
in their times as it hath had many hundred yeeres sithence in the Christian Church which honoureth the first day of the weeke with the name of the Lords day it followeth not that this consecration did proceed from the institution of Christ or of his Apostles Seeing it might be founded in the onely practice and custome brought in among the faithfull The ancient Fathers speaking of the observation of Sunday give no other reason thereof saving the Lords Resurrection on that day and not any commandement of the Lord which they had not forgotten if there had beene any 3 Certaine Divines without any shew of good reason will hold us in hand that the first day of the weeke is called The Lords day even as the seventh day is called The Lords rest and the holy Supper The Supper or the Table of the Lord to wit not onely in consideration of their end which is to be a memoriall that of Gods rest after the Creation this of Christs death but also of their institution which is from the Lord himselfe 4 It is true indeed that the one and the other are so called in these two respects But this is also most true that wee have in holy Scripture an expresse declaration that God of old gave to the Iewes the seventh day because on it he rested and would have it to be a signe that he was the Lord that sanctified them It is true also that Iesus Christ instituted the holy Supper in the roome of the ancient Passeover to be a memoriall of his death not a simple memoriall but a Sacrament exhibitive and confirmative of the benefits flowing from his death which it could not be but by an expresse institution from himselfe necessary in all Sacraments because otherwise they cannot be Sacraments It is not so of this day which is called The Lords day For we finde not any institution or subrogation thereof in roome of the ancient Sabbath day neither by the Lord himselfe norby his Apostles And it may be the faithfull called it the Lords day in regard of that solemne action of our Lord Iesus Christ when on it he rose from the dead an action whereof they thought fit to make in it an ordinary and weekely commemoration The place where the holy assemblies meet together is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Dutch and Scots Kirk by abbreviation in English Church as if we should say The Lords place albeit there be no such place of the Lords institution but onely of the Churches who gives that name to the Temples because they are consecrated to the Lords service And wherefore I pray might not likewise the first day of the weeke be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of the Lord seeing the Church hath appointed it to the honour and service of the Lord which she might doe without any necessity of a divine institution by Iesus Christ our Lord or by his Apostles This was the meaning of many of our most excellent Divines which speake of the observation of the first day of the weeke as of an observation proceeding not from some apostolicall commandement which is not to be found in the Gospel but from a custome introduced and received in the Christian Churches custome which in it selfe is free and without obligation of conscience They acknowledge also that the argument drawne from the appellation of the Lords day is weak Their testimonies I might recite in this place and oppose them to the testimonies taken from others that are of a contrary opinion But my intention is to dispute by reasons and not by authorities of men which in this point are different CHAPTER Eighth Answer to the seventh Reason 1. Seventh Reason The first day of the weeke is to be sanctified in remembrance that Christ on it ended the worke of our Redemption 2. First answer This assertion is false 3. Second answer Christ fulfilled our redemption by his death meritoriously 4. Third answer He hath fulfilled it by actuall execution after his ascension 5. Fourth answer Declaring the use of Christs Resurrection 6. A notable difference betweene the day of Christs Resurrection and the day of Gods rest 7. The day of Christs Resurrection hath no advantage above the day of his Passion c. 8. The true cause of the first observation thereof 9. All that is said of the first day of the weeke being granted it followeth not that it hath any naturall obligation to be kept 1 OF that hath beene said in the former Chapters it is apparent that the passages whereby our Opponents pretend to prove that the Lord either immediately by himselfe or by his Apostles hath instituted the first day of the week for his solemne service doe not prove any such thing But they take another argument from that which is constant by the story of the Gospel which is that the first day of the weeke Iesus Christ rose againe from the dead as if this day for this only cause that Christs Resurrection happened on it had beene sanctified unto us and obligeth us to a religious and solemne observation thereof For say they Christ rising from death to life on the first day of the weeke came victorious out of the great combate which he had sustained and rested from the dolorous and painfull travels which he had suffered in his death and so ended the worke of the redemption of the Church and re-established it into a new estate So the day that he rose in was a new day which he brought as it were from the Sepulchre for her sake And therefore if the day wherein God rested from the Creation of the world was to be sanctified under the Old Testament in remembrance and to the honour of that worke so long as there was not another more excellent then it by the same reason yea farre more the day wherein Christ rising hath accomplished the wonderfull worke of redemption which is a second Creation of a new world farre more excellent than the first was to bee sanctified under the New Testament in remembrance and to the honour of this great worke and the other day to give place unto it 2 I have already said diverse things pertaining to the solution of this argument But I adde over and besides and for better illustration that it is grounded upon an attribution given to the Resurrection of Christ of things which being exactly considered shall be found that they belong not unto it neither particularly nor properly as to have fulfilled the worke of our redemption and second Creation and to have re-established the world or the Church in the world into a new estate 3 Which things if we speake of fulfilling them by merit or of purchasing the right to performe them really have beene fulfilled by the death and passion of Christ which is the price of our redemption whereby both the state of grace here below and of glory in heaven is purchased unto us 4 But if we speake of fulfilling
them by actuall execution they have beene performed by the vertue of Christs Divinity after his Ascension into heaven from whence he sent the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles to beget and assemble his Church here beneath in all the parts of the world by their ministry 5 The Resurrection hath no other correspondency to the meritorious fulfilling of those things but of a token and marke evident certaine and necessary that Christ by his death hath merited them unto us having payed a most sufficient price for our redemption which had not appeared to be yea on the contrary had seemed not to be and indeed had not beene at all if Christ had remained in the grave of death and had not risen againe Even as the comming of a debtor out of prison is a demonstration that he hath payed although it bee not the payment it selfe But if he did remaine alwayes in prison that were an evident signe that he hath not satisfied We must take in this sence the Apostles words saying Rom. 4. verse 25. that Christ died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification that is to demonstrate that justification is purchased unto us by his death and withall to confer and apply it unto us efficaciously To which efficacious collation and application of all that was purchased by the death of Christ and to the actuall accomplishment of the second Creation and of the re-establishment of the Church into a new estate his Resurrection hath no correspondency but as a necessary antecedent thereunto For it was necessary hee should rise as also ascend into heaven that from thence he might operate that great and notable alteration 6 Wherein is seene a manifest difference betweene the day of Christs Resurrection and the seventh day that God rested in from the worke of Creation For this day followed the Creation finished and intirely effected and it was a rest from it already done and accomplished But that day cannot be called the day of rest from the second Creation saving only as it was merited by the death of Christ For it goeth and that many dayes before the actuall execution thereof sith Christ began not properly to frame and establish the Church of the New Testament till many dayes after he rose againe Wherefore there is by no meanes the like reason to keepe the day of Christs Resurrection as there was to keepe the Sabbath Day 7 Yea the day of the Resurrection in it selfe hath no advantage beyond the dayes of Christs Passion or Ascension or of Pentecost wherein came to passe the solemne sending of the Holy Ghost wherby it was more worthy to be observed then they For it was inferiour to the day of Christs passion and death in regard of the merit to purchase and to the day of Pentecost in regard of the efficacy to communicate the spirituall and heavenly gifts The Ascension day is conforme and equall unto it in the same correspondency both to the acquisition and to the execution of the establishment of the Church 8 The preferring of it by the faithfull to all other dayes to bee kept ordinarily as a solemne day came not from any worthier prerogative that it hath in it selfe but because on it began to shine upon the faithfull a new light of joy and comfort The death and buriall of Christ had filled their hearts with sorrow and abated their hope because it seemed to them that his death and the Sepulchre had taken him away and ravished him out of the world for evermore No wonder for they knew not in the beginning the nature nor the consequences of that great humiliation as is apparent by the discourse of the two Disciples going to Emmaus Luke 24. verse 21. After then that he rose againe shewing himselfe to be the Sonne of God with power Romans 1. v. 4. and that their hopes were revived by his Resurrection they thought fit to observe solemnly and weekely the day thereof which began their joy shewing unto them the first beames of the rising of the Sunne of righteousnesse rather than others which afterward increased it much by a greater manifestation of his glorious brightnesse though they were not lesse unworthy to be kept and as frequently And further they did it to change the ancient day of the Law into a new day of the Gospell In which change that there was a convenient reason it cannot be denyed The thing I deny is that there was any necessary reason thereof 10 Yea although all that in the objection is attributed to the day of the Resurrection did belong unto it properly and particularly it should not follow that in vertue thereof and by a naturall consequence the said day ought to be observed rather than any other For if the day that God rested in from the worke of the Creation had no naturall obligation in it tying men to the observation thereof but it was Gods Commandement onely that bound them to that duty no more can the day wherein Christ rested though in another respect which is not so proper from the worke of redemption oblige us of it selfe to observe it To tye our consciences to such an observation it must needs have a divine institution whereby God hath commanded us to observe it which I say is not to be found CHAPTER Ninth Answer to the eighth Reason 1. Eight Reason from the excellency of things done on the first day of the weeke 2. First Answer Besides that this assertion is uncertaine it proveth nothing 3. Second Answer it is grounded upon a superstitious opinion of the perfection and mysticall signification of the number of seven 4. Seeing there is no certainty in the observation of numbers and the Scripture maketh mention of other numbers observed in many things 5. Whence no solid argument can be gathered and are disclamea by many which dispute for the authority and preeminence of the first day of the weeke 6. In what sence the number of seven is called mysterious and that there is no mysterie in it under the New Testament 1 SOme fetch an argument from diverse solemne things recited in holy Scripture which they marke to have beene done on the first day of the weeke as that on it the light was created the pillar of a cloud covered at first the people of Israel Manna rained from heaven upon them Aaron and his children began to exercise the Priest-hood God at first blessed his people solemnely gave the Law on the Mount Sinai CHRIST was borne baptized turned water into Wine fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes shall come from heaven to judge the quicke and the dead 2 But it is most uncertaine that all these things were done on the first day of the weeke For the Scripture saith no such thing Besides this although all these things had beene done on the first day of the weeke it shall never follow by any necessary argument that for such a cause the first day of the weeke ought to be
solemnized under the New Testament Diverse other things very solemne may be found which God and Iesus Christ effected in other dayes of the weeke whereof we might conclude with as great probability that under the New Testament the day wherein they were performed ought to be solemnized 3 This argument is like to another that is produced to prove the necessity of the observation of one day of seven when it is said that this number of seven is perfect and mysterious and hath beene observed in the Scripture in diverse things which some have searched with great curiosity but with no profit 4 For there is no certainty to bee found in this observation of numbers Some for some reason find a great perfection in one number and others for other reason give the preference of perfection to another number The Mathematicians doe hold the number of six for the most perfect and the first of perfect numbers And if the Scripture pointeth out unto us the number of seven observed in many things she doth the like in other numbers The author of Ecclesiasticus Chapter 33. verse 15. and Chapter 42. verse 24. saith That God in all his workes hath observed the number of two and made them all double coupling two and two one against another Wee marke that God in the beginning made the two principall parts of the world heaven and earth two great lights the Sunne and the Moone of all living creatures the Male and Female in wedlocke two in one flesh There were two Tables of the Law two Cherubims upon the Ark two precious stones wherin were graved the names of the twelve Children of Israel and put upon the shoulders of the Ephod Every day two Lambes were offered in Sacrifice to God there be two Testaments two great Commandements two ordinary Sacraments of the Iewish and as many of the Christian Church Hee that would search particularly all things subsisting in this number of two or of three or of foure might devise thereupon a thousand mysteries 5 In summe such arguments have no solidity Many also which dispute for the necessity of the Sabbath in one of seven dayes and for the divine authority of the first day of the weeke disclaime them acknowledging freely that Christ had no respect to these faire actions which are pretended to have beene done on the first day of the weeke under the Old Testament and was not moved by them to institute that day for Gods service under the New Testament That also these mysteries of the number of seven have no certainty and were not the cause of the institution of one of the seven dayes of the Weeke to be a day of rest and that God had no regard unto them in that institution 6 For rather if the number of sâ—vâ—n be in the Scripture a mysticall number which I would not deny absolutely seeing that among all other numbers it is used in it to denote perfection and perpetuity it must be Gods observation thereof from the beginning when he rested on the seventh day that made it mysterious and the cause why God useth it rather than any other day in holy Scripture to denote perfection for as much as he ordained and established the seventh day wherein he rested for figure and type of the heavenly perfect and eternall rest which he hath prepared for all those that are his But this consideration is of no force to make the number of seven or the seventh day to be mysterious under the New Testament and to be kept as a day of rest For the types and mysticall figures of the heavenly rest which God had established under the ancient Testament bind not Christians under the New Testament seeing all old things are past away and behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. ver 17. CHAPTER Tenth Answer to the allegations of some pretended instances conjectures and inconveniences 1. First instance The observation of the first day of the weeke hath as solid foundations in the Scripture as hath the Baptisme of little Children 2. First Answer Baptisme is commanded in the New Testament to all those that are in the Covenant wherin little Children are comprised 3. But there is no commandement in the New Testament to observe one of the seven dayes of the weeke 4. Second Answer although our Saviour hath substituted Baptisme to the Circumcision he hath not put any set day in the roome of the Iewish Sabbath 5. Third Answer the observation of the first day of the weeke from the beginning inforceth not a divine institution therof no more than the observation of Easter and of other holy dayes which are of as old date 6. Second instance of diverse judgements upon those that have neglected or contemned the observation of the first day of the weeke answered 7. Third instance Man is naturally averse from the sanctification of the first day of the weeke 8. Answer shewing that he is sluggish and backward in Gods service not in keeping of dayes 9. Fourth instance of diverse inconveniences that shall follow if the observation of the first day of the weeke be not a divine institution 10. Answer to the first inconvenience that the Church should bee Lady and Mistresse of the Sabbath if it depend on her institution shewing how the Church may and may not sanctifie a day for Gods service 11. First Answer to the second inconvenience that she may appoint as many or as few dayes for Gods service as pleaseth her shewing that both extremities must be avoyded 12. Second Answer The Church hath not failed in either of them 13. Third Answer The Church in her reformation hath taken order with the multiplication of holy dayes and brought them within a little compasse 14. Answer to the third inconvenience that the Church might change the Lords day into another shewing that she might have done so in the beginning 15. The fourth inconvenience that the appointing of a day for Gods publike service injoyned in the fourth Commandement should depend on the Church is no inconvenience 16. Saving in case no day were appointed which is not to bee feared 17. Answer to the fifth inconvenience that many men will neglect the keeping of the first day of the weeke if they be perswaded that it is not a divine institution shewing that profane men will religious men will not 18. This Answer is confirmed by daily experience 1 ALL the foresaid arguments taken in some sort from the Scriptures being most weak as is cleere by what hath been said it is to no purpose that some of those with whom we are indifferent dare say that the keeping of Sunday hath as good a foundation and prop in the Scripture as hath the baptizing of little Children 2 For although we find no expresse commandement in the New Testament to baptisme little Children no more than to keepe Sunday or the first day of the weeke for a seventh day of rest yet we find baptisme expressely ordained by Iesus Christ to be a
seale of the covenant of grace and of Gods promises contained therein which because they appertaine to little children as S. Peter saith Act. 2. verse 39. and that in a manner so expresse that St. Paul affirmeth the Children of faithfull Parents to be holy 1 Cor. 7. ver 14. we conclude very pertinently that the seale of these promises which is Baptisme pertaineth to them 3 But we find not any ordinance in the Gospell to observe the seventh day neither in generall nor in particular neither I say one of the seven dayes of the weeke in generall nor in particular the first day or any other comprised in the order of seven The Commandement to observe the seventh day under the Old Testament was ceremoniall as was Gods ordinance concerning circumcision and had in the Law of the decalogue the same respect that circumcision hath in the covenant of grace And as our Lord Iesus Christ leaving the covenant of grace firme and steady hath abolished the signe of circumcision even so leaving the Law stable in the principall substance thereof which is the whole morality therof he hath abolished the ceremony of the seventh day established in it of old 4 Yet although he thought fit to put in the place of circumcision which was ministred to little children and which he hath abolished the holy Sacrament of Baptisme which consequently ought to be ministred to infants he hath not judged convenient to doe the like by establishing another stinted day in the roome of the seventh Iewish day which he hath abrogated For if he had esteemed it convenient hee had left us an institution thereof as expresse as of Baptisme which he hath not done but was pleased to leave to the wisdome and liberty of the Church the appointing of a time for his service 5 As indeed the Church from her first beginnings and as it were from her cradle hath observed Sunday But of this practise and custome so long continued some doe inferre too rashly that the keeping of Sunday is an institution of Iesus Christ or of his Apostles For by the same reason may be inferred that the keeping of Easter and of some other holy dayes under the Gospell is a divine institution because it hath beene practised in the Church from her first age not long after the times of the Apostles To which conclusion these disputers wil not consent unto because our Lord Iesus Christ hath made us free from the necessity of keeping feasts by any divine obligation as is evident by the texts of Saint Paul alleadged and explaind in the first part of this treatise The truth is that custom hath introduced and ever fithence hath intertained that day and some other holy dayes in the Church without any commandement of Iesus Christ or of his holy Apostles which also Socrates hath recorded in the fifth book of his ecclesiasticall History Ch. 21. 6 They produce also examples of divers judgements of God upon sundry persons who neglected or contemned the Lords day whence they would prove that God thereby hath ratified the observation thereof as ordained by him Whereunto I answer that undoubtedly God may have punished many for the profanation of the Lords day not because he hath ordained and commanded it but because according to the order of the Church this day hath beene appointed for the excrcises of Religion which hee hath commanded All persons which set at nought the preaching of the Word the administration of the Sacraments publike and common Prayers in the assemblies of the faithfull and the order of the Church whereby these holy actions are ordinarily practised on the first day of the weeke deserve in the righteous judgement of God to be punished with exemplary and publike plagues and when the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against their ungodlinesse the cause of their punishment to speake properly is the carelesse disregard of the holy Congregations of the religious and fruitfull exercises practised in them and of the order of the Church and not any necessity proceeding from a commandement given of God to observe the first day of the weeke rather than another day They urge also the backwardnesse which is naturally in men to the sanctification of the Lords day which is our Sabbath day All wicked men are altogether averse unto it and the faithfull and truly regenerate too remisse and restie Of this they inferre that the commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and the Lords day is a divine institution considering the great contradiction and opposition of the flesh against it 8 But it is easie to answer this argument For this rebellion and stubbornnesse of the flesh is not simply against Sunday no more than against another day but against the keeping and applying of Sunday to serve God to heare his Word to powre out prayers before him to meditate on godlinesse and other exercises of religion whereunto the naturall man hath no inclination no more in other dayes than on the day that is stinted for them For otherwise to to observe a day for passing the time in sporting in gaming or in worldly solemnities the flesh is too too forward to that Whence it followeth that verily Gods service true religion and godlinesse in it selfe is a morall thing established of God seeing the flesh is so averse unto it But it is not necessary that the keeping of a certaine day of Sabbath as of Sunday should be of the same nature because the flesh hath no aversion to that saving in as much as the observation of such a day is ordained for Gods service 9 But say they if one of seven dayes and namely Sunday be not under the new Testament necessary to be kept by divine institution but onely by the order of the Church it shall follow that the Church hath authority of her selfe to sanctifie a day for Gods service and consequently that she is Lady and Mistresse of the Sabbath which prerogative pertaineth not to her but to God alone That if she hath that authority she may ordaine as many and as few dayes as pleaseth her make all the dayes or the most part of the dayes of the weeke Sabbath dayes or onely one of ten or of fifteene or of a whole yeere if she will That particularly she may change Sunday into another day which should be absurd seeing there shall never be any action so important to oblige us to the keeping of another day as was the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ which fell upon the first day of the weeke and to move us to consecrate that day to be a Sabbath day That Easter Whitsunday and other Holy dayes instituted by the Church shall be equall in authority to Sunday That there shall be nothing in the fourth Commandement injoyned to particular men saving perhaps to keepe the time which shall be appointed in the Church whereupon they shall brabble and strive about the number of dayes namely about the particular day which is to bee observed some
the injunction to kindle no fire these words are added And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel c. which may very well denote a discourse depending on the former made upon another matter and perhaps also in another time 11 But although this last discourse had beene made in dependance upon the other the other relatively unto it that is though Moses had forbidden in the third verse to kindle fire for the use of the Artificers handicrafts men that were to build the Tabernacle wherof he speaketh afterward lest the Israelites should surmise that it was lawfull unto them for to doe it for the hastening and setting forward of that excellent edifice which God had appointed to be his house it should be nothing else but an application of a prohibition in it selfe generall to a particular subject whereunto it extended it selfe as unto others even as the prohibition of the second verse to doe any work on the Sabbath day under the paine of death is undoubtedly in the meaning thereof generall although Moses had in that place referred it particularly to the edifice of the Tabernacle Yea Moses of set purpose had applied the one and the other to the particular subject or the building of the Tabernacle to make better knowne and to inferre from thence the generality and extent of both 12 For if it were forbidden to worke and to kindle fire on the Sabbath day for the edifying of the Tabernacle farre more was it forbidden for all other worke sith scarce could there be any more important than that and which could so well deserve a particular licence to labour and kindle fire to doe it as which had no other regard saving the accelerating and rearing up of the house of God 13 The prohibition to cooke meat on the Sabbath whereof I have spoken before sheweth that this kindling of fire should be referred unto it to wit that it was not lawfull to kindle any to make meat ready which must be also understood of all other ends of the same nature This is confirmed by Philo the Iew who in the Booke of Abrahams Pilgrimage and in the third Booke of the life of Moses among the works which it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day putteth these two to dresse meat and kindle the fire 14 I adde that the fourth Commandement of the Law was to the Israelites the cause of their abstinence and cessation on the Sabbath day when they were in the wildernesse So was it in Canaan also and after the same manner as it was in the wildernesse The particular prohibitions given afterward unto them and which they received were onely explications illustrating the sense and the end of the Commandement Now sith the words of the Commandement are generall In it thou shall not doe any worke with what shew of truth can it be said that the workes to bake and cooke meat to kindle the fire and such like were not forbidden by these words but onely by particular and speciall commandements and that for the time of the abode of the Israelites in the wildernesse seeing there is no place to be found where they are excepted from this generall tearme Any worke expresly set downe in the Commandement and where licence is given to the Israelites to do them in the land of Canaan 15 If God had meant that it was lawfull to the Iewes to kindle fire dresse meat and travell on the Sabbath day questionlesse hee had made an exception particular declaration therupon as he did concerning the two Sabbaths the first and the last of the feast of the Passeover For he forbade also to doe any work on these two daies But he excepted the preparation and dressing of as much meat as every man must eat Exod. 12. vers 16. and he permitted them after they had rosted and eaten the Paschall Lambe in the evening to returne to their home the next morning Deut. 16. vers 7. Vndoubtedly the same is to bee understood of the Sabbaths of other feasts but not of the ordinary Sabbath properly so called wherein God required a rest more exact because this day was ordained to be a particular type of the spirituall and heavenly rest as we have declared before and shall touch it againe hereafter CHAPTER Fourth Confirmation and illustration of the matter set downe in the precedent Chapters 1. All kinde of workes forbidden by the Law of Moses on the Sabbath day are in themselves lawfull to Christians on the Sunday 2. First Reason Cessation from all workes on the Sabbath was a part of the Ceremoniall Law and of Gods service 3. And not a helpe and furtherance onely of the said service 4. Second Reason It was a type and figure of the heavenly rest 5. Which our Sunday is not 6. Third Reason Gods service under the New Testament consists not in observation of dayes but in actions of godlinesse and righteousnesse c. 7. This is proved by application of the Apostles words Rom. 14. vers 17. 8. And most clearely by his warning given to the Collossians Chap. 2. vers 16. 9. Abstinence of workes is necessary in the Christian Church in any day whatsoever as it is a helpe to Gods publike service 10. The publike service being ended on Sunday Christians may use lawfull recreations c. 11. It is proved by reason that they may doe the like betweene the houres of Divine Service 12. Fourth Reason There is no injunction in the new Testament concerning a cessation from such recreations and workes 13. Fifth Reason The two Disciples went to Emmaus on the same day that Christ rose and Christ meeting them gave them no instruction to the contrary 14 Sixth Reason The faithfull of Troas did worke on Sunday till night 15. Seventh Reason The first injunction not to worke c. on Sunday came from Christian Emperours 16. Constantine the first permitted many workes on Sunday 17. Which sheweth that the Christians of those dayes tooke not Sunday to be an institution of Iesus Christ. 1 THerefore seeing those against whom this Treatise is made yeeld unto us that certaine outward and servile workes are under the New Testament permitted on the Sabbath day which as I have clearely shewed were forbidden to the Iewes by the Law I conclude againe that all other workes forbidden by the Law on the Sabbath day are likewise permitted to us after the publike solemne service of God that the prohibition of the Law to doe any worke on the Sabbath day concerneth us not Surely if it pertained to us as containing a point necessary of Gods service as well under the New as under the Old Testament I see no reason why we should not be as exact in this Service under the New Testament as the Iewes were under the Law Nay wee should be farre more affectionate to doe as well or more precisely with an equall or greater care than the Iewes were all things belonging to the true service
of God commanded by him 2 But here is the point which will furnish us with a new reason why it is neither necessary nor likely that although the Iewes were bound to abstaine from all manner of worke on their Sabbath day we should be bound to a like cessation on our Sabbath seeing the time of the Old Testament was a time wherein Gods service consisted in Ceremonies Elements and Rudiments which were servile childish weake and beggarly as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. vers 3. 9. Col. 2. vers 20. The observation of a certaine day of Sabbath rather than of another and on it a cessation from all outward workes made in it selfe a part of that service and was not ordained by accident as a helpe to Gods service required onely for that end but as being of it selfe properly a point of religion and of Gods service and an essentiall duty of the Sabbath day For which cause it was so exactly injoyned with an interdiction even of the smallest and least things as to gather and prepare Manna to kindle fire to walke a few steps abroad and such like which was not lawfull for any person to doe although hee were alone and out of danger by doing them to give offense to any man Although also they might have beene done as it were in a moment of time without any diversion of the minde to think on better things as on God on godlinesse and on other holy exercises because that not to doe such workes was at that time a part of Gods service and that which belonged to Gods service could not be too exactly recommended and observed 3 For otherwise if the substance of Gods service had not at that time consisted partly in this exact cessation from all workes and if it had beene injoyned but as a helpe and furtherance of that service such little workes which were of no paines and of lesse distraction had not beene forbidden because in effect they are no let to a true spirituall Sabbath And when the Iewes were come backe to their houses from the place of their holy convocations it is evident to consider the matter according to the state we live in under the Gospell that they might easily compasse these actions and other such like without any prejudice thereby to true godlinesse and to the sanctification of their hearts But as they were bound to serve God on the Sabbath day by divers sacrifices offerings perfumings with-incense and other ceremoniall and bodily exercises for which they had need of a carnall holinesse and purity and to restraine themselves from a great deale of ceremoniall pollutions as to touch a dead man or any meat declared to be uncleane c. and as Gods service consisted in keeping themselves unspotted with such things even so an exact refraining from all outward and servile workes made a part of that Sabbaticall holinesse and purenesse whereof I have spoken If they had put their hand to any ordinary worke that worke had polluted them And all the legall workes of the Sabbath such as were the sacrifices c. had beene in some sort profaned by the common workes of other dayes if they had beene done on that day Therefore they were bound by necessity to abstaine exactly from them all 4 I adde that as I have said formerly the Sabbath was given them expresly to be unto them a type figurative of the spirituall rest whereby a man resteth from all iniquity and namely of the heavenly wherein there shall be a perfect cessation not only from all sinne but also from all bodily labours that the Saints may give themselves wholly to glorifie God And therefore that the figure might correspond the neerest that could be to the truth the signe to the thing signified and to represent to the Iewes and give them to understand that they ought to abstaine from all kinde of sinne the most precisely and exactly as possibly they could because sinnes are verily opposite to Gods service and pollute all the actions thereof and that in heaven they should injoy an intire and perfect rest a most precise cessation from all bodily workes and imployments was injoyned them And these are in my judgement the true reasons of that injunction 5 Now these reasons concerne us not under the New Testament Wee have no day of rest ordained of GOD to be unto us a type and figure of the spirituall and heavenly rest And if sometimes our Sunday which is our day of rest bee imployed to represent the heavenly rest as it is by some of the ancient Fathers it followeth not that the end of the institution thereof was to bee a figure and a type seeing it is not so much as a divine institution Wherefore the Fathers have called it so by application and allusion onely grounded upon some outward resemblance 6 No more doth Gods service under the Gospell to speake properly consist in the observation of any particular day more then of another nor in the abstinence of outward workes on it And as one of the contrary opinion speaking of the prohibition given to the Israelites to kindle the fire on the Sabbath day hath vouched and said that it was unto them a childish restriction and instruction and as for us who are Christians and who live also in countreys farre colder than was Iudea that wee have a greater liberty than they had to kindle the fire and that the said prohibition tieth us not saving in the equity thereof to teach us that we must not abuse our liberty to the intertainement of a carnall licence and hinderance of Gods service Verily there is the same reason of all other outward workes which God prohibited so exactly to the Iewes on the Sabbath day for that was also a puerile instruction we have a liberty to doe them that they had not on that day and nothing obligeth us but the equity of these prohibitions to wit that we must not doe these workes licenciously making of them a pretence to neglect Gods service Indeed we are bound to serve God under the New Testament as much yea much more than the Iewes under the Old Testament because we are farre more beholden unto him than they were But this obligation is to a more spirituall service which is such essentially consisting in the carefull practice of actions of true godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse But we are not obliged after the same manner as they were to serve him with a rudimentall materiall and servile service to which appertained this abstinence so exactly prescribed of all workes on a certaine day and which was one of the points of the unsupportable yoke of the ceremoniall Law And as wee are made free from these actions which the Iewes were obliged to performe on the Sabbath day with twice as much as on other dayes such as were double sacrifices double meat and drink offerings c. Num. 28. 9. by which things God fashioned them to the outward and typicall sanctification of the
of charitie and of necessarie compassion towards men and beasts which they avouch may be done on the Sabbath day And yet in these things there is not alwayes present necessity For although a man take no sustenance for himselfe should not give any to other should not give physicke or apply some other remedy to a sicke man it may bee the body should not bee enfeebled nor receive any detriment thereby and in case it did it might bee easily repaired by taking food and physicke the next day I would faine know why in this case rather than in others a necessity or a danger apparant onely and not present shall it licence any man to worke They acknowledge that on the Sabbath day is permitted not onely that which is absolutely necessary for the entertainment of the creature but also whatsoever is usefull for a convenient and comfortable mainetenance thereof as to prepare give take meat apply a medicine to our selves or to another although there be not in it any present necessity If this doctrine be true it is not a present necessitie that licenseth a man to worke but also an imminent evill the event and issue whereof is onely apparant in case it be not prevented in time Will they say that more is permitted in things that concerne immediately a mans person as nourishment and medicaments than in things that are more remote But there is to be found a great deale of imminent necessities in these things that come not so nigh to mans person which if they be anticipated by a prompt remedie it shall be as much yea more convenient and bring greater comfort to a man than if he should eat and drinke in his present hunger and take physicke without delay when he is sicke And the danger of delay in these present necessities should not be so great as in those others that are onely imminent 12 I will alleage to this purpose an example of a thing which the precise Defenders of a cessation from all workes on the Sabbath day stand much upon That is to gather corne to lay it up or to doe some other worke for the preservation thereof on the Sabbath day in an imminent necessitie I meane in an apparant danger that if this be not done the corne shal be endammaged shall rot and become unprofitable Loe the day is faire dry and commodious the corne may be saved if it be gathered and laid up on this day and a great losse to the owner prevented This they will not suffer to bee done Nay when the corne is already cut they cannot abide that it bee transported from the floore to the barne saying that the care thereof must bee wholly committed to Gods providence who will keepe it if hee thinke it expedient and that we must rather chuse to let the corne rot and perish upon the ground than to breake and profane the Sabbath day But I pray in what fashion will they adjust this and match it fitly with their other positions that the workes of necessitie are permitted on the Sabbath day which according to their owne interpretation are such that if they be not done man shall be endammaged Also that it is lawfull to doe all things requisite not only for the entertainment that is absolutely necessary but also that is agreeable and comfortable to the creature so that time may be taken before betweene or after the publike exercises Now is not this a thing of great comfort to a poore Christian that his corne perish not as in all likelihood it shall if he take not order at that same instant for the preservation thereof If it be said that this dammage is not infallible I reply that they should have much adoe as I have before to explicate what infallibility and certitude they require and that hardly shall they finde any danger which may be called infallible and for the preventing whereof they may put their hands to work on the Sabbath day For Gods providence may anticipate evils before they come or arrest them in their beginning or repaire all their dammages if he suffer them to come 13 I aske shall it not be lawfull to a man in his pinching hunger or of his familie to gather on the Sabbath day of his owne wheat to carry it home and to prepare of it as much as they shall need he having no other meanes but that alone to nourish himselfe and them in this extremity Vndoubtedly all Christians will confesse that he may yea that although to speake absolutely they might want it for a day yet the onely conveniencie to take meat when they are hungry will permit them doe it Now if it be lawfull to gather corne to carry it home or to doe some other worke to satisfie an hungry and barking stomacke although this present evill be not such that it should for a dayes fasting cause a great detriment without a present remedie why shall it not bee lawfull to seeke by the same meanes a present remedie for the hunger to come the danger whereof is apparent and farre greater if it be not remedied out of hand than of present hunger For if the corne of man wherewith he and his family were to be fed many moneths together rot and perish he shall have leisure enough to be hunger-starved farre longer and with greater dammage than if he suffered hunger one day Will they say that he must leave that to Gods providence and trust that he will keepe his corne or shall recompense the losse thereof and supply his wants with competent food by some other meanes But why ought he not much more to abstaine from seeking remedies to his present hunger wherewith he is pinched on that day relying upon Gods providence trusting assuredly that he will preserve him from being dammaged by that hunger or in case he receive any dammage will repaire it namely considering he seeth the danger to be lesser as being but of one day which is soone pasâ— and the remedie more prompt and easie then in the other 14 The passage of the 32. Chapter of Exodus vers 21. whereof they make a buckler where God commandeth the people of Israel to rest in the seventh day both in earing time and in the harvest doth not prove that they pretend For first we may understand that he forbiddeth onely in earing time and in the harvest to take liberty to worke on the Sabbath day as they were wont on all other daies of the week but extends not the prohibition to the extraordinarie necessity of an imminent danger as if he forbade in such a case to transport the corne from the field onely to the floore or from the floore to the barne whereof he speaketh not which notwithstanding is the case or matter that is broached for a divine truth For if other prohibitions of the Law concerning other kindes of labour are as precise or more in the tearmes that they are set down in as this is receive by urgent necessities some
modifications wherefore not this also Secondly if the foresaid prohibition had sway in the necessity that hath been supposed I returne the answer that is made by some of them against whom I dispute upon the prohibitions to kindle fire to cooke meat on the Sabbath day c. that they pertained to the bondage of the Law which is most true 15 Furthermore when they speake of bodily and worldly workes which some necessity permitteth yea obligeth us to doe on the Sabbath day they say that they must be done through meere charity and compassion for the preservation of the creatures which have need of our helpe and not as workes of our callings whereby we win our living for this cause that we must doe them without any respect to any gaine and profit that may come to us thereby and which we cannot lawfully receive being bound to doe all things on that day freely and of meere good will For example if a Chirurgion or Apothecarie give remedies to their patients on that day that they must not gaine the value of a farthing and if they take any money it must be onely for the just and true price of the remedies and not for the imployment of their industrie and painefull labour about the patient Likewise that he who waters his beast or giveth it physicke should have onely before his eyes the health and reliefe thereof and in no wise the utility and service that hee hath received and may receive hereafter of it which is the end wherefore he feedeth anâ— entertaineth it in other times 16 This indeed is a distinction and limitation very subtill and is besides inveloped with many difficulties It is true that when a man is bound to these and such like workes on the Sabbath day he ought to doe them through Christian love and compassion and so ought he to doe all his workes towards his neighbours in all the dayes of the weeke But that he ought to doe them without any regard to his owne profit and commoditie that goeth beyond the reach of my apprehension and understanding For if he may doe them in charity and compassion towards persons that are not so neere unto him or towards beasts why may hee not doe them through charity love to himselfe and to his family May he not be in such a condition and estate that he hath not sufficiently wherewith to entertaine himselfe and his family The beast which hee feedeth is perhaps the onely meanes whereby he gets his living Therefore when God offers unto him the occasion yea layeth upon him the necessity to doe some worke why may he not when he intendeth and hath before his eyes the reliefe of his neighbour or of his beast thinke on his owne profit which depends on that worke and proceedeth from it and judge that God by the occasion of this worke which he hath put in his hands affords unto him the meanes to gaine something for himselfe and for the maintenance of his wife children and servants It may be that he worketh for rich folkes which will not take his paines for nought should thinke they receive a great injurie and affront if he offered to give them freely and hold him to bee a foole What shall hee doe in this case They are constrained to answer that in such a case he may take the fees of his labour but with this addition that receiving them with one hand he must with the other give them to the poore to testifie that what he hath done he hath done it onely for the Lord. But what if he be poore himselfe having no more than is needfull or not so much as is behoofefull for him and his familie What if the hire which he hath received bee notable and more worth then he shall be able to win in many dayes following as if a Physician or a Leech that is poore received on the Sabbath day of a rich patient a liberall and ample salarie of his industrie and paines must he give it all to the poore In these places where we live and where we are constrained to goe a great way out of the townes of our abode to the places appointed for the publike exercises of our Religion there be coachmen that carry many persons by land in their coaches which they let out for a certaine hire And boat-men which doe the like by water in their boats This is so necessary that without these helpes these persons cannot goe to heare Service and to call upon God in the Congregation of the faithfull These coachmen and boatmen are they bound by Christian charity to carry them for nought to give them freely the usage of their coaches boats and labour and to refuse all gaine although it countervaileth all the profit they can make of their labour in the whole weeke and the whole yeere affordeth not unto them so notable so certaine and so present wages Or must they be content to take no more then will suffice for the reparation of the dammages of their coaches and boats which would be a thing of little consideration Now if it be lawfull to receive money on the Sabbath day for recompence of a thing which I have furnished to another and of the dammage that I have received by the furnishing of it why may I not also receive a reward of my paines There are Trades whose gaine consists in things which they give and others whose gaine dependeth simply on their travell and paines their paines and industrie being the whole matter whereupon their gaine is formed and answerable to the things furnished by others They will perhaps answer that he who furnisheth something hath bought it first and it is reasonable that he be rewarded But what if he hath not bought it If a Chirurgion or Apothecarie for example hath drugs that were given him or simples and physicall herbs which he hath gathered in his garden on the mountaines or in the fields and he hath bestowed onely his paines to gather and prepare them and to make of them by his industrie divers compositions and medicaments for the use of his patients must hee give on the Sabbath day these drugs and medicaments for nought He must if all Christians be obliged to give their travell and paines freely and bestow their labour upon their neighbours through meere and simple charity But I demand Why may not he rather that hath imployed his labour upon another receive of him that which he giveth taking it not as a reward but as a benevolence For the giver to relieve him of all scruple of conscience may say truly that he giveth it in that quality And indeed if a man may give his money freely to one who hath not done or wrought any thing for him and if this man may receive it without sinne I see no reason why he may not yea ought not to give money to one that hath bestowed his travell on him or for his benefit and why this man may not take it
Moreover what if after a man hath wrought upon the Sabbath day and other dayes successively and he for whom he hath wrought procrastinate his pay till all be done and then satisfie him for all those dayes workes together as commonly Chirurgions Apothecaries Physicians are never otherwise paid that is never till the disease of their patient is come to an end either by health or death shall he in such a case separate the labour of the Sabbath day from the labour of other dayes and if in the hire or reward that is given him the salarie of the seventh dayes worke be comprised must he defaulk the Sabbath dayes worke and refuse to take any thing for it I would be glad to know on what ground all these distinctions are founded 17 They alleage that God in his Ordinances concerning the Sabbath hath forbidden us to doe in it our workes and servile workes and that all workes which we doe for our profit and utility are our workes and servile workes even as servants worke for their hire which they say to be signified by the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imployed in the fourth Commandement and translated by this generall word to doe as likewise by this Noune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which wee translate worke although it signifie not all kinde of worke but that onely which is done for gaine and worldly profit By which words God hath intimated that he forbiddeth to doe any thing whatsoever for that end But this is too much subtilizing about words which signifie generally all travell worke function about any thing and done to any end whatsoever Is not Gods worke betokened by this name Melacah Genes 2. vers 2 3. Is not the offering of sacrifices called by this Verbe Habad Esa. 19. vers 21. and the function of the Levites about holy things 2 Chron. 13. vers 10. Besides this I say that indeed God prohibited on the Sabbath day all worke for gaine but even as he forbade all other bodily worke which was not done for gaine to wit to make an ordinary course and custome of it as in other dayes and when there was no necessitie But as in case of necessity he permitted the labour that brought no gaine even so hee prohibited not the worke that might bring gaine to the worker nor the gaine that might come of the worke 18 Thirdly when they speake of servants and others that are under authority they say that their servitude and subjection is not a sufficient warrant unto them to worke on the Sabbath day by the authority of their superiours to whom when they receive any such commandement they ought to answer that they are first the servants of Almighty God who is the King of Kings LORD of Lords maker of heaven and earth whom they ought to obey rather than men and suffer to be railed upon and buffeted rather than to doe any worke on that day 19 But how doth this consent with their decisions concerning messengers and posts For they say that being dispatched and sent away quickly by the Magistrates they may runne and make hast on the Sabbath day without inquirie of the necessity of that laborious voyage which they are put unto because simple subjects ought not to make inquirie of the affaires of their Princes and Lords which often it is not expedient that they should know For why may not by the same reason a domesticall servant doe some worke to obey his Master without searching curiously upon what necessity his Master layeth this worke upon him For the Master may have good reasons and great importance to his family of this command which it is not expedient his servant should be privie unto nor that hee should bee inquisitive and curious to know them afore hee obey For this should draw with it a most dangerous consequence Againe this permission that they give to posts to ride hard and make hast for the affaires of the Countrey how doth it agree with the difference that they have made betweene present and imminent necessity permitting no worke for this but for that onely For the necessities for which posts are hastened and they post so speedily are seldome present and are often but imminent having regard only to something that may happen in time to come 20 Fourthly when they give their advise concerning bankets they distinguish betweene solemne bankets and those that are bankets of friendship and more moderate And forbidding the first they permit the last But they ought to have determined first which bankets are to be called solemne which not how many courses of meat must be prepared how many persons and of what quality must be invited to make a solemne banket Also a man shall be vexed in his minde not knowing if to invite so many persons and to make ready so much meat and so many services will make his banquet solemne or not Besides that in regard of some persons of great riches and quality such as are Kings Princes Lords c. it is not a solemne feast which in respect of some other persons of lesser meanes authoritie and dignitie may carry that name Now if these persons of great note and quality are suffered to make such banquets which in regard of their degree and meanes are not solemne yea are nothing but their ordinarie diet why may not other persons of inferiour condition and meanes make them also although to them they be solemne For there is not greater distraction from Gods service to the persons whom the one put on work for the preparing of their feast which to them is solemne than to those whom the other set about the dressing of their feast which to them is ordinarie and not solemne If a great man may have a great number of servants busied about the dressing of his ordinary refection and if his table be every day well furnished by reason of the eminencie of the noble stocke that he is come of and of his dignity and withall not breake the Sabbath why may not a man of a meaner condition have extraordinarily as many people for a solemne banquet which he hath occasion to make on the Sabbath day And seeing a solemne banquet may be made by a great number of servants in as short time as a banquet that is not solemne may be prepared by a lesser number I see no cause why a man shall commit a greater sinne if hee set on worke twenty servants to dresse a solemne banquet than if he set foure or five onely about the dressing of one that is not solemne For twenty shall not toyle and have more adoe they shall make as speedy an end of their businesse and so shall not be more distraught and withdrawne from Gods service than foure or five and may equally before or after their worke get leisure to apply themselves unto it And as for the persons invited thirty persons in a solemne feast may have done as soone and be as little diverted from
determine the circumstances necessary or profitable for the observation of the morall precepts of the first Table and which are no part of Gods service and doe not oblige the conscience but in case of scandall amongst the rest saith he Dies Dominicus ab Ecclesia est substitutus Sabbato in usum ministerii c. The Lords-day was substituted in lieu of the Sabbath for Gods service c. Idem in Explicatione Catechet in praecept 4. Sabbatum ceremoniale est duplex aliud Ueteris aliud Novi Testamenti Vetus erat astrictum ad diem septimum ejus observatio erat necessaria cultus Dei. Novum pendet ex arbitrio Ecclesiae quae elegit diem primum propter certas causas is est observandus ordinis causâ sed fine opinione necessitatis quasi ab Ecclesia oporteat eum observari non alium The ceremoniall Sabbath is two-fold one of the New another of the Old Testament That was restrained to the seventh day and the observation of it was necessarie and a part of Gods worship This dependeth from the will of the Church which made choice of the first day for certaine causes and it is to be observed for good orders sake but without any opinion of necessitie as if it behooved the Church to observe it and no other Item Oportet non minùs nunc in Christiana quà m olim in Iudaica Ecclesia esse aliquem certum diem quo verbum Dei doceatur Sacramenta publicê administrentur Interim non sumus alligati ut diem septimanae 3 4 5. vel quemcunque alium habeamus Apostolicaigitur Ecclesia ut se à Iudaicâ Synagogâ discerneret pro libertate sibi à Christo donata pro septimo die elegit primam propter probabilem causam quia eo die facta est Christi Resurrectio It behooveth as well now in the Christian Church as before in the Iewish that there be some certaine day on which the word of God may bee taught and the Sacraments publikely administred But we are not tied to have Tuesday Wednesday Thursday or any other for this set day The Apostolicall Church therefore to make a distinction betwixt her selfe and the Iewish Synagogue according to the liberty given her by Christ in stead of the seventh day chose the first for a probable reason because on that day Christ rose againe Uiet on the fourth command towards the end The Primitive Christians did not change the day only with regard to a difference to be made betwixt Iewes and Christians for thus the matter were not much mended to have changed onely the day and have retained the superstition which the Iewes fasten to it But they had regard to the Resurrection of our Lord which is the true accomplishment of the spirituall rest which we hope for c. Bucer in Matth. cap. 12. v. 1. loc de feriis Hinc factum non dubito ut communis Christianorum consensu Dominicus dies conventibus Ecclesiae publicis ac requiei publicae dicat us sit ipso statim Apostolorum tempore I doubt not but that by the common consent of Christians the Lords-day hath beene appointed for the publike meetings of the Church and for publike rest even in the Apostles dayes Zanchius in praecep 4. in Tractatu de feriis Praeceptum de die Dominico sanctificando ab Apostolis expressum non habemus Apostolicam tamen traditionem esse minimè dubitamus Wee have no expresse command from the Apostles to sanctifie the Lords-day notwithstanding we doubt not but that it is an Apostolicall tradition And having alleaged some proofes out of Scripture to that purpose he addeth Exsacris literis colligitur non ineptè ab Apostolis profectum esse ut omisso Sabbato dies Dominicus fuerit in illius locum substitutus It is not impertinently gathered from holy writ that the substitution of the Lords-day in place of the Sabbath proceeded from the Apostles Acknowledging as appeareth by his words not impertinently that those proofes were but weak But afterwards in expresse termes he avoucheth that the said day is appointed for Gods service without putting any tie upon the conscience Hoc inquit liquet ex sacris literis Nullibi enim legimus Apostolos hoc cuipiam mandâsse tantùm legimus quid soliti fuerunt facere Apostoli fideles in illo die Liberum igitur reliquerunt Accedit quod Apostolus ad Gal. c. 4. ad Col. 2. non vult servari à fidelibus praecepta Dei de Sabbatis aliisque festis Mosaicis quia nolebat fidelium conscientias illis praeceptis astringi quantò minus igitur voluerunt Apostoli obstringi conscientias sanctificando diei Dominico qui nullum habebat Domini mandatum Liberum est igitur illud etiam tempus hoc est nullius obligans conscientiam sed ita tamen liberum ut omnino iste dies sanctificandus sit nisi charit as aliud postulet This saith he is manifest from Scripture For we reade no where that the Apostles gave this command to any man wee reade onely what the Apostles and the faithfull were wont to doe on that day They therefore left it free Moreover the Apostle Gal. 4. and Col. 2. will not have the faithfull to observe Gods precepts concerning Sabbaths and other Mosaicall Holy dayes because he would not have the consciences of the faithfull obliged to those precepts how much lesse would the Apostles have their consciences obliged to keepe holy the Lords-day or Sunday for which we have no command from God Therefore that time also is free that is to say tieth no mans conscience But notwithstanding it is so free that altogether it behooveth us to sanctifie this day if charity doth not require the contrary Item Quis prohibuit quin Ecclesia ficut diem septimum transtult in diem Dominicum sic etiam illos reliquos dies festos in alios transferre potuerit What hindereth but that the Church as it removed the seventh day to the Lords-day may also change the rest of the feasts of the Iewes into other dayes Item At the very end of the explication of the fourth command In locum Sabbati subrogatus est dies Dominicus quia eo die evanuit Sabbatum quatenus figura erat quo Christus resurrexit ut ergo racondemur evanuisse per Resurrectionem Christi Ecclesia non retinuit Sabbatum sed diem Dominicum The Lords-day was substituted in place of the Sabbath because on that day on which Christ rose againe the Sabbath was abolished so farre as it was a figure That therefore wee may remember that it was abolished by the Resurrection of Christ the Church hath retained not the Sabbath but the Lords day Bourgoin Minister of Geneva in his Histor. Eccles. written in French lib. 2. of feasts It is not written when it was that the Christians difunited themselves from the Iewes and began to keepe holy the Lords-day Item After the Apostles some did celebrate the Sabbath others the Lords-day And
lib. 4. Of publike assemblies There is no great certainety at what times it was that Christians had their publike assemblies and yet lesse in what places Item The Christians serving of God was tied neither to certaine times nor places but rather by that which Iustin Martyr hath said of the Lords-day it is likely that necessity or custome assigned them to the time and that conveniencie designed the place Danaeus in Ethic. Christian. in praecep 4. Libertatem suam in die octava eligenda ostendunt Christiani se à Iudaicis ceremoniis Christi beneficio liberatos Porrò neque praecise octava dies ab omnibus Ecclesiis pro solenni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 facienda observata est sed ab aliis Ecclesiis tertia dies id est Martis ab aliis quarta id est Mercurii vel alia ut tradit Socrates Scholasticus in lib. 5. c. 22. Dies autem Dominica quae Solis dicitur postea communi omnium Ecclesiarum consensu sub Imperatoribus Christianis statuta est quia videbatur haec etiam Apostolorum temporibus probata The Christians in making choice of the eighth day doe shew the liberty they have and that by Christ they are freed from the ceremonies of the Iewes But neither was the eighth precisely observed by all Churches for the keeping of their solemne assemblies but by some Churches the third day that is Tuesday by others the fourth that is Wednesday or some others as Socrates reporteth Hist. l. 5. c. 22. But the Lords-day which is also called Sunday by the unanimous consent of all Churches under the raignes of Christian Emperours wee pitch upon and the rather because it seemed to have beene approved of even in the Apostles times PASSAGES Concerning the Observation of the Sabbath in regard of a resting from the workes of our ordinarie vocations S. Augustin tom 6. Contra faustum Manichaeum l. 6. c. 4. Cessationem Sabbatorum jam quidem supervacuam ducimus ad observandum ex quo spes revelata est nostrae quietis aeternae Now we thinke the observation of Sabbaths to be superfluous since the hope of our eternall rest was revealed Contra Adimantum c. 16. Sabbati quietem non observamus in tempore sed signum temporale intelligimus ad aeternam quietem quae illo signo significatur aciem mentis intendimus The Sabbaths rest we observe not in time but we understand that it was a temporary signe and we fasten our eyes upon that eternall rest which is represented by that signe And Tom. 2. epist. 119. ad Ianuar. c. 12. Observare diem Sabbati non ad literam jubemur secundùm ocium ab opere corporali sicut observant Iudaei We are not commanded to observe the Sabbath day according to the letter by a rest from bodily worke as the Iewes observe it Calvin in ep ad Colos. c. 2. v. 16. Atqui dicet quispiam nos adhuc retinemus aliquam dierum observationem Respondeo nos dies nequaquam servare quasi in feriis aliqua sit religio aut quasi fas non sit tunc laborare sed respectum haberi politiae ordinis non dierum But some will say we till this day retaine some observation of dayes I answer wee doe not observe dayes as if there were any holinesse in them or as if it were not lawfull then to worke but we have regard to the good government and order of the Church not to dayes Uiret on the fourth command towards the end If I had that authority which Magistrates have I would take this course If I could not keepe men in better order either they should labour in the service of God or in some other worke which is not hurtfull or altogether unprofitable It were much better that those who spend their meanes in gaming and hunting Tavernes did labour according to the Commandements Notwithstanding I thinke it better to give order that that whole day be imployed as much as shal possible in Gods service and in works of mercy for if it were permitted to worke on this day as on other it were to be feared that by little and little they would come to make no difference betwixt this and working dayes c. From whence it is manifest that he did not think that a labour honest and lawfull in it selfe was unlawfull on the Lords-day but onely that it was expedient that the Magistrate suffer not men to labour on this as on other dayes to prevent inconveniences Zanchius in praecep 4. quaest 3. de festis blameth the Papists in that Gravius accusatur punitur in papatu si quis in die Paschatis aut Nativitatis Domini vel dio Dominico agrum coluerit etiamsi eo id fecerit tempore quo non occupantur in Templo quà m si quis eodem die perpotet inebrietur chore as ducat c. Amongst them hee is more sharpely accused and punished who on Easter Christmas or the Lords-day laboureth his ground although hee doe it not in time of Divine service than hee who tippleth is drunke and danceth on those dayes By which words he implieth clearely enough that he did not disprove an honest labour on Sunday so it be not done in time of Divine service Item Opera servilia per se non prohibentur in die festo sed eatenus tantùm prohibentur quatenus in cultu divino unà cum reliquis fratribus exercere to possis occupari impediunt Servile workes are prohibited on a Holy day not because they are evill in themselves but because they hinder us from joyning with our brethren in Gods worship And a little after hee quoteth and approveth of that which Constantine wrote to Helvid us that He should suffer the Countrey-men if necessity did so require to labour their grounds on the Lords-day to sowe and to doe other things necessary And addeth moreover Quantò magis licet haec opera servilia praestare si ita possis illis vatare ut interim tamen ab exercitio divini cultus minimè per illa voceris How much more lawfull is it to doe these servile workes if so they may be done that they be no disturbance to thee nor avocation from the exercise of Gods worship Danaeus in praecept 4. Nobis Christianis non tanta támve severa rigida cessatio imposita est Non ex lege Constantini licet serere metere die Dominico si commodum sit Et ita videmus quae sit libert as Christiana Vpon us Christians is imposed not so great nor such an exact and rigid cessation and rest as was upon the Iewes for even by Constantin's law it is lawfull both to sowe and to reape on the Lords-day if there be cause for it And so we see what is our Christian liberty Item Liberê hodiè solùm quantum ad communem Ecclesiae aedificationem pertinet ab operibus nostris cessamus ut Dei cultui inserviamus ut neminem offendamus On this day we
well as of morall duties Yea he understandeth rather that then this because the observation of morall duties is not tyed more particularly to one day then to another but is a service appertaining equally and alike to all dayes of the weeke whereas the ceremonies of Gods outward service were to be observed more particularly on that day then in all the rest And therfore this Commandement in as much as it injoyneth the sanctification of the seventh day is ceremoniall and if in regard of this sanctification it is abolished what inconvenience is there that it be likewise abolished in regard of the day Neither is it a thing singular to this Commandement to have some particular determination belonging to the Iewes only added to the substance which is morall universall and perpetuall For the preface of the Law which some had rather make a part of the first Commandement concerning the deliverance out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and the temporall promise of long daies upon the Land of Canaan added to the fifth Commandement are manifestly circumstances which have relation to the Iewes only and have no morality in them nay were ceremoniall and typike Now if a ceremoniall promise hath found a roome in the Decalogue there is no greater inconvenience that a ceremoniall and temporall Commandement be found in it also Neither is it a whit more repugnant to say that the fourth Commandement is both morall and ceremoniall because it is not so in the same but in a diverse sense and respect as I have shewed Among the Lawes given by Moses many are to be found which are ceremoniall and temporall in that which they expresse and morall in their foundation and end As for example the Lawes forbidding to muzzle the Oxe when he treadeth out the corne Deut. 25. verse 4. to seethe a Kid in his mothers milke Exod. 23. vers 19. to take in a birds nest the Dam with the young ones Deut. 22. vers 6 7. to plow with an Oxe and an Asse together Deut. 22. vers 10. and others such like 22 And indeed those against whom I write must acknowledge nill they will they that in the fourth Commandement there is some thing that is not morall that obligeth not for ever and that did pertaine onely to the Iewes and to their ceremonies and Ecclesiasticall governement to wit the ordinance about the observing not onely of one day of seven but the last of seven For wee keepe not any more this last day under the new Testament wherein wee should sinne if it were a morall thing Neither can an instance be made from the fourth Commandement that the observing of a seventh day is a thing naturall and morall but by the same meanes it shall be proved against the intention of those that make use of this argument that to observe a seventh day is also morall because the Commandement ordaineth not without restriction a seventh day but stinteth particularly and by name the last of seven 23 There be some who to avoid the strength of this argument doe say that the fourth Commandement enjoyneth onely a seventh day as the genus and as a morall thing but none of the kindes whether the last of seven observed by the Iewes or the first of seven observed by Christians is particularly enjoyned because in this there is no moralitie Or if in the fourth Commandement besides the seventh day in generall a particular seventh is injoined the generall is injoyned as morall the particular as ceremoniall and so the genus to wit a seventh day as being morall continueth for ever as well under the Gospel as under the Law and the particular seventh to wit the last of the weeke is only abrogated by the Gospel This is a bold reply and maketh me to wonder at it seeing on the contrary it is evident by that hath beene already said that wee may affirme with good reason that the fourth Commandement maketh not at all any generall mention of observing an unlimited day but particularizeth expresly a certaine seventh day to wit the last For God after he had said Sixe daies shalt thou labour and doe all thy worke addeth but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God which expression alone and by it selfe although there were no other thing said sheweth that he meaneth the seventh in order following the other sixe When a man uttereth his minde in this sort the third the fourth the fifth c. his intention is to denote that which is such in order relatively to others going before neither is there any man that will take it otherwise But besides this God unfoldeth forthwith which seventh he meaneth to wit the particular seventh wherein he rested after he had made all his workes in the sixe daies which went before which was the last of seven Moreover it is evident that in the fourth Commandement the seventh day and the day of rest are the same as also wheresoever mention is made of them And the day of Rest is there taken for the day that God rested in as is manifest by these words following And he rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it the which day wherein he rested is the seventh or the last day after the sixe of the creation as is evident by these words also He made his workes in sixe daies and rested on the seventh day Wherefore it is the last seventh and none other that is designed in the fourth Commandement as the object of the blessing and hallowing of God which is yet more cleare by the second Chapter of Genesis and third verse where after Moses had said that God in sixe daies made the heaven and the earth and all the hosts of them and after he had ended his workes rested the seventh day he addeth And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his workes to wit that seventh which afterwards he blessed 24 For the Pronoune It hath a necessary relation to a particular day specified in the foresaid words as blessed of God and limited forthwith as the day of his rest so it is manifest that the day which God blessed is the same that he rested in the same I say by correspondency in the order and succession of daies as I have shewed before Otherwise what should be the sense of these words God hath blessed and sanctified the seventh day that is as is pretended a seventh day undetermined because in it he rested c. This Pronoune It can it fitly and conveniently denote a day uncertaine and unlimited Where is to be found a seventh day unlimited wherein God did rest Moreover Gods blessing and sanctification can it have an indefinite and uncertaine object so that God in particular sanctified nothing Againe can it be a convenient reason having any likelihood that God having rested on a certaine seventh day and having considered in it all his workes which hee