But yet since it 's no casie thing to obliterate and wholly to eradicate the matter of that Law which commands us to set apart a whole day within the compass of a week and refer it for Spiritual Labour therefore that sly Adversaries by his Emissaries whose wit is ready and that have a mercenary tongue for colouring Impostures changing their opinion at pleasure with the inconstant Ecebolius at the first only desputes after his crafty manner whether such a time be ordained of God These men more boldly than truly acknowledge the authority of time to be received not from Gods but Mens constitution as though the Lords-Day were like the Holy-dayes which were commanded the Romans namely such as the Praetors according to their arbitrary power did proclaim And so its observation should depend upon the civil Magistrate and Churches authority These things thus being handled after these mens will and others not strenuously applying their minds to retard the speedy course of their enterprises reasons are found out with a little ado for errour is a fruitful thing by which men not very religious and observant of piety may at last rush upon the constant sanctification of this time with unwashen hands and feet as the Proverb is and tread it under feet as if it were only instituted of God not for the sake of any Spiritual work but carnal idleness These things courteous Reader have given me occasion more narrowly to search out both the Institution and Sanctification of this time namely whether first it could be shown from the Fountain of holy Writ from whence wise men know we must always judge what is to be defined of every Divine Truth and the ancient practise of the following Church which learned it from the Apostles any part of time weekly be destined to performe the holy exercises of Religion Secondly by what Authority that time is imposed upon the Church Divine or Humane Thirdly in what things the solemn sanctifying thereof consisteth Touching all which what may be shown from the foresaid Fountains the following pages will briefly without prejudice of others judging according to truth by the grace of God inform us These are I say the things of which I have purposed to treat God assisting which before I enter on some things remain of which the Reader studihus of truth is timely to be admonished First of all though there be none of any authority and name amongst the Professors of more pure Christianity who beareth not most clear testimony to the Lords Festival yet in no case must we expect that all things which chiefly make for the illustrating it can be demonstrated out of the papers of the most approved Fathers in one age Nor can any one of right be offended or wonder at this since the reverend authority of the Fathers especially in the controversies that unhappily sprang up in their age is to be attended in weighing whereof they have professedly and openly declared what their mind was but in other things which they have touched upon only by the bye they have not so roundly shewed their judgements Besides we know there is no point of Christian Religion the illustration whereof hath not more and more increased in the Church by progress of time to effect which the succeeding Church was enforced through a certain necessity for sometimes the foolish frowardness of adversaries and sometimes the lewdly-imployed manners of their own men have required this that diverse Canons about some heads of Religion the knowledge whereof formerly increased in the Church should be appointed I believe none will deny that the most profound mystery of the Holy Trinity was known to the Christian Church from its infancy yet in several Councils of the succeeding Church diverse Canons were ordained about it The Reverend Fathers in the Council of Nice ordain that our Lord Jesus Christ is not a Creature and this they did according to Pauls word In the Council of Constantinople all profess they did believe that the Holy Ghost is true God as co-essential to God both Father and the Son In the Council of Ephesus under the Emperor Theodosius the younger the Divinity of the Son is again concluded These mysteries were illustrated by these new constitutions and yet who will be so mad as for that cause to contend they were first then known to the Church when these new Canons were set forth about them which only the Holy Fathers ordained to obviate the frowardness of Hereticks that either denyed er adulterated the received Truth that the Divine verity which the former Church embraced being obscured and held down by the wicked artifices of adversaries might be restored to its ancient vigour But not onely the madness of Hereticks but sometimes also the inordinate manners of Christians have occasioned new Canons ordaining about things formerly known for it was an usual thing for the Fathers to inquire into the manners of those Churches that were commended to their care and when they observed that their Christian people were ensnared in errour or wandring from the path of truth or at least walking not uprightly according to the received rule of piety they straightway used new Canons as medicines congruous to both these evils and so in the Church as in the Commonwealth good Laws grew out of evil manners And although the things that were before ordained were abundantly sufficient to quench those errours newly sprung up or reform their lewd manners yet either the new breaking out of errour or dilating of manners not at all consonant to the holy light of the Gospel and creeping every way like leaven were stopped by the bar of new Canons But thereupon we must not think that the former Church was not bound to the truth which was by a Postliminium established with new sanctions or to manners reformed by their authority Which is easie to be observed in this business of the Lords Day The succeeding Church through the care of the best Emperours having obtained peace established divers things about the Lords Festival which are not now extant in the Doctors of the Primitive Church But who will say that the piety established by new Canons for observing that solemnity was not known to the former Christians whenas even in the Apostles age as it shall afterwards appear from the Scriptures the Lords Day was solemnly used for all the exercises of Religion in which the true manner of keeping it holy doth consist And the Fathers of the succeeding Church ordaining new Canons about its solemnity have not concealed this as is to be seen in the second Council at Matiscon Can. 1. in which they gravely study to set forth the Lords solemnity but to this they were moved by the rash custome of some as they say who exposed the Lords day to contempt In Concil Cabilon held about the year 664. caution is taken for prohibiting Country labours on that day which thing when the Fathers did ordain they confess they did
living it must altogether be ascribed to them as the first founders of the Church Moreover if it should be granted that this solemnity was instituted of the Apostles others ask Whether therefore doth this Ordination lean upon a Divine right We passing by this rather curious than sound Disputation Whether the Ordinance of the Lords day be an institution of God or his Apostles discussed by some doltish and drowsie men do acknowledge with all willingness as the ancients did that it was introduced by Divine authority And although its authority should be granted to be of Apostolical institution it would not thence follow that it is not Divine unless something be ordained in the Church by the Apostles which the Holy Ghost did not inspire them with which will not easily be admitted of any that is in his senses because the postles in all matters delivered those things to the Churches which they received from Christ as St. Paul witnesseth 1 Cor. 11. 23. and according to Christs precept taught men that embraced the Gospel to observe those things which Christ had commanded them Matth. 28. 20. So judgeth Tertullian The Apostles saith he chose nothing which they brought in at their own pleasure but faithfully appointed to the nations that discipline they received from Christ. And why should I believe that the Apostles were less acted with the Divine Spirit in their Sacred Institutions which they imposed upon the Churches than in promulgating the Doctrine of the Gospel For there is nothing Apostolical done by a right that is not Apostolical i. e. Divine and nothing done by them but the Holy Ghost endites it to them and therefore what they did they did by Divine right and that their facts which are certain and not onely their saying or writings are of Divine right cannot be denied The Apostle shews it necessary that he that is a Prophet or spiritual man must acknowledge that they are the Lords Precepts which he hath written to the Churches 2 Cor. 14. 37. Surely nothing was enjoyned the Church by the Apostles which was not first prescribed by the Lord because the Apostles were to teach what they learned of Christ which thing they performed with great faithfulness neither will any one who savours the things of the spirit deny this and yet I acknowledge that some things were instituted of them for a time inasmuch as whose occasions were singular and not to be continued wherefore those ordinations were mutable which yet cannot be affirmed of the Lords Day If there be any of the Fathers therefore who think that the institution of the Lords day was made by the Apostles they are not so to be understood as if they acknowledged it not for Divine but Humane because the same Fathers elsewhere are not affraid to ascribe it to God and Christ and they acknowledge that the blessed Apostles were not the authors of this solemnity but the Holy Ghosts amanuenses i. e. as Leo interprets it who writ their Decrees by virtue of a Divine authority in propounding it to the Church For which cause the most pious Leo hath ordained abstinence from labours on the Lords Day because this seemed good to the Holy Ghost and the Apostles instituted thereby and confesseth that that day was abundantly honoured by the Lord. The Lords Day therefore was instituted of the Apostles as the faithful Architects of the Christian Church by extraordinary power which continues not now in the Church and by inspiration of the Holy Ghost that Christians might be obliged not by Humane but by Divine authority to keep holy Convocations and to celebrate the private exercises of godliness on that day Apostolical grace saith Ambrose hath raised up the dead which although it was not the grace of the Apostles but of Christ as the Apostles themselves confess Acts 3. 12. 16. is called Apostolical because it was poured out upon them and by his help they raised up the dead So here the Lords day is called an Apostolical Institution not because it is a mere ordinance of the Apostles as they were Christians but because it was instituted of Christ by those who were endowed with extraordinary power But as I have said this is the onely thing that vexes them that call in question the authority of this institution that there is no place extant in Scripture in which by Divine authority the solemn observation of this day seems to be enjoyned These are men of subtil wits who as the Proverb goes cannot see the wood for trees Whose opinion when I consider that in the Author Oper. Imperf in Matthae comes into my mind where the Priests of old that rail'd upon the people that paid not their tythes are sharply reproved for not reproving those that sinned against God If any of the people faith he offer not his tithes the Priests did so reprove him as if he had committed some great fault because he had not offered the tenth part of any thing though never so little but if any of the people had sinned against God or injured any one or done any such thing none cared for reproving him as though he had committed no fault who had sinned against God and very careful they were of their own gain but careless of the glory of God and salvation of men Whose fault in this thing he accommodates to the Bishops Elders and Deacons of the Church as guilty of this crime Even so must we judge of these men With what heat of mind and earnestness do the very authors of this doubt contend for tythes which they cry out that the Lord hath indulged to the Church under the Gospel by a Divine right whenas yet they cannot produce one plain testimony out of the New Testament for their bestowing on the Ministers of the Gospel but about the Lords Day whose being observed more than once by the Christian Church is plain enough in the Scriptures their faith is wavering nor can they be perswaded to believe that its authority can be demonstrated out of the Word of God Let others judge whether they be worthy Tenths who deny Sevenths if I may say so to God But for their sakes admitting the Law about Tythes I would ask this Whether it 's likely that the most good great and wise God who hath put the seasons of times in his own power Act. 1. 7. would determine any thing certain of a Salary to be bestowed on the administrators of his Worship when yet he left nothing certain in the Church of the time in which his worship should be performed It 's a wise mans part first to determine the work and a fit time to do it in and then the wages where with they that under went it are to be rewarded The Parable Math. 20. relates how the housholder hired Labourers but first he signified what he would have them do and then he agreed with them for a penny a day If therefore they assert that Tythes are allowed
not God Yet doth he not affirm that the observation of the Sabbath was unknown to them but he grants that the Fathers were not justified by it which they also confess who hold fast the foresaid opinion confirmed to be true by a long series of authorities It was not therefore the purpose of the Reverend Fathers to define whether the Sabbath was simply observed of the Patriarchs or not Onely they affirm that by its observation they obtained not righteousness before God nor for that cause did they observe it as the Jews did contend in this question with whom the Fathers had to do And Tertullian is not to be expounded otherwise who attended this also that he might shew against the Jews that the Fathers were not justified by Circumcision the Sabbath or the works of the Law His words do testifie this For he sayes advers Jud. c. 2. He that contendeth that the Sabbath is yet to be observed as a medicine of salvation must teach that those who observed the Sabbath formerly are just c. and thereupon what were formerly objected do follow which in this manner being understood according to the scope of the Author without any injury to the words do make nothing against the observation of the Sabbath from the Creation especially whereas Tertullian himself as formerly we observed hath asserted that the Jews do confess that Gods resting on it did from the beginning sanctifie the seventh day The truth of which assertion Tertullian no where calls into question for if he had not taken it for true then he would not have granted it without a reproof in any wise for their sakes but would have used one or other interpretation either to avoid or clear that place out of Genesis 2. 2 3. which yet he no where does The sanctification therefore of the seventh day from the Creation for which the Jewes stood is granted by Tertullian out of whom it is fetch'd that there was the use of the Sabbath before the Mosaical Law which also Tertullian granteth must continue when that ceaseth Therefore in the second place I answer that these and the like places if any be amongst the Fathers which seem to intimate that the Sabbath was not observed before Moses are not so much to be understood of the Sabbath it self or the observation of the seventh day as of the Jewish observation thereof and its abuse to Justification before God for they contend either that for its observation eternal life befell not the Patriarchs or that it was not observed before Moses according to the Ceremonies wherewith it was afterwards celebrated of the Jews neither ought it to be observed after the coming of Christ which things are affirmed by none at all Thirdly In the foresaid testimonies the Fathers had to do with the Jews who obtruded the Jewish Sabbath on the Christians for which cause when the Fathers mention the Sabbath they speak of it somewhat dishonourably if we look at the Name and Ceremonies of the Sabbath but if we understand the thing it self i. e. the Lords day they have extolled the Sabbath with wonderful praises therefore when they plead against the Jewish Sabbath they altogether reject it but when they appoint it to be celebrated in the Christian manner they greatly honour it Fourthly The Criticks which are well exercised in the writings of the Fathers teach us that it is an usual thing with the Fathers while with all their might they decline one errour they oftentimes do either fall into another or seem in a certain sort to fall into it like Husbandmen as prettily the learned Rivet in Prolegom in Crit. saâ—r cap. 11. who labouring to straiten a crooked stick do sometimes exceed measure and bend the plant into a contrary and diverse form so they know it very often falls out with the most grave Fathers who peruse their disputations with their adversaries for while they contend with their enemies out of an earnest desire to smite them they have sometimes even struck their own companions St. Austins heat against the Manichees carried him from the explication of the Text and those things which he purposed to assert This thing Austin himself when he had finished his Treatise signified to Possidonius and others that dined with him So Possidonius relateth it in the Life of Austin chapter 15. And as the truth of this thing hath appeared in other questions so in this of the Sabbath For while Tertullian and before him Justin Martyr have declared the foresaid opinions about the Sabbath their work was with the Jews who as we said obtruded the Sabbath on the Christians as though without its observation none could obtain eternal life Which errour while the grave Fathers studied to shun they declare this opinion of the Sabbath if in the testimonies cited this was their meaning being observed all that time from the Creation until Moses in expounding of which opinion although they thought to smite the Jews yet considered they not how unwarily they wounded their own companions who to their power were diligent to defend the contrary whose opinions we have formerly recited in this Chapter Lastly None that is but meanly conversant in the writings of the Fathers can be ignorant that some more hard sayings do often occurr in them which unless they be expounded by other places in them are not easily to be admitted Chrysostom saith in his later Sermon De utilitate ex obscuritate prophetiarum in Savils Edition Before Christs coming faith in Christ was not required of the Jews which words without a candid interpretation are not to be admitted for if they be taken absolutely they agree not with the Holy Scriptures as appears from Hebr. 11. in which it is related that the Saints before the former coming of Christ did rely upon him by Faith and for their Faith are commended therefore the genuine sense of this place is to be found out of another place in his former Sermon pag. 652. where of the Jews he saith they looked for the Lamb of God to come that should take away the sins of the world of which the later place affordeth no small light to the Interpretation of the former In like manner are we to judge in examining the foresaid testimonies of the Fathers wherein the Sabbath is denied to be observed from the beginning of the world whose meaning is to be expounded from those Fathers in other places or from others that were their contemporaries If any therefore have a mind to find out Tertullians mind Adv. Jud. cap. 2. let him compare him with Tertullian adv Mercion lib. 4. cap. 12. where he shall find him acknowledging that the Sabbath was holy from the beginning We may judge the same of the other authorities which are cited whose sense is to be sought out either by other places of those authors or by other writers that were contemporaries with them The words of Irenaeus and Justin Martyr do roundly enough expound their scope as before we
any one till his ground on the Lords day he violates the holy rest but if the refore he leaving his husbandry be drunk or commit whoredome shall he not be thought to profane the holiness of the Lords Day If all profaneness and carnal delight ought to be banished from the Church then especially it should when man doth peculiarly apply himself to the worship of God If Tertullian thought it an uncomely thing and altogether alien from the Religion of publick joy to celebrate those dayes which were dedicated to the Nativities of the Emperours with that vanity which the Heathens abused in such kind of Festivals whereas what was acted on the solemn birth-dayes of Princes would not be thought comely on other dayes with what spirit are they acted to whom unchaste dancings obscene sports and mad tripudiations shall seem lawful on the Day dedicated to our Lords honour Shall the licentiousness of evil manners be piety an occasion of Luxury be reckoned Religion We must rather say with Tertullian That it is for men of the true Religion to celebrate both the Emperours solemnities and the Lords day out of conscience rather than licentiousness And if any like dancing I earnestly ask it of him that he would apply his mind to those spiritual dances which Chrysostom mentions in which there is much comeliness and modesty with which Christians must dance not to the measures of harp and pipe for they themselves ought to be both harp and pipe to the Holy Ghost and when others lead the dance to the Devil these being in the Church offer themselves the organs and vessels to the Spirit and afford their souls as musical instruments which the Holy Ghost should play upon and move and they give their hearts as Organs into which he may inspire his grace These are those dances of the Angels and what can be more blessed than upon the earth to imitate the dance of Angels approved by the Holy Ghost and worthy the Christian name in which he that on the Lords day shall diligently be busied will not bend his mind to those immodest leapings or dancings which Chrysostom calls Diabolical Hom. 55. in Gen. because where this wanton dancing is there the Devil is Chrysost Hom. 49. in Math. so often condemned but will refresh his soul wearied with the sad burden of his fins by the spiritual joy of these dances and prepare himself the better to celebrate that eternal Sabbath in the Heavens which must be observed for ever with all the Saints And that this is the solemnity which beseemeth the Feasts of Christians Gregory Nazianzen sheweth at large and exhorts us to take hymns for timbrels singing Psalms for filthy and ribald songs a clapping of hands when we give thanks for clapping the hands in the Theatre gravity for laughter prudent speech for drunkenness comliness and honesty for delicious pleasures And if it be convenient for thee when thou celebratest a Festival merrily to dance then dance yet not the dance of Herodias but of David when he danced for the resting of the Ark by which I think mystically is meant the nimbleness and volubility of our holy journeying and that which is pleasing to God Thus he Ephrem Syrus gives the same counsel whose testimony deserves to be added here Let us honour saith he the Lords Festivals divinely not in a worldly manner but spiritually not after the custome of the Heathens but Christians let us not lead dances nor effeminate our ears with pipes and harps You both small and great men and women let us in a Christian manner celebrate the Lords Festivals in Psalms and Hymns in spiritual Songs and Angelical melody That blessed Soul uttered this about the Lords Festivity the reason of all which is extant in Chrysostom There is saith he a time for Prayers not for drunkenness and that alwayes and especially at solemnities For a solemnity is therefore instituted not to live filthily nor to abound in sin but to extoll present things These and many other testimonies of the Ancients do shew that all carnal following of worldly delights whereby the sparks of the Holy Ghost being stirred up in the Lords day holy exercises of piety are choaked by which either Divine worship may be hindred or the fruit thereof prevented ought far to be banished from the Christian Church For it is as sure as can be as sometimes Ruffinus that when we are idle and negligent when we lift not up our mind in heavenly desires when we grow cold in the love of our Lord when we spend the day in fables and wicked cogitations then we more attend upon the Devil than God And after The enemy derides our Sabbaths when they see us to be at leisure for the idleness and vanities of the evil spirit If Plutarch thought that the Jews did worship Bacchus on their Sabbath because they then strove at their cups and riotings and gave themselves wholly to drunkenness and for that cause called the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Bacchus or the son of Bacchus how much more truly might he at this day say it of many in the Church if he observed how they are given to Bacchus Venus sports and mad dances and yet these sins do rage all abroad without danger of punishment to the great ignominy of the Christian name for there is no wickedness so heinous which is not most of all committed on the Lords holy day While the greatest part of men do daily more and more spend the rest of Festival dayes not in praying not in hearing the Scriptures for which cause the rest was given but for all manner of encreasing the corruption of good manners saying that they do it for their mind sake as if they were altogether of Plato's mind who said that for that very purpose did God institute such holy Festivals And he repeats the same complaint in his Exposition of the Lords Prayer when he explains the fourth Petition and thus laments At this day no time is usually more spent in all manner of sports in dances wanton love company-keeping dicing bargains and fairs These do abundantly shew that dancings sports and sights were both forbidden of the Emperours and Fathers that they should not at all be kept on the Lords day which he that views the sacred Decrees of the one and the grave Records of the other will not deny Yet when all is done lest some think whom the Doctrine of the â—…e delights and those who release their minds to pleasure more than is fitting that not all but some kinds of those sports were forbidden and that only while the Church-assemblies were held as though the Christian people were at their liberty to use certain kinds of dances and sights even upon the Lords day when the publick Church-assemblies were finished to whom it seems such extrinsecal solaces of the eyes and ears do nothing interrupt the Religion in their mind and conscience
as though God could not be offended with the delight of man which without any prejudice to Gods fear and honour to enjoy in fit time and place is no sin lest any one here should think so I will over and above add something that may make more for illustrating the genuine sense of the aforesaid prohibitions And in the first place this is worth our knowing that sights playes and conflicts were amongst the ancients under the same kind and in Tertullian there are reckoned four kinds of sights namely 1. Circi insania i. the folly of the Cirque 2. Theatri impudiciti◠i. the wantonness of the Theatre 3. Arenae atrocitas the cruelty of the Sand. 4. Xysti vanitas i. the vanity of the Xyst or wrastling-gallery In the Cirque four horses run striving one with another In the Theatres were acted Stage-playes and immodest Interludes were recited In the Sand were setting together wild Beasts and Fencers Lastly in the Wrastling galleries there were the praeludia of these Games while the Wrastlers were exercised in their Schools and the swiftness of the runners was tryed Whence the same Tertullian calls the founders and orderers of these sights Quadrigiarios Scenicos Xysticos Arenarios Whatever we meet with to be observed about them by the searchers of antiquity it is to be referred to these kinds of sights And all these are disallowed by the ancients especially by Tertullian and Cyprian in their books which they have set out purposely de spectaculis In which their Idolatrous original because at first amongst other superstitious rites they were instituted under the name of Religion and divers obscene provocations of lust flowing from them are recited and condemned But when the Emperours had embraced the Christian Faith it seems all other acts but the sights in the Cirque and Theatre were ceased and hence it was that the grave Fathers being haters of Games when they write against sights do not so much make mention of others as of these two and against them from which they judge that all Christians should withdraw they direct a sharp stile enough neither by their good will would they have any members of the Church at any time much less on the Lords day to be present at them This the books above cited de spectaculis do without me saying any thing abundantly testifie The holy and general Synod in Trulle forbids those Jesters as they are called and the sights of them and then the seeing of huntings and those dances that are acted in the Scene Neither is the time named by them on which they are prohibited but they say that the Synod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forbiddeth altogether and what is forbidden altogether is to be done at no time For as Zonaras expounds the Canon the Faithful are to lead their life by the prescript of Evangelical discipline and not remissly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. as becometh Saints All those things therefore by which the mind cannot be released by a necessary remission and whereupon immoderate laughters are provoked are by the decree of this Canon forbidden Now if in their judgment we must not at any time see the actions of Jesters or Scenical dancings much less must we on the Lords day which is expresly ordained by the Africanes in the Council of Carthage St. Chrysostom Cyril Ephrem Syrus Greg. Naz. and divers other Fathers have taught the same The sacred Emperours Leo Anthemius and others have decreed the same whose testimonies are formerly recited in this Chapter But although the truth of this be largely demonstrated yet so far is the vigour of Ecclesiastical discipline enervated and by the languishing whereof we are thrown down into so bad a condition that now not only an excuse but authority is given to vice Whereupon the same falls out in our age which did sometime in Cyprians there are not wanting fawning assertors and indulgent patrons of vices who give authority to vice These do as we said batter with a double Ram the aforesaid truth confirmed by so many illustrious testimonies of the ancients And they contend that worldly shows were forbidden of the Fathers only for two causes either because they were obscene in themselves and of their own nature and therefore never lawful or else because they were held at such a time as the publick meetings of the Church were celebrated according to them honest and sober dances as they speak notwithstanding the aforesaid Canons and Statutes especially after the Church-meetings are ended may safely be used How wise doth disputing arrogance think it self especially when it fears losing any thing of worldy joyes saith Tertullian This subtil wit if any where appears in this weak refuge Shall they who decree as Leo and Anthemius that dayes dedicated to the most High Majesty be occupied in no pleasures be believed that they would assign any place to them and although these pleasures afterwards in the same law be called obscene yet by virtue of what consequence can it be inferred that therefore some pleasures there are not obscene which are not prohibited by that decree This new and unheard of distinction of forbidden pleasures is to be left to the authors of it which was unknown to Leo and Anthemius when they decreed that the holiness of the day was to be violated by no pleasures and which Octavius in Minuc Felice confesses the Church was ignorant of while he answers Caecilius blaming the Christians for abstaining from sights and pomps which Caecilius then a heathen called honest pleasures Octavius confesses that Christians abstained from them Octavius a Christian takes those for evil pleasures which Caecilius a Heathen called honest This is to all men an argument that the Christians whose cause Octavius pleads against Caecilius did repute the pleasures of sights and pomps as evil and that for good cause since as the Greeks have a Proverb An ape is an ape although clad in purple by the pleasures of sights with what painting soever they be whited the Lords day is not to be violated Any may see that the pleasures of pomps or showes in the fore-mentioned decree of the Emperours are called obscene from the effect For they that follow them do usually fall into obscene manners And the word Obscenity is added by the Emperours not for the distinction but detestation of pleasures as when the Apostle 1 Pet. 4. 3. calls Idolatry abominable or if any one else should call Drunkenness detestable will any wise man thence conclude that there is a certain lawful use of Images or that some Drunkenness is not to be detested Nothing less St. Chrysostom wished that games and dances might altogether be left off of which he never speaks without highly detesting them in his mind and boldly condemns the very art of dancing which he that exerciseth if he be asked why omitting other arts he is employed in this he could not deny it to be dishonest and
rather than the later because the cited words of the Canons do ordain what forms of prayer they should use whose office it was to perform acts of Religion when they stood at the altar So Conc. Carthag where they that were to Treat stood not the Bishops seat who did interpret the Scripture was in the midst of the Church as we have formerly shown This therefore was ordained by the Fathers lest as Hereticks increased and spread their Heterodox opinions the Christian people who did not well enough attend their practise should be imposed upon by Hereticks Canons were established because in that age especially every faction did spread abroad certain forms of Prayers and Psalms by which when they were met together they might allure unto them men that were not well enough exercised in the faith but unwarily embraced their dreams as Historians report it fell out in Chrysostoms age not long after the aforesaid Councils were held That I say these mens endeavours should be prevented lest Hereticks should spread abroad Forms of Liturgies not agreeing with the Doctrine received from the Apostles it was ordained that in publick Liturgies which were not to be prescribed by any one man none should have liberty to use any forms of Prayers but what were either formerly in use namely before the mists of Heterodoxisme had obscured the shining face of truth or had been approved by the most judicious brethren or lastly confirmed by the authority of some Synod The very words of the cited Canon do declare that the Mileritan Fathers do speak of such Prayers Let the place be seen it is extant in the first Tome of the Councils pag. 600. Moreover it appears that this was the cause of those Canons by the condition of the times in which they were ordained For at that time the Church was grievously sick of the wounds both of Arrianism and Pelagianism And reason it self perswades not to restrain the cited Canons to the Prayers which were conceived by him that Treated to the people For those were to be conceived alwayes as the necessity of the Church did require as formerly Tertullian taught us for which cause they could not alwayes be the same but were to be varied pro re nata and as the necessity of the people for whom the Treater was to offer the sacrifice of the lips to God required On the contrary if the Canons speak of the Treaters prayers then this is worthy observing that the Grave Fathers in those sanctions did not intend to prescribe lawes for all and every Treater in the Prayers he was to conceive but onely for those who were not well instructed in Religion for they speak of some who name the Father for the son or the son for the Father and who had written out Prayers to themselves from some other So Conc. Carth. where above they ordain lest the less exercised in Religion should be imposed upon through the fraud and deceit of others that they conferr with their wiser brethren about the Prayers they had written out before they uttered them to the people The same is also to be said to the Mileritan Canon wherein it is provided that nothing be composed against the Faith either through ignorance or less care And yet by those sanctions the more instructed of the brethren are not restrained to Forms of Prayer unless they be approved by others We read that certain prayers were prescribed by Constantine the Great to his Guard which they used on the Lords day yet none will thence conclude that other Christians were to put up no Prayers to God but what were commanded The cited Canons are therefore to be understood either of Liturgy Prayers or of the Prayers of the Treater unfit through ignorance to conceive Prayers and of no others Fifthly in their Prayers conceived after this manner they prayed to God for things just honest and meet to be heard Arnob. cont Gent. lib. 1. And these they asked for all mens sakes not only for familiars but enemies for Emperours and Subjects and in their prayers they seriously pleaded with God for all others so Arnobius lib. 4. For themselves and all every where as Justin Martyr Ap. sec For the Emperours health as Tertull. apol cap. 30. For their offices for their worldly state and peace Tertull. ibid. And especially for the Church because the whole people of Christ are one Cypr. de Orat. Dom. Sixthly these Prayers were conceived in a known tongue Origen instead of all will teach us this who writeth against Celsus a froward adversary of the Christian name Contr. Celsum l. 8. where he lets all know that the right Christians did not in their prayers make use of the usual names of God in Holy Writ but the Greeks prayed in the Greek and the Romans in the Roman and every one in his own Language and praised God according to their might and the Lord of all Languages heard them pray in all Languages understanding them as well when they spake in divers as if they all agreed in one Language that I may say so and as men of one voice Where he teaches us that Christians in what place soever they lived did in their Prayers use no other than their vulgar idiom Seventhly it will not be far from our purpose to add something of the posture of the body in conceiving of prayer Where in the first place it will be worth our noting what Austin excellently observed there is no prescript posture how the body should be ordered in Prayer only that the Soul being present before God that it perform its devotion And he addeth that some prayed standing some kneeling and some lying prostrate Justin Martyr relates that they prayed standing Apol. 2. When we stand saith Cyprian we ought with watchfulness and with all our hearts to apply our selves to prayer But we read that Prayer was used to be made to God upon the knees more frequently and it appears that this posture or rite in Prayer was most ancient and common in all ages Clem. Alexand. Strom. 7. saith that they fell down upon the earth when they paryed The Christian souldiers are said kneeling on the ground as it is usual with Christians when they pray to compose themselves to offer up Prayers to God in Euseb Hist. 5. c. 5. Arnobius also affirms that Christians when with joynt Prayers they worshipped God they were prostrate or as afterwards when they prayed they fell upon their bended knee The Church saith Epiphanius in fine Panarii commandeth Prayers to be made with all diligence and with kneeling on set dayes But on the Lords day in memorial of the Lords Resurrection they worshipped not on their knees and anciently they rejoyced in that immunity from the Passover till Pentecost So Tertullian Just Mart. q. 115. Which custome being in some places decayed the 20th Canon of the first Council of Nice hath ordained to be kept every where although St. Paul prayed kneeling
those that were absent of what they heard in publick after they were departed from the publick assembly So Chrysostom Hom. 10. in Gen. And he sharply taxes those that did not thus Hom. 32. in Joh. whom when they are gone home he affirms they set upon no work beseeming a Christian Whilst they do not search out the sense of the Scriptures which they heard in the assembly And at length requires them that when they are gone home they endeavour the doing of what they are commanded c. Hom. 3. in Joh. Bafil was of the same mind who seriously wished that what they had heard at both morning and evening assembly all that might be the table talk to the hearers that is when they sat down to table they should talk of what they heard St. Austin counsels his hearers to conferr with those that were absent of what they heard and so their memory would be as his voice Praef. in Psal 50. And in the end of the interpretation of that Psalm he saith As it belongeth to us to speak in the Church to you so it belongeth to you to speak of it in your houses Thirdly Because the Lords Day is not onely ordained for a pious celebration of the memory of Christs Resurrection but also Basil the Great being witness is an image of the world to come although it be no type of the rest and happiness in the life to come yet as after he explaines it that in this daily commotion we neglect not to provide viands for a removal into that life that never will have end Basil de Spiritu Sancto cap. 27. Such viands shall he provide that on that day while he hath leisure from external things shall seriously think with himself that this is not his Countrey but he an Exile and at length he must remove hence into Heaven the Countrey of all the faithful Augustine or whoever it was else affirms in the Book De decem chordis cap. 3. that a Christian is commanded to observe the Sabbath spiritually in hope of the future rest which the Lord promiseth And elsewhere The Lords Day being consecrated by the Resurrection of Christ doth not onely prefigure the eternal rest of the Spirit but body also Aug. de Civitate Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. Christians therefore are on this day principally to think of this eternal rest taking an occasion from the rest of the Lords Day although as I said it be not properly instituted to signifie this rest as a type of that thing What Ignatius Epist ad Magnes delivers of the manner of observing the Sabbath may fitly be applied to the celebration of the Lords Day He would have every one to keep a Sabbath in a spiritual manner in meditating of the Law not in refreshing and releasing of the body and admiring the works of God which especially do agree to the solemnity of a Christian Sabbath on which Christians are to bend their care hither to recollect themselves and feed their souls with the pious thoughts of that eternal rest of which the Lords Dayes rest is an image according to Basil in the world to come by what means they can Therefore when the publick meeting was ended there followed also a pious meditation which very well agreeth to the sanctification of the Lords Day when the minds of men by hearing of the Word publick Prayers and other publick Offices of Religion performed on that day are inflamed with exceeding love to desire heavenly things And that the Ancients were of that mind the testimonies cited Book 1. Chap. 5. without me saying ought do bear witness For the Fathers as we have seen do acknowledge that the Lords Day was dedicated to Divine Worship and judged that nought was to be done on that day by Christians whether in their assemblies or after they were dismissed from them but what tended to the salvation of the soul This Origen alone for all will manifest Hom. 23. in Num. who while he shews in what things the observation of the Christian Sabbath consisteth bids in among other things to think of heavenly things to be careful about the future hope to have before our eyes the Judgment to come and not to look at present and visible things but at invisible and future These things do shew that pious meditation is of necessity to be had on the Lords Day by help whereof the minds of Christians may be carried up from earthly to heavenly things to the end that their conversation may be in heaven from whence they look for the Saviour Phil. 3. 20. even while they live on earth Chrysostom is earnest with his hearers Hom. 15. in Gen. that they would remember what was spoken in the Auditory and that they would weigh all things with themselves that what they had heard might settle in their thoughts Nor doth he ask this onely of them but doth also earnestly request it of God that not onely while they were present in the Auditory they would remember what he had said but that they would weigh them at home by themselves and in the market and wheresoever they did abide Hom. 5. ad Pop. Now if a Religious meditation on the Lords Day of what we have heard be a way to the eternal observation of a Sabbath in the Heavens for Christians for whom there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remaineth a Sabbatism Heb. 4. 9. if they are to have before their eyes the future hope and the tremendous judgment on that day and to exhilerate their minds with the thoughts of a future life if they are to hearken to what is said with an attentive mind not onely while they are present in the Auditory but after their their departure thence where-ever they abide they be to call to mind what they have heard Lastly if those vigilant Fathers were earnest with God that their Auditors minds might be perswaded to do this all which are manifest by the cited testimonies then not without cause have we affirmed that when the publick assemblies are ended Meditation upon what we have heard is of necessity required of Christians Fourthly we read that Gifts which afterwards they called Collects were given on the Lords Day for the use of the poor So St. Paul gave order 1 Cor. 16. 2. That upon the first day of the week every one of you lay by you in store as God hath prospered him c. The Apostle did very fitly make choice of a day of a sacred assembly for gathering Almes on That the minds of Christians might by hearing the Word publick Prayers and holy Lessons had on that Day be the better inflamed to bestâ—â— them upon the poors use Add also the consent of the antient Church Justin Martyr Ap. 2. saith that when the Church was met on the Sunday there was a larger contribution as their ability would bear and what they so gathered they committed to him that was the Praepositus to be bestowed for the use of all that were