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cause_n	good_a	just_a	law_n	2,761	5	4.7834	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17418	The doctrine of the Sabbath vindicated in a confutation of a treatise of the Sabbath, written by M. Edward Breerwood against M. Nic. Byfield, wherein these five things are maintained: first, that the fourth Commandement is given to the servant and not to the master onely. Seecondly, that the fourth Commandement is morall. Thirdly, that our owne light workes as well as gainefull and toilesome are forbidden on the Sabbath. Fourthly, that the Lords day is of divine institution. Fifthly, that the Sabbath was instituted from the beginning. By the industrie of an unworthy labourer in Gods vineyard, Richard Byfield, pastor in Long Ditton in Surrey.	Byfield, Richard, 1598?-1664.	1631 (1631)	STC 4238; ESTC S107155	139,589	186

was manifestly intended to bring servants release and remission of their weekely toile should by the decree of the law it selfe above all other daies breede their greatest perplexities forasmuch as above all other daies if their Masters be not men that feare God enforced they are there is no avoidance to venter either on sinne or stripes for either God must be disobeyed and sinne cleaveth to their soules or their Masters and stripes light upon their bodies either they must obey God and be plagued by men or obey men and be condemned by God you will say it is better to obey God than men and worse to disobey him that can cast both body and soule into hell than him that can only for a time afflict the body true who doubts it But that is not the point I stand upon the point is how it agreeth with the tender goodnesse and compassion of Almighty God towards poore servants whose condition is yet honest and lawfull to plunge them into such perplexities as namely to impose on them a commandement which they can neither keepe nor breake without a mischiefe and inconvenience neither keepe as the servants of men nor breake as they are the servants of God neither keepe without sharpe punishment nor breake without heavy sinne all which intanglement of servants and calumniation against both the justice and mercy of God is clearly avoided if the commandement be given as the tenour of it doth simply import to the Masters and not to the servants which I have sufficiently proved both by the evidence of holy scripture so to have beene and by evidence and inforcement of reason that it should be so Answer First here I have to say against both the manner and the maine of your arguing For the manner first you play the Sophister egregiously the question is whether it be given onely to masters and not to servants And you take the rise of your reasoning from hence that the commandement according to our opinion is given to servants only and not to masters and therefore you talke that you might put a glosse upon your reasoning and make the contrary appeare the more foule of the commandement of the servants cessation not touching the master The commandement given to themselves not to their masters This is meere cavilling for who ever thought or dreamt save your selfe much lesse held that the commandement was not given to their masters though it were given to the servants also Againe you seeme to promise the servant liberty but indeed make him the bond-slave to his masters unlawfull commands and while you would free him from blowes of an injurious master you free him if it may bee called freedome from the service of God which is perfect freedome Secondly for the maine of your reason it is thus to give the commandement to servants also is against the goodnesse of God for it casts the servant upon stripes or sinne I answer Doth the commandement cast any upon sinne If it any way provoke or revive sinne it is by accident because a spirituall just and good Law meets with a carnall heart sold under sinne a Rom. 7. 11 12. Sinne taketh occasion by the commandement the commandement doth not cause sinne Had you had Pauls spirit you would have justified the Law and laid load upon the flesh and corrupt nature as out of measure sinfull and have advised all youth to cleanse their wayes by taking heed thereto according to Gods word b Psal 119. 9. and not goe about to fill greene heads with crotchets Yea but if they sinne not but obey stripes attend them and this is against the mercy of God Indeed Is this your stumbling blocke It is then against his goodnesse that Hagar c Gen. 16. 6 9. should returne to her Mistris and submit her selfe It is against his pitty that the Apostle from Gods spirit should require servants to suffer buffetings that come undeserved 1 Pet. 2. 19. It is against goodnesse to be happy for blessed are yee saith Christ when ye suffer despightfull usage for righteousnesse sake d Mat. 5. 11 12. It is against goodnesse that any man should be or doe good inasmuch as some wicked men will persecute a man for that good Why should the pitifull God require that which will cast us on the wheele greediron racke fire and faggot and what not that is of torment and torture Oh divelish earthly and sensuall reasoning This is farre from our Saviours Doctrine and Spirit the King of Sion meeke and having salvation who bids us e Luk. 14. 26 27 take up our crosse daily and hate father and mother and our owne lives as ever we meane to be worthy of him and find life to life eternall Such sufferings are to Gods glory and to our glory Our Saviour premeditating of his sufferings said Father glorifie thy Name that is saith Chrysostome f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Ioh. 12. 28. Leade me now to the Crosse the Crosse he calleth glory saith Ammonius g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammonius Glorifie thy sonne that is doe not forbid him now hastening to death assent to thy sonne herein for the profit of all saith Cyrill h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril in Ioh. We have an excellent Chapter in Lactantius his Institutions answering this se●suall argument upon another occasion for the povertie and afflictions and unjust persecutions of the Church and the prosperity of Idolaters and Heathen might seeme to proove the worship of God to bee vaine and the Rites of gods or idols to be true because their worshippers enjoyed brought Therefore that Starre in the firmament of your reasoning whose condition is yet honest and lawfull shooteth and falleth Yea but you say the point you stand on is not how much better it is to obey God than man but how the command requiring obedience in a thing that will cast us into the hands of wicked men can stand with the goodnesse of God This is the point that all this while I have handled reade and see how Fourthly and for a recompence when you talke so freely of mischiefes and inconveniences free your Doctrine of them if you can For if the servant must obey his masters unlawfull commands of worke on that day I say hee cannot doe it but he falleth into mischiefe for he is sold from Gods service and the Covenant of God p Esay 56. 6. Every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it taketh hold of Gods Covenant if a master be wicked and into inconvenience for he hath no breathing time he cannot leave it undone but hee falleth into stripes and sinne at once without any support from God or man Therefore your Conclusion that all is avoided by this your dreame is most untrue neither Scripture nor reason favoureth your opinion and in this you suffer the just reproofe of q 2 Pet. 2. 12. Iude 8. Peter and Iude you are one of the filthy dreamers Lactantius saith

Sabbath pag. 168. I ad the equitie of it sheweth that it is not the lightnesse of the worke if it bee once opposed to Gods that makes it that day sinlesse Ceremoniall is a meere phansie you must flie to some other reason and you might have knowne it hath beene alledged by divers to bee this that the Lord there answered a particular case about working at the Tabernacle and prohibits every worke though never so light about the erection thereof for that day because it tended not immediately to the worship of God and thus now at this day it were sinfull to build Churches on the Sabbath or to kindle a fire to prepare or fit any worke thereabout So the precept about the boyling and baking of the Manna gathered on the sixt day that it might not be left till the Sabbath to be then dressed was b Vatablus in locum Trem. Junius Bysh Babingt in v 4. of Ch. 31. Exod. pag. 319. A precept that concerned that present time while the Manna fell that they might see the miraculous power of God in the keeping of it without corrupting till the next day and because on the Sabbath they should not finde it in the field Consider it well if to kindle a fire to prepare things for the building of a Church be unlawfull which your selfe hold to be a light worke and cannot but confesse to be no worke of private gaine then certainely much more are all other light workes forbidden that fall not under the works afore-rehearsed Thirdly but let us see what you alledge in our Saviour He approved of the letting of the Oxe to the water of rubbing the eares of corne He made clay to annoint the eyes of the blinde He bade the lame man healed take up his bed What then Are therefore light workes to be done It is no light worke to make clay and carry beds or that cannot be your reason nay your instances are all wide from your purpose you neede clay or glue to glue them together Christ alloweth not these workes of letting the Oxe to water and rubbing the eares of Corne because they are light but because they were workes of mercie to save life that could not bee deferred and did those other workes himselfe not because they were light but inlightning He commanded the impotent man to carry his bed not because it was laborlesse for it was laborsome and therefore did he prescribe him that and no light worke to shew his perfect soundnesse and the truth of the miracle to excite him and all to glorifie God Mayer in his English Catechisme explained pag 262. sheweth that all the reasons of the Commandements binde us and reach to us as to the Iewes and alledgeth it to prove that this Law is of force for every one of us aswel as Iewes and as much in force as any of the other nine pag. 261. Fourthly thus we neede not dispensation for our Saviour but a pardon for your abuse of his blessed words and deeds That also which you alledge touching his being under the Law cuts the throat of your solution to the objection and gives us just cause to consider and conclude that all that you or any other Divine hath ever said for the Christians freedome on the Lords day will bee found but the Iewes freedome which both they might have had and had also by the Law of the fourth Commandement had not their superstition or superstitious teachers wrongd the Law and them for see what Christ did on the Sabbath and allowed and in that behold those burdens of Iewish superstition abandoned and that as some call it of Christian libertie which yet are no other than matter of Christian dutie to the eternall and morall Law delivered in the fourth Commandement First you would have allowed a comfortable use of the Creatures not onely an use for meere necessitie God ever gave it on this day for the Sabbath was a festivall ever The Iewes were usually as too many are now for want of right collation of Scriptures together either superstitious or sacrilegious Fifthly you would that things that tend to decency might be done without which the ordinances cannot bee so used to order and edification They ever might The Priests might blow their Trumpets and Hornes on the Sabbath day for the assembling of the people Numb 10. 2. So may our Bells be thus rung Sixthly it is not against Christian liberty to have the precise day appointed of God it was not against the liberty and glory of our nature in integritie And tell me I pray you whether it make more to Christian liberty to observe a day by the constitution of the Church or by institution of God whose Service is perfect liberty Yea since it is usuall with God to powre upon the Church on the Lords day the holy Ghost which is the Spirit of liberty certainely it never returnes but it increaseth that liberty with greater accessions daily That which some Divines have said that the Sabbath in the Law was a day n In se per se sanctus Per se pars instrumentum ●ultûs in it selfe and of it selfe holy and was of it selfe a part and instrument of piety in respect of the rest I cannot see how it can bee grounded on the Commandement or any other Scripture the Commandement is Remember the Sabbath or resting day to keepe it holy it was sanctified and the rest injoyned that it might be subservient to piety and holinesse as also the Lords day is If any such thing were found to belong to that day it was accessary and if ought of type were in it to the Iewes it was not injoyned in the precept but given as an appendix to it and so is taken away by Christ and no way bindeth us to the use thereof CHAP. XXI Breerwood Pag. 36 37. BVt let that be admitted also first that the commandement was immediatly given to servants Secondly that it was given touching the lightest degree of workes Let servants bee the persons and those workes the matter to whom and of which the commandement was given is your doctrine yet justified hereby subject to no other reproofe The persons have afforded me exceptions against it because the commandment was not given to servants And the matter because it was not imposed touching that light sort of works the time also will because it cannot be understood of the Lords day for what day was it of which the charge of vacation was so strictly given Was it not the seventh day of the weeke The seventh saith the precept is the Sabaoth of the Lord thy God In it thou shalt doe no worke And why the seventh Because in sixe dayes the Lord finished all the workes of creation and rested the seventh day therefore he sanctified the seventh day and what day is it whereof we question The Lords day That the first day of the weeke It is therefore the seventh day of the weeke the Sabaoth of