a ceremony but too too crudely and without all explication of what it figured yet we willingly grant a faire prefiguration of somewhat concerning Christ is found in the seventh day acknowledged by the Ancients and by moderne writers both Papists and Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists but that is not in reference to the worship restrained to that day but in reference to the rest fairely representing Christs rest that day in his grave and thereupon grounding the rigorous condition of the Jewish rest which is the practise both of Papists of Protestants so that the Sabbath is not taken away neither as touching some time in generall to be sanctified unto God nor as touching the proportion of time in speciall as of one day in seven but only as touching the particular day which is changed into the Lords day Our Saviour professing that a Sabbath still was to bee kept of Christians as Doctor Andrewes proveth out of Matth. 24. 20. As for the second to wit the light that is said to be retained and spread wider then before this is meere darknesse unto me for I cannot by any meanes comprehend the meaning of it Neither is here any course taken to expound it and bring us acquainted with the interpretation of it Suppose by the light is meant the thing prefigured and that is devised to bee a spirituall rest from sinne But this I hope the Prophets and holy servants of God under the Law were partakers of together with the rest of the Sabbath and the sanctification of it as well as we under the Gospell and if the sanctification of the Sabbath I speak of our Christian Sabbath according to our Saviours language Matth. 24. 20. be taken from us I doubt wee shall enjoy that spirituall rest from sinne in farre lesse measure under the Gospell then the Jewes did under the law Yet neither they nor we shall enjoy it intirely till we are brought to our rest in glory Certainely the conscionable observation of the Sabbath ever was and is a principall meanes to draw us to that spirituall rest from sin and eternall rest in glory If Saint Paul by taxing the Jewish observation of dayes times doth therewithall tax the observation of the Lords day in place of the Jewish then let us turne Anabaptists and Socinians and utterly renounce the observation of the Lords day as well as of the Jewish Sabbath The same Apostle Col. 2. speakes not of the Sabbath but of Sabbaths and there were dayes enough so called amongst the Jewes and that by the Lord both of dayes and yeares besides the weekely Sabbath yet we are content the rest of the seventh may be ranged amongst other Sabbaths as prefiguring Christs rest that day in the grave But to speake of the Sabbath hand-over-head without distinction we love not nor see I any cause why men should be in love therewith unlesse withall they love confusion and to fish in troubled waters is many times an advantage to serve turnes Let the rest of the seventh be in Gods name crucified with Christ upon the crosse or at least be buryed with him in his grave and so as never to rise with him but let our Christian Sabbath our Saviour speakes of Matth. 24. 20. take life together with our Saviours resurrection that brought with it a new creation a new world and there withall a new Sabbath as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester delivers it in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Trask As reason tells us that there must be some certaine appointed time for Gods publique Service so as good reason tells us wee Christians cannot without sinne allow unto God for his publique service a worse proportion of time under the Gospell then the Jewes were bound to allow unto him under the Law God himselfe never having deserved so much at the hands of man as under the Gospell and there never being greater necessitie of observing a Sabbath then under the Gospell the way of truth and holinesse being so beset and with such encombrances as the like were never knowne to the world before yet still from the bondage and necessitie of the Iewish Sabbath we are delivered by the Gospell for neither doe we keepe their day then called the Lords holy day but the first day of the weeke the day of Christs resurrection in the new Testament called the Lords day Revel 1. 10. And so willingly we come to the consideration of the right whereby The Lords day hath succeeded in the place thereof Let it be the shame of the Anabaptist Familist and Swenk feldian to make all dayes equall and equally to be regarded so insteed of Christian libertie to bring into the Church an Heathenish licentiousnesse yet surely the heathens ever had their festivalls even weekely and that on the seventh day which was sometimes called in this respect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And at this day the Turkes festivall is their Friday the first day of Mahumets kingdome when hee fled from Maecha to Iethrib and thenceforth constituted both the first day of their weeke and of their yeare Let as many as by their Sabbatarian speculations bring all to Iudaisme bee censured as they deserve but as for them that desire to have all the glory of the Iewes Sabbath transferred to the Lords day take heed how you censure them least you censure Austin also and the Doctors of the Church mentioned by him who have decreed this As for the river called Sabbaticus let such lettice serves their lips that like them Censures of fanatick and peevish spirits are as liberally bestowed by some as the Baiocchi and Bagalini which the Pope scatters at the day of his coronation but who they be that deserve them God will one day Judge But I perceive whither this tends If some conceive the Lords day to be prophaned by Maygames and Morice dances they are censured for men fanatick of peevish spirits but they little think that all the Prelates of the kingdome may as well come under their lash and the whole Parliament in the first of king Charles But that thred which here is begun is drawne out somewhat longer in the next Section following 5 In this fifth Section things are so carryed that it is an hard matter to discerne the Doctors meaning especially in relating the different opinions concealing the Authors of them and the place where they are to be found and their arguments which here are only said to be derived from the sanctification of the seventh day in the first creation of the world and from the institution of the Sabbath in the fourth commandement For herence it is said that they who stand for the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the Lords day as by divine authority doe draw their arguments for the justifying of their Tenet which I willingly professe doth seeme a prodigy unto me namely that any man should dispute thus In the beginning of the world the Lord commanded
OF THE MORALITY OF THE Fourth Commandement AS STILL IN FORCE TO BINDE CHRISTIANS Delivered by way of Answer to the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath Divided into two parts 1. An answer to the Prefacer 2. A consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture Written by William Twisse D. D. and Pastor of Newbury Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keepe it holy Mat. 5. 17. Thinke not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill verse 18 For verily I say unto you Till Heaven and Earth passe one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled verse 19 Whosoever therefore shall breake one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdome of Heaven LONDON Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls-Church-yard 1641. The Contents of the chiefe matters handled herein IN the answer to the Prefacer Section 1. 1. The ancients are alleadged in vaine to oppose the Institution of the Sabbath as from the beginning Section 2. 2. The untruth of the Praefacers legends concerning Peter Bruis Fulco and Eustathius and others discovered Section 3. 3. Calvin abused by the Prefacer and misconstrued 2. What credite Barclay deserves relating a consultation of Calvin about transferring the Sabbath to the Thursday 3. Of the force of Apostolicall example Section 4. 4. The vanity of the Prefacers pretence in saying Catarinus opposed Tostatus with ill successe while he maintained the Institution of the Sabbath from the Creation It is made apparant that his successe was far beyond that of Tostatus 2. Whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was created 1. Pererius his arguments for the negative Sect. 4. 2. Doctor Willet his arguments for the affirmative Sect. 4. 3. Pererius his reasons against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation answered 4. Two Digressions in answer to Rivetus in two particular 1. By way of reply upon his answer to Walaeus his arguments justifying the moraltty of one day in seven 2. To his arguments opposing the morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord. Section 5. 5. A consideration of Walaeus his discourse in answer to those who conceave the institution of the Lords Day to have beene ordered by Christ himselfe 2. An examination of that phrase of some of our Davines affirming the ancients to have changed the Iewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day for a probable cause wherein it is shewed that the cause hereof was more then probable Section 6. 6. An examination of Chemnitius his discourse concerning the authority of the Lords Day 2. A reply upon Doctor Rivets answer to Master Perkins his arguments standing for the Divine authority of the Lords Day 3. That the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are so called in the same notion 1. affirmed by Doctor Andrewes Perkins Thysius 2. justified by good reason Section 7. 7. A briefe of the arguments on each side for every point 1. As touching the originall institution of the Sabbath 2. As touching the Morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to Gods solemne worship 3. As touching the authority of the celebration of the Lords Day and the immutability thereof 8. The Prefacer and M. Rogers opposing D. Bownde are shewed in every particular to oppose D. Andrewes IN the consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture 1. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the time which ought to be set apart for Gods solemne service Section 2. 2. Reasons why the Creator should prescribe the proportion of time to be consecrated unto himselfe Section 2. 6. 3. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven Sect. the same Section 2. 6. 4. That Enosh with his holy company apparting themselves from others had a set time for divine worship Section 3. 5. That it becomes not us to affect liberty to designe the day for the Sabbath Section 6. 6 The danger of leaving it to man to make choyse of the day Section 6. 7. That the clebration of the Lords Day is of divine institution and how far justified by the old Testament and particularly by the fourth Commandement Section 7. 8. That it is nothing strange the Lords Day should be called by the name of the Sabbath Section 8. 2. Sensuall pleasures are cleanly caried under the title of recreation Section 8. The Preface I Have now a long time taken notice of much difference and contention about the morality of the fourth Commandement but I never gave my selfe to looke into the bottome of it till now I ever conceived it for the substance to be Morall otherwise what should it make among the ten Commandements which all account the Law morall in distinction both from the law judiciall and the law ceremoniall given by Moses unto the Jewes These ten Commandements the Lord spake from the top of mount Sina in the hearing of all the people and by way of preparation to so notable a service as to meet with God and to heare him speake unto them two dayes were given them to sanctifie themselves and to wash their cloathes that they might be ready on the third day for the third day the Lord would come downe on mount Sina And so it came to passe For when Moses brought forth the people out of the Campe to meet with God and they stood at the nether part of the Mount Mount Sina was altogether on a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly And all the people saw the thundrings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountaine smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a farre off In such heavenly state was this Law delivered and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy amongst the rest without all example of the like in all the generations that went before And the Lord thought it sit to mind them hereof by his servant Moses Aske now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth and aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people heare the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and upon the earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed
a double motion one naturall downwards another spiritual upwards for the Lord puts them into his bottels the hairs of our head are numbred how much more the sighes of our heart and groanes of our spirit And have we not great cause to inure our selves betimes thus to sabbatize with God as he sabbatizeth with us that we may be the fitter to keepe our eternall Sabbath with him for so is our eternall happinesse represented unto us in the enjoying of him for ever and being filled with his glory which Austin calls Sabbatum maximum our greatest Sabbath and Plenitudo Sabbati and to that purpose casts his eye upon that Sabbatum Sabbatorum Sabbath of Sabbaths Revel 25. For when Christ hath put downe all rule and all authority and power then shall he deliver up the Kingdome to God even the Father and God shall be all in all Yet I willingly confesse that in my observation two things there are which seeme to be of great moment in opposition to the morality of the fourth Commandement 1. The change of the day 2. The generall opinion of the Fathers pronouncing in an indefinit manner the fourth Commandement to be ceremoniall Yet notwithstanding the registring of it in the Decalogue which is generally accompted the Law morall I say this consideration hath even prevailed more with mee to accompt the substance thereof morall Neverthelesse for the honour I owe and respect I beare to Antiquity I have endevoured to understand the Antients aright and to enquire in what respect they accompted it ceremoniall For to my understanding the sanctification of the rest or the service of the day especially unto us Christians is meerely morall But as concerning the rest it selfe it may be some ceremoniality may be found therein especially considered in conjunction with the time appointed for the worship and service of God And herein I thanke God I have found good satisfaction unto my selfe at last how I shall satisfie others I know not And when sometimes I had waded thorow the Epistle to the Romans unto the fourteenth Chapter there occasion was given me to consider further of this controversie so farre as a few dayes would give libertie to provide my next Sermon and therein I made use of Hospinian and of Pererius and no more as I remember but in Pererius I came acquainted with Tostatus his Arguments directed against the ancient institution of the Sabbath from the Creation which till then I imagined had been generally received without contradiction according to that which the story of Genesis at first sight seemes to commend unto us And by this occasion my mind working hereupon in my meditations I thought fit for opening a way to the better clearing of the truth to distinguish three things in subordination the latter to the former 1. The first was a time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. The second was the proportion of this time 3. The third the particularity of the day according to the specified proportion 1. The first seemed tome of necessary duty by the very light of nature to as many as know God and acknowledge him to be their Creator and this I tooke and doe take to be the highest degree of morality in this precept and herein hitherto I have found no opposition 2. As touching the second by light of nature we are somewhat to seeke as whether one day in a weeke or more or one day in a month or more or one day in a yeare or more ought to be set apart for the solemne worship and service of God So that herein it is fit we should expect direction from God the Lord of the Sabbath 1. Because the service of the day is his and it seemes fit he should cut out what proportion of time he thinkes convenient 2. For the maintenance of uniformitie therein and lest otherwise there might be as many divisions hereabouts as there are Churches in the world and contentions also consequently each standing for their owne election For reason of a conjecturall nature is very various and therein commonly affection beares the greatest sway and drawes the judgement to comply with it But when God hath determined a certaine proportion of time it may be we shall find great congruitie therein even to naturall reason and farre more than in any other D. Field as Master Broad reports professeth that to one who knowes the story of the Creation it is evident by light of nature that one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service And Azorius the Jesuit in his morall Institutions acknowledgeth that It is most agreeable to reason that after six work dayes one day should be consecrated to divine worship The least division of dayes is into a weeke the next greater division is into a month the next into a yeare Now by light of nature it seemes farre more reasonable that one day in seven should be imployed in Gods service than one day in a moneth And if a seventh part of our time be to be consecrated unto God better a seventh day than a seventh part of every day because the worldly occupations of each of those dayes must needs cause miserable distraction Thus reason may discourse in probable manner when God hath gone before us to open a way unto us Certainly when God hath once determined the proportion of time it is so farre from being accounted morall as perpetuall and still to hold untill God himselfe shall alter it 3. As for the particularity of the day according to the forenamed proportion therein we should be farre more to seeke were wee left unto our selves time consisting in a continuall flux and succession one part afore and another after As namely supposing one day in seven is to be consecrated to Gods service yet wee shall still be to seeke which day of the seven is to be set apart for an holy use And no marvell for in it selfe it is nothing materiall For a proportion of service being required within a certaine compasse so it be done within that compasse every Master rests satisfied with his servants worke But as for difference in the proportion every one accounts that a matter of great moment God himselfe acknowledgeth this therefore to whom he gives but little at their hands he expects but little to whom hee gives much of them he expects much as our Saviour teacheth And Saint John exhorts Christians so to carry themselves in the Lords service that they may receive a full reward Yet both for our assurance that our service shall be acceptable with God for of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin we reade that Hee offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month even in the month which he had devised of his owne heart which latter clause undoubtedly is added by way of exprobration as also to prevent divisions by reason of different opinions thereabouts and
by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
the first day of the weeke their publike meetings and confesseth that the Fathers and all Interpreters almost doe so conceive it though withall he professeth hee sees not how from a casuall fact so he calleth it upon what ground I know not a solemne institution may be justly grounded yet that which went before in some opposition whereunto this is delivered pleaded not for a solemne institution but for a custome onely although upon due consideration it may be found that such a custome if that be granted could not otherwise proceed originally than from a solemne institution It is enough if they ordained that on that day the Churches should be assembled for publique worship which Austin expressely professeth as formerly I have shewed neither doth it appeare in reason how it could be otherwise such assemblies being universall and so continuing to this day Is it credible such universall agreement should come to passe casually if it did yet their continuance of it without dislike doth manifest their joynt Apostolicall approbation who we know were guided by the Spirit of God and even in their time was the first day of the weeke called the Lords Day So that in all this I find no incoherence much lesse notable Indeed in the first of the Corinth chap. 16. 2. he doth not order that the first day should be set apart for Gods service but rather supposeth it and that not onely at Corinth but in the Churches of Galatia how improbable is it that this uniformity should be among them unlesse it proceeded from some authority superiour to the Churches themselves then comming to consider the denomination of the Lords Day and concluding it to be the first day of the weeke and therewithall concluding that sixth Section the seventh Section he begins thus what then Shall we affirme that the Lords Day is founded in Divine authority and answers the question thus For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it however the arguments like me not whereby the opinion is supported and so he proceeds in prosecuting of that which was affirmed by him in the last place concerning his private dislike of some particular courses taken to justifie it He opposeth I grant expresse institution but if by just consequence it may be deduced it serveth our turne both in the generall and in particular at this time and in this place to discover the immodest and unreasonable carriage of this Prefacer who would obtrude the contrary opinion upon Doctor Prideaux as it were in despite of him And indeed it is thought that hee owed him a spight and to pay that hee owed him hee came to this translation But herein the Doctors honour is easily preserved in the despight of this Prefacer yet see a greater degree of impudency in this Prefacer For he puts upon the Doctor as if hee had shewed the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution by the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuits Canonists and Schoole-men of some great Lutherans by name whereas it is plaine that he mentioneth more Papists maintaining the Lords Day to be of Divine institution then opposing it And amongst them that maintaine it one to wit Sylvester professeth it to be opinionem communem not one avouched as affirming the contrary And as for the great Lutherans this Author speaketh of loving to speake with a full mouth they are but one and that Brentius who is said to affirme it to be a civill ordinance and not a commandement of the Gospel a very strange phrase in my opinion to call it a civill ordinance the ordinance being in force many hundred yeeres before the Church of God had any civill government of their own and being in the Apostles dayes how could it be lesse than Apostolicall undoubtedly not so much civill as Ecclesiasticall Wee grant willingly we have no expresse precept for it yet Austin is bold to say as wee have heard that Apostoli sanxerunt yet Gomarus allegeth no passage out of Brentius to this purpose But Melancthon ever as I take it accounted of better authoritie than Brentius professeth as Walaeus reports him that consentaneum est Apostolos hanc ipsam ob causam mutasse diem in plaine termes ascribing the change of the day to the Apostles As for the Remonstrants what authority have they deserved to have with us who are so neere a kinne to the Socinians who uttterly professe against all observation of the Lords Day But the foure professors of Leiden have passed over this of theirs without note or opposition And was not Walaeus one of the foure yet what his opinion is himselfe hath manifested to the world yea and his collegue Thysius also yet no cause had they to oppose in this when the other professed it to be a laudable and good custome according to the patterne of the Primitive Church and can the Primitive Church exclude the Apostles and not rather include them And is it probable that the Primitive Church prescribed it to the Apostles and not rather the Apostles to the Church Tilenus calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem not denying it to be instituted by the Apostles nay elsewhere hee affirmes this or rather that it was instituted by Christ himselfe So little cause had these professors to quarrell with this phrase of the Remonstrants having weightier matters in hand wherein to oppose them What if Bullenger call it Ecclesiae consuettudinem so doth Tilenus de praecept 4. Thes 29. yet Thes 24. he professed it to be not onely observed by the Apostles but that it may seeme also to be instituted by Christ himselfe Bullenger saith sponte receperunt to wit in opposition to an expresse Precept as appeares by that which immediately followeth Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam we doe not reade it any where commanded Ursine alleged in the next place clearely professeth in the very place quoted by Gomarus that God it is who hath abrogated the observation of the seventh day but he addes that he left it free to the Church to choose other daies which Church upon a probable cause chose the first day which was the day of Christs resurrection Now what Church was it but Apostolica Ecclesia as Paraeus upon Ursinus Catechisme observes p. 665. Pro libertate sibi à Christo donatâ pro septima die elegit diem primum propter probabilem causam out of the liberty which Christ hath given them insteed of the seventh day chose the first day of the weeke by reason of a probable cause to wit because on that day Christ rose by whose resurrection the spirituall and eternall rest is inchoated in us and p. 666. Apostoli ipsi mutarunt Sabbatum septimi diei The Apostles themselves changed the Sabbath of the seventh day By the way touch we a little upon this that First this was done in reference to Christs resurrection so Calvin acknowledgeth in reference whereunto this day had some prerogative above
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of Iohn is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20. 10. It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2. 16. 17. Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1. 3. Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20. 7. and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16. 2. Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1. 10. whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1. 10. I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth that the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath and that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16. 2. For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator
festivitatem suam yea with the very words of Scripture Psal 118. 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Neither is it credible to mee that the Apostles were ignorant of it or of its application to the day of Christs Resurrection from the very day thereof Heresbachius upon these words Haec dies quam fecit dominus They are saith hee the words of the people exulting in the Kingdome of David most of all of the glorious Resurrection of Christ which of all others was most glorious to mankinde as whereon Christ redeemed us in a triumphant manner from the Tyarnny of Satan and from everlasting death and restored unto us everlasting righteousnesse Arnobius interprets it of the Lords Day Eightly the last argument and which hee acknowledgeth of greatest moment is that which is taken out of Apoc. 1. 10. Where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day whence they conclude that it is of the Lords institution And indeed Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Camber speech professeth that this denomination is given onely to the first day of the weeke as called in Scripture the Lords day and to the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ as called the Lords Supper and that to shew that the word Dominicum the Lords is to bee taken alike in both In the same sense wee call the Prayer which our Saviour taught his Disciples the Lords Prayer But let us heare Walaeus his answer that we may consider it This consequence saith hee is not necessary for it may bee called the Lords not onely that which is of his institution but even that which is made to the remembrance or in the honour of him or for his worship as the ancients speake as the altar of the Lord and feast of the Lord are often so called And that in this sence it was taken of the ancients it appeares by this that the ancient Fathers both Greeke and Latine called Temples by the name of Dominica and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which wee urge is the language of the Holy Ghost now throughout the holy Scripture it is not the language of the Holy Ghost to call either Altars the Lords Altars or Feasts the Lords Feasts but such as are of the Lords institution Neither doe the fathers in my observation call the first day of the weeke the Lordsday otherwise then in reference to Christs Resurrection as the cause of the festivall nature thereof Temples indeed they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as consecrated to the Lord but the denomination is not to distinguish it from other Temples as the Lords Day hath its denomination to distinguish it from other dayes But the day of Christs Resurrection being called the Lords Day not as such a day in the yeare but as such a day in the weeke this to my understanding doth manifestly inferre the succession of it into the place of the Lords day of the weeke amongst the Jewes Both ancient and moderne Divines doe hold it lawfull to consecrate other dayes to the service of of God such as wee usually call holy dayes But never any man I thinke was found that durst call any of them Diem dominicum the Lords Day Adde to this wherefore doth our Saviour say that the sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath but plainely to conclude herence that hee can dispense with it hee can abrogate it and bring another into the place of it and none hath power for this but hee who is Lord of the Sabbath Lastly when he saith pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day what is the reason hereof but religio Sabbati as all confesse the religious observation of the Sabbath and did they understand any other religion of the Sabbath but as from Divine institution Now the time concerning which our Saviour delivers this now about the destruction of the Temple by Titus after that no other Sabbath but of the Lords Day was generally established in the Churches Last of all for the third and last conclusion that still the Church hath power to change the day our Doctor in the 7. Section bringeth in Bullinger Bucer Brentius Ursinus and Chemnitius aliisque nostris with divers others not named particularly as they are which thinke no otherwise thereof then Calvin did and shewes by what distinction Suarez though otherwise no friend unto the men doth defend their Doctrine Now as the doctrine was such also is the practise of those men and Churches devoid of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to bee a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations by which the mind may bee refreshed and the spirits quickened Even in Geneva it selfe according as it is related in the enlargement of Boterus by Robert Johnson all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crossebowes c. are used on the Sabbath Day and that both in the morning before and after Sermon neither doe the Ministers finde fault therewithall so that they hinder not from hearing of the word at the time appointed Dancing indeed they doe not suffer But this is not in relation to the Sunday but the sport it selfe which is held unlawfull and generally forbidden in the French Churches which strictnesse as some note considering how the French doe delight in dancing hath beene a great hinderance to the growth of the reformed religion in that Kingdome Exam. The Doctor indeed saith that Calvin Bullenger Bucerus Brentius Chemnitius Ursine and others of the reformed Churches affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords Day to some other but hee neither cites their words nor quotes any place out of their writings And as for Calvin whom this Prefacer proposeth as chiefe and the rest as thinking no otherwise thereof then hee did I make no doubt but the passage in Calvin is instit 2. cap. 8. sect 34. where thus he writeth Neque sic tamen septenarium numerum moror ut ejus servituti Ecclesiam astringerem I doe not so regard the number of seven as to tie the Church to the servitude thereof which considered in it selfe might intimate that in his opinion it is indifferent whether wee keepe holy one day in seven or one day in foureteene but the words immediately following doe manifest his meaning to be farre otherwise as namely that we are not so tied to a seventh but that we may solemnize other dayes also by our holy assemblies For thus it followes Neque enim damnavero qui alios conventibus suis solennes dies habeant I condemne not them that keep other dayes holy will any man suppose that some there were well knowne to Calvin who kept other dayes solemn and not the Lords Day and that these men Calvin
would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecast And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the counsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Apoc. 1. 10. in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord rose from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all
may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkned and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD M r. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose faith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner First hee denies that there is the same reason of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the
Psal 118. 22. 23. 24. Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Heresh bachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made head of the corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118. 24. and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1. 10. Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2. 4. Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and opportunities are delivered in reference to the periods and changing of Kingdomes and Monarchies as appeares by the argument of the Prophecy And no more doth D. Rivetus deliver in excepting against his annotations for as he acknowledgeth M. Perkins scriptorem modestissimum a most modest writer so he carryeth himselfe most modestly towards him But I hope without any breach of modesty I may professe that I find no accuratenesse in each of his allegations save one namely that wherein Christ professeth himself Lord of the Sabbath and it is enough for the present that God reserves to himself power of ordering times for his service yet it cannot be denied but God hath left power to his Church upon good occasion to set some time apart for exercise of piety But whereas it is apparant that God himselfe tooke upon him the ordering of the time for the Sabbath and accordingly Christ calls himselfe The Lord of the Sabbath as he constituted it so none but he can abrogate it and ordaine another in the place of it Now whereas D. Rivetus saith that hee hath left this power unto his Church it stands him upon to prove it We find our Saviour supposeth us Christians to have a Sabbath after his resurrection Matth. 24. 20. as well as the Jewes had before wee find that in the Apostles dayes the first day of the weeke was set apart for this which could not be but by the joynt consent of the Apostles we find that the day of the weeke not the day of the yeere wherein Christ rose by Saint Iohn himselfe called the Lords Day an evident argument that in his time it was so generally received We find that never any worke of God did give better cause to professe that The day thereof was the day that the Lord had made let us be glad and rejoyce therein then the day wherein Christ rose from the dead and thereby was declared to be the Sonne of God even that stone which the builders refused to be made the head of the corner And how strange is it that the Church for 1500. yeeres space should no where offer to alter it if in no other respect yet in this to manifest that the Church is indued with such liberty and power and to prevent the superstitious observation of the day as a thing necessary if it be not necessary Lastly if this liberty be still in the
Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and our demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus opposethem onely it were well but it is apparant that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee
shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place of effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24. 20. as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for prosaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in case of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanatious of the Sabbath in the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietaete Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and
10. Commandements and then Christ should come to destroy the Law and not to fulfill is contrary to our Saviours own words Math. 5. 17. 2. That all other things in the Law were so changed that they were cleane taken away as the priesthood Sacrifices and Sacraments this day namely the Sabbath was so changed that it yet remaines For it is evident by the Apostles practise Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Apo. 1. 10. that the day of rest called the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke and so was observed and kept holy under the name of the Lords Day 3. That it is not lawfull to use the seventh day to any other end but to the holy and sanctified end for which in the beginning it was created 4. As the Sabbath came in with the first man so must it not goe out but with the last 5. That we are restrained upon the Sabbath from works as the Jewes were though not in such strict particular manner as they were yet in generall we are forbidden all kind of worke upon the Lords Day as they were which may hinder the service of God Now the Author that hee intimates as opposing these positions hee describes by the title of his booke in the margent which is this The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England printed at Cambridge p. 37. And the author of his booke I have heard to be Master Rogers and it seemes likely enough especially by the 2. first positions Doctor Willet concludes in this manner after hee had made use of divers allegations for the confirmation of his doctrine in opposition to the fore-mentioned Author but these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned Treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as it is said in the former positions which shall be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatariorum errores yea hereticall assertions a new Iubilee S. Sabbath more then either Iewish or popish institution God grant it be not layd to their charge that so speake or write and God give them a better minde About two yeares before this were set forth Master Perkins his cases of conscience wherein hee manifesteth his concurrence with Doctor Bownde in the doctrine of the Sabbath Neither doth Doctor Andrewes in any materiall thing differ from Doctor Bownde Master Perkins Doctor Willet In the next relation of his which is of a familiar nature undoubtedly the Prefacer deserves to be believed That in a Towne of his acquaintance the preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor roste meate was to be found in all the Parish for a sunday dinner throughout the yeare and hee concludes it with such an Epiphonema These are the fruites of such dangerous doctrines as if the fortunes of the Church or state were hazarded for want of bak't meate or rost meate on the sundayes And to confesse a truth though I never was nor never am like to be so precise yet considering my meane condition I have divers times thought thus with my selfe why should my provision hinder any of my servants from Sermons on the Sabbath day so little did I feare any dangerous consequence of this practise but since I am better informed by the suggestions of this judicious Prefacer I will take heede how I cherish such thoughts in my brest henceforth and if hee come at any time to take paines amongst us seeing I finde hee respects bak't meate and rost meate so well it shall goe hard but wee will have a tith Pig for his entertainement And so much the rather that I may cleare my selfe from Judaisme for Iack of Newbery my Countreyman being a great Clothier in his dayes and then strangers came from farre to buy Cloath at his House and amongst the rest a company of Jewes were sometime entertained by him being a very hospitallous man and an excellent house-keeper his house being accounted the best Inne in the Towne to make himselfe merry caused the table to bee furnished with all variety of Hogges flesh which they perceaving tooke it for a flout but after they had grumbled a while upon it hee made shew as if but then hee had remembred himselfe of his errour and not till then considered that they were Jewes and forthwith hee commanded all the dishes to be remooved and other dishes already prepared to be set on the board wherewith his table was as well furnished as it was with guests But to returne it is an easy matter now a dayes to accuse of any thing as Doctor Prideaux hee saith accuseth us of Judaisme but si accusare sufficiat quis innocens erit when hee or Doctor Prideaux shall prove their accusations then let us be condemned and if wee be not condemned till then wee care not Yet it is untrue which hee pins upon Doctor Prideaux his sleeve as if hee should alleage Austin saying that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour of the spirit neither S. Austin speakes this of the fourth Commandement nor is hee so alleaged by Doctor Prideaux but of the seventh day Quisquis diem illum observat ficut litera sonat carnaliter sapit As much as to say whosoever keeps that day which the Jew keepes savoureth carnally Neither did I know any of my brethren to stand for the sanctifying of the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation but onely of one day in seaven which day must also be prescribed by God as the seventh day of the weeke was to the Jewes which is the next thing imputed unto us but the Lords Day is the first day of the weeke to us Christians Sect. 8. This when I had considered when I had seriously observed how much these fancies were repugnant both to the tendries of this Church and judgments of all kinde of writers and how unsafe to be admitted I thought I could not goe about a better worke then to exhibite to the view of my deare Countreymen this following Treatise delivered first and afterwards published by the Author in another language The rather since of late the clamour is encreased and that there is not any thing now more frequent in some Zelotes mouthes to use the Doctors words then that the Lords Day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned Section first To satisfie whose scruples and give content unto their mindes I doubt not but this following discourse will be sufficient which for that cause I have translated faithfully and with as good propriety as I could not swerving any where from the sense and as little as I could from the phrase and letter Gratum opus agricolis a worke as I conceave it not unsuitable unto the present times
my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1◠Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superflutty in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in want onnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8. 14. And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as atany other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use
Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1 o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the University And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and
grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that w ch is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118. 24. of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congruity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the