appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service But to encounter them at their own weapon it is expresly said in the Act of Parliament about keeping Holy-days that on the days and times appointed as well the other Holy days as the Sunday Christians should cease from all kind of labour and only and wholly apply themselves to such holy works as appertain to true Religion the very same with that delivered in the Homily If wholly in the Homily must be applied unto the day then it must be there and then the Saints days and the other Holy-days must be wholly spent in religious exercises When once we see them do the one we will bethink our selves of doing the other As for the residue of that Homily which consists in popular reproofs and exhortations that concerns not us in reference to the point in hand The Homilies those parts thereof especially which tend to the correction of manners and reformation of abuses were made agreeable to those times wherein they were first published If in those times men made no difference between the Working-day and Holy-day 〈◊〉 kept their Fairs and Markets and bought and sold and rowed and ferried and drow and carried and rode and journeyed and did their other business on the Sunday as well as on the other days when there was no such need but that they might have tarried longer they were the more to blame no doubt in trespassing so wilfully against the Canons of the Church and Acts of Parliament which had restrained many of the things there specified The Homily did well to reprove them for it If on the other side they spent the day in ungodliness and filthiness in gluttony and drunkenness and such like other crying sins as are there particularly noted the Prelates of the Church had very ill discharged their duty had they not taken some course to have told them of it But what is that to us who do not spend the Lords day in such filthy fleshliness whatever one malicious sycophant hath affirmed therein or what is that to dancing shooting leaping vaulting may-games and meetings of good Neighbourhood or any other Recreation not by Law prohibited being no such ungodly and filthy acts as are therein mentioned Thus upon due search made and full examination of all parties we find no Lords day Sabbath in the book of Homilies no nor in any writings of particular men in more than 33 years after the Homilies were published I find indeed that in the year 1580 the Magistrates of the City of London obtained from Queen Elizabeth that Plays and Enterludes should no more be acted on the Sabbath-day within the liberties of their City As also that in 83. on the 14th of January being Sunday many were hurt and eight killed outright by the sudden falling of the Scaffolds in Paris-garden This shews that Enterludes and Bear-baitings were then permitted on the Sunday and so they were a long time after though not within the City of London which certainly had not been suffered had it been then conceived that Sunday was to be accounted for a Sabbath But in the year 1595. some of that faction which before had laboured with small profit to overthrow the Hierarchy and government of this Church of England now set themselves on work to ruinate all the orders of it to beat down at one blow all days and times which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been appointed for Gods service and in the stead thereof to erect a Sabbath of their own devising These Sabbath speculations and Presbyterian directions as mine Author calls them they had been hammering more than ten years before thought they produced them not till now and in producing of them now they introduced saith he a more than cither Jewish or Popish superstition into the Land Rogers in preface to the Articles to the no small blemish of our Christian profession and scandal of the true servants of God and therewith doctrine most erroneous dangerous and Antichristian Of these the principal was one Dr. Bound who published first his Sabbath Doctrins Anno 1595. and after with additions to it and enlargements of it Anno 1606. Wherein he hath affirmed in general over all the book that the Commandment of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaical decalogue is natural moral and perpetual That where all other things in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were clean taken away as the Priesthood the Sacrifices and the Sacraments this day the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth p. 91. that there is great reason why we Christians should take our selves as straitly bound to rest upon the Lords day as the Jews were upon their Sabbath for being one of the moral Commandments it bindeth us as well as them being all of equal authority p. 247. And for the Rest upon this day that it must be a notable and singular Rest and most careful exact and precise Rest after another manner than men were accustomed p. 124. Then for particulars no buying of Victuals Flesh or Fish Bread or Drink 158. no Carriers to travel on that day 160. nor Parkmen or Drovers 162. Scholars not to study the liberal Arts nor Lawyers to consult the Case and peruse mens Evidences 163. Sergeants Apparitours and Sumners to be restrained from executing their Offices 164. Justices not to examine Causes for preservation of the Peace 166. no man to travel on that day 192. that ringing of more Bells than one that day is not to be justified p. 202. No solemn Feasts to be made on it 206 nor Wedding Dinners 209. with a permission notwithstanding to Lords Knights and Gentlemen he hoped to find good welcome for this dispensation p. 211. all lawful Pleasures and honest Recreations as Shooting Fencing Bowling but Bowling by his leave is no lawful pleasure for all sorts of people which are permitted on other days were on this day to be forborne 202. no man to speak or talk of pleasures p. 272. or any other worldly matter 275. Most Magisterially determined indeed more like a Jewish Rabbin than a Christian Doctor Yet Jewish and Rabbinical though his Doctrin were it carried a fair face and shew of Piety at the least in the opinion of the common people and such who stood not to examine the true grounds thereof but took it up on the appearance such who did judge thereof not by the workmanship of the stuff but the gloss and colour In which it is most strange to see how â—uddenly men were induced not only to give way unto it but without more ado to abett the same till in the end and that in very little time it grew the most bewitching Errour the most popular Deceit that ever had been set on foot in the Church of England And verily I persuade my self
we should have heard thereof in the holy Scriptures And finding nothing of it there it were but unadvisedly done to take it on the word and credit of a private man Non credimus quia non legimus was in some points Saint Hieroms rule and shall now be ours As little likelihood there is that the Angels did observe this day and sanctifie the same to the Lord their God yet some have been so venturous as to affirm it Sure I am Torniellus saith it Annal. d. 7. And though he seem to have some Authors upon whom to cast it yet his approving of it makes it his as well as theirs who first devised it Quidam non immerito existimarunt hoc ipso die in Coelis omnes Angelorum choros speciali quadam exultatione in Dei laudes prorupisse quod tam praeclarum admirabile opus absolvisset Nay he 38.4.6 and they whoever they were have a Scripture for it even Gods word to Job Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy Who and from whence those Quidam were that so interpreted Gods words I could never find and yet have took some pains to seek it De Civit. Dei l. 11. c. 9. Sure I am Saint Austin makes a better use of them and comes home indeed unto the meaning Some men it seems affirmed that the Angels were not made till after the six days were finished in which all things had been created and he refers them to this Text for their confutation Which being repeated he concludes Jam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta autem sunt sydera die quarto Therefore saith he the Angels were created before the Stars and on the fourth day were the Stars created Yet Zanchius and those Quidam be they who they will fell short a little of another conceit of Philos De vita Mosis lib. 3. who tells us that the Sabbath had a priviledge above other days not only from the first Creation of the World though that had been enough to set out the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but even before the Heavens and all things visible were created If so it must be sanctified by the holy Trinity without the tongues of Men and Angels and God not having worked must rest and sanctifie a time when no time was But to return to Torniellus however those Quidam did mislead him and make him think that the first Sabbath had been sanctified by the holy Angels Annal. d. 7. yet he ingenuously confesseth that sanctifying of the Sabbath here upon the earth was not in use till very many Ages after not till the Law was given by Moses Veruntamen in terris ista Sabbati sanctificatio non nisi post multa secula in usum venisse creditur nimirum temporibus Mosis quando sub praecepto data est filiis Israel So Torniellus So Torniellus and so far unquestionable For that there was no Sabbath kept amongst us men till the times of Moses the Christian Fathers generally and some Rabbins also have agreed together Which that we may the better shew I shall first let you see what they say in general and after what they have delivered of particular men most eminent in the whole story of Gods Book until the giving of the Law And first that never any of the Patriarchs before Moses time did observe the Sabbath Justin the Martyr hath assured us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryph. None of the righteous men saith he and such as walked before the Lord were either circumcised or kept the Sabbath until the several times of Abraham and Moses And where the Jews were scandalized in that the Christians did eat hot meats on the Sabbath days the Martyr makes reply that the said just and righteous men not taking heed of any such observances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtained a notable testimony of the Lord himself Adv. haeres l. 4. c. 30. So Irenaeus having first told us that Circumcision and the Sabbath were both given for signs and having spoken particularly of Abraham Noah Lot and Enoch that they were justified without them adds for the close of all that all the multitude of the faithful before Abraham were justified without the one Et Patriarcharum eorum qui ante Mosen fuerunt and all the Patriarchs which preceded Moses without the other Adv. Judaeos Tertullian next disputeth thus against the Jews that they which think the Sabbath must be still observed as necessary to salvation or Circumcision to be used upon pain of death Doceant in Praeteritum justos sabbatizasse aut circumcidisse sic amicos Dei effectos esse ought first of all saith he to prove That the Fathers of the former times were Circumcised or kept the Sabbath or that thereby they did obtain to be accounted the friends of God Then comes Eusebius the Historian and he makes it good Hist l. 1. c. 4. that the Religion of the Patriarchs before Moses Law was nothing different from the Christian And how proves he that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were not Circumcised no more are we they kept not any Sabbath no more do we they were not bound to abstinence from sundry kinds of meats which are prohibited by Moses nor are we neither Which argument he also useth to the self-same purpose in his first book de demonstr Evang. and sixth Chapter And in his seventh de praeparatione he resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 6. c. The Hebrews which preceded Moses and were quite ignorant of his Law whereof he makes the Sabbath an especial part disposed their ways according to a voluntary kind of piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 framing their lives and actions to the law of nature This argument is also used by Epiphanius Adv. haereses l. 1. n. 5. who speaking of the first Ages of the World informs us that as then there was no difference among men in matters of opinion no Judaism nor kind of Heresie whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but that the faith which doth now flourish in Gods Church was from the beginning If so no Sabbath was observed in the times of old because none in his I could enlarge my Catalogue but that some testimonies are to be reserved to another place when I shall come to shew you that the Commandment of the Sabbath was published to Gods People by Moses only See Ch. 4. and that to none but to the Jews After so many of the Fathers the modern Writers may perhaps seem unnecessary yet take one or two First Musculus 2 Edit p. 12. as Doctor Bound informs me for I take his word who tells us that it cannot be proved that the Sabbath was kept before the giving of the Law either from Adam to Noah or from the Flood to the times of Moses or
they observed this order and decree of Moses and every seventh year read the Law as he appointed they had then questionless escaped many of those great afflictions which afterwards God brought upon them for contempt thereof That in the after-times the Law was read unto them every Sabbath in their several Synagogues is most clear and manifest as by the testimony of Philo and Josephus before related and by sufficient evidence from the holy Gospel But in these times and after for a thousand years there were no Synagogues no publick Reading of the Law in the Congregation excepting every seventh year only and that not often Sure I am not so often as it should have been So that in reference to the People we have but one thing only to regard as yet touching the keeping of the Sabbath which is rest from labour rest from all manner of work as the Law commanded and how far this was kept and how far dispensed with we shall see plainly by the story The private meditations and devotions of particular men stand not upon record at all and therefore we must only judg by external actions This said and shewn we will pass over Jordan with the house of Israel and trace their footsteps in that Countrey This happened on the tenth day of the first month or the month of Nisan forty days after the death of Moses Anno 2584. Josh 4.19 That day they pitched their Tents in Gilgal And the first thing they did was to erect an Altar in memorial of it that done to circumcise the people who all the time that they continued in the Wilderness as many as were born that time were uncircumcised The 14th of the same month did they keep the Passeover Josh 5.10 12. and on the morrow after God did cease from raining Mannah the people eating of the fruits of the Land of Canaan And here the first Sabbath which they kept as I conjecture was the day before the Siege of Hiericho which Sabbath probably was that very day Josh 5. whereon the Lord appeared to Joshuah and gave him order how he should proceed in that great Business The morrow after being the first day of the week they began to compass it as the Lord commanded The Priests some of them bearing the Ark Josh 6. some going before with Trumpets and the residue of the people some before the Trumpeters some behind the Ark. This did they once a day for six days together But when the seventh day came which was the Sabbath they compassed the Town about seven times and the Priests blew the Trumpets and the people shouted and they took the City destroying in it young and old man woman and children I said it was the Sabbath day for so it is agreed on generally both by Jews and Christians One of the seven days be it which it will must needs be the Sabbath day and be it which it will there had been work enough done on it but the seventh day whereon they went about seven times and destroyed it finally was indeed the Sabbath For first the Jews expresly say it that the overthrow of Jericho fell upon the Sabbath and that from thence did come the saying Qui sancificari jussit sabbatum is profanari jussit sabbatum So R. Kimchi hath resolved on the 6th of Joshuah In Josh 6. qu. 2. The like Tostatus tells us is affirmed by R. Solomon who adds that both the falling of the wall and slaughter of that wicked people was purposely deferred In honorem sabbati to add the greater lustre unto the Sabbath l. 11. c. 10. Galatine proves the same out of divers Rabbins this Solomon before remembred and R. Joses in the Book called Sedar Olem and many of them joyned together in their Beresith ketanna or lesser exposition on the Book of Genesis they all agreeing upon this Dies sabbati erat cum fuit praelium in Hiericho and again Non capta fuit Hiericho nisi in sabbato That certainly both the Battel and the Execution fell upon the Sabbath So for the Christian Writers Adv. Marc. l. 2. Tertullian saith not only in the general that one of those seven days was the Sabbath day but makes that day to be the Sabbath wherein the Priests of God did not only work Sed in ore gladii praedata sit civitas ab omni populo but all the people sacked the City and put it to the sword Nec dubium est eas opus servile operatos c. Du. 61. ex n. Test 1. Exod. 20. And certainly saith he they did much servile work that day when they destroyed so great a City by the Lords Commandment Procopius Gazaeus doth affirm the same Sabbato Jesus expugnavit cepit Hiericho Austin thus Primus Jesus nunc divino praecepto sabbatum non servavit quo facto muri Hiericho ultro ceciderunt So lastly Lyra on the place who saith that dies septimus in quo capta Hiericho sabbatum erat and yet they did not sin saith he because they did it on that day by Gods own appointment this doth indeed excuse the parties both from the guilt of sin and from the penalty of the Law but then it shews withal that this Commandment is of a different quality from the other nine and that it is no part of the Law of Nature God never hath commanded any thing contrary to the Law of Nature unless it were tentandi causa as in the case of Abraham and Isaac As for the spoyling of the Eygptians that could be no Thest considering the Egyptians owed them more than they lent unto them in recompence of the service they had done them in the former times But was the Sabbath broken or neglected only on the Lords Commandment in some especial case and extraordinary occasion I think none will say it Nay was there ever any Sabbath which was not broken publickly by common approbation and of common course Surely not one In such a numerous Commonwealth as that of Jewry it is not to be thought but that each day was fruitful in the works of Nature Children born every Sabbath day as well as others and therefore to be Circumcised on the same day also And so they were continually Sabbath by Sabbath Feast by Feast not one day free in all the year from that Solemnity and this by no especial order and command from God but meerly to observe an ancient custom In case it was deferred some time as sometimes it was it was not sure in Conscience to observe the Sabbath but only on a tender care to preserve the Infant which was perchance infirm and weak not able to abide the torment No question but the Sabbath following the sack of Hiericho was in this kind broken and so were all that followed after In Job 7.21 Nullum enim Sabbatum praeteribat quin multi in Judaea infantes ' circumciderentur It is Calvins note broken I say For Circumcision though a
being left unto the Prelates of the Church by them to be appointed as occasion was What others of the ancient Writers Cap. 24. v. 20. and what the Protestant Divines have affirmed herein we shall hereafter see in their proper places As for these words of our Redeemer in S. Matthews Gospel Pray that your flight be not in the Winter neither on the Sabbath day they have indeed been much alledged to prove that Christ did intimate at the least unto his Apostles and the rest that there was a particular day by him appointed whereof he willed them to be careful which being not the Jewish Sabbath must of necessity as they think be the Lords day But certainly the Fathers tell us no such matter nay they say the contrary and make these words a part of our Redeemers admonition to the Jews not to the Apostles In Matth. 24. Saint Chrysostom hath it so expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Behold saith he how he addresseth his discourse unto the Jews and tells them of the evils which should fall upon them for neither were the Apostles bound to observe the Sabbath nor were they there when those Calamities fell upon the Jewish Nation Not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath and why so saith he Because their flight being so quick and sudden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither the Jews would dare to flie on the Sabbath for such their superstition was in the later times nor would the Winter but be very troublesome in such distresses In Matth. 24. Theophilact doth affirm expresly that this was spoken unto the Jews and spoken upon the self same reasons adding withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that before any of those miserles fell upon that Nation the Apostles were all departed from out Jerusalem S. Hierom saith as much as unto the time that those Calamities which by our Saviour were foretold were generally referred unto the Wars of Titus and Vespasian and that both in his Comment on S. Matthew's Gospel and his Epistle to Algasia And for the thing that the Apostles and the rest of the Disciples were all departed from Jerusalem before that heavy war began is no less evident in story Qu. 4. For the Apostles long before that time were either martyred or dispersed in several places for the enlargement of the Gospel not any of them resident in Jerusalem after the Martyrdom of S. James who was Bishop there And for the residue of the Disciples they had forsook the Country also before the Wars being admonished so to do by an Heavenly Vision which warned them to withdraw from thence and repair to Pella beyond Jordan Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 5. as Eusebius tells us So that these words of our Redeemer could not be spoke as to the Apostles and in them unto all the rest of the Disciples which should follow after but to the People of the Jews To whom our Saviour gave this caution not that he did not think it lawful for them to flie upon the Sabbath day but that as things then were and as their consciences were intangled by the Scribes and Pharisees he found that they would count it a most grievous misery to be put unto it To return then unto our story as the chief reason why the Christians of the Primitive times did set apart this day to religious uses was because Christ that day did rise again from death to life for our justification so there was some Analogy or proportion which this day seemed to hold with the former Sabbath which might more easily induce them to observe the same For as God rested on the Sabbath from all the works which he had done in the Creation so did the Son of God rest also on the day of his Resurrection from all the works which he had done in our Redemption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. in sanct Pascha as Gregory Nyssen notes it for us Yet so that as the Father rested not on the former Sabbath from the works of preservation so neither doth our Saviour rest at any time from perfecting this work of our redemption by a perpetual application of the benefit and effects thereof This was the cause and these the motives which did induce the Church in some tract of time to solemnize the day of Christs Resurrection as a weekly Festival though not to keep it as a Sabbath I say in tract of time for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning The very day it self was not so observed though it was known to the Apostles in the morning early that the Lord was risen We find not on the news that they came together for the performance of divine and religious exercises much less that they intended it for a Sabbath day or that our Saviour came amongst them until late at night as in likelihood he would have done had any such performance been thought necessary as was required unto the making of a Sabbath Nay which is more our blessed Saviour on that day and two of the Disciples whatsoever the others did were otherwise employed than in Sabbath duties Luke 24.13 For from Hierusalem to Emaus whither the two Disciples went was sixty furlongs which is seven miles and an half and so much back again unto Hierusalem which is fifteen miles And Christ who went the journey with them at least part thereof and left them not until they came unto Emaus was back again that night and put himself into the middest of the Apostles Had he intended it for a Sabbath day doubtless he would have rather joyned himself with the Apostles who as it is most likely kept themselves together in expectation of the issue and so were most prepared and fitted to begin the new Christian Sabbath than with those men who contrary to the nature of a Sabbaths rest were now ingaged in a journey and that for ought we know about worldly businesses Nor may we think but that our Saviour would have told them of so great a fault as violating the new Christian Sabbath even in the first beginning of it had any Sabbath been intended As for the being of the eleven in a place together that could not have relation to any Sabbath duties or religious exercises being none such were yet commanded but only to those cares and fears wherewith poor men they were distracted which made them loth to part asunder till they were setled in their hopes or otherwise resolved on somewhat whereunto to trust And where it is conceived by some that our most blessed Saviour shewed himself oftner unto the Apostles upon the first day of the week than on any other and therefore by his own appearings did sanctifie that day instead of the Jewish Sabbath neither the premisses are true nor the sequel necessary The premisses not true for it is no where to be found that he appeared oftner on the First day than any other of the week Acts 1.3 it being
met together for religious exercises Which their religious exercises when they were performed or if the times were such that their Assemblies were prohibited and so none were performed at all it was not held unlawful to apply themselves unto their ordinary labours as we shall see anon in the following Ages For whereas some have gathered from this Text of the Revelation from S. John's being in the spirit on the Lords day as the phrase there is that the Lords day is wholly to be spent in spiritual exercises that their conceit might probably have had some shew of likelihood had it been said by the Apostle that he had been in the spirit every Lords day But being as it is a particular case it can make no rule unless it be that every man on the Lords day should have Dreams and Visions and be inspired that day with the spirit of Prophecy no more than if it had been told us upon what day Saint Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven every man should upon that day expect the like Celestial raptures Add here how it is thought by some â—â—omarus de â— abbat c. 6. that the Lords day here mentioned is not to be interpreted of the first day of the week as we use to take it but of the day of his last coming of the day of judgment wherein all flesh shall come together to receive their sentence which being called the Lords day too in holy Scripture that so the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.5 S. John might see it being rapt in spirit as if come already But touching this we will not meddle let them that own it look unto it the rather since S. John hath generally been expounded in the other sence by Aretas and Andreas Caesariensis upon the place by Bede de rat temp c. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best expositor of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle been honoured with that name above other days Which day how it was afterwards observed and how far different it was thought from a Sabbath day the prosecution of this story will make clear and evident CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clements of Alexandria his dislike thereof 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Penteco st 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was 12. The name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never WE she wed you in the former Chapter whatever doth occur in the Acts and Monuments of the Apostles touching the Lords day and the Sabbath how that the one of them was abrogated as a part of the Law of Moses the other rising by degrees from the ruins of it not by Authority divine for ought appears but by Authority of the Church As for the duties of that day they were most likely such as formerly had been used in the Jewish Synagogues reading the Law and Prophets openly to the Congregation and afterwards expounding part thereof as occasion was calling upon the Lord their God for the continuance of his mercies and singing Psalms and Hymns unto him as by way of thankfulness These the Apostles found in the Jewish Church and well approving of the same as they could not otherwise commended them unto the care of the Disciples by them to be observed as often as they met together on what day soever First for the reading of the Law In Jos hom 15. Origen saith expresly that it was ordered so by the Apostles Judaicarum historiarum libri traditi sunt ab Apostolis legendi in Ecclesiis as he there informs us To this was joyned in tract of time the reading of the holy Gospel and other Evangelical writings it being ordered by S. Peter that S. Marks Gospel should be read in the Congregation HIst l. 2.15 1 Thes ca. ult v. 17. as Eusebius tells us and by S. Paul that his Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read unto all the holy Brethren and also that to the Colossians to be read in the Church of the Laodiceans as that from Laodicea in the Church of the Colossians By which example Ca. ult v. 16. not only all the writings of the Apostles but many of the writings of Apostolical men were publickly read unto the People and for that purpose one appointed to exercise the ministry of a Reader in the Congregation So antient is the reading of the Scriptures in the Church of God To this by way of comment or application was added as we find by S. Paul's directions the use of Prophesie or Preaching 1 Cor. 14. v. 3. interpretation of the Scriptures to edifying and to exhortation and to comfort This exercise to be performed with the head uncovered as well the Preacher as the hearer 1 Cor. 11.4 Every man Praying or Prophesying with his head covered dishonoureth his head as the Apostle hath informed us Where we have publick Prayers also for the Congregation the Priest to offer to the Lord the prayers and supplications of the People and they to say Amen unto those prayers which the Priest made for them These to contein in them all things necessary for the Church of God which are the subject of all supplications prayers intercessions 1 Tim. 2. and giving of thanks and to extend to all men also especially unto Kings and such as be in Authority that under them we may be godly and quietly governed leading a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty For the performance of which last duties with the greater comfort it was disposed that Psalms and Hymns should be intermingled with the rest of the publick service which comprehending whatsoever is most excellent in the Book of God and being so many notable forms of praise and prayer were chearfully and unanimously to be sung amongst them 1 Cor. 14.26 And thereupon S. Paul reprehended
Sabbath knowest thou not that these days are Sisters and that whoever doth despise the one doth affront the other Sisters indeed and so accounted in those Churches not only in regard of the publick meetings but in this also that they were both exempt from the Lenten Fast of which more anon In the mean time we may remember how Saturday is by S. Basil made one of those four times whereon the Christians of those parts did assemble weekly to receive the Sacrament as before we noted And finally it is said by Epiphanius that howsoever it was not so in the Isle of Cyprus which it seems held more correspondence with the Church of Rome than those of Asia Expos fidei Cathol 24. yet in some places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to celebrate the holy Sacrament and hold their publick meetings on the Sabbath day So as the difference was but this that whereas in the Eastern and Western Churches several days were in commission for Gods publick service the Lords day in both places was of the Quorum and therefore had the greater worship because more business They held their publick Meetings on the Sabbath-day yet did not keep it like a Sabbath The Fathers of this learned Age knew that Sabbath hath been abrogated and profest as much The Council of Laodicea before remembred though it ascribe much to this day in reference to the Congregations then held upon it yet it condemns the Jewish observations of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not fit for Christians saith the 29. Canon to Judaize and do no manner of work on the Sabbath days but to pursue their ordinary labours on it Conceive it so far forth as they were no impediment to the publick Meetings then appointed And in the close of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any should be found so to play the Jews let them be Anathema So Athanasius though he defend the publick Meetings on this day stands strongly notwithstanding for the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath Not on the by but in a whole discourse writ and continued especially for that end and purpose entituled De Sabbato circumcisione One might conjecture by the title by coupling of these two together what his meaning was that he contrived them both to be of the same condition And in his homily De semente he tells us of the New-moons and Sabbaths that they were Ushers unto Christ and to be in Authority till the Master came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Master being come the Usher grew out of all imployment the Sun once risen v.p. 1. chap. 8. the Lamp was darkened To other of the Fathers which have said as much and whereof we have spoken in a place more proper add Nazianz. Orat. 43. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Cat. 4. and Epiphanius in the confutation of those several Hereticks that held the Sabbath for a necessary part of Gods publick worship and to be now observed as before it was Of which kind over and above the Ebionites and Cerinthians which before we spake of were the Nazarai in the second Century who as this Epiphanius tell us differed both from the Jew and Christian First from the Jew in that they did believe in Christ next from the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they still retain the Law as Circumcision and the Sabbath and such things as those And these I have the rather noted in this place and time as being Cont. Cresconium l. 8. so Saint Austin tells us the Ancestors or Original of the Symmachiani who held out till this very Age and stood as much for Sabbaths and legal ceremonies as their founders did whereof consult S. Ambroses preface to the Galatians Now as these Nazarens or Symmachiani had made a mixt Religion of Jew and Christian Nazianz. Orat. 19. so did another sort of Hereticks in these present times contrive a miscellany of the Jew and Gentile Idols and Sacrifices they would not have and yet they worshipped the Fire and Candle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath also they much reverenced and stood upon the difference of unclean and clean yet by no means would be induced to like of Circumcision These they called Hypsistarij or rather so those doughty fellows pleased to call themselves Add here that it was counted one of the great dotages of Appollinaris and afterwards of all his sect viz. that after the last Resurrection every thing should be done again Basil ep 74. according to the former Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That we should be circumcised and observe the Sabbath and abstein from meats and offer Sacrifice and finally of Christians become Jews again Than which saith Basil who reports it what can be more absurd or more repugnant to the Gospel By which it is most plain and certain that though the Christians of the East retained the Saturday for a day of publick meeting yet they did never mean it to be a Sabbath reckoning them all for Hereticks that so observed it Next let us look upon the Sunday what they did on that For though it pleased the Emperor by his royal Edict to permit works of Husbandry in the Country and manumissions in the Cities on that sacred day yet probably there were some pure and pious souls who would not take the benefit of the declaration or think themselves beholden to him for so injurious and profane a dispensation This we will search into exactly that so the truth may be discovered And first beginning with the Council of Eliberis a Town of Spain in the beginning of this Age it was thus decreed Can. 21. Si quis in civitate positus per tres dominicas ecclesiam non accesserit tanto tempore abstineat ut correptus esse videatur If any Inhabitant of the Cities absent himself from Church three Lords days together let him be kept as long from the holy Sacrament that he may seem corrected for it Where note Si quis in civitate positus the Canon reacheth unto such only as dwelt in Cities near the Church and had no great business those of the Country being left unto their Husbandry and the like affairs no otherwise than in the Emperours Edict which came after this And in the Council of Laodicea not long after Can. 29. which clearly gave the Lords day place before the Sabbath it is commanded that the Christians should not Judaize on the Sabbath day but that they should prefer the Lords day before it and rest thereon from labour if at least they could but as Christians still The Canon is imperfect as it stands in the Greek Text of Binius edition no sense to be collected from it But the translation of Dionysius Exiguus which he acknowledgeth to be more near the Greek than the other two makes the meaning up Diem dominicum praeferentes ociari oportet si modo possint And this agreeably both unto Zonaras the Balsamon who
Sunday For if it be a sin to bathe or wash all the body on the Lords day then must it be a sin to wash the face upon that day if it be lawful to be done in any part why then necessity requiring is it unlawful for the whole It seems then by St. Gregories doctrine that in hot weather one may lawfully go into the water on the Lords day and there wade or swim either to wash or cool his body as well as upon any other Note also here that not the quality of the day but the condition of the thing is to be considered in the denominating of a lawful or unlawful Act that things unlawful in themselves or tending to unlawful ends are unfit for all days and that whatever thing is fit for any day is of it self as fit for Sunday Finally he concludes with this Dominicorum vero die à labore terreno cessandum est c. We ought to rest indeed on the Lords day from earthly labours and by all means to abide in prayers that if by humane negligence any thing hath escaped in the six former days it may be expiated by our prayers on the day of the Resurrection This was the salve by him applyed to those dangerous sores and such effect it wrought upon them that for the present and long after we find not any that prohibited working on the Saturday But at the last it seems some did who thereupon were censured and condemned by another Gregory of that name the seventh Damnavit docentes non licere die Sabbati operas facere as the Law informs us De consecratione distinct 3. cap. Pervenit But this was not till Anno 1074. or after almost 500 years after the times where now we are As for the other fancy that of not going to the Bathes on the Lords day it seems he crushed that too as for that particular though otherwise the like conceits did break out again as men began to entertain strange thoughts and superstitious doctrines about this day especially in these declining Ages of the Church wherein so many errours both in faith and manners did in fine defile it that it was black indeed but with little comliness The Church as in too many things not proper to this place and purpose it did incroach upon the Jew much of the ceremonies and Priestly habit in these times established being thence derived so is it not to be admired if in some things particular both Men and Synods began to Judaize a little in our present business making the Lords day no less rigidly to be observed than the Jewish Sabbath if it were not more For in the following Age and in the latter end thereof when Learning was now almost come to its lowest ebb there was a Synod held at Friuli by the command of Pepin then King of France a Town now in the Territory of the State of Venice The principal motive of that meeting was to confirm the doctrine of the holy Trinity and the incarnation of the Word which in those times had been disputed The President thereof Paulinus Patriarch of Aquilegia Anno 791. of our Redemption There in relation to this day it was thus decreed Diem dominicum inchoante noctis initio i.e. vespere Sabbati quando signum insonuerit c. We constitute and appoint that all Christian men that is to say all Christian men who lived within the Canons reach should with all reverence and devotion honour the Lords day beginning on the Evening of the day before at the first ringing of the Bell and that they do abstain therein especially from all kind of sin as also from all carnal acts Etiam à propriis conjugibus even from the company of their Wives and all earthly labours and that they go unto the Church devoutly laying aside all suits of Law that so they may in love and charity praise Gods name together You may remember that some such device as this was fathered formerly on Saint Austin but with little reason Such trim conceits as these had not then been thought of And though it be affirmed in the preamble to these constitutions nec novas regulas instituimus nee supervacuas rerum adinventiones inbianter sectamur that they did neither make new rules or follow vain and needless fancies Sed sacris paternerum Canâ—num recensitis soliis c. But that they took example by the antient Canons yet look who will into all Canons of the Church for the times before and he shall find no such example For my part I should rather think that it was put into the Canon in succeeding times by some misadventure that some observing a restraint ab omni opere carnali of all carnal acts might as by way of question write in the Margin etian à proprtir conjugibus from whence by ignorance or negligence of the Collectors it might be put into the Text. e if it were so passed at first and if it chance that any be so minded and some such there be as to conceive the Canon to be pure and prous and the intent thereof not to be neglected They are to be advertised that the Holy-days must be observed in the self same manner It was determined so before by the false Saint Austin And somewhat to this purpose saith this Synod now that all the greater Festivals must with all reverence be observed and honoured and that such Holy-days as by the Priests were bidden in the Congregation Omnibus modis sunt custodienda were by all ways and means to be kept amongst them that is by all those ways and means which in the said Canon were before remembred In this the Christian plainly out-went the Jew amongst whose many superstitions there is none such found Ap. Ainsw in Ex. 20.10 'T is tre indeed the Jews accounted it unlawful to marry on the sabbath-Sabbath-day or on the Evening of the Sabbath or on the first day of the week lest say the Rabbins they should pollute the Sabbath by dressing Meat Conformably whereunto Can. 17. it was decreed in a Synod held in Aken or Aquisgranum Anno 833. nec nuptias pro reverentia tantae solennitatis celebrari visum est that in a reverence to the Lords day it should no more be lawful to Marry or be Married upon the same The Jews as formerly we shewed have now by order from their Rabbins restrained themselves on their Sabbath day from knocking with their hands upon a table to still a child from making figures in the air or drawing letters in the ground or in dust and ashes and such like niceties And some such teachers Olaus King of Norway had no question met with Anno 1028. For being taken up one Sunday in some serious thoughts and having in his hands a small walking stick he took his knife and whitled it as men do sometimes when as their minds are troubled or intent on business And when it had been told him as by way of jest how he
Hom. 131. Gualter more generally that the Christians first assembled on the Sabbath day as being then most famous and so most in use but when the Churches were augmented preximus à sabbato dies rebus sacris destinatus the next day after the Sabbath was designed to those holy uses If not before then certainly not so commanded by our Saviour Christ and if designed only then not enjoyned by the Apostles Apoc. 1.10 Yea Beza though herein he differ from his Master Calvin and makes the Lords day meetings to be Apostolicae verae divinae traditionis to be indeed of Apostolical and divine Tradition yet being a Tradition only although Apostolical it is no Commandment And more than that he tells us in another place that from St. Pauls preaching at Troas and from the Text. In Act. 20. 1 Corinth 16.2 non inepte colligi it may be gathered not unfitly that then the Christians were accustomed to meet that day the ceremony of the Jewish Sabbath beginning by degrees to vanish But sure the custom of the people makes no divine Traditions and such conclusions as not unfitly may be gathered from the Text are not Text it self Others there be who attribute the changing of the day to the Apostles not to their precept but their practice So Mercer Apostoli in Dominicum converterunt In Gen. the Apostles changed the Sabbath to the Lords day in Gen. 2. Paraeus attributes the same Apostolicae Ecclesiae unto the Apostolical Church or Church in the Apostles time quomodo autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris liberis expressum non habemus but how by what authority such a change was made is not delivered in the Scripture In Thesib p. 733. And John Cuchlinus though he call it consuetudinem Apostolicam an Apostolical custom yet he is peremptory that the Apostles gave no such Commandment Apostolos praeceptum reliquisse constanter negamus So Simler calls it only consuetudinem tempore Apostolorum receptam a custom taken up in the Apostles time And so Hospinian De sestis Chr. p. 24. although saith he it be apparent that the Lords day was celebrated in the place of the Jewish Sabbath even in the times of the Apostles non invenitur tamen vel Apostolos vel alios lege aliqua praecepto observationem ejus instituisse yet find we not that either they or any other did institute the keeping of the same by any law or precept but left it free In 4. praecept Thus Zanchius nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We do not read saith he that the Apostles commanded any to observe this day We only read what they and others did upon it liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it to the Churches power To those add Vrsin in his Exposition of the fourth Commandment liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere In Catech. Palat. and that the Church made choice of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Aretius in his Common-places Christiani in Dominicum transtulerunt Gomarus and Ryvet in the Tracts before remembred Both which have also there determined that in the chusing of this day the Church did exercise as well her Wisdom as her Freedom her freedom being not obliged unto any day by the Law of God her wisdom ne majori mutatione Judaeos offenderet that by so small an alteration she might the less offend the Jews who were then considerable As for the Lutheran Divines it is affirmed by Doctor bound that for the most part they ascribe too much unto the liberty of the Church in appointing days for the assembly of the people which is plain confession But for particulars Brentius as Doctor Prideaux tells us calls it civilem institutionem a civil institution and no commandment of the Gospel which is no more indeed than what is elsewhere said by Calvin when he accounts no otherwise thereof than ut remedium retinendo ordini necessarium as a fit way to retain order in the Church And sure I am Chemnitius tells us that the Apostles did not impose the keeping of this day as necessary upon the consciences of Gods people by any Law or Precept whatsoever sed libera fuit observatio ordinis gratia but that for orders sake it had been voluntarily used amongst them of their own accord Thus have we proved that by the Doctrine of the Protestants of what side soever and those of greatest credit in the several Churches eighteen by name and all the Lutherans in general of the same opinion that the Lords day is of no other institution than the authority of the Church Which proved the last of the three Theses that still the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other will follow of it self on the former grounds the Protestant Doctors before remembred in saying that the Church did institute the Lords day as we see they do confessing tacitely that still the Church hath power to change it Nor do they tacitely confess it as if they were affraid to speak it out but some of them in plain terms affirm it as a certain Truth Zuinglius the first Reformer of the Switzers hath resolved it so in his Discourse against one Valentine Gentilis a new Arian Heretick Audi mi Valentine quibus modis rationibus sabbatum ceremoniale reddatur Tom. 1. p. 254. ◠Harken now Valentine by what ways and means the Sabbath may be made a ceremony if either we observe that day which the Jews once did or think the Lords day so affixed unto any time ut nefas sit illum in aliud tempus transferre that we conceive it an impiety it should be changed unto another on which as well as upon that we may not rest from labour and harken to the Word of God if perhaps such necessity should be this would indeed make it become a ceremony Nothing can be more plain than this Yet Calvin is as plain when he professeth that he regardeth not so much the Number of seven ut ejus servituti Ecclesias astringeret as to enthral the Church unto it Sure I am Doctor Prideaux reckoneth him as one of them who teach us that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other and that John Barclaie makes report In orat de Sab. how once he had a Consultation de transferenda Dominica in feriam quintam of altering the Lords day unto the Thursday Bucer affirms as much as touching the Authority and so doth Bullinger and Brentius Vrsine and Chemnitius as Doctor Prideaux hath observed Of Bullinger Bucer Brentius I have nought to say because the places are not cited but take it as I think I may upon his credit But for Chemnitius he saith often that it is libera observatio a voluntary observation that it is an especial part of our Christian liberty not to be tied to Days and Times in matters which
Kingdom So great is their delight therein and with such eagerness they pursue it when they are at leisure from their business that as it seems they do neglect the Church on the Holy-days that they may have the more time to attend their Dancing Upon which ground it was 〈…〉 and not that Dancing was conceived to be no lawful sport for the Lords day that in the Council of Sens Anno 1524. in that of Paris Anno 1557. in those of Rhemes and Tours Anno 1583. and finally in that of Bourges Anno 1584. dancing on Sundays and the other Holy-days hath been prohibited prohibited indeed but practised by the People notwithstanding all their Canons But this concerns the French and their Churches only our Northern Nations not being so bent upon the sport as to need restraint Only the Polish Churches did conclude in the Synod of Petricow before remembred that Tavern-meetings Drinking-matches Dice Cards and such like pastimes as also Musical Instruments and Dances should on the Lords day be forbidden But then it followeth with this clause Praesertim eo temporis momento quo concio cultus divinus in temple peragitur especially at that instant time when men should be at Church to hear the Sermon and attend Gods worship Which clearly shews that they prohibited dancing and the other pastimes then recited no otherwise than as they were a means to keep men from Church Probably also they might be induced unto it by such French Protestants as came into that Countrey with the Duke of Anjou when he was chosen King of Poland Anno. 1574. which was four years before this Council As for the Churches of the East being now heavily oppressed with Turkish bondage we have not very much to say Yet by that little which we find thereof it seems the Lords day keeps that honour which before it had and that the Saturday continues in the same regard wherein once it was both of them counted days of Feasting and both retained for the Assemblies of the Church First that they are both days of Feasting or at the least exempted from their publick Fasts appears by that which is related by Christopher Angelo a Graecian whom I knew in Oxford De institut Graec. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the Saturday and Sunday which we call the Lords day they do both eat Oyl and drink Wine even in Lent it self whereas on other days they feed on Pulse and drink only water Then that they both are still retained for the Assemblies of the Church with other Holy-days he tells us in another place where it is said Id. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that for the Lords days and the Saturday and the other Festivals they use to go unto the Church on the Eve before and almost at midnight where they continue till the breaking up of the Congregation For the Egyptian Christians or Cophties as we call them now it is related by G. Sandys Travels l. 2. That on the Saturday presently after midnight they repair unto their Churches where they remain well nigh until Sunday at noon during which time they neither sit nor kneel but support themselves on Crutches and that they sing over the most part of Davids Psalms at every meeting with divers parcels of the Old and New Testament He hath informed us also of the Armenians another sort of Eastern Christians that coming into the place of the Assembly on Sunday in the afternoon he found one sitting in the middest of the Congregation in habit not differing from the rest reading on a Bible in the Chaldean tongue that anon after came the Bishop in an Hood or Vest of black with a staff in his hand that first he prayed and then sung certain Psalms assisted by two or three after all of them singing joyntly at interims praying to themselves the Bishop all this while with his hands erected and face towards the Altar That service being ended they all kissed his hand and bestowed their Alms he laying his other hand on their heads and blessing them finally that bidding the succeeding Fasts and Festivals he dismissed the Assembly The Muscovites being near unto the Greeks once within the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople partake much also of their customs They count it an unlawful thing to fast the Saturday Gagvinus de Moscovit which shews that somewhat is remaining of that esteem in which once they had it and for the Holy-days Sundays as well as any other they do not hold themselves so strictly to them but that the Citizens and Artificers immediately after Divine Service betake themselves unto their labour and domestick businesses And this most probably is the custom also of all the Churches of the East as holding a Communion with the Church of Greece though not subordinate thereunto From the which Church of Greece the faith was first derived unto these Muscovites as before was said and with the faith the observation of this day and all the other Holy-days at that time in use As for the Country people as Gagvinus tells us they seldom celebrate or observe any day at all at least not with that care and order as they ought to do saying that it belongs only unto Lords and Gentlemen to keep Holy-days Last of all for the Habassines or Ethiopian Christians though further off in situation they come as near unto the fashions of the ancient Grecians Enquiries c. 23 Of them we are informed by Master Brerewood out of Damiani that they reverence the Sabbath keeping it solemn equally with the Lords day Emend Temp. lib. 7. Scaliger tells us that they call both of them by the name of Sabbaths the one the first the other the later Sabbath or in their own language the one Sanbath Sachristos that is Christs Sabbath the other Sanbath Judi or the Jews Sabbath Bellarmine thinks that they derived this observation of the Saturday or Sabbath from the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens which indeed frequently do press the observation of that day with no less fervour than the Sunday â—e Script Ecclin Clem. Of this we have already spoken And to this Bellarmine was induced the rather because that in the Country they had found authority and were esteemed as Apostolical Audio Ethiopes his Constitutionibus uti ut vere Apostolocis ea de causa in erroâ—ibus versari circa cultum Sabbati diei Dominicae But if this be an errour in them they have many partners and those of ancient standing in the Church of God as before was shewn As for their service on the Sunday they celebrate the Sacrament in the morning early except it be in the time of Lent when fasting all the day they discharge that duty in the Evening and then fall to meat as the same Scaliger hath recorded So having looked over all the residue of the Christian World and found no Sabbath in the same except only nominal and that
Counties that under the pretence of taking away abuses there had been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes to ratifie and publish the Declaration of his Majesties Father before remembred adding That all those Feasts with others should be observed and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be therein used Commanding all the Justices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of his loyal and dutiful People in or for their lawful Recreations having first done their duty to God and continuing in obedience unto him and his Laws and further that publication thereof be made by order from the Bishops through all the Parishes of their several Diocesses respectively Thus did it please his excellent and sacred Majesty to publish his most pious and religious purpose of opening to his loyal people that liberty of the day which the day allowed of and which all Christian States and Churches in all times before had never questioned withal of shutting up that door whereat no less than Judaism would in fine have entred and so in time have over-run the fairest and most beautiful Church at this day in Christendom And certainly it was a pious and Princely act nothing inferiour unto that of Constantine or any other Christian King or Emperour before remembred it being no less pious in it self considered to keep the Holy-days free from Superstition than to preserve them from Prophaneness especially considering that permission of lawful Pleasures is no less proper to a Festival than restraint from labour Nay of the two it is more ancient For in his time Tertullian tells us that they did diem solis laetitiae indulgere devote the Sunday partly unto Mirth and Recreation not to Devotion altogether when in an hundred years after Tertullians time there was no Law or Constitution to restrain men from labour on this day in the Christian Church Yet did not his most excellent Majesty find such obedience in some men and such as should have been examples unto their flocks as his most Christian purpose did deserve there being some so setled in the opinion of a Sabbath day a day not heard of in the Church of Christ 40 years agoe that they chose rather to deprive the Church of their pains and ministry than yield unto his Majesties most just commands For whose sakes specially next to my duty unto God my Soveraign and the Church my Mother I have employed my time and studies to compose this History that they may see therein in brief the practice of Gods Church in the times before them and frame themselves to do thereafter casting aside those errours in the which they are and walking in the way which they ought to travel Which way when all is done will be via Regia the Kings high way as that which is most safe and of best assurance because most travelled by Gods people Our private paths do lead us often into errour and sometimes also into danger And therefore I beseech all those who have offended in that kind to lay aside their passions and their private interests if any are that way misguided as also not to shut their eyes against those truths which are presented to them for their information that so the King may have the honour of their due obedience the Church the comfort of their labours and conformable ministry For to what purpose should they hope to be ennobled for their sufferings in so bad a cause that neither hath the doctrine of the Scripture to authorize it or practice of the Church of God the best Expositor of the Scripture to confirm and countenance it or to be counted constant to their first Conclusions having such weak and dangerous premisses to support the same since constancy not rightly grounded is at best but obstinacy and many times doth end in Heresie Once again therefore I exhort them even in Gods name whose Ministers they are and unto whom they are to give up an account of their imployment and in the Kings Name whom as Gods deputy they are bound to obey not for wrath only but for conscience sake and in the Churches name whose peace they are to study above all things else and their own names lastly whom it most concerns that they desist and go not forwards in this disobedience lest a worse business fall upon them For my part I have done my best so far to give them satisfaction in the present point so far forth as the nature of an History would permit as they might think it no disparagement to alter their opinions and desert their errors and change their resolutions since in so doing they shall conform themselves unto the practice of Gods Church in all times and Ages The greatest Victory which a man can get is to subdue himself and triumph over sin and errour De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 30. I end as I began in S. Augustins language Quibus hoc nimium vel quibus parum est mihi ignoscant quibus satis est non mihi sed Domino mecum congratulantes gratias agant Let such as shall conceive this Treatise to be too little or too much excuse my weakness And as for those whom it may satisfie in the smallest measure let them not unto me but to God with me ascribe all the honour to whom belongs all praise and glory even for evermore Pibrac Quadr. 5. Ne va disant ma main a faict cest oeuure Ou ma vertu ce bel oeuure a parfaict Mais dis ainsi Dieu par moy l'oeuuee a faict Dieu est l'Autheur du peu de bien que l'oeuure Say not my hand this Work to end hath brought Nor this my vertue hath attain'd unto Say rather thus this God by me hath wrought God's Author of the little good I do FINIS Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproached in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historical Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those several Churches By PETER HEYLYN D. D. Jer. 6.16 State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnal Omne meum nihil meum LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Press before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kind that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed
name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never Page 422 CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austine the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine Page 423 2. What labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict Page 424 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine Page 425 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation ibid. 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was Page 426 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday Page 427 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large Page 428 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon Page 429 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers enveigh so sharply Page 430 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days Page 432 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation Page 433 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath Page 434 CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austins time Page 435 2. Stage plays and publick Shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other Holy days by Imperial Edicts Page 437 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use Page 438 4. The barbarous bloody quality of the Spectacula or Shews at this time prohibited ibid. 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 440 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of Page 441 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 442 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate Page 443 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages Page 444 10. Of publick Orders now Established for the better regulating of the Lords Day-meetings Page 445 11. All Business and Recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other ibid. CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from some Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church Page 447 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages ibid. 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day Holy Page 448 4. That in the judgment of the most Learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 449 5. With how much difficulty the People of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day Page 450 6. Hüsbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern Parts until the time of Leo Philosophus Page 451 7. Markets and Handicrasts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading Page 452 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the Laws restrained Page 453 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day Page 454 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hinderance to Gods publick Service Page 455 11. The other Holy-days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was Page 456 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in these present Ages Page 457 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches Page 458 CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the School-men and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the School-men the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 640 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church Page 461 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days Page 462 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the Reformation Page 463 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour Page 464 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 465 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church Page 466 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Page 467 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures Page 468 10. Dancing cryed down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self Page 470 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day Page 471 CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Britain from the first planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittans Page 472 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy days in the Saxon Heptarchie Page 473 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs Page 474 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings Page 476 5. New Sabbath doctrines broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same
or putting their results into execution without his consent but put him into the actual possession of that Authority which properly belonged to the Supremacy or the Supream Head in as full manner as ever the Pope of Rome or any delegated by and under him did before enjoy it After which time whatsoever the King or his Successors did in the Reformation as it had virtually the power of the Convocations so was it as effectual and good in Law as if the Clergy in their Convocation particularly and in terminis had agreed upon it Not that the King or his Successors were hereby enabled to exercise the Keys and determine Heresies much less to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments as the Papists falsly gave it out but as the Heads of the Ecclesiastical Body of this Realm to see that all the members of that Body did perform their duties to rectifie what was found amiss amongst them to preserve peace between them on emergent differences to reform such errors and corruptions as are expresly contrary to the Word of God and finally to give strength and motions to their Councils and Determinations tending to Edification and increase of Piety And though in most of their proceedings towards Reformation the Kings advised with such Bishops as they had about them or could assemble without any great trouble or inconvenience to advise withal yet was there no necessity that all or the greater part of the Bishops should be drawn together for that purpose no more than it was anciently in the Primitive Times for the godly Emperors to call together the most part of the Bishops in the Roman Empire for the establishing of the matters which concerned the Church or for the godly Kings of Judah to call together the greatest part of the Priests and Levites before they acted any thing in the Reformation of those corruptions and abuses which were crept in amongst them Which being so and then withal considering as we ought to do that there was nothing altered here in the state of Religion till either the whole Clergy in their Convocaton or the Bishops and most eminent Church-men had resolved upon it our Religion is no more to be called a Regal than a Parliament-Gospel 6. That the Clergy lost not any of their just Rights by the Act of Submission and the power of calling and confirming Councils did anciently belong to the Christian Princes If you conceive that by ascribing to the King the Supream Authority taking him for their Supream Head and by the Act of Submission which ensued upon it the Clergy did unwittingly ensnare themselves and drew a Vassallage on these of the times succeeding inconsistent with their native Rights and contrary to the usage of the Primitive Church I hope it will be no hard matter to remove that scruple It 's true the Clergy in their Convocation can do nothing now but as their doings are confirmed by the Kings Authority and I conceive it stands with reason as well as point of State that it should be so For since the two Houses of Parliament though called by the Kings Writ can conclude nothing which may bind either King or Subject in their civil Rights until it be made good by the Royal Assent so neither is it fit nor safe that the Clergy should be able by their Constitutions and Synodical Acts to conclude both Prince and People in spiritual matters until the stamp of Royal Authority be imprinted on them The Kings concurrence in this case devesteth not the Clergy of any lawful power which they ought to have but restrains them only in the exercise of some part thereof to make it more agreeable to Monarchical Government and to accommodate it to the benefit both of Prince and People It 's true the Clergy of this Realm can neither meet in Convocation nor conclude any thing therein nor put in execution any thing which they have concluded but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority But then it is as true withal that this is neither inconsistent with their native Rights nor contrary unto the usage of the Primitive Times And first it is not inconsistent with their native Rights it being a peculiar happiness of the Church of England to be always under the protection of Christian Kings by whose encouragement and example the Gospel was received in all parts of this Kingdom And if you look into Sir Henry Spelman's Collection of the Saxon Councils I believe that you will hardly find any Ecclesiastical Canons for the Government of the Church of England which were not either originally promulgated or after approved and allowed o either by the Supream Monarch of all the Saxons or by some King or other of the several Heptarchies directing in their National or Provincial Synods And they enjoyed this Prerogative without any dispute after the Norman Conquest also till by degrees the Pope in grossed it to himself as before was shewn and then conferred it upon such as were to exercise the same under his Authority which plainly manifests that the Act of Submission so much spoke of was but a changing of their dependance from the Pope to the King from an usurped to a lawful power from one to whom they had made themselves a kind of voluntary Slaves to him who justly challenged a natural dominion over them And secondly that that submission of theirs to their natural Prince is not to be considered as a new Concession but as the Recognition only of a former power In the next place I do not find it to be contrary to the usage of the Primitive times I grant indeed that when the Church was under the command of the Heathen Emperors the Clergy did Assemble in their National and Provincial Synods of their own Authority which Councils being summoned by the Metropolitans and subscribed by the Clergy were of sufficient power to bind all good Christians who lived within the Verge of their jurisdiction They could not else Assemble upon any exigence of affairs but by such Authority But it was otherwise when the Church came under the protection of Christian Princes all Emperors and Kings from Constantine the Great till the Pope carried all before him in the darker times accompting it one of the principal flowers as indeed it was which adorned their Diadems I am not willing to beat on a common place But if you please to look into the Acts of ancient Councils you will find that all the General Councils all which deserve to be so called if any of them do deserve it to have been summoned and confirmed by the Christian Emperors that the Council of Arles was called and confirmed by the Emperor Constantine that of Sardis by Constans that of Lampsacus by Valentinian that of Aquileia by Theodosius that of Thessalonica National or Provincial all by the Emperor Gratian That when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the French the Councils of Akon Mentz Meldun Wormes and Colen received both life and
of Enos Seths son that he was born Anno two hundred thirty six And till that time there was no Sabbath But then as some conceive the Sabbath day began to be had in honour because it is set down in Scripture that then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. That is as Torniellus descants upon the place then Gen. 4. Annal. Anno 236. n. 4. were spiritual Congregations instituted as we may probably conjecture certain set Forms of Prayers and Hymns devised to set forth Gods glory certain set times and places also set apart for those pious duties praecipue diebus Sabbati especially the Sabbath-days in which most likely they began to abstain from all servile works in honour of that God whom they well knew had rested on the seventh day from all his labours Sure Torniellus's mind was upon his Mattins when he made this Paraphrase He had not else gathered a Sabbath from this Text considering that not long before he had thus concluded That sanctifying of the Sabbath here on Earth was not in use until the Law was given by Moses But certainly this Text will bear no such matter were it considered as it ought The Chaldee Paraphrase thus reads it Tunc in diebus ejus inceperunt filii hominum ut non orarent in nomine Domini V. 3. of this Chapter which is quite contrary to the English Our Bibles of the last Translation in the margin thus then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord and generally the Jews as Saint Hierom tells us do thus gloss upon it Tunc primum in nomine Domini Qu. Hebraic in Gen. in similitudine ejus fabricata sunt idola that then began men to set up Idols both in the name and after the similitude of God Ainsworth in his Translation thus Then began men prophanely to call upon the Name of the Lord who tells us also in his Annotations on this Text out of Rabbi Maimony That in these days Idolatry took its first beginning and the people worshipped the stars and all the host of Heaven so generally that at the last there were few left which acknowledged God as Enoch Methuselah Noah Sem and Heber So that we see not any thing in this Text sufficient to produce a Sabbath But take it as the English reads it which is agreeable to the Greek and vulgar Latin and may well stand with the Original yet will the cause be little better For men might call upon Gods Name and have their publick meetings and set Forms of Prayer without relation to the seventh day more than any other As for this Enos Eusebius proposeth him unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Praeparat Evang. l. 7 ◠as the first man commended in the Scripture for his love to God that we by his example might learn to call upon Gods Name with assured hope But yet withal he tells us of him that he observed not any of those Ordinances which Moses taught unto the Jews whereof the Sabbath was the chief as formerly we observed in Adam And Epiphanius ranks him amongst those Fathers who lived according to the Rules of the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by Enos We will next look on Enoch who as the Text tells us walked with God and therefore doubt we not but he would carefully have kept the Sabbath had it been required But of him also the Fathers generally say the same as they did before of others For Justin Martyr not only makes him one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath had been approved of by the Lord but pleads the matter more exactly The substance of his plea is this that if the Sabbath or Circumcision were to be counted necessary to eternal life we must needs fall upon this absurd opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryphone that the same God whom the Jews worshipped was not the God of Enoch and of other men about those times which neither had been Circumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor kept the Sabbath nor any other Ordinances of the Law of Moses So Irenaeus speaking before of Circumcision and the Sabbath placeth this Enoch among those Lib. 4. cap. 30. qui sine iis quae praedicta sunt justificationem adepti sunt which had been justified without any the Ordinances before remembred Tertullian more fully yet Enoch justissimum nec circumcisum Adv. Judaeos nec sabbatizantem de hoc mundo transtulit c. Enoch that righteous man being neither Circumcised nor a Sabbath-keeper was by the Lord translated and saw not death to be an Item or instruction unto us that we without the burden of the Law of Moses shall be found acceptable unto God He sets him also in his challenge as one whom never any of the Jews could prove Sabbati cultorem esse to have been a keeper of the Sabbath De Demonstr l. 4. c. 6. Eusebius too who makes the Sabbath one of Moses's institutions hath said of Enoch that he was neither circumcised nor medled with the Law of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and that he lived more like a Christian than a Jew the same Eusebius in his seventh de praeparatione and Epiphanius in the place before remembred affirm the same of him as they do of Adam Abel Seth and Enos and what this Epiphanius saith of him Scal. de Emend Temp. l. 7. that he affirms also of his son Methusalem Therefore nor Enoch nor Methusalem ever kept the Sabbath It 's true the Aethiopians in their Kalendar have a certain period which they call Sabbatum Enoch Enoch's Sabbath But this consisteth of seven hundred years and hath that name either because Enoch was born in the seventh Century from the Creation viz. in the year six hundred twenty two or because he was the seventh from Adam It 's true that many of the Jews Beda in Ger. 4. and some Christians too have made this Enoch an Emblem of the heavenly and eternal Sabbath which shall never end because he was the seventh from Adam and did never taste of death as did the six that went before him But this is no Argument I trow that Enoch ever kept the Sabbath whiles he was alive Note that this Enoch was translated about the year nine hundred eighty seven and that Methusalem died but one year only before the Flood which was 1655. And so far we are safely come without any rub To come unto the Flood it self to Noah who both saw it and escaped it it is affirmed by some that he kept the Sabbath and that both in the Ark and when he was released out of it if not before Yea they have arguments also for the proof hereof but very weak ones such as they dare not trust themselves It is delivered in the eighth of the Book of Genesis that after the return of the Dove into the Ark Noah stayed yet other seven days before he sent
Manich. l. 1. c. 22. contr Adimant ca. 2. Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. And thirdly that it is not lawful for a Christian to observe the Sabbath Deiutil crecendi c. 3. For speaking of the Law how it was a Paedagogie to bring us unto the knowledg of Christ he adds that in those Institutes and Ordinances Quibus Christians uti fas non est quale est sabbatum circumcisio sacrificia c. which are not lawful to be used by any Christian such as are the Sabbath Circumcision Sacrifices and such other things many great Mysteries were contained And in another place Quisquis diem illum observat sicut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Sapere autem secundum carnem mors est He that doth literally keep the Sabbath favours of the flesh De Sp. lit c. 14. but to savour of the flesh is death Therefore no Sabbath to be kept by the sons of life No Sabbath to be kept at all We affirm not so We know there is a Christian Sabbath a Sabbath figured out unto us in the fourth Commandment which every Christian man must keep that doth desire to enter into the Rest of God This is that Sabbath which the Prophet Isaiah hath commended to us Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it Quid autem sabbatum est quod praecipit observandum c. What Sabbath is it saith St. Hierom that is here commanded The following words saith he will inform us that keeping our hands from doing evil This is the Sabbath here commanded Si bona faciens quiescat à malis if doing what is good we do rest from sin Nor was this his conceit alone the later Writers so expound it The Prophet in this place saith Ryvet thus prophecies of the Church of Christ Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it In Decalog and keepeth his hands from doing any evil Vbi custodire sabbatum in Ecclesia Christiana est custodire manus suas à malo And in these words saith he to keep a Sabbath in a Christian Church is only to preserve our hands from doing evil The like spiritual Sabbath doth the man of God prescribe unto us in the 58 Chapter of his Book Verse 13.14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day not doing thine own way nor finding thine own pleasure nor sheapking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high plaes of the earth c. What saith Hierom unto this It must be understood saith he spiritually Alioquin si haec tantum prohibentur in sabbato ergo in aliis sex diebus tribuitur nobis libertas delinquendi In locum For otherwise if those things above remembred are prohibited only on the Sabbaths then were it lawful for us on the other days to follow our own finful courses speak our own idle words and pursue our own voluptuous pleasures which were most foolish to imagine And so saith Ryvet too for the modern Writers In Decalog Repetuum ab omnibus operibus nostris vitiosis cessationem c. That everlasting rest from all sinful works which is begun in this life here and finished in the life to come is signified and represented by those words of Isaiab ca. 58. They therefore much mistake these Texts and the meaning of them who grounding thereupon forbid all manner of REcreations and lawful pleasures on their supposed Sabbath day as being utterly prohibited by Gods holy Prophet The Jews did thus abuse this Scripture Maymon ap Ains in Ex. 20. in the times before and made it an unlawful matter for any man to walk into the Fields or to see his Gardens on the Sabbath day either to mark what things they wanted or how well they prospered because this was to do his own pleasure and so forbidden by the Prophet But those that understand the true Christian Sabbath apply them to a better purpose as was shewed before And for the Christian Sabbath what it is and in what things it doth consist besides what hath been said already we shall add something more from the ancient Fathers If any man Dial. cum Trypbon saith Justin Martyr that hath been formerly a perjured person a deceiver of his Neighbour an incontinent liver repentshim of his sins and amends his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that man doth keep a true and holy Sabbath to the Lord his God See to this purpose also Clemens of Alexandria Strom. l. 4. So Origen Omnis qui vivit in Christo semper in sabbatis vivit That man Tract 19. in Math. whose life is hid with Christ in God keeps a daily Sabbath See to that purpose Hom. 23. in Numbers Macarius also tells us that the Sabbath given from God by Moses Hom. 35. was a Type only and a shadow of that real Sabbth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by the Lord unto the soul More fully Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What use saith he is there of a Sabbath to him whose Conscience is a continual feast to him whose conversation is in Heaven For now we feast it every day doing no manner of wickedness but keeping a spiritual rest holding our hands from covet ousness our Bodies from uncleanness What need we more The Law of righteousness contains ten Commandments The first to know one God the second to abstain from Idols the third not to prophane Gods Name the fourth Sabbatum celebrare spirituale Hom. 29. in Math. 24. to keep the true spiritual Sabbath c. So he that made the Opus imperfectum on Saint Matthews Gospel Saint Augustine finally makes the fourth Commandment so far as it concerns us Christians to be no more than requies cordis De conven 10 praec 10. plagarum tranquillitas mentis quam facit bona conscientia the quiet of the heart and the peace of mind occasioned by a good Conscience Of any other Sabbath to be looked for now the Fathers utterly are silent and therefore we may well resolve there is no such thing Yet notwithstanding this the Jews still dote upon their Sabbath and that more sottishly and with more superstition far than they ever did A view whereof I shall present and so conclude the first part of this present Argument And first for the Parasceves or their Eves Synag Jud. c. 10. Buxdorfius thus informs us of their vain behaviour Die Veneris singuli ungues de digitis abscindunt c. On Friday in the afternoon they pare their Nails and whet their Knives and lay their Holiday-cloaths in readiness for the reception of Queen Sabbath for so they call it and after lay the Cloth and set on their Meat that nothing be to be done upon the morrow About the evening goes the Sexton from door to door commanding all the people to abstain from work
on another Sabbath that in the Synagogue he beheld a man with a withered hand and called him forth and made him come into the midst and stretch out his hand and then restored it Hereupon Athanasius notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ reserved his greatest miracles for the Sabbath day and that he bade the man stand forth in defiance as it were of all their malice and informing humour His healing of the Woman which had been crooked 18. years and of the man that had the Dropsie one in the Synagogue the other in the house of a principal Pharisee Joh. 9. are proof sufficient that he feared not their accufations But that great cure he wrought on him that was born blind is most remarkable to this purpose First in relation to our Saviour who had before healed others with his Word alone but here he spit upon the ground and made clay thereof and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay L. 1. Haeres 30. n. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to mould clay and make a Plaister was questionless a work so saith Epiphanius Next in relation to the Patient whom he commanded to go into the Pool of Siloam and then wash himself which certainly could not be done without bodily labour These words and actions of our Saviour at before we said gave the first hint to his Disciples for the abolishing of the Sabbath amongst other Ceremonies which were to have an end with our Saviours sufferings to be nailed with him to his Cross and buried with him in his Grave for ever Now where it was objected in S. Austins time why Christians did not keep the Sabbath since Christ affirms it of himself that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Cont. Faust l. 19. c. 9. the Father thereto makes reply that therefore they observed it not Quia quod ea figura profitebatur jam Christus implevit because our Saviour had fulfilled whatever was intended in that Law by calling us to a spiritual rest in his own great mercy For as it is most truly said by Epiphanius Lib. 1 haer 30. n. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He was the great and everlasting Sabbath whereof the less and temporal Sabbath was a type and figure which had continued till his coming by him commanded in the Law in him destroyed and yet by him fulfilled in the holy Gospel So Epiphanius Neither did he or his Disciples ordain another Sabbath in the place of this as if they had intended only to shift the day and to transfer this honour to some other time Their doctrine and their practice are directly contrary to so new a fancy It 's true that in some tract of time the Church in honour of his Resurrection did set apart that day on the which he rose to holy exercises but this upon their own authority and without warrant from above that we can hear of more than the general warrant which God gave his Church that all things in it be done decently and in comely order This is that which is told us by Athanasius Hom. de Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we honour the Lords day for the Resurrection So Maximus Taurinensis Dominicum diem ideo solennem esse Hom. 3. de Pentecost quia in eo salvatur velut sol oriens discussis infernorum tenebris luce resurrectionis emicuerit That the Lords day is therefore solemnly observed because thereon our Saviour like the rising Sun dispelled the clouds of hellish darkness by the light of his most glorious Resurrection The like S. Austin Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est â—p 119. ex illo cepit habere fostivitatem suam The Lords day was made known saith he unto us Christians by the Resurrection and from that began to be accounted holy See the like lib. 22. de Civit. Dei c. 30. serm 15. de Verbis Apostoli But then it is withal to be observed that this was only done on the authority of the Church and not by any precept of our Lord and Saviour or any one of his Apostles And first besides that there is no such precept extant at all in holy Scripture Socrates hath affirmed it in the general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Li. 5. c. 22. c. that the designs of the Apostles were not to busie themselves in prescribing Festival days but to instruct the People in the ways of godliness Now lest it should be said that Socrates being a Novatian was a profest Enemy to all the orders of the Church we have the same almost verbatim in Nicephorus li. 12. cap. 32. of his Ecclesiastical History De Sabb. Circumcis S. Athanasius saith as much for the particular of the Lords day that it was taken up by a voluntary usage in the Church of God without any commandment from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. As saith the Father it was commanded at the first that the Sabbath day should be observed in memory of the accomplishment of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so do we celebrate the Lords day as a memorial of the beginning of a new Creation Where note the difference here delivered by that Reverend Prelate Of the Jews Sabbath it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was commanded to be kept but of the Lords day there is no Commandment only a positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honour voluntarily afforded it by consent of men Therefore whereas we find it in the Homily entituled De Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ transferred the Sabbath to the Lords day this must be understood not as if done by his commandment but on his occasion the Resurrection of our Lord upon that day being the principal motive which did induce his Church to make choice thereof for the assemblies of the People For otherwise it would plainly cross what formerly had been said by Athanasius in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not him only but the whole cloud of Witnesses all the Catholick Fathers in whom there is not any word which reflects that way but much in affirmation of the contrary For besides what is said before and elsewhere shall be said in its proper place The Council held at Paris An. 829. ascribes the keeping of the Lords Day at most to Apostolical tradition confirmed by the authority of the Church For so the Council Cap. 50. Christianorum religiosae devotionis quae ut creditur Apostolorum traditione immo Ecclesiae autoritate descendit mos inolevit ut Dominicum diem ob Dominicae resurrectionis memoriam honorabiliter colat And last of all Tostatus puts this difference between the Festivals that were to be observed in the Jewish Church in novo nulla festivitas à Christo legislatore determinata est sed in Ecclesia Praelati ista statuunt but in the new there were no Festivals at all prescribed by Christ as
those of Corinth in that they joyn'd not with the Assembly but had their Psalms unto themselves Whereby it seems that they had left the true use of Psalms which being so many acclamations exultations and holy provocations to give God the glory were to be sung together by the whole Assembly their singing at that time being little more than a melodious kind of pronuntiation such as is commonly now used in singing of the ordinary Psalms and Prayers in Cathedral Churches And so it stood till in the entrance of this Age Ignatius Bishop of Antiochia one who was conversant with the Apostles brought in the use of singing alternatim course by course according as it still continues in our publick Quires where one side answers to another some shew whereof is left in Parochial Churches in which the Minister and the People answer one another in their several turns Hist li. 6. c. 8. To him doth Socrates refer it and withal affirms that he first learnt it of the Angels whom in a vision he had heard to sing the praise of God after such a manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Hist l. 2. c. 24. And where Theodoret doth refer it to Flavianus and Diodorus Priests of Antiochia during the busilings of the Arian Hereticks In Damaso and Platina unto Damasus Pope of Rome Theodoret is to be interpreted of the restitution of this custom having been left off and Platina of the bringing of it into the Western Churches For that it was in use in Ignatius time who suffered in the time of Trajan and therefore probably begun by him as is said by Socrates is evident by that which Pliny signified to the self same Trajan where he informs him of the Christians Quod soliti essent stato die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo tanquam Deo dicere secum invicem c. Their greatest crime said he was this that at a certain day but what that day was that he tells not they did meet together before day-light and there sing hymns to Christ as unto a God one with another in their courses and after bind themselves together by a common Sacrament not unto any wicked or unjust attempt but to live orderly without committing Robbery Theft Adultery or the like offences Now for the day there meant by Pliny it must be Saturday or Sunday if it were not both both of them being in those times and in those parts where Pliny lived in especial honour as may be gathered from Ignatius who at that time flourished For demonstration of the which we must first take notice how that the world as then was very full of dangerous fancies and heretical dotages whereby the Church was much disquieted and Gods worship hindred The Ebionites they stood hard for the Jewish Sabbath and would by all means have it celebrated as it had been formerly observing yet the Lords day as the Christians did in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius tells Hist l. 3. c.x. 3. The like saith Epiphanius of them l. 1. Haeres 30. n. 2. And on the other side there was a sort of Hereticks in the Eastern parts whereof see Irenaeus li. 1. ca. 20.21 22 23 24 25. who thought that this world being corruptible could not be made but by a very evil Author Therefore as the Jews did by the festival solemnity of their Sabbath rejoyce in God that created the world as in the Author of all goodness so they in hatred of the maker of the world sorrowed and wept and fasted on that day as being the birth-day of all evil And whereas Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in a joyful memory of Christs Resurrection So likewise at that self same time such Hereticks as denied the Resurrection did contrary to them that held it and fasted when the rest rejoyced For the expressing of which two last Heresies Ignat. it was that he affirmed with such zeal and earnestness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any one did fast either upon the Lords day or the Sabbath except one Sabbath in the year which was Easter Eve he was a murderer of Christ So he in his Epistle ad Philippenses Cax 65. The Canons attributed to the Apostles take notice of the misdemeanor though they condemn it not with so high a censure it being in them only ordered that if a Clergy-man offended in that kind he should be degraded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any of the Laity they should be excommunicated Which makes me marvel by the way that those which take such pains to justifie Ignatius as Baronius doth in Ann. 57. of his grand Annales should yet condemn this Canon of imposture which is not so severe as Ignatius is only because it speaks against the Saturdays fast Whereof consult the Annales Ann. 102. Now as Ignatius labours here to advance the Sabbath in opposition of those Hereticks before remembred making it equally a festival with the Lords day so being to deal with those which too much magnified the Sabbath and thought the Christians bound unto it as the Jews had been he bends himself another way and resolves it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us not keep the Sabbath in a Jewish manner in sloth and idleness for it is written that he that will not labour shall not eat and in the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread But let us keep it after a spiritual fashion not in bodily ease but in the study of the Law not eating meat drest yesterday or drinking luke-warm drinks or walking out a limited space or setling our delights as they did on dancing but in the contemplation of the works of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And after we have so kept the Sabbath let every one that loveth Christ keep the Lords day Festival the Resurrection day the Queen and Empress of all days in which our life was raised again and death was overcome by our Lord and Saviour So that we see that he would have both days observed the Sabbath first though not as would the Ebionites in a Jewish sort and after that the Lords day which he so much magnifieth the better to abate that high esteem which some had cast upon the Sabbath Agreeable unto this we find that in the Constitutions of the Apostles for by that name they pass though not made by them both days are ordered to be kept Holy one in memorial of the Creation the other of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the like l. 8. c. 33. Of which more hereafter And so it was observed in the Eastern parts where those of the dispension had took up their seats and having long time had their meetings on the Sabbath day could not so easily be persuaded from it But in the Western Churches in the which the Jews were not so considerable and where those
done afterwards in pursuit hereof consisted specially in beating down the opposition of the common people who were not easily induced to lay by their business next in a descant as it were on the former plain-song the adding of particular restrictions as occasion was which were before conteined though not plainly specified both in the Edicts of the former Emperours and Constitutions of the Churches before remembred Yet all this while we find not any one who did observe it as Sabbath or which taught others so to do not any who affirmed that any manner of work was unlawful on it further than as it was prohibited by the Prince or Prelate that so the people might assemble with their greater comfort not any one who preached or published that any pastime sport or recreation of an honest name such as were lawful on the other days were not fit for this And thereupon we may resolve as well of lawful business as of lawful pleasures that such as have not been forbidden by supream Authority whether in Proclamà tions of the Prince or Constitutions of the Church or Acts of Parliament or any such like Declaration of those higher Powers to which the Lord hath made us subject are to be counted lawful still It matters not in case we find it not recorded in particular terms that we may lawfully apply our selves to some kind of business or recreate our selves in every kind of honest pleasure at those particular hours and times which are left at large and have not been designed to Gods publick service All that we are to look for is to see how far we are restrained from labour or from recreations on the Holy days and what Authority it is that hath so restrained us that we may come to know our duty and conform unto it The Canons of particular Churches have no power to do it further than they have been admitted into the Church wherein we live for then being made a part of her Canon also they have power to bind us to observance As little power there is to be allowed unto the Declarations and Edicts of particular Princes but in their own dominions only Kings are Gods Deputies on the Earth but in those places only where the Lord hath set them their power no greater than their Empire and though they may command in their own Estates yet is it extra sphaeram activitatis to prescribe Laws to Nations not subject to them A King of France can make no Law to bind us in England Much less must we ascribe unto the dictates and directions of particular men which being themselves subject unto publick Order are to be hearkned to no further than by their life and doctrine they do preach obedience unto the publick Ordinances under which they live For were it otherwise every private man of name and credit would play the Tyrant with the liberty of his Christian Brethren and nothing should be lawful but what he allowed of especially if the pretence be fair and specious such as the keeping of a Sabbath to the Lord our God the holding of an holy convocation to the King of Heaven Example we had of it lately in the Gothes of Spain and that strange bondage into which some pragmatick and popular man had brought the French had not the Council held at Orleans gave a check unto it And with examples of this kind must we begin the story of the following Ages CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day holy 4. That in the judgment of the most learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church 5. With how much difficulty the people of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day 6. Husbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern parts until the time of Leo Philosophus 7. Markets and Handierafts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the laws restrained 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hindrance to Gods publick Service 11. The other Holy days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy days in these present Ages 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches WE are now come to the declining Ages of the Church after the first 600 years were fully ended and in the entrance on the seventh some men had gone about to possess the people of Rome with two dangerous fancies one that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday or the old Sabbath ita ut die Sabbati aliquid operari prohiberent the other ut dominicorum die nullus debeat larari that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lords day or their new Sabbath With such a race of Christned Jews or Judaizing Christians was the Church then troubled Against these dangerous Doctrines did Pope Gregory write his Letter to the Roman Citizens stiling the first no other than the Preachers of Antichrist Epl. 3. l. 11. one of whose properties it shall be that he will have the Sabbath and the Lords day both so kept as that no manner of work shall be done on either qui veniens diem Sabbatum atque dominicum ab omni faciet opere custodire as the Father hath it Where note that to compell or teach the people that they must do no manner of work on the Lords day is a mark of Antichrist And why should Antichrist keep both days in so strict a manner Because saith he he will persuade the people that he shall die and rise again therefore he means to have the Lords day in especial honour and he will keep the Sabbath too that so he may the better allure the Jews to adhere unto him Against the other he thus reasoneth Et si quidem pro luxuria voluptate quis lavari appetit hoc fieri nec reliquo quolibet die concedimus c. If any man desires to bathe himself only out of a luxurious and voluptuous purpose observe this well this we conceive not to be lawful upon any day but if he do it only for the necessary refreshing of his body then neither is it fit it should be forbidden upon the