OF THE MORALITY OF THE Fourth Commandement AS STILL IN FORCE TO BINDE CHRISTIANS Delivered by way of Answer to the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath Divided into two parts 1. An answer to the Prefacer 2. A consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture Written by William Twisse D. D. and Pastor of Newbury Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keepe it holy Mat. 5. 17. Thinke not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill verse 18 For verily I say unto you Till Heaven and Earth passe one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled verse 19 Whosoever therefore shall breake one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdome of Heaven LONDON Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls-Church-yard 1641. The Contents of the chiefe matters handled herein IN the answer to the Prefacer Section 1. 1. The ancients are alleadged in vaine to oppose the Institution of the Sabbath as from the beginning Section 2. 2. The untruth of the Praefacers legends concerning Peter Bruis Fulco and Eustathius and others discovered Section 3. 3. Calvin abused by the Prefacer and misconstrued 2. What credite Barclay deserves relating a consultation of Calvin about transferring the Sabbath to the Thursday 3. Of the force of Apostolicall example Section 4. 4. The vanity of the Prefacers pretence in saying Catarinus opposed Tostatus with ill successe while he maintained the Institution of the Sabbath from the Creation It is made apparant that his successe was far beyond that of Tostatus 2. Whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was created 1. Pererius his arguments for the negative Sect. 4. 2. Doctor Willet his arguments for the affirmative Sect. 4. 3. Pererius his reasons against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation answered 4. Two Digressions in answer to Rivetus in two particular 1. By way of reply upon his answer to Walaeus his arguments justifying the moraltty of one day in seven 2. To his arguments opposing the morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord. Section 5. 5. A consideration of Walaeus his discourse in answer to those who conceave the institution of the Lords Day to have beene ordered by Christ himselfe 2. An examination of that phrase of some of our Davines affirming the ancients to have changed the Iewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day for a probable cause wherein it is shewed that the cause hereof was more then probable Section 6. 6. An examination of Chemnitius his discourse concerning the authority of the Lords Day 2. A reply upon Doctor Rivets answer to Master Perkins his arguments standing for the Divine authority of the Lords Day 3. That the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are so called in the same notion 1. affirmed by Doctor Andrewes Perkins Thysius 2. justified by good reason Section 7. 7. A briefe of the arguments on each side for every point 1. As touching the originall institution of the Sabbath 2. As touching the Morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to Gods solemne worship 3. As touching the authority of the celebration of the Lords Day and the immutability thereof 8. The Prefacer and M. Rogers opposing D. Bownde are shewed in every particular to oppose D. Andrewes IN the consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture 1. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the time which ought to be set apart for Gods solemne service Section 2. 2. Reasons why the Creator should prescribe the proportion of time to be consecrated unto himselfe Section 2. 6. 3. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven Sect. the same Section 2. 6. 4. That Enosh with his holy company apparting themselves from others had a set time for divine worship Section 3. 5. That it becomes not us to affect liberty to designe the day for the Sabbath Section 6. 6 The danger of leaving it to man to make choyse of the day Section 6. 7. That the clebration of the Lords Day is of divine institution and how far justified by the old Testament and particularly by the fourth Commandement Section 7. 8. That it is nothing strange the Lords Day should be called by the name of the Sabbath Section 8. 2. Sensuall pleasures are cleanly caried under the title of recreation Section 8. The Preface I Have now a long time taken notice of much difference and contention about the morality of the fourth Commandement but I never gave my selfe to looke into the bottome of it till now I ever conceived it for the substance to be Morall otherwise what should it make among the ten Commandements which all account the Law morall in distinction both from the law judiciall and the law ceremoniall given by Moses unto the Jewes These ten Commandements the Lord spake from the top of mount Sina in the hearing of all the people and by way of preparation to so notable a service as to meet with God and to heare him speake unto them two dayes were given them to sanctifie themselves and to wash their cloathes that they might be ready on the third day for the third day the Lord would come downe on mount Sina And so it came to passe For when Moses brought forth the people out of the Campe to meet with God and they stood at the nether part of the Mount Mount Sina was altogether on a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly And all the people saw the thundrings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountaine smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a farre off In such heavenly state was this Law delivered and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy amongst the rest without all example of the like in all the generations that went before And the Lord thought it sit to mind them hereof by his servant Moses Aske now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth and aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people heare the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and upon the earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecast And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the counsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Apoc. 1. 10. in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord rose from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all
The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Unto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam veteris quà m novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialitèr deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be
my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1◠Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superflutty in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in want onnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8. 14. And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as atany other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use
the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferiour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andreues also sheweth out of Math. 24. 20. that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed as the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1. 10. And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58. 13. not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10 th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall
become the more unfit for holy excerises and to performe that dutie which God requires and hath deserved at our hands How were Ionathans eyes enlightned upon the tasting of a little honey 1 Sam. 14. 29. But this Translator desires as it seemes from the generalitie of mans good to seale up an opinion in the minde of his Readers that the Sabbath was made not onely for the service of God and for the promoting of a man in the knowledge and feare of God but for the furthering of his carnall pleasures also But never was it knowne that our Saviour justified any libertie to such courses on the Sabbath Neither were any such things as it seemes in course in the dayes of the Prophet Amos who reprehends them for saying Am. 8. 5. When will the Sabbath be gone that they might returne to their worldly courses Rather they could wish their sun might stand still on that day as sometimes it did in the dayes of Ioshua if libertie were given to sports pastimes and pleasures on that day and it wvre wondrous strange that libertie should bee debarred them from kindling a fire to set forward the structure of the Sanctuarie made to this very end that the Lord might dwell among them And from so precious a worke as the embalming of the body of Christ the Lord of the Sabbath and that at the very end of the day if at that time they were not restrained from any sensuall course of recreation according to the common fashion of the world Undoubtedly howsoever it stands now with us Christians in the dayes of our Saviour they that rested on their Sabbath from embalming the body of Christ and that according to the appointment which is as much as to say according to the Law of God surely they by the same Law of God were much more restrained from worldly pleasures these standing far more in opposition to the sanctification of the Lords Sabbath then the emblming of the body of the Sonne of God who was Lord of the Sabbath And therefore this text is most unseasonably and impertinently alleaged by the Translator to serve his turh being farre more fit to crosse his purposes then any way to promote them So from the consideration of the title I come to the preface If the antiquitie of this controversie concerning the Sabbath were any thing materiall this Praefacer were foundered at the first For what if the Sabbath bee a part of the Law of Moses Was not the law of sanctifying the name of God the law forbidding images the law commanding them to have no other Gods but him that brought them out of the land of Aegypt the law commanding to honour parents to abstaine from murther adultery theft were not all these the Law of Moses Is not the law of sanctifying the Sabbath one of the tenne Commandements delivered by God from Mount Sinai as well as the other nine and was it not kept in the Arke as well as the rest Circumcision was no law of Moses and therefore albeit it be said Ioh. 7. 22. That Moses gave unto them Circumcision yet forth with it is added not because it is of Moses but of the Fathers so that Moses rather confirmed it then was the first giver of it So that the Law of Moses in this place is to bee understood of the ceremoniall law not of the morall law contained in the Decalogue and among these tenne Commandements that of the Sabbath is one and commended unto them in that state as none so much Remember the Sabbath day to sanctifie it and not onely before Moses but before Abraham and Noah also wee read that the seventh day God rested from all the workes that hee had made and that therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Of any Minister or Pastor in the Church of England that maintaines us Christians to be obliged to the observation and sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath or of any Sabbath that is a shadow of things to come the body whereof is of Christ I never heard or read Yet for some hundred yeares in the Primitive Church not the Lords day onely but the seventh day also was religiously observed not by Ebion and Cerinthus onely but by pious Christians also as Baronius writeth and Gomarus confesseth and Rivet also that we are bound in conscience under the Gospell to allow for Gods service a better proportion of time than the Jewes did under the law rather than a worse And further it is well knowne that besides the weekely Sabbath there was variety of observation of times amongst the Jewes and divers of them called Sabbaths also as some think not one whereof was mentioned in the Decalogue or pronounced by the Lord from Mount Sinai as the fourth Commandement was for the sanctifying of the weekly Sabbath So that this Praefacer every way sheweth miserable loosenesse in his discourse And if Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris how wretched heretickes soever did still inforce the sanctification of the Jewish Sabbath whose wretchednesse yet consisted not so much in inforcing this as in inforcing all the ceremonies of Moses the Jewish Sabbath long after Cerinthus continuing to be observed by many pious Christians as Baronius observeth others and Saint Paul doth oppose all such doctrine and practise in these passages of his here mentioned did not this Author know that upon these very passages of Saint Paul the Anabaptists and Socinians as vile heretickes as Ebion and Cerinthus and Apollinaris for their blood have gone so farre as not onely to overthrow the observation of the Jewish Sabbath but the sanctifying of the Lords day also The opinion of the law ceremoniall standing still in force which indeed was the opinion of the heretickes mentioned is I confesse a dangerous point and such as not onely seemed as this Praefacer minceth it out of what degree of wisdome or providence I know not to confirme the Jewes in their incredulitie but indeed justly might confirme them nor onely occasion but justly cause also others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh not so the observation of the seventh day to sanctifie it for ought this Author hath hitherto manifested or throughout this preface of his doth manifest and the sanctification of this day is apparantly commanded in the moral law spoken from Mount Sinai And those Christians who a long time kept this seventh day holy as well as the Lords day had no opinion of any danger at all in this their observation And it stood the ancient Fathers upon to oppose the observation of the law ceremoniall Yet what saith Austin against these heretickes to whom this Author in the first place referreth us All that hee delivers against the Cerinthians in reference to this particular is onely this They say that wee ought to bee circumcised and that other like precepts of the Law are to bee observed I translate it for the benefit of the common people Of the Ebionites thus
worship by Divine authority And to this purpose he premiseth a generall rule that commonly the excesse is more exorbitant then the defect yet I never heard that prodigality was censured as worse then covetousnesse in opposition to liberality or rashnesse accompted worse then cowardlinesse in opposition to fortitude or superstition worse then prophanenesse in opposition to true Religion As for the sanctity of the day in Calvins phrase which this Author calls Sanctity affixed to the day shall I say this Prefacer understands it not it is incredible more likely he is to pervert Calvins plaine meaning not out of excesse in the way of superstition but out of a lesse exorbitant defect For the sanctity of the day in Calvins language is when Religione quadam feriando mysteria olim comcommendata recolere se somniabant by resting in a religious manner they thought as it were dreaming that they observed certaine mysteries of old recommended unto them As appeares in his sect 33. Of the 8. Chap. Of his second booke of institutions and such indeed was the sanctity of the day in the Jewish observation thereof This religion this holinesse Calvin will have to be at an end and that the Apostle Gal. 1. and Coloss 2. disputed against them who would have that holinesse that religion to continue still not against them who will have one day in the weeke set apart thereon to rest from manuall workes as they are avocations from holy studies and meditations And in the former case he doth not say as this author in a mincing manner feynes him to say to wit that So the change seemed to be only of the day but in plaine termes that this were no other then to change the day and that in contumely of the Iewes siquidem manet nobis etiamnum par mysterii in diebus significatio quae apud Iudaeos locum habebat if so be there yet remaines with us a mysterious signification equally in the daies such as had place amongst the Iewes Now this caution nothing concernes any of our protestant Divines who mainteine the observation of one day in seven as necessary in resting from manuall workes onely as they are impediments to the service of God Nay that one day in seven was observed by the Jewes for any mysterious signification conteyned therein or by the Patriarchs either or by Adam himselfe in whose dayes even from the first the seventh day was sanctified that is set apart for the service of God in the opinion of Calvin to this day I never heard or read This latter clause in Calvin which containes the condition whereupon this censure of his passeth upon those that so stand for the observation of one day in seven this Prefacer slily concealeth though Calvins censure be not passed absolutely but merely upon this condition Thus indeed to stand for the necessary observation of one day in seven namely as conteyning some mysterious signification were to exceede the Iewes in a grosse and carnall superstition of a Sabbatisme As touching the observation of some time set a part for Gods holy worship and service Calvin professeth that the same necessity lieth upon us Christians for reliefe whereof the Lord appointed the Sabbath to the Iewes and that it pleased our most provident and tender Father to provide for our necessity no lesse then for the necessity of the Iewes Now it is apparent that God commanded the Jewes to set one day in seven apart for the service of God and doth it not manifestly follow herehence that the Lord would have us also set apart one day of the weeke for his service And Calvin concludes that Section thus Why then doe we not obey that reason which we see to be imposed upon us by the will of God And therefore Wallaeus saith that Calvin delivered not these words whereupon this Prefacer grateth so much against his own Colleagues or fellowes in the reformation with whom he never contended in this argument but against certaine Papists schoolemen who thought they had provided sufficiently for themselves for Christian liberty and for the edification of the Church by teaching that the taxation of the seventh day as ceremoniall was abolished yet that one day in seven and by name the Lords Day was to be observed after such a manner and to such an end as the Jewes observed their Sabbath by which Doctrine way was opened to superstition in this dayes observation His words are plainely directed against such when he saith Thus vanish the toyes of false Prophets who possessed the people in former times with a Iewish opinion And againe But that is no other thing then in contempt of the Jewes to change the day and in mind to retaine the same sanctity of the day if so be there remaines unto us to wit by their opinion an equall mysterious signification of dayes to that which had place among the Jewes Now saith Wallaeus This agrees not to be spoken of any of the reformed but of Sophisters and Papists who urge new mysteries and new significations and holinesses in their holy daies as it is well known Bellarmine lib. 3. cap. 10. of the veneration of Saints writes against our Divines that the feasts of Christians are kept not only in respect of order and policy but also by reason of a mystery and that holydays are truly more holy and sacred then other dayes and a certaine part of Divine worship This Prefacer is content to make use of Iohn Barclayes report concerning Calvin namely that he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate dominica in feriam quintam of translating the dominicall solemnity unto the Thursday Had it beene unto Friday which is the Turkes festivall then it would have wondrously well served Raynolds his turne in his Calvinoturcismus For it concerned that author to inquire diligently of all Calvins courses that stood any way in conformity with the courses of the Turkes neither doe I thinke there could be devised any more remarkable then this How true this is this Prefacer cannot say but whether he doth not licke his lips at it I know not But it is apparent he would have the Church endued with such authority as to change the solemnity of the Lords Day to any day in the weeke and consequently even to Friday and I doe not doubt but pretence of reason might be devised for it by politique heads as namely to hold the Turkes in better correspondency unto Christianity Now if Calvin had at any time a consultation hereabouts which cannot be understood of Calvins single and proper consultation with himselfe for then how could the relator be privy to it without revelation and we commonly say that three may keepe counsaile when two be away surely there were many that could give testimony hereof to wit as many as whose heads he used in this consultation And who would not expect that some one of these at least should be produced to testifie so much either by word or
saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16. 2. Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcision◠And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16. 2. Acts 20. 7. on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assemblies on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise
had place among the Iewes And though I marvell not at others who dealing in this argument dismember Calvins sentence so to make him to deliver that absolutely which hee delivers onely conditionally yet I cannot sufficiently marvell that Rivetus of rough improvidence should do so too especially considering the good paines that Doctor Walaeus hath taken to cleare Calvins meaning in this point Neither is Master Robert Low in his effigiation of the true Sabbatisme of any such authority as to counterpoise the concurrent testimonies of so many of our English Divines to the contrary not to speake of the multitude of outlandish Divines whom Doctor Walaeus mustereth up concurring in the same opinion and whereas hee saith as Doctor Rivetus reports him that some great men who vehemently contend that the perpetuall sanctity of manners doth require that one day in seven should be celebrated have more authority then reason I may bee bold to say that they who with him have hitherto opposed the Doctrine we maintaine what authority they have I know not but as for their reasons they are of so hungry a nature that hereby they manifest that nothing but affection and their private ends they have to beare them out in this And whereas I doubt not but Rivetus hath brought on the Stage the best reasons hee could picke both out of master Robert Low and out of Gomarus let every indifferent person judge of them as they deserve though I verily thinke that nothing but his affection to Calvin to hold up his credite and reputation hath carried him all along and yet either my selfe and Walaeus mystake Calvin or Rivetus miserably mystaketh him But as for our reason we call all the World to judge of it God did require one day in seven to be set apart for his publique service under the Law how much more doth he require as good a proportion of time under the Gospell Nay from the beginning of the World he hath required it and to this day both Iewes and Christian Gentiles have observed the same proportion Againe God in his morall Law hath required this and that not as ceremoniall never any man hitherunto having set his wits on worke to devise any ceremoniality herein neyther was it ever knowne that God abrogated this proportion of time to be allowed unto him for his service therefore it continueth still as a morall Law to bind us and shall continue untill God himselfe set an end unto it now let master Lowes reasons be compared with these in every indifferent conscience and let them have that authority which they deserve because being well conceited of the strength of his reasons hee sensibly complaines of his want of authority It seemes Pope Alexander the third was a man of more authority then reason For hee maintaines in Cap. licet de feriis as Doctor Rivetus relates it that both the old and new Testament have in speciall manner appointed the seventh day for man to rest thereon and hee takes it out of Suarez de relig l. 2. c. 2. but Rivetus cannot assent unto him if he delivers this of any morall institution yet that it was so appointed by the fourth Commandement unto the Iewes it cannot bee denied and that not as ceremoniall for we have seene how odly Rivetus hath carried himselfe in comming to speake of the ceremoniality For to make this good hee flyes to the particularity of the seventh day and if the ceremoniality thereof bee enough to inferre the ceremoniality of such a speciall proportion of time as of one day in seven it may suffice as well to constitute a ceremoniality in the generall namely in this that some time is to be set apart for Gods Service which yet all account to bee morall by the very light of nature If Zanchy hath no better argument to prove that the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Israelites doth not pertaine to us but onely so farre forth as it agrees with the Law of nature then by instancing in the Sabbath which the Gentiles were not bound to sanctifie it stands Rivetus upon to oppose him as much as any who maintaines that the Law concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath was given to Adam and who brings diverse authorities to prove the observation of it generally by the Gentiles This I speake upon consideration of his reply to Gomarus taking exception against somewhat in this argument delivered by him in his explication of the Decalogue But I hope the morall Law shall be sufficient to binde us Christians if no other way yet by this argument of proportion If God required of the Iewes under the Law that one day in seven should bee set apart to his service how much more doth it become us Christians to allow as good a proportion of time for his service under the Gospell This I say shall suffice untill Rivetus answeareth it which never will be for he as good as confesseth that we are bound to allow God for his service rather a better proportion of time then a worse And as for Doctor Prideaux I nothing doubt but he will cleare us from Judaisme in arguing thus as who Sect. 7. professeth that if they against whom he disputes required no more but the Analogy the equity or the reason of that Commandement we would not sticke to yeeld unto it And whereas Rivetus addes that the argument which hee annexeth seemes to him of great weight namely that hee who stickes to the Commandement must exactly observe it And that therefore into the place of the seventh from the Creation no day is to bee substituted But this argument I have answered before all for the most part grant some ceremoniality in that Commandement now if rest on the seventh be found to bee ceremoniall but not the rest of one day in seven in an indefinite consideracion it will follow herehence that the seventh must not be observed as accomplished in Christ and that the proportion of time is still to continue as indeed by experience wee finde it verified in each For the observation of the seventh is ceased as prefiguring Christs rest in his Grave but the observation of one day in seven still continueth unto this day Next for the second Thesis that the alteration of the day is onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution the Doctor sheweth in the first Section the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuites Canonists and Schoolemen of some great Lutheranes by names and generally of the remonstrant or Arminian Divines in their confession whose tendries in this point wee may conceave with reason not to bee different from the Doctrine of the Belgicke Churches in that foure professors of Leyden in their examination or review of that confession have passed them over without note or opposition To these besides are added diverse of our own Et è nostris non pauci as hee speakes it in the generall that is as I conceave his meaning such as are neither of the Lutheran nor of
professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of Iohn is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20. 10. It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2. 16. 17. Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1. 3. Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20. 7. and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16. 2. Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1. 10. whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1. 10. I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth that the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath and that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16. 2. For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator
of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to betheir rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21. 24. once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down
Psal 118. 22. 23. 24. Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Heresh bachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made head of the corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118. 24. and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1. 10. Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2. 4. Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and opportunities are delivered in reference to the periods and changing of Kingdomes and Monarchies as appeares by the argument of the Prophecy And no more doth D. Rivetus deliver in excepting against his annotations for as he acknowledgeth M. Perkins scriptorem modestissimum a most modest writer so he carryeth himselfe most modestly towards him But I hope without any breach of modesty I may professe that I find no accuratenesse in each of his allegations save one namely that wherein Christ professeth himself Lord of the Sabbath and it is enough for the present that God reserves to himself power of ordering times for his service yet it cannot be denied but God hath left power to his Church upon good occasion to set some time apart for exercise of piety But whereas it is apparant that God himselfe tooke upon him the ordering of the time for the Sabbath and accordingly Christ calls himselfe The Lord of the Sabbath as he constituted it so none but he can abrogate it and ordaine another in the place of it Now whereas D. Rivetus saith that hee hath left this power unto his Church it stands him upon to prove it We find our Saviour supposeth us Christians to have a Sabbath after his resurrection Matth. 24. 20. as well as the Jewes had before wee find that in the Apostles dayes the first day of the weeke was set apart for this which could not be but by the joynt consent of the Apostles we find that the day of the weeke not the day of the yeere wherein Christ rose by Saint Iohn himselfe called the Lords Day an evident argument that in his time it was so generally received We find that never any worke of God did give better cause to professe that The day thereof was the day that the Lord had made let us be glad and rejoyce therein then the day wherein Christ rose from the dead and thereby was declared to be the Sonne of God even that stone which the builders refused to be made the head of the corner And how strange is it that the Church for 1500. yeeres space should no where offer to alter it if in no other respect yet in this to manifest that the Church is indued with such liberty and power and to prevent the superstitious observation of the day as a thing necessary if it be not necessary Lastly if this liberty be still in the
Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and our demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus opposethem onely it were well but it is apparant that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee
shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place of effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24. 20. as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for prosaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in case of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanatious of the Sabbath in the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietaete Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and
the Kings Majesty though much delighted herein yet never useth to hunt on the Sabbath Day Morning or Evening And I have cause to come but slowly to the believing hereof because it is Calvins Doctrine concerning the Sabbath that albeit under the Gospell we are not bound to so rigorous a rest as the Jewes were yet that still wee are obliged to abstaine from all other works as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus Avocations from holy studies and Meditations and their Ministers I should thinke doe not well if they faile to minde them hereof unlesse both they and the people are fallen from Calvins Doctrine in this point in which case I see no just cause why any should choake us therewith but give us as much liberty to dissent from him in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as they of Geneva take unto themselves Againe Beza is well knowne to have professed upon Revel 1. 10. that the observation of the Lords Day is traditionis Apostolicae vere Divinae and consequently that the day is not left arbitrary neither hath this author proved that the Presbytery and states of Geneva both Ecclesiasticall and politicall have committed any revolt or apostacy thereto from Beza in this point It is well hee acknowledgeth some recreation not suffered there as namely dancing but this hee sayth they hold unlawfull which simply delivered as by this author it is is incredible unto mee neither hath this authors word any sufficient authority to deliver mee from this incredulity yet some manner of dancing may perhaps bee generally forbidden in the French Protestant Churches This strictnesse the Prefacer saith is noted by some to have beene a great hinderer to the growth of the reformed Religion which belike is advantaged so much the more with us in as much as it is not hindred but he quotes no author for that As for the author he quotes I have not hitherto found that hee hath arrived to any great authority or credit in the World for the truth of his relations Neither hath the wisdome of our Church or state taken any contrary course hitherto either by Statute or Canon to promote reformation amongst us what they may doe hereafter I know not when such spirits as this Prefacer may bee so fortunate as to sit neare the sterne Whether the French Churches have found it so as this Geographer is sayd to report I know not but for their judgment herein I must expect untill I heare more therof Sect. 7. Which being so the judgement and practice of so many men and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith concurring unanimously together the miracle is the greater that we in England should take up a contrary opinion and thereby separate our selves from all that are called Christian yet so it is I skill not how it comes to passe but so it is that some among us have revived againe the Jewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away This day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest which doctrinalls though dangerous in themselves and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers and of the greatest Clerks of the later times are not yet halfe so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox what can we else expect but such strange paradoxes as in the consideration of the premisses have beene delivered from some pulpits in this kingdome as viz. That to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or to commit adultery that to throw a bowle to make a feast or dresse a wedding dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a man to take a knife and cut his childs throat that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to commit murther The author which reports them all was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it And I believe him in the rest the rather since I have heard it preached in London that the law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that who ever did the works of his calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore And I know also that in a towne of mine acquaintance the Preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor rost meat was to be found in all the parish for a Sundayes dinner throughout the yeere These are the ordinary fruits of such dangerous doctrines and against these and such as these our Author in this following Treatise doth addresse himselfe accusing them that entertaine the formall doctrinalls every where of no lesse than Judaisme and pressing them with that of Austin that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour the Spirit Section the third Exam. Austin somewhere saith that he who lookes for miracles in these dayes for confirmation of the truth Magnum ipse prodigium est himselfe may goe for a monster he doth not say It is a miracle that men so should doe Men may be sottish even to admiration and such if this Prefacer proves we will not say it is a miracle mira wonderful things may be wrought not only by the practice of Satan but in the very courses of men but God is he alone that worketh miracles He talkes of unanimous concurrence of men of severall perswasions otherwise in the controverted points of Christian faith and that both in judgement and practice with him in his way he loves to speake with a full mouth and to make a great noise as the Hogs in Aelian did when their owner shore them which gave him occasion to say That there was a great deale of cry but a little wooll And let the indifferent judge whether the wooll be answerable to the noise this Prefacer makes Now the men of severall perswasions whom hee avoucheth are Papists and Protestants and amongst the Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists And hitherto he hath spoken of foure particulars I desire the reader would take notice of the modesty of this author in each of them compared with the noise here hee makes concerning them as if he were as much crackt in his braine as hee who standing upon the key at Athens with a note booke
not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2. 4. thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24. 20. Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned â—â— by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor
there in affirming that the Lords Day is of Divine institution Is it not Scripture that calls it the Lords Day And what day was called the Lords Day before but the day of the Jewes Sabbath And hath not our Saviour manifestly given us to understand that even Christians were to have their Sabbath as the Jewes had theirs as Bishop Andrewes accommodates the place Matth. 24. 20. And was the resurrection of Christ any thing inferiour to the creation to give a day unto us Christians like as Gods rest from creation commended that day to the Jewes Especially considering that a new creation requires a new Sabbath as Athanasius delivered it of old And D. Andrewes of late yeeres treading in the steps of that ancient Father or rather of all the ancient Fathers And what danger in maintaining that the Lords Day is entire and whole to be consecrated to Divine service did Austin speake dangerously when he professeth that thereon we must tantum Deo vacare tantū cultibus divinis vacare would this Prefacer be content to be found dancing about a Maypole or in a Morrice-dance that day that Christ should come in flaming fire to render vengeance to all them that know not God nor obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus Nay would hee not feare to rue the danger of his doctrine when it will be too late to correct it and all the profanenesse that hee hath promoted by this preface of his should rise up in judgement against him yet now he thinkes he could not goe about a better worke than by this preface translation to harden them in their profane and impure courses all his care at this time is to prevent superstition a wonder it is to see how zealous men of his spirit are to avoyd and shun superstition Belike all these must be censured for Zelotes that complaine that the Lords day is with us licentiously yea sacrilegiously profaned yet these are the times whereof S. Paul prophecied that men should be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God yet Doctor Prideaux could take liberty to professe of the Jewes that by their Bacchanalian rites they gave the world just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate their Sabbaths unto devils rather than unto Gods service yet now adayes they that oppose revels on the Sabbath day are censured and condemned of Judaisme Neither is D. Prideaux censured by way of scorne for a zelote in this but unlesse wee concurre with this Prefacer in thinking that the forbidding of dancing in the French Churches hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion there and that upon the bare credit of Heylins Geography wee must in scorne be termed zelotes Belike Bishop Babington by this bold Prefacer would be censured for a zelote considering that on Exodus 16. pag. 122. hve writes in this manner May not a good soule thus reason with himselfe This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely goe to markets dancings drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bul-baitings and such like wicked profanations on the Lords Day Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also And Bishop Austin too deserves to be censured a zelote for that which hee writes in his 3. tract upon Iohn Observe the Sabbath Day it is rather commanded unto us because it is commanded to be observed in a spirituall manner For the Jewes observe the Sabbath day servilely unto luxury unto drunkennesse How much better were it for their Women to spinne Wooll then to dance on that day in their new Moones and in his 44. tract The Jewes rest unto toyes and whereas God commanded the Sabbath to be observed they spend the Sabbath in such things which the Lord forbids Our rest is from evill works their rest is from good works For it is better to goe to plow then to dance but albeit hee be censured as a Zelote yet surely there is no colour why hee should be thought to Judaize in this And let Bishop Nazianzene passe under the same censure with them who as Dialericus upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinitie Sunday alleageth him professeth that the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in the hilarity of our bodies nor in the variety of glorious garments nor in eatings the fruite wherof we know to be wantonnesse nor in strewing of Flowers in the wayes which we know to be the manner of the Gentiles but rather in the purity of the soule and chearefulnesse of the mind and pious Meditations as when we use holy Hymnes in stead of Tabers and Psalmes in stead of wicked songs and dancings The same Dialericus alleageth Pope Gregory out of his 91. booke of his Epistles and 3. Epistle affirming That therefore on the Lords Day we ought to rest from all Earthly worke and by all meanes insist on prayer that if ought hath been committed by us negligently on the six dayes on the day of the Lords Resurrection it might be cleared by prayers And which is yet more out of Chrysostome 5. Homily on Mathew hee shewes how in that Bishops judgement we should be exercised on the Lords Day in our private Families thus When we depart from the Ecclesiasticall assembly we ought not in any case intangle our selves in businesses of a contrary nature but as soone as we come home turne over the Holy Scriptures and call thy Wife and thy Children to conferre about those things which have been delivered and after they have been deepely rooted in our minds then to proceed to provide for such things as are necessary for this life So anciently is the pious exercise of repeating Sermons commended unto us by this holy Bishop which in these dayes I have heard to bee cryed downe by profane persons as a cause of increase of Brownisme And I willingly confesse that when I first came to this place there were no lesse then tenne that partly had withdrawne themselves partly were upon the point of withdrawing themselves from our Common Prayers but within a short time there was not one such to be found amongst us and so wee have continued to this day But to returne Ephrem Syrus may goe for a zelote in like manner who as hee is alleged by Rivetus treating of the Sabbath exhorts to honour the Lords festivities celebrating them not panegyrically but Heavenly not secularly but spiritually not like Heathens but like Christians and he shewes wherein this consists in the words following Quare non portarum frontes coronemus let us not hang Garlands upon the frontispice of our Gates non choreas ducamus let us not leade a dance non chorum adornemus let us not by our presence beautifie any such company non tibiis auditum effaminemus let us not effeminate our Eares with their Musick or with their fidles Nay as Doctor Prideaux complaines of the Jewes corrupting themselves to the
Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1 o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the University And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and
I have already proved in the former Section and also that reason justifieth this drawne from the division of time into weekes as which had its course from the beginning of the World and how authority both ancient and moderne doth countenance this way of ours farre more then the contrary And Manasses ben Israel one of the ancient wise Doctors of the Jewes observes that when the Jewes are bid to remember that they were servants in Egypt this is as if it had beene sayd remember how that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast constrayned to worke even upon the Sabbath day In Exod. quaest 36. Upon the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it from the beginning of the World and upon the fourth Commandement is founded our observation of the Sabbath as Chrysostome hath professed that God hath manifested from the beginning that one day in the circle of the weeke ought to be set apart for a spirituall rest All confesse that there is a difference betweene 1. Time in generall to be set apart for Gods service 2. And the proportion of that time 3. And the particularity of the day in that proportion The first is generally receaved to be morall the other two some had rather call positive then ceremoniall because they conceave it to have beene instituted in Paradise before the fall when there was no neede of any ceremony They who do most judiciously discourse of ceremony in the fourth Commandement doe not call it ceremoniall hand over head but with reference to the rest of the day And herein the ceremoniality they apply to the rest on the seventh day As for the ceremoniality to be found in the proportion of time indefinitely considered as in one day of seaven I never read nor heard till now Yet wherein this ceremoniality doth consist I meane the thing signified thereby is not explicated at all neither in respect of the proportion of time as of one day in seven nor in reference to the particular day Yet the Jewes rest on the seventh day is generally conceaved to prefigure Christs rest in the grave that day full and whole and onely that day And as Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech professeth that It hath ever been the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath was the last of them So Austin de Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. Beda in Hexameron on Genesis Aquin. 2. 2. q. 121. art 4. Piscat on Luc. 14. And albeit the rest from workes may have a ceremoniall signification of a rest from sinne in the way of grace as Ezech. 20. 12. and a rest both from sin and sorrow which is also a speciall worke of ours through sin Ier. 2. 17. hast thou not procured this unto thy selfe because thou hast forsaken the Lord. and that in the way of glory Hebr. 4. yet this is no such ceremony as to be abolished upon the fulfilling of the thing signified for even the Jewes under the Law had their rest from sinne in the way of grace as wee Christians under the Gospell yet neverthelesse observed the Sabbath and that glorious rest which shall not be accomplished till the end of the World is commonly called an eternall Sabbath And undoubtedly that is to be accompted as a rest morall whereunto the sanctification of the day calleth us namely to rest from all workes as they are Avocations from sacred studies and meditations But doth Abulensis accompt the rest of one day in seven ceremoniall and not morall Doctor Willet relates him as of an other opinion and distinguishing thus There are some things which are simply morall and some things simply ceremoniall and some things of a mixt kinde as being partly morall partly ceremoniall Simply morall are those things which are grounded on the judgement of naturall reason as when naturall reason doth dictate that some time is to be set apart for Gods service But precisely to appoint the seventh day more then any day of the weeke is simply ceremoniall quia non habet fundamentum à ratione sed à voluntate condentis legem because it is not groundedon reason but on the will of the law-maker But to appoint one day of seven and that day wholy for the space of 24. houres to consecrate to Gods service as therein to abstaine from all kinds of worke these things are not purely or simply ceremoniall but partly morall as grounded on the judgement of reason though not totally and wholy For the first if above one day in the weeke should be kept perpetually holy Gravamen esset laborantibus toties vacare it were a grievance to labourers to rest from worke so oft his meaning is in this case they could not sufficiently provide for themselves and their families as touching the maintenance of this life temporall and if but one day in a fortnight or a month should be appointed oblivisceremur Dei per desuetudinem cultus ipsius We should forget God through not accustoming our selves sufficiently to his service Therefore it stands with reason that one day in seven should be celebrated to the Lord. This surely is not to deny the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated unto the Lord to be morall but to confirme it rather Neither doe I finde that Aquinas resolves it so as here it is pretended that which hee sayth to be ceremoniall is applied by him onely to the particular day of the weeke Indeed hee doth say that the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord is morall neither doth hee deny it onely hee sayth it is morall that some time should be set apart for Gods service And it may be under this he comprehends the proportion of one day in seven as Zanchy doth For albeit hee treads in Aquinas steps when hee sayth Morale est quatenus natura docet pietas postulat ut aliquis dies destinetur quieti ab operibus servilibus quo divino cultui vacare possit Ecclesiá ceremoniale est quatenus septimus dies fuit praescriptus non alius It is morall to have a day destinate to rest from servile workes so to be free for Gods service It is ceremoniall that the seventh day and no other is prescribed for this yet a little before hee manifesteth that by one day to be set apart for this he meanes one day in seven when he thus sayth Morale est mandatum quatenus praecipit ut è septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino proinde quatenus tale mandatum est nunquam fuit abrogatum nec abrogari potest The Commandement is morall as it commands us to consecrate one day in seven unto divine service And so doth Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Bellarmine de cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. And if no other be the opinion of Aquinas if the schoolmen of what sect soever say the same it
grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that w ch is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this
seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are those dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of fervants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breatius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fit that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive
of fire was forbidden onely for the works to be done about making the Tabernacle This being delivered as a preface Exod. 35. 2. when the free will offerings were now to be receaved for the promoting of the workemanship of that which formerly was commanded And that dressing of meate was not forbidden them no not in the gathering of Manna as some thinke if then yet not as a generall course to be observed for ever And as touching the Table that Nehemiah kept thus we reade Moreover there were at my Table an 150. of the Iewes and rulers which came unto us from among the Heathen that are about us And there was prepared daily an Oxe and six chosen Sheepe and Birds were prepared for me and hee was so farre from consciousnesse of profaning the Lords Sabbath herein that hee concludes thus Remember me O my God in goodnesse according to all that I have done for this people But suppose they were tied so strictly to such a rest as from workes not servile onely in seeking againe as Zanchy instanceth the condition of a worke servile but even from such as tended to the refreshing of their natures yet the reason hereof depended upon the mysterious signification of this rest as formerly I have represented out of Lyra from which ceremoniality wee are absolved and consequently freed from that rigorous rest depending thereupon and rest onely from works so farre forth as they are avocations from Sacred Studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and this wee accompt a morall rest distinguished from ceremoniall And whereas the Doctor tells us that such a like distinction is infirme being content to say nothing to confirme it save that the Text as hee saith affords it not I had thought the very light of nature had beene sufficient to embolden us to conclude that where the sanctification of the day is commanded therewithall is commanded abstinence from all such things as would hinder the sanctification of it And as for the text it selfe it is apparent that neither the kindling of the fire nor dressing of meate is particularly forbidden in the fourth Commandement Neither doth hee so much as obtrude upon his adversaries that they derive the sanctification of their christian Sabbath from ought in the old Testament save from Gen. 2. 3. and from the fourth Commandement In neither of which doth he deale fairely but is content to confound things that differ as if in this particular he affected to fish in troubled waters and we have better evidence and indeed it is our only evidence therence out of the old Testament for the festivity of the Lords day then he is willing to take notice of namely out of the Psal 118. 24. Neither is it possible he should be ignorant thereof howsoever hee doth dissemble his knowledge of it Yet I hope it is enough for us to finde evidence for it in the Sunshine of the Gospell and indeed here alone we have the originall observation of it though that it should be observed is as evidently prophecied in the old Testament as that Christ is the stone which was first refused of the builders and after made the head of the corner adding only this unto it that the day wherein the Lord did this and made so glorious a worke marvellous in the eyes of men was the day of the resurrection which I suppose no intelligent Christian will deny I come unto the 6. Section 6 Who they be that make their boast that they have found the institution of the Lords day in the new Testament expressely J willingly professe I know not neither doe I thinke the Doctor knowes It is true our Saviour oftentimes disputed with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath day which at length degenerated into voluptuous living on that day in so much that Austin tells the Jewes plainly It is better to goe to plough then to dance but if hereupon you aske where is any the least suspicion of the abrogating of it I answer every one knowes The time was not yet come for the abrogating of it Nay he discourseth so as if 40. yeares after his death the observation of the Sabbath should continue as when he exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24. 20. what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe musling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18. 21. I
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118. 24. of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congruity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the