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 out 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 oppose them onely it were well but it is apparent 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 or 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 profaning 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 ease 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 profanations of the Sabbath in
day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eighth day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature of a sixth finger and that is Saint Gregory tells us notwithstanding how some in Rome were so superstitious in this kinde that they would neither work upon the Saturday no nor so much as wash upon the Sunday So little effectuall were the labours of Damascen and venerable Bede that they could not prevent the superstitious fancies of some that lived an hundred yeares before For Gregory by Bellarmines account dyed in the yeare of our Lord 604. and Damascen lived long after the yeare 731. and Bede was living in the yeare 731. as Bellarmine observes out of his fifth booke of Historia Anglicana Who would desire an adversary should betray more weakenesse than this Author but wee see manifestly whither he tends and no marvell if God smites him with the spirit of giddinesse and confusion His quotation of Gregory seemes to bee the same with that which wee finde in the decrees De consecrat dist 3. cap. Pervenit Now whereas this Praefacer relates it as of the same persons it is farre otherwise in Gregory for apparantly the relation in Gregory is concerning different persons for thus it runnes Pervenit ad me c. Relation is made unto mee that certaine men of a perverse spirit have sowed amongst you some corrupt doctrine contrary to our holy faith so as to forbid any worke to be done on the Sabbath day these men we may well call the Preachers of Antichrist Then he sets downe what shall be the practise of Antichrist at his comming namely to command the Sabbath day and the Lords day both to be kept free from all works And why the Lords day to wit because he meanes to imitate Christ and therefore will conforme himselfe to the practise of Christians in celebrating the Lords day his words are these Quia enim mori se resurgere simulat haberi in veneratione vult diem Dominicum that is Because he counterfeits himselfe to die and rise againe therefore he will have the Lords day to be had in veneration Where by the way observe two things 1. The practise of Christians in Gregories dayes to keep themselves from all worke on the Lords day 2. That Antichrist would imitate Christ as in pretending to dye and rise againe so in commanding the Lords day to be kept holy A shrewd evidence that both Gregory and the whole Church in those dayes were of opinion that the Lords day was of Christs institution which Antichrist perceiving would conforme thereto the better to promote his owne counsailes Now the reason why he would command the Jewes Sabbath to be observed also was Quia populum Judaizare compellet ut exteriorem ritum revocet sibi Judaeorum perfidiam subdat therefore coli vult Sabbatum He will have the Iewes Sabbath kept also compelling the people to Iudaize and restoring the outward ceremonies of the Law that so he may bring the Iewes in subjection unto him also Then he makes mention of another relation Aliud quoque ad me perlatum est Another report was brought unto mee and what was that Vobis à perversis hominibus esse praedicatum ut Dominico die nullus debeat lavari That some perverse persons preach among you that on the Lords day none ought to be washed This is clearly another point maintained by other persons different from the former which yet this Prefacer confounds into one And marke it well that none ought to be washed lavari on the Lords day which this Author translates thus No nor so much as wash upon the Sunday What not so much as wash their hands or their face here indeed were strange superstition I willingly professe I was not a little moved at this his Translation nothing answerable to Gregories resolution which is this If any desire to be washed pro luxuria pro voluptate that is out of a luxurious disposition and for pleasure we doe not permit this to be done on any day But if the bodies necessity require it we doe not forbid this on the Lords day Now I doe not find that any man useth to wash hands or face out of any luxurious disposition neither doe I know in what sense the necessity of the body can require it For the necessity of the body in this place seems to me to be spoken in reference to the recovery of a mans health requiring no time to be neglected Hereupon I am verily perswaded that by Lavari in Gregory is to be understood a mans going into the Bath which may be done out of a luxurious disposition and meerely for pleasure Then againe the necessity of the body may require it and according to these different cases it is by Gregory both permitted on the Lords day to wit in case of necessity and denyed on any day in case it be done only to satisfie a mans lusts And I find a great difference in the Latine phrase betweene Lavare to wash and Lavari to be washed and that out of Varro his eight booke of the Latine tongue For the active is of use when a part only is washed as it is rightly said I wash my hands and my feet But the passive is in use only when the whole body is washed as in the Bath Quare in Balneis non rectè dicunt lavi sed lavor Wherefore in the Bathes it is not well said I have washed but I am washed And accordingly runnes that in Juvenal Sat. 2. Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur The Scholiast interprets this of Infants quia pueri non dant Balneaticum for the quadrant which was the usuall fee to bee paid of them that made use of the Bathes was not exacted of such Hence is that phrase Mercede lavari to goe into the Baths paying a fee and dum te quadrante lavatum in Horace to the same purpose The second Section BUt after in the darker times as it is thought by some Preface Peter de Bruis the founder of the Petrobrusians he was burnt for heresie 1126. began to draw too deep on these lees of Judaisme which here our Doctor intimates
over our heads we know not how soone for wee see examples before our eyes of sufferings in this kind and how soone our owne turne may come to suffer in the same kinde it is uncertaine unto us Therefore to returne to Iohn Barcley wee have heard that his father before his death commended him to the Patronage of King Iames who accordingly had him attending in his Court somewhile with intent to preferre him untill on a sodaine his minde was changed having receaved intelligence that this Gentleman playd false with him living in his Court but as an espie and intelligencer to discover what he could of his Majesties affayres unto Queene mother of France which mooved King Iames ever after and that most justly to abominate him Now such a one if he could not proove true and loyall unto his naturall Prince can it bee expected hee being of a popish spirit should carry himselfe truely and honestly towards Iohn Calvin But sure it is in this Prefacers judgement that Calvin tooke the Lords Day to be an Ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Iewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For proofe hereof this Prefacer alleageth nothing but that out of Calvin where he 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 circumcisione 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 Comment in t ep ad cor cap. 16. 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
world yea and his collegue Thysius also yet no cause had they to oppose in this when the other professed it to be a laudable and good custome according to the patterne of the Primitive Church and can the Primitive Church exclude the Apostles and not rather include them And is it probable that the Primitive Church prescribed it to the Apostles and not rather the Apostles to the Church Tilenus calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem not denying it to be instituted by the Apostles nay elsewhere hee affirmes this or rather that it was instituted by Christ himselfe So little cause had these professors to quarrell with this phrase of the Remonstrants having weightier matters in hand wherein to oppose them What if Bullenger call it Ecclesiae consuettudinem so doth Tilenus de praecept 4. Thes 29. yet Thes 24. he professed it to be not onely observed by the Apostles but that it may seeme also to be instituted by Christ himselfe Bullenger saith sponte receperunt to wit in opposition to an expresse Precept as appeares by that which immediately followeth Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam we doe not reade it any where commanded Vrsine alleged in the next place clearely professeth in the very place quoted by Gomarus that God it is who hath abrogated the observation of the seventh day but he addes that he left it free to the Church to choose other daies which Church upon a probable cause chose the first day which was the day of Christs resurrection Now what Church was it but Apostolica Ecclesia as Paraeus upon Vrsinus Catechisme observes p. 665. Pro libertate sibi à Christo donatâ pro septima die elegit diem primum propter probabilem causam out of the liberty which Christ hath given them insteed of the seventh day chose the first day of the weeke by reason of a probable cause to wit because on that day Christ rose by whose resurrection Rom. 1.4 the spirituall and eternall rest is inchoated in us and p. 666. Apostoli ipsi mutarunt Sabbatum septimi diei The Apostles themselves changed the Sabbath of the seventh day By the way touch we a little upon this that First this was done in reference to Christs resurrection so Calvin acknowledgeth in reference whereunto this day had some prerogative above the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Vrsine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Passion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58.13 If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become
new 2 Cor. 5.17 and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14.9 and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2.20 And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nasâ—â—ntis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the 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 Acts 24. whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanchy 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 omninò 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 Aretius 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 Cuchlinus 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 diâ—rum 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 destinatus 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 Therfore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Day is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in antient 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 divinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis Biblioth lib. 7. p. 603. Col. 1. but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of John 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
should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke 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 be their 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
them And it is well knowne to some what the former Archbishop of Canterbury professed to the face of M. Broade when he came to move for the printing of a second book concerning the Sabbath What Bishop can our opposites name of this Church whose praise is among the writers of these times that hath manifested his opinion in opposition to these As for the judgements of all kinde of writers which he boasts of I thinke never came a Divine to take pen in hand to vaunt so much and performe so little As for the unsafe condition of our Tenets which he suggests excepting those monstrous and wild Tenets mentioned by M. Rogers for which I know no better evidence than his word and that in very odde manner delivered I know nothing unsafe nothing dangerous in any Tenet of ours who now seeme to walke as upon the pinacles of the Temple and indeed in this respect they are like to prove very dangerous to us yet I would it were not more dangerous to the Church of God to be bereaved of so many faithfull Pastors For certainly it shall be honourable unto them they cannot suffer in a more honorable cause than this in standing for the sanctifying of the Lords Day in memory of his resurrection who that day being formerly a stone refused of the builders was made the head of the corner For what danger is it to maintaine that from the Creation the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and what a shamefull course is it so to expound it as in reference to a time 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after and that in spight of the ancient Fathers And manifest reason as appeares by division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continuing to the time of the Law delivered on the mount Sinai as appeares by the story of falling of Manna and the Jewes gathering of it on sixe dayes none falling now being gathered on the seventh as the day on the week whereon God rested after he had made the world in six What danger in maintaining that God required from the beginning and afterwards specified so much in the Law that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto Gods service and hence to inferre that if God required so much of the Jews under the Law it were most unreasonable and unconscionable we should not afford unto him and his service as good a proportion of time under the Gospel Thirdly what danger is 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 tantuÌ„ cultibus divinis vacare would this Prefacer be content to be found dancing about a May pole 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 Nazianzâ—ne 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
expressed in part and but in part after a halting manner For hee professeth that on the Lords Day we are to abstaine from such workes as are an hinderance to Gods service but he delivers this onely of the publique service as if to spend an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the afternoone in Gods service were enough for the sanctifying of the day yet Gerardus the Lutherane observes that God commands the day to be sanctified not a part of the day And let the law of this nation or of any nation of the world be judge between us whether in case one man owe another a dayes service I say let the world judge whether in common equity this be to be interpreted of an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the evening or onely of a part of the day and not rather the whole day And what vile courses are these that men should carry themselves so basely in dispensing unto God the proportion of his service In the sixth and last place we have that wherunto all the former discourse is consecrated namely to make way for such profane sports and pastimes which here are glosed with the cleanely stiles of recreations to refresh the spirits and for the increase of mutuall love and neighbourhood amongst us as if he were ashamed to speake out that all this tends to the countenance of May-games and morricing and dancing about May-poles on the Lords Day D. Andrewes sometimes Bishop of Winchester Patterne of Catech. p. 244 245. on the Con. spared not to professe that vacare choreis to be at leisure on that day for dancing is the Sabbath of the golden calfe and hee allegeth Austin for it though hee cannot justifie his quotation Doctor Downeham Bishop of Derry calls such like courses profane sports and pastimes which more distract and more hinder our workes than honest labours and he censures also such a Sabbath calling it the Sabbath of the calfe Exod. 23.6.18.19 Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. puts a Christian soule upon this meditation Good Lord what doe I upon the Sabbath day This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely gad to faires and markets to dancings and drinkings to wakes and wantons to Beare-baitings and Bulbaitings with such like wicked profanations of the Lords Day Are these workes for the Sabbath 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 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 1º 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 superfluity in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in wantonnesse 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
Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Charles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24.20 Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de 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 Sect. 2. 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
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 at 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 10th 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 justly under Austins censure that every such one carnaliter sapit And the same Austin professeth that Doctores Ecclesiae decreverunt omnem gloriam Iudaici Sabbati in illam transferre August de Tem. Ser. 251. The Doctors of the Church have decreed to transferre all the glory of the Jewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day So that the censure following in these words They therefore are but idly busied who would so farre enlarge the Sabbath or seventh day in this commandement as to include the Lords Day in it must light not upon us onely but upon other greater Divines yea and upon the Church of England also but our comfort is that wee finde it very weakly grounded As for the institution of the Lords Day I never reade nor heard any that grounded it upon the fourth Commandement otherwise then by proportion That Commandement containes two things 1. the sanctification of the Sabbath 2. a designing of the time when both as touching the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven and as touching the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion For in commanding a seventh it commands one day in seven the former inferring the latter as well as it doth inferre the setting of some time in generall a part for Gods service which not one that I know denies to bee the substance of this commandement Now as the Lord designed what should bee their Sabbath day unto the Jewes so hath hee designed what shall bee the Sabbath day to us Christians This designation made to us we do not derive from the fourth commandement but this day being by the word of God designed unto us still holding up the same proportion of time the rest of this day and the sanctification thereof this and this alone doe we derive from the fourth commandement and also that undoubtedly we Christians ought not to allow unto God a worse proportion of time for his Service then did the Jewes and the proportion is apparant betweene the Lord the creators rest and the Lord the redeemers rest And our rest on the day of our Lord the creators rest being abolished as a type of Christs rest in the grave what is more convenient to come in the place thereof then our rest on that day which is the Lord our redeemers rest As touching the passage here alleaged out of Calvin I am sorry to observe the common errour of others committed here also by dismembring Calvins sentence leaving out one halfe of it making him to deliver that absolutely which hee utters onely conditionally And the other halfe of the first sentence here mentioned doth manifest as much namely that Calvin speakes only against them who think themselves obliged to the observation of one day in 7. for some mysterious significations sake and accordingly Wallaeus sheweth that he opposeth none but Papists whose course is to observe festivall dayes for some mystery sake whereof hee gives good evidence by a passage which he allegeth out of Bellarmine all which I have formerly represented more at large in my answer to the Preface Sect. 4. I come to the fourth Section of the Author That some doe urge the words of this Commandement so farre till they draw blood insteed of comfort are but words nothing of this kind hath beene hitherto made good so much as in the least colour of probabilitie And who upon due observing of the fourth commandement may not well be brought to admire the wisedome of God that as hee hath placed it in the morall law which concerneth all times and persons so he hath ordered it after such a manner that howsoever the day should be altered yet the proportion of time still to be kept and a Sabbath still to bee of force whether on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day unto the Jewes or the Lords day which should be our Christian Sabbath thereon to rest unto God and to sanctifie that day unto his service we make no doubt but the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and so hath power to change it and none hath power to change it but hee that is Lord of it It is true this was one argument amongst many which the Author of the Practice of Pietie useth to prove that the fourth commandement stands still in force because our Saviour professeth that He came not to
Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are now Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkened and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD Mr. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS Perkins THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose saith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner Rivet Answ First hee denies that there is the same reason
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 pietate 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 verè 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. Pref. 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 Sect. 7. 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
Observationis so that under God I know no power that can alter it Thes 49. The Fathers speake of the Jewish Sabbath and Allegorize that as it was carnally used by the Jewes But we shall wrong the Fathers if we thinke they held that there was no Morality in the Letter of the Commandement For though there were a mystery figured in it yet they doe not deny that there was a morall proportioning of time for Divine Service prescribed therein which is the seventh part of the weeke It is one thing to say that all our life time we must be religious in our conversation and keepe a spirituall Sabbath another thing to affirme that we must not have a solemne weekely day wherein to intend onely Divine worship This last point the Fathers doe not say the former they doe and to argue from their Omission is to extend their words beyond their meaning at least their meaning is not adaequate to the sense of the Commandement No nor to their practise For they did constantly observe a seventh part of the weeke which I say is the first principle contained in the fourth Commandement Though I deny not but there is moreover a limitation to the seventh day from the Creation exprest which Christ and his Apostles altered but this alteration cannot overthrow the first principle they may both well goe together To the particular allegations out of the Fathers I will answer no more then that what they say is true but doth not contradict what I hold For the mysticall sense doth not overthrow the literall of the Commandement And they understand the seventh day precisely from the Creation which we confesse altered and speake not of the divine Ordinance for the apportioning of time but the carnall observation of the Jewes And your answer to the first Question grounded on the Fathers words may passe for good but there is more in the Commandement then so Your Answer to the second I cannot so well approve because it is Exclusive As for your third answer That the fourth Commandement is not the Law of nature but a positive law take the Law of Nature for Morall Reason then I think there is more then meere positivenesse in it For morall reason teacheth to honour the day whereon the work is done and that morall reason which gave this in charge was Apostolicall and so of a commanding power in both And then you see that it is neither meerely positive nor meerely naturall but mixt and so binding accordingly ut supra ad Thesin 37. 43. You adde two Questions 1 Whether seeing the Lords day succeeds the Jewish Sabbath wee are to keepe it in the same manner and with the same strictnesse First I hold in my Theses that our Lords day doth properly succeed the Sabbath instituted at the Creation Whereupon I separate all the Accessories from Moses Law Secondly The Jewes did misconstrue the stricknesse of their Sabbath as appeareth by the many corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made from man not man for the Sabbath Thirdly They held that they might not so much as kindle a fire or dresse Meat upon that day grounding their conceipt upon the Texts that are Ex. 35. cap. 16. But both Texts seeme to be wrested for that Exod. 35. about kindling a fire must be limited by the verse going before and is not to be understood of any other kindling of fire then for following of their Trades or Servile workes as they are called And so Munster Vatable and others upon that place censure their mistake And that it is a mistake against the meaning of the Commandment I gather from hence For the Jewes that will not put their owne hands to kindle a fire will hire Christians to doe it for them as if the Commandment did not reach Servants and strangers within their gates and they offend as much in doing it by others as if they did it by themselves But so doe they use to abuse the Scripture and confute their Glosses by their owne practice As for the 16. Chapter of Exod. which seemeth to forbid the dressing of Meat I hold that mistaken also Read the Chapter and mark whether you can finde that upon the sixth day they were to dresse any more then served for that day and to lay up the rest undressed untill the Sabbath at what time I hope they were to dresse it before they did eat it And indeed only the providing of Manna is there forbidden and a promise whereof they had experience that it would not putrifie upon the Sabbath though they kept it till then whereas upon other dayes it would And in this sense doe I understand the severe punishment of him that gathered sticks upon the seventh day it was because he then made his provision and did it it should seeme with an high hand Numb cap. 15. As for recreations I can say nothing but that seeing the Lords day is to be the exercise of that life which is spirituall and as a foretast of that which is eternall it were to be wisht that wee did intend those things as farre as our frailty will reach But Vivitur non cum perfectis hominibus and wee must be content to have men as good as we may when it is not to be hoped they will be as good as they should Yet we must take heed that we doe not solemnize our feast vainly as either the Iewes or Gentiles did Against whom Nazianzene is very tart Tertul. in his Apolog. In the Civill Law we finde a dispensation for Husbandmen in case of necessity contrary to the Jewish policy Exod. 34. Which is followed by our Law Edward the 6. Wee may in apparrell and diet be more liberall and costly on feasts then on other dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Corporall feasts joyned to the Eucharist wherein the rich did feed the poore Which afterward for inconvenience was removed out of the Church I meane the Corporall feast although in Saint Austins confessions you shall find that in Saint Ambrose days there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Toombs of Martyrs which Saint Ambrose tooke away But though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken out of the Church yet upon those dayes the rich relieved their poore Brethren Which they little thinke of that for feare of breaking the Sabbath have taken away Hospitality Some men are over-nice in this point more nice then Christ himselfe Luc. 14. who on the Sabbath went to a feast and that was to a wedding feast And why not seeing the Sabbath is Symbolum Aeternae not only quietis but Laetitiae therefore resembled to a feast without the toyle of Acquisition So that the Sabbath is not violated by feasts if wee exceed not Necessitatem Personae though Naturae wee doe Now Necessitas Personae requireth that more be imployed in providing feasts as a Kings diet then a Subjects a Noble then a Common mans a Colledge then a