months and times and years but so far as to affirm he was afraid he had bestowed upon them labour in vain As if the very Observation of such things were inconsistent with Christianity or at least were in the way to destroy it And indeed if as is pretended those Words of his were to be construed of the Observation of all Days whatsoever there is no doubt the Observation of those I am now speaking of were to be look'd upon as inconsistent with Christianity But he that shall seriously compare these Words of the Apostle with the foregoing and following ones will find them to strike either at the Jewish onely or at their Manner of Observation of them For asserting as he doth in the beginning of the Chapter their having been in bondage under the Law and the Son of God's Redemption of them from it asserting moreover ver 21. That they were desirous to be under the Law and remitting them to the Law for their satisfaction what can we in reason think meant by their turning again to the weak and beggarly elements wherein they desir'd again to be in bondage but their return to the beggarly Elements of the Law and consequently because that is given as an Instance of it either to the Observation of such Days and Times as were laid upon them by the Law or observing them after the manner prescribed by it The Case is yet more plain in that other commonly alledged Text Let no man judge you in meat and drink or in respect of an Holy-day or of the New-moon or of the Sabbath-days Col. 2.16 Not onely the mention of Sabbaths which every one knows to have been peculiar to the Jewish Nation determining it to their Fasts and Feasts but St. Paul's affirming moreover that they were shadows of things to come which is to be affirm'd onely of Legal ones To make these Texts therefore of any force it must be prov'd either that ours are the same or at least of the same nature with the Jewish or that a like Observation is requir'd But as the Festivals of the Church are so far from being the same with the Jewish that on the contrary they proclaim the actual exhibition of those things which the other did onely foreshew so there is nothing either in our Canons or Practice which can minister an occasion of suspicion that a Judaical Observation is requir'd For beside that the Offices thereof are all purely Christian and not mix'd with Incensing as the Jewish were and the Popish are neither is their number so great as to be a burden to the Observers nor those few that are impos'd impos'd upon them as Divine Commands In fine neither is the Duty of the Day so appropriated to it as to make it unacceptable upon others nor yet exacted with so much rigour on it as not to leave place for necessary Occasions All therefore that can be suppos'd to lie against the Festivals of the Church must be drawn from their being instituted by Men and that Will-worship which it is conceiv'd to involve But as I have heretofore said enough to take off that Charge even as to this particular Affair so having done so I shall in stead thereof set before you the Practice of the Jews which in this Particular deserves hugely to be consider'd For if it were lawful for the Jews notwithstanding the many Festivals God had instituted among them to add others thereto upon occasion how much more for Christians where setting aside the Lord's-day there is not any thing to determine the Time of their Solemn Worship Now that this was their Practice is evident first from that of Esther chap. 9. and 27. where upon occasion of their great Deliverance from the Mischiefs intended against them by Haman Mordecai wrote to the Jews and accordingly they ordained and took upon them and upon their seed and upon all such as joyn'd themselves to them that they would keep those Days in which they rested from their Enemies according to their Writing and according to their appointed Time every Year In like manner when the Altar of God had been polluted by the Heathen but was repair'd and dedicated again by Judas Maccabeus the same Judas and his Brethren with the whole Congregation ordain'd That the Days of the Dedication of the Altar should be kept in their Season from Year to Year 1 Mac. 4.59 Which as accordingly we find to have been observ'd even to the days of our Saviour so which is more to have been graced by his presence as you may see Joh. 10.22 As to the Lawfulness therefore either of the Institution or Observation of Festivals there is not the least doubt to be made and much less can we suppose there will if they be also useful which accordingly I come now to shew 2. For the evidencing whereof the first thing I shall alledge is that Instruction which might thereby accrue to the weaker sort if they were but attended to as they ought For the Church having appointed particular Days for the Commemoration of the Chief Things that either were performed by or hapned to our Saviour if the Plain Man as a Reverend Person hath express'd it would but ply his Almanack well that alone * Bishop Hall's Remains Serm. on 1 Joh. 1.5 would teach him so much Gospel as to shew him the History of his Saviour For there even upon the Feast of the Annunciation might he see his Saviour's Conception declar'd by an Angel and him Born forty Weeks after upon the Feast of the Nativity He should see him eight days after that Circumcis'd on New-years-day then Visited and Ador'd by the Wisemen in the Epiphany He should see him presented to God in the Temple on the Day of Purification then Tempted and Fasting forty days in Lent He should see him usher'd in by his Forerunner John the Baptist six Months before his Birth attended by his Twelve Apostles in their several Ranks and Thomas the last for his Unbelief And at last after infinite and beneficial Miracles he should see him crucified upon Good-fryday Rising from the Dead on Easter Ascending to Heaven on Holy-Thursday and to supply the want of his Presence the Holy Ghost descending upon the Apostles and the Church In fine there he should see the Belief of all these summ'd up in the Celebration of the Blessed Trinity on that Sunday which bears its Name All which whosoever shall duely consider will not think such Institutions unuseful nor the Church much beholden to them who have endeavour'd to remove them For as it is apparent the foregoing Days carry Marks upon them of the principal things which it is necessary for a Christian to understand so by their separation from other days they do naturally prompt those that are ignorant to inquire into the Occasion of them By which means they who fly other ways of Instruction would be in a manner constrain'd to receive it here and either be wrought upon to glorifie God for the
calls upon the Colossians that they should teach and admonish one another in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Col. 3.16 it is evident from severall Passages in 1 Corinth 14. that it was a great part of their Publick Service Thus when the Apostle vers 15. and so on says I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks he plainly supposeth because speaking all along of their Assemblies that the Blessing and Praising God in a Song was a part of the Publick Service at them In like manner when he saith vers 26. How is it then Brethren when ye come together every one hath a Psalm a Doctrine and a Tongue c. Let all things be done to edifying though he finds fault with the disorderly performance of those several Duties yet he supposeth them to be Duties because prescribing Rules for the right ordering of them From the Times of the Apostles pass we to those that immediately succeeded where we shall find yet more express Testimonies of this being a part of their Lord's-day Service For thus Pliny * Lib. 10. Ep. 97. Adfirmabant autem hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris quod essent soliti state die ante lucem convenire carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem giving an Account of what the Christians did upon the Set-day of their Assemblies which as was before shewn could be no other than the Lord's-day tells us from the mouth of some of themselves That it was among other things to say one with another by turns a Song or Hymn to Christ as unto God thereby not onely shewing that to have been a part of their Publick Service but as a Learned †Ham. Pres to Annot. on the Psalms Man hath well observ'd confirming that way of alternate Singing which is still in use in the Church of England Neither is Pliny alone in this Testimony either as to the Singing of Hymns upon that Day or Singing Hymns unto Christ as God For as Tertullian expresly reckons the Singing of Psalms among the Lord's-day Solemnities so Eusebius ‖ Eccl. Hist lib. 5. c. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alledges against those who deny'd the Divinity of our Saviour certain Psalms and Songs written anciently by the Brethren wherein they magnified Christ as God It is true indeed he saith not in that place that they were sung in the Church which may seem to render that Testimony so much the more defective But as it is evident from Tertullian * Apol. c. 39. Post aquam manualem lumina ut quisque de Scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest provocatur in medium deo canere that Men were invited to sing in their Assemblies as well their own Compositions as those of Scripture so Eusebius elsewhere ‖ Eccl. Hist lib. 7. c. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gives us plainly to understand that the Psalms before spoken of were sung in their Assemblies He there charging Paulus Samosaetenus with causing them to cease and Songs in honour of himself to be sung in the Church For how could Paulus Samosatenus cause those Songs to cease unless they had been publickly sung or what likelihood is there if they had not been so that he would have introduc'd Songs concerning himself I will conclude this Particular with that famous Canon of the Council of Laodicea * Can. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where the Canonical Books of Scripture are enumerated For forbidding as it doth the use of such private Psalms in the Church it shews them to have been before in use and much more that the Singing unto God was But of all the Religious Exercises wherewith the Christian Sabbath was to be celebrated there is certainly none which hath more to be said for it than the Administration of the Lord's Supper that real Thanksgiving and Praise of the Almighty for the Blessings of the Creation but more particularly for the Death of our Saviour For as we find it to have been the Attendant of the Publick Assemblies of the Christians both in the Acts and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians so to be so much a part of the lords-Lord's-days Business as to be set to denote the whole St. Luke Acts 20.7 making the end of the Disciples meeting together upon the First day of the Week to be to break Bread that is to say as the Syriack interprets it the Bread of the Eucharist Agreeable hereto is that of Pliny * Ibid. Seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent ne depositum appellati negarent in the Testimony so often produc'd he there telling us That upon the Set-day spoken of before they oblig'd themselves by a Sacrament not to any wickedness but that they would not commit Thefts 〈◊〉 â—â—ries Adulteries c. Which as hath been before shewn 〈…〉 be understood of any other than the Sacrament of the Eucharist which we know to be an Obligation to that purpose And though it be true that Tertullian makes no mention of it in his Apologetick probably because it was not his purpose to make known the manner of it to the Heathen lest the misunderstanding of it should bring it into contempt yet as in his Book de Coronâ militis ‖ Cap. 3. Eucharistiae Sacramentum in tempore victus omnibus mandatum à Domino etiam antelucanis coetibus nec de aliorum manu quà m praefidentium sumimus he mentions it as a part of the Business of those Assemblies before day whereof we have mention in Pliny so Justin Martyr †Vid. Apol. 2. loco prius citato not onely mentions it as a part of the Lord's-day Service but describes the Manner of the Celebration of it From all which put together it is evident I do not say how much we have departed from the Devotion of the Apostles Times and those that succeeded but even from the due Observation of that Day which we pretend to keep as Holy unto the Lord. PART V. An History of the due Observation of the Lord's-day both in Private and Publick Where among other things is shewn the Excellency of our Churches Service and with what Affections it ought to be intended the unsuitableness of Fasting to so joyful a Solemnity and the great inconvenience that must necessarily ensue from the not relaxing of our Intentions In fine The both necessity and benefit of Meditating upon what we have heard and applying it to our own Souls That the Visiting and Comforting of the Sick and Distressed the Reconciling of Parties that are at variance and the begetting or maintaining Friendship by kind and neighbourly Entertainments are no improper Offices of the
prayeth more particularly that their whole spirit and soul and body might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I conclude therefore and I think too with much greater force than the Psalmist does O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker For not onely is he our Maker as that holy Man suggests but our Redeemer and Sanctifier and that too of those very Bodies whose Reverence he requires 2. Of such outward Notes or Signs of Respect as terminate in the Body I have spoken hitherto and shewn our Obligation to them It remains only that we consider those to which though the Body is instrumental yet pass from thence to other things Such as is 1. The Building of Temples or Places of Worship to him whom we own for our God For though as St. Paul speaks God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped with mens hands as though he needed any thing yet as the Custom of the World with the Approbation of God himself hath in all times led Men to erect such publick Places to him so it was no more than decency and a respect to the Divine Majesty prompted them to the doing of For though under the Gospel especially any Place be proper for Divine Worship because by the Tenor of it we are oblig'd to have a greater regard to the Thing it self than to the Circumstances thereof yet inasmuch as a Set place was requisite to the performance of it that so all the Worshippers of the Divine Majesty might know whither to resort inasmuch as it was but suitable to the Greatness of God that that Place which was appointed for his Publick Worship should be set apart from all common Uses lastly inasmuch as the appropriating of that Place to it was apt to imprint a Reverence of the Divine Majesty in those that resorted thither for these Reasons I say it seemed but requisite that he should have a Temple erected to him apart from the Places of more Common Uses And accordingly as before the Law they had their Altars and under the Law the Tabernacle that famous Temple at Jerusalem with Synagogues in their several Towns and Villages so it will be no hard matter to discern the like Places of Divine Worship in the first beginnings of Christianity As is evident from that known Passage of St. Paul to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.22 What have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not For not onely speaking before of their coming together into one place but opposing the Church of God not to other Assemblies but to their own Houses and Places of abode he plainly sheweth his meaning to be not of the Assemblies themselves but of the Places wherein they conven'd And accordingly as Mr. Mede hath shewn * Churches that is Appropriate Places for Christian Worship that there were such Places in the following Ages and before the Emperours were Christians so he hath return'd a very satisfactory Answer to what is objected out of some ancient Writers concerning the Christians not having any Temples to wit That they meant Temples in the Heathen sense that is to say wherein the Deity was enclos'd as the Heathens to whom they thus answer'd suppos'd their own to be However it be there is reason enough in Nature for setting apart a certain Place for the Solemn Worship of God And accordingly when the Church had rest from Persecutions such Places were every where erected to him and the Christians declared their owning of the Lord for their God by it All that I shall add concerning this Head is that of Sir Edwin Sandys in his most excellent Piece entituled Europae Speculum That though the Ornaments of such places ought to be rather grave than pompous yet it could never sink into his heart that the Allowance for furnishing them out should be measur'd by the scant Rule of meer Necessity a proportion so low that Nature it self hath gone beyond it even in the most ignoble Creatures or that God had enrich'd this lower World with such wonderful variety of things beautiful and glorious that they might serve onely to the pampering of mortal Man in his Pride and that to the Service of the High Creator Lord and Giver the outward Glory of whose higher Palace may appear by the very Lamps which we see so far off burning so gloriously in it onely the simpler baser cheaper less noble less beautiful and less glorious things should be employ'd especially seeing even as in Princes Courts so in the Service of God also this outward State and Glory being well dispos'd doth engender quicken encrease and nourish the inward Reverence and respectful Devotion which is due unto so Sovereign a Majesty which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade would easily by the want of it be forc'd to confess Neither will it suffice to say as perhaps it may be by some Persons That that Cost might with much more advantage be employ'd upon the Poor those Living Temples of the Holy Ghost for though it be not to be deny'd that those ought more especially to be considered yet as it would be inquir'd Whether for the purposes of Charity a deduction might not be made from the Ornaments of our own Houses if our Estates cannot reach to the supplying of them both so also Whether the House of God ought not in this case to have the precedence of our own especially when God himself did sometime ask Whether it were time for the Israelites to dwell in cieled houses when his lay waste Hag. 1.4 2. But beside the Dedicating of Temples to his Honour whom we are commanded to own for our God it is no less requisite to that purpose that Solemn Times be set apart for the Publick Worship of God and that when they are so they should be as Religiously observ'd For as it may seem but a just Tribute to allot him a Portion of our Time from whom we have the Grant of the Whole so being so set apart it is but reasonable it should be appropriated to his Service and not as it too often is profaned by our own he that honoureth any Person naturally paying a Regard to whatsoever hath a relation to him But because this will fall in more seasonably when we come to entreat of the Fourth Commandment I will quit the prosecution of it at present and descend to a 3. Third Note of Respect which is the setting apart a sort of Men to wait at his Altar and perform the Publick Exercises of Religion nothing making any Person or Thing more cheap and vile than laying open the Offices that relate to it to the will of every Man that shall have the hardiness to invade them And accordingly as before the Law the Elder of the Family was
design of Christianity to establish Natural Religion and oblige us to be pious and just and temperate which are the general Heads of it whatsoever is a part of Natural Religion is eo nomine to be look'd upon as a part of the Christian one though it be not expresly commanded The confirmation of Natural Religion inferring the confirmation of all those Duties which are clear and undoubted Portions of it The same is yet more evident from the confirmation of those Grounds upon which the Publick Worship of God is founded such as are the making our Piety to shine before others and the need each of us stand in of one anothers help in Prayer For our Saviour in express Terms injoyning the observation of the former and St. Paul giving testimony to the truth of the latter where he affirms us to be members of each other they do thereby consequently establish the necessity of Publick Worship because as was before shewn naturally arising from them But because what hath been hitherto alledg'd from Christianity is rather constructive of the Morality of the Publick Worship of God than any immediate or direct proof of its own enjoyning it for the fuller declaration of our Duty in this Affair I will proceed to more immediate Proofs and such as are properly Christian. 1. Now the first that I shall alledge shall be taken from those Spiritual Gifts which God bestow'd upon his Church and particularly the Word of Wisdom the Word of Knowledge Prophesieing Interpretation of Tongues and Praying by the Spirit or Immediate Inspiration For these being given to those that had them to * 1 Cor. 12.7 profit withal or as the same St. Paul elsewhere ‖ Ephes 4.12 more expresly declares for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ suppose the meeting of that Body to receive profit by them and consequently because that is the End of those Gifts for Publick Instruction and Prayer 2. My second Argument for the necessity of the Publick Worship of God shall be taken from the Rules St. Paul often gives for the right management of Christian Assemblies such as are That no man should speak in an unknown tongue if there were not one by to interpret That when they spake they should do it by two or at the most by three and in fine That all things should be done decently and in order For what need were there of all this stir about the management of Christian Assemblies if the Author of our Religion had not at all enjoyn'd them but left Men to their own Private Worship Neither will it avail to reply as possibly it may be That the Rules laid down for the management of Assemblies do rather suppose them useful than necessary to be held For as what is so hugely useful cannot be suppos'd to be other than necessary if we consider the many Precepts that enjoyn us the edifying of one another so he that shall consider St. Paul's Accuracy in laying down Rules concerning Christian Assemblies will not doubt of their being necessary to be held it being not to be thought that he who is so careful elsewhere to distinguish between his own * 1 Cor. 7.8 c. Advices and the Commands of the Lord would take so much pains in prescribing Rules for the management of Christian Assemblies without so much as taking notice that those Assemblies concerning which he gave Rules were no other than Advices of his own Add hereunto 3. The perpetual Practice of the Church and that too at such times when those Assemblies were perillous to those that held them For that shews plainly that the holding of Assemblies had some higher Original than onely the usefulness thereof It being not to be thought that the Christians of all Times and even of the most dangerous ones would have held such Assemblies if they had not look'd upon themselves as straitly obliged to them 4. But to come up yet more closely to the Ground of holding Assemblies which I think I may not without cause establish in that of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 18.20 to wit That where two or three were gathered together in his Name he would be in the midst of them For as those Words of his are an assurance to those who should be so gathered that Christ would be in the midst of them that is to say as the foregoing Words import to grant them the Petitions they should ask and more particularly such as were of Publick concern * For he speaks before of Men that neglect to hear the Church and of God's confirmation of the Churches Censure of them so the same Words do imply that he would not be so present to those who should not so assemble together Otherwise the Reason wherewith he recommends the Assembling in his Name would be weak and null because so it might be affirm'd that they might have Christ present to them without Now forasmuch as Christ not onely promises that he would be in the midst of those who should so assemble but insinuates also and that clearly enough that he would not be so present to those that did not he thereby lays a necessity upon Christians of so meeting in his Name for the welfare of the Church and particularly for the imploring of such Blessings as are necessary for it I will conclude this Particular with that of the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.23 Where having exhorted in the foregoing Verses that they should hold fast the profession of the faith themselves and provoke others to the same love and good works which are undoubted Precepts of the Gospel he adds in the same breath and by way of explication not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some then was but exhorting one another and so much the more as they saw the day approaching Which Words as they are a manifest condemnation of the neglect of Assemblies and consequently an establishment of the necessity of Worshipping God in them so such a condemnation of the forsaking of them as to make it in effect not onely a breach of Charity but a renouncing the Profession of our Faith However it be most certain it is that Apostle manifestly condemns the forsaking the assembling of our selves together and if so we may be sure the serving God in the Solemn Assemblies is a part of a Christians Duty and therefore the Fourth Commandment wherein it is enjoyn'd so far obligatory 3. I am now arriv'd at the third of those Things which I said before to appertain to the Substance of this Commandment and that is The setting apart some portion of our Time for the more solemn performance of Gods Worship this being so much of the Substance of the Commandment that it is the onely thing clearly express'd in it and may seem at first sight not onely to be the Main but the Whole Now that this also is Moral will appear if we consider it with respect to the Worship of
I should go about to prove it The onely thing worthy our consideration will be what use may be made of it to infer our own Obligation to observe it And here in the first place I shall alledge the Practice it self as a sufficient Argument to evince it For as an approved Custom hath the nature of a Law because declaring the Consent of that Body wherein it is and to which it is but reasonable that particular Men should subject themselves so St. Paul gives it that force in the Church where disputing against the Corinthian Women's praying uncovered he alledges That they had no such custom nor the Churches of God 1 Cor. 11.16 For if the Argument from a Custom negative be good and valid much more from the same positive and especially when there is so general an one But because such arguments as these through the contempt Men now have of the Church may possibly not have their due efficacy I will alledge in the second place that there is reason enough even from that Practice to believe it to have been of Apostolical Institution For it being morally impossible that the Christians of all Places should so unanimously agree to the Observation of it if there had not been something of a Law to constrain them to it and there appearing no such Law of the Church it self antecedent to the Practice of it it is but reasonable to believe it to have been Instituted by those who were the first Founders of it according to that known Rule * Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Authoritate Apostolica traditum rectissimè creditur of St. Augustine That what the Vniversal Church holds and always hath if it appear not that the same was first decreed by Councils is most rightly believ'd to have been delivered by the Authority of the Holy Apostles And higher than that we shall not need to go because he who had all power in heaven and earth given him did at his departure hence delegate so much of it to them as was necessary for the regulating of the Church The onely thing that may seem to have any difficulty is Why when God gave the Jews so clear a Precept for the Observation of their Sabbath he should leave us who live at so great a distance from the Institution of ours rather to collect it from the Practice of the Apostles and the Church than to read it in some express Declaration But even this how difficult soever in appearance will not be hard for him to unriddle who shall remember what hath been before brought to establish it For the Law of Nature and this of Moses evidencing the necessity of a Set Time and the Equity of Moses Law and our own Obligations to the Divine Majesty that we cannot give God a less proportion of our Time than what he exacted of the Jews nothing remained for God to declare but whether he would require more than a Seventh of which there is not the least Indication or if not which of those Seven he would make choice of which an easie hint might suffice to discover For the Saturday which is the last of those Seven being expresly abolish'd and no other having the like Pretences to succeed it it was easie to guess God meant that Day which had not onely our Saviour's Resurrection to adorn it but was moreover by the Apostles and those that followed them kept as holy unto the Lord. PART III. A Digression concerning the Fasts and Festivals of the Church where the Lawfulness of their Institution is evicted and vindicated from the Exceptions of their Adversaries That they are of signal use to insinuate the main Articles of our Religion into the Vnderstanding of the Weak to bring the Occasions thereof to the Memories of the Strong and prompt us all both more particularly and with greater edification to consider them That being instituted by the Church they ought to be Religiously observ'd by all that are the Members of it Of the Manner of the Observation of the Jewish Sabbath which is another of the Circumstantials of this Commandment Of the Strictness of the Rest enjoyn'd the Jews on it and that as such it is not onely not obligatory to us but superstitious What Rest is now obligatory to us by vertue of this Commandment where that Rest is considered both in the Letter and in the Mystery To whom and in what manner the Jewish Rest appertain'd with an application thereof to our own Concernments A particular Inquiry concerning those who are under the Power of others and whether or no they are oblig'd to Rest where they are constrain'd to Labour by Threats or Stripes Of Recreation on the Jewish Sabbath and our own and that rightly dispos'd it is not onely not unlawful but useful An Objection from Isa 58.13 propos'd and answered A Restriction of Recreations to such as are neither unsuitable for the Kind to the Gravity of such a Solemnity nor take up too much time in the Exercise thereof A Caution against profane neglect of the Lord's-day with the necessity that lieth upon the Generality of Men more than ordinarily to intend their Eternal Concernments on it 3. THE Lord's-day being as you have seen establish'd upon Christian Principles and thereby equally secur'd from a Judaical Observance and a profane Neglect the Commandment I am now upon no less than my proposed Method obligeth me to entreat of other the Festivals and Fast-days of the Church For though these have not the Authority of a Divine Command as the Jewish Sabbath had though there is not the same clearness of Evidence for their Apostolical Institution as there is for the Lord's-day or Sunday yet they have this in common with the Jewish Sabbath and our own that they have the same Worship of God for their End and the like signal Acts of God for the Occasions of their Institution even those which have the Title of Saints-days looking through them to the Mercy of God who made them what they are and dedicated to his onely Worship and Service Having therefore so much affinity with the Day here enjoyn'd I shall think it no way impertinent to my present Argument to inquire into the Lawfulness of their Institution their Vsefulness and the Esteem wherein they are to be held 1. It being certain that that is to be look'd upon as lawful which is not forbidden by any Command nothing can be requir'd to establish the Holy-days of the Church but the taking off those Objections which may be made against the lawfulness thereof Now there are two things commonly objected against them and to which therefore before I proceed I will shape an Answer the former whereof strikes at the Observation it self the other at the Injunction of it The ground of the former is laid in those Words of St. Paul Gal. 4.10 11. where the Apostle not onely finds fault with their observing days and
lesser Uncleannesses It may suffice where other Crimes appear for the Married Parties to bear with each other where they are of such a nature as to be born or endeavour by good advice the removal of them Vxoris vitium tollas opus est aut feras Qui tol lit vitium uxorem commodrusculam Stbi praestat qui fert sese meliorem facit which will be most for each others advantage as in like manner where they are not to be born as when they seek each others destruction to separate from each other till Time and God's Grace have brought them to a better mind But other Course than that cannot be suppos'd to be lawful because God hath restrain'd Divorces to the case of lesser Uncleannesses among the Jews as among Christians to the greater ones What should I tell you that the Jewish Divorces by the Sentence of our Saviour were rather permitted than commanded and permitted too not so much out of the kindness of the Grantor as for the hardness of the Jews Hearts and for fear lest greater Mischiefs should ensue to the hated Party That God professeth by his Prophet Malachi that he hateth putting away and that our Saviour made no other Answer to his Disciples when they inferr'd from this his Doctrine that if the case of the Man were so with his Wife it was not good to marry than all Men were not able to receive it These and many other Arguments which might be alledg'd shewing an ill Choice whether of the Man or of the Woman to be as Nazianzen expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Evil which being got is not to be let go save where a far worse even the Violation of the Marriage-bed intervenes But because as was before intimated the Judgment of Divorces is not permitted to the Parties concern'd but to the Governours of the Church and I have all along made it my business to speak onely to Private Persons as which alone are under my inspection therefore I shall add no more upon this Head than that as Divorce for Fornication which is the onely allowable one among Christians is not of command but permission and consequently left to the Prudence of the Married Parties either to endeavour it or not as they shall judge most expedient so the permission whatever it is is alike common to either Party though it appears not to have been so among the Jews not onely the mutual Power which God hath given them over each other so perswading for how should a Divorce be more lawful to the one than the other when by means of that Power which they have over one anothers Bodies the cause for which a Divorce is allow'd must equally touch both Parties but also a Passage of St. Paul and the Practice of the Primitive Church which is the best Comment both upon that and other Texts Of which latter as we have an illustrious Testimony in the first Apology of Justin Martyr who both tells of and commends a certain Christian Noblewoman who sent a Bill of Divorce to her Adulterous Husband after she had but in vain endeavour'd to wean him from his Extravagances so that it was not without ground even from the Principles of our Religion that of St. Paul shews 1 Cor. 7.10 For what place were there for that Advice of his to believing Women not to leave their Infidel Husbands if they were pleas'd to dwell with them if it were not lawful by the Christian Law as well as by that of the World for a Wife to part with her Husband at all yea though Fornication gave occasion to it In the mean time as it is not to be deny'd that those Matches shall be most happy where a Separation shall be neither occasion'd nor desir'd so they shall act most agreeably to the Institution of Marriage and the Laws of Christ who shall know no other Divorce than that which shall make a Separation between a Man and himself as well as between him and the Partner of his Bed II. Having thus entreated of the Importance Institution and Laws of Marriage and therein both given you an Account of the Affirmative part of the Precept and clear'd my Way to the Explication of the Negative proceed we now according to our proposed Method to investigate the Nature and shew the Criminalness of that Sin which the Negative doth forbid Now though what Adultery is in the general be not at all difficult to explain because it is agreed upon to be no other than the Violation of the Marriage-bed yet inasmuch as that Violation is not without some variety in respect of the several Actors in it in order to a more particular knowledge of it it will be requisite to mark out the several ways whereby that Violation may be perpetrated To begin with that Adultery which lies on the side of the Married Parties as which is without doubt the most criminal because all Adultery receives its denomination from them Now though Custom which is the Master of Language have in a manner appropriated the Title of Adultery to the falseness of the Wife and to him that should sollicite her thereunto though the Roman Laws * Lactant. li. 6. c. 23. Non enim ficut juris publici ratio est sola mulier adultera est quae habet alium maritus autem etiamsi plures habeat à crimine adulterii solutus est Sed divina lex ita duos in matrimonium quod est in corpus unum pari jure conjungit ut adulter habeatur quisquis compagem corporis in diversa distraxerit Vid. Notas Anton. Thysii ad locum have spoke the same Language and absolv'd the Husband from the imputation of it where he did not defile anothers Bed yet as * Lactant. li. 6. c. 23. Non enim ficut juris publici ratio est sola mulier adultera est quae habet alium maritus autem etiamsi plures habeat à crimine adulterii solutus est Sed divina lex ita duos in matrimonium quod est in corpus unum pari jure conjungit ut adulter habeatur quisquis compagem corporis in diversa distraxerit Vid. Notas Anton. Thysii ad locum Lactantius hath well observ'd Christianity and Reason both require the charging it upon the offending Husband no less than upon the offending Wife For it appearing both from St. Paul and that Unity which Marriage conciliates that the Woman hath no less power over the Husbands Body than he over hers and from the Terms of the Covenant into which they enter upon Marriage that the Husband doth no less plight his Troth unto the Wife than she to him that Husband which shall offend shall be equally chargeable with the violation of the Marriage-Bed and consequently with the Crime of Adultery And though it be not to be deny'd for Reasons afterwards to be declar'd that the Consequences of the Wifes Adultery are much more fatal than that of the Husbands yet as