seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are those dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of fervants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breatius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fit that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of Iohn is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20. 10. It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2. 16. 17. Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1. 3. Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20. 7. and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16. 2. Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1. 10. whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1. 10. I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth that the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath and that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16. 2. For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator
observes it cannot bee denied but that undoubtedly as touching the time of their meeting they were therein ordered also by S. Paul as they were about the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper And accordingly Paraeus in the very passage alleaged by Gomarus doth take that place of 1 Cor. 16. 2. to notifie that the very time of their meeting there specified was by the ordinance of S. Paul Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 34. The Apostles directed by Christs not only example but spirit also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. John in the Revelation 38. And from the Apostles the Catholique Church uniformly receaved it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39. And the Church hath receaved it not to be liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40. but to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end For as God only 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 8. Master Fox upon the Rev. 1. v. 10. professeth that the observation of the Lords Day doth Niti authoritate institutionis Apostolicae depend upon the authority of Apostolicall institution 9. Walaeus dissert de Sab. p. 172. we conclude saith hee this first day of the weeke was by the Apostles put in the place of the Sabbath and commended to the Church not only by a power ordinary competent to all pastors for the ordering of indifferent rites in their Churches but by a singular power also as who had the oversight of the whole Churches and who as extraordinary Ministers of Christ were by the holy Ghost put in trust that they might be faithfull not only for the delivering of certaine precepts concerning faith and manners but also as touching upright ordering of the Church that so it might be made known to all Christians every where what day in the weeke was to be kept by vertue and Analogy of the fourth Commandement least dissension there abouts and consequently confusion might arise in the Church of God and to this purpose hee alleageth Beza before mentioned and Gallesius Calvins Collegue on Exod. 31. This ordinance to wit that the Lords Day should be substituted in the place of the Sabbath we have receaved saith hee not from men but from the Apostles that is from the Spirit of God whereby they were governed and after he had proved this out of three places of Scripture Acts 20 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Re. 1. 10. in the end hee addes For although we are not tied to the observation of dayes yet this necessary order must be observed least confusion should be bred in the Church 10. Fayus Calvins successor alleaged also by Walaeus disput 47. in q. praecept Iustly therefore may we say that the Apostles by the leading of the Holy Ghost for the seventh day of the Law substituted the first day of the week which was the first in the Creation of the first World 11. Hyperius in 1. Cor. 16. 1. The first day of the weeke in memory of the Lords Resurrection was called the Lords Day the observation of the Sabbath being translated thereunto through the command of the Holy Ghost by the Apostles 12. Adde unto these Master Perkins maintaining the same That which he delivers of the Parliament in the dayes of King Edward the sixt in that preamble of theirs concerning holy dayes as left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers therof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods Glory and edification of the people I say that this should bee understood not of holy dayes onely but of the Lords Day also is a thing most incredible neither doth hee offer to cite any parcell thereof to justifie this so bold an affirmation onely hee sayth that by the body of the act it doth appeare but what that is in the body of that act whereby this doth appeare hee very judiciously conceales How improbable is it t hat Bishop Andrewes would have opposed this Doctrine in the Starre Chamber if a Parliament of Prelates and that in the dayes of King Edward the sixt had maintained it For hee professeth that these two onely the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum is alike to bee taken in both and takes upon him to shew that in the very Scripture there is found a precept for observation of the Lords Day And Bishop Lake in like manner professeth that it is not Liberae observationis but necessarily to be observed Doctor Fulks answer to the Rhemish Testament was set forth in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and dedicated to her Majesty therein on Re. 1. v. 16. hath hee delivered that to change the Lords Day and to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath none authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles Was hee ever questioned for this or was it ever knowne that the state of this Land excepted against it for crossing the Doctrine of the Church manifested in a preamble to one of the Acts of Parliament which I presume was never yet repealed but leave we him to live on his own juice and to please himselfe in his holinesse A THIRD DIGRESSION CONTAINING A CONFERENCE With D. Walaeus about the Divine authority of the Lords Day I Come to consider somewhat in Walaeus whose dissertation of the Sabbath from the first hath liked mee so well and the spirit which it breathes throughout that I doe not affect to differ from him but rather heartily desire there may bee little or no difference betweene us and I hope in the end there will be found little or no difference of importance betweene us especially in this point of the institution of the Lord Day whether it be divine or humane and as for the originall institution of the Sabbath namely as from the beginning of the World and as touching the morality of one day in seven therein I concurre with him really and affectionately And as touching the quality of the institution I approve his learned paines in vindicating those three places of the new Testament Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Re. 1. 10. from the interpretation that some give of them to quash the evidence which they import for the observation of the first day of the weeke commonly called the Lords Day even in those primitive and Apostolicall dayes of the Christian Church And I joyne with him pag. 167. in admiring that after so many accurate prejudices of the reformed Churches concurring in the same translation interpretation of those places which we embrace yet some should be found to take so unhappy paines as to quash the evidence of them which they seem to us
of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word
to choake us with the authority of Calvin shall we beurged to yield to the authority of Calvin who are reproched usually as Calvinists and so nicknamed In my time of being in the University we heard by credible relation how in one of the Colleges questions were set up to be disputed Contrà Ioannem Calvinum and that disputations of that nature were sometimes concluded in this manner Relinquamus Calvinum in hisce faecibus and we commonly say there is no smoake without some fire No longer agoe then at the act in Oxford last save one Anno 1634. I heard Calvinists reckoned up amongst Papists Pelagians Arminians Puritans as sectaries at least if not as Heretiques by him that preached the act Sermon on the Lords Day in the afternoone and is it fit that we should be pregravated by the opinion of Calvin a man whose memory seemes to be hated by men of this Prefacers spirit so as few men more The fourth Section NEither was hee the onely one that hath so determined For for the first that to keepe holy one day of seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement our Doctor hath delivered in the third section that not Tostatus onely but even Aquinas and with him all the schoolemen have decreed upon it Nor was there any that opposed it in the schooles of Rome that I have met with till Catarinus tooke up Armes against Tostatus affirming but with ill successe that the Commandement of the Sabbath was imposed on Adam in the first cradle of the World there where the Lord is sayd to blesse the seventh Day and to sanctifie it 2 As for the Protestant schooles besides what is affirmed by Calvin and seconded by the Doctor in this following discourse this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the low Countries Franciscus Gomarus one knowne sufficiently for his undertakings against Arminians published An. 1628. a little treatise about the originall of the Sabbath and therein principally canvased these two questions First whether the Sabbath were ordained by God immediately upon the Creation of the World Then whether all Christians are obliged by the fourth Commandement alwayes to set a part one day in seven to Gods holy worship both which he determines negatively And Doctor Rivet one of the foure professors in Leyden although he differs in the first yet in the second which doth most concerne us Christians they agree together affirming also joyntly that the appointing of the Lords Day for Gods publique service was neither done by God himselfe nor by his Apostles but by the authority of the Church For seconds Gomarus brings in Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus and Rivet voucheth the authority of our Doctor here For so Gomarus in the assertion and defense of the first opinion against this Rivet De quibus etiam cl doctiss Doctor Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare eodem judicio by Rivets information libenter intelleximus I will adde one thing onely which is briefely this The Hollanders when they discovered Fretum le Morire An. 1615. though they observed a most exact accompt of their time at Sea yet at their comming home they found comparing their accompt with theirs in Holland that they had lost a day that which was Sunday to the one being Munday to the other Which of necessity must happen as it is calculated by Geographers to those that compasse the World from West to East as contrary they had got a day had they sayled it Eastward And what should these people doe when they were returned if they must sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must have sanctified a day a part from their to her Countreymen and had a Sabbath by themselves or to comply with with others must have broken the morall Law which must for no respects be violated See more hereof at large in Carpenters Geogr. p. 237. Exam. That Calvin hath any where so determined this Prefacer hath not prooved but shamefully dismembred him thereby to make him to deliver something absolutly which he delivers onely conditionally and that in opposition unto Papists who will have the Lords Day to be kept not onely for order and policy sake but by reason of some mystery and this Calvin professeth to be Jewish Aquinas his words are these Habere aliquod tempus deputatum ad vacandum Divinis cadit sub praecepto morali sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in signum creationis Mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale To have some time deputed wherein to rest for things Divine falls under the morall precept But for as much as in this precept is determined a speciall time in signe of the Creation of the World so it is a praecept ceremoniall Where I doe observe first that this ceremoniality is apparently ascribed to the seventh day and that considered as a signe of the Creation and not to one day in seven And this indeed may well be the concurrent opinion of Schole Divines As for Abulensis of what authority is he to preponderate any one of our Divines nay I appeale to every humane conscience whether no more be morall in this precept then to set some time apart for Gods service For what is it nothing materiall whether we set apart for divine Service one day in a weeke or one day in a month or one day in a yeare or one day in twenty yeares or one day throughout the whole course of a mans life what conscience can be found so cauteriate as to justifie this If so then let him proceed and say it is nothing materiall whether wee consecrate unto God one houre in a day or one houre in a weeke or one houre in a month or one houre in a yeare or but one houre throughout the whole course of a mans life So that I presume every sober man by the very light of nature will be driven to confesse that not only some time ought to be set apart for Gods worship as the Schoolemen commonly teach but that a convenient proportion of time ought to be destinated unto this Now let reason itselfe judge whether any more convenient proportion of time can be devised for this then the proportion of one day in seven And herein let us oppose Azorius to Tostatus if Tostatus doe oppose the morality of one day in seven which is more then I finde a Papist to confront a Papist who plainly affirmeth Rationi maximè consentaneum esse that it is most agreeable to reason that after six workedayes one day should bee consecrated to the service of God Especially since God hath discovered unto us that this is his good pleasure namely that one day in seven should be consecrated unto his service First that we might not be left at large to our own hearts to proportion out the time for Gods Service Secondly for the maintenance of uniformity herein amongst his people who being left unto themselves might and in all
of travellours nay our life is a warfare and the Divell and his angells of darknesse goe about continually like so many roaring Lyons and hungry Beares seeking whom they may devoure So that we travell to Heaven as it were by dennes of Lyons and over mountaines of Libbards And will any wise man say that it matters not much in this case whether we acquaint our selves with the Armour of God one day in a weeke or one day in a moneth or one day in a yeare to arme our selves against such ghostly and watchfull enemies Secondly considering that it was never knowne that any master from the highest to the lowest was so foolish to leave it to his servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes fit wherewith to satisfie his master for his keeping and for the wages which he expecteth at his hands These things considered I say this first argument of Doctor Wallaeus is of great evidence and force and therefore it is to be well weighed and considered what answer either Doctor Rivetus or any other doth make unto it and what satisfaction it gives Now the answer that hee makes unto it proceeds not in his owne name but in the name of another to wit in the name of Gomarus and such as concurre with him To this they answer saith he that it is no inconvenience that there is no certaine number or circle of dayes defined for Gods service by any precept It is enough that the nature of publique worship in generall comprehended in the fourth Commandement doth require that not only certaine dayes be observed but that the number of them be sufficient also nor fewer then the right institution of the Church the salvation of men and glory of God doe require and that God by not defining it hath not left unto us a wild licentiousnes but a prudent liberty And therefore that it cannot be differred to one day in twenty or thirty much lesse to one of a thousand 2. Over and above they note saith he that from the morall reason of precept it is gathered what number of dayes is sufficient for Divine Service namely that seeing we are eased of the burden of ceremonies whereof the Iewes were not and yet God required one day in seven to be kept holy by them we may be more frequent in Divine offices but ought not to be lesse but yet that GOD hath not precisely tied Christians to any that is as I take it to any day in the weeke whereas it should be to any proportion of time otherwise it is nothing to the present purpose 3. Doctor Rivetus addes this of his owne that Whereas this also is morall that some rest be granted to servants and labourers in charity the labour for so many dayes cannot be exacted of them without some rest To this I reply Here we have acknowledged that not only some time but also a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Gods publique service and that by the very light of nature for that I conceave to be his meaning and not with reference to the precise Commandement commanding it but with reference unto it as it is morall and so acknowledged by light of nature For it is apparent that the Commandement in requiring a seventh doth therein require one day in seven and not leave it at randome what proportion of time but defines it 2. I appeale to every mans conscience and that as guided by the very light of nature so farre as it may be justly thought to be incorrupt whether it be not more fit the Lord himselfe should set downe what proportion of time he thinkes sufficient then that the definition hereof should be left to the servant and that for these considerations 1. If it be left unto man how improbable is it that all the Nations of the World as Christians are or may be found in all will concurre in judgement and if they doe not who seeth not what a way is hereby opened to miserable distraction and confusion consider what Socrates hath written of different rites in keeping Lent and in observing holydayes 2. If it be left to man it is very likely that little enough will be thought sufficient so burthensome unto flesh and bloud is Gods service and the major part in most Nations if not in all even of the best as is to be feared is not truly regenerate Foras our Saviour tells us though many be called yet but few are chosen 3. upon this he concludes it may not be differred to the twentieth day yet it is well knowne that Brentius hath professed it may be differred to the fourteenth upon Leviticus 25. 8. as Doctor Bownde alleageth him Now if so great a writer hath beene of opinion that from the seventh it may be put off to the 14 th why may not another rise up and maintaine that from the fourteenth it may bee put off to the twentieth so dangerous it is to forsake that light which God hath given us in his Word and by way of divination hunt after a new light of evidence in the counsailes of our owne hearts In the light of my conscience it seemes most absurd that it should be left to the servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes good unto his master 2. It is well that both he and Gomarus thinke we are bound to cut out a better proportion of Gods Service then was prescribed to the Iewes rather then a worse yet Brentius as great a writer as any of these thinkes otherwise as wee have heard 3. doth only our freedome from the yoke of ceremonies requires this and not much more 1. the love of God revealed unto us in Christ in the dayes of the Gospell 2. the encombrance of Gods Truth with errors and heresies and those very dangerous ones 3. and in a word the strong opposition that in these daies of the Gospell is made and will be made more and more as the end of all things doth approach both unto faith and holinesse It is noted to be the sinne of Christendom not to receave the love of the truth 2 Thess 2. And of these latter times Paul hath prophesied that men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 3. as for this opinion of Gomarus and Rivetus I am glad they are so farre convicted of truth in this argument as to professe that we ought to keepe holy rather more dayes then fewer But why then doe not the states of Holland under whom they live if they be of the same opinion make it good by practise And the French-Churches also But they want example in antiquity for this Who seeth not that this is delivered onely to serve turne and helpe at a dead lift when no other way is open to shift off the Argument 3. And lastly whereas he grants with Calvin that after so many dayes to wit after six for no other number was specifyed rest must bee granted to servants on the
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 Ursine 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 Paspassion 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 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 Iesus 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 nascentis 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
would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecast And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the counsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Apoc. 1. 10. in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord rose from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all
worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24. 20. and what should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16. 2. and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2. 42. and Paul commands the Corinths to doe this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S. Iohn Like as the Sabbath in the Old Testament is called the Lords Day which which if he had and withall considered how strange it were for us to set any day in the weeke apart for the exercises of Piety rather then the Lords Day I am perswaded hee would not have contented himselfe with this answer For certainly many other holy dayes have beene and are set apart for Divine Service yet never were called any one of them the Lords day He talkes of a bare custome of the Church for it a thing incredible that both Jewes and Gentiles throughout all Nations should so universally concurre without the guidance of some authorative constitution or some generally convincing evidence by the very light of common Christian evidence or both And as for liberty left to the Church hereabout it seemeth so unreasonable unto my poore judgement that if it were it should become us by earnest and hearty prayer to seeke unto God to take that liberty from us and bee pleased himselfe to guide us by some manifest ordinance to prevent dissension and confusion yet well fare Doctor Rivetus hee will not have this liberty extend any further then provided that some reason and necessity should urge the changing of the day for in the next columne hee professeth that a sufficient cause of the change and abrogation of the day cannot bee given The observation of other dayes and particularly of the Sabbath as well as the Lords Day by some in the Primitive Church is no evidence at all that it was indifferent unto them whether they would observe the Lords Day or no. The third argument Rivetus omits the fourth is this That which was prefigured in that it was prefigured was prescribed But the Lords Day was prefigured in the eighth day wherin the children of the Iewes were circumcised therefore it was prescribed to be kept the eighth day This the ancient Fathers by name Cyprian and Austin have reasoned and taught To this Doctor Rivetus answers by denying the assumption and saying that no probable reason can be brought to prove that day was prefigured by the eighth day wherein children were circumcised And indeed that day being the eighth day after birth doth not so conveniently denote the first day of the weeke But Master Perkins his argument hath another part farre more principall drawne from
Psal 118. 22. 23. 24. Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Heresh bachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made head of the corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118. 24. and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1. 10. Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2. 4. Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and opportunities are delivered in reference to the periods and changing of Kingdomes and Monarchies as appeares by the argument of the Prophecy And no more doth D. Rivetus deliver in excepting against his annotations for as he acknowledgeth M. Perkins scriptorem modestissimum a most modest writer so he carryeth himselfe most modestly towards him But I hope without any breach of modesty I may professe that I find no accuratenesse in each of his allegations save one namely that wherein Christ professeth himself Lord of the Sabbath and it is enough for the present that God reserves to himself power of ordering times for his service yet it cannot be denied but God hath left power to his Church upon good occasion to set some time apart for exercise of piety But whereas it is apparant that God himselfe tooke upon him the ordering of the time for the Sabbath and accordingly Christ calls himselfe The Lord of the Sabbath as he constituted it so none but he can abrogate it and ordaine another in the place of it Now whereas D. Rivetus saith that hee hath left this power unto his Church it stands him upon to prove it We find our Saviour supposeth us Christians to have a Sabbath after his resurrection Matth. 24. 20. as well as the Jewes had before wee find that in the Apostles dayes the first day of the weeke was set apart for this which could not be but by the joynt consent of the Apostles we find that the day of the weeke not the day of the yeere wherein Christ rose by Saint Iohn himselfe called the Lords Day an evident argument that in his time it was so generally received We find that never any worke of God did give better cause to professe that The day thereof was the day that the Lord had made let us be glad and rejoyce therein then the day wherein Christ rose from the dead and thereby was declared to be the Sonne of God even that stone which the builders refused to be made the head of the corner And how strange is it that the Church for 1500. yeeres space should no where offer to alter it if in no other respect yet in this to manifest that the Church is indued with such liberty and power and to prevent the superstitious observation of the day as a thing necessary if it be not necessary Lastly if this liberty be still in the
shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place of effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24. 20. as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for prosaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in case of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanatious of the Sabbath in the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietaete Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and
my selfe and takes but one to himselfe of which I rob him also No no assuredly I shall not be able to indure his wrath for these things one day and therefore I will leave them and regard his holy day hereafter better than I have done And in his exposition of the Commandements by way of question and answer p. 44. reproves expressely Summer-games on the Lords Day and in his Examen of conscience annexed to the fourth Commandement he speakes against going to Church-ales and Summer-games nay is it not apparent that by the very act of Parliament 1◠Caroli that to goe out of a mans owne parish about any sports or pastimes on the Sabbath day is to profane the Sabbath For to prevent the profanation of the Sabbath is that statute made Now unlesse the sports themselves be profanations of the Sabbath it is as evident that to goe forth of a mans parish unto such sports is no profanation any more than to goe out of a mans parish walking or to conferre in pious manner with a friend or to fetch a Physitian or Surgeon if need be or to heare a Sermon And it is very strange that wee of the reformed Churches shall justifie such liberty on the Lords Day which Papists condemne on their holy dayes who usually complaine of dancing upon such dayes as Polydor Virgil upon Luke and Parisiensis de legibus cap. 4. And of old such courses have beene forbidden by the decrees of Leo and Anthemius Emperours It is condemned also in the synod of Toledo Can. 23. as Baldwin the Lutheran shewes who also writes devoutly against such courses on the Lords Day and gives this reason For if the labours of our calling are forbidden in the holy day how much more such recreations and p. 48. He shewed how the Sabbath was profaned by unchast dancings and any manner of wantonnesse what need I here to make mention of Austin who professeth and that against the Jewes that it is better to goe to plow then to dance and that it were better for their Women to spin Wooll then immodestly to dance as they did yet now a dayes such as oppose the same courses as Austin did are censured for Judaizing thus the World seemes to be turned upside downe Is it not high time Christ should come to set an end to it Dielericus the Lutherane complaines of the like profanations of the Sabbath too much in course amongst them in his Analysis of the Gospells for the Lords Day p. 559. and let every Christian conscience be judge whether to follow May-poles May-games and Morrice dancing be to sanctifie the Sabbath as God commands if any man shall say that the fourth Commandement concerned the Jewes and not us Christians hee must therewithall renounce the booke of Homilies For it professeth that this Commandement binds us to the observation of our Sabbath which is Sunday the words are these So if we will be the children of our Heavenly Father we must be carefull to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods Commandement but also to declare our selves to be loving children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Then complaining how the Sabbath is profaned Some use all dayes alike The other sort worse For although they will not travaile nor labour on the Sunday yet they will not rest in holinesse as God commandeth but they rest in ungodlinesse and filthinesse prancing in their pride pranking and pricking poynting painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay They rest in excesse superflutty in gluttony and drunkennesse like Rats and Swin they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in want onnesse in toyish talking in filthy fleshlinesse and concludes after this manner so that it doth too evidently appeare that God is more dishonored and the Divell better served on Sunday then upon all the dayes of the weeke beside And that distinction which Calvin makes of the Jewish observation of the Sabbath and our Christian observation of a Sabbath is for ought I know generally receaved of all and the distinction is this that the Jewes observed their Sabbath so strictly in the point of rest for a mysterious signification but wee observe it in resting from other works so farre forth as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations now it is apparant that sports and pleasures are as strong avocations from holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8. 14. And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as atany other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use
because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38. 7. When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16. 31. And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7. 3. 5. and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52. 12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7. 5. they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22. 12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping a festivall unto him when hee calleth us thereunto lest otherwise it prove out of season when it is begun a long time after and utterly neglected upon the fresh memory thereof Wee reade that when the Ilienses inhabitants of Ilium called anciently by the name of Troy sent an Embassage to Tiberius to condole the death of his Father Augustus hee considering the unseasonablenesse thereof it being a long time after his death requited them accordingly saying that hee was sorry for their heavinesse also having lost so renowned a Knight as Hector was to wit above a thousand years before in the warres of Troy Surely when in the fourth Commandement and in the reason given it is sayd For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it it stands with far better reason to conceave the meaning hereof in reference to time past thus therefore the Lord commanded the sanctification of it 2500 yeares before then to understand Moses words Gen. 2. 3. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it in reference to the time to come thus therefore the Lord commanded that seventh day to be sanctified 2500 yeares after And observe I pray the forme of words in the fourth Commandement when it is sayd Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it not of the time present that hee now doth blesse it and sanctify it but of the time past therefore hee did blesse it and sanctifie it and when I pray but immediately from the Creation that very day whereon hee first rested and consequently that very day he commanded the seventh day to be sanctified for to sanctifie the day is to command the sanctification of it as is confessed otherwise there were no place to plead anticipation And that the phrase of speech must signifie Gods Command for the sanctification of it I have already proved As for the Fathers affirming that the ancient Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath albeit their authority is of no force to countervaile so manifest evidence both of Scripture it selfe and of the reason drawne from the division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continued unto the Jewes in the very dayes of Moses Yet I may be bold to say we have better authority from the ancients for justifying of our cause than our adversaries have for theirs
the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferiour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andreues also sheweth out of Math. 24. 20. that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed as the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1. 10. And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58. 13. not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10 th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall
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 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 destroy the law but to fulfill it and that the least of them should not be abrogated in his kingdome of the new Testament In so much that whosoever breaketh one of the least of these tenne commandments and teacheth men so hee should be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven that is saith the Author he should have no place in his Church To the first of these here the Doctor answereth thus To which we say with the Apostle Doe we destroy the Law by faith God forbid We confirme it rather 2 Christ then hath put away the shadow but retained the light and spreads it wider then before shewing thereby the excellent harmony betweene the Gospell and the Law As touching the first part of this present answer that is too aliene from our present purpose the question betweene us being not whether the Law be destroyed by preaching justification by faith we know that as touching the ceremoniall Law whatsoever was prefigured thereby is fulfilled by Christ and as touching the morall Law Christ hath fulfilled that also partly in himselfe by perfect obedience thereunto and making satisfaction for our disobedience and partly in us by giving us more power to performe obedience thereunto through faith in him then ever we had before since the fall of Adam But our Saviour Matth. 5. treats of destroying the law by abrogating it or any part thereof which how they can avoid who teach that Christ by his death hath freed us from the Yoke of the fourth commandement I cannot comprehend Suppose it be but one of the least commandements yet let them looke to it who discourse of abrogating it and teach men that they are not obliged by it hand over head least they be accompted by the Lord of Sabbath the least in the kingdome of heaven therefore it stands them upon to confirme it rather as they professe but how they doe performe that which they pretend I am utterly to seeke 2. I come therefore to the consideration of the second part of the answer consisting of two parts 1. That Christ hath put away the shadow 2. That he hath retained the light spreads it further As for the first wee have heard the proportion of one day in seven allowed unto Gods service to be called a ceremony and consequently a shadow But what this prefigured is not explaned at all nor ever hath beene that ever I read or heard Neither is this put away but continueth still in the observation of the Lords day all the Christian world over and I doubt not but it will continue to the end of the world The restraint of the worship to the seventh day hath beene also called
grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that w ch is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118. 24. of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congruity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the
OF THE MORALITY OF THE Fourth Commandement AS STILL IN FORCE TO BINDE CHRISTIANS Delivered by way of Answer to the Translator of Doctor Prideaux his Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath Divided into two parts 1. An answer to the Prefacer 2. A consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture Written by William Twisse D. D. and Pastor of Newbury Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath Day to keepe it holy Mat. 5. 17. Thinke not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill verse 18 For verily I say unto you Till Heaven and Earth passe one jot or one tittle shall in no wise passe from the Law till all be fulfilled verse 19 Whosoever therefore shall breake one of these least Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the kingdome of Heaven LONDON Printed by E. G. for Iohn Rothwell and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Sunne in Pauls-Church-yard 1641. The Contents of the chiefe matters handled herein IN the answer to the Prefacer Section 1. 1. The ancients are alleadged in vaine to oppose the Institution of the Sabbath as from the beginning Section 2. 2. The untruth of the Praefacers legends concerning Peter Bruis Fulco and Eustathius and others discovered Section 3. 3. Calvin abused by the Prefacer and misconstrued 2. What credite Barclay deserves relating a consultation of Calvin about transferring the Sabbath to the Thursday 3. Of the force of Apostolicall example Section 4. 4. The vanity of the Prefacers pretence in saying Catarinus opposed Tostatus with ill successe while he maintained the Institution of the Sabbath from the Creation It is made apparant that his successe was far beyond that of Tostatus 2. Whether Adam fell the first day wherein he was created 1. Pererius his arguments for the negative Sect. 4. 2. Doctor Willet his arguments for the affirmative Sect. 4. 3. Pererius his reasons against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation answered 4. Two Digressions in answer to Rivetus in two particular 1. By way of reply upon his answer to Walaeus his arguments justifying the moraltty of one day in seven 2. To his arguments opposing the morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord. Section 5. 5. A consideration of Walaeus his discourse in answer to those who conceave the institution of the Lords Day to have beene ordered by Christ himselfe 2. An examination of that phrase of some of our Davines affirming the ancients to have changed the Iewes Sabbath unto the Lords Day for a probable cause wherein it is shewed that the cause hereof was more then probable Section 6. 6. An examination of Chemnitius his discourse concerning the authority of the Lords Day 2. A reply upon Doctor Rivets answer to Master Perkins his arguments standing for the Divine authority of the Lords Day 3. That the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are so called in the same notion 1. affirmed by Doctor Andrewes Perkins Thysius 2. justified by good reason Section 7. 7. A briefe of the arguments on each side for every point 1. As touching the originall institution of the Sabbath 2. As touching the Morality of one day in seven to be consecrated to Gods solemne worship 3. As touching the authority of the celebration of the Lords Day and the immutability thereof 8. The Prefacer and M. Rogers opposing D. Bownde are shewed in every particular to oppose D. Andrewes IN the consideration of D. Prideaux his Lecture 1. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the time which ought to be set apart for Gods solemne service Section 2. 2. Reasons why the Creator should prescribe the proportion of time to be consecrated unto himselfe Section 2. 6. 3. How far light of nature doth direct as touching the particularity of the day under the proportion of one in seven Sect. the same Section 2. 6. 4. That Enosh with his holy company apparting themselves from others had a set time for divine worship Section 3. 5. That it becomes not us to affect liberty to designe the day for the Sabbath Section 6. 6 The danger of leaving it to man to make choyse of the day Section 6. 7. That the clebration of the Lords Day is of divine institution and how far justified by the old Testament and particularly by the fourth Commandement Section 7. 8. That it is nothing strange the Lords Day should be called by the name of the Sabbath Section 8. 2. Sensuall pleasures are cleanly caried under the title of recreation Section 8. The Preface I Have now a long time taken notice of much difference and contention about the morality of the fourth Commandement but I never gave my selfe to looke into the bottome of it till now I ever conceived it for the substance to be Morall otherwise what should it make among the ten Commandements which all account the Law morall in distinction both from the law judiciall and the law ceremoniall given by Moses unto the Jewes These ten Commandements the Lord spake from the top of mount Sina in the hearing of all the people and by way of preparation to so notable a service as to meet with God and to heare him speake unto them two dayes were given them to sanctifie themselves and to wash their cloathes that they might be ready on the third day for the third day the Lord would come downe on mount Sina And so it came to passe For when Moses brought forth the people out of the Campe to meet with God and they stood at the nether part of the Mount Mount Sina was altogether on a smoake because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoake thereof ascended as the smoake of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly And all the people saw the thundrings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountaine smoaking and when the people saw it they removed and stood a farre off In such heavenly state was this Law delivered and remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy amongst the rest without all example of the like in all the generations that went before And the Lord thought it sit to mind them hereof by his servant Moses Aske now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man upon the earth and aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it Did ever people heare the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as thou hast heard and live Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and upon the earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed
of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to betheir rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21. 24. once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down
of fire was forbidden onely for the works to be done about making the Tabernacle This being delivered as a preface Exod. 35. 2. when the free will offerings were now to be receaved for the promoting of the workemanship of that which formerly was commanded And that dressing of meate was not forbidden them no not in the gathering of Manna as some thinke if then yet not as a generall course to be observed for ever And as touching the Table that Nehemiah kept thus we reade Moreover there were at my Table an 150. of the Iewes and rulers which came unto us from among the Heathen that are about us And there was prepared daily an Oxe and six chosen Sheepe and Birds were prepared for me and hee was so farre from consciousnesse of profaning the Lords Sabbath herein that hee concludes thus Remember me O my God in goodnesse according to all that I have done for this people But suppose they were tied so strictly to such a rest as from workes not servile onely in seeking againe as Zanchy instanceth the condition of a worke servile but even from such as tended to the refreshing of their natures yet the reason hereof depended upon the mysterious signification of this rest as formerly I have represented out of Lyra from which ceremoniality wee are absolved and consequently freed from that rigorous rest depending thereupon and rest onely from works so farre forth as they are avocations from Sacred Studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and this wee accompt a morall rest distinguished from ceremoniall And whereas the Doctor tells us that such a like distinction is infirme being content to say nothing to confirme it save that the Text as hee saith affords it not I had thought the very light of nature had beene sufficient to embolden us to conclude that where the sanctification of the day is commanded therewithall is commanded abstinence from all such things as would hinder the sanctification of it And as for the text it selfe it is apparent that neither the kindling of the fire nor dressing of meate is particularly forbidden in the fourth Commandement Neither doth hee so much as obtrude upon his adversaries that they derive the sanctification of their christian Sabbath from ought in the old Testament save from Gen. 2. 3. and from the fourth Commandement In neither of which doth he deale fairely but is content to confound things that differ as if in this particular he affected to fish in troubled waters and we have better evidence and indeed it is our only evidence therence out of the old Testament for the festivity of the Lords day then he is willing to take notice of namely out of the Psal 118. 24. Neither is it possible he should be ignorant thereof howsoever hee doth dissemble his knowledge of it Yet I hope it is enough for us to finde evidence for it in the Sunshine of the Gospell and indeed here alone we have the originall observation of it though that it should be observed is as evidently prophecied in the old Testament as that Christ is the stone which was first refused of the builders and after made the head of the corner adding only this unto it that the day wherein the Lord did this and made so glorious a worke marvellous in the eyes of men was the day of the resurrection which I suppose no intelligent Christian will deny I come unto the 6. Section 6 Who they be that make their boast that they have found the institution of the Lords day in the new Testament expressely J willingly professe I know not neither doe I thinke the Doctor knowes It is true our Saviour oftentimes disputed with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath day which at length degenerated into voluptuous living on that day in so much that Austin tells the Jewes plainly It is better to goe to plough then to dance but if hereupon you aske where is any the least suspicion of the abrogating of it I answer every one knowes The time was not yet come for the abrogating of it Nay he discourseth so as if 40. yeares after his death the observation of the Sabbath should continue as when he exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24. 20. what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe musling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18. 21. I
corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made for 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 perfect is 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 A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Natura 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 single Person But we must take care Ne quid nimis in victu joy c. Alogia which S. Austin reproves Epist. 86. ad Casulanum must not be used And we must keepe the Apostles rule Whether wee eat or drinke we must doe all to the glory of God And it were to bee wished that the old practice whereof there is a Patterne in the Kings house some Cathedrall Churches were every where in use That at six a Clock in the Morning Prayers were every where appointed for Servants and such as were to prepare dinner to goe then to Church at whose returne the Masters might goe with the rest of their familie As for other recreations if they be not opposite or prejudiciall to Piety they may well stand with the solemnizing of the Sabbath and other feasts Too much Austerity doth rather hurt then good especially in those dayes wherein Indulgence where of we have Patternes in Gods Synchoreticall Lawes is extorted from those that are in Authoritie by the generall corruption of the time Wherefore I would distinguish in such cases betweene the Precept and permission The Precept sheweth whereunto men should tend and be exhorted and it were to be wished they would follow and keepe the Lords Day as they are directed by the Canon and Injunction The Permission sheweth what must be tollerated for the hardnesse of mens hearts Vacation from bodily labour is required both Perse for it is a figure of our freedome from those Animall toyles in the Church Triumphant and also Propter aliud that we may the better intend our spirituall life To conclude all seeing all agree that it must be observed and differ onely upon what ground and how farre seeing to fetch the authority from God and to keepe it with all reasonable strictnesse maketh most for Piety in a doubtfull case I incline thither though I condemne not them that are otherwise minded wishing that sobriety of judgement to all in such disputes which Saint Paul commendeth Rom. c. 14. FINIS An Errata IN the preface p. 8. li. 22. 23. it is so far to be accompted morall In the treatise p. 3. l. 20. report read repent p. 7. l. 28. to seale reade to steale p. 36. l. 35. a new Father r. a new master p. 37. l. 31. Mockel p. 38. l. 6. blot out and p. 39. l. 32. wee r. who r. 41 l. 8. would read could p. 48. l. 2. â—â—loponus p. 50. l. 39. rather then p. 53. l. 31. unto p. 56. l. 3. from sins read for sins p. 59 l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 33. purse read purpose p. 110. l. 10. 6toh read both p. 110. l. 16. and by sending the holy Ghost p. 122. l. 2. read Rom 1. 4 p. 122. l. the last now read was p. 129. l. 4. read because on that day p. 133. l. 9. Qua read quae page 137. l. 5. his read is p. 144. l. 23. some without read shins with