{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to preach to pray to break bread on this day and B. White averreth as much And as to that Text of Acts 2. vers. 46. whether the margent of our English Testament transmitteth us I say that it is not inevitably not evidently to be understood of common food For f Humbertus taketh it for the Eucharist Behold the true Evangelist testifieth that the faithfull in the Apostolicall times assembled every day in Prayer and breaking of bread what are you then who say that full Masse that is the celebrating of the Eucharist ought to be performed onely twice a week And though the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may seem to boulster out the contrary opinion yet if you take them as they are both by the Syriack and Arabick and our own margent rendered for At home the meaning may very consonant to truth be as my learned * Tutour conceiveth That when they had performed their dayly devotions in the Temple at the accustomed times of Prayer there they used to resort to this Coenaculum immediately and there having celebrated the mysticall banquet of the holy Eucharist afterward took their ordinary repast with gladnesse and singlenesse of heart In which interpretation there is enough to reconcile both parts something for illustration being super-added For the holy Ghost doth here so I take it regard the practice of the Christians in their Love-feasts g and happily from hence they took their commencement which consisting of divers viands provided by a common purse and collation their fashion was to take so much thereof as they thought sufficient for the Communicants and so to celebrate the Lords Supper together which done they presently fell to their spare and slender chear entertaining and solacing themselves with spirituall and divine colloquies So that the fraction of bread here might have reference to their mysticall repast in the blessed Eucharist which was the first course or part of their Agape and the latter part of the verse might look at the other part thereof viz. corporall refection Their next cavill is that this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} denoteth not the first but some one day of the week wherein as they are become Separatists from our Church in her most absolute Translation so them and her I leave to end the quarrel We meet with it also 1. Cor. 16.1 and there an ordinance of the Apostles that their oblations should be upon that day Now I would gladly learn why this day rather then any other should be appointed for an Almes-day had it not been observed Holy in those times Lastly we meet with it Apoc. 1.10 but not now as formerly styled the First day of the week but apparelled in a Christian name and called the Lords-day which certainly the holy Ghost would not have done had it not passed for currant amongst Christians by that name and how could it obtain that name had it not been destined then to religious actions as a weekly holy-day Laying all these premised evidences of Apostolick practice together do they not clearly demonstrate the translation of the Sabbath into the Lords day For why should the Christian Church even in those times when every day was sanctified with devout exercises and seemed an holy Sabbath select any one distinct and peculiar day to be kept holy and why one in a week rather then in a moneth or yeare and why not in the weekly circuit the old Sabbath rather then the Lords day had not God some way made known his will to them that he would still have a Sabbath exempted from the common condition of other dayes that Sabbath to be weekly and that weekly not the old Jewish but the new Christian to be the first of the week as dignified by the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Anabaptisme of the Apostles Vtrumque mysterium nostrum utrumque utilitas nostrae as Hierome a in another case Dispensers both of inestimable benefits upon his Church the one of her justification the other of her sanctification and so this day a fit memoriall of both But here it will be demanded By whom this translation was made and to clear this doubt Hic labor hoc opus est Athanasius the great hath resolutely affirmed that Christ was the authour thereof {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Lord translated the Sabbath into the Lords day But some have found as they think an evasion for this viz. That Christ was not the authour by any mandate of his but onely the occasion of the translation which unparalleled glosse suggests to my memory that of Augustine b It is easie with every man to reply who can not hold his tongue But let us look upon the colour or fucus wherewith this interpretation as false as new is dawbed over and see if it will not with great facility wash off If Christ himself translated it then the Father thwarteth what he said before c where he tells us that the Lords day was taken up as a voluntary usage {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we honour the Lords day he mentions no command whereas of the Sabbath he saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} he commanded it to be kept This indeed were something to decline our objection out of the Father if we were not assured otherwise of his mind for apparent it is that the Father neither regarded in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} voluntary usage nor in his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} imposed command for do we not meet in him the same in effect counter-changed Doth he not elswhere say as much of the Sabbath as here of the Lords day That when God had finished the prime creation he rested and therefore men did OBSERVE the Sabbath in those dayes while the first creation was especially in force d He mentions here no command was therefore their observation of the Sabbath a voluntary usage Nay saith he not as much of the Lords day as of the Sabbath e When God had renewed and restored man by finishing the work of redemption he willed that the same day should be dedicated to that Restauration which the holy Ghost foreshewed by the Prophet saying This is the day which the Lord hath made And again f Gods will was that the Lords day should be manifest and declared that thou mayest know the end of the first generation to be accomplished What say you now Sir will your ingenuity descend to recant or your pregnant invention afford you another refuge Now there be many wayes by which Christ may be said to be the Translatour of the Sabbath Either by immediate institution and example as Junius a or by ratifying and approving the Translation already made by the Apostles as Maldonate b or by giving them direct and expresse commission to do it or lastly by revealing his
of one in a week was ceremoniall and so abrogated I answer prove you it ceremoniall and I will yield it abrogated but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shewn us whereby we might be perswaded to conceive it ceremoniall nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it For first it was not typicall it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplisht under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but six thousand years and then the day of judgement shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no ceremony proved for that time is not yet elapsed and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so that this rather evinceth the duration then abrogation of this limitation Secondly it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan the proper place of ceremonies nor yet to the Jews upon whom it was not imposed as Jews as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles If you object Exod. 31.13 17. Ezech. 20.12 20. where the Sabbath is called a signe betwixt God and them I say the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles that is confest but was it so as a seventh day No that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day not any thing in the number of seven Gods seposing of a certain time for their and onely their for God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped a Sanctification was an argument that he had an especiall care of them above others and that they were his onely people It was not imposed as an heavy burthen upon the Jews If the sequestring one day in a week had been burthensome to them it would be also a grievance now to us Christians who observe the same But we are under the law of grace and liberty exempted from such pressures and if it were in any respect onerous we would and might renounce it so that it being not to us heavy it is consequently probable that it was to them tolerable And indeed in the explanation of the law or rather application of it to the state of the Jews it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort and refreshing as of mercy and and favour then of rigour or severity then of depression and of servitude Lastly it was not commanded in recognition of any speciall favour conferred upon the Jews It was a memoriall of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his resting on the seventh but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves And so in respect of this Character as of the three preceding no tidings of a ceremony yet and so no cause of abolition for you will not have more abrogated then was ceremoniall will you If you say it was and must be ceremoniall for morall it was not and therefore positive and because positive ceremoniall I answer denying that positive either necessarily implyeth ceremoniall or excludeth morall Nay more disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no Sure I am a great Prelate d hath resolved it In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place and so e Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary whether the imposition be Divine or Humane it constituteth in my opinion a Law positive denominated accordingly Be it then Positive is it therefore ceremoniall or not morall Let the definition of either word end the strife Morall is derived from mores or mos and may be defined as Lirinensis f doth Catholick Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That which hath been observed every where alwayes and of all men And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymall with what Civilians call Jus Gentium or the Law of Nations yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies as to Gods Church and so what hath been alwayes observed in his Church may not unfitly be called morall and then the observation of a weekly day will become so too yet with this restriction and difference that one is morall by Naturall infusion the other by externall Imposition g But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of Morall yet can you never prove that it must inevitably inferre ceremoniall for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable to last but a while their etymologie giveth them that definition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} therefore they who write ceremonie do ill deduce it from Ceres whereas Positive laws may be and are some of them immutable The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees decimation and tithing were Positive and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable The last I am sure you demand by virtue of the first injunction Nor doth the tenth content you you are you think defrauded of your right unlesse we allow it as due jure Divino the truth whereof is here not to be discussed and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative yet this for undeniable veritie I dare and do averre that to evince a jus Divinum there is farre infinitely farre clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lords day then for Tithes But I digresse All Laws Divine derive their firmnesse or mutability two wayes either from that which giveth them their first constitution Reason Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum as the Reason is permanent or moveable so is the Law for the form of all laws is the reason as that which diversifieth all things is the form or from the subject or matter about which they are conversant for if that be constant the law must also be the same For those Laws Divine which belong whether naturally or supernaturally to men as men or to men as they live in Politick society or to men as they are of that politick society which is the Church without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men and of societies of men and of the Church it self is subject to in this world all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever although they be positive laws unlesse being positive God himself that made them altereth them saith Hooker Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable therefore the Law it self for that cause also though at first positive must be so And that it was imposed on Gods Church without respect had to any particular Place People Time or the like variable occasion is so clear as none can solidly refute and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church for which it was first
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
Church as appeareth by the Rubrick of her book of Ordination of B. P. and Deacons b So that your assurance as sure as you take yourself to be may in this for ought I see deceive you But be it as you would that such an election is not to be found expresly written yet will it neither follow that it being an unwritten Tradition Apostolicall it is not Divine or that Cyprian in that place thought so What his opinion there was I have already told you and sure I am his words as well agree with your new-fangled distinction as if he and you had been at crosse purposes As for Traditions Apostolicall the greatest Papists hold them for divine So Bellarmine c and his reason is Quòd non sine spiritu Dei eas Apostoli instituerint Because the Apostles did not institute them without the direction of the holy Ghost And for the same cause Roffensis d calleth Consecration by which Transubstantiation is effected a divine Tradition Licèt nullis possit Scripturis comprobari Though it cannot be proved by any written Word But none more home then Gerson e It is not in the power of the Pope Counsel or Church to alter Traditions delivered either by the Evangelists or Saint Paul as some blunderers think Thus you see your self deserted by them whom you took to be the greatest fautours of your opinion Let me advise you Sir if you have any more distinctions of the same stuff with those former habitent tecum sint pectore in isto suppresse them for they will never credit you Though I have by main force of this invincible argument of Apostolicall Institution and Tradition reinvested the Lords Day into a possession of Jus divinum assured and confirmed enough against all machinations of her greatest oppugners yet wanteth she not other should need so require auxiliary to her For that Evangelicall day which was prophecied of and prefigured in and under the old Law could not certainly be an humane device But the Lords Day was shadowed under Circūcision on the eighth day prophecied in many Psalmes both proved by sufficient Testimony of the Fathers Ergò the Lords Day is no humane ordinance Lastly as the Eucharist is called the Lords Supper because he instituted it for the same reason is the Sunday denominated the Lords Day For these two the Day and the Supper have the epithete of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Scripture to shew that Dominicum is alike to be taken in both saith B. Andrews Before I take cognizance of other questions pertinent to the Lords Day lest I be thought over partiall to mine own assertion painting it as Apelles did one-eyed Antigonus who presented him half faced and lest our adversaries should upbraid us that they have not been allowed to object the negative arguments shall have audience and as they lie in order their refutation Whatsoever is of Divine Institution is to be found either in the naturall or positive Law of God But that the First day of the week should be the Christian mans Sabbath is not so found Ergò the Lords Day no divine Ordinance It is found in the positive Law of God delivered by his Apostles and founded upon the moralitie of the fourth Commandment as I formerly shewed But saith one You onely shewed what the Apostles observed themselves that they imposed the keeping of the Lords Day as necessary upon the conscience of Gods people by any law or precept whatsoever that we reade not and so it will become a Tradition which though Apostolicall is no Commandment Is not this fine stuff assuredly an argument rather that they have not left speech then that they are returned to their right senses for to omit Augustine's sanxerunt Bucer Junius Beza and others who make it the Institution of the Apostles doth not Brerewood himself confesse it to be the ordinance of the Apostles and B. White b the same also what I pray is an Ordinance but a Law and was this a Law that bound themselves onely and not at all the succeeding Church is it like they would constitute a Law to expire with themselves And whereas we are now taught a distinction betwixt Tradition and Command we will for quiet sake though it biddeth defiance to all antiquity admit it in the same sense you impose upon it and accept it for a mere leaving of the observation of this day to the Church without any expresse command to observe it yet I say you shall find Command so implicitly complicated with Apostolicall Tradition as all your waters of separation all your chymicall extracts of School-distinctions shall never be able to sever them For are you able to unmake Tradition to make that no Tradition which is Tradition If you be not so long as it is Tradition it hath expresse command affixt to it Tenete Traditiones Hold the Traditions 2. Thess. 2.15 So that if Tradition were it self no command yet hath it here command annext to it And though I grant that our Expositours understand this place especially of the written word yet extend they it to Traditions unwritten also such as are clearly held to be Apostolicall and have if not mention yet foundation in Scripture amongst which the observation of the Lords Day is worthily accounted a It hath the approbation of the Scriptures and therefore cannot be numbred amongst unwritten Traditions saith the Reverend Salisbury with others b And for the Church succeeding the Apostles it is most evident she held her self obliged to the same observation For even in times of persecution before any either imperiall Edict or Canon of Councel enjoned it the observation of this Day was so taken notice of by the Heathen that it became a constant Interrogatory to the Christians in their examining Dominicum servasti Have you kept the Lords Day To which their answer was ever ready c I cannot intermit it for I am a Christian and the Law of God prompteth me to it Here we see these holy Saints had a Law for the celebrating of this day and have we none Perhaps you will say It may be questioned whether Dominicum here signifieth the Lords Day because Baronius d and Bellarmine e apply it to the Masse and it may also well be understood of the Eucharist which is often in antiquity called Dominicum I answer It cannot properly and distinctly be understood of either Not of the Masse for though Papists inform their disciples of I know not what pro-sekenique antiquitie it hath yet sure we are that as now stated it was not in being above a thousand years after our Saviour and so it could not be meant in this place Besides the question was propounded as well to the Lay as Clergy-Christians of whom it had been absurd to expostulate Num Dominicum egissent whether they had said Masse which is onely done by the Priest Nor can it respect the
Eucharist otherwise then by implication as it was then an usuall work of that day because it is said that they might not intermittere which especially relateth to time as interpose to place and inferreth the not doing of a dutie in its proper quando which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly whether they met on the Lords Day considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist which according to the custome of those times was often performed at home being reserved for the same purpose If Christ had either here on earth or after by revelation from Heaven given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath sure Christs Apostles would not have concealed Christs command Besides the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtlesse have exprest as much to the Gentiles First Christs Apostles did not conceal Christs command for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings They were indeed our Saviours executours performers of his will but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture certainly no Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera as Civilians say and by Tradition For Tradition which is clearly known to be Apostolicall is as perfect evidence of Christs will as the Canonicall Scripture it self For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing but mainly because it was the fundamentall Canon of our Religion Secondly The Apostles in their Synodicall Epistle had onely respect to the Judaicall not to Evangelicall observances Moreover the solemnity of the Lords Day was made known to them by former practice equivalent with precept at least if not by precept it self for according to our Church a The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in My learned Authour biddeth us here observe that the day was chosen by Christian people and if chosen by them then not injoyned by the Apostles I see a man may learn something every day for I professe ingeniously till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians Lastly the precept was in the negative not in the affirmative If you say True and hence we may inferre that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives but such as were expresly commanded by Evangelicall precept I answer then it must follow that women did not communicate children were not baptised Ministers not ordained incorrigible persons not excommunicated these being not expresly commanded by any Evangelicall Law Whatsoever is of divine Institution and by necessitie of precept laid upon the whole Church is a necessary dutie without which if it may possibly be observed no salvation can be had But no man will affirm so of the Lords Day Ergò c. The major is false for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damne any man but where there is a malicious contempt or wilfull neglect of the ordinance The Sacrament of Baptisme shall be mine instance It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated by some many years by most in their usuall practice some moneths and is even in our own Church some dayes In all this delay no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptized from this Sacrament will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay Heare the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point d S. Augustine The Sacrament of Baptisme is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessitie not from contempt of the ordinance The Gospel commandeth onely such observations which are either means of grace as the Word and Sacraments or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and Man But the observation of the Lords Day is neither a means of grace nor exercise of grace Ergò c. That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace But the observation of the Lords Day is so Ergò c. The minor I prove thus That is a part of divine worship whose Institution is divine But the Institution of the Lords Day is divine as I have made evident Ergò c. If you say that Junius * Amesius and others who hold the Day to be Jure divino make it yet onely an adjunct to not a part of divine worship I answer that as it is a time set apart for holy worship it is an adjunct to it but as it is a time determined by God himself the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will Besides it is a means to stirre up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other dayes as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of dayes and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified as the day of the holy spirits descension by whom we are sanctified as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternall rest when we shall be glorified And therefore it is worthily and truly called by * Ignatius The sublimest and primate of all dayes That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law For the Gospel is given to all Nations But the Lords day cannot thus be universally observed considering the diversitie of meridians and unequall rising and setting of the sunne in divers Regions in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or dayes by morning and evening as in Groinland Finmark Lapland c. The positive Laws of God do not alwayes imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed The Jews were injoyned many observances of sacrifices feasts c. which could not alwayes be performed by them as in case of captivity or durance So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist and yet the condition of some Countreys is such as they have not bread a of others as they have not wine b The truth is Gods commandment may impose but never oblige unto things sometimes impossible where there is an utter impossibility of observation as in this or the like case that
impossibility is a necessity with which the Law dispenseth And this is the reason to speak to the point in question why the Sabbath being given to Adam and in him to all mankind Gen. 2. was not described as the other six dayes by evening and morning as also why the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment of like latitude with the former is not set out by expresse bounds of from Eve to Eve as that in the Leviticall Law which onely concerned the Jews to intimate that the journall or dayly round of the Sunne should be no precise rule or character of his Sabbath in such places where time is not so distinguished but that there his people are to give him a seventh of their time as it is with them distinguished And though the Regions abovesaid have not naturall dayes described by the circulation of the Sun from East to West yet times they have holding so near correspondence with such naturall dayes that in some parts they are denominated dayes and for Island if my intelligence misleadeth me not their dayes are homonymall with ours in England an argument of their not different either Planters or Conquerours as derived from the same idoles in Planetary computation whereof the learned Selden and Verstegan can inform you There is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospel that there is of preaching praying administering the Sacraments c. But these are not determined how often they shall be done Ergò It is not limited what time shall be a set Sabbath Every of these though they be not absolutely restrained yet their proper time is this very Sabbath whereof those duties were a finall cause to speak in particular It is a Day of Preaching and so ever was in the Primitive Church Origen alluding to the first fall of Manna in the wildernesse saith The Lord ever raineth down Manna from Heaven on our Lords day and so in the Apostolicall age Acts 20.7 It is a Day of Prayer We must by all means intend our Prayers on the Lords Day that by them on that Day we may expiate for all our negligences and escapes in the week-dayes So Acts 2.1 the Christians were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one accord on this Day and how they were wont then to be imployed the Historian telleth you c. 1. v. 14. it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Prayer It is a * Day proper for the Eucharist and therefore anciently called Dies panis and in some places as in Alexandria the onely Day and Time for it So Acts 20. vers. 7. the Disciples came together to break bread that is to communicate of the Eucharist It is a day proper for the Sacrament of Baptisme and therefore anciently called Dies lucis the Day of illumination This Sacrament not usually being conferred unlesse in case of eminent necessity but upon this Day So Acts 2.41 the most notorious president extant no lesse then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} very near three thousand were this Day baptized Lastly it was a day of almes Pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuunt quod ità colligitur apud praepositum deponitur saith Justin Martyr And so 1. Cor. 16.1 Saint Paul ordained it should the First of the week be a day of collection for the poore That which is expresly against Christian libertie was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles But to have the Conscience burdened with any outward observations putting religion in them as being parts of Gods worship is directly against Christian libertie for how is he free that is thus bound to times and dayes What you understand by Christian libertie I know not sure I am that Christ onely delivered us from the observation of the old ceremoniall Laws and from the sting of punishment due to the breach of the Morall but that he exempted us from all outward observations whatsoever is a fancy of your own without warrant from the Scripture For would he then have imposed the outward observation of Sacraments if we had not been obliged to them and you are in this implunged in errour beyond the Anabaptists for they cry up Christian libertie to free them from the constitutions of men onely but you will have it reach to the very ordinations of God There is no dutie essentiall in Religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospel Epistles or Acts But the keeping of the first Day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved in all the new Testament Ergò c. Paedobaptisme the communicating of women is I hope essentiall in Religion secundùm esse perfectum but where do you find any exhortation to the observation any reproof for the neglect of these duties Besides I see nothing to the contrary but it may be included in Saint Pauls admonition of Tenete Traditiones whereof before Had the observation of the Lords Day been of Divine Institution it is very probable that the Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to law would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lords Day But he omitteth c. That which you make so probable was I affirm considering the Spirit which alwayes assisted him utterly impossible in the Apostle for how could he who knew his Lord and Master had often determined the contrary in very like cases opposing Pharisaicall strictnesse how could he nay how durst he prevaricate or swerve from Christs rule he knew it lawfull to cure a crazie body and was it sinne to consolidate a crackt estate upon the Sabbath it was justifiable to drag a beast out of the ditch why not also land out of the oppressours claws on that day when it could not be done on another If Christ had appointed this day as the day of his Resurrection then the Eastern Churches which followed S. John transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter on another day But they sinned not in it Ergò c. Christ nor his Apostles for ought we know gave no commandment concerning Easter neither is it necessary that the anniversary and weekly memoriall of one and the same benefit should alwayes jump together Gods own precept in almost the same case we know was otherwise The Jewish Sabbath and Passeover were both commemoratives of their redemption out of Egypt yet one was fixed to the day of the week the other to the full of the moon so as they seldome met together Had it been a Divine Institution doubtlesse those Fathers and Synods which have spoken so much in praise of the Day displaying the prerogatives thereof would never have omitted this
which is the greatest of all But none ever affirmed a Divine Institution Ergò c. They do not indeed mention it sub terminis because it was not questioned in their dayes but if they make it instituted by Christ as some or by his Apostles as almost all and if they tell us * Whatsoever the Apostles delivered by the dictate of the holy Ghost is as firm and indefeasable as what Christ himself then I hope by necessary consequence they make it of Divine Institution That which the orthodox condemne for popery should not be consented to by us But that the Lords day is a part of Gods worship and more holy then other dayes as from Divine authoritie is condemned by Reformists in the Papists Therefore we ought not to symbolize with them No reformed Writers condemne this in the Papists because they hold the Lords Day more holy then others but onely such and those very few as think the Day to be of Ecclesiasticall not of Divine Institution The orthodox Thesis is this * Festivall dayes cannot by humane constitution be made more holy then others as Amesius to whom you appeal could have informed you Lastly Socrates affirmeth that the Apostles never intended to establish laws concerning Holydayes S. Augustine also maketh it will-worship or idolatry to observe any day as commanded of God S. Hierome likewise saith we have no dayes having any holinesse in them and necessitie from Divine institution The book of Homilies affirmeth that Christian men of themselves without any Divine precepts did take upon them the observation of the Lords Day All reformed Churches consent with us and many Martyrs in the Marian dayes as Tindall Frith Barnes Lastly Master Perkins speaketh doubtfully herein yet he was one of the first that took up this tenet Socrates must have a candid Reader or be argued of overbold singularitie against all Antiquitie who affirmed the contrary Augustine saith that the Christians in his time did not observe so much the festivals themselves as what was signified by them and therefore he saith that the Apostle did blame the Galatians in this because they did observe appointed times servilely not knowing the mystery to which they tended he speaketh nothing of their institution not one word Hierome indeed I grant was inclining to your opinion but his single judgement is not equivalent to the many reasons and authorities urged on the contrary The book of Homilies affirmeth no such thing as you say these words of themselves without any Divine precept are yours not the Churches not expresly not interpretatively so not hers as she is positive in the direct contrary For there being two things wherein the Divine right of the Lords Day is founded upon legall Institution in the fourth Commandment and Evangelicall by either Christ or his Apostles for the first she saith that God expresly in that precept commandeth the observation of the Sabbath which is our Sunday and not onely commandeth it but also by his own example doth stirre and provoke us to diligent keeping of the same For the second having a while after declared it to be Gods Will and Commandment to have a solemn time and standing day in the week consecrated to him she presently addeth This example and Commandment of God the godly Christian people began to follow immediately after the ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day in the week to come together in Now where she speaketh of Godly Christian people she doubtlesse meaneth the Apostles for who else durst at that time take upon them to begin such a custome and so as touching the Institution of the day as a weekly day she reduceth it to the fourth precept and as the first of the week she foundeth it upon Apostolick practice What some other reformed Churches think in this point of the Lords Day may plausibly enough against us be urged on your parts I confesse and it is your Drusian your keenest objection and yet we can oppose many things to turn the edge of it For first they are onely positive in setting down their own opinions but the reasons inducing them thereto they suppresse and seeing they are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we must not be governed by their bare Thesis Secondly those confessions are not generall but particular to some Churches Thirdly were they the Canons of a generall Councel yet must they not predominate over Truth a Nationall and Provinciall councels ought to give place to the authoritie of Vniversall and Oecumenicall and these have been oftentimes amended when experience hath cleared some truth which before lay hid saith Augustine Lastly though some will think it b periculosa praesumptio judicare de caeteris ipsum ab omnibus judicandum to speak the truth yet to speak it with all terms of venerable regard to those famous Churches I dare pronounce they are not right in this point not so full reformed but they stand yet in need of further reformation Nor ought we to wonder at their mistake herein For first the precept of the Lords Day is not so legible in sacred Scripture as the rest which concern matters of faith thereby to instruct us to put a difference betwixt fundamentalls and ceremonies it is written in a finer character in a smaller Print and therefore might well escape the eyes of those Churches at the first break of day of Reformation when the light shone somewhat dimme Secondly the question was never on foot in their times and so the evidences demonstrating Divine Right were never laid open to them and having inquiries concerning sacrifice of the Altar Adoration c. more proper for those times to imploy them they were not like to inform themselves better upon accident What I have said concerning the Reformed Churches may also be applyed to those holy and blessed Martyrs you cite and partly to master Perkins who had he lived now would I dare say have been as positive and resolute as any other And whereas you make him the prime inventer of this tenet though what I have urged out of the book of Homilies is your sufficient confutation yet will I produce one Testimony more and that no lesse then Royall and as Reformation it self ancient The Sabbath Day was used and ordained but for mans use and therefore ought to give place to the necessity and behoof of the same whensoever that shall occur much rather any other holy day instituted by man What say you now Sir if Perkins was the first that took up this tenet who I pray laid it down and down it was laid for certain if he took it up for up it was you see in Henry the eighths time Having thus waded through all the objections and discovered their frame to consist of very loose and defeasable stuff wherein truth is no ingredient I step forward to other questions incident and pertinent to this discourse And first
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} adorations to be made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} towards the holy Table and this we all know is a piece of yesterday the Authour whereof was in being not full six hundred years past which we are also as certain was the very time about which the Incarnation of Bread or Transsubstantiation began first to be whispered I should not have dwelt so long upon this but that I find it pressed as a necessary dutie yea a dutie of necessity adequate to the observation of the Lords Day a Tenet which deserveth rather to be hist at then answered But to return from whence I have digressed Let whatsoever is positive in the fourth Commandment stand for a cipher is the Lords Day to be observed one jot the more remisse doth not Apostolicall Institution imply an equall Obligation both concerning the continuance of time and restraint from labour what did they ordain what institute was it not That the first day of the week should be consecrated to God and spirituall negotiations you cannot yield us lesse If then it was the first day of what is it meant of a naturall day from sun to sun or of an artificiall from the sun-rise to his set I answer of the first for these reasons If all the other dayes of the week contained both night and day why should not the Lords Day have as large a proportion of time as the rest do not all the dayes in the week hold by Gavelkind and if it contained onely daylight then there was a night to spare whereof I would gladly know what should become Should the Saturday have it all If so then this would by sesquialter proportion exceed all the rest should it passe by way of dividend amongst the other six then there would be two houres in every day more then the suns revolution maketh Moreover when God requireth any thing dedicated to him his constant caveat and proviso is that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not defective and without blemish not lame or imperfect Now that which wanteth one minute of its full time cannot properly be called a day regularly I say and de jure of right it cannot where the day is seposed by divine designation And this is the more evident by observing what God required under the law it being no lesse then a full and complete naturall day from eve to eve which was not as a learned Doctour conceiveth and I think aright to set out the beginning and end the boundaries of a naturall day but to declare his own claim of a naturall day to be dedicated to him which should begin at evening If then the day must be understood of a naturall day of 24 houres it will then necessarily follow that vacation from labour during that time must be concomitant with it For vacation from worldly affairs which may impeach the worship of God is so inseparable from times consecrated to that worship as it is by Brerewood rightly accounted part of the moralitie and substance of the fourth Commandment and so in the Christian Church perpetually to be observed If any shall now object that this vacation is onely necessary and required during the time of publick assembling in the Church and that no more is exacted of us then that we attend such assemblies I answer that God will admit no sharer in any thing consecrated to him and though the cardinall and chief end of the Sabbath is that God be publickly honoured yet doth he not leave the remainder thereof so at our dispose that we may dispend it either in carnall pleasures or terrene negotiations Those oratories which from their dedication to the Lord are in English denominated Churches do from their destination to publick and solemn addresse contract the name and repute of sacred and though they be superlatively and above all venerable while employed to their destinate end yet alwayes even at times of Cultustitium as I may so say or vacation from publick worship there remaineth in them an indeleble impression of awfull regard which ought to preserve them from all profanation inviolable Mistake me not I place no inherent sanctitie I immure not God in them I approve not of their decoring even to effeminate curiositie nor allow them an honour as some of late too close followers of Nazianzene a even to ridiculousnesse superstititious yet this I hold Gods houses they are places where his honour dwelleth for which cause such a relative veneration is due to them as alwayes dignifieth and ennobleth them above any other house whatsoever and secureth them from common use and in this men both learned and moderate have led me the way as Zanchy b Hospinian c c. Now * Places and Times consecrated to Gods name are to be sanctified with equall religion and so the Rituall of the old Testament coupleth them together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuaries And then I say that the Lords house may as well be impropriated to a ware-house as his day to a work-day when the congregation is dismissed And this priviledge it as well deriveth from Evangelicall as Legall institution Therefore Leo d when he made that edict of generall restraint on the Lords day pleadeth conformitie wth the evangelicall constitution We ordain as it seemed good to the holy Spirit to them whom he instructed But it will be here opposed that neither the Apostles themselves nor the Primitive Church observed this day with any such strictnesse untill Constantine's decree and therefore it is like they enjoyned it not I answer as touching the practice of the Apostles there is I confesse nothing either the one way or other clearly evident nor much of that of the Primitive Church during the time limited Onely Justin Martyr e if I be not mistaken hath something reflecting that way for in his description of the custome of publick assembling in those times upon the Lords day after he hath insisted awhile upon the duties performed in the Church he setteth down what the Christians did postea after their dismission as their visiting relieving the poore their consorting together and their repeating to one another what they had learned that day in the Church Of the remainder of time the solemn assembly being ended I understand this postea probably enough yet will not warrant it with over much pertinacitie if any other construction can vouch better reason in its defence let that obtain But though we should find no evidence of the Primitive practice of cessation from labour on this day yet will it not follow that they did not forbare it if possibly they could for we meet with exhortation to it by Origen f On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly businesse if therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs and dost nothing but employ thy self in spirituall negotiations this is
given shall abide Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo h The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed and what was agreeable to both Testaments is by no change altered They i to whom positive-immulable seemeth so prodigious a thing may now spare their wonder at Amesius and bestow it upon their own ignorance what he taught in this point he might and did learn no doubt in England and not onely of the Puritanes For what say you To Whitgift k No man doubteth the meaning of these words Six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted to us six dayes to do our own works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him To Hooker l We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever To Donne m God seposed a seventh of our time for his exteriour worship To Andrews n The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight the seventh the Sabbath the tenth Gods part the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God To Bacon o God demandeth a tenth of our substance and which is more strict a seventh of our time What say you to these But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this Kingdome had he then escaped the contagion of this errour Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches assuredly no Those two lights of the reforming age Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity a so in this they differed not Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith and consequently of eternall life Bucer b That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no humane device Martyr c It is a morall precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the externall service of God so Zanchie d God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Pareus e It is a naturall law that every seventh day be sacred to God Junius f That enemy of God g Arminius h It is morall to set apart one day of seven for Gods service The Lutherane Churches dissent not Conradus Dietericus as my Authour i informeth me Baldwin k It is morall to sanctifie one day of seven And to make up the harmony complete the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him saith Fenus l To depute every seventh day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially the same day be not alwayes deputed so Suarez m The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship so Bellarmine n Nor is the opinion an upstart I appeal to Chrysostome o who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sepose one day in a week for religious actions And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetuall ordinance of the fourth Commandment Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfie him unlesse he have the designation and determination of that one p It must be the day consecrated by God either immediately by himself or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever the Day be as I told you before out of Zanchy so that the Day must be of Divine Institution And this is evident First de Jure Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath his dominion was not onely over the old Sabbath to abrogate that but over the new also to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other Secondly de Facto For Gods own act is the best interpreter of his will and if he had meant the Church should have had her libertie her Conge d' Eslier leave to chuse he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelicall Sabbath whereof as well as of the Legall he was not onely the efficient but the exemplary cause by finishing the work of our redemption on that day But here it is demanded p Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lords day If yea by whom By any commandment of Christ where is it Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or out of the new commanding it to be translated or intimating that by Christs commandment it was translated Take both or which you will either the old or new Covenant and withall the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof and then I dare presume you will soon discry a Translation For the first it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification So saith Cyprian q and with him Augustine r The Lords day could not but be known to the holy Prophets for there is a Psalme entituled FOR THE EIGHT DAY and on the Eight day Children were circumcised and the like elsewhere It was Prophecied in the title of the Psalmes the sixth and eleventh In finem pro octavo So Ignatius s Nazianzene t Augustine Prophecied in the * 101. Psalme Scribatur illa in generationem novam This shall be written for the Generation to come vers. 18. so Athanasius In the * 109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis the day of Power but above all prophecied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place For the second or new Covenant we need search no higher then to the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards to warrant and assure us of this Translation I say from the Resurrection for this their practice did not as some suppose begin in long wast of time There was no interregnum no vacancy at all no cessation of a Sabbath No not the first week No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed The Jewish Sabbath that slept we all know its last in the grave with our Saviour Its ghost according to Countrey dialect or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after but it self the old Sabbath expired then and immediately entered the Lords day Immediately when Christ himself was but newly up from that very day whereon he arose doth S. Augustine u derive the