Ob. Secondly if the Lords day was appointed and kept by the Apostles what shall we say to those turbulent spirits as master Calvin calls them qui tumultuantur ob diem Dominicum Calv. iâ—sâ—â— â— c. 8 S. 33. 〈◊〉 3â— that are all up in a hurly-burly for being abridged of their Christian libertie and made to observe dayes and Feasts and particularly the Lords day Whereupon it was sadly demurr'd upon even in Genevah Barclâ—iâ— paroen l. 1 c. 13. to have that day altered to Thursday and himselfe holds it alterable What shall wee thinke also of the Centurists Cent. 1. l. 2. c. 6. de feâ—â—â— that not onely say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day Cent. 2. c. 6. pag. 11 â— but that the contentions raised by Anicetus and Victor Popes of Rome touching the observation of Easter on the Lords day doe sufficiently declare that for two hundred yeares after Christ some kept the Sabbath holy some the Lords day and that they were false Apostles that attempted at first to bind the Church to the observation of Feasts as of the Lords day and for this cause they sticke the mysterie of iniquitie on the foreheads of those two blessed Martyrs Sol. To that part of the objection which is framed out of the Centurists some perhaps would answer that the guise of the Centurists is to use the Catholike Fathers and holy Martyrs as Balaam used his Asse For if they wil not go that way that they would have them though Gods Angel suffer them not so to doe but the Spirit of truth lead them quite otherwise they fall upon them and use them as rudely as he did the Asse A wrong which cannot but bee highly displeasing to that good God who was so moved upon the sight of the injury done the poore beast that hee was upon the point to have taken a sharpe revenge upon the false hypocrite in habit of a Prophet for the same But with cruell Balaam I will not compare them because he wisht for a sword to be avenged of the poore Asse whereas these like diligent Schoolemasters examine the exercises of the ancient Fathers shew them their errours tell them of the many spots and blots they finde in them and let them see how they are put to the trouble to correct them at every turne whereupon their patience is so moved that they rebuke them sometime with very sharpe language and when all is done they are so ashamed of divers things they heare from them that they set them to schoole againe to learne their lessons backward This their diligence and paines in correcting and wiping the Fathers as one wipes a dish that turneth it upside downe is not well accepted on all hands for some passionate men thinke they whip the Fathers without cause and for not running the way of their errours which these Auditors account to be so many and so costly too that the Merchant payes more for them than for all the truths 〈…〉 morall naturall supernaturall that are in Aristotle Plato or the blessed Bible though you give the Apocrypha leave to be bound up with it I would be loath to say as Saint Paul doth of the testimonie of Epimenides This witnesse is true But be it truth or some counterfeit like Jeroboams wife their credit is eclipsed and their testimonie abated by their doings So I leave them till anon Secondly I answer true it is that Saint Paul and other Apostles preached to the Jewes in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day because they would meet upon no other but it is untrue that they set that day apart to preach unto the Gentiles or the Jews either They were false Apostles that laboured to lay that yoak on the Disciples neckes whom Saint Paul opposed with all his might Col. 2.16 Gal. 4.10 and did utterly reject their Sabbath and appointed no day of publick meetings but the first day of the weeke when their collections were ever made 1 Cor. 16.1 and so continued to be made on that day and on no day else in all succeeding ages And because Saint Paul did keepe the first day of the weeke and opposed the observation of the Jewish Sabbath therefore the Ebionites say St. Irenaeus and Epiphanius rejected his writings Apostatam legis dicentes S. Irer l. 1. c. 26. S. Epâ—phâ—hâ—e 31. rating him for an Apostata So likewise the blessed Martyrs in the Primitive Church Euseb l. 3. c. 24. S. Ignatap 3. ad Mâ—g by the doctrine and example of Saint Paul and the Apostles so unfeignedly abhorred the observation of the Jewish Sabbath that they esteemed the observers thereof and the contemners of the Lords day the very sonnes of perdition enemies of our Saviour and sellers of Christ and as Saint Justin Martyrtells Trypho S. Just 〈◊〉 Triph. Tom. 2. they gladly endured the most horrible torments that men and divels could devise to inflict upon them rather than yeeld Sabbatha vestra solennes dies observare to keepe your Sabbaths and dayes of solemne assemblies which saith he could not hurt us were they not forbidden us by the doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Christ himselfe S. Just ad Anton But the observation of Sunday was so generally and religiously observed of all Christians that then was the common meeting of all qui vel in oppidis vel rure degunt both Citizens and Country men All sorts of Christians met on Sundayes and none on the Sabbath day but Jewes onely With what face then dare the Centurists vent such untruths that the keeping of the Lords day was a thing indifferent for two hundred yeeres And with what conscience dare they forge those to be false Apostles that were the bringers in of the observation of Feasts and particularly of the Lords day Or with what conscience dare they use the Martyrs of God members of Christs body so unworthily as to make the blessed Saints in heaven fellow heires with Christ Jesus meet vessels for the mysterie of iniquitie to begin to worke in who did no more than either was appointed by the Apostles and Apostolike men before themselves or was afterward confirmed by the Councell of Nice the Edicts of Constantine and his successours the Decrees of the Councell of Constantinople and other Synods as well in the Greeke as Latine Church in all succeeding ages Ob. But they say there is no place of Scripture to command the observation of the Lords day but onely the Tradition from the Apostles therefore the day may be altered Sol. Be it so yet as Chemnitius excellently saies though we be not bound by any necessity of law in Novo Testamento Câ—em Exam. de â—est 4. pars in the New Testament to observe the Lords day for solemne assemblies barbarica tamen petulantia yet were it barbarous saucinesse to refuse to observe the custome of the Apostles and Primitive Church For as Saint Augustine saies wherein the
Exod. 31. and then shewes whereof it was a signe Sabbath a perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant their Sabbath taught our continuall service of God Orig. hoâ— 2â— in 〈◊〉 28. which Origen calls Sabbathum Christianum a Christian Sabbath And because no man is justified either by the Sabbath or Circumcision therefore in signo data sunt populo they were given the people for a signe This Theodoret largely sheweth out of the plaine words of the Prophet Ezechiel cap. 20. ver 11. S. Theod. in Ezech The Sabbath was none of those Commandements that could give life to the observers but was given them onely to be a signe in signum temporis illius Tert. de prâ—â—â— lib. c. 4. as Tertullian speakes and not in sallutis praerogativam not to bring them salvation but to make them knowne from other Nations Other Nations that descended of Abraham used circumcision as well as the Jewes but no Nation kept the Sabbath but Jewes onely Therefore 1541. years they were knowne by that signe to be Gods people but the keeping of the Sabbath made neither them nor the Pharisees to be Gods people This is evident For Abraham saith Saint Irenaeus was justified and called the friend of God S. Iren. l. 4. c. 30. sine observatione Sabbathorum without keeping any Sabbaths Nay there was not any of the Patriarchs saith Tertullian that kept the Sabbath neither Adam Tert. adv â—udaeos de praeserâ— c. 2.4 Enoch Noah Abraham nor Melchizedek for 2455. years yet were they just men and obtained salvation This is so cleare a truth that the Jewes could not denie it and Trypho doth confesse it being pressed thereunto by Saint Justin And for this 1635. S. Just iâ— Tryph. Tom. 2. yeares it hath not beene kept in the Christian world Manifestum est igitur saies Tertullian it is manifest therefore that that cannot be morall nor perpetuall that began but with Moses S. Tusti◠〈◊〉 verit l. 2. in Tryph as Saint Justin Martyr sayes and ended with Christ when hee nailed all the ceremoniall law to his Crosse with those words Consummatum est it is finished Therefore the third Commandement as Saint Austine or the fourth as Josephus and other Fathers call it touching the Sabbath must be understood onely figuratively and not after the letter as the other nine commandements are This is the doctrine of antiquitie which hath gotten a placet from Gomarus Goma invest sab c. 3. whose followers may perhaps embrace the same Ob. Dicunt autem Judaei quòd primordio c. Tertul. de praescrip c. 2. 4. But a Jew will object and say saies Tertullian that God from the beginning did sanctifie the Sabbath and therefore the Sabbath ought to be kept holy and no maner of worke must be done thereon Sol. This is the very argument which Marcion learned of the Pharisees John 9.16 and blasphemously useth to prove Christ not to the Sonne of God because he carried himselfe so crosse to his Fathers actions and Lawes For the Sabbath which his Father sanctified and rested on operatione destruxit Tert. in Mar. l. 4. he profaned and overthrew by working on it so did his Disciples for cibum operati marke how pure this blasphemous Hereticke was they dresse their meate on the Sabbath My answer therefore is this that the Law-giver best knew how to observe his owne lawes and if his Fathers rest did not binde him from doing some worke no more doth it us Besides we see the Patriaches even Melchizedek himselfe a Priest of the most high God did not take themselves bound to rest on the Sabbath at all For though they saw Gods example yet they heard no commandement to enjoyne them to rest on that day as he did therefore they never observed the Sabbath Thirdly though a Jew will little regard what the Patriarches did or what all good Christians resolve and practice but will force the Law-giver to keepe his owne law not after his owne meaning but after theirs as the Pharisees did our Saviour saying This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day viz. as they construed and expounded the Commandement for the observation thereof yet that nothing concernes us that keepe the Lords day by vertue of Apostolical constitution and tradition of holy Church and not the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandement which the Apostles by Christs doctrine and example understood solutum to be dissolved And cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebat S. Ambâ—th Lu. 6. l. 5. saies Saint Ambrose when the Sabbath lost his force it forfeited the name therefore ought not so to be called and so having lost both force and name is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll An Idoll hath the shape of something but because it hath eyes and sees not c. it is nothing in the world So though their Sabbath hath the name of one of the Jewes holy dayes yet keepeth it not neither the day they kept nor the service belonging to it and so is become nothing in the world True it is that some that with great zeale and little judgement exclaime against recreations and dressing of meat and the like on Sundayes must make a Sabbath of Sunday and keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath of being applied to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry-neckt that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors who are abused with the name of a Christian Sabbath out of Origen which is not kept on Sunday onely 〈…〉 but every day Christ is our Christian Sabbath saith Origen and he that lives in Christ semper in Sabbatho vivit requiescendo ab operibus malis operatur autem opera justitiae incessanter Others also for the plot-sake must uphold the name of Sabbath that stalking behind it they may shoot against the Service appointed for the Lords day Hence it is that some for want of wit some for too much adore the Sabbath as an Image dropt downe from Jupiter and cry before it as they did before the golden Calfe This is an holy day unto the Lord whereas indeed it is the great Diana of the Ephesians as they use it whereby the mindes of their Proselytes are so perplexed and bewitched that they cannot resolve whether the sinne be greater to bowle shoot or daunce on their Sabbath than to commit murder or the father to cut the throate of his owne childe All which doubts would soon be resolved by plucking the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day which doth as well and truely become it as the Crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe This was platted to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it they will call it a Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or
Scripture hath determined nothing mos populi Dei S. Aug. ep Cas 86. instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt the custome of Gods people and the ordinance of our Elders are to be observed as lawes And in this case for any man to doubt whether he should relinquish and abandon his owne new devices ita faciendum and that it becomes him to doe as he sees the whole Church of God to doe insolentissimae insaniae est is an insolencie with madnesse to boot saies Saint Augustine S. Aug aep 119. Ja. And to talke with such interminata orietur luctatio were to uphold wrangling world without end 3 If the first day of the weeke be the Lords day we must looke to doe the Lords worke on it and not trench upon him by doing our owne worke thereon For no excuse of businesse ought to keepe us from the service of God on that day No necessitie is a greater tyrant than poverty yet is that no good excuse for thy absence from Church saies Saint Chrysostome to say thou art poore and must follow thy businesse S. Chrysoft hom 24. de bap Christi For God hath not taken to himselfe the greatest part of the dayes of the weeke but hath given thee sixe unam vero sibi reliquit and left himselfe but one yet wilt thou finde out the thiefe povertie to steale that away from him too as sacrilegious persons doe consecrate things But what doe I speake de integro die of a whole day Doe but that in keeping the Lords day which the widow did in her almes that gave two mites sic tu duas horas so give the Lord two houres This if you doe not beware you lose not integrorum annorum labores the labours of many whole yeares Qu. May then no worke of our owne be done on the Lords day not so much as out of the times of the Lords service Resp Out of doubt there may yea though we should suppose that Christians are bound to keepe the Lords day as strictly as our Saviour kept the Sabbath For our Saviour saies Epiphanius non artem fabrilem lignariam S. Epipâ—â—â— 2. 〈◊〉 2. ber 66. p. 229. aut ferrariam did not follow the trade of a Carpenter or Smith on the Sabbath day though he was so poore that he used Josephs trade and made both Carts and Ploughs yet conversatione doctrinâ by his doctrine and course of life he shewed that some workes of our owne might be done on the Sabbath out of the times of divine service for himselfe made clay est autem opuâ— lutum subigere and to make clay is a kinde of worke a worke neither of necessity nor charity for had it so pleased him the worke of charity had taken place before the clay could have been tempered He commanded also the Cripple grabbatum tollere to carry away his bed which then needed not for the arrantest Pharisee theefe in Jerusalem would not have medled with it on that day The Disciples also by his doctrine and example saies the same Father spicas vellunt torrent edunt do plucke and parch their corne on the Sabbath day And there was no law saies Saint Irenaeus that forbade them so to doe 〈…〉 metere autem colligere in horreum lex vetabat but the law forbade reaping and carrying into the barne on the Sabbath day His reason is this continere enim se jubeb at lex ab omni opere servili i.e. ab omni avaritiâ quae per negotiationem reliquo terreno actu â—gitatur The law forbiddeth all servile workes wherein covetousnesse sticketh as a naile betweene two stones Some small chares then of our owne may be done on the Lords day out of the times of the Lords service Secondly meate may be drest and Feasts may be kept on the Lords day by Christs example S. Luc. 14.13 who was at a feast on the Sabbath day and none ought to blame us for doing the like For rectè Ecclesiae festa colunt S. Aug. de temp ser 253. 255. qui Ecclesiae filios se esse recognoscunt they doe well to keepe the Feasts of the Church that remember themselves to be the sonnes of the Church This doctrine Saint Augustine taught his people Novit sanctitas vestra fraires my brethren your holinesse knoweth very well that to day consecrationem altaris celebramus we celebrate the Feast for the consecration of the Altar in quo unctus vel benedictus est lapis in quo divina sacrificia consecrantur ac meritò gaudentes celebramus and wee doe well to keepe this feast with joy not with wanton lewd or unchaste joy Saint Austine is no Proctor to plead for Baal nor any that follow him For nescio qua fronte saith he I cannot tell with what conscience he can shew a cheerefull countenance in altaris consecratione that is not precise in cordis sui altari munditiam custodire to preserve purity in the altar of his heart The Lords day then is and ought to bee kept as a Feast as the Sabbath was Judith 10.2 For magnum scandalum saies Saint Augustine nay magnum nefas saies Tertullian it is a great scandall S. Aug. ep 86. Tert. de Coro Mil. and a foule sinne to fast on the Lords day Therefore we condemne the Manichees saies Saint Ambrose that fast on Sundayes S. Amb. ep 33. l. 10. We are bound to fast on Fridayes and of feast on Sundayes so have we a day amaritudinis laetitiae in illo jejunemus illo reficiamur to fast on the one to feast on the other The Jewes themselves saies Tertullian kept not their Sabbath with fasting for pridianâ paraturâ by their provision of two Omers for a man it plainely appeareth that they made as large a meale on the Sabbath as on any day else Ob. But they were commanded to dresse their Sabbath dinner the day before and the Commandement saies On it thou shalt doe no maner of worke Sol. Not to dispute it further S. Aug. ep 119. c. 12. how or to what the Jewes were bound upon their Sabbath however this nothing concernes us Christians if we understand the Commandement aright for though all the nine Commandements sic observantur ut sonant are to be kept according to the letter observare tamen diem Sabbathi non ad literam jubemur secundum etium ab opere corporali sicut observant Judaei yet we Christians are not commanded to observe the Sabbath after the letter by a strict rest as did the Jewes nor the Lords day after the maner of the Jewish Sabbath for of all the ten Commandements the third which concerneth the Sabbath figurativè intelligendum est is to be understood figuratively For this Commandement was given for no other end but onely for a signe saies Saint Irenaeus out of the Prophet Ezechiel â— Iren. l. â— c. 30. cap. 20. and out of the Law of Moses
guilefull zeale to be thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes For that day which they nickname the Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day that they meane It were well therefore that they would forbeare to speake strange languages in the Church for Saint Pauls sake and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language for with us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else No ancient Father Father Nay no learned man Heathen or Christian tooke it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schisme in 1554. And if wee finde the word otherwise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it nor intitle the misprision any higher or otherwise than to these pretenders to pietie who for their owne ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be menaged under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods law doe likewise suffer the same often to scape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words S. Hilar. l. 6. Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore haec disserere multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis velut ad piae fidei hujus malà usurpatam persuasionem longo doctrinae usu ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum voluntatem quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret Gravis enim est periculosus error inplurimis multorum lapsus etiamsi se intellig at tamen exurgendi pudore authoritatem sibi praesumit ex numero habens hoc impudentiae ut quod errat intelligentiam esse veritatis asserat dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis There are so many that see so little benefit will be suckt out of the constitutions of the Apostles practice and tradition of holy Church doctrine of godly and learned Fathers that they have got themselves heapes of teachers that to serve their owne turnes will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath and so proclaime it with such lowd outcries that the voice of truth will become silence and her selfe made errour and so made to beleeve of her selfe or to forgoe her owne modesty and to beleeve none but her selfe But with Moses liberavi animam meam being called hither very unwillingly I have set before you good and evill light and darknesse life and death the doctrine and practice of the Church of God and the leaven of Pharisees and fashion of Schismatickes and Novellists chuse which you will and the Lord be your guide Onely of this be you well assured that if you will have Manna rained downe unto you you must forgoe your Sabbath and sticke onely to the Lords day for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna Orig. super 15. Exod. hom 7. in Sabbatho non pluit The last point touching the day of meeting is When doth the Lords day begin Resp I answer S. Ambra in Ps â—7 out of Saint Ambrose The first day of the weeke began when the Sabbath ended The Sabbath ended when Christ arose Christ the true light arose with the light and spring of the morning for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi are Saint Matthews words Nihil pulchrius nihil expressius saith hee this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the weeke So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici S. Leo epist â—d Diosc the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the weeke Looke then for Jacobs hand on Esau's heele or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath But Saint Nyssen is more punctuall and cleere S. Nyssen deresur orat 2. the Lords day saith he begins at Cock-crowing atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis and at that very knot and joint of time For then end we our Sabbaths or Saturdaies fast and then begin we nos oblectare laetari to keepe our Sundayes feast and that by an ancient custome which all are bound to observe For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not signifie the evening or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis after Sun set but the rise of the morning with which the Sabbath ended Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before And in obedience to this positive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day S. Aug. ser de tem 25. à vesperâ ad vesperam from Even to Even sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho as it was also commanded the Jewes concerning the Sabbath And therefore saith he look that from Saturday at Even us que ad vesperam diei Dominici till the Lords day at even we set aside all rurall and worldly businesse ut solo divino culiui vacemus that we may attend onely on the Lords service and begin to repaire to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights and he that cannot so doe let him be sure to pray at home Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath doe set aside all businesse and flocke to the Church to say or heare Service on Saturday Evens which hitherto you have not done notwithstanding the order of the Church which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day Thus much of the day of meeting The first day of the weeke 2 In the next place we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met These were not Jewes for then the Sabbath had beene the day of their meeting but Gentiles Asians Macedonians Thessalonians Paul with his companions and Disciples Now Paul had ordered before this time in Galatia and in Corinth that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the weeke whereunto they submitted themselves For on the first day of the week they now met and so did the whole Church