Covenants of promise made with the Iewes saith with an affirmative interrogation Who doth not honour the sacred and holy day that returneth every weeke But besides that it may be hee spoke hyperbolically and led away with a Iewish affection towards the ceremonies of his owne Nation he designes at the most some reverend opinion which the observation of that day solemnized with so great devotion amongst the Iewes had purchased amongst forraine Nations which seeing that Iewish discipline and devotion were in a manner forced to admire it And not that they also kept it commonly as being or holding that they were naturally obliged thereunto It is manifest that wee must give this interpretation to these words of Philo by other places where in the same yea in stronger termes hee saith the like of the fast observed solemnely by the Iewes on a certaine day of the yeere Who saith hee doth not worship with admiration the feast which returneth yeerely in the sacred month And in generall speaking of all the statutes observed by the Iewes and of all the Lawes given by Moses hee saith that men of all other Nations almost had them in some veneration This Moses had foretold in the Booke of Deuteronomy Chap. 4. vers 6. where speaking to the people of the Statutes and Iudgements which hee had taught them even as the LORD his God commanded him hee saith Keepe therefore and doe them for this is your wisedome and your understanding in the sight of all Nations which shall heare all these Statutes and shall say Surely this great Nation alone is awise and understanding people Thus Philo sheweth cleerely enough that the Gentiles knew nothing of the Sabbath day no more then of the other ordinances of Moses but by the relation of the Iewes Hee attributeth nothing to the Sabbath but hee affirmeth the same of all other ordinances of the Law and therefore no man can build upon his words a more universall obligation for the Sabbath then for all the rest of the Iewish ceremonies For who will say that the fast and other ceremonies which he speakes of in the same discourse obliged by a naturall or positive Law other Nations or that they were ordinarily practised among them Likewise when he saith in his Booke of the workemanship of the World that the Sabbath day is a feast not of one people only but of all Nations hee uttereth onely his opinion concerning the dignity and merit of that day and not what was in effect practised amongst other Nations as hee explaineth his owne words adding This day is worthy to be called a feast of all Natitions although no Nation in the world the Iewes excepted hath ever solemnized it with a common and ordinary observation And indeed this learned man writing in his Booke upon the Decalogue that the fourth Commandement ordaineth the seventh day and an holy and pious observation thereof hee appropriates that saying to the Iewes adding that every seventh day is holy to the Iewes and faith onely of other Nations that some of them observed a seventh day every moneth beginning to reckon the daies by the new Moone If perhaps some amongst these people reverenced and observed the seventh day of the weeke in some sort that came not from a naturall instinct inforcing them thereunto nor from any knowledge derived unto them by the Traditions and Instructions of their Fathers but from imitations of the Iewes from whose practice and fashions in their religious devotions and amongst the rest in the observation and celebration of the Sabbath questionlesse many particularities were introduced amongst the Gentiles in the celebration of their feasts and solemnities As some among them taking example from the Iewes circumcised their children 3 This is the meaning of Iosephus in his second Booke against Appion when hee saith that other Nations had zeale and emulation for the piety and religion of the Iewes and forthwith alledgeth the custome of the seventh day as which was come to them all Of which passage those that alledged it cannot take an argument for the moralitie and perpetuitie of the Sabbath day more then for the other ceremonies of the Iewes admitted and allowed of all which the same people and Nations imitated and whereof Iosephus speaketh in the same place For hee mentioneth with the seventh day the fasts lights prohibition of certaine meats which hee saith also to have beene observed by them not for any reason and naturall obligation that they saw in these things or in the Sabbath more than in the rest but through a facility and inclination of mans spirit to imitate the outward fashions of devotion which are practised by others 9 These passages of Philo of Iosephus and others gathered out of other authors Iewes Pagans Christians which make mention of a common knowledge of the seventh day of Sabbath among the Gentiles and also of some kinde of observation thereof amongst some of them are of no use For all these authors have written long yea some thousand yeeres and more after the establishment of the Iewish government and religion At which time the Ordinance that God had given to the Iewes about the Sabbath might have beene knowne of all Nations and imitated of those who thought fit so to doe Were not the ten Tribes transported out of their native soile and dispersed among the Medes Perses and other Nations Had not the Iewes beene captives in Babylon threescore and ten yeeres and sent home by Cyrus afore any man amongst the Gentiles set his hand to a penne to write Histories Were not the Iewes spred over the whole Roman Empire before CHRIST came into the World What wonder then if their rites and ceremonies were knowne every where yea and followed by those of the Gentiles that became Proselytes such as was the Ethiopian Evnuch in his owne Countrey Acts 8. vers 27. The Roman Centurion Cornelius in Cesaria Acts 10. verse 2. Another Centurion in Capernaum Luke 7. verse 4 5. and more during the Empire of the Romans and may be before it also What if whole Nations had imbraced all the Iewish ceremonies or a part of them or the Sabbath onely and a thousand Writers should give testimony thereunto can wee out of that cloud of Heathen Iewish or Christian witnesses make a necessary inference that the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath is a point of the naturall and morall law or that it had sway as soone as the world began Which is the maine point in this question to be thorowly sifted out and cleerely proved As for the passages of a few heathenish Poets Linus Homere Hesiode which speake of the seventh day as of a holy day that all things were made in exceptions may be taken against them because either they are not to be found in those authors upon whom they are fathered and therefore they are justly suspected to be a Cuckoes egges or are mis-taken and wrested into a contrary meaning which is most cleere in the passage of
true beleever hath authority and freedome to exempt himselfe from the keeping of the Sabbath for his owne need and to yeeld to such necessities which are more urgent and of greater importance then was the Sabbath of which sort was the narrow strait whereunto hunger had driven Christs Disciples that is no lesse forcible to fight against the morality of the Sabbath as appeareth by that which hath beene already said 10 Such then being the nature of the Sabbath it is evident that it is not morall that of its selfe it obligeth not the conscience to the keeping of it that if it bindeth conscience it commeth from GODS command by a positive Law such as he gave to the Iewes and that only when more inforcing reasons doe not dispense with the observation of it as there be some such Now the positive Lawes given to the Iewes being wholly abrogated no man can say that the Law of the Sabbath bindeth the conscience of Christians if it be not shewed that Christ will have this Law of the Sabbath to continue under the New Testament and hath commanded the keeping of a Seventh day as he might have done In which case that Law should bee obligatory not for any morality it hath in it but because Christ had ordained it for the order of the Church This I pretend cannot be shewed but rather that the stinting of the time of GODS publike service hath beene left to the free will of the Church and that even now at this time when a Seventh day is set downe we ought to keepe it in obedience to the Church as following herein the order which she hath thought good to institute and not through opinion of any necessity proceeding from GODS immediate command farre lesse of Religion inherent in the thing it selfe CHAPTER Eighth REASON 8. 1. The Apostle condemneth the Galatians for observing dayes and moneths and times and yeeres 2. It is answered that the Apostle condemneth onely the observation of dayes c. prescribed in the ceremoniall Law 3. Refutation of that answer out of the drift of the whole Chapter 4. Besides that it maketh the Apostle to condemne thà t which he approved and so to contradict himselfe if this answer were true 1 I further justifie this by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians Chapter 4. verse 10. where hee blameth them for observing dayes and moneths and times and yeeres for they deemed that in the observing of them there was a point of Religion and of Gods service which they were necessarily obliged unto on Gods behalfe and that for conscience sake either because the thing it selfe deserved as much or through respect to Gods Commandement It is this surmise which the Apostle blameth For if the Galatians had kept some dayes but as a thing indifferent and an ecclesiasticall order for the publike practise of divine service by the exercise of the ministrie the celebration of the Sacraments and other holy duties more and more sanctified with prayers thankesgiving Psalmes Hymnes and spirituall songs knowing and being perswaded by the Lord Iesus that there was no divine obligation no Religion tyed to those dayes in themselves it is as sure as can be that they had not bin worthy to be censured for all that is done and may be done in the Church under the New Testament Hereupon I say that we fall manifestly into the Apostles censure if we keepe a Seventh day of Sabbath beleeving it to be a morall thing which God hath expresly commanded and therefore necessary and as such binding the conscience For this is evidently to observe dayes after the fashion which the Apostle condemneth 2 It is answered to this that the Apostle speaketh in that Chapter of judaicall dayes moneths times and yeeres only as they are ordained to be kept by the ceremoniall Law of Moses as for example to observe in things belonging to the Sabbath the Seventh day of the weeke Which law being abolished he blameth the Galatians that they indeavoured to set up again the observation of dayes after the manner of the Iewes but reproveth them not for keeping a Sabbath day 3 This answer giveth no content at all I acknowledge freely that doubtlesse the dayes kept by the Galatians were the same which the Iewes observed For to esteeme that they were dayes consecrated to Idols which they had beene enured unto when they lived in Paganisme and had observed unto that time even after their conversion is farre from all likelihood and contrary to the Text which speaketh of dayes belonging to these weake and beggarly rudiments which God had ordained in the infancy of the Church which were judaicall dayes and none other and from which Iesus Christ was come into the world to redeeme men And the Apostle blameth the Galatians universally for observing such dayes without exception of any other day which he ought to have excepted if there had beene any other obligatory Nay he blameth them not for keeping them after the fashion of the Iewes by the practice of the ceremoniall service which the Iewes yeelded to God on those dayes whereof he maketh no mention neither is there any likelihood that the Galatians did any such thing but for keeping them for Religions sake And his reprehension is such a one that the right thing he aimed at in it is to condemne the observation of any day whatsoever under the New Testament for Religion and conscience sake in reference to any obligation from the day it selfe The foundation of his reproofe as appeareth manifestly by the whole drift of his discourse is this that to be Religious about dayes and to be tyed unto them by Gods command was a point of bondage belonging to the rudiments of the Law and that the Gospell which is the Law of liberty cannot suffer this bondage Therefore hee speaketh in generall tearmes Yee observe dayes and moneths and times and yeeres and addeth not judaicall or after the Iewish fashion because also to keepe other dayes then those of the Iewes and that for conscience sake and for the same opinion of Religion which the Iewes had of their dayes although otherwise then they hâ—d beene as bad and contrary to the Gospell it is not so when dayes are kept simply for ecclesiasticall order although they were Iudaicall dayes And indeed the Sabbath day of the Iewes to wit the last day of the weeke was kept by the Apostles and by diverse Christians in the Primitive Church many yeeres constantly As likewise the feasts of the Iewish Passeover and Pentecost were observed by the first Christians without any fault or offence on their part because this observation was not practised by them in the same respects that they were by the Iewes that is through opinion of Religious necessity and divine obligation 4 Verily if wee be obliged in our conscience and by a divine commandement under the new Testament to the observation of a seventh day of rest â—eligiously as the Iewes were as is pretended although it
be not the same seventh day who will not conceive that it had not well become the Apostle to condemne the observation of Iudaicall daies namely of the particular day of the Iewish Sabbath as being a yoake and a ceremony of the Law considering that in the meane while hee tied the Christians to the odinary and precise observation of a stinted day even of a seventh day of Sabbath which was all one seeing the day onely had been changed and the yoake and the ceremony had been still kept For the yoake and bondage of the Law consisted in the observation of certaine stinted daies and namely of a seventh day of Sabbath by Gods Ordinance and obligation of conscience and not in keeping the last seventh day rather than another seeing otherwise it is not a heavie yoake nor a greater bondage to keepe the last then to keepe the first of the seven daies of the weeke CHAPTER ninth REASON 9. 1 A most forcible argument out of the Epistle to the Colossians Chap. 2. vers 16. where the Apostle teacheth that Christian mens conscience is not tied to the keeping of holy daies and of Sabbaths 2 Answer is made that the naming of Sabbaths in the plurall number sheweth they must be understood of the Sabbaths of holy daies and not of the weekely Sabbath 3 First reply In the name of a holy day the Sabbaths thereof are included 4 Second reply Sabbaths in the plurall number include necessarily the weekely Sabbath which also is most frequently called Sabbaths in holy Scripture 5 Third reply The Apostle by Sabbaths understandeth onely the weekely Sabbath 6 Fourth reply The weekely Sabbath did belong to the Law of Commandements which is abolished and the Apostle speaketh without exception indefinitely of the â—â—â—gation of holy dayes and Sabbaths 7. Thence it followeth that the fourth Commandement in so farre as it stinteth the seventh day for Gods service is not morall 1 OF the same nature is the passage in the second Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians verse 16. Let no man judge you in meat or in drinke or in distinction of a holy day or of the new Moone or of Sabbaths Where the Apostle teacheth that under the New Testament the conscience of beleevers is not bound to make distinction and observation of any holy day and namely of Sabbaths neither altogether nor in part no more than of meats and of drinkes ranking all those with the ordinances and shadowes which have beene abrogated by Iesus Christ ver 14 17. For like as in matters concerning meat and drinke nature hath necessarily need of them for the entertainment of the body but the conscience is not now bound to that distinction of them which was of old prescribed by the Law of Moses even so it is necessary for the maintenance of the Soule that times bee appointed for Gods publike service in the Church but mens conscience is no more subjected to a seventh day which the Law prescribed to the Iewes 2 To this passage answer is made that the Apostle speaketh of the Iewish holy dayes the Passeover Pentecost c. and of divers Sabbaths which the Iewes observed such as were the first and last day of some annuall feasts which lasted many dayes to wit of the Passeover of the feast of Tabernacles of the feast of Propitiations which was kept on the tenth day of the seventh moneth every seventh yeere which was the Sabbath of rest unto the land because in it they did neither sow their field nor prune their Vineyards every fiftieth yeere which was a jubile All which times are called Sabbaths in the Scripture But it s denyed that he speaketh of the Sabbath day which God had ordained to be kept weekely as well under the New as under the Old Testament For which cause the Apostle speaketh of Sabbaths in the plurall number and not of a Sabbath in the fingular number to signifie that he understood those Sabbaths and not this 3 This answer is not sufficient For the Apostle speaketh generally of an holy day and of Sabbaths saying that we should not be judged or condemned in distinction and separation or part and respect of an Holy day and putting the word signifying an Holy day in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word denoteth any holy day whatsoever Now if we be bound for conscience sake to the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath if we be tyed by Religion to make a distinction of dayes if we be condemned for the omission of that pretended duty are wee not condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in distinction of an Holy day 4 Againe seeing he speaketh of Sabbath in the plurall number with what reason can it be affirmed that his intention was to speak only of the Sabbaths of certaine yeerely feasts and not of the ordinary Sabbath of every weeke although he useth a word befitting it aswell yea more than the rest and including it infallibly in its plurality Namely seeing this word is much more used in the plurall number then in the fingular and is ordinarily taken both in the New and in the Old Testament for the Sabbath whereof wee treat The seventy Greeke translators of the Old Testament are accustomed to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plurall number when in Hebrew mention is made of the ordinary Sabbath of the weeke in the singular number as we may see Exod. 16. ver 23 26 29. Exod. 20. uer 8 10. Exod. 31. ver 16. Exod. 35. v. 2 3. Levit. 23. v. 3. Levit. 24. ver 8. Numb 28. 2 9. Deut. 5. ver 12 14 15. and else where conformably to them This plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in the same sence by the writers in the New Testament as Matthew 12. verse 1 5 10 12. Matth. 28. ver 1. Mark 1. ver 21. Mark 2. ver 24 28. Mark 3. ver 2. Luk. 4. ver 16 31. Luk. 13. ver 10. Iohn 20. ver 1 19. Acts 13. ver 14. Acts 16. ver 13. Acts 17. ver 2. I say therefore that to conclude that the Apostle in the foresaid passage speaketh not of the Sabbath day which returned weekely because he useth the word Sabbath in the plurall number is a weake argument seeing in the Scriptures stile and manner of speaking this word in the plurall number hath a single signification Nay it may bee affirmed with good reason that the Apostle when he speaketh of Sabbaths understands only the ordinary Sabbath of the seventh day and under the name going before of an Holy day hath comprehended all other Sabbaths which God had commanded in the Law even as God himselfe in Leviticus Chapter 23. ver 37. by the word Feasts understandeth all other solemne dayes which he had commanded and ver 38. by the word Sabbaths the seventh day in every weeke according to the ordinary signification thereof not only in the Greeke but also in the Hebrew tongue to which purpose there is a most manifest
made by him as were all other signes wherewith under the old Testament God had clothed the Covenant of Grace and which also for this cause Christ hath abrogated Neither can it be shewed that GOD will have to continue under the new Testament any thing that he had ordained under the old Testament to be an outward signe signifying any saving grace that Christ at his comming was to purchase by his death to his Church God will have it to continue under the new Testament 9 They alledge to this purpose but most unfitly the Raine-bow in the clouds which God gave of old for a signe to Noah and continueth still in this use of a signe For it was a signe ordained onely to confirme a temporall promise common not onely to all men but also to all living creatures of all flesh that is upon the earth to wit that there shall not any more be an universall floud to destroy the earth and all the creatures that are therein as he had done before Genes 9. vers 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. which was not a benefit of the Covenant of grace founded upon Iesus Christ but a naturall covenant and therefore was in no sense typicall had no relation to the Messias to come and for this cause ought not to be abolished by him but was to continue as in its naturall being even so in its being relative signifying this temporall grace which the earth shall injoy to the worlds end 10 It is true that some things which in the old Covenant have beene used for types and figures and subsist still in their naturall and absolute essence may be freely and indifferently applyed to some good and lawfull uses which they are capable of under the new Covenant But in regard of the end they had to be typicall signes and of that necessary obligation which was in them by Gods ancient Ordinance for any end whatsoever they are all abolished neither is there any one of them that hath vigour and strength vnder the new Testament 11 Which to explaine more clearely I say that typicall things under the old Testament were of divers sorts Some of them were in such sort typicall that their whole essence consisted in that neither can in matters of religion the type figure be severed from their lawfull use nor applyed to the exercise of any religious function allowed in the state of the Gospell Of this condition for example were the Circumcision the immolation of the Paschall Lamb the Sacrifices The whole use of which signes was to figurate Christ to come and his benefits neither is there any respect fitting for the exercises of our Evangelicall religion for which any man may lawfully circumcise his children offer the Paschall Lambe or give sacrifices of beasts to God 12 Others were in such sort typicall that they may in themselves have another use then to be types and be imploied lawfully in the practice of actions of the Christian Religion As for example these that the Apostle speaketh of in the Epistle to the Colossians Chap. 2. vers 16. to wit the abstinence of certaine meats the keeping of new Moones of Holy daies of Sabbaths For we may abstaine from meats nay from a certaine kind of meats to fast to keepe under our body and bring it into subjection We may observe the first daies of every Moneth the Holy daies the Sabbaths to rest from the toile of the world and to apply our selves more carefully and particularly then usually we doe to the hearing of Gods Word to singing of Psalmes to publike Prayers to bestowing almes on the poore all which are Evangelicall duties for which it is not onely lawfull but also fitting that some times be appointed As indeed from all times both fasts and divers feasts have beene observed in the Christian Church But to keepe all those things for Religion and Conscience sake as a necessary point of Gods service or to believe that we are bound to doe so by the Commandements which God gave under the old Testament when he established them for shadowes and figures were a thing altogether unlawfull 13 The Sabbath day is wholly of this kind It is certaine that Christians may observe that day indifferently as any other day and in it give themselves unto all exercises of our Christian Religion And indeed the Christian Church kept it in her first ages many yeeres together as well as the Sunday which we shall shew more expresly hereafter But to keepe it as a type and figure as it was of old or believe that we are bound to keepe it rather than any other day by the Commandement which God gave at that time or to make of it for any other respect a point of conscience it is a thing in no case tollerable under the Gospel in the time wherof Gods Commandements given under the old Testament concer-cerning any typicall thing although capable otherwise to be applyed to som other use then to be a type are not obligatory and bind not the conscience And as putting apart the typicall consideration divers good uses may be found for which a course may be taken to keepe the first day of every Moneth the solemne feasts of the Passeover of Pentecost of Iubiles at the end of fifty yeeres and others yet all these daies are abolished and if any man would lay a necessity of such observations upon Christians in the authority of the ancient Commandements of the Law which the Gospell hath not ratified and establish in them a point of Religion he should withstand the Gospel Even so albeit reasons may be found laying aside the type and figure to make lawfull the observation of the Sabbath day by applying it to Evangelicall uses neverthelesse it should be a sin against the Gospell to make the observation thereof necessary by vertue of the Commandements which God gave of old but the Gospel hath no more ratified then these others or otherwise to establish in it any part of Gods service seeing it was a typicall thing which hath been abolished with all the rest This is the maine point which I stand unto here Not that it is unlawfull to keepe the Sabbath day just as any other day But that there is not on Gods part any obligation to that day more than to another day and that it cannot be of it selfe a service of our Christian Religion because it was a type of the old Testament and all the types of that time have ceased in regard of their obligation notwithstanding any lawfull use of them which otherwise may be thought on under the new Testament 14 And wherefore I pray if all other types be abolished ought the Sabbath onely to continue seeing it was a type of the same nature with the rest figuring to the Israelites their sanctification by the Messias to come Vpon what grounds is it said that it was not typicall and figurative as all the rest Is it because nothing can be seene in it figurative of Iesus
Deuteronomie are added to the fourth Commandement Keepe the Sabbath day to sanctifie it as the Lord hath commanded thee As for the Sanctification of the Sabbath day which God ordaineth and of which it is said that it cannot be called a ceremony I answer that indeed to speake universally and absolutely it cannot be so called For the Sabbath day was and ought to be sanctified by morall duties But in as much as it was tyed to the seventh day and was practised by sacrifices offerings and other services of the like kind and by an exact resting from all worldly travels such as GOD ordaineth in the fourth Commandement it is ceremoniall 3 Secondly they stand much upon the words following Sixe dayes shalt thou labour and doe all thy worke but the seventh day c. Where as they say there is a reason of the observation of the seventh day of Sabbath which hath its foundation in equity and justice For if God giveth to men sixe dayes for their owne affaires and for the workes of their worldly calling is it not more than just that they consecrate a seventh day to his service And is it not as just for Christians as for Iewes And therefore say they Christians sith they take sixe dayes for their workes are as much obliged as the Iewes to observe a seventh day of Sabbath to God They adde also that as the labour of sixe dayes which is mentioned in this reason and whence it is taken is not a ceremoniall thing no more should the rest of the seventh day be ceremoniall 4 I answer that in the foresaid reason there is a manifest justice and equity which continueth for ever But that justice is generally in this that if a man hath many dayes for himselfe and for his owne workes it is reasonable hee consecrate one amongst many for Gods service Yea there should be a great deale more justice to imploy if it were possible a greater number of dayes upon Gods service then upon our own businesse Nay to bestow them all Also in consequence of this justice and equity we have said before that under the New Testament in whose time the Christians are farre more beholden to God then the Iewes were sith God hath discharged them of many burdens of outward ceremonies which did lay heavy upon that people and hath called them to bee in some sort a people more franke and more affectionate to his service all the dayes of the weeke as much as possibly can be should be Holy dayes unto the LORD And because they cannot possibly meet together every day to serve in common which neverthelesse he looks for as well as for a particular service they must stint some ordinary day for that end and in this stinting must not shew themselves inferiors to the Iewes appointing lesse than one day among seven to Gods service This is all that can be gathered from the foresaid reason as it is obligatory for ever For to dedicate to God precisely a seventh day after we have bestowed sixe dayes upon our selves it cannot be denyed but that it is most just yet it is not more just nor better proportioned nor more obligatory of it selfe and in its own nature specially to Christians nay not so much as to consecrate to God one of sixe or of five or of foure For the moe we hallow to God the more doe we that which is just equitable and well ordered and the more doe wee performe our duty that wee are naturally bound unto towards him If then God ordained in times past under the Law that the day which he would have his people to dedicate unto him should be particularly one of seven it was not for any naturall justice which was more in that number or for any proportion which in it selfe was more convenient in that behalfe then the appointment of any other number but because it was his good pleasure to direct and rule for that season the time of his service and to impose no more than one day of seven upon a people loaden already with many ceremonies And therefore no particular justice being tied to this number of seven more than to any other this reason contained in the foresaid words of the fourth Commandement cannot be morall nor consequently perpetuall but only positive and for a short continuance in that it commandeth to worke sixe dayes and to rest the seventh day It is morall only in the foundation and substance thereof which is this that if God giveth us liberty to bestow a number of dayes upon our owne affaires it is reasonable that there be one day appointed wherein we ought to serve him We I say that are Christians and that as frequently nay much more than the Iewes did which we accord willingly to be perpetuall But with this restriction that under the New Testament the choice of one day amongst a number of other dayes is not stinted of God and that he bindeth us no more to one of seven then to one of sixe or of five 3 Whereas they adde that as the labour of sixe dayes is not a thing ceremoniall so neither should the rest on the seventh day be placed in that ranke I answer first inferring from thence a contrary argument that as to take paines in the workes of our temporall callings considering the condition of this present life is a thing just and necessary and may be called moral but to work of seven dayes six hath not in it any speciall necessity even so it is necessary just and morall to dedicate some time to Gods publike service but that such a time should be precisely one of seven dayes is by no meanes morall Secondly that which I say to be ceremonial in the 4. Cōmandement is the Commandement it selfe to wit that which God expressely and purposely injoyneth to be kept as belonging to his outward and publike service Now he commandeth not any thing in it precisely saving the observation and sanctification of the day of rest by refraining from all temporall callings And whereas it is said Sixe dayes shalt thou labour as that maketh no part of Gods service no more doth it make a part of the Commandement although God thereby warneth men that they ought not to passe their dayes in idlenesse but should apply themselves every day to the labour of an honest calling but is a permission put only by concession and relatively to the Commandement in this sence Thou art permitted to work six dayes but on the 7th day thou shalt abstaine from all kind of work Therefore it followeth not that if these words put occasionally in the Commandement doe not impart any ceremony the Commandement it selfe is not ceremoniall Thirdly the Scripture in the labour of sixe dayes establisheth not unto us any ceremonie as it doth in the rest of the seventh day which it maketh as expressely as can be a type of the heavenly rest as we have cleerely seene before And yet in relation to the heavenly rest figured by
themselves bound to this observation and Gods proceeding alone had not beene obligatory unto them nor had the force of a Law among them Which sheweth that in it there is no morality no example binding the conscience necessarily and for ever 16 This being so it followeth not that if God was pleased to give this ordinance to the Iewes by occasion of the order that he observed in the Creation he would also have it to continue among Christians seeing it was not grounded in any morall thing which should have life and vigor for ever no more than so many other ordinances which he had given to that people upon good considerations oblige not Christians because the reasons were not morall And as these ordinances are changed and abolished without any blame of variablenesse or of turning that God hath incurred on his part even so that ordinance concerning the Sabbath might and ought to cease likewise All the morality that can be gathered from Gods example is that as God after he had made all his workes in the space of some dayes rested on another day so we should have some day wherein leaving off our ordinary occupations we may busie our selves about Gods service But not that Gods example obligeth us to the same day of rest which God observed 17 And indeed the Christians in the observation of their day of rest doe not any more ground themselves upon Gods example in the Creation For although they keepe sixe dayes of worke and a seventh of rest yet it is not the seventh day that God rested in for they work on that day and rest on the first day of the weeke which God began in to make all his workes and so they change Gods order Which sheweth that this example of God is not obligatory of it selfe and for ever For if it were we should be bound to keepe not only one of seven but the same seventh which God gave us example to rest in there being no reason wherefore one and the same example of God should neither be obligatory for ever in one of its parts to wit in that hee observed sixe dayes of labour and a seventh of rest then in the other to wit in that hee imployed the first sixe dayes of the weeke to worke in and the last to rest in 18 They get no advantage to say that under the New Testament the alteration of the Sabbath day hath beene made from the last day of the weeke to the first because IESUS CHRIST rising on this day rested from the worke of our redemption which is greater and more excellent than the worke of Creation seeing that by it man who was created in the flat mutable state of nature and of a naturall grace from which he fell away and was also to remaine upon earth is put in the supernaturall and immutable state of grace to be received in heaven to be admitted to the contemplation of God himselfe and to live there in a light and purity farre more perfect then that which he had in the first Creation That also heaven and earth shall be renewed and established in a state a great deale more beautifull and excellent then the state they were created in Nay that the Angels themselves have thereby received many and great benefits In a word that in vertue of that worke hath in part beene already made and one day shall be made compleately a new Creation of all things as Christ himselfe speaketh Matth. 19. verse 28. And therefore it deserved well that the day wherein Christ after he had finished it did rest should be consecrated by all those that pretend to have part in it and to whom the benefit thereof is offered if they reject it not by their owne fault to be a day of rest under the New Testament instead of the day which was observed under the Old Testament in remembrance of Gods resting from the workes of the Creation 19 For I grant willingly this to be true But with all I say that the altering of the Sabbath day upon the occasion of Christs Resurrection sheweth plainely that the example of Gods proceeding in the Creation and the observation of one of seven dayes and of the last of seven founded thereupon under the Old Testament was not morall For if it had beene no alteration no changing could have beene made of that time neither altogether nor in part for any occasion occurring and falling out sithence because all morall things are perpetuall have beene confirmed and ratified by Iesus Christ and have not been casheered by him nor by his Church Now it is constant by the practise of all Christian Churches that a change hath beene made and in the beginning of that innovation the order of the observation of one of seven dayes was of necessity subject to be changed and ceased to be obligatory For when Christians began or might have begun to omit the last day of the weeke and to keepe the first they might also then have neglected and violated the foresaid order of dedicating to GOD one day of seven which neverthelesse is pretended to be morall sith by the death of Iesus Christ all the Iewish ceremonies and amongst them the ancient day of Sabbath that is the precise observation of the seventh or the last day of the weeke which is not denyed to have beene ceremoniall being abrogated of right in the weeke wherein hapned the death of Christ and on the Friday of that weeke the Disciples were not obliged to observe the last day of that weeke which was Saturday or the Sabbath of the Iewes immediately following but they might have observed another in the weeke following which being true it followeth that they might have overslipt all the seven dayes of the said weeke without consecrating any of them to God And in effect in whatsoever time the Church begun at first to overpasse the last day of the weeke of necessity she passed a whole weeke wherein there was no seventh day of Sabbath which she could not have done lawfully if to observe one day of seven were a morall point 20 Furthermore according to this maxime which proposeth the necessity of the observation of one day in the weeke yea of a whole day as of a pointmorall sith none can institute such a day but God alone this also of necessity must be layd as a fundamentall point of our Religion that our Lord Iesus Christ on the same day that he rose from death to life made this alteration of the last day into the first and gave notice of it to his Disciples who other wayes could not have acknowledged so soone the necessity of this changing For if he did it not seeing they were no more obliged to the Sabbath day of the Iewes which was abrogated by his death they might have beene not only in the weeke wherein Christ died but also in the weeke following wherein he rose againe free from all obligation tying them to any Sabbath day which the aforesaid
places of the wildernesse the battell being given them on the Sabbath day chused rather to be slaine with their Wives Children and cattell then to make resistance for the safety of their lives least they should profane the Sabbath day 1 Maccab. 2. verse 32. c. There is another example of a like scruple in the second booke Chapter 6. verse 11. And we read in Iosephus in the eight Chapter of the foureteenth booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes and in the first booke of the Warres of the Iewes Chapter 5. that when the Romans under their generall Pompeius beleagured the Temple of Ierusalem the Iewes which were fled thither although they defended themselves on the Sabbath day if they were assaulted yet they remained quiet and bonged not if they were not assaulted which when the Romans had perceived they set not on them and threw nothing against them on the Sabbath day but prepared only things necessary for the assaults dressed terrasses and forts brought neere their engines to make use of them the next day and the Iewes of Religion and great devotion toward the Sabbath suffered them to doe what they would without disturbance And Iosephus approveth this Religion or rather superstition as if it had beene conformable to the ordinance of the Law saying that the Law permitteth on the Sabbath day if the enemies come to wage battell or give blowes to drive them backe Many might have beene intangled with the same superstition during the desolation wherof Christ speaketh in the place before alleadged For although that upon such an occasion as this was to wit to save their lives they should and might have beene informed that they had full liberty to work and flie yet the devotion so ancient so usually practised so exactly and scrupulously observed towards the Sabbath specially in these times as may be seene in sundry places of the Gospell this devotion I say was more than sufficient to forme many difficulties in their mindes and cast into many perplexities concerning the practise of this knowledge even those that had it Wherefore our Lord Iesus Christ foreseeing that many in the dayes of the future desolation of Ierusalem should be disquieted with such feares should make such difficulties or at least conceive a great displeasure to be constrained to worke and travell on the Sabbath day for the preserving of their lives adviseth them to pray to God that their flight be not on that day 4 If they reply that Iesus Christ spake these words to his Disciples who were infallibly to be well instructed before the desolation of Ierusalem concerning the Evangelicall day of Sabbath and concerning all things that may be lawfully done on it and therefore there was no occasion to feare that they should suffer themselves to be carryed away with any Religion or rather superstition towards the Iewish Sabbath day which before that time should be abrogated To that objection I answer againe that verily Iesus Christ spake to his Disciples who apparantly were alone with him but not in regard to them For he knew well that about the time of the desolation of Ierusalem they should be either dead or farre removed from Iudea among the other nations of the earth and therefore this danger was not to be feared on their behalfe Wherefore in their persons he spake to all the Iewes who were all to be in common partakers of this desolation or at least to all the faithfull who in that time should be conversant in Iudea as if they had been present before him with his Disciples This is evident by these words in the 16. 17 18 19. Verses Then let them that be in Iudea flee into the mountaines Let him which is on the house toppe not come downe to take any thing out of his house Neither let him which is in the field returne backe to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child and unto them that give sucke in those dayes c. For these are common advertisements to all that were to be insnared in that danger and so is likewise this Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day which must be understood as said to all the Iewes to whom the preceding warnings are directed amongst whom Iesus Christ knew that many Christians converted unto him and carryed away with a Religious respect towards the Law should still have the opinion of the Sabbath which I have specified Nay he knew that amongst the faithfull Iewes the best instructed should tye themselves for a certaine space of time after his Ascension into heaven to the observation of certaine legall ceremonies and specially of the Sabbath although of right they were all made of no effect by his death not for any conscience to them-ward nor through an acknowledgement of any obligation on their behalfe to the ceremoniall Law which had beene a thing hurtfull and dangerous but simply through love to shunne all occasions of giving offence to the other Iewes to imbrace all meanes of gaining them more easily to the faith and to bury the ceremonies with honour which in that respect was lawfull So then for these reasons he might well exhort them all to pray that there flight should not befall on the Sabbath day because those that are weake and not so well instructed should not dare to flie or should flie with scruple of conscience and the strong that had greater knowledge should doe it although without trouble of Conscience yet not without some griefe remembring that on that day they were accustomed till then to apply themselves to religious actions and foreseeing that their flight might be offensive and make them odious to some that also they might be hindered in their flight and preparatives for it by those which should superstitiously sticke fast unto the prohibitions not to worke to run and to toyle on the Sabbath day 5 I adde that although we should consider this Commandement of Christ Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day as directed to the Disciples only and should advow that being well instructed there was no cause why they should feare to flie on the Sabbath day and therefore no cause why they should pray for their particular that their flight should not happen on that day we may fitly say that Iesus Christ commanded them to pray so having regard not to them but to others that he foresaw should be ignorant and weake and to whom the Sabbath day should be an impediment to flie For although Christians strong in the faith make no such difficulty and in that respect have no cause to feare for themselves yet knowing that such difficulties to some other ignorants and weake in faith wil be a stumbling block they ought to pray to God having regard to them that the causes and occasions of such difficulties happen not if it be possible and â—in this respect Iesus Christ might have said to his Disciples Pray that your flight from the desolation to come be not
on the Sabbath day if not for your owne sake who being well informed and instructed in the faith shall know that yee may flee on that day and make no difficultie for conscience sake yet in regard of others who shall be distressed with the same necessity to flee with you but who being altogether ignorant of the liberty of the Gospell as the Iewes not as yet converted or the weake ones retaining after their conversion and profession of the Gospell a religious respect towards the ceremonies of the Law of Moses as many Christians who for conscience sake towards the Sabbath will be scrupulous to flie on it for whom in respect of their ignorance and weakenesse you ought to pray that your common flight be not on that day For yee are all members of one body 6 I say more that although Iesus Christ by the Sabbath day had signified the first day of the weeke which after his Ascension was to be observed by all Christians and had commanded his Disciples to pray that their flight should not fall out on Sunday least they should be compelled to imploy upon bodily working travelling and hurrying up and downe a day which otherwise they had applyed to GODs service of that no man can conclude neither that a seventh day of rest is a morall point nor also that Christs minde was to injoyne the observation of the first day of the weeke but only that he foresaw that after his Ascension the first day of the week should be kept by Christians of their owne free will through respect to his resurrection which should befall on that day and that it should be loathsome and grievous unto them to weary themselves with fleeing on a day wherein they were wont to rest from all worldly imployments and to addict â—hemselves to serve God in his house Verily although a day be not ordained of God to be stinted for his service yet if by the custome of the Church it be ordinarily imployed for that use a true Christian will be hartily sorry that hee should be forced by necessity to busie himselfe in other exercises then those which are proper to Gods service and he may with good reason make humble suit unto GOD that he be not brought to such a hard strait And therefore CHRIST might advise his Disciples to pray that their flight should not befall on the Saturday without any other inference that can be gathered from thence saving a future use and custome to observe such a day in the Church and not any obligation proceeding from him farre lesse a naturall and morall obligation towards a seventh day of the weeke which is the point in question CHAPTER Eleven Answer to the Ninth Reason 1. Ninth Reason the Apostles kept the Sabbath 2. First answer they entred into the Synagogues of the Iewes on the Sabbath day not for conscience sake but for the commodity of the place and time to convert the Iewes 3. Second answer In this and in the observation of other ceremonies they applyed themselves to the infirmity of the Iewes 4. Passages alleadged to prove that the Apostles absolutely and simply did keepe the Sabbath of the Iewes 5. First Answer Acts 13. ver 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be interpreted indifferently people folke 6. Second answer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be interpreted of the weeke betweene 7. If wee read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they signifie in a day betweene the Sabbaths this answer is not refuted by the 44. verse 8. Third Answer The 44. Uerse may be truly translated not of the next Sabbath day but of the next weeke 9. Fourth Answer in both verses the Sabbath being taken for the next Sabbath they prove not that which is intended 10. The passage alleadged Acts 16. verse 12 13. cannot be understood but of those that were Iewes in Religion 11. Whether they had a Synagogue or not they met together out of the townes 12. There they had a place appointed for prayer c. called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an Oratory or place of prayer 15. Where Saint Paul and his fellowes joyned with them to seeke to gaine them to Christ. 14. Why the Apostles which taught sufficiently the abrogation of the Sabbath and of Holy dayes did not preach against them as they did against Circumcision and other ceremonies 15. Answer to the last Reason concerning the Sabbaticall River 1 IT is with as little shew nay it is rather against themselves that to prove a necessary and perpetuall obligation to keepe the Sabbath some make use of that which is noted in diverse places of the Acts of the Apostles as in the Chapter 13. verse 14 43 44. and 16. verse 13. and 17. verse 2. and 18. verse 4. and other where that the Apostles after the Ascension of Iesus Christ kept the Sabbath going to the Synagogues of the Iewes and expounding the Scriptures there 2 For this argument if it were good for any thing would prove that under the New Testament the Iewish Sabbath day to wit the last of the week is to be kept because in the foresaid places mention is made of that day only But the going of the Apostles to the Synagogues on that day came not from any obligation of the law tying them to the Sabbath nor from any religious respect to that day as if it had beene still a necessary point of Gods service but because it was the ordinary day of the congregations of the Iewes whom they desired to convert and it was expedient for that end that they should be present at such times and places that the Iewes did meet in to wit on the Sabbath day and in their Synagogues as for the same reason they observed also the annuall feasts and indeavoured to bee at Ierusalem on such dayes as may be seene Acts 20. verse 16. I adde that they applyed themselves in this point as in many other legall ceremonies to the infirmitie of the Iewes Acts. 15. v. 29. Acts 16. verse 3. Acts 21. verse 24 26. and 1 Cor. 9. ver 20. to gaine them more easily to the faith and to preserve them in it after their conversion For it is certaine that the faithfull Christians converted from the Iewish Religion to the faith of Christ kept still a great zeale for the ceremonies as it is said in the Acts Chap. 21. verse 20. and consequently for the Sabbath day 4 There be some who would have the Iewish Sabbath to be still kept in the Christian Church and to prove that the Apostles did particularly and carefully observe the seventh day of the weeke without any occasion of condescent to the Religion and devotion of the Iewes towards the Sabbath doe alleadge the thirteenth Chapter of the Acts verse 42 43 44. where it is said that when Paul and Barnabas were on the Sabbath day gone out of the Synagogue of the Iewes the Gentiles besought them that they would preach the word unto them the next Sabbath
of the Gentiles converted to the Christian Religion seeing Paul Silas and Timothy were but new arrived in that place where the word of the Gospell had not beene as yet preached as appeareth by the nine and tenne Uerses Therefore of necessity they were Iewes of Religion dwelling in Philippi and worshipping GOD according to the Law wherein they were instructed 11 It imports not much that no mention is made of a Synagogue where these persons came together but only that they went out of the City by a River side where prayer was wont to be made For it may be they had no Synagogue because they were but few or wanted meanes to build a Synagogue or because in that Towne which was a Roman Colony they were not suffered to build one and therefore they assembled together neere the River in some secret place out of the way not daring to meet openly in the Towne Peradventure also they had a Synagogue but if that which is written by some be true that the manner of the Iewes was to meete not only in their Synagogues in Townes for the reading of the Law but also out of Townes in the fields for the exercise of prayer even so these persons mentioned in the place aforesaid went out of the Towne by the River side for that end and that Paul and Silas made good use of that place and time of their holiest devotions as most commodious to goe and to speake to them because since their comming to the Towne which was a few dayes before undoubtedly they had not found the opportunity to speake unto them there nor elsewhere 12 Yea according to the exposition of some learned men the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken in the thirteenth and sixteenth verse for an house builded for the exercises of prayer and other religious actions accustomed among the Iewes As also it was an ordinary name whereby were entitled these houses wherein the Iewes did flocke together to read and to pray we may keeping the signification of the word call them Oratories or houses of prayer as the Temple is called Esa. 56. verse 7. 13 So then it is evident that this place of the Acts as the former is most conveniently expounded of the Iewes and therefore that for their sake onely Saint Paul and his fellowes made choice of the Sabbath day to intertaine them with Religious and wholesome speeches of the Gospell Neither shall any place be found where the Apostles are said to have observed the Sabbath but with respect to the Iewes to whom they applyed themselves seeking fit times places occasions to convert them and not having any so fit as the Sabbath which they behoved to keepe to come to their intent For at another time they could not have assembled the Iewes so commodiously as they would to preach unto them the Gospell publikely and loosing the Sabbath day they had lost the most favourable and advantageous commodities for the propagation and setting forward of the Gospell Whereunto they had a speciall regard catching that opportunity above all others namely seeing to observe the seventh day or any other day is in it selfe a thing indifferent under the Gospell which hath onely abolished the type and ancient obligation to that day leaving to the liberty of the Churche to serve God on any day or dayes whatsoever which are or shall be appointed by them 14 Which is to my opinion the reason why they did not preach against the Sabbath day nor also against the other holy dayes of the Iewes so vehemently as they did against other ceremonies namely against circumcision Acts 15. v. 1. Acts 21. v. 21. Gal. 5. ver 2. But condescended to the one farre more easily then to the other Because there cannot bee under the New Testament any lawfull use of the circumcision nor of other ceremonies like unto it but very good use might bee made of the Sabbath day and of other dayes after the manner before specified Yet they have not concealed the abrogation of the Sabbath and of the feasts but have sufficiently spoken of it as is manifest by the prooffes before propounded And therefore of the custome they had to keepe the Sabbath day cannot bee inforced any obligation tying us to observe it no more than other ceremonies to which they conformed themselves for a time because they did it onely to become as Iewes unto the Iewes as the Apostle witnesseth 1 Cor. 9. verse 20. having otherwise both in their discourses and in their writings taught cleerely and fully the abrogation of all these things 15 I scorne to ranke among the foresaid reasons or to honour with the name of a reason that which neverthelesse is by some set on foote and inforced as a good reason when they tell us of a certaine river in Palestina which according to the relation of some writers ranne regularly with swiftnesse enough and waters in a sufficient abundance in the sixe dayes of the weeke and on the Sabbath day vanishing away in his force left his channell empty and drie Or on the contrary as the thing is related by others vanished away or was dryed up all the sixe dayes before the Sabbath and on the Sabbath dayes filled up his channell Iosephus maketh mention of this river in this last fashion in the seventh booke of the warres of the Iewes Chapter 24. and saith that the Emperour Titus passing that way remarked it Plineas also maketh mention of it but in the first fashion in the 31. booke of his naturall History Chapter 2. and some Rabbins likewise whereupon some seeke to build pretty allegories to prove the observation of the Sabbath on a Seventh day of the weeke But they take not heed that in so arguing they imitate the Iewes who upon the marvellous nature of this River called Sabbaticall seeke to inferre the perpetuity of their Sabbath day wherin they are better grounded then Christians who from thence inferre simply the perpetuity of a seventh day For it was particularly on the last of seven dayes and not on any other day of the week that this River rested or flowed and therefore we should be bound to observe the seventh and last day of the weeke if the changings of this River could be a precedent to the matter in hand But if allegorizing were sound Divinity a conclusion might be made flat contrary to the former upon the proprieties of this Sabbaticall River For as Galatinus saith in the 9 Chapter of the eleventh book of the secrets of the Catholike truth the drying up of this River and the want of water in it on the Sabbath day betokened that the Sabbath should be denyed and loose all obligatory vertue under the New Testament If it ranne on the Sabbath day it could not bee a precedent of rest For running is not resting But whether it be true that such a River hath beene or that it hath never beene sith it is not now and is no where found by the
travellers that seeke it the cessation and bringing of it to naught teacheth that the Sabbath hath ceased and is abrogated And so having refuted all reasons that are put abroach for the morality and perpetuity of the Sabbath I end here the second part of this Treatise THE THIRD PART Of the originall and institution of the first day of the weeke for the day of Gods publike service in the Christian. CHURCH CHAPTER First Establishment of the opinion most admittable concerning the originall and institution of the Lords day 1. The first day of the weeke was kept from the beginning of the Christian Church in remembrance of Christs Resurrection not for any necessity in the thing it selfe 2. Not also by obligation of the fourth Commandement 3. The state of the Question whether this day be an institution of IESUS CHRIST or of his Apostles or whether the faithfull of themselves without any Commandement made choice of it 4. The first opinion hath no solid foundation The second hath 5. First argument against the first opinion There is no record in the whole New Testament that Christ or his Apostles ordained that day c. 6. Second argument the first day of the weeke was not equally kept by all Christians till Constantine by an imperiall Law tyed them unto it as also to the sixt day which wee call Friday 7. First observation upon the imperiall Law of Constantine concerning the first day of the weeke 8. Second Observation upon the same Law concerning the sixt day 9. Whence it is cleere that both were of Ecclesiasticall institution 10. Third argument the first Christians especially in the East observed for the space of three hundred yeeres and more the seventh day of the weeke with the first day 11. Confirmation of this truth by the Councell of Laodicea and sundry Fathers c. 12. Which shew evidently that the Christians in those dayes beleeved not that the first day of the weeke was by CHRIST or his Apostles subrogated to the Iewish Sabbath 1 IT is plaine and generally agreed on that the first day of the weeke was kept from the beginning of the Christian Church and that undoubtedly upon the consideration of the Resurrection of CHRIST which came to passe on that day Yet this observation was not grounded upon any necessity of the thing it selfe obliging Christians to keepe that day of the weeke rather than another For as it hath beene shewed before it is impossible to explicate with shew of reason either what morall necessity one day of seven hath in it more than hath another number or wherefore it was necessary that the day of the week that Christ rose in should be kept in the Christian Church rather than the day wherein he was borne or the day wherein he suffered on the Crosse or the day wherin hee ascended into heaven Or if the day of his Resurrection must be observed why these others of his birth death and Ascension ought not to be also kept weekely The resurrection of Christ might did give occasion unto the observation of that day but that it was a cause obliging necessarily and having a fundamentall relation or that CHRIST by his Resurrection on that day intended to sanctifie it particularly to the Christian Church cannot bee proved 2 Neither also hath the fourth Commandement obliged Christians to observe this day For it injoyned the last day of the weeke precisely and not the first and in that respect was ceremoniall which also hath beene shewed And therefore the observation of the first day of the weeke cannot be grounded upon the tearmes thereof For the foundation thereof should be absurd and unreasonable thus God ordained under the Old Testament as a point of ceremony and of order for that time the last day of the weeke wherein hee rested from all his workes Therefore in vertue and through obligation of this Commandement men are bound under the New Testament to observe the first day of the weeke wherein God began to apply himselfe to the production of his works Who seeth not the manifest absurdity of such an illation Therefore this observation of the first day of the weeke must of necessity bee attributed to some other free and voluntary institution made concerning it in the New Testament 3 Here beginneth a new question whether the institution therof be divine or Apostolicall If it was our Lord Iesus Christ that ordained it after his Resurrection to be kept by all Christians during the whole time of the New Testament if the Apostles also injoyned it to all the faithfull till the end of the world so that they are all bound to the observation thereof by the institution of Christ or of his Apostles Or whether the faithfull did not of themselves without any commandement through respect to the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ keepe the day wherein it came to passe as also to make a distinction thereby between them and the Iewes and to shew that they were made free from all Iewish observations types and figures amongst which was the Sabbath day and that they observed not a day in quality of type and figure but onely for orders sake and for Ecclesiasticall government to apply themselves together to the exercises of Religion and for that cause had changed the seventh day of the Iewes into another which usage and custome as very fit and convenient being begunne first amongst a few faire and softly prevailed and was established with the Christian Religion amongst all those that imbraced it and since that time hath continued in the Christian Church till this day 4 Although the first of these opinions were true it cannot inforce the morality of a seventh day of rest but only that the first day of the weekes was instituted by IESUS CHRIST or his Apostles as a point of order whereunto in such a case the faithfull should be bound by the necessity of a divine and apostolicall commandement But I see not that this opinion hath any solid ground whereas the second is well founded For there is nothing found in the New Testament concerning the observation of the first day of the weeke importing a commandement of Christ or of his Apostles neither is there any such commandement inferred but by remote and most weake consequences and it is more likely that all the places alleadged to that purpose denote onely a simple usage among some Christians in those dayes which by succession of time hath beene setled and is become universall 5 Indeed if Iesus Christ or his Apostles by expresse commandement from him or by divine inspiration had ordained that day as a point so necessary as it is thought to be I doubt not but their commandement should have beene expressely set downe in the books of the New Testament as are all other ordinances of necessary things and that in them we should finde reprehension against those that had neglected the observation of that day as in them there are reprehensions against all kinde of
sinners But seeing there is no such commandement to bee found in them that it cannot bee gathered from them but by consequences which are of no force that no man is blamed in them for the inobservation of that day whereas under the Old Testament God taxed so often and so sharply those that kept not his Sabbaths this is to mee a most firme and assured proofe that neither IESUS CHRIST nor his Apostles have ordained it 6 I adde that if had beene an ordinance of Iesus Christ or of his Apostles undoubtedly the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospell when they found and established the Christian Churches had established the observation of this day as a point of the will of Iesus Christ and of his service under the New Testament and it had beene kept equally by all the Churches For why had they not received it as well as the other points of the Christian Religion and doctrine of the Gospell sith the same authority obliged them therunto Now this is most true that the observation thereof was not practised throughout them all and became not universall wel setled but by the commandements and constitution of the Emperours There diverse imperiall constitutions for the observation of the first day of the weeke Eusebius in the fourth booke of the life of Constantine Chapter 16. and after him Sozomene in the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall History and in the 8 Chapter relateth that Constantine the first made a Law and ordained that on Sunday which is the first day of the weeke and on Friday all publike judgments should surcease that all other affaires should be intermitted that on these dayes all should apply themselves to serve GOD by prayers and supplications and that so he reverenced Sunday because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead and Friday because on it hee was crucified 7 This passage is considerable For it sheweth that Sunday was not observed throughout al the Churches but that it was used as a work-work-day and that on it common pleas and publike judgements were practised whence we may conclude with a great shew of truth that it was not an institution of Christ nor of his Apostles For if it had beene questionlesse the observation thereof had beene better known and practised and Christians had thought themselves more obliged unto it for the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles then for any imperiall constitution The writers of that story telling also what reason Constantine had to make a constitution concerning the observation of Sunday say simply that he made it because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead which indeed hath alwayes beene the foundation of this usage but they say not that it was because Iesus Christ and his Apostles had ordained which they ought not to be silent of if that had been true and it had been needlesse to alleadge any other reason 9 This is also worthy to be marked that Sozomen joyneth the Friday with the Sunday and saith that Constantine ordained that day as wel as this day That day because on it Christ was crucified this day because on it Christ rose againe Which sheweth plainely that the day of Christs Resurrection is not of it selfe more obligatory to make christians keep it then is the day of his passion upon the Crosse or of any other of his actions or sufferings That the one may yeeld as just and peremptory a cause thereof as the other that Christ also had not given a commandement more expresse and more necessary for the one then for the other but had left all this to the liberty of the Church For if he had given a particular commandement concerning Sunday it had bin in Constantine a great temerity to ordaine another day in equall ranke with that which Christ had ordained because he ought to thinke that Christ had good reasons for the institution of that day which had not beene valuable for any other day and that by the institution of one day in the weeke particularly and of no moe he would have all Christians to know that no man ought to attempt to institute any other besides that which he had instituted 9 Constantine had beene guilty of farre greater rashnesse and indiscretion by making Friday which was of his institution equall to Sunday which Iesus Christ had ordained yet he did so as is manifest by the words of Sozomen who maketh no ods betweene the ordinance made for Friday and that which was made for Sunday But seeing Constantine in what hee did did nothing amisse it is evident thereby that the observation of Sunday was not of divine institution but of usage and custome only which was not received every where nor well practised where it was received because it was not esteemed necessary Wherefore Constantine by his constitution made it necessary adding another like unto it for Friday all this is flat contrary to the assertion of those which to prove that Sunday is of divine institution yeeld this reason of their opinion that no humane authority can sanctifie a day And lo Constantine sanctified Friday ordaining that it should be imployed in exercises of Religion only wherof we shall speake againe something hereafter God willing 10 Socrates in the fifth booke and 21 Chapter of his Ecclesiasticall story marketh sundry customes in the Churches about the day of their assemblies which some kept in one day of the weeke some in another And saith expressely that Iesus Christ and his Apostles have not ordained any thing concerning holy dayes but have only given precepts of godlinesse and of an holy life And it is most likely that the Christian Churches which in the beginning God assembled among the Iewes kept not for a long while any other day for the exercise of their religion saving the 7th and last day of the week And it is a thing most certain that many Churches of the Gentiles especially in the last more than three hundred yeeres after Christ observed the Sabbath day of the Iewes with the Sunday and made of the one a day of devotion as well as of the other Saint Ignatius Martyr an hundred yeeres after Iesus Christ in his Epistle to the Magnesians exhorteth the Christians to observe the Sabbath not after the manner of the Iewes which there he describeth but after a spirituall and holy manner such as hee setteth downe and addeth that after they had observed the Sabbath they should also observe the first day of the weeke The Councell which met in Laodicea in the fourth age after Christ ordained that Christians must not keepe the Sabbath day and rest in it after the manner of the Iewes which sheweth that till then they observed it Nay according to the translations which we have the Councell did not forbid them absolutely to keepe the Iewish Sabbath but permitted it unto them if they would with this caveat that it were not after the fashion of the Iewes and that they should preferre Sunday before it
Saint Athanasius in the homily of the seed saith of himselfe and of other faithfull Christians that they assembled together on the Sabbath day not through malady of spirit for Iudaisme but to worship the Lord of the Sabbath Gregory of Nisse calleth these two dayes to wit the Sabbath day and the Lords day brethren Sozomene in the seventh booke and 19 Chapter of his History saith that at Constantinople and almost in all other parts of the Easterne Church the ecclesiasticall assemblies met together on the Sabbath day and on the day following Socrates in the sixt booke and eight Chapter of his History calleth the Sabbath day and the Sunday the weekely feasts wherein Christians came together in the Churches and in the foresaid 21 Chap. of the fifth book amongst many diverse customes of the Churches of these times concerning their assemblies and exercises of Religion he alleadgeth a frequent and common observation of the Sabbath 12 Which sheweth that the Churches beleeved not Sunday to be of divine institution and subrogated to the Sabbath by our Lord Iesus Christ. For if they had beleeved any such thing they had not observed another day But knowing they had no particular commandement for any day of devotion they observed both the Sab because it had beene a long while a solemne day of devotion ordained of God to the Iewes and Sunday because it was made honourable by the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ. This that we say shall be better seene by the consideration of the reasons which are broached to prove that the institution of the first day of the weeke to be a holy day is of God himselfe of Iesus Christ and of his Apostles CHAPTER Second Answer to the first Reason taken from some Texts of the Old Testament to prove the divine institution of the first day of the weeke 1. Answer to the Reasons taken from the Circumcision administred on the eight day and from the inscription of certaine Psalmes c. 2. Reasons taken out of the 110 Psalme 3. ver and of the 118. Psalme verse 24. 3. Answer In the hundred and tenth Psalme no mention is made of any particular day 4. Nor also in the hundred and eighteenth Psalme 5. And although there were a day of rest in every weeke cannot be inforced from thence 6. No more then the words of Isaiah Chapter 9. and of the Angels Luke 2. verse 10 11. can inforce a weekely observation of a day in remembrance of Christs birth 1 IT were a losse of time to stay here upon the refutation of the reasons taken from the ancient circumcision which was celebrated on the eight day and which some say to have beene a figure of the spirituall circumcision that we were to obtaine by our Lord Iesus Christ one the first day of the weeke which is as the eight day succeeding immediately to the seventh and last day thereof Nor also of these which are overthwartly wrested out of these Psalmes which have in their titles or inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hascheminith that is super octava upon the octave as if in these titles mention were made of the first day after the seventh which is Sunday For although these reasons have beene alleadged by some of the ancients they broached them rather as allusions and allegories then as solid proofes to rely upon Wherefore leaving them I goe forward to the consideration of two others which have greater likenesse of truth 2 They would faine take advantage of the hundred and 10. Psalm and of the 3. ver as also of the hundred and 18. Psalme and of the 24 v. thereof as if in these places there were a prophesie that Sunday or the day of the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ should be observed in the Christian Church In the hundred and 10 Psal. verse 3. mention is made of a day wherein Christ should raise an army in a holy pompe and his people should be a willing people In the hundred and 18 Psalme verse 24. the people is exhorted to rejoyce and be glad in the day which the Lord had made day wherein the stone which the builders refused should become the head stone of the corner verse 22. Stone which is Christ. Now Christ in his ignominious death was like a stone rejected by the builders that is by the governours and rulers of the Iewes and it was by his glorious Resurrection that he became the head stone of the corner Act. 4. ver 10 11. 3 To this I answer that no certaine argument can be drawne from the two foresaid allegations For who dare affirme that in them a particular day is denoted and not rather indefinitely the time of the publication of the Gospell and gathering together of the Christian Church which was done by the Apostles after the Resurrection of Christ It is said in the hundred and tenth Psalme ver 2. that the Lord should send out of Sion the Scepter of Christs strength the meaning of which words is that out of Ierusalem he should send forth and spread every where the preaching of the Gospell to wit by the Apostles and other Ministers and that in the day that is in the time wherein he should raise his army that is gather together his Church she should be a free voluntary and forward people Now the first assembling of the Christian Church happened not in one day more than in another but the Apostles applyed themselves to that worke every day preaching the Gospell wherefore we must not understand in that place of the Psalme any particular day but the whole time wherein this worke was done by the Apostles and their Disciples 4 I say the same of the hundred and eighteenth Psalme For Iesus Christ is not become the head stone of the corner simply by his Resurrection but in as much as after his Resurrection he hath by the preaching of the Gospell built up the faithfull upon himselfe as so many lively stones to be a spirituall house as we may see in the first epistle of Saint Peter Chapter 2. verse 4 5 6 7. And therefore this day which the Lord hath made and wherein the Psalmist exhorteth the faithfull to rejoyce is not a particular day but all this time blessed and sanctified by the LORD wherein should begin and goe forward this great worke of the preaching of the Gospell for the edifying in all places of the Church upon Iesus Christ for this is ordinary both in Scripture and in the common language when mention is made of a day wherein a thing is a doing or shall be done to understand not alwayes necessarily a certaine particular day but indefinitely the time of such a thing which may be such that it cannot bee performed in one particular day but requireth a continuation of time So the Apostle applying to the Christians of his time the words of God in Isaiah Chapter 49. 8. saith Behold now is the accepted time behold Now is the day of salvation
the whole people to come together for that end in these dayes which are otherwise common and worke dayes There are also in many Churches yeerely feasts injoyned by the order and discipline of the Church as of the Nativity Passion and Ascension of Christ c. wherein the people is gathered together to heare the word of God and all the parts of divine service Do they not know that God hath not bound them by speciall cōmandement to the observation of such dayes and that their conscience is not tyed unto them in that name And yet we see not any of them under that pretence neglect the keeping of those dayes or presume to ordaine others at their pleasure Some profane men may attempt such a thing but honest men which love the Word of God and the exercises of godlinesse will submit themselves to the order of the Church and observe such dayes not as I have said for any particular commandement that God hath given concerning them seeing in this respect they know they are free yet through respect and affection towards the order of the Church and true devotion towards the holy exercises whereunto shee hath thought fit to apply such dayes It is even so of Sunday betweene which and these other dayes there is not in effect any difference in regard of a necessity to keepe them saving that Sunday is more ordinary and frequent then these others are which being joyned to the antiquity and generality of the observation thereof ever since the beginning of the Christian Church hath worthily purchased unto it the precedence of credit and respect to all other dayes which may be extraordinarily now appointed by the Church for the exercises of Religion This is all that I have to say concerning the institution and setting a part of Sunday for Gods service which hath beene the matter of the third part of this treatise The end of the third Part. THE FOVRTH PART Concerning the observation of the Sabbath day under the Ancient Testament and of Sunday under the New Testament CHAPTER First What was the observation of the Sabbath day under the Ancient Testament 1. The two chiefe points of this fourth and last part 2. All servile workes of profit or of recreation were forbidden on the Sabbath day 3. Yea the least unnecessary workes as to goe out of doores to gather Manna 4. To prepare it on that day 5. Commandement was given to the people to prepare it the day before 6. Refutation of the contrary opinion 7. How it came to passe that the Manna being kept according to the Commandement did not stinke 8. Other examples of small things which it was not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day 9. Workes lawfull on that day were the workes of the ceremoniall Law 10. Workes of love of mercy and of compassion 11. Workes of urgent necessity 12. Whence it is evident that the observation of the Iewish Sabbath was very precise and exact 1 HAving declared sufficiently the nature of the Sabbath day which was the maine point in this question I will dispatch briefely the last point concerning the observation thereof by a holy rest and cessation of all servile workes commanded of God and will shew how farre the Iewes were bound unto it under the ancient Testament and how farre or whether Christians are obliged unto it under the New Testament For this also is called in question 2 This is of it selfe cleere inough by that hath beene already said in the three first parts Neverthelesse to give a more full declaration and satisfaction I say that we know sufficiently what was the observation of the Sabbath day under the Old Testament seeing God had both in generall and particular ordered it by his lawes In generall he commanded a most exact rest and cessation and declared it by a redoubling of the words which he makes use of in this point saying sometimes that the seventh day is a Sabbath or Rest of Rest Exod. 16. verse 23. Exod 31. verse 15. Exod. 35. ver 2. Leviticus 23. verse 3. that is a day wherein he would have them to rest most precisely from all workes as it is said in the same places which workes he otherwhere intitleth servile workes Leviticus 23. verse 7 8 21 25. Numbers 28. verse 25. that is appertaining to their temporall and ordinary callings which they were wont to doe on the sixe former dayes of the weeke either for profit or for recreation and other uses simply civill domesticke earthly which he particularizeth in diverse places as for example to husband the ground to reape to cut grapes to tread wine presses Exod. 34. verse 21. Nehem. 13. verse 13. to buy and to sell Nehem. 10. verse 31. hold markets and faires for buying and selling of wares meat drinke to Cart to carry burthens Nehe. 13. verse 15 16 17 18. Ierem. 17. verse 21 22 23 24. to goe out of their houses for any end whatsoever besides their resorting to the holy convocations as to goe a voyage and to doe such like actions Exod. 16. verse 29. 3 This ordinance to doe no manner of work on the Sabbath day was so precise that God forbad them to doe the least workes even those which might be done without travell or distraction For example they were interdicted not only to make long and painefull voyages and courses but also to goe out of doores to walke although softly without urgent necessity as to goe out for to gather Manna when they were in the Wildernesse Exodus 16. ver 27. which they might have done without paines because it was to bee found at their doores and they were not to goe farre nor to take more paines than to stoope a little nor bestow above a very short time and that betimes in the morning because when the Sun waxed hot it melted neither could that have hindred them from sanctifying the Sabbath with all the exercises of Gods service 4 Neverthelesse God forbad them that light and small worke and least they should take that little and small diversion purposely he rained not downe Manna upon them on that day but the day before gave them bread for two dayes and when some of the people went out to see if there was any on the Sabbath day they were eagerly blamed as breakers of the Sabbath verse 27 28. And thereupon God commanded them to abide every man in his place and that no man should goe out of his place on that day to gather Manna verse 29. Likewise concerning that measure which they had gathered the day before for the Sabbath day he injoyned them also to bake and prepare it on the sixt day and to beware to delay and put off the preparing thereof to the seventh day least they should profane the Sabbath This is expressely set downe in these words Exod. 16. verse 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Bake that which you will bake to day and seeth that yee will seeth and that
Law of God forbidding actions farre lighter and of farre lesser moment then all those that are particularized in the Law CHAPTER Second What is the obligation of Christians to the observation of Sunday for the manner of it 1. They are not bound by a Divine prohibition and for conscience sake to abstaine from any servile worke 2. First Reason the fourth Commandement bindeth them not thereunto 3. Second Reason the order of the Church neither doth nor can oblige their conscience to a Iewish abstinence 4. Third Reason Those of the contrary opinion urge not the riged abstinence of the Iewes from all manner of worke 5. Wherefore they should not urge any abstinence at all contrary to Christian liberty 6. For Christian liberty extends it selfe equally to all and is not restrained by the fourth Commandement 1 AS for Christians living under the New Testament they are not obliged to such an observation of their Sunday as the Iewes were to their Sabbath day And I beleeve not any worke externall corporall servile of their ordinary callings lawfull on another day to be unlawfull on that day by a divine prohibition and obligation of conscience to abstaine from it in consequence of such a prohibition 2 This resulteth by necessary consequence from that hath beene said before For if the fourth Commandement in as much as it prescribeth a certaine day of rest to wit a seventh day or the last of seven bindeth them not as hath beene shewed there is no reason why it should rather oblige them in the exact prohibition of all worke on the Sabbath day because this was as well a part of the ceremonies and government of the Iewish Church as was the appointment of a seventh day of Sabbath 3 If they keepe not their Sunday by Gods Commandement but according to the order and use of the Church as I have also proved no more are they bound by Gods Commandement to cease on Sunday from all their ordinary workes but only as farre as the use and order of the Church established for the publike exercise of Gods service on that day doth require it without any further obligation of their conscience Now this order cannot and should not oblige them to an abstinence like unto that of the Iewâ—s under the Oâ—d Testament For it were needfull for this that God himselfe had substituted Sunday to the Sabbath day and posted over to that day the rigorous right of this day commanding the same abstinence in the one and in the other which is not The substitution of one day to the other was done by the Church and the reasons of an abstinence so precise on the Iewish Sabbath which were wholly typicall having no place at all in the New Testament the said abstinence ought not to be any more in vigor neither ought our Sunday to usurpe the same rigour of authority over us to make us refraine from all kind of worke which the Sabbath day possessed over the Iewes by Gods expresse commandement 4 The same is easily proved by good reason grounded upon things which those against whom we dispute are constrained to advow For if Christians were obliged also to an abstinence of outward and servile workes which to the Iewes were unlawfull on the Sabbath day it must be in consideration and by vertue of the prohibitions given to the same Iewes in the fourth Commandement and in other places of the Old Testament to doe such workes on that day seeing otherwise to doe them is not a sinne if we consider the thing absolutely in it selfe This power of the fourth Commandement is extended to all Christians by those that are contrary to the opinion which I maintaine And neverthelesse they avouch almost all of them that under the Gospell we are delivered from the rigour of an exact observation such as was the observation that the Iewes were subjected unto that we have greater liberty that wee may on our Sabbath day kindle the fire make meat ready not only for our ordinary refection but also for feasts and bankets so they be not too sumptuous goe abroad for other ends then for Gods service as to walke and doe other such things and that without the case of urgent necessity which sometimes made them lawfull to the Iewes themselves They call such actions workes of Christian liberty which they acknowledge to be permitted to Christians although they were not permitted to the Iewes as were the workes of godlinesse mercy and urgent necessity whereof there is no difficulty but they may be done on the Sabbath day This only they require that these workes of Christian liberty bee done without scandall without any disturbance of Gods service and without any hinderance to the Sanctification of the Sabbath 5 Now it is most true that we are delivered from the necessity of this so rigid observation But I aske them wherefore we shall bee permitted to doe some workes which were prohibited to the Iewes on the Sabbath day as to kindle the fire prepare and dresse meat walke abroad without necessity and not other workes which were not forbidden more severely than the former as to plough sowe reape carry burthens c. The one and the other were alike unlawfull to the Iewes in vertue of the interdiction given in the fourth Commandement and reiterated so often elsewhere If this interdiction tyeth still our hands under the New Testament and suffereth us not to do these last workes and other such like I would faine know upon what ground they hold that it releaseth and suffereth us to doe these former workes What reason have they to extend our Christian liberty to the one and not to the other seeing there is no relaxation given us for the one more expressely than for the other Seeing also meanes may be found to doe the last as well as the first without scandall and without any let by either to the Sanctification of the Sabbath day 6 Therefore we must of necessity confesse that they are equally permitted or equally forbidden seeing the fourth Commandement maketh no distinction Now they advow that some workes are permitted to us which were by the fourth Commandement forbidden to the Iewes and are workes of Christian liberty Whence I conclude that all other workes are also of the same nature that we have liberty to doe them all on our Sunday and that as the fourth Commandement obligeth not Christians to keepe the seventh day which it prescribeth so precisely no more doth it oblige them to do no manner of worke on that day For these two parts of the Commandement are alike precise and the one is of as great authority as the other CHAPTER Third Answer to a reply made to the argument of the precedent Chapter 1. A generall reply that the workes forbidden particularly had reference onely to the abode of the people in the wildernesse 2. First Answer The Commandement to tary at home on the Sabbath day was perpetuall 3. Second Answer The prohibition to prepare meat was
the injunction to kindle no fire these words are added And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel c. which may very well denote a discourse depending on the former made upon another matter and perhaps also in another time 11 But although this last discourse had beene made in dependance upon the other the other relatively unto it that is though Moses had forbidden in the third verse to kindle fire for the use of the Artificers handicrafts men that were to build the Tabernacle wherof he speaketh afterward lest the Israelites should surmise that it was lawfull unto them for to doe it for the hastening and setting forward of that excellent edifice which God had appointed to be his house it should be nothing else but an application of a prohibition in it selfe generall to a particular subject whereunto it extended it selfe as unto others even as the prohibition of the second verse to doe any work on the Sabbath day under the paine of death is undoubtedly in the meaning thereof generall although Moses had in that place referred it particularly to the edifice of the Tabernacle Yea Moses of set purpose had applied the one and the other to the particular subject or the building of the Tabernacle to make better knowne and to inferre from thence the generality and extent of both 12 For if it were forbidden to worke and to kindle fire on the Sabbath day for the edifying of the Tabernacle farre more was it forbidden for all other worke sith scarce could there be any more important than that and which could so well deserve a particular licence to labour and kindle fire to doe it as which had no other regard saving the accelerating and rearing up of the house of God 13 The prohibition to cooke meat on the Sabbath whereof I have spoken before sheweth that this kindling of fire should be referred unto it to wit that it was not lawfull to kindle any to make meat ready which must be also understood of all other ends of the same nature This is confirmed by Philo the Iew who in the Booke of Abrahams Pilgrimage and in the third Booke of the life of Moses among the works which it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day putteth these two to dresse meat and kindle the fire 14 I adde that the fourth Commandement of the Law was to the Israelites the cause of their abstinence and cessation on the Sabbath day when they were in the wildernesse So was it in Canaan also and after the same manner as it was in the wildernesse The particular prohibitions given afterward unto them and which they received were onely explications illustrating the sense and the end of the Commandement Now sith the words of the Commandement are generall In it thou shall not doe any worke with what shew of truth can it be said that the workes to bake and cooke meat to kindle the fire and such like were not forbidden by these words but onely by particular and speciall commandements and that for the time of the abode of the Israelites in the wildernesse seeing there is no place to be found where they are excepted from this generall tearme Any worke expresly set downe in the Commandement and where licence is given to the Israelites to do them in the land of Canaan 15 If God had meant that it was lawfull to the Iewes to kindle fire dresse meat and travell on the Sabbath day questionlesse hee had made an exception particular declaration therupon as he did concerning the two Sabbaths the first and the last of the feast of the Passeover For he forbade also to doe any work on these two daies But he excepted the preparation and dressing of as much meat as every man must eat Exod. 12. vers 16. and he permitted them after they had rosted and eaten the Paschall Lambe in the evening to returne to their home the next morning Deut. 16. vers 7. Vndoubtedly the same is to bee understood of the Sabbaths of other feasts but not of the ordinary Sabbath properly so called wherein God required a rest more exact because this day was ordained to be a particular type of the spirituall and heavenly rest as we have declared before and shall touch it againe hereafter CHAPTER Fourth Confirmation and illustration of the matter set downe in the precedent Chapters 1. All kinde of workes forbidden by the Law of Moses on the Sabbath day are in themselves lawfull to Christians on the Sunday 2. First Reason Cessation from all workes on the Sabbath was a part of the Ceremoniall Law and of Gods service 3. And not a helpe and furtherance onely of the said service 4. Second Reason It was a type and figure of the heavenly rest 5. Which our Sunday is not 6. Third Reason Gods service under the New Testament consists not in observation of dayes but in actions of godlinesse and righteousnesse c. 7. This is proved by application of the Apostles words Rom. 14. vers 17. 8. And most clearely by his warning given to the Collossians Chap. 2. vers 16. 9. Abstinence of workes is necessary in the Christian Church in any day whatsoever as it is a helpe to Gods publike service 10. The publike service being ended on Sunday Christians may use lawfull recreations c. 11. It is proved by reason that they may doe the like betweene the houres of Divine Service 12. Fourth Reason There is no injunction in the new Testament concerning a cessation from such recreations and workes 13. Fifth Reason The two Disciples went to Emmaus on the same day that Christ rose and Christ meeting them gave them no instruction to the contrary 14 Sixth Reason The faithfull of Troas did worke on Sunday till night 15. Seventh Reason The first injunction not to worke c. on Sunday came from Christian Emperours 16. Constantine the first permitted many workes on Sunday 17. Which sheweth that the Christians of those dayes tooke not Sunday to be an institution of Iesus Christ. 1 THerefore seeing those against whom this Treatise is made yeeld unto us that certaine outward and servile workes are under the New Testament permitted on the Sabbath day which as I have clearely shewed were forbidden to the Iewes by the Law I conclude againe that all other workes forbidden by the Law on the Sabbath day are likewise permitted to us after the publike solemne service of God that the prohibition of the Law to doe any worke on the Sabbath day concerneth us not Surely if it pertained to us as containing a point necessary of Gods service as well under the New as under the Old Testament I see no reason why we should not be as exact in this Service under the New Testament as the Iewes were under the Law Nay wee should be farre more affectionate to doe as well or more precisely with an equall or greater care than the Iewes were all things belonging to the true service
observation of foure and twenty houres practised by the Iewes on their Sabbath day 2 This opinion is absurd and bringeth backe under the New Testament a ceremonie which is meerely servile and Iewish For times and places were in themselves to the Iewes a part of the legall and ceremoniall service as hath beene shewed before And therefore they were precisely named and stinted unto them When God appointed unto them Sabbath dayes hee would that they should rest as long as the day lasted that is foure and twenty houres even as when hee granted unto them dayes of worke hee permitted them to worke night and day which may bee gathered out of Leviticus Chap. 23. vers 32. where God said unto them From Even unto Even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath In Hebrew ye shall rest your Sabbath To rest all that time was unto them a part of the observation and hallowing of that day But under the New Testament the times appointed in the Church make no part of Gods service and are not observed but relatively to the publike exercises of Religion and of godlinesse which are established to be practised in them And therefore that practise being ended they oblige not necessarily 3 And indeed if Christians were bound for conscience sake to observe exactly full foure and twenty houres by abstinence from all works they should be in a marvellous great trouble vexation of minde For ere ought else be done they must know certainely where they shall begin the sanctification of the foure and twenty houres of that day if it must be from Even unto the next Even beginning the day at the setting of the Sunne as under the Law or from the morning unto the next morning beginning the day at the rising of the Sunne For if they be not clearely informed of that they may sinne by working during a part of the time which makes a part of Sunday 4 The Authors and Fautors of the foresaid opinion cannot give a certaine resolution of this Point For they are at variance among themselves about it Some deeme that we must begin our Sunday by the evening and continue it unto the next evening like to the fashion of the Iewes who rekoned so the houres of their Sabbath And so is this time stinted by the Authour of the 251. Sermon de Tempore in S. Augustines workes Others will have it to begin by the morning at the same time that our Lord Iesus Christ rose from the dead and to end at the next morning and there are some which hold that the Iewes ordered so their Sabbaths We finde others who beleeve that God obliged not his people on the Sabbath day to a cessation from all workes saving from the rising till the going down of the Sun The one and the other have arguments for their opinions but which want a sufficient perspicuitie to give a full satisfaction and resolution to a Christian about the time when he must begin to forbeare all bodily and servile workes least he should profane the Sabbath day by doing them in a part thereof 5 And so he shall be perpetually troubled in his minde with that difficultie and farre more with the exact abstinence which is required of him An unnecessary walke a bodily action about something concerning this present life which he hath done by occasion will disquiet him If he hath put his hand how little soever to the doing of any temporall and earthly thing without urgent necessity if he have given but one stitch with a needle hath fastened a button to a garment if he hath swung a broome about his chamber wiped a vessell dusted his apparell or done any other thing which he might have done the day before or put off till the next day he shall stagger and make a question whether he hath broken the Sabbath or not 6 Yea although the defenders of this opinion avouch that it is lawfull to eat drinke sleepe on the Sabbath day because these are workes of charity and are necessary to every man for his subsistence yet seeing the sanctification of the Sabbath consists not in such actions and they are not permitted but in case of present necessity I know not if according to their maximes a person that can well enough and without incommoditie be without meat drinke sleepe all that day or at least can well enough away with lesse meat drinke and sleepe must not be grieved and pestered in his spirit and feare lest he hath profaned and broken the Sabbath in bestowing too much time to eat drinke and sleepe and giving to his refection and sleepe a portion of time which he might have set a part for religious actions As if he hath beene halfe an houre at table whereas a quarter of an houre might have beene sufficient If he hath slept six or seven houres when a nap of three or foure houres might have served his turne In summe no bodily thing can bee done which shall not afford an hundred difficulties and matter of great doubtes and scruples of conscience Experience sheweth often in many which are made to beleeve that it is not lawfull to doe any worke on the Sabbath day according to the precise tearmes of the fourth Commandement pitifull carkes strange scruples and troubles of conscience a superstitious precisenesse tending to the detriment not onely of the quietnesse and peace of God that should be in their soules but also of the families whereof they are members and of the Common-wealth wherein they live 7 Nay the Doctors that are the broachers and teachers of this opinion intangle themselves and their followers in the explication of the workes that are permitted or forbidden on the Sabbath day They prescribe so many limitations upon divers actions of temporall callings that may bee done so but not so after this manner not after that manner in that respect not in this respect that to pause on their minced distinctions is to runne into a labyrinth of most intricate difficulties and inextricable vexations of spirit Verily I beleeve that the observation of the Iewish Sabbath day was not so onerous and full of difficulties as is the observation of Sunday wherewith many of these Doctors seeke to master and bring under the consciences of Christians 8 To verifie that I have said by some instances First the foresaid Doctors agree not among themselves about the obligation of Christians to abstaine from all bodily and worldly workes whether it be as exact and precise under the New Testament as it was ordinarily to the Iewes under the Old Testament whether we be in the same servitude that they were in or if they in that respect injoyed the same liberty that we possesse under the Gospell For there be some among them that deny it and doe say that the rigorous observation of the Sabbath prescribed of old to the Iewes is abrogated and the prohibitions to kindle the fire to make meat ready and other such like which they acknowledge to have beene perpetuall
disturbance bestowed on Gods service is good and laudable 9. Yet this is not in such sort necessary as if it were a sin against religion and conscience to a Christian after divine service finished in the Church to apply himselfe to outward actions belonging to the lawful and honest commodities and pleasures of this decaying and troublesome life when they doe it with Christian wisedome which must be the guide of all our actions leading us so warily that we transgresse not the wholesome lawes of the state or of the Church wherein we live and that we shun all partialities and cause of schisme which is the bane of the Church dismembring and tearing in factious pieces the mysticall body of our LORD IESUS CHRIST which the true doctrine of faith had preserved from the poyson of mortall herefie 6 Of these two foresaid opinions the last to my judgement is the truest and hath more solid and cleare reasons than the first as shall bee seene by the canvasing and sifting out of the reasons that are broached on both sides Which to doe more distinctly and clearely I will divide this Treatise into foure parts In the first I shall endeavour to prove that the institution and observation of a seventh day of Sabbath is not morall that it began not with the beginning of the world that it had no existence till the people of Israel were brought from Egypt to the wildernesse and was not known in any part of the universall world till then and that the Commandement whereby it was confirmed in Horeb obligeth not under the New Testament In the second I shall answer all the reasons that I have found alleaged for the contrary opinion In the third I shall discourse of the appointing of Sunday for Gods service and shew whence in greatest likenesse of truth it taketh its beginning and establishment in the Christian Church In the last I will declare what was the cessation of workes enjoyned in the Sabbath day under the old Testament and how far we are obliged unto it under the New Testament For these are the principall points that Christians jarre and differ about in this matter of the Sabbath Perlegi hunc Tractatum cui Titulus est A Treatise of the Sabbath and the Lords-day nihil reperio sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minus cum utilitate publicâ imprimatur ita tamen ut si non intra septem menses proxime sequentes typis mandetur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Ex Aedibus Lambethanis Ianuar. 5. 1635. GUIL BRAY R. in Christo Patri D. Arch. Cant. Capel Domest THE FIRST PART wherein it is proved that the Ordinance and observation of a Seventh-Day of Sabbath is not morall hath not its beginning since the beginning of the World and obligeth not under the Nevv Testament CHAPTER First REASON I. 1. First Reason The times and places of Gods service are accidentall circumstances and have no morall equity in them but depend on a particular institution 2. GOD tooke occasion of his resting on the Seventh day to institute that day 3. Confession of some that are of the contrary opinion 1 TO establish the second of these two opinions afore mentioned and to refute the first whereby the observation of one day of rest in the weeke is affirmed to be a morall duty I say First that the nature of the thing called in question is repugnant to this opinio For it is a thing evident of it selfe that as the places even so the times of Gods service are accidentall circumstances which have no foundation in any naturall and essentiall justice and equitie nor any necessity inherent in them but depend absolutely on the ordinance of God or of men What hath in it one day of seven more than one of a greater or lesser number wherefore we should affirme that the observation of that day rather than of another day is a morall duty appertaining yea necessary to whole mankinde that thereby it may attaine unto the end for which man was created therfore it hath an obligatory power over all nations in all ages which may bee demonstrated and shewed perspicuously by naturall reasons as some have too hardily pronounced but without any evidence produced saving their simple word which to men that have eyes in their heads and scorne to be Pythagoras Disciples is no good payment 2 It was the Creation of the world in sixe dayes and Gods rest on the seventh day that was to God the occasion of the appointing of the seventh day for his service Now who can shew in that wonderfull worke of the Creation in sixe dayes and in Gods rest on the seventh day the least appearance of morality As there appeareth no such thing unto us so no other reason of this dispensation is made manifest unto us saving the good pleasure of GOD who would have it so For who can conceive and farre lesse expresse and shew by words any essentiall justice in the observation of this number of dayes that God pitched upon for the framing of his workes and his resting from them 3 Some of them against whom I have undertaken this brotherly disputation have acknowledged and said that we observe not one day of seven under the New Testament as a part of Gods service but only as the time thereof which sheweth that it is not a morall thing For if it were it should bee essentially a part of Gods service as is universally whatsoever is morall Vnder the Old Testament it made a part of Gods service not of the morall but of the ceremoniall and typike service established then in the infancy of the Church and which was not to continue but during that time as we shall see hereafter CHAPTER Second REASON 2. 1. Second Reason Adam knew not the Sabbath by naturall light therefore it was not morall 2. Reply by a distinction of morall things in those that are naturall or positive 3. First answer all morall things are naturally just 4. Second answer all morall things are perpetuall which morall are not 1 SEcondly if the keeping of a seventh day were a morall duty our first Father Adam by that light of nature which GOD put in his minde when he created him would have knowne it as well as he knew all other things which in themselves are good and necessary But he neither had nor should have had any knowledge thereof if God had not injoyned it unto him by a particular commandement as those which maintaine the morality of the Sabbath doe avouch pretending that such a command was given him for that end which we shall ponder and discusse in time and place In the meane while of this it followeth manifestly that the observation of a seventh day is a thing depending meerely of institution and ecclesiasticall regiment and that in the decalogue the fourth Commandement in as farre as it injoyneth a seventh day is not of the same nature with the rest For if it were God
those which did not sticke for conscience sake to eate all kinde of meates because they esteemed them all to bee indifferent were strong and those which were scrupulous for conscience sake to eate any thing but hearbes were weake even so accordingly to that wee must ac-acknowledge those which made no difference of dayes for conscience sake but esteemed all dayes equally to have beene strong and those which esteemed one day above another to have beene weake 4 Secondly I cannot see how any man should imagine that the Apostle in his judgement esteemed those to be weake which esteemed every day alike seeing to esteeme every day equally without distinction of any day for conscience sake putting the case there were a fault in that opinion cannot be called weakenesse and infirmity in the sence wherein this word weakenesse is taken by the Apostle in this place and in other places of the Gospell For weaknes and infirmity is said to be in a man when there is a defect in his beliefe concerning things which are lawfull to him that is to say when hee beleeveth not that to bee lawfull which is lawfull unto him and therefore refraineth for conscience sake from that which he is not bound to forbeare So he who beleeveth that it is not lawfull unto him to eate all kinde of meates although God hath given him the free use of them all is weake and infirme But when there is excesse in his beliefe when I say he beleeveth to have liberty to doe that which is not lawfull unto him to doe and doth it without any respect of conscience unto it that is not in the Scriptures language called weakenes but rather ignorance error mistaking If then those which esteemed every day alike had failed in this point as they had done of necessity if there had beene any fault in them they had never beene esteemed and called weake by the Apostle as they are pretended to have beene but rather ignorant errants nay dissolute loose profane 5 Verily if it were true that Iesus Christ had ordained the observation of a set day of rest that the Apostles had commanded it that the Church had practised it as a divine ordinance and as a morall point belonging to Religion as is pretended these Christians who could not bee ignorant of such things and neverthelesse esteemed every day alike established not religion and a point of conscience in any of them and made no greater account of the Lords day then of any other day were of necessity profane men and no better reckoning was to be made of them Yet the Apostle reputeth them not to bee such For he forbiddeth to judge and condemne them as hee will not have them to judge and condemne those that were of contrary opinion ver 3. 10. 6 Nay he affirmeth that those which regarded not the day to the Lord regarded it not verse 6. the meaning of which words is that in so doing they had regard to the glory and obedience due to God knowing that he had made them free from the distinction of dayes and received them being well pleased with that which they did Now supposing the morality of the Sabbath and the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles which made the observation thereof a necessary point of Religion which these men could not be ignorant of I cannot conceive how not regarding the day for Religion and conscience sake to the Lord they regarded it not seeing they had rather sinned against the Lord by not regarding it For they had manifestly vilipended him by their misbeliefe whereby they esteemed not the observation of a day of rest which they knew to be morall and most straitely commanded of God to bee a necessary point of Religion It is therefore more conformable to reason that those which made distinction of dayes and esteemed one above onother were weak And in this doe all the interpreters agree Neverthelesse the Apostle saith with good reason of these weake ones that what they did they did it to the Lord because they did it through devotion and tendernesse of conscience having some Religious ground which was a colourable excuse to their infirmitie and made it tolerable not only to men but to God also 7 Now it being so that the Apostle did write to the Romans who were Gentiles converted to the Christian faith wee may esteeme with great appearance that this day which some of them through infirmitie had so much regard unto was Sunday which was kept in the Church not by any divine Ordinance not also through necessity of Religion but simply by an ecclesiasticall custome in remembrance that on that day Christ rose from death unto life was esteemed of them a day of necessary observation in and for it selfe which others better instructed esteemed not This being so establisheth throughly the opinion that I defend and evicts the other But although the Apostle had intended to speake of dayes commanded in the Old Testament by the Law of Moses to the religious observation whereof many not as yet well instructed in the knowledge of Evangelicall liberty thought themselves to be bound for conscience sake the argument remaineth as strong as can be 8 For howsoever the Apostle his meaning be taken he speaketh generally and imputeth to infirmity of knowledge and of conscience under the Gospell the esteeming of one day above another and to strength and firmenesse the esteeming of all dayes alike which he neither could nor should have pronounced so in generall tearmes if at the same time there had beene a set day of rest binding the conscience of Christians to observe it for its owne sake as being morall and for Gods sake who had commanded it For by this meanes those had not well done so farre were they from being strong in knowledge and conscience for esteeming every day equally which they should not have done But the others had done well and religiously to esteeme one day above another so far were they from being weak which yet notwithstanding is manifestly against the scope of the Apostle who declareth them to be weak not simply as we have touched heretofore for observing a certaine day but for keeping it with a consciencious regard and opinion of a religious obligation particular unto it more than to any other day which is the only thing worthy to be blamed and might be a just cause of offence CHAPTER Eleventh REASON II. 1. The Sabbath was to the Israelites a signe of their sanctification 2. Not only in the toylesome ages of this mortall life but also in the eternity and rest of the life to come 3. Through IESUS CHRIST who hath perfectly accomplished the benefits which it represented imperfectly 4. And therefore it was to continue till his comming only 5. This truth is confirmed in the Epistle to the Hebrewes by the type of the bodily rest of the people in the land of Canaan 6. As also by the type of Gods rest on the Seventh day 7. Gods rest and
Christ as in all other signes As in the feast of Passeover the Lambe which was killed figured manifestly the person of Iesus Christ put to death for our redemption The sacrifices of beasts were figures of the Sacrifice of Christs body The sprinklings and washings were types of his blood of the shedding of it upon the crosse of the sprinkling thereof upon our consciences by the holy Ghost and of the spirituall washing which we receive thereby 15 To this I answer that the figurative and typicall signes of the old Testament were not all of one sort It is true that all had relation to Christ but some of them represented meerly and directly Christs person the actions of his person and consequently the benefits depending thereon Others represented nothing directly but his spirituall benefits yet as proceeding from him and from his actions which consequently they figured also Of the first kind was the Paschall Lambe and the sacrifices that were offered which properly were figures of Christs person and of his sacrifice and consequently of our redemption and of the expiation of our sins made by him which is the benefit proceeding from his sacrifice 16 Of the second sort was the Sabbath day which properly and directly represented the sanctification of the people and their ceasing from workes of sinne but figured also therewith Iesus Christ Because by him that benefit was to be purchased to the faithfull and they were to receive it by his meanes For it is by the offering of the body of IESUS CHRIST once for all that we are sanctified Heb. 10. ver 10. Of the same sort was the Circumcision wherein no thing can be found that figured properly CHRISTS person and the actions thereof But because it sealed the righteousnesse of faith Romanes 4. verse 11. figured the spirituall circumcision of the heart Rom. 2. ver 28 29. Col. 2. ver 11. and was a signe of the covenant of grace Genesis 17. ver 7 9 10 11. which benefits Christ was to deserve by his death in that respect it was a figure of Christ and a shadow whereof the body was in him who also hath abolished it The like were so many Sabbaths ordained on the first and last day of the feasts of the Passeover and of Tabernacles on the feast of Pentecost on the tenth day of the seventh moneth in every seventh yeere in the fiftieth yeere of Iubile which all confesse to have beene abolished by Iesus Christ as things typicall Yet there was no thing in them that made them more particular to the Iewes more ceremoniall and typike nay not so much as the ordinary Sabbath whereof God had said that which he hath not said of these that it was a signe betweene him and his people c. Neither figured they Iesus Christ otherwise then this ordinary Sabbath did For they were not types of his person nor of his actions but only of the spirituall benefits which are alwayes received of the faithfull and which the true Iewes received then in him and through him Now if all the signes of this second kinde which had of old a great sway in the Synagogue were accounted to be figurative and as such are abrogated wherefore should not the Sabbath be likewise abolished 17 Yea how many things were there under the Old Testament whereof no man can tell what relation they had to Christ either in his person in his actions or in his benefits and which perhaps in effect represented no such thing had no typicall signification but were only ordinances belonging to order and ecclesiasticall government servill exercises childish rudiments elements of the world wherewith it was GODs pleasure to burthen his people in those times which were the times of the infancy and bondage of the Church and therefore were ceremonies as well as those that had some typicall and figurative signification For under the name of Ceremonies may and ought to be comprised not only the types and figures which properly and manifestly were such but universally all the observations of the ecclesiasticall policy and government of the Iewes all the ordinances of the Law of commandements which were a partition wall betweene them and all other nations as the Apostle saith Ephes. 2. verse 14 15. Or were memorials of things past which did belong to the Iewes only and for that cause have beene abrogated by Iesus Christ. So that although the Sabbath had not had any typicall signification nor relation to Iesus Christ as it had it was enough to make it to be done away that it did belong to the ecclesiasticall government of the Iewes and was also given them for memoriall of a benefit particular to them to wit of their deliverance out of the land of Aegypt and of that miserable bondage wherein they had not any one day free neither to rest from their labours nor to serve the Lord their God For in the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomie God repeating by the mouth of Moses the Commandements of his Law addeth to the fourth Commandement this reason of the institution of the Sabbath ver 15. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Aegypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arme Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keepe the Sabbath day shewing by these words that the deliverance which he had given them from that laborious bondage of the land of Aegypt should not onely oblige them to keepe the Sabbath so much the more carefully and religiously but was a cause why he ordained it to wit that it might be unto them a memoriall or a token for remembrance of that glorious and wonderfull deliverance CHAPTER Thirteenth Conclusion of the first part of this Treatise 1. The Sabbath was not ordained nor knowne till after the deliverance of the Israelites out of the land of Aegypt 2. The Sabbath was onely a signe figurative of Christ and a memoriall of a benefit particular to the Iewes 3. All the dayes of the weeke ought to bee Sabbaths to Christians 1 OF all that hath beene said heretofore we conclude First that the Sabbath was not ordained till after the deliverance of the Israelites out of the land of Aegypt and consequently that they kept it not in Aegypt and therefore that they had not learned of the Patriarkes their Fathers to observe it that the Patriarkes did not observe it that Adam received not any commandement of God to keepe it neither had any notice thereof finally that therefore it is not morall For if it were morall and therefore alwayes and in all times necessary if God had commanded it to Adam if the Patriarkes had kept it they had taught their children to keepe it and that being so the Israelites had assuredly kept it in Aegypt If there they had kept it there had been no cause to ordaine it for a memoriall of their deliverance out of Aegypt and to say that after their deliverance and in
consideration thereof they were commanded to keepe the Sabbath day which is the thing that God pronounceth most expressely in the place lately cited Deut. 5. verse 15. and Ezek. 20. verse 11 12. where upon that hee had said ver 10. that hee caused the Israelites to goe forth out of the land of Aegypt he addeth and I gave them my statutes moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths c. 2 Secondly seeing the Sabbath day was ordained to be a memoriall of a benefit particular to the Israelites to wit of their deliverance out of the land of Aegypt and of their separation from all other nations it followeth that the Sabbath day obligeth not Christians under the New Testament as if it were morall and as if God had â—â—dained it by an expresse commandement to continue till the worlds end For this end of the Sabbath to be a memoriall of their deliverance and separation from all other people dwelling upon the face of the earth with the other end afore mentioned to be a figurative signe of Iesus Christ to come and of the saving benefits which were to be purchased by him made up the whole use of the Sabbath Of which end neither the one nor the other doth belong to the New Testament 3 The faithfull Christians are a people more spirituall then the Iewes were because they are under the Gospell which is an estate more spirituall and heavenly then was the condition of Gods people under the Law for which cause it is called the kingdome of heaven And therefore all dayes under the Gospell should be to all the faithfull that live in that blessed and heavenly estate as many Sabbath dayes more particularly then to the Iewes to rest from their sinnes and to give themselves to prayers calling upon the Name of the Lord to reading and meditation of his holy Word and to other religious exercises of godlinesse according to the words in Isaiah Chapter 66. v. 23. if they be applyed unto the estate of the Church under the Gospell as they may be and indeed are so expounded by many interpreters when it is there said that then there shall be no more New Moones nor Sabbaths distinguished by intervalls and spaces of times but one Sabbath shall succeed immediately to another Sabbath and that all the dayes of the weeke and of the whole yeere shall bee as Sabbaths unto them This is the conclusion of all that hath beene said in this first part which shall be more fully confirmed by the refutation of the arguments that are brought to maintaine the morality of the Sabbath Which refutation shall bee the subject of the second part of this Treatise THE SECOND PART wherein the reasons brought to justifie the morality and perpetuity of a Seventh day of Sabbath are confuted CHAPTER First First Answer to the first Reason 1. The opinion of those that hold the morality of a Seventh day of Sabbath cleerely set downe 2. Their first Reason taken out of Genesis Chapter 2. ver 2 3. Where it is said that God rested on the Seventh day from all his workes and blessed the Seventh day and sanctified it c. 3. First answer to this Reason Moses writing the History of the Creation after the Law was given declareth occasionally the cause that moved God to blesse and sanctifie the Seventh day to the Iewes according to the custome of the Scripture to joyne things done long before with those that were done long after as if they had beene done together and at one time 4. Confirmation of this by places named by anticipation 5. By that which is written Exod. 16. ver 33 34. where it is said that Aaron laid up in a Pot an Omer of Manna before the Testimony which was not done many yeeres after 6. And by the History of Davids combat with Goliah 1 Sam. 17. Where it is written ver 54. that David tooke the head of the Philistine and brought it to Ierusalem but he put his armour in his tent although there was a great intervall of time betweene these two actions 7. This joyning of things farre removed in time is not unsutable to him that speaketh or writeth 8. First instance against this answer taken from the connexion of the third verse with the second from the same tence used in both and from the identitie of the same seventh day spoken of in both c. 9. First answer to this instance shewing that in the holy Scripture things distant in-time are expressed by words of the same tence when the one hath some dependancie upon the other 10. Application of this answer to the blessing and sanctification of the seventh day in Moses his time joyned with Gods rest after the creation because it was the foundation of that blessing 11. Second answer It was not the same particular seventh day after the creation but the same by revolution which God sanctified 12. Third answer the Hebrew article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirmeth not that the seventh day which God blessed was the same seventh day wherein he rested 13. Second instance as Gods blessing of his creatures after they were made was present so was his blessing of the seventh day immediately after the creation 14. Answer to this instance the reason is not alike 15. Confirmation of the answer made to the words of Moses in Genesis by the conformity of the same words used in the commandement given to the Iewes concerning the Sabbath 16. As also because the Sabbath was not hallowed for Adam who in the estate of innocency had no need of such a day 17. First instance Adam was taught by Gods example that hee stood in need of such a day refuted 18. Second instance as God ordained Sacraments to Adam so he ordained to him a seventh day of rest refuted by a reason shewing the nullity of that consequence 19. And by the excellency of Adams condition to which the ordination of such a day was derogatory 20. Third instance as Gods rest on the Seventh day was the foundation of the commandement given to the Iewes to rest on that day so was it from the beginning refuted 1 THose that hold the second opinion doe say that the keeping of a Seventh day of Sabbath is a morall thing which from the beginning of the world should continue to the end thereof with this difference only that God before and till the comming of Iesus Christ had ordained that the last day of the weeke wherein hee rested from all the workes which hee had made when he created the world should be sanctified by all men in remembrance of the creation and of his rest on that day But since the manifestation of Iesus Christ it was his will that instead of the last day of the weeke the first day wherein Christ rising from among the dead rested from the work of our redemption should be observed in the Christian Church for a memoriall of this worke which being more excellent then the former it was beseeming
absurd and impertinently inferred upon our saying concerning the fourth Commandement because these two Commandements stand not in equall tearmes 33 If any Papists should make such an inference Bellarmine himselfe will lend us his helping hand to refute it For in the seventh Chapter of his second booke of Relikes and Images he acknowledgeth and affirmeth that saving the Commandement of the Sabbath all the rest are explications of the Law of nature and are naturall precepts which all Christians are bound to observe 34 This being so the Roman Church cannot cleanse her selfe of a great crime for cutting off from the Decalogue in all her service bookes the second Commandement and for not propounding it ordinarily to the people for that it fighteth against her idolatry And in my judgement it should be also an hainous fault although not in the same manner and respect to nip away from the Decalogue the fourth Commandement or to make no mention of it in the Church For though it be not morall and obligeth not Christians under the New Testament in the particulars which it expresseth yet sith it is morall in the foundation whereupon it is built and in the generall end that it aimeth at as hath beene said before and sith God would insert it in the abridgement of his Law which he gave of old to the people of Israel it should be foole-hardinesse to pull it away and to remove it out of the roome where God hath placed it Even as although that which is said in the preface of the Law concerning the deliverance of the people out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and in the fifth Commandement of the prolongation of dayes in the land of Cannaan is not addressed to us directly in that which these termes doe expresse yet it should be ill done to cut these clauses quite off or to make no mention of them when we learne write rehearse or teach the Decalogue We must keepe religiously and mention whatsoever God hath beene pleased to put in it But we must also understand every thing conveniently appropriating to us whatsoever belongeth to us as well as to the Iewes and to the Iewes only that which was proper to them And such was the ordinance of the seventh day 35 Which day if it be not acknowledged to be ceremoniall and therefore Subject to be abrogated by IESUS CHRIST and comprised among the points of the Law which the Gospell declared to be annulled place should be given to an inconvenience that will follow thereupon farre better then the former which is inferred upon the opinion that the fourth Commandement is ceremoniall for so the bridle should be loosed to the immoderate transcendent and irregular authority which Papists challenge to the Church to have power to change and alter the things which God himselfe hath established For it is evident that God by the fourth Commandement hath established the seventh and last day of the week to be a day of rest and it is agreed upon as most true that under the Gospel that seventh day hath been changed into another neither can it be sufficiently and clearely proved that Iesus Christ or his Apostles have made that innovation as shall be seene hereafter whence they doe inferre that the Church having done it of her selfe without commandement she may change the things established and ordained of God in the morall Law Whereunto it is impossible to give a pertinent answer but by saying as it is most true that the prescription of the seventh day of Sabbath although it be among the Commandements of the morall Law is not morall for that but pertaineth to the government of the Iewes and is to be numbred with these things which were but for a time to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill the time of reformation as the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 9. vers 10. of these shadowes of things to come whereof the body was in Christ as they are named Col. 2. vers 16 17. where amongst other shadowes the Sabbaths are specified That therefore the Church in not keeping any more the Sabbath prescribed by the fourth Commandement but another hath not usurped any authority upon the things established of God but hath followed the order of God who had not established that day but for a certaine time to wit untill the comming of the Messias by whose death the ceremonies were to be abolished and consequently the Sabbath day was to expire and give up the Ghost CHAPTER Seventh Answer to the particular reasons taken from the words of the fourth Commandement 1. First Objection The Sabbath was long before the Law because God commanded to remember it and remembrance is of things past 2. Three answers to this Objection 3. Second Objection from the first reason of the keeping of the Sabbath sixe daies shalt thou labour c. which is a reason of equity binding Christians as well as Iewes 4. Answer to this Objection shewing what is morall and obligatory in this reason what not 5. Third Objection If the labour of sixe daies be not ceremoniall the rest on the seventh day likewise is not ceremoniall refuted by three answers 6. Fourth Objection from the second reason in the words but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God it is Gods day therefore it is sacriledge to rob him of it 7. Two answers to this Objection 8. Fifth Objection from the third reason in the words In it thou shalt not doe any worke c. where a great regard is had unto servants beasts strangers whereunto Christians are also obliged 9. Answer shewing what in this reason is morall what belonging to order onely 10. Sixth Objection from the words For in sixe daies the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day shewing that God after his example will have all men to keepe the seventh day till the end of the world 11. First answer denying that God ordained the seventh day for a memoriall of the creation 12. Second answer although things past should be kept in perpetuall remembrance their memorialls ordained in the old Testament are not perpetuall 13. Third answer to the instance taken from Gods example shewing in which attributes God is to be imitated in which not 14. As also in which of his actions in which not we are to follow his example 15. This answer is applyed to the seventh day shewing that it hath not inherent in it any essentiall righteousnesse why God did rest in it but as many other actions hath no other foundation but Gods free-will 16. Whereby hee ordained the observation of that day to the Iewes and not to Christians 17. Who in the observation of their holy day follow not Gods example as they should if it had any morality in it 18. Instance the seventh day was changed into the first day of the weeke in remembrance of our redemption by Christ which is a greater worke then the creation 19. First answer hence it followeth that
the observation of one of seven daies is not morall 20. Second answer shewing divers absurdities following the opinion of the morality of one of seven daies and of the substitution of the first of seven to the last by Christ himselfe 21. Their reply that when Christ made the first alteration of the Sabbath the Disciples observed the Sabbath of the last and of the first day of the weeke consecutively is but an imagination 22. Christs resurrection was of as great force to change the generall order of the observation of one of seven daies as of the last day of the weeke nay to ordaine each fourth day of the weeke for Gods service as well as the first 23. The day of Christs resurrection is no more obligatory then the day of his nativity of his death or of his ascention and is a meer institution of the Church 24. Seventh Objection from the last words of the Commandement And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it whence they gather that the keeping of the seventh day is a meanes of all kinde of blessings whereof Christians have as great need at Iewes c. 25. First answer Christians have as great need of Gods blessing as had the Iewes but not by the same meanes 26. Second answer the Sabbath was not a meanes of blessing to the Iewes by any inherent and naturall quality but by reason of the exercises of godlinesse practised in it and so the exercises of our Christian religion bring a blessing upon us whensoever they are practised 27. It is a fond assertion that if God hath not appointed to Christians a particular day for his service as he did to the Iewes our condition shall be worse then theirs 28. All the particularities of the fourth Commandement may be applyed to Christians as well as to Iewes 29. As the reasons of the institution of their holy-daies 30. Which neverthelesse we are not bound to keepe 31. Item the remembrance of the creation c. 32. The necessity of a new day for Gods service inferreth not a divine institution 1 BEsides the generall argument which is taken from the nature of the fourth Commandement and hath beene refuted in the former Chapter others more particular are taken from the termes and words of the said Commandement and first they urge vehemently these first words thereof Remember the Sabbath day from whence as they pretend it may be inferred that seeing the remembring of a thing denoteth that it was knowne before God when he commanded the Israelites to remember the Sabbath day supposeth that it was not a new ordinance which he gave unto them then but an ancient one yet which undoubtedly they had forgotten and whereof it was necessary they should be put in remembrance and the observation urged for the time to come 2 It is said also that the sanctification of the Sabbath day which God enjoyneth saying Remember the Sabbath day to keepe it holy cannot be called a ceremony but this instance is very feeble For first although it should prove that the institution of the Sabbath day which is here debated did preceed the Law from the beginning it cannot for all that inforce the morality thereof Nay much otherwise some doe thinke that God in the beginning and entrance of the Commandement used the word Remember because it not being naturall and morall as the rest are the Iewes might have more easily forgotten it Secondly it doth no manner of way prove the antiquity of this ordinance For when he that commandeth any thing saith to him to whom he giveth instructions Remember what I say and command thee such a speech implyeth not alwaies that an injunction is given him of a thing he knew before which is againe recorded unto him that he may call it to minde Nay most often his intention is only to advise him to consider exactly to meditate carefully and to accomplish faithfully in time to come that which at that time is injoyned him For this terme Remember when commandements are given is not alwaies relative to the time past but sometimes hath regard onely to the time to come which joyning and continuing for some daies or yeeres successively the time wherein they were given is past and so men have need to call them to minde as a thing past So God instituted the Passeover for a memoriall of the deliverance of the first borne of his people from the destroyer when the first borne of the Egyptians were slaine although it happened after the said institution Exod. 12. vers 14. 27. 29. So Moses said unto them Remember this day in which yee came out from Egypt Exod. 13 vers 3. willing them in time to come to call to minde that whereof they had the first knowledge and experience and not before but at that instant So Christ instituted to his Disciples the Sacrament of the Eucharist saying This doe yee in remembrance of me that is of my death 1 Cor. 11. vers 24. 25 26. although hee was at table with them and was not put to death till the next day after So this speech Remember the Sabbath day must be taken relatively to the time to come as if God had said Take heed that afterwards yee keepe in minde the ordinance which I give you at this instant that you may observe it carefully and in the 12. verse of the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomy in liev of Remember it is written Keepe the Sabbath day or Take heed to the Sabbath day to sanctifie it Hee that commandeth another to doe any thing of moment in a time future ordinary and regulate may very well speake unto him in these termes Remember such a thing and the time that thou art to doe it in before it come to the end that when it shall come thou mayest be prepared to doe it and mayest doe it accordingly which is all that God intended to say to the Iewes in his Commandement touching the Sabbath to wit that before that day should fall out they should remember it in the precedent dayes and dispose themselves in time to sanctifie it Thirdly although it should be taken as relative to the time past it is needlesse to extend it to a long time before and namely to the beginning of the world but only to some few dayes foregoing when GOD through the occasion of the Manna spake unto them of the Sabbath day forbidding them to goe out of their place on that day to gather of it because they should find none and commanding them to rest and to abide every man in his place which day when afterwards he gave the Law he commanded them more particularly and expressely to remember because they heard mention made of it a short while before and to beware of profaning it as they had done already Exod. 16. verse 28 29. And questionlesse to that which he said unto them concerning the Sabbath in the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus are to be referred these words which in the fifth Chapter of
of Nehemiah not for their owne sake but only in consideration of the Iewes lest they should offend them and give them occasion to breake the Sabbath after their example For the observation of the Sabbath did no more oblige them naturally then the other observation of the Iewish religion lust as in all politick regiment which is well ordered it is usuall to hinder those that are strangers to the religion professed in it from giving any disturbance to the exercises of devotion namely in the solemnities and holy daies To urge this point is it not true that among the Iewes strangers were obliged to keep all other Sabbaths new Moons holy daies solemnities after the same manner that they were constrained to keepe the Sabhath that is not to violate them publikely and with offence Were they not forbidden as well as the Iewes to eate leavened bread during the seven daies of the Passeover Exodus 12. verse 19. as also to eate blood Levit. 17 vers 10. 12 13. Will any man upon this inferre that the ordinances of all these Sabbaths new Moones Feasts unleavened bread abstinence from eating blood were not ceremonies but morall ordinances obliging for ever all men and consequently all Christians under the new Testament Sure this must be concluded by the same reasoning the vanity whereof is by this sufficiently demonstrated and discredited 10 Fifthly they inforce their opinion with these words For in sixe daies the LORD maae heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day Whence they gather that sith the creation must be in perpetuall remembrance and God ordained to the Iewes the seventh day for a memoriall therof and of his rest all men ought to keepe it continually for the same end and in that follow his example which also hee proposeth in the words before mentioned to the end that as hee made his workes in sixe daies and rested the seventh day so likewise men following his example should give themselves to the workes of their calling during the sixe daies of the weeke and rest on the seventh day that they may apply it to the consideration of the works of God which they pretend to be no lesse obligatory towards Christians under the new Testament then towards the Iewes under the old Testament because wee cannot follow and imitate a better example then the example of God 11 To this I answer first that it may be denyed that Gods end in the institution of the Sabbath day was that it should be a memoriall of the creation of all his workes on sixe daies and of his rest on the seventh day That is not said any where but this onely is specified that God sanctified the seventh day because in it he rested from his workes after he had made them in sixe daies Which sheweth only the occasion that God tooke to ordaine and establish the Sabbath day but not the end of the institution thereof which is declared unto us in the foresaid places of Exodus 31. vers 13. and of Ezech. 20. vers 12. where it is said that God ordained it to be a signe between him and the Israelites that he was the Lord that did sanctifie them This end of the said institution as likewise the motive and occasion thereof are coupled together in the 16. and 17. verses of the said 31. Chapter of Exodus in these words The children of Israel shall keepe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetuall covenant It is a signe betwene me and the children of Israel for ever Whereof a signe Certainly that they may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie them as it is written in the 13. verse This is the end of the Institution of the Sabbath which must be supplyed from thence After that it followeth For in sixe daies the LORD made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed This is the occasion and motive of the said institution There be some that would faine of this For make That and joine the two members of the 17. verse as if they were but one after this manner It is a signe betweene me and the children of Israel for ever that in sixe daies the Lord made heaven and earth to inferre from thence that the Sabbath was ordained expresly to the end it might be a memoriall of the Creation but although the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth That as well as For yet that in the foresaid verse it should rather signifie For and that the said verse should have two distinct members and each of them its owne particular sentence it appeareth probably both by the changing of the forme of speech that God useth speaking of himselfe in the first person in the first member It is a signe betweene mee and the children of Israel for ever and in the third person in the second member For in sixe daies the LORD made heaven and earth whereas if it had beene the continuance of the same period without distinction hee should have rather have said It is a signe betweene me and the children of Israel that I have created in sixe daies or that I am the Lord who have created in sixe daies heaven and earth c. As also by the Hebrew accent Athnach which it put at the end of the first member and is an accent denoting usually a pause and notable respiration and a distinction of a compleate sentence 12 Secondly to stand longer upon this first answer although I should yeeld that the seventh day of Sabbath was instituted of God purposely to be a memoriall of the Creation the argument is neverthelesse inconsequent For although things past should be in perpetuall remembrance It followeth not that the signes and memorialls of such things instituted under the old Testament should be perpetuall Nay they ought not to be if they have beene therewith types and figures relative to the Messias God made a covenant with Abraham and promised unto him to be God unto him and to his seed after him Gen. 17. vers 7. which is a perpetuall benefit and worthy to be remembred by all his spirituall posterity till the end of the world Yet the signe and memoriall that hee gave him at that time of this covenant to wit the Circumcision was not to be perpetuall and hath continued onely till the time of the new Testament Likewise all the Sacraments under the old Testament have beene signes and memorialls of perpetuall benefits to wit of justification sanctification c. Notwithstanding they ought not to persist for ever because they also were types The same is the condition of the Sabbath We may and ought to call to minde under the new Testament the benefit of the Creation and of Gods rest after it although we have no particular signe thereof which by Gods ordinance is a signe of remembrance In the Kingdome of heaven we shall celebrate eternally the remembrance of our Creation and Redemption without any
meanes that procureth his blessing corporall and spirituall temporall and eternall upon those that keepe it as these words doe insinuate have we not as great need of these blessings of GOD as the Iewes God will he not grant them to us as well as to them Wherefore then shall we not keepe that which he hath ordained to be a meanes whereby he doth communicate them or if we keepe them not how can we promise to our selves that he will grant them unto us Which is as if wee should promise to our selves the grace of God by the usage of the Sacraments which hee hath instituted as meanes thereof changing the elements which he hath ordained in them They say also that if God had not ordained unto us who are Christians a Sabbath day he had left us in a worse condition then the Iewes 25 I answer that verily we have as great need of Gods blessings as the Iewes had and that God promiseth them unto us as well as unto them But it followeth not that he should impart them unto us by the same outward meanes God bestowed of old his blessings upon the Iewes not onely by the observation of the seventh day of Sabbath but also of their Sabbaths solemne Feasts Sacrifices Offerings Sprinklings and other legall ceremonies and saith often that he hath sanctified them and would blesse them to their use As then it followeth not that we should keepe these things and that they should be unto us meanes of Gods blessing Likewise upon God saying that he had blessed and sanctified the Sabbath day to the Iewes doth it ensue that we are still bound to keepe it Indeed if the Iewes to whom under the old Testament God had expresly ordained the observation of the seventh day to be unto them a meanes of the grant of his blessings had neglected or rejected that day and had of their owne fancie chosen another they had deprived themselves of the blessing of God by rejecting a meanes of the communication thereof ordained by him And if it were constant that to us also God had ordained the seventh day as it is constant that he hath ordained unto us the use of cercaine elements in the Sacraments and that the fourth Commandement obligeth us as it did the Iewes the same danger were to be feared for us in case we observed it not but sith that is not we have no cause to feare 26 To come neerer unto them I say that the seventh day in its nature was not a holy day nor a meanes of blessing more then another day but onely in regard of the duties of religion and of godlinesse whereunto it was particularly destinated and which were practised in it Therefore when we shall practice religiously and according to the will of God under the new Testament the duties of religion and Christian godlinesse which Iesus Christ hath prescribed unto us in the Gospel they shall be unto us meanes of blessing as were unto the Iewes their exercises and whatsoever day the Church shall appoint ordinarily for that use seeing Iesus Christ hath left unto her that liberty and hath not made any particular determination thereupon it shall be unto us by reason of those holy duties a blessed and holy day as well as was unto the Iewes their seventh day which God injoyned them to keepe 27 It is against all reason to esteeme that if God hath not ordained unto us a particular day as he did to the Iewes our condition shall be worse then theirs For that is alike as if they should say that Christians are in a worse condition then the Iewes because God hath not appointed unto them a particular place whereunto he hath allotted the publike exercise of his service as he did to the Iewes It is true that if Christians did not ordinarily meet together in one place and time to serve GOD publikely they should be farre inferiour to the Iewes and should have farre lesse religion and devotion then they had Whereas it is their great advantage above the Iewes that God would not stint unto them any place nor any time of their holy exercises but would have the choice and setling of the one and of the other to depend on their liberty and left that to their zeale and wisedome even as it is their great prerogative that he hath made them free from all other legall ceremonies which testifieth that he hath loved them more and would not use them rigidly as little children or servants but as children of a ripe age and as a willing people 28 So it hath beene shewed that although the fourth Commandement obligeth us alwaies to appoint an ordinary day for Gods service yet no solid thing can be gathered from the nature and words thereof to prove the morality of a seventh day of Sabbath farre lesse of Sunday and a perpetuall obligation in Gods intention to the observation thereof under the new Testament And it is a most impertinent argumentation that because all the particularities of the fourth Commandement may be applyed unto us as well as to the Iewes and that we may now as they of old rest on the seventh and last day of the weeke as in it God rested therefore we should doe it For we may also observe all the holy daies and ceremonies which of old the Iewes observed and find reasons to apply them unto us For example as they observed the new Moones or the first daies of their moneths to give thankes to God for his continuall government and favorable intertainment which his divine providence had shewed to them making after the last moneth a new moneth to come and to pray him to perpetuate the grace towards them as also that it might be unto them a figure of the future renuing of the Church by the Messias Also as they observed the feast of Pentecost for a memoriall as many doe esteeme of the Law given on that day or which is more certaine to give thanks to God for the cornes which by his favour they had reapt and whereof they offered unto him two loaves of new and fine flower Likewise as they observed the feast of Tabernacles for a remembrance that they had beene pilgrims in the wildernesse and had sojourned in Tents during the time of their journey to the Land of Canaan as also for a thanksgiving to God for the gathering in of all the fruits of the Land Even so might we observe all the same feasts by an application of the reasons of their institution unto us For God from moneth to moneth continueth his providence towards us and hath granted us the renuing of the holy Ghost The Law which he gave in Sina to the people of Israel appertaineth to us in all the morality thereof as well as unto them It is his gift that we gather in yeerely the cornes and other productions of the ground for our nourishment as they did We are pilgrims and strangers in this world and we aspire to the heavenly Canaan
c. All these things might be capable to afford unto us subject and occasion to celebrate a thankfull and religious remembrance of them on solemne daies answerable to these of the Iewes For although there were some particular reasons belonging only to the Iewes and taken from certaine circumstances for which God ordained these feasts and others unto them and though there was in them a figure of the good things to come by Iesus Christ Hebr. 10. vers 1. in which respects they cannot be observed by us which also by the confession of those against whom I dispute is to be found in the Sabbath day that is no let but that the generall reasons which are to be found in them may be unto us a ground of observation and that we may practise and celebrate as a memoriall or signe relative to the time past or present that which they practised as a figure relative to the time to come And what they observed in a respect circumstanced after a fashion which was proper to them that we may observe in another respect somewhat diversified and fitted to our estate Even as although we observe not the Sabbath for some particular reasons in regard whereof it is avouched that it was appropriated to the Iewes yet many doe maintaine eagerly that we ought to keepe it for some other generall reasons Yea sith almost all the Iewish ceremonies had some morall foundation reason or end which considered in it selfe regardeth us as well as them that might be set abroach as a subject and occasion to observe them under the Gospell 30 Yet for all that it followeth not that God obligeth us to such an observation Yea it should be contrary to the liberty and simplicity of the Gospel Likewise whatsoever generall reasons may be considered as capable in themselves to be motives unto us to observe the Sabbath it followeth not that God hath prescribed and determined the observation thereof under the Gospel 31 All these reasons which were motives to ordaine these ceremonies were not naturall essentiall and necessary reasons of their institution but depended simply on the will of God who had the power to make them and give value and authority to the said reasons by the observation of these ceremonies for a certaine time only and at another time without ceremonies or by ceremonies of another kind As he willeth us to give him thankes under the new Testament for the continuation of his favourable providence over us in the ordinary course of daies of moneths of the revenues of the earth for giving us not only the Law but also the Gospell of grace and for preparing for us the heavenly inheritance after the few and evill daies of the pilgrimages of this life all which things concerne us and yet he bindeth us not to celebrate in remembrance of these his blessings the ancient festivall daies nor any other Even so he will have us to celebrate the remembrance of our Creation and after we have bestowed daies upon our owne businesses to appoint also some for his publike service and to assubject unto it our wives our children our servants and all other persons depending of us As likewise to give a sufficient time of rest to our servants and beasts after we have kept them at worke for us which are the reasons of the fourth Commandement that concerne us also And yet of them no inference can be made that God will have us to observe one of seven or the last of the seven dayes of the weeke as in consideration of them he ordained the seventh day to the Iewes For we may doe it as well on another day ordained after another manner 32 He had ordained the Sabbath as all other ceremonies to be signes for that time and not for the time of the New Testament under which the world being as it were renewed all things pertaining to the order and government of the Religion were also to bee made new New Ministers new Sacraments c. were to be established as it is written Esa. 65. verse 17. Agg. 2. verse 6. Heb. 8. ver 13. Heb. 12. verse 26 27. 2 Cor. 5. verse 17. And therefore it was convenient and sutable to this New estate that there should be a new day of Gods service different from the day which the Iewes observed under the Old Testament But it was not necessary that it should be one of seven or that Christ Himselfe should have ordained it which notwithstanding they indeavour to prove by diverse other passages and arguments gathered out of holy Scripture pertaining directly to the New Testament and obliging all Christians living under it to keepe the Sabbath as much as the Iewes were under the Old Testament yea to keepe a certaine and set day of Sabbath not by ecclesiasticall constitution but by divine ordinance as they deeme CHAPTER Eight Answer to the Sixth Reason 1. Ob. Isaiah hath prophesied that under the New Testament strangers and Eunuches that is Christians shall keepe the Sabbath 2. First Answer The words of the Prophet may be understood of the state of the Church of the Iewes after the captivity of Babylon 3. Second Answer In the Old Testament the service of the New Testament is set downe in tearmes taken from the service under the Law 4. Which if they should be literally expounded Christians should be bound to keepe all the ceremonies of the Law 5. Wherefore this and such like passages are to be expounded spiritually of the spirituall service of the Christian Church 6. Another objection of the gate which Ezekiel saith shall be opened on the Sabbath day 7. First Answer the words of Ezekiel must be expounded mystically 8. Second Answer nothing can bee inferred from thence but that the Christian Church shall have solemne dayes for Gods service 9. Third Answer The Sabbath may be said to represent the rest of eternall life in heaven and the sixe worke dayes the turmoiles of this life 1 THey say to this purpose that the 56. Chapter of Isaiah is manifestly referred to the time of the New Testament and that God declaring there how he would not any more put a difference betweene the strangers and the Iewes and how the Eunuchs the barren and those that want Children shall no more be a reproach and shall not be excluded from the privileges of his house as they were under the Old Testament saith in plaine tearmes that those whom he calleth Eunuches and sonnes of the stranger shall keepe his Sabbaths verse 4 6. From whence they make this inference that God would have the Sabbath to be kept by Christians under the New Testament as well as by Iewes under the Old Testament 2 To this I answer that this argument hath little or no strength For it is well knowne that the Iewes doe referre it to the time that followed the captivity of Babylon 3 But not to debate about this question whether this prophesie is to be referred to the old or to the New
sence of Christs words and that they had relation to the Iewes only 4. Although he spake them to his Disciples 5. Second answer Although he had spoken to his Disciples only he might have had respect not to them but to their brethren among the Iewes that were weake in faith 6. Third answer Although by the Sabbath the Lords day were to be understood the morality of one of seven dayes in the weeâ— cannot be inferred from thence 1 IEsus Christ speaking in the 24. of Saint Matthew and twenty verse to his Disciples of the desolation that was to come upon Iudea and namely upon Ierusalem said unto them Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day Not in the winter because then the wayes are incommodious and there is neither driving nor marching but with difficulty Not on the Sabbath day by reason of the holinesse of that day which being appointed and set a part for Gods service although it was lawfull unto them to flie in it to save their lives yet they should not be able to doe it but with griefe and sore against their will being constrained to spend on trotting toyling and much hurrying up and down a day particularly consecrated to the publike exercises of Religion and so should have a just occasion to pray to God to keepe them from being brought to such a necessity Some alleadge this passage esteeming it to be pressing and of great weight For say they Iesus Christ speaketh to his Disciples of a thing that was to fall out forty yeeres after his Ascension when all the ceremonies of the Law should be abolished in the Christian Church and yet notwithstanding he speaketh unto them of the Religion of the Sabbath as of a thing that they ought alwayes to take to heart in so high a measure that they should be sorry and throughly grieved to be in that time of desolation constrained to flee on so holy a day instead of applying themselves to Gods service Therefore the Sabbath day was not a ceremony comming within the compasse of those that he was to abrogate but a morall point and of perpetuall necessity Otherwise he had not done well to intangle their mindes with an unnecessary Religion towards the Sabbath day in the time of their flight seeing it being abrogated by him they might with as little grieve in respect to the day get packing as fast as they could trot and toyle on that day as on another day 2 I answer that this argument is a silly one and of no value For Iesus Christ speaketh not in that place of Saint Matthew of the day of rest that Christians were to observe after his Ascension but of the Iewish Sabbath day as this word Sabbath day sheweth clerely which his Disciples were farre from understanding other wayes then for the last day of the weeke observed among the Iewes For it is certaine that it signified nothing else at that time seeing there was not as yet any other day of rest in vigour saving that alone And Iesus Christ had not at all made himselfe to be understood of them nay he had purposely given them occasion to mistake him if by the Sabbath day his intention was to denote another day then the last of the weeke because this alone carryed that name neither shall it bee found in the whole Scripture that any other day is specified by that name 3 The heavenly rest under the Gospell is once called by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Chapter 4. verse 9. by a name drawne from the Hebrew word Sabbath because it was figured by the Sabbath of the Iewes But our day wherein wee apply our selves to Gods outward service and to that intent doe cease from our ordinary labour is alwayes called in the New Testament The first day of the weeke or The Lords Day and not the Sabbath which name the Apostles and first beleevers had not failed to give unto it if Iesus Christ had so qualified and stiled it Now if they would never tearme it by such a name although it might have been in some sort attributed unto it but only The Lords Day or The first day of the weeke to distinguish it from the day which was so called among the Iewes For the same reason Iesus Christ in the foresaid place if he had minded to speake of the day which Christians were to observe after his death he had intitled it by some other name then of the Sabbath day to make a distinction betweene it and the day of the Iewes Wherefore those which use this argument doe most fondly suppose without proofe or likenesse of truth that by the Sabbath Iesus Christ meaneth the Lords day Now if it be understood of the Sabbath of the Iewes as it must for the foresaid reasons and as all the interpreters whom I have read and perused doe take it this argument being urged according to the ratiotination of those that have set it on foot shall yeeld against their intention this conclusion that after the death and ascension of our Lord Iesus Christ the Sabbath day of the Iewes ought to bee yet kept in the Christian Church and that the faithfull are obliged unto it by Religion and conscience and ought bee hartily sorrowfull when being constrained to flye on it to save their lives in a great desolation they should not be able to consecrate it to Gods service 3 The true sence of this passage is that indeed our Lord Iesus <
the Acts if they be understood of the Lords Supper and in the 118 Epistle of Saint Augustine second Chapter no man can inferre of the meeting of the faithfull of Troas on the first day of the weeke to communicate to the Lords Supper that day to have beene more solemne unto them then any other day of the weeke And it may be they delayed the communion till that day rather than till another because Saint Paul was to take his journey on the morrow after judging they should doe well to end their conversation with him which they had injoyed during seven dayes by the celebration of this Sacrament which is a band of friendship and of brotherly conjunction and so to testifie their mutuall love and Christian respects and by that meanes take and give a full assurance that their separation and absence in the body which was to happen the next day should never be able to disunite it 7 Adde unto this that no mention being made in the foresaid passage but of a meeting in night time which began at the even of this first day of the weeke without telling us on what exercises the day was imployed by the faithfull I cannot see how an inference can be made upon a meeting by night that the day preceding that night was then and ought to be for ever sanctified for a Sabbath day 8 Further supposing it was an ordinary custome in Troas to keepe the first day of the weeke it followeth not that it was then observed every where abroad We find in other places of the Acts as amongst others in the 11 Ch. v. 26 and in the 14. Ch. v. 23 27. mention made of many meetings of the faithfull whereof the day is not particularized and if we consider well the circumstances of these places it is likely that it was as well on others dayes of the weeke as on the first and that in those dayes Christians made no difference of dayes Nay in the booke of the Acts we find often that the faithfull held their assemblies on the Sabbath day of the Iewes Acts 13. verse 14 44. Act. 16. verse 13. Act. 17. verse 2. c. 9 But to grant willingly that the Churches after they were once established were wont to keepe the first day of the weeke that concludes not this day to have been appointed by Christ by or his Apostles but onely that it was observed by use and custome at the first through respect to the resurrection of the Lord which custome grew up afterwards into a constitution of the Church binding all Christians unchangeably to the observation of it CHAPTER Sixth Answer to the fifth Reason 1. Fifth reason from the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians where the observation of the first day of the weeke is commanded by the Apostle 2. First answer The Apostles words may be understood of a certaine day or of each day of the weeke 3. He doth not establish a generall and continuall order but a particular collection for that time onely 4. Second answer The same words may be interpreted of every Sabbath day of the Iewes 5. Third answer Although they should be expounded of the first day of the weeke they inforce not an Apostolicall injunction concerning that day 6. Because his injunction is of the collection onely and not of the day 7. This is clearely proved by the words the of Text. 8. Fourth answer Albeit the Apostles had injoyned the keeping of that day it followeth not that they received it of the Lord because it was onely a point of order left to their wisedome and all order is in it selfe imitable 9. An instance from the fourth Chapter to the Philippians and the ninth verse 10. Refuted by three answers THey argue also from the sixteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians vers 1 2. where the Apostle saith Concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so doe ye Vpon the first day of the weeke let every one of you put aside by himselfe as God hath prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come Where they pretend to have found clearely an Apostolicall Ordinance injoyning the observation of the first day of the weeke for the exercises of religion For in these words mention is made of the keeping of it for the collections which could not be levied so commodiously as in the ordinary day of Ecclesiasticall assemblies Now as they say the Apostle ordained nothing but what he had received of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. vers 23. Therefore seeing hee ordained to observe the first day of the weeke this day must needs be an Ordinance of Christ and of his Apostles 2. Whereunto I answer as before First that these words of the Originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie not necessarily upon the first day of the weeke or on each first day but may signifie indefinitely on a day on a certaine day or in each day of the weeke as they are interpreted by some Divines And so the Apostles exhortation shall have this sense that the Corinthians on a certaine day of the weeke at their choice or on every day of the weeke should keepe in store by themselves a part of the goods that God had liberally bestowed upon them that the whole summe which should be gathered amongst them might be laid out for the subvention of the faithfull of Ierusalem which at that time was required of them and be ready at his comming 3. For this is worthy to be noted that the Apostle doth not establish in these words a generall and continuall order of collections to bee received and practised in all the Christian Churches for the entertainment of their poore and publikely levied in their meetings and congregations but onely a particular collection which he enjoyned to the Church of the Corinthians and to some other Churches of the Gentiles for the poore strangers of Iudea which collection he himselfe was to come and to receive after he had sent before him some of the brethren to put it in order Whereof hee advised the Corinthians aforehand that they might prepare it before his comming and that nothing more were to be done at his comming This is manifest by the second third and fourth verses of this Chapter by the eighth and ninth Chapters of the second Epistle and by the fifteenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes vers 25. He required also that it should be prepared not by a publike distribution in the Ecclesiasticall assemblies but by a particular separation that every one should make a portion of his goods at home and by himselfe For such is the meaning of the words in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let every one of you lay aside by himselfe putting in store as God hath prospered him which words doe signifie a particular and domesticall reservation and not a publike distribution which consequently was to be done indifferently
Sabbath it followeth that we are even so made free from the necessity of forbearing absolutely all workes because this did belong also to these weake and beggerly rudiments of the world As the Apostle saith that the kingdome of God that is the state of the Gospell is not meat and drinke Rom. 14. vers 17. So may we say that it consists neither in baking nor in not baking meat neither in kindling nor in not kindling the fire neither in carrying nor in not carrying burdens For the Gospell establisheth no holinesse in the abstinence of such actions upon one day more than upon another day and declareth no man guilty for doing them but leaveth in the one and in the other the conscience free 8 When the same Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Colossians Chapter 2. verse 16. that we ought not to be tyed by our conscience to Sabbaths no more than to meat and drinke by Sabbaths he understandeth not only certaine dayes but also a scrupulous abstinence and cessation from outward workes in those dayes which also is properly denoted by the word Sabbath and obligeth us no more than the dayes doe 9 Neither is it required of us immediately by God but as it is a helpe to further us on any day whatsoever in the practice of Gods true service as in hearing of his word when it is read or preached in receiving the Sacraments that he hath instituted in calling upon his Name in meditating on him and on his graces that so we may strengthen our selves in godlinesse And on the contrary in case the busying of our selves about such workes should be unto us a let and disturbance in these our heavenly exercises So that the obligation whereby we are bound under the Gospell to these essentiall points of Gods service and the time wherein they are exercised being excepted all honest workes remaine equally lawfull on all the dayes of the weeke to apply our selves unto them without scruple and trouble of conscience Neither is it a sinne to doe all corporall workes that are lawfull in one day yea on Sunday as well as on another day 10 And as on other dayes of the weeke it is not ill done yea it is rather well done to bestow a part of them to preach and heare the word of God to minister and receive the Sacraments to pray and to sing Psalmes not only privately but also publikely in the eyes of the world according to the order of the Church and as occasions shall be offered also on Sunday to my opinion it is not a sinne to a true Christian after service done to God in his Temple to give himselfe to some honest exercises and wel ruled recreations of this present life Neither can I see any greater inconvenience or that a Christian is more guilty if after he hath heard the Word of God prayed and called upon his Name and practised the other duties of Gods publike service in the holy congregation of his people so if it be according to the order received in the Church whereof he is a member he goe to plough and husband the ground or to doe any other exercise of his lawfull trade then if he kindle the fire or cooke meat for his refection 11 And considering that the spirit of man can hardly be continually bent the space of a whole day to any serious and important action such as are namely the holy actions of Gods service without some intervall of relaxation if betweene the houres that are imparted to this service publikely or privately on the Sabbath day he imploy some other houres to doe the actions of his temporall calling or other workes of the same nature by way of diversion and refreshment I cannot conceive that God should be displeased therewith because Gods service and godlinesse are not hindred nor indammaged thereby For I aske after a man hath heard Gods service read the Word of God called upon his holy Name or ended devoutely any other religious action during a pretty space of time and the vigor of his spirit slacken so that he is not able to persevere in his attention and devotion any longer he diverts himselfe and sitteth quiet for a while without doing any thing to take his breath as it were and returne to his devotion afresh with greater force doth hee sinne by this cessation I thinke not Now if hee sinneth not when hee sitteth idle and doth nothing why shall it bee said that hee sinneth if hee doe some bodily worke seeking thereby some diversion and refreshment rather than by a meere cessation from all kinde of action To doe nothing at all shall it bee more acceptable to GOD then to doe a worke that is honest and lawfull in it selfe This shall it profane the day of holy exercises rather than that I see no apparent reason in such an opinion which moveth me to esteeme that the liberty to doe the foresaid workes on the Sabbath day was intirely taken from the Iewes for some ceremoniall reasons and that it was upon them a servile yoake in the ancient time of servitude as hath beene declared before 12 This is a most inforcing consideration upon this purpose that in the whole Scripture of the New Testament there is no injunction at all concerning such an abstinence and refraining from all outward workes as is urged and layd upon Christians on their Sunday conformably to the cessation that was imposed upon the Iewes on their Sabbath day Verily if Christ had required it under the New Testament as a thing necessary to his service and if his intention had beene to binde us unto it undoubtedly he had given or commanded his Apostles to give an expresse injunction concerning it which because he hath not done I inferre that he had no such intention 13 Nay on the contrary the liberty to worke on Sunday is rather authorized by the example and practise of Christ and of the first faithfull For in Saint Luke Chapter 24. we see that on the same day that Christ rose in which was the first and most illustrious Sunday of all he met with two of his Disciples going from Hierusalem to Emmaus and that questionlesse for the ordinary affaires of this present life seeing it was not an holy day among the Iewes Which voyage was of three leagues or thereabout He went with them he spake unto them of the mysteries of salvation as he would have done in any other day if he had lighted upon them according to his ordinary custome of every day during his conversation here below in the flesh and as all Pastors are bound to do at all occasions that God offers unto them But he advised them not that in time to come they should observe that day as a Sabbath day and abstaine from voyaging or doing on it any other toylesome and painefull worke And indeed after he had left them at Emmaus they returned thence the same day to Hierusalem as the Lord did also going other three
without most important and weighty reasons For considering that Gods externall service for which a day of rest is appointed is not the principall service that God requireth and that it ought to give place to the workes of true godlinesse and love according to Gods owne words I will have mercy and not sacrifice Hos. 6. vers 7. Matth. 12. vers 7. It is certaine there may be many lawfull reasons taken from true charity which we owe to our selves or to our neighbours whereby we may be dispensed with in the practise of Gods outward service on the Sabbath day and licensed to doe on it bodily und servile workes in stead of that service 26 But against this liberty which I maintaine all Christians have to worke or to cheare up themselves on Sunday in the manner before specified it is objected That worldlings when they are lured with some worldly advantage when they seek or look for some gaine on market or faire dayes take heed lest they loose so good an occasion shun all games and pastimes that may withdraw or divert them from their gaine make alwayes pleasure to plie and give place to profit And therefore farre lesse ought Christians on the Lords day which is as it were the great Market-day for their soules wherin they have need to prepare to themselves a great spirituall gain and make all their provisions to seeke or take any leisure for the occupations and pastimes of this life namely seeing our diligence cannot be so great our care so vigilant our labour so profitable but that we have much more profit to be made than all the profit we haue purchased already But if we make of the Sabbath our delight according to Gods exhortation in Esa. chap. 58. vers 13. we shall finde neither leisure nor place for worldly affaires 27 To the which I answer that the care of worldlings lest they should bee any wayes diverted from their trafficke and from the search of gaine on market-dayes by any game or pastime is nothing to the purpose It is true that we ought to be more carefull of the spirituall food of our soules than they are of the temporall profit of their bodies But this argument is made as if Sunday were onely Gods Market-day to speake so wherein wee may purchase unto us that profit as if it being past our hope of the acquisition thereof on another day of the weeke were utterly lost and as if a small and short occupation or recreation of this world taken on that day could bereave us of so great a good which foundation being sandie the building upon it fals to the ground 28 We ought to make of the Sabbath our delight but not in the same sense as the Iewes that is not of an externall and ceremoniall but of a spirituall Sabbath which the Prophet betokeneth in the place quoted that is Not to follow our owne wayes and not to doe our owne will which is the dayly Sabbath of the New Testament For God hath not ordained unto us a corporall one saving in some respects specified before which is much different from the Sabbath which the Iewes were obliged to observe 29 It is manifest of that hath beene said that our Sunday may in some sort be called a day of Sabbath or of rest because wee ought for the publike exercises of religion on it give over all our ordinary workes But it cannot be absolutely qualified with this name and with regard to an abstinence as precise as was required on the Iewish Sabbath day Moreover as wee have observed heretofore this name of Sabbath day is the proper name of the ancient day of the Iewes and not of the new day of Christians wherefore it were better done to abstaine from denoting it by the qualification of that name and to call it onely The Lords day or Sunday seeing these names have beene appropriated unto it by the Christian Church CHAPTER Sixth A more particular explication how the faithfull ought to carry themselves in the observation of Sunday 1. Duty of the Governours of the Church and of all particular Christians about the ordering and practise of Gods service 2. The faithfull ought to submit themselves to the order of the Church and to keepe the dayes appointed for Gods service by the publike practice thereof in the Congregation 3. How they ought to carry themselves where there is no Church 4. How where there is a Church during the service 5. How after the service 6. The sanctification of Sunday is grounded on the holinesse of the exercises practised in it and is so considered by the faithfull 7. Profane men because they have no heart to Gods service contemne the Lords day 8. Godly men doe quite contrary GOd for the edification and entertainement of his Church here below injoyneth to those that have charge of her governement to offer up prayers and thankesgivings to preach the Gospell to minister the Sacraments to assemble the faithfull together to establish good order in the Church and to particular Christians to pray devoutly to love Gods word to keep it receive the Sacraments frequent carefully the holy assemblies obey in things belonging to order and discipline those that have rule over them and submit themselves unto them not to be contentious against the good customes of the Church and to doe this not each of them for himselfe onely but also to procure that all persons subject to their governement their subjects their children their servants doe the same All Christians when they know that there are holy convocations for the hearing of the Word and the practice of other religious exercises and that the Order of the Church hath appointed unto them set dayes as in every week a Sunday are bound by these injunctions to resort carefully unto them and to take paines that their inferiours over whom they have authority follow their example And if indeed they love the word of God and the exercises of godlinesse to shew it by a diligent frequenting and serious practice of them as of a thing which God hath injoyned to all and for the things sake to observe the day wherein it is practised although God hath not prescribed nor appointed it and it hath no other foundation but the Order of the Church whereunto neverthelesse God hath commanded in generall all men to submit themselves 1 Cor. 14. vers 40. For it is not for the dayes sake that we ought to practise and respect the holy exercises which ordinarily are done on it but it is these exercises that make the day considerable and give credit authority and respect unto it The exercises are to be much esteemed for themselves and for Gods sake who hath expresly injoyned them The day is not honoured and accounted of but for their sake in as much as the Church is pleased to doe them on it Yet if a Christian were brought to that extremity that hee must remaine in a place where there is no Church nor order
cum Tryphone Iudaeo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the forenamed righteous men Adam Abel c. and after them Abraham also did please God though they observed no Sabbath Irenaeus l. 4. adv Haeres c. 30. speaking of Circumcision and of the Sabbath which he maketh to be types and figures of the same nature saith Quia non per haec justificatur homo sed in signo data sunt populo ostendit quòd ipse Abraham fine circumcisione sine observatione Sabbatorum credidit Deo reputatum est illi in justitiam That man is not justified by these things but that they were given him for signes and tokens is manifest from this that Abraham not being yet circumcised nor observing the Sabbaths beleeved in God and it was accounted to him for righteousnesse And a little after Reliqua omnis multitudo eorum qui ante Abraham fuere justi Patriarcharum qui ante Moysem fuerunt sine his quae praedicta sunt sine lege Moysis justificati sunt All the company of them who before Abraham were just and of the Patriarches that were before Moses were justified without observing the things above-specified and without Moses Law Tertullian also libro advers Iudaeos cap. 2. in fin joyntly speaking of Circumcision and of the Sabbath saith Cum neque circumcisum neque Sabbatizantem Deus Adam instituerit consequenter quoque sobolem ejus Abel offerentem sibi sacrificia incircumcisum nec Sabbatizantem laudavit accepta ferens quae offerebat in simplicitate cordis Noe quoque incircumcisum sed non Sabbatizantem de diluvio liberavit Enoch justissimum non circumcisum nec Sabbatizantem de hoc mundo transtulit Melchisedech summi Dei Sacerdos incircumcisus non Sabbatizans ad Sacerdotium Dei allectus est That God created Adam neither circumcised nor observing the Sabbath and afterwards also he praised his sonne Abel sacrificing unto him although he was neither circumcised nor kept the Sabbath accepting of those things which in the singlenesse of his heart he offered He delivered also from the Deluge Noe who was neither circumcised nor an observer of the Sabbath Hee translated just Enoch out of this world who neither was circumcised nor observed the Sabbath Melchisedech also was made high Priest of the great God though neither circumcised nor a keeper of the Sabbath Abraham indeed was circumcised but hee was accepted of God before hee was circumcised nor did hee at all observe the Sabbath And in the fourth Chapter Doceant Adam Sabbatizasse aut Abel hostiam Deo sanctam offerentem Sabbati religionem placuisse aut Enoch translatum Sabbati cultorem fuisse aut Noe Arcae fabricatorem propter diluvium immensum Sabbatum observâsse aut Abraham in observatione Sabbati Isaac filium suum obtulisse aut Melchisedech in suo sacerdotio legem Sabbati accepisse Let them prove to us that Adam did observe the Sabbath or that Abel when hee offered up his sacrifice to God observed the Sabbath or that Enoch who was translated from this world or that Noe the builder of the Arke against the deluge were observers of it or that Abraham observing it offered up his sonne Isaac or that Melchisedech during his Priesthood received any lawes concerning the Sabbath And a little after he inferreth that this Commandement of the Sabbath was temporall and ought not to be observed under the New Testament no more than circumcision and the Leviticall sacrifices Eusebius l. 1. c. 5. Hist. Eccles. proveth that the Fathers before Moses were in effect Christians though they carried not the name for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They cared not for the Circumcision of the body because nor we neither Nor for the observation of Sabbaths because nor we neither And in his first Booke De demonstrat Evangelicâ c. 6. shewing That the Patriarches before Moses did not observe the ceremonies of the Mosaicall Law amongst them in expresse termes he ranketh the observation of the Sabbath and saith of Melchisedech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moses maketh mention of Melchisedech Priest of the most High God who was neither circumcised in the flesh nor anointed with a compound ointment Exod. 30. 25. according to the prescript of Moses Law nor knew any such thing as a Sabbath nor heard any thing at all of those Lawes which afterwards by Moses were given to the whole people of the Iewes And a little after of Iob he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What shall wee say of most blessed Iob that thrice unblamable just and religious man How came he to that height of holinesse and righteousnesse that was in him Was it by observing the Mosaicall Law No truly But was it then by keeping the Sabbath day or any other of the Iewish rites and ceremonies How could that be seeing he was before Moses and the making of his Lawes S. August tom 3. l. despiritu liter c. 14. In decem praeceptis in lapideis tabulis digito Dei scriptis Dicatur mihi quid non sit observandum à Christiano excepta Sabbathi observatione c. In the ten Commandements written by the finger of God in Tables of stone let them tell me what is not to bee observed by a Christian except the command of the Sabbath And a little after An propter unum praeceptum quod ibi de Sabbato positum est dictus est Decalogus litera occidens quoniam quisquis illum diem nunc usque observat sieut litera sonat carnaliter sapit Is the Decalogue called a killing letter for that one precept of it concerning the Sabbath because whosoever observeth that day according to the literall sense is carnally wise And afterwards ranking the Sabbath with circumcision and the other ceremonies hee calleth them all typicall Sacraments And cap. 15. having said that the grace revealed under the New Testament was vailed and covered under the old he addeth that to that vaile and covering did pertaine the precept concerning the Sabbath which is in the Decalogue which also he calleth typicall and sheweth in what consisteth the type and figure and saith the Iewes observed the Sabbath as a shadow And tom 4. l. quaest in Exod. quaest 172. Moses after hee came downe from the mount the second time Exod. 34. Ex decem praeceptis hoc solum de Sabbato praecepit quod figuratè ibi dictum est alia quippe novem sicut praecepta sunt etiam in Novo Testamento observanda minimè dubitamus Illud autem unū de Sabbato usque adeo figurata diei septimi observatione apud Israelitas velatum est in mysterio praeceptum fuit quodam Sacramento figurabatur ut hodiè à nobis non observetur sed solum quod significabat intueamur Of all the ten Commandements hee repeated to the people this onely of the Sabbath which is there set downe for a figure for we doe not doubt but that the other nine are also to be observed under the
determine the circumstances necessary or profitable for the observation of the morall precepts of the first Table and which are no part of Gods service and doe not oblige the conscience but in case of scandall amongst the rest saith he Dies Dominicus ab Ecclesia est substitutus Sabbato in usum ministerii c. The Lords-day was substituted in lieu of the Sabbath for Gods service c. Idem in Explicatione Catechet in praecept 4. Sabbatum ceremoniale est duplex aliud Ueteris aliud Novi Testamenti Vetus erat astrictum ad diem septimum ejus observatio erat necessaria cultus Dei. Novum pendet ex arbitrio Ecclesiae quae elegit diem primum propter certas causas is est observandus ordinis causâ sed fine opinione necessitatis quasi ab Ecclesia oporteat eum observari non alium The ceremoniall Sabbath is two-fold one of the New another of the Old Testament That was restrained to the seventh day and the observation of it was necessarie and a part of Gods worship This dependeth from the will of the Church which made choice of the first day for certaine causes and it is to be observed for good orders sake but without any opinion of necessitie as if it behooved the Church to observe it and no other Item Oportet non minùs nunc in Christiana quà m olim in Iudaica Ecclesia esse aliquem certum diem quo verbum Dei doceatur Sacramenta publicê administrentur Interim non sumus alligati ut diem septimanae 3 4 5. vel quemcunque alium habeamus Apostolicaigitur Ecclesia ut se à Iudaicâ Synagogâ discerneret pro libertate sibi à Christo donata pro septimo die elegit primam propter probabilem causam quia eo die facta est Christi Resurrectio It behooveth as well now in the Christian Church as before in the Iewish that there be some certaine day on which the word of God may bee taught and the Sacraments publikely administred But we are not tied to have Tuesday Wednesday Thursday or any other for this set day The Apostolicall Church therefore to make a distinction betwixt her selfe and the Iewish Synagogue according to the liberty given her by Christ in stead of the seventh day chose the first for a probable reason because on that day Christ rose againe Uiet on the fourth command towards the end The Primitive Christians did not change the day only with regard to a difference to be made betwixt Iewes and Christians for thus the matter were not much mended to have changed onely the day and have retained the superstition which the Iewes fasten to it But they had regard to the Resurrection of our Lord which is the true accomplishment of the spirituall rest which we hope for c. Bucer in Matth. cap. 12. v. 1. loc de feriis Hinc factum non dubito ut communis Christianorum consensu Dominicus dies conventibus Ecclesiae publicis ac requiei publicae dicat us sit ipso statim Apostolorum tempore I doubt not but that by the common consent of Christians the Lords-day hath beene appointed for the publike meetings of the Church and for publike rest even in the Apostles dayes Zanchius in praecep 4. in Tractatu de feriis Praeceptum de die Dominico sanctificando ab Apostolis expressum non habemus Apostolicam tamen traditionem esse minimè dubitamus Wee have no expresse command from the Apostles to sanctifie the Lords-day notwithstanding we doubt not but that it is an Apostolicall tradition And having alleaged some proofes out of Scripture to that purpose he addeth Exsacris literis colligitur non ineptè ab Apostolis profectum esse ut omisso Sabbato dies Dominicus fuerit in illius locum substitutus It is not impertinently gathered from holy writ that the substitution of the Lords-day in place of the Sabbath proceeded from the Apostles Acknowledging as appeareth by his words not impertinently that those proofes were but weak But afterwards in expresse termes he avoucheth that the said day is appointed for Gods service without putting any tie upon the conscience Hoc inquit liquet ex sacris literis Nullibi enim legimus Apostolos hoc cuipiam mandâsse tantùm legimus quid soliti fuerunt facere Apostoli fideles in illo die Liberum igitur reliquerunt Accedit quod Apostolus ad Gal. c. 4. ad Col. 2. non vult servari à fidelibus praecepta Dei de Sabbatis aliisque festis Mosaicis quia nolebat fidelium conscientias illis praeceptis astringi quantò minus igitur voluerunt Apostoli obstringi conscientias sanctificando diei Dominico qui nullum habebat Domini mandatum Liberum est igitur illud etiam tempus hoc est nullius obligans conscientiam sed ita tamen liberum ut omnino iste dies sanctificandus sit nisi charit as aliud postulet This saith he is manifest from Scripture For we reade no where that the Apostles gave this command to any man wee reade onely what the Apostles and the faithfull were wont to doe on that day They therefore left it free Moreover the Apostle Gal. 4. and Col. 2. will not have the faithfull to observe Gods precepts concerning Sabbaths and other Mosaicall Holy dayes because he would not have the consciences of the faithfull obliged to those precepts how much lesse would the Apostles have their consciences obliged to keepe holy the Lords-day or Sunday for which we have no command from God Therefore that time also is free that is to say tieth no mans conscience But notwithstanding it is so free that altogether it behooveth us to sanctifie this day if charity doth not require the contrary Item Quis prohibuit quin Ecclesia ficut diem septimum transtult in diem Dominicum sic etiam illos reliquos dies festos in alios transferre potuerit What hindereth but that the Church as it removed the seventh day to the Lords-day may also change the rest of the feasts of the Iewes into other dayes Item At the very end of the explication of the fourth command In locum Sabbati subrogatus est dies Dominicus quia eo die evanuit Sabbatum quatenus figura erat quo Christus resurrexit ut ergo racondemur evanuisse per Resurrectionem Christi Ecclesia non retinuit Sabbatum sed diem Dominicum The Lords-day was substituted in place of the Sabbath because on that day on which Christ rose againe the Sabbath was abolished so farre as it was a figure That therefore wee may remember that it was abolished by the Resurrection of Christ the Church hath retained not the Sabbath but the Lords day Bourgoin Minister of Geneva in his Histor. Eccles. written in French lib. 2. of feasts It is not written when it was that the Christians difunited themselves from the Iewes and began to keepe holy the Lords-day Item After the Apostles some did celebrate the Sabbath others the Lords-day And
A TREATISE OF THE SABBATH AND THE LORDS-DAY Distinguished into foure parts WHEREIN IS DECLARED BOTH THE Nature Originall and Observation as well of the one under the Old as of the other under the New Testament WRITTEN IN FRENCH BY DAVID PRIMEROSE Batchelour in Divinitie in the Vniversity of Oxford and Minister of the Gospell in the Protestant Church of Roven Englished out of his French Manuscript by his Father G. P. D. D. LONDON Printed by Richard Badger for William Hope and are to be sold at his Shop at the signe of the Glove in Corne-Hill 1636. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER I Wrote to my Sonne Preacher of the Gospel at Roven desiring him to set downe in a paper distinctly and clearely his oinion concerning the Sabbath with the confirmation thereof by such arguments which hee should thinke most pregnant and a solide refutation of the contrary arguments which he did accordingly but in the French Tongue as writing onely out of a dutifull affection to condescend to my desire not thinking and far lesse desiring it should be Englished and made publike here Neither had I any such intention as being most unwilling that he who is a stranger to this nation although not a stranger to the Church should goe formost to breake this yee And therefore I kept it by me three yeeres till being advertised that others were gone before and their Bookes were on the Presse and finding no man that would or could translate it into our Tongue and take the wearisome paines to place the additions which he sent me at divers times afterwards in their roomes I undertooke this labour my selfe hoping that things being compared with things cause with cause reasons with reasons and the contrary arguments which are to be found in so many bookes for and against the morality of a seventh day of a weekly Sabbath being examined and conferred one by another the Christian charitable and judicious Readers shall be stirred up after they have proved all things to hold fast that which is good without imparing any thing of that religious service which they owe and yeeld publikely in the Church and privately at home with their families to the Lord their God who needs not the errours of men though never so specious for the upholding of his service If in this end of my translation I have done any thing amisse I say with David Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindnes and let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oile which shall not breake mine head In the meane while let all Christians according to the exhortation of the Apostle put off anger wrath malice and put on charity which is the bond of perfection and so walk worthy of the vocation wherwith we are called with all lowlines and meeknesse with long suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that living in peace the God of love and peace may be with us and live in us for ever and ever Amen THE PREFACE The state of the Question 1. All men are bound to serve God every day privately in some measure according to his word 2. They are also bound to serve him publikely and to have a day stinted for his publike service 3. There is among godly and learned Christians a great controversie about the Originall Nature and Observation of that day 4. Some hold the sanctification and observation of one of the seven dayes of the weeke to be morall and therefore of perpetuall necessity since the beginning unto the end of the world 5. Others maintaine that the stinting of a day for Gods publike service is a point of order and of Ecclesiasticall governement depending wholly on institution 6. This Treatise made for the defence of this last opinion is divided into foure parts 1 ALl men are obliged to honour and serve God all the dayes of their life by the heedfull practice of all the exercises of religion and godlinesse which hee hath prescribed in his holy word Neither ought they to let any day slip without the imployment of some time and the carefull applying of themselves in some competent measure to that duty that thereby they may thrive in the knowledge of truth which is after godlinesse and increase in sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord. Neverthelesse seeing God hath ordained that man in the sweat of his face shall eat his bread and live by the labour of his owne hands Gen. 3. v. 19. that this transitory and dying life is besieged with so numerous an hoste of difficulties that it cannot be guarded without many necessary imployments returning every day that the labour whereunto all men are tied will scarcely suffer them to take their breath they cannot for the most part apply themselves to the necessary actions of Gods service with such care vigilancie attention and continuance as is requisite 2 These ordinary paines of temporall callings are a far greater impeachment to the publike and solemne service that the faithfull are bound to render joyntly to God in their publike meetings For the King of heaven is not satisfied with their private devotions in their closets severally or together with their families at home but will have them also to doe unto him full and absolute homage abroad confessing him to be their Creator Redeemer and perpetuall Benefactor calling upon his holy name and setting forth his praise in their congregations and religious assemblies Now the dayes of man are a warfare upon earth and his dayes are like the dayes of an hireling and the life of the faithfull is intangled and diverted with so many necessary and toilesome affaires that it is very difficult unto them to have such holy and religious meetings every day yea in many places it is impossible Therefore it is altogether necessary that a day be chosen and picked out from amongst a number of other dayes and peculiarly appointed that in it as often as it returneth all persons setting aside the care of all temporall and worldly affaires and daily imployments may extraordinarily set themselves with one accord to serve God publikely in the assemblies appointed for that end and that each person may on that day serve him apart before and after the publike service with such a regard and assiduity that it goe beyond the ordinarie devotion of every day No body amongst true Christians which take to heart the honour glory and service of God will make a controversie of this Neither is this the subject of the controversie which is canvassed and sifted on both sides with great earnestnesse yea with too great eagernesse between many Christians which are learned godly and consenting in the profession of the same doctrine and truth of the Gospel of peace 3 Their variance and disagreement is about the nature beginning and particular observation of the day which is separated from all other dayes that it may be especially applied
to Gods service to wit 1. If it be a thing of naturall justice of perpetuall necessity and whereunto all are tied by a morall commandement appertaining to the New as well as to the Old Testament that of seven daies of the weeke one be kept for the end aforesaid 2. If before the Law was given by Moses to the people of Israel yea if from the beginning of the world God himselfe made the particular designation of this day setting it apart for his service and commanding to Adam and to all his posterity the hallowing and keeping of it 3. If under the New Testament there be a divine ordinance of such a day of rest as well as there was under the Old Testament 4. And if by Gods command the consciences of faithfull Christians are under the Gospell as much obliged to hallow it as the Iewes were under the Law and for the better and more religious sanctification thereof to abstaine from all outward workes which are lawfull and are practised on other daies lest they should transgresse that divine Commandement and so finne against religion and conscience These are the maine points which some learned Divines and godly Christians instructed by them demurre upon 1. Some of them deeme that the keeping of one of the seven dayes of the weeke is a morall and naturall duty that God himselfe sanctified it for his service by an expresse and perpetuall Commandement that so it was from the beginning so it is still and shall never be otherwise till the end of the world 2. That before sin came into the world as soone as Adam was created God prescribed unto him and to Eve our first parents and in them to all men which were in their loynes and were to come out of them the hallowing of one day of the weeke which was the seventh day 3. That he reiterated and renewed this Commandement in the fourth precept of the morall Law which he gave in Horeb to the people of Israel and hath bound all Christians under the New Testament to hallow and keepe it religiously because it is of the same nature with the rest of the Commandements of the Decalogue which are all morall 4. That for this cause our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and his blessed Apostles have ordained and prescribed it unto them And so all men have beene all men are all men shall in all times be tied to the religious observation thereof by the necessity of a divine and morall Commandement 5. That we are bound in conscience by the binding power of this Commandement to refraine alwayes on this seventh day of Sabbath or of rest from all earthly workes used on the other dayes of the weeke 6. This onely they acknowledge that the particular observation of one constant day amongst these seven as of the first or of the last of seven is not morall nor of a like obligation under the Old and under the New Testament that it is onely a point of order and of ecclesiasticall government which God did otherwise order and settle under the Old than he hath done under the New Testament That under the Old Testament from the creation of the world till the comming of Christ he ordained the observation of the last day of the weeke in remembrance that he created the world in six dayes and rested on the seventh or last day from all the works that he had made whereas he hath ordained that under the New Testament the first day of the weeke shall be religiously solemnized in remembrance that on that day our Lord Iesus Christ rose from death to life and by the exceeding greatnesse of the power of his glorious resurrection hath performed the worke of the second creation which is the redemption of the world from the slavery of the devill the power of the Law the bondage of sinne And therefore it behooveth the first worke of the Creation to yeeld to this worke the prerogative of excellencie of nature as likewise of the possession which it had till then of the solemne day of rest That for this cause so important and peremptory the day of Gods service was to bee changed and removed from the last day of the weeke wherein was finished the first Creation unto the first day wherin the second was fully accomplished by our Lord Iesus Christ who hath himselfe appointed this alteration 5 Others doe hold that verily it is a duty naturall morall and perpetuall to serve God publikely 1. That all men are obliged unto it and bound to meet together in the Church for that purpose 2. That being there they ought to give their mindes to the exercises of religion with a more particular earnestnes diligence than they are able to do every day at home or abroad 3. That they must have a set day purposely stinted for the fulfilling of a duty so religious so necessary and so fruitfull 4. But that such a day must be one of seven or of another number which in order of that nūber they deny to be a morall point to have in it any naturall necessity For their tenet is that it is a thing of order of Ecclesiastical government depending intirely of institution 5. That indeed under the Law which God gave by Moses to the children of Israel this holy and most perfect Law-giver amongst other points whereby he directed the Ecclesiasticall order and Church-government which that people was to be ruled by instituted and commanded the consecrating of a severall day for his service even of one of seven and of the last of those seven which he had rested on from all his works a most strict precise forbearance of all worldly works on that day 6. But appeareth not at all that God gave any commandement to Adam either before or after his fall binding him or his progenie to the keeping of any day whatsoever as to a thing morall and necessarie neither is there any trace of such a Commandement to be found till the comming of the Israelites to the wildernesse for till then God had left it free 7. That under the New Testament one day of seven is kept to wit the first day of the weeke wherein our Lord Iesus Christ rose from the dead But not for any morall necessity tying all men to observe one day of the weeke Nay not for any expresse Commandement which God the onely Law-giver hath given by Iesus Christ or his Apostles to keepe such a day and namely the first but through an usage which hath beene introduced and conserved in the Christian Church since her first beginnings till this present time 8. That therefore this observation is simply of Ecclesiasticall order and that a cessation from ordinary workes on this day is more particularly requisite than in another day of the weeke seeing the Church hath appointed and set it apart for Gods publike service Yea that an universall refraining from all these workes to the intent that the whole day bee without
had observed the same course towards Adam for that commandement as hee did for all the rest and for all the rest as for that which neverthelesse he did not For he ingraved the substance and tenor of all the other Commandements in Adams heart and made him to know them naturally without any instruction by word of mouth whereof he had no need But he wrote not in his heart the knowledge of the fourth Commandement seeing as they say he declared it unto them by audible words resounding in his eares that he might know it whence it followeth that all the rest are morall but this is not whereof we shall have occasion to discourse more largely in the first Chapter of the second part of this Treatise 2 Of those that defend the morality of one Sabbath day in the weeke some seeke to decline the weight and edge of the foresaid arguments by a frivolous distinction saying that morall things are of two sorts the one that are founded in the Law of nature and therefore oblige all men naturally The others that are of a positive Law depend on institution and notwithstanding are parts of the morall Law of a perpetuall necessity and of an immutable right as well as all other morall precepts are that the morall Law as it is morall is of farre greater extension then is the Law of nature and that the Sabbath is morall in this last sort 3 But first they speake against the ordinary sence and custome of all men who by the word morall understand that which is naturally and universally just that is which reason when it is not misled and the inward Law of nature dictateth by common principles of honesty or ought to dictate to all men of it selfe without any outward Vsher This Law all men take for the Law of nature and reciprocally they take the Law of nature for this Law which is proved by the ordinary and common distinction that all Divines make betweene the morall ceremoniall and judiciall Lawes which in former times God gave to the Iewes in which distinction they referre to the last hands and sorts all the positive ordinances which pertained to the ecclesiasticall or civill government and to the first the ordinances and rules of the Law of nature wherof these others were circumstantiall appendices and determinations Nay morall signifieth onely the duties of essentiall godlinesse and righteousnesse in things belonging naturally to good and holy manners towards GOD or towards man whether in doing good or departing from evill and not all things that may be usefull and in some sort may bee referred to the rules of good behaviour Otherwise things ceremoniall and judiciall as such should not bee distinguished from morall things for these also have an usefull reference to the foresaid duties of good and godly behaviour And therefore if the ordinance of the Sabbath although advowed to bee a positive Law is notwithstanding called morall it shall bee in one and the same respect both morall and ceremoniall and all ther ceremonies may after the same manner challenge the name of Moralities which is absurd 4 Secondly after they have confessed the Sabbath to bee a part of the positive Law grounded only on the order and discipline that GOD was pleased to establish they broach an affirmation without ground and without reason when they say therewith that it is of an immutable right and carrieth with it a perpetuall obligation For where and from whence is there any evidence of this doth this right belong to all things that are of the positive Law Their condition and nature giveth it unto them Will any Divine any Lawgiver any Logician make of this a probleme and hold for the affirmative Away with Sophistry and captious dealing It must bee the revealed will of God that matcheth positive with naturall Lawes and marketh them with the silver stampe of immutability Now if GOD hath not communicated this dignity with any positive Law ordained by him from the beginning of the world till this day what appearance is there that he hath given it as it were by birth-right to the Sabbath Have they to underprop this their assertion any cleere and evident testimony brought from the unreprocheable truth of holy Scripture For we make no account of any mans bare affirmation But the whole drift of the discourse following shall shew more and more God willing how short they come of their promises and of the But and Blank they aime at CHAPTER third REASON 3. 1. The Pagans never knew neither by Nature nor by Tradition the necessity of the keeping of a Seventh day of Sabbath 2. Yet they knew all morall duties commanded in the first and second Table of the morall Law 3. They knew also that God is to be served publikely and that a part of his service consisted in the offering of Sacrifices 4. They knew likewise by naturall light that some dayes are to be appointed for his service and are blamed for the transgression of all other Commandements that are morall c. 5. But are never blamed for the inobservation of one day of Seven 6. Nay they did laugh to scorne the Iewish Sabbath 7. Answer to an objection taken out of Philo against the foresaid affirmation 8. To another from IOSEPHUS 9. As also to other passages of diverse Authors Pagans Iewes and Christians which serve to overthrow it 10. The Pagans did never keepe regularly for their publike devotions any other Seventh day of the weeke 11. Yea are never reproved for any such omission 12. Reply to this answer 13. First answer to the said reply 14. Second answer unto it 1 MY third argument shall be taken from this that the Gentiles never knew by naturall light nor also by tradition come unto them from hand to hand by the care of their fore-Fathers the necessity of the keeping of the Seventh day of the weeke and never practised any such day Surely if it were a morality and a point of the Law of Nature or if GOD had prescribed it by a particular Commandement to Adam willing him to sanctifie it particularly and to celebrate in it the remembrance of his workes and rest hee had done it purposely that Adam should instruct his off-spring to the like seeing there was a like reason for them and for him Yea all his progeny and successors in whom abideth still the Law of Nature although darkened with sinne had knowne in some sort by the residue of the light of Nature glittering in them that they were bound to keepe a Seventh Day At least the notice of this Commandement which is pretended to have beene given to their first Father from the beginning should have come to them by Tradition successively from the Fathers to the Children till their dayes For we see that all the Gentiles by the light of Nature and by Tradition have had some knowledge of all things that in themselves are good and lawfull and of all morall precepts 2 They have knowne that one
libertie to take such order about that matter as they should thinke good Who seeth not in this a manifest absurditie Doth it not remaine alwaies Is not the situation of the earth which is the same that it was from the beginning as great an impediment under the new Testament to the universall keeping of a seventh day in all places and namely of that particular seventh wherein Christ rose from death unto life which is the first of the seven daies of the weeke as it was under the old Testament to an universall observation of a particular seventh in those times to wit of the last of the weeke 4 Whatsoever is morall is universall obligeth equally all men and may be kept of all Likewise all commandements which Gods purpose is to give to all men are such that they may be kept of all How then is a thing called morall the keeping whereof the order of nature hath made impossible to many men such as is the regular keeping of a set day And how is it said that the Commandement enjoyning the keeping of a particular seventh day whether the last or the first of seven was on Gods part an universall commandement obliging all men seeing it is farre more impossible to a great number of men to keepe it because they dwell in more remote climats then we doe 5 Therefore it is more conformable to reason to say that the Commandement which under the Old Testament ordained the keeping of a Seventh day obliged the people of Israel only which was the onely people of GOD was shut up within the narrow bounds of a little corner of the earth and might with great facility keepe that day even as all the rest of the politike and ecclesiasticall regiment established by Moses pertained to them onely And that under the new Testament in whose times the Church hath beene spread abroad thorow all the earth God hath not given any particular Ordinance concerning the keeping of any day whatsoever but hath left to the discretion of the Church to appoint the times of Gods service according to the circumstances of places and of fit occasions CHAPTER Sixth REASON 6. 1. The Observation of the Seventh day of the weeke is no where commanded in the New Testament and therefore it is not morall 2. Iesus Christ prescribing to his Disciples the celebration of the Sacrament of his body and bloud appointed not a particular and set day for that holy exercise 3. Neither did he by himselfe or by his Apostles appoint a particular time for the other exercises of Religion 4. Whence it followeth that the keeping of a Seventh day for Gods service cannot be a morall point 1 THe whole tenor of the Gospell confirmeth our assertion It is most certaine that if it were a morall duty to keepe a Seventh day all Christians should be obliged unto it under the New Testament as the Iewes were under the Old Testament Now if Christians were bound unto it under the New Testament we should finde some expresse Ordinance concerning it in the writings of the Evangelists and of the Apostles For if all the morall points which the Law commandeth are ratified in many places of their bookes and all the faithfull are often commanded to keepe them as the worshipping of one true God the shunning and detestation of Idols and of all services of mans invention the sanctification of the Name of God the honour dew to Fathers to Mothers and to all superiors the refraining from murder from whoredome from adultery from theft from false witnesse from all lusting after evill things and such like Also in them are often commanded and recommended the holy meetings for the hearing of the word of God the administration of the Sacraments the publike prayers and generally the appointing of times for that use because it is a morall thing that GOD bee served publikely whereunto fixed and stinted times are necessary But as for the ruling and stinting of those times God hath left it as he hath done the appointing of places to the Church For hee would not prescribe unto us any particular place nor time for his service as hee did under the Old Testament because he giveth greater liberty to the Church under the New Testament then he did under the Old Testament to whose bondage pertained this restraint of a certaine day and place of Gods service by expresse commandement as also because the greatnesse and dilatation of the Church of the New Testament which is Catholike could not suffer such a particular determination nay made it so impossible that of absolute necessity it dependeth on the discretion and commodities of the Church 2 When IESUS CHRIST made his last Supper with his Disciples and commanded it should be celebrated to the worlds end as hee determined the use and practise thereof with certaine elements of Bread and Wine he might if hee had thought fit allot unto it a certaine time such as was of old the time of Passeover But hee was pleased to say onely this in generall tearmes This doe yee as oft as yee doe it in remembrance of me Likewise Saint Paul As often as you shall eate this bread and drinke this cup you shall shew the LORDS death till hee come both limiting the elements as the necessary matter of this Sacrament But neither of them prescribeth a particular time for the solemnizing thereof which being an accidentall circumstance he left the direction thereof to the Church to the which Church in things concerning times places and other circumstances of like nature God hath given no other commandement saving this generall one Let all things be done decently and in good order 3 Now there is no other ordinance of Christ or of his Apostles concerning particular times for all other duties of the Christian Religion then for the time of the LORDS Supper For seeing they were pleased to say of the Holy Supper As often as you doe this it is an easie matter to conclude thence that they intended not to ordaine any thing over and besides belonging to the other exercises but to say only as often as you shall come together to heare the word to pray publikely c. Leaving the determination of the fittest times for all such things to the Church and therefore there is not to bee found in the whole Gospell any thing injoined to that purpose Also there is the same reason for all other exercises and for the Lords Supper concerning the determination of a set tiâ—â— For if our Lord Iesus Christ had thought expedient to appoint a set time for the hearing of the Word there had beene as good cause to prescribe one also for the Communion of his Body and of his Blood I know that some passages of the new Testament are produced which are pretended by those of the contrary opinion to injoine expresly a set day of the weeke for the exercises of Religion but I shall shew hereafter God willing that they are deceived in their
pretence 4 Of this I inferre that seeing in the Gospell there is no expresse command touching the keeping of a seventh day of rest it cannot be a morall point For since all other morall points are so often and so expresly injoined therein what likelihood is there that God would have omitted this without making an evident injunction thereof Nay seeing under the old Testament God was so carefull to recommend the keeping of his Sabbaths as may be seene every where in the Bookes of the Prophets is it credible that if he had intended under the new Testament to tie us to the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath he would have shewne as great care to recommend it unto us as he did theirs to the Iewes seeing it is pretended that on Gods behalfe we are as straitly bound to the observation of the Sabbath as they were CHAPTER seventh REASON 7. 1 Manifest reasons out of the three first Evangelists against the morality of the Sabbath What is meant by the Sabbath second first 2 Exposition of Christs answer to the Pharisees who blamed his Disciples for plucking the cares of corne and rubbing them to eate on the Sabbath day 3 First argument out of this answer The Sabbath is declared to be of the same nature that the Shew bread and Sacrifices were of and mercy is preferred unto it Therefore it is not morall 4 Second argument Christ affirmeth that the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Therefore it is not morall 5 A reply to this argument refuted 6 Third argument Christ addeth that the Sonne of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day Therefore the Sonne of man being taken for Christ as he is Christ and Mediator it is not morall 7 Fourth argument Christ did handie-works without necessity and commanded servile workes to be done on the Sabbath day without necessity Therefore it is not morall 8 Christ as the Sonne of man was not Lord of the morall Law but only of the ceremoniall Therefore the Sabbath is not morall 9 If the Sonne of man who is Lord of the Sabbath be taken in its vulgar signification for every man the Sabbath cannot be morall 10 Hence it followeth that the Sabbath was onely a positive Law given to the Iewes and not to Christians 1 I Adde that not onely there is nothing expresly set downe in the Gospel confirming the morality of a Sabbath day but much otherwise that it furnisheth strong arguments to overthrow it As among others those namely which are to be found in S. Matthew Ghap. 12. vers 1 c. in S. Marke Chap. 2. vers 23. c. in S. Luke Chap. 6. vers 1 c. where is related a thing that came to passe on the Sabbath day which S. Matthew and S. Marke call simply the Sabbath and S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath second first or second principall which the interpretors take diversly Some understand it of two holy daies the one following the other immediately and more particularly of the second day after the first of the feast of unleavended bread For that feast was kept seven daies which all were Sabbaths although the first and the last only were solemne Sabbaths of holy convocation Others take it for the seventh and last day of the said feast of unleavened bread which was a very solemne day and equall in holinesse to the first day of the said feast whence it was called Second First that is to say another first or the first called backe againe and renued A third sort expound it of the second solemne feast of the yeere called the feast of weekes or of first fruits and by S. Luke the Sabbath Second First that is second in order after the first and as it were another first in dignity For all the feast daies were Sabbaths It may be also that this Sabbath Second First fell out on an ordinary Sabbath of the weeke Wherein there is a great apparence of truth seeing the Pharisees blamed Christs Disciples for plucking the eares of corne and rubbing them in their hands to eat on that day which they could not have done with any colour saving on an ordinary and weekely day of Sabbath wherein God had forebidden all kinde of worke and namely the making ready of meat For in all other solemne Sabbaths of yeerely feasts he had expresly permitted this particular worke of making ready whatsoever was necessary to every one to eate as may be seene Exod. 12. vers 16. But although this Sabbath Second first be understood of another day then of an ordinary Sabbath it imports not much and no exception can be taken against it to impaire the strength of the arguments which are gathered out of the foresaid places For whatsoever Christ said in defence of that which his Disciples did and the Pharisees blamed in this Sabbath second first is manifestly generall and pertaineth to all Sabbaths kept in times past among the Iewes whether ordinary or extraordinary Thus then the three Evangelists doe record that Iesus went on the Sabbath day thorow the corne fields and his Disciples plucked the eares of corne and did eat rubbing them in their hands Whereof being reproved by the Pharisees as profaners of the Sabbath whereon God forebad to doe any worke Iesus Christ to cleare them and refute the Pharisees alledgeth the example of David and of those that were with him Which when they were an hungry did take and eate the Shew-bread which was not lawfull to eate but to the Priests alone and were not blamed for this because the necessity of hunger was a sufficient excuse unto them Whence his intent was to inferre that his Disciples also in that which they did then were to be excused of breaking of the Sabbath by the same necessity of hunger which they were pinched with and which gave them liberty to doe that which otherwise was not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day Moreover Iesus Christ addeth If yee had knowne what this meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice yee would not have condemned the guiltlesse Of which argument this is the force that if God preferred the works of mercy and of love to the Sacrifices which in all the outward service of the Law were the most holy and would have the Sacrifices to give place to those workes by identity of reason his meaning was also that the keeping of the Sabbath or abstaining from outward works on that day should give place to that mercy and love which man oweth to himselfe or to his neighbours and would not have allowed that a man should consent to die for want of meat to be hunger-starved or to bring harme to himselfe by some other evill rather then to breake the Sabbath by making meat ready or doing some other necessary worke which was otherwise forbidden on the Sabbath day Hee confirmeth this saying The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath the meaning of which words is
place Exod. 31. ver 13. where God saith Uerily my Sabbaths yee shall keep for it is a signe betweene me and you throughout your generations that yee may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctifie you And for more ample declaration in the Verses following 14. 15 16 17. he expounds those Sabbaths of the weekely Sabbath only Although this were not so whosoever speaketh of Sabbaths in the number of multitude and maketh no exception understandeth whatsoever is contained in the signification of that word and hath the same denomination Verily when the Apostle saith that no man should condemne us in distinction of an Holy day or of Sabbaths if he had not understood all Sabbaths but had beleeved that God hath expresly ordained under the New Testament as hee did under the old a day to be for his service a day of festivity and of Sabbath he was bound to except it particularly and by name and so to keepe the Church from falling into an error namely seeing we are not taught in any part of his Epistles nor else where in the New Testament that GOD hath made such an ordinance that in any time the observation of a Sabbath hath beene injoyned unto us that any such day hath beene excepted from those dayes and Sabbaths which in the said New Testament we are forbidden to keepe 6 When the Apostle saith that Christ hath abolished the Law of commandements Eph. 2. vers 15. and hath made a change of the Law Heb. 7. vers 12. We see easily that he understandeth the ceremoniall and not the morall Law because in the same places he explicates his meaning calling it The Law of Commandements contained in ordinances the middle wall of partition betweene the Iewes and Gentiles Ephes. 2. vers 14 15. the Law of a carnall Commandement and of the Leviticall Priesthood weake unprofitable and which made nothing perfect Heb. 7. vers 11. 16 18 19. Because also in many other places wee are taught that the Law abolished by Christ is the Ceremoniall only and doe see all morall Commandements confirmed and ratified by him But when the Apostle discourseth of the abolishment of holy daies and of Sabbaths without any limitation or modification there is no cause why the seventh day should be excepted seeing he excepted it not neither is it excepted in any place of the Gospell which speaketh no where unto us of morall daies of Sabbath as also it is absurd to establish any such day 7 It sufficeth not to alledge that the fourth Commandement of the Law injoineth the seventh day of Sabbath and to inferre from thence that of necessity the Apostles minde was to except that Sabbath as being morall For I say rather that the fourth Commandement in as farre as it injoineth the observation of a seventh day of Sabbath is not morall seeing the Apostle without exception saith that under the Gospell our consciences should not be tied to Sabbath daies words which he had never so uttered if the Sabbath of the fourth Commandement had beene morall and obligatory At least in some other places information and instructions had beene given us of this by him and by the rest of the Evangelists and Apostles who have instructed us in the knowledge of all other morall points which is not to be found For there is not to be seene in the whole new Testament any injunction to observe a Sabbath day But of this point we shall speake more fully hereafter CHAPTER Tenth REASON 10. 1 The Christians in S. Pauls time had no time appointed to them for Gods service seeing some of them esteemed one day above another others esteemed every day alike 2 Answer is made to this argument that those which esteemed every day alike were weeke and therefore erred 3 Refutation of this answer First by the analogie of the other point where hee who did eat herbs onely is called weake and he who knew he might eat all things is called strong 4 Second Because to esteeme all daies alike cannot be called weakenesse 5 Third Because if Christ or his Apostles had appointed a set day for Gods service to esteeme all daies alike had not beene weaknesse but profanenesse which neverthelesse it was not 6 Fourth Otherwise the Apostle would not have said that he that doth not regard a day to the Lord doth not regard it but rather against the Lord. 7 Of what day it is said that one regarded it another regarded it not 8 Fifth Seeing to regard a day is weaknesse and not to regard a day is strength of knowledge God hath not obliged the Christian Church to any set day for his service by any morall or positive Law 1 THE same is plainly shewed by these words of the Epistle to the Romans Chap. 14. vers 5 6. One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his owne minde He that regardeth a day regardeth it unto the Lord And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it In this place the Apostle speaketh of religious Christians shewing that they were at variance about two divers heads For some of them beleeved that a Christian man should not sticke nor make a scruple of conscience to eate indifferently all meats Others for conscience sake would eate nothing but herbs Some of them also esteemed every day alike others esteemed one day above another Of those two parties he calleth the one strong the other weak and exhorteth them that were strong to beare the infirmities of the weake namely seeing these things were of small moment and that the weake did such things out of conscience and through a religious respect to God that indeed their conscience was not well informed and directed but at length might be and affiance was to be had that they should be holden up because GOD was able to make them stand verse 4. As concerning eating of all things or eating of herbs onely the Apostle calleth directly weake those which did eate nothing but hearbes And strong those which beleeved that they might eate and indeed did eate all things indifferently But on the other point concerning the disagreement which was among them about dayes whether every day should be esteemed alike or one day should bee esteemed above another he declareth not expresly who were strong who weake Some of those which urge the observation of the Sabbath day as a point of Religion and of conscience commanded by Christ shunning the argument which this place affords against their opinion doe say that those which esteemed every day alike were weake and the others were strong and that this is the Apostle his intention But it is easie to perceive that the contrary opinion is true that say I those which esteemed every day alike were strong and those weake which esteemed one day above another 3 First the analogy of the other point which the Apostle alleadgeth concerning meates sheweth it manifestly For as
well as of morall duties Yea he understandeth rather that then this because the observation of morall duties is not tyed more particularly to one day then to another but is a service appertaining equally and alike to all dayes of the weeke whereas the ceremonies of Gods outward service were to be observed more particularly on that day then in all the rest And therfore this Commandement in as much as it injoyneth the sanctification of the seventh day is ceremoniall and if in regard of this sanctification it is abolished what inconvenience is there that it be likewise abolished in regard of the day Neither is it a thing singular to this Commandement to have some particular determination belonging to the Iewes only added to the substance which is morall universall and perpetuall For the preface of the Law which some had rather make a part of the first Commandement concerning the deliverance out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and the temporall promise of long daies upon the Land of Canaan added to the fifth Commandement are manifestly circumstances which have relation to the Iewes only and have no morality in them nay were ceremoniall and typike Now if a ceremoniall promise hath found a roome in the Decalogue there is no greater inconvenience that a ceremoniall and temporall Commandement be found in it also Neither is it a whit more repugnant to say that the fourth Commandement is both morall and ceremoniall because it is not so in the same but in a diverse sense and respect as I have shewed Among the Lawes given by Moses many are to be found which are ceremoniall and temporall in that which they expresse and morall in their foundation and end As for example the Lawes forbidding to muzzle the Oxe when he treadeth out the corne Deut. 25. verse 4. to seethe a Kid in his mothers milke Exod. 23. vers 19. to take in a birds nest the Dam with the young ones Deut. 22. vers 6 7. to plow with an Oxe and an Asse together Deut. 22. vers 10. and others such like 22 And indeed those against whom I write must acknowledge nill they will they that in the fourth Commandement there is some thing that is not morall that obligeth not for ever and that did pertaine onely to the Iewes and to their ceremonies and Ecclesiasticall governement to wit the ordinance about the observing not onely of one day of seven but the last of seven For wee keepe not any more this last day under the new Testament wherein wee should sinne if it were a morall thing Neither can an instance be made from the fourth Commandement that the observing of a seventh day is a thing naturall and morall but by the same meanes it shall be proved against the intention of those that make use of this argument that to observe a seventh day is also morall because the Commandement ordaineth not without restriction a seventh day but stinteth particularly and by name the last of seven 23 There be some who to avoid the strength of this argument doe say that the fourth Commandement enjoyneth onely a seventh day as the genus and as a morall thing but none of the kindes whether the last of seven observed by the Iewes or the first of seven observed by Christians is particularly enjoyned because in this there is no moralitie Or if in the fourth Commandement besides the seventh day in generall a particular seventh is injoined the generall is injoyned as morall the particular as ceremoniall and so the genus to wit a seventh day as being morall continueth for ever as well under the Gospel as under the Law and the particular seventh to wit the last of the weeke is only abrogated by the Gospel This is a bold reply and maketh me to wonder at it seeing on the contrary it is evident by that hath beene already said that wee may affirme with good reason that the fourth Commandement maketh not at all any generall mention of observing an unlimited day but particularizeth expresly a certaine seventh day to wit the last For God after he had said Sixe daies shalt thou labour and doe all thy worke addeth but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God which expression alone and by it selfe although there were no other thing said sheweth that he meaneth the seventh in order following the other sixe When a man uttereth his minde in this sort the third the fourth the fifth c. his intention is to denote that which is such in order relatively to others going before neither is there any man that will take it otherwise But besides this God unfoldeth forthwith which seventh he meaneth to wit the particular seventh wherein he rested after he had made all his workes in the sixe daies which went before which was the last of seven Moreover it is evident that in the fourth Commandement the seventh day and the day of rest are the same as also wheresoever mention is made of them And the day of Rest is there taken for the day that God rested in as is manifest by these words following And he rested the seventh day wherefore he blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it the which day wherein he rested is the seventh or the last day after the sixe of the creation as is evident by these words also He made his workes in sixe daies and rested on the seventh day Wherefore it is the last seventh and none other that is designed in the fourth Commandement as the object of the blessing and hallowing of God which is yet more cleare by the second Chapter of Genesis and third verse where after Moses had said that God in sixe daies made the heaven and the earth and all the hosts of them and after he had ended his workes rested the seventh day he addeth And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he had rested from all his workes to wit that seventh which afterwards he blessed 24 For the Pronoune It hath a necessary relation to a particular day specified in the foresaid words as blessed of God and limited forthwith as the day of his rest so it is manifest that the day which God blessed is the same that he rested in the same I say by correspondency in the order and succession of daies as I have shewed before Otherwise what should be the sense of these words God hath blessed and sanctified the seventh day that is as is pretended a seventh day undetermined because in it he rested c. This Pronoune It can it fitly and conveniently denote a day uncertaine and unlimited Where is to be found a seventh day unlimited wherein God did rest Moreover Gods blessing and sanctification can it have an indefinite and uncertaine object so that God in particular sanctified nothing Againe can it be a convenient reason having any likelihood that God having rested on a certaine seventh day and having considered in it all his workes which hee
had finished after hee had made them in the sixe daies before which was the cause that hee loved and esteemed particularly that day hath in that respect sanctified one of seven daies indefinitely which by that meanes might have beene one of those wherein hee wrought and not the same seventh wherein he rested If that were true it should follow that the Israelites did not observe the last day of the weeke by obligation of the fourth Commandement tying them thereunto but onely in generall one of the seven daies of the weeke and that by some other particular Law they were taught to observe the last of seven although all the rest of Gods Ordinances which are to be found concerning the Sabbath say no more then doth the fourth Commandement and are relative unto it Whereas it is most sure that the Iewes in all times have professed and doe still make profession that they keepe the last day of the weeke by expresse obligation of the fourth Commandement which according to this saying they did never understand All these are as many palpable absurdities And therefore it is most certaine that the fourth Commandement ordaineth expresly and formally the observation of a particular seventh day to wit of the last of seven and not of another 25 Neverthelesse it may be said in some sort that any day whatsoever which is celebrated to the honour and glory of God hath its foundation on the fourth Commandement and that so we now doe observe our Sunday and other solemne and extraordinary daies by vertue of that Commandement Not that it enjoyneth them properly and directly but onely indirectly and by deduction or consequence taken from the foundation and generall end thereof which is to enjoyne all men to serve God publikely and to consecrate for that purpose some solemne times which in this respect whatsoever they be may be all referred unto it not as being commanded in their particular kinde but onely in their genus which is covertly and fundamentally contained in it and therewith determined expresly to one kinde only to wit to the seventh day and to the last of seven not for ever but during the time of the old Testament only Wherefore to say that the fourth Commandement obligeth onely and in expresse termes to a seventh day unstinted and not to this particular seventh which is here the point in question is a thing altogether unreasonable as is evident by that hath beene said 26 It is also a thing farre removed from all reason to say that verily the observation of a certaine day of seven to wit the last was a thing ceremoniall and positive and that this is the day which the Gospel hath abrogated but to observe alwaies one day of seven is morall and that this is ratified and confirmed by the Gospell For the determination and particular observation of any day whatsoever amongst a certaine number in quality of such a one cannot be a morall thing Now to ordaine one of seven to be kept maketh a determination and particular observation not forsooth so particular as when one of seven as for example the last is by name determined and appointed yet so farre particular that none can devise farre lesse tell reasonably wherefore there should be a morality to ordaine and observe a seventh day regularly rather then to ordaine and observe the last of seven wherefore the Gospell should confirme that more then this abrogate this more then that wherefore finally there is lesser inconvenience to avouch that the fourth Commandement is ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth a particular seventh day to wit the last whereof some of those against whom I dispute are constrained to acknowledge the establishment in the fourth Commandement but as of a ceremony as to say that it is also ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth one day of seven which is the point I stand unto 27 Verily there is farre more reason to say that the fourth Commandement ordaineth as a morall thing the publike service of God and consequently that there be for that purpose a stinted day ordinary common and so frequent in its revolution that it may be sufficient for the practise and exercise of that service for the continuall edification of the Church For nature teacheth that it is fit that the publike service of God be frequently practised which hath as great force under the Gospell as under the Law but that the said Commandement obligeth precisely to a seventh day and to that seventh day wherein God rested from all his workes it is an ordinance of ceremony and of order which was for the Iewes only and hath beene disanulled by the Gospell 28 For since the Gospell came it is a thing in its selfe indifferent to observe not forsooth one day of any number how great so ever it be as of thirty sixtie of an hundred or of a yeare which as all the world may see should not be sufficient to serve God publikely by his people and should bewray in such a people a great negligence and want of affection to Gods service but one of foure of five of sixe or in summe of such a number wherein that day may returne frequently and suffice for the intertainement of Religion and godlinesse And it may perhaps be gathered out of the fourth Commandement that one day in seven is very sutable and fitt and that we should not under the Gospell dedicate lesse to God for seeing GOD ordained to the Iewes other wayes burthened with many other ceremonies and holy dayes one of seven it is an argument probable enough that Christians ought to consecrate to him at least as much if not more of their time which neverthelesse God left to the liberty of the Church to ordaine with wisedome and conscience as hath beene already said And so although the ceremoniall order prescribed in the fourth Commandement concerning the day of rest obligeth not precisely and directly the Christian Church she may notwithstanding inferre from thence good instructions whereby she may be directed in things concerning a convenient time for Gods publike service as she maketh a good use for her direction of many other ceremonies of the Law Wherefore if there were any man who would rashly maintaine that it sufficeth under the New Testament to observe one day of twenty or of an hundred he should be sufficiently refuted by the foresaid reason besides the practise of the Christian Church which hath judged it fit to observe one of seven dayes which practise no man shall gainesay but he shall forthwith bewray himselfe to be new-fangled fantasticall and selfe-willed 28 Of all that hath beene said it is evident that the inconveniences alleadged in the argument are not to be feared For I have already shewed that it is no inconvenience to say that of tenne Commandements contained in the Decalogue there are but nine morall which oblige us now and that the Law which is called morall belongeth not unto us in all
that it containeth Yet in some sort all the tenne may be defended to be morall because the fourth Commandement is morall as well as the rest in its foundation and principall end although the thing expressed in it be a particular determination ceremoniall and positive Whence profane fellowes cannot with any colour of reason inferre that the substance of the other Commandements is not morall nor obligatory to Christians For whatsoever is in them saving the promise annexed to the fifth Commandement which belongeth not to the substance thereof sheweth of it selfe that it is morall because it hath its foundation in the Law of nature written in the hearts of all men and is found so frequently that no thing is more frequently ratified and confirmed by the Scripture of the New Testament which is the rule of Christianity and therefore obligeth all Christians untill the worlds end which can not be so said of the fourth Commandement in the expression that it maketh of a seventh day for a day of rest For fitly that is not of the Law of Nature and is not prescribed by the Gospell it cannot oblige Christians as a morall Law 29 By the same meanes is taken from the Roman Church the pretence which some think this doctrin furnisheth unto them that the second Commandement whereof we make so great use against their Idolatry is not morall nor perpetuall but was particular to the Iewes even as according to our confession was the fourth Commandement For all that the second Commandement aimeth at is contained and expressed most clearely in the words thereof which is to forbid to represent and worship God by Images to make Images to bowe downe to them and to serve them religiously and all that is essentially morall and perpetuall grounded on the Law of nature which of it selfe teacheth and sheweth that it is a thing most absurd and unworthy of God who is a Spirit Infinite Almighty Eternall Immortall Inuisible and the only Wise GOD to represent and serve him by mortall Images As also a thing unworthy of man to worship the worke of his owne hands as the Paynims themselve have acknowledged and written 30 Witnesses hereof are the most ancient Romanes who knowing by the Law of Nature that GOD is a Spirit judged by the same light that hee ought not to be figured nor served by Images And therefore they had no Images at all during the space of more then an hundred threescore and ten yeeres And Uarro a Romane and a Pagan saith that if that had continued so the Gods had beene served more purely adding that the first which framed Images to the Gods abolished the feare due unto them and were the cause of many errors as wee reade in S. Augustine in the fourth booke and 35. Chapter of the City of God The Prophets also in many places of the old Testament rebuke the Nations which were strangers from the Covenant of God for their Images and Statues as being guilty of a most hainous sin in making and worshiping them against a Law which pertained to them and which they were bound to know These their reprehensions they confirme by naturall reasons as may be seen Exod. 23. vers 24. Exod. 34. vers 13. Deut. 7. vers 5. 25. Deut. 12. v. 3. Deut. 29. vers 17. Psal. 97. vers 7. Psal. 115. vers 4 5 6. 7 8. Psal. 131. vers 15. 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24. Esay 44. vers 9. 10. 18. 19. Ierem. 10. vers 3. c Ierem. 8. vers 19. Ier. 51. vers 17 18 19 47. Habac. 2. vers 18 19 20. The Apostles have likewise done the same in the new Testament and namely S. Paul who in the 17. Chapter of the Acts proved and made it knowne to the Athenians And in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans condemned the Romans for transgressing the Law of Nature darkening the light thereof and smothering the secret and inward sting of their consciences by changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the Image of a corruptible man and of other living creatures S. Iohn in his first Epistle and in the fifth Chapter and last verse thereof exhorteth the faithfull to keepe themselves from Idolls And in the ninth Chapter of the Revelation the crossnesse of false Christians is noted verse 20. by this that notwithstanding so many plagues wherewith GOD had visited them they repented not of the workes of their hands that they should not worship Idols of gold and silver and brasse and stone and of wood which neither can see nor heare nor walke Therefore seeing the whole matter of the second Commandement is morall grounded upon the Law of nature and established not only by the Old but also by the New Testament the Commandement is also morall 32 For whereas some would referre and reduce to the second Commandement the whole externall service of the Iewes as contained in some sort therein to inferre from thence that if the fourth Commandement be in part ceremoniall because unto it are referred all the Sabbaths of the Iewes all their holy dayes and New Moones the second may likewise be called ceremoniall in part for the same reason To that I answer that a reduction and reference of the externall and ceremoniall service of the Iewes may in some respect be made to all the Commandements of the first Table As indeed some ceremoniall ordinances are in certain respects referred to each of them by some interpreters And may be all in this manner referred to the second Commandement which being negative GOD under the prohibition to make any kinde of Images for religious worship compriseth all will-worship And sith in all negative commandements the affirmative opposed unto them are comprehended he commandeth on the contrary that he be served according to his ordinance and Commandement Now sith at that time the manner of his service consisted in the observation of holy dayes and diverse ceremonies prescribed by him in the Law of Moses it may be said that in it he commanded them all But indirectly and a farre of Which cannot make the second Commandement to be ceremoniall because the ceremoniall and outward service appertaineth not Directly and properly to the substance thereof and is not expressed therein But whatsoever is expressed in it is of it selfe morall Whereas in the fourth Commandement the foresaid feasts and ceremonies are directly and neerly comprised For in it God ordaineth a principall holy day and under it comprehendeth all others All that is expressed in it is ceremoniall And the ceremoniall service of the Iewes maketh an essentiall part of the sanctification of the Sabbath injoyned in it So this commandement is not ceremoniall indirectly and in regard only that unto it may be referred and appropriated by a remote and farre fetched reduction the feasts New Moones and Iewish Sabbaths but it is such directly and properly in it selfe even in the neerest substance and matter which it propoundeth So the foresaid exceptions against it should be
may be that day is named because of the miracle done on it and not to shew that it was a Sabbath day seeing the Apostle did preach every day wheresoever he sojourned 5. Nullity of the instance they assembled to breake bread that is to celebrate the Lords Supper 1. Because that breaking of bread may be taken for a common refection 6. 2. Because the Christians did every day celebrate the Lords Supper without respect to Sunday 7. Fourth Answer nothing can be gathered from the meeting of the Disciples at night to prove the sanctification of the day that went before 8. Fifth Answer supposing the first day of the weeke was kept at Troas it followeth not that it was kept in all other Churches 9. Sixth Answer putting the case That it was kept every where it followeth not that Christ or his Apostles had ordained it THey alleadge againe out of the twentieth Chapter of the Acts verse 7. that Paul being come to Troas and the Disciples being assembled to breake bread that is to celebrate the Lords Supper upon the first day of the weeke St. Paul came to their assembly and preached unto them continuing his speech untill midnight being ready to depart on the morrow c. Where they note that this meeting of the faithfull of Troas on the first day of the weeke is propounded there as a thing ordinary and accustomed and not as occasioned extraordinarily by the Apostles arrivall to the Towne For it is said in the sixt verse that he and his company abode there seven dayes and in the seventh verse that upon the first day of the weeke which was the seventh day preceding his departure on the day following the Disciples being come together he preached unto them Which sheweth manifestly that he stayed expressely till that first day of the weeke as being the ordinary day of the meeting of the faithfull Otherwise having been already amongst them five or sixe dayes before he might have taken as well another day as that day 2 To this I answer first that there is no necessity to grant that the assembly of the faithfull of Troas mentioned in the foresaid Chap. met on the first day of the weeke For the termes of the originall which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be as wel translated on a certaine day of the weeke or on a Sabbath day on a day which was a Sabbath Because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken in holy Scripture sometimes for the week sometimes for the Sabbath day in the weeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes for one sometimes for the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken so in a like construction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On a certaine day Lu. 5. v. 17. Luk. 8. ver 22. Luk. 20. v. 1. And the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is superfluous as it is often elsewhere Rom. 5. v. 15. and 1 Cor. 9. v. 19. and 2 Cor. 2. verse 6. and 2 Cor. 9. verse 21. This sence is approved not only as admittable but also as more probable than any other by great Divines And although we should explaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by first wee may translate vpon the first day of Sabbath to wit which occurred in these seven dayes that Paul was in Troas and which was the last of seven so according to this sence an argument may be brought for the Iewish Sabbath day rather than for the Sunday of Christians 3 But Secondly although we should grant that the words should be translated upon the first day of the weeke as the same phrase is taken Luk. 24. verse 1. Iohn 20. verse 1. Which interpretation I yeeld unto willingly it is to no purpose in this question because upon the meeting of the faithfull of Troas the first day of the week to heare the word of God it followeth not that the observation of this day was ordinary and regular for the end which is supposed It may be they did this indifferently on that day as they did in all other dayes as they had occasion It may be also that they came together on the night of that day because Saint Paul was ready to depart on the next morrow and they desired to see him to heare him to receive the Communion with him and recommending him to God bid him the last farewell As hee likewise was desirous to speake unto them and to intertaine them immediately afore his departure which in such an occasion was very convenient and requisite Of such an action done for particular causes can any reasonable man with the least shew of reason inferre a generall custome tyed ordinarily to that day amongst all Christians 4 It may be likewise that this their meeting on the first day of the weeke is marked as an occasion only of the narration which is made incontinently after of the disaster that befell the young man Eutychus who being fallen into a deepe sleepe in the place of the assembly where Paul preached sunke downe with sleepe from the third loft and being taken up dead was miraculously raised to life by the Holy Apostle But is not specified to denote an order accustomed by that Church to meet together every weeke on that day And indeed seeing Paul in the visitation of the Churches tooke not heed to the observation of particular dayes but as long as he abode among them was carefull to preach and instruct them every day least he should loose the time and leasure that he had and which ordinarily was not long in each place as we may see Acts 19. verse 9. and Acts 20. verse 16 31. who shall beleeve that having taried sixe dayes at Troas he or the Disciples let slip sixe of them without any meeting to heare him Now if they came together in the former dayes as well as on the first day of the weeke as it is more seeming to be true the argument taken from their meeting on the first day of the weeke is utterly undone 5 If it be said that they met together on this day as being a day more solemne then the rest and because also they came to breake bread that is to receive the Lords Supper the argument is of no value For the breaking of bread that mention is made of in that place may be taken not for the Lords Supper but for a common refection and one of the feasts of charity which in those dayes were frequent amongst the faithfull as we see in Saint Iude verse 12. It may be so taken in the second Chap. of the said booke of the Acts as many interpreters in both these places understand it so And it seemeth that the conference of the 42 verse with the 46 in the second Chapter and of the seventh verse with the eleventh requireth it 6 Moreover seeing it is most certaine that the Apostolike and primitive Church did most frequently celebrate the holy Supper yea in many places daily as may be seene in the foresaid verses of the second Chapter of
in any day whatsoever according as every one should have the commoditie till the Apostles comming and was to cease after he at his comming had received the whole summe that these contributions should amount unto And so of this passage cannot be gathered the observation of any day and farre lesse of the first day of the weeke for Ecclesiasticall meetings whereof according to this Exposition which hath a great likenesse of truth no mention is made in it 4 But secondly although the Apostle had intended to stint the Corinthians to a particular day wherein they were to put a part every one with himselfe a portion of their goods to goe and distribute it that same day in their Ecclesiasticall assemblies for all that it appeareth not that he meant by that day the first day of the weeke For these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be translated in this other sense On a Sabbath day or on every Sabbath day as excellent interpreters alleage and approve this exposition and hath nothing for the divine institution of our Sunday 5 Thirdly put the case that the Apostle speaketh of the first day of the weeke as of a day appointed for Ecclesiasticall meetings and in them for Gods service and for publike collections no other thing can be proved from thence saving that it was a custome received in the Church of Corinth in the Churches of Galatia and probably in others to meet together on the first day of the weeke but in no wise that the Apostle had given them an injunction concerning that day It is true that in the foresaid words mention is made of an injunction given by the Apostle but of the collections only not of the time wherein they were to be made which time the Apostle supposeth onely as received and observed among them on the first day of the weeke but commandeth it not 6 Fo◠the words are Concerning the collection for the Saints as I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so doe yee 1 Cor. 16. vers 1. where we see the injunction hath reference to the collections as to the end thereof and by no meanes to the day that they were to be levied in He saith againe in the next verse Upon the first day of the weeke let every man lay aside by himselfe and put in store c. where also the injunction is of the collection and the day is not named by way of commandement but onely as supposed to be ordinary for the ecclesiasticall meetings and consequently for the collections 7 I say therefore that it appeareth not that the Apostles have instituted the first day of the weeke But although they had ordained it it should not follow that they had received of the Lord an expresse commandement so to doe It is true that in matters concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and things essentiall to Gods service they have taught nothing but what they received of the Lord as the Apostle protested 1 Cor. 11. vers 23. and as Christ had given them the commandement Matth. 28. vers 20. But as for things which are wholly of order they had power to dispose and ordaine of them with Christian wisedome as they should thinke fit 8 Of that hath beene said we may see the vanity of the argumentation framed by some Divines upon the words of the Apostle to the Philippians chap 4. vers 9. The things which ye have both learned and received and beard and seene in me do them They saw in him the observation of the first day of the weeke which we call Sunday therefore he willeth them to keepe also that day 9 Whereunto I answer first that by a like ratiocination they may conclude that the Apostle would have the faithfull to observe and celebrate all the dayes of the week but namely the Sabbath of the Iewes for he was heard and seene often preaching all the dayes of the weeke but principally every Sabbath day for his manner was to doe so Acts 17. vers 2. Secondly that the foresaid argumentation may have some value it must presuppose that it was an order established by the Apostle and observed regularly by him to celebrate the first day of the week For to beleeve that whatsoever he was seene to do sometimes accidentally and by occasion the faithfull ought necessarily to doe it alwayes were a too great impertinency For he was seene shave his head according to the ceremony of the Mosaicall Nazareat Num. 6. vers 18. Acts 18. vers 18. Acts 21. vers 24. 26. and circumcise Timothy Acts 16. v. 3. But such a presupposition hath no foundation as hath beene shewed Thirdly the Apostle himselfe betokeneth by the connexion of the 9. vers with the 8. going before what things he would have the Philippians to do by imitation of his example and according to his instructions to wit whatsoever things are true honest just pure loveable of good report if there be any vertue or any praise that is these things properly which are a part of godlinesse towards God and of love towards the neighbour But to observe for Gods service the first day of the weeke rather than an other day is not of that nature as being a thing meerely indifferent and established by custome onely It is also a conjecture without apparance that the Apostle among the things which he designeth in the ninth verse meant to comprise the observation of Sunday CHAPTER seventh Answer to the sixth Reason 1. Sixth Reason Mention is made in the Revelation Chap. 1. vers 10. of the Lords day 2. Answer It may be so called in two other respects rather than that which is pretended 3. Instance It is called the Lords day because he ordained it as for that cause the Sabbath is called the Lords rest the Eucharist the Lords Supper 4. Nullitie of this instance 5. Many excellent Divines of the Protestant Churches speake of the first day of the weeke as of a custome of the Church not as a commandement of Christ. 1 IT is said in the first Chapter of the Revelation and the tenth verse That Iohn was in the Spirit on the Lords day whence also they would faine inferre that the first day of the weeke which hath obtained the name of The Lords day was instituted by the Lord Iesus or by his Apostles to be a day dedicated to the exercices of godlinesse 2 But from hence we cannot conclude a divine or Apostolicall institution of that day for S. Iohn might make mention of that day in respect of the Lords rising on such a day and not to signifie that it ought to be appointed or was already set a part more solemnely than any other day for Gods service and for the commemoration of Christs benefits and especially of his Resurrection Yea although he had qualified it with this title in respect of the consecration thereof which was ordinary at that time and in consideration whereof it had commonly the name of The Lords day amongst Christians
solemnized under the New Testament Diverse other things very solemne may be found which God and Iesus Christ effected in other dayes of the weeke whereof we might conclude with as great probability that under the New Testament the day wherein they were performed ought to be solemnized 3 This argument is like to another that is produced to prove the necessity of the observation of one day of seven when it is said that this number of seven is perfect and mysterious and hath beene observed in the Scripture in diverse things which some have searched with great curiosity but with no profit 4 For there is no certainty to bee found in this observation of numbers Some for some reason find a great perfection in one number and others for other reason give the preference of perfection to another number The Mathematicians doe hold the number of six for the most perfect and the first of perfect numbers And if the Scripture pointeth out unto us the number of seven observed in many things she doth the like in other numbers The author of Ecclesiasticus Chapter 33. verse 15. and Chapter 42. verse 24. saith That God in all his workes hath observed the number of two and made them all double coupling two and two one against another Wee marke that God in the beginning made the two principall parts of the world heaven and earth two great lights the Sunne and the Moone of all living creatures the Male and Female in wedlocke two in one flesh There were two Tables of the Law two Cherubims upon the Ark two precious stones wherin were graved the names of the twelve Children of Israel and put upon the shoulders of the Ephod Every day two Lambes were offered in Sacrifice to God there be two Testaments two great Commandements two ordinary Sacraments of the Iewish and as many of the Christian Church Hee that would search particularly all things subsisting in this number of two or of three or of foure might devise thereupon a thousand mysteries 5 In summe such arguments have no solidity Many also which dispute for the necessity of the Sabbath in one of seven dayes and for the divine authority of the first day of the weeke disclaime them acknowledging freely that Christ had no respect to these faire actions which are pretended to have beene done on the first day of the weeke under the Old Testament and was not moved by them to institute that day for Gods service under the New Testament That also these mysteries of the number of seven have no certainty and were not the cause of the institution of one of the seven dayes of the Weeke to be a day of rest and that God had no regard unto them in that institution 6 For rather if the number of sâ—vâ—n be in the Scripture a mysticall number which I would not deny absolutely seeing that among all other numbers it is used in it to denote perfection and perpetuity it must be Gods observation thereof from the beginning when he rested on the seventh day that made it mysterious and the cause why God useth it rather than any other day in holy Scripture to denote perfection for as much as he ordained and established the seventh day wherein he rested for figure and type of the heavenly perfect and eternall rest which he hath prepared for all those that are his But this consideration is of no force to make the number of seven or the seventh day to be mysterious under the New Testament and to be kept as a day of rest For the types and mysticall figures of the heavenly rest which God had established under the ancient Testament bind not Christians under the New Testament seeing all old things are past away and behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. ver 17. CHAPTER Tenth Answer to the allegations of some pretended instances conjectures and inconveniences 1. First instance The observation of the first day of the weeke hath as solid foundations in the Scripture as hath the Baptisme of little Children 2. First Answer Baptisme is commanded in the New Testament to all those that are in the Covenant wherin little Children are comprised 3. But there is no commandement in the New Testament to observe one of the seven dayes of the weeke 4. Second Answer although our Saviour hath substituted Baptisme to the Circumcision he hath not put any set day in the roome of the Iewish Sabbath 5. Third Answer the observation of the first day of the weeke from the beginning inforceth not a divine institution therof no more than the observation of Easter and of other holy dayes which are of as old date 6. Second instance of diverse judgements upon those that have neglected or contemned the observation of the first day of the weeke answered 7. Third instance Man is naturally averse from the sanctification of the first day of the weeke 8. Answer shewing that he is sluggish and backward in Gods service not in keeping of dayes 9. Fourth instance of diverse inconveniences that shall follow if the observation of the first day of the weeke be not a divine institution 10. Answer to the first inconvenience that the Church should bee Lady and Mistresse of the Sabbath if it depend on her institution shewing how the Church may and may not sanctifie a day for Gods service 11. First Answer to the second inconvenience that she may appoint as many or as few dayes for Gods service as pleaseth her shewing that both extremities must be avoyded 12. Second Answer The Church hath not failed in either of them 13. Third Answer The Church in her reformation hath taken order with the multiplication of holy dayes and brought them within a little compasse 14. Answer to the third inconvenience that the Church might change the Lords day into another shewing that she might have done so in the beginning 15. The fourth inconvenience that the appointing of a day for Gods publike service injoyned in the fourth Commandement should depend on the Church is no inconvenience 16. Saving in case no day were appointed which is not to bee feared 17. Answer to the fifth inconvenience that many men will neglect the keeping of the first day of the weeke if they be perswaded that it is not a divine institution shewing that profane men will religious men will not 18. This Answer is confirmed by daily experience 1 ALL the foresaid arguments taken in some sort from the Scriptures being most weak as is cleere by what hath been said it is to no purpose that some of those with whom we are indifferent dare say that the keeping of Sunday hath as good a foundation and prop in the Scripture as hath the baptizing of little Children 2 For although we find no expresse commandement in the New Testament to baptisme little Children no more than to keepe Sunday or the first day of the weeke for a seventh day of rest yet we find baptisme expressely ordained by Iesus Christ to be a
jarring for one day some for another and so contending one against another without hope of agreement and comming to a certaine resolution Yea they shall take licence themselves to observe any day whatsoever they shall thinke good and dispence with keeping of Sunday when they shall thinke that they are not tied unto it by Gods Commandement 10 I answer that none of these inconveniences is to bee feared As for the first That the Church should have authority to sanctifie a day for Gods service if so be God hath not appointed one I see no inconvenience in it It is true that it is Gods prerogative exclusively to all men and Angels to sanctifie a thing if sanctification be taken for a reall and inherent sanctification by impression of holinesse in the thing or if a thing is to be sanctified to bee an essentiall part and properly so called of Gods service For God will be served according to his Ordinances and not according to the ordinances of men But this is not the sanctification that wee treat of here for a day is not susceptible of such an impression of holinesse And to speake properly it maketh no part of Gods service under the new Testament but is onely an accidentall circumstance thereof whereof God hath left the determination to the liberty of the Church For in that he hath not in himselfe given an expresse and particular Ordinance concerning it hee hath testified that hee did leave that power to his Church teaching her onely in generall to doe it conveniently And indeed doth not she sanctifie places when she appointeth and setteth them apart that in them God may be served Doth she not sanctifie times other than Sunday ordaining fasting dayes when necessity doth require it and feast dayes which she causeth to be solemnized in remembrance of the Birth Passion Ascension of Iesus Christ and of the sending of the holy Ghost c. All Christians hold this sanctification to bee indifferent and no man brings her authority in question in that respect neither doth any blame the holy use of those dayes providing shee carry her selfe wisely and keepe a due proportion and fit moderation in her stinting of them Why then might she not in the same manner after Iesus Christ had abolished the Iewish Sabbath sanctifie the first day of the weeke to be an ordinary day of Gods service in remembrance that on it Christ rose from the dead Wherein she takes not upon her a masterie that belongs not unto her It is true that she is not Mistresse of the Sabbath to change a day that God hath ordained and to dispence at her pleasure with the keeping thereof But since there is no day ordained of God to the Christian Church for his service and that which he had ordained of old being expired she hath as great authority to appoint a day for Gods service as to ordaine other circumstances and helpes thereof 11 To the second inconvenience I say that the two extremities of excesse and defect are to be avoided in this point For there must be neither so many Holy dayes ordained that the faithfull bee inthralled and surcharged with them as with an onerous yoke which they are not able to beare Act. 15. vers 10. nor so few that they become unto them an occasion to give themselves over unto profanenesse and irreligion It is certaine that a day ordinary and frequent is necessary for many good and excellent uses as for the maintenance of the true religion godlines of union and Christian society among the faithfull for the celebration of the Name of God and conservation of the remembrance of his benefits towards us by hearing the same Word receiving the same Sacraments and above all by Common-Prayers and other points of Divine Service which being practised in the same time and place with an holy affection by many faithfull incouraging and exhorting one another both by word and by example are of great efficacie and availe much with God If there were not such a day these exercises not being practised ordinarily these duties would also easily decay by little and little and men would become slacke and faint-hearted in the performance of them As on the contrary if this day returned too often and the one upon the heele of the other that might bee troublesome to the faithfull and would not onely incommodate them in their temporall affaires which God is well pleased they apply themselves unto but also would make the exercises of religion to bee grievous and loathsome unto them by reason of their infirmities in this life 12 Therefore the Church ought not to sinne in this point neither by excesse nor by defect and farre lesse through defect than through excesse but having the establishing of Gods publike service committed to her wisedome ought to refraine from establishing either an excessive number of dayes lest shee should render the yoke too heavie or too few as one in a fortnight in a moneth in a yeere or in many yeeres lest she should seeme to be slightly affected to devotion and carelesse of Gods service For dayes so rare and so distant should not be sufficient for the entertainment of the ends above specified which be so necessary for her edification Also God hath so governed her by his providence that although Iesus Christ hath given her no ordinance for a particular day yet we see that from her beginnings she hath alwayes kept at least one in the weeke to wit Sunday not through an opinion that in a seventh day there was some greater moment and efficacie for the entertainment of godlinesse for the obtaining of Gods blessing then in another number but judging it a fit and convenient thing to keepe the distinction of weekes which was already accustomed and usuall in the Church and to consecrate to God as many dayes at least as did the Church of the Iewes that is one of seven in ordinary and some others extraordinarily returning and following the one the other afarre off as from yeere to yeere in remembrance of some things considerable either in the person of Iesus Christ or of some of his most excellent servants 13 This hath by time growne to a great abuse through the multiplication of too many and divers feasts serving almost for no use but for idlenesse and riot This we see in the Romane Church which hath ordained an excessive number of Holy dayes not onely to the honour of God but also of Angels of he and she Saints of Paradise yea of sundry which having never beene men on earth cannot be Saints in heaven to which dayes they oblige mens consciences as to dayes more holy and more capable to sanctifie the actions of religion done in them than all other dayes nay as more holy than those things which God hath commanded founding that attempt but most fondly upon the fourth Commandement Therefore the Church in her reformation hath most justly redressed this abuse and hath reduced the observation of
the time of Gods service either to Sunday onely in the weeke or besides to a few moe more rare in their revolution and consecrated to the honour of God alone to be observed onely for orders sake and for ecclesiasticall government that in them her children may apply themselves more particularly then they doe on other dayes to Gods service but without tying the consciences of the faithfull farther than to the order of the Church not urging the Holy dayes obligatorie immediately on Gods part 14 To the third inconvenience that she may change Sunday into another day if the stinting of a day depend on her I answer that happily she might in the beginning have made choice of another number than of seven and in the number of seven of another than the first which is Sunday For although it be true that since the resurrection of Christ no action hath or shall be done so important as this which came to passe on the first day of the weeke it followeth not that the remembrance of that action was of necessity to be celebrated once in the weeke and that a day should bee appointed for that end more than for the remembrance of others of the Lords wonderfull actions or that the Church was tied by necessity to appoint the first day of the weeke for that purpose rather then another day upon the sole consideration that it happened on that day which in it selfe is not more obligatory now than it was then because the celebration of Christs actions in any day whatsoever is in it selfe a thing indifferent and the Lord doth not require that we tie our selves to the dayes wherein they were performed And so this consideration was no hinderance why in the beginning the Church might not have made choice of another day then Sunday But seeing Sunday is established by a long custome for the regular and ordinary day of Gods service seeing the faithfull Christians kept it in the beginning through respect to the resurrection of Christ and so it is become usuall every where by degrees seeing also time hath confirmed this custome and it hath beene ratified by Imperiall constitutions and divers ecclesiasticall ordinances I esteeme it should be an imprudent and impudent course to attempt the changing thereof into another day 15 The fourth inconvenience that particular men shall have nothing injoyned of God unto them in the fourth Commandement nor in any other part of Scripture concerning the time of Gods publike service saving that they observe the time prescribed in the Church according to the will of those that are in authority is not an inconvenience but is in effect the whole substance of the Commandement in regard of particular men to whom God having injoyned in the three former Commandements to serve him particularly every day and upon all occasions in the fourth he injoyneth them to doe it publikely together and to observe the time appointed for that purpose by ecclesiasticall discipline 16 The inconvenience to be feared should be in case no order at all were established in the Church for the time of Gods publike service and every particular man were left to his owne choice which should cause a disordered diversity But this were to forge feares where there is no cause For order hath beene taken with that in the Christian Church from her beginning and it hath beene fortified by use and custome so that particular men if they happen to come to places where there is no Church no discipline ordered will not omit being religiously disposed and fearing God to observe the day which the Christian Church hath chused and practised since so many ages And as God when he commandeth a frequent resorting to the holy assemblies giveth no injunction to particular men but in dependancy upon the order which shall be established in the Church for such meetings even so he tieth them to the same dependancy when he ordaineth that a certaine time be appointed for the said publike meetings 17 For the fifth and last inconvenience some feare least particular men should presume to observe any other day at their leasure and neglect the keeping of Sunday if they be taught that they are not bound unto it by Gods command Whereunto I answer that if these particulars be profane men which make light of the exercises of godlinesse and of the order of the Church in all likelihood they will doe worse and keepe no day at all But for such unruly wights wee need to disquiet our selves too much For it is not in our power to prevent and hinder all the abuses and profanations which they would commit although they were perswaded that Sunday is a divine institution He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Nay although they might be recalled it is not reasonable that to rescue them we should speake or write any thing against truth If they be men which take to heart religion and godlinesse and carry a due respect to the order of the Church no such unrulinesse is to be feared of them For because the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments publike and common prayers are meanes ordained of God for the maintenance of godlinesse and of true Religion and Sunday is established by the order of the Church for the practise of these exercises they will make great account of that day and observe it not for its owne sake knowing that it is not in it selfe more esteemeable nor more belonging to Gods service then another day not also through opinion that God hath particularly sanctified it by his ordinance and that their conscience is in that respect more tyed unto it then to another day but because they have a speciall regard to the order of the Church which being very good and profitable they know they are bound to submit themselves unto it seeing God hath commanded it although in generall termes yet most expressely in his holy word They will also feare to contemne that day and in so doing to sinne not in consideration of any dignity of that the day hath of it felfe or that God hath given it whereby it should oblige more than another day and make the contempt thereof more blame worthy but in consideration of Gods service whereunto it is applyed by the ordinance and custome of the Church So then a particular Church will conforme her selfe to the order of all other Churches and the particular members of each Church will submit themselves to the order received in it and so all shall religiously celebrate Sunday because by the order of the Church it hath beene observed so long and in all places where the Gospell was preached for the publike exercise of Gods service 18 To shew that the foresaid inconvenience is not so much to be feared it is a thing common and well knowne that our Churches ordaine upon diverse occasions extraordinary dayes of fasting and of particular prayers and command
there was some ceremonie added to the moralitie of the Commandement concerning this day and injoyned to the Iewes in that time of infancie and that it obligeth us no more than other ceremonies annexed at that time to moralities Whereof speech shall be againe made hereafter Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of Iames durst not worke on that day to imbalme Christs body but delayes to doe it and to buy the spices necessary thereto till it was past though they might have done it in a short space resting on that day according to the Commandement Mark 16. vers 1. Luk. 23. ver 56. and thinking themselves bound to the precise observation of the said Commandement because they knew not that it was abolished by our Lord Iesus Christ. 9 So it is evident that the observation of the Sabbath was to the Iewes most precise and exact Neither was it lawfull unto them to doe any outward and corporall workes saving those that were necessary for the outward and ceremoniall service which GOD required on that day as to the Levites and Priests to kill and dresse the beasts for the Sacrifices and to burne the fat upon the Altar Numb 28. vers 9. Matth. 12. vers 5. to particular men to circumcise their children Iohn 7. vers 22 23. to walke a certaine space from home to the place of Gods service where there was an holy convocation ordained of God on the Sabbath day Levit. 23. vers 3. which may be gathered out of the second booke of the Kings Chap. 4. vers 23. Where the husband of the Shunamite asked her wherefore she would goe to the Prophets seeing it was neither new Moone nor Sabbath which sheweth that it was lawfull to goe on the Sabbath day to the places where Gods Prophets abode to teach the people Or the Priests to minister to the Lord in things belonging to his service And this distance of way was by tradition limited and stinted to two thousand common steps as may be gathered out of the twelfth verse of the first chapter of the Acts where the distance betweene the mount of Olives and the towne of Ierusalem which was of so many steps is called A Sabbath dayes journey which tradition and ordinance concerning a Sabbath dayes journey which is not formally prescribed in the Law some are of opinion that it had its originall from the injunction given to the Israelites in the second Chapter of Numbers and the second verse to pitch under their standards about the Tabernacle of assignation over against it or a little farre off from it And in the third Chapter of Ioshua verse 3 and 4. which doe explicate this distance to goe after the Arke of the Covenant keeping betweene them and it the space of two thousand cubites by measure which journey by consequent they were of necessity to make every Sabbath day during their abode in the wildernesse to come to the Tabernacle of assignation where the Arke was and to assist there to the holy convocation which by Gods command was solemnized on that day Levit. 23. vers 3. which afterward the Doctors of the Iewes tooke and established for a rule of the journey which a man might make on the Sabbath day for Gods service and for holy and religious ends There be some who say that they extended this licence of two thousand cubits to walke for recreation and pastime But this hath no ground in the Law as I conceive Moreover they were also permitted on the Sabbath day to doe workes of charity mercifulnesse and compassion necessary to themselves or to their neighbours yea and to their beasts also As to flie and to fight to save their lives and to defend themselves in time of warre As Eliah threatned by Iezebel fled for his life and went forty dayes and forty nights unto Horeb wherein there were many Sabbaths 1 Kings 19. v. 3 8. As the Iewes decreed to defend themselves on the Sabbath day if their enemies came to make battell with them on that day 1 Maccab. 2. v. 41. having learned wisdome by the example of their brethren who being assaulted on the Sabbath chused most unadvisedly to dye rather than to make resistance for their lives v. 36 37 38. As according to the opinion of some it was on the Sabbath day that the Israelites fought against Ierico Ios. 6. verse 15 16 20 21. and against the Syrians 1 King 20. verse 29. but this is not evident enough As also to care dresse cure heale sicke folkes which Christ taught the Iewes to be lawfull and did often himselfe as we see in diverse places of the Gospell As to lay hold on a poore beast and lift it out of the pit that it was fallen into on the Sabbath day Mat. 12. ver 11 12. lead it to watering give it foode and doe unto it all other necessary things Luk. 13. ver 15. 11 An important and urgent necessity which could not be foreseene prevented hindred and admitted no delay made lawfull unto them on the Sabbath day actions which otherwise had beene unlawful As although they were forbidden to prepare meat to eat it on the Sabbath day yet if a man could not get meat to prepare or was deprived of all possible meanes to prepare the meat he had nor find meat made ready on the Sabbath day and that he were in danger to starve I esteeme that rather than he should suffer incommodity in his health or danger in his life God was well pleased that hee should prepare some on the Sabbath for his sustentation For upon this ground Iesus Christ maintained against the Pharisees the action of his Disciples who being an hungred in following him plucked eares of corne and did eat rubbing them in their hands Mat. 12. verse 1. Luk. 6. verse 1. likewise although they were forbidden to kindle the fire on the Sabbath day yet if they had beene pinched with some urgent necessity I doubt not but to kindle the fire had beene acceptable to God I esteeme that the like judgement is to be made of all other actions of the like nature although otherwise forbidden on the Sabbath day 21 These reasons taken from Gods service when externall and corporall actions pertained unto it from charity and compassion or from some great and urgent necessity being excepted it was not lawfull to doe any workes of common and ordinary labour nay not the least during either the time of Gods service in his house either afore or after it publikely or privately in the whole space of 4. and twenty houres betweene the two evenings as is evident by the prohibitions so expresse so particular so frequent made concerning that matter Philo in the second booke of the life of Moses saith that it was not lawfull to the Iewes to plucke on the Sabbath day a bough a fruit a leafe of a tree And all the Rabbins of the Iewes which writ of the observation of the Sabbath goe farre beyond whatsoever is exact and precise in the
of God commanded by him 2 But here is the point which will furnish us with a new reason why it is neither necessary nor likely that although the Iewes were bound to abstaine from all manner of worke on their Sabbath day we should be bound to a like cessation on our Sabbath seeing the time of the Old Testament was a time wherein Gods service consisted in Ceremonies Elements and Rudiments which were servile childish weake and beggarly as the Apostle saith Gal. 4. vers 3. 9. Col. 2. vers 20. The observation of a certaine day of Sabbath rather than of another and on it a cessation from all outward workes made in it selfe a part of that service and was not ordained by accident as a helpe to Gods service required onely for that end but as being of it selfe properly a point of religion and of Gods service and an essentiall duty of the Sabbath day For which cause it was so exactly injoyned with an interdiction even of the smallest and least things as to gather and prepare Manna to kindle fire to walke a few steps abroad and such like which was not lawfull for any person to doe although hee were alone and out of danger by doing them to give offense to any man Although also they might have beene done as it were in a moment of time without any diversion of the minde to think on better things as on God on godlinesse and on other holy exercises because that not to doe such workes was at that time a part of Gods service and that which belonged to Gods service could not be too exactly recommended and observed 3 For otherwise if the substance of Gods service had not at that time consisted partly in this exact cessation from all workes and if it had beene injoyned but as a helpe and furtherance of that service such little workes which were of no paines and of lesse distraction had not beene forbidden because in effect they are no let to a true spirituall Sabbath And when the Iewes were come backe to their houses from the place of their holy convocations it is evident to consider the matter according to the state we live in under the Gospell that they might easily compasse these actions and other such like without any prejudice thereby to true godlinesse and to the sanctification of their hearts But as they were bound to serve God on the Sabbath day by divers sacrifices offerings perfumings with-incense and other ceremoniall and bodily exercises for which they had need of a carnall holinesse and purity and to restraine themselves from a great deale of ceremoniall pollutions as to touch a dead man or any meat declared to be uncleane c. and as Gods service consisted in keeping themselves unspotted with such things even so an exact refraining from all outward and servile workes made a part of that Sabbaticall holinesse and purenesse whereof I have spoken If they had put their hand to any ordinary worke that worke had polluted them And all the legall workes of the Sabbath such as were the sacrifices c. had beene in some sort profaned by the common workes of other dayes if they had beene done on that day Therefore they were bound by necessity to abstaine exactly from them all 4 I adde that as I have said formerly the Sabbath was given them expresly to be unto them a type figurative of the spirituall rest whereby a man resteth from all iniquity and namely of the heavenly wherein there shall be a perfect cessation not only from all sinne but also from all bodily labours that the Saints may give themselves wholly to glorifie God And therefore that the figure might correspond the neerest that could be to the truth the signe to the thing signified and to represent to the Iewes and give them to understand that they ought to abstaine from all kinde of sinne the most precisely and exactly as possibly they could because sinnes are verily opposite to Gods service and pollute all the actions thereof and that in heaven they should injoy an intire and perfect rest a most precise cessation from all bodily workes and imployments was injoyned them And these are in my judgement the true reasons of that injunction 5 Now these reasons concerne us not under the New Testament Wee have no day of rest ordained of GOD to be unto us a type and figure of the spirituall and heavenly rest And if sometimes our Sunday which is our day of rest bee imployed to represent the heavenly rest as it is by some of the ancient Fathers it followeth not that the end of the institution thereof was to bee a figure and a type seeing it is not so much as a divine institution Wherefore the Fathers have called it so by application and allusion onely grounded upon some outward resemblance 6 No more doth Gods service under the Gospell to speake properly consist in the observation of any particular day more then of another nor in the abstinence of outward workes on it And as one of the contrary opinion speaking of the prohibition given to the Israelites to kindle the fire on the Sabbath day hath vouched and said that it was unto them a childish restriction and instruction and as for us who are Christians and who live also in countreys farre colder than was Iudea that wee have a greater liberty than they had to kindle the fire and that the said prohibition tieth us not saving in the equity thereof to teach us that we must not abuse our liberty to the intertainement of a carnall licence and hinderance of Gods service Verily there is the same reason of all other outward workes which God prohibited so exactly to the Iewes on the Sabbath day for that was also a puerile instruction we have a liberty to doe them that they had not on that day and nothing obligeth us but the equity of these prohibitions to wit that we must not doe these workes licenciously making of them a pretence to neglect Gods service Indeed we are bound to serve God under the New Testament as much yea much more than the Iewes under the Old Testament because we are farre more beholden unto him than they were But this obligation is to a more spirituall service which is such essentially consisting in the carefull practice of actions of true godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse But we are not obliged after the same manner as they were to serve him with a rudimentall materiall and servile service to which appertained this abstinence so exactly prescribed of all workes on a certaine day and which was one of the points of the unsupportable yoke of the ceremoniall Law And as wee are made free from these actions which the Iewes were obliged to performe on the Sabbath day with twice as much as on other dayes such as were double sacrifices double meat and drink offerings c. Num. 28. 9. by which things God fashioned them to the outward and typicall sanctification of the
leagues Now if it had beene the intention of Iesus Christ to ordaine the first day of the week for a Sabbath day and to injoyn to all Christians a leaving and discontinuance of all ordinary worke on that day it is likely that he would not have forgotten to warne his two Disciples thereof on that first day and thetwo Maries to whom he shewed himselfe earely in the morning of that same day and by the other Disciples to whom he sent them had made them practise the observation of that day and he had shewed them the example of that observation in his owne person which he did not then Neither doe we find that he did it at any other occasion 14 In the twentieth of the Acts we perceive although uncertainely as I have shewed before some observation of the first day of the weeke by the faithfull of Troas They met not together till about the evening of that day For mention is made of an upper Chamber of many lights of Saint Pauls long preaching untill midnight and thereafter till breake of day Apparently they made choice of the night time and of an upper chamber for feare of the Infidels even as the Apostles on the first day of the weeke that CHRIST rose in were assembled at evening and held the doores shut for feare of the Iewes Iohn twenty verse 19. Now who doubteth but all that day from the Sunne rising till the evening that they came together to breake bread they were busied as in the other dayes of the weeke about the ordinary exercises of their trades handicrafts and callings as having liberty to worke on that day like as on all other dayes besides the care they had to shunne all giving of discontent to the Infidels amongst whom they lived and the drawing by an unnecessary cessation a most certaine persecution upon themselves There is no question to be made but that all Christians in the places of their residence among Iewes or Gentiles did the like 15 This is also a reason considerable in this question that albeit among the Lawes of Christian Emperours there be sundry which forbid the ordinary occupations of trades and handicrafts on Sunday as to keepe a Court of pleading and to goe to Law to open the shops for buying and selling to act stage playes in play houses and publike places to hold Markets and faires c. which Lawes were made to prevent in time to come the contempt of the exercises of Religion used on that day and to establish an order in the state and in the Church which they most judiciously and religiously thought to be more recommendable decent and well suting to the holy actions whereunto it was appointed yet all these Lawes shew that before they were published Christians were wont saving the houres of the publike exercises of Religion to apply themselves on that day to all the ordinary workes of this present life Yea there be many other Lawes of other Emperours and amongst others of Constantine that great and holy Emperour which permit on Sunday some of these ordinary imployments as to labourers to sow the ground to weed to reape to plant and set Vineyards if need bee to Bakers to bake bread to Masters to give liberty to their slaves to Iudges to put to death malefactors which undoubtedly these Christian Emperours had never permitted by their Lawes if it had beene in their time a received opinion in the Church that the observation of Sunday and cessation from all workes in it was necessary by vertue of a Commandement of our Lord Iesus Christ. 17 But knowing certainely that no dayes are instituted of God under the New Testament that Sunday was not kept by a commandement from heaven but by the use and custome of the Church That a discontinuance and intermission so exact of all workes pertained to the Ecclesiasticall policie and regiment of the Iewes and is no where and in no wise commanded in the Gospell they made no bones to permit diverse occupations which might seeme to have some pretext of necessity yet were not of such importance but that they might have beene done before Sunday or put off till the next day following it CHAPTER Fifth Declaration of diverse absurdities and difficulties insuing upon the contrary opinion 1. The opinion is that Christians are bound to refraine from all workes during the 24. houres of Sunday 2. First absurdity this opinion bringeth backe the servitude of the Iewish ceremonies 3. Second absurdity No man can tell where must be the beginning of the said 24. houres 4. Diverse disputations thereupon amongst the authors of this opinion 5. Third absurdity it troubleth the conscience leaving it without information concerning the imployment of that time and the doing of unnecessary workes therein 6. As also about the doing of charitable and necessarie workes 7. Fourth absurdity Confusion of the Doctors in the explication of this opinion 8. First they consent not in the explication of Christian abstinence from bodily workes on Sunday 9. Secondly they distinguish workes of necessity into those that are of present and those that are of imminent necessity and permit the first onely whereby they trouble tender consciences 10. They contradict their distinction by suffering some handicrafts men to worke on Sunday 11. As also by the permission of many actions which have no present necessity 12. Likewise by forbidding some workes in an apparent danger as to gather corne c. 13. Great absurdity and inconvenience of this prohibition 14. The Commandement Exod. 34. v. 21. to rest on the Sabbath day in earing time c. serveth not their turne 15. They hold that it is not lawfull for a man to receive any reward for his necessary labour done on Sunday 16. Great inconveniences and absurdities of this opinion 17. Answer to their objection about servile workes forbidden in the fourth Commandement 18. They hold also that servants ought not to serve their masters on Sunday 19. This doctrine crosseth their other decisions 20. They intangle themselves in the distinction of bankets 21. Absurdity of theâ—r rigid prohibition of all kind of recreation to all men on the Sabbath day 22. How farre Christians are bound to abstaine from worke on that day 23. How working is not or may be an hindrance of our sanctification 24. We ought to leave our workes on Sundayes during the time of service 25. Saving in some important necessity 26. Objections taken from the care of worldlings c. 27. Answer concerning the care of worldlings 28. How we ought to make the Sabbath our delight 29. Our Sunday is improperly called the Sabbath day THose against whom we dispute doe hold that our Sunday called also by them the Sabbath day which is the name given in the Scriptures to the day that the Iewes hallowed weekly obligeth us to keepe it during the whole space of foure and twenty houres by a religious abstinence from all manner of workes during all that time conformably to the
of charitie and of necessarie compassion towards men and beasts which they avouch may be done on the Sabbath day And yet in these things there is not alwayes present necessity For although a man take no sustenance for himselfe should not give any to other should not give physicke or apply some other remedy to a sicke man it may bee the body should not bee enfeebled nor receive any detriment thereby and in case it did it might bee easily repaired by taking food and physicke the next day I would faine know why in this case rather than in others a necessity or a danger apparant onely and not present shall it licence any man to worke They acknowledge that on the Sabbath day is permitted not onely that which is absolutely necessary for the entertainment of the creature but also whatsoever is usefull for a convenient and comfortable mainetenance thereof as to prepare give take meat apply a medicine to our selves or to another although there be not in it any present necessity If this doctrine be true it is not a present necessitie that licenseth a man to worke but also an imminent evill the event and issue whereof is onely apparant in case it be not prevented in time Will they say that more is permitted in things that concerne immediately a mans person as nourishment and medicaments than in things that are more remote But there is to be found a great deale of imminent necessities in these things that come not so nigh to mans person which if they be anticipated by a prompt remedie it shall be as much yea more convenient and bring greater comfort to a man than if he should eat and drinke in his present hunger and take physicke without delay when he is sicke And the danger of delay in these present necessities should not be so great as in those others that are onely imminent 12 I will alleage to this purpose an example of a thing which the precise Defenders of a cessation from all workes on the Sabbath day stand much upon That is to gather corne to lay it up or to doe some other worke for the preservation thereof on the Sabbath day in an imminent necessitie I meane in an apparant danger that if this be not done the corne shal be endammaged shall rot and become unprofitable Loe the day is faire dry and commodious the corne may be saved if it be gathered and laid up on this day and a great losse to the owner prevented This they will not suffer to bee done Nay when the corne is already cut they cannot abide that it bee transported from the floore to the barne saying that the care thereof must bee wholly committed to Gods providence who will keepe it if hee thinke it expedient and that we must rather chuse to let the corne rot and perish upon the ground than to breake and profane the Sabbath day But I pray in what fashion will they adjust this and match it fitly with their other positions that the workes of necessitie are permitted on the Sabbath day which according to their owne interpretation are such that if they be not done man shall be endammaged Also that it is lawfull to doe all things requisite not only for the entertainment that is absolutely necessary but also that is agreeable and comfortable to the creature so that time may be taken before betweene or after the publike exercises Now is not this a thing of great comfort to a poore Christian that his corne perish not as in all likelihood it shall if he take not order at that same instant for the preservation thereof If it be said that this dammage is not infallible I reply that they should have much adoe as I have before to explicate what infallibility and certitude they require and that hardly shall they finde any danger which may be called infallible and for the preventing whereof they may put their hands to work on the Sabbath day For Gods providence may anticipate evils before they come or arrest them in their beginning or repaire all their dammages if he suffer them to come 13 I aske shall it not be lawfull to a man in his pinching hunger or of his familie to gather on the Sabbath day of his owne wheat to carry it home and to prepare of it as much as they shall need he having no other meanes but that alone to nourish himselfe and them in this extremity Vndoubtedly all Christians will confesse that he may yea that although to speake absolutely they might want it for a day yet the onely conveniencie to take meat when they are hungry will permit them doe it Now if it be lawfull to gather corne to carry it home or to doe some other worke to satisfie an hungry and barking stomacke although this present evill be not such that it should for a dayes fasting cause a great detriment without a present remedie why shall it not bee lawfull to seeke by the same meanes a present remedie for the hunger to come the danger whereof is apparent and farre greater if it be not remedied out of hand than of present hunger For if the corne of man wherewith he and his family were to be fed many moneths together rot and perish he shall have leisure enough to be hunger-starved farre longer and with greater dammage than if he suffered hunger one day Will they say that he must leave that to Gods providence and trust that he will keepe his corne or shall recompense the losse thereof and supply his wants with competent food by some other meanes But why ought he not much more to abstaine from seeking remedies to his present hunger wherewith he is pinched on that day relying upon Gods providence trusting assuredly that he will preserve him from being dammaged by that hunger or in case he receive any dammage will repaire it namely considering he seeth the danger to be lesser as being but of one day which is soone pasâ— and the remedie more prompt and easie then in the other 14 The passage of the 32. Chapter of Exodus vers 21. whereof they make a buckler where God commandeth the people of Israel to rest in the seventh day both in earing time and in the harvest doth not prove that they pretend For first we may understand that he forbiddeth onely in earing time and in the harvest to take liberty to worke on the Sabbath day as they were wont on all other daies of the week but extends not the prohibition to the extraordinarie necessity of an imminent danger as if he forbade in such a case to transport the corne from the field onely to the floore or from the floore to the barne whereof he speaketh not which notwithstanding is the case or matter that is broached for a divine truth For if other prohibitions of the Law concerning other kindes of labour are as precise or more in the tearmes that they are set down in as this is receive by urgent necessities some
modifications wherefore not this also Secondly if the foresaid prohibition had sway in the necessity that hath been supposed I returne the answer that is made by some of them against whom I dispute upon the prohibitions to kindle fire to cooke meat on the Sabbath day c. that they pertained to the bondage of the Law which is most true 15 Furthermore when they speake of bodily and worldly workes which some necessity permitteth yea obligeth us to doe on the Sabbath day they say that they must be done through meere charity and compassion for the preservation of the creatures which have need of our helpe and not as workes of our callings whereby we win our living for this cause that we must doe them without any respect to any gaine and profit that may come to us thereby and which we cannot lawfully receive being bound to doe all things on that day freely and of meere good will For example if a Chirurgion or Apothecarie give remedies to their patients on that day that they must not gaine the value of a farthing and if they take any money it must be onely for the just and true price of the remedies and not for the imployment of their industrie and painefull labour about the patient Likewise that he who waters his beast or giveth it physicke should have onely before his eyes the health and reliefe thereof and in no wise the utility and service that hee hath received and may receive hereafter of it which is the end wherefore he feedeth anâ— entertaineth it in other times 16 This indeed is a distinction and limitation very subtill and is besides inveloped with many difficulties It is true that when a man is bound to these and such like workes on the Sabbath day he ought to doe them through Christian love and compassion and so ought he to doe all his workes towards his neighbours in all the dayes of the weeke But that he ought to doe them without any regard to his owne profit and commoditie that goeth beyond the reach of my apprehension and understanding For if he may doe them in charity and compassion towards persons that are not so neere unto him or towards beasts why may hee not doe them through charity love to himselfe and to his family May he not be in such a condition and estate that he hath not sufficiently wherewith to entertaine himselfe and his family The beast which hee feedeth is perhaps the onely meanes whereby he gets his living Therefore when God offers unto him the occasion yea layeth upon him the necessity to doe some worke why may he not when he intendeth and hath before his eyes the reliefe of his neighbour or of his beast thinke on his owne profit which depends on that worke and proceedeth from it and judge that God by the occasion of this worke which he hath put in his hands affords unto him the meanes to gaine something for himselfe and for the maintenance of his wife children and servants It may be that he worketh for rich folkes which will not take his paines for nought should thinke they receive a great injurie and affront if he offered to give them freely and hold him to bee a foole What shall hee doe in this case They are constrained to answer that in such a case he may take the fees of his labour but with this addition that receiving them with one hand he must with the other give them to the poore to testifie that what he hath done he hath done it onely for the Lord. But what if he be poore himselfe having no more than is needfull or not so much as is behoofefull for him and his familie What if the hire which he hath received bee notable and more worth then he shall be able to win in many dayes following as if a Physician or a Leech that is poore received on the Sabbath day of a rich patient a liberall and ample salarie of his industrie and paines must he give it all to the poore In these places where we live and where we are constrained to goe a great way out of the townes of our abode to the places appointed for the publike exercises of our Religion there be coachmen that carry many persons by land in their coaches which they let out for a certaine hire And boat-men which doe the like by water in their boats This is so necessary that without these helpes these persons cannot goe to heare Service and to call upon God in the Congregation of the faithfull These coachmen and boatmen are they bound by Christian charity to carry them for nought to give them freely the usage of their coaches boats and labour and to refuse all gaine although it countervaileth all the profit they can make of their labour in the whole weeke and the whole yeere affordeth not unto them so notable so certaine and so present wages Or must they be content to take no more then will suffice for the reparation of the dammages of their coaches and boats which would be a thing of little consideration Now if it be lawfull to receive money on the Sabbath day for recompence of a thing which I have furnished to another and of the dammage that I have received by the furnishing of it why may I not also receive a reward of my paines There are Trades whose gaine consists in things which they give and others whose gaine dependeth simply on their travell and paines their paines and industrie being the whole matter whereupon their gaine is formed and answerable to the things furnished by others They will perhaps answer that he who furnisheth something hath bought it first and it is reasonable that he be rewarded But what if he hath not bought it If a Chirurgion or Apothecarie for example hath drugs that were given him or simples and physicall herbs which he hath gathered in his garden on the mountaines or in the fields and he hath bestowed onely his paines to gather and prepare them and to make of them by his industrie divers compositions and medicaments for the use of his patients must hee give on the Sabbath day these drugs and medicaments for nought He must if all Christians be obliged to give their travell and paines freely and bestow their labour upon their neighbours through meere and simple charity But I demand Why may not he rather that hath imployed his labour upon another receive of him that which he giveth taking it not as a reward but as a benevolence For the giver to relieve him of all scruple of conscience may say truly that he giveth it in that quality And indeed if a man may give his money freely to one who hath not done or wrought any thing for him and if this man may receive it without sinne I see no reason why he may not yea ought not to give money to one that hath bestowed his travell on him or for his benefit and why this man may not take it
the exercises of the Sabbath as six or seven in a feast that is not solemne A thing that many together cannot doe lawfully cannot be lawfull to a few or if it be lawfull to few it is also to many But I wonder how those which have made this distinction of banquets can have the heart to make use of it seeing they teach otherwhere that it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day but things of present necessity and not those that are simply of imminent necessity or at the most they suffer onely those that are requisite for a comfortable entertainement of the person as to prepare meat for his refection For banquets howsoever named and qualified are not requisite for that day for the entertainement either necessarie or comfortable of men they may be put off till some other day without harme or displeasure to any man by this delay and cannot easily be kept without much hurrying up and downe and divers discourses which are not sutable to such a day which they will have to be so precisely and exactly observed I wonder farre more why they are not scrupulous to suffer weddings on that day For seeing they will have all mens thoughts words and actions to be spirituall and holy all that day and suffer not any that are naturall and worldly otherwise than in a present and urgent necessity seeing also there is no necessitie to marry on Sunday that this may be done as well on any other day and that the thoughts words and actions of weddings can hardly have the qualities which they require would it not be more sutable to their maximes to forbid them absolutely on that day 21 Fifthly as for playes games pastimes recreations which are honest and lawfull they forbid them altogether and absolutely on the Sabbath to all men without exception of those that are sick saying that to those which are dangerously sicke it is fit time to pray and not to play and spend time on gaming And as for those that are not dangerously sicke they need not these pastimes and may apply themselves to heare reade conferre of things of instruction and consolation and seeke in these holy exercises their recreation Wherein they speak as if the one and the other might not be done successively and a sicke man or any other person after an honest and short pastime were not capable to seeke this spirituall recreation although they be not incompatible and that God improveth not the succession of the one to the other on our Sabbath day I adde that by this prohibition they overthrow their former position that it is lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day things not onely absolutely necessary for the entertainement of the creature but also comfortable and agreeable unto it Now some honest play or pastime taken by a man and namely by a sicke man may be very usefull for his comfort and recreation and often much more than if the best meats and drinkes and most comfortative cordials were given him if he stand not absolutely in present need of them Nay they may make him farre better disposed afterwards for Gods service than the best restoratives of the best furnished Apothecaries If then it be lawfull unto him and to others also to bestirre themselves to prepare for him and make him take these things why may he not likewise take some pastime which are farre more necessary unto him And although he hath no need of them by absolute necessity may they not be needfull unto him for his commodity and comfort as well as food and medicaments If it be said that he may deferre his pastime till another day I answer that so he may prolong without any perill the preparing of meat or of medicaments 22 But not to say longer upon the rehearsall of the intricate difficulties which occurre in their explications of workes that are permitted on the Sabbath day and of the conditions and tearmes whereupon they are permitted I say that there is no kinde of workes but they may be done as lawfully on that day as on any other and that as in the fourth Commandement the Ordinance to keepe the Sabbath day obligeth Christians in this onely that because God must bee served publikely in the Congregations of his people by the exercises of religion which he hath ordained it is necessary that some time be appointed for that use but not that it ought to bee one day rather than another by vertue of that command or that the day appointed ought to be kept during foure and twenty houres which God hath not in any case prescribed to his people of the New Testament as he did to his people of the Old Testament But being pleased to injoyne unto them the exercises of religion wherewith he will be served he hath left to their libertie the determination of some dayes and of the continuance of the time wherein they are to be practised I say likewise that the commandement to doe no worke on the day consecrated to Gods service obligeth in this regard onely and no more to wit that as much as the publike exercises of this service when they are practised in the Church doe require wee must forbeare all ordinary imployments and workes that with tranquillity of minde and stillnesse of body we may bend all our forces to these exercises resort unto the holy assemblies and glorifie the Lord our God there in the company of the faithfull 23 I grant willingly that all travell about corporall and terrestriall workes is forbidden in as much as it is an impediment and hinderance to the service of God And therefore an honest and religious man must observe publikely all the time of holy exercises observed in the Church on the Holy-dayes appointed for that end whereof he hath for rule the Order of the Church This time excepted the remnant of the day is his to dispose of it discreetly and conscientiously and to doe on it all manner of worke which is lawfull on other dayes according to the Order of the Church wherein he lives 24 And sith Sunday hath beene appointed by the Order of the Church for the prime day wherein these exercises are ordinarily to be practised all are bound in regard of them to cease from all other workes during the whole time that they are practised in the Church publikely without purposing to doe or give willingly any worldly businesse to be done on that day capable to make the least diversion from so holy and necessarie a duty and to dispose in such sort all their ordinary affaires of this life before Sunday come that they be not when it is come an hinderance to sanctifie it And so to shew that they are full of love and respect to those blessed exercises of religion and to the Order of the Church from which they should never be absent without reasons of great consequence whereof every ones conscience ought to iudge by the rules of godlinesse and of Christian prudence 25 I say
non autem tertia quarta quinta aut sexta It is manifest that the Sabbath was a part of the ceremonies because it is called a signe of the old Covenant betwixt God and the Iewes Exod. 31. 17. and it is joyned with the Sanctuarie Levit 19. 30. Also S. Paul reckoneth it amongst the ceremonies Col. 2. 16. Heb. 4. 9. The Sabbath in a double respect was ceremoniall first in that it was an absolute and precise cessation from all servile or bodily worke Secondly in that a seventh day was expresly by God commanded not a third fourth fifth or sixth Item Sabbatum significat ab omni opere vitioso ab omni peccato abstinendum esse Erat Sacramentum Iudaeis vitae quietisque aeternae in quo non modò ab omnibus peccatis liberatio contingit sed etiam cessatio ab omnibus operibus c. The Sabbath did signifie that wee must abstaine from all wicked workes and from sinne It was a Sacrament to the Iewes of life and rest eternall in which we shall not onely be freed from all our sinnes but also we shall rest from our labours c. PASSAGES Concerning the Lords-day commonly called Sunday its institution and how farre it obligeth us ANcient Writers when they speake of the Lords-day put this for the ground and reason of the observation of it that Christ did rise againe on that day But they say not that Christ ordained it Ignatius in epist. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All that love Christ let them keepe the Lords-day as a festivall day which was the day of his Resurrection Iustin. Martyr Apolog. 2. versus finem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 On Sunday wee have our publike meetings because it was the first day that was in which God having changed the darknesse and Chaos or confused Masse in Heb. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made the world and because Iesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose againe from the dead Augustin tom 2. ep 119. quae est ad Ianuarium cap. 13. Dies Dominicus non Iudaeis sed Christianis Resurrectione Domini declaratus est ex illo habere caepit festivitatem suam The Lords-day was declared so to bee not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Resurrection of the Lord and with reference to him or since that time it began to be a holy day Idem l. 22. de civ Dei c. 30. Dominicus dies Christi resurrectione est sacratus aeternam non solùm spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem praefigurans The Lords-day became sacred by the Resurrection of Christ and prefigureth the eternall rest not onely of the spirit but also of the body Idem Tom. 10. Serm. 15. de verb. Apost Domini Resuscitatio consecravit nobis Dominicum diem Qui vocatur Dominicus dies ipse videtur propriè ad Dominum pertinere quia eo die Dominus resurrexit The Resurrection of the Lord hath consecrated to us the Lords-day That which is called the Lords-day seemeth to belong to the Lord properly because the Lord that day rose againe Idem Serm. 251. de tempore which notwithstanding and the most of the Sermons De tempore are suspected not to bee his Dominicum diem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideò religiosa solemnitate habendum sanxerunt quia in eadem Redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore appointed the Lords-day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on it our Redeemer rose againe from the dead S. Augustin in expos in Ioan. Tract 120. Una Sabbati est quem jam diem Dominicam propter Domini Resurrectionem mos Christianus appellat The first day of the weeke is that which Christians usually call the Lords-day from the Resurrection of our Lord. Calvin Institut l. 2. c. 8. sect 33. Dies Dominici citra Iudaismum à nobis observantur quia longo intervallo differimus in hac parte à Iudaeis Non enim ut ceremoniam arctissimâ religione celebramus quâ putemus mysterium spirituale figurari sed suscipimus ut remedium retinendo in ecclesia ordini necessarium We observe the Lords dayes without Iudaizing because in this particular we much differ from the Iewes for we doe not celebrate it as a ceremonie with a precise observation by which wee thinke a spirituall mystery is typified but we use it as a remedie necessarie to keepe good order in the Church Item Quod ad evertendam superstitionem expediebat sublatus est Iudaeis religiosus dies quod decoro ordini paci in Ecclesia retinendis necessarium erat alter in eum usum destinatus est Quanquam non sine delectu Dominicum quem vocamus diem veteres in locum Sabbathi subrogârunt c. The day which the Iewes religiously observed was abrogated which was expedient to take away superstition Another was substituted in its place which was necessarie to retaine decencie good order and peace in the Church Nor was it hand over head that the Primitive Church made choice of that which wee call the Lords-day in stead of the Sabbath c. Item Com. in ep ad Gal. 4. 10. Quando discernitur dies à die religionis causâ quando feriae pars divini cultus esse censentur tum dies perperā observantur Nos hodiè cum habemus dierum discrimen non induimus necessitatis laqueū conscientiis non discernimus dies quasi alius alio sit sanctior non constituimus illic religionē cultū Dei sed tantùm ordini còncordiae consulimus Ita libera est apud nos omni superstione pura observatio When a distinction is made betwixt dayes out of devotion when a feast or holy day is esteemed a part of Gods worship those dayes are observed amisse We in having now a distinction betwixt dayes do not put a snare of necessity upon mens consciences we make not such a distinction as if one day were holier than another nor in this doe we place religion or Gods worship but in so doing provide for the good order and peace of the Church And so such observation of dayes amongst us is free and pure from all superstition Bullinger Decad. 2. Serm. 4. Vetus Ecclesia diem mutavit Sabbati ne videretur Iudaizare ceremoniis affixa haerere caetus otiaque celebravit primâ Sabbati quam Ioannes appellat Dominicam haud dubiè propter gloriosam Domini resurrectionem Et quamvis nullibi legatur praecepta in Apostolicis literis Dominica dies quia tamen quarto hoc praecepto primae tabulae praecipitur cura religionis exercitium externi cultus diligenter alienum à pietate charitate Christiana foret Dominicam nolle sanctificare praesertim cum sine tempore stato citra otium sanctum cultus ille externus constare non possit Idem sentiendum arbitror de pauculis quibusdam Christi Domini feriis aut fostis quibus peragimus memoriam Nativitatis Incarnationis Circumcisionis
Passionis Resurrectionis Ascensionis in Coelum missionis S. spiritus in Discipulos Domini nostri Iesu Christi The ancient Church changed the Sabbath day lest it should seeme to Iudaize and be addicted to Iewish ceremonies and kept its assemblies and rested on the first day of the weeke which S. Iohn calleth the Lords-day without doubt because of the glorious Resurrection of the Lord. And although it is no where read in the writings of the Apostles that the Lords-day was commanded to be kept holy notwithstanding because in this fourth Commandement of the first table is injoyned the care of religion and a diligent plying of Gods externall worship It were a thing much contrary to piety and Christian charity not to sanctifie the Lords-day especially seeing that externall worship cannot be performed without a set time and without a holy rest Bullinger in Apocalypsin cap. 1. v. 10. Hanc diem ut sacram loco Sabbathi in memoriam resurgentis Domini delegerunt sibi Ecclesiae in quâ sacros celebres coetus agerent Ibid. Sponte verò Ecclesiae receperunt illam diem Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam Ac Ecclesiae viderunt omnino necessarium esse certum tempus in quo conveniant sancti delegerunt ergo diem Resurrectionis neque de his odiosiùs contenderunt inter se ut postea factum in Ecclesia testantur historiae The Churches of free choice received and set apart this day in stead of the Sabbath in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection that in it they might have their holy and solemne meetings For wee reade not that it is commanded any where but the Churches saw that it was necessary that a certaine time should be stinted for the holy meetings of the Saints of God and therefore they chose the day of the Resurrection Neither did they strive eagerly about this as Histories beare witnesse that they did afterwards Musculus in locis Commun in Mandatum quartum Christiani relicto Iudaico Sabbato sacrum otium eo die servant quo Servator non solos Israelitas sed universum genus mortalium non de domo Aegyptiacae servitutis sed de potestate regno Satanae liberatos eduxit The Christians forsaking the Iewish Sabbath keepe their holy rest on that day on which our Saviour did bring forth not the Israelites onely but all mankinde not out of the house of Aegyptian servitude but from the power and kingdome of Satan P. Martyr in his common places which were collected out of the rest of his workes cap. 7. Quod is dies magis quà m ille eligatur ad Dei externum cultum liberum fuit Ecclesiae per Christum ut id consuleret quod magis ex re judicaret Nec illa pessimè judicavit si memoriam instaurationis perfectae id est Resurrectionis Christi in observatione diei Dominici praetulit huic absolutioni mundanae fabricae The Church had liberty by Christ to make choice of one day rather than of another for Gods externall worship to doe therein what shee thought fittest Nor was her choice ill in preferring by observing the Lords-day the remembrance of our perfect redemption that is of Christs resurrection before the remembrance of the finishing of the world Item Quòd unus dies certus in hebdomada cultui divino mancipetur stabile firmum est an verò hic vel alius constituatur temporarium est ac mutabile That one day of the weeke be consecrated to Gods worship is an ordinance of perpetuall force but whether this or that be appointed is temporarie and may be changed Item Quando facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis expressum non habemus In Apocalypsi tamen Ioannis Dominici diei expressam mentionem habemus verisimile est aliquamdiu primos Christianos morem Iudaicum retinuisse ut in die Sabbati convenirent postea verò ut videmus res mutata est It is not expressed in holy Writ when this change of the Sabbath into the Lords-day was Notwithstanding in S. Iohns Revelation there is expresse mention of the Lords-day and it is likely that for a while the first Christians retained the Iewish custome in meeting together on the Sabbath day but afterwards as we see the day was changed Ursinus Tract Theol. in quartum praeceptum Cum non minùs alio die meditatio ac celebratio operum Dei possit fieri quà m septimo Sicut initiò propter causam accommodatam primis temporibus defignavit Deus ministerio diem septimum sic deinde propter causam accommodatam Messiae temporibus legem eam abrogavit liberum Ecclesiae reliquit alios dies eligere quae propter causam probabilem delegit diem primum quo facta est Christi resuscitatio Seeing one can meditate on and celebrate the workes of God as well on another day as on the seventh As in the beginning for a reason proper to the first times God appointed for his publike worship a seventh day so afterwards for a reason proper to the times of Christs exhibition he abrogated that Law and left it to the power of the Church to chuse other dayes which for a probable reason made choice of the first day on which Christ rose againe Item Differt observatio Dominici diei à Sabbatho Iudaico primò quod Sabbatum septimi diei tanquam partem cultus divini oeremonialem non licebat Iudaeis omittere aut mutare propter expressum Dei mandatum Ecclesia verò Christiana sive primum sive alium diem tribuit ministerio salvâ suâ libertate etiam aliter agendi si sint probabiles causae hoc est sine ulla opinione necessitatis aut cultus Secundò Sabbatum vetus erat typus five umbra rerum in Novo Testamento per Christum implendarum In Novo autem Testamento illa significatio cessavit ordinis at que decori tantum ratio habetur sine quo ministerium Ecclesiae aut nullum aut saltem non bene constitutum esse potest The observation of the Lords day differeth from the Iewish Sabbath First because it was not lawfull for the Iewes to omit the Sabbath or rest of the seventh day as being a ceremoniall part of divine worship nor to change it because of Gods expresse command for the keeping of it But the Christian Church appointeth for divine service a day whether the first or another reserving still to her selfe the liberty to doe otherwise if by good reasons she be induced thereunto that is to say she allotteth such a day to the service of God without any opinion of necessity or worship Secondly the old Sabbath was a type or shadow of things which under the New Testament were to be fulfilled by Christ But under the New Testament that type ceased and onely regard is had of good order and decencie without which divine service either cannot subsist at all or not well And in his Exposition of the second Commandement speaking of Ecclesiasticall lawes which