the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Ursine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Paspassion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58. 13. If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14. 9. and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2. 20. And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nascentis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the
observes it cannot bee denied but that undoubtedly as touching the time of their meeting they were therein ordered also by S. Paul as they were about the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper And accordingly Paraeus in the very passage alleaged by Gomarus doth take that place of 1 Cor. 16. 2. to notifie that the very time of their meeting there specified was by the ordinance of S. Paul Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 34. The Apostles directed by Christs not only example but spirit also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. John in the Revelation 38. And from the Apostles the Catholique Church uniformly receaved it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39. And the Church hath receaved it not to be liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40. but to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end For as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 8. Master Fox upon the Rev. 1. v. 10. professeth that the observation of the Lords Day doth Niti authoritate institutionis Apostolicae depend upon the authority of Apostolicall institution 9. Walaeus dissert de Sab. p. 172. we conclude saith hee this first day of the weeke was by the Apostles put in the place of the Sabbath and commended to the Church not only by a power ordinary competent to all pastors for the ordering of indifferent rites in their Churches but by a singular power also as who had the oversight of the whole Churches and who as extraordinary Ministers of Christ were by the holy Ghost put in trust that they might be faithfull not only for the delivering of certaine precepts concerning faith and manners but also as touching upright ordering of the Church that so it might be made known to all Christians every where what day in the weeke was to be kept by vertue and Analogy of the fourth Commandement least dissension there abouts and consequently confusion might arise in the Church of God and to this purpose hee alleageth Beza before mentioned and Gallesius Calvins Collegue on Exod. 31. This ordinance to wit that the Lords Day should be substituted in the place of the Sabbath we have receaved saith hee not from men but from the Apostles that is from the Spirit of God whereby they were governed and after he had proved this out of three places of Scripture Acts 20 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Re. 1. 10. in the end hee addes For although we are not tied to the observation of dayes yet this necessary order must be observed least confusion should be bred in the Church 10. Fayus Calvins successor alleaged also by Walaeus disput 47. in q. praecept Iustly therefore may we say that the Apostles by the leading of the Holy Ghost for the seventh day of the Law substituted the first day of the week which was the first in the Creation of the first World 11. Hyperius in 1. Cor. 16. 1. The first day of the weeke in memory of the Lords Resurrection was called the Lords Day the observation of the Sabbath being translated thereunto through the command of the Holy Ghost by the Apostles 12. Adde unto these Master Perkins maintaining the same That which he delivers of the Parliament in the dayes of King Edward the sixt in that preamble of theirs concerning holy dayes as left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers therof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods Glory and edification of the people I say that this should bee understood not of holy dayes onely but of the Lords Day also is a thing most incredible neither doth hee offer to cite any parcell thereof to justifie this so bold an affirmation onely hee sayth that by the body of the act it doth appeare but what that is in the body of that act whereby this doth appeare hee very judiciously conceales How improbable is it t hat Bishop Andrewes would have opposed this Doctrine in the Starre Chamber if a Parliament of Prelates and that in the dayes of King Edward the sixt had maintained it For hee professeth that these two onely the Lords Day and the Lords Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum is alike to bee taken in both and takes upon him to shew that in the very Scripture there is found a precept for observation of the Lords Day And Bishop Lake in like manner professeth that it is not Liberae observationis but necessarily to be observed Doctor Fulks answer to the Rhemish Testament was set forth in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and dedicated to her Majesty therein on Re. 1. v. 16. hath hee delivered that to change the Lords Day and to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath none authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles Was hee ever questioned for this or was it ever knowne that the state of this Land excepted against it for crossing the Doctrine of the Church manifested in a preamble to one of the Acts of Parliament which I presume was never yet repealed but leave we him to live on his own juice and to please himselfe in his holinesse A THIRD DIGRESSION CONTAINING A CONFERENCE With D. Walaeus about the Divine authority of the Lords Day I Come to consider somewhat in Walaeus whose dissertation of the Sabbath from the first hath liked mee so well and the spirit which it breathes throughout that I doe not affect to differ from him but rather heartily desire there may bee little or no difference betweene us and I hope in the end there will be found little or no difference of importance betweene us especially in this point of the institution of the Lord Day whether it be divine or humane and as for the originall institution of the Sabbath namely as from the beginning of the World and as touching the morality of one day in seven therein I concurre with him really and affectionately And as touching the quality of the institution I approve his learned paines in vindicating those three places of the new Testament Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Re. 1. 10. from the interpretation that some give of them to quash the evidence which they import for the observation of the first day of the weeke commonly called the Lords Day even in those primitive and Apostolicall dayes of the Christian Church And I joyne with him pag. 167. in admiring that after so many accurate prejudices of the reformed Churches concurring in the same translation interpretation of those places which we embrace yet some should be found to take so unhappy paines as to quash the evidence of them which they seem to us
antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake As for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15. 10. saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24. 20. And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could this bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118. 24. This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are new Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men
laboured to suppresse in the first generall Councell holden in Jerusalem 2. So did Saint Paul upon occasion of whose ministry this controversie first began endevour what he could against this particular sharply reproving those which allowed yet the Iewes Sabbath or observed dayes and months and times as if he had bestowed his labour in vaine upon them But more particularly in his Epistle to the Colossians Let no man judge you in respect of an holy day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbath dayes which were a shadow of things to come but the body was of Christ Both which expressions of Saint Paul are in this following discourse produced to this very purpose Yet notwithstanding all this care both generally of the Apostles and more especially of Saint Paul to suppresse this errour it grew up still and had its patrons and abettors 3. Ebion and Cerinthus two of the wretchedest Heretiques of the Primitive times and after them Apollinaris are said to countenance and defend it which doubtlesse made the Ancient Fathers declare themselves fully in it as a dangerous point which seemed to confirme the Jewes in their incredulity and might occasion others to make question of our Saviours comming in the flesh 4. Hence was it that Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian and Eusebius men of renowne for learning in the primitive times three of which are cited in the text of this following discourse and the fourth quoted in the margin affirme for certaine that never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath which questionlesse they must have done had that Law been moral and dictated by nature as now some teach us 5. Afterwards by the opposition made by Epiphanius in his Confutation of the herefies of the Ebionites and by the resolutions of Theodoret on the 20. of Ezech. Procopius Gazaeus on the 2. of Gen. by Damascen and our Venerable Bede which two last are here also cited Sect. 2. concurring with the former Fathers all talke and observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished utterly and the Lords day which had from the Apostles times been instituted by the Church in the place thereof was hallowed without any rivall 6. Nor do I find but that all superstitious fancies about that day were as wholly abrogated as the day it selfe Save that S. Gregory tels us how some in Rome were so superstitious in this kind that they would neither work upon the Saturday no nor so much as wash upon the Sunday Exam. I observe in the title first that the Translator professeth he hath performed his part for the benefit of the common people I doe not envie them that benefit if it be a benefit but if it be not so but prove contrary I shall grieve rather No doubt the Translator thinks he hath an advantage thereby so did Rabshakeh when he refused to speak in the Aramites language but chose rather to speake in the Jewes tongue in the audience of the people that were on the wall that if they did not harken unto him they might eat their owne dung and drink their own pisse with the rest What will bee the condition of some of them who doe not hearken to this Praefacer I know not but according to my poore judgement my opinion is that as many as hearken to this Praefacer if Christs comming shall bee on his owne day as Austin hoped it would bee and what day more likely in all probabilitie and at his comming on the Lords day he should take them in their sports their owne hearts would misgive them that their comfort should bee as little as that the Orator threatned unto the Jewes upon the wall in case they did not hearken unto him In a book printed not long ago I hear there is alleaged a passage of one of the Fathers for the free use of scripture by all sorts of the vulgar people and it is translated also into English belike for the benefit of the common people but in a second edition the Greeke sentence is said to be reteined but the English translation quite omitted Did the Author report of gratifying the people thus and quench his care of providing for their benefit This observation is none of mine but accidentally brought unto my hands by one of some qualitie by occasion of mutuall communication betweene us But since I heare the Author hath made amends for that another way For having in the first edition professed that Popish errours are not damnable in themselves which with what respect it should bee delivered for the benefit of the common people amongst Protestants I know not in the second edition it is corrected thus popish errours are not damnable in the issue But where corrected not in the text that continuing the same still that such errours are not damnable in themselves but among the Errata at the end of the booke although the Author was warned of the strangenesse of that assertion as I heare and that in contradiction to the doctrine of the Bishop of Canterbury in his Treatise of Councels professing that the Papists withholding the cup from the people is a damnable errour Here is brave jugling in the Text to comply with some and in the Errata to provide against afterclaps for himselfe and to comply with others and betray deep dissimulation in both enough to make some man when such courses are discovered to be abhorred of al. But toproceed the Translator doth not say he hath performed this taske fot the benefit of himselfe yet he plainly deales upon an advantagious argument But if his Majestie shall be pleased out of his gracious disposition whereof he hath given many remarkable documents to vouch safe to receive information concerning the honor of the Lords day in way of a just and necessary Apologie which wee are driven to make I trust through Gods goodnesse in whose hands are the hearts of Kings it shall bee neither advantagious to him nor disadvantagious to us and his Majestie may perhaps bee found to absolve us in the Court of his owne conscience But what is that benefit of the common people whereof this Translator is so zealous I guesse it is in freeing them from superstition and that hereafter they may not bee so peevishly foolish as out of any Cabalismes of conscience to forbeare their may-games and usuall dancings on the Lords day yet some and they no small ones as I have heard do professe them no otherwise to be allowed then as they may be done to the praise and glory of God Which calls to my remembrance what a Scotchman sometimes said as he was going in one of London streets and spying one of his acquaintance on the other side for calling him aloud by his name O Sir saith he when shall we meet at a Taverne to give God thanks for our deliverance out of the I le de Re But how comes that to bee accounted superstitious which all the Bishops of the land and the whole
day which is celebrious amongst all is called the Sabbath if a man interpret in Greeke it is called Septimana by this name all men call this day but the cause of this denomination they know not Now what was the cause hereof in his judgement but the Lords resting thereon as the seventh after hee had finished all his workes in six dayes and thereupon blessing it and sanctifying it whereupon it grew to bee a festivall day generally amongst all Tertullian though alleaged on the other side yet hath beene already shewed to bee of the same minde in this particular with Chrysostome and Austin Adde unto these Epiphanius haer 51. Sabbatum primum est quod ab initio decretum est ac dictum à Domino in mundi creatione quod per circuitum ab eo tempore usque huc juxta septem dies revolvitur The first Sabbath is that which the Lord from the beginning ordained and spake in the creation of the world which by revolution from that time to this according to the circle of seven dayes returneth Athanasius also upon those words of our Saviour All things are given to mee of my Father distinguisheth betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day affirming the Sabbath day to have been the end of the first creation and the Lords day the beginning of the second creation Beda in his Hexameron professeth that the rest of the seventh day after sixe dayes working semper celebrari solebat was alwayes wont to bee celebrated If alwayes then before the children of Israels comming out of Aegypt before Abraham before the flood even from the beginning of the dayes of Adam the first of men Adde unto this the received and most currant opinion of the Jewes by the testimonies of Philo and Josephus vouched by Wallaeus Philo in his second book of Moses writing thus Quis sacrum illum diem per singulas hebdomadas recurrentem non honorat Who doth not honour that holy day according to the weekely revolution thereof and hee delivers this not of the Jewes onely but of the Greekes and Barbarians of inhabitants of Mayn-land and Ilands those of Europe of Asia and of the whole habitable part of the world to the very ends thereof Iosephus l. 2. against Appion professing that there is no City of Grecians or Barbarians nor any Nation to whom the customary observation of the seventh whereon the Jewes rested had not reached Adde unto this the testimony of two Rabbins mentioned by Broughton in his Consent of Scriptures acknowledging this and another Rabbin alleaged by Peter Martyr upon Genesis both cited by Master Richard Brfield in his answer to Master Breerwood Give me leave to adde my mite also of mine owne observation The 92. Psalme hath this title A Psalme and Song for the Sabbath The Chalde paraphrase hereupon writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A praise and Song which Adam the first of men spoke on the Sabbath day manifestly evidencing that in the received opinion of the Jewes in those dayes Adam sanctified the Sabbath Rabbi David Kimchi testifies the same in his Commentary upon that Psalme to be the doctrine delivered in their Darash namely that Adam the first conceived this Psalme after hee was created on the Sabbath day and that afterwards he sinned and so prophaned the Sabbath So that notwithstanding all the bluster which this Author makes this fourth Commandement may continue morall neverthelesse And sure I am Irenaeus puts this difference betweene the words of the Decalogue so he speaks and consequently expungeth not but rather includeth the fourth Commandement and the ceremoniall lawes that Decalogi verba the words of the Decalogue spoken by God himselfe unto all doe therefore continue in like manner with us receiving extension and augmentation by the comming of Christ in the flesh but no dissolution But the precept of bondage so he calls the ceremonials by themselves hee commanded unto the people by Moses fit for their instruction and discipline And Doctor Andrewes I am sure so great a Prelate in our Church denies all ceremonialitie thereunto save only so farre as may justifie the change of the day and in reference to the rigorous rest of the Jewes And Azorius confesseth as before hath beene alleaged that after six dayes worke one day should bee consecrate to divine service is a thing most agreeable to reason Yet I know none that accounteth this a Dictate of nature simply as this Author would faine obtrude upon us but rather with Chrysostom that God by creation hath taught us as much and now God hath gone before us herein wee conceive it to bee most agreeable to reason And D. Field did professe as much upon acknowledgement of the Creation as Master Brode confesseth If all talke of observation of the Jewish Sabbath vanished not till the daies of Bede it was 700. years first in the account of Bellarmine And of any resolutions made by Bede or Damascen hereabouts in D. Prideux sect 2. I finde no mention Yet I thinke it likely enough that both they and Procopius might easily contrive as many resolutions hereabouts as either Theodoret upon the twentieth of Ezekiel or Epiphanius against the Ebionites for neither of them in the places mentioned make any resolutions on this point at al. He grants the Lords day to have beene instituted by the Church from the Apostles dayes which latter clause is an ambiguous phrase For it may bee applyed to the dayes after the Apostles If in the Apostles dayes then undoubtedly it was instituted by the Apostles what meant hee then to say it was instituted by the Church and not to bee so ingenuous as to confesse that it was instituted by the Apostles How far off is he from acknowledging it to have beene instituted by the Lord yet Athanasius openly professeth thus much Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solennitatem Dominus transtulit in diem Dominicum Heretofore with men of old time the Sabbath day was in great price which Festivitie truly the Lord hath translated unto the Lords day And Cyrill in his 12. book on Iohn chap. 58. considering the Lords appearance a second time on the eight day Thomas then being present and upon consideration finding it to have beene the first day of the weeke concludes thus Iure igitur sanctae Congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy Congregations in the Churches are made on the eighth day meaning thereby the first day of the week that is the Lords day and as hee concludeth thus so undoubtedly his opinion was the Apostles themselves did conclude in like manner Now albeit much had beene effected for the abrogation as well of all superstitious fancies about that day as of the day it selfe that is of the Jewish sabbath by the labours of the Fathers fore-mentioned and particularly of Damascen and venerable Bede among the rest yet there comes in an exception somewhat of the nature
wearing Yea they had miracles in store pretended to to be wrought on such as had not yeelded to their doctrine thereby to countenance the superstitious and confound the weake And which was more than this for the authority of their device they had to shew a letter sent from God himselfe and left prodigiously over the Altar in Saint Simeons Church in Golgotha wherin the Sabbatarian dream was imposed forsooth upon all the world on paine of diverse plagues and terrible comminations if it were not punctually observed The letter is at large reported by Roger Hoveden and out of him as I suppose by Matthew Paris who doe withall repeat the miracles wherby this doctrine was confirmed I adde no more but this that could I either beleeve those miracles which are there related or saw I any now like those to countenance the reviving of this strange opinion for now it is received and published I might perhaps perswade my selfe to entertain it Exam. It seemes this Author is not of their opinion who thinke those times wherein Peter de Bruis lived about the yeare 1126. to have been darker times than the dayes of Gregory though some passe such censure on those times accompting them times of darknesse hee is more wise than to concurre in opinion with them and it is a part of his wisedome as it seemes to affect that the world should take notice of so much namely that he puts it upon some only to censure those times as times of darknesse Now who are those some not Papists I presume but Protestants rather and what true Protestant can he name that thinkes otherwise we have cause to feare that too many for their advantage can be content to veile themselves under the vizard of Protestants when in heart they are Papists neither is it possible I should thinke that any other but such should thinke any better of those times than as of times of darknesse It is very likely this Author is not of opinion that the man of sinne is yet revealed or any such time the Apostle prophecyeth of 2 Thess 2. of giving men over to illusions to beleeve lyes for not receiving the love of the truth I much doubt whether he beleeves that Rome is the whore of Babylon whereof Saint Iohn speaketh Revel 17. though he professeth of that whore of Babylon that it is that City which in his dayes did rule over the Kings of the earth yet in that which he accounts light he can be content to concurre with Calvin in denying the morality of the fourth Commandement as touching one day in seven to be sanctified unto the Lord. But whatsoever this Peter de Bruis was whom he professeth to have drawne too deepe on the lees of Judaisme hee avoucheth no testimony hereof but only D. Prideaux his joyning the Petrobrusians with the Ebionites Sect. 7. Now Hospinian professeth that which is directly contrary of the Petrobrusians as whom he joynes with the Anabaptists maintaining Festos dies omnes ad ceremonias Iudaeorum pertinere propterea nullos esse debere apud Christianos quum ceremoniae veteris Testamenti omnes Christi adventu sint impletae ideo sublatae Quorum etiam sententiae Anabaptistae hodie suffragari videntur That all Holidayes belong to the ceremonies of the Iewes and that therefore none such are to be observed by Christians seeing all the ceremonies of the old Testament are fulfilled and abrogated by the comming of Christ And the Anabaptists now adayes seeme to be of the same opinion In the third Tome of the Councels set forth by Binius and 2. part there is an enumeration of his opinions in five particulars and that as it seemes by the close out of Petrus Cluniacensis not one of them is any thing a kin to those Sabbatarian fancies which this Prefacer insists upon Petrus Cluniacensis as it seemes was the man that most opposed this Petrus de Bruis Against his errors he wrote a book in forme of an Epistle on these points 1. Of the Baptisme of children 2. Of the authority of the booke of the Acts of the Apostles 3. Of the authority of the Epistles of Saint Paul 4. Of the authority of the Church 5. Of the authority of the old Testament 6. Againe of the baptisme of children 7. Of Temples Churches and Altars 8. Of the veneration of the holy Crosse 9. Of the sacrifice of the Masse and of the truth of Transubstantiation 10. Of prayers for the deceased 11. Of praising God by Hymnes and musicall instruments Thus Bellarmine relates the heads of that discourse of his not any of which for ought I perceive savoureth of any such Sabbatarian fancie as this Author driveth it unto At length I got into my hands Bibliotheca Cluniacensis and therein the writing of Petrus Cluniacensis against the Petrobrusians Upon all which one Andreas Puercetanus Turonensis hath written certaine notes wherein upon these words in the Preface Contra haereses Petri de Bruis hee writes thus Of this Peter of Bruis who gave name to the Petrobrusian heretiques no mention is found neither in the historians who write the story of those times nor with them who then or a little after contrived the Indices of haeresies and heresiarches Alphonsus à Castro as I thinke was the first who after this our Author remembred him lib. 3. 5. Baptisma haeres 5. and writes that he was a French man of the province of Narbon Although Bernard the sonne of Guido writes that Pope Calixtus the second in the yeare 1128. on the eight of the Ides of Iune held a Councell at Tolouse with Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and Abbats of the Province of Gothia Gascony Spaine and hither Britany In which Councell amongst other things ordered there all those haeretiques were damned and driven out of the Church who counterfeiting a shew of religion did condemne the Sacrament of the Lords body and blood the Baptisme of children and all Ecclesiasticall Orders and the bands of lawfull marriages All which heresies as invented by Peter Bruis and propagated by Henry his successour our Peter in this Treatise of his doth pursue So that this whole story seemes very obscure and yet the two latter points mentioned by this Andreas I doe not find to be any of the opinions laid to the charge of Peter Bruis by those that were contemporary with him For Petrus Cluniacensis reduceth all his heresies as hee calls them but to these five heads 1. He denyes that children before they come to the age of understanding can be saved by the Sacrament of Baptisme and that anothers faith can profit him who cannot use his owne because by their opinion not another mans faith but his owne with Baptisme saveth him the Lord professing that whosoever shall beleeve and bee baptized hee shall be saved but whosoever will not beleeve shall be damned 2. That there ought not to be any fabricke of Temples or Churches that such as are made ought to be throwne downe that holy
saith Veteres subrogarunt diem dominicum in locum Sabbati The Ancients subrogated the Lords Day in place of the Sabbath But he takes no notice of that which immediately followes in Calvin as a reason of the former thus For whereas in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and accomplishment of the true rest which the ancient Sabbath shaddowed by the very day which set an end to shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick unto the shadowing ceremonie Where observe First as touching the persons noted by Veteres the Ancients first and then by Christiani Christians Are not these the Apostles as much as any other and they in the first place as wee best knew what that was which did set an end to shadowes and accordingly to give notice of the pregnant signification of the Day of the Lords Resurrection and therefore 1 Cor. 16. 2. Hee doth intirely referre this to the Apostles as whom he confesseth constrayned by the Iewish superstition to have abrogated the Sabbath and in the place thereof ordeyned the Lords Day Secondly observe that the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Jewish Sabbath he ascribes to the Resurrection And Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech delivered in the Starre Chamber in the case of Traske professeth that It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the grave That Sabbath saith he was the last of them And that Christs Resurrection brought with it a new Creation and a new Creation requires a new Sabbath And hee alleageth Austin Ep. 119. saying The Lords Day was declared to Christians by Christ his Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity But that at this time Calvin should thinke it alterable by the Church no colour of proofe is brought and most unreasonable it is for any to conceave the Sabbath to be as alterable now as in the Apostles dayes it was when from the Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday For that alteration depended upon a second Creation as both Bishop Andrewes observes and that out of Athanasius de Sabbato circumcision◠And Bishop Lakes was of the same opinion as his discourse in Manuscript yet to be seene doth manifest So that unlesse this Prefacer can devise a third Creation and maintaine withall the rest on the Lords Day to bee as ceremoniall as the Jewes rest on the seventh Day was there is no colour why the Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day should bee as alterable now as the day of the Jewish Sabbath was As for the 3. conclusions which hee saith Calvin resolves upon the first whereof hee saith to be this that one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement I say Calvin avoucheth no such thing and Wallaeus shewes that generally the friends of Calvin maintained the contrary between whom neverthelesse and Calvin it was never known that there was any contention herabouts And already I have shewed how unshamefastly this Prefacer abuseth Calvin in alledging one halfe of his sentence and leaving the other part quite out so making Calvin to deliver that absolutely which he affirmes onely conditionally The second resolution which he obtrudes upon Calvin is that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke to the first by the authority of the Church and not by any divine ordinance It is true Calvin sayth not that the day was changed by divine ordinance neither doth he say that it was changed by the authority of the Church but in plaine termes professeth that the Apostles changed it in one place and that admonition was given for the change of it by the consideration of the Day of Christs Resurrection in another to wit Institut lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 36. Now let every sober conscience consider whether that day which was first ordained by authority Divine the apostles would alter by lesse authority then authority Divine especially considering that Christs redemption of the World is the restauration of the World which is as a new Creation and as the Lord rested the seventh day from the workes of Creation so the day of Christs Resurrection was the day of his rest from the worke of redemption so that still the day of the Lords rest is the day of our rest not indeed the day of the Lord our Creators rest that ceasing as being ceremoniall as before hath beene shewed out of Doctor Andrewes but the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest which brought with it a new Creation is now the day of our rest And who was nearer or dearer unto Calvin then Beza whose words upon Revel 1 10. are to this effect He calls that the Lords Day which Paul calls the first of the Sabbaths 1 Cor. 16. 2. Acts 20. 7. on which day it appeares that even then were made the more frequent assemblies by Christians like as the Iewes came together in their Synagogues on the Sabbath Day wherby it may appeare that the fourth precept of sanctifying the seventh day as touching the day of the Sabbath and legall rites was ceremoniall but as touching the worship of God is of the morall Law unalterable and perpetually to continue in this life And that day of the Sabbath continued in force from the creation of the World to the day of Christs Resurrection which being as it were another Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former world or seventh day was assumed the first day of this new World the holy Ghost without doubt dictating thus much to the Apostles As for the third last resolutiō which he pins upon Calvins sleeve namely that the day of rest to be sanctified to the Lord is yet alterable by the church as at first it was neither that first alteration is by Calvin sayd to be made by the church but expressely by the apostles they admonished hereof by the day of Christs resurrection and Beza professeth that our Christian assemblies on the Lords Day are of Apostolicall and Divine tradition And observe I pray how Bishop Andrewes pleades for Episcopall authority as by Divine right in his answer to the first Epistle of Peter Moulin An est apostolicum factum aliquod jure non apostolico Apostolico autem id est ut ego interpretor Divino Nec enim aliquid ab apostolis factum non dictante hoe iis spiritu Sancto Divino Is there any fact of the Apostles by right not apostolicall But by apostolicall that is as I interpret it by Divine For neither was there any thing done by the Apostles which the holy and divine Spirit did not dictate unto them Shall this be of force for the institution of Bishops and shall it not be of force for the institution of the Lords Day as by Divine right But put the case it were so in every particular of Calvin as this Prefacer avoucheth how comes it about that our adversaries practise
to choake us with the authority of Calvin shall we beurged to yield to the authority of Calvin who are reproched usually as Calvinists and so nicknamed In my time of being in the University we heard by credible relation how in one of the Colleges questions were set up to be disputed Contrà Ioannem Calvinum and that disputations of that nature were sometimes concluded in this manner Relinquamus Calvinum in hisce faecibus and we commonly say there is no smoake without some fire No longer agoe then at the act in Oxford last save one Anno 1634. I heard Calvinists reckoned up amongst Papists Pelagians Arminians Puritans as sectaries at least if not as Heretiques by him that preached the act Sermon on the Lords Day in the afternoone and is it fit that we should be pregravated by the opinion of Calvin a man whose memory seemes to be hated by men of this Prefacers spirit so as few men more The fourth Section NEither was hee the onely one that hath so determined For for the first that to keepe holy one day of seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement our Doctor hath delivered in the third section that not Tostatus onely but even Aquinas and with him all the schoolemen have decreed upon it Nor was there any that opposed it in the schooles of Rome that I have met with till Catarinus tooke up Armes against Tostatus affirming but with ill successe that the Commandement of the Sabbath was imposed on Adam in the first cradle of the World there where the Lord is sayd to blesse the seventh Day and to sanctifie it 2 As for the Protestant schooles besides what is affirmed by Calvin and seconded by the Doctor in this following discourse this seemes to be the judgement of the Divines in the low Countries Franciscus Gomarus one knowne sufficiently for his undertakings against Arminians published An. 1628. a little treatise about the originall of the Sabbath and therein principally canvased these two questions First whether the Sabbath were ordained by God immediately upon the Creation of the World Then whether all Christians are obliged by the fourth Commandement alwayes to set a part one day in seven to Gods holy worship both which he determines negatively And Doctor Rivet one of the foure professors in Leyden although he differs in the first yet in the second which doth most concerne us Christians they agree together affirming also joyntly that the appointing of the Lords Day for Gods publique service was neither done by God himselfe nor by his Apostles but by the authority of the Church For seconds Gomarus brings in Vatablus and Wolfgangus Musculus and Rivet voucheth the authority of our Doctor here For so Gomarus in the assertion and defense of the first opinion against this Rivet De quibus etiam cl doctiss Doctor Prideaux in oratione de Sabbato consensionem extare eodem judicio by Rivets information libenter intelleximus I will adde one thing onely which is briefely this The Hollanders when they discovered Fretum le Morire An. 1615. though they observed a most exact accompt of their time at Sea yet at their comming home they found comparing their accompt with theirs in Holland that they had lost a day that which was Sunday to the one being Munday to the other Which of necessity must happen as it is calculated by Geographers to those that compasse the World from West to East as contrary they had got a day had they sayled it Eastward And what should these people doe when they were returned if they must sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must have sanctified a day a part from their to her Countreymen and had a Sabbath by themselves or to comply with with others must have broken the morall Law which must for no respects be violated See more hereof at large in Carpenters Geogr. p. 237. Exam. That Calvin hath any where so determined this Prefacer hath not prooved but shamefully dismembred him thereby to make him to deliver something absolutly which he delivers onely conditionally and that in opposition unto Papists who will have the Lords Day to be kept not onely for order and policy sake but by reason of some mystery and this Calvin professeth to be Jewish Aquinas his words are these Habere aliquod tempus deputatum ad vacandum Divinis cadit sub praecepto morali sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in signum creationis Mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale To have some time deputed wherein to rest for things Divine falls under the morall precept But for as much as in this precept is determined a speciall time in signe of the Creation of the World so it is a praecept ceremoniall Where I doe observe first that this ceremoniality is apparently ascribed to the seventh day and that considered as a signe of the Creation and not to one day in seven And this indeed may well be the concurrent opinion of Schole Divines As for Abulensis of what authority is he to preponderate any one of our Divines nay I appeale to every humane conscience whether no more be morall in this precept then to set some time apart for Gods service For what is it nothing materiall whether we set apart for divine Service one day in a weeke or one day in a month or one day in a yeare or one day in twenty yeares or one day throughout the whole course of a mans life what conscience can be found so cauteriate as to justifie this If so then let him proceed and say it is nothing materiall whether wee consecrate unto God one houre in a day or one houre in a weeke or one houre in a month or one houre in a yeare or but one houre throughout the whole course of a mans life So that I presume every sober man by the very light of nature will be driven to confesse that not only some time ought to be set apart for Gods worship as the Schoolemen commonly teach but that a convenient proportion of time ought to be destinated unto this Now let reason itselfe judge whether any more convenient proportion of time can be devised for this then the proportion of one day in seven And herein let us oppose Azorius to Tostatus if Tostatus doe oppose the morality of one day in seven which is more then I finde a Papist to confront a Papist who plainly affirmeth Rationi maximè consentaneum esse that it is most agreeable to reason that after six workedayes one day should bee consecrated to the service of God Especially since God hath discovered unto us that this is his good pleasure namely that one day in seven should be consecrated unto his service First that we might not be left at large to our own hearts to proportion out the time for Gods Service Secondly for the maintenance of uniformity herein amongst his people who being left unto themselves might and in all
seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are those dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of fervants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breatius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and perpetuall practise might bee confirmed in an opinion of the necessity of that which is not necessary It is apparent that as the Lords Day under the Law was one day in seven So the Lords Day in the Gospell was and still is one Day in seven And both himselfe and Gomarus are driven to professe that we may not allow a lesse proportion then one in seven to Divine worship And I appeale to every conscience to judge by the very light of nature whether the Lord requiring of the Jewes one day in seven to bee consecrated unto him it doth not manifestly follow that wee Christians can allow no lesse then one in seven and whether it bee not fit that the Lords Day should bee our holy Day and as for the allowance of more in a weeke then one let them persuade their owne Churches thereunto first and then it will bee time enough for us to hearken unto them And what should move them to illustrate the memory of Christs Resurrection weekly whereas they contented themselves with a yearely memoriall if at all they observed any such of his Nativity Passion and Ascension and sending downe of the Holy Ghost Why doth hee not consider that the day of the weeke onely whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day in Scripture whereon Iohn the beloved Disciple received from his loving Lord and master that Divine revelation of his concerning things to come 4. If the number of seven that is the observation of one day in seven in this Commandement be changeable then as ceremoniall or as politicall not as ceremoniall for then the Church ought not to observe it Nor as politicall for in the morall Law precepts politicall are not given And to this Rivetus answereth that the observation of the seventh day is ceremoniall and that the Primitive
the Arminian party of which since he hath instanced in none particularly I will make bold to borrow two or three testimonies out of the tractate of Gomarus before remembred And first hee brings in Bullenger who in his comment on the first of the Revelation calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem an Ecclesiasticall Ordinance and after addes Sponte Ecclesiae receperunt illum diem The Church did of its owne accord agree upon that day for wee reade not any where that it was commanded Next Ursinus telling us that God had abrogated the Iewish Sabbath addes presently that hee left it free unto the Church Alios dies eligere to make choise of any other day to be selected for his service and that the Church made choyse of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Zanchius affirmes the same Nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We reade not any where saith hee that the Apostles did command this day to bee observed in the Church of God onely wee finde what the Apostles and others of the faithfull used to doe upon it Liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it holy to the disposition of the Church Arotius Simler David Paraeus and Bucerus which are all there alleaged might bee here produced were not these sufficient Adde hereunto the generall consent of our English Prelats the Architects of our reformation in the time of King Edward the sixt who in the Act of Parlament about keeping holy dayes have determined thus together with the rest of that grand assembly viz. Neither is it to bee thought that there is any certaine time or definite number of dayes prescribed in holy Scriptures but that the appointment both of the time and also of the number of the dayes is left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church to bee determined and assigned orderly in every Country by the discretion of the rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of Gods People Which preamble is not to be understood of holy dayes or of Saints dayes onely whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but of the Lords Day also as by the body of the Act doth at full appeare Exam. In this Section the Prefacer makes a greater bluster by farre then in the former For to except against the proportion of time as of one day in seven to be set apart for the service of God in these dayes of the Gospell is so unreasonable a course and that not onely in the judgement of a Christian conscience but even in the judgement of a naturall man that I cannot easily devise any thing more unreasonable For whereas all confesse that by the very light of nature some time ought to bee set apart for the service of God and not so onely but that a fit and competent proportion of time is to bee consecrated to holy uses as Gomarus acknowledgeth though one of the most eager opposers of the morality of the Sabbath that hitherto have beene knowne Albeit this convenient proportion of time cannot bee so convincingly concluded upon by the light of nature as to draw all to an unanimous consent thereunto yet after God himselfe hath gone before us herein by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it and that upon the ground mentioned both Gen. 2. and in the fourth Commandement henceforth as Chrysostome observeth God hath manifested that one day in seven is to be set apart I may say consequently that one day in seven is that fit proportiō of time which is to be sanctified to Gods holy worship and service and that God hath now manifested as much ever since the Creation And herupon as I imagin Azorius the Jesuite in his institutions is bold to conclude that this course is most agreeable unto reason Now if the Lord under the Law did require such a proportion of time to be sequestred from profan use to Divine at the hands of the Iewes can it enter into the heart of a sober man that God should require lesse of us Christians under the Gospell then he did require of the Jewes under the Law Or that God hath now left it to the liberty of the Church whether they will set apart the proportion of one day in seven or lesse to bee spent in Gods worship If wee consider the service of the day as whereby God is honoured undoubtedly God hath deserved more service at our hands under the Gospell then hee did at the hands of the Jewes under the Law for as much as the love of God to mankinde was never so revealed in former times as in these latter times So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Sonne c. And hereupon undoubtedly it is that our Saviour professeth that from the time of Iohn the Baptist the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force To such an height of devotion hath the Love of God manifested in his Sonne inflamed his true servants according to that of Iohn We love him because he loved us first Againe if wee consider the service of that day as such wherby our soules are profited and promoted in faith and holinesse never was there more need then in these dayes of sanctifying a better proportion of time unto God Service rather then a worse and that in each respect For the truth of God was never so encombred with oppositions before the comming of our Saviour in the flesh as it hath beene since No heretiques to speake of were knowne to trouble the peace of the Church in those former times in comparison to the multitude of heresies that have beene broached since and began to bee set on foote in the very dayes of the Apostles Saint Paul professing that even then the mystery of iniquity did worke And whereas Saint Peter tells us that false teachers should come privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Saint Iude tells them to whom hee writes that such were already crept in turning the grace of God into wantonnesse and denying God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And Saint Iohn after the same manner little children saith hee it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And no marvaile for as much as the mysteries of godlinesse concerning the Trinity of persons and incarnation of the Sonne of God whereat carnall wits are so apt to stumble were never so punctually and distinctly expressed in the books of the old Testament as now they are particularly delivered in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists So that had wee in these dayes two Sabbaths in a weeke insteed of one all were little enough to instruct our people and strengthen them against the oppositions made by men of carnall mindes and thereby to keepe them in the right way of Gods saving truth
And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem praefigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Iustine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath The Sabbath saith hee had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And againe It hath ever beene the Churches doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And for the confirmation hereof brings in that of Austin Ep. 119 ad Ianuarium The Lords Day by Christs Resurrection hath beene declared unto Christians and from that time began to have its festivity Doctor Lakes Bishop of Wells maintaines the same Doctrine after the same manner in his Theses de Sabbato thes 27. Man having sinned and so by sinne abolished the first Creation De jure though not de facto God was pleased by Christ to make a new instauration of the World 28. He as the Scripture speakes of Christs redemptions made a new Heaven and a new Earth Old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29. Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30. As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31. So did Christ when he ended his worke made a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable But a man may easily perceive whither this Prefacer tends and such as are of his Spirit The Rhemists upon the first of the Revel and 10. verse doe observe that the Apostles and the faithfull abrogated the Sabbath which was the seventh day and made holy day for it the next day following being the eighth day in compt from the Creation and that without all Scriptures and Commandements of Christ that we read of yea which is more not only otherwise then was by the Law observed but plainly otherwise than was prescribed
by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
the first day of the weeke their publike meetings and confesseth that the Fathers and all Interpreters almost doe so conceive it though withall he professeth hee sees not how from a casuall fact so he calleth it upon what ground I know not a solemne institution may be justly grounded yet that which went before in some opposition whereunto this is delivered pleaded not for a solemne institution but for a custome onely although upon due consideration it may be found that such a custome if that be granted could not otherwise proceed originally than from a solemne institution It is enough if they ordained that on that day the Churches should be assembled for publique worship which Austin expressely professeth as formerly I have shewed neither doth it appeare in reason how it could be otherwise such assemblies being universall and so continuing to this day Is it credible such universall agreement should come to passe casually if it did yet their continuance of it without dislike doth manifest their joynt Apostolicall approbation who we know were guided by the Spirit of God and even in their time was the first day of the weeke called the Lords Day So that in all this I find no incoherence much lesse notable Indeed in the first of the Corinth chap. 16. 2. he doth not order that the first day should be set apart for Gods service but rather supposeth it and that not onely at Corinth but in the Churches of Galatia how improbable is it that this uniformity should be among them unlesse it proceeded from some authority superiour to the Churches themselves then comming to consider the denomination of the Lords Day and concluding it to be the first day of the weeke and therewithall concluding that sixth Section the seventh Section he begins thus what then Shall we affirme that the Lords Day is founded in Divine authority and answers the question thus For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it however the arguments like me not whereby the opinion is supported and so he proceeds in prosecuting of that which was affirmed by him in the last place concerning his private dislike of some particular courses taken to justifie it He opposeth I grant expresse institution but if by just consequence it may be deduced it serveth our turne both in the generall and in particular at this time and in this place to discover the immodest and unreasonable carriage of this Prefacer who would obtrude the contrary opinion upon Doctor Prideaux as it were in despite of him And indeed it is thought that hee owed him a spight and to pay that hee owed him hee came to this translation But herein the Doctors honour is easily preserved in the despight of this Prefacer yet see a greater degree of impudency in this Prefacer For he puts upon the Doctor as if hee had shewed the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution by the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuits Canonists and Schoole-men of some great Lutherans by name whereas it is plaine that he mentioneth more Papists maintaining the Lords Day to be of Divine institution then opposing it And amongst them that maintaine it one to wit Sylvester professeth it to be opinionem communem not one avouched as affirming the contrary And as for the great Lutherans this Author speaketh of loving to speake with a full mouth they are but one and that Brentius who is said to affirme it to be a civill ordinance and not a commandement of the Gospel a very strange phrase in my opinion to call it a civill ordinance the ordinance being in force many hundred yeeres before the Church of God had any civill government of their own and being in the Apostles dayes how could it be lesse than Apostolicall undoubtedly not so much civill as Ecclesiasticall Wee grant willingly we have no expresse precept for it yet Austin is bold to say as wee have heard that Apostoli sanxerunt yet Gomarus allegeth no passage out of Brentius to this purpose But Melancthon ever as I take it accounted of better authoritie than Brentius professeth as Walaeus reports him that consentaneum est Apostolos hanc ipsam ob causam mutasse diem in plaine termes ascribing the change of the day to the Apostles As for the Remonstrants what authority have they deserved to have with us who are so neere a kinne to the Socinians who uttterly professe against all observation of the Lords Day But the foure professors of Leiden have passed over this of theirs without note or opposition And was not Walaeus one of the foure yet what his opinion is himselfe hath manifested to the world yea and his collegue Thysius also yet no cause had they to oppose in this when the other professed it to be a laudable and good custome according to the patterne of the Primitive Church and can the Primitive Church exclude the Apostles and not rather include them And is it probable that the Primitive Church prescribed it to the Apostles and not rather the Apostles to the Church Tilenus calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem not denying it to be instituted by the Apostles nay elsewhere hee affirmes this or rather that it was instituted by Christ himselfe So little cause had these professors to quarrell with this phrase of the Remonstrants having weightier matters in hand wherein to oppose them What if Bullenger call it Ecclesiae consuettudinem so doth Tilenus de praecept 4. Thes 29. yet Thes 24. he professed it to be not onely observed by the Apostles but that it may seeme also to be instituted by Christ himselfe Bullenger saith sponte receperunt to wit in opposition to an expresse Precept as appeares by that which immediately followeth Non legimus eam ullibi praeceptam we doe not reade it any where commanded Ursine alleged in the next place clearely professeth in the very place quoted by Gomarus that God it is who hath abrogated the observation of the seventh day but he addes that he left it free to the Church to choose other daies which Church upon a probable cause chose the first day which was the day of Christs resurrection Now what Church was it but Apostolica Ecclesia as Paraeus upon Ursinus Catechisme observes p. 665. Pro libertate sibi à Christo donatâ pro septima die elegit diem primum propter probabilem causam out of the liberty which Christ hath given them insteed of the seventh day chose the first day of the weeke by reason of a probable cause to wit because on that day Christ rose by whose resurrection the spirituall and eternall rest is inchoated in us and p. 666. Apostoli ipsi mutarunt Sabbatum septimi diei The Apostles themselves changed the Sabbath of the seventh day By the way touch we a little upon this that First this was done in reference to Christs resurrection so Calvin acknowledgeth in reference whereunto this day had some prerogative above
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
plainly to import A manifest argument in my judgement that the observation of that day as in place of the Jewes Sabbath in the very days of the Apostles doth even convince their consciences that it can savour of nothing lesse than Apostolicall institution which because they doe impugne therefore they desire to impugne the use thereof as nothing so antient as to be received of the Apostles themselves For consider I pray how should the converted Jewes come to change their Sabbath if not by order from the Apostles themselves whose doctrine it was that Christ came to set an end to all ceremonies And as for the substitution of a day in the place of it that all did joyntly concurre herein without any dependance of some upon the judgement of others what strange strength of convicting evidence must there needs be in the resurrection of Christ to draw them hereunto farre beyond Almighty Gods resting on the seventh day from his worke of creation What could be devised to inferre greater morality by the very light of nature than this which should be so forcible to move all to concurre herein and that with the first But if they received it some from others how improbable it is that the Apostles should receive it from the Churches and not rather the Churches from the Apostles Then consider we no where reade of any difference here-abouts among the Apostles counting Paul amongst them who received from the Lord after his ascension into heaven what he delivered unto others How then came it to passe that they all so throughly and at the first agreed herein If as having received it from the Lord then the case is cleare that it is of most Divine institution But if onely as drawne hereunto by the consideration of Christs resurrection on that day being guided by the Spirit of God infallibly to order as other things so the time of Divine service to prevent the danger of division and confusion upon just ground even this is enough to manifest the strength of evidence which the Lords resurrection carrieth with it as to convince them so to appoint and to convince others of the reasonablenesse thereof seeing all Churches did so universally and so earely yeeld thereunto and since that time so constantly persevered therein The resurrection therefore of Christ is nothing inferiour to the Lords rest on the seventh to draw us to the sanctifying thereof And the Apostles ordering it in this manner especially as his extraordinary Ministers is answerable to the Lords Commandement for the sanctifying of the seventh especially that very commandement by just analogie having force also in this And albeit Walaeus saith no more pag. 174. of those three places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. Apoc. 1. 10. than that the whole Church reformed hath constantly gathered therehence Diet Dominicae usum the use of the Lords Day yet both pag. 183. he doth manifestly imply the Apostles to have instituted it where he saith that quae ab ipsis Apostolis instituta non sunt such things as have not beene ordained by the Apostles were never in that manner observed in all Christian Churches throughout the world as the observation of the Lords Day And before pag. 172. he concludes that the first day of the weeke was by the Apostles substituted in the place of the seventh and commended to the Church and that potestate singulari by singular power and as they were extraordinary Ministers of Christ put in trust by his Spirit to be faithfull in giving Precepts marke this well not onely touching faith and manners but also de Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recto ordine for the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular what day of the weeke is to be observed by force and analogie of the fourth Commandement to prevent dissention and confusion among the Churches And I am verily perswaded that as many as stand for the Divine institution of the Lords Day would rest fully satisfied with this Austin I am sure who is alleged by Walaeus in the first place as maintaining it to be of Christs institution writes thus of it Serm. de temp 251. Dominicum ergodiem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideo religiosa solennitate habendum sanxerunt quia in eadom Redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit this being premised let us come to the consideration of that which he delivers about the justification hereof from pag. 152. where he acknowledgeth that among the ancient Writers and Doctors of the reformed Church there have beene some who have referred the celebritie of this day to the fact and institution of Christ At the first by Christs fact in this place I understood Christ apparitions to the Apostles as they were assembled together on this day But upon better consideration and ponderation of the passages alleged by him out of Austine and Cyril I thinke rather that by Christs fact he means Christ resurrection or perhaps btoh the one and the other For the sentence taken out of Austine hath reference to the one and that out of Cyril to the other And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his thes 36. de Sabbato referres unto both this first day Christ sanctified not onely by his resurrection but by sundrie apparitions before his ascention by sending them the Holy Ghost But the latter seem to depend on the former And therefore that learned Bishop in his defence of that Thesis 36. writes thus I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke it was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily you may perceive the reason in my Thesis you cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day Now neither Austin nor Cyril speake of any institution made by Christ Eusebius I confesse doth intimate such an institution and Gregory the great and so doth Athanasius seeme to expresse as much and Sodulius after him but I am apt to conceive that they meant no other thing hereby than that the consideration of Christs resurrection by the suggestion of Christs Spirit should move the Apostles to ordaine and establish the celebration of this day unto the Christian world Junius in my judgement seemes to have no other meaning when he professeth the cause of the change of the day to be the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ it is true he saith afterwards that the Lords Day succeeded the seventh Christi observatione atque instituto by Christ observation and ordinance but I understand thereby no other ordinance than is bespoken by Christs resurrection on the day and observation of the day For anon he tells us that the Lords Day was observed Christi facto exemplo institutoque Apostolorum vereris Ecclesiae observatione constantissimâ by Christs fact example and by the ordinance
of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word
precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7 th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke
of creation the first day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the work of redemption in the morning thereof rising from his grave and in respect of Christs resurrection on this day what colour hath any other day of the weeke comparable hereunto to make it fit to stand in competition with this Yes saith D. Walaeus the Thursday may and that in consideration of Christs ascension on that day yet Doctor Walaeus well knowes that that day of the week was never thereupon called the Lords Day either by the Apostles or by the Church as the day of our Saviors resurrection was Againe consider Christs resurrection and ascension are to be computed but as one compleate motion save that he was to stay some time by the way here on earth for the confirming of his Disciples faith and giving them commission for preaching the Gospel and order to wait at Jerusalem untill they were endued with power from on high to carry the glad tidings of salvation all the world over So Christs dying and continuing under the power of death is but one worke of Redemption He confesseth that Christs resurrection afforded an argument to the Church Apostolicall to prefer this day before all others very well even before the day of his ascention for religious assemblies as al the ancients testifie But it followeth not therefore that Christ by this his fact did institute the same day to the same end Now this is a very strange phrase by his fact on the day to institute the day to such an end T is well knowne facts doe not institute otherwise than as therefrom may be concluded that such a day is to be kept and in this sense he doth as good as confesse that Christ by his fact did institute for the Apostolicall Church did hereupon preferre this day as he confesseth all the ancients doe testifie And did they not inferre this there-hence also as most agreeable to the Will of God Doctor Walaeus proceedeth thus So God in the creation of the world rested the seventh day but unlesse God had proposed this rest of his as an example and confirmed it by precept never had the Church of the old Testament beene bound as from heaven to the weekly observation thereof To this I answer that the like may be said of the observation of one in seven yet seeing God did cōmand this proportion to the Jews without any new commandement we can inferre that surely God requires as good a proportion of us Christians In like manner seeing God commanded unto them the day of his rest from creation we without any the like commandement may better inferre that Christs resting day from the worke of Redemption ought to be our rest than they could that the seventh day ought to betheir rest 2. Man could not possibly have knowne how many dayes God was creating the world so to know what day he rested that they might conforme unto him in their rest unlesse God had revealed it unto them but supposing God had revealed it and withall had called it his holy day and it were knowne unto them that one day in the weeke must be set apart as Gods holy Day in this case I appeal to every Christian conscience whether this were not sufficient to conclude that surely the day of the Lords rest being his holy Day ought to be the day of our rest and our holy day Now thus the case stands with us Christians we know what day our Saviour rose having finished the worke of mans Redemption we know the Jewes Sabbath is abrogated we know the proportion of one day in seven remaines still to be consecrated as an holy day to the Lord we know the Lord prescribed to the Jewes for their Sabbath his resting day from the creation which is called his holy day And in like manner we know that under the Gospel the first day of the weeke being the day of our Saviours resurrection is called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day as for Easter and Pentecost the case is nothing like those festivalls being not of single dayes but of whole weeks once in a yeere yet this proportion we find betweene them and the weekely Sabbath There are in a yeere seven times seven weeks and a fraction lesse than halfe a seven so that the memory of the creation was seven times in a yeere celebrated more than the memory either of their deliverance out of Egypt or of their reaping the fruits of the land of Canaan the one farre surmounting the other yet their Easter began the day of the yeere whereon they came out of Egypt And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells Thes 41. de Sabbat professeth that God sets out the day by the worke he doth on the day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21. 24. once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down
the Spirit on his Apostles on the day of Pentecost hath not so much force considered alone but onely in a conjunct consideration with Christs resurrection on that day And like as after his death he arose on that day manifesting himselfe mightily thereby to be the Sonne of God so after his ascension into heaven he came downe by his Spirit on that day the seventh first day of the weeke after his resurrection manifesting thereby as Peter signifieth that he had obtained the dispensation of the Spirit We doe not say the Spirit was on the day of Pentecost sent downe because it was the Lords day But being sent down on that day as the Law is confessed to have beene delivered on that day this tends to the marking out of that day more and more for manifestation of the power of Christ That day they receiving power from on high by the descending of the holy Ghost upon them whereby they were inabled to preach the Gospel And that day of the weeke which is set apart for Divine service as our Christian Sabbath as that day whereon the Holy Ghost doth ordinarily come downe upon his servants in the ministerie of his Word and celebration of the Sacraments and putting up of our joynt prayers unto him for the sanctifying and edifying Christ body which is the Church and even in this respect that day hath a farre better congruitie to the day that is to be set apart for Divine service than any other day in the week besides The day of his ascension he departed from them as touching his presence corporall but on the day of Pentecost he came downe upon them as touching his presence spirituall and so he doth still in our Sabbath exercises on the Lords day though not in so extraordinary a manner yet no lesse effectually to that edification and sanctification of our soules Seventhly And whereas some urged that if Christ himselfe had not instituted this day after his resurrection the most Primitive Church should have beene left destitute of a certaine day of Gods worship to wit from the time of Christs resurrection to the first consecrating of the Lords Day which they take to be absurd and I confesse it seems unlikely that the Apostles tooke upon them to order ought untill they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that being the day they were to receive power from on high to execute the commission given them Mat. 28. 19. to teach all nations till which time they gathered no Churches For the strengthning the former reason it is added That the Jewes Sabbath was now abolished by Christs death and resurrection This I doe not deny but the Apostles might very well be ignorant hereof as yet as not having received the Spirit as yet yea after the receiving it we find they challenged Peter for going to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel Acts 11. to this argument some answer as Walaeus saith that the daies between Christs ascension and the comming downe of the Holy Ghost upon them were spent in continuall meetings of the Apostles and other Disciples But from the day of Pentecost the Lords day thenceforth observed This answer reacheth not unto the daies interceding betweene Christs resurrection and his ascention And when I consider Bishop Lake his discourse grounded as he professeth upon universall observation and which I find no reason to resist namely that the worke of the day commends the day If ever any day deserved to be festivall to any surely the day of our Saviours resurrection deserved to be festivall unto them to rejoyce in the Lord thereon according to that of the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein the ancient Fathers accommodating the place thereunto The two verses immediatly preceding carrying in the forehead of them a manifest relation unto Christ as the proprietary of their meaning 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Now when was this manifested namely that the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner but by Christs Resurrection from the dead being thereby mightily declared to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 14. and was there ever worke more marvellous in the eyes of Gods Servants then the Resurrection of Christ especially considering the disconsolate condition of his Disciples Luke 24. 21. We trusted it had beene he that should have delivered Israel The women departed from the Sepulcher though with feare by reason of the consternation receaved from Angelicall presence their countenance being like lightning yet with great joy by reason of the newes they heard from them of Christs Resurrection upon the noise whereof for they were commanded to carry word of it to his Disciples the Apostles as it seemes were gathered together and in the evening after hee had shewed himselfe to his Disciples going to Emaus Christ presented himselfe in the midst of them Eight dayes after they were met together and Thomas with them who being absent the time before gave out speeches of peremptory incredulity concerning his Resurrection therefore then and not till then also the dores being shut Christ came before them and calls unto Thomas to see his hand and to put his finger into his side These apparitions of our Saviour twice on the first day of the weeke might well adde somewhat to the confirmation of them in the festivity of this day and howsoever betweene his ascension and the day of Pentecost they had their meetings yet how improbable is it they should put no difference betweene such a festivall and other dayes of the weeke A second answer Walaeus gives namely that others say that from the day of Pentecost it was not necessary that the Lords Day should bee observed but that at the first the Apostles together with the Jewes observed their Sabbath not as a ceremony of the Old Testament but as a free circumstance of divine worship as for a while they reteyned Circumcision and difference of meats which they gave over after the Jewes were found obstinately to refuse the Gospell So that in these mens judgements the Lords Day was no festivall to the Apostles till by occasion of the Jewes obstinatenesse a proper occasion for the institution of a new festivall And give mee leave to differ from them in yoking Circumcision and difference of meats with the Jewes Sabbath neither of them prefiguring Christ as to come like as the Jewes Sabbath did prefiguring his rest that day in the grave as the ancients have conceived it without any contradiction that I know Had they permitted sacrifices for a time their comparison had beene more congruous I see no reason to withhold me from concurring with Austin and in him with all the ancients for ought I know to the contrary that Dies Dominicus Resurrectione Domini declaratus est Christianis ex illo coepit habere
would not condemne And Gomarus who is most opposite to us in this argument professeth that seeing not onely a time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be set apart for Divine service therefore we must now under the Gospel allow rather a better proportion of time for Divine service than a worse And in this also Rivetus rests in his answer to the first argument of Walaeus contending for one day in seven as necessarily to be allowed to the worship of God For Bullinger I know not where to seeke that which the Doctor aimes at As for Bucer I have shewed before out of him that the Lords Day was by the Apostles themselves consecrated to Divine actions which ordinance the antient Churches observed most religiously and that one of the chief causes hereof was that they might celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which fell out on the first day of the weeke of power to abrogate this day left unto the Church he saith nothing but to the contrary rather that all they who desire the restoring of Christs Kingdome ought to labour that the religion of the Lords Day may be soundly called backe and be of force Yet saith he it is agreeable to our piety to sanctifie other festivalls also to the commemoration of the Lords chiefe workes whereby he perfected our redemption as the day of his incarnation nativity the Epiphany the passion the resurrection ascension and Pentecast And the place which Doctor Rivet explic decal pag. 189. col 2. allegeth out of Bucer in Mat. 10. to prove that he maintained the day to be alterable is nothing to the purpose and as little doe they make for it which hee allegeth out of Musculus To find out what Chemnitius saith hereupon I turne to his Examen of the counsell of Trent concerning festivalls There pag. 154. col 2. he saith that Christ to show that he kept the Jewes Sabbath freely and not of necessitie against the opinion of necessity touching the abrogation of the Mosaicall Sabbath hee taught both by word and deed By word in saying that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath and by his deeds as in healing on the Sabbath day and defending his Disciples in plucking the eares of corne Now hereby I take it to be manifest and acknowledged by Chemnitius that none hath power to abrogate the Sabbath but he that is Lord of the Sabbath And seeing even Christians were to have their Sabbath as appeareth by those words of our Saviour pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day which is delivered of the time about the destruction of the Temple by Titus at what time Paul had suffered martyrdome divers yeeres before by whose writings it doth appeare that the Lords Day was kept in place of the Jewes Sabbath both by the practice of the Apostles and the Churches of Galatia and Achaia as Chemnitius acknowledgeth from the force of those places Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. and Apoc. 1. 10. in the next columne it followeth that the Lords Day was the Christian Sabbath and so to this day continueth and consequently that none hath power to alter it but hee that is Lord of the Sabbath which is Christ himselfe it being accordingly called the Lords Day Therefore if any pretend that Christ hath delegated this power of his unto the Church it stands upon them to make it good But Chemnitius proceeds pag. 155. col 1. and shewes how the Apostles at the first tolerated their weak faith who without superstition observed dayes Mosaicall Rom. 14. and that such as were stronger in faith after the abrogation of the old Testament judged all dayes to be equall in themselves and none more holy then another We willingly grant as much and adde the reason hereof to wit because the holinesse of the day preferred before his fellowes consisted in some mysterious signification which had reference unto Christ as to come all which kind of shadowes the body being come are now vanished away Hee proceeds saying The Apostles also manifested by their example that in the new Testament it was free to come together either every day or what day soever they thought good to handle the Word and Sacraments and to the publique or common exercises of piety So the Sabbath day and other festivall dayes they taught All this wee willingly grant but here-hence it followeth not that one day of the weeke was not of more necessary observation for the exercises of piety than another Farther saith he that they might manifest that the exercises of Ecclesiasticall assemblies were not tied to certaine dayes they daily persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord rose from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all
wherein besides these peccant fancies before remembred some have so farre proceeded as not alone to make the Lords Day subject to the Jewish rigour but to bring in against the Jewish Sabbath and abrogate the Lords Day altogether I will no longer detaine the reader from the benefit hee shall reape thereby Onely I will crave leave for his greater benefit to repeat the summe thereof which is briefely this First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no morall and perpetuall precept as the other are Sect. 2. Secondly that the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremoniall onely and obliged the Jewes not morall to oblige us Christians to the like observance Sect. 3. and 4. Thirdly that the Lords Day is founded onely on the authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandement which hee calls a scandalous doctrine Sect. 7. nor any other expresse authority in holy Scripture Sect. 6. and 7. Then fourthly that the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly that in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from works of labour required from us as was exacted of the Jewes but that we may lawfully dresse meat proportionable to every mans estate and doe such other things as are no hindrance to the publique service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly that on the Lords Day all recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and increase mutuall love and neighbour-hood amongst us and that the names whereby the Jewes were wont to call their festivalls whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifieth to dance and to be merry or make glad the countenance If so if all such ceremonies as do increase good neighbor-hood then wakes and feasts and other meetings of that nature If such as honestly may refresh the spirits then dancing wrestling shooting and all other pastimes not by law prohibited which either exercise the body or revive the mind And lastly that it appertaines to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what pastimes are to be permitted and what are not obedience unto whose commands is better farre than sacrifice to the Idols of our owne inventions not unto every private person or as the Doctors owne words are not unto every mans rash zeale who out of a schismaticall Stoicisme debarring men from lawfull pastimes doth incline to Judaisme Sect. 8. Adde for the close of all how doubtingly our Author speakes of the name of Sabbath which now is growne so rife amongst us Sect. 8. Concerning which take here that notable dilemma of Iohn Barkley the better to encounter those who still retaine the name and impose the rigor Cur porrò illum diem plerique Sectariorum Sabbatum appellatis What is the cause saith he that many of our Sectaries call this day the Sabbath If they observe it as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on the day and then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest the day but valiantly overcame the powers of death This is the summe of all and this is all that I have to say unto thee good Christian reader in this present businesse God give thee a right understanding in all things and a good will to doe thereafter Exam. This Prefacer accounts the opinions opposite to his to be fancies D. Willet on the contrary as wee have heard accounts this Prefacers opinion maintained by M. Rogers no better than fantasies which shall vanish however now for a time they flourish Sure wee are every plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out This Prefacer professeth those whom hee opposeth be opposite to the tendries of our Church and indeed the Author whom D. Willet intimateth intitled his booke audaciously enough The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England but D. Willet on the other side wondred that any professing the Gospel should gain-say and impugne the positions maintained by D. Bownde And sure I am Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake agreed with them And it is well knowne to some what the former Archbishop of Canterbury professed to the face of M. Broade when he came to move for the printing of a second book concerning the Sabbath What Bishop can our opposites name of this Church whose praise is among the writers of these times that hath manifested his opinion in opposition to these As for the judgements of all kinde of writers which he boasts of I thinke never came a Divine to take pen in hand to vaunt so much and performe so little As for the unsafe condition of our Tenets which he suggests excepting those monstrous and wild Tenets mentioned by M. Rogers for which I know no better evidence than his word and that in very odde manner delivered I know nothing unsafe nothing dangerous in any Tenet of ours who now seeme to walke as upon the pinacles of the Temple and indeed in this respect they are like to prove very dangerous to us yet I would it were not more dangerous to the Church of God to be bereaved of so many faithfull Pastors For certainly it shall be honourable unto them they cannot suffer in a more honorable cause than this in standing for the sanctifying of the Lords Day in memory of his resurrection who that day being formerly a stone refused of the builders was made the head of the corner For what danger is it to maintaine that from the Creation the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and what a shamefull course is it so to expound it as in reference to a time 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after and that in spight of the ancient Fathers And manifest reason as appeares by division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continuing to the time of the Law delivered on the mount Sinai as appeares by the story of falling of Manna and the Jewes gathering of it on sixe dayes none fallingnow being gathered on the seventh as the day on the week whereon God rested after he had made the world in six What danger in maintaining that God required from the beginning and afterwards specified so much in the Law that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto Gods service and hence to inferre that if God required so much of the Jews under the Law it were most unreasonable and unconscionable we should not afford unto him and his service as good a proportion of time under the Gospel Thirdly what danger is
the seventh day to be sanctified therefore now under the Gospell the Sabbath is to be translated from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke Or thus the Lord in the fourth commandement gave in charge to sanctifie the Sabbath and tells them that the seventh day of the weeke was their Sabbath therefore the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day of the weeke to the Lords day is of divine institution As touching the first of these deductions that which comes nearest thereunto is the discourse of Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in the Starre Chamber The Sabbath had reference to the old creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new creation and so to have a new Sabbath And Athanasius his discourse long agone upon that of Matth. 11. 27. All things are given to me of my Father Finis prioris creationis Sabbatum The end of the first creation was the Sabbath day but the beginning of the second creation is the Lords day and of this hee discourseth there more at large And we find manifestly this notable congruitie betweene the Sabbath day and the Lords day that like as God on the seventh day rested from the worke of creation so Christ our Saviour rising on the first day of the weeke from the dead made that the first day of his resting from the worke of redemption But when I consider the Doctors sharp censures of weaknesse of impudency of ignorance it is not credible he should closely let flee at such as Athanaesius and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester Neither doe I find thoroughout this whole discourse any notice taken of this ground whereupon their discourse runnes It is more likely by farre that some meaner persons and poore snakes are herein set up as markes to shoot at and as signes to be spoken against It is true many doe prove herence the morality of the fourth commandement The author of the practice of pietie which goes under a Bishops name takes this course of his tenne arguments to prove the commandements of the Sabbath to be morall this is the second Because it was commanded of God to Adam in his innocency Bishop Andrewes in his Patterne of catecheticall doctrine taketh the like course as formerly hath beene mentioned and which is more professeth This to be a principle that the Decalogue is the law of nature revived and the law of nature is the Image of God now in God saith he there can be no ceremony but all must be eternall and so in this Image which is the law of nature and so in the Decalogue whereas a ceremony is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and accordingly that one day in seven is to bee observed and consecrated unto Gods Service as Chrysostome long agoe hath inferred herence but it is nothing usuall to inferre herence the celebration of the Lords day In like manner not one that I know ancient or late doe conclude from the fourth commandement either the celebration of the Lords day or the translation of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the weeke But herence indeed they inferre and most justly in my judgement that if one day in the weeke were to be consecrated unto the Lord by vertue of the morall law in the dayes of the old Testament much more doth it become us by the very light of nature to consecrate as good a proportion of time to Gods service under the Gospell And accordingly to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification of that day in the exercises of pietie and so farre forth as they are found to hinder it not for any mysterious significations sake in which respect a very rigorous rest is most commonly conceived to bee enjoyned to the Jewes I doe wonder the Canonists are reckoned amongst those who doe build the celebration of the Lords day upon the constitution of the Church and affirme this absolutely when in the next Section many Canonists are alleaged out of Azorius as maintaining the divine authority of the Lords dayes and one of them Sylvester by name professing it to be opinionem communem And as for Schoole-men it is apparant that Dominicus Bannes puts a manifest difference betweene the Lords day and other festivities which are ex institutione ecclesiae And whereas Bellarmine is alleaged as the mouth of the Schoolemen to affirme absolutely that the celebration of the Lords day is by the constitution of the Church and that in distinction from them who say it was ordered by the Apostles I find no such matter in the place quoted but rather the contrary both confirming that one day in a weeke is to be consecrated to the Lord by law divine and whereas it was not fit that now the Saturday should be it therefore the Sabbath was turned into the Lords day by the Apostles his words are these Ius divinū requirebat ut vnus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino non autem conveniebat ut servaretur Sabbatum Itaque Sabbatum ab Apostolis in diem Dominicum versum est likewise Sixtus Senensis saith that the institution of the Lords day is of the Apostles as I have shewed in my answer to the preface S. 5. It is true that which is here reported of Brentius as who professeth it to be left indifferent to the Church to ordain one day in seven or on day in fourteene to be consecrated which whether it be not an unreasonable conceit I am willing to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux yet Gemardus the Lutheran will not follow Brentius in this as I have shewed in my answer to the preface and 5. Section For hee acknowledgeth the celebration of the Lords day to be juxta Apostolorum constitutionem And as for Chemnitius what he writes hereof is not expressed but for the divine authority of the celebration of the Lords day I have represented the joynt consent of some 11. or 12. of our moderne divines in the place before mentioned Besides the concurrence of the ancient Fathers not one of them being so much as pleaded for the opposite Tenet and lastly the generall answer of Christians in the times of persecution when they were demanded in this manner Dominicum servasti hast thou kept the Lords day for usually it was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I cannot omit it for I am a Christian The first opinion to wit of those who maintained the divine authoritie of the celebritie of the Lords day by the old Testament is here censured for inclining much to Judaisine but it is not expressed wherein And it is apparant they doe not maintaine the observation of the seventh day Certainely this is delivered in reference to somewhat that is not thought fit to be expressed yet the prefacer did expresse it imputing unto them whom he opposeth that they doe observe the Jewish Sabbath not in respect of the Jewish day but of the Jewish manner observing it to wit in the way of a rigorous
grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that w ch is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24. 20. D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this
nor any that I know that in this sense all or any are bound to keep the seventh or a seventh day holy but onely by vertue of Gods command Yet this wee professe that seeing it is generally confessed that by the very light of nature some time is to be set apart for Gods service Wee cannot devise in reason any better course then to set one day in seaven apart for this considering the first division of dayes is into weekes and if a seventh part of our time be in reason to be consecrated unto God wee thinke it more convenient to set one intire day in seven apart for this then the seventh part of every day because the other businesses of every day are apt to cause distraction from the Lords service And as I have but erst discoursed it is more fit the Master should appoint unto the servant what proportion of service hee shall performe unto him then that this should be left to the discretion or liberty of the servant 1. both the honour of the Master requiring this 2. and the good of the servant for hereby hee shall be assured of the better acceptance at the hands of his master And so for the particular day it is fit the Master should marke out that also unto him by some prerogative set upon the day as hee did the seventh day by finishing the worke of Creation and by his rest thereon from his workes to call man to an holy rest from his so to be more free for the service of his Creator In which cases both touching the proportion of the time and particularity of the day the Law being made it shall continue immutable and unalterable by the will of the Creature but mutable and alterable according to the will of the Creator so that things being well distinguished and rightly considered and stated I see no bug-beare of inconvenience in all this Neyther doe I see any reason why the spending of one day in Gods holy worship as a morall and perpetuall duty should seeme distastfull to any Since it is apparant that God commanded it unto his people of the Jewes and for 1600 yeares it hath beene continually observed by Christian Churches unto this day and I make no doubt but it shall hold till Christs comming though from the beginning of the World it was never found to be so hotly opposed as at this day And why should any man stick in acknowledging it to be morall when never any man busied himselfe to finde out any ceremoniality in reference to the proportion of one day in seven Neither doe I thinke ever any man called it judiciall but Azorius professeth it to be rationi maximè consontaneum most agreeable to reason and no man that I know hath at any time set himselfe to devise a proportion of time to be spent in Gods service more agreeable to reason then this And as for the third offence taken for I know not any that give it The fourth Commandement is brought by none that I know to prove that the Lords Day is now become our Christian Sabbath but supposing it to be our Sabbath as the booke of Homilies sayth it is and our Saviour signified that Christians should have their Sabbath as well as the Jewes had theirs Math. 24. 20. wee produce the fourth Commandement to prove that wee ought to sanctifie it and that we may the better sanctifie it to rest from all workes that hinder the sanctification thereof And indeed the Commandedement is so drawen as to command one day in seaven to be observed and whatsoever is that seventh prescribed by lawfull authority to sanctifie it and abstaine from all works whereby the hallowing of it is disturbed and all this we take to be morall namely the worshipping of God in a certaine proportion of time prescribed by him and to that purpose to rest from workes not for any mysterious signification sake as did the Jewes wee thinke the practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes is sufficient to inferre the apostolicall and divine institution thereof from hence Athanasius Cyrill Austin and the Fathers generally for I know not one alleaged to the contrary so take it And the Lords Day hath no other notion in Scripture language then a day of the Lords institution and this is confirmed in that it comes in the place of the Jewes Sabbath which is called in Scripture the Lords holy day Esay 58. and Psal 118. 24. of the day wherein Christ was made the head of the corner having beene formerly refused of the builders it is expresly said that it is the day that the Lord hath made and thereupon wee are called to rejoyce and be glad in it And it hath this congruity in the cause of its institution to the first Sabbath that as on the seventh day the Lord rested from his worke of Creation so on the first day of the weeke the Lord Christ rising from the dead then rested from his worke of redemption And lastly Christ bringing with him a new Creation is it strange that he should bring with him a new Sabbath and no day so fit for this as the day of his Resurrection And lastly whosoever doth not rest satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church must hee not be driven to acknowledge an ordination more then humane requirable thereunto Of the necessity of my consequences and evidence of expresse Scripture formerly mentioned I leave it to the indifferent to judge and to none sooner then to Doctor Prideaux himselfe none being more able to judge of consequences then hee being so versed therein and I am well persuaded of the indifferency of his affections and had those writings in the canvassing of this point beene extant before this Lecture of his which hath since come to the light of the presse I am apt to conceave that either hee would have given way to that which seemes in my judgement to be the truth or represented good reason of his dissenting from it The Apostles example nor so onely but drawing the Churches generally to the same practise doth argue a constitution yet more is brought for the confirmation of the authority of the Lords Day then example That of searching into the veyles and shadowes of the old Testament to finde this institution is a mystery unto mee and so farre am I from that course that I know none guilty of it The ancient Fathers sometimes doe expatiate this way for the setting forth of the honorable condition of the Lords Day but they build not doctrines thereupon which if they had done in some particular case advantageous to our adversaries it had beene enough to have cryed us downe As for Judaisme I have often shewed how little colour there is for any such imputation to be cast upon us but rather upon our adversaries I see no cause to range the Petrobusian with the Ebionite but were they yoake-fellowes whereof I finde not the least evidence yet should not wee draw with them under the
souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15. Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18 But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh ayfm the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34. And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observéd the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkeable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of
hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them he confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assiguation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had his originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Umbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this
corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Thirdly They held that they might not so much as kindle a fire or dresse Meat upon that day grounding their conceipt upon the Texts that are Ex. 35. cap. 16. But both Texts seeme to be wrested for that Exod. 35. about kindling a fire must be limited by the verse going before and is not to be understood of any other kindling of fire then for following of their Trades or Servile workes as they are called And so Munster Vatable and others upon that place censure their mistake And that it is a mistake against the meaning of the Commandment I gather from hence For the Jewes that will not put their owne hands to kindle a fire will hire Christians to doe it for them as if the Commandment did not reach Servants and strangers within their gates and they offend as much in doing it by others as if they did it by themselves But so doe they use to abuse the Scripture and confute their Glosses by their owne practice As for the 16. Chapter of Exod. which seemeth to forbid the dressing of Meat I hold that mistaken also Read the Chapter and mark whether you can finde that upon the sixth day they were to dresse any more then served for that day and to lay up the rest undressed untill the Sabbath at what time I hope they were to dresse it before they did eat it And indeed only the providing of Manna is there forbidden and a promise whereof they had experience that it would not putrifie upon the Sabbath though they kept it till then whereas upon other dayes it would And in this sense doe I understand the severe punishment of him that gathered sticks upon the seventh day it was because he then made his provision and did it it should seeme with an high hand Numb cap. 15. As for recreations I can say nothing but that seeing the Lords day is to be the exercise of that life which is spirituall and as a foretast of that which is eternall it were to be wisht that wee did intend those things as farre as our frailty will reach But Vivitur non cum perfect is hominibus and wee must be content to have men as good as we may when it is not to be hoped they will be as good as they should Yet we must take heed that we doe not solemnize our feast vainly as either the Iewes or Gentiles did Against whom Nazianzene is very tart Tertul. in his Apolog. In the Civill Law we finde a dispensation for Husbandmen in case of necessity contrary to the Jewish policy Exod. 34. Which is followed by our Law Edward the 6. Wee may in apparrell and diet be more liberall and costly on feasts then on other dayes A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Corporall feasts joyned to the Eucharist wherein the rich did feed the poore Which afterward for inconvenience was removed out of the Church I meane the Corporall feast although in Saint Austins confessions you shall find that in Saint Ambrose days there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Toombs of Martyrs which Saint Ambrose tooke away But though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken out of the Church yet upon those dayes the rich relieved their poore Brethren Which they little thinke of that for feare of breaking the Sabbath have taken away Hospitality Some men are over-nice in this point more nice then Christ himselfe Luc. 14. who on the Sabbath went to a feast and that was to a wedding feast And why not seeing the Sabbath is Symbolum Aeternae not only quietis but Laetitiae therefore resembled to a feast without the toyle of Acquisition So that the Sabbath is not violated by feasts if wee exceed not Necessitatem Personae though Natura wee doe Now Necessitas Personae requireth that more be imployed in providing feasts as a Kings diet then a Subjects a Noble then a Common mans a Colledge then a single Person But we must take care Ne quid nimis in victu joy c. Alogia which S. Austin reproves Epist. 86. ad Casulanum must not be used And we must keepe the Apostles rule Whether wee eat or drinke we must doe all to the glory of God And it were to bee wished that the old practice whereof there is a Patterne in the Kings house some Cathedrall Churches were every where in use That at six a Clock in the Morning Prayers were every where appointed for Servants and such as were to prepare dinner to goe then to Church at whose returne the Masters might goe with the rest of their familie As for other recreations if they be not opposite or prejudiciall to Piety they may well stand with the solemnizing of the Sabbath and other feasts Too much Austerity doth rather hurt then good especially in those dayes wherein Indulgence where of we have Patternes in Gods Synchoreticall Lawes is extorted from those that are in Authoritie by the generall corruption of the time Wherefore I would distinguish in such cases betweene the Precept and permission The Precept sheweth whereunto men should tend and be exhorted and it were to be wished they would follow and keepe the Lords Day as they are directed by the Canon and Injunction The Permission sheweth what must be tollerated for the hardnesse of mens hearts Vacation from bodily labour is required both Perse for it is a figure of our freedome from those Animall toyles in the Church Triumphant and also Propter aliud that we may the better intend our spirituall life To conclude all seeing all agree that it must be observed and differ onely upon what ground and how farre seeing to fetch the authority from God and to keepe it with all reasonable strictnesse maketh most for Piety in a doubtfull case I incline thither though I condemne not them that are otherwise minded wishing that sobriety of judgement to all in such disputes which Saint Paul commendeth Rom. c. 14. FINIS An Errata IN the preface p. 8. li. 22. 23. it is so far to be accompted morall In the treatise p. 3. l. 20. report read repent p. 7. l. 28. to seale reade to steale p. 36. l. 35. a new Father r. a new master p. 37. l. 31. Mockel p. 38. l. 6. blot out and p. 39. l. 32. wee r. who r. 41 l. 8. would read could p. 48. l. 2. â—â—loponus p. 50. l. 39. rather then p. 53. l. 31. unto p. 56. l. 3. from sins read for sins p. 59 l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 33. purse read purpose p. 110. l. 10. 6toh read both p. 110. l. 16. and by sending the holy Ghost p. 122. l. 2. read Rom 1. 4 p. 122. l. the last now read was p. 129. l. 4. read because on that day p. 133. l. 9. Qua read quae page 137. l. 5. his read is p. 144. l. 23. some without read shins with