sinners But seeing there is no such commandement to bee found in them that it cannot bee gathered from them but by consequences which are of no force that no man is blamed in them for the inobservation of that day whereas under the Old Testament God taxed so often and so sharply those that kept not his Sabbaths this is to mee a most firme and assured proofe that neither IESUS CHRIST nor his Apostles have ordained it 6 I adde that if had beene an ordinance of Iesus Christ or of his Apostles undoubtedly the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospell when they found and established the Christian Churches had established the observation of this day as a point of the will of Iesus Christ and of his service under the New Testament and it had beene kept equally by all the Churches For why had they not received it as well as the other points of the Christian Religion and doctrine of the Gospell sith the same authority obliged them therunto Now this is most true that the observation thereof was not practised throughout them all and became not universall wel setled but by the commandements and constitution of the Emperours There diverse imperiall constitutions for the observation of the first day of the weeke Eusebius in the fourth booke of the life of Constantine Chapter 16. and after him Sozomene in the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall History and in the 8 Chapter relateth that Constantine the first made a Law and ordained that on Sunday which is the first day of the weeke and on Friday all publike judgments should surcease that all other affaires should be intermitted that on these dayes all should apply themselves to serve GOD by prayers and supplications and that so he reverenced Sunday because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead and Friday because on it hee was crucified 7 This passage is considerable For it sheweth that Sunday was not observed throughout al the Churches but that it was used as a work-day and that on it common pleas and publike judgements were practised whence we may conclude with a great shew of truth that it was not an institution of Christ nor of his Apostles For if it had beene questionlesse the observation thereof had beene better known and practised and Christians had thought themselves more obliged unto it for the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles then for any imperiall constitution The writers of that story telling also what reason Constantine had to make a constitution concerning the observation of Sunday say simply that he made it because on it Iesus Christ rose from the dead which indeed hath alwayes beene the foundation of this usage but they say not that it was because Iesus Christ and his Apostles had ordained which they ought not to be silent of if that had been true and it had been needlesse to alleadge any other reason 9 This is also worthy to be marked that Sozomen joyneth the Friday with the Sunday and saith that Constantine ordained that day as wel as this day That day because on it Christ was crucified this day because on it Christ rose againe Which sheweth plainely that the day of Christs Resurrection is not of it selfe more obligatory to make christians keep it then is the day of his passion upon the Crosse or of any other of his actions or sufferings That the one may yeeld as just and peremptory a cause thereof as the other that Christ also had not given a commandement more expresse and more necessary for the one then for the other but had left all this to the liberty of the Church For if he had given a particular commandement concerning Sunday it had bin in Constantine a great temerity to ordaine another day in equall ranke with that which Christ had ordained because he ought to thinke that Christ had good reasons for the institution of that day which had not beene valuable for any other day and that by the institution of one day in the weeke particularly and of no moe he would have all Christians to know that no man ought to attempt to institute any other besides that which he had instituted 9 Constantine had beene guilty of farre greater rashnesse and indiscretion by making Friday which was of his institution equall to Sunday which Iesus Christ had ordained yet he did so as is manifest by the words of Sozomen who maketh no ods betweene the ordinance made for Friday and that which was made for Sunday But seeing Constantine in what hee did did nothing amisse it is evident thereby that the observation of Sunday was not of divine institution but of usage and custome only which was not received every where nor well practised where it was received because it was not esteemed necessary Wherefore Constantine by his constitution made it necessary adding another like unto it for Friday all this is flat contrary to the assertion of those which to prove that Sunday is of divine institution yeeld this reason of their opinion that no humane authority can sanctifie a day And lo Constantine sanctified Friday ordaining that it should be imployed in exercises of Religion only wherof we shall speake againe something hereafter God willing 10 Socrates in the fifth booke and 21 Chapter of his Ecclesiasticall story marketh sundry customes in the Churches about the day of their assemblies which some kept in one day of the weeke some in another And saith expressely that Iesus Christ and his Apostles have not ordained any thing concerning holy dayes but have only given precepts of godlinesse and of an holy life And it is most likely that the Christian Churches which in the beginning God assembled among the Iewes kept not for a long while any other day for the exercise of their religion saving the 7th and last day of the week And it is a thing most certain that many Churches of the Gentiles especially in the last more than three hundred yeeres after Christ observed the Sabbath day of the Iewes with the Sunday and made of the one a day of devotion as well as of the other Saint Ignatius Martyr an hundred yeeres after Iesus Christ in his Epistle to the Magnesians exhorteth the Christians to observe the Sabbath not after the manner of the Iewes which there he describeth but after a spirituall and holy manner such as hee setteth downe and addeth that after they had observed the Sabbath they should also observe the first day of the weeke The Councell which met in Laodicea in the fourth age after Christ ordained that Christians must not keepe the Sabbath day and rest in it after the manner of the Iewes which sheweth that till then they observed it Nay according to the translations which we have the Councell did not forbid them absolutely to keepe the Iewish Sabbath but permitted it unto them if they would with this caveat that it were not after the fashion of the Iewes and that they should preferre Sunday before it
had finished after hee had made them in the sixe daies before which was the cause that hee loved and esteemed particularly that day hath in that respect sanctified one of seven daies indefinitely which by that meanes might have beene one of those wherein hee wrought and not the same seventh wherein he rested If that were true it should follow that the Israelites did not observe the last day of the weeke by obligation of the fourth Commandement tying them thereunto but onely in generall one of the seven daies of the weeke and that by some other particular Law they were taught to observe the last of seven although all the rest of Gods Ordinances which are to be found concerning the Sabbath say no more then doth the fourth Commandement and are relative unto it Whereas it is most sure that the Iewes in all times have professed and doe still make profession that they keepe the last day of the weeke by expresse obligation of the fourth Commandement which according to this saying they did never understand All these are as many palpable absurdities And therefore it is most certaine that the fourth Commandement ordaineth expresly and formally the observation of a particular seventh day to wit of the last of seven and not of another 25 Neverthelesse it may be said in some sort that any day whatsoever which is celebrated to the honour and glory of God hath its foundation on the fourth Commandement and that so we now doe observe our Sunday and other solemne and extraordinary daies by vertue of that Commandement Not that it enjoyneth them properly and directly but onely indirectly and by deduction or consequence taken from the foundation and generall end thereof which is to enjoyne all men to serve God publikely and to consecrate for that purpose some solemne times which in this respect whatsoever they be may be all referred unto it not as being commanded in their particular kinde but onely in their genus which is covertly and fundamentally contained in it and therewith determined expresly to one kinde only to wit to the seventh day and to the last of seven not for ever but during the time of the old Testament only Wherefore to say that the fourth Commandement obligeth onely and in expresse termes to a seventh day unstinted and not to this particular seventh which is here the point in question is a thing altogether unreasonable as is evident by that hath beene said 26 It is also a thing farre removed from all reason to say that verily the observation of a certaine day of seven to wit the last was a thing ceremoniall and positive and that this is the day which the Gospel hath abrogated but to observe alwaies one day of seven is morall and that this is ratified and confirmed by the Gospell For the determination and particular observation of any day whatsoever amongst a certaine number in quality of such a one cannot be a morall thing Now to ordaine one of seven to be kept maketh a determination and particular observation not forsooth so particular as when one of seven as for example the last is by name determined and appointed yet so farre particular that none can devise farre lesse tell reasonably wherefore there should be a morality to ordaine and observe a seventh day regularly rather then to ordaine and observe the last of seven wherefore the Gospell should confirme that more then this abrogate this more then that wherefore finally there is lesser inconvenience to avouch that the fourth Commandement is ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth a particular seventh day to wit the last whereof some of those against whom I dispute are constrained to acknowledge the establishment in the fourth Commandement but as of a ceremony as to say that it is also ceremoniall and positive in as much as it ordaineth one day of seven which is the point I stand unto 27 Verily there is farre more reason to say that the fourth Commandement ordaineth as a morall thing the publike service of God and consequently that there be for that purpose a stinted day ordinary common and so frequent in its revolution that it may be sufficient for the practise and exercise of that service for the continuall edification of the Church For nature teacheth that it is fit that the publike service of God be frequently practised which hath as great force under the Gospell as under the Law but that the said Commandement obligeth precisely to a seventh day and to that seventh day wherein God rested from all his workes it is an ordinance of ceremony and of order which was for the Iewes only and hath beene disanulled by the Gospell 28 For since the Gospell came it is a thing in its selfe indifferent to observe not forsooth one day of any number how great so ever it be as of thirty sixtie of an hundred or of a yeare which as all the world may see should not be sufficient to serve God publikely by his people and should bewray in such a people a great negligence and want of affection to Gods service but one of foure of five of sixe or in summe of such a number wherein that day may returne frequently and suffice for the intertainement of Religion and godlinesse And it may perhaps be gathered out of the fourth Commandement that one day in seven is very sutable and fitt and that we should not under the Gospell dedicate lesse to God for seeing GOD ordained to the Iewes other wayes burthened with many other ceremonies and holy dayes one of seven it is an argument probable enough that Christians ought to consecrate to him at least as much if not more of their time which neverthelesse God left to the liberty of the Church to ordaine with wisedome and conscience as hath beene already said And so although the ceremoniall order prescribed in the fourth Commandement concerning the day of rest obligeth not precisely and directly the Christian Church she may notwithstanding inferre from thence good instructions whereby she may be directed in things concerning a convenient time for Gods publike service as she maketh a good use for her direction of many other ceremonies of the Law Wherefore if there were any man who would rashly maintaine that it sufficeth under the New Testament to observe one day of twenty or of an hundred he should be sufficiently refuted by the foresaid reason besides the practise of the Christian Church which hath judged it fit to observe one of seven dayes which practise no man shall gainesay but he shall forthwith bewray himselfe to be new-fangled fantasticall and selfe-willed 28 Of all that hath beene said it is evident that the inconveniences alleadged in the argument are not to be feared For I have already shewed that it is no inconvenience to say that of tenne Commandements contained in the Decalogue there are but nine morall which oblige us now and that the Law which is called morall belongeth not unto us in all
the time of Gods service either to Sunday onely in the weeke or besides to a few moe more rare in their revolution and consecrated to the honour of God alone to be observed onely for orders sake and for ecclesiasticall government that in them her children may apply themselves more particularly then they doe on other dayes to Gods service but without tying the consciences of the faithfull farther than to the order of the Church not urging the Holy dayes obligatorie immediately on Gods part 14 To the third inconvenience that she may change Sunday into another day if the stinting of a day depend on her I answer that happily she might in the beginning have made choice of another number than of seven and in the number of seven of another than the first which is Sunday For although it be true that since the resurrection of Christ no action hath or shall be done so important as this which came to passe on the first day of the weeke it followeth not that the remembrance of that action was of necessity to be celebrated once in the weeke and that a day should bee appointed for that end more than for the remembrance of others of the Lords wonderfull actions or that the Church was tied by necessity to appoint the first day of the weeke for that purpose rather then another day upon the sole consideration that it happened on that day which in it selfe is not more obligatory now than it was then because the celebration of Christs actions in any day whatsoever is in it selfe a thing indifferent and the Lord doth not require that we tie our selves to the dayes wherein they were performed And so this consideration was no hinderance why in the beginning the Church might not have made choice of another day then Sunday But seeing Sunday is established by a long custome for the regular and ordinary day of Gods service seeing the faithfull Christians kept it in the beginning through respect to the resurrection of Christ and so it is become usuall every where by degrees seeing also time hath confirmed this custome and it hath beene ratified by Imperiall constitutions and divers ecclesiasticall ordinances I esteeme it should be an imprudent and impudent course to attempt the changing thereof into another day 15 The fourth inconvenience that particular men shall have nothing injoyned of God unto them in the fourth Commandement nor in any other part of Scripture concerning the time of Gods publike service saving that they observe the time prescribed in the Church according to the will of those that are in authority is not an inconvenience but is in effect the whole substance of the Commandement in regard of particular men to whom God having injoyned in the three former Commandements to serve him particularly every day and upon all occasions in the fourth he injoyneth them to doe it publikely together and to observe the time appointed for that purpose by ecclesiasticall discipline 16 The inconvenience to be feared should be in case no order at all were established in the Church for the time of Gods publike service and every particular man were left to his owne choice which should cause a disordered diversity But this were to forge feares where there is no cause For order hath beene taken with that in the Christian Church from her beginning and it hath beene fortified by use and custome so that particular men if they happen to come to places where there is no Church no discipline ordered will not omit being religiously disposed and fearing God to observe the day which the Christian Church hath chused and practised since so many ages And as God when he commandeth a frequent resorting to the holy assemblies giveth no injunction to particular men but in dependancy upon the order which shall be established in the Church for such meetings even so he tieth them to the same dependancy when he ordaineth that a certaine time be appointed for the said publike meetings 17 For the fifth and last inconvenience some feare least particular men should presume to observe any other day at their leasure and neglect the keeping of Sunday if they be taught that they are not bound unto it by Gods command Whereunto I answer that if these particulars be profane men which make light of the exercises of godlinesse and of the order of the Church in all likelihood they will doe worse and keepe no day at all But for such unruly wights wee need to disquiet our selves too much For it is not in our power to prevent and hinder all the abuses and profanations which they would commit although they were perswaded that Sunday is a divine institution He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he which is filthy let him be filthy still Nay although they might be recalled it is not reasonable that to rescue them we should speake or write any thing against truth If they be men which take to heart religion and godlinesse and carry a due respect to the order of the Church no such unrulinesse is to be feared of them For because the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments publike and common prayers are meanes ordained of God for the maintenance of godlinesse and of true Religion and Sunday is established by the order of the Church for the practise of these exercises they will make great account of that day and observe it not for its owne sake knowing that it is not in it selfe more esteemeable nor more belonging to Gods service then another day not also through opinion that God hath particularly sanctified it by his ordinance and that their conscience is in that respect more tyed unto it then to another day but because they have a speciall regard to the order of the Church which being very good and profitable they know they are bound to submit themselves unto it seeing God hath commanded it although in generall termes yet most expressely in his holy word They will also feare to contemne that day and in so doing to sinne not in consideration of any dignity of that the day hath of it felfe or that God hath given it whereby it should oblige more than another day and make the contempt thereof more blame worthy but in consideration of Gods service whereunto it is applyed by the ordinance and custome of the Church So then a particular Church will conforme her selfe to the order of all other Churches and the particular members of each Church will submit themselves to the order received in it and so all shall religiously celebrate Sunday because by the order of the Church it hath beene observed so long and in all places where the Gospell was preached for the publike exercise of Gods service 18 To shew that the foresaid inconvenience is not so much to be feared it is a thing common and well knowne that our Churches ordaine upon diverse occasions extraordinary dayes of fasting and of particular prayers and command
transgression was not a crime of so little importance that it can make any man beleeve that God would have exempted it from all kind of censure in the Gentiles when he checked their other sinnes seeing he blamed it so extreamely in the Iewes and made the reproofes of that sinne to sound so a loud in their eares 13 The instance before urged that God found not fault with the Polygamie of the Gentiles although it was against the institution of God in the beginning and also against the Law of nature as is said but not granted is found to be false For in the eighteenth Chapter of Leviticus where God speaketh to the Iewes forbids all unlawfull and impure cohabitations amongst many others in the 18. Verse he forbids them to take a Wife and her Sister or to her Sister that is to take another Wife with the first to vexe the first by conjunction with the other in the first wives life time For this is the signification of the Hebrew Phrase as wee may see by diverse examples Genesis 26. verse 31. Exodus 25. verse 20. Exodus 26. verse 3. 27. Moreover GOD addeth in the same Chapter of Leviticus ver 24. 27 30. that in this filthy crime as in all others that are there named the nations had defiled themselves for which the land had vomited them out CHAPTER Fourth REASON 4. 1. The Patriarkes from the Creation till the Law knew not the observation of a Seventh day in the weeke 2. The publike service of God began in the time of Enos and was in all likenesse of truth solemnized every day of the weeke 3. From Noah till the Law the families of the Patriarkes served God privately and kept not the Seventh day 4. Confirmation of this truth by Scriptures and by the consent of Ancient and Moderne Divines 5. Answer to the first reply the Patriarkes fasted and their fasts are not written 6. Answer to the second reply The Patriarkes are not reproved for Polygamie no more than for the inobservation of the Sabbath 7. Answer to the third reply taken from a pretended paritie of reason betweene the making of one man and one woman to be one flesh and Gods rest on the Seventh day 8. Answer to the fourth reply that no mention is made of the Sabbath day in the booke of Iudges and some others written after the Law was given in Horeb. 9. Conclusion of the foresaid Reasons taken from the Gentiles and the Patriarkes 1 IF the keeping of one Seventh day of rest had beene a morall Commandement and if GOD had given it to Adam to bee sanctified by him and his posterity at least the Patriarkes and holy Fathers amongst whom remained the exercise of true Religion had knowne that day and hallowed it by the ordinary duties of godlinesse as they knew and observed in the whole course of their life all other morall Commandements Wee finde in their lives written by Moses many proofes and examples of the Religious worship which they yeelded to Iehovah alone as to the only true only perfect only Almighty and all sufficient God walking in sincerity and integrity before his face Genesis 5. ver 22. Genesis 6. ver 9. Genes 17. ver 1. Of their hatred against Idols which were to them things so abominable that they buryed them under the ground as not only unworthy but also ougly to be seene and infectious to be touched Gen. 35. v. 2. 4. Of their religious care to hallow the Name of GOD by calling upon his holy Name Genesis 12. ver 8. by vowing vowes to his Divine Majesty Gen. 28. ver 8. by taking holily and religiously in their mouthes his glorious and fearefull Name in the necessary oathes that they made before him Gen. 21. ver 24. 31. Gen. 31. ver 35. Of the awfull observance and obedience wherewith they honoured Fathers Mothers Masters and all superiors Gen. 9. ver 23. Gen. 27. ver 13 14. Gen. 28. ver 5. Gen. 42. ver 6. Gen. 47. ver 12. Of the abomination and detestation that was in their inward parts against murther Genesis 49. ver 5 6. whoredome adultery incest Gen. 34. ver 31. Gen. 38. ver 24. Gen. 39. ver 10. Gen. 49. ver 4. Theft Gen. 31. ver 32. 37. Gen. 44. ver 8. 9. Leasings and false witnesse Genesis 20. ver 12. Gen. 42. ver 11. and consequently lust which is the fruitfull mother of all those vices Gen. 14. ver 22. 23. Gen. 39. ver 9. 10. But wee find no where that they kept holy a Seventh day for Gods outward service according to the fourth Commandement of the Law given afterwards in Mount Sina This only doe we find that they practised that service builded Altars offered sacrifices to the Lord indifferently in all dayes and at all houres as they had occasion Neither is it any where noted in holy Scripture that they had any set day farre lesse a Seventh day prefixed unto them for their exercises which were never particularly tyed to a Seventh day with preference to other dayes of the weeke Yea considering that the consecration of a certaine day for Gods service whatsoever it be is not properly necessary but when many may troope together and make up a body of a Church to solemnize that service publikely with great assemblies of people it may be justly questioned if when the Patriarkes were alone when they were with their little families might with them serve God every day easily and with great assiduity being as they were disposed to all exercises of godlinesse and not being incombred with the many and great affaires which ensnare those that give themselves too much to worldly businesses whether at all they kept any ordinary day more prrticularly then other dayes if they served not God alike every day without distinction of dayes unknowne at that time and more particularly if they erected not Altars and offered sacrifices on them as God gave them some particular occasions they not having a constant rule given unto them for the time and place of these devotions 2 When it is said in the fourth of Genesis verse 26. that in the time of Enos men began to call upon the Name of the Lord although this passage may suffer diverse interpretations yet it is likely and it is the most current interpretation that it betokeneth that Enos and the remnant of the faithfull associated with him being growen to a competent multitude withdrew themselves from the wicked and worldy brood of Cain and began to institute among themselves a more solemne service then had beene in former times and for the celebration of that service ordained of free choice set times and places For which cause the Scripture saith that they began to call upon the Name of the Lord to wit publikely and in a numerous assemblie which had not beene practised before If this be the true sence of these words yet it shall not follow by any necessary argument or reason that they established
for that publike service a particular day returning successively after a certaine number of dayes seeing it is as probable that this calling upon the Name of the Lord which they began in those dayes was indifferently every dayes exercise in each of which they came together to call upon God and to serve him in the time and place that they had appointed their number not being so great nor their necessary imployments about the things of this life so many but that they might set a part some houres every day for this holy businesse Nay granting that they appointed a certaine day out of a greater number to remaine firme and unmoveable what reason can any man produce why it ought to be the Seventh day of the weeke Was it because God rested on that day But how could they guesse that this was a reason obliging them to the sanctification of that day seeing it is not a reason carrying with it any naturall evidence of obligation and is no reason at all but by the free will and appointment of GOD Will they say that from the creation of the world God blessed and hallowed that day to men But this is the point in question Or that Enos and his fellowes asked counsell at the mouth of the Lord to learne of him on what day they should meet to yeeld unto his Majesty the publike service which they had instituted and that God ordained unto them the Seventh day of the weeke This is a conceit taken at randome without any certaine ground They know well enough already what kinde of service they ought to yeeld to God and in what Religious actions it consisted For God from the beginning had acquainted his Church with it and their Fathers had trained them in the knowledge and practise thereof neither was it needfull that they should aske advise of the Lord concerning this duty Therefore it was not necessary nay it was rather unseemely that they should aske him what was the time of the ordinary and publike practise of that service as if they had not beene bound to judge that having no great lets to interrupt their devotion they ought to appoint a fit time every day for so holy and necessary a duty Or at least if they alloted any day of rest the more frequent they should make it so much the better should they performe their duty and be so much the more acceptable to God And in case God had named unto them such a day there is no probablenesse that he ordained one of seven as he did afterwards to the people of Israel For they were but a small number of people and might easily keepe moe dayes in the weeke than one without any hinderance to their worldly affaires But the Israelites being growen to a great and populous common-wealth God assigned unto them the Seventh day of the weeke as a particular point of that ecclesiasticall government whereof hee prescribed unto them all the particularities Therefore the consequence from the one to the other is manifestly of no value But upon that which is said that in Enos his time men began to call upon the Name of the Lord that is to ordaine a publike service and unmoveable times for it I doe inferre with great probability that before that time there was none such and therefore no Seventh day was kept For if it had beene observed how could it be said that in Enos his time men began to call upon the Name of the Lord 3 This good course begun in the dayes of Enos continued undoubtedly afterwards as long as the malice of men could suffer it For their wickednesse was great and the corruption had crept from among the sonnes of men among the Sonnes of God in such manner that it drew upon the face of the earth an universall floud of waters which destroyed all men then living Noah and his families consisting of eight persons only excepted After the floud there is little or no mention made of any exercise of the true Religion saving in the dayes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and in their families Them God had chosen and picked out from the rest of the world with them God made his covenant they were religious and obsequious servants of Almighty God but their families being small Gods service might with great facility be practised in them every day and there was no necessity of setting a part an ordinary day for the gathering together of their children and servants which ordinarily were never so farre separated but that they might come together once or twice a day to doe homage to the Lord their God Therefore there is no probablenesse that there was among them a particular keeping of such a day At least we read not any such thing till the time that Abrahams posterity being much increased and multiplyed in the land of Aegypt GOD brought them out of that land gathered them together in the wildernesse and afterwards in the land of Canaan made choise of them amongst all the nations of the world to be his people gave them his statutes prescribed unto them all the particularities of his publike service and ordained the observation of the Seventh day of the weeke for the solemne practise thereof This ordinance became then necessary because GODS Church was become a great people 4 Verily it is not likely that if the Patriarkes had kept unmoveably a stinted day and namely the Seventh day of the weeke as a divine Ordinance that the holy History would have beene silent and made no mention of it It relateth unto us carefully things of far lesser moment it hath set downe their lives hath specified the generall points of the service which they yeelded to God by prayer by building of Altars by offering of Sacrifices upon them But it maketh no mention neither generall nor particular of any day hallowed by them for the exercise of these their devotions which undoubtedly they would have appropriated to that day And so there was a fit occasion to speake of the day in speaking of the service if there had beene any such day consecrated by them Wherefore the particular times kept by them ordinarily or extraordinarily in the practise of Gods service depended on their wisdome and will which being carryed with most earnest affection to godlinesse and to the performing of all duties belonging to Gods service there is no question to bee made but that they imployed a good deale of time every day to the practise of all exercises of religion and upon speciall occasions of new and extraordinary blessings increased their devotion and gave unto it proportionally a longer measure of time All the service wherewith they honoured the Lord their God consisted undoubtedly in prayers and in sacrifices whereof mention is made in their lives registred in the Scripture but it is not likely that they honoured a Seventh day of Sabbath because it is no where written 5 Also the Ancient Fathers for the most part some Rabbins of the Iewes
libertie to take such order about that matter as they should thinke good Who seeth not in this a manifest absurditie Doth it not remaine alwaies Is not the situation of the earth which is the same that it was from the beginning as great an impediment under the new Testament to the universall keeping of a seventh day in all places and namely of that particular seventh wherein Christ rose from death unto life which is the first of the seven daies of the weeke as it was under the old Testament to an universall observation of a particular seventh in those times to wit of the last of the weeke 4 Whatsoever is morall is universall obligeth equally all men and may be kept of all Likewise all commandements which Gods purpose is to give to all men are such that they may be kept of all How then is a thing called morall the keeping whereof the order of nature hath made impossible to many men such as is the regular keeping of a set day And how is it said that the Commandement enjoyning the keeping of a particular seventh day whether the last or the first of seven was on Gods part an universall commandement obliging all men seeing it is farre more impossible to a great number of men to keepe it because they dwell in more remote climats then we doe 5 Therefore it is more conformable to reason to say that the Commandement which under the Old Testament ordained the keeping of a Seventh day obliged the people of Israel only which was the onely people of GOD was shut up within the narrow bounds of a little corner of the earth and might with great facility keepe that day even as all the rest of the politike and ecclesiasticall regiment established by Moses pertained to them onely And that under the new Testament in whose times the Church hath beene spread abroad thorow all the earth God hath not given any particular Ordinance concerning the keeping of any day whatsoever but hath left to the discretion of the Church to appoint the times of Gods service according to the circumstances of places and of fit occasions CHAPTER Sixth REASON 6. 1. The Observation of the Seventh day of the weeke is no where commanded in the New Testament and therefore it is not morall 2. Iesus Christ prescribing to his Disciples the celebration of the Sacrament of his body and bloud appointed not a particular and set day for that holy exercise 3. Neither did he by himselfe or by his Apostles appoint a particular time for the other exercises of Religion 4. Whence it followeth that the keeping of a Seventh day for Gods service cannot be a morall point 1 THe whole tenor of the Gospell confirmeth our assertion It is most certaine that if it were a morall duty to keepe a Seventh day all Christians should be obliged unto it under the New Testament as the Iewes were under the Old Testament Now if Christians were bound unto it under the New Testament we should finde some expresse Ordinance concerning it in the writings of the Evangelists and of the Apostles For if all the morall points which the Law commandeth are ratified in many places of their bookes and all the faithfull are often commanded to keepe them as the worshipping of one true God the shunning and detestation of Idols and of all services of mans invention the sanctification of the Name of God the honour dew to Fathers to Mothers and to all superiors the refraining from murder from whoredome from adultery from theft from false witnesse from all lusting after evill things and such like Also in them are often commanded and recommended the holy meetings for the hearing of the word of God the administration of the Sacraments the publike prayers and generally the appointing of times for that use because it is a morall thing that GOD bee served publikely whereunto fixed and stinted times are necessary But as for the ruling and stinting of those times God hath left it as he hath done the appointing of places to the Church For hee would not prescribe unto us any particular place nor time for his service as hee did under the Old Testament because he giveth greater liberty to the Church under the New Testament then he did under the Old Testament to whose bondage pertained this restraint of a certaine day and place of Gods service by expresse commandement as also because the greatnesse and dilatation of the Church of the New Testament which is Catholike could not suffer such a particular determination nay made it so impossible that of absolute necessity it dependeth on the discretion and commodities of the Church 2 When IESUS CHRIST made his last Supper with his Disciples and commanded it should be celebrated to the worlds end as hee determined the use and practise thereof with certaine elements of Bread and Wine he might if hee had thought fit allot unto it a certaine time such as was of old the time of Passeover But hee was pleased to say onely this in generall tearmes This doe yee as oft as yee doe it in remembrance of me Likewise Saint Paul As often as you shall eate this bread and drinke this cup you shall shew the LORDS death till hee come both limiting the elements as the necessary matter of this Sacrament But neither of them prescribeth a particular time for the solemnizing thereof which being an accidentall circumstance he left the direction thereof to the Church to the which Church in things concerning times places and other circumstances of like nature God hath given no other commandement saving this generall one Let all things be done decently and in good order 3 Now there is no other ordinance of Christ or of his Apostles concerning particular times for all other duties of the Christian Religion then for the time of the LORDS Supper For seeing they were pleased to say of the Holy Supper As often as you doe this it is an easie matter to conclude thence that they intended not to ordaine any thing over and besides belonging to the other exercises but to say only as often as you shall come together to heare the word to pray publikely c. Leaving the determination of the fittest times for all such things to the Church and therefore there is not to bee found in the whole Gospell any thing injoined to that purpose Also there is the same reason for all other exercises and for the Lords Supper concerning the determination of a set tiâ—â— For if our Lord Iesus Christ had thought expedient to appoint a set time for the hearing of the Word there had beene as good cause to prescribe one also for the Communion of his Body and of his Blood I know that some passages of the new Testament are produced which are pretended by those of the contrary opinion to injoine expresly a set day of the weeke for the exercises of Religion but I shall shew hereafter God willing that they are deceived in their
those which did not sticke for conscience sake to eate all kinde of meates because they esteemed them all to bee indifferent were strong and those which were scrupulous for conscience sake to eate any thing but hearbes were weake even so accordingly to that wee must ac-acknowledge those which made no difference of dayes for conscience sake but esteemed all dayes equally to have beene strong and those which esteemed one day above another to have beene weake 4 Secondly I cannot see how any man should imagine that the Apostle in his judgement esteemed those to be weake which esteemed every day alike seeing to esteeme every day equally without distinction of any day for conscience sake putting the case there were a fault in that opinion cannot be called weakenesse and infirmity in the sence wherein this word weakenesse is taken by the Apostle in this place and in other places of the Gospell For weaknes and infirmity is said to be in a man when there is a defect in his beliefe concerning things which are lawfull to him that is to say when hee beleeveth not that to bee lawfull which is lawfull unto him and therefore refraineth for conscience sake from that which he is not bound to forbeare So he who beleeveth that it is not lawfull unto him to eate all kinde of meates although God hath given him the free use of them all is weake and infirme But when there is excesse in his beliefe when I say he beleeveth to have liberty to doe that which is not lawfull unto him to doe and doth it without any respect of conscience unto it that is not in the Scriptures language called weakenes but rather ignorance error mistaking If then those which esteemed every day alike had failed in this point as they had done of necessity if there had beene any fault in them they had never beene esteemed and called weake by the Apostle as they are pretended to have beene but rather ignorant errants nay dissolute loose profane 5 Verily if it were true that Iesus Christ had ordained the observation of a set day of rest that the Apostles had commanded it that the Church had practised it as a divine ordinance and as a morall point belonging to Religion as is pretended these Christians who could not bee ignorant of such things and neverthelesse esteemed every day alike established not religion and a point of conscience in any of them and made no greater account of the Lords day then of any other day were of necessity profane men and no better reckoning was to be made of them Yet the Apostle reputeth them not to bee such For he forbiddeth to judge and condemne them as hee will not have them to judge and condemne those that were of contrary opinion ver 3. 10. 6 Nay he affirmeth that those which regarded not the day to the Lord regarded it not verse 6. the meaning of which words is that in so doing they had regard to the glory and obedience due to God knowing that he had made them free from the distinction of dayes and received them being well pleased with that which they did Now supposing the morality of the Sabbath and the commandement of Christ and of his Apostles which made the observation thereof a necessary point of Religion which these men could not be ignorant of I cannot conceive how not regarding the day for Religion and conscience sake to the Lord they regarded it not seeing they had rather sinned against the Lord by not regarding it For they had manifestly vilipended him by their misbeliefe whereby they esteemed not the observation of a day of rest which they knew to be morall and most straitely commanded of God to bee a necessary point of Religion It is therefore more conformable to reason that those which made distinction of dayes and esteemed one above onother were weak And in this doe all the interpreters agree Neverthelesse the Apostle saith with good reason of these weake ones that what they did they did it to the Lord because they did it through devotion and tendernesse of conscience having some Religious ground which was a colourable excuse to their infirmitie and made it tolerable not only to men but to God also 7 Now it being so that the Apostle did write to the Romans who were Gentiles converted to the Christian faith wee may esteeme with great appearance that this day which some of them through infirmitie had so much regard unto was Sunday which was kept in the Church not by any divine Ordinance not also through necessity of Religion but simply by an ecclesiasticall custome in remembrance that on that day Christ rose from death unto life was esteemed of them a day of necessary observation in and for it selfe which others better instructed esteemed not This being so establisheth throughly the opinion that I defend and evicts the other But although the Apostle had intended to speake of dayes commanded in the Old Testament by the Law of Moses to the religious observation whereof many not as yet well instructed in the knowledge of Evangelicall liberty thought themselves to be bound for conscience sake the argument remaineth as strong as can be 8 For howsoever the Apostle his meaning be taken he speaketh generally and imputeth to infirmity of knowledge and of conscience under the Gospell the esteeming of one day above another and to strength and firmenesse the esteeming of all dayes alike which he neither could nor should have pronounced so in generall tearmes if at the same time there had beene a set day of rest binding the conscience of Christians to observe it for its owne sake as being morall and for Gods sake who had commanded it For by this meanes those had not well done so farre were they from being strong in knowledge and conscience for esteeming every day equally which they should not have done But the others had done well and religiously to esteeme one day above another so far were they from being weak which yet notwithstanding is manifestly against the scope of the Apostle who declareth them to be weak not simply as we have touched heretofore for observing a certaine day but for keeping it with a consciencious regard and opinion of a religious obligation particular unto it more than to any other day which is the only thing worthy to be blamed and might be a just cause of offence CHAPTER Eleventh REASON II. 1. The Sabbath was to the Israelites a signe of their sanctification 2. Not only in the toylesome ages of this mortall life but also in the eternity and rest of the life to come 3. Through IESUS CHRIST who hath perfectly accomplished the benefits which it represented imperfectly 4. And therefore it was to continue till his comming only 5. This truth is confirmed in the Epistle to the Hebrewes by the type of the bodily rest of the people in the land of Canaan 6. As also by the type of Gods rest on the Seventh day 7. Gods rest and
and the tree of knowledge of good and evill to speake properly were no more Sacraments to Adam then the other trees of the Garden yea then all other workes of God in all which he might have considered signes and markes of the grace and power of GOD But the one was unto him a meanes of the perpetuall conservation of his bodily life by eating of the fruit therof and the other an occasion to try his obedience by the prohibition made unto him to eate thereof Besides this the consequence is naught For to establish signes and Sacraments signifying to Adam the perpetuall grace of God and his immortality if he persevered in obedience and on the contrary threatning him with the disgrace of God and with death if he became a transgressor was not a thing repugnant to his condition in the state of innocency neither had it any unreasonablenesse joyned with it But to ordaine a particular day of rest to a man to whom all the dayes had beene Sabbaths and who day by day had served God as much as was necessary and as God did require of him was not a thing sutable and convenient to his condition As in the heavenly Paradise there is no particular day of Sabbath but a perpetuall Sabbath because there GOD is glorified without stint or ceasing by the heavenly Host even so in the terrestriall Paradise where man was righteous and holy and in a condition conforme in some sort to that of the kingdome of heaven and a figure thereof he had observed a perpetuall Sabbath to GOD. For although hee could not doe it so perfectly as it is done in heaven because he was obnoxious to the necessities of this naturall life neverthelesse hee might have done it and did it as perfectly as the quality and condition of his being here beneath could suffer so that it was no wise requisite that he should have a particular day of Sabbath 19 Nay I esteeme that to affirme that GOD ordained unto him a seventh day of Sabbath derogateth too much from the excellency of his condition For it is most sure that the determination of a particular time of GODs service made to a man expressely supposeth that he wants the commodity and is not able to serve GOD ordinarily or hath not an inclination and affection to doe it and it therefore must be layd upon him as a Yoake tying him thereunto and withdrawing him from his other occupations as also it is a marke of a servile condition in witnesse whereof the appointment of so many solemne dayes of Gods service under the Law was a part of the Yoke thereof from which God hath freed the state of the Gospell as being more free and more perfect wherein wee should be stirred up with a more free and voluntary affection to his service To one that is both able and willing to serve God continually every day as Adam was in that state of innocency and of perfect righteousnesse it is not needfull to limit a particular day And though a day chosen and picked out from others had beene usefull to Adam to the end that giving over all other things he might give himselfe intirely and only to Gods service doubtlesse God had left that choice to his liberty considering the wisedome and godlinesse wherewith he had endowed him 20 To say that since Gods rest on the seventh day after the labour of sixe dayes in the Creation was the foundation and the reason of the institution made in the Law of a seventh day to bee a Sabbath day the same reason being of the same force and use from the beginning of the world should have caused at that time the same ordinance and the same hallowing of the seventh day to all men it is a forceles consequence For there was not a like necessity of the institution of a particular day of rest in these first beginnings when Adam was in the state of innocency nor afterwards when the Church subsisted in a few families or particular persons as there hath been after the Church was become a great body of people having need of a stinted order and government whereof GOD would take the care upon himselfe and for that end among other points of ecclesiasticall order and rules of his service ordaine to his people of Israel growen to a great number a day of Sabbath and the seventh of the week taking for the foundation and reason of the institution of a seventh day his own resting on the seventh day which became at that time only a reason of this ordinance because God grounded himselfe thereupon to make it but it followeth not that before that time and from the beginning of the world this rest of God which was on the first seventh day should be a reason of the same ordinance That should be right and prove good if it were of its owne nature a reason absolutely necessary and a cause bringing forth unfallibly such an effect which is not Otherwise it should follow that God was bound to hallow the seventh day and could not sanctifie any other It is indeed a reason not of it selfe but only for as much as God thought fit and was pleased to ground upon it the sanctification of the seventh day Whereof this is a manifest proofe that under the New Testament this reason hath no force to make us observe the day of Gods rest Now there is no necessity obliging us to inferre that if God would and thought fit it should bee a reason in the time of the Law he was also willing and thought fit it should be a reason also before the Law and since the beginning of the world Whereas it is manifest by the reasons already alledged that it was very fit it should be so under the Law but was not so from the beginning and before the Law was given CHAPTER Second Three other answers to the first reason 1. Second answer although God had from the beginning sanctified the Seventh day he gave no commandement to man to sanctifie it 2. Third answer although God had sanctified the Seventh day with relation to man he had done it only with intention to command it afterwards to the Israelites under the Law 3. For in Scriptures sanctification is often taken for destination to some use in time to come 4. The Reply that so God should have rested on the Seventh day by destination only to rest afterwards refuted 5. Fourth answer although God had commanded Adam to hallow the Seventh day that proveth not the morality of the Sabbath but only the necessity of a set time for orders sake in Gods service 6. Whence no necessity can bee inferred of the observation of the same time stinted to Adam by all men 7. But rather of moe times to bee kept by them seeing all are sinners 1 BVt Secondly put the case that the mention made in the second Chapter of Genesis ver 3. Of Gods blessing and hallowing the seventh day should be understood as done at that
that it containeth Yet in some sort all the tenne may be defended to be morall because the fourth Commandement is morall as well as the rest in its foundation and principall end although the thing expressed in it be a particular determination ceremoniall and positive Whence profane fellowes cannot with any colour of reason inferre that the substance of the other Commandements is not morall nor obligatory to Christians For whatsoever is in them saving the promise annexed to the fifth Commandement which belongeth not to the substance thereof sheweth of it selfe that it is morall because it hath its foundation in the Law of nature written in the hearts of all men and is found so frequently that no thing is more frequently ratified and confirmed by the Scripture of the New Testament which is the rule of Christianity and therefore obligeth all Christians untill the worlds end which can not be so said of the fourth Commandement in the expression that it maketh of a seventh day for a day of rest For fitly that is not of the Law of Nature and is not prescribed by the Gospell it cannot oblige Christians as a morall Law 29 By the same meanes is taken from the Roman Church the pretence which some think this doctrin furnisheth unto them that the second Commandement whereof we make so great use against their Idolatry is not morall nor perpetuall but was particular to the Iewes even as according to our confession was the fourth Commandement For all that the second Commandement aimeth at is contained and expressed most clearely in the words thereof which is to forbid to represent and worship God by Images to make Images to bowe downe to them and to serve them religiously and all that is essentially morall and perpetuall grounded on the Law of nature which of it selfe teacheth and sheweth that it is a thing most absurd and unworthy of God who is a Spirit Infinite Almighty Eternall Immortall Inuisible and the only Wise GOD to represent and serve him by mortall Images As also a thing unworthy of man to worship the worke of his owne hands as the Paynims themselve have acknowledged and written 30 Witnesses hereof are the most ancient Romanes who knowing by the Law of Nature that GOD is a Spirit judged by the same light that hee ought not to be figured nor served by Images And therefore they had no Images at all during the space of more then an hundred threescore and ten yeeres And Uarro a Romane and a Pagan saith that if that had continued so the Gods had beene served more purely adding that the first which framed Images to the Gods abolished the feare due unto them and were the cause of many errors as wee reade in S. Augustine in the fourth booke and 35. Chapter of the City of God The Prophets also in many places of the old Testament rebuke the Nations which were strangers from the Covenant of God for their Images and Statues as being guilty of a most hainous sin in making and worshiping them against a Law which pertained to them and which they were bound to know These their reprehensions they confirme by naturall reasons as may be seen Exod. 23. vers 24. Exod. 34. vers 13. Deut. 7. vers 5. 25. Deut. 12. v. 3. Deut. 29. vers 17. Psal. 97. vers 7. Psal. 115. vers 4 5 6. 7 8. Psal. 131. vers 15. 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 24. Esay 44. vers 9. 10. 18. 19. Ierem. 10. vers 3. c Ierem. 8. vers 19. Ier. 51. vers 17 18 19 47. Habac. 2. vers 18 19 20. The Apostles have likewise done the same in the new Testament and namely S. Paul who in the 17. Chapter of the Acts proved and made it knowne to the Athenians And in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans condemned the Romans for transgressing the Law of Nature darkening the light thereof and smothering the secret and inward sting of their consciences by changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the Image of a corruptible man and of other living creatures S. Iohn in his first Epistle and in the fifth Chapter and last verse thereof exhorteth the faithfull to keepe themselves from Idolls And in the ninth Chapter of the Revelation the crossnesse of false Christians is noted verse 20. by this that notwithstanding so many plagues wherewith GOD had visited them they repented not of the workes of their hands that they should not worship Idols of gold and silver and brasse and stone and of wood which neither can see nor heare nor walke Therefore seeing the whole matter of the second Commandement is morall grounded upon the Law of nature and established not only by the Old but also by the New Testament the Commandement is also morall 32 For whereas some would referre and reduce to the second Commandement the whole externall service of the Iewes as contained in some sort therein to inferre from thence that if the fourth Commandement be in part ceremoniall because unto it are referred all the Sabbaths of the Iewes all their holy dayes and New Moones the second may likewise be called ceremoniall in part for the same reason To that I answer that a reduction and reference of the externall and ceremoniall service of the Iewes may in some respect be made to all the Commandements of the first Table As indeed some ceremoniall ordinances are in certain respects referred to each of them by some interpreters And may be all in this manner referred to the second Commandement which being negative GOD under the prohibition to make any kinde of Images for religious worship compriseth all will-worship And sith in all negative commandements the affirmative opposed unto them are comprehended he commandeth on the contrary that he be served according to his ordinance and Commandement Now sith at that time the manner of his service consisted in the observation of holy dayes and diverse ceremonies prescribed by him in the Law of Moses it may be said that in it he commanded them all But indirectly and a farre of Which cannot make the second Commandement to be ceremoniall because the ceremoniall and outward service appertaineth not Directly and properly to the substance thereof and is not expressed therein But whatsoever is expressed in it is of it selfe morall Whereas in the fourth Commandement the foresaid feasts and ceremonies are directly and neerly comprised For in it God ordaineth a principall holy day and under it comprehendeth all others All that is expressed in it is ceremoniall And the ceremoniall service of the Iewes maketh an essentiall part of the sanctification of the Sabbath injoyned in it So this commandement is not ceremoniall indirectly and in regard only that unto it may be referred and appropriated by a remote and farre fetched reduction the feasts New Moones and Iewish Sabbaths but it is such directly and properly in it selfe even in the neerest substance and matter which it propoundeth So the foresaid exceptions against it should be
absurd and impertinently inferred upon our saying concerning the fourth Commandement because these two Commandements stand not in equall tearmes 33 If any Papists should make such an inference Bellarmine himselfe will lend us his helping hand to refute it For in the seventh Chapter of his second booke of Relikes and Images he acknowledgeth and affirmeth that saving the Commandement of the Sabbath all the rest are explications of the Law of nature and are naturall precepts which all Christians are bound to observe 34 This being so the Roman Church cannot cleanse her selfe of a great crime for cutting off from the Decalogue in all her service bookes the second Commandement and for not propounding it ordinarily to the people for that it fighteth against her idolatry And in my judgement it should be also an hainous fault although not in the same manner and respect to nip away from the Decalogue the fourth Commandement or to make no mention of it in the Church For though it be not morall and obligeth not Christians under the New Testament in the particulars which it expresseth yet sith it is morall in the foundation whereupon it is built and in the generall end that it aimeth at as hath beene said before and sith God would insert it in the abridgement of his Law which he gave of old to the people of Israel it should be foole-hardinesse to pull it away and to remove it out of the roome where God hath placed it Even as although that which is said in the preface of the Law concerning the deliverance of the people out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage and in the fifth Commandement of the prolongation of dayes in the land of Cannaan is not addressed to us directly in that which these termes doe expresse yet it should be ill done to cut these clauses quite off or to make no mention of them when we learne write rehearse or teach the Decalogue We must keepe religiously and mention whatsoever God hath beene pleased to put in it But we must also understand every thing conveniently appropriating to us whatsoever belongeth to us as well as to the Iewes and to the Iewes only that which was proper to them And such was the ordinance of the seventh day 35 Which day if it be not acknowledged to be ceremoniall and therefore Subject to be abrogated by IESUS CHRIST and comprised among the points of the Law which the Gospell declared to be annulled place should be given to an inconvenience that will follow thereupon farre better then the former which is inferred upon the opinion that the fourth Commandement is ceremoniall for so the bridle should be loosed to the immoderate transcendent and irregular authority which Papists challenge to the Church to have power to change and alter the things which God himselfe hath established For it is evident that God by the fourth Commandement hath established the seventh and last day of the week to be a day of rest and it is agreed upon as most true that under the Gospel that seventh day hath been changed into another neither can it be sufficiently and clearely proved that Iesus Christ or his Apostles have made that innovation as shall be seene hereafter whence they doe inferre that the Church having done it of her selfe without commandement she may change the things established and ordained of God in the morall Law Whereunto it is impossible to give a pertinent answer but by saying as it is most true that the prescription of the seventh day of Sabbath although it be among the Commandements of the morall Law is not morall for that but pertaineth to the government of the Iewes and is to be numbred with these things which were but for a time to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 untill the time of reformation as the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 9. vers 10. of these shadowes of things to come whereof the body was in Christ as they are named Col. 2. vers 16 17. where amongst other shadowes the Sabbaths are specified That therefore the Church in not keeping any more the Sabbath prescribed by the fourth Commandement but another hath not usurped any authority upon the things established of God but hath followed the order of God who had not established that day but for a certaine time to wit untill the comming of the Messias by whose death the ceremonies were to be abolished and consequently the Sabbath day was to expire and give up the Ghost CHAPTER Seventh Answer to the particular reasons taken from the words of the fourth Commandement 1. First Objection The Sabbath was long before the Law because God commanded to remember it and remembrance is of things past 2. Three answers to this Objection 3. Second Objection from the first reason of the keeping of the Sabbath sixe daies shalt thou labour c. which is a reason of equity binding Christians as well as Iewes 4. Answer to this Objection shewing what is morall and obligatory in this reason what not 5. Third Objection If the labour of sixe daies be not ceremoniall the rest on the seventh day likewise is not ceremoniall refuted by three answers 6. Fourth Objection from the second reason in the words but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God it is Gods day therefore it is sacriledge to rob him of it 7. Two answers to this Objection 8. Fifth Objection from the third reason in the words In it thou shalt not doe any worke c. where a great regard is had unto servants beasts strangers whereunto Christians are also obliged 9. Answer shewing what in this reason is morall what belonging to order onely 10. Sixth Objection from the words For in sixe daies the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day shewing that God after his example will have all men to keepe the seventh day till the end of the world 11. First answer denying that God ordained the seventh day for a memoriall of the creation 12. Second answer although things past should be kept in perpetuall remembrance their memorialls ordained in the old Testament are not perpetuall 13. Third answer to the instance taken from Gods example shewing in which attributes God is to be imitated in which not 14. As also in which of his actions in which not we are to follow his example 15. This answer is applyed to the seventh day shewing that it hath not inherent in it any essentiall righteousnesse why God did rest in it but as many other actions hath no other foundation but Gods free-will 16. Whereby hee ordained the observation of that day to the Iewes and not to Christians 17. Who in the observation of their holy day follow not Gods example as they should if it had any morality in it 18. Instance the seventh day was changed into the first day of the weeke in remembrance of our redemption by Christ which is a greater worke then the creation 19. First answer hence it followeth that
the observation of one of seven daies is not morall 20. Second answer shewing divers absurdities following the opinion of the morality of one of seven daies and of the substitution of the first of seven to the last by Christ himselfe 21. Their reply that when Christ made the first alteration of the Sabbath the Disciples observed the Sabbath of the last and of the first day of the weeke consecutively is but an imagination 22. Christs resurrection was of as great force to change the generall order of the observation of one of seven daies as of the last day of the weeke nay to ordaine each fourth day of the weeke for Gods service as well as the first 23. The day of Christs resurrection is no more obligatory then the day of his nativity of his death or of his ascention and is a meer institution of the Church 24. Seventh Objection from the last words of the Commandement And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it whence they gather that the keeping of the seventh day is a meanes of all kinde of blessings whereof Christians have as great need at Iewes c. 25. First answer Christians have as great need of Gods blessing as had the Iewes but not by the same meanes 26. Second answer the Sabbath was not a meanes of blessing to the Iewes by any inherent and naturall quality but by reason of the exercises of godlinesse practised in it and so the exercises of our Christian religion bring a blessing upon us whensoever they are practised 27. It is a fond assertion that if God hath not appointed to Christians a particular day for his service as he did to the Iewes our condition shall be worse then theirs 28. All the particularities of the fourth Commandement may be applyed to Christians as well as to Iewes 29. As the reasons of the institution of their holy-daies 30. Which neverthelesse we are not bound to keepe 31. Item the remembrance of the creation c. 32. The necessity of a new day for Gods service inferreth not a divine institution 1 BEsides the generall argument which is taken from the nature of the fourth Commandement and hath beene refuted in the former Chapter others more particular are taken from the termes and words of the said Commandement and first they urge vehemently these first words thereof Remember the Sabbath day from whence as they pretend it may be inferred that seeing the remembring of a thing denoteth that it was knowne before God when he commanded the Israelites to remember the Sabbath day supposeth that it was not a new ordinance which he gave unto them then but an ancient one yet which undoubtedly they had forgotten and whereof it was necessary they should be put in remembrance and the observation urged for the time to come 2 It is said also that the sanctification of the Sabbath day which God enjoyneth saying Remember the Sabbath day to keepe it holy cannot be called a ceremony but this instance is very feeble For first although it should prove that the institution of the Sabbath day which is here debated did preceed the Law from the beginning it cannot for all that inforce the morality thereof Nay much otherwise some doe thinke that God in the beginning and entrance of the Commandement used the word Remember because it not being naturall and morall as the rest are the Iewes might have more easily forgotten it Secondly it doth no manner of way prove the antiquity of this ordinance For when he that commandeth any thing saith to him to whom he giveth instructions Remember what I say and command thee such a speech implyeth not alwaies that an injunction is given him of a thing he knew before which is againe recorded unto him that he may call it to minde Nay most often his intention is only to advise him to consider exactly to meditate carefully and to accomplish faithfully in time to come that which at that time is injoyned him For this terme Remember when commandements are given is not alwaies relative to the time past but sometimes hath regard onely to the time to come which joyning and continuing for some daies or yeeres successively the time wherein they were given is past and so men have need to call them to minde as a thing past So God instituted the Passeover for a memoriall of the deliverance of the first borne of his people from the destroyer when the first borne of the Egyptians were slaine although it happened after the said institution Exod. 12. vers 14. 27. 29. So Moses said unto them Remember this day in which yee came out from Egypt Exod. 13 vers 3. willing them in time to come to call to minde that whereof they had the first knowledge and experience and not before but at that instant So Christ instituted to his Disciples the Sacrament of the Eucharist saying This doe yee in remembrance of me that is of my death 1 Cor. 11. vers 24. 25 26. although hee was at table with them and was not put to death till the next day after So this speech Remember the Sabbath day must be taken relatively to the time to come as if God had said Take heed that afterwards yee keepe in minde the ordinance which I give you at this instant that you may observe it carefully and in the 12. verse of the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomy in liev of Remember it is written Keepe the Sabbath day or Take heed to the Sabbath day to sanctifie it Hee that commandeth another to doe any thing of moment in a time future ordinary and regulate may very well speake unto him in these termes Remember such a thing and the time that thou art to doe it in before it come to the end that when it shall come thou mayest be prepared to doe it and mayest doe it accordingly which is all that God intended to say to the Iewes in his Commandement touching the Sabbath to wit that before that day should fall out they should remember it in the precedent dayes and dispose themselves in time to sanctifie it Thirdly although it should be taken as relative to the time past it is needlesse to extend it to a long time before and namely to the beginning of the world but only to some few dayes foregoing when GOD through the occasion of the Manna spake unto them of the Sabbath day forbidding them to goe out of their place on that day to gather of it because they should find none and commanding them to rest and to abide every man in his place which day when afterwards he gave the Law he commanded them more particularly and expressely to remember because they heard mention made of it a short while before and to beware of profaning it as they had done already Exod. 16. verse 28 29. And questionlesse to that which he said unto them concerning the Sabbath in the sixteenth Chapter of Exodus are to be referred these words which in the fifth Chapter of
maxime rejecteth as unlawfull Now what certainty or probability is there that Iesus Christ on the first day of his appearing to his Disciples gave them this ordinance Further although he had given it sith he appeared not unto them till the evening following the day in the morning whereof he rose againe they were at least all that day preceding his first manifestation unto them free from all bond tying them to the observation of any particular seventh day and their obligation to the observation of a certaine day hath begun by the extremity of the day to wit at the same time when CHRIST appearing unto them injoyned them to heepe it which difficulties I see not how those that hold the aforesaid maxime can well resolve 21 They say that when the first change was made the Disciples kept two Sabbaths consecutively to wit the last of the weeke to put an end to the order of the ancient Testament and thereafter the first day of the weeke immediately following to begin the new order which was to remaine for ever under the New Testament and to keepe alwayes one day of seven But this saying is a pure imagination For who hath told them that the Disciples did keepe that course Besides this giveth no satisfaction to the difficulties afore mentioned For Iesus Christ being dead and having by his death abrogated all the ceremonies of the Law the last day of the weeke at the same very instant that he gave up the Ghost ceased to be obligatory And so although Iesus Christ shewing himselfe to his Disciples on the first day of the weeke that he rose in had ordained unto them expressely that day and made them to sanctifie it in quality of a Sabbath day to persist afterwards till the end of the world neverthelesse sith the day before which was the Sabbath had not obliged them to keep it and if they observed it they did it not through any obligation binding them thereunto because it was abolished it followeth manifestly that the obligation to one day of seven was caused in one weeke at least yea in more then one if he ordained not Sunday to be kept as soone as he shewed himselfe unto them after his resurrection Nay is casseered in them all if he gave them no ordinance at all concerning that or any other day which is more probable as we shall see more fully hereafter Howsoever of this ariseth this conclusion that the order of one of seven daies is not morall sith it could suffer once at least an interruption in the obligation or binding power which it had 22 I would againe faine know sith Christs resurrection might without inconvenience cause the changing of the particular day wherein the Sabbath was before observed which was the last day of the weeke into another day which was the first wherein it came to passe why it might not likewise without any inconvenience at all give occasion to change the whole generall order of the observation of one day of seven and deliver the Church from all obligation unto it Sith as we have already shewed there is no greater necessity to observe one day of seven then the last of seven Sith also this resurrection of Christ which was as it were his rest from the worke of our Redemption cannot be said to have happened as Gods rest from the worke of Creation after sixe daies of labour to ratifie thereby the observation of this number but to reckon since the day wherein Christ began to be in agony in the garden which was to speake properly the beginning of the worke of our Redemption till the day that he rose out of the grave which containeth the space of three or foure daies wherein he suffered died was buried came to passe after three or foure daies only of labour and of paine whereby he redemed us why may it not with as good reason be a foundation and powerfull motive to change one day of seven into one of foure sith Christ rose on the fourth day after the beginning of his passion as well as the observation of the last day of the weeke into the first in consequence of his resurrection on that first day For there should be as little evill or danger in the one as in the other 23 But here is the maine point of the matter For as much as the order which God observed of sixe daies for his labour in the Creation and of a seventh day for his rest carrieth not with it any necessary and naturall obligation to imitate it and was not obligatory under the old Testament but because it pleased God to command and establish it by his Law for that time onely under the new Testament there was no obligation to keepe it and therefore the necessity of observing it as of all other legall ceremonies having come to an end and being expired the last day of seven hath wihout sinne yea with good reason been changed into the first that Christ rose in the Church thinking it fit to do so whereunto she was not moved by an opinion that the consideration of Christs rising from the dead on that day was of it selfe obligatory For why should the day of Christs resurrection of its nature oblige us to observe it as a day holy and solemne rather then the day of his nativity or the day of his death whereby he said All was fulfilled Ioh. 19. vers 30. to wit all that was requisite for the expiation of our sinnes and redemption of the world conformably to the ancient prophecies and figures of the Law or the day of his ascension which might as well and better be called the day of Christs rest then the day of his resurrection Sure the Church might have in any of those daies called to minde and celebrated the remembrance of the worke of our Redemption as well as in the day of the Resurrection because all the actions of Christ have respect unto it Nay she might have as well changed the order of one of seven into a day of another number seeing the worke of Redemption was not tyed to the same number of daies was that the worke of Creation But because there was no necessity in this she thought it expedient to keepe this order of one day in the weeke observed by the Iewes amongst whom the weeke had its beginning and to change onely the particular seventh day of the Iewes into another to make a distinction between them and that servile people as also to keepe a memoriall of Christs Resurrection Of all this it appeareth evidently that the reason taken from Gods example as it is alledged out of the fourth Commandement hath no force to prove that which it is produced for and to shelter those that make a buckler of it 24 Finally they rely much upon these last words of the Commandement God hath blessd the Sabbath day and hath sanctified it Now say they if GOD hath ordained this seventh day to be observed and to be a
Testament and to grant willingly that it is to be understood of the dayes of the New Testament it is a thing notorious that when God in the Old Testament speaketh by his Prophets of the service that should bee yeelded unto him under the New Testament he expresseth himselfe ordinarily in termes taken from the fashions and formes used in his service under the Old Testament so he saith that under the New Testament he should have Altars every where that in every place incense should be offered unto his name that from one new Moone to another all flesh should come to worship before him c. And in this same Chap. 56. ver 7. he saith concerning these Eunuches and the sonnes of the stranger which shall keepe his Sabbaths that hee will bring them to his holy mountaine and make them joyfull in his house of prayer and that their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon his Altar 4 If then of that which is said that they shall keepe his Sabbaths they will inferre that the Sabbath day is obligatory under the New Testament as it was under the Ancient by the same reason any may inferre that the Temple of Ierusalem the Altar and the sacrifices should remaine in use namely seeing God in the fourth verse speaketh of his Sabbaths in the plurall number and it is manifest that besides the seventh ordinary day there was a great deale of other Sabbaths ordained of God to the Iewes it may be as truly gathered that under the New Testament the faithfull ought to keepe all the Sabbaths of the Iewes and the same dayes of Sabbaths that the Iewes did keepe and particularly the same seventh day to wit the last which should be a conclusion most absurd 5 The truth is that the Sabbath according to the stile of the Ancient Testament was taken of old for all the outward service of God and God using the same stile or manner of speech according to his custome in this prophesie concerning the time of the New Testament when hee saith the Eunuches and the sonnes of the stranger shall keepe the Sabbath by the Sabbath denoteth all the outward and solemne service which was to be rendred to him in that time of the New Covenant but joyned with the spirituall service signified in the second verse by these other words And keepeth his hands from doing evill And consequently he signifieth that that outward service should have its times ordained in the Church even as the Sabbath day was of old the time appointed for his service But that it was Gods intention to stint to the Church of the New Testament a seventh day or any other particular day whatsoever for a Sabbath day and that he hath not left the determination thereof to the liberty of the Church that shall never be proved by the aforesaid passage 6 This answer may serve for a sufficient reply to the passage of the 46. Chapter of Ezekiel where God continuing to represent unto the Prophet in a high and magnificent vision and difficult to bee understood of a most glorious and sumptuous Temple the state of the Church under the New Testament saith in the first and third verses that the gate of the inner Court shall be shut the sixe working dayes but on the Sabbath it shall be opened and the people of the land shall worship at the entrance of this gate From whence it is fancied that a necessity of keeping the Sabbath under the New Testament may be inferred 7 But it is evident that in all this vision contained in the nine last Chapters of Ezekiel the state of the Christian Church and of the Evangelicall service is designed in tearmes and phrases taken from the Temple and legall service which must not be understood literally but mystically if we will not under the Gospell bring backe not only the Sabbath but also a great deale of other ceremonies which are mentioned in that vision As for example The New Moones which in the aforesaid verses are joyned with the Sabbath For it is said there verse 1. that the gate shall bee opened on the Sabbath day and in the day of the New Moone it shall be opened and that the people of the Land shall worship at the entrie of this gate before the Lord on the Sabbaths and in the New Moones verse 3. Which must be understood spiritually of the truth figured by the Sabbaths and New Moones and not properly of these things themselves which were but figures that is not that the faithfull should celebrate Sabbaths and New Moones but that they should rest from their workes of iniquity to practise the workes of the spirit of Sanctification and of Gods true spirituall service and should be renewed and illuminated for ever by the Lord Iesus their true and only Saviour and by him have alwayes free accesse and entrance to the throne of grace 8 All that can be at the most inferred of the forealleadged passage concerning the externall service of the Christian Church is that the New Testament shall have solemne dayes wherein God shall be publikely served by all his people but in no wise that they should be the same which were stinted under the Old Testament For so we should be bound to observe the dayes of New Moones the last day of the weeke and other holy dayes of the Iewes mentioned in the aforesaid place and betokened in the plurall number by the name of Sabbaths 9 Whereunto I adde that it may be said that the Sabbath day and the day of the New Moone spoken of there representeth the time of eternall life in heaven where the faithful are in a perfect rest and are new Creatures without any blemish of sin or defect of righteousnes As the sixe work dayes are a representation of the time of this present life during which they travel they rove and trot up and downe upon earth where so long as they sojourne the Prophet signifieth that the marvels of the glorious grace of God are alwayes shut unto them but in heaven shal be opened unto them by a full and unconceivable manifestation and perfect fruition of that joy which is in the face of God and of those pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore whereby they shall worship and serve God perfectly for ever and ever Amen This then is in meaning the same that wee read of in the 66. Chapter of Isaiah verse 23. where it is said that in the new heavens and in the new earth which God should make from moneth to moneth and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh i. all the faithfull should come to worship before him Of which passage I have spoken before Of all that hath beene said it is manifest that all the passages of this kinde which are to bee found in the Prophets are not to any purpose when they are produced to prove that which is debated about the Sabbath day CHAPTER Ninth 1. Answer to the seventh Reason 1. Ob. Iesus
sence of Christs words and that they had relation to the Iewes only 4. Although he spake them to his Disciples 5. Second answer Although he had spoken to his Disciples only he might have had respect not to them but to their brethren among the Iewes that were weake in faith 6. Third answer Although by the Sabbath the Lords day were to be understood the morality of one of seven dayes in the weeâ— cannot be inferred from thence 1 IEsus Christ speaking in the 24. of Saint Matthew and twenty verse to his Disciples of the desolation that was to come upon Iudea and namely upon Ierusalem said unto them Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day Not in the winter because then the wayes are incommodious and there is neither driving nor marching but with difficulty Not on the Sabbath day by reason of the holinesse of that day which being appointed and set a part for Gods service although it was lawfull unto them to flie in it to save their lives yet they should not be able to doe it but with griefe and sore against their will being constrained to spend on trotting toyling and much hurrying up and down a day particularly consecrated to the publike exercises of Religion and so should have a just occasion to pray to God to keepe them from being brought to such a necessity Some alleadge this passage esteeming it to be pressing and of great weight For say they Iesus Christ speaketh to his Disciples of a thing that was to fall out forty yeeres after his Ascension when all the ceremonies of the Law should be abolished in the Christian Church and yet notwithstanding he speaketh unto them of the Religion of the Sabbath as of a thing that they ought alwayes to take to heart in so high a measure that they should be sorry and throughly grieved to be in that time of desolation constrained to flee on so holy a day instead of applying themselves to Gods service Therefore the Sabbath day was not a ceremony comming within the compasse of those that he was to abrogate but a morall point and of perpetuall necessity Otherwise he had not done well to intangle their mindes with an unnecessary Religion towards the Sabbath day in the time of their flight seeing it being abrogated by him they might with as little grieve in respect to the day get packing as fast as they could trot and toyle on that day as on another day 2 I answer that this argument is a silly one and of no value For Iesus Christ speaketh not in that place of Saint Matthew of the day of rest that Christians were to observe after his Ascension but of the Iewish Sabbath day as this word Sabbath day sheweth clerely which his Disciples were farre from understanding other wayes then for the last day of the weeke observed among the Iewes For it is certaine that it signified nothing else at that time seeing there was not as yet any other day of rest in vigour saving that alone And Iesus Christ had not at all made himselfe to be understood of them nay he had purposely given them occasion to mistake him if by the Sabbath day his intention was to denote another day then the last of the weeke because this alone carryed that name neither shall it bee found in the whole Scripture that any other day is specified by that name 3 The heavenly rest under the Gospell is once called by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes Chapter 4. verse 9. by a name drawne from the Hebrew word Sabbath because it was figured by the Sabbath of the Iewes But our day wherein wee apply our selves to Gods outward service and to that intent doe cease from our ordinary labour is alwayes called in the New Testament The first day of the weeke or The Lords Day and not the Sabbath which name the Apostles and first beleevers had not failed to give unto it if Iesus Christ had so qualified and stiled it Now if they would never tearme it by such a name although it might have been in some sort attributed unto it but only The Lords Day or The first day of the weeke to distinguish it from the day which was so called among the Iewes For the same reason Iesus Christ in the foresaid place if he had minded to speake of the day which Christians were to observe after his death he had intitled it by some other name then of the Sabbath day to make a distinction betweene it and the day of the Iewes Wherefore those which use this argument doe most fondly suppose without proofe or likenesse of truth that by the Sabbath Iesus Christ meaneth the Lords day Now if it be understood of the Sabbath of the Iewes as it must for the foresaid reasons and as all the interpreters whom I have read and perused doe take it this argument being urged according to the ratiotination of those that have set it on foot shall yeeld against their intention this conclusion that after the death and ascension of our Lord Iesus Christ the Sabbath day of the Iewes ought to bee yet kept in the Christian Church and that the faithfull are obliged unto it by Religion and conscience and ought bee hartily sorrowfull when being constrained to flye on it to save their lives in a great desolation they should not be able to consecrate it to Gods service 3 The true sence of this passage is that indeed our Lord Iesus <
Saint Athanasius in the homily of the seed saith of himselfe and of other faithfull Christians that they assembled together on the Sabbath day not through malady of spirit for Iudaisme but to worship the Lord of the Sabbath Gregory of Nisse calleth these two dayes to wit the Sabbath day and the Lords day brethren Sozomene in the seventh booke and 19 Chapter of his History saith that at Constantinople and almost in all other parts of the Easterne Church the ecclesiasticall assemblies met together on the Sabbath day and on the day following Socrates in the sixt booke and eight Chapter of his History calleth the Sabbath day and the Sunday the weekely feasts wherein Christians came together in the Churches and in the foresaid 21 Chap. of the fifth book amongst many diverse customes of the Churches of these times concerning their assemblies and exercises of Religion he alleadgeth a frequent and common observation of the Sabbath 12 Which sheweth that the Churches beleeved not Sunday to be of divine institution and subrogated to the Sabbath by our Lord Iesus Christ. For if they had beleeved any such thing they had not observed another day But knowing they had no particular commandement for any day of devotion they observed both the Sab because it had beene a long while a solemne day of devotion ordained of God to the Iewes and Sunday because it was made honourable by the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ. This that we say shall be better seene by the consideration of the reasons which are broached to prove that the institution of the first day of the weeke to be a holy day is of God himselfe of Iesus Christ and of his Apostles CHAPTER Second Answer to the first Reason taken from some Texts of the Old Testament to prove the divine institution of the first day of the weeke 1. Answer to the Reasons taken from the Circumcision administred on the eight day and from the inscription of certaine Psalmes c. 2. Reasons taken out of the 110 Psalme 3. ver and of the 118. Psalme verse 24. 3. Answer In the hundred and tenth Psalme no mention is made of any particular day 4. Nor also in the hundred and eighteenth Psalme 5. And although there were a day of rest in every weeke cannot be inforced from thence 6. No more then the words of Isaiah Chapter 9. and of the Angels Luke 2. verse 10 11. can inforce a weekely observation of a day in remembrance of Christs birth 1 IT were a losse of time to stay here upon the refutation of the reasons taken from the ancient circumcision which was celebrated on the eight day and which some say to have beene a figure of the spirituall circumcision that we were to obtaine by our Lord Iesus Christ one the first day of the weeke which is as the eight day succeeding immediately to the seventh and last day thereof Nor also of these which are overthwartly wrested out of these Psalmes which have in their titles or inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hascheminith that is super octava upon the octave as if in these titles mention were made of the first day after the seventh which is Sunday For although these reasons have beene alleadged by some of the ancients they broached them rather as allusions and allegories then as solid proofes to rely upon Wherefore leaving them I goe forward to the consideration of two others which have greater likenesse of truth 2 They would faine take advantage of the hundred and 10. Psalm and of the 3. ver as also of the hundred and 18. Psalme and of the 24 v. thereof as if in these places there were a prophesie that Sunday or the day of the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ should be observed in the Christian Church In the hundred and 10 Psal. verse 3. mention is made of a day wherein Christ should raise an army in a holy pompe and his people should be a willing people In the hundred and 18 Psalme verse 24. the people is exhorted to rejoyce and be glad in the day which the Lord had made day wherein the stone which the builders refused should become the head stone of the corner verse 22. Stone which is Christ. Now Christ in his ignominious death was like a stone rejected by the builders that is by the governours and rulers of the Iewes and it was by his glorious Resurrection that he became the head stone of the corner Act. 4. ver 10 11. 3 To this I answer that no certaine argument can be drawne from the two foresaid allegations For who dare affirme that in them a particular day is denoted and not rather indefinitely the time of the publication of the Gospell and gathering together of the Christian Church which was done by the Apostles after the Resurrection of Christ It is said in the hundred and tenth Psalme ver 2. that the Lord should send out of Sion the Scepter of Christs strength the meaning of which words is that out of Ierusalem he should send forth and spread every where the preaching of the Gospell to wit by the Apostles and other Ministers and that in the day that is in the time wherein he should raise his army that is gather together his Church she should be a free voluntary and forward people Now the first assembling of the Christian Church happened not in one day more than in another but the Apostles applyed themselves to that worke every day preaching the Gospell wherefore we must not understand in that place of the Psalme any particular day but the whole time wherein this worke was done by the Apostles and their Disciples 4 I say the same of the hundred and eighteenth Psalme For Iesus Christ is not become the head stone of the corner simply by his Resurrection but in as much as after his Resurrection he hath by the preaching of the Gospell built up the faithfull upon himselfe as so many lively stones to be a spirituall house as we may see in the first epistle of Saint Peter Chapter 2. verse 4 5 6 7. And therefore this day which the Lord hath made and wherein the Psalmist exhorteth the faithfull to rejoyce is not a particular day but all this time blessed and sanctified by the LORD wherein should begin and goe forward this great worke of the preaching of the Gospell for the edifying in all places of the Church upon Iesus Christ for this is ordinary both in Scripture and in the common language when mention is made of a day wherein a thing is a doing or shall be done to understand not alwayes necessarily a certaine particular day but indefinitely the time of such a thing which may be such that it cannot bee performed in one particular day but requireth a continuation of time So the Apostle applying to the Christians of his time the words of God in Isaiah Chapter 49. 8. saith Behold now is the accepted time behold Now is the day of salvation
2 Cor. 6. verse 2. This time and this day is now also in our time and shall be till the worlds end Such was the worke whereof mention is made in the foresaid Psalme a worke which hath ever beene a doing since Christs Ascension into heaven and shall not be performed till he come visibly from heaven to judge the quicke and the dead 5 But granting that the Psalmist speaketh of a particular day which God ordained then for the Resurrection of Iesus Christ and wherein it was afterwards fulfilled it followeth not that he would binde the faithfull under the New Testament to make weekely of that day a day of rest For he exhorteth them only to rejoyce and be glad for it as for a day wherein a great thing and belonging to their salvation should bee performed which they may well doe according to the exhortation of the Psalmist although they make not that day every weeke a day of rest For they may and ought to rejoyce every day privately at home and also publikelie in the congregation as often as they meete together to serve GOD. 6 And if the question be of the stinting of a solemne day for the commemoration of this great worke the exhortation of the Psalmist obligeth them not more particularly to one ordinary day in the weeke then to a yeerely day Esay in the ninth Chapter prophesieth that the faithfull shall rejoyce with a great joy for the day wherein the child was borne and the Sonne was given and the Angels of GOD on that day brought to the Shepheards good tydings of great joy which should be to all people because unto them was borne that day in the City of David a Saviour which is CHRIST the LORD Luke 2. verse 10 11. And yet these words inforce not that the day of CHRISTS birth must necessarily be observed as a day of rest and farre lesse as an ordinary day everie weeke And the Church which hath thought fit to make commemoration thereof on a set day was pleased to appoint for that purpose one day only in the whole yeere Neither can there a greater obligation then this be inferred of the foresaid passage for the day of the Resurrection For we may yea wee ought to rejoyce for the day of the Nativity of Christ of his passion of his Ascension and likewise of his Resurrection but for all that we are not bound to make of them Sabbath dayes And so the foresaid places conclude nothing CHAPTER Third Answer to the second Reason whereby they seeke to prove that Sunday was sanctified by our Lord Iesus Christ for Gods service 1. Second Reason Christ forty dayes before the Ascension spake to his Apostles of things pertaining to the kingdome of God and therefore of the Sabbath 2. Answer by the kingdome of God are to be understood the essentiall points of our Christian Religion 3 Not the circumstances thereof which are left to the liberty of the Church 4. Nullity of the instance urged from the commandement given to Moses concerning the Sabbath 5. The Church had authority to sanctifie Sunday as well as other holy dayes for Gods service 1 THey alleadge out of the New Testament that our Lord Iesus Christ after his Resurrection was forty dayes with his Disciples speaking unto them of the things pertaining to the kingdome of God Act. 1. verse 3. that is to the training and government of the Christian Church which is often called the kingdome of God as Acts 19. verse 8. Acts 28. verse 23. Col. 4. verse 11. c. To which government say they did pertaine the determination of one day wherein the Evangelicall service ought to be publikely celebrated to God For as God when he gave the ancient Covenant by Moses and taught him how hee would have his Church to be trained had a particular care to name unto him a certain day for his service even so our Lord Iesus Christ when he taught the New Covenant to his Apostles and how under it he would have his Church to be governed by them and by their successors hath not omitted to appoint unto them a certaine day for his publike service 2 I answer that this argument is not founded but upon uncertaine conjectures and so concludeth nothing necessarily By the kingdome of God is meant ordinarily in the New Testament the word of the Gospell the Christian Religion the state and condition of the Church and is so taken in the places before alleadged Wherfore when it is said in the first of the Acts verse 3. that Iesus Christ spake to his Apostles of things belonging to the kingdome of God it is likely that the meaning of these words is that Iesus Christ spake unto them of things pertaining to the Gospell to the Religion and to the government of the Church and thence may be inferred that he declared and prescribed unto them all things that are of the substance of the Gospell of the Religion and of the essentiall matter of his service such as is the preaching of the points of faith and of doctrine and the administration of the Sacraments of the New Testament things that God himselfe ordaineth necessarily and will never leave to the liberty of men to dispose of as they think fit but will have all men in these points to depend on his declaration and ordinance As also they are most expresly declared in the New Testament as being established by our Lord Iesus Christ. 3 But as for the circumstance of a particular and ordinary time for the practising of these exercises no man can inferre of the foresaid Text that Iesus Christ prescribed it to his Apostles yea it is most likely that he resigned that care to the wisdome of his faithfull servants because there being no necessity nor essentiall importance of such a determination of one day it is more agreeable to the state of liberty which the Scripture assigneth to the Christian Church under the Gospell that Iesus Christ would have it to depend on her liberty and wisedome rather than prescribe it himselfe 4 Vnder the old testament God ordained by Moses a set day for the Sabbath because it was the time of bondage as also he prescribed for a mark of that bondage an exact cessation from all servile works yea of the least on that day and besides ordained unto them diverse other dayes and times for his service as also a particular place for the publike exercise thereof a Tabernacle a City a Temple c. 5 Now if under the New Testament he hath left altogether to the first liberty and wisedome of the Church the determination of places such as she shall thinke fit as also of diverse other times and dayes which she may ordaine and hath ordained in effect for the celebration of the remembrance of sundry benefits which God hath vouchsafed upon us through our Lord Iesus Christ and for the solemnization of them by the godly exercises of Religion I see no reason why we may not say that
them by actuall execution they have beene performed by the vertue of Christs Divinity after his Ascension into heaven from whence he sent the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles to beget and assemble his Church here beneath in all the parts of the world by their ministry 5 The Resurrection hath no other correspondency to the meritorious fulfilling of those things but of a token and marke evident certaine and necessary that Christ by his death hath merited them unto us having payed a most sufficient price for our redemption which had not appeared to be yea on the contrary had seemed not to be and indeed had not beene at all if Christ had remained in the grave of death and had not risen againe Even as the comming of a debtor out of prison is a demonstration that he hath payed although it bee not the payment it selfe But if he did remaine alwayes in prison that were an evident signe that he hath not satisfied We must take in this sence the Apostles words saying Rom. 4. verse 25. that Christ died for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification that is to demonstrate that justification is purchased unto us by his death and withall to confer and apply it unto us efficaciously To which efficacious collation and application of all that was purchased by the death of Christ and to the actuall accomplishment of the second Creation and of the re-establishment of the Church into a new estate his Resurrection hath no correspondency but as a necessary antecedent thereunto For it was necessary hee should rise as also ascend into heaven that from thence he might operate that great and notable alteration 6 Wherein is seene a manifest difference betweene the day of Christs Resurrection and the seventh day that God rested in from the worke of Creation For this day followed the Creation finished and intirely effected and it was a rest from it already done and accomplished But that day cannot be called the day of rest from the second Creation saving only as it was merited by the death of Christ For it goeth and that many dayes before the actuall execution thereof sith Christ began not properly to frame and establish the Church of the New Testament till many dayes after he rose againe Wherefore there is by no meanes the like reason to keepe the day of Christs Resurrection as there was to keepe the Sabbath Day 7 Yea the day of the Resurrection in it selfe hath no advantage beyond the dayes of Christs Passion or Ascension or of Pentecost wherein came to passe the solemne sending of the Holy Ghost wherby it was more worthy to be observed then they For it was inferiour to the day of Christs passion and death in regard of the merit to purchase and to the day of Pentecost in regard of the efficacy to communicate the spirituall and heavenly gifts The Ascension day is conforme and equall unto it in the same correspondency both to the acquisition and to the execution of the establishment of the Church 8 The preferring of it by the faithfull to all other dayes to bee kept ordinarily as a solemne day came not from any worthier prerogative that it hath in it selfe but because on it began to shine upon the faithfull a new light of joy and comfort The death and buriall of Christ had filled their hearts with sorrow and abated their hope because it seemed to them that his death and the Sepulchre had taken him away and ravished him out of the world for evermore No wonder for they knew not in the beginning the nature nor the consequences of that great humiliation as is apparent by the discourse of the two Disciples going to Emmaus Luke 24. verse 21. After then that he rose againe shewing himselfe to be the Sonne of God with power Romans 1. v. 4. and that their hopes were revived by his Resurrection they thought fit to observe solemnly and weekely the day thereof which began their joy shewing unto them the first beames of the rising of the Sunne of righteousnesse rather than others which afterward increased it much by a greater manifestation of his glorious brightnesse though they were not lesse unworthy to be kept and as frequently And further they did it to change the ancient day of the Law into a new day of the Gospell In which change that there was a convenient reason it cannot be denyed The thing I deny is that there was any necessary reason thereof 10 Yea although all that in the objection is attributed to the day of the Resurrection did belong unto it properly and particularly it should not follow that in vertue thereof and by a naturall consequence the said day ought to be observed rather than any other For if the day that God rested in from the worke of the Creation had no naturall obligation in it tying men to the observation thereof but it was Gods Commandement onely that bound them to that duty no more can the day wherein Christ rested though in another respect which is not so proper from the worke of redemption oblige us of it selfe to observe it To tye our consciences to such an observation it must needs have a divine institution whereby God hath commanded us to observe it which I say is not to be found CHAPTER Ninth Answer to the eighth Reason 1. Eight Reason from the excellency of things done on the first day of the weeke 2. First Answer Besides that this assertion is uncertaine it proveth nothing 3. Second Answer it is grounded upon a superstitious opinion of the perfection and mysticall signification of the number of seven 4. Seeing there is no certainty in the observation of numbers and the Scripture maketh mention of other numbers observed in many things 5. Whence no solid argument can be gathered and are disclamea by many which dispute for the authority and preeminence of the first day of the weeke 6. In what sence the number of seven is called mysterious and that there is no mysterie in it under the New Testament 1 SOme fetch an argument from diverse solemne things recited in holy Scripture which they marke to have beene done on the first day of the weeke as that on it the light was created the pillar of a cloud covered at first the people of Israel Manna rained from heaven upon them Aaron and his children began to exercise the Priest-hood God at first blessed his people solemnely gave the Law on the Mount Sinai CHRIST was borne baptized turned water into Wine fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes shall come from heaven to judge the quicke and the dead 2 But it is most uncertaine that all these things were done on the first day of the weeke For the Scripture saith no such thing Besides this although all these things had beene done on the first day of the weeke it shall never follow by any necessary argument that for such a cause the first day of the weeke ought to be
seale of the covenant of grace and of Gods promises contained therein which because they appertaine to little children as S. Peter saith Act. 2. verse 39. and that in a manner so expresse that St. Paul affirmeth the Children of faithfull Parents to be holy 1 Cor. 7. ver 14. we conclude very pertinently that the seale of these promises which is Baptisme pertaineth to them 3 But we find not any ordinance in the Gospell to observe the seventh day neither in generall nor in particular neither I say one of the seven dayes of the weeke in generall nor in particular the first day or any other comprised in the order of seven The Commandement to observe the seventh day under the Old Testament was ceremoniall as was Gods ordinance concerning circumcision and had in the Law of the decalogue the same respect that circumcision hath in the covenant of grace And as our Lord Iesus Christ leaving the covenant of grace firme and steady hath abolished the signe of circumcision even so leaving the Law stable in the principall substance thereof which is the whole morality therof he hath abolished the ceremony of the seventh day established in it of old 4 Yet although he thought fit to put in the place of circumcision which was ministred to little children and which he hath abolished the holy Sacrament of Baptisme which consequently ought to be ministred to infants he hath not judged convenient to doe the like by establishing another stinted day in the roome of the seventh Iewish day which he hath abrogated For if he had esteemed it convenient hee had left us an institution thereof as expresse as of Baptisme which he hath not done but was pleased to leave to the wisdome and liberty of the Church the appointing of a time for his service 5 As indeed the Church from her first beginnings and as it were from her cradle hath observed Sunday But of this practise and custome so long continued some doe inferre too rashly that the keeping of Sunday is an institution of Iesus Christ or of his Apostles For by the same reason may be inferred that the keeping of Easter and of some other holy dayes under the Gospell is a divine institution because it hath beene practised in the Church from her first age not long after the times of the Apostles To which conclusion these disputers wil not consent unto because our Lord Iesus Christ hath made us free from the necessity of keeping feasts by any divine obligation as is evident by the texts of Saint Paul alleadged and explaind in the first part of this treatise The truth is that custom hath introduced and ever fithence hath intertained that day and some other holy dayes in the Church without any commandement of Iesus Christ or of his holy Apostles which also Socrates hath recorded in the fifth book of his ecclesiasticall History Ch. 21. 6 They produce also examples of divers judgements of God upon sundry persons who neglected or contemned the Lords day whence they would prove that God thereby hath ratified the observation thereof as ordained by him Whereunto I answer that undoubtedly God may have punished many for the profanation of the Lords day not because he hath ordained and commanded it but because according to the order of the Church this day hath beene appointed for the excrcises of Religion which hee hath commanded All persons which set at nought the preaching of the Word the administration of the Sacraments publike and common Prayers in the assemblies of the faithfull and the order of the Church whereby these holy actions are ordinarily practised on the first day of the weeke deserve in the righteous judgement of God to be punished with exemplary and publike plagues and when the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against their ungodlinesse the cause of their punishment to speake properly is the carelesse disregard of the holy Congregations of the religious and fruitfull exercises practised in them and of the order of the Church and not any necessity proceeding from a commandement given of God to observe the first day of the weeke rather than another day They urge also the backwardnesse which is naturally in men to the sanctification of the Lords day which is our Sabbath day All wicked men are altogether averse unto it and the faithfull and truly regenerate too remisse and restie Of this they inferre that the commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and the Lords day is a divine institution considering the great contradiction and opposition of the flesh against it 8 But it is easie to answer this argument For this rebellion and stubbornnesse of the flesh is not simply against Sunday no more than against another day but against the keeping and applying of Sunday to serve God to heare his Word to powre out prayers before him to meditate on godlinesse and other exercises of religion whereunto the naturall man hath no inclination no more in other dayes than on the day that is stinted for them For otherwise to to observe a day for passing the time in sporting in gaming or in worldly solemnities the flesh is too too forward to that Whence it followeth that verily Gods service true religion and godlinesse in it selfe is a morall thing established of God seeing the flesh is so averse unto it But it is not necessary that the keeping of a certaine day of Sabbath as of Sunday should be of the same nature because the flesh hath no aversion to that saving in as much as the observation of such a day is ordained for Gods service 9 But say they if one of seven dayes and namely Sunday be not under the new Testament necessary to be kept by divine institution but onely by the order of the Church it shall follow that the Church hath authority of her selfe to sanctifie a day for Gods service and consequently that she is Lady and Mistresse of the Sabbath which prerogative pertaineth not to her but to God alone That if she hath that authority she may ordaine as many and as few dayes as pleaseth her make all the dayes or the most part of the dayes of the weeke Sabbath dayes or onely one of ten or of fifteene or of a whole yeere if she will That particularly she may change Sunday into another day which should be absurd seeing there shall never be any action so important to oblige us to the keeping of another day as was the Resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ which fell upon the first day of the weeke and to move us to consecrate that day to be a Sabbath day That Easter Whitsunday and other Holy dayes instituted by the Church shall be equall in authority to Sunday That there shall be nothing in the fourth Commandement injoyned to particular men saving perhaps to keepe the time which shall be appointed in the Church whereupon they shall brabble and strive about the number of dayes namely about the particular day which is to bee observed some
jarring for one day some for another and so contending one against another without hope of agreement and comming to a certaine resolution Yea they shall take licence themselves to observe any day whatsoever they shall thinke good and dispence with keeping of Sunday when they shall thinke that they are not tied unto it by Gods Commandement 10 I answer that none of these inconveniences is to bee feared As for the first That the Church should have authority to sanctifie a day for Gods service if so be God hath not appointed one I see no inconvenience in it It is true that it is Gods prerogative exclusively to all men and Angels to sanctifie a thing if sanctification be taken for a reall and inherent sanctification by impression of holinesse in the thing or if a thing is to be sanctified to bee an essentiall part and properly so called of Gods service For God will be served according to his Ordinances and not according to the ordinances of men But this is not the sanctification that wee treat of here for a day is not susceptible of such an impression of holinesse And to speake properly it maketh no part of Gods service under the new Testament but is onely an accidentall circumstance thereof whereof God hath left the determination to the liberty of the Church For in that he hath not in himselfe given an expresse and particular Ordinance concerning it hee hath testified that hee did leave that power to his Church teaching her onely in generall to doe it conveniently And indeed doth not she sanctifie places when she appointeth and setteth them apart that in them God may be served Doth she not sanctifie times other than Sunday ordaining fasting dayes when necessity doth require it and feast dayes which she causeth to be solemnized in remembrance of the Birth Passion Ascension of Iesus Christ and of the sending of the holy Ghost c. All Christians hold this sanctification to bee indifferent and no man brings her authority in question in that respect neither doth any blame the holy use of those dayes providing shee carry her selfe wisely and keepe a due proportion and fit moderation in her stinting of them Why then might she not in the same manner after Iesus Christ had abolished the Iewish Sabbath sanctifie the first day of the weeke to be an ordinary day of Gods service in remembrance that on it Christ rose from the dead Wherein she takes not upon her a masterie that belongs not unto her It is true that she is not Mistresse of the Sabbath to change a day that God hath ordained and to dispence at her pleasure with the keeping thereof But since there is no day ordained of God to the Christian Church for his service and that which he had ordained of old being expired she hath as great authority to appoint a day for Gods service as to ordaine other circumstances and helpes thereof 11 To the second inconvenience I say that the two extremities of excesse and defect are to be avoided in this point For there must be neither so many Holy dayes ordained that the faithfull bee inthralled and surcharged with them as with an onerous yoke which they are not able to beare Act. 15. vers 10. nor so few that they become unto them an occasion to give themselves over unto profanenesse and irreligion It is certaine that a day ordinary and frequent is necessary for many good and excellent uses as for the maintenance of the true religion godlines of union and Christian society among the faithfull for the celebration of the Name of God and conservation of the remembrance of his benefits towards us by hearing the same Word receiving the same Sacraments and above all by Common-Prayers and other points of Divine Service which being practised in the same time and place with an holy affection by many faithfull incouraging and exhorting one another both by word and by example are of great efficacie and availe much with God If there were not such a day these exercises not being practised ordinarily these duties would also easily decay by little and little and men would become slacke and faint-hearted in the performance of them As on the contrary if this day returned too often and the one upon the heele of the other that might bee troublesome to the faithfull and would not onely incommodate them in their temporall affaires which God is well pleased they apply themselves unto but also would make the exercises of religion to bee grievous and loathsome unto them by reason of their infirmities in this life 12 Therefore the Church ought not to sinne in this point neither by excesse nor by defect and farre lesse through defect than through excesse but having the establishing of Gods publike service committed to her wisedome ought to refraine from establishing either an excessive number of dayes lest shee should render the yoke too heavie or too few as one in a fortnight in a moneth in a yeere or in many yeeres lest she should seeme to be slightly affected to devotion and carelesse of Gods service For dayes so rare and so distant should not be sufficient for the entertainment of the ends above specified which be so necessary for her edification Also God hath so governed her by his providence that although Iesus Christ hath given her no ordinance for a particular day yet we see that from her beginnings she hath alwayes kept at least one in the weeke to wit Sunday not through an opinion that in a seventh day there was some greater moment and efficacie for the entertainment of godlinesse for the obtaining of Gods blessing then in another number but judging it a fit and convenient thing to keepe the distinction of weekes which was already accustomed and usuall in the Church and to consecrate to God as many dayes at least as did the Church of the Iewes that is one of seven in ordinary and some others extraordinarily returning and following the one the other afarre off as from yeere to yeere in remembrance of some things considerable either in the person of Iesus Christ or of some of his most excellent servants 13 This hath by time growne to a great abuse through the multiplication of too many and divers feasts serving almost for no use but for idlenesse and riot This we see in the Romane Church which hath ordained an excessive number of Holy dayes not onely to the honour of God but also of Angels of he and she Saints of Paradise yea of sundry which having never beene men on earth cannot be Saints in heaven to which dayes they oblige mens consciences as to dayes more holy and more capable to sanctifie the actions of religion done in them than all other dayes nay as more holy than those things which God hath commanded founding that attempt but most fondly upon the fourth Commandement Therefore the Church in her reformation hath most justly redressed this abuse and hath reduced the observation of
the whole people to come together for that end in these dayes which are otherwise common and worke dayes There are also in many Churches yeerely feasts injoyned by the order and discipline of the Church as of the Nativity Passion and Ascension of Christ c. wherein the people is gathered together to heare the word of God and all the parts of divine service Do they not know that God hath not bound them by speciall cōmandement to the observation of such dayes and that their conscience is not tyed unto them in that name And yet we see not any of them under that pretence neglect the keeping of those dayes or presume to ordaine others at their pleasure Some profane men may attempt such a thing but honest men which love the Word of God and the exercises of godlinesse will submit themselves to the order of the Church and observe such dayes not as I have said for any particular commandement that God hath given concerning them seeing in this respect they know they are free yet through respect and affection towards the order of the Church and true devotion towards the holy exercises whereunto shee hath thought fit to apply such dayes It is even so of Sunday betweene which and these other dayes there is not in effect any difference in regard of a necessity to keepe them saving that Sunday is more ordinary and frequent then these others are which being joyned to the antiquity and generality of the observation thereof ever since the beginning of the Christian Church hath worthily purchased unto it the precedence of credit and respect to all other dayes which may be extraordinarily now appointed by the Church for the exercises of Religion This is all that I have to say concerning the institution and setting a part of Sunday for Gods service which hath beene the matter of the third part of this treatise The end of the third Part. THE FOVRTH PART Concerning the observation of the Sabbath day under the Ancient Testament and of Sunday under the New Testament CHAPTER First What was the observation of the Sabbath day under the Ancient Testament 1. The two chiefe points of this fourth and last part 2. All servile workes of profit or of recreation were forbidden on the Sabbath day 3. Yea the least unnecessary workes as to goe out of doores to gather Manna 4. To prepare it on that day 5. Commandement was given to the people to prepare it the day before 6. Refutation of the contrary opinion 7. How it came to passe that the Manna being kept according to the Commandement did not stinke 8. Other examples of small things which it was not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day 9. Workes lawfull on that day were the workes of the ceremoniall Law 10. Workes of love of mercy and of compassion 11. Workes of urgent necessity 12. Whence it is evident that the observation of the Iewish Sabbath was very precise and exact 1 HAving declared sufficiently the nature of the Sabbath day which was the maine point in this question I will dispatch briefely the last point concerning the observation thereof by a holy rest and cessation of all servile workes commanded of God and will shew how farre the Iewes were bound unto it under the ancient Testament and how farre or whether Christians are obliged unto it under the New Testament For this also is called in question 2 This is of it selfe cleere inough by that hath beene already said in the three first parts Neverthelesse to give a more full declaration and satisfaction I say that we know sufficiently what was the observation of the Sabbath day under the Old Testament seeing God had both in generall and particular ordered it by his lawes In generall he commanded a most exact rest and cessation and declared it by a redoubling of the words which he makes use of in this point saying sometimes that the seventh day is a Sabbath or Rest of Rest Exod. 16. verse 23. Exod 31. verse 15. Exod. 35. ver 2. Leviticus 23. verse 3. that is a day wherein he would have them to rest most precisely from all workes as it is said in the same places which workes he otherwhere intitleth servile workes Leviticus 23. verse 7 8 21 25. Numbers 28. verse 25. that is appertaining to their temporall and ordinary callings which they were wont to doe on the sixe former dayes of the weeke either for profit or for recreation and other uses simply civill domesticke earthly which he particularizeth in diverse places as for example to husband the ground to reape to cut grapes to tread wine presses Exod. 34. verse 21. Nehem. 13. verse 13. to buy and to sell Nehem. 10. verse 31. hold markets and faires for buying and selling of wares meat drinke to Cart to carry burthens Nehe. 13. verse 15 16 17 18. Ierem. 17. verse 21 22 23 24. to goe out of their houses for any end whatsoever besides their resorting to the holy convocations as to goe a voyage and to doe such like actions Exod. 16. verse 29. 3 This ordinance to doe no manner of work on the Sabbath day was so precise that God forbad them to doe the least workes even those which might be done without travell or distraction For example they were interdicted not only to make long and painefull voyages and courses but also to goe out of doores to walke although softly without urgent necessity as to goe out for to gather Manna when they were in the Wildernesse Exodus 16. ver 27. which they might have done without paines because it was to bee found at their doores and they were not to goe farre nor to take more paines than to stoope a little nor bestow above a very short time and that betimes in the morning because when the Sun waxed hot it melted neither could that have hindred them from sanctifying the Sabbath with all the exercises of Gods service 4 Neverthelesse God forbad them that light and small worke and least they should take that little and small diversion purposely he rained not downe Manna upon them on that day but the day before gave them bread for two dayes and when some of the people went out to see if there was any on the Sabbath day they were eagerly blamed as breakers of the Sabbath verse 27 28. And thereupon God commanded them to abide every man in his place and that no man should goe out of his place on that day to gather Manna verse 29. Likewise concerning that measure which they had gathered the day before for the Sabbath day he injoyned them also to bake and prepare it on the sixt day and to beware to delay and put off the preparing thereof to the seventh day least they should profane the Sabbath This is expressely set downe in these words Exod. 16. verse 23. To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord Bake that which you will bake to day and seeth that yee will seeth and that
Sabbath it followeth that we are even so made free from the necessity of forbearing absolutely all workes because this did belong also to these weake and beggerly rudiments of the world As the Apostle saith that the kingdome of God that is the state of the Gospell is not meat and drinke Rom. 14. vers 17. So may we say that it consists neither in baking nor in not baking meat neither in kindling nor in not kindling the fire neither in carrying nor in not carrying burdens For the Gospell establisheth no holinesse in the abstinence of such actions upon one day more than upon another day and declareth no man guilty for doing them but leaveth in the one and in the other the conscience free 8 When the same Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Colossians Chapter 2. verse 16. that we ought not to be tyed by our conscience to Sabbaths no more than to meat and drinke by Sabbaths he understandeth not only certaine dayes but also a scrupulous abstinence and cessation from outward workes in those dayes which also is properly denoted by the word Sabbath and obligeth us no more than the dayes doe 9 Neither is it required of us immediately by God but as it is a helpe to further us on any day whatsoever in the practice of Gods true service as in hearing of his word when it is read or preached in receiving the Sacraments that he hath instituted in calling upon his Name in meditating on him and on his graces that so we may strengthen our selves in godlinesse And on the contrary in case the busying of our selves about such workes should be unto us a let and disturbance in these our heavenly exercises So that the obligation whereby we are bound under the Gospell to these essentiall points of Gods service and the time wherein they are exercised being excepted all honest workes remaine equally lawfull on all the dayes of the weeke to apply our selves unto them without scruple and trouble of conscience Neither is it a sinne to doe all corporall workes that are lawfull in one day yea on Sunday as well as on another day 10 And as on other dayes of the weeke it is not ill done yea it is rather well done to bestow a part of them to preach and heare the word of God to minister and receive the Sacraments to pray and to sing Psalmes not only privately but also publikely in the eyes of the world according to the order of the Church and as occasions shall be offered also on Sunday to my opinion it is not a sinne to a true Christian after service done to God in his Temple to give himselfe to some honest exercises and wel ruled recreations of this present life Neither can I see any greater inconvenience or that a Christian is more guilty if after he hath heard the Word of God prayed and called upon his Name and practised the other duties of Gods publike service in the holy congregation of his people so if it be according to the order received in the Church whereof he is a member he goe to plough and husband the ground or to doe any other exercise of his lawfull trade then if he kindle the fire or cooke meat for his refection 11 And considering that the spirit of man can hardly be continually bent the space of a whole day to any serious and important action such as are namely the holy actions of Gods service without some intervall of relaxation if betweene the houres that are imparted to this service publikely or privately on the Sabbath day he imploy some other houres to doe the actions of his temporall calling or other workes of the same nature by way of diversion and refreshment I cannot conceive that God should be displeased therewith because Gods service and godlinesse are not hindred nor indammaged thereby For I aske after a man hath heard Gods service read the Word of God called upon his holy Name or ended devoutely any other religious action during a pretty space of time and the vigor of his spirit slacken so that he is not able to persevere in his attention and devotion any longer he diverts himselfe and sitteth quiet for a while without doing any thing to take his breath as it were and returne to his devotion afresh with greater force doth hee sinne by this cessation I thinke not Now if hee sinneth not when hee sitteth idle and doth nothing why shall it bee said that hee sinneth if hee doe some bodily worke seeking thereby some diversion and refreshment rather than by a meere cessation from all kinde of action To doe nothing at all shall it bee more acceptable to GOD then to doe a worke that is honest and lawfull in it selfe This shall it profane the day of holy exercises rather than that I see no apparent reason in such an opinion which moveth me to esteeme that the liberty to doe the foresaid workes on the Sabbath day was intirely taken from the Iewes for some ceremoniall reasons and that it was upon them a servile yoake in the ancient time of servitude as hath beene declared before 12 This is a most inforcing consideration upon this purpose that in the whole Scripture of the New Testament there is no injunction at all concerning such an abstinence and refraining from all outward workes as is urged and layd upon Christians on their Sunday conformably to the cessation that was imposed upon the Iewes on their Sabbath day Verily if Christ had required it under the New Testament as a thing necessary to his service and if his intention had beene to binde us unto it undoubtedly he had given or commanded his Apostles to give an expresse injunction concerning it which because he hath not done I inferre that he had no such intention 13 Nay on the contrary the liberty to worke on Sunday is rather authorized by the example and practise of Christ and of the first faithfull For in Saint Luke Chapter 24. we see that on the same day that Christ rose in which was the first and most illustrious Sunday of all he met with two of his Disciples going from Hierusalem to Emmaus and that questionlesse for the ordinary affaires of this present life seeing it was not an holy day among the Iewes Which voyage was of three leagues or thereabout He went with them he spake unto them of the mysteries of salvation as he would have done in any other day if he had lighted upon them according to his ordinary custome of every day during his conversation here below in the flesh and as all Pastors are bound to do at all occasions that God offers unto them But he advised them not that in time to come they should observe that day as a Sabbath day and abstaine from voyaging or doing on it any other toylesome and painefull worke And indeed after he had left them at Emmaus they returned thence the same day to Hierusalem as the Lord did also going other three
the exercises of the Sabbath as six or seven in a feast that is not solemne A thing that many together cannot doe lawfully cannot be lawfull to a few or if it be lawfull to few it is also to many But I wonder how those which have made this distinction of banquets can have the heart to make use of it seeing they teach otherwhere that it is not lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day but things of present necessity and not those that are simply of imminent necessity or at the most they suffer onely those that are requisite for a comfortable entertainement of the person as to prepare meat for his refection For banquets howsoever named and qualified are not requisite for that day for the entertainement either necessarie or comfortable of men they may be put off till some other day without harme or displeasure to any man by this delay and cannot easily be kept without much hurrying up and downe and divers discourses which are not sutable to such a day which they will have to be so precisely and exactly observed I wonder farre more why they are not scrupulous to suffer weddings on that day For seeing they will have all mens thoughts words and actions to be spirituall and holy all that day and suffer not any that are naturall and worldly otherwise than in a present and urgent necessity seeing also there is no necessitie to marry on Sunday that this may be done as well on any other day and that the thoughts words and actions of weddings can hardly have the qualities which they require would it not be more sutable to their maximes to forbid them absolutely on that day 21 Fifthly as for playes games pastimes recreations which are honest and lawfull they forbid them altogether and absolutely on the Sabbath to all men without exception of those that are sick saying that to those which are dangerously sicke it is fit time to pray and not to play and spend time on gaming And as for those that are not dangerously sicke they need not these pastimes and may apply themselves to heare reade conferre of things of instruction and consolation and seeke in these holy exercises their recreation Wherein they speak as if the one and the other might not be done successively and a sicke man or any other person after an honest and short pastime were not capable to seeke this spirituall recreation although they be not incompatible and that God improveth not the succession of the one to the other on our Sabbath day I adde that by this prohibition they overthrow their former position that it is lawfull to doe on the Sabbath day things not onely absolutely necessary for the entertainement of the creature but also comfortable and agreeable unto it Now some honest play or pastime taken by a man and namely by a sicke man may be very usefull for his comfort and recreation and often much more than if the best meats and drinkes and most comfortative cordials were given him if he stand not absolutely in present need of them Nay they may make him farre better disposed afterwards for Gods service than the best restoratives of the best furnished Apothecaries If then it be lawfull unto him and to others also to bestirre themselves to prepare for him and make him take these things why may he not likewise take some pastime which are farre more necessary unto him And although he hath no need of them by absolute necessity may they not be needfull unto him for his commodity and comfort as well as food and medicaments If it be said that he may deferre his pastime till another day I answer that so he may prolong without any perill the preparing of meat or of medicaments 22 But not to say longer upon the rehearsall of the intricate difficulties which occurre in their explications of workes that are permitted on the Sabbath day and of the conditions and tearmes whereupon they are permitted I say that there is no kinde of workes but they may be done as lawfully on that day as on any other and that as in the fourth Commandement the Ordinance to keepe the Sabbath day obligeth Christians in this onely that because God must bee served publikely in the Congregations of his people by the exercises of religion which he hath ordained it is necessary that some time be appointed for that use but not that it ought to bee one day rather than another by vertue of that command or that the day appointed ought to be kept during foure and twenty houres which God hath not in any case prescribed to his people of the New Testament as he did to his people of the Old Testament But being pleased to injoyne unto them the exercises of religion wherewith he will be served he hath left to their libertie the determination of some dayes and of the continuance of the time wherein they are to be practised I say likewise that the commandement to doe no worke on the day consecrated to Gods service obligeth in this regard onely and no more to wit that as much as the publike exercises of this service when they are practised in the Church doe require wee must forbeare all ordinary imployments and workes that with tranquillity of minde and stillnesse of body we may bend all our forces to these exercises resort unto the holy assemblies and glorifie the Lord our God there in the company of the faithfull 23 I grant willingly that all travell about corporall and terrestriall workes is forbidden in as much as it is an impediment and hinderance to the service of God And therefore an honest and religious man must observe publikely all the time of holy exercises observed in the Church on the Holy-dayes appointed for that end whereof he hath for rule the Order of the Church This time excepted the remnant of the day is his to dispose of it discreetly and conscientiously and to doe on it all manner of worke which is lawfull on other dayes according to the Order of the Church wherein he lives 24 And sith Sunday hath beene appointed by the Order of the Church for the prime day wherein these exercises are ordinarily to be practised all are bound in regard of them to cease from all other workes during the whole time that they are practised in the Church publikely without purposing to doe or give willingly any worldly businesse to be done on that day capable to make the least diversion from so holy and necessarie a duty and to dispose in such sort all their ordinary affaires of this life before Sunday come that they be not when it is come an hinderance to sanctifie it And so to shew that they are full of love and respect to those blessed exercises of religion and to the Order of the Church from which they should never be absent without reasons of great consequence whereof every ones conscience ought to iudge by the rules of godlinesse and of Christian prudence 25 I say
established for the publike exercises of religion neverthelesse because Sunday hath beene alwayes used in the Christian Church for a day of divine service and all religious exercises he ought not to forbeare to apply himselfe unto them privately on that day with greater assiduity than on other dayes And because where there is an order and discipline established the Rulers of the State and of the Church to prevent all disorders and stirre up greater respect to the exercises of religion which are practised on Sunday have thought fit to forbid on that day the publike and ordinary workes of the other dayes of the weeke he shall doe well to refraine on it from the ordinary workes of his worldly trade and calling to obey these high powers that God hath subjected him unto It is then the order of the Church principally that must be to every Christian the rule of the abstinence and cessation from ordinary workes that he is to observe on Sunday or on another day That is he must not apply himselfe to such workes without great necessity during all the time wherein this order calleth upon him to resort to the house of God to come to the holy assemblies not to sit idle not to busie himselfe about bodily occupations when he ought to be in the congregation hearing the word of God with attention praying and singing with heart and mouth to the Lord in the company of his faithfull brethren If divine service be publikely practised before and after noone in the Church whereof he is a member he must not soothe himselfe with a fond opinion that he hath done his duty when he hath beene present at either of them and forsaken one of the two to bestow it on some other thing That time ordained by the Church being expired and the whole service of that day finished when he is come home and is alone he is free to doe what he will so it be honest and lawfull to worke or to refresh himselfe for in that he sinneth not against God transgresseth not his Commandements If he will passe the rest of the day in actions of religion he shall do well if he will spend it on other ordinarie and common actions of this life he shall not doe ill with this proviso that he be carefull to prepare himselfe by religious meditations for the publike and holy exercises before they begin and take time to call them to minde after they are ended that so he may make them faithfull and profitable to his soule feele in his heart their efficacie and shew it by an holy conversation in the whole sway of his life Otherwise the wicked one shall come and catch away that which was sowne in his heart Matt. 13. v. 19. 6 All that can and should be propounded to teach us how wee ought to sanctifie the Lords day must be grounded upon the necessitie holinesse and utility of the religious exercises of divine service upon the respect due unto them and upon the authority of the Church commanding upon these grounds This is the only reason of the sanctification of that day In this is the strength of all the arguments whereby Gods servants ought to stirre up devotion in the hearts of their hearers And not in the nature of the day wherein God is publikely served not also in any obligation whereby the conscience is tied unto it Those that feare God and have respect unto his Commandements will not omit the observation of this day although they be informed that it obligeth them not neither of it self nor also by a divine commandement more than another day For it is not the day that they regard but the great need they have to be instructed comforted fortified in the knowledge of God in the love of his glorious Majestie in true godlinesse by the exercises which God hath ordained to that end not onely particular at home which they may doe at all times as they shall have occasion but also publike in the Church in any day whatsoever the Church shall appoint 7 On the other side those that have not the love God and of the exercises of religion in their hearts will never be moved to give their minde with more affection and assiduity to Gods service by beleeving that Sunday is a day of Gods owne institution For if they make no account of that which is the principall and the end which God hath injoyned and urgeth so carefully what reckoning can they make of a thing which putting the case it were a divine institution could not injoy that prerogative saving as a helpe and a meanes tending to that end If they should cover their forsaking of Gods service and of the holy exercises on Sunday with this pretext that it is not a divine institution should they not discover a manifest profanenesse for as much as that under a slight frivolous pretence they should disdaine that which they cannot be ignorant of but that God hath ordained it to wit the holy convocations the communion of the faithfull in them his word his Sacraments the publike calling upon his name Such profane ones must be left to the judgement of God who will finde them out in his owne time 8 As for the true faithfull the glory of God and their owne salvation being their principall end they will alwayes keepe religiously and chearefully all things whereby they come to their end First the meanes which essentially and by Gods ordinance belong unto it such as are the exercises of religion particular and publike Next those which being in themselves indifferent and having no obligatorie power over the conscience by a divine commandement are notwithstanding lawfully established by the Church for orders sake and to set forth the former by ordinary practice such as is the institution of Sunday By which behaviour they shall draw upon themselves from the Father of lights the blessing of grace during their abode in these low parts of the earth and of glory in heaven through the precious merits of our onely Saviour and Redeemer Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour glory and praise for ever and ever AMEN A CONFIRMATION OF THE THINGS CONTAINED IN THE PRECEDING TREATISE BY humane Authorities THat the world may not thinke that in my tenets and proofes I have onely set down that which in my owne judgement I thought to be warrantable by the word of God and reason which are the chiefest foundations on which we ought to build I thought it not unfit for the further confirmation of the premisses to adde as an Appendix to my former Discourse some Passages of learned Writers both ancient and moderne especially of the reformed Churches who were first both in time and worth and who deservedly have great credit and authority amongst us In quoting the Passages I shall reduce them to the chiefe heads of my Treatise PASSAGES Concerning the nature and beginning of the Sabbath IUSTIN Martyr in Dialogo
determine the circumstances necessary or profitable for the observation of the morall precepts of the first Table and which are no part of Gods service and doe not oblige the conscience but in case of scandall amongst the rest saith he Dies Dominicus ab Ecclesia est substitutus Sabbato in usum ministerii c. The Lords-day was substituted in lieu of the Sabbath for Gods service c. Idem in Explicatione Catechet in praecept 4. Sabbatum ceremoniale est duplex aliud Ueteris aliud Novi Testamenti Vetus erat astrictum ad diem septimum ejus observatio erat necessaria cultus Dei. Novum pendet ex arbitrio Ecclesiae quae elegit diem primum propter certas causas is est observandus ordinis causâ sed fine opinione necessitatis quasi ab Ecclesia oporteat eum observari non alium The ceremoniall Sabbath is two-fold one of the New another of the Old Testament That was restrained to the seventh day and the observation of it was necessarie and a part of Gods worship This dependeth from the will of the Church which made choice of the first day for certaine causes and it is to be observed for good orders sake but without any opinion of necessitie as if it behooved the Church to observe it and no other Item Oportet non minùs nunc in Christiana quà m olim in Iudaica Ecclesia esse aliquem certum diem quo verbum Dei doceatur Sacramenta publicê administrentur Interim non sumus alligati ut diem septimanae 3 4 5. vel quemcunque alium habeamus Apostolicaigitur Ecclesia ut se à Iudaicâ Synagogâ discerneret pro libertate sibi à Christo donata pro septimo die elegit primam propter probabilem causam quia eo die facta est Christi Resurrectio It behooveth as well now in the Christian Church as before in the Iewish that there be some certaine day on which the word of God may bee taught and the Sacraments publikely administred But we are not tied to have Tuesday Wednesday Thursday or any other for this set day The Apostolicall Church therefore to make a distinction betwixt her selfe and the Iewish Synagogue according to the liberty given her by Christ in stead of the seventh day chose the first for a probable reason because on that day Christ rose againe Uiet on the fourth command towards the end The Primitive Christians did not change the day only with regard to a difference to be made betwixt Iewes and Christians for thus the matter were not much mended to have changed onely the day and have retained the superstition which the Iewes fasten to it But they had regard to the Resurrection of our Lord which is the true accomplishment of the spirituall rest which we hope for c. Bucer in Matth. cap. 12. v. 1. loc de feriis Hinc factum non dubito ut communis Christianorum consensu Dominicus dies conventibus Ecclesiae publicis ac requiei publicae dicat us sit ipso statim Apostolorum tempore I doubt not but that by the common consent of Christians the Lords-day hath beene appointed for the publike meetings of the Church and for publike rest even in the Apostles dayes Zanchius in praecep 4. in Tractatu de feriis Praeceptum de die Dominico sanctificando ab Apostolis expressum non habemus Apostolicam tamen traditionem esse minimè dubitamus Wee have no expresse command from the Apostles to sanctifie the Lords-day notwithstanding we doubt not but that it is an Apostolicall tradition And having alleaged some proofes out of Scripture to that purpose he addeth Exsacris literis colligitur non ineptè ab Apostolis profectum esse ut omisso Sabbato dies Dominicus fuerit in illius locum substitutus It is not impertinently gathered from holy writ that the substitution of the Lords-day in place of the Sabbath proceeded from the Apostles Acknowledging as appeareth by his words not impertinently that those proofes were but weak But afterwards in expresse termes he avoucheth that the said day is appointed for Gods service without putting any tie upon the conscience Hoc inquit liquet ex sacris literis Nullibi enim legimus Apostolos hoc cuipiam mandâsse tantùm legimus quid soliti fuerunt facere Apostoli fideles in illo die Liberum igitur reliquerunt Accedit quod Apostolus ad Gal. c. 4. ad Col. 2. non vult servari à fidelibus praecepta Dei de Sabbatis aliisque festis Mosaicis quia nolebat fidelium conscientias illis praeceptis astringi quantò minus igitur voluerunt Apostoli obstringi conscientias sanctificando diei Dominico qui nullum habebat Domini mandatum Liberum est igitur illud etiam tempus hoc est nullius obligans conscientiam sed ita tamen liberum ut omnino iste dies sanctificandus sit nisi charit as aliud postulet This saith he is manifest from Scripture For we reade no where that the Apostles gave this command to any man wee reade onely what the Apostles and the faithfull were wont to doe on that day They therefore left it free Moreover the Apostle Gal. 4. and Col. 2. will not have the faithfull to observe Gods precepts concerning Sabbaths and other Mosaicall Holy dayes because he would not have the consciences of the faithfull obliged to those precepts how much lesse would the Apostles have their consciences obliged to keepe holy the Lords-day or Sunday for which we have no command from God Therefore that time also is free that is to say tieth no mans conscience But notwithstanding it is so free that altogether it behooveth us to sanctifie this day if charity doth not require the contrary Item Quis prohibuit quin Ecclesia ficut diem septimum transtult in diem Dominicum sic etiam illos reliquos dies festos in alios transferre potuerit What hindereth but that the Church as it removed the seventh day to the Lords-day may also change the rest of the feasts of the Iewes into other dayes Item At the very end of the explication of the fourth command In locum Sabbati subrogatus est dies Dominicus quia eo die evanuit Sabbatum quatenus figura erat quo Christus resurrexit ut ergo racondemur evanuisse per Resurrectionem Christi Ecclesia non retinuit Sabbatum sed diem Dominicum The Lords-day was substituted in place of the Sabbath because on that day on which Christ rose againe the Sabbath was abolished so farre as it was a figure That therefore wee may remember that it was abolished by the Resurrection of Christ the Church hath retained not the Sabbath but the Lords day Bourgoin Minister of Geneva in his Histor. Eccles. written in French lib. 2. of feasts It is not written when it was that the Christians difunited themselves from the Iewes and began to keepe holy the Lords-day Item After the Apostles some did celebrate the Sabbath others the Lords-day And
rest from our workes freely and so farre onely as the common edification of the Church requireth that on it we may give our selves to the worship of God and give no scandall to any Item Omnino operari die Dominica nos Christiani non vetamur modò a Dei 〈◊〉 propterea non avocemur neque à publicis concionibus precibus neque à meditatione verbi Dei modò item proximis offendiculum non praebeamus We Christians are not forbid to worke at all on the Lords-day so that it be no distraction unto us from Gods worship from publike meetings and prayers nor from meditating on the word of God and that we scandalize not our neighbour Many other passages to the same purpose might be alleaged out of our owne Writers but these which I have transcribed out of the Bookes which I had by me shall suffice to confirme the most part of that which I have avouched and to shew that the learnedst men that have flourished in our Churches were not of the opinion of them who at this day so obstinately adheere to the religion of the Sabbath that indeed they fall into a direct superstition FINIS Errata Pag. 3. lin 8. which morall reade which positive p. 4. l. 2 3. r. but this is whereof l. 25. hands and sorts r. kinde of lawes p. 13. l. 9. r. to be as l. 16. r. hundred p. 29. l. 24. dew r. due p. 36. l. 14. owe. r. owne p. 47. l. 19. 20. r. at least l. 32. wecke r. weake p. 55. l. 23. figue r. signe p. 68. l. 34. r. established p. 76. l. 4. r. which was done but many p. 81. l. 10. r. or if rehearsing that p. 85. l. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 87. l. 16. r. practised l. 24. mediation r. meditation p. 109. l. 19. r. understood p. 142. l. 6. farre better r. farre greater p. 149. l. 11. r. the Iewes did are bound to serve God which c. p. 158. l. 2 3. emplary r. exemplary p. 176. l. 9. productions r. predictions l. 16. r. in comparison of morall p. 185. l. 20. bonged not r. did not stirre p. 188. l. 35. Saturday r. Sunday p. 196. l. 7. Plineas r. Plinius p. 200. l. 32. r. that if it had beene p. 201. h 5. r. there be divers p. 205. l. 2. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 217. l. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 224. l. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 232. l 35. dele and. p. 235. l. 13. loveable r. lovely p. 246. l. 29. baptisme r. baptise p. 262. l. 5. r. so much the rather because God p. 263. l. 27 28. r. a little way from it p. 266. l. 12. riged r. rigid p. 274. in mar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 279. l. 2. r. unspotted from such p. 280. l. 11. r. doe them which they had p. 282. l. 16. r slackens l. 26. r. shall thus profane p. 291. l. 7 8. r. worke and doe p 302. l. 2 3. improveth r. disalloweth p. 306. l. 16. contious r. contentious p. 316. l. 38. aliis r. alios p. 317. l. 24. r. thus holinesse of the day if so be the same p. 319. l. 4. r. Gal. 2. l. 38. sive r. sine 1 Thess. 5. 21. Psal. 141. v. 5. Col. 3. v. 8 14. Ephes. 4. v. 1 2 3. 2 Cor. 13. v. 11 a Exod. 34. verse 15. Numb 25. verse 2. 2 Kin. 10. 20 Psal. 106. v. 35 37 38. Hos. 2. v. 12. 1 Cor. 10. verse 20. August de Civitat Dei lib. 6. ca. 11. 1. Com. 1. Com. 2. Com. 3. Com. 5. Com. 6. Com. 7. Com. 8 Com. 9. Com. 10. Com. 1 Cor. 11. v. 25 26. 1 Cor. 14. v. 40. Osâ— 6. v. 7. Mar. 2. 27. Mat. 12. v. 6 Gal. 4 v. 9. Lev. 23. v. 7 8 34 35 36. Lev. 25 v. 4 8. Rom. 14. v. 1 Rom. 14. v. 2 Exod. 16. vers 22 13 29 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zoth 5 6 * Esa. 51. verse 2. Esa. 58. v. 13 Ier. 17. v. 22 24. 27. Ezech. 20. v. 11 12 13 Mat. 22. ve 37. 39. Luk. 10. ve 27. Mat. 22. v. 37 38 30 40. * Mat. 18. v 20. Rom. 10. v. 14 17 Eph. 4. v. 11. 12. 1 Cor. 11. v. 18 20. Heb. 10. v. 24 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 8 Luk. 18. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fast twice in the weeke Act. 13. ver 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the next weeke 〈…〉 80. Philo legat ad Cerema Iuvenall Satyra 3. In quâ te quâ—ro proseucha 11 Concil Laodicen Can. 29. Non oportet Christianos judaizare in Sabbatho vacare sed operari eos in eadem die dominicum praeponendo eidem diei Si hoc eis placet vacent tanquam Christiani Quod si inventi fuerint judaizare anathema sint Psal. 6. v. 1. Psa. 12. ver 1. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. in Loc. Eras. in Pasaphâ—â—â— Heming in loc Calvin in loc Idem Instit lib. 2 ca. 8. sect â—33 Aretias in loc * Iust. Martyr Apol. 2. Ignat. ad Magnes Aug. epist. 119. Idem de Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 30. Idem de verb. Apost ser. 15 c. 5. Calvin Inst. l. 2. c. 8. sect 34. Bullinger in Apoc. ca. 1. vers 10. Vrsin in Exposit decalo Aret. loc commun de Sabbatho Zanch. de operib Redempt l. 1. in 4. Praecept Paraeus in Gen. c. 2. Simler in Exod. c. 20. R◠〈◊〉 v. 11. “ Moses septimum diem more gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne avum jejunio sacravit * Ne Iudaeus quidem tam diligenter Sabbatis jejunium servat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. lib. 3. Tit. 12. l. 3. Theod. Ibid. l. 10. Leo Authemius 16 Cod. lib. 3. Tit. 12. l. 3. l. 5. Valent l. 8. Valent. l. 9. Honor. Theod. Habad Melacah
without most important and weighty reasons For considering that Gods externall service for which a day of rest is appointed is not the principall service that God requireth and that it ought to give place to the workes of true godlinesse and love according to Gods owne words I will have mercy and not sacrifice Hos. 6. vers 7. Matth. 12. vers 7. It is certaine there may be many lawfull reasons taken from true charity which we owe to our selves or to our neighbours whereby we may be dispensed with in the practise of Gods outward service on the Sabbath day and licensed to doe on it bodily und servile workes in stead of that service 26 But against this liberty which I maintaine all Christians have to worke or to cheare up themselves on Sunday in the manner before specified it is objected That worldlings when they are lured with some worldly advantage when they seek or look for some gaine on market or faire dayes take heed lest they loose so good an occasion shun all games and pastimes that may withdraw or divert them from their gaine make alwayes pleasure to plie and give place to profit And therefore farre lesse ought Christians on the Lords day which is as it were the great Market-day for their soules wherin they have need to prepare to themselves a great spirituall gain and make all their provisions to seeke or take any leisure for the occupations and pastimes of this life namely seeing our diligence cannot be so great our care so vigilant our labour so profitable but that we have much more profit to be made than all the profit we haue purchased already But if we make of the Sabbath our delight according to Gods exhortation in Esa. chap. 58. vers 13. we shall finde neither leisure nor place for worldly affaires 27 To the which I answer that the care of worldlings lest they should bee any wayes diverted from their trafficke and from the search of gaine on market-dayes by any game or pastime is nothing to the purpose It is true that we ought to be more carefull of the spirituall food of our soules than they are of the temporall profit of their bodies But this argument is made as if Sunday were onely Gods Market-day to speake so wherein wee may purchase unto us that profit as if it being past our hope of the acquisition thereof on another day of the weeke were utterly lost and as if a small and short occupation or recreation of this world taken on that day could bereave us of so great a good which foundation being sandie the building upon it fals to the ground 28 We ought to make of the Sabbath our delight but not in the same sense as the Iewes that is not of an externall and ceremoniall but of a spirituall Sabbath which the Prophet betokeneth in the place quoted that is Not to follow our owne wayes and not to doe our owne will which is the dayly Sabbath of the New Testament For God hath not ordained unto us a corporall one saving in some respects specified before which is much different from the Sabbath which the Iewes were obliged to observe 29 It is manifest of that hath beene said that our Sunday may in some sort be called a day of Sabbath or of rest because wee ought for the publike exercises of religion on it give over all our ordinary workes But it cannot be absolutely qualified with this name and with regard to an abstinence as precise as was required on the Iewish Sabbath day Moreover as wee have observed heretofore this name of Sabbath day is the proper name of the ancient day of the Iewes and not of the new day of Christians wherefore it were better done to abstaine from denoting it by the qualification of that name and to call it onely The Lords day or Sunday seeing these names have beene appropriated unto it by the Christian Church CHAPTER Sixth A more particular explication how the faithfull ought to carry themselves in the observation of Sunday 1. Duty of the Governours of the Church and of all particular Christians about the ordering and practise of Gods service 2. The faithfull ought to submit themselves to the order of the Church and to keepe the dayes appointed for Gods service by the publike practice thereof in the Congregation 3. How they ought to carry themselves where there is no Church 4. How where there is a Church during the service 5. How after the service 6. The sanctification of Sunday is grounded on the holinesse of the exercises practised in it and is so considered by the faithfull 7. Profane men because they have no heart to Gods service contemne the Lords day 8. Godly men doe quite contrary GOd for the edification and entertainement of his Church here below injoyneth to those that have charge of her governement to offer up prayers and thankesgivings to preach the Gospell to minister the Sacraments to assemble the faithfull together to establish good order in the Church and to particular Christians to pray devoutly to love Gods word to keep it receive the Sacraments frequent carefully the holy assemblies obey in things belonging to order and discipline those that have rule over them and submit themselves unto them not to be contentious against the good customes of the Church and to doe this not each of them for himselfe onely but also to procure that all persons subject to their governement their subjects their children their servants doe the same All Christians when they know that there are holy convocations for the hearing of the Word and the practice of other religious exercises and that the Order of the Church hath appointed unto them set dayes as in every week a Sunday are bound by these injunctions to resort carefully unto them and to take paines that their inferiours over whom they have authority follow their example And if indeed they love the word of God and the exercises of godlinesse to shew it by a diligent frequenting and serious practice of them as of a thing which God hath injoyned to all and for the things sake to observe the day wherein it is practised although God hath not prescribed nor appointed it and it hath no other foundation but the Order of the Church whereunto neverthelesse God hath commanded in generall all men to submit themselves 1 Cor. 14. vers 40. For it is not for the dayes sake that we ought to practise and respect the holy exercises which ordinarily are done on it but it is these exercises that make the day considerable and give credit authority and respect unto it The exercises are to be much esteemed for themselves and for Gods sake who hath expresly injoyned them The day is not honoured and accounted of but for their sake in as much as the Church is pleased to doe them on it Yet if a Christian were brought to that extremity that hee must remaine in a place where there is no Church nor order