Of the Christian Sabboth THERE is nothynge that hath ben more mystaken of the Scrybes and Phariseis then the bodely obseruaunce and kepynge of the Sabboth daye Because that God ordeyned it not to the intente that the outwarde ryght and vsage of forbearynge worke and bodelye laboure shoulde with so muche religion or rather scrupulosite be regarded but the Sabboth was instituted to be as it were a shadowe and figure of the spirituall reste from fleshly workes which a Christian ought continually to practise put in vre in hys liuyng and conuersation In consideration wherof we read that our sauiour Christ had lytle respect and lesse reuerence to that It wishe ceremonye of the Sabboth and buselye laboured to perswade the Iewes that to put difference betwixt dayes was rancke superstition and starcke hypocrisye Wherfore he dyd manye workes on the selfe Sabboth day âeth x. ij he healed the man that had the wythered hande âuc vi on the Sabboth daye The Apostles rubbed out the eares of corne to eate on the Sabboth daye Iohn v. he healed at the pond by the slauter house the man that had bene xxxviâ yeares diseased Iohn ix he caused thâ the blynde borne to se and sayeth thys daye in the Gospell Iohn vij if a man breake not the Sabboth in circumcisynge a chyld why are ye greued and wode wyth me because I haue healed a man on the Sabboth daye Luc. xiiij We reade in S. Luke that oure mayster healed on the Sabboth a man diseased wyth the dropsey and the Phariseis as theyr wont maner was murmured and grudged at that deade But oure mayster opened and shewed euidentelye forthe that their erroure with thys aunswere saying Which is there amonge you if hys oxe or asse shoulde fall into a pitte on the Sabboth daye that woulde not do his beste to rydde hym oute yet were not the Sabboth broken therby And the reason therof our mayster sheweth where he sayeth The sonne of man is Lorde of the Sabboth that is man is aboue the Sabboth and in his affayers should not haue any eye or consideration to the corporall ceremonye whosoeuer were the author of it But because the Iewish Sabboth hath bred and brought forth great hypocrisye in the Christian churche it is expedientâ and neadfull that we waygâ and examine in what maner man was Lorde of the Sabboth afore that Iesu Christâ suffered to thintente that the libertye of dayes that we haue in the Christian congregation now syth that Christ hath suffered and is ascended into heauen maye be the better ãâã more throughly knoweÌ And lest peraduenture any errour or false opinion shoulde grow in the beginning of this talke thou muste vnderstande that all sawes that be founde anye where eyther be naturall or posityue Naturall lawes be those Natural lawes that the Lord God hath grauen in the naturall reason of man whyche afterwarde beinge written in the stonye tables by mynysterye of Moyses were made playner and more open then they were be fore in our conscience As for example the lawe of honourynge of God of reuerensing his name of obeyinge our parentes and other superiours of not robbynge of not committynge adultery of not killyng and finally of not doynâ to others that we would noâ were done to oure selues These be called by the namâ of Goddes lawes not onely because God appoynted theâ to Moyses but also for thaâ the Lord hath prynted them in the mynde of euerye liuing man Whych thynge Saynâ Paule declareth where hâ sayeth Rom. ij that the heathen shew the workes of the lawe written in theyr heartes theyâ owne conscience bering theâ witnes of the same Two sortes of positiue lawes Lawes positiue which haue theyr origânall of the lawes of nature bâ of .ij. sortes For ether they be Ecclesiasticall or elles theâ be cyuill Ecclesiasticall lawes whych in the olde Testamenâ are called ceremoniall Ecclesiasticall lawes werâ ordeyned for the consecration of true fayth and pure religion in the churche of God Of the olde Testament Of these lawes there were a greate numbre amonge the Hebrues as the circumcision the Sabboth the order of sacrifices Lawes of the new Act. ij and all the leuiticall obseruaunces Lykewyse in our Christen churche there is the institution of baptisme of the Lordes supper 1. Cor. xvâ of preachynge the Gospell of prayers and collection or collation for the pouertye wyth all suche other lawes as concerne the mynysterye of the word and of the Sacramentes These lawes be of God insomuche as they be appoynted by God in the newe and olde Testamentes Semblablye âach lawes as be added to these to thinâââ that the churche maye be gouerned in formall order wythoute confussion 1. Cor. xiiij Col. ij oughte to be called Goddes lawes Wherfore Paul hauynge seâ an order in the publike honestye comlynes and modestâ behauioure that should be obserued in the congregation aswell in men as in women sayeth these wordes if anye man thynke hym selfe a teacher or spiritual 1. Cor. xiiij let him know what thynges I wryte vnto you for they are the coÌmaundementes of the lord God Verely because that in the church or assemblye of the faithfull euerye thynge muste be handled in order with discretion with confused minglynge The seconde sort of lawes posytyue be ciuyll Ciuill lawes or politike and Iudityall lawes whyche are deuysed for the kepynge of the publike peace common quiet and vneuersall honestye in all states of men These were long ago made and geuen by God to Moyses and syth Moyses tyme euery nation hathe inuented theyr peculiar and seueral lawes and constitutions Whych in lyke maner be named the lawes of God not onelye because that Moyses enacted them but also because that princes common weales other officers be the ordinaÌces of god to punyshe malefactours and promote the good doers Rom. xiij Paul sayeth there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordeyned of god Now that these thynges be declared let vs se which of the fore sayd lawes a man in the time of Moyses and before that Christ had died was Lord of and aboue that is whiche of them he might in case of nead breake and omitte Fyrst and formest I saye to you that the lawes natural Lawe of nature caÌnot be broken for anye cause be of such force strengthe that nether they ought nor maye be broken for any kinde of necessitye or behofe whatsoeuer but a man is bound to neglect honour riches despyse hymselfe contemne hys owne lyfe rather then transgresse the lawe of nature For soner a man shuld entre the fire then denie god and be more willing to abyde hangynge by the necke then blaspheme the name of God he oughte redilyer dye anye kynd of terrible and dredeful death then beare false witnes agaynst his neyghboure Because there is no maner thing that more straightly bindeth vs nor more narowly kepeth vs
earnestnes theÌ they were of the Iewes in the old lawe Wherfore it is expedient and mete that amonge vs be dayes appoynted when the church ought to assemble and come together to heare the preaching of the word of god Act. ij Holye day behauiour to vse ofteÌ the lordes supper to make common prayer for the state of christendome to make collections of almes for the relefe of the poore i. Cor. vi that families housholdes may be informed in the christen religion godlines to visite our frendes in a christien maner to visite the sycke to practyse suche other lyke holye dedes Youth of it selfe is vnruly headye The vplandishe feble faythed sone falle into errour Holye dayes be deadfull wherfore it is necessary for this intent to ordeyne holye dayes that the youthe may be nurtred and kept in awe ⪠and that the ignoraunte may learne to knowe what christeÌ religion is and what seruice is due to be geuen to god The thyrde cause wherfore the sabboth was dyuised is open playne by the wordes that the lord spake to the Hebrue people Thou shalte obserue take hede sayeth the âord that thy seruaunte and thy mayde rest them remembre that thou was a seruaunte in the âand of Egypt For these two âauses therfore that be cyuill âe christians must haue choâân and determinated dayes ãâã the church may continually ãâã exercised inured aswel in âardly in workes of the sprit ãâã outwardly in loue toward âur neighbour For this consiââration the law of the Lord âââbad the Iewes only suche âorkes on the sabboth daye ãâã letted theÌ that they could haue no leasure or respyte to heare the worde of God Why worke is forbiddeÌ to do the ordinary oblations and sacrifices to make publike prayer and other exercises full of charitye and loue As for example they were forboden to tyll the land to buyld houses and to do any other ordinary labour on the sabboth day because such workes held a man busied al the day that he could intend to no other thynge notwithstanding because the lawe of the sabboth was ceremonial to the Iewes they synned not if for necessitie or for the weale profite of their neighbour they chauÌced some time to breake it as I haue sayde aboue in thys treatyse We Christians be fre from those ceremonies and those ordynaunces Christians be fre that the Iewes were in bondage vnder Therefore no lawe of meate of dayes of clothynge of places can bynde vs to a synne as it dyd the Iewes Neuerthelesse for so muche as the church can not be coÌgregated Dayes to what vse and gathered except there be dayes appointed wherin the worde of God muste be preached the lordes supper minystred publike prayer made other Christen workes aforementioned must be practised Therefore oure aunciente fathers elders haue determined and instituted that at the lest one day of the weke shuld be bestowed geuen to these religyouse and deuout seruyces i. Cor. xvi And in the Apostles church the Chrystyans folowynge the custome of the Iewes came together on the sabboth daye so that many yeares the holy congregatioÌ of christendom vsed the sabboth for the day dedicated to the spirituall gouernement But afterward wheÌ Christendome increased and spred abrode in the tyme of the great Constantine that the Iewes shuld haue no occasion to glory against vs that other shuld not think that a Christian man became a Iew lastly to declare to the whole world that one day is not more holy then another the sabboth was altered into the daye folowynge which was named of the christians the dominical day SoÌday ââo i. that is dedicated to the lord And the kepynge of thys day hath bene alwayes vsed sythen that in the church thinges may be done with order reuereÌce Now to proue that the holy dayes were ordeyned of our auncestours for thys polytycall ende Howe the fathers vsed the sabboth not to make one daye holyer then that other Lib. 4. suffiseth the auctority of Tertulliane In his boke against Marcion Hierome vpon the epistle to the Galathians wher he sayeth lest the vnordinary congregatynge of the people shuld minish the faith in Christ therfore certaine dayes be appoynted vs that we myghte all mete together not that that day wherin we mete is more holy or reuerent but to the end that more reioysing may come of the mutuall beholding whatsoeuer day we mete Saynte Augustine also in hys worke de ciuilate dei maketh mention of certayne memorialles of holy dayes as the natiuity of the lord the circuÌcision the passion the resurrection the ascension whit soÌday on whiche daies the christians dyd accoÌpany themselues to heare the word of the lord to vse the coÌmunion to make coÌmon prayers do other christian dedes The same is red in the ecclesiastical historye of Eusebius So that oure elders knewe that ceremoniall holynes of the sabboth dayes as the Iewes did They onelye on those dayes assemble for the same purpose that the Apostles did Act. ii The apostles vse on the holy daye whiche continued in doctrine in prayer breakyng of bread in the communicating that is in aydinge and releuing the poore And it appeareth that Paule appoynted the day of the sabboth on whiche day 1. Cor. xvi at the time the congregation came together that the churche of Corinth shuld make theire collections of almes that the poore christians at HierusaleÌ which died for hunger might be releued succoured I coÌclude therfore the christians be fre froÌ al superstitiouse hypocrisy of keping the sabboth other festiual dayes The Iewes among other feastes Iohn x. Fest of tentes did vse to soleÌmse a feast of tabernacles so named because they dwelled vij dayes in pauilioÌs bothes This feast was obserued in remembraunce that theire fathers dwelled in the desert and wyldernes in tentes when they were delyuered froÌ the bondage of Egypt According as the Lord commaunded sayinge In the seuenth moneth whiche agreeth wyth the moneth of October amonge vs the .xv. Leui. xxx daye of the moneth shal be the holy day of the tabernacles seuen dayes shall ye lodge in tentes that your posteritye may knowe how that I made the chyldren of Israel to dwell in bothes when I deliuered theÌ out of the land of Egypt Thys solemnitie shuld be kept without hipocrisye superstition because it was but only a memoryall remembraunce of the benefyte that God had done to their fathers But the Iewes forgetting the meanyng of the feast thought they shulde offende deadly if on such dayes that were festyuall they had done anye bodelye outward worke In like maner the Phariseis expounded vnto the people the precept of the Sabboth amisse The lord sayeth thou shalte not worke on the sabboth day This commaundement onlye bounde the Iewes froÌ doynge such labours as letted the people that they coulde
in and as it were pinneth vs vp then dothe the obedience to god nether can there be anye greater scourge ouer our heade then that is due for disobeying the Lorde For it behoueth that all our neades all our perillous daungers al our profitable commodities geue place and rowme to the obedience of god for that we alwayes obeye to God it is neadfull but to continue styll in thys lyfe mortall standeth not in such necessitye The other lawes that is Ecclesiasticall lawes be dispeÌsed with ecclesiasticall and ciuyll albeit they be ordeyned of god yet be not so holye and reuerente but that they may in causes of necessytye not only be broken but also altogether dysanulled as though they neuer had bene And for profe herof let vs peruse the ecclesiasticall lawes of the Iewes Those lawes were to be kepte and done so longe as the outward gouernmeÌte of the Iewes endured vntill that Christ was dead and rysen agayne they were ordeyned of God by the handes of Moyses for the people of Israell to the ende that the name of God should be praysed and the promises made in Christ myghte be taught and true religion preserued nether was circumcision the sabbothe the sacrifices all that solemne and ceremoniall seruice and leuiticall obsequies aboute the tabernacle of the Iewes ordeyned and instituted for any other purpose theÌ is afore sayde Notwithstandinge for so muche as these lawes were onlye geuen to the people of the Iewes to none other nation therfore the gentiles and foreyne people were not burdened nor charged with the kepinge of those statutes nether did they offend in not kepynge them for that they were not driuen to liue vnder those constitutions although they had forsaken Idolatry and acknowledged one very God by beleuyng the promyses of Iesu Christ We reade ExaÌple that the people of Niniue repented at the preachynge of Ionas pleased Iones iij. and appeared God therby Niniue yet reade we not that they were circumcysed nor that they obserued other ecclesiastical lawes of the Iewes Daniel iij Daniel wytnesseth Babilon that the king of Babilon confessed opeÌly the very true god of Israel commaunded by proclamation that no man should blaspheme him neuerthelesse it is not reade that the king of Babilon was therfore bownden to the ceremonies of Moyses No the Iewes them selues were not so bounden to these ecclesiasticall lawes but that they myghte omitte them in tyme of neade ether for anye coÌmoditie or for anye matter of honestye Many of the Israelites after theyr deliuerye out of Egypt while they were in the wildernes were vncircuÌcised as it appeareth in Iosue Ioâue v. And very likely it is that manye Iewes died in the deserte wythoute circumcision foreskin whiche by faith passinge from death vnto life were not daÌned for hauynge theyr foreskin King Dauid fleinge the persecution of Kynge Saul i. Re. xvij lest he should dye for hunger Shewe bread did eat both he and his company of the table of the lord the holy bread that was dedicated appoynted onely for the vse of the priestes and yet sinned he not in so doing By thys example of Dauid oure maister proueth to the Iewes that in neadfull affayres and busynes Math. xij the sonne of man that is euery man is Lorde of the sabboth Nether did oure sauiour Iesus Christe by these wordes meane that the Sabboth should not or oughte not to be kept at that time when as yet he was not deade be shewed therby on what maner the ceremonies of Moyses bounde that nation to the obseruynge of them For the Iewishe ceremonies at that tyme were to be reuerenced by the generall commaundemente of God Dispensations notwythstanding if ether nede or the profite of any neighbour constrained a Iew to breake them he was not in suche case bownde to kepe them because that cause standing the Iewes was lord of the Sabboth and offended not in breakynge and omyttynge them Therfore our sauiour Christ synned not when he healed sicke and diseased persons on the sabboth day because that necessity neyghbourly charitye caused him to haue small respect to the outward Sabboth which was a shadowe figur of the christian sabboth So sone as christ was deade and risen agayne all the ceremonies of the Iewes were vtterly disanulled and repelled wherfore the Christian man was vnburdened of the heauines of them only trusted to be saued by the grace of God shewed in Iesu Christe For this cause we christians ought not to make any difference of dayes nor thynke that one daye is holyer then another Wherfore S. Paul wold not that a christian Rom. ââââ iudge think any diuersity betwene day day Col. ââ nor that any man shoulde accuse vs for any fastiual day or new mone or sabboth day and feared lest he had trauayled in vayne in the churche of the Galathians Gal. iiij because they were obseruers of dayes willyng to do vs to vnderstand the to count one day holier then that other was a thing that parteyneth to a Iewe not to Christen men That whych we haue spoken of ceremonies Mosaicall Ceremonies of the new Testament namely that in neade other behoues they bound not anye Iewe we may lykewise saye and affirme of the ecclesiasticall lawes of Christendome wherof some be autorised by Iesu Christ and some by the father elders of our religion that the christen fayth myght be preached and taughte in good order And albeit the ordinances of our auncestours be not to be compared to those that god the lord appointeth yet are they to be obserued ought to be reuerently vsed because that god wold that in the churche thynges shuld be ordered in comly maner and wyth due reuerence But for so much as these our lawes ceremoniall are made for oure commodity not to our losse therfore the lord would that they should yeld geue place to oure necessityes Necessitie is a dispensation There be many christen men vnder the Turke in vylanowse slauery which can not vse the Sacrament of the Lordes supper yet shall they not be condemned therefore so that they haue the fayth of Iesu Christ Many other be entangled chaltered in the snares of Antichristes hypocrisy whych can not here the sincere preaching of the Gospell yet shal not for that cause be condemned if in the meane while they do beleue trust in Iesu Christ al such do not sin because necessity excuseth theÌ Lyke processe might be made of the Iuditial lawes but I wyll not at thys tyme make any treatise vpon them The Phariseis therfore moued of an hatefull hypocrisye blamed our maister as a wycked breaker of the sabboth yet vnderstode not for what purpose God had ordeyned the Sabboth The Lord had an higher respecte then to the bodely rest when he coÌmaunde the sabboth in the law saying to the Iewes Remembre that