thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying Deut. 33.2 3 4 5. The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 1. c. 3. demonstration is not to be expected but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratifying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines it selfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by praying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I heare he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as a Hos 11.9 the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Prov. 8.31 Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place Gen. 28.16 17. The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not a ladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it Deut. 33.3 and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they
the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the Fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietate Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and the Kings Majesty though much delighted herein yet never useth to hunt on the Sabbath Day Morning or Evening And I have cause to come but slowly to the believing hereof because it is Calvins Doctrine concerning the Sabbath that albeit under the Gospell we are not bound to so rigorous a rest as the Jewes were yet that still wee are obliged to abstaine from all other works as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus Avocations from holy studies and Meditations and their Ministers I should thinke doe not well if they faile to minde them hereof unlesse both they and the people are fallen from Calvins Doctrine in this point in which case I see no just cause why any should choake us therewith but give us as much liberty to dissent from him in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as they of Geneva take unto themselves Againe Beza is well knowne to have professed upon Revel 1.10 that the observation of the Lords Day is traditionis Apostolicae verè Divinae and consequently that the day is not left arbitrary neither hath this author proved that the Presbytery and states of Geneva both Ecclesiasticall and politicall have committed any revolt or apostacy thereto from Beza in this point It is well hee acknowledgeth some recreation not suffered there as namely dancing but this hee sayth they hold unlawfull which simply delivered as by this author it is is incredible unto mee neither hath this authors word any sufficient authority to deliver mee from this incredulity yet some manner of dancing may perhaps bee generally forbidden in the French Protestant Churches This strictnesse the Prefacer saith is noted by some to have beene a great hinderer to the growth of the reformed Religion which belike is advantaged so much the more with us in as much as it is not hindred but he quotes no author for that As for the author he quotes I have not hitherto found that hee hath arrived to any great authority or credit in the World for the truth of his relations Neither hath the wisdome of our Church or state taken any contrary course hitherto either by Statute or Canon to promote reformation amongst us what they may doe hereafter I know not when such spirits as this Prefacer may bee so fortunate as to sit neare the sterne Whether the French Churches have found it so as this Geographer is sayd to report I know not but for their judgment herein I must expect untill I heare more therof Sect. 7. Pref. Which being so the judgement and practice of so many men and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith concurring unanimously together the miracle is the greater that we in England should take up a contrary opinion and thereby separate our selves from all that are called Christian yet so it is Sect. 7. I skill not how it comes to passe but so it is that some among us have revived againe the Jewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away This day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest which doctrinalls though dangerous in themselves and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers and of the greatest Clerks of the later times are not yet halfe so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox what can we else expect but such strange paradoxes as in the consideration of the premisses have beene delivered from some pulpits in this kingdome as viz. That to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or to commit adultery that to throw a bowle to make a feast or dresse a wedding dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a man to take a knife and cut his childs throat that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to commit murther The author which reports them all was present when the
desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Vriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good
that doth not let Gods Word be the guide directing to sanctifie a Festivall day I thinke hee squareth not his opinion according to truth neither hath he any president from Gods Word FINIS Defensio Thesium de Sabbato 13 I Take notice of Tertull. Iustin Martyr Thes 1. true but they alter not my judgement And why I finde in them onely a bare assertion and that of a thing so remote from their times that they could not know it otherwise then by relation From the Scripture they had none happily they had it from some Jewes Galatinus alleadgeth some But I oppose Jewes to Jewes Philo Iudaeus de opificio Mundi not onely is of a contrary opinion but holdeth also that it was a feast common to all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And peradventure some such thing is meant by Hesiod his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is not unlikely that God made the observation of the day a memoriall of the Creation But I will not enlarge that discourse It shall suffice that Philo Iudaeus In Decalog and Aben Ezra also and others thinke otherwise whose judgement our Orthodox Divines doe if not all yet for the most part follow Read them upon the second of Genesis 14 What the Patriarks did in point of religion 2. I thinke they did it by Divine direction Yee know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never please God wherefore the Mosaicall Lawes other then those that had reference to the Church as nationall and delivered out of the Egyptian bondage are to be thought not introductory but declaratory Out of question those that concerned the substance of the service which stood in sacrifices and I thinke concerning the circumstance of time and place The place for there where God appeared there did they erect their altars yea and in the story of Rebecca it is plaine that shee went to a set place to consult the Lord. Gen. 25. And why shall not the time come under the same condition 15 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must receive an answer from that which is added in confirmation of the 13 Thesis It is but an ungrounded conjecture 16 Where had Rhenanus that opinion his varying from those whom I answered on the 13 Thesis sheweth that hee was not of Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his opinion and yet giveth no reason that may move to credit him or countervaile what I have alleadged for my opinion 18 Yes there is more if you compare Deut. c. 5. with Exodus c. 20. but I meant not onely that but other passages which make the Sabbath a signe of Gods residence sanctifying the Jewes c. which I expressed in the next thesis 19 Bedes conceipt may passe for an allegory built upon a witty accommodation of the literall sense which other fathers observed before him But that cannot be the literall sense of the Commandement You will not deny it if you grant that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which I thinke more then probable though the Broughtonists hasten the fall before the Sabbath And I cannot without good reason yield that the patriarchs had no set time for divine service I meane a weekely time 31 True it is that Christ did rest from suffering upon the seventh but the last enemy death was not apparently overthrowne untill the reunion of his soule and body till he rose againe for our justification c. Therefore did the apostles make that the consummation of redemption in Christs Person 35 You cannot finde in all the 14. to the Romans that the Apostle is positive in the doctrine of dayes he expresseth a mutuall indulgence untill men had attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the liberty from Moses Law Neither doth he beare out the Gentiles against the Jewes but qualifie rather the destempered zeale of the Gentiles that were too hot against the Jewes Sensus dictorum sumendus est ex causis dicendorum It is plaine that there was a questiō whether the Christian gentile should be pressed to observe the ceremonies whereunto the christian Jewes were pertinaciously addicted but never was there for ought I read a question whether the Jewes should keepe the Lords day for I think they never refused it Had there been such a quarrell I would enlarge the sense of that Chapter as you doe to our question but seeing there was not I see not how it should be reasonably done 36 I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke It was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily You may perceive the reason in my Theses You cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day If it were not a continued worke as the dwelling in Tabernacles But you thinke the Apostles did not prescribe the observation of that day No you confesse they made choice of it and were moved so to doe by the reason which I alleage And were they not scattered over all the world where they came did they not all give the same order for the sacred assemblies And shall we thinke that this could be done without an apostolicall prescript 37. 43. I conjoyne them because one answer will cleare both Let us then first agree what it is for a thing to be Liberae observationis The Questonist in his interpretation which commonly is received leaveth a possibility for an alteration by humane auctority if any reason shall perswade a conveniency so to doe though so long as publike auctority commandeth it he will have it dutifully observed Whereupon will follow a Consectary or two First that this Law doth not immediately bind the conscience because Merè humani Iuris positivi Secondly that Extra scandalum a man may transgresse it For example a Tradesman may worke in his Chamber if no body bee privy to it If this be the Commentary upon Libera observatio and if it be well inquired into you will finde that I doe not mistake the meaning then I prof sse I cannot like of such a Libera observatio For I am perswaded that if all Christendome should meete and have never so plausible a ground they cannot alter the day de jure though de facto they may but it is worse then previshnesse so to doe And why they cannot alter the first ground Christs rising upon that day Secondly they cannot alter the uniforme order that upon that undenyable ground was set down by the Apostles themselves which were infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost And out of these grounds I deduce that the Law doth immediately bind their conscience And that it is to be observed even where it may be transgressed without any scandall Christ and the Apostles were not absolutely bound to lay such a foundation of the Lords Day and so it was Liberae institutionis but they having layd it I deny that it is now Liberae
to those shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick to the shadowing ceremony and upon the Epistle to the Corinthians in these words In 1. ad Cor. ca. 16. Electus autem potissimum dies Dominicus quod Resurrectio domini finem legis umbris attulit The Lords Day was chiefely chosen because the Lords Resurrection did set an end to the shadowes of the Law And in the words immediately preceding he expressely professeth that this change was made by the Apostles though not so soone in his opinion as Chrysostome thought who interprets that the first day of the weeke of the Lords Day And Cyrill long agoe upon consideration of our Saviours apparitions on that day and then againe the eighth day after makes bold to conclude Cyrill in Ioan. 1.12 that Jure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis siunt By right therefore holy assemblies on the eighth day are made in the Churches 2 Observe by the way this authors spirit he accompts it more exorbitant to thinke that the observation of the Lords Day is prescribed unto us by Divine authority or the religious observation of one day in seven then to maintaine that none at all is to be set apart to religious worship by Divine authority And to this purpose he premiseth a generall rule that commonly the excesse is more exorbitant then the defect yet I never heard that prodigality was censured as worse then covetousnesse in opposition to liberality or rashnesse accompted worse then cowardlinesse in opposition to fortitude or superstition worse then prophanenesse in opposition to true Religion As for the sanctity of the day in Calvins phrase which this Author calls Sanctity affixed to the day shall I say this Prefacer understands it not it is incredible more likely he is to pervert Calvins plaine meaning not out of excesse in the way of superstition but out of a lesse exorbitant defect For the sanctity of the day in Calvins language is when Religione quadam feriando mysteria olim commendata recolore se somniabant by resting in a religious mannor they thought as it were dreaming that they observed certaine mysteries of old recommended unto them As appeares in his sect 33. Of the 8. Chap. of his second booke of institutions and such indeed was the sanctity of the day in the Jewish observation thereof This religion this holinesse Calvin will have to be at an end and that the Apostle Gal. 1. and Coloss 2. disputed against them who would have that holinesse that religion to continue still not against them who will have one day in the weeke set apart thereon to rest from manuall workes as they are avocations from holy studies and meditations And in the former case he doth not say as this author in a mincing manner feynes him to say to wit that So the change seemed to be only of the day but in plaine termes that this were no other then to change the day and that in contumely of the Iewes siquidem manet nobis etiamnum par mysterii in diebus significatio quae apud Iudaeos locum habebat if so be there yet remaines with us a mysterious signification equally in the daies such as had place amongst the Iewes Now this caution nothing concernes any of our protestant Divines who mainteine the observation of one day in seven as necessary in resting from manuall workes onely as they are impediments to the service of God Nay that one day in seven was observed by the Jewes for any mysterious signification conteyned therein or by the Patriarchs either or by Adam himselfe in whose dayes even from the first the seventh day was sanctified that is set apart for the service of God in the opinion of Calvin This is to bee understood of one day in seven indefinitly considered For as for the rest of the seventh precisely that is acknowledged to have beene mysterious Sect. 32. to this day I never heard or read This latter clause in Calvin which containes the condition whereupon this censure of his passeth upon those that so stand for the observation of one day in seven this Prefacerslily concealeth though Calvins censure be not passed absolutely but merely upon this condition Thus indeed to stand for the necessary observation of one day in seven namely as conteyning some mysterious signification were to exceede the Iewes in a grosse and carnall superstition of a Sabbatisme As touching the observation of some time set a part for Gods holy worship and service Calvin professeth that the same necessity lieth upon us Christians for reliefe whereof the Lord appointed the Sabbath to the Iewes and that it pleased our most provident and tender Father to provide for our necessity no lesse then for the necessity of the Iewes Now it is apparent that God commanded the Jewes to set one day in seven apart for the service of God and doth it not manifestly follow herehence that the Lord would have us also set apart one day of the weeke for his service And Calvin concludes that Section thus Why then doe we not obey that reason which we see to be imposed upon us by the will of God And therefore Wallaeus saith that Calvin delivered not these words whereupon this Prefacer grateth so much against his own Colleagues or fellowes in the reformation with whom he never contended in this argument but against certaine Papists schoolemen who thought they had provided sufficiently for themselves for Christian liberty and for the edification of the Church by teaching that the taxation of the seventh day as ceremoniall was abolished yet that one day in seven and by name the Lords Day was to be observed after such a manner and to such an end as the Jewes observed their Sabbath by which Doctrine way was opened to superstition in this dayes observation His words are plainely directed against such when he saith Thus vanish the toyes of false Prophets who possessed the people in former times with a Iewish opinion And againe But that is no other thing then in contempt of the Jewes to change the day and in mind to retaine the same sanctity of the day if so be there remaines unto us to wit by their opinion an equall mysterious signification of dayes to that which had place among the Jewes Now saith Wallaeus This agrees not to be spoken of any of the reformed but of Sophisters and Papists who urge new mysteries and new significations and holinesses in their holy daies as it is well known Bellarmine lib. 3. cap. 10. of the veneration of Saints writes against our Divines that the feasts of Christians are kept not only in respect of order and policy but also by reason of a mystery and that holydays are truly more holy and sacred then other dayes and a certaine part of Divine worship This Prefacer is content to make use of Iohn Barclayes report concerning Calvin namely that he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate dominicain feriam
together on this day But upon better consideration and ponderation of the passages alleged by him out of Austine and Cyril I thinke rather that by Christs fact he means Christ resurrection or perhaps btoh the one and the other For the sentence taken out of Austine hath reference to the one and that out of Cyril to the other And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his thes 36. de Sabbato referres unto both this first day Christ sanctified not onely by his resurrection but by sundrie apparitions before his ascention by sending them the Holy Ghost But the latter seem to depend on the former And therefore that learned Bishop in his defence of that Thesis 36. writes thus I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke it was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily you may perceive the reason in my Thesis you cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day Now neither Austin nor Cyril speake of any institution made by Christ Eusebius I confesse doth intimate such an institution and Gregory the great and so doth Athanasius seeme to expresse as much and Sedulius after him but I am apt to conceive that they meant no other thing hereby than that the consideration of Christs resurrection by the suggestion of Christs Spirit should move the Apostles to ordaine and establish the celebration of this day unto the Christian world Junius in my judgement seemes to have no other meaning when he professeth the cause of the change of the day to be the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ it is true he saith afterwards that the Lords Day succeeded the seventh Christi observatione atque instituto by Christ observation and ordinance but I understand thereby no other ordinance than is bespoken by Christs resurrection on the day and observation of the day For anon he tells us that the Lords Day was observed Christi facto exemplo instituque Apostolorum veteris Ecclesiae observatione constantissimâ by Christs fact example and by the ordinance of the Apostles unlesse instituto there be to be referred to that which goes before and ought to be distinguished from Apostolorum which comes after by a comma though it be not But let this be the opinion of Iunius and Piscator which perhaps we may meet with some more evidence for than hitherto Neither doe I see any necessity of expressing concerning every thing they taught that they received it of the Lord Neither doe I thinke fit to conclude that whatsoever they ordered they ordered by Gods Commandement But consider there is a great difference between things ordered by them some were concerning particulars others for the Church universall Some ordered by them for a certaine time other things to continue to the worlds end The ordinance of the Lords Day concerned the whole Church and to this day no Church throughout the world hath thought fit to alter it a notable evidence that the Church generally hath conceived it as an ordinance of the Apostles intended to continue to the worlds end The ingenuity of Master Perkins is to be commended confessing ingenuously that hee proposeth his arguments not as necessary but as probable onely to inferre the institution of the first day of the weeke to be observed by Christians in place of the seventh I would those that oppose him would carry themselves with the like ingenuity nothing inferiour is the ingenuity of Doctor Walaeus pag. 156. professing that this opinion touching Christs institution of the Lords Day seeing it hath so great Divines as favourers thereof is neither to be accused of novelty nor easily to be despised as false provided that they themselves doe not propose it as necessary but as probable nor inveigh against such as are of another opinion or condemne them Now let us see upon what grounds he preferres the second opinion making the institution of the Lords Day to depend upon Apostolicall authoritie before it Therefore first he urgeth that the Apostles have given no expresse commandement as being charged thereto by Christ nor Christ himselfe In briefe thus neither Christ hath any where in Scripture commanded it nor doe the Apostles any where signify that hee did I answer the Apostles doe not use to signify that what they deliver in particular was given them in charge by Christ sometimes they doe but this extends not to the hundreth part of that they doe deliver And it may bee by S. Iohns calling it the Lords Day compared with that which our Saviour delivers in the Gospell pray that your flight bee not in the Winter nor upon the Sabbath day and with the denomination of the Jewes Sabbath called in the Old Testament the Lords holy day wee shall finde sufficient intimation of Christs institution Especially considering that the question is but of the circumstance of a particular day not of the proportion of time and withall the analogy of the day of Christs Resurrection to the day of the Lords rest from Creation And whereas the Doctor further sayth that it seemes not likely that Christ should not command it if he meant to binde us to the observation of any day as a part of his worship and service Now I wonder what the worthy Doctor meanes to thrust in the circumstance as a part of Gods Worship If the Apostles might command it as he thinkes they did yet not as a part of Gods worship why might not Christ command the observation of that day yet not as a part of his worship I am not perswaded that when God at the first sanctifyed the seventh day hee made the observation of that day a part of his worship And it is strange that the circumstance of time should bee an homogeneall part of Gods worship First it is true the rest on that day commanded afterwards might bee and was as a ceremony preaching something unto them All that is to bee considered in time pertaining to Gods Worship is the proportion of it as whether one day in a weeke bee most fit or one day in a moneth bee sufficient and this is of momentous consideration whether wee consider the advancing GODS Glory thereby or our owne good in a greater or lesser proportion But the particularity of the day in seven whether first or last or middlemost this consideration in my judgement is of no moment Only for the avoyding of dissention confusion we have neede of authoritative specification and that God did not define at the first without congruous reason to still all motion tending to alteration and if we have as fayre evidence under the Gospell for our Sabbath as the Jewes had for theirs wee are by Gods goodnesse as much freed from dissension and confusion as they and nothing the more ingaged in superstition as
day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke thou will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Ca holique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21.24 once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down the Spirit on his Apostles on the day of Pentecost hath not so much force considered alone but onely in a conjunct consideration with Christs resurrection on that day And like as after his death he arose on that day manifesting himselfe mightily thereby to be the Sonne of God so after his ascension into heaven he came downe by his Spirit on that day the seventh first day of the weeke after his resurrection manifesting thereby as Peter signifieth that he had obtained the dispensation of the Spirit We doe not say the Spirit was on the day of Pentecost sent downe because it was the Lords day But being sent down on that day as the Law is confessed to have beene delivered on that day this tends to the marking out of that day more and more for manifestation of the power of Christ That day they receiving power from on high by the descending of the holy Ghost upon them whereby they were inabled to preach the Gospel And that day of the weeke which is set apart for Divine service as our Christian Sabbath as that day whereon the Holy Ghost doth ordinarily come downe upon his servants in the ministerie of his Word and celebration of the Sacraments and putting up of our joynt prayers unto him for the sanctifying and edifying Christ body which is the Church and even in this respect that day hath a farre better congruitie to the day that is to be set apart for Divine service than any other day in the week besides The day of his ascension he departed from them as touching his presence corporall but on the day of Pentecost he came downe upon them as touching his presence spirituall and so he doth still in our Sabbath exercises on the Lords day though not in so extraordinary a manner yet no lesse effectually to that edification and sanctification of our soules Seventhly And whereas some urged that it Christ himselfe had not instituted this day after his resurrection the most Primitive Church should have beene left destitute of a certaine day of Gods worship to wit from the time of Christs resurrection to the first consecrating of the Lords Day which they take to be absurd and I confesse it seems unlikely that the Apostles tooke upon them to order ought untill they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that being the day they were to receive power from on high to execute the commission given them Mat. 28.19 to teach all nations till which time they gathered no Churches For the strengthning the former reason it is added That the Jewes Sabbath was now abolished by Christs death and resurrection This I doe not deny but the Apostles might very well be ignorant hereof as yet as not having received the Spirit as yet yea after the receiving it we find they challenged Peter for going to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel Acts 11. to this argument some answer as Walaeus saith that the daies between Christs ascension and the comming downe of the Holy Ghost upon them were spent in continuall meetings of the Apostles and other Disciples But from the day of Pentecost the Lords day thenceforth observed This answer reacheth not unto the daies interceding betweene Christs resurrection and his ascention And when I consider Bishop Lake his discourse grounded as he professeth upon universall observation and which I find no reason to resist namely that the worke of the day commends the day If ever any day deserved to be festivall to any surely the day of our Saviours resurrection deserved to be festivall unto them to rejoyce in the Lord thereon according to that of the Psalmist Psalm 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein the ancient Fathers accommodating the place thereunto The two verses immediatly preceding carrying in the forehead of them a manifest relation unto Christ as the proprietary of their meaning 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Now when was this manifested namely that the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner but by Christs Resurrection from the dead being thereby mightily declared to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 14. and was there ever worke more marvellous in the eyes of Gods Servants then the Resurrection of Christ especially considering the disconfolate condition of his Disciples Luke 24 21. We trusted it had beene he that should have delivered Israel The women departed from the Sepulcher though with feare by reason of the consternation receaved from Angelicall presence their countenance being like lightning yet with great joy by reason of the newes they heard from them
of Christs Resurrection upon the noise whereof for they were commanded to carry word of it to his Disciples the Apostles as it seemes were gathered together and in the evening after hee had shewed himselfe to his Disciplcs going to Emaus Christ presented himselfe in the midst of them Eight dayes after they were met together and Thomas with them who being absent the time before gave out sperches of peremptory incredulity concerning his Resurrection therefore then and not till then also the dores being shut Christ came before them and calls unto Thomas to see his hand and to put his singer into his side These apparitions of our Saviour twice on the first day of the weeke might well adde somewhat to the confirmation of them in the festivity of this day and howsoever betweene his ascension and the day of Pentecost they had their meetings yet how improbable is it they should put no difference betweene such a festivall and other dayes of the weeke A second answer Walaeus gives namely that others say that from the day of Pentecost it was not necessary that the Lords Day should bee observed but that at the first the Apostles together with the Jewes observed their Sabbath not as a ceremony of the Old Testament but as a free circumstance of divine worship as for a while they reteyned Circumcision and difference of meats which they gave over after the Jewes were found obstinately to refuse the Gospell So that in these mens judgements the Lords Day was no festivall to the Apostles till by occasion of the Jewes obstinatenesse a proper occasion for the institution of a new festivall And give mee leave to differ from them in yoking Circumcision and difference of meats with the Jewes Sabbath neither of them prefiguring Christ as to come like as the Jewes Sabbath did prefiguring his rest that day in the grave as the ancients have conceived it without any contradiction that I know Had they permitted sacrifices for a time their comparison had beene more congruous I see no reason to withhold me from concurring with Austin and in him with all the ancients for ought I know to the contrary that Dies Dominicus Resurrectione Domini declaratus est Christianis ex illo coepit habere festivitatem suam yea with the very words of Scripture Psal 118.22 The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it Neither is it credible to mee that the Apostles were ignorant of it or of its application the day of Christs Resurrection from the very day thereof Heresbachius upon these words Haec dies quam fecit dominus They are saith hee the words of the people exulting in the Kingdome of David most of all of the glorious Resurrection of Christ which of all others was most glorious to mankinde as whereon Christ redeemed us in a triumphant manner from the Tyarnny of Satan and from everlasting death and restored unto us everlasting righteousnesse Arnobius interprets it of the Lords Day Eightly the last argument and which hee acknowledgeth of greatest moment is that which is taken out of Apoc. 1.10 Where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day whence they conclude that it is of the Lords institution And indeed Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Camber speech professeth that this denomination is given onely to the first day of the weeke as called in Scripture the Lords day and to the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ as called the Lords Supper and that to shew that the word Dominicum the Lords is to bee taken alike in both In the same sense wee call the Prayer which our Savious taught his Disciples the Lords Prayer But let us heare Walaeus his answer that we may consider it This consequence saith hee is not necessary for it may bee called the Lords not onely that which is of his institution but even that which is made to the remembrance or in the honour of him or for his worship as the ancients speake as the altar of the Lord and feast of the Lord are often so called And that in this sence it was taken of the ancients it appeares by this that the ancient Fathers both Greeke and Latine called Temples by the name of Dominica and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which wee urge is the language of the Holy Ghost now throughout the holy Scripture it is not the language of the Holy Ghost to call either Altars the Lords Altars or Feasts the Lords Feasts but such as are of the Lords institution Neither doe the fathers in my observation call the first day of the weeke the Lords day otherwise then in reference to Christs Resurrection as the cause of the festivall nature thereof Temples indeed they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as consecrated to the Lord but the denomination is not to distinguish it from other Temples as the Lords Day hath its denomination to distinguish it from other dayes But the day of Christs Resurrection being called the Lords Day not as such a day in the yeare but as such a day in the weeke this to my understanding doth manifestly inferre the succession of it into the place of the Lords day of the weeke amongst the Jewes Both ancient and moderne Divines doe hold it lawfull to consecrate other dayes to the service of of God such as wee usually call holy dayes But never any man I thinke was found that durst call any of them Diem dominicum the Lords Day Adde to this wherefore doth our Saviour say that the sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath but plainely to conclude herence that hee can dispense with it hee can abrogate it and bring another into the place of it and none hath power for this but hee who is Lord of the Sabbath Lastly when he saith pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day what is the reason hereof but religio Sabbati as all confesse the religious observation of the Sabbath and did they understand any other religion of the Sabbath but as from Divine institution Now the time concerning which our Saviour delivers this now about the destruction of the Temple by Titus Sect. 6. after that no other Sabbath but of the Lords Day was generally established in the Churches Last of all for the third and last conclusion Pref. that still the Church hath power to change the day our Doctor in the 7. Section bringeth in Bullinger Bucer Brentius Vrsinus and Chemnitius aliisque nostris with divers others not named particularly as they are which thinke no otherwise thereof then Calvin did and shewes by what distinction Suarez though otherwise no friend unto the men doth defend their Doctrine Now as the doctrine was such also is the practise of those men and Churches devoid of
and in breaking bread Act. 2. and 5. and 1 Cor. 5. Now we willingly acknowledge that we Christians are not so bound to one day in the weeke as namely to the Lords Day as that we may not have our holy assemblies more often than once but onely so that we may not keep them lesse often nor omit the celebration of the Lords Day like as the Jews might not omit the celebration of their weekely Sabbath though sometimes many dayes together besides were kept holy by them So we Christians also having our Sabbath as our Saviour signified we should have when he said Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which Sabbath of ours wee keepe on the Lords Day though we may keep other days holy yet we may not omit this and if any shall take upon them to alter this Sabbath we may be bold to demand of them quo warranto by what warrant from the Lord of Sabbath But Chemnitius proceeds thus Now whereas afterwards the false Apostles did so urge those free observations of the Mosaicall Sabbath and other feasts as by law and with opinion of necessity as to condemne their consciences who observed them not Paul forbad the observation of them All which we willingly acknowledge but that hereupon they began first to ordaine another day in the weeke for their Ecclesiasticall assemblies and exercises of piety which yet Chemnitius proves not I leave it to the indifferent to judge by comparing his opinion with that of Austins who professeth as Chemnitius well knew that the Lords Day was declared unto Christians by the Lords resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity alleged by Chemnitius himselfe p. 156. especially considering the reason moving thē hereunto which Chemnitius confesseth to have been on that day the Lord role from the dead And seeing all festivals as Bishop Lake observes have beene observed in regard of some great worke done on such a day for the good of man whether ever any day brought forth a more wonderfull or more comfortable worke to mankind than the first day of the weeke which was the day of our Saviours resurrection from the dead let the Christian world judge This day Chemnitius saith seems to be called by Saint Iohn the Lords Day which appellation all antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake At for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15.10 saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24.20 And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could thi◠bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118.24 This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of
of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it Repl. for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24.20 and wâ—â—t should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service Perkins 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16.2 and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2.42 and Paul commands the Corinths to due this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux Rivets Ans Reply demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S.
holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8.14 And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day Esay 58.13 If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as at any other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30.19 Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of
in two particulars For the truth whereof I dare appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe 1. The first is this that not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be consecrated to the exercises of piety both publique and private Gomarus and Rivetus are driven to acknowledge this in answer to Walaeus about the proportion of one day in seven And whereas we may be to seeke of agreement about what is sufficient 2. Therefore in the next place the very light of nature doth suggest unto us that it is farre more fit that the Master should prescribe unto the servant what proportion of service he expects from his hands than that the servant at his pleasure should cut out what proportion of service he thinks good unto his Master how much more fit that the Creator should prescribe unto his creature then that the creature should prescribe unto his Creator considering 1. how the dominion of God over his creature is incomparably greater than that which any other Master hath over his servant 2. That man may become unreasonable in his demands and commands God cannot 3. God can give strength to his creature to performe what he commands man cannot 4. The more cleare and expresse the Commandement is the more comfortable to the creature being hereby assured the service hee performes is in the way of obedience not unto his owne will but to the will of his Master 3. May I not adde a third namely that by the very equity of a naturall conscience it is more fit to apportion unto Gods service one day in a weeke rather than one day in a moneth especially considering that originally time hath beene divided into weekes and not into moneths untill along time after In all which I am content to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe Yet we have not done in this argument For in the fourth Commandement there is enjoyned not onely the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall but also the particulating of a certaine day under this proportion and who seeth not that so many different things though one in subordination to another being duly considered it is no way fit to confound them and to speake hand over head of the fourth Commandement without distinctions Now as touching the particularity of the day herein I confesse wee are more to seeke by the light of nature than for the speciall proportion of time due unto God Yet consider whether herein also we are not assisted in good measure by the light of nature and that in certaine particulars 1. As first the decent proportion of time being observed it is nothing materiall in it selfe as touching the advancement of the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke it be performed under the duly specified proportion For wee find by experience that all Masters stand for a proportion of service which they expect from the hands of their servants the quantity of service being a very considerable matter in the judgement of all but whether a man worke the first houre of the day and rest the second or five houres in the morning and rest the sixth or in what other difference soever so the quantity and proportion of service for that day be performed all Masters rest satisfied So for the service of the weeke if it be sufficient to performe thus much service as namely a dayes service in a weeke it matters not what day it be done so the work be performed I say it matters not as touching the substance of the worke it selfe to be performed 2. But though it matters not in this respect on what day the service is performed yet it may matter much in another respect For whereas we are all Gods creatures and consequently his servants and the service wee speake of concernes us all in generall and that equally and all wee are reasonable creatures 1. First it seemes fit in reason that there should be an uniformity For like as we converse together by commerce and trade in the workes of our calling on other dayes of the weeke so it seemes most fit we should walke together with God in the performance of his service otherwise there would be a manifest breach of society For suppose there be in such a towne as ours seven times foure hundred persons for wee have almost 2000. Communicants one of the three parishes in Reading hath as many if one 400. should keepe the first day of the weeke for their Sabbath another 400. the second day of the weeke and so to divide the dayes of the weeke betweene them here were a manifest breach of society both in thinges humane and in things Divine for every day in the weeke 400. would be excluded from conversing with their brethren in businesses temporall and all the rest from them whose day it is to rest unto God in exercises spirituall which all I presume by the very light of nature would judge intolerable And this order would have place not onely in particular townes among themselves but with other also considering that six dayes in the weeke wee have converse by commerce and trade not with our neighbours onely but with other townes also farre and neere Againe another inconvenience would arise and that a miserable one more dangerous than the former For hereupon a window will be opened unto dissention each standing for his owne way as the manner of man is and what could be expected but wretched confusion should follow hereupon Lastly consider should not the service of man prove more comfortable unto him if God as hee hath appointed him the proportion of time so he would be pleased not to leave him to seeke of the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion 2. Therefore as it is fit there should be an uniformity for the reasons given so for the maintenance of uniformity no meanes sufficient but Gods owne prescribing of it hereupon all just occasion of dissention will be cut off confusion will be prevented and the service of God as every way even in the very circumstance of time according to his will shall be the more cheerefully and comfortably performed 3. Thirdly consider what D. Lake writes in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 44. Gods Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both divine and humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yeerely as particulars evidence in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the workes therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Now suppose God had not commanded the observation of any one day in the weeke but left it unto man to choose if withall hee should observe one day preferred before another
is an easy matter to say they conclude nothing though I may justly wonder any reasonable man should say so of the argument drawne from those words Gen. 2.3 Therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it the author alleadging no other exception against it but the interpretation of Tostatus namely that it is delivered by way of anticipation For this is as good as to confesse that to blesse and sanctify the seventh day is all one as if hee had said that God commanded it to be sanctified Onely they will not have it understood of that time when the Lord rested from the works of Creation So that the meaning of Moses must be this In the seventh day God ended the works which he had made and the seventh day God rested from all the workes which he had made and because God rested on that seventh day from all the works that he had made therefore he commanded not then that that day from thence forward but 2400. yeares after that men should consecrate that day to divine service Now in disputing against the unreasonablenesse of this interpretation given by Tostatus I am very willing to make Doctor Prideaux my judge and as it were under his moderation to proceed in this And here I purpose not to revive the disputations of Walaeus and Rivetus against Tostatus his anticipation but onely to content my selfe with the ground layd by Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath Thes 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monthly or yearely as particulars evince in Scripture and History I make bold to lay this for my ground in this place because it is apparant that God made his worke on the seventh day the ground of hallowing that day namely because it was the day of Gods rest therfore to make it the day of mens rest for the sanctifying of it unto the Lord. Now I pray consider is it reasonable that because such or such a worke hath beene done in such a day provoking us to keepe it a festivall day unto the Lord therefore it becomes us accordingly to sanctify it but when not that day nor the same day senight nor throughout the 52. weekes of that yeare nor any of the 52. weekes the next yeare no nor for the space of a 1000 yeares or two thousand but after the expiration of 2500 yeares and more then and not till then to sanctify that day because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38.7 When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16.31 And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7.3.5 and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52.12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7.5 they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22.12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping
although the determination of such a time be not designed But heretofore the seventh day was designed by a Divine praecept positive in the Law of grace the day of the Lords Resurrection so that amongst the people of God one day in the weeke hath been determined for divine service As for our Divines the most generall opinion amongst them is that the observation of one day in seven is of perpetuall observation For albeit Brentius upon Leviticus affirmes that the Church may in these dayes observe but one day in 14. if they will Yet not onely Gomarus and Rivet professe that under the Gospell wee must allow a better proportion of time for Gods service rather then a worse in reference to that which was allowed under the Law But Luther tom 5. fol. 610. professeth that ad minimum unus dies aliquis per hebdomadam is to be chosen for Gods worship and Baldwin in his cases of conscience 2. c. 13. cas 2. touching feasts It is morall saith hee to sanctifie one day in seven Master Hooker confesseth as much in his Ecclesiasticall policy And if Calvin hath a way by himselfe in this there is no reason hee should be introduced to affront the most generall current of our owne Divines mustered up by Walaeus as a cloud of witnesses standing for the morality of one day in seven Yet Walaeus hath cleared also Calvin in this point and that in reference to more pregnant passages then are produced here where nothing is delivered in opposition thereunto the last tends to the confirmation of it For if it be reasonable that one day in seven should be allowed for the ease and recreation of servants what day shall be their Sabbath if not the day of rest and if this be most reasonable I hope in the second place it will be judged most unreasonable that there should be one Sabbath for the Master and another for the servants undoubtedly now God hath gone before us in allotting this proportion of time for his service wee may be bold to say with Azorius and that incorrespondency to Tostatus his discourse that rationi maximè consentaneum est after six worke dayes to consecrate one unto divine service And seeing God hath required such a proportion of time for his service under the Law by the very light of nature it appeares to be most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion under the Gospell and Calvin professeth that Nobis cum veteri populo quoad hanc partem communis est Sabbati necessitas Harm in 4. lib. Mosis in praecep 4. We have as much neede of a Sabbath as ever the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes Bannes 22. 4. 44 art 1. but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andrewes also sheweth out
exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe mufling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18.21 I grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that which is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience Sect. 6. whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles ' as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and
penall statutes may provide for such restraints by such punishments as whereof every naturall man will be sensible enough we have other considerations to propose as 1. Touching the proportion of time to be allowed to Gods service which concerneth the quantity of the service it selfe 1. This is a thing very considerable and of moment 2. We have no example that the quantity of service to be performed to the master was left unto the conscience or pleasure of the servant but rather is to be prescribed by the Master especially by such a Master as God is 1. Who hath made us 2. Who will infinitely reward us 3. To serve whom is our most perfect freedome and happinesse 4. And who is able to give us strength to performe it 5. And who is tenderly sensible of our weaknesses as he is most privy to them 6. And after God hath discovered this unto us and required the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to him and that under the Law surely reason doth suggest that we cannot performe lesse unto him under the Gospell 2. As touching the particularity of the day under this proportion 1. We read that there is one that is Lord of the Sabbath Now in reason who shall appoint this day but he that is Lord of it especially considering that it is his holy day Es 58. and such festivalls were said to be of his making Psalme 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made not of mans making secondly but it may be said he may leave unto man the appointing of it if it please him I answer that in this case it stands them upon to shew their Charter for this Thirdly for my part I see no cause we should desire any such liberty but rather pray unto God to blesse us from it 1. For as I am flesh I shall bee sure to put it off to the end of the weeke and I may be gone out of the world ere that day comes and when that day comes I shall be as loath to come to the service that day requires as ever and assoone weary of it and say when will the Sabbath be gone that I may returne to my former courses secondly as I am spirit I have cause to make choyce of the first day for à Iove principium and Adam and Eve being after the beasts of the field made on the sixt day and planted in Paradise the seventh day was the first entire day to him 4. Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells observes that festivalls dayes have ever beene commended unto us by some notable worke done on that day Now what worke like unto the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the weeke 5. Bishop Andrewes observes in his Starre Chamber speech that this resurrection brings with it a new creation and calls for a new Sabbath and I find this to have beene the observation of Athanasius about 1300. yeeres agoe 6. If we were left at liberty in the choyce of the day it is to be feared that if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would be twenty differences betweene us thereabouts 7. Lastly if left at libertie I find no reason why we should keepe ourselves to the observation of the same day this is so apt and prone to breed in us an opinion of the necessitie thereof and so plunge us into superstition ere we are aware and thereby make our whole service of God on that day distastfull unto him To proceed the Practise of the Apostles is in Scripture represented unto us in three severall places the first whereof is Act. 20 7. upon the first day of the weeke when the Disciples came together to breake bread Paul preached unto them The practise is improved thus why is it said expressely that the Disciples came together to heare the word preached and receive the Sacraments rather on this day then any other rather then on the Iewish Sabbath were it not then a custome to celebrate on that day their publique meetings the Sabbath of the Iewes beginning by degrees to vanish It is farther confessed that the Fathers and all interpreters almost doe so conceive it Observe not a Father is found to take it in any other sense only the Magdeburgenses and Calvin are said to stick at the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it might signifie some one day of the weeke and yet in Scripture phrase it is apparant that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marc. 16.9 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 20.19 And it is Salmasius his observation that the Pythagoreans called the first day of the weeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insteed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Doctor professeth that from a casuall fact he seeth not how a solemne Institution may be justly grounded but it is not proved that this fact was casuall nay the text carryeth in the face of it manifest evidence against casualitie For it is said that they came together to eat bread all then convening to a sacred action how could this be done if they had not agreed hereupon before especially it being a businesse whereabout they came that required solemne and sacred preparation all which affront casualitie Take the circumstances aright The Disciples from divers parts came together that day about solemne and sacred action therefore it was ordered before to meet together on that day Now this concludes only concerning them and therefore Wallaeus professeth that the force of these three texts taken apart doe not conclude but joyntly Now by the next place 1. Cor. 16.2 it appeareth that the same day was the ordinary day of meeting for the Corinths and for the Churches of Galatia also Now how came it to passe the same day was the day of meeting about holy exercises in the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth and in the Churches of Galatia could this ordinary course for so much is signified 1. Cor. 16.2 of so many Churches concurring herein come to passe by chance or could their consent herein so many Churches so farre distant one from another be wrought by chance and not rather in all reason was wrought by authority Apostolicall And as for the second place 1 Cor. 16.2 whereas the exception is that there it is said the Apostles ordered collections on that day but not their meetings yet Doctor Andrewes in his Starre Chamber speech alleageth it as the Apostles precept for their meetings on that day and so doth Paraeus for though it be not expressed yet so much is implyed as by the reason formerly mentioned hath beene argued especially considering the last place Revel 1.10 where the first day of the weeke is called the Lords day a notable evidence of the divine authority the Scripture phrase no where calling any the Lords day or the Lords Altars or the Lords feasts but such as are of the Lords institution and in this particular Bishop Andrewes compares the Lords day with the Lords Supper professing the
not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh day from the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34 And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them be confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assignation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had its originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in
the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Vmbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest Gen. 2. and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia fiant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee
Observationis so that under God I know no power that can alter it Thes 49. The Fathers speake of the Jewish Sabbath and Allegorize that as it was carnally used by the Jewes But we shall wrong the Fathers if we thinke they held that there was no Morality in the Letter of the Commandement For though there were a mystery figured in it yet they doe not deny that there was a morall proportioning of time for Divine Service prescribed therein which is the seventh part of the weeke It is one thing to say that all our life time we must be religious in our conversation and keepe a spirituall Sabbath another thing to affirme that we must not have a solemne weekely day wherein to intend onely Divine worship This last point the Fathers doe not say the former they doe and to argue from their Omission is to extend their words beyond their meaning at least their meaning is not adaequate to the sense of the Commandement No nor to their practise For they did constantly observe a seventh part of the weeke which I say is the first principle contained in the fourth Commandement Though I deny not but there is moreover a limitation to the seventh day from the Creation exprest which Christ and his Apostles altered but this alteration cannot overthrow the first principle they may both well goe together To the particular allegations out of the Fathers I will answer no more then that what they say is true but doth not contradict what I hold For the mysticall sense doth not overthrow the literall of the Commandement And they understand the seventh day precisely from the Creation which we confesse altered and speake not of the divine Ordinance for the apportioning of time but the carnall observation of the Jewes And your answer to the first Question grounded on the Fathers words may passe for good but there is more in the Commandement then so Your Answer to the second I cannot so well approve because it is Exclusive As for your third answer That the fourth Commandement is not the Law of nature but a positive law take the Law of Nature for Morall Reason then I think there is more then meere positivenesse in it For morall reason teacheth to honour the day whereon the work is done and that morall reason which gave this in charge was Apostolicall and so of a commanding power in both And then you see that it is neither meerely positive nor meerely naturall but mixt and so binding accordingly ut supra ad Thesin 37. 43. You adde two Questions 1 Whether seeing the Lords day succeeds the Jewish Sabbath wee are to keepe it in the same manner and with the same strictnesse First I hold in my Theses that our Lords day doth properly succeed the Sabbath instituted at the Creation Whereupon I separate all the Accessories from Moses Law Secondly The Jewes did misconstrue the stricknesse of their Sabbath as appeareth by the many corrections of our Saviour in the Gospell and his Generall Rule The Sabbath was made from man not man for the Sabbath Thirdly They held that they might not so much as kindle a fire or dresse Meat upon that day grounding their conceipt upon the Texts that are Ex. 35. cap. 16. But both Texts seeme to be wrested for that Exod. 35. about kindling a fire must be limited by the verse going before and is not to be understood of any other kindling of fire then for following of their Trades or Servile workes as they are called And so Munster Vatable and others upon that place censure their mistake And that it is a mistake against the meaning of the Commandment I gather from hence For the Jewes that will not put their owne hands to kindle a fire will hire Christians to doe it for them as if the Commandment did not reach Servants and strangers within their gates and they offend as much in doing it by others as if they did it by themselves But so doe they use to abuse the Scripture and confute their Glosses by their owne practice As for the 16. Chapter of Exod. which seemeth to forbid the dressing of Meat I hold that mistaken also Read the Chapter and mark whether you can finde that upon the sixth day they were to dresse any more then served for that day and to lay up the rest undressed untill the Sabbath at what time I hope they were to dresse it before they did eat it And indeed only the providing of Manna is there forbidden and a promise whereof they had experience that it would not putrifie upon the Sabbath though they kept it till then whereas upon other dayes it would And in this sense doe I understand the severe punishment of him that gathered sticks upon the seventh day it was because he then made his provision and did it it should seeme with an high hand Numb cap. 15. As for recreations I can say nothing but that seeing the Lords day is to be the exercise of that life which is spirituall and as a foretast of that which is eternall it were to be wisht that wee did intend those things as farre as our frailty will reach But Vivitur non cum perfectis hominibus and wee must be content to have men as good as we may when it is not to be hoped they will be as good as they should Yet we must take heed that we doe not solemnize our feast vainly as either the Iewes or Gentiles did Against whom Nazianzene is very tart Tertul. in his Apolog. In the Civill Law we finde a dispensation for Husbandmen in case of necessity contrary to the Jewish policy Exod. 34. Which is followed by our Law Edward the 6. Wee may in apparrell and diet be more liberall and costly on feasts then on other dayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were Corporall feasts joyned to the Eucharist wherein the rich did feed the poore Which afterward for inconvenience was removed out of the Church I meane the Corporall feast although in Saint Austins confessions you shall find that in Saint Ambrose days there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the Toombs of Martyrs which Saint Ambrose tooke away But though the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were taken out of the Church yet upon those dayes the rich relieved their poore Brethren Which they little thinke of that for feare of breaking the Sabbath have taken away Hospitality Some men are over-nice in this point more nice then Christ himselfe Luc. 14. who on the Sabbath went to a feast and that was to a wedding feast And why not seeing the Sabbath is Symbolum Aeternae not only quietis but Laetitiae therefore resembled to a feast without the toyle of Acquisition So that the Sabbath is not violated by feasts if wee exceed not Necessitatem Personae though Naturae wee doe Now Necessitas Personae requireth that more be imployed in providing feasts as a Kings diet then a Subjects a Noble then a Common mans a Colledge then a
single Person But we must take care Ne quid nimis in victu joy c. Alogia which S. Austin reproves Epist. 86. ad Casulanum must not be used And we must keepe the Apostles rule Whether wee eat or drinke we must doe all to the glory of God And it were to bee wished that the old practice whereof there is a Patterne in the Kings house some Cathedrall Churches were every where in use That at six a Clock in the Morning Prayers were every where appointed for Servants and such as were to prepare dinner to goe then to Church at whose returne the Masters might goe with the rest of their familie As for other recreations if they be not opposite or prejudiciall to Piety they may well stand with the solemnizing of the Sabbath and other feasts Too much Austerity doth rather hurt then good especially in those dayes wherein Indulgence where of we have Patternes in Gods Synchoreticall Lawes is extorted from those that are in Authoritie by the generall corruption of the time Wherefore I would distinguish in such cases betweene the Precept and permission The Precept sheweth whereunto men should tend and be exhorted and it were to be wished they would follow and keepe the Lords Day as they are directed by the Canon and Injunction The Permission sheweth what must be tollerated for the hardnesse of mens hearts Vacation from bodily labour is required both Per se for it is a figure of our freedome from those Animall toyles in the Church Triumphant and also Propter aliud that we may the better intend our spirituall life To conclude all seeing all agree that it must be observed and differ onely upon what ground and how farre seeing to fetch the authority from God and to keepe it with all reasonable strictnesse maketh most for Piety in a doubtfull case I incline thither though I condemne not them that are otherwise minded wishing that sobriety of judgement to all in such disputes which Saint Paul commendeth Rom. c. 14. FINIS An Errata IN the preface p. 8. li. 22. 23. it is so far to be accompted morall In the treatise p. 3. l. 20. report read repent p. 7. l. 28. to seale reade to steale p. 36. l. 35. a new Father r. a new master p. 37. l. 31. Mockel p. 38. l. 6. blot out and p. 39. l. 32. wee r. who r. â—â— l. 8. would read could p. 48. l 2. Piloponus p. 50. l. 39. rather then p. 53. l. 31. unto p. 56. l. 3. from sins read for sins p. 59 l. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 33. purse read purpose p. 110. l. 10. 6 toh read both p. 110. l. 16. and by sending the holy Ghost p. 122. l. 2. read Rom 1.4 p. 122. l. the last now read was p. 129. l. 4. read because on that day p. 133. l. 9. Qua read quae page 137. l. 5. his read is p. 144. l. 23. some without read shins with our p. 151. l 26. yet read yea p. 152. l. 6. walaeus that read walaus say that p. 152. l. 27. made read the seventh made line last that on that day read that one day p. 158. l. 11. is to be proved read is to prove only p. 162. l. 18. read Banbury p. 165. l. 7. Rogers upon read Rogers Vpon l. 26. is contrary read it contrary p. 167. l. the last dele which the Jewes keepe read as the letter soundeth p. 168. 29. against read againe p. 170. l. 16. be read to be l. 171. l. 1. 15. dele now being read to be p. 180. l. 6. though he read though I. p. 180. l. 27. that read and that p. 187. l. 12. peratur reads operatur p. 195. l. 5. uno read imo p. 196. l. 32. well read will p. 198. l. 6. observed the read observed it in the p. 20. l. 27. saith that no more read saith no more p. 205. l. 20. as read was p. 207. l. 24. he doth say read he doth not say p. 222. l. 27 Gerardus p. 230. li. 1. read supposition l. 6. that God dele that read God p. 233. l. 14. of Ephesus read of Troas p. 240. l. 4. I can read I call Thes de Sabbat Thes 26. the seventh day from 27. Christ an 37. Spirit