c. That some Gentiles were thereto bound the pellucid fountain of verity sheweth plainly Let not the sonne of the stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying God hath utterly separated me from his people If you say that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed then why may not the Christian Gentiles who are covenantees as well as the Jews who are also the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise and united in Christ Jesus why may not they observe it also will you say because the day is abrogated and annulled and can you demonstratively prove it so The Jewish Sabbath was questionlesse indeed abolished but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so If you say Yea for they were both one I reply it is with greater facility said then proved And now we arive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept Quid. Of this it is controverted what day the precept enjoyneth whether the Jewish Sabbath the Saturday or any other particular and expresse day Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there but I think it no hard task to beat them or from that hold or in it For first I would gladly know where in expresse terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept examine and dissect it throughly Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day The Sabbath day it is you see not the seventh from the creation Therfore a Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it That God not without cause said not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day but the day of rest that is saith he b The day consecrated to rest by God either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever day it be Thus he more circumspectly then what he delivered three columnes before where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivalls What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasie it much amuseth me God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth the weekly of any other there is altum silentium not a word He saith Sanctifie the Sabbath in the singular not Sabbaths in the plurall number c The observation not of many festivals but of one onely is there enjoyned And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compasse and obligation of this precept which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves As therefore ancient Canons d said to pragmaticall Bishops which invaded their jurisdiction so I to these Jewish feasts Let them keep their own home their own stations they have nothing to do here Well the Sabbath must be sanctified but what day that should be is not yet explained in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it six dayes shalt thou labour there is one character by which we may know it Six dayes are at our own dispose but we must not hold over our term The seventh is the Sabbath it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic the least proposition of time we must allow God in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist a seventh day he will have The seventh is the Sabbath The seventh what seventh he saith not the seventh from the creation he nameth no day if he had it would have restrained the Law to that day but because he meant the day should change and yet the Law continue he saith onely the seventh that is the seventh after six or one in a week e For f To depute one day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially one and the same day be not alwayes deputed Well but will one in a week serve the turn is there nothing else required is the determination of this one in seven in our power No there is a proviso for that it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is which he hath already or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath and this is another character of the Sabbath It must be of Gods own choice But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath no discovery of it yet but we have not done with the precept perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth It followeth then For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Here I confesse the precept seemeth very apposite very full so full as we are accused for no lesse then high treason against the holy Ghost in daring to affirm the contrary f These Dogmatists saith one are not affraid to make the holy Ghost a liar who teacheth in most clear and expresse terms That God Almightie blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested An heavie charge did we not plead not guiltie That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested we not deny but whether he did expresly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration Nor yet should we call this into dispute had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation which hath herein imbraced a strange singularitie for where it readeth God blessed the seventh day the Geneva Spanish that of Hierome all that I have perused the Septuagint onely excepted render it God blessed the Sabbath day as our most correct and new translation hath it indeed the very fountain it self the Hebrew giveth it so which being true can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made let any neutrally affected judge Secondly the defect of direct and expresse command is not the onely the principall motive it is I grant which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especiall manner not injoyned here another argument there is accessory to it For if God had here expresly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation or Jewish Sabbath the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremoniall and by consequent changeable but I think it was and is in all parts intirely morall and perpetuall and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons First it is marshalled in the Decalogue amongst the morall and immutable laws which were notably distinguished from the ceremoniall by many circumstances The Morall uttered by God himself proved page 39. in the presence of the whole multitude written by Gods own finger given without restraint to time how long or place where Contrarywise the Ceremoniall given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonies Judgements Ordinances and limited onely to the land of g Jury Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdome of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a Ceremoniall amongst his Morall laws Secondly if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of
said of preaching foolishnesse I do not hereby arrogate to my self the name of a Scholer for my delight in learning hath been more then my proficiencie which God knoweth is very slender so slender as these my simple labours dare not approach you from any assurance of their own worth but because they are the products of those studies which derive their originall from your extraordinary both charge and care they think themselves of right to belong to you and so their motion towards you is not more voluntary then naturall Be pleased Sir to entertain them as testimonials of my filiall gratitude which is the chief end of this their second resort to you for they exceed their Commission if they speak so much what they are themselves though that is mere weaknesse as what I am that is Sir Your most honouring and Most obedient sonne HAMON L'ESTRANGE The Preface COncerning the publishing of this Treatise I expect to meet with two Interrogatories First why so late considering the Antisabbatarians have possest the stage without controul so many years Secondly why at all in regard there have of late issued out Tracts homogeneall wherein the Truth hath been evidently enough demonstrated Errour convinced To both these I hold it requisite to give my answer and if I can satisfaction To the first then I say I was retarded upon these reasons especially First though my studies have been most conversant in Eristick Theologie yet I delight therein more as a stander by and spectatour of others digladiations then out of an itch to enter the lists my self which of all things through a desire to suppresse from publick notice my private infirmities my Genius most declineth Secondly being conscious of mine own failings I was loth to betray so good a cause by so mean a champion as my self and so ipsÃque onerÃque timebam Lastly being of a Lay condition I held it discreet and good manners to leave the work to be performed by others who had both greater abilities and a calling more suitable to it To the second my answer is That this Tract was not onely commenced but as I then * thought finisht before intelligence arrived at me of any books extant of the same subject And when I first heard thereof I forthwith destined my pains as a sacrifice to eternall oblivion but having after compared our labours together it manifestly appeared that we varied much in frame every of us having somethings proper and peculiar to our selves verifying that * One man may find out more then another no man all things for which reason alone some learned friends to whom I had communicated it animated me with the advice of some additions to publish it Let no man therefore fore-judge me so obliquely as if I thought the labours of those worthy men either imperfect or impertinent to any whereof whosoever resorteth shall there find Antidote enough against the Anti-Sabbatarian infection a disease which hath prevailed rather through a secret disposition of naturall corruption to embrace it as any thing which rellisheth of liberty then from predominancy of arguments though backt with the authority of men eminent for their knowledge in letters three * of them especially to whom though I willingly afford all titles of honour which learning meriteth yet I boldly affirm had they left us no other demonstrations of their excellency that way then their Sabbatary Tracts they should never have attained so high a repute amongst us But let them without envy possesse the laurell they have deserved yet if any shall therefore wonder as I doubt not some will that such a Sciolus as my self have dared to oppose them I must reply what Luther did before in the like case God once spake that by an Asse which he concealed from the Prophet and revealed to the child Samuel what he hid from Eli the Priest They then that upbraid me with personall frailty be what they say as great and evident truth as they desire must know they quite mistake the question which is not whether I be illiterate ignorant weak or what else they please to call me but whether it be truth which I have here delivered and if any man will yield me the last yea whether he will or not I will freely grant him the first But to him who misliketh Truth and shunneth her because he meeteth her in my apparell let me give Augustines check Think of me your pleasure but beware what opinion you have of Truth This short advertisement being premised I addresse my self to the ensuing discourse Errata Page 11. l. 13. the matter reade this matter p. 15. l. 2. r. arguments and opinions p. 20. l. 18. view r. vive p. 43. l. 8. their r. others p. 66. l. 8. ceremony r. caremoniâ— p. 97. l. 9. prosekenique r. pro-selenique Gods Sabbath before the Law I Begin a work whose hardest work is to begin a work of the Sabbath and the beginning of the Sabbath which like Fame caput inter nubila condit a must begin this Tract. A task intricate and obnoxious to many precipices Davids curse I am sure to meet with A way dark and slippery I could indeed solace my self in this that I walk not alone and that on which side soever I fall I shall have learned associates But to erre for company or for singularity are to me alike odious Truth I serve and so farre as that Primary light Holy writ shall enlighten me Truth will follow not at all disanimated though the spark which should direct me to her seemeth to burn somewhat dimme as being a portion of one of those three first chapters of Genesis which were for their obscurity with the Canticles and some part of Ezechiel by the Hebrews interdicted to be read of any under thirty years of age b and which hath set eminent Doctours as well ancient as modern at oddes For whereas it is said Gen. 2.3 God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he rested from all his works which God created and made it is by some supposed that Moses regarded not the time whereof but wherein he wrote by a Prolepsis and that it was onely an intimation of the reason why God imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the seventh rather then of any other day the subsequent of which glosse is the assertion That the Sabbath was not or commanded or observed untill Moses his dayes for the sustaining whereof they produce reasons specious and authority venerable First There is say they no other means for us to understand what Gods will and act was Gen. 2.3 but onely divine revelation But the holy Scripture neither maketh mention of any command of God given to Adam concerning resting upon the Sabbath day neither maketh any historicall narration of Adams or any other the Patriarchs observation of the Sabbath day now in cases of this nature Athanasius his rule is Because the Scripture is altogether silent in
instruct the Israelites that Gods resting from his works on the seventh day was the reason why he had selected and appointed by his commandment given to them that day rather then any other to be sanctified for his Sabbath Indeed if the fourth commandment had onely mentioned the seventh day to be the Sabbath without more ado and had supprest the reason Moses had had fit occasion to give them here this observation But seeing that Reason was fully and with indeleble characters ingraven in the Decalogue it had been mere supervacaneous and impertinent tautologie to recite it here especially considering it is the most received opinion that Moses compiled the history of Genesis after the Law was promulgated on mount Sinai and so this reason was no news to them If any notwithstanding these grosse and palpable absurdities seemeth desperately enamoured of this forlorn and despicable Prolepsis enjoy her he shall without me his rival I envy him not Come we now to survey that little which the Divine remembrancer hath afforded us of the actual observation of the Sabbath before the Law whereof two onely examples are extant the one for the observation notable the other for the violation For the observation we reade Exod. 16.22 when the Israelites had on the sixth day gathered twice as much Manna as on any other day before the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses and he said to them This is that which the Lord hath said To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord We do not find here that the Israelites were amused at the word Sabbath that they expostulated with themselves as before concerning Manna what it should be no they knew well enough what it was with the Rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they had been long acquainted it was no novelty to them the new attendance and long train of strict observances that now waited on it were the things so puzzled so possest them with wonder of a How is it changed from what it was Their old wont was to dresse their necessary viands upon the Sabbath and being now interrupted now disturbed in their accustomed practice by an uncouth innovation of Bake that which you will bake to day and seethe that which you will seethe and that which remaineth over lay up to be kept untill the morning well might they be in a study well demand a reason of this change And whereas it is by some stiffly affirmed that the Jews did bake their Manna on the Sabbath day an opinion ascribed to Theophilus Brabourn the first as my Authour telleth me that looked so near into Moses his meaning he must know that in Opticks amongst other requisites to perfect discerning justa distantia a a fit distance is one and Mr Brabourn might perhaps by looking too near see to little where the fault was whether in this or in some defect of the organe his understanding or through what other cause I not dispute sure I am that an hallucination an errour of the sight there was and that a grosse one The paraphrase they give of this Text Bake that which you will bake to day c. is this As much as you conceive will be sufficient for this present day that bake or boyl as you use to do and for the rest lay it up to be baked or boyled to morrow and to this interpretation they the rather betake them because the Israelites laid it up as Moses bad and it did not stink now say they it had been no wonder at all that it did neither breed worm nor stink had it been baked the day before Things of that nature so preserved are farre enough from putrifying in so short a space Not to dwell long in discussing this point They have mistaken both Gods miracle and Moses his meaning Gods miracle for the baking or boyling excludeth not the miracle of its not putrifying things so dressed are indeed the lesse disposed to corrupt therefore the putrefaction which Manna contracted by procrastination on other dayes notwithstanding the same order taken for preservation of it by baking and boyling was the greater miracle and because it tainted against nature and miraculously reserved upon other dayes Gods ceasing to work the same miracle upon the Sabbath might it self seem a miracle The mind of Moses they have not reacht whose words resolve themselves into this construction What you mean to bake bake to day what to seethe seethe to day and what remaineth not unbaked or unboyled but of that which you have baked or boyled more then sufficient for this dayes food lay up for you to eat to morrow and therefore Hierome hath rendred it Quodcunque operandum est facite Whatsoever belongeth to the dressing of the Manna dispatch it now But to put it out of all doubt that this errour may never readvance God himself vers. 5. commanded Moses that the people should Prepare that which they bring in and it should be twice as much as they gathered daily what was this Preparing but dressing but cooking of it so the English will bear and by a word of the same energy and signification it is rendred in I am sure most Translations so the Septuagint so Hierome so the Spanish so the French a thing so manifest as the very Friday was thence denominated {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Preparation to the Sabbath For the violation of the Sabbath we have it recorded vers 27. that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather and they found none this I conceive most likely to have reference to the chap. 18. v. 12. Now because it is held by some that the primum esse and first dawning of the Sabbath began at this fall of Manna though I hope I have already sufficiently proved the contrary I would further know why it should begin then and but then was it to chalk out to the Israelites the precise seventh day from the Creation whereof they were at that time ignorant It could not be for of the seventh day whereon God rested they were not they could not be ignorant in some profane and irreligious houses it might perhaps have been lost but in others more piously affected it was certainly preserved For it is most undeniable and irrefragably true what Sr. Walter Raleigh a hath delivered and it is in substance affirmed by many others That if the story of the Creation had not been written by divine inspiration yet it is manifest that the knowledge thereof might by Tradition then used be delivered unto Moses by a more certain presumption then any or all the testimonies which profane Antiquitie had preserved and left to their successours And this he proveth by the light which Moses might have either by Cabala or letters For that the most notable occurrents of every severall age were transmitted downwards by tradition and heare-say is without all controversie a and for letters it is so clear
Pentateuch Secondly It appeareth not by any relation of sacred History that before the Babylonish captivitie there was any weekly reading or expounding the Law upon the Sabbath Lastly it is a thing to be admired that if the reading of the Law had been in continuall use among the Jews every Sabbath day there should be found in the dayes of King Josiah one copy onely or book of the Law and that Hilkiah should present this book to the King as a great raritie 2. King 22.8 9. But the unsoundnesse of the foundation argueth the assertion erroneous for First will nothing but expresse Text satisfie you suppose we find it not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not verbatim commanded thus Reade the Law publickly every Sabbath day is not I pray you necessary and inevitable deduction out of Text Scripture with you if yea then we need not travel farre for a command no farther then the fourth precept and not farre into that but to Remember thou keep holy or sanctifie the Sabbath day I told you before that things are then said to be sanctified when they are applied to holy worship now holy worship is the exhibiting to God his due and just honour and that is performed two wayes either by reverent attention to what he offereth us in his word or an humble presentment of what we preferre to him in our prayers For Hearing of the word Adoration are the two hands of religion the one we extend to receive what God communicateth to us the other to represent what in mercy he accepteth from us so as they are indeed the proper instruments of mutuall commerce betwixt him and us and though I allow them a parity of honour yet hath the one a precedency of order before the other and this belongeth to hearing of the word For the first of religious offices wherewith we publickly honour God on earth saith that worthy m Hooker is the receiving that knowledge which he imparteth to us in his word The reason is evident for prius est nosse Deum consequens n colere or rather according to that golden chain How o shall men invoke him in whom they have not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they heare without a preacher Hence it is that the Primitive Church had ever the Sermon before the Service to intimate that none ought to be admitted to pray with the Church before they have been inlightned in saving doctrine All tag and rag had free accesse to the Sermon to the service onely the faithfull and Catechumeni p Let the Bishop interdict none neither Gentile nor Heretick nor Jew to enter into the Church and heare the word of God untill the Service of the Catechumeni saith the Councel of Carthage For the clear understanding of which Canon you must know that Missa Catechumenorum signifieth here not the dismission of the Catechumeni but the service so called which began at the introitus and ended at the offertory If then the sanctification of the Sabbath be the application of it to Gods worship the consequence must and will be That all sacred actions tending to this worship as parts thereof but the hearing of the Law read most especially it being of the essence of that worship were commanded in and under the word sanctifie But you 'l say that many Doctours of note maintain that the letter of the fourth commandment imposed upon the Jews no other externall form of sanctifying the weekly Sabbath but resting from bodily labour I answer The literall sense of the fourth Commandment imposed upon the Jews the sanctification of the Sabbath viz. by all such religious actions as are proper to holy worship the specialties whereof it not determineth least it should be thought to exclude any It also imposed rest and cessation from secular businesse but that it commanded it as any at all much lesse the onely externall form of sanctifying the Sabbath pardon me I cannot believe For what honour could accrue to God through an idle and lazie rest what worship could man perform waking more then a sleep How could the day be lesse sanctified by beasts then men Rest was injoyned as necessary indeed necessitate medii as a fit means but not necessitate causae as a necessary cause constituting sacred worship Against these Doctours of note I will oppose a Doctour of note too and of such note as his Dictates never any of the Primitive Church durst call into question a Athanasius the Great who in refutation of this Jewish fancie hath amongst others this invincible argument b If rest sanctifieth then by consequence labour polluteth for Contrariorum eadem est ratio yea the Father maketh the knowledge of God to be the chief end of the Sabbath Because knowledge is more necessary then rest c And therefore the beam of truth hath extorted from them this confession That some other religious actions were intended by God as the end of the precept but no other were formally commanded d What I pray did God intend those religious actions as the end of the precept how come you to know Gods intention hath he anywhere revealed it if yea then tell me is not that overture that declaration of his intendment equipollent to a command Besides when and where did God open this his mind in this precept and at the giving of the Law If now and here then these religious actions and rest were coordinate together both imposed at one and the same time the thing you deny If after then God imposed and man observed rest to no end and purpose all that while untill the manifestation of his intentions concerning the end of that rest came forth But God and nature do nothing in vain e even Philosophy could tell you so and sure Divinity much more Their second Argument is upon the old haunt still The want of expresse narration which were it true yet is it no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no demonstration of what they affirm as I have proved before pag. 5. Besides the contrary may be probably collected without detorting Scripture against reason For first when the Shunamite desired to go to the Prophet Elisha to acquaint him with the death of her sonne and to see if he could afford her any comfort her husband expostulated with her saying Why wilt thou go to day it is neither New-moon nor Sabbath day which had been an impertinent question if they had not accustomed to resort to the Prophets on those dayes to heare the word expounded That this was their practice scarce any Expositour upon the place but assureth us Though here is onely mention of the New-moon and Sabbath yet as we need not doubt but that they practiced the same upon other festivalls also so I conceive it to be implyed in both or either words which are often in Scripture taken in a generall notion not denoting
of one in a week was ceremoniall and so abrogated I answer prove you it ceremoniall and I will yield it abrogated but there hath not yet been any argument or reason shewn us whereby we might be perswaded to conceive it ceremoniall nor hath it so much as one Character of a ceremony in it For first it was not typicall it did not prenote any thing to ensue or be accomplisht under the Gospel If that fancy of the Jewish Cabala be true that the world shall continue but six thousand years and then the day of judgement shall follow it might prefigure that and yet no ceremony proved for that time is not yet elapsed and the type must continue till the thing typified be fulfilled so that this rather evinceth the duration then abrogation of this limitation Secondly it had no particular relation to the land of Canaan the proper place of ceremonies nor yet to the Jews upon whom it was not imposed as Jews as a mark of difference to distinguish them from the Gentiles If you object Exod. 31.13 17. Ezech. 20.12 20. where the Sabbath is called a signe betwixt God and them I say the Sabbath was at that time a mark of difference and separation betwixt the Jews and Gentiles that is confest but was it so as a seventh day No that which caused the distinction was the sanctification of them on that day not any thing in the number of seven Gods seposing of a certain time for their and onely their for God worthily neglected those of whom he was not worshipped a Sanctification was an argument that he had an especiall care of them above others and that they were his onely people It was not imposed as an heavy burthen upon the Jews If the sequestring one day in a week had been burthensome to them it would be also a grievance now to us Christians who observe the same But we are under the law of grace and liberty exempted from such pressures and if it were in any respect onerous we would and might renounce it so that it being not to us heavy it is consequently probable that it was to them tolerable And indeed in the explanation of the law or rather application of it to the state of the Jews it is rather recited as an ordinance of comfort and refreshing as of mercy and and favour then of rigour or severity then of depression and of servitude Lastly it was not commanded in recognition of any speciall favour conferred upon the Jews It was a memoriall of Gods creating the world in six dayes and his resting on the seventh but this being a benefit wherein all mankind inter common the Jews can claim no property therein several to themselves And so in respect of this Character as of the three preceding no tidings of a ceremony yet and so no cause of abolition for you will not have more abrogated then was ceremoniall will you If you say it was and must be ceremoniall for morall it was not and therefore positive and because positive ceremoniall I answer denying that positive either necessarily implyeth ceremoniall or excludeth morall Nay more disputable it is whether positive may be admitted here or no Sure I am a great Prelate d hath resolved it In Divine constitutions Positive law hath no place and so e Schoolmen and Civilians use to speak but in regard the propriety of the word signifieth the imposing of what before was in its nature arbitrary whether the imposition be Divine or Humane it constituteth in my opinion a Law positive denominated accordingly Be it then Positive is it therefore ceremoniall or not morall Let the definition of either word end the strife Morall is derived from mores or mos and may be defined as Lirinensis f doth Catholick Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That which hath been observed every where alwayes and of all men And though in its remotest latitude of signification it is synonymall with what Civilians call Jus Gentium or the Law of Nations yet may it not unfitly be restrained to lesser societies as to Gods Church and so what hath been alwayes observed in his Church may not unfitly be called morall and then the observation of a weekly day will become so too yet with this restriction and difference that one is morall by Naturall infusion the other by externall Imposition g But suppose it granted that Positive were a privative of Morall yet can you never prove that it must inevitably inferre ceremoniall for ceremonies are in their very nature changeable to last but a while their etymologie giveth them that definition {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} therefore they who write ceremonie do ill deduce it from Ceres whereas Positive laws may be and are some of them immutable The prohibition of incestuous matches within certain degrees decimation and tithing were Positive and yet I hope you will yield unchangeable The last I am sure you demand by virtue of the first injunction Nor doth the tenth content you you are you think defrauded of your right unlesse we allow it as due jure Divino the truth whereof is here not to be discussed and though I as yet rather incline to the affirmative yet this for undeniable veritie I dare and do averre that to evince a jus Divinum there is farre infinitely farre clearer evidence and demonstration in the Scripture for the Lords day then for Tithes But I digresse All Laws Divine derive their firmnesse or mutability two wayes either from that which giveth them their first constitution Reason Qualis Ratio Praecepti tale Praeceptum as the Reason is permanent or moveable so is the Law for the form of all laws is the reason as that which diversifieth all things is the form or from the subject or matter about which they are conversant for if that be constant the law must also be the same For those Laws Divine which belong whether naturally or supernaturally to men as men or to men as they live in Politick society or to men as they are of that politick society which is the Church without any further respect had to any such variable accident as the state of men and of societies of men and of the Church it self is subject to in this world all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever although they be positive laws unlesse being positive God himself that made them altereth them saith Hooker Now no man will deny the reason of commanding a weekly day in memory of the creation to be immutable therefore the Law it self for that cause also though at first positive must be so And that it was imposed on Gods Church without respect had to any particular Place People Time or the like variable occasion is so clear as none can solidly refute and for this cause also it must continue so long as that society the Church for which it was first
very direct Thou shalt do no manner of work What not quench an house of fire not water a beast not provide necessary food yes works of necessitie works of mercy thou mayest do the precept onely interdicteth servile work ordinary work of our vocation All Doctours whatsoever so understand it which being granted the fourth precept for ought I see little exceedeth in rigour touching the Sabbath the Canon and Statute Law of this land concerning the meanest holy Day Differ I do herein from my sacred mother the Church of England it cannot be denied she hath expressed her self otherwise viz. That this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian people so straitly to observe the utter ceremonies of the Sabbath Day as touching the forbearing of work and labour in times of great necessitie But seeing in the substance viz. That we are not bound to observe the Lords Day with that extreme severitie which once belonged to the Jewish Sabbath we consent I hope a difference in the manner of expression is at most but a peccadillo but a veniall fault our dissent is onely this That strictnesse which she reduceth to the fourth Commandment I rather lodge and settle in those accessory and occasionall laws which are quite of another parish and have nothing to do here If it be here objected That this precept bindeth not to the observation of the Lords Day and therefore no matter what it injoyneth I answer it doth oblige to the observation of this day for no other day can properly be called Gods Sabbath then this because no other day is weekly solemnized in the Church and thereto destined by Divine appointment which are the certain characters of the Sabbath of that Commandment Besides all Expositours interpret this precept of this day especially and some of none other and above all our Church it self is so full as nothing can be desired more apposite to our purpose then what she hath delivered Like as it appeareth by this Commandment saith she that no man in the six dayes ought to be slothfull and idle but diligently labour in that estate wherein God hath set him even so God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath Day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour and give themselves wholly to divine exercises of Gods true Religion and Service And a few lines after she saith That to keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday is Gods expresse commandment These are lowd and clear demonstrations of what our Church then thought wherein two things are remarkable First that she reduceth the observation of the Lords Day to the fourth Commandment and secondly that without any scruple she very broadly calleth it our Sabbath yea and The Sabbath A word whereat much offence hath lately been taken and all that use it are checkt by our great Schoolman who good man in a tender care of us adviseth that we follow the language of the holy Ghost as also of the Primitive Church that we vary not from other reformed Churches that we gratifie not the Jews in their obstinacy against Christ that we offend not our weak brethren and lastly that we use that name which doth most edifie viz. the LORDS DAY As concerning the style Lords Day we quarrell not at it we are no enemies of it we use it for ought I know more frequently then Sabbath yet were it truly sensed and according to right sense duly observed it would contract not onely the title but nature of a Sabbath for what is our Lords Day but the Evangelicall Sabbath as the Legall Sabbath was the Jewish Lords Day Be the Lords Day thus stated call it then by that name ever if you please it not at all offendeth us but when it becometh from the Sabbath an ordinary holy day or rather playday from the Lords Day the Churches Day we have then just cause to rouse the world by shrill expressions and lowd manifestations that it is both the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment and also the Lords Day that is of his Institution But to persue this not without wonder behold the strange condition of these men who inveigh so bitterly against the word Sabbath which hath notwithstanding warrant both from our book of Homilies the Canons Ecclesiasticall and Edicts of our Princes behold their perversitie The words Altar Priest Sacrifice Holy of Holies will down with them so easily as now they begin to rellish nothing else It is rare very rare a great novelty to heare the course and homely terms of Table Minister Lords Supper or Chancel in their mouths Now I say and aver the word Sabbath hath not in it any semblance of danger to Gods Church comparable to that of Altar Priest c. For first the Lords Day is a Sabbath The Sabbath {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} properly and directly whereas these words Altar Priest c. are used {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but figuratively and symbolically Besides the word Sabbath giveth no offence for if any incline to Judaisme it is in the strictnesse not now in the day But the other words stumble many especially in these times wherein we have cause and just cause to fear they are meant and intended of things other then metaphoricall And are not our fears just when Transsubstantiation beginneth not to be instilled in some subtile and Paracelsian spirit of School distinction but according to the Galenists to be exhibited in the grosse masse of corporeall presence in a corporeall sense so as the most unprepared and unbelieving receiver eateth his part thereof as well as the faithfull But admit this to be the tenet of some few extravagants yet are not our fears just when that uncouth and apish bowing toward if not to the Altar is not onely warranted and defended but commended to our observation by the chief of our Church which whosoever shall dive into it and search antiquitie will find it one of the Parents Elevation or Ostension being the other which begot adoration of the Host which begot Impanation or Transsubstantiation Let not any think here that by Antiquitie I understand the very Primitive Church with whom we challenge so near alliance in matters of Doctrine for certain it is that the first Church was utterly ignorant of this novel device you shall indeed many times very often find in the Fathers a that they bowed or worshipped towards the East and this they did onely at their entrance into the Church according to the Poet Vt Templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque Pronus humi But of bowing for what some urge of Nazianzen's Gorgonia was geniculation not genuflection as will appear to any that duly peruseth the place towards the Altar as you call it or ducking as often as they approched unto or departed from it you shall not find mention anywhere till you arrive at Chrysostome's Liturgy which requireth {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
day God ended his work perhaps those copies which they followed expressed it so or else their aim was to suppresse the seeming discord which they knew not otherwise how to salve A discord indeed I confesse there is yet such an one as disturbeth not the sacred harmony yea rather a discord elegantly gracefull For you must know that in no operation the end is attained whilest the operation is in progression and untill it ceaseth a rest being Perficientis perfectio perfecti c The perfection of the perficient and of the thing perfected Now because rest demonstrateth the motion consummated therefore God is said most properly to have perfected his work on the seventh day whereon he rested so that the finishing and perfecting mentioned in this verse or period is no actuall operation but a mere desisting à motu creationis And indeed Moses giveth the honour of the perfection of the world to both the sixth and the seventh day not without great and weighty cause to the sixth to exclude all thought that God wrought upon the seventh to the seventh to assure us that he did not rest and give over on the sixth For the end of the sixth day gave end to the work of creation and denihilation and the beginning of the seventh gave beginning to Gods rest Therefore it is said that On the seventh day God perfected the work which he had made viz. on the six dayes before whence it is that Junius and Mercer a render it in the preterpluperfect tense Cùm absolvisset Deus When God had now perfected his work meaning that as soon as the seventh day arrived it might be truly said God had now perfected his work b And perfected it was undoubtedly on the sixth day God did not abruptly break off till he had throughly perfected all I confesse the Jews tell us a pretty story c How that God about the end of the sixth day was making Faunes Satyres and such imperfect creatures and that the evening of the Sabbath overtook him so fast that he was fain to leave them but half made up and therefore on the Sabbath dayes these creatures usually hide themselves in their kennels not daring to look out A perfect Jewish fable and by Mercer suspected to be rather derived from Tradition and heare-say then from any Hebrew Authour extant because he could never in all his reading light upon him for the satisfying of the like doubt in others I have troubled my margine with the Authours name as I find him cited by a Wierus That God gave but one positive law to Adam in Paradise is neither in it self likely nor in respect of repugnant Scripture credible for is it not said that God put Adam into the garden to dresse it was not this a command Augustine b holdeth clear it was so if a command then a law for Lex dicitur à ligando A law is called a law because it bindeth c and every command is so farre as it bindeth a law If then it was a law it must be either merely naturall or positive if merely naturall then immutable still in force and we must all tag and rag turn gardiners or plowmen if it was positive then their Prolepsis halteth on that foot Consider the Law it self and you shall see the positive accrue to the naturall by way of superfoetation Man must be alwayes busie alwayes in action there is the naturall his imployment is limited to tilling of the garden there is the positive law But if Adams apostasie and fall was the same day he was formed as many have thought and is still disputable this argument might well have been spared because the command concerning sanctifying the Sabbath might have been given in his corrupt and vitiated estate If we should yield them what they fain would have viz. that Jacob and the Israelites observed no Sabbath during their thraldome yet shall they never be able to inferre from thence that they had no command concerning it For did they alwayes observe whatsoever was commanded them Moses said to Pharaoh in the person of God Let my people go that they may hold a Feast to me in the wildernesse Was not this Feast some solemn time consecrated and commanded of God to be observed no doubt it was for will-worship is to God abominable Did they keep this Feast Certainly no It is resolved by all Divines ancient and modern the Patriarchs before the Law were by God appointed to offer sacrifice Did the Israelites under Pharaoh keep this commandment the Scripture answereth No God strictly injoyned that every male child eight dayes old should be circumcised was this performed by the Israelites in the wildernesse the Scripture answereth No there was not one circumcised all that while and yet they abode there fourtie years Now if they had upon such occasions a dispensation for not observing of other feasts for not sacrificing for not circumcising might they not have one for the weekly Sabbath also To their last argument from Nehemiah I say The Sabbath was at the time of the law given made known to them yet not then first but in a more solemn manner then before We have a saying none more frequent when the Sunne hath dispelled a cloud or mist and sheweth it self in its brightnesse we then say the Sunne shineth and yet no man is so simple but knoweth it shined before even while it was most befogged though not with equall splendour So the Sabbath is said to be made known to the Israelites upon mount Sinai because it was then as it were revived and proclaiâ—â—d in more state and pomp then before And if you restrain it strictly to mount Sinai as the letter seemeth to import you must of necessity offer violence to Exodus 16 where at the fall of Manna it is clear the Sabbath was made known before the Law pronounced on mount Sinai And so the Prolepsis faileth in this her last refuge as in the former Having thus disarmed them of those Reasons wherewith they esteemed themselves sufficiently fortified I now apply my self to their Authority the Authority of men many of them singular both for learning and piety But shall we without more adoe yield to bare Authority Doth the end of dispute depend merely upon what they have said May we not examine the matter yet a little further May we not question whether these men spake as they meant whether their arguments jumped together for did they alwayes so No if Hierome be of any credit The Ancients are sometimes enforced to speak not so much what themselves think as what they conceive may most non-plus the Gentiles This was their policy against the Heathen might not they use it also against the Jews with whom they were in continuall conflict If they spake as they thought might not vehemency of dispute transport them to inconsiderate speeches in their heat and through too eager opposition to one errour to incurre
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} adorations to be made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} towards the holy Table and this we all know is a piece of yesterday the Authour whereof was in being not full six hundred years past which we are also as certain was the very time about which the Incarnation of Bread or Transsubstantiation began first to be whispered I should not have dwelt so long upon this but that I find it pressed as a necessary dutie yea a dutie of necessity adequate to the observation of the Lords Day a Tenet which deserveth rather to be hist at then answered But to return from whence I have digressed Let whatsoever is positive in the fourth Commandment stand for a cipher is the Lords Day to be observed one jot the more remisse doth not Apostolicall Institution imply an equall Obligation both concerning the continuance of time and restraint from labour what did they ordain what institute was it not That the first day of the week should be consecrated to God and spirituall negotiations you cannot yield us lesse If then it was the first day of what is it meant of a naturall day from sun to sun or of an artificiall from the sun-rise to his set I answer of the first for these reasons If all the other dayes of the week contained both night and day why should not the Lords Day have as large a proportion of time as the rest do not all the dayes in the week hold by Gavelkind and if it contained onely daylight then there was a night to spare whereof I would gladly know what should become Should the Saturday have it all If so then this would by sesquialter proportion exceed all the rest should it passe by way of dividend amongst the other six then there would be two houres in every day more then the suns revolution maketh Moreover when God requireth any thing dedicated to him his constant caveat and proviso is that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not defective and without blemish not lame or imperfect Now that which wanteth one minute of its full time cannot properly be called a day regularly I say and de jure of right it cannot where the day is seposed by divine designation And this is the more evident by observing what God required under the law it being no lesse then a full and complete naturall day from eve to eve which was not as a learned Doctour conceiveth and I think aright to set out the beginning and end the boundaries of a naturall day but to declare his own claim of a naturall day to be dedicated to him which should begin at evening If then the day must be understood of a naturall day of 24 houres it will then necessarily follow that vacation from labour during that time must be concomitant with it For vacation from worldly affairs which may impeach the worship of God is so inseparable from times consecrated to that worship as it is by Brerewood rightly accounted part of the moralitie and substance of the fourth Commandment and so in the Christian Church perpetually to be observed If any shall now object that this vacation is onely necessary and required during the time of publick assembling in the Church and that no more is exacted of us then that we attend such assemblies I answer that God will admit no sharer in any thing consecrated to him and though the cardinall and chief end of the Sabbath is that God be publickly honoured yet doth he not leave the remainder thereof so at our dispose that we may dispend it either in carnall pleasures or terrene negotiations Those oratories which from their dedication to the Lord are in English denominated Churches do from their destination to publick and solemn addresse contract the name and repute of sacred and though they be superlatively and above all venerable while employed to their destinate end yet alwayes even at times of Cultustitium as I may so say or vacation from publick worship there remaineth in them an indeleble impression of awfull regard which ought to preserve them from all profanation inviolable Mistake me not I place no inherent sanctitie I immure not God in them I approve not of their decoring even to effeminate curiositie nor allow them an honour as some of late too close followers of Nazianzene a even to ridiculousnesse superstititious yet this I hold Gods houses they are places where his honour dwelleth for which cause such a relative veneration is due to them as alwayes dignifieth and ennobleth them above any other house whatsoever and secureth them from common use and in this men both learned and moderate have led me the way as Zanchy b Hospinian c c. Now * Places and Times consecrated to Gods name are to be sanctified with equall religion and so the Rituall of the old Testament coupleth them together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuaries And then I say that the Lords house may as well be impropriated to a ware-house as his day to a work-day when the congregation is dismissed And this priviledge it as well deriveth from Evangelicall as Legall institution Therefore Leo d when he made that edict of generall restraint on the Lords day pleadeth conformitie wth the evangelicall constitution We ordain as it seemed good to the holy Spirit to them whom he instructed But it will be here opposed that neither the Apostles themselves nor the Primitive Church observed this day with any such strictnesse untill Constantine's decree and therefore it is like they enjoyned it not I answer as touching the practice of the Apostles there is I confesse nothing either the one way or other clearly evident nor much of that of the Primitive Church during the time limited Onely Justin Martyr e if I be not mistaken hath something reflecting that way for in his description of the custome of publick assembling in those times upon the Lords day after he hath insisted awhile upon the duties performed in the Church he setteth down what the Christians did postea after their dismission as their visiting relieving the poore their consorting together and their repeating to one another what they had learned that day in the Church Of the remainder of time the solemn assembly being ended I understand this postea probably enough yet will not warrant it with over much pertinacitie if any other construction can vouch better reason in its defence let that obtain But though we should find no evidence of the Primitive practice of cessation from labour on this day yet will it not follow that they did not forbare it if possibly they could for we meet with exhortation to it by Origen f On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly businesse if therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs and dost nothing but employ thy self in spirituall negotiations this is
first Institution innocent enough I will not speak nor trouble my self and you in shewing by what gradations they ceased to be what they ought and became what they ought not of their corrupt and degenerate estate I purpose onely to give you some small hint collected from what I have read and partly from what I have seen First therefore you must understand there were in the late times of superstition and blindnesse in our Church in our Church I say for in other Countreys I confesse they were united two feasts Maenechmi very near resembling one the other one called the Feast of Dedication the other the Feast of the Patrone or Church Holiday the impious and profane fooleries were almost the same and common to both onely the Feast of the Patrone had this peculiar to it The idol or image of the Patrone richly deckt and drest was set forth upon a table near the Church doore to the view of the People quod quia mutum est Aut nondum populi linguam or áque barbara novit Assidet interpres quidam clamánsque rogánsque Intrantes atque ingredientes munera praestent Patrono nummis redimant indulta Paparum which because 't is dumb And kennes not yet the Peoples Idiome Its spokesman's by who begs of all that come Toll for his Patrone and sits there to sell Pardons for sins but men must pay him well But the first spark of light which shone in the beginning of Reformation soon quitted the world of this grosse abuse King Henry the eighth anno 1536 amongst other things enjoyning that this Feast of the Patrone of every Church commonly called the Church Holiday should be no more observed within the Realm The Feasts of Dedication indeed continued still yet much eclipsed in their former wicked and abominable solemnity for whereas before the custome was for divers vicine Parishes to assemble themselves together there where the Feast of Dedication was to be held to feast and riot in the very Churches to erect stalls for pedlars in the Churchyard to spend the hole day in swinish swill lascivious wantonnesse in cudgellplay-matches and in the true service of Satan and because every Parochiall Church had its proper Sunday whereon the Feast was kept and it was rare by reason thereof to have a Lords Day observed especially in summer time wherein these Feasts are most frequent with any tolerable devotion and exercise of Piety it was therefore by the same Prince strictly injoyned That the Feasts of Dedication of Churches should in all places of the Realm be celebrated upon the first Sunday in October for ever and upon none other day The scope of this King was doubtlesse to restrain the disordered licentiousnesse of the people on this day being occasioned by their joynt resort to other Parishes where these Feasts were observed and in this I cannot but commend that Declaration of his sacred Majesty which restrained and prohibited that disorder so far as in it lay Had there been due inquiry made into the violation of his Majesties will in this and punishment inflicted upon the offendours great I dare say had been the good it would have produced but through generall impunity and the perverse corruption of humane nature chusing in every thing that which serveth its own though never so inordinate ends and neglecting the rest his Majesties godly purpose was I know much abused and Gods sacred Day not lesse dishonoured And for proof thereof I will give you a Relation of mine own autopsie of what these eyes saw It was some few years since my fortune to visit a kinsman seated in a countrey where these Feasts are frequent upon a saturday and though I purposed to depart that day yet he importuned and prevailed with me to repose my self with him the ensuing Lords Day I did so and as dutie required in the morning I accompanied him to Church A full assembly there was service being read the preacher a man of no mean note or degree maketh a sermon lest such profanation should want its due ceremony upon this Text There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labour he insisted his hole time upon the lawfulnesse of Feasting and of Christian liberty in the use of the creatures and to give him his due nothing did he deliver amisse something I grant he might nay ought to have added as in setting down the properties of a Christian Feast and in opening to the people his Majesties will and pleasure concerning these Feasts which certainly gave them not so free a scope as they took Well the sermon ended and congregation dismissed in our return home I inquired of my kinsman the occasion of that Text he told me it was the Feast of dedication of their Church Home we went took a moderate repast and scarce had we dined before the bells summoned us to Church whither with all convenient speed we hasted and being come behold the congregation which in the morning amounted to about nine or ten score could not except the family we brought with us make up now so many single persons as the congregation was thinne so was the service suitable being posted over in great haste After this service I was much requested by my kinsman to accompany him to the place of rendez-vous where the Feast was kept many denials had I given him as fearing to be a spectatour of Gods dishonour and did partly expresse as much but he assured me I should find nothing but honest and innocent disport at length I confesse not without much inward conflict I yielded to him and the rather out of a desire to inform my self of the manner of those Feasts whereof I had heard much talk So I accompanied him to the green which was the scene of their pastime where loe we beheld a multitude of people the muster whereof could not be lesse then a thousand The main pretence of that assembly was to give testimony of their manhood by wrestling cudgel-play c. there being to that end a confederacy league and siding of the neighbour towns so many against so many which exercises imployed the body and greater part of that multitude but they who listed not to be either spectacles or spectatours wanted not wherewith to entertain themselves there being an ale-house by The disorders of that meeting by drunkennesse swearing malicious reviling one the other which may easily be conceived I purpose not to relate that which I offer to consideration is whether there was not by this assembly a great affront to his Majesties royall Declaration which prohibited all concourse of people out of their own parish yea or in their own parish untill Evening Prayer were ended when as I dare say there were near a thousand of this meeting which were not of the parish wherein it was held and of those not fourtie I verily believe had been present at