in his Lawes taketh it for granted that our observation of the Lords day is founded upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandement Statuimus saith he libro 1o. Capitularium cap. 81. secundum quod in lege Dominus praecepit ut opera servilia diebus Dominicis non agantur sicut bonae memoriae genitor meus in suis Synodalibus edictis mandavit And Lotharius likewise in legibus Alemannorum titulo 38. Die Dominico nemo opera servilia praesumat facere quia hoc lex prohibuit sacra scriptura in omnibus contradicit Accommodating the Law of God touching the Sabbath unto our observation of the Lords day by the self-same Analogy that the Church of England now doth in her publick Prayer Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law The Jewes commonly hold two things touching their Sabboth as Menasses Ben-Israel sheweth in his eighth Probleme de creatione which be published at Amsterdam the last year First that the observation thereof was commanded onely unto the Israelies where he speaketh also of the seven precepts of the sons of Noah which have need to be taken in a large extent if we will have all the duties that the Heathen were tyed unto to be comprised therein Secondly that it was observed by the Patriarchs before the coming out of Egypt For that then the observation began or that the Israelites were brought out of Egypt or the Egyptians drowned upon the Sabbath I suppose our good friend Mr. Mead will not be able to evince either out of Deut. 5. 15 or out of any other Scripture whatsoever And the Text Genes 2. 3. as you well note is so cleare for the ancient institution of the Sabbath and so fully vindicated by D. Rivet from the exceptions of Gomarus that I see no reason in the earth why any man should make doubt thereof especially considering withall that the very Gentiles both civill and barbarous both ancient and of latter dayes as it were by an universal kind of tradition retained the distinction of the seven dayes of the week which if Dr. Heylin had read so well proved as it is by Rivetus and Salmasius he would not have made such a conclusion as he doth that because the Heathen of the four great Monarchies at least had no distinction of weeks therefore they could observe no Sabbath whereas he might have found that the distinction of the dayes of the week did reach etiam ad ipsos usque Sauromatas for even of the Slavonians themselves while they yet continued in their ancient Paganisme thus writeth Helmoldus Chronic. Slavor lib. 1. cap. 84. Illic secundâ feriâ populus terrae cum flamine regulo convenire solebant propter judicia the same order of the dayes of the week being retained by them which Theophilus the old Bishop of Antioch noteth to have been observed by all mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he lib. 2. ad Antolycum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confounding as it seemeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also doth Lactaâ—tius lib. 7 cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherewith we may joyn that other place of Johannes Philoponus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 7. Cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who with shewing the cause thereof thus shuts up the whole work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We see it almost generally observed in all Nations though never so farre distant and strangers one to another that in their reckoning of Numbers when they come to ten they return to their Addition of 1. 2. and 3. again If it should be demanded how they did all come to agree upon this kind of Arithmetick and not some place their period at 8. some at 12. some at 15 I suppose this could not be better resolved than by saying they had this by tradition from the first Fathers that lived before the dispersion and that this is not an improbable evidence of that truth propounded by the Apostle unto the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17. 26. that God made of one bloud all Nations of men to dwell on all the face of the Earth How more when we finde a farre greater agreement among the Nations in the computation of the seven dayes of the week the self-same day which is accounted the first by one being in like manner reckoned so by all Notwithstanding that great variety of differences which is betwixt them in the ordering of their years and moneths how much more strongly I say may we conclude from hence that the tradition of the seventh day was not of Moses but of the Fathers and did not begin with the Common-wealth of Israel but was derived unto all Nations by lineal descent from the Sons of Noah Adde hereunto that those Heathens who were strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel though they made not the seventh day as Festival as the Jews did yet did they attribute some holinesse to it and gave it a peculiar honour above the other dayes of the week wherein they retained some Relicks and preserved still some clear foot-steps of the first institution Quinetiam populi jam olim saith Josephus sub fin lib. 2. contra Apion multùm nostram pietatem aemulantur neque est civitas Graecorum ulla usquà m aut Barbarorum nec ulla gens ad quam septimanae in qua vacamus consuetudo minimè pervenerit Jejuniaque candelabra accensa c. of which Rite of lighting of Candles or Lamps rather mention also is made by Seneca in his 95 th Epistle Accendere aliquam lucernam Sabbathis prohibeamus quoniam nec lumine Dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine And by Tertullian lib. 1. ad Nation cap. 13. where he noteth also those to be the Sabbaths observed by the Nations saying thus unto them Qui solem diem ejus nobis exprobratis agnoscite vicinitatem Non longè à Saturno Sabbatis VESTRIS sumus wherein though their devotion were somewhat like 〈◊〉 of the Jewes which is all that those words of Josephus do import Multum nostram pietatem aemulantur yet that it was not done by any late imitation of them or with any relation at all to their observance that other place of Tertullian doth seem to evince in the 16 th Chapter of his Apologeticum Aequè si diem solis laetitiae indulgemus aliâ longè ratione quà m religione solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant And that they did not celebrate their Satturdayes with that solemnity wherewith themselves did their annuall festivities or the Jewes their weekly Sabbaths may appear by the words of this same Author in the 14 th Chapter of his book de Idololatriâ thus speaking unto the Christian who observed 52 Lords dayes every year whereas all the annual festivities
of the Pagans put together did come short of fifty Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo quoque die Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecosten implere non potuerunt And yet as I said that they accounted Satturday more holy and requiring more respect from them than the other ordinary dayes of the week may be seen by that of Tibullus Eleg. 3. lib. 1. Aut ego sum causatus aves aut omina dira Saturni SACRA me tenuisse die And that of Lucian in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of boyes getting leave to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that of Aelius Lampridius touching Alexander Severus using to go unto the Capitols and other Temples upon the seventh day Whereunto we may adde those verses of the ancient Greek Poets alleadged by Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 5. Stromat and Eusebius lib. 13. Praeparat Evangelic which plainly shew that they were not ignorant that the works of Creation were finished on the seventh day for so much doth that verse of Linus intimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Israelites by the Law of Moses were not only to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh day but also their feast of weekes once in the year Which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish nation it may now fall upon any day of the week yet do the Samaritans untill this day constantly observe it on the first day of the week which is our Sunday For which they produce the Letter of the Law Levit. 23. 15 16. where the feast of the first fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the feast of weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which not they onely but also amongst our Christian Interpreters Isychius and Rupertus do interpret to be the first day of the week Planiùs saith Isychius Legislator intentionem suam demonstrate volens ab altero die Sabbati memor ari praecepit quinquaginta dies Dominicum diem proculdubiò volens intelligi Hic enim est altera dies Sabbati in hâc enim resurrectio facta est qua hebdomadae numerantur septem usque ad alterum diem expletionis hebdomadae Dominicâ rursus die Pentecostes celebramus festivitatem in quâ Sancti Spiritus adventum meruimus Where you may observe by the way that although this Authour made a little bold to strain the signification of altera dies Sabbati which in Moses denoteth no more than the morrow after the Sabbath yet he maketh no scruple to call the day of Christs Resurrection another Sabbath day as in the Councel of Friuli also If I greatly mistake not the matter you shall find Satturday called by the name of Sabbatum ultimum and the Lords day of Sabbatum primum with some allusion perhaps to that of St. Ambrose in Psal. 47. Ubi Dominica dies caepit praecellere quâ Dominus resurrexit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit à primo not much unlike unto that which Dr. Heylin himself noteth out of Scaliger of the Aethiopian Christians that they call both of them by the name of Sabbaths the one the first the other the latter Sabbath or in their own Language the one Sanbath Sachristos i. e. Christs Sabbath the other Sanbath Judi or the Jews Sabbath But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the moneth as all the rest of the feasts are which is a very great presumption that it was a moveable feast and so varied that it might alwayes fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath And if God so order the matter that in the celebration of the feast of weeks the seventh should purposely be passed over and that solemnity should be kept upon the first what other thing may we imagine could be praesignified thereby but that under the State of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly service should be celebrated upon that day That on that day the famous Pentecost in the 2. of the Acts was observed is in a manner generally acknowledged by all wherein the truth of all those that went before being accomplished we may observe the type and the verity concurring together in a wonderfull manner At the time of the Passeover Christ our Passeover was slain for us the whole Sabboth following he rested in the grave The next day after that Sabbath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sheaf of the first fruits of the first or barly Harvest was offered unto God and Christ rose from the dead and became the first fruits of them that slept many bodies of the Saints that slept arising likewise after him From thence was the count taken of the seven Sabbaths and upon the more after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lords day was celebrated the feast of weeks the day of the first fruits of the second or wheat Harvest upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first fruits of the spirit begat three thousand Soules with the word of truth and presented them as the first fruits of the Christian Church unto God and unto the Lamb. And from that time forward doth Waldensis note that the Lords day was observed in the Christian Church in the place of the Sabbath Quia inter legalia saith he tunc sublata Sabbati castodia fuit unum planum est tunc intrâsse Dominicam loco ejus sicut Baptisma statim loco Circumcisionis Adhuc enim superstes erat sanctus Johannes qui diceret Et fui in spiritu die Dominicâ Apocal. 1. cùm de Dominicâ die ante Christi Resurrection nulla prorsùs mentio haberetur Sed statim post missionem Spiritus sancti lege novâ fulgente in humano cultu sublatum est Sabbatum dies Dominicae Resurrectionis clarescebat Dominica The Revelation exhibited unto St. John upon the Lords day is by Irenaeus in his fifth book referred unto the Empire of Domitian or as S. Hierome in his Catalogue more particularly doth expresse it to the fourth yeare of his Reigne Which answereth partly to the forty ninth and partly to the ninty fifth year of our Lord according to our vulgar computation and was but eleven or twelve yeares before the time when Ignatius did write his Epistles Of whom then should we more certainly learn what the Apostle meant by the Lords day then from Ignatius who was by the Apostles themselves ordained Bishop of that Church wherein the Disciples were first called Christians and in his Epistle to the Magnesians clearly maketh the Lords day to be a weekly holy day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jews than which can we desire more But here you are to know beside the common edition wherein
THE JUDGEMENT Of the late ARCH-BISHOP OF ARMAGH And I Primate of Ireland 1. Of the Extent of Christs death and satisfaction c. 2. Of the Sabbath and observation of the Lords day 3. Of the Ordination in other reformed Churches With a Vindication of him from a pretended change of opinion in the first Some Advertisements upon the latter And in prevention of further injuries A Declaration of his judgement in several other subjects By N. Bernard D. D. and Preacher to the Honourable society of Grayes-Inne London Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost Joh. 6. 12. London Printed for John Crook at the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1658. TO THE READER THE first Treatise containing the Judgement of the most eminent Primate of Ireland concerning the True Intent and Extent of Christs death and satisfaction upon the Crosse was written by him at the request of a Friend a little before the Synod of Dort a Copy of which being taken was unknowne to him carried thither by a Member of it upon the multiplying of them exceptions were taken by divers and by one Penne contracted into a Letter to him which the second Treatise is an answer unto both these I had from him about twenty eight yeares agone and now upon the desire of such whose judgements I subscribe unto and the prevention of other mistaken Copies which possibly might be produced I have been hastened to the printing of them That which hath given the occasion is the mistake lately published of the change of his Judgement in it a little before his death But by the view of these I believe the Authour will receive satisfaction In the vindication of which two Letters being desired from me long agone which have been hitherto deferred the publick I have been importuned to permit them to be annexed Unto which I shall here adde but this That not onely in the forenamed subjects but in the rest relating to the Remonstrants the Primate concurred with Bishop Davenant whose Lectures Demorte Christi praedestinatione reprobatione he caused to be published only that little Treatise added in the conclusion of it entituled Sententia Ecclesiae Anglicanae de praedestinatione capitibus annexis c. taken to be Bishop Davenants and implyed so by the Printer ab eodem uti fertur Authore which possibly hath occasioned the apprehension of a change in him also I have been assured by a Person of Eminency who affirms it out of his own knowledge that it was Bishop Overals And now upon this occasion I have thought fit to publish a Learned Letter of the Primates wrote many yeares agone to Doctor Twisse concerning the Sabbath and Observation of the Lords day having two Copies corrected throughout with his owne hand with parts of two other Letters of the same matter which I had together with the former as also his judgement in divers other subjects both in Doctrine and Discipline with some Advertisements for the clearing and preventing of any further misapprehensions Unto which is added his Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Synodical Government c. before published And at the request of the Printer a distinction of those Boâ—kes which are owned by the Primate from such as are not If the Readers Opinion shall dissent in any of the above-named or swell into an opposition let him not expect any defensive Armes to be taken up by me it being my part to declare his judgement as I finde it Which with the most Pious and Learned I doubt not but will be as it hath been of a Reverend and high esteem If it may but moderate the heat which hath lately broken out among us about some of them the fruit expected is reaped And as these shall be of profit and acceptance I shall be encouraged to a further gathering up of the like fragments N. B. The Judgement of the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland of the true Intent and Extent of Christs death and satisfaction upon the Crosse. Written in Answer to the request of a Friend March 3. 1617. The true Intent and Extent of Christs Death and Satisfaction upon the Crosse. THe all-sufficient satisfaction of Christ made for the sinnes of the whole World The true intent and extent is Lubricus locus to be handled and hath and doth now much trouble the Church this question hath been moved sub iisdem terminis quibus nunc and hath received contrary resolutions the reason is that in the two extremities of opinions held in this matter there is somewhat true and somewhat false The one extremity extends the benefit of Christs satisfaction too farre as if hereby God for his part were actually reconciled to all mankind and did really discharge every man from all his sins and that the reason why all men do not reap the fruit of this benefit is the want of that faith whereby they ought to have believed that God in this sort did love them Whence it would follow that God should forgive a man his sins and justifie him before he believed whereas the Elect themselves before their effectuall vocation are said to be without Christ and without hope and to be utter strangers from the Covenants of Promise Ephes. 2. 2. 2. The other extremity contracts the riches of Christs satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World howsoever by the Gospel every one be charged to receive the same whereby it would follow that a man should be bound in conscience to believe that which is untrue and charged to take that wherewith he hath nothing to do Both extremities then drawing with them unavoidable absurdities The Word of God by hearing whereof faith is begotten Eph. 1. 13. must be sought uuto by a middle course to avoyd these extremities For finding out this middle course we must in the matter of our Redemption carefully put a distinction betwixt the satisfaction of Christ absolutely considered and the application thereof to every one in particular The former was once done for all The other is still in doing The former brings with it sufficiency abundant to discharge the whole debt the other addes to it efficacy The satisfaction of Christ onely makes the sinnes of mankind fit for pardon which without it could not well be the injury done to Gods Majesty being so great that it could not stand with his honour to put it up without amends made The particular application makes the sins of those to whom that mercy is vouchsafed to be actually pardoned for as all sins are mortal in regard of the stipend due thereunto by the Law but all do not actually bring forth death because the gracious Promises of the Gospel stayeth the execution even so all the sinnes of mankind are become venial in respect of the price paid by Christ to his Father so farre that in shewing mercy upon all if so
unto and defended by the Primate in his works And to say no more the Articles of Religion Agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland in the Convocation holden at Dublin Anno 1615. which fully determine and declare all those points accordingly he had then the honour to be appointed by the Synode as a principal person to draw them up Now the last time I saw him which was after that pretended Testimony of the witnesses of his change either in publick or private he did fully confirm and commend them to me to be heeded and observed by me as the summary of his judgement in those and other subjects of which I have said somewhat more elsewheree That of Mr. Piercies drawing in more to bear him company viz. King James B. Andrews Melancthon in their changes also for the better as he is pleased to derermine doth not concern me to take notice of onely if he have found it as their last Will and Testament in their works he shall but Charitably erre to use his own words if he should be mistaken but no such matter appears here as to the Primate In a word I cannot but professe my respect to Mr. Pierce both for his own worth as the great esteem which in this Postsript more then in his former book he hath expressed of this Eminent Primate and can easily believe he would account it a reputation to his opinion that his might patronize it by the great esteem had of him in all parts of the reformed Church both for his learning and piety and I have so much Charity as to believe that this error is more to be imputed to his informers than himself and if I were known to him I would advise him not to insist any farther in it it being by these several circumstances so improbable but according to his own ingenuous offer to make an ample satisfaction and what he hath so highly extolled in the Primate to have been his glory and honour in preferring truth before error in that his supposed imaginary retractation I may without offence return the application to himselfe which with all prudent men will be much more his own commendation and though according to his profession he be innocent as to any voluntary injury thinking he did God and him good service yet it being a wrong in it selfe will deserve some Apology And indeed it wil be hard for any prudent impartial man to believe That what the Primate upon mature deliberation and long study for so many yeares had professed in the Pulpit and at the Presse he should be so soon shaken in minde as without any convincing force of argument from any other that is known at once renounce all he had formerly said and draw a cross line over all he had wrote and that in a Sermon not made of purpose for that end which had been very requisite and which must have been of too narrow a limit in relation to so many Subjects here intimated but onely as on the bye I say when his workes wherein hee is clearly seen and largely declared with a cloud of ear-witnesses for many yeares both in publick and private confirming his constancie in them through the diverse changes of the times to his last shall be produced and laid in one ballance And a few witnesses of some few passages at one Sermon who in a croud might be mistaken and the apter to be so by the interest of their own opinion put into the other will not all unbyassed persons cast the Errata into the latter I shall conclude with a course complement to your selfe That I have not thus appeared for your sake to whom I am a stranger nor out of any opposition to Mr. Pierce who appeares to me to be a person of value but onely out of my duty and high account I must ever have of the memory of that judicious holy and eminent Primate and so commit you to Gods protection and direction and rest Your assured Friend N. BERNARD Grayes-Inne June 10. 1657. A Learned Letter of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Twisse concerning the Sabbath and observation of the Lords day Worthy Sir YOur Letter of the first of February came unto my hands the seventh of April but my journy to Dublin following thereupon and my long stay in the City where the multiplicity of my publick and private employments would scarce afford me a breathing time was such that I was forced to defer my Answer thereunto untill this short time of my retiring into the Countrey Where being now absent also from my Library I can rather signifie unto you how fully I concurre in judgement with those grounds which you have so judiciously laid in that question of the Sabbath than afford any great help unto you in the building which you intend to raise thereupon For when I gave my selfe unto the reading of the Fathers I took no heed unto any thing that concerned this argument as little dreaming that any such controversie would have arisen among us Yet generally I do remember that the word Sabbatum in their writings doth denote our Saturday although by Analogy from the manner of speech used by the Jewes the term be sometimes transferred to denote our Christian festivities also as Sirmondus the Jesuite observeth out of Sidonius Apollinaris lib. 1. Epist. 2. where describeing the moderation of the Table of Theodorick King of the Gothes upon the Eves and the excesse on the Holy day following he writeth of the one that his convivium diebus profestis simile privato est but of the other De luxu autem illo Sabbatario narrationi meae supersedendum est qui nec latentes potest latere personas And because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandement pointeth at the Sabbath as it was in the first institution the seventh day from the Creation therefore they held that Christians were not tied to the observance thereof Whereupon you may observe that S. Augustine in his speculum in operum tomo 3o. purposely selecting those things which appertained unto us Christians doth wholly pretermit that precept in the recital of the Commandements of the Decalogue Not because the substance of the precept was absolutely abolished but because it was in some parts held to be ceremonial the time afterwards was changed in the state of the New Testament from the seventh to the first day of the week as appeareth by the Authour of the 25 Sermon de Tempore in 10 o tomo Operum Augustini and that place of Athanasius in homil de semente where he most plainly saith touching the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon Caesarius Arelatensis in his twelfth homily doubted not to preach unto the people Verè dico Fratres satis durum prope nimis impium est ut Christiani non habeant reverentiam diei Dominico quam Judaei observare videntur in Sabbato c. Charles the Great
the genuine Epistles of Ignatius are fouly depraved by a number of beggarly patches added unto his purple by later hands there is an ancient Latine translation to bee found in the Library of Caies Colledge in Cambridge which although it be very rude and corrupt both in many other and in this very same place also of the Epistle to the Magnesians yet is it free from these additaments and in many respects to be preferred before the common Greek Copy as well because it agreeth with the Citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret and hath the sentences vouched by them out of Ignatius and particularly that of the Eucharist in the Epistle to the Smyrnians which are not at all to be found in our Greek and hath in a manner none of all those places in the true Epistles of Ignatius against which exception hath been taken by our Divines which addeth great strength to those exceptions of theirs and sheweth that they were not made without good cause Now in this Translation there is nothing to be found touching the Sabbath and the Lords day in the Epistle to the Magnesians but these words only Non ampliùs sabbatizantes sed secundùm Dominicam viventes in quâ vita nostra orta est whereunto these of our common Greeke may be made answerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all those other words alleadged by Dr. Heylin part 2. pag. 43. to prove that Ignatius would have both the Sabbath and the Lords day observed being afterwards added by some later Grecian who was afraid that the custome of keeping both dayes observed in his time should appear otherwise to be directly opposite to the sentence of Ignatius whereas his main intention was to oppose the Ebionites of his owne time who as Eusebius witnesseth in the third book of his Ecclesiasticall History did both keep the Sabbath with the Jewes and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By whose imitation of the Church herein the antiquity of the observation of the Lords day may be further confirmed Ebion being known to have been St. Paul's Antagonist and to have given out of himself that he was one of those that brought the prices of their goods and laid them down at the Apostles feet as the universality of the observance may be gathered by the argument drawn from thence by Eusebius towards the end of his Oration of the praises of Constantine to prove the preeminency of our Saviour Christ above all the gods of the Heathen because this prescript of his touching the celebration of this day was admitted and submitted unto not within the Dominions of Constantine onely but also throughout the compasse of the whole world Quis n. saith he cunctis totius orbis terrarum incobis seu terra seu mari illi sint praescripserit ut singulis septimanis in unum convenientes diem Dominicum festum celebrarent instituentque ut sicut corpora pascerent cibariis sic animos Divinis Disciplinis refiâ—erent We see then that the Doctrine which the true Ignatius received immediately from the hands of the Apostles was the very same with that was delivered by the Fathers of the Councel of Laodicea about 250 years after for the profs produced by the Authours to whom my Lord of Eli pag. 73. refereth us for having it to be held before the first Nicene are nothing worth Non oportet Christianos Judaizare in Sabbatho otiari sed ipsos eo die operari diem autem dominicum praeferentes otiari si modo possint ut Christianos the contrary whereunto Pope Gregory the first in Registr lib. 11. Epist. 3. esteemeth to bee the Doctrine of the Preachers of Antichrist qui veniens diem Dominicum Sabbatum ab omni opere faciet custodiri which my Lord of Eli pag. 219. rendreth upon the old sabbath-Sabbath-day or upon the Sunday by a strange kinde of mistake turning the copulative into a disjunctive A Letter of Doctor Twisse to the Lord Primate thanking him for the former Letter and his Book de primordiis Brit. Eccles. The History of Goteschalcus c. where the honour and respect he gives him is exemplary unto others Most Reverend Father in God I was very glad to hear of your Grace his coming over into England and now I have a faire opportunity to expresse my thankfull acknowledgement of that great favour wherewith you were pleased to honour me in bestowing one of your books upon me de origine Britannicarum Ecclesiarum which I received from Sir Benjamin Rudierd in your Grace his name about the end of Summer last wherein I do observe not onely your great learning and various reading manifested at full but your singular wisdom also in reference to the necessitous condition of these times taking so fair an occasion to insert therein the History of the Pelagian Heresie so opportunely coming in your way Your History of Goteschalcus was a piece of the like nature which came forth most seasonably we know what meetings there were in London thereupon by some and to what end to relieve the reputation of Vossius who laboured not a little when he was discovered to have alleadged the confession of Pelagius for the confession of Austin As also in fathering upon the Adrametine Monkes the Original of the Praedestinarian Heresie I was at that time upon answering Corvinus his defence of Arminius and had dispatcht one digression upon the same argument and in the issue concluded that it was but a trick of the Pelagians to cast the Nick-name of the Praedestinarian Heresie upon the Orthodox Doctrine of St. Austine But upon the coming forth of your Goteschalcus I was not onely confirmed therein but upon better and more evident grounds enabled in a second digression to meet with the Dictates of who endeavoured to justifie the conceit of Vossius but upon very weak grounds Thus I have observed with comfort the hand of God to have gone along with your Grace for the honouring of the cause of his truth in so precious a point as is the glory of his Grace And I nothing doubt but the same hand of our good God will be with you still and his wisdome will appear in all things you undertake whether of your own choice or upon the motion of others There being never more need of hearkening unto and putting in practice our Saviours rule Be ye wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves And have I not as great cause to return your Grace most hearty thanks for the kind Letters I received in answer to the motions I was emboldned to make had it been but onely to signifie the great satisfaction I received thereby in divers particulars but especially in two principal ones the one the mystery of the feasts of first fruits opened to the singular advantage of the honour of the Lords day in the time of the Gospel the other in correcting Ignatius by a Latine Manuscript of Caies Colledge which since I have gotten
into my hands and taken a Copy thereof and have caused it to be compared with two other Copies Manuscripts in Oxford the one in Magdalene the other in Baliol Colledge Library I take no small comfort in the hope I conceive of seeing your Grace before your departure into Ireland I heare of a purpose your Grace hath to see Oxford and abide some time there the Lord blesse you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you Newberry May 29. 1640. Yours in all observance desiring to sit at your Grace his feet WILLIAM TWISSE Mr. Chambers of Clouford by Bath hath long ago answered Dr. Heylines History of the Sabbath but knowes not how to have it printed A Clause in a Letter of the Primates to Mr. Ley of the Sabbath FOr mine own part I never yet doubted but took it for granted that as the setting of some whole day apart for Gods solemne Worship was Juris Divini naturalis so that this solemne day should be one in seven was juris Divini positivi recorded in the fourth Commandement And such a jus divinum positivum here I mean as Baptisme and the Lords Supper are established both which lie not in the power of any man or Angel to change or alter wherein me thinks your second position is a little too waterish viz. That this Doctrine rather then the contrary is to be held the Doctrine of the Church of England And may well be gathered out of her publick liturgy and the first part of the Homily concerning the place and time of prayer Whereas you should have said that this is to be held undoubtedly the Doctrine of the Church of England For if there could be any reasonable doubt made of the meaning of the Church of England in her Liturgy who should better declare her meaning than self in her Homily where she peremptorily declareth her minde That in the fourth Commandement 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 to the intent that like as God himself wrought six dayes and rested the seventh blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to rest and quietnesse from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service Than which what could you devise to say more your self For the further maintenance of which Doctrine I send you herewith a Treatise written by a learned man now with God against Theophilus Brabourn who gave occasion to the raising up of these unhappy broiles which if it may any way conduce to the furtherance of your more exact Treatice c. I shall be very glad and be ready to c. Part of a Letter of the Primates to an Honourable person not long after the coming forth of Doctor Heylins book of the History of the Sabbath which I found wrote in the same Paper with the former AS for Dr. Heylins relation concerning our Articles of Ireland it is much mistaken For first where he saith they did passe when his Majesties Commissioners were imployed about the setling of the Church Anno 1615. and chargeth them with this strict austerity as he termeth it in the prescript observation of the Lords day he sheweth himself very credulous there having been no such Commissioners here at that time and our Articles having been published in Print divers years before the Commissioners whom hee meaneth came hither as Sir Nathaniel Rich who was one of them himself can sufficiently inform you Secondly where he saith he is sure that till that time the Lords day had never attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the faith he speaks very inconsiderately Hee that would confound the ten Commandements whereof this must be accounted for one unlesse he will leave us but nine with the Articles of the faith he had need be put to learn his Catechisme again And he that would have every thing which is put into the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod for the avoyding of diversity of opinions and for the maintenance of peace and uniformity in the Church to be held for an Article of the faith should do well to tell us whether hee hath as yet admitted the Book of the ordination of Bishops and the two volumes of Homilies into his Creed for sure I am he shall find these received in the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod held at London 1562. To which Doctor Heylen himself having subscribed I wonder how he can oppose the conclusion which he findeth directly laid down in the Homily of the time and place of prayer in the fourth Commandement viz. God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the sabbath-Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday for these are the plain words of the Homily which the Doctor with all his Sophistry will never be able to elude they shall cease from all weekly and week-day labour to the intent thot like as God himselfe wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and blessed and consecrated it to quietnesse and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service By the verdict of the Church of England I am sure the Lords day had obtained such a pitch of credit as nothing more could be left to the Church of Ireland in their Articles afterward to adde unto it Thirdly he shameth not to affirm That the whole Book of the Articles of Ireland is now called in which is a notorious untruth And lastly that the Articles of the Church of England were confirmed by Parliament in this Kingdome Anno 1634. where it is well known that they were not so much as once propounded to either House of Parliament or ever intended to be propounded The truth is that the House of Convocation in the beginning of their Canons for the manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they themselves professe and for no other end in the world did receive and approve of the Articles of England but that either the Articles of Ireland were ever called in or any Articles or Canons at all were ever here confirmed by Act of Parliament may well be reckoned among Doctor Heylins fancies Which shews what little credit he deserves in his Geography when he brings us newes of the remote parts of the world that tells us so many untruths of things so lately and so publickly acted in his Neigbour Nation A Confirmation of the latter clause in this Letter of the Primates viz. That the Articles of Ireland determining the observation of the Lords day were not called in Anno
heard he was not so severe as to condemn and disown the Ministery of other reformed Churches or refuse Communion with them because in every particular as to some persons usually ordaining they were defective For Episcopacy he was not wanting with Saint Paul to magnifie his own office by two several Tractates he hath published none being more able to defend the ancient right of it for which he was by Letters importuned by some of the most eminent persons of his own profession yet how humbly without any partiality to himself and the eminent degree he had obtained in it did he declare his judgement is evident by the above-said Tractates and the Letter before mentioned And his prudence in the present accommodation of things in that Treatise of his viz. The reduction of it to the form of Synodical Government for the prevention of that disturbance which did afterwards arise about it is as apparent also if others concerned in these transactions had been of that moderation humility and meeknesse the wound given might have been healed before it grew incurable That the Annual Commemorations of the Articles of the faith such as the Nativity Passion Resurrection of our Saviour c. were fit to be observed which Saint Augustine saith in his time were in use through the whole Catholick Church of Christ and is now in some Reformed Churches as a means to keep them in the memory of the vulgar according to the pattern of Gods injunction to the Israelites in the Old Testament for the Types of them appeared sufficiently to be his judgement by his then constant preaching upon those subjects The Friday before Easter i e. the Resurrection East in old Saxon signifying rising appointed for the remembrance of the Passion of our Saviour he did duely at Drogheda in Ireland observe as a solemn fast inclining the rather to that choice out of Prudence and the security from censure by the then custome of having Sermons beyond their ordinary limit in England when after the publick prayers of the Church he first preached upon that subject extending himselfe in prayer and Sermon beyond his ordinary time which we imitated who succeeded in the duties of the day and which being known to be his constant custome some from Dublin as other parts came to partake of it which most excellent Sermons of his upon that occasion he was by many Godly Religious persons importuned much for the publishing of them and his strict observation of this fast was such that neither before or after that extraordinary paines would he take the least refreshment till about six a Clock and which did not excuse him from Preaching again on Easter day when we constantly had a Communion That Tractate of his entitled The Incarnation of the Son of God was the summe of two or three Sermons which I heard him preach at Drogheda at that Festivall when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour That he was for the often publike reading of the ten Commandements and the Creed before the Congregation according to the custome of other reformed Churches I suppose none can doubt of and not onely that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed but the Nicene and Athanasius his book of the three Creeds sufficiently perswade it What his judgement was of the use of the Lords Prayer his practice shewed it in the constant concluding of his prayer before Sermon with it And his approbation of that gesture of kneeling at the Communion was often apparent before many witnesses For confirmation of Children which Calvine Beza Piscator and others do much commend and wish it were restored among them he was not wanting in his observation as an ancient laudable custome by which was occasioned the more frequent having in memory the principles of religion with the yonger sort At his first publike giving notice of the time of that his intention it having been long disused in Ireland he made a large speech unto the people of the antiquity of it the prudence of the first reformers in purging it from Popish superstitions with the end of it and then such youths presented to him who could repeat the publike Catechisme were confirmed and so often afterwards and indeed the apprehension of his piety and holinesse moved the Parents much to desire that their Children might by him receive that Benediction which was seconded with good and spiritual instruction that stuck to them when they came to further yeares The publike Catechisme containing the summe of the Creed the 10. Commandements the Lords Prayer and Doctrine of the Sacraments despised by some for its plainnesse he thought therefore to be the more profitable for the vulgar And at Drogheda in Ireland gave me orders every Lords day in the afternoon beside the Sermon which was not omitted to explain it He was very exemplary in the careful observation of the Lords day in his family The Sermon preached by him in the forenoon being constantly repeated in the Chappel by his Chaplain about five of the Clock in the afternoon unto which many of the Town resorted For Habits he observed such which were accustomed by those of his profession for the Organ and the Quire he continued them as he found them in use before him And as in all things so in his ordinary wearing Garments he was a Pattern of gravity approving much of a distinctive Apparel in the Ministery that way Lastly for the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Ireland as he was in An. 1634. being then the Primate the chief guide in their establishment so before he was a Bishop An. 614. being then a Member of the Convocation he was employed as a principal person for the Collecting and drawing up such Canons as concerned the Discipline and Government of the Church and were to be treated upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland divers taken out of the Statutes Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and the Canons of England 1571. which I have lately found written then with his own hand The two first of which being in these words 1. That no other form of Liturgy or Divine service shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the book of Common-Prayer and Administrations of Sacraments c. 2. That no other form of Ordination shall be used in this Nation but which is contained in the book of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons allowed by Authority and hitherto practized in the Churches of England and Ireland make it apparent that his judgement concerning many of the above-mentioned subjects was the same in his yonger as Elder years And yet notwithstanding all this there were alwayes some and still are too many who are apt to blurre him with the title of a Puritane which is is one occasion of this enlargement though in none the sense of it is more uncertain then in his application and from none a greater lustre would be given unto it than by his