to call the day of our Christian weekly-rest whether the Sabbath the lord's-Lord's-day or Sunday 2. What is the meaning of that Prayer appointed to be used in our Church Lord have Mercy upon us and intline c as it is repeated after and applied to the words of the fourth Commandment 3. Whether it be lawful to use any bodily recreation upon the lord's-Lord's-day and if so then what kind of Recreations may be used I. Concerning the Name Sabbatum or Sabbath I thus conceive 1. That in Scripture Antiquity and all Ecclesiastical Writers it is constantly appropriated to the day of the Jews Sabbath or Saturday and not at all till of late years used to signifie our lord's-Lord's-day or Sunday 2. That to call Sunday by the name of the sabboth-Sabboth-day rebus sic slantibus may for sundry respects be allowed in the Christian Church without any great inconveniency and that therefore men otherwise sober and moderate ought not to be censured with too much severity neither charged with Judaism if sometimes they so speak 3. That yet for sundry other respects it were perhaps much more expedient if the word Sabbath in that motion were either not at all or else more sparingly used II. Concerning the name Dominica or the lord's-Lord's-day 1. That it was taken up in memory of our Lord Christ's Resurrection and the great work of our Redemption accomplished therein 2. That it hath warrant from the Scripture Apoc. 1. 10 and hath been of long continued use in the Christian Church to signifie the first day of the week or Sunday III. Concerning the name Dies Solis or Sunday 1. That it is taken from the courses of the Planets as the names of the other days are the reason whereof is to be learned from Astronomers 2. That it hath been used generally and of long time in most parts of the World 3. That it is not justly chargeable with Heathenism and that it proceedeth from much weakness at the least if not rather superstition that some men condemn the use of it as prophane heathenish or unlawful IV. Of the fitness of the aforesaid three names compared one with another 1. That according to the several matter or occasions of speech each of the three may be fitter in some respect and more proper to be used than either of the other two As viz. 1. The Name Sabbath when we speak of a time of rest indeterminate and in general without reference to any particular day and the other two when we speak determinately of that day which is observed in the Christian Church Of which two again 2. That of the Lord's-day is fitter in in the Theological and Ecclesiastical and 3. That of Sunday in the civil popular and common use 2. Yet so as that none of the three be condemned as utterly unlawful whatsoever the matter or occasion be but that every man be left to his Christian liberty herein so long as superior Authority doth not restrain it Provided ever that what he doth herein he do it without vanity or affectation in himself or without uncharitable judging or despising his Brother that doth otherwise than himself doth To the second Question V. The words of that Prayer Lord have mercy c. repeated after the fourth Commandment do evidently import as they do in each of the other ten 1. An acknowledgment of three things viz. 1. That the words of that particular Commandment contain in them a Law whereunto we are subject 2. That it is our bounden duty to endeavour with our utmost power to keep the said Law 3. That our naughty hearts have of themselves no inclination to keep it until God by the work of his Grace shall incline them thereunto 2. A double supplication viz. 1. For Mercy in respect of the time past because we have failed of bounden duty heretofore 2. For Grace in respect of the time to come that we may perform our duties better hereafter VI. But how far forth the words of the fourth Commandment are to be taken as a Law binding Christians and by what authority they have that binding power is the main difficulty For the resolution whereof it may suffice every sober minded Christian to understand the Prayer appointed by the Church in that meaning which the words do immediately import and without over-curious inquiry into those things that are more disputable to believe these few points following which ought to be taken as certain and granted amongst Christians viz. 1. That no part of the Law delivered by Moses to the Jews doth bind Christians under the Gospel as by virtue of that delivery no not the ten Commandments themselves but least of all the fourth which all confess to be at least in some part Ceremonial 2. That the particular determination of the time to the seventh day of the week was Ceremonial And so the obligation of the fourth Commandment in that respect although it were Juris divini positivi to the Jew yet is ceased together with other legal Ceremonies since the publishing of the Gospel and bindeth not Christian Consciences 3. That the substance of the fourth Commandment in the general viz. that some certain time should be set apart from secular imployments and to be sanctified to an holy rest for the better attending upon Gods's publick and solemn worship is moral and perpetual and of Divine right as a branch of the Law of Nature whereunto Christians under the Gospel are still bound 4. That de facto The Lord's-day or Sunday is the time appointed to us for that purpose by such sufficient Authority as we stand bound in Conscience to obey absque hoc whether that Authority be immediately Divine or but mediately through the power of the Church This is sufficient to regulate the Judgment and Conscience of every ordinary Christian yet is it not unlawful for Scholars soberly and fairly to argue and debate a little farther matters which are questionable for the better finding out of the Truth And the points in this Argument that are most in controversie are these two viz. 1. Concerning the observation of a weekly Sabbath whether it be of necessity to keep one day of every seven And by what right we ate tied so to do 2. Concerning the change of the Jewish Sabbath into the Lord's day and by what Authority it was done VII As touching the observation of a weekly Sabbath there are these three different opinions viz. 1. That it is de jure naturali as a branch properly of the Law of Nature 2. That it is properly and directly de jure divino positivo established by God's express positive Ordinance in his Word 3. That it is merely de jure humano Ecclesiastico introduced by Authority and established by the custom and consent of the Catholick Church Touching which three opinions I leave it to the judicious to consider 1. Whether the last of them might not hap to be of evil consequence by leaving it in the power of the Church at her
pleasure to change the old proportion of one in seven which hath continued ever since the days of Moses into any other greater or lesser proportion of time 2. Whether the two former opinions though they do indeed avoid that inconvenience do not yet stand upon such weak grounds otherwise that they are by many degrees more improbable than the third 3. Whether a fourth opinion going in a middle way might not be proposed with greater probability and entertained with better safety than any of the former three viz. That the keeping holy of one day in seven is of Divine positive right taking jus divinum in a large signification not for that only which is primarily properly and directly such according to the tenor of the second opinion but including withal that which is Secondarily Consequently and Analogically such VIII For the better understanding whereof we are to consider 1. That those things are de jure divino in the first and strict sense which either 1. Are enjoyned by the express Ordinance and Commandment of God in his holy Word or else 2. May be deduced there-from by necessary evident and demonstrative illation In which sense there are not many things de jure divino under the New Testament 2. That for a thing to be de jure divino in the latter and larger sense it sufficeth that it may be by humane Discourse upon reasons of Congruity probably deduced from the Word of God as a thing most convenient to be observed by all such as desire unfeignedly to order their ways according to God's holy Will 3. That this kind of Jus divinum may be reasonably discerned by the concurrence of all or the chiefest of these four things following viz. 1. A foundation of Equity for the thing in general either in the Law of Nature or by vertue of Divine Institution 2. An Analogie held for the particular determination with such Laws and directions as were given to the Jewish people in the Old Testament so far as the reason of Equity holdeth alike 3. Some probable insinuations thereof in the Scriptures of the New Testament 4. The continued practice of the Christian Church so far as the condition of the times in the several Ages thereof would permit For Lex currit cum praxi 4. That all these do in some measure concur for the observation of a weekly Sabbath as upon the examination of the several particulars will easily appear IX This distinction of Jus divinum is to be observed the rather because it may be of very good use if rightly understood and applied 1. For cutting off the most material instances which are usually brought by the Romish Party for the maintenance of their unwritten Traditions 2. For the clearing of some and the silencing of other some Controversies in the Church which are disputaed pro and con with much heat as viz. concerning 1. The Government of the Church by Bishops 2. The Distinction of Bishops Priests and Deacons 3. The Exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures as Suspension Excommunication c. 4. The Building and Consecrating of Churches for the service of God 5. The assembling of Synods upon needful occasions for the maintenance of the Truth and for the settling of Church Affairs 6. The forbidding of Marriages to be made within certain degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity 7. The Baptizing of Infants born of Christian Parents 8. The maintenance of the Clergy by the Tithes of the people and sundry other things none of all which to my understanding seem to be de jure divino in that first and proper sense but yet all or most of them to be de jure divino in this latter end larger signification 3. For the right bounding of the Churches power that she be neither denied her lawful liberty in some things nor yet assume to her self a greater power than of right belongeth unto her in other some For 1. In things that are meerly de jure humano every particular Church hath power in her self from time to time to order and alter them at her pleasure and may exercise that power when she thinketh fit 2. Things that are de jure divino in that first sense the Universal Church may not and much less then may any particular at all take upon her to alter but must observe them inviolably whatsoeever necessities or distresses she be put unto 3. Things that are de jure divino in this latter sense every particular Church but much more the Universal hath a power to alter in a case of necessity But the exercise of that power is so limited to extraordinary cases that it may not be safe for her at all to exercise it unless it be for the avoiding of mighty inconveniences not otherwise to be avoided X. As for the other controversed Point touching the change the day from the last day of the week or Saturday which was the Jews Sabbath to the first day of the week or Sunday which is our Lord's-day My opinion is that the observation of the Lord's-day among Christians instead of the Jewish Sabbath 1. Is not grounded upon any comamndment given by Christ to his Apostles 2. Nor yet upon any Apostolical Constitution given by the Apostles unto the Churches in that behalf But. 3. That it was taken up by the succeeding Church partly in imitation of some of the Apostles who used especially in the Churches of the Gentiles for in the Churches of Judea the old Sabbath was still observed to Celebrate their Holy Assemblies upon the first day of the week in the honour of Christ and his Resurrection and partly for the avoiding of Judaism wherewith falser Teachers in those first times were eve and anon attempting to enthral the Christian Church 4. That the observation of the Lord's-day having been confirmed by so many Constitutions both Eccleasiastical and Imperial and having withall continued with such uniform consent throughout the Christian World for so many Ages ever since the Apostles times the Church not to dispute what she may or may not do in plenitudine potestatis yet ought not to attempt the altering of it to any other day of the week To the third Question XI In this matter touching Recreations to be used on the Lord's-day much need not be said there being little difficulty in it and his Majesties last Declaration in that behalf having put it past Disputation I say then 1. For the Thing That no man can reasonably condemn the moderate use of lawful Recreations upon the Lord's-day as simply and de toto genere unlawful 2. For the Kind Albeit there can be no certain rules given herein as in most indifferent things it cometh to pass by reason of the infinite variety of circumstances to fit with all particular cases but that still much must be left to private discretion yet for some directions in this matter respect would be had in the choice of our Recreations 1. To the Publick Laws of the State Such games or sports as are
to bethink my self of such a course to be thenceforward held in the public worship in my own Parish as might be likeliest neither to bring danger to my self by the use nor to bring scandal to my Brethren by the disuse of the established Liturgy And the course was this to which I have held me ever since I begin the Service with a Preface of Scripture and an exhortation inferred thence to make Confession of sins which Exhortation I have framed out of the Exhortation and Absolution in the Book contracted and put together and expressed for the most part in the very same words and phrases but purposely here and there transplaced that it might appear not to be and yet be the same Then followeth the Confession it self in the same Order it was inlarged only with the addition of some words whereby it is rather explained than altered the whole Form whereof both for your fuller satisfaction in that particular and that you may partly conjecture what manner of addition or change I have made proportionably hereunto yet none so large in other parts of the holy Office I have here under-written O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost Sheep and that by following too much the devices and desires of our own hearts We have grievously offended against thy holy Laws both in thought word and deed We have many times left undone those good things which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done we confess O Lord that there is no health at all in us nor help in any Creature to relieve us But all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy upon us therefore O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders Spare us Good Lord which confess our faults that we perish not But according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord Restore us upon our true Repentance to thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we may henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and sober life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen After this Confession the Lords Prayer with the Versicles and Gloria Patri and then the Psalms for the day and the first Lesson after which in the Afternoon sometimes Te Deum but then only when I think the Auditory will bear it and sometimes an Hymn of my own composing gathered out of the Psalms and the Church Collects as a general Form of thanks-giving which I did the rather because some have noted the want of such a Form as the only thing wherein our Liturgy seemed to be defective and in the Afternoon after the first Lesson the 98 or the 67 Psalm Then the second Lesson with Benedictus or Jubilate after it in the Forenoon and in the Afternoon a singing Psalm then followeth the Creed with Dominus Vobiscum and sometimes the Versicles in the end of the Litany From our Enemies defend us c. If I like my Auditory otherwise I omit these Versicles After the Creed c. instead of the Letany and the other Prayers appointed in the Book I have taken the substance of the Prayer I was wont to use before Sermon and disposed it into several Collects or Prayers some longer and some shorter but new modelled into the Language of the Common-Prayer-Book much more than it was before And in the Pulpit before Sermon I use only a short Prayer in reference to the hearing of the Word and no more so that upon the matter in these Prayers I do but the same thing I did before save that what before I spake without Book and in a continued Form and in the Pulpit I now read out of a written Book broken into parcels and in the reading Desk or Pew Between which Prayers and the singing Psalm before the Sermon I do also daily use one other Collect of which sort I have for the purpose composed sundry made up as the former for the most part out of the Church Collects with some little inlargement or variation as namely Collects Adventual Quadragesimal Paschal and Pentecostal for their proper seasons and at other times Collects of a more general nature as for Pardon Repentance Grace c. And after one or more of them in the forenoon I usually repeat the ten Commandments with a short Collect after for Grace to enable us to keep them This hath been my practice and is like still to be unless some happy change of affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again or it be made appear to my understanding by some able charitable Friend that I have therein done otherwise than I ought to have done for I may say truly I have not yet met with any thing in discourse either with my own reason or with others of sufficient strength to convince me that I have herein done any thing but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence There are but three things that I know of that are of consideration opposed viz. 1. The Obligation of the Laws 2. The Scandal of the Example 3. An unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks if not partaking with them in the Schism 1. Law Object I. The first and strongest Objection which I shall therefore propose to the most advantage of the Objector is that which is grounded upon the Laws and the obligation for it may be objected That every humane Law rightly established so long as it continueth a Law obligeth the Subject and that for Conscience sake to the observation thereof in such manner and form as in the said Law is prescribed and according to the true intention and meaning of the Law-giver therein That a Law is then understood to be rightly established when it containeth nothing but what is honest and lawful and is enacted by such person or persons as have full and sufficient authority to make Laws That a Law so established continueth a Law and is in force till it be either repealed by as good and full authority as that by which it was made or else antiquated by a long continued uninforced disuse with the tacite or presumed consent of the Law-giver That the Act printed before the Common Prayer-Book and entituled An Act for the Uniformity c. was such a Law being it was established in a full and free Parliament and in peaceable times and ratified by the Royal Assent That it still continueth in force being not yet repealed but by such persons as at least in the Opinion of those who maintain the Dispute for want of the Royal Assent have not a sufficient right
to her dying day and kept sensible of her great and sinful disobedience to her Father that the Father should cut off from his Daughter and her Posterity some meet portion of his Estate as perhaps a fifth part at the least or if a fourth or a whole third part I should like it the better and by a solemn deliberate vow dedicate the same to be yearly imployed in some pious and charitable uses These times will afford him choice of objects if God shall move his heart so to do and by so doing he may First in some sort redeem and make a kind of satisfaction for his former Rashness not Popishly understood and in regard of the Justice of God but in a moral sense and in regard of the world and his own Conscience Secondly it may be a good means to keep the Daughter in a continual fresh remembrance of her fault that she may not after a short and slight repentance as in such cases too often it happeneth forget the same whereof she ought to have some remorse all the days of her life Thirdly he shall thereby after a sort perform his first Vow I mean according to the general intention thereof and the rational part which was to make his Daughter repent her folly and to smart for it the over-plus more than this being but the fruit of rancor and perturbation Lastly he shall in so doing doubly imitate God our heavenly Father First when a rash or sinful act is made an occasion of a pious or charitable work it beareth some resemblance of or rather is indeed it self a gracious effect of that goodness and wisedom in God whereby he bringeth light out of darkness and good out of evil Secondly God Himself when he graciously pardoneth an high presumptuous sin as he did Davids great sin in the matter of Uriah commonly layeth some lasting affliction upon the offender as he did upon David who after the sealing his pardon for that sin by Nathan scarce ever had a quiet day all his life long The reason whereof seemeth to be double partly for admonition to others that none presume to provoke God in like manner lâ—st they smart for it also in like manner and partly for the good of the offender that he may by the smart be brought to the deeper sense of his error and be eft-soons reminded of it lest he should too soon forget it Thus have I with very much ado in that weak condition I have been in ever since the question came to my hands and wherein I yet contitinue declared my opinion fully concerning the whole business as far as I understand it More largely I confess than I intended or perhaps was needful and with greater severity than it may be the parties will well like of But truly I desired to do the part of a faithful Confessor and the sores on both parts seemed to be such as were not to be touched with too gentle a hand In the Daughter an act of high disobedience transported by the passion of inordinate love and in the Father an act of great Rashness transported by the passion of inordinate anger both beyond the bounds of right Reason and Religion and both to be deeply repented of Howsoever I cannot be suspected to have written any thing either out of favour for or prejudice against either party not having the least conjecture who the persons are that are concerned in the business nor so much as in what part of the Nation they live I shall pray that God would direct them both to do that which may best serve to his glory and bring the soundest comfort to their own souls Amen The Case of the Sabbath To my very Loving Friend Mr. Tho. Sa at S. B. Nottingh March 28. 1634. SIR WHen by your former Letter you desired my present Resolution in two Questions therein proposed concerning the Sabbath although I might not then satisfie your whole desire being loth to give in my opinion before I had well weighed it yet that I might not seem altogether to decline the task imposed on me by you I engaged my self by promise within short time to send you what upon further consideration I should conceive thereof Which promise so far as my many distractions and occasions would permit I endeavoured to perform by perusing the Books you sent me in the one whereof I found written on the spare paper with your hand a Note moving a third Question about the Name of the Sabbath also and by looking up and reviewing such scattered Notes as I had touching that Subject But then I met with difficulties so many and great whereof the more I considered the more still I found them to increase that I saw it would be a long work and take up far more time than I could spare to digest and enlarge what seemed needful to be said in the three Questions in such sort as was requisite to give any tolerable satisfaction either to my self or others Wherefore I was estsoons minded to have excused my self by Letter to you and farther medling with these Questions and to have remitted you over for better satisfaction to those men that have both better leisure to go about such a business and better abilities to go through with iâ— than I have for to questions of importance better nothing be said than not enough And the rather was I mided so to do when I perceived there were rumors spread in these parts occasioned as I verily suppose by some speeches of your good friend Mr. Tho. A. as if I were writing a Treatise of the morality of the Sabbath Which besides that it might raise an expectation of some great matters which I could in no wise answer it might also expose that little I should have done to the mis-censures of men wedded to their own opinions if after I had laid mine open it should have happened in any thing as in some things like enough it would to have disagreed from theirs Yet because by your late kind Letters wherein whilst I was slack in making it you have prevented mine excuse I perceive the continuance of your former desire I have therefore since resolved to do somewhat though not so much as I first intended hoping that you will in friendly manner interpret my purpose therein I have therefore now sent you but a naked summary of my thoughts concerning the three Questions abstracted from all those Explanations Reasons Testimonies of Authors removals of objections and other such Enlargements as have might have given further both lustre and strength thereunto Howsoever by what I presently send you may sufficiently see what my opinion is which I shall be ready to clear so far as my understanding will serve in any particular wherein you shall remain doubtful and as ready to alter when any man shall instruct me better if he bring good evidence either of Reason or of Scripture-Text for what he affirmeth The Questions are 1. Which is the fittest Name whereby