by God himselfe in the second Commandement yea otherwise than he ordained in the first Creation when he sanctified precisely the Sabbath day and not the day following Such great power did Christ leave to his Church and for such causes gave he the Holy Ghost to be resident in it to guide it into all truthes even such as in the Scripture are not expressed And if the Church had authority and inspiration from God to make Sunday being a working day before an everlasting holy day and the Saturday that before was holy day now a common work-day why may not the same Church prescribe and appoint the other feasts of Easter Whitsontide Christmas and the rest for the same warrant she hath for the one as she hath for the other Now to this Doctor Fulk makes answer after this manner The Apostles did not abrogate the Jewish Sabbath but Christ himselfe by his death as he did all other ceremonies of the Law that were figures and shadowes of things to come whereof he was the body and they were fulfulled and accomplished in him and by him And this the Apostles knew both by the Scriptures and by the Word of Christ and his holy Spirit By the Scriptures also they knew that one day of seven was appointed to be observed for ever during the World as consecrated and hallowed to the publike exercise of the Religion of God Although the ceremoniall rest and prescript day according to the Law were abrogated by the death of Christ Now for the prescription of this day before any other of seven they had without doubt either the expresse commandement of Christ before his ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdome of God and the order and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his Spirit that it was his will and pleasure it should be so and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how in the words following he falls in upon the same reason of the change of the day which of old was mentioned by Athanasius formerly rehearsed herein by Beza Doctor Andrews D. Lake as I have already shewed Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying the day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the world by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lordrested from the creation of the world And after many lines nothing necessary to be recited he comes to the comparison made betweene the Lords Day and other Festivalls saying Although the Church in dayes or times which are indifferent may take order for some other dayes or times to be solemnized for the exercises of Religion or the remembrance of Christs nativity resurrection ascension or the comming of the holy Ghost may be celebrated either on the Lords Day or any other time yet there is great difference between the authority of the Church in this case and the prescription of the Lords Day by the Apostles for the speciall memory of those things are indifferent of their nature either to be kept on certaine daies or left to the discretion of the Governours of the Church But to change the Lords Day or to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles And againe in the next place The cause of this change it was not our estimation that either we have or ought to have of our redemption before our creation but the Ordinance of God who as first he sanctified the rest from creation for the glory of that weeke so now also he sanctifieth the day of the restitution of the world for his glory of the accomplishment of our redemption Thus wee have not onely authority Humane but authority Divine for the alteration of the Day and that by the testimony of more Bishops antient and late than this Prefacer makes shew of amongst farre meaner names Yet he doth immodestly abuse Doctor Prideaux in putting it upon him that in the fifth Section he maintaines the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution For in that Section he onely opposeth them who would derive the Divine authority which they stand for of the alteration of the Day from the old Testament but as for those who derive the Divine authority thereof from the new they hee confesseth doe carry themselves herein more warily the other more weakly and them alone he disputes against in that Section In the sixth Section he comes to the deriving thereof from the new Testament and first he challengeth them who boast that they have found the institution of the Lords Day in the new Testament expressely to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20. 7. and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on
worke of creation so Christ rested the first day of the weeke from his worke of Redemption which was the meritorious cause of the new creation For Christs dying and continuing under the power of death for a certaine time I may justly reckon as one worke of Redemption in which time hee suffered ignominy not onely from the reproach of the world but from the weaknesse of his servants faith whose voyce was wee thought it had been he who should have redeemed Israel As for Zanohy in the place cited by Gomarus hee confesseth hunc diem ex traditione Apostolica esse optimo jure ab Ecclesia retentum That the Lords Day is to be observed by Apostolicall tradition and by the best right retained by the Church this the Prefacer in his wisedome omitted indeed hee saith we no where reade that the Apostles commanded it but left it free but take with you the rest ita liberum ut omnino ipse dies sanctificandus sit nisi charitas aliud postulat In such a manner free that omnino undoubtedly the day it selfe ought to be sanctified unlesse charity require otherwise I conceive his meaning is and the meaning of all that use this language that wee are to keepe it by no other obligation not of speciall commandement than the reason of the day doth minister unto us it being the day that the Lord hath made joyfull to Gods Church by the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in this sense they say it doth not bind mens consciences to wit as a Precept doth whether we know the equity of it or no. And it were very strange that Christians in keeping any holy day in the weeke should not make choice of the Lords Day for that without any expresse commandement Anetius saith no more than that Christians changed the Sabbath unto the Lords Day and can any man doubt but that the Apostles were meant hereby For which is most likely that the practice and judgement of others was a leading cause to the Apostles or rather that the judgement and practise of the Apostles was a leading cause unto all others Simler hath no more but this that he calls it the custome of the Church so doth Tilenus yet he proposeth it as likely to have had its institution from Christ Paraeus in the very place cited by Gomarus ascribeth the change of the day to the Apostolicall Church and expressely saith that the Apostle commanded the Corinthians to meet together the first day of the weeke and make their collections I wonder the Prefacer omits Cuohlinus was it because that which others call consuetudinem Ecclesiae hee calls consuetudinem Apostolicam In the last place Bucer is named by the Prefacer but Gomarus is well content to omit what is delivered by him But to the contrary I will not forbeare to set downe what I find in his booke De Regno Christi lib. 1. cap. 11. For having formerly described what are the true workes of holy rests added upon the backe of it Eapropter For this cause the Lords Day was consecrated by the Apostles themselves to these kind of actions Which ordinance of theirs institutum he calls it the antient Churches observed most religiously Then he shews the cause why they changed the day 1. The first reason given is to testifie that Christians are not obliged to the Pedagogie of Moses law 2. The second is to celebrate the memory of Christs resurrection which was performed on the first day of the weeke So that not one of the Authors mentioned by him makes any thing for him And if the passages of the sixe mentioned by him and related by Gomarus did make any thing for him we have no lesse of the ancient Fathers to the contrary as namely Athanasius Cyril Eusebius Austin lately mentioned to whom adde Sedulius operis Paschalis lib. 5. cap. 21. The glory of the eternall King illustrating the first day of the weeke with the trophy of his resurrection primatum cum religione concessum dierum censuit retinere cunctorum thought good it should have the primacy of all dayes granted unto it with religion that is with an holy celebration thereof Adde unto him Gregory mentioned in the first Section affirming that Antichrist affecting to imitate Christ shall command the Lords Day to be kept holy Adde to these the universall consent of Christendome in antient times for when the question was proposed unto them as usually it was thus Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Sabbath their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum For Brentius alleged by him to little purpose let mee represent what Gerard the Lutherane writes of our Christian Sabbath in his common places tom 3. pag. 146. Est Sabbatum Christianum quo juxta Apostolorum constitutionem dies hebdomadae primus publicis ecclesiae congressibus dâ—stinatus est Our Christian Sabbath is that whereby the first day of the weeke is destinated to the publique assemblies of the Church by the constitution of the Apostles See how plainly hee referres the celebration of this day to Apostolicall constitution and pag. 148. he sheweth the analogie between the Jewes Sabbath and our Christian Sabbath consisting in two or three particulars 1. As on the seventh day God rested from the six dayes worke of creation in remembrance of which benefit the Sabbath was instituted in the old Testament so in the first day of the weeke after Christ by his death and passion had accomplished the mysterie of our Redemption he returned gloriously as a conqueror from the dead in remembrance of which benefit the first day of the weeke is celebrated in the new Testament 2. As in the old Testament the Sabbath was instituted that it might be a memoriall of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. So in the new Testament the Lords Day is a memoriall of our spirituall deliverance out of the kingdome and captivity of Satan procured unto us by the resurrection of Christ a type whereof was that deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt 3. By Christs death and resurrection were abrogated Leviticall ceremonies and legall shadowes amongst which the Sabbath is reckoned Col. 2. 17. Therefore the change of the Sabbath into the Lords Dav is a publique testimony that Christians are freed from legall shadowes and that difference of dayes which in ancient time was ordained Adde to him Melanchthon alleged by Walaeus pag. 265. affirming that the Apostles for this cause changed the day that in this particular they might give an example of the abrogation of the ceremoniall Lawes of Mosaicall policy As for our Popish Divines for which he referres us to Doctor Prideaux it is apparent that more of them are alleaged for the jus d vinum of the celebration of the Lords Day then for the contrary one of them Silvester by name professeth expresly that his opinion was the common opinion which was for the Divine institution of it And Azorius the Jesuite as hee
professeth it a thing most agreeable to reason that after six worke dayes one intire day should bee consecrated to Divine worship so withall saith that it is most agreeable to reason that the Lords Day should be that Day Adde unto these Sixtus Senensis but that which they object saith hee concerning the Lords Day not as yet instituted in the time of Iohn is most false the consent of the whole Church disclaiming it which doth beleeve the solemnity of the Lords Day was appointed by the Appostles themselves in memory of the Lords Resurrection concerning the institution whereof by the Apostles Austin Ser. 25. de temp testifyeth in these words therefore the Apostles themselves Apostolicall men appointed that the Lords Day should for that reason bee religiously solemnized because on it our Redeemer rose from the dead In the last place come wee to our Divines Now Bucer I have already shewed to stand for us rather then for him 2. And Calvin expresly acknowledgeth that the Apostles did change the day 3. Beza upon Re. 1. v. 10. hath an excellent passage to the same purpose For hee considers Christs resurrection to bee as it were a second creation of a World spirituall and thereupon doubts not but that the spirit of God did suggest unto them the change of the seventh day into the Lords day as to bee consecrated to Divine Service 4. Iunius on Gen. 2. writes that the cause of the change of the day was the resurrection of Christ and the benefit of instauration of the Church in Christ The commemoration of which benefit succeeded to the commemoration of the Creation not by humane tradition but by the observation of Christ himselfe and his institution 5. Piscator on Exod. 20. 10. It is to bee observed that the circumstance of the seventh day in celebrating the Sabbath is abolished by Christ as who for that day ordained the first day of the weeke which wee call the Lords Day and that in remembrance of the Lords Resurrection performed on that day And upon Luk. 14. v. 2. He makes this observation By occasion of this story it is fit to consider what was the religion of the Sabbath in the new Testament and what place it hath at this day among us Christians and how it is to be observed And first we must hold that the Sabbath is abrogated by Christs comming as touching the seventh or last day in the week and that in the place thereof is ordained the first day which we call the Lords Day because on that day the Lord rose from the dead and shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and divers times speaking with them of the Kingdom of God aod so by his own example consecrating that day to Church assemblies and for the performance of the outward service of God The reason of the abrogation is because that ceremoniall rest observed in the Law was a type of that rest which the Lord made in his grave as is perceived by the words of Paul Col. 2. 16. 17. Now of the apparitions of the Lord S. John testifies Chap. 21. where he shewes how first he appeared to them gathered together on that very day whereon he rose And againe eight dayes after Now that in these dayes he spake unto them of the Kingdom of God Luke shewes Acts 1. 3. Whence it was undoubtedly that the Apostles observed that day by the Lords ordinance to keep their Ecclesiasticall assemblies thereon as it appeares they did Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 2. And hence it was without doubt on the Lords day John was in the spirit and receaved the Revelation To the same purpose is that which Doctor Walaeus alleageth out of Piscators Aphoris 18. It may be doubted concerning the Lords Day whether it be appointed by God for his service in the New Testament My opinion hereof is this although we read no expresse Commandement concerning it yet that such an institution may be gathered from the example of Christ and his Disciples For on that day whereon the Lord rose from the dead therefore called the Lords Day he shewed himselfe alive to his Disciples and spake to them of the Kingdom of God And Paul on that day in an assembly of the faithfull met together to celebrate the Lords Supper preached to them on that day Acts 20. 7. and that the Christians at Corinth were wont to meet on that day for publique prayer appeares 1 Cor. 16. 2. Now it cannot be doubted but Paul ordained that day amongst them as also the manner of celebrating the Lords Supper and that according to the Commandement of Christ Math. 28. the last Teach them to wit as many as receave the Gospell to keep all those things which I have commanded unto you On the Lords Day also John was in the spirit and in the spirit saw and heard the Revelation concerning the state of the Church that was to come Apoc. 1. 10. whence we may gather that even then he rested to holy meditations such as became the Lords Day There is not a passage in all this but of great weight and very considerable 6. As for Doctor Fulk upon the Re. 1. 10. I have represented him formerly at large that for the prescription of this day before any other of the seven they had without doubt ether the expresse Commandement of Christ before his Ascension when he gave them precepts concerning the Kingdom of God and the ordering and government of the Church Acts 1. 2. or else the certaine direction of his spirit that it was his will and pleasure that it should so be and that also according to the Scriptures And observe how hee falls upon the same reason that Athanasius and the ancient Fathers insist upon Seeing there is the same reason of sanctifying that day in which our Saviour Christ accomplished our redemption and the restitution of the World by his resurrection from death that was of sanctifying the day in which the Lord rested from the Creation of the World 7. Doctor Andrewes in like manner Bishop of Winchester in his Starre Chamber speech in the case of Traske hee not onely professeth that the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new Creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath and that this new Sabbath is the Lords Day declared unto us by the resurrection of Christ for which he alleageth Austin Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium But also for the confirmation of it saith it is deduced plainly by practise adding that these two onely the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose and the Supper are called the Lords to shew that the word Dominicum is taken alike in both Nay hee goes farther as namely to alleage not onely practise but precept also for it from the first of the Epistle to the Corin. cap. 16. 2. For albeit the Apostle there doth expressely constitute onely an order for collections for the poore on the day of their meeting yet as Piscator
antiquity did afterwards retaine and use yet notwithstanding saith he we doe not read that the Apostles did impose upon mens consciences in the new Testament the observation of that day by any Law or Precept but the observation was free for order sake Let us duly weigh and consider this together with the reasons following Calvine distinguisheth the observation of a day for order sake and the observation of a day for some mysterious signification sake had Chemnitius thus distinguished we would have subscribed thereunto and confessed that now adayes wee observe no day for any mysterious signification sake but onely for order sake And thus under the Gospel wee are freed from observation of daies for mysteries sake not free from observation of one certaine day in the weeke for order sake As for his phrase of imposing the observation of the Lords day upon mens consciences this phrase is most improper and unseasonable in this case it is onely proper and seasonable in case the thing imposed be of a burthensome nature like unto that Saint Peter speakes of Acts 15. 10. saying Now therefore why tempt yee God to lay a yoke on the Disciples neckes which neither our Fathers nor we were able to beare Such indeed was the yoke of circumcision which provoked Zippora according to common opinion driven to circumcise her sonne to save her husbands life to throw the fore-skin at her husbands feet calling him a bloody husband for urging her thereunto But what burthen is it save unto the flesh to rejoyce in the Lord to sabbatize with him to walke with him in holy meditation Was it no burthen to the godly Jewes to consecrate one day in seaven to the exercises of Piety under the Law and shall it bee a burthen to us in the time of the Gospell Or can it bee conceaved to bee a greater burthen unto us to keepe our Christian Sabbath on the Lords Day then on any other day of the weeke was there ever any day of the weeke markt out unto us with a more honourable or more wonderfull worke to draw us to rejoyce in the Lord thereon then the first day of the weeke whereon our Saviour rose by his Resurrection to bring life and immortality to light yet we confesse we reade of no Law nor Precept for this in the new Testament but we reade that ever under the Gospell wee must have a Sabbath to observe Math. 24. 20. And wee know and Chemnitius knew full well that it belongs to the Lord of the Sabbath to change it and consequently to ordaine it and that it was changed and the Lords Day observed generally in the Apostles dayes none that I know makes question of and how could this bee but by the Apostles ordinance and is it likely they would take upon them this authority without a calling And why should that day of the weeke and not that day of the yeare bee called the Lords Day if not for the same use under the Gospell that the Lords Day was of under the Law especially that day under the Law which was the Jewes Sabbath being now abrogated and lastly wee finde it manifestly spoken of the day of Christs Resurrection Psal 118. 24. This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it yet lastly wheras Chemnitius will have it free and hee hath already manifested that hee speakes of it in this sense as not to be so tied to this day but that we may observe other dayes wee willingly grant that in this sense it is free Now let us consider his reason following For saith hee if we are freed from the Elements which by God himselfe in the old Testament were ordained and commanded how should we be tyed by the decrees of men But alas this reason of his hath no proportion the Elements hee speakes of were but shaddowes the body whereof is Christ and now Christ is revealed they were wont to bee called not onely Mortua but mortifera Yet the observation of one day in seven still continues to bee the Commandement of God delivered not to Moses as ceremonies were but by word of mouth proclaimed on mount Sina and naturall reason suggests unto us that wee must allow unto Gods service as good a proportion of time under the Gospell as hee required of the Jewes under the Law Now if one day in seven must bee set apart in common reason what day is to bee preferred for this before the Lords Day the day of Christs rest from the worke of redemption in suffering the sorrows of death as the day of the Lords rest from the Creation was appointed to the Jewes for their Sabbath And this Resurrection of Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are new Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men
the Kings Majesty though much delighted herein yet never useth to hunt on the Sabbath Day Morning or Evening And I have cause to come but slowly to the believing hereof because it is Calvins Doctrine concerning the Sabbath that albeit under the Gospell we are not bound to so rigorous a rest as the Jewes were yet that still wee are obliged to abstaine from all other works as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus Avocations from holy studies and Meditations and their Ministers I should thinke doe not well if they faile to minde them hereof unlesse both they and the people are fallen from Calvins Doctrine in this point in which case I see no just cause why any should choake us therewith but give us as much liberty to dissent from him in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as they of Geneva take unto themselves Againe Beza is well knowne to have professed upon Revel 1. 10. that the observation of the Lords Day is traditionis Apostolicae vere Divinae and consequently that the day is not left arbitrary neither hath this author proved that the Presbytery and states of Geneva both Ecclesiasticall and politicall have committed any revolt or apostacy thereto from Beza in this point It is well hee acknowledgeth some recreation not suffered there as namely dancing but this hee sayth they hold unlawfull which simply delivered as by this author it is is incredible unto mee neither hath this authors word any sufficient authority to deliver mee from this incredulity yet some manner of dancing may perhaps bee generally forbidden in the French Protestant Churches This strictnesse the Prefacer saith is noted by some to have beene a great hinderer to the growth of the reformed Religion which belike is advantaged so much the more with us in as much as it is not hindred but he quotes no author for that As for the author he quotes I have not hitherto found that hee hath arrived to any great authority or credit in the World for the truth of his relations Neither hath the wisdome of our Church or state taken any contrary course hitherto either by Statute or Canon to promote reformation amongst us what they may doe hereafter I know not when such spirits as this Prefacer may bee so fortunate as to sit neare the sterne Whether the French Churches have found it so as this Geographer is sayd to report I know not but for their judgment herein I must expect untill I heare more therof Sect. 7. Which being so the judgement and practice of so many men and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith concurring unanimously together the miracle is the greater that we in England should take up a contrary opinion and thereby separate our selves from all that are called Christian yet so it is I skill not how it comes to passe but so it is that some among us have revived againe the Jewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away This day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest which doctrinalls though dangerous in themselves and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers and of the greatest Clerks of the later times are not yet halfe so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox what can we else expect but such strange paradoxes as in the consideration of the premisses have beene delivered from some pulpits in this kingdome as viz. That to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or to commit adultery that to throw a bowle to make a feast or dresse a wedding dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a man to take a knife and cut his childs throat that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to commit murther The author which reports them all was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it And I believe him in the rest the rather since I have heard it preached in London that the law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that who ever did the works of his calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore And I know also that in a towne of mine acquaintance the Preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor rost meat was to be found in all the parish for a Sundayes dinner throughout the yeere These are the ordinary fruits of such dangerous doctrines and against these and such as these our Author in this following Treatise doth addresse himselfe accusing them that entertaine the formall doctrinalls every where of no lesse than Judaisme and pressing them with that of Austin that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour the Spirit Section the third Exam. Austin somewhere saith that he who lookes for miracles in these dayes for confirmation of the truth Magnum ipse prodigium est himselfe may goe for a monster he doth not say It is a miracle that men so should doe Men may be sottish even to admiration and such if this Prefacer proves we will not say it is a miracle mira wonderful things may be wrought not only by the practice of Satan but in the very courses of men but God is he alone that worketh miracles He talkes of unanimous concurrence of men of severall perswasions otherwise in the controverted points of Christian faith and that both in judgement and practice with him in his way he loves to speake with a full mouth and to make a great noise as the Hogs in Aelian did when their owner shore them which gave him occasion to say That there was a great deale of cry but a little wooll And let the indifferent judge whether the wooll be answerable to the noise this Prefacer makes Now the men of severall perswasions whom hee avoucheth are Papists and Protestants and amongst the Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists And hitherto he hath spoken of foure particulars I desire the reader would take notice of the modesty of this author in each of them compared with the noise here hee makes concerning them as if he were as much crackt in his braine as hee who standing upon the key at Athens with a note booke
wherein besides these peccant fancies before remembred some have so farre proceeded as not alone to make the Lords Day subject to the Jewish rigour but to bring in against the Jewish Sabbath and abrogate the Lords Day altogether I will no longer detaine the reader from the benefit hee shall reape thereby Onely I will crave leave for his greater benefit to repeat the summe thereof which is briefely this First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no morall and perpetuall precept as the other are Sect. 2. Secondly that the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremoniall onely and obliged the Jewes not morall to oblige us Christians to the like observance Sect. 3. and 4. Thirdly that the Lords Day is founded onely on the authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandement which hee calls a scandalous doctrine Sect. 7. nor any other expresse authority in holy Scripture Sect. 6. and 7. Then fourthly that the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly that in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from works of labour required from us as was exacted of the Jewes but that we may lawfully dresse meat proportionable to every mans estate and doe such other things as are no hindrance to the publique service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly that on the Lords Day all recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and increase mutuall love and neighbour-hood amongst us and that the names whereby the Jewes were wont to call their festivalls whereof the Sabbath was the chiefe were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifieth to dance and to be merry or make glad the countenance If so if all such ceremonies as do increase good neighbor-hood then wakes and feasts and other meetings of that nature If such as honestly may refresh the spirits then dancing wrestling shooting and all other pastimes not by law prohibited which either exercise the body or revive the mind And lastly that it appertaines to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what pastimes are to be permitted and what are not obedience unto whose commands is better farre than sacrifice to the Idols of our owne inventions not unto every private person or as the Doctors owne words are not unto every mans rash zeale who out of a schismaticall Stoicisme debarring men from lawfull pastimes doth incline to Judaisme Sect. 8. Adde for the close of all how doubtingly our Author speakes of the name of Sabbath which now is growne so rife amongst us Sect. 8. Concerning which take here that notable dilemma of Iohn Barkley the better to encounter those who still retaine the name and impose the rigor Cur porrò illum diem plerique Sectariorum Sabbatum appellatis What is the cause saith he that many of our Sectaries call this day the Sabbath If they observe it as a Sabbath they must observe it because God rested on the day and then they ought to keepe that day whereon God rested and not the first as now they doe whereon the Lord began his labours If they observe it as the day of our Saviours resurrection why doe they call it still the Sabbath seeing especially that Christ did not altogether rest the day but valiantly overcame the powers of death This is the summe of all and this is all that I have to say unto thee good Christian reader in this present businesse God give thee a right understanding in all things and a good will to doe thereafter Exam. This Prefacer accounts the opinions opposite to his to be fancies D. Willet on the contrary as wee have heard accounts this Prefacers opinion maintained by M. Rogers no better than fantasies which shall vanish however now for a time they flourish Sure wee are every plant that our heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out This Prefacer professeth those whom hee opposeth be opposite to the tendries of our Church and indeed the Author whom D. Willet intimateth intitled his booke audaciously enough The Catholique doctrine of the Church of England but D. Willet on the other side wondred that any professing the Gospel should gain-say and impugne the positions maintained by D. Bownde And sure I am Bishop Babington Bishop Andrewes Bishop Lake agreed with them And it is well knowne to some what the former Archbishop of Canterbury professed to the face of M. Broade when he came to move for the printing of a second book concerning the Sabbath What Bishop can our opposites name of this Church whose praise is among the writers of these times that hath manifested his opinion in opposition to these As for the judgements of all kinde of writers which he boasts of I thinke never came a Divine to take pen in hand to vaunt so much and performe so little As for the unsafe condition of our Tenets which he suggests excepting those monstrous and wild Tenets mentioned by M. Rogers for which I know no better evidence than his word and that in very odde manner delivered I know nothing unsafe nothing dangerous in any Tenet of ours who now seeme to walke as upon the pinacles of the Temple and indeed in this respect they are like to prove very dangerous to us yet I would it were not more dangerous to the Church of God to be bereaved of so many faithfull Pastors For certainly it shall be honourable unto them they cannot suffer in a more honorable cause than this in standing for the sanctifying of the Lords Day in memory of his resurrection who that day being formerly a stone refused of the builders was made the head of the corner For what danger is it to maintaine that from the Creation the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and what a shamefull course is it so to expound it as in reference to a time 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after and that in spight of the ancient Fathers And manifest reason as appeares by division of time into weekes even from the creation and so continuing to the time of the Law delivered on the mount Sinai as appeares by the story of falling of Manna and the Jewes gathering of it on sixe dayes none fallingnow being gathered on the seventh as the day on the week whereon God rested after he had made the world in six What danger in maintaining that God required from the beginning and afterwards specified so much in the Law that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto Gods service and hence to inferre that if God required so much of the Jews under the Law it were most unreasonable and unconscionable we should not afford unto him and his service as good a proportion of time under the Gospel Thirdly what danger is
Christ manifested before his death that his Christian Churches should observe a Sabbath as well as the Jewes did this appeares Matth. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day and thus Bishop Andrewes accommodates that place in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine It is as manifest that the day of Christs resurrection is called in the cripture the Lords Day as manifest that not the day of the yeere but the day of the week whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day which few take notice of Likewise in the old Testament is manifest that the Jews Sabbath is called the Lords holy Day Then the congruity in reference to the reason of the originall institution is most exact For first Christ by his resurrection brought with him a new creation and this new creation as D. Andrewes expresseth it treading herein in the steps of the ancients requireth a new Sabbath and as the Lord rested on the seventh day from the worke of creation so our Saviour on the first day of the weeke from the worke of Redemption And lastly the day of Christs resurrection was the day whereon Christ the stone formerly refused by the builders was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet professeth of old saying This is the day which the Lord hath mad let us be glad and rejoyce in it which can have no other congruous meaning but this this is the day which the Lord hath made festivall especially considering the doctrine of Bishop Lake which is this that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day as is to be seene in the institution of all festivalls both Humane and Divine And I have already shewed how absurd it is that wee should expect it should be left unto the Church her liberty to appoint it considering the great danger of dissention thereabouts and extreme confusion thereupon And it cannot be denyed but this day was established by the Apostles and that as of authority Divine as appeares generally by the ancients Athanasius professing that Dominus consecravit hunc diem Austin that Apostoli sanxerunt and Gregory that Antichrist when hee comes into an humour of imitating Christ should command the observation of the Lords Day and Eusebius hath as pregnant a testimony to the same purpose as any and Sedulius and that not one of the Ancients as I know alleged to the contrary So that to ascribe the institution of it to humane authority that every way were a scandalous doctrine and so would the practice be also according thereunto And consequently the Church hath no authority to change the day as Doctor Fulke professeth against the Rhemists And to say the contrary is to say that the Church hath authority to concurre with the Jewes in keeping with them the Saturday with the Turks in keeping with them the Friday yea that they have authority to divide the dayes of the weeke one nation taken one day to observe and another another which is as much as to say that the Church hath authority to be notoriously scandalous In the fifth he delivers more truth than in all his preface besides we make no question but that workes of necessity and workes of charity may be done on this day though the proper workes of the day are the workes of holinesse I know none that thinkes it unlawfull to dresse meat proportionable to a mans estate on this day some are of opinion that this was not forbidden unto the Jewes and that albeit to go abroad on that day to gather Manna was forbidden yet not the preparing or dressing of it though the most common opinion of our Divines is to the contrary Some thinke a greater strictnesse was enjoyned them in the wildernesse than afterward observed by them As in the story of Nehemiah it is said there was prepared for his table daily an Oxe and five chosen Sheepe and our Saviours entertainment by some on the Sabbath day doth seeme to them to intimate as much howsoever in after times it came to passe that they grew superstitious this way As Austin observes of them in his dayes that Iudaei neque occidunt neque coquunt Others who think it was both enjoyned to them and practised by them with greater strictnesse conceive that this was by reason of the mysterious signification to wit of some exact rest in Christ this was their ceremoniall rest we acknowledge no rest but morall which we understand in that sense which here is expressed in part and but in part after a halting manner For hee professeth that on the Lords Day we are to abstaine from such workes as are an hinderance to Gods service but he delivers this onely of the publique service as if to spend an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the afternoone in Gods service were enough for the sanctifying of the day yet Gerardus the Lutherane observes that God commands the day to be sanctified not a part of the day And let the law of this nation or of any nation of the world be judge between us whether in case one man owe another a dayes service I say let the world judge whether in common equity this be to be interpreted of an houre and an halfe in the morning and an houre and an halfe in the evening or onely of a part of the day and not rather the whole day And what vile courses are these that men should carry themselves so basely in dispensing unto God the proportion of his service In the sixth and last place we have that wherunto all the former discourse is consecrated namely to make way for such profane sports and pastimes which here are glosed with the cleanely stiles of recreations to refresh the spirits and for the increase of mutuall love and neighbourhood amongst us as if he were ashamed to speake our that all this tends to the countenance of May-games and morricing and dancing about May-poles on the Lords Day D Andrewes sometimes Bishop of Winchester spared not to professe that vacare choreis to be at leisure on that day for dancing is the Sabbath of the golden calfe and hee allegeth Austin for it though hee cannot justifie his quotation Doctor Downeham Bishop of Derry calls such like courses profane sports and pastimes which more distract and more hinder our workes than honest labours and he censures also such a Sabbath calling it the Sabbath of the calfe Exod. 23. 6. 18. 19. Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. puts a Christian soule upon this meditation Good Lord what doe I upon the Sabbath day This people of his might not gather Manna and may I safely gad to faires and markets to dancings and drinkings to wakes and wantons to Bearcbaitings and Bulbaitings with such like wicked profanations of the Lords Day Are these workes for the Sabbath Is this to keepe the holy day Can I answer this to my God that gives mee six dayes for
any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30. 19. Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Chanles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24. 20. Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de
Valentia who was no sectary in the opinion of Barklay to distinguish the Jewish Sabbath from ours calls it Sabbatum legale and conclus 4. hee saith that Christiana religio celebrat verum Sabbatum morale in die Dominica Christian Religion keepeth a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day yet I willingly confesse this is the usuall course of Papists now a dayes not to call the Lords Day so much as by the name of our Sabbath As for Barklays discourse hee is much fitter to write somthing answerable to Don Quixot then to reason we doe observe the Lords Day as a Sabbath not because God rested that day from the Creation for our Doctor Andrewes of somewhat more credit with us and that not onely for his place but for his sufficiency then Barklay hath delivered it in the Starre Chamber that It hath ever been the Churches Doctrine that Christ made an end of all Sabbaths by his Sabbath in the Grave That Sabbath was the last of them And that the Lords Day presently came in place of it And againe That the Sabbath had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are a new creature a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this hee sayth is deduced plainly First by practise then by precept And this new Sabbath on the Lords Day wee observe because on that day Christ rested from the worke of redemption which was wrought by his death So that though the Lord began his labours in the worke of Creation on the first day of the weeke yet the Lord Christ set an end to his labors in the worke of redemption on the same day of the weeke As for Christs vanquishing the powers of death on that day to wit the first day of the weeke the Women that came to the Sepulchre at sun rising found that he was risen And what powers are these powers of death hee rhetoricates of is there any positive nature in death that our Saviour had neede to take such paines to overcome them The Lord himselfe when hee rested he rested onely from Creation he that was best acquainted with his courses hath told us saying Pater usque hodie peratur my Father to this day works still and I worke with him yet hee proceeds no farther in the worke of Creation nor Christ being once risen in the worke of redemption S. Iude exhorts us to contend the more earnestly for the faith because some there were craftily crept in who otherwise were like to bereave them of it In like sort wee had never more neede then now to contend for the maintainance of the Lords Day as our Christian Sabbath because too many there are whose practise it is to bereave us of the comfort of it The Doctrine of the Sabbath considered FIrst I come to the Doctrine of the Sabbath translated by the Prefacer I nothing doubt but the Author thereof will take in good part my paines in the discussion of it considering the present occasion urging mee hereunto Out of the variety of his reading hee observes many wild derivations of the name Sabbath and out of his judgment doth pronounce that the Jewes by their Bacchanalian rites gave the World just occasion to suspect that they did consecrate the Sabbath unto Revells rather then Gods service As for the rigorous keeping of the day in such sort as neither to kindle fire in the Winter-time wherewith to warme themselves or to dresse meat for the sustentation of themselves I am so farre from justifying it that I willingly professe I am utterly ignorant where any such Christians live that presse any such rigorous observation of it The Jewes were bound to observe the rest on that day for a mysterious signification sake and thereupon depended their rigorous observing of a rest as many thinke and not Lyra alone We must know saith hee that rest from manuall works is not now so rigorously observed as in the old Law because meate may be dressed and other things done on the Lords Day which were not lawfull on the Sabbath because that rest was in part figurative as was the whole state under the Law 1 Cor. 10. All things befell them in figure Now in that which is figurative if you take away never so little that is if that which is figurative bee not exactly observed the whole and intire signification faileth like as if you take away but one letter from the name of Lapis the whole and intire signification is destroyed To deale plainely my opinion is that all sports and pastimes on the Lords Day are a breaking of the rest belonging to it and a profanation of that day which ought to be sanctified And I trust herein I differ not one jot from the whole Parliament 1 o. Caroli wherein was expressely prohibited that any man should goe out of his owne Parish to any sports and pastimes on the Sabbath day and this is done to prevent the profanation of it as appeares clearely by the reasons of that Act which Parliament was held certaine yeares after this Lecture concerning the Doctrine of the Sabbath was read in the University And I nothing doubt but the censure of a Zelote will passe upon mee for this though wee shew no more zeale in saying that The Lords Day is by some licentiously profaned then others doe in professing that the Lord Day is by us superstitiously observed nay who are the greatest zelotes in their cause let the Christian World judge by the effects This is all I have to note concerning the first Section I come unto the second Secondly and here in the first place concerning the institution of it let mee take leave to professe that the question it selfe is not indifferenly stated when it is stated thus whether before the publishing of Moses Law the Sabbath was to be observed by the law of Nature For I am verily perswaded that the Doctor himselfe will not affirme that after the publishing of Moses law it was to be observed by the law of nature understanding by the law of nature as I presume he doth such a law as is knowne by the very light of nature Aristotle hath taught us in generall that morall duties are rather wrought upon a sober conscience by perswasion than doe carry with them any convincing evidence of demonstration Yet it is confessed that by the light of nature some time ought to be set apart even for the publike service and worship of God and not onely so but also it is nothing lesse cleare that a sufficient proportion of time must be alloted to the professed service of our Creator But wherein this sufficient proportion of time doth consist we are to seek being left unto our selves and in my judgement considering what we are it is very fit we should be to seeke in this that so our eyes may wait upon the direction of our Maker For is it fit that servants should cut out a proportion of service to their Master at their owne pleasure and
hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them he confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assiguation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had his originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Umbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this
upon the crosse who seeth not that this conveniency had been found as well on that day fortnight or on that day three weekes and so in Infinitum as on that day senight As ridiculous appeares to be his pretence of complying thus with the antients whose opinion was that Adam fell the same day wherein he was created which he would apply to that day senight after For why not as well to that day three weekes after or that day a month after and so in Infinitum But let us consider Pererius reasons whereby he undertakes to shew the unlikelihood of Adams falling the first day The first is drawn from the forme of Adams temptation thus why doe you not eate of every tree of paradise which supposeth as he saith that they had already eaten of every other Tree in Paradise and Eves answer he saith seems to confirm this in saying we eate of the fruit of the Trees in the Garden But of the fruit of the Tree which is in the mids of the Garden we eate not what is the meaning of we eate but this we are wont to eate quoth Pererius Yet forthwith he himselfe enervates this interpretation confessing that the meaning may be this It is lawfull for us to eate And I willingly confesse that no argument appeares to me so plausible as this namely that they had formerly tasted of every fruit of the Garden besides this for it seems very likly that not till then they were wel prepared for satans temptation And it seemes unlikely they would offer to taste of the fruit forbidden untill they had tasted of all the rest then indeed and not til then the commendation of that as of a more excellent fruit then any of the rest might the better allure them both to touch and taste But as Pererius proposeth it it hath no force for as much as he corrupteth the Text the Divells words being not such as these why doe yee not eate of every tree of paradise but running thus Yea hath God sayd yee shall not eate of every tree in the Garden or as Piscator takes it for a conclusion of a larger discourse yea in as much as God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of every tree in the Garden so giving a reason to proove what he objected namely that God envyed their happinesse As for the reasons which before I have given they may be answered thus If the benefit of this fruit had been of the same kinde with the benefit of others and onely in degree of excellency above them then were it no way likely they should begin with this But seeing it was pretended to be of a farre different kinde by Satans suggestion not so much for satisfying the appetite of sense as for satisfying the spirituall desire of the soule in knowing good and evill which the very denomination of the Tree given by God himselfe did fairely intimate and this being cunningly improoved by Satan to be a Divine condition in making them like unto God this consideration might well allure forthwith without all further stay to have experience of other fruit Secondly why might they not have tasted of the fruites of other Trees without any necessity of nature urging them and yet without any luxury at all but only to acquaint themselves with the condition of those good Creatures which God had provided for them Yet again considering that this experience made to no other end should so sensibly have brought home unto them the goodnesse of God in that state of holinesse and integrity that it would have exceedingly confirmed them in their obedience to God and made the motion of the Serpent at first hearing distastfull and to choose to be like unto God in obedience and thereby in conformity to his holy will then in forbidden knowledge And besides the tasting of all so soone can hardly be justified from Luxury or wast therefore I rest in my first answer Pererius his next reason caryeth a great deale of shew but in substance lesse forcible Certainly the making of the beasts of the Earth and of man might be done in as short a time as it pleased God to have it especially considering the opinion of some antients that all things were made together and that in a short space so mans placing in Paradise and the beasts brought unto him by God might be soone dispatched and surely Adams naming of them cost him no study and undoubtedly all this was done before the creating of Eve so that all this might be done before noone and space enough allowed for the Divells conference with Eve and his seducing her and her seducing Adam The making of them aprons to hide their nakednesse caryeth the greatest shew of requiring longer time but he who wanted not wit to name the beasts so congruously to their natures wanted not understanding to cover themselves with fig-leaves As for the Doctors alleaged by him for his opinion I doe not finde that any of them is expresse or by consequent direct for that whereunto they are alleaged but the inferences made from their wordes are meerely conjecturall For when hee writes that Ioseph in the first booke of his antiquities and Basil in his Homily of Paradise and Damaseen in his second booke of orthodox faith and 10. Chapter seeme to be of this opinion his ground is only this because as he saith they write that the Serpent in paradise did often come to our first parents and converse with them very gently and familiarly and that thereupon the Divell tooke hint to inveagle the Woman Now this is but a conjecture of theirs neither doe they say that he was wont to conferre with them yet all that they speake of may very well be fulfilled in a few houres That which to this purpose he alleageth out of Austin de civit dei lib. 11 c. 21. is onely this The Apple on the tree forbidden we are to believe it to be such as the rest of other trees which now they had found to be without hurt hence it seemes Pererius would inferre that before the Divells temptation they had tasted of them all but Austins speech is indefinite and verified in case they had tasted but of some and Eve might have tasted of some Adam of other some If it be further urged that Austin delivers it as a reason to shew how hereby they were made more pliable to yield to Satans temptation I answer that by tasting some yea and without tasting any they might be well assured they might be tasted of without hurt excepting that which God had forbidden them and the tasting of all without hurt was no tolerable reason to perswade that in like manner they might tast of the forbidden fruit without hurt the Lord having professed unto them that In the day they did eate thereof they should die the death Pererius addes that Austin in his twentieth Booke of the City of God and 26. Chapter doth not obscurely give to understand that albeit he
not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2. 4. thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24. 20. Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned â—â— by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor
the Jewes had As touching the three particulars wherein Tostatus is vouched to affirme the fourth Commandement to bee an unstable and alterable ceremony First I have not hitherto found that Tostatus confoundeth the proportion of one day in seven with the particular day under this proportion as if these were equally ceremoniall The rest on the seventh day in the judgement of the ancients prefigured the rest of Christ that day in his grave and in that respect was accompted by them ceremoniall But as for the proportion of one day in seven never yet did I meete with any who set his wits on worke to devise any thing in Christ to be prefigured thereby that so it also might be accompted ceremoniall Yet I nothing doubt but this proportion is alterable by that power whereby it was prescribed but not by any inferiour power and so it is accompted by Jacobus de Valentia stabile aeternum stable and everlasting and most unreasonable that wee should not be bound to allow as good a proportion of service unto God under the Gospell as the Jewes were bound to allow him under the Law The rest of the seventh day being ceremoniall wee hold not onely with Tostatus that it is alterable but with Stella that it must be altered and I hope the word it selfe affords evidence enough for this It is true the fourth Commandement in the very front commands the sanctifying the Sabbath not the seventh day but the Sabbath and in like maner it ends with professing that the Lord Blessed the Sabbath day not the seventh sanctified it But when the question is made what Sabbath I should rather answer a rest from all servile works then as here it is answered The seventh day For undoubtedly God doth not therein command us to rest the seventh day in correspondency to the seventh day from the Creation there is commanded one day in seven and a seventh after six dayes of worke But wee must leave it unto God as to prescribe unto us the Master to his servants the proportion of time to be set apart for his service so the particularity of the day also under the specified proportion least otherwise there might be as many different opinions hereabouts and courses according thereunto amongst the people of God as there be dayes in the weeke Now God did appoint the seventh day of the weeke unto the Jewes for their Sabbath but the first day of the weeke hee hath appointed unto us for our Sabbath still observing six dayes worke before and a seventh of rest unto God after And thus Zanchy a learned and judicious Divine interpreteth the fourth Commandement in 4. praecept p. 599. Col. 2. Stat sententia non sine causa factum esse ut in substantia praecepti dictum non sit Memento ut diem septimum sed ut diem Sabbati i. quietis sanctifices Hac enim ratione nos quoque praeceptum hoc servamus dum sanctificamus diem Dominicum quia hic quietis dies nobis est sicut Judaeis fuit septimus I am still of opinion that not without cause it is so ordered that in the substance of the precept it is not sayd remember the seventh day but remember the Sabbath day that is the day of rest to sanctifie it For by this meanes wee also keepe this precept in sanctifying the Lords Day So that this is not the opinion of Doctor Bownde onely and of Master Perkins but of Zanchy also and Iacobus de Valentia advers Iudaeos qu. 2. conclus 4. Christian Religion celebrates a true morall Sabbath on the Lords Day as touching the time in as much as it celebrates it on the day whereon it ought to be celebrated and concludes So the precept of the Sabbath as it is morall remaines in the new time celebrated on the Lords day So Dominicus Bannes formerly alleaged distinguisheth the substance of the praecept from the particular determination of the day and addes that by a positive precept the seventh day was designed unto the Iewes but afterwards under the Law of grace was designed the day of the Lords Resurrection So that alwayes to Gods faithfull people was designed one day in the weeke for Divine Service Whereas other festivities sayth hee are in course by the institution of the Church And Doctor Andreues also sheweth out of Math. 24. 20. that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and addes that Those which were ceremonies were abrogated but those which were not ceremonies were changed as the Ministery from the Levites to be chosen throughout the World So here the day changed from the day of the Jewes to the Lords Day Revel 1. 10. And accordingly interpreteth the fourth Commandement as belonging unto us Christians as bound to observe the Sabbath 1. in our judgment by a reverend esteeming of it not as a day appointed by man 2. in our use set downe Esay 58. 13. not following our owne will nor doing our owne workes Hereupon a question is proposed thus But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ and the answer is this Do as Christ did in the case of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sin and so before there needed any Saviour and if they say it prefigured the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ We grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved The practise of piety is a booke dedicated unto his Majesty that now is when hee was Prince Carles in the yeere 1626. which is now 15. yeeres agoe came forth the 10 th Edition of it wee have heard it highly commended by King Iames and that it commended the author of the dedication to a Bishoprick The author of this treatise is large upon the Sabbath and concurres with us in every particular wherein wee are by the Prefacer to this translation opposed Amongst other particulars this is one that hee interpreteth the fourth Commandement as Zanchy doth saying The Commandement doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day next following the sixt day of the Creation or this or that seventh day but indefinitely Remember that thou keepe holy a Sabbath day and that Our Lord Iesus having authority as Lord over the Sabbath had likewise far greater reason to translate the Sabbath day from the Iewish seventh unto the seventh day whereon Christians doe keepe their Sabbath which also hee proves by diverse reasons And the booke of Homilies whereunto all our Ministers are required to subscribe professeth that wee Christians are still bound to the observation of the Sabbath and that the Sunday is now our Sabbath So then as the Jewes were tied to the observation of the Sabbath on the day prescribed too them so are wee Christians tied to the observation of the Sabbath too but on the day prescribed unto us should wee observe the same day with the Jewes wee should fall
as of a cake bak't on the hearth on Saturday after three a clocke in the afternoone and how that part of it reserved to the morning and being then broken blood came out of it and another of the like nature and two more I say these are of Roger Hovedens relation not of Eustachius his preaching whom the Monke relates to have been in great esteeme of the Clergie in those dayes and to have prevailed much with many of the people though for the generall he could not bring them off from their marketing on the Lords day Yet what are these to be talkt of in comparison to those which are comprised in two bookes of miracles written by Cluniacensis and albeit those times may be accounted times of darknesse in comparison of ages fore-going yet this Prefacer is ready to make answer that that is but the opinion of some But whereas hee saith That this strange opinion is now revived and published first I desire to know his meaning For as for a preparation to the Sabbath and that to begin from about three a clock in the afternoone the whole Kingdome observes it as for the strict observation thereof here mentioned I have shewed that Eustachius speakes of no such thing If hee did what is that to those who suffer for standing for the strict observation of the Sabbath against those who would have the Lords day at least in part to be a day of sports and pastimes Can he shew this to be their opinion If he can why doth he not And if from three a clock on Saturday in the afternoone people doe prepare for the Lords day and abstaine from such workes dispatching both their baking bread and other works in the morning what danger or detriment is hereby likely to arise either to our faith or manners What danger either to Prince Church or State The third Section BUt to proceed Immediately upon the Reformation of Religion in these Westerne parts the Controversie brake out a fresh though in another manner than before it did For there were some of whom Calvin speakes who would have had all dayes alike all equally to be regarded he means the Anabaptists as I take it and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish ceremony Affirming it to crosse the doctrine of Saint Paul who in the text before remembred and in the fourteenth to the Romans did seeme to them to cry downe all such difference of dayes and times as the Church retained To meet which vaine and peccant humour Calvin was faine to bend his forces declaring how the Church might lawfully retaine set times for Gods service without infringing any of Saint Pauls commandements But on the other side as commonly the excesse is more exorbitant than the defect there wanted not some others who thought they could not honour the Lords day sufficiently unlesse they did affix as great a sanctitie unto it as the Jewes did unto their Sabbath So that the change seemed to be onely of the day the superstition still remaining no lesse Jewish than before it was These taught as now some doe moralem esse unius diei observationem in hebdomada the keeping holy to the Lord one day in seven to bee the morall part of the fourth Commandement which doctrine what else is it so he proceeds as here the Doctor so repeats it in his third section then in contempt of the Jews to change the day and to affix a greater sanctity to the day than those ever did As for himselfe so farre was he from favouring any such wayward fancie that as Iohn Barklay makes report he had a consultation once de transferenda solennitate Dominica in feriam quintam to alter the Lords day from Sunday to Thursday How true this is I cannot say But sure it is that Calvin tooke the Lords day to be an ecclesiasticall and humane constitution only Quem veteres in locum Sabbati subrogarunt appointed by our Ancestors to supply the place of the Jewish Sabbath and as our Doctor tells us from him in his seventh section as alterable by the Church at this present time as first it was when from Saturday they translated it unto the Sunday So that we see that Calvin here resolves upon three Conclusions First that the keeping holy one day in seven is not the morall part of the fourth Commandement Secondly that the day was changed from the last day of the weeke unto the first by this authority of the Church and not by any divine Ordinance And thirdly that the day is yet alterable by the Church as at first it was Exam. Thus at length this Prefacer observes that look upon what Scripture passages some did contend the Jewish Sabbath to be ceremoniall and accordingly to be abrogated by the Death and Resurrection of Christ Upon the very same grounds others contended against the observation of all Holy dayes even of the Lords day also as if that were Jewish This is the course of the Anabaptists unto whom Wallaeus addes the Socinians and Hospinian the Petrobrusians By what authoritie the Lords day was introduced Calvin disputes not He saith Dominicum diem veteres in locum Sabbati substituerunt The Ancients brought the Lords day into the place of the Sabbath and that the day the Apostle prescribed to the Corinthians wherein they should lay apart something for the relieving of the Saints at Ierusalem was the day quo sacros conventus agebant whereon they kept their holy meetings And that which moved the Apostles to change the Sabbath to the Lords day he shewes both in his institutions thus for seeing in the Lords Resurrection is found the end and fulfilling of the true rest which the old Sabbath shadowed by that very day which set an end to those shadowes Christians are admonished not to stick to the shadowing ceremony and upon the Epistle to the Corinthians in these words Electus autem potissimum dies Dominicus quod Resurrectio domini finem legis umbris attulit The Lords Day was chiefely chosen because the Lords Resurrection did set an end to the shadowes of the Law And in the words immediately preceding he expressely professeth that this change was made by the Apostles though not so soone in his opinion as Chrysostome thought who interprets that the first day of the weeke of the Lords Day And Cyrill long agoe upon consideration of our Saviours apparitions on that day and then againe the eighth day after makes bold to conclude that Iure igitur sanctae congregationes die octavo in Ecclesiis fiunt By right therefore holy assemblies on the eighth day are made in the Churches 2 Observe by the way this authors spirit he accompts it more exorbitant to thinke that the observation of the Lords Day is prescribed unto us by Divine authority or the religious observation of one day in seven then to maintaine that none at all is to be set apart to religious
precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7 th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it should bee so whether manifested by Christs particular charge unto them or by comparing Christs Resurrection with the Lords rest from the workes of Creation Otherwise in my judgement they had never called that day the Lords Day Fourthly he excepts against the argument drawne from Christs Resurrection denying that therehence it followes that that day was to bee consecrated to God But herein hee opposeth all the ancients neither doe I thinke hee can alleage any one that doth not hereon build the observation of the Lords Day which nuiversall concurrence doth manifestly argue to be more then probable Austin as Waleus alleadgeth him professeth not as his peculiar opinion but as he took it generally received without contradiction that Dies Dominicus Christianis resurrectione Domini declaratus est and that resuscitatio Domini consecravit nobis diem Dominicum And Athanasius plainly takes notice of the analogy it hath to the fourth Commandement and analogy Doctor Walaeus grants and I wonder hee takes no notice of it here by comparing the second Creation with the first Creation and so Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester professeth that the new Creation requires a new Sabbath especially seeing the old must bee abrogated as ceremoniall But the analogy I confesse may be differently shaped Athanasius shapes it thus that the Jewes Sabbath was the end of the first Creation and that the Lords Day is a beginning of the second Creature to wit as the day of Christs resurrection in reference whereunto the Apostle saith Old things are passed behold all things are become new And I conceive reason to justifie Athanasius in making the beginning of the new creature to be our Sabbath answerable to the end of the first creation to wit because the second creation hath no end in this world Againe Adam and Eve were made but the immediate day before the seventh and the seventh he was to spend in rejoycing in Gods works so Christs death was the worlds redemption and immediately after to wit with Christs rising it was as fit we should Sabbatize with God for joy of our Redemption Otherwise the analogie which Doctor Walaeus grants but doth not explicate may be conceived thus The seventh day of the weeke was the Lords rest from the worke
the Spirit on his Apostles on the day of Pentecost hath not so much force considered alone but onely in a conjunct consideration with Christs resurrection on that day And like as after his death he arose on that day manifesting himselfe mightily thereby to be the Sonne of God so after his ascension into heaven he came downe by his Spirit on that day the seventh first day of the weeke after his resurrection manifesting thereby as Peter signifieth that he had obtained the dispensation of the Spirit We doe not say the Spirit was on the day of Pentecost sent downe because it was the Lords day But being sent down on that day as the Law is confessed to have beene delivered on that day this tends to the marking out of that day more and more for manifestation of the power of Christ That day they receiving power from on high by the descending of the holy Ghost upon them whereby they were inabled to preach the Gospel And that day of the weeke which is set apart for Divine service as our Christian Sabbath as that day whereon the Holy Ghost doth ordinarily come downe upon his servants in the ministerie of his Word and celebration of the Sacraments and putting up of our joynt prayers unto him for the sanctifying and edifying Christ body which is the Church and even in this respect that day hath a farre better congruitie to the day that is to be set apart for Divine service than any other day in the week besides The day of his ascension he departed from them as touching his presence corporall but on the day of Pentecost he came downe upon them as touching his presence spirituall and so he doth still in our Sabbath exercises on the Lords day though not in so extraordinary a manner yet no lesse effectually to that edification and sanctification of our soules Seventhly And whereas some urged that if Christ himselfe had not instituted this day after his resurrection the most Primitive Church should have beene left destitute of a certaine day of Gods worship to wit from the time of Christs resurrection to the first consecrating of the Lords Day which they take to be absurd and I confesse it seems unlikely that the Apostles tooke upon them to order ought untill they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that being the day they were to receive power from on high to execute the commission given them Mat. 28. 19. to teach all nations till which time they gathered no Churches For the strengthning the former reason it is added That the Jewes Sabbath was now abolished by Christs death and resurrection This I doe not deny but the Apostles might very well be ignorant hereof as yet as not having received the Spirit as yet yea after the receiving it we find they challenged Peter for going to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel Acts 11. to this argument some answer as Walaeus saith that the daies between Christs ascension and the comming downe of the Holy Ghost upon them were spent in continuall meetings of the Apostles and other Disciples But from the day of Pentecost the Lords day thenceforth observed This answer reacheth not unto the daies interceding betweene Christs resurrection and his ascention And when I consider Bishop Lake his discourse grounded as he professeth upon universall observation and which I find no reason to resist namely that the worke of the day commends the day If ever any day deserved to be festivall to any surely the day of our Saviours resurrection deserved to be festivall unto them to rejoyce in the Lord thereon according to that of the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein the ancient Fathers accommodating the place thereunto The two verses immediatly preceding carrying in the forehead of them a manifest relation unto Christ as the proprietary of their meaning 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Now when was this manifested namely that the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner but by Christs Resurrection from the dead being thereby mightily declared to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 14. and was there ever worke more marvellous in the eyes of Gods Servants then the Resurrection of Christ especially considering the disconsolate condition of his Disciples Luke 24. 21. We trusted it had beene he that should have delivered Israel The women departed from the Sepulcher though with feare by reason of the consternation receaved from Angelicall presence their countenance being like lightning yet with great joy by reason of the newes they heard from them of Christs Resurrection upon the noise whereof for they were commanded to carry word of it to his Disciples the Apostles as it seemes were gathered together and in the evening after hee had shewed himselfe to his Disciples going to Emaus Christ presented himselfe in the midst of them Eight dayes after they were met together and Thomas with them who being absent the time before gave out speeches of peremptory incredulity concerning his Resurrection therefore then and not till then also the dores being shut Christ came before them and calls unto Thomas to see his hand and to put his finger into his side These apparitions of our Saviour twice on the first day of the weeke might well adde somewhat to the confirmation of them in the festivity of this day and howsoever betweene his ascension and the day of Pentecost they had their meetings yet how improbable is it they should put no difference betweene such a festivall and other dayes of the weeke A second answer Walaeus gives namely that others say that from the day of Pentecost it was not necessary that the Lords Day should bee observed but that at the first the Apostles together with the Jewes observed their Sabbath not as a ceremony of the Old Testament but as a free circumstance of divine worship as for a while they reteyned Circumcision and difference of meats which they gave over after the Jewes were found obstinately to refuse the Gospell So that in these mens judgements the Lords Day was no festivall to the Apostles till by occasion of the Jewes obstinatenesse a proper occasion for the institution of a new festivall And give mee leave to differ from them in yoking Circumcision and difference of meats with the Jewes Sabbath neither of them prefiguring Christ as to come like as the Jewes Sabbath did prefiguring his rest that day in the grave as the ancients have conceived it without any contradiction that I know Had they permitted sacrifices for a time their comparison had beene more congruous I see no reason to withhold me from concurring with Austin and in him with all the ancients for ought I know to the contrary that Dies Dominicus Resurrectione Domini declaratus est Christianis ex illo coepit habere
Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Uriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good successe of his labours For this good he saith hath ensued thereupon namely that the said bookes of the Sabbath comprehending the above mentioned and many more such fearefull and hereticall assertions have beene both called in and forbidden to be printed any more and to be made common and that Archbishop Whitgift by his letters and officers at Synods and Visitations Anno 99. did the one and Sir John Popham Lord chiefe Iustice of Eâ—gland at Bury Saint Edmunds in Suffolke Anno 1600. did the other For all this we have nothing but his word and as for the bookes he talkes of hee had formerly mentioned but one printed 95. at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man of the doctrine of the Sabbath which appeares to be D. Bowndes Now was this ever called in Sure I am D. Willet upon Genesis came forth the yeere after this M. Rogers his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England This hee dedicated to King Iames and over and above hath a second dedication in Latine to Archbishop Bancroft and to the bishop of London then being wherein hee signifieth that the one of them was author the other hortator unto him to perfect this worke of his and therefore undoubtedly came forth with as good approbation as the Analysis of Master Rogers upon the second Chapter of Gen. he observes that As the Sabbath kept then upon the seventh day in remembrance of the Creation was of the Lords institution so the Lords Day is now observed by the same authority in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ and redemption by the same And this hee delivers in opposition to the Rhemists who count the observation of the Lords Day but a tradition of the Church and Ecclesiasticall institution and having spent a whole page in folio upon this argument in the next page thus hee writeth I doe wonder then this doctrine of the Sabbath and day of rest now called the Lords Day having such evident demonstration out of the Scriptures and being confirmed by the constant and continuall practise of the Church in all ages that any professing the Gospell specially being exercised in the Study of the Scriptures should gainsay and impugne these positions following as erroneous 1. That the Commandement of sanctifying the Sabbath is naturall morall and perpetuall For if it be not so then all the Commandements contained in the Decalogue are not morall so should we have 9. and not
of fire was forbidden onely for the works to be done about making the Tabernacle This being delivered as a preface Exod. 35. 2. when the free will offerings were now to be receaved for the promoting of the workemanship of that which formerly was commanded And that dressing of meate was not forbidden them no not in the gathering of Manna as some thinke if then yet not as a generall course to be observed for ever And as touching the Table that Nehemiah kept thus we reade Moreover there were at my Table an 150. of the Iewes and rulers which came unto us from among the Heathen that are about us And there was prepared daily an Oxe and six chosen Sheepe and Birds were prepared for me and hee was so farre from consciousnesse of profaning the Lords Sabbath herein that hee concludes thus Remember me O my God in goodnesse according to all that I have done for this people But suppose they were tied so strictly to such a rest as from workes not servile onely in seeking againe as Zanchy instanceth the condition of a worke servile but even from such as tended to the refreshing of their natures yet the reason hereof depended upon the mysterious signification of this rest as formerly I have represented out of Lyra from which ceremoniality wee are absolved and consequently freed from that rigorous rest depending thereupon and rest onely from works so farre forth as they are avocations from Sacred Studies and meditations as Calvin expresseth it and this wee accompt a morall rest distinguished from ceremoniall And whereas the Doctor tells us that such a like distinction is infirme being content to say nothing to confirme it save that the Text as hee saith affords it not I had thought the very light of nature had beene sufficient to embolden us to conclude that where the sanctification of the day is commanded therewithall is commanded abstinence from all such things as would hinder the sanctification of it And as for the text it selfe it is apparent that neither the kindling of the fire nor dressing of meate is particularly forbidden in the fourth Commandement Neither doth hee so much as obtrude upon his adversaries that they derive the sanctification of their christian Sabbath from ought in the old Testament save from Gen. 2. 3. and from the fourth Commandement In neither of which doth he deale fairely but is content to confound things that differ as if in this particular he affected to fish in troubled waters and we have better evidence and indeed it is our only evidence therence out of the old Testament for the festivity of the Lords day then he is willing to take notice of namely out of the Psal 118. 24. Neither is it possible he should be ignorant thereof howsoever hee doth dissemble his knowledge of it Yet I hope it is enough for us to finde evidence for it in the Sunshine of the Gospell and indeed here alone we have the originall observation of it though that it should be observed is as evidently prophecied in the old Testament as that Christ is the stone which was first refused of the builders and after made the head of the corner adding only this unto it that the day wherein the Lord did this and made so glorious a worke marvellous in the eyes of men was the day of the resurrection which I suppose no intelligent Christian will deny I come unto the 6. Section 6 Who they be that make their boast that they have found the institution of the Lords day in the new Testament expressely J willingly professe I know not neither doe I thinke the Doctor knowes It is true our Saviour oftentimes disputed with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath day which at length degenerated into voluptuous living on that day in so much that Austin tells the Jewes plainly It is better to goe to plough then to dance but if hereupon you aske where is any the least suspicion of the abrogating of it I answer every one knowes The time was not yet come for the abrogating of it Nay he discourseth so as if 40. yeares after his death the observation of the Sabbath should continue as when he exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24. 20. what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe musling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18. 21. I
the rest to wit in the way of fitnesse for holy use because of the worke of God on that day Whence it is evidently concluded that the Apostles did not thinke it indifferent therefore though it were left to their liberty in as much as no Commandement was given to them thereabout for ought wee reade yet by the spirit of God they were directed to make choyse of this day and that in reference to such a worke on that day as the like on no other Not that the sanctifying of a rest on this day would make us more holy then the sanctifying of a rest on any other day but onely in reference to some speciall worke of God on that day upon which consideration the ancient Fathers doe generally insist and Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake after them doe joyntly rely and not Beza onely Secondly That both Ursine and Paraeus call this a probable reason onely now give me leave to insist upon this and try whether I cannot shew that this reason is more then probable And that first à Posteriori For let us soberly consider how came it to passe that not onely the day whereon Christ rose but answerably hereunto the Day of the weeke to wit the first Day of the weeke was accompted by the Apostles and so commonly called the Lords Day and generally knowne to Christians by that name otherwise S. Iohn had not beene so well understood in his Revelation chap. 1. vers 10. Is it not apparent that Christs rising did ever after give the denomination of the Lords Day to the first day of the weeke Againe the day of Christs Paspassion upon the Crosse is not called the Lords day and why the day of the Resurrection rather surely because S. Paul saith that Christ was declared mightily to be the Sonne of God by the spirit of sanctification in his Resurrection from the dead Hereby then was he manifested to be the Sonne of God the very Lord of Glory and is not this reason more then probable why it should bee called the Lords day Secondly consider that day of the moneth or that day of the yeare whereon the Lord rose wee no where finde that it was usually called the Lords Day but onely that day of the weeke not the day of the weeke wherein hee ascended into Heaven but the day of the weeke wherein hee rose Now the Jewes Sabbath was called the Lords Sabbath the Lords holy Day Es 58. 13. If thou shalt turne away thy foote from my Sabbath from doing thy will on my holy Day Hath the Lord a Day under the Gospell but no Sabbath no holy Day what an unreasonable conceite were this that hee should have an holy Day one in every weeke under the Law and none under the Gospell Now if the Lord hath a day that is peculiarly called his under the Gospell and that day is in the Scripture styled the Lords Day I appeale to every Christian conscience whether the sanctifying of this day as holy to the Lord ought not by more then probable yea even by necessary reason come in place of the sanctifying of the seventh day as an holy rest to the Lord in the dayes of old Otherwise we should have two different dayes in the weeke the one called the Lords Day the other the Lords holy Day or no holy day at all though wee have the Lords Day Lastly consider the very definition of a thing probable which Aristotle makes to be such as seemes so in the judgement of most or in the judgement of most of the wisest or of some few provided they are wiser then the rest but the sanctifying of the first day of the weeke to the Lord that is the Lords Day to the Lord hath seemed fit not to some of the wisest onely in the Church of God but to all even to all the Apostles yea and Evangelists and Pastors and teachers in their dayes and to the whole Church for 1600. yeares since and shall wee call the reason moving them hereunto onely probable 2. yet all this is but a posteriori which yet for the evidence of it I presume most sufficient for the convicting of every sober Christian conscience of that truth to the demonstration whereof it tends I come to give a reason hereof à priori The first creation in the wisedome of God who proceeds not merely according unto probable reason drew after it a Sabbath day the seventh day where on God rested But if God vouchsafeth us a new creation in the same congruity may wee not justly expect a new Sabbath Now the Apostle tells us plainly that old things are passed away and that all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. and this he brings in upon shewing what Christ hath deserved at our hands in as much as he died for us and rose againe vers 15. the end whereof was this that he might be Lord both of quicke and dead Rom. 14. 9. and concludes that whosoever is in Christ is a new creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. And how are we in Christ but by faith Gal. 2. 20. And what is the object of this our faith let the same Apostle answer us If thou confesse with the mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so that this faith in Christs resurrection is to us the beginning of a new creature And Christs resurrection Sedulius calls nascentis mundi primordium And Athanasius saith That as the Sabbath was the end of the first creation so the Lords Day is the beginning of the second creature And this is it that Bishop Andrewes and Bishop Lake doe worke upon for the celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine institution But I am not a little sensible of some appearance of incongruity rising hereupon Almighty God did not thinke it fit that the first day of creation should be our Sabbath but the seventh from the creation as whereon himselfe rested but in the second creation the first day is made our Sabbath To this I answer two things the first is this if man should not rest unto God till the second creation is finished hee should not rest at all in this world And the sixe dayes being the dayes of Gods worke the seventh was the first of mans worke which God would have to be an holy worke most convenient whereby to take livery and seasin of the world For albeit God commanded Adam to dresse the garden and keepe it when he placed him in it yet it is nothing probable it had need of dressing so soone as it was made and no mention of rest commanded at the first onely it is said that because God rested that day from all his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it This I deliver to save the expression of Athanasius 2. But in my judgement there is an exact congruity betweene rest and rest in each creation For as God rested the seventh day from the
profaning of their Sabbaths so Polidor Virgil complaines of the like corruptions among Christians on their festivalls lib. 6. cap. 8. not imploying their time in prayer and in the exercise of Gods Word for which cause such festivalls were instituted but in all manner of evill courses tending to the corrupting of mens manners and that herein they imitate Heathens though of ancient times Tertullian as hee sayth reprehended Heathens for such courses as in his Apologeticum speaking of the holy solemnity of their Emperours Therefore saith hee Christians are compted enemies to the State because they doe not dedicate vaine lying and rash honors to their Prince Forsooth it is a great good office to make bonfiers and dances in publique and to feast in every parish to transforme the City into the habite of a Taverne Vino lutum cogere which Junius sayth was a fruit of their desperate Luxury and a signe of their madnesse and fury he proceedes to strive who shall exceed one another in running about to doe injuries to commit impudencies to provoke unto lust And is the publike joy after such a manner exprest to wit by publique shame O how deservedly are we Christians to be condemned he speakes it ironically who by carrying our selves soberly chastly honestly doe oppose the vowes made and the joyes expressed for the Emperors to wit when for their sober and chast and vertuous carriage on such dayes not concurring with others to the same excesse of riot were censured as enemies untotheir Princes Yet even in those primitive times the manners of Christians became degenerate as Baldwin observes in his cases of conscience p. 479. and that out of Tertullian as whom hee observes to have complained of it namely that Christans imitated the manners of the Heathen in this yea and grew worse then they in his booke de Idol c. 14. O melior fides nationum in suam sectam quae nullam Christianorum solennitatem sibi vendicat non Dominicam non Pentecostem etiam si nossent nobiscum non communicassent ne Christiani viderentur nos ne Ethnici pronuntiemur non veremur O the fayth of the Nations better then ours towards their own sect as who chalenge not to themselves any Christian solemnity not that of the Lords Day nor that of Whitsuntide Had they known it they would not communicate with us lest they should seem Christians we Christians feare not to be accompted Heathens O what a zelote did Tertullian shew himselfe in this nay what thinke wee of Leo and Anthemius Emperours were not they zelotes too in that decree of theirs alleaged by the former Baldwin Diesfestos majestati Altissimi dedicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari undoubtedly they meane hereby worldly pleasures such they would have no place on holy festivities and why but because they accounted those holy festivalls profaned thereby And may not King Iames also be censured for a zelote in making that proclamation of his for the reformation of abuses in profaning the Lords Day at his first comming into the Land to receave this Kingdome as his rightfull inheritance In the Conference before his Majesty at Hampton Court I finde mention made of it by D. Reynolds in this manner To the former Doctor Reynolds did adde the profanation of the Sabbath day and contempt of his Majesties proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which he earnestly desired a streighter course for reformation thereof and unto this he found a generall and unanimous assent All these be like were zelotes So was his Majesty also that now is together with all the Lords both spirituall and temporall and the house of Commons in that Act made in the first yeare of King Charles to preserve the Lords Day from profanation wherein are forbidden expressely and by name bearebaiting bulbaiting enterludes common playes and in generall all other unlawfull exercises and pastimes and over and above all meetings and assemblies or concourse of people out of their owne parishes for any sports or pastimes whatsoever and consequently no man ought on the Lords Day goe forth of his owne parish to any may-game or to see a Morrice-dance or dancing about May-poles and seeing the Apostle professeth that it is good to be zealous alwayes in a good thing Gal. 4. 18. and Christ hath died for us to redeeme us from all iniquity and to purge us a peculiar people unto himselfe zealous of good workes Tii 2. 14. let them in the Name of God be such zelots still this zeale being a zeale of Gods Glory and it becomes us to be zealous of his Glory considering how zealous hee is for our good Esay 9. 7. Esay 59. 17. Of the sufficiency of the following discourse we shall by Gods helpe consider in due time But I confesse it may be very sutable to these times whereof the Apostle prophecied men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and undoubtedly it will suit well with their affections like a sweete morsell to the epicure which hee roules under his tongue but all the praise is in parting and I would they would but thinke of that of the Prophet What will be the end thereof when wee shall give God cause to say of our Sabbath as hee sayd of the Jewish I have hated your Sabbaths And if there be any such practises of Satan on foote as to bring in the Jewish Sabbath let it be considered in the feare of God what doctrine doth more promote therein whether that which makes the celebration of the Lords Day Divine or rather that which makes it merely of humane institution and who seeth not that if it be left to the liberty of the Church they may bring in the Jewish Sabbath if it pleaseth them Though it be notoriously untrue as may be made to appeare both by Scripture evident reason and authority humane both ancient and moderne both Papists and Protestants that the Sabbath was not ordained immediately upon the creation yet were that negative granted since God hath manifested in his Law that he requires one day in seven to be set apart for his service it evidently followes even by the very light of nature that it were most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion of time for his service under the Gospell that consequently the observation of one day in seven is to be kept holy unto the Lord is now become morall and perpetuall unto the very end of the world neither was it ever heard that any man did set his wits on worke in devising a ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven A prefiguration of Ghrist in some respect hath beene found in the Jewish rest on the seventh day of the weeke but of any prefiguration of ought in Christ by an indefinite proportion of one day in seven the world dreamed not of till now neither doth any man offer to devise what possibly this might prefigure in Christ As for the third it cannot be denied but that