the latter and clean contrary to that of o Ignatìus Ep. ad Magne sianos circa medium epistolae Ignatius who lived wrote in the purest times styling it the Queene of daies Therefore c. Thirteenthly It 's only the divine prerogative of God himselfe to put holinesse into times and daies for he only is the fountaine of holinesse But the Lords day is an Holy-day and hath holinesse in it more then other daies whence it is that the Fathers frequently call it Sacred Mysticall Religiously to be observed Therefore doubtlesse made holy by God himselfe Fourteenthly None can appoint any thing to be a part of Gods worship in the Church but Christ who is the head of the Church to rule and govern her who can command the spouse but the husband But the observation of the Lords day is a speciall branch of Gods worship in the Church therefore none can none ought to institute it but Christ himselfe Fifteenthly There being a change of the Priesthood there was also a change of the Law saith the p Heb. 7.12 Apostle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word there used in the Originall signifieth the transposing of things one being put in the room and steed of another But the Iewes Sabbath was one of those things thus to be exchanged being Ceremoniall therefore our high Priest put an other in the room thereof but no other therefore the Lords day Sixteenthly Only Christ is Lord of the Sabbath to appoint and dispose thereof as he thinks good the Church can claim no such Lordship but the Sabbath is changed and another appointed in the place thereof which the whole Church observeth this change therefore was made by Christ not the Church Seventeenthly Old things are passed away all things are become new so the q 2. Cor. 5.17 Apostle The meaning is that Christ hath made all things new in his Church as new Creatures new Man new Covenant new Commandement new Way new Names new Song new Garments new Hierusalem new Heaven new Earth But unlesse Christ hath also made a new Sabbath he hath not made all things new Ergo c. Eighteenthly It is no way to be beleeved that Christ would leave his Church under the Gospell in worse condition then he found the Synagogue under Moses But if Christ left not his Church under the Gospell a Sabbath of Divine Institution he left it in a farre worse condition then he found the Synagogue which received a Sabbath from God himself as a speciall token of his love Ergo c. Ninteenthly If Christ hath left us no day of his own appointment and Institution it were our safest way to turne Iewes as some have done upon this very motive at least in this point for the Iewes day we are well assured was from God but we may say of the Lords day as they did of the Lord himselfe we know not whence it is But no man will say it is best for us to turne Iewes in this point Ergo c. Twentiethly The very Name is a sufficient demonstration of a Divine Institution for all things belonging to Gods worship which have the Lords own name stamped upon them were ordained by the Lord himselfe as the Lords Prayer the Lords Supper c. But the observation of the Christian Sabbath is a thing appertaining to Gods worship and hath the Lords own name engraven upon it by the r Rev. 1.10 holy Ghost himselfe Ergo c. The one and Twentieth That which Christ did immediatly institute in his own person and with his own mouth ordaine must needs be of divine institution But that Christ did immediatly in his own person institute the Lords day the * Ioh. 20.19.22 Evangelist makes apparent for he came into the midst of his Disciples the holy assembly the two first daies of the two first weekes then he blessed them breathed on them gave them the keyes of the Kingdome It 's very likely he did this every first day of the week from his Resurrection to his Assension * Act. 1.2.3 speaking unto them the things appertaining to the Kingdome of God Ergo c. The two and twentieth Christ whiles he was upon the earth after his Resurrection gaue the Apostles instruction and commands Acts 1.2 what these commands were may be knowne say Divines partly by their Doctrine and partly by their practice But if Christ gaue them such commands as is most apparent without question he would not omit to command them a day to remember him and his Resurrection in and to performe vnto him holy worship nay that this he did appeares also by their practice Ergo. The three and twentieth makes it more evident thus Whatsoeuer is an Apostolicall tradition is of Divine Institution for they deliuered nothing but what they first receiued But the Lords-daies obseruation is certainly an Apostolicall tradition * 1. Cor. 10. ◠for they appointed collections to be made for the poore that day the ordaining of the one doth necessarily inferre the other the duty of the day supposeth the day And withall this day hath been constantly obserued by the whole Church in all ages and that without the authority of any generall Councell the very definition of an Apostolicall tradition deliuered by ſ Illa quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus quae quidè toto terrarum orbe observantur Aug. ad Ian. ep 118. S. Augustine Ergo. The foure and twentieth If the Lords day were not of Christs institution to his Apostles then surely they by their practice haue drawne the Church of Christ into an horrible presumption as great as that of Ieroboam Antiochus and Antichrist himselfe changing times and seasons But God forbid any man should thinke so uncharitably of the Apostles therefore certainly they receiued warrant for what they did from Christ himselfe The fiue and twentieth If we keepe the Lords day warranted thereunto only by the Apostles practice for which they themselues receiued no precept then by the same reason we haue only the Apostles practice for abolishing the Iewes Saturday-Sabbath But we forbeare not Saturday-Sabbath only upon the Apostles practice and example for which doubtlesse they receiued a precept And indeed the examples of holy men not seconded by precepts shew what we may doe the case being the same not what we must doe Now the Church not only may but must forbeare Satterday-Sabbath and obserue the Lords day Ergo c. The six and twentieth That day on which the holy Ghost was giuen with all his graces with such efficacy that * Acts 2.41 S. Peter immediately with one short Sermon conuerted three thousand soules must needs be a day of Christs owne Instituting But this day was the Lords day the day of Pentecost Ergo c. The seuen and twentieth That day on which Christ reuealed himselfe unto S. Iohn acquainting him with his whole counsell concerning his Church to the worlds end was doubtlesse a day
questioned Are not we say they the faithfull Ministers of God men more spirituall then others who use not to mislead our people And are not our opposites men that seeke themselves that please the times having all the marks and characters of false Prophets Whereas the words of the Apostle exceed not the bounds of a modest and just defence But it will be farther objected that by this meanes we bring in the Papists Evangelicall counsels if any things were delivered by the Apostles in Scripture which are not precepts I answer that this is a meere calumniation For these Evangelicall counsels upon which the Romanists build their works of merit and supererrogation are they say Counsels of perfection by embracing of which they become higher in Gods favour and haue done more then is required at their hands for which they shall be more extraordinarily rewarded in Gods kingdome and by which they daily augment the Churches treasury Such counsels we utterly disclaime notwithstanding the Apostles haue advised many things of themselves in Scripture Inspired then the Apostles were as Pastors but these were not divine constitutions And hence it comes to passe the goverment which they erected for this appertained not to their Apostolicall but Pastorall charge was no setled or binding constitution Lastly directed also they were as private persons which belongs not to this place to enquire into * Ex traditionum vinculo quas à Christo acceptas Apostoli servandas reliquere Ecclesia eximere fideles non potest in aliis vero quae Apostoli constituerunt tanquam Ecclesiae pastores poterit summus Pontifex dispensare ibid. We must in the next place enquire of Apostolicall traditions These the Papists themselves the great admirers and advancers of them distinguish into two ranks For some h Alia divisio est Apostolicae traditionis nam alteras Apostoli à Christo domino acceperunt alteras spiritu sancto suggerente in Ecclesiae utilitatem tradiderunt Canus lib. 3. loc cap. 5. they say the Apostles immediatly received from Christ to be delivered to the Church forever to be kept As that Matrimony Confirmation Extreame Vnction are Sacraments of the Gospell These they delivered as Apostles from Christ and cannot be changed by any law or custome to the contrary no not by Papall authority it selfe Other Apostolicall traditions there are say they which they received not from Christ but were suggested unto them by the spirit for the profit of the Church and they instance in the fast of Lent and threefold immersion in Baptisme These they delivered as Pastors not Apostles and may be dispenced with as occasion shall require More plainly those Traditions which they received of Christ were saith Canus fidei dogmata articles of faith against which whosoever pertinaciously erreth is an Heretike but those other which they delivered by the motion of the spirit as Pastors only are not fixed but moveable in the Church According to this sense also I find the Fathers to speake of Traditions S. Cyprian relating what Pope Stephen had writen unto him against Rebaptization that nothing should be innovated in the Church but what was anciently a Tradition in this thing should be observed True saith i Vnde ista traditio uti une de dominicâ Evangelicâ authoritate descendens an de Apostolorum mandatis Epistolis veniens Ea enim facienda esse quae scripta sunt Deu◠testatur Cyp. Ep. ad Pomp. 74. S. Cyprian but whence comes this Tradition from Christ in the Gospell or from the Apostles in their Epistles If so then God himselfe saith the Father hath commanded by his servant * Ioshua 1. Ioshua to keep all such Traditions there we haue the first kind But in another place k Diligenter de traditione divinâ Apostolicâ traditione observandum est tenendum ut ad ordinationes ritè celebrandas Episcopus eligatur plebe praesente Cyp. ep 68. S. Cyprian writing to the Clergy and people of Spaine commending them for deposeing Basilides and Martialis from their Sees and placing in their roomes Sabinus and Felix saith that the choyce of Bishops and Ministers in the presence and with the approbation of the people was of divine and Apostolicall Tradition and observation Now who seeth not that here S. Cyprian speaks of those other Traditions deliuered and practised by the Apostles as the Churches Pastors which are no longer in force then the Church shall like For this choyce of Bishops and Ministers we are sure is neither delivered in the Gospell the Acts or the Epistles If I mistake not this also is that which the Professors at Leyden in their body of the Purer sort of Divinity as they call it hammer upon when they thus distinguish of Traditions Some say they there are whose cheife heads are contained in the Scriptures as the Apostles Creed Baptisme of Infants that Women should receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and here they adde that the Lords day be kept holy These they receive for divine but all other whatsoever they reject It were to be wished that they had expressed themselves in purer clearer tearmes their summa capita are so obscure as if purposely devised not to be understood For if they understand by the cheife heads of things the substance and matter of the thing delivered though in other words in Scripture as it should seeme to be their meaning by their instances in the Apostles Creed childrens Baptisme and Womens communicating they speak of things vnder precept and concurre with us in our distinction But if they understand by cheife heads whatsoever is named and mentioned in the writings of the Apostles as it seemes they also doe by instancing the Lords-daies observation then must they also receive Extreme Vnction the selling of possessions having all things common the Presbytery for Apostolicall traditions necessarily to be received for all these haue generall ground and footing in Scripture But to draw towards a conclusion in this poynt according to the doctrine of the Traditionaries themselves we affirme these things First that the observation of the Lords day is no divine Traditions delivered by Christ immediatly to his Apostles to be laid as a necessary duty upon his Church and the reason is because it s no where so delivered by them in the Acts or in the Epistles and because it is no Article of faith or practice necessary to salvation Neither haue they which haue gainesaid ever been reputed for Heretiques by the Church or any sober minded man Secondly we say notwithstanding that it is very probable for probability is our surest ground that the Apostles commended this day unto the Christians of those times in honour of Christs resurection and giue it the title of Lords day Thirdly that they never imposed it upon the Church as a necessary observation nay that themselves observed it not in those places where the Iewes had Synagogues and observed their Sabbath unlesse it were for breaking
place in Hosea 3 That he doth therefore begin a new argument against the Pharisees consisting of two things the first of the end and intention of the Law which was the good of man the other from his own office which was to be head both of men and Angels and therefore being to dispose of all things which tended unto mans good 4 That he intended by those words to rectify their superstitious conceits of the Sabbath As if he had said you magnify the Sabbath as if it were one of the greatest of all the commandements a maine end of mans creation but you must know that it was made for man and not man for it as were all the legall rites and ceremonies And if this be so I that am the Messiah am by my office Lord of the Sabbath and can and will abrogate the same in due time And that this abrogation of the law of the Sabbath was that which our Saviour did there at least insinuate unto them is plaine if we compare the text with that other of S. Matthew where he tels them that he is greater then the Temple having absolute jurisdiction a Templum Sabbatho serviebat ipse autem dominus erat Sabbathi Mald. in locum and Lordship over all Legall and Mosaicall rites Secondly that for which no man is to be censured and condemned is not a Morall Law for the Law of nature teacheth us to condemne the transgressors of all Morall precepts but no man is to be judged or condemned for the Sabbath b Col. 2.16 Col. 2.16 If any man say that the Apostle speaketh of the other feasts of the Iewes which also are called Sabbaths not of the seventh-day Sabbath in the commandement I answere First that he contradicts all Ancient and Moderne expositions Secondly that in all other places of Scripture where mention is made of their Sabbaths the weekly Sabbath is also included Nehem. 20.33 Esai 1.13 Hose 2.11 why not here Thirdly the Apostle had reason to have excepted this especially considering that his doctrine in that place is a doctrine of liberty for in cases of this nature unlesse men have their bounds set them they easily turne their lawfull and warrantable liberty into unwarrantable licentiousnesse Fourthly it is not likely nor agreeable to any rule that when all which are denominated are expressed as Sabbaths that which doth denominate viz. the weekly Sabbath should be excepted but on the contrary Fiftly the enumeration of the text is sufficient New-moones Holydaies What Ceremoniall feasts had the Iewes distinct from their weekly Sabbath which stands not under one of these heads Either therefore the Apostle useth tautologies which is not likely his discourse being in that place Polemicall a Multa festa habebant Iudaei quaedam quotanuis celebrari oportebat quaedam ineunte quolibet mense quaedam fingulis septimanis ut SabbathoruÌ„ haecomnia tanguntur ab Apostolo hoc in loco Salisbut in locum Or that Tripartite enumeration of new-moones holy daies Sabbath daies includeth also the weekly Sabbath Lastly the weekly Sabbath which the Iewes observed and circumcision were the two maine heads of Iudaisme for which in those times the Seducers so much contended therefore this weekly Sabbath is there especially to be understood Thirdly that which is a shadow of good things to come whose body was Christ cannot be a morall law for morall duties are eternall verities no fleeting and vanishing shadowes But the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement was such a shadow of good things to come As hath in part appeared by that place of the Apostle Heb. 4. and shall be farther evidenced in that which followes and hath generally been taught by all a Epâ—ph l. â— hae 8. Antiquity Ergo. Fourthly that which cannot be deduced out of the principles of naturall reason rightly informed without revelation cannot be Morall But the sanctifying of the Sabbath as it is set downe in the letter of the fourth commandement cannot be so deduced For first naturall reason cannot teach us that one of seven must be observed much lesse that it must be the seventh from the creation or that it must be one of seven in imitation of Gods rest For though men by the light of nature may know the creation and that God was the Creator I will adde though it be impossible the order how things were made yet that all this was done in sixe daies which is the ground of the Sabbath naturall light cannot reveale Neither can nature teach that a whole day from evening to evening is to be kept holy For this is the rule of the Sabbath in the fourth commandement which is rather against nature For nature teacheth to calculate from morning to evening as b Aquinas 1 â— 2. ae q. 74. Art 3. ad Sextum Aquinas sheweth nor doth nature shew us that straight exact resting from all manner of works as the Commandement and the exposition thereof given by Moses doth require If any man say that some shreads of all these were found amongst the Heathen in practice and that they were doubtlesse guided thereunto by the light of nature He speaks nothing to the purpose The question being not of their practice but the principles of naturall reason which must be produced and the deduction made according to those principles Now let any Philosopher or Divine laying aside his Bible make the demonstration out of meere naturall principles erit mihi magnus Apollo Fiftly which is also a Manifestum est itaq non aeternum nec spirituale sed temporale fuisse praeceptuÌ„ quod aliquando cessaret Tert. advers Iud. Tertullians reason whatsoever is de facto abrogated and abolished for practice whether by Christ or his Apostles cannot be morall for precept For whatsoever is morall must be perpetuall but the letter of the fourth Commandement is thus abolished for practice For first not the seventh from the creation but the eight is observed Secondly this eight was never observed by the Christians as the Iews observed their seventh neither for time from evening to evening nor for manner in any respect Lastly we keep not our day upon the same reason and ground with theirs as in memory of the creation of the deliverance out of Egypt of the fall of Mannah but of Christs resurrection Nor to the same end to represent unto us our spirituall rest in Christ For the faithfull have already obtained that for parts though not degrees neither was the Lords-day ever appointed to Shadow out unto us the eternall consummation thereof in Heaven The letter therefore of the fourth Commandement is in all the branches thereof vanished and abolished Ergo. Sixtly that which is morall admits no dispensation upon any ground of necessity Charity Piety or what else soever And this b Chrysost Hom. 40. in cap. 12. Math. St Chrysostome makes good saying in those things which are altogether unlawfull as whatsoever is forbidden by a morall Law 〈◊〉 excuse whatsoever
home or abroad This done give not your selves a breathing while suffer neither Child nor Servant to have any recreation for this were to prophane the day Assemble therefore your selves together recount what the Afternoon hath brought forth doe also likewise after supper Nor yet are you by all this discharged of the duties of the holy Sabbath unlesse the former practices have made such deep impression in your phansies as to season the nights sleep with holy dreames which is the last duty of the Sabbath These things thus done you may not only well expect a blessing upon what you have heard but upon all that is yours the whole week after For so highly is the seventh day in Gods favour that he doth not only sanctify it but also blesse it Now let another come and say the commandements of the Decalogue be not all of the same rank but amongst these the fourth is partly Morall partly Ceremoniall The Morall part is that God must have set and standing times for his outward and solemne worship all which times are religiously to be observed But the letter concernes only the Iewes written indeed as other holy things of Moses for our edification and consolation of which every part if full For first we must consider that the Sabbath as it is there litterally expressed was a signe of the separation of the Iewes to be Gods people from all other nations of the world which is now by the coming of Christ abolished as all other peices of the wall of partition are taken down that the Gentiles may glorify God as it is written a Deut. 32.43 Reioyce ye Gentiles with his people It did also shew them the pronenesse of our corrupt nature to doe our own wills and to fulfill our own lusts not suffering the Lord to rule in us by his Spirit whereas he requires perfect conformity of the whole man with an utter cessation from all his servile works of sinne and Satan It did in the third place lead them unto Christ who alone gives us test from these cruell Taskmasters who hath crucified the body of sinne in us and triumphed over Satan in his crosse And therefore as God the Father having made the World in sixe daies rested the seventh so God the Sonne finished all things which were written of him for our redemption on the sixt day and began his rest on the seventh obtaining for us the rest both of grace and glory The rest therefore of the Sabbath given in such severe precepts unto the Iewes doth lead us Christians under the Gospell unto the rest of sanctification which we must endeavour to keep inviolable with all watchfulnesse not suffering the least fire to be kindled in any of our lusts And as it doth thus edify so it ministreth no small comfort assuring us that as God rested from all his works and Christ from his so we also by degrees shall enter into rest in the Church militant till it be perfectly consummated in the Church Triumphant as the Apostle saith b Heb. 4.9 there remaineth a rest for Gods people Now let the indifferent Reader judge whether the former of these doe not burthen and indeed ensnare the consciences of men with many outward unprofitable impossible performances even to superstition and without end whereas this latter doctrine containes the very pith and marrow of Religion promotes the care and study of true sanctification and is most quickening and cordiall to weak and tender consciences But not to stray in this by-path any farther it were much to be wished as one of the greatest blessings of God upon his Church that a Sacra Theolegia pium prudentem Lectorem requirit Brad. L. 2. c. 31. Bradwardines rule were once well observed on all hands the study of Theology saith he requires both a pious and a prudent Reader pious in himselfe prudent in his doctrine a dove for the one a serpent for the other When these are divided in the Ministers divisions must needs be amongst the people and a house divided cannot long continue One looks at the holinesse of his Minister another to the learning of his neither as they ought and therefore the one straines at Gnats the other swallowes Camels both pester the Church the one with loosenesse the other with singularity He that is licentious like the Camels of the Ishmaelites carrying many a sweet burthen but never tasting them Against whom b Erasm Dial. Erasmus hath a bitter Satyr in his Cyclops Evangeliophorus is in shew a friend of the Churches peace a zealous promoter of the goverment thereof but indeed an enemy occasionally increasing that faction which he verbally cries downe For men think of him and all his disciplinarian invectives as c Non nisi magnum bonum à Nerone damnatum Tert. Ap. c. 5. Tertullian speaks of Nero and his persecuting the Gospell it must needs be some good thing which so wicked a man as he condemned In vaine doe these Vipers goe about to devoure with their mouthes that faction which themselves either breed or cherish at least by their lives On the other side he that is singular whom with Aelians Tiger either the sound of a Bell or musick of a Timbrell causeth to run mad cares not whether he runs and drawes others after him so long as he runs as the phrase is on the right hand By this meanes his duties in Religion daily grow and multiply as either his own or some other mans head and fancy runs this is Idolatry that superstition this is prophane that is abomination and Antichristian and what not And he that dares think otherwise is tantùm non Anathema But did these men rightly consider of errours they should find little difference in regard of their malignity He that fals from a bridge hath as little safety as comfort though it be on the right hand Nay it would be no paradoxe to affirme that errours of this kind are most dangerous being lesse discerneable in themselves lesse burdensome to the conscience lesse hopefull to be reformed and being indeed the illusions of Satan transforming himselfe into an Angell of light in which shape he becomes the fowler Divell CHAP. XI Wherein the name of the Christian mans Feast day is proposed with those arguments which seem to conclude for the name Sabbath THe names of things if rightly given serve much to disover their natures On the other side a Omnia periâ—litanâ—ur alitèr accipi quà m sunt amittere quod sunt dum aliter accipiuntur si aliter quà m sunt cognominantur Tert. de car Chr. Tertullian saith well all things are in danger to be mistaken if they retaine not their true and proper names Being therefore to treat of the Christian festivall and the Questions moved concerning the same the first thing which offers it selfe is whether it must or fitly may be stiled the Sabbath day The affirmative tenent is supported by these reasons First those names which God himselfe
to understand the text Papists indeed gladly extend it farther but cannot To the three and twentieth that it descended from the Apostles by tradition may with more ease be denied then ever the contrary can be proved But we must remember to distinguish of Apostolicall inspirations and traditions according to the doctrine of the Traditionaries themselves before delivered that it descended from them as Pastors not Apostles as a thing of their owne instituting not of the Lords commanding S. Augustines definition we acknowledge and desire no other Iudge For first it is cleare that d Quo tempore Christiani se à Iudaeis seiunxerunt diem dominicam feâ—iari caeperunt non est memoriae proditum Magd. Cent. 1. lib. 2. c. 6. no man can shew when the Iewes and Christians severed their assemblies Secondly many particular Churches varied one from another in this poynt as it hath been said Thirdly the Lords day was never observed as a Sabbath with cessation from works till Constantines edicts commanded it which were afterwards enlarged or restrained by Ecclesiasticall constitutions That the Primitive Church in the time of persecution observed the Lords day as a Sabbath hath no ground at all in Scripture and is not consonant unto reason because certaine it is that they kept the Iewish Sabbath till the Synagogue was buried Neither is it likely that they kept two daies together or if they did is it probable that neither the Iewes should quarrell at this observation nor the Heathens who derided the Iewes for mispending the seventh part of their lives in idlenesse note it in the Christians over whom they held watchfull eyes Or is it likely that the Primitive Fathers who wrote Apologies for the Church either to the Emperour or against the Gentiles in which they expressed the whole carriage of the Church should never so much as mention this daies observation as taken up and kept as the Iewish Sabbath by divine institution If we consider Sabbath duties named in the argument certaine it is that they preached no more nor so much on that day as they did upon others for this they alwaies did on the Iewes Sabbath because of the concourse of people S. Peters sermon upon the day of Pentecost which was the Lords day was accidentall occasioned by those that mocked at them and their gifts of tongues S. Pauls sermon at Troas hath beene already examined and as for their collections on the Lords day I wonder from whence it should be so generally conceived that they were then either commanded or made S. Paul bids theÌ„ indeed provide a benevolence for the poore Saints at Hierusalem against his comming and that they might be in readinesse he wils every man the * 1 Cor. 16.2 first day of the weeke to lay apart by himselfe not to collect in the assembly So that this being a particular occasion was particularly ordered by the Apostle as their wise Pastor not as a ruled case to bind the Church for ever Nay farther we may affirme that collections are no essentiall duties of the Lords day neither are they so esteemed and used in most congregations living as we doe in a setled estate wherein the law hath provided for the poore in another kind The Sacrament of the supper was indeed constantly administred every Lords day but the reason was no way Sabbatharian for the Sacrament being the badg of Christianity could not be received in the Iewish Synagogue wherein they performed other duties Besides they much mistake which judge of their Communions by ours as if they only received upoÌ„ resting daies with sermons before and collections after they only met together in some private Chamber to break bread without any more adoe And this they did upon the Lords day as most sutable to that service wherein Christ was to be remembred Lastly admitte all the argument requires we have only the ancient practice of the Church but this makes no divine institution by the confession of them that most advance the Churches power e Non ideò aliquid est iuris divini quiâ— olim illud Ecclesâ—a usurpaverit Greg. Val. de Euch. q. 7 the Papists themselves To the foure and twentieth That the Apostles should be guilty themselves and make the Church guilty of so damnable a presumption as this argument speaketh of were indeed a blasphemous consequence but the best is this terrible inference hath no acquaintance at all with the antecedent the reputed Father thereof For what was the presumption of Ieroboam and Antiochus figures of that which shall be practised by Antichrist But the changing of those times which God appointed to be observed by his Church commanding others to be kept in their places and that out of impious and blasphemous intentions to subvert true Religion and to set up Idolatry in the roome thereof Did the Apostles so God forbid But the Iewish Sabbath being expired and having breathed out its last gaspe that the publike worship of God might be upheld with decency and order they commanded the observation of the Lords day unto the Primitive Christians which hath no likenesse at all with those things here spoken of To the five and twentieth It is true that the practise of holy men in Scripture not seconded by precept bindeth not the conscience only their example sheweth us the lawfulnesse and expediency of the things practised upon like occasions with like circumstances and this is our warrant for observing the Lords day But for despising the Saturday-sabbath we have more then the naked practice of the Apostles For in all their Epistles they proclaime all Leviticall ordinances and such was that Sabbath to be ceased under the Gospell Christ who was the substance being come To the six and twentieth Whether Pentecost fell on the Lords day is questioned by some and denied by many their reason is because the fifty daies were to begin the morrow after the Passover Levi. 23.16 But plaine it is that our Saviour did eate the Passover upon Thursday-night and so Saturday the Iewes Sabbath must be the first and last from the fifty daies To avoyde this objection f In Ex. c. 39. Rupertus reads the text Thou shalt account from the next day after the Sabbath understanding it of the Sabbath properly so called or weekely Saturday-sabbath and so our Lords day being the next following is made the first and the last of the fifty But this is a plaine mistake of the text For the first day of unleavened bread being commanded to be a Sabbath is that Sabbath there spoken of from whence they were to begin their account Secondly therefore others interpret those words Thou shalt number fifty dayes from the first day of unleavened bread for not only the first but the last also of those dayes was a Sabbath exclusively shutting out the first day after from the beginning of the number of the fifty and by this meanes they bring it also to be the Lords day But whether doth this hold for