doe not so strictly observe the outward ceremoniall rest as they were bound to doe Secondly I say that our Church is so farre from abridging God of one day in seven that it gives more as having appointed and consecrated divers Holy dayes to the same solemne and publike worship of God which is enjoyned to bee performed upon the Lords Day For these though they may admit some difference in regard of their accidentall dignity in as much as those benefits commemorated in them are greater or lesser yet in regard of their essentials they are equall as being all of them dedicated to the honour of the same God in memory of some great and speciall benefits vouchsafed to the Church and therefore doe goe pari passu in our Canons and in our ancient Statutes which require the same observance of both under the same penalty And therefore those who stand so much for a whole Day of seven to be consecrated to God if the worship of God were all they affected might see that there is a compensation made for the defect which they so much complaine of in our observation on the Lords Day and they themselves might doe well to take advantage by a religious observation of these dayes to make up their failings on the Lords Day But this they are so farre from that they account the observation of these dayes a breach of the fourth Commandement and thinke it a sin to make more Holy dayes then one in seven In which regard it cannot be judged altogether impertinent if I here take occasion to vindicate the practise of our Church from their unjust censures And in the first place I may returne their own Argument upon them and say Is it not reason that God should now under the Gospel have more set dayes to commemorate his benefits then one in seven as well as under the Law Vnder the Law we know they had beside their weekly Sabbaths the Passeover Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles and not onely those which had Gods expresse command for their Institution but the Feast of Purim and of the Dedication which as I have before shewed were ordained by the Church without any expresse command of God and observed by our Saviour himselfe whose example alone if any thing is sufficient to exempt us from scrupling at the like now in the time of the Gospel Secondly if they will not runne cleane counter to their owne principles and deny the morality of the fourth Commandement altogether they must acknowledge thus much at least to bee moral That there ought to be a certaine part of our time given to God and some dayes set apart for his publique worship Now these being left undetermined in the word of God if it bee not in the power of the Church to determine them I wonder how that precept should be observed And if the Churchupon this ground have reason and power to appoint any one Day why not more seeing her power is not limited or restrained within any other bounds but those generalls of decency and order which I presume no man will say are transgressed in the ordination of those Holy dayes which are observed among us Thirdly to this that such times are in the generall commanded by God wee may adde two things more which being well considered will abundantly discharge the observation of such dayes from superstition and those are First that the duties therein required are no other then such as according to the word of God ought to bee performed by all Christians For what else is required on those dayes but the solemne prayers and prayses of God in the Church joyned with the hearing of his Word and a speciall commemoration of his benefits which as on those dayes were received And which of all these is not required in the word of God And if it bee lawfull yea commanded that wee should performe those duties at all times and upon all occasions they cannot at any time whensoever they are performed justly bee termed superstitious or which must follow by consequence unlawfull 2. The other thing to bee considered is That the grounds and occasions of the Churches determination of these duties unto those speciall dayes which wee observe are such as deserve no lesse As being reall great and generall benefits vouchsafed by God unto his Church First they are true and reall not imaginary fictions founded upon the fained actions or falle martyrdomes of titular Saints such as are many in the Romish Church Secondly they are great not ordinary or common benefits and therefore require a more then ordinary acknowledgement Thirdly they are generall the good whereof redounds not to a few but to the whole body of the Church and so if our acknowledgement bee answerable it must be publike and solemne performed joyntly by all those that are partakers of the benefits Now if wee shall runne thorough the whole Kalender take an impartiall view of all our Holy dayes wee shall not find so much as one among them all of which thus much may not truely bee affirmed For they may almost bee ranked under two heads First such memorable steps in the story of our blessed Saviour as by which the great worke of our redemption advanced unto its happy accomplishment Secondly the memorialls of that goodnesse and glory which he afterwards manifested to the world by his holy Apostles Evangelists and Martyrs whom he honoured so much as to make them founders of that Kingdome which cost him his dearest blood to count them worthy to suffer death for his sake Concerning the former I suppose there is none but will say in the words of the Psalmist as our vulgar translation reades them The mercifull and gratious Lord hath so done his marvellous workes that they ought to be had in remembrance And what better meanes can be devised then the appointing of set solemne dayes for their commemoration I cannot see And this was the Churches aime in appointing these dayes So S. Austine We saith he dedicate and consecrate to God the memory of his benefits in solemne feasts and set dayes least in the revolution of times ingratefull forgetfulnesse should creepe upon us The like may be said of the latter For if our Saviour appeared so glorious in them and by them conveighed so great and generall blessings to his Church what reason can bee alleadged why the Church may not retaine an annuall honourable memoriall of them to the glory of him whose instruments they were The Psalmist tells us that the righteous shall bee had in everlasting remembrance And the Wiseman That the memory of the just shall be blessed And therefore to have some dayes in which the memories of those who were in their generations most famous for righteousnesse may with blessing be perpetuated is but their due and agreeable to his will who hath granted them that honour so that we may justly solemnize the dayes wherein those barning and shining lights first
appeared to the world or the dayes of their departure hence which were the dayes of their happy inauguration into the Kingdome of glory when they both left to the Church militant the glorious example of their Christian fortitude and became an occasion of new joy to the Church triumphant by the accession of new Citizens to that heavenly society Either of which afford matter sufficient of solemne joy and rejoycing to the Church and consequently of praise and thanksgiving unto God Lastly to convince them yet farther out of their owne principles They allow the Church power in the times of great calamities either feared or felt to appoint solemne dayes of fasting and humiliation and those dayes they will have held as Sabbaths extraordinary and that therein men are bound to abstein from their bodily labours according to the same streitnesse that they are bound to observe the Sabbath I would gladly then know some reason why the Church should want power to ordeine the like dayes for the celebration of speciall benefits to be observed not as Sabbaths which are now antiquated and no presidents for us Christians but with such a cessation from labours as is necessary for the performance of the publike worship of God and fit to accompany such solemnities of publike joy and rejoycing to which Rest is more naturally requisite then to the times of sorow and humiliation But it is not the having of such dayes that some scruple at or the duties required in them for they much desire to have some dayes besides the Lords day to meet together for the hearing of the Word and for the words sake can be contented to endure the Liturgie of the Church But the things which they dislike are first the obligation that we put upon men for the observance of them for they would have the appointment and observation of them to bee held a thing indifferent and no duty binding conscience Secondly they dislike the names that we give them in that we style them the dayes of such or such a Saint which to them seemes to favour of Idolatry neither would they have them called holy dayes or accounted more holy then others forasmuch as such difference of dayes belonged to the Iewes and is now under the Gospell taken away To these I answer first for the obligation of the Churches commands and that it is not a thing indifferent to obey or disobey them I have already spoken so much as may satisfie those that are not studious of contention I onely adde now upon this occasion that it seemes to me very ridiculous to grant the Church a power of ordeining such times and yet to require that the observation of them so ordeined be held a thing indifferent For if their ordinance lay no tye upon men but leave things notwithstanding still indifferent their power surely is to no purpose and nothing worth Touching the names that we give them I say first that the festivalls of the Saints are dedicated not to them by whose names they are called but to God To him and not them our prayers are directed to him our praises though for them and with reference to those blessings which by them are vouchsafed unto us Wee honour him as the author of all that good which either they or we by them are partakers of We honour them only as his instruments and as those who having beene imitators of our blessed Saviour are worthy patternes of our imitation To this purpose wee finde the Church of Smyrna answering the like calumny raised against them by the Iewes upon occasion of their affection which they expressed toward that glorious Martyr Polycarpus These men say they are ignorant that we cannot ever leave Christ who suffered for the salvation of the whole world nor can we worship any other For him we adore as the Son of God as for the Martyrs we worthily love them as disciples and imitators of him their Lord for their insuperable affection toward their King and Master whose partners also we desire to be and to become their disciples And thus much they might easily answer themselves out of our Church Liturgy where there is no one word in any office appointed for any Saints day that gives the least ground or colour to this scruple The other imputation of Iudaisme which they taxe us with because we style our Christian festivalls holy dayes hath as weake a foundation as the former For I willingly grant them what they alleadge for the countenancing of this objection That now under the Gospell the difference of times and dayes is no lesse taken away then of meates That is as we have now no meats that are uncleane either in themselves or by reason of any positive precept given to the Iewes but that they may bee eaten with thanksgiving so neither is there any day or time which in it selfe or by reason of any such Iudaicall precept is now to be accounted more holy then others all this is evident from the places which they alleadge for this purpose Whereupon wee conclude that none of the Iewish Festivalls not the Sabbath it selfe ought to be observed by Christians nor which is more any Christian Festivall to be observed after the Iewish maner or with their rites and Ceremonies And this may justly taxe them who stand either for the Iewish Sabbath or which turne the Lords day into a Sabbath exacting the same strictnesse of observance in regard of the outward Ceremoniall Rest But it can no way prejudice the Church in consecrating dayes to the service of God or in accounting them though in themselves and setting aside the Ordinance of the Church they are all alike yet in relation to the duties to be performed in them more holy then others And this they must grant unlesse they will affirme one of these three things First That the workes of God now under the Gospel are not so great so glorious and consequently so worthy of set times for their solemne remembrance as heretofore under the Law Or that the Christian Church hath now lesse power in appointing dayes for the solemne worship of God in relation to those glorious works of his then the Iewish Synagogue once had Or lastly That the worship which wee Christians now performe to God is not so holy as that in the time of the Iewish Synagogue and so lesse able to sanctifie the dayes in which they are performed But every one of these being most absurd I conclude that to consecrate certaine dayes besides the Lords day to the solemne worship of God in memory of his speciall blessings vouchsafed to the Church on such dayes and to account such dayes so consecrated more holy then others is lawfull and free from all superstition and Judaisme And however that they who would faine affixe so extraordinary holinesse to the Lords day should of all men have abstained from this last imputation till they had better proved the immediately divine
the fourth Commandement as it enjoynes the externall observation of the seaventh day is not morall either of these wayes Whence S. Augustine saith That among all those ten Commandements that onely of the Sabbath is figuratively to be observed whereas as hee after saith Wee observe the other Commandements there properly as they are cōmanded without any figurative signification And generally the Ancients as Calvin hath truly observed called this Precept a shadow which as he there saith was truly but not fully said of them And therefore they do better and more fully expresse the nature of this Cōmandement which say it is partly morall and partly ceremoniall So Peter Martyr and generally all Divines both reformed and others use now to speake Now if any shall therefore thinke it unworthy a place in the Decalogue and to be rankt with those precepts which are morall and of perpetuall observance Aquinas may seeme to give them full satisfaction who saith 1. that the Precept concerning the Sanctification of the Sabbath is put among the Precepts of the Decalogue for that which is moral in it 2. That this Precept as Ceremoniall ought rather to have a place in the Decalogue then any other The other Ceremonies being signes of some particular effects of God but this of the Sabbath was a signe of a generall benefit viz. the Creation of the Vniverse So that that which Amesius will have a most certaine rule and received among all the best Divines as he calls them That all and onely the Morall precepts were delivered by the voyce of God himselfe and by Him written in the tables of stone is not true unlesse Saint Augustine Calvin Martyr c. be in his esteeme none of the best Divines Yet perhaps wee may admit that rule so farre as to say That all the Morall Precepts are contayned in the Decalogue and that every Precept there contayned is Morall though all of every Precept be not so but may have something that is ceremoniall annexed to it which haply God thought good to place among the morall precepts to intimate the perpetuall necessity of having some ceremonies in the Church though that ceremonie be not necessarily perpetuall but with the rest of that nature to expire at the death of Christ which though wee admit yet cannot any justly charge us that wee diminish any of the tenne words or that wee expunge one Commandement out of the Decalogue in as much as wee affirme that onely which was ceremoniall in this Commandement to bee expired and out of date and that there is in it a morality still remaining which retaines its full power of obligation and exacts the same obedience under the same penalty which it did at its first promulgation or inscription in the heart of Adam In which respect the Church hath good cause still to use her accustomed Antiphona at the repeating of this Commandement as well as at any of the rest and to pray Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keepe this law And here because some who love to have this Commandement termed morall though thereby they intend no more then what hath beene already granted use so to argue as if they did not acknowledge it at all to be ceremoniall it will not be amisse before wee proceed any further to answere some of the principall arguments that are brought to this purpose And I wil begin with that of our Saviour Math. 5. 17. Thinke not that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets I came not to destroy but to fulfill Which words in their opinion make strongly for the morality and perpetuall obligation of the fourth Commandement For from hence they argue to this purpose That which our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill is still in force but hee did not destroy the law contayned in the Decalogue Therefore it is still in force For answere hereunto I say That in this argument two things are by them supposed First they suppose that by the Law in this place is meant only the law contained in the Decalogue or ten Commandements Secondly That our Saviours fulfilling and not destroying this law was the ratifying and perpetuating of the observation of it under the Gospel If wee grant them both these wee shall condemne the Christian Church for altering the day from the seventh to the eight or first day of the week which cannot stand with this exposition of our Saviours speech who in the words following saith expresly That not one jot or title shall passe from the Law But both these are beside the meaning and intent of our Saviour as will easily appeare to any that with indifferency doth consider his words For First the Law which our Saviour here speakes of is of larger extent and latitude and comprehends not onely the Decalogue or law morall but the Ceremoniall and judiciall also As being indeed put for the Pentateuch or five bookes of Moses And so The Law and the Prophets as much as Moses and the Prophets Which formes of speech are used as a Periphrasis of the old Testament of which these two are the maine essentiall parts The Bookes of Moses so containing and describing the Law that they reserre whatsoever else they containe unto that receive their denomination from it as from the principall subject of them The Prophets that is their Bookes comprehend all the rest of the old Testament which the Hebrewes divide into the former and latter Prophets and the Hagiographa All which though they be not Prophesies being written by divine inspiration and by holy men as they were moved by the Spirit of God may justly be termed The word of Prophecy and passe under the name of the Prophets That the Law is taken in this sense is manifest by the use of the same phrase else where Where not only the duties commanded in the Decalogue but Christ and faith in him is said to be taught and witnessed by the Law to which purpose the Apostle S. Paul useth the same phrase Acts 28. 23. Rom. 3. 21. Now what word in all the Decalogue gives witnesse to Christ or perswades the faith which is required in him Certainly however some have found not onely the faith in Christ but the Sacraments also of the New Testament commanded in the Decalogue yet there is no one word there which imports any such thing Yea the very context evinces thus much for our Saviour having thus prefaced his exposition of the Law keeps not himselfe within the bounds of the Moral Law as appeares verse 18. And therefore Interpreters generally upon this place shew how our Saviour did not destroy but fulfill the Ceremoniall Law also as well as the Morall which were altogether needlesse if by the Law that onely were understood Now the Law being as it must needs be thus largely taken any man may easily perceive that the not destroying but fulfilling of it is not the ratifying and the perpetuating of