bounds and limits of truth out of inconsiderate zeal are all others to be censured to be men of the same mould Brotherly love and Charitie cannot but be better Judges 2 We see it carrieth antiquity with it and hath had allowance for a long time in the Churches of Christ 3 It is our rest day and so indeed a Sabbath for the word Sabbath is nothing else but rest so the name well agreeth with the nature of the thing 4 This name best leadeth us to the duty of the day which is to cease from weekely works which are not works of piety works of charity nor works of necessity and to imploy our holy rest on this holy day in the publike worship and service of Christ and in other Christian duties as is very excellently set forth in our thirteenth Canon 5 Learned and holy Bishop Lakes saith in his Thesis that eternali rest was shadowed out in the first Sabbath which our Lords day continueth and is a fore-taste of our eternall rest and a shadow thereof as lasting as the world This being so it may well be called the Sabbath day 6 If the fourth Commandment hath any perpetuity in it for a weekly day to be kept and ours being a weekly resting day then it may be called a Sabbath the Commandment propounding such a day under the name of Sabbath 7 All holy dayes appointed by God besides the weekly Sabbath were called Sabbaths and that upon these reasons because on them they rested to perform holy duties and had a holy Convocation Now why may not our Lords day because of our rest to holy duties and for the publick assemblies on that day be so called Our Linwood out of Aquinas saith Dies Dominicus dici potest dies Sabbati quia est requies vacatio ad Deum 8 The very Gentiles gave the name of Sabbath to their Festivalls as the Learned have observed 9 Christ lesus is the Lord of the Sabbath not only as God but as he is God-man or Mediatour for so himselfe saith the sonne of man is Lord also of the Sabbath Mark 2. 28. Now this Lordship as he is Mediatour he never layeth down 1. Cor. 15. 24. 23 whilest the world doth last and therefore he claimeth and holdeth the Sabbath for his honour that all may with a Sabbath honour the sonne as they have honoured the Iohn 5. 27. Father 10 If our rest into which Christ hath brought us which is a ceasing from sinne be called the keeping of a Sabbath as it is Heb. 4. 9 10 11. Then may a certain set day be so called for that therein we do not only hear and learn how to attain to the spirituall rest but do especially on this day labour through Gods grace to expresse the performance of it in holy and spirituall exercises CHAP. V. In what circuit of time this day hath been kept to weet weekly with the Reason thereof THere is a time for all things saith Salomon and nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be done but in time therefore must we needs have a time for the service of Christ which time is to be within the circuit of a week Saint Chrysostome telleth us from Gen. 2. 3. that God hath instructed us to set apart one day within the compasse of every week for spirituall exercises whereto agreeth our Reverend Hooker saying In his Eccl. Pol. pag. â—79 that we are bound to account the sanctification of one day in seven a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever Of this judgement saith Bishop White are divers Divines Cyted by Mr. sprim on the Sab. pag. 17. and 34. many of good note in the Church of God as Junius on Gen. 2. with others whereto may be added Learned Zanchius on the fourth Commandment who saith that one day of seven all men are to consecrate to the externall worship of God Pope Alexander said that both the old and new Testament Cyted by D. Heâ—â—inca 5. p. 2 depute the seventh day to rest Our Church in the Homily of Prayer teacheth us that Gods will and Commandment was to have a solemn and standing day in the week wherein the people should come together But what need I seek herein for consent when the whole Christian Church hath this 1600 yeers kept within this proportion of time which Custome is a Law for saith Saint Augustine Mos populi Dei instituta S. Aug ep c. 86. Majorum pro legetenenda sunt Now this observation of a day within a week is from Gods institution before the Law from the Creation who Gen. 2. having set down the dayes of a week took one within the Exo. 20. circuit of the week for his publick worship which he also commanded his people to observe under the Law both which hath been proved in the two former Treatises Now for the finding of proportion of time who can better proportion it for himself than God himself That is the fittest that can be imagined Nature cannot but acknowledge his wisdom and goodnesse in his choyce saith Master Dow. Hence is it no doubâ— that Peter Martyr said that one day of a week be consecrated pag. 24. 25. In loc Com. ca 7 to Gods worship is an ordinance of perpetuall force and Reverend Bishop Lakes confidently averreth that the seventh In his Thâ—sis part of time is Gods ordinance as everlasting as the world for saith the same Father of our Church the Lords day onely changeth but altereth not the portion of time prescribed Luther Dieterius on Dom. post Trin. Among the Scholemen Iacebus de Valen. and others Stâ—llâ— on Luke 14. Against Brab pag. 151. by the fourth Commandment by which we are guided to it Yea some have held that one day in seven is the morall part of the Commandment Sure I am there is acknowledged an equity in that Law durable for ever both for a time as also for the conveniency and sufficiency of time to which equity it is consonant saith Learned Bishop White that one day in seven be an holy day wherein Christian people ought to rest and give themselves to religious exercises who saith further that the common and naturall equity of that Commandement is morall to wit that Gods people are pag. 90 obliged to observe a convenient and sufficient time for publick and solemne divine worship and for religious and Ecclesiasticall duties And abstinence from secular labour and negotiation and keeping holy one day of every week both for mans temporall and naturall refreshing and for the spirituall good of his soul is very agreeable both to naturall and religious equity and it is grounded upon the ancient custom and practise of gods people in time of the Law And we Christians having obtained a larger measure of divine grace and our obligation to serve God and Christ upon his heavenly promises being greater than in the time of the Iews If in those former times of greater
the edicts of Kings and Emperours have disanulled what Councells and Synods have decreed against and what Learned and Godly men have both written and spoken against have been before set downe to which I adde here Concilium Antisiodorense in Anno 614. a thousand yeares since at which were 45 Bishops and others of the Clergie learned men who did forbid and expell publick dancing of women Synodus Turonensis in Anno 158◠prohibited on the Lords day rioting publick Feasts Galliards Dancing Clamours Morices Hunting Hawking to serve wine or victualls in Innes or victualling houses to any but strangers the playing of Prize Comedies Tragedies and other spectacles In France in the raigne of Charles the ninth and Henry the third all dancing was prohibited under paine of imprisonment For what doth dancing produce in the rude vulgars but lascivious wantonnesse and the fruit the begeting of bastards and sometime thereupon hath ensued unnaturall murthers by Mothers thereby thinking to hide the former sin Of which there be too many examples and of which one instance before of one gotten with child on the Lords day at night after dancing 4 All sports may well be judged to be forborne on the Lords day which God hath by his hand shewed his displeasure against upon the actors on this day for the reverence we owe to God in beholding his handy work by which he lessons us and giveth us instruction if it be not to observe the day better to what then if we shall make this use of it I am sure we doe not offend Thus we see what sports are on this day to be laid aside And if so I hope well the day will be better employed of many Let it not be offensive to any that I propound these Reasons to their pious considerations to leave their pastimes this day 1 The Scripture forbidding the doing of our own waies finding our owne pleasures and speaking of our owne words Esay 58. 13. By our owne he doth meane what we do please to doe or speake without warrant from him of our owne heads from our owne worldly or carnall desires for all this is properly our owne But if we doe what God commandes Heb 4. 10. Iudg. 2. 19. and what he warrants us that is not properly our owne but Gods For in the former we doe serve our selves and are our own in this we serve God and are his This scripture is the only place in holy writt which teacheth us how to keep a Sabbath spirituall unto God by teaching first what to avoide and then what we should be taken up with on this day to wit with an honourable esteeme of the day in considering whose day it is Gods holy day then what delight we take in it as a Sabbath day and count it honourable and so doe him honour shewing that we delight our selves in the Lord verse 14. This text speaketh first of nothing ☜ proper to the Jewes but what is common to us in keeping our Christian Sabbath with them And therefore the Prophet doth mention onely the Sabbath day and not their seventh day Now Christ is still Lord of the Sabbath Matt. 12. 2. Here is nothing spoken but what is durable for ever in keeping an holy day to the Lord which is First That the day be held an holy day Secondly That it be of the Lord. Thirdly That it be a rest day Fourthly That we delight in it and esteeme it honourable Fifthly That on this day we honour him not doing what we please but forsaking our selves do what he would have us to doe and so to manifest our delight to be that day in the Lord In all which I would faine know what is there that doth not belong to us in keeping our Christian Sabbath Thirdly the scope of the Prophet tendeth as well to us as to them for as in the former part of the Chapter he had laboured to reforme the abuse in their Fasts so here the abuse in their Jewish keeping of the Sabbath externally in an outward service and rest mixing withall their own wayes pleasures and speeches but did not keep it as holy to the Lord in a spirituall manner with delight to honour God as they ought to have done Doth not this tend to the reformation of keeping our Sabbath as most doe as the Jewes did theirs externally mixt with our own wayes pleasures and speeches but not internally with a spiritually delight in the Lord Therefore this Text is fitly urged by our Learned Divines for the religious observation of our Sabbath day 2 The force of the fourth Commandement is yet of continuance and bindeth us as in the former Treatise hath been proved on our Lords day and first to a rest then to the imployment of that rest to an holy use and so to keep the day holy But sports and pastimes are not to speak properly any rest nor are they any holy duties for which we rest thereby to keep the day holy to God Therefore to be forborn this day 3 It is reasonable in all equitie to give God one day wholly to him for spirituall worship and service and for the spirituall good of our own soules for ever who hath given us six whole dayes for our own service and for our outward and worldly estate concerning our bodies which be here but for a time why should wee then grudge to forbeare sports for one day denying God his own right and our poore soules their spirituall good for to satisfie the corrupt minde with corporall delights on this day 4 The libertie of sports pleasures and pastimes on this day steale away the heart from God in time of Divine Worship The thoughts of these pleasures choak the seed of the Luk. 8. 14. On the fourth Commandement word for pleasures as well as worldly cares choak them saith Saint Luke and more too saith Learned Bishop Downham for nature saith he presseth youth more to pleasure than others to their wordly profits So that the thoughts of them doe not only hinder in time of hearing but doth quite take away the heart from after-meditation private prayer and conference without which hearing for the most part becommeth fruitlesse Now if this libertie were restrayned and they set to singing of Psalmes and other Christian and heavenly recreations as Durand before calleth them they knowing whereto they should hold they would bee more attent in the Church and better exercised out of it especially if they were made to know that not to serve the Lord God with joyfulnesse and with gladnesse of heart doth not a little anger and provoke God to wrath Deut. 28. 47. 5 If sports and pastimes have any allowance from God it is either Legally or Evangelically But not Legally for the letter of the Law bindeth strictly Not Evangelically for albeit the rigour of the Law be mitigated by the Covenant of grace and wee by Christ freed from the curse thereof yet neverthelesse we are tyed in love and in
Scriptures Master Brerwood confesseth That it is meet that Christians dedicate the day wholly to the honour of God that we should not bee lesse devout in celebrating the Lords day than the Jewes in celebrating their Sabbath Because saith hee the obligation of our thankfulnesse is more than theirs Therefore hee wisheth that it were most religiously performed with attendance to holy devotion This day faith Calvin is wholly to bee dedicated to him Calv. on Deut. cap. 5. vers 12. 13. 14. and it is necessarie that so we may intend wholly to the minding of Gods works and bestow the day in praysing and magnifying Gods name wee have no cause saith hee to grudge the giving of one day to him seeing hee leaveth us six for one Let any man give a reason if they give any part of the day to Christ why they should not think him worthy of all the day Is it too much for him and whole six little enough for our selves If wee will take a part from him for the whole none will except they be worse than Jewes and Pagans in observing their dayes which part is it not the morning for when shall we begin then to serve him Not the ending of the day for why are we weary of well doing Gal. 6. Gal. 3. 3. shall wee begin in the spirit and end in the flesh A liberall friend that hath seven pounds in his hands and giveth me six of them freely owing me nothing to imploy the seventh for him If I should grudge to bestow it wholly and take without leave any part of it to my selfe were I not most ungratefull Againe every holy thing is holy unto the Lord and is it not sacriledge to robbe God either of the whole or of part Lastly let us consider this that hee which willingly gives not God all would give him none at all if it were not for by-respects more than conscience of duty For conscience will binde to give the whole where all is due as well as a part of the due Therefore God commanding a day and an whole day as he giveth us six whole dayes so let us afford him his owne day and that wholly CHAP. XV. How this day is to be kept holy morally as the anâ—ient Sabbath was kept FOr the better satisfaction of moderate minds and to cleare this point let us consider how the ancient Sabbath was kept morally how our Lords day was kept in the time of the holy Apostles how to be kept by the stablished authoritie of our Church and how Emperours Kings Councels Synods Fathers and others would have it kept yea God himselfe from profane pollutions Concerning the first the ancient Sabbath was kept in rest and in the employing of that rest unto religious duties which what they were see at large in the other Treatise Section 25. For the Ceremoniall and Leviticall Services on that seventh day they are abrogated so all the Jewish superstitition brought in by mens vaine Traditions are condemned likewise those accessorie precepts for the more strict rest on that day belonging only to the Israelites for a time are taken away and doe nothing concerne us and are not to be imitated of us But the ancient people of God are to be followed of us as farre as the fourth Commandement bindeth us in the naturalitie thereof in the spiritualitie and in its morallitie as the holy people of God then kept it in such common duties as wee are as well as they were bound to performe for Gods service and for the benefiting of their owne soules in the use and exercises of his heavenly ordinances on his holy day This is farre from any Judaizing at all so much laid in the dish and reproachfully cast upon many in these times but without cause at all if the matter be well weighed and they rightly understood as it were to bee wished Their Service was both in the forenoone and in the afternoone every day Num. 28. 3. Exod. 29. 38. then much more on the Sabbath day For in the morning of their Sabbath they had the Service in the Tabernacle and Temple and their Sacrifices doubled Num. 28. 9. and also burning of incense in the morning Exod. 30. 7. So in the afternoone both Sacrifices and burning of incense and thus every day continually Exod. 29. 38. 30. 7. 8. To this David alluded in Psal 141. 2. This afternoone Service was about three aclock and called the ninth houre of Prayer Acts 3. 1. what time the godly used to pray Dan. 9. 21. and which Eliah observed in the offering of Sacrifice 1 King 18. 29. and we read while the incense was offered the people were devout in their prayers Luk. 1. 10. Preaching was also in the Temple for there Christ preached Matth. 26. 55. Mark 12. 25. Luk. 19. 47. John 7. 28. of which as of any strange thing the chiefe Priests and the Elders did not aske him but of his authoritie so to doe Matth. 21. 23. Luk. 20. 1. 2. And into the Temple earely in the morning came hee to teach John 8. 2. and the people to heare Luk. 21. 38. whither the Jewes alwayes resorted John 18. 20. Here also the Apostles preached Acts 3. 1. 12. 5. 21. 23. 42. And in this place no doubt was it in which the Scribes and Pharises sate to teach the people Matth. 23. 2. It is most certaine that on the Sabbath day in the Synagogues there was constant reading and preaching Acts 15. 21. 13. 27. In the morning Christ went in to preach Mark 6. 2. in other places it is not so evident what time it was whether in the forenoone or afternoone when hee came into their Synagogues Mark 1. 21. Luk. 4. 16. 13. 10. nor what time of the day the Apostles went into the Synagogues Acts 13. 14. 14. 1. 17. 2. 10. 18. 4. 19. nor is it certain whether they did depart home a while and came againe It may be they held out from the beginning to the ending and to the breaking up of the Congregation as it seemeth probable in Acts 13. 43. so Nehe. 8. but it is certaine that upon their dayes of fasting they did hold out and continued together from the beginning to the end Nehem. 9. 3. Whatsoever they did for the time they holily begun their Divine exercises with a blessing Nehe. 8. 6. and ended with a blessing Num. 6. 23. 26. Lev. 9. 22. 2â— CHAP. XVI How our Lords day was kept in the Apostles dayes and the Primitive times THe Lords day being knowâ— to bee an holy day and to be kept holy the Church rested on this Histo pag. 95. part 2. day for performance of religious and Christian duties as Doctor Heylin acknowledgeth There was an assembly of Christians they came together saith the Text Acts 20. 7. who came together the whole Church 1 Cor. 14. 23. whither into some one place 1 Cor. 11. 20. 14. 23. for then they had no Temples but met
Archbishop Daroberniae in a Synod Anno 747 with the rest decreed that the Lords day should bee celebrated with the reverence most meet and to be dedicated only to the service of God Our last Archbishop Doctor Abbot so honoured the Lords day as he by his Chaplains licensed divers Treatises for observation of the Lords day and when a Minister presented him with a book to bee licensed which was made for liberty on that day he took it of him and before his face burnt it in the fire For Bishops S. Ambrose telleth us it is well knowne saith he how carefully the Bishops doe restraine all toying light and filthy Dances if at other times then on the Lords day Bishop Babington on Exod. 16. saith that Drinkings Dances Wakes Wantonnesse Beare-baiting and Bull-baiting were wicked prophanation of the Lords day Bishop Downham on the Commandements saith They that keep the day for idle rest make it Sabbatum Boum or Asinorum They that defile it with drunkennesse and the like make it Sabbatum Diaboli and they that prophane it with sports make it Sabbatum aurei vituli Bishop Hooper that Godly Martyr On the ten Commandements saith The Lord sanctified the Sabbath day not that wee should give our selves to illnesse or to such Ethnicall pastimes as is now used amongst Ethnicall people c. Bishop Bayly in his Practice of Piety saith We are this day to abstaine from the works of our callings carrying burdens Faires and Markets studying any Book but Scripture and Divinity all recreations and sports grosse feeding liberall drinking and talking about worldly things Bishop White hath uttered an Against Brab holy speech who saith that all kinde of recreations which are of evill quality in respect of their object or are attended with evill and vicious circumstances are unlawfull and if used on the Lords day are sacrilegious for they rob God of his honour to whose worship and service the holy day is devoted and they defile the soules of men for the clensing and edifying whereof the holy day is appointed 3. Learned Divines NIcho de Clemangiis de novis celebritatibus non instituendis tells us that especially the Lords day and solemne Festivalls should be wholy and onely consecrated to more speciall worship and spent in duties of Devotion in lauding and blessing him for his more speciall favours Doctor Pocklington In his Serm pag. 13. hath a right speech howsoever it be that a little after he varieth saying If the first day of the week be the Lords day as he in another place yeelds it we must look to do the Lords work on it and not trench upon him by doing our own worke thereon yea he cyteth Saint Augustine for this Page 5. that men should leave all worldly businesses on Saints dayes Et maximè Diebus Dominicis especially on the Lords dayes that they betake themselves wholly to the Lords service Reverend Hooker saith that the voluntary scandalous contempt In Eccl. Pol. ca. 5. pag. 385. of the rest from labour wherewith God is publickly served wee cannot too severely correct and bridle Master Dow teacheth a cessation from ordinary labours and holds them In his dâ—scourse of the Sab. pag. 28. unlawfull on this day as they hinder a man from applying himselfe to divine duties and therein are contrary to the divine precept and the morality thereof He requireth first A morning preparation in private Secondly Warneth men that they doe not by improvidence or negligence or forgetfulnesse draw upon themselves a necessity to omit or hinder the dutyes to which this day is consecrated Thirdly that the hindrances and our defects bee supplied by private Devotions and Meditations Fourthly that it is good and commendable to spend the rest of the day in holy meditations private prayer reading and calling to minde what we have read or heard Vincentius Bellovecensis and Bellarmine have condemned Specul morale lib. 3. Concio 6. de Dominic 3. advent Stage-playes Enterludes Masques mixt-Dancing which they call lascivious to be especially on the Lords day most execrable Alex. Fabricius in his destructorium vitiorum pars 4 saith That the Sabbath by dancing is prophaned So did the godly Albigenses and Waldenses who also in a short In the History of the Walden part 3. b. 2. Catechisme upon the Commandments would have the Christians keep the Sabbath in ceasing from worldly labours from sinne and idlenesse and to doe things as might be for the good and benefit of their soules It were tedious to recite the learned in the later times teaching the holy observation of this our Lords day I will Sect. 16. cap. 24. end only with the harmonie of Confessions where it is said that the Lords day ever since the Apostles time was consecrated to religious exercises and unto holy rest CHAP. XXIII God would have our Lords day religiously observed and not to be prophaned GOd doth informe us by his word by which wee finde his institution of one day in a week from the creation as in the first Treatife have beene proved to bee sanctified to holy uses wee finde also the same established by his Law given on Mount Sinai as is manifested in the former Treatise And from the word in the New Testament we finde one day the first day of the week to have been observed and the observation continued now this 1600 yeeres So that one day in a week hath beene given to God as sacred and holy for holy rest in his worship and for holy duties to be performed publickly privately now above five thousand five hundred fourescore yeers some count 6000 a time long enough to settle this truth to observe such a day and as the holy people in the former times before Christ kept their day holily morally so should wee our day too But as God inctrusteth by his word so doth hee also by his works he is said to speak by the work of his providence Geness 24. 50. 51. And when his judgements are in the Esai 26. 10. earth the inhabitants of the world are to learne righteousnesse thereby and even in this for not observing his holy day for as before he punished his people for the prophanation of their Sabbath as the Scripture witnesseth in many places So hath the Lord punished the prophanation of our Christian Sabbath dedicated to his honour and service and hath pleaded by his punishments for the sanctification thereof and to deterre men from the prophaning of it This we must know that there is no evill in a City but the Lord doth it to wit the evill of punishment and the same commeth for sin of what nature or kinde soever the judgements be which are three fold 1 Immediate judgements wherein Gods hand is clearely seene which all will easily acknowledge with feare Such a judgement was the drowning of the old world the burning of Sodome and Gomorrah with fire from heaven So that of Nadab and Abihu with