that were vnder the law that wee might receive the adoption of sonnes Secondly the Iews by reason of their long abode in a place of continuall servile toyle could not suddainely be weaned and drawne unto contrary offices without some impression of terror whence the severity with which this duty was enjoyned and the violation thereof punished was to them most necessary And besides we know that there is nothing more needfull then to punish with extremity the first transgressors of those Lawes that require a more exact observation for many ages to come These considerations then being peculiar unto them that strict rest which was thereupon exacted being but accidentally annexed to the principall sanctification of the Sabbath cannot belong unto us by vertue of that command by which it was enjoyned them And this is confessed even by those that stand most for the observation of the Sabbath who grant that the strictnesse of the rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and did belong to the Iewes onely and is abrogated by the death of Christ So Elton And Amesius It may be granted that there was somewhat a more strict observation of the Sabbath commanded in those times as fitted to the pedagogy and time of servitade which obteynes not in all ages So he and generally the most of those which propugne the Doctrine of the Sabbath To give a briefe and full resolution to the first question propounded viz. whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is morall and perpetuall and so belonging to us Christians To the former part I say the fourth Commandement is partly morall and partly Ceremoniall To the latter I say First it is morall and perpetuall that some time be dedicated to the solemne publique worship and service of God Secondly that one day in the revolution of seaven be consecrated to this end is not morall yet very convenient and fitly observed and retayned by the Church of Christ Thirdly that the particular seaventh day which the Iewes observed is neither morall nor sit to bee observed being altogether abrogated and out of date ever since the death of Christ Lastly the resting from ordinary labours as it is connected with the dutyes of Gods worship and a means without which they cannot be performed is no lesse necessary on the dayes consecrated to that end now then heretofore but as it concerned the Iewish Sabbath it is together with the Sabbath abrogated So that Christians are not bound either to rest on that day which the Iewes did or to rest on their owne Sabbaths or dayes consecrated to Gods service with the same strictnesse which was enjoyned the Iewes on theirs Thus much shall serve to have spoken of the first generall question Having explained the nature of the fourth Commandement touching the Iewish Sabbath I come now to speake of the Lords Day in which that which was Morall in that Commandement is and ever hath beene observed by Christians The institution of which when and by whom it was being the second generall part of our inquirie And here all Divines are not of one opinion Some ground this no lesse then the Iewish Sabbath upon the fourth Commandement which say they includes both the Sabbath of the Iewes and of the Christians Because the Lord doth not say Remember that thou keepe holy the seventh Day but Remember that thou keepe holy the Sabbath Day that is the Day of rest which before the comming of Christ was the seventh from the Creation but afterward the first day of the weeke or Lords Day But these men while they over greedily seeke after a divine foundation for the Lords Day doe not consider that they stretch the Precept beyond the intent of the Lawgiver For though it bee granted that the Lord doth not say Remember to keepe holy the seventh day but the day of ceasing indeterminately yet seeing in the following explication which God added it is determined unto that particular seventh which was the seventh from the Creation to which it expresly is referred as to the speciall reason of the Institution the Sabbath there cannot without forcing and manifest absurdity bee said to bee as the Genus to the Iewish and Christian Sabbath and to include both For is it not manifestly absurd and unbeseeming a rationall man and much more the wisdome of the Supreame Law-giver to say God in sixe dayes made heaven and earth and rested the seventh and for that cause sanctified the seventh Day Ergo Hee will have men in imitation of him to rest sometime viz. before the comming of Christ on that day whereon hee rested and sometime viz. after Christs comming to rest on the day in which hee began to worke Neither can this absurdity bee salved as some have endeavoured to doe by saying there is alwayes more meant in the Precepts and prohibitions then in words are expressed for those things which are so meant without particular expression must either be necessarily connected with or some way subordinat to that which is expressed that so it may be included in it Sure I am it ought no way to be excluded as we see this is by Gods owne exposition of himselfe and the reason which hee alledgeth which can no way agree both to the Jewish Sabbath and the Lords Day Again others urge the Institution of the Lords Day as founded upon Gods sanctification of the seventh Day at the Creation which being before all Ceremonies must say they needes binde Christians as well as the Jewes But this labours of the same weaknesse and absurdity which the other did For what day did God sanctifie there Surely not the first day of the Weeke but the seventh from the Creation which they must with the Jewes cry up againe if they will have their argument hold good But besides this the weaknesse of this foundation appeares in that as hath beene shewed they cannot prove that God instituted the Sabbath and commanded it to bee observed from that time forward but onely that Moses there relating the story of the Creation intimates the reason of Gods after Commanding his people to rest upon that Day And lastly granting that to be the Institution which cannot be proved and that not the seaventh day from the Creation as the words expresly say but a seaventh or one in seaven were thereby intended to be perpetuall to belong to us Christians If all this be granted here will yet be but a partiall foundatiō and no compleat institution of that particular day which we observe for all this notwithstanding why might not the second third fourth or any other have beene observed and yet that institution of one in seaven no way violated Others therefore no doubt espying the weaknesse of it forsake this hold and seeke for authority to prove it to be of Divine Institution out of the New Testament And among these Amesius will have it to bee done by Christ himselfe laying this for a ground worke that
at all take those places of Scripture which so severely prohibit all work upon the Sabbath as if they did no lesse belong to us now then heretofore to the Iewes and by this meanes those precepts threatnings and promises which concerned the observation of the Sabbath are pressed upon us point blanck Whereas indeed they concerne us onely indirectly and cannot without fetching a compasse be alledged at all for our Sunday Now the Scripture being so expresse as it is apprehended for the strict observance of our Sunday under the name of the Sabbath no marvell if men have made it a prime Case of Conscience and that so many scruples are dayly raised and so many traditions broached about the beginning and ending of the Sabbath about the works of a mans particular Calling what they are and how farre lawfull on that Day what are the proper duties of the Day and the like For the cleare resolution therefore of this Question Whether the use of Recreations may stand with the due observation of the Lords Day it is convenient that I have some recourse to the Sabbath Where because I love not Cramben saepiùs coctam apponere or to stuffe my discourse with a tedious explanation of those things which are commonly known and every where to be found I will with as much brevity as the cause will suffer inquire into these 4. particulars 1. Whether and how farre forth the fourth Commandement concerning the Sabbath is moral and perpetuall and so belonging to Christians 2. When and by whom the Lords day was instituted 3. What workes the lews might doe on their Sabbath 4. Whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday more then they had and how farre that liberty is to be extended To begin with the first The law which God gave unto his people the Iewes according to the three-fold variety of the object or things prescribed is three-fold Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall The Morall is that which concernes the manners of men and belongs to them as men and this commands those things which are in themselves acceptable and well-pleasing to God and those which hee will have all men every where and at all times to observe as the perpetuall and unchangeable rule of living being the expresse image of the minde of God according to which hee who is the Law-giver judges it meete and right that the reasonable creatures should order their lives The Ceremoniall belongs to men as joyned together in that Society which is called the Church and this containes those precepts which concerne the externall worship of God and were given by him to the Iewish Church in accommodation to the times in which the Church was under age and under the promise and therefore instituted for the signifying prefiguring and sealing of the truth of the promises made to them to be fulfilled in the exhibition of our Saviour and withall for the preservation of order and decencie in their Ecclesiasticall meetings and performances The judiciall belongs to men as joyned in a civill Society or Cōmon-wealth contayning the forme of civill government to be used by them tending to their good as they were a Society and to the preservation and exacting of the eutward worship of God and the discipline thereof as it was commanded in the Morall and Ceremoniall Lawes So that the Ceremoniall Law determined the Morall in order to God the Politicall or judiciall in order to men in a civill society and both in accommodation to that state of the Church And these though they have in them something which is juris moralis and so farre forth are contained under the Morall precepts yet being fitted to serve that state of the Church which was to be held in expectation of the Messias when the time came that he was actually exhibited and so the promise fulfilled the shadowes were then of no longer use the body being come and therefore at the time of the death of Christ they were abrogated de jure so that they became unnecessary and unprofitable and had their power of obligation taken away And afterward when by the Apostles doctrine Christians came to understand that Christ was the end of the Law and when the Temple the seate of their religion and the place destined to the use of those ceremonies was destroyed they were de facto actually and fully taken away and those things which before the death of Christ were commanded and in that interim betweene his death and the destruction of the Temple which was the space allotted for the solemne funeralls of the Iewish Synagogue were tolerable though already dead became from that time forward deadly and intolerable So that onely the Morall Law remaines now in force for the practise of Christians The ceremoniall and judiciall excepting in that wherein they are reducible to this are antiquated and out of date Now the precepts of the Morall Law are summarily comprehended in the Decalogue or ten Commandements which had this prerogative peculiar to them that they were delivered not by Moses but by God himselfe and by him written in tables of stone and preserved in the Arke to shew their dignity above others and to note out the perpetuity of observance which was due unto them Where before wee apply these things to our present purpose two things are to be noted First That howsoever all the precepts of the Morall law belong to the Law of Nature as being agreeable to reason which is the rule of Humane actions and are in that respect of perpetuall observance yet all of them are not of the same ranke nor belong in the same degree and manner to the law of Nature There are some things which by the instinct of nature and naturall light of the understanding wee presently see to be good or bad and which are so plaine that without any great consideration they may by the first principles or common notions implanted in us be either approved or rejected and these are absolutely of the law of nature Others there are that require more consideration of circumstances and the use of Discourse to apprehend and judge of them and these are so of the law of nature that notwithstanding they require the helpe of discipline by which those which are ignorant and not able by diligent consideration or discourse to attaine to the knowledge of them may be instructed by the wise and learned And lastly there are some to the knowledge whereof humane reason stands in neede of Divine Instruction And these two latter sorts especially the last though they in some sort belong to the Law of Nature and were haply at our first Creation written in the tables of mans heart in more plaine Characters and more easie to be read then now since the fall they are may in respect of the other be termed morall non ratione naturae sed disciplinae not in regard of nature dictating but in regard of Discipline informing nature Secondly that
and that not in a common banke but every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by himselfe Againe grant that S. Paul as he did not had enjoyned Christians to meete on that day and at their meeting to make a Collection for the poore yet could not this serve for a sufficient institution of that Day to succeede the Jewes Sabbath unlesse such collections did involve in them all the service of God on that day to be done or were so connected with them that they could not bee separated which no man I suppose will affirme To leave these therefore who out of an over-weening conceit of the day are willing to catch at any shadow that may seeme to countenance it and gaine to it the reputation of Divine institution Let us pitch upon that which is certaine which though it rise not so high as an immediately-divine authority yet is sufficient to ground our practise upon and to exact the due observation of the Day First then it is most certaine that our Blessed Saviour did honour this day with his most glorious resurrection and by his often apparitions upon it to his Disciples and thereby as it were pointed out this day to his Disciples as worthy to be made choice of to be celebrated in honour of him who on that day began his glorious exaltation after his triumph over Principalities and powers upon his Crosse whom he there spoyled having nayled to it and thereby cancelled the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us that is the obligation to observe the Jewish rites and ceremonies and among these their Sabbath which from that time forward the Apostle would have no man to judge Christians in who as they were freed from it by the death of Christ so by his resurrection they had ground sufficient ministred to direct them to the observation of a new Festivall Whence S. Augustine saith The Lords Day was declared to Christians by the resurrection of our Lord and from that time began to be celebrated So that for ought that appeares our Saviour did not command the first day of the weeke to be observed Hee did to use the words of the same Father Vouchsafe to demonstrate and consecrate it or as he else-where speakes The raising againe of our Lord promised us an everlasting Day and consecrated for us the Lords Day Secondly it is no lesse certaine that the Apostles upon this ground no doubt did observe this Day and had thereon their holy assemblies as Acts 20. 7. And that for the same cause the Apostle designed it for the storing up of their almes that the memory of the benefits which on that day they obtained might make them more readily contribute to the necessities of their brethren as S. Chrysostome hath observed upon 1. Cor. 16. 1. And lastly that in the time of the Apostles it obtained the name of the Lords Day as appeares Revel 1. 10. Thirdly that the ages of the Church immediately after the Apostles whether by constitution or onely in imitation of them is not knowne nor much materiall did observe this Day as the Christians Festivall stiling it the Lords Day and conveighed the same practise by continuall succession even to this day as the late learned Bishop of Winchester shewes avowing it on his credit That there is not an Ecclesiasticall Writer in whom it is not to be found Wee finde thus much then without contradiction That it hath been the practise of the Christian Church to observe the Sunday or Lords Day and that ever since yea in the very Apostles times a practise warranted by the example of the Apostles and the honour vouchsafed to that day by our Blessed Saviour himselfe Whence we may conclude with a late learned Divine That the Christian Church did not erre when in stead of the Sabbath it appointed the Lords Day to bee observed of which there is mention made in the Scripture though there be no Precept for the observation of it In which words of his I will observe three things First that he saith the Church not the Apostles or Apostolicall men for though that be most probable and hath for it the authority of S. Augustine and for that it hath beene ever observed by the Church it may justly be ascribed to them yet because if they did it they did it not as therein reporting the immediate Precept of Christ nor by any power that was properly Apostolicall but by vertue of their Pastorall power and office which was common to them with their Successours it may be termed an Ordinance of the Church and it little concernes us to know whether it were delivered by the Apostles themselves or their next after-commers Secondly The Church appointed this Day but whether at the first by expresse constitution it were commanded or by custome onely observed it appeares not Aquinas attributes it to both and how ever thus much is out of question that this Custome or Constitution was afterward by many Canons of the Church and Constitutions of Christian Emperours ratified and approved and many things ordained tending to the right due observance of it Thirdly That the Christian Church did not herein erre as having sufficient to warrant it out of Scripture though there be no Precept for it Yea and if the Scripture did yeeld no example of this practise or other ground for it in particular yet had not the Church erred in ordaining it For things pertaining to order decencie in the Church such as is among others the particular determination of the set times of Gods worship being undetermined in the word of God are in the power of the Church to be ordered so as they be done according to the generall Lawes of nature and without contradiction to any positive Law in Scripture Neither is it derogatorie to the word of God or any whit detracting from the perfection of it to affirme that though it sufficiently and abundantly containe in it all things necessary to salvation yet it hath left a number of other things free to be ordered at the discretion of the Church And as to take from the Scripture the sufficient determination of things necessary to salvation were an injurie and an impairing of that honour which God challengeth to his word and the Church of God hath ever deservedly yeelded to it so it were no lesse injurie to the Church of Christ to abridge it of the power of determining of this and such like things which being not of absolute necessity are yet convenient and profitable For this prerogative power the Church of God hath ever obtained and enjoyed even when it was most obliged to hold to the letter of the Law prescribing the Ceremonies belonging to the service of God that it might without imputation of adding to or altering the law of God from time to time appoint sundry rites and observances not any where prescribed in the Law Such were the appointment of the
houres for the dayly sacrifices the building of Synagogues throughout the land to heare the word of God and to pray in when they came not up to Ierusaleme the Feast of the Dedication which was solemnised even by our Saviour and yet never spoken of in the Law and many more which the Church without any particular command onely following the light of reason in her discretion judged meete And certainly the Church of Christ hath not now lesse power or priviledge then the Jewish Church then had to which it is no way inferiour but farre superiour in regard of the measure of grace and the presence of the spirit of Christ by which it is assisted as in other things so in ordaining Lawes for the edification of the Church Now least any should thinke it a matter of indifferencie to obey or disobey the Orders of the Church which are thus constituted without the expresse command of God in Scripture and that the transgressions of such Constitutions are no sinnes I will close this point with that which worthy Hooker from whom I have borrowed the greatest part of this last discourse hath judiciously and fully delivered to this purpose Vnto Lawes thus made saith he and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosome of that Church must not thinke it a matter indifferent either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy Fathers commandement saith Salomon and forget not thy mothers instruction binde them both alwayes about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which wee owe to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinance of our Mother the Church we should shew ourselves disobedient Let us not say we keepe the commandements of the one when wee breake the Law of the other for unlesse we observe both wee obey neither Yea that which is more the Lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them Him Thus hee with much more to the same purpose Which I therefore thought good to adde that no man might think that while I ascribe it to its true Originall I goe about to impaire the authority of it or to withdraw any thing from the due observance of it And thus I have done with this second Question viz. When and by whom the Sunday or Lords Day was instituted These things thus discussed and cleared it may now seeme superfluous to enquire into the liberty that wee Christians have how farre it may justly be extended in regard of ordinary labours upon the Sunday For if it be granted that the strict rest on the Sabbath was Ceremoniall and abrogated with the Day and that the Day which we keepe is not by vertue of the fourth Commandement but by the custome or Constitution of the Church It wil not be hard for any to conclude that Christians are not bound to rest on that day from all works further then the duties of the day and they who enjoyned it require Yet for more full satisfaction I will adde some-what more particularly concerning those two Questions that remaine To enquire then first What works the lewes might doe or their Sabbath This wil easily be dispatcht in as much as herein the Scripture is very plaine and little or no difference of opinion among Divines Yet will it not be altogether needlesse in regard that the liberty we now have under the Gospell when it is compared with theirs under the Law will the better appeare Now these workes are fitly reduced under three heads The first of which are Workes of necessity such as could not well be deferred or prevented Of which sort are reckoned divers which how ever Pharisaicall superstition had prevailed with the people to scruple at yet were never in the intention of the Law-giver prohibited them as may appeare by the doctrine practise of our Saviour who was both wayes the best expositor of the Law and who both wayes came not to destroy but to fulfill it And among those thus allowed by our Saviour we finde the providing of foode in the case of hunger the watering and by the like reason the foddering of cattell the saving them from imminent danger Whence by analogie and congruity of reason wee may conclude the lawfulnesse of many more things of the like nature as that of Mattathias and his company resolving to fight upon the Sabbath to save their lives So the quenching of an house on fire the saving of corne and other necessary substance from perishing and the like To which wee may adde workes communis honestatis as the decent attiring of our selves and all other workes which necessity of nature hath imposed upon men and thereby allowed as fit to be done The second sort of workes permitted them were workes of mercie and charity as to visite the sicke heale the diseased and the like which wee finde approved by our Saviours often practise and together with those before-mentioned justified by that axiome of his The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath that is according to Erasmus's Glosse it is fit that the observation of the Sabbath should give place to mans benefit and not that man should perish for the Sabbath as also by that of the Prophet by him cited God will have mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather have the miseries of men relceved then the letter of the Law observed The third and last sort of works were workes of piety belonging to the service of God as to reade the Law to teach the people to circumcise children to offer Sacrifice with their attendants as to make fires for them to slay and prepare the beasts for these workes though servile in themselves being directed to the service of God were sacred and no way violating the Sabbaths rest So our Saviour testifies that notwithstanding these workes done by the Priests in the Temple yet the Priests were blamelesse and not transgressours of the Law And the Jewes had it among their traditions that in the Temple there was no Sabbath Intimating that the Sabbaths rest must give place to those things which were to be done by the Priest in the Temple for the service of God Having seene what might be done on the Sabbath let us now see whether and what liberty Christians now have on the Sunday and how farre that liberty is to be extended which is the last part of our Inquirie And here though some few transported with a heedlesse zeale of maintayning the dignity of this day have not strucke to affirme that the Iewes had as much liberty as we have that we are as much restrained as they were Yet the most even of the strictest and most precise exactors of the Sundayes rest doe grant a liberty which Christians now have more then the Iewes had But what liberty this is wherein it consists how
or that so accounting it they held themselves bound to consecrate that more then any other to the worship of God The Gentiles as Eusebius at large declares came to the knowledge of it from the Iewes and did in that as in other things become their Imitators and receive it into their manners Or upon some other ground or superstition they might account the number of seaven to be sacred as because by that number the Planets which they honoured as their chiefest Deities were terminated for which cause we know by their names they intituled their dayes But what ever were the motive as it is without all question that the Gentiles as well as the Iewes held the number of seaven in great veneration accounting it the number of perfection and full of mysteries So it is as unquestionable that by the light of nature they knew not that that part of our time was to be separated to Gods service And therefore Zanchius speakes more inconsiderately then beseemes his learning when hee saith That Nature teacheth all men to consecrate one day of seaven to the externall worship of God Which others and among them Amesius better considering acknowledge to be onely of positive right and morall not in regard of nature but of discipline as comming under that ranke of morall Precepts which neede instruction to helpe naturall reason to know and judge of them Now albeit Calvine who in this as in other things wants not his followers thinks the seaventh day not to be so stood on as that he would tye the Christian world precisely to that Yet there are many grave and judicious Divines both Ancient and Moderne that judge the institution of one Day in seaven to be so farre morall as that it doth binde the Church perpetually and immutably Thus among the Ancients Saint Chrysostome upon those words And God blessed the seaventh day and hallowed it Genes 2. 3. Here saith hee from the beginning God intimates to us this Doctrine instructing us to separate and lay aside one day in the compasse of every weeke for spirituall exercises And among our moderne Writers that admired Hooker saith That wee are bound to account the sanctificatiō of one day in seven a duty which Gods immutable law doth exact for ever Thus hee with many others whose judgements I honour yet dare not herein wholly subscribe to them neither For the Law exacting the observation of one day in seaven being onely positive as must needs be granted cannot containe in it selfe any perpetuall obligation For all Lawes of that nature though made by God himselfe admit mutation at least when the matter concerning which or the condition of the Persons to whom they were given is changed Now the Day concerning which this Precept was given together with the State of the Church to which it was given being changed I see no reason why the proportion of one in seaven should be simply and in it selfe immutable Yet thus much I willingly grant them that some time to be set apart for Gods worship being absolutely of the Law of nature that proportion of time which God himselfe made choyce of for his owne People is the fittest that can be imagined and Nature informed by God cannot but acknowledge His wisedome and goodnesse in this choyce in that hee hath so attempered it that neither the long space betweene can make us forget our duty to him nor the quicke returne of it hinder our providing for the necessities of nature And hereupon the Church of Christ hath taken it as an obligation belonging to them and that as it is in our Church Homily Gods will and commandement was to have a solemne time and standing day in the weeke wherein the people should come together and have in remembrance his wonderfull Benefits and render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving kinde and obedient people Thus farre then this Commandement extends to us Christians as well as to the Jewes in as much as to consecrate some part of our time to God is morall and a seaventh part though not morall yet fitly chosen and appointed by God and observed by the Church of Christ not as simply immutable yet as most worthy to be retayned For the third particular The particular seventh day there mentioned that is the seaventh day from the Creation This cannot be said to be Morall any way but is ceremoniall and temporary and expired with the dissolution of the Iewish Church And this is generally confessed by all whom the heresie of Iudaisme hath not infected and the mutation of the Day approved by the practise of the Christian world ever since the Apostles times is a sufficient disclaime to the morality of it For one of these three must needs hence be inferred Eyther that that which is morall may bee changed or that the Church of Christ hath now for this sixteen hundred years erred in the change of it orlastly that the particular day prescribed to the Jews was Ceremoniall and not perpetuall The first no man will say that vnderstands the nature of morall precepts and their dependance upon the Law of nature which is one and the same with all men every where and in all ages and in that regard immutable And he deserves not the name of a Christian that dares affirme the second It remaines therefore that we pitch upon the third confesse that herein that Commandement was Ceremoniall not perpetuall But besides the practice of the Church we have the warrant of the Apostle S. Paul who ranks the Sabbath among the shadows of things to come whereof the body is Christ Now the body had they are the words of the late learned Bishop of Winchester the shadowes vanish that which was to come when it is come to what end any figure of it it ceaseth too So that to hold the shadow of the Sabbath is to continue is to hold that Christ the body is not yet come Neyther can the force of this place be avoyded by saying that the Iewes had other Sabbaths that were there meant as the Sabbaths of weekes and the first and last dayes of their great feasts which were called Sabbaths For the Apostle speakes indefinitely of the Sabbath dayes hath not there left any ground to rayse any distinction upon or to shew that he aymed onely at them more then this That he speakes there in the plurall number will not helpe this shift but rather crosse it it helpes it not because we know it is usuall in the new Testament to use that number when the Sabbath in question is spoken of it crosseth it rather in that being in the plurall number it may rather seeme to comprehend all their Sabbaths whatsoever they were and so to be far from excluding this The place then is cleare and alone sufficient to prove the point in hand To which I will onely adde that the reason drawn from the example of God who rested upon the
Sabbath day namely when the Creation was finished endured onely till the time of the new Creation in which al things were made new by Christ at which time it ceased or at least a second reason taken from that new Creation comming in place the former both reason day become now old are passed away and behold all things are become new For this worke of redemption or new Creation being the greater may deservedly take place of the other And as the Prophet Ieremy speaking of the deliverance that God would vouchsafe his people from the Babilonish captivity saith Behold the dayes shall come saith the Lord that it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt but the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North c. So may wee say of the day appointed for his worship that the day wherein he finished the worke of Creation shall no more be observed but the day wherein our Lord Iesus Christ by his resurrection from the dead finished the worke of our redemption and begun a new life to be finished in all his members who as S. Peter tels us are by his resurrection begotten vnto a lively hope of an eternall Inheritance The fourth and last thing in this Commandement and that which denominated the day is the resting from ordinary labours And this in regard of the divers ends it had admits a diverse consideration 1. This rest may be considered as a means without which the dutyes of Gods worship cannot be performed For seeing the generall publique dutyes of piety and devotion and our owne private businesses cannot both bee followed at once there must be such a cessation from ordinary labours on that day wherein men are to performe those dutyes as that thereby they be not hindered in the performance thereof in which regardthose workes that in themselves and at other times are not prohibited are on that day vnlawfull so farre as they hinder a man from applying himself to divine dutyes and therein are contrary to the observance of that precept which requires the performance of them And therefore when God commands a day to be dedicated to Him he doth likewise in the same command such a rest as a meanes necessary to that end So that thus farre it is connected with participates of the morality of that Precept that enjoynes the dutyes for which it was appointed in this consideration we are no lesse bound at this day to rest from our labours on the dayes devoted to Gods solemne worship then were the Iewes and as Uenerable Hooker sayth The voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labour wherewith God is publikely served we cannot too severely correct and bridle Another end of this rest is mentioned Deut. 5. 14. viz that there might be a time of rest allowed to servants and labourers for their refreshment And this no lesse concernes us then it did them for necessity of nature requires some time of remission from labour and religion teacheth us to be mercifull even to our beasts and much more to our servants who are our brethren But this is not so connected with the observance of the day of Gods publique worship but that it may at other times be supplyed yet is then so far requisite as it makes for the solemne performances of the duties of the day that all as well servants as others may joyne together in the service of God which while they doe they at once enjoy the refreshment of their bodyes and freedome to refresh their soules with holy and religious exercises But this rest as it was prescribed to the Iews had yet a further end in regard of which it was exacted so strictly and beyond that which eyther the solemne service of God or the necessary refreshment of labouring persons did require And that was figurative for the signifying of things past present and future 1. Things past and so it was a memoriall of Gods resting from his worke of Creation and as the day which they observed so the strict rest upon that day served as a sign of the cōmon benefit of Creation which they thereby acknowledged to bee Gods work when they celebrated that day wherein God rested from creating sanctified it by an holy and totall surcease from their owne workes And this end is assigned by God himselfe and annexed to the commandement as a principal reason of the institution of it Secondly it was a memoriall likewise of their deliverance out of Egypt so expressely said to bee Deut. 5. 15. where in the repetition of the Law this reason is added instead of the former God is therefore sayd to command them to keepe the Sabbath that they might remember their servitude in Egypt and their deliverance from thence Againe the Sabbath was a signe also of their present condition and a note to distinguish them from all other people they being then the onely peculiar people of God whom hee had separated and sanctified to himselfe For a signe of which peculiar sanctification they were commanded to observe the Sabbath as we read Exod. 31. 13. Ezech. 20. 12. 3. Lastly the rest of the Sabbath was a Type whereby was prefigured that rest which remained for the people of God to be purchased for them by Christ Into which rest they which believe do enter and shall have the full possession thereof in the Kingdome of glory when after all their works finished they shall rest from their labours And this rest the Apostle designing by the name of a Sabbatisme intimates the prefiguring of it by that Sabbath which the people of God under the Law were to observe So that as the place of this Celestiall and eternall rest was shadowed out by the promised Land so the rest it selfe for the nature condition of it was no lesse presignified by their usuall Sabbaths Now in relation to these good things which were thus vailed under the outward observation of this rest it was very requisite that the rest whereby they were represented should be as strict as might be for the more exact the figure is the better it signifies and the more strictly the rest was observed the more lively was the representation of those things which it aymed at To this if we add the condition of those to whom it was enjoyned we shall have the compleate reason why it was with that strictnesse commanded and exacted the violation of it with such severity punished For first the Iewes though the people of God heire Lord of all yet being as the Apostle saith a child differed not from a servant and as servants were to be held in bondage under the strict yoke of outward observances of this among the rest till the fulnesse of time came when God sent forth his Sonne made of a woman made under the law to redeem them
He alone could change the day of the Sabbath that was Lord of it that is Christ So that according to him Christ was the Author of this change and that either mediately by his Apostles whom he assisted by his Spirit in the Institution of it no lesse then he did in the doctrine which they taught or else as hee holds to bee most probable immediately and in his owne person and the probability of this he labours to prove by divers Arguments wherein hee doth as one hath well observed in the like case as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleades that there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love and good will which alwayes the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofes will evince a Testament to have that in it which other men by reading can no where finde Certainely it is a bold and a strange course for men to adventure to argue that God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to bee done whereas in matters that concerne the actions of God the most dutifull and safe way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekeresse to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of reason ought to doe Hee might therefore have spared all the reasons he brings and in stead thereof to have alledged one place out of the New Testament which doth command the change of the Day especially seeing he denies it and that for many reasons by him there urged to bee an unwritten Tradition which seeing hee doth not nor indeede can doe what doth he else by all his arguments but endeavour to lay an aspersion of imperfection upon the Scriptures and of neglect in Christ himselfe of that office which as the great Prophet of his Church belonged to him As if unlesse hee had beene as carefull to appoint the observation of this day as Moses was to appoint the old Sabbath hee could not absit verbo blasphemia be as faithfull in the house of God as Moses was But farre be such blasphemous thoughts from us farre be it from us to measure the faithfulnesse of our blessed Saviour by our phansies or to judge him unfaithfull because he did omit that which our shallow conceits judge necessary and fit for him to doe Wee know that the high Priest of our profession Christ Iesus was faithfull to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithfull in all his house And this faithfulnesse of his was by him sufficiently demonstrated in that hee fully declared the will of his Father to the world in all things to be beleeved and done and shewed how and what worship Christians must give unto God though the circumstances of that worship as Time and Place in as much as concerned the particular designing of either hee left to be determined by the Church whom he promised to be with to the end of the world And as he cannot be said to be lesse faithfull in the house of God then Moses or Salomon who provided the one a Tabernacle the other a Temple because he did not appoint set places for Gods worship so neither can hee be justly taxed for not appointing the set times for the same these two circumstances of time and place being of equall necessity and use and joyned together by God himselfe Lev. 19. 30. Yee shall keepe my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuarie I am the Lord. Neither is the difference of Places more taken away now under the Gospel then of Times But as the true worshippers of God are not tyed to worship either in Ierusalem or any other peculiar place but may worship him in spirit and truth in all places lifting up pure hands so neither are they tyed to any speciall time or day but may pray continually and at all times And therefore they who are so indifferent for the place that they can be content to account a Wood a Parlor or a Barne place good enough for Christians to meete in for the performance of Gods publick worship have no reason to complaine for want of a set day or time for the same purpose The truth is that that peculiar blessing which God once bestowed upon the Sabbath of the Temple thereby differenced them from all others is enlarged to all times places and any day and place may by the Church be dedicated and set apart for Gods worship and being so dedicated set apart they inherit that holinesse which was once peculiar unto the in relation to the duties then there performed to God who in regard of the abundance of grace vouchsafed now in the time of the Gospell may be said to be more present at such times and in such places then heretofore in those of his own assigning But it was not necessary that Christ himself or his Apostles from him should by expresse precept particularly designe either of these if any think such precept to be necessary let them shew the place of Scripture where such precept is to be found or else confesse the Scripture to be deficient in things necessary and so forsake their colours of reformation and passe over into the Campe of the Romanists If they be ashamed of this let them learne and confesse That however it be necessary that some time be dedicated to Gods service yet the determination to this or that particular day is not necessary to be defined by Scripture which they may perhaps the more easily be brought to see if they consider that in this it is no otherwise then it is with other things of equall necessity with this in the generall as the Sacraments Fasting and Prayer it selfe which yet for the particular when and how often they are to be used is not any where in Scripture defined nor necessary so to be But some who will have the Lords day so called because Christ himselfe instituted it say That the Apostles by the authority of that Spirit that alway assisted them in their ministeriall office did alter the day and themselves kept and ordained it to be kept in all Churches as may appeare 1. Cor. 16. 1. Where he saith Every first day of the weeke when yee meete together c. But certainly it is most evident even to a vulgar consideration that no such thing doth appeare out of that place For what doth Saint Paul say there That hee would have Christians meete every first day of the weeke to serve God No surely there is not a word of meeting in the text but what is foysted in to deceive the credulous Reader That which S. Paul saith is That on that day hee would have every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him This implies neither the meeting together of the Church on that day nor the performance of any religious duty but onely a repositing or laying up
far to be extended is not on all hands agreed upon Some there are who when they come to define this liberty they pin it up within so narow a room that it proves either none at all or to no purpose Amesius saith There is nothing can be brought out of Scripture cōcerning the strist observatiō of the Sabath which was commanded to the Iewes which doth not in the same manner belong to all Christians except the kindling of fires and the dressing of ordinary dyet And these he thinkes it probable too that the Iewes might ordinarily doe on their Sabbath though upon speciall occasions they were forbidden them so that he seemes to retract that liberty which before he granted them But others doe freely grant these and some few like them as making of beds carrying of burthens to wit on speciall and urgent occasions and these they allow by this name of workes of Christian liberty Egregiam vero libertatem A great liberty no doubt and worthy that precious blood by which it was purchased But two things may here be demanded First how it will appeare that Christians have this liberty And here for ought I can see we must be contented to take their own authority for Scripture they alledge none to purpose Those two places which are cited by Elton on this occasion speak no such thing besides that which is there sayd whatever it be proves no peculiar liberty belonging to Christians which the Iewes had not For in them our Saviour justifies his Disciples from transgressing the Sabbath which was then in force but doth not shew what might be done afterward when by his death the Sabbath should be abrogated If they alledge that our Saviour bad the sicke man on the Sabbath to take up his bed which may seeme to have some reference to making of beds or carrying of burthens It may be answered that our Saviour doth not there shew what might ordinarily be done but by his authority gives a speciall dispensation to the sicke man to take up his bed c. without which dispensation the man could not have beene excused from breaking the Sabbath So that here is no certainty according to their principles for any thing to be done which the Jewes might not doe but that men must for all their pretended liberty either Iudaize or else adventure for this small liberty with a doubting conscience Secondly It may also be demanded How wee shall know that onely this liberty is allowed Christians This also we must take upon their credit For reason or Scripture they alledge none at all And if they without either reason or Scripture shall take upon them to give lawes to the Church of God and prescribe bounds to Christian liberty I see no cause why wee may not upon solid grounds of Scripture and reason assert that liberty which of right belongs to us as purchased by the all precious blood of our deare and Blessed Saviour And this will appeare if we consider what rest or cessation from labours is on this day required First then for that it is a day of Gods publique and solemne worship to bee performed by the whole Church which cannot as hath beene shewed be performed unlesse there bee a vacation from ordinary and common worked a vacation therefore and resting from these as they are impediments to Gods service is on that day required as necessary Yet not so necessary no not in the times of publique assemblyes but that the workes which necessity imposeth upon men and rarer occasions in mens particular affaires subject to manifest detriment unlesse they be presently followed may with very good conscience draw men aside sometime frō the ordinary rule considering the favourable dispensation which our Saviour grounds upon this Axiome The Sabbbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Which rule if it held for the Iews on their Sabbath is certainely no lesse in force at this day for Christians In the use of which notwithstanding some cautions must bee observed As first that men pretend not necessity or charity when it is covetousnesse or a carelesse neglect or contempt of Gods publique worship upon which ground no doubt it was that the Emperor Leo repealed that liberty which by Constantine was granted to Husbandmen and the Counsell of Matiscon forbids men to frame a necessary to themselves of yoking their Oxen therein allowing both a just dispensation in necessity forbidding the unjust pretence of necessity where none is Secondly men must take heed that they do not by their negligence or improvidence and forgetfulness draw a necessity upon themselves in which regard the word Remember which God prefixed to the fourth Commandement is yet in force to exact our care and mindfulnesse so to provide before hand that the dutyes to which this day is consecrated bee not by our default omitted or hindered Thirdly that being necessarily hindered or forced to omit the solemne publique dutyes of the Day we do as much as may be by private devotions meditations make supply of that defect Againe such is the reverence that is due to the solemne publique dutyes of devotion that they require not onely a surcease from other workes thoughts for the time of their performance but also a decent preparation before-hand that wee looke to our feete when we enter into the house of God put off our shooes before we stand upon holy ground that so our thoughts and affections which are naturally bent upon the world and not easily withdrawne from it may be raysed to a disposition befitting so sacred an employment In which respect it is convenient if not necessary that til the publike service of God be ended men intangle not themselves with unnecessary businesses or give themselves to sportings or recreations whereby their mindes should be hindered from the right preparing of themselves or due performance of those holydutyes Lastly it is good and commendable to spend the rest of that day in holy meditations private prayer reading and calling to minde what wee have read or heard These workes as they are at all times profitable and beseeming Christians so on that day they are most seasonable and suitable to those publique actions of Devotion which are the proper worke of the Day Thus S. Augustine exhorteth his Auditors on this day to sequester themselves from worldly businesses that they may be employed in these works and the Councill of Matiscon yea and our owne Church Canons prescribe the spending of this day and other holy-dayes devoted to Gods service in these and the like religious imployments And therefore they who thus spend the Lords day if it be done without superstition or judging other mens liberty cannot therefore justly be condemned Now by this it is easie to judge of our liberty First then here is a liberty in case of necessity though thereby the solemne dutyes of Gods worship bee hindered Secondly a liberty in
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 works of his hands so the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds Gods resting on the seaventh day and of the deliverance from the Aegyptian Bondage was celebrated with mirth and rejoyoing so that I can hardly be induced to thinke that on their Sabbath day they were bound to abstaine from all kinde of recreations but that they did or at least might use such expressions of joy mirth as at their other Festivalls were usuall among them as feasting singing dancing and the like which I conceive were no way forbidden in the commandement which onely seemes to ayme at workes of toyle or such as are servile or undertaken for profit or gaine or at least that might hinder them in the service of God and not to exclude all recreations which though they may haply in a large sense be termed workes yet being such as doe refresh not weary nature and being so used as that the worship of God might notwithstanding be duly and solemnly performed cannot be said to crosse the intent of the Law which was the decent and solemne service of God and the testification of their freedome from Egyptian servitude But let this passe as a private conceit yet sure I am that Tostatus whom Doctor Willet approves saith They were not bound to attend all the day upon Gods service And the same Doctor Willet expounding these words Abide yee every man in his place Let no man goe out of his place on the seaventh day saith They were not to goe forth that is with intent to gather Manna which lay round about the Hoast or to doe any other businesse they were not forbidden all kinde of walking and going out for their solace and recreation Certainly then Christians cannot justly be blamed if on the Lords day God be solemnly and decently served at fit times and no other worke entertained to the hinderance of this though every moment of that Day be not spent in performance of the acts of Gods worship nor the vacant space observed with a superstitious rest which shall exclude all other works and all even lawfull recreations which to exact at the hands of Christians what is it but to surpasse the Jewes in superstition about the Sabbath and having only changed the day in dishonour and contempt of the Jewes to require notwithstanding the same Ceremoniality of observance which what fruits it hath had or can have I cannot see save the engendring of endlesse scruples and inextricable doubts and the needlesse wounding of the consciences of many well-meaning people when they have no sure guide to direct their practise and when that which is required is beyond the ability of mortalls to performe For I will appeale to the consciences of these rigid Task-masters whether ever they or any other did yet or could possibly keepe the Lords day in that strict manner as they urge it But haply this little moves them who being taught that it is impossible to keepe Gods Commandements will therefore the rather be induced to thinke it is commanded because they are unable to keepe it Yet sure our Saviour would never have stiled his yoke easie and his burthen light had this strict observance of the Lords Day beene a part of it and Gods Commandements so as hee now under the Gospel requires them to bee done and with the assistance of his grace wherewith he seconds them whatever men rashly say of them are not grievous much lesse impossible to be done To set downe briefly and plainely that which in more words hath beene hitherto driven at and it is but this There are three things considerable in the Sunday or Lords day 1. A Day 2. That Day 3. The manner of celebrating it The first is Gods immediate precept The other two not so but mediate and by the power he hath given to his Church First God commanded some time wherein men setting aside all worldly businesse and thoughts should apply themselves to the duties of his solemne and publique Worship and this is the substance or that which is Morall in the fourth Commandement Secondly the Custome or Constitution of the Church warranted by the Apostles practise and the honour vouchsafed unto it by our Saviour himselfe determined that time or day to the Sunday or first day of the week secondly prescribed how and when for the decent time and manner of performing those duties By these our liberty is limited which must not be without necessity extended to the violation of either of them Hence then 1. Hee sinnes that doth not separate some time for God c. as violating the immediate precept of GOD in the fourth Commandement 2. He sinnes no lesse that for this end observes not the Sunday and that in that decent manner which the nature of the duties and the authority of the Church hath enioyned and this hee doth in two respects First because hee violates Gods mediate Command who hath authorized the Church in his right and by his power to ordaine such things so that to neglect the Church in this case is to neglect God Secondly because the immediate Precept of God is wrapt up in the Precept of the Church by which that which by him was left indefinite is defined and determined But that liberty either for ordinary labours or honest recreations which may stand with the observation of these Precepts no man can justly account sinfull unlesse hee can produce not the phansies of some Zelotes or the opinion of this or that man though accounted never so good or learned but some other Precept given by God or those whom God hath commanded us to obey For it is an undoubted Maxime which the Apostle delivers Where no Law is there is no transgression The prohibition of the Law only is that whereby things are exempted from our power and liberty which otherwise except in case of scandall remaines intire And this alone is sufficient to terminate this Dispute upon which wee will joyne issue with those that are contrary minded being not more confident that they can shew no binding Precept for the restraining of our Christian liberty in this case then willing to retract what hath beene said if they shall prove themselves able to doe it FINIS What the Morall law is What the ceremoniall law is What the judiciall law is Aquin. 1. 2. qu. 101. Col. 2. 17. Aq. 1. 2. q. 100. Moral precepts not all equally belonging to the law of nature Aq. ibid. a Inter emnia illa 10. praecepta solum ibi quod de Sabbato positum est sigurate observandum praecipitur Aug. ep 118 cap. 12. Caetera ibi praecepta propriè sicut praecepta sunt sine ulla figura a significatione observamus Idem Ibid. b Inst l. 2. 8 §. 28. Vinbratile veteres nuncupare solent Dinudia tantum exparte rem attingunt Id. Ibid. c Sabbati praeceptum est partim Morale partim Ceremoniale unde into contineâ—…er aliquid aternum et aliquid temporarium Mart. Thes in Exod. 2.