of Moses 1. In the Law or the five Books of Moses so called we have first as we doubt not to prove the Institution of it in Genesis 2. The solemne Promulgation of it in Exodus 3. The manner of Sanctification of it in Leviticus 4. The Profanation Vindicated in the Book of Numbers 5. Pressing arguments for the Observation of it in Deuteronomie 2. Then the Historicall parts of Scripture 2. In the Historicall parts have some Remembrances of it either as observed or profaned 3. There is in the Book of Psalmes 3. In the Psalmes Psalme 92.1 4. In the Prophets a speciall Psalme appointed for it 4. The Prophets are much and frequent in the complaining of the Violation and pressing on the Observation of it 5. 5. In the Gospels 6. In the Acts. The Gospels have often mention of it 6. The story of the Acts hath likewise touches both of the old and New Sabbath 7. 7. In the Epistles The Epistles do hint and insinuate an Institution of a Christian Sabbath 8. And lastly 8. In the Revelation the Revelation discovers Gods right unto it giving it the Title of The Lords Day All which shall be vindicated in due season from those objections and evasions which the Adversaries do put upon them 3. Besides all this the observation of the Sabbath 3. It is ranked amongst Substantials is ranked by the Prophets amongst the most substantiall and perpetuall Duties of Religion 4. 4. The great care of God I Dâ—…ing the commandement 1. In the Length 2. Affirmatively and Negatively The speciall Cost if we may so say and care of God in delivering the Commandement argues much worth and wa ght As 1. In the Length and largenesse of it to make it plain and evident 2. That whereas other Commandements are propounded either Affirmatively only or Negatively only this is both Affirmative and Negative 3. 3. Charged upon all sorts It is Charged upon all sorts of people particularly especially Superiours to look well to the observation of it 4. 4. Urged by many Reasons It is Urged by many Reasons As first Gods Interest in it It is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God Secondly Gods Example He wrought six dayes and rested the seventh Thirdly His Sanctification and blessing of the Sabbath Fourthly The equity of the proportions for Continuance 5. With a speciall Memento and Frequency but one whole Day of seven for six allowed unto men Lastly it is stamped with a speciall Memento in the very front of it Remember the Sabbath Day c. lest it should be forgotten and as a Watch-word of solemne preparation for it 5. It is called a Gift and Favour Exod. 16.29 Ezek. 20.12 Nehem. 9.14 5. The Sabbath is so far from being esteemed by the people of God to be a ceremoniall Yoke or burden that it is divers times called a Gift and sometimes acknowledged as a speciall Favour of God 6. The Observation hath speciall promises Nationall and Personall Temporall and Spirituall 6. The Observation of it hath as great Encouragements by many speciall promises as any one Duty in all the Book of God Both Nationall as Jer. 17.27 Isai 58.14 and Personall even to unlikely persons Isai 56.2 4. 6. Both Temporall and Spirituall in the same places which may serve as Comments upon the Blessing mentioned Gen. 2. and in the Commandement Exod. 20. Fulfilled on our Nation And here give us leave a little to demonstrate the exemplification and fulfilling of this Promise and Blessing to this Nation of ours above any other Nation round about us As we do not find any other Reformed Church hath either so clearly maintained the doctrine of the Sabbath as ours hath both in the Homily of the Time and place of Prayers and in so many Authorized Writers for more than sixty yeares or so solemnly observed it by Command of Lawes Injunctions and Canons and the Conscientiousnesse of Governours of families and private Christians So we find a speciall Ratification of the promised Blessing both in Spirituall and Temporall respects 1. For the Spirituall Travellers of all Countries 1. Spirituall Blessings that look toward Religion do testifie that no Country among the Reformed hath more visible Piety and Schollers that travell amongst Books find no where more exact Treatises of Sanctification than in England 2. For Temporall 2. Temporall the world is witnesse how fully Temporall Blessings have been made good to us of this Nation And which is singularly observable our prosperity began to be clear when the Doctrine of the Sabbath was owned as the Doctrine of our Church by the aforesaid Homily which that it was not in King Edwards time appears by an Act Anno regni 5 6. speaking of all Dayes as alike by Gods Word Whence we observe further that though all the Stories of the Time worthily do magnifie Edw. 6. in his own Person as one of the most excellent Princes that ever raigned yet they speak of his reigne but as a Sad and Dark Day to the State Temporall by reason of ill successe abroad and dissentions of the Nobles at home After which followed a black Night in Queen Maries time by the bloody persecutions of her best Subjects her Forraign-match and losse of all we held in France But when Queen Elizabeth succeeding had restored the Gospell and withall the Doctrine of the Sabbath was Resumed and Professed the Heavens cleared up so bright over our Heads as never had England a more Glorious Day even Temporally than all her reigne after 7. The Transgression of it is 1. Aggravated 7. The Transgression of that Law of the fourth Commandement and the Profanation of the Sabbath is 1. Aggravated by speciall circumstances and reckoned amongst the greatest Abominations Ezek. 20. 22. 2. Threatned 2. Threatned with severest vengeance both Personally with Death Exo. 31.14 and nationally with fearfull judgements as Fire in their habitations Jer. 17.27 3. Punished and Desolation to their Country Levit. 26.34 43. 3. And Punished accordingly with death Numb 15. and Desolation of their Nation 2 Chron. 36.21 and so acknowledged as the cause thereof Nehem 13.18 Exemplified also in our Nation And if we might not bâ— troublesome we might no lesse Exemplifie the remarkable Judgements upon this Nation of ours than we did the Blessings in former times since the time that people began to profane the Sabbath and the Doctrine of it not only disclaimed by some of our Writers but also the Profanation of the Lords Day authorised by the Book of Sports It is observed by others how many dreadfull examples there have been of Personall Profanations of that Day and we think one main Cause of these nationall Judgements under which this Land now grones was the publique Toleration of the Profanation of that Day To say nothing of the manifest decay of Piety and the Power of Godlinesse since that Edict came abroad we
Duties of worship But under the New Testament there is no such thing there is no Duty of Religion no particular Duty of worship that Morally and Theologically must necessarily be performed on the Lords-day and on no other Day Neither is there any particular Duty of worship Prayer only excepted which can never be wholly excluded when we have to doe with Religious Times or Duties of worship necessary to the observation of the Lords-day absolutely or infallibly So that in a Theologicall or Morall sense it is not proper nor true to say that either the continuance of a whole Day or the revolution of that whole Day once in seven Dayes or the particular Day the Lords-Day is a necessary circumstance to any particular act of worship But only to worship to Religion in general in the manner forenoted as commanded by God for the chiefe Time according to the Law of nature and Scripture and for the particular Day according to both Old and New Testament And in such a sense being Morally and Theologically necessary this Time in all the respects of it call it a circumstance or adjunct or what you will cannot be avoyded but it will have the nature of a part of worship according to any right description of it XIII Obj. 2. Answered But he still goes on striving rather to explaine then to deliver himself from his former Argument by instances As courser fare or meaner apparell in time of mourning hath no more holinesse in it then any other but only is subservient to worship and holinesse And as a Day of Fasting is no more holy then another but serves to holinesse c. Lastly as the houres of the morning and evening sacrifices every Day were not more holy then other houres of the Day but as circumstances only to be observed So for so he would inferre as we conceive the Dayes of the New Testament are but circumstances of worship not any parts of worship To this we answer First the difference between the things compared Sol. 1 at least as he seemes to understand them is very great as much as the Divine institution and the want thereof For he confesses that one Day in seven is morall and commanded by God in the fourth Commandement But as he seemes to take the other things we have no command for them Otherwise when God ever did as of old command the abstinence from some kind of meates from some kind of apparell and commanded sackcloth c. Those observations were a part of the legall worship And when God ordained an annuall Fast that very Day in its observation was a part of worship as well as the Sabbath But when men voluntarily set apart Dayes to Fasting and Prayer the particular Dayes are no parts of worship but only meanes subservient to the worship of God because they have no Divine command concerning those particular Dayes So when men appoint Holy-dayes as they are called they are no parts of worship but only circumstances subservient to it But if God have appointed any Time as even according to this Author He hath one Day in seven by the fourth Commandement that Time must needs be a part of worship as well as a necessary circumstance to Holinesse and Religion And this his third instance doth help to manifest For though the precise point or minute of Time was not commanded for the Morning or Evening sacrifice yet the Time was within a latitude It might not be before such an houre nor after such an houre as the Jewish Authors expressely name the bounds understood by them So that we may also well say that the observation of them within that latitude not sooner nor later was a part of Worship part of the Jewes speciall homage part of the immediate honour they owed to God and whereunto they were infallibly bound by Religion and conscience of Gods command namely to observe such seasons of Time strictly in such revolutions And to have performed the same services sacrifices which neglect of those speciall respects of Time had made them guilty of violation of Gods worship Also from hence they had intimations at least of promises of blessing and acceptation speciall even with relation to the very Times observed besides the particular services presented on them And the services then presented according to those times were more acceptable than others presented at their own voluntary times Therefore Elijah waits for the Time of the offering the evening-sacrifice 1 King 18. Even when he was to present his extraordinary sacrifice and worship And David mentioning acceptation saith not barely as a sacrifice but as an evening-sacrifice Psal 141. There came a speciall blessing to the three Kings distressed for water at the Time of the offering the meat-offering 1 King 3. And even in Daniels Day of solemne Humiliation and Fasting the Angel comes to him with a gracious and comfortable message at the Time of the evening sacrifice Dan. 9. All these intimations shew that there was a peculiar respect had to those Times those Houres both by men and even by God himself They were then specially acceptable and parts of worship The chiefe Time then the Sabbath much more Sol. 2 2. Let it be considered whether by this kind of arguing this Author do not make all Dayes under the Gospel equall and so in the issue contradict himself For if Times and Dayes now be not parts of worship but only necessary circumstances of worship in his sense then the LORDS Dayes are no holier no better then other Dayes on which any worship is performed For they are also necessary circumstances of that worship performed on them But to say and hold that one Day in seven is morall by the fourth Commandement is to say that all Dayes are not equall and if now this be not a contradiction let the Readers judge XIV Obj. 3. Answered He hath only one thing more to object That in the New Testament no such promises are made to the observation of our Day as were to the seventh Day of old but only to the exercises of piety and publique worship And hence he would it seemes infer that it is no part of worship Sol. 1 But to this we answer 1. We find no expresse promises made to the seventh Day in the beginning when it was as he holds given to Adam Yet no doubt were implyed in Gods blessing and sanctifying the Day and so it may be now Sol. 2 The promises were not made to speake properly to the seventh Day but to the Sabbath or rather to the observation in duties of piety and Religion which is the imployment of the Sabbath And if one Day in seven be required now as he holds the promises do in like manner belong to it What command of God or Ordinance of Religion is there Sol. 3 which is not attended in the very nature of the thing with promises As godlinesse in generall hath all the promises So every duty of godlinesse hath its share This Day then being commanded being Gods ordinance a duty of godlinesse in its observation is not without promises It was lesse needfull to make new promises to this Day in particular Sol. 4 since they are made already Gen. 2. Exod. 20. Esa 58. as we have seen unto Gods Day His Sabbath the Day of His appointment for the sufficient chiefe Time of His Worship Look therefore as the duties of the Day a holy rest fall on our Day by vertue of the fourth Commandement So by the same equity and analogie the Blessings annexed to that Day fall on our Day on the right observers of it And so all his Objections are satisfied And our Conclusion good The chiefe Time and the particular Day for it is a Part of VVorship not a meere Circumstance We will now close this Chapter XV. The testimonies and confessions of the adverse party Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. p. 378. with some Testimonies and Confessions 1. The judicious Hooker holding one Day of seven to be morall and of perpetuall obligation by the fourth Commandement as we shall heare hereafter thus delivers his Judgement concerning the nature of this Time It cannot 〈◊〉 denied but the very Law of Nature it selfe requires the sanctifâ—â—ation of Times For which cause it hath pleased God heretofore 〈◊〉 exact some part of Time by way of perpetuall Homage Where by Homage he meanes a piece of part of service which we owe to God the Lord of time and us by the fourth Commandement 2. Heare our Adversaries G. Irons p. 88. Chalenging a tribute of our Time p. 70. G.D. p. 21. There ought to be a certaine part of our Time given to God p. 59. B. of E. p. 121. That God should have a Tribute of our Time for Publike VVorship was never by any man denyed to be Morall and Naturall By Tribute he meanes we suppose a Part of VVorship as Tribute paid to Kings is a Part of the Homage and Honour due to them 3. Another thus The Heathens had their Feasts and set Dayes consecrated to the worship of their gods That is as we thinke he cannot but mean Not only they did worship their gods on those Dayes but did observe those Dayes as a part of worship in honour of their gods 4. This followes also upon that of the learned Bishop The Religious observation of holy times is reduced to the fourth Commandement as a speciall to a generall But say we The Religious observation of holy times by the fourth Commandement is a part of worship 5. For this was preached at Court and not long since printed by Command D. Turners Sermon at Whitehall March 10. 1635. p. 19. Statut. 1 Carol. The Religious observation of the Lords-day who doubts but it is a part of Gods immediate worship 6. Finally The King and State have proclaimed as much Forasmuch as there is nothing more acceptable to God than the true and sincere worship of Him according to His holy will And that the holy keeping of the Lords-day is a principall part of the true service of God We have what we have argued for And with this we rest and end our first Part. FINIS
God But these are still but accidentall Considerations as we said before and not having that direct and substantiall influence into Religion that the Continuance and Frequencie of Time determined hath and namely that the Continuance of a whole Day in the frequent revolution of a Week of seven Dayes hath which we say was together in Time determined Gen. 2.3 with that seventh Day in order for the Quando or particular Day for that World But before it in Nature the particular Day that Seventh being in Nature after one of seven And undoubtedly one Day of seven was determined in the fourth Commandement And we say That and no more directly and substantially commanded and determined there and hope to prove it sufficiently in due place time as being of substantiall importance to Religion and the worship of God which God then gave out his CoÌ„mandements to settle the substantials of N. B. All other Commandements of the Decalogue are wholly substantiall and so perpetuall The Fourth then being substantiall for one day in seven for Religion This may conclude that to be the whole substance of the Commandement and not that particular seventh day which hath no substantiality in it And then that one day in seven is likewise perpetuall as appears by all the other CoÌ„mandements of the first Table by all the Commandements of the second Table being substantials of duty to Man And that the 7th day Sabbath though then in force was not at all directly commanded there nor as any part of the substance of it as being not of any substantiality toward Religion more then any other day of the seven Would then have been if then commanded by God as that was before that time Or then the Lords day is now supposing it commanded now as we doe by God or even commanded only by the Church as they suppose if it be but certain that the old Day is no longer in force In a word This is that we say think we have clearly proved from the nature of the respects of Time toward Religion as before toward study for Learning or any other Civill businesse That the Quando Season or Order of Beginnings viz. This or that particular Day first or last of seven or of any other number hath no Materiality or Substantiality in it toward Religion to make it be profitably determined rather then such another of such a number but only accidentally And so in this Consideration to be greatly inferiour to the Quamdiu or continuance as also to the Quoties or frequencie of revolution which are so mainly profitable as we shewed before 3. Whence it followes clearly as was also said before in relation to Learning That whereas a Determination of the Continuance and Frequencie of Time for Religion XXIII Therefore there may be an alteration of it without hurt to Religion whether of either of them singly or both of them joyntly cannot be altered in any remarkable degree without an answerable alteration in the Profit of it toward Religion namely the Profit must needs be greater if it be altered from a lesse proportion to a greater as from halfe a Day to a whole Dayes continuance and from the Frequencie of one Day in seven to one in six or five and so the profit will be lesse if altered from a greater proportion to a lesse as from a whole dayes continuance to 3 or 4 houres only of a day and from the frequencie of one day in seven to one in eight or ten only and consequently a determination of these respects of time remains in the nature of it constantly perpetually profitable to Religion It is quite otherwise with the Season or Order of Time for Religion For of that there may be a remarkable alteration as from the last Day of seven to the first of seven from Evening to Morning * It is ususually taken for granted that the Sabbath of old began in the Evening This we doe not affirme nor yet altogether deny but shall consider it hereafter But now we speak of it by way of supposition that it â—â—d so begin or the like and yet no alteration at all unlesse in some Accidentall Considerations forenoted in the Profit of it In as much as still God and the Soule may have the same proportion of Time both for Continuance and Frequencie singly or jointly and so as much substantiall advantage and no more be toward Religion in the alteration of the Season or Order of Beginning as was before this was altered We say again there is no substantiall convenience or inconvenience profit or disadvantage to Religion in the perpetuating or changing the Season or Order of Beginning from one Day of the Week to another or from Evening to Morning * Whereas we say It makes no substantiall change in the profit to alter the Beginning from Evening to Morning We yet conceive an accidentall profit by it in that by the meanes of the beginning in the Morning we are sure to have the Continuance if for a whole Day not to be ended while we are awake The profit of which we shall argue hereafter But that if no accidentall Consideration recommend a Change that Season or Order of Beginning may be perpetuated under the New Testament which was under the Old without prejudice to Religion And if any Accidentall Consideration doe recommend a Change that Season or Order of Beginning the Day or Time for beginning the Day may be changed and that fitly so it be done by sufficient authority Also in that change It is all one what Season or Order of Beginning be placed in the stead of the former unlesse there be some particular accidentall consideration that recommends one rather then another and then that for that cause is fittest to be chosen and determined accordingly And these things we affirme of the alteration of the Season or Order of Beginning under the Old Testament from the last Day of the Week to the first Day of the Week and from beginning in the Evening to beginning in the Morning This alteration is without any substantiall prejudice to Religion so long as the Determination of the Continuance and Frequencie joyntly that is of one whole Day in seven remaines unaltered Also it is without any substantiall profit For still there is just the same and no more nor lesse advantage toward Religion Gods honour and the Soules good that there was before And God altering it as we say He hath done the Authority is unquestionably sufficient And we have also sufficient ground recommending such an alteration and such a choice even supposing as our Anti-Sabbatarians doe that God hath put over this authority to the Church not only from the Type annexed to the old Day but from a greater benefit then that which the Old Day was a memoriall of namely the Redemption of the World being above the Creation and this Redemption completed in the morning of the Resurrection day while withall
Duties as that Day is usually spent in by these that are devout whether in publike or in the family or alone as Prayer for instance and reading the VVord are Parts of Divine Worship But even that the observation of this particular Day and that weekly all of it in varieties of Duties of Religion one or other all our waking time is also it selfe a Part of Divine Worship and beyond the nature of a meere Adjunct or Circumstance of VVorship VVe doubt not but they will be a great deale the more carefull and conscionable in the observation of the whole Day and every part and parcell of it II. The question explained To effect this we must first cleare what we meane by a part of worship and what by a meere adjunct or circumstance of worship and so state the question between us and those of the contrary opinion and then bring our arguments and vindicate them and our assertion from the contrary exceptions and objections VVe say then 1. What worship is and what a part of worship 1. Worship generally is the tender of our homage to God and giving Him immediate honour Accordingly a part of Worship is whatsoever is presented to God whether thing or action as a speciall homage and as an immediate honour to Him Or at least ought to be so if it be not 2. What an adjunct or circumstance of worship 2. An Adjunct or Circumstance of Worship which is meerly such is That which is not or ought not to be presented to God any speciall or immediate Honour to Him but only serves and is used as an accomodation to the performance of some thing or action which is properly Worship or perhaps is only an unthought of accident naturally or occasionally accompanying that thing or action which is Worship 3. Withall it is to be considered 3. The same thing may be both a circumstance and part of worship that the selfe same thing which in one case is but an Adjunct barely a meere Circumstance and â—o way a part of Worship may in another case be more then a Circumstance and a proper part of Worship being specially and immediately tending to Gods honour and tendred with that intention and to that end Some instances will cleare all this 1. The sacrificing of a Bullock or Sheep was a part of Gods worship under the Law 2. The Sexe that it was male or female The Age that it was so many moneths or weeks or yeers old The Colour that it was red or black or white Was in many cases a meere Circumstance not regarded nor to be regarded 3. Yet in some cases it must be a male not a female in others a female not a male So in some cases so young and no elder in others so old and no younger as in the firstling males it was to be seven dayes with the Dam nor more nor lesse Num. 19.2 and the eight day to be offered And in the Water of Expiation the ashes of the burnt Heifer was to be of a red Heifer of such an age precisely In all which those very circumstantiall considerations were properly parts of Worship Of the Homage to be tendred to God and immediately to His Honour 4. Furthermore it is to be observed how any thing III. 4. How any thing comes to be a part of worship whether seeming to be substance or circumstance comes to be a part of Worship Which may be resolved two wayes 1. As Worship comprehends under the terme both true worship and false worship or Right worship and Will-worship So the cause of it is our intention to present it as a speciall homage as was said and an immediate honour to God Such intention we say is the formall cause that such an action is Worship in him that presents it 1. The formal cause is our intention or such a thing in him that tenders it And without such intention no action is formally Worship in any man however it be in the nature of the action or in any other person that presents it As for instance The repeating of any sentence of Scripture or the Lords prayer intending thereby to honour God is a part of Worship But to repeat it to teach a child to spell or read or to understand a language or to use it as a charme or the like is certainly no Worship because it wants an intention of immediate honouring God by it So to kneele down before an Image or Crucifixe with intention to honour God by that action is Worship though false and idolatrous but to kneele down before it not seeing it nor thinking of it Or to pull out a thorne out of ones foot or the like is no Worship because againe here wants an intention of honouring God by such an action 2. The efficient cause is Gods command 2. But now as Worship denotes only true and right Worship So the proper efficient cause and that which both legitimates and necessitates such intention is the command of God What He commands to be presented to Him whether seeming substance or circumstance hath the nature of a speciall Homage and immediate Honour to Him and ought to be presented as often as it is presented with such intention From which command also flowes an answerable acceptation of such a commanded thing or action when accordingly performed with that intention And with that intention there may and should also be an expectation of such acceptation whereby the intention is proved in a mans conscience whether the matter be commanded or not For Will-worshippers expect an acceptation though without warrant And prophane Hypocrites though they pretend to worship God yet when they intend it not they expect no acceptation We say then our expectation of acceptation declares whether we tender such a thing as a part of Worship or use it as a meer circumstance IV. Gods command is either particular or generall 5. Yet againe Gods command of any thing as Worship is either expresse and particular of such a speciall thing or generall of such an affection which according to an allowance of presenting some kinds of things to Gods honour doth present such particulars or such a proportion sutable to the degree of the affection and other occasions Instances of the first were the daily sacrifices expresly commanded of the second Free-willing offerings and Vowes As we read of Salomons thousand burnt-offerings on the Altar at Gibeon and his mighty number of Peace-offerings two and twenty thousand Oxen and an hundred and twenty thousand Sheep Even these being acceptable fell under the generall command of Honouring the Lord with his substance which Salomon himselfe records sutable to those Times and his incomparable wealth and the like Considerations as of the great Solemnity of dedicating the house of the Lord c. 6. Once more the Command of God of things for His honour V. Gods command is either 1. By the Law of Nature may either be 1. By the
Sabbatum Redivivum OR THE Christian Sabbath VINDICATED IN A Full Discourse concerning the Sabbath And the LORDS DAY Wherein whatsoever hath been written of late for or against the Christian Sabbath is exactly but modestly Examined And the perpetuity of a Sabbath deduced from grounds Of Nature and Religious Reason By Daniel Cawdrey and Herbert Palmer Members Of the Assembly of Divines Divided into Foure Parts 1. Of the Decalogue in generall and other Laws of God together with the Relation of Time to Religion 2. Of the fourth Commandement of the Decalogue in speciall 3. Of the old Sabbath in particular 4. Of the Lords Day in particular The FIRST PART Ezek. 22.26 They have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned amongst them Mark 2.28 The SONNE OF MAN is Lord also of the Sabbath London Printed by Robert White for Thomas Vnderhill and are to be sold at the Signe of the Bible in Woodstreete 1645. The License THis Treatise entituled Sabbatum Redivivum Or the Christian Sabbath vindicated as in my opinion the most satisfactory of any I have seen and that in a point of Divinity wherein as appeares by the many Books written against it the wisdome of the flesh maintaines as great an enmity against God as in any whatsoever I recommend unto the Presse as of excellent use in these times CHARLES HERLE The Contents of the first Part. CHAP. I. OF the Term of a Morall Law and the distinction of Laws into Ceremoniall Judiciall and Morall And of Morall Laws into Naturall and Positive CHAP. II. Rules to know a Law to be Morall though but positive CHAP. III. Every Law of the Decalogue is a Morall and Perpetuall Law CHAP. IV. The Exceptions to the former Rule answered CHAP. V. Christ hath confirmed all the Commandements of the Decalogue as perpetuall Mat. 5.17 c. CHAP. VI. Solemne Worship is Morall-Naturall both Solitary and conjoyned in Families and Churches and how far CHAP. VII Generall Considerations about Time and its profitablenesse in reference to Morall actions of importance CHAP. VIII Considerations of Time in relation to Religion and the Worship of God how far it may be profitable thereunto CHAP. IX A Determinate Solemn Time for Gods Worship is Morall-Naturall and that in the first â—ommandement And what kinde and manner of Determination of Time for Religion may be proved Necessary by the Law or Light of Nature and generall Rules of Scripture CHAP. X. The Determination of the chiefe Solemn Time of Worship for all men Necessarily and Ordinarily Sufficient for the chief Time as also of the particular day for it belongs not to Men but to GOD. CHAP. XI Two Corollaries from the former Discourses about Solemne Time 1. All Times and Dayes are not equall under the Gospell 2. Time and Place are not equall circumstances in Religion CHAP. XII The Necessary sufficient chief Time for Religion together with the particular Day for it is a part of Worship and not a meer Adjunct or Circumstance only Errata PAge 108. Line 2. And specially c. unto the end of that Paragraph should have been inserted line 16. after the word pleases p. 136. l. 33. for much read which p. 168. l. 7. for coninuance r. continuance p. 233. l. 34. for lets r. let p. 242. l. 16. for mahomet r. Mahomet l. 33. for if r. If p. 260. l. 19. for puplique r. publique p. 261. l. 17. after of r. it p. 266. l. 32. for Chhistian r. Christian p. 273. l. 3. for Pimitive r. Primitive p. 274. l. 25. for justification r. institution p. 275. l. 12. for possibilies r. possibilities p. 276. l. 33. for Apostle r. Apostles p. 277. l. 4. for the r. that p. 282. l. 23. for ver 16. r. ver 14. p. 283. l. 25. blot out not p. 296. l. 30. for them r. that l. 36. for charity r. Charybdis p. 305. l. 13. for mianly r. mainly p. 314. l. 5. for referoed r. referred p. 318. l. 27. for continue r. containe p. 322. l. 7. for oligatory r. obligatory p. 332. l. 25. for Lev. 23. r. Lev. 27. p. 346. l. 28. for viz. r. both p. 352. l. 15. for that r. the To the Christian Reader WE are now Christian Reader to enter upon a very great work not so much in respect of the bulk and length as containing under it many controversies as in respect of the subject matter it selfe the worth and Dignity of it The vindication of the Christian Sabbath In the entrance and Preface whereunto we think it not amisse to give thee a briefe account of some particulars which may not being satisfied stand as prejudices in the reading of the following Discourse and they are these 1. What is the concernment of a Sabbath that we are so large in vindication of it 2. Why after so many books of this subject we adde any more 3. Why seeing there are three parts more this part comes forth alone without its fellowes For the first of these In reading of the Scriptures 1. The Elogies of a Sabbath we do observe that there is not any one part of Religion except but the mystery of our Redemption of which more is spoken than of the Sabbath The Elogies of it are so many that they would easily swell into a volume if we listed to enlarge our selves We shall therefore give thee but a touch or taste of the chiefest Heads 1. In Generall it is the Compendium of all Religion And first of all in generall we may call the Sabbath and the due observation of it the Compendium or Continent of all Religion Hereupon it is very observable that as the commandement of it stands in the Heart of the Decalogue as the bond of both the Tables so it is in other places of Scripture joyned with the chiefest Duties of both Of the first Table in that place You shall keep my Sabbaths Levit. 26.2 and reverence my Sanctuary Of the second Table in that other place You shall feare every man his father and his mother Levit. 19.3 Having all the Priviledges that Commend the most Substantiall Lawes in Scripture and sanctifie my Sabbaths The Law of the Sabbath hath all those priviledges that do commend any the most substantiall Lawes in Scripture It is one of the Ten spoken by God himself with Majesty and Terror written in the Tables of stone with his own finger put in the Arke by his own command together with the rest to signifie as even one of the Adversaries sayes the perpetuity of it 2. In Particular 1. The Frequent mention of it in all parts of sacred Scripture More Particularly 1. There is as frequent mention of it as of any one Commandement implying as on the one side the Importance of it so on the other Mens untowardnesse and backwardnesse in the observation of it There is no part of Scripture wherein there is not something remarkable of a Sabbath 1. In the Law or five Books
windowes open toward Jerusalem Also his setting himselfe to seek the Lord by fasting though alone c. 9. Can it be reckoned lesse then Solemn VVorship We adde if many Christians all a Country or Kingdom over should agree to fast and pray upon one particular day every one in their Chamber apart alone this were without doubt a very Solemne service and worship yet Solitary and private We conclude then that as there is such a Duty required of every one apart at least sometimes which we call Solemne Worship so such a Duty being performed with the whole man is worthy to be called and counted Solemne And if Solitary Worship may deserve to be called Solemne then surely Family-Worship also is justly to be counted Solemne Such was the eating of the Passeover which was ever in private houses and Esthers Fast with her maids Est 4. three dayes one after another and the Humiliation mentioned Zach. 12. every family apart and their wives apart which seemes to be a Solitary VVorship yet Solemne undoubtedly So that all Solemn VVorship is not Publike But if any one would yet list to wrangle about the word Solemne let him but give us another fit word to describe such Solitary or Private VVorship of the whole man tendred unto God so seriously and it shall serve our turne sufficiently for the end we intend it for as we shall see hereafter Mean time we say that conjoyned VVorship XIV Family Worship proved a duty where it is possible to to be performed is also a necessary duty even so far forth Morall-Naturall and that in both the kindes of it Domesticall and Congregationall For in the second place The Honour of GOD and Good of Soules doe also require Family-VVorship from all such joyntly as live in Families where they have any to joyn with This appeares 1. Because it being God that hath placed men in a Community setting the solitary in families as the Psalmists phrase is Psal 68. it cannot be justly conceived that He should doe this meerly for their worldly conveniencies but rather chiefly that they should improve their society one with another to His Glory who is the Lord of them all together as well as of every one of them single and so that they should worship Him joyntly together as well as each of them solitarily and apart To which tends undeniably the forenoted charge given Deut. 6.6 7. These words that I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in the house Deut. 11.18 and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up For though it comprehend plainly Ejaculatory Worship in part as we have noted before yet it reaches further specially being added immediately unto the great Commandement ver 4. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with all thy might And indeed how can any man love God with all his heart and soule and not be willing to joyne others to himselfe and himselfe to others as much as may be in the worship of God And how doth the Master of a Family love God with all his strength that imployes not his authority over all his Family to call them to worship God even in the Family with himselfe at least some times I say at least some times for we yet are but upon the Duty the consideration of the Time is to come afterward Therefore also we finde it a part of the unhappy character of Pagans Jer. 10.25 Whereas some to elude the strength of this Text for Family-Prayers alleadge that Psal 79.6 the words are the Kingdomes that call not upon thy name and so by Family here is meant no more then there by Kingdoms I answer The parallelling the two plates proves the thing more clearly for as the Kingdome is not said to call upon Gods name unlesse the King command publike meetings to that end and that is counted a Heathenish and ungodly Kingdome so is it with a Family where by the authority of the Governour there are no joynt meetings to pray to God devoted to the wrath of God The Heathen that know Thee not and the Families that call not on Thy Name And indeed how hath the Family that knowledge of God to be 1. Their great Lord and Master 2. The Author of their Peace among themselves that the Governour is gentle to the inferiours and the inferiours dutifull to the Governour and Superiour 3. The Author of all Blessings to them all Of health and strength to follow their businesse of successe and comfort in them How I say have they the knowledge of God if they agree not together to joyne in Worship of Him their Lord and in tendring Prayers and Praises for such things as they expect and receive from Him 2. The Good of soules calls for this also Every one needing helpe from others and all being helped by the Solemne services joyntly presented to God in the Family 1. In minding one another by mutuall testification of the common Allegeance and Homage they all owe to Him their great Soveraigne and so preventing the forgetting of Him 2. Withall affecting one another by example of reverence and devotion 3. They being also infallibly taught and minded of and provoked to some particulars of Duty and furnisht with some matter of comfort by every such service performed joyntly supposing that every ones heart joynes faithfully in it which before they were either ignorant or forgetfull of or backward to or should have missed if they had beene wholly and ever alone As reason cannot but insinuate and experience continually shewes It remains then that Domesticall and Family-Worship is a Necessary Duty and as farre as it is Possible even Morall-Naturall XV. Publike Worship proved a Duty 3. So is also Ecclesiasticall or Congregationall VVorship which is usually called Publike VVorship Even for the Reasons forenamed Gods Honour and Soules Good He is Lord of all societies and the Author of them as well as of Families And so is to have a tribute of VVorship and Glory from all joyntly The Lord having universall Dominion over all flesh should publikely be worshipped by societies of men G. Irons p. 261. as well as from any severally And Love to God cannot but promote this as much as is possible And the mutuall blessings expected and received by greater Communities as well as Families doe require the like according to just conveniences Which is so assuredly of the Law of Nature that all Nations that have ever been heard of have had their joynt Publike Solemne Worship And have had Persons set apart purposely for it Priests or Ministers for the more compleat performance of it Finally both Reason and Experience declare that the good of Soules both calls for publike Congregationall VVorship as also commends it as exceeding profitable and advantagious Not only in that
rarely He that bestowes much and often Time upon such Duties even Voluntarily and not being Determined to them before hand doth Infallibly love the Duties and he loves them not that having no just hindrance doth not bestow much and often Time upon them even of his own voluntary accord without any Antecedent necessary Determination Also supposing an Equality of Ability and Blessing a man may judge who bestowes most and oftnest Time upon Religion by the increase in knowledge and Piety And who is wisest for his soule and will make best progresse in Piety by observing the Continuance and Frequency of Time Voluntarily bestowed upon God and his Worship So that these two respects of Time the Quamdiu or Continuance and the Quoties or Frequencie are in themselves and in their nature even Indeterminately and Voluntarily applied very Materiall and as we may say Substantiall circumstances to Religion as we said before for learning and such like Civill businesses And much more then if wisely strongly Determined as we shal see afterward But so is not the Quando or season of beginning VI. Not of the Quando unlesse by accident indeterminately and voluntarily For so it is of no efficay nor value toward Religion in its nature Although by accident it may sometimes prove considerable as 1. by hastning or delaying when a mans bodily spirits are in Temper or Distemper Or 2. He may have more or lesse help toward any duty of worship Or 3. The Continuance or Frequent Reiteration of any Duty or Duties may be thereby furthered or hindred Or 4. That he shall gaine or lose altogether an opportunity of performing some particular Duty of Solemne worship to God Such like accidents may commend or discommend possibly the hast or delay of beginning to Worship God at any Season voluntarily but else in it selfe the Quando or Season of beginning indeterminately is of no importance to the glory of God or the good of Soules Neither yet is it any proofe of a mans affection or disaffection to Religion or any Duty of Gods Worship For a man may begin it at this or that Season either out of willingnesse to take in hand the Duty or out of willingnesse to be soon rid of the Duty And he may defer it out of fear of interruption and that he may be freer and fitter for it after a while Or out of unwillingnesse to performe the Duty at all Of which our unhappy Experience affords every man too many instances even in his own heart So that this difference formerly noted in Civill actions between the Quando the Season of beginning and the other two respects the Quamdin or Continuance and the Quoties or Frequency is also clear in Religion That these even Indeterminate are of maine importance and very materiall Circumstances in their Application and the other is of no Validity in it selfe toward Religion and Gods Worship which Notion we shall anon make just use of more then once in convenient place And now we come to our second Consideration of Time in Relation to Religion and the Worship of God VII Solemne Time which we call Solemne Time The nature of which we describe to be That it requires Duties of Worship to attend it that is That whosoever be the Determiner of any of the respects of Time 〈◊〉 doth by his determination oblige and necessitate as far as his Authority reaches to Duties of Religion and Solemne Worship according to the respects of time determined As namely 1. For continuance 1. The Quamdiu or Continuance being Determined and made Solemne as for instance an Houre together it requires or the Determiner by it and for it requires Duties of Worship and of Religion to fill it up viz. wholly And so either 1. Some One duty to be extended to it to all the Time as to pray or read the whole hour long Or 2. Divers Duties to be multiplied for it as Praying Reading Singing or the like which together may be drawne out to the whole length of the Continuance the hour determined 2. For Frequencie 2. So the Quoties or Frequency being Determined and made Solemne as for instance three times a day it requires or the Determiner thereby requires a Reiteration of Duties of Religion and Solemne Worship either 1. The same that were formerly practised as Prayer or Reading Or 2. Others of like Religious Nature Hearing or Teaching others or singing to God as often as the Determined Revolution comes about 3. For the Quando or Season 3. Also the Quando or Season of beginning being Determined and made Solemne as for instance Such a day of the weeke the first day or the last or such an hour it requires or the Determiner accordingly requires at that Season a present performance of some duty of Religion either 1. Any one if there were no expresse mention of this or that particular Duty together with the Determination of the Season Or 2. That particular Duty which was then mentioned if any were so as At such an hour pray On the 14. day of the first Moneth keep the Passeover VIII It is more or lesse Solemne as more or lesse strictly determined This we say is clearly the nature of all Solemne Time that is of all Time Determinate if Antecedently determined either by God or man And all such Determinate Time is properly Solemne and more then Common Time Even though the Determination be but Remisse and but in any one Respect But according as the Determination is more or lesse compleat either in regard of the respects combined or of the Exactnesse of the Determination So the time may be counted more or lesse Solemne And so a Determination of any two of the respects of Time jointly makes it more Solemne then of any one alone and a Determination of all three together more Solemne then of any two Also a strict and punctuall Determination makes it more Solemne in any of the respects or in all then a Remisse Determination doth And a Conclusive Determination yet more Solemne then an Initiall Determination And lastly an Exclusive Determination as much as it may be found or admitted upon any consideration generall or particular of which we shall see somewhat anon makes it most Solemne of all But still it must be remembred in each respect IX It requires Religious duties to attend it That as according to our former discourse Time Indeterminate and Common Time attends naturally upon duties of Religion in as much as it is not possible in nature to performe them at all without such attendance of Time So Duties at least Indeterminate attend Religiously upon Solemne Time in as much as it is not possible in Religion to observe it aright without such attendance of some Duties or other And Duties of Worship are as Necessary Theologically to the observation of Solemne Religious Time as Indeterminate or Common Time is Physically Necessary to the performance of any Duty So that unlesse
likely to worke a setled worke upon his spirit to be still more and more for God and his soule Whereas those that are taken off from religious thoughts by worldly any thing soone doe apparantly in experience loose a great part not to say all sometimes of the benefit namely of the spirituall light of knowledge and heat of affection that they might have gotten in a longer Time or seemed to have gotten in that Time which they did bestow upon Religion in a Continuance Christians will confesse this and worldlings manifest it And particularly ignorants who live in a neglect of the Sabbath either through their owne fault or their superiours doe by their excuses of their ignorance beare strong witnesse to this Their language is We are dull headed and hard to learne any Catechisme being not booke learned and we have no Time to learne Their meaning is chiefely they have not leisure to allot a sufficient Continuance of Time at once being cald off by one businesse or other when they would as they pretend or doe set themselves to learne And there is much of truth in this if they acknowledge not and so improve not the Sabbaths Continuance which rightly used would much advance them even in one Day And so still all pleads the profit of a large Continuance determinated 5. XXVI It is very profitable to Religion to have Frequency of times Determined even single so it be as great a frequency as may be consistent with a mans worldly necessities as once or twice every day In as much as Religion and the Solemne worship of God for his honour and the good of mens souls is a businesse Permanently Necessary all a mans life long It appears also that it is profitable to Religion to have a Determination of the Frequency of returne to the Duties of it Even as great a Frequency as can be imagined compatible with the formerly mentioned Necessities of Naturall and worldly businesses Specially to secure a man that his Knowledge of God and Affections towards God in a word his acquaintance with God shall not be lost or diminisht As the intervention of Worldly businesses being so directly opposite to thoughts of God for the most part specially in spirits and hearts so corrupted as ours now are cannot but put in hazard The proper prevention whereof lyes mainly therefore in the Determination of as great a Frequency of returne as may be as suppose every day or every morning and every evening that is twice every Day viz. of those Dayes the maine of whose Continuance is taken up for worldly businesses according to the Ceremoniall Law of the Morning and Evening Sacrifice which carried along with the Duties the Frequency of the Time of tendring them together with a Remisse Determination that is within a Latitude of the Season also And such Determination of the Frequency even though there be nothing of the Continuance Determined at all or only Remisly if any is we say Remarkably Profitable to prevent strangenesse in the Soule toward God For while the not-Determining of any Continuance jointly with such Frequency of twice every Working-day will assure that it may be observed without any prejudice to a mans worldly businesses which ordinarily certainly cannot but admit a looking up to God even Solemnly every Day between morning and noone and again between noone and a mans lying down to sleep so that a man be Free to continue no longer then his occasions will then permit This very Frequency will yet keep the soule happily in breath and in dutifull respects toward God And withall will now and then afford him the Advantage of making some Remarkable Profit by Voluntary enlarging the Continuance of Time for Devotion when being at it he finds no particular businesse calling him of perhaps for an houre or more together However let the Continuance be never so short yet if a man do but Affectionately tender Solemne Worship in such Frequency Determined of Morning and Evening every Day It must needs preserve from a Totall Decay and strangenesse toward God which in a very seldome returne there would be very great danger if not certainty of and so proportionably according as such Determination of the Frequency single were more or lesse Frequent the prevention or danger of decay in Religion would without doubt be And so the Profitablenesse of the Determination of a very great Frequency even single is apparantly Evident And specially it may be and will be so if besides it there be for Religion a Determination made jointly of the Continuance with convenient largenesse and of the Revolution also with Convenient Frequency Of the profitablenesse of which joint-Determination XXVII A joint determination of both the Continuance and Frequency in a convenient largenesse is singularly profitable to Religion Even the most Profitable of all other making the proportion so determined the chiefest Time for Religion we are in the next place to speake 6. And upon the former Suppositions it can with no Reason be denied but such a joint Determination of the Continuance and Frequency in a convenient largenesse is not only Profitable to Religion but the most Profitable Determination of all other The Determination of the greatest importance to the maine businesse of Religion Gods honour and the good of mens soules as taking in the strength of the two Substantiall respects of Time the Continuance and Frequency joined And accordingly the Proportion of Time therein Determined is the chiefe Time for Religion of all other Therefore concerning this Time or this Determination it is a consideration of the greatest waight by what Rules it may be ordered wisely and made in a Convenient and just and Profitable Proportion or observed to be so if we speak of any already made as namely of that of One dayes Continuance in the Revolution of seven which we say was the Substance of the fourth Commandement Now here there may be a double consideration of the Wisdom and Conveniency of the Proportion of Time so determined between the Continuance and Frequency jointly One is in regard of the totall proportion Determined for Religion and so secluded from worldly businesse how so much in the whole as for instance the proportion of a Day in seven or the seventh part of time in the Revolution of seven dayes whether that be a wise and Convenient and Profitable Determination and not certainly too much or certainly too little for the chiefe Time for Religion And by what Rules to judge it either Way But this we leave the Discussion of to a following Chapter where we shall endeavour to beat it out clearly and at large The other is in regard of dividing and sharing such a proportion as a Day comes to in seven between the Continuance and Frequency On vvhich side the greatest Waight should be put whether on the Continuance to make that as large as may be and so put it all into one day as in the fourth Commandement Or on that side
of the Frequency and make it as Frequent as may be every day of the seven or even eveâ—â— Morning and Evening in each of the seven dayes and so make the Continuance shorter as it must needs be according to the greater Frequency Of which we thus propound our apprehensions in justification of the Wisdom of that Determination of God and so the Profitablenesse of it of One whole dayes Continuance only once in seven dayes rather then oftner for Frequency and with lesse Continuance We say then 7. That if we pitch upon an equall Proportion for the whole XXVIII The largest continuance with a lesser Frequency is better then the greatest Frequency with a lesse continuance as this for Instance it will appear more profitable by far to have the largest Continuance that may be with a Frequency somewhat remote as it is in the fourth Commandment then to have the greatest Frequency that may be with a Proportionably lesse Continuance And this may be evidenced both in Reference to Religion and also to worldly businesses In both Respects it will be found the most Profitable Determination to have it all upon one Day rather then divided into parcells upon every day of the seven or proportionably upon six or five or four or three or two dayes of seven We suppose the Proportion of a Day is about 14. or 16. hours namely the Ordinary waking Time of a Day which only can be applied solemnly to Religion as we shall see afterward Now this divided between two dayes is seven or eight hours a piece between three dayes is five hours a piece or little more between four Dayes about four hours a piece between five dayes about three hours a piece between six Dayes about two hours and a halfe a piece between all the seven Dayes about two hours a piece XXIX 1. With respect to Religion it selfe or little more Here now if we first consider the Businesses of Religion We have already shewed the great Profit of a whole dayes Continuance for the divers kinds of worship Solitary Domesticke and Publike and for variety of Duties in each kinde and compleat improvement of them all by full space for each and before the publike particuly to prepare for it and after it to make the utmost benefit of it But if we abate any of this Continuance by multiplying the Revolution more Frequently and specially the more we abate of it by the greater Frequency as of five or six or seven Dayes Some at least of this benefit must be prejudiced either the Publike or else the Domesticke or at least the Solitary worship must be neglected in some of those revolutions Or if all be still performed yet much more slightly because so scantiâ— and only some Duties in each kinde and not all that might well have been in a whole dayes Continuance or a very small pittance afforded to the severall Duties and so a very weake profit to redound particularly to mens souls by the observance of such Times The heart would often not be brought in frame till a great part of the Duty and perhaps of the whole Time for the various Duties were over-past and gone And another while that which was gotten of knowledge or Affection would straightway be lost again by Diverting the minde suddainly unto worldly Cogitations As is more then evident unto the consciences of Christians when after a Sermon heard on the weeke day at the Market they do whether Necessarily or Voluntarily immediately lay aside the thoughts of it and engage themselves in worldly businesses In such cases it is a very very little Profit that their souls make by such attendance upon God though for an hour or more together and with the best help of the publike Ministery unlesse the matter did very much sute with their present affections and so sinkes more then ordinarily deep into them Or that they specially call themselves to a serious account the next free hour they have to settle it upon their minds and consciences by meditation and Prayer And this they have often no leisure for on the week dayes till they have even forgotten the most of what they had heard But now in the Continuance of a whole Day they have not only leisure but in a manner a Necessity of laying to heart what specially they have learned in the publike Ministerie For all worldly businesses discourses or even cogitations being then unseasonable and unlawfull they have now no manner of excuse if they meditate not of what specially may and doth concerne their consciences and of which they have been that day instructed and put in minde And if they live among any that regard God at all they may have help from them for remembrance and affection both by conference of what they have heard even at meals besides other Times Neither can they have any discourse so proper as of that usually nothing of the world being then allowed ordinarily as was touched before A great deale more might be said to evidence the singular profit of having the Continuance with the largest that may be But we shall have occasion to speak of it again in the next Chapter and so we forbear to amplifie things now Only we must not forget to note that if we shall take our Adversaries proportion upon the Lords Day namely three or four hours which is about that proportion which the practise of our Church generally allots for the publike worship though we remember not that they any where vouchsafe to name such a Proportion diâ—…tly If we say we shall take this proportion to be solemnly observed in a weeks Revolution The matter in hand will be much more cleare that the whole proportion is more profitably determined together in one Continuance within such a Revolution then to have it broken into smaller Parcells by reason of the multiplication of the Frequency For this Proportion of three or four hours in a weeke is but about two hours of a Day if divided between two dayes and if between three dayes about an hour and a quarter If between four dayes about an hour in a day If between five dayes not an hour for each day If between six dayes not three quarters of an hour for each and if between 7. dayes about half an hour for every day Here now whereas the whole three or four hours would afford some discernable Profit if all upon one day and so make it one Continuance admitting them also a Reservation for going home to dinner because there would be some convenient roome for the varieties of publike duties though none at all according to their account for the private and so it might worke somewhat upon them yet if it came to be lessened by division into more dayes and so more Frequent Revolutions There would be either an exclusion of Prayer or Reading or Singing or Preaching or Catechising one or other of them not to name the Sacraments which are not usually every week but Baptisme only
Day as their Naturall spirits can hold out unto as they are able to continue waking in the service of God But it doth not bind all then equally to the same proportions of minutes because all are not able to wake equally one as long as an other But so farre as men are able it binds all equally all being bound to serve God in the Day with all their strength the strength of all their Naturall abilities And so much we shall presently see The Law of Nature commands every one of mankind and more then so much it doth not command whether the Continuance be longer or shorter compared with others XXIV Answ 2. 2. But with all we say If any one of mankind through neglect of the service of God or misse-devotion to it doe willingly sleepe more and wake lesse Time then he need to doe whether againe the Continuance compared with other men be longer or shorter he is and will be found a transgressour against this Law of Nature For this is but corruption in him though perhaps he may pretend Naturall infirmity But of that and all other such like pretences this Rule in a word may be a certaine and sufficient judge That what Continuance soever a man is able to keep himselfe waking in a Day about any worldly businesse or matter of pleasure gaming or the like he is able to keepe himselfe according to Nature the same Continuance of Time in the service of God in one or other exercise of Religion which Naturally weary not the spirits more then worldly matters but rather lesse then many worldly matters and the varieties may refresh and doe greatly the mind so farre as carnallity and corruption oversway not And therefore in the first stating of this position concerning a Day to be determined by the Law of Nature we distinguisht Naturall abilities from corruption For we take it for a most undeniable Truth That corruption doth not hinder the Law of Nature from commanding to the utmost of Naturall abilities as long at least as it exceeds not them For the loving and so serving God withall our strength as was toucht before is infallibly of the Law of Nature and yet no mans corruption now suffers him to yeeld God so much love and service This also made be made good in manifold particular instances That the Law of Nature doth command us to doe things which now according to Our corruption it is impossible for any man to doe As to pray or read or hear the Word when ever he doth any of these Duties with a steady fixed heart and mind without any distractions or worldly thoughts at all that while for that they are so farre forth a taking of Gods holy name in vaine Yet this no man is able now to doe as all mens consciences will confesse even though they imploy but a very short Continuance in it And now we come to prove XXV An argument to prove that nature determines a dayes continuance that a Dayes Continuance for Religion is determined by the Law of Nature from grounds and principles in Nature which we have formerly made use of If it be sin against the Law of Nature never in a mans life to give God a whole Day at once then the Law of Nature determines to every man a whole Dayes Continuance once at least in his life But it is sinne against the Law of Nature never to God a whole Day at once Ergo The consequence is undeniable The Antecedent is thus further made good That which is contrary to the acknowledgement of Gods being the Lord of us and all our Time and Gods being our happinesse is a sinne against the Law of Nature But never in a mans life to give God a whole Day at once is contrary to those acknowledgements Ergo. The Major is most plaine and certaine The Minor also may be infallibly proved Because those acknowledgments call for as much Continuance at once as Nature can possibly determine and possibly give at once where all that a man hath is due that debt cannot be satisfied unlesse all be tendred to Him So unlesse all the Continuance of a Day be tendred to God he hath not all that is due to Him as Lord of all our Time Also where a man acknowledges his whole happinesse to lie that cannot but carry him with the whole of his strength to the utmost Continuance Nature hath to give For all that a man doth is toward his happinesse and nothing can draw his mind from it while his acknowledgement of it failes not Now we have already shewed that Nature can and doth determine such a Day to every man for businesse of what kind soever and that it can give it wholly to God imploy it wholly in the service of God taking in specially the Reservations of any necessary refreshings which Nature and not corruption calling for God allowes and any extraordinary other Necessary interruption as we have formerly said Therefore never throughout a mans life to give God that which Nature is so able to give Him is against those acknowledgements of Gods Soveraignty and His being our Happinesse and so a sinne against the Law of Nature XXVI An objection answered If here it be objected That the same Argument will as well prove the whole Continuance of every Day of our life as of one Day which yet it doth not doe nor cannot because our Naturall necessities allowed by God and even commanded by the Law of Nature as it concernes the second Table duties admits it not And therefore the Argument is either false or impertinent or both We answer that the Objection furnishes us with sufficient justification of the Arguments both truth and pertinencie For we grant according to the Objection that God in the Law of Nature commands to attend necessary Worldly businesses as well we say not as much that is as absolutely necessarily as His services and the pursuing immediately of the Soules happinesse in and by them Therefore in sensu composito it is not true that the Argument proves the whole of every Dayes continuance to be determined by the Law of Nature for Religion and Gods immediate worship Although in sensu diviso it proves of every particular Day that is this or that Quando as well as of one But we propound it not of any particular Day in respect of the Quando or Season this or that Day but only of one single Continuance of a Day And so it is both true and pertinent It is true For though naturall necessities of Worldly businesses will not admit the whole Continuance of every Day one after another that is the Quoties or Revolution joyned to the Continuance which we meddle not with in the Argument Yet they will certainly admit one Day in a mans life we mean ordinary businesses will and for extraordinary necessities we grant as before Reservation for them if they should fall out when a man were upon that one Dayes devotions Therefore
calling for a Revolution and Frequencie of a whole Day though we say not that it can pitch upon the Frequencie of a Seventh Dayes revolution Of which more anon XXX Another scruple satisfied If any after all shall say That we have forgotten to put into this Argument one thing before mentioned in the way to it namely That the Coninuance which the Law of Nature determines conclusively is the longest Continuance that naturall abilities can hold out unto at once which we have not yet affirmed of a Day VVe answer in a word 1. That we conceive it needlesse to take much paines to prove that the a Day of 24 houres is the longest Continuance at once that the naturall abilities of all mankind generally is able to bestow upon the worship of God or any other businesse For if sleep be so necessary as it is ordinarily to all men within that time which is a most formall interruption or breaking of the Continuance of any businesse as that not one of a hundred perhaps doth or can watch at any time a whole 24 houres together Then much lesse can it be imagined that all men should be able to hold out to a longer Continuance without such naturally necessary interruption 2. Also that we may justly say that after such a formall interruption as sleep upon the necessity of Nature is and a new Day in Nature beginning The next Time suppose any were further determined upon a mans waking were rather belonging to the Quoties or Frequencie as being a Revolution of a New Day as we said then simply to the Continuance so notoriously interrupted and ended from a necessity of Natures making Though also if there were an expresse and distinct determination further upon that second Day of any Continuance of Time then that determination were not neither a single determination of the Quoties or Frequencie but of it and the Quamdiu or Continuance jointly As in the Fast of Ester three Dayes one after another XXXI How far Nature determines the Frequencie And so we proceed to our second Question about the Law of Natures Determination of Time namely about the Frequencie How far the Law of Nature will lead us toward a Conclusive Determination thereof that is of the greatest Frequencie even single without any Continuance added to it and whether it can as well make a Conclusive Determination of the Frequencie as we have shewed that it doth of the Continuance For resolution hereof although it may seeme faire to affirme That if we shall speak according to the Naturall divisions of Time and so the Naturall revolutions distinctly observable by Naturall Rules even without art among all men all the world over the Law of Nature doth determine even conclusively the Frequency of every Day that is so often the Law of Nature doth require for the Worship of God from all men by way of command but no oftener though not forbidding oftener but only seldomer because Nature seemes to have no Frequenter distinct revolution then a Day And that it hath and is able to observe and take notice of and accordingly is able to Worship God even solemnely so often There being no impediment imaginable why within the Revolution of every Day a man may not give God some solemne Worship But we say though this seemes a faire assertion and sutable to what we had before of the Naturall Continuance of a Day yet if we shall speake Practically and Ethically as we did partly before of the Continuance we must deliver our selves somewhat otherwise and indeed so we must also in a meer Physicall or Astronomicall consideration of the Revolution of a Day And 1. XXXII Twice a day at least then in that consideration we say that the Law of Nature if it make any Conclusive determination of the Frequency of Time for Gods worship it must be of twice every Day Because there is indeed a two-fold revolution or Frequency observable in every Day Naturally the beginning and the end In each of which it is undoubtedly possible to tender to God some Worship And so it is Practically A mans first waking and his lying downe to sleepe are two distinct observable Revolutions appliable to Gods Worship we doe not now here speake of the Quando whether Natures Law doth command to take the first Time of waking and the last Time before sleep for solemne Worship that may be considered afterward But we say that these two are distinct and observable revolutions of Time in every Day And so each of them affording a remarkable possibility of Worshipping God The Law of Nature upon the former grounds of Gods being our happinesse and the Soveraigne Lord of all our Time cannot but determine both those Times to make a Conclusive determination of the Frequency if any such may be made or at least an Initiall determination that is so often at least as twice in every Day once in the morning and once toward night the Law of Nature doth determine for solemne Worship to every man This we meane of such Dayes as we call working Dayes out of which Natures Law determines twice every such Day to tender some solemne Worship to God As well as it doth the whole of one Day in a mans life as we discoursed before of which Day or any such Dayes we speake not in this Argument Because though the particular Duties are divers on such a Day and some to be repeated twice or oftener as prayer Yet this in the whole is counted but once one Continuance because no worldly thing unlesse by reason of present necessity for which a reservation is made may come in and interrupt the Continuance at all But now therefore when we speake of twice a Day we speake of those Dayes which are mainly for worldly businesses that even notwithstanding that they are so by Gods allowance and appointment N. B. whether in Nature or Scripture yet the Law of Nature doth determine a double Frequency of Religious services every such Day of every mans life Only we say not that any Continuance is strictly determined with this Frequency that so long a man must continue at his devotions twice every Day But that so oft at least for the Frequency the Law of Nature commands we thus in a word further make plaine XXXIII Confirmed by reason If it be sinne against the Law of Nature not to worship God every Day twice then the Law of Nature determines to every man the Frequency of every Day twice But it is a sinne against the Law of Nature not to Worship God every Day twice Ergo. The consequence hath been confirmed by like Arguments The Antecedent is also certainly thus made good That which is contrary to the acknowledgement of Gods being the Lord of all our Time and our happinesse is a sinne against the Law of Nature but not to worship God every day twice is contrary to those acknowledgements Ergo. The Major cannot be denied and hath often been
proved The Minor is also infallible because that acknowledgment calls for as Frequent Worship of God as Nature can possibly point out and possibly give to God But we have already shewed how Nature doth point out clearly and distinctly two Revolutions of Time every Day and that it is infallibly possible to apply both of them to give God some Worship at least in a short Continuance as a minute or halfe a minute together Therefore not to give God so oft some Worship is against that acknowledgement and so a sin against the Law of Nature which also it is more then probable God meant to teach his people by the appointment of the daily morning and evening Sacrifice And this Frequency of twice every Day for some solemne Worship of God though it primarily respect Solitary Worship XXXIV 1 With respect to solitary worship which is as we said in a former Chapter the most Essentially and Properly Morall-Naturall solemne Worship and Perpetually necessary as being perpetually possible for even while a man is in the midst of a crowde it is possible for him to present to God such solitary and secret Worship as we have described to be solemne even the whole man being intent on no other thing for that while how short so ever the Continuance prove So that we cannot possibly conceive what can hinder a man and so what can excuse him from such tender of some solemne Worship to God solitary and single by himself twice every Day Namely between morning and noon and between noon and his sleeping at night Yet withall 2. As also to family worship we wish all those that have or may have company to joyn with them in Family Worship to consider seriously between God and their consciences whether the forementioned grounds for solemne family Worship be so far forth also Morall-Naturall as it is possible to be performed with any conveniency and then the Argument but even now mentioned laid together will not also evince it to be Morall-Naturall for such to performe solemne family worship as often namely twice a Day once in the morning or toward noon and once in the evening or at night We are very sensible That this will be a very harsh pill for many Readers to swallow familie Duties being so exceedingly neglected and even disputed against by very many as no where commanded in Scripture Therefore we only propound it againe to all consciences to weigh in sobriety what just hinderances they can have and so what excuses they can possibly plead which God will accept of if they tender him not such Worship so often they and all their families ordinarily And whether a quarter of an houre or halfe a quarter at a Time can be refused by any but minds forgetfull of the Soveraignty of God and the obligation they owe to Him for His Protection and Blessing Night and Day preserving from dangers and prospering endeavours and the dependance they have upon Him continually without whom sinne and misery will at all seiasons seze upon them and againe forgetfull that their Spirituall Happinesse lies in Him conversing with Him and pursuing and enjoying His Favour And then we suppose the issue of their religious and conscientious thoughts will be no other then that rather more and oftener then seldomer and lesse is due to God and necessary for them and their families for their owne good of soule and body spirituall and even temporall namely to secure a blessing upon themselves every way Daily XXXV Nature cannot make a conclusive determination of the Frequency But to returne to our Question whether thus often by a Conclusive Determination of the Frequencie for Solemne Worship and that the Law of Nature doth require no oftner then twice a Day Besides that if that be good which we have but now discoursed of twice required for solitary Worship and twice for family Worship also we have already gotten to four times a day instead of twice we add yet further that we cannot absolutely rest here for a certain definite and determinate number or Frequency For if we speake still Practically as we must in matter of Religion These determinations of twice or foure Times every Day will not infallibly satisfie the Law of Nature Nor indeed any other number of Frequency that can be named And so in a word we say That the Law of nature cannot possibly make a Conclusive determination of the Frequency of Time considered simply for Gods VVorship that is That so often should be peremptorily necessary for all men and no oftener and so that so often should be sufficient for all men generally considered The reason of it although some particulars might be yet obliged to some what oftener The reason hereof is plainly this That Practically it is possible to observe a revolution of Time wherein we may if we have hearts to it set our selves to Worship God even solemnely as oft as our minds cease from being taken up wholly with any worldly businesse and that such businesse will by any means admit an interruption of a minute or halfe a minute to lift up the soule to God in Prayer or Prayses and this may possibly be manifold Times in a Day even innumerable before hand And now the Law of Nature from those often mentioned and ever to be thought on acknowledgements of Gods being our Soveraigne Lord and of all our Time and our happinesse and so to be infinitely preferred before our selves and all our worldly businesses will be constantly calling upon us in all those Revolutions of Time to â—ender to Him some Worship how short soever And from this no consideration of Gods not only dispensation but command to imploy our selves in worldly callings and performe such worldly businesses as are necessary accordingly can be pretended to be a sufficient discharge absolutely and alwayes For we have before proved in the Chapter of Solemn Worship and it is not denied by any that we know That it is oftentimes a Duty which we now say is according to the Law of Nature not only in the midst of Worldly businesses to tender some Ejaculatory Worship to God namely Prayers and Praises But even upon sundry occasions to interrupt for a little while our Worldly businesses wholly to pray to Him and praise Him somewhat solemnly Therefore we say againe that these occasions being impossible to be numbred before-hand for any one man and much lesse for all generally there can be no certain Conclusive Determination of the Frequencie by the Law of Nature that just so often and no oftner should be necessary for solemn worshipping of God by all men And now from this we go on to our third Question propounded XXXVI Nature cannot make a conclusive determination of the Continuance and Frequencie jointly concerning the joyning of these two Respects of Time the Continuance and Frequencie both in one Conclusive Determination that is Whether the Law of Nature can possibly make a Conclusive Determination of
inferiours will not be brought into order to joyne in Family Duties unlesse they conceive the Time determined to them for it at least by their Superiours That Family Worship then may be observed there must be Sufficient Time determined for it The Antecedent may be made good partly by what wee discoursed Chap. 6. about Family VVorship in Genenall the Necessity of it for Gods Honour and the Good of Soules and partly by the adding of a foure-fold Consideration briefely applyed to the case in hand 1. Experience shewes that in most Families their worldly businesses are so many and pressing that they have and can have but short and scanty Times of Continuance on the ordinary working Dayes for their joynt Family VVorship Many pretend they cannot have any at all for all their Families and specially not twice a Day according to what was discoursed before Though this is but a worldly pretence if it be meant ordinarily and will hardly we doubt serve for an excuse when God shall come to judge men for their worldly mindednesse as well as others sinnes and preferring the World getting goods and following pleasures and the like before conversing with Him and their own soules and the soules of their Families But however this confirmes that ordinarily such Times can be but scanty and short Therefore there is the more need that upon the chiefe solemne Time the extent of the Continuance be sufficient to afford a convenient space for Family VVorship over and above the Publike and to take away all excuse of want of leisure from every one 2. The need that all stand in to have their minds prepared and put into frame for the Publike VVorship calls for the same also If men come rawly and rudely from worldly thoughts and businesses into the Church and to the Publike Worship they will be in a great deale of danger to take Gods Name in vaine in it specially at the beginning and to lose a remarkable part of the benefit of it by the unpreparednesse of their minds specially such as are of lesse knowledge and lesse affection towards godlinesse And this cannot in reason be prevented any way so surely as by some Family Duties preparing every one for the Publike and taking them off from worldlinesse and secular cogitations and possessing them with an awe of the Duties they are going to performe more publikely 3. No lesse but rather much more the improvement of the Publike VVorship necessarily calls for consequent Family VVorship for memory and further affecting of every one by Repetitions and Prayers and Conferences Every one hath needs of this the best memories and the most zealous hearts how much more the weake in both respects and if any be able and zealous it is so much the more a necessary Duty in them to helpe others as much as may be This also we meane particularly repetitions will quicken the attentions of all sorts Neither the servants nor yet the Governours will afford themselves leisure to sleepe or gaze or muse of other matters during the Publike VVorship if the one must give account and the other must be able to require it and take it which he cannot if he himselfe have not given good attention 4. Finally the need that most have to labour with their Families to put more knowledge in them then they have particular helpe for in the Publike Services of the Day I meane the need of continuall catechising of them even beyond what is publikely done to those of their Family makes up yet further the necessity of having and observing sufficient Times for Family Duties of Worship besides the publike how long or how well soever continued And all this is so confirmed by the unhappy experience of those Families where this is not regarded not observed that consideration of it is more necessary then a prolixe discourse upon it He that lookes advisedly upon such Families shall see them come dropping in one after another late to the Publike Worship and when they are there sleepe oftentimes even in the morning or otherwise behave themselves so rudely as a man may be assured they neither honour God nor benefit their Soules by such services And after even though they seemed to be attentive and observant they have learned little or nothing at all oftentimes have forgotten the very Texts and the Chapters or Psalmes that were read and can tell nothing at all of what they might have learned and if they could remember somewhat for the present yet it is for want of whetting as the originall word is Deut. 6. in the charge given to Govenours of Families toward their children and so servants for want of giving or taking account of it for want of repetition and conference all is lost or most of it and specially all affection is dulled and abated which had a little edge perhaps by the Publike Ordinances And this most of all through the diversions of their minds as soone as the Publike Ordinances are ended to sports and play or to worldly worke and businesse which must needs succeed with the most if they be not determined to Family Duties afterward In a word looke upon such Families where the Lords Day is not observed by them within doores in such divine exercises of devotions before and specially after the Publike Worship and there will be found in the most very little sence of Religion of conscience toward God or their owne Soules So that we conclude this branch also That in as much as Religion cannot certainly stand among all men without Family VVorship the chiefe solemne sufficient Time must extend among all men to Family VVorship over and above the publike affording space for it and requiring that it be so imployed But this is not all yet XLVII 3. To solitary worship The third branch must be added which concernes Solitary Worship over and above both the other The sufficient Time we say must extend to that also besides the conjoyned worship publique domesticall To confirme this our former argument will once more stand in stead in this sort If Religion cannot certainly stand among all man without a convenient space of Continuance frequently observed for Solitary Worship by a mans self alone over and above conjoyned Worship with others then the chiefe solemne Time of Worship must necessarily be determined so largely for the Continuance as that it may extend to Solitary Worship besides conjoyned Worship But Religion cannot certainly stand among all men without a convenient space of Continuance frequently observed for Solitary Worship by a mans self alone over and above conjoyned Worship with others Ergo The chiefe Solemne Time of Worship must necessarily be determined so largely for the continuance as that it may extend to Solitary Worship besides conjoyned The Consequence of this argument hath strength afforded it from the former confirmations of like Consequences Yet may it admit this further descant upon the necessity of the Times being determined that it may be infallibly observed
to have prophaned it as Ezekiel hath told us Therefore also they are not reproved for not observing any times at all Yet doubtlesse many of them were so Atheisticall and irreligious as they observed not the times of their own Superstition Yet to observe some times our adversaries and all men confesse is absolutely Morall Naturall and bound all the Gentiles in all ages But because they observed not those they did observe unto the honour of the true God but of Idols therefore we say they are never reproved for any neglect or inobservation of Times at all But on the otherside when God mentions by His Prophet Esay Chap. 56. The sonne of the stranger joyning himselfe to the Lord He againe and againe calls such to the observation of the Sabbath with most ample promises as a most essentiall part of Religion and most necessary to every Servant of God A Law then from God Himselfe is most necessary for His Honour and for Religion concerning the chiefe Time for His Worship Though to those Nations that have cast off His true Worship He hath not particularly revived it not having given them His written Word Sol. 2 2. To the other objection concerning the good of mens soules 1. We say not that the observation of the Sabbath or any sufficient Times in Duties of Religion will save mens soules or benefit mens soules without the revelation and Faith of Christ 2. But we say that a Law from God Himselfe concerning a Sabbath or the necessary and sufficient chiefe Time for Religion is necessary unto every man as a Morall meanes towards the attainment of salvation and the good eternall of mens soules as well as towards the right honouring of God And therefore God hath not put over the making of such a Law unto men whether Christ be revealed to them or not revealed to them neither to every man for himselfe single or to any speciall men or number of men for all the rest XIII Nor 2. is this Authoritie given to some speciall men for the rest And now having proved this sufficiently enough concerning it s not being put over to every man single and we suppose not too prolixly considering how we argued withall that if it belong to men it must belong to every man single And our largenesse about this may stand us instead an on also We proceed to the second maine branch of our second Argument Namely That God hath not given Authority to any speciall men or number of men to determine the chiefe Time of His Worship for all men This question is disputable in three severall distinctions of Time or Ages of the World The first we make for this matter from Adam to the mention of the Sabbath to Israel Exod. 16. The second from thence to the making void of all the Jewish Dayes the particular Seventh Day Sabbath and all by the Resurrection of Christ and preaching of the Gospell by the Apostles The third from the making void of the old Seventh Day Sabbath to our Times and so to Christs second comming And in each of these Periods of Times Two sorts of Persons are generally considerable 1. Those that were out of the Church by the revolt of their Ancestours from Gods Covenant made with Adam after his fall intimated Gen. 3.15 Namely Cain and his posterity and those that fell off to them Gen. 6. and those of Noahs posterity that fell from the Covenant renewed with him and Sem according to the intimations of Gen. 9. Namely the race of Cham and even of Japhet and Sem also the most of them turning Idolaters as is said even of Abraham and his Progenitours before God called him Jos 24.2 and so the greatest part of the World remained and doth remaine out of the Church and Covenant of God to this Day 2. In all ages from Adam even untill now God hath had a Church some though at Times very few He renewed His Covenant with and made them His peculiar servants And so were outwardly the whole Nation of the Jewes the seed of Israel particularly from their comming out of Egypt till the destruction of Jerusalem after their rejection of Christ their promised Messiah And ever since and a while before He hath had a Church chiefly out of the Gentiles who have received His Gospell and the Faith of Christ Now we are to take a view of both these sorts of men the Pagans so lets us for distinction sake call the former sort and the Church in the three Periods of Time forenoted In all three of them it is controverted concerning the Pagans what sufficient Times they were obliged unto or are and by what Law by whose determination And for the Church or servants of God in the first and the last for in the middlemost it is beyond all peradventure that God determined the Time to the Jewes and left it not to them But yet even during that Time because there might be and doubtlesse were in some part or other of the World still some few servants of God among the Gentiles It will be justly questionable by whose Authority the determination of the necessary and sufficient Times was made even for them where ever they were and what proportion soever was determined though never so small a Continuance and seldome revolution These things thus premised we thus propound our Aurgument against any speciall men having this Authority for all the rest XIV If so then either to Pagans or to the Church If God have given it now or heretofore to some speciall men for all the rest of mankind Then either to some speciall men among the Pagans for all within their Countries and to the Church for all their knowne members Or to the Church generally for all mankind both the members of it and all others But neither hath God given this Authority to some speciall men among the Pagans for all within their Countries and to the Church for all their knowne members Nor yet to the Church generally for all mankind both its members and all others Ergo He hath not given it to some speciall men for all the rest of mankind The Consequence is undeniable the enumeration being sufficient The Antecedent hath three branches considerable In the scanning of which we will begin with the first and next take the third and leave the second to the last Place Which will appeare to be the convenientest method of proving them though the Argument could not so well be contrived in that order XV. 1. Not to Pagans This is proved absurd First then we reason against this Authority being left to any speciall men among the Pagans in any Age of the World whether Governours of Families of Townes or Countries or Kindomes That they should have in their hands the determination of the necessary and sufficient Times for Religion for themselves and all under their Authority And we say that God Himselfe did determine it to Adam and so to his posterity and that
or too little Time for attending on God and their soules too often or too seldome or even perhaps whether the particular Dayes were or could be seasonably determined or observed conveniently A Conscience that must venture and suffer for a practice is in a miserable condition if it have no certainty that God requires what it doth and forbids what it forbeares And on the other side the necessities of the soule and its eternall state to be above all worldly things regarded and manifold sentences in the Scriptures to that effect and Gods honour and service to be preferred before mens and before any thing that can concerne ones selfe will never suffer any Conscience to be at peace that observes not sufficient Time for Religion constantly And both together shew there had need be another authority determining it then their own which we say can be no other but Gods How our Adversaries will or can satisfie themselves or others about this Case we doe not well conceive Somewhat it is that they offer to say towards it which we will here briefly touch because we shall be forced to consider their sentences againe elsewhere XVII Some Exceptions to this answered 1. One while they tell us that the fourth Commandement is Morall-Naturall only for Publike Worship 2. Another while some of them say that the Commandement is not given to servants and so by consequence not to any that are not Lords and Masters of their own Time in respect of men as children wives and any inferiors set to worke by superior authority of Governours 3. And some againe say that Christians in Pagan Countries ought to keep the Sunday as having been appointed by the Christian Church A little for present answer to each of these The two first directly pervert the state of the Question and affirme no determination no observation lying upon their consciences who are under others authority unlesse their superiors have determined Times for them and Times for publike worship But our Question supposes that sufficient Times are to be determined for all men by one or other and that for solitary worship where there is or can be no publike 2. For this also we have proved to be Morall-Naturall and necessary to Religion that there be such determinations of sufficient Time for all men 3. Even themselves at times and by fits make it Morall-Naturall in the fourth Commandement to have and observe sufficient Times determined 4. And is it now a manifest contradiction to say a Commandement is Morall-Naturall that is necessary to all men and yet that if there be no publike worship a man is free as one of them expresly speaks Can the neglect of others free me from a Morall Commandement totally We say totally for they make this publike worship the whole Morality of the fourth Commandement Againe is there any other Commandement of the Decalogue from which any man can at any time be said to be totally free Father or Mother may dye But there are other superiours still alive or even inferiours to whom the fifth Commandement continually binds to afford some honour and so of the rest Again Morall Naturall is by themselves described to be universall and perpetuall How is this so if the command extend to no more but that which is neither universall nor perpetuall Not universall because not to servants at all if their Masters order otherwise and will not let them forbeare work Not perpetuall when there may all the Time he is in such a Country a Captive be no publique worship with in his reach But such contradictions men must needs run into that leave the roade-way of the Scriptures the Kings high way the way of Gods Commandements the Royall Law as Saint Iames calls it Iam. 2.9 to follow the by-paths of their own or other mens devisings And as for that one of them sayes That because Sunday hath been established used in the Christian Church for aday of divine service Prim. a man namely in a pagan country ought to apply himself privately to religious exercises with greater assiduity then on other dayes We desire him to satisfy us whether by the words he ought he meanes that he ought in conscience as a necessary duty of Religion he ought in obedience to the Morall Naturall law of God for having and observing a determinate Time to do thus though his Pagan Governour Master or Prince forbid him and to keep him from it set him all day long to some hard bodily labour and that from weeke to weeke allowing him neither that day not any other for his devotions and private exercises of Religion If he say no this is not his meaning as not thinking it reasonable to put a poor captive to venture upon the rage of his prophane Master or Governour Then his answer is but a collusion and nothing at all to the purpose of our case If he say yes he ought to do so and venture to suffer for it though not the whole of the day but only some part of it we reply 1. Who shall determine how much of the day If he will take but our Churches Homily of the place and Time of Prayer he will find the whole day called for If the Canons of 1603. there is little lesse If he take but even the practise of any Christian Church in the World even during the Publike Worship Yet 2. this is more then he shall be allowed by his Pagan Superiours and so must resolve to endure sufferings even to extremity perhaps for it And in this case is not here a very goodly ground of encouragement to suffer upon The Churches establishment or usage of a day Whereas when we urge the Commandement of God it is usually by our disputers thought most unreasonable to lay such a yoke upon poor Christian captives And therefore we remember not that they ever durst any of them to put any conscience upon sufferings in their way for their sufficient Time or even their Publique Worship Morall Naturall and the Churches determination of either But we must needs professe for our parts that we dare do no other for a weekely Sabbath and the Lords day particularly as determined by God And whatever they think of this hazard or choise and that our Doctrine thrusts such poor captives into miserable straites That either they must sin against God in breaking the Sabbath or provoke their ungodly superiours desperately against them by keeping to it We cannot but say that we esteeme such captives happy rather that have the doctrine of the Sabbath in their hearts to warrant their sufferings much more then such who according to their opinion should think they were bound by their captivity and the Command of obeying their Governours though Pagans and profane to keep no fourth Commandement at all no Sabbath at all nor ordinarily sufficient Time for Gods Solemne Worship even solitarily and the takeing speciall care of their own soules good And if ever it should be our lot
prove it and then the fourth Commandement which they like not because it would tie them to a whole Daies continuance would be their only sufficient refuge Therefore also their Reasons are very doubtfully and waveringly propounded And so we esteeme that such an Answer is over ambiguous to be sufficient to satisfie either of our Arguments And if they will hereafter or any for them offer to make an answer definitely and clearely either to the necessitie or sufficiencie of the proportion Let them have but one Day of ten or twenty as necessary and two houres of that Day or nominate those or any other proportions of Frequencie and Continuance as sufficient Whatever they instance in and whether it be well or ill yet will it suffice for our Arguments to justifie them and confirm that the Church hath no absolute or legislative authoritie to determine this chiefe Time necessary and sufficient to Religion But that Nature and Reason or Scripture some or all of these doe before-hand determine the necessitie and sufficiencie of it And that the Churches office herein is no more but of a Cryer or Preacher as our Divines urge against the Papists in point of the Churches authority to determine what Bookes are the Word of God to declare and pronounce and then consequently to use her authority over her members to urge them to the observation of it as much as may be and not at all of a Lawgiver to determine it And thus much we verily beleeve these Arguments have evinced undeniably Which therefore we againe desire our Readers to observe that so the Churches absolute and unlimited authority may be no more urged in this controversie no not in generall and so deceivable termes And then we doubt not but many Readers will soone see a necessity to have recourse to the fourth Commandement as Gods own determination of this necessary and sufficient chiefe Time for Continuance a whole Day for Frequencie one in seven as the only sure ground for consciences to rest upon in so important a matter And that many more not to say all that are not swallowed up with prejudices will be of the same mind when we have expresly discussed whether the Churches wisdome will or can suffice to determine from Nature and Reason and any thing in Scripture besides the precise determination of one Day in seven according to that fourth Commandement the just proportion of necessarie and sufficient Time for Religion Which we shall take to taske ere we make an end of this question in this Chapter In the meane Time we goe on to a fourth Argument If the Church have Authority to determine the chiefe Time for all its Members XXVIII Argument 4. The Church cannot determine Time for family or solitary Worship then it hath Authority to determine the Continuance so laregly to extend beyond the Publike Worship even to take in both domestick Worship where it may be had and specially solitary Worship by every Christian apart before and after the Publike Worship But the Church hath no Authority to determine of Continuance so largely as to extend beyond the publike Worship even to take in both family Worship where it may be had and specially solitary Worship by every Christian apart before and after the publike Worship Ergo The Church hath no Authority to determine the chiefe Time for all its Members The consequence hath beene proved before at large in the former Chapter that the Continuance of the chiefe Time must be so large as not only to allow but to necessitate before and after the publike Worship family Worship also where it may be had and however to necessitate as well as to afford liberty for solitary Worship by every one apart The Antecedent may be thus strengthned 1. It is usually said That the sword nor the keyes meddle not within doores that is Neither the Civill Magistrate nor the Church-governours take upon them to make affirmative Lawes for private families for negative they doe in reference to what they doe among themselves not directly concerning the service of the Church or State And least of all do they meddle with their Time of which every governour of a family is counted Lord and Master or Lady and Mistris for themselves and all under their authority Even when a man is bound by Indentures to teach his apprentise his trade yet not at this Time or that Time or so long together Therefore we find not that any Church or Christian Magistrate though forbidding worke to all even within doores upon such and such Dayes hath yet commanded Parents or Masters to catechise their children and servants within doores on those Dayes precisely or pray with them or examine them what they have learned in publike or any such like Duties of Religion 2. But specially in reference to solitary Worship secret prayers secret thanksgivings secret meditations of the word heard or of any other heavenly and divine matter concerning God and the soule The Church hath no authority to determine any Time which necessarily must be spent in any of these Duties or any other in secret Of which we conceive a double reason 1. Because no authority of man is supposed to reach to that which neither themselves nor any other man living can ever come to know whether it be observed or not Which is the case plainly here No man can know nor all the men in World when I retire my selfe any Day and shut my selfe up in my chamber whether I pray or meditate or performe any other solitary Worship to God or not Unlesse I tell them afterward or speake so loud as that they over-hear me which I am not bound to doe or rather am bound not to doe It is altogether vaine to say no more to determine and command that which no account can be taken of by those that command it or by any man else whether it be obeyed or not 2. But further secret Duties and so Time to be necessarily imployed in them are immediately Duties of conscience even the most inward and spirituall that can be Now no authority of man of the Church or any other reaches immediately to the conscience and the inward and spirituall part of Duties But only the Authority of God alone Here againe the Church or any superiour may give Counsell or declare the will of God about such Duties or such Time to be so imployed But cannot command or determine it Whereas we are speaking of a Time that must be determined of which therefore the Church hath no Authority If it be objected that the Christian Magistrate XXIX An Exception answered or the Church hath authority to appoint a publike Day of Fasting and Humiliation and this to be spent in Religious Duties as well private as publike till the end of the Day and if so why not for the ordinary chiefe solemne Time We Answer in a word Sol. that the Continuance of a publike Fast is before hand determined by God in Scripture
of Ariminum erred about the dinivity of Christ much more may a generall Councell erre about this necessary and sufficient Time Having specially no certaine Rule to goe by as cannot well be denyed and shall be proved fully anon when the fourth Commandement for one Day in seven is made to be out of date And now what certainty have Christians or can they have that there will be no errour Or that there is none in their determination when it is made 4. XL. 4. Whether their votes were free Suppose the determination of the Major part of a generall Councell freely voting be infallible Yet how uncertaine is it whether the votes have beene free Whether the Major part were that way that is delivered for the determination Whether there were no forcing of mens voices by instructions from Princes and States and threatnings and the like We reade of such things in the Acts of Councells And we read also of Canons pretended to be made by the great Councell of Nice for the Popes Supremacy which yet were proved to be foysted and supposititions And what then can or shall secure remote Nations and specially succeeding generations that the proceedings were regular the votes rightly given And this the certaine and infallible decision and determination of the Councell What can doe this latter but a most exact and complete expression in writing authentically sealed and so preserved and after multiplied by copies most carefully examined But for the former we know no security sutable to the stresse that consciences must be put upon often for the observation of the Time as necessary and the satisfaction requisite to make it be acknowledged sufficient 5. Suppose the determination XLI 5. Whether the determination be too strict or too remisse undoubtedly made by the Councell and clearly and fully exprest Yet what uncertainty were Christians yet left unto If by the strictnesse of the determination requiring a large Continuance and often any shall judge that the Major part of the Councell were too precise and carried away with an excesse of zeale and so have made a determination too burdensome to Christians prejudiciall to their Christian liberty and to their worldly businesses and so that they have layd as necessary upon them a proportion unnecessary set aside their authority we would faine know of our Adversaries what such who so judge are likely to doe in point of observation Specially when they are out of sight of those who would censure them for omission Or even what a Nation were bound to doe when their deputies were returned from the Councell with so unnecessary and burdensome a determination of Time to be observed as necessary Againe on the other side If by the slendernesse of the determination requiring but a short Continuance and seldome revolution any shall judge that the Major part of the Councell were too Worldly and carried away with principles of libertinisme and so have made a determination prejudiciall to Religion and unsufficient for Gods Honour and the good of mens soules in reference to the chiefe solemne Time we would faine know againe what is like to be done upon this Or what a Nation were after the Councell bound to doâ— Shall they or will they or even any particular Churches or persons hold to such an unnecessary or unsufficient determination Or if they should or may make another how was the authority in the generall Councell And againe by what rule shall they make another And if the Nationall Church shall make another are not they liable to the other extream Nay if they may wave the authority of the generall Councell is it not possible themselves may be the mistakers and the generall Councell was in the right And then who shall or who may or must judge of that What may or must particular Churches do in this case And even particular persons who are so immediately concerned in it as we have shewed in the beginning of the Chapter Will it not finally result into the authority of particular Churches Which most of our Adversaries will we dare say not yeeld to and we shall bring an Argument also against by and by Are not then all things upon uncertainties in this greatest matter of importance to Religion How can it then be imagined that God hath so left it under the New Testament who so fully prevented all under the Old Testament as cannot be denied at least in reference to His people of Israel XLII Argu. 9. It makes the Church to this Day guilty of sin in not â—etermining it We proceed to a ninth Argument which we thus deliver against the authority of the Church universall in this matter That which makes the Church universall and all generall Councells to this Day to be guilty of grievous sinne is not to be beleeved or admitted But to ascribe this authority to the Church to determine the necessary and sufficient Time for Religion unto all its Members makes the Church universall and all Generall Councells to this day to be guilty of grievous sin Ergo The ascribing this authority to the Church is not to be credited or admitted The Proposition needs little proofe He should be very audatious that should offer to condemne not onely some Generall Councells but all and not only in one age but ever since the Apostles Times and the universall Church withall as not endevouring the amendment of a notorious fault as we shall see The assumption may be verified by declaring 1. That if the Church universall have not by some Generall Councell made a cleare and expresse determination of this necessary sufficient Time It cannot be excused of grievous sin upon this supposition of this authority belonging to the Church 2. That the Church universall hath not to this day in any Generall Councell made any cleare and sufficient determination in this kind The first of these cannot well be denyed For this were to be wanting to a duty most mainly concerning Religion and the Worship of God and His honour throughout the Church and the good of all Christians soules and to a law Morall Naturall as appeares by what our adversaries confesse of the morality of a sufficient Time to be determined even suppose but for the Publique Worship and as we have proved the necessity of such a determination to Religion to be made by some or other and so by the Church the Church universall if the authority belongs to them And to omit it though upon mistake and not thinking it to belong to them were to be guilty of sin though a lesse sin namely only of Ignorance then if through negligence or any other respect so many Generall Councells have forborne to make it For that were to slight Religion the honour of God the soules of Christians exceedingly which doubtlesse the Christian Church and the first Generall Councells were not guilty of But yet the second is evident enough that no Generall Councell hath made this determination Not onely because no such Canon is
mans calling may be allowed to be the divider and the distributer of the chiefe Time of all men and so God and the soules of men have no other allowance for the chiefe Time to Religion then what those worldly considerations shall allot This thought about Gods indulgence is a most weighty and most necessary consideration in this dispute But it doth not seeme to be at all taken into consideration by our disputers in this question We shall therefore anon make a distinct argument of it that we may be sure they and all Readers that will take the paines to view those discourses shall not be able to misse it or passe it sleightly over But we must first make up this Argument and another in the meane Time We say then that by all this discourse of the Nature of God the Nature of the Soule the Nature of the Duties of Worship the Nature of the Body and worldly occasions Take any of them single and apart or joyne any of them or all of them together in the consultation and we are as farre as can be from any guesse how to proportion the Time betweene Religion and other matters except that we ought undoubtedly to say if we have nothing but these to direct us That to Gods honour and the souls benefit the farre greater proportion of Time is necessary and that it cannot be sufficient to let the world possesse the largest share And if this be true as we cannot see how it can possibly be denyed and we shall yet further confirme it in a following argument our Adversaries have made a goodly purchsse by disputing the abrogation of the fourth Commandement for one Day in seven In as much as in stead of their pretended Christian liberty not to be tyed to such a proportion all other rules call for twise thrise as much and rather for six Dayes of seven and leave but one for worldly businesses And if they shall object Excep that mens bodily lives could not be preserved with so little a proportion for worldly businesses and trades We Answer set aside the Wisdome of God Sol. and His allowance of six Dayes Worke in the fourth Commandement it is not possible for any man living or any number of men to assigne certainly how much Time is to be spent in worldly businesses for the preservation of mankind in a bodily life If there were that simplicity of Diet of Apparell of Buildings all other things that there was in the first Ages of the world and is yet in some Countries though our pride and curiosity call them Barbarous for it certainly a great deale lesse Time would serve then now doth for worldly matters And though as the constitution of the world now is we are far from blaming such Trades and Manufacturers or the using of them as sinnes because specially we beleeve God to have allowed six Dayes in a Week mainly for worldly businesse according to the fourth Commandement Yet we say still that if this allowance were not we see not any warrant to imploy mankind so much in these businesses which as we said have been spared of old and are spared in other places at this Day to so notorious prejudice and undervaluing of God and His honour and the good of soules And so still we are altogether at a lesse for a rule of wisdome how to determine our necessary and sufficient chiefe Solemne Time for Religion And therefore this determination could not be nor was ever left to man to Adam or the Partriarkes before Moses Much losse to the Gentiles and Heathen for themselves and theirs nor yet to the Church of the New Testament LII 5. Nor the old proportion of one Day in seven in the fou th Commandement But remained ever in Gods hand which is the thing to be proved But we must not forget our fifth Consideration mentioned in reference to the Christian Church That our Adversaries in their best moodes when they say The Church must not offend in excesse or defect not render the yoke of Christians too heavy by appointing too much nor slight or seeme to slight the service of God and render it contemptible by appointing too little They seeme to fancy that the proportion of one Day of seven though by no meanes necessary to be perpetuated may be a convenient direction that thereabouts it should be among Christians and accordingly in the Christian Church ever one Day in a week hath been observed which with the addition of Holy dayes more rarely appointed they count a sufficient Time for Religion equall if not superiour to the Time that God had from the Jewes under the Old Testament Now to this we have divers things to say though we will not offer to follow their extravagancies in and out step by step in this dispute but onely shew somewhat the insufficiency and absurdity of this pretence LIII This is proved absurd We say then 1. That for other Holy dayes besides the weekely Solemne day they come not properly into this dispute about the ordinary chiefe Time for Religion They are 1. Extraordinary Dayes of which kind the Jewes also had some of Gods appointing and some of their own more then many Christian Churches have though not so many as some others Also 2. These are taken up without any such rule as may either urge the conscience to judge them necessary or conclude them together to be sufficient Therefore 3. Also herein the Christian Churches greatly differ which as we have argued before must not be in the proportions of the chiefe solemne Time necessary and sufficient for all Christians Likewise 4. No Church Reformed that hath retained Holy dayes hath spoken fully and clearely about the Continuance of them and how necessarily they are to be observed to Religion and imployed wholly in Religious duties or not And so they come not properly into this dispute about the necessary chiefe Time for Religion 2. Leaving these out and considering the weekely solemne proportion it was of old determined to the Jewes in the fourth Commandement One whole Day of seven Both which as well as the particular seventh Day the Saturday Sabbath which they pin to the Commandement But we shal shew their errour in it hereafter our Adversaries make to be now abrogated by Christ that is both the number one Day of seven and the Continuance one whole Day Of both these we must now argue the case with them how upon the supposition of Gods making these void they can finde out a rule for the Christian Church to make a determination of the chiefe Time for Religion for Frequency and Continuance And first we must discourse of the Frequency LIV. 1. With respect to the Frequency For the number of one Day in seven which is from Christs Time to this Day observed and perpetuated among all Christians by all confession Some kept as is said more Dayes but all kept the Lords day the first Day of the Week and
is now no Times necessary to Religion And so in stead of answering our Argument which proceeds on that supposition they wholly pervert the state of the question now between us 2. That this Assertion of theirs is expresly contradictory as we conceive to their own Tenets so often set down in their Books That some sufficient Times a Day or Dayes to be observed and even determined for Religion is Morall-Naturall that is necessary to Religion for all men by the Law of Nature How they will reconcile these two let them consider till we have leisure to speak more of it in the promised place LXIV A Question answered If any now ask What Commandement we mean all this while within whose generall meaning this is which we have spoken of We answer 1. If we could not assigne directly and certainly the particular Commandement yet would the thing upon the foregoing grounds be no lesse certaine There being divers other matters which are undoubtedly within the Decalogue about which Divines differ in what Commandement they are as appeares by comparing the Expositions of the Commandements in almost any two Authors 2. Yet we say that for our parts we suppose That this is properly belonging to the fourth Commandement and is indeed the whole and entire generall meaning thereof The words proclaime That the object of the Commandement is Time necessary for Religion and Gods honour And therefore we are perswaded that the generall meaning and scope of it is as we have exprest That those Times and those only should be observed as necessarie to Religion which God himselfe appoints And so though we prove as we doubt not but we shall in the next Part That the words of the 4 th Commandement are only for one whole Day in seven and not for the particular Day of the seven last or first Yet the particular Day both of old the seventh in order from the creation and now the first of the seven come within the compasse of the fourth Commandement within this generall meaning because they were appointed by God though elsewhere and not in the formall words of the Commandement And so also the other Jewish Festivals appointed by God shall properly belong to the same fourth Commandement falling under the generall meaning mentioned And indeed they are usually by Divines reduced thither Who yet can no wayes defend their assigning them to that predicament or place if this be not assigned to be the generall meaning of the fourth Commandement 3. Yet if any will not admit this then we say we know not how they will be able to deny but that this is Though not the whole yet a part of the generall meaning of the second Commandement Which under the prohibition of Worshipping God by an Image and promise of a blessing to them that keepe His Commandements namely that Worship Him with that Worship that He hath commanded carries this generall meaning certainly That God should be Worshipped with those things and actions and those only which Himselfe hath appointed And so as under this all the Ceremoniall Worship of Old Sacrifices and other Rites and Lawes belonging to Gods Worship and our two Sacraments now are comprised and so the prohibition of all superstition and will-worship invented by men by the usuall vote of Divines and cannot indeed come properly under any other So the observation of any Times as necessary to Religion and Gods Worship and of those Times and those only as so necessary which God Himselfe appoints must needs fall under the same Generall meaning of the second Commandement if it belong not peculiarly to the fourth as was said before And perhaps how ever if an exact inquiry be made into the Latitudes of the Commandements of the first Table they will all be found in an subordination the latter more particular then the former and partly at least included in it Undoubtedly the first concludes with in it the three latter even all the second Table also and we thinke the second contains some part of the third and fourth also and againe that the third doth containe part of the fourth namely the manner of the observation of the holy Time that it be not in vaine c. But we leave this Notion to the juditious Readers consideration and maintaine our Argument sufficiently without it whether the generall Law about Time we are now scanning be in the fourth or part of the second or even belong to the first as so much as is Morall Naturall difinitely concerning Time for Religion we have formerly asserted to be within the first Commandement still as long as it is within the Decalogue our cause is safe And if it be referred to the second Commandement then we shall have gained this particular advantage certainely and clearly though we suppose we shall anon prove it will follow from any of the rest of the Commandements of the first Table within which it unquestionably comes That then the necessary Times of Religion and Gods Worship are not meerly circumstances or adjuncts of Worship but proporly parts of Worship and are to be observed as parts of Worship as all other specialties of the second Commandement are But we must now proceed to another Argument in our present businesse Thus we frame it LXV Arg 2. All Time is Gods to dispose of If all Time is Gods and none mens owne for worldly businesse but by Gods indulgence Then the determination of the necessary sufficient chiefe solemne Time for Religion cannot belong to men but it is Gods owne peculiar But all Time is Gods and none mens owne for worldly businesse but by Gods indulgence Ergo The determination of the necessary sufficient chiefe solemne Time for Religion cannot belong to men but is Gods peculiar The Antecedent cannot reasonably be denied by any conscience that acknowledges God the Creatour of all men and all Time and so the undoubted and absolute Soveraigne and Lord of all and that considers that even the most necessary worldly Times as for sleeping eating and the like are no otherwise Ours but by His indulgence granted indeed in Nature ordinarily and so manifested sufficiently by the Light of Nature Yet can it not be denied but even these Times are still subject to His pleasure which may make exceptions against them as indeed He sundry times doth enjoyning men as we formerly noted by His providence and by generall Rules of His Word to watch whole Nights and Dayes and to Fast likewise in Religious references to Him and their owne and others soules to performe solemne and extraordinary Duties of piety and charity and sometimes even with respect to the bodily lives and comforts of themselves or others Moreover it cannot againe be denied but if it pleased Him He might command men altother to forbeare their meat and waite upon Him for a miraculous preservation like that of Moses and Elias and our blessed Saviour for whole forty Dayes and forty Nights together and as it shall be with us all
therefore and is ever very necessary that God by His own Law Word should determine all and so without all doubt then He hath And now it remaines that we should examine the Arguments or pretences for the Churches Power to determine this chiefe Time for Religion in all the respects or in any But we can find none particular and proper to the matter in hand but only generall presumptions upon the supposition which they will needs suppose That God hath made voyd all His owne former determinations and so left in His Word all Times and Dayes equall under the Gospel As also that assertion comes most frequently forth That Time and Place are equall circumstances in Religion And so Place being left to the Churches determination Time is so too in like sort All which we shall encounter more particularly in their proper station and namely in the next Chapter by way of corrollary to our whole discourse about religious Time we shall endeavour to manifest distinctly 1. That all Times and Dayes are not equall in Religion under the Gospel 2. That Time and Place are not equall circumstances in Religion And therefore the leaving of the one that is Place to the Church will inferre nothing at all for the Time to be so left And then we shall conclude all our generall discourse and first part with asserting That this chiefe Time thus determined by God is not a meere circumstance or adjunct of Worship but a proper and essentiall part of it a part of Religion to be observed with the same mind that any other part of Religion is which will helpe we hope not a little to the conscionable and carefull observation of it LXXXI An objection answered Only one Objection though of two branches we have met with against the necessity of the determination to be made by God which we must give a particular satisfaction unto least some Readers should yet stumble or be gravelled at them but briefly for many words will not now need Thus it is said It seemes to be necessary that God should determine the sufficient Time for His publike Worship even on the solemne Dayes And again the sufficient Times for family and solitary Worship every Day as well as the determinations we have all this while been arguing for And seeing it is cleare He hath not done those it may seeme not necessary He should doe the other We answer 1. Supposing that God hath determined the chiefe Sol. 1 Time of Worship There is no such necessity that out of that He should determine particularly a proportion for the publike Worship For when men know they must spend the whole Continuance of the Time the whole Day in Religious Worship either publike or domesticke or solitary The Governours of the Church may now be well enough trusted to determine the houres for the publike Duties Their wisdome unlesse in perverse spirits that would purposely shut out some of the Ordinances of Prayer or Preaching or the like or curtall them that men might be sure to have no benefit by the publike will easily suffice to allot convenient proportions for these from experience how long men may ordinarily hold out in such Duties whether Ministers or People with edification and herein also to referre it partly to the discretion of Ministers There being a possibility of variety in severall particular Churches in the same Church at severall seasons of the yeere and the like without any remarkable prejudice to Religion Gods honour and the good of mens soules any where Because still the residue of the Day before and after the publike remaines devoted to Religion Whereas there would be manifest and certaine danger of prejudice to Religion even the ruine of it as we have shewed if the whole of the chiefe Time were left to mens discretion to any number of men whatsoever 2. We say the like for the Continuance of Time for Religion on Sol 2 the working Dayes either in domesticke or solitary Worship That God having strictly determined the chiefe Time namely one whole Day in a weeke according to the fourth Commandement there was no such necessity that He should determine besides the Continuance of the Week-dayes devotions He might have done these also we confesse if it had so been His pleasure But we have intimated formerly faire reasons which we may conceive why He would not namely 1. His gracious indulgence to try mens affections and zeale and spirituall wisdome in redeeming of Time ordinarily and extraordinarily on those Week-dayes for their families and themselves to waite upon God and their Soules with which they might be conveniently trusted if they conscionably observed the chiefe Time the Sabbath of Gods owne peremptory determination Specially remembring what we said a while agoe of the Blessing made over to such that they should thereby come to delight more and more in the Lord and such then will not be wanting to God and their soules or others soules even on the Week-dayes when they conveniently can redeeme any Time 2. As also To make evill men the more inexcusable who being not tyed so strictly on the Week-dayes will yet rob God and their souls and the soules of others under them of the Time of the Sabbath the Time that God himselfe hath made to be the necessary and ordinarily sufficient chiefe Time for Religion to all men Such we say would never have obeyed any determination on the Week-dayes for any Continuance if they should have been tyed to that also which thinke the Sabbath one day in seven so intolerable a burden now that they are so much at libertie on the other Dayes For also such on the Week-dayes doe scarce give God any Time at all many or most of them with their families or alone Therefore we say we can see reason why God was pleased not to tie men in all the parcells of Time when yet He would and hath in some in the chiefe And like unto this He hath done at least in the opinion of all or most of our English Adversaries in another Point namely in matter of our goods All our estates and goods are His as well as our Time Therefore out of them out of the increase of Corne and Cattell and the like He hath by an expresse determination challenged to himselfe a portion by way of tribute or homage namely the Tithe the tenth part It is the Lords Lev. 23. which afterwerd Himselfe divers yeeres after bestowed upon the Levites ond Priests His Ministers to whom He saith Himselfe would be their portion and inheritance Num. 18. Now this Law we say our English Disputers beleeve to be perpetuall Notwithstanding which strict tie for that part of our goods a tenth part All acknowledge somewhat more to be due to God for pious uses and for the maintenance of the poore and yet in neither of these hath God made any particular determination but left it to every ones discretion and affection according to occasions ordinary and extraordinary
Religion 17. As all Time is Gods and none ours for worldly businesse XLII 17. All Time is Gods all Places are ours but by his indulgence And indulgence of his we have none that we can securely challenge sufficient for worldly occasions but the six Dayes in a weeke mentioned in the fourth Commandement which indulgence cannot be perpetuated without the perpetuating also and first of the command of one Day of seven for God and Religion So that without this Commandement and indulgence we trespasse upon God continually in following our worldly businesses But as for Place though the whole earth be Gods yet in expresse termes He hath given it to the children of men Psal 115. by a generall indulgence Neither calls for any of it back under the New Testament as he did a little spot for typicall use of old any place is convenient for so many bodyes serving all the necessary turnes for Religion And so there is no Trespasse upon God in point of Place if there be but an observation of his appointed Times in any Place Whence still the same conclusion rises Time and Place are not equall Circumstances in Religion 18. Mens soules need a singular blessing XLIII 18. There needs a blessing to make sufficient not so for place to make any Time lesse then all sufficient for their soules which have so manifold necessities and are so infinitely more worth then all bodily occasions Which blessing as none but God can bestow so is there no ground to expect it but to his own appointments and determinations And such blessing He annexed to His determinations of Time Gen. 2. and Exod. 20. But there being no influence of Place into the soul any Place is sufficient which is sufficient for the bodyes convenience And so no blessing is to be expected with relation to the Place But only to the meeting and to the observation of the Time so appointed by God neither did God ever blesse any Place for Religion but only typically In this then also Time and Place are not equall Circumstances in Religion XLIV 19. The necessary Time for Religion is properly holy so is not any Place 19. The Necessary Time for Religion is properly holy and the sufficient Time acceptable to God or else it could not be counted sufficient But no Place is or can be now properly holy or acceptable to God Nor was ever any Place so of old in a morall sense or with reference to Morall Worship But onely typicall The Synagogues are no where called holy Places in Scriptures No not the very court of the Temple where the people meet to pray and heare and the like Neither were they suffered to go at any Time into that holy Place but the Priests only and only the High Priest and but once a yeare into the Holy of Holies on the day of Attonement All to teach the people that all the holinesse and acceptation of service in the Temple was only typicall which when it should cease all holinesse of Places should withall cease and no more acceptation to be expected from the service presented in any Place with reference to the Place or any consecration of it to Religion So though we may now consecrate or set apart Places for Religion as the Centurian a Gentile of his own accord and in love to the Jewish nation as themselves say and not as an act of devotion built them a Synagogue Luke 7.5 Yet can we neither make them Necessary Holy nor Places of acceptation Place and Time therefore are not equall circumstances in Religion XLV 20. The New Testament honours a Time viz. the Lords Day no Place as the Lords house 20. Finally to wind up divers things in a few words The New Testament honours a Time with the glorious title of Gods possession the Lords day which Day for Continuance Frequency and Order may be observed all the world over with but a little difference according to the climates how many millions soever of Christians there be in the world Which joynt serving of God eminently redounds to his great honour and is the greatest exercise of the Communion of Saints upon earth from which no persecution imprisonment or the like can hinder them so long as they have but spirits enough to lift up their soules to God But the New Testament dignifies no Place now with the title of the Lords house His possession Neither can all Christians now because of the Churches amplitude meet in one Place And if any would say all their places of meeting might be of the same proportion all the world over We Answer It is indeed possible in nature but altogether improbable and next to impossible in practise that it should be so without a divine command For it were altogether ridiculous in reason as it would be to have all men weare cloathes of the same bignesse and length Besides this would only be publique Places not domesticke much lesse solitary And again persecution and imprisonment might hinder from using these Once more then Time and Place are not equall circumstances in Religion nor fit to be equally left to men to the Churches determination or any other And so we doubt not but we have sufficiently evinced this assertion as well as the former If any think XLVI The conclusion we have spent too many words about it let him thank our disputers confidence on the contrary side which hath in a sort forced us to it while withall we have given a kind of recapitulation of some principall heads in the foregoing Chapters which some Readers perhaps will not be sorry for We end with this advertisement That if we had listed to make our Selves or our Readers merry in so serious a subject as our generall matter is we would not have wisht for a handsomer subject then this paralelling of Time and Place as equall But we durst not be light in so waighty a cause And now we have a third Corollary to adde That the chiefe Time is a part of worship and not a meere circumstance which will be yet another proofe of its being above Place But this is for the next Chapter CHAP. XII The necessary sufficient chiefe Time for Religion together with the Particular Day for it is a Part of Worship and not a meere Adjunct or Circumstance only I. A third Corollarie The necessary sufficient Time is a part of Worship THis Assertion we conceive to be a necessary Corollarie from our foregoing Discourses Yet is usually denyed even by some who differ not from us in the maine grounds of it Therefore we judge it expedient to be subjoyned and cleared Because also we are perswaded it will not only adde a little more light to some things already laid down but likewise somewhat more awe the Consciences of every one in the point of strict observation of the whole Lords day in a weekly revolution For if men be once fully convinced that not only the performance of such particular
now have no Typicall use under the Gospel Yet being commanded by God and being His peculiar Portion It also is a part of His worship as we have said But we have an other Objectour who more largely prosecutes the Negative against us and the most largely of any that we have seen and that is the learned Professour D. Walaeus And we cannot wonder so much as we said at any as at him For he grants two things which most of the rest of the Disputers deny 1. That one Day in seven is Morall that is perpetuall by the fourth Commandement 2. That the Lords-day is of Divine though Apostolicall institution Now say we the observation of a Morall Commandement of the first Table and of a Divine institution according to that Commandement is as we have argued a part of Worship This he did foresee would be objected against himselfe and therefore he prevented it as well as he could Thus he frames the Argument All obedience yeelded to the Commandement of God is religious Therefore if one Day in seven be to be observed by Divine command which is his owne opinion it is also religious and so a part of Worship Let us see how he will avoyd this Argument Thus he sayes This hurts them also D. Wal. p. 95. that hold some Time to be observed by the Morality of the fourth Commandement For that Day or Time once appointed be it what it will is religiously to be observed and consequently a part of Divine Worship This witnesse is true and the argument of force against them all Thus far therefore he hath answered nothing but against himselfe XII Object 1. Answered He comes therefore to loose the knot and to object against the contrary opinion The religiousnesse of this Day of ours one Day in seven or the Lords-day is to be measured by the intention of the Commander that is God For if He command any Day to be observed as a part of Worship or as a Sacramentall Type then it is so to be observed with that religiousnesse as it is commanded But if only as a necessary and determined circumstance of Worship or necessary policie in the Church then it is only in that manner and intention to be observed To which we answer many things Sol. 1 1. Where doth this different intention of the Lawgiver appeare in the Old or New Testament That He will have the Times of the Iewes observed as Parts of Worship Ours only as necessary Circumstances thereof Certainly according to himselfe one and the same fourth Commandement is Morall for the observation of one Day in seven both then and now But there is not the least appearance of this difference in that Commandement If one Day in seven was commanded as a part of Worship then It is so now Or if it be now only a circumstance of Worship it was so then for ought appeares either there or any where else that we know of Nay his owne first argument is yet unanswered All obedience yeelded to the Commandement of God is religious Therefore the very command of God of it selfe makes the observation of one Day in seven a part of Worship Sol. 2 2. Whereas he addes a Sacramentall Type as if that made it a part of Worship which being wanting our Day is not a part of Worship as he would seeme to inferre We answer 1. The Sabbath according to his opinion was instituted from the beginning even in innocency and therefore could have no Sacramentall Type annexed to it Yet then it was a part of Worship commanded to Adam by God himselfe 2. Againe a Sacramentall Type may perhaps make a thing more a part of Worship But a thing may be a part of Worship that hath no Sacramentall Type annexed to it For the command of God alone without any Typicall respect may and doth make any thing a part of Worship as singing for example against which if it were not commanded a man might perhaps except somewhat as unseemly for sober men One Day in seven then being still commanded by God in a Morall Commandement of the first Table It remaines still a part of Worship the Type removed from it or rather from the particular Day belonging to it 3. Whereas he sayes we observe our Day not as a part of Worship Sol. 3 but as a necessary circumstance of Worship he seems to think that a thing cannot be both a necessary circumstance and also a part a VVorship Whereas a Day may be and must be both of these if commanded by God A necessary circumstance to those Actions or Duties of Worship which are actually performed on it and a part of Worship in regard of the Divine command of the Day or Time it selfe Yea D. Wal. p. 95. 63. himselfe at least twise calls the seventh Day of the Iewes a circumstance So that their Day also was a necessary circumstance of Worship and yet a part of VVorship Certainly a necessary circumstance of VVorship commanded by God himselfe is a part of VVorship But sayes he one Day in seven is a necessary circumstance of Worship commanded by God himselfe in the fourth Commandement Therefore it is a part of Worship 4. It may not be amisse to adde a few words more about the Sol. 4 phrase of a necessary circumstance of worship Because it is often used by divers and usually mistaken and misapplyed We have formerly toucht it yet it may be convenient to doe it againe It may signifie a naturally or physically necessary circumstance to this or that or any action of worship and then we easily grant that such Time so considered is no part of worship no more then the Place wherein one is by a like naturall and physicall necessity at the Time that he performes any action of worship But this is not the Time we are disputing of for this is only indeterminate and common Time as we have spoken heretofore But we are now disputing of solemne and determinate Time and that in the highest ranke of solemnity determined not by man but by God himselfe both in Nature and Scripture for the chiefe Time and in Scripture for the particular Day This therefore may be and must be a part of worship though the other is not nor cannot be Or secondly a necessary circumstance of worship may signifie a circumstance Morally or Theologically necessary to worship And so worship doth not signifie this or that pacticular Duty of worship but generally Religion and the honour of God For under the Old Testament indeed some Times were Theologically necessary to some Duties of worship namely by Divine expresse command as the 14. Day of the first moneth yeerly to the Passeover unlesse in the reserved case of uncleannesse or a journey and then the 14. Day of the second moneth and so the other Festivalls The Festivity and worship was to be necessarily performed on such Dayes yeerly and the particular Dayes and yeerly revolution were Theologically necessary to such particular