any certain or particular but an indefinite feast The word Sabbath especially this so frequently as no meanly lettered man is such a novice to whom it is a novelty The New-moon more sparingly yet when mated with Sabbath seldome retaineth it any other signification Examples whereof are first this text of the Kings then that of Isaiah 66.23 From one New-moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord Again that of Ezech. 46.3 The people of the land shall worship at the doore of this gate before the Lord in the Sabbaths and in the New-moons Lastly that of Amos 8.5 When will the New-moon be gone that we may sell our corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat In all these portions of Scriture Sabbaths New-moons by the figure {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is when one thing is expressed by two words are onely put for solemn feasts generally not particularly accepted Nor is the word New-moon taken thus onely when linked with the Sabbath but somewhile also when single and alone as 1. Kings 12.33 For where in our translation as in I am sure most if not all others it is said that Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth moneth the Hebrew word for that feast is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the New-moon but to speak properly the New-moon it could not be for the Moon was then in her full it being the 15 day and the feast is thought by learned men to be devised by Jeroboam in imitation indeed to suppresse it in oblivion of the feast of Tabernacles which was to be on the 15 of the seventh moneth But not to expatiate too farre in collaterall transcursions the reading of the Law may not absurdly be expiscated out of Acts 15.21 where James giving definitive sentence in the Councel of Hierusalem saith Moses of old time hath in every citie them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day But against this place they except viz. that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is used in Scripture of many things not very ancient as Matth. 5.21 27 33. Acts 15.7 But this objection is easily repelled the question is not what sense the like phrase hath Matth. 5.21 c. but what it meaneth here and that it is to be taken in the construction we make of it an eminent Bishop r witnesseth The sound of the Spirit viz. preaching all the Law-long sounded in them by whom Moses was preached every Sabbath day So he upon this very text But in defence of the contrary interpretation it may be objected That the text speaketh of Synagogues which came not into use untill the captivitie To which I say that the most and best Divines s hold it probable that Synagogues had their beginning from the plantation of the land of Canaan when the priestly and propheticall offices ceased in the first-born and masters of families but were supplyed the first by the Leviticall priests the second by the seventy Elders as some suppose t but more certainly by the Prophets whose ordinary calling was to reade and expound the Law The numerous provision of which sacred preachers maketh it incredible that they were destitute of places no matter how or Colledges or Synagogues or otherwise denominated destinate to that and such like holy-duties Their last argument is not compounded of much better stuff For first the finding of the book of the Law by Hilkiah and presenting of it to Josiah is no infallible signe Quod alioqui nulli ejus essent alii codices That there were besides no other books thereof not to Genebrard u I am sure and it may well be controverted For if in times of harder pressures when the Temple and the authentick books in it were burnt when utter havock was made of all and the people of God led captives into Babylon even in the extremitie of that desolation if some copies were no doubt preserved in private mens hands as Daniels Ezechiels a Jeremies c. For how otherwise could Esdras restore the Sacred volume to its first integrity then by comparing divers exemplaries then extant together and so reforming what errours had been committed by negligent penmen if I say some copies escaped the fire at that time probable it is that all perished not before Josiahs reign But be it granted that all were lost not one to be found before Hilkiah chanced to light upon that yet are you short still your argument is not ad idem for the question is of a duty part of Gods publick and solemn worship and your instance is of a time under persecution when the ensigne of the Church was the Crosse when there was no solemn worship of the true God publickly tolerated and you may as well upon this instance inferre that there was no Sabbath observed as deny the observation of it by this dutie of Reading and Hearing the Law No man for ought I know contendeth that the solemn reading of the Law alwayes every Sabbath and that in times of distresse was practiced and that it was at other times even Cajetan b himself who holdeth that that book which Hilkiah found was of all other the onely remnant acknowledgeth Holy exercises as reading and expounding the Law during Manasses his wicked reign were so long neglected and neglect I hope insinuateth a dutie formerly practiced that the book of the Law is related as a thing new discovered So he True it is he mentioneth not the Sabbath day as whereon these neglecta divina ought to have been performed but seeing the words seem to referre to duties which ought to have been publickly performed their publick performance ought to have regard to both times and places destinate thereto This point I prosecute no further enough I hope if not too much hath been said to perswade that the Law was read on the weekly Sabbath as well as on the annuall of Tabernacles in the septennuall of Release I passe then to the last question In this as brief I shall be as in the former I was tedious At the end of every seven years in the solemnitie of the year of Release in the feast of Tabernacles thou shalt reade the Law before Israel in their hearing saith the text Upon which words Tostatus thus c The Law saith he is meant especially of Deuteronomy And d others since have imbraced the same opinion but none have thought us worthy to be privy to the reasons inducing that opinion nor indeed can any be devised For who knoweth not that the word Law importeth the whole Pentateuch of Moses of I believe an hundred of instances I will produce but one and that of any the likeliest to make for their purpose God injoyneth the future King should write him a copy of this Law in a book Now I pray tell me is Deuteronomy onely
given shall abide Therefore we may conclude this point with Leo h The shadows being dispelled by the presence of the verity those things which tending either to morality or the pure worship of God for piety sake were instituted do still continue in the same form with us wherein they were at first framed and what was agreeable to both Testaments is by no change altered They i to whom positive-immulable seemeth so prodigious a thing may now spare their wonder at Amesius and bestow it upon their own ignorance what he taught in this point he might and did learn no doubt in England and not onely of the Puritanes For what say you To Whitgift k No man doubteth the meaning of these words Six dayes shalt thou labour c. to be this That seeing God hath permitted to us six dayes to do our own works in we ought in the seventh wholly to serve him To Hooker l We are to account the sanctification of one day in a week a duty which Gods immutable Law doth exact for ever To Donne m God seposed a seventh of our time for his exteriour worship To Andrews n The numbers of seven and ten are not without their weight the seventh the Sabbath the tenth Gods part the Sabbath and Tenth both sacred to God To Bacon o God demandeth a tenth of our substance and which is more strict a seventh of our time What say you to these But what if Amesius had been born and lived an alien to this Kingdome had he then escaped the contagion of this errour Is England in this assertion divided from the continent of other Christian Churches assuredly no Those two lights of the reforming age Bucer and his Achates P. Martyr as in other things their judgements concurred with a rare and happy identity a so in this they differed not Our God hath sanctified one day in seven for the promoving of our faith and consequently of eternall life Bucer b That someone day in a week men attend Divine worship is no humane device Martyr c It is a morall precept as it biddeth us dedicate one day in a week for the externall service of God so Zanchie d God therefore sanctified the seventh day that man might know that in the weekly circuit one day is to be bestowed upon the publick worship of God Pareus e It is a naturall law that every seventh day be sacred to God Junius f That enemy of God g Arminius h It is morall to set apart one day of seven for Gods service The Lutherane Churches dissent not Conradus Dietericus as my Authour i informeth me Baldwin k It is morall to sanctifie one day of seven And to make up the harmony complete the Papists themselves are in this reconciled with us God would have at least one day in a week to be allowed him saith Fenus l To depute every seventh day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially the same day be not alwayes deputed so Suarez m The Divine Law required that one day in a week should be sequestred for holy worship so Bellarmine n Nor is the opinion an upstart I appeal to Chrysostome o who calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to sepose one day in a week for religious actions And thus I have proved that one day in seven he must have by the perpetuall ordinance of the fourth Commandment Nor will the allowance of one in seven satisfie him unlesse he have the designation and determination of that one p It must be the day consecrated by God either immediately by himself or mediately by his Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever the Day be as I told you before out of Zanchy so that the Day must be of Divine Institution And this is evident First de Jure Christ calleth himself Lord of the Sabbath his dominion was not onely over the old Sabbath to abrogate that but over the new also to surrogate that as succenturiate to the other Secondly de Facto For Gods own act is the best interpreter of his will and if he had meant the Church should have had her libertie her Conge d' Eslier leave to chuse he would not have anticipated her with his own act of instituting the Evangelicall Sabbath whereof as well as of the Legall he was not onely the efficient but the exemplary cause by finishing the work of our redemption on that day But here it is demanded p Is the old Sabbath translated into the Lords day If yea by whom By any commandment of Christ where is it Produce one precept or one word of God out of the old Testament that it should be translated or out of the new commanding it to be translated or intimating that by Christs commandment it was translated Take both or which you will either the old or new Covenant and withall the best and ancientest Interpreters thereof and then I dare presume you will soon discry a Translation For the first it was adumbrated in their Circumcision on the eight day It was a type of that eight day whereon our Lord rose again for our justification So saith Cyprian q and with him Augustine r The Lords day could not but be known to the holy Prophets for there is a Psalme entituled FOR THE EIGHT DAY and on the Eight day Children were circumcised and the like elsewhere It was Prophecied in the title of the Psalmes the sixth and eleventh In finem pro octavo So Ignatius s Nazianzene t Augustine Prophecied in the * 101. Psalme Scribatur illa in generationem novam This shall be written for the Generation to come vers. 18. so Athanasius In the * 109. for so Basil understandeth diem virtutis the day of Power but above all prophecied in the 118. vers. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made So all the Fathers who have saluted and cited that place For the second or new Covenant we need search no higher then to the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles from the Resurrection downwards to warrant and assure us of this Translation I say from the Resurrection for this their practice did not as some suppose begin in long wast of time There was no interregnum no vacancy at all no cessation of a Sabbath No not the first week No sooner was the old Sabbath abolished then the new established and installed The Jewish Sabbath that slept we all know its last in the grave with our Saviour Its ghost according to Countrey dialect or the shadow of that shadow walked indeed a while after but it self the old Sabbath expired then and immediately entered the Lords day Immediately when Christ himself was but newly up from that very day whereon he arose doth S. Augustine u derive the
indeleble memory and that whilest man is amused with admiration of so miraculous a structure he may be excited to a gratefull recognition of the goodnesse of God who created all these things for man and onely man for himself Is not this benefit of Creation common and universall do not all participate of it but the elect especially and inexplicably Had not the Church before Moses as ample a share in the blessings which result from it as that since and ought it not then as freely as frequently to celebrate its sacred Festivall If then before and since the Law there were the same reasons sure there was also the same thing observed yea and the same commanded for from the Reason to the Law from the Cause to the Effect from the End to the Means is a solid argument and never faileth but when that end may be acquired by a better means and impossible it is to demonstrate how the tyred bodies both of man and beast could have been more charitably provided for Gods solemn worship in a more sweet decorum performed and the memory of the Creation better preserved from the immerging deluge of time and profanenesse by any day other then the weekly Sabbath the day which God indigitated for the same purposes by his own example an example equivalent to a Law For though there had been no vocall no verball institution of the Sabbath yet Adam and the succeeding Patriarchs who had a view and clear notion of all Gods works their orderly existencies and exact consummation but especially who were manuducted and guided by an inerring spirit could not but collect from Gods example a the analogicall equity for man to imploy six dayes in the works of his calling and to interferiate the seventh consecrating that to religious duties And therefore that main Argument from the want of a solemn Institution is but like a ruffled arrow that maketh a great noise in the aire but falleth short of the mark For the controversie is not de Modo neither of the command whether Internall or Externall nor of the observation whether voluntary or imposed by precept but de Re whether it was or observed or commanded yea or nay that it was observed the equity thereof common and agreeable to both times evinceth and observed it could not be otherwise then in obedience to command either prolated or tacitely inspired by the holy Ghost for impute we must not to those sanctified men superstitious and will-worship If then the Sabbath was both observed and commanded before the Law why might not the command arise out of Gods blessing and sanctifying the seventh day mentioned Gen. 2.3 why should we not rather embrace the proper and grammaticall sense of the words then resort to a peerlesse and senselesse Prolepsis that hath neither fellow to associate nor reason to strengthen it It hath not its match in the hole sacred volume which is another note of its absurdity There is not one Prolepsis of such an Institution saith Amesius of any Institution at all so I and yet I doubt not to find many seconds One place there is I grant which at the first blush seemeth to perswade the contrary but upon more mature consideration it exhibiteth nothing lesse The text is Exod. 16.32 The words these This is that which the Lord commandeth fill an Omer thereof viz. of the Manna to be kept for your generations c. And as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Lo here say they an Institution of the Lords related by anticipation as the former was for how could Aaron lay up a pot of Manna to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it An Institution indeed I see here but no Anticipation nor can I without your spectacles I say no Anticipation of the Institution For might not I pray this command this Institution be dictated to Moses at the same time whereof he wrote might not the precept be given now though the execution of the precept was adjourned nay is it not most likely it was so for where in the hole bible meet you with any injunction concerning it but here touching the building of the Tabernacle and the ordering every thing else appertaining to it God did exactly lesson Moses on the mount but of the filling the pot of Manna and placing it before the Testimony no hint at all was given there nor anywhere else but here onely And though we should grant that this command was given after the Tabernacle finished yet cannot the mentioning of it here be properly said to be by Prolepsis This narration taken hole and together is I confesse mentioned by Prolepsis not so the parts of it Hole and Part have not things so common betwixt them that what belongeth to the hole belongeth also to the part A total Prolepsis of an entire story before another there may be and yet no partial of one part of that story before another the parts may be marshalled in their due order though the hole be antedated All that series of Divine story from Genesis to Job may be said to be related by Prolepsis for it is the currant opinion that Job was comtemporary with Jacob and Joseph but improper it were to say that the fall of Manna the giving of the Law the building of Solomons Temple and such particulars are in respect of the history of Job set down by way of Prolepsis Prolepsis onely aimeth at what is next her she beholdeth not things remote So it is in this text the verses from the 27 to the end of the chapter constitute a narration distinct and in a canton by it self For Moses having in the former 26 verses reported so much of the history of Manna as was peculiar to that time whereof he wrote thought it not amisse to superadde what else concerned it though he delayed a while the ensuing occurrents which should have been precedents to it because it being not much he had to say and that so homogeneal with what went before he was resolved to take now an ultimum vale of it therefore he telleth you of an after ordinance of God concerning the filling an urn with Manna the disposing of it before the Testimony the execution of that command by Aaron and lastly the duration of the use thereof by the Israelites fourty-yeare which last is supposed to be the supplement of Joshua or Eleazar If now you consider this digression abstracted from the ensuing story you will find the hole preposterously related and yet the parts not at all inordinate and if you look wistly upon Calvines a words you shall find him not repugnant to what I have here delivered Lastly it is absurd for there can no solid reason be given why Moses should by a Prolepsis of about 2670 years insert this Institution It could not be to
the fourth precept you shall behold it quite deplumed and stript of all legall observances for those things which are all urged as ceremoniall and severall of the Jews touching the Sabbath are all every one Postscripts and By-laws not one emergent from the fourth precept It was a signe betwixt God and his people Exod. 31.17 Ezech. 20.20 It was injoyned with extreme rigour No meat to be drest Exod. 17.5 no fire to be kindled Exod. 35.3 These were all peculiar to the Jews if the commandment of the Sabbath was so too how cometh it to passe they are thus discriminated thus severed Very suspicious it is then that they were not uniform precepts not all of a piece But you will say that Deut. 5.15 the observation of the Sabbath is inserted in the fourth precept as peculiar to the Jews in regard it was a commemorative of their strange deliverance out of Egypt I answer True But there is a great diversitie betwixt the Decalogue given on Mount Sinai and that described in Deuteronomie That appertaining to Gods Church indefinitely taken this to the Jews onely And this is evident from the due consideration of Deuteronomy for though there be many things in it which may of common right belong to the hole Church yet certain it is that book was especially penned for the Jews it being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an explanation of that Law whether Morall Ceremoniall or Judiciall which Moses received on the Mount and application of it to the particular state and condition of that people So that this objection doth not onely not evert but establish my assertion it being a manifest argument that the Sabbath of the Decalogue ingraven in the Tables was of larger extent then that mentioned in Deuteronomie for else why should the reason of one be universall viz. as a monument of the creation of the other particular as a memoriall of the redemption out of Egypt and consequently it may perswade that the Sabbath of the one was Morall of the other Ceremoniall And therefore when Aquinas had framed this question Whether the commandment concerning sanctifying the Sabbath was fitly delivered in the Decalogue he found no evasion but this h It is placed saith he in the Decalogue as it was a Morall precept not as Ceremoniall Which is in effect but one and the same thing with what I maintain For I distinguish betwixt those precepts of the Sabbath which occurre elsewhere and the fourth Commandment and therefore I apply what is Ceremoniall in the Sabbath to them what is Morall I restrain to this So much for the Quid and indeed for the precept Survey we now the practice and observation thereof wherein the circumstances which offer themselves to our consideration are these Quando Quomodo By the Quando I understand the Terminus à quo and beginning of the Sabbath which some derive from the evening preceding the artificiall day and deduce it from Levit. 23.22 Others i again suppose it commenced in the morning and are induced thereto by the two Evangelists Matth. 28.1 In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week Mark 16.1 2. When the Sabbath was past very early in the morning the first day of the week and therefore the Leviticall Law they conceived onely concerned the Passeover and such solemn feasts But I rather imbrace the more received opinion that the Sabbath began at eve and suppose k that the Evangelists respected the manner of the Gentiles whose day commenced from midnight For me thinks the restriction of that ordinance in Leviticus to the solemn feasts onely is more nice then solid and the contrary is very probably indigitated in both the old and new Covenant In the old Nehemiah saith that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath he commanded they should be shut and not be opened till after the Sabbath whence I inferre that the Sabbath began at twilight for else why should the gates be shut up so soon In the new Testament also Luke saith that the women when they had bought their spices rested the Sabbath according to the commandment which seemeth to insinuate that the Sabbath presently succeeded the buying of those spices And though it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} give me leave to note to you that by Saint Luke here it is evident the spices were bought on friday towards evening not on munday morning not penitus exacto Sabbato as l Casaubon affirmeth Saint Mark m indeed whom he citeth seemeth to relate it otherwise But I say first with judicious Calvine that n Mark relating two divers things in one and the same context did not so exactly distinguish their times as Saint Luke for what was acted before viz. the buying of the spices he mingleth with the setting out and going forth of the women And in truth S. Mark minded more the substance then circumstance of the story a thing so familiar in Scripture as it hath begot a proverb There is not alwayes an orderly disposition of first and last in holy Scripture Nor doth it reflect at all to the debasing and disparagement of the divine History for a small diversitie touching circumstance is nothing ad summam narrationis to the substance of the narration as the same Casaubon hath well observed Secondly it is very probable what Beza hath applied by way of salve to this of Mark though it relisheth not well and perhaps the worse because Beza's with the learned Heinsius that there is a dislocation of the words by some unwary Scribe who hath put them out of joynt for the latter part of this verse ought as he conceiveth to conclude the preceding chapter as though the words had been thus ordered And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus beheld where he was laid and bought spices that they might come and annoint him and that which maketh it seem still to him more probable is an ancient copy reading it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. They went and bought spices without repeating the name of any woman The Quando I have briefly dispatched and the dispatch of that giveth me accesse to the Quomodo the manner of observing the Sabbath that is what holy duties were performed that day And from this arise two questions First whether the Law was read publickly every Sabbath or onely in the yeare of release at the feast of Tabernacles and this question is limited too to the period from the Law given to the captivitie The other quaere is what Law whether the hole Pentateuch or Deuteronomie onely was read in that yeare of Release As concerning the First they which hold the negative ground their opinion on these reasons First that there should be any publick or solemn reading of the Law upon Sabbath dayes is not expressely required and commanded in the
understood by this Law No it is not all Expositours take it for the hole five books and yet for this there may be some colour because the 70. render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hierome Deuteronomium legis hujus But to return to the first text of Moses we need no other Expositour then himself what Law he appointed then to be reâ—d he telleth us in the immediate precedent verse it was that Law which he delivered to the Levites that Law which he commanded them to put in the side of the Ark Now if they can prove that onely Deuteronomy was delivered to the Levites and laid up there they shall gain my subscription Having thus proceeded as farre as my first intendment bounded me lest this discourse should jut too farre into that insuing of the Sabbath under the Gospel now no more Gods Sabbath under the Gospel WE have at last shaked off those remora's which retarded our arrivall at the Christian Sabbath at Gods Sabbath under the Gospel For a Sabbath God hath still but not the Jewish not the seventh from the creation No a The seventh day is vanisht our Lord is buried the first now dawneth our Lord is risen and his Resurrection hath consecrated to us a new Sabbath for a Sabbath God must have by the immutable Law of the fourth precept Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day that is that day which for the time being God hath marked out and appointed for his own {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For if this Commandment injoyneth now no particular and set time under the Gospel then is the Law an Ennealogue not a Decalogue and so God hath lost one of his ten words but he payeth no tithe out of his Commandments his full Denary he must and will have If you say the Morall equitie viz. to yield God a competent and convenient time for his worship remaineth still and so the Commandment is not lost I answer This Fundamentall Law is tacitly implyed in this precept but so it was also in the institution of all other ceremoniall festivals the Passeover Pentecost c. to which we may as well resort as to the fourth precept for it And if this morall or naturall Law be the onely reliques of that Commandment I would fain learn what was in the Sabbath extraordinary more then in other Feasts which might intitle it to a roome amongst the morall Laws of the Decalogue when as the other Feasts were excluded Besides if this morall law of Festos dies coles maketh a distinct precept by it self I see no reason but there should be another for going to Church another for allowing God a convenient portion of our substance for these are also morall equities and so there will be an even dozen Lastly how cometh this morall equitie to be a peculiar of the Gospel onely God had from the Creation to the Law from the Law to Christ a day appropriated and that by himself to his worship what hath he lesse reason to require it under the Gospel hath he left the Christian Church to that liberty that every man may serve him as the toy taketh him and so God stand to our courtesie to be worshipped when we list You will say Nay we are not left at that libertie The observation of the Holy dayes appointed by the Church is reduced to the fourth Commandment as a speciall to a generall viz. Gods people must observe holy times because the equitie of the fourth Commandment obligeth thereunto But Easter and Christmasse day and Sunday c. are holy dayes lawfully appointed by the Governours of the Church and subordinate to the equitie of the fourth Commandment therefore Christian people are bound to observe these Holy dayes in obedience to the equitie of the fourth Commandment I answer The Church hath a power indeed to ordain festivals but is the observation of her constitutions concerning them a fulfilling the disobedience a breach of the fourth Commandment How can this be First what needs an Obligation be derived from the last precept of the first Table when the first of the latter is alsufficient Secondly is it not a mere non sequitur The fourth Commandment bindeth us to yield God a convenient time for his worship Ergò It obligeth us to observe the festivals of the Church Where learned you this Logick Suppose I pray the Church should injoyn but one day in a moneth doth he I pray who observeth her order that one day and not once more in the interim serve God perform his dutie which God in this Commandment requireth or doth he who plieth God with frequent addresses who strictly observeth canonicall houres yet onely perhaps faileth that one day which the Church injoyneth doth he I say violate the morall law of this precept which saith not Set apart such times for pious exercises as thy Governours prescribe but such as thou thy self thinkest meet In short to make this more evident Every Law positive is built upon some morall as upon a foundation now it is manifest that the foundation may stand and yet the superstructure fall as may be demonstrated in an example familiar to us The equitie of State requireth that particular persons be not inriched any way which reflecteth to the damage of a communitie upon this sociable equitie there is a positive a Statute law b inacted that None shall buy or contract for any victualls or wares before they come to the Market Fair or Port. But in some parts of this Realm especially in Norfolk such plentie of corn there is growing in most Towns as maketh every of them a kind of Market so as few men need go out of their own Villages to be supplied with materialls either for bread or beer yea the superfluitie is such as many Towns vend a thousand quarters of grain over and besides what supplieth their families and lands by reason of which great plenty little or none is sold in many Markets and the usuall practice hath been and is for Merchants to buy not in open Market but at the Barn doore great quantity thereof and export it into other parts of the kingdome where scarcitie is This act of theirs some Merchants have by smart experience lately found to be illegall but yet no violation of the foresaid equity for who complaineth that they are damnified thereby Not the Norfolcians they are eased not the Shires deficient they are relieved either part desireth it one ut impleatur that it may be stored the other ut depleatur that it may be disburthened Nor doth the fourth Commandment onely inferre out of these words Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath that God must have a Sabbath in a speciall manner but it declareth also his will concerning the quotient and limitation thereof Six dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the Seventh is the Sabbath so that one in a week he must have If you say the limitation
primum esse of the Lords day The Lords Day was by the Resurrection of Christ declared to be the Christians Day and from that very time of Christs Resurrection it began to be celebrated as the Christian mans Festivall So hath a profound a Bishop rendered him and truly unlesse ex illo relateth to Christ which I believe you will difficultly grant though it be lesse monstrous then to marry it with Resurrectione in despight of Priscian Nor is Augustines opinion utterly of truth abandoned For though we reade not of any Sabbath-duties expresly performed on that very day of Christs Resurrection by the Apostles yet this we find that when Christ appeared to them on that day they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Assembled on that day and the place is thought by learned men to be the coenaculum in which Christ celebrated the last Passeover and from thence derived a perpetuall consecration nor is it likely that he would inspire them in an ordinary place If then they were assembled and in a Church we may safely collect they were busied in sacred exercises The first day of our Saviours appearing to his Disciples this and the first Christian Sabbath he honoured with his beatificall presence The next was the next {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith S. John What on some indefinite time after eight dayes as you b would have it A word with you Sir Saint Mark telleth us that our Saviour should * {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} will you therefore have our Lords Resurrection to be on some one day after three expired you will not sure nay though I think you dare as much as another yet this you dare not No by after eight dayes is meant the eighth day after which was the next Sunday So the * Fathers agree It is necessary that that day should be the Lords day saith Cyrill c and he thence deriveth the equity of Assemblies upon that day Nay more this very day is so farre honoured by Nazianzene d as he made an Homily on purpose for it as he hath entitled it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Nova Dominica because the first Lords day solemnized in the weekly revolution after the Resurrection or rather because it was the encenium of the Resurrection for betwixt the day of the Resurrection and this he thus distinguisheth That was saith he salutifera this salutis natale That the day that brought forth salvation into the world this the commemorative Festivall of that day Though this be the last first day mentioned in holy writ which our Saviour hallowed in his assembling with the Apostles yet probable it is that he practiced the same even till his Apoge and Ascension But conjecturall arguments we will not urge when demonstrative are so hardly obtained Well our Saviour is ascended Let us now behold what honour the Spirit of Comfort which in his late valediction he promised to send his Apostles hath conferred on this Day Our Saviour is ascended and the holy Ghost descendeth but on what day the first of the week Not expresly yet consequently and by deduction yes for it was when Pentecost was arrived and this fell that yeare on the Sunday The Allwise God so disposing that the Gospel should every way parallel the Law The one given on mount Sinai on the day of Pentecost the then Legall Sabbath the other on mount Sion on the day of Pentecost the then Evangelicall Sabbath But some are of opinion the Lords day need not brag of this honour it being more then was meant it for it was say they a casuall thing that Pentecost should fall on the Sunday which I confesse seemeth to me a prodigy in Divinitie For those things onely are casuall which happen praeter intentionem operantis contrary to the expectation of the agent But here God was the agent whose omniscience nothing could escape who is privie to all events as the disposer of them True it is that necessarium and contingens necessary and contingent are terms which Theology can endure well enough when they are spoken with regard to intermediate and second causes For those Effects which are the emanations of such Causes as can in nature produce no other are said to be necessary and those which proceed from such as are in their own nature not determined to certain and definite effects are called contingent but when they are referred to the supreme and paramount Cause of all they are then and must be called Necessary Nor could the falling of Pentecost on the Sunday be a contingent thing in respect of the second Causes which were all no doubt thereof is made necessary For Scaliger hath informed you right that the Pentecost's terminus à quo was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the morrow after the Passeover so ever no contingency there and the Passeover it self ever as certain alwayes upon the fifteenth day or the full Moon following upon or next after the vernall Aequinox and so none there There were certainly other reasons which induced the holy Ghost to make choice of this day and time yet seeing all Antiquitie hath accounted his descent upon the Apostles amongst those titles of honour which have been dispensed upon this day I see no reason why it should be now denied it And though no glory at all the thing by some over eagerly desired should accrue to it thereby yet this is most legible that on this day the Apostles were solemnly though closely assembled in prayer and holy duties But so you will say they were on other dayes which I grant with this distinction of aequè and aequaliter for some dayes amongst them were doubtlesse dignified with a more solemn observancy then others in respect whereof they were especially reputed if not denominated Holy-dayes For how else can our Church e be understood where she saith that The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in so that both the preferring one day before another and the time of that choice viz. immediately after the Ascension she indigitateth to us The next mention of Apostolicall observation of this day occurreth Acts 20. vers. 7. The first day of the week the Disciples being come together to break bread Paul preached unto them Against this Text two exceptions lie First that by Breaking of bread is onely meant their ordinary repast no sacred Duties or celebration of the Eucharist and this they seem to make good by Saint Chrysostome and Lyra as also by the English Bible which paralleleth this place with Acts 2. verse 46. I answer some have indeed interpreted this Text of bodily repast yet the major part take it for the mysticall breaking of bread in the Communion And for our Church B. Andrews out of this very place affirmeth positively that the Apostles were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
will to them by the holy Ghost after his Ascension To render mine own opinion and beyond opinion I will not adventure Furiosares est in tenebris impetus it is madnesse to run too boldly in the dark where the Scripture is silent it is never safe dogmatically to determine any thing to render I say mine own opinion the first way seems to me the more probable considering our Saviours apparition the assembling of the Apostles upon that day whilest he abode with them and the testimony of Athanasius Nazianzene and Augustine but especially because Clemens a contemporary of the Apostles in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians saith g Our Saviours pleasure was that oblations and publick service of the Church should not be inordinately and uncertainly performed but at times appointed Which if it were true we need not then doubt but that Christ himself made the Lords day a weekly holyday it being the principall day we reade of destined to sacred duties in the Apostolicall age But the matter is not much by which so we be able to prove that at least by one of these waies he did it And this is a thing very feasable For to take a short and speeding course the most embraced and popular opinion is that the Apostles instituted and translated the Sabbath into the Lords-day this is agreed upon by all ancient and modern Augustine a The Apostles and Apostolick men ordained the Lords day to be celebrated with religious solemnity The Authour b of that Tract or at least of that Chapter falsely ascribed to Basil affirmeth the station and custome of standing upon the Lords day to be an Apostolicall Tradition if so then the day it self much more Isichius c We following the Tradition of them that is the Apostles sequestre the Lords day for holy meetings Epiphanius d saith that the Apostles ordained the Synaxes to be held {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} on the Wednesday Friday and Lords day I keep the originall word Synaxes because of the diverse sense whereof it is capable e The same is affirmed by Zanchy in quartum praeceptum pag. 669. Melancth. tom. 2. fol. 363. Bucer Ratio Can. Examin Mercer in Gen. Beza in Apoc. Pareus also ascribeth the Translation of the day Apostolicae Ecclesiae to the Apostolick Church onely of the time when they translated it he leaveth as he findeth doubtfull Quando autem facta sit haec mutatio in sacris literis non apparet And so 〈◊〉 his words in two severall editions I have perused that in quarto and the other in folio which I note the rather to whisper to you D. Heilens fidelity who in his also two severall editions hath by a new transsubstantiation converted Quando into Quomodo and to make it apparent he did it de industria he descants on it and renders it How by what authority Ursin Catech. p. 3. in Decalogum is of the same mind and so Junius in Gen. Baldwin Cas. pag. 474. Alsted catech. in praecept 4. Bellarm. De cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 11. and infinite others indeed what needs more it is confest by our very Antagonists themselves Brerewood a B. White b Heilen c who all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one mind acknowledge the Apostles to be the instituters of the Lords day This foundation of Apostolicall institution being thus laid I advance forward to enquire whether this act of the Apostles did flow onely from the generall authority delegated to them by Christ or some definite and expresse command to that effect or rather in clear terms I proceed to discusse that great question Whether the Lords day be established Jure Divino Great I call it not for any abstruse and perplexed intricacy in it no Learned and eminent maintainers it hath got and therefore great but it is not her great Patronage shall advantage errour Magna est veritas praevalebit Truth is great and will prevail yea but that is the question whose Truth is It is so and come then for the decision of this question d To that truth which is neither mine nor thine but the equall object of us both let us give attention our clear and 〈◊〉 judgements not beclouded with peevish stubbornnesse To entitle a command Divine it is not onely required saith that thus farre judiciously learned Brerewood that the Authority be so whereby it is originally warranted for there may be Divine authority for humane decrees but that the Authour also by whom it is established be Divine Because Divine commandments are not so much evidences of Gods authority as they are declarations of his will and pleasure Which being without controversie true that which we are to make good is That this Act of the Apostles was but the execution of a particular and severall command to that purpose which can no sooner render it self manifest then by surveying the Apostolicall both Mission and Commission As for their Mission it was with all the grace and honour that might be nothing wanting that might any way enhance it As my Father sent me so send I you John 20.21 He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 where our Saviour maketh them a kind of letter of Atturney to receive what obedience himself might claim And having dignified their embassage with these previous expressions Go saith he Matth. 28.19 there is their Mission and Legation and teach there is their Commission But what to teach what themselves think fit no there is a limitation a restriction it must be onely the observation of what thinâ—s I have commanded you and lest through frailty of their memories any thing should perish which was essentiall to their message Christ himself will have an eye to them I am with you alway even to the end of the world saith he With them how in corporeall presence that could not be for he was now ready to leave them No he was with them in Spirit by the Comforter whom he promised to send them John 15.26 And this Comforter had his Commission too To bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ had formerly said to them John 14. â—6 And though this Comforter is called the Spirit of Truth and so impossible it is that he should inspire any thing lesse then truth yet when Christ telleth his Apostles that this Comforter should guide them into all truth he presently saith withall That he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall heare that he shall speak He shall receive of mine and shew it to you which denoteth to us that the doctrine of the Gospel is in a more especiall manner to be ascribed to Christ then to the holy Ghost who was but our Saviours delegate and Committee therefore S. Paul saith that Christ spake in him 2. Cor. 13.3 It being then indisputably clear that the Apostles were inspired by the holy Ghost and that that Divine enthusiasme was
but the revelation of Christs will there is nothing else now desiderable but onely to prove that in this very act of instituting the Lords day or Sabbath of the new Covenant they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or prompted by that guiding Spirit a thing little lesse visible then the former for shall we say that the Spirit seised upon them onely at certain tides and fits That he assisted them in their office both of writing and preaching the Gospel is most certain but did he onely then was every act of their superintendency a spell to drive him away did he onely wait upon them in the publication of the Gospel and abandon them in the moderation of the Church was the doctrine they taught inspired from above and were their constitutions Ecclesiasticall an humane device Certainly no the voyce of truth it self soundeth the contrary For in their first councel we reade of a Visum est Spiritui sancto nobis It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us But that was a businesse of great weight and so might require a more then ordinary assistance let us behold more triviall and petty matters S. Paul was to give his resolution concerning a question which amongst others the Corinthians put to him of Digamy whether it was lawfull for a widow to marry again after the death of her first husband and he determineth affirmatively yes but rather commendeth her containing her self in her widowhood Did S. Paul deliver herein his own opinion certainly no {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I think I have the Spirit of God evinceth the contrary and I hope no man will affirm this to be a businesse of importance comparable to the instituting of the Lords day To dispatch without more ado there is a question the first hint whereof Aerius the heretick is supposed to have given and Hierome is not altogether dissenting from him whether the Episcopacy be jure Divino Much hath been said either way yet not enough to end the bickering and though the conflict be still on foot yet both the one and the other side grant the hole controversie to move upon Apostolicall Institution that which the one to prove the other to disprove do equally eagerly labour is onely Apostolicall Institution the decision whereof endeth the dispute King James ascendeth no higher That Bishops ought to be in the Church I ever maintained as an Apostolicall Institution and so the Ordinance of God Beza for the other part yieldeth as much If I could saith he be assured that this superioritie of a Bishop over the rest of his Clergie hath proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to attribute it holly to divine Institution Now if Episcopacy can contract Jus divinum divine Right from Apostolicall Institution why may not also the Lords Day which I am sure can shew as good cards for her descent do so too and then with what face can it be gain-said by any that either is or would be a Bishop yet so it hath come to passe that they who have most cried down the paritie of Clergy have most cried up the paritie of dayes But let any be he what he will that maligneth the honour of this glorious day mutter his pleasure yet nor he nor all the learning of the world shall be able to produce one solid argument sufficient to withstand this inevitable inference of divine Right from Apostolicall Institution It being by all learned men agreed upon that whatsoever the Apostles as Apostles and in their Apostolicall function or did or spake or writ is simply without modification Juris divini the Reason being evident because they were not sui Juris not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they had no power of themselves to speak or act any thing either in teaching or governing the Church but all was suggested by the spirit who could embreath nothing not diviâ—e With this Argument our adversaries are hard beset something they fain would retort knew they what and at last to shew their courage and that Nec victi possunt absistere ferro they will not yield though overcome forth steps one and assaults us with two distinctions of Apostolicall inspirations one of Apostolicall traditions the other Concerning the first he saith The Apostles are to be considered either as Apostles by extraordinary mission sent to plant the Gospel or as Pastours to govern the Church already planted As Apostles they were infallibly inspired with all truths upon all occasions As Pastours their inspirations were onely such irradiations influences and concurrences of the Spirit as are afforded at this day to Pastours of the Church unlesse by some personall miscariages they procure unto themselves spirituall derelictions I Answer a It is your dutie to prove indubitately both these to me but I am not covetous make good but one and I am satisfied And first tell me good Sir if to awaken you out of this dream I be not over-rude where find you the Pastorall and Apostolicall Office in the same persons distinct where reade you of a double Commission one to plant the Church the other to govern the Church already planted were not both these parts of the Apostolicall function were they not Apostles i. e. sent to do the one as well as the other Instance in any one act of their Pastorall office which was not in the latitude of their Apostolicall patent Secondly admit them for severall functions where I pray learn you that they had a distinct inspiration according to those severall functions If those irradiations you talk of which were shed upon them as Pastours were no other then what God now dispenseth to ordinary Ministers then I say the beams or species intentionall of such irradiations must needs have a tincture of the Medium naturall corruption through which they passed and every thing which as Pastours they did not onely may but must have a rellish of sinne or errour which ever did and ever shall more or lesse distain the best action of the justest man infected with originall corruption and not extraordinarily and infallibly inspired living upon earth If then the Apostles as Pastours were but ordinarily inspired and that ordinary inspiration did not exempt their Pastorall works from sinne and errour it were a worthy labour to put the New Testament into Purgatory to weed out all those passages which relate to the Pastorall office of the Apostles and to bind them up with the old Apocrypha I see also no necessitie why Children should be baptized why women nay why any of the Laitie should be admitted to the Eucharist which are Apostolicall devices whereof expresse command from our Saviour to them we find none and to speak to the point in question I see no necessitie of celebrating the Lords day but of observing the Jewish Sabbath I see a necessitie for I see Gods command to observe it and I see no countermand to abolish it If
Eucharist otherwise then by implication as it was then an usuall work of that day because it is said that they might not intermittere which especially relateth to time as interpose to place and inferreth the not doing of a dutie in its proper quando which cannot be well interpreted of the celebration of the Eucharist it being not restrained by any positive Law of God to a certain time And indeed it was more proper to examine them whether they held their Christian assembly whether they met on the Lords Day considering it consequently inferred the performance of all sacred duties then to inquire whether they had celebrated the Eucharist which according to the custome of those times was often performed at home being reserved for the same purpose If Christ had either here on earth or after by revelation from Heaven given his Apostles any such charge of Instituting a new Sabbath sure Christs Apostles would not have concealed Christs command Besides the Apostles holding their first Synod would doubtlesse have exprest as much to the Gentiles First Christs Apostles did not conceal Christs command for what if perhaps it be not extant in their writings They were indeed our Saviours executours performers of his will but was his hole will exemplified in Scripture certainly no Some part thereof was declared in ima Cera as Civilians say and by Tradition For Tradition which is clearly known to be Apostolicall is as perfect evidence of Christs will as the Canonicall Scripture it self For the Scripture before it was Scripture was but a part of Tradition and became Scripture that it might be of more ready use and better preserved from perishing but mainly because it was the fundamentall Canon of our Religion Secondly The Apostles in their Synodicall Epistle had onely respect to the Judaicall not to Evangelicall observances Moreover the solemnity of the Lords Day was made known to them by former practice equivalent with precept at least if not by precept it self for according to our Church a The Christian people immediately after the Ascension began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in My learned Authour biddeth us here observe that the day was chosen by Christian people and if chosen by them then not injoyned by the Apostles I see a man may learn something every day for I professe ingeniously till this instant I took the Apostles to be Christians Lastly the precept was in the negative not in the affirmative If you say True and hence we may inferre that the first Christians were tied to no affirmatives but such as were expresly commanded by Evangelicall precept I answer then it must follow that women did not communicate children were not baptised Ministers not ordained incorrigible persons not excommunicated these being not expresly commanded by any Evangelicall Law Whatsoever is of divine Institution and by necessitie of precept laid upon the whole Church is a necessary dutie without which if it may possibly be observed no salvation can be had But no man will affirm so of the Lords Day Ergò c. The major is false for positive precepts omitted do not inevitably damne any man but where there is a malicious contempt or wilfull neglect of the ordinance The Sacrament of Baptisme shall be mine instance It was in the Primitive Church procrastinated by some many years by most in their usuall practice some moneths and is even in our own Church some dayes In all this delay no inevitable impossibility debarreth the competent or person to be baptized from this Sacrament will you then say that Heaven gates are precluded against all those whom hasty death cutteth off in this delay Heare the most uncharitable of all the Ancients in this point d S. Augustine The Sacrament of Baptisme is invisibly accomplished as long as the fault proceedeth from absolute necessitie not from contempt of the ordinance The Gospel commandeth onely such observations which are either means of grace as the Word and Sacraments or wherein the exercise and use of grace doth consist as the duties of love towards God and Man But the observation of the Lords Day is neither a means of grace nor exercise of grace Ergò c. That which is a part of divine worship is a means of grace But the observation of the Lords Day is so Ergò c. The minor I prove thus That is a part of divine worship whose Institution is divine But the Institution of the Lords Day is divine as I have made evident Ergò c. If you say that Junius * Amesius and others who hold the Day to be Jure divino make it yet onely an adjunct to not a part of divine worship I answer that as it is a time set apart for holy worship it is an adjunct to it but as it is a time determined by God himself the very observation thereof is a part of divine worship which is nothing but a religious observance of the true God according to the prescript of his own will Besides it is a means to stirre up our souls to the exercise of grace in pious meditations when we consider it in all its prerogatives superlative above other dayes as that which was the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and in all probability shall be the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of dayes and therefore aptly dedicated to him who calleth himself {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the day of our Saviours resurrection by which we are justified as the day of the holy spirits descension by whom we are sanctified as the day which mystically prefigureth our eternall rest when we shall be glorified And therefore it is worthily and truly called by * Ignatius The sublimest and primate of all dayes That day which cannot be kept universally throughout the whole world was never commanded the whole Church of Christ by an Evangelicall Law For the Gospel is given to all Nations But the Lords day cannot thus be universally observed considering the diversitie of meridians and unequall rising and setting of the sunne in divers Regions in some whereof time is not distinguished into weeks or dayes by morning and evening as in Groinland Finmark Lapland c. The positive Laws of God do not alwayes imply a possibility in them upon whom they are imposed The Jews were injoyned many observances of sacrifices feasts c. which could not alwayes be performed by them as in case of captivity or durance So the Christians are commanded the celebration of the Eucharist and yet the condition of some Countreys is such as they have not bread a of others as they have not wine b The truth is Gods commandment may impose but never oblige unto things sometimes impossible where there is an utter impossibility of observation as in this or the like case that
impossibility is a necessity with which the Law dispenseth And this is the reason to speak to the point in question why the Sabbath being given to Adam and in him to all mankind Gen. 2. was not described as the other six dayes by evening and morning as also why the Sabbath of the fourth Commandment of like latitude with the former is not set out by expresse bounds of from Eve to Eve as that in the Leviticall Law which onely concerned the Jews to intimate that the journall or dayly round of the Sunne should be no precise rule or character of his Sabbath in such places where time is not so distinguished but that there his people are to give him a seventh of their time as it is with them distinguished And though the Regions abovesaid have not naturall dayes described by the circulation of the Sun from East to West yet times they have holding so near correspondence with such naturall dayes that in some parts they are denominated dayes and for Island if my intelligence misleadeth me not their dayes are homonymall with ours in England an argument of their not different either Planters or Conquerours as derived from the same idoles in Planetary computation whereof the learned Selden and Verstegan can inform you There is the same reason of keeping a determinate set Sabbath under the Gospel that there is of preaching praying administering the Sacraments c. But these are not determined how often they shall be done Ergò It is not limited what time shall be a set Sabbath Every of these though they be not absolutely restrained yet their proper time is this very Sabbath whereof those duties were a finall cause to speak in particular It is a Day of Preaching and so ever was in the Primitive Church Origen alluding to the first fall of Manna in the wildernesse saith The Lord ever raineth down Manna from Heaven on our Lords day and so in the Apostolicall age Acts 20.7 It is a Day of Prayer We must by all means intend our Prayers on the Lords Day that by them on that Day we may expiate for all our negligences and escapes in the week-dayes So Acts 2.1 the Christians were assembled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one accord on this Day and how they were wont then to be imployed the Historian telleth you c. 1. v. 14. it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in Prayer It is a * Day proper for the Eucharist and therefore anciently called Dies panis and in some places as in Alexandria the onely Day and Time for it So Acts 20. vers. 7. the Disciples came together to break bread that is to communicate of the Eucharist It is a day proper for the Sacrament of Baptisme and therefore anciently called Dies lucis the Day of illumination This Sacrament not usually being conferred unlesse in case of eminent necessity but upon this Day So Acts 2.41 the most notorious president extant no lesse then {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} very near three thousand were this Day baptized Lastly it was a day of almes Pro arbitrio quisque suo quod visum est contribuunt quod ità colligitur apud praepositum deponitur saith Justin Martyr And so 1. Cor. 16.1 Saint Paul ordained it should the First of the week be a day of collection for the poore That which is expresly against Christian libertie was never commanded by Christ or his Apostles But to have the Conscience burdened with any outward observations putting religion in them as being parts of Gods worship is directly against Christian libertie for how is he free that is thus bound to times and dayes What you understand by Christian libertie I know not sure I am that Christ onely delivered us from the observation of the old ceremoniall Laws and from the sting of punishment due to the breach of the Morall but that he exempted us from all outward observations whatsoever is a fancy of your own without warrant from the Scripture For would he then have imposed the outward observation of Sacraments if we had not been obliged to them and you are in this implunged in errour beyond the Anabaptists for they cry up Christian libertie to free them from the constitutions of men onely but you will have it reach to the very ordinations of God There is no dutie essentiall in Religion ordained by Christ or his Apostles of which we find not either exhortations in respect of performance or reprehensions in regard of their neglect either in the Gospel Epistles or Acts But the keeping of the first Day of the week Sabbath is no where pressed or exhorted unto the neglect thereof no where reproved in all the new Testament Ergò c. Paedobaptisme the communicating of women is I hope essentiall in Religion secundùm esse perfectum but where do you find any exhortation to the observation any reproof for the neglect of these duties Besides I see nothing to the contrary but it may be included in Saint Pauls admonition of Tenete Traditiones whereof before Had the observation of the Lords Day been of Divine Institution it is very probable that the Apostle reproving the Corinthians for going to law would not have omitted the advantage of this circumstance For plain it is that their pleadings were ordinarily upon the Lords Day But he omitteth c. That which you make so probable was I affirm considering the Spirit which alwayes assisted him utterly impossible in the Apostle for how could he who knew his Lord and Master had often determined the contrary in very like cases opposing Pharisaicall strictnesse how could he nay how durst he prevaricate or swerve from Christs rule he knew it lawfull to cure a crazie body and was it sinne to consolidate a crackt estate upon the Sabbath it was justifiable to drag a beast out of the ditch why not also land out of the oppressours claws on that day when it could not be done on another If Christ had appointed this day as the day of his Resurrection then the Eastern Churches which followed S. John transgressed this ordinance of Christ when they kept their Easter on another day But they sinned not in it Ergò c. Christ nor his Apostles for ought we know gave no commandment concerning Easter neither is it necessary that the anniversary and weekly memoriall of one and the same benefit should alwayes jump together Gods own precept in almost the same case we know was otherwise The Jewish Sabbath and Passeover were both commemoratives of their redemption out of Egypt yet one was fixed to the day of the week the other to the full of the moon so as they seldome met together Had it been a Divine Institution doubtlesse those Fathers and Synods which have spoken so much in praise of the Day displaying the prerogatives thereof would never have omitted this
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} adorations to be made {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} towards the holy Table and this we all know is a piece of yesterday the Authour whereof was in being not full six hundred years past which we are also as certain was the very time about which the Incarnation of Bread or Transsubstantiation began first to be whispered I should not have dwelt so long upon this but that I find it pressed as a necessary dutie yea a dutie of necessity adequate to the observation of the Lords Day a Tenet which deserveth rather to be hist at then answered But to return from whence I have digressed Let whatsoever is positive in the fourth Commandment stand for a cipher is the Lords Day to be observed one jot the more remisse doth not Apostolicall Institution imply an equall Obligation both concerning the continuance of time and restraint from labour what did they ordain what institute was it not That the first day of the week should be consecrated to God and spirituall negotiations you cannot yield us lesse If then it was the first day of what is it meant of a naturall day from sun to sun or of an artificiall from the sun-rise to his set I answer of the first for these reasons If all the other dayes of the week contained both night and day why should not the Lords Day have as large a proportion of time as the rest do not all the dayes in the week hold by Gavelkind and if it contained onely daylight then there was a night to spare whereof I would gladly know what should become Should the Saturday have it all If so then this would by sesquialter proportion exceed all the rest should it passe by way of dividend amongst the other six then there would be two houres in every day more then the suns revolution maketh Moreover when God requireth any thing dedicated to him his constant caveat and proviso is that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not defective and without blemish not lame or imperfect Now that which wanteth one minute of its full time cannot properly be called a day regularly I say and de jure of right it cannot where the day is seposed by divine designation And this is the more evident by observing what God required under the law it being no lesse then a full and complete naturall day from eve to eve which was not as a learned Doctour conceiveth and I think aright to set out the beginning and end the boundaries of a naturall day but to declare his own claim of a naturall day to be dedicated to him which should begin at evening If then the day must be understood of a naturall day of 24 houres it will then necessarily follow that vacation from labour during that time must be concomitant with it For vacation from worldly affairs which may impeach the worship of God is so inseparable from times consecrated to that worship as it is by Brerewood rightly accounted part of the moralitie and substance of the fourth Commandment and so in the Christian Church perpetually to be observed If any shall now object that this vacation is onely necessary and required during the time of publick assembling in the Church and that no more is exacted of us then that we attend such assemblies I answer that God will admit no sharer in any thing consecrated to him and though the cardinall and chief end of the Sabbath is that God be publickly honoured yet doth he not leave the remainder thereof so at our dispose that we may dispend it either in carnall pleasures or terrene negotiations Those oratories which from their dedication to the Lord are in English denominated Churches do from their destination to publick and solemn addresse contract the name and repute of sacred and though they be superlatively and above all venerable while employed to their destinate end yet alwayes even at times of Cultustitium as I may so say or vacation from publick worship there remaineth in them an indeleble impression of awfull regard which ought to preserve them from all profanation inviolable Mistake me not I place no inherent sanctitie I immure not God in them I approve not of their decoring even to effeminate curiositie nor allow them an honour as some of late too close followers of Nazianzene a even to ridiculousnesse superstititious yet this I hold Gods houses they are places where his honour dwelleth for which cause such a relative veneration is due to them as alwayes dignifieth and ennobleth them above any other house whatsoever and secureth them from common use and in this men both learned and moderate have led me the way as Zanchy b Hospinian c c. Now * Places and Times consecrated to Gods name are to be sanctified with equall religion and so the Rituall of the old Testament coupleth them together Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuaries And then I say that the Lords house may as well be impropriated to a ware-house as his day to a work-day when the congregation is dismissed And this priviledge it as well deriveth from Evangelicall as Legall institution Therefore Leo d when he made that edict of generall restraint on the Lords day pleadeth conformitie wth the evangelicall constitution We ordain as it seemed good to the holy Spirit to them whom he instructed But it will be here opposed that neither the Apostles themselves nor the Primitive Church observed this day with any such strictnesse untill Constantine's decree and therefore it is like they enjoyned it not I answer as touching the practice of the Apostles there is I confesse nothing either the one way or other clearly evident nor much of that of the Primitive Church during the time limited Onely Justin Martyr e if I be not mistaken hath something reflecting that way for in his description of the custome of publick assembling in those times upon the Lords day after he hath insisted awhile upon the duties performed in the Church he setteth down what the Christians did postea after their dismission as their visiting relieving the poore their consorting together and their repeating to one another what they had learned that day in the Church Of the remainder of time the solemn assembly being ended I understand this postea probably enough yet will not warrant it with over much pertinacitie if any other construction can vouch better reason in its defence let that obtain But though we should find no evidence of the Primitive practice of cessation from labour on this day yet will it not follow that they did not forbare it if possibly they could for we meet with exhortation to it by Origen f On the Christian Sabbath day we ought not to do any worldly businesse if therefore thou dost surcease from all secular affairs and dost nothing but employ thy self in spirituall negotiations this is
take a full effect untill the Church should attain her land of Canaan a settled and flourishing peace And the event seemeth to prove the ordinance for no sooner did Constantine a second Joshuah or Josiah sit sure in his throne then Gods externall worship began to be magnificently solemnized and as an especiall badge thereof his day superlatively honoured both by Imperiall edict and example and that with strict vacation from all worldly avocations ab omni opere from all work so his Histriographer m reporteth Elsewhere I grant there occurreth a constitution of this Religious Emperour tolerating labour on this day but it was in countrey villages onely and that too but in case of necessitie n lest pretermitting the opportunitie offered by the divine providence it might not occurre again o This dispensation is much urged by the Anti-sabbatarians but it hath no great force with us For first it may be well controverted whether Constantine ever made any such indulgence or no because if he had is it credible it could have escaped Eusebius who was not onely contemporary but in a manner companion with this Emperour who took speciall notice of all his actions having in designe the compiling of the Historie of his life and who over lived him yet this Bishop hath not one word of it But be it Constantine's sure we are it was after rescinded by Leo with a We ordain that all men cease from labour on the Lords day that neither husbandmen nor any other take in handwork unlawfull on that day And before Leo divers of the Fathers in their popular tracts or sermons pressed this vacation upon the people On the festivall day all handy-work is prohibited to the end that men may more intirely exercise themselves in sacred matters So Cyril o Chrysostome p calleth it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an immoveable law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that this first day of the week be holly set apart for sacred exercâ—sâ—s But there are also fathers you will say that seem to incline to the contrary First Hierome he relateth of a religious woman governesse of the Nunnes at Bethlehem how she every Lords day resorted to the Church and after service she and her company fell to their ordinary work of making garments for themselves or others To this I answer consider Paula as a subject and then tell me how can you acquit her of the breach I will not say of the fourth but of the fifth precept if Bethlehem was within the latitude of Constantine's decree and certainly it was for that reached Omnes Romano Imperio parentes all men subject to the Romane Empire And if this Lady was not within the verge of the dispensation for that was for husbandmen onely was not then this her act a disobedience to her Princes law and therefore her example no rule of those times it being it self irregular Besides S. Hierome telleth us of religious persons of the other sex Monks that they did orationi tantùm lectionibus vacare busie themselves in prayer and reading on the Lords day Now consider Paula and her Nunnes as women and compare their practice with that of these Monks and then if the masculine practice be not more worthy then the feminine let Grammar scholars judge Out of Gregory they tell us that he giveth it as one cognizance of Antichrist q That he shall enjoyn the Lords Day and the Sabbath to be oâ—served with abstinence from all work To which I answer There are two things which Gregorie here reproveth in the observation of the Dominicall Day first a Jewish not a moderate and sober restraint and this is certain for in the very same epistle he saith r On the Lords day we must cease from labour and by all means attend our prayers secondly the celebrating it together with the Sabbath for it is Diem Dominicum Sabbatum the Lords Day and Sabbath both which was the errour of the Ebionites And therefore Gregorie for ought I see standeth their friend no more then Hierome This Gregory was a man of the sixth Centurie an age wherein themselves acknowledge this restraint took deep root and so it continued successively downward even to the times of Reformation nor did the first Reformers those of our Church especially exercise themselves in varying any thing at all in this point from the received practice as may appear both in the statute and canon laws both of this and other countreys But hitherto I have onely insisted upon restraint from labour and servile work there is yet another question concerning restraint not from work but play and from recreations viz. Whether recreations such as are at other times lawfull are tolerable and lawfull on the Lords day To this I answer in short All recreations at other times lawfull are interdicted on this day but such whereby the mind is better disposed towards the sanctification of the day or such as are no impediments to that sanctification For the day is appointed to be sanctified that is to be an holy not a playday and it is a rule in the decalogue and all other divine laws that where any thing is commanded to be done all things subservient to the performance of it are consequently enjoyned as also all lets and hinderances prohibited Besides Gods house hath been ever thought profaned and polluted by sports and meetings of good fellowship why also not his day Nor is it enough that these recreations be not an hindrance to publick exercises in the Church but they must not disturb even private duties at home as meditation prayer holy conference c. For God commandeth not the sanctification of some few houres but of a day that is an hole day allowing sufficient time for repose and repast to the body And so our Church a interpreteth the command Gods obedient people saith she should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and dayly businesse and give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises And consonant to her her sister the Church b of Ireland The Lords Day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God If holly to Gods service where have recreations a room These articles are it seemeth called in for what reason I not dispute sure I am the nulling of them was very acceptable to the disciples and followers of Arminius Men too bold and frequent in these Dominions c whose accursed tenets were there damned As an appendix to this discourse of recreations if now my opinion be demanded concerning his Majesties book I shall say of that onely this His Princely intentions were therein I doubt not pious enough not so I fear theirs who first suggested the convenience and fitnesse of that liberty unto him But in regard the foundation thereof seemeth especially to be the preserving in observation Encaenia or Church dedications of them I shall say somewhat perhaps not known to all Of their
first Institution innocent enough I will not speak nor trouble my self and you in shewing by what gradations they ceased to be what they ought and became what they ought not of their corrupt and degenerate estate I purpose onely to give you some small hint collected from what I have read and partly from what I have seen First therefore you must understand there were in the late times of superstition and blindnesse in our Church in our Church I say for in other Countreys I confesse they were united two feasts Maenechmi very near resembling one the other one called the Feast of Dedication the other the Feast of the Patrone or Church Holiday the impious and profane fooleries were almost the same and common to both onely the Feast of the Patrone had this peculiar to it The idol or image of the Patrone richly deckt and drest was set forth upon a table near the Church doore to the view of the People quod quia mutum est Aut nondum populi linguam or áque barbara novit Assidet interpres quidam clamánsque rogánsque Intrantes atque ingredientes munera praestent Patrono nummis redimant indulta Paparum which because 't is dumb And kennes not yet the Peoples Idiome Its spokesman's by who begs of all that come Toll for his Patrone and sits there to sell Pardons for sins but men must pay him well But the first spark of light which shone in the beginning of Reformation soon quitted the world of this grosse abuse King Henry the eighth anno 1536 amongst other things enjoyning that this Feast of the Patrone of every Church commonly called the Church Holiday should be no more observed within the Realm The Feasts of Dedication indeed continued still yet much eclipsed in their former wicked and abominable solemnity for whereas before the custome was for divers vicine Parishes to assemble themselves together there where the Feast of Dedication was to be held to feast and riot in the very Churches to erect stalls for pedlars in the Churchyard to spend the hole day in swinish swill lascivious wantonnesse in cudgellplay-matches and in the true service of Satan and because every Parochiall Church had its proper Sunday whereon the Feast was kept and it was rare by reason thereof to have a Lords Day observed especially in summer time wherein these Feasts are most frequent with any tolerable devotion and exercise of Piety it was therefore by the same Prince strictly injoyned That the Feasts of Dedication of Churches should in all places of the Realm be celebrated upon the first Sunday in October for ever and upon none other day The scope of this King was doubtlesse to restrain the disordered licentiousnesse of the people on this day being occasioned by their joynt resort to other Parishes where these Feasts were observed and in this I cannot but commend that Declaration of his sacred Majesty which restrained and prohibited that disorder so far as in it lay Had there been due inquiry made into the violation of his Majesties will in this and punishment inflicted upon the offendours great I dare say had been the good it would have produced but through generall impunity and the perverse corruption of humane nature chusing in every thing that which serveth its own though never so inordinate ends and neglecting the rest his Majesties godly purpose was I know much abused and Gods sacred Day not lesse dishonoured And for proof thereof I will give you a Relation of mine own autopsie of what these eyes saw It was some few years since my fortune to visit a kinsman seated in a countrey where these Feasts are frequent upon a saturday and though I purposed to depart that day yet he importuned and prevailed with me to repose my self with him the ensuing Lords Day I did so and as dutie required in the morning I accompanied him to Church A full assembly there was service being read the preacher a man of no mean note or degree maketh a sermon lest such profanation should want its due ceremony upon this Text There is nothing better for a man then that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul to enjoy good in his labour he insisted his hole time upon the lawfulnesse of Feasting and of Christian liberty in the use of the creatures and to give him his due nothing did he deliver amisse something I grant he might nay ought to have added as in setting down the properties of a Christian Feast and in opening to the people his Majesties will and pleasure concerning these Feasts which certainly gave them not so free a scope as they took Well the sermon ended and congregation dismissed in our return home I inquired of my kinsman the occasion of that Text he told me it was the Feast of dedication of their Church Home we went took a moderate repast and scarce had we dined before the bells summoned us to Church whither with all convenient speed we hasted and being come behold the congregation which in the morning amounted to about nine or ten score could not except the family we brought with us make up now so many single persons as the congregation was thinne so was the service suitable being posted over in great haste After this service I was much requested by my kinsman to accompany him to the place of rendez-vous where the Feast was kept many denials had I given him as fearing to be a spectatour of Gods dishonour and did partly expresse as much but he assured me I should find nothing but honest and innocent disport at length I confesse not without much inward conflict I yielded to him and the rather out of a desire to inform my self of the manner of those Feasts whereof I had heard much talk So I accompanied him to the green which was the scene of their pastime where loe we beheld a multitude of people the muster whereof could not be lesse then a thousand The main pretence of that assembly was to give testimony of their manhood by wrestling cudgel-play c. there being to that end a confederacy league and siding of the neighbour towns so many against so many which exercises imployed the body and greater part of that multitude but they who listed not to be either spectacles or spectatours wanted not wherewith to entertain themselves there being an ale-house by The disorders of that meeting by drunkennesse swearing malicious reviling one the other which may easily be conceived I purpose not to relate that which I offer to consideration is whether there was not by this assembly a great affront to his Majesties royall Declaration which prohibited all concourse of people out of their own parish yea or in their own parish untill Evening Prayer were ended when as I dare say there were near a thousand of this meeting which were not of the parish wherein it was held and of those not fourtie I verily believe had been present at
Evening service for how could they in regard some of them came foure or five most two or three and all at least a mile off which abuse of our Princes pleasure is I think condignly meritorious of severe punishment the execution whereof I leave to those whom it concerneth Having thus stated the Dominicall Day having proved it to be a Day divinely instituted a Day immutable a Day holly to be appropriated to sacred duties I have finished my last part and in that my imperfect way perfected what I first intended Which done my earnest sute is that my Christian perusers would fervently pray that this work undertaken for the honour of my Lord and blessed Saviours Day may through his merits So much to speak with devout Salvian avail the Authour with God as he seriously desires it may profit all men To which onely wise God our Saviour be glory and majestie dominion and power now and for ever Amen FINIS Lib. 18. c. 3. Hexam. Phocylides * At Christmas laâ—â— * Unus alio plura invemre potest nemo omniâ— Ausonius * B. Whiâ—e Dr. Prid. Mr. Brerewood Si cui displiceo non â—tatun 〈◊〉 opponat Tu solus sapis c. Per asinam enim quandoque locutus est Dâ—us quod Prophetam câ—lavit Samuâ—li puero ostendit quod â—li sacerdoti non revâ—lâ—vâ—â— Tom. 1 Resâ—l super Propos. Lipsie 〈◊〉 conclus 1. De me existima ut libet tantùm de ipsa veritate cave quid sentias Aug. cont. Mâ—nich lib. unus a Virgil b Orig. Prâ—oem Hâ— in Cant. Hieron. â—pist ad Paul in bibl. Hier. Naz. orat 7. 1. Reason B. White pag. 46. 2. Reason Brerew p. 65. 3. Reason B. White ubi suprá 4. Reason D. Heilen p. 9. 5. Reason B. White ubi suprá 6. Reason 7. Reason Dialog. cum Tryphone a adv. Judaeos b l. 4. c. 30. c Hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 4. d Fid. Orth. l 4. c. 24. Solut. of the 1. Reas. a 2 2 ae qu. 22· aâ—t 4. â—â—la dicuntur in Lege sanctificari quae divino cultui applicantur b Athanas. de Sabb. circum Genebrard Chronol. l. 1. Zanch. de Ser. Bell. de v. Dei l. 4. c. 4. Paâ—aeus Com. in Gen. 4. v. 3. Mercer praelect. in Gen. Rawly Hist. l. 2. c. 4. S. 8. a 1.2 ae q 103. act 1. Musculus in Gen. c. 4. v. 3. De Incarn. Verbi Solut. of the 2. Reason Exod. 19.10 Virg. Aen. 2. Tibul. l. 2· El. 1. cap. 1. v. 5. Solut. of the 3. Reas. Tost in Exod. 20. qu. 11. Solut. of the 4. Reas. Gen. 2.1 a Hexaem Hom. 11. b Mercer in loc. c Ex antecedentibus consequentibus colligitur verus Scripturae sensus Aug. De doct. Christ c. 31. a Seld. Marm. Arundell a In motu continuo quamdiu aliquid potest moverâ— ulteriùs non dicitur motus perfectus Aquin. p. 1. qu. 73 art 1. c Scal. Exerc. a In loc. b Ubi primùm dies septimus advenisset verum erat de Deo dicere quòd jam complesset opus suam Merc. in loc. c Rabbi Abraham autor libri Zeror Hammor vel fasciculus myrrhae apud Buxdors in Gen. a De Praestigiis lib. 1. c. 6. Sol. of the 5. Reason b De Gen. ad lit. l. 8. c. 8. c Aqu. 1.2 ae qu. 90. Solut. of the 6. Reas. Exod. 5. v. 1. Solut. of the last Reason Veteres interdum coguntur loqui non quod sentiunt sed quod necesse esse ducunt adversùs ea quae dicunt Gentiles Veteres dum unum errorem omnium virium conatu destruere adnituntur saepe in alterum deciderunt a Praefat. l. 3. Bibliothec. b Quivis vel doctissimus vir aliter habendus est cùm salurat quaestionem perstringit leviter aliter cùm in manus sumit atque excuâ—it Winton Opusc. posth de usuris a Tacitus Quò plures eunt omnes sequuntur Humanum est errare b Epist. l. 2. Epist. ad Bez. Demeloquor deque meo ingenio A communi Patrum consensu nullâ cogente necessitate dissentire mihi summa est religio c Epist. 19. a Nihil faciliùs est quà m dicere Tropus est Figura est Modus quidam dicendi est Aug. de Doctr. Christ l. 3. c. 10. o b Oratio figurata est quae proptiè intellecta nec ad fidem nec ad dilectionem nec ad ullam aedificationem accommodari potest ibid. c Oportet Scripturam intelligere secundâ—m verborâ—m proptietatem ubi non cogimur evidenti absurdo De Bapt. l. 1. c. 4. d Nisi cogamur ab aliqua alia Scriptura vel ab aliquo articulo fidei aut certè à communi totius Ecclesiae explicatione De Euch. lib. 1. c. 9. 1. Absurditie a Habet venerationem â— justam quicquid excellit Cic. De Nat. Deor. l. 1. b Aqu. 2.2 ae q. 122. art 4. Gen. 7. â— c De Civ. Dei l. 15. c. 7. d Part. 2. p. 67. a Omnis actio Dei nobis pietatis virtutis est regula Basil. Ascet. 2. Absurdity Medul Theol. lib. 2. cap. 15. D. Heilen part 1. cap 1. p. 10. Quicquid totius est idem partis a In Exod. Last Absurdity Brerew p. 66. Quantum mutatus ab illo Heilen p. 1. pag. 108. a Bacon Persp Dist. 8. a Hist. lib. 1. p. 1. c. 8. s. 6. a Basil Schol. in Psal. 77.2 a Quae in Lege post hac praecepta sunt de sabbato haec nimirum anticipans Job ipse implevit filios implere docuit Hom. sup Job c. 1. v. 5 b Septenarius hic numerus à conditione mundi autoritatem obtinuit c. De Spiritu sancto c Perâ—ectae quâ—eâ—s remissioniâ— peccatorum signum est septimus à primoâ—ciis generationis dies Hexaem d Creatio principium à die Dominico accepit ideo liquet quòd septimus ab ea dies Sabbatum efficitur nimirum cessationem ab operibus ferens In Nov. Dom. e Quamdiu prior aetas crâ—atio vim suâ—m efficaciam obtinebat tam diu Sabbata suam observationem habuere De Sabb. Circum f Contra Ebionaos p. 73. Tò {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Part. 3. quaest. 32. memb. 3. art. 1. b Com. in 〈◊〉 c In Paradiso fuit Sabbati sanctificatio quod observatum toto Legis naturae tempore tradunt Hebraei Lyranus in Gen. 7. Chron. ad annum Mundi 1. d Patet Sabbatum institutum fuisse sancitum primitus non à Mose Exod. 20. sed longè anterâ—ùs puâ—à ab origine mundi e Sabbatum ab initio mundi destinatum est ad cultum Dei Com. in Gen. f Sabbatum ab initio mundi observatum est Cas. Conscien circa Fest. l. 2 c. 13. Cas. 2. a Praelect. de Sabb. b Non dubiuÌ„ quin Patres ante legem diligenter observarint Sabbatum in Matth. c In Gen. 2. d Ego quidem non dubito c.