c. That some Gentiles were thereto bound the pellucid fountain of verity sheweth plainly Let not the sonne of the stranger that hath joyned himself to the Lord speak saying God hath utterly separated me from his people If you say that these were Israelites by covenant though not by seed then why may not the Christian Gentiles who are covenantees as well as the Jews who are also the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise and united in Christ Jesus why may not they observe it also will you say because the day is abrogated and annulled and can you demonstratively prove it so The Jewish Sabbath was questionlesse indeed abolished but was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment so If you say Yea for they were both one I reply it is with greater facility said then proved And now we arive at the last circumstance considerable in the precept Quid. Of this it is controverted what day the precept enjoyneth whether the Jewish Sabbath the Saturday or any other particular and expresse day Most hold the Jewish seventh from the creation to be the day directly prescribed there but I think it no hard task to beat them or from that hold or in it For first I would gladly know where in expresse terms the Saturday-Sabbath or seventh from the creation is commanded in this precept examine and dissect it throughly Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day The Sabbath day it is you see not the seventh from the creation Therfore a Zanchie hath set a nota bene upon it That God not without cause said not Remember thou sanctifie the seventh day but the day of rest that is saith he b The day consecrated to rest by God either immediately by himself or mediately by the Church directed by the holy Ghost whatsoever day it be Thus he more circumspectly then what he delivered three columnes before where he saith that the word Sabbath here comprehendeth all the Jewish festivalls What hath moved him and other learned men to this fantasie it much amuseth me God telleth us distinctly what Sabbath he here meaneth the weekly of any other there is altum silentium not a word He saith Sanctifie the Sabbath in the singular not Sabbaths in the plurall number c The observation not of many festivals but of one onely is there enjoyned And what necessity of bringing these feasts within the compasse and obligation of this precept which have commands proper and peculiar to themselves As therefore ancient Canons d said to pragmaticall Bishops which invaded their jurisdiction so I to these Jewish feasts Let them keep their own home their own stations they have nothing to do here Well the Sabbath must be sanctified but what day that should be is not yet explained in the subsequent words indeed there is some hint of it six dayes shalt thou labour there is one character by which we may know it Six dayes are at our own dispose but we must not hold over our term The seventh is the Sabbath it is as Philosophers say Terminus minimus quod sic the least proposition of time we must allow God in a narrower limitation his worship will not subsist a seventh day he will have The seventh is the Sabbath The seventh what seventh he saith not the seventh from the creation he nameth no day if he had it would have restrained the Law to that day but because he meant the day should change and yet the Law continue he saith onely the seventh that is the seventh after six or one in a week e For f To depute one day in a week is formally to depute the seventh day though materially one and the same day be not alwayes deputed Well but will one in a week serve the turn is there nothing else required is the determination of this one in seven in our power No there is a proviso for that it must be the Sabbath of the Lord thy God that is which he hath already or should declare to his Church to be his Sabbath and this is another character of the Sabbath It must be of Gods own choice But still not one word of the Jewish Sabbath no discovery of it yet but we have not done with the precept perhaps we shall find it in what remaineth It followeth then For in six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth and all that therein is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it Here I confesse the precept seemeth very apposite very full so full as we are accused for no lesse then high treason against the holy Ghost in daring to affirm the contrary f These Dogmatists saith one are not affraid to make the holy Ghost a liar who teacheth in most clear and expresse terms That God Almightie blessed the very seventh day on which himself rested An heavie charge did we not plead not guiltie That God blessed the very seventh day whereon he rested we not deny but whether he did expresly command the observation of that day by this or any other member of the fourth precept that is the thing whereof we demand clear demonstration Nor yet should we call this into dispute had we not just cause to appeal from the old Translation which hath herein imbraced a strange singularitie for where it readeth God blessed the seventh day the Geneva Spanish that of Hierome all that I have perused the Septuagint onely excepted render it God blessed the Sabbath day as our most correct and new translation hath it indeed the very fountain it self the Hebrew giveth it so which being true can what we have said deserve so loud an outcry as hath been made let any neutrally affected judge Secondly the defect of direct and expresse command is not the onely the principall motive it is I grant which allureth us to think the Jewish Sabbath in especiall manner not injoyned here another argument there is accessory to it For if God had here expresly commanded the observation of the seventh from the Creation or Jewish Sabbath the fourth precept would have been in relation to that particular ceremoniall and by consequent changeable but I think it was and is in all parts intirely morall and perpetuall and my opinion is founded upon two not very defeasable reasons First it is marshalled in the Decalogue amongst the morall and immutable laws which were notably distinguished from the ceremoniall by many circumstances The Morall uttered by God himself proved page 39. in the presence of the whole multitude written by Gods own finger given without restraint to time how long or place where Contrarywise the Ceremoniall given to Moses onely and by him declared to the people called Ceremonies Judgements Ordinances and limited onely to the land of g Jury Now it could not be agreeable to the wisdome of the God of Order to shuffle and misplace a Ceremoniall amongst his Morall laws Secondly if you cast your eye upon the Sabbath of
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
this matter we may be assured there was no such thing done The Hebrew word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifieth as well a preparation and destination as actuall application to holinesse as Exod. 19.10 Josh. 3.5 7.3 Jerem. 1.5 If God at that time whereof Moses wrote did give any command to Adam to sanctifie the Sabbath it must of necessity follow that the Sabbath was instituted in Paradise But in Paradise there was no need of a Sabbath where there should have been no toyl no necessity of sanctifying any day to Gods worship where every day should have been a day of rest and the hole life a continuall Sabbath God would not then impose the Sabbath as a law when he himself brake it for according to Hierome and Catharinus he formed Eve upon the seventh day and so wrought upon it God imposed upon Adam in Paradise no other positive Law then that of abstinence from the fruit of the tree of Knowledge It is probable that Jacob whilest he kept Labans sheep the Israelites while they were under the bondage of Pharaoh and his mercilesse taskmasters kept no Sabbath but if it had been commanded sure it had been kept Lastly it is said Nehem. 9. vers. 13 14. Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai c. and madest known unto them thy holy Sabbath The authorities they alledge are especially emergent from the Primitive Church Justin Martyr leadeth the way Before Moses none of the Righteous observed the Sabbath Let them shew that the ancient Patriarchs did Sabbatize is Tertullians a challenge to the Jews All the Patriarchs before Moses were justified without the Sabbath saith b Ireneus There was no observation of the Sabbath among the Patriarchs as also none amongst us so c Eusebius When there was no Scripture nor Law divinely inspired the Sabbath was not consecrated to God d Damascen Of late Adherers to this opinion the most eminent are Tostatus Musculus and Gomarus In this array the arguments and authorities upholding the Prolepsis are marshalled yet is it not universally entertained many there have been and are and those of no mean note neither who have applied themselves to the genuine and proper sense of the words and from thence deduced the institution of the Sabbath from that very article of time whereof Moses wrote And this interpretation I conceive most agreeable to the mind of Moses for many reasons which shall exhibit themselves in their due place for first I bend my self to encounter the objections formerly made and to lay open where they are crazy or invalid Divine revelation is indeed the best means to understand Gods will and act and though the Scripture doth not mention Gods expresse command to Adam though we reade it not said to him as after it was in the Law Remember thou sanctifie the Sabbath day yet a command we find and there being then at that time whereof Moses wrote none on earth capable of a command but Adam and Eve it necessarily followeth that they received the command For what is meant by Gods sanctifying of the seventh day but the application of it to divine worship Those things are said to be sanctified in the Law which are applyed to sacred worship saith a Aquinas now if it was then applyed to sacred worship sure it was by command Nor is the argument of force The Scripture mentioneth it not Ergò It was not many things were to the first Patriarchs commanded which are not recorded It is by farre the major part of learned men b affirmed that God dictated and prescribed to Adam all circumstances of his worship which by tradition past to his posteritie and were in every severall family untill Moses observed and it is in part evidently and infallibly confirmed by Scripture it self for we reade that Cain sinned but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rom. 4.15 Where there is no law there can be no transgression for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sinne is the transgression of the Law 1. John 3.4 yet of this or any other command concerning religious duties holy text hath not one syllable Perhaps the command was not so solemn as afterward not vivâ voce in an audible voyce there being not the same reason and yet a command there might be internall though not externall God might by his guiding spirit direct Adam to sanctifie the seventh day as he did both him and other Patriarchs to other observances if Aquinas a hath aimed right It is credible saith he that the Patriarchs by divine instinct as by an hidden and tacit law were induced to worship God in a set and determinate form agreeable to the inward worship and signification of mysteries to be fulfilled in Christ The want of an Historicall narration of the praxis of those times is also as weakly urged You know Ab autoritate negativè nihil concluditur ex argumentis Arguments drawn from silent authority conclude nothing An axiome never firmer then when applied to the history of the world from the Creation to the Law the period of this discourse There is no mention of Adams penitence after his fall none of his sacrificing of his performing any other pious exercises during his hole abode upon earth none What then shall we say that he lived like an Atheist never invoked never praised God We reade of no Parents that Melchisedech had what shall we hold with the letter of S. Paul that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} really whithout father or mother ◠Heb. 7.23 He that in so compendious a story as this of Moses looketh for a full relation of every small circumstance is like to lose his longing and may as wisely seek Pauls steeple in Hondius his map of the world Abbridgements of stories are nets of a larger mash which onely inclose great fishes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things worth mentioning smaller fry things of lesse consequence escape them Athanasius his rule is right enough it self if it be not bowed by violence Comparing the miracles of Christ with those of the Prophets he demonstrateth the oddes to be this Christ was born of a Virgin so none of them Christ made the lame to walk the deaf to heare the dumbe to speak the blind to see so did not they For then saith he the Scripture would not have omitted it Therefore because the Scripture is altogether silent in the matter it is sure there was no such thing done The Father speaks of miracles but I hope the observation of the Sabbath was none and therefore Athanasius stands you in little stead My margent directs to the place omitted by the Bishop The word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} little also avails them for be it granted that it signifies a preparation to holinesse doth this preparation exclude
application thereunto Nay doth not preparation imply application are they not coordinate and coincident together Examine the places quoted and see if they will not confesse as much Moses was commanded to sanctifie the Israelites the third day that is to prepare them as you say To prepare them how nothing but to have them in a readinesse that they lasily wait the time or so no there is more in it yet application to holinesse you shall meet with positive Let them wash their clothes vers. 10. negative Come not at your wives vers. 15. A thing so clear as the very Heathen were enlightned with it and not onely in the generall decorum of it which they couched under their Ite missa est or Procul ô procul este profani Hence all prophane before their sacrifices but some glimpse they had even of those externall Mosaicall ceremonies I now mentioned Preparatory lotions they had before they durst approch their sacred mysteries Aeneas would not so much as touch his Tutelary Gods till he might rinse himself in fountain water Abstinence also from the Nuptiall bed was at least for one night interdicted Discedite ab aris Queis tulit hesterna gaudia nocte Venus Casta placent superis And though we reade in this Text onely of externall preparatory rites enjoyned yet must we know that they were but as significant Emblemes of that spirituall preparation which should truly dispose the soul in a sanctified frame for the approching near that God which is clothed in majestie and honour Apply that which I have now said for illustration of this portion of Exodus to those parallel places of Joshua and there will onely remain that of Jeremie unanswered where the Prophet is said to be sanctified in his mothers womb which I confesse could no otherwayes be then in the preordination of God But what because the word signifieth Destination in Jeremy must it needs inferre as much in Genesis I see no such law imposed upon Interpreters That of Jeremy could not without extreme violence be wrested to any other sense then that of Destination which out of Gen. 2. is neither necessarily nor probably emergent I see no necessitie that the Institution Genesis 2. must suppose it to be in Paradise and before the fall for it is not improbable I determine nothing that Adam sinned and was expelled out of Paradise the very day he was formed as the Fathers almost universally have thought from whose full consent in this point proceeded that Greek saying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The same day he was created he fell Neither was Paradise in my opinion compounded of any such ingredients as would in no wise incorporate with a Sabbath it was indeed a place exempted from the works both of toil and sinne and therefore no otium to refresh the body no Sabbath to sanctifie the soul in respect either of the one or the other necessary And though the whole tract of time spent in that innocent condition might worthily seem a continued Sabbath yet some parts and portion even of that time should I conceive have been allotted to a more solemn worship then others For God imposed upon man a calling of husbandry should he so incessantly have intended his tillage as never to intermit never to give over should he have spared no time to exercise himself in the contemplation of his Creatour the truest object of perfect beatitude or could he simul semel at one instant intend both his vocation and Gods worship God created in him the naturall appetite of food and sleep Is it likely that Adam would have applied himself either to repast or repose without some more then ordinary thanksgiving It is by all confessed that in Adams heart the Law of nature was most perfectly implanted and imprinted and as unanimously agreed that to consecrate some time to the worship of God was and is a member of that Law nay more then so it must be certum aliquod tempus some certain and determinate time as the very Atlas of the Prolepsis Tostatus assureth us which being granted it followeth that the state of innocency was no barre or obstacle to the seposing times not onely occasionall and pro renata but set and constant to the service of God That God framed Eve upon the seventh day is a most horrible and grosse untruth and giveth the lie to Moses or rather to the holy Ghost who saith Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them that is all things visible and invisible according to the Nicene Creed and this was before Gods rest on the seventh day and evident it is that the hole second Chapter of Genesis from the fourth verse to the twenty fifth is but a larger narration by way of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or postscript of what was most remarkable in the third and sixth dayes work and was for brevity sake omitted in the first chapter but upon weighty cause mentioned in the second For as S. a Basil excellently If Moses had onely said that God made man thou mightest have thought that he made him after the same manner that he created brutes plants and herbs therefore to denote to thee that thou oughtest to have nothing common with unreasonable creatures the Scripture hath mentioned a peculiar and distinct work of God in framing thee Besides it is most evident out of Genesis 1.27 that Adam and Eve were both created on the sixth day Male and female created he them not by Prolepsis as they fancy but really truly upon that very day That wherewith they would palliate this errour is the second verse of Genesis 2. On the seventh day God ended his work whence they collect that he wrought upon part of it which meaning a learned Commentatour b acknowledgeth the Text will bear and because Eve is the last work of creation whereof the Scripture maketh mention they inferre that she must have been formed on the seventh day But to uncase this foul errour and to shew it in its proper deformities is no hard task What meaning the Text will bear is many times not so considerable as what the Context c {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or contradiction is for the Spirit of Truth no companion nor will he own that sense which maketh him speak things repugnant If in the end of the sixth day God beheld all that he had made c. 1.31 and had finished the heavens and the earth and all the host of them c. 2.1 what could be left for him to finish and actually to perfect on the seventh day Well but then there is an interfering a jarring betwixt Scripture and Scripture how shall they be reconciled I answer It is not amisse to acquaint you that whereas the Hebrew readeth it And on the seventh day God ended his work the Septuagint and Samaritanes a render it On the sixth