at least of Noahs posterity and all that have from them descended either did keep at all no Sabbath or not upon the day appointed which comes all to one Or else it needs must follow that God imposed a Law upon his People which in it self without relation to the frailty ne dum to the iniquity of poor man could not in possibility have been observed Yea such a Law as could not generally have been kept had Adam still continued in his perfect innocence To make this matter yet more plain It is a Corollary or conclusion in Geography that if two men do take a journey from the self-same place round about the Earth the one Eastward the other Westward and meet in the same place again it will appear that he which hath gone East hath gotten and that the other going Westward hath lost a day in their accompt The reason is because he that from any place assigned doth travel Eastward moving continually against the proper motion of the Sun will shorten somewhat of his day taking so much from it as his journey in proportion of distance from the place assigned hath first opposed and so anticipated in that time the diurnal motion of the Sun So daily gaining something from the length of day it will amount in the whole circuit of the Earth to twenty-four hours which are a perfect natural day The other going Westward and seconding the course of the Sun by his own journey will by the same reason add as much proportionably unto his day as the other lost and in the end will lose a day in his accompt For demonstration of the which suppose of these two Travellers that the former for every fifteen miles should take away one minute from the length of the day and the latter add as much unto it in the like proportion of his journey Now by the Golden Rule if every fifteen miles subtract or add one minute in the length of the day then must 21600. miles which is the compass of the Earth add or subtract 1440. minutes which make up twenty-four hours a just natural day To bring this matter home unto the business now in hand suppose we that a Turk a Jew and a Christian should dwell together at Hierusalem whereof the one doth keep his Sabbath on the Friday the other on the Saturday and the third sanctifieth the Sunday then that upon the Saturday the Turk begin his Journey Westward and the Christian Eastward so as both of them compassing the world do meet again in the same place the Jew continuing where they left him It will fall out that the Turk by going Westward having lost a day and the Christian going Eastward having got a day one and the same day will be a Friday to the Turk a Saturday unto the Jew and a Sunday to the Christian in case they calculate the time exactly from their departure to their return To prove this further yet by a matter of fact The Hollanders in their Discovery of Fretum le Maire Anno 1615. found by comparing their accompt at their coming home that they had clearly lost a day for they had traveled Westward in that tedious Voyage that which was Munday to the one being the Sunday to the other And now what should these People do when they were returned If they are bound by nature and the moral Law to sanctifie precisely one day in seven they must then sanctifie a day apart from their other Country-men and like a crew of Schismaticks divide themselves from the whole body of the Church or to keep order and comply with other men must of necessity be forced to go against the Law of nature or the moral Law which ought not to be violated for any by-respect whatever But to return unto Noahs Sons whom this case concerns It might for ought we know be theirs in this dispersion in this removing up and down and from place to place What shall we think of those that planted Northwards or as much extreamly Southwards whose issue now are to be found as in part is known near and within the Polar Circles What Sabbath think we could they keep Sometimes a very long one sure and sometimes none indeed none at all taking a Sabbath as we do for one day in seven For near the Polar Circles as is plainly known the days are twenty-four hours in length Between the Circle and the Pole the day if so it may be called increaseth first by weeks and at last by months till in the end there is six months perpetual day and as long a night No room in those parts for a Sabbath But it is time to leave these speculations and return to practice And first we will begin with Melchisedech King of Salem the Priest of the most high God Rex idem hominumque divumque sacerdos a type and figure of our Saviour whose Priesthood still continueth in the holy Gospel With him the rather because it is most generally conceived that he was Sem the Son of Noah Of him it is affirmed by Justin Martyr that he was neither Circumcised not yet kept the Sabbath and yet most acceptable unto God Dial. cum Tryphone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertullian also tells us of him Incircumcisum nec sabbatizantem ad sacerdotium Dei allectum esse Adv. Judaeos and puts him also in his challenge as one whom none amongst the Jews could ever prove to have kept the Sabbath Eusebius yet more fully than either of them Dem. l. 1. c. 6. Moses saith he brings in Melchisedech Priest of the most high God neither being Circumcised nor anointed with the holy Oyl as was afterwards commanded in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no not so much as knowing that there was a Sabbath and ignorant altogether of those Ordinances which were imposed upon the Jews and living most agreeably unto the Gospel Somewhat to that purpose also doth occur in his seventh de praeparatione cap. 8. Melchisedech whosoever he was gave meeting unto Abraham about the year of the world 2118. and if we may suppose him to be Sem as I think we may he lived till Isaac was fifty years of age which was long after this famous interview Now what these Fathers say of Sem if Sem at least was he whom the Scriptures call Melchisedech the same almost is said of his great Grand-child Heber he being named by Epiphanius for one of those who lived according to the faith of the Christian Church wherein no Sabbath was observed in that Fathers time And here we will take Lot in too although a little before his time as one of the Posterity of Heber that when we come to Abraham we may keep our selves within his Family Him Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both in the places formerly remembred make to be one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath were acceptable to the Lord and by him justified And so Tertullian that sine legis observatione Sabbath
that if any person whatsoever should accuse either Bishop Presbyter or Deacon falsly and could not make just proof of the Accusation nec in fine dandam ei communionem that he should not be admitted to the blessed Sacrament no not upon his death-bed in his last extremity So tender were they in that Age of the good name and reputation of their Clergy And now me-thinks I see a blessed Sun-shine a time of rest and quiet after all these troubles a gentle gale breathing upon the Church after so many tedious storms of Persecution For Dioclesian and Maximianus his Colleague either afflicted with the guilt of Conscience or tyred with the effusion of so much innocent blood as had by them been shed in this Persecution did of their own accord resign the Empire Anno 304. as Baronius calculates it leaving the same unto Constantius and Galerius whom they had long before created Caesars Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 304. n. 1. Of these Constantius taking to himself the Western parts lived not full two years leaving his own part of the Empire and a fair ground for all the rest to Constantine his Son not only born of Helena a British Woman but born at York the Mother-City or Metropolis of the British Nation A Prince whom God raised up of purpose not only to give end to the Persecutions wherewith the Innocent Spouse of Christ had been so tortured and tormented but to become the greatest nursing Father thereunto that ever was before him in the Church of Israel or since him in the Israel of the Church So that if heretofore you find the Clergy reckoned as the filth of men neglected slighted or disgraced esteemed unworthy either of publick trust or favour in the employments of the State It is to be imputed unto this that they were held a dangerous and suspected party to the Common-wealth maintaining a Religion contrary unto that which was allowed in the Empire Hereafter you shall find it otherwise Hereafter you shall find an Edict made by Constantine enabling such as would decline the sentence of the Secular Judges Sozom hist Eccl. l. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawfully to appeal unto the judgment of their Bishops whose judgment he commanded to be put in execution by all his Officers with as much punctuality and effect as if himself in person had pronounced the same Hereafter we shall find Saint Ambrose a right godly Bishop Aug. Confes l. 6. c. 3. so taken up with hearing and determining mens suits and causes that he had very little leisure either for corporal repast or private study Saint Austin who relates the former saying also this that he had long waited an opportunity to have conference with him and had as long been hindred from access unto him Secludentibus me ab ejus aure atque ore catervis negotiosorum hominum quorum infirmitatibus serviebat his access to him being barred by multitudes of Suiters whose businesses he was pleased to undertake Hereafter we shall find the same Saint Austin no such lazie Prelate but that he hath transmitted to us as many monuments both of his Piety and Learning as any other whosoever so busied on the like occasions that he could hardly save the Mornings for his Meditations Aug. Epist 210 Post meridiem occupationibus hominum teneri the afternoons being wholly taken up in the dispatch or hearing of mens private Connoversies Nay when the Councils of Carthage and Numidia had imposed a certain task upon him propter curam Scripturarum in some things that concerned the holy Scriptures and that he asked but five days respite from the affairs and business of the people for the performance of the same the People would not have the patience to forbear so long Sed violenter irruptum est but violently brake in upon him And this lest the good Father may be thought to speak it in commendation of his own abilities we find related also by Possidonius in the narration of his life where we are told aliquando usque ad horam refectionis Possidon in vita Aug. c. 19. aliquando tota die jejunans that sometimes he gave hearing to mens causes till the hour of repast and sometimes fasted all the day for dispatch thereof but always bringing them unto some end or other pro arbitrata aequitate according to the rules of equity and a well-grounded Conscience Hereafter we shall find the Prelates honoured with the titles of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most honourable Lords and that not once or twice Athanas in apol 2. Nazianz Epist ad Nyssen Theod. l. 1. c. 4 5. others passim Ambros Epist 33. l. 5. but of common course Hereafter not to wander through more particulars we shall find Saint Ambrose employed in the most weighty matters of the Common-wealth and sent Ambassadour from the young Emperor Valentinian to the Tyrant Maximus who had usurped on his Dominions and much endangered the whole Empire which he performed to so good purpose that he preserved Italy from an imminent ruin the Tyrant afterwards confessing se legationis ejus objectu ad Italiam non potuisse transire that he was hindred by the same from passing forwards into Italy with his conquering Army So little was it either thought or found in those blessed times that holy Orders did superinduce a disability for civil Prudence But these things we do here behold but at a distance as Moses from Mount Nebo saw the Land of Canaan They appertain of right to the following Age Deuter. ult and they which had the happiness to live till then could not but easily discern the great alteration which was between a Church under Persecution and a Church in Peace between a Church oppressed by Tyrants and a Church cherished and supported by a Christian Prince And in this flourishing estate I should gladly shew her but that my wearied pen doth desire some rest and that I would fain see with what acceptation my present pains will be received in the world before I give the second on-set In the mean time I will lay down a brief Chronology of such of the remarkable occurrences which have been represented in these two last Centuries it being the office of an upright Judge and only such I do desire should peruse these Papers ut res ita tempora rerum noscere to know as well the times and circumstances of business as the things themselves A Brief CHRONOLOGY of the Estate of Holy Church in these two last Centuries An. Christ 102. CLemens Bishop of Rome the true Author of the Epistle to the Church of Corinth and the supposed Author of the Apostles Canons departeth this life 103. Evaristus succeedeth Clemens in the See of Rome in the which Church he afterwards ordained Parishes 109. Simeon B. of Jerusalem Martyred Justus succeeded in his place Ignatius led a Prisoner towards Rome writes his Epistles to the Churches 110. Ignatius Martyred designing Hero his Successor in the Church of
ministration were accomplished he departed to his own House And in the Epistle to the Hebrews S. Paul alluding to the Ministeries of the Jewish Temple calleth our Saviour Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Minister of the Holies Heb. 8.2 or of the Sanctuary Thus also in allusion to the Ministeries of the Church of Jewry the Ministry of the Gospel is in the Scripture called by the self-same name Act. 13.2 Chrysost in Act. Apud Bezam in Annot. in Act. 13. the Holy Ghost affirming of the Prophets which were in Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they ministred unto the Lord i.e. as Chrysostom expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they Preached the Gospel or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they made their Prayers unto the Lord as the Syriack Translation hath it Indeed both glosses on the word as well that of the Syriack Interpreters as of S. Chrysostom do yield a fuller meaning of it according as it is now used in the Church of Christ than either of them taken severally the publick Liturgies of the Church consisting both of Prayers and Preaching taking the word Preaching as before I did for the publick notifying of the will and pleasure of Almighty God touching mans salvation In which respect as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken many times by the Ancient Fathers for a Priest or Bishop to whom the executing or performance of divine Offices in publick did belong especially as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ministers of God of the Holy Altar of the New Testament in Basil Nazianzen and others So that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came to be appropriated to the performance of those Offices which they were to execute or rather to the rule and order by which they were to be performed And so the word is used in the Law Imperial in which it is expresly ordered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Novel 131. de Eccles that no man should presume to execute the publick Liturgy or to officiate the divine Service of the Church in his private house In which acceptation of the word as it is to be taken and no otherwise in our present business we do define the same with the Learned Casaubon to be descriptio quaedam ordinis servandi in sacris celebrandis Casaubon Exercit 16. §. 41. a regulated form or order to be observed in the officiating of divine Service such as the Latines call sometimes Officium and sometimes Agenda and the Greek Writers many times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to this definition I assent the rather because I find the same approved by the adverse party particularly by the Altar of Damascus Altare Damascen p. 612. the total sum of all that had been contributed in the former times to the disturbance of this Church This business being thus past over we will prepare our selves for the following search beginning with the Patriarchs before the Law though not within the compass of my undertaking Where if we find not any foot-steps of set forms of Prayer it was because the Sacrifices and devotions of Gods people in those elder times were for the most part occasional only there being neither place appointed nor set time prescribed for the performance of the same that we can meet with until the giving of the Law by Moses Of those the first we have upon Record is that of Cain and Abel in Gen. 4. where we are told how that in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord and Abel also brought of the Firstlings of his Flock and of the fat thereof In which it is to be observed that this is said to have been done post multos dies as the Vulgar or in process of time as our English reads it Gen. 4.3 4. but as it is in others more near the Hebrew in fine dierum or at the end of days as Aynsworth hath it If we demand what time this was Musculus will inform you that it was post messem at the end of Harvest as being the most proper time to offer the fruits of the Earth which was Cain's Oblation And hereto Aynsworth doth agree Musculus in Gen. 4. a man well versed amongst the Rabbins affirming thus that at the years end men were wont in most solemn manner to Sacrifice unto God with thanks for his Blessings having gathered in their fruits which he observeth to be the custom of the Gentiles also Aynsw Anno. in Gen. 4. according to a place of Aristotle which is therein cited So that the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel was occasional meerly as unto the time And for the place although the Scriptures tell us nothing of it as a thing unnecessary to be spoken of Yet by the Rabbins we are told that it was there where after Abraham purposed to have offered Isaac For as they say It is a tradition by the hand of all that the place wherein David and Solomon built an Altar in the floor of Araunah Id. ibid. was the place where Abraham built an Altar and bound Isaac upon it and that was the place where Noah builded after he came out of the Ark and that was the Altar whereon Cain and Abel offered and on it Adam the first man offered an offering after he was created c. But this being of no greater certainty than the tradition of the Rabbins and such as hath no ground to stand on we may conclude that in these early days there was no set place put apart for Gods publick service no greater constat to be found of that than of a set and prescribed time for the doing of it Touching the Priest indeed by whom the Offering was presented to Almighty God there is more assurance that office being executed by their Father Adam to whom as to the Father of his Family it of right belonged Bilson perpetual Government cap. 1. Exod. 19.22 as it did afterwards under the First-born to those that had the priviledge of Primogeniture until the Priesthood was by God established in the Tribe of Levi. For howsoever it be said by Paraeus in illa hominum paucitate quisque ut spiritualis sacerdos offerebat that in those early times when there were so few men in the world Paraeus in Gen. cap. 4. every one as a spiritual Priest might tender and present his own oblation yet it is only said not proved and doth not only contradict most approved Writers but seemeth also to run cross to the holy Scripture And though we find not in Gods Book that in the celebration of this offering brought by Cain and Abel there were either Prayers or Praises intermingled with it Calvin in Gen. Yet I am very apt to think with Calvin non inanibus ceremoniis illusisse patres that the Oblations offered both by Cain and Abel as afterwards by other of
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Q◠Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
and Children and with all his substance and that he went but easily according as the Cattel and the Children were able to endure yet he went forwards still without any resting Otherwise Laban who heard of his departure on the third day and pursued after him amain must needs have overtaken him before the seventh Now for the rest of Jacobs time when he was setled in the Land appointed for him and afterwards removed to Egypt See n. 5. of this Chapter we must refer you unto Justin Martyr and Eusebius whereof one saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he kept no Sabbath the other makes him one of those which lived without the Law of Moses whereof the Sabbath was a part Having brought Jacob into Egypt we should proceed to Joseph Moses and the rest of his off-spring there but we will first take Job along as one of the posterity of Abraham that after we may have the more leisure to wait upon the Israelites in that house of bondage I say as one of the posterity of Abraham the fifth from Abraham Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. so Eusebius tells us who saith moreover that he kept no Sabbath What saith he shall we say of Job that just that pious that most blameless man What was the rule whereby be squared his life and governed his devotions Was any part of Moses Law Not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was any keeping of the Sabbath or observation of any other Jewish order How could that be saith he considering that he was ancienter than Moses and lived before his Law was published For Moses was the seventh from Abraham and Job the eighth So far Eusebius And Justin Martyr also joyns him with Abraham and his Family as men that took not heed of New Moons or Sabbaths whereof see before n. 5. 2. Edit p. 14. I find indeed in Dr. Bound that Theodore Beza on his own Authority hath made Job very punctual in sanctifying septimum saltem quemque diem every seventh day at least as God saith he from the beginning had appointed But I hold Beza not a fit match for Justin and Eusebius nor to be credited in this kind when they say the contrary considering in what times they lived and with whom they dealt And now we come at last unto the Israelites in Egypt from Joseph who first brought them thither to Moses who conducted them in their flight from thence and so unto the body of the whole Nation Dem. l. 1. c. 6. For Joseph first Eusebius first tells us in the general that the same institution and course of life which by the Ordinance of Christ was preached unto the Gentiles had formerly been commended to the ancient Patriarchs particular instances whereof he makes Melchisedech and Noah and Enoch and Abraham till the time of Circumcision And then it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Joseph in the Court of Egypt long time before the Law of Moses lived answerably to those ancient patterns and not according as the Jews Nay he affirms the same of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Law-giver himself the Chieftain of the Tribes of Israel As for the residue of the People we can expect no more of them that they lived in bondage under severe and cruel Masters who called upon them day by day to fulfil their tasks See Exod. 5. v. 5. 14. De vita Mosis lib. 1. and did expostulate with them in an heavy manner in case they wanted of their Tale. The Jews themselves can best resolve us in this point And amongst them Philo doth thus describe their troubles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Taskmasters or Overseers of the works were the most cruel and unmerciful men in all the Country who laid upon them greater tasks than they were able to endure inflicting on them no less punishment than death it self if any of them yea though by reason of infirmity should withdraw himself from his daily labour Some were commanded to employ themselves in the publick structures others in bringing in materials for such mighty buildings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never enjoying any rest either night or day that in the end they were even spent and tired with continual travel Antiqu. Jud. lib. 2. c. 5. Josephus goes a little further and tells us this that the Egyptians did not only tire the Israelites with continual labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Israelites endevoured to perform more than was expected Assuredly in such a woful state as this they had not leave nor leisure to observe the Sabbath And lastly Rabbi Maimony makes the matter yet more absolute Apud Ryvit in Deealog who saith it for a truth that when they were in Egypt neque quiescere vel sabbatum agere potuerunt they neither could have time to rest nor to keep the Sabbath seeing they were not then at their own disposing So he ad Deut. 5.15 Indeed it easily may be believed that the People kept no Sabbath in the Land of Egypt seeing they could not be permitted in all that time of their abode there to offer sacrifice which was the easier duty of the two and would less have taken them from their labours Those that accused the Israelites to have been wanton lazy and I know not what because they did desire to spend one only day in religious exercises What would they not have done had they desisted every seventh day from the works imposed upon them Doubtless they had been carried to the house of Correction if not worse handled I say in all that time they were not permitted to offer sacrifice in that Countrey and therefore when they purposed to escape from thence they made a suit to Pharaoh Exod. 8. that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer sacrifice there to the Lord their God Rather than so Pharaoh was willing to permit them for that once to sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt And what said Moses thereunto It is not meet saith he so to do For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God Vers 26 before their eyes and they will stone us His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen Vers 26 as Lyra notes upon that place talia verò animalia ab Hebraeis erant immolanda quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terra sua And certainly the Egyptians would not endure to see their Gods knocked down before their faces If any then demand wherein the Piety and Religion of Gods People did consist especially we must needs answer that it was in the integrity and honesty of their conversation Adv. haeres l. 1 har 5. and that they worshipped God only in the spirit and truth Nothing to make it known that they were Gods people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only that they feared the Lord
the right meaning of it that for the residue of time wherein it was to be in force they might no longer be misled by the Scribes and Pharisees and such blind guides as did abuse them Thus have I briefly summed together what I find scattered in the Writings of the ancient Fathers which who desires to find at large may look into Irenaeus li. 4. ca. 19. 20. Origen in Num. hom 23. Tertul. li. 4. contr Marcion Athanas hom de Semente p. 1061. 1072. edit gr lat Victor Antioch cap. 3. in Marcum Chrysost hom 39. in Matth. 12. Epiphan li. 1. haeres 30. n. 33. Hierom in Matth. 12. Ambros in cap. 3. Luk. li. 3. Augustin cont Faustum li. 16. ca. 28. lib. 19. ca. 9. to descend no lower With one of which last Fathers savings Cont. Adimant ca. 2. we conclude this list Non ergo Dominus rescindit Scripturam Vet. Test sed cogit intelligi Our Saviours purpose saith the Father was not to take away the Law but to expound it Not then to take away the Law it was to last a little longer He had not yet pronounced Consummatum est that the Law was abrogated Nor might it seem so proper for him to take away one Sabbath from us which was rest from labour until he had provided us of another which was rest from sin And to provide us such a Sabbath was to cost him dearer than words and arguments He healed us by his Word before Now he must heal us by his stripes or else no entrance into his Rest the eternal Sabbath Besides the Temple stood as yet and whiles that stood or was in hope to be rebuilt there was no end to be expected of the legal Ceremonies The Sabbath and the Temple did both end together and which is more remarkable on a Sabbath day The Jews were still sick of their old Disease and would not stir a foot on the Sabbath day beyond their compass no though it were to save their Temple and in that their Sabbath or whatsoever else was most dear unto them Nay they were more superstitious now than they were before For whereas in the former times it had been thought unlawful to take Arms and make War on the Sabbath day Joseph de bello li. 4. ca. 4. unless they were assaulted and their lives in danger now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was pronounced unlawful even to treat of peace A fine contradiction Agrippa layed this home unto them when first they entertained a rebellious purpose against the Romans Id. li. 2. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If you observe the custom of the Sabbaths and in them do nothing it will be no hard matter to bring you under for so your Ancestors found in their Wars with Pompey who ever deferred works until that day wherein his Enemies were idle and made no resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. If on the other side you take Arms that day then you transgress your Countrey laws your selves and so I see no cause why you should rebel Where note Agrippa calls the Sabbath a Custom and their Countrey law which makes it evident that they thought it not any Law of Nature Now what Agrippa said did in fine fall out the City being taken on the Sabbath day as Jos Scaliger computes it or the Parasceve of the Sabbath as Rab. Joses hath determined Most likely that it was on the Sabbath day it self For Dion speaking of this War Lib. 66. and of this taking of the City conclude it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierusalem saith he was taken on the Saturday which the Jews most reverence till this day Thus fell the Temple of the Jews and with it all the Ceremonies of the Law of Moses Demonst l. 1. c. 6. Since when according as Eusebius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not lawful for that people either to sacrifice according to the Law or to build a Temple or erect an Altar to consecrate their Priests or anoint their Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or finally to hold their solemn Assemblies or any of their Festivals ordained by Moses For that the Sabbath was to end with other legal Ceremonies is by this apparent first that it was an institute of Moses and secondly an institute peculiar to the Jewish Nation both which we have already proved and therefore was to end with the Law of Moses and the state of Jewry Fathers there be good store which affirm as much some of the which shall be produced to express themselves that we may see what they conceived of the abrogation of the Sabbath And first for Justin Martyr it is his chief scope and purpose in his Conference with Tyrpho Dial. cum Trypbon to make it manifest and unquestionable that as there was no use of Circumcision before Abrahams time not of the Sabbath until Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so neither is there any use of them at this present time that as it took beginning them so it was now to have an end Adv. Marc. l. 2. Tertullian in his Argument against the Marcionites draws out this conclusion Ad tempus praesentis causae necessitatem convaluisse non ad perpetui temporis observationem that God ordained the Sabbath upon special reasons and as the times did then require Hom. de Sab. circum not that it should continue always St. Athanasius thus discourseth When God saith he had finished the first Creation he did betake himself to rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and therefore those of that Creation did celebrate their Sabbath on the seventh day But the accomplishment of the new-Creature hath no end at all and therefore God still worketh as the Gospel teacheth Hence it is that we keep no Sabbath as the Antients did expecting an eternal Sabbath which shall have no end That of St. Ambrose Synagoga diem observat Ecclesia immertalitatem comes most near to this Epist 72. l. 9. But he that speaks most fully to this point is the great St. Austin what he saith shall be delivered under three several Heads First that the Sabbath is quite abrogated Tempore gratiae revelatae observatio illa Sabbati quae unius diei vacatione figurabatur ablata est ab observatione fidelium The keeping of the Sabbath is taken utterly away in this time of Grace De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 13. See the like ad Bonifac. l. 3. Tom. 7. contr Faust Man l. 6. c. 4. Qu. ex N. Test 69. Secondly that the Sabbath was not kept in the Church of Christ In illis decem praeceptis excepta sabbati observatione dicatur mihi quid no non sit observandum à Christiano de sp lit c. 14. What is there saith the Father in all the Decalogue except the keeping of the Sabbath which is not punctually to be observed of every Christian More of the like occurs de Genesi contr
of the affairs of the Christian Church cannot but be displeasing unto them which are not Christianly affected Our former Book we destinated to the Jewish part of this enquiry wherein though long it was before we found it yet at the last we found a Sabbath A Sabbath which began with that state and Church and ended also when they were no longer to be called a Nation but a dispersed and scattered ruin of what once they were In that which followeth our Enquiry must be more diffused of the same latitude with the Church a Church not limited and confined to some Tribes and Kindreds but generally spreading over all the World We may affirm it of the Gospel what Florus sometimes said of the state of Rome Ita late per orbem terrarum arma circumtulit ut qui res ejus legunt non unius populi sed generis humani facta discunt The history of the Church and of the World are of like extent So that the search herein as unto me it was more painful in the doing so unto thee will it be more pleasing being done because of that variety which it will afford thee And this Part we have called the History of the Sabbath too although the institution of the Lords Day and entertainment of the same in all times and Ages since that institution be the chief thing whereof it treateth For being it is said by some that the Lords Day succeeded by the Lords appointment into the place and rights of the Jewish Sabbath so to be called and so to be observed as the Sabbath was this Book was wholly to be spent in the search thereof whether in all or any Ages of the Church either such doctrine had been preached or such practice pressed upon the Conscience of Gods people And search indeed we did with all care and diligence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or writings of the holy Fathers or Edicts of Emperours or Decrees of Councils or finally in any of the publick Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church But after several searches made upon the alias and the pluries we still return Non est inventus and thereupon resolve in the Poets language Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nosquam that which is no where to be found may very strongly be concluded not to be at all Buxdorfius in the 11th Chapter of his Synagoga Judaica out of Antonius Margarita tells us of the Jews quod die sabbatino praeter animam consuetam praediti sunt alia that on the Sabbath day they have an extraordinary soul infused into them which doth enlarge their hearts and rouze up their spirits Ut Sabbatum multo honorabilius peragere possint that they may celebrate the Sabbath with the greater bonour And though this sabbatarie soul may by a Pythagorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to have transmigrated from the Jews into the Bodies of some Christians in these later days yet I am apt to give my self good hopes that by presenting to their view the constant practice of Gods Church in all times before and the consent of all Gods Churches at this present they may be dispossessed thereof without great difficulty It is but anima superflua is Buxdorfius calls it and may be better spared than kept because superfluous However I shall easily persuade my self that by this general representation of the estate and practice of the Church of Christ I may confirm the wavering in a right persuasion and assure such as are already well affected by shewing them the perfect harmony and agreement which is between this Church and the purest times It is our constant prayer to Almighty God as well that he would strengthen such as do stand and confirm the weak as to raise up those men which are fallen into sin and errour As are our prayers such should be also our endeavours as universal to all sorts of men as charitable to them in their several cases and distresses Happy those men who do aright discharge their Duties both in their prayers and their performance The blessing of our labours we must leave to him who is all in all without whom all Pauls planting and Apollo's watering will yield poor encrease In which of these three states soever thou art good Christian Reader let me beseech thee kindly to accept his pains which for thy sake were undertaken that so he might in some poor measure be an instrument to strengthen or confirm or raise thee as thy case requires This is the most that I desire and less than this thou couldst not do did I not desire it And so fare thee well THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second Book CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords Day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual Ordinance 2. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviour Christ 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or his Apostles but instituted by the Authority of the Church 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by Saint Peter Saint Paul or any other of the Apostles 7. Saint Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden in Hierusalem 9. The preaching of Saint Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose 11. Those places of Saint Paul Galat. 4.10 Colos 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first Age and what that title adds unto it WE shewed you in the former Book what did occur about the Sabbath from the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple which comprehended the full time of 4000 years and upwards in the opinion of the most and best Chronologers Now for five parts of eight of the time computed from the Creation to the Law being in all 2540 years and somewhat more there was no Sabbath known at all And for the fifteen hundred being the remainder it was not so observed by the Jews themselves as if it had been any part of the Law of Nature but sometimes kept and sometimes broken either according as mens private businesses or the affairs of the republick would give way unto it Never such conscience made thereof as of Adultery Murder Blasphemy or Idolatry no not when as the Scribes and Pharisees had most made it
year after Christs Nativity he lays it positively down that the Sabbath was now abrogated with the other Ceremonies which were to vanish at Christs coming Let no man judg you Colos 1.16 saith the Apostle in meat and drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the New moon or of the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ In which the Sabbath is well matched with meats and drinks new-moons and holy days which were all temporary Ordinances and to go off the stage at our Saviours entrance Now whereas some that would be thought great sticklers for the Sabbath conceive that this was spoken not of the weekly moral Sabbath as they call it which must be perpetual but of the annual ceremonial Sabbaths which they acknowledg to be abrogated this new device directly crosseth the whole current of the Ancient Fathers who do apply this Text to the weekly Sabbath It is sufficient in this point to note the places The Reader may peruse them as leisore is and look on Epiphan lib. 1. haeres 33. n. 11. Ambrose upon this place Hieroms Epistle ad Algasâ—qu 10. Chrysost hom 13. in Hebr. 7. August cont Judaeos cap. 2. cont Faust Manich. l. 16. c. 28. Praesat in Gala. Apocal. 10. I end this list with that of Hierom Nulius Apostoli sermo est vel per Epistolam vel praesentis in quo non laboret docere antiquae legis onera deposita omnia illa quae in typis imaginibus paaecessere i. e. atium Sabbati circumcisionis injuriam Kalendarum trium per annum solennitatum reaursns c. gratia Evangeln subrepente cessâ—sse There is saith he no Sermon of the Apostles either delivered by Epistle or by word of mouth wherein he labours not to prove that all the burdens of the Law are now laid away that all those things which were before in types and figures namely the Sabbath Circumcision the New moons and the three solemn Festivals did cease upon the Preaching of the Gospel And cease it did upon the Preaching of the Gospel insensibly and by degrees as before we said not being afterwards observed as it had been formerly or counted any necessary part of Gods publick worship Only some use was made thereof for the enlargement of Gods Church by reason that the People had been accustomed to meet together on that day for the performance of religious spiritual duties This made it more regarded than it would have been especially in the Eastern parts of Greece and Asia where the Provincial Jews were somewhat thick dispersed and being a great accession to the Gospel could not so suddenly forsake their ancient customs Yet so that the first day of the week began to grow into some credit towards the ending of this Age especially after the final desolation of Hierusalem and the Temple which hapned Anno 72. of Christs Nativity So that the religious observation of this day beginning in the Age of the Apostles no doubt but with their approbation and authority and since continuing in the same respect for so many Ages may be very well accounted amongst those Apostolical traditions which have been universally received in the Church of God For being it was the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection it easily might attain unto that esteem as to be honoured by the Christians with the publick meetings that so they might with greater comfort preserve and cherish the memorial of so great a mercy in reference unto which the Worlds Creation seemed not so considerable By reason of which work wrought on it it came in time to be entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day Apotal 10. which attribute is first found in the Revelation writ by Saint John about the 94th year of our Saviours Birth So long it was before we find the Church took notice of it by a proper name For I persuade my self that had that day been destinate at that time to religious duties or honoured with the name of the Lords day when Paul Preached at Troas or writ to the Corinthians which as before we shewed was in the fifty-seventh neither Saint Luke nor the Apostle had so passed it over and called it only the first day of the week as they both have done And when it had this Attribute affixed unto it it only was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as before we said by reason of our Saviours Resurrection performed upon it and that the Congregation might not be assembled as well on them as on the other For first it was not called the Lords Day exclusively but by way of eminency in reference to the Resurrection only all other days being the Lords as well as this In Psal 23. Prima sabbati significat diem Dominicum quo Dominus resurrexit resurgendo isti seculo subvenit mundumque ipso die creavit qui ob excellentiam tanti miraculi propriè dies Dominica appellatur i. e. dies Domini quamvis omnes sunt Domini So Bruno Herbipolensis hath resolved it And next it was not so designed for the publick meetings of the Church as if they might not be assembled as well on every day as this For as Saint Hierom hath determined In Gal. 4. omnes dies aequales sunt nee per parasceven tantum Christum crucifigi die Dominica resurgere sed semper sanctum resurrectionis esse diem semper eum carne vesci Dominica c. All days are equal in themselves as the Father tells us Christ was not Crucified on the Friday only nor did he rise only upon the Lords day but that we may make every day the holy-day of his Resurrection and every day eat his blessed Body in the Sacrament When therefore certain days were publickly assigned by Godly men for the Assemblies of the Church this was done only for their sakes qui magis seculo vacant quam Deo who had more mind unto the World than to him that made it and therefore either could not or rather would not everyday assemble in the Church of God Upon which ground as they made choice of this even in the Age of the Apostles for one because our Saviour rose that day from amongst the dead so chose they Friday for another by reason of our Saviours passion and Wednesday on the which he had been betrayed the Saturday or ancient Sabbath being mean-while retained in the Eastern Churches Nay in the primitive times excepting in the heat of persecution they met together every day for the receiving of the Sacrament that being fortified with that viaticum they might with greater courage encounter death if they chanced to meet him So that the greatest honour which in this Age was given the first day of the week or Sunday is that about the close thereof they did begin to honour it with the name or title of the Lords day and made it one of those set days whereon the People
the Cardinal that either Sunday is not meant in the Revelation or else Saint John was not the Author of keeping Easter with the Jews on what day soever Rather we may conceive that Saint John gave way unto the current of the times which in those places as is said were much intent upon the customs of the Jews most of the Christians of those parts being Jews originally For the composing of this difference and bringing of the Church to an uniformity the Popes of Rome bestirred themselves and so did many others also And first Pope Pius published a Declaration Com. Tom. 1. Pascha domini die dominica annuis solennitatibus celebrandum esse In Chronic. that Easter was to be solemnized on the Lords day only And here although I take the words of the letter decretory yet I rely rather upon Eusebius for the authority of the fact than on the Decretal it self which is neither for the substance probable and the date stark false not to be trusted there being no such Consuls it is Crabbes own note as are there set down But the Authority of Pope Pius did not reach so far as the Asian Churches and therefore it produced an effect accordingly This was 159. and seven years after Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna a Reverend and an holy man Euseb hist l. 4. c. 13. made away to Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then to confer with Anicetus then the Roman Prelate about this business And though one could not wooe the other to desert the cause yet they communicated together and so parted Friends But when that Blastus afterwards had made it necessary which before was arbitrary and taught it to be utterly unlawful to hold this Feast at any other time than the Jewish Passeover becoming so the Author of the Quarto-decimani as they used to call them then did both Eleutherius publish a Decree that it was only to be kept upon the Sunday and Irenaeus though otherwise a peaceable man writ a Discourse entituled De schismate contra Blastum now not extant A little before this time this hapned Anno 180. the controversie had took place in Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 4. c. 25. as Eusebius hath it which moved Melito Bishop of Sardis a man of special eminence to write two Books de Pascbate and one de die Dominico 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to what side he took it is hard to say Were those Discourses extant as they both are lost we might no doubt find much that would conduce to our present business Two years before the close of this second Century Pope Victor Euseb l. 5. c. 23.24 presuming probably on his name sends abroad his Mandate touching the keeping of this Feast on the Lords day only against the which when as Polycrates and other Asian Prelates had set out their Manifests he presently without more ado declares them all for excommunicate But when this rather hindred than advanced the cause the Asian Bishops cared little for those Bruta fulmina and Irenaeus who held the same side with him having persuaded him to milder courses he went another way to work by practising with the Prelates of several Churches to end the matter in particular Councils Of these there was one held at Osroena another by Bachyllus Bishop of Corinth a third in Gaul by Irenaeus a fourth in Pontus a fifth in Rome a sixth in Palestine by Theophilus Bishop of Caesaria the Canons of all which were extant in Eusebius time and in all which it was concluded for the Sunday By means of these Syndical determinations the Asian Prelates by degrees let fall their rigour and yielded to the stronger and the surer side Yet waveringly and with some relapses till the great Council of Nice backed with the Authority of as great an Emperour setled it better than before none but some scattered Schismaticks now and then appearing that durst oppose the resolution of the that famous Synod So that you see that whether you look upon the day appointed for the Jewish sabbath or on the day appointed for the Jewish Passover the Lords day found it no small matter to obtain the victory And when it had prevailed so far that both the Feast of Easter was restrained unto it and that it had the honour of the Publick Meetings of the Congregation yet was not this I mean this last exclusively of all other days the former Sabbath the fourth and sixth days of the week having some share therein for a long time after as we shall see more plainly in the following Centuries But first to make an end of this this Century affords us three particular Writers that have made mention of this day First Justin Martyr who then lived in Rome doth thus relate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apolog. 2. c. Vpon the Sunday all of us assemble in the Congregation as being that first day wherein God separating the light and darkness did create the World and Jesus Christ our Saviour rose again from the dead This for the day then for the service of the day he describes it thus Vpon the day called Sunday all that abide within the Cities or about the Fields do meet together in some place where the Records of the Apostles and writing of the Prophets as much as is appointed are read unto us The Reader having done the Priest or Prelate ministreth a word of Exhortation that we do imitate those good things which are there repeated Then standing up together we send up our prayers unto the Lord which ended there is delivered unto every one of us Bread and Wine with Water After all this the Priest or Prelate offers up our Prayers and Thanksgiving as much as in him is to God and all the people say Amen those of the richer sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man as he would himself contributing something towards the relief of the poorer Brethren which after the Priest or Prelate was disposed amongst them A Form of service not much different from that in the Church of England save that we make the entrance unto our Liturgy with some preparatory prayers The rest consisting as we know of Psalms and several Readings of the Scriptures out of the Old Testament and the New the Epistles and the holy Gospel that done the Homily or Sermon followeth they offer twice next then Prayers and after that the Sacrament and then Prayers again the people being finally dismissed with a Benediction The second testimony of these times is that of Dionysius Bishop of Corinth who lived about 175 some nine years after Justin Martyr wrote his last Apology who in an Epistle unto Soter Pope of Rome doth relate it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 4. c. 22. c. To day saith he we kept holy the Lords day wherein we read the Epistle which you writ unto us which we do always read for our instruction as also the first Epistle writ by Clemens Where note that not
Sabbath knowest thou not that these days are Sisters and that whoever doth despise the one doth affront the other Sisters indeed and so accounted in those Churches not only in regard of the publick meetings but in this also that they were both exempt from the Lenten Fast of which more anon In the mean time we may remember how Saturday is by S. Basil made one of those four times whereon the Christians of those parts did assemble weekly to receive the Sacrament as before we noted And finally it is said by Epiphanius that howsoever it was not so in the Isle of Cyprus which it seems held more correspondence with the Church of Rome than those of Asia Expos fidei Cathol 24. yet in some places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to celebrate the holy Sacrament and hold their publick meetings on the Sabbath day So as the difference was but this that whereas in the Eastern and Western Churches several days were in commission for Gods publick service the Lords day in both places was of the Quorum and therefore had the greater worship because more business They held their publick Meetings on the Sabbath-day yet did not keep it like a Sabbath The Fathers of this learned Age knew that Sabbath hath been abrogated and profest as much The Council of Laodicea before remembred though it ascribe much to this day in reference to the Congregations then held upon it yet it condemns the Jewish observations of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is not fit for Christians saith the 29. Canon to Judaize and do no manner of work on the Sabbath days but to pursue their ordinary labours on it Conceive it so far forth as they were no impediment to the publick Meetings then appointed And in the close of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any should be found so to play the Jews let them be Anathema So Athanasius though he defend the publick Meetings on this day stands strongly notwithstanding for the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath Not on the by but in a whole discourse writ and continued especially for that end and purpose entituled De Sabbato circumcisione One might conjecture by the title by coupling of these two together what his meaning was that he contrived them both to be of the same condition And in his homily De semente he tells us of the New-moons and Sabbaths that they were Ushers unto Christ and to be in Authority till the Master came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Master being come the Usher grew out of all imployment the Sun once risen v.p. 1. chap. 8. the Lamp was darkened To other of the Fathers which have said as much and whereof we have spoken in a place more proper add Nazianz. Orat. 43. S. Cyril of Hierusalem Cat. 4. and Epiphanius in the confutation of those several Hereticks that held the Sabbath for a necessary part of Gods publick worship and to be now observed as before it was Of which kind over and above the Ebionites and Cerinthians which before we spake of were the Nazarai in the second Century who as this Epiphanius tell us differed both from the Jew and Christian First from the Jew in that they did believe in Christ next from the Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they still retain the Law as Circumcision and the Sabbath and such things as those And these I have the rather noted in this place and time as being Cont. Cresconium l. 8. so Saint Austin tells us the Ancestors or Original of the Symmachiani who held out till this very Age and stood as much for Sabbaths and legal ceremonies as their founders did whereof consult S. Ambroses preface to the Galatians Now as these Nazarens or Symmachiani had made a mixt Religion of Jew and Christian Nazianz. Orat. 19. so did another sort of Hereticks in these present times contrive a miscellany of the Jew and Gentile Idols and Sacrifices they would not have and yet they worshipped the Fire and Candle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Sabbath also they much reverenced and stood upon the difference of unclean and clean yet by no means would be induced to like of Circumcision These they called Hypsistarij or rather so those doughty fellows pleased to call themselves Add here that it was counted one of the great dotages of Appollinaris and afterwards of all his sect viz. that after the last Resurrection every thing should be done again Basil ep 74. according to the former Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That we should be circumcised and observe the Sabbath and abstein from meats and offer Sacrifice and finally of Christians become Jews again Than which saith Basil who reports it what can be more absurd or more repugnant to the Gospel By which it is most plain and certain that though the Christians of the East retained the Saturday for a day of publick meeting yet they did never mean it to be a Sabbath reckoning them all for Hereticks that so observed it Next let us look upon the Sunday what they did on that For though it pleased the Emperor by his royal Edict to permit works of Husbandry in the Country and manumissions in the Cities on that sacred day yet probably there were some pure and pious souls who would not take the benefit of the declaration or think themselves beholden to him for so injurious and profane a dispensation This we will search into exactly that so the truth may be discovered And first beginning with the Council of Eliberis a Town of Spain in the beginning of this Age it was thus decreed Can. 21. Si quis in civitate positus per tres dominicas ecclesiam non accesserit tanto tempore abstineat ut correptus esse videatur If any Inhabitant of the Cities absent himself from Church three Lords days together let him be kept as long from the holy Sacrament that he may seem corrected for it Where note Si quis in civitate positus the Canon reacheth unto such only as dwelt in Cities near the Church and had no great business those of the Country being left unto their Husbandry and the like affairs no otherwise than in the Emperours Edict which came after this And in the Council of Laodicea not long after Can. 29. which clearly gave the Lords day place before the Sabbath it is commanded that the Christians should not Judaize on the Sabbath day but that they should prefer the Lords day before it and rest thereon from labour if at least they could but as Christians still The Canon is imperfect as it stands in the Greek Text of Binius edition no sense to be collected from it But the translation of Dionysius Exiguus which he acknowledgeth to be more near the Greek than the other two makes the meaning up Diem dominicum praeferentes ociari oportet si modo possint And this agreeably both unto Zonaras the Balsamon who
the Law in the Congregation that was not taken up in more than a 1000. years after the Law was given and being taken up came in by Ecclesiastical Ordinance only no Divine Authority But in the Institution of the Lords day that which was principally aimed at was the performance of religious and Christian duties hearing the Word receiving of the Sacraments praising the Lord for all his mercies and praying to him joyntly with the Congregation for the continuance of the same rest and cessation from the works of labour came not in till afterwards and then but as an accessory to the former duties and that not setled and established in 1000 years as before was said when all the proper and peculiar duties of the day had been at their perfection a long time before So that if we regard either Institution or the Authority by which they were so instituted the end and purpose at the which they principally aimed or the proceedings in the setling and confirming of them the difference will be found so great that of the Lords day no man can affirm in sense and reason that it is a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austius time 2. Stage-plays and publick shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other holy-days by Imperial Edicts 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use 4. The barbarous and bloody quality of the Spectacula or shews at this time prohibited 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages 10. Of publick Orders now established for the better regulating of the Lords day-meetings 11. The Lords day not more reckoned of than the greater Festivals and of the other holy-days in these Ages instituted 12. All business and recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other WE are now come unto the times wherein the Church began to settle having with much adoe got the better hand of Gentilism and mastered those stiff Heresies of the Arians Macedonians and such others as descended from them Unto those times wherein the troubles which before distracted her peace and quiet being well appeased all things began to grow together in a perfect harmony what time the faithful being united better than before in points of judgment became more uniform in matters of devotion and in that uniformity did agree together to give the Lords day all the honour of an holy Festival Yet was not this done all at once but by degrees the fifth and sixth Centuries being well-nigh spent before it came unto that height which hath since continued The Emperours and the Prelates in these times had the same affections both earnest to advance this day above all others and to the Edicts of the one and Ecclesiastical constitutions of the other it stands indebted for many of those priviledges and exemptions which it still enjoyeth But by degrees as now I said and not all at once For in S. Austin's time who lived in the beginning of this fifth Century it was no otherwise with the Lords day than as it was before in the former Age accounted one of those set days and probably the principal which was designed and set apart for Gods publick worship Amongst the writings of that Father which are his unquestionably we find not much that doth conduce to our present business but what we find we shall communicate with as much brevity as we can Epi. 86. Decivitat l. 22. c. 8. The Sundays fast he doth abominate as a publick scandal Quis deum non offendit si velit cum scandalo totius ecclesiae die dominico jejunare The exercise of the day he describes in brief in this form that followeth Venit Pascha atque ipso die dominico mane frequens populus praesens erat Facto silentio divinarum Scripturarum lecta sunt solennia c. Easter was come and on the Lords day in the morning the people had assembled themselves together All being silent and attent those lessons out of holy Scripture which were appointed for the time were read unto them when we were come unto that part of the publick service which was allotted for the Sermon I spake unto them what was proper for the present Festival and most agreeable to the time Service being done I took the man along to dinner a man he means that had recovered very strangely in the Church that morning who told us all the story of those sad Calamities which had befallen him This is not much but in this little there are two things worth our observation First that the Sermon in those times was not accounted either the only or the principal part of Gods publick service but only had a place in the common Liturgy which place was probably the same which it still retains post Scripturarum solennia after the reading of the Gospel Next that it was not thought unlawful in this Fathers time to talk of secular and humane affairs upon this day as some now imagine or to call friends or strangers to our Table as it is supposed S. Austin being one of so strict a life that he would rather have put off the invitation and the story both to another day had he so conceived it Nor doth the Father speak of Sunday as if it were the only Festival that was to be observed of a Christian man Cont. Adimant c. 16. Other Festivities there were which he tell us of First generally Nos quoque dominicum diem Pascha soleuniter celebramus quaslibet alias Christianas dierum festivitates The Lords day Easter and all other Christian Festivals were alike to him Epi. 118. And he enumerates some particulars too the Resurrection Passion and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour together with the coming of the Holy Ghost which constantly were celebrated anniversaria solennitate Not that there were no other Festivals then observed in the Christian Church but that those four were reckoned to be Apostolical and had been generally received in all Ages past As for the Sacrament it was not tyed to any day but was administred indifferently upon all alike except it were in some few places where it had been restrained to this day alone
specified and to the course whereof the Council held at Orleans gave so wise a check but by imputing such Calamities as had fallen amongst them to the neglect or ill observance of this day A flash of Lightning or some other fire from Heaven as it was conceived had on the Lords day made great spoil of men and houses in the City of Limoges This Gregory of Tours who lived about the end of this sixth Century pronounceth to have fallen upon them ob diei dominici injuriam because some of them used to work upon the Sunday But how could he tell that or who made him acquainted with Gods secret counsels Had Gregory been Bishop of Limoges as he was of Tours it may be Limoges might have scaped so fierce a censure and only Tours have suffered in it For presently he adds in Turonico vero nonnulli ab hoc igne sed non die dominico adusti sunt that even in Tours it self many had perished by the self same fire but being it fell not on the Sunday as it did at Limoges therefore that misery fell on them for some other reason Indeed he tells us of this day that being it was the day whereon God made the light and after was the witness of our Saviours resurrection Ideo omni fide à Christianis observari debet ne fiat in eo omne opus publicum therefore it was to be observed of every Christian no manner of publick business to be done upon it A piece of new Divinity and never heard of till this Age nor in any afterwards Not heard of till this Age but in this it was For in the 24th year of Gunthram King of the Burgundians Conc. Matisonens 11. Can. 1. Anno 588. there was a Council called at Mascon a Town situate in the Duchy of Burgundy as we now distinguish it wherein were present Priscus Evantius Praetextatus and many other reverend and learned Prelates They taking into consideration how much the Lords day was of late neglected for remedy thereof ordained that it should be observed more carefully for the times to come Which Canon I shall therefore set down at large because it hath been often produced as a principal ground of those precise observances which some amongst us have endeavoured to force upon the consciences of weak and ignorant men It is as followeth Videmus populum Christianum temerario more diem dominicum contemptui tradere c. It is observed that Christian people do very rashly slight and neglect the Lords day giving themselves thereon as on other days to continual labours c. Therefore let every Christian in case be carry not that name in vain give ear to our instruction knowing that we have care that you should do well as well as power to bridle you that you do not ill It followeth Custodite diem dominicum qui nos denuo peperit c. Keep the Lords day the day of our new birth whereon we were delivered from the snares of sin Let no man meddle in litigious Controversies or deal in Actions or Law-suits or put himself at all upon such an exigent that needs he must prepare his Oxen for their daily work but exercise your selves in Hymns and singing Praises unto God being intent thereon both in mind and body If any have a Church at hand let him to unto it and there pour forth his soul in tears and prayers his eyes and hands being all that day lifted up to God It is the everlasting day of rest insinuated to us under the shadow of the seventh day or Sabbath in the Law and the Prophets and therefore it is very meet that we should celebrate this day with one accord whereon we have been made what at first we were not Let us then offer unto God our free and voluntary service by those great goodness we are freed from the Goal of errour not that the Lord exacts it of us that we should celebrate this day in a corporal abstinence or rest from labour who only looks that we do yield obedience to his holy will by which contemning earthly things he may conduct us to the heavens of his infinite mercy However if any man shall set at nought this our exhortation be he assured that God shall punish him as he hath deserved and that he shall be also subject unto the censures of the Church In case he be a Lawyer he shall lose his cause if that he be an Husbandman or Servant he shall be corporally punished for it but if a Clergy-man or Monk he shall be six months separated from the Congregation Add here that two years after this being the second year of the second Clotaire King of France there was a Synod holden at Auxerre a Town of Champagne concilium Antisiodorense in the Latin Writers wherein in it was decreed as in this of Mascon Non licet die dominico boves jungere vel alia opera exercere no man should be suffered to yoak his Oxen or do any manner of work upon the Sunday This is the Canon so much urged I mean that of Mascon to prove that we must spend the Lords day wholly in religious exercises and that there is no part thereof which is to be imployed unto other uses But there are many things to be considered before we yield unto this Canon or the authority thereof some of them being of that nature that those who most insist upon it must be fain to traverse For first it was contrived of purpose with so great a strictness to meet the better with those men which so extreamly had neglected that sacred day A stick that bends too much one way cannot be brought to any straightness till it be bent as much the other This Synod secondly was Provincial only and therefore can oblige none other but those for whom it was intended or such who after did submit unto it by taking it into their Canon Nor will some part thereof be approved by them who most stand upon it none being bound hereby to repair to Church to magnifie the name of God in the Congregation but such as have some Church at hand and what will then become of those that have a mile two three or more to their Parish Churches and no Chappel neither they are permitted by the Canon to abide at home As for Religious duties here are none expressed as proper for the Congregation but Psalms and Hymns and singing Praise unto the Lord and pouring forth our souls unto him in tears and prayers and then what shall we do for Preaching for Preaching of the Word which we so much call for Besides King Gunthram on whose Authority this Council met in his Confirmatory Letters doth extend this Canon as well unto the other Holy-days as unto the Sunday commanding all his Subjects Vigore hujus decreti definitionis generalis by vertue of his present mandate that on the Lords day vel in quibuscunque alijs solennitatibus and all solemn
Sunday For if it be a sin to bathe or wash all the body on the Lords day then must it be a sin to wash the face upon that day if it be lawful to be done in any part why then necessity requiring is it unlawful for the whole It seems then by St. Gregories doctrine that in hot weather one may lawfully go into the water on the Lords day and there wade or swim either to wash or cool his body as well as upon any other Note also here that not the quality of the day but the condition of the thing is to be considered in the denominating of a lawful or unlawful Act that things unlawful in themselves or tending to unlawful ends are unfit for all days and that whatever thing is fit for any day is of it self as fit for Sunday Finally he concludes with this Dominicorum vero die à labore terreno cessandum est c. We ought to rest indeed on the Lords day from earthly labours and by all means to abide in prayers that if by humane negligence any thing hath escaped in the six former days it may be expiated by our prayers on the day of the Resurrection This was the salve by him applyed to those dangerous sores and such effect it wrought upon them that for the present and long after we find not any that prohibited working on the Saturday But at the last it seems some did who thereupon were censured and condemned by another Gregory of that name the seventh Damnavit docentes non licere die Sabbati operas facere as the Law informs us De consecratione distinct 3. cap. Pervenit But this was not till Anno 1074. or after almost 500 years after the times where now we are As for the other fancy that of not going to the Bathes on the Lords day it seems he crushed that too as for that particular though otherwise the like conceits did break out again as men began to entertain strange thoughts and superstitious doctrines about this day especially in these declining Ages of the Church wherein so many errours both in faith and manners did in fine defile it that it was black indeed but with little comliness The Church as in too many things not proper to this place and purpose it did incroach upon the Jew much of the ceremonies and Priestly habit in these times established being thence derived so is it not to be admired if in some things particular both Men and Synods began to Judaize a little in our present business making the Lords day no less rigidly to be observed than the Jewish Sabbath if it were not more For in the following Age and in the latter end thereof when Learning was now almost come to its lowest ebb there was a Synod held at Friuli by the command of Pepin then King of France a Town now in the Territory of the State of Venice The principal motive of that meeting was to confirm the doctrine of the holy Trinity and the incarnation of the Word which in those times had been disputed The President thereof Paulinus Patriarch of Aquilegia Anno 791. of our Redemption There in relation to this day it was thus decreed Diem dominicum inchoante noctis initio i.e. vespere Sabbati quando signum insonuerit c. We constitute and appoint that all Christian men that is to say all Christian men who lived within the Canons reach should with all reverence and devotion honour the Lords day beginning on the Evening of the day before at the first ringing of the Bell and that they do abstain therein especially from all kind of sin as also from all carnal acts Etiam à propriis conjugibus even from the company of their Wives and all earthly labours and that they go unto the Church devoutly laying aside all suits of Law that so they may in love and charity praise Gods name together You may remember that some such device as this was fathered formerly on Saint Austin but with little reason Such trim conceits as these had not then been thought of And though it be affirmed in the preamble to these constitutions nec novas regulas instituimus nee supervacuas rerum adinventiones inbianter sectamur that they did neither make new rules or follow vain and needless fancies Sed sacris paternerum Canâ—num recensitis soliis c. But that they took example by the antient Canons yet look who will into all Canons of the Church for the times before and he shall find no such example For my part I should rather think that it was put into the Canon in succeeding times by some misadventure that some observing a restraint ab omni opere carnali of all carnal acts might as by way of question write in the Margin etian à proprtir conjugibus from whence by ignorance or negligence of the Collectors it might be put into the Text. e if it were so passed at first and if it chance that any be so minded and some such there be as to conceive the Canon to be pure and prous and the intent thereof not to be neglected They are to be advertised that the Holy-days must be observed in the self same manner It was determined so before by the false Saint Austin And somewhat to this purpose saith this Synod now that all the greater Festivals must with all reverence be observed and honoured and that such Holy-days as by the Priests were bidden in the Congregation Omnibus modis sunt custodienda were by all ways and means to be kept amongst them that is by all those ways and means which in the said Canon were before remembred In this the Christian plainly out-went the Jew amongst whose many superstitions there is none such found Ap. Ainsw in Ex. 20.10 'T is tre indeed the Jews accounted it unlawful to marry on the Sabbath-day or on the Evening of the Sabbath or on the first day of the week lest say the Rabbins they should pollute the Sabbath by dressing Meat Conformably whereunto Can. 17. it was decreed in a Synod held in Aken or Aquisgranum Anno 833. nec nuptias pro reverentia tantae solennitatis celebrari visum est that in a reverence to the Lords day it should no more be lawful to Marry or be Married upon the same The Jews as formerly we shewed have now by order from their Rabbins restrained themselves on their Sabbath day from knocking with their hands upon a table to still a child from making figures in the air or drawing letters in the ground or in dust and ashes and such like niceties And some such teachers Olaus King of Norway had no question met with Anno 1028. For being taken up one Sunday in some serious thoughts and having in his hands a small walking stick he took his knife and whitled it as men do sometimes when as their minds are troubled or intent on business And when it had been told him as by way of jest how he
had trespassed therein against the Sabbath he gathered the small chips together put them upon his hand and set fire unto them Vt in se ulcisceretur Matropol l. 4. t. 8. quod contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset that so saith Crantzius he might avenge that on himself which unawares he had committed against Gods Commandment Crantzius it seems did well enough approve the solly for in the entrance on this story he reckoneth this inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia amongst the monuments of his piety and sets it up as an especial instance of that Princes sanctity Lastly whereas the modern Jews are of opinion that all the while their Sabbath lasts the souls in Hell have liberty to range abroad and are released of all their torments Pâ—i ad Domivicum c. 5. So lest in any superstitious fancy they should have preheminence it was delivered of the souls in Purgatory by Petrus Damiani who lived in Anno 1056. Dominico die refrigerium poenarum habuisse that every Lords day they were manumitted from their pains and fluttered up and down the lake Avernus in the shape of Birds Indeed the marvel is the less that these and such like Jewish fancies should in those times begin to shew themselves in the Christian Church considering that now some had begun to think that the Lords day was founded on the fourth Commandment and all observances of the same grounded upon the Law of God As long as it was taken only for an Ecclesiastical Institution and had no other ground upon which to stand than the Authority of the Church we find not any of these rigours annexed unto it But being once conceived to have its warrant from the Scripture the Scripture presently was ransacked and whatsoever did concern the old Jewish Sabbath was applied thereto It had been ordered formerly that men should be restrained on the Lords day from some kind of labours that so they might assemble in the greater number the Princes and the Prelates both conceiving it convenient that it should be so But in these Ages there were Texts produced to make it necessary Thus Clotaire King of France grounded his Edict of restraint from servile labours on this day from the holy Scripture quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture contradicts it And Charles the Great builds also on the self same ground Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as the Lord commands us that on the Lords day none presume to do any servile business Thus finally the Emperour Leo Philosophus in a constitution to that purpose of which more hereafter declares that he did so determine secundum quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit according to the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles by him tutored So also when the Fathers of the Church had thought it requisite that men should cease from labour on the Saturday in the afternoon that they might be the better fitted for their devotions the next day some would not rest till they had found a Scripture for it Observemus diem dominicum fratres sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbato c. Let us observe the Lords day as it is commanded from even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath The 251. Sermon inscribed de tempore hath resolved it so And lastly that we go no further the superstitious act of the good King Olaus burning his hand as formerly was related was then conceived to be a very just revenge upon himself because he had offended although unaware contra divinum praeceptum against Gods Commandment Nor were these rigorous fancies left to the naked world but they had miracles to confirm them It is reported by Vincentius and Antoninus that Anstregisilus one that had probably preached such doctrine restored a Miller by his power whose hand had cleaved unto his Hatchet as he was mending of his Mill on the Lords day for now you must take notice that in the times in which they lived grinding had been prohibited on the Lords day by the Canon Laws As also how Sulpitius had caused a poor mans hand to wither only for cleaving wood on the Lords day no great crime assuredly save that some parallel must be found for him that gathered sticks on the former Sabbath and after on his special goodness made him whole again Of these the first was made Arch-Bishop of Burges Anno. 627. Sulpitius being Successor unto him in his See and as it seems too in his power of working miracles Such miracles as these they who list to credit shall find another of them in Gregorius Turonensis Miracul l. 1. c. 6. And some we shall hereafter meet with when we come to England forged purposely as no doubt these were to countenance some new device about the keeping of this day there being no new Gospel Preached but must have miracles to attend it for the greater state But howsoever it come to pass that those four Princes especially Leo who was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great who had as learned men about him as the times then bred were thus persuaded of this day that all restraints from work and labour on the same were to be found expressly in the Word of God yet was the Church and the most Learned men therein of another mind Nor is it utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or ground of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them First for the Church and men of special eminence in the same for place and learning there is no question to be made but they were otherwise persuaded Isidore Arch-Bishop of Sevil who goes highest De Eccles Offic. l. 1.29 makes it an Apostolical Sanction only on divine commandment a day designed by the Apostles for religious exercises in honour of our Saviours Resurrection on that day performed Diem dominicum Apostolì ideo religiosa solennitate sanxerunt quia in eo redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit And adds that it was therefore called the Lords day to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy worship giving this day due honor for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beda lib. de Offic. and by Rabanus Maurus lib. de institut Cleric l. 2. c. 24. and finally by Alcuinus de divin Offic. cap. 24. which plainly shews that all those took it only from an Apostolical usage an observation that grew up by custom rather than upon commandment Sure I am that Alcuinus one of principal credit with Charles the Great who lived about the end of the eighth Century as did this Isidore in the beginning of the seventh saith
pomeridianum diebus Dominicis maxime in pagis plerunque transigi soleret that by their Edicts they would restrain all servile works the works of ordinary days and especially Games Drinking-matches and other profanations of the Sabbath wherewith the afternoon or Sundays chiefly in smaller Towns and Villages had before been spent that so the people might repair to the Catechising By which we also may perceive that there was no restraint on Sundays in the afternoon from any kind of servile works or daily labours but that men might and did apply themselves to their several businesses as on other days As for the greater Towns there is scarce any of them wherein there are not Fairs and Markets Kirk-masses as they use to call them upon the Sunday and those as much frequented in the afternoon as were the Churches in the forenoon A thing from which they could not hold not in Dort it self what time the Synod was assembled Nor had it now been called upon as it is most likely had not Amesius and some other of the English Malecontents scattered abroad Bounds principles amongst the Netherlands which they had sown before in England And certainly they had made as strong a faction there before this time their learned men beginning to bandy one against the other in the debates about the Sabbath but that the livelihood of the States consisting most on Trade and Traffick cannot spare any day Sunday no more than any other from venting their commodities and providing others So that in general the Lords day is no otherwise observed with them though somewhat better than it was twelve years ago than an Half-holiday is with us the Morning though not all of that unto the Church the afternoon to their Employments So for the French and German Churches we may perceive by their Divines Calvin and Beze and Martin Bucer who do so highly charge the Romanists for the restraint of working on the Lords day that they were well enough content to allow the same And for the Churches of the Switzers Resp ad Vaâ— Gentilem Zuinglius avoweth it to be lawful Die dominico peractis sacris laboribus incumbere On the Lords day after the end of Divine Service for any man to follow and pursue his labours as commonly we do saith he in the time of Harvest Indeed the Polish Churches formerly decreed in two several Synods the one at Cracow An. 1573. the other at Petricow Ann. 1578. Vt Domini in suis ditionibus prohibeant Dominicis diebus nundinas annuas septimanales That Lords of Mannours as we call them should not permit on the Lords day either Fairs or Markets in any of the Towns unto them belonging Neque iisdem diebus colonos suos ullos laboribus aut vecturis onerent nor on those days imploy their Tenants in carriages or such servile labours But this was rather done to please the Lutherans amongst whom and those of the Communion of the Church of Rome under whom they live than out of any principle or example of those Churches whom they chiefly followed For Recreations last of all there is no question to be made but that where working is permitted and most kind of business a man may lawfully enjoy himself and his honest pleasures and without danger of offence pursue those pastimes by which the mind may be refreshed and the spirits quickned Already have we told you what the custom is in the Palatine Churches And for the Belgick besides it was before declared from the Synod of Dort touching the usual spending of that day in Games and Drinking-matches Sâ—â—ps 〈◊〉 aâ—p 81. n. 58. their four great Doctors Polyander Ryvet Thysius and Walaeus make Recreation to be part of the Sabbaths rest Et inter fines Sabbati esse and to be reckoned as a principal intent thereof Even in Geneva it self the Mother Church unto the rest as Robert Johnson tells us in his enlargement of Boterus All honest exercises Shooting in Peeces Long-bows Cross-bows c. are used on the Sabbath day and that in the morning both before and after Sermon neither do the Ministers find fault therewith so they hinder not from hearing of the Word at the time appointed Indeed there is no reason why they should find fault the practice so directly rising upon their principles Dancing indeed they do not suffer either in Geneva or the French Churches though not prohibited for ought I can learn in either Germany or any of the Lutheran Kingdoms but this not in relation to the day but the sport it self which absolutely they have forbidden on all days whatever Calvin took great offence thereat of so austere a life would he have the People and kept a great ado about it in Geneva when he lived amongst them Epist ad Farel as he doth thus relate the story to his friend Farellus Corneus and Perinus two of special power and quality in that City together with one Heinrichus one of the Elders of the Church a Syndic which is one of the four chief Officers of the Common-wealth and some others of their friends being merry at an Invitation fell to dancing Notice hereof being given to Calvin by some false brother they were all called into the Consistory excepting Corneus and Perinus and being interrogated thereupon Impudenter Deo nobis mentiti sunt they lyed saith he most impudently unto God and us Most Apostolically said At that saith he I grew offended as the indignity of the thing deserved and they persisting in their contumacy Censui ut jure-jurando ad veri confessionem adigerentur I thought it fit to put them to their Oaths about it So said so done and they not only did confess their former dancing but that that very day they had been dancing in the house of one Balthasats Widdow On his confession he proceeded unto the censure which certainly was sharp enough for so small a fault for a fault it was if he would have it the Syndick being displaced the Elder turned out of his office Perryn and his Wife both clapt in Prison and all the rest pudore confusi put to open shame This was in Anno 1546. And afterwards considering how much he disliked it their Ministers and Preachers cried down dancing as a most sinful and unchristian pastime and published divers tracts against it At last in Anno 1571. it was concluded in a Synod held at Rochel and made to be a part of their publick discipline viz. that all Congregations should be admonished by their Ministers seriously to reprehend and suppress all Dances Mummeries and Enterludes As also that all Dancing-masters or those who make any dancing meetings after they have been oft admonished to desist ought to be excommunicate for that their contumacy and disobedience Which rigidness of theirs as it is conceived considering how the French do delight in Dancing Dallingtons â—â—ew of 〈◊〉 hath been no small impediment unto the general entertainment of the reformed Religion in that
themselves to prayer and Gods publick service Particularly Fitz-Herbert tells us that no plea shall be holden Quindena Paschae Nat. Brevium fol. 17. 1 Eli◠p. 168. because it is always on the sunday but it shall be holden crastino quindenae paschae on the morrow after So Justice Dyer hath resolved that if a Writ of scire facias out of the Common-pleas bear Test on a Sunday it is an errour because that day is not dies juridicus in Banco And so it is agreed amongst them that on a Fine levied with Proclamations according to the Statute of King Henry VII if any of the Proclamations be made on the Lords day all of them are to be accounted erroneous Acts. But to return unto the Canon where before we left however that Archbishop Langton formerly and Islip at the present time had made these several restraints from all servile labours yet they were far enough from entertaining any Jewish fancy The Canon last remembred that of Simon Islip doth express as much But more particularly and punctually we may find what was the judgment of these times in a full declaration of the same in a Synod at Lambeth what time John Peckham was Archbishop which was in Anno 1280. Lindw l. 1. tit de offic Archipresb It was thus determined Sciendum est quod obligatio ad feriandum in Sabbato legali expiravit omnino c. It is to be understood that all manner of obligation of resting on the legal Sabbath as was required in the Old Testament is utterly expired with the other ceremonies And it is now sufficient in the New Testament to attend Gods service upon the Lords days and the other Holy days ad hoc Ecclesiastica authoritate deputatis appointed by the Church to that end and purpose The manner of sanctifying all which days non est sumendus à superstitione Judaica sed à Canonicis institutis is not to be derived from any Jewish superstition but from the Canons of the Church This was exact and plain enough and this was constantly the doctrine of the Church of England Joannes de Burgo who lived about the end of K. Henry VI. doth almost word for word resolve it so in his Pupilla oculi part 10. c. 11. D. Yet find we not in these restraints that Marketting had been forbidden either on the Lords day or the other Holy days and indeed it was not that came in afterwards by degrees partly by Statutes of the Realm partly by Canons of the Church not till all Nations else had long laid them down For in the 28 of King Edward III. cap 14. it was accorded and established that shewing of Wools shall be made at the Stapie every day of the week except the Sunday and the solemn Feasts in the year This was the first restraint in this kind with us here in England and this gives no more priviledge to the Lords day than the solemn Festivals Antiq. Brit. in Stafford Nor was there more done in it for almost an hundred years not till the time of Henry VI. Anno 1444. what time Archbishop Stafford decreed throughout his Province ut nundina emporia in Ecclesiis aut Coemiteriis diebusque Dominicis atque Festis praeterquam tempore messis non teneantur that Fairs and Markets should no more be kept in Churches and Church-yards or on the Lords days or the other Holy-days except in time of Harvest only If in that time they might be suffered then certainly in themselves they were not unlawful on any other further than as prohibited by the higher powers Now that which the Archbishop had decreed throughout his Province Tabians Chronicle Catworth Lord Mayor of London attempted to exceed within that City For in this year saith Fabian Anno 1444. an Act was made by Authority of the Common Council of London that upon the Sunday should no manner of thing within the franchise of the City be bought or sold neither Victual nor other thing nor no Artificer should bring his Ware unto any man to be worn or occupied that day as Taylers Garments and Cordwayners Shooes and so likewise all other occupations But then it followeth in the story the which Ordinance held but a while enough to shew by the success how ill it doth agree with a Lord Mayor to deal in things about the Sabbath Afterwards in the year 1451. which was the 28 of this Henries Reign it pleased the King in Parliament to ratifie what before was ordered by that Archbishop in this form that followeth 28. H. 6. c. 16. Considering the abominable injuries and effences done to Almigvty God and to his Saints always ayders and finguler affistants in our necessities by the necasion of Fairs and Marhets upon their high and principal Feasts as in the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord. in the day of Corpus Christi in the day of Whitsunday Trinity Sunday and other Sundays as also in the high Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady the day of all Saints and on Good Friday accustomably and miserably holden and used in the Keaim of England c. our Soveraign Lord the King c. hath ordained that all manner of Fairs and Markets on the said principal Feasts and Sundays and Good Friday shall clearly cease from all shewing of any Goods and Merchandises necessary Victual only ercept which yet was more than was allowed in the City-Act upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods aforesaid to the Lord of the franchise or liverty where such goods be or shall be she wed contrary to this Ordinance the four Sundays in Harvest except Which clause or reservation sheweth plainly that the things before prohibited were not esteemed unlawful in themselves as also that this Law was made in confirmation of the former order of the Archbishop as before was said Now on this Law I find two resolutions made by my Lords the Judges First Justice Brian in the 12th of King Edward the fourth declared that no sale made upon a Sunday though in a Fair or Market-overt for Markets as it seemeth were not then quite laid down though by Law prohibited shall be a good sale to alter the property of the goods And Ploydon in the time of Queen Elizabeth was of opinion Daltons Justice cap. 27. that the Lord of any Fair or Market kept upon the Sunday contrary to the Statute may therefore be indicted for the King or Queen either at the Assizes or general Goal delivery or Quarter Sessions within that County If so in case such Lord may be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept upon the sunday as being contrary to the Statute then by the same reason may he be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept on any of the other Holy-days in that Statute mentioned Nor staid it here For in the 1465. which was the fourth year of King Edward IV. it pleased the King in Parliament to Enact as followeth Our Soveraign Lord the
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
beginning of the World hath Predestinated in Christ unto Eternal life Thus do I wade in Predestination in such sort ' as God hath patesied and opened it Though to God it be the first yet to us it is the last opened and therefore I begin with Creation from whence I come to Redemption so to Justification so to Election On this sort I am sure that warily and wisely a man may walk it easily by the light of Gods Spirit in and by his Word seeing this faith is not to be given to all men 2 Thes 3. but to such as are born of God Predestinated before the World was made after the purpose and good will of God c. Which judgment of this holy man comes up so close to that of the former Martyrs and is so plainly cross to that of the Calvinistical party that Mr. Fox was fain to make some Scholia's on it to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance which corrupts the Text and therefore to have no place here however it may be disposed of at another time But besides the Epistle above mentioned there is extant a Discourse of the said godly Martyr entituled The sum of the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation in which is affirmed That our own wilfulness sin and contemning of Christ are the cause of Reprobation as is confessed by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism p. 103. though afterwards he puts such a gloss upon it as he doth also on the like passages in Bishop Hooper as makes the sin of man to be the cause only of the execution and not of the decree of Reprobation But it is said That any one that reads the Common-Prayer-book with an unprejudiced mind Justifi Fatâ—â—s cannot chuse but observe divers passages that make for a Personal Eternal Election So it is said of late and till of late never so said by any that ever I heard of the whole frame and fabrick of the Publique Liturgy being directly opposite to this new conceit For in the general Confession we beseech the Lord to spare them that confess their faults and restore them that be penitent according to his promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord In the Te Deum it is said that Christ our Saviour having overcome the sharpness of death did open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers In the Prayer for the first day of Lent That God hateth nothing which he hath made but doth forgive the sins of all them that be penitent In the Prayer at the end of the Commination That God hath compassion of all men that he hateth nothing which he hath made that he would not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from sin and repent In the Absolution before the Communion That God of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them which with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him Can any one which comes with an unprejudiced mind to the Common-Prayer book observe any thing that favoureth of a Personal Election in all these passages or can he hope to find them in any other Look then upon the last Exhortation before the Communion in which we are required above all things To give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father and the Holy Ghost for the Redemption of the World by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ both God and man who did humble himself even to the death upon the Cross for us miserable sinners which lay in darkness and the shadow of death More of which nature we shall find in the second Article Look on the Collect in the form of publique Baptism in which we pray That whosoever is here dedicated unto God by our Office and Ministry may also be endued with Heavenly vertues and everlastingly rewarded through Gods mercy O blessed Lord God c. And in the Rubrick before Confirmation where it is said expr sly That it is certain by Gods Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary to their salvation and be undoubtedly saved Look on these passages and the rest and tell me any one that can whether the publique Liturgy of the Church of England speak any thing in favour of such a Personal and Eternal Election that is to say such an absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination and that of some few only unto life Eternal as is maintained and taught in the Schools of Calvin Some passages I grant there are which speak of Gods People and his chosen People and yet intend not any such Personal and Eternal Election as these men conceit unto themselves Of which sort these viz. To declare and pronounce to his People being penitent O Lord save thy People and bless thy Heritage that it would please thee to keep and bless all thy People and make thy chosen People joyful with many others intersâ—ers'd in several places But then I must affirm withal that those passages are no otherwise to be understood than of the whole bo y of the Church the Congregation of the faithful called to the publique participation of the Word and Sacraments Which appears plainly by the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth where having called upon the Lord and said To all thy People give thy Heavenly grace we are taught presently to add especially to this Congregation here present that is to say the members of that particular Church which there pour forth their prayers for the Church in general More to their purpose is that passage in the Collect for the Feast of All-Saints where it is said That Almighty God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Jesus Christ though it doth signifie no more but that inseparable bond of Charity that Love and Unity that Holy Communion and Correspondency which is between the Saints in Glory in the Church Triumphant and those who are still exercised under the cares and miseries of this present life in the Church here Militant But it makes most unto their purpose if any thing could make unto their purpose in the Common-Prayer book that at the burial of the dead we are taught to pray That God would please of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his elect and to hasten his Kingdom From whence as possibly some may raise this inference That by the Doctrine of the Church of England there is a predestinated and certain number of Elect which can neither be increased nor diminished according to the third of the nine Articles which were agreed upon at Lambeth So others may perhaps conclude That this number is made up out of such Elections such Personal and Eternal Elections as they have fancied to themselves But there is nothing in the Prayer which can be useful to the countenancing of any such fancy the number of the Elect and the certainty of that number being known only unto God in the way of his
live There is another Text in the Prophet Jeremy by which the People are commanded to seek the peace of Babylon Jer. 29.7 whither God had caused them to be carried away captive and to pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof was their peace to be Behold the Israelites being despoiled of their Estates driven from their houses carried into exile and plunged in a most miserable thraldom are yet required to pray for the prosperity of the Conqueror not only as we are commanded in another place to pray for them that persecute us but that his Empire might continue in peace and safety that they themselves might quietly enjoy the protection of it Thus David being appointed King by the Lords own Ordinance and anointed with his holy Oyl when undeservedly he was persecuted and pursued by Saul would not give way that any corporal hurt should be done to that sacred person whom God had raised unto the Kingdom The Lord forbid saith he 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord. Again But mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lords Anointed And again who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battel and perish The Lord forbid that I should stretch my hand against the Lords Anointed This reverence and dutiful regard we ought to carry towards our Governors SECT 29. to the very end however they may chance to prove Which therefore I repeat the oftner that we may learn not to enquire too narrowly into the men but to rest our selves content with this that they sustain that place or person by the Lords appointment in which he hath imprinted and ingraved a most inviolable character of sacred Majesty But some will say that Rulers owe a mutual duty to their Subjects That hath been formerly confessed from which if any should infer that no obedience must be yielded but to their just and legal power he were a very sorry disputant Husbands are bound in mutual bonds unto their Wives and so are Parents to their Children Suppose that both neglect their duties that Parents who are prohibited by God to provoke their Children unto wrath be so untractable and harsh to them that they do grieve them above measure with continual sourness and that Husbands who are commanded to love their Wives and to give honour to them as the weaker vessel should use them with contempt and scorn should therefore Children be the less obedient to their Parents or Wives less dutiful to their Husbands We see the contrary that they are subject to them though both lewd and froward Since therefore nothing doth concern us more than that we trouble not our selves with looking into the defects of other men but carefully endeavour to perform those duties which do belong unto our selves more specially ought they to observe this rule who live under the authority and power of others Wherefore if we are inhumanely handled by a cruel Prince or by a covetous and luxurious Prince dispoiled and rifled if by a slothful one neglected or vexed for our Religion by a lewd and wicked let us look back upon our sins which God most commonly correcteth with this kind of scourges the thought whereof will humble us and keep down the impatience of our angry spirits Let us consider with our selves that it appertains not unto us to redress these mischiefs that all which doth belong to us is to cry to God Prov. 21.1 in whose hands are the hearts of Kings and be turneth them whithersoever he will He is that God which standeth in the Congregation of the mighty and judgeth amongst the Gods before whose face all Kings shall fall and be confounded and all the Judges of the earth who do not reverence his Christ but make unjust Laws to oppress the Poor and offer violence to the man of low condition and make a spoil of Widows and a prey of Orphans And here we may as well behold his goodness SECT 30. as his power and providence For sometimes he doth raise Avengers from amongst his servants and furnisheth them with power sufficient as well to execute vengeance on such wicked Rulers as to redeem his People so unjustly vext from the house of bondage and sometimes useth to tht end the fierce wrath of others who think of nothing less than to serve his turn Thus he redeemed his People Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh by the hand of Moses from Cushan King of Syria by Othoniel from other thraldoms by some other of their Kings and Judges Thus did he tame the pride of Tyre by the arms of Egypt the insolence of Egypt by the Assyrians the fierceness of Assyriah by the Chaldeans the confidence of Babylon by the Medes and Persians after that Cyrus had before subdued the Medes Thus did he sometimes punish the ingratitude of the Kings of Judah and Israel and that ungodly contumacy which they carried towards him notwithstanding all his benefits conferred upon them by the Assyrians first the Babylonians after But we must know that though these several instrunents did the self same work yet they proceeded not in the self same motives For the first sort being thereto lawfully authorized and called by Almighty God by taking up Arms against their Kings did nothing less than violate that sacred Majesty which is inherent in King by Gods holy Ordinance but being armed from Heaven did only regulate and chastise the lesser power by the help of the greater as Princes use sometimes to correct their Nobles The later sort though guided by the hand of God as to him seemed best so that they did unknowingly effect what he had to do intended only the pursuit of their own designs But what soever their designs and intentions were the Lord did justly use them to effect his business SECT 31. when by their means he broke the bloody Scepters of those insolent Kings and overthrew their wicked and tyrannical Empires Hear this ye Princes and be terrified at the hearing of it But let not this afford the least encouragement unto the Subject to violate or despise the Authority of the Magistrate which God hath filled so full of majesty and fortified by so many Edicts from the Court of Heaven though sometimes an unworthy person doth enjoy the same and such a one as doth dishonour it by his filthy life Nor may we think because the punishment of licentious Princes doth belong to God that presently this power of executing vengeance is devolved on us to whom no other precept hath been given by God but only to obey and suffer De privatis hominibus semper loquor Nam si qui nunc sint
populares magistratus ad moderandum Regum libidinem constituti quales olim erant qui Lacedaemoniis Regibus oppositi erant Ephori aut Romanis Consulibus Tribuni Plebis aut Atheniensium Senatui Demarchi qua etiam foric potestate ut nune res habent funguntur in singulis Regnis tres Ordâ—nes quunt primarios conventus peragunt adeo illos ferocienti Reguin licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto ut si Regibus impotenter grassanttbus humili plebeculae insultantibus conniveant eorum dissimulationem nefariâ perfidiâ non carere affirmem quia populi libertatem cujus se Dei Ordinatione tutores positos norunt fraudulenter produnt But still I must be understood of private persons For if there be now any Popular Officers ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings such as the Ephori of old set up against the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people against the Roman Consuls and the Demarchi against the Athenian Senate and with which power perhaps as the World now goes the three Estates are furnished in each several Kingdom when they are solenmly assembled sofar am I from hindering them from putting a restraint on the exorbitant power of Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them guilty rather of a persidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the common people in that they treacherously betray the Subjects Liberty of which they know they were made Guardians by Gods own Ordinance and appointment But this must always be excepted in the obedience which we have determined to be que to the commands of our Governors and first of all to be observed that it draw us not from that obedience which is due to him to whose will all the commands of Kings must be subordinate to whose decrees their strongest mandates must give place and before whose Majesty they are bound to lay down their Scepters For how preposterous were it to incur his anger by our compliance with those men whom we are bound no otherwise to obey than for his sake only The Lord is King of Kings who when he speaks is to be heard for all and above them all We must be subject to those men who have rule over us but in him alone If against him they do command us any thing it is to be of none account Nor in such cases is the dignity of the Magistrate to be stood upon to which no injury is done if in regard of the more eminent and supream power of God it be restrained within its bounds Dan. 6.22 In this respect Daniel denied that he had trespassed any thing against the King in not obeying his prophane and ungodly Edict because the King had gone beyond his proper limits and being not only injurious against men but lifting up his horns against God himself had first deprived himself of all Authority The Israelites are condemned on the other side for being so ready to obey their King in a wicked action when to ingratiate themselves with Jeroboam who had newly made the Golden Calves they left the Temple of the Lord and betook themselves to a new superstitious worship And when their Children and posterity with the like facility applied themselves unto the humours of their wicked Kings the Prophet doth severely rebuke them for it So little praise doth that pretence of modeâ—ly deserve to have with which some Court parasites do disguise themselves and abuse the simple affirming it to be a crime not to yield obedience to any thing that Kings command as if God either had resigned all his rights and interess into the hands of mortal men when he made them Rulers over others or that the greatest earthly power were a jot diminished by being subjected to its Author before whom all the powers of Heaven do trembling supplicate I know that great and imminent danger may befall those men who dare give entertainment to so brave a constancy considering with what indignation Kings do take the matter when they once see themselves neglected whose indignation is as the messenger of death saith the Wise man Solomon But when we hear this Proclamation made by the heavenly Cryer that we ought to obey God rather than men let this consideration be a comfort to us Acts 5.29 that when we yield that obedience unto God which he looks for from us when we rather choose to suffer any thing than to deviate from the way of godliness And lest our hearts should fail us in so great a business St. Paul subjoyns another motive 2 Cor. 7 2â— that being bought by Christ at so great a price we should not re-inthral our selves to the lusts of men much less addict our selves to the works of wickedness These are the very words of Calvin from which his followers and Disciples most extreamly differ both in their doctrine and their practice First for their practice Calvin requires that we should reverence and respect the Magistrate for his Office sake and that we entertain no other than a fair esteem an honourable opinion both of their actions Sect. 2â— and their Counsels His followers like silthy dreamers as they are do not only dispise dominion but speak evil of dignities that is to say Jude 8. they neither reverence the persons of their Supream Magistrate nor regard their Office and are so far from cherishing a good opinion of those higher powers to which the Lord hath made them subject that their hearts imagine mischief against them all the day long and though they see no cause to condemn their actions they will be sure enough to misconstrue the end Calvin requires that we should manifest the reverence and respect we bear them by the outward actions of obedience Sect. 23. and to the end that this obedience should proceed from the very heart and not to be counterfeit and false he adds that we commend there health and flourishing estate in our prayers to God Ibid. His followers study nothing more than to disobey them in every one of those particulars which their Master speaks of refusing to obey their laws and to pay them tribute and to undergo such services and burdens as are laid upon them in reference to the publick safety and spare not as occasion serves to manifest the disaffection of their hearts by such outward acts as disâ—bedience and disloyalty can suggest unto them and are so far from praying for them that many times they pray against them blaspheming God because he will not curse the King and making that which they call Prayer so dangerous and lewd a Libel that their very prayers are turned to sin Calvin requires such moderation in the Subject that they neither intermeddle in affairs of State nor invade the Office of the Magistrate and that if any thing be amiss in the publick Government which stands in need of Reformation they presume not to put their hands unto the work
part of the fourth Commandment Page 359 3. The Annual Sabbaths no less solemnly observed and celebrated than the weekly were if not more solemnly Page 360 4. Of the Parasceue or Preparation to the Sabbath and the solemn Festivals Page 361 5. All manner of work as well forbidden on the Annual as the weekly Sabbaths Page 362 6. What things were lawful to be done on the Sabbath days Page 363 7. Touching the prohibitions of not kindling fire and not dressing meat Page 364 8. What moved the Gentiles generally to charge the Jews with Fasting on the Sabbath day Page 365 9. Touching this Prohibition Let no man go out of his place on the Sabbath day Page 366 10 All lawful recreations as Dancing Feasting Man-like Exercises allowed and practised by the Jews upon their Sabbaths ibid. CHAP. VI. Touching the observation of the Sabbath unto the time the People were established in the Promised Land 1. The Sabbath not kept constantly during the time the People wandred in the Wilderness Page 368 2. Of him that gathered sticks on the Sabbath day ibid. 3. Wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist in the time of Moses Page 369 4. The Law not ordered to be read in the Congregation every Sabbath day Page 370 5. The sack of Hiericho and the destruction of that People was upon the Sabbath Page 371 6. No Sabbath after this without Circumcision and how that Ceremony could consist with the Sabbaths rest Page 372 7. What moved the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath Page 373 8. The standing still of the Sun at the prayers of Josuah c. could not but make some alteration about the Sabbath ibid. 9. What was the Priests work on the Sabbath day and whether it might stand with the Sabbaths rest Page 374 10. The scattering of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation unto the reading of the Law on the Sabbath-days Page 375 CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the Sabbath from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature Page 376 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath Page 377 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath ibid. 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time Page 378 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived Page 379 6. The Lord becomes offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion ibid. 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein Page 380 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity ibid. 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath Page 381 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra Page 382 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings Page 383 11. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths Page 384 CHAP. VIII What doth occur about the Sabbath from the Maccabees to the destruction of the Temple 1. The Jews refuse to fight in their own defence upon the Sabbath and what was ordered thereupon Page 385 2. The Pharisees about these times had made the Sabbath burdensome by their Traditions Page 386 3. Hierusalem twice taken by the Romans on the Sabbath day Page 387 4. The Romans many of them Judaize and take up the Sabbath as other Nations did by the Jews example Page 388 5. Augustus Caesar very gracious to the Jews in matters that concerned their Sabbath Page 390 6. What our Redeemer taught and did to rectifie the abuses of and in the Sabbath ibid. 7. The final ruin of the Temple and the Jewish Ceremonies on a Sabbath day Page 391 8. The Sabbath abrogated with the other Ceremonies Page 392 9. Wherein consists the Christian Sabbath mentioned in the Scriptures and amongst the Fathers Page 393 10. The idle and ridiculous niceties of the modern Jews in their Perasceves and their Sabbaths conclude the first Part. Page 394 BOOK II. CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual ordinance Page 400 1. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviou Christ Page 401 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or the Apostles but instituted by the authority of the Church Page 402 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath Page 404 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath Page 405 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by S. Peter S. Paul or any other of the Apostles ibid. 7. S. Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons Page 406 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden at Hierusalem Page 407 9. The preaching of S. Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises Page 408 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose Page 409 11. Those places of S. Paul Gal. 4.10 Coloss 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for Page 410 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first age and what that title adds unto it Page 411 CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the Reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation Page 413 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time Page 414 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day Page 415 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business Page 416 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches ibid. 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clemens of Alexandria his dislike thereof Page 417 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Pentecost Page 418 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church Page 419 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly Page 420 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time ibid. 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was Page 421 12. The