A brief ANSWER to a late Treatise OF THE SABBATH DAY Digested Dialogue-wise between two Divines A. and B. A. BRother you are happily mett B. And you Brother also A. I would I might spend an houre or two with you in private conference in a point wherein I have of late been not a little perplexed B. Why what is the matter Brother A. Have you not seene a late Treatise of the Sabbath Day pubished by an eminent Antistes in this Church B. Yes I have both seene and perused it A. I pray you what thinke you of it B. I thinke it is a very dangerous Booke A. What meane you by that B. I 〈…〉 to the Author if it were well examined before 〈…〉 A. How so I pray you B. Because it overthrowes the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of the Sabbath A. Pardon mee that seemes to mee impossible B. VVhy A. Because hee sayth expresly in the very title page of his booke that it contayneth A Defence of the Orthodox all Doctrine of the Church of England against Sabbatarian novelty And therefore I am confident hee will looke to make that good B. But be not too confident you know the Proverbe Fronti rara fides The fowlest causes may have the fairest pretences A. That is true you say But yet I cannot be perswaded that so great a Personage would so farre overshoot as to give that advantage to those whom hee makes his adversaries Nay you know his Booke is dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury by whose direction and that according to his sacred Majesties command hee was set upon this worke both for the preventing of mischief as himself sayth in his Epistle dedicatory to the sayd Archbishop and to settle the Kings good subjects who have long time been distracted about Sabbatarian questions Now if hee mayntaine not but as you say overthrow the doctrine of the Church of England hee will have small thanks from his sacred Majestie for his paines who is the Defender of the Faith of the Church of England and hath often solemnely protested and that in his publike Declarations in print that hee will never suffer therein the least innovation And what thanks then can hee expect from the Archbishop trow you And in stead of preventing hee will pull on greater mischiefs and in stead of setling the Kings good subjects hee will fill their minds with greater distractions And therefore Brother in so saying you lay a heavy charge upon him It s dangerous so to charge a person of that dignity and esteeme in the world Take heed therefore what you say You know also that hee is a great Scholar deeply learned a reverend Father of the Church so as his judgment is taken almost for an Oracle And you know also what is sayd in a late Booke allowed by authority that the holy Fathers in God the Bishops are to be guides in Divinity unto the whole Clergy of inferior order so as all Priests are to submit unto their Godly iudgements in all matters pertayning unto Religion And the reason is given because the Fathers of the Church now and alwayes doe in the great mystery of Godlinesse comprehend many things which the common people doe not yea also some things which Ministers of the inferior order doe not apprehend So as it is expected of those holy Prelates that wee must lay our hand on our mouth when they speake and be altogether regulated by their profound Dictates B. I remember well the booke And I cannot but wonder that those passages were not expunged with many others when the booke was called in and then the second time published You know wee live in a learned age and wee deny the Popes infallibility or that it can convey it self as from the head and so confine it self within the veines of the bodie of the Prelacy or that a Rotchet can conferre this grace ex opere operato And beleeve mee Brother when wee see such a Papall spirit begin to perke up in this our Church is it not high time trow you to looke about us Shall wee stumble at noone day and in this Meridian of the Gospell close up our eyes and become the sworne vasalls of blind obedience No no. In this case therefore were Goliah himself the Champion I would by Gods grace try a fall with him A. Brother such a resolution had need have a good ground to stand upon And being a matter of such moment it requires our best zeale and strength especially to vindicate the doctrine of our reverend Mother the Church of England which wee have sucked from her purer breasts Nor onely so but to vindicate her name from reproach For if it be so as you have sayd that the doctrine of our Church is by that booke overthrowne then consequently as I conceive shee must deeply suffer and be wounded through the sides of those whom hee so often in his booke brandeth with the odious name of Novell Sabbatarians B. Brother you conceite a right For in truth all those calumnious and odious termes which hee gives to those whose opinions except Brabournes onely hee impugneth in his Treatise as venimous serpents noysome Tares pestilent weeds and uncleane beasts termes to be abhorred of all true Christians and in a word Novell Sabbatarians they all result upon our deare Mother the Church of England For who are the most of those or rather all whom hee thus stigmatizeth Are they not or were they not in their time the true bred children of the Church of England all unanimously professing and maintayning her Orthodox doctrines Can therefore the mother be free when her pious sonnes are so traduced and reproached and that for defending those very doctrines which by her meanes they sucked from the breasts of both the Testaments A. That must needs follow I confesse Now then I pray you satisfy my earnest desire in this by declaring how hee overthrowes the doctrine of the Church of England in this point of the Sabbath B. I will make it most cleare unto you Now the doctrine of the Church of England concerning the Sabbath is most clearely and fully set forth in the Booke of Homilies which Booke the 35 Article to which all wee Ministers doe subscribe doth commend as contayning a Godly and whole some doctrine and necessary for these times and therefore judged to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the people Now the Homilie of the time and place of prayer part 1. sheweth that our Lords Day is grounded upon the fourth Commandement in the Decalogue in these words Whatsoever is found in the Commandement appertaining to the Law of nature as a thing most Godly most just and needfull for the setting forth of Gods glory it ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people And therefore by this Commandement wee ought to have a time as one day in the weeke wherein wee ought to
what day in the weeke the Sabbath day is to wit the Sabbath day of the Lord thy God that day in the weeke wherein the Lord our God resteth must be our Sabbath day So that as the Commandement prescribes unto us a weekely Sabbath day to be sanctified so Gods Precedent and example points out unto us what or which day in the weeke wee must rest on to sanctify it And this is not onely the naturall equity which the adversary in generall confesseth but the very naturall Law and substance of the fourth Commandement to prescribe a set solemne day in the weeke to be sanctified and not to leave it in the power of man or of the Church to appoint what time they please The reasons are these 1. because the Commandement expresly limiteth one set day in the weeke being the Sabbath day of the Lord our God as hath bene sayd Now the Commandement prescribing a set and fixed day in the weeke what humain power shall dare to alter it into an indefinite time call it what you will convenient or sufficient to be appointed at the pleasure of man This is with the Papists to commit high sacriledge in altering the property of Gods Commandements For upon this ground of a generall equity they have bene bold to suppresse the second Commandement saying it is comprised in the first As they have robd the people of the cup in the Sacrament saying the blood is contained in the body under the formes of bread So our adversary imagining a generall I wot not what equity in the fourth Commandement of some certain uncertain time for Gods publicke worship doth thereby destroy the very property of the Commandement which expresly prescribeth the Sabbath day in every weeke A second reason why it is not left in the power of the Church to prescribe what time men please is because as it is Gods prerogative as a Maister to appoint his owne worship and service so the time wherein hee will be served This God himself commandeth in the fourth Commandement Now as the King will not take it well that any meddle with his prerogative and arrogate that to himself which is the Kings right so God is justly offended when men presume to assume to themselves that power which is proper and peculiar to God alone If any will take upon him to coyne money by counterfeting the Kings stampe and name his act is treason how then shall they escape if presume to coyne what time they please for Gods solemne worship though they set the counterfeit stampe of God upon it Now the Sabbath day is of the Lords owne making and stamping and therefore called the Lords day A third reason why it is not left in mans power to institute the solemne day of Gods worship his Sabbath day or to appoint him what proportion of time they please is because an indefinite time must either bind to all moments of time as a debt when the day of payment is not expresly dated is liable to payment every moment or els it binds to no time at all For if the Law of God bind us not to an expresse determinate time or day consecrate to his service then the not allowing of him a set time or day is no sinne at all For what Gods Law commaunds not therein man is not bound And where no Law is of a set time or day there is no transgression if a set time or day be not observed So as by this reason if the Law of the fourth Commandement prescribe no set sacred time or day for Rest and sanctification it is a meere nullity For to say there is a naturall equity in it for some sufficient and convenient time and yet no man can define what this sufficient and convenient time is nay all the wits and heads in the world put together are not able to determine it is as to say there is a world in the moone consisting of Land and Sea and inhabitants because there are some black spots in it which yet is not a more lunaticke opinion then that is presumptuous and absurd Hath not the profane world found by wofull experience that of late dayes within these two yeares last past wherein men have taken a liberty to profane and pollute but a part of the Lords day that this is a most horrible sinne And a sinne it cannot be but as a breach of one of Gods holy Commandements For where there is no Law there is no transgression The profanation I say of the Lords day is clearely shewed to be an horrible presumptuous sinne and in speciall a bold breach of the fourth Commandement by those many markable judgements of God which have fearefully fallen upon fearelesse Sabbath breakers and that I say within these two yeares last past the like whereof cannot be paralleld in all the Histories of all the Centuries since the Apostles times Which alone if men were not altogether possessed with the spirit of stupidity and of a croced conscience were sufficient to teach their dull wits that the fourth Commandement is still in force commaunding the Sabbath day to be sanctified the profanation whereof wee see so terribly punished by divine revenge A point also which our Homily hath noted which were sufficient to admonish the adversary of his presumptuous oppositions thereunto A. Sir you have abundantly satisfied me in this point and I suppose every rationall man and true bred-sonne of the Church of England And surely I wonder so learned a man should commit so fowle an errour as not to search better into the Doctrine of our Church so clearely expressed in the Homily B. You need not wonder at it wee have all knowne him to doe as great a matter as that For was not his hand to the Approbation of a Booke in print though afterwards called in by Soveraigne Authority which contaynes and maintayns many sundry Tenents both Pelagian and Popish flatt against the cleare Doctrines of our Church and whereby hee hath as yet made no publike recantation to remoove the scandall from the Church of England and to satisfy so high an offence given Yea in stead of Recantation I my self have heard him in open Court speake against both Iustification that a man might be justified to day and damned to morrow and against Election of some to eternall life and against the sanctification of the Sabbath saying I say there is no sanctification of the Sabbath but Rest Rest onely And therefore cease to wonder that this man should be so feareles either privily to undermine or apertly to oppugne the expresse doctrines of our Church A. Yet I cannot but wonder how hee dare be so bold and upon what grounds hee should thus impune beare himself B. The grounds I examine not as pertayning to those that are more judicious and in highest place over the Church but the fact cannot be dissembled A. But perhaps hee will say this is your private interpretation of the Homily and of a sort of
regard of place duration gesture habit and other externall circumstances are prescribed by the Law of the Church So hee Thus you see how hee limits the prescription of circumstances which comprehend time place persons and namely Duration when and how long God shall be served unto the prescription of the Law of the Church which hee expresseth more fully pag. 270. saying It was in the free election of the Church to appoint what day or dayes or times shee thought good or found convenient for Religious dueties for the Euangelicall Law hath not determined any certaine day or time and those actions or circumstances which are not determined by Divine precept are permitted to the liberty and authority of the Church to be determined and appointed So hee But cleare it is that the Church of England disclameth all such power but ascribes all authority of prescribing a time and day of holy rest unto the Lord of the Sabbath who hath expressed his will and pleasure herein in his Law of the fourth Commandement as our Homily sayth A. But the Homily seemes to favour his opinion saying that Godly Christian people began to chuse them a standing day of the weeke c. And therefore it seemes to be at the Churches choyce B. Our choyce doth not necessarily imply a power of institution Wee are sayd to chuse life and truth before death and errour are wee therefore the authors of them Againe our choyce herein is according to Gods Commandement Thirdly the Homily sayth expresly that those Godly Christian people did in their choyce follow the example and Commandement of God Now what example had they but Christs rising and resting on that day after the example of Gods resting the seventh day And for Commandement they had both the fourth Commandement and an Apostolicall precept 1. Cor. 16. and that place in the Revelation appropriating this day as holy to the Lord and so ratified by God himself And who were they which taught those Godly Christian people to keepe this day viz. the Apostles And therefore wee must put a vast difference betweene the unerring Apostles and the succeeding Churches so as the Homily is cleare against him A. But see this seemes to me the maine knott of the whole controversy namely about the designation of the particular and speciall time consecrated to Gods worship whither it be comprehended and prescribed in the fourth Commandement or depends upon the determination of the Church The Adversary confesseth a naturall equity in the fourth Commandement that some time is to be set apart for the service of God but indeputate and left at large to the liberty of the Church to determine and limit the speciall time when and how long what portion and proportion is to be allowed Now although you have a little touched upon this point already yet considering it is the maine hindge of the whole matter in question and the maine ground whereon the whole waight of the controversy relyeth I pray you a little more fully to elucidate this point and the rather not onely for the settling of my judgement but for the clearing of our Homily from all false interpretations which the Adversary might make for the eluding of those things which you have observed out of it B. Your motion is very opportune and no lesse important For the Adversary doth the more easily play fast and loose in the myst of his generalities while though hee cannot or dare not for shame utterly deny the morality of the fourth Commandement which all Divines doe hold yet hee denies any particular speciall determinate time to be commanded or limited therein but will have that wholly put and placed in the power of the Church It will be requisite therefore to stoppe this hole that hee may not have the least evasion but by the cords of strong reasons be bound and forced to confesse that either the fourth Commandement doth prescribe and determine a sett certain fixed proportion of time consecrated by God himself unto his solemne and sacred worship or els that it commaunds to us Christians no certain time or day at all and so the morality of it if ever it had any is quite abolished and no other Law or Commandement now binds us but the precept or practise of the Church This is the very summe and upshot of the matter A. Sir I conceive and apprehend it to be so B. Now I shall proove and make it evident that the fourth Commandement either prescribes a certain proportion of time and a fixed day consecrate to God and in that very respect is perpetually morall binding us Christians to the same proportion or els if it determine no sett proportion of time but leaves it at large to the Church to proportionate whither longer or shorter then there remaines no such obligatory equity in the fourth Commandement as to bind the Church to appoint and allow such or such a proportion of time but that if this time which the Church appointeth be either one day in 20 or 40 or 100 or one day in the yeare or so or but one peece of a day in such a revolution of time and not one whole or intyre day much lesse one whole day in every seven the Church in this sinneth not as being not guilty of the breach of the fourth Commandement which bindeth us Christians to no certain proportion of time as the Adversary himself would have it but in this respect is now abrogated His words are The fourth Commandement in respect of any one definite and speciall day of every weeke was not simplie and perpetuallie morall but positive and temporary onely Which assertion of his as it is directly and in terminis contrary to the doctrine of our Homily fore-alledged which sayth By this Commandement the fourth wee ought to have a time as one day in the weeke c. and this appartaineth to the Law of nature as a thing most Godly most just and needfull for the setting forth of Gods glorie and therefore ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian people So the Homily No sayth D. Whiâ— one day in the weeke was but positive and temporary onely and therefore not appartaining to the Law of nature as a thing most Godly most just and needfull for the setting forth of Gods glory and so ought not in that respect to be retained and kept of all good Christian people But wee will not presse him downe with the bare authority of our Church without showing the grounds and reasons whereupon it is grounded Now first observe wee the words of the Commandement Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy which words sayth the learnest Zanchie are the very morall substance of the fourth Commandement The Lord sayth not Remember to sanctify some convenient and sufficient time as the Church shall thinke fit The Commandement prescribeth a certain and sett time yea a day the Sabbath day one day in the weeke which is the Sabbath day Againe it teacheth us
attend to Gods worship c. So Augustine And you see he speakes this not as his owne particular opinion but as it was the Tenet of the whole Catholike Church So as the whole ancient Catholike Church did not onely observe but call the Lords day the Sabbath of the Lord which they kept in place of the old Sabbath day Thus did H. B. informe me And I remember Hilary calls it so saying Though in the seventh day of the weeke both the name and observance of the Sabbath be established yet wee on the eigth day which also is the first doe injoy the festivity of the perfect Sabbath Lo here this Father also calls the Lords day the day of our perfect Sabbath But this suffice A. It is a very pregnant place for his purpose and sufficient to answer fully all the cavills which are brought to the contrary so as if H. B. doe but alledge this one place it will cleare all the other But Sir here is a huge clamour especially of late dayes raised against the name of Sabbath applyed to the Lords day I pray you may it not be called the Sabbath day And what doth our Church hold concerning this B. That the Lords day may be called the Sabbath day I make no question And that for many reasons 1. Because it is our Rest-day 2. The Apostle calls our rest a Sabbatisme 3. The very name of Lords day imports so much as being the Lords holy day as Esa. 58. 13. and that day whereon the Lord rested from his worke of Redemption and so sanctified by him and to him A. D. Wh. denies that Christ upon the day of his Resurrection rested from the worke of Redemption B. I conferred with H. B. about this because it much concernes him to quitt this question seeing on Christs resting on that day hee grounds the Sabbatisme of it as agreeable to the fourth Commandement And in my judgement if hee can evince and cleare it it will proove unanswerable And hee tells me that hee hath in two severall Treatises in Latin against Theo. Brab fully cleared it and remooved all objections and cavillations that either Th. Br. or F. VVh have or can bring to the contrary And hee purposeth to doe the like to D. VVh And hee made it very cleare to me that Christs Rest from the worke of Redemption from sinne on the Crosse and from death in the grave which was a branch of that worke began not till his Resurrection As for his Ascension that was into the place of rest but his Resurrection was into the state of rest As for D. VVh his objection with Th. Brab that Christ laboured on that day H. B. shewes it to be absurd and ridiculous seeing Christ arose with a body glorifyed and impassible so as his actions that day could not be called a labour that thereby the new Sabbath should be broken But you aske me what our Church holdeth concerning this that the Lords day is called the Sabbath day In brief I have observed that in the Homilies it is no lesse then ten severall times called expresly the Sabbath day 8. times in the Homily fore-cited and twice in the third Homily of Rebellion Also Canon 70. in the Articles of the two last Trienniall visitations of London In K. Iames his Proclamation May 7. 1603 twice In an exhortation at a generall Fast set forth by him in the first yeare of his Raigne In Archbishop Bancrofts visitation Articles for Canterbury Art 75. 76. I might compile a whole volume of instances in this kind Yea there seldome comes forth a Brief but it calls it the Sabbath day But least neither the Church of England in her publike doctrine nor the pious workes of her grave and learned sons may perhaps satisfy the Adversaries importunity yet I hope the writings of his more pious and no lesse learned brother D. Iohn VVhite and those also both republished and vindicated by Fr. VVhite from the Iesuites calumnies white dyed black c. will a little qualify him How D. Iohn VVhite doth not onely call the Lords day the Sabbath day as once Sect. 38. 1. and twice Sect. 43. digress 46. 6. but hee also condemnes all profane sports and recreations on that day and among the rest dauncing for one And for this hee alledgeth the example of the Papists as the most notorious Sabbath-breakers in this kind A. Doth hee so Sir This seemes strange to me that so great a Clerke as Fr. VVhite should so farre forget himself as not to remember what his brother hath write Surely if it be so it will be a cooling card and no small disgrace to his Lo when so worthy and reverend a Brother shall be brought as a witnesse against him But I pray you for my better satisfaction relate to me the very passages and words of D. Iohn VVhite B. I will In Digress 46. the title whereofis Naming certain points of the Popish Religion which directly tend to the maintenance of open sinne and liberty of life Now among many fowle and profane practises as hee calls them this hee notes for one namely the profanation of the Sabbath in these words That they hold it lawfull on the Sabbath day to follow suits travell hunt DANCE keep faires and such like This is it that hath made Papists the most notorious Sabbath-breakers that live So hee And Sect. 38. n. 1. hee sayth Let it be observed if all disorders be not most in those parts among us where the people is most Pope-holy c. And for mine owne part having spent much of my time among them this I have found that in all excesse of sinne Papists have bene the ringleaders in riotous companies in drunken meetings in seditious assemblies and practises in profaning the Sabbath in quarrells and brawles in stage-playes Greenes Ales and all heathenish customes c. Thus this reverend Divine Candore notabilis ipso whom all the Iesuiticall smoke out of the bottomlesse pit cannot besweere or besumdge or dye blacke with all their black-mouthed obloquies A. Surely these are very pregnant passages And it makes me tremble to thinke and amazeth me how one White is so contrary to another as also how the Libertinisme dispensed now a dayes on the Sabbath tendeth to bring us Protestants to be like to the Papists in their profane times in taking up their heathenish savage and barbarous maners and customes B. Wee have all of us cause to lament what wee see and to feare yet more sinfull mischiefs to follow if they be not prevented A. I begin to blame my owne negligence I did not thinke that our Church and the Archbishops and Bishops themselves and K. Iames and others had so familiarly used to call the Lords day the Sabbath day And it seemeth that D. Wh. hath not well read over out owne Church Records how skillfull soever he professe himself to be in Antiquity tanquam in aliena republica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as