thee his great fire and thou heardst his words out of the midst of the fire And because he loved thy Fathers therefore he chose their seed after them And in his last blessing upon the people when now he was going out of the world Moses as a King putteth them in mind of this saying Deut. 33.2 3 4 5. The Lord came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them he shined forth from mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of Saints from his right hand went a fiery law for them Yea he loved the people all his Saints are in thy hands and they sate downe at thy feet every one shall receive of thy words Moses commanded a Law even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was King in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the Tribes of Israel were gathered together It is true there is an hole pickt in the fourth Commandement concerning the sanctifying of the Sabbath as if that among all the rest were not morall but ceremoniall Yet this honour it hath from God that immediatly after the Creation the Lord resting on the seventh day from his works therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen. 2.3 And therefore Doctor Andrewes ere he died Bishop of Winchester in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I commonly cite it under his name because it is commonly received to bee his and as I have heard upon divers good grounds treating upon this Commandement and having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a Ceremony and so abrogated by Christ Makes answer to it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce look whether it were so from the beginning Now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any Ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is changed but no ceremony proved And yet we are not ignorant how Papists have practised to raze the second commandement also out of the Law given on mount Sina as if that also were out of date being as they conceive but of a positive nature at first so little evidence doe they finde for it by the light of Nature and now the world is growne so wise that they know how to worship God by Images without committing any idolatry at all though this mystery of religious state is not thought fit to be communicated unto the vulgar But doe we not all acknowledge the light of Nature to be much corrupted since the fall of Adam how much more our judgement of morall things wherein Aristotle confesseth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eth. 1. c. 3. demonstration is not to be expected but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswasion And if way be given to mens wanton wils for the gratifying of corrupt affections more breaches than these are like to be made in the Decalogue I have heard that Cardinall Cusanus undertooke to justifie the sin of Sodome Sure I am amongst the Lacedemonians wives were common And Brennus that Ancient Invader of other Nations made profession that he knew no other Law of Nature but this that The weaker should be in subjection to the stronger like as King Pyrrhus in his death-bed being demanded who should succeed him in the Kingdom made answer even He whose sword is the longest Carneades I thinke was the man who having on a day made a singular speech in commendation of Justice afterwards discoursed as eloquently to the contrary shewing that there was no justice at all by the law of nature every naturall thing seeking to maintaine it selfe by the destruction of others So the fire maintaines it selfe by the combustion of each combustible thing whereunto it approacheth and the water overflowes all naturally and beats downe all dammes it can to make roome for it selfe And the greatest Beasts maintain themselves by praying on those that have no power to resist them The more cause have wee to blesse God for giving us the Law Morall in writing which grew so miserably defaced in the hearts of men And that herein the sanctifying of the Sabbath is mentioned among the rest this hath ever satisfied mee and assured that the substance thereof is Morall and that accordingly wee ought to inure our selves to the sanctification of the Sabbath though naturally we find in our selves no greater reluctation to any Commandement than to this Pardon me if I judge of others by my selfe in this particular Nay upon this very consideration have we not the more cause to strive against this intestine corruption of ours His Majesty is much delighted in hunting it is a recreation mixt with manly exercise well becomming a King but I heare he never useth to hunt on the Lords day And so much the rather should the Lords Sabbaths be deare unto us because the goodnesse and mercy of God appeares no where more than in giving us his Sabbaths calling upon us thereby to rest from the world unto him and God knowes a Christian soule finds no rest any where but in him and to walke with him in holy meditation as he is pleased to walk in the midst of us as a Hos 11.9 the Holy One of Israel so to draw us away from worldly cares and pleasures to the entertaining of heavenly and holy cares to enrich our selves with the knowledge of God and to recreate our soules in the Lord as hee solaceth himselfe in us according to that Prov. 8.31 Hee tooke his solace in the compasse of the earth and his delight was in the children of men On the Lords day it is that in speciall sort we Christians take hold of that holy Cōmunion which God in great mercy in his Son Jesus Christ vouchsafeth unto us with himselfe speaking unto us as from heaven in his holy Word and giving us liberty to speak unto him The Lord pitcheth his Tabernacle amongst us here on earth and we are as it were taken up into the mount of God there to be transfigured before him When the Lord appeared unto Jacob in a vision by night when he fled from his brother Esau and he saw a ladder erected between heaven and earth and the Lord on the top of it the Angels ascending and descending by it when he awoke How dreadfull saith he is this place Gen. 28.16 17. The Lord was here and I was not a ware surely it is no other than the house of God and the gate of heaven And are not our Temples the houses of God are they not the very gates of heaven In our solemne assemblies is not a ladder erected betweene earth and heaven is not the Lord on the top of it Deut. 33.3 and are not we humbled at his feet to heare his Word The gracious instructions which we receive from him are they
unlesse he conceived that this which he cals positive had some ceremoniality in it But their reason whereupon they deny the ceremoniality of it in my judgment is not sufficient 1. Because they ground it upon a supposition very questionable namely that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which some deny and that with very great probability in my judgment 2. Their consequence is not good For though it were no ceremony at the first yet others say it might be afterwards and give instance in the rain-bow which though in course of nature extant before yet was not a signe till after the Flood and though I know some who would not admit of this instance yet the Thesis seemes very possible and clearely of such a condition was matrimony ordained without all question before the fall 3. What is that which they say is not ceremoniall is it the service of the day in the sanctifying of it None that I know maintains that to be necessarily ceremoniall Or is it the rest of the day Observe well and you shal find no rest expresly commanded at the first but only it is signified that God dedicated it to his service which yet I confesse willingly draws after it a rest from all works opposite or impedimentall to the sanctification of it 4. Thus they take little care to satisfie the Fathers who generally concurre in acknowledging the ceremoniality of it And we are too weak in these dayes to beare up an opinion in flat contradiction to the Ancients and to keepe our selves blamelesse Yet Doctor Andrews Bishop of Winchester ere hee died in his pattern of Catechetical doctrine professeth against the ceremoniality of it but so as acknowledging it to prefigure the rest we shall have from our sins in Christ and that therefore the day is changed though as he thinks the ceremony not thereby proved Yet pag. 241. having proposed such a question Whether we must observe the Sabbath as the Jewes did not to kindle a fire nor to dresse any meat on that day answereth thus We say No for this was but ceremoniall and belonged only unto them 5. Vpon this ground to wit upon the denying of the ceremoniality of the particular day they will hardly be able to justifie the abrogation of it For albeit they find some ground for observation of the Lords day yet no ground at all for the abrogation of the seventh And that which is only positive must still continue till it be abrogated by as good authority as whereby it was made 1. And wee find the practise of the Church for the observation of both some hundreds of yeares continued 2. And it seemes congruous to reason in the judgement of those who oppose both the institution of it forthwith after the creation and the morality of one day in seven that wee should consecrate to Gods service rather more dayes than fewer And surely to discover as good ground for observation of the Lords day now as for observation of the seventh formerly is the greatest difficulty that I find in this argument if not insuperable whereof yet wee shall find our selves in greater measure eased if we can shew manifest evidence for the abrogation of the seventh which was sabbaticall to the Jewes Now first this is clearly performed by acknowledgeing the ceremoniality of it which yet I doe not affect should be acknowledged without proofe Secondly thus also the Fathers shall fairely be satisfied Thirdly and the Introduction of the Lords day in the place therof advanced Fourthly especially if the ceremoniality be so cleared as plainly to manifest that the body thereof was Christ which is a very hard taske to performe of all other ceremonies yea of all other Sabbaths or any other Sabbath save of the weekely Sabbath But of all these to wit 1. Of the originall institution of it 2. Of the morality of one day in seven as perpetually to be observed 3. Of the authority of the Lords day introduced into the place of the seventh by more than Ecclesiasticall or Humane constitution we shall speak more by occasion of the severall passages in this discourse which comes to be examined so to make way to enquire about the sanctification of the Lords day whether in opposition as much to worldly sports and pastimes or more rather as to the works of our calling For to the consideration hereof we are now driven it being now held that they who speak or write against such sports and pastimes upon the Lords day our Christian Sabbath doe oppose truth Now whether we do oppose truth in standing for the sanctification of the Lords day and maintaining these pastimes specified to be an impediment thereunto we desire to commend our selves to the judgement of every Christian conscience upon consideration of our reasons herein represented Our Savior commands us to give unto Caesar that which is Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods and wee hold our selves bound to hearken unto his voice as we hope to be saved by his grace And because in some cases it may bee doubtfull what belongs unto Caesar and what belongs unto God by reason of the darknesse of our understanding and weaknesse of our judgement it behooves us so much the more to labour in the investigation of this difference and carefully looke unto it that under colour of giving unto Caesar that which is Caesars we doe not give unto Caesar that which is not Caesars and not give unto God that which is Gods and under colour of giving unto God that which is Gods we doe not give unto God that which is not Gods and not give unto Caesar that which is Caesars And albeit D. Prideaux his Lecture was neither delivered as I am perswaded by word of mouth nor afterwards set forth in print to strengthen so sharpe proceedings against the Ministers of God as now are in course yet seeing it hath been of late translated and published in English with a Preface to the justifying of the same proceedings even then as it seemes intended and that neither according to any Law or Canon that we know of therefore I am driven who otherwise I am verily perswaded should never have set hand unto this worke but lest it unto others who are better versed in practicall and pastorall Divinity than my selfe to give my self to the examination both of the Preface and of the Booke it selfe for we labour as it were for life under the burthen of it and this is set forth as it seemes to promote our condemnation THE DOCTRINE OF THE SABBATH DELIVERED in the Act at Oxenford Anno 1622. By D. PRIDEAUX His Majesties Professor in Divinity in that UNIVERSITIE And now translated into English for the benefit of the common people Marke 2.27 The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath Together with an Examination thereof The Preface of the Translator to the Christian Reader Preface 1 OF all the Controversies which have exercised Sect. 1 the Church of Christ
Love of God manifested in his Sonne inflamed his true servants according to that of Iohn We love him because he loved us first Againe if wee consider the service of that day as such wherby our soules are profited and promoted in faith and holinesse never was there more need then in these dayes of sanctifying a better proportion of time unto God Service rather then a worse and that in each respect For the truth of God was never so encombred with oppositions before the comming of our Saviour in the flesh as it hath beene since No heretiques to speake of were knowne to trouble the peace of the Church in those former times in comparison to the multitude of heresies that have beene broached since and began to bee set on foote in the very dayes of the Apostles Saint Paul professing that even then the mystery of iniquity did worke And whereas Saint Peter tells us that false teachers should come privily bringing in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them Saint Iude tells them to whom hee writes that such were already crept in turning the grace of God into wantonnesse and denying God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And Saint Iohn after the same manner little children saith hee it is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And no marvaile for as much as the mysteries of godlinesse concerning the Trinity of persons and incarnation of the Sonne of God whereat carnall wits are so apt to stumble were never so punctually and distinctly expressed in the books of the old Testament as now they are particularly delivered in the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists So that had wee in these dayes two Sabbaths in a weeke insteed of one all were little enough to instruct our people and strengthen them against the oppositions made by men of carnall mindes and thereby to keepe them in the right way of Gods saving truth And no lesse necessitie is there for the keeping of them in the wayes of holinesse such is the degenerate condition of the World Long agoe it is that the severe judgement of God had its course in giving men over to illusions to beleeve lies and all for not receiving the love of the truth as much as to say for the profanenesse of the Christian World in not making it their care to walke worthy of their calling worthy of the Gospell whereunto the Apostle so often exhorts Christians So that if at any time it were requisite to set one day in seven apart for the service of God surely by the very dictate of common reason it is most requisite in these latter dayes of the Gospell Especially considering the rage and fury of Satan in opposing the Kingdome of Christ more now than ever because he knoweth hee hath but a short time As for the alteration of the day the same proportion of time still continuing from the seventh to the first day of the weeke that I confesse willingly seemes not at first sight to have the like evidence But whereas this Prefacer contends for the alteration of the day as onely by an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution observe that not one of the ancient Fathers are mentioned by him for the justifying of this though divers are referred unto by him as against the institution of the Sabbath from the Creation But wee have divers of the ancients bearing witnesse to the Divine institution of the Lords day to come in place of the seventh As first Athanasius Homil. de Semente Olim certe priscis hominibus in summo pretio Sabbatum fuit quam quidem solemnitatem Dominus in diem Dominicum transtulit Heretofore truly the Sabbath was in great price with men of old time which solemnity the Lord hath translated unto the Lords Day Austine hath divers other passages to the same purpose de civitate dei lib. 22. cap. ult Dominicus dies velut octavus aeternus qui Christi Resurrectione sacratus est aeternam non solum Spiritus verumetiam corporis requiem prafigurans The Lords Day as the eighth eternall which was sacred by Christs Resurrection prefiguring an eternall rest not of the spirit only but of the body also and in his Ep. 119. ad Ianuarium The Lords Day is declared not to the Iewes but to Christians by the Lords Resurrection and from thence began to have its festivity and de verbis Apostoli Sermo 15. The Lords Resurrection promised unto us an eternall day and hath consecrated to us the Lords Day which is called the Lords because the Lord rose on that day and de Temp. Serm. 251. The Apostles and Apostolicall men have therefore ordained the Lords day to be kept with a religious solemnity because on that day our redeemer rose from the dead Cyril in Joan. lib. 12. cap. 58. From Christ presenting himself unto his Apostles on the eighth day which hee interpreteth of the first day of the weeke concludes therehence that by right therefore holy Congregations are kept in the Churches on that day And as Walaeus observes the celebrity of this day Eusebius referres to Christ himselfe in these words Who ever prescribed to all the inhabitants of the World either by Sea or Land that meeting together one day in the weeke they should celebrate the Dominicall festivity Athan. on that of Mat. 11.27 All things are given to me of my Father Adde to this that of Gregory mentioned Section the 1. Nay Athanasius goes further and shewes the equity of it in proportion to the new Creation compared with the old The end of the first Creation was the Sabbath but the beginning of the second Creature is the Lords Day wherein hee renewed and repayred the old man Like as therefore in former times he would have the Sabbath day to be kept so we keepe holy the Lords Day as a monument of the beginning of the second Creation And this proportion is apprehended by Beza also on the Revelation the first Chap. and 10. verse That Sabbath day saith hee continued from the Creation of the World to the Lords resurrection which seeing it is as it were an other Creation of another spirituall World as the Prophets speake then for the Sabbath of the former World or seventh day was assumed and that undoubtedly by the Holy Ghost suggesting this to the Apostles the first day of this new World in which not the corporall or corruptible light in the first day of the first World was created but that heavenly and eternall light did spring unto us In all which Beza doth exactly treade in the steps of that ancient Father Athanasius and concludes that the assemblies of the Lords Day which Justine expresly makes mention of in his second Apologetium are of tradition apostolicall and truly Divine And after him Doctor Andrewes late Bishop of Winchester whom Doctor Hall now Bishop of Exceter some where calls the Oracle of these times upon the same ground maintaines the equity of bringing our Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath
Christ bringing with it a new Creation Shall wee preferre the Saturday the Jewes festivall before it shall wee preferre the Friday the day of the Turkes festivall before it shall wee affect power and liberty to make any other day in the weeke the Lords holy day rather then that the Word of God commends unto us for the Lords Day in the time of the Gospell This I suppose may suffice for answering the rest also whensoever their suffrages shall bee brought to light for I presume none of them hath sayd more then Chemnitius hath done Azorius the Jesuite professeth of two things in this argument that they are most agreeable to reason First that after six worke dayes one entire day should bee consecrated to God 2. that the Lords Day should bee it Doctor Fulke in answer to the Remish Testament professeth that to change the Lords Day and keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath no authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles This was printed in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and dedicated unto her Majesty what Bishop as gouernour in this Church of England hath ever beene known to take exception against this Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his starre Chamber speech in the Case of Traske professeth that the Sabbath to wit of the Iewes had reference to the old Creation but in Christ we are now Creatures As the Apostle S. Paul speakes a new Creation and so to have a new Sabbath And this he saith is deduced plainly 1. by practise 2. by precept that these two onely the first day of the weeke and the Sacrament of the Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to be taken in both So that give power to the Church to alter the one and you may as well give power to the Church to alter the other He shewes also it was an usuall question put to Christians Dominicum servasti Hast thou kept the Lords Day And their answer was this Christianus sum intermittere non possum I am a Christian and I cannot intermit it Lastly he allegeth the Synod of Laodicea Can. 29. acknowledged in that of Chalcedon 133. that Christian men may not Judaize not make the Saturday their day of rest but that they are to worke on that day giving their honour of celebration to the Lords Day Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath 39. The Church hath received it the Lords Day not to be liberae observationis of free observation as if men might at pleasure accept or refuse it 40. But to be perpetually observed to the worlds end For as God onely hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that he will take for his portion For he is Lord of the Sabbath 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the works therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Adde unto these Iunius and Piscator who maintaine the subrogation of the Lords Day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath to have beene made by the ordinance of Christ and Beza acknowledgeth it to be traditionis Apostolicae verè divinae Doctor Brownde in his Treatise of the Sabbath lib. 1. pag. 47. having recited the opinion of Iunius referring the institution of the Lords Day to Christs ordinance as who rose from the dead on that day addeth hereunto after this manner Like unto the which because nothing can ever fall out in the world comparable unto it in glory and power therefore this day must continue in his first honour of sanctification unto the end of all things and no day be set up like to it or it changed into any other day lest the wonderfull glory of that thing be darkened and the infinite power of it weakned I meane the glorious and mighty worke of our redemption which by the sanctification of this Sabbath is commended unto us and we by keeping that holy still doe commend it to our posterity And this is it that is alleged as a reason of the observation of this day in the Apostles constitutions Const Apost l. 7. c. 37. It is called the Lords Day because it declares unto us Christ crucified and raised up againe and it is worthily commended to be kept as the Lords Day that wee might give thankes unto thee O Lord Christ for all these benefits for say they there is that grace bestowed upon us by thee Qua sua magnitudine omnia beneficia obscurat which by the greatnesse and as it were by the brightnesse of it doth obscure and darken all other So that though the day was once changed upon these considerations nay they being such as they be it could not but be changed yet forsomuch as the like cause can never be offered unto men to move them to enter into this consideration therefore the day must not onely not be changed any more but it must not so much as enter in mens thoughts to goe about to change it And therefore I doe so much the more marvell at him who saith That the keeping holy of the Lords Day is not commanded by the authority of the Gospel but rather received into use by the publique consent of the Church And a little after The observation of the Lords Day is profitable and not to be rejected but yet it is not to be accounted for a commandement of the Gospel but rather for a civill ordination And that the Church might have appointed but one day in ten or foureteene for the publique rest and Gods service Lastly Master Perkins maintaines the same not to mention Doctor Willet and that by divers reasons in his cases of conscience which because they are modestly answered by Doctor Rivet in his commentary upon the Decalogue I thinke good in this place to take them into consideration A FOVRTH DIGRESSION MAKING GOOD Mr. PERKINS his Arguments for the Divine institution of the Lords Day against the answer made unto them by Doctor RIVETVS Perkins THeir first Argument saith he is taken from the appellation of the Lords Day I suppose saith Master Perkins it is called the Lords Day as the last supper of Christ is called the Lords Supper for two causes First as God rested the seventh day after the creation so Christ having finished the worke of the new creation rested on this day from the work of Redemption Secondly as Christ did substitute the last supper in roome of the passeover so hee substituted the first day of the weeke in roome of the Jewes Sabbath to be a day set apart to his owne worship To this Doctor Rivet answereth after this manner Rivet Answ First hee denies that there is the same reason
of the Lords supper the Lords Day and that for two reasons first because we have a manifest institution thereof and Christs Precept for the observing of it Not so of the Lords Day Secondly if there were a Precept for keeping the Lords Day yet were it Ecclesiasticall and so mutable For men may choose daies for the worship of God as touching the particularity of this day or that But the institution of the Sacraments is of Divine authority by the consent of all To this I replie that Doctor Rivetus corrupts Master Perkins his answer in the proposing of it Repl. for he sayth not the same is the reason of the Lords Supper and of the day which wee call the Lords Day but supposeth and that most modestly that either of them being called the Lords they are called so in the same Notion That like as the Lords Supper is so called because he instituted it so the first day of the weeke is called the Lords Day because hee instituted the observation of it And this Doctor Thysius collegue to Doctor Rivetus maintaines as well as Master Perkins and Doctor Andrewes Bishop of Winchester in his speech against Traske saying that both these to wit the first day of the weeke and Christ last Supper are called the Lords to shew that Dominicum the Lords is alike to bee taken in both For what reason can bee given why the day of Christs Resurrection not according to the day of the yeare wherein hee arose but according to the day of the weeke wherein hee arose should bee called the Lords Day but to signifie First that it was to succeed in the place of the Lords Dayunder the law which was the Jewish Sabbath 2. And that it was the good pleasure of God and not of man onely that it should bee consecrate to his service For consider wee have many other dayes consecrated by the Church unto Divine service which yet were never called the Lords Dayes And the Lords Day and the Lords feasts in the Old Testament and in the language of the Holy Ghost are no other then such that are of the Lords institution Secondly Doctor Rivetus omits the maine force of Master Perkins his argument or at least slightly passeth it over which is this As God rested the seventh day after the Creation so Christ having ended the worke of the new Creation rested on this day from his worke of redemption Athanasius of old considers a first and a second Creation and so accordingly a first and a second Sabbath our Saviour himselfe speakes of a Christian Sabbath Math. 24.20 and wâ—â—t should that bee but the Lords Day under the Gospell And Beza and Iunius and Bishop Andrewes worke upon the same And I wonder that men should thinke the Sabbath should bee altered and another brought into the place of it by any other authority then of him who is Lord of the Sabbath And as Bishop Lake observes in all feasts both Divine and humane that wee reade of in Scripture the worke of the day was the ground of hallowing the day And never was known to the World a more wonderfull worke in the way of grace and mercy then Christs Resurrection from the dead manifesting thereby the redemption of the World as then wrought by him How doth Christ take upon him to alter the Sacraments but as Lord of the Sacraments and apparently he shewes that upon the same ground hee takes upon him power to dispense or change the Sabbath as hee is Lord of the Sabbath But what is his ground to deny the parity of reason here meerely his owne prejudicate conceit that the obligation of the Lords Day is not so great as the observation of the Sabbath The contrary whereunto saith he omnes refugimus we all avoyd But who and how many are those all what one of the ancients can hee produce to have thought as hee thinks Hee may as well say according to the current of his private opinion that wee under the Gospell are not as much bound to the observation of one day in seaven as the Jewes were under the Law It is true that rigorous rest enjoyned to the Jewes wee utterly disclaime as well as hee againe the circumstance of the day wee make no part of Gods worship nor to have any mysterious signification as the Sabbath had to the Jewes Wee acknowledge no other use of this day then for order and policy sake in which case wee judge it farre better the Lord should prescribe it then wee unto our selves least if there were twenty dayes in the weeke there would bee twenty differences amongst Christians about the setting apart of one day in the weeke for Divine Service Perkins 2. Master Perkins his second argument is this The Church of Corinth every first day of the weeke made a collection for the poore 1 Cor. 16.2 and this collection for the poore in the primitive Church followed the preaching of the Word Prayer and the Sacraments as a fruite thereof Acts 2.42 and Paul commands the Corinths to due this as he had ordained in the Churches of Galatia whereby he makes it to be an Apostolicall and therefore a Divine Ordinance Yea that very Text doth in some part manifest thus much that it is an ordinance and institution of Christ that the first day of the weeke should be the Lords Day For Paul commandes nothing but what he receaved from Christ To this Doctor Rivetus alledgeth the answer of Doctor Prideaux Rivets Ans Reply demanding how that we contend for his inferred herehence we answer the generall practise of the Church in the Apostles dayes argues it manifestly that this order was established by the joynt consent of the Apostles otherwise it is incredible it should have beene so universally receaved and persevered in as it hath beene to this day Secondly wheras the Jewes Sabbath was by divine authority the abrogation thereof and substituting another day in the place thereof could bee done by no lesse authority then Divine which also wee conceave to bee fairely represented by the denomination of our Christian Sabbath S. Iohn calling it the Lords Day Secondly he sheweth what Gomarus answereth hereunto but this answer himselfe taketh off in this very place in part and much more in his reply to Gomarus But these places being granted to denote the first day of the weeke in the Apostles dayes set apart to Divine Service hee sayth it followes not herehence that it is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service much lesse that so it was by Divine ordination Yet Walaeus thinkes it his safest course to say t is called the Lords Day as destinated to Gods Service as before wee have heard so to avoyd as hee thinkes the implication of Divine Ordination But to him I have answered before And Doctor Rivetus in my opinion doth not wel consider that not the day of the yeare but the day of the weeke whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day by S.
holy studies and meditations as worldly cares and both equally are noted out to be such as choake the Word Luk. 8.14 And therefore this day is altogether appointed to this end even to recreate our selves in the Lord For seeing God purposeth one day to keepe an everlasting Sabbath with us when God shall be all in all to make us the more fit for this even the more meete partakers of the inheritance of Saints in light therefore hee hath given us his Sabbaths to walke with him and to inure our selves to take delight in his company who takes delight to speake unto us as from Heaven in his holy Word and to give us liberty to speake unto him in our prayers confessions thanksgivings and supplications on other dayes wee care for the things of this World on this day our care should be spirituall and heavenly in caring for the things of another World so our pleasures should be spirituall on this day Esay 58.13 If thou shalt call the Sabbath a delight to consecrate it as glorious unto the Lord. Now have we not as much cause to performe this duty under the Gospell as ever the Jewes had under the Law And indeed there is no colour of reason against this but by affirming that now the setting of a day apart for Gods service is left at large to the liberty of the Church and albeit the Church hath set apart the Lords Day for this yet their meaning herein is no more then this that they shal come to Church twise a day and afterwards give themselves to what sports soever are not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land so that now a dayes wee are free from the obligation to the fourth Commandement and yet we are taught by the Church aswell at the hearing of this Commandement as at any other to say Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law and the booke of Homilies urgeth us to the sanctifying of our Christian Sabbath which is Sunday saith the booke expressely and that by vertue of Gods expresse Commandement And therefore I cannot but wonder at the indiscretion of this Prefacer who catcheth after such a superficiall advantage as the denomination of a feast amongst the Jewes not considering how little sutable it is to the grounds of his Tenet For by his Tenet after evening Prayer the Sabbath is at end the Churches meaning being not any further to oblige them to the sanctifying of the Lords Day but to give them liberty to use any sports or pastimes not forbidden them by the Lawes of the Land But so was not the feast of the Jewes ended when they danced this being but an expression of that joy whereunto the present solemnity called them and they sinned no more herein then David did when hee danced before the Arke as wee see Ier. 31.12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Sion and shall flow together to the goodnesse of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oile and for the young of the flock and of the heard and their soule shall be as a well watered Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 13 Then shall the Virgin rejoyce in the dance both yong men and old together for I will turne their mourning into joy and will comfort them make them rejoyce for their sorrow 14. And I will satiate the soule of the Priest with fatnesse and my people shall be satisfyed with my goodnesse saith the Lord. And the like wee reade Esay 30.19 Ye shall have a song as in the Night when an holy solemnity is kept and gladnesse of heart as when one goeth with a Pipe to come into the Mountaine of the Lord to the mighty One of Israel so that if Morricing and May-games and Dancing about May-poles were a sanctifying of the Sabbath Day in part as the Lord commands the day to be sanctifyed then indeed these sports were as lawfull on the Lords Day as the Jewes piping and dancing were lawfull on their feasts But that any such piping and dancing were used and allowed in those ancient times among the Jewes on their Sabbaths there is not the least colour of evidence And it is evident that such sports put them to lesse rest for their bodies then the workes of their calling neither is there any better evidence that any such piping and dancing were in use amongst the Jewes while they continued the people of God on every day of their solemne feasts for two dayes in each of them to wit the first day and the last they are commanded to keepe as Sabbaths whereon they were to have an holy convocation and thereon they are expressely commanded to rest from all servile workes and I should thinke the following of naturall pleasures are to be presumed as servile workes as the workes of a mans calling Lastly all recreations are to this end even to fit us to the workes of our calling either for the workes of our particular callings or the workes of our generall callings as we are Christians Such sports if they fit us for the service of God were more seasonable in the Morning then in the Evening If for the workes of our particular calling then are they inferiour to the workes of our calling the furthering whereof is their end and the meanes are alwayes inferiour in dignity unto the end Now if the more noble workes are forbidden on that day how much more such as are inferior are forbidden But it may be sayd that mens minds being burthened and oppressed with the former service of the day therefore some relaxatiō is to be granted for the refreshing of our spirits As much as to say a part of the Lords Day is to be allowed for profane sports and pastimes to refresh us after wee have beene tired out with serving God can this be savoury in the eares of a Christian should not wee rather complaine of these corruptions and bewaile it before God then give our selves to such courses as are apt to strengthen it It is true such is our naturall corruption that nothing is more tedious unto us as wee are in our selves then to converse with God but should not the consideration hereof provoke us so much the more to strive against it then give way to the nourishing and confirming of it And hath not our Saviour told us that not the cares of this World onely but voluptuous living also is it that choaks the good seede of Gods Word and causeth it to become unfruitfull in us As for the refreshing of our spirits and quickning them and thereby making us the fitter for Gods service as in any modest exercise of the body in private according to every mans particular disposition to prevent drowsinesse and dulnesse in attending to Gods Word in praying in singing of Psalmes I know none that takes any exception against it And as for the authority of the magistrate to appoint pastimes sure I am the high Court of
reason though not totally and wholy For the first if above one day in the weeke should be kept perpetually holy Gravamen esset laborantibus toties vacare it were a grievance to labourers to rest from worke so oft his meaning is in this case they could not sufficiently provide for themselves and their families as touching the maintenance of this life temporall and if but one day in a fortnight or a month should be appointed oblivisceremur Dei per desuetudinem cultus ipsius We should forget God through not accustoming our selves sufficiently to his service Therefore it stands with reason that one day in seven should be celebrated to the Lord. This surely is not to deny the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated unto the Lord to be morall but to confirme it rather Neither doe I finde that Aquinas resolves it so as here it is pretended that which hee sayth to be ceremoniall is applied by him onely to the particular day of the weeke Indeed hee doth say that the proportion of one day in seven to be consecrated to the Lord is morall neither doth hee deny it onely hee sayth it is morall that some time should be set apart for Gods service Zan. in 4. praecep p. 599. And it may be under this he comprehends the proportion of one day in seven as Zanchy doth For albeit hee treads in Aquinas steps when hee sayth Morale est quatenus natura docet pietas postulat ut aliquis dies destinetur quieti ab operibus servilibus quo divino cultui vacare possit Ecclesia ceremoniale est quatenus septimus dies fuit praescriptus non alius It is morall to have a day destinate to rest from servile workes so to be free for Gods service It is ceremoniall that the seventh day and no other is prescribed for this yet a little before hee manifesteth that by one day to be set apart for this he meanes one day in seven when he thus sayth Ibid. p. 595. Con. 1. Morale est mandatum quatenus praecipit ut è septem diebus unum consecremus cultui divino proinde quatenus tale mandatum est nunquam fuit abrogatum nec abrogari potest The Commandement is morall as it commands us to consecrate one day in seven unto divine service And so doth Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Bellarmine de cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. And if no other be the opinion of Aquinas if the schoolmen of what sect soever say the same it followeth that they differ no more from us then Aquinas did it may be they will be found to agree with us For I doe not thinke any schooleman being put to it will deny but that by the very light of nature not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time must be set apart for Gods service And albeit had we beene left unto our selves without any indication of this proportion from God wee might well have beene to seeke in the setting forth of this convenient proportion Yet considering how God hath gone before us making the World in six daies and resting the seventh and considering thereupon the division of time into septenaries of dayes reason I should thinke with Tostatus doth dictate that the proportion of one day in seven was more convenient then any other Or if this were not sufficient for our direction herein yet when God hath manifested unto us both after the Creation and in the fourth Commandement what proportion of time hee likes best for this as it is in reason fit that the Master especially such a Master should prescribe what proportion of time shall be set apart for his service then with Chrysostome wee have cause by the very light of nature undoubtedly to conclude that if in the beginning and under the Law God required one day in seven to be consecrated to his service wee surely cannot allow unto him a worse proportion under the Gospell And Iacobus de Valentia advers Judae q. 2. Conclus Praeceptum de Sabbato celebrando est partim morale propter primam conditionem This first condition in respect whereof he sayth it is morall hee professeth to be two fold 1 in regard of the rest 2. in regard of the sanctification of it then hee proves it saying probatur Adi 2. Nam primo Sabbatum fuit praeceptum ad requiem hominis sanctificationem Dei ut homo cessaret ab omni negotio mundano ut facilius posset Deo servire latriam exhibere Then comming to specifie the proportion of time to be allowed hereunto Oportet saith hee ut aliqua dies in septimana ad hujusmodi sanctificationem latriam sit Deo dedicata Et ut sic hoc praeceptum est stabile aeternum ut patebit One day in the weeke must be dedicated unto God for this sanctification and worship and thus the precept is stable and everlasting as it shall appeare In like manner Stella upon Luke 14. In the sanctification of the Sabbath there was something morall and something ceremoniall It is morall to observe one day in the weeke but that it should be this day or that day this is ceremoniall Adde to these Bellarmine de cultu sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 11. Ius divinum requirebat ut unus dies hebdomadae dicaretur cultui divino Thus we see these are directly for us Aquinas and the schoolemen are not directly against us as hitherto it hath appeared no more then Zanchy who yet is directly for us as hath beene shewed By the way it doth not follow from any evidence that either these or Tostatus have given that the assigning of one day above another was ceremoniall taking this word ceremoniall in proper speech for 1. it may be accompted positive 2. what have wee to doe with ceremonialls in proper speech now under the Gospell who yet doe still observe one day in seven 3. nay why may not that also justly be accompted morall if God hath marked out that day wee celebrate by some notable worke to be consecrated to the Lord above others especially according to Bishop Lake his grounds namely that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day for proofe whereof hee appeales to the institution of all feasts both humane and divine In this case I should thinke there is no colour for suspition of any Judaisme who those fathers are who have pronounced as here it is said the fourth Commandement to be a ceremony a shadow and a figure only here it is not mentioned but delivered at large but I finde that Isychrius rejects from the Decalogue this precept for the observation of the Sabbath esteeming it to be only ceremoniall opposed herein by Dominicus Bannes 22. q. 44. art 1. Sed profecto fallitur quoth Bannes for the precept is morall as touching the substance of the praecept to wit that there be a certaine time wherein a man ought to rest unto God
the sanctification of this day is apparantly commanded in the moral law spoken from Mount Sinai And those Christians who a long time kept this seventh day holy as well as the Lords day had no opinion of any danger at all in this their observation And it stood the ancient Fathers upon to oppose the observation of the law ceremoniall Yet what saith Austin against these heretickes to whom this Author in the first place referreth us All that hee delivers against the Cerinthians in reference to this particular is onely this They say that wee ought to bee circumcised and that other like precepts of the Law are to bee observed I translate it for the benefit of the common people Of the Ebionites thus They observe the carnall commandements of the Law to wit Circumcision of the flesh and the rest from whose burthens wee are freed by the new Testament Of Appollinaris and his sect this way Austin hath just nothing but Danaeus who collects out of other Authors also the hereticall opinions of the Apollinarists in the last place writes thus of them After the last resurrection say they Sabbaths Circumcision Iewish difference of meates and all other legall ceremonies shall have place yea also there shall bee a Temple amongst us And is not this wilde stuffe in reference to the sanctification of the Lords day now in question amongst us Now let the Reader judge with what modesty it is avouched That Hence it was that Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian and Eusebius doe affirme for certaine that never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath D. Prideaux saith not that Hence it was neither hath this Author given the least evidence hereof Sure I am that in those Patriarches dayes Christ was not as yet come in the flesh but rather to come long after their dayes and consequently though it be a dangerous course in these dayes to lay any ground of suspition that Christ is not already come but as yet to come yet this was of no dangerous condition at all in the dayes of the Patriarchs because in their dayes Christ was not come but to come long after D. Prideaux begins with Tertullian by this Author translated thus Let them saith he in a particular Tract against the Jewes assure me if they can that Adam ever kept the Sabbath or Abel when he offered unto God his accepted sacrifice had regard thereof or that Noah kept the same when he was busied in preparing the Arke against the Deluge or finally that Abraham in offering his sonne Isaak or that Melchisedech in execution of his Priest-hood tooke notice of it Now I appeale to every sober mans judgement whether to put the Jewes in those dayes to shew this be to affirme for certaine That never any of the Patriarches before Moses Law did observe the Sabbath It is true indeed we have no particular relation of the observation of the Sabbath in that Booke of Genesis and this Tertullian knew full well and againe it is as true that there is no testimony of ought to the contrary In the Booke of Josuah in like sort there is not any mention of the observation thereof any more than in the Booke of Judges of Ruth of the two Bookes of Samuel but rather something to the contrary to wit in the siege of Iericho and marching round about the walls of Iericho seven dayes together But yet in generall we reade in Genesis that when God had finished all his works in six dayes and rested the seventh he therefore blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and whether this hath not greater evidence that even then God ordered that that day should be sanctified than that the meaning should be that therefore God ordered this two thousand and certaine yeares after I appeale to every Christian to judge betweene us And if God did then order it which could not be otherwise than by command how could Adam be ignorant hereof and if he knew as much how improbable is it that he and his at least Abel and Enosh and his pious posterity should not observe it And if a time had not been set apart even in Adams dayes for divine service how improbable is it that Cain and Abel should concurre at the same time in bringing their offerings unto the Lord and if not at the same time how could Cain discern that Abels offering was respected and accepted of God when his was not Yet for certaine it was observed before Moses Law if by the Law we understand the Law given on mount Sina as appeares manifestly Exod. 16. And withall it is thereby evident that from the beginning of the world untill that time the distinction of the yeare into weekes was observed otherwise it were impossible to know which day was the seventh in correspondencie to the seventh from the Creation save by particular revelation whereof we reade nothing now that being unknowne the reason of sanctifying the seventh day by an holy rest drawne from Gods rest on the seventh that is the last day of the first weeke from the Creation had been utterly void and nothing at all agreeable And this distinction of time into weekes was observed from all Antiquity by the Gentiles as hath been confirmed by Wallaeus and Rivetus with the helpe of Claudius Salmasius that learned Antiquary and likewise that the seventh day was a Festivall even among the Gentiles And albeit divers others of the Ancients are alleaged to the same purpose as affirming that the Patriarches did not observe the Sabbath as namely Eusebius Eccles Hist lib. 1. cap. 4. saying They had no Circumcision of the body nor observation of the Sabbath as we have not And Iustin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Lib. 4. cap. 30. saying Heretofore there were good men that pleased God though they kept not Sabbathes And Irenaeus in like manner thus Abraham himselfe without Circumcision and observation of the Sabbaths beleeved God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse Lid. Orthod lib. 4. cap. 24. and lastly Damascen When there was no Law nor Scripture of divine inspiration nor Sabbath consecrated unto God For as for Bede alleaged by Pererius to that purpose in his Hexameron I find in that place nothing answerable thereunto Now Hospinian is of opinion that these passages of the Ancients are to be understood of the rigorous observation of the Sabbath among the Jewes I adde or in reference to the other Sabbaths commanded in the Law of Moses or lastly in reference to the manner of solemnizing them among the Jewes who we know had a peculiar Sacrifice ordained for the Sabbaths and this I prove by these reasons First they deliver this as a thing well knowne for they take no paines to prove it Now consider what ground could they have for the custome of the Patriarchs before the Flood especially considering that the testimony of Moses Gen. 2.3 is far better evidence for the keeping of a weekly Sabbath in
of his was dominicall rather than Sabbatarian And the mandate concerning this is there set downe at large pretended to have come from Heaven to Jerusalem and to have been found on the Altar of Saint Simeon in Golgotha which whether it were feigned by him or by others and received by him on the faith of others the Author specifies not But at the end thereof he shewes how that this Predicant comming to York was there honourably entertained by the Archbishop and Clergie and whole people of that Citie and albeit these things you will say were acted in times of darknesse yet this Prefacer seemes to be of another opinion though little pleased with Eustachius his Sabbatarian speculation Here alone is mention made of the bounds he set to the observation of the Lords day namely that it was to continue from Saturday three of the clock in the afternoone untill the Sun-rising on Munday in which time he would have them doe nothing but that which was good and if they did to amend their errors by repentance A very reasonable motion in my judgement and if he had extended it to all the dayes of the weeke yea and houres too I see no cause why for this hee should be censured either as an hypocrite or heretique But as for the strictnesse of observation here mentioned as namely That during the foresaid time it was not lawfull to doe any kind of work what ever no not so much as to bake bread for the Sundayes eating to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing I finde no such thing prescribed by Eustachius in the relation made by Roger Hoveden and if Parisiensis hath any such surely hee tooke it not out of Roger Hoveden from whom yet this Prefacer affirmes he tooke that which he writes hereof Nay it is directly contradictory to the Tenet of Eustachius as who determineth the observation of the Lords day to begin at three of the clock in the afternoone of the Eve preceding in which time is found space both to bake bread for the Sundayes eating and to wash or dry linnen for the morrowes wearing if the weather hinder not And as for the extension of the dominicall observation thus farre in respect of the bounds thereof I find no other doctrine preached by Eustachius than by the Lawes of the Kings who governed this Land was ordained long before even before the conquest For not only King Ina commanded Act. Mon. fol. 114 col 2. fol. 715. col 1. 2. That no man lay or spirituall free or bond should labour on the Sunday and Edward the elder with Gythrum the Dane made a law against all labour buying and selling upon the Sabbath Item for no execution to be done on the Sunday but amongst King Edgars lawes one was That the Sunday should be kept holy from Saturday at noone till Munday in the morning King Canutus also commanded celebration of the Sabbath from Saturday at noone till Munday morning forbidding markets huntings labours and Court-keepings during the said space And it seemes to be the generall practise of Christendome to allow or command rather a preparation for the sanctifying of the Lords day as appeares by the observation of Evening prayers the day before warning whereunto is usually given at three of the clocke by the ringing of a bell or as in some places especially in the winter season an houre sooner and schollars accordingly give up schoole and present themselves at Evening prayer And we commonly account Saturday to be halfe holiday and warning thereof is usually given at noone by chiming the bells And whereas we reade Exod. 31.15 Six dayes shalt thou doe thy worke and the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schindler renders it Sabbathum Sabbathuli and interprets it thus Sabbathum is from evening to evening Sabbathulum is that which of the profane day is added as a little Sabbath And as for the strict abstinence from dressing of meats on Saturday which this Author imputes to Eustachius as his doctrine but without all ground that I know we are so farre from any such Sabbatarian speculation that none of us in my knowledge doe think it unlawful to dresse meats on the Lords day And wheras the Prefacer addes that they had miracles in store pretended to be wrought on such as had not yeelded to their doctrine thereby to countenance the superstitious and confound the weake What one of an hundred in reading this would not imagine that Eustachius wrought these miracles for the countenancing of his former strictnesse whereas yet on the contrary neither doth it appeare that he taught or obtruded upon them any such strictnesse preaching onely against marketting on the Lords day Neither were those strange accidents which here are called miracles any miracles wrought by him But the Monke Roger of Hoveden writes That the Lord Iesus Christ whom wee must obey rather than men who by his Nativity Resurrection and Advent and sending the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples did advance this day which we call the Lords day and dedicated as most celebrious shewed miracles of his power upon some transgressors of the Lords day in this manner On a certaine Saturday after three of clocke a certaine Carpenter of Beverlac as he was making a woodden peg contrary to the wholesome admonitions of his wife fell to the ground taken with a palsie The like story followeth of a woman which this Author according to the Monks phrase is content to call Miracles Now when we heare of as strange a thing as this to have fallen out not long since in Bedfordshire as namely a match at Foot-ball being appointed on the Lords day in the afternoone while two were in the Belfrey and one of them tolling a bell to call the company together there was heard a clap of thunder and lightning seene by some sitting in the Church-porch as it came thorow a darke lane towards the Church and flasht in their faces who sate in the Church-porch and scared them thence it went into the Church and turning into the Belfery tript up his heeles who was tolling the bell and struck him starke dead and the other with him blasted in such manner that shortly after he dyed we doe not call this a miracle though we count it a remarkable judgement of God and such as deserves to be considered and seriously laid unto heart by all to admonish them to take heed that they be not found in like manner profaners of the Lords day In like sort when upon fresh relation we heare of the like sport at Foot-ball on the Lords day at a place called Tidworth after Evening prayer in the Church-yard and that therein one had his legge broken which thereupon gangrened so that forthwith he died thereof we doe not call this a miracle only it calls to our mind that of the Prophet The Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance And we find that such like judgements
suspect every motion that should arise to withdraw them from it Fourthly and it was fit saith he that man sinning should be cast out of paradise before he had fully tasted of the pleasure thereof lest he afterward might be tormented with the losse and attemted to returne This reason my palate doth not relish so well the more Adam should be tormented with the losse of paradise the better it should be for him in my judgement rather then worse And as for attempting to returne I cannot conceave how he should be so vaine as to presume to evacuate Gods judgements and then againe of any such paradise after Adams banishment therence wee read nothing Fiftly And it is cleare saith Doctor Willet by the Serpents first on set hath God sayd ye shall not eate of every Tree that they had not yet tasted of any fruit but at the very first the forbidden fruit was offered before their appetite had beene served with any other But first I doe not finde that the Text mentioned hath any such importment Secondly this supposeth that the tast of other fruits would have beene apt to hinder the course of Satans temptations but how in respect of giving so good content and satisfaction yea but this satisfaction was no other then to the sensuall appetite but the Tree forbidden in the very name of it whence Satan tooke advantage to promote his temptation seemed to promise satisfaction in a far different kinde namely to the spirituall appetite of the minde 6. Adam saith he had not yet eaten of the Tree of life as it is evident verse 21. But if they had stayed any time in paradise it is not unlikely but they should have tasted of the tree of life it being in the heart of paradise This at first seemed to me very considerable but upon after thoughts not so For certainly it assured not life but upon obedience and therefore without obedience the tasting thereof if accessible in that case would have stood him in small stead 7. Likewise saith he seeing presently after the Creation they were bidden to encrease and multiply it is no other like but the man should have known his wife in paradise if they had stayed there so long and so they should have gotten children without sin This reason is not to be despised although to stay a day or two in Paradise was not to stay there long But considering that then they might company together without all sinne so much as in thought or circumstance of act the want whereof makes even acts naturall in this condition of ours shamefull unto us why should they deferre the propagation of mankinde especially considering that the child conceaved in the state of innocency should have beene without sinne 8. The eighth reason is in effect the same with that of Broughtons If Adam had not sinned the first day the Lion had eaten Grasse this in my judgement is a most insipid reason First because God had ordained that all beasts at the first should live by Grasse Gen. 1.30 Secondly In the arke of Noah Lions must have eaten Grasse or Hay or else have starved they had no power to prey upon their fellow passengers Thirdly if Lyons and Beares at first had lived by pray even after Adams fall what had become of the rest of Gods Creatures Imbelles damae quid nisi praedae sumus Lastly it is well knowne that in these dayes in new England Beares doe live by Grasse and their flesh for mans meate is accompted better then Venison 9. Never any man on Earth Christ only excepted kept the Sabbath without sin the Apostle saith he that is entred into his rest hath also ceased from his own works as God did from his Hebr. 4.10 It is the rest only of Christ where there shall be a cessation from all the works of sin But that rest which Adam should have kept in paradise was not Christs rest therefore he kept no rest there without sin he fell then before the Sabbath This argument I confesse seemes to be very ponderous and savoury as built upon the Apostles discourse Heb. 4. But the proposition is not sufficiently proved For to cease from a mans owne workes as they are taken from sinnes is evidently competent to none but such as have formerly sinned which cannot agree to Adam in the state of innocency Yet it cannot be denyed but that Adam continued in innocency and without sinne untill his fall And so long rested from sinne though not in Christ save that to rest from sinne supposeth the precedency of sinne But albeit this were granted it followeth not that he fell before the Sabbath for he might fall on the very Sabbath which was the opinion of the author of the Jewes Darash mentioned by Rabbi David Kimchi on the 92. Psalm 10. That place lastly makes to this purpose Psalme 49.13 Adam lodged not one night in honour for so are the words if they be properly translated the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to lodge or stay all night and thus diverse of the Rabbins doe expound this place of Adam and he quotes Rabbi Nathan R. Menachem and Midras Tehillim It cannot be denied but this place is very pregnantly appliable unto Adam as the first and chiefest object on whom this truth is verified as being in the chiefest honour that ever man had on Earth Lord of all the World and the Father of mankinde and placed in Paradise and the verbe properly signifies pernoctare to continue a night Onely it is of the future tense which yet to beare the signification of the time past is nothing strange in the Hebrew though it hath not alwayes Vau conversivum the signe of such conversion And the very word Adam is here expressed and we are very apt usually to accommodate unto Adam without all reference to this question or consideration of the propriety of the Hebrew word signifying pernoctare But let us returne to that from whence we have digressed Be it so that Adam continued in his integrity untill the end of the seventh day doe we not read expressely Gen. 2.5 that God tooke the man and put him in the Garden of Eden that he might dresse it and keepe it therefore God had worke for him to doe even in things of this World as well as hee hath for us And Martin Luther professeth as much Tom 6. in Gen. c. 2. v. 3. It followes from hence saith he that if Adam had stood in his innocency yet he should have kept the seventh day holy that is on that day he should have taught his children and childrens children what was the will of God and wherein his worship did consist he should have praysed God given thanks and offered On other dayes he should have tilled the ground looked to his Cattell And Selncecerus treads in Luthers steps treating upon the Commandement of the Sabbath Why then should it be thought superfluous to ordaine some dayes for the works of this World
Iohn Like as the Sabbath in the Old Testament is called the Lords Day which which if he had and withall considered how strange it were for us to set any day in the weeke apart for the exercises of Piety rather then the Lords Day I am perswaded hee would not have contented himselfe with this answer For certainly many other holy dayes have beene and are set apart for Divine Service yet never were called any one of them the Lords day He talkes of a bare custome of the Church for it a thing incredible that both Jewes and Gentiles throughout all Nations should so universally concurre without the guidance of some authorative constitution or some generally convincing evidence by the very light of common Christian evidence or both And as for liberty left to the Church hereabout it seemeth so unreasonable unto my poore judgement that if it were it should become us by earnest and hearty prayer to seeke unto God to take that liberty from us and bee pleased himselfe to guide us by some manifest ordinance to prevent dissension and confusion yet well fare Doctor Rivetus hee will not have this liberty extend any further then provided that some reason and necessity should urge the changing of the day for in the next columne hee professeth that a sufficient cause of the change and abrogation of the day cannot bee given The observation of other dayes and particularly of the Sabbath as well as the Lords Day by some in the Primitive Church is no evidence at all that it was indifferent unto them whether they would observe the Lords Day or no. Perk. The third argument Rivetus omits the fourth is this That which was prefigured in that it was prefigured was prescribed But the Lords Day was prefigured in the eighth day wherin the children of the Iewes were circumcised therefore it was prescribed to be kept the eighth day This the ancient Fathers by name Cyprian and Austin have reasoned and taught Rivet Answ To this Doctor Rivetus answers by denying the assumption and saying that no probable reason can be brought to prove that day was prefigured by the eighth day wherein children were circumcised Reply And indeed that day being the eighth day after birth doth not so conveniently denote the first day of the weeke But Master Perkins his argument hath another part farre more principall drawne from Psal 118.22.23.24 Which Doctor Rivetus relates after this menner Perk. The day of the Resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the Stone which the builders refused was made the head of the Corner But that day was the Sabbath Day therefore by the Sabbath was prefigured the Lords Day To this he answers by denying that the Sabbath day was the day wherein the builders refused that stone For the Scribes Rivet Answ Pharises and rulers of the people did alwayes reject Christ and not the Sabbath day onely And if Austin and Cyprian before him apprehended any such figure that was by way of accommodation onely not that herein they acknowledged any proper figure For answer whereunto I say first Reply that Master Perkins delivers not this simply of the Sabbath day but of the Sabbath of the new Testament as much as to say the first day of the weeke whereon Christ rose For this was the day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet speakes when he saith This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it That like as the Jewes had cause to make that day festivall and to rejoyce therein wherein God advanced David to the kingdome who was as a stone refused before by the builders in like sort Christians had as great cause nay farre greater to keepe that day festivall and to rejoyce therein when God raised Christ from the dead and gave all power unto him and making him the head of his Church as being now manifested to be the sonne of God who was before as a stone despised and refused of the builders but as on this day was made the head of the corner And not Cyprian and Austin onely but Ambrose upon the Psalmes so understands it and Arnobius also upon the Psalmes as Hereshbachius observeth And Doctor Rivetus is too blame in construing Perkins in such manner as if he should confine the builders rejection of Christ to the Sabbath day whereof there is no colour in Master Perkins but that which he insists upon is this that the day wherein Christ formerly rejected by the builders was made hhead the of corner was the day of Christs resurrection and of this day it is said by the Psalmist This is the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce and be glad in it Which is most remarkable for the justification of our celebration of the Lords Day as by Divine authority Especially considering what Bishop Lake that learned and pious and most rationall Divine hath observed that alwayes the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and for proofe hereof hee appeales to the due consideration of all festivalls in the observation thereof whether Divine or humane Master Perkins his words are these but I know not how Doctor Rivetus might be deceived by a mis-translation of them The day of Christs resurrection was prefigured by that day wherein the stone which the builders refused was made the head of the corner Psal 118.24 and in that it was prefigured it was appointed by God For then it appeared to be true which Peter said of Christ that God had made him both Lord and Christ Act. 12.36 And whereas he saith the Fathers doe so construe the place by way of accommodation that hath place onely when the Text it selfe doth not so accommodate it But the Text it selfe in this place doth manifestly evince that this is spoken in reference to the day of Christs resurrection Perkins The last reason of Master Perkins is this God is Lord of times and seasons and therefore in all equity the altering and disposing thereof is in his hands and belongs to him alone Act. 1.10 Times and seasons the Father hath kept in his own hands Againe Christ is called the Lord of the Sabbath And Antiochus Epiphanes is condemned by the Holy Ghost because hee tooke upon him to alter times Dan. 7.25 Besides that Daniel saith it is God alone that changeth times and seasons Dan. 2.4 Now if it be proper unto God as to create so to determine and dispose of times then he hath not left the same to the power of any creature And therefore as the knowledge thereof so the appointment and alteration of the same either in generall or particular belongs not to the Church but is reserved to him The Church then neither may nor can alter the Sabbath Day Rivet Answ To this D. Rivetus answereth that the words of Daniel touching the change of times and
is in the power of each Church to set apart what proportion of time they thinke fit for Divine Service and what day they thinke fit who perceives not that they may if they will order it in such a manner as that twise a day they shall come to Church and the rest of the day spend as they thinke good either in the works of their calling or upon their pleasures And whence all this zeale so opposite to holinesse in the issue proceeds I know not save onely to uphold the credit of Calvin who professeth that he doth not so regard the number of seaven as that he would tie any to the servitude thereof and yet I have endeavored to shew that neither this nor other passages taken out of his institutions makes any thing for them And withall it is a wonder to behold how this of Calvin is taken up and obtruded upon us by them who otherwise hate both the name and memory of Calvin And as for Doctor Rivets honest and pious instructions as concerning the duties and out demeanors to bee performed on this day we may easily perceive how little worth they are and how easily they vanish into smoake after that hee hath in the doctrinall part of the Sabbath layd so unhappy a foundation and that by so poore reasons and meane cariage of himselfe that as I verily thinke throughout all his writings there is not to bee found the like For consider whether hee had any hope to set so much as a face and outward shew of probability upon his discourse unlesse first he had manifestly corrupted the adversaries tenet as appeares by his proposing it p. 119. Col. 1. By these saith he and other arguments drawn from Christian liberty it is sufficiently deduced that they who maintaine the Sabbath day not so much to be taken away as to be translated unto the Lords Day and so changed and doe indeed thinke it more holy then another day and that not onely in regard of ordination and use but in respect of signification and effect doe crosse some without Christian liberty which is most certaine of the Papists And indeed Walaeus makes it appeare that Calvin writes herein against the superstitious Papists And did Rivetus oppose them onely it were well but it is apparent that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee shew of any of them that they account the Lords Day more holy then any other in respect of any mysterious signification for so Calvin speaks in this place or effect undoubtedly he cannot We observe a day in the weeke only for order and policy sake Ecclesiasticall mysterious significations in dayes were peculiar only to the Jewes Only we thinke it fit that to prevent dissension and confusion God should marke out that day unto us to be observed and not leave it unto us and so hee hath the Scripture calling the first day of the weeke the Lords Day and that upon such a ground as a greater was never knowne to ground a festivity thereupon consecrated to the exercises of piety even the day wherein the stone that was refused by the builders was made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is and ever shall be marvellous in our eyes and gives us cause to say with the Psalmist thereupon This is the day which the Lord hath made we will reioyce and be glad in it So that all the passages in the Apostles writings against difference of dayes are no more against us then against Doctor Rivetus himselfe Now it is time to returne to our Prefacer I doe not finde that Suarez undertakes to defend the Doctrine of Calvin and Chemnitius such as here is pretended to bee their Doctrine but rather opposeth it If such were their doctrine as this Prefacer would faine obtrude upon us from the authority of the D. discourse which hee translateth For Suarez professeth Celebritatem Dominicae diei haberi ex communi usu sensu Ecclesiae in ipsa scriptura Novi Testamenti commendari that the celebrity of the day is had by the universall use and sense of the Church and is commended unto us in the very Scripture of the New Testament I have endeavoured to justifie it out of the Old Testament also and in expresse tearmes that it is to bee unchangeable Practicè moraliter practically and morally as Doctor Prideaux acknowledgeth and withall expoundeth after his understanding of it and Doctor Rivetus also affirming this kinde of unchangeablenesse to arise from hence that no sufficient cause can be given of the change and abrogation of it This Prefacer and such as are of his spirit may doe well to deale plainly and to professe that it is in the power of the Church to make the Lords Day to cease to be the Lords Day From their Doctrine pretended by him hee proceedes to their practise professing it to bee devoyd of any the least superstitious rigour esteeming it to be a day left arbitrary and therefore open to all lawfull and honest recreations by which the minde may be refreshed and the spirit quickened as in Geneva all honest exercises shooting in pieces long Bowes crosse Bowes are used in the Sabbath day and that both in the morning before and after the Sermon And truly I doe not finde my selfe prone to censure them for any superstition in this But this author takes liberty to censure them for superstitious who thinke these courses unlawfull on the Sabbath Day I make bold to call the Lords Day our Sabbath because our Saviour plainly gives us to understand that wee Christians should have one day in the weeke for our Sabbath Ma. 24.20 as wel as the Jewes had and secondly because the booke of Homilies professeth that Sunday is our Sabbath Nobis non licet esse tam disertis We may not be so elegant as to censure them for profaning the Lords Day by these and such like courses Yet the act of Parlament 1. Caroli forbids any man to come out of his Parish on the Lords Day about any sports and pastimes which restraint tending to this end namely to preserve the Sabbath from profanation doth manifestly give us to understand that to come out of a mans parish on that day about any sports or pastimes is to profane the Sabbath and seeing as before I have shewed that to come out of a mans parish on that day about such a worke as doth not profane the Sabbath is not to profane the Sabbath as to heare a sermon or to fetch a surgeon or Physitian to a sick person in ease of necessity but onely to come out of a mans owne Parish about such a worke as doth profane the Sabbath such a comming out of a mans own Parish on that day and such alone doth profane the Sabbath hence it followeth evidently that all manner of sports and pastimes on that day are so many profanations of the Sabbath in
as that was rested on and sanctified in remembrance of Gods rest from the worke of Creation so is ours rested on in remembrance of Christs rest from the worke of Redemption so that our day of rest is but translated from the day of the Lord our Creators rest to the day of the Lord our Redeemers rest And on this ground might the Church justly teach us to pray at the hearing of this fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this law But like enough both Master Rogers and this Prefacer might be of Brentius his opinion that it is left indifferent to the Church at this day to content themselves with observing of one day in foureteene if it pleaseth them But this was not the opinion of Pope Alexand. the third who professeth that Tam vereris quam novi Testamenti pagina septimam diem ad humanam quietē specialiter deputavit Both the old and new Testament hath appointed the seventh day for the rest of man which Suarez thus interpreteth That is each Testament hath approved the custome of assigning every seventh day of the weeke for rest which is formally to appoint a seventh day though the same day materially be not alwayes appointed and thus it is true that that seventh day in the old Law was the Sabbath day but in the new it is the Lords Day now when we say the observation of one day in seven is naturall our meaning is not neither was it D. Bowndes meaning that this proportion of time is knowne by the light of nature to be that which of duty should be consecrated unto God herein rather it becomes us to wait upon God and he having defined it now we say nothing can be devised by man more agreeable to reason than this Azorius the Jesuit professing it to be most agreeable to reason And Doctor Field as Master Broade voucheth him spared not to say that to him who knowes the story of the creation it doth appeare in reason that one day in seven is to be consecrated unto God onely let us not looke for reason demonstrative in matter of morality Aristotle long agoe hath professed that not demonstration but perswasion alone hath place in Ethicks yet we may justly call that naturall which from the originall was common to all nations and that such was the observation of the seventh day the learned have sufficiently proved Secondly if it be not morall what shall it be Is it judiciall or ceremoniall Never any man hitherto devised any ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven well it may be positive yet so as to this day from the beginning of the world this proportion was never altered and if I should live till the day be altered by any sober Christian Congregation I thinke I should live till the comming of Christ which the Christians in Austins time conceived that it would be on the Lords day I come to the second charge which is this whereas all things else in the Iewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and for this Master Rogers quotes Doct. Bownde p. 20. onely Master Rogers saith not that all things were changed as the Prefacer doth but onely that all Iewish things were changed now judge whether Master Rogers might not have opposed Doctor Andrews as well as Doctor Bownde For in his Catechet doctrine pag. 209. having proposed this question But is not the Sabbath a ceremony and so abrogated by Christ He answers it in this manner Doe as Christ did in the cause of divorce looke whether it were so from the beginning now the beginning of the Sabbath was in Paradise before there was any sinne and so before there needed any Saviour and so before there was any ceremony or figure of a Saviour And if they say it prefigured the rest that we shall have from our sinnes in Christ we grant it and therefore the day is not changed but yet no ceremony proved Hee proceeds to prove that it was no ceremony first from the Law secondly from the Gospel Eph. 2.4 thus All ceremonies were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Matth. 24.20 Christ bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death Now what doth Doctor Bownde affirme forty yeeres agoe which Doctor Andrewes did not in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine I come to the third and last That the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming This very point Doctor Andrewes maintaines by divers arguments as well as D. Bownde which yet is rightly to be understood to wit not of the observation of the seventh day from the creation but of the observation of one day in seven So that in M. Rogers his Brentian judgement in this particular Doctor Andrewes who afterwards became Bishop of Winchester might be accounted a Sabbatarian as well as D. Bownde All these positions the Prefacer saith are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England but by whom condemned by none but by M. Rogers and by the same reason he might say that the doctrine of Doctor Andrewes was condemned also for contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England to wit by M. Rogers And consider his absurd inference from the seventh Article of the Church of England The Article saith that Christians are not bound at all to the observation of Iudaicall ceremonies Hence he inferres that they whom he calls Our home Sabbatarians are adversaries to this truth in part namely in as much as they deny the Sabbath to be a ceremony But doth our Church affirme the Sabbath to be a ceremony Nothing lesse this M. Rogers of his owne head layes downe for a principle namely that the Sabbath was a ceremony to obtrude upon us as if himselfe had as much authority as a whole Convocation And D. Andrewes takes upon him to disprove this very point which Rogers supposeth as a principle and that by various arguments Belike D. Andrewes deserved not to be numbred amongst the greatest Clerks of these later times nor D. Lake neither nor Bishop Babington And as for the judgement of the ancient Fathers it appeares what skil the Prefacer hath in them and what respect he beares unto them by the learning he hath bewrayed in this preface Had he found in them how much the forbidding of dancing in their dayes did hinder the growth of Christian Religion we should have heard of it undoubtedly as well as how it hath hindred the growth of the reformed Religion in France out of Heylins Geography yet their doctrinalls which I have shewed to be the doctrinalls of Doctor Andrewes as well as of Doctor Bownde yea and could shew it to be the doctrine of divers other late Bishops in this Church though dangerous in themselves not half so
zeale of Gods Glory and it becomes us to be zealous of his Glory considering how zealous hee is for our good Esay 9.7 Esay 59.17 Of the sufficiency of the following discourse we shall by Gods helpe consider in due time But I confesse it may be very sutable to these times whereof the Apostle prophecied men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God and undoubtedly it will suit well with their affections like a sweete morsell to the epicure which hee roules under his tongue but all the praise is in parting and I would they would but thinke of that of the Prophet What will be the end thereof when wee shall give God cause to say of our Sabbath as hee sayd of the Jewish I have hated your Sabbaths And if there be any such practises of Satan on foote as to bring in the Jewish Sabbath let it be considered in the feare of God what doctrine doth more promote therein whether that which makes the celebration of the Lords Day Divine or rather that which makes it merely of humane institution and who seeth not that if it be left to the liberty of the Church they may bring in the Jewish Sabbath if it pleaseth them Though it be notoriously untrue as may be made to appeare both by Scripture evident reason and authority humane both ancient and moderne both Papists and Protestants that the Sabbath was not ordained immediately upon the creation yet were that negative granted since God hath manifested in his Law that he requires one day in seven to be set apart for his service it evidently followes even by the very light of nature that it were most unreasonable wee should allow him a worse proportion of time for his service under the Gospell that consequently the observation of one day in seven is to be kept holy unto the Lord is now become morall and perpetuall unto the very end of the world neither was it ever heard that any man did set his wits on worke in devising a ceremoniality in the proportion of one day in seven A prefiguration of Christ in some respect hath beene found in the Jewish rest on the seventh day of the weeke but of any prefiguration of ought in Christ by an indefinite proportion of one day in seven the world dreamed not of till now neither doth any man offer to devise what possibly this might prefigure in Christ As for the third it cannot be denied but that Christ manifested before his death that his Christian Churches should observe a Sabbath as well as the Jewes did this appeares Matth. 24.20 Pray that your flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day and thus Bishop Andrewes accommodates that place in his patterne of Catecheticall doctrine It is as manifest that the day of Christs resurrection is called in the Scripture the Lords Day as manifest that not the day of the yeere but the day of the week whereon Christ rose is called the Lords Day which few take notice of Likewise in the old Testament is manifest that the Jews Sabbath is called the Lords holy Day Then the congiuity in reference to the reason of the originall institution is most exact For first Christ by his resurrection brought with him a new creation and this new creation as D. Andrewes expresseth it treading herein in the steps of the ancients requireth a new Sabbath and as the Lord rested on the seventh day from the worke of creation so our Saviour on the first day of the weeke from the worke of Redemption And lastly the day of Christs resurrection was the day whereon Christ the stone formerly refused by the builders was made the head of the corner and of this day the Prophet professeth of old saying This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it which can have no other congruous meaning but this this is the day which the Lord hath made festivall especially considering the doctrine of Bishop Lake which is this that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day as is to be seene in the institution of all festivalls both Humane and Divine And I have already shewed how absurd it is that wee should expect it should be left unto the Church her liberty to appoint it considering the great danger of dissention thereabouts and extreme confusion thereupon And it cannot be denyed but this day was established by the Apostles and that as of authority Divine as appeares generally by the ancients Athanasius professing that Dominus consecravit hunc diem Austin that Apostoli sanxerunt and Gregory that Antichrist when hee comes into an humour of imitating Christ should command the observation of the Lords Day and Eusebius hath as pregnant a testimony to the same purpose as any and Sedulius and that not one of the Ancients as I know alleged to the contrary So that to ascribe the institution of it to humane authority that every way were a scandalous doctrine and so would the practice be also according thereunto And consequently the Church hath no authority to change the day as Doctor Fulke professeth against the Rhemists And to say the contrary is to say that the Church hath authority to concurre with the Jewes in keeping with them the Saturday with the Turks in keeping with them the Friday yea that they have authority to divide the dayes of the weeke one nation taken one day to observe and another another which is as much as to say that the Church hath authority to be notoriously scandalous In the fifth he delivers more truth than in all his preface besides we make no question but that workes of necessity and workes of charity may be done on this day though the proper workes of the day are the workes of holinesse I know none that thinkes it unlawfull to dresse meat proportionable to a mans estate on this day some are of opinion that this was not forbidden unto the Jewes and that albeit to go abroad on that day to gather Manna was forbidden yet not the preparing or dressing of it though the most common opinion of our Divines is to the contrary Some thinke a greater strictnesse was enjoyned them in the wildernesse than afterward observed by them Neh. 5.18 As in the story of Nehemiah it is said there was prepared for his table daily an Oxe and five chosen Sheepe and our Saviours entertainment by some on the Sabbath day doth seeme to them to intimate as much howsoever in after times it came to passe that they grew superstitious this way As Austin observes of them in his dayes that Iudaei neque occidunt neque coquunt Others who think it was both enjoyned to them and practised by them with greater strictnesse conceive that this was by reason of the mysterious signification to wit of some exact rest in Christ this was their ceremoniall rest we acknowledge no rest but morall which we understand in that sense which here is
is an easy matter to say they conclude nothing though I may justly wonder any reasonable man should say so of the argument drawne from those words Gen. 2.3 Therefore God blessed the seventh day and sanctifyed it the author alleadging no other exception against it but the interpretation of Tostatus namely that it is delivered by way of anticipation For this is as good as to confesse that to blesse and sanctify the seventh day is all one as if hee had said that God commanded it to be sanctified Onely they will not have it understood of that time when the Lord rested from the works of Creation So that the meaning of Moses must be this In the seventh day God ended the works which he had made and the seventh day God rested from all the workes which he had made and because God rested on that seventh day from all the works that he had made therefore he commanded not then that that day from thence forward but 2400. yeares after that men should consecrate that day to divine service Now in disputing against the unreasonablenesse of this interpretation given by Tostatus I am very willing to make Doctor Prideaux my judge and as it were under his moderation to proceed in this And here I purpose not to revive the disputations of Walaeus and Rivetus against Tostatus his anticipation but onely to content my selfe with the ground layd by Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Thesis of the Sabbath Thes 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monthly or yearely as particulars evince in Scripture and History I make bold to lay this for my ground in this place because it is apparant that God made his worke on the seventh day the ground of hallowing that day namely because it was the day of Gods rest therfore to make it the day of mens rest for the sanctifying of it unto the Lord. Now I pray consider is it reasonable that because such or such a worke hath beene done in such a day provoking us to keepe it a festivall day unto the Lord therefore it becomes us accordingly to sanctify it but when not that day nor the same day senight nor throughout the 52. weekes of that yeare nor any of the 52. weekes the next yeare no nor for the space of a 1000 yeares or two thousand but after the expiration of 2500 yeares and more then and not till then to sanctify that day because on that day of the weeke the Lord rested from the worke of Creation 2500 yeares before why might not the wisdome of our Parliament have imitated God and in memory of our deliverance from the Gunpowder treason on the 5. of November ordeined that day should bee kept festivall so far forth as in the publique congregation to make a solemne and thankfull commemoration of that wonderfull deliverance to begin forsooth a thousand or two thousand yeares after So the Jewes observed yearely the feast of Purim in remembrance of Gods mercifull deliverance of them from the conspiracy of Haman but when did they ordaine this feast to begin not till a thousand yeares after had they done so who would not have said that their wisdome herein had exceeded all humane discretion Or to avoid the like unreasonablenesse on their side well they say that the case is not alike for as much as the fresh remembrance of the Creation and of Gods resting on the seventh day was sufficient unto them both for the maintaining of the division of time into weekes or seven dayes and of sanctifying each seventh unto the Lord but when the memory hereof began to be obliterated to wit about some 900 yeares after the flood then it was fit the Lord should revive the observation of this day by a particular Commandement But herby they shall make the fourth Commandement not only morall but also more naturall then they are aware Though I willingly confesse they might well conceave that after some 15 or 1600 yeares men might grow weary of observing the seventh day the day of Gods rest from the worke of Creation because by experience we finde that after some 15 or 1600 yeares Christians seem to grow weary of keeping holy the Lords day the day whereon the Lord Christ rose from the grave so rested from his worke of redemption But as not long after 1600 yeares the flood came to set an end to the World by water so it may be after 1600 yeares of the Gospell there are but as few yeares to the comming of Christ to set an end unto this World by fire certainely as often as some festivall day is grounded upon some singular worke of God done on that day which Doctor Lake proposeth as a generall and undoubted rule alwayes to hold concerning festivalls no time more fit for the observation of such a day then when the memory of the worke is fresh then is a man like to be more devout more chearefull in Gods service more thankefull unto him for his great goodnesse like as the Angells immediatly upon their Creation praised God Iob. 38.7 When the Starres of the morning praised me and all the children of God rejoyced which in Cornelius his language was to observe the Sabbath Now give mee leave to enlarge this by proportion As there are Sabbaths of rejoycing so there are Sabbaths of mourning And the expiatiō day commanded unto the Jewes was an annuall feast to inure them to this holy exercise not onely once a yeare but oftner as God should minister occasion Now this day is called by the Lord also a Sabbath Levit. 16.31 And Doctor Andrewes in his paterne of Catecheticall doctrine handles the duties of such a day in his doctrine of the Sabbath And it is well knowne that dayes of wrath have their course and shall have their course as long as this World lasteth as well as dayes of mercy And wee have cause to blesse God that hee hath inclined his Majesties heart to take notice of such dayes of wrath and accordingly by Proclamation to command a generall humiliation throughout the Land divers and sundry times So wee reade that the Jewes observed a fast on the first moneth besides the fast of the seventh which God commanded as wee reade Zach. 7.3.5 and it was observed on the tenth day of that moneth that being the day whereon Nebuchadnezzar burnt the house of the Lord as wee reade Ier. 52.12 13. Now thus far had they observed the 70 yeares of their captivity Zach. 7.5 they did not put off the observation of it till a thousand yeares after it being most fit then especially to mourne when God calleth us thereunto and not to put it off when hee calleth us thereunto the Lord sore complayning of such courses and pronouncing an heavy judgement upon offenders in this kinde Esay 22.12 13 14. Now like as it becomes us to mourne when first God calleth us thereunto so it becommeth us to rejoyce in keeping
exhorts them at such a time to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day Matth. 24.20 what will you conclude herence therefore the observation of the Jewish Sabbath was still to continue among Christians if you doe who shall more deservedly be obnoxious to the censure of Judaisme you or wee yet when he tells them that the Sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath how few interpreters writing hereupon doe not take notice of his power to abrogat it But is it not enough that Paul cryeth downe the ceremonies of the Jewes and in speciall their holy dayes and particularly Sabbaths to wit so far forth as they are found to be shadowes the body whereof was Christ such was the rest on the seventh day as prefiguring Christs rest in the grave But no sober man I trow will herence conclude that herewithall hee cryeth downe the setting apart of any time for Gods service that having no colour of ceremony or rest from such workes as hinder us in the service of God this being as little ceremoniall as the former I make bold to goe one step farther and conclude by the same reason that neither doth he cry downe the proportion of time to wit of one day in seven to be set a part for the exercises of piety because in this particular there is no more ceremonialitie to be found then in any one of the former But to proceed what indifferent man would once expect that in our Saviours disputations with the Pharisees about the Sabbath mention should bee made of the Lords day instituted in the place thereof It is enough wee find it instituted after our Saviours resurrection and sufficient I trowe it is to prove that it was instituted and that in the best manner namely by establishing it de facto in practise amongst the Churches I say this is sufficiently proved by the observation of it which undoubtedly neither was nor could be by chance A Sowe mufling in the earth may make something like the letter A. but not Ennius his Andromacha saith Cicero In like sort the concurrence of the Churches in the observation hereof from the Apostles and continuance therein unto this day could not be by chance but by order and that from the Apostles When you aske Did not the Apostles keepe the Iewish Sabbath I answer I doe not finde they did yet I finde revelations were made unto them of what was to be done by degrees Peter was challenged Acts 11. by the rest of the Apostles for preaching the Gospell unto the Gentiles They tooke indeed advantage of the Jewes Sabbath to preach the Gospell unto them congregated together Act. 13. so did they to the same end take the oppotunity of the feast of Pentecost Acts 18.21 I grant the Sabbath day was observed together with the Lords day by some Christians Baronius imputes it to the Orientales and gives the reason why formerly represented If any man inferre herehence that the celebration of the Lords day is grounded upon the constitution of the Church onely let him make it good for there is no reason that words should carry it much lesse the voyce of one Papist who here is quoted I am sure Dominicus Bannes and Sixtus Senensis are of another opinion formerly produced and hereafter follow many Canonists that maintaine the contrary by the relation of Azorius and one of them Sylvester by name professeth that it is Communis opinio that it is of Divine authoritie If Brentius thinkes otherwise yet Gerardus refuseth to tread in his steps though both are Lutherans And if the Remonstrants concurre with Brentius it is nothing strange they are so neer a kin to the Socinians and Anabaptists who renounce altogether the observation of the Lords day I have formerly reckoned up and produced no lesse then eleven of our Protestant Divines maintaining the ordinance thereof to be Divine and Apostolicall Besides the Ancients who are many and they expresse for the same and not one that I know avouched to the contrary Precept indeed we have not for this in the new Testament but that which is better then a precept For had the Apostles commanded it and the Churches not practised it their commandement had beene obnoxious to various interpretations but they tooke order to establish it as appeares de facto And D. Lake tels us that where divine precept is wanting practise guides the Church and that the worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day and the worke of redemption is nothing inferiour to the worke of creation and I appeale to every Christian conscience Sect. 6. whether upon suspition that we Christians must have a Sabbath to observe as the Jewes had for which we have the expresse words of our Saviour Matth. 24.20 D. Andrewes concurring with us in this and that this Sabbath must be some one day in the weeke which from the ordinance of God immediately from the creation that God himselfe hath declared unto us as Chrysostome observeth and reason concludeth as much for this and that from consideration of the proportion of time which the Lord required of the Jewes under the law for undoubtedly we should sinne if we should allow God a worse proportion under the Gospell and it is evident that no ceremoniality can be found in the sanctification of one day in seven or in the rest of one day in seven I say let every one judge whether in Christian reason any day in the weeke be to be preferred for this before the Lords day that being the day of Christs resurrection the day wherein The Stone which the Builders refused was made the head of the corner and this day not of the yeere but of the weeke being in Scripture-phrase called the Lords day like as the Jewish Sabbath was formerly called the Lords holy day Es 58. Adde unto this that D. Prideaux here justifieth their observation who maintaine the celebration of the Lords day to be by authority divine consisting in these particulars 1. That it seemed a dangerous thing to the whole Fabricke of religion should humane ordinances limit the necessity of Gods worship Or that the Church should not assemble but at the pleasure of the Clergie and they perhaps not well at one among themselves For what would men busied about their Farms their yokes of Oxen and domesticke troubles ' as the invited guests in the holy Gospell would they not easily set at naught an humane ordinance would not prophane men easily dispense with their absenting themselves from prayers and preaching and give themselves free leave of doing or neglecting any thing were there not something found in Scripture which more then any humane ordinance or institution should binde the conscience yet it is easie to conjecture what would be answered to all this for excommunication upon disobedience to the Church may be a bond strong enough to oblige them hereunto Or if men be not so sensible hereof yet the lawes of the land and
the dayes of the Apostles all of them and their posterity successively to us Doth it therefore follow that wee may not keepe the seventh day in memory of the worlds Creation It doth for the Lords Day succeedeth in stead of that ut Thes 33. Therefore they cannot consist with the purpose of the alteration which is to note a New Creation Ib. Constantine commanded the sixt day should be kept in memory of Christs death Kept as a fasting day not as a festivall day and so the Church keepeth it still Ibid. Sabbato postridie Sabbati conveniunt So doth the Church now but Saturday is Parasceve to the Lords Day and least they should seeme to Judaize they did and do begin the Eve after noon to note it is but a preparation to Sunday Ibid. Saint Austin termeth the Sabbath in the fourth Commandement Sacramentum Vmbratile True as the Jewes did observe it So himselfe there expoundeth himselfe Question 1. Section 4. The observance of the Sabbath day by Christ compared to Jewish sacrifice This speaketh not of the assignation of dayes but how strictly the day must be kept and it is as true of the Lords Day Section 5. Hebrewes 4. mention is made of three rests Or one rest rather which is Gods rest Gen. 2. and the participation thereof 2 wayes Typically Spiritually The Typicall is the entrance into Canaan which carried with it a cessation from labours of the Jewish servitude and Pilgrimage From this Typicall many saith the Apostle were excluded through infidelity and by fayth some did partake it But there was another participation a spirituall which came by Jesus whereunto Iosuah could not bring which is a ceasing not from corporall but spirituall toyles and sinnes immediatly but mediately it will bring unto a spirituall blessed rest both of body and soule in Heaven This spirituall immediate rest or participation of Gods rest is called Sabbatismus populi Dei If this be as I conceave it is the meaning of the place what is this to dayes Ib. Section 6. Some will have a weekely Sabbath a shaddow in regard of the strictnesse of the Rest I thinke the strictnesse was not it at least not principally but the Accession of which in the Theses But you are out of your argument for S. Paul speakes of shadow whereof the body is Christ Now before the fall the Sabbath was a kinde of shadow of our eternall rest but not of that whereof Christ is the body And to us the Lords day is a foretast of that eternall rest and I hold this shadow to be as lasting as the World Ib. New Moone Et caetera shadowes in their substance not their accessories Ergo the Sabbath A weake collection for other feasts were instituted after the fall under the Pedagogy of the Law the Sabbath before therefore this might be made a shadow by accessorie these not so Ibid. Shall I demand of them when this Sabbath began to be a shadow When after the fall it received accessions it became such a shadow as Saint Paul speaketh of Col. 2. otherwise it was a kinde of shadow of eternall rest in the foundation and the Lords Day continueth so now Ib. The Apostle Hebrew 4 speaketh of the seventh as rested upon not sanctified Reade the mistake of this place before Ib. Section 6. The Sabbath more ceremoniall then the other Commandements you prove it out of S. Austin And it is plaine hee speaketh of the Sabbath as the Jewes observed it and had it given in charge with his accessories but I still call you to the Originall Sabbath Gen. 2. Res Respons ad quaestion 1. Section 1. Our words and meaning must not agree in our Prayer Lord have mercy upon us c. A strange answer I thinke they must and doe agree for by analogy is the Lords Day contained in the Commandement and the Church directeth us so to understand The apportionment of time is everlasting only the translation of the day is by all that have any understanding to Catechize taught to be grounded upon a new Creation succeeding the old The personall defects I cannot reply to but leave them to be reformed Though the imperfections of the ignorant should not be presented when the question is made so difficult that the learned can hardly assoile it As the author of the questions thinketh Question 2. How shall the fourth Commandement bind us considering the forme of words to keep any day but only the seventh I suppose in my Theses I have given a probable answer Seeing the apportionment of time is eternall which I thinke cannot justly be denyed I hold the translation of of the feast from the seventh to the first day is grounded upon Analogy For seeing God was pleased that the day of the Creation should be commemorated as appeareth by the Letter of the Commandement and the first Creation being by sin dissolved jure restored againe by Christ upon the first day where we find the rest after the new Creation there we must fix the feast And this is perswaded by the drift of the Law Except we lay this for a ground God will have the day of Creation observed Observed after the rule of the first Creation it cannot be for then we doe not acknowledge the dissolution thereof I meane still merito In testimony of that and Christs restitution we keepe the day of the new Creation and we are guided to it by the fourth Commandement Question 3. How shall it appeare to be the Law of nature to sanctifie one day every weeke Surely here the Author of the questions makes a strange answer For he looseth himselfe in his distinction of the Morall Law and the Law of nature which he seemeth not to understand well He would have the Law of nature to prescribe circumstances to actions and not the morall Law whereas the morality stands in observing the circumstance of actions as the Ethicks will teach and this in the phrase medium rationis Secondly hee thinketh that all the Lawes morall are as he calleth them of nature doe represent the Image of God and are unalterable even by God himselfe Not considering that there is a morality that concerneth man as he is Animal rationale and reason moderateth the sensuall part which commeth not within the compasse of the Image of God And in many particulars is mutable and dispensable in cases of necessity as it is held against the Law of Nature that brothers and sisters should marry but God dispensed with it but I should wade into a large argument if I should rippe up these two Errors I rather note that hee understandeth not the ground of a Festivall day that maketh no other ground of it than Omnia fiant ordine decenter The Lords Day had a higher ground which I opened in the Theses and that is Christs Resurrection and thereby a new Instauration of the World Which wee are bound to observe upon the grounds set downe in the Theses And in a word Hee
a morall way only than any they could bring to the contrary Secondly then againe could they have better grounds for the practise of those ancient Patriarchs both before and after the Floud than the Jewes themselves I presume none will be so immodest as to affirme this and if they had any such evidence it stood them upon to produce it especially in dealing against the Jewes Thirdly they deliver this as a thing undeniable by the Jewes themselves with whom they deale in this particular but the Jewes had no such faith as to beleeve that the ancient Patriarchs never observed the weekly Sabbath For none are of this opinion but such as thinke that passage Gen. 2.3 of Gods blessing the seventh day and hallowing it was not delivered of that present time as if then God ordained it should be sanctified but only by way of anticipation for the time to come But this was not the opinion of the Jewes Manasseth Ben Israel a moderne Rabbin in his booke intituled The Reconciler Conciliator according to the argument of that his writing which is to reconcile places of Scripture in shew disagreeing and that upon enquiry into all the Rabbins both ancient and later in his 36. Question upon Exodus writes thus as out of the opinion of the Ancients those words Thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in Egypt observe how he expounds them Ac si diceret cogita in Aegypto ubi serviebas etiam ipso Sabbato per vim te coactum ad labores as if he should say thinke with thy selfe that in Egypt where thou servedst thou wast by force constrained to labour on the very Sabbath Evidently manifesting not out of his owne particular opinion but as out of the generall opinion of their ancient Rabbins that the Sabbath and the observation thereof was a duty in the very dayes of the Patriarchs And in the end concludes thus Igitur Deus benedictus cupiens Sabbatum cujus sanctimoniam tantis documentis approbaverat in aeternum ab omnibus coli decâ—m praeceptis illud inseruit quo scientes praecepta aeterna esse etiam hoc inter ea habendum intelligerent Therefore the blessed God it is fit I should translate it for the benefit of the common people desiring that the Sabbath might bee observed for ever of all whose sanctity by so many documents he had commended placed it in the Dealogue that it made it one of the tenne Commandements to the end that knowing those precepts to bee everlasting they should understand that this Commandement also was to be accomplished amongst them And indeed Tertullian himselfe professeth that the Jewes were of this opinion as Rivetus observes out of his booke against the Jewes thus translated God from the beginning did sanctifie the seventh day resting from all the workes that hee had made and that thereupon Moses said unto the people Remember yee the Sabbath day to sanctifie it And therefore when Mercer saith concerning the meaning of these words Genes 2.3 Hebraei fere referunt in futurum the Jewes for the most part referre it to the time to come he is to be understood of the later Jewes but of this more shall be spoken ere wee part from this section 4 Fourthly not one of the ancient Fathers is alleaged by our adversaries delivering his opinion upon that passage Genes 2.3 to shew what hee conceives to bee the true meaning thereof which yet is the onely ground whereupon our doctrine is built concerning the originall institution of the Sabbath and seeing it contains a meaning at first sight manifestly contradictious to that which they affirne as wee interpret it of the weekely Sabbath without reference unto the Jewish manner of observing it therefore in this case it stood them upon to take notice of that place and by some faire interpretation vindicate themselves from suspition of contradicting the expresse Word of God 5 Tertullian himselfe justifies our doctrine namely that God from the beginning sanctified the seventh day as Rivetus shewes out of his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 12. where hee sayth Christum ipsum Sabbati diem benedictione Patris à primordio sanctum benefactione sua efficere sanctiorem That Christ himselfe made that day more holy by his well doing on that day which by the benediction of the Father was made holy from the beginning So that Tertullians meaning in the place alleaged to the contrary cannot bee that the ancient Patriarchs simply observed not the weekely Sabbath but onely that they observed it not after that manner the Jewes did and that the like interpretation must bee given of the passages alleaged out of other of the Ancients 6 For further proofe whereof observe that Theodoret albeit on the 20. of Ezekiel hee saith in like manner that God prescribed unto the Jewes the sabbaticall vacations Vt haec civilis administrationis ratio peculiaris à Gentium quidem eos distingueret institutis that this peculiar administration might distinguish them from the customes of the Gentiles yet Wallaeus shewes that the same Theodoret in his questions upon Genesis Dissert de 4. praecep p. 44. doth manifestly declare that even from the beginning of the creation God did ordaine this day to rest and sanctification As who having created the creatures in six dayes by the rest of the seventh day manifested the creation to be perfected like as in seven dayes hee concluded the whole circle of dayes And that by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it he declared Quod non illum diem inutilem putabat ad creandum sed ad quietem accommodatum statuit The meaning whereof in effect is this that hee did not thinke that day unfit to have any thing created therin but onely it was his pleasure to ordaine it for a day of rest The same Author shewes Chrysostome to bee of the same opinion in his 10. Homily on Genesis whose words in Latine he rendreth thus Iam hinc ab initio doctrinam hanc nobis insinuat Deus erudiens in circulo hebdomedae diem unum integrum segregandum reponendum ad spiritualem operationem Now from the beginning God insinuates this instruction teaching that in the circle of the weeke one entire day is to bee sequestred and imployed on spirituall actions These authorities in my judgement should bee of the greater force for as much as they deliver their opinion by way of interpretation of Gods Word and that according to the plaine literall meaning and that such as whereunto every Christians conscience not fore-stalled with prejudice is prone enough to yeeld by reason of the native evidence of the words For they denote an externall action and transient not an internall and immanent in God all of which kinde are eternall which externall action is the dedication of the day to holy uses which cannot bee imagined to bee done any other way as I should thinke then by commanding it to bee sanctified The same Author shewes Austin to have beene of the same
to recompence the wayes of the wicked upon their own heads in the profanation of his Sabbaths Secondly it may seeme strange that Pererius should serve himselfe with this reason namely of the Lords blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it seeing he professeth himselfe to be of Tostatus his opinion interpreting these words by way of anticipation and referring them to the giving of the Law upon Mount Sina Others were of opinion that Adam continued as long in Paradise as Christ lived here on Earth But this opinion Pererius thinkes no way probable Others devised a continuance of Adam in Paradise for the space of forty dayes answering to our Saviours fasting forty dayes but this he sayth hath no shew of probability His own conjecture is that Adam fell and was turned out of Paradise that day senight after he was created and the grounds of his conjecture are in my opinion as frivolous as any As first when he saith that eight dayes space was sufficient to have experience of the happinesse of that state For why not as well some dayes more or some dayes lesse nay rather by continuance in the same state we grow lesse and lesse sensible of the happinesse thereof And the happinesse of a state is best known by the contrary according to that rule Carendo magis quà m fruendo quid quidque sit cognoscimus As for the agreement herein which he conceites between Adam and Christ as who is thought of many to have been conceaved in the Virgins wombe on the sixt day of the weeke and on the same day of the weeke was indeed crucified upon the crosse who seeth not that this conveniency had been found as well on that day fortnight or on that day three weekes and so in Infinitum as on that day senight As ridiculous appeares to be his pretence of complying thus with the antients whose opinion was that Adam fell the same day wherein he was created which he would apply to that day senight after For why not as well to that day three weekes after or that day a month after and so in Infinitum But let us consider Pererius reasons whereby he undertakes to shew the unlikelihood of Adams falling the first day The first is drawn from the forme of Adams temptation thus why doe you not eate of every tree of paradise which supposeth as he saith that they had already eaten of every other Tree in Paradise and Eves answer he saith seems to confirm this in saying we eate of the fruit of the Trees in the Garden But of the fruit of the Tree which is in the mids of the Garden we eate not what is the meaning of we eate but this we are wont to eate quoth Pererius Yet forthwith he himselfe enervates this interpretation confessing that the meaning may be this It is lawfull for us to eate And I willingly confesse that no argument appeares to me so plausible as this namely that they had formerly tasted of every fruit of the Garden besides this for it seems very likly that not till then they were wel prepared for satans temptation And it seemes unlikely they would offer to taste of the fruit forbidden untill they had tasted of all the rest then indeed and not til then the commendation of that as of a more excellent fruit then any of the rest might the better allure them both to touch and taste But as Pererius proposeth it it hath no force for as much as he corrupteth the Text the Divells words being not such as these why doe yee not eate of every tree of paradise but running thus Yea hath God sayd yee shall not eate of every tree in the Garden or as Piscator takes it for a conclusion of a larger discourse yea in as much as God hath said ye shall not eate of the fruit of every tree in the Garden so giving a reason to proove what he objected namely that God envyed their happinesse As for the reasons which before I have given they may be answered thus If the benefit of this fruit had been of the same kinde with the benefit of others and onely in degree of excellency above them then were it no way likely they should begin with this But seeing it was pretended to be of a farre different kinde by Satans suggestion not so much for satisfying the appetite of sense as for satisfying the spirituall desire of the soule in knowing good and evill which the very denomination of the Tree given by God himselfe did fairely intimate and this being cunningly improoved by Satan to be a Divine condition in making them like unto God this consideration might well allure forthwith without all further stay to have experience of other fruit Secondly why might they not have tasted of the fruites of other Trees without any necessity of nature urging them and yet without any luxury at all but only to acquaint themselves with the condition of those good Creatures which God had provided for them Yet again considering that this experience made to no other end should so sensibly have brought home unto them the goodnesse of God in that state of holinesse and integrity that it would have exceedingly confirmed them in their obedience to God and made the motion of the Serpent at first hearing distastfull and to choose to be like unto God in obedience and thereby in conformity to his holy will then in forbidden knowledge And besides the tasting of all so soone can hardly be justified from Luxury or wast therefore I rest in my first answer Pererius his next reason caryeth a great deale of shew but in substance lesse forcible Certainly the making of the beasts of the Earth and of man might be done in as short a time as it pleased God to have it especially considering the opinion of some antients that all things were made together and that in a short space so mans placing in Paradise and the beasts brought unto him by God might be soone dispatched and surely Adams naming of them cost him no study and undoubtedly all this was done before the creating of Eve so that all this might be done before noone and space enough allowed for the Divells conference with Eve and his seducing her and her seducing Adam The making of them aprons to hide their nakednesse caryeth the greatest shew of requiring longer time but he who wanted not wit to name the beasts so congruously to their natures wanted not understanding to cover themselves with fig-leaves As for the Doctors alleaged by him for his opinion I doe not finde that any of them is expresse or by consequent direct for that whereunto they are alleaged but the inferences made from their wordes are meerely conjecturall For when hee writes that Ioseph in the first booke of his antiquities and Basil in his Homily of Paradise and Damascen in his second booke of orthodox faith and 10. Chapter seeme to be of this opinion his ground is only this because as he saith they write
it should be left to the servant to cut out what proportion of service he thinkes good unto his master 2. It is well that both he and Gomarus thinke we are bound to cut out a better proportion of Gods Service then was prescribed to the Jewes rather then a worse yet Brentius as great a writer as any of these thinkes otherwise as wee have heard 3. doth only our freedome from the yoke of ceremonies requires this and not much more 1. the love of God revealed unto us in Christ in the dayes of the Gospell 2. the encombrance of Gods Truth with errors and heresies and those very dangerous ones 3. and in a word the strong opposition that in these daies of the Gospell is made and will be made more and more as the end of all things doth approach both unto faith and holinesse It is noted to be the sinne of Christendom not to receave the love of the truth 2 Thess 2. And of these latter times Paul hath prophesied that men should be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 3. as for this opinion of Gomarus and Rivetus I am glad they are so farre convicted of truth in this argument as to professe that we ought to keepe holy rather more dayes then fewer But why then doe not the states of Holland under whom they live if they be of the same opinion make it good by practise And the French-Churches also But they want example in antiquity for this Who seeth not that this is delivered onely to serve turne and helpe at a dead lift when no other way is open to shift off the Argument 3. And lastly whereas he grants with Calvin that after so many dayes to wit after six for no other number was specifyed rest must bee granted to servants on the seventh doth not this evidently convince that that day must bee our Christian Sabbath For what shall the masters keepe one and the servants another or shall the servants not give themselves to the service of God on the day of their rest but rather on the day of their labour in the workes of their proper callings observe I pray how at every turne the light of Gods direction doth meete with us to keepe us in the good wayes of the Lord if we will not wilfully shut our eyes against it Now let that seventh day which is our Christian Sabbath be well observed first and then let the states take what order they shall see good for the observation of another day also Yet we finde by experience that hardly are men able to maintaine a poore living by labouring hardly six whole dayes in the weeke I come to the second which Rivetus recapitulates in briefe thus 2. It is drawn from the number of six dayes allowed for worke which number cannot consist unlesse it be terminated in rest and in cessation on the seventh To this Rivetus answereth that the six dayes of labour are in reference to the seventh of rest the determination of which seventh day being now taken away a man may worke on any day so long as some day be chosen whether by Divine constitution or humane and reasonable disposition for Divine Service which may be in such sort that fewer dayes shall be left for worke But consider What more reasonable disposition humane Respon 1. then that which is conformable to constitution Divine now it is apparent that God required of the Jewes one day in seven neither was it ever knowen to bee abrogated the particularity of the day is abrogated not the proportion of time ground we have for the one by the ceremoniality of it no colour of ground for the other nor did ever I thinke any man set his wits on worke to devise a ceremonialitie of one day in seven 2. But what shall the morality of rest granted to servants be altered also under the Gospell did Calvin any where teach this may not masters exact as many dayes worke of their servants under the Gospell as under the Law hath not Christ deserved at the hands of servants to be as serviceable to their masters as ever Lastly are these dayes of the World such as wherein a labouring man may maintaine himselfe by the labour of five dayes in a weeke as well as by the labour of six A long time I have found it observed by traffiquers in the World that nothing is more cheape then mens labours a notable evidence how unprofitable servants wee have beene unto God and therefore hee makes the labour of our hands and sweate of our browes to afford very unprofitable service unto us Can these Divines make the World more favourable to crafts-men and bring their commodities in better request then they are if they could let them then change the morality of servants rest and for one in seven allow them one in three or foure or five their masters will bee the more easily brought to entreat their consciences to condescend Or if Kings had power to make the commodities of their owne Country more worth and the commodities of other Countries lesse worth which upon due consideration will bee found as needfull equally then place might bee made for this Till then let us bee content with Calvines morality of the fourth Commandement in reference to servants rest namely one day after six and therewithall consider whether our Christian Sabbath must not bee confined to that day as the onely day of rest for servants and I hope wee shall not thinke it fit to allow one Sabbath for the masters and another for the servents 3. The third is drawne from the examples of the Apostles and the apostolicall Church who in place of the Iewes Sabbath observed the first day of the weeke without variation therefore by force of the precept one day in seven is to be observed still Never any hath beene found to change this therefore that which hath beene kept from the beginning of the VVorld and shall continue to the end is to bee taken for such as by the Analogy of Gods Commandement binds all men To this Rivetus answereth that the consequence is not firme for as much as Christians observed the Lords Day not of necessity by reason of any binding praecept but of free choise Yet was it wisely done of them lest by a greater change they might offend the Iewes And that it might be a free monument of their maintaining the weekly remembrance of Christs Resurrection Hee sayeth they did it freely Resp but of things freely done without any conscience of duty obliging it was never knowne that so universall a concurrence was found as the observation of the Lords Day Nay Philosophers observe that things freely done as often come to passe to the contrary Againe then it was free for them to observe one day in fourteene as well as one in seven as Breâ—tius professeth and consequently as well one in twenty which Rivetus denies Nay it stood them upon to change the observation lest men by universall and
a worse And as for Doctor Prideaux I nothing doubt but he will cleare us from Judaisme in arguing thus as who Sect. 7. professeth that if they against whom he disputes required no more but the Analogy the equity or the reason of that Commandement we would not sticke to yeeld unto it And whereas Rivetus addes that the argument which hee annexeth seemes to him of great weight namely that hee who stickes to the Commandement must exactly observe it And that therefore into the place of the seventh from the Creation no day is to bee substituted But this argument I have answered before all for the most part grant some ceremoniality in that Commandement now if rest on the seventh be found to bee ceremoniall but not the rest of one day in seven in an indefinite consideration it will follow herehence that the seventh must not be observed as accomplished in Christ and that the proportion of time is still to continue as indeed by experience wee finde it verified in each For the observation of the seventh is ceased as prefiguring Christs rest in his Grave but the observation of one day in seven still continueth unto this day Next for the second Thesis Preface that the alteration of the day is onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall constitution the Doctor sheweth in the first Section the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuites Canonists and Schoolemen of some great Lutheranes by names and generally of the remonstrant or Arminian Divines in their confession whose tendries in this point wee may conceave with reason not to bee different from the Doctrine of the Belgicke Churches in that foure professors of Leyden in their examination or review of that confession have passed them over without note or opposition To these besides are added diverse of our own Et è nostris non pauci as hee speakes it in the generall that is as I conceave his meaning such as are neither of the Lutheran nor of the Arminian party of which since he hath instanced in none particularly I will make bold to borrow two or three testimonies out of the tractate of Gomarus before remembred And first hee brings in Bullenger who in his comment on the first of the Revelation calls it Ecclesiae consuetudinem an Ecclesiasticall Ordinance and after addes Sponte Ecclesiae receperunt illum diem The Church did of its owne accord agree upon that day for wee reade not any where that it was commanded Next Vrsinus telling us that God had abrogated the Iewish Sabbath addes presently that hee left it free unto the Church Alios dies eligere to make choise of any other day to be selected for his service and that the Church made choyse of this in honour of our Saviours Resurrection Zanchius affirmes the same Nullibi legimus Apostolos c. We reade not any where saith hee that the Apostles did command this day to bee observed in the Church of God onely wee finde what the Apostles and others of the faithfull used to doe upon it Liberum ergo reliquerunt which is an argument that they left it holy to the disposition of the Church Aretius Sinâ—ler David Paraeus and Bucerus which are all there alleaged might bee here produced were not these sufficient Adde hereunto the generall consent of our English Prelats the Architects of our reformation in the time of King Edward the sixt who in the Act of Parlament about keeping holy dayes have determined thus together with the rest of that grand assembly viz. Neither is it to bee thought that there is any certaine time or definite number of dayes prescribed in holy Scriptures but that the appointment both of the time and also of the number of the dayes is left by the authority of Gods Word to the authority of Christs Church to bee determined and assigned orderly in every Country by the discretion of the rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judge most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of Gods People Which preamble is not to be understood of holy dayes or of Saints dayes onely whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but of the Lords Day also as by the body of the Act doth at full appeare Exam. In this Section the Prefacer makes a greater bluster by farre then in the former For to except against the proportion of time as of one day in seven to be set apart for the service of God in these dayes of the Gospell is so unreasonable a course and that not onely in the judgement of a Christian conscience but even in the judgement of a naturall man that I cannot easily devise any thing more unreasonable For whereas all confesse that by the very light of nature some time ought to bee set apart for the service of God and not so onely but that a fit and competent proportion of time is to bee consecrated to holy uses as Gomarus acknowledgeth though one of the most eager opposers of the morality of the Sabbath that hitherto have beene knowne Albeit this convenient proportion of time cannot bee so convincingly concluded upon by the light of nature as to draw all to an unanimous consent thereunto yet after God himselfe hath gone before us herein by blessing the seventh day and sanctifying 〈◊〉 and that upon the ground mentioned both Gen. 2. and in the fourth Commandement henceforth as Chrysostome observeth God hath manifested that one day in seven is to be set apart I may say consequently that one day in seven is that fit proportioÌ„ of time which is to be sanctified to Gods holy worship and service and that God hath now manifested as much ever since the Creation And herupon as I imagin Azorius the Jesuite in his institutions is bold to conclude that this course is most agreeable unto reason Now if the Lord under the Law did require such a proportion of time to be sequestred from profan use to Divine at the hands of the Iewes can it enter into the heart of a sober man that God should require lesse of us Christians under the Gospell then he did require of the Jewes under the Law Or that God hath now left it to the liberty of the Church whether they will set apart the proportion of one day in seven or lesse to bee spent in Gods worship If wee consider the service of the day as whereby God is honoured undoubtedly God hath deserved more service at our hands under the Gospell then hee did at the hands of the Jewes under the Law for as much as the love of God to mankinde was never so revealed in former times as in these latter times So God loved the World that he gave his only begottet Sonne c. And hereupon undoubtedly it is that our Saviour professeth that from the time of Iohn the Baptist the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force To such an height of devotion hath the
to shew the place Then in the often disputations of our Saviour with the Pharisees about their superstitious observation of the Sabbath Day he demands where is the least suspicion of the abrogation of it or any mention that the Lords Day was instituted in the place thereof And indeed the time hereof was not yet come onely the death of Christ setting an end to ceremonies Then he demands whether the Apostles did not keepe the Jewish Sabbath now I doe not find they did although they tooke occasions of their meetings on that day to dispute with them and to instruct them in the Faith of Christ Then he demands whether the Primitive Church did not designe as well the Sabbath as the Lords Day to sacred meetings I find in Baronius Baron tom 1. pag. 517. that Orthodoxi Orientales did and the occasion also to wit in detestation of the Marcionites yet without any such respect it had been nothing strange considering that even now adayes Saturday is counted halfe holy day and that the Jewes had a preparation for the Sabbath in such sort that on their behalfe Augustus made a rescript that no Jewes should be compelled to make good their suretiships as much to say Baron tom 1. pag. 148. they should not be arrested either on the Sabbath dayes or after three a clocke of the day going before Hereupon which is yet a very weake ground in my judgement he saith that Papists inferre that the Lords Day is not of Divine institution he doth not make any such inference himselfe Yet notwithstanding he confesseth that even in the Church of Rome Anchoranus Panormitane Angelus and Sylvester all which this Prefacer conceals very judiciously for his owne advantage have stoutly set themselves against these luke-warme Advocates in affirmation of the Divine authority of the Lords Day And I find that Azorius in his institutions makes mention of them to the same purpose and addes that Sylvester professeth hanc esse opinionem communem that this is the common opinion And after this Doctor Prideaux in that Section disputes for the Divine institution thereof rather than against it After this he takes notice of Pauls fact Acts 20.7 and disputes therehence for a custome to celebrate on the first day of the weeke their publike meetings and confesseth that the Fathers and all Interpreters almost doe so conceive it though withall he professeth hee sees not how from a casuall fact so he calleth it upon what ground I know not a solemne institution may be justly grounded yet that which went before in some opposition whereunto this is delivered pleaded not for a solemne institution but for a custome onely although upon due consideration it may be found that such a custome if that be granted could not otherwise proceed originally than from a solemne institution It is enough if they ordained that on that day the Churches should be assembled for publique worship which Austin expressely professeth as formerly I have shewed neither doth it appeare in reason how it could be otherwise such assemblies being universall and so continuing to this day Is it credible such universall agreement should come to passe casually if it did yet their continuance of it without dislike doth manifest their joynt Apostolicall approbation who we know were guided by the Spirit of God and even in their time was the first day of the weeke called the Lords Day So that in all this I find no incoherence much lesse notable Indeed in the first of the Corinth chap. 16.2 he doth not order that the first day should be set apart for Gods service but rather supposeth it and that not onely at Corinth but in the Churches of Galatia how improbable is it that this uniformity should be among them unlesse it proceeded from some authority superiour to the Churches themselves then comming to consider the denomination of the Lords Day and concluding it to be the first day of the weeke and therewithall concluding that sixth Section the seventh Section he begins thus what then Shall we affirme that the Lords Day is founded in Divine authority and answers the question thus For my part without prejudice to any mans opinion I assent unto it however the arguments like me not whereby the opinion is supported and so he proceeds in prosecuting of that which was affirmed by him in the last place concerning his private dislike of some particular courses taken to justifie it He opposeth I grant expresse institution but if by just consequence it may be deduced it serveth our turne both in the generall and in particular at this time and in this place to discover the immodest and unreasonable carriage of this Prefacer who would obtrude the contrary opinion upon Doctor Pride aux as it were in despite of him And indeed it is thought that hee owed him a spight and to pay that hee owed him hee came to this translation But herein the Doctors honour is easily preserved in the despight of this Prefacer yet see a greater degree of impudency in this Prefacer For he puts upon the Doctor as if hee had shewed the alteration of the day to be onely an humane and Ecclesiasticall institution by the generall consent of all sorts of Papists Jesuits Azorius institut Part. 2. l. 1. c. 2. Canonists and Schoole-men of some great Lutherans by name whereas it is plaine that he mentioneth more Papists maintaining the Lords Day to be of Divine institution then opposing it And amongst them that maintaine it one to wit Sylvester professeth it to be opinionem commâ—nâ—m not one avouched as affirming the contrary And as for the great Lutherans this Author speaketh of loving to speake with a full mouth they are but one and that Brentius who is said to affirme it to be a civill ordinance and not a commandement of the Gospel a very strange phrase in my opinion to call it a civill ordinance the ordinance being in force many hundred yeeres before the Church of God had any civill government of their own and being in the Apostles dayes how could it be lesse than Apostolicall undoubtedly not so much civill as Ecclesiasticall Wee grant willingly we have no expresse precept for it yet Austin is bold to say as wee have heard that Apostoli sanxerunt yet Gomarus allegeth no passage out of Brentius to this purpose But Melancthon ever as I take it accounted of better authoritie than Brentius professeth as Walaeus reports him that consentaneum est Apostolos hanc ipsam ob causam mutasse diem in plaine termes ascribing the change of the day to the Apostles As for the Remonstrants what authority have they deserved to have with us who are so neere a kinne to the Socinians who uttterly professe against all observation of the Lords Day But the foure professors of Leiden have passed over this of theirs without note or opposition And was not Walaeus one of the foure yet what his opinion is himselfe hath manifested to the
to the Rhemish Testament was set forth in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth and dedicated to her Majesty therein on Re. 1. v. 16. hath hee delivered that to change the Lords Day and to keepe it on Munday Tuesday or any other day the Church hath none authority For it is not a matter of indifferency but a necessary prescription of Christ himselfe delivered to us by his Apostles Was hee ever questioned for this or was it ever knowne that the state of this Land excepted against it for crossing the Doctrine of the Church manifested in a preamble to one of the Acts of Parliament which I presume was never yet repealed but leave we him to live on his own juice and to please himselfe in his holinesse A THIRD DIGRESSION CONTAINING A CONFERENCE With D. Walaeus about the Divine authority of the Lords Day I Come to consider somewhat in Walaeus whose dissertation of the Sabbath from the first hath liked mee so well and the spirit which it breathes throughout that I doe not affect to differ from him but rather heartily desire there may bee little or no difference betweene us and I hope in the end there will be found little or no difference of importance betweene us especially in this point of the institution of the Lord Day whether it be divine or humane and as for the originall institution of the Sabbath namely as from the beginning of the World and as touching the morality of one day in seven therein I concurre with him really and affectionately And as touching the quality of the institution I approve his learned paines in vindicating those three places of the new Testament Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 and Re. 1.10 from the interpretation that some give of them to quash the evidence which they import for the observation of the first day of the weeke commonly called the Lords Day even in those primitive and Apostolicall dayes of the Christian Church And I joyne with him pag. 167. in admiring that after so many accurate prejudices of the reformed Churches concurring in the same translation interpretation of those places which we embrace yet some should be found to take so unhappy paines as to quash the evidence of them which they seem to us plainly to import A manifest argument in my judgement that the observation of that day as in place of the Jewes Sabbath in the very days of the Apostles doth even convince their consciences that it can savour of nothing lesse than Apostolicall institution which because they doe impugne therefore they desire to impugne the use thereof as nothing so antient as to be received of the Apostles themselves For consider I pray how should the converted Jewes come to change their Sabbath if not by order from the Apostles themselves whose doctrine it was that Christ came to set an end to all ceremonies And as for the substitution of a day in the place of it that all did joyntly concurre herein without any dependance of some upon the judgement of others what strange strength of convicting evidence must there needs be in the resurrection of Christ to draw them hereunto farre beyond Almighty Gods resting on the seventh day from his worke of creation What could be devised to inferre greater morality by the very light of nature than this which should be so forcible to move all to concurre herein and that with the first But if they received it some from others how improbable it is that the Apostles should receive it from the Churches and not rather the Churches from the Apostles Then consider we no where reade of any difference here-abouts among the Apostles counting Paul amongst rhem who received from the Lord after his ascension into heaven what he delivered unto others How then came it to passe that they all so throughly and at the first agreed herein If as having received it from the Lord then the case is cleare that it is of most Divine institution But if onely as drawne hereunto by the consideration of Christs resurrection on that day being guided by the Spirit of God infallibly to order as other things so the time of Divine service to prevent the danger of division and confusion upon just ground even this is enough to manifest the strength of evidence which the Lords resurrection carrieth with it as to convince them so to appoint and to convince others of the reasonablenesse thereof seeing all Churches did so universally and so earely yeeld thereunto and since that time so constantly persevered therein The resurrection therefore of Christ is nothing inferiour to the Lords rest on the seventh to draw us to the sanctifying thereof And the Apostles ordering it in this manner especially as his extraordinary Ministers is answerable to the Lords Commandement for the sanctifying of the seventh especially that very commandement by just analogie having force also in this And albeit Walaeus saith no more pag. 174. of those three places Acts 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 Ap c. 1.10 than that the whole Church reformed hath constantly gathered therehence Diei Dominicae usum the use of the Lords Day yet both pag. 183. he doth manifestly imply the Apostles to have instituted it where he saith that quae ab ipsis Apostolis instituta non sunt such things as have not beene ordained by the Apostles were never in that manner observed in all Christian Churches throughout the world as the observation of the Lords Day And before pag. 172. he concludes that the first day of the weeke was by the Apostles substituted in the place of the seventh and commended to the Church and that potestate singulari by singular power and as they were extraordinary Ministers of Christ put in trust by his Spirit to be faithfull in giving Precepts marke this well not onely touching faith and manners but also de Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recto ordino for the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular what day of the weeke is to be observed by force and analogie of the fourth Commandement to prevent dissention and confusion among the Churches And I am verily perswaded that as many as stand for the Divine institution of the Lords Day would rest fully satisfied with this Austin I am sure who is alleged by Walaeus in the first place as maintaining it to be of Christs institution writes thus of it Serm. de temp 251. Dominicum ergo diem Apostoli Apostolici viri ideo religiosa solennitate habendum sanxerunt quia in eadem Redempter noster à mortuis resurrexit this being premised let us come to the consideration of that which he delivers about the justification hereof from pag. 152. where he acknowledgeth that among the ancient Writers and Doctors of the reformed Church there have beene some who have referred the celebritie of this day to the fact and institution of Christ At the first by Christs fact in this place I understood Christ apparitions to the Apostles as they were assembled
making the observation of the day a part of Divine worship which never was but in the way of prefiguration of somewhat in Christ which kind of pedagogy is now quite out of date neither is there any place for it in the observation of the Lords day Doctor Walaeus his second argument is because those places of Scripture Rom. 14. Gal. 4. Coloss 2. in which the Apostle takes away all difference of dayes can hardly bee reconciled with this opinion or if Christ himselfe not by example onely but by an ordinance commanded unto his Disciples the observation of this day it cannot bee imagined as it seemes that any liberty should now remaine in the observation of this day for that which Christ hath determined is not left under Christian liberty any more then the observation of the seventh day from the Creation was left free to the Jewes when God not onely by his example but also by precept separated it from all other dayes to his service To this I answer 1. I finde no liberty at all left to the Church to change the day by the Doctors owne grounds for hee holds it to bee invariable p. 168. Secondly Hee professeth the change of the day cannot bee attempted without the greatest scandall of the Church p. 169. Now what sober Christian would affect liberty to bee scandalous 3. others who acknowledge the observation of the day by Apostolicall institution and withall to bee changeable and left to the liberty of the Church doe withall maintaine that the Apostles did not command it as extraordinary Ministers of Christ but Doctor Waleus p. 172. acknowledgeth the institution of it made by the Apostles as Ministers extraordinary 4. the Doctor professeth that the Apostles were entrusted by the Holy Ghost to give precepts concerning the good government of the Church and that in this particular case to make knowne to all Christians every where what day in the weeke ought to be kept holy and that by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and withall to prevent dissension and confusion amongst the Churches thereabouts 5. and lastly hee joynes the precepts concerning this with precepts concerning faith and manners and this hee doth without specifying any the least difference nay the word precepts is once proposed as subservient indifferently as to faith and manners so also to the well ordering of the Church and that in this particular of notifying unto all what day of the weeke is it to bee sanctified to Gods Service As for the places Rom. 14. Gal. 2. Coloss 2. I answer that if wee made the observation of the day as it denotes a circumstance of time any part of Gods Service or for some mysterious signification contained therein then indeed wee should carry our selves in contradiction to the places mentioned but seeing we observe times onely out of respect to order and policy which is necessary for the edification of the Church and God having always required one day in seven to be set apart for this even when there was not so great need nor had God manifested his love to mankinde in such sort as in these latter dayes and of our selves wee are to seeke of the particularity of the day under a fit proportion of time from the beginning of the World rquired and hereupon were we left to our owne judgements a way would bee opened to miserable dissension and confusion what cause have wee to blesse the Lord for marking out a day to us with such notable characters to make it our Sabbath and to honour it by his appearance amongst his Apostles when they were assembled together both that day and that day senight after as also by his Apostles to commend it and establish it in such sort that for 1600. yeares the observation thereof hath continued unto this day which order of the Apostles doth carry pregnant presumption that it proceeded originally from the institution of Christ The necessity of the Church Christian requiring the specification of the day for the preventing of dissension and confusion as much as ever the necessity of the Jewish Church required the like and over and above by reason of the fourth Commandement wee have now better evidence to conclude therehence the observation of the Lords Day by the congruity that Christs Resurrection hath to the Lords rest from Creation better means I say to conclude ours then they without a Commandement to inferre the observation of their seventh forstill the day of the Lords rest is made the day of our rest Thirdly that which is alleadged in the third place that both ancient and late writers doe maintaine that wee celebrate the Lords Day not as any part of Divine worship nor as absolutely necessary For the first of these wee willingly grant for as much as wee conceave the observation of the 7th by the Jewes was no otherwise a part of Divine worship then as it was a ceremony and shadow the body whereof was Christ prefigured thereby and it is well knowne that no Christians observe it in any such Notion But the observation thereof wee hold to bee absolutely necessary and so doth Doctor Walaeus in holding it to bee invariable and that it cannot bee altered without the greatest scandall And Doctor Lake Bishop of Bath and Wells professeth it to bee not liberae observationis but necessariae And if it were free then not to use this freedome at all doth manifestly give way to superstition in taking that for a thing necessary which is not though not as touching the substance of Gods worship and service yet as touching a circumstance thereof such as is the circumstance of time As for expresse precept if hee meanes a precept expressely written no man I trow ever stood for that but if hee meanes a precept given by Christs expresse charge to his Apostles no man that I have met with saith more hereupon then Doctor Walaeus seemes to affirme himselfe in saying that they were entrusted by the Holy Ghost as extraordinary Ministers that they should bee faithfull ad tradenda praecepta to give praecepts of faith and manners and of the good government of the Church and right order and particularly in this that might be known to all what day in the weeke was to be set apart for Gods service both by vertue and analogy of the fourth Commandement and to praevent dissension and confusion among the Churches Neither doe we acknowledge any other celebrity of the day then this and therefore doe no more affront Hierome then Doctor Walaeus himselfe As for festivall dayes in Socrates and Nicephorus I see no cause why as touching that they speake thereof the Lords Day should bee comprehended under them and as for apostolicall precept concerning this Doctor VValaeus is as expresse as any And it is not credible to mee that the Apostles should make such an invariable ordinance to the Church and not bee verily perswaded that it was the Will of God the Father and of God the Sonne it
day the worke I say done doth difference a day from a day and Thes 43. Now then when God doth any remarkable worke thou will he be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke If the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part and Thes 44. And his Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Ca holique rule observed in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekely monethly or yeerely as particulars evince in Scripture and history The very light of nature doth give testimony unto this as appeareth by the common practice of the heathens as to give some instance hereof what is the originall of the observation of the Fryday as a festivall day amongst Mahumetanes surely this on that day Mahumet fled from Mecha to Jethrib and so that day is accounted the first day of his kingdom and from thenceforth it was ordained to be the first day of their yeere and of their weeke So then the Will of God in the judgement of this reverend Divine is manifested not onely by Precept but by his Worke. And yet I know none speakes more of Precept in this particular than Doctor Walaeus as I have often alleged him pag. 172. Fifthly I grant Iunius went too farre in affirming that Christ did observe the same every weeke betweene his resurrection and ascention but neither doth the contrary appeare by Scripture undoubtedly the two first he did and it is not manifest that the three following he did not and though Cyril inferres here-hence the reasonablenesse of our Christian assemblies on this day yet wee doe not but as Doctor Walaeus concludes that which hee concludes not from any one place but from many places together that do we Neither is it any thing to the purpose that Doctor Walaeus observes of Christs appearing on other dayes as Ioh. 21.24 once which was at a fish meeting And as little materiall is it that at such other times of his meetings he spake of the kingdome of God Sixthly On like sort Christ sending down the Spirit on his Apostles on the day of Pentecost hath not so much force considered alone but onely in a conjunct consideration with Christs resurrection on that day And like as after his death he arose on that day manifesting himselfe mightily thereby to be the Sonne of God so after his ascension into heaven he came downe by his Spirit on that day the seventh first day of the weeke after his resurrection manifesting thereby as Peter signifieth that he had obtained the dispensation of the Spirit We doe not say the Spirit was on the day of Pentecost sent downe because it was the Lords day But being sent down on that day as the Law is confessed to have beene delivered on that day this tends to the marking out of that day more and more for manifestation of the power of Christ That day they receiving power from on high by the descending of the holy Ghost upon them whereby they were inabled to preach the Gospel And that day of the weeke which is set apart for Divine service as our Christian Sabbath as that day whereon the Holy Ghost doth ordinarily come downe upon his servants in the ministerie of his Word and celebration of the Sacraments and putting up of our joynt prayers unto him for the sanctifying and edifying Christ body which is the Church and even in this respect that day hath a farre better congruitie to the day that is to be set apart for Divine service than any other day in the week besides The day of his ascension he departed from them as touching his presence corporall but on the day of Pentecost he came downe upon them as touching his presence spirituall and so he doth still in our Sabbath exercises on the Lords day though not in so extraordinary a manner yet no lesse effectually to that edification and sanctification of our soules Seventhly And whereas some urged that it Christ himselfe had not instituted this day after his resurrection the most Primitive Church should have beene left destitute of a certaine day of Gods worship to wit from the time of Christs resurrection to the first consecrating of the Lords Day which they take to be absurd and I confesse it seems unlikely that the Apostles tooke upon them to order ought untill they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost that being the day they were to receive power from on high to execute the commission given them Mat. 28.19 to teach all nations till which time they gathered no Churches For the strengthning the former reason it is added That the Jewes Sabbath was now abolished by Christs death and resurrection This I doe not deny but the Apostles might very well be ignorant hereof as yet as not having received the Spirit as yet yea after the receiving it we find they challenged Peter for going to the Gentiles to preach the Gospel Acts 11. to this argument some answer as Walaeus saith that the daies between Christs ascension and the comming downe of the Holy Ghost upon them were spent in continuall meetings of the Apostles and other Disciples But from the day of Pentecost the Lords day thenceforth observed This answer reacheth not unto the daies interceding betweene Christs resurrection and his ascention And when I consider Bishop Lake his discourse grounded as he professeth upon universall observation and which I find no reason to resist namely that the worke of the day commends the day If ever any day deserved to be festivall to any surely the day of our Saviours resurrection deserved to be festivall unto them to rejoyce in the Lord thereon according to that of the Psalmist Psalm 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce therein the ancient Fathers accommodating the place thereunto The two verses immediatly preceding carrying in the forehead of them a manifest relation unto Christ as the proprietary of their meaning 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner 23. This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Now when was this manifested namely that the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner but by Christs Resurrection from the dead being thereby mightily declared to bee the Sonne of God Rom. 14. and was there ever worke more marvellous in the eyes of Gods Servants then the Resurrection of Christ especially considering the disconfolate condition of his Disciples Luke 24 21. We trusted it had beene he that should have delivered Israel The women departed from the Sepulcher though with feare by reason of the consternation receaved from Angelicall presence their countenance being like lightning yet with great joy by reason of the newes they heard from them
the judgement of all the Prelates of this Kingdome and of the whole Parliament Now let every sober Reader judge whether my selfe as an English man have not better ground from an act of Parliament to censure them of Geneva for prophaners of the Sabbath in the case here pretended then this Praefacer from the practise of Geneva by the relation of Robert Iohnson to consure us that doe mislike them herein if this bee their practise for superstitious observers of the Sabbath especially considering that hee cannot fasten this censure upon such as my selfe but withall hee must passe the same upon all Prelates of the Kingdome together with the Lords temporall and the whole house of Commons And as for the exercises here mentioned I finde them to fall wondrously short of that which the author avoucheth as namely that they esteeme the Sabbath to lie open to all honest exercises and lawfull recreations for I make no question but in this Praefacer his opinion there are farre more exercises and lawfull recreations then that of shooting which alone is here mentioned and whereas such things are permitted in the very morning of the Sabbath and aswell afore as after Sermon I finde no thing answerable hereunto in the practise of our Church Neither doe I finde that the exercises here mentioned are so much accommodated to the refreshing of the minde and quickning of the spirit as to make their bodies active and expedite in some functions which may be for the service of the common Wealth And lately upon enquiry hereabout I have receaved information that at Geneva after evening prayer onely the youth doth practise shooting in Guns to make them more ready and expert for the defence of the City which is never out of danger They have also at foure a Clocke on the Morning both Service and a Sermon for their servants and 2. more in every Church the one in the Fore-noone the other in the After-noon beside Catechizing the youth on the Sabbath Day And Bishop Lake wished that such a course were generall as is in his Majesties Court to have a Sermon in the Morning for the servants on the Sabbath day And I see no cause to dissent from Gerardus in specifying 4. particulars whereby the Sabbath is not violated Parva Necessarium Respublica cum pietate Undoubtedly hunting is as commendable as and more generous exercise then any of these and the Kings Majesty though much delighted herein yet never useth to hunt on the Sabbath Day Morning or Evening And I have cause to come but slowly to the believing hereof because it is Calvins Doctrine concerning the Sabbath that albeit under the Gospell we are not bound to so rigorous a rest as the Jewes were yet that still wee are obliged to abstaine from all other works as they are Avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus Avocations from holy studies and Meditations and their Ministers I should thinke doe not well if they faile to minde them hereof unlesse both they and the people are fallen from Calvins Doctrine in this point in which case I see no just cause why any should choake us therewith but give us as much liberty to dissent from him in the Doctrine of the Sabbath as they of Geneva take unto themselves Againe Beza is well knowne to have professed upon Revel 1.10 that the observation of the Lords Day is traditionis Apostolicae verè Divinae and consequently that the day is not left arbitrary neither hath this author proved that the Presbytery and states of Geneva both Ecclesiasticall and politicall have committed any revolt or apostacy thereto from Beza in this point It is well hee acknowledgeth some recreation not suffered there as namely dancing but this hee sayth they hold unlawfull which simply delivered as by this author it is is incredible unto mee neither hath this authors word any sufficient authority to deliver mee from this incredulity yet some manner of dancing may perhaps bee generally forbidden in the French Protestant Churches This strictnesse the Prefacer saith is noted by some to have beene a great hinderer to the growth of the reformed Religion which belike is advantaged so much the more with us in as much as it is not hindred but he quotes no author for that As for the author he quotes I have not hitherto found that hee hath arrived to any great authority or credit in the World for the truth of his relations Neither hath the wisdome of our Church or state taken any contrary course hitherto either by Statute or Canon to promote reformation amongst us what they may doe hereafter I know not when such spirits as this Prefacer may bee so fortunate as to sit neare the sterne Whether the French Churches have found it so as this Geographer is sayd to report I know not but for their judgment herein I must expect untill I heare more therof Sect. 7. Pref. Which being so the judgement and practice of so many men and of such severall perswasions in the controverted point of the Christian faith concurring unanimously together the miracle is the greater that we in England should take up a contrary opinion and thereby separate our selves from all that are called Christian yet so it is Sect. 7. I skill not how it comes to passe but so it is that some among us have revived againe the Jewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were cleane taken away This day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were justly abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest which doctrinalls though dangerous in themselves and different from the judgement of the ancient Fathers and of the greatest Clerks of the later times are not yet halfe so desperate as that which followeth thereupon in point of practice For these positions granted and entertained as orthodox what can we else expect but such strange paradoxes as in the consideration of the premisses have beene delivered from some pulpits in this kingdome as viz. That to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or to commit adultery that to throw a bowle to make a feast or dresse a wedding dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a man to take a knife and cut his childs throat that to ring more bells than one on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to commit murther The author which reports them all was present when the
broacher of the last position was convented for it And I believe him in the rest the rather since I have heard it preached in London that the law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that who ever did the works of his calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore And I know also that in a towne of mine acquaintance the Preachers there had brought the people to that passe that neither baked nor rost meat was to be found in all the parish for a Sundayes dinner throughout the yeere These are the ordinary fruits of such dangerous doctrines and against these and such as these our Author in this following Treatise doth addresse himselfe accusing them that entertaine the formall doctrinalls every where of no lesse than Judaisme and pressing them with that of Austin that they who literally understand the fourth Commandement doe not yet savour the Spirit Section the third Exam. Austin somewhere saith that he who lookes for miracles in these dayes for confirmation of the truth Magnum ipse prodigium est himselfe may goe for a monster he doth not say It is a miracle that men so should doe Men may be sottish even to admiration and such if this Prefacer proves we will not say it is a miracle mira wonderful things may be wrought not only by the practice of Satan but in the very courses of men but God is he alone that worketh miracles He talkes of unanimous concurrence of men of severall perswasions otherwise in the controverted points of Christian faith and that both in judgement and practice with him in his way he loves to speake with a full mouth and to make a great noise as the Hogs in Aelian did when their owner shore them which gave him occasion to say That there was a great deale of cry but a little wooll And let the indifferent judge whether the wooll be answerable to the noise this Prefacer makes Now the men of severall perswasions whom hee avoucheth are Papists and Protestants and amongst the Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists And hitherto he hath spoken of foure particulars I desire the reader would take notice of the modesty of this author in each of them compared with the noise here hee makes concerning them as if he were as much crackt in his braine as hee who standing upon the key at Athens with a note booke in his hands set downe every ship that entred into the road as his when he was not owner of any one of them So I shall make it appeare that this Prefacer hath title to none of the sides he boasts of for the countenancing of his way in any one of the particulars mentioned The first particular is about the originall institution of the Sabbath as whether God commanded it immediatly upon the creation This author denies the institution of it before the promulgation of the law upon mount Sina And what strength of suffrages doth he bring for this amongst the Protestants whether Lutherans or Calvinists Surely not one Lutherane that I know but of others all that he avoucheth by himselfe are but Doctor Prideaux and Gomarus and by his assistance Vatablus and Musculus on the contrary are alleged by Walaeus 1. Luther himselfe 2. Zuinglius 3. Calvin 4. Beza 5. Peter Martyr 6. Bullinger 7. Zanchius 8. Vrsinus 9. Gualterus 10. Aretius 11. Bertramus 12. Mercerus 13. Antonius Fayus 14. Iunius 15. Zepperus 16. Martinius 17. Alstedius The same is justified by Rivetus who voucheth no lesse than thirty Writers of note to concurre in this Now let the indifferent judge on whose side is the miracle this Prefacer speakes of in his rhetoricall amplifications on his side or on ours Yet not one English Divine is mentioned either by Walaeus or Rivetus amongst this number 2. Then as for Papists Tostatus indeed disputes against this opinion of ours but his reasons I have answered and Catarinus a Popish Prelate as well as Abulensis is acknowleged by this Author to oppose Tostatus in this neither hath he or Doctor Prideaux undertaken to answer him Onely this Prefacer after his bold fashion saith that Catarinus tooke up armes against Tostatus with ill successe it hath beene manifest that for ought doth appeare Catarinus hath had better successe than Tostatus For Pererius takes Tostatus his part yet all the Rhemists on Apoc. 1.10 doe manifest themselves to take part with Catarinus and Gomarus acknowledged as much of Marius And Rivetus also allegeth Augustinus Steuchus Genebrard Iacobus Solianus Cornelius de Lapide Emmanuel Sa and Ribera all concurring against Tostatus and all Papists yea many of them Jesuites Hereby let the reader judge of the modesty of this Author and on whose side the feigned miracle is on his side or on ours For it is manifest hitherto that the men he speakes of of seveverall perswasions otherwise are by farre more for us than for him But it may be in this particular his glory is that the Fathers are rather for his opinion than for us But upon what ground Is it from any evidence of Scripture nothing lesse not one of them building hereupon and as for evidences they bring none save that the Scripture doth not particulate that the Patriarches of old observed the Sabbath Yet it was not to be held a generall rule that Argumentum non valet ab authoritate negativè the argument drawâ—e from authority doth not hold negatively in matter of fact Secondly not onely our Divines as Hospinian and Walaeus that the meaning of the Fathers is onely this that the Patriarches did not observe it after a Jewish manner but Iacobus Salianus a Papist affirmes the same particularly of Tertullian as Rivetus voucheth him in his answer to Gomarus pag. 21. And it may be made apparant from Tertullian himselfe otherwise hee cannot be freed from contradiction as who plainly manifesteth his opinion in our side as Rivetus citeth him pag. 23. So that the Fathers alleged by our adversaries being rightly understood make nothing for them yet we want not variety of Fathers making expressely for us and against them and that grounding themselves upon expresse Scripture Gen. 2.3 therefore The Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it which our adversaries have no other meanes to avoid than by saying that it is spoken by anticipation according whereunto the meaning of Moses must be thus because the Lord rested the seventh day from creation therefore he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it but would you know when to wit 2000. and 4. or 500. yeeres after And lastly the dividing of times into weekes proved to be the most ancient division of times in the world received by all nations and made a festivall day thereupon as many have most learnedly proved it doe justifie the sanctification of the Sabbath to have had its beginning and course from the very creation So that in this particular wee have on our side both Scripture and reason and Fathers and the
desperate as that which followeth thereupon in practice Divers particulars whereof he reciteth out of the same Master Rogers his preface to his comment upon the Articles of the Church of England And indeed this Master Rogers glorieth there Pyrgopolynices-like that he hath beene the man and the meanes that these Sabbatarian errours and impieties were brought into light and knowledge of the State so he speakes and that this is a comfort to his soule and would be to his dying day And in very deed the particulars mentioned by him are very foule for hee saith It was preached in a market towne in Oxfordshire that to doe any servile worke or businesse on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly It was preached in Summersetshire that to throw a bowle on the Sabbath day is as great a sinne as to kill a man that it was preached in Norfolke that to make a feast or wedding-dinner on the Lords Day is as great a sinne as for a father to take a knife and cut his childs throat I wonder the Prefacer doth not call them miracles Sommersetshire is a pretty large County and there be many market townes in Oxfordshire and I doe not doubt but there are many parishes in Norfolke But no particular is here set downe either of person or of place and wee have no better authority for the proofe of these imputations than this mans word which yet undoubtedly was not present at these Sermons for then he would have beene very carefull to expresse that as in the next story hee doth the like So that in the issue the strength of all comes but to this that he hath heard it thus reported Now I have heard it preached and that at Saint Maries in Oxford that a man in Bunbury or thereabouts having broken a bone his sonne refused to goe for a Bone-setter because it was the Lords Day and this Sermon afterwards comming into print the party finding himselfe agrieved by this scandalous report cast forth of him repaired to the quarter Sessions holden at Oxford and complained to the Justices of the wrong that was done unto him the Preacher of that Sermon being by and the whole matter being opened and the contrary justified the preacher professed that he delivered no more than he had heard but promised the next time that he printed that Sermon hee would leave that story out Doctor Hoskins of our house was present at the hearing of this businesse and brought us word of it But whether that Sermon ever came to be printed a second time I know not In like sort I have heard it reported of Master Bolton that when one fell into the River on the Sabbath day he would not suffer those that were with him being neere to runne to helpe him out I professed at the hearing of it I knew Master Bolton so well that it seemed uncredible to me but the reporter professed to deliver it upon knowledge But if it were so many there be that can beare witnesse thereunto in the place where he lived Lately it hath beene brought unto mee that one hath beene heard to lay to my charge behind my backe that I should say David sinned more in dancing about the Arke than either in deflouring Bathshebath or killing Vriah though it is such a comparison that never entered into my thoughts how much lesse to passe so prodigious a judgement upon the comparison In the last place he saith It was preached in Suffolke and that he could name the man and was present when he was convented before his ordinary for preaching the same that to ring more bels than one upon the Lords day to call the people unto Church is as great a sinne as to commit murther this is more particular than the rest and had hee added one thing more the evidence had been compleat namely that as he saith he was convented for it before his Ordinary so he was found convicted of it which if it were so I wonder he should conceale it if it were not so of what credit is this his relation He addes that many things to this effect he had read before in the Sabbath doctrine printed at London for I. Porter and Tho. Man what this booke was I could not devise but lately have gotten into my hands D. Bowndes booke of the Sabbath I finde by comparing it well that this is the booke he girds at Now I finde nothing in him to this effect though I have gone over most of the first booke and in the Index doe not finde any thing that can give me probability in the second booke tending to any such effect and I wonder he spared to quote the place where such doctrines are to be found nothing being more convenient to justifie his criminations than to quote for it something that is to be seene in print and thereby to cleare himselfe from the suspicion of a malignant But this Prefacer very judiciously believes him throughout because the Relator was present when the broacher of the last position was convented for it yet doth he not say he was convicted of it And upon what ground he proceeds so judiciously in believing it is remarkeable to wit because himselfe hath heard it preached in London that the Law of Moses whereby death temporall was appointed for the Sabbath-breaker was yet in force and that whoever did the workes of his ordinary calling on the Sabbath day was to die therefore Now I professe he seemes to me a great deale more politique herein than at the first I was ware of For had hee not believed Master Rogers his report this way others might have taken as great liberty to believe but their part concerning this Therefore it stood him upon first to manifest his ingenuous facility in believing another that this might be a shooing-horne to draw on others by way of the like ingenuous facility to believe him also yet such things may be for as long as the world lasts we shall be exercised with wilde wits and so no doubt we shall with tale-tellers too and so much the more in all likelihood the neerer the world approacheth to an end It hath beene so amongst Philosophers in Cicero his observation it hath been so amongst Schoole-divines it is so amongst Socinians and Arminians But let the saddle be set upon the right horse and let every man beare his owne burthen Now I have made it manifest that the doctrines which he picks out of D. Bownde and stiles Sabbatarian doctrines are the doctrines of D. Andrewes afterwards Bishop of Winchester I could shew them to be the doctrines of many other worthy Prelates that have been of this kingdome and it may be that if the votes of the Bishops of this kingdom were taken the major part would concurre with us as touching the doctrine of the Sabbath rather than against us The same Master Rogers sacrificeth to his net and burnes incense to his yarne and magnifies the good
in two particulars For the truth whereof I dare appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe 1. The first is this that not onely some time but a sufficient proportion of time is to be consecrated to the exercises of piety both publique and private Gomarus and Rivetus are driven to acknowledge this in answer to Walaeus about the proportion of one day in seven And whereas we may be to seeke of agreement about what is sufficient 2. Therefore in the next place the very light of nature doth suggest unto us that it is farre more fit that the Master should prescribe unto the servant what proportion of service he expects from his hands than that the servant at his pleasure should cut out what proportion of service he thinks good unto his Master how much more fit that the Creator should prescribe unto his creature then that the creature should prescribe unto his Creator considering 1. how the dominion of God over his creature is incomparably greater than that which any other Master hath over his servant 2. That man may become unreasonable in his demands and commands God cannot 3. God can give strength to his creature to performe what he commands man cannot 4. The more cleare and expresse the Commandement is the more comfortable to the creature being hereby assured the service hee performes is in the way of obedience not unto his owne will but to the will of his Master 3. May I not adde a third namely that by the very equity of a naturall conscience it is more fit to apportion unto Gods service one day in a weeke rather than one day in a moneth especially considering that originally time hath beene divided into weekes and not into moneths untill along time after In all which I am content to appeale to the judgement of Doctor Prideaux himselfe Yet we have not done in this argument For in the fourth Commandement there is enjoyned not onely the setting apart of some time in generall for Gods service and the proportion of one day in seven in speciall but also the particulating of a certaine day under this proportion and who seeth not that so many different things though one in subordination to another being duly considered it is no way fit to confound them and to speake hand over head of the fourth Commandement without distinctions Now as touching the particularity of the day herein I confesse wee are more to seeke by the light of nature than for the speciall proportion of time due unto God Yet consider whether herein also we are not assisted in good measure by the light of nature and that in certaine particulars 1. As first the decent proportion of time being observed it is nothing materiall in it selfe as touching the advancement of the substance of Gods service what day of the weeke it be performed under the duly specified proportion For wee find by experience that all Masters stand for a proportion of service which they expect from the hands of their servants the quantity of service being a very considerable matter in the judgement of all but whether a man worke the first houre of the day and rest the second or five houres in the morning and rest the sixth or in what other difference soever so the quantity and proportion of service for that day be performed all Masters rest satisfied So for the service of the weeke if it be sufficient to performe thus much service as namely a dayes service in a weeke it matters not what day it be done so the work be performed I say it matters not as touching the substance of the worke it selfe to be performed 2. But though it matters not in this respect on what day the service is performed yet it may matter much in another respect For whereas we are all Gods creatures and consequently his servants and the service wee speake of concernes us all in generall and that equally and all wee are reasonable creatures 1. First it seemes fit in reason that there should be an uniformity For like as we converse together by commerce and trade in the workes of our calling on other dayes of the weeke so it seemes most fit we should walke together with God in the performance of his service otherwise there would be a manifest breach of society For suppose there be in such a towne as ours seven times foure hundred persons for wee have almost 2000. Communicants one of the three parishes in Reading hath as many if one 400. should keepe the first day of the weeke for their Sabbath another 400. the second day of the weeke and so to divide the dayes of the weeke betweene them here were a manifest breach of society both in thinges humane and in things Divine for every day in the weeke 400. would be excluded from conversing with their brethren in businesses temporall and all the rest from them whose day it is to rest unto God in exercises spirituall which all I presume by the very light of nature would judge intolerable And this order would have place not onely in particular townes among themselves but with other also considering that six dayes in the weeke wee have converse by commerce and trade not with our neighbours onely but with other townes also farre and neere Againe another inconvenience would arise and that a miserable one more dangerous than the former For hereupon a window will be opened unto dissention each standing for his owne way as the manner of man is and what could be expected but wretched confusion should follow hereupon Lastly consider should not the service of man prove more comfortable unto him if God as hee hath appointed him the proportion of time so he would be pleased not to leave him to seeke of the particularity of the day under the forementioned proportion 2. Therefore as it is fit there should be an uniformity for the reasons given so for the maintenance of uniformity no meanes sufficient but Gods owne prescribing of it hereupon all just occasion of dissention will be cut off confusion will be prevented and the service of God as every way even in the very circumstance of time according to his will shall be the more cheerefully and comfortably performed 3. Thirdly consider what D. Lake writes in his Theses de Sabbato Thes 44. Gods Will is understood often by his Precept but when we have not that the practice doth guide the Church 45. This is a Catholique rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both divine and humane 46. The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yeerely as particulars evidence in Scripture and History 47. No man can translate the workes therefore no man can translate the day This is an undoubted rule in Theologie Now suppose God had not commanded the observation of any one day in the weeke but left it unto man to choose if withall hee should observe one day preferred before another
right hand pleasures for evermore Gods soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes pleasure in us why should not we take delight in him Is not all other rejoycing in comparison to our rejoycing in him a rejoycing in a thing of nought Amos 6.13 Certainly he that loveth any pleasure or pastime in comparison to this will in the end prove to be a very poore creature But to proceed after this a rule is given That this our christian liberty be voyd of scandall to wit of scandall justly given Prov. 21.17 and not vainely caught at but in what cases it falls out to be justly given and in what not in what case it is vainly caught at and in what not here we find no explication which yet I presume will seeme necessary in every wise mans judgement especially to me it must needs seeme so being as I am in extreame despaire of devising these different cases of mine owne head Of Christian liberty from the yoke of Jewish ceremonies I have read but of Christian liberty unto sports and pastimes under the gentile notion of recreations and that on the Lords day I never read till now The Jewes to this day continue their ceremonies but not any abstinence from al sports and pastimes on their Sabbath for if they did why should Austin tell them it were better for them to goe to plough then to dance In the very festivalls of the Jewes which were yearely a difference there was in the dayes of each the first and last were Sabbaths appointed for holy convocations and thereon abstinence commanded from all servile works I no where finde any piping and dancing on those dayes saving their temple musick how much more undecent is it to clap the weekely Sabbath together with other festivalls as if there were no difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to be moved round and consequently it signifies as sometimes to dance as 1 Sam. 30. so sometimes also to stagger like a drunken man Psal 107.27 And dancing was used sometimes in the festivalls of the Jewes whereby they testified their rejoycing in the Lord Ier. 31. and with a pipe they came to the mount of the Lord Es 30. and Miriam Moses sister and other women also with Timbrells and dances expressed their joy in the Lord for their deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians and for their safe passage through the red Sea wherein the enemies were drowned But of any such course used on the first and last day of their yearely feasts which were set apart for holy convocations we find no example amongst them much lesse as approved while they continued the Church and people of God least of all on the weekely Sabbath As for love feasts on the Sabbath untill abuse crept in they continued without exception in great sobriety only to quicken one another and provoke unto love and gracious communication for the edification of their souls I never heard of any schismatique how rashly zealous or Stoicall soever that tooke upon him the authority of the civill magistrate All for ought I know concurre in this that it belongs onely to the magistrate out of coercitive power to command and compell but to the Minister of what sect soever only to persuade and worke upon mens consciences so that the members of this comparison are most indecently yoaked feigning men to be of what spirit soever it pleaseth to shape them and to doe whatsoever they thinke good though never so unreasonably and without all example Of the Jewes I have read that they count it unlawfull to kill a Flea on the Sabbath and such things must be pinned upon the sleeve of opposites to grace their cause for want of better arguments to strengthen it Infine we have a buffe givē to debauched companions in words when under the cleanly terme of Recreations on the Lords Day the course here taken is to sacrifice unto them indeed and in effect FINIS Doctor LAKE Bishop of BATH and Wells Theses de Sabbato 1. GOD at first made us not only men but also children of God 2. Therefore wee had a double being or were fitted for a double Societie 1. Civill 2. Ecclesiasticall 3. These states are inwrapped the one in the other For the Ecclesiasticall presuposeth the Civill He that is a child of God is a man and hee must be of the Civill that is of the Ecclesiasticall society 4. And the Civill state must be seasoned with and moderated by the Ecclesiasticall for a man in his Civill state must live as a child of God and member of the Church 5. Notwithstanding God would that each of these states should during this World have successively their principall imployments 6. And for these imployments hee appointed certaine times 7. The proportion of time allowed the principall imployment of the civill state was six dayes And that which was allowed the principall imployment of Ecclesiasticall state was one day 8. What times himselfe tooke for to work in or rest after the Creation the same did hee assigne to men and made his patterne a perpetuall Law 9. So then of our time God reserved a seventh part for his service 10. But in this apportioning as he reserved a seventh part of time so was that seventh the seventh day of the weeke 11. Whereof the ground was his rest from labour 12. For that he would have to be the day of mans rest because he sanctified it 13. And though no meane both Jewes and Christians doubt of the beginning of this observance by man yet I thinke it began with Adam 14. God had a Church and a service of his owne prescript from the beginning and why should we doubt whether hee cloathed then his service with due circumstances of Time Place 15 Did he sanctifie it for his owne use That were absurd to thinke the Word sanctifying doth refute it for whom then surely for man 16. And the place Exod. 16. together with the Preface to the fourth Commandement remember weigh more with me then all the weake presumptions that are brought to the contrary 17. I conclude then that the fourth Commandement is not an introduction but a declaratory Law 18. But moreover I adde that when it was delivered to the Jewes there was superadded a distinguishing reference to that Church 19. For it was prescribed as a signe of Gods sanctifying residence amongst them and a memoriall of their freedome from Egyptian bondage 20. But these accessories derogate not from the first institution 21. No more doth the forme of Liturgy which was occasioned by the fall or their freedome 22. These things shew rather to what speciall use they did apply the time then touch the apportionment thereof 23. The apportionment of time of which I take these Questions moved hath two remarkable things 24. 1. That God reserveth a seventh part of time 2. That hee designeth which of the seven days shall be his 25. The reserving of the seventh part I hold to be by Gods Ordinance who is
not variable in his choice as everlasting as the World because appointed before the fall 26. And so should the hallowing of the seventh day from the Creation have beene as lasting had it not beene for sin for what could have altered it but a new Creation 27. But man having sinned and so by sin abolished the first Creation de jure though not de facto God was pleased to make by Christan instauration of the World 28. Hee as the Scripture speakes of Christs Redemption made a new Heaven and a new Earth old things passed then away and so all things were made new 29 Yea every man in Christ is a new Creature 30 As God then when he ended the first Creation made a day of rest and sanctified it 31 So did Christ when he ended his worke make a day of rest and sanctified it 32. Not altering the proportion of time which is eternall but taking the first day of seven for his portion because sin had made the seventh alterable Therefore 33. This first day succeeded the seventh and by that was this memoriall abolished 34 And although the Apostles were indulgent to the Jewes in keeping the seventh as well as the first when they conversed with them untill the destruction of the Temple 35 Yet would they not endure that the Gentiles should be tied to the observation thereof 36. This first day Christ sanctified not only by his resurrection but also by sundry apparitions before his ascension and after his ascension by sending thereon the Holy Ghost this is cleare in the Gospell and Actes 37 The Apostles directed by Christs not onely example but spirits also observed the same witnesse in the Acts S. Paul S. Iohn in the Revelation 38 And from the Apostles the Catholike Church uniformly received it witnesse all Ecclesiasticall writers 39 And the Church hath received it not to be Liberae observationis as if men might at their pleasure accept or refuse it 40 But to be perpetually observed to the Worlds end for as God only hath power to apportion his time so hath he power to set out the day that hee will take for his portion for hee is Lord of the Sabbath 41 And he doth it by the worke which hee doth on the day the worke I say doth difference a day from a day 42 Whereas otherwise all dayes are equall and the same in themselves as the sonne of Syrach teacheth 43 Now then when God doth any remarkable worke then will hee be honoured with a commemoration day for that worke if the worke concerne the whole by the whole Church and by a part if it concerne a part 44 And his will is understood often by his precept but when we have not that the practise doth guide the Church 45 This is a catholick rule observeable in the institution of all sacred feasts both Divine and Humane 46 The worke of the day is the ground of hallowing the day whether it be weekly monethly or yearly as particulars evince in Scripture and History 47 No man can translate the worke therefore can no man translate the day this is an undoubted rule in Theology 48 And no man can in reason deny due respect unto the worke therefore hee cannot deny the hallowing of the day a true rule in morality 49 Now then seeing the Lords Day hath not altered the proportion of time but onely changed the day though not properly yet by analogy though not with the accessories yet according to the Originall Sabbath It may well agree with the tenor of the fourth Commandement and the observance thereof be commanded therein According to these Theses which I hold true untill any of them be confuted I will point out what I mislike in the Questions or the Answers not every particular but some principall points Figure the Section of the Answers in your booke and you shall the better fit my Theses to them Question 1. VVHat doe you mean when you pray after the fourth Commandement Lord have mercy upon us c. The 49 Theses answereth that we meane not the Jewish Sabbath but that which analogically to the Originall Sabbath we observe The Lords Day Question 2. Sect. 1. The observation of the Sabbath some say is morall and perpetuall By Sabbath you must understand the Lords Day otherwise none but Hereticks hold this opinion Then I thinke the proportion of time is perpetuall Thesi 15 though if you looke to the assignation of the day it is not perpetuall sin hath altered it occasionally and God Causally absque hoc it was intended that it should be perpetuall Thesi 26. But whether is the observation of the Lords Day morall Certainly this is a morall rule to hallow the day wherein God doth some remarkable worke Thes 43. 48. But Christ did rise for the restauration of the World this day therefore the observance thereof morall Were it an absolute assignation of time the appointing of the Lords Day it might be doubted but take this circumstance as it cloatheth the worke then I hold it cleare that though time be but a circumstance yet the observance of time so understood is Morall But there is a mutability in the observance of such times as cloath Gods works because the works themselves are subject to mutability and so the seventh day was changed for the first because the first Creation needed an instauration and he that caused the Instauration might make the alteration Thesi 33. Question 1. Section 1. The Text is cleare Colos 2. that the observation of the Sabbath was ceremoniall As a shadow meane you this of the originall Sabbath or the declaratory cloathed with the accessories Thes 18 19 c. It is certaine the originall could be no shaddow for it is precedent to the fall The declaration may true as considered with his accessories but the author of the Questions I thinke mistaketh the text of S. Paul For the words referre to the controversie betweene the Jewes and Gentiles both believers but the beleeving Jew would have put upon the believing Gentile the ceremonies which S. Paul indureth not either here or in the Galat. As for the place to the Rom that tempereth the presumption of the Gentile who out of the conceipt of Christian liberty forgot to beare with the weake Jew All this is nothing to the Originall Sabbath whereunto I say the Lords Day succeedeth and is by analogy in the fourth Commandement which hath no mixture of those accessories for ought I can see in the words Question 1. Section 2. It cannot be proved that the Apostles commanded to sanctifie the Lords day in memory of Christs Resurrection No can what author ancient is there that doth not hold it to have had its originall from the Apostles he should doe well to alleage them It is something discrepant from the doctrine of our Church You alleage the words of the Homily but streighten the tense of them for the Christian People that chose the first day were those that lived in
that doth not let Gods Word be the guide directing to sanctifie a Festivall day I thinke hee squareth not his opinion according to truth neither hath he any president from Gods Word FINIS Defensio Thesium de Sabbato 13 I Take notice of Tertull. Iustin Martyr Thes 1. true but they alter not my judgement And why I finde in them onely a bare assertion and that of a thing so remote from their times that they could not know it otherwise then by relation From the Scripture they had none happily they had it from some Jewes Galatinus alleadgeth some But I oppose Jewes to Jewes Philo Iudaeus de opificio Mundi not onely is of a contrary opinion but holdeth also that it was a feast common to all Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And peradventure some such thing is meant by Hesiod his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is not unlikely that God made the observation of the day a memoriall of the Creation But I will not enlarge that discourse It shall suffice that Philo Iudaeus In Decalog and Aben Ezra also and others thinke otherwise whose judgement our Orthodox Divines doe if not all yet for the most part follow Read them upon the second of Genesis 14 What the Patriarks did in point of religion 2. I thinke they did it by Divine direction Yee know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did never please God wherefore the Mosaicall Lawes other then those that had reference to the Church as nationall and delivered out of the Egyptian bondage are to be thought not introductory but declaratory Out of question those that concerned the substance of the service which stood in sacrifices and I thinke concerning the circumstance of time and place The place for there where God appeared there did they erect their altars yea and in the story of Rebecca it is plaine that shee went to a set place to consult the Lord. Gen. 25. And why shall not the time come under the same condition 15 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must receive an answer from that which is added in confirmation of the 13 Thesis It is but an ungrounded conjecture 16 Where had Rhenanus that opinion his varying from those whom I answered on the 13 Thesis sheweth that hee was not of Iustin Martyr or Tertullian his opinion and yet giveth no reason that may move to credit him or countervaile what I have alleadged for my opinion 18 Yes there is more if you compare Deut. c. 5. with Exodus c. 20. but I meant not onely that but other passages which make the Sabbath a signe of Gods residence sanctifying the Jewes c. which I expressed in the next thesis 19 Bedes conceipt may passe for an allegory built upon a witty accommodation of the literall sense which other fathers observed before him But that cannot be the literall sense of the Commandement You will not deny it if you grant that the Sabbath was instituted before the fall which I thinke more then probable though the Broughtonists hasten the fall before the Sabbath And I cannot without good reason yield that the patriarchs had no set time for divine service I meane a weekely time 31 True it is that Christ did rest from suffering upon the seventh but the last enemy death was not apparently overthrowne untill the reunion of his soule and body till he rose againe for our justification c. Therefore did the apostles make that the consummation of redemption in Christs Person 35 You cannot finde in all the 14. to the Romans that the Apostle is positive in the doctrine of dayes he expresseth a mutuall indulgence untill men had attained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the liberty from Moses Law Neither doth he beare out the Gentiles against the Jewes but qualifie rather the destempered zeale of the Gentiles that were too hot against the Jewes Sensus dictorum sumendus est ex causis dicendorum It is plaine that there was a questiō whether the Christian gentile should be pressed to observe the ceremonies whereunto the christian Jewes were pertinaciously addicted but never was there for ought I read a question whether the Jewes should keepe the Lords day for I think they never refused it Had there been such a quarrell I would enlarge the sense of that Chapter as you doe to our question but seeing there was not I see not how it should be reasonably done 36 I say not that the Apostles imprinted any holinesse upon the first day of the weeke It was Christs resurrection that honoured that day which I say the Apostles were to respect not arbitrarily but necessarily You may perceive the reason in my Theses You cannot observe from the beginning of the world any other inducement to the institution of feasts but Gods worke done on the day If it were not a continued worke as the dwelling in Tabernacles But you thinke the Apostles did not prescribe the observation of that day No you confesse they made choice of it and were moved so to doe by the reason which I alleage And were they not scattered over all the world where they came did they not all give the same order for the sacred assemblies And shall we thinke that this could be done without an apostolicall prescript 37. 43. I conjoyne them because one answer will cleare both Let us then first agree what it is for a thing to be Liberae observationis The Questonist in his interpretation which commonly is received leaveth a possibility for an alteration by humane auctority if any reason shall perswade a conveniency so to doe though so long as publike auctority commandeth it he will have it dutifully observed Whereupon will follow a Consectary or two First that this Law doth not immediately bind the conscience because Merè humani Iuris positivi Secondly that Extra scandalum a man may transgresse it For example a Tradesman may worke in his Chamber if no body bee privy to it If this be the Commentary upon Libera observatio and if it be well inquired into you will finde that I doe not mistake the meaning then I prof sse I cannot like of such a Libera observatio For I am perswaded that if all Christendome should meete and have never so plausible a ground they cannot alter the day de jure though de facto they may but it is worse then previshnesse so to doe And why they cannot alter the first ground Christs rising upon that day Secondly they cannot alter the uniforme order that upon that undenyable ground was set down by the Apostles themselves which were infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost And out of these grounds I deduce that the Law doth immediately bind their conscience And that it is to be observed even where it may be transgressed without any scandall Christ and the Apostles were not absolutely bound to lay such a foundation of the Lords Day and so it was Liberae institutionis but they having layd it I deny that it is now Liberae
Besides I have shewed in reason the unreasonablenesse both of changing the day and the intollerable scandall that would follow upon it and the unreasonablenesse of not changing it if it be not of divine institution considering how prone wee are through the continuall observation thereof to conceave that to be a necessary duty and so to be plunged into superstition ere we are aware if it prove to be no necessary duty In the next place hee tells us how that some amongst us have revived againe the Iewish Sabbath though not the day it selfe yet the name and thing Teaching that the Commandement of sanctifying every seaventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall that whereas all things else in the Iewish were so changed that they were cleane to be done away this day meaning the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth and lastly that the Sabbath was not any of those ceremonies which were only abrogated at Christs comming All which positions are condemned for contrary to the Articles of the Church of England as in a comment on those Articles perused and by the lawfull authority of the Church allowed to be publique is most cleare and manifest Here wee have a distinction of a Jewish Sabbath brought in yet not the day a distinction contrived with such wisedome and perspicacity as it seemes to exceed all humane discretion For I verily thinke that from the beginning of the Primitive Church there was never heard of a Jewish Sabbath to be kept any other then upon their day The materialls are first that the name Sabbath is retained and well may it be in my judgement though some entertaine sublime reaches to the contrary if our Saviour have any authority with us who adviseth his Disciples to pray that their flight be not in the Winter nor on the Sabbath day which is spoken by him in reference to the time about the destruction of Ierusalem at what time the Lords Day was come in place of the Jewes Sabbath among the Christian congregations and that by apostolicall substitution And in the very booke of our Homilies it is expressely sayd that the Sunday is now our Sabbath And his Majesties briefes for collection so stile it And in the conference at Hampton Court it was so stiled by Doctor Raynolds and the motion he made thereabout generally yeelded unto so that the State hitherto seemes to be censured by this bold Prefacer The next aspersion is that the thing also is revived But what thing the Jewes had peculiar sacrifice both morning and evening which doubled the dayly sacrifice this surely is not revived There were besides two things in the Jewish Sabbath the one was a rest the other was the sanctifying of that rest As for the rest if that were not it were no Sabbath Yet our Saviour calls it a Sabbath our Church calls it a Sabbath our State calls it a Sabbath And Austin calls us to such a rest on the Lords Day as that therein we must tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare onely rest to God onely rest for divine worship And Calvin who is taken to be no friend of ours in this case professeth that we must rest from all our works so farre forth as they are avocamenta à sacris studiis meditationibus avocations from holy studies and meditations but not for any mysterious signification sake and that herein consists the difference betweene the Jewish rest and our Christians rest and I am exactly of his opinion for this As for the sanctification of this rest I trust wee are as much bound to the performance hereof and that in as great measure and with as great devotion under the Gospel as ever the Jewes were under the Law And at the hearing of this Commandement as well as of any other our Church hath taught us to pray Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keepe this Law And I find it wondrous strange to heare that some should not spare to professe that this was shuffled in they know not how At length wee come to the particular charges the first is that some should teach that The Commandement of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaicall Decalogue is naturall morall and perpetuall and Master Rogers is quoted for this on the Article Art 7. hee quotes Master Doctor Bownde pag. 7. Now truely it cannot be denied but that when the fourth Commandement is read unto us in our Congregations wee are taught to pray unto God to shew such mercy unto us as to incline our hearts to the keeping of this law And both master Rogers and this Prefacer are to be presumed to have subscribed as well as others and by their subscription acknowledged that this is nothing contrary to Gods Word that we are as much bound to the observation of this Commandement as of any other and consequently to keepe the Sabbath and doe no manner of worke thereon that may hinder the sanctifying thereof Now Master Doctor Bownds words after hee had cited Chrysostome speaking thus I am hic ab initio c. Here now even from the beginning God hath insinuated this Doctrine unto us teaching us in circulo hebdomadis diem unum that in the compasse of a weeke one whole day is to be put apart for a spirituall rest unto God are these Vnto all which may be added that for profe oth at this Commandement is naturall morall and perpetuall that I say may be added which was practised among the Gentiles and all the Heathen And now Do. Bowndes purpose unto the p. 30. is to be proved only this that a Sabbath was from the beginning and still is to be kept and that in the proportion of one day in seven and after that proceeds to prove what day the Sabbath should be kept his words are these p. 30. Now as we have hitherto seene that there ought to be a Sabbath day so it remaineth that we should heare upon what day this Sabbath should be kept and here he sheweth that this is not left unto the Church but prescribed by God himselfe as who prescribed one day unto the Jewes and another day unto us Christians but still one in seven The same was the opinion both of Bellarmine and Master Hooker in his Ecclesiasticall policy Whereas both Master Rogers and the Prefacer so carry the matter as if by Doctor Bowndes opinion we Christians were bound to keepe our Sabbath on the same day whereon the Jewes were bound to keepe theirs which is most untrue though the fourth Commandement may be indifferently accommodated to our Christian Sabbath as it was unto the Jewish Sabbath save onely as touching the reason given which hath expresse reference to the creation but our Christian Sabbath stands in reference to the worke of Redemption Each is the rest on a seventh day after six dayes of labour and as they were bound to sanctifie their seventh so are we bound to sanctifie ours and