Church in case they should exercise this liberty what inconvenience would follow upon the exercising of a lawfull liberty But infinit inconvenience would follow hereupon for seeing this liberty is equally communicated to each particular Church it will follow that it is lawfull for our English Church to institute the Munday the French Church the Tuesday the Hollanders the Wednesday the Germans Thursday the Danes Friday the Swedes the Saturday and the Polonians the Sunday what an intolerable scandall were this amongst Christians Thus our liberty opens way to revive the Jewes Sabbath or to concurre with the Turks who make Friday their holy day nay what scandall also to all the Heathens throughout the world For suppose that as the Jewes keepe the Saturday and the Turks their Fryday so other heathenish nations according to their severall religions should divide the other daies of the weeke to be hallowed between them each religion keeping to their own day most exactly When they should find no agreement amongst Christians what an intolerable scandall were this unto them to harden them against the profession of the Gospel when they see so little agreement among the professors of it And what should move us to affect liberty in this which opens a way to such dissention and confusion and not rather rejoyce in this that to prevent such miserable inconveniences God himselfe hath marked out unto us the first day of the weeke to be the Lords Day in place of the Jewish Sabbath which was the Lords holy day unto them by the most wonderful and comfortable work that ever was wrought even the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour from the dead thereby manifesting him to be the Sonne of God and fulfilling that prophecie of old concerning the stone which the builders refused and making him the head of the corner on that day all power being given unto him both in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. thus drawing us in the Prophets language to professe and say first This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes and secondly to conclude there-hence in the words immediately following This is the day which the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in it this undoubtedly is our Christian festivall this day of the weeke and not this day of the yeere which is remarkable being called by Saint Iohn The Lords Day the day wherein Christ appeared unto him and gave unto him the booke of Revelation concerning the secrets of his providence to be fulfilled upon the world for the time to come even till his second comming to destroy the world with fire and to blesse us with new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse the metropolis of which new world shall be new Jerusalem And albeit Doctor Rivetus according to his pious ingenuity which crownes his learning and cathedrall sufficiencies professeth that what hitherto hath beene spoken by him of the choyce and possible change of that day he hath not to any such end ventilated as to favour their profanesse who on holy dayes and chiefely on that day which by so universall a consent even from the beginning of Christianity hath beene consecrated to such use neglecting Gods Service not onely refuse to omit one day in prosecuting workes tending to the use of life temporall but also by unnecessary actions as by pleasant sports stage playes by intemperance also and riot profane the day not without reason dedicated to the Lord. Yet what just occasion hereby may bee in all places and like enough is taken in most places by this doctrine of his who seeth not For albeit publike authority in some places hath by lawes countenanced the solemnization of the Lords Day for which wee of this land have cause to blesse God so as I thinke no Nation more in consideration of many Lawes one after another and by degrees made to restraine abuses on that day as tending to the manifest profanation thereof and by none more then by that act of Parliament in the first of King Charles wherein all men are forbidden to come out of their Parishes upon that day about any sports and pastime evidently manifesting hereby as formerly hath beene proved that all sports and pastimes are prophanations of our Christian Sabbath observed on that day and that in the judgement of the whole Parliament consisting of the Kings Majesty the head thereof with his Lords spirituall all the Bishops of the Kingdome and temporal together with the House of Commons yet if once it shall be receaved according to D. Rivets doctrine of the Sabbath that it 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 our 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 opposethem onely it were well but it is apparant that hee disputes not so much against Papists in this argument as against Protestants even such as himselfe But can hee
them liberty to take their courses and not rather to endevour to weane them therefrom by representing the vanity of them witnessed by the experience of King Solomon who was acquainted with the delights of the Sonnes of men as much as any and tells us what fruit and profit hee reaped by them saying vanitie of vanities all is but vanitie and that the end of all that discourse of his is to promote this exhortation Feare God and keepe his commandements For this is whole man then on the other side the blessed the comfortable and only profitable condition of delighting in the Lord in the judgement of David the Father of King Solomon Delight thou in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire to meete with the contrary iudgement of carnall men who say It profitteth not a man that he should delight himselfe with God If it be said that such sports are tolerated to fit a man for his calling the day following It is very strange that workes of our calling should not be permitted on any part of the Sabbath day and sports and pastimes should And shall not the spending of our time in Gods Service not publique only but private also farre better fit us to serve God in the workes of our calling and make us more capable of his blessing upon our labours then the exercising of our selves in sports and pastimes As for the maintaining of good neighbourhood I appeale to every mans conscience whether Christian neighbourhood be not better maintained in meeting together in the repeating of a Sermon the word in the originall being only Consortium or in edifying one another in holy communication then in meeting together at beare-baiting or at a play or at a may game or to look upon a morice dance 2. whether on the Lords day which is our Christian Sabbath it is not fit to maintaine neighbourhood and Communion in things spirituall as at other times to maintaine neighbourhood in things civill and temporall To conclude this there are 3. things that in this discourse give little satisfaction 1. that under recreations are comprehended not only such courses as recreate and refresh the Spirits wherby men are made more fit for labour both of body and minde but also and that more principally intended as it semees the pleasing of the senses and especially the eye and the eare and thus mens pleasures carnall pleasures are cleanely carryed under the stile of recreations and refreshments of the spirit when they deserve rather to be called the tickling of the flesh 2. here is no mention made of the end whereunto recreations tend which ought to be only to fit us either for the labours of our speciall vocations or for the works of our generall calling as sause is for meats 3. Lastly under recreations lawfull there seemes to be no intention to acknowledge our conversing with God in any recreation yet Aristotle could take notice of a pleasure taken in this that a man knowes by curious demonstration that a Triangle containes three angles equall to two right such like thing was that which Archimedes rejoyced in when he cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Pythagoras as I remember sacrificed a great sacrifice upon the finding out the equality of the square of the subtendent line in a rectangle Triangle to the squares of the two sides So a scholar takes delight in finding out by curious demonstration the squaring of a Circle a thing confessed by Aristotle to be knowable but the demonstration of it hath not beene found untill about fifty yeares agoe as Salmuth writes upon Pancirolla Should any pleasure taken in any other worldly thing be comparable to that which ought to be taken in the enjoying of friends and their mutuall communication I have heard it accompted the best musick how much lesse should be all other pleasure in comparison to that pleasure which is taken in God who hath Rivers of pleasures in his house wherewith to entertaine us not to speake of that fulnesse of joy which is in his presence and at his 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 a thing of nought 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 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
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 Parliament with us and that in the dayes of King Chanles hath forbidden every man to come out of his parish about any sports and pastimes a manifest evidence that in their judgement the publique prosecuting of such sports and pastimes is a plaine profanation of the Sabbath and so by this authors profound judgement they deserve to be censured as inclining to Judaisme Indeed the use of the very name of Sabbath is now a dayes carped at and why but because it is a sore offence unto them in their way for if a rest from any thing otherwise lawfull in it selfe be required on the Lords Day it seemes most reasonable that a rest is required from sports and pastimes undoubtedly they have neither reason nor authority to except against this For our Saviour useth the word even of Christian times Mat. 24. 20. Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath Day Doctor Andrewes one of the greatest Prelates of this Kingdome accommodates this place to the same purpose All ceremonies saith hee were ended in Christ but so was not the Sabbath For Mat. 24. 20. Christs bids them pray that their visitation be not on the Sabbath Day so that there must needs be a Sabbath after Christs death and by this name hee commonly calls this day wee keepe weekely as holy unto the Lord. The booke of Homilies plainly tells us that the Sunday is our Sabbath In the conference at Hampton Court it is so called without any dislike shewed by any one there present And the onely reason why the ancients put a difference in this not calling it the Sabbath day but the Lords Day was this because Dies Sabbati in Latine signifieth the Saturday which was the Jewes Sabbath But they generally call us to a rest on this day and that most exact as wherein wee must Tantum Deo vacare tantum cultibus divinis vacare as Austin by name not sparing to confesse that Arare melius est quam saltare But Barklay it seemes is of more authority with this Prefacer then Doctor Andrewes and the Church yea and of our Saviour too yet wee calling it by that name understand no other thing then our Christian Sabbath and had rather it were generally called the Lords Day and Doctor Bownde also standeth for this denomination and urgeth it yet is hee accounted a Sabbatarian by Master Rogers though wee all concurre in this that thereon wee ought to keepe and sanctifie our Christian Sabbath And Iacobus de
same yoake Chemnitius his discourse I have formerly examined somewhat at large The voluntary consecration of it by Christians no man hath cause to embrace who professeth himselfe not satisfied with the bare ordinance of the Church as but erst the Doctor did Of Brentius I have spoken enough yet well fare him that professeth the authority of the day to be so farre divine that he who shall neglect it or rashly breake it doth forthwith become worse then the Jew or Infidell As for the Arminians what respect soever they pretend to the patterne of the primitive Church like enough they could be very well content with the Socinians to make all dayes equall in use as well as they are in nature or in respect of any mysterious signification I leave Azorius to refresh himselfe with the juyce of his owne distinction It is well that Suarez comes so farre as to professe that practically it is not alterable by the Church As for Calvin Bucer Chemnitius and the rest who are onely sayd to affirme that still the Church hath power to change the Lords day to some other I finde no such thing in Calvin and Bucer as for what Chemnitius delivers hereupon in my judgement hee sayth no more then Calvin though some particulars in him I have found to be weake enough upon discussion in the 6 Section of my answer to the Preface having there met with the same names named to the same purpose It is not credible to mee they should give power to the Church to bring us backe to the Jewish Sabbath in that case who should savour most of Judaisme or preferre us to the Turkes festivall day which is the Friday To be instituted in memory of our redemption admits an ambiguous signification That bringing with it a new Creation and so requiring a new Sabbath as Bishop Andrewes discourseth and Athanasius 1200 yeares before him No day had a better marke for this to be preferred into the place of the Jewes Sabbath then the day of Christs Resurrection yet considering that not that day of the yeare but that day of the weeke is called in Scripture the Lords Day this maketh it evidently to savour of Divine institution yet it is well that here it is acknowledged to be expresly of traditions Apostolicall Beza addeth vere Divinae on Revel 1. 10. I trust we shall ever give due respect both to Law and Gospell and the better concurrence wee finde of them for the maintenance of any doctrine of ours the more cause wee shall have to rejoyce therein without feare of censure for the mixing of them or framing any Sabbaticall Idoll out of them It is not the first time I have read of some such aspersion in Rogers his preface to his Analysis of the Articles of the Church of England And the next yeere was printed D. Willet upon Genesis dedicated to King Iames where on the. 2. ch 3. v. he concludes his discourse on this argument after this manner But these allegations are here superfluous seeing there is a learned treatise of the Sabbath already published of this argument meaning D. Bownds discourse thereon Which containeth a most sound doctrine of the Sabbath as is layd downe in the former positions which shal be able to abide the triall of the Word of God and stand warranted thereby when other humane fantasies shall vanish howsoever some in their heate and intemperance are not afraid to call them Sabbatarian errors yea hereticall assertions a new Iubily Saint Sabbath more then either Iewish or Popish institution much lesse doe wee feare the story of the Jew of Teukesbury Solomon hath taught us that the righteous spareth his beast and in our Saviours dayes the Jewes themselves though very superstitious in the observation of their Sabbath yet shewed mercy towards their beasts in leading to them to water and helping them out of the ditch on their Sabbath day But God can give men over into a minde voyd of all judgement as to the destruction of their soules so to the temporall destruction of their bodies also and that as in the way of profanenes wherof we have manifold experience so in the way of superstition Now such stories are pretty flourishes and pleasing to the judicious provided they are to purpose and sound argument hath not beene wanting to justifie the doctrine they maintaine but when they are out of season or supply the want of better argument they want their grace and are pleasing only to the ignorant or partialist At length I am come unto the last Section For the one halfe of this Section there is little or nothing controverted betweene us But here we have a faire distinction as good as confessed betweene a ceremoniall rest and another rest which is described by a rest from workes as it is an impediment to the performance of such duties as are then commanded this I can a rest morall the rather that the distinction may not flye with one wing That of Saint Hierome is a quick passage on Act. 18. affirming that Saint Paul when hee had none to whom to preach in the congregation did on the Lords day use the workes of his occupation I will not answer as the outlandish Priests fashion was as Sir Thomas More reports the story Domine novi locum verum respondeo sumitur dupliciter so gratifying his adversaries argument with one member of his distinction and his owne in providing for escape out of the briers by the other least I might be served as Sir Thomas More served the Priest pretending to quote such a chapter of Saint Matthew or Marke when there were not so many in the whole Gospell or such a verse in a certaine Chapter when there were not so many verses at all Therefore I desire to consult Hierome but Hierome hath not at all written upon the Acts and where else to seeke it I know not Yet I deny not but that Dietericus the Lutheran upon the 17. Dominicall after Trinity Sunday hath such a passage Hieronymus ex Act. 18. v. 2. 4. colligit quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico concionaretur Paulus non habebat manibus suis laboravit But where it is that Hierome doth collect this he doth not specifie our Saviour was borne under the Law and knew full well it became him to fulfill all righteousnesse and therefore undoubtedly he never did transgresse the fourth commandement indeed some there are who distaste the name of Sabbath now a dayes and truly the Ancients doe usually speake of the Lords day in distinction from the Sabbath because that denomination doth denote the Saturday but I doubt that in these dayes it is distasted in another respect even for the rest of it which I no where finde distasted amongst the Ancients nor any libertie given by them for sports and pastimes on the Lords day But our booke of Homilies speakes plainly in saying The Sunday is our Sabbath day And Proclamations that come forth in