Lord as much presseth the time as the duties Secondly by the Law of contraries For if any sinne as drunkennesse uncleanenesse blasphemie and prophanenesse be more abhominable in the sight of God upon the Lords day then upon any other day it must needs be that the coÌ„trary vertues are more acceptable unto him also from the circumstance of the day But the former is generally affirmed especially of the Scotists and is grounded upon that common Maxime in Morall Philosophy Bonitas malitia actionum pendet à circumst antijs the good and evill of our wayes are to be measured by the circumstances thereof and amongst these the circumstance of time is not to be sleighted Ergo c. Fourthly the day of Christs corporall resurrection from the graue requires of us aboue other dayes a spirituall resurrection from sinne in all the duties of holinesse of what kind soever for this being the generall use to be made of our Saviours resurrectioÌ„ as appeares by the Apostle Rom. 6.4 it should be chiefly practised on that day on which the memory thereof is solemnized All men will acknowledge that when we doe the duty of the day upon the day it selfe it is most seasonable and duties seasonable doth the * Prov. 25.11 wise man compare to apples of gold in pictures of silver But the Lords day is the day of Christs resurrection Ergo c. Fiftly that Law which doth enjoyne publike worship doth also require of us all such duties as are furtherances of the publike For where the end is commanded all such meanes as directly tend unto that end are also under precept But the Lords day requireth publique worship as all acknowledge and the private personall and oeconomicall duties of holinesse are maine helps and furtherances thereof both preparing us thereunto and putting life into our performances and causing us to profit thereby Therefore c. Sixtly that which was shadowed as a Type in the old Sabbath is required as an Evangelicall duty in the new Sabbath which is the Lords day for all the Mosaicall ceremonies were shadowes of good things to come to be performed partly by Christ partly by his spirit in us But this quiet rest of the soule and repose of the spirit in the Lord by all the duties of holinesse was shadowed as a Type of the old Sabbath therefore are they Evangelicall duties on the Lords day Seventhly though the letter of the fourth precept be Ceremoniall yet is the equity thereof morall and of this there is no question But the letter of the Iewish Sabbath required not only publique sacrificing but commanded also private rest For no man was to goe out of his place saith the * Exod. 16.29 text The Christians therefore on their Lords day are in allequitie and proportion bound not only to the publique but private duties of holinesse it is a Iuxta illud legis Mosaicae maneat unusquisque apud seipsum nullus egrediatur ostium domus suae die Sabbathi Bern. S. Bernards argument in his Octo puncta Eightly it is morall in the commandement that every man learne vpon the Sabbath those things which belong to his salvation This proposition is sett down in terminis by a b Quicquid sit de ecclesiae praecepto cer tè lege naturae fidei tenentur Christiani ea discere quae suae Saluti sunt necessaâ—ia Est 3. sent dist 37. par 14. Festivis maximè in praecipuis solennitatibus magis circa â—a quae solennitat is sunt immorandum videtur ut paâ—â—tèr eruâ—iatur animus exciâ—etur affectus Bern. Ser. 3. in Epipâ— Popish Schooleman farre be it from any good Protestant to speake lesse honourably of the Lords day then such But it is not possible for us to learne from the publique those things that belong unto our salvation unlesse we adde thereunto private exercises of holinesse as praying meditating conferring together with actuall motions of all habituall graces in us for by the one wee fasten them in our memories by the other wee incorporate them into our hearts Therefore c. Ninthly the Lords-day is a holy-day not in it selfe and in its own nature as the Anti-Sabbatharians themselves confesse but as it makes us holy by performing holy duties But the exercise of Gods publique worship alone makes us not holy without the private Therefore c. Tenthly the proper duties of this Iewish Sabbath besides publike worship were contemplatiue of the Creation as appeares by the reason of the rest prescribed in the Commandement for in six dayes the Lord made heauen and earth c. recognition of their deliverance out of Egypt remembrance of the fall of Mannah and their setling in the land of Canaan The equity therefore and the proportion of the Commandement requires that we not only worship God in publique but also privately study and be good proficients in the Schoole of nature in regard of the great works of Gods majestie and power and in the Schoole of Christ in regard of the great mercyes of our redemption Ergo c. Lastly Authorities are infinite The c Syn. Arelat c. 19. Syn. Turon c. 40. Syn. Mogun c. 37 Syn. Matiscon c. 7. Syn. Agath c. 47. Synods generally say we should continue in holy duties untill night having our eyes and our hands stretched out unto him all the day long sequestred from all other imployments let us only attend the service of God untill night Hugo de Sancto Victore saith that all the Festivals were appointed as for other ends so that we might be vacant unto prayers and contemplation To which purpose also many passages out of the Fathers might be brought especially in their popular Sermons as every man knoweth Ergo c. CAP. XXVIII The arguments for the Negatiue are breifly expressed FOR the Negatiue tenent it is also said First that which is every daies duty is no duty of the Lords day as it is the Lords day for then there should be no difference at all between the Lords day and other dayes in regard of the duty therein required which were to confound the Lords day to the great disparagement thereof with other dayes But the private exercises of those fundamentall graces of faith hope loue are the duties of every day If any say that the difference consists in this that to common dayes appertaine only private duties to the Lords day both private and publike The scruple still remaineth in regard of those dayes wherein the publike worship of God is also in use as Lecture-dayes Holy-dayes c. unlesse we account those daies also to be Sabbaths which our adversaries in this question will not agree unto If it be farther said that the difference stands in this that in other dayes they are only habitually but on the Lords day actually required I answer that in their other Tractates an habituall serving of God is so farre rejected as that they thinke it impossible to walk with any comfort with the
Sabbath but only the spirituall rest which the faithfull under the Gospell receive in Christ The words are plaine we which doe believe doe enter into rest nor is the present tense put for the future as the Iesuit suggests without any ground For it is the sin of apostacy falling from the faith of Christ against which the Apostle so much laboureth in that place and throughout the whole Epistle and apostacy is a falling away from some estate in which we already are Indeed our spirituall rest which we finde in Christ Rev. 21.4 endeth in that heavenly rest described Revel 21.4 but this was not first and immediatly typified by the Sabbath and the land of Canaan and therefore in a secondary and subordinate construction only to be found in that place of the Apostle Leaving therefore this lesuiticall interpretation to those that like to follow it the text is plaine enough as a Praecipua huius loci difficultas hinc provenit quòd violentèr à multis torquetur Marâ—o in Loc. one hath well observed to all those that desire not to wrest it For the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews to whom he writes to take heed least by their Apostacy they deprive themselves of that rest of God which he ever proposed and promised to their Fathers and so preventeth two objections For they might say we can be in no such danger having already entred into Gods rest two manner of waies First into that rest of his which was from the begining when he finished his works into this the Sabbath which he gave our Fathers as a speciall pledge and badge of his people hath admitted us Our imitation of him is our communication with him To this the Apostle answereth that indeed the Sabbath was given as a memoriall of Gods rest but that this is not the rest of God of which the Prophet David speakes Secondly we are entred into Gods rest being brought by Ioshua into the land of Canaan the land of rest But this plea is also rejected by the Apostle because David whose text is quoted lived long after Ioshua The summe therefore of that Scripture is only that neither the rest of the Sabbath nor the rest of Canaan was that rest into which God promised to bring his people but only types and shadowes thereof To conclude this argument hangs together like a rope of sands because the text saith the works were finished from the foundation when God rested it infers that therefore also Adam and the Patriarches kept a Sabbath from the begining in which is no coherence at all as any man may see To the fourth it is confessed that there was a Sabbath before the Law was given in Sinai but the question is not of Sinai but the wildernesse after Israels departure out of Egypt till when we say there was no Sabbath And whereas it is said that Moses speaks thereof in that place as of a thing well known he that looks better into the text shall easily perceive the contrary To this purpose observe these circumstances First the occasion of those words of Moses to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord they are his reply to a relation of a new accident in the gathering of Mannah viz. that whereas all the weekbefore whether they gathered more or lesse every man had an Omer full now on the sixt day every man gathered two Secondly this new accident is expounded by a new oracle or revelation this is that which the Lord hath said for so the words are used v. 16. Thirdly what is this new Oracle but the reason of this new accident God teaching them thereby a new observation viz. that of the Sabbath For surely if the Sabbath had been so well known as is pretended neither the rulers of the congregation would have wondred so much at the double portion of Mannah which fell on the sixt day they might easily have concluded to morrow is Gods resting day neither needed Moses have given them a new oracle for their satisfaction Fourthly we may observe the peoples disobedience for notwithstanding all this some went out upon the seventh day By this it probably appeares that they knew not yet what belonged to the keeping of a Sabbath This was it seemes the first that they ever heard of therefore they neither beleeved nor observed it whereas afterwards being acquainted therewith they kept it even to superstition Fiftly marke the Lords expostulation with them how long refuse you to keep my commandements and my lawes Had he spoken in the singular number then indeed how long might have seemed to intimate that the law of the Sabbath had been of greater antiquity but when the Israelites are reproved for breaking the Lords commandements and lawes it is still meant of those which God gave them by Moses neither can any place be shewed to the contrary Sixtly we may note that God doth only reprove not punish this violation whereas afterwards when the Sabbath was known and established the gatherer of sticks must be stoned Now what difference I pray you between stick-gathering and Mannah-gathering but that the one sinned of presumption against an ordinance newly setled and by consent established The other against a law only newly proposed and made known but not fully assented unto And this I am sure is the reason rendred by a Quare qui 〈◊〉 colligebut punichatur certe quoniam si statim dâ—principio quando feruntur leges ac jere in promulgatione ipsâ— contemnerentur nullo mode possunt postea cusâ—odiri Chain Mat. c. 12. hom â—â— Saint Chrysostom for stoning the stick gatherer because if lawes should be contemned as soone as they be made and almost in their very promulgation they would never afterwards be observed Seventhly the words of Moses are remarkable see how the Lord hath given you the Sabbath see betokeneth the novelty of the thing how sheweth the occasion of the Sabbath to you saith the text not to your Fathers or to all man kind To which point the words of Nehemiah are so plaine as it is a wonder to me how any man can imagine a Sabbath commanded before Moses b Nehem 9.14 Thou madest knowne unto them thine holy Sabbath by the hand of Moses thy servant Lastly marke the conclusion of the story so the people rested on the seventh day By reason of this new accident new revelation gentle reproofe and admonition were they brought to keep a Sabbath Vnto all which adde the glosse of c Trem. in locum Iunius Tremelius affirming that there were three causes of the Sabbaths institution the remembrance of the creation the deliverance out of Egypt and the fall of Mannah No effect can precede its cause in nature and time which the Sabbath needs must doe if it preceded Mannah in observation and yet the fall of Mannah be a cause of its institution It doth not therefore appeare by this Scripture that the Sabbath was a thing well known and practised
at that time When Moses saith it is the holy Sabbath the present tense is put for the future as is most usuall when we speak of daies or solemnities though novell and occasionall To the fifth we say that Noah in sending or forbearing to send forth his Dove was not guided by any rule of Religion For I would aske any sober man whether if Noah had sent out the Dove upon the Sabbath supposing a Sabbath to have been in the daies of Noah he had thereby sinned in breaking the Sabbath For if the Sabbath were broken thereby it must be either by the Dove flying on that day which were too ridiculous or by Noahs letting her out of the Arke and by this rule he that should open a casement of his house to let a bird abroad upon the Sabbath for Noah did no more should prophane it which to affirme is more then Iewish superstition But you will say Noah regarded not the flying of the Dove only he durst not doe it on the Sabbath because it was his own work and his thoughts should have been imployed about his worldly estate and condition which the d Esai 52. Prophet forbids This place of the Prophet we shall have fitter occasion hereafter to examine For the present it shall suffice to remember that Noah at this time though he were saved from drowning yet he suffered also under the common distresse of the flood Was it sin think you for Noah to think upon this calamity on the seventh day or to labour to know how neere God had set a period to that misery If a man were at sea where or in what part of the world he knew not would you hold him guilty of prophanesse if he should goe about to discry the land upon the Sabbath day But what other reason can be given of this seventh days expectation which is thus noted in the text Some perhaps will say because seven is the number of perfection that Noah might have conceived that God would compleat his Iudgement and make dry the earth upon some seventh day or that knowing that God made the world in seven daies of nothings he might hope that he would new make it againe as it were out of the flood in some such time But for mine owne part I doe not conceive that the observation of numbers was yet extant but rather that Noah was directed hereunto by the change of the Moone in every seven daies well a He resolved to open the windowes or flood-gates of heaven giving extraordinary strength of influence to the starres Bolton knowing that the element of water is most subject to this Planet as experience sheweth And there is no doubt to be made but that as God did miraculously both powre downe the flood and withdraw it so in both works he used the help of second causes and strengthned the naturall influences of those heavenly bodies This reason therefore doth no way conclude To the sixt which is the place of Iob. understanding by the sons of God Iob and his children and their standing before the Lord their keeping of the Sabbath If it be the interpretation of Pineda the Iesuit I think it is a singular phantasy of his owne But to give Pineda his due although he seeme to say that this sence may be gathered out of the septuagint yet he himselfe affirmes that by the sons of God in that place are meant the holy Angels and proves by many reasons borrowed from b Ex quibus omnibus efficitur vt qui filâ—â— Dei venerunt ut assisterent coram Domino Sancti Angeli nocessariò sint Pined ex Aquin part 3. q. 13. Aquinas that the title of the sons of God doth more often agree to the Angels then to men in holy Scripture This argument therefore as it is forsaken of reason so also of authority only we may note by the way that Iob offered sacrifice for his children every day not upon any one set day more religiously observed then another To the seventh be it granted that time hath ever been divided by weeks notwithstanding some say that before Israels coming out of Egypt we find no mention of them at all in Scripture But that there should be no such division of time without the seventh-day Sabbath hath no ground of reason For look how time came to be measured by quarters and months which was by the Sun and Moon set for that purpose in the heavens so likewise by weeks And therefore I make no question but that the heathen who never heard of a seventh-day Sabbath have weeks as well as months and years For men doe naturally observe the course of those great lights and by the revolution of the Sunne recken their yeares by the Moone their Months Now the subdivision of the moneth into weeks is chalked out unto them by the foure changes of the Moone This argument therefore seemeth to suppose that which is against the light of nature viz. that men first began to divide time by weeks and so adding week unto week made up the yeare whereas they are naturally taught first to accompt months and yeares and afterwards to subdivide these into weeks Lastly this argument supposeth that Adam observed the next day after his creation for a Sabbath which I suppose few will affirme sure I am none can prove To the eight be it granted that God never failes in necessaries that the points of faith and hope mentioned in the argument were behoovefull instructions for Adam and the Patriarches that they are also included in the ordinance of the Sabbath but that they are only shut up in this ordinance or that Adam and the Fathers before the law learned them not else where is no way to be yeclded For they might have them as questionles they had both by the light of nature and of revelation By naturall light for we must not think that Adam utterly lost the knowledge of his Creator or works of creation he knew after his fall a Gen. 3.12 the voice of God he knew also that God had given him the woman It was also known by the light of revelation in the promise of the blessed seed in which is comprised both our creation redemption and translation to a better life as b Mihi ne quid dissimutem non subinnui tantùm boc loto sed â—ltâ voce proclamari videtur relegatae gentis restituâ—io Park l. 1. de delcen one hath well observed Our creation in these words out of the earth wast thou taken and thou art but dust our redemption in those he shall break thine head our translation in the last clause till thou returne in which he proclaimes the restitution of Adam and his posterity that are his seed to the happinesse of Paradise not earthly but heavenly To the ninth we say the Patriarches no doubt did publikely worship God their altars and sacrifices make it manifest neither was it any will-worship in them but appointed by
that this is meere sophisme supposing that which is in controversy viz. whether the word sanctified in that place doth signify destinated For if so then this interpretation is warranted from the letter it selfe If not this must be proved by some other medium for to say the text doth not warrant your exposition is only to deny that the world sanctified is in that place so to be understood which is the question Ob. Secondly it is said that the very connection of the words overthroweth this desination and restraineth the act of God spoken of in the third verse unto that period of time spoken of in the second verse else how can And the copulative tye all together Now plain it is that the words of the second verse are to be under stood of the time present immediatly after the creation for then God ended his works then he rested from his works therefore he then sanctified the seventh day to be forthwith observed by Adam and his posterity Answere Vnto this I answere that the connection between the verses is acknowledged that as God then actually rested so he then actually sanctified the day but that therefore he then commanded Adam to observe the day doth no way follow For that God did then sanctify that is destinate the day to be the Churches Sabbath in due time is one thing and to command Adam to observe it is another A man may determine with himselfe that one of his sons having many shall be his heire may we therefore conclude that he did presently put him into the inheritance the antecedent is true the consequent false Ob. Thirdly to interpret sanctified by destinated for times to come is not warranted by any other place of Scripture therefore it may justly be suspected in this Answere I answere that it is cleere enough by that which hath been already said that the word sanctified is put for destinated very frequently in Scripture a Es 13.3 The Medes were Gods sanctified ones that is destinated to be in time to come the destroyers of Babylon and the restorers of his Church b Ioh. 10.36 The father sanctified his sonne sent him into the World ordaining or destinating him to be the redeemer of the World And the same word which is here translated sanctified is used in the c Ier. 12.3 12. of Ieremy third verse to signify to prepare or preordaine And that it is so to be understood here also it shall I hope appeare by other places of Scripture in answere to that which followes Ob. Fourthly it is said that the great works of God as soone as they are wrought are forthwith to have their memorials observed and it is unreasonable to thinke that God working so great a work as the creation never to be forgotten would only destinate a day for its memoriall to be kept holy so many yeares after Answere But I answere that this is no new thing nor any way unreasonable For what were the great festivals of the Iews but the memorials of Gods great works wrought by his outstretched arme Yet were these ordaine â— in Sinai to be kept when they came into the land of Canaan forty yeares after neither were any of them observed before in the Wildernesse no not the d Numb 9.2 Passover save once that we read of which was by an especiall command from God himselfe Concerning this the words of c Exod. 13.5.11.12 Moses are plaine when the Lord hath brought thee into the land of the Canaanites c. then shalt thou keepe this service in this month So that I affirme two things First that although the great works of God are so done as to be had in remembrance yet many of them had never any set times appointed for their memorials by God himselfe unlesse perhaps by such a destination of which we speake Was not the drying of the earth from the flood much the same with creating the sea and dry land Yet Noah who was then as it were another Adam is not commanded to keep that day holy Was not the birth of our blessed Lord not to speake of his conception passion ascension c. as glorious as the first daies workes and was it not then also in a manner said let there be light a light to lighten the Gentils and the glory of his people Jsrael Yet the Angels which rejoyced to see that day had no commission to proclaime it holy neither did God himselfe appoint it for holy unlesse by destinating it to be hereafter observed by the precept and practice of the Church as we see at this day Secondly when God actually commands his Church the memorialls of his mercies there is many times a great distance set betweene the institution and the observation as appeares in the instances given in the Iewish festivals Ob. You perhaps will say that the reason is not the same betweene those feasts and this of the Sabbath and that they were put off till the sanctuary was built and the people setled in the land of Canaan because till then they could not with any conveniency haue beene observed But the Sabbath was the great festivall of all man-kind in memory of the creation and might without any incongruity have beene observed from the beginning Sol. Vnto this I answere that the Patriarches retained without question the memory of the creation with the manner and order thereof all which they received from their ancestors by tradition yet that in all probability they observed not the Sabbath for the selfe same reasons for which those other Iewish festivalls were put off in the wildernesse For the Sabbath also as well as those others had relation unto their bondage in Egypt and rest in Canaan f Deut. 5.15 Remember saith Moses that thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord brought thee out thence with a mighty hand therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to observe the Sabbath day Plaine therefore it is that the law of the Sabbath was grounded upon their deliverance out of Egypt for the one is rendred as a reason of the other So that howsoever it please some to tell us that the word Remember call'd the people back to consider the practice of this law in former ages and that this precept hath morality in it because of the word Remember yet they must give us leave to thinke Moses the best Expositor thereof saying remember thou wert a servant in the land of Egypt Ob. You will reply that it remembred them indeed of the bondage of Egypt but primarily of the works of creation for God rested the seventh day saith the commandement and therefore he blessed and sanctified it The Sabbath therefore was grounded upon the creation as well as upon their redemption nay this last seemes to be but accidentall and accessory to the former Sol. But who sees not that this is to little purpose For wee say with a Est duplex Sabbathi
time should be set apart not Morall in regard of the letter in which it is expressed If therefore the proposition be of the sounds and syllables of the Decalogue so that whatsoever is written in the letter thereof is affirmed to be Morall it is utterly untrue For what think you a Jllud in primo praecepto quieduxit te c. illuà in quinto ut diù vivaâ— c. of those words in the very front of the Decalogue I brought thee on t of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage are they Morall If any say these words are a preface no law he speaketh nothing to the purpose for the proposition in question is universall of whatsoever is written in the tables of stone with Gods own finger Besides give us liberty to exclude from being morall whatsoever is not a law and thereby the reasons of the fourth Commandement will be denied Morality for the reasons of any Law are no more the law it selfe then the preface thereof Indeed there is an implicit Morality in that preface Egypt being a type of the Kingdom of Sathan the house of Bondage the dominion of sinne and under the deliverance of these are contained the rest of Gods mercies to his Church If such a morality as this be all they seek for in the law of the Sabbath no man I presume will gainsay them herein But to give an other instance what shall we think of that clause in the fifth commandement That thy daies may be long in the land which thy Lord thy God giveth thee I am sure it is no principle in Nature nor conclusion flowing from any naturall principle nature can only say God will blesse all dutifull and obedient Children but that it shall be with this or that particular blessing as this is nature cannot teach us Besides this is only a positive and conditionall promise not universally and perpetually performed therefore not Morall And farther let us consider not only what is promised but to whom and it will appeare that those words concerned b Nullo modo ad nos possumus accommodare Luther tom 7. Epist ad Amicum the Iewes only and the land of Canaan and are applyable to us only by way of proportion I am not Ignorant how some labour to patch up a Morality in these words perhaps because they find them written in the tables of stone But their distinction of old in yeares and old in grace though otherwise of good use is in this place of no validity For the promise is without equivocation of long life in the earth as the Apostle expounds it Ephe. 6.3 But what speak we of things circumstantiall Our adversaries confesse the taxation of the seventh day to be Ceremoniall though the very heart of the Commandement and written with Gods own finger Although therefore it be written in tables of stone and that by Gods own finger and that in the very heart of the whole Decalogue which also is pressed that therefore it must be Morall must needs be acknowledged no good consequent unlesse men have a mind to play fast and loose with this argument Ob. Oh! but this commandement is in the very heart of the Decalogue Sol. To which I answere that if by the heart of the Decalogue we understand the midst then c Philo deleg Philo the Iew tels us that the first Commandement is the heart of the whole being written part in the first part in the second table But if by the heart we understand that which gives life to all the rest so the first commandement Thou shalt have no other Gods but me is the very vitall spirit of the whole Law of God Ob. Yea but the Decalogue was spoken with Gods own mouth and so were not the rest this therefore must needs be Morall Sol. Not to trouble the reader about the manner of Gods delivering the ten Commandements I briefly answere that the Ceremonials and Iudicials were also spoken by Gods own mouth so that herein there is little difference save that he delivered the Decalogue publikely in the audience of all the people the rest only apart but still face to face and mouth to mouth And the reason hereof is given in the text not to be any precedency in the lawes themselves but fear in the people being no longer able to hear the voice of so great and terrible a lawgiver When therefore Moses presseth this circumstance Deut. 5. 22. thus he spake and added no more d Quod refere Moses Deum nihil adjecisse eo perfectam vitae regulam decem praeceptis comprehendi significat Calv. in Deut. 5. v. 23. Calvins glosse which was the common marginall note viz. that these ten words are perfect directions needing no additions is indeed true but comes short of the meaning of the holy Ghost in that place for the true reason of that clause is expresly set down in the words following when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darknesse you came unto me and said if we heare the voice of the Lord our God any more we shall dye As if Moses should have said you heard but these ten words he added no more and you were thus afraid What if he had held on as he began So that it is their feare at that time of which Moses puts them in mind to beget in them an awfull reverence of God and heedfull observation of his Law and is nothing to our purpose To the second by placing the fourth commandement being Ceremoniall amidst the Morals in the Decalogue there is neither confusion of things nor distraction of the Church unlesse by accident as the law begets sinne through our own corruptions For will any man say that in Leviticus and Deuteronomy Moses did purposely confound things to distract the Church this were blasphemy and yet Morals and Ceremonials are commonly mixed in those Scriptures Nay we may with more reason affirme that had not this law of the Sabbath been thus place we might justly have complained of confusions and distractions For it being a Commandement mixtly Ceremoniall it could not without distraction have been ranged amongst the meerly Ceremonials and on the other side it being mixtly Morall reason requires it should be e Si quaeratur quare aliae Iudâ—â—orum festivitates praecipiebantur in decalogo diâ— quòd fuerunt tantum Caremoniales Sabbathum autèm magismorale est quum Caeremoniale Greg. de 10. praeceptis Caeremoniale islud determinabat naturale Greg. de Val. tom 2. disp 7. q. 7. p. 4. set amongst the meerly Morals in honour to the Morall parts thereof For the Morall and Ceremoniall parts thereof cannot well be severed one from the other the generall which is Morall from the particulars which are Ceremoniall Lastly though it were in no respect morall yet the Law of the Sabbath being that wherein is f The Lord prescribeth the feasts of the old Testâ—mentin these words Remember that thou keepe holy
concludeth not To the fift briefly both propositions are faulty The first that whatsoever is backt with a Morall reason is a Morall Law for what think you of the Law of the first fâ—uits No man I think but will say it was Ceremoniall yet the reason given of it is morall n Prov. 3.6 Honour the Lord with thy substance So the reason of the fift commandement is it Morall or Ceremoniall If Ceremoniall then how standeth it writen in the tables of stone If Morall then that which is Morall may be the reason of a law Ceremoniall and so the proposition is not true ex gr o Deut. 26. â— Thou shalt not kill the damme with the young that thy daies may belong in the land c. The second proposition is also faulty for let the reasons of the Commandemen be well scand and they will come farre short of that Morality which is pretended Aske naturall reason at best refin'd what proportions were fit to be observed between God and man would it answere we must have sixe for one and not rather on the contrary or any other what principle of naturall reason can guide us to the number of six herein God you say hath interest in the seventh but this is the question let this interest be discovered by naturall light we will grant the Morality All men are as much bound to follow Gods example in resting as the Iewes but First we deny that this example of God is or may be known by the light of Nature Secondly that it is there proposed to all men in their generations being given particularly to the Iews only For the commandement speaketh not of the seventh but of that seventh from the creation wherein the Church followes not Gods example keeping the first of these seaven For unlesse we rest that very seventh in which God rested we no more resemble his rest then a man that hath a ladder resembles Iacob that had a vision of a ladder But God hath promised a blessing unto our rest as well as unto theirs for the Lord even blessed the seventh day to the right observers thereof But the text is strained for though God hath promised alway to blesse his own ordinances in the publique worship yet for any blessednesse to be communicated to the day or affixed to one more then to another we read not That servants and beasts should now rest and be refreshed is confessed to be Morall but that they should have rest upon such and such a day just so many houres from all manner of imployment was partly Ceremoniall partly judiciall as hath bin said Which also farther appears because it is added o Levit. 26.5 as a reason of the seven yeares rest which I think no man will say was Morall neither doe I see why the one should not hold as well as the other Lastly true it is that the Sabbath was a token unto them that they were the Lords people and that we under the Gospell are also the Lords people is most true But was not Circumcision also a badge unto them that they were the Lords people must Circumcision therefore be Morall and perpetuali God forbid We see therefore the vanity of this argument likewise To the sixt first if by strangers we understand all that are aliens from the commonwealth of Israell plaine it is that the Sabbath was no more given unto them then Circumcision for it was a signe of Gods covenant and God never covenanted with the Heathen Moses was the Law-giver of the Iewes neither doth any law bind the Gentiles because Moses gave it but because only it is written on their hearts If by stranger we understand bondslave or sojourner not yet made Proselyte the commandement indeed speaks of him but not to him of him for his ease and restraint not to him for his observation such were not obliged unlesse first adopted as appears in the law of the Passover If any say why then did Nehemiah threaten the Merchants of Tyre for breaking the Sabbath day I answere he did it not because he thought them bound to keep the Sabbath but because a Ne quid occâ—rreret Israelitis ante oculos contrarium c. Cal. in Deut. 5.15 they occasioned the breaking of it amongst the Iews and offended against the present goverment of the state For if Nehemiah conceived those Tyrians to be under the Sabbath why did he shut the gates to keep them out he should rather have compelled them to come in and constrained them to keep the Sabbath being now under his power and jurisdiction To the seventh how superstitious the people of the Iews were in their observation of the Sabbath even in case of life and death notwithstanding they had the example of divers of Gods Saints their predecessors to the contrary as of b Elias fugit à facie Iezabel die Sabbathi Anton. tit 9. Elias and Iudas Machabeus and how their superstition continued not only when the City was destroyed by Titus and Vespasian but long after as appears by the history of the Iew in Rome that would not be taken up out of a Iakes because it was his Sabbath what advantages the enemies of that nation took from their superstition in this kind is evident of it selfe Our Saviour therefore in the Scripture glanceth at their superstitious and d Quod malum luxuriae hoc nomine significatum est quia haec erat nunc est pessima Iudaeorum consuetudo Aug. de Cons Evangelist c. 75. lib. 2. luxurious observation of the Sabbath foreshewing that it should be no small promoter of their lamentable destruction e Orate ut fuga vestra fit expedita nullis impedita remoris vel tempestatis vel religionis Marl. in locum so the best and ancientest Expositors c Sabbatha sancta câ—lo de stercore surgere nolo Laziard in hist universali But you will say what was this to the Disciples that they should pray against it I answere that the Christians also observed the Sabbath among the Iewes f Dicet aliâ—uis Iudaei sciebant licere in Sabbatho fugere ut vitam morti â—riperent Respondeo Iudaeos plerosque hoc ignorâsse vel putâsse fugere quidem fas esse hostibus insequentibus aliter esse â—efas Bar. in locum till the Gospell was sufficiently preached and the Synagogue was honourably buried Some therefore that were weak amongst theÌ„ might be entangled in that superstition Others that were stronger might be hindred and prejudiced in their safety by those that were contrary minded and all were bid to pray against the judgement of God which hanged over the head of the bloody City and whatsoever might in any degree further and increase the same though themselves were not engaged therein To the eight the riseing of mans corruption against any law gives no true estimate of the Morality thereof It is generally the effect of lawes of restraint to beget an appetite in men to the thing forbidden
the text saith expressely from the day after the first Sabbath or as our old translation hath it thou shalt number unto that day And g Verba includuut diem non excludunt Ioseph Ant. lib. 3. c. 13. Iosephus himselfe a Iew saith the words are inclusive not exclusive Others h Bell. de cultu Sanctorum lib. 3. cap. 13. therefore say that the first day of unleavened bread which was to be a Sabbath happening to be Friday and the morrow after being their weekely Sabbath the Iewes transfer'd the former into the latter and kept two Sabbaths in one as their custome was propter olera mortuos making it by this meanes a greater or higher day as the * Ioh. 12.31 Evangelist cals it This being done they begin to account from that great or high day and so the Lords day was the first and last of those fifty But when all this stirre is made about the day of Pentecost on which the holy Ghost was given first this fell out by meere accident and from the superstitious conceit of this people concerning their Sabbaths that it was not lawfull for them in them to bury the dead Secondly what loosenesse is in the conclusion gathering any thing from any thing The holy Ghost was given on that day therefore it was a Sabbath of Divine institution To the seven and twentieth This also savours of the like loosenesse Indeed if God did never reveale himselfe unto his Prophets but on Sabbath dayes the inference were tolerable but this I thinke no man will affirme I presume God revealed as much to Daniel in his kind as S. Iohn in his must therefore the daies of Daniels revelations be Sabbaths Besides who can tell whether the Lords day of which S. Iohn speaks were the Lords day which we keepe or Easter day the solemnity of Christs resurrection which S. Iohn his Disciples observed as it fell out according to the Iewish supputation To the eight and twentieth This being drawne from the Iudgements of God is full of rash presumption For * Esa 55.8 Gods wayes are not as mans but secret and unsearchable his judgements past finding out But in this place it is as fallacious as presumptuous affirming Non causam pro causa assigning that to be the cause of the judgements which is not For the day is one thing the prophanation irreligious contempt of Gods ordinances appointed upon that day by the Constitutions of the Church and the law of the Land is another These indeed be sinnes highly provoking Gods wrath but no respects which God hath to this day more then to another doth pull down his judgements And therefore I doubt not but if the day were changed into any other there would be as exemplary judgements of God revealed from heaven against this kind of ungodlinesse of men as ever were in any ages upon the Lords day I denie not but that a Synod held at Paris reports diverse strange accidēts which befell the Prophaners of this day Some killed with Lightnings whil'st they were at Plough others taken with a suddain shrinking of the Sinews others consumed in a moment as Iobs * Iob. 1.16 Cattle and Servants by fire from heauen Et multa alia terribilia iudicia many more dreadfull Iudgements as that Synod speaks But let any man cast his eyes upon the beginning of that i Nullo modo divinae authoritati concordat quod religio Christiana sicut à sanctis patribus traditū accepit et Ecclesiae authoritas se habet diem Dominicū reverentèr venerabiliterque non colit Con. Par. cap. 50. Chapter and he shall find that they esteemed and taught the Lords day to be observed only by Ecclesiastical authority And though they enlarge themselves in the praises of the day yet they speak not a syllable of any divine institution either from Christ or his Apostles To the nine and twentieth Indeed here is a Cloud of witnesses as darke as thick and I hope sufficiently dispelled by the light of truth That these arguments are all probable I cannot find but on the contrary they cannot therefore be Demonstratiue that are not Topicall But grant them to be probable let them be pressed for such and no more let not the conscience of our hearers be fettered with probabilities Lastly the authorities alleaged are for the most part also satisfied in their severall places CAP. XXI A preparatiue discourse to the two maine questions which follow concerning the observation of the Lords day HAving examined the originall and institution of the Lords day it remaines only that in the last place wee enquire after what manner it ought to be observed in the Church what be those duties of the day unto which in particular the conscience is bound under the penalty of sinne For how soever this be the last conclusion in our adversaries positions yet it is the first in their intentions and I doubt not but they would willingly shake hands with us in all the rest might this be yeelded Necessary therefore it is that this be knowne not only for the satisfying of many weake consciences who are wavering herein and therefore daily wounded but also for the better according of these Questions formerly disputed But should we be exact in the discussing hereof it would proue to be a Hydra of many doubts For it being agreed betweene us that the whole observation of the Lords day doth consist in a Dichotomy being divided betweene rest and holinesse there arise out of both sundry scruples which may be ranged under these two heads First whether they be ioyntly and equally commanded as essentiall duties or whether the duty of holinesse be essentiall and that wherein the sanctification of the day consists The duty of rest being on the other side only accidentally commanded as it stands in relation to the duties of holinesse Now supposing as it is commonly taught that corporall rest and cessation from workes is enioyned as an essentiall dutie it is necessary to know in what measure and degree it is required of us Christians in the time of the Gospell whether in that rigour and strictnesse as was exacted of the Iewes under the Law And under this head come fiue particulars by name about which many disputes haue beene raised amongst the weake First whether all workes of profit which are not of absolute necessity be forbidden as sinnes upon that day how lawfull and commendable soever they be upon other daies as journyes Harvest workes ordinary trades Secondly works of pleasure honest recreations in themselues lawfull and not prohibited by the Church and State Thirdly works of the minde as the studying of Arts and Sciences which are not parts of Divinity but only usuall hand-maids thereof as the tongues Philosophy Fourthly all conferences discoursings consultations about things of common life and meerely civill Lastly Whether a more liberall use of Gods creatures in feasts and entertainments of friends neighbours either Anniversary as
which holds at least for the most part Vengeance suffereth not a murtherer to liue Fourthly when the sinner is taken in the very manner and the sinne doth either naturally or morally cooperate to his judgement we may doe well to obserue the Lords hand therein So many times surfetting and drunkennesse kill immediatly of themselues and lasciviousnesse begets mortall diseases Fiftly when the Lord proceeds against men by the rule of Retaliation dealing with them as they haue dealt with others meting to them their own measure This indeed is remarkable and a man may say with * Iudges 1.7 Adonibezek As he hath done so the Lord hath done Thus oppression is many times punished with extortion disobedience to Parents with rebellion of children adultery with uncleanesse In such cases therefore we may probably conjecture though not peremptorily define because the justice of God doth mostly render unto men according to this rule though not alwaies Sixtly the conscience of the sinner himselfe is many times a good directer to point out unto us the accursed thing For as in other respects so in this also the Etymology of the Canonists doth well agree when they define Conscience by Consonancy with God Conscientia est consonant ia animi cum Dee The conscience is as it were Gods Concordance in a mans own bosome especially when we are under the hand of his justice Lastly men must beware how they draw the Lord to their parties forcing him to be of their faction even against his will We foolishly goe about many times to advance our cause by observing of some accidents which befall those who either in judgement or practice dissent from us But besides that these be vaine observations and next allied to superstition if we happen to mistake in our judgements we make the Lord as much as in us lieth to beare false witnesse with us who is truth it selfe Now whether the observations which our Sabbatharians haue made in this particular be not of this rash presuming and prophane kinde let any wise man judge and I wish that they themselues would well consider For First it was never yet revealed by Prophet or Apostle that God would thus or thus punish honest lawfull and harmlesse recreations upon the Lords day with such particular judgements as are observed to haue fal'n upon some particular persons in divers quarters of this land Let such threatnings be produced and something is said Secondly as wise learned holy men as any of contrary judgement affirme not nakedly by way of dictate but with sundry reasons in writing that such recreations upon the Lords day especially in such manner as is expressed in his Majesties Declaration are no sinnes as hath already been shewed What insufferable arrogancy therefore is it in these men to cry out Loe judgements judgements from the Lord out of heaven What is this but foolishly to triumph before the victory and vainely to think of our selues more highly then we ought to think Thirdly is it so alwaies or for the most part and doe not such accidents fall out as frequently upon other daies and upon other occasions If the first be not affirm'd as I am sure it cannot for there be thousands the more is the pity that prophane the Lords day in greater measure then any of those in whom instances haue been made which yet never felt any exemplary evils 'T is therefore a wicked and unchristian conclusion to say Vengeance suffered them not to liue If the latter be most true surely we father not the judgements of God aright When Mr Trask was confuted in the pulpit for his error concerning his new imagined kingdome of Christ and through the turbulency of his spirit not induring his reproofe came to be silenced it happened that D. Sutton who opposed him herein had his next child still-borne Loe said M. Trash to some of his friends the Lord hath declared himselfe to be on my side the author of my silencing hath a child still borne Had this been a strange accident and not befalling other women his collection had been probable whereas now it was I will not say ridiculous but most vainglorious if not blasphemous The case here is much the same These Sabbath breakers were taken in the very manner ad their prophanations did cooperate to their destruction This indeed is our fourth rule but still supposing the thing in doing to be a sinne well knowne and not questioned to the contrary such as are those of gluttony drunkennesse uncleanesse which are the instances of that rule For otherwise there is scarce any good thing of which it may not be said that some or other haue been strucken either with sicknesse or death in the very doing even preaching and praying it selfe The true estimation of things depends not upon the events or accidents accompanying them Besides it is not considered by these Exclaymers whether those that haue thus miscarried swarued not froÌ„ those directions limitations prescribed unto them for if so the blame rests upon their own licentiousnesse But it is taken hand over head it happened upon the Lords day and this we think to be enough Ob. You will happely say if no liberty at all were given these evills had been prevented by a generall and strict restraint Resp I answer that the Declaration is so farre from opening a gap to licentiousnesse that would men keep themselues thereunto as they ought the Lords day was never so well observed in this kingdome in any age as now it would be Besides it is most unreasonable to abridge all men of their true Christian liberty in this or any other kinde because a few abuse it to their own destruction Fiftly what rule of Retaliation can be pickt from hence what proportion is there between this pretended sinne and those conceived judgments Sixthly did ever the consciences of those that miscarried make this application And lastly to what purpose is this Catalogue of judgements so studiously collected but to advance our cause to draw God to our party which ought not to be done but to confirme certaine and revealed truths of which no man doubts It is therefore a good rule which St a Iudecet ille qui ad prenunciandum nullo odin nullá offen sione nullâ levit ate ducitur Aâ—ab in 10. 8. Ambrose giues let him judge who is not in danger to be carried either by hatred or distast or lightnesse of minde in his sentence And by this I am sure our adversaries haue no right to the Chaire their mindes being so disaffected to this truth their spleenes so full of gall against all that gaine-say them and by consequence their hearts so full of levity and vanity in censuring their brethren IF they regard not St * Rom. 14.4 Pauls Quis es tu who art thou that judgest let them hearken to S. b Pierumque nes cum rectitudinem justitiae exequimur mansuetudinem relinquimus cum mansuetudine 〈◊〉 servare c. Greg.