Christianae Religionis observantissimus inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia hoc reliquit exemplum sanctimoniae die Dominico c. Albert. Krant metr l. 4. c. 8. p. 106. highly commended by Krantzius but for i Cum die Dominico cogitationibus gravatum cum gereret animum baculumque manibus reneret cultello ut sit scindulas fâ—â—it admonitus ab astante per jocum de violatione Sabbati non leviter in se punivit admissum scindulas collegit diligentissimè manuique suae impositus jussit incendi ut in se ulcisceretur quòd contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset Albert. Krantz Metrap lib. 4. cap. 8. pag. 106. our present purpose we are especially to note that that day which Dr. Heylin calleth Sunday was then called the Sabbath Ob. He saith the King was told by way of jest that he had trespassed therein against the Sabbath Ans So it might have been in jest if the party had used another name whether Lords day or Sunday and in using the name Sabbath rather then either of them it is most like that was a name rather of common use then of speciall choice to breake a jest withall l D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. c. 5. pag. 158 159. Hee addeth for the yeere 1120 the time of Rupertus an observation of one Petrus Alphonsus calling the Lords day the Sabbath of the Christians but saith hee he meant none otherwise then the feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover for which hee bringeth nothing out of that Authour that may bee a just ground for such a glosse And on the contrary it may be said that there is a Sabbath or Rest according to the letter confessed in the observation of the Lords day but the word Passcover was figurative even to the Jewes after their comming out of the Land of Egypt much more is it so to Christians since the comming of Christ Besides hee bringeth in one John de Burie Chancellor of the University of Cambridge about the later end of the reigne of King Henry the eighth assirming That every day designed to divine service might be called Sabbath which seemeth also to be the judgement of Bernard who expounds the fourth Commandement thus m Observa diem Sabbati quod est in sacris feriis te exeâ—ce quatenus per requiem praesentem discas sperare aeternam Bern. super salv Regina Serm. 4. col 1744. Observe the Sabbath that is Exercise thy selfe upon the holidayes that by present rest thou mayest learne to hope for rest eternall If so much more may the Lords day be called Sabbath which hath the preheminence of other dayes as the old Sabbath had every weeke throughout the yeere and not onely once a yeere as Easter and other holidayes which have in an anniversary revolution one turne and no more We need say no more then this to confute the fond and new found conceipt of Doctor Pockl. concerning the novelty of the name Sabbath wherein also n D. Heyl Hist Sab. part 2. c. 8. pag. 269. Dr. Heylins negative observation That a Sabbath day was not heard of in the Church of Christ forty yeeres agoe is disproved for a day of cessation from worldly works for religious duties which indeed is a Sabbath hath been in use in the Christian Church in every age since our Saviour ascended and the name Sabbath hath been often and answerably applyed to the thing as hath been shewed And if the Doctor said right touching the late time of the Sabbath and made a true returne by his ″ Search we did with all care and dil gence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or Writings of the holy Fathers or edicts of Emperours or decrees of Councels or finaliy in any one of the publick acts and monumeÌ„ts of the christiaÌ„ Churcl but after severall searches made upon the aâ—ias and the pluries wee still â—eturne non est inventus So in the second page of his Epist to the Reader before the second part of his Hist of the Sabbath non est inventus for the fore going ages hee gave a wrong Title to the second part of his History when he called it The History of the Sabbath from the first preaching of the Gospel to these present times for if there were no Sabbath day heard of from the beginning of the Gospel untill forty yeers since he should rather have called it for that time the History of no Sabbath And albeit it be as strange to write an History de non ente or of a meer nullity as it is untrue that there was no Sabbath all that while yet such a Title had beene though more contradictory to the truth more correspondent to his owne tenet which with greater desire and more diligent endeavour hee striveth to defend yet haply as the truth in his conceipt and so without any contestation against his owne conscience I will yet think so charitably of him and if hee had done so by others it had been better both for them and him CHAP. XV. Royall and reverend Authority for putting the name Sabbath upon Sunday whereby it is cleared from schisme as well as from novelty THat it is no novelty to call the Lords day or Sunday by the name Sabbath wee have proved in the precedent Chapter by sundry Testimonies all of them of much ancienter date then the yeer 1554. designed by Dr. Pockl. for the first use of the word in that sense And for the time since which is long enough to gain allowance to a word especially such a one as hath congruity of reason to the thing whereto it is applyed we can name Authority for it sufficient to over sway any thing that he hath said against it and to cleare the use of it from schisme which the same Doctor Pockl. hath objected against it 1. The Book of a Homil. of the time and place of prayer pag. 102.164 twice p. 166. twice The Author of the Dialog betwixt A. and B. reckoneth ten times edit 2. p. 25. Homilies ratified by the Royall Authority of three Princes and by subscription of all the conformable Clergy in their severall reignes calleth the Lords day the Sabbath divers times 2. King James in his b Apud D. bound on the Sab. l. 1. p. 268 269. And D. Heyl. Hist Sab. part 2. p. 257. Proclamation against profane sports dated at Theobalds May 7.1603 giveth to Sunday or the Lords day the name of Sabbath and in his second book of his c K. James Basilic Dor. lib. 2. pag. 164. Basilicon Doron having spoken of the lawfulnesse of recreations hee concludeth with a proviso that the Sabbath bee kept holy and no unlawfull thing done therein 3. 1639. 1. For the Towne of Weedenbeck 2. For John Cheny of Leftwich in Cheshire 3. For Walker in Yoâ—â—shire 1631. 4. For Riddlâ—hurâ—â— of Davâ—nhâ—m in Cheshire 5. For the Towne of Yaxall 6. For William Small of Cletham
1632. 7. For Richard Wood of Haâ—ton 8. For East and West Rebford 9. For Mariners of Hâ—lbâ—iâ— 10. For Amos Bedford a Minister in Lincolne shire 11. For Thomas Wilson of old Whitingham in Cheshire 1633. 12. For Underhill in Shropshire 13. For one Hubie in Yorkeshire 14. For Roger Posterne of Salop. 15. For the Town of Stone in Staffordshire 1634. 16. For Lincolneshire poore 17. For the poore of Haâ—lscot in the County of Salop. 18. For John Jackson of Langer in Nottingham shire 1635. 19. For Port Patricke and Doneghday in Scotland 20. For Broughton of Southampton where the Church Parsonage house and Schoole-house c. were burnt K. Charles our gracious Soveraigne that now is in his Briefes appointing the time for collections under his broad Seale setting downe the day when they shall be made nameth it the Sabbath day wherby it is plaine he meaneth not Saturday but Sunday and so which is directly against Dr. Pockl. his tenet and title that Sunday is a Sabbath The most that I have seen untill the yeer 1636. have directed to our weekely Holiday under the name Sabbath For intimation of the frequencie of that word in the sence wherein wee take it I have made a List of twenty Instances of Briefs for this County of Cheshire within these few yeeres and noted them in the margine not doubting but there have been many more both within it without which have not come to my view And I doubt not when the truth upon impartiall triall hath broken through all clouds of contradiction as certainely it will doe but the name Sabbath will out-shine the name Sunday and be again received into the stile of the Kings Briefes as formerly it hath been 4. The Reverend Bishops of the Land in the d Confer at Hamp Court p. 44 and 45. Conference at Hampton Court as conscious of the lawfull use of the word Sabbath day for Sunday when Doctor Reynolds desired a reformation of the abuse of the Sabbath before his Majesty that late was and themselves gave a generall and unanimous assent thereunto none of them for ought appeareth in the Booke taking exception that hee called the Lords day by that name And howsoever the name of the Lords day bee more usuall in their Ecclesiasticall Courts for our weekely holiday then the name Sabbath day is yet that they condemne not the use of it is plaine by the seventh Canon wherein they prescribe the use of the Register booke upon every Sabbath day In the Latin edition I confesse the words are diebus Dominicis and not Sabbath and there might bee reason for it because in Latine the word might bee more ambiguous that tongue being more generall and reaching haply to such places as yet have both the Saturday and Sunday in honour and use for the exercise of Religion yet had it beene Sabbath in the Latine also it had beene no prejudice but rather an advantage to the truth if withall it had beene understood to bee meant not of the old Sabbath but of the new Besides they meant no doubt by using the name Sabbath in the Canon in English to shew the lawfull use of that word as well as of others by which the same day is signified unto us and if the Latin bee of more authority then the English which in some respects may be so as before hath been observed wee can quote a Latin Booke of good authority for it it is the Book called Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum which mentioning the observation of our religious rest doth it under this e Praecipuus Sabbatorum cultus Reform Leg. Eccles fol. 18. b. Title the principall celebration of the Sabbath The high Commissioners of whom the Archbishop of Canterbury is chiefe are in Ecclesiasticall authority next to a publick Synod and of their indifferency for the use of the word Sabbath as well as the word Sunday or Lords day may appeare by the recantation enjoyned by them to John Hethrington wherein hee was to f The Sermon called the White Wolfe by Steph. Denison preached at Pauls Crosse the same day pag. 34. disavow that which formerly hee had delivered viz. that the Sabbath day or Sunday which wee commonly call Lords day since the Apostles time was of no force and that every day is as much a Sabbath day as that which wee call the Sabbath day Lords day or Sunday and in these termes hee was to publish it at Pauls Crosse Febr. 11. 1627. If it bee needfull to add particular testimonies for calling Sunday by the name Sabbath and such scandalous invectives as some have made against it will not suffer it to be superfluous we may note by name divers Reverend Bishops who take the word Sabbath in that sense as to begin with Bishop Latimer whom g D. Pockl. Visit Serm. p. 28 29. Doctor Pocklington brings in expresly with other Bishops unnamed as a godly Prelate and well affected to the godly discipline of the Church and he was besides that a Martyr h B. Latimer he in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that marryed his sonne after he hath cited the story of the man stoned for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day hath these words i Bish Latimer in his Sermon upon the Gospel of a King that married his sonne preached an 1552. as the title sheweth sol 188. p. 1. Which is an example for us to take heed that wee transgresse not the law of the Sabbath day and a little after hee addeth These words pertaine as well to us at this time as they pertained to them in their time for God hateth the dis-hallowing of the Sabbath as well now as then for hee is and still remaineth the old God hee will have us to keepe his Sabbath as well now as then for upon the Sabbath day Gods seede-plow goeth that is to say the ministery of the Word is executed for the ministery of Gods Words is Gods plow In which few lines hee calleth the Lords day Sabbath no fewer then foure times he calleth it Sunday also I confesse but that is nothing to this purpose since the name Sabbath is in question not the name Sunday which we have treated on before and proved to bee lawfull k Archb. Whit. Ans to T. C. p. 578. or 758. Archbishop Whitgift was after him in time though above him in degree and dignity of the Church and he translating a Testimony out of Justin Martyrs Apologie turneth dies solis into the Sabbath day l B. Babington Bish Babington sometimes his Chaplaine was Bishop of Worcester in the late Queenes reign as Bishop Latimer was in King Edwards daies a venerable Prelate and a frequent and famous Preacher and hee useth the same name of the same day * B. Babington in com 4. p. 72. printed 1594. in 4th wee plainely see saith hee what day the Apostles celebrated and met upon having their solemne Assemblies namely on this our Sabbath and it addeth
besides these which found to the same sense but these sufficiently shew that the Compilers of the Homily tooke the name Sabbath not in a meere mysticall sense but in a literall and herein their Doctrine is conformable to the letter of that Commandement Secondly for his similitude that our Lords day is called Sabbath but as Mortification is called Circumcision the circumcision of the heart Rom. 2.29 or as sincerity and truth are called unleavened bread 1 Cor. 8.5 or as Christ our Passover 1 Cor. 5.7 it is guilty of grosse disproportion for 1. In a naturall acception no two numerall things are more like then one day is like another but circumcision of the flesh and mortification of the corruptions of the heart sincerity and unleavened bread Christ and the Passover though in some respects semblable as the Kingdome of heaven and a graine of Mat. 13.31 mustard seed are yet in their kinds at very great distance for Circumcision is an act of the hand Mortification an act or rather an habit wrought by the spirit upon the mind unleavened bread is a visible substance sincerity an invisible quality Christ is a most excellent person consisting of a divine and humane nature the Passover an action literally the Angels passing over the doores which were sprinckled with the bloud of the Paschall Lambe which after the Angell was immediatly yet figuratively applyed to the Lambe it selfe and afterward by another figure more remote from the letter and so more mysticall our Saviour was called the Passover Secondly if wee take the two dayes in a religious as well as in a naturall acception there is much more conformity betwixt them then betwixt the termes of the Bishops comparison so much that the name Sabbath may bee literall to them both though in his instances one part be purely mysticall and analogicall For to say nothing of other conformities forementioned it may suffice to make them both partakers of the name Sabbath which signifieth Rest that rest or cessation from secular labours was on the one and is required and observed on the other wherein the advantage now rests upon the part of our Christian Sabbath since that is still and will be to the worlds end a day of religious rest and the Jewes day though it were so from the beginning was many an hundred years ago degraded from the dignity of a weekly Holiday and made a work-day and so shall be untill our temporall Sabbath on earth be changed into the eternall Sabbatism in heaven which the Apostle promiseth Heb. 4.9 The third Exception of Bishop White touching Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker applying the name Sabbath to our Sunday answered Thirdly For the Allegations out of Bishop Andrewes and Master Hooker for application of the name Sabbath to the Lords day the Bishop taketh occasion to observe that m Bish White his examinat of the Dialog p. 89. 96. the greatest Doctors at some times and before errours and heresies are openly defended are not neither can bee so circumspect in their writing as to avoid all formes and expressions all sentences and propositions all and every Tenet which in after times may yeeld advantage to the adversaries of the truth and hee giveth instance in Augustine and Chrysostome speaking not so warily as they should have done concerning the naturall power of freewill before the Pelagian heresie did arise which hee applyeth to the precedent Testimonies thus Before there arose a controversie in our Church concerning the Sabbath or at least wise before the controversie grew to an height Divines spake and writ more freely and they were not alwayes so cautelous circumspect as to foresee the evill construction which the adversaries of the truth might make of their writing and speaking but now when the Sabbatarian heresie for necessary observation of the old Sabbath and a fanaticall opinion of some others for the observation of the Lords day in a more precise forme then the very Judaicall Law it selfe obliged the Jewes to keepe the old Sabbath when I say these errours sprang up and were defended with an high hand and obtruded upon the Church a necessity was cast upon us to examine all such positions as were the grounds and formes of speaking which were incident to the question in hand Now if upon evidence of truth saith hee wee shall in some passages dissent from some men of note living in this Church before us or use other termes in our writing or disputing nay if we should in some things have altered our owne former opinion and formes of speaking wee trust that godly Christians will not impute this unto us as an offence but in their charity will judge of us as the ancient Church did of Saint Augustine to wit that what wee doe in this kinde proceedeth from the care wee have in a faire and perspicuous manner to maintaine and defend the truth Thus farre the Bishop I have set downe his exception at large because I meane to make a full answer to it for that purpose three particulars are especially to be observed in this the saying of the Bishop The first Of the ancient Fathers unwary writings before heresies arose which is true but not to the purpose for none that reads them at the first hand unlesse hee bring with him a violent impression of prejudice against the Sabbath will conceive one syllable in them to sound to that sense which the Bishop intendeth The second His application thereof to the Sabbatarie controversies which is to the purpose but as hee states the difference not true The third is a request for charitable construction which in regard of the second he hath need of We need say nothing of the first and for the second it may be said First that though some have exceeded in severity both for the doctrine and practice of the Sabbath and yet I accompt not all to bee excessive which the Bishop approveth not many have much more exceeded in loosnesse and profanenesse which is more dangerous to the actors and more scandalous to the observers of their excesses and there was more need that all the Bishops of the Land should oppose this then that he should set upon that in such sort as he did Secondly for that he saith of the Sabbatarian heresie for the necessary observation of the old Sabbath the way to withstand it is not as he doth to take the title Sabbath from the Lords day and to shift it from the firme ground of the fourth Commandement and to make it stand so much upon meere tradition as hee doth nay so to give up that both title and text as hee hath done to the old Sabbath is to confirme rather then to confute the Sabbathary errour which by his manner of handling the matter neither is nor can be soundly convinced as it should be Thirdly whosoever will advisedly reade and consider what hath been lately written concerning the Sabbath will find as great cause to give caution against Anti-sabbathary
Perth an 1618. our Church of England hath a Canon for the Crosse after Baptisme and bowing at the name of Jesus many Reformed Churches have none for either of them and in England Cathedrall Churches differ from most others in the use of Copes Organs prick-song tunes and many other waies besides Of these with the rest of the differences we may say they are such as no necessity doth inforce yet will not Master Ironside I suppose be forward to charge the later Church in departing from the former nor the Reformed in dissenting from the Romish nor the English in differing from the Scottish Church nor Cathedralls in varying from other Churches for such particulars with schisme singularity or affectation Which I doe not mention with any mind to maintain any thing that is amisse in the different manner of Cathedralls from other Churches for I wish rather a reformation then a ratification of them as now they are but to give fit instance against Master Ironside his position Secondly I say and shall where it is requisite prove it that neither the Romish nor many of the Reformed Churches out of England are so Orthodox in the Doctrine of the Sabbath in particular for the explication of the fourth Commandement as they should be and as the Churches of England and Scotland are and it is no marvell if their dialect be like unto their Doctrine Thirdly it is too late to impute schisme singularity or affectation to the word Sabbath when the use of it is justified by such both reasons and authorities as have been produced and when not onely persons of chiefe preheminence so call it but that it is as well received into use by most as approved by the best as hath been observed Fourthly for the Reformed Churches the Waldenses who first separated themselves from the Church of Rome as the Whore of Babylon called the Lords day Sabbath and that so familiarly that nothing was more usuall among them as a learned h Doct. Twisse in a MS. of the Sabbath Doctor hath observed of them Fifthly wee must not accompt it schisme singularity and affectation to conforme rather to our brethren about us then to either brethren or adversaries that are separated from us Sixthly nor are wee more liable to exception of schisme singularity or affectation by using the word Sabbath for Lords day then by putting Sunday for it the most usuall name in our Service Booke which is as unwonted a word in the reformed Churches as the word Sabbath is and hath been i Pope Silvest See Polyd. Virg de invent rer lib. 5. c. 6. forbidden by the most Cathedrall Doctor of the Popish Church with more probability of reason then hath been urged by way of exception against the name Sabbath CHAP. XXV The objection taken from the Statute and language of Lawyers answered THere remaine yet two objections more and but two that I have read or can call to minde which are brought in by Master Broad a Mr. Broad his 3d. quest p. 22. marg in his printed book of three questions the one is That a Processe to appeare die Sabbati is meant and understood upon Saturday The other in b Mr. Brad his 2d. MS. p. 18. marg another book of his which is yet a MS. wherein saith hee the last Parliament may well bee thought to dislike the name Sabbath as to the Lords day for neither in the title of the Act which is for the keeping of the Lords day nor yet throughout the body thereof is this name used though the heathenish name Sunday be in both yea and though the Commandement read in the Church speaketh of sanctifying of the Sabbath Hee might have alledged two Acts of two Parliaments the one anno 1. of King Charles chap. 1. The other anno 3. ch 1. In the former whereof there is the name of Sunday in the title of the Act though not in the body of it as in the Statute anno 5. 6. of King Edward the sixth chap. 3. pag. 133. of the Stat. at large and the name Lords day once in the title and thrice in the body of the Act and in the later Act they are each of them named once in the title and once in the body of the Act but the name Sabbath not at all Whereto I answer first for the Processe concerning which I say First That such a Processe might be taken up when there were many Jewes and much Judaisme in the Land as in the reignes of many of our Popish Kings which gave occasion of warrant in contracts and bargaines against Jewes by especiall mention who kept a foot the name and observation of the old Sabbath and so it might bee then as in the dayes of ancient Fathers a word of distinction betwixt the Jewish and Christians holiday Or Secondly If not for that reason yet the use of the name in that sense having obtained such generall passage in the times precedent might bee a motive to the Lawyers to continue it though the reason which began it descended not so low as to their age as wee call an houre-glasse in Greek and Latin Clepsydra which signifieth the stealing away of water drop by drop from one bottle to another for at first it was made to measure time by water though now it bee made to run with sand only Thirdly Their Processe being Latine haply they made choice rather of that word which had in it some relish of Religion both among Jewes and ancient Christians and so hath the word Sabbath then of that which was for that language in a manner meerly heathenish to wit Saturday and though the word Sunday which is originally heathenish as wel as Saturday be used in our Church Liturgie yet we call the Lords day Sunday not from the Sunne in the Firmament but from the Sun of Righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 as hath been formerly observed the word Saturday is not capable of a signification so sacred and sutable to the person of our Saviour the Lord of the Sabbath Fourthly Though the Lawyers did in their Latin writs use the word Sabbath for Saturday yet they did neither forbid nor forbeare to use it of the Lords day in French and in English as in Fitzherberts natura Brevium it is said Pleas cannot be held upon Quindena Paschae c Que est le Sabot jour Fitzherb natur Brev. fol. 17. because it is the Sabbath day whereby not Saturday but Sunday or the Lords day must be meant for on the Saturday it was lawfull not onely to hold Pleas but to keepe Markets as Judge Fairfax in the Prior of Lantonies case resolveth viz. d Devant le Incarnation le Sabbadi suit le Sabat jour solenize mes ore est change per les eglise at jour demain c. the yeer book 12. of Ed. 4. b. That before the incarnation Saturday was the Sabbath day but since it is changed by the Church into the Lords day that day is
the divine Authority of the day or to diminish ought of the duties of devotion belonging to it so that all three names if there bee not more fault in their minds that make use of them then in the words themselves may and will with peaceable men be passable without any cavill at all Secondly hereby may bee precluded their intents that they take not effect who by cavilling at the name bewray a mind to undermine and overthrow the thing it selfe which I will not say nor do I think of all that take exception at that name yet I have shewed it of some that they plead against the word Sabbath to supplant its fundamentall right by the fourth Commandement and there is no little power in the use or refusall of words to advance or undervalue the things themselves to which they are applyed as hath been proved in that wee have before produced yea sometimes as b Nescio quid veneni in syllabis latet Hier. ad Damasc tom 2. pag. 132. Saint Hierome observeth there lurketh a kind of poyson under syllables as in every page of Doctor Pocklington his booke which weares this title Sunday no Sabbath whereof I have said enough before and hee too much though very little to the purpose for proofe of his distructive determination against the name Sabbath Thirdly In clearing the doubts that are made of those names and titles of our Christian Sabbath divers personages of highest place with many more of the better sort though of inferiour rank in the Church or Common-weale are cleared from such reproachfull imputations as by taunting at or traducing of the lawfull use of those names especially that of the Sabbath some with Ismaelitish malignity expressely or by consequence have cast upon them to which purpose the fore noted judicious Divine hath said somewhat in his Antidote against Sabbatary errours though me thinks a little too faintly viz. c A soveraign Antidote against Sabbatary errors qu. 1. pag. 5. That men otherwise sober and moderate ought not to bee censured with too much severity not with any severity at all hee might have said nor charged with Judaisme if sometime they call Sunday by the name of Sabbath if hee had said if commonly they call Sunday by the name of Sabbath hee had spoken no more then the truth will beare d Ibid. p. 8. for there is none of the three names saith hee to bee condemned as unlawfull but every one is to bee left to his Christian liberty herein so long as superiour Authority restraineth it not and so that hee doe it without vanity or affectation in himselfe and without judging or despising of his brother that doth otherwise which is a pious and prudent proviso though so farre defective as it importeth a meere paritie without any preheminence on the Sabbaths behalfe Fourthly By explication of these titles in this sort wee may answer many passages of the ancient Fathers produced against our weekly holiday in the name of the Sabbath whereby they meane not as many misconceive them and so misapply them any prejudice to the holy observation of the Lords day as in weekely recourse in the Christian Church but precisely and punctually the Saturday Sabbath which we hold as much as they to be abolished and much more then some of them did Fifthly If all the names bee lawfull and that of the Sabbath most usefull as hath beene shewed let us bee sure to make use of it upon all faire and fit occasions though wee neither wholly forbeare the other two titles nor quarrell with any for their more familiar use of them that wee may uphold the tenure of the day together with the title of it by the fourth Commandement whereto I desire to exhort the Reader with the more earnest intreaty First Because some with such supercilious disdaine have indeavoured to disgrace that title that others as much too modest as they too bold have beene affraid or ashamed to use it and I remember one who was of eminent parts and place and who formerly had divers times used it in a printed booke having upon occasion named the Sabbath presently recalled the word as if it had beene a fault and tooke up the title Sunday in stead thereof Secondly Because if wee let goe the name of the time wee may bee like to lose the thing in time to come or at least to loosen and weaken its claime to the best authority on which it depends for as it is a weekly holiday wee cannot plead better for it then by the proportion of the fourth Commandement and that being made good upon that ground the difference about the particular day within the circle of seven will bee the more easily composed since it is no more then other proofe and evidence inferiour to an expresse precept of the Decalogue may well support I would now put a sinall period to this comparative discourse but that opportunity prompts mee and it may bee a twofold duty which I owe both to my superiours and to this sacred cause wherein they are interessed as supreme Judges over it and I as a faithfull Advocate for it bindes mee to bend my conclusion towards the Barre of the most awfull Court in the Kingdome and with prostrate humility to beseech you most Noble Lords and you most worthy Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the high Court of Parliament now assembled to take into your prudent and pious consideration the weighing of the precedent titles and the poyse of Religious reason swaying the resolution on the Sabbath side and that as you have occasion to mention the day by divine ordinance designed to the solemne service of God and the salvation of man in your Discussions or Decrees you will bee pleased to give it that authentick and edifying appellation which best serveth to uphold the surest tenure by which it holdeth and most mindeth us of that holy observation to which by many and weighty reasons we are obliged whereby as it haâ—h been most highly honoured from heaven by Gods owne hand writing in the fourth Commandement so it may bee ratified by the highest authority on earth the highest to us viz. an Act of Parliament to secure it from contempt and to restore it to the right whereof many either in simple ignorance or inconsiderate rashnesse or audacious profanenesse or partiall prejudice or in politicke impiety for all these are Antisabbatary symptomes in some or other have endeavoured to deprive it You have already to the great joy of the godly throughout the Land raised your devout indignation against the indignity done to Religion by the most irreligious Pamphlet of Doctor Pocklington though composed and published under the sacred title of a Sermon and if now as by an act of your Justice SUNDAY NO SABBATH must burn so by some act of your Grace SUNDAY A SABBATH may shine and the same holy zeale will dispose you to this double devotion you will further advance his honour who hath promised to returne you like for like in that kinde 1 Sam. 2.30 and hee will doe it not onely in kinde but in degree and give us of the Clergie the better meanes to perswade the people with better mindes to compose themselves to all due obedience for what your Honours shall decree concerning their dutie both to God and man And so I conclude the titles of our weekly Holiday which will both conduce to the contracting of our taske and to the clearing of the truth to our understandings when wee come to deliver more materiall observations which from henceforward are to follow and which we shall begin in another Booke and goe on withall as God giveth ability to performe and opportunity to publish what this great and weighty cause of his and his Church requireth at our hands FINIS Errata PAge 1. line 2. after the word times adde with many pag. 4. line 3. aâ— the end of the quotation c leave out Selden pag. 5. lin 8. for the word for read and. pag. 8. lin 5. for desire reade more pag. 8. lin 24. for Videlius reade Vedelius pag. 9. lin 3. after but adde the. pag. 10. lin 6. after the words crosse and blot the words crosse to pag. 12. in the margent over against the third line reade Mr. Duraeus and lin 11. for distraction reade division pag. penult lin 3. for grace reade honour In the subscript of the Letter to the Authour for Samuel reade Sabbath and for Glindale Glendole p. 15. l. 21. or reade of p. 16. initio lâ— 30. adde be pag. 38. l. 18. respest reade respect p. 63. in the mar for in locico reade in lexico pag. 64. lin 16. after the word is adde but. pag. 82. lin 22. for or reade to pag. 89. lin 21. for Christians reade Christian pag. 124. lin 25. for hominum reade hominem pag. 143. lin 7. for Parenaesis reade Paranesis pag. 179. lin 1. for Sabbath reade Lords day pag. 195. lin 2. after the word if adde the.