of the law giving men sixe for one for God ever was and ever will be alike liberall to all men in all ages in this kind The second drawn from Gods interest in the seventh day The Seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord and what sons of Adam are exempted from giving God his owne The third is Gods example proposed for our imitation for all men are bound by the very light of nature to be followers of God as deare children The fourth is the promise which is made therein For it will be as blessed a day or a day as full of blessing unto us if we sanctify it as ever it was to the Iews God being not lesse good nor his grace lesse powerfull nor his promise lesse sure The fift is the ease refreshing of our servants and beasts to whom Christians must not be lesse mercifull then the Iews Lastly the Sabbath taught them that they were the Lords people and no man will say but that we also are so by as many and by more strong tyes and relations then were ever any Ergo c. Sixtly the law Ceremoniall and Iudiciall were given only to the Iewes and such as were circumcised but the fourth commandement was directed not only to those within the covenant but also to strangers and aliens The strangers within thy gates And upon this ground a Neh. 13.16 Nehemiah reproved the Tyrian Merchants which were strangers therefore c. Seventhly from the words of Christ in the Gospell b Mat. 24.20 pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day Those words were spoken to the disciples foreshewing that if their flight should happen to befall them on the Sabbath their affliction would thereby be increased But if the fourth commandement be not Morall what addition of sorrow had it been if their flight had befallen them that day Christians and such were the disciples need not trouble themselves about a law Ceremoniall Thus then That commandement the breaking whereof might justly grieve a Christian forced thereunto by flight is doubtlesse morall but the fourth commandement is such therefore c. Eightly that commandement against which humane corruptions doe especially arise and band themselves both in the Godly and the wicked must needs be morall but our corruptions doe chiefly fight against the Sabbath as the Godly feele by experience in themselves and experience doth also make evident in the wicked of the world therefore c. Ninthly that cannot be a truth of God which overthrowes all religion le ts in Atheisme Epicureisme and all prophanesse no good tree can bring forth such evill fruit But that doctrine which denieth the morality of the Sabbath overthroweth all religion le ts in Epicureisme and Prophanesse as appeares in those Churches wherein it is taught in forraine parts Ergo. Tenthly that wich the Church of England teacheth in her Homilies ought to be held for truth by all the obedient children of that Church but the morality of the Sabbath is that which the Church of England teacheth in her Homily of the time and place of prayer as will appeare to every one that will read the same Therefore all the obedient children of the Church of England ought to acknowledge it to be true Eleventhly if you make the fourth commandement Ceremoniall you make the Church of England guilty of Iudaisme For that Church which readeth to her children a Ceremoniall Law and commands them to kneele whilst it is read in acknowledgment of their subjection thereunto and at the end to pray Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep this law cannot but be a Iewish Church But the Church of England thus teacheth her children Ergo. Twelfthly unlesse the fourth commandement be morall there will be but nine commandements in the Decalogue which is contrary not only to the received opinion of all men but to the calculation of the whole Catholique Church in all ages and is no meane Sacriledge to affirme Ergo. Thirteenthly that which is taught by men which are most spirituall and alone discerne the things of God must needs be true and so on the contrary But the Morality of the Sabbath is taught by men that are most spirituall the contrary by men that are carnall therefore c. Lastly we have the authority of all our English writers almost ever since the reformation unto this time neither was it hitherto ever contradicted for at least these threescore and ten yeares unlesse by Papists Anabaptists or Familists Ergo. CHAP. VII In which are set downe the arguments for the negative THe negative tenent hath also its arguments which in the next place must be produced and First it is alleadged That commandement over which Christ was absolute Lord as he was the sonne of man is not morall for a morall precept is part of Gods eternall law over which the sonne of man can have no power being made under the law But Christ as the sonne of man was Lord of the Sabbath as himselfe upon two sundry occasions hath twice told us Math. 12. Mark 2. To these Texts these exceptions have been made 1 Excep 1. That this phrase doth no more import the Sabbath to be a ceremony then the same used by the Apostle doth conclude the dead and the living to be a ceremony for he rose againe that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living But this is to play with the ambiguity of the word it 's one thing to be Lord of the Church to guide governe perfect quicken raise glorify her for this is the meaning of the Apostle upon which that in the Ephesians may seeme as a comment Eph. 1.20.21.22 And another thing to be Lord of the Law or constitution to moderate dispence order alter abolish for in what other construction can any one be said to be Lord of a law 2 Except 2. It is said that Christ did not intend by these words of his any such Lordship because he did not then abrogate the Sabbath Nor is this to the purpose for never any man yet dreamed that Christ did in those words abolish the Sabbath for both it and the rest of the legall ordinances were in force till they were nailed with him to the Crosse 3 Except 3. It is excepted that our Saviour in those words doth only dispence with his Disciples in that particular case and challenge to himselfe the power and prerogative of expounding the Law against the Pharisees who pretended only to the Chayre and to give interpretations of the Law But to satisfy this also and to cleare the Text we affirme 1 That Christ doth not there or in any other place ever dispence with the law in himselfe or any other for he took upon him the form of a servant and came not to break the Law but to fulfill it 2 That in those words Christ doth not intend to expound the law only for this he had done before by the example of David and by the
which I answere that such outward worship in publique coÌ„gregations should not have been required in that state of innocency for then the whole world should have been but one temple and all men therein but one Congregation as the glorified Saints make but one Quire whose antheme is day and night Praise Honour Glory and Power be to him that sitteth on the throne Wee may well conceive that if Adam had not fallen our estate should have been much like though much inferiour to the Saints in glory I know that b Aquin. pare 1. q. 44. art 31. Schoolemen commonly teach that Adam in the state of innocency should have beene a priest a Prophet and a King having to this purpose a personall kind of knowledge imparted unto him enabling him to be the head and teacher of all mankind But this being grounded upon a false principle viz That his originall righteousnesse of which his knowledge was a part was a supernaturall endowment superadded to the estate of pure naturalls must needs be a consequent like the antecedent out of which it is deduced Order then should have been in that estate for so there is amongst the Angels but no division of men into pastorall charges and congregations which neither are amongst the Angels nor shall be hereafter amongst the glorified Saints The precept therefore of the Sabbath to be observed by Adam in Paradise was in all respects superfluous Ergo. Secondly it is generally affirmed by c In principle mundi ipsi Adae Evae legem dedit ne defructu arboris plantatae in medio paradisi ederent quae lex iâ— sufficeret se esset custodita Tert. ad Iud. Divines ancient and moderne that Adam in the estate of innocency had but one positive law imposed upon him even that of the forbidden fruit neither doe we read of more in Scripture And this we commonly say with d Hoc tam leve preceptum ad observandum tam breve ad memoriâ retinenduÌ„ tanto 〈◊〉 inju titiâ violatum est quanto saciliori possit obser vantia custodiri Aug. â—e Câ—vâ—t l. 14. c. 15. S. Augustine made his disobedience the greater God requiring no more at his hands but if Adam had a commandement to observe the Sabbath God gave him more positive Lawes then one Ergo. If any man say he needed no positive law for the Sabbath being bound thereunto by the light of nature for nature teacheth men to keepe holy unto God those daies upon which they have received greatest mercies for this guided even the Heathens to their holydaies Answere I answere indeed that nature teacheth men thankfully to acknowledge Gods mercies but how and in what manner it must be done or that the same day must be kept holy upon which we receive them nature teacheth not For by this reason Adam should have kept the sixt day for in it he received from the hands of God an helper meet for him in it he and his wife received a blessing upon their Creation and full power and dominion over all creatures being thereby enstalled the happy Princes of the whole world Object If any say that though God did all this for them on the sixt day yet he had not given the operative power of propagation to the whole creation till the seventh day and without this their former day was nothing worth Answere I answere that indeed a In hoc discordat nostra translatio ab alia quam augustinus exponit nostrâ enim translatione consummatio operum oscribitur diei septimo in alia diei sexto utâ—â— autem veritatemâ—â—here potest distinguenda est rei duplex perfectio c. super sent l. 2. c. â— 15. 9 3. Aquinas both in his summes and upon the sentences affirmeth as much There is saith he a two-fold perfection the one wherein things receive their perfect being this all things had upon the sixt day the other which regardeth not the being but only the operation of things in being this was bestowed on creatures the seventh day for then God resting from giving being unto things began to set nature to the worke of propagation but any man may see First that this is only said without any ground Secondly that he was forced thereunto by labouring to reconcile the vulgar translation with that of Saint Austin the one reading in the seventh day the other in the sixt day God ended his worke Gen. 2.2 But what a small fly this is to choak so great a Camel will soone appeare for the text meaneth not that God did any thing upon the seventh day as Aquinas conceived but that b Inde ab hoc die destitit ab omni opificio Trem. in iâ—cum when the seventh day was come all things were finished nothing being defective either in regard of the first or second perfections of which the distinction speaketh Adam therefore had all things perfected and so delivered into his hands on the sixt day And c Hoc loco non dicit Deus rebus ipsis benedixisse sed diei Est 2. Dist 15. art 9. one observes rightly that the text saith God blessed the day not the creatures so that if it were true that nature binds us to keepe those very daies on which we have received mercies Adam was obliged to the Friday which I thinke no man will presume to affirme Thirdly whatsoever was commanded Adam in paradise was universally commanded unto all mankind in all their generations for we were all in Adam neither had our first parents any personall or temporary precept but the Law of the seventh-day Sabbath is of no such universall extent neither is it still in force The first appears because the d So Moses The Lord hath given you the Sabbath Exod. 16.29 So Nehemiah thou madest knowne unto them thy holy Sabbath by the hand of Moses thy servant Neb. 9.14 So Ezek. 20.12 reckoning up Gods favours to that nation saith moreover I gave them also my Sabbaths Scriptures doe ever appropriate the Sabbath as a peculiar rite prescribed the Iewes The second is also manifest for we observe not at this day that Sabbath which is said to have been given Adam which we must have done had it been commanded in paradise unlesse we could shew expresse precepts given to Adam to the contrary but such a countermaine certaine it is Adam never received Fourthly that which is eyther naturall or commanded in Paradise before the fall was not to be abrogated by Christ in the fulnesse of time the reason hereof is because that fulnesse of time wherein Christ came and did all things appertaining to the Messias is to be reckoned from the promise of the seed which was not made till after the fall that therefore which preceeded this promise appertained not to the Messias either to establish or abolish but the observation of that Sabbath which is pretended to have been commanded Adam in paradise is abrogated by Christ as he is the Messias even that day on
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
the motions of sinne are set on work by the law Besides if the rule given were a certaine Maxim then on the contrary that law against which humane corruptions doe least rise which without question are the Commandements of the first table should be least Morall which I think no man will affirme But to passe by this I would gladly know against what in the Sabbath mans corruptions be so rebellious I doubt not but you will say against the strict and holy observation thereof but the manner how the law bids is one thing and the manner how the day is to be observed is another of which we shall also speak in due place To the ninth taken from experience in forraine parts in the first place I answere that the reformed Churches of God beyond the seas are much beholding unto you for branding them with laying religion on the back setting up Atheisme and Epicureisme And I believe many of this judgement are as free from those evils as any Sabbatharian in the world But strange it is that some men cannot vent their novell fancies unlesse like new wine they break the old bottles of love Perhaps you will say men will take liberty to be prophane when all tye of conscience is taken off as when the Morality of this law is denied But we must know that the conscience is not let loose as is supposed but only bound in another way as we shall see hereafter It hath ever been the custome of all sorts of people thus to palliate their errours under the titles of holinesse To the tenth the Homily is very briefe in this point the Summa totalis is this First that although God be at all times to be glorified for his mercies yet his pleasure is there should be set time for this purpose Secondly that this Commandement given in the Decalogue doth not bind us Christians as it did the Iewes Thirdly that whatsoever is found in the Commandement appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing needfull to the setting forth of Gods glory ought to be received of all men Lastly that the set time of Gods publique worship ought to be on one day of seven This indeed which is last seemes to be something but seemes only for it must receive construction according to the foundation on which the Homily buildeth viz. that nothing herein is Morall but what appertaineth to the law of nature Seeing therefore that this particular cannot be deduced out of the Law of nature the Homily never intended it for Morall Ob. It will be said that then the Homily doth contradict it selfe for if nothing but what is naturall must be retained and one in seven be not naturall how can the Homily affirme that one in seven must for ever be observed and that by the will and commandement of God himselfe Sol But for answere hereunto first let it be considered that the Homily speaks by way of exhortation ad populum and in treatises of this nature every passage is not rigorously to be pressed for advantage in disputation This favour must be yeelded to all the popular tractates of the ancient Fathers else many things may well be quarelled at in them Secondly let the passage it selfe be well construed and the Homily clears it selfe for it saies indeed that Gods commandement was so to the Iewes but the Christians have followed this example voluntarily and of their own choice and if of their own choice then doubtlesse not by any necessity of Morall precept To the eleventh what if the Church retaine and read this amongst the Moralls Doth she not also appoint by her Liturgy Leviticus and Deuteronomy to be read amongst other parts of Scripture Or doe we thinke with the Maniches that the old Testament is not the word of God or with the Anabaptists that it appertaines not unto vs. We retain and read the Ceremoniall law in our congregations not so much for the Ceremonâ—es themselves which are vanished away as for those eternall truths of which they were shadowes And as we retain and read them so we also pray unto God for his mercy and grace that wee may fulfill and practise them so farre forth as they doe concerne us There be therefore two things which we aske in that short petition following the commandement First that our hearts may be graciously inclined to sanctify all such times as are set apart for Gods publique worship Secondly that as long as we live here in the vale of misery and sinne we may be enabled by his grace to keep a perpetuall spirituall Sabbath in righteousnes and holines and peace of conscience all our daies To the twelfth this takes deep impression amongst the vulgar who have been taught their ten Commandemens perhaps for their prayers from their cradles and therefore stand for this tanquam pro aris focis But in one word to give them satisfaction the argument is denied for there are and ever will be ten Morals though the letter of the fourth be Ceremoniall That God must have his set and appointed Sabbaths which is the essence life spirit of that Commandement is for ever Morall though the circumstances expressed in the text be Ceremoniall And this is no novell assertion but the common doctrine of all antiquity And therefore a S. Chrys Hom. 40. in Math. S. Chrysostome speaking of this commandement insteed of Remember to keep holy the seventh day reads remember to keep a spirituall Sabbath And b Aug. in Exod lib. 20. cap. 172. S. Augustine expresly saith that the nine rest as they are literally set downe are doubtlesse to be observed in the new Testament but that one of the Sabbath was given under the vaile of Moses and mystically commanded His reason is out of the text when Moses saith he returned from God out of the mount and had received from him the patterne of the Tabernacle and all holy things he speaks to the people only of the Sabbaths observation by which it appears that this was given only as the head of the Ceremonials c Alia quippâ— nona sicut praecepta sunt in novo testamento observanda minimè dubitamus illud autem unum de Sabbatho adeo iâ— Mysterio praeceptum fuit ut hodiè à nobis non observetur sed solum quod significabat intuemur Inter omnia illa decem praecepta solum id quod de Sabbatho positum est figuratè observandum praecipitur Aug. ad Ian ep 119. In istis decem praeceptis exceptâ Sabbathi observatione dâ—catur mihi quid non sit observandum à Christiano Aug. de spirit lit c. 14. The same Father disputing in another place how the Commandements of the Decalogue were a killing letter as well as the Ceremonies makes frequent distinction between this one of the Sabbath and the rest affirming that not only this but those nine also were a killing letter So that St Chrysostome and St Augustine acknowledged ten commandements Morall but with our
Lord vnlesse we also adde thereunto sundry actuall performances the time and manners whereof they also shew us If therefore any difference be it is that we must be wholy taken up with such performances during the whole Sabbath for 24. houres and turne meere Euchites upon the day which is not required in other dayes But that the Sabbath is of no such length hath been already declared and that God giues no such continuate taskes of holy performances shall I hope before we part be made evident Secondly d Finis non seper est de substantià praecepti neque secundùm veros Theologos cadit sub praecepto Med. Inst Non idem est finis praecepti id de quo praeceptum datur Aquin. 1.2 qu. 100. art 9. ad 2. the end is not comanded by that Law in which the meanes are prescribed for though the precept of the end include also the precept of the meanes yet not on the contrary This proposition is laid downe by the Moralists as an undoubted maxime and doth evidently appeare For example when we are commanded to heare the word we are not by the force there of commanded to beleeue in Christ Iesus yet * Rom. 10.17 Faith as saith the Apostle cometh by hearing That rule which commandeth to beate downe the body and to keepe it in subjection doth not require of vs the vertues of humility chastity c. but on the contrary these being the end require the other as the meanes But the law of sanctifying a holy Sabbath is a law of the meanes whereby we are taught and enabled to serue the Lord in the private duties of holinesse and to exercise in our selues the graces of faith hope loue c. This also is plaine of it selfe and requires no farther proofe For why doe we resort to the congregation on the Lords day But partly to be instructed by the word partly to be inflamed with the loue of God and zeale unto his service the whole weeke after as well as to tender him our publike homage in acknowledgement of his soveraigne dominion Thirdly no affirmatiue precepts are to be extended beyond that which the letter doth containe though it be otherwise in precepts which be negatiue For example honour thy father and mother when we know what it is to honour our Superiours we haue the whole latitude of this Law It is not so I say in negatiues as appeares by our Saviours confutation of the Pharisees glosses upon the seventh Commandement But the law of the Sabbath is an affirmatiue precept and prescribes the publique worship of God in the congregation therefore is not farther to be extended Fourthly if all duties of piety and mercy whatsoever were commanded by the law of the Sabbath then were there no difference at all between this and the other precepts of the Decalogue at least for that day so that upon one day of every weeke the other Commandements were needlesse and superfluous But this is not to be affirmed Ob. If any say that one and the same duty may be under divers precepts Resp I answer that though this be most true yet must we not confound the Law of God and make an intricate maze thereof to the entangling of mens consciences for the Decalogue is said to be ten words ten for their number words for their distinction I denie not that one and the same duty may be under divers precepts but then they are diversly considered as referred to divers ends The object of different commandements may be materially the same but formally distinct So temperance and sobriety may be both under the sixt and under the seventh precept under the sixt as meanes of preservation of breath under the seventh as the helps unto chastity and mortification But what formality can distinguish the duties of holinesse on the Lords day from the same duties on other daies I know not if you say to sanctifie the Sabbath the question is begged and so nothing said Fiftly were the whole practice of Religion both publique and private the duty of the Lords day then it would follow which is also affirmed that to obserue the Lords day were impossible to any man in the state of corruption For I think no man unlesse he be some braine-sick Perfectist will challenge to himselfe such a measure of holinesse though but for a day But that the law of the Lords day is thus impossible being not a Legall but Evangelicall observation of positiue command for all such are light yokes and easie burthens is utterly untrue Therefore c. Sixtly nothing but what is naturall and eternall is commanded in the fourth precept of the Decalogue binding us under the Gospell but that private and personall acts of religion should be performed by us precisely upon this or that day of publique worship in that manner as is required is not naturall and eternall binding us under the Gospell For the Law of nature prescribes only in generall not any thing for any time or day or manner in particular Seventhly that which is no where spoken of much lesse commanded in the new Testament bindes not the conscience of any under the Gospell but the private exercises of religion upon the Lords day are not spoken of much lesse commanded in the new Testament For then such commands were easily shewed all men would readily submit themselues thereunto Eightly this manner of observation seemeth to change the nature of the Lords day from being the Christian Feast and transformeth it rather into a day of Fast humiliation For let their doctrine of Sabbathizing be compared to the doctrine of fasting and we shall finde them the same saue only that a totall abstinence from all things wherein nature delighteth is required in the one but not so in the other But we must not metamorphize the Lords day which is and ought to be the Christian mans Festivall wherein he should not only inwardly but out wardly also rejoice in the Lord his God Ob. If any say that the true beleiver takes no greater comfort then in the exercises of humiliation nothing being so sweet unto him as the teares of contrition Resp I answer that what the * Heb. 12.11 Apostle speaketh of affliction in generall That afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousnesse to them that are exercised thereby is true also of the day of humiliation of the bruising of the soule in particular the affliction is one thing the fruit thereof another this ioyfull that for the present grievous and doth not so well sort with the nature of the Lords day Vpon which ground it was expresly forbidden the e Hoc ab omni ecclesiâ Orientali Occidentali observatum contra haereticos Can. Apost 61. Christians by Antiquity to fast upon the Lords day Ob. But is it not lawfull then for a man to repent and be converted unto God comming out of the state of sin into the state of grace through the troubles and anguishes
Sabbath in Paradise And if he sinned the sixt day as most conceiue this was a bad preparation to the next dayes Sabbath such as was likely to disturb the whole work If he stood the sixt day and sinned the seventh long he stood not all agree was the day of his fall think you the day of his Sabbath That he entred upon the dominion of the creatures upon the seventh day contradicts the very Text it selfe which saith they were delivered up unto him upon the sixt day unlesse we like to interpret Moses by the figure Anticipation in that Chapter which is so much condemned in the next That time was first divided by weeks afterward by months which is the very pillar of all the rest is as weakly as confidently affirmed For not to speak of the circle here used the division of time into weeks being brought to proue the Sabbath to haue beene from the beginning the Sabbath being blest sanctified from the beginning to proue this division of time by weeks no such thing can be concluded from that Text unlesse we grant that all separated and sanctified daies and such were all the Iewish Festivalls are presently to be the divisions of time On the other side sure we are that man in the beginning was put to Schoole unto the creature and that the Sunne and Moone were purposely set in the Firmament to shew him times and seasons Is it now probable or can it stand with the intention of the Creator that man should come by the divisions of times otherwise then by observing the Sunne and Moone especially since the Changes of the Moon doe so punctually lead us unto weeks In the next place it was wisely foreseene that a positiue precept serues not our turne and therefore we fetch about for a morality also therein which cannot be without sundry suppositions That nature tels us of time to be set apart for Gods worship is most true but that shee directs us to this in speciall or that in particular is fallaciously collected For what if the creature be under the absolute power of the Creator are therefore no Circumstantials left to the discretion of the Church in holy things What though some particular persons would unequally carue therein as Prometheus did betweene himselfe and Iupiter would the Church alwaies assisted by Gods spirit think we doe the like So for the comfortable performance which is pretended I would aske which is more comfortable when we haue some things voluntary which may be a free gift or when we are fettered in our performances like flaues more then sonnes Lastly that uniformity in publique actions cannot be observed unlesse God interpose his immediate authority savours of something else then Sabbatharian tenents If those daies are alwaies holy which are honoured with some notable work of God I see no reason why the day of our Saviours incarnation and hypostaticall union the most unsearchable a Nunquam ' Deus adeò grande fecit miraculum in caelo aut terrâ sive resuscitando mertuos sive illuminando caecos sic de aliis sicut est miraculum hoc ' unionis humanitatis addivinitatem Gers parte 4 â ser de Nativitate and glorious work ad extra or Friday wherein was finished the work of our redemption should not be a Sabbath as b Euseb lib. 4. c. 18. Constantine made it Surely although all Sabbaths haue beene kept upon daies chalked out by Gods famous works yet all daies thus chalked out haue not been forthwith Sabbaths by divine institution That the proportion of one in seven to be kept Sabbath cannot be ceremoniall that never any found any Ceremony therein is utterly untrue For to omit others c Videri ergo possit Dominus per diem septimum populo suo delineasse suturam sui Sabbathi perfectionem Cal. de 4. prae Sic eliam Clemens Alexandrinus ex Elatone lib. 5. Stlomaâ— Calvin hath long since observed that it did not only historically teach the Iewes the perfection of the works of nature but mystically also the perfection of the works of grace and that nothing should be wanting unto us in the person of the promised Messias the number of seven being the number of perfection Alike solid is that which followeth that the Rest of the seventh day had relation unto Christs rest only in the Graue but was not mystically referred unto the grace of the Gospell which is contrary both to the Scripture and to the streame of all Divines Ancient and Moderne And what if the Iews were partakers of the grace of Christ yet were they led thereunto by the hand as children in these and the like figures and how doth this hang together There is a taxation of one in seven under the Gospell therefore that which the Iewes had under Moses could not be ceremoniall That we under the Gospell keep the fourth Commandement is most true understood in generall of the substance of the Commandement for times of publique worship but in nothing else For thought it say Remember the Sabbath day not the seventh yet immediatly it addeth by way of exposition the seventh is the Sabbath and which it meaneth of the seventh even the next after the creatioÌ„ We must not then make God wise according to our fancies by making his word a Lesbian rule broken asunder and patched together at our own pleasures But say it speaks of a Sabbath in generall how doth it speak of a seventh day-Sabbath in speciall under the Gospell or of the Lords day in particular This therefore must be helped with another heap of superstâ—â—ons Christians you say must not giue a worse time unto the Lords service then did the Iewes must it therefore be just the same that a better would proue a publique grievance is a plausible put off why might we not giue him every sixt day if the whole Church should think it fit would it not be all one upon the matter to Trades-men Labourers But the Lord hath marked out unto us his own day by his own resurrection This is most true and therefore the Church alwaies hath and I doubt not but ever wil obserue it to the worlds end though only by the Churches authority But supposing it to be our Sabbath must it not be kept for time and manner as that of the Iewes was If it be not the Iewish why should we keep the Iewish time of just so many houres with the Iewish manner of rest for such or such cessations As for the rest he that is a Teacher of prophanenesse and an Abettour of licentiousnesse an untempered morter-dauber let him be accursed The other patterne of doctrine therefore in this point is That God created man in that high measure of knowledge as made him little lower then the Angels Psal 8.5 That man continued in this estate but a very short time perhaps not many houres That notwithstanding his fall a great part of his wisdome remained with him especially his naturall knowledge of the creature and the worlds creation That God admitting fal'n man into the state of grace through repentance was pleased to converse with him though not so familiarly as otherwise he would haue done by apparitions and revelations That the light of nature remaining taught him that this God must be publiquely worshipped That he being not unmindefull of his fall and the curse which thereby was brought upon him death and being instructed in the faith of the Messias to be slaine hence God came to be publiquely worshipped by the sacrifices of slaine beasts That the set time of this publique sacrificing is not mentioned in Scripture That the place in the second of Genesis was written by Moses after the Law was given and had relation thereunto That nothing can be averred of the Patriarchs practice till Israels comming into the wildernesse and the fall of Manna That the Law delivered in the fourth precept is morall for substance as that God must haue times for publique worship Ceremoniall for circumstance in the rest binding the Iewes only leading them partly backward to their state in Egypt the fall of Manna partly forward to good things to come in Christ That Christ therefore and the Gospell being exhibited this circumstantiall Sabbath must cease but expired not quite untill the destruction of the Temple That during this while the Apostles kept the Iewish Sabbath as they did other Ceremonies That withall they kept in a manner the Lords day also for breaking of bread though this was not alwaies done upon that day only That whatsoever the Apostles did in the Churches by them planted was not by Apostolicall authority they being the Churches Pastors as well as Christs Apostles That the discipline of the Church of which the time and manner of publique Assemblies is not the least part was established by them as Pastors not Apostles and might afterward receiue such changes as the state of succeeding times should require That therefore the institution of the Lords day is by Ecclesiasticall authority and that this is a sufficient tye of conscience to all such as list not to be obstinately wilfull That the Lords day thus established must be observed and set apart for Gods publique worship and all meanes used for the supporting thereof That those that joyne not with the Congregation therein are guilty of prophanation That whatsoever doth hinder this in any man of which no generall rule can be given ought to be avoided by him and that herein every mans experience can best informe him That such things as are used only as diversions of the minde and recreations of the body are lawfull on this day so they offend not in any other circumstance That those that are inclined and inabled to private holy exercises performed without fraud or sinister respect doe that which is most profitable and commendable though not bound thereto by the Law of the Lords day That all men should be watchfull over themselues to keep a spirituall Sabbath from the servile works of sinne throughout the whole course of this life having alwaies an eye to that Sabbath of Sabbaths promised us in the kingdome of GOD our Father and of his deare Sonne IESUS CHRIST to whom be honour and glory now and for ever more Amen FINIS