was one hundred in the total Out of the residue being 5900 bushels the first Tithe payable to the Levites which lived dispersed and intermingled in the rest of the Tribes came to 590 bushels and of the residue being 5310 bushels 531 were paid for the second Tithe unto the Priests which ministred before the Lord in his holy Temple yet so that such as would decline the trouble of carrying it in kind unto Hierusalem might pay the price thereof in money according to the estimate which the Priests made of it To which a fift part being added as in other cases did so improve this Tithe to the Priests advantage as that which being paid in kind was but ten in the hundred being thus altered into money made no less than twelve Now lay these several sums together and of 6000 bushels as before was said there will accrew 1121 to the Priest and Levite and but 4779 to the Lord or Tenant By which accompt the Priests and Levites in the tithing of 6000 bushels received twice as much within a little as is possessed or claimed by the English Clergy even where the Tithes are best paid without any exemptions which are so frequent in this Kingdom But then perhaps it will be said that the Levites made up one of the twelve Tribes of Israel and having no inheritance amongst the rest but the Tithes and Offerings besides the 48 Cities before mentioned were to be settled in way of maintenance correspondent unto that proportion But so they say it is not in the case of the English Clergy who are so far from being one of twelve or thirteen at most that they are hardly one for an hundred or as a late Pamphlet doth infer not one for five hundred Who on this supposition Tithe-gatherers no Gospel-Ministers that there are 500 Men and Women in a Country Parish the Lands whereof are worth 2000 l. per annum and that the Minister goeth away with 400 l. a year of the said two thousand concludeth that he hath as much for his own particular as any Sixscore of the Parish supposing them to be all poor or all rich alike and then cries out against it as the greatest Cheat and Robbery that was ever practised But the answer unto this is easie I would there were no greater difficulties to perplex the Church First for the Tribe of Levi it is plain and evident that though it pass commonly by the name of a Tribe yet was it none of the twelve Tribes of Israel the House of Joseph being sub-divided into two whole Tribes those namely of Ephraim and Manasses which made up the Twelve And secondly it is as evident that it fell so short of the proportion of the other Tribes as not to make a Sixtieth part of the House of Jacob. For in the general muster which was made of the other Tribes of men of 20 years and upwards such only as were fit for arms and such publick services the number of them came unto 635500 fighting men to which if we should add all those which were under 20 years and unfit for service the number would at least be doubled But the Levites being all reckoned from a month old and above their number was but 22000 in all of which see Numb 1.46 3.39 which came not to so many by 273. as the only First-born of the other Tribes And therefore when the Lord took the Levites for the First-born of Israel the odd 273 were redeemed according to the Law at five Shekels a man and the money which amounted to 1365 Shekels was given to Aaron and his Sons Numb 7.47 48. Which ground so laid according to the holy Scriptures let us next take a view of the English Clergy and allowing but one for every Parish there must be 9725. according to the number of the parish Churches or say ten thousand in the total the residue being made up of Curates officiating in the Chappels of Ease throughout the Kingdom and reckoning in all their Male-children from a month old and upwards the number must be more than trebled For although many of the dignified and beneficed Clergy do lead single lives yet that defect is liberally supplied by such Married Curates as do officiate under them in their several Churches And then as to the disproportion which is said to be between the Clergy and the rest of the people one to five hundred at the least the computation is ill grounded the collection worse For first the computation ought not to be made between the Minister and all the rest of the Parish Men Women and Children Masters and Dames Men-servants and Maid-servants and the Stranger which is within the gates but between him and such whose Estates are Titheable and they in most Parishes are the smallest number For setting by all Children which live under their Parents Servants Apprentices Artificers Day-labourers and Poor indigent people none of all which have any interest in the Tithable Lands The number of the residue will be found so small that probably the Minister may make one of the ten and so possess no more than his own share comes to And then how miserably weak is the Collection which is made from thence that this one man should have as much as any Sixscore of the rest of the Parish supposing that the Parish did contain 500 persons or that his having of so much were a Cheat and Robbery And as for that objection which I find much stood on that the Levites had no other Inheritance but the Tithes and Offerings Numb 18.23 whereas the English Clergy are permitted to purchase Lands and to Inherit such as descend unto them the Answer is so easie it will make it self For let the Tithes enjoyed by the English Clergy descend from them to their Posterity from one Generation to another as did the Tithes and Offerings on the Tribe of Levi And I persuade my self that none of them will be busied about Purchasing Lands or be an eye-sore to the people in having more to live on than their Tithes and Offerings Till that be done excuse them if they do provide for their Wives and Children according to the Laws both of God and Nature And so much for the Parallel in point of maintenance between the Clergy of this Church and the Tribe of Levi. Proceed we next unto the Ministers of the Gospel at the first Plantation during the lives of the Apostles and the times next following and we shall find that though they did not actually receive Tithes of the people yet they still kept on foot their right and in the mean time till they could enjoy them in a peaceable way were so provided for of all kind of necessaries that there was nothing wanting to their contentation First that they kept on foot their Right and thought that Tithes belonged as properly to the Evangelical Priesthood as unto the Legal seems evident unto me by S. Pauls discourse who proves Melchisedechs Priesthood by
regam juxta morem qui colunt honorant regunt uxores fideliter Do autem tibi dotem virginitatis tuae ducentos aureos i.e. 50 siclos quin etiam alimentum tuum vestitum atque sufficientem necessitatem tuam Cornel. Bertram item cognitionem tui juxta consuetudinem universae terrae That is to say Be thou a Wife to me according to the Law of Moses and Israel and I shall worship and honour thee according to the Word of God I shall seed and govern thee according to the custom of those who worship honour and govern their Wives faithfully I give thee for the Dowry of thy Virginity two hundred pence i. e. 50 Shekels as also thy food cloathing and all sufficient necessaries and knowledge of thee according to the custom of the whole earth A Shekel was a piece of money among the Jews amounting in our coyn to 1 s. 3 d. Judg. 14.11 1 Sam. 18.25 Ruth 4.2 Much of which form as to the main and substance of it is exceeding Ancient For in the Marriage of Sampson we find the Children of the Bride-Chamber being the thirty young men his Companions as they are there called in that of David unto Michael the Daughter of Saul the bringing in of an hundred Foreskins of the Philistins in loco dotis as the Dowry-money in that of Ruth the presence of ten men to bear witness to it Nor was this done being a business of such moment without a special Benediction For at the Marriage of Boaz to Ruth the People and the Elders said The Lord make the Woman which is come into thine House like Rachel and like Leah which two did build the House of Israel and do thou worthily in Ephrata and be famous in Bethlehem and let thy House be like the House of Pharez of the Seed which the Lord will give thee of this young Woman Ruth 4.11 12. Upon this ground it was that Marriage was not solemnized amonst them without Prayers and Blessings the form whereof in the ensuing times was this as followeth Benedictus sis Domine Deus noster Rex universi c. Blessed be the Lord our God the King of the World who hath Created Man after his own Image according to the Image of his own likeness and hath thereby prepared unto himself an everlasting building Blessed be thou O Lord God who hast Created him Moses Aaron l. 6. cap. 4. Then followeth again Blessed be thou O Lord our God who hast Created joy and gladness the Bridegroom and the Bride Charity and Brotherly love Rejoycing and Pleasure Peace and Society I beseech thee O Lord let there be suddenly heard in the Cities of Judah and the Streets of Hierusalem the voice of joy and gladness the voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride the voice of exaltation in the Bride-Chamber is sweeter than any Feast and Children sweeter than the sweetness of a song Which Prayer thus ended one of the Bride-men or Companions took a cup having before been blessed in the wonted form and drinks unto the Married-couple As for the form and rites of Burial not to say any thing either of the washing or embalming of the Corps which was common unto them with other Nations Chiristan Synagogue l. 1. cap. 6. sict 8. Paraph. 15. Diat 1. their custom was after the body was interred to speak something of the justice of God and of mans sin which meriteth death and they prayed God in justice to remember mercy This said they gave a Cup of Consolation to the sad-hearted Finally on the grave or Tombstone they caused these words ensuing to be written Sit anima ejus in fasciculo vitae cum caeteris justis Amen Amen Selah That is to say let his soul be in the bundle of life with the rest of the just Amen Amen So be it These as they were the ancient forms and ceremonies used in their Marriages and Burials so after when they had erected Synagogues in convenient places they solemnized their Marriages in a Tent Maymon cited in Fishter's defence cap. 17. set upon four Pillars near their Synagogue which shews that there was something in it wherewith the Priest or Prophet was to intermeddle and that they did esteem it of a nature not so meerly civil but that the blessing of the Minister was required unto it But it is time I now go forward to the Ages following CHAP. III. Of the condition and estate of the Jewish Liturgy from the time of David unto Christ 1. Several hours of prayer used amongst the Jews and that the prayers then used were of prescribed forms 2. The great improvement of the Jewish Liturgie in the time of David by the addition of Psalms and Instruments of Musick 3. The form of Celebrating Gods publick Service according unto Davids Institutions described by the Jewish Rabbins 4. The solemn form used in the dedicating of the first and second Temples 5. The Temple principally built for an House of Prayer 6. The several and accustomed gestures used among the Jews in the performance of Gods publick worship 7. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days not used until the time of Ezra 8. The reading of the Law prescribed and regulated according to the number of the Sections by the care of Ezra and of the 18 Benedictions by him composed 9. The Exposition of the Law prescribed and ordered by the Authority of the Church 10. The first foundation of Synagogues and Oratories and for what employments 11. The Church of Jewry ordained Holy-days and prescribed forms of prayer to be used thereon 12. Set days for publick annual Feasts appointed by the Jewish Church with a set form of prayer agreeable to the occasion 13. The form of Celebrating Gods publick Service according as it is described by Jesus the Son of Syrac 14. Jesus the Son of God conforms himself unto the forms established in the Jewish Church 15. A transition from the forms received in the Jewish Church to those in Vse amongst the Gentiles THE Nation of the Jews being thus setled into an established Church by the hand of Moses and several forms of Prayer and Praise and Benediction prescribed unto them either immediately by the Lord himself or by the Church directed by the wisdom of Almighty God it was not long before that divers other points were added by the like Authority until the Liturgy thereof became full and absolute Of these the first in course of time was the deputing of certain and determinate hours in every day for the performance of those moral duties of Prayer and Praises in which Gods publick worship did consist especially which were the third the sixth and the ninth For clearer knowledge of the which we shall add thus much that the Jews did usually divide their day into four great parts hours of the Temple they were called that is to say the third hour which began at six of the Clock in the Morning and held on
as he makes very ancient Joseph Scaliger de emendat Temp. 1.7 cujus cultus institutio vetustissima est as his own words are grounding the same upon the reading of the Law in the time of Ezra So I conceive their form of worship on the same was no less ancient than those times For whereas Ezra is confessed by those who approve not Liturgies to be the Author of those 18 Benedictions Smectymn Vindicat. p. 26. so much in Use amongst the Jews of the second Temple some of those Benedictions seem to me to be composed for the Meridian of this feast though they might elso serve at other times as occasion was Of which take this as most agreeable to the intention of the festival Cited by H. Thorndike c. 10 of his Religious Assembl Blessed art thou O Lord our God the King of the world that hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and given us command concerning the matters of the Law And sweeten O Lord the words of the Law in our mouths and in the mouth of thy people the house of Israel and make us all and our Children and our Childrens Children knowers of thy Name and learners of thy Law for it self Blessed art thou O Lord which teachest thy people Israel the Law So far the very words of the Benediction a Benediction made by the self same Author who as it is conceived by Scaliger did ordain the Festival The like Authority was exercised by the Jewish Church in Instituting set and appointed Fasts for the chastising of the body and the afflicting of the soul that so Gods worship might go forward with the greater fervour Of these we find some mentioned in the Prophecy of the Prophet Zachary as viz. the Fasts of the fifth and seventh moneth cap. vii v. 5. The Fasts of the fourth and tenth moneths cap. viii v. 19. The several occasions of the which you may see elsewhere Besides which Annual Fasts they used to fast upon the Monday and the Thursday Jejuno his in Sabbato said the Vain-glorious Pharisee in S. Lukes Gospel and many times they did impose upon themselves a seven days Fast the better to profess their sorrow and bewail their sins Luk. 18.12 For which consult 1 Sam. xxxi 13. 1 Chron. x. 12. 2 Esdras v. 13 20. And we have reason to believe that there were certain and determinate forms of publick worship for all the residue because we find them on those last What was the course observed in reading of the Law upon the second and fifth days of the week we have seen before and shall add only this at present that they Assembled in those days in their several Synagogues not only in the greater Towns but the smaller Villages Maimon in Megillah c. 1. n. 6. ap H. Thorndike as the Rabbins tell us But for the seven days Fast the form and order of the same according as it was performed by those which dwelt in Hierusalem was this as followeth When they prayed after this order in Hierusalem they went into the Mountain of the Temple against the East gate And when the Apostle of the Congregation the same who in S. Luke is called the Minister cap. iv 20. was come unto the prayer which began with this He that heard Abraham c. and ended with these words viz. Blessed be thou O Lord God our God the God of Israel from generation to generation The People answered Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom to all generations and for evermore Then said the Officer of the Synagogue unto the Priests which blew the Trumpets Sound ye the Sons of Aaron sound and then prayed again And though it seemeth by the Rabbin Id. in Tanaioth c. 4. n. 14. cited by Mr. Thorndike cap. of his Religious Assemblies c. that this prescribed form was fitted only to the Meridian of Hierusalem yet there is little question to be made but that it served also for all the Synagogues about Judaea there being no imaginable reason why a prescript form of publick worship conceive me in the moral parts thereof which was observed in the Temple should not be used in the Synagogues which in performance of Gods service was to take pattern from the Temple Only some difference there was in the present case but such a difference as is a matter of meer nicety not of any moment For when this form was used in the Synagogue the People answered Amen at the end of the Prayer But when they used it in the Mountain of the Temple that is within the outmost compass of it their Answer was Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom c. as before was said it being not usual with the People as the Rabbins note cited ibid. c. 7. to answer Amen within the Mountain of the Temple So punctual were they in their forms as not to vary in a word or title from that which was prescribed in their publick Liturgies And finally that they had a prescribed form of words for their solemn and occasional Feasts is evident by that of Abel cap. ii 17. where the words occur But to look back upon the Celebration of the daily Sacrifices besides the testimonies of the Rabbins and that of the Samaritan Chronicle produced before we have it thus described by Jesus the Son of Syrac an Author of unquestionable credit to the point in hand Speaking of Simon the Son of Onias who was the High Priest at the time and his officiating at the Altar he proceeds as followeth Ecclus. 50.14 And finishing the Service at the Altar that he might adorn the Offering of the most high Almighty he stretched out his hand to the Cup wherewith the Drink-offering was to be made and poured of the blood of the Grape he poured out at the foot of the Altar a sweet smelling savour unto the most high King of all Then shouted the Sons of Aaron and sounded the silver Trumpets and made a great noise to be heard for a remembrance before the most High Then all the People hasted together and fell down to the Earth upon their faces towards the Lord God Almighty the most High The Singers also sung praises with their voices with great variety of sounds was there made sweet melody And the People besought the Lord most High by prayer before him that is merciful till the Solemnity of the Lord was ended and they had finished his Service Then went he down and lifted up his hands over the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips and to rejoyce in his Name And they bowed themselves down to worship the second time that they might receive a blessing from the most High So far the Author of Ecclesiasticus who lived in the latter end of Ptolemy Euergetes King of Egypt as himself tells us in his Preface Now in these words of his if we mark them well we find particularly all the parts
Congregation are now more sensibly apparent than ever formerly Other absurdities or inconveniences in this kind I could produce but that these few may serve as a taste for the rest and I am loath to go beyond the compass of a Letter although I cannot but be fearful that I have passed the bounds thereof already However I was willing rather to trespass somewhat on good manners than to be wanting in the least degree to your desire Beseeching you as favourably to accept those Considerations as they are chearfully and faithfully digested by me in obedience to the intimation of your Lordships pleasure which in all matters tending to the Churches service carrieth the force of a Command upon all the studies and endeavours of MY LORD Your Lordships most Humble Servant THE UNDECEIVING OF THE PEOPLE In the point of TITHES Wherein is shewed I. That never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England II. That there is no Subject in the Realm of England who giveth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish-Minister but his Easter-Offering III. That the change of Tithes into Stipends will bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended By PETER HEYLYN D. D. 1 COR. IX 7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges Who planteth a Vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flocks LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER THE Lands of Bishops and Cathedrals being put to sale there remaineth nothing to support a sinking Ministry but Parochial Tithes and upon these the eyes of Avarice and Rapine were so strongly fixt that all endeavours to preserve them were almost grown desperate The Horseleach and her Daughters in the book of Proverbs are always on the craving hand nothing but Give Give to be heard amongst them Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo in the Poets lauguage When they have once tasted the sweets of blood they never lose their hold till full and when full not satisfied The Prey when brought within the view must be hunted close And to this end the Anabaptists on the one side and the Adjutators on the other so bestirred themselves that Petitions against Tithes were hammered in all parts of the Kingdom the Parliament continually vexed with their importunities the vulgar Landholders fool'd into an opinion that they should have those Tithes themselves which before they paid unto the Clergy the common Tradesman and Artificer which had none to pay opening as wide as any of the rest to make up the Cry In this Conjuncture of Affairs Anno 1648. I published a short and plain Discourse entituled The Undeceiving of the People in the point of Tithes under the name of Ph. Treleinie the letters of my own name being transposed into that in the way of Anagram For though I was then sequestred from my Church-preferments in a condition rather of paying than receiving Tithes and consequently could have no Self-ends in it as the case then stood yet I was fearful lest the work of avowed for mine should be neglected as the product of corrupted Interests of one that wholly advocated for his own concernments What benefit redounded by it unto some what satisfaction unto others I had rather thou shouldst hear elsewhere than expect from me All I shall add now is but this that I hope it will not be less profitable unto them that read it nor read by any with more prejudice and disaffection now I acknowledg it for my own than when it came before them in a borrowed name and so fare thee well The Undeceiving of the People In the Point of TITHES AMongst those popular deceits which have been set abroad of late to abuse the people there is not any one which hath been cherished with more endearments than a persuasion put into them of not paying Tithes Partly because it carrieth no small shew of profit with it but principally as it seems a conducible means to make the Clergy more obnoxious to them and to stand more at their devotion than they have done formerly Upon these hopes it hath been the endeavours of some leading men to represent it to the rest as a Publick grievane that the Clergy being but an handful of men in comparison of all the rest of the Kingdom should go away with the tenth or as some say the sixth part of the fruits of the earth and that the Minister sitting still in his contemplations should live upon the sweat of other mens brows and taking pains amongst the people but one day in seven should have the tenth part of their Estates allotted to them for their maintenance And 't is no marvail if some few on these mis-persuasions have importuned the High Court of Parliament from time to time with troublesome and clamorous Petitions to redress this wrong and put them up also in the name of whole Counties although the generality of those Counties had no hand therein to add the greater credit and authority to them In which design although they have prevailed no further on the two Houses of Parliament than to be sent away with this general promise As in the answer to those those of Hartford Kent c. That in due time their Petitions should be taken into consideration and that it was the pleasure of the several and respective Houses that in the mean season they should take care that Tithes be duly paid accordin to Law yet they which have espoused the quarrel will not so be satisfied For when it pleased the Lords and Commons to set out an Ordinance bearing date Novemb. 8. 1644. for the true payment of Tithes and other duties according to the Laws and customs of this Realm there came out presently a Pamphlet entituled The Dismounting of the Ordinance for Tithes followed and backed by many a scandalous Paper of the self-same strain And when it seemed good to the said Lords and Commons on the precipitancy of some of the Clergy under Sequestration to set out their Additional Ordinance of the ninth of August Anno 1647. it was encountred presently with a scurrilous Pamphlet entituled A Preparation for a day of Thanksgiving to the Parliament for their late Ordinance for Tithes newly mounted and well charged with treble damages for the people 's not giving the Tenth part of their Fstates to the Clergy or Impropriators And this according to the style of those Petitions is said to be the Result of the Parliaments Friends in Hartfordshire though I am verily persuaded that few if any of the Gentry and men of quality in the Country were acquainted with it But be it the result of few or many of the Parliaments Friends though I conceive they are but back-friends to the
day that now they will not be persuaded that it is a Dream For the awakening of the which and their reduction to more sound and sensible Counsels next to my duty to Gods Church and your Sacred Majesty have I applied my self to compose this Story wherein I doubt not but to shew them how much they have deceived both themselves and others in making the old Jewish Sabbath of equal age and observation with the Law of Nature and preaching their new Sabbath-Doctrines in the Church of Christ with which the Church hath no acquaintance wherein I doubt not but to shew them that by their obstinate resolution not to make Publication of your Majesties pleasure they tacitely condemn not only all the Fathers of the Primitive times the Learned Writers of all Ages many most godly Kings and Princes of the former days and not few Councils of chief note and of faith unquestionable but even all states of Men Nations and Churches at this present whom they most esteem This makes your Majesties interest so particular in this present History that were I not obliged unto your Majesty in any nearer bond than that of every common Subject it could not be devoted unto any other with so just propriety But being it is the work of your Majesties Servant and in part fashioned at those times which by your Majesties leave were borrowed from Attendance on your Sacred Person your Majesty hath also all the rights unto it of a Lord and Master Institut l. 1. tit 8. §. 1. So that according to that Maxim of the Civil Laws Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquirit suo your Majesty hath as absolute power to dispose thereof as of the Author who is Dread Soveraign Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and most faithful Servant PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE To them who being themselves mistaken have misguided others in these new Doctrines of the Sabbath NOT out of any humour or desire of being in action or that I love to have my hands in any of those publick quarrels wherewith our peace hath been disturbed but that Posterity might not say we have been wanting for our parts to your information and the direction of Gods People in the ways of truth have I adventured on this Story A Story which shall represent unto you the constant practice of Gods Church in the present business from the Creation to these days that so you may the better see how you are gone astray from the paths of Truth and tendries of Antiquity and from the present judgment of all Men and Churches The Arguments whereto you trust and upon seeming strength whereof you have been emboldned to press these Sabbatarian Doctrins upon the Consciences of poor people I purpose not to meddle with in this Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have been elsewhere throughly canvassed and all those seeming strengths beat down by which you were your selves misguided and by the which you have since wrought on the affections of unlearned men or such at least that judged not of them by their weight but by their numbers But where you give it out as in matter of fact how that the Sabbath was ordained by God in Paradise and kept accordingly by all the Patriarchs before Moses time or otherwise ingraft by Nature in the soul of man and so in use also amongst the Gentiles In that I have adventured to let men see that you are very much mistaken and tell us things directly contrary unto truth of Story Next where it is the ground-work of all your building that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral Natural and Perpetual as punctually to be observed as any other of the first or second Table I doubt not but it will appear by this following History that it was never so esteemed of by the Jews themselves no not when as the observation of the same was most severely pressed upon them by the Law and Prophets nor when the day was made most burdensome unto them by the Scribes and Pharisees Lastly whereas you make the Lords day to be an institution of our Saviour Christ confirmed by the continual usage of the holy Apostles and both by him and them imposed as a perpetual Ordinance on the Christian Church making your selves believe that so it was observed in the times before as you have taught us to observe it in these latter days I have made manifest to the world that there is no such matter to be found at all either in any writings of the Apostles or monument of true Antiquity or in the practice of the middle or the present Churches What said I of the present Churches So I said indeed and doubt not but it will appear so in this following Story The present Churches all of them both Greek and Latin together with the Protestants of what name soever being far different both in their Doctrine and their practice from these new conceptions And here I cannot chuse but note that whereas those who first did set on foot these Doctrines in all their other practices to subvert this Church did bear themselves continually on the Authority of Calvin and the example of those Churches which came most near unto the Plat-form of Geneva In these their Sabbath-speculations they had not only none to follow but they found Calvin and Geneva and those other Churches directly contrary unto them However in all other matters they cryed up Calvin and his Writings Hooker in his Preface making his Books the very Canon to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be confirmed yet hic magister non tenetur here by his leave they would forsake him and leave him fairly to himself that they themselves might have the glory of a new invention For you my Brethren and beloved in our Lord and Saviour as I do willingly believe that you have entertain'd these Tenets upon mis-persuasion not out of any ill intentions to the Church your Mother and that it is an errour in your judgments only not of your affections So upon that belief have I spared no pains as much as in me is to remove that errour and rectifie what is amiss in your opinion I hope you are not of those men Quos non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris who either hate to be reformed or have so far espoused a quarrel that neither truth nor reason can divorce them from it Nor would I gladly you should be of their resolutions Qui volunt id verum esse quod credunt nolunt id credere quod verum est who are more apt to think all true which themselves believe than be persuaded to believe such things as are true indeed In confidence whereof as I was first induced to compose this History so in continuance of those hopes I have presumed to address it to you to tender it to your perusal and to submit it to your censure That if you are not better furnished you may learn from hence that you have trusted
times the Kings did graciously vouchsafe to pass the whole Bill in that Form which the Houses gave it or to reject it wholly as they saw occasion yet still the Privy Council and the Judges and the Council learned in the Laws have and enjoy their place in the House of Peers as well for preservation of the Kings Rights and Royalties as for direction to the Lords in a point of Law if any case of difficulty be brought before them on which occasions the Lords are to demand the Opinion of the Judges and upon their Opinions to ground their Judgment As for Example In the Parliament 28 of Hen. VI. The Commons made suit that William de la Pole Duke of Suffolk should be committed to Prison for many Treasons and other Crimes and thereupon the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges 28 Hen. 6. whether he should be committed to Prison or not whose Answer was that he ought not to be committed in regard the Commons had not charged him with any particular offence but with generals only which Opinion was allowed and followed In another Parliament of the said King held by Prorogation one Thomas Thorpe the Speaker of the House of Cemmons was in the Prorogation-time condemned in 1000 l. damages upon an Action of Trespass at the suit of Richard Duke of York and was committed to Prison for execution of the same The Parliament being reassembled the Commons made suit to the King and Lords to have their Speaker delivered to them according to the Privilege of Parliaments The priviled of the Barons p. 15. the Lords demanded the Opinion of the Judges in it and upon their Answer did conclude that the Speaker should stilll remain in Prison according to Law notwithstanding the privilege of Parliament and according to this resolution the Commons were commanded in the Kings name to chuse one Tho. Carleton for their Speaker which was done accordingly Other Examples of this kind are exceeding obvious and for numbers infinite yet neither more in number nor more obvious than those of our Kings serving their turns by and upon their Parliaments as their occasions did require For not to look on higher and more Regal times we find that Richard the 2d a Prince not very acceptable to the Common people could get an Act of Parliament 21 Ric. 2. to confirm the extrajudicial Opinion of the Judges given before at Notingham that King Henry IV. could by another Act reverse all that Parliament entail the Crown to his posterity 1 Hen. 4. and keep his Dutchy of Laneaster and all the Lands and Scigneuries of it from being united to the Crown that King Edward the 4th could have a Parliament to declare all the Kings of the House of Lancaster to be Kings in Fact but not in Right 1 Ed. c. 1. and for uniting of that Dutchy to the Crown Imperial notwithstanding the former Act of separation that King Richard the 3d could have a Parliament to bastardize all his Brothers Children Speeds Hist in K. Richard 3. Verulams Hist of K. Hen. 7. 11 Hen. 7. c. 10. to set the Crown on his own Head though a most bloody Tyrant and a plain Usurper that K. Henry VII could have the Crown entailed by an Act of Parliament to the issue of his own body without relation to his Queen of the House of York which was conceived by many at that time to have the better Title to it another for paying a Benevolence which he had required of the Subject though all Benevolences had been damned by a former Statute made in the short but bloudy reign of King Richard the 3d that King Henry VIII could have one Act of Parliament to bastardry his Daughter Mary in favour of the Lady Elizabeth 65 Hen. 8. c. 22 28. c. 7. 35 H. 8. c. 1. another to declare the Lady Elizabeth to be illegitimate in expectation of the issue by Queen Jane Seymour a third for setling the succession by his Will and Testament and what else he pleased that Queen Mary could not only obtain several Acts in favour of her self and the See of Rome but for the setling of the Regency on the King of Spain 1 Mar. ses 2. c. 1 2. 1. 2 Ph. M. c. 8.10 in case the Children of that Bed should be left in non-age And finally that Queen Elizabeth did not only gain many several Acts for the security of her own Person which were determinable with her life but could procure an Act to be passed in Parliament for making it high Treason to affirm and say That the Queen could not by Act of Parliament bind and dispose the Rights and Titles which any person whatsoever might have to the Crown 13 Eliz. c. 1. And as for raising moneys and amassing Treasures by help of Parliaments he that desires to know how well our Kings have served themselves that way by the help of Parliaments let him peruse a book entituled the Privilege of Parliaments writ in the manner of Dialogue between a Privy Counsellor and a Justice of Peace and he shall be satisfied to the full Put all that hath been said together and sure the Kingdom of England must not be the place in which the three Estates convened in Parliament have power to regulate the King or restrain his actions or moderate his extravagances or where they can be taxed for persidious treachery of they connive at Kings when they play the Tyrants or wantonly insult on the Common-people or otherwise abuse that power which the Lord hath given them Calvin was much mistaken if he thought the contrary or if he dreamt that he should be believ'd on his ipse dixit without a punctual enquiry into the grounds and probability of such a dangerous intimation as he lays before us But against this it is objected that Parliaments have disposed of the Militia of the Kingdom of the Forts Castles Ports and the Navy Royal not only without the Kings leave but against his liking that they have deposed some Kings and advanced others to the top of the Regal Throne And for the proof of this they produce Examples out of the Reign of King Henry III. Edw. II. and King Richard the second Examples which if rightly pondered do not so much prove the Power as the Weakness of Parliaments in being carried up and down by the private conduct of every popular pretender For 't is well known that the Parliaments did not take upon them to rule or rather to over-look K. Henry III. but as they were directed by Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester who having raised a potent faction in the State by the assistance of the Earls of Glocester Matth. Paris Henr. 3. Hereford Derby and some others of the great Lords of the Kingdom compelled the King to yield unto what terms he pleased and made the Parliaments no other than a means and instrument to put a popular gloss on his wretched purposes And
themselves Against this History Dr. Hackwel appeared in Print of which the King hearing sent for Mr. Heylyn commanding him to consider the Arguments of his Antagonist and withal sent him to Windsor to search the Records of the Order This occasioned a second Edition of the History wherein were answered all Dr. Hackwels Arguments and Allegations to which there was never made a reply but on the contrary in his Book about the supposed Decay of Nature a Retractation of the passages relating to S. George About this time he had a presentation given him by one Mr. Bridges to the Parsonage of Meysie-Hampton in the Diocess of Glocester unto the Bishop whereof he made his Application but found him already preingaged to further the pretended Title of Corpus Christi Coll. in Oxon. However his Lordship promised not to give Institution to any person till the title was cleared and therefore advised Mr. Heylyn to leave his presentation with him and to enter a Caveat in his Court But he who was false to God and his Mother-church could never be faithful to the engagements which he made to Man The one he deserted by turning Papist being the only Bishop of the English Hierarchy that renounced a persecuted Church to embrace the Idolatries and Errors of the Roman Communion And the other he violated by giving one Mr. Jackson who came from C.C.C. Institution so soon as ever he requested it which occasioned a tedious suit at Law after Neither was this the only disappointment he met with in the way of his Preferment For not long after Preaching at Court in his second Attendance his Majesty express'd a very high opinion of him to many noble Lords about him and in a few months after gave him a Presentation to the Rectory of Hemingford in the County of Huntingdon But this also missed of the desired effect which his Majesties bounty designed and Mr. Heylyns necessity after a long suit of Law for the other Living required For the Bishop of Lincoln unto whom he made Application with his Presentation would not allow the King to have any title to the Living so he was constrained to return back to London re infecta The Bishop was much offended that a young Divine should have so great knowledge in Law which was the beginning of all the following Differences between them for Mr. Heylyn made good the Kings Right upon the passages of the conveyances of the other party His Majesty presently understood the entertainment he met with at Bugden and sent him this gracious Message That he was sorry he had put him to so much charge and trouble but it should not be long before he would be out of his debt And he soon performed his Royal promise for within a week after he bestowed upon him a Prebendship of Westminster void by the death of Mr. Danel to the extream vexation of his Lordship who was then Dean of the same Church And that which added to the honour of this preferment was not only his being initiated the very same day into the acquaintance and friendship with the Attorney-General Mr. Noye but the gracious Message that came along with the Royal gift viz. That he bestowed that Prebendship on him to bear the charges of his last Journey but still he was in debt for the Living Being possessed of this Preferment the first honourable Visit that he received in his new Habitation was from the Learned Lord Falkland who brought along with him one Capt. Nelson that pretended to find out a way for the discovery of the Longitude of the Sea the Captain had imparted his design to many learned Mathematicians who by no means could approve of or subscribe to his demonstrations But the King refer'd him to Mr. Heylyn who told that noble Lord That his Majesty was mistaken in him his skill and knowledge lying more in the Historical than the Philosophical part of Geography yet notwithstanding he gave a full account thereof in writing according to the best of his judgment which is too long to set down here His mind being intent rather upon useful than notional Learning therefore about this time he began with great diligence to read over the Statute Laws of the Nation and to compare them with the time and circumstances that occurr'd in story which he carefully perused the better to inable himself for his Majesties Service who then had the Small-pox appearing on him but he soon recovered from that distemper Mr. Heylyn to testifie his joy turn'd Poet making a Copy of English Verses which one of his Friends presented to the King and they were so well lik'd that both their Majesties gave him the honour of their thanks But his Majesty found employment rather for the judgment than fancy of the Chaplain and therefore upon Jan. 27. 1632. sent for him to the Council Table where he received his Royal commands to read over that Book of Mr. Pryns called Histriomastix and to collect thence all such passages as were scandalous or dangerous to the King or State and to reduce them into method The Book was delivered to him and a fortnights time assigned him to perform that Task imposed But he had learned from the wisest of men that diligence in business and a quick dispatch of it would qualifie him for the service of Kings and not mean Persons And therefore he finished what was expected from him and carried it to the Secretary of State in less than four days for which he had his Majesties thanks as also new commands to revise his Papers and to write down such Logical Inferences as might naturally arise from the premises of Mr. Pryn About this time and upon this occasion he wrote a small Tract touching the punishments due by Law and in point of practice unto such offenders as Mr. Pryn. And this was observable in the tryal of that Person that nothing was urged by the Council to aggravate his faults than what was contained in Mr. Heylyns Collections For the reward of which and other good services that with wonderful prudence as well as diligence he faithfully performed His Majesty was graciously pleased to requite him by bestowing on him the Parsonage of Houghton in the Bishoprick of Durham worth near 400 l. per annum which afterward he exchanged with Dr. Marshal for the Parsonage of Alresford in Hampshire that was about the same value to which exchange he was commanded by his Majesty that he might live nearer the Court for readiness to do his Majesties Service Neither was he envied for this or his other Preferments because every one knew his merits the only cause of his promotion Into this Living he was no sooner Instituted and Inducted but he took care for the Service of God to be constantly performed by reading the Common Prayers in his Church every Morning that gave great satisfaction to the Parish being a populous Market Town and for the Communion Table where the blessed Sacrament is Consecrated he ordered that it should
Examination of the mistakes falsities and defects in some modern Histories Lond. 1659. Certamen Epistolare or the Letter-Combat managed with Mr. Baxter Dr. Bernard Mr. Hickman 8. Lond. 1659. Historia Quinqu-Articularis 4. Lond. 1660. Respondet Petrus or the Answer of Peter Heylyn D. D. to Dr. Bernards book entituled The Judgment of the late Primate c. Lond. 4. 1658. Observations on Mr. Hammond L' Estranges History of the Life of King Charles I. 1658. Extraneus Vapulans or a Defence of those Observations Lond. 1658. A short History of King Charles the First from his Cradle to his Grave 1658. Thirteen Sermons some of which are an Exposition of the Parable of the Tares printed at London 1659 and again 1661. A help to English History containing a succession of all the Kings Dukes Marquesses Earls Bishops c. of England and Wales first written in the Year 1641 under the name of Robert Hall but now enlarged and in Dr. Heylyns name Ecclesia Vindicata or the Church of England Justified c. 4. 1657. Bibliotheca Regia or the Royal Library 8. Ecclesia Restaurata or the History of the Reformation Fol. Lond. 1661. Cyprianus Anglicus or the History of the Life and Death of William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Fol. Aerius Redivivus or the History of the Presbyterians Fol. ECCLESIA VINDICATA OR THE Church of England JUSTIFIED I. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation II. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy III. In prescribing a Set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons IV. In her Right and Patrimony of Tithes V. In retaining the Episcopal Government And therewith VI. The Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons By PETER HEYLIN D. D. PSAL. CXXXVI 6 7. Si oblitus fuero tui O Jerusalem oblivioni detur dextra med Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis si non proposuero tui in principio laetitiae meae LONDON Printed by M. Clark for C. Harper 1681. A General Preface TO THE READER CONCERNING The Design and Method of the following WORK 1. The Authors Address to those of the same persuasion with him 2. As also to those of different Opinion 3. His humble application to all such as be in Authority 4. Persecution a true note of the Church verified in the Jews the primitive Christians and the Church of England 5. The several Quarrels of the Genevians and Papists against the way and manner of our Reformation 6. The Authors Method and Design in answering the Clamors and Objections of either party 7. The first Quarrels against the Liturgies of King Edward the sixth and the grounds thereof 8. The Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth approved by the Pope subscribed by the Scots and the Church frequented by the Papists for the first ten years of that Queens reign 9. The Puritans and Papists separate from the Church at the same time and the hot pursuance of this Quarrel by the Puritan party 10. The Quarrel after some repose revived by the Smectymnuans and their actings in it 11. The Author undertakes the Defence of Liturgies as also the Times and Places of Publick Worship against all Opponents unto each 12. The Prayer prescribed to be used by Preachers before their Sermons the reasons why it was prescribed and the Church justified for so doing in a Brief Discourse upon that subject of the Authors making 13. An Answer to the Objection touching the free exercise of the Gift of Prayer 14. Set Forms of Prayer condemned in Churches by the Devisers of the Directory and prescribed for Ships 15. The Liturgy cryed down by the Lay-Brethren in Order to the taking away of Tithes 16. The same Design renewed by some late Projectors the Author undertakes against them and his Reasons for it 17. The first Bishops of Queen Elizabeths time quarrelled by the Papists and the grounds thereof 18. Covetousness and Ambition in the Presbyterians the two main grounds of their Pursuit against Episcopacy 19. Set on by Calvin and Beza they break out into action their violent proceedings in it and cessation from it 20. The Quarrel reassumed by the Smectymnuans outwitted in the close thereof by the Lay-Brethren without obtaining their own ends in advancing Presbytery 21. The Author undertakes against Smectymnuus and proves Episcopacy to be agreeable to all Forms of Civil Government 22. His History of Episcopacy grounded on the Authority of the Ancient Fathers and what the Reader is desired in Relation to them 23. Ordination by the Imposition of Hands generally in use in all Churches and how the Ordinance of March 20. 1653. is to be understood as to that particular 24. No Ordination lawful but by Bishops and what the Author hath done in it 25. The close of all and the submission of the whole to the Readers judgment READER of what persuasion or condition soever thou art I here present and submit unto thee these ensuing Tracts If thou art of the same persuasion and opinion with me I doubt not but thou wilt interpret favourably of my Undertakings and find much comfort in thy Soul for thy Adhesion to a Church so rightly constituted so warrantably reformed so punctually modelled by the pattern of the purest and most happy times of Christianity A Church which for her Power and Polity her sacred Offices and Administrations hath not alone the grounds of Scripture the testimony of Antiquity and consent of Fathers but as good countenance and support as the Established Laws of the Land could give her which Laws if they be still in force as they seem to be thy sufferings for adhering to the Church in her Forms and Government may not improperly be said to have faln upon thee for thy obedience and conformity to the Laws themselves Smectym Answ 85. For though it may be supposed with the Smectymnians the Author of The True Cavalier c. and some other of our modern Politicks that Government and Forms of Worship are but matters of humane appointment and being such may lawfully abrogated by the same Authority by which at first they were Established yet then it must be still by the same Authority and not by any other which is less sufficient for that end and purpose And I presume it will not be affirmed by any that an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons occasionally made and fitted for some present exigent is of as good authority as an Act of Parliament made by the King with the consent and approbation of the three Estates in due form of Law Or if it be I would then very fain know the reason why the Ordinance of the third of January Anno 1644. should be in force as to the taking away of the Book of Common Prayer and yet be absolutely void or of no effect as to the establishing and imposing of the Directory thereby authorized which bears an equal share in the title of it or why the Ordinance of the ninth of October Anno 1646. for abolishing Arch-bishops and Bishops should be still in
them which is the moral part thereof A thing which God might please to leave unto the wisdom of his Church and the Rulers of it in that being moral duties and so by consequence imprinted in the minds of men by the stamp of nature there needed not so punctual and precise a prescription of them as of the outward ceremonies which were meerly legal Now that there were set forms of Prayers and Praises used in the celebratien of these legal Sacrifices even from the very times of Moses appeareth by a memorable passage in an old Samaritan Chronicle belonging once unto the Library of Joseph Scaliger now in the custody of the Learned Primate of Armagh In which Book after relation of the death of Adrian the Emperour whom the Jews curse with Conterat Deus ossa ejus as certainly he was a deadly enemy of theirs it followeth thus Quo tempore abstulit librum optimum qui penes illos fuit Clted by the L. B. of Exeter now B. of Norwich in his Answer to the Vindication jam inde à diebus illis tranquillis pacificis qui continebat cantiones preces sacrificiis praemissas Singulis enim Sacrificiis singulas praemiserunt cantiones jam tum diebus pacis usitatas quae omnia acourato conscripta in singulas transmissa subsequentes generationes à tempore Legati Mosis sc ad hunc usque diem per ministerium Pontificum Maximorum These are the words at large as I find them cited the substance of the which is this That after the decease of Adrian the High Priest then being took away that most excellent Book which had been kept amongst them ever since the calm and peaceable times of the Israelites which contained those Songs and Prayers which were ever used before their Sacrifices there being before every several Sacrifice some several Song or Hymn still used in those times of peace all which being accurately written had been transmitted to the subsequent generations from the time of Moses the Legat or Ambassador of God to that very time by the Ministry of the High Priests of the Jewish Nation A book to which the Chronicle aforesaid gives this ample testimony Eo libro historia nulla praeter Pentateuchum Mosis antiquior invenitur that there was not to be found a more antient piece except the Pentateuch of Moses And though some men no friends to Liturgy out of a mind and purpose to disgrace the evidence have told us that the most contained in the aforesaid book Smectymn Vindicat. p. 24. were only divine Hymns wherein there was always something of Prayer In saying so they have given up their verdict for us and confirmed our evidence For if there were set Hymns or Songs premised before every Sacrifice and if that every Hymn had somewhat in it of a Prayer there must be then set forms of Hymns and Prayers used at every Sacrifice which was the matter to be proved and by them denied But to descend unto particulars there was a Song composed and sung by Moses Exod. 15. on the defeat of Pharoah and the host of Egypt which is still extant in Gods book A song sung Quire-wise as it seemeth Moses as Chanter in that holy Anthem singing verse by verse and Mary the Prophetess Aaron's Sister and all the residue of the Women with Instruments of Musick in their hands saying or singing at each verses end CANTATE DOMINO Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the Sea vers 21. Aynsworth doth so conceive it in his Notes on Exodus and Lyra on the place differs little from it Egressae sunt mulieres quibus Maria praecinebat sec quod oportebat fieri aliae respondebant sicut solet fieri in tympanis choris eodem modo fecit Moyses respecu virorum Cajetan though he differ from them both in the manner of it yet he agrees upon the matter that this Hymn or Anthem was sung Quire-wise or alternatim it being his opinion that the Women singing some spiritual song to the praise of God Cajetan in Exod. c. 15.21 Mary to every verse made answer CANTATE DOMINO Innuitur saith he quod tot choris mulierum tanquam ex una parte canentibus aliquid in divinam laudem Maria sola tanquam ex altera parte canebat initium supra scripti Cantici that viz. which was sung by Moses But whatsoever manner there was used in the singing of it it seems the Jews did afterwards make Use thereof in their publick Liturgy For thus saith Hooker in his Book of Ecclesiastical Polity Hook Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. n. 26. That very Hymn of Moses whereof now we speak grew afterwards to be a part of the ordinary Jewish Liturgie and not that only but sundry others since invented their Books of Common prayer containing partly Hymns taken out of the holy Scriptures partly Thanksgivings Benedictions and Supplications penned by such as were from time to time the Governors of that Synagogue All which were sorted into several times and places some to begin the Service of God withal and some to end some to go before and some to follow after and some to be interlaced between the divine readings of the Law and Prophets Nor is there any thing more probable than that unto their custom of finishing the Passeover with certain Psalms the holy Evangelist doth evidently allude saying That after the Cup delivered by our Saviour unto his Apostles they sung and so went forth to the Mount of Olives What ground that eminent and learned man had for the first part of his Assertion viz That the song of Moses grew afterwards to be a part of the Jewish Liturgy although he hath not pleased to let us know yet I am confident he had good ground for what he said But for the latter part thereof that the Evangelist doth allude unto certain Psalms used at the finishing of the Jewish Passeover I think there is not any thing more clear and evident For proof whereof and that we may the better see with what set form of Prayers and Praises the Passeover was celebrated by the Jews of old Joseph Scalig. de emend Temp. 1.6 we will make bold to use the words of Joseph Scaliger who describes it thus All things being readily prepared and the guests assembled Offam azymam in Embamma intingebat Paterfamilias c. The Father of the Family or Master of the House dipped the unleavened bread into the sawce which was forthwith eaten Another part thereof being carefully reserved under a napkin was broke into as many pieces as there were several guests in the Paschal Chamber each piece being of the bigness of an Olive and each delivered severally to the guests as they sate in order That done he takes the Cup and having drank thereof gives it to the next he to a second and so in order to the rest till they all had
is in respect that the Lord passed over the Houses of our Fathers in Egypt Then holdeth be up the bitter herbs in his hand and saith These bitter herbs which we eat are in respect that the Egyptians made the lives of our Fathers bitter in Egypt Then he holdeth up the unleavened bread in his hand and saith This unleavened bread which we eat is in respect that the dough of our Fathers had not time to be leavened when the Lord appeared unto them and redeemed them out of the hand of the Enemy and they baked unleavened Cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt Then be saith Therefore are we bound to Confess to Praise to Laud to Celebrate to Glorifie to Honour to Extol to Magnifie and to Ascribe Victory unto him that did unfreedom from sorrow to joy from darkness to great light and we say before him Hallelujah Hallelujab Praise O ye Servants of the Lord c. unto the end of the cxiv Psalm Then they bless the Lord which redeemed them and their Fathers out of Egypt and hath brought them unto that night to eat unleavened bread therein and bitter herbs And he blesseth God who Created the fruit of the Vine and drinketh the second Cup. After this he blesseth for the washing of hands and washeth his hands the second time and taketh two Cakes parteth one of them c. and blesseth God that bringeth bread out of the Earth Because it is said the Bread of Affliction or of Poverty Deut. xvi 3. As it is the manner of the Poor to have broken meat so here is a broken part Afterwards he wrappeth up of the unleavened bread and of the bitter herbs together and dippeth them in the sawce and blesseth God which commanded to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs and they eat Then he blesseth God which commanded the eating of the Sacrifice and he eateth the flesh of the Feast-offering and again blesseth God which commanded the eating of the Passeover and then he eateth of the body of the Passeover After this they sit long at Supper and eat every one so much as he will and drink as much as they will drink Afterward he eateth of the flesh of the Passeover though it be but so much as an Olive and tasteth nothing at all after it that it may be the end of his supper and that the taste of the flesh of the Passeover may remain in his mouth After this he lifteth up his bands and blesseth for the third cup of Wine and drinketh it Then filleth he the fourth cup and accomplisheth for it the Praise or hymn and saith for it the blessing of the song which is All thy works praise thee O Lord c. Psal cxlv 10. and blesseth God that Created the fruit of the Vine and tasteth nothing at all after it all the night except water And he may fill the fifth cup saying for it is the great Hymn viz. Confess ye to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal cxxxvi unto the end of that Psalm But he is not bound they say to that cup as to the four farmer cups For this he citeth Rabbi Maymoni and after addeth from the said Author but from another work of his That at the breaking and delivering of the unleavened bread they do use these words This is the Bread of Affliction which our Fathers did eat in the Land of Egypt Whosoever is hungry let him come and eat whosoever hath need let him come and keep the Passeover c. Compare the words which follow after viz. These observations of the Jews whilst their Common-wealth stood c. with those of Beza formerly remembred à primo in Chananitidem ingressu and then we have an Answer to the doubt which might be raised from the first words of Aynsworth in these observations which seem to intimate that this Order was not used by the Jews till the Ages following The Prayers the Praises and the Benedictions which are the points which Beza speaks of might be and were used by them at their first entrance on the Land of Canaan their frequent washings and reiterating of the Cup so often might not be introduced till the Ages following Here then we have set forms of Prayer and Praise and Benediction used at the Celebrating of the Jewish Sacrifices the Song of Moses made a part of the Jewish Liturgy the several rites and prescribed duties observed in the solemnity of the Jewish Passover and all of very great Antiquity even from the time of Moses saith the old Samaritan Chronicle à primo in Chananitidemingressu from their first entrance into the Promised Land as it is in Beza And for the instituting of these forms besides the power that God hath given unto his Church on the like occasions they had the president and example of the Lord himself who had prescribed in one kind binding the Priests unto a certain form of Benediction when he blessed the people and in a second place of Moses who had tied himself unto a certain form of words as often as he setled or removed the Ark. For we are told in holy Scripture that whensoever the Ark set forwards Moses said Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies he scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when it rested he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Numb 10.35 And for the blessing of the people we find the form thereof prescribed by the Lord himself saying unto Aaron and his Sons On this wise shall ye bless the Children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace Numb 10.23 24 25 26. And to this form the Priests were so precifely tied that they durst not vary from the same the Hebrew Doctors understanding the word thus or in this wise to imply both the matter and the manner as viz. Thus shall ye bless i.e. standing thus with the lifting up of hands thus in the holy tongue thus with your faces towards the faces of the people thus with an high voice thus by Gods expressed Name JEHOVAH if ye bless in the Sanctuary So that it was not lawful to the Priest in any place to add any blessing unto these three verses as to say like that of Deut. 1.11 The Lord God of your Fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are or any the like Maymoni cited by Aynsw in Numb 6. Now for the manner wherewithal the Priests performed this office it was briefly thus The Priests went up unto the bank or stage after that they had finished the daily morning Service and lifted up their hands on high above their heads and their fingers spread abroad except the High-Priest who might not lift his hands higher than the Plate whereof see Exod. xxviii 36. and
one pronounced the blessing word by word till the three verses were ended And the people answered not after every verse but they made it in the Sanctuary one blessing And when they had finished all the people answered Blessed be the Lord God the God of Israel for ever and ever Id. Ibid. By which we may preceive most clearly first that the Priests were tyed precisely to a form of blessing prescribed by the Lord himself And secondly that to this form of blessing thus prescribed by God the Church did after add of her own Authority not only several external and significant rites but a whole clause to be subjoyned by the people after the Priest had done his part Now as the Priests were limited by Almighty God unto a set and prescribed form wherewith they were to bless the people in the Name of God So did he also set a form unto the People in which they were to pay their Tithes and First-fruits to the Lord their God towards the maintenance of the Priests First for the form used at the oblation of the First-fruits it was this that followeth the words being spoke unto the Priest I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto our Fathers to give us Which said and the Oblation being placed by the Priest before the Altar the party which brought it was to say A Syrian ready to perish was my Father and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a few and became there a Nation great mighty and populous And the Egyptians evil intreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage And when we cryed unto the Lord God of our Fathers the Lord beard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression And the Lord brought us forth of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an out-stretched arm and with great terribleness and with signs and with wonders And he hath brought us into this place and hath given us this Land even a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And now behold I have brought the First-fruits of the Land which thou O Lord hast given unto me Then for the tendry of the Tithe of the third year which only was payable to the Priest those of the other two years being due to the Levites in the Countrey it was to be brought unto Hierusalem and tendred in these following words viz. I have brought away the hallowed thing out of mine House and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the Stranger to the Fatherless and to the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my journeying neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have bearkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest to our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey Of this see Deut. 26. from the 1 verse to the 16. Led by these precedents and guided by the Wisdom of the Spirit of God the Church in the succeeding times prescribed a set form to be used in burning their leaven which after they had searched for with such care and diligence that a Mouse-hole was not left unransacked they threw it in the fire with this solemn form of execration viz. Let all that Leaven or whatsoever leavened thing is in my power whether it were seen of me or not seen whether cleansed by me or not cleansed let all that be scattered destroyed and accounted of as the dust of the Earth A prescribed form they also had in a constant practice for the confession of their sins to the Throne of God The ground thereof they took indeed from the holy Scripture where the Lord God commanded saying And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat c. Lev. 16.21 Ask Lyra what kind of Confession is there meant and he will tell you that it was a general Confession of the peoples sins made by the mouth of the Priest for and in their names sicut facimus in Confessione in principio Missae as we the Priests are wont to make in the beginning of the Mass The Learned Morney comes more home and informs us thus Lyr. in Levit. cap. 18.21 Confessio olim in sacrificio solennis Ejus praeterquam in lege vestigia in Prophetis formulam habemus In ipsis Judaeorum libris verba tanquam concepta extant quae sacerdos pronunciare solitus Of old they had a solemn or set manner of Confession Mornaeus de Missal 1. cap. 5. whereof besides those footsteps of it which are remaining in the Law the form is extant in the Prophets And in the Jewish Liturgy the express words are to be seen which were pronounced by the Priest Now if we ask of Paulus Phagius than whom none more acquainted with the Jewish Liturgies what the precise form was which the Priest did use he will thus inform us Forma confessionis qua tum usus est summus Pontifex secundum Hebraeorum relationem haec fuit c. The form saith he used then by the High Priest in Confessing the peoples sins as the Hebrew Doctors have recorded was as followeth P. Phagius in Chaldaea Paraphr in cap. 16. Levit. O Lord thy People of the House of Israel have sinned they have done wickedly they have grievously transgressed before thee O Lord make Atonement now for the Sins and for the Iniquities and for the Trespasses that thy People the House of Israel have sinned and unrighteously done and trespassed before thee as it is written in the Law of Moses thy Servant that in this day he shall make Atonement for you This for the people on the Scape-goat And there were two other Confessions made by the Priest also as the Rabbins testifie one for himself Maymoni apud Aynsw in cap. 16. Levit. the other for himself with the other Priests both on the Bullock of the Sin-offering mentioned v. 6. each of which also had their certain and prescribed forms For when he offered the Bullock for a Sin-offering for himself he said O Lord I have sinned and done wickedly and have grievously transgressed I beseech thee now O Lord be merciful unto those sins and iniquities and grievous transgressions wherein I have sinned P. Phagius loco supr citato done wickedly and transgressed against thee And when he offered for himself and the rest of the Priests then he used these words saying
I and my House and the Sons of Aaron thy holy people have sinned and done wickedly c. I beseech thee now O Lord be merciful c. as in the other forms before delivered Finally as there was a form prescribed the Priests in which to make Confession of their own and the peoples sins to the Lord their God so if the people were Impenitent and neither would be brought unto repentance or amendment of life they had their forms of Excommunication also Witness the solemn form in use amongst them in Excommunicating the Samaritans In the denouncing of which censure they brought together 300 Priests and 300 Trumpets and 300 Books of the Law and 300 Boys and they blew with the Trumpets and the Levites singing accursed the Cuttbaeans or Samaritans in the name of Tetragrammaton or JEHOVAH and with the curses both of the higher and lower House of judicature and said Cursed is he who eats the bread of the Cutthaean and let no Cutthaean be a Proselyte in Israel Drusius in Seph Tanhuma neither have any part in the resurrection of the just Which Curse being wrote on Tables and sealed up was published over all the Coasts of Israel who multiplied this great Anathema or Curse upon them Nothing can be more plain than this that in almost all sacred and religious duties which were to be performed in publick the Jews had anciently their appointed and determinate forms as well as their appointed and determinate either times or places But against this it is objected out of Rabbi Maimony that from the time of Moses unto Ezra there was no stinted form of Prayer heard of in the Jewish Church but every man prayed according unto his ability Smectymn Vindicat. p. 25. To which the Answer is in brief that they who have produced this place out of Rabbi Maimony dare not stand upon it conceiving it to be no testimony to command belief Secondly that the Rabbi in the place alledged speaks not of publick but of private prayers And thirdly that the place is curtalled to make it serve the turn the better For look upon the place at large and we find it thus We are commanded to pray every day as it is written And ye shall serve the Lord your God Exod. xxiii 25. We have been taught that this Service is Prayer as it is written And to serve him with all your heart Our wise men have said what Service is this with the heart It is Prayer And there is no number of Prayers by the Law neither is there any set form of this Prayer by the Law nor any appointed time for prayer by the Law And therefore Women and Servants are bound to pray because it is a Commandment the time whereof is not determined But the duty of this Commandment is thus that a Man make Supplication and Prayer every day and shew forth the praise of the holy blessed God and afterward ask such things as be needful for him by request and by supplication and afterward give praise and thanks unto the Lord for his goodness which he abundantly ministreth unto him every one according to his might If he be accustomed unto it let him use such Supplication and Prayer and if he be of uncircumcised lips let him speak according as he is able at any time when he will and so they make Prayers every one according unto his ability This is the place at large in Rabbi Maimony Maymoni cited by Ayns Deut. 6.13 And who sees not that this must be interpreted of private prayer or else it will conclude as strongly against appointed times and places for the performance of this holy exercise as against the forms and then what will become of the blessed Sabbath the day of Prayer or of the holy Temple the House of Prayer Must not they also be discharged on the self-same grounds Or were it meant of publick Prayer as it cannot be all that can be inferred is no more than this that God prescribed no set form or number of prayers in the Book of the Law which makes but little to the purpose For it was said and shewed before that Moses was more punctual and precise in laying down the form and matter of the legal Sacrifices by which the Jews were to be nourished in the faith of Christ and with the which they had not been acquainted in the former times than in prescribing forms of Prayer and Praises being moral duties in which they had been trained from their very infancy Now to this argument derived from the Authority of the Jewish Rabbins we must needs add another which is made against them and that is that the evidence of all this as also of much of that which followeth comes from no better Author than Maimonides Smectymn in Vindicat. p. 23. who wrote not till above a thousand years after Christ Against which weak objection for it is no other we have a very strong respondent even the famous Scaliger Who having made a full description of those rites and forms wherewith the Passeover was solemnized in the former times collected from the Writings of the Jewish Rabbins thinks it as idle and ridiculous to except against them because observed by Writers of a later date though from the best Records and Monuments of that scattered Nation as if a man reading the Pandects of the Civil Law composed in Justinians time should make a question whether those judgments and opinions ascribed unto Paepinian Paulus Vlpianus were theirs or not Quod nemo sanus dixerit Scaliger de emendat Temp. l. 6. Quod nemo sanus dixerit which none saith he except a mad-man would make question of And so these rubs being thus removed and in part anticipated we will go forwards with our search in the Name of God But first before we end this Chapter considering that there were set forms of Marriages and set rites of Burial and those of great Antiquity in the Jewish Church I will here put them down in the way of Corollary For though they were no part of the publick worship yet doubtless they were parts of the publick Liturgy and being performed with Prayer and Invocation of Gods holy Name they deserve place here And first for Marriage in the solemnities thereof they observed this form The time appointed being come the Bride and Bridegroom were conducted by their special Friends who are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the Bride-Chamber Mat. 9.15 in S. Matthews Gospel to the Marriage-house which from the Blessings and Thanksgivings which were used therein on these occasions was called Beth Hillula the House of Praise There in an Assembly of ten men at the least the Writing or Bill of Dowry being ratied before a Scrivener or publick Notary the Man thus said unto the Woman Esto mihi in uxorem secundum legem Mosis Israel Ego juxta verbum Dei colam te honorabo te With my body I thee worship alam
till nine the sixth which began at nine and ended at twelve the ninth which held from twelve to three in the afternoon and the eleventh which was from three until six at night According to which distribution they had three several hours of Prayer viz. the third the sixth the ninth as before was said For thus saith David of himself Evening and Morning and at Noon-day will I pray unto thee Psal lv 17. And so the Scriptures say of Daniel that turning towards Hierusalem he kneeled upon his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God three times a day as he had formerly been accustomed Dan. vi 10. David who had the opportunity to repair unto the Tabernacle or the House of God joyned with the Congregation in those Prayers which were appointed for those times But Daniel who lived an exile in a strange Land and at a time in which there was no Temple at Hierusalem only conceived himself obliged to observe the hours which had been antiently in Use with the Jewish Nation without being punctual in the forms for ought I can find It 's true the Jews used to repair unto the Tabernacle as afterwards unto the Temple and other places set apart for this pious duty of which more anon to offer up their private Prayers and Vowes to Almighty God For so we read of Hannah in the first of Samuel chap. 1. v. 10. c. and so in other places of Gods Book of divers others Of which none is more eminent because not any one so much objected as that of the Publican and the Pharisee of whom we find mention in the Gospel who going into the Temple to pray as who else did not are confidently said to use no prayer that was of regular prescription because the prayer which they are said to make in the Book of God Smectymn p. 8. was of a present conception But this if pondered as it ought can be no Argument I trow that therefore there was then no set form of publick worship to be performed in those holy places because Gods Servants used as occasion was to make therein their private Prayers to the Lord their God No better argument than if it should be proved that there is no set Liturgy in the Church of England because devout and godly men use oftentimes to have recourse unto the Church or Temple for their private prayers In those though poured forth in the Temple the proper and appointed place of publick worship the people were at liberty to make Use of their own conceptions But it was otherwise in those acts of worship so far forth as they do relate unto Invocation which were to be performed with the Congregation And so it is resolved by the best and learnedest of all the Rabbins by whom it is affirmed that in the publick Congregation a private or a voluntary prayer was not to have been offered to the Lord their God Quoniam nec Ecclesia seu caetus publicus offerebat ex lege sacrificium ultroneum because the Church or Congregation was not to offer any Sacrifice but such as was prescribed and ordered by the Law of God Maim ap Selden in Eutych Alex. p. 49 Which rule as it was constantly observed in all other days and at the several hours of prayer in each several day so most especially upon the Sabbaths and the other Festivals and that upon the self-same reason viz. Quoniam in eis non offerendum erat ultroneum quid because no voluntary oblation might thereon be offered as in some cases might be done on the other days but only such as were appointed in the Law Now that there were set forms of prayer for these several hours besides what is affirmed by a Learned Writer of our own as appeareth by that memorable passage of Peter and John's going up into the Temple Selden Comment in Eutych Alex. p. 46 47. sub horam orationis nonam at the ninth hour being an hour of prayer For if the prayer they went to make were rather of a sudden and extemporary Conception Smectymn p. 8. than of a regular Prescription what needed they to have made Use of such a time when as the Congregation was assembled for Gods publick worship And on the other side that the prayer which the two Apostles went up to make was such as was prescribed the Congregation is evident by that of Ludovicus Capellus the French Oracle of Hebrew Learning as one truly calls him who saith expresly B. Hall Answ to the Vindication Orationem eam cujus causa Petrus Johannes petebant templum fuisse eam quae à Judaeis dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae respondet oblationi vespertinae lege praescriptae The prayer saith he for which Peter and John went up into the Temple is that which the Jews called the lesser oblation answering to the evening Sacrifice prescribed by the Law And indeed Calvin intimates no less to my apprehension For when he askes the question An Apostoli in Templum ascenderint ut secundum legis ritum precarentur whether the Apostles went into the Temple to pray according to the rites prescribed in the Law Calv. in Act. although he thinks that they went thither at that time to have the better opportunity to promote the Gospel yet he confesseth by the question that at that time there were set prayers made in the Temple after the manner of the Jews But to go on from Moses unto David I find but little changed or added in things that did concern Gods publick worship and the forms thereof But in the time of David and by his Authority there was a signal alteration made much outward form and lustre added to the service of God For whereas formerly the Levites were appointed by the Law of Moses to bear about the Tabernacle as occasion was the Tabernacle being by David fixt and setled in Hierusalem there was no further Use of the attendance of the Levites in that kind or ministery He therefore thought it fit to set them to some new imployment some to assist the Priests in the publick offices of Gods holy worship some to be over-seers and Judges of the people some to be Porters also in the House of God and others finally to be Singers to praise the Lord with Instruments that he had made with Harps with Viols and with Cymbals 1 Chron. 23.4 5 c. Of these the most considerable were the first and last the first appointed to assist at the Daily Sacrifices as also at the offering of all Burnt-offerings unto the Lord in the Sabbaths the moneths and at the appointed times according to the number and according to their custom continually before the Lord. Ibid. ver 31. Id. ch 35.7 The other were instructed in the Songs of the Lord not only such as had been made before in the former times but such as he composed himself according to the influence of the holy Spirit Josephus tells us
the Law Levitical was given to Moses and all the Rites and ceremonies of the same prescribed and limited which plainly shews that Instrumental Musick in the celebrating of Gods publick worship is not derived at any hand from the Law of Moses or to be reckoned as a part of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Levitical Sacrifices And lest this intermixture of Songs and Musick in the officiating of the Moral worship of God might either be conceived to have been introduced by the Jews in the declining times of their zeal and piety or else ordained by David without good Authority and never practised in the purer times of the Jewish Church we will look into the Acts of Solomon Hezekiah Ezra Of Solomon and Ezra more anon Of Hezekiah this at present of whom it is recorded in the Book of Chronicles that in the restauration of Gods worship being much corrupted When the Burnt-offering began the Song of the Lord began also with Trumpets and with the Instruments ordained by David king of Israel And all the Congregation worshipped and the Singers sang and the Trumpeters sounded 2 Chron. 29.27 28. and all this continued till the Burnt-offering was finished Where note that this was some appointed and determinate song which had been formerly set out for the like occasions that which is here entituled the Song of the Lord or canticum Traditum as the word is rendred by Tremelius as also that the intermixture of Musical Instruments in Gods holy Service is referred to David And so 't is also in the Book of Nehemiah Neh. 12.46 where both the Singers and the songs are referred to him For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the Singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God saith the holy Scripture Of Solomon and Ezra next the greatest and most memorable action of whose times was the building of the first and second Temples immensae opulentiae Templum Tacit. hist l. 5. as the last is called by the Historian For that of Solomon as soon as it was fitted and prepared for the Service of God that godly and religious Prince to whom the Lord had given a large and understanding heart as the Scripture tells us did not think fit to put it unto publick Use till he had dedicated the same to the Lord his God by Prayer and Sacrifice The pomp and order of the Dedication we may see at large 1 King viii To which add this considerable passage from the Book of Chronicles where it is said 2 Chron. 5.12 13. with reverence unto Davids Institution that the Levites which were the Singers all of them of Asaph of Heman of Jeduthun with their Sons and their Brethren being arayed in white linen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar and with them an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And that it came to pass as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord that they lift vp their voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever In which we may observe two things first that in Celebrating Gods publick worship and in that part thereof which was meerly moral the Levites were arayed in a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in Use in the Church of England And secondly that they were prescribed what song or Psalm they were to sing being the 136. of Davids Psalms beginning with Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus And this we may the rather think to be a certain and prescribed Hymn not taken up at the discretion of the Priests and Levites because we find the same expresly in laying the foundation of the second Temple For we are told in the book of Ezra Ezr. 3.10 11. that when the Builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord they set the Priests in their Apparel with Trumpets and the Levites the Sons of Asaph with Cymbals to praise the Lord after the Ordinance of David the King of Israel where not that still this Institution is referred to David And they sung together by course Quire-wise in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel Lyra observes upon the place that the Psalm here sung ab ipso Davide factum ad hoc ordinatum was made by David for this very purpose Lyr. in Ezr. cap. 3. v. 1. 1 Chron. 28. who had not only left command to Solomon about the building of the Temple but gave him patterns of the work and much of the materials for the same Add finally that at the Dedication of each Temple there was a great and sumptuous Feast provided for the People of God whereof see 1 King viii 65. and Ezra vi 16. Which as it was the ground of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feast of Dedication established after by the Maccabees so gave it no small hint unto the Christians to institute the like Feasts on the like occasions whereof more hereafter In the mean time to look a little back on Solomon if question should be made to what particular end he did erect that magnificent Structure I answer that it was most specially for an House of Prayer The legal Sacrifices were all of them performed in the outward Courts and there were all the utensils and vessels which did pertain unto the same The Priest that offered Sacrifice came not thither he had no place nor portion in it 'T is true there was an Altar in it but 't was the Altar of Incense not the Altar for Sacrifices That stood indeed within the Temple as at the first by Gods own Ordinance and appointment within the Tabernacle where it was placed before the Veil Exod. 30.6 7 8. And it was placed there to this end and purpose that Aaron might burn Incense on it every morning when he dressed the lamps and when he lighted them at even By this was figured the offering up of the Prayers of the Saints to the Lord their God We find it so expresly in the Revelation Apocal. 8.3 4. And another Angel saith the Text came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer is with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar that was before the Throne and the smoak of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand And hereto David doth allude in the book of Psalms Let my prayer saith he be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hand as the Evening Sacrifice Psal 141.2 1 King 8. But that which makes the matter most clear and evident is the whole scope of Solomons
Christ Synag l. 6. c. 6. Which if it were so as I have no reason to suspect the Author it was not without good cause affirmed by the Historian if one should look no further than those outward circumstances Novos illic ritus caeteris mortalibus contrarios Tacit. hist l. 5. the very same with that which is affirmed of them in the book of Hester viz. their Laws are diverse from all people Finally Hester 3.8 at the ending of their prayers the people which were present used to say Amen which word from thence hath been derived and incorporated into all the Languages which make profession of the faith Only observe that they had several Amens amongst them Christ Synag l. 1. c. 6. § 5. The first of which they called Pupillum when one understandeth not what he answers the second Surreptum when he saith Amen before the prayer be fully ended the third is Otiosum when a man thinks of something else and so saith it idly the fourth Justorum of the just when a mans mind is set on his devotions and thinks upon no other thing And so much of the Rites and Gestures which they used in prayer But it is well observed by Aynsworth that as the Lamps mention whereof is made in the 30th of Exodus do signifie the light of Gods Word and Incense the Sacrifice of prayers Aynsw Annot. in Exod. 30. so the doing of both these at one time the Incense being to be offered when the Lamps were either dressed or lighted as before was said did signifie the joyning of the word with prayer We must look therefore in the next place what room there was or whether any room at all for reading of the Law in Gods holy Temples And first for that of Solomon taking the Temple in the largest and most ample sense not only for the House but the Courts and Out-works it was ordained by Moses in the book of Deuteronomy that there the Law should publickly be read at the end of every seven years to the Congregation At the end of every seven years saith he in the solemnity of the year of release at the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God in the place that he shall choose thou shalt read this Law before all Israel Deut. 31.11 in their hearing But then withal we must take notice that such a reading as is there commanded could not be taken as a part of the publick Liturgy For by the order and prescript of Moses the Law was to be read publickly before the people in the seventh year only in the year of release because then Servants being manumitted from their bondage and Debtors from the danger of their Creditors they might attend the hearing of the Law with the greater chearfulness And in the feast of Tabernacles because it lasted longer than the other Festivals and so it might be read with the greater leisure and then it was but this Law too the book of Deuteronomy This as it was to be performed in that place alone in which the Lord should choose to place his Tabernacle and afterwards to build his Temple so makes it little if at all unto the frequent reading of the Law in the House of God It 's true that Philo tells us in a book not extant that Moses did ordain the publick reading of the Law every Sabbath day Philo. ap Euseb de Praepar Evang. l. 8. c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What then did Moses order to be dene on the Sabbath day He did appoint saith he that we should meet all in some place together and there sit down with modesty and a general filence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hear the Law that none plead ignorance thereof Which custom we continue still saith he breakning with wonderful silence to the Word of God unless perhaps we give some joyful acclamation on the bearing of it some of the Priests if any present or otherwise some of the Elders reading the Law and then expounding it till the night came on But hereof by the leave of Philo we must make some doubt This was indeed the custom in our Saviours time and when Philo lived and he was willing as it seems to setch the pedigree thereof as high as might be So Salianus tells him on the like occasion Videtur Philo Judaeorum morem in Synogogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse quem à Christe Apostolis observatum legimus Salian Annal. anno m. 25 46. n. 10. And we must make the same Answer to Josephus also who tells us of their Law-maker that he appointed not that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year no oftner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Joseph contr Apion l. 2. but that once every week we should come together to hear the Law that so we might become the more perfect in it Which thing saith he all other Law givers did omit And so did Moses too by Josephus's leave For besides that no such order or command is to be found in the books of Moses there were not then nor long time after any set places destinate to religious Uses but the holy Tabernacle And how the people being planted all about the Countrey could be assembled every week before the Tabernacle or afterwards unto the Temple weekly let Philo and Josephus judge And this appears more plainly by the Book of God where we are told that K. Jehosaphat sent abroad his Visitors who carried the Book of the Law of the Lord with them 2 Chron. 17.7 9. and went through all the Cities of Judaea and taught the people A needless Office had it been as those Authors tell us if all the people met together weekly to be taught the Law But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this Of whom it is recorded that when Hilkiah the High Priest in looking over the decays and ruins of the Temple had found a book of the Law which lay hidden there and brought the same unto the King how the good Prince upon the hearing of the words of the Law rent his Garments 2 King 22.11 23.1 2. and not so only but gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book and joyned together in a Covenant with the Lord their God Had it been formerly the custom to read the law each Sabbath every week once at least unto all the people neither had that religious Prince been so ignorant of it nor had the finding of the book been counted for so strange an accident nor could it be to any purpose to call the People altogether from their several dwellings only to hear the Law read to them and go home again if it were read amongst them weekly on the Sabbath days and that of ordinary course So that whatever Philo and Josephus say there was no weekly reading
of the Law either as a distinct and special duty or as an ordinary part of the publick Liturgy during the standing of the first Temple which was that of Solomon For further proof whereof if we but look into Chronology it will there appear that the finding of the book of God before remembred did happen in the 3412. yer of the worlds Creation Tornielli Annales A. M. 3412. not forty years before the desolation of that Temple in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted we have no reason to expect such a blessed Ordinance But in the second Temple or rather whilst it stood and flourished the Law of Moses grew to be read more constantly unto the people than it had been formerly Not every seventh year only on the feast of Tabernacles as had before been ordered and set down by Moses but upon every Sabbath day and each solemn meeting and sometimes on the week-days also nor only in the Temple of Hierusalem as it used to be but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe and then and there they did not only read the book of Deuteronomy which was the book prescribed by Moses but the whole body of the Law Which excellent and useful Ordinance is generally referred to Ezra a Priest by calling and very skilful in the Laws of Moses who having taken great pains to seek out the Law and other parts and portions of the book of God digested and disposed them in that form and method in which we have them at the present Of this see Irenaeus l. 3. c. 25. Tertullian de habitu mulierum Clemens Alexandr Strom. l. 1. Chrysost Homil. 8. in epist ad Hebraeos and divers others And if we place this Ordinance or Institution introduced by Ezra Id. anno 3610. in the 3610. year of the Creation which was the time wherein that solemn reading of the Law was kept which we find mentioned in the viii of Nehemiah there will occur betwixt that time and the first general Council holden in Hierusalem 490. years or thereabouts Which might be ground enough to the Apostle to affirm of Moses that in the old time he had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Act. 15.21 and yet not go so high as Philo and Josephus do to setch the pedigree or original rather of the Institution This then I take to be unquestionable that the weekly reading of the Law was brought into the Jewish Church in the time of Ezra and being brought in I take it as unquestionable that it was used as a part of the daily Office an ordinary portion of the publick Liturgy Not to be read at the discretion of the Minister as his own choice or chance directed and much les as an exercise to take up the time whilst one man tarried for anothers coming until the Congregation were grown full and fit for other business as in some Churches of the Reformation it is used of late but as a special portion of the service which they did to God And this appears by the division of the Law of Moses into those great sections which they call the Parasha being in number 54. which they read in the 52 Sabbaths of the year joyning two of the shortest twice together that the whole might be finished in a years space Aynsw Annot. in Gen. 6. Of this thus write the Hebrew Doctors It is say they a common custom throughout all Israel that they finish wholly the reading of the Law in one year beginning in the Sabbath which is after the feast of Tabernacles at the first section of Genesis in the second at These are the Generations of Noah in the third at The Lord said to Abraham Gen. xii 1. c. So they read and go on in this order till they have ended the Law at the feast of Tabernacles Maim ap Aynsw ibid. By which it seems that as the form of their publick service was not voluntary so neither were the parts thereof uncertain but all set down in rule and order by the authority of the Church and the wisdom of the Governours and chief Rulers in it as might conduce best to the glory of God and the edification of his people Nor was this all that Ezra did in the advancement of Gods service of his publick worship For unto him appointed thereunto by the Authority of the Consistory the Rabbins generally ascribe those eighteen Prayers or Benedictions so much in use amongst the Jews Of which thus Maimony Descripsit cunctas benedictiones Ezra Maim ap Selden in Eutych Alex. p. 51. c. Ezra saith he composed all those Benedictions which by the Consistory were enjoyned to be perpetually observed so that it was not lawful to change or alter them neither to add unto them or diminish from them every alteration of those formulas which by their Wise-men were devised and confirmed in those Benedictions being accounted for a fault And this was done as the same Rabbin doth inform us in another place Vt scilicet in cujuslibet ore bene disponerentur omnesque eas discerent c. That every man might have them in his mouth and be perfect in them Id. ap eundem p. 44. and that thereby the prayers of the rude and ignorant might be as compleat as those of a more eloquent tongue Of these eighteen the three first and the three alst related to the glory of God the other twelve as it is noted in the Gemara Hierosolymit ad ea quae humano generi necessaria Ap. tundem Pâ— 43. to such things as were necessary for the life of man or as it is inlarged by Maimony to all those things quae singulis hominibus habenda in votis which either do concern particular men or are thought necessary to the State or Nation These Prayers or Benedictions thus composed were not alone thought necessary for all sorts of people and therefore called by the Jews preces officii necessario praestandi an office of necessity to be performed Ap. tund p. 47. but used both by Priest and People as an ordinary part of their publick Liturgy Whereof we are thus told by Rabbi Maimony Publicus Minister seu universitatis aut populi Apostolus liberat plebem ab officio suo hic praestando c. Id. p. 47.48 The publick Minister or the Apostle as they called him of the Congregation did ease the people of this service if when he said the prayers they did hearken to him and unto every Benediction answered AMen for by so doing the people also are conceived to pray But this saith he is only in such cases w hen the people is not perfect in those prayers or cannot say the same by heart for they who can repeat the prayers do not aright discharge their duty as they ought to do in case they did not pray themselves with the publick Minister And so much for the
Prayers and Benedictions devised by Ezra Which had they been the very first stinted forms of prayer which ever had been heard of in the Jewish Church Smectymn indicat p. 20. as some men give out although indeed it be not so it would make more than they imagine both for the Authority and Antiquity of set forms of worship But to return again unto the Reading of the Law set on foot by Ezra besides that by this institution the reading of the Law of Moses became an ordinary part of the Jewish Liturgy for the Sabbath days he caused it also to be read upon the second and the fift days being our Monday and Thursday that they might not rest three days from hearing the Law and at the Evening prayer of the Sabbath days because of idle persons who perhaps were absent at the Morning service Id. in Tephillah ubircath c. 12. cited by H. Thorndike In his religious Assemblies c. 8. The difference was only this that in these Readings on the by if I may so call them the Minister or the Reader was not tyed to read the whole Section or Parasha as upon the Sabbath but was therein left unto himself conditioned that he read no less than ten verses at each several reading and that there were three men to read it on the days aforesaid Now to this reading of the Law in the Congregation every Sabbath day was also added at some times and on some occasions the Exposition of the same and that I find to have been done two ways either by way of Comment and Application or else by reading with the Law some part of passage of the Prophets as seemed most parallel unto it Of these the first may seem to take beginning from the Act of Ezra who in that famous reading of the Law mention whereof is made in Nehemiah cap. viii not only caused a Pulpit of wood to be provided for that purpose that so he might be heard the better but placed about the same divers Priests and Levites to expound the Text and give the sense and meaning of it that so the people might the better understand the reading Whereof as of a thing never used before the reason is thus given by Torniellus because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was grown strange unto them Torniel annal A.M. 3610. n. 9. Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in locum ejus surrogato the Syriack or Chaldee language being generally received in the place thereof And hereunto agrees Cunaeus who saith expresly that whilst the former Temple stood Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla there was no gloss or exposition of the Law made as of course unto the people Cunaeus de Repub. Jud. l. 1. c. 17. That office being supplyed when there was occasion by such holy Prophets as God raised amongst them at extraordinary times and for no ordinary purposes But that these Expositions of the Law thus begun by Ezra were afterwards used constantly amongst the Jews every Sabbath day as I do no where find it so I dare not say it If so it were it could not be done presently but in tract of time of which more anon In the mean time we will behold the second kind of Exposition which before we spake of that which was made by reading with the Law some part or passage of the Prophets which came near unto it The first beginning of the which the Jews refer unto the furious raging of Antiochus furnamed Epiphanes who had not only defiled the Temple and forbid the use of Circumcision but also did prohibit the reading of the Law of Moses upon pain of death On which occasion and to prevent the mischief which might thereby grow if the reading of the Law should be quite left off they chose chapters and divisions out of the writings of the Prophets which were most answerable to those parts of the Law of Moses which were read before as for this Section of the Law In the beginning God Created c. They made choice of that in Esa xlii 5. So saith the Lord the Creator of Heaven and Earth continuing to the 11. verse of the xliii These fractions of the Law they called Haphtara And though the tyranny of Antiochus being over-blown Christ Synag lib. 1. cap. 4. they fell again unto the reading of the Law of Moses as was used before yet they continued still the reading of the holy Propohets as finding it a very wholsome institution and sometimes joyned thereunto such Expositions as the Scribes and Rabbins made upon the same according to their several Talents Certain I am that so it was in our Saviurs time and in the time of his Apostles For thus we find in S. Luke's Gospel that when our Saviour came into the Synagogue of Nazareth and stood up to read Luk. 4.16 c. there was delivered him the book of the Prophet Esay and that when he had read the place he closed the Book and gave it again unto the Minister the Apostle of the Congregation as the Rabbins call him and afterwards expounded and applyed the Text. And in his History of the Apostles we find that Paul and Barnabas being present at the Synagogue of Antiochia Act. 13.14 15. on the Sabbath day sate down and that after the reading of the Law and Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying Ye Men and Brethren if ye have any word of Exhortation for the people say on c. In which we have at once the custom of those latter times for the expounding of the Law in the Congregation as being by this time made a part of Gods holy Service as the place and room also which it held in the publick Liturgy that is to say next to the reading of the Law and Prophets as now the Sermon followeth on the reading of the Epistle and the Gospel As for the gesture which was used by these several Ministers in the discharge of those distinct and several Offices I find that the reading of the Law and Prophets and the exposition of the same was with the face of him that did it towards the face of the people whereof see Luk. iv 16. And that the Minister who read the Prayers whom they called the Apparitour of the Synagogue stood with his back towards the people his face being turned unto the Ark. This leads me on unto another Institution not known before the building of the second Temple or the times of Ezra which was the setting up of Synagogues and Oratories throughout the Countrey Of these we find no mention in the former times and but little Use the total sum of all Gods publick worship being cast into the Temple of Hierusalem For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues of the Jews in the time of David who for the proof thereof did produce these words They have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land Psal lxxiv. the supposition
and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and Vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not meant by him of any present misery which befel the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all David's time as is there complained of And therefore Calvin rather thinks ad tempus Antiochi referri has querinonias that David as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy Calv. in Psal 74. reflected on those wretched and calamitous times wherein Antiochus made such havock of the Church of God Nor was there any Use of them in those former times because no reading of the Law of ordinary course in the Congregation as before was said But when the former course was changed and that the reading of the Law to the People of God was not licensed only but enjoyned then began the Jews to build them Synagogues which afterwards increased so strangely that there was no Town of any moment throughout all Judaea nor almost any City where they dwelt as Strangers in which they did not build some Synagogue God certainly had so disposed it in his holy Counsels that so his Word might be more generally known over all the world and a more easie way laid open for the receipt of the Messiah whom he meant to send that so Hierusalem and the Temple there might by degrees be lessened in their reputation and men might learn that neither of them was the only place where they ought to worship As for their Oratories which before I spake of although I find not their Original yet I can tell you of their Use For this saith Epiphanius of them Epiph. Haeres 80. n. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. There were saith he amongst the Jews without their Cities certain Oratories whither the people did sometimes resort to make their prayers unto the Lord. And this he proves out of the xvi of the Acts where it is said And on the Sabbath we went out of the City by a Rivers side where prayer was wont to be made vers 3. i.e. Vbi de more consuetudine haberi conventus consueverant as Beza notes upon the Text. The Latines called them from the Use they were put unto Proseuchas as in qua te quaero Proseucha in the Poet Juvenal Beza in Annot. in Act. 16.13 And although Beza take those Proseuchas to be the very same with the Jewish Synagogues Juvenal Sat. 5. Beza in Act. 16. yet sure there was a special difference between them For in those Proseuchas or Oratories they might only pray in the Synagogues they might not only make their prayers but also read the Law and Prophets and expound the same and in the Temple of the Lord besides those former duties they might offer Sacrifice which was not lawful to be done in other places And to these times when now the Jewish Church was settled and Synagogues erected in almost all places for reading and expounding the Law of God we must refer those passages from Philo and Josephus before remembred which cannot possibly be made good of the former times wherein this people wanted all conveniencies for those weekly meetings Thus have we seen what care the Rulers of that Church took for providing fit and convenient places for the performance of Gods publick worship and all the sacred Offices thereunto belonging Had they not think we equal power of adding days and times to the commemorating of Gods goodness and laying before him their afflictions s well as in appointing places Assuredly such power they had and made Use thereof according as they saw occasion Witness the feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai and Hester with the consent and approbation of the whole people of the Jews to be obsered on the 14 and 15 days of the moneth Adar yearly throughout their Generations for evermore Hest 9.17 c. that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending portions unto one another and gifts to the Poor Nor was this all to make them days of feasting and good fellowship and no more than so for this had been to make their belly their God and so by consequence their glory must have been their shame but in all probability there were ordained set forms of praise and prayer for so great a mercy and the continuance of the like Those who conceived themselves to have Authority of instituting a new Festival to the Lord their God could not but know they had Authority of instituting a new form of prayer and praise agreeable to the occasion And so much we may guess by that which remains thereof it being affirmed by one Antonius Margarita a converted Jew once one of the Professors for the tongue I take it in the University of Leipsich Fevardent in Hest cap. ult Hospinian de Origine Fest fol. 133. that to this day legunt diebus illis in Synagogis suis historiam istam they read upon the days of the said Feast of the book of Hester and anciently 't was not the custom of the Jewish Church to read the Scripture without set forms of Prayers and appointed Ceremonies The like may also be affirmed of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Feast of Dedication A Feast ordained by Judas Maccabeus and the Elders of the Jewish Nation who having cleansed the Temple and set up the Altar which had been impiously profaned by Antiochus did dedicate the same with Songs and Citternes 1 Maccab. 4.59 c. and with Harps and Cymbals and that being done ordained that the days of the Dedication should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days c. with mirth and gladness Here we find mirth and gladness as before in the feast of Purim And doubt we not but there was in the Celebration of it as much spiritual mirth and gladness at least in the intention of the founders as there was of carnal although the forth and manner of it have not come unto us Our Saviour Christ had never honoured it with his blessed presence as we shall see he did hereafter if it had been otherwise Besides which annual Feasts recorded in the holy Scripture they had another which they called festivitatem legis or the feast of the Law ordained by the Rulers of the Church of Jewry for joy that they had finished the publick reading of the Law in their Congregations For as before I told you the Jews began the reading of the Law upon the Sabbath after the feast of Tabernacles and finished it at 5a readings against the feast of Tabernacles came about again Now 't is observed by Joseph Scaliger that the feast of Tabernacles beginning always on the 15th of the month Tisri and holding on until the 22d inclusively this Festival was always held on the morrow after being the three and twentieth of this month Which Feast
for their gods so were they also regulated by a prescript Form in which their gods were to be Worshipped their Sacrifices to be tendred But to return again to the Roman Forms to put an end to this discourse we will a little look on their Forms of Marriage so far forth and no further as they did relate to religious Worship and Invocation of their gods For though they made no care nor conscience in breaking of the Bond of Marriage upon all occasions yet did they seldom make a Marriage to which the gods were not invited or not called upon For anciently there was no making of a Marriage wherein the Soothsayers or Auspex was not consulted This Servius hath observed in his notes on Virgil Servius in Virg. Aeneid l. 1. Romani nihil nisi captatis faciebant auguriis praecipue NVPTIAS the Romans did not any thing saith he without consulting with the Augur especially in point of Marriage In celebrating of the which as there were certain formal words so were there also solemn Sacrifices First for the formal words of Marriage Boetius doth report them thus Coemptio certis solennitatibus peragebatur sese in coemendo invicem interrogabant Vir ita an sibi mulier materfamilias esse vellet illa respondebat velle item Mulier interrogabat an sibi vir Paterfamilias esse vellet ille respondebat velle c. That kind of Marriage saith he which is called Coemption Boetius Comment in Ciceronis Topica l. 2. was done with certain and determinate solemnities proposing to each other these Interrogatories The Man demanded of the Woman if she would be his Wedded Wife and she said I will And then the Woman asked the Man if he would be her Wedded Husband and he said he would which said the Man took the Woman into his hands and from thenceforth she was his Wife Next for the solemn Sacrifice performed at Weddings there was a Form of Marriage which they called Confarreatio because the Married couple used to eat of a Barley cake which had been offered in the Sacrifice From whence perhaps the use of Bride cakes came first into this Countrey with the Romans as many other of their customs did And this was Solemnized saith the great Lawyer Vlpian Cited by Rosinus Antiqu. Rom. l. 5. c. 37. Certis verbis testibus decem praesentibus solenni sacrificio facto in quo panis farreus adhibetur under a certain and prescribed Form of words ten Witnesses at the least being present and a solemn Sacrifice wherein the Barley-cake was used which before we spake of The Beast prepared for the Sacrifice Varro de re Rustica l. 2. c. 4. was commonly a Swine or Porker as it is in Varro And if a Sacrifice were offered as it seems to be no question but it was attended with Prayers and Orizons unto the gods for the prosperity of the parties This affirmed plainly by Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautica Inde ubi sacrificas cum conjuge venit ad aras Aesonides unaque adeunt pariterque precari Incipiunt c. Finally Valer. Flaccus Argonaut l. 8. besides the laying down of money at the time of Marriage in the way of dowry from whence it seemeth to be called Coemption the Bridegroom used to put a Ring on the fourth finger of his Spouse when he made the Contract The thing affirmed by Juvenal amongst the Ancients Juvenal Sat. 6. where speaking of a Contract or Espousal he thus glanceth at it Jamque à tonsore magistro Pectoris digitis pignus fortasse dedisti The reason of it given by Gellius A. Gellius Noct. Attic. l. 10. c. 10. and since him by others because it was observed by the Auatomists repertum esse nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito ad Cor hominis pergere ac pervenire That from that finger there passEd a small and slender nerve to the heart of man More of this we may see hereafter when we are come unto the Form of Marriage in the Christian Church to the determinate Forms whereof we are come at last CHAP. V. That in the times of the Apostles Liturgies or Set Forms of ministration in the Christian Church were composed and used 1. The Jews and Gentiles made one Church by Christ our Saviour 2. A Form of Prayer prescribed by Christ to his Disciples 3. The Institution of the Christian Sacrifice with the set Form thereof by our Lord and Saviour 4. That the Lords Prayer with other Benedictions were used by the Apostles in the Celebration of the blessed Eucharist 5. A Form of Celebrating Gods publick Service prescribed in the first of S. Paul to Timothy according to the judgment of the Fathers 6. The Form and manner of Gods publick Service described in the first to the Corinthians 7. The Hymns and Psalms used in the Church of Corinth were not voluntary but prescribed and set and of the Musick therewith used 8. That is it probable that the Apostles ordained Liturgies for the publick use 9. What may be said touching the Liturgies ascribed unto S. Peter Mark and James 10. The Form of ministring the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist described by Dionysius the Areopagite 11. That of the ministring the Sacrament of holy Baptism described by him and seconded by the Constitutions ascribed to Clemens 12. Places appointed in this Age for Gods publick Worship and honoured with the name of Churches THus have we taken a distinct and several view of those Forms of Worship which anciently were used by the Jews and Gentiles whilst they stood divided whilst they were separated by that partition-wall which the Apostle speaks of whereby they were indeed divided both in opinions and affections But that partition-wall being broken down by our Lord and Saviour Ephes 2.14 c. he did withal abolish in his flesh that enmity which had been between them even the Law of Commandments contained in Ordinances for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace between the parties ut reconciliaret ambos in unto corpore that he might reconcile both to God being united in one body by the Cross of Christ And indeed how could he do otherwise who was as well designed by Almighty God to be a light to lighten the Gentiles as to be the glory of his People Israel Luk. 2.32 The promise which God made to Abraham was not unto his Seed alone but to all the Nations of the World by it And although Shiloh was to come from the loins of Judah yet was he also expectatio Gentium as the Vulgar reads it Gen. 49.10 and to him should the gathering of the People be Therefore however he was pleased to declare at first that he was tnot sent but to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel Mat. 10.6 and did accordingly grant out a limited Commission unto his Disciples yet he enlarged it in the end Mat. 10.5 giving them an especial
Patriarch Jacob there being otherwise many places in his new gotten Kingdom of more convenience for his Subjects and less obnoxious to the Power of the Kings of Judah than this Bethel was The Act of Jacob in consecrating the Stone at Bethel gave the same hint to Jeroboam to profane the place by setting up his Golden Calves as Abrahams Grove gave to the Idolatrous Jews and Gentiles for polluting the like places with as impure abominations And probable enough it is that by these Acts of Abraham and Jacob the Macchabees proceeded to the Dedication of the Altar when profaned by Antiochus though they made use only of their own Authority in honouring that work and the celebration of it with an Annual Feast of which see Macc. 1. Chap. 4. v. 59 c. Which Feast being countenanced by our Saviour as is elsewhere said gave the first ground unto the Anniversary Feasts of Dedication used in the best and happiest times of Christianity De Eccles Officiis l. 1. c. 3. of which thus Isidore of Sivil Annuas Festivitates dedicationis Ecclesiarum ex more veterum celebrari in Evangelio legimus ubi dicitur facta sunt Encoenia c. Where we have both the custom and the reasons of it that is to say the antient practice of Gods people amongst the Jews occasionally mentioned and related too in the holy Gospel This being repeated and applyed we must next see by what Authority Gods people afterward proceeded on the like occasions Greater Authority we find for the Dedication of the Tabernacle than for the consecrating the Grove or Pillar which before we spake of even the command of God himself who though he had appointed it to be made prescribed as well the matter as the Form thereof descending even unto the nomination of the Workmen that were to take care of the Embroydery of it did not think fit it should be used in his publick Worship till it had first been dedicated to that end and purpose For thus saith God to Moses in the way of Precept And thou shalt take the anointing Oyl and anoint the Tabernacle and all that is therein and shalt hallow it and all the Vessels thereof and it shall be holy and thou shalt anoint the Altar of the Burnt-offering and all his Vessels and sanctifie the Altar Exod. 40.9 1. and it shall be an Altar most holy c. And thus did Moses in conformity to the Lords Commandment of whom it is affirmed Thus did Moses according to all that the Lord commanded him so did he That is to say he reared up the Tabernacle Verse 16 and disposed of every thing therein in its proper place hallowing the Tabernacle and the Altar and the Vessels of it as the Lord commanded and then and not till then was it thought fit for the Acts of Sacrifice and to be honoured with the presence of the Lord their God For as it followeth in that Chapter first Moses offered on the Altar so prepared and consecrated a Burnt-Offering and a Meat-Offering as the Lord commanded ver 29. And secondly A Cloud then covered the tent of the Congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle v. 34. No Fathers need be called in here to explain these Scriptures which every one can understand who is able to read them and every one who understandeth them may conclude from hence that God had never took such order for consecrating of the Tabernacle the Altars and other Vessels of it had he not meant to leave it for a Document and Example to succeeding times that no place should be used for his publick Worship till it was sanctified with Prayer and set apart by some Religious Ceremonies for that holy purpose According to which great Example we find a solemn dedication of the Temple when first built by Solomon performed by Prayer and Sacrifices in most solemn manner 1 Kings 8. A second Dedication of it when first restored by Zorobabel in the time of Ezra where it is said That the children of Israel Ezra 6.16 the Priests and the Levites and the rest of the children of the Captivity kept the Dedication of this House of God with joy And finally Josephus telleth us Antiq. Juda. l. 15. c. 14. that when Zorobabels Temple was pulled down by Herod and built again after a more magnificent manner than before it was with what alacrity and pomp the Jews did celebrate the Dedication of the same A Temple gloriously set out to the outward view immensae opulentiae Templum it is called by Tacitus as before was said and dedicated by the Founder with as great magnificence of which more hereafter Sufficient evidence to prove that whether the Temple be considered as a House of prayer or a place for Sacrifice it was not to be used for either not sanctified and set apart for those holy Actions Having thus seen what was done in those solemn Acts of Dedication by the Lords own people as well before as under the Law of Moses let us next see how far those Actions of Gods people have been followed by the antient Gentiles who though without the Law of Moses yet were instructed well enough by the light of Nature that Sacred Actions were not to be used in unhallowed places And here to go no further than the Roman story being the best compacted and most flourishing estate among the Gentiles we have in the first Infancy thereof a Temple dedicated by Romulus unto Jupiter Feretrius of which thus Livy Jupiter Feretri inquit Romulus haec tibi victor Rex Regia arma fero Templumque iis Regionibus quas meo animo metatus sum dedico sedem opimis spoliis quae Regibus Ducibusque hostium caesis me Autorem sequentes posteri ferent Unto which words of Romulus being the formal words of the Dedication Livy adds his own Hist Rom. Dec. 1. l. 1. Haec Templi est origo quod omnium primum Romae sacratum est That is to say this is the Original of that Temple which first of all was dedicated in the City of Rome Concerning which we are to know that Romulus having vanquished Tolumnius a poor neighbouring King in the head of his Army and brought his Armour into Rome in triumphant manner designed a Temple unto Jupiter from hence named Feretrius for the safe keeping and preserving of those glorious Spoils And having so designed the Temple thus bespeaks the gold viz. O Jupiter Feretrius I by this favour made a Conquerour do here present unto thee these Royal Arms and dedicate or design a Temple to thee in those Regions which in my mind I have marked out for that great purpose to be a seat for those rich Spoils which Posterity following my example having slain Kings or such as do command in chief shall present unto thee Which formal words did so appropriate that place to the service of Jupiter that afterwards it was not to be put unto other uses This done by Romulus
Parliament who set so slight a value on their Constitutions the Title doth afford two things worthy consideration First that the maintenance of the Clergy here by Law established is said to be by giving to them the tenth part of every mans Estate And secondly that the blow goes higher than before it did and aims not only at the devesting of the Church of her ancient Patrimony but at the depriving of the Gentry of their Impropriations which many of them hold by Lease many by Inheritance all by as good a title as the Law can make them I know there hath been great pains taken by some Learned men to state the Institution and Right of Tithes and several judicious Tractates have been writ about it which notwithstanding have not found such entertainment as they did deserve partly because being written in an Argumentative way they were above the reach of the vulgar Reader but principally because written by men ingaged in the cause and such as might be byassed with their own interesse in it For my part I am free from all those ingagements which may incline me to write any thing for my private ends being one that payeth Tithes and such other duties as the Laws and Ordinances do injoyn And though I sit far off from the fountain of business and cannot possibly see at so great a distance what might best satisfie the doubts and clamors of unquiet men yet I shall venture to say somewhat in a modest way towards the Undeceiving of the People in this point of Tithes whose judgments have been captivated by those mis-persuasions which cunningly have been communicated and infused into them And I shall do it in a way if I guess aright which hath not yet been travelled in this present point such as I hope will satisfie all them of the adverse party but those who are resolved before-hand that they will not be satisfied For whereas the whole controversie turneth on these three hinges First that the maintenance allowed the Clergy is too great for their calling especially considering the small number of them Secondly that it is made up out of the tenth part of each mans Estate And thirdly that the changing of this way by the payment of Tythes into that of Stipends would be more grateful to the Countrey and more easie to the Clergy I shall accordingly reduce this small discourse unto these three heads First I will shew that never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England Secondly that there is no man in the Realm of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance of his Parish Minister but his Easter-Offering And thirdly that the changing of Tythes into Stipends would bring greater trouble to the Clergy than is yet considered and far less profit to the Countrey than is now pretended These Propositions being proved which I doubt not of I hope I shall receive no check for my undertaking considering that I do it of a good intent to free the Parliament from the trouble of the like Petitions and that the common people being disabused may quietly and chearfully discharge their duties according to the Laws established and live together with that unity and godly love which ought to be between a Minister and his Congregation This is the sum of my design which if I can effect it is all I aim at And with this Declaration of my mind and meaning I trust this short discourse of mine will be if not applauded yet at least excused First then I am to prove this point I. That never any Clergy in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge to the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England For proof of this we must behold the Church of God as it stood under the Law in the Land of Canaan and as it now stands under the Gospel in the most flourishing parts of Christendom Under the Law the Tribe of Levi was possessed of 48 Cities and the Territories round about them extending every way for the space of 2000 Cubits which in so small a Country was a greater proportion than the Rents received by the Clergy of all the Bishoprick and Chapter Lands in the Realm of England Then had they besides Tribes whereof more anon the first-born of Man-kind and all unclean Beasts which were redeemed at the rate of five Shekels apeece amounting in our money to 12 s. 6 d. and of the Firstlings of clean Beasts their blood being sprinkled on the Altar and the fat offered for a burnt-offering the flesh remained unto the Priests Of which see Numb 18. v. 15 16 17 18. They had also the First fruits of wine Levit. 2.3 7.5.7 oyl and wool Deut. 18. v. 4. yea and of all things else which the earth brought forth for the use of man the first fruits of the dough Numb 15. v. 20 21. the Meat-offerings the Sin-offerings the Trespass-offerings the Shake-offerings the Heave-offerings and the Shew-bread Levit. 7.33 34. Ib. v. 8. As also of all Eucharistical Sacrifices the Breast and the Shoulder of others the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw and the whole burnt-offering they received the skin Then add that all the Males of the Tribes of Israel were to appear thrice yearly before the Lord and none of them came empty-handed And that if any had detained any thing in part or in whole which was due by Law he was to bring a Ram for an offering to make good that which was detained and to add a fifth part to it in the way of Recompence Besides these duties were brought in to the Priests and Levites without charge or trouble And if any for their own ease desired not to pay in kind but to redeem the same for a sum of money the estimation of the due was to be made by the Priest and a fifth part added as before for full satisfaction Lev. 27 12 13. In a word such and so many allowances had the Priests and Levites that setting by the Tithes of their Corn and Cattel and of all manner of increase their maintenance had far exceeded that of the English Clergy and adding unto these the Tithes of all Creatures tithable it doth more than double it For in the payment of their Tithes by the Lords appointment there was not only a full tenth of all kinds of increase but such an imposition laid on all kinds of Grain as came to more than a sixt part of the Crop it self insomuch that of 6000 bushels 1121 accrued unto the Priests and Levites 4779 remaining only to the Husbandman For first out of 6000 bushels and so accordingly in all after that proportion a Sixtieth part at least and that they termed the Therumah of the evil eye or the niggards First-fruits was to be set apart for the first fruits of the threshing-floor which
Epist ad Corinth p. 62. There find we the good man complaining that the Church of Corinth so ancient and well grounded in the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should for the sake of one or two contentious persons tumultuate against their Presbyters and that the scandal of their functions should come unto the ears of Infidels to the dishonour of the Lord. Nor did the faction rest in the people only Ibid. p. 58. though it proceeded to that height as the ejecting of those Presbyters whom they had distasted but it had taken too deep sooting amongst the Presbyters themselves encroaching with too high an hand on the Bishops Office or wilfully neglecting his authority Part. 1. ch 5. For whereas in those times as before was shewn the blessed Eucharist regularly and according to the Churches Orders could not be celebrated but by the Bishop by his leave at least and that it did pertain to him to appoint the Presbyters what turns and courses they should have in that ministration these men perverting all good order neither observed the time and place appointed for that sacred Action nor kept themselves unto those turns and courses in the performance of the same which were assigned them by their Bishop Certain I am that the discourse of Clemens in the said Epistle doth militate as well against the one as against the other blaming as well the Presbyters for their irregular proceeding in their ministration as censuring the People for their insolency in the ejecting of their Presbyters So that we have two factions at this time in the Church of Corinth one of some inconformable Presbyters so far averse from being regulated by their Bishop as they ought to be Clem. p. 57. that they opposed the very Calling raising contentions and disputes about the Name and Office of Episcopacy another of the people against the Presbyters and that pursued with no less acrimony and despite than the former was For the repressing of these factions at this present time and the preventing of the like in the times to come the good old man doth thus proceed Beginning with the Presbyters Id. p. 48. he first presents unto them the obedience that Souldiers yield to their Commanders shewing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how orderly how readily and with what subjection they execute the several Commands imposed upon them by their Leaders that since all of them are not Generals Collonels Captains or in other Office every one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his rank or station is to obey the charge imposed upon him by the King or Emperour and his Commanders in the Field Then represents he to them the condition of the natural Body Id. 49. in which the Head can do but little without the ministery of the Feet the Feet as little out of question without direction from the Head that even the least parts of the body are not only profitable but also necessary concurring all of them together to the preservation of the whole Which ground so laid he thus proceeds in his Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Id. p. 52 c. These things being thus declared and manifested looking into the depth of heavenly knowledg we ought to do those things in their proper order the People in the tendring of their Oblations the Presbyters in the celebrating of the Liturgy according to the times and seasons by the Lord appointed who would not have these sacred Matters done either rashly or disorderly but at appointed times and hours and by such Persons as he hath thereunto designed by his supream Will that being done devoutly and Religiously they might be the more grateful to him They therefore who upon the times presixed make their Oblations to the Lord are blessed and very welcom unto him from whose commands they do not vary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For to the High-Priest was assigned his particular function the Priest had his peculiar ministery prescribed unto him and the Levites theirs the Laymen being left unto Lay-imployments Therefore let every one of you my brethren in his Rank and Station offer to God the blessed Eucharist with a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 53. keeping within the bounds of his ministration appointed to him by the Canon For so I take it is his meaning For not in every place was it permitted to the Jews to offer up the daily and perpetual Sacrifices whether they were Sin-offerings or Eucharistical Oblations but at Hierusalem alone nor there in any place indifferently but only in the Court of the Temple at the Altar the Sacrifice being first viewed and approved of both by the High Priest and the foresaid Ministers They that did any thing herein otherwise than agreeable to his will and pleasure were to die the Death you see my brethren that as we are endued with a greater knowledg so are we made obnoxious to the greater danger The Apostles have Preached the Gospel unto us from Christ JESUS Christ from God Christ being sent by God as the Apostles were by Christ and both proceeding orderly therein according to his holy Will For having received his Commands and being strengthened by the Resurrection of our Lord JESUS Christ and confirmed by the Word of God they spread themselves abroad in full assurance of the Holy Ghost publishing the coming of the Kingdom of God and having Preached the Word throughout many Regions and several Cities they constituted and ordained the first fruits of their labours such whom in spirit they approved of to be Bishops and Deacons unto those that afterwards were to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 54.55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 55. Nor was this any new device it being written many ages since in the book of God Esay 60. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons in Faith Afterwards laying down the History of Aarons Rod budding and thereby the miraculous confirmation of his Election he adds that the Apostles knowing by our Lord JESUS Christ the contention that would arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the name or function of Episcopacy Id. p. 57. take it which you will and being for this very cause endued with a perfect foresight of that which afterwards should happen ordained the aforesaid Ministers and left to every one their appointed Offices that whensoever they should die other approved men should succeed in their several places and execute their several parts in the Ministration Those therefore which were either ordained by them or by those famous and renowned men that followed after them with the consent and approbation of the Church and have accordingly served unblameably in the fold of Christ with all humility and meekness and kept themselves from baseness and corruption and have a long time carried a good testimony from all men those we conceive cannot without much injury be deprived of their place and service it being
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Q◠Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
to make sure work of it I must send Doctor Ames to school to Calvin who tells us on this Text of Moses non contexuit Moses historiam suo ordine sed narratione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposita melius confirmat c. Indeed it could not well be otherwise interpreted For how could Aaron lay up a pot of Mannah to be kept before the Testimony when as yet there was neither Ark nor Tabernacle and so no Testimony before which to keep it To bring this business to an end Moses hath told us in the place before remembred Verse 35 that the children of Israel did eat Mannah forty years which is not otherwise true in that place and time in which he tells it but by the help and figure of anticipation And this St. Austin noted in his questions upon Exodus Qu. 62. significat scriptura per Prolepsin i. e. hoc loco commemorando quod etiam postea factum est And lastly where Amesius sets it down for certain that no man ever thought of an anticipation in this place of Moses Verse supra qui praejudicio aliquo de observatione diei Dominicae non prius fuit prius anticipatus who was not first possessed with some manifest prejudice against the sanctifying of the Lords day this cannot possibly be said against Tostatus who had no Enemy to encounter nor no opinion to oppose and so no prejudice We conclude then that for this passage of the Scripture we find not any thing unto the contrary but that it was set down in that place and time by a plain and meer anticipation and doth relate unto the time wherein Moses wrote And therefore no sufficient warrant to setch the institution of the Sabbath from the first beginnings One only thing I have to add and that 's the reason which moved Moses to make this mention of the Sabbath even in the first beginning of the Book of God and so long time before the institution of the same Which doubtless was the better to excite the Jews to observe that day from which they seemed at first to be much averse and therefore were not only to be minded of it by a Memento in the front of the Commandment but by an intimation of the equity and reason of it even in the entrance of Gods Book derived from Gods first resting on that day after all his works Theodoret hath so resolved it in his Questions on the Book of Genesis Maxime autem Judaeis ista scribens necessario posuit hoc sanctificavit eum Qu. 21. ut majore cultu prosequantur Sabbatum Hoc enim in legibus sanciendis inquit sex diebus creavit Deus c. I say an intimation of the Equity and Reason of it for that 's as much as can be gathered from that place though some have laboured what they could to make the sanctifying of the seventh day therein mentioned a Precept given by God to our Father Adam touching the sanctifying of that day to his publick worship Of this I shall not now say much because the practice will disprove it Only I cannot but report the mind and judgment of Pererius a learned Jesuit Who amongst other reasons that he hath alledged to prove the observation of the Sabbath not to have taken beginning in the first infancy of the World makes this for one that generally the Fathers have agreed on this Deum non aliud imposuisse Adamo praeceptum omnino positivum nisi illud de non edendo fructu arboris scientiae c that God imposed no other Law on Adam than that of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of knowledg Of which since he hath instanced in none particularly I will make bold to lay before you some two or three that so out of the mouths of two or three witnesses the truth hereof may be established And first we have Tertullian who resolves it thus Adv. Judaeos Namque in principio mundi ipsi Adae Evae legem dedit c. In the beginning of the World the Lord commanded Adam and Eve that they should not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midle of the Garden Which Law saith he had been sufficient for their justification had it been observed For in that Law all other Precepts were included which afterwards were given by Moses St. Basil next who tells us first De jejunio that abstinence or fasting was commanded by the Lord in Paradise And then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the first Commandment given by God to Adam was that he should not eat of the Tree of knowledg The very same which is affirmed by St. Ambrose in another language Et ut sciamus non esse novum jejunium primam illic legem Lib. de Elia jejunio c. 3. i. e. in Paradise constituit de jejunio So perfectly agree in this the greatest lights both of African the Eastern and the Western Churches If so if that the law of abstinence had been alone sufficient for the justification of our Father Adam as Tertullian thinks or if it were the first Law given by God unto him as both St. Basil and St. Ambrose are of opinion then was there no such Law at all then made as that of sanctifying of the Sabbath or else not made according to that time and order wherein this passage of the Scripture is laid down by Moses And if not then there is no other ground for this Commandment in the Book of God before the wandring of Gods people in the Wilderness and the fall of Mannah A thing so clear that some of those who willingly would have the Sabbath to have been kept from the first Creation and have not the confidence to ascribe the keeping of it to any Ordinance of God but only to the voluntary imitation of his people And this is Torniellus way amongst many others Anno 236. who though he attribute to Enos both set Forms of Prayer and certain times by him selected for the performance of that Duty praecipue vero diebus Sabbati In die 7. especially upon the Sabbath yet he resolves it as before that such as sanctified that day if such there were non ex praecepto divino quod nullum tunc extabat sed ex pietate solum id egisse Of which opinion Mercer seems to be as before I noted So that in this particular point the Fathers and the Modern Writers the Papist and the Protestant agree most lovingly together Much less did any of the Fathers or other ancient Christian Writers conceive that sanctifying of the Sabbath or one day in seven was naturally ingrafted in the mind of man from his first creation It 's true they tell us of a Law which naturally was ingrafted in him So Chrysostom affirms that neither Adam In Rom. 7.12 hom 12. nor any other man did ever live without the guidance of this Law and that it was imprinted in the soul of man
as soon as he was made a living creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Father hath it But neither he nor any other did ever tell us that the Sabbath was a part of this Law of Nature nay In Ezech. c. 20. some of them expresly have affirmed the contrary Theodoret for example that these Commandments Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not steal and others of that kind alios quoque homines natura edocuit were generally implanted by the law of Nature in the minds of men But for the keeping of the Sabbath it came not in by Nature but by Moses Law At Sabbati observandi non natura magistra sed latio legis So Theodoret. And answerably thereunto Sedulius doth divide the Law into three chief parts In Rom. 3. Whereof the first is de Sacramentis of signs and Sacraments as Circumcision and the Passeover the second is quae congruit legi naturali the body of the Law of Nature and is the summary of those things which are prohibited by the words of God the third and last factorum of Rites and Ceremonies for so I take it is his meaning as new Moons and Sabbaths which clearly doth exempt the Sabbath from having any thing to do with the Law of Nature And Damascen assures too De Orthod fide l. 4. c. 24. that when there was no Law enacted nor any Scripture inspired by God that then there was no Sabbath neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which three Ancients we might add many more of these later times In Decalog Medulla theol l. 2. cap. 15. Rivet and Ames and divers others who though they plead hard for the antiquity of the Sabbath dare not refer the keeping of it to the Law of Nature but only as we shall see anon unto positive Laws and divine Authority But hereof we shall speak more largely when we are come unto the promulgating of this Law in the time of Moses where it will evidently appear to be a positive Constitution only fitted peculiarly to the Jews and never otherwise esteemed of than a Jewish Ordinance It 's true that all men generally have agreed on this that it is consonant to the Law of Nature to set apart some time to Gods publick service but that this time should rather be the seventh day than any other that they impute not unto any thing in Nature but either to Divine Legal or Ecclesiastical institution The School-men Papists Protestants men of almost all persuasions in Religion have so resolved it And for the Ancients our venerable Bede assures us that to the Fathers before the Law all days were equal the seventh day having no prerogative before the others and this he calls naturalis Sabbati libertatem In Luc. 19. the liberty of the Natural Sabbath which ought saith he to be restored at our Saviours coming If so if that the Sabbath or time of rest unto the Lord was naturally left free and arbitrary then certainly it was not restrained more unto one day than another or to the seventh day more than to the sixth or eighth Even Ambrose Catharin as stout a Champion as he was for the antiquity of the Sabbath finds himself at a loss about it For having took for granted as he might indeed that men by the prescript of Nature were to assign Peculiar times for the service of God and adding that the very Gentiles used so to do is fain to shut up all with an Ignoramus Nescimus modo quem diem praecipue observarunt priscà illi Dei cultores We cannot well resolve saith he what day especially was observed by those who worshipped God in the times of old Wherein he doth agree exactly with Abulensis against whom principally he took up the Bucklers who could have taught him this if he would have learnt of such a Master that howsoever the Hebrew people or any other before the giving of the Law were bound to set apart some time for religious Duties In Exod. 20. Qu. 11. non tamen magis in Sabbato quam in quolibet aliorum dierum yet were they no more bound to the Sabbath day than to any other So for the Protestant Writers two of the greatest Advocates of the Sabbath have resolved accordingly Quod dies ille solennis unus debeat esse in septimana hoc positivi juris est that 's Amesius doctrine And Ryvet also saith the same Lege de Sabbato positivam non naturalem agnoscimus The places were both cited in the former Section and both do make the Sabbath a meer positive Law But what need more be saidin so clear a case or what need further Witnesses be produced to give in evidence when we have confitentem reum For Dr. Bound who first amongst us here endeavoured to advance the Lords day into the place of the Jewish Sabbath and feigned a pedigree of the Sabbath even from Adams infancy hath herein said enough to betray his cause and those that since have either built upon his foundation or beautified their undertakings with his collections Indeed saith he this Law was given in the beginning not so much by the light of Nature as the rest of the nine Commandments were but by express words when God sanctified it For though this be in the Law of Nature that some days should be separated to Gods worship 2. Edit p. 11. 16. as appears by the practice of the Gentiles yet that it should be every seventh day the Lord himself set down in express words which otherwise by the light of Nature they could never have found So that by his confession there is no Sabbath to be found in the Law of Nature no more than by the testimony of the Fathers in any positive Law or divine appointment until the Decalogue was given by Moses Nay Doctor Bound goeth further yet and robs his friends and followers of a special Argument For where Danaeus asks this question Why one of seven rather than one of eight or nine and thereunto makes answer that the number of seven doth signifie perfection and perpetuity First saith the Doctor I do not see that proved that there is any such mystical signification Ib. p. 60. rather than of any other And though that were granted yet do I not find that to be any cause at all in Scripture why the seventh day should be commanded to be kept holy rather than the sixth or eighth And in the former page The special reason why the seventh day should be rather kept than any other is not the excellency or perfection of that number or that there is any mystery in it or that God delighteth more in it than in any other Though I confess saith he that much is said that way both in divine and humane Writers Much hath been said therein indeed so much that we may wonder at the strange niceties of some men and the unprofitable pains they have taken amongst them in fearching
of Enos Seths son that he was born Anno two hundred thirty six And till that time there was no Sabbath But then as some conceive the Sabbath day began to be had in honour because it is set down in Scripture that then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord. That is as Torniellus descants upon the place then Gen. 4. Annal. Anno 236. n. 4. were spiritual Congregations instituted as we may probably conjecture certain set Forms of Prayers and Hymns devised to set forth Gods glory certain set times and places also set apart for those pious duties praecipue diebus Sabbati especially the Sabbath-days in which most likely they began to abstain from all servile works in honour of that God whom they well knew had rested on the seventh day from all his labours Sure Torniellus's mind was upon his Mattins when he made this Paraphrase He had not else gathered a Sabbath from this Text considering that not long before he had thus concluded That sanctifying of the Sabbath here on Earth was not in use until the Law was given by Moses But certainly this Text will bear no such matter were it considered as it ought The Chaldee Paraphrase thus reads it Tunc in diebus ejus inceperunt filii hominum ut non orarent in nomine Domini V. 3. of this Chapter which is quite contrary to the English Our Bibles of the last Translation in the margin thus then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord and generally the Jews as Saint Hierom tells us do thus gloss upon it Tunc primum in nomine Domini Qu. Hebraic in Gen. in similitudine ejus fabricata sunt idola that then began men to set up Idols both in the name and after the similitude of God Ainsworth in his Translation thus Then began men prophanely to call upon the Name of the Lord who tells us also in his Annotations on this Text out of Rabbi Maimony That in these days Idolatry took its first beginning and the people worshipped the stars and all the host of Heaven so generally that at the last there were few left which acknowledged God as Enoch Methuselah Noah Sem and Heber So that we see not any thing in this Text sufficient to produce a Sabbath But take it as the English reads it which is agreeable to the Greek and vulgar Latin and may well stand with the Original yet will the cause be little better For men might call upon Gods Name and have their publick meetings and set Forms of Prayer without relation to the seventh day more than any other As for this Enos Eusebius proposeth him unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Praeparat Evang. l. 7 ◠as the first man commended in the Scripture for his love to God that we by his example might learn to call upon Gods Name with assured hope But yet withal he tells us of him that he observed not any of those Ordinances which Moses taught unto the Jews whereof the Sabbath was the chief as formerly we observed in Adam And Epiphanius ranks him amongst those Fathers who lived according to the Rules of the Christian Church Therefore no Sabbath kept by Enos We will next look on Enoch who as the Text tells us walked with God and therefore doubt we not but he would carefully have kept the Sabbath had it been required But of him also the Fathers generally say the same as they did before of others For Justin Martyr not only makes him one of those which without Circumcision and the Sabbath had been approved of by the Lord but pleads the matter more exactly The substance of his plea is this that if the Sabbath or Circumcision were to be counted necessary to eternal life we must needs fall upon this absurd opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. cum Tryphone that the same God whom the Jews worshipped was not the God of Enoch and of other men about those times which neither had been Circumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor kept the Sabbath nor any other Ordinances of the Law of Moses So Irenaeus speaking before of Circumcision and the Sabbath placeth this Enoch among those Lib. 4. cap. 30. qui sine iis quae praedicta sunt justificationem adepti sunt which had been justified without any the Ordinances before remembred Tertullian more fully yet Enoch justissimum nec circumcisum Adv. Judaeos nec sabbatizantem de hoc mundo transtulit c. Enoch that righteous man being neither Circumcised nor a Sabbath-keeper was by the Lord translated and saw not death to be an Item or instruction unto us that we without the burden of the Law of Moses shall be found acceptable unto God He sets him also in his challenge as one whom never any of the Jews could prove Sabbati cultorem esse to have been a keeper of the Sabbath De Demonstr l. 4. c. 6. Eusebius too who makes the Sabbath one of Moses's institutions hath said of Enoch that he was neither circumcised nor medled with the Law of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and that he lived more like a Christian than a Jew the same Eusebius in his seventh de praeparatione and Epiphanius in the place before remembred affirm the same of him as they do of Adam Abel Seth and Enos and what this Epiphanius saith of him Scal. de Emend Temp. l. 7. that he affirms also of his son Methusalem Therefore nor Enoch nor Methusalem ever kept the Sabbath It 's true the Aethiopians in their Kalendar have a certain period which they call Sabbatum Enoch Enoch's Sabbath But this consisteth of seven hundred years and hath that name either because Enoch was born in the seventh Century from the Creation viz. in the year six hundred twenty two or because he was the seventh from Adam It 's true that many of the Jews Beda in Ger. 4. and some Christians too have made this Enoch an Emblem of the heavenly and eternal Sabbath which shall never end because he was the seventh from Adam and did never taste of death as did the six that went before him But this is no Argument I trow that Enoch ever kept the Sabbath whiles he was alive Note that this Enoch was translated about the year nine hundred eighty seven and that Methusalem died but one year only before the Flood which was 1655. And so far we are safely come without any rub To come unto the Flood it self to Noah who both saw it and escaped it it is affirmed by some that he kept the Sabbath and that both in the Ark and when he was released out of it if not before Yea they have arguments also for the proof hereof but very weak ones such as they dare not trust themselves It is delivered in the eighth of the Book of Genesis that after the return of the Dove into the Ark Noah stayed yet other seven days before he sent
was Thursday following they were advanced so far as to the Wilderness of Sinai I say the third day of the third month For where the Text hath it Exod. 19.1 In the third month when the Children of Israel were gone forth out from Egypt the same day came they into the Wilderness of Sinai by the same day is meant the same day of the month which was the third day Exod. 19. ver 3.10 11. being Thursday after our Account The morrow after went Moses up unto the Lord and had commandment from him to sanctifie the people that day and to morrow and to make them ready against the third day God meaning on that day to come down in the eyes of all the People in Mount Sinai and to make known his Will unto them Verse 17 That day being come which was the Saturday or Sabbath the people were brought out of the Camp to meet with God and placed by Moses at the nether part of the Mountain Moses ascending first to God and descending after to the people to charge them that they did not pass their bounds before appointed It seems the Sabbath rest was not so established Verse 21 but that the people had been likely to take the pains to climb the Mountain and to behold the Wonders which were done upon it had they not had a special charge unto the contrary Things ordered thus it pleased the Lord to publish and proclaim his Law unto the people in Thunder Smoak and Lightnings and the noise of a Trumpet using therein the Ministery of his holy Angels which Law we call the Decalogue or the ten Commandments and contains in it the whole Moral Law or the Law of Nature This had before been naturally imprinted in the minds of men however that in tract of Time the character thereof had been much defaced so dimmed and darkened that Gods own people stood in need of a new impression and therefore was proclaimed in this solemn manner that so the letter of the Law might leave the clearer stamp in their affections A Law which in it self was general and universal equally appertaining both to Jew and Gentile Rom. 2.14 the Gentiles which know not the Law doing by nature the things contained in the Law as S. Paul hath told us but as at this time published on Mount Sinai and as delivered to the people by the hand of Moses they obliged only those of the house of Israel Zanchius hath so resolved it amongst the Protestants not to say any thing of the School-men who affirm the same De Redempti l. 1. c. 11. Th. 1. ut Politicae ceremoniales sic etiam morales leges quae Decalogi nomine significantur quatenus per Mosen traditae fuerunt Israelitis ad nos Christianos nihil pertinent c. As neither the Judicial nor the Ceremonial so nor the Moral Law contained in the Decalogue doth any way concern us Christians as given by Moses to the Jews but only so far forth as it is consonant to the Law of Nature which binds all alike and after was confirmed and ratified by Christ our King His reason is because that if the Decalogue as given by Moses to the Jews did concern the Gentiles the Gentiles had been bound by the fourth Commandment to observe the Sabbath in as strict a manner as the Jews Cum vero constet ad hujus diei sanctificationem nunquam fuisse Gentes obligatas c. Since therefore it is manifest that the Gentiles never were obliged to observe the Sabbath it followeth that they neither were nor possibly could be bound to any of the residue as given by Moses to the Jews We may conclude from hence that had the fourth Commandment been meerly Moral it had no less concerned the Gentiles than it did the Israelites For that the fourth Commandment is not of the same condition with the rest is no new invention the Fathers jointly so resolve it It 's true that Irenaeus tells us how God Lib. 4. cap. 31. the better to prepare us to eternal life Decalogi verba per semetipsum omnibus similiter locutus est did by himself proclaim the Decalogue to all people equally which therefore is to be in full force amongst us as having rather been inlarged than dissolved by our Saviours coming in the flesh Which words of Irenaeus if considered rightly must be referred to that part of the fourth Commandment which indeed is Moral or else the fourth Commandment must not be reckoned as a part or member of the Decalogue because it did receive no such enlargement as did the rest of the Commandments by our Saviours preaching whereof see Matth. 5.6 and 7 Chapters but a dissolution rather by his practice Dial. cum Triphone Justin the Martyr more expresly in his dispute with Trypho a learned Jew maintains the Sabbath to be only a Mosaical Ordinance as we shall see anon more fully and that it was imposed upon the Israelites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their hard heartedness and irregularity Contra Judaeos Tertullian also in his Treatise against the Jews saith that it was not spirituale aeternum mandatum sed temporale quod quandoque cessaret not a spiritual and eternal Institution but a temporal only Saint Austin yet more fully that it is no part of the Moral Law In Epistola ad Galat. For he divides the Law of Moses into these two parts Sacraments and Moral Duties accounting Circumcision the new Moons Sabbaths and the Sacrifices to appertain unto the first ad mores autem non occides c. and these Commandments Thou shalt not kill nor commit adultery nor bear false witness and the rest De spiritu lit c. 11. to be contained within the scond Nay more he tells us that Moses did receive a Law to be delivered to the people writ in two Tables made of stone by the Lords own finger wherein was nothing to be found either of Circumcision or the Jewish Sacrifices And then he adds In illis igitur decem praeceptis ecceepta Sabbati observatione dicatur mihi quid non sit observandum à Christiano Tell me saith he what is there in the Decalogue except the observation of the Sabbath day which is not carefully to be observed of a Christian man To this we may refer all those several places wherein he calls the fourth Commandment praeceptum figuratum in umbra positum a Sacrament a shadow and a figure as Tract the third in Joh. 1. and Tract 17. and 20. in Joh. 5. ad Bonifac. l. 3. T. 7. contra Faust Manich. l. 19. c. 18. the 14th Chapter of the Book de spiritu lit before remembred and finally to go no further Qu. in Exod. l. 2. qu. 173. where he speaks most home and to the purpose Ex decem praeceptis hoc solum figurate dictum est Of all the ten Commandments this only was delivered as a sign or figure See also
to set apart the seventh day to his holy worship that if by chance they should forget the Lord their God that day might call him back unto their remembrances where note it was commanded to the Jews alone Add that Josephus calls the Sabbath in many places a national or local custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a law peculiar to that People as Antiue l. 14. c. 18. de bello l. 2. c. 16. as we shall see hereafter more at large Lastly so given to the Jews alone that it became a difference between them and all other People Saint Cyril hath resolved it so In Ezech. 20. God saith he gave the Jews a Sabbath not that the keeping of the same should be sufficient to conduct them to eternal life Sed ut haec civilis administration is ratio peculiaris à gentium institutis distinguat eos but that so different a form of civil government should put a difference between them and all Nations else Theodoret more fully that the Jews being in other things like to other People in observatione sabbati propriam videbantur obtinere rempublicam In Ezech. 20. seemed in keeping of the Sabbath to have a custom by themselves And which is more saith he their Sabbath put a greater difference between the Jews and other People than their Circumcision For Circumcision had been used by the Idumaeans and Aegyptians Sabbati verò observation 〈◊〉 a Judaeorum natio custodiebat but the observation of the Sabbath was peculiar only to the Jews Nay even the very Gentiles took it for a Jewish Ceremony sufficient proof whereof we shall see ere long But what need more be said in this either that this was one of the Laws of Moses or that it was peculiar to the Jews alone seeing the same is testified by the holy Scripture Thou camest down upon Mount Sinai saith Nehemiah Cap. 19.13 Vers 14. and spakest with them the house of Israel from Heaven and gavest them right judgments and true Laws good Statutes and Commandments what more It followeth And madest known unto them thy holy Sabbaths and commandest them Precepts Statutes and Laws by the hand of thy Servant Moses Now on what motives God was pleased to prescribe a Sabbath to the Jews more at this time than any of the former Ages the Fathers severally have told us yea and the Scriptures too in several places Justin Martyr as before we noted gives this general reason Qu. ex Nov. Test 69. because of their hard-heartedness and irregular courses wherein Saint Austin closeth with him Cessarunt onera legis quae ad duritiem cordis Judaici fuerunt data in escis sabbatis neomeniis Where note how he hath joyned together New-moons and Sabbaths and the Jewish difference between meat and meat Particularly Gregory Nyssen makes the special motive to be this Testim adventus Dei in carne ad sedandum nimium eorum pecuniae studium so to restrain the People from the love of money For coming out of Egypt very poor and bare and having almost nothing but what they borrowed of the Egyptians they gave themselves saith he unto continual and incessant labour the sooner to attain to riches Therefore said God that they should labour six days and rest the seventh Damascen somewhat to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God De side Orth. l. 4. c. 24 saith he seeing the carnal and the covetous disposition of the Israelites appointed them to keep a Sabbath that so their Servants and their Cattel might partake of rest And then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as also that thus resting from their worldly businesses they might repair unto the Lord in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs and meditation of the Scriptures Rupertus harps on the same string that the others did L 5. in Joh c. 5. save that he thinks the Sabbath given for no other cause than that the labouring man being wearied with his weekly toyl might have some time to refresh his spirits Sabbatum nihil aliud est nisi requies vel quam ab causam data est nisi ut operarius fessus caeteris septimanae diebus uno die requiesceret Gaudentius Brixianus in his twelfth Homily or Sermon is of the same mind also that the others were These seem to ground themselves on the fifth of Deuteronomy where God commands his People to observe his Sabbaths Vers 14 that thy Man servant and thy Maid servant may rest as well as thou And then it followeth Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt Vers 15 and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence though with a mighty hand and an out-stretched arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day The force of which illation is no more than this that as God brought them out of Egypt wherein they were Servants so he commands them to take pity on their Servants and let them rest upon the Sabbath considering that they themselves would willingly have had some time of rest had they been permitted A second motive might be this to make them always mindful of that spiritual rest which they were to keep from the acts of sin and that eternal rest that they did expect from all toyl and misery In reference unto this eternal rest Saint Augustine tells us that the Sabbath was commanded to the Jews in umbra suturi De Gen. ad lit l. 4. c. 11. quae spiritalem requiem figuraret as a shadow of the things to come in S. Pauls Language which God doth promise unto those that do the works of Righteousness And in relation to the other the Lord himself hath told us that he had given his Sabbath unto the Jews to be a sign between him and them that they might know that he was the Lord that sanctified them Exod. 31.13 which is again repeated by Ezech. cap. 20.12 That they may know that I am the Lord which sanctifieth them For God as Gregory Nyssen notes it seems only to propose this unto himself that by all means he might at least destroy in man his inbred corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This was his aim in Circumcision and in the Sabbath De resurrect Chr. Orat. 1. and in forbidding them some kind of meats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For by the Sabbath he informed them of a rest from sin To cite more Fathers to this purpose were a thing unnecessary and indeed sensibile super sensum This yet confirms us further that the Sabbath was intended for the Jews alone For had God given the Sabbath to all other People as he did to them it must have also been a sign that the Lord had sanctified all People as he did the Jews There is another motive yet to be considered and that concerns as well the day as the Institution God might have given the Jews a Sabbath and yet not tied the Sabbath to one day of seven
Galatine reports from their own Records that in their latter exposition on the Book of Numbers upon those words send men that they may search the land of Canaan Chap. 13.2 they thus resolve it Nuncio praecepti licitum est c. A Messenger that goes upon Command may travail any day at what time be will And why because he is a Messenger upon Command Nuncius autem praecepti excludit sabbatum The phrase is somwhat dark but the meaning plain that those which went upon that Errand did not keep the Sabbath Certain it also is that for all that time no nor for any part thereof the people did not keep the Sabbath compleatly as the Law appointed For where there were two things concurring to make up the Sabbath first rest from labour and secondly the sacrifices destinate unto the day however they might rest some Sabbaths from their daily labours yet sacrifices they had none until they came into the Land of Canaan Now that they rested sometimes on the Sabbath day and perhaps did so generally in those forty years is manifest by that great and memorable Business touching the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath The case is briefly this the people being in the Wilderness Numb 15. Verse 32. ad 37. found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day and brought him presently unto Moses Moses consulted with the Lord and it was resolved that the offender should be stoned to death which was done accordingly The Law before had ordered it that he who so offended should be put to death but the particular manner of his death was not known till now The more remarkable is this case because it was the only time that we can hear of that execution had been done upon any one according as the Law enacted and thereupon the Fathers have took some pains to search into the reasons of so great severity De vit Mos l. 3. Philo accuseth him of a double crime in one whereof he was the principal and an Accessary only in the other For where it was before commanded that there should be no fire kindled on the Sabbath day this party did not only labour on the day of rest but also laboured in the gathering of such materials 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might administer fuel to prohibited fire Saint Basil seems a little to bemoan the man De judicio Dei in that he smarted so for his first offence not having otherwise offended either God or Man and makes the motive of his death neither to consist in the multitude of his sins or the greatness of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only in his disobedience to the will of God But we must have a more particular motive yet than this And first Rupertus tells us per superbiam illud quod videbatur exiguum commisit In locum that he did sin presumptuously with an high hand against the Lord and therefore God decreed he should die the death God not regarding either what or how great it was sed qua mente fecerat but with what mind it was committed But this is more I think than Rupertus knew being no searcher of the heart Rather I shall subscribe herein unto Saint Chrysostom Who makes this Quaere first Hom. 39. in Matth. 12. seeing the Sabbath as Christ saith was made for man why was he put to death that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath And then returns this answer to his own demand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because in case God had permitted that the Law should have been slighted in the first beginning none would have kept it for the future Theodoret to that purpose also ne autor fieret leges transgrediendi Qu. 31. in Num. lest other men encouraged by his example should have done the like the punishment of this one man striking a terrour unto all No question but it made the people far more observant of the Sabbath than they would have been who were at first but backwards in the keeping of it as is apparent by that passage in the sixteenth of Exod. v. 27. And therefore stood the more in need not only of a watch-word or Memento even in the very front of the Law it self but of some sharper course to stir up their memory Therefore this execution was the more requisite at this instant as well because the Jews by reason of their long abode in a place of continual servile toil could not be suddenly drawn unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terrour as also because nothing is more needful than with extremity to punish the first transgressours of those Laws that do require a more exact observation for the times to come What time this Tragedy was acted is not known for certain By Torniellus it is placed in the year 2548. of the Worlds Creation which was some four years after the Law was given More than this is not extant in the Scripture touching the keeping of the Sabbath all the life of Moses What was done after we shall see in the Land of Promise In the mean time It is most proper to this place to take a little notice of those several Duties wherein the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist especially that we may know the better what we are to look for at the peoples hands when we bring them thither Two things the Lord commanded in his holy Scripture that concern the Sabbath the keeping holy of the same one in relation to the People the other in reference to the Priest In reference to the People he commanded only rest from labour that they should do no manner of work and that 's contained expresly in the Law it self In reference to the Priest he commanded sacrifice that on the Sabbath day over and above the daily sacrifice there should be offered to the Lord two Lambs of an year old without blemish one in the morning and the other in the evening Numb 28. as also to prepare first and then place the Shewbread being twelve loaves one for every Tribe continually before the Lord every Sabbath day These several references so divided the Priest might do his part without the People and contrary the People do their part without the Priest Of any Sabbath duties which were to be performed between them wherein the Priest and People were to join together the Scriptures are directly silent As for these several Duties that of the Priest the Shew-bread and the sacrifice was not in practice till they came to the Land of Canaan and then though the Priest offered for the People yet he did not with them So that for forty years together all the life of Moses the sanctifying of the Sabbath did consist only for ought we find in a Bodily rest a ceasing from the works of their weekly labours and afterwards in that and in the Sacrifices which the Priest made for them Which as they seem to be the greater of the two so
was there nothing at all therein in which the People were to do no not so much except some few as to be Spectators the sacrifices being offered only in the Tabernacle as in the Temple after when they had a Temple the people being scattered over all the Country in their Towns and Villages Of any Reading of the Law or exposition of the same unto the People or publick form of Prayers to be presented to the Lord in the Congregation we find no footstep now nor a long time after None in the time of Moses for he had hardly perfected the Law before his death the Book of Deuteronomy being dedicated by him a very little before God took him None in a long time after no not till Nehemiahs days as we shall see hereafter in that place and time The resting of the people was the thing commanded in imitation of Gods Rest when his Works were finished that as he rested from the works which he had created so they might also rest in memorial of it But the employment of this Rest to particular purposes either of Contemplation or Devotion that 's not declared unto us in the Word of God but left at large either unto the liberty of the People or the Authority of the Church Now what the people did how they employed this rest of theirs that Philo tells us in his third Book of the life of Moses Moses saith he ordained that since the World was finished on the seventh day all of his Common-wealth following therein the course of Nature should spend the seventh day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Festival delights resting therein from all their works yet not to spend it as some do in laughter childish sports or as the Romans did their time of publick Feastings in beholding the activity either of the Jester or common Dancers but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the study of true Philosophy and in the contemplation of the works of Nature And in another place He did command De Decalog saith he that as in other things so in this also they should imitate the Lord their God working six days and resting on the seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and spending it in meditation of the works of Nature as before is said And not so only but that upon that day they should consider of their actions in the week before if haply they had offended against the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that so they might correct what was done amiss and be the better armed to offend no more So in his Book de mundi opisicio he affirms the same that they imployed that day in divine Philosophy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even for the bettering of their manners and reckoning with their Consciences That thus the Jews did spend the day or some part thereof is very probable and we may take it well enough upon Philo's word but that they spent it thus by the direction or command of Moses is not so easily proved as it is affirmed though for my part I willingly durst assent unto it For be it Moses so appointed yet this concerns only the behaviour of particular persons and reflects nothing upon the publick Duties in the Congregation It 's true that Philo tells us in a Book not extant how Moses also did ordain these publick meetings Ap Eâ—seb Praepar l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What then did Moses order to be done on the Sabbath day He did appoint saith he that we should meet all in some place together and there sit down with modesty and a general silence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hear the Law that none plead ignorance of the same Which custom we continue still harkning with wonderful silence to the Law of God unless perhaps we give some joyful acclamation at the hearing of it some of the Priests if any present or otherwise some of the Elders reading the Law and then expounding it unto us till the night come on Which done the people are dismissed full of divine instruction and true Piety So he or rather out of him Eusebius But here by Philo's leave we must pause a while This was indeed the custom in our Saviours time and when Philo lived and he was willing as it seems to fetch the pedigree thereof as far as possibly he could Annales An. 2546. n. 10. So Salianus tells him on the like occasion Videtur Philo Judaeorum merem in synagogis disserendi antiquitate donare voluisse quem à Christo Apostolis observatum legimus The same reply we make to Josephus also who tells us of their Law-maker that he appointed not that they should only hear the Law once or twice a year Cont. Ap. 2. Deut. 6.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that once every week we should come together to hear the Laws that we might perfectly learn the same Which thing saith he all other Law-makers did omit And so did Moses too by Josephus leave unless we make a day and a year all one For being now to take his farewel of that people and having oft advised them in his Exhortation to meditate on the words that he had spoken even when they tarried in their houses and walked by the way when they rose up and when they went to bed he called the Priests unto him Verse 31.9 Verse 10. Verse 11. and gave the Law into their hands and into the hands of all the Elders of Israel And he commanded them and said At the end of every seven years in the solemnity of the year of Release at the Feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord their God in the place that thou shalt choose thou shalt read this Law before Israel in their hearing that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe all the words of this Law to do them Verse 12. This was the thing decreed by Moses and had been needless if not worse in case he had before provided that they should have the Law read openly unto them every Sabbath day So then by Moses order the Law was to be read publickly every seventh year only in the year of Release because then servants being manumitted from their Bondage and Debtours from their Creditours all sorts of men might hear the Law with the greater chearfulness and in the Feast of Tabernacles because it lasted longer than the other Festivals and so it might be read with the greater leisure and heard with more attention and then it was but this Law too the Book of Deuteronomy This to be done only in the place which the Lord shall choose to be the seat and receptacle of his holy Tabernacle not in inferiour Towns much less petty Villages and yet this thought sufficient to instruct the people in the true knowledg of Gods Law and keeping of his Testimonies And indeed happy had they been had
Sacrament was no such easie Ministery but that it did require much labour and many hands to go through with it â—â—b 2. Buxdorfius thus describes it in his Synagoga Tempore diei octavi matutino ca quae ad circumcisionem opus sunt tempestive parantur c. In the morning of the eighth day all things were made ready And first two seats are placed or else one so framed that two may set apart in it adorned wieh costly Carpets answerable unto the quality of the party Then comes the surety for the Child and placeth himself in the same seat and near to him the Circumciser Next followeth one bringing a great Torch in which were lighted twelve Wax-candles to represent the twelves Tribes of Israel after two Boys carrying two Cups full of red-Wine to wash the Circumcisers mouth when the work is done another bearing the Circumcisers Knife a third a dish of sand whereinto the foreskin must be cast being once cut off a fourth a dish of Oil wherein are linnen clouts to be applyed unto the wound some others spices and strong Wines to refresh those that faint if any should All this is necessarily required as preparations to the Act of Circumcision nor is the Act less troublesom than the preparations make shew of which I would now describe but that I am persuaded I have said enough to make it known how much ado was like to be used about it And though perhaps some of these Ceremonics were not used in this present time whereof we speak yet they grew up and became ordinary many of them before the Jewish Commonwealth was destroyed and ruinated Hom. de Semente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where there is Circumcision there must be Knifes and Sponges to receive the Bloud and such other necessaries said Athanasius And not such other only as conclern the work In Joh. l. 4. l. 50. Lib. 7. but such as appertain also to the following Cure Circumciditur curatur homo circumcisus in Sabbato as St. Cyril notes it Which argument our Saviour used in his own defence viz that he as well might make a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day as they one part Now that this Act of Circumcision was a plain breaking of the Sabbath besides the troublesomness of the work is affirmed by many of the Fathers L. 1. Haeres 30. n. 32. By Epiphanius expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If a Child was born upon the Sabbath the circumcision of that Child took away the Sabbath And St. Chrysestâ—m speaks more home than he Hom. 49. in Joh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sabbath saith the Father was broke many ways among the Jews but in no one thing more than in Circumcision Now what should move the Jews to prefer Circumcision before the Sabbath unless it were because that Circumcision was the older ceremony I would gladly learn especially considering the resemblance that was between them in all manner of circumsiances Was Circumcision made to be a token of the Covenant between the Lord of Heaven and the seed of Abraham Gen. 17.17 So was the Sabbath between God and the house of Israel Exod. 31.17 Was Circumcision a perpetual covenant with the seed of Abraham in their generations Gen. 17.7 So was the Sabbath to be kept throughout their Generations for a perpetual Covenant also Exod 31.16 Was Circumcision so exacted that whosoever was not Circumcised that soul should be cut off from the People of God Gen. 17.14 So God hath said it of his Sabbath that whosoever breaks it or doth any manner of work therein that soul shall be cut off from among the People Exod. 31.14 In all these points there was a just and plain equality between them but had the Sabbath been a part of the Moral Law it must have infinitely gone before Circumcision What then should move the Jews to prefer the one before the other but that conceiving both alike they thought it best to give precedency to the elder and rather break the Sabbath than put off Circumcision to a further day Hence grew it into a common maxim amongst that People Circumcision pellit Sabbatum that Circumcision drives away the Sabbath as before I noted Nor could it be that they conceived a greater or more strict necessity to be in Circumcision than in the Sabbath the penalty and danger as before we shewed you being alike in both for in the Wilderness by the space of 40 years together when in some fort they kept the Sabbath most certain that they Circumcised not one not one of many hundred thousands that were born in so long a time Again had God intended Circumcision to have been so necessary that there was no deferring of it for a day or two he either had not made the Sabbaths rest so exact and rigid or else out of that generul rule had made exception in this case And on the other side had he intended that the Sabbaths resT should have been literally observed and that no manner of work should be done therein he had not so precisely limited Circumcision to the eighth day only Just Martyn cont Tryph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea though it fell upon the Sabbath but would have respited the same till another day The Act of Circumcision was not restrained unto the eighth day so precisely but that it might be as it was sometimes deferred upon occasion as in the case of Moses Children and the whole People in the Wilderness before remembred Indeed it was not to be hastened and performed before Not out of any mystery in the number which might adapt it for that business as some Rabbins thought but because Children till that time are hardly purged of that blood and slime which they bring with them into the world Levit. 22. v. 27. Upon which ground the Lord appointed thus in the Law Levitical When a Bullock or a Sheep or a Goat is brought forth it shall be seven days under the dam and from the eighth day and thence-forth it shall be accepted for an offering to the Lord. This makes it manifest that the Jews thought the Sabbath to be no part of the Morallaw and therefore gave precedency to Circumcision as the older ceremony Not because it was of Moses but of the Fathers that is L. 4. in Joh. c. 49. saith Cyril on that place because they thought not fit to lay aside an ancient custom of their Ancestors for the Sabbaths sake Quia non putabant consuetudinem patrum propter honorem Sabbati contemnendam esse as the Father hath it Nay so far did they prize the one before the other that by this breaking of the Sabbath they were persuaded verily that they kept the Law Moses saith Christ our Saviour gave you Circumcision and you on be Sabbath day Circumcise a man that the Law of Moses should not be broken Job 7.22 It seems that Circumcision was much like Terminus and Juventus in the Toman story who
so many manners of work as that day they did However as it was our blessed Saviour did account these works of theirs to be a publick prophanation of the Sabbath day Read ye not in the Law saith he Math. 12.5 how that upon the Sabbath days the Priests in the Temple do prophane the Sabbath Yet he deelared withal that the Priests were blameless in that they did it by direction from the God of Heaven The Sabbath then was daily broken but the Priest excusable For Fathers that affirm the same see Justin Martyr dial qu. 27. ad Orthod Epiphan l. 1. haer 19. n. 5. Hierom. in Psal 92. Athanas de Sabb. Circumcis Aust in Qu. ex N. Test 61. Isidore Pelusiot Epl. 72. l. 1. and divers others These were the Offices of the Priest on the Sabbath day and questionless they were sufficient to take up the time Of any other Sabbath duties by them performed at this present time there is no Constat in the Scripture no nor of any place as yet designed for the performance of such other duties as some conceive to appertain unto the Levites That they were scattered and dispersed over all the Tribes is indeed most true The Curse of Jacob now was become ' a blessing to them Forty-eight Cities had they given them for their inheritance whereof thirteen were proper only to the Priests besides their several sorts of Tithes and what accrewed unto them from the publick sacrifices to an infinite value Yet was not this dispersion of the Tribe of Levi in reference to any Sabbath duties that so they might the better assist the People in the solemnities and sanctifying of that day The Scripture tells us no such matter The reasons manifested in the word were these two especially First that they might be near at hand to instruct the People Levit. 10.10 11. and teach them all the Statutes which the Lord had spoken by the hand of Moses as also to let them know the difference between the holy and unholy the unclean and clean Many particular things there were in the Law Levitical touching pollutions purifyings and the like legal Ordinances which were not necessary to be ordered by the Priests above those that attended at the Altar and were resorted to in most difficult cases Therefore both for the Peoples ease and that the Priests above might not be troubled every day in matters of inferiour moment the Priests and Levites were thus mingled amongst the Tribes A second reason was that there might be as well some nursery to train up the Levites until they were of Age fit for the service of the Tabernacle as also some retirement unto the which they might repair when by the Law they were dismissed from their attendance The number of the Tribe of Levi in the first general muster of them from a month old and upwards was 22000. just out of which number all from 30 years of age to 50. being in all 8580 persons were taken to attend the publick Ministery The residue with their Wives and Daughters were to be severally disposed of in the Cities allotted to them therein to rest themselves with their goods and cattel and do those other Offices above remembred Which Offices as they were the works of every day so if the People came unto them upon the Sabbaths or New-moons as they did on both to be instructed by them in particular cases of the Law 2 King 23. no doubt but they informed them answerably unto their knowledge But this was but occasional only no constant duty Indeed it is conceived by Master Samuel Purchas on the authority of Cornelius Bertram Pilg. almost as modern as himself That the forty-eight Cities of the Levites had their fit places for Assemblies and that thence the Synagogues had their beginnings Which were it so it would be no good argument that in those places of Assemblies the Priests and Levites publickly did expound the Law unto the People on the Sabbath days as after in the Synagogues For where those Cities were but four in every Tribe one with another the People must needs travel more than six furlongs which was a Sabbath days journey of the largest measure as before we noted or else that nice restriction was not then in use And were it that they took the pains to go up unto them yet were not those few Cities able to contain the multitudes When Joab not long after this did muster Israel at the command of david 2 Sam. 24. he found no fewer than thirteen hundred thousand fighting men Suppose we then that unto every one fighting man there were three old Men Women and Children fit to hear the Law as no doubt there were Put these together and it will amount in all to two and fifty hundred thousand Now out of these set by four hundred thousand for Hierusalem and the service there and then there will remain one hundred thousand just which must owe suit and service every Sabbath day to each several City of the Levites Too vast a number to be entertained in any of their Cities and much less in their synagogues had each house been one So that we may resolve for certain that the dispersion of the Levites over all the Tribes had no relation hitherto unto the reading of the Law or any publick Sabbath duties CHAP. VII Touching the keeping of the SABBATH from the time of David to the Maccabees 1. Particular necessities must give place to the Law of Nature 2. That Davids flight from Saul was upon the Sabbath 3. What David did being King of Israel in ordering things about the Sabbath 4. Elijahs flight upon the Sabbath and what else hapned on the Sabbath in Elijah's time 5. The limitation of a Sabbath days journey not known amongst the Jews when Elisha lived 6. The Lord become offended with the Jewish Sabbaths and on what occasion 7. The Sabbath entertained by the Samaritans and their strange niceties therein 8. Whether the Sabbaths were observed during the Captivity 9. The special care of Nehemiah to reform the Sabbath 10. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days begun by Ezra 11. No Synagogues nor weekly reading of the Law during the Government of the Kings 12. The Scribes and Doctors of the Law impose new rigours on the People about their Sabbaths THUS have we traced the Sabbath from the Mount to Silo the space of forty five years or thereabouts wherein it was observed sometimes and sometimes broken broken by publick order from the Lord himself and broken by the publick practice both of Priest and People No precept in the Decalogue so controuled and justled by the legal Ceremonies forced to give place to Circumcision because the younger and to the legal Sacrifices though it was their elders and all this while no blame or imputation to be laid on them that so prophaned it Men durst not thus have dallied with the other nine no nor with this neither had it
leave the seventh year free and the exaction of every debt Where still observe that they had no less care of the annual Sabbaths yea of the Sabbaths of years than of the weekly and Marketting not more restrained on the weekly Sabbaths than on the Annual A Covenant not so well performed as it was agreed For Nehemiah who was principal on the Peoples part being gone for Babylon at his return found all things contrary to what he looked for I saw saith he Chap. 13.15 in Judah them that trode Wine presses on the Sabbath and that brought in Sheafs and which laded Asses also with Wine Grapes and Figgs and brought them into Hierusalem on the Sabbath day and others men of Tyrus that brought Fish and all manner of Ware Verse 16. and sold it on the Sabbath unto the Children of Judah a most strange disorder So general was the crime become that the chief Rulers of the People were most guilty of it So that to rectifie this misrule Nehemiah was not only forced to shut up the Gates upon the Even before the Sabbath yea and to keep them shut all the Sabbath day whereby the Merchants were compelled to rest with their Commodities without the Walls but to use threatning words unto them that if from that time forwards they came with Merchandize on the Sabbath he would forbear no longer but lay hands upon them A course not more severe than necessary as the case then stood Nor had those mischiefs been redressed being now countenanced by custom and some chief men among the People had they not met a man both resolved and constant one that both knew his work and had a will to see it finished This reformation of the Sabbath or rather of those foul abuses which had of late defiled it and even made it despicable is placed by Torniellus An. 3629. which was above an hundred years after the restitution of this people to their Native Countrey So difficult a thing it is to overcome an evil custom Things ordered thus and all those publick scandals being thus removed there followed a more strict observance of the Sabbath day than ever had been kept before The rather since about these times began the reading of the Law in the Congregation Not every seventh year only and on the Feast of Tabernacles as before it was or should have been at the least by the Law of Moses but every sabbath day and each solemn meeting not only in the Temple of Hierusalem as it is used to be but in the Towns and principal places of each several Tribe Ezra first set this course on foot a Priest by calling one very skilful in the Laws of Moses who having taken great pains to seek out the Law and other Oracles of God digested and disposed them into that form and method in which we have them at this present Of this see Iren. l. 3.25 Tertullian de habitu mulierum Clem. Alexandr l. 1. Strom. Chrysost hom 8. ad Hebraeos and divers others This done and all the people met together at the Feast of Tabernacles Anno 3610 Nehem. 8.4 which was some ninty years after the return from Babylon as before was said he took that opportunity to make known the Law unto the people For this cause he provided a Pulpit of Wood that so he might be heard the better and round about him stood the Priests Verse 4.7 Verse 8. Verse 18. and Levites learned men of purpose to expound the Text and to give the sense thereof that so the people might the better understand the reading And this they did eight days together from the first day until the last when the Feast was ended Now in this Act of Ezra's there was nothing common nothing according to the custom of the former times neither in time or place or any other circumstance For the time although it was the Feast of Tabernacles yet was it not the seventh year as Moses ordered it that year which was the first of Nehemiahs coming unto Hierusalem Neh. 8.1 3. not being the sabbatical year but the third year after as Torniellus doth compute it Then for the place it should have been performed in the Temple only as both by Moses Ordinance and Josiahs practice doth at large appear but now they did it in the street before the Water-gates as the Text informs us So for manner of the Reading it was not only published as it had been formerly but expounded also An. 3610. n. 9. Whereof as of a thing never known before this reason is laid down by Torniellus quod lingua Hebraica desierat jam vulgaris esse Chaldaico seu Syriaco idiomate in ejus locum surrogato because the Hebrew tongue wherein the Scriptures were first written was now grown strange unto the people the Chaldee or the Syriack being generally received in the place thereof And last of all for the continuance of this Exercise it held out eight days all the whole time the Feast continued whereas it was appointed by the Law of Moses that only the first and last days of the Feast of Tabernacles should be esteemed and solemnized as holy convocations to the Lord their God Levit. 23.35 36. Here was a total alteration of the ancient custom and a fair overture to the Priests who were then Rulers of the people to begin a new a fair instruction to them all that reading of the Law of God was not confined to place or time but that all times and places were alike to his holy Word Every seventh day as fit for so good a Duty as every seventh year was accounted in the former times the Villages and Towns as capable of the Word of God as was the great and glorious Temple of Hierusalem and what prerogative had the Feast of Tabernacles but that the Word of God might be as necessary to be heard on the other Festivals as it was on that The Law had first been given them on a Sabbath day and therefore might be read unto them every Sabbath day This might be pleaded in behalf of this alteration and that great change which followed after in the weekly Sabbaths whereon the Law of God was not only read unto the people such of them as inhabited over all Judaea but publickly made known unto them in all the Provinces and Towns abroad where they had either Synagogues or habitations God certainly had so disposed it in his heavenly Counsels that so his holy Word might be more generally known throughout the World and a more easie way layed open for the admittance and receipt of the Messiah whom he meant to send that so Hierusalem and the Temple might by degrees be lesned in their reputation and men might know that neither of them was the only place John 4.20 where they ought to worship This I am sure of that by this breaking of the custom although an institute of Moses the Law was read more frequently than in times of old there being
one other Reading of it publickly and before the people related in the thirteenth of Nehemiah when it was neither Feast of Tabernacles nor sabbatical year for ought we find in holy Scripture Therefore most like it is that it was the Sabbath which much about those times began to be ennobled with the constant reading of the Word in the Congregation First in Hierusalem and after by degrees in most places else as men could fit themselves with convenient Synagogues Houses selected for that purpose to hear the Word of God and observe the same Of which times and of none before those passages of Philo and Josephus before remembred Chap. 6. n. 4. touching the weekly reading of the Law and the behaviour of the people in the publick places of Assembles are to be understood and verified as there we noted For that there was no Synagogue nor weekly reading of the Law before these times besides what hath been said already we will now make manifest No Synagogue before these times for there is neither mention of them in all the body of the old Testament nor any use of them in those days wherein there were no Congregations in particular places And first there is no mention of them in the old Testament For where it is supposed by some that there were Synagogues in the time of David and for the proof thereof they produce these words Psal 74.8 they have burnt up all the Synagogues of God in the Land the supposition and the proof are alike infirm For not to quarrel the Translation which is directly different from the Greek and vulgar Latine and somewhat from the former English this Psalm if writ by David was not composed in reference to any present misery which fefell the Church There had been no such havock made thereof in all Davids time as is there complained of Therefore if David writ that Psalm he writ it as inspired with the spirit of Prophecy and in the spirit of Prophecy did reflect on those wretched times wherein Antiochus laid waste the Church of God and ransacked his inheritance To those most probably must it be referred the miseries which are there bemoaned not being so exactly true in any other time of trouble as it was in this Magis probabilis est conjectura ad tempus Antiochi referri has querimonias as Calvin notes it In Psal 74. And secondly there was no use of them before because no reading of the Law in the Congregation of ordinary course and on the Sabbath days For had the Law been read unto the people every Sabbath day we either should have found some Commandment for it or some practice of it but we meet with neither Rather we find strong arguments to persuade the contrary We read it of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17.7 that in the third year of his reign he sent his Princes Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nathaneel and Micaiah to teach in the Cities of Judah These were the principal in Commission and unto them he joyned nine Levites and two Priests to bear them company and to assist them It followeth And they taught in Judah Verse 9. and had the book of the Law of the Lord with them and they went about throughout all the Cities of Judah and taught the people And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law with them This must needs be a needless labour in case the people had been taught every Sabbath day or that the Book of the Law had as then been extant and extant must it be if it had been read in every Town and Village over all Judaea Therefore there was no Synagogue no reading of the Law every Sabbath day in Jehosaphats time But that which follows of Josiah is more full than this 2 Kings 12. That godly Prince intended to repair the Temple and in pursuit of that intendment Hilkiah the Priest to whom the ordering of the work had been committed found hidden an old Copy of the Law of God which had been given unto them by the hand of Moses This Book is brought unto the King and read unto him And when the King had heard the words of the Law he rent his cloths And not so only Verse 11. Chap. 23.1 2. but he gathered together all the Elders of Judah and Hierusalem and read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. Had it been formerly the custom to read the Law each Sabbath unto all the people it is not to be thought that this good King Josiah could possibly have been such a stranger to the Law of God or that the finding of the Book had been related for so strange an accident when there was scarce a Town in Judah but was furnished with them Or what need such a sudden calling of all the Elders and on an extraordinary time to hear the Law if they had heard it every Sabbath and that of ordinary course Nay so far were they at this time from having the Law read amongst them every weekly Sabbath that as it seems it was not read amongst them in the sabbath of years as Moses had before appointed For if it had been read unto them once in seven years only that vertuous Prince had not so soon forgotten the contents thereof Therefore there was no Synagogue no weekly reading of the Law in Josiabs days And if not then and not before then not at all till Ezras time The finding of the Book of God before remembred is said to happen in the year 3412. of the Worlds Creation not forty years before the people were led Captives into Babylon in which short space the Princes being careless and the times distracted there could be nothing done that concern'd this business Now from this reading of the Law in the time of Ezra unto the Council holden in Hierusalem there passed 490 years or thereabouts Acts 15.21 Antiquity sufficient to give just cause to the Apostle there to affirm that Moses in old time in every City had them that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that we may conclude for certain that till these times wherein we are there was no reading of the Law unto the people on the Sabbath days and in these times when it was taken up amongst them it was by Ecclesiastical institution only no divine Authority But being taken up on what ground soever it did continue afterwards though perhaps sometimes interrupted until the final dissolution of that Church and State and therewithal grew up a liberty of interpretation of the holy words which did at last divide the people into sects and factions Petrus Cunaeus doth affirm that howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or in private De repub l. 2. ca. 17. yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio magistrorum commentatio nulla But in
met together for religious exercises Which their religious exercises when they were performed or if the times were such that their Assemblies were prohibited and so none were performed at all it was not held unlawful to apply themselves unto their ordinary labours as we shall see anon in the following Ages For whereas some have gathered from this Text of the Revelation from S. John's being in the spirit on the Lords day as the phrase there is that the Lords day is wholly to be spent in spiritual exercises that their conceit might probably have had some shew of likelihood had it been said by the Apostle that he had been in the spirit every Lords day But being as it is a particular case it can make no rule unless it be that every man on the Lords day should have Dreams and Visions and be inspired that day with the spirit of Prophecy no more than if it had been told us upon what day Saint Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven every man should upon that day expect the like Celestial raptures Add here how it is thought by some â—â—omarus de â— abbat c. 6. that the Lords day here mentioned is not to be interpreted of the first day of the week as we use to take it but of the day of his last coming of the day of judgment wherein all flesh shall come together to receive their sentence which being called the Lords day too in holy Scripture that so the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.5 S. John might see it being rapt in spirit as if come already But touching this we will not meddle let them that own it look unto it the rather since S. John hath generally been expounded in the other sence by Aretas and Andreas Caesariensis upon the place by Bede de rat temp c. 6. and by the suffrage of the Church the best expositor of Gods Word wherein this day hath constantly since the time of that Apostle been honoured with that name above other days Which day how it was afterwards observed and how far different it was thought from a Sabbath day the prosecution of this story will make clear and evident CHAP. II. In what estate the Lords day stood from the death of the Apostles to the reign of Constantine 1. Touching the orders setled by the Apostles for the Congregation 2. The Lords day and the Saturday both Festivals and both alike observed in the East in Ignatius time 3. The Saturday not without great difficulty made a Fasting day 4. The Controversie about keeping Easter and how much it conduceth to the present business 5. The Feast of Easter not affixed to the Lords day without much opposition of the Eastern Churches 6. What Justin Martyr and Dionysius of Corinth have left us of the Lords day Clements of Alexandria his dislike thereof 7. Vpon what grounds the Christians of the former times used to pray standing on the Lords day and the time of Penteco st 8. What is recorded by Tertullian of the Lords day and the Assemblies of the Church 9. Origen as his Master Clemens had done before dislikes set days for the Assembly 10. S. Cyprian what he tells us of the Lords day and of the reading of the Scriptures in S. Cyprians time 11. Of other holy days established in these three first Ages and that they were observed as solemnly as the Lords day was 12. The name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never WE she wed you in the former Chapter whatever doth occur in the Acts and Monuments of the Apostles touching the Lords day and the Sabbath how that the one of them was abrogated as a part of the Law of Moses the other rising by degrees from the ruins of it not by Authority divine for ought appears but by Authority of the Church As for the duties of that day they were most likely such as formerly had been used in the Jewish Synagogues reading the Law and Prophets openly to the Congregation and afterwards expounding part thereof as occasion was calling upon the Lord their God for the continuance of his mercies and singing Psalms and Hymns unto him as by way of thankfulness These the Apostles found in the Jewish Church and well approving of the same as they could not otherwise commended them unto the care of the Disciples by them to be observed as often as they met together on what day soever First for the reading of the Law In Jos hom 15. Origen saith expresly that it was ordered so by the Apostles Judaicarum historiarum libri traditi sunt ab Apostolis legendi in Ecclesiis as he there informs us To this was joyned in tract of time the reading of the holy Gospel and other Evangelical writings it being ordered by S. Peter that S. Marks Gospel should be read in the Congregation HIst l. 2.15 1 Thes ca. ult v. 17. as Eusebius tells us and by S. Paul that his Epistle to the Thessalonians should be read unto all the holy Brethren and also that to the Colossians to be read in the Church of the Laodiceans as that from Laodicea in the Church of the Colossians By which example Ca. ult v. 16. not only all the writings of the Apostles but many of the writings of Apostolical men were publickly read unto the People and for that purpose one appointed to exercise the ministry of a Reader in the Congregation So antient is the reading of the Scriptures in the Church of God To this by way of comment or application was added as we find by S. Paul's directions the use of Prophesie or Preaching 1 Cor. 14. v. 3. interpretation of the Scriptures to edifying and to exhortation and to comfort This exercise to be performed with the head uncovered as well the Preacher as the hearer 1 Cor. 11.4 Every man Praying or Prophesying with his head covered dishonoureth his head as the Apostle hath informed us Where we have publick Prayers also for the Congregation the Priest to offer to the Lord the prayers and supplications of the People and they to say Amen unto those prayers which the Priest made for them These to contein in them all things necessary for the Church of God which are the subject of all supplications prayers intercessions 1 Tim. 2. and giving of thanks and to extend to all men also especially unto Kings and such as be in Authority that under them we may be godly and quietly governed leading a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty For the performance of which last duties with the greater comfort it was disposed that Psalms and Hymns should be intermingled with the rest of the publick service which comprehending whatsoever is most excellent in the Book of God and being so many notable forms of praise and prayer were chearfully and unanimously to be sung amongst them 1 Cor. 14.26 And thereupon S. Paul reprehended
do so expound it and saw no doubt the truest and most perfect copies Thus then saith Zonaras It is appointed by this Canon that none abstain from labour on the Sabbath-day which plainly was a Jewish custom In Canon Conc. Laod. and an anathema laid on those who offend herein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but they are willed to rest from labour on the Lords day in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour But here we must observe that the Canon adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in case they may For by the civil Law it is precisely ordered that every man shall rest that day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hindes and Husband-men excepted His reason is the very same with that expressed before in the Emperours Edict 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For unto them it is permitted to work and travel on that day because perhaps if they neglect it they may not find another day so fit and serviceable for their occasions The like saith Balsamon and more but him we will reserve for the 12th Ad Eusto chium Century at what time he lived S. Hierom long time after this tells us of his Egyptian Monks diebus dominicis orationi tantum lectionibus vacare that they designed the Lords day wholly unto prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures and that they did the like upon other days completis opusculis when their task was finished This plainly shews that it was otherwise with the common people For what need Hierom have observed it as a thing notable in his Monks and peculiar to them that they spent all the Lords day in religious exercises had other men so done as well as they But Hierom tells us more than this of Paula a most devout and pious woman who lived in Bethlehem accompanied with many Virgins and poor Widows in manner of a Nunnery Of whom he saith that every Lords day they repaired to the Church of God Et inde pariter revertentes instabant operi distributo vel sibi vel coeteris vestimenta faciebant and after their return from thence they set themselves unto their tasks which was the making garments for themselves or others A thing which questionless to good a Woman had not done and much less ordered it to be done by others had it been then accounted an unlawful Act. And finally S. Chrysostom though in his popupular discourses he seem to intimate to the People that God from the beginning did one day in every week to his publick worship Hom. 10. in Gen. and that he calls upon them often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to destinate that one day and that day wholly unto those imployments as Hom. 5. in Mat. 1. Sa. Hom. 3. in Joh. 3. yet he confesseth at the last that after the dismission of the Congregation every man might apply himself to his lawful business Only he seems offended with them that they went presently to the works of their Vocations as soon as they came out of the Church of God and did not meditate on the Word delivered to them Therefore he wooeth them unto this that presently upon their coming home they would take the Bible into their hands and recapitulate with their Wives and Children that which had been delivered from the Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterwards to go about their worldly businesses As for the time appointed to these publick exercises it seems not to be very long Chrysostom in the place before remembred Hom. 5. in Matth. 1. saith that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very small portion of the day Origen more precisely hath laid it out and limited the same ad unam aut duas horas ex die integro but to an hour or two at most no great space of time In Numer Hom. 2. Nor indeed could they hold them long the Sermons being most times exceeding shorts as may appear by those of the antient Fathers which are still extant in our hands and the Liturgy not so full as now it is Let it then go for granted that such as dwelt in populous Cities for of the Husbandman there is no question to be made might lawfully apply themselves to their several Businesses the Exercises being ended and the Assembly broken up may we conceive it lawful also for any man to follow his honest pleasures on the remainder of that day to feast it with his Friends and Neighbours to Dance or sport or to be merry in a civil manner There is a little question of it for Feasting first we must take notice how execrable a thing it was always held to fast the Sunday though some now place a great part of their Piety in their fond abstinence on that day In this respect Tertullian tells us touching the Christians of his time De Corona mil. c. 3. that they did hold it an impiety to fast the Lords day die dominico jejunium nefas esse ducimus as before we noted Such an impiety that the very Montanists though otherwise frequent in their Fasts did yet except this day and the former Sabbath out of their austerities as the same Author doth inform us adv Psychicos Cap. 15. What was Ignatius's censure of the Sundays Fast we have seen already In the declining of the third Age arose the Manichees and they revived the former dotage Dominica jejunare non possumus quia Manichaeos ob istius diei jejunia merito damnamus We fast not on the Lords day saith St. Ambrose but rather do condemn the Manichees for fasting on it Now what this Father said he made good by practice Baronius tells us out of Paulinus that he did never dine but on the Saturday the Sunday or the memorial of some Martyr Annals Anno 374. and that upon those days he did not only cherish and relieve the poor sed viri clarissimi exciperentur but entertained great Persons men of special eminence Vincentius Deputy of Gaul and Count Arbogastis are there said by name to have been often at his Table upon those days before remembred and doubt we not but they had all things fit for such eminent Persons The like hath been affirmed by St. Austin also Epl. 86. Die dominica jejunare scandalum est magnum c. It is a great offence or scandal to fast upon the Lords day in these times especially since the most damnable Heresie of the Manichees came into the World who have imposed it on their followers as the Law of God and thereby made the Lords day fast the more abominable Now for an instance of his Entertainments also upon this day see l. 22. de civitate dei c. 8. This probably occasioned Pope Meltiades who lived in the beginning of this present Century to publish a Decree Ne dominica neve feria quinta jejunaretur that no man should presume to fast upon the Sunday or the Thursday Not on the Sunday as the day of the Resurrection
the Law in the Congregation that was not taken up in more than a 1000. years after the Law was given and being taken up came in by Ecclesiastical Ordinance only no Divine Authority But in the Institution of the Lords day that which was principally aimed at was the performance of religious and Christian duties hearing the Word receiving of the Sacraments praising the Lord for all his mercies and praying to him joyntly with the Congregation for the continuance of the same rest and cessation from the works of labour came not in till afterwards and then but as an accessory to the former duties and that not setled and established in 1000 years as before was said when all the proper and peculiar duties of the day had been at their perfection a long time before So that if we regard either Institution or the Authority by which they were so instituted the end and purpose at the which they principally aimed or the proceedings in the setling and confirming of them the difference will be found so great that of the Lords day no man can affirm in sense and reason that it is a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austius time 2. Stage-plays and publick shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other holy-days by Imperial Edicts 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use 4. The barbarous and bloody quality of the Spectacula or shews at this time prohibited 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages 10. Of publick Orders now established for the better regulating of the Lords day-meetings 11. The Lords day not more reckoned of than the greater Festivals and of the other holy-days in these Ages instituted 12. All business and recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other WE are now come unto the times wherein the Church began to settle having with much adoe got the better hand of Gentilism and mastered those stiff Heresies of the Arians Macedonians and such others as descended from them Unto those times wherein the troubles which before distracted her peace and quiet being well appeased all things began to grow together in a perfect harmony what time the faithful being united better than before in points of judgment became more uniform in matters of devotion and in that uniformity did agree together to give the Lords day all the honour of an holy Festival Yet was not this done all at once but by degrees the fifth and sixth Centuries being well-nigh spent before it came unto that height which hath since continued The Emperours and the Prelates in these times had the same affections both earnest to advance this day above all others and to the Edicts of the one and Ecclesiastical constitutions of the other it stands indebted for many of those priviledges and exemptions which it still enjoyeth But by degrees as now I said and not all at once For in S. Austin's time who lived in the beginning of this fifth Century it was no otherwise with the Lords day than as it was before in the former Age accounted one of those set days and probably the principal which was designed and set apart for Gods publick worship Amongst the writings of that Father which are his unquestionably we find not much that doth conduce to our present business but what we find we shall communicate with as much brevity as we can Epi. 86. Decivitat l. 22. c. 8. The Sundays fast he doth abominate as a publick scandal Quis deum non offendit si velit cum scandalo totius ecclesiae die dominico jejunare The exercise of the day he describes in brief in this form that followeth Venit Pascha atque ipso die dominico mane frequens populus praesens erat Facto silentio divinarum Scripturarum lecta sunt solennia c. Easter was come and on the Lords day in the morning the people had assembled themselves together All being silent and attent those lessons out of holy Scripture which were appointed for the time were read unto them when we were come unto that part of the publick service which was allotted for the Sermon I spake unto them what was proper for the present Festival and most agreeable to the time Service being done I took the man along to dinner a man he means that had recovered very strangely in the Church that morning who told us all the story of those sad Calamities which had befallen him This is not much but in this little there are two things worth our observation First that the Sermon in those times was not accounted either the only or the principal part of Gods publick service but only had a place in the common Liturgy which place was probably the same which it still retains post Scripturarum solennia after the reading of the Gospel Next that it was not thought unlawful in this Fathers time to talk of secular and humane affairs upon this day as some now imagine or to call friends or strangers to our Table as it is supposed S. Austin being one of so strict a life that he would rather have put off the invitation and the story both to another day had he so conceived it Nor doth the Father speak of Sunday as if it were the only Festival that was to be observed of a Christian man Cont. Adimant c. 16. Other Festivities there were which he tell us of First generally Nos quoque dominicum diem Pascha soleuniter celebramus quaslibet alias Christianas dierum festivitates The Lords day Easter and all other Christian Festivals were alike to him Epi. 118. And he enumerates some particulars too the Resurrection Passion and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour together with the coming of the Holy Ghost which constantly were celebrated anniversaria solennitate Not that there were no other Festivals then observed in the Christian Church but that those four were reckoned to be Apostolical and had been generally received in all Ages past As for the Sacrament it was not tyed to any day but was administred indifferently upon all alike except it were in some few places where it had been restrained to this day alone
Alij quotidie communicant corperi sanguini dominico alij certis diebus accipiunt alibi Sabbato tantum dominico alibi tantum dominico as he then informs us As for those works ascribed unto him which either are not his or at least are questionable they inform us thus The tract de rectitudine Cathol conversationis adviseth us to be attent and silent all the time of Divine Service not telling tales nor falling into jarrs and quarrels as being to answer such of us as offend therein for a double fault Dum nec ipse verbum Dei audit nec alios audire permittit as neither hearkening to the Word of God our selves nor permitting others In the 251. Sermon inscribed De tempore we are commanded to lay aside all worldly businesses in solennitatibus sanctorum maxime in dominicis diebus upon the Festivals of the Saints but the Lords day specially that we may be the readier for divine imployments Where note that whosoever made the Sermon it was his purpose that on the Saints days men were to forbear all worldly businesses and not upon the Lords day only though on that especially And in the same it is affirmed that the Lords day was instituted by the Doctors of the Church Apostles and Apostolical men the honours of the Jewish Sabbath being by them transferred unto it Sancti ecclesiae Doctores omnem Judaici Sabbatismi gloriam in illam transferre decreverunt It seems some used to hunt on the Lords day then for there it is prohibited as a devilish exercise Nullus in die dominico in venatione se occeupet diabolico mancipetur officio with command enough Nay in the 244. of those de tempore it is enjoyned above all things with an ante omnia that no man meddle with his Wife either upon the Lords day or the other holy-days Ante omnia quoties dies dominicus aut aliae festivitates veniunt uxorem suam nullus agnoscat which I the rather note though not worth the noting that those who are possessed with so poor a fancy and some such there be would please to be as careful of the Holy-days as of the Sundays being alike expressed in the Prohibition One may conjecture easily both by the stile and by the state of things then being in the Christian Church that neither of these Sermons not to say any thing of the rest which concern us not could be writ by Austin the latter every thing therein considered by no man of Wisdom I say as things then were in the Christian Church that Sermon was not likely to be Saint Austins It had been too much rashness to prohibit hunting being in it self a lawful sport when such as in themselves were extreamly evil and an occasion of much sin were not yet put down The Cirque and Theatre were frequented hitherto as well upon the Lords day as on any other and they were first to be removed before it could be seasonable to inhibit a lawful pleasure Somewhat to this effect was done in the Age before the Emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius having made a Law that no man should exhibit any publick shew upon the Sunday as before we noted But this prevailed not at the first And thereupon the Fathers of the Council of Carthage in the first year of this fifth Century did then and there decree by publick order to make Petition to the Emperor then being Vt spectacula theatrorum coeterorumque ludorum die dominiea vel cateris religionis Christianae diebus solennibus amoveantur c. Their suit was double first that the Shews exhibited on the Theaters and other places then used might no more be suffered on the Lords day or any other Festival of the Christian Church especially on the Octaves of the Feast of Easter what time the People used to go in greater numbers unto the Cirque or Shew-place than the House of God Then that for other days no man might be compelled to repair unto them as they had been formerly as being absolutely repugnant unto Gods Commandments but that all people should be left at liberty to go or not to go as they would themselves Nee oportere quenquam christianorum ad hac spectacula cogi c. Sed uti oportet homo in libera voluntate subsistat sibi divinitus concessa so the Canon The Emperour Theodosius thereupon Enacted that on the Lords day on the Feast of Christs Nativity and after to the Epiphany or Twelfth-day as we call it commonly as also on the Feast of Easter and from thence to Whitsontide the Cirques and Theaters in all places should be shut up that so all faithful Christian People might wholly bend themselves to the service of God Dominice qui totius septimanae primus est dies Cod. Theodos Natale atque Epiphaniorum Christi Paschae etiam Quinquagesima diebus c. Omni theatorum atque Circensium voluptate per universas urbes earundem populis denegata totae Christianorum fideliune mentes dei eultibus eccupentur So far the letter of the law which was Enacted at Constantinople the first of February Anno 425. Theodosius the second time and Valentinian being that year Consuls Where still observe how equally the principal Festivities and the Lords day were matched together that being held unlawful for the one which was conceived so of the other And so it stood until the Emperour Leo by two several Edicts advanced the Lords day higher than before it was and made it singular above other Festivals as in some other things of which more anon so in this particular For in an Edict by him sent unto Amasius at that time Captain of his Guard or Prafectus praetorio he enacts it thus First generally Dies festos Cod. l. 3. tit 12. de seriis dies altissimae majestati dedicatos nullis volumus voluptatibus occupari that he would have holy days which had been dedicated to the supream Majesty not to be taken up with pleasures What would he have no pleasures used at all on the holy days No he saith not so but only that they should not wholly be taken up with sports and pleasures no time being spared for pious and religious duties nor doth he bar all pleasures on the Sunday neither as we shall see anon in the Law it self but only base obscene and voluptuous pleasures Then more particularly for the Lords day thus in reference to the point in hand that neither Theater nor Cirque-sight nor Combatings with Wild Beasts should be used thereon and if the Birth day or Inauguration of the Emperour fell upon the same that the Solemnities thereof should be referred to another day no less a penalty than loss of dignity and confiscation of estate being laid on them that should offend against his pleasure But for the better satisfaction take so much of the Law it self as concerns this business Nihil eadem die vendicet scena theatralis aut Circense certamen aut
spent or wholly taken up in pleasures or otherwise prophaned with vexatious suits Particularly for the Lords day that it be exempt from Executions Citations entring into Bonds Apparances Pleadings and such like that Cryers be not heard upon it and such as go to Law lay aside their Actions taking truce a while to see if they can otherwise compose their differences For so it passeth in the Edict Dominicum itaque ita semper honorabilem decernimus venerandum ut à cunctis executionibus excusetur Nulla quenquam urgeat admonitio nulla fidei-jussionis flagitetur exactio taceat apparitio advocatio delitescat sit idem dies à cognitionibus alienus praeconis horrida vox sileat respirent à controversiis litigantis habeant foederis intervallum c. I have the rather here laid down the Law it self that we may see how punctual the good Emperour was in silencing those troublesome suits and all preparatives or appurtenances thereunto that so men might with quieter minds repair unto the place of Gods publick service yet was not the Edict so strict that neither any kind of Pleasures were allowed upon that day as may be thought by the beginning of the Law nor any kind of secular and civil business to be done upon it The Emperour Constantine allowed of manumission and so did Theodosius too Cod. l. 2. de fer lex 2. Die dominico emancipare manumittere licet reliquae causae vel lites quiescant so the latter Emperour Nor do we find but that this Emperour Leo well allowed thereof sure we are that he well allowed of other civil businesses when he appointed in this very Edict that such as went to Law might meet together on this day to compose their differences to shew their evidences and compare their writings And sure I am that he prohibited not all kind of pleasures but only such as were of an obscene and unworthy nature For so it followeth in the Law First in relation unto businesses ad sese simul veniant adversarij non timentes pacta conserant transactiones loquantur Next in relation unto pleasures Nec tameÌ„n hujus religiosae dâ—ei â—cia relaxantes obscenis quemquam patimur voluptatibus detineri where note not simply voluptates but obseenae voluptates not pleasures but obscene and filthy pleasures are by him prohibited such as the Scena theatralis therein after mentioned not civil business of all sorts but brangling and litigious businesses are by him forbidden as the Law makes evident Collectar And thus must Theodorus Lector be interpreted who tells us of this Emperour Leo how he ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Lords day should be kept holy by all sorts of People that it should be a non-lee day a day of rest and ease unto them which is no otherwise to be understood than as the Law it self intended however the words of Theodorus seem to be more general Nor was it long before this Edict or the matter of it had found good entertainment in the Christian world the rather since those Churches which lay further off and were not under the command of the Roman Emperour taking perhaps their hint from hence had made a Canon to that purpose For in a Council held in Aragon Anno 516. being some 47 years after Leos Edict it was decreed that neither Bishop Priest or any other of the Clergy the Clergy at that time were possessed of some seats of judicature should pronounce sentence in any cause which should that day be brought before them Nullus Episcoporum aut presbyterorum vel Clericorum Can. 4. propositum cujuscunque causae negotium die dominico audeat judicare This was in Anno 516. as before I said the second year of Amalaricus King of the Gothes in Spain Nor stayed they here The People of this sixth Age wherein now we are began to Judaize a little in the imposing of so strict a rest upon this day especially in the Western Churches which naturally are more inclined to Superstition than the Eastern Nations Wherein they had so far proceeded that it was held at last unlawful to travel on the Lords day with Wains or Horses to dress Meat or make clean the House or meddle with any manner of Domestick businesses The third Council held at Orleans Anno 540. doth inform us so and plainly thereupon determined Can. 27. that since these prohibitions abovesaid Ad Judaicam magis quam ad Christianam observantiam pertinere probantur did savour far more of the Jew than of the Christian Die dominico quod ante licuit licere that therefore whatsoever had formerly been lawful on that day should be lawful still Yet so that it was thought convenient that men should rest that day from Husbandry and the Vintage from Sowing Reaping Hedging and such servile works quo facilius ad ecclesiam venientes orationis gratia vacent that so they might have better leisure to go unto the Church and there say their Prayers This was the first restraint which hitherto we have observed whereby the Husband-man was restrained from the Plough and Vintage or any work that did concern him And this was yielded as it seems to give them some content at least which aimed at greater and more slavish prohibitions than those here allowed of and would not otherwise be satisfied than by grant of this Nay so far had this superstition or superstitious conceit about this day prevailed amongst the Gothes in Spain a sad and melancholick People mingled and married with the Jews who then therein dwelt that in their dotage on this day they went before the Jews their Neighbours the Sabbath not so rigorously observed by one as was the Lords day by the other The Romans in this Age had utterly defeated the Vandals and their power in Africk becoming so bad Neighbours to the Gothes themselves To stop them in those prosperous courses Theude the Gothish King Anno 543. makes over into Africk with a compleat Army The Armies near together and occasion fair the Romans on a Sunday set upon them and put them all unto the sword the Gothes as formerly the Jews never so much as laying hand upon their Weapons or doing any thing at all in their own defence only in reverence to the day The general History of Spain so relates the story although more at large A superstition of so sudden and so quick a growth that whereas till this present Age we cannot find that any manner of Husbandry or Country labours were forbidden as upon this day it was now thought unlawful on the same to take a sword in hand for ones own defence Better such Doctrines had been crushed and such Teachers silenced in the first beginnings than that their Jewish speculations should in fine produce such sad and miserable effects Nor was Spain only thus infected where the Jews now lived the French we see began to be so inclined Not only in prohibiting things lawful which before we
Festivals whatsoever they should abstain from every kind of bodily labour save what belong'd to dressing meat But that which needs must most afflict them is that the Council doth profess this abstinence from bodily labour which is there decreed to be no Ordinance of the Lords that he exacteth no such duty from us and that it is an Ecclesiastical exhortation only and no more but so And if no more but so it were too great an undertaking to bring all Nations of the World to yield unto the prescript of a private and particular Canon made only for a private and particular cause and if no more but so it concludes no Sabbath Yet notwithstanding these restraints from work and labour the Church did never so resolve it that any work was in it self unlawful on the Lords day though to advance Gods publick service it was thought good that men should be restrained from some kind of work that so they might the better attend their prayers and follow their devotions It 's true these Centuries the fifth and sixth were fully bent to give the Lords day all fit honour not only in prohibiting unlawful pleasures but in commanding a forbearance of some lawful business such as they found to yield most hinderance to religious duties Yea and some works of piety they affixt unto it for its greater honour The Prisoners in the common Goals had formerly been kept in too strictly It was commanded by Honorius and Theodosius at that time Emperours Anno 412. that they should be permitted omnibus diebus dominicus every Lords day to walk abroad with a guard upon them as well to crave the charity of well disposed persons as to repair unto the Bathes for the refreshing of their bodies Nor did he only so command it but set a mulct of 20 pound in gold on all such publick ministers as should disobey the Bishops of the Church being trusted to see it done Where note that going to the Bathes on the Lords day was not thought unlawful though it required no question corporal labours for had it been so thought as some thought it afterwards the Prelates of the Church would not have taken it upon them to see the Emperours will fulfilled and the Law obeyed A second honour affixt in these Ages to the Lords day is that it was conceived the most proper day for giving holy Orders in the Church of God and a Law made by Leo then Pope of Rome and generally since taken up in the Western Church that they should be conferred upon no day else There had been some regard of Sunday in the times before and so much Leo doth acknowledge Quod ergo à patribus nostris propensiore cura novimus servatum esse à vobis quoque volumus custodiri ut non passim diebus omnibus sacerdotalis ordinatio celebretur Ept. Decret 81 But that which was before a voluntary act is by him made necessary and a Law given to all the Churches under his obedience Vt his qui consecrandi sunt nunquam benedictiones nisi in die resurrectionis dominicae tribuantur that Ordinations should be celebrated on the Lords day only And certainly he gives good reason why it should be so except in extraordinary and emergent cases wherein the Law admits of a dispensation For on that day saith he The holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and thereby gave us as it were this celestial rule that on that day alone we should confer spiritual orders in quo collata sunt omnia dona gratiarum in which the Lord conferred upon his Church all spiritual graces Nay that this business might be done with the more solemnity and preparation it was appointed that those men who were to be invested with holy Orders should continue fasting from the Eve before that spending all that time in prayer and humbling of themselves before the Lord they might be better fitted to receive his Graces For much about these times the service of the Lords day was enlarged and multiplyed the Evenings of the day being honoured with religious meetings as the Mornings formerly Yea and the Eves before were reckoned as a part or parcel of the Lords day following Cui à vespere sabbati initium constat ascribi as the same Decretal informs us The 251. Sermon de tempore ascribed unto St. Austin doth affirm as much but we are not sure that it is his Note that this Leo entred on the Chair of Rome Anno 440. of our Saviours birth and did continue in the same full 20 years within which space of time he set out this decretal but in what year particularly that I cannot find I say that now the Evenings of the Lords day began to have the honour of religious Meetings for ab initio non fuit sic it was not so from the beginning Nor hd it been so now but that almost all sorts of people were restrained from works as well by the Imperial Edicts as by the constitutions of particular Churches by means whereof the afternoon was left at large to be disposed of for the best increase of Christian Piety Nor probably had the Church conceived it necessary had not the admiration which was then generally had of the Monastick kind of life facilitated the way unto it For whereas they had bound themselves to set hours of prayer Epitaphium Panlae matr Mane hora tertia sexta nona vespere noctis medio at three of the clock in the Morning at six at nine and after in the Evening and at midnight as St. Hierom tells us the people generally became much affected with their strict Devotions and seemed not unwilling to conform unto them as far at least as might consist with their Vocations upon this willingness of the people the service of the Church became more frequent than before and was performed thrice every day in the greater Churches where there were many Priests and Deacons to attend the same namely at six and nine before Noon and at some time appointed in the Evening for the afternoon accordingly as now we use it in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches But in inferiour Towns and petty Villages where possibly the people could not every day attend so often it was conceived sufficient that they should have the Morning and the Evening prayer sung or said unto them that such as would might come to Church for their devotions and so it is by the appointment of the Rubrick in our Common Prayer book Only the Sundays and the Holy days were to be honoured with two several meetings in the Morning the one at six of the clock which simply was the morning service the other at nine for the administration of the holy Sacrament and Preaching of the Word to the Congregation This did occasion the distinction of the first and second Service as we call them still though now by reason of the peoples sloth and backwardness in coming to the Church of God they are in most places
done afterwards in pursuit hereof consisted specially in beating down the opposition of the common people who were not easily induced to lay by their business next in a descant as it were on the former plain-song the adding of particular restrictions as occasion was which were before conteined though not plainly specified both in the Edicts of the former Emperours and Constitutions of the Churches before remembred Yet all this while we find not any one who did observe it as Sabbath or which taught others so to do not any who affirmed that any manner of work was unlawful on it further than as it was prohibited by the Prince or Prelate that so the people might assemble with their greater comfort not any one who preached or published that any pastime sport or recreation of an honest name such as were lawful on the other days were not fit for this And thereupon we may resolve as well of lawful business as of lawful pleasures that such as have not been forbidden by supream Authority whether in Proclamà tions of the Prince or Constitutions of the Church or Acts of Parliament or any such like Declaration of those higher Powers to which the Lord hath made us subject are to be counted lawful still It matters not in case we find it not recorded in particular terms that we may lawfully apply our selves to some kind of business or recreate our selves in every kind of honest pleasure at those particular hours and times which are left at large and have not been designed to Gods publick service All that we are to look for is to see how far we are restrained from labour or from recreations on the Holy days and what Authority it is that hath so restrained us that we may come to know our duty and conform unto it The Canons of particular Churches have no power to do it further than they have been admitted into the Church wherein we live for then being made a part of her Canon also they have power to bind us to observance As little power there is to be allowed unto the Declarations and Edicts of particular Princes but in their own dominions only Kings are Gods Deputies on the Earth but in those places only where the Lord hath set them their power no greater than their Empire and though they may command in their own Estates yet is it extra sphaeram activitatis to prescribe Laws to Nations not subject to them A King of France can make no Law to bind us in England Much less must we ascribe unto the dictates and directions of particular men which being themselves subject unto publick Order are to be hearkned to no further than by their life and doctrine they do preach obedience unto the publick Ordinances under which they live For were it otherwise every private man of name and credit would play the Tyrant with the liberty of his Christian Brethren and nothing should be lawful but what he allowed of especially if the pretence be fair and specious such as the keeping of a Sabbath to the Lord our God the holding of an holy convocation to the King of Heaven Example we had of it lately in the Gothes of Spain and that strange bondage into which some pragmatick and popular man had brought the French had not the Council held at Orleans gave a check unto it And with examples of this kind must we begin the story of the following Ages CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day holy 4. That in the judgment of the most learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church 5. With how much difficulty the people of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day 6. Husbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern parts until the time of Leo Philosophus 7. Markets and Handierafts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the laws restrained 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hindrance to Gods publick Service 11. The other Holy days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy days in these present Ages 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches WE are now come to the declining Ages of the Church after the first 600 years were fully ended and in the entrance on the seventh some men had gone about to possess the people of Rome with two dangerous fancies one that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday or the old Sabbath ita ut die Sabbati aliquid operari prohiberent the other ut dominicorum die nullus debeat larari that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lords day or their new Sabbath With such a race of Christned Jews or Judaizing Christians was the Church then troubled Against these dangerous Doctrines did Pope Gregory write his Letter to the Roman Citizens stiling the first no other than the Preachers of Antichrist Epl. 3. l. 11. one of whose properties it shall be that he will have the Sabbath and the Lords day both so kept as that no manner of work shall be done on either qui veniens diem Sabbatum atque dominicum ab omni faciet opere custodire as the Father hath it Where note that to compell or teach the people that they must do no manner of work on the Lords day is a mark of Antichrist And why should Antichrist keep both days in so strict a manner Because saith he he will persuade the people that he shall die and rise again therefore he means to have the Lords day in especial honour and he will keep the Sabbath too that so he may the better allure the Jews to adhere unto him Against the other he thus reasoneth Et si quidem pro luxuria voluptate quis lavari appetit hoc fieri nec reliquo quolibet die concedimus c. If any man desires to bathe himself only out of a luxurious and voluptuous purpose observe this well this we conceive not to be lawful upon any day but if he do it only for the necessary refreshing of his body then neither is it fit it should be forbidden upon the
had trespassed therein against the Sabbath he gathered the small chips together put them upon his hand and set fire unto them Vt in se ulcisceretur Matropol l. 4. t. 8. quod contra divinum praeceptum incautus admisisset that so saith Crantzius he might avenge that on himself which unawares he had committed against Gods Commandment Crantzius it seems did well enough approve the solly for in the entrance on this story he reckoneth this inter alia virtutum suarum praeconia amongst the monuments of his piety and sets it up as an especial instance of that Princes sanctity Lastly whereas the modern Jews are of opinion that all the while their Sabbath lasts the souls in Hell have liberty to range abroad and are released of all their torments Pâ—i ad Domivicum c. 5. So lest in any superstitious fancy they should have preheminence it was delivered of the souls in Purgatory by Petrus Damiani who lived in Anno 1056. Dominico die refrigerium poenarum habuisse that every Lords day they were manumitted from their pains and fluttered up and down the lake Avernus in the shape of Birds Indeed the marvel is the less that these and such like Jewish fancies should in those times begin to shew themselves in the Christian Church considering that now some had begun to think that the Lords day was founded on the fourth Commandment and all observances of the same grounded upon the Law of God As long as it was taken only for an Ecclesiastical Institution and had no other ground upon which to stand than the Authority of the Church we find not any of these rigours annexed unto it But being once conceived to have its warrant from the Scripture the Scripture presently was ransacked and whatsoever did concern the old Jewish Sabbath was applied thereto It had been ordered formerly that men should be restrained on the Lords day from some kind of labours that so they might assemble in the greater number the Princes and the Prelates both conceiving it convenient that it should be so But in these Ages there were Texts produced to make it necessary Thus Clotaire King of France grounded his Edict of restraint from servile labours on this day from the holy Scripture quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit because the Law forbids it and the holy Scripture contradicts it And Charles the Great builds also on the self same ground Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as the Lord commands us that on the Lords day none presume to do any servile business Thus finally the Emperour Leo Philosophus in a constitution to that purpose of which more hereafter declares that he did so determine secundum quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit according to the dictate of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles by him tutored So also when the Fathers of the Church had thought it requisite that men should cease from labour on the Saturday in the afternoon that they might be the better fitted for their devotions the next day some would not rest till they had found a Scripture for it Observemus diem dominicum fratres sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbato c. Let us observe the Lords day as it is commanded from even to even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath The 251. Sermon inscribed de tempore hath resolved it so And lastly that we go no further the superstitious act of the good King Olaus burning his hand as formerly was related was then conceived to be a very just revenge upon himself because he had offended although unaware contra divinum praeceptum against Gods Commandment Nor were these rigorous fancies left to the naked world but they had miracles to confirm them It is reported by Vincentius and Antoninus that Anstregisilus one that had probably preached such doctrine restored a Miller by his power whose hand had cleaved unto his Hatchet as he was mending of his Mill on the Lords day for now you must take notice that in the times in which they lived grinding had been prohibited on the Lords day by the Canon Laws As also how Sulpitius had caused a poor mans hand to wither only for cleaving wood on the Lords day no great crime assuredly save that some parallel must be found for him that gathered sticks on the former Sabbath and after on his special goodness made him whole again Of these the first was made Arch-Bishop of Burges Anno. 627. Sulpitius being Successor unto him in his See and as it seems too in his power of working miracles Such miracles as these they who list to credit shall find another of them in Gregorius Turonensis Miracul l. 1. c. 6. And some we shall hereafter meet with when we come to England forged purposely as no doubt these were to countenance some new device about the keeping of this day there being no new Gospel Preached but must have miracles to attend it for the greater state But howsoever it come to pass that those four Princes especially Leo who was himself a Scholar and Charles the Great who had as learned men about him as the times then bred were thus persuaded of this day that all restraints from work and labour on the same were to be found expressly in the Word of God yet was the Church and the most Learned men therein of another mind Nor is it utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or ground of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them First for the Church and men of special eminence in the same for place and learning there is no question to be made but they were otherwise persuaded Isidore Arch-Bishop of Sevil who goes highest De Eccles Offic. l. 1.29 makes it an Apostolical Sanction only on divine commandment a day designed by the Apostles for religious exercises in honour of our Saviours Resurrection on that day performed Diem dominicum Apostolì ideo religiosa solennitate sanxerunt quia in eo redemptor noster à mortuis resurrexit And adds that it was therefore called the Lords day to this end and purpose that resting in the same from all earthly acts and the temptations of the world we might intend Gods holy worship giving this day due honor for the hope of the resurrection which we have therein The same verbatim is repeated by Beda lib. de Offic. and by Rabanus Maurus lib. de institut Cleric l. 2. c. 24. and finally by Alcuinus de divin Offic. cap. 24. which plainly shews that all those took it only from an Apostolical usage an observation that grew up by custom rather than upon commandment Sure I am that Alcuinus one of principal credit with Charles the Great who lived about the end of the eighth Century as did this Isidore in the beginning of the seventh saith
clearly that the observation of the former Sabbath had been translated very fitly to the Lords day by the custom and consent of Christian people For speaking how the Sabbath was accounted holy in the former times and that the Jews resting thereon from all manner of work did only give themselves to meditation and to fasting Homil. 18. post Penta he adds cujus observationem mos Christianus ad diem dominicum competentius transtulit Where plainly mos Christianus doth imply no precept no order or command from the Apostles that it should be so and much less any precept in the Old Testament which should still oblige And sure I am Rabanus Maurus speaks only as by way of exhortation and not armed with any warrant from the Apostles or other argument from Scripture Homil. in aiâ—b dom Where he adviseth us à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominici sequestrati à rurali opere omni negotio solo divino cultui vacemus Where no man will presume to say that either rest from Husbandry and such other business or the beginning of the Lords day on the Eve before were introduced by any precept of the Apostles considering how long it was before either of them had been used in the Christian Church And so Hesychius Bishop of Hierusalem who flourished at the self same time with Isidore speaks of it only as a custom or a matter of fact In Levit. lib. 2. cap. 5. descending by tradition from the Apostles Apostolorum sequentes traditionem diem dominicum conventibus divinis sequestramus which was the most that he could say for the original thereof indeed who could more And as for Isidore himself whom the others followed Etymolog l. 6. c. 18. it 's clear that they esteemed the Lords day for no other than a common Holiday by far inferior unto Ester Pascha festivitatum omnium prima est Then followeth Pentecost Epiphany Palm-sunday Maunday-thursday and in the last place Dies dominicus the Lords day Which questionless he had not placed in so low a room had he conceived it instituted by any precept or injunction of those blessed Spirits So in a Council held at Paris Anno 829. it was determined positively that keeping of the Lords day had no other ground than custom only and that this custom did descend ex Apostolorum traditione immo ecclesiae autoritate at most from Apostolical tradition but indeed rather from the Authority of holy Church And whereas Courts of Law or Law days had formerly been prohibited on this day that so men might in peace and concord go to Church together the several Councils that of Friburg Anno 895. and that of Erpford Anno 932. though then the times were at the darkest ascribe it not to any Law or Text of Scripture but only to the anient Canons Secundùm sanctorum statuta patrum saith the first Can. 26. Secundùm Canonicam institutionem saith the second Cap. 2. And howsoever some have said that Alexander Pope of Rome of that name the third refers the keeping of the Lords day to divine commandment yet they that look upon him well can find no such matter He saith indeed that both the Old and New Testament depute the seventh day unto rest but for the keeping of it holy both that and other days appointed for Gods publick service ecclesia decreverit observanda that he ascribes alone to the Churches order Decret l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 3. The like may be affirmed also of restraint from labout that it is grounded only on the Authority of the Church and Christian Princes however in some regal and imperial Edicts there be some shew or colour added from the Law of God I say some shew or colour added from the Law of God For as before I said it is not utterly impossible but that those Princes might make use of some pretence or shew of Scripture the better to incline the People to yield obedience unto those restraints which were laid upon them The Synod held at Mascon and that in Auxerre both before remembred expresly had prohibited all works of Husbandry on this day the former having added for inforcing of it not only Ecclesiastical censures but corporal and civil punishments But yet this was not found enough to wean the people from their works their ordinary labours used before upon that day and it is no marvel The Jews were hardly brought unto it though they had heard God thundring from the holy mountain that they should do no manner of work upon their Sabbath It being added thereunto that whosoever should offend therein the should die the death And certainly it was very long before either Prince or Prelate or both joyned together with all their power and policy could prevail upon them either to lay aside their labours or forbear their Law days as may appear by many several Edicts of Emperours decrees of Popes Can. 18. and Canons of particular Councils which have successively been made in restraint thereof The Synod of Chalons Anno 662. wherein were 44. Bishops and amongst them S. Owen Arch-Bishop of Roman concluded as had been before non nova condentes sed vetera renovantes that on the Lords day no man should presume to Sow or Plough or Reap vel quicquid ad ruris culturam pertinet or deal in any thing that belonged to Husbandry and this on pain of Ecclesiastical censure and correction But when this did no good Clothaire the third of France for he I think it was who set out that Law beginning with the Word of God and ending with a threat of severe chastisement doth command the same Die dominico nemo servilia opera praesumat facere Ltg. Aleman tit 39. ap Brisson quia hoc lex prohibet sacra Scriptura in omnibus contradicit as before was said If any do offend herein in case he be a Bond-man let him be soundly hastinadoed in case a Freeman let him be thrice admonished of it if he offend again the third part of his patrimony was to be confiscated and finally if that prevailed not he was to be convented before the Governour and made a Bondslave So for the Realm of Germany a Council held at Dingulofinum in the lower Bavaria Anno 772. did determine thus Festo die Solis ocio divino intentus prophanis negotiis abstineto Upon the Sunday so they call it let every man abstain from prophane employments and be intent upon Gods worship If any man shall work his Cart this day or busie himself in any such like work jumenta ejus publica sunto his Teem shall presently be forseited to the publick use And if stubbornly they persist to provoke Gods anger be they sold for Bond-men Hist l. 3. Ap. Brisson ut supra So Aventine reports the Canon And somewhat like to this was ordered by Theodorius King of the Bavarians viz. Si quis die dominico c. If any man
upon the Lords day shall yoak his Oxen and drive forth his wain dextrum bovem perdat his right hand Oxe shall be forthwith forfeit if he make Hay or carry it in if he now Corn or carry it in let him be once or twice admonished and if he amend not thereupon let him receive no less than 50 stripes Yet notwithstanding all this care when Charles the Great being King of France had mastered Germany which was 789. or thereabouts there had been little reformation in this point amongst them Therefore that Prince first published his own Regal Edict grounding himself secundum quod in lege praecepit dominus upon the prescript of Gods Law and there commands that all men do abstain from the works of Husbandry Which Edict since it speaks of more particulars at that time prohibited we will speak more thereof anon That not prevailing as it seems he caused five several Synods to be assembled at one time Anno 813. at Mentz at Rhemes at Tours at Chalons and Arles in all of which it was concluded against the Husband-man and many others more as we shall see in the next Section And yet we find some grudging still of the old disease as is apparent by a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. under Eugenius the second chap. 30. another in the same place Anno 853. under Leo the fourth Can. 30. the like in that of Compeigne held by Alexander the third what time he lived an exile in the Realm of France So for restraint of Law days or Courts of judgment those chiefly that determined of mens lives it was not brought about in these Western parts without great difficulty Witness besides the several Imperial Edicts before remembred Conc. Mogunt Anno. 813. Can. 37. Rhemens Can. 35. Turonens Can. 40. Arelatens Can. 16. being four of those Councils which were called by Charles as before was said as also that of Aken Anno 836. Can. 20. And though it was determined in the Roman Synod under Leo the fourth that no suspected person should receive judgment on that day a clause being added in the Canâ—â— legibus infirmari judicium eo die depromptum that all Acts sped upon that day were void in Law yet more than 300 years after it was so resolved of was Alexander the third in Council of Compeigne before remembred enforced particularly to revive it and then and there to set it down Ne aliquis ad mortem vel ad poenam judicetur that no man should upon that day be doomed to death or otherwise condemned unto bodily punishment So difficult a thing it was to wean the People from their labours and other civil business unto which they had been accustomed there being nothing to inforce or induce them to it but humane authority On the same reason as it seems Leo Philosophus Emperour of Constantinople did make use of Scripture when in conformity with the Western Churches he purposed to restrain the works of Husbandry on that day which till his time had been permitted The Emperour Constantine had ordained as before was shewn that all Artificers and such as dwelt in Cities should on the Sunday leave their trades but by the same Edict gave licence to the Husbandman to pursue his business as well upon that day as on any other But contrary this Leo surnamed Philosophus he began his Reign Ann 886. grounding himself for so he tells us on the Authority of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles but where he sound that warrant from the Holy Ghost and from the holy Apostles that he tells us not restrained the Husbandman from his work as well as men of other callings Nicephorus mistakes the man and attributes it to the former Leo whom before we spake of in our fourth Chapter Eccl. hist c. 22. Quo tempore primus etiam Leo constitutione lata ut dies dominicus ab omnibus absque labore omni per ocium transigeretur festusque venerabilis esset quemadmodum divis Apostolis visum est praecepit Where the last clause with the substance of the Edict make the matter plain that he mistook the man though he hit the busineses the former Leo using no such motive in all his Edict Constit 54. But take it from the Emperour himself who having told us first that the Lords day was to be honoured with rest from labour adds next that he had seen a Law he means that of Constantine quae non omnes simul operari prohibendos nonnullosque uti operentur indulgendum censuit which having not restrained all works but permitted some did upon no sufficient reason dishonour that so sacred day Then followeth Statuimus nos etiam quod Sp. Sancto ab ipsoque institutis Apostolis placuit ut omnes in die sacro c. Ã labore vacent Neque Agricolae c. It is our will saith he according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles by him directed that on that sacred day whereon we were restored unto our integrity all men should rest themselves and surcease from labour neither the Husbandmen nor others putting their hand that day to prohibited work For if the Jews did so much reverence their Sabbath which only was a shadow of ours are not we which inhabit light and the truth of grace obliged to honour that day which the Lord hath honoured and hath therein delivered us both from dishonour and from death Are not we bound to keep it singularly and inviolably sufficiently contented with a liberal grant of all the rest and not encroaching on that one which God hath chosen for his service Nay were it not a retchless slighting and contempt of all Religion to make that day common and think that we may do thereon as we do on others So far this Emperour determins of it first and disputes it afterwards I only note it for the close that it was near 900 years from our Saviours birth if not quite so much before restraint of Husbandry on this day had been first thought of in the East and probably being thus restrained did find no more obedience there than it had done before in the Western parts As great a difficulty did it prove to restrain other things in these times projected although they carried it at the last The Emperour Constantine had before commanded that all Artificers in the Cities should surcease from labour on the Lords day as well as those whom he imployed in his seats of justice and questionless he found obedience answerable to his expectation But when the Western parts became a prey to new Kings and Nations and that those Kings and Nations had admitted the Laws of Christ yet did they not conceive it necessary to submit themselves to the Laws of Constantine and therefore followed their imployments as before they did And so it stood until the time of Charles the Great who in the year 789. published his regal Edict in this form that followeth In Legib.
Aquif granens Statuimus secundum quod in lege dominus praecepit c. We do ordain according as it is commanded in the Law of God that no man do any servile work on the Lords day This in the general had been before commanded by his Father Pepin in the Council holden in Friuli but he now explicates himself in these particulars That is to say that neither men imploy themselves in works of Husbandry in dressing of their Vines ploughing their Lands making their Hay fencing their grounds grubbing of felling Treâ—â— working in Mines building of Houses planting their Gardens nor that they plead that day or go forth on hunting and that it be not lawful for the Women to weave or dress cloth to make Garments or Needle work to card their Wool beat Hemp wash Cloaths in publick or sheer Sheep but that they come unto the Church to divine service and magnifie the Lord their God for those good things which on that day he hath done for them After considering with himself that Fairs and Markets on this day were an especial means to keep men from Church he set out his Imperial Edict de nundinis non concedendis as my Author tells me Nor did he trust so far to his own Edict as not to strengthen it as the times then were by the Authority of the Church and therefore caused those five Councils before remembred to be Assembled at one time in four of which it was determined against all servile works and Law days as also ut mercatus in iis minime sit Concil Mogunt Can. 37. ne mercata excerceant Remens can 35. and so in those of Tours 40. and Arles 16. That of Chalons which was the fifth did only intimate that whereas the Lords day had been much neglected the better keeping of the same was to be established authentica constitutione Can. 50. by some Authentical constitution of the Emperour himself But whatsoever care this Emperour took to see his will performed and the Lords day sanctified it seems his Successour Ludovicus was remiss enough which being found as found it was the People fell again to their former labours Ploughing and Marketting and Law-days as before they did The Council held at Paris Concil Parisiens l. 1. c. 50. Anno 829. which was but sixteen years after the holding of the aforesaid Synods much complains thereof and withal adds that many of the Prelates assembled there knew both by same and by their own proper knowledge quosdam in hoc dit ruralia opera eâ—cercentes fulmine interemptos that certain men following their Husbandry on that day had been killed with lightning and others with a strange convulsion of their joints had miserably perished whereby say they it is apparent that God was very much offended with their so great neglect of that Holy day Rather with their so great neglect of their Superiours in that nor declaration of their King nor constitution of the Church could work so far upon them as to gain obedience in things conducing to Gods service Had working on that day been so much offensive in the sight of God likely it is we might have heard of some such judgments in the times before but being not prohibited it was not unlawful Now being made unlawful because prohibited God smote them for their frequent workings at times which were designed to another use not in relation to the day but their disobedience Therefore the Council did advise that first of all the Priests and Prelates then that Kings Princes and all faithful people would do their best endeavour for the restoring of that day to its ancient lustre which had so foully been neglected Next they addressed themselves particularly to Lodowick and Lotharius then the Roman Emperours ut cunctis metum incutiant that by some sharp injunction they would strike a terrour into all their Subjects that for the times to come none should presume to Plough or hold Law-days or Market as of late was used This probably occasioned the said two Emperours 852. to call a Synod at Rome under Leo the fourth Syn. Rom. Can. 30. where it was ordered more precisely than in former times ut die dominico nullus audeat mercationes nec in cibariis rebus aut quaelibet opera rustica facere that no man should from thenceforth dare to make any Markets on the Lords day no not for things that were to eat neither to do any kind of work that belonged to Husbandry Which Canon being made at Rome confirmed at Compeigne and afterwards incorporated as it was into the body of the Canon Law whereof see Decretal l. 2. tit 9. de feriis cap. 2. became to be admitted without further question in most parts of Christendom especially when the Popes had attained their height and brought all Christian Princes to be at their devotion For then the people who before had most opposed it might have justly said Behold two Kings stood not before him how then shall we stand 2 Kings 10. Out of which consternation all men pre sently obeyed Tradesmen of all sorts being brought to lay by their Labours and amongst those the Miller though his work was easiest and least of all required his presence Nec aliquis à vespera diei Sabbati usque ad vesperam diei dominicae ad molendina aquarum vel ad aliqua alia molere audeat So was it ordered in the Council of Angeirs of which see Bochellus Anno 1282 wherein the Barber also was forbidden to use his Trade Yet were not those restraints so strict as that there was no liberty to be allowed of either for business or pleasure A time there was for both and that time made use of there being in the Imperial Edicts and Constitutions of the Church yea and the decretals of the Popes many reservations whereby the people might have liberty to enjoy themselves They had been else in worse condition than the Jews before In the Edict of Charles the Great before remembred though otherwise precise enough there were three several kinds of carriages allowed and licensed o the Lords day i.e. Hortalia carra vel victualia vel si forte necesse erit corpus cujuslibet ducere ad sepulchrum that is to say carriage of gardening Ware and carts of Victuals and such as are to carry a dead corps to burial So Theodulphus Aurelianensis who lived about the year 836. having first ut it down for a positive Rule that the Lords day ought with such care to be observed ut praeter orationes missarum solennia Epl. ap Bibl. Patr. ea quae ad vescendum pertinent nil aliud fiat that besides Prayer and hearing Mass and such things as belong to Food there is directly nothing that may be done admits of an exception or a reservation Nam si necessitaâ— fuerit navigandi vel itinerandi licentia datur For if saith he there be a necessary occasion either of setting Sail or
a greater number of people to attend them And howsoever Councils in themselves be of an Ecclesiastical nature and that the crowning of a King in the act it self be mixed of sacred and of civil yet in the Train and great attendance that belongs unto them the Pomp the Triumphs and concourse of so many people they are meerly secular And secular although they were yet we may well persuade our selves that neither Actor or Spectator thought themselves guilty any wise of offering any the least wrong to the Lords day though those Solemnities no question might without any prejudice have been put off to another time No more did those who did attend the Princes before remembred in their magnificent Entries into Rome and Metz or the other military entrance into Hierusalem which were meer secular Acts and had not any the least mixture either of Ecclesiastical or Sacred Nature For Recreations in these times there is no question to be made but all were lawful to be used on the Lords day which were accounted lawful upon other days and had not been prohibited by Authority and we find none prohibited but dancing only Not that all kind of dancing was by Law restrained but either the abuse thereof at times unseasonable when men should have been present in the Church of God or else immodest shameless dancings such as were those against the which the Fathers did inveigh so sharply in the Primitive times In reference to the first Damascen tells us of some men who only wished for the LOrds day Parallellorum lib. 3. cap. 47. ut ab opera feriati vitiis operam dent that being quitted from their labours they might enjoy the better their sinful pleasures For look into the streets saith he upon other days and there is no man to be found die dominico egredere atque alios cithara canentes alios applaudentes saltantes c. But look abroad on the Lords day and you shall find some singing to the Harp others applauding of the Musick some Dancing others jeering of their Neighbours alios denique luctantes reperies and some also wrestling It followeth Praeco ad Ecclesiam vocat omnes segnitie torpent moras nectunt cithara aut tuba personuit omnes tanquam alis instructi currunt Doth the Clark call unto the Church they have a feaver-lurdane and they cannot stir doth the Harp of Trumpet call them to their Pastimes they fly as they had wings to help them They that can find in this a prohibition either of Musick Dancing publick sports or manlike Exercises such as wrestling is on the Lords day must certainly have better eyes than Lynceus and more wit than Oedipus Plainly they prove the contrary to what some alledg them and shew most clearly that the Recreations there remembred were allowed of publickly otherwise none durst use them as we see they did in the open streets Only the Father seems offended that they preferred their Pastimes before their Prayers that they made little or no haste to Church and ran upon the spur to their Recreations that where Gods publick Service was to be first considered in the Lords day and after on spare times mens private pleasures these had quite changed the course of Nature and loved the Lords day more for pleasure than for Devotion This is the most that can be made from this place of Damascen and this makes more for dancing and such Recreations than it doth against them in case they be not used at unfitting hours Much of this nature is the Canon produced by some to condemn dancing on the Lords day as unlawful utterly which being looked into condemns alone immodest and unseemly dancings such as no Canon could allow of upon any day of what name soever A Canon made by Pope Eugenius in a Synod held at Rome Anno 826. what time both Prince and Prelates did agree together to raise the Lords day to as high a pitch as they fairly might Now in this Synod there were made three Canons which concern this day the first prohibitive of business and the works of labour the second against process in causes criminal the third ne núlieres festis diebus vanis ludis vacent that Women do not give themselves on the Holy days unto wanton sports and is as followeth Sunt quidam maxime mulieres qui festis sacris diebus c. Certain there are but chiefly Women which on the Holy days Can. 35. and Festivals of the blessed Martyrs upon the which they ought to rest have no great list to come to Church as they ought to do sed balando turpia verba decantando c. but to spend the time in Dancing and in shameless Songs leading and holding cut their Dances as the Pagans used and in that manners come to the Congregation These if they come unto the Church with few sins about them return back with more and therefore are to be admonished by the Parish Priest that they must only come to Church to say their prayers such as do otherwise destroying not themselves alone but their Neighbours also Now in this Canon there are these three things to be considered First that these Women used not to come unto the Church with that sobriety and gravity which was fitting as they ought to do but dancing singing sporting as the Pagans used when they repaired unto their Temples secondly that these dancings were accompanied with immodest Songs and therefore as unfit for any day as they were for Sunday and thirdly that these kind of dancings were not prohibited on the Lords day only but on all the Holy days Such also was the Canon of the third Council of Tolledo Decret pars 3. de consecrat distinct 3. An. 589. which afterwards became a part of the Canon Law though by he oversight of the Collector it is there said to be the fourth and this will make as little to the purpose as the other did It is this that followeth Irreligiosa consuetudo est quam vulgus per sanctorum solennitates festivitates agere consuevit Populi qui divina officia debent attendere saltationibus turpibus invigilant cantica non solum mala canentes sed etiam religiosorum officiis perstrepunt Hoc enim ut ab omni Hispania the Decret reads ab omnibus provinciis depellatur sacerdotum ac judicum à sancto Concilio curae commit titur There is an irreligious custom taken up by the common people that on the Festivals of the Saints those which should be attent on Divine Service give themselves wholly to lascivious and shameless dances and do not only sing unseemly Songs but disturb the Service of the Church Which mischief that it may be soon removed out of all the Countrey the Council leave it to the care of the Priests and Judges Such dances and employed to so bad a purpose there is none could tolerate and yet this generally was upon the Holy days Saints days I mean as well
as Sundays whereby we see the Church had no less care of one than of the other And so indeed it had not in this alone but in all things else the Holy days as we now distinguish them being in most points equal to the Sunday and in some superiour Leo the Emperiour by his Edict shut up the Theater and the Cirque or shew-place on the Lords day The like is willed expresly in the sixth general Council holden at Constantinople Can. 66. Anno 692. for the whole Easter week Nequaquam ergo his diebus equorum cursus vel aliquod publicum fiat spectacum so the Canon hath it The Emperour Charles restrained the Husbandman and the Tradesman from following their usual work on the Lords day The Council of Melun doth the same for the said Easter week and in more particulars it being ordered by that Synod that men forbear Can. 77. during the time above remembred ab omni opere rurali fabrili carpentario gynaecaeo caementario pictorio venatorio forensi mercatorio audientiali ac sacramentis exigendis from Husbandry the craft of Smiths and Carpenters from Needle-work Cementing Painting Hunting Pleadings Merchandize casting of Accounts and from taking Oaths That Benedictines had but three mess of Pottage upon other days die vero dominico in praecipuis festivitatibus but on the Lords day and the principal Festivals a fourth was added as saith Theodomare the Abbot in an Epistle to Charles the Great Law-suits and Courts of Judgment were to be laid aside and quite shut up on the Lords day as many Emperours and Councils had determined severally The Council held at Friburg Anno 895. did resolve the samne of Holy days or Saints days and the time of Lent Nullusomnino secularis diebus dominicis vel Sanctorum in Festis Conc. Fribâ—riens Can. 26. seu Quadragesimae aut jejuniorum placitum habere sed nec populum illo praesumat coercere as the Canon goeth The very same with that of the Council of Erford Anno 932. cap. 2. But what need private and particular Synods be produced as witnesses herein when we have Emperours Popes and Patriarchs that affirm the same Ap. Balsam tit 7. cap. 1. To take them in the order in which they lived Photius the Patriarch of Constantinople Anno 858. thus reckoneth up the Festivals of especial note viz. Seven days before Easter and seven days after Christmas Epiphanie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Feasts of the Apostles and the Lords day And then he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on those days they neither suffer publick shews nor Courts of Justice Emanuel Comnenus next Ap. Balsam Emperour of Constantinople Anno 1174. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We do ordain saith he that these days following be exempt from labour viz. the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Holy-rood day and so he reckoneth all the rest in those parts observed together with all the Sundays in the year and that in them there be not any access to the seats of judgment Lib. 2 tit 〈◊〉 feriis cap. 5. The like Pope Gregory the ninth Anno 1228. determineth in the Decretal where numbring up the Holy-days he concludes at last that neither any process hold nor sentence be in force pronounced on any of those days though both parts mutually should consent upon it Consentientibus etiam partibus nec processus habitus teneat nec sententia quam contingit diebus hujusmodi promulgari So the Law resolves it Now lest the feast of Whitsontide might not have some respect as well as Easter it was determined in the Council held at Engelheim Anno 948. that Munday Tuesday Wednesday in the Whitsun-week Cap. 6. non minus quam dies dominicus solenniter honorentur should no less solemnly be observed than the Lords day was So when that Otho Bishop of Bamberg had planted the faith of Christ in Pomerania and was to give account thereof to the Pope then being Urspergens Chronic. he certifieth him by his Letters Anno 1124. that having Christned them and built them Churches he left them three injunctions for their Christian carriage First that they eat no flesh on Fridays Secondly that they rest the Lords day ab omni opere malo from every evil work repairing to the Church for religious duties And thirdly Sanctorum solennitates cum vigiliis omni diligentia observent that they keep carefully the Saints days with the Eves attendant So that in all these outward matters we find fair equality save that in one respect the principal Festivals had preheminence above the Sunday For whereas Fishermen were permitted by the Decretal of Pope Alexander the third as before was said diebus dominicis aliis festis on the Lords day and other Holy-days to fish for Herring in some cases there was a special exception of the greater Festivals praeterquam in majoribus anni solennitatibus as the other was But not to deal in generals only Isidore Arch-bishop of Sevil in the beginning of the seventh Century making a Catalogue of the principal Festivals begins his list with Easter and ends it with the Lords day as before we noted in the fifth Section of this Chapter Now lest it should be thought that in sacred matters and points of substance the other Holy-days wee not as much regarded as the Lords day was The Council held at Mentz Anno 813. did appoint it thus that it the Bishop were infirm or not at home Non desit tamen diebus dominicis festivitatibus qui verbum Dei praedicet juxta quod populus intelligat yet there should still be some to preach Gods Word unto the People according unto their capacities both on the Lords day and the other Festivals Indeed why should not both be observed alike the Saints days being dedicated unto God as the Lords day is and standing both of them on the same authority on the authority of the Church for the particular Institution on the authority of Gods Law for the general Warrant It was commanded by the Lord and written in the heart of man by the pen of nature that certain times should be appointed for Gods publick worship the choicing of the times was left to the Churches power and she designed the Saints days as she did the Lords both his and both allotted to his service only This made Saint Bernard ground them all the Lords day and the other Holy-days on the fourth Commandment the third in the Account of the Church of Rome Serm. 3. Super Salve reg Spirituale obsequium Deo praebetur in observantia sanctarum solennitatum unde tertium praeceptum contexitur Observa diem Sabbati i. e. in sacris feriis te exerce So S. Bernard in his third Sermon Super salve Regina The Lords days and the Holy-days or Saints days being of so near a kin we must next see what care was taken by the Church in these present ages for hallowing them unto the Lord. The
it was a Ceremony and that the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine That whereas all the other precepts of the Decalogue are simply moral the fourth which is the third in their account 22. qu. 122. art 4. ad 1. is partly moral partly ceremonial Morale quidem quantum ad hoc quod homo deputet aliquod tempus vitae suae ad vacandum divinis c. Moral it is in this regard that men must set apart some particular time for Gods publick service it being natural to man to destinate particular times to particular actions as for his dinner for his sleep and such other actions Sed in quantum in hoc praecepto determinatur speciale tempus in s gnum creationis mundi sic est praeceptum ceremoniale But inasmuch as that there is a day appointed in the Law it self in token of Gods rest and the worlds creation in that respect the Law is ceremonial and ceremonial too they make it in reference to the Allegory our Saviours resting in the grave that day and in relation to the Analogical meaning of it as it prefigureth our eternal rest in the Heaven of glories Finally they conclude of the fourth Commandment that it is placed in the Decalogue in quantum est praeceptum morale non in quantum est ceremoniale only so far forth as it is moral and not as ceremonial that is that we are bound by the fourth Commandment to destinate some time to Gods publick service which is simply moral but not the Seventh day which is plainly ceremonial Aquinas so resolves it for all the rest In Gr at de Sabbato his judgment in this point if Doctor Prideaux note be true as I have no reason but to think so being universally embraced and followed by all the Schoolmen of what sect soever So that in him we have them all all of them consonant in this point to make up the Harmony however dissonant enough in many others But that this consent may appear the more full and perfect we will take notice of two others men famous in the Schools and eminent for the times in which they lived First Bonaventure who lived in the same time with Aquinas and died the same year with him which was 1274. hath determined thus Serm. de decem praecept Imelligendum est quod praeceptum illud habet aliquid quod est mere morale c. It is to be conceived saith he that in the fourth Commandment there is something which is simply moral something again that is plainly ceremonial and something mixt The sanctifying of a day is Moral the sanctifying of a Seventh day Ceremonial rest from the works of labour being mixt of both Quod praecipit Deus sanctificationem est Praeceptum morale Est in hoc praecepto aliquid ceremoniale ut figuratio dici septimae Item continetur aliquid quod est partim morale partim ceremoniale ut cessatio ab operibus Lastly In Exod. 20. qu. 11. Tostatus Bishop of Avila in Spain hath resolved the same aliquid est in eo juris naturalis aliquid legalis that in the fourth Commandment there is something Natural and something Legal that it is partly Moral and partly Ceremonial Naturale est quod dum Deum colimus ab aliis abstineamus c. Moral and Natural it is that for the time we worship God we do abstain from every thing of what kind soever which may divert our thoughts from that holy action But that we should design in every week one day unto that employment and that the whole day be thereto appointed and that in all that day a man shall do no manner of work those things he reckoneth there to be Ceremonial So for the Lords day it is thus determined by Aquinas that it depends on the authority of the Church the custom and consent of Gods faithful servants 2.20 qu. 122. art 4. ad 4. and not on any obligation laid upon us by the fourth Commandment Diei dominicae observantia in nova lege succedit observantiae sabbati non ex vi praecepti legis sed ex constitutione Ecclesiae consuetudine populi Christiani What followeth thereupon Et ideo non est ita arcta prohibitio operandi in die dominica sicut in die Sabbati Therefore saith he the prohibition of doing no work on the Lords day is not so rigorous and severe as upon the Sabbath many things being licensed on the one which were forbidden on the other as dressing meat and others of that kind and nature And not so only but he gives us a dispensatur facilius in nova lege an easier hope of dispensation under the Gospel in case upon necessity we meddle with prohibited labours than possibly could have been gotten under the Law The like Tostatus tells us though in different words save that he doth extend the prohibiton as well to all the Feasts of the Old Testament as all the Holy days of the New and neither to the Sabbath nor the Lords day only In veteri lege major fuit strictio in observatione festorum In Exod 20. qu. 13. quam in nova lege How so In omnibus enim festivitatibus nostris quantaecunque sint c. Because saith he in all our Festivals how great soever whether they be the Lords days or the feasts of Easter or any of the higher rank it is permitted to dress meat and to kindle fire c. As for the grounds whereon they stood he makes this difference between them that the Jews Sabbath had its warrant from Divine commandment but that the Lords day though it came in the place thereof is founded only on Ecclesiastical constitution Colebatur Sabbatum ex mandato Dei cujus loco successit dies dominica In Matth 23. qu. 148. tamen manifestum est quod observatio diei dominicae non est de jure divino sed de jure humano Canonico This is plain enough and this he proves because the Church hath still a power mutare illum diem vel totaliter tollere either to change the day or take it utterly away and to dispense touching the keeping of the same which possibly it neither could nor ought to do were the Lords day of any other institution than the Churches only They only have the power to repeal a Law which had power to make it Qui habet institutionem habet destitutionem as is the Bishops plea in a Quare Impedit As for the first of these two powers that by the Church the day may be transferred and abrogated Suarez hath thus distinguished in it verum id esse absolute non practice that is as I conceive his meaning that such a power is absolutely in the Church though not convenient now to be put in practice According unto that of St. Paul which probably was the ground of the distinction All things are lawful for me but all things are not expedient This is
having built that Church unto the honour of God and memory of Saint Peter invited Mellitus Bishop of London Adredus de Gestis Edwardi on a day appointed unto the consecration of it The night before S. Peter coming to the further side crosseth the Ferry goes into the Church and with a great deal of celestial musick lights and company performs that office for the dispatch of which Mellitus had been invited This done and being wafted back to the further side he gives the Ferri-man for his fare a good draught of Fishes only commanding him to carry one of them which was the best for price and beauty for a present from him to Mellitus in testimony that the work was done to his hand already Then telling who he was he adds that he and his Posterity the whole race of Fisher-men should be long after stored with that kind of Fish tantum ne ultra piscari audeatis in die Dominica provided always that they fished no more upon the Sunday Aldredus so reports the story And though it might be true as unto the times wherein he lived which was in the declining of the twelfth Century that Fishing on the Lords day was restrained by Law yet sure he placed this story ill in giving this injunction from St. Peter in those early days when such restraints were hardly setled if in a Church new planted they had yet been spoken of Leaving this therefore as a fable let us next look on Beda what he hath left us of this day in reference to our Ancestors of the Saxons-Race and many things we find in him worth our observation Before we shewed you how the Sunday was esteemed a Festival that it was judged heretical to hold Fasts thereon Hist l. 3. c. 23. This Ordinance came in amongst us with the faith it self S. Chadd having a place designed him by King Oswald to erect a Monastery did presently retire unto it in the time of Lent In all which time Dominica excepta the Lords day excepted he fasted constantly till the Evening as the story tells us The like is told of Adamannus Hist l. 4. c. 25. one of the Monastery of Coldingham now in Scotland but then accounted part of the Kingdom of Northumberland that he did live in such a strict and abstemious manner ut nil unquam cibi vel potus excepta die Dominica quinta Sabbati perciperet that he did never eat nor drink but on the Sunday and Thursday only This Adamannus lived in Anno 690. Before we shewed you with what profit Musick had been brought into the Church of God and hither it was brought it seems 〈◊〉 hist l. 2. c. 20. with the first preaching of the Gospel Beda relates it of Paulinus that when he was made Bishop of Rochester which was in Anno 631. he left behind him in the North one James a Deacon cantandi in Ecclesia peritissimum a man exceeding perfect in Church Musick who taught them there that form of singing Divine Service which which he learnt in Canterbury And after in the year 668 what time Archbishop Theodorus made his Metropolitical visitationn Lib. 4. c. 2. the Art of singing Service which was then only used in Kent for in the North it had not been so setled but that it was again forgotten was generally taken up over all the Kingdom Sonos cantandi in Ecclesia quos eatenusin Cantica tantum noverant ab hoc tempore per omnes Anglorum Ecclesias dicere coeperunt as that Author hath it Before we shewed how Pope Vitalianus Anno 653. added the Organ to that vocal Musick which was before in use in the Church of Christ In less than 30 years after and namely in the year 679. were they introduced by Pope Agatho into the Churches of the English and have continued in the same well near 1000 years without interruption Before we shewed you how some of the greater Festivals were in esteem before the Sunday Bed Eccl. hist l. 4. c. 19. and that it was so even in the Primitive times And so it also was in the Primitive times of this Church of England it being told us of Qu. Etheldreda that after she had put her self into a Monastery she never went unto the Bathes praeter imminentibus soleniis majoribus but on the approach of the greater Festivals such as were Easter Pentecost and Christmas for so I think he means there by Epiphanie as also that unless it were on the greater Festivals she did not use to eat above once a day This plainly shews that Sunday was not reckoned for a greater Festival that other days were in the opinion and esteem above it and makes it evident withal that they conceived not that the keeping of the Lords day was to be accounted as a part of the law of Nature or introduced into the Church by divine Authority but by the same Authority that the others were Ap. Lambert Archaion For Laws in these times made we meet with none but those of Ina a West-Saxon King who entred on his Reign Anno 712. A Prince exceedingly devoted to the Church of Rome and therefore apt enough to imbrace any thing which was there concluded By him it was enacted in the form that followeth Servus si quid operis patrarit die Dominico ex praecepto Domini sui liber esto c. If a servant work on the Lords day by the appointment of his Master he was to be set free and his Master was to forfeit 30 shillings but of he worked without such order from his Master to be whipped or mulcted Liber si hoc die operetur injussu Domini sui c. So if a Freeman worked that day without direction from his Master he either was to be made a Bondman or pay 60 shillings As for the Doctrine of these times In Luc. 59. we may best judg of that by Beda First for the Sabbath that he tell us ad Mosis usque tempora caeterorum dierum similis erat was meerly like the other days until Moses time no difference at all between them therefore not institute and observed in the beginning of the World as some teach us now Next for the Lords day that he makes an Apostolical sanction only no Divine Commandment as before we noted and how far Apostolical sanctions bind we may clearly see by that which they determined in the Council of Hierusalem Of these two Specialties we have spoken already This is the most we find in the Saxon Heptarchie and little more than this we find in the Saxon Monarchie In this we meet with Alured first the first that brought this Realm in order Lambert Archaion who in his Laws cap. de diebus festis solennibus reckoneth up certain days in which it was permitted unto Freemen to enjoy their Festival liberty as the phrase there is servis autem iis qui sunt legitima officiorum servitute astricti non item but not
to slaves and such as were in service unto other men viz. the twelve days after Christs Nativity dies ille quo Christus subegit diabolum the day wherein our Saviour overcame the Devil the Festival of Saint Gregory seven days before Easter and as many after the Festival day of Saint Peter and Paul the week before our Lady day in Harvest All Hallowtide and the four Wednesdays in the Ember-weeks Where note how many other days were priviledged in the self-same manner as the Lords day was in case that be the day then spoken of wherein our Saviour overcame the Devil as I think it is as also that this priviledg extended unto Freemen only servants and bondmen being left in the same condition as before they were to spend all days alike in their Masters businesses This Alured began his Reign Anno 871. and after him succeeded Edward surnamed the Elder in the year 900. who in a league between himself and Gunthrun King of the Danes in England did publickly on both sides prohibit as well all markettings on the Sunday as other kind of work whatsoever on the other Holy days Dacus si die Dominico quicquam fuerit mercatus reipsa Oris praeterea 12 mulctator Anglus 30 solidos numerato c. If a Dane bought any thing on the Lords day he was to forfeit the thing bought and to pay 12 Oras every Ora being the fifteenth part of a pound an Englishman doing the like to pay 30 shillings A Freeman if he did any work die quocunque festo on any of the Holy days was forthwith to be made a Bondman or to redeem himself with Money a Bondslave to be beaten for it or redeem his beating with his Purse The Master also whether that he were Englishman or Dane if he compelled his servants to work on any of the Holy days was to answer for it So when it had been generally received in other places to begin the Sunday-service on the Eve before it was enacted by King Edgar surnamed the Peaceable who began his Reign An. 959. diem Sabbati ab ipsa die Saturni hora pomeridiana tertia usque in lunaris diei diluculum festum agitari that the Sabbath should begin on Saturday at three of the clock in the afternoon and not as Fox relates it in his Acts and Monuments at nine in the morning and so hold on till day break on Monday Where by the way though it be dies Sabbati in the Latin yet in the Saxon Copy it is only Healde the Holy day After this Edgars death the Danes so plagued this Realm that there was nothing setled in it either in Church or State till finally they had won the Garland and obteined the Kingdom The first of these Canutus an heroick Prince of whom it is affirmed by Malmesbury omnes leges ab antiquis regibus maxime sub Etheldredo latas that he commanded all those Laws to be observed which had been made by any of the former Kings and those before remembred amongst the rest of which see the 42. of his Constitutions especially by Etheldred his predecessour and that upon a grievous mulct to be laid on such who should disobey them These are the Laws which afterwards were called K. Edwards non quòd ille statuerit sed quòd observarit not because he enacted them but that he caused them to be kept Of these more anon Besides which Laws so brought together there were some others made at Winchester by this King Canutus and amongst others this that on the Lords day there should be no markettings no Courts or publick meetings of the people for civil businesses Leg. 14.15 as also that all men abstein from Hunting and from all kind of earthly work Yet was there an exception too nisi flagitante necessitate in cases of necessity wherein it was permitted both to buy and sell and for the people to meet together in their Courts For so it passeth in the Law Die Dominico mercata concelebrari populive conventus agi nisi flagitante necessitate planissime vetamus ipso praeterea die sacrosancto à venatione opere terreno prorsus omni quisque abstineto Not that it is to be supposed as some would have it that he intended Sunday for a Sabbath day for entring on the Crown A. 1017. he did no more than what had formerly been enacted by Charles the Great and several Councils after him Lib. 6. c. 29. none of which dreamed of any Sabbath Besides it is affirmed of this Canutus by Otho Frisingensis that in the year 1027. he did accompany the Emperor Conrade at his Coronation on an Easter day which questionless he would not have done knowing those kind of Pomps to be meerly civil and to have in them much of ostentation had he intended any Sabbath when he restrained some works on Sunday But to make sure work of it without more ado the Laws by him collected which we call St. Edwards make the matter plain where Sunday hath no other priviledg than the other Feasts and which is more is ranked below them The Law is thus entituled Rog. de Hoveden in Henri◠secundo De temporibus diebus pacis Domini Regis the Text as followeth Ab adventu Domini usque ad octavam Epiphaniae pax Dei Ecclesiae per omne regnum c. From Advent to the Octavei of Epiphanie Let no mans Person be molested nor no Suit be pursued the like from Septuagesima to Low-sunday and so from Holy Thursday to the next Sunday after Whitsontide Item omnibus Sabbatis ab hora nona usque ad diem Lunae c. The like on Saturdays from three in the afternoon until Monday morning as also on the Eves of the Virgin Mary S. John the Baptist all the holy Apostles of such particular Saints whose Festivals are published in the Churches on the Sunday mornings the Eve of All Saints in November from three of the clock till the solemnity be ended As also that no Christian be molested going to Church for his Devotions or returning thence or travelling to the dedication of any new erected Church or to the Synods or any publick Chapter meeting Thus was it with the Lords day as with many others in S. Edwards Laws which after were confirmed and ratified by King Henry the second after they had long been neglected Now go we forwards to the Normans and let us see what care they took about the sanctifying of the Lords day whether they either took or meant it for a Sabbath And first beginning with the Reign of the first six Kings we find them times of action and full of troubles as it doth use to be in unsetled States no Law recorded to be made touching the keeping of this day but many actions of great note to be done upon it These we will rank for orders sake under these five Heads 1. Coronations 2. Synods Ecclesiastical 3. Councils of Estate 4. Civil business and 5.
Saturdays Slop So easily did the Popes prevail with our now friends of Scotland that neither miracle nor any special packet from the Court of Heaven was accounted necessary But here with us in England it was not so though now the Popes had got the better of King John that unhappy Prince and had in Canterbury an Archbishop of their own appointment even that Steven Langton about whom so much strife was raised Which notwithstanding and that the King was then a Minor yet they proceeded here with great care and caution and brought the Holy-days into order not by command or any Decretal from Rome but by a Council held at Oxford Ap. Lindwood Anno 1222. where amongst other Ordinances tending unto the Government of the Church the Holy-days were divided into these three ranks In the first rank were those quae omni veneratione servanda erant which were to be observed with all reverence and solemnity of which sort were omnes dies Dominici c. all Sundays in the year the feast of Christs Nativity together with all others now observed in the Church of England as also all the Festivals of the Virgin Mary excepting that of her Conception which was left at large with divers which have since been abrogated And for conclusion festum dedicationis cujuslibet Ecclesiae in sua parochia the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication of particular Churches in their proper Parishes are there determined to be kept with the same reverence and solemnity as the Sundays were Nor was this of the Wakes or Feasts of Dedication any new device but such as could plead a fair original from the Council held in Mentz anno 813. If it went no higher For in a Catalogue there made of such principal feasts as annually were to be observed they reckon dedicationem templi the consecration Feast or Wake as we use to call it and place it in no lower rank in reference to the solemnity of the same than Easter Whitsontide and the rest of the greater Festivals Now at the first those Wakes or Feasts of dedication were either held upon the very day on which or the Saints day to which they had been first consecrated But after finding that so many Holy days brought no small detriment to the Common-wealth it came to pass that generally these Wakes or Feasts of dedication were respited until the Sunday following as we now observe them Of the next rank of Feasts in this Council mentioned were those which were by Priest and Curate to be celebrated most devoutly with all due performances minoribus operibus servilibus secundum consuetudinem loci illis diebus interdictis all servile works of an inferiour and less important nature according to the custom of the place being laid aside Such were Saint Fabian and Sebastian and some twenty more which are therein specified but now out of use and amongst them the Festival of Saint George was one which after in the year 1414. was made by Chicheley then Archbishop a Majus duplex and no less solemnly to be observed than the Feast of Christmass Of the last rank of Feasts were those in quibus post missam opera rusticana concedebantur sed antequam non wherein it was permitted that men might after Mass pursue their Countrey businesses though not before and these were only the Octaves of Epiphany and of John the Baptist and of Saint Peter together with the translations of Saint Benedict and Saint Martin But yet it seems that on the greater Festivals those of the first rank there was no restraint of Tillage and of Shipping if occasion were and that necessity did require though on those days Sundays and all before remembred there was a general restraint of all other works For so it standeth in the title prefixt before those Festivals haec sunt festa in quibus prohibitis aliis operibus conceduntur opera agriculturae carrucarum Where by the way I have translated carrucarum shipping the word not being put for Plough or Cart which may make it all one with the word foregoing but for ships and sayling Carruca signifieth a Ship of the greater burden such as to this day we call Carrects which first came from hence And in this sense the word is to be found in an Epistle writ by Gildas Illis ad sua remeantibus emergunt certatim de Carruchis quibus sunt trans Scyticam vallem avecti So then as yet Tillage and Sayling were allowed of on the Sunday if as before I said occasion were Math. Westmonaster and that necessity so required Of other passages considerable in the Reign of K. Henry III. the principal to this point and purpose are his own Coronation on Whitsunday anno 1220. two years before this Council which was performed with great solemnity and concourse of People Next his bestowing the order of Knighthood on Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester accompanied with forty other gallants of great hopes and spirit on Whitsunday too Anno 1245. and last of all a Parliament Assembled on Mid-lent Sunday Parliamentum generalissimum the Historian calls it the next year after This was a fair beginning but they staid not here For after in a Synod of Archbishop Islippes he was advanced unto the See Lindw l. 2. tit de feriis Anno 1349. it was decreed de fratrum nostrorum consilio with the assent and counsel of all the Prelates then assembled that on the principal Feasts hereafter named there should be generally a restraint through all the Province ab universis servilibus operibus etiam reipubl utilibus even from all manner of servile works though otherwise necessary to the Common-wealth This general restraint in reference to the Sunday was to begin on Saturday night ab hora diei Sabbati vespertina as the Canon goes not a minute sooner and that upon good reason too ne Judaicae superstitionis participes videamur lest if they did begin it sooner as some now would have us they might be guilty of a Jewish superstition the same to be observed in such other Feasts quae suas habent vigilias whose Eves had formerly been kept As also that the like restraint should be observed upon the Feast of Christmass S. Steven S. John c. and finally on the Wakes or Dedication Feasts which before we spake of Now for the works before prohibited though necessary to the Common wealth as we may reckon Husbandry and all things appertaining thereunto so probably we may reckon Law-days and all publick Sessions in Courts of Justice in case they had not been left off in former times when as the Judges general being of the Clergy Finâ—â— of the Law l. 1. c. 3. might in obedience to the Canon-law forbear their Sessions on those days the Lords day especially For as our Sages in the Law have resolved it generally that day is to be exempt from such business even by the Common Law for the solemnity thereof to the intent that people may apply
themselves to prayer and Gods publick service Particularly Fitz-Herbert tells us that no plea shall be holden Quindena Paschae Nat. Brevium fol. 17. 1 Eli◠p. 168. because it is always on the sunday but it shall be holden crastino quindenae paschae on the morrow after So Justice Dyer hath resolved that if a Writ of scire facias out of the Common-pleas bear Test on a Sunday it is an errour because that day is not dies juridicus in Banco And so it is agreed amongst them that on a Fine levied with Proclamations according to the Statute of King Henry VII if any of the Proclamations be made on the Lords day all of them are to be accounted erroneous Acts. But to return unto the Canon where before we left however that Archbishop Langton formerly and Islip at the present time had made these several restraints from all servile labours yet they were far enough from entertaining any Jewish fancy The Canon last remembred that of Simon Islip doth express as much But more particularly and punctually we may find what was the judgment of these times in a full declaration of the same in a Synod at Lambeth what time John Peckham was Archbishop which was in Anno 1280. Lindw l. 1. tit de offic Archipresb It was thus determined Sciendum est quod obligatio ad feriandum in Sabbato legali expiravit omnino c. It is to be understood that all manner of obligation of resting on the legal Sabbath as was required in the Old Testament is utterly expired with the other ceremonies And it is now sufficient in the New Testament to attend Gods service upon the Lords days and the other Holy days ad hoc Ecclesiastica authoritate deputatis appointed by the Church to that end and purpose The manner of sanctifying all which days non est sumendus à superstitione Judaica sed à Canonicis institutis is not to be derived from any Jewish superstition but from the Canons of the Church This was exact and plain enough and this was constantly the doctrine of the Church of England Joannes de Burgo who lived about the end of K. Henry VI. doth almost word for word resolve it so in his Pupilla oculi part 10. c. 11. D. Yet find we not in these restraints that Marketting had been forbidden either on the Lords day or the other Holy days and indeed it was not that came in afterwards by degrees partly by Statutes of the Realm partly by Canons of the Church not till all Nations else had long laid them down For in the 28 of King Edward III. cap 14. it was accorded and established that shewing of Wools shall be made at the Stapie every day of the week except the Sunday and the solemn Feasts in the year This was the first restraint in this kind with us here in England and this gives no more priviledge to the Lords day than the solemn Festivals Antiq. Brit. in Stafford Nor was there more done in it for almost an hundred years not till the time of Henry VI. Anno 1444. what time Archbishop Stafford decreed throughout his Province ut nundina emporia in Ecclesiis aut Coemiteriis diebusque Dominicis atque Festis praeterquam tempore messis non teneantur that Fairs and Markets should no more be kept in Churches and Church-yards or on the Lords days or the other Holy-days except in time of Harvest only If in that time they might be suffered then certainly in themselves they were not unlawful on any other further than as prohibited by the higher powers Now that which the Archbishop had decreed throughout his Province Tabians Chronicle Catworth Lord Mayor of London attempted to exceed within that City For in this year saith Fabian Anno 1444. an Act was made by Authority of the Common Council of London that upon the Sunday should no manner of thing within the franchise of the City be bought or sold neither Victual nor other thing nor no Artificer should bring his Ware unto any man to be worn or occupied that day as Taylers Garments and Cordwayners Shooes and so likewise all other occupations But then it followeth in the story the which Ordinance held but a while enough to shew by the success how ill it doth agree with a Lord Mayor to deal in things about the Sabbath Afterwards in the year 1451. which was the 28 of this Henries Reign it pleased the King in Parliament to ratifie what before was ordered by that Archbishop in this form that followeth 28. H. 6. c. 16. Considering the abominable injuries and effences done to Almigvty God and to his Saints always ayders and finguler affistants in our necessities by the necasion of Fairs and Marhets upon their high and principal Feasts as in the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord. in the day of Corpus Christi in the day of Whitsunday Trinity Sunday and other Sundays as also in the high Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady the day of all Saints and on Good Friday accustomably and miserably holden and used in the Keaim of England c. our Soveraign Lord the King c. hath ordained that all manner of Fairs and Markets on the said principal Feasts and Sundays and Good Friday shall clearly cease from all shewing of any Goods and Merchandises necessary Victual only ercept which yet was more than was allowed in the City-Act upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods aforesaid to the Lord of the franchise or liverty where such goods be or shall be she wed contrary to this Ordinance the four Sundays in Harvest except Which clause or reservation sheweth plainly that the things before prohibited were not esteemed unlawful in themselves as also that this Law was made in confirmation of the former order of the Archbishop as before was said Now on this Law I find two resolutions made by my Lords the Judges First Justice Brian in the 12th of King Edward the fourth declared that no sale made upon a Sunday though in a Fair or Market-overt for Markets as it seemeth were not then quite laid down though by Law prohibited shall be a good sale to alter the property of the goods And Ploydon in the time of Queen Elizabeth was of opinion Daltons Justice cap. 27. that the Lord of any Fair or Market kept upon the Sunday contrary to the Statute may therefore be indicted for the King or Queen either at the Assizes or general Goal delivery or Quarter Sessions within that County If so in case such Lord may be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept upon the sunday as being contrary to the Statute then by the same reason may he be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept on any of the other Holy-days in that Statute mentioned Nor staid it here For in the 1465. which was the fourth year of King Edward IV. it pleased the King in Parliament to Enact as followeth Our Soveraign Lord the
especially appointed for the same are called Holy days Rot for the matter or the nature either of the time or day c. for to all days and times are of like holiness but for the nature and condition of such holy works c. whereunto such times and days are sanctified and hallowed that is to say separated from all prophane uses and dedicated not unto any Saint or Creature but only unto God and his true worship Neither is it to be thought that there is any certain time or definitive number of days prescribed in holy Scripture but the appointment both of the time and also of the number of days is left by the authority of Gods Word unto the liberty of Christs Church to be determined and assigned orderly in every Countrey by the discretion of the Rulers and Ministers thereof as they shall judg most expedient to the true setting forth of Gods glory and edification of their people Nor is it to be thought that all this Preamble was made in reference to the Holy days or Saints days only whose being left to the authority of the Church was never questioned but in relation to the Lords day also as by the Act it self doth at full appear for so it followeth in the Act Be it therefore enacted c. That all the days hereafter mentioned shall be kept and commanded to be kept Holy days and none other that is to say all Sundays in the Year the Feasts of the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ of the Epiphanie of the Purification with all the rest now kept and there named particularly and that none other day shall be kept and commanded to be kept holy day and to abstain from lawful bodily labour Nay which is more there is a further Clause in the self-same Act which plainly shews that they had no such thought of the Lords day as that it was a Sabbath or so to be observed as the Sabbath was and therefore did provide it and enact by the Authority aforesaid a bat it shall be lawful to every Husbandman Labourer Fisherman and to all and every other person or persons of what estate degree or condition be or they he upon the holy days aforesaid in Harvest or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require to labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their free-wills and pleasure any thing in this Act unto the contrary notwithstanding This is the total of this Act which if examined well as it ought to be will yield us all those propositions or conclusions before remembred which we collected from the writings of those three particular Martyrs Nor is it to be said that it is repealed and of no Authority Repealed indeed it was in the first year of Queen Mary and stood repealed in Law though otherwise in use and practice all the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth but in the first year of King James was revived again Note here that in the self-same Parliament the Common Prayer-Book now in use being reviewed by many godly Prelates was confirmed and authorized wherein so much of the said Act as doth concern the Names and Number of the Holy days is expressed and as it were incorporate into the same Which makes it manifest that in the purpose of the Church the Sunday was no otherwise esteemed of than another Holy day This Statute as before we said was made in Anno 5. 6. of Edward the sixth And in that very Parliament as before we said the Common-Prayer-Book was confirmed which still remains in use amongst us save that there was an alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used on every Sunday of the Year 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the form of the Letany altered and corrected and two Sentences added in the delivery of the Sacrament unto the Communicants Now in this Common Prayer-Book thus confirmed in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the sixth Cap. 1. it pleased those that had the altering and revising of it that the Commandments which were not in the former Liturgy allowed of in the second of the said Kings Reign should now be added and accounted as a part of this the people being willed to say after the end of each Commandment Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law Which being used accordingly as well upon the hearing of the fourth Commandment as of any others hath given some men a colour to persuade themselves that certainly it was the meaning of the Church that we should keep a Sabbath still though the day be changed and that we are obliged to do it by the fourth Commandment Assuredly they who so conclude conclude against the meaning of the Book and of them that made it Against the meaning of the Book for if the Book had so intended that that Ejaculation was to be understood in a literal sence according as the words are laid down in terminis it then must be the meaning of the Book that we should pray unto the Lord to keep the Sabbath of the Jews even the seventh day precisely from the Worlds Creation and keep it in the self-same manner as the Jews once did which no man I presume will say was the meaning of it For of the changing of the day there is nothing said nor nothing intimated but the whole Law laid down in terminis as the Lord delivered it Against the meaning also of them that made it for they that made the Book and reviewed it afterwards and caused these Passages and Prayers to be added to it Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Ridley Bishop of London and certain others of the Prelates then and there assembled were the same men by whose advice and counsel the Act before remembred about keeping Holy days was in the self-same Parliament drawn up and perfected And is it possible we should conceive so ill of those reverend persons as that they would erect a Sabbath in the one Act and beat it down so totally in the other to tell us in the Service-Book that we are bound to keep a Sabbath and that the time and day of Gods publick Worship is either pointed out in the fourth Commandment or otherwise ordained by Divine Authority and in the self-same breath to tell us that there is neither certain time nor definite number of days prescribed in Scripture but all this left unto the liberty of the Church I say as formerly I said it is impossible we should think so ill of such Reverend persons nor do I think that any will so think hereafter when they have once considered the non sequitur of their own Conclusions As for the Prayer there used we may thus expound it according to the doctrine and the practice both of those very times viz. that their intent and meaning was to teach the people to pray unto the Lord to incline their hearts to keep that Law as far as it contained the Law of Nature and had been
appointed by the Church for the assembly of Gods people we should lay by our daily business and all worldly thoughts and wholly give our selves to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and Service But to encounter them at their own weapon it is expresly said in the Act of Parliament about keeping Holy-days that on the days and times appointed as well the other Holy days as the Sunday Christians should cease from all kind of labour and only and wholly apply themselves to such holy works as appertain to true Religion the very same with that delivered in the Homily If wholly in the Homily must be applied unto the day then it must be there and then the Saints days and the other Holy-days must be wholly spent in religious exercises When once we see them do the one we will bethink our selves of doing the other As for the residue of that Homily which consists in popular reproofs and exhortations that concerns not us in reference to the point in hand The Homilies those parts thereof especially which tend to the correction of manners and reformation of abuses were made agreeable to those times wherein they were first published If in those times men made no difference between the Working-day and Holy-day 〈◊〉 kept their Fairs and Markets and bought and sold and rowed and ferried and drow and carried and rode and journeyed and did their other business on the Sunday as well as on the other days when there was no such need but that they might have tarried longer they were the more to blame no doubt in trespassing so wilfully against the Canons of the Church and Acts of Parliament which had restrained many of the things there specified The Homily did well to reprove them for it If on the other side they spent the day in ungodliness and filthiness in gluttony and drunkenness and such like other crying sins as are there particularly noted the Prelates of the Church had very ill discharged their duty had they not taken some course to have told them of it But what is that to us who do not spend the Lords day in such filthy fleshliness whatever one malicious sycophant hath affirmed therein or what is that to dancing shooting leaping vaulting may-games and meetings of good Neighbourhood or any other Recreation not by Law prohibited being no such ungodly and filthy acts as are therein mentioned Thus upon due search made and full examination of all parties we find no Lords day Sabbath in the book of Homilies no nor in any writings of particular men in more than 33 years after the Homilies were published I find indeed that in the year 1580 the Magistrates of the City of London obtained from Queen Elizabeth that Plays and Enterludes should no more be acted on the Sabbath-day within the liberties of their City As also that in 83. on the 14th of January being Sunday many were hurt and eight killed outright by the sudden falling of the Scaffolds in Paris-garden This shews that Enterludes and Bear-baitings were then permitted on the Sunday and so they were a long time after though not within the City of London which certainly had not been suffered had it been then conceived that Sunday was to be accounted for a Sabbath But in the year 1595. some of that faction which before had laboured with small profit to overthrow the Hierarchy and government of this Church of England now set themselves on work to ruinate all the orders of it to beat down at one blow all days and times which by the wisdom and authority of the Church had been appointed for Gods service and in the stead thereof to erect a Sabbath of their own devising These Sabbath speculations and Presbyterian directions as mine Author calls them they had been hammering more than ten years before thought they produced them not till now and in producing of them now they introduced saith he a more than cither Jewish or Popish superstition into the Land Rogers in preface to the Articles to the no small blemish of our Christian profession and scandal of the true servants of God and therewith doctrine most erroneous dangerous and Antichristian Of these the principal was one Dr. Bound who published first his Sabbath Doctrins Anno 1595. and after with additions to it and enlargements of it Anno 1606. Wherein he hath affirmed in general over all the book that the Commandment of sanctifying every seventh day as in the Mosaical decalogue is natural moral and perpetual That where all other things in the Jewish Church were so changed that they were clean taken away as the Priesthood the Sacrifices and the Sacraments this day the Sabbath was so changed that it still remaineth p. 91. that there is great reason why we Christians should take our selves as straitly bound to rest upon the Lords day as the Jews were upon their Sabbath for being one of the moral Commandments it bindeth us as well as them being all of equal authority p. 247. And for the Rest upon this day that it must be a notable and singular Rest and most careful exact and precise Rest after another manner than men were accustomed p. 124. Then for particulars no buying of Victuals Flesh or Fish Bread or Drink 158. no Carriers to travel on that day 160. nor Parkmen or Drovers 162. Scholars not to study the liberal Arts nor Lawyers to consult the Case and peruse mens Evidences 163. Sergeants Apparitours and Sumners to be restrained from executing their Offices 164. Justices not to examine Causes for preservation of the Peace 166. no man to travel on that day 192. that ringing of more Bells than one that day is not to be justified p. 202. No solemn Feasts to be made on it 206 nor Wedding Dinners 209. with a permission notwithstanding to Lords Knights and Gentlemen he hoped to find good welcome for this dispensation p. 211. all lawful Pleasures and honest Recreations as Shooting Fencing Bowling but Bowling by his leave is no lawful pleasure for all sorts of people which are permitted on other days were on this day to be forborne 202. no man to speak or talk of pleasures p. 272. or any other worldly matter 275. Most Magisterially determined indeed more like a Jewish Rabbin than a Christian Doctor Yet Jewish and Rabbinical though his Doctrin were it carried a fair face and shew of Piety at the least in the opinion of the common people and such who stood not to examine the true grounds thereof but took it up on the appearance such who did judge thereof not by the workmanship of the stuff but the gloss and colour In which it is most strange to see how â—uddenly men were induced not only to give way unto it but without more ado to abett the same till in the end and that in very little time it grew the most bewitching Errour the most popular Deceit that ever had been set on foot in the Church of England And verily I persuade my self
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
that day and wheresoever Divine service was done that day as in Towns which have always Morning and Evening Prayers they were perceived to resort in greater numbers on that day than on any other to the Church As for King James of happy memory he did not only keep the said great Festivals from his youth as there is said but wished them to be kept by all his Subjects yet without abuse and in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. thus declares himself that without superstition Plays and unlawful Games may be used in May and good Cheer at Christmas Now on the other side as they had quite put down those days which had been dedicated by the Church to Religious Meetings so they appointed others of their own authority For in their Book of Discipline before remembred it was thus decreed viz. That in every notable Town a day besides the Sunday should be appointed weekly for Sermons that during the time of Sermon the day should be kept free from all exercise of labour as well by the Master as by the Servant as also that every day in the said great Towns there be either Sermon or Prayers with reading of the Scriptures So that it seemeth they only were afraid of the name of Holy days and were contented well enough with the thing it self As for the Lords day in that Kingdom I find not that it had attained unto the name or nature of a Sabbath day until that Doctrine had been set on foot amongst us in England For in the Book of Discipline set out as formerly was said in 560. they call it by no other name than Sunday ordaining that upon four Sundays in the year which are therein specified the Sacrament of the Lords Supper should be administred to the people and in the year 1592. an Act of King James the third about the Saturday and other Vigills to be kept holy from Evensong to Evensong was annulled and abrogated Which plainly shews that then they thought not of a Sabbath But when the Sabbath doctrine had been raised in England Anno 1595 as before was said it found a present entertainment with the Brethren there who had before professed in their publick Writings to our Puritans here Davison p. 20. that both their causes were most nearly linked together and thereupon they both took up the name of Sabbath and imposed the rigour yet so that they esteem it lawful to hold Fasts thereon quod saepissime in Ecclesia nostra Scoticana factum est and use it often in that Church which is quite contrary unto the nature of a Sabbath And on the other side they deny it to be the weekly Festival of the Resurrection Non sunt dies Dominici festa Resurrectionis as they have resolved it Altare Damasc p. 669. which shews as plainly that they build not the translation of their Sabbath on the same grounds as our men have done Id. 696. In brief by making up a mixture of a Lords day Sabbath they neither keep it as the Lords day nor as the Sabbath And in this state things stood until the year 1618. what time some of the Ancient holy days were revived again in the Assembly held at Perth in which moving some other Rites of the Church of England which were then admitted it was thus determined viz. As we abhor the superstitious observation of festival days by the Papists and detest all licentious and prophane abuse thereof by the common sort of Professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular days and times by the whole Church of the world and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordains that every Minister shall upon these days have the Commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent Texts of Scripture and frame their Doctrine and Exhortation thereunto and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious prophanation thereof A thing which much displeased some men of contrary persuasion first out of fear that this was but a Preamble to make way for all the other Holy days observed in England And secondly because it seemed that these five days were in all points to be observed as the Lords day was both in the times of the Assembly and after the dissolving of the same But pleased or dispeased so it was decreed and so still it stands But to return again to England It pleased his Majesty now Reigning whom God long preserve upon information of many notable misdemeanors on this day committed 1 Carol. 1. in his first Parliament to Enact That from thence-forwards there should be no Meetings Assemblies or concourse of people out of their Parishes on the Lords day for any sports or pastimes whatsoever nor any Bear-baitings Bull-baitings common Plays Enterludes or any other unlawful Exercises or Pastimes used by any person or persons in their own Parishes every offence to be punished by the forfeiture of 3 s. 4 d. This being a Probation Law was to continue till the end of the first Session of the next Parliament And in the next Parliament it was continued till the end of the first Session of the next 3 Carol. 1. which was then to come So also was another Act made in the said last Session wherein it was enacted That no Carrier Waggoner Wain-man Carman or Drover travel thence-forwards on the Lords day on pain that every person and persons so offending shall lose and forfeit 20 s. for every such offence And that no Butcher either by himself or any other by his privity and consent do kill or sell any Victual on the said day upon the forfeiture and loss of 6 s. 8 d. Which Statutes being still in force by reason that there hath not been any Session of Parliament since they were enacted many both Magistrates and Ministers either not rightly understanding or wilfully mistaking the intent and meaning of the first brought Dancing and some other lawful Recreations under the compass of unlawful Pastimes in that Act prohibited and thereupon disturbed and punished many of the Kings obedient people only for using of such Sports as had been authorized by his Majesties Father of blessed memory Nay which is more it was so publickly avowed and printed by one who had no calling to interpret Laws except the provocation of his own ill spirit That Dancing on the Lords day was an unlawful Pastime punishable by the Statute 1. Carol. 1. which intended so he saith to suppress Dancing on the Lords day as well as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and common Plays which were not then so rife and common as Dancing when this Law was made Things being at this height King Charles Declarat it pleased his excellent Majesty Observing as he saith himself how much his people were debarred of Recreation and finding in some
difference in this case betwixt a living man and a stock or Statua for so it follows in my Author Sed nullam prorsus voluntati tribuetant Actionem nec quidem adjuvante spirity sancto quasi nihil interesset inter statuam voluntatem In both directly contrary to that divine counsel of S. James where he adviseth us to lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and to receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls Chap. 1. ver 21. That of S. Peter exhorting or requiring rather That we work out our salvation with fear and trembling And finally that golden Aphorism of S. Augustine si non sit liberum arbitrium quomodo Deus judicabit mundum With what justice saith the Father can God judg or condemn the world if the sins of men proceed not from their own free will but from some over-ruling power which inforc'd them to it Others there were who harbouring in their hearts the said lewd opinions and yet not daring to ascribe all their sins and wickednesses unto God himself imputed the whole blame thereof to the Stars and Destinies the powerful influence of the one and the irresistable Decrees of the other necessitating then to those wicked actions which they so frequently commit Thus we are told of Bardesanes Quod fato conversationes hominum ascriberet That he ascribed all things to the power of Fate August de Haeres cap. 25. Ibid. cap. 15. 70. And thus it is affirmed of Priscillianus Fatalibus Astris homines alligatos That men were thralled unto the Stars which last S. Augustine doth report of one Colarbus save that he gave this power and influence to the Planets only but these if pondered as they ought differed but little if at all from the impiety of Florinus before remembred only it was expressed in a better language and seemed to savour more of the Philosopher than the other did For if the Lord had passed such an irresistible Law of Fate that such and such should be guilty of such foul Transgressions as they commonly committed it was all one as if he was proclaimed for the Author of them and then why might not every man take unto himself the excuse and plea of Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was not I that did it Homer Illiad but the Gods and Destiny Or if the Lord had given so irresistable a power to the Stars of Heaven as to inforce men to be wickedly and lewdly given what differs this from making God the Author of those vitious actions to which by them we are inforced And then why might not every man cast his sin on God and say as did some good fellows in St. Augustines time Accusandum potius esse Autorem syderum August de Gen. ad lit lib. 2. c. 27. quam commissorem scelerum That he who made the Stars was in the fault not the men that did it But this absurdity being as much cryed down by Augustine and other learned Writers of those elder times as the impiety of Florinus had been before were either utterly extinguish'd or lay concealed for many hundred years together Amongst the philosophical Heterodoxies of the Roman Schools that of the Maniches first revived by Martin Luther who in meer opposition to Erasmus who had then newly written a Book De Arbitrio libero published a Discourse intituled De Arbitrio servo In which Discourse he doth not only say That the freedom ascribed unto the Will is an empty nothing Titulus nomen sine re a name of no such thing in Nature but holds expresly that man is drawn no otherwise by the grace of God than Velut inanimale quiddam No otherwise than as a sensless stock or stone the Statua of the ancient Maniches in the great work of his conversion to a state of Righteousness And though Luther afterwards conformed his Judgment in this Point unto that of Melancthon as appeareth by the Augustan Confession in drawing up whereof he is acknowledged to have had a principal hand yet was he followed in this first Errour as in almost all the rest of his extremities by the rigid Lutherans headed by Flaccus Illyricus and his Associats in the City of Magdeburg at his first separation from the Melancthonian Divines who remained at Wittenberg and had embraced more moderate and sober counsels of which more hereafter But Luther shall not go alone and not take Calvin along with him how much soever they might differ in some other Points Luther revived the Error of the Maniches in denying all freedom to the will especially in matters which relate to eternal life and Calvin will revive the Errors of Bardesanes and Priscillian in charging all mens wicked actions on the Stars and Destiny not positively and in terminis I must needs say that but so that he comes close up to them to Tantamont ascribing that to the inevitable Decrees of Almighty God which Bardesanes attributed to the powers of Fate Priscillian Clolarbus to the influences of the Stars and Planets For if God before all Eternity as they plainly say did purpose and decree the Fall of our Father Adam Vt sua defectione periret Adam In the words of Calvin Calv. instit lib. 3. c. 23. sect 7. V. Synod Rom. There was in Adam a necessity of committing sin because the Lord had so decreed it If without consideration of the sin of man he hath by his determinate sentence ordained so many millions of men to everlasting damnation and that too necessario and inevitabiliter as they please to phrase it he must needs pre-ordain them to sin also there being as themselves confess no way unto the end but by the means The odious Inferences which are raised out of these Opinions I forbear to press and shall add only at the present That if we grant this Doctrine to be true and Orthodox we may do well to put an Index expurgatorius upon the Creed and quite expunge the Article of Chrins coming to Judgment For how could God condemn his Creature to unquenchable Flames or put so ill an Office upon Christ our Saviour as to condemn them by his mouth in case the sins by them committed were not theirs but his or punish the for that himself works in them unto which rather he decred them before all Eternity Falgent ad Monimum Nothing more true than that excellent saying of Fulgentius Deus non est eorum ultor quorum est Autor That God doth never punish his own actings in us Such were the men and such the means by which the blame of sin was transferred from man and charged on the account of God either expresly and in terms or in the way of necessary consequence and undeniable Illation by which lost man was totally deprived of all abilities for resisting Satan or otherwise concurring with Gods grace in his own conversion Nor wanted there some others in those elder times who did
bring them to utter tuin if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that King James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruin of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Ally he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachful names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselves it must be proved by some better evidence than the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an Answer the speech being so Hyperbolical not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to in all this business was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to find out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the death of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of five or six men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their Wars with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000 of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having gotten him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States General who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest Subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Counsels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered Commonwealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Armanians faulty in their practice against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians it as relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practices And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their Enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melancthonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered and predetermined by the eternal Will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavours in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travels to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed than as they have been predetermined by the Will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monk to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsel of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos Manil. de Sphe lib. curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy Soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not being pleased wherewith Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise than they did will Which Opinions saith he Madam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithful Ministers do sit in Council to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that came to pass of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal Ann. 1625. Cabuba p. 116. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinins as some which are opposite and contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master
Among which those of the Calvinian party would fain hook in Wicklif together with Fryth Barns and Tyndal which can by no means be brought under that account though some of them deserved well of the Churches for the times they lived in They that desire to hook in Wicklif do first confess that he stands accused by those of the Church of Rome for bringing in Fatal Necessity and making God the Author of sin and then conclude that therefore it may be made a probable guess that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The cause of which Argument stands thus That there being an agreement in these points betwixt Wicklif and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrines of Wicklif therefore they must embrace the Doctrines of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embraced the Doctrines of Wicklif or had any eye upon the man who though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his field more Tares than Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies than sound Catholick Doctrine And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in the present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as well as for that of Calvin Wicklif affording them the grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who consult the works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklifiana writ by Harpsfield will tell us that Wicklif amongst many other errours maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to minister Sacraments than Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a Child in a Tub of water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain 8. That Holy-days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking the Lords day in for one are not to be observed and kept in reverence inasmuch as all days are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10. That no Humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian 11. And finally That God never gave grace nor knowledge to a great person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same What Anabaptists Brownists Ranters Quakers may not as well pretend that our first Reformers were of their Religion as the Calivinsts can if Wicklifs Doctrine be the rule of our Reformation Which because possibly it may obtain the less belief if they were found only in the works of Harpsfield and Waldensis before remembred the Reader may look for them in the Catalogue of those Mala Dogmata complained of by the Prolocutor in the Convocation Anno 1536. to have been publickly preached printed and professed by some of Wicklifs Followers for which consult the Church History lib. 4. fol. 208. and there he shall be sure to find them It is alledged in the next place that the Calvinistical Doctrines in these points may be found in the Writings of John Frith William Tyndal and Dr. Barns collected into one Volume and printed by John Day 1563. of which the first suffered-death for his conscience Anno 1533. the second Anno 1536. and the third Anno 1540 called therefore by Mr. Fox in a Preface of his before the Book the Ring-leaders of the Church of England And thereupon it is inferred that the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination must be the same with that which was embraced and countenanced by the first Reformers But first admitting that they speak as much in honour of Calvins Doctrine as can be possibly desired yet being of different judgments in the points disputed and not so Orthodox in all others as might make them any way considerable in the Reformation it is not to be thought that either their Writings or Opinions should be looked on by us for our direction in this case Barns was directly a Dominican in point of Doctrine Frith soared so high upon the Wing and quite out-flew the mark that Tyndal thought it not unfit to call him down and lure him back unto his pearch and as for Tyndal he declares himself with such care and caution excepting one of his fllyings out against Free-will that nothing to their purpose can be gathered from him Secondly I do not look on Mr. Fox as a competent Judge in matters which concern the Church of England the Articles of whose Confession he refused to subscribe he being thereunto required by Archbishop Parker and therefore Tyndal Frith and Barns not to be hearkned to the more for his commendation Thirdly if the testimony of Frith and Tyndal be of any force for defence of the Calvinists the Anti-Sabbatarians any more justly make use of of it in defence of themselves against the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. Bond and his Adherents embraced more passionately of late than any Article of Religion here by Law established Of which the first declares the Lords day to be no other than an Ecclesiastical Institution or Church Ordinance the last that it is still changeable from one day to another if the Church so please For which consult the Hist of Sab. l. 2. c. 8. Let Frith and Tyndal be admitted as sufficient Witnesses when they speak against the new Sabbath Doctrines or not admitted when they speak in behalf of Calvins and then I am sure his followers will lose more on the one side than they gained on the other and will prove one of the crossest bargains to them which they over made And then it is in the fourth place to be observed that the greatest Treasury of Learning which those and the Famerlines could boast of was lock'd up in the Cloisters of the Begging Fryers of which the Franciscans were accounted the most nimble Disputants the Dominicans the most diligent and painful Preachers the Augustinians for the most part siding wit the one and the Carmelites or White Fryers joyning with the other so that admitting Frith and Tyndal to maintain the same Doctrine in these points which afterwards was held forth by Calvin yet possibly they maintained them not as any points of Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the errours of the Church of Rome which had not then declared it self on either side but as the received Opinion of the Dominican Fryers in opposition to the Franciscans The Doctrine of which Dominican Fryers by reason of their diligent preaching had met with more plausible entertainment not only amongst the inferiour fort of people but also amongst many others of parts and
c. The King is the Head Modus tenendi Parl. Ms. c. 12. the beginning and end of the Parliament and so he hath not any equal in the first degree the second is of Arch-bishop Bishops and Priors and Abbots holding by Barony the third is of Procurators of the Clergy the fourth of Earls Barons and other Nobles the fifth is of Knights of the Shire the sixth of Citizens and Burgesses and so the whole Parliament is made up of these six degrees But the said Modus tells us more and goeth more particularly to work than so For in the ninth Chapter speaking of the course which was observ'd in canvassing hard and difficult matters it telleth us that they used to choose 25 out of all degrees like a grand Committee to whose consideration they referred the point that is to say two Bishops and three Proctors for the Cleergy two Earls three Barons fire Knights five Citizens and as many Burgesses And in the 12th that on the fourth day of the Parliament the Lord High Steward the Lord Constable and the Lord Marshal were to call the House every degree or rank of men in its several Order and that if any of the Proctors of the Clergy did not make appearance the Bishop of the Diocess was to be fined 100 l. and in the 23d Chapter it is said expresly that as the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in things which do concern the Commons have more Authority than all the Lords so the Proctors for the Clergy in things which do concern the Clergy have more Authority than all the Bishops Preface to the 9th part of Reports Which Modus if it be as antient as the Norman Conqueror as both Sir Edward Coke conceiveth and the title signifieth it sheweth the Clergies claim to a place in Parliament to be more antient than the Commons can pretend unto but if no older than the Reign of King Edward III. as confidently is affirmed in the Titles of Honour Titles of hon pt 2. c. 5. it sheweth that in the usage of those latter times the Procurators of the Clergy had a right and place there as well as Citizens and Burgesses or the Knights of the Shires And this is further proved by the Writs of Summons directed to the Arch-bishops and Bishops for their own coming to the Parliament in the end whereof there is a clause for warning the Dean and Chapter of their Cathedrals and the Arch-deacons with the whole Clergy to be present at it that is to say the Deans and Arch-deacons personally the Chapter and Clergy in their Proctours then and there to consent to such Acts and Ordinances as shall be made by the Common Council of the Kingdom The whole clause word for word is this Praemunientes Priorem Capitulum or decanum Capitulum Extant ibid. pt 2. c. 5. as the case might vary Ecclesiae vestrae N. ac Archidiacanos totumque Clerum vestrae Dioceseos quod iidem Decanus Archidiaconi in propriis personis suis ac dictum Capitulum per unum idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero habentes praedicto die loco personaliter intersint ad consentiendum iis quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio ipsius Regni nostri divina favente clementia contigerit ordinari Which clause being in the Writs of King Edward I. and for the most part of the Reign of his next Successors till the middle of King Richard the second at which time it began to be fixt and formal hath still continued in those Writs without any difference almost between the Syllables to this very day Id. ibid. Now that this clause was more than Verbal and that the Proctors of the Clergy did attend in Parliament is evident by the Acts and Statutes of King Richard the second the passages whereof I shall cite at large the better to conclude what I have in hand The Duke of Glocester and the Earl of Arundel having gotten the mastery of the King obtained a Commission directed to themselves and others of their nomination Statut. 21 R. 2. c. 2. to have the rule of the King and his Realm and having their Commission confirmed by Parliament in the 11. year of his reign did execute divers of his Friends and Ministers and seized on their Estates as forfeited But having gotten the better of his head-strong and rebellious Lords in the one and twentieth of his reign he calls a Parliament in the Acts whereof it is declared That on the Petition of the Commons of the assent of all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and of the Proctors of the Clergy Ibid. c. 2. he repealed the said Statute and Commission and with the assent of the said Lords and Commons did ordain and establish that no such Commission nor the like be henceforth purchased pursued or made This done the Heirs of such as had been condemned by vertue of the said Commision demanded restitution of their Lands and Honours And thereupon the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Procurators of the Clergy the Commons having prayed to the King before as the Appellants prayed severally examined did assent expresly that the said Parliament and all the Statutes Ibid. c. 12. c. and restitution made as afore is said And also the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Procurators of the Clergy and the said Commons were severally examined of the Questions proposed at Nottingham and of the Answer which the Judges made unto the same which being read as well before the King and the Lords as before the Commons it was demanded of all the States of the Parliament what they thought of the Answers and they said that they were lawfully and duly made c. And then it followeth whereupon the King by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Procurators of the Clergy and the said Commons and by the advice of the Justices and Sergeants aforesaid who had been asked their Opinion in point of Law ordained and established that the said Parliament should be annulled and held for none Add unto this that passage in the 9 of Edward 2. where it is said that many Articles containing divers grievances committed against the Church of England the Prelates and Clergy were propounded by the Prelates and Clerks of our Realm in Parliament and great instance made that convenient remedy might be appointed therein Proem ad articalos Cleri that of the complaints made to the King in Parliament by the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm 50 Ed. 3.5 8 Rich. 2. c. 13. and that of the Petition delivered to the King in the Parliament by the Clergy of England Selden hist of Tithes c. 8.33 4 Hen. 4. c. 2. And finally that memorable passage in the Parliament 51 Edw. 3. which in brief was this The Commons finding themselves agrieved as well with certain Constitutions made by the Clergy in
together can conclude on any thing unto the prejudice of the third Bodinus that renowned States-man doth resolve it Negatively and states it thus nihil à duobus ordinibus discerni posse quo uni ex tribus incommodum inferatur Bodin de Rep. l. 3. c. 7. si res ad singulos ordines seorsum pertinet that nothing can be done by two of the Estates to the disprofit of the third in case the point proposed be such as concerns them severally The point was brought into debate upon this occasion Henry the 3d. of France had summoned an Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ondinum to be held at Bloys Anno 1577. the Form and Order of the which we have at large by Thuanus Lib. 63. But finding that he could not bring his ends about so easily with that numerous body as if they were contracted to a narrower compass he caused it to be mov'd unto them that they should make choice of 36 twelve of each Estate Tonanus in hist temp l. 63. quox Rex cum de postulatis decerneret in consilium adhibere dignaretur whom the King would deign call to Council for the dispatch of such Affairs and motions as had been either moved or proposed unto him Which being very readily assented to by the Clergy and Nobility who hoped thereby to find some favour in the Court and by degrees to be admitted to the Privy Council was very earnestly opposed by Bodinus being then Delegate or Commissioner for the Province of Veromandois who saw full well that if businesses were so carried the Commons which made the third Estate would find but little hopes to have their grievances redressed â—â—iin de Rep. â— 1. c. 7. their petitions answered And therefore laboured the rest of the Commissioners not to yield unto it as being utterly destructive of the Rights and Liberties of the common people which having done he was by them intrusted to debate the business before the other two Estates and did it to so good effect that at the last he took them off from their resolution and obtained the cause What Arguments he used in particular neither himself nor Thuanus telleth us But sure I am that he insisted both on the ancient customs of the Realm of France as also of the Realm of Spain and England and the Roman Empire in each of which it was received for a ruled case nihil à duobus ordinibus statui posse quo uni ex tribus prejudicium crearetur that nothing could be done by any of the two Estates unto the prejudice of the third And if it were a ruled case then in the Parliament of England there is no reason why it should be otherwise in the present times the equity and justice of it being still the same and the same reasons for it now as forcible as they could be then Had it been otherwise resolved of in the former Ages wherein the Clergy were so prevalent in all publick Councils how easie a matter had it been for them either by joyning with all the Nobility to exclude the Commons or by joyning with the Commonalty to exclude the Nobles Or having too much conscience to adventure to so great a change an alteration so incompatible and inconsistent with the Constitution of a Parliament how easily might they have suppressed the potency and impair the Priviledges of either of the other two by working on the humours or affections of the one to keep down the other But these were Arts not known in the former days nor had been thought of in these last but by men of Ruine who were resolved to change the Government as the event doth shew too clearly both of Church and State Nor doth it help the matter in the least degree to say that the exclusion of the Bishops from the House of Peers was not done meerly by the practice of the two other Estates but by the assent of the King of whom the Laws say he can do no wrong and by an Act of Parliament whereof our Laws yet say quae nul doit imaginer chose dishonourable that no man is to think dishonourably Plowden in Commentar For we know well in what condition the King was when he passed that Act to what extremities he was reduced on what terms he stood how he was forced to flye from his City of London to part with his dear Wife and Children and in a word so overpowred by the prevailing party in the two Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him as his case then was to deny them any thing And for the Act of Parliament so unduly gained besides that the Bill had been rejected when it was first brought unto the Lords and that the greater part of the Lords were frighted out of the House when contrary unto the course of Parliament it was brought again it is a point resolved both in Law and Reason that the Parliament can do nothing to the destruction of it self and that such Acts as are extorted from the King are not good and valid whereof we have a fair Example in the book of Statutes 15 Ed. 3. For whereasz the King had granted certain Articles pretended to be granted in the Form of a statute expresly contrary to the Laws of the Realm and his own Prerogative and Rights Royal mark it for this is just the case which he had yielded to eschew the dangers which by denying of the same were like to follow in the same Parliament it was repealed in these following words It seemed good to the said Earls Barons and other wise men that since the Statute did not proceed of our Free will the same be void and ought not to have the name nor strength of a Statute and therefore by their counsel and assent we have decreed the said Statute to be void c. Or if it should not be repealed in a formal manner yet is this Act however gotten void in effect already by a former Statute in which it was enacted in full Parliament and at the self-same place where this Act was gained that the Great Charter by which and many other Titles the Bishops held their place in Parliament should be kept in all points and if any Statute be made to the contrary 42 Ed. 3. c. 1. it shall be holden for none CHAP. VI. That the three Estates of every Kingdom whereof Calvin speaks have no Authority either to regulate the power or control the actions of the Sovereign Prince 1. The Bishops and Clergy of England not the Kings make the third Estate and of the dangerous consequences which may follow on the contrary Tenet 2. The different influence of the three Estates upon conditional Princes and an absolute Monarch 3. The Sanhedrim of no Authority over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah 4. The three Estates in France of how small Authority over the actions of that King 5. The King of Spain not over-ruled or
expresly and in terminis to represent the three Estates of the Realm of England did recognize the Queens Majesty to be their true lawful and undoubted Sovereign Liege Lady and Queen This makes it evident that the King was not accounted in the times before for one of the three Estates of Parliament nor can be so accounted the present times For considering that the Lords and Commons do most confessedly make two of the three Estates and that the Clergy in another Act of Parliament of the said Queens time are confessed to be one of the greatest States of the Realm which Statute being still in force Statut. 8. Eliz. cap. 1. doth clearly make the Clergy to be the third either there must be more than three Estates in this Kingdom which is against the Doctrine of the present times or else the King is none of the Estates as indeed he is not which was the matter to be proved But I spend too much time in confuting that which hath so little ground to stand on more than the dangerous consequences which are covered under it For if the King be granted once to be no more than one of the three Estates how can it choose but follow from so sad a principle that he is of no more power and consideration in the time of Parliament than the House of Peers which sometimes hath consisted of three Lords no more or than the House of Commons only which hath many times consisted of no more than eighty or an hundred Gentlemen but of far less consideration to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever than both the Houses joyned together What else can follow hereupon but that the King must be co-ordinate with his two Honses of Parliament and if co-ordinate then to be over-ruled by their joynt concurrence bound to conform unto their Acts and confirm their Ordinances or upon case of inconformity and non-compliance to see them put in execution against his liking and consent to his foul reproach And what at last will be the issue of this dangerous consequence but that the Lords content themselves to come down to the Commons and the King be no otherwise esteemed of than the chief of the Lords the Princeps Senatus if you will or the Duke of Venice at the best no more which if Sir Edward Dering may be credited as I think he may in this particular seems to have been the main design of some of the most popular and powerful Members then sitting with him for which I do refer the Reader to his book of Speeches Which dangerous consequents whether they were observed at first by these who first ventured on the expression or were improvidently looked over I can hardly say Certain I am it gave too manifest an advantage to the Antimonarchical party in this Kingdom and hardned them in their proceeding against their King whom they were taught to look on and esteem no otherwise than as a Joint-tenant of the Sovereignty with the Lords and Commons And if Kings have partners in the Sovereignty they are then no King such being the nature and Law of Monarchy that si divisionem capiat interitum capiat necesse est Laciant Institut Div. l. 1. c. if it be once divided and the authorities thereof imparted it is soon destroyed Such is the dangerous consequence of this new Expression that it seemeth utterly to deprive the Bishops and in them the Clergy of this Land of all future hopes of being restored again to their place in Parliament For being the Parliament can consist but of three Estates if the King fall so low as to pass for one either the Bishops or the Commons or the Temporal Lords must desert their claim the better to make way for this new pretension and in all probability the Commons being grown so potent and the Nobility so numerous and united in bloud and marriages will not quit their interesse and therefore the poor Clergy must be no Estate because less able as the World now goeth with them to maintain their Title I have often read that Constantine did use to call himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop or superintendent of his Bishops Euseb de vita Constant and I have often heard our Lawyers say that the King is the general Ordinary of the Kingdom but never heard nor read till within these few years that ever any King did possess himself of the Bishops place or Vote in Parliament or sat there as the first of the three Estates as anciently the Bishops did to supply their absence By which device whether the Clergy or the King be the greater losers though it be partly seen already future times will shew This Rub removed we next proceed to the examination of that power which by our Author is conferred on the three Estates which we shall find on search and tryal to be very different according to the constitution of the Kingdom in which they are For where the Kings are absolute Monarchs as in England Scotland France and Spain Bod in de Repuô l. 1. c. the three Estates have properly and legally little more Authority than to advise their King as they see occasion to present unto his view their common grievances and to propose such remedies for redress thereof as to them seem meetest to canvass and review such erroneous judgments as formerly have passed in inferiour Courts and finally to consult about and prepare such Laws as are expedient for the publick In other Countreys where the Kings are more conditional and hold their Crowns by compact and agreement between them and their Subjects the reputation and authority of the three Estates is more high and eminent as in Polonia Denmark and some others of the Northern Kingdoms where the Estates lay claim to more than a directive power and think it not enough to advise their King unless they may dispose of the Kingdom also or at least make their King no better than a Royal Slave Thus and no otherwise it is with the German Emperors who are obnoxious to the Laws Thuan. hist sui temp l. 2. and for their Government accomptable to the Estates of the Empire insomuch that if the Princes of the Empire be persuaded in their consciences that he is likely by his mal-administration to destroy the Empire and that he will not hearken to advice and counsel ab Electorum Collegio Caesaria potestate privari potest Anonym Script ap Philip. Paraeum in Append ad Rom. 13. he may be deprived by the Electors and a more fit and able man elected to supply the place And to this purpose in a Constitution made by the Emperor Jodocus about the year 1410. there is a clause that if he or any of his Successors do any thing unto the contrary thereof the Electors and other States of the Empire sine rebellionis vel infidelitatis crimine libertatem babeant Goldast Constit Imperial Tom. 3. p. 424. should be at liberty
without incurring the crimes of Treason or Disloyalty not only to oppose but resist them in it The like to which occurrs for the Realm of Hungary wherein K. Andrew gives Authority to his Bishops Lords Bonfinius de Edict publ p. 37. and other Nobles sine nota alicujus infidelitatis that without any imputation of Disloyalty they may contradict oppose and resist their Kings if they do any thing in violation of some Laws and sanctions In Poland the King takes a solemn Oath at his Coronation to confirm all the Priviledges Rights and Liberties which have been granted to his Subjects of all ranks and Orders by any of his Predecessors and then adds this clause quod si Sacramentum meum violavero incolae Regni nullam nobis obedientiam praestare tenebuntur which if he violates his Subjects shall no longer be obliged to yield him Obedience Which Oath as Bodin well observeth Bodin de Rep. lib. 2. cap. 8. doth savour rather of the condition of the Prince of the Senate than of the Majesty of a King The like may be affirmed of Frederick the first King of Danemark who being called unto that Crown on the ejection of K. Christian the 2d An. 1523. was so conditioned with by the Lords of the Kingdom that at his Coronation or before he was fain to swear that he would put none of the Nobility to death or banishment but by the judgment of the Senate that the great men should have power of life or death over their Tenants and Vassals and that no Appeal should lie from them to the Kings Tribunal nor the King be partaker of the confiscations nec item honores aut imperia privatis daturum Id. ibid. c. nor advance any private person to Commands or Honours but by Authority of his great Council Which Oath being also taken by Frederick the second made Bodinus say that the Kings of Danemark non tam reipsa quam appellatione Reges sunt were only titular Kings but not Kings indeed Which Character he also gives of the King of Bobemia Id. ibid. p. 88. But in an absolute Monarchy the case is otherwise all the prerogatives and rights of Sovereignty being so vested in the Kings person ut nec singulis civibus nec universis fas est c. that it is neither lawful to particular men nor to the whole body of the Subjects generally to call the Prince in question for Life Fame or Fortunes Id. ibid. p. 210. and amongst these he reckoneth the Kingdoms of France Spain England Scotland the Tartars Muscovites omnium pene Africae Asiae imperiorum and of almost all the Kingdoms of Africk and Asia But this we shall the better see by looking over the particulars as they lie before us But first before we come unto those particulars we will look backwards on the condition and Authority of the Jewish Sanbedrim which being instituted and ordained by the Lord himself may serve to be a leading Case in the present business For being that the Jews were the Lords own people and their King honoured with the Title of the Lords Anointed it will be thought that if the Sanhedrim or the great Council of the seventy had any Authority and power over the Kings of Judah of whose jus Regni such a larger description is made by God himself in the first of Sam. cap. 8. the three Estates may reasonably expect the like in these parts of Christendom Now for the Authority of the Sanhedrim it is said by Cardinal Baronius that they had power of Judicature over the Law the Prophets and the Kings themselves Baron Annai Eccl. An. 31. sect 10. Erat horum summa autoritas ut qui de lege cognoscerent Prophetis simul de Regibus judicarent Which false position he confirms by as false an instance affirming in the very next words horum judicio Herodem Regem postulatum esse that King Herod was convented and convicted by them for which he cites Josphus with the like integrity I should have wondred very much what should occasion such a gross mistake in the learned Cardinal had I not shewn before that as he makes the Sanhedrim to rule the King so he hath made the high Priest to rule the Sanhedrim which to what purpose it was done every man can tell who knoweth the Cardinal endeavoureth nothing more in his large Collections than to advance the dignity and supremacy of the Popes of Rom. But for the power pretended to be in the Sanhedrim Id. in Epist dedicator and their proceedings against Herod as their actual King Josephus whom he cites is so far from saying it that he doth expresly say the contrary For as Josephus tells the story Hyrcanus was then King not Herod and Herod of so little hopes to enjoy the Kingdom that he could not possibly pretend any Title to it But having a command in Galilee procured by Antipater his Father of the good King Hyrcanus he had played the wanton Governor amongst them and put some of them to death against Law and Justice For which the Mothers of the slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did often call upon the King and people in the open Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Herod might answer for the murther before the Sanhedrim Joseph Antiq. Judic l. 14. cap. 17. Which being granted by the King he was accordingly convented by them and had been questionless condemned had not the King who loved him dearly given him notice of it on whose advertisement he went out of the Town and so escaped the danger This is the substance of that story and this gives no Authority to the Court of Sanhedrim over the persons or the actions of the Kings of Judah Others there are who make them equal to the Kings though not superiour Magnam fuisse Senatus autoritatem Regiae velut parem saith the Learned Grotius Grotius in Matth. cap. 5. v. 22. And for the proof thereof allege those words of Sedechias in the Book of Jeremy who when the Princes of his Realm required of him to put the Prophet to death Jerem. 38.5 returned this Answer Behold he is in your hand Rex enim contra vos nihil potest for the King is not he that can do any thing against you Which words are also cited by Mr. Prynne to prove that the King of England hath no Negative Voice but by neither rightly For Calvin who as one observeth composed his Expositions on the book of God according to the Doctrine of his Institutions would not have lost so fair an evidence for the advancing of the power of his three Estates Prynne of Parl. pt 2. p. 73. Hookers Preface had he conceived he could have made it serviceable to his end and purpose But he upon the contrary finds fault with them who do so expound it or think the King did speak so honourably of his Princes ac si nihil iis sit
or if the King dislikes of any thing in it when they shew it to him it either is razed out or mended before it be prefented to the publick view King James of blessed memory who very well understood his own power and the Forms of that Parliament describes it much to the same purpose in his Speech made at Whitehall March 31. Anno 1609. About twenty days saith he before the Parliament Proclamation is made throughout the Kingdom to deliver unto the Kings Clerk of Register all Bills to be exhibited that Session before a certain day Then are they brought unto the King and perused and considered by him and only such as he alloweth of are put into the Chancellors hands to be propounded to the Parliament and none others And if any other man in Parliament speak of any other matter than is in this sort first allowed by the King the Chancellor telleth him that the King hath allowed of no such Bill Besides when they have passed them for Laws they are presented to the King and he with his Scepter put into his hands by the Chancellor must say I ratifie and approve all things done in this present Parliament And if there be any thing that he disliketh it is razed out before So the eldest Parliament-man as he said himself at that time in Scotland This was the Form of holding Parliaments in Scotland which whosoever doth consider with a serious eye may perceive most plainly that it is wholly in the Kings power to frame the Parliament to his own will or at the least to hinder it from doing any thing to the prejudice of his Royal Crown and Dignity in that the nominating of the Lords of the Articles did in a manner totally depend on him Which being observed by the Scots they took the opportunity when they were in Arms to pass an Act during the Presidency of the Lord Burley Anno 1640. for the abolition of this Order Acts of Parliaments 16 Carol and for reducing of that Parliament to the Forms of England as being thought more advantagious to their purposes than the former was So that the violent disloyalty of the Scotish Subjects their Insurrections against their Kings and murdering them sometimes when their heels were up which makes that Nation so ill spoken of in the Stories of Christendom are not to be imputed to the three Estates convened in Parliament or to any power or Act of theirs Rivet cont tenuit but only prae fervido Scotorum ingenio as one pleads it for them unto the natural disposition of that fierce and head-strong people yet easilier made subject unto Rule and Government The three Estates assembled in the Court of Parliament when in the judgment of our Author they are most fit to undertake the business have for the most part had no hand in those desperate courses And now at last we are come to England where since we came no sooner we will stay the longer and here we shall behold the King established in an absolute Monarchy from whom the meeting of the three Estates in Parliament detracteth nothing of his Power and Authority Royal. Bodin as great a Politick as any of his time in the Realm of France hath ranked our Kings amongst the absolute Monarchs of these Western parts And Cambden as renowned an Antiquary as any of the Age he lived in Bodin de Rep. l. 1. c. 8. hath told us of the King of England supremam potestatem merum imperium habere Cambden in Britan. descript That he hath supream power and absolute command in his Dominions and that he neither holds his Crown in vassalage nor receiveth his investiture of any other nor acknowledgeth any Superiour but God alone To prove this last he cites these memorable words from Bracton an old English Lawyer omnis quidem sub Rege ipse sub nullo sed tantum sub Deo that every man is under the King but the King under none saving only God But Bracton tells us more than this and affirms expresly that the King hath supream power and jurisdiction over all causes and persons in this his Majesties Realm of England that all Jurisdictions are vested in him and are issued from him and that he hath jus gladii or the right of the Sword for the better governance of his people This is the substance of his words but the words are these Bracton de leg Angl. l. 2. c 24. Sciendum est saith he quod ipse Dominus Rex ordinariam habet jurisdictionem dignitatem potestatem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Habet enim omnia jura in manu sua quae ad coronam laicalem pertinent potestatem materialem gladium qui pertinet ad Regni gubernandum c. He adds yet further Habet item in potestate sua leges constitutiones that the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm Id. l. 2. c. 16. are in the power of the King by which words whether he meaneth that the Legislative power is in the King and whether the Legislative power be in him and in him alone we shall see anon But sure I am that he ascribes unto the King the power of interpreting the Law in all doubtful cases in dubiis obscuris Domini Regis expectanda interpretatio voluntas which is plain enough For though he speaketh only de chartis Regis expectanda interpretatio voluntas which is plain enough For though he speaketh only de chartis Regiis factis Regum of the Kings Deeds and Charters only as the words seem to import yet considering the times in which he lived being Chief Justice in the time of King Henry the 3d. wherein there was but little written Law more than what was comprehended in the Kings Grants and Charters he may be understood of all Laws whatever And so much is collected out of Bractons words by the Lord Chancellor Egerton of whom it may be said without envy that he was as grave and learned a Lawyer as ever sat upon that Bench. Who gathereth out of Bracton that all cases not determined for want of foresight are in the King to whom belongs the right of interpretation not in plain and evident cases but only in new questions and emergent doubts and that the King hath as much right by the constitutions of this Kingdom as the Civil Law gave the Roman Emperors where it is said Rex solus judicat de causa à jure non desinita Case of the Post-nati p. 107 108. And though the Kings make not any Laws without the counsel and consent of his Lords and Commons whereof we shall speak more in the following Section yet in such cases where the Laws do provide no remedy and in such matters as concern the politick administration of his Kingdoms he may and doth take order by his Proclamations He also hath Authority by his Prerogative Royal to dispense with the rigour of the Laws and
no appeal but only to the whole body of that Court the King Case of our Assairs p. 7 8. and both the Houses the Head and Members But this they do not as the upper House of Parliament but as the distinct Court of the Kings Barons of Parliament of a particular and ministerial jurisdiction to some intents and purposes and to some alone which though it doth invest them with a power of judicature confers not any thing upon them which belongs to Sovereignty Then for the Commons all which the Writ doth call them to is facere consentire to do and consent unto such things which are ordained by the Lords and Common Council of the Kingdom of England and sure conformity and consent which is all the Writ requireth from them are no marks of Sovereignty nor can an Argument be drawn from thence by the subtlest Sophister to shew that they are called to be partakers of the Sovereign power or that the King intends to denude himself of any branch or leaf thereof to hide their nakedness And being met together in a body collective they are so far from having any share in Sovereignty that they cannot properly be called a Court of Judicature as neither having any power to minister an Oath Id. p. 9. or to imprison any body except it be some of their own Members if they see occasion which are things incident to all Courts of Justice and to every Steward of a Leet insomuch that the House of Commons is compared by some and not incongruously unto the Grand Inquest at a general Sessions whose principal work it is to receive Bills and prepare businesses Review of the Observat p. 22. and make them fit and ready for my Lords the Judges Nay so far were they heretofore from the thoughts of Sovereignty that they were lyable to sutes and punishments for things done in Parliament though only to the prejudice of a private Subject until King Henry VIII most graciously passed a Law for their indemnity For whereas Richard Strode one of the company of Tinners in the County of Cornwall being a Member of the Commons House had spoken somewhat to the prejudice of that Society and contrary to the Ordinances of the Stanneries at his return into the Country he was Arrested Fined Imprisoned Complaint whereof being made in Parliament the King passed a Law to this effect viz. That all suites condemnations 4 Hen. 8. c. 8. executions charges and impositions put or hereafter to be put upon Richard Strode and every of his Complices that be of this Parliament or any other hereafter for any Bill speaking or reasoning of any thing concerning the Parliament to be communed and treated of shall be void and null But neither any reparation was allowed to Strode nor any punishment inflicted upon those that sued him for ought appears upon Record And for the Houses joyned together which is the last capacity they can claim it in they are so far from having the supream Authority that as it is observed by a learned Gentleman they cannot so unite or conjoyn as to be an entire Court either of Sovereign or Ministerial jurisdiction no otherwise co-operating than by concurrence of Votes in their several Houses for preparing matters in order to an Act of Parliament Case of our Affairs p. 9. Which when they have done they are so far from having any legal Authority in the State as that in Law there is no stile nor form of their joynt Acts nor doth the Law so much as take notice of them until they have the Royal Assent So that considering that the two Houses alone do no way make an entire Body or Court and that there is no known stile nor form of any Law or Edict by the Votes of the two Houses only nor any notice taken of them by the Law it is apparent that there is no Sovereignty in their two Votes alone How far the practice of the Lords and Commons which remain'd at Westminster after so many of both Houses had repaired to the King c. may create Precedents unto Posterity I am not able to determine but sure I am they have no Precedent to shew from the former Ages But let us go a little further and suppose for granted that the Houses either joynt or separate be capable of the Sovereignty were it given unto them I would fain know whether they claim it from the King or the People only Not from the King for he confers upon them no further power than to debate and treat of his great Affairs to have access unto his person freedom of speech as long as they contain themselves within the bounds of Loyalty authority over their own Members Hakewell of passing Bills in Parliament which being customarily desired and of course obtained as it relates unto the Commons shews plainly that these vulgar priviledges are nothing more the rights of Parliament than the favours of Princes but yet such favours as impart not the least power of Sovereignty Nor doth the calling of a Parliament ex opere operato as you know who phrase it either denude the King of the poorest robe of all his Royalty or confer the same upon the Houses or on either of them whether the King intend so by his call or otherwise For Bodin whom Mr. Prynn hath honoured with the title of a grand Politician Prynn of Parliament par 2. p. 45. Bodin de Repub doth affirm expresly Principis majestatem nec Comitorum convocatione nec Senatus populique praesentia minui that the Majesty or Sovereignty of the King is not a jot diminished either by the calling of a Parliament or Conventus Ordinum or by the frequency and presence of his Lords and Commons Nay to say truth the Majesty of Sovereign Princes is never so transcendent and conspicuous as when they sit in Parliament with their States about them the King then standing in his highest Estate as was once said by Henry VIII who knew as well as any of the Kings of England how to keep up the Majesty of the Crown Imperial Nor can they claim it from the People who have none to give for nemo dat quod non habet as the saying is The King as hath been proved before doth hold his Royal Crown immediately from God himself not from the contract of the People He writes not populi clementia but Dei gratia not by the favour of the People but by the grace of God The consent and approbation of the People used and not used before the day of Coronation is reckoned only as a part of the solemn pomps which are then accustomably used The King is actually King to all intents and purposes in the Law whatever immediatly on the death of his Predecessor Nor ever was it otherwise objected in the Realm of England till Clark and Watson pleaded it at their Arraignment in the first year of King James Speeds History in K James Or grant
of Charters under the Great Seal or else as Proclamations of Grace and Favour so do they carry still this mark of their first procuring the King willeth the King commandeth the King ordaineth the King provideth the King grants c. And when the Kings were pleased to call their Estates together it was not out of an Opinion that they could not give away their Power or dispense their Favours or abate any thing of the severity of their former Government without the approbation and consent of their people but out of just fear lest any one of the three Estates I mean the Clergy the Nobility and the Commons should insist on any thing which might be prejudicial to the other two The Commons being always on the Craving part and suffering as much perhaps from their immediate Lords as from their King might possibly have asked some things which were as much derogatory to the Lords under whom they held as of their Sovereign Liege the King the chief Lord of all In this respect the Counsel and Consent as well of the Prelates as the Temporal Lords was accounted necessary in passing of all Acts of Grace and Favour to the people because that having many Royalties and large immunities of their own a more near relation to the person and a greater interesse in the honour of their Lord the King nothing should pass unto the prejudice and diminution of their own Estates or the disabling of the King to support his Sovereignty And this for long time was the Stile of the following Parliaments viz. To the honour of God and of holy Church Preface an 1 Ed. 3. and to the redress of the oppressions of the people our Sovereign Lord the King c. at the request of the Commonalty of his Realm by their Petition made before him and his Council in the Parliament by the Assent of the Prelates Earls Barons and other great men assembled in the said Parliament hath granted for him and his Heirs c. To this effect but with some little and but a very little variation of the words was the usual Stile in all the Prefaces or Preambles of the Acts of Parliament from the beginning of the Reign of King Edward the 3d till the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the 7th save that sometimes we find the Lords complaining 10 Ed. 3. c. 21 Ed. 3. c. 28 Ed. 3. c. or petitioning and the Commons assenting as their occasion did require and sometime also no other motive represented but the Kings great desire to provide for the ease and safety of his people upon deliberation had with the Prelates and Nobles and learned men assisting with their mutual Counsel 23 Ed. 3. And all this while there is no question to be made but that the power of making Laws was conceived to be the chiefest Flower of the Royal Diadem to which the Lords and Commons neither joint nor seperate did not pretend the smallest Title more than petitioning for them or assenting to them it being wholly left to the Kings Grace and goodness whether he would give ear or not to their Petitions or hearken unto such Advice as the Lords or other great men gave him in behalf of his people And this is that which was declared in the Parliament by the Lords and Commons and still holds good as well in point of Law as Reason that it belonged unto the regality of the King to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament be pleaseth But as the Kings came in upon doubtful Titles 2 Hen. 5. or otherwise were necessitated to comply with the peoples humours as sometimes they were so did the Parliaments make use of the opportunities for the encrease of their Authority at least in the formalities of Law and other advantages of expression So that in the minority of King Henry the sixth unto those usual words by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons which were inserted ordinarily into the body of the Acts from the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the sixth was added this By the Authority of the said Parliament But still it is to be observed 3 Hen. 6. c. 2. 8 H. 6.3 c. that though those words were added to the former clause yet the power of granting or ordaining was acknowledged to belong to the King alone as in the places in the Margin where it is said Our Lord the King considering the premises by the advice and assent and at the request aforesaid hath ordained and granted by the Authority of the said Parliament 3 H. 6.2 and our Lord the King considering c. hath ordained and established by Authority of this Parliament 8 H. 6.3 And thus it generally stood but every general Rule may have some exceptions till the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the seventh about which time that usual clause the special instance or request of the Commons began by little and little to be laid aside and that of their advice or assent to be inserted in the place thereof for which I do refer you to the Book at large Which though it were some alteration of the former stile and that those words By the Authority of this present Parliament may make men think that the Lords and Commons did then pretend some Title unto the power of making Laws yet neither advising or assenting are so operative in the present case as to transfer the power of making Laws to such as do advise about them or assent unto them nor can the alteration of the Forms and stiles used in anitient times import an alteration of the Form of Government unless it can be shewed as I think it cannot that any of our Kings did renounce that Power which properly and solely did belong unto them or did by any solomn Act of Communication confer the same upon the Lords and Commons convened in Parliament And this is that which is resolved and declared in our Common Law where it is said Cited in the unlawfulness of resist p. 107. Le Roy fait les loix avec le consent du Seigneurs et communs et non pas les Seigneurs et communs avec le consent du Roy that is to say that the King makes Laws in Parliament by the assent of the Lords and Commons and not the Lords and Commons by the assent of the King And for a further proof of this and for the clearing of this point that the Lords and Commons pretend to no more power in the making of Laws than opportunity to propound and advise about them and on mature advice to give their several Assents unto them we need but look into the first Act of the Parliament in the third year of K. Charles being a Recognition of some ancient rights belonging to the English Subject An Act conceived according to the Primitive Form Statut. 3 Carol. in
way of a Petition to the Kings most excellent Majesty in which the Lords and Commons do most humbly pray as their Rights and Liberties that no such things as they complained of might be done hereafter that his Majesty would vouchsafe to declare that the Awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of his people in any of the premises shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence or example and that he would be pleased to declare his Royal pleasure that in the point aforesaid all his Offieers and Ministers should serve him according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm To which although the King returned a fair general Answer assuring them that his Subjects should have no cause for the time to come to complain of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties yet this gave little fatisfaction till he came in person and causing the Petition to be distinctly read by the Clerk of the Crown Ibid. returned his Answer in these words Soit droit fait come est desire that is to say let right be done as is desired Which being the very formal words by which the said Petition and every clause and Article therein contained became to be a Law and to have the force of an Act of Parliament and being there is nothing spoken of the concurrent Authority of the Lords and Commons for the enacting of the same may serve instead of many Arguments for the proof of this that the Legislative power as we phrase it now is wholly and solely in the King although restrained in the exercise and use thereof by constant custom Smith de Rep. Angl. unto the counsel and consent of the Lords and Commons Le Roy veult or the King will have it so is the imperative phrase by which the Propositions of the Lords and Commons are made Acts of Parliament And let the Lords and Commons agitate and propound what Laws they please for their ease and benefit as generally all Laws and Statutes are more for the ease and benefit of the Subject than the advantage of the King yet as well now as formerly in the times of the Roman Emperors Quod Principi placuerit legis habet vigorem nothing but that which the King pleaseth to allow of is to pass for Law the Laws not taking their coercive force as judicious Hooker well observeth from the quality of such as devise them but from the Power which giveth them the strength of Laws Pooker Ecclesiast Pol. I shut up this Discourse with this expression and comparison of a late Learned Gentleman viz That as in a Copyhold Estate the Copyholder of a meer Tenant at will comes by custom to gain an Inheritance and so to limit and restrain the will and power of the Lord that he cannot make any determination of the Copyholders Estate otherwise than according to the custom of the Mannour and yet doth not deprive the Lord of his Lordship in the Copyhold nor participate with him in it neither yet devest the Fee and Franktenement out of the Lord Case of our Affairs p. 6. but that they still remain in him and are ever parcel of his Demesn so in the restraining of the Kings Legislative power to the concurrence of the Peers and Commons though the custom of the Kingdom hath so fixed and setled the restraint as that the King cannot in that point use his Sovereign power without the concurrence of the Peers and Commons according to the custom of the Kingdom yet still the Sovereignty and with it the inseparable Legislative power doth reside solely in the King If any hereupon demand to what end serve Parliaments and what benefit can redound to the Subject by them I say in the Apostles words much every way Rom. 3.2 Many vexations oftentimes do befall the Subjects without the knowledg of the King and against his will to which his Ears are open in a time of Parliament The King at other times useth the Eyes and Ears of such as have place about him who may perhaps be guilty of the wrongs which are done the people but in a Parliament he seeth with his own Eyes and heareth with his own Ears and so is in a better way to redress the mischief than he could be otherwise Nor do the people by the opportunity of these Parliamentary meetings obtain upon their Prayers and Petitions a redress of grievances only but many times the King is overcome by their importunity to abate so much of his Power to grant such points and pass such Laws and Statutes for their ease and benefit as otherwise he would not yield to For certainly it is as true in making our approaches and Petitions to our Lord the King as in the pouring out of our Prayers and supplications to the Lord our God the more multitudinous and united the Petitioners are the more like to speed And therefore said Bodinus truly Principem plaeraque universis concedere quae singulis denegarentur Bodin de Rep. l. 1. c. 8. that Kings do many times grant those favours to the whole body of their people which would be absolutely denied or not so readily yielded to particular persons There are moreover many things of greater concernment besides the abrogating of old Laws and making new which having been formerly recommended by the Kings of England to the care and counsel of their people convened in Parliament are not now regularly dispatched but in such Conventions as are altering the Tenure of Lands confirming the Rights Titles and possessions of private men naturalizing Aliens legitimating Bastards adding sometimes the secular Authority to such points of Doctrine and Forms of Worship as the Clergy have agreed upon in their Convocations if it be required changing the publick weights and measures throughout the Kingdom defining of such doubtful cases as are not easily resolved in the Courts of Law raising of Subsidies and Taxes attainting such as either are too potent to be caught or too hard to be found and so not triable in the ordinary Courts of Justice restoring to their Bloud and Honours such or the Heirs of such as have been formerly attainted granting of free and general Pardons with divers others of this nature In all and each of these the Lords and Commons do co-operate to the publick good Sir Tho. Smith de Rep. Angl. Cambden in Brit. Crompt of Courts c. in the way of means and preparation but their co operation would be lost and fruitless did not the King by his Concomitant or subsequent grace produce their good intentions into perfect Acts and being Acts either of special Grace and Favour or else of ordinary Right and Justice no way derogatory to the Prerogative Royal are usually confirmed by the Royal assent without stop or hesitancy But then some other things there are of great importance and advantage to the Common-wealth in which the Houses usually do proceed even to final sentence the Commons in the way of
't is well known that the ensuing Parliaments which they instance in moved not of their own accord to the deposing of K Edw. the 2d or K. Richard the 2d but sailed as they were steered by those powerful Councils which Qu. Isabel in the one Walsingham in Hist Angl. Hypodig Neustriae and Henry Duke of Lancaster in the other did propose unto them It was no safe resisting those as their cold wisdoms and forgotten loyalties did suggest unto them qui tot legionibus imperarent who had so many thousand men in Arms to make good their project and they might think as the poor-spirited Citizens of Samaria did in another case but a case very like the present Behold two Kings stood not before him 2 Kings 10.4 how then can we stand For had it been an Argument of the power of Parliaments that they deposed one King to set up another dethroned King Richard to advance the Duke of Lancaster to the Regal Diadem they would have kept the House of Lancaster in possession of it for the full demonstration of a power indeed and not have cast them off at the first attempt of a new plausible pretender declared them to be kings in fact but not in right whose lawful right they had before preferred above all other Titles and set the Crown upon the heads of their deadly Enemies In the next place it is objected that Parliaments are a great restraint of the Sovereign power according to the Doctrine here laid down by Calvin in that the King can make no Laws nor levy any money upon the Subject but by the counsel and assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament But this Objection hurts as little as the former did For Kings to say the truth need no Laws at all In all such points wherein they have not bound themselves by some former Laws made for the common use and benefit of the Subject they are left at liberty and may proceed in governing the people given by God unto them according to their own discretion and the advice of their Council New Laws are chiefly made for the Subjects benefit at their desire on their importunate requests for their special profit not one in twenty nay I dare boldly say not one in an hundred made for the advantage of the King either in the improvement of his power or the encrease of his Revenue Look over all the Acts of Parliaments from the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. to the present time and tell me he that can if he finds it otherwise Kings would have little use of Parliaments and less mind to call them if nothing but the making of new Laws were the matter aimed at And as for raising Moneys and imposing Taxes it either must suppose the Kings to be always unthrifts that they be always indigent and necessitous and behind-hand with the World which are the ordinary effects of ill husbandry or else this Argument is lost and of little use For if our Kings should husband their Estates to the best advantage and make the best benefit of such Escheats and forfeitures and confiscations as day by day do fall unto them If they should follow the Example of K. Henry VII and execute the penal Laws according to the power which those Laws have given them and the trust reposed in them by their People if they should please to examine their Revenue and proportion their expence to their comings in there would be little need of Subsidies and supplies of money more than the ordinary aids and impositions upon Merchandize which the Law alloweth of and the known rights of Sovereignty backed by prescription and long custom have asserted to them So that it is by Accident not by and Nature that the Parliament hath any power or opportunity to restrain their King in this particular for where there is no need of asking there is no occasion of denying by consequence no restraint upon no baffle or affronting offered to the Regal power And yet the Sovereign need not fear if he be tolerably careful of his own Estate that any reasonable demand of his in these money-matters will meet with opposition or denial in his Houses of Parliament For whilest there are so many Acts of Grace and Favour to be done in Parliament as what almost in every Parliament but an enlargement of the Kings favours to his people and that none can be done in Parliament but with the Kings siat and consent there is no question to be made but that the two Houses of Parliament will far sooner chuse to supply the King as all wise Parliaments have done than rob the Subject of the benefit of his Grace and Favours which is the best fruit they reap from Parliaments Finally whereas it is Objected but I think it in sport that the old Lord Burleigh used to say that he knew not what a Parliament in England could not do and that K. James once said in a Parliament that then there were 500 Kings which words were taken for a Concession that all were Kings as well as he in a time of Parliament they who have given us these Objections do either misunderstand their Authors or abuse themselves For what the Lord Burleigh said of Parliaments though it be more than the wisest man alive can justifie he spake of Parliaments according as the word is used in its proper sense not for the two Houses or for either of them exclusive of the Kings presence and consent but for the supream Court for the highest Judicatory consisting of the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Representees of the Commons and then it will not serve for the turn intended And what King James said once in jest though I have often heard it used in earnest upon this occasion was spoken only in derision of some daring Spirits who laying by the modesty of their Predecessors would needs be looking into the Prerogative or finding Errors and mistakes in the present Government or medling with those Arcana imperii which former Parliaments beheld at distance with the eye of Reverence But certainly King James intended nothing less than to acknowledg a co-ordinative Sovereignty in the two Houses of Parliament or to make them his Co-partners in the Regal power His carriage and behaviour towards them in the whole course of his Government clearly shews the contrary there never being Prince more jealous in the points of Sovereignty nor more uncapable of a Rival in those points than he But yet the main Objection which we may call the Objection paramount doth remain unanswered For if the three Estates convened in Parliament or any other popular Magistrate whom Calvin dreams of be ordained by the Word of God as Guardians of the peoples Liberties and therefore authorized to moderate and restrain the power of Kings as often as they shall invade or infringe those liberties as Calvin plainly says they were or that they know
Princes and Ecclesiastical Governors yet the Apostle calleth not Princes an humane Creation as though they were not also of Gods Creation for there is no power but of God but that the form of their Creation is in mans appointment All the Genevians generally do so expound it and it concerns them so to do in point of interesse The Bishop of that City was their Sovereign Prince and had jus utriusque gladii as Calvin signified in a Letter to Cardinal Sadolet till he and all his Clergy were expelled the City in a popular Tumult Anno 1528. and a new form of Government established both in Church and State So that having laid the foundation of their Common-wealth in the expulsion of their Prince and the new model of their Discipline in refusing to have any more Bishop they found it best for justifying their proceedings at home and increasing their Partizans abroad to maintain a parity of Ministers in the Church of Christ and to invest the people and their popular Officers with a chief power in the concernments and affairs of State even to the deposing of Kings and disposing of Kingdoms But for this last they find no warrant in the Text which we have before us For first admitting the Translation to be true and genuine as indeed it is not the Roman Emperor and consequently other Kings and Princes may be said to be an humane Ordinance because their power is most visibly conversant circa humanas Actiones about ordering of humane Actions and other civil affairs of men as they were subjects of the Empire and Members of that Body politick whereof that Emperor was head Secondly to make Soveraign Princes by what name and Title soever called to be no other than an humane Ordinance because they are ordained by the people and of their appointment must needs create an irreconcileable difference between St. Peter and St. Paul by which last the Supream Powers whatsoever they be are called the Ordinance of God The Powers saith that Apostle are ordained of God and therefore he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God Upon which words Deodate gives this gloss or comment That the Supream Powers are called the Ordinance of God because God is the Author of this Order in the world and all those who attain to these Dignities do so either by his manifest will and approbation when the means are lawful or by his secret Providence by meer permission or toleration when they are unlawful Now it is fitting that man should approve and tolerate that which God approves and tolerates But thirdly I conceive that those words in the Greek Text of St. Peter viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not so properly translated as they might have been and as the same words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rendred by the same Translators somewhat more near to the Original in another place For in the 8th Chapter to the Romans vers 22. we find them rendring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the whole Creation and why not rather every Creature as both our old Translation and the Rhemists read it conform to omnis Creatura in the vulgar Latine which had they done and kept themselves more near to the Greek Original in St. Peters Text they either would have rendred it by every humane Creature as the Rhemists do or rather by all Men or by all Man-kind as the words import And then the meaning will be this that the Jews living scattered and disperst in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and other Provinces of the Empire were to have their conversation so meek and lowly for fear of giving scandal to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived as to submit themselves to all Man-kind or rather to every Man unto every humane Creature as the Rhemists read it that was in Authority above whether it were unto the Emperor himself as their supream Lord or to such Legats Prefects and Procurators as were appointed by him for the govenment of those several Provinces to the end that they may punish the evil-doers and incourage such as did well living conformably to the Laws by which they were governed Small comfort in this Text as in any of the rest before for those popular Officers which Calvin makes the Overseers of the Sovereign Prince and Guardians of the Liberties of the common people If then there be no Text of Scripture no warrant from the Word of God by which the popular Officers which Calvin dreams of are made the Keepers of the Liberties of the common people or vested with the power of opposing Kings and Sovereign Princes as often as they wantonly insult upon the people or willingly infringe their Priviledges I would fain learn how they should come to know that they are vested with such power or trusted with the defence of the Subjects Liberties cujus se Dei oratione Tutores positos esse norunt as Calvin plainly says they do If they pretend to know it by inspiration such inspiration cannot be known to any but themselves alone neither the Prince or People whom it most concerneth can take notice of it Nor can they well assure themselves whether such inspirations come from God of the Devil the Devil many times insnaring proud ambitious and vain-glorious Men by such strange delusions If they pretend to know it by the dictate of their private Spirit the great Diana of Calvin and his followers in expounding Scripture we are but in the same uncertainties as we were before And who can tell whether the private Spirit they pretend unto and do so much brag of 1 Ring 22.22 may not be such a lying Spirit as was put into the mouths of the Prophets when Ahab was to be seduced to his own destruction Adeo Argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus as Lactantius notes it All I have now to add is to shew the difference between Calvin and his followers in the propounding of this Doctrine delivered by Calvin in few words but Magisterially enough and with no other Authority than his ipse dixit enlarged by David Paraeus in his Comment on Rom. 13. into divers branches and many endeavours used by him as by the rest of Calvins followers to find out Arguments and instances out of several Authors to make good the cause For which though Calvin scap'd the fire yet Paraeus could not Ille Crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic Diadema For so it hapned that one Mr. Knight of Brodegates now Pembroke Colledge in Oxford had preach'd up the Authority of these popular Officers in a Sermon before the University about the beginning of the year 1622. for which being presently transmitted to the King and Council he there ingenuously confessed that he had borrowed both his doctrine and his proofs and instances from the Book of Paraeus above mentioned Notice whereof being given to the University the whole Doctrine of Paraeus as to that particular was drawn into several Propositions which in a full and frequent Convocation
be Lords of Parliament concerning which take this from Chief Justice Coke where he affirms that only a Lord of Parliament shall be tryed by his Peers being Lords of Parliament and neither Noblemen of any other Countrey nor others that are called Lords and are no Lords of Parliament are accounted Peers that is to say Peers within this Statute he meaneth the Magna Charta or Great Charter of England the ground of all our Laws and Liberties to this very day by which it seems that he conceived a Peer and a Lord of Parliament to be terms equivalent every Peer of the Realm being a Lord of Parliament and every Lord of Parliament a Peer of the Realm which clearly takes away the pretended difference that is made between them But secondly admit the distinction to be sound and solid yet it will easily be proved that Bishops are not only Lords of Parliament but Peers of the Realm In order whereunto we must take notice of some passages in our former Treatise touching the Bishops place and Vote in Parliament that is to say that from the first planting of the Gospel in the Realms of England parcelled at that time amongst several Kings the Bishops always had the principal place in their Common Councils which the Saxons call by the name of Wittenegemote or the Assembly of wise men and afterwards in the time of the Normans took the name of Parliaments In all which Interval from Ethelbert the first Christian King of Kent in the year of our Lord 605. till the death of Edward the Confessor which happened in the year 1066 no Common Council of the Saxons had been held without them and all this while they held their Courts by no other Tenures than purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ franke Almoigne as our Lawyers call it discharged from all Attendances upon secular Services And therefore they could sit there in no other Capacity than ratione officii spiritualis Dignitatis in regard of their Episcopal function which as it raised them to an height of eminence in the eye of the people so it was probably presumed that they were better qualified than the rest of the Subjects as the times then were for Governing the great Affairs of the Common-wealth But when the Norman Conqueror had attained the Crown he thought it an improvident Course to suffer so much of the Lands of the Nation as then belonged unto the Prelates whether Bishops or Abbots in the Right of their Churches to be discharged from doing service to the State And therefore he ordained them to hold their Lands sub militari servitute either in Capite or by Baronage or some such military hold whereby they were compellable to aid the Kings in all times of War with Men Arms and Horses as the Lay-subjects of the same Tenure were required to do Concerning which our Learned Antiquary out of Matthew Paris informs us thus viz. Cambden Brit. fol. 123. Rex enim Gulielmus Episcopatus Abbatias quae Baronias tenebant in purâ perpetuâ Eleemosynâ catenus ab omni servitute militari libertatem habuerunt sub servitute statuit militari Irrotulans singulos Episcopos Abbatias pro voluntate sua quot milites sibi successoribus hostilitatis tempore à singulis voluit exhiberi Which though at first it was conceived to be a great Disfranchisement and an heavy burden to the Prelacy yet Cambden very well observes that it conduced at last to their greater honour in giving them a further Title to their place in Parliament a claim to all the Rights of Peerage and less obnoxious to Disputes if considered rightly than that which formerly they could pretend to so that from this time forwards we must look upon them in all English Parliaments not only as Bishops in the Church but as Peers and Barons of the Realm of the same Tenure and therefore of the same preheminence with the Temporal Lords Which certainly must be the Reason that the Bishops of the Isle of Man are not called to Parliament because they hold not of the King by Barony as the rest of the English Bishops do but hold the whole Estate in Lands from the Earl of Darby Thus also saith a Learned Lawyer Coke Institut part 2. f. 3. Every Arch-bishoprick and Bishoprick in England are of the Kings foundation and holden of the King per Baroniam and many Abbots and Priors of Monasteries were also of the Kings foundation and did hold of him per Baroniam and in this Right the Arch-bishops and Bishops and such of the Abbots and Priors as held per Baroniam and were called by Writ to Parliament were Lords of Parliament And yet not Lords of Parliament only but Peers and Barons of the Realm as he shall call them very shortly on another occasion In the mean time we may observe that by this changing of their Tenure the Bishops frequently were comprehended in the name of Barons and more particularly in that passage of Magna Charta Coke Institut part 2. fol. 23. where it is said Comites Barones non amercientur nisi per pares suos that Earls and Barons are not to be amerced but by their Peers concerning which the said Great Lawyer tells us thus viz. That though this Statute as he calls it be in the negative yet long use hath prevailed against it for now the Amerciament of the Nobility is reduced to a certainty viz. a Duke 10 l. an Earl 5 l. a Bishop that hath a Barony 5 l. where plainly Bishops must be comprehended in the name of Barons and be amerced by their Peers as the Barons were though afterwards their Amerciaments be reduced to a certainty as well as those of Earls and Barons in the times succeeding And then if Bishops be included in the name of Barons and could not be legally amerced but by their Peers as neither could the Earls or Barons by the words of this Charter it must needs follow that the Bishops were accounted Peers as well as any either of the Earls or Barons by whom they were to be Amerced And for the next place we may behold the Constitutions made at Clarendon the tenth year of King Henry the 2d Matth. Paris in Hen. 2d Anno 1164. in which it was declared as followeth viz. Archiepiscopi Episcopi universae personae Regni qui Rege tenent in Capite habeant possessiones suos de Rege sicut Baroniam inde respondeant Justiciariis Ministris Regis sicut caeteri Barones debent interesse Curiae Regis cum Baronibus quousque perventum sit ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Where first I think that those words universae personae are to be understood of none but Ecclesiastical persons according to the notion of the word persona in the Common Law and so to comprehend the Regular Clergy as well as the Arch-bishops and Bishops But secondly if we must understand it of the Laity also it
must needs follow thereupon that all which held their Lands of the Crown in Capite were capable in those times of a place in Parliament And so it seems they had in the Reign of King John and afterwards in the Reign of King Henry the 3d but in the last years of the said King Henry and by the power and prudence of King Edward the first were brought into a narrower compass none being admitted to appear and attend in Parliament but such as he thought fit to summon by his Royal Mandate And hereunto as well our choicest Antiquaries as our most eminent Lawyers do consent unanimously But here is to be noted saith Chief Justice Coke that if the King give Lands to any one tenendum per servitium Baronis de Rege he is no Lord of Parliament till he be called by Writ to the Parliament which as he there declares for a point of Law so is it also verified in point of practice out of the old Record entituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum in which it is affirmed Ad Parliamentum summoniri venire debere Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Priores alios majores Cleri qui tenent per Comitatum aut Baroniam ratione hujusmodi Tenurae that all Arch-bishops Bishops Priors and other Prelates of the Church who hold their Lands either in right of their Counties or in right of their Baronages were to be summoned and come to Parliament in regard of their Tenures Where we may see that though they had a jus ad rem in regard of their Tenures yet they had no pretence to their Jus in re but only by the Writ of Summons And secondly whereas the Modus speaks of some Bishops which were to be called to the Parliament in the right of their Counties I think he means it of the Bishops of Durham and Ely which enjoyed all the Rights and priviledges of a County Palatine in their several Circuits By which we see that to the making of a Baron or a Lord of Parliament it is not only necessary that he hold by Barony but that he have his Writ of Summons to attend the service which puts a signal difference between Lords of Parliament and such as are called Lords in respect of their birth or in regard of some great Offices which they hold in the State of the first sort whereof are all the eldest sons of Earls and upwards who are not only honoured with the name of Lords but challenge a precedence by the Rules of Herauldry before all the Barons of the Realm and yet can lay no claim to the Rights of Peerage unless perhaps they may be summoned to the Parliament in their fathers life time And so it hapned in the Case of the Earl of Surrey the eldest son of Thomas Lord Howard Duke of Norfolk arraigned in the last days of King Henry the eighth and tried by a Jury of twelve men because not being called to Parliament in his fathers life-time he could not be considered as a Peer of the Realm And in the last sort we may reckon the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord Privy Seal the Lord President of his Majesties Council the Lord High Chamberlain the Lord Admiral the Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and the three Chief Judges who if they be not otherwise of the Rank of Barons can plead no Title to their Peerage nor to Vote in Parliament and so it hapned in the Case of Sir William Stanly Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh tried by a Jury of twelve men in a case of Treason without relation to his great Office or Title of Lord. Most true it is that some of these great Officers have their place in Parliament and so have all the Judges of the Courts of Westminster the Master of the Rolls the Masters of the Chancery the Kings Attorney General and perhaps some others all summoned to attend the service by Especial Writs but they are only called to advise the Court to give their Judgment and Opinion when it is demanded but not to canvass or debate and much less to conclude in any business which is there discoursed of as both the Bishops and the Temporal Lords are impowred to do Which difference appears in the Writs themselves For in the Writ of Summons to the Judges and the rest here mentioned the words run thus viz. Quod intersitis nobiscum cum caeteris de concilio nostro and sometimes nobiscum only supra praemissis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri But in the Writ of Summons to the Bishops and the rest of the Peers we shall find it thus viz. quod intersitis cum praelatis magnatibus proceribus super dictis negotiis tractaturi vestrumque consilium impensuri c. which Writs of Summons to the Bishops and the Temporal Peers are the same verbatim but that the Bishops are required to attend the service sub fide dilectione the Temporal Peers sub fide ligeantia quibus nobis tenemini Upon which Premises it may be rationally inferred that the Bishops of this Church were reputed Barons a Baron and a Barony being conjugata and being Barons have as good a Claim to the right of Peerage as any of the Temporal Lords who hold as well their Peerage as their place in Parliament by no other Tenure for that a Baron of Realm and a Peer of the Realm are but terms synonymous and that the Bishops of the the Church of England are both Peers and Barons hath been proved before and may be further evidenced from that which they affirmed to the Temporal Lords convened in Parliament at Northampton under Henry the 2d for the determining of the differences betwixt the King and Thomas Becket Arch bishop of Canterbury which the Temporal Lords would fain have thrust upon the Bishops as more competent Judges to which the Bishops thus replied viz. non sedemus hic Episcopi sed Barones nos Barones vos Barones Pares hic sumus We sit not here say they as Bishops only Seldens Titles of Honour pag. â—18 but as Barons also we are Barons and you are Barons here we sit as Peers Their sitting in the Parliament was in a right of their Baronies And in the right of their Baronage they were also Peers and Peers to all intents and purposes as well as any others whether Earls or Barons who had Vote in Parliament This appears further by the words of Arch-bishop Stratford who being suspended from his place in Parliament by King Edward the 3d came boldly to the Doors of the House and turning towards those that attended there thus maintained his Claim Amice Rex me ad hoe Parliamentum scripto sua vocavit Antiq. Brittan ego tanquam major Par regni post Regem primam vocem habere debens in Parliamento Jura Ecclesiae meae Cantuariensis vendico ideo Ingressum in Parliamentum peto Which
Courts Coke Institutes part 4 p. 45. out of the Records of Parliament and in his Margent pointing to the 13th of King Edward the third doth instruct us thus viz. Abbates Priores aliosque Praelatos quoscunque per Baroniam de Domino Rege tenentes pertinet in Parliamentis Regni quibuscunq ut pates Regni praedicti personaliter interesse ibique de Regni negotiis ac aliis tractari consuetis cum caeteris dicti Regni Paribus aliis ibidem jus interessendi habentibus consulere tractare ordinare statuere definire ac caetera facere quae Parliamenti tempore imminent facienda Which if it be the same with that which we had before differing only in some words as perhaps it is yet we have gained the Testimony of that Learned Lawyer whose judgment in this Case must be worth the having For hear him speaking in his own words and he tells us this viz. Coke Institut fol. 4. That every Lord of Parliament either Spiritual as Arch-bishops and Bishops or Temporal as Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons Peers of the Realm and Lords of Parliament ought to have several Writs of Summons where plainly these words Peers and Lords of Parliament relate as well to Spiritual as to the Temporal Lords And therefore if the Arch-bishops and the Bishops may be granted to be Lords of Parliament they must be also granted to be Peers of the Realm Now to the Testimony and Authority of particular persons we shall next add the sentence and determination of our Courts of Law in which the Bishops are declared to be Peers of the Realm and to be capable of all the priviledges which belong to the Peerage For first in the aforesaid Case of the Bishop of Winchester when he was brought upon his Trial for departing from the service of the Parliament without leave of the King and pleaded sor himself quod esset unus è Paribus Regni c. The priviledg of Barony It was supposed clearly both by Court and Council that he was a Peer that part of his defence being not gainsayed or so much as questioned So in the Year-Books of the Reign of King Edward the 3d in whose Reign the Bishop of Winchester's Case was agitated as before is said a Writ of Wards was brought by the Bishop of London and by him pleaded to an Issue and the Defendant could not be Essoyned or have day of Grace for it was said that a Bishop was a Peer of the Land haec erat causa saith the Book which reports the Case In the like Case upon an Action of Trespass against the Abbot of Abbingdon who was one of the Lords Spiritual day of Grace was denied against him because he was a Peere de la Terre So also it is said expresly that when question was made about the returning of a Knight to be of a Jury where a Bishop was Defendant in a Quare impedit the Rule of the Court was that it ought to be so because the Bishop was a Peer of the Realm And in the Judgment given against the Bishop of Norwich in the time of Richard the 2d he is in the Roll expresly allowed to be a Peer for he had taken exceptions that some things had passed against him without the Assent or knowledg of his Peers of the Realm To which Exception it was Answered that it behoved him not at all to plead that he was a Prelate for traversing such Errors and misprisions as in the quality of a Souldier who had taken wages of the King were committed by him Thus also in the Assignment of the Errors under Henry the fifth for the Reversal of the Attainder of the Earl of Salisbury one Error is assigned that Judgment was given without the consent of the Prelates which were Peers in Parliament And although that was adjudged to be no Error yet was it clearly allowed both in the Roll and the Petitions that the Bishops were Peers Finally in the Government of the Realm of France the Bishops did not only pass in the Ranks of Peers but six of them were taken into the number of the Douze-pairs or twelve Peers of that Kingdom highly esteemed and celebrated in the times of Charlemayne that is to say the Arch-bishop and Duke of Rhemes the Bishop and Duke of Laon the Bishop and Duke of Langres the Bishop and Earl of Beuvois the Bishop and Earl of Noyon the Bishop and Earl of Chalons And therefore it may be inferred that in the Government established by the Anjovin and Norman Kings the English Bishops might be ranked with the Peers at large considering their place in Parliament and their great Revenues and the strong influence which they had on the Church and State But there is little need for Inferences and book-Cases and the Authorities of particular men to come in for Evidence when we are able to produce an Act of Parliament to make good the point For in the Statute made the 4th year of King Henry the fifth it was repeated and confirmed That no man of the Irish Nation should be chosen by Election to be an Arch-bishop Bishop Abbot or Frior nor in no other manner received or accepted to any dignity and benefice within the said Land c. The Reason of which inhibition is there said to be this viz. because being Peers of the Parliament of the said Land they brought with them to the Parliaments and Councils holden there some Irish servants whereby the privities of the Englishmen within the same Land have been and be daily discovered to the Irish people Rebels to the King to the great peril and mischief of the Kings lawful Liege people in the said Land And if the Bishops and Arch-bishops of Ireland had the name of Peers there is no question to be made but the name of Peers and the right of Peerage may properly be assumed or challenged by them Now as this Statute gives them the name of Peers so in an Act of Parliament in the 25th year of King Henry the 8th they are called the Nobles of your Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal as all your other Subjects now living c. Which Term we find again repeated by the Parliament following the Nobles Spiritual and Temporal and that twice for failing so that we find no Title given to Earls and Barons Nobles and Peers and Lords as the Statutes call them but what is given to the Bishops in our Acts of Parliament and certainly had not been given them in the stile of that Court had any question then been made of their Right of Peerage And that their calling had not raised them to a state of Nobility concerning which take this from the Lord Chief Justice Coke for our more assurance and he will tell us that the general division of persons by the Law of England is either one that is Noble and in respect of his nobility of the Lords House of Parliament or one of the Commons of the
Realm and in respect thereof of the House of Commons in Parliament Next to the Parliament the most renowned Judicatory of this Land is the Great Council of the Peers called by the King on sudden and emergent occasions which cannot safely stay the leisure of a Parliament for the prescribing of such remedies as the case requires and called so for no other reason but that it is a general meeting of the Bishops and Temporal Lords under the common name of Peers to give the King such Counsel and advice in his greatest difficulties as the exigencies of affairs shall suggest unto them which proves the Bishops to be Peers as well as any of the Temporal Lords Nor could it properly be called the Great Council of Peers if any but the Peers be invited to it The last example of which Council was that held at York about the latter end of September Anno 1640. upon the breaking in of the Scottish Rebels And the like Argument may be drawn from that Appellation which commonly is given to that place or Room wherein the Lords Spiritual and Temporal do consult together in the times of Parliament best known unto us by the name of the House of Peers and known unto us by that name for no other Reason but because it is appropriated to the use of the Peers that is to say the Nobles Spiritual and Temporal or the Bishops and the Temporal Lords for their Consultations And as they have the name of Peers and the Rights of Peerage so is there none of all the Antient Rights of Peerage which belong not to them as fully and as amply as to any of the Temporal Lords that is to say a necessary place and Vote in Parliament and a particular Writ of Summons to invite them to it the freedom of their persons from Arrests at the suit of a Subject not to be troubled with Essoynes or supplicavits in the Courts of Justice a power to qualifie their Chaplains to hold several Benefices not to have any Action against them tried except one Knight at the least be returned of the Pannel the Liberty of killing one or more of the Kings Deer in any of his Parks or Chases both in their going to the Parliament and returning home of which take this in General from our Learned Antiquary Cambden Brit. fol. 123. Inde Ecclesiastici illi omnibus quibus caeteri Regni Barones gavisi sunt immunitatibus nisi quod à Paribus non judicentur that is to say that they enjoy all priviledges and Immunities as the Lay Lords do but that they are not to be Judged by their Peers But first he is not certain that this exception their not being to be Judged by their Peers will hold good in Law and therefore leaves the resolution of that point to our Learned Lawyers sed an hoc sit Juris explorati dixerint ipsi Juris periti as his own words are And secondly the reason which he gives is no more than this that since by reason of the Canons they could not be Judges or Assessors in causa sanguinis they therefore were referred to a Common Jury of twelve Men in all publick Trials but by this reason they must either have no Trial at all or may as well be tried by their Peers as a Common Jury because they are disabled by those Canons from sitting in Judgment on the life of a Common Juror as well as of a Lord or Peer which I marvail Cambden did not see But weaker is the Reason which is given by Stamford in his Pleas of the Crown that is to say that Bishops are not to be tried by their Peers because they do not hold their place in Parliament Ratione Nobilitatis sed ratione officii and yet not only in regard of their Office eien en respect de lour possessions l'antient Baronyes annexes a lour dignitye but in regard of their possessions and those ancient Baronies which are annexed to their Sees which reason in my Judgment hath no reason at all for then the old Barons which were called to Parliament in regard of their Tenure as they were all until the time of King Richard the 2d could have no Trial by their Peers because they had no place in Parliament but in respect of their possessions or temporal Baronies and secondly the Bishops as before was proved are accounted Nobles and thereupon may challenge their place in Parliament not only ratione officii as anciently before the times of William the Conqueror but also ratione Nobilitatis since they were ranked amongst the Barons in regard of their Tenure Others perhaps may give this reason that Bishops in the former times were debarred from Marriage and that now holding their Estates and Honours only for term of life they are not capable of transmitting either unto their posterity which possibly may make the Laws less tender of them than they might be otherwise but then what shall we say of the Wives and Widows of the Temporal Lords who being either barren or past hope of Children shall notwithstanding be tried by their Peers according to the Statute of Henry the sixth Or put the case that any man should be created Earl or Baron for the time of his life or with a limitation to the Heirs of his body and either live unmarried or continue childless must he be therefore made incapable of a Trial by the Peers of the Realm because his Honours and his Life do expire together I think no reasonable man can say it and I hope none will It cannot be denied but that some Bishops have been tried by Common Juries that is to say Adam de Orlton Bishop of Hereford Thomas Lyld Bishop of Ely Thomas Merkes Bishop of Carslile John Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury but then it is to be observed that none but Fisher suffered death on that account whether by reason of some illegality in their proceedings or in reference to their High and holy Callings it is hard to say And secondly we may observe that though in some confusions and disorder of times such Presidents may be produced as in matter of Fact yet the Case is not altogether so clear in point of Law as not to leave the matter doubtful as we heard before and that it was conceived by some Learned men of that profession that if those Bishops had desired to be tryed by their Peers it could not have been denied them in a course of Justice And therefore thirdly we observe that the Bishops of Hereford and Ely did trust so much to their dependance on the Pope and their exemption from the power of all secular Judges that they refused absolutely to be tryed by any but the Archbishop of Canterbury as the Popes Legate in this Kingdom which possibly might put their Enemies upon a course of enquiring into their offences by a Common Jury the parties being wilfully absent and not submitting to a Trial in due course of Law
name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never Page 422 CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austine the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine Page 423 2. What labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict Page 424 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine Page 425 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation ibid. 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was Page 426 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday Page 427 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large Page 428 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon Page 429 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers enveigh so sharply Page 430 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days Page 432 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation Page 433 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath Page 434 CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austins time Page 435 2. Stage plays and publick Shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other Holy days by Imperial Edicts Page 437 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use Page 438 4. The barbarous bloody quality of the Spectacula or Shews at this time prohibited ibid. 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 440 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of Page 441 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 442 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate Page 443 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages Page 444 10. Of publick Orders now Established for the better regulating of the Lords Day-meetings Page 445 11. All Business and Recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other ibid. CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from some Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church Page 447 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages ibid. 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day Holy Page 448 4. That in the judgment of the most Learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 449 5. With how much difficulty the People of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day Page 450 6. Hüsbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern Parts until the time of Leo Philosophus Page 451 7. Markets and Handicrasts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading Page 452 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the Laws restrained Page 453 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day Page 454 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hinderance to Gods publick Service Page 455 11. The other Holy-days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was Page 456 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in these present Ages Page 457 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches Page 458 CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the School-men and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the School-men the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 640 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church Page 461 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days Page 462 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the Reformation Page 463 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour Page 464 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 465 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church Page 466 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Page 467 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures Page 468 10. Dancing cryed down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self Page 470 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day Page 471 CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Britain from the first planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittans Page 472 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy days in the Saxon Heptarchie Page 473 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs Page 474 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings Page 476 5. New Sabbath doctrines broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same
the Baise-maine which consists of Offerings Churchings Burials Diriges and such other casualties amounteth to as much per annum as their standing rents Upon which ground Sir Edwin Sandys computeth their Revenue at six millions yearly In Italy besides the temporal Estate of the Popes of Rome the Clergy are conceived to have in some places a third part of the whole but in most a moiety In Spain the certain rents of the Archbishoprick of Toledo are said to be no less than 300000 Crowns per annum which is far more than all the Bishops Deans and Prebendaries do possess in England In Germany the Bishops for the most part are powerful Princes and the Canons of some Churches of so fair an Intrado and of such estimation amongst the people that the Emperours have thought it no disparagement to them to have a Canons place in some of their Churches And as for the Parochial Clergy in these three last Countreys especially in Spain and Italy where the people are more superstitious than they be in Germany there is no question but that the Vailes and Casualties are as beneficial to them as the Baise-main is to the French But here perhaps it will be said that this is nothing unto us of the Realm of England who have shook off the superstitions of the Church of Rome and that our pains is spent but to little purpose unless we can make good our Thesis in the Churches Protestant We must therefore cast about again and first beginning with France as before we did we shall find that those of the Reformed party there not only pay their Tithes to the Beneficiary who is presented by the Patron to the Cure or Title or to the Church or Monastery to which the Tithes are settled by Appropriations but over and above do raise a yearly maintenance for those that minister amongst them Just as the Irish Papists pay their Tithes and duties unto the Protestant Incumbent and yet maintain their own Priests too by their gifts and offerings or as the people in some places with us in England do pay their Tithes unto the Parson or Vicar whom the Law sets over them and raise a contribution also for their Lecturer whom they set over themselves In other Countreys where the Supream Governours are Reformed or Protestant the case is somewhat better with the common people although not generally so easie as with us in England For there the Tithes are taken up by the Prince or State and yearly pensions assigned out of them to maintain the Ministers which for the most part are so small and so far short of a Competency though by that name they love to call it that the Subject having paid his Tithes to the Prince or State is fain to add something out of his purse towards the mending of the Stipend Besides there being for the most part in every Church two distinct sorts of Ministers that is to say a Pastor who hath Cure of souls and performs all Ministerial offices in his Congregation and a Doctor like our English Lecturers which took hint from hence who only medleth with the Word The Pastor only hath his Stipend from the publick treasury the Doctor being maintained wholly as I am credibly informed at the charge of the people and that not only by the bounty or benevolence of Landed men but in the way of Contribution from which no sort of people of what rank soever but such as live on Alms or the poor Mans box is to be exempted But this is only in the Churches of Calvins platform those of the Lutheran party in Denmark Swethland and high Germany having their Tithes and Glebe as they had before and so much more in Offerings than with us in England by how much they come nearer to the Church of Rome both in their practice and opinions especially in the point of the holy Sacrament than the English do And as for our dear Brethren of the Kirk of Scotland who cannot be so soon forgotten by a true born English man the Tithes being setled for the most part on Religious houses came in their fall unto the Crown and out of them a third was granted to maintain their Minister but also ill paid while the Tithes remained in the Crown and worse than alienated to the use of private Gentlemen that the greatest part of the burden for support of the Ministry lay in the way of contribution on the backs of the people And as one ill example doth beget another such Lords and Gentlemen as had right to present to Churches following the steps of those who held the Tithes from the Crown soon made Lay-fees of all the Tithes of their own demesnes and left the Presentee such a sorry pittance as made him burthensome to his Neighbours for his better maintenance How it stands with them now since these late alterations those who have took the National Covenant and I presume are well acquainted with the Discipline and estate of the Scottish Kirk which they have bound themselves to defend and keep are better able to resolve us And so much for the proof of the first proposition namely That never any Clergy in in the Church of God hath been or is maintained with less charge of the Subject than the established Clergy of the Church of England And yet the proof hereof will be more convincing if we can bring good evidence for the second also which is II. That there is no man in the Kingdom of England who payeth any thing of his own towards the maintenance and support of his Parish Minister but his Easter-Offering And that is a Paradox indeed will the Reader say Is it not visible to the eye that the Clergy have the tenth part of our Corn and Cattel and of other the increase and fruits of the Earth Do not the people give them the tenth part of their Estates saith one of my Pamphlets Have they not all their livelihoods out of our purses saith another of them Assuredly neither so nor so All that the Clergy doth receive from the purse of the Subject for all the pains he takes amongst them is two pence at Easter He claims no more than this as due unless the custom of the place as I think in some parts it is bring it up to six pence If any thing be given him over this by some bountiful hand he takes it for a favour and is thankful for it Such profits as come in by Marriages Churchings and Funeral-Sermons as they are generally small and but accidental so he is bound unto some special service and attendance for it His constant standing fee which properly may be said to come out of the Subjects Purse for the administration of the Word and Sacraments is nothing but the Easter-offering The Tithes are legally his own not given unto him by the Subject as is now pretended but paid unto him as a Rent-charge laid upon the Land and that before the Subject either Lord or Tenant
had any thing to do in the Land at all For as I am informed by Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures lib. 1. cap. 9. Sect. 73. fol. 58. It appeareth by the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings and especially of King Alfred that the first King of this Realm had all the lands of England in Demesne and les grands manours royalties they reserved to themselves and with the remnant they for the defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath So he the professed Champion of the Common Laws And at this time it was when all the Lands in England were the Kings Demesne that Ethelwolph the second Monarch of the Saxon race his father Egbert being the first which brought the former Heptarchie under one sole Prince conferred the Tithes of all the Kingdom upon the Church by his royal Charter Of which thus Ingulph Abbot of Crowland an old Saxon Writer a Anno 855. Rex Ethelwulfus omnium Praelatorum Principum suorum qui sub ipso variis Provinciis totius Angliae praeerant gratuito Consensu tunc primo cum decimis terrarum bonorum aliorum sive catallorum universam dotavit Ecclesiam per suum Regium Chirographum Ingulph Anno 855. which was the 18. of his Reign King Ethelwulph with the consent of his Prelates and Princes which ruled in England under him in their several Provinces did first enrich the Church of England with the Tithes of all his Lands and Goods by his Charter Royal. Ethelward an old Saxon and of the blood Royal doth express it thus b Decimavit de omni possessione sua in partem Domini in universo regimine Principatus sui sic constituit Ethelward He gave the Tithe of his possessions for the Lords own portion and ordered it to be so in all the parts of the Kingdom under his command Florence of Worcester in these words c Aethelwulphus Rex decimam totius Regni sui partem ab omni Regali servitio tributo liberavit in sempiterno Graphio in Cruce Christi pro Redemptione Animae suae Praedecessorum suorum uni trino Deo immolavit Florent Wigorn. King Ethelwolfe for the Redemption of his own soul and the souls of his Predecessors discharged the tenth part of his Realm of all Tributes and Services due unto the Crown and by his perpetual Charter signed with the sign of the Cross offered it to the three-one God Roger of Hovenden hath it in the self same words and Huntingdon more briefly thus d Totam terram suam propter amorem Dei Redemptionem ad opes Ecclesiarum decimavit Henr. Huntingd. That for the love of God and the redemption of his soul he tithed his whole Dominions to the use of the Church But what need search be made into so many Authors when the Charter it self is extant in old Abbot Ingulph and in Matthew of Westminster and in the Leiger Book of the Abbey of Abingdon which Charter being offered by the King on the Altar at Winchester in the presence of his Barons was received by the Bishops and by them sent to be published in all the Churches of their several Diocesses a clause being added by the King saith the Book of Abingdon That whosoever added to the gift e Qui augere voluerit nostram donationem augeat omnipotens Deus dies ejus prosperos siquis vero mutare vel minuere praesumpserit noscat se ad Tribunal Christi redditurum rationem nisi prius satisfactione emendaverit God would please to prosper and increase his days but that if any did presume to diminish the same he should be called to an account for it at Christs Judgment-seat unless he made amends by full satisfaction In which as in some other of the former passages as there is somewhat savouring of the errour of those darker times touching the merit of good works yet the authorities are strong and most convincing for confirmation of the point which we have in hand Now that the King charged all the Lands of the Kingdom with the payment of Tithes and not that only which he held in his own possession is evident both by that which was said before from Sir Edward Coke and by the several passages of the former Authors For if all the Lands in the Kingdom were the Kings Demesnes and the King conferred the Tithes of all his Lands on the Church of God it must follow thereupon that all the Lands of the Realm were charged with Tithes before they were distributed amongst the Barons for defence of the Kingdom And that the Lands of the whole Realm were thus charged with Tithes as well that which was parted in the hands of Tenants as that which was in the occupancy of the King himself the words before alledged do most plainly evidence where it is said that he gave the tenth of all his Lands as Ingulph the Tithe of his whole Land as Henry of Huntingdon the tenth part of his whole Kingdom as in Florence of Worcester the tenth part of the Lands throughout the Kingdom in the Charter it self And finally in the Book of Abingdon the Charter is ushered in with this following Title viz. Quomodo Ethelwolfus Rex dedit decimam partem regni sui Ecclesiis that is to say how Ethelwolf gave unto the Church the tenth part of his Kingdom This makes it evident that the King did not only give de facto the Tithe or the tenth part of his whole Realm to the use of the Clergy but that he had a right and a power to do it as being not only the Lord Paramount but the Proprietary of the whole Lands the Lords and great Men of the Realm not having then a property or estates of permanency but as accomptants to the King whose the whole land was And though it seems by Ingulph their consents were asked and that they gave a free consent to the Kings Donation yet was this but a matter of Form and not simply necessary their approbation and consent being only asked either because the King was not willing to do any thing to the disherison of his Crown without the liking and consent of the Peers or that having their consent and approbation they should be barred from pleading any Tenant-right and be obliged to stand in maintenance and defence thereof against all pretenders And this appears yet further by a Law of King Athelstanes made in the year 930 about which time not only the Prelates of the Church as formerly but the great Men of the Realm began to be setled in Estates of permanency and to claim a property in those Lands which they held of the Crown and claiming so begun it seems to make bold to subduct their Tithes For remedy whereof the King made this Law commanding all his Ministers throughout the Kingdom that in the first place they should pay the Tithes
and Children and with all his substance and that he went but easily according as the Cattel and the Children were able to endure yet he went forwards still without any resting Otherwise Laban who heard of his departure on the third day and pursued after him amain must needs have overtaken him before the seventh Now for the rest of Jacobs time when he was setled in the Land appointed for him and afterwards removed to Egypt See n. 5. of this Chapter we must refer you unto Justin Martyr and Eusebius whereof one saith expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he kept no Sabbath the other makes him one of those which lived without the Law of Moses whereof the Sabbath was a part Having brought Jacob into Egypt we should proceed to Joseph Moses and the rest of his off-spring there but we will first take Job along as one of the posterity of Abraham that after we may have the more leisure to wait upon the Israelites in that house of bondage I say as one of the posterity of Abraham the fifth from Abraham Demonstr l. 1. c. 6. so Eusebius tells us who saith moreover that he kept no Sabbath What saith he shall we say of Job that just that pious that most blameless man What was the rule whereby be squared his life and governed his devotions Was any part of Moses Law Not so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Was any keeping of the Sabbath or observation of any other Jewish order How could that be saith he considering that he was ancienter than Moses and lived before his Law was published For Moses was the seventh from Abraham and Job the eighth So far Eusebius And Justin Martyr also joyns him with Abraham and his Family as men that took not heed of New Moons or Sabbaths whereof see before n. 5. 2. Edit p. 14. I find indeed in Dr. Bound that Theodore Beza on his own Authority hath made Job very punctual in sanctifying septimum saltem quemque diem every seventh day at least as God saith he from the beginning had appointed But I hold Beza not a fit match for Justin and Eusebius nor to be credited in this kind when they say the contrary considering in what times they lived and with whom they dealt And now we come at last unto the Israelites in Egypt from Joseph who first brought them thither to Moses who conducted them in their flight from thence and so unto the body of the whole Nation Dem. l. 1. c. 6. For Joseph first Eusebius first tells us in the general that the same institution and course of life which by the Ordinance of Christ was preached unto the Gentiles had formerly been commended to the ancient Patriarchs particular instances whereof he makes Melchisedech and Noah and Enoch and Abraham till the time of Circumcision And then it follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Joseph in the Court of Egypt long time before the Law of Moses lived answerably to those ancient patterns and not according as the Jews Nay he affirms the same of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Law-giver himself the Chieftain of the Tribes of Israel As for the residue of the People we can expect no more of them that they lived in bondage under severe and cruel Masters who called upon them day by day to fulfil their tasks See Exod. 5. v. 5. 14. De vita Mosis lib. 1. and did expostulate with them in an heavy manner in case they wanted of their Tale. The Jews themselves can best resolve us in this point And amongst them Philo doth thus describe their troubles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Taskmasters or Overseers of the works were the most cruel and unmerciful men in all the Country who laid upon them greater tasks than they were able to endure inflicting on them no less punishment than death it self if any of them yea though by reason of infirmity should withdraw himself from his daily labour Some were commanded to employ themselves in the publick structures others in bringing in materials for such mighty buildings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never enjoying any rest either night or day that in the end they were even spent and tired with continual travel Antiqu. Jud. lib. 2. c. 5. Josephus goes a little further and tells us this that the Egyptians did not only tire the Israelites with continual labour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that the Israelites endevoured to perform more than was expected Assuredly in such a woful state as this they had not leave nor leisure to observe the Sabbath And lastly Rabbi Maimony makes the matter yet more absolute Apud Ryvit in Deealog who saith it for a truth that when they were in Egypt neque quiescere vel sabbatum agere potuerunt they neither could have time to rest nor to keep the Sabbath seeing they were not then at their own disposing So he ad Deut. 5.15 Indeed it easily may be believed that the People kept no Sabbath in the Land of Egypt seeing they could not be permitted in all that time of their abode there to offer sacrifice which was the easier duty of the two and would less have taken them from their labours Those that accused the Israelites to have been wanton lazy and I know not what because they did desire to spend one only day in religious exercises What would they not have done had they desisted every seventh day from the works imposed upon them Doubtless they had been carried to the house of Correction if not worse handled I say in all that time they were not permitted to offer sacrifice in that Countrey and therefore when they purposed to escape from thence they made a suit to Pharaoh Exod. 8. that he would suffer them to go three days journey into the Wilderness to offer sacrifice there to the Lord their God Rather than so Pharaoh was willing to permit them for that once to sacrifice unto the Lord in the Land of Egypt And what said Moses thereunto It is not meet saith he so to do For we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God Vers 26 before their eyes and they will stone us His reason was because the Gods of the Egyptians were Bulls and Rams and Sheep and Oxen Vers 26 as Lyra notes upon that place talia verò animalia ab Hebraeis erant immolanda quod non permisissent Aegyptii in terra sua And certainly the Egyptians would not endure to see their Gods knocked down before their faces If any then demand wherein the Piety and Religion of Gods People did consist especially we must needs answer that it was in the integrity and honesty of their conversation Adv. haeres l. 1 har 5. and that they worshipped God only in the spirit and truth Nothing to make it known that they were Gods people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only that they feared the Lord
and were Circumcised as Epiphanius hath resolved it nothing but that they did acknowledge one only God and exercised themselves in justice in modesty in patience and long suffering both towards one another and amongst the Egyptians framing their lives agreeably to the will of God and the law of nature Therefore we may conclude with safety that hitherto no Sabbath had been kept in all the World from the Creation of our first Father Adam to this very time which was above 2500. years no nor commanded to be kept amongst them in their generations I say there was none kept no nor none commanded for had it been commanded sure it had been kept It was not all the pride of Pharaoh or subtle tyranny of his subjects that could have made them violate that sacred day had it been commended to them from the Lord. The miseries which they after suffered under Antiochus rather than that they would prophane the Sabbath and those calamities which they chose to fall upon them by the hands of the Romans rather than make resistance upon that day when lawfully they might have done it are proofs sufficient that neither force nor fear could now have wrought upon them not to keep the same had such a duty been commanded Questionless Joseph for his part that did prefer a loathsom Prison before the unchast imbraces of his Masters Wife would no less carefully have kept the Sabbath than he did his chastity had there been any Sabbath then to have been observed either as dictated by nature or prescribed by Law And certainly either the Sabbath was not reckoned all this while as any part or branch of the Law of nature or else it finds hard measure in the Book of God that there should be particular proofs how punctually the rest of the moral Law was observed and practised amongst the Patriarchs and not one word or Item that concerns the observation of the Sabbath Now that the whole Law was written in the hearts of the Fathers and that they had some knowledge of all the other Commandments and did live accordingly the Scripture doth sufficiently declare unto us First for the first I am God all-sufficient Gen. 17.1 walk before me and be thou perfect So said God to Abraham Then Jacobs going up from Bethel to cleanse his house from Idolatry Gen. 25.2 is proof enough that they were acquainted with the second The pious care they had not to take the Name of the Lord their God in vain appears at full in the religious making of their Oaths Gen. 21.27 c. 31.51 Abraham with Abimelech and Jacob with Laban Next for the fifth Commandment what duties Children owe their Parents the practice of Isaac and Jacob doth declare abundantly Gen. 24.67 28.42 in being ruled by them in the choice of their Wives and readily obeying all their directions So for the sin of Murder the History of Jacobs Children Gen. 34.26 30. and the grieved Fathers curse upon them for the slaughter of the Sichemites together with Gods precept given to Noah against shedding blood Gen. 9.6 shew us that both it was forbidden and condemned being done The continency of Joseph before remembred Gen. 39.8 and the punishment threatned to Abimelech for keeping Sarah Abrahams Wife Gen. 30.3.31.30.44.4 the quarrelling of Laban for his stoln Idols and Josephs pursuit after his Brethren for the silver cup that was supposed to be purloined are proofs sufficient that Adultery and Theft were deemed unlawful And last of all Abimelechs reprehension of Abraham and Isaac for bearing false witness in the denial of their Wives Gen. 20.9.26.10 shew plainly that they had the knowledge of that Law also The like may also be affirmed of their not coveting the Wives and goods or any thing that was their Neighbours For though the History cannot tell us of mens secret thoughts yet we may judge of good mens thoughts by their outward actions Had Joseph coveted his Masters Wife he might have enjoyed her And Job more home unto the point affirms expresly of himself Job 31.26 that his heart was never secretly enticed which is the same with this that he did not covet We conclude then that seeing there is particular mention how all the residue of the Commandments had been observed and practised by the Saints of old and that no word at all is found which concerns the sanctifying of the Sabbath that certainly there was no Sabbath sanctified in all that time from the Creation to the Law of Moses nor reckoned any part of the Law of Nature or an especial Ordinance of God CHAP. IV. The nature of the fourth Commandment and that the SABBATH was not kept among the Gentiles 1. The Sabbath first made known in the fall of Mannah 2. The giving of the Decalogue and how far it bindeth 3. That in the judgment of the Fathers in the Christian Church the fourth Commandment is of a different nature from the other nine 4. The Sabbath was first given for a Law by Moses 5. And being given was proper only to the Jews 6. What moved the Lord to give the Israelites a Sabbath 7. Why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath than any other 8. The seventh day not more honoured by the Gentiles than the eighth or ninth 9. The Attributes given by some Greek Poets to the seventh day no argument that they kept the Sabbath 10. The Jews derided for their Sabbath by the Graecians Romans and Egyptians 11. The division of the year into weeks not generally used of old amongst the Gentiles THus have we shewn you how Gods Church continued without a Sabbath the space of 2500 years and upwards even till the Children of Israel came out of Egypt And if the Saints of God in the line of Seth and the house of Abraham assigned not every seventh day for Gods publick Worship it is not to be thought that the posterity of Cain and the sons of Canaan were observant of it To proceed therefore in the History of the Lords own people as they observed no Sabbath when they were in Egypt so neither did they presently after their departure thence The day of their deliverance thence was the seventh day as some conceive it which after was appointed for a Sabbath to them Torniellus I am sure is of that opinion and so is Zanchie too who withal gives it for the reason why the seventh day was rather chosen for the Sabbath In quartum praeceptum than any other Populus die septima liberatus fuit ex Egypto tunc jussit in hujus rei memoriam diem illam sanctificare Which were it so yet could not that day be a Sabbath or a day of rest considering the sudden and tumultuous manner of their going thence their sons and daughters maid-servants and men-servants the cattel and the strangers within their gates being all put hardly to it and fain to flie away for their life and safety