Exod. 31. and then shewes whereof it was a signe Sabbath a perseverantiam totius diei erga Deum deservitionis edocebant their Sabbath taught our continuall service of God Orig. hoâ— 2â— in 〈◊〉 28. which Origen calls Sabbathum Christianum a Christian Sabbath And because no man is justified either by the Sabbath or Circumcision therefore in signo data sunt populo they were given the people for a signe This Theodoret largely sheweth out of the plaine words of the Prophet Ezechiel cap. 20. ver 11. S. Theod. in Ezech The Sabbath was none of those Commandements that could give life to the observers but was given them onely to be a signe in signum temporis illius Tert. de prâ—â—â— lib. c. 4. as Tertullian speakes and not in sallutis praerogativam not to bring them salvation but to make them knowne from other Nations Other Nations that descended of Abraham used circumcision as well as the Jewes but no Nation kept the Sabbath but Jewes onely Therefore 1541. years they were knowne by that signe to be Gods people but the keeping of the Sabbath made neither them nor the Pharisees to be Gods people This is evident For Abraham saith Saint Irenaeus was justified and called the friend of God S. Iren. l. 4. c. 30. sine observatione Sabbathorum without keeping any Sabbaths Nay there was not any of the Patriarchs saith Tertullian that kept the Sabbath neither Adam Tert. adv â—udaeos de praeserâ— c. 2.4 Enoch Noah Abraham nor Melchizedek for 2455. years yet were they just men and obtained salvation This is so cleare a truth that the Jewes could not denie it and Trypho doth confesse it being pressed thereunto by Saint Justin And for this 1635. S. Just iâ— Tryph. Tom. 2. yeares it hath not beene kept in the Christian world Manifestum est igitur saies Tertullian it is manifest therefore that that cannot be morall nor perpetuall that began but with Moses S. Tusti◠〈◊〉 verit l. 2. in Tryph as Saint Justin Martyr sayes and ended with Christ when hee nailed all the ceremoniall law to his Crosse with those words Consummatum est it is finished Therefore the third Commandement as Saint Austine or the fourth as Josephus and other Fathers call it touching the Sabbath must be understood onely figuratively and not after the letter as the other nine commandements are This is the doctrine of antiquitie which hath gotten a placet from Gomarus Goma invest sab c. 3. whose followers may perhaps embrace the same Ob. Dicunt autem Judaei quòd primordio c. Tertul. de praescrip c. 2. 4. But a Jew will object and say saies Tertullian that God from the beginning did sanctifie the Sabbath and therefore the Sabbath ought to be kept holy and no maner of worke must be done thereon Sol. This is the very argument which Marcion learned of the Pharisees John 9.16 and blasphemously useth to prove Christ not to the Sonne of God because he carried himselfe so crosse to his Fathers actions and Lawes For the Sabbath which his Father sanctified and rested on operatione destruxit Tert. in Mar. l. 4. he profaned and overthrew by working on it so did his Disciples for cibum operati marke how pure this blasphemous Hereticke was they dresse their meate on the Sabbath My answer therefore is this that the Law-giver best knew how to observe his owne lawes and if his Fathers rest did not binde him from doing some worke no more doth it us Besides we see the Patriaches even Melchizedek himselfe a Priest of the most high God did not take themselves bound to rest on the Sabbath at all For though they saw Gods example yet they heard no commandement to enjoyne them to rest on that day as he did therefore they never observed the Sabbath Thirdly though a Jew will little regard what the Patriarches did or what all good Christians resolve and practice but will force the Law-giver to keepe his owne law not after his owne meaning but after theirs as the Pharisees did our Saviour saying This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day viz. as they construed and expounded the Commandement for the observation thereof yet that nothing concernes us that keepe the Lords day by vertue of Apostolical constitution and tradition of holy Church and not the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandement which the Apostles by Christs doctrine and example understood solutum to be dissolved And cujus vis soluta nec nomen haerebat S. Ambâ—th Lu. 6. l. 5. saies Saint Ambrose when the Sabbath lost his force it forfeited the name therefore ought not so to be called and so having lost both force and name is become nothing at all but a meere Idoll An Idoll hath the shape of something but because it hath eyes and sees not c. it is nothing in the world So though their Sabbath hath the name of one of the Jewes holy dayes yet keepeth it not neither the day they kept nor the service belonging to it and so is become nothing in the world True it is that some that with great zeale and little judgement exclaime against recreations and dressing of meat and the like on Sundayes must make a Sabbath of Sunday and keepe up that name otherwise their many citations of Scripture mentioning onely the Sabbath of being applied to Sunday will appeare so ridiculously distorted and wry-neckt that they will be a scorne and derision to the simplest of their now deluded Auditors who are abused with the name of a Christian Sabbath out of Origen which is not kept on Sunday onely 〈…〉 but every day Christ is our Christian Sabbath saith Origen and he that lives in Christ semper in Sabbatho vivit requiescendo ab operibus malis operatur autem opera justitiae incessanter Others also for the plot-sake must uphold the name of Sabbath that stalking behind it they may shoot against the Service appointed for the Lords day Hence it is that some for want of wit some for too much adore the Sabbath as an Image dropt downe from Jupiter and cry before it as they did before the golden Calfe This is an holy day unto the Lord whereas indeed it is the great Diana of the Ephesians as they use it whereby the mindes of their Proselytes are so perplexed and bewitched that they cannot resolve whether the sinne be greater to bowle shoot or daunce on their Sabbath than to commit murder or the father to cut the throate of his owne childe All which doubts would soon be resolved by plucking the vizzard of the Sabbath from the face of the Lords day which doth as well and truely become it as the Crowne of thornes did the Lord himselfe This was platted to expose him to damnable derision and that was plotted to impose on it detestable superstition Yet to die for it they will call it a Sabbath presuming in their zealous ignorance or
hath little cause to honour them as her children with her defence before they will be brought to honour her and her orders nay to honour the Lord and his day in breaking of bread and preaching in such sort as shee hath learned of St. Paul and delivered in the Booke of Common Prayer And now I have done with them The last point with which I will conclude is the place where Saint Paul preached In an upper chamber Let no man thinke from hence that he hath got a warrant to doe so in these dayes This is the third time Paul came to Troas At the first time being 41. yeares of age as some account he was called away by a vision into Macedonia and made no stay at all Acts 16. About three yeares after he came thither again to looke for Titus 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 but not finding him he onely faluted the brethren and went away in great heavinesse Now in the 47th yeare of his age he comes hither againe and stayes but seven dayes so that he had no time to take order for building of a Church to preach and to celebrate the Euchrist in Follow him therefore to Corinth where he stayd a yeare and sixe moneths where we shall not take him preaching in an upper chamber Acts 18.11 For so soone as the Jewes had driven him out of the Synagogue and beaten Sosthenes the Ruler of the Synagogue for suffering him to preach on the Sabbath day and also blasphemed his doctrine in all probability touching the observation of the Lords day saying as it was maliciously reported amongst the Jewes that the Lord was not risen but that his Disciples stole him away therefore the day of his resurrection ought not to be kept nor preached on their Sabbath tending so much to the overthrow thereof Upon this or the like blasphemy St. Paul tooke just occasion to renounce them and their Synagogue saying From henceforth I goe unto the Gentiles And so immediately he tooke order for a publike place to meet in so large that men and women learned and unlearned beleevers and unbeleevers might all meet together And this place was a CHURCH If the whole Church be come together into one Place they may speake languages provided that they doe interpret 1 Cor. 14.33 Yea but how doth it appeare that this one place is a Church Why because himselfe calls it so saying In the church I had rather speake five words c. ver 19. So their comming together to eat the Lords body was into one place 1 Cor. 11.20 and this one place was a Church ver 18. When yee come together in the Church I heare c. this is not to eat the Lords body This Church or publike place of meeting is many wayes distinguished from private houses The Church was free for all to come into Jewes or Gentiles beleevers or unbeleevers 1 Cor. 14.24 so were not private houses In private houses women might speake not so in the Church In private houses men might be covered and women uncovered S. Chrys in Act. ho. 21. de Sacer dot l. 6. hom de eucha in encaeniis not so in the Church In the Church reverence was to be given to the Angels which attend the Lord our Saviour at his table in tremendis mysteriis as St. Chrysostome speakes where he is truely and really present not so in private houses In private houses they might eate and drinke not so in the Church These Churches had Bishops set over them which had power of excommunication penance and absolution which was not used in private houses but onely in the Church 1 Cor. 5.5 2 Cor. 2.7 To these Churches belonged stockes of money whereby Widowes and others were maintained at the discretion of the Bishop 1 Tim. 4.9 which authority they had not in private houses but were at the curtesie of the owners to be received or not Mat. 10.10 In these Churches stood the Lords boord which was not placed in any private house 1 Cor. 10.21 This table of the Lord is called also an Altar 1 Cor. 8.13 They that waite of the Altar are partakers of the Altar which is not to be understood of Israel after the flesh For habemus Altare we under the Gospel have an Altar Heb. 15.10 And so is the word Altar and Lords table indifferently and alike anciently used in the writings of the Fathers who best knew how to expound Scripture These were some Tables or Altars of stone quia Christus est lapis angularis some were of wood the better to expresse his death on the tree S. Just in Tryph. Tom. 2. Tert. l. 4. adv Marcion posuerunt lignum in panem ejus Jer. 11. These woodden Altars or Tables the furious Circumcellions brake downe in St. Augustines time So that from the 47th yeare of Saint Pauls age which was the 57th of our Sauiour we may count out of Scripture that the devotion of Gods people began in building of Churches for breaking of bread and preaching and with them began the solemne exercise of the jurisdiction of Bishops in excommunication penance confession and absolution which without Churches could not well be exercised But in Ecclesiasticall writers we find the beginning more early and so the use continued without interruption in the midst of all their persecutions for 287. yeares together untill Dioclesians time I might be infinite in this kinde but I will give you but a touch thereof Euseb l. 5. c. 17. The Apostles and disciples staid in Jerusalem after Christs resurrection twelve yeares together and preached to the Jewes in their Synagogues but because they kept the Sabbath no better than their Lord did but began to keepe the Lords day which the Jewes detested and to neglect the Sabbath S. Justin de verit l. 2. in Try which they onely doted on as necessary to salvation they are driven out of Jerusalem and dispersed into sundry Nations And in the first yeare of their dispersion which was about the 47th of our Saviour they began to build Churches to preach and administer the Sacraments in on the Lords day About this time or before a goodly room in Theophilus his house in Antioch An Christi 38. Hieron in ep 2. ad Gal. Euseb in Chr. S. Clemen recogd l. 10. where ten thousand met at one time was consecrated for a Church by St. Peter and there was placed St. Peters chaire which for a long time after there continued S. Mark also about the same time caused divers Churches to be built about Alexandria Euseb l. 2. c. 16. wherin it was unlawfull to eat and drinke but they were used onely for reading preaching and meditating on Gods word praying singing of Psalmes and the like In the yeare 57. S. Paul caused a Church to be built in Corinth and in divers other places Anno 63. Joseph of Arimathea caused a Church to be built in Glastonbury Hist Eccles Angl. Erat haec Ecclesia ab
guilefull zeale to be thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes For that day which they nickname the Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day that they meane It were well therefore that they would forbeare to speake strange languages in the Church for Saint Pauls sake and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language for with us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else No ancient Father Father Nay no learned man Heathen or Christian tooke it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schisme in 1554. And if wee finde the word otherwise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it nor intitle the misprision any higher or otherwise than to these pretenders to pietie who for their owne ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be menaged under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods law doe likewise suffer the same often to scape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words S. Hilar. l. 6. Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore haec disserere multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis velut ad piae fidei hujus malà usurpatam persuasionem longo doctrinae usu ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum voluntatem quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret Gravis enim est periculosus error inplurimis multorum lapsus etiamsi se intellig at tamen exurgendi pudore authoritatem sibi praesumit ex numero habens hoc impudentiae ut quod errat intelligentiam esse veritatis asserat dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis There are so many that see so little benefit will be suckt out of the constitutions of the Apostles practice and tradition of holy Church doctrine of godly and learned Fathers that they have got themselves heapes of teachers that to serve their owne turnes will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath and so proclaime it with such lowd outcries that the voice of truth will become silence and her selfe made errour and so made to beleeve of her selfe or to forgoe her owne modesty and to beleeve none but her selfe But with Moses liberavi animam meam being called hither very unwillingly I have set before you good and evill light and darknesse life and death the doctrine and practice of the Church of God and the leaven of Pharisees and fashion of Schismatickes and Novellists chuse which you will and the Lord be your guide Onely of this be you well assured that if you will have Manna rained downe unto you you must forgoe your Sabbath and sticke onely to the Lords day for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna Orig. super 15. Exod. hom 7. in Sabbatho non pluit The last point touching the day of meeting is When doth the Lords day begin Resp I answer S. Ambra in Ps â—7 out of Saint Ambrose The first day of the weeke began when the Sabbath ended The Sabbath ended when Christ arose Christ the true light arose with the light and spring of the morning for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi are Saint Matthews words Nihil pulchrius nihil expressius saith hee this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the weeke So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici S. Leo epist â—d Diosc the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the weeke Looke then for Jacobs hand on Esau's heele or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath But Saint Nyssen is more punctuall and cleere S. Nyssen deresur orat 2. the Lords day saith he begins at Cock-crowing atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis and at that very knot and joint of time For then end we our Sabbaths or Saturdaies fast and then begin we nos oblectare laetari to keepe our Sundayes feast and that by an ancient custome which all are bound to observe For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not signifie the evening or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis after Sun set but the rise of the morning with which the Sabbath ended Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before And in obedience to this positive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day S. Aug. ser de tem 25. à vesperâ ad vesperam from Even to Even sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho as it was also commanded the Jewes concerning the Sabbath And therefore saith he look that from Saturday at Even us que ad vesperam diei Dominici till the Lords day at even we set aside all rurall and worldly businesse ut solo divino culiui vacemus that we may attend onely on the Lords service and begin to repaire to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights and he that cannot so doe let him be sure to pray at home Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath doe set aside all businesse and flocke to the Church to say or heare Service on Saturday Evens which hitherto you have not done notwithstanding the order of the Church which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day Thus much of the day of meeting The first day of the weeke 2 In the next place we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met These were not Jewes for then the Sabbath had beene the day of their meeting but Gentiles Asians Macedonians Thessalonians Paul with his companions and Disciples Now Paul had ordered before this time in Galatia and in Corinth that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the weeke whereunto they submitted themselves For on the first day of the week they now met and so did the whole Church